Obama polling behind McCain in even one national poll frankly strikes me as impossible.
One way of restoring some sanity or reality to this might be to remind people that John McCain
actually had the nerve to call Social Security a disgrace.
Well, maybe it is, but not in the way he thinks.
Not every worker has to pay the Social Security payroll tax. Since the tax is big and regressive, one might think that this is a good thing for those workers, but by design, this was not so. Two major categories of workers who were not required to pay into this program were farm workers and domestic workers. As a result, they also did not qualify for any benefits to be paid out of the program back to them. Why exactly did this happen?
Well, if you would notice the race and gender of the industrial and unionized workers that Social Security (and Unemployment Insurance as well) were primarily designed to help, this might become clearer to you.
We are in the process of selecting the next President of the United States, the "Leader of the Free World", a man who will guide this country through some very difficult times, not a drinking buddy. So stop asking who we'd rather have a beer with. That's an insultingly stupid question. It cheapens the discourse.
But that's not the stupid polling question that's been bothering me this election cycle. No. The stupid question that I wish the pollsters would stop asking is any version of the following:
Is America ready for a (fill in the blank) president?
As you know.. This election has been close as heck.. A big Obama lead has slowly crumbled as people turn to their old fears of terra terra terra and greed and want of instant gratification..
I have noticed the Republican fans running from forum to forum touting democratic weakness, I have seen ads attacking on taxes and so on an so forth..
So while I had shunned Obama and supported Clinton after he backed down and voted for telecom immunity.. McCain's recent boldness has forced me back into the game..
I will discuss my views on the situation and what I think we need to do about it..
I caught 10-15 minutes of the FOX program, "Presidential Character: Obama," and those minutes may have changed my life. The program uses clips from the audiobook of Dreams to highlight each time period of Obama's life, and also includes interviews with journalists who have covered Obama, and interviews with people from his past.
I found this program very inspiring. The way FOX chose Obama's words to support its hints that Obama is a radical, race-obsessed guy with a very un-American background -- it was spectacular! This innovative journalism speaks to me, and has moved me to become a FOX journalist.
Here is my first piece as a FOX reporter, using Obama's other published book, The Audacity of Hope, in that innovative FOX style.
Well, I suppose you could if she deigned to grace us with a username and the occasional comment.
Lucky for us (and for her), she does not have to worry about what moderate or racist dKos'ers think
about her comments. If you haven't clicked the link yet, it is just about her slamming Brad Pitt and (especially) Angelina Jolie for adopting African children, implying that they actually give a shit about children in that part of the world, while remaining uncommitted in the presidential election. The Republican party has (of course) been shitting all over black people ever since 1966 (one could very much see this coming when they nominated segregationist Barry Goldwater in 1964), and anybody who knows anything about their policies toward people of color HERE OR in Africa would very much automatically know which side to pick.
So Roseanne rightly condemns them for their hypocrisy.
The New York times ran a story on economic inequalities in access to treatment for obese children, of which there are nine million in the United States. While this figure has tripled since 1980, there is a dearth of comprehensive, effective, or affordable programs to address the issue. Summer weight loss programs are generally costly (some cost over $1,000 a week) as most seek to turn a profit. Furthermore, most insurance providers do not cover this cost. Dr. Walter J. Pories, a gastric bypass surgeon, calls the lack of insurance and government financing for such programs "the single most frustrating problem in dealing with childhood obesity."
This is part of my periodic diaries I put up for when I find interesting things on the internet. It's not necessarilly that I believe everything that I post, however I believe that it would be useful that these topics are discussed.
Seventeen races, eight gold medals. This man can truly fly!
Let's hear it for Michael Phelps - the greatest Olympian of all time. He made it look easy - breezing through a schedule most human being would find crippling. Yet he did it. Not alone - but it was his drive and passion that fueled all eight wins. Tonight we all have something amazing to be proud of. Congratulations Michael. You are the very best.
