Keep Your Mind on the Road

Although I don't talk much on the telephone, anyway, whether it's a land line or a cell phone, I recently decided to avoid talking on my cell phone while driving. I have not only noticed how distracted I can be while driving and talking, but I've read of the terrible consequences of such distraction. Just today my husband and I were talking about this issue and how we're going to be more committed to watching the road and leaving our cell phones in our purses or backpacks while we're driving. Then this evening, I read the following article in Mother Jones online: "Do Cell Phones Kill 1,000 People a Year?," by Myron Levin, posted October 31, 2008.

This week I tutored a student who was writing a research essay on cell phone use. The student came across research that indicated one's impairment while talking on a cell phone and driving a car is worse than the impairment of someone driving under the influence. Researchers at the University of Utah:

tested 40 drivers in a simulator, monitoring responses to things like a car suddenly braking in front of them; the test subjects performed no better, and by some measures worse, while talking on a cell phone than they did with a blood alcohol level of .08 percent—legally drunk.

According to Levin, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spent a lot of time in 2003 looking at such studies and realized that it had a duty to inform the public of the detrimental effects of driving while talking on cell phones, even hands-free ones. But the NHTSA backed down on making all the information truly public: numbers of deaths are not attached to any information on the organization's website, and an annotated bibliography of major research on the subject was removed and replaced with a less informative list of sources, according to Levin. And wireless companies spend millions of dollars lobbying.

Don't Talk and Drive. And Crashproof your kids.

McCain Supporters Who "Don't Look Right"

At a McCain rally in Cedar Falls, Iowa, McCain's staff escorted several attendees out of the area before the rally began. Evidently the McCain staff has begun "profiling" its supporters, and those that do not fit what they think is the "look" of a McCain supporter, those whom they think might disrupt the events, based on looks alone, are expelled from the area.

And just what is the demographic of these unwanted audience members? The young. Those who are college-aged.

Laura Elborno, who had protested at other McCain events but who said she had no plans to do so this time, was escorted from the event. She also said that had she begun protesting, then she would have understood the actions of the McCain staff. Others, however, who were escorted from the event were McCain supporters:

“I saw a couple that had been escorted out and they were confused as well, and the girl was crying, so I said ‘Why are you crying? and she said ‘I already voted for McCain, I’m a Republican, and they said we had to leave because we didn’t look right,’” Elborno said. “They were handpicking these people and they had nothing to go off of, besides the way the people looked.” (from: Dylan Boyle, "Pre-emptive Ejection: Audience Members Removed from McCain Rally in Cedar Falls," The Iowa State Daily, October 28, 2008.)

Hat tip to Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly.

Perhaps the McCain Campaign will apologize, just as they did in this situation.

Update: Ummmm.... okay....Maybe this helps us understand (if not agree with) the McCain campaign's dissing college-aged attendees at McCain rallies: a list of the college newspapers that are endorsing Obama:"BMOC: College Papers Back Obama -- by 79 to 1," by Dexter Hill, posted on Editor and Publisher, Oct. 31, 2008.) Hat tip to Steve Benen, Washington Monthly.

Oldest Voter in Central Texas: Daughter of a Slave

I came across the link to this story in the Austin American-Statesman at Truthdig.com: A 109-year-old woman living in Bastrop, Texas, just off Texas 21, happily cast her vote for Barack Obama by mail-in ballot. When Mrs. Amanda Jones cast her first vote for a president--Franklin Roosevelt--she had to pay a poll tax, a practice that was meant to keep blacks from voting. She told the Austin American-Statesman that being able to vote, for free, for the first black presidential nominee "fills her with joy."

Here's to Mrs. Amanda Jones' cup running over with joy when the votes are counted on Election Day!

Golden Parachutes

While you're putting in a hard day's work on the job and then cutting coupons, wondering how you're going to make this month's house payment, think of these leaders of failed financial institutions who were awarded millions of dollars for their incompetency: "What They Got Away With," by Kathy Jones and Katie Paul, in Newsweek.

