Mellencamp Calls for Change

"I've seen a lot of small towns, and now I'm seeing small towns across America dying, folks losing their jobs and their homes. Eight years of George Bush has really hurt, and John McCain is just more of the same...I'm proud to support Barack Obama, because whether you live in a small town or a big city, it's time for a change."

-John Mellencamp

I grew up in a house just up the road from John Mellencamp in Bloomington, Indiana, and graduated high-school with his daughter, Michelle. John was probably our most famous local citizen at the time (Bobby Knight notwithstanding). He was (and is) a lot of things, but he cannot be described accurately as stupid under any circumstances. He's always been someone who speaks openly for the average joe in Indiana and across America. I'm pleased to see that he has predictably made the right decision by endorsing Barack Obama for president.

Mr. Mellencamp makes a lot of money - he's a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who has released 20 albums in 32 years. 10 of those albums have been certified platinum and an additional three have been certified gold. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.

John will pay more taxes under Obama than under McCain, but as an ardent populist, he clearly understands that it's not unreasonable to expect those who make more money to pay more in taxes rather than the other way around. He also realizes that even under Obama's tax plan he will pay less tax as a percentage of his income than the average middle-class family.

It's wonderful to see a "heartland" singer-songwriter who understands the plight of his neighbors and many of his fans who have felt the pain of decades of failed trickle-down policy. Mellencamp hasn't let fame and fortune change who he is as his core, and that's an Indiana-born, small-town guy.

John Mellencamp is true American through and through.

Rethinking the American Electorate after an Obama Victory

Columnist Lincoln Mitchell:

The American left...will have to do the most intriguing and challenging rethinking of basic assumptions when Obama wins. For years now a central piece of the progressive worldview is that progressives are enlightened Americans in a sea of their ignorant, bigoted and narrow-minded compatriots. If you don't believe my assertion, see how many times in the comments section of a progressive blog, Americans voters are referred to as ignorant or uninformed, or eavesdrop at any progressive coffee shop or other hangout. Opposition to progressive causes is often explained away by saying that Americans are bigots, or somehow stupid. This demonstrates an ugly contempt for voters, and in fact for democracy, that should have no place in progressive politics.

Nonetheless, this feeling of specialness is a central part of progressive identity for many. For example, the tone often used to express disbelief that Obama could win, particularly early in this campaign, was often a mixture of anger with racism and a sense of self-righteousness from the speaker for being above that racism.

November 4th will almost certainly show these beliefs to be the nonsense that they are. After November 4th, whenever somebody belittles the intelligence or tolerance of the American voter the proper response will be "What about when we elected Barack Obama?" I hope for many this will be understood to be a sign that American voters can be more progressive, enlightened and thoughtful than had previously been believed. Obama will win because willingness to vote for somebody who looks different, and whose name sounds unusual, simply because he is the best candidate, is no longer the province of elites or an educated minority. This may cause progressives to rethink much of what they thought they knew about America, but it seems a small price to pay for an Obama presidency.

I'm not on board with Mitchell's assertion that we, as progressives, blindly view ourselves as better than the conservative right.


I am one of the "coffee shop" progressives that Mr. Mitchell references. I think that the notion that we are all believers in the assumption of right-wing stupidity and/or racism is overly simplistic. I don't think them "stupid" or racist in general terms. Some may be, but that's not the majority by any means. What I see is a Republican party that has proven it is not interested in "Joe the Plumber" or "John the Lutheran" or any other common low or middle-class American for any purpose other than a vote.

With this in mind, I see so-called "right-wingers" voting for candidates belonging to a party that says one thing and does something completely different. A party that promises to promote conservative policy or social agendas, but in actuality does little or nothing in regard to those promises. It has been the policy of today's Republican party to enrich themselves and their corporate "sponsors" at the expense of the very people they lied to in order to gain their vote.

An Obama victory doesn't change any of that. It just means that a small percentage of the electorate in the middle moved to the left for this particular election cycle and voted for Obama.

This coffee-shop progressive doesn't think the right-wing is stupid as a whole. I just think that a great many Americans on the right are generally uninformed as to who and what they're REALLY voting for.
About Barack Obama

Stick a fork in him...

Last night Johnny Mac proclaimed that Governor Sarah "knows more about autism than any other American I know."

John has flung plenty of fecal matter at my person over the course of the campaign, and for the most part I've grown numb to it. It's a law of nature - Dogs don't like cats, cats like mice...a lot, the sky is blue, John McCain's campaign lies like a pedophile in front of a parole board.

