The effort to protect gay marriage in California is in need of our support. Tim Gill and Scott Miller have offered to match No On 8 donations up to $100,000. The campaign needs to raise 1.5 million by midnight tonight and your help is needed. I’m publishing the following request from No On 8 and I ask you to consider making a donation.

This morning’s Field Poll carries news that Prop 8 is narrowly losing, 44 to 49%.

This initiative battle is razor thin. We know that 7 to 10% of voters are still up for grabs.

And Tim Gill and Scott Miller will match your donation up to $100,000 if you respond NOW.

We knew we needed something more. Something big. Something to remind California voters that there were times in our history when we did not stand up against discrimination, and these are times we now regret.

So our new ad — which we call “History” — focuses on the central fact of this campaign: it is wrong to discriminate and wrong to treat people differently under the law.

This new ad, narrated by renowned actor Samuel L. Jackson, drives home the message that discrimination is always wrong. Watch the ad and make a donation to keep it on the air.

Now it’s our turn. It’s our turn to make sure we do everything we can do so the next generation grows up in a more decent society — a society where discrimination against LGBT Americans remains part of that sorry past rather than enshrined in our Constitution.

We must keep this ad on television statewide through Election Day. To make that happen we must raise at least $1.5 million today. Please donate NOW.

With your help, we will defeat Prop 8. Please continue your support with a donation and ask the people who care for you to do the same.

In solidarity,

Geoff Kors
Executive Committee Member
No On 8

DONATE. HERE. NOW.

Cross-posted at Thought Theater

This is heart warming. A kid in a Jewish school in West Hartford Connecticut sends a letter, just like the rest of his class, to a famous person. In his case it is Barack Obama. He includes the Flat Stanley character from the book the class is reading. And he gets an answer from Obama. Here it is from the Hartford Courant:

An envelope addressed to her son, Aron, 7, had been delivered to the school that morning. It was from Barack Obama, senator from Illinois and Democratic presidential candidate.

“They were all excited,” Mondschein said. “The whole school was abuzz. They took a picture of [Aron]. He was like a little celebrity.”

. . .

Obama’s three-page letter to Aron described Flat Stanley’s visit with him and his staff in Washington, D.C. It chronicled their busy day together, which included coffee with constituents, a Senate committee meeting and a trip to the gym. It also had historical facts about the U.S. Capitol, details of Obama’s job and a confession from Obama.

“Sometimes I get a little nervous before talking in front of a crowd, but Flat Stanley helped me practice the speech,” Obama wrote. “He made me recite it in front of him and then even gave me some advice so the speech would go smoothly. Flat Stanley is really a great coach.”

To make this truly inspirational, Barack Obama would have written the letter himself. I sure hope that’s the case. The beautiful thing is that he’s made a little boy he has never met a celebrity in his own right.

Hey, if Obama wins this thing I think Aron and his mother ought to be invited to the Inaugural Ball. Yamulka and all. After all, it is that affable and personable Obama who has charged to the finish line, as cool as can be, but with warmth enough even for a little boy.

John McCain surely knew this election would hold challenges for him. He already had George Bush hanging around his neck, as did all the Republicans running for the nomination this year. But the big problem with this election is that John McCain had several other albatrosses hanging around his neck by this last week of the campaign, some of which he hung there himself. Now it may be too early to write a history of why McCain lost, if he does indeed lose this election, but we can certainly count the bird that have weighed him down. One place to go birdwatching is at the polls.

The NYTimes/CBS poll, for instance, shows evangelical Christians supporting McCain, but not as much as they supported Bush, and not with nearly so much fervor. The big albatross here, though, is Christian groups coming out and supporting Barack Obama, even to the point of forming a 527 group and running commercials supportive of Obama. Looks like even the nomination of Palin as Veep didn’t help.

Speaking of Sarah Palin, she’s an albatross in lipstick. That same NY Times/CBS poll shows Sarah Palin’s waning popularity is dragging McCain down by the neck. HEre’s a bit of the analysis from the New York Times:

All told, 59 percent of voters surveyed said Ms. Palin was not prepared for the job, up nine percentage points since the beginning of the month. Nearly a third of voters polled said the vice-presidential selection would be a major factor influencing their vote for president, and those voters broadly favor Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee.

