From the Colorado Springs Gazette:
One of Sarah Palin’s most prominent local supporters, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, didn’t go to her rally Monday at Sky Sox stadium, but he did manage to sneak in a phone interview with her after the event. The 18-minute interview will air Wednesday on Dobson’s “Focus on the Family” radio show.
Tom Minnery, senior vice president of government and public policy of Focus on the Family Action, the lobbying arm of Focus, wouldn’t divulge the details of the interview. But he said Dobson spoke with Palin about the pressure of the campaign and the attacks on her since Sen. John McCain chose her in August as his running mate.
“She is smart, articulate and has a Christian testimony, so we can see why the national media is out to get her,” Minnery said Monday.
Gee Tom, if by 'Christian testimony' you mean 'rabidly racist, neo-McCarthyite groupies who don't care that she's as qualified to be VP as my pugs are,' then I'll have to agree with you. If you're simply playing the christianist victimology card, then please let me show you where you can shove said card.
P.S. Does Daddy D's wardrobe come from Neiman's as well?
NOTE FROM PAM: Right Wing Watch's Kyle Mantyla put himself through the torture of listening to Daddy D slobber all over Bible Spice so you don't have to. She not only reiterated that she and John McCain are staunch womb control advocates, she in turn slobbered over the fossilized professional "protector of the family." Read after the jump.
Palin then thanked Dobson for all he has done for the movement, declaring that "if it were not for you, so many of us would be missing the boat in terms of hearing the message in understanding what we can do to further the cause of life."Kyle also did a rough transcription of the interview, and the drooling continued -- with a call for prayers for an election miracle from God, and how Daddy D will roll out the red carpet for the witch hunter-anointed Palin when she comes to Colorado Springs to Focus HQ. She can't wait.
Dobson went on to praise the Republican Party platform as the most pro-life, pro-family party platform in history, which Palin seconded, and when Dobson asked her if she thought John McCain would seek to implement it if elected, she said she did "from the bottom of my heart" and reiterated that it was important for Americans to know "that John McCain is solidly there on those solid planks in our platform that build the right agenda for America."
Palin: I am not discouraged at all, even hearing those poll numbers because, for some reason, I have found myself over and over again in my life being put in these underdog positions and yet still when victory needed to be reached in order to meet this greater good, it’s always worked out just perfectly fine despite the fact that over and over again I’ve been, and I know John McCain has been, in underdog positions. To me, it motivates us, makes us work that much harder and it also strengthens my faith because I’m going to know at the end of the day, putting this in God’s hands, that the right thing for America will be done, the end of the day on November 4th. So I’m not discouraged at all, I’m just fine with the position that we are in today.Question: if McCain/Palin go down in flames on Nov. 4, is that God's will?
Dobson: [Talks about prayer call] “We were just asking for, rather boldly asking, for a miracle with regard to the election this year … let me just say that you that, regardless of the outcome of this election, we would love to have you come by and see us here at Focus on the Family sometime. I know that this is an extremely stressful time for you and we’re not asking you to come now, but when the time permits, we’ll roll out the red carpet for you.”
Palin: I don’t even need any kind of red carpet but I would absolutely love to. Dr. Dobson, Todd is sitting right next to me here in this vehicle before we get on an airplane, so Todd and I too, after I speak with you, I’ll share this conversation with him and we’ll be praying too for your ministry and for those pastors whom you have just mentioned also. Collectively, we can do all that we can within us to strengthen our country and to let Americans know that government has to be on their side, it’s their government and as we seek God’s wisdom and His will in this election, we have to have faith that it’s all going to be good at the end of the day there on November 4th as this country moves forward.