This is going to be a stream of consciousness so please hang in there.
Throughout the last months, we have heard the candidates do a little dance around the issue of race. Then, the accusations are thrown out. "McCain is playing the race card." "Obama is playing the race card." No matter who you are voting for, I think it may be down right ignorant to believe that race is not an issue in this election. Although in my eyes racism is racism, I do believe that there are differences in how they are expressed, if expressed at all. I will even go one step further and say that this problem not only applies to race, but to other areas, such as religion. This is a discussion America needs to have, but are we ready for it?
Why just "black" churches.... why not churches?
Why pit a white church leader against a black church leader?
How unifiying is this?
Yes, the clips are taken out of context but they reflect attitudes.
Why don't we see photos of the Obama children with their white grandmother?
She reared Barack and paid his private school tuition but seem to be far back in the closet during his campaign for president.
Does the "multicultural" candidate aviod photos with his white relatives because he playing more to the African American voters?
Far down in the comments on this journal someone posted a link to Obama's Scrapbook. It has many photos of him with his mom and grandparents. It is a wonderful scrapbook. I'm glad that it was shared with us.Obama's Scrapbook
Not a day passes that I don't see some diary on Kos talking about McCain's advertising and race. Sometimes it's not even a real ad but just an internet shot meant to stir up the bee's nest of our wrath. I get the feeling that this insider game is taking too much focus and energy away from an analytical and strategic look at what's going on. What's going on? Well between now and Labor Day I think we can expect a game of chess.
Is Barack Obama a Black American? By William Owens
When I look past the impressive salesmanship of Barack Obama, I see a person who does not resonate with our struggle as a people. Although I know I am not alone in this opinion, it is unfortunate few of us Black Americans are willing to step forward and say this publicly. So here it is. Barack Obama does not and cannot relate to our past as Black Americans because in reality he is not a Black American.
One thing you can say for sure about us as Black Americans — we are Black and we are proud of it. Now consider Barack Obama, who consistently touts his African roots. His heritage is Muslim – not African American. Ask yourself, "Why is Barack Obama not honest about his origin and, more importantly, why is he not proud of it? Why is he leading us to believe he is someone other than who he really is?" Because of our pride in our heritage, one's origin should be an acid test for us as Black Americans. If you cannot be honest and forthright about something this basic, how can you be trusted to be the leader of the free world?
This past week, two Kaiser Health Disparities Reports documented the effects of language and cultural barriers on medical outreach and diagnosis. The first report, on HIV/AIDS in the Texas Hispanic community, referenced a Dallas Morning News story which documented that HIV is being detected later in Texas Hispanics than in other ethnic groups. This increases the risk of spreading the virus and decreases possibilities for treatment. While 24% of the state's HIV-positive blacks and whites are diagnosed with AIDS within a month of testing positive for HIV, this number is 8% higher for Hispanics. Language barriers, limited access to health care, legal issues, and cultural differences are noted among the challenges at the root of this disparity.
The mainstream media, for lack of much that is interesting to say about the Obama-McCain general election battle, will focus on a number of tangential issues to keep political junkies watching their shows and reading their articles for the next 3 months. That’s part of the reason why the media gleefully jumped on the faintest hint of the race card being flashed by both campaigns based on comments with just tenuous connections to race.
One question that really matters today, and in my opinion will determine if Obama can pull this off, is what America might be like under an Obama administration in power in Washington? Much will be said about America’s first black president being the head of our government; however, in the consciousness of many Americans and foreigners, there have already been numerous black presidents before thanks to popular culture. I'm talking about fiction, of course.
There's been a lot of reflection on the fact that Barack Obama's nomination as the Democratic Party's candidate for President will fall on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. But there's another, more recent milestone associated with the late August time frame. The day after August 28, 2008 will be the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, and the third anniversary of the catastrophic levee failure that caused a man-made disaster in one of America's great cities.
