by RealistGuy
McCain rallies are getting racist and ugly. McCain needs to start addressing this, because Palin's guilt by association speeches are fueling the far-right to make racist assumptions about Barack Obama.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Racism at the Rallies By Realist Guy
Labels: John McCain, mob, negative ads, Palin, realistguy, video
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13 comments:
I want "true conservatism" to answer for it. I want him to comment on this. This is inexcusable. We WILL have Obama as president, and we will NOT allow these prejudiced comments towards Barack Obama. We don't call John McCain a lying traitor who gave up information under torture in Vietnam, do we? No. But because Barack Obama happens to sound like he has a terrorist name, it's exploited. Inexcusable. We've come too far for this to not go through.
What do you mean "he happens to sound like he has a terrorist name?" Hussein is a common name in the Middle East and North Africa, much like Jim in the western world. Would you assume that someone was Christian just because his name was Jim? Of course not. He could be anything.
The point, I believe, is that making these arbitrary labels about people based on their names is intellectually lazy and dishonest.
The Young Sentinel.
Okay WaschDcDemocrat:
Some of that stuff in that video was true, but then again some stuff was not true. Obama was in a muslim school at a very young age. Mostly, the guy video-taping just wanted to make a video to rile up Obama/Biden supporters.
Also: Please don't think that Obama/Biden supporters are that much more advanced or professional comapared to McCain/Palin supporters. These are people who went to the rally, who have strongly beliefs which happen to be protected by 1st Amendment rights (Right to Free Speech to those who have forgotten...).
I have a feeling if a conservative went to an Obama/Biden rally, found a supporter, shoved a camera in their face, and tried to corner them into saying something or slipping up, that conservative would have quite a bit of video coverage.
I myself recently went to a Palin rally, and big surprise, there were a bunch of Palin supporters! They had their opinions, some which differed from mine, some which were similar to mine. But I didn't go up to the people who had different opinions and say "Change the way you think, or else suffer dire consequences!". That's not the way America or Free Speech works.
Yes, there are people who think Obama is a terrorist, and there are people who think contrary. There are people who think McCain is an angry old white guy, and people who think opposite. But hey: Welcome to America.
I don't hate Obama because of his name or race (frankly I could care less), I hate Obama because of the damage he could cause our country.
Thanks
---True Conservatism---
(aka krimsnjustice at nobama.com)
McCain/Palin 2008
So just to be clear:
1) You don't support these people's actions in attacking Obama based on name only
2) You can do better, and
3) You expect me to believe you.
I'd like to know what damage you think he will do to our country. John McCain has lied and lied about what he has done and what he will do. His vice persident has even less experience than Obama. John McCain will continue to send troops to a nation where they were never needed in the first place. He doesn't realize that Iraq is the next Vietnam. Yes, Obama will increase taxes for some of America; yes, he has less Congressional experience than John McCain. But John McCain is not appealing to voters the way he thought he would; if you look at the polls, he's losing.
One last thing - if there's one thing I hate, its people hiding behind our Constitution to do things that should be outlawed, or are at least immoral. So don't wave the First, Second, or any other Amendment in my face. It's something to be paper-shredded and thrown away when abused.
Thanks for responding, by the way. It's good to have people active on the forum.
I'd rather have someone wrapped in the constitution burning the flag than someone wrapped in the flag burning the constitution.
Free speech should be protected. Period. As Woody Allen said, "I think we should fight to the death for their right to demonstrate and then go down and meet them with baseball bats!" The ACLU is right on this: all speech that doesn't form a national security risk is rightly free.
For the second amendment, I think we have to be reasonable. People should be allowed to have guns. BUT, (there is always a "but") we have to put in place regulations and restrictions in place to deal with advancements (such as machine guns and assault weapons) that were not around in 1789. We must keep weapons out of the hands of criminals. To do this, you put in place basic background checks at gun shows and require registration. That's all.
I also think, with no offense to WashDCDem, that quartering of troops in civilian homes during times of war is a law which we can pretty well agree is universal.
Maybe you missed the "when abused" part. The Constitution is not a magic 200-year-old pill for everything. When the dose is too much, it could be counterproductive. Not for the government, I mean - even for the people.
And yes, quartering soldiers in people's homes is bad. No arguement there.
Alrighty, WashDcDemocrat:
Just wrapping things up here based on the previous topic:
1). You wanted me to apoligize for what people are doing across the country
AND
2). You think that them using the right to free speech is "wrapping yourself in the constitution"
The problem is not the speech of the people in this video (though I agree, it should be toned down), its people that are getting way too personal with this. The problem is that you can not say anything about Obama without being called racist. Even his policies and political "friends"; you point them out and you are a racist.
Damage towards country:
1) Universal Healthcare; bad. A few months ago, Young Sentinel cited some countries that have Universal Healthcare. Besides being hideously expensive (65 billion per year, 4 years total), it would damage our country, possibly beyond repair. Get this;
In Canada, people sign up for appointments with veterinarians just as an excuse to get a simple check-up.
