Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
Barack Obama’s biggest challenge as a candidate has been convincing people not to fear him, fear his difference, his skin color, his name. Luckily, it is a task to which he has proven himself well suited.
Obama’s calm demeanor has been his biggest selling point through the ups and downs of the past few months, and his 30-minute infomercial ad was the icing on that cake. Read More
It seems as though there is dissent in the ranks of the Palin/McCain campaign. This past weekend anonymous McCain staffers released a less than pleasant statement regarding Palins performance, and willingness to support McCain’s message. It seems that they have a “rogue” vice presidential candidate on their hands.
According to CNN, a McCain staffer was quoted as saying, “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone. She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else”.
“Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.”
Another staffer has even gone as far as to label her a “whack job.”
Well, it seems that McCain didn’t get the submissive vice presidential candidate that he wanted. Read More
Jack Carter is a businessman and politician. He is the son of former United States President Jimmy Carter.
With just a few days left until the election, Sen. Obama has a substantial lead over Sen. McCain. While many Democrats remember elections in 2000 and 2004 and fear that lead will somehow evaporate, I expect the margin to hold.
For all the negative advertising, its polling impact seems minimal. McCain has little else to offer, and the economy – represented by falling global stock markets – is still stealing the headlines.
Governor Palin has become a drag on the campaign, witnessed by the increasing number of high level moderate Republicans, including Colin Powell, who are endorsing Obama. And the “Experience Issue”, once the cornerstone of McCain’s campaign, has collapsed beneath the weight of his sporadic actions over the last two months, including the Palin VP pick.
On the other hand, Obama still has the advantages he began with in September: he’s a better campaigner; his issues are much more in line with the voters; he’s got the best campaign strategists and organization; he has substantially more money to spend; and, most people don’t want to vote for Republicans this year, anyhow.
Barring some political catastrophe, the combination of McCain’s problems and Obama’s assets should, if anything, continue to widen the lead. Which brings up some interesting questions… Read More
The previous installment of teenage Chloe Bradshaw’s dark tale is here.
I bring out my sword. The metal of the blade reflects light into my companion’s eyes. I give him a malicious smile before plunging the weapon into his stomach. He falls to his knees, blood spilling out of the neatly made hole. I hear him take in his last breath before he lies still. Goodbye, Neo. You asked for this.
“Why did you do that?” Marius asks without much curiosity.
“He was annoying me; I should never have turned him.” I take one last look at Neo’s body and turn away.
“We should get out of this city,” I say.
“You’re right.”
The sun is soon at its highest, shining down on the ordinary people of the world. We have made it far, leaving behind the police. Dark thoughts swim around in my head. Read More
So the McCain campaign won’t let go of Joe the Plumber. He’s still being trotted out in speeches by McCain and Palin. They mention again and again how Obama wants to “spread” Joe’s wealth.
Aside from the condescension (yet again) implicit in McCain’s reduction of Joe to a stereotype (and leaving out any of the frenzied investigations into just who Joe really is), I want to look a little closer at what the Joe the Plumber rhetoric really means.
Joe, of course, is white. He’s from Ohio, a state connected with middle-American whiteness, as opposed to the cities that McCain likes to emphasize in reference to Obama (”I don’t need any advice from a…Chicago politician!”).
The city is black; Middle America is white.
Joe the Plumber’s purported wealth is used in conjunction with his whiteness: Joe is just a plumber, just an average guy, but he’s going to be taxed more under Obama’s plan. The subtext, of course, is that your “average,” white, hardworking guy is going to be taxed to give money to those who don’t work hard. Read More
It seems as though controversy and Governor Palin are going to be wedded to each other until Election Day. In this week’s startling revelation the public learned that 150 thousand in RNC donations was spent to purchase a new wardrobe, hair styling, and make-up for the Governor.
Who says that McCain didn’t pick her for her potential to be election eye candy?
Much of the conversation regarding this revelation has revolved around the double standard when it comes to appearance between men and women in the public eye. Campbell Brown commented on CNN, “Compare that with the attention given to Senator Barack Obama’s $1,500 suits or Senator John McCain’s $520 Ferragamo shoes. There is no comparison,” she said.
It is clear that for Brown the issue is not about the money that was spent but about the fact that this is only a story because of the inequality that exists between men and women. She went on to further state, “I speak from experience here. When I wear a bad outfit on the air, I get viewer e-mail complaining about it. A lot of e-mail. Seriously. When Wolf Blitzer wears a not-so-great tie, how much e-mail do you think he gets? My point is for women, unfortunately, appearance is part of the job.”
