RNC Playbook

Remember that Brady Bunch episode where Marcia's boyfriend from a rival school steals Greg's football playbook? Yeah, well, these things happen.

But this time it's the RNC's strategy guide uncovered by Politico, and the plays are cynical and offensive even by Republican standards:

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So the Republican party officially uses the idiotic extremist posters and slogans of the teabaggers while labeling that part of their base as "reactionary." And they call this "strategy"?

I am an American

"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans. Those who are running our factories and teaching our kids and growing our food and are fighting our wars for us. Those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom." — Sarah Palin, October 16, 2008

So Sarah Palin loves to visit the "pro-America areas" of this country. She hasn't mentioned specific areas that she finds unpatriotic, but as I remember her RNC speech, the snide twang she put on the words "San Francisco" still screeches in my mind.

But this latest speech -- implying those people are un-American -- is disturbing and offensive. These words don't bring people together. Joe Biden responded today and put it simply, "it doesn't matter where you live, we all love this country."

But the video that Sarah Palin really needs to watch is an ad created after September 11, 2001 celebrating the diversity that keeps this country strong:



Now that I think about it, Todd Palin should also watch this ad.

1000 Points of Light

"I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good. We will work hand in hand, encouraging, sometimes leading, sometimes being led, rewarding. We will work on this in the White House, in the Cabinet agencies. I will go to the people and the programs that are the brighter points of light, and I will ask every member of my government to become involved. The old ideas are new again because they are not old, they are timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism that finds its expression in taking part and pitching in." -- Inaugural Address of George H. W. Bush, January 20, 1989.

"On the other hand, you have a resume from a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a community organizer. (Laughter.) What? (Laughs.)" -- Rudy Giuliani at the RNC, September 3, 2008.

"I guess a small-town mayor if sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities." -- Gov. Sarah Palin at the RNC, September 3, 2008.

Wow. Look how far the Republican party has come... in the wrong direction. Here is Barack Obama's response to this stupidity (if video doesn't show click here):

Change is Coming?

Overall, McCain's speech wasn't bad. It certainly wasn't as awkward and painful as that one in June, but when "the maverick" starts railing against big government, corruption, and policy failures, my first thought is that he has amnesia. He's forgotten about the last 8 years and thinks he still has to vehemently fight the evil Democrat in the White House. Then I realize he's subtly trying to divorce himself from the Bush administration:

"I'm grateful to the president of the United States for leading us in these dark days following the worst attack in American history."

That was his only mention of George W. Bush. That's a good sign. However, it doesn't mean I trust McCain. Because when McCain talks about fighting lobbyists, I worry that few voters understand that his principal foreign policy adviser is Randy Scheunemann -- a man who Pat Buchanan describes as "a foreign agent whose assignment is to get America committed to spilling the blood of her sons for client regimes who have made this moral mercenary a rich man." In other words, McCain's foreign policy adviser is a lobbyist! Regardless of what you might think of Buchanan, that linked article is an informative one and worthy of a read.

Regarding corruption, McCain said, "I've fought corruption, and it didn't matter if the culprits were Democrats or Republicans. They violated their public trust, and they had to be held accountable." I wonder if that means he'll be seriously considering prosecuting anybody from the Bush administration? Joe Biden, on the other hand, recently said that criminal violations will be pursued.

The remainder of McCain's speech was unremarkable and humorless. He said the usual stuff about taxes -- Democrats are "tax and spend" -- but personally I've come to prefer that to the Republican policy of "borrow and bomb" which I firmly believe McCain will be sticking to.

McCain also took the standard Republican call to drill here and drill now:

We'll attack -- we'll attack the problem on every front. We'll produce more energy at home. We will drill new wells off-shore, and we'll drill them now. We'll drill them now.

We'll -- we'll -- my friends, we'll build more nuclear power plants. We'll develop clean-coal technology. We'll increase the use of wind, tide, solar, and natural gas. We'll encourage the development and use of flex-fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles.

I won't pretend to be a body language expert, but I have a good intuition about expressions. Did anybody else notice the little eye twitch when McCain said "electric automobiles"? It was more like an eye roll that showed disregard and said to me "yeah! right!"

Finally, I was noticing the handmade signs in the audience. Here were a few of my favorites:

You Can't Win An Occupation
McCain Votes Against Vets
The Mavrick

(That was the actual spelling on the last one.) Anyway, this concludes my coverage of the conventions, but I'll keep on blogging about the world as I see it.

Country First?

Obviously I just can't get into this Republican National Convention, but I never pretended to be impartial.

I'm listening to Giuliani speak right now... or should I say 9iu11ani? I felt insulted by him right from the start as he tried to create a comparison between picking a job applicant and picking a President. Does he think we're dumb? We ARE picking a job applicant for the most important job in our country. Anyway, after that, he really launched into an attack on Barack Obama. One of his points was that Obama voted "present" 130 times as Senator. Well, these votes are not unusual:

It's true that Obama voted "present" dozens of times, part of the thousands of votes he cast in an eight-year span in Springfield. Illinois lawmakers commonly vote that way on a variety of issues, and he has countered that many of those votes were cast because of technical or legal considerations about the underlying legislation.

