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Palin might take on Fey
According to a report by the Chicago Sun Times, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin might appear in the near future on Saturday Night Live (SNL) to dish back a little of what Tina Fey has been serving. A “top honcho from the John McCain campaign” told the Sun Times that staffers are weighing the best strategy for responding to Fey’s comedic impressions of the Alaska governor. Some are thinking a return punch on the NBC airwaves–with Palin spoofing her spoofer–is the best angle.
But other analysts are questioning whether doing so is a wise political move:
While [Bob Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University in New York] would love to see the spoofer being spoofed, he’s not sure it’s a smart move for Palin. Unlike Richard Nixon, who probably earned a few votes when he appeared on the ’60s comedy show “Laugh In” and uttered its famous line, “Sock it to me,” Palin’s problem is not likability.
“I think the work she needs to do is not the kind on a comedy show,” he said. “It would be great if she could go on a snobby serious discussion show and blow everybody away. You ultimately want to distance her from Tina Fey, not point out how similar they are.”
What’s your take: Is it a bad political move for Palin to appear on SNL?
back to top68 Comments to “Palin might take on Fey”
Well, she’s definitely feeling her oats. Or maybe her lichen.
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Whatever sha decides to do, she should wait until the election is over.
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I think she should ask for royalties. As today’s NYT reports, viewership is up 50 percent. And millions of downloads.
Girl! copyright that image, claim it. It’s yours.
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When is SNL going to go after Obama the way they go after Palin?
Could it be because Obama is black? Naaa
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When is Nick going to tell us if black people are people?
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Is anyone really paying attention to this election? I found myself surprised the other day the shenanigans are still going on.
Fey was on the front page of our local paper today, above the centerfold next to “Feds to take over banks.’ Talk about Nero fiddling while Rome burns . . .
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Is it a bad political move for Palin to appear on SNL?
I think it’s a bad political move for McCain and Palin to keep doing what they’re doing.
Appearing on SNL would not hurt the campaign any more than it is hurting now. I think it would help. I’m guessing that most SNL guests are received favorably by viewers, even if they are not especially funny. Stepping away from the podium and letting your hair down a bit could do the campaign some good.
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Here’s great video of the typical Palin-McCain crowd. We’re DOOMED! The one lady reminds me of a certain poster here
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“Stepping away from the podium and letting your hair down a bit could do the campaign some good.”
I really enjoyed the Gibson and Couric interviews. I’ve heard there is quite a bit more Couric tape still to be aired.
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To Random
This is just it I do think black people are people.
And so I think they should be held to the same standards as white people.
It is the people who propose affirmative action, quotas, set-asides etc. that you should worry about. These people don’t think black people can make it on their own so they want the government to step in and give them preferential treatment.
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Yes, Lumpy, the Couric interview was edited to make Governor Palin look bad. Aren’t you proud?
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Palin doesn’t need any help to look bad, Outkast.
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To SteveG
Without giving a single example you assured us Palin looks bad.
She became a Governor on her own, Hillary became a Senator riding Bill’s coattails.
I think she has handled her overnight celebrity status and well as anyone could expect.
She may not have national experience but do you know who does? The grossly incompetent Bush.
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the Couric interview was edited to make Governor Palin look bad.
Palin doesn’t need any help to look bad
Of course the interview was edited, but it doesn’t change the fact that Palin made quite a few blunders. Editing doesn’t cause blunders.
But at the same time, I wouldn’t trust CBS to edit in a way that would favor Palin. She made mistakes on her own, and I’m certain CBS left none of them on the editing floor.
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Nick, Palin’s role in the campaign is apparently to incite hate and fear about Obama. It’s the lowest point of the McCain campaign, which has run out of ideas and has nothing but fear left to trade on.
Even if she were a competent executive — something that remains unproven — her actions lately are despicable. Here is what Palin is doing.
I’m sure the above video will warm the hearts of fearmongers like NJLawyer, but this is harmful to the country.
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Palin’s role in the campaign is apparently to incite hate and fear about Obama.
