Every day I watch the polls and get excited because I know Barack Obama is going to win the whole thing,” said Corgins Banner, a 32-year-old Charlotte man who works for a bank. “Then it hits me. Something is going to happen. They are going to find a way to stop him.”
Blacks worry about polls vs. reality in Obama campaign
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The prospect that Barack Obama is primed to be the nation’s first black president has black voters giddy.
But the better the news gets for Mr. Obama, with bigger leads in polls the closer Election Day draws, the more they fear it’s too good to be true. It’s especially so in the South, where a history of oppression, voter suppression and near electoral victories make blacks more skeptical than most.
“Every day I watch the polls and get excited because I know Barack Obama is going to win the whole thing,” said Corgins Banner, a 32-year-old Charlotte man who works for a bank. “Then it hits me. Something is going to happen. They are going to find a way to stop him.”
The long-running campaign has taken its emotional toll on some blacks who are jubilant one moment and fearful the next, and the mixed feelings were evident in interviews conducted last week.
Many simply don’t believe white voters are telling pollsters the truth about whom they’ll back, though recent elections involving high-profile black candidates, including Mr. Obama’s own primaries this year, suggest polls are fairly accurate. Some voters also suspect something more sinister – malfeasance in the counting of votes come Election Day.
“Racism is still alive and well in this country,” said Washington-based Democratic consultant Ray Strother, who contends that polls don’t reflect some white voters’ reluctance to back a black candidate. “There will be people who go into the voting booth intending to vote for Obama but won’t be able to do it.”
The uneasiness hasn’t shaken black voters’ resolve. Their backing was crucial to him winning several early primaries, and a strong black turnout is expected to boost Mr. Obama in battleground states, including North Carolina.
“He’s so close, and I want to believe he’s going to do it,” said Amber Hinton, a 20-year-old college student from Charlotte. “But it’s hard for me to believe that it’s going to happen. I don’t think America is going to let him win.” … [MORE]
George W. Bush failed to live up to his promise to be a “uniter and not a divider,” his disastrous decision to invade Iraq, and his economic policies that favor the wealthy have polarized this country like never before.
John McCain and Sarah Palin are doing little to unite this country, in fact they continue the GOP tradition of trying to win elections by pitting one section of America against another.
“As a proud resident of Oakton, Va. , I can tell you that the Democrats have just come in from the District of Columbia and moved in to northern Virginia. And that’s really what you see there. But the rest of the state, real Virginia, if you will, I think will be very responsive to McCain’s message.” — McCain senior adviser, Nancy Pfotenhauer
Pfotenhauer, is a proud resident of the heavily Democratic northern region of Virginia, and I’m a proud resident of Central Virginia, the “real Virginia” according to her. I agree with her that the overwhelmingly Republican residents of Central Virginia are hardworking and patriotic. The county that I live in has less than a one percent Hispanic population, but the fine folks here have made this Latino from San Francisco feel right at home. I’ve visited northern Virginia on many occasions, and I can testify that that region of the state with its large Hispanic population is just as patriotic and hardworking as any other part of the commonwealth.
“Northern Virginia, Arlington and Alexandria are communist country.” — Joe McCain (John McCain’s brother)
When I first heard Joe McCain’s comments a few days ago, I couldn’t believe that someone could be so ignorant as to portray northern Virginia as “communist.” But now we have the spectacle of John McCain making the ludicrous charge that Obama’s economic policies are “socialist.” How low will John McCain sink in a desperate attempt to win the election?
“This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America.” — Sarah Palinreferring to Barack Obama before an overwhelmingly white audience
When Palin uttered this ridiculous comment, it was a none too subliminal reminder that Obama is black. Palin is portraying Obama as a black man who palls around with terrorists and is probably a Muslim. Instead of reaching out to African Americans Palin is writing them off, and playing the race card to appeal to working class whites. Palin is implying that black folks don’t think like whites, they are different, scary and unreliable.
No wonder some yahoos at McCain/Palin rallies scream “terrorist” and “kill him” when Obama’s name is mentioned, Palin and McCain have convinced them that Obama is a Muslim socialist who palls around with terrorists.
