Author: Maryscott OConnor

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

This Is the Face of the Republican Party:

 For the last few days, the same group of indistinguishable sweaty white people who gathered in New York in 2004 — and plastered purple bandaids on themselves to mock the military service of John Kerry and the wounds that merited his three Purple Heart medals — have spent their time in St. Paul at their 2008 convention alternately worshipping their own war hero (who languished, lamentably, tortured in a POW camp, while Kerry fought in that war, earning those Purple Hearts in combat) — and jeering the candidacy and accomplishments of Barack Obama and his millions of Democratic followers.

On the face of it, the Grand Old Party looks to be having a good old time in St. Paul. A grand old party, in fact. Laughter, after all, is the best medicine, right? Sure is… And god knows, we’re all in need of some sort of a cure.

But the contrast between the two political conventions held this summer could not be more stark, and while there will always be a substantial segment of the population ready to fall for the re-constituted manure these folks have packaged and are handing out in their pitifully tiny venue in St. Paul — their medicine won’t work. Laughing at someone is never as powerful as laughing with someone. And we all know it.

They’ve been up to their old tricks: thinly veiled racism in the form of dismissing “community organisers” as little more than do-nothing welfare cheerleaders; howling “Zero” while lying through their teeth about Obama’s career record; claiming Washington is broken while ignoring the fact that they’ve been in charge for the past 16 years; calling Washington “liberal,” of all things, while ignoring the fact that they’ve been in charge for the past 16 years; bizarrely chanting slogans better suited to Nuremberg rallies (ironic, considering the mock concerns whispered about just such imagery at the DNC convention by Peggy Noonan, whose true opinions were recently exposed by her inability to shut up with an open mike on her collar)…

Oh, the list goes on and on, my friends…  

The Democratic convention, by contrast, was a veritable paint-by-numbers portrait in positivity. By no means did Senator Obama or any of the featured speakers shirk their duties: they were there to do three things — rally the Democratic base, make the case for Barack Obama to the American people and make the case against John McCain. Check, check and checkmate.

Now, to those of us more rabidly partisan among the “ANGRY LEFT,” the myriad acknowledgements of the laudable and honourable service of John McCain to his country were like icepicks to our lizard brains. “NOOOOOO! Kick  him in the NUTS!!!” I could almost hear my fellow frothing left wingers in their respective living rooms screaming it with me.

But that’s not what most liberals and Democrats are about, you see. UNLIKE most “conservatives” and Republicans, liberals and Democrats do not thrive on nasty, hate-filled, jeering mockery and snide dismissal of our opponents and their beliefs. Liberals and Democrats actually BELIEVE in the Constitution and in the principles on which this country was founded: that the better angels of our nature must be our guides as we strive to progress  in our development and maturing as a nation, as a people. And that this demands cooperation, civility and compromise — even as we struggle against each other in our ideological battles.

The contrast could not be clearer as we watch the last throes of this truly pitiable display of Republican “pride.” Their laughter truly does ring hollow, coming as it does at the expense of good men and women; in their cries of “Country first” you can hear an almost audible echo of “But not for YOU, you stinking liberal Democrats!” Sneering faces, hateful screeds against anything new or different, anything that challenges a way of life not their own — these people could easily have been transported to St. Paul from any time and place in mid-20th century America… as long as it was Whites Only. Even the younger attendees look just like the youth of mid-fifties white America. They might as well be wearing their pledge pins.

Their time is coming to an end, and they can feel it; you can see the sweat pouring down their faces. They’re terrified. Fear brings out the ugliness in people of weak character. Fear turns to hatred.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A 25 year-old diarist at dkos, bless him, was absolutely shocked by what he called “the most hateful display” he’s ever seen. Obviously not quite paying attention during Pat Buchanan’s 1992 speech, the one that apparently inspired Ms. Palin to become a Republican (and that tells us all we need to know about her).

In his desire to shake off any residual bad juju left from this hateful display, the diarist (Muzikal203) created an impressive and inspiring, appropriately 21st century version of a photo album of the uplifting and positive Democratic convention for people to enjoy. I’m positive he will not mind a bit that I’m passing it on to you all:

(I guess the format here doesn’t allow it —  see the MLW version?)

