A Bad Disney Movie

[via JJP]

September 11, 2001

May the dead rest in peace. May the living find justice.

From an Undecided Republican

TODAY, I received in my inblox the September Statement of Micheal Smerconish, conservative Philadelphia radio talk show host. He re-introducers himself to his listeners (I've never heard his show) and tells them how he wants to cover the campaign over the next eight weeks. He also tells them why, for the first time in his life, he remains undecided about his presidential choice. It's a great read, full of level-headed analyses of both candidates. It contains a defense of Barack Obama that I feel compelled to repeat here, emphasis mine:

I have never met Barack Obama but I think I have a good understanding of his background. It's a far cry from McCain's pedigree, but it is a similarly uniquelyAmerican story. I find the Internet lore spread about him to be despicable. The more untruths anonymous spammers spread abouthim, the more inclined I am to defend him. There are certainly aspects of his limited experience and his associations that are game for analysis and criticism, but he deserves a fair fight.

While some look at Obama and question his love of country, I see a man who is a great source of inspiration to many. I was in the audience for his speech on race in Philadelphia, and was part of the crowd at Invesco Field when he accepted the Democratic nomination for president. His popularity is an attribute not a liability. I too want a leader who is respected and admired at home and internationally, and yes, I am anxious to break the barriers that have heretofore prevented a woman or African American to serve as vice president or president.

Back in June, the final paragraph of a lengthy New York Times story had a quote from him that hangs with me. He said; "I love when I'm shaking hands on a rope line and"- he mimes the motion, hand over hand - "I see little old white ladies and big burly black guys and Latino girls and all their hands are entwining. They're feeding on each other as much as on me. It's like I'm just the excuse."

Call me a hopeless romantic, but I believe he can do a world of good by bringing people of diverse backgrounds together. There is a quality about him that I find genuine, and I think he is unquestionably of fine intellect.

Read the entire article.

The View From Here

Farmer's Porch.

Queen of the Night

Dear Tennisgods,

Thank you for such an extraordinary tennis match last night. It was easily the best US Open women's final I've ever seen live. For a change, not one was cowed by the moment. Just to win most of the points, Serena and Jelena had to travel coast to coast, north and south, just to come back to the middle to put a ball away. I was getting tired just watching the match. So much running. 6-4, 7-5. Two sets. Over two hours. Felt like the match went to a third-set tiebreak, didn't it?

Thank you for giving the divas the energy to keep it up. Jelena surprised me with how well she played and fought and wouldn't let Serena run away with it. Perhaps she might consider focusing on the match more than her own image on the jumbo tron, but whatever works.

Thank you most of all for allowing my girl to prevail. Her focus, even when her legs froze toward the end of the second set and she couldn't keep the ball in the court, was laser sharp. She almost looked like she had a flashback to that horrible night in 2004 when that chair umpire who shall not be named lost her that quarterfinal against Jennifer Capriati. Who just happened to be there last night.

It's been a long time between drinks, and I was beginning to think you had forsaken me. But it was worth the wait. Six years since Serena won her last US Open. That's the longest stretch in the Open Era between singles titles won by a woman player at the same Slam. Five years since Serena was ranked No. 1 in the world. The longest stretch since the ranking systems began for a player to fall from and return to the top of the charts.

I've never seen her so happy after winning a Slam. She looked like she was going to jump right out of the stadium. Reminded me of her big sister after winning Wimbledon in 2005 in a great, great final. And Venus was right there channeling her energy down to the court and rooting her little sister on to victory. Her father was dancing in the aisles. Her mother wore that 1,000 watt smile from ear to ear. It was a beautiful thing.

More of this, please. I don't want to be greedy, but I wouldn't mind if Serena played well enough to end the year at No. 1, which would throw all sorts of pie in the faces of her detractors. Already Chris Evert is trying to act as though he's always supported how Serena has handled herself in her career. We know better.

Whatever happens from here on out, thanks again for such a memorable match and I look forward to more.

Love,

Craig

Cultural Activism 101

YOU GOTTA read this: White People, Can We Talk?

I gave the writer kudos. She took it to a receptive audience and nailed it without being at all inflammatory. Money quote:

What you are seeing in your lives, in the people around you and in the tight polling is the reality that comes with our choice. When we as Democrats and others who wanted change voted for Barack Obama and made him our Nominee, we took a huge gamble. White American's have had a lot more experience being brainwashed to be afraid of black men meaning them harm than white Republicans meaning them harm. You're right in this environment the race shouldn't be this close, but there shouldn't be any such thing as racism either. This is our reality, a reality that Barack has lived with and overcome all of his life. Now it's a part of yours too. So buck up, suck it up and get to work like Barack is 10 points down because he may be.

Barack can win and I trust he knows how to win, but we can't help him win if we freak out about what comes with the realities of having a black nominee every time [bigots] rear their ugly heads. Just like almost everything else in America, politics is harder if you are black. I think the Bradley Effect is already in these polls so things look closer then they should be in a non-racist, perfect world. Getting Barack Obama into the White House is the most audacious and improbable political endeavor in American history. Never forget that and never forget why.

Class dismissed.

Sunday With Rahsaan

The male birdsong performs live in London his rendition of "Feels Good".

