Login HereWell, I suppose we should all just throw up our hands and let local children starve, let civil rights problems fester, and shut up and accept every problem for what it is: our lot in life.
Screw the poor. To hell with women being allowed to vote. Rollback the end of slavery. And get yer hazmat suits, because your environment is about to be sold off piecemeal to the highest bidder -- hunters, fishermen, and wildlife enthusiasts be damned.
Welcome to Republican world, where trying to make things better in your hometown makes you something they laugh at proudly. How's that feel America?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but without community organizers like Martin Luther King, Jr., we'd all still be dealing with separate water fountains for coloreds and Jim Crow Laws. And I mean the old ones, not the new poll tax crap that Hans Von Spakovsky keeps trying to sneak in through the sewers.
Oh, and ladies? No community organizers means that your voice doesn't count for shit. No vote for you!
Lost your job and you need a hand with the utility bills or some food from the local church pantry? Suck it up, America, because the folks who used to extend a hand to those in need don't count in Republican land. That "do unto others" crap has to stop, and Jesus was clearly just a rabble-rousing, do-gooder. Loaves, fishes, feeding the multitudes? Hogwash.
Your neighborhood watch program, to help supplement the police force whose budget keeps getting cut under the Bush Administration? Well, you don't deserve a safe neighborhood and your efforts are useless anyway.
Cleaning up a local riverbed or a walking trail with your kid's scout troop? Republicans think you are a loser.
Working with a job training or literacy program to help folks move from welfare to work? Republicans think your efforts deserve ridicule. Promoting a spay and neuter program at your local animal shelter? Republicans are laughing at you. Volunteer at your church pantry to help the least of these? Republicans are mocking you.
Country first? Only if you live in Republican country where they come first and the rest of us should take whatever they choose to trickle down on us.
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I have totally lost all respect for Mika Brezinski.
What a bunch of ‘thugs the Morning Joe team are. All of ‘em
Mornin’ Christy -
shorter RNC - do gooder is an epithet
Hi Christy, thanks.
“Jesus was a community organizer.”
Deepest apologies to the many FDLer’s I love and respect who are atheist, agnostic, or not Christian.
Thanks for pointing this out, Christy. I think the ridicule at community organizing sums up the authoritarian attitude of the Republics. They don’t need community organizers because they get their marching orders directly from the top. (Depending on the subset we are discussing, “the top” would be God, Karl Rove, George W. Bush or Jack Abramoff.
digg
in their eyes Obama’s real sin was eschewing the major cheddar on Wall Street
Well said, thank you.
What a bunch of ‘thugs the Morning Joe team are. All of ‘em
Ha! I knew, while I was watching the Catty Queen speak last night, that there was *no* way I’d be able to handle the JoeScar show today.
(Democracy Now is on - hint).
THANK YOU Christy
They made it sounds as if Obama was playground monitor for all those years.
Don’t forget wasting time to mock the props at the DNC while standing infront of a 200 foot TV with images of burning books on it.
What a freaking waste of time.
Compared to 2004 Obama speech - please one was about uniting America this is about the old I am a victim and red state winner take all bull shit. If I win I will get all the AG’s fired just like Troopergate and BookBurninggate.
Speech is gonna have a short shelf life once the spotlight comes back from her church, and PTA, and a host of other issue.
Good speech devliery and thus far the media is playing it up the way the RNC wants it, some cracks there though. I think the media is going to followup on all relevent stories no matter how hurtful it is. Good old thin skinned attack deflection coupled with attack on the other 1/2 the countries manhood.
SHe might have Obama and all this in her “sights”, but she is going to realize that she is upwind and already in someone elses sights.
Well the McPOW wrote the review for this tundra harpy before she hit the stage. The villagers duly printed it, even the NYT. Wonder if they’ll bother to pursue the dozens of leads on her amazingly hypocritical background?
Peace Corps Volunteers are community organizers. Cooperative extension agents are community organizers.
Guess I have had a wasted life according to Palin.
The people following mccain and palin will happily march along with faux noose into a fascistic society. Any dissent will be merrily squashed by the “societal guardians.”
Morning…. Oh well..we’ll just have to make do WITHOUT THEM!!
It’s amazing how quickly Rove wrote Palin’s speech! He’s so busy now days with Fox news and his smear tour that finding the time must be a stretch..It must be a new mixture of the KoolAide supplement!