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

At my site (MLW), people went berserk over Sarah Palin pregnancy and her choices per that pregnancy. I lost my shit:

Judging this woman’s GYNECOLOGICAL and OBSTETRICAL DECISIONS under the aegis of judging her fitness as a VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE?

IF IT WERE THE REPUBLICANS SAYING THESE THINGS and SHE WERE A DEMOCRAT?

WE’D BE SCREAMING FUCKING BLOODY MURDER AND YOU ALL FUCKING WELL KNOW IT.

Stop for one fucking minute and take a breath and be intellectually honest with yourselves.

How DARE we be judging what this woman did or didn’t do with her fucking uterus?

Jesus motherfucking christ.

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

It is the entirely wrong tack to take.

First — it’s mudslinging, for chrissakes. On a nominee. Does that sound like anyone we know?

Second… she’s a fucking GIRL. Did none of you take PSYCHOLOGY One-oh-fucking-ONE?

Stick to the basics. She’s a supremely unqualified nominee. Let the record speak for itself. SHE SUUUUCKS.

Blechhhh. This leaves a disgusting taste in my mouth.

She has to show up for her debate. No matter how hard she studies, there’s no way Sarah Palin can win that debate. No matter how bright and shiny and colourful, no matter how pretty the music, the advertisements they run cannot make up for her TOTAL LACK of EXPERIENCE and UTTER ABSENCE of READINESS for the office they’re trying to sell the American people.

Dragging her through the mud will make US look bad. Not her.

THINK, people. BE SMART about this.

Sigh.

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Her voice was so low that at first he could not make out what she said. Then he made it out. She was saying that she thought she could get well again if children believed in fairies.

Peter flung out his arms. There were no children there, and it was night time; but he addressed all who might be dreaming of the Neverland, and who were therefore nearer to him than you think: boys and girls in their nighties, and naked papooses in their baskets hung from trees.

“Do you believe?” he cried.

Tink sat up in bed almost briskly to listen to her fate.

She fancied she heard answers in the affirmative, and then again she wasn’t sure.

“What do you think?” she asked Peter.

“If you believe,” he shouted to them, “clap your hands; don’t let Tink die.”

Many clapped.

Some didn’t.

A few beasts hissed.

The clapping stopped suddenly; as if countless mothers had rushed to their nurseries to see what on earth was happening; but already Tink was saved.

Some people live a lifetime and never witness the kind of moment we did last night. I never thought I would; I thought reading about those moments in history books and having been born shortly after a few of them was as close to them as I would ever get.

Certainly, after the degradation of the past eight years, the terrible dissipation and usurpation of our collective energy and optimism that the current Administration’s crimes and misdemeanours, I truly believed a mere 24 hours ago that I had no more true hope left in me. That what was left was bitterness, rage and the cynicism of dashed hopes and betrayed ideals. Even the disappointed promise of Bill Clinton’s  Administration contributed to it; after all, did not those final ruinous months of that Administration add at least somewhat to the chaotic events that led to the catastrophic Bush/Cheney years?

But something happened on the way to the funeral for my Hope, and please, forgive me as I employ perhaps an over-effusive metaphor or two here…

I’m not saying the man is going to save the world or even the country. He isn’t Jesus or Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. — though if comparisons were to be drawn, closer to the latter than either of the others.

What Barack is, when push comes to shove — and he did a lot of rhetorical pushing and shoving last night, halle-fuckin’-lujah — is the most masterful speaker (and given that he wrote that speech, that makes him the most masterful writer and perhaps thinker, as well) I’ve seen in my lifetime; and with talents like that, untested though he may be on the greater stage, I’m willing to wager everything I’ve got that he just might be one of the more masterful politicians we all may have seen in our lifetimes.

Scoff at that title if you like, but it’s nothing at which to sneeze. Great artists and theoreticians and scientists achieve great things over time, but so do the great politicians. And as many note time and again with each day that passes in this political season, we stand at the edge of a new, raw era; the hands that grasp the helm of this vessel in which we all sit and guide its direction hold massive power. I, for one, am impressed that Barack Obama holds within him not only the strength to wrest that helm from the forces amassed against him but the instinct and judgement to steer a sound course — and surround himself with those who would provide a surplus of wise and widely-varied advice when warranted.

