[Incumbent Minnesota Republican Senator Norm] Coleman told reporters that he would not be appearing at a planned rally with McCain this afternoon. Could it be McCain’s sliding polling numbers in Minnesota? His attacks on Obama? Coleman said he needs the time to work on suspending his own negative ads.
“Today,” he said, “people need hope and a more positive campaign is a start.”
The Al Franken campaign was unimpressed.
“Given that this week’s polls are clearly showing that Minnesotans are sick of Norm Coleman’s campaign of character assassination, today’s stunt rings as a cynical ploy designed to change the subject and avoid scrutiny of his own record,” said Andy Barr, Franken’s communications director.
“It’s like an arsonist burning down every house in the village and asking to be named fire chief.”
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is GOOD Guide: to the Shadowy Organizations That Rule the World.
This is why I always suspend judgment and never believe the lurid stories that come out during times of crisis, especially if they reflect badly on ‘them’. The media simply cannot be trusted to provide balanced coverage and until I hear of real evidence my presumption is that they are uncritically passing on government propaganda.
The fact that my videos of McCain-Palin supporters (here and here) are blowing up online tells me a lot.
First, the media should be ashamed of themselves for not covering this until now. The McCain-Palin supporters in my videos are not new, they are not exceptional, they are not hiding. This is who they are. It has been brewing for months, and not one mainstream media outlet has taken the time to expose them. Not one. And that is dangerous. If America is about to decide on its president based on this level of hate and ignorance, without a single question being asked as to why, then America is in for a rude awakening.
You could get video of these hateful and ignorant people in your sleep. Not just in Ohio, everywhere. Our country has been sleepwalking through this campaign as if none of this vitriol exists. Well, not only does it exist, it is rampant, and it is there for anyone with a camera to record. And these people are proud to be this hateful and ignorant on your camera.
[Update — 11 October, 1446 — After listening as closely as possible to the exchange, I’m not hearing the word terrorist. It’s possible that it was heard in the audience, I can’t tell. Cox’s post from last night still stands, but her colleague at Time, Mark Halperin, is reporting it without the word terrorist attached.
In the first case, McCain looks good. He’s correcting the record on ignorant supporters calling Obama a terrorist. But in the second case, McCain puts himself in the strange position of defending Obama by saying that he’s not an Arab, but rather that he’s a decent family man. Isn’t the default for a married Arab man a decent family man?
Indeed, [Senator John McCain] just snatched the microphone out the hands of a woman who began her question with, “I’m scared of Barack Obama… he’s an Arab terrorist…”
“No, no ma’am,” he interrupted. “He’s a decent family man with whom I happen to have some disagreements.”
I’m very suspicious of this, regardless of the fact that it is sourced to both CNN and the Albany Time Union because of what appears in the lower, left-hand corner.
Why would John McCain be blocked in as both the Republican and the Independent candidate?
Less than four hours after the Ohio Democratic Party held a conference call with media, the prosecutor in Greene County has announced that the county”s sheriff is withdrawing his request to receive unredacted voter registration information, including social security numbers, for 302 individuals who registered and voted between September 30 and October 6, pursuant to a unique window created by a law passed by the Republican leadership of the Ohio legislature.
If those of us, and yes I do include myself in this guilty pleasure, narcissistic enough to check Blognetnews every Sunday morning to see whom the blog daemons have declared to be Ohio’s Most Influential Political Blogs don’t see Blogger Interrupted in the No. 1 spot day after tomorrow, then the list is a farce.
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Is it Time to Retire the Never-Ending List?
Do you know what I immediately thought about as I was watching your Strongsville videos? I was thinking to a time 18 years ago, when I was a senior at Selma High School in Selma, Alabama. The Selma City School Board had just voted to not renew the contract of the city’s first Black schools superintendent, the four white board members voting against, the three black board members voting for; he was an incredibly effective administrator, but he was his own boss and didn’t kow-tow to the city’s race-based power structure. Anyway, we, the students, engaged in a campaign of protest and civil disobedience – marches, pickets, sit-ins – and at every event, there were some sort of officials in suits who would drive up in unmarked cars and point their video cameras at the students, sometimes getting out and walking, slowly and conspicuously making their way up and down the line of students. What was the point? Hoping to capture a criminal action? Just trying to intimidate, to say, “We’re
watching you”?
Well, Tim, I’m glad you’re out there for us now, letting them know that they’re being watched now. We’re all watching them, as we always have been, but now the world can see it along with us.
Less remembered is the fact that ground-work for King’s murder was seeded, not simply by rank white supremacy, but by people who slandered King as a communist.
This was not some notion bandied about by conspiracy theorist, but an accusation proffered by men who were the pillars of the modern Republican Party:
As late as 1964, Falwell was attacking the 1964 Civil Rights Act as “civil wrongs” legislation. He questioned “the sincerity and intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, and others, who are known to have left-wing associations.” Falwell charged, “It is very obvious that the Communists, as they do in all parts of the world, are taking advantage of a tense situation in our land, and are exploiting every incident to bring about violence and bloodshed.”
Falwell was not alone. These men didn’t kill Martin Luther King, but they contributed to an atmosphere of nationalism, white supremacy and cheap unreflective patriotism that ultimately got a lot of people killed. Confronted with Apartheid South Africa, men like Helms and Falwell used the same “communist” defense. While Mandela wasted away in prison, they dismissed the whole thing as a communist plot.
Wilberforce University, and Central State, two of Ohio”s most historic black colleges, are in Greene County. Both campuses will have many students who took advantage of the overlap between new registration and early voting.
The Ohio GOP is not just trying to screw with this election. That has been obvious for months. The Ohio GOP is targeting based on race. Whether or not they are trying to just suppress black votes, or stoke racial unrest, they might get both. And that”s probably their goal.
The second type of preventative health care is screening in order to make early diagnosis. Dr. Welch correctly points out that screening programs are as likely to cause harm as they are good, even though at first this may seem counterintuitive. This is because screening tests are not perfect. They may have direct risks and may therefore cause as much harm as they prevent. They also have a false positive rate – which means that people may suffer the consequences of a false diagnosis. This could me further confirmatory tests that entail more risk, or even unecessary treatment.
What this means is that screening tests are not a no-brainer – more information is not always better. It is probably better never to know about a benign biological anomaly that would never cause you any problems in the first place. Screening tests need to be evidence-based, with their net effects thoughtfully measured and public health policy and the standard of care established accordingly. This is already done. It is an ongoing process as our diagnostic technology and knowledge of diseases and treatments evolve.
All of the things they said about Barack Obama in the TV, on the TV, at their rallies, and now on YouTube … John McCain could not bring himself to look Barack Obama in the eye and say the same things to him. In my neighborhood, when you”ve got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him.
The real writer is one who really writes. Talent is an invention like phlogiston after the fact of fire. Work is its own cure. You have to like it better than being loved. —Marge Piercy, For the young who want to in The Moon Is Always Female
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At day’s first light, have in readiness, against disinclination to leave your bed, the thought that “I am rising for the work of man.” Must I grumble at setting out to do what I was born for and for the sake of which I have been brought into the world? Is this the purpose of my creation, to lie here under my blankets and keep myself warm? “Ah, but it is a great deal more pleasant!” Was it for pleasure, then, that you were born and not for work? —Marcus Aurelius
Let me respectfully remind you, life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken-- Awaken! This night your days will be diminished by one. Take heed. Do not squander your life. —Zen Evening Gatha
Take an ax to the prison wall. Escape. Walk out like someone suddenly born into color. Do it now. —Rumi, Quietness
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is 