IF this dweeb from AK has a clue, a SINGLE clue, what shes getting herself into with the likes of the Republican smear machine she’ll run away as fast as she can…or be eaten alive and tossed aside like the rest of the non-insiders.
She has no plan, no experience in world affairs, no plan other than Newt’s on energy, no plan for education other than what Dobson tells her, no plan on health care, and no plan to re-build the country’s infrastructure. IF the republicans want to run on the issues rather than a beauty contest the game is over, but the media still seems to be dwelling on the money teet where they’re comfortable with no accountability.
If anyone looks past the smoke and mirrors and thinks of the implications these lunatics can have over our lives for generations, maybe centuries by appointing three judges on the Supreme Court to overturn most of laws from the last 50-80 years then they may think twice. But Rove is counting on everyone loosing sight of that small issue.
VERY dangerous folks…..
woo hoo. it’s riyanna!!! out of jail and on democracy now! details at the bottom of previous thread.
ya know, you’re right
tundra harpy
very good lol
I shouldn’t be surprised, but the haters were out in full force last night - wow! I really can’t wait to see Obama and Biden hand the GOP their asses in the weeks to come. This Palin creature is beyond insulting - she’s down right evil. Last nights spectacle was difficult to watch - I shouted and swore at my television last night the way Vikings fans jump up and down when the Packers are kicking ass - that in itself is embarrassing. But I digress… In the end, the shallow attacks made last night are just shameful and insulting. The way the crowd jeered and belittled not just Obama, but all community organizers is indeed an outrage. Shame on them. Shame on Romney. Shame on Huckabee. Shame on Guiliani. Shame on Palin. Shame on the GOP.
just caught Senator Klobuchar on Scar - well, when she could get a word in edgewise. incredibly calm, rational refutation of all that went on last night. reminded me of Anita Dunn as highlighted here at the Lake and the quiet certainty with which she took Lieberweasel down
am thinking, that is what is going to appeal to many families sitting on the fence - real kitchen table stuff
Good Morning Redd,
You were up late and now up early too. (Hope you’re really sleeping in. If not, nap it later.)
Let them mock us. I don’t really care what they think. No. Community organizers are the salt of the earth.
I do understand the sharpness of the sarcasm here, though. So much ugly last night and the past several days in the Twin Cities.
Still, take heart. Take a walk and watch some critters play. Children play. Flowers sway in the breeze.
And, keep the faith.
Just an observation that is slightly offtrack. I spent the day yesterday at our local Democratic headquarters stuffing envelopes for a mailing for our Congressional candidate. I could not believe the steady stream, all day, of people wanting Obama yard signs.
faith based organizations are community organizers, n’est-ce pas? shoot yerself in the foot, GPO.
perfect answer
GPO = grand party oligarchs
it’s lisa on democracy now!
Why isn’t anyone mentioning the racist subtext to this?
Country first? Only if you live in Republican country where they come first and the rest of us should take whatever they choose to trickle down on us.
Face it - at the top, the Republic view is that is you don’t have at least a mid-seven-figure income, they’d very much appreciate it if you’d please just get the hell OUT of *their* country.
And that includes their own voters, but said voters don’t ever figure that out.
“community organizer” is dog-whistle for
“uppity negro”
more specifically for the red faithful
“ghetto radical”
I’m just surprised that everyone is surprised.
We are now watching American Idol writ large on the screen. Only the prize isn’t a glamor day in the White House, but 4 years of hard work (and more needed) to turn the economy around, re-establish some kind of relationship with the rest of the world, re-build the military almost completely, etc.
And the press will continue to treat it like American Idol unless the dems at the top call them on it over and over and over again. Most people watching that last night don’t even know what a community organizer does nor do they care. They want to get into their SUVs and go to Walmart and buy buy buy. And she and the rethugs will stoke that.
The dems had better wake up and figure out their framing. Now.
Yep. Last night at the convention resembled a Klan rally. I felt like I needed brain bleach just after watching.
I was very ashamed of (a part of) my country last night.
Sarah Palin was a community organizer for hockey arena…the deep in debt hockey arena….
Did you notice though how guarded Mike Murphy was?
oops. was going to reply to you, but not @26.
excellent, excellent point. good community organizers do not tell people what to do - they help people work together on the issues that concern the community.
that said, i haven’t heard obama was a good community organizer, and if he was good at it and liked it, why would he quit after only 3 years?
Hi! I completely agree! What is up with her lately? I just don’t get it.
