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...watching Palin's speech, I had no doubt that I was witnessing a historic, iconic performance. The candidate sauntered to the lectern...and immediately launched into a symphony of snorting and sneering remarks...It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag. Right-wingers of the Bush-Rove ilk have had a tough time finding a human face to put on their failed, inhuman, mean-as-hell policies...The great insight of the Palin VP choice is that huge chunks of American voters no longer even demand that their candidates actually have policy positions; they simply consume them as media entertainment, rooting for or against them according to the reflexive prejudices of their demographic... A classic example of what was at work here came when Palin proudly introduced her Down-syndrome baby, Trig, then stared into the camera and somberly promised parents of special-needs kids that they would "have a friend and advocate in the White House." This was about a half-hour before she raised her hands in triumph with McCain, a man who voted against increasing funding for special-needs education.
Right-wingers of the Bush-Rove ilk have had a tough time finding a human face to put on their failed, inhuman, mean-as-hell policies...The great insight of the Palin VP choice is that huge chunks of American voters no longer even demand that their candidates actually have policy positions; they simply consume them as media entertainment, rooting for or against them according to the reflexive prejudices of their demographic... A classic example of what was at work here came when Palin proudly introduced her Down-syndrome baby, Trig, then stared into the camera and somberly promised parents of special-needs kids that they would "have a friend and advocate in the White House." This was about a half-hour before she raised her hands in triumph with McCain, a man who voted against increasing funding for special-needs education.
Where Have All The Issues Gone?
Meanwhile, Kai Wright at The Root argues that McCain's hate filled campaign cannot be covered as mere "political hardball". The language used by McCain/Palin these days is not a debate it's an attack. The Nazi's knew the difference, why don't we? They called the effective use of propoganda "The Big Lie". So while we're all watching Fox at Wells Fargo, let's try something new. Let's call the ones who lie, liars and call out hate speech against "the other" as the racism, hatred and intolerance it so clearly is. Let's have a real election on the issues, and get down to fixing our problems. I, for one, would like put our taxes into things that matter, like good schools and animal shelters.
...and somebody please get Fixed News outta my bank.
Sia
Illustration by Victor Juhasz
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Endnotes:
(1) To their credit, they have sent a formal apology for this incident to Senator Obama and invited him to come speak. This prompted the Oregonian to write:
....even if the senator cannot come in person, it's possible to imagine all of this rebounding in his favor, by seeding a Democratic group on campus. That, at George Fox, would be diversity. It's never easy to go against the mainstream, not in academia, and not anywhere else. But a few brave souls should take the college Republicans up on their challenge.
....even if the senator cannot come in person, it's possible to imagine all of this rebounding in his favor, by seeding a Democratic group on campus.
(2) Yes, the Secret Service has been to town to investigate. Trust me, these kids are now on their list and they can probably forget about ever getting any sort of classified clearance or government job.
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That's utterly heartbreaking about the life of companion animals in your friends' town. I wonder what the correlation is between progressive animal shelters/programs and towns with more liberal populations.... I'm trying to think what, if anything, Sarah Palin has in common with a pit bull, but I'm not coming up with a thing. If Sarah Palin were a pit bull, she wouldn't be a cruel, narrow-minded, opportunistic bigot. (Well, she might be opportunistic when it came to food.) She wouldn't care if someone were gay, or a witch, or black, or a Democrat. She'd be too guileless to lie. To anyone who was kind to her, she would return more love than they could imagine. She would love and enjoy nature without trying to dominate it. She'd be happy with a full belly, fresh air, a soft bed, and good friends. My pit bull is a much better person than Sarah Palin.