While I would agree that this is indeed a women’s issue, I feel that it is also important to note the women who are not being discussed in this recent controversy. It is well known that the fashion industry is highly dependent on sweat shop labour to produce cheap garments for the Western world.
The majority of these labourers are women of colour and they are invisible, not only in this particular situation, but often times when it comes to discussion about the ways in which the fashion industry can have negative impact on society. Read More
On October 23, it was reported that a McCain volunteer was robbed and assaulted by a black man. She claimed that after robbing her, her assailant noticed a McCain/Palin bumper sticker on her car, chased her down, and carved a backwards B into her face. At one point, she even alleged a sexual assault.
The police spent many hours investigating this case attempting to prove the veracity of her claims, only to have her admit today that she made the entire story up.
McCain, for his part, his been quick to point out that she is an unpaid volunteer, and as such has no deep involvement with the campaign. Yet had McCain not unleashed such clearly racist rhetoric throughout this election cycle, would a woman like Todd have believed that her behaviour was appropriate?
Though I firmly believe McCain’s dirty campaign tactics did indeed play a factor here, what should also be recognized is the history that white women have of blaming innocent black men of assaults. From Susan Smith, to Carroll Donham, white women have been either complicit in false accusations against black men, or else have been used as props in justifying murdering black men. Read More
Not satisfied with the disproportionate amount of acclaim and wealth shoved at them by drooling zombies otherwise known as the human race, celebrities manage to lock themselves in titanic struggles with each other over perceived slights.
They will make public statements, release stinging responses on their respective blogs, and basically act like spoiled children bickering for attention. Personally, I give it to them, because I find them funny. Not intelligently funny, or even funny on purpose. Their entertainment value is very similar to that of the video where the monkey doesn’t like the taste of his own pee, and then he falls off the branch.
However, I’ve picked out a few of the more salient current cases in which celebrities are brawling with each other. Using my brilliant analytical skills, as well as my flair for sensational insight, I have prepared a study on each conflict:
Paris Hilton vs. Lindsay Lohan:
The strangest thing about this spat is the fact that the two idjits involved are practically interchangeable. Both of them are known for their rampant lack of underwear, a fact that has scorched the eyes of the planet. Further similarities and points of interest: Read More
I’ll say it right away: the campaign trail is not for the thin-skinned.
You will have doors slammed in your face, sometimes by sweet old ladies who take one look at your button and scream “NO!”
You will see people peer out through a crack in the blinds and then pretend they’re not home.
More than that, on a presidential campaign, you will have to use the things you like least about your candidate as selling points to “swing” voters. You will have to choke down your anger at blatant racism and sexism to try to keep smiling and convey your point.
You will have to keep yourself honest.
But you will also make new friends, some who last only a day and others who you’ll call in the middle of the night to share stories or cheer at a debate performance. You might fall in love, or at least fall into bed.
You will bond with people who you would otherwise never have met, people older and younger than you, people with more money and people with less, people with Ph.D.’s and people who didn’t graduate from high school. Read More
I didn’t find out about this murder in Irkutsk, Russia, on the news. I discovered this first through the blog of a friend of a friend. An independent media source has highlighted this incident, the mainstream news is rather quiet.
Olga Rukosyla was sixteen years old. She enjoyed dressing like a punk, and wore red shoelaces which, to some, signify the famous “Antifa” (anti-facism) movement.
Indymedia reports that on the 8th of October, Olga was surrounded by three young men dressed, as witnesses say, in typical skinhead fashion. One of them grabbed her hand. She said something angrily to him. This was when the men surrounding her threw her on the ground and literally kicked her to death.
Three men, murdering a teenage girl in broad daylight.
Skinheads operate like packs of wild dogs. They prefer to outnumber their victims, and seem to forge bonds through frantic eruptions of group violence.
My neighbourhood in Kyiv, Ukraine has been spray-painted with their slogans, and I’m afraid for the African and Asian kids living in the dorms around my building, for my Jewish neighbours, for my Arab boyfriend, who stays with me there sometimes. I’m afraid that my kid brother might wear the wrong t-shirt and piss them off.
How can we be safe when the only visible opposition seems to arise in the form of Antifa groups spraying their own slogans over Nazi ones? (Hey, kid who drew the gallows around the swastika that was spray-painted on my family’s garage - thank you.)
The terror skinheads have spread has inspired some to take their side, to excuse their actions, to even boldly proclaim that they are “ridding society of unsavoury elements” (i.e., they are ridding society of anyone who’s in any way different, be that due to skin colour or the colour of one’s shoelaces). Read More