While They Terrorize, We Organize

“BARACK OBAMA can’t do this alone,” said the candidate’s wife, Michelle, during a surprise Wednesday morning visit to a get-out-the-vote training hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus. “For every one of you here, you know good and well there are about 20 people in your life who aren’t registered to vote, who aren’t paying attention, who don’t think it matters. Who would sit it out. Who were disappointed that Barack didn’t say something the way they thought he should have said it. Didn’t make the decision they thought he should have made.

“I’m in this, I’m living it” she added, drawing laughs. “But we don’t have time to get this wrong. If we were in a better place as a nation, we could play that game. We could afford to sit out and protest, and show our discontent. … But see, we’re not. And every year that we wait, every year that we dawdle, every year that we hem and haw is another year away from our children’s future that we take. There’s nothing more powerful than your own voice, talking to the folks in your own community.”

At the same event, former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, who helped Obama with the process of vetting vice-presidential candidates that led to last week’s selection of Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, said there are enough Black voters in swing states to help Obama win states that would have put Democratic candidates in past presidential contests over the top.

“The reality is, it is going to be up to us to get our people to the polls and do all the things we need to do to make sure that Barack Obama is raising his right hand on Jan. 20, 2009 … in Washington D.C.,” he said, referring to the date on which the next president will be sworn into office. He added later: “[President George W. Bush] won Ohio by 119,000 votes in 2004. Three-hundred-and-nine thousand Black people did not vote in Ohio in that year,” a number that, in that state alone, would have likely denied Bush a second term in the White House.

::

The entire article is well worth the read, but the above passage lays it all out.

This is what community organizers do. These are our actual responsibilities. This is how we bring about the change we need. From the bottom up.

There are an estimated 55 million eligible but unregistered voters, up to 40% of them are African American, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian American. We need to get as many of them registered as quickly as possible as deadlines are rapidly approaching.

While they spread lies, we organize.

While they hypothesize, we organize.

While they overanalyze, we organize.

While they try to steal the prize, we organize.

While they proselytize, we organize.

While they marginalize, we organize.

While they propagandize, we organize.

While they terrorize, we organize.

Get Up. Get Out. Get Organized.

Boxer Throws a Few Punches

CALIFORNIA SENATOR Barbara Boxer hits John McCain with his own words:

Last night at the Republican National Convention, John McCain used the word "fight" more than 40 times in his speech.

In the 16 years that we have served together in the Senate, I have seen John McCain fight.

I have seen him fight against raising the federal minimum wage 14 times.

I have seen him fight against making sure that women earn equal pay for equal work.

I have seen him fight against a women's right to choose so consistently that he received a zero percent vote rating from pro-choice organizations.

I have seen him fight against helping families gain access to birth control.

I have seen him fight against Social Security, even going so far as to call its current funding system "an absolute disgrace."

And I saw him fight against the new GI Bill of Rights until it became politically untenable for him to do so.

John McCain voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time in 2007 and 100 percent of the time in 2008 -- that's no maverick.

We do have two real fighters for change in this election -- their names are Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

More of this, please. In fact, this would be a perfect talking-head ad. Seems short enough. Pointed enough.

Every elected official who happens to be a woman and who happens to support Barack Obama needs to step up to the plate, attack McCain without relent on his long and aggressive record against women and families and veterans and continue to reveal his choice of running mate for the cynical sham it is.

And they don't even have to mention her name.

Combat the Lies: Play the Numbers

THE FOLLOWING excerpt is the centerpiece of a must-read diary on Daily Kos. It sets the record straight on Barack Obama's legislative record and includes action links.

::

Here are three numbers every Obama supporter needs to know by heart:

820 and 427 and 152

- - -

820 is the number of laws Obama sponsored in the Illinois State Senate.

427 is the current count of the number of bills Obama has co-sponsored in the U.S. Senate.

And the final number, 152, is the most recent tally of the number of bills that Senator Obama has authored. You can see his current legislative record here. Three of them, including S. 3558 ("A bill to provide for enhanced food-borne illness surveillance and food safety capacity") were moved upon just last week.

Let's look at that quote from Palin again, this time with wiggle words highlighted:

"...this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the state senate." (Cheers, applause.)

Actually, it's not hard to find bills by Obama that qualify both as major, and as reforms. As Andrew Sullivan points out:

...it seems extremely weird that she should believe that Obama's record is a total zero.

At her first press conference, why not ask her why she said that Obama has never passed a single reform, when he passed the 2007 Ethics Reform, described by many as the most sweeping package of its kind since Watergate. Of course, she doesn't know. She was given this speech. But she should be asked to respond to the question of why she said something patently untrue to the entire country.

Now, McCain's record is also easily available for perusual--but that's not the point, is it? Sullivan again:

You can see the idea here: to keep equating Palin's experience with Obama's. ...So there's your standard. It's fatuous and stupid. But if you repeat it often enough, it might just work.

Which explains the new obscenity: "ZERO! ZERO!" shouted repeatedly from the convention floor. They're hoping people will look at the Obama campaign's big "O" symbol and see a "0" instead.

As fun as it is to chew on rumors about Trig's true mother, or crack jokes about McCain and adult diapers, Obama needs us. He needs us to give a full-throated defense of the truth--not of him personally, but of the truth.

The kid has a batting record. Obama's record of turning words into action isn't zero. It's 820, and 427, and 152.