And in a possible indication that the choice of Ms. Palin has hurt Mr. McCain’s image, voters said they had much more confidence in Mr. Obama to pick qualified people for his administration than they did in Mr. McCain.

That’s a whole bunch of people who won’t vote for McCain because of the most important choice any candidate makes during his campaign, the choice of a running mate. That’s gotta be a heavy albatross, you betcha. Of course, Palin is a stand-in for the Radical Right Wing Christian Cleric albatross, and they’re evidently conceding this election. Of course, they style themselves as “social conservatives,” whack jobs that they are, and they’ve scheduled a pow wow next week to exorcize the demons they have brought to the election. Or maybe they’ll just whine a lot. Oh, I shouldn’t say anything. the meeting is supposed to be SECRET!

Here’s an interesting albatross in the Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll, where Obama is surging. Seems even the most faithful of McCain demographics, those men who idolize war heroes, are moving towards Obama slowly but surely. And both the white vote and the conservative vote are headed to the Senator from Illinois as well. Here’s a taste of the Reuters analysis:

Obama held steady or expanded his edge among several crucial blocs of swing voters, leading by 19 points among independents, 10 points among women, 9 points among Catholics and 7 points among voters above the age 65.

Obama also moved ahead of McCain, an Arizona senator, by 5 points among men. McCain still leads by 8 points among white voters but only earns the support of about 30 percent of Hispanics, a fast-growing group that gave President George W. Bush more than 40 percent of their vote in 2004.

The poll also found Obama was doing a better job of reaching across ideological lines, earning the support of nearly 20 percent of self-described conservatives. McCain wins about 10 percent of liberals.

I must say it is awfully fun tracking all the troubles, albatrosses, that have hampered McCain’s clear sailing. Of course, there’s more than the Palin selection that’s his fault. He courted the Radical Right Wing Christian Clerics, after all, he displayed ignorance of economic policy, then an almost spastic need to pander to every voter group in the country. McCain’s already angry demeanor was only emphasized by the constant negatives against Barack Obama. Every time an ad ran saying something about “consorting with terrorists,” with some ominous announcer, it ended with McCain saying he approved of the message. Holy crap! Isn’t he the one who helped add that “I approve this message” bit? His own campaign finance laws, of course, are another set of albatrosses.

It’s hard to calculate all the other self-inflicted burdens McCain has placed around his own neck. There was the cancellation of the first day of the GOP Convention, the “suspending the campaign” stunt, the poor debate performances by both Palin and McCain, the blatant racism among his supporters, some of them, which is turning off independents. The tarnished Republican brand? That goes without saying. But it’s your turn.

What’s the biggest of these problems McCain has draped himself with? Could it be that the biggest problem is that he’s running against a man of genuine stature and leadership in Barack Obama? I’d like to think so.

I suppose there are legitimate reasons that one might want to pass a mental acuity test to qualify voters in this country. Given how many people voted for George Bush, and how many people think Sarah Palin is qualified, it would seem the Republican Party would be dead set against such a law. But, no! They are challenging the votes of six developmentally disabled adults in Tuolumne County, CA. This is too stupid to be believed. From ABC 7 in San Francisco:

Michael Rascon voted in his first presidential election. He and nine other developmentally disabled clients at the Thumbs Up adult care home in Tuolumne County recently cast their absentee ballots. All but one voted for Barak Obama.

“Did someone help you vote?” asked the ABC reporter.

“Dave did,” said Michael.

David Simerley is the home’s director. He admits to helping any client with his ballot who asked.

“No one’s vote should be coerced, I think that’s the bottom line,” said Chuck Bell, the State’s GOP Attorney.

The state Republican Party now questions the validity of the Thumbs Up votes. They want the Secretary of State to investigate.

“If they haven’t been declared incompetent to vote and they’re a citizen of the United States and they’re over 18 and they’re a legal resident, they’re entitled to vote,” said Professor Pamela Karlan, from Stanford University School of Law.