Executive summary
Details After posts by me on Pam's House Blend Sunday night and Baratunde Thurston on Jack and Jill Politics last night, we're on day three of the Voter Suppression Wiki's first-ever action alert. The issue of confusing ballot design where North Carolina "straight party" voters need to make sure to vote for a Presidential candidate as well has been getting noticeably more attention: a couple of excellent posts by Chris Kromm on Facing South ( 1 , 2 ) go into more detail on the "1% undervote" estimate and the implications of 40,000 or more votes not counting this election, and the Obama Straight Flip video is helping get the word out to Democrats via YouTube. |  |
Of course, many of the people most at risk for losing their vote don't read political blogs or watch YouTube. And individual experiences in early voting, for example in this thread on NCBlue, vary greatly: some sites have helpful poll workers and "greeters" to remind people, others doen't, and there's plenty of room confusion. So we think there's still plenty of opportunity to help in getting the word out. Baratunde summed it up well:
I would add that you should post this blog item to the walls of your facebook friends who live in North Carolina asking them to spread the word. Email it to family and friends down there. Call them. We cannot let this new voter participation go to waste!
Sure enough, when I posted my last blog to my feed and a couple of friend's walls on Facebook, a couple of different people replied "thanks very much, I'll send the message on." That doesn't sound like a heck of a lot, but if they reach out to their friends and family, and maybe mention it in their office, school, or church, it can have an impact. If you multiply this by the 125 people involved in the Voter Suppression Wiki -- and whoever else reads any of our posts or forwarded email -- it starts to really add up. So please, if you're in North Carolina (or know people who do), help spread the word.
In my last post, I mentioned that this is a prototypical case of where we see the Voter Suppression Wiki as having value by supplementing other mechanisms of getting the word out, and especially since this is our first action alert, it's a great learning experience. For example, one thing that caught me by surprise is a reaction in several places that this is no big deal at all, for example somebody on OpenLeft who thought it was a better use of their time to downplay the importance of this than to help get the word out. Hmm.*
| So one takeaway is that we need to be clearer about the potential consequences, both in terms of voting rights (40,000 people losing their votes) and for those who are viewing things primarily through a partisan lens (enough to tip the election). |  |
And more generally this story isn't getting a lot of pickup in the voting rights or progressive blogospheres. For example, it wasn't even in VotersUnite's Daily Voting News 30+ stories either of the last two days, despite the excellent Facing South posts and the local media attention. What's with that? Yeah, I know there are plenty of other stories going on, and this isn't as sexy as hacking the Ohio Secretary of State or the Texas deceptive emails, but still ... we're talking 40,000 or more votes here, and it's a situation where concerted action before the election can make a big difference. I don't have any great ideas here (suggestions welcome) but it certainly seems like an area we should be able to do better at.
More generally this a good chance to look at how we're approaching things. For example the information we want in an action alert is somewhat different than in the incident report, with the focus on what voters and activists can do. So I created a new action alert page on the wiki -- a decent start, and once we refine it we can use it as a template for future action alerts. And as we start issuing more alerts, we'll want to make it easy for people to get them, so we set up the vswiki-alerts Google Group that people can subscribe to if they want email updates.**
Things will get steadily more intense over the next couple of weeks, and so now's a good time to be trying things out ... and looking for ways to improve, hopefully in time to impact our next action alert.*** So please, even if you're in some state other than North Carolina, have a look and imagine the likely alerts wherever you live. If you're an activist, is the information enough so that you can figure out how to help? If you're a blogger or journalist, is there enough there and on the incident page that you could cover the story? If you're a voter, is the result clear? There's a feedback thread at the bottom of the page, so please let us know what works and what doesn't.
And don't forget that there are at least 40,000 votes at risk in North Carolina, so please help get the word out. From the action alert:
Tell your friends and family. Share with your friends on Facebook, MySpace, BlackPlanet, and other social networks. Encourage bloggers and local media to cover the story. Discuss it at your workplace and church. If you're with a political campaign, include the information with Get Out the Vote drives. Other suggestions? See the discussion thread!
jon
* Frankly I think some of the dynamics playing into this a disbelief the people could make this "obvious" a mistake (which flies in the face of past data) and an elitist notion that anybody who is "dumb enough" to make this mistake should have less of a right to vote. This of course has all kinds of discriminatory implications related to age, urban/rural bias, native language, and probably lots of other dimensions as well ... but most people don't think it through that much.
