More humor!

Wow, some people can be so reactive and unoriginal.

I may be wrong, but they should probably use 17 instead of 13.

I can't stop smiling when I think about the results of last night's election return.

Good job America.

A little election humor

This has to be the worst political website ever.

No, seriously. There cannot be a worse, legitimate site created in an effort to get someone elected. If there is a more terrible site out there, please let me know.

O, and apparently we should vote for Mike Muhammad.

Vote!

Here's my friendly reminder to let you know that if you're able, you should vote today. Plus, if you vote (or even if you don't) you can get a free tall coffee from Starbucks. The coffee giant in West Chester is brewing a nice Thanksgiving Coffee (which is a tasty blend of Sumatra and Guatamalan coffees) that nicely hits the spot after waiting forty-five minutes out in the 45° dampness outside my polling place.

That's right, I awoke at 5:45 this morning in order to get to my polling place in time to get to work on time. I still contend that Election Day should be a national holiday, but that's for another post. Last night I looked up directions to the Ridge Road Fire House in Pottstown, PA but it turns out that googlemaps is a dirty liar. What should have been a ten minute drive ended up taking thirty which put me further back in line than I would have liked. I arrived at said polling place at 6:45, fifteen minutes before it officially opened, and was about fifty people back from the front. The energy of the people in line was incredible.

At the front of the line was an almost-giddy black man who I would guess is around fifty in age. He came prepared with a folding chair, thermos of coffee, a portable heater, and lots of enthusiasm--and the wonder didn't end with him. All through the line people (most, but not all, were people of color) were asking strangers to take pictures of them on this historic day (as is noted on What's Left Now, no matter who wins, today's election is certainly historic). Though it was far too early in the morning for me to muster enthusiasm, I couldn't help but get caught up in the moment of voting.

Just after casting my ballot, I walked out of the building and took great joy at the sight of the long and growing line outside. People of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and political leanings were together to make their voices heard. Never mind the bickering, mud slinging, and negative campaigning--this is the beauty of the democracy in which we live.

No matter what you say, I will not be disenfranchised. Not today--I voted!

James Dobson’s ‘Letter From 2012 in Obama’s America

The following can be found on Jim Wallis' blog called Sojourners. It's in response to a letter, published by Focus on the Family, from a citizen of America in 2012. As Wallis points out, the letter attempts to stir up the worst in people, not the best. I echo his sentiments of shame that people who identify as Christians would stoop to such slander and fear-mongering. Our faith is one of hope and love. There is no place in Christianity for hate and negativity toward other people.

Here is Wallis' response:

"James Dobson, you owe America an apology. The fictional letter released through your Focus on the Family Action organization, titled “Letter From 2012 in Obama’s America”, crosses all lines of decent public discourse. In a time of utter political incivility, it shows the kind of negative Christian leadership that has become so embarrassing to so many of your fellow Christians in America. We are weary of this kind of Christian leadership, and that is why so many are forsaking the Religious Right in this election.

This letter offers nothing but fear. It apocalyptically depicts terrorist attacks in American cities, churches losing their tax exempt status for not allowing gay marriages, pornography pushed in front of our children, doctors and nurses forced to perform abortions, euthanasia as commonplace, inner-city crime gone wild because of lack of gun ownership, home schooling banned, restricted religious speech, liberal censorship shutting down conservative talk shows, Christian publishers forced out of business, Israel nuked, power blackouts because of environmental restrictions, brave Christian resisters jailed by a liberal Supreme court, and finally, good Christian families emigrating to Australia and New Zealand.

It is shocking how thoroughly biblical teachings against slander—misrepresentations that damage another’s reputation—are ignored (Ephesians 4:29-31, Colossians 3:8, Titus 3:2). Such outrageous predictions not only damage your credibility, they slander Barack Obama who, you should remember, is a brother in Christ, and they insult any Christian who might choose to vote for him.