Karlan says legally, someone like Director Simerley can fill out a ballot for his clients, if they’re illiterate or incapable. Freedom of speech even gives Simerley the right to share his political opinions.

Chuck Bell, the GOP State’s Attorney thinks there is some kind of coercion? First, you have to wonder what he would say if the guys voted for McCain. He’d probably crow about his expanding base in California. Second, it is obvious the guy is on the wrong side of the law, so one might wonder why he is in the position he is, as a defender of the law. Finally, I have never met a more honest group of people in my life than the people who work with the mentally disabled. Never. Not ever. To impugn their motives is frankly just another ugly whine on the part of the Republicans.

The Obama 30 program last night was uplifting. I remember my wife worrying, as she always does. She was afraid Obama would promise too much, or look like he expected to win too much. None of that happened. The program seemed designed to encourage supporters to get out the vote and to convince independents with a sunny and “can do” attitude that better times are coming. (Anyone reminded of Reagan there?) The show got the ratings it should have, beating out the usual ratings of the primetime shows that normally air on the three major networks, and it was money well spent in my book. The record turnout we are hoping for will likely come about, in part because Barack Obama took time and money to step forward and talk directly to an audience of millions. I’m proud of him more than ever.

McCain? Not so much. Not so much details about policies in his response. not any positive take on our society. No vision of the future. Indeed, there was no McCain giving a response. It showed up on the Palin/McCain web site, and in a few ads, in the form of a list of “fact checks,” each time concluding with the accusation of “liar.” The ad campaign is called “Just Words,” and it is all attack, with nothing about what McCain will do. Yeah, that’s the wrong approach, the Bush approach to campaigning, as they note on electoral-vote.com:

What is noteworthy about this campaign is McCain’s response. He just attacked Obama more, saying he is not ready to be commander in chief and his economic policies would undermine our national security. He is also making robocalls–in Arizona (!)–a state that wasn’t thought to be competitive. What is so astounding about this strategy is that most Republicans worship Ronald Reagan, not so much due to his specific policies, but for the tone of his campaigns and administration. He was always talking about hope and “Morning in America,” rarely attacking his opponents. McCain could easily have countered Obama’s film with an upbeat message saying: “I also believe in a good future for America, but a future produced by hardworking Americans like Joe the Plumber, not by government bureaucrats.” He didn’t do it. Just attack, attack, attack. You can see Atwater-Rove-Schmidt writ large on McCain’s whole campaign. Spend all your time tearing down your opponent, rather than saying what your plans are.

It is not necessarily the Obama program that seals the deal in this election. It is more likely the McCain response that has done so. Not even one’s supporters are likely to respond well to constant attacks on the opponent rather than hopeful messages. Heck, even McCain’s hopeful messages are whines about pollsters and “the media” counting him out too soon. His whines begin to sound and feel like the worst I’ve seen in my political life, like the scowling Nixon, or the smirking Rove. It is hard to understand from the McCain response why anyone would want to vote for him. Oh, McCain might make some people in his own base hate Obama a whole bunch, but to win an election you must get people to wqant to vote for You. That strategy, or simple common sense, really, is absent throughout the McCain campaign, and as a result Obama keeps whittling away at the Palin/McCain supporters.

Even the fresh attacks, like the one concerning Barack Obama’s friendship with Rashid Khalidi are failing miserably. Jason Linkins of Huffington Post describes CNN last light, which had a McCain defender on, Michael Goldfarb, and the CNN host asked asked a couple cogent questions of the guy that he simply couldn’t answer. According to Goldfarb, the Obama friendship with Khalidi was emblematic of many anti-semitic friends with influence on Obama. He was asked why McCain funneled money to Khalidi, and. . . crickets. He was asked to name just one other supposed anti-semite Obama supposedly hangs with and. . . crickets. The charges against Barack Obama, even the new ones, are empty.

More than that emptiness, the McCain campaign has gone full-bore negative for well over a month now. In that time Barack Obama has improved in the polls and McCain has dropped. Of course, whippings in the debates add to that movement in the polls, but that’s because McCain was mostly negative and combative and ugly in them as well. Let’s add in the fashion Queen, and the stupid “Joe the Plumber” fiasco, and you’ve got a Palin/McCain campaign that can’t shoot straight. Heck, I’m thinking even McCain’s base is beginning to wonder if he is qualified to lead, given how screwed up his campaign is.

