Laura Little Walker cast an early vote for Barack Obama.
Nevermind that she's never cast a ballot in her 92 years, or that her great-grandson is also voting for the first time.
What's important, Walker said, is that she voted.
...Walker's vote wasn't made in haste. In the beginning of her electoral process, Walker asked her family for information on the Chicago senator. Relatives compiled the political information that Walker now keeps in a hunter-green binder next to her living room recliner. In it are copies of newspaper and Internet articles, downloaded information about the senator from family, copies of his speeches and printouts of portions of his proposed plans and policies. Inked notes are in the margins of some of the papers where Walker has been reading.
"I don't hear very good and I don't see very good," she said. "But I have a good idea of what's going on."
What is it about Obama that pushed Walker to vote?
"I heard him speak," she said. "I decided he's a man that will go places and maybe get us out of this mess we're in. So I decided I was going to vote."
One of Walker's daughters, Betty Mundell, said when Obama hit the airwaves, he had Walker's full attention.
"She wouldn't let us forget there was a debate on," Mundell said. "Once she decided to vote, she wanted to learn everything she could."
Another of Walker's daughters, Margaret Daily, said that she unaware that her mother had never voted.
"I knew she hadn't voted in the past several years," Daily said.
In Walker's lifetime, Americans have witnessed the Great Depression, the deaths of presidents, the destruction of countries, and race-related tensions between all walks of life. The historical decision the nation will make Tuesday - whether it elects the first African-American president or the first female vice-president - isn't any better or worst than decisions other generations have faced. Walker said her decision to vote is simple.
"He'll be a great president," she said.
I certainly hope so.
Sent to me by Shaker LM, who notes: "For those of you that aren't familiar with Frankfort, it is a rural, industrial, Republican strong hold. For some reason, her pic isn't on the website but [on the broadcast] she was smiling big and holding her folder with all of her Obama material in it."
Some people were chanting "John McCain! Not Hussein!" at a Sarah Palin rally here in Florida.
After the rally in Florida ended, two of the people leading the chant explained why they did so.
“Because it rhymes,” said Shirley Mitten, 64, a volunteer at a pregnancy center and a resident of Brooksville, Fla.
She said she does not know if Mr. Obama is a Muslim. “He says he’s not, but we have no way of knowing,” Ms. Mitten said.
Her husband, John A. Mitten, 64, took credit for starting the chant. “I was trying to get it going!” he said. “I just do not want Obama to be elected.”
Mr. Mitten said he could not trust Mr. Obama because of his past association with William Ayers, the 1960’s radical, and because of his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. He also pointed out that Mr. Obama’s father was a Muslim.
The middle name Hussein, he said, added to the suspicion. “I guess Obama was named after Saddam Hussein,” he said."
Just as John Sydney McCain III was named for Sydney Greenstreet, the well-known character actor who often played a villain in the movies.
The resemblance is remarkable.
John Stuart Mill once said, "Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."
A bitch has been working the front lines of this election battle in Missouri and this battleground shit is fierce! I keep telling myself that there will be time enough for sleep after November 4th.
Sigh.
Anyhoo, I couldn’t fall asleep last night and this bitch found my thoughts wandering to the current line-up of political pundits getting their talk on.
And it hit me that Ann Coulter has been missing in action.
Blink. The last time a bitch saw the Queen of Rancidity on television she was vowing to vote for anyone but McCain.
Where for art thou Ann?
Don’t get me wrong…this Coulterless election season has been refreshing as a motherfucker. And its not as if others haven’t picked up the nastification slack in her absence.
I know that she’s still churning out outrageous shit somewhere, but a bitch hasn’t been assaulted by her presence on morning television for months. Mayhap the faithful aren’t buying her brand of chili the way they used to.
Pause…consider…continue.
Could it be that a new version of the Republican ‘fear the other and resist reality’ brand is being developed during this election cycle?
I was so sure Coulter would emerge when the Edwards sex scandal broke since she adores hating on all things Edwards…but, if she held a party a bitch sure as shit didn’t see anything about it.
‘Tis a mystery, for sure.
And a bitch wonders if the absence of Coulter, even as the presidential campaign dissolves into the kind of fear-based revival of the Red Scare that she’d usually be all over like a fly on shit, signals the emergence of a changing of the guard in the social conservative ig’nant rhetoric club.
Bitch may not be the new black…
…but mayhap Elizabeth Hasselbeck is the new Coulter.
A couple of weeks ago I said that talk-radio host Bob Grant set the standard for "too dumb to play dead in a cowboy movie." I stand corrected. He has been surpassed at warp speed by Sarah Palin.