If there is a very real reason to fear an Obama presidency, isn’t it worth harping on that? I realize a lot of people think Obama is a godsend, but there are lot of others that are worried how trustworthy he is. He is young, has spent little time in the national spotlight, and has a very limited record on which to run. I think there is EVERY REASON to dig into what little past there is and talk about the red flags.
That goes for Palin as well, even though she’s not at the top of the ticket.
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Graceland: If there is reason to debate his inexperience, sure. Palin is stirring the “terrorist” pot. I know there are people who believe it. It isn’t true. And it is shameful that a national candidate is encouraging it.
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STEVEG,
I admit to not knowing the extent of Palin’s remarks on the subject (and can’t view your clip due to present internet firewall), but is there anything we can learn about a person based on those with whom he associates?
I don’t think Obama is a terrorist, nor do I think he is a Muslim. But I am a little worried about who (people and organizations) he has had close ties with. Distancing yourself from people once you are on the campaign doesn’t count in my book.
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To Graceland and Steve
I have not read Obama’s autobiography but people who have said it is filled with hatred for white people.
Obama was raised by his white grandparents after being abandoned by his black father but it is white people that he detest.
He has called his grandmother a racist and a “typical white person”.
His personal pastor for 20 years was “Rev. Wright” but Steve is worried about comments from Ms. Palin.
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Graceland: The main issue about his associations is that in the mid 1990s he was involved in the Annenberg Challenge, a national program run by the Annenberg Foundation. Also involved in it in Chicago was William Ayers, who used to be part of the Weather Underground.
What the fearmongers ignore is that in the 25 years that passed between 1970 and 1995, Ayers left his radical days behind and became a well-respected member of Chicago society. Literally dozens of respectable Chicagoans — in politics, academia and business, Republican and Democrat alike — have exactly the same “connection” to Ayers that Obama does.
Now Sarah Palin goes around saying Obama “pals around with terrorists,” as if Ayers in 1995 is exactly the same as Ayers in 1970, and that therefore Obama in 2008 is exactly the same as Ayers in 1970. That is what they want you to believe, based on no more evidence than an acquaintance.
It’s sadly common for these kinds of allegations to float on whisper campaigns. Back in 2000, McCain was the target of such a campaign alleging he’d fathered an illegitimate black baby. I don’t know any way to stop people from spreading rumors around, but for Palin to be doing it as the official representative of the McCain-Palin ticket is a disgrace.
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Steve,
Worrying about his association with Ayers is not only legitimate, but is FAR MORE legitimate that most of the complaints thrown at Palin.
Worse, you NEVER respond to the Jeremiah Wright concerns, which are far more worrisome, and for which there really is no excuse.
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The rhetoric at Palin-McCain performances has become increasingly unhinged, dishonorable, and dangerous. There have been fans shouting “Kill him!” “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” during Sarah and John’s rants about Obama.
To my knowledge none of this has been denounced by McCain or Palin.
Fortunately, the Secret Service is now investigating the threats.
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Without McCain, it would have been called the Keating Four.
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TRS: I don’t know what I’m supposed to say about the Jeremiah Wright “concerns.” I’m not concerned about them because I see no evidence that Obama’s own views reflect the worst of Wright. If others think it’s more of a problem than I do, vote accordingly.
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Looks like Lumpy is back to her former ways, with just a changed name.
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TRS, we’ll see your Jeremiah Wright and Ayers and raise you one treasonous potential first man and a witch doctor. Not to mention three ruined airplanes, a bunch of betrayed MIA’s and a chicken Navy captain who fled his burning aircraft carrier for R+R in Saigon, apparently without leave.
Anyone wanna talk about issues?
Didn’t think so.
Hint: It’s a)the economy, b)health care, c)the war, stupids. With apologies to Mr Carville.
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To Steve G
You cannot be serious. If Obama sat in Wright’s church and listened to his rants for 20 years than that tells me he accepts Wright’s positions.
As for the Ayers-Obama connection imagine if during the same time period McCain was hanging around with David Duke.
Would it be acceptable for the Democrats to bring that up? Of course it would.
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Nick,
What are your thoughts on Sarah Palin’s African witch chasing Pastor Muthee? She credits him with her governorship.
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Is it a bad political move for Palin to appear on SNL?