Someone needs to create a modern tale about the Golden Parachute, perhaps somewhat along the lines of the Goose that Lay the Golden Egg.

Long Waits to Vote

My supervisor voted Monday morning here in the metro-Atlanta area and waited in line for almost three hours. The longest lines were in Alpharetta, where some people waited in line for eight hours. In Clayton County, "some voters waited to vote until after midnight at the Frank Bailey Senior Center in Riverdale" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 28, 2008). And this is early voting!

More:

One polling place north of Atlanta had problems with the computer system crashing on Monday, causing extremely long waits in line. However, those poll workers who left at 11 p.m. Monday night returned Tuesday to encounter voters who "had begun lining up at 4 a.m.," according to a news story on Atlanta's 11alive.com website. The spirit of those people lining up to wait in today's cold weather is truly inspiring. One woman interviewed on the news this evening described how one waiting voter asked his wife to get refreshments for those in line. My supervisor's husband delivered donuts to voters at another polling place. Health officials at yet another polling place were offering flu shots to those waiting in line to vote. One man interviewed on one of the local news channels described how he had waited all day. "But what's one day in the light of the next four years?" he asked the news reporter. He was glad to give up that one day.

A Socialist State?

Sarah Palin has been scaring her loyal followers by telling them that an Obama presidency would turn the country into a socialist state. Attorney Scott Horton has an interesting take on that concept on his blog at Harper's. The characteristics of a socialist state might sound familiar to you: "Palin's Nightmare."

Oops! I couldn't help myself. Guess I'll have to back off on my plan to stay away from topics related to the presidential campaign.

This is What I Mean. . .

. . .by the malicious stupidity of viral e-mails (and blog postings that become viral e-mails):

A Republican county clerk distributed to two employees an Internet blog posting referring to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a "young, black Adolf Hitler....The employees, who had voted for Obama in the Democratic primary, discovered the printouts at their desks after returning from Labor Day weekend, sheriff's Deputy Doug Cox said in a police report made public this week. A surveillance video showed Jackson placing an item on one worker's desk, he said. (an AP story, printed in The Seattle Times, "GOP Clerk Passes Around Obama 'black Hitler' claim.")

Can anyone believe this county clerk's claim that "there was no motive, no intent" in passing around a copy of a blog posting full of not only lies, but obscene lies? E-mails full of such malicious disinformation are flooding people's in-boxes.

During the 2000 presidential election, John McCain was the subject of a viral e-mail a family member sent to me (and many other family members). I responded instantly, horrified that someone I knew took these lies at face value (they originated on a website). I wasn't planning to vote for John McCain, but I didn't think the rapid dissemination of these lies did anything for democracy. But today...well, today a lot of people base their "information" about the candidates (and other subjects!) on what they read in viral e-mails sent to them by friends and family who don't stop to ascertain the truth of what they are passing on before clicking "Forward." Or on e-mails passed along by people who know very well the power of paranoid fantasies on gullible people.

And now. . . with nine days left in the presidential race, with Obama ahead in the polls but people reminding us that McCain can still win. . . .I'm going to try to write on subjects other than this presidential race in which I have so much invested. Or maybe I'll just read poetry and fiction this week, watch movies, take long walks, and do needlework. Life goes on.

Competency over Ideology

One of the most interesting results of these last weeks of the presidential campaign is the number of Republicans publicly announcing their support of Barack Obama. The right-wing base isn't happy, of course, and some from that base are metaphorically frothing at the mouth, promising ex-communication or defenestration or something like that. An article in the UK Telegraph quotes Jim Nuzzo, a White House aide to the first President Bush:

There's going to be a bloodbath. A lot of people are going to be excommunicated. David Brooks and David Frum and Peggy Noonan are dead people in the Republican Party. The litmus test will be: where did you stand on Palin?