As individuals, we face a choice between despair and hope. Less than two days ago, I was ready to pack it in and do my best to stop caring altogether, rather than feel one more day of wretched, bitter rage and despair over the seemingly irreversible course of inexorable deterioration of this country. The politics of division and ignorance and fear that have dominated us for so long have worn me down to a dull, aching, throbbing, open wound of a human being.

The thought of opening my heart and mind to the possibility of a new beginning — President Obama? Change? Could it happen? Could Election Day arrive and…? And having it all dashed to pieces the way it did that Tuesday in November 2004… Ah, christ. It hurt SO BAD. I just couldn’t FACE it again, man.

But last night… That SPEECH. That CROWD. All those faces, those flags, that music, the lights, the laughter… And they were all clapping.

Yeah. I believe.

Again.

In spite of it all.

Oh, god, please please please please please please please.

Okay. I choose hope.

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Adam and I are hardened old cynics at this point.

But Terry was born on December 7th, 1999. He has never NOT KNOWN a time when George W. Bush wasn’t President.

And we’ve been sitting on the couch after Adam gets home from work, watching the DVR playback of the convention highlights… both of us WEEPING LIKE CHILDREN. Holding hands, looking at each other occasionally, realising that we LOST OUR GODDAMNED COUNTRY when they stole that election… and we knew it, we knew we knew it, but we DIDN’T KNOW what we didn’t know.

Oh, we railed, we thundered at the television, we shushed each other because the baby was sleeping, then we’d go out to the patio and whisper-shout at the heavens at the INJUSTICE of it all…

But we just DIDN’T REALISE what would happen — HOW COULD WE???

And we sit on the couch watching this Democratic Convention…

And we weep.

And I’m ALREADY pissed off about the Republicans. Jeff Lieber started me thinking and I haven’t stopped. Because YOU KNOW IT’S FUCKING TRUE.

Here we all are, paying APPROPRIATE TRIBUTE to John fucking McCain and his honourable fucking service to his country, and the horrific tortures he underwent in Vietnam…

And all I can think about now is what the goddamned Republicans would do to him if he were the Democratic nominee. The purple fucking bandaids they’d be parading around at their convention, mocking that service and that torture. The talk radio blowhards’ belittling and questioning of his being shot down.

And, in a personal parallel, I think of my father, and what might have happened to HIM, had he survived and gone into politics as a Democrat. The SAME FUCKING THING that happened to John Kerry, that’s what. And the same fucking thing that WOULD happen to John McCain if HE were a Democrat — the thing that HE CANNOT or WILL NOT see, that his TOTAL LACK of empathy allows him to ignore.

They are fucking SCUM, these goddamned so-called “conservatives.” These motherfucking REPUBLICANS. They will waltz into Minneapolis or St. Paul — which is it, anyway? — and they will puff up their faux-patriotic chests and call themselves “lovers of country” and think THEMSELVES the TRUE PATRIOTS — all the while HATING HALF OF AMERICA.

And the Democrats in Denver will have stood to attention during the raising of the flag and the singing of the National Anthem and the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance — and they will have bowed their heads and nodded solemnly – AND SINCERELY — while Democratic politician after Democratic politican reminded them and the national audience that John McCain DOES love his country and DID serve his country honourably and suffer terribly for her…

And next week HORDES of “conservative” Republicans will JEER and LAUGH at Democrats and BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA and his RADICAL WIFE — those FOREIGN, WEIRD, BLACK BLACK BLACK LEFTISTS — and MOCK their LIBERAL, QUEER, UNAMERICAN-NESS and their LIBERAL, QUEER, UNAMERICAN supporters…

And THEY’RE the PATRIOTS???

And the fucking corporate media will lap it up and stoke the flames and goddamn if half this motherfucking country will go to the polls and vote for John motherfucking McCain and the party of HATE.

