I’d love some input on this, particular from Republicans.
The original article can be found here
On “Meet the Press” today, Colin L. Powell concluded his endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama by referring to the death of a Muslim soldier, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan of Manahawkin, N.J., who was killed in Iraq on Aug. 6, 2007, and whose remains were buried in Arlington.
Mr. Khan graduated from Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin in 2005, and enlisted in the Army a few months later, spurred by his memories of the 9/11 terror attacks. “His Muslim faith did not make him not want to go. It never stopped him,” his father, Feroze Khan, told the Gannett News Service in a story printed shortly after his death. “He looked at it that he’s American and he has a job to do.”
Kareem Rashad Sultan KhanHe and three other soldiers, including a corporal from Washington Heights, were killed in Baquba after a bomb detonated while they were checking abandoned houses for explosives. They served in the Stryker Brigade combat team of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, based in Ft. Lewis, Washington.
What I want to know from McCain supporters and in particular, people who are “scared” of Obama b/c of the popular misconception that he is a Muslim (which the above article is a great reason why that should be a non-issue if he were) is how does this article make you feel? If you have been rallying against Obama for being a Muslim and if you believe all Muslims are terrorists, how does it make you feel to know that this man, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, died fighting for America? Does it give you pause? Does it make you rethink some of the ignorance that has been so popular in the last few weeks? Does it make you realize that ALL American citizens are “REAL Americans”? Really, I’m just curious. I think the NYTimes piece is an incredible way of reminding us, particularly the xenophobic racists, that America is a melting pot and that religion, race, or economic status should not divide us. As I’ve said before, America was populated by immigrants. Unless you are a Native American, you are a decendent of an immigrant. We all are. Freedom OF and freedom FROM religion, guys. This man, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, DIED fighting for AMERICA. Just think about that for a while. Also, please watch the following video, I’d like to know if after hearing General Colin Powell’s logical and well-stated endorsement of Barack Obama and reading the article about Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan fighting and dying on the side of AMERICA and then watching this attached video makes you feel differently. I’m serious. I would really love to hear some honest replies about why or why not your mind was changed, even if you still don’t intend to vote for Obama due to political disagreements or what have you. Thank you in advance.
Politics of Hate
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/14/palin-rally-kill-him-yell_n_134597.html
Chris Hackett addressed the increasingly feisty crowd as they await the arrival of Gov. Palin.
Each time the Republican candidate for the seat in the 10th Congressional District mentioned Barack Obama the crowd booed loudly.
One man screamed “kill him!”
This is getting ridiculous. Where is the secret service at times like this? I am so incredibly embarrassed and fearful at this point. Are we coming to a time where it will be unsafe for a person to publicly support Barack Obama? Are we spiraling back in time to the civil rights era? I personally feel that if the unspeakable happens to Barack Obama, the blame will lay in part on Sarah Palin and John McCain and every one of their supporters who condone this behavior. Palin and McCain’s silence during these hateful comments is the same as condoning it. I don’t for one second believe that they can’t hear these hateful, ignorant people. Sarah Palin has addressed people calling her “a hottie” by saying “what does that have to do with anything” and also the other day when she thought she had some protestors at her rally, she parroted her practiced talking point about the soldiers who are fighting to protect their right to protest. By the way, the Iraq war has nothing to do with my right to protest idiots like her, the Constitution took care of that. My step mother, whom I love but whole heartedly disagree with, sent me an anti-Obama email today. I will not post the email b/c it’s crap and doesn’t need to be circulated any further. My response is below:
But Obama isn’t a muslim. That’s old news that was started by a very ignorant and racist person and has circulated like the wildfires in Cali. Is daddy OK with electing a man (McCain) who repeatedly votes AGAINST veterans? Also on foreign policy, General Petraus and McKiernan have voiced that Obama’s foreign policy proposals on Afghanistan and Iraq are correct. I’m sorry. I respect your opinions but I am very terrified of turning over the country to a 72 year old man who flip flops daily on his ideas and a complete twit of a woman who is nothing more than a parrot for talking points. She is a complete liar, has abused power (as has McCain) and she is so incredibly uninformed it turns my stomach. Not to mention the fear, ignorance, and hate mongering at their rallies. Their rallies are beginning to look an awful lot like KKK rallies or something from 1930s Germany. I respect Palin’s religious beliefs but can not respect her attempts to force them upon America. If I were to be raped she would have me carry my attackers baby while Ken would be forced to watch AND I would have to pay for my own rape kit b/c apparently a woman who allows herself to get raped was just too stupid to stop it and was probably asking for it in the first place. I can not and will not support what the GOP has become. The GOP is no longer the party of Roosevelt and Lincoln. It’s turning into the extreme right-wing Evangelical scare tactic mess that was outlined and documented in the compelling documentary Jesus Camp. Trust me when I say I have deeply investigated BOTH tickets and I can find nothing to fear from an Obama/Biden administration. I have everything to fear from a McCain/Palin administration….namely, my Constitutional rights.