Often, Obama voted "present" with large groups of other Democrats to protest what they saw as Republican trickery or abuse of power. Other times, voting that way sends a message that a lawmaker supports a bill's intent, but has concerns about how the legislation is drafted. Voting this way also can be a way to duck a difficult issue, as McCain charged, although that's difficult to prove.

There are also cases where legislators vote "present" as part of a strategy. Obama did this on some abortion measures, voting "present" to encourage some wavering legislators to do the same instead of voting "yes". Their "present" votes had the same effect as "no" votes, so getting them to vote present helped defeat the bills.

Giuliani was followed by Sarah Palin, and she got a standing ovation right from the start. My first thought was that they filled this stadium with "low information voters."

It's no secret that the Republican party wants to show Palin's personality and likability. I think they succeeded. I'd certainly like to have her as a next-door neighbor, but not a Vice President. Nope.

Because I'm not one of those "low information voters." I've learned a lot about her this week. I'm not simply talking about her unwed pregnant teenage daughter. That news was so yesterday. I'm talking about her possible links to this group who propose the dissolution of the US federal government. And the Republicans want their slogan to be "country first"?

And what was that she mockingly said about terrorists being read their rights?

"Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights? Government is too big ... he wants to grow it."

I'm not even sure how her last statement follows, but clearly she's going to be another irrational opponent of habeas corpus.

The last half of her speech was filled with fear of terrorism, taxes, and nuclear weapons. She reaffirmed my belief that McCain will be another war president.

Republican Convention Coverage

I'm watching the Republican convention right now. So far, I'm happy to report that nobody has broken a hip.

Fred Thompson is talking a lot about McCain's personal story as a POW. It's difficult for me to listen to the stories of McCain's torture probably because I empathize too much. Without going into my own medical history, I'll tell you I've had many broken bones, and the idea of somebody having bones set without anesthesia, or being beaten while your arms are fractured and unusable is absolutely horrific. If you don't know the pain, I don't think you can imagine it.

Doesn't convince me that he's fit to be President though. But it sure is amusing to hear Republicans embrace the war hero story when eight years ago they vehemently rejected it.

Laura Bush's speech introducing George W. Bush was short, and full of myths. She says George Bush has kept us safe and then she gets a round of applause. My head spins.

Do I need to remind her that two big terrorist attacks happened under her husband's watch? Sept 11, 2001 followed by the anthrax attacks. Although Bush vowed to go after the perpetrators, we then invaded a non-terrorist nation and turned them into a terrorist nation. We never caught the criminal responsible for 9/11. In fact, the CIA closed the unit responsible for capturing Osama Bin Laden. Meanwhile, the war in Iraq has made us less safe.

"So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him... to be honest with you." -- George W. Bush, March 13, 2002.

And somehow Republicans spin these disasters as success and people cheer for it.

The other big myths we'll hear is that the surge is working, Palin is qualified, and somehow Republicans put country first (and Democrats do not?).

After this convention is over, I'm going to refrain from covering election politics too much. There are way too many other important things happening in the world.

Welcoming Committee

Last week ended with such a great feeling. This week, those great feelings are fading.

Last week I watched the Democratic National Convention. I got some unusual history lessons. I heard Joe Biden, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and others deliver remarkable speeches that were right on target. I watched Barack Obama make history accepting his party's nomination.

This week seems like a media circus and it's only Monday. I can barely keep up.

Hurricane Gustav has interrupted the Republican National Convention, and McCain's VP choice has a pregnant unwed teenage daughter. Some are referring to this as Hurricane Bristol. Ha!

And then there are these violent anti-war protests in St. Paul that aren't getting much attention, or at least not getting the type of attention they deserve. Glenn Greenwald has been reporting on the government raids on protesters:

As the police attacks on protesters in Minnesota continue -- see this video of the police swarming a bus transporting members of Earth Justice, seizing the bus and leaving the group members stranded on the side of the highway -- it appears increasingly clear that it is the Federal Government that is directing this intimidation campaign. Minnesota Public Radio reported yesterday that "the searches were led by the Ramsey County Sheriff's office. Deputies coordinated searches with the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

Today's Star Tribune added that the raids were specifically "aided by informants planted in protest groups." Back in May, Marcy Wheeler presciently noted that the Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force -- an inter-agency group of federal, state and local law enforcement led by the FBI -- was actively recruiting Minneapolis residents to serve as plants, to infiltrate "vegan groups" and other left-wing activist groups and report back to the Task Force about what they were doing. There seems to be little doubt that it was this domestic spying by the Federal Government that led to the excessive and truly despicable home assaults by the police yesterday.

So our government has time to infiltrate vegan groups but seems to be shrugging off the Obama assassination plot?

This is turning into a bad week. I try to look on the bright side. If Sarah Palin can be VP, then I guess anybody can. Wait. That's not a good thing. Never mind.

Stave of the Goths

Gustav, meaning "stave of the goths," is the name of the hurricane threatening to interrupt or possibly postpone the Republican National Convention. If I was a religious person, I'd think Gustav was God's gentle way of telling Stuart Shepard and the whole religious right to go fuck themselves (if video doesn't show, click here):



That's Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family. Although he has issued a weak apology, I wonder if the torrential rains hitting the gulf coast are making him think about his own sins? Probably not. In fact, I'm sure his little evangelical group can spin this somehow. There's no way they will ever consider that God is NOT on their side.