It’s a bad campaign move for Palin to appear anywhere except in front of sycophantic GOP mobs. All she does is confirm her statue as – in the words of conservative columnist David Brooks – a “cancer” on the Republican Party.
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She credits him with her governorship.
Got proof to go along with your accusations, Lumpy?
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#29 – er, “stature” (not “statue”) as a “Cancer”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/david-brooks-sarah-palin_n_133001.html
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[Sarah Palin] represents a fatal cancer to the Republican party. When I first started in journalism, I worked at the National Review for Bill Buckley. And Buckley famously said he’d rather be ruled by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty. But he didn’t think those were the only two options. He thought it was important to have people on the conservative side who celebrated ideas, who celebrated learning. And his whole life was based on that, and that was also true for a lot of the other conservatives in the Reagan era. Reagan had an immense faith in the power of ideas. But there has been a counter, more populist tradition, which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely. And I’m afraid that Sarah Palin has those prejudices. I think President Bush has those prejudices.
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When you have some evidence about Obama and Ayers other than that they moved in the same political circles in the ’90s — as did dozens of other people in Chicago — go ahead and present it. Until you do, “they knew each other” does not fill me with fear.
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Here you go, Weaky- #30
Here is Sarah getting the special Muthee witchcraft protection and blessing.
Here is Sarah crediting Muthee in a June 2008 performance at the Wasilla Assembly of God.
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Nick: As for the Ayers-Obama connection imagine if during the same time period McCain was hanging around with David Duke.
Would it be acceptable for the Democrats to bring that up? Of course it would.
Obama was not “hanging around” with Ayers! That is the root of the lie here. This keeps being presented as if they were best friends, close companions, hardly ever out of one another’s sight. That is not the case.
They served together on an education project, along with a couple of dozen other people. Obama once attended a fundraiser for another politician that Ayers hosted, and Ayers donated two hundred bucks to one of Obama’s campaigns. There is NO evidence that they were actually friends. There is no evidence that they spent one minute of time together that wasn’t as part of a group meeting for official business.
This is a sleazy and dishonest guilt-by-association attempt. Period. And your eagerness to take part in it tells me a lot more about you than Obama.
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I hope Victoria comes on and reads this. I received an email that said Obama had been a member of a socialist party up until 1996, something like the New Socialist Party, and that they cleansed their records of his membership recently. I know Victoria will find out if this is true.
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At this point, Palin needs to be taken seriously, rather than as a side show to McCain. She should appear on O’Reilly.
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“This is a sleazy and dishonest guilt-by-association attempt. Period.”
Amen
McCain is now running a desperate Willie Horton campaign….
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I’m sure believe everything you read in your anonymous spam e-mail NJLawyer. Did you get your millions from your contact in the Nigerian government yet?
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NJL-
Were they America-Hating-Secessionists like the party Palin’s hubby belongs to in Alaska?
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Here it is at the Americanthinker.com
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/10/archives_prove_obama_was_a_new.html
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See AmericanThinker blog today regarding the New Party and Obama’s membership.
See Foxnews.com for an article about Murtagh — his family’s home was targeted by Ayers. He doesn’t think much of Obama’s judgment.
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NJL relying upon Victoria for fact-checking?
It’s sure as heck The-Axis-of-Something-or-Other!
Hint: Issues.
1.Economy–in the cr__per.
2.Health Care–Folks Dying.
3.War–see 1 and 2 above
4.Abortion–McCain is sort of okay with ‘em
5.Immigrants–McCain is sort of okay with ‘em
6.Taxes–breaks for Exxon and Buffett or breaks for 90% of us.
Well maybe Ayres and lapel pins will fly…NOT
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#10
Nick, I am glad you believe black people are people. Have you ever actually met a black person in person? Perhaps black people are a myth.
When my daughter was four years old, my wife and I decided to go across town to a city park that has some woods in the middle. (The loop around the woods is about 2.5 miles.)
When we arrived at the park and saw the large trees, our daughter began to cry and didn’t want to get out of the car and walk with us into the woods. She screamed that the bears were going to eat her. We explained that 1)there were no bears in a city park and 2) we would hold her hand and protect her in case any bears did show up.