I know this is a sore subject but just as you and daddy are solidified in your political beliefs, so am I. I respect yours and ask that you please respect mine. I am incredibly informed and spend much of my waking time flipping between news sources and scouring the internet for information. I have done extensive fact checking and refuse to base my opinions on forwarded emails (that are 9 times out of 10 debunked as false) and political ads. I have been careful not to voice my political opinions unless I’m speaking to the choir. This country was founded in part on freedom FROM religion, not just freedom OF religion. Also, Muslim doesn’t equal bad terrorist. Palin’s got closer terrorist ties than Obama. By the way, the Ayers thing is a load of crap seeming as Obama was 8 when Ayers was actively protesting the Vietnam war and the charity committee that Obama and Ayers sat on endorsed John McCain. Guilt by association could work both ways. Cindy McCain is STILL involved with Keating. Palin’s husband was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party until 2002, when Palin was Mayor of Wasilla, that wishes to seccede from the States. If you want some direct quotes from Joe Vogler, the founder, I can provide them. They’re not very patriotic.
“I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.”“You get to think why the hell do I owe them anything and then you get mad; and you say to hell with them; and you renounce allegiance; and you pledge your efforts, your effects, your honor, your life, to Alaska; that is how I do it; I am an Alaskan; they know it; I’ve told them to go to hell in every way I can in a nice way; I took a case to the Supreme Court believing in the Supreme Court, but I’d rather be tried in a whorehouse with the madam as the Judge; there is more Justice in a whorehouse than in the Supreme Court; and if they don’t like they know where they can go; ….. and if you think I am ever going to forget that, the fires of Hell are glaciers compared to my hate for the American Government, and I won’t be buried under their damn flag; I’ll be buried in Dawson and when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones back to Alaska, back to my country.”
Sarah Palin addressed this committe via video and told them to “keep up the good work” very recently. Last year and this year. I can provide video if you want it.
My point after writing this novel is that if the GOP wants to sling mud and stoke fires that will throw us right back to pre civil rights era bull crap, they ought to be careful b/c they have way more skeletons than Obama has. Every smear that has been said/written about Obama has been proven false and weak straw man arguments. It frightens me that people will support a ticket that has people screaming “terrorist”, “treason”, “off with his head”, “kill him” and “bomb Obama”. It makes me wonder if McCain’s supporters are ALL closet racists who feel they have been given permission. I don’t want to think that b/c there are some Republicans that I love who I would like to think don’t condone this. How long til people start lynching black people again? This is the reason why so many well known GOPers have turned their back on this ticket and are flocking in droves to vote Libertarian or for (gasp!) Obama. I love you very much, but on this subject we can not and will not agree. I am too informed this election to vote Republican.
She didn’t say anything back, really, other than that she loves me and her two sons (who support Obama). I think she realizes that she is willfully ignorant on the issues and controversies in this election. My father admitted to me that he hasn’t watched or read any information about this election because he works roughly 10 hours a day. He is voting Republican because he always does and he doesn’t like Jeremiah Wright. He wasn’t interested in hearing about Palin or McCain’s radical religious affiliations (of course). I love them though, I do.