I quite agree :-) Calling Governor Palin a Pit Bull is unfair to a lovely, loyal and much maligned breed of dog. Your question is a good one, I think. For what it's worth, Portland Oregon - liberal, well educated and diverse, supports one of the finest Humane Shelters in the United States. They just held a TV fundraiser and raised over $230,000 in one afternoon. They also built an animal medical facility which allows vet students to train while giving medical care to the pets that come into the shelter. http://www.oregonhumane.org/The part of Oregon can also boast of having one of the most progressive no kill, private non-profit Cat shelters in the U.S. www.catadoptionteam.org They house 300+ cats and kittens at a time, offer a free food bank to other organizations and rescue groups, offer low cost spay and neuter surgeries to the community, take in cats from the other local shelters (so they don't have to euthanize as many animals), foster orphaned kittens (through volunteers) and offer on-site medical care to hurt, sick and injured animals in their care. They, too, have a lot of support from the caring (and I would say diverse and tolerant) community that surrounds them, including Christians, Pagans, Buddhists and others who care about cats. and with all that, the Portland Metro area still has to euthanize over 13,000 animals each year. The total number of companion animals euthanized in the U.S. is about 4 million a year. Gandhi said that you can judge a culture by the way it treats it's animals. I think he was right. Sia
I live in a politically progressive town, and our SPCA was a pioneer in the No Kill movement; we take all the animals who are brought to us; we save over 90% of them, and euthanize only those who are suffering and dying or who have hopeless problems with aggression against humans. Our community is very proud of and dedicated to our SPCA.I'd be curious, too, what the "religious" profile is of those who volunteer at or otherwise support our SPCA. It's probably pretty "standard American" -- largely Judeo-Christian. But I know of at least two Pagan volunteers (ahem, that would be us), and our town has a large Buddhist community, active Quaker and Unitarian congregations, and perhaps a larger-than-average number of folks who are agnostic/atheist (again, since we're a relatively open-minded place).... So it would be cool to know who volunteers at the SPCA.
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3 comments:
That's utterly heartbreaking about the life of companion animals in your friends' town. I wonder what the correlation is between progressive animal shelters/programs and towns with more liberal populations....
I'm trying to think what, if anything, Sarah Palin has in common with a pit bull, but I'm not coming up with a thing. If Sarah Palin were a pit bull, she wouldn't be a cruel, narrow-minded, opportunistic bigot. (Well, she might be opportunistic when it came to food.) She wouldn't care if someone were gay, or a witch, or black, or a Democrat. She'd be too guileless to lie. To anyone who was kind to her, she would return more love than they could imagine. She would love and enjoy nature without trying to dominate it. She'd be happy with a full belly, fresh air, a soft bed, and good friends.
My pit bull is a much better person than Sarah Palin.
I quite agree :-) Calling Governor Palin a Pit Bull is unfair to a lovely, loyal and much maligned breed of dog.
Your question is a good one, I think. For what it's worth, Portland Oregon - liberal, well educated and diverse, supports one of the finest Humane Shelters in the United States. They just held a TV fundraiser and raised over $230,000 in one afternoon. They also built an animal medical facility which allows vet students to train while giving medical care to the pets that come into the shelter.
http://www.oregonhumane.org/
The part of Oregon can also boast of having one of the most progressive no kill, private non-profit Cat shelters in the U.S.
www.catadoptionteam.org
They house 300+ cats and kittens at a time, offer a free food bank to other organizations and rescue groups, offer low cost spay and neuter surgeries to the community, take in cats from the other local shelters (so they don't have to euthanize as many animals), foster orphaned kittens (through volunteers) and offer on-site medical care to hurt, sick and injured animals in their care. They, too, have a lot of support from the caring (and I would say diverse and tolerant) community that surrounds them, including Christians, Pagans, Buddhists and others who care about cats.
and with all that, the Portland Metro area still has to euthanize over 13,000 animals each year. The total number of companion animals euthanized in the U.S. is about 4 million a year.
Gandhi said that you can judge a culture by the way it treats it's animals. I think he was right.
Sia
I live in a politically progressive town, and our SPCA was a pioneer in the No Kill movement; we take all the animals who are brought to us; we save over 90% of them, and euthanize only those who are suffering and dying or who have hopeless problems with aggression against humans. Our community is very proud of and dedicated to our SPCA.
I'd be curious, too, what the "religious" profile is of those who volunteer at or otherwise support our SPCA. It's probably pretty "standard American" -- largely Judeo-Christian. But I know of at least two Pagan volunteers (ahem, that would be us), and our town has a large Buddhist community, active Quaker and Unitarian congregations, and perhaps a larger-than-average number of folks who are agnostic/atheist (again, since we're a relatively open-minded place).... So it would be cool to know who volunteers at the SPCA.
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