Here is a news flash, Sarah, you ain’t going to Washington unless you buy a ticket.
Christy, I am so glad to see you address this. I saw a little bit of Rudy’s and Palin’s speech, and what disgusted me enough to walk away was there snide and contemptuous remarks about community service. Palin was a total @ss…I had to change the channel when I heard that. She is so snarky and mean-spirited; she makes Hillary look like Betty Crocker.
To me this whole new line from the GOP had racist undertones…and at the very least it is pitting the ecomonimic classes against each other…the GOP gets lower and lower each election…
Problem - GOP is making fun of “community organizer” because the majority of the people in this country outside of major metropolitan areas literally don’t have any idea what a community organizer is or does.
Ignorance breeds contempt, and the suburban and rural voters are completely ignorant of this very important role. Those, unfortunately, are the facts on the ground. Honestly, the most common reaction I hear is something along the lines of: “community organizer, is that actually a job?”
We need to do a better job of educating the people.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Alaska National Guard, which Republicans are pointing to as an important national-security credential for vice presidential choice Sarah Palin, has personnel shortages that make its aviation units the most poorly staffed in the nation.
Why be wondering about how the repugs can skip over all of the contradictions in the “thinking” of the faithful? Reflection on implications of their political and governance positions is beyond their intellectual horizon.
Sen. Obama campaigned across America and wond 18 million votes.
Sarah Palin gave a well delivered speech.
-G
So, this is a thought I had. The GOP kept accusing Michelle Obama of being “angry”, what the heck was Palin - being nice? She is an angry white woman and very mean spirited.
“community organizer” is dog-whistle for
“uppity negro”
more specifically for the red faithful
“ghetto radical”
Agree completely, except perhaps, with the “dog whistle” characterization. I thought it was pretty damned blatant - not a whole lot of disguising *that* message.
ymmv.
Heh. Is SP the “Trollop with a Wallop”?
Gotta run. Pedicure time for the horses.
I agree with you totally. The GOP is finding more “cute” ways to be racists — it’s time for the left to point that out a million times, so the msm can finally identify it and acknowledge it in their reporting…they are very slow…
Good morning Christy.
The repugs going after community work is not really surprising. As their panic grows, they will demonise the worthiest aspects of american life.
Yesterday was all about hate , racism with an appreciable slide into the stoopid.
How could anyone not think of the keynote speaking role Obama had in the 04 dem conference, now, that was an introduction to a form of greatness. Yesterday night, we got more koolaid.
We are getting the proof that a McCain win would only bring in another Bush term. Palin is another hack installed to repeat the talking points that will surely excite the religious crazies, and the small town low information folks. Goodling cubed…
This is the frame….
Obama was a Community Organizer === Angry black man
That is how simple it is, it is all Dog whistles to the racist party
Isn’t it amazing how quickly Jesus’ acts of compassion are forgotten when they don’t serve the purpose?
As a side note~~I’m glad to see the attack on Palin’s stance on the issues and not on her family.
Hey, Christy! How was your trip other than exhausting. Consider yourself lucky you didn’t have the listen to the disingenuousness that is the RNC! You got the fun part of the convention reporting! This woman, who doesn’t believe in evolution, who believes in abstinence only for sex education (even when her own daughter proves that method ineffective,) who doesn’t believe the human race has anything to do with climate change, and all the other right wing, red neck stuff she stands for is going to be such a pain.
I am hoping Dems are answering that charge of the “angry left” by telling folks that we’re angry about the same things they all are. From Government being too invasive in their bedrooms and private communications to government lying us into a war. We’re angry about government letting a major city drown with the words “It’s not our job! It doesn’t start to be our job until after the first week.” Etc., etc., etc.!
Meanwhile, I hear your state’s first lady was hit by a car while she and hubby were riding bikes. She okay?
Some Republican Tucker tellin’ the Scars that “of course they had a family discussion” before Ohio. Hmmm, how does that square with “we told them we were going to an anniversary celebration”….
Oh, it was Tucker Bounds, McCain campaign director.
One thing about this week, a star has been born. Her name is Campbell Brown. And Mika, you’re no Campbell Brown.
Gotta agree with you there!
Gloria Steinem commentary in the LA Times: Palin: wrong woman, wrong message
Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
Oh Com’mon Christy! Are us republicans supposed to read this and not think you are filled with hate? Doesn’t spin well after the blog posted yesterday.
