Friday, October 10, 2008

Panic from Republican Voters

I hope the secret service is providing extra protection for Obama and his family. Republican rallies are becoming filled with hate speech toward Obama - not from the candidate or the official campaign, but from those attending. To McCain's credit, his campaign has shown some decorum in these matters, just as Obama's has with regard to issues such as Palin's daughter's pregnancy.

The last group that Republicans whipped into a frenzy for their political gain were the anti-abortionists. The fringes of that group took matters into their own hands and started maiming and killing doctors they didn't happen to agree with. Who knows what the fringes of this group will do? And of course there are more of them. And they're the same people who want guns in everyone's hands. Great combo.

Politics is a dirty business - for all parties. But when democrats get disheartened - as we have been for years now - we take a different approach. I can honestly say I have never heard a democrat do/say anything regarding Bush or any other republican that I thought could escalate into physical violence. I'm not saying it has never happened, but I think it's very rare. And democrats don't indulge in this sort of mob mentality described in the article below.

Why is it that the right wing has to get so hateful when they don't get their way? It's like a spoiled brat stomping his/her foot and throwing themselves down kicking and screaming in the middle of the store aisle. I wouldn't even mind so much if we could stick to actual facts, but instead it's the sort of the garbage that gets passed around online with no facts to back it up. Real facts, not just things someone has repeated enough that people THINK they're facts, real facts. Instead they're content to spread lies (knowingly or unknowingly), plead for someone to "get him," and wallow in their fear that's based on nothing but the fact that someone has told them to fear it.

It's like this foolishness over Obama's middle name. People fear it just because they fear it. They have no real  reason to fear it other than someone told them to and because their brains are hardwired to respond to fear they're eager to fear something.

My life experience is such that I've met a number of people who had the same name and not a one of them has treated me with anything but the utmost respect and kindness. Why would I hate everyone who shares that name because one bad guy had that name? Or even a dozen bad guys had that name? Or a hundred bad guys?

I daresay we could make an argument that serial killer John Wayne Gacy was a bad guy, and there are thousands - maybe tens of thousands - of other people named "John" that have done bad things. Should we eschew every single person named "John" because some people with that name did something bad?

If we're going to apply this logic to our world at large it's going to be very difficult to choose a name for a baby. We'll have to rule out Jeffrey, Ted and David just to encompass some of the famous serial killers. No more Jacks because of  Jack the Ripper and however many other Jacks have ever done bad things. No more Elizabeths after those 600 young girls Elizabeth Bathory tortured and murdered. We would have to fear anyone named Michael, because Michael John Devlin is a convicted child molester. There's that "John" again - obviously, anyone named John is incredibly dangerous. All people named Ken are likely to be corrupt and take away our life savings because Ken Lay was convicted in the Enron scandal. And you know who else? Jeffrey Skilling. See... there's that Jeffrey name again.  I could go on and on. But surely I have illustrated the idiocy of this.

I really encourage everyone to look at www.factcheck.org, which is non-partisan and fact checks BOTH candidates. Very enlightening.

I just hope, hope, hope the Secret Service is providing more protection for Obama and his family.

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from Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081010/pl_politico/14445

Panic attacks: Voters unload at GOP rallies


Jonathan Martin
Fri Oct 10, 5:44 AM ET

The unmistakable momentum behind Barack Obama's campaign, combined with worry that John McCain is not doing enough to stop it, is ratcheting up fears and frustrations among conservatives.


And nowhere is this emotion on plainer display than at Republican rallies, where voters this week have shouted out insults at the mention of Obama, pleaded with McCain to get more aggressive with the Democrat and generally demonstrated the sort of visceral anger and unease that reflects a party on the precipice of panic.


The calendar is closing and the polls, at least right now, are not.


With McCain passing up the opportunity to level any tough personal shots in his first two debates and the very real prospect of an Obama presidency setting in, the sort of hard-core partisan activists who turn out for campaign events are venting in unusually personal terms.


"Terrorist!” one man screamed Monday at a New Mexico rally after McCain voiced the campaign’s new rhetorical staple aimed at raising doubts about the Illinois senator: “Who is the real Barack Obama?”


"He's a damn liar!” yelled a woman Wednesday in Pennsylvania. "Get him. He's bad for our country."


