The Most Dangerous Woman in the World?

Sarah Palin scares the hell out of me. She seems so much like one of those over the top female fatale movie villains. She’s beautiful, she knows how to hide behind her sex appeal and she doesn’t mind looking you in the eye and sticking the knife straight through your heart. She is Barbara Stanwyck in the “Postman Always Rings Twice,” or Kathleen Turner in “Body Heat,” victim and perpetrator all rolled up in one.

Referred to as Palin the Impaler, by Katherine Parker, Palin appears to be a person devoid of conscience. She’s supposedly a “Christian,” raising a “Christian” family, yet doesn’t appear to be racked with guilt by her behavior or the behavior of her family. She is apparently willing to say and do anything she is asked to say with out consideration for the consequences. It is not merely that she is willing to overlook the consequences it is that she relishes in the possibilities. When Sara Palin shouts from the podium that Barack Obama “pals around with terrorists,” you get the feeling that she has not agonized over what she says could mean. You get the feeling that she does not feel that she has to be responsible for what she says.

Several days ago in Florida, Palin was at it again, insinuating that Obama hangs out with domestic terrorists. When from the audience, which was whipped up in a frenzy came the “he’s a terrorists,” and “Kill him!” I wondered if the camera had been turned on the audience would they have been in white hoods. It sent a chill down my spine. As I was sitting shocked in front of my TV I saw the cold curl of Palin’s lips. She was smiling, as she allowed the full weight of what she was saying and hearing fall upon those at the rally.

The campaign has come to a dangerous place. A candidate for the presidency of the United States of America is being accused of being a terrorist, in a country where terrorists are sentenced to death. Uniformed police officers are getting up on the podium and making veiled racial comments. When local politicos are getting up on the podium and saying things like, “what are you going to do with yourself when you wake up in the morning and find out that someone named Barack Hussein Obama is president.”

I guess my question is John McCain has decided to allow Palin to run amok rather than take back his campaign and talk about the issues. The crowds are going wild, literally. They are coming to see Palin not him (McCain). It been reported that as soon as she is done the crowd begins streaming out as McCain comes on stage. If he wins, what happens next? How will McCain control the Frankenstein he has created? Will he be able to keep the monster under control or will she break free and wreak havoc upon the village? Has McCain already been eclipsed by a monster of his own creation? Will he be given a heart attack pill, so Palin can become the first woman President?

THE RIGHT? TO VOTE - HOW TO LOSE THE RIGHT TO VOTE WITHOUT EVEN TRYING

At 55 I’m old enough to remember watching on TV on a beautiful sunny day, willows swaying lazily against the crisp spring breeze of May 1963. I could the faint sound of singing off in the distance; as it moves closer I can make out the words being song with determination getting ever stronger, “We shall overcome; we shall overcome some day… Soon after you see the column of young black children, some in their teens some younger. The fact that they are children is important. Children were picked for this task for a reason. They were innocents, they were children, and no one would harm children. So there they were walking down the street holding hands; clutching each other, with frightened but resolute looks on their faces singing “We shall overcome.”

The camera then pans away from the children 180 degrees to the south and you see a large crowd of angry whites, their faces are contorted, they are yelling ugly things at the children, their fists are raised and some are throwing eggs. The camera continues moving across the crowd and suddenly stops and focuses on a single white man wearing the uniform of a civil servant. He is a sheriff elected to protect the children marching toward him. Behind him stand a line of police some have night sticks, some have dogs, some carry water hoses.

Then; to my horror and disbelief, the unthinkable happens, as the children approach, the crowd grows more agitated, the sheriff puts the bullhorn up to his mouth and gives a warning, then and order and steps out of the way. First the water hoses, I see a wild burst of water push forth, and then I see the column of children fall to the ground stunned. Chaos erupts the children are splashing about trying to stand up, trying to continue, then the dogs are released as the children scream in horror, running every which way they are cut down with night sticks. The children are clubbed in their heads, arms, legs, the civil servants sworn to protect, beat the children with wild abandon. As the angry whites egg on the police and their black parents watch in horror and impotence.

I was only 11 years old when I witnessed this scene with the fear of a young girl watching a horror movie. My parents tried to explain that these children were fighting for me, for our right to vote, to attend any school we wanted, to eat and sleep where we wanted, live where we wanted all of this on the backs of children. Thankfully, the world had seen and heard, and miraculously had listened. Two years later, the congress passed and the senate ratified the National Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. § 1973–1973aa-6)[1] outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the United States.