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Who: You, That’s Who
What: Party, Feast, Gala, Soiree, Shindig, Bacchanal, Festivity, Clambake, BBQ, Fiesta, Orgy, Whatever
Where:Chez Moi, Sherman Oaks, CA
When: Saturday, August 23rd, 2008, 3pm – Whenever
Why: PYRRHO’S IN TOWN!

Email Me for Directions and Contact Information should my directions be lousy (as they invariably are)…

myleftwing@gmail.com

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Keith Olbermann is very good at soundbite polemic; the rise in popularity of Countdown has as least as much to do with his inarguably charming personality as with Olbermann’s ability to transform complex issues of modern political science into televised Reader’s Digest versions both palatable and comprehensible to today’s harried and confused American citizen.

Olbermann’s genuinely outraged Special Comments — the ones he aimed at Bush when he first started offering them on Countdown — were things of beauty.

Lately, however, they’ve lost their impact. It started with the one he aimed at Hillary Clinton. They have become, successively, less effective with each attempt.

If he wishes to preserve the power of this particular element in his arsenal, if indeed it remains salvageable, Keith Olbermann ought to retire the “Special Comment.” He must reserve its use for the truly heinous, the truly momentous, the truly “Special” — or risk its becoming yet another Countdown number, no more nor less notable or effective a propaganda tool than the “Worst Persons” or “Bushed.”

 Those of us on the left and even many  “in the middle” rightly applaud Countdown‘s consistent provision of much-needed balance and correction to the onslaught of misinformation from the rest of corporate news networks’ baffling combination of reciting dictation from the GOP and constant omission of basic facts and glaring errors and missteps of the Bush Administration and, more recently, the McCain campaign for the Presidency.

The outrage Olbermann felt as he read aloud his very first Special Comment was palpable. And I shared it; we all did. Thus was born the Special Comment.

If it has lost its initial, undeniable potency (and I would argue it has and that, moreover, Olbermann risks transforming this now semi-regular editorial commentary into a merely erudite version of the Andy Rooney screed), it is because Olbermann has begun using these polemics as political weapons — trying, that is, to use them as such — instead of presenting them as he did in the beginning — as the infuriated remonstrances of a man who had, to that point, endeavoured desperately to maintain equanimity in the face of increasing insanity and finally refused to continue even bothering to pretend to pretend that ANYTHING sane remained in the world about which he gave his nightly reports.

Perhaps, spurred by the liberal and well-deserved praise his righteous and eloquent indignation elicited, Keith got carried away. After a few more Special Comments aimed at “Still President” Bush, Olbermann found other targets in Clinton and McCain… and his prose gradually became more prosaic and less puissant.

Case in point: His latest, regarding John McCain, while as always a well-constructed diatribe, might very well have been written by any number of Obama supporters. It lacks nothing in the way of facts, passion or a genuine basis for indignation; McCain has behaved abominably and Olbermann is correct in his analysis and disparagement of the candidate and the man.

Nevertheless, the frequency of these “Special” Comments and the essentially de rigueur character of the behaviour for which Olbermann takes McCain to task in this latest philippic combine to transform what began as a savagely incisive and dynamic rhetorical instrument into mere soothing anodyne to the liberal viewer — and perhaps a guarantor of said viewer’s patronage.

If Mr. Olbermann wishes to maintain his position as an editorialist on a news network whose commentary occasionally reaches Olympian heights of elocutionary brilliance, he should consider giving his Special Comments a hiatus for the duration of the Presidential campaign and perhaps hand the baton of daily expostulation to CNN’s Jack Cafferty, whose most recent commentary may be a smoke signal to MSNBC communicating his willingness to jump ship:

Throughout the evening, McCain chose to recite portions of his stump speech as answers to the questions he was being asked. Why? He has lived 71 years. Surely he has some thoughts on what it all means that go beyond canned answers culled from the same speech he delivers every day.

. . .

One after another, McCain’s answers were shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has — virtually none.

Where are John McCain’s writings exploring the vexing moral issues of our time? Where are his position papers setting forth his careful consideration of foreign policy, the welfare state, education, America’s moral responsibility in the world, etc., etc., etc.?

John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. His father and grandfather were four star admirals in the Navy. Some have suggested that might have played a role in McCain being admitted. His academic record was awful. And it shows over and over again whenever McCain is called upon to think on his feet.