When he floated the autism thing, though, I was forced to tighten my jaw, wipe the drool off of my chin and actually listen to what the old white guy was saying.

My backside tightened when I heard the Mac Daddy use the words "knows", "more", "about" and "autism" in the same sentence as "Sarah" and "Palin".

If you were to believe McCain, Palin is the finest and most admirable woman on Earth and she knows everything about anything.

If you were to do a little research on Palin, however, you'd come full-circle to that whole pedophile-parole board analogy I mentioned earlier. So when he threw autism into the ring, I immediately dropped a few choice expletives.



You see, my 5-year old daughter is high-functioning autistic & was diagnosed as such earlier this year. You may think you know a lot about autism, but unless you are actually the parent of an autistic child or have spent thousands of hours studying and spending time with autistic children, I dare say you shan't profess an expertise of the same.

Making autism a political "hot issue" is one thing, but making autism a bullshit political issue is quite another. So when the distinguished Senator from Arizona proclaims that his hapless running mate knows more about autism than any American he knows, this suggests that he's viciously lying and playing this horrible disorder for political gain, or that he hasn't met too many Americans.

I suspect the former.

Janet Grillo:

McCain claims his regime will support research for a cure. Yet he also wants to freeze government spending. He claims he will advocate for families. Yet his health care policy offers a $5000 tax deduction, which Americans can put towards purchasing coverage. Any parent with a child on the spectrum knows just how little $5000 buys you. Services to support my [autistic] son's development (outside of, and in addition to, tuition at publicly funded Special Ed day programs) easily runs past $90,000 per year. Thank God that California state-funded regional center services have absorbed the lion's share of those costs. But, as everyone knows, California is now bankrupt. Those services have been frozen. Children and parents are floundering. McCain proclaims to be a "Federalist." As often as possible, he would have individual states determine the welfare of their denizens versus Washington D.C.. If ever there were a time for the federal government to rise to the occasion of serving the needs of our people, it is this national epidemic. Twelve years ago, the rate was one in 10,000. Today (according to the NEH), it is 1 in 150. States cannot, and should not, be expected to sustain the demands this crisis presents.

Tonight, Senator Obama told us that every autism advocate he has met, stresses the urgent need to increase funding for medical research. He was right to tell the American people that this essential work will cost money. As a former board member of Cure Autism Now foundation, one of the first parent driven organizations to fund and grow bonafide, university based research, I attest to that. Piece meal tax rebates will not cover health costs for our families, as they contend with this lifelong neurological disability. Tonight, John McCain told us that Governor Palin "knows more about autism than any other American I know." Perhaps he should get out more.

I've spent the last four days straight at DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan with my daughter who landed here as a result of her condition. Mr. McCain's pathetic attempt to shine a light on the disgraceful Sarah Palin by using autism as a lever makes me physically ill, and if I had any doubt that he's shed all semblance of dignity that he may have once had, that doubt was wiped clean during last night's debate.

Keith Olbermann Special Comment - 13 Oct 08

1:25 PM Eastern Time, today, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. During the warm-up act by a Red Meat Congressional Candidate aptly named Chris Hackett, Hackett mentions Obama and a Palin audience member shouts "Kill Him."

And Gov. Palin, as usual, does nothing about it says nothing to these thugs and psychos. She may not have heard this one. It is impossible to believe that by now she has not heard about the other ones. Her silence is deafening. Just as, Sen. McCain, you have done nothing when violence has been asserted. Correction. You have done one thing.

Asked why in real time you do not repudiate this hatefulness you act as if you are the victim. Speaking today to our NBC Station in Washington.

McCain: "Sure and I repudiated it as I have on several occasions. Unfortunately, Congressman John Lewis is an American hero who I admire who made the worst, most unacceptable statement a couple days ago that I have ever heard. He accused me and Sarah Palin of being involved in segregation, George Wallace and even made reference to a church bombing where children were killed. Senator Obama has not repudiated that statement. Senator Obama should do so immediately. Its the most outrageous thing that I have heard since in politics...it is disgraceful."

Disgraceful?