Nick, perhaps if someone at wmb holds your hand, they will protect you in case any bears or black people show up. Actually, quite a few people seem fairly frightened that a black President might show up. Perhaps you can protect them.
Here is the seriouis question again (though I have given up on ever getting a serious answer from you): have you ever actually met a real black person in person, in the flesh?
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Is it a bad political move for Palin to appear on SNL?
Who on earth cares?
Who?
It’s litter strewn around under the seats at media generated election year circuses.
Scramble, Baby!
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And troll away, RPN! Your comments live under the seats.
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#34 The second video was interesting – Palin nodding her head while somebody says Alaska will be one of the “refuge” states in the last times, when “hundreds of thousands” will come to Alaska to seek refuge.
Of course, there is a rather amusing sense of scale here. “Hundreds of thousands” is the current state population (~700,000), but it’s only a modest-sized city down in the “lower 48.” I guess not that many of us will take up God’s offer to be an Alaskan refugee …
Sarah’s actually kinda cute in this video in a young church-lady sorta way, but NOT presidential. It is totally bizarre to imagine having a president who thinks the time is soon coming when specially chosen members of the population will be selected to move up to the arctic circle.
Bananas!
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Work it NJL!
I liked Collins take on the topic – a humorous one for a topic that needs to lighten up!
Clearing the Ayers
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#37 – “At this point, Palin needs to be taken seriously, rather than as a side show to McCain. She should appear on O’Reilly.”
That’s really funny!
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To Random #44
I noticed you just called Obama a (soon to be) black President.
Didn’t his “grandmother” just get attacked in Kenya and also is living in abject poverty? If Obama lifted a finger to help her I am not aware of it. No, Obama is black when it suits him.
To answer your question of course I know plenty of black people. And like white people some are good, some not so good.
But on the other hand one thing I have noticed is that black people want to leave black neighborhoods and move into whites ones as soon as they can afford it.
Their actions speak volumes.
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Their actions speak volumes.
And what exactly do they say, pray tell?
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NJLawyer’s latest hysteria includes the word “socialist,” so that no doubt makes it super-scary.
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Well, I just met a woman from Nigeria by chance. She’s been here a few years, she’s black, and she brought the election up in the conversation. She will not be voting for Obama because she says the media is not telling the truth, Obama is not telling the truth and that Obama is the person foretold in the Bible that everyone will love him. She distrusts him.
Socialism has destroyed Europe. It will destroy this country, too. I’d rather be hysterical about socialism and ring a warning bell about it than be ghoulish and delight in the suffocation death of child any day. And that’s exactly what you ghouls did.
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There are still decent people in this country who will read Mr. Murtagh’s article and not cheer on the one who would have killed his family. I don’t expect that from the ghouls here either.
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What I notice is none of the ghouls have an answer for Murtagh’s comments, but I suspect it is far easier to mock me than it is to really think about his comments, just as it was easy to joke about the death of a child and suggest eating the baby with barbecue sauce.
Just murderers supporting murderers all the way around. Life is cheap.
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NJLawyer: The Bush administration just approved a $700 billion bailout of financial firms, and McCain is proposing to have the taxpayers buy up bad mortgages and renegotiate them.
Those are both examples of something much closer to actual socialism than anything Obama wants to do.
So no, I’m not impressed by your scaremongering based on what people he knows did 30 years ago or people throwing around the word “socialist” about him in the absence of any evidence that his ideas would be bad for the country.
Opposing him on the basis of the abortion stance is at least a real issue on which he has a real position. And since that seems to be yours and Drill’s most significant realty-based objection, I don’t know why you keep dragging all this other stuff into it.
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NJLawyer: delight in the suffocation death of child any day. And that’s exactly what you ghouls did.
Again, I ask that you clarify you do not mean to include me in this. Or if you do, I demand you retract your slander.
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#50
Nick, thank you for your reply.
I am glad to hear that you personally know black people and recognize “To answer your question of course I know plenty of black people. And like white people some are good, some not so good.”