At both stops, there were cries of, “Nobama,” picking up on a phrase that has appeared on yard signs, T-shirts and bumper stickers.


And Thursday, at a campaign town hall in Wisconsin, one Republican brought the crowd to its feet when he used his turn at the microphone to offer a soliloquy so impassioned it made the network news and earned extended play on Rush Limbaugh’s program.


“I’m mad; I’m really mad!” the voter bellowed. “And what’s going to surprise ya, is it’s not the economy — it’s the socialists taking over our country.”


After the crowd settled down he was back at it. “When you have an Obama, Pelosi and the rest of the hooligans up there gonna run this country, we gotta have our head examined!”



Such contempt for Democrats is, of course, nothing new from conservative activists. But in 2000 and 2004, the Republican rank and file was more apt to ridicule Gore as a stiff fabulist or Kerry as an effete weather vane of a politician.


“Flip-flop, flip-flop,” went the cry at Republican rallies four years ago, often with footwear to match the chant.


Now, though, the emotion on display is unadulterated anger rather than mocking.


Activists outside rallies openly talk about Obama as a terrorist, citing his name and purported ties to Islam in the fashion of the viral e-mails that have rocketed around the Internet for over a year now.


Some of this activity is finding its way into the events, too.


On Thursday, as one man in the audience asked a question about Obama’s associations, the crowd erupted in name-calling.


"Obama Osama!" one woman called out.


And twice this week, local officials have warmed up the crowd by railing against “Barack Hussein Obama.”


Both times, McCain’s campaign has issued statements disavowing the use of the Democrat’s full name.
A McCain aide said they tell individuals speaking before every event not to do so. “Sometimes people just do what they want,” explained the aide.


The raw emotions worry some in the party who believe the broader swath of swing voters are far more focused on their dwindling retirement accounts than on Obama’s background and associations and will be turned off by footage of the McCain events.


John Weaver, McCain’s former top strategist, said top Republicans have a responsibility to temper this behavior.


“People need to understand, for moral reasons and the protection of our civil society, the differences with Sen. Obama are ideological, based on clear differences on policy and a lack of experience compared to Sen. McCain,” Weaver said. “And from a purely practical political vantage point, please find me a swing voter, an undecided independent, or a torn female voter that finds an angry mob mentality attractive.” 


“Sen. Obama is a classic liberal with an outdated economic agenda. We should take that agenda on in a robust manner. As a party we should not and must not stand by as the small amount of haters in our society question whether he is as American as the rest of us. Shame on them and shame on us if we allow this to take hold.”


But, if it were up to them, such hard-edged tactics are clearly what many in the party base would like to use against Obama.


That McCain has so far seemed reluctant to do so has frustrated Republicans.


“It's time that you two are representing us, and we are mad,” reiterated the boisterous Republican at McCain’s town hall in Wisconsin Thursday. “So go get 'em!”


"I am begging you, sir, I am begging you — take it to him," pleaded James T. Harris, a local talk radio host at the same event, earning an extended standing ovation.


“Yosemite Sam is having the law laid down to him today in Waukesha, Wis.,” quipped Limbaugh on his show Thursday, referring to the GOP nominee. “This guy, this audience member, is exactly right,” the conservative talk show host said of the first individual.


“You are running for president. You have a right to defend this country. You have a responsibility to defend this country and not just fulfill some dream you had eight years ago running for president against Bush. It's time to start naming names and explain what's actually going on, because, Sen. McCain, the people of this country are dead scared about what we face if you lose.”


John J. Pitney Jr., a political science professor at California’s Claremont McKenna College and former Republican operative, suggested core Republicans were acting out their longstanding frustrations with their self-proclaimed maverick nominee.


“McCain has always frustrated the Republican base,” Pitney said. “In this campaign, he has alternated between partisan attacks and calls for bipartisan cooperation. It’s nice that he thinks he can round up congressional votes the way a border collie rounds up sheep. But you can’t be a border collie and a pit bull at the same time. The crowds want a pit bull.”


There is also the belief that taking out Obama is the only way to win.


“They know that when McCain has taken off the Senate mantle and put the stick to Obama (celebrity ad, as a case in point), we get movement in the polls,” said Rick Wilson, a GOP consultant not working on the presidential race. “They want McCain to call out Obama — on the Fannie/Freddie mess, on Wright, on Ayers, on guns, on [the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now] — because they know that if McCain says it, it penetrates the MSM filter. ... Only McCain and Palin can really drive that message.”