Obviously, Senator, you haven't heard your own speeches, and Gov. Palin's, and what people shout during them. And you haven't heard your state GOP Chair in Virginia, Jeffrey Frederick, giving talking points to 30 of your field-operatives heading out to canvass voters in Gainesville, Virginia. With a reporter present, telling them to try to forge a connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden to emphasize bombings and terrorism. And you haven't heard those volunteers, your volunteers Sen. McCain, shout back "and he won't salute the flag" and "we don't even know where Sen. Obama was really born."

Sen. McCain, these people are speaking for you! And how dare you try to claim Congressman Lewis was linking you to Gov. George Wallace's segregation. He was linking you, aptly, to Gov. George Wallace's lynch-mob mentality.

"As public figures with the power to influence and persuade," said Congressman Lewis, "Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all."

Sen. McCain, your supporters, at your events, are calling Obama a terrorist and traitor and are calling for him to be killed. And yet you keep bringing back these same rabid Right Wing nuts to deliberately stir these crowds into frenzies. And then you take offense when somebody who remembers the violence in our political past, calls you on it. You, sir, are responsible for a phalanx of individuals who are shouting fire in a crowded theatre. There are some things to respect and honor about you, Sen. McCain.

But on this, you're not only a fraud, Senator but you are tacitly inciting lunatics to violence. If you want to again grand-stand and suspend your campaign here's your big chance. Suspend your campaign now, until you, or somebody else, gets some control over it and it ceases to be a clear and present danger to the peace of this nation.

California's Proposition 8

ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME-SEX COUPLES TO MARRY. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Changes the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California. Provides that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Fiscal Impact: Over next few years, potential revenue loss, mainly sales taxes, totaling in the several tens of millions of dollars, to state and local governments. In the long run, likely little fiscal impact on state and local governments.

I grew up with a particular fella back in Indiana who is gay. David (the aforementioned) and I were fortunate to live in a pretty progressive environment. Bloomington, our home town, is home to Indiana University and an accepting culture for people who aren't necessarily straight, Christian & white. Dave was well liked and accepted by the vast majority of kids at our high school and few people thought much, or opined, about the fact that he was gay (I'm not sure if Dave was "out of the closet" or not in high school, but it was reasonably apparent that he was, in fact, into dudes).

Dave lives in California now & is married - to another man. When I heard this I wasn't surprised, nor was I concerned. I was actually happy that he had found happiness with someone.

Oh, and they have a son.

OK? OK.

Well, there are still quite a few people out there who are ~uncomfortable~ with this arrangement. Their usual claim revolves around either Jesus or "our children".

A few of these uncomfortable sorts came up with the above initiative, known as Proposition 8 in California. Some of the "uncomfortables" who support it include 20 politicians (all Republican, of course), the Catholics, the Orthodox Jews, the Mormons, a variety of groups with "family" in their title" and, of course, John McCain.

Opponents include Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a plethora of politicians both Democratic and Republican, all of the major newspapers in California, the League of Women Voters, the Episcopal Church, Google (!), a variety of Jewish groups, and our own Barack Obama.

Allow me to opine on behalf of the Spooner Street Times.

Bigots are generally not wont to openly admit that their beliefs are, in fact, bigoted and hate-filled. Exceptions are made for organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan that, although not with fit with the stones to show their faces, seem to not have a problem admitting that they hate people who aren't like them. Bigots generally hide behind religion and/or my children in order to purvey their hate to the world. The lead line on protectmarriage.com, the primary collection of endorsers of the proposition, is "Restoring Marriage & Protecting California Children".

Really?

Protecting California's children from what exactly? Catching "the gay"? From seeing for themselves that there are people in the world who see things differently from them or, more specifically, from their parents? From seeing that people can love one another regardless of their genitalia? From the "unholy" things that occur in the "gay" bedroom?

Well, guess what Junior...I've got ten bucks that says daddy wants anal from mommy, or more likely wants anal from mommy's friend Jenny. There's even a reasonable probability that the daddy who's big into anti-gay propositions like this one wants anal from daddy's friend Jimmy, too.

People are flawed regardless of what they like to do in the bedroom. Singling out a group of people as unworthy of certain rights because of their preferences in the bedroom is senseless and amounts to nothing more than hate thinly veiled as "protecting our kids" from the evil gays. Homosexual people are just as likely (or more so) to be good parents as heterosexual people. Homosexual parents know the pain of bigotry and hate and are more likely to raise children who are tolerant and understanding of all people regardless of their personal beliefs or classification in specific demographics.