I, however, an American citizen who cares for her country, am encouraged to see these public criticisms turn into public support of Barack Obama. After eight years of disastrous Republican leadership that promised unity yet delivered partisan poison, that touted morals while torturing prisoners of war, that promised prosperity (and lots of happy shopping days) yet delivered a world-wide financial crisis, I'm happy to see real conservatives who are truly trying to put their country first. I don't expect them to abandon their conservative ideals. What I do hope, however, is for a real dialogue in this country rather than the debased tattle of talk radio, the tittle of the 24-hour news cycle, and the malicious stupidity of viral e-mails. And electing another Republican who has tacked far to the right in his choice of vice-presidential running mate and who has not repudiated the mistakes of the recent Bush past is not the way to get that conversation going.

So, yes, I am encouraged when I read Ken Adelman's post on why he, a conservative ideologue, is voting for Barack Obama:

But I've learned over this Bush era to value competence along with ideology.Otherwise, our ideology gets discredited, as it has so disastrously over the past eight years.

McCain's temperament -- leading him to bizarre behavior during the week the economic crisis broke -- and his judgment -- leading him to Wasilla -- depressed me into thinking that "our guy" would be a(nother) lousy conservative president. Been there, done that.

Thank God! While I will probably disagree with many of Adelman's ideals, I can certainly agree with this: the importance of competence in running a country (or anything, for that matter). This is an issue I have written about since I first created my blog, the terrible consequences of incompetence. Of course, one wants a competency linked with values (compassion, mercy, morals) and democratic ideals.

And so Republicans around the country--and traditionally Republican-leaning newspapers--are supporting Barack Obama because they realize that the country needs a true change, not a cosmetic change, a break with partisanship long enough to re-evaluate the directions we've been led the past eight years. Nicholas Kristof writes about the News-Register of McMinnville, Oregon, which has traditionally supported conservative politicians yet which recently came out in support of Barack Obama. The editors of that newspaper bemoan the actions of the Bush-Cheney administration in leading the country into a war in Iraq and in torturing and "spiriting away" prisoners from that war.

And so Charles Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School, former supporter of John McCain, and Solicitor General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan, reveals that he voted for Barack Obama by absentee ballot:

I admire Senator McCain and was glad to help in his campaign, and to be listed as doing so; but when I concluded that I must vote for Obama for the reason stated in my letter, I felt it wrong to appear to be recommending to others a vote that I was not prepared to cast myself. So it was more of an erasure than a public affirmation--although obviously my vote meant that I thought that Obama was preferable to McCain-Palin. I do not consider abstention a proper option. (quoted from The Plank, a blog of the staff of The New Republic)

And so Matthew Dowd, chief GOP strategist for President George Bush's reelection. . . . and so Scott McClellan, George Bush's former press secretary. . .And so, well, just read the list on the Republicans for Obama website or read this "Republicans for Obama" article on the CBS website

Will these endorsements sway far-right voters? Of course not (especially not the paranoid and racist). But they give me hope that competence can return to the White House. And maybe remain there no matter which party wins in future elections--or at least as long as principled people demand it.

Women for America: Women for Change Rally

Tom and I rode the Marta train to the Georgia State Capitol this morning to attend the Women for America: Women for Change Rally, a rally for Barack Obama. I took a few pictures of the event which I've posted below. The speakers at the rally included

• Mayor Shirley Franklin,
• Stephanie Blank,
• Pearl Cleage,
• Glenda Hatchett,
• U. S. Senate Candidate Jim Martin (D),
• Ambassador Andrew Young,
• U.S. Congressman John Lewis,
• Pat Mitchell,
• Georgia State Senator Nan Grogan Orrock,
• Mimi Woodson, and
• Laura Turner Seydel.

Judge Glenda Hatchett probably rallied the crowd most with a very high-spirited address, and, of course, everyone was excited to hear John Lewis and Andrew Young speak, though their presentations were short. Stephanie Blank gave the longest speech, a speech to which there were lots of "uh huhs" and "you're right" and other such affirmative responses from the crowd. Blank, of the Arthur Blank Family Foundation and wife of the founder of Home Depot (and owner of the Atlanta Falcons), said that this election is the first time she has publicly endorsed a candidate. Though she said right away that she was nervous to be standing before the crowd, she gave a moving speech about Barack Obama and about the country and this election.