“We believe, we believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, pro-America areas of this great nation.” — Sarah Palin
There are no red states and blue states, there is only the UNITED states of America. Our great nation isn’t divided into pro-American and anti-American regions, my birthplace of liberal San Francisco, Ca., is just as pro-American as the small conservative town in Virginia where I now live.
After eight years of the politics of division, it’s time we elect Barack Obama — a statesman who is truly a uniter and not a divider. Obama has run a civil campaign, he transcends race and political parties, and he’s the only one who can bring us together at this critical juncture in our history.
References:
CNN: Palin’s “Palling Around With Terrorists” Claim Is False
The McCain-Palin HATE MEETINGS are affecting Obama supporters worldwide — In a London street, a man wearing an Obama T-shirt was shot three times. Dube Egwuatu was shot three times in street by racist gunman. Mr Egwuatu, a data analyst with Croydon Council, said: “The venom in his attackers voice was frightening.” McCain and his side-kick Sarah Palin, are a sick, racist, divisive and deluded monster couple, unfit to lead a country struggling to dump it’s sordid racial past!. Click Here For HOPE
Republican racist bigots realizing that Obama is for real, are in frenzied panic. Barack Obama has momentum and John McCain cannot stop the Obama train. McCain-Palin Ticket in Racist ‘Kamikaze’ Mode.
And is spreading all the way to “Cousin-Land,” Great Britain — in London, where Dube Egwuatu was shot three times in street by racist gunman - for wearing Barack Obama T-shirt. Mr Egwuatu, a data analyst with Croydon Council, said: “The venom in his attackers voice was frightening.”
After two debates, McCain has nothing to offer but FEAR and RACIST INNUENDO.
First it was Sarah Palin, McCain’s sidekick barracuda, now he has thrown all he has left into the mix — his “Beer Inheritance,” Cindy McCain.
Invoking son’s military service, Cindy McCain said: “The day that Sen. Obama cast a vote to not to fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body let me tell you,” Cindy McCain said in introducing the GOP ticket. “I would suggest Sen. Obama change shoes with me for just one day. I suggest he take a day and go watch our men and women deploying.” READ: OBAMA IS UN-PATRIOTIC, YELLOW and DOES NOT BELONG
A couple of days ago Sarah Palin accused Obama of “Paling With Terrorists,” … in reference to Obama’s association with fellow Chicagoan, Bill Ayers, a reformed 1960’s anti-war radical, who is currently leading a productive life as a professor at the University of Illinois.
Ayers was protesting the VietNam War — another illegal war America lost, during which, just like in Iraq, U.S. military personnel often went on civilian LYNCHING rampages.
The spectacle of John McCain’s Town Hall campaign meetings reminds me of a Saturday Evening Lynching Meet ups in the not too distant past of America.
Lynching of black people in the United States often took place on “Market Days,” during which families accompanied by their young children would watch blacks humiliated, killed by hanging and sometimes by burning. To demonstrate a ritual of power, mobs sometimes tortured the victim first before hanging them.
1935 lynching of Rubin Stacy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Lynching was(is) highly associated with Southern efforts to retain and enforce white supremacy after their defeat in the American Civil War.
Many lynchings still happen today and go unreported, and they are not necessarily by rope or burning.
Guns, beatings and NOOSES have been hung on trees to afflict MENTAL LYNCHING on African-Americans.
McCain’s Town Hall Meetings have turned into Lynch Mob Meetings during which McCain, Cindy and Sarah Palin intentionally, knowingly and willfully, by using code-words have incited RETARDED Republicans to help them bring down Barack Obama, by hook or crook.
The BLOOD-CUDDLING braying goes like this:
“KILL HIM!”…. “TREASONER!”…. “NIGGER!”…. “NOBAMA!”…. “SOCIALIST!”…. “COMMUNISM!”…. “SOCIALIST SWINE!”…. “OBAMA IS A MUSLIM TERRORIST!”…. “SLEAZY SCUM OF THE EARTH!”…. “OBAMA REGISTERS DEAD PEOPLE!”…. “BARACK ‘HUSSEIN‘ OBAMA!”…. “OFF WITH HIS HEAD!”…. “OBAMA WILL PAINT THE WHITEHOUSE BLACK!”…. “OBAMA IS A BLACK MUSLIM TERRORIST!”….