Oh, and Jesus? Jesus wasn't a hater. The people who wrote his words some 400 years after his death may have been haters, but I'm pretty confident that Jesus of Nazareth didn't take exception to certain people because of their ~preferences~ regarding who specifically they liked to cuddle with. Hiding one's own hate behind Jesus, or anyone else for that matter, is pretty lame.

Srsly.

No on 8.

7 Questions for Interviewers of McCain and Obama

I think many excellent concepts and ideas have become "bad things" because when they have been on the platform of progressives over the years, they've been demonized by the opposing party. As we've all seen, when the conservatives don't have anything to run on, they demonize the platform of their opponents, and as long as they keep saying it over and over and over again (liberal=bad, liberal=bad, liberal=bad & on and on...liberals must be bad?) people will start buying into it (liberalism is bad! Socialism is un-American!).



Scores of excellent ideas have become politicized into being bad ideas as a result of a political party that isn't interested in the well being of their constituents, but are very interested in being elected/re-elected at all costs. These types of political games, coupled with a "fourth estate" that doesn't properly question them, result in a dangerous cultural downward spiral that hurts all of us.
About Wall Street Crisis
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

John McCain (D-AZ), Sarah Palin, (D-AK)

McCain pulled out of Michigan last week as you all know. Since then there's been some ~*question*~ as to whether that claim is actually true. Sen. Obama holds a 53-44 lead here in Michigan as of this writing and the momentum is in his favor.

Sen. McCain, however, hasn't given up on us yet. His new strategy here is apparently to be a Democrat according to a mailer that my mom (who passed away last winter) received this afternoon.






There are a few interesting things to note about this mailer.

• It's almost complete B.S.


• Who's running for president here, McCain or Palin? The mailer focuses largely on Palin and the photographs feature her more prominently than McCain. Who thinks it's a good idea to put the mutton headed newcomer up front in this campaign. Is John McCain really that unappealing to voters?


• No one who is against abortion even in cases of rape and incest is going to be on board for expanding stem-cell research. That claim is just complete bunk.


• It'll be a lot easier to fight wasteful spending now that the Republicans have effectively wiped out the economy...although they're also excellent at deficit spending, so forget I said anything.


• Palin "voted from the center?" Well, if that's true, kudos to USA Today for finding something that Palin isn't hard-right extremist on. Jeers to the same if they didn't point out her massively anti-populist views on virtually everything else.


• The people of Michigan may be down on our luck, but we're not abjectly stupid. We know who the Democrat is in this election and we know who the Republican is. Painting the Palin/McCain ticket as anything but Bush Round III with the addition of a veep even more scary and dangerous than Dick Cheney is pure dirge.


• Speaking of dirge, "Change is coming." is the Republican's swan song. When Barack Obama is sworn in on January 20th, change will come, and not a moment too soon.

I wonder if Palin's campaign is going to keep sinking cash into states like Michigan that are 9+ points ahead in the polls with 24 days to go. Heck, if they're into wasting money, they should start sending this drivel to California and D.C. - even people in the district, where Obama is 60 points ahead, need crap like this to keep their landfills growing.

595 hours until the polls open on the east coast.

Wake up, Pinkie, the ship's going down...

OK, so after a short vacation and a brief period with no internet (!), I've returned from the 1980s & being forced to get my news from the ~*shudder*~ television for five days.


A family of bigots opine in Tennessee on debate night.
The girl in the middle appears to be doing everything she can
to hide her face. Methinks she's not really into the hatespeech thing
and when she finally gets to move out of the house she'll never call
and her parents won't be able to figure out why.

In the United States, you're free to be a complete imbecile. I know it's not politically correct to call reds stupid, but when it came to the Bush presidency & McCain's disastrous campaign, their supporters almost have to be either greedy, intellectually lazy, completely uninformed, or just plain stupid. It's all I can come up with.

Thankfully, many people are coming around, however, and are beginning to see how badly we've been had by the reds. Things in the United States are as bad for the average joe as they've been since the end of the Great Depression, and the vast majority of this is because of crappy leadership on the part of Republicans. Their disastrous trickle-down economics and support of sickening policies like the Bush Doctrine have landed us on the downward spiral we're now on.

We finally have a candidate for president that is intelligent, poised, and has seen life from the perspective of the downtrodden. He's had endless opportunities to take advantage of his positions of power to reap millions of dollars from the system, but instead he's fought for the people he represents while remaining reasonably humble in his lifestyle.

