What John McCain Could Save His Soul By Learning

. . .is that this meme about a Christian god ordaining and constituting our government isn’t harmless, and it doesn’t put “Country” first. It doesn’t even put Americans first!

And John, since you and everyone who speaks on your behalf keeps bringing it up, let’s talk straight about it. The ideological Christian control meme now active in government power isn’t just about controlling government but lives and minds and bodies. And it even perpetuates torture. Never mind torturing terrorist prisoners, what about domestic torture, of wives and teenage daughters and worst of all, little innocent children, even small babies, both physical and emotional? Many suffer and some actually die as a result of such dangerous, dominionist beliefs being glossed over with lipstick!

Calling that faithful or loving or godly or Christian or principled or prolife is not straight talk.

Yet this week you, all by yourself, the original maverick who would rather lose an election than go against your family values, patriotism and principles, YOU, sold out your hard-won position of trust for your own ambition to be elected president, without properly vetting your second-in-command.

Let’s talk straight now. I’m a good American mom, small-town background, smart, experienced in education and public service, much like Sarah Palin, right? You appreciate all women like us right, not just Sarah Palin. Here’s some diversity of advice not driven by party then. I saw signs of this Christian control ideology in Sarah Palin’s background in just one morning of quiet reflection, on August 2. (see my words from that date below, just as they first appeared under this essay toying with the wild idea of Palin.)

Except this divine intervention storyline isn’t harmless. . .
[refer to] the Christian control meme: “. . . a series of posts examining the Christian control meme as semi-pornographic advice online and off, advice on spanking with love, no — that spanking IS love. And that love is control, shown through an elaborate system of limits and consequences. And that the child’s resistance is natural; expect it and prepare to subdue it early and often. Beat it out of the children you love, show them who’s boss every minute of the day and night. This is divine commandment and the more ritualistic and intimidating, the more memorably painful, the more thoroughly it breaks the child’s spirit, the better.
Love is thereby defined as power, absolute control by any escalating means that crushes challenge to authority of any kind.”

Their idea of prayer is brandishing god’s will to prove that he wants them personally to win every battle large or small right here on earth. (And get rich besides.)

It translates to a form of self-deluding political power over other people including friends, family and of course foes, that simultaneously corrupts the believers into hurting the receivers — meaning that it literally hurts real Americans right here on earth in both human and divine terms.

I’d argue that if there is a god and he indeed has loving plans for his human creations, we’ve clearly been lied to and set up by sinful self-serving mortals from the beginning of time about what it is and how it’s supposed to work.

In America this wicked reality used to be seen mainly in church, you know, corrupt televangelists and . . . cult child abuse, etc. So if you could stay out of that — and you weren’t in any [minority] class Church resented and terrorized — then you were reasonably safe in secular society with the Constitution and the rule of law.

But now this divine dominion, paternalist pugilist meme has amassed great secular power too, apparently generated from this same conviction that one’s power must be untouchable because it is divinely bestowed.
God obviously wants me to win, because I am winning.

Non-Partisan Commission Announces Debate Details

My favorite part is that the veep debate October 2 will be DURING Banned Books Week! So we should lobby to get a question about that to Gwen Ifill, seriously, wanna help?

COMMISSION ON PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES ANNOUNCES MODERATORS

August 5, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Paul G. Kirk, Jr. and Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., co-chairmen of the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), today announced the moderators for the 2008 general election presidential and vice presidential debates.
The moderators, and the schedule and locations for the debates (as announced on November 21, 2007), are as follows:

First presidential debate
Friday, September 26
The University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss.
Jim Lehrer
Executive Editor and Anchor, The NewsHour, PBS

Vice presidential debate
Thursday, October 2
Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.
Gwen Ifill
Senior Correspondent, The NewsHour, and Moderator and Managing Editor, Washington Week, PBS

Second presidential debate (town meeting)
Tuesday, October 7
Belmont University, Nashville, Tenn.
Tom Brokaw
Special Correspondent, NBC News

Third presidential debate
Wednesday, October 15
Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y.
Bob Schieffer
CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent, and Host, Face the Nation

Each debate will begin at 9:00 p.m. EST.