Here is Sarah Palin calling Obama a Terrorist & Racist ScumBag
Republicans Responding in Kind.
“Obama is a Moslem Terrorist” ….McCain event in Bethlehem, PA
Terrorist!
The Sheriff’s GESTAPO Also Joined In — In FULL UNIFORM
[Enlarge] Joining in the chorus, a local Black talk show host, a Mr. James T. Harris, took great umbrage in begging McCain to “HIT” Obama.
“I am begging you sir, I am begging you — take it to him,” pleaded the Mr. Harris, earning himself a standing ovation!. “We have the good Reverend Wright. We have [the Rev. Michael L.] Pfleger.
We have all of these shady characters that have surrounded him,” Harris bellowed. “We have corruption here in Wisconsin and voting across the nation. I am begging you, sir. I am begging you.
CNN’s Campbell Brown Laments McCain’s “Hate Speech”
As you can see McCain-Palin campaign is inciting violence and racial hatred against Senator Obama.
They call it “Rallying Their Base.” A base consisting of the most despicable racists on earth.
And it is no surprise that Sarah Palin feels mighty comfortable in this setting. She has a history of association with Alaskan Extremists. Right-wing extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin’s political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. “Her door was open,” says Chryson — and still is. …. [READ MORE]
Any little respect I had for McCain is gone forever.
Mr. McCain you are racist pig not fit to lead a nation trying so hard to progress beyond bigotry and racism. You are unfit to run this country.
You are totally sick, divisive, “Viet-Cong deluded,” monster!.
That you referred to a crowd at one of your rally’s as “My Fellow Prisoners!” instead of “My Fellow Citizens” …in a “Prepared” speech!, ….is proof that you have lost your mind,…completely!
“My Fellow Prisoners!”
As for Sarah Palin, first, you are a RACIST, next let me paraphrase the RUSSIANS: “Palin, the shrieking cow from Alaska is the joke of American politics. You are a “housewife, chosen by mere chance.” A Mrs. Nobody “know-it-all.” You are a “Hockey Mom” housewife-cum-small-town gossip merchant and cheap little guttersnipe. You pith-headed little bimbo from the back of beyond. Keep your mouth shut and while you’re at it, make sure the members of your family keep their legs shut too.”
I didn’t say that, the Russians who are equally pissed off at you did: Read PRAVDA
On The Issue of McCain’s Character
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By: bcblue84’s
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I forgot to mention John McCain was a POW. While John McCain was a POW, he endured torture, and he dreamt of his beautiful wife and children back home. Carol McCain was John’s first wife. She kept the faith back home. She and her 3 young children struggled to get by. While he was still imprisoned, Carol McCain was in a horrific, near fatal car accident, which left her alive, but crippled and disfigured. Carol McCain endured and whispered not a word of these horrors to her husband because she wanted to spare him the agony and worry. Upon his return from Vietnam, seeing his wife was not the woman he once knew, John McCain, forsake his marital vows, and forsake his wife and his family. John McCain committed an act that women all across America fear. He deserted his wife in her hour of need. He turned his back on her, and took a second wife, a woman nearly 20 years his junior.
This truth makes me uncomfortable. This truth reveals to me the horror of who John McCain really is. He is a man who would rid himself of a woman who he had sworn to protect, who he had sworn to build a life with. He is a man who in his lust for political power, and his overriding vanity, would abandon his first wife, crippled and disfigured, in favor of a blond beauty, nearly 20 years his junior.
John McCain does not embody honor or sacrifice or duty. John McCain embodies a man who would abandon his wife, a man who places no value on sacred marital vows, a man who does not know the meaning of family sacrifice or family commitment.
John McCain and his campaign does nothing but call a lie to the sacrifice and earnest endeavors of military wives. He presents himself as a man with whom Military families can identify. But would they still identify with him if they knew he abandoned the wife and family who supported him when he was in the military?