How did she earn that honor? She told an interviewer on a conservative talk-radio show that being criticized by the media endangers her First Amendment rights.
"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."
I'll give you a moment to absorb that.
Okay, I'll type this slowly so even an elected official of one of our states can understand it: the First Amendmentguarantees freedom of the press. In other words, it makes sure that the mainstream media can do exactly what it is doing when it "attacks" her.
Answer: They both think naughty girls who have the audacity to flirt with boys deserve to be raped.
At least, that's what the good Christians of the Cedar Hill, Texas, Trinity Church's "Hell House: The Devil's Playground" would have mebelieve:
A girl makes friends with a guy on Facebook. They decide to go out on a date. When they meet, the guy brutally rapes her. A demon emerges from the shadows, sneering, and tells her she deserved it. It's her fault she was raped. She shouldn't have agreed to meet someone from one of those sinful online communities.
Next up? A young girl is sexually assaulted by a family member and in despair commits suicide. She is promptly consigned to the fires of hell for an eternity of pain and suffering.
Welcome to Hell House - The Devil's Playground.
Any Christians got a problem with these interpretations of scripture…? [At the link, Max shares the story of one group of local Christian teens who did and peacefully protested the Hell House. Right on.] I mean, I know that it's a "demon" telling the rape victim that she deserved it—but if there's no condemnation of the victim-blaming, isn't the takeaway message that bad girls get raped and then deservedly taunted by demons? If "God" doesn't endorse victim-blaming, then why isn't the scene a girl being told it's her fault she was raped, and then the blamer being smited?
Wev. I can't spend any more time trying to parse this horseshit to make some kind of sense of it. It's like asking an actual piece of string to explain string theory and waiting for an answer.
I was talking to a co-worker the other day about the upcoming election. We both lamented how we had problems with the prospective candidates. (My concerns are well-documented, should you be interested.) I didn't press her on her issues with McCain. I figure it's either the obvious stuff, or I really don't care. I'd have been more interested if she said she liked him, because that would have been something I was unable to comprehend, and I'm often intrigued by that which I don't understand.
But then we got to talking about Obama, and how she didn't trust him. A statement like that is hard to resist. "Oh?" I asked. "Why not?" She replied "He's too calm." Hmmm... I agreed, relating how I'd heard someone on NPR voice a concern similar, one that I've held as long as I've been aware of Obama. He is calm. He's almost passionless, at times. An even keel, for sure, and a brilliant counterpoint to McCain's zig zag clusterfuck of a campaign. I have felt, as did the bloke on NPR, that the accusation that Obama is "passionless" isn't too far off the mark. When has he ever stood up for anything that didn't seem politically expedient, when it wasn't the safe maneuver? Not that any of that matters, not that that is really relevant here. It was just a point I'd heard, agreed with, and communicated to my co-worker.
But apparently Mancow had got her thinking. (Yeah, I know, that should have brought the conversation to an end right there.) "He's too calm," she repeated. "Too calm?" I asked. "Yeah, almost like he's been trained."
Super. I have got to get to the bottom of this. And you know, I'm not one to bite my tongue. (Call me tactless, call me socially maladjusted, call me a crusader for truth. Whatever.) "Like he's a sleeper agent or something?"
"Yeah!"
That led to my final question before she left for lunch: "And what would be the point of a terrorist becoming president?"
"Because that's what they want."
Okay.
If you haven't already voted, please do so Tuesday.
So, longtime Shakers will know I've never been a huge fan of Joe the Biden, which is frankly quite the understatement, though I have come to understand him a little better, and I'm trying to take my evolving "good bits and bad bits don't cancel each other out, but coexist" approach with my feelings about Biden, too. VAWA good; offensive jokes bad. (Evidently this campaign has turned me into a Buddhist Frankenstein's Monster. Great.)
Anyway, one of the things by which I have actually been really tickled during this election, during my daily perusal of news photos, is seeing how much goddamned fun Barack Obama and Joe Biden seem to be having together. I was reminded of it by Lauredhel's Thursday Cheezburger, which used one of my favorite Obama-Biden shots from the campaign trail, where both of them are just totally cracking up while buying ice cream:
So, since lots of people have liked other recent photo essays, here's a collection of some of my favorite snaps of Obama and Biden on the campaign trail (with a couple of shots at the end of them having a laugh with another favorite Senator around these parts). Enjoy!
This picture of the two of them sharing a pretzel kills me:
Dr. James Dobson, the grand pooh bah of Focus on the Family, has issued a screed called Letter from 2012 in Obama's America in which, among other things, he envisions homosexuals having free rein in America.