Format

The format for the debates, announced on November 21, 2007, will be:

Palin’s “Actual Responsibilities” as Madame Mayor

. . .surely need national-level journalistic scrutiny if her true story is that they involved firing the town librarian for refusing to ban whichever books Palin personally deemed “morally or socially objectionable.”

This is The One Un-American Act.
Guess it would qualify her to be America’s Censor-in-Chief, though . . .

The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to “resist all efforts at censorship,” Ms. Kilkenny recalled.
Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support. Ms. Emmons, who left her job and Wasilla a couple of years later, declined to comment for this article.

Is this a good time to mention BANNED BOOKS WEEK is almost upon us again? Will McCain-Palin be ready? I’m picturing a series of town meetings to explain how they know best for all of us, and we should just trust they’ll tell us whatever they feel we can be trusted with, when the time is right (obviously no questions would be allowed):

“Closing Books Shuts Out Ideas”
[Last year's theme was "Free People Read Freely!"]
September 27- October 4, 2008

Since Republicans Are in Minnesota

. . .it seemed like a good time to make fun of it. And of them, as fitting right in there.

So here’s my extended forecast:
I don’t think the original tribal leaders will have any more luck reclaiming for their own exclusive territory, Minnesota OR the Dakotas nor the words once used to describe them simply and clearly, than the heap big tribal leaders of Home Education have had or can hope for . . .It’s quite clear even when it’s cloudy, that going on the warpath over words ends badly, and leaves behind a populace no more enlightened than it ever was, much less than it could have been. . .

Glad we cleared that up! Have a bright week and clear sailing, whoever and wherever you really are . . .

Real Vetting of Palin Underway and It’s Same Old McSame Old

Wanna know what’s REALLY happening?   The real vetting is less than a week along — Slate calls it Hurricane Sarah — but already Sarah Palin is proving to be just what we’d expect,  red-white-and-blue campaign confetti bundled in patriotic bunting like a newborn baby, being fired off with a big bang to distract from and cover up  what we knew all along about the ruthless politics of personal profit, public exploitation, and God and Guns enforcing it all, no questions allowed!

Forget the family stuff and the smears and counter-smears, who is Sarah Palin herself, as a politican campaigning in her own right? Can we trust her character and judgment, faith and feminism and um, public fairness and diplomacy? How does SHE treat women politicians and does she respect them personally even when she opposes their politics?
[UPDATE - this youtube video mysteriously disappeared a few hours after posting. So here's a longer, audio-only clip. The relevant part starts about halfway through. And I put my own summary and a news report's summary in the comments below.]

Or let’s look at her “qualifications” and governing principles once in office, never mind theocratic abstinence-only sex ed or the FCA and FFL, or adding creationism to public school science classes; let’s talk major national issues like the economy, energy policy, war and peace:

In a talk to the church congregation on the Iraq War, for example, Palin said “[Pray] for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God….That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”

. . . Palin, in supporting a $30 billion Alaskan national gas pipeline project, said: “I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that.”

Faced with an onslaught of critical stories, the McCain campaign has adopted a strategy of knocking down some incomplete or imperfectly substantiated stories and blaming them on the Obama campaign.

Snook readers will recall I am nonpartisan and was all for Unity ‘08, even registered as a delegate and blogged about it some at Culture Kitchen. The Unity ‘08 movement was about issues and reforming our governance processes, no names to take sides over, just a hope for better politics and real, post-partisan, intelligent reforms.  I thought it was actually better NOT to have specific individuals clubbing each other into the ground, instead of coming together in a sort of collective wisdom that was about us, not rooting for or against specific personalities and celebrities.