How will McCain move forward from here? He’ll run even more attack ads, as long as his money holds out, and he’ll crank up the Robocalls, even in Arizona, his home state. Heck, if I am right and the Palin/McCain 24/7 attack campaign is the cause of its drop in the polls, then maybe, just maybe, the Obama/Biden campaign has a shot in Arizona.

This may spell the end of Rovian politics for a time. Will it be one cycle, two? I’m beginning to think that this is a reflection of the internet phenomenon. Let’s face it, we on the internet tend to go negative and carp and throw around snark all the time. Our fellow supporters of Obama think this is just fine. But snark in public turns off voters, and constant carping, which we expect and enjoy online, is not what we expect in commercials and in speeches and in debates. I’ll have to think on this some more, but it is very possible the GOP inability to understand the internet has made it so that the typical GOP Rovian tactics and strategies are dying. We can all sing praises for Al Gore’s invention, then.

HEck, even Goldwater won Arizona, didn’t he?

So much for Joe the Plumber! Now that Joe is busy turning his fifteen minutes of fame into a book deal or a country music recording contract…or some other means to capitalize on his notoriety so he can actually earn the 250K he told Barack Obama he planned to make when he bought his fictional plumbing business…he’s suddenly missing in action at John McCain’s rally in Ohio. Watch McCain ask Joe to stand up at his rally this morning; only to realize that Joe is no where to be found.

Yep, just like their honorable leader, Joe and Sarah put country first, eh? Apparently NOT…Joe has taken the same route as Sarah Palin…the one where it’s every man or woman for themselves (maybe Sarah and Joe can be paired up on the GOP ticket in 2012?). It’s also consistent with the McBush economic philosophy…the one they like to call “The Ownership Society”…the one that Barack Obama appropriately described as the “you’re on your own” philosophy.

You see, while John McCain has been busy selling us on the notion that Joe the Plumber and the rest of us hard working Americans will be the victims of Barack Obama’s “socialist” agenda, he and his hypocritical minions have been busy looking for the means to snatch power and line their own pockets.

Yes, John McCain believes in change…the kind that puts the big bucks in the hands of the wealthy…the kind that leaves the rest of us checking our pockets for enough change to feed our families.

Cross-posted at Thought Theater

I just finished writing about this, but I think it deserves another go. McCain is trying to smear Barack Obama with a supposed relationship to Rashid Khalidi, a US citizen and distinguished academic who used to be the spokesperson for the PLO. Turns out McCain, in his role as the Chairman of the International Republican Institute, granted Khalidi $448,000 to carry out a study concerning peace in the Middle East. I think that’s money well spent. Evidently the McCain campaign thinks that is equivalent to funding terrorism.

Why is McCain funding terrorism? Why does he hate America?

Rep. Chris Shays (R-New England) is co-Chair of John McCain’s Presidential campaign in Connecticut. That didnt stop him yesterday from commenting on the tenor the Palin/McCain campaing has taken this year. He also predicted an Obama win for next Teusday. Here’s his words from CNNPolitics.com:

New England’s lone House Republican appears to have publicly broken with his party’s standard-bearer, saying John McCain has not run a clean campaign and is likely to lose his bid for the presidency.

“I just don’t see how [McCain] can win,” Connecticut Rep. Chris Shays told the Yale Daily News earlier this week. “He has lost his brand as a maverick; he did not live up to his pledge to fight a clean campaign.” Shays, who in 2006 became the only Republican congressman from New England, perennially finds himself in a heated re-election race.

When even your own supporters are claiming that you’ve run an awful campaign, both dirty and disorganized, you’ve got problems. Yes, McCain has problems, and some of them are in his own camp. It appears from some comments, for instance, that Sarah Palin is using the next five days as a leg up to GOP leadership. But more important is that John McCain has lost almost every connection to objective ethics and truth. For instance, he’s spent several weeks implying and overtly stating that Barack Obama is a socialist. Last night on Larry King he’s asked point blank if Obama is a socialist. The answer? “No.” Yeah, John McCain has been lying for weeks.