Thank jeebus for our guy. We may be able to get out of this mess yet.

Out with the old news, in with the really expensive

[Joe Biden] looked so overwhelmingly competent that it changed my mind about his strategy. He single-handedly accomplished the Obama-Biden campaign goal of setting the American voters' minds at ease. These guys are going to take us in the right direction. The country is safe in their hands.

-Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks

The Sarah Show is over, and its time to get back to our regularly scheduled presidential election already in progress.

The vice presidential debate last night went spectacularly for Joe Biden. He stayed on point, he answered the questions in a pointed and intelligent manner, he didn't get suckered into bickering with a combative Sarah Palin - he simply showed the country why he will make an exceptional vice president. Joe Biden came across as a decent, knowledgeable and empathetic figure who effectively neutralized Palin's attempted charm the audience by charming the audience himself (let it be known, also, that as Palin's famous Alask-clan flooded the stage at the end of the debate for the all important "image shot", Biden completely negated the Republican photo-op with the influx of his own crew who immediately mixed themselves into the Palin camp like garbanzo beans in a tossed salad - beautiful).

As expected, the right-wing pundits loved Palin, who did better than expected insomuch as she didn't say anything tremendously stupid, she spat out an endless stream of memorized talking points and there were no uncomfortable "moose-in-the-headlights" moments. Her performance will continue to play well with them and with the hard-core right, but let's be honest here - McCain's campaign could have gone up there and leaned a 5'7" cardboard cutout of Palin up against the lectern and the right-wing would have been in ecstasy. They don't care what she said (or didn't say).

In the real world, the numbers went to Biden.

CBS:

Forty-six percent of [473] uncommitted viewers said Biden won the debate Thursday night, while 21 percent said Palin won. Thirty-three percent thought it was a tie.

Sam Stein reports:

During the course of the debate, CNN was running a viewer response line for uncommitted voters in Ohio. Overall the numbers reflected a very strong performance for Biden. And while Palin scored well, at times, among this crowd, the dial lines indicated that she remains a controversial figure among females in that state.

Biden repeatedly won high accolades on a wide range of topics. His remarks about the personal trials of having a wife and daughter die in a car accident sent responses from both male and females through the roof. His dig at Dick Cheney -- "the most dangerous Vice President in history" -- and his pledge to end the war in Iraq were similarly popular. When he defended Obama from Palin's attacks, he was held in equally high regard.

And from the New York Times:

In the end, the debate did not change the essential truth of Ms. Palin’s candidacy: Mr. McCain made a wildly irresponsible choice that shattered the image he created for himself as the honest, seasoned, experienced man of principle and judgment. It was either an act of incredible cynicism or appallingly bad judgment.

And so, with all that theater behind us, today the news cycle moves on to the $700 Billion Wall Street bailout package - a topic that resonates much more with most Americans than the veep debate, especially now that the debate is over. The Senate passed the bill laced with pork and earmarks, which rightfully has enraged millions, and will now go back to the House where it will most certainly be sanitized somewhat before being put to a vote. I don't think any of them are going to want to go back and explain to their constituents why there was well over $100 Billion (with a B) in pork barrel spending tacked to a high-profile, massively unpopular emergency spending bill.

It should be noted that every single member of the House of Representatives is up for re-election in exactly 31 days.

Vern Ehlers, the Representative from my district in Michigan is a very popular politician here. He's a long-serving Republican who resonates well with the fiscal and social conservatives that seem to congregate in this part of the state. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the voters here put him on the chopping block for passing a bill that disgusting, however. It should be noted that Mr. Ehlers voted for the passing of the original bill on Tuesday, but that bill, of course, wasn't...er...supersized.

We shall see.

Today's poll numbers - 10/2

A couple of interesting factors playing in today. McCain has moved out of Michigan, ending his campaign here and reallocating his resources elsewhere. Most believe he's going to send his people and his money to Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, all big number states that are slowly but steadily moving toward Obama. Also, The New York Times and CNN both moved New Mexico out of the toss-up column and into Obama's. Another 5 electoral votes that are likely going to go to the Dems.

FiveThirtyEight.com: 331.2/206.8(-4.8/+4.8) electoral vote projection.

The New York Times: 260/200/78 (D+5/R+0/P-5) electoral vote projections, excl. tossups.

CNN: 49%/43% (No change)

Daily Kos: 51%/40% (D+0/R-1)

Washington Post/ABC: 52%/43% (No change)