[UPDATE: new section on climate change] After this, I'm gonna stop writing about the presidential election for at least 10 days. I mean, I'll mention it, but I won't address it as a subject. I gots to get off the sauce. But! This is the final election hurrah!, the last bender, the largest compendium of actual information ever assembled in the history of autowin. We're celebrating the longest sustained period I've gone without talking about myself (directly) (constantly). But also; I feel it's silly to talk about me right now. My existence is so absurdly petty and frivolous, it's difficult to address inner demons when the sky is falling, everyone's broke and unemployed (I've been broke & unemployed for eons, so I'm used to it), and we're in the midst of an extremely high-stakes election.
I mean, what can I talk about right now besides the state of the union? I wanna start new book club, but what if no one can afford to buy books! Omg! What about my feelings? Do I have any?
This blog post covers the important issues as we see them. It also contains
every single g-ddamn link I've been sent, directed to, or independently stumbled upon this week. Every link you've emailed me, all the ones Haviland shared via email 'cause she uses Google Reader like a weirdo, facebook posted items, youtube links on twitter. ALL OF THEM. Did I miss anything? Is there ANOTHER PALIN VIDEO I could watch? Please let me know, thanks.
I asked three of my greatest resources – my future bridesmaids – to give me input and help me assemble something that you can use when it's time to email your bible-thumping uncle or your clueless younger brother or your dear friend at the office who apparently would like to see America continue spiraling to hell in a hand-basket along with great minds like Elisabeth Hassleback and Ann Coulter. This, my friends, is the source of all your informational needs.
With avatars!
I present, along with Krista, Natalie, and Haviland --
the greatest bestest staggering work of heartbreaking genius
election 2008 coverage on the entire world wide web.
**
The Team:
Natalie: Grew up in Ohio (heartland of the universe), her parents immigrated from Romania. We met at U of Michigan where she studied women's studies and then got her M.A in Philosophy & Public Policy at the London School of Economics. She currently works for the Association for Women’s Rights and Development and her best friend is a gay and we're gonna find an awesome apartment.
Krista: Grew up in Wisconsin, we met at Interlochen Arts Academy as suitemates our junior year and then forevermore. In our Sparlem apartment many years later she'd lecture me on politics atop a stack of folded-up pieces of The New York Times and donate to shit-tons of causes, thus flooding the mailbox with Sierra Club posters and Planned Parenthood alerts. She's studying for her M.A. at Yale and her boyf is a big shot at moveon.org. She can see Russia from her window.
Haviland:
You know
Haviland Stillwell, rising star, already obvs. and know all about her. I'll just add that she grew up in the deep south of Savannah and then Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of a democratic politician in a Republican district. Her brother works in D.C. I don't know how she became a gay at
NYU and then a Broadway star.
She gets way more excited about
Meet the Press than you'd expect, is really hot for Hillary, and only pals around with people who love America and the first ammendment.
McCain will tax, for the first time in history, health insurance benefits from your employer, and “deregulate," just like he did with the banks, which didn't work. 20 million will lose benefits, one trillion will lose Medicare and Medicaid.
- The return credit of $1500/individual and $5000/family doesn't come close to the $12,000 price tag on the average American family's policy.
- It'll be legal for insurance companies to select their own pools, so those w/preexisting conditions will have trouble getting insured.
- Obama's laws make it illegal for HI companies to discriminate.
- Obama plans to create universal health care but if you already like your policy, you can keep it, obvs! -- never fear.
- We are the only wealthy industrialized nation without some form of universal health care.
Haviland: “What better way to make this country better than to teach everyone from the time that they are born that they don't have to be privileged to see a doctor?”
Krista: “McCain's health care plan is literally catastrophic, and hypocritical. McCain has seven homes and private jets and has been on tax-payer financed health insurance his entire life. Aside from the judges, this is the thing that scares me the most.”
We’re marred by the Bush-Cheney foreign relations approach – “you’re either with us or you’re against us, and if you’re against us, we’ll probs drop bombs.” We’re now less safe and our moral standing within the international community has been severely damaged.
- McCain’s position on Iraq: stay the course.
- Obama’s foreign policy: 1. no more fear, 2. have some dignity. 3. diplomacy first, military action as a last resort.
- Obama and Biden will convene a bipartisan Consultative Group made up of Congress members to foster better executive-legislative relations and bipartisan unity on foreign policy.
- McCain’s website does not have a section coherently detailing his foreign policy approach.
Natalie: "Obama's foreign policy plan is nuanced and recognizes the complexities of the world we live in today. He understands the need to engage the international community and that diplomatic pressures are often more effective than military intervention ... but fully understands the importance of a strong and fortified military and the need to deploy it when all else fails."
Obama's foreign policy is the best! McCain vs. McCain: He seems to think he can magically unite the two main strands in foreign-policy administration. He can't (newsweek),
Foreign Policy Brain Trusts: McCain Advisers (Council on Foreign Relations).
