Okay folks, I’m going political for a post. I have a great passion for our political system and though my views may lean one way I have the ability to try and see all sides. I try to listen to views that oppose my own because often, I’ve found, you can learn more from the differences than you can from the same. That said, I wanted to hear what the Republican phenom, Sarah Palin, had to say tonight about her ideas about the direction the United States should travel. I’m going to keep the majority of my thoughts to myself but one thing that stuck with me and probably pissed me off the most was the following line:
“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”
Now apparently Mrs. Palin needs to be educated not only about what a VP does all day but she needs to be informed what a community organizer does but I can give her a few examples of some famous ‘Community Organizers’ who had no responsibilities:
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ghandi
Mother Theresa
Thomas Paine
Our Founding Fathers (who did not create the Pledge of Allegiance)
Saul D. Alinsky
And last but not least, Sarah Palin’s favorite person, other than herself:
Jesus Christ
So as you can see, not only did Sarah Palin offend regular folks who do extraordinary things within their communities on a daily basis (and seems to have missed what it is these folks are really, really good at), she offended Jesus too. Oh yeah, and this lowly web designer who has great respect for the people who go out on a daily basis trying to improve people’s lives instead of just blowing hot air about how this politician or that politician is going to save all our lives with their rhetoric.
My name’s Jen; I’m a cynical, sarcastic, ex-drummer who is fond of dark humor. I've held way too many factory & retail jobs but finally found my calling one Christmas holiday in a dark, musty basement. I am now a CSS & XHTML web standards looney and can be found daily—when I’m not at my Mac—at the local fair-trade coffee shop buying an iced-soy mocha no matter the temperature.
I am also the owner of Pop Stalin Design specializing in CSS & XHTML web design as well as custom WordPress themes.
@Emily: In my opinion, it’s not about experience at this point. It’s about qualifications and sometimes, having experience doesn’t qualify you for some things–as Lindsey pointed out, look at GWB. For personal experience, look at the people we’ve worked with in the past… they had the experience but certainly weren’t qualified.
That said, I personally can’t support someone who uses hateful rhetoric at their rallies to incite mob mentality. When Palin speaks at her rallies and, increasingly lately, people are shouting out the “N” word, “Kill him!”, “He’s an arab!” or bringing monkeys with an Obama sticker on them and Palin doesn’t condemn this behavior, you have to wonder about her character. Is this really the kind of woman who should be representing the rest of the our gender? I think not.
As far as LGBT issues, there is just no arguing that Obama/Biden is the better ticket. As far as women’s issues, there is no arguing that Obama/Biden is the better ticket. Just look at their records. Palin signed off as Mayor of Wasilla the budget that okayed charging women for rape kits, in a state that has the highest counts of rape/incest per capita. Palin charged the state $13,000 to attend church services (which is illegal and goes against separation of church and state). Her husband was a member of the Alaska Independence Party (a secessionist group) and that is much more worrying than Obama having met William Ayers once and being on a board (that both were appointed to by a McCain supporter-Leonore Annenberg) of a non-profit education foundation. And for the record, Ayers was never charged with any crime, let alone being a terrorist. However, the founder of AIP, John Vogler said the following:
So we can both throw mud at our individual candidates and have it stick to some degree but for me it still comes down to who is going to support my issues the best and as a woman and a lesbian that choice will never be McCain/Palin.
yes, i voted in the primary (and just to fill others’ curiosities, i’ve voted in every election i’ve been eligible for since i turned 18). i have been paying attention all along - there’s too much at stake to go into this election blind. and i have been a supporter of obama since 2004.
i’m interested to know how much time you spent checking out palin’s record and history. she’s only been on the national scene for 6 weeks, and at first, didn’t know what the vice-president of the US really did.
Lindsey,
I am not surprised by your reaction to my comment. Just out of curiosity did you vote in the primaries? Were you paying attention all along? Did you always support Obama?
@ emily:
i felt it necessary to respond to the comments you made today. i am utterly astonished. you talk about looking past the marketing bs - but just about everything you wrote is marketed bs from the right wing.
- ‘if my choices are between a grossly under-qualified, corrupt politician (Obama) and someone who actually has executive experience (Palin)’
+ your choices are actually between Obama and McCain. Palin is not running for president. if you want to include Palin in your formula, you have to include Biden on the other side for a fair and balanced view. including Biden adds more than 35 years of state and federal legislation experience to the ticket.
+ executive experience doesn’t always designate the person most qualified for the position. George W. Bush was governor of Texas for five years - but look at the mess we’re in now. a failing economy, the war that was deemed ‘mission accomplished’ in 2003 and wages on today, the lowest presidential approval rating of all time. now i’m not comparing Palin to Bush. just siting a present day example that being governor of a state doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready to take a national executive office.
- ‘You think Obama is more qualified then Palin? He was in the state senate for 1 year when he started running for office’
+ technically, your answer is incorrect, though i feel you just confused your legislative labels. Obama was a state senator for seven years (97-04) for Chicago’s 13th district (population 650,000), and has been a United States Senator since 2005 (elected by more than 3.5 million voters).