What if Obama WAS Muslim? Does that matter? There’s no law saying that the POTUS has to be a Christian. Why is being Muslim or Arab now considered bad? This country was populated by immigrants (after they stole the land from the Natives). Speaking of Natives, Sarah Palin isn’t exactly on their side.
This whole election season is exhausting me. I’m so ready to fast forward to the inauguration of President Obama. I have seen this election bring out the worst in people. People that I respected have shown their true racist and fearful colors. America is a melting pot. Why does the idea of a biracial President scare people so badly? Barack Obama has the potential to be a wonderful President. He surrounds himself with highly intelligent people with experience in areas he may lack. We have spent the last 8 years with a President that people voted for because he was the type of guy they’d like to have a beer with. How bout voting for the smart guy this time? I wouldn’t mind having a beer with the Obamas. I think Barack is a very likable guy and Michelle is incredible. I highly admire them both. They have done wonderful things for people. John McCain has a sense of entitlement, like we OWE him the Presidency. He was one of 600 POWs. His daddy issues are better left to a qualified therapist, not the White House. I’m rambling. I’m becoming incoherent. Sarah Palin is rubbing off on me!
Brave New Films posted a new video regarding all this race baiting, hate and fear mongering, and just outright IGNORANCE at the Palin rallies. Let’s watch:
Remember, babies know a good person when they meet one.
Palin’s rape kit controversy continues
The Wasilla Project covers the Sarah Palin rape kit controversy, interviewing several Alaskans who add to the case that she knew of the policy of charging victims for their own rape kits. Eric Croft, the Democratic lawmaker who worked to overturned the practice, says its hard to believe Palin didn’t know about it. Dr. Colleen Murphy, a former member of the Alaska Violent Crimes Compensation Board, says she was approached by rape victims who had been charged for their exams. Wasilla Project points out that while Palin said that it would be “crazy” to charge rape victims for their forensic exams, she never denied that her hometown did so while she was mayor. A Wasilla City Council member (once a Republican, now an independent) wonders why Palin’s mayoral administration couldn’t cover the cost of rape kits when, according to reports, she redecorated her office several times. Watch:
This is news??
Seriously?? With all the problems in the world right now, really? The Republicans are starting to sound like very whiny, superficial high school kids. I, personally, would like to see less airbrushing on magazines in general. I’m glad they didn’t airbrush her. Go to www.jezebel.com and search for their series entitled “photoshop of horrors” to see how the mags airbrush women within an inch of their life to see what I mean. Airbrushing Sarah Palin wouldn’t get rid of the ugliness of her heart, though.
LOL also, this:
Is this the Republican base we keep hearing about?
Is this the “Republican base” we keep hearing about?
Huffington Post posted this beauty today. They included a video with quick Palin fan interviews. I am embarrassed for these people. I think I understand a little better what type of people are attracted to Palin. I’m just frightened that there’s so many of them that weren’t interviewed here.
Palin wants to be worse than Cheney?
It was creepy to watch Sarah Palin ignore Gwen Ifill’s questions and repeat the same scripted answers over and over, as if she were oblivious to her physical surroundings. Even creepier was the fact that so many Republicans interviewed afterward seemed to do the same thing, each robotically repeating the same stock phrases. It was like that scene in Children of the Damned where their eyes start glowing and they all speak in unison.
Read the rest of the article here Palin Runs for Senate Dictator
Sarah Palin is NOT healthy for this country
Let me start by saying I love Joe Biden. I have always liked him, but now I LOVE him. This man has done more for women than Palin (a vagina owner) has ever done. VAWA, anyone?