The act was significant on many fronts, it not only gave blacks the right to vote but “the Act established extensive federal oversight of elections administration, providing that states with a history of discriminatory voting practices (so-called "covered jurisdictions") could not implement any change affecting voting without first obtaining the approval of the Department of Justice, a process known as pre-clearance. These enforcement provisions applied to states and political subdivisions (mostly in the South) that had used a "device" to limit voting and in which less than 50 percent of the population was registered to vote in 1964.

That “device,” sometimes took on the form of poll taxes, or having to pass literacy tests. Having to prove homeownership, or even having to prove that you could no longer bear children. So the 1965 Voting Rights Act was an important moment in Civil Rights history, with the key to actual rights to vote being the “pre-clearance,” requirement.

Fast forward to 2006, George Bush extended the Voting Rights Act for another 25 years. (Blacks in America do not have a permanent right to vote it has to be renewed every 25 years, and the right can be repealed) What was significant about 2006 was the objection of the republican congress to renew the primary premise of the act the “pre-clearance,” requirement. Republicans for the south cited that many of the discriminatory practices of the old Jim Crow south had long since ceased and no such requirement was needed. Plus the requirement placed an unfair stigma to the progress the south had made over the last 40 or so years.

The Republican objection is significant in light of what happened in 2004, black and Hispanic voters were targeted in Florida when thousand of voter were taken off registration list and were unable to vote because their name was similar to that of a convicted felon. Or in counties with high Hispanic voters denying bilingual ballots and requiring only English ballots. This election is no different the Republicans are on the move again an attempt is being made to take voters whose homes are in foreclosure of the registration lists again. In Michigan, and Ohio minority voters are being told, that if their home is in foreclosure they can not vote. Republicans are also trying to get poll locations changed at the last minute, and require proof of citizenship in order to vote. The pre-clearance requirement is what gives civil liberties groups the right to sue on behalf of those voters. It also requires that “any,” changes to voting rights given to American by law has to be ruled upon by the Supreme Court. Without the pre-clearance requirement the Voting Rights Act is just so much toilet paper.

What happened in 2006 should have been a wake up call for all of us; it was a direct assault on the voting rights of African Americans. It signaled a call to arms for Republicans everywhere to begin a continuous attack on the voting rights act. The Republicans have been ever vigilant while we have taken our eye off the ball. What’s happening in Michigan, Ohio and other battleground states is a sign that Republicans are going to continue to get the “pre-clearance” requirement repealed. If they are successful African Americans will have to fight for our right to vote all over again. An somewhere in the not to distant future another 11 year old girl may have to watch with horror as we send our children out to do what we should be have been doing all along, fighting to make the voting rights act a constitutional amendment, rather than a lease on freedom that comes up for renewal every 25 years.

THE GRAMM CONNECTION

John McCain loudly proclaimed that the financial mess we’re in was do to greed, and corruption. Really, John? Did you learn this during pillow talk with former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas)? Wall Street has gone horribly wrong, and it was Gramm who lobbied and won a repeal of banking regulation laws that held everything in check. Laws that were put in place after the great depression.

Once Gramm and his buddies were free to do as they pleased a feeding frenzy of mergers and acquisitions ensued. Most profitable for Gramm was Swiss Bank UBS devouring Paine Weber. Soon after Gramm became Vice Chairman of UBS’s investment banking. Yep, good ole “Foreclosure Phil” Gramm, as Mother Jones affectionately calls him.

The same man responsible for gutting the SEC budget, and threatening to cut off their funding all together if the sec implemented a “rule that would have prohibited accounting firms from getting too close to the companies they audited,” according to Mother Jones article. Gramm’s biggest coupe Gramm was the 262-page measure called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. An act that “for starters, contained a provision—lobbied for by Enron, a generous contributor to Gramm—that exempted energy trading from regulatory oversight, allowing Enron to run rampant, wreck the California electricity market, and cost consumers billions before it collapsed. (For Gramm, Enron was a family affair. Eight years earlier, his wife, Wendy Gramm, as cftc chairwoman, had pushed through a rule excluding Enron's energy futures contracts from government oversight. Wendy later joined the Houston-based company's board, and in the following years her Enron salary and stock income brought between $915,000 and $1.8 million into the Gramm household.)” as stated in the Mother Jones article.