Obama is not a terrorist! Bill Ayers is totes fine, this guy used to work with him (@slate), and Obama sets the record straight on the radio animated
Bateman style (@salon), and
he predicted this line of reasoning, didn't he? Yes he did (@youtube).
Reproductive Rights/Health Care: Obama supports a woman’s right to choose her reproductive futures. McCain would, given the chance, overthrow Roe v. Wade and terminate the Title X family planning program. He opposes investing in insurance coverage for women's health issues like birth control (and supports abstinence only sex ed w/a running mate who makes rape victims pay for their rape kits)
- More than 19 million women are uninsured in this country.
- Choice is critical to the promotion of democracy. In order to truly have control over one’s life, one must have full control of one’s body.
Women and Work: Over the past eight years, female workers have faced stagnating wages, declining health care coverage, erosion of pension protections, rising personal debt and have been hard hit by the housing crisis.
- Women make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes for the same work.
- A mother can get fired or lose wages for missing work because her child gets sick.
- The Obama economic plan will increase the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011 and will extend Child Care Tax Breaks to 7.5 million working women. Their plan also supports paid paternal leave.
Natalie: “On their website, McCain/Palin claim that “there is only one candidate (John McCain) who has answers to the most basic concerns facing women voters.” Scouring their website, there’s no reference to the particular challenges women face in the work-force, balancing work and family, obstacles owning their own businesses – anything. They do however discuss Cindy McCain’s travels.
Take a look for yourself.
Obama and Biden, on the other hand,
have a lot to say -and it makes sense."
Famous People say VOTE!: Paris Hilton interviews the best president ever (@funny or die),
Betty White has Sarah Palin's crazy (@defamer),
don't vote is possibly better than vote or die, also the girls from
friends look HOT (@mtvnews),
kim stolz wants you to vote (@afterellen), also all the hot people in hollywood are like
whatever we're not gonna vote for you (@the la times).
The election is funny! Like,
where are the Republicans gonna threaten to move if Obama wins? (@slate), and what would it be like if
Obama and Bartlett had a meeting, I bet Aaron Sorkin could conjure that (@nytimes), and Roseanne Cash would be a better
VP than than Sarah Palin (@the nation) and Sarah Palin's debate can be explained
in the Debate Flow Chart (@the daily kos), but she's George Sanders's
Gal (@the new yorker) and of course there's
John Stewart & Steven Colbert breaking it down, as they do this time of year (@entertainment weekly).
Haviland: "I'm the member of three unions -- Actor's Equity, Screen Actor's Guild, and AFTRA -- I can safely say,
listen to the president of the AFL-CIO about the craziness of voting any other way and trust he knows what he's talking about. He brings up great points about racisim within the election. Many 'blue collar workers' can listen to this guy and understand that a vote for McCain/Palin would be a total loss."
McCain is lying about the content of his character! Mishaps mark John McCain's record as naval aviator (@latimes)
Make Believe Maverick (tim dickinson @rolling stone),
McCain and the POW Cover-up (@the nation),
McCain thinks we won every war ever (@the atlantic),
mccain yells at everyone when he loses at craps and has an anger management problem (@the daily beast).
Also, McCain is a serious flip-flopper! Here's a clean-cut chart of the double-talk express (@rollingstone),
his supporters say the flip-flopping is independence from dogma, but really he's just an opportunistic flip embracer of opposites (@the ny times),
the daily show debuts the movie "John McCain is a Reformed Maverick" (@comedy central).
Clearly the Republican "trickle-down" plan has failed -- outsourcing is at an all time high, and gaps between rich and poor continue to expand as big-box retailers and multi-national corporations take over the map. Obama knows change takes time and starts with education and health care. 95% of Americans will benefit from his tax cuts, which focus on the middle class.
Obama will save the economy!:
Wall Street, Fall 2009 (@nymag),
Obama has found his voice on the economy 'cause he's "Professor and Pastor" (@slate).
Everyone on McCain's team wants to be on Obama's team now! David Brooks (@nytimes),
Christopher Buckley (@the daily beast),
Kathleen Parker (@the national review), and
Peggy Noonan (@the wsj),
Republicanos por Obama (@huffpo),
Republican Congressman Ray LaHood (@huffpo), former Republican Michigan Gov.
William Millken (@mlive), and
just general concern in the GOP for his campaign right now (@nytimes) and the RedState confounder isn't wanting to vote for Obama,
but he can't bring himself to vote for McCain (@joshuatrebino).
Krista: "Our courts hang in dangerous balance with four moderate liberals, four extreme conservatives and one tenuous swing vote. Justice Stevens, one of the moderate liberals, is 88. Our world will change not just for four more years but for our lifetime were he to be replaced by a McCain/Palin appointee.