Now in October of 2012, many of our freedoms have been taken away by a liberal Supreme Court and a majority of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, and hardly any brave citizen dares to resist the new government policies any more.
[...]
The Boy Scouts no longer exist as an organization. They chose to disband rather than be forced to obey the Supreme Court decision that they would have to hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys.
[...]
Elementary schools now include compulsory training in varieties of gender identity in Grade 1, including the goodness of homosexuality as one possible personal choice.
[...]
There are no more Roman Catholic or evangelical Protestant adoption agencies in the United States. Following earlier rulings in New York and Massachusetts, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 ruled that these agencies had to agree to place children with homosexual couples or lose their licenses.
[...]
The Bible can no longer be freely preached over radio or television stations when the subject matter includes such 'offensive' doctrines as homosexual conduct or the claim that people will go to hell if they do not believe in Jesus Christ.
Are you sensing a pattern here? Okay, how about an obsession? I mean, wow. Dr. Dobson is really and seriously hung up on gays and what he envisions they do to the point that he's way beyond what locking himself in the bathroom with a bottle of baby oil and a copy of the International Male catalogue could cure. And yet he has a media empire that stretches around the world, and Christianists hang on his every word.
Trust me, I'd be a lot more worried if people like James Dobson were in charge than if the Supreme Court ruled that the LGBT community were, at long last, granted all the rights they are entitled to as citizens of the United States.
This video was running pretty much on a loop on CNN and MSNBC last night, and I laughed every single time I saw it:
McCain: You know, we've learned more, we've learned more about Senator Obama's real goals for our country over the last two weeks than we learned over the last two years—and that's only because Joe the Plumber asked him the right question right here in Ohio! [cheers] That's when Senator Obama revealed he wants to, quote, [airquotes] spread the wealth around, [airquotes] spread your income around. Joe's with us today; Joe, where are ya? [looks around] Where is Joe? Is Joe here with us today? [looks around] Joe, I thought you were here today. [pause; audience murmurs] All right, well…you're all Joe the Plumbers! So all of ya stand up and say—[thumbs up]! I thank you.
2 sweet potatoes (or yams), peeled or scrubbed, and diced 1 medium onion 1 -2 cloves garlic, Minced 2 Tbs butter or olive oil 4 - 6 cups vegetable stock or broth 1/3 cup canned or fresh cooked pumpkin Freshly grated nutmeg and ginger, to taste Salt to taste 1/2 cup light cream
Cook potatoes, onion, and garlic in the butter or oilve oil for several minutes until slightly golden. Add stock (or broth) to cover vegetables and bring to a boil. Simmer until potatoes are soft, about 25 minutes.
Add pumpkin, nutmeg, ginger, and salt and puree this mixture in batches in a blender or food processor. Add in the cream and return mixture to the saucepan. Heath, thin with more stock/broth if necessary, to make a creamy soup. Serve in small hollowed-out pumpkins, with a dollop of sour cream, if desired.
If you'd like to participate in Shaker Gourmet, email me at: shakergourmet (at) gmail.com
In spite of the fact that a New York Times/CBS poll finds that Gov. Sarah Palin is a drag on the McCain candidacy (59% say she's not qualified for the job), Eugene Robinson notes that win or lose, we haven't seen the last of Sarah Palin.
It's tempting to think of Palin as a kind of pop star, the latest flash in the pan who rockets to the top of the charts and then fades to obscurity -- Alec Baldwin referred to her as "Bible Spice" the other day. But that smug assessment ignores the evidence that she has the chops to be much more than a one-hit wonder.
Palin's introduction to the nation was disastrous, at least in terms of appealing to a constituency beyond the conservative wing of the Republican Party. It was obvious from the beginning that she wasn't remotely prepared for high national office. The red-meat Republican base was energized, but others saw McCain's decision to put her on the ticket as cynical and irresponsible.
Palin herself must have realized that her debut was premature. But as Vernon Jordan likes to say, "Opportunity is never convenient."
I should make clear that I believe Palin is wrong about basically everything, at least to the extent that we know what she really believes. The McCain campaign gave her a job to do -- slash, burn, fire up the base, accuse Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists," accuse Obama supporters of not living in "pro-America" parts of the country -- and she went out and did it. McCain's campaign rallies often have a sense of purpose and duty about them; Palin's have a sense of electricity.
[...]
That she wasn't ready to meet the national media became clear when she sat down with Katie Couric for those embarrassing sessions. But compare the bunny-in-the-headlights Sarah Palin of just a few weeks ago with the much more poised and confident Sarah Palin of today. Ignorance isn't the same thing as stupidity. When Palin talks about economic policy these days, her sentences don't meander into the Twilight Zone the way they once did. She has more to say about foreign policy besides the fact that Russia is just across the Bering Strait. She has learned much in a very short period.