Stephanie Blank related how she had immediately thought that Barack Obama would make a good president when she first heard him at the 2004 Democratic Convention. She was a supporter of his presidential campaign from the beginning. However, when Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin took the stage toward the end of the rally, Franklin contrasted her own response to Obama with that of Blank's response. Franklin said she wasn't as immediately moved by Obama as Blank had described herself as being, that she thought Obama might be a national figure sometime in the future. However, Franklin soon came around to support Barack Obama's 2008 presidential bid, as described in a "Political Insider" column of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 8, 2008. (This last sentence corrects an earlier statement I wrote about Franklin's support of Obama.)

One little girl read a letter that she had written to Barack Obama. In that letter, she listed the changes that she thought Obama would bring to the nation. Her most memorable comment was that she looked forward to his "cleaning up after all of the elephants." This statement, of course, was greeted with laughter from the crowd.

The day was very bright after a morning of clouds that looked as if they might continue the rain we received yesterday. I had some difficulties getting good photographs of the speakers, but people were so accommodating to me as I stood in the crowd, waving my "Women for Obama" sign and snapping pictures.

Voting Early

I voted early this week, standing in line at the Memorial Drive Complex across from the county jail in Dekalb County, Georgia. My husband voted one evening three weeks earlier, and he spent about ten minutes in line. When I arrived at the polling place, there was already a long line of people, many obviously just off from work, some with children whom they had probably just picked up from school or daycare. I was reminded of those times when I took my own kids into the voting booth with me. My son voted for the first time this year in Texas; he also participated in the Democratic caucuses there.

Most of the people in line were African-American, not surprising since 1990-2000 population statistics indicate that the county is 55.4% black, 36.6% white, 8.1% Hispanic, and 8.0% other.

Thoughtful poll workers had taped signs to the walls at intervals, indicating how long it would take for one to advance to the voting stalls from where each sign was placed. According to the closest sign to where I joined the line, I was going to have at least an hour's wait. The signs were fairly accurate; it took me a little over an hour to vote, but the wait was pleasant, the poll workers helpful and friendly. I do, however, miss those old-fashioned booths where one could draw the curtain and be totally private, alone with one's conscience and the voting machine. The touch-screen voting machines at the Dekalb County polling place were lined up in three or four rows, with five or six machines in each row. We voters were almost elbow to elbow.

According to the website of the Georgia Secretary of State, as of October 23, 2008:

• 892,230 ballots have already been cast in the state of Georgia.
• 763,759 of those ballots were cast in person.
• 128,471 of mail-in ballots have been received.
• Dekalb County is at the top of the list for the most voter turnout so far, with 83,531 voters.
• The other four counties in the top five for voter turnout as of October 23rd are: Fulton (64,848); Cobb (47,086); Gwinnett (46,364); Henry (30,517).

Of course, there are already reported problems with local voting. Gwinnett County sent out 19,700 flawed absentee ballots which scanning machines won't be able to read accurately. Of those ballots, "10,000 have already been marked and returned by voters." Election workers will transfer the votes by hand to new ballots.

Opie for Obama?

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

High-Profile Republicans Jump Ship while "Joe-Six Pack" Republicans Heckle other Voters

This is what is happening to political discourse and the democratic process during this presidential election: See Steve Bennen's post, "Heckling Voters." I sure will be glad when this election is over.

And yet. . . . Republicans keep jumping ship: Ken Adelman, long-time Republican, says he is planning to vote for Barack Obama. See Adelman's explanation on George Packer's blog at The New Yorker: "First, Colin Powell, Now. . ." and "Adelman Addendum."

I hope that Barack Obama wins the presidential election, but I'm beginning to worry that he will be expected to be all things to all people.

Colin Powell Talks Sense

Here is Talking Points Memo's copy (via YouTube) of a video of Colin Powell discussing his endorsement of Barack Obama. I do not know how important such endorsements are, but I am struck with what Powell has to say about the Republican party. His comments reflect in many ways my own, as illustrated in my previous post. I had not heard Powell's endorsement and explanation when I wrote that post. I had only read the news of his endorsement.