A disingenuous display of objectivity is not the point of shelving the Special Commentary for the duration of the Presidential Campaign. Only a fool would believe Keith Olbermann a neutral observer of these political proceedings. No, my suggestion is in service of preserving the “specialness” of the Special Comment itself. Frankly, there is nothing Special enough about John McCain to warrant another epistle written directly to him. Olbermann’s viewers are all too aware of McCain’s pernicious failings and the ills that would befall this nation should his campaign and the right wing succeed in torturing the electoral system sufficiently to guarantee a McCain victory in November. Let the facts, as illuminated so expertly in the Countdown format, speak for themselves. Do not waste another Special moment on the venial sins of John McCain.

If Mr. Olbermann does feel moved to create another of his incandescent jeremiads, perhaps he ought to let the unsparing glare of light and righteous rage fall upon someone who truly deserves to hear the unvarnished truth about the damage caused by her actions — and inactions: Nancy “Impeachment is off the table” Pelosi.

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

During a brief, albeit seismic argument with my husband this afternoon about l’affaire Edwards, some ideas crystallised; I realised just how cataclysmic the effect on Obama will be — in very short order — if John Edwards does not step up to the proverbial plate and take full responsibility for the entire goddamned mess. Right fucking now.

And that means take the damned DNA test and let the genes fall where they may.

Edwards’s ex-lover refused to countenance a DNA test, claiming it would be an invasion of her privacy. In an absurd leap of logic, the Washington Post posited that “If Hunter sticks to that position, it will ease the pressure on Edwards, who on Friday dropped his earlier denials and admitted to having an affair with Hunter in 2006 but denied being the father of the child.”

Apparently Hunter’s sister isn’t quite as idiotic as the Post…

Edwards, a Democrat who represented North Carolina, maintained in a statement that the affair ended too soon for him to have fathered her baby, Frances Quinn Hunter, who was born Feb. 27. Hunter and a former Edwards fundraiser, Andrew Young, have maintained that Young is the father.

“I would welcome participating in a paternity test,” Edwards told ABC’s Bob Woodruff on Friday. “Be happy to participate in one. I know that it’s not possible that this child could be mine because of the timing of events. . . . Happy to take a paternity test and would love to see it happen.”

ABC News reported on its Web site yesterday that Hunter’s younger sister Melissa said that Edwards should immediately follow through on his pledge to take a paternity test. “I would challenge him to do so,” the sister said. The network did not use a last name for Melissa.

The argument with my husband ensued after he asserted that the baby should have nothing to do with the scandal. I stared at him open-mouthed and began sputtering. Clarity crept in on… little pussy feet.

If, as I now suspect, there is some sort of pre-arranged agreement between Edwards and Hunter that she refuse a DNA test because he may actually be the father of the baby, then his mendacity goes deeper than I could ever have imagined. And he is not only a liar and a cheat, but a thief, as well. The moneys that were paid to Ms. Hunter for the maintenance of her lifestyle and the care and welfare of her self and her child may have come from his campaign funds. And if they did… which is simply corrupt… then he is a fool as well as a liar, cheat and thief. Because he is wealthy beyond belief. There was no earthly reason to have paid her moneys from his campaign — except to maintain his deceit of his wife. Which brings us back to his life of utter mendacity.

And the only possible redemption for this grotesque series of crimes against decency and basic common sense, for chrissakes, is to take a stand for the salvation of your self-respect, for chrissakes, stand up in front of the whole damned world and admit EVERY GODDAMNED BIT OF THE TRUTH and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, get it ALL out… and then slink away into the shadows, don’t let us see your pitiful face or hear your name uttered by ANYONE with a shred of self-respect for at LEAST five years…

and let Barack Obama get back to campaigning for the Presidency with enough time to let us all TRY to forget this horrible, horrible week.

You slimy, pitiful, pathetic embarrassment of an excuse for a man.

I guess the clarity only extends as far as my own skull.

What i mean Obama being “slaughtered” by this scandal is that the media attention is focused intently 24/7 on John Edwards and NOT on the election.