For every woman who devotes herself to her home and her family, John McCain embodies their worst nightmare. John McCain is the husband who would instantly and arbitrarily discount the work and devotion a wife commits, for a lifetime, to her home and family, the husband who would toss her aside for a younger woman, the husband who would dismiss his solemn marital vows as “a mistake,” the husband with no conscience and no heart and no smidgen of duty. Would the women of America stand by John McCain if they knew even the smallest hint of his first forgotten wife?
How can Cindy McCain voice a need “to make sure the American people understand what we have to say, what we stand for as a husband and wife” when what they stand for is adultery, betrayal, privilege, entitlement, and cover up. Maybe Cindy thinks she deserves respect and instant credibility because she is John McCain’s second wife, or because she is rich and wears $280,000 earrings, or because she owns 8 houses so she has perspective on the economic crisis because she can retreat to one of those 8 houses and wait till her stock portfolio recovers
One Nation Under Fear: Scaredy Cats and Fear-Mongers in the Home of the Brave (And What You Can Do About It) — by Bob Cesca
Editorial Reviews
“Bob Cesca is easily one of the most incisive political writers on the scene today. Nobody else can make me think, laugh and cry–all at once–by simply giving his take on the corrupt political establishment that runs things in Washington.” — Cliff Schecter, Author of The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don’t Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn’t
“The great irony of this book is that Bob’s writing is totally fearless. That’s what I love about it. Are you allowed to write a fearless book about country living under fear? Whether he is allowed or not, Bob has done it.” — Cenk Uygur, “The Young Turks”
“Fearless and funny, Bob Cesca captures the smart brawling style of today’s blogosphere, while putting the press and Republicans on notice.” — Eric Boehlert,Media Matters
“As a liberal blogger of profound depth, righteous outrage and sly humor, Cesca’s like a combination of Molly Ivins, H.L. Mencken and Wavy Gravy. I’m not sure what that means but it looks nice in a sentence.” — Steven Weber,Actor/Hockey Mom
Product Description
In post-9/11 America, authoritarians and politicians are happily leaning on the panic button for fun, profit, and the ongoing oppression of a frightened populace. This timely book examines that fear: where it came from, how it’s promoted, and what can be done about it. Author Bob Cesca hits a bracingly wide range of targets — the right-wing noise machine, climate change deniers, creeping fascism from the Bush White House — before presenting a sober, sensible plan for fighting and overcoming this potentially irreversible trend.
Luis Ramirez in his death bead [Enlarge Pic] A 25-year-old undocumented immigrant, Luis Ramirez, from Shenandoah, Pennsylvania suffered head injuries after he was viciously beaten July 12 by a pack of at least six teenagers. Ramirez was left in convulsions and foaming at the mouth. His attackers stomped him so hard that an imprint of the Jesus medallion he wore was embedded on his chest.
Authorities now allege that the thugs who beat Luis shouted racial and ethnic epithets. They’ve charged 16-year-old Brandon J. Piekarsky and 17-year-old Colin J. Walsh as adults with homicide and 18-year-old Derrick M. Donchak with aggravated assault. All three were charged with ethnic intimidation. Another juvenile, whom police haven’t named, was charged with assault, and police are continuing to investigate……..[MORE >>]
The job of Juan Hernandez is to win support for John McCain, particularly Latino votes. So it may seem odd that the campaign doesn’t want its national director of Hispanic outreach to get any press.
Repeated NEWSWEEK requests to interview Hernandez have been rebuffed or ignored.
When a reporter suggested talking to Hernandez at a convention of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, where Hernandez was slated to appear June 28, his name was suddenly removed from the list of scheduled speakers.
A NALEO spokesman, Eric Wagner, says someone from the McCain campaign called and asked to replace him, but didn’t offer an explanation. (A McCain aide, who refused to be quoted discussing internal campaign strategy, later told NEWSWEEK that the campaign had never signed off on Hernandez as a speaker.)
Here’s one possible reason: Hernandez is toxic to many conservatives. “He represents the opposite of everything conservative Republicans stand for,” says a GOP strategist who didn’t want to be quoted by name on a sensitive topic…..[MORE >>]
Editorial Reviews