We could overturn Roe vs. Wade, we’ll likely see torture as a routine and legal interrogation technique, unchecked corporations will pollute our planet for profit, and any power put before the court would likely be ushered into the hands of an ever-privileged few as unions and worker's rights become a distant memory. Our proud history of Civil Rights and Women’s Rights may never have come to be under a court populated by McCain’s favorite justices."
[I did a piece about
Alito for nerve a few years ago. He got appointed. Thank you, Bush. Very, very frightening stuff.]
Haviland: "She's a liar. She doesn't answer questions. To be fair, there's no reason someone in her position, prior to her VP nom, would be expected to know foreign policy details, so she's done a good job learning quickly. But do you want someone who's cramming the info instead of someone who already knows it? Aside from experience and personality, there's other issues with Palin:
- Living next door to Russia isn't foreign policy experience.
- Having a gay friend and tolerating her choice is not pro-civl rights
- Believing it's "not important" to discuss the cause of global warming isn't eco friendly.
- Supporting abstinence only education -- which clearly didn't work, 'cause her own daughter couldn't get with the Palin agenda -- doesn't mean she's pro-life.
Being a woman in a position of power does not mean you're a feminist."
+
: The scariest thing about John McCain's running mate isn't how unqualified she is -- it's what her candidacy says about America (@ rolling stone),
The View From Alaska: Amid Troopergate and other government scandals, including killing wolf pups, an Alaskan writer explains why the Palin phenomenon rings hollow in his home state (@salon),
Palin's Alternate Universe: In such a serious moment in American history, it's hard to believe that somebody with Sarh Palin's limited skills could possibly be playing a leadership role. (@nytimes),
Sarah Palin is ruining my life, I rant about her, I can't stop looking at her (Q&A @salon),
For Palin, some pork is kosher (@politico),
Eve Ensler's Drill, Drill Drill (@huffpo),
Meet Sarah Palin's radical right-wing friends (@salon),
Is Sarah Palin a "Muscular Feminist," or simply a Dumb Jock? (@radar),
New footage from inside Sarah Palin's church (@the daily beast).
Palin has done some sketchy shit! She blurred the line between church and state in how she distributed state funds in Alaska (@the assosicated press/juneau via huffpo),
alternet's got 12 new stomach-turning revelations about her record (@alternet).
The Candidate that Launched A Thousand Sarah Palin Impressions: Riese & Haviland Vlog: Alice interviews Sarah Palin part
one and
two, Saturday Night Live parodies @ NBC,
Palin/Hilary Open,
Couric/Palin Open,
VP Debate Open: Palin/Biden, and the original Sarah Palin imitator Sarah Benicasa on
her youtube channel (
one is still the best) and since getting picked up by the Huff-Po where now all her
Sarah Palin Vlogs are on 236.com , also what if Sarah Palin's story was a Disney movie it would be:
Head of Skate (@college humor).
The 236.com Sarah Palin Video Library: everything this woman has ever said, including recent interviews with Gibson and Couric as well as oldies-but goodies like Iraq war is "god's task" & getting blessed by a witch hunter.
3. Savage Inequalities in the Education SystemRepublicans embrace "big government" and Social Darwinsim, but this doesn't work w/r/t education. Survival of the fittest doesn't apply in a school system that doesn't provide the tools of survival equally -- where poor districts go without books and rich districts enjoy Olympic-sized swimming pools and personal computers. Obama will apply a lifetime record of education activism to fix "No Child Left Behind" and improve HeadStart, retain & recruit & reward high-quality teachers and make college affordable. McCain's rhetoric? Make "parents and children" responsible. "Empower" parents to move their kids from a bad school to a good one -- leaving kids with shitty parents alone in shitty schools. Statistics show this usually results in dropping out, low-wage work, prison, or having babies too young and then being shitty parents so the cycle continues. Good plan, McCain, bravo.
McCain/Palin are being mean/assholes/racist:
A Republican Mob Scene (john dickerson @slate),
Mud Pies for "That One" (maureen dowd @the nytimes)),
The McCain-Palin Mob (@blogger interrupted),
John Lewis Condemns GOP Campaign Tactics (@the washington post),
Campbell Brown Blasts McCain campgin for race baiting (@huffo),
McCain Plays the Race Card (@time).
Obama supports federal benefits and protections for same-sex couples, fully-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, hate crime legislation, comprehensive sex ed, a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and increased HIV/AIDS funding. He opposes the federal marraige ammendment and bans on GLBT adoptions.
Obama loves the gays! see exactly how his ideas are better than mccain's ideas (@the advocate)
and also biden loves the gays (@the advocate) and the
hrc endorses barack obama (@the hrc).