To clear this up, ‘Community Organizers’ are fine, there is absolutely nothing wrong with them and they are greatly needed. However I don’t think that qualifies you to be president of the most powerful country in the world. That is what is being debated.
As much as you would hate us, we are really just like you with the exception of our ideas being different. We donate to soup kitchens, we go on nature walks with our troups, we even pick up trash (although we don’t advertise it).
BTW, you all may very well be looking at the first female President of the US. McCain has stated that he is a one-term president, which means the VP will be primed to take over. Honestly I don’t care that it is a woman, I just like her conservative values. Up until she was on the ticket, I was not going to vote for president as I can barely stand McCain.
I love how Steinem assumes that all women are just like here. When a woman is conservative, all of a sudden she is not a woman, she is a evil Republican. Fortunately she is a woman who is more in touch with the mainstream of America that Steinem could ever hope to be. She also has a great pair of legs.
OT, but is something technically wrong with the Lake? It took twenty minutes and many attempts to get on board, or has the RNC found a way to block FDL to California.
Another thing has anyone gotten the segment of Larry King last night were Debbie Wassermann-Schultz commented on the sexist buttons worn on the floor of the RNC convention last night? They said
“Hottest VP from Coldest State”
OMG….. if I have to listen to that woman for up to the next 16 years, I’m looking for a house in Europe….. I’m out of here…..
Christy is Firedoglake experiencing problems with their server? For the week or so I am having trouble connecting. other sites pop up right away, I can’t even connect to emptywheel.
Boo, I think Jesus was probably a great community organizer, too. I just differ in the holding the opinion that he died for his beliefs and stayed dead, just like the rest of humanity.
A quick look at BBC, The Guardian, The Independent, Timesonline all carried MSM spin on S. Palin and not a peep about US
policeGestapo tactics on peaceful demonstrators. Apparently the US Goebles News Services are not allowing this past the borders.NOTE: it has been nigh impossible to connect with FDL. A BBC report on one internet problem here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7596676.stm
so mebbe there are zombie squirrels running the wheels
BBC reports on Palin I heard were very gushy.
You’re right about rolling back slavery.
We’re going through this because Reconstruction was truncated and the losers were allowed to dictate what they wanted at the end of the Civil War. Look at the polling maps for Obama v McCain the entire Confederacy is red with the exception of Virginia.
The GOP is nothing but the remnants of the old planter class determined to get every last dime out of the rest of us.
When you run on a platform of shrinking government until it’s small enough to drown in a bath tub it’s pretty evident the people who plan on surviving have enough net worth socked away that government to them represents the rest of us trying to get our fair share.
Morning Christy and Pups. Great post Christy, but I wish you would just say what you think and not hold back *g*. Woo Hoo. That’s a battle cry if I ever read one. Ready and reporting for duty Redd!
Poor poor hamsters are really puffing to try to keep those wheels turning this morn. It doesn’t help the frame of mind here to see BBC news referred to in #59 either. Gack! Thanks, T-Bear, I think. Pretty soon it won’t be safe to play solitaire on the toobz machine. Dang.
For those worried about the police-state tactics being ignored, i’d suggest we relax a bit. I don’t mean we should tolerate and ignore. Far from it. All I mean is that such news WILL get out, and soon. In spite of the attempted clampdown, footage is there and already spread to lots of the right places. We silly-minded, blithering idiots trying to improve our communities and accomplish other mindless little make-work faux-jobs, will see to it that the news not only gets out, but canNOT be suppressed from any quarter. It was horribly wrong-headed, frighteningly stupid strategy on someone’s part to allow such gestapo tactics to occur. St Paul, that nice midwestern city, has had its image tarnished badly.
And as for the fine-&-dandy Ms. Palin. WHOA! Everything she does seems tainted. The latest being all the lies and smear-tactics in her nice, smoothly-read speech. NO amount of polishing will clean up that mess. She practically begged us all to compare her rosy view with the wicked reality oozing across the floor of their convention. Nice glasses. The wearer, not so much.
I may even buy a copy of the Inquirer for the first time in my life.
Word has it, the latest issue is quite interesting. Then there’s the AK blogging referred to downstairs. Off limits, you say? sorry. already got my gloves off, steam pouring from skull. Let’s go!
I think that FDL is getting a lot of traffic lately, especially the coverage of the protests in St. Paul (for which Jane, Lindsay, and Siun seem to be the best major source of information), and also some of the posts here lately like David’s post about the Obama plotters really caught people’s attention. That one has been getting a lot of interest at places like reddit, digg, and other sites.