American politics is cynical and corrupt, completely broken, and the only hope for real change now (no guarantee, but the best shot we can realistically hope for) is Barack Obama’s fresh, honest, principled approach and his absolute refusal to be dragged down into the McSame Old along the journey. He willingly went into the Saddleback lion’s den and told the truth about his own faith without pandering to voters as the Bush Rs have done and as he knew McCain would do, too. (Some maverick.) Talk about the kind of character and TEMPERAMENT that best qualifies the true American “leader” we need now. . .

Logic for Thinking Parents: McCain-Palin Beyond Belief

See what Dale’s been up to using actual thinking skills and logic instead of prayer and talking points, to fisk McCain’s latest political calculus, putting Palin in his convention spotlight to take the Republican heat:

Take the Palin relevations of just 96 hours in the spotlight (former pot smoker, experience near nil, not smarter than a fifth grader in world knowledge, pregnant teen daughter, subject of corruption probe).

Put them on a Democrat and they’d be evidence of moral and political outrage. On a Republican, they are said (by Republicans) to denote heroism (”They didn’t abort the baby!”), sinlessness (”She hasn’t been corrupted by Washington!”) and the common touch (”I’d love to have a beer/shoot a deer with her!”).
Haven’t yet seen the corruption probe spun into gold, but the week is young. . .

Sarah Palin Should’ve Led Gustav Command!

Remember that, when people worry about how inexperienced she is, for two years she’s been in charge of the Alaska National Guard.
– Former Speaker of the House NEWT GINGRICH (Republican)

Hey!

If the Rs were really serious (and confident) as they keep insisting, about Sarah Palin having the most “executive” and “command” experience of all four prez nominees,  they could’ve proved it on the spot!  What a coup that could’ve been for them, assuming their party is comprised of truth-tellers and competent public servants with good judgment.

Consider this:  President Bush could’ve named Palin to head the National Guard and Homeland Security Gustav command.  All the Gustav governors (of states larger in population than she’s ever commanded) are Republicans, so who would complain?  They would trust her and follow her because she’s so experienced as a leader and commander in chief, with such proven judgment and character, right?  That’s all it takes, we’re told. 

Not to mention that Bush is still their president and commander and leader of their party, and if Republicans sipped the kool-aid three years ago, and defended Bush-McCain for celebrating McCain’s birthday with the tarmac cake during Katrina, how could Palin have done any worse, seriously?   What’s to fear — it could hardly have been worse with a hockey mom in charge and maybe she would’ve taken up arms herself, been wounded in battle and thereby won the White House by virtue of her sacrifice.

The entire population of the state she’s briefly governed is barely half the total number of Americans currently without power because of Gustav, much less the millions who evacuated. What an opportunity for her to show what she can really do!  Her teenaged pregnant daughter recovering from months of mononucleosis had the family’s four-month-old Down syndrome baby’s care covered round the clock, so what would’ve stopped her, Country First, charge!

Sarah Palin says 17-year-old daughter is pregnant

I was watching FOX hurricane coverage when the announcer says McCain has just released a statement to this effect, and he knew about it, and it’s private family matters so shut up. Huh? After all that personal family stuff in her “why I am qualified” introduction of herself this weekend? I’m all for family matters being private and have been all along, but for the McCain-Palin campaign and their partisans, that sounds like just another shocking flipflop for political expediency.

15 minutes ago

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Sarah and Todd Palin say their 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant.

The couple said in a statement released by John McCain’s presidential campaign that Bristol will keep her baby.

Sarah Palin is McCain’s vice presidential running mate.

The Alaska governor says Bristol intends to marry the father of her child.

She and the campaign also are asking that the media respect the family’s privacy on this matter.

Never Mind Palin, It’s McCain’s “Gross Political Misconduct”

Cock of the snook to Daryl for the link.

It’s always said that the most important decision a presidential candidate makes is their pick for vice president. It shows their thinking and judgment. John McCain, in his first decision, has just told the world that he believes Sarah Palin is the most qualified person to be a heartbeat from the presidency.