And she will learn more. I predict we'll have Sarah Palin to kick around for a long, long time.
The term loose cannon comes from the old days of naval warfare when the artillery got loose after firing on another ship, wreaking havoc on the deck of the ship that fired the shot, while the cannonball it fired usually fell harmlessly into the sea. As flashy and electrifying Sarah Palin may be on the stump, I predict that she will become more of a burden to the Republicans than she will to the Democrats. And she will give us in the blogosphere hours of endless fun and mockery.
Bonus Track: Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, one of John McCain's senior advisers, offered a "stunningly frank and remarkably bleak assessment of Sarah Palin's capacity to handle the presidency should such a scenario arise."
If I see McCain sarcastically using air quotes one more fucking time, I swear to Maude I will "blow" a "gasket."
Addendum: If I have to spend the next four years listening to him saying "my friends," I am 99.4% likely to gouge out my eardrums with a rusty spanner.
This has already been all over the blogosphere, but just in case no one's seen it yet, or anyone needs to have another laugh at it, here's video of McCain spokesperson Michael Goldfarb engaging in wanton fuckneckery during an interview with CNN's Rick Sanchez yesterday. I really don't understand why the media doesn't require such a basic qualification of wild assertions like this all the time. It makes for great TV, apart from anything else—like truth and accuracy, those little things. (Transcript is below, and thanks to Shaker Juliemania for passing it along.)
UPDATE: I forgot to mention this Joe Klein piece, in which he points out rather amusingly that Khalidi "is (a) Palestinian and therefore (b) a semite." And it should also be noted that Khalidi is "an entirely respectable, highly respected scholar" whose views, as John Judis notes in the video at the link, are shared by many leftist Israelis.
Sanchez: I just need to parse this out as best I can from ya, Michael. The fact that John McCain's organization gave $448,000 to this group that was founded by Mr. Khalidi—is there no reason for some to be critical of that as well, just as some might be critical of Barack Obama for being at a meeting with some girl who read a poem, for example?
Goldfarb: Look, you're missing the point again, Rick. The point is that Barack Obama has a long track record of being around anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American rhetoric.
Sanchez: Can you name one other person besides Khalidi who he hangs around with who is anti-Semitic?
Goldfarb: Yeah, he pals around with, with William Ayers, who is [crosstalk] a domestic terrorist.
Sanchez: William Ayers is not— No, no, I— The question I asked you is: Can you name one other person that he hangs around with who's anti-Semitic, because that's what you said.
Goldfarb: Look, we all know that there are people who Barack Obama has been in hot water—
Sanchez: Michael, I asked you name one person. One!
Goldfarb: Rick—
Sanchez: You said he hangs around with people who are anti-Semitic! You—okay, we got Khalidi on the table; give me number two. Who's the other anti-Semitic person that he hangs around with that we, quote, all know about?
Goldfarb: Rick, we both know who number two is.
[long pause]
Sanchez: WHO?!
[long pause]
Sanchez: Would you tell us?
Goldfarb: No, Rick. I think we all know who we're talking about here.
Sanchez: Somebody who's anti-Semitic that he hangs around with?
Goldfarb: Absolutely.
Sanchez: Well, say it!
Goldfarb: I think we know who we're talking about, Rick.
Sanchez: All right. Again, you charged that Khalidi is anti-Semitic; he would say that his policies on Israel differ from those of Barack Obama and many other people, but, either way, I guess we'll have to leave it at that. Michael Goldfarb, thanks so much. We really do appreciate it; this is a good discussion. We really do appreciate your coming here to talk to us.
Suggested by Shaker flynd: What one thing do you immediately add to your environment to make it 'yours'?
Like - As soon as I buy a car, I put the fuzzy dice on the rearview.
Or - When I get a new job, the first thing I put on my desk is the picture of my dad.
Or - The apartment wasn't home until I hung the Thomas Kincaid painting over my futon.
My workspace is always immediately recognizable as Melissa McEwan's by the abundance of Post-It notes. Classic pale yellow. Covered in scribbles of various things about which I need to remind myself, phone numbers, email addresses, titles of books that sound good, names of songs I need to own, post ideas, phrases that lose all meaning 10 seconds after I've written them down—two days later: "What the fuck does 'spangle brain on the lovely cucumber spot' mean?!"
Welcome to Shakesville, a progressive feminist blog about politics, culture, social justice, cute things, and all that is in between. Please note that the commenting policy and the Feminism 101 section, conveniently linked at the top of the page, are required reading before commenting.
"I decided I was going to vote."