Let me make this clear: Christians will be voting both ways in this election, informed by their good faith, and based on their views of what are the best public policies and direction for America. But in utter disrespect for the prayerful discernment of your fellow Christians, this letter stirs their ugliest fears, appealing to their worst impulses instead of their best.

Fear is the clear motivator in the letter; especially fear that evangelical Christians might vote for Barack Obama. The letter was very revealing when it suggested that “younger Evangelicals” became the “swing vote” that elected Obama and the results were catastrophic.

You make a mistake when you assume that younger Christians don’t care as much as you about the sanctity of life. They do care—very much—but they have a more consistent ethic of life. Both broader and deeper, it is inclusive of abortion, but also of the many other assaults on human life and dignity. For the new generation, poverty, hunger, and disease are also life issues; creation care is a life issue; genocide, torture, the death penalty, and human rights are life issues; war is a life issue. What happens to poor children after they are born is also a life issue.

The America you helped vote into power has lost its moral standing in the world, and even here at home. The America you told Christians to vote for in past elections is now an embarrassment to Christians around the globe, and to the children of your generation of evangelicals. And the vision of America that you still tell Christians to vote for is not the one that many in a new generation of Christians believes expresses their best values and convictions.

Christians should be committed to the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of America, and the church is to live an alternative existence of love and justice, offering a prophetic witness to politics. Elections are full of imperfect choices where we all seek to what is best for the “common good” by applying the values of our faith as best we can.

Dr. Dobson, you of course have the same right as every Christian and every American to vote your own convictions on the issues you most care about, but you have chosen to insult the convictions of millions of other Christians, whose own deeply held faith convictions might motivate them to vote differently than you. This epistle of fear is perhaps the dying gasp of a discredited heterodoxy of conservative religion and conservative politics. But out of that death, a resurrection of biblical politics more faithful to the whole gospel—one that is truly good news—might indeed be coming to life." --END--

I am anxiously waiting for this election to be over. While it is certainly entertaining, I am looking forward where we can be unified as a people--as Americans, but more importantly as Christians.

Peace.

Helpful e-mails

So I got this e-mail today from Karl Rove:

Karl Rove to me

show details 10:11 AM (7 hours ago)

Dear Ian,

Time to relax!

Obama is way ahead in the polls. It's time for you to take victory for granted, and to stop paying attention.

And there's definitely no need to spend one more minute volunteering.

You're probably thinking, "But Karl Rove, why would you—the mastermind behind the stealth get-out-the-vote program that powered George Bush's victories—be advising us not to get out and talk to voters?"

That is a good question. (And by the way, I prefer "Evil Genius" to "Mastermind.") It is true that voter outreach can tip an election. But Obama's ahead in the polls, and they never lie.

So relax! Do some yoga. Check out the new season of Project Runway. Sip white wine lattes, or whatever it is that you people like to drink.

Barack does not need you out talking to voters in Pennsylvania this weekend—so there's finally time to tie-dye the seat covers for your Volvo. In fact, you probably shouldn't even bother to vote.

Please forward this to all of your Democrat friends. Don't send it to Republicans, though. Thanks!

–"Karl Rove"

P.S. Again—no volunteering! Don't click this link to sign up to help Obama in Pottstown:

http://pol.moveon.org/obama/teams/training.html?office_id=351&id=14415-9376144-92LD4Mx&t=3

P.P.S. Our lawyers made us promise to tell you that Karl Rove didn't actually write this message—but we're pretty sure this is what he'd write if he had.

Well done, moveon.org. Now I feel like I have to volunteer this weekend just to spite Mastermind Rove.

Stephen A. Douglas was a great debator

... but Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator.

Yesterday at a fund raiser, speaking about the debate set for tonight, John McCain said, "I hope to do about half as well as [Sarah Palin] did against poor Joe Biden," (I heard this on the radio this morning, and can't find an appropriate link for it) and I sincerely hope that he means it. If McCain hopes to do half as well as Palin did, then he should immediately drop out of the race for the POTUS. To her credit, Palin didn't do too terribly and she met or exceeded the expectations set for her--though they were incredibly low.