+ Palin also has only been the governor of Alaska (population 650,000) since 2006. before that, she was a mayor of a town with a population of 6,500.
- ‘Look at all of his corrupt, racist and terrorist ties’
+ google ‘Corrupt Bastards Club’. that’s the loving nickname that has been applied to the Alaska legislators indicated in a federal corruption investigation. you’ve got Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, indicited for corruption (and he also endoresed Palin). you’ve got the other Senator for Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, is also being investigated on ethics accusations. and let’s not forget ‘troopergate’ for Gov. Palin (it came out today that the panel did find that Palin abused her power).
+ as for the terrorist ties remark - i guess that means neither of us have any hopes of running for political office one day, since we worked for a non-profit organization with suspected ties to a terrorist organization.
-’ He has never made any “changes” to Washington. Look at his Chicago district that he left in shambles’
+ as a community organizer, Obama set up job training programs and college prep tutoring programs, created tenants’ right organizations, and held voter registration drives, which registered 150,000 of the 400,000 unregistered African-American voters in IL.
+ as a state legislator, Obama enacted tax credits for low income workers, negotiated welfare reform, increased subsidies for childcare, support payday loan regulations, led bipartisan passage of a state bill to monitor racial profiling, and supported mortage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.
+ in his first two years as a United State Senator, Obama sponsored 136 bills and 125 amendments, and cosponsored 659 bills and 278 amendments. among those were the transparnecy act, democratic republic of the congo relief, security and democracy promotion act, honest leadership and open government act, deceptive practices and voter intimidation prevention act, and the iraq war de-escalation act.
+ all in all - sounds like Obama’s been pretty busy making change in both South Side Chicago, Illinois, and the United States.
my own bits for you to consider. as a lesbian, one of my biggest issues to consider when choosing a candidate to cast my vote for is equality. which of my presidential tickets is going to be looking out for me, my partner and all the other LGBT americans.
guess what emily. as a lesbian, if you cast your vote for McCain/Palin, that’s equivalent to a slap in the face to the LGBT community, or in your words: as long as LGBT Americans keep putting down other LGBT Americans, then LGBT Americans will stay repressed
a few things to consider:
- Obama supports ending employment discrimination (ENDA) against LGBT community (you can still get fired in 33 states just for being gay - Virginia’s one of them - and guess what - McCain cast the deciding vote against ENDA)
- Obama opposes Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (McCain believes LGBT people should not be allowed to serve openly)
- Obama supports repeal of Defense of Marriage Act, voted against Federal Marriage Amendment, supports civil unions, family benefits. (McCain voted for and supports DOMA, voted against FMA but campaigned for a state amendment that would ban civil unions and domestic partnerships, does not support family benefits)
- Obama supports hate crimes legislation to protect LGBT community (McCain voted against hate crimes legislation three times)
- Obama supports the Ryan White CARE Act and access to early treatment of HIV (McCain never has supported Ryan White Act and voted to remove funding aimed at protecting community from HIV/AIDS)
- Obama supports comprehensive sex education aimed at preventing disease (McCain supports abstinence only education that leaves out LGBT people and is ineffective at combating spread of HIV/AIDS)
- Want to start a family? Obama opposes ban on adoption by same-sex couples (McCain opposes adoption by same-sex couples).
- While Obama and Biden have both said they do not support same-sex marriage (because of religious beliefs), they have both support federal civil unions (providing the same rights that come with ‘marriage’) and they have openly said it’s ultimately up to the states as to what to call it.
i seriously hope you will take another look at the issues, not the marketing. actually surf on over to a non-partisan site, look at their individual records, not their ads and blogs, see how they vote, see what they have supported (Bridge to Nowhere anyone?).
given that your a Hillary supporter - perhaps you’ll be more inclined to listen to her words instead of mine:
“Clinton is excited to see a woman running for vice-president; she just doesn’t share Sarah Palin’s views. ‘I don’t think there is a contradiction between applauding someone’s success, and disagreeing with that person,’ she said.
She says Palin’s gender is not a good reason to vote for Senator John McCain. ‘I think it’s abundantly clear the McCain/Palin ticket doesn’t offer the smart, positive changes that the country needs.’”
@jen - love your blog
You think Obama is more qualified then Palin? He was in the state senate for 1 year when he started running for office. He has never made any “changes” to Washington. Look at his Chicago district that he left in shambles. Look at all of his corrupt, racist and terrorist ties. How do you think he has gotten so far so fast? It is not because he was fighting corruption, he was embracing it. As a designer and marketer I would think you would be able to see through this over marketed, BS. I agree that a woman like Clinton would have been a much better choice. But, if my choices are between a grossly under-qualified, corrupt politician (Obama) and someone who actually has executive experience (Palin) and has fought corruption, then I pick the latter of the two and pray for Clinton in 2012.
PS: I love the design of this blog