Just once I would like to see a Democratic President that admits he’s a Liberal.

I really don’t understand why Democrats are always forced to run as centrists, while Republicans revel in their conservatism. It’s particularly sad that in a country founded on the principals of John Locke, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson, that both political parties eschew the name “liberal.” It’s not like it ever helps the Democratic nominee. Kerry can hunt however many ducks he wants, Republicans will still more likely vote for the duck. Obama can say there’s “no Liberal America and no Conservative America, but the United States of America” all he wants, he’s still going to be called the most liberal congressman in the country, just like Kerry was before him, since becoming the Democratic nominee automatically imbues you with that designation. That’s because unlike liberals, conservatives will never, ever vote for the opposing party no matter how insanely bad the last administration has been. It doesn’t matter that their only talking point is the economy and that the entire American financial system is falling apart at the seams. Only they, the people who have been in charge all this time, can come in and change Washington.

They are so set in their ways that conservatives actually have the gall to argue that the problem with President Bush was that he wasn’t right-wing enough! Yes, everything would be hunky dory if he just didn’t add a few more minor earmarks to the 9 trillion dollar debt! And never mind that we’ve had yet another bank fail due to under-regulation; the real problem with the economy is that we regulate too much. And if Bush had just cut taxes on the rich a little bit more, then job growth would have exploded like he promised all along. It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the answer is: cut taxes and deregulate. And if McCain and his gang of lobbyists running his platform don’t fix things, we can just say he wasn’t a conservative to begin with.

I say this after spending way too much time arguing with my conservative family over the current election while I was holed up in Dallas/Fort Worth to get away from Gustav. One of the first things my grandmother asked me is who I was voting for and after I told her, she conferred to me that she believed Obama was a “Trojan horse” Muslim. Another member of my family was convinced that Obama was not born in Hawaii, despite my assurances that that lie had long been debunked, as if the U.S. government just forgot to check. Those lies, at least, were new. Everything else I listened to was the same conservative crap that’s been played like a violin for the past 10 years: “Wah, wah, the liberal media is being mean to the Republicans”, “I saw a woman using food stamps at the grocery store 20 years ago who had a better car than me and Democrats want me to pay for it”, “America gives away too much money in foreign aid [a whopping 0.1% GDP, the least of any nation. Denmark gives 1%]”, “Obama won’t stand up to Satan-worshipping Muslims because he dressed up as one once.”, “Since we already have all the laws we need, any new legislation is superfluous, so we need do-nothing conservatives in office to keep everything the way it is”, “Global warming is a global scam for [unnationalized] Communists to take control of the world’s money supply”. Seriously, I wish these were jokes.

I guess I feel defeated from not being able to change anyone’s minds about anything. But it’s hard when conservatives are so suspicious of any source that isn’t propaganda from Fox News or Conservative radio. Their lizard-like brains are frozen in the past, unable to accept anything from the last 8 years as a basis for reasoning on this election. We could have had Stalin in office the past 2 terms and conservatives would still be complaining about the double standard for who can use the word “nigger”.

If 8 years of a Democratically-controlled White House and congress had brought forth the financial troubles we’re currently in, then I would definitely be looking at a Ron Paul ticket. I may disagree with a lot of what Ron Paul says, but I love watching him school Republicans on their own history and I have no trouble admitting that he’s smarter than any of the other Democratic or Republican candidates and that his advocates are smarter than both groups combined.

But McCain is looking good this week. Their convention was a smash success and conservatives are falling in line with the crybaby story that the liberal media is being unfair to Palin on her inexperience just because McCain has been running on nothing but the “experience” issue since the campaign started. But declaring war on the Center and calling it “Left” is what the Republicans are good at.

Then there’s the floodgates of lies unleashed at the Republican convention. Palin says she was against the “Bridge to Nowhere.” Actually, her administration spent tens of millions of dollars on a road to link up to the bridge, and she’s been quoted as saying that “Much of the public’s attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here” and that she would “not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that’s so negative.” But Republicans knew the “Bridge to Nowhere” would be red meat at the convention, so they just got her to flip flop. Funny how “flip-flopper” only gets attached to people who “voted for the war” (more like voted for giving the President the power to decide whether to go to war) before it was completely mishandled driven into the ground. People from Alaska were pretty upset when they found her railing against the project she had forcefully defended beforehand. (In fact, there was a 1,500-strong anti-Palin rally in Midtown Anchorage, Alaska, along with 100 counter-protesters.) But she only flip-flopped on the issue, not the money. The government allowed her to keep the $223 million in earmarks, and $73 million of it is still earmarked for the same project!