As all polls and most pundits have said, Biden handily beat Palin in their debate so I'm not exactly sure what McCain meant by that statement. Perhaps he is conceding that Obama is that much better than McCain, perhaps McCain is sweet-talking his running mate so soften the blow of her resounding defeat at the debate, or maybe McCain will say whatever it takes to make his audience happy. I would bet on the third assessment, but I'm not sure that any of them aren't true.

Unfortunately, I have class until ten tonight and I will not get home until around eleven. Here's hoping that my professor will want us to be politically aware and will let us go very early so I can watch it and be informed, conscious American voters. I'm not holding my breath, though--he's British.

Vote for That One

On Monday I walked from work to campus on my lunch break to visit the library and try to catch a few professors (no such luck) but I was wonderfully surprised to see at least a dozen different people registering voters on campus. I gleefully told different volunteers that I had already registered after being asked and I've never felt better about blowing off a street hawker. Monday was the last day to register to vote in the state of Pennsylvania and it's an important state in the election. Polls show that Obama has a comfortable lead, but I certainly hope that Obama supporters won't see us as a foregone conclusion.

On a different note, no matter whom you support, please vote. Let's revel in our democratic freedom!

ps--Last night's debate was terribly boring.

Anticipation

I don't know if I can express how excited I am for the VP debate tonight. I'm fairly certain that I like Biden and I'm anticipating a good performance. At the same time, I think I'm more anxious to see how Palin reacts to the spotlight. After watching her in several interviews (albeit filled with softball questions), I am quite prepared to see good things from her. According to some who have debated her before, she is quite a good debater--not because she's a brilliant thinker, or because she knows all the facts, but because she is uniquely able to get away with not giving any answer at all.

I would love to live-blog the event here, but realistically, too few people read this to make commenting worthwhile. I'll be quite content to quietly watch it at home with my lovely wife. Enjoy the political sparring!

McCain's Convention Speech

Last night I, like 38.9 million others, sat down and watched McCain accept the RNC's nomination for president. While I was watching, I had the good fortune of live-blogging with mostly like-minded people so that added to the entertainment. I didn't expect a very great speech from McCain and he didn't deliver one. I think it's fair to say that he's not a terribly gifted speaker but that shouldn't disqualify someone from being a president. For me, it's all about policy and issues. Luckily for me, this election cycle has been fairly because, almost across the board, I disagree with what McCain is pushing. Along with his positions on the issues, I have a lot of difficulty imagining that he is genuine in some--if not most--of what he says.

According to Neilsen, McCain's speech was watched by a half-million more people than Obama's. While this was a little disappointing for me initially, I can't help but thinking that this is a good thing. It is my hope that to more people are able to compare McCain and Obama, the Senator from Arizona will look worse.

SP as (potential) VP

Try as I may, I cannot help but gobble up the news about Sarah Palin. I never would have thought 'political' news could be so much like watching The View while snacking on unbaked-but-oh-so-delicious cookie dough.

I can't get enough of LOLcats

Or LOLpoliticians.

How could 'he' be president?

I got this e-mail today and I don't see how America could vote this 'guy' in as president!

SUBJECT: IS MCCAIN SECRETLY A WOMAN...OR EVEN WORSE?

For the love of -od and the love of this country, you will forward this email onto all your friends and family. The fate of the free world may rest solely on this information becoming mainstream. If we can not stop this, I pray for all of our souls. -od speed!

I have confirmed these facts through my reliable sources. I suggest you take it to heart – feel free to confirm these disturbing truths. Please print out copies and hand them out or mail them to friends and neighbors without access to the Interwebs.

Who is John McCain?