Forgetting all the available men for a moment, if John McCain felt it critical to select a woman in an effort to somehow grab the Hillary Clinton supporters, look at his choice of women he had available: Christine Todd Whitman, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Elizabeth Dole, Susan Collins, even - for goodness sake - Condoleezza Rice. Or Carly Fiorina. . .

It’s not that Sarah Palin is inexperienced. It’s that this is gross political misconduct.

Lucky for John McCain his senate seat isn’t at UCF or he’d be impeached for misfeasance and keeping company with that other maverick young politico, Webster Cook . . .

Hey, I Picked Sarah Palin for McCain’s Veep Weeks Ago — Ready on Day One

. . .to compromise the constitution and her sworn service to the people, for her own bull moose-headed, gun-slinging, man-manipulating, woman-dissing, image-pandering, ego-feeding agenda! She’s perfect! See
“McCain Could Pick a Real Mother of a Veep” to confirm.

Doesn’t this just make her the perfect nominee for Republicans, to be a (very) old man’s single heartbeat away from the First Woman Presidency? She will be ready and willing on Day One to misuse her executive power, no waiting for that pesky outsider’s learning curve!
. . .how in power, they let their personal beliefs and desires run roughshod over others, individuals who do NOT rightfully belong to them to play God (or Godfather) with.

It might not be Palin but if it is, I’m claiming credit for seeing the compelling political story in it “first” — August First.

UPDATE 10:38 — cable news is confirming from Norah O’Donnell that it is indeed Palin. What fun!

UPDATE II 10:56 on MSNBC - Joe Scarborough just said this means the Rs will run a ruthlessly ideological campaign with nothing but its base to work with, and it’s a “helluva risk.” — I think that’s right and I previewed it in the August first post:

“Btw, hmmm, this would make an ideologically airtight anti-abortion ticket, with adoption at the top of the order, and not aborting after genetic testing on deck.”

Another MSNBC commentator just said “EVANGELICALS AND HOMESCHOOLERS WILL BE ECSTATIC” — actually that is true. I’m a homeschool parent who thinks this seals the deal for Obama-Biden. It’s a complete capitulation, giving up the only legit thing McCain had going with undecideds and independents, a fear that only he could be a trustworthy commander in chief keeping Americans safe for the next four years. But his health history and age makes him a big risk not to make it through the next four years physically, and the fading away of mental acuity in Reagan’s second term is a big risk with McCain, too, especially given his recent out-of-touch moments and his famous volatility even as a young man. So the only way he’s not risky is with a veep ready to be commander in chief on the ticket with him. Palin is the least likely choice I can imagine then, even younger than Obama! — and she’s not even racially-internationally flavored like Jindal would have been.

She’s about the whitest, most socially and geographically isolated, insulated and only marginally educated choice he could have made. Not to mention gun-totin’ and hot-headed and image-obsessed. Come finish off America, all you foreign leaders, if we’re stupid enough to put this forward as serious, important third-millennium global leadership. We’d deserve it.

AND just to top off the absurdity of all this, she’s from the other newfangled, exotic, not-quite-real state that people should be suspicious of, you know, like Obama’s homestate of Hawaii, a strange place that wasn’t even a state when Old Man McCain was born (in the Panama Canal Zone??) LOL!!!!

Favorite Daughter’s First Vote On 88th Anniversary for Women

She is a self-educated feminist and avid student of suffrage history.

Her first vote this morning on her way to college classes was inconsequential in every way, except the fact that she was able to cast it.
Voting independently has been a more important milestone in her eyes than getting her license to drive, which she still hasn’t gotten around to pursuing.

I predict she will always remember her first, and the exact date.

“Parents Are Our First and Best Teachers”

. . .now that’s Power of Story.

I had to remind myself watching last night, that I’m non-partisan. Not a Democrat, not a Democrat, not a Democrat!

Mr. Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, talked about growing up in a family with little money, raised by a mother who was “an eternal optimist who understood that parents are our first and best teachers.”

. . .[Then Michelle Obama spoke] of her own family’s blue-collar past and spoke of her husband’s life as “a great American story.”