In 1996, Gramm spent $20 million seeking the Republican presidential nomination, but failed dismally. (reprinted from sourcewatch.com)

The top contributors were:

Service Corp International (funeral services) $52,800
AFLAC Inc. (health insurance) $44,500
Vinson & Elkins LLP (lawyers) $33,750
Arthur Andersen & Col (accountants) $30,250
Enron Corp. (natural gas) $28,250
Anadarko Petroleum (oil and gas) $21,050
Dean Witter (securities) $20,000
Tenneco Inc. (natual gas) $19,750
Sterling Software $19,250
John L. Wortham & Sons (insurance) $18,800

If John McCain become President and the only thing that stand between the American worker and oblivian heaven help us all. The man hasn’t got a clue.

THE SPIN CYCLE

If you use your ivy league education to help Americans whose jobs have been outsourced, you are a failure.
If you use your ivy league education to help outsource American jobs, you are a success.

If you're a minority and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "token hire."
If you're a conservative and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "game changer."

If you live in an Urban area and you get a girl pregnant you're a "baby daddy."
If you're the same in Alaska you're a "teen father."

If you grow up in Hawaii you're "exotic."
If you grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, you're the "quintessential American story."

If you name you kid Barack you're "unpatriotic. "
If you name your kid Track, you're "colorful."

If you're a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the individual you're "reckless."
If you're a Republican who doesn't fully vet, you're a "maverick."

If you're a man and you decide to run for office despite your wife's recurrence of cancer you're a "questionable spouse."
If you're a woman and you decide to run for office despite having five kids including a newborn... Well, we don't know what that is 'cause "THAT'S NOT A FAIR QUESTION TO ASK."

If you get 18 million people to vote for you in a national presidential primary, you're a "phoney."
If you get 100,000+ people to vote you governor of the 47th most populous state in the Union, you're "well loved."

If you are biracial and born in a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs darn near 2 years and 3 major speeches to "get to know you."
If you're white and from a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs 36 minutes and 38 seconds worth of an acceptance speech to know you're "one of us."

If you're a black man and you use a scholarship to get into college, then work your way up to being the president of the Harvard Law Review, you're "uppity."
If you're a conservative and your parents pay your way to Hawaii Pacific University . . . you only have four more schools to attend over the next five years before you somehow manage to graduate (it might be five more schools over the next five years.)

If you are a liberal and your unwed daughter gets pregnant, it's "immoral".
If you are a conservative, it's called "family values".

If a Democrat uses his children for photo opportunities, he's exploiting them
If Republican uses her children for photo opportunities, she's a "proud hockey mom".

If you are a Democrat and the media digs into your past and prints it, it is called "good journalism and getting to the truth".
If you are a Republican and they do the same thing, it is called a "smear campaign"

If you have studied international affairs for several decades, you're "inexperienced at foreign affairs".
If you live in a state that is geographically near a foreign country, you have "foreign policy expertise"

If you're a black woman, with advanced academic degrees, and you have children while married, you're a "baby mama"
If you're a white woman who barely graduated from college, and you get knocked up and then get married after you're pregnant, you're a "Super Mom"

If you're a Republican and your underage daughter gets pregnant out of wedlock, it's a "blessing."
If you're a Democrat and you get a blow job, it's a matter for the Supreme Court.

If you're a young American serviceman abused by enemy captors on a daily basis, you're a hero who stoically endured inhumane torture and put country first.
If you're a young Arab or Pakistani grabbed in a battle zone, shipped to an American military prison by way of a third country, and held indefinitely without trial, you're a vicious Islamic terrorist who doesn't deserve to be treated like a human being.

If you're a Republican, you swear Jesus is a registered member of your party.
If you're a Democrat, you appreciate that Jesus was a community organizer.

If you chant 'Drill, Baby, Drill" you are positing an effective and responsible energy plan, science and logic be damned.
If you chant "Yes, We Can" you are a mindless automaton.

If you're a Republican with a questionable academic background, you're a champion of American education.
If you're a Democrat who was editor of the Harvard Law Review, you want to destroy America's schools.

If you're a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton, the right-wing press calls you "First Dog."
If you're a 17-year old pregnant unwed daughter of a Republican, the right-wing press calls you "beautiful" and "courageous. "

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, left your disfigured wife, and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years and raised 2 beautiful daughters, you're "risky".

If you're a Democrat and you prefer wine over beer, you are an "elitist.
"If you're a Republican and you prefer a beer heiress over your first wife, you are a "committed family man."