I recently went to Greece, a country that has adopted socialized medicine, and its hospital conditions were terrible. Here are just a few points from my blog.
"1. Lack of Hospital Greens for patients
2. 4-5 patients PER room
3. No soap in bathroom
4. Understaffed
5. Overworked employees
And finally, Cuba (the country that got me in some trouble a few weeks ago on this blog :) ). I made the point that the doctors there don't have the experience or training that our doctors have. You might not like it, but we do have the best healthcare in the world. McCain's Plan: Make it more affordable. We don't need to completely change the system.
Energy: I am totally confused with the Obama/Biden ticket on energy. But based on what's been said, I think that
Obama/Biden opposes Coal
Obama/Biden opposes Nuclear (Obama made a clear stance against it early on, then lied that he supported it during the debate.)
Obama/Biden opposes Off-Shore drilling (Obama made the point that we only have 3% of the world's supply. INCORRECT! We are only drilling 3%. We have barely touched the 100 Million Barrels in Alasks.)
So less energy, more dependence on foreign oil. McCain's Plan: All of the above energy plan. Create hundreds of thousands of jobs with nuclear, drilling, and coal.
And just one final point. Someone PLEASE explain simple economics to Obama. As an example, let's say that an oil company received a 1 billion dollar tax break. That money is funneled into increasing pay for workers, hiring more workers, and increasing benefits. When you tax a company, they have to lay off workers and decrease pay.
So just one last point: We don't need a Robin Hood tax policy either.
Anyways, till next time. I have to go volunteer.
McCain/Palin 2008
"You might not like it, but we do have the best healthcare in the world."
No.
We rank 37th according to the World Health Organization, notably behind Andorra, Austria, Colombia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Israel, Japan, Malta, Oman, the UAE, and the UK. Oman, I stress. The one thing we rank first in is responsiveness, and I guess that's a pretty good thing, but there are other things we rank low in.
Anecdotes do not prove a trend — your one bad experience does not mean that every hospital in Greece is as you describe.
Also, for the record, compare your figure of $65 billion/year with a mean of ~$117 billion/year on the war in Iraq.
1997? Nothing more recent?
Probably, but this is the first thing that showed up when I searched. Have things honestly improved that much since 1997 that you think our ratings would be vastly different?
The figure about the cost stands, however.
We're missing the point, guys. Let me respond:
1. McCain wants to give a $5000 tax credit to families to buy health care. How many families are there in America? Tens of millions, right? Multiply that by 5000 and then put that in the pockets of the greedy pharmaceutical companies.
Big Pharma is taking advantage of us (that is to say overcharging us) as we speak. Forcing everyone to put government money into the system will simply result in premiums increasing by $5000 mission NOT accomplished.
2. I'm skeptical of "clean coal". Coal is not clean; it's a more acute greenhouse gas emitter than even oil. As it stands the technology is like ethanol: possible in the future but presently even more environmentally destructive than oil.
3. Oil spills and exploration is one of my particular areas of expertise, and I can tell you that it will be 2014 before a drop of oil starts to flow from the Gulf. And despite what John McCain would have you believe, drilling in the arctic would be unbelievably destructive.
4. The upper crust of our medical professionals are the tops in the world. Hospitals outside wealthy areas are by and large complete disasters.
5.Nuclear energy is not a healthy long-term solution. It produces incredibly toxic waste which must be buried and stored for millenia. Although it seems cheaper at face value, the price is a guise: the real cost of maintaining and burying the waste is footed by the government, a.k.a. you. And it's not clean, either. Just ask the dozens of plant workers in Georgia that have developed radiation-induced diseases and disorders and have gone untreated.
I'm also distrustful of the security of the plants. A relative of mine as an undercover journalist mananged to completely penetrate Indian Point.
6. Finally, you don't seem to see the truth about oil company profits. ExxonMobil made over 40 billion dollars of profit last year. How much did they pay in taxes? Not a lot. How much of a raise did their low-rung employees see? Not much of one. How much did the outgoing CEO Lee Raymond make? %144,000 dollars a day for twelve years, plus a retirement package of 400 million dollars.
I hope that answers your questions.
True conservativism thinks that I want him to apologize for what others do. Not true. I don't feel that people should take credit for what they are not responsible for.
Also, to sum up true conservativism's comments, he truely believes that AMerica leads the field in every category. No. In nearly every category, we are behind. Perhaps the only one that we're ahead in is military strength - currently being misused.
Regardless, I'd also like to thank true conservativism for responding and participating on this forum. He is very correct that Palin and McCain are not directly behind any "racism" - McCain personally took the mic away from a supporter who verbally assaulted his presidential opponent. But some things are not arguable.
Much of this video is taken out of context. What about the Obama supporters, who say you're racist if you don't vote for Obama? This video fits the very definition of propaganda.
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