A gal I ran into at Borders suggested CBC. (NO, I don’t mean cbn, ninny *g*)
Canadian Broadcasting. Said it’s better than BBC even, & she never bothers with ANY of the US networks any more - regards them as worthless, or worse.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/
A gal I ran into at Borders suggested CBC. (NO, I don’t mean cbn, ninny *g*)
Canadian Broadcasting. Said it’s better than BBC even, & she never bothers with ANY of the US networks any more - regards them as worthless, or worse.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/
It sickens me to know that people will probably be using this quote as their ringtones. Palin sounds like a bad comedian on late-night Comedy Central.
apologies for dubblepost. toobz acting crazy with the error messages…
would appreciate removal of either 65 or 66, thanks mods, as well as this one.
u must be having an awful time today. i don’t envy u!
Sooo Slow Today. Some thingy must be out of whack.
Or talking about Palin must have a rotten effect on the Toobz. Maybe it’s Ted Stevens’ revenge!
Anyway, Sarah Palin got it wrong. Community organizing is what you do when local government has failed to protect its citizens from the ravages of long cold winters, or old age and fixed incomes, and many other failures that occur when local mayors see their job as enriching the already rich and imposing their particular brand of morality on their neighborhoods. You know, the type of Mayor that considers ways to censure or burn books and otherwise considers herself the morals police.
Community organizing, Republican style.
If Palin “hit a home run” it was with a corked bat, while using steriods, and on a home park where right field was brought in to 200 feet. Her speech was filled with lies, distortions and evasions of the issues that really beset the REST of America today.
Oil wealthy and low population Alaska isn’t facing anything like what the rest of us confront, economically or otherwise.In fact, thanks to the Alaskan Constitution (which Palin can’t meddle with) oil and gas companies are charged high rates for leases and taxed sufficiently so that Alaskans don’t need to pay State income or Sales taxes. The Alaska Permanent Fund is an investment fund, managed by the State, and allocated in a manner that the Governor can’t meddle with. It pays for health care, affordable college educations, and a variety of social services that Republicans elsewhere adamantly oppose. It’s more akin to Norwegian socialism than “laissez-faire” bootstraps go-it-alone philosophy. Biden should ask Palin if she supports eliminating the Alaska Permanent Fund and giving it back to the oil companies?
But look at when Palin was really acting as an “executive”…after she was elected as Mayor of Wasilla (with 600 and 900 vote). Things ran well when the small town of 5000 had a city manager running services, but after she fired the city manager and most of those in city governement who opposed her style, things fell apart. She had a $15 million Sports Center (”Pitbull with Lipstick” Hockey Mom wanting to showcase jocks like Levi) built on land without clear title. Thus she saddled Wasilla with still-continuing lawsuits. She left balanced-budget Wasilla with a $25 million deficit (that’s $3-5000 per person for LOCAL debt) requiring a local sales tax. She brought in several Big Box Stores, luring them with low property tax rates and killed off several small businesses as a result. Someone should check if her race for Lt. Gov. (which she lost) and Governor were financed by these Big Box companies.
Her lobbying for Federal pork and her hypocrisy on Federal earmarks are getting much needed attention.
I haven’t read all the comments but Mother Teresa was a community organizer. In fact didn’t Cindy McCain almost meet her.
Nice try. Good try also, but I’m not buying it. This site has always been a hog. Too many bells and whistles, is my guess. I’ve been here during both conventions, and slow as it was, it actually did work. Are you suggesting that certain posts other than the live blogging Really Big Ones are attracting so many visitors that they are causing all this distress?
I’m not saying I don’t believe the back stage folks are working on getting the hinkies out, but, it’s been a long time since this site functioned adequately and I do enjoy being here. I just don’t enjoy being feed a spoonful of you know what…
A comment on THE speech might help put things in perspective.
One of the columnists in our local paper viewed the day’s events and crafted the following from edited wire reports:
hey Adie!
We must be tenaciuos, huh?
Don’t heap too much praise on Campbell Brown just yet. She is married to Republican insider Dan Senor after all. I’m hoping against hope that since she had a child she has become frightened at the world the Republicans want to leave us and as a smart and accomplished woman she is appalled at this choice of VP who is no more than a token.
And aren’t anti-abortion counselors community activists of sorts? And pastors?