“‘Didn’t his “grandmother” just get attacked in Kenya and also is living in abject poverty? If Obama lifted a finger to help her I am not aware of it. No, Obama is black when it suits him.”
I have several times said on these boards that I suspect that Obama and his wife are “oreos,” a slang term for a person who is “black on the outside and white on the inside.” Whether or not one likes or admires the Obamas, it takes a fair amount of work to get through law school, as he and his wife did. I don’t know if Ogama should be President or not. For that matter, some people wonder whether McCain is a conservative. For that matter, given your skepticism about US policy in the Middle East, I am not sure it makes sense for you to support McCain.
Now that you are talking to me (which I appreciate) I will bring up old unfinished conversation which still bugs me.
About 30 years ago I taught in a public high school with a very racially mixed student body: about 1/3 white, 1/3 black, 1/3 Asian, with a few Hispanic, American Indian, and Somoan people for “variety.” We ended up moving closer to where I worked. The house we rented was on a street where every face was black except my wife’s, my daughter’s, and mine.
We were a little uncomfortable at first, but as I had been working in the “community” for several years already, it was no “big deal.”
When I mentioned this, perhaps a year ago, I took your silence as a quiet assertion that I was lying. NJLawyer seemed to feel that I was making an unfair assertion about you.
So I will assume you are reading this message. Do you believe that I am telling the truth? (It’s hard to tell on the Internet if anyone is lying, I know.)
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As for Murtagh, this happened in 1970. Nobody’s denied that Ayers was guilty of some really bad stuff back then. What is it you imagine you’re proving by repeatedly finding evidence of stuff everybody already agrees with and acknowledges?
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And Murtagh doesn’t even know for sure that it was Ayers’ group, let alone Ayers personally.
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While I am talking to Nick (I hope this has turned into a conversation and not a couple of posts hurled at each other).
I have read messages by you that strike me as rather condescending to women. (This may be unfair, but I am not sure you care much of what people think about your opinions.)
As I’ve said, I consider Palin a “pro-life feminist.” I’m not in total agreement with people here about abortion, but not in total disagreement either. I think the word “feminist” has unfairly become an insult. I think it means a woman who develops here intelligence, skills, and assertiveness. I don’t think it necessarily means a woman who is or is not sexually promiscuous, or pro-abortion or anti-abortion, or who feels she has to dominate men just to make a silly point.
To try and undercut the silly connotations of “feminist” I once referred to strong conservative women as “thatchers,” but these days I am less inclined to placate people in the careless way in which they use words.
I am guessing that Palin’s conservative and pro-life credentials in your mind cancel out other aspects of her personality and behavior that you might otherwise object to. Am I correct or incorrect? I hope you continue to be in a mood to have a serious conversation.
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Tina Fey may beat me up for not being funny at all today.
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In which post SteveG did you show your outrage?
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Faux News = the official propaganda voice of the Republican Party
American Thinker = the leading Obama “smear” merchant of the right-wing
I wouldn’t trust anything either of those two outfits say.
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Well, I just met a woman from Nigeria by chance. She’s been here a few years, she’s black, and she brought the election up in the conversation. She will not be voting for Obama because she says the media is not telling the truth, Obama is not telling the truth and that Obama is the person foretold in the Bible that everyone will love him. She distrusts him
And this is relevant to support what argument???
Socialism has destroyed Europe.
Now that’s amusing considering the world’s current credit crisis stems from the US deregulated banking sector. In fact Bush’s Latin American opponents are amused at Bush’s sudden conversion to socialism.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/717074.html
It appears even Bush thinks socialism is the way out of the current crisis.
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As I scanned her Facebook account, I was stunned. We grew up together in South Dakota. A pastor’s kid, it appeared she had graduated from a Christian high school and received a religious studies degree at a state university. I hadn’t talked with her for over 15 years. In that time, I had weathered my parents’ divorce, thyroid cancer, a Bachelor’s degree in global political economies, studying and volunteering in Tanzania, South Africa, Switzerland, Mexico and Alaska, a year of disaster recovery work with FEMA and a few random jobs in corporate America. These life experiences developed a deep passion for social justice, cultural understanding and wholestic health within me. It seemed, although we had begun in the same church background, eating meals together around the same table, this childhood friend and I had grown in drastically different directions.