US Presidential candidate, John SIDNEY McCain, was born in Panama (thus the reason he doesn't mind his people flooding across our borders). He tries to hide his middle name by constantly referring to himself as John S. McCain. Do not let this fool you. John SIDNEY McCain, the probable presidential runner-up, has a woman's middle name. At the very least, the concealment of his middle name, SIDNEY, raises serious questions about his true gender and whether he is a SECRET woman. He has admitted that economics is not an issue he understands well. A certain gender is well known to be less inclined towards math and numbers. Then there are his $500 shoes. If elected, it's very likely McCain will institute mandatory lingerie pillow AND tickle fights.

John SIDNEY McCain was raised by parents of Scots-Irish and English ancestry. At their most harmless, the Irish are notorious drunks who enjoy fighting while stashing large piles of gold underneath rainbows. In the extreme, the Irish are violent TERRORISTS attempting to overthrow the government. While no evidence exists explicitly linking McCain to a TERROR organization, he has never denied membership in the IRA. It is also unclear whether he or any of his drunken relatives ever knew anyone who might know someone who once interacted with or passed in the street a member of the IRA. Given the challenges facing our country, we need confirmation that McCain is not affiliated nor knows people affiliated with TERROR organizations.

Born in 1936, John SIDNEY McCain moved around a lot throughout his early years, which coincided with World War II. The exact details of McCain's behavior during this time are sketchy at best. It is interesting to note there is no record of McCain denouncing the actions of the Nazis while they were committing genocides. He was noticeably silent. He may not have been a NAZI SYNTHESIZER, but this raises doubts about which side he was rooting for during World War II. This also raises questions about his potential loyalties as president, given our current wars and the wars he promises to start.

John SIDNEY McCain served as a naval pilot during the Vietnam War. While executing a mission in 1967, McCain was captured in Hanoi, where he stayed in the Hanoi Hilton for 5 long years. McCain's fellow soldiers battled valiantly against the evils of Communism while McCain was lounging in a hotel (most likely alternating between the pool and the hot tub to enhance the experience of both) run by Paris Hilton! If McCain had fought alongside his comrades, we may have never needed Rocky to defeat Communism.

After Vietnam, McCain returned to the US to discover his first wife with horrific injuries from an auto accident. He promptly began an affair with a woman 17 years his junior, eventually divorcing his disfigured first wife in 1980. As President, McCain will be faced with a similar situation, given the current wreck that is our country. He will be tempted to fool around with other countries. It will just be a matter of time until he divorces the US for a newer, younger, and more attractive country that offers him more than we can.

During this presidential election, we must be vigilant to prevent a John SIDNEY McCain presidency.

Can we really risk having a drunk, fighting Irishman who may or may not have ties to TERRORIST organizations? When troubled times arrive, will McCain fight for us or will he fall into the arms of another more-youthful country that looks strikingly like his current country? Do we really want to trust this country to someone who may secretly be a woman or a NAZI SYNTHESIZER?

Please forward to everyone you know. We can not have this (wo)man leading our country.

Your Friend,
Bo Gus Smear

h/t: ME

*Of course the above e-mail isn't true. Unfortunately, it's just as false as the ridiculous chain e-mails about Obama that are floating around but this one, I guarantee, won't get passed around like a hot potato.

I'm just saying

Blowing the dog whistle

In a recently published article in The Guardian, Melissa McEwan talks about McCain's strategy of dog whistling. The rhetorical technique involves dropping phrases that may seem strange to most people, but have significant meaning to a portion of the population. Bush used the phrase "wonder-working power" to invoke visions of God's miracles and Huckabee couldn't seem to stop with the veiled religious messages. Perhaps I've been oblivious to these tactics before, but McEwan's article calls to light the covert racism in the juxtaposition of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears with Obama in a recent McCain ad that the senior Senator from Arizona claims to be proud of.

Instead of picking vapid, relatively talentless male celebrities, the McCain team chose two females of fame who are associated with airheadedness and promiscuity. To most, that doesn't mean too much. To a select few, however, it calls to mind the black-man-as-hyper-sexual-deviant trope of so many Imperial art.