And here are some liberal/progressive voices on Powell's endorsement and on McCain's campaign:

• Matthew Yglesias: "Why I'm Bitter
• Josh Marshall, at Talking Points Memo: "Race to the Bottom"
• Glenn Greenwald at Salon: "Colin Powell Condemns the Ugliness of the Republican Party"
• Andrew Leonard, in the War Room on Salon: "Powell Endorsement Incites Right-Wing Rage"

Not a Hater

Sarah Palin has long referred to people who do not support her or who actively work against her administration as "haters." She did this as governor of Alaska; she is following this same pattern on the stump as vice-presidential nominee. Everyone else, Democrats, liberals, people who don't live in small towns (most of this country's population is metropolitan) are "other." This kind of rhetoric not only unites the ones who support Palin; it unites those who oppose her politics and her worldview.

In the last presidential debate (if I remember correctly) and in speeches since, John McCain has raised the issue, as if it were something negative, of how much money Barack Obama has spent on political advertising. What McCain hasn't said is that the money is coming from supporters, most of them ordinary Americans such as I. Every time Sarah Palin opens her mouth to rally the faithful, every time she says she loves to visit the "pro-America" parts of the country such as North Carolina, she gets the dander up of all those other citizens who are just as patriotic, who realize that they are being labeled unpatriotic because of their politics or because of where they live. I've given more money to Barack Obama's campaign than I've ever given to another political campaign, and I am just one of those patriotic Americans who feels as if I am being slapped in the face each time someone in the Republican party claims that those who do not adhere to their views are unpatriotic. I betcha there are hundreds of thousands of Americans such as I.

Another example of how the "hater" remarks, the remarks that divide citizens into pro-American and anti-American groups, is generating response from those who feel unfairly labeled or from those who just do not like this recurring theme in our political landscape, is the money that poured into the campaign coffers of Michelle Bachman's political opponent yesterday. Elwyn Tinklenberg, the Democratic opponent for Bachman's Republican seat in Congress, reported that he raised $488,000 in 24 hours and that his campaign headquarters has received unprecedented support since Bachman publicly suggested that members of Congress should be investigated to determine whether they are "pro-American" or "anti-American."

While it's encouraging that people (such as I) are reacting positively to this negative campaign tactic by supporting those who do not employ it, these actions indicate that the tactics are further dividing parts of the electorate. Research shows that when like-minded people hang out together, excluding those with other views, shared views become more radicalized; no opposition is present to voice another view, to induce discussion, to initiate self-examination. So when leaders with strident voices insist that those Americans who adhere to one view are the "true Americans", they are not only rallying the faithful, they are radicalizing the country, pushing those whom they deem "outside" to congregate, to commiserate with one another, to act more strongly in rejecting the unfair labeling.

I am not a "hater," but I despise Sarah Palin's rhetoric and the rhetoric of those like her. I despise her "know-nothing" attitude about the wider world. And I'm worried that the rhetoric is further radicalizing those who vote Democratic and those who vote Republican. We need leaders who can remind us of what we have in common, of the values we share. And the Republican party at this time is woefully unwilling and powerfully unable to provide that kind of leadership. At one time, I would have said that John McCain is the kind of man to provide that leadership, but then he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, he hired campaign managers who promote extremely divisive political tactics, and he hired the very company that the Bush campaign used to slime him in the 2000 presidential race. Long-time acquaintances are appalled by McCain's campaign. "Where is the John McCain we knew?" they ask.

The Republican party is in such disarray that some of the party faithful are abandoning ship. Colin Powell just announced his support of Barack Obama. Christopher Buckley, long-time Republican supporter and son of the late William F. Buckley, has stated his support of Barack Obama.

For the sake of the country, the Republican party needs to re-examine its own values and to eschew the divisive tactics that have brought it power at a tremendous price to democracy. And if the Democrats win this race, they must prove our support was well-founded. However, with the divisiveness already so solidified, the