Obama is the best choice for president ever! He's
The New Yorker's choice and
Esquire's first endorsement of a candidate in 75 years. Also:
15 Papers Endorse Obama this weekend, none for McCain (@e&p pub),
Hip-hop stars endorse Obama (@the star online), Sarah Silverman says
Schlep it out to your grandparents for Obama,
Bruce Springstein is boss, he endorses Obama (@huffpo), also all the hot people in hollywood are like
whatever we're not gonna vote for you, Sarah Palin (@the la times),
Women's Rights groups endorse Obama (@ap).
Obama attracts all different kinds of voters overlooked or slighted by the GOP! Like
the hip-hop generation (@newsweek),
the women of wasilla alaska (@the wasilla project),
military wives (@youtube),
next generation veterans for obama (@youtube). He's
battling block by block for the black vote (@nytimes),
voters from all over the world if they could vote (@the economist), and the
youth (@la times).
Obama is smart! That's a good thing! James Wood thinks Obama's
Verbage is top-rate (@thenewyorker) and Maureen Dowd doesn't like
Sarah's Pompom Palaver (@the nytimes).
Talk shows and the news love Obama! Look,
Michelle Obama on the Daily Show (@comedy central),
Elisabeth Hassleback can't seem to defend Sarah Palin on The View (@huffpo),
Oblermann's got a Special Comment on Sarah Palin (@huff - po) and
Rachel Maddow is such a cutie on the Tonight Show (@afterellen), so also I was just wondering
Can Late Night Comedy Sink John McCain? (@the nation) but also,
bill clinton - not that helpful (@slate).
LATE ADD: 18. Energy, the Environment, and Climate Change
By Bat-Boy Alexandra Vega 
Obama understands (and McCain doesn't) that if we were self-sufficient and energy independent, we could preserve economic stability, stimulate the economy over time and consequently avoid wars, conflicts and foreign policy decisions based solely on the need for oil. Obama, with a long record of initatives designed to fight global warming and client change, intends to limit carbon emissions, invest in altertnative energy, raise fuel-economy standards and require 10 percent of America's energy be generated by renewable sources by 2012. 50% of the U.S Oil Supply is bought straight from foreign countries like Saudi Arabia & other countries who often use our payments to finance terror-loving terrorists. Drilling isn't the only answer; we've only got 3% of the world's oil reserves and even if we started drilling in ANWR today, it would only give us about enough oil to last a month -- at its PEAK, which'll be about a decade from now. So clean fuel isn't just about energy and the environment, it's about creating millions of new jobs and saving American industry. Check out: Environmentalists for Obama "Ms. Palin's strategy is frighteningly simplistic: drill for more oil. It is true that nearly every Alaska politician likes to drill for oil; it is the source of much of the state's income. But no other Alaska politician is this close to the presidency. Meanwhile, Ms. Palin continues to express doubts about the human causes of climate change. Her insistence, in the debate, that she didn't "want to argue about the causes" was also alarming."(The New York Times, "
Up and Down the Learning Curve")
1. Because Yes We Can
Krista: "In the VP debate, Palin quoted Regan when she warned Americans that "you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it was once like to live in America when men were free." For all of us who love our country and what it stands for -- that's our worst nightmare, that the best is behind us. But Regan's quote was addressing the possibility of launching Medicare. So yes, Sarah Palin, we'll act now to make sure our best days are ahead of us, not behind us. We'll do this by
not withholding Medical care from the elderly, among other things.
We'll do it by voting, this time, out of hope and faith in the American people -- not out of fear.
We will, in short, listen to our better angels.
We'll build and not destroy.
In our cities and in our hearts we'll start again to work For and not Against.
We'll do our own fact checking and not end up finding out far too late that our fears, stoked by mis-truths, led us to give power to an administration that didn't have our best interests at heart.
We'll rebuild the middle class by ensuring that paying for healthcare won't lead to home forclosure.
We'll rebuild our education system so that teachers and students have the support they need not just to survive, but to thrive.
We'll rebuild our economy with the fundamental belief that someone working a full-time job should be able to afford rent, and that CEOs can't walk away from imploding deals w/billions of benefits.
We'll do it by voting to protect the middle class.
That will rehabilitate our image around the world.
That will make America, once again, what it is meant to be: a bastion of freedom, strength, education, innovation, creativity, generosity, and prosperity. And we will get there together.
Bruce Springsteen at a registration drive in Philadelphia said, "that promise was handed down to us by our Founding Fathers with one instruction: do your best to make these things real."
Over the last eight years we've been failing that one simple instruction. Our leadership can work for us, we have the opportunity now to build again after the storm. Our house of dreams still stands, as Springsteen said, "One thousand George Bushes and one thousand Dick Cheneys will never be able to tear that house down."
Let's take our country back."
++
ok, tinkerbell will write about lilo & samro, all my feelings, books and field trips tomorrow.
xoxo
gossip girl.
[picture = barnaby ward]