For a good portion of history (and many would argue that it currently happens) black men were 'othered' and views as sex crazed animals. Novels by Sam Selvon (namely The Lonely Londoners) have worked to bring this false stereotype to light and debunk the myth. Also, photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe (I would advise you to not research his work while you are at work) does a fantastic job of pointing to the overt hyper-sexualization and fetishization of the black man. Despite all the work to rid our society of this insidious racism, McCain sees fit to try to scare white voters away from Obama because he's just a scary, over-sexualized black man.

Shame on you, John McCain.

Seriously?

McCain Team - It's pretty obvious that the media has a bizarre fascination with Barack Obama. Some may even say it's a love affair. We want you to be the judge. We've compiled two videos of the more outrageous moments of this not so secret love affair. Follow this link to watch the two videos and vote on which one you think is better. Your vote will determine which video we put on the air. The media is in love with Barack Obama. If it wasn't so serious, it would be funny. Regards, The McCain Campaign Seriously, John McCain? Seriously.

American Colonialism

Listening to NPR this morning (really, it was new from NPR on WXPN--the best radio station ever, I digress) and they aired a brief spot on negotiations regarding American troops remaining in Iraq. The basis of the piece was that a UN mandate is allowing American forces to remain in Iraq until 2009; but after that date Iraq has to agree to be occupied. I realize the use of the word 'occupied' is perhaps too severe, but it's what I'm going with. Negotiations are underway and may not be swinging the way our administration wants it to. The news person quoted an Iraqi official as saying, "We do not want to become colonized."

His use of the word 'colonized' is, by no means, too severe. I do not think that we, as Americans, can think of ourselves as colonizers in the same way that we view the British and French sprawls of the 19th and 20th centuries--but I, and others like Niall Ferguson, believe that we are quickly headed that way. Unlike me, Ferguson believes it is America's duty to take up the flag of imperialism and usher forth a new golden age. Though I am sure he is brilliant, I think Ferguson thinks a bit too highly of the British empire and cannot see past the good parts to the negative underbelly of Victoria's land grab.

While I'm not an isolationist, I do not want to live in the nexus of an empire.

A Few of My Favorite Things

So a few weeks ago I signed up for the John McCain e-mail list. I figured it would be a nice way to inform myself on his policies and such. It has proven a wise decision. Today, I got an e-mail linking to this newly launched section of McCain's website: The Decision Center

I'm not a fan of campaigning against a candidate, but I must admit that the various McBush sites are rather amusing.

Outlook

It was recently brought to my attention that I only consume political news from left-leaning sources. While that is pretty much fine with me since I'm fairly left leaning as far as most political issues are concerned, but it doesn't make me a properly informed individual.

Most of my news consumption happens at work, online. If there are any quality, right-leaning political websites out there, I would appreciate you letting me know where to look. This isn't an effort to learn more about the other side to better be able to attack them, but I think it's only fair that I look at issues objectively and base my views on a broad spectrum of information.

Thanks, in advance, for the ideas.

Barack Obama at WCUPA

Today, Barack Obama and Chris Matthews will appear in the Sikes Student Union Theater of the West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Apparently, there's some sort of primary coming up in PA? Anyway, some of my peers lined up at 830 on Monday in preparation for the 1200 box-office opening. I, unfortunately, had to work so I didn't get a ticket (they were free with a WCUPA ID-card). I wish it weren't a taping of Hardball, but Obama hanging out at my university is a pretty cool deal. I figure that I'll try to hang around downtown a bit this afternoon in hopes of seeing the Senator and future President. GOBAMA!

Being Stupid Isn't a Crime

"We have no intention of prosecuting Rush Limbaugh because lying through your teeth and being stupid isn't a crime," said Leo Jennings, a spokesman for Democratic Attorney General Marc Dann.

People say funny things sometimes.