http://www.propublica.org/article/palin-administration-still-pursuing-nowhere-project-913/

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed7/idUSN3125537020080901

http://www.adn.com/front/story/525510.html

When speaking about Creationism being taught along side evolution in science class, she said, “Don’t be afraid of information.” An interesting comment for someone who asked “a rhetorical question” to a public librarian regarding what she would do if ordered to ban a list of books. Although Palin claims to not remember the incident now, it’s pretty clear that the reason for it was because her church was pushing for the book “Pastor I Am Gay” to be removed from bookshelves.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5766173&page=1

Although Palin has admitted that she has not been following the Iraq war very closely (even though her son is being sent), she nevertheless has said that not only the Iraq war was a “task that is from God” but that a $30 million natural gas pipeline in Alaska was part of “God’s will” and has asked for ministry students to pray for its completion. When defending the term “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, she said, “If it was good enough for the founding fathers [it’s] good enough for me, and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.” Of course, the Pledge dates to the late 1800s and the term “Under God” was only inserted in the 1950s as wedge against the “godless Soviets”.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080905/palin-pray-u-s-plan-in-iraq-is-god-s-plan.htm

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28559

Palin’s husband is a part of the Alaska Separatist movement which wants to secede from the United States. The party claimed that Palin herself was a member for 2 years but then retracted the claim, saying it was based on faulty information. Nevertheless, she did attend its conventions and recorded a video for them wishing them luck, saying “I share your party’s vision of upholding the constitution of our great state.” Rather ironic since the Republican party was formed on the basis that states can not secede from the union.

http://ww4report.com/node/5982

We all know what Obama’s pastor thinks now, but few know that Palin’s pastor has gone so far as to preach that critics of Bush are going to hell (no, not a joke), that Kerry is among the damned, and that the war in Iraq was a war “contending for your faith” and that Jesus “operated from that position of war mode”!!! As Jesus said, “If your enemy strikes you, turn the other cheek, and then hit him when he least expects it!”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palins-church-may-have-sh_n_123205.html

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign has set new lows in producing lies about Obama. There’s the lie that Obama is for kindergarten “sex-education”, which was really optional, “age-appropriate” education on safety from sexual predators (like the difference between “good touch” and “bad touch”), which Obama did not co-sponsor and which never passed at any rate.

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/off_base_on_sex_ed.html

Then there’s the lie that Obama voted for “infanticide”, a smear specifically designed for Catholic reactionism. The vote itself would not have changed any abortion laws and was bundled with clauses that would have opened doctors up to lawsuits. As the bill itself reads: “(c) Nothing in this Section shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand, or contract any legal status or legal right applicable to any member of the species homo sapiens at any point prior to being born alive, as defined in this Section. (d) Nothing in this Section shall be construed to affect existing federal or State law regarding abortion. (e) Nothing in this Section shall be construed to alter generally accepted medical standards.” This is a deliberate attempt to shoehorn the abortion issue, worked on by Deal Hudson, one of the 80 people on McCain’s advisory board for Catholic issues, who previously resigned from the RNC for having sex with an 18-year-old student of his from Fordham University.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/04/the-next-smear-against-ob_n_116891.html

Here’s a list of more GOP lies, as listed at FactCheck.Org:

* [A McCain ad] says Obama “gave big oil billions in subsidies and giveaways,” citing his votes for a 2005 energy bill. But the bill slightly raised taxes on the oil industry overall.

* The ad plucked a positive blurb about Palin from an Associated Press article that, in fact, was very much a mixed review. The AP said she “brings an ethical shadow to the [Republican] ticket,” for example.

* The ad says Obama is the “most liberal” Senator. But the National Journal rated him the 16th most liberal in his first year and the 10th most liberal in his second. It rated his votes “most liberal” only in 2007, when he was busy campaigning and missed one-third of the votes on which the rating is based.

* Palin may have said “Thanks, but no thanks” on the Bridge to Nowhere, though not until Congress had pretty much killed it already. But that was a sharp turnaround from the position she took during her gubernatorial campaign, and the town where she was mayor received lots of earmarks during her tenure.

* Palin’s accusation that Obama hasn’t authored “a single major law or even a reform” in the U.S. Senate or the Illinois Senate is simply not a fair assessment. Obama has helped push through major ethics reforms in both bodies, for example.

* The Alaska governor avoided some of McCain’s false claims about Obama’s tax program – but her attacks still failed to give the whole story.