If you spend 18 months building a campaign around the theme of "Change," it's just "empty rhetoric."
If one week before your party's national convention you SUDDENLY make your candidacy about "Change," that's "red meat."

If you're black and never served in the military, but fight for veterans benefits and were right in predicting the disastrous Iraq war would be a mistake, you don't care about the troops.
If you're a white former POW and spend 26 years in the Senate voting against virtually every bill put forward to help veterans, and want to stay in Iraq indefinitely, you're a hero.

If you're a Republican president and you engage in illegal war costing 4000+ lives, bankrupt the country, and legalize torture and spy on US citizens, that's okay, because Jesus is your favorite political thinker.
If you're a Democratic president and you generate the largest increases in wealth for all economic classes, preside over a balanced budget, and create an unprecedented surplus, you get impeached.

Palin's Preacher Problems

Just a few months ago, we were watching Rev. Wright GodDamn America nonstop. Cable news shows didn’t even cut away for commercial it was wall to wall, Rev. Wright, I got a little confused as to who was running for President was it Rev. Wright or Barack Obama? Or was Wright, Obama’s running mate?

Now it’s the Republican’s turn right? Vice President Sara Palin’s former paster Reverend Ed Kalnins has said some pretty way out there things regarding the Iraq War, the future of America, and anyone who opposes George Bush. Rev. Ed Kalnins, is the senior pastor of Wasilla Assembly of God. Palin attended from her early teen years until 2002, until her new affiliation with a similar church in the state’s capitol, Juneau.

Conspicuously absent from cable news with the exception of CNN are the incidious comments Palin’s former pastor. From the assertion that Palin's election as governor was the result of a "prophetic call". Her election to governor was a prophetic declaration and then unfolds the kingdom of God, you know." To Jesus Christ as a war general.

Palin who believes that the Iraq War is a task sent from God. Did she have her beliefs shaped by Rev. Kalnins? Here is what the Rev has to say about Iraq, whom he believes to be terrorists:
What you see in a terrorist — that’s called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what’s going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. … We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. … Jesus called us to die. You’re worried about getting hurt? He’s called us to die. Listen, you know we can’t even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. … I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say “war mode.” Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he’s like the good shepherd, he’s loving all the time and he’s kind all the time. Oh yes he is — but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war.

If I read this right Kalnins is calling for a Holy War a Crusade. “Christ is calling us to die,” he states. Though Christians have disdained Mohammed for being a war monger, Kalnins states that Jesus, “operated from a position of war mode.” So if I understand it both Monhammed and Jesus operated from premise that there is a war going on, for the souls of mankind. Both sides are calling on the faithful “to die,” for their cause.

If you are against George Bush the man who lied us into the this Holy War, who I guess was acting in the name of God, you’re going to hell. That’s right. “Critics of President Bush will be banished to hell,” according to Kalnins. John McCain has been a frequent critic of Bush. John McCain; I’ll see you in hell!

September 11th was the signal for Christians to rise up in preparation for the end of days. Alaska has been anointed by God as a sanctuary, a refuge God’s army should disaster hit the lower 49.

The very same people who expressed outrage at the outrageous statements of Gerimiah Wright have stepped up to defend Rev. Kalnin. "You can take any kind of a sermon ... without an introduction and without a conclusion and say that this guy is weird." Peter Feldman, a spokesman for the McCain-Palin ticket, said he didn't have any information he could provide about Palin's ties to, or history with, the Wasilla Assembly of God Church. That should add to the "poor vetting" attack that the Democrats are promoting.

The Case Against Playing The Gender Card

I am the oldest of a family of four daughters, raised in Lansing, Michigan. Born between 1952 - 1958 before the sexual revolution and the pill we were quite aware of the difference of being a girl and being a boy. My mother, Beatrice Houston, was very feminine; she wore sequined lounging outfits around the house, a lot of a smelly perfume called “Ambush,” and frilly blouses matched with pastel suits. She was also an Industrial Engineer. Graduating from GM Institute she was the first African-American female Engineer at GM’s Oldsmobile. This was in 1967 before the bra burning and ERA.

There were no laws for women, or movements yet to make things easier for her. The men played rough and she had to keep up on two counts; one she was black so she had to be smarter; two, she was female so she had to be stronger. She had to be able to take it and not say anything.