This last bit is not sensational or a “gotcha.” It has to do with journalistic ethics. If it gets any traction on the campaign trail, then you’ll hear a lot more in the next couple days. Both Sarah Palin and John McCain are referring to the LA Times in their speeches, claiming the Times has a video where Barack Obama attended a party also attended by a former spokeperson for the PLO. Clearly they think they can sway Jewish voters if it turns out there’s a picture of Obama hugging Rashid Khalidid, a friend. There are three problems here. First, this is another fishing expedition by the Palin/McCain campaign, and it is designed to make people think something more nefarious went on than a friendship. Maybe Palin and McCain don’t understand that people actually do have friendships. Yes, even Barack Obama, who they also claim has been aiming to run for President for years with a blind ambition, stopped along the way to have friendships with people the Republicans could use for smears. Ho hum.

Second, the Palin/McCain team is contending that if the LA Times refuses to uphold journalistic ethics and the law, then they are in the tank for Obama. Yes, the Palin/McCain camp is overtly asking for violations of journalistic ethics that will get the LA Times in trouble legally. Ethics, evidently, equals “liberal” to the Palin/McCain campaing. Here’s the LATimes on the subject of journalistic ethics:

Authorities on journalism ethics generally urge news outlets to share as much original source material with their audiences as possible. Two experts said Wednesday that The Times seemed to have gained information for its readers by agreeing to keep the tape confidential, while another expert said she would have recommended the paper push hard at the time of the original reporting to allow for it to be shared with the public.

All three said that once the agreement to keep the tape confidential had been struck, the newspaper had both ethical and legal reasons for abiding by it.

“The calculus a reporter is making is: ‘What is the public good of getting the information and does it outweigh the limitations that the source wants me to put on the information?’ ” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. “In this case, knowing about this event and being able to describe it to readers seems like a pretty good trade-off for not being able to release the video.”

Bob Steele, a journalism values scholar at the Poynter Institute, agreed that the deal seemed sensible, though he advises reporters to avoid such agreements if possible.

“But once you make the promise to protect a source or to protect information,” Steele said, “you do not go against that promise, barring the most exceptional of cases, and this would not seem to be such a case.”

In 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 1st Amendment does not protect the media from breach-of-contract claims by sources with whom it makes confidentiality agreements.

It is not unusual, of course, that a Palin/McCain campaign with so little in the way of ethics itself would try to coerce a newspaper from violating its own code of professional ethics. Look what the McCain supporters have stooped to, after all. Ethics their lowest priority, clearly, in a failed quest to win McCain the White House.

But there’s another issue here that is likely to be ignored. Rashid Khalidi is an American. He has views about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that differ from those of many Americans, but he’s got a record of working “across the aisle,” an image John McCain generally nurtures for himself. Khalidi is a member of the National Advisory Committee of the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East, a group that describes itself as follows:

Founded in 1987, the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East represents 2,500 American Jews, Christians and Muslims, including prominent national leaders of all three communities. The Committee carries on programs nationwide of dialogue, education and advocacy in support of U.S. policies to achieve comprehensive and lasting Arab-Israeli-Palestinian peace.

The McCain campaign, while trying to force the LA Times to commit ethics violations, is doing so in order to demonize Khalidi, a man who works for peace and is a highly respected scholar. Actually, given McCain’s stances on war, we should not be surprised at his finding a man of peace to be an enemy. And given his own turn at education, and his running mate Sarah Palin’s, we should not find it surprising they would attempt to demonize Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. All this anti-intellectual, anti-peace, and anti-ethical behavior by the Palin/McCain campaign is so much par for the course that the press doesn’t even blink anymore. Surely that isn’t a good precedent were they, God forbid, to actually rise to the offices of President and Vice President.

The bottom line here? The Palin/McCain camp has no idea if there was ever anything untoward between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidid. Indeed, from the evidence of a focused investigative article by the LA Times, it is clear there was nothing untoward in the relationship. What this is really about is stirring up racist tendencies in the American voter. They want to connect Barack Obama in the public mind with a man with a funny Middle Eastern Name. Gee, that’s a new tactic. He’s appealling to xenophobia, and that’s ugly politics.