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

I watched One Day in September a few weeks ago on HBO, despite my almost pathological aversion to films about painful historical events.

(Which is not to say I don’t eventually get around to watching them; I just procrastinate. It took me two years to watch “Hotel Rwanda”, a year to see “Blood Diamond.” I did manage to see “Schindler’s List” while it was still in the theatre, but only because my friend dragged me. And I’ve still never seen “The Sorrow and the Pity”, but please, it’s sixteen years longer than the war.)

Yes, I’ve buried the lede.

Anyway, the point is, One Day in September, which documents the events of the 1972 Munich Olympics, wherein 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by Palestinian terrorists, also presents several interviews with international athletes about their decisions to continue in the competitions — or not.

Watching the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics in China last night, I remembered my viewing of One Day in September and thought of the various calls to boycott either those ceremonies or the Games themselves — or both. And I began an internal debate:

To boycott such an event or not to boycott it… that is the question.
Whether ’tis nobler in this world to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous politics,
or to take arms against a sea of human rights violations,
and by opposing end them?
To sit out: to refuse to participate; to lose:
and by to refuse to participate I say we end the pain
and the thousand natural shocks that the people of the world
suffer at the hands of the tyrants of world inflict upon them —
an end devoutly to be wished.

Okay, I’ve pretty much killed whatever chance I had of making that work.

Especially since the answer I’ve reached is… No.

You see, as I watched that extraordinary opening ceremony, and watched in particular the beautiful faces of the people participating in it, I came to believe that there will never, ever be an end to the suffering perpetrated upon the peoples of this world by the governments of those peoples. If we are very lucky, and we evolve and mature as a race, that suffering will lessen, and those governments will evolve and mature as well. But let us not lie to ourselves: we’ve been stuck on this planet for a long, long time and our evolution has been relatively glacial. It stands to reason we’re not going to see light speed in terms of reaching world peace and universal harmony, no matter what the storybooks say.

So there will always be a myriad of causes that cry out for a boycott. Every four years, the nations of the world see fit to come together in the spirit of… well, coming together — and, yes, showing off and commerce and a whole bunch of not-very-altruistic and not-very-spiritual reasons. But they come together. And if we gather up all the very reasonable and rational and politically correct (and no, I’m not mocking that phrase, they are correct) reasons to take a stand and say, “Hey, wait a minute, a lot of these nations are led by Very Bad Men, shouldn’t we tell them so?” and demand they get their collective act together or we won’t play, then we will never come together, ever. For any reason, good, bad or ugly. Well, no, we just might get together for ugly reasons, just as we have always got together for ugly reasons.

And I, for one, am sick unto my death of getting together for only the ugly reasons. I thought China, for all its human rights grotesques, put on one helluva beautiful show last night. And if a little positive reinforcement might, just might give China a reason to tighten up its environmental standards and loosen up its civil rights butt cheeks, then what the hell. Once every four years, I’ll put down my placard and wave a sparkler.

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

I hate the McCain “THE ONE” ad as much as any of us, but IT IS NOT calling Obama THE FUCKING ANTI-CHRIST!!!!

That’s just what some outraged Christian supporters of the Democratic nominee are claiming John McCain’s campaign did in an ad called “The One” that was recently released online. The Republican nominee’s advisers brush off the charges, arguing that the spot was meant to be a “creative” and “humorous” way of poking fun at Obama’s popularity by painting him as a self-appointed messiah. But even this innocuous interpretation of the ad — which includes images of Charlton Heston as Moses and culled clips that make Obama sound truly egomaniacal — taps into a conversation that has been gaining urgency on Christian radio, political blogs, and in widely-circulated email messages that accuse Obama of being the Antichrist.

The ad was the creation of Fred Davis, one of McCain’s top media gurus, as well as a close friend of former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed and the nephew of conservative Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe. It first caught the attention of Democrats familiar with the Left Behind series, a fictionalized account of the end time that debuted in the 1990s and has sold nearly 70 million books worldwide. “The language in there is so similar to the language in the Left Behind books,” says Tony Campolo, a leading progressive evangelical speaker and author.

Let us now collectively pull our heads out of ASSES.