As I read her Facebook profile, I discovered she’s a member of several groups: ‘Stop Barack Obama.’ ‘Sara Palin should not be vice president…she should be president!’ I chuckled at the misspelling and capitalization errors. ‘Governor Sarah Palin for VP.’ ‘Pro-Life.’ To top it all off, she had written as her status (20 hours earlier): “I’m losing hope! We may have to suffer under Obama as president! Lord please save us!”
My first two presidential votes were in favor of George W. Bush. As I look back, I believe I had been swayed by the rhetoric and agendas the Christian conservatives fed me during my early years. This year, I proudly stood outside in sleet and rain with a record turnout of primary voters to stand for Barack Obama.
I was bewildered by my friend’s comments about the politician who inspires hope in my soul. I wrote her and asked why we’d suffer. Her response was even more mindboggling. “ I love political dialogue! My political views begin first of all with what the bible says about ethics and morality. That is where I begin whenever I make a decision about things in our country. My love for america takes a very close second. I was seriously thinking about voting for Obama about 6 months ago. But that all changed for good when Barack Obama refused to salute our flag during the National Anthem. He does not love this country and I want someone leading our country who loves it, believes in it and will stand up for it. I would have a really hard time voting for McCain too but he chose a kick ass running mate and I think that Palin balances out the negatives!”
I read no specifics on what kind of suffering we’d face or any real voting rationale with substance. And I never knew saluting
the flag was the duty of an American. Maybe saluting an officer if you’re in the military. Probably McCain got these two things confused when his team created the stir.
Instead of following Jesus, it seems evangelical, mainstream churched folks have become followers of Republicans guised as conservative family values. Followers of creatively crafted lies, mass-marketing, drama-ridden media and consumption patterns driven by corporate greed and shame. The choice of Palin leads me to believe Republicans’ only hope is to cater to the “47% of American adults who attend church in a given weekend.” (The Barna Research Group, 2005, http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_rate.htm) A large percent of this half of the U.S. population holds judgments, critical thinking abilities and beliefs similar to my Facebook friend. The doctrines of the mainstream churched and Republican conservatives smell awfully similar.
We’ve boiled down ethics and morality to a dysfunctional relationship with sex. Sex is the only sacred thing left to get involved in…as long as it’s not before or outside of marriage. Sex comes up again in the pro-life (at least concerning abortion) and pro-marriage between one man and one woman outcries. Why did conservative Republicans want Clinton impeached? Sex. The Bush Administration has acted without a conscience countless times. Average people who act as if they don’t have a conscience are clinically diagnosed as sociopaths and are locked up in rehab. Yet, I’m assuming since he didn’t get a little under the table (greenbacks don’t count) that’s not part of our narrow sphere of moral concern.
We’ve become a club of fear and control and taking care of our own. We won’t reach across the pew, across generation or race, across the street and ocean to love the ‘them’. Unless a few projects under the mission tab on our websites which fund some feel good Americanization salvation vacations count. McCain seems to follow suit — because he just takes care of those like him. In the first debate he states, “I know the veterans. I know them well. And I know that they know that I’ll take care of them. And I love them. And I’ll take care of them. And they know that I’ll take care of them. And that’s going to be my job.” I wonder if he is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (and a need to find some kind of honorable victory to recreate after Vietnam’s defeat) and he needs some help too. We must stop using war to secure resources to fuel the overconsumption in the Western world. We can’t call this peacekeeping and peacemaking. McCain also claims he’ll freeze all non-defense and veteran affairs spending. War, baby, war goes right along with drill, baby, drill! But it’s okay. Deuteronomy, somewhere in that book, it says it’s okay. And those Muslims are evil anyways. It goes back to Abraham, remember? We must have difficulty seeing reality because in churches today we’ve put a freeze on all spending not related to the spiritual war on all the wrong things that will damn us to hell.