* Giuliani distorted the time line and substance of Obama’s statements about the conflict between Russia and Georgia. In fact, there was much less difference between his statements and those of McCain than Giuliani would have had us believe.

* Giuliani also said McCain had been a fighter pilot. Actually, McCain’s plane was the A-4 Skyhawk, a small bomber. It was the only plane he trained in or flew in combat, according to McCain’s own memoir.

* Finally, Huckabee told conventioneers and TV viewers that Palin got more votes when she ran for mayor of Wasilla than Biden did running for president. Not even close. The tally: Biden, 79,754, despite withdrawing from the race after the Iowa caucuses. Palin, 909 in her 1999 race, 651 in 1996.

* Lieberman said Obama hadn’t “reached across party lines” to accomplish “anything significant,” though Obama has teamed with GOP Sens. Tom Coburn and Richard Lugar to pass laws enhancing government transparency and curtailing the proliferation of nuclear and conventional weapons.

* Thompson repeated misleading claims about Obama’s tax program, saying it would bring “one of the largest tax increases in American history.” But as increases go, Obama’s package is hardly a history-maker. It would raise taxes for families with incomes above $250,000. Most people would see a cut.

* Lieberman also accused Obama of “voting to cut off funding for our American troops on the battlefield.” But Obama’s only vote against a war-funding bill came after Bush vetoed a version of the bill Obama had supported – and McCain urged the veto.

* McCain claimed that Obama’s health care plan would “force small businesses to cut jobs” and would put “a bureaucrat … between you and your doctor.” In fact, the plan exempts small businesses, and those who have insurance now could keep the coverage they have.

* McCain attacked Obama for voting for “corporate welfare” for oil companies. In fact, the bill Obama voted for raised taxes on oil companies by $300 million over 11 years while providing $5.8 billion in subsidies for renewable energy, energy efficiency and alternative fuels.

* McCain said oil imports send “$700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much.” But the U.S. is on track to import a total of only $536 billion worth of oil at current prices, and close to a third of that comes from Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

* He promised to increase use of “wind, tide [and] solar” energy, though his actual energy plan contains no new money for renewable energy. He has said elsewhere that renewable sources won’t produce as much as people think.

* He called for “reducing government spending and getting rid of failed programs,” but as in the past failed to cite a single program that he would eliminate or reduce.

* He said Obama would “close” markets to trade. In fact, Obama, though he once said he wanted to “renegotiate” the North American Free Trade Agreement, now says he simply wants to try to strengthen environmental and labor provisions in it.

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/factchecking_mccain.html

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/gop_convention_spin_part_ii.html

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/maverick_misleads.html

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/gop_convention_spin.html

To be fair, there’s also a much smaller list of Obama flubs which FactCheck.org describes saying, “He stuck to the facts, except when he stretched them.” They’re pretty trivial, but like most people in the mainstream media, FactCheck.org has to look for something to prove they’re even-handed. By far, the most important lie from Obama is that he could “pay for every dime” of his spending and tax cuts “by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens.” A large part of it comes from increasing taxes on the rich while cutting taxes for the middle class. Independent experts argue that BOTH PLANS are cutting too much in taxes, which will lead to big budget deficits. Obama probably planned for the middle class tax cuts to help him get more votes, not realizing that it doesn’t matter what the facts are, people will always believe Republicans when they make baseless claims that Obama will “raise taxes.”

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/factchecking_obama.html

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IN OTHER NEWS
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The Conservative National Review admonished Martin Luther King Jr. for his reception of the Nobel Peace Prize but is now divining that King would not vote for Obama.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/23/national-review-believes-mlk-jr-would-not-vote-for-barack-obama/

Poll: World Wants Obama as President
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/09/2360240.htm?section=world

Whistleblower Alleges McCain Hid Wife’s Drug Abuse
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Whistleblower_breaks_15year_silence_to_allege_0911.html

Sex and Drug Scandal in Oil Royalty Agency Costing Taxpayer’s Billions
(This is the agency that would be expanded if ANWR was opened up)

“The alleged transgressions involve 13 former and current Interior Department employees in Denver and Washington. Their alleged improprieties include rigging contracts, working part-time as private oil consultants, and having sexual relationships with – and accepting golf and ski trips and dinners from – oil company employees, according to three reports released Wednesday by the Interior Department’s inspector general.”

“The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch.”

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/10/govt-involved-in-sex-and-drugs-and-oil-and-roll/

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/10/national/main4436263.shtml

http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20080908/014726.html