** for those who prefer RSS, we're working on getting a feed in place
The Voter Suppression Wiki is a non-partisan hub of information and action around efforts to suppress votes in the 2008 U.S. elections. For more information, please see our strategy and talking points, Baratunde Thurston's launch post on Jack and Jill Politics, and my series of posts on Liminal States. If you'd like to get involved, please introduce yourself, check the help wanted, roll up your sleeves, and jump in!
Today is Day Three of our 8 Against 8 fundraiser, and it's been gratifying to see so much support out there for our project -- 8 days, 8 lesbian bloggers trying to raise $8000 to support the No On 8 campaign in California. We've received a lot of press and bloglove over the last few days, and as a result we have raised $5,119 so far. My fellow bloggers:
- Grace Chu and Grace Rosen from Grace the Spot
- Lori Hahn from Hahn at Home
- Kelly Leszczynski from The Lesbian Lifestyle
- Sinclair from Sugarbutch Chronicles
- Riese from This Girl Called Automatic-Win
- Renee Gannon from Lesbiatopia
- Dorothy Snarker of Dorothy Surrenders
In my case, if a business or blog donates $100 or more to No On 8, you receive a week of free ad space on the Blend. If you donate $500 or more, you will get a month of free space on my blog -- and a Pam's House Blend T-shirt or mug. Grace Chu will email donors to ask which promotion you would like to receive and we'll get the ball rolling.
Artist Darr Sandberg contacted me to say that while his financial situation didn't allow him to donate money to the cause, he wanted to take part in some way -- he has donated one of his paintings, Desert Spring, placing it up for auction -- starting bid $695 with the proceeds going to fight the hate amendment in the Golden State. The highest bidder will receive is the original work (9" x 12" acrylic, unframed) not a print.
Instructions on getting started with your bidding are below the fold.
The winner will make a donation through the 8against8 page at EQ CA, and will be told for forward the confirmation info for that donation to me, which I will double-check with you before shipping the painting.
Participants in the auction need to:
1) Make a donation through the 8 Against 8 page at EQ CA.
2) Make an account at Darr's site (it does not ask for any sensitive info)
3) Make the account in the same name that you will use to make the donation.
4) The winner should printout or save the confirmation information of their donation, and pass on to Darr to receive the painting.
And to add to the fundraiser, if the final price is $1350 or more, Darr will make another painting immediately available for an additional auction for No on Prop 8.
"You know, I think you may have noticed that Senator Obama's supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about Western Pennsylvania lately," McCain told the audience in the town of Moon Township. "And you know, I couldn't agree with them more."
And lo and behold, the homo-hate came spilling out as well. Matt Comer at QNotes:
It's time to put this fossil, who is a member of the House Prayer Caucus, out of his misery and elect Larry Kissell, who was narrowly defeated (329 votes) last election cycle. Larry:He said he was trying to draw a distinction on the differences between liberals and conservatives but admitted his comments were not the right way to do it. In addressing his statements at the rally, Hayes attacked LGBT families.
"As a conservative, I fight for lower taxes and policies that strengthen our values," Hayes said in the written statement. "Liberals are advocating higher taxes, which I believe punish success - and they are advocating policies like gay marriage that I feel undermine strong families."
The hard working families of the 8th District and our nation deserve a commitment to education, economic opportunity, civil rights, personal freedoms and the safe, clean environment that we all want for our families.Early voting here in NC is booming, with long lines and a huge amount of new Dems headed to the polls, despite tire slashing, heckling of voters and a confusing ballot.We've had enough of the nonsense from the incumbent aristocracy in DC that has proven they'd rather wedge us apart than bring us together. It's time for an honest debate on Real Family Values.
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