Palin is so anti-woman that it frightens me. The fact that she wants the VP to have MORE power than Cheney is terrifying. BTW, kudos to my man Biden for saying “Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous VP we have had in history.” Let’s think about this. We already know that Palin is anti-choice (I refuse to call it pro-life b/c it implies that pro-choice people are anti-life). If Palin had her way, women who have been raped or molested would be forced to carry and deliver her attacker’s baby. Let’s put that in perspective. I am engaged to a very loving, supportive, and all around wonderful man. If I were raped by some asshat in Palin’s world, my fiance would be forced to watch me pregnant with another man’s baby. A man who violated me and stole a large piece of my soul. When I put it in that perspective for him, my fiance said “Damn that, I’d have to kill a son of a bitch before I allowed that”. Ladies, how would your men feel? Gentlemen, how would YOU feel in that instance? OK, we also know that in Alaska, if you are raped, you are to pay for your own rape kits. Again, let’s think about this. Women who are raped report feelings of shame. Society has a tendency to blame the victim. If a woman is raped and feels shameful and blames herself for being attacked already, what is the likelihood that she would even report her rape? Compound that with having to PAY for the forensics testing. There’s a lot to the rape kits. There’s swab after swab looking for DNA. The rape kit portion is another invasion as it is, but to be forced to PAY for it?? Seems to me, the consequences to this would be even MORE underreporting of rape/incest, even MORE self-guilt, and even MORE of a license for men to violate women. The consequence to making abortion illegal is women reverting to coat hanger, back alley abortions. It will NOT, I repeat, NOT make abortion cease to exist. I personally don’t think that I could have an abortion unless I was raped or my life was in danger, but I don’t think ANYONE has the right to tell ANYONE what to do with their bodies. So Sarah Palin revering herself for making the difficult “choice” of having a special needs child grates on my nerves. If you’re anti-choice, don’t say you made the “choice”. Also, stop revering your daughter for making the choice to have her baby. She’s YOUR daughter. Do you honestly expect us to believe she ever had a choice in the first place? Oh, and by the way, abstinence only education doesn’t work. See Bristol Palin.
Fundamentalist Christians make me uncomfortable on a lot of different levels. Fundamentalist Christians are the Neo-Conservative base. Fundamentalist Christians, such as Sarah Palin, believe the Earth is 6,000 years old. They also believe that the apocolypse or rapture (depending on the camp) is happening really soon. Do you think that Sarah Palin will have any qualms nuking the planet that she thinks isn’t going to last much longer anyway? She literally thinks that people and dinosaurs were on Earth at the same time. So, the Flinstones was a documentary? Yeah, ok Sarah, keep sailing that boat. Your father was a science teacher. Science and religion can go hand in hand. By the way, I’m a progressive Christian.
Anyway, after all my ramblings, my point is this. Sarah Palin = extremist danger. You know those extreme Muslims that want a jihad? They’re scary right? Sarah Palin believes the war in Iraq is God’s plan. If I were a jihadist, I would hear that and say “Game on!” Do you want her sitting down with Putin and saying folksy things like “You betcha” and “doggone it”? There’s a time for casual conversation and a time for professionalism. What we witnessed last night was not professionalism. These candidates are basically on a job interview right now. When I was 16 and interviewed for my first job at Krystal I was more professional than Sarah Palin has been thus far. Oh, and Sarah Palin, stop calling me “Joe Six-pack”. It’s nauseating and offensive. You make it sound like middle class Americans are a bunch of ignorant rednecks. Oh, and also, stop winking at me. We’re not friends. I do not like you. Stop acting like you know me. You are from Alaska, which is NOT a microcosm of the world. You know not of my struggles. I have one house, one car, and very little discretionary income. You and your husband have 5 properties, a boat, and an airplane. We have NOTHING in common other than our gender being able to read.
McCain’s horrible temper, disrespect, and my way or the high way attitude coupled with Sarah Palin’s extreme beliefs and lack of professionalism and respect = DANGER! Warn your friends! Vote! Encourage others to vote!
HRC video LGBT Alaskans on Sarah Palin
I know people keep saying that she’s not running for President, but Vice President. I get that, I really do. However, please remember that she will be a heartbeat away from becoming President if God forbid something happens to McCain should he win the election. VP candidates do matter.
I also know that some of you may wonder why this concerns me since I’m straight. It affects me because I believe that all Americans should have the same rights. I would love to see an America without discrimination. I don’t like politics and religion intermingling. Sarah Palin also believes this Earth is only 6,000 years old and that humans and dinosaurs coexisted (see article below)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/28/palin-claimed-dinosaurs-a_n_130012.html