Oh, and don’t cut our bigger buildings which consume more utilities while we use our spaces less often. We create programs that look more like franchised goods rather than authentic community. Influential families act as lobbyists for self-interests. Instead of Hybrids, bike racks, bus stops and car pooling, we fill our parking lots with SUVs and seem to agree with Palin that global warming isn’t caused by human activity. We have overweight people eating potlucks filled with processed, chemical ridden, unfair traded food instead of locally grown, organic, fair trade nutrition. We add an additional tax (a tithe) in order to fund it all. And the only people benefitting — the Chinese who make all the stuff and big business. It’s not the marginalized, the hurt, the broken, those who have companies that desire social justice and do responsible entrepreneurship. Yet, somehow I believe, we don’t want to create life-giving, freedom for people. We believe we have to keep average Joe six packs feeling guilty, shamed and broken so they’ll need us. Or entertained with dumbed down teaching. One way or another, we must keep them coming back because we need their money to fund our operations. I’m surprised we haven’t created “calculate your return on investment per square foot” salvation software yet. It would continue our vision of profiting off people by reacting to the latest trends. Since we can’t join the world, we just copy it and label it our own.
And heaven forbid we can’t have any grassroots activity. That’s dangerous. Palin said it herself in her RNC speech. “ I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.” It’s all top down. The trickle down approach. No handouts. Everything is earned (unless you’re a crony of mine). Healthcare (and salvation) is a responsibility not a right. No shaking up things too much or we’ll kick you out. We rule by control and fear. No wonder the Republicans win our votes. Through the war on terror, they like pretending to keep America safe too.
I see great potential and energy in faith communities throughout the country. Yet, it more often than not is either asleep or misdirected. We need less “Lord, please save us” — an apathetic excuse born out of a distorted worldview about heaven starting later and just being for a few who deserve it — and more creativity and dreams being valued. We ought to be the leading proponents of social change, environmental care and economic responsibility. What an amazing reason for church growth! Our Biblical narrative has the depth to deliver this, to motivate the change needed in our belief structures and lifestyle choices. We can no longer give blind approval to cronyism, fear, greed, war, genocide, torture, prisons, cancer, divorce, hunger, homelessness, the unregulated consumption of the earth, unethical business practices, unfair trade policies, the cycles of addiction, neglect and abuse…We cannot afford more of the same. Our planet can’t. Humans can’t. I can’t. Yet, if we tie up our resources on buildings and take care of us programs, we won’t have the time, money and energy to invest in the endless possibilities of following Jesus — of participating in the life of God — within our closest neighborhoods and the farthest reaches of the earth. We are given voices and freedom to pursue transformation in the political, economic, environmental, social and relational realms of life. We’re offered the privilege of becoming a presence of courage, hope, compassion, peace, acceptance, gratitude, love and justice. What beautiful realities to receive and be!
Can we begin giving priority to conservation, renewable energy, sharing space and green building? We must start using our resources wisely. We ought to mandate a trip to the garbage dump every time we renew our car tags. Let’s start turning off our TVs, Blackberries and IPods for a while and start reading the labels on our products (not to mention books and independent media sources). We need to start researching the companies we support through the dollars we spend. Let’s plant a garden and stop consuming stuff we buy for $9.99 on sale and throw away in bags and piles. Can we heal the sacred/secular divisions in the world so ethics and morality stretch beyond sex? It would enable us to change our core focus from an escapist salvation to a redeeming one — one which heals the deep trauma, loss and pain in our lives while celebrating our gifts, joys and dreams. We’d begin investing in honest relationships with ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our leaders, the poor and rich in our communities, those ethnically and culturally different than us… It is time our energies be awakened and redirected to discovering the possibilities of creating a renewed world. May we to find room for these relationships and conversations to be fostered without preconditions around a common table– a table made from recycled wood by laborers paid a living wage.
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I see we’re continuing to keep Lumpy from influencing the votes of those who actually could be influenced by her/his spam.
Whoo-hoo! — McCain-Palin ‘08!!
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If spam is answering your question with proof of Palin crediting an African witch chaser with her governorship, then I have to laugh hardily, Kasty.
Here’s another inconvenient vid for the McCain campaign, although it uses Bill O’Reilly’s favorite word once at the end. This will make an excellent ad if they bleep that one bad word out.
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