My mother had four daugthers to raise in the mist of all this. She got up every morning at 4:00 am. She made breakfast for us and I’m not talking cereal, I'm talking grits, eggs and bacon. Then she prepared that night’s supper and left instructions for me. Then she quietly went upstairs got dressed and went off to a day of being disrespected. Cat calls by the black men on the factory floor who saw her as theirs,’ and being underutilized by the white men who didn’t see what she had to offer. She never complained about sexism, in 1967 there was no term for what she was going through. If the guys hit hard, she hit hard back. When she retired 25 years later, they all showed up to pay their respects.

I tell my mother’s story because no one else will. Hers is a small story and it happened in a small town. She’s not Hillary Clinton running for president, or Sara Palin running for Vice President. She didn’t have surrogates to go out and speak on her behalf or defend her. She had to kick ass on her own. She couldn’t hide behind being a girl.

Hillary Clinton and Sara Palin have stepped on the world stage. They want to be there, they asked for it and they got it. They understood that the men in this game play for high stakes; power, fame, glory it’s raw and vicious some don’t survive. They slaughter each other and keep pushing forward, if your get in their way you get clubbed to the ground.

This is the world that Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin have willingly stepped into. They weren’t pushed into it, they didn’t accidentally wonder into a khaotic party or take a wrong turn, they’re there because they want to be there. Clinton and Palin want all of the same things the men want; fame, power, and glory. The question is are they willing to fight for it.

Politics is still a blood sport if you’re gonna play you’ll have to play by the one and only rule; destroy or be destroyed. You can’t cry about it, run from it, or hide in anyway behind being a woman. You got to get in there and fight.

Both know the game is played rough, for them to cry sexism is disingenuous. I don’t like women who hit hard, use their nails to scratch a man’s eyes out then run crying if the men hit back. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think men should go around hitting women, but if a woman hits a man she should expect to be hit back. Clinton and Palin like to throw punches then cry sexism if roughed up. Pat Buchanan once said to Barack Obama, "this is the NFL, the big league, if you want to play up here you'd better be on your game.

I have two sons who when young played rocket football. One year the quarterback was a girl. She was really good, for this reason the other team was constantly trying to take her out. Her team did what they could to defend her, but sometimes she got knocked down. They didn’t show any mercy. She would get back up every time and go back to the line of scrimmage and it was her ability to scramble and break through the line and run down the field to a touchdown that impressed everyone. At 12 years old had she had a lot more courage and spunk the either Clinton or Palin.

Sarah Palin Kick's A Little Butt!

The Republican National Convention resembled a scene out of “V for Vendetta,” a lot of scary looking white people who want to burn books and restrict artistic freedoms. They all had the look of fanatic right wing abortion clinic bombers. Enter stage left. The spunky, gun toting, beauty queen, hockey mom governor of Alaska made her world debut last night. Looking not at all like a General in the rightwing militia. She seemed almost vulnerable standing alone on that big stage.
Then she began her speech. She came out swinging. Sarah Palin mused that “the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit-bull, is lipstick.” Last night Palin went back and forth between pit-bull viciously attacking Obama and Hockey Mom warming the heart of the audience with reflections of my family is just like your family. Our kids have unprotected sex and unwanted pregnancies too. When she wasn’t discussing her red neck roots she was slicing and dicing Barack Obama. Is this the same woman that the GOP spent the entire week protecting against “sexist” remarks of the “leftwing media?”

This girl doesn’t need to be protected from anyone. Barack Obama may need to be protected from a female bully who can kick him to the ground while he can’t hit back because she’s a girl. She jumped right in the ring and picked a fight, the first kick in the stomach came when she compared her experience as the mayor of Wasilla to Obama’s community organizer resume, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer", except that you have actual responsibilities.” She followed with a solid right hook to the jaw when she stated her love of small town life, I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.” Then she threw the knock out punch “some people use change to promote their careers, while others use their career to promote change.”

The GOP needed someone with less of a “Children of the Corn,” look to appeal to the masses outside of the convention hall. They needed a petite woman, wearing a pretty smile an innocent look that wasn’t afraid to look a man in the eye and kick him in the nuts. The GOP is giddy, it’s Christmas and they got the GI Joe with Kungfu grip they were hoping for.

Palin has won round one but now the games begin. Several weeks ago Pat Buchanan stated on MSNBC that Obama had to realize that he was now in the NFL of politics and had to be able to give and take a solid hit. Sarah Palin has been plucked out off the farm team and sent up to a big league team and after last night she can’t hide behind, I’m a woman don’t hit me hard.