The two have begun to get more aggressive on many of these topics, with both discussing Ayers in multiple venues Thursday. The RNC is also going up for the first time with an ad featuring the former domestic terrorist.


It was enough to stir hope that McCain may stay on the offensive, even in Limbaugh, who has often criticized the Arizona senator for working with Democrats more than attacking them. The radio host praised his sometimes-nemesis for singling out Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) as partly responsible for the credit crisis.


“McCain/Palin fired back today in Waukesha, and 15 years of frustration is coming out joyously in the voices of GOP supporters at these rallies,” Limbaugh wrote in an e-mail, arguing that Republicans were fed up with having been portrayed as the bogeyman for myriad issues since the Clinton years.


But to the exasperation of many in the party, Obama’s pastor, the most damning of all his associations, remains off-limits, at the express desire of McCain. Palin ignored Wright and focused on Ayers when she was asked about the two in an interview Thursday with conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham. And McCain focused on Ayers only when he was asked an open-ended question at the town hall about Obama's “associations.”


“It is a shame McCain took Wright off the table,” lamented one prominent Republican operative not working on the race. “He is a legitimate issue, and we may look back and realize he was the issue that could have changed the race.”


For now, though, party members don't seem to be looking back with regret as much as fearing what lies ahead.


“McCain is behind in the polls, and the Republicans have no chance of regaining control of Congress,” Pitney noted. “Republicans are facing the prospect of unified Democratic control of the government for the first time since the first two Clinton years. And even then, Clinton’s agenda had moderate elements (e.g., [the North American Free Trade Agreement] and deficit reduction). With Obama, [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid and [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi in power, Republicans worry about a hard push for a hard-left agenda.”


Amie Parnes contributed to this story.
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Meeting Planning and Doodles



Recently I was in a day-long training. It was interesting, but anyone who knows me knows meetings are not my favorite thing. It's very difficult for me to sit still for that long and to focus on any one thing. Over the years I've developed what I consider to be socially acceptable things to do while I'm sitting in a meeting. One of those is to doodle.

Used to be that people would look askance at you if you did anything other than stare blankly ahead. But, in the last few years, someone must have written a book about how to conduct meetings because nearly every one I go to these days is done the same way. The tables are covered with paper so you can draw on them. There are also colored markers, candy, name tags, pipe cleaners, and little baby containers of play doh.

I have nothing against any of these things - in fact I quite enjoy them. And I'm thankful whoever decided this was the way to conduct meetings has made it acceptable to be doing something other than just sitting there. What I don't understand is why it's always exactly the same, as if there's just a check list to go through. I suspect it's that everyone is going to the same meetings where they train people to do meetings. Just once I'd like someone to break the mold and do something creative. After all, all of these things are supposed to encourage creativity. Ironic, isn't it?

It's cool to have a big piece of paper on which to draw, but I always take my own paper with me whenever I go to a meeting, as well as a variety of pens and markers. Actually, I have these things with me almost every day at every moment. I need the visual stimulation. I was quite proud of my muted color palette on this one - very unlike me. The fact that there's no neon pink hi-lighter involved is close to a miracle.

I have some favorite motifs I return to again and again. One of them is stars. I love stars. Not sure why, but I do. Given more time I would have filled in the spaces here with more stars of varying sizes. But it was getting hard for me to restrain myself from color so I moved on to playing with the pipe cleaners.



It's rare that someone doesn't comment on the writing or drawing or whatever I'm doing during the meeting. It's not always appreciated, to say the least. I usually just say something to the effect of, "I'm quiet and I'm not being disruptive. Lets just all be thankful for that."

I'm thankful it's accepted these days. I just can't get through a whole day in a room, sitting in one spot, without something else going on. It doesn't matter how fascinating the speaker is, I'm going to need something else going on. At the same time, I really love soaking up the info you get in such meetings. Always something interesting to learn.

________________
Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more. Friend me on Facebook.com, Follow me at Twitter.com.

I am looking for book clubs willing to read and critique my novel when it's completed. If your book club is interested, please email me at patsyterrell@gmail.com. Thanks!