Phillies Win!

Hey, he sacked Lidge and Ruiz there at the end of the game, and the football team deserves a championship, too.

Since Obama will take 80% of the vote in Philly, I figured I could post this on a politcal blog.

by Rosemary and Walter Brasch

There are a lot of scary things in this world, but one of the scariest is that Halloween and the Presidential election are only five days apart. It’s hard to miss the parallel between tricks-and-treats and the promises-and-panderings of politicians masquerading as the most caring, most vital, most sincere candidate. While standing behind their lapel flag buttons, they are quick to dress their opponents in something less patriotic.

The Republican right wing wants to dress Barack Obama as a socialist terrorist, putting on him a large black beard, a kufi hat and abaya robe. Instead of handing out candy, these wing nuts have Obama handing out dollar bills, which he stole from hard-working conservative millionaires.

The Right Wing doesn’t say much about Joe Biden, knowing he’s sharper than any of the candidates about foreign affairs, but he does occasionally put a foot in his mouth. Maybe they can dress him as a podiatrist.

The Democrats want to glue John McCain to George W. Bush, and parade them door-to-door as conjoined twins. Assuming that isn’t acceptable to McCain—at least now—maybe the Democrats can dress McCain as a Mission: Impossible tape recorder, knowing at some point he’ll self-destruct.

It shouldn’t be too hard to find a costume for Sarah Palin. During the past two months, the Republicans spent $150,000 on clothes for her and her family, plus at least $23,000 for makeup. After figuring out that the nation is in a Recession, that most Americans don’t even earn $170,000 in three years—and that some outraged Americans found out about her shopping spree—Palin spun out and claimed that the clothes really aren’t hers and will be donated after the election, most probably to starving Republican day traders. For Halloween, and for a truly scary appearance, maybe Mooseburger could remove all the makeup and lipstick her handlers put on her to make salivating middle-aged men believe that outward beauty is an acceptable cover-up to inner vacuousness.

While large numbers of wolves, polar bears, and moose have been seen registering to vote, hoping that Palin wins and leaves their state, Palin is busy stalking Dick Cheney’s footprint, hoping to continue her mind-meld with him.

And speaking of Cheney, a nice costume for him might be a repaired heart, assuming he had one. But, since he has again suddenly disappeared from sight, he might be dressed as the Ghost of America Thankfully Past.

Ralph Nader, who has good ideas, hardly any media coverage, and absolutely no chance to be president, could wear a large fluorescent green leaf, and carry an organic sign—“Hey, I’m over here!”

Bob Barr is running for president on the Libertarian ticket. He is an NRA board member and was once a conservative Republican who led the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Lately, he’s been on an extended speaking tour for the ACLU. Perhaps we could dress him as the Statue of Liberty, a rifle in one hand and what’s left of a shredded Constitution fiercely clutched in his other hand.

There are more than 200 other third-party and independent candidates. It would be far too expensive to give them all individual costumes, so why not dress each of them as sheep on steroids, bleating to be free of the pack, and hoping to attract voters who are disgusted with the policies and candidates of the Democratic and Republic parties.

We’re not scared about the voters. They’ll do whatever it is that voters do for whatever reasons they do it. We’re scared about what happens to their votes after they’re crunched by pro-Bush Republican-dominated Diebold, the company that manufactures most electronic voting machines in the country.

Like 300 million other Americans and several billion in other countries, we’re scared about the economy. You know, the one that was spurred by a combination of greed, incompetence, and lack of governmental regulation. Children and their parents are all going to be trick-or-treating this Halloween, hoping there are still some families that have extra food to give to those who may soon become homeless.

Finally, we’re really scared that in a few months we’ll all hear George W. Bush and Dick Cheney tell us, “We’re Baaaack!”

[Rosemary Brasch is a former Red Cross national disaster family services specialist, secretary, union grievance officer, and labor studies instructor. Walter Brasch’s latest book is the second edition of Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush, available at amazon.com, bn.com and other stores. You may contact him at brasch@bloomu.edu or through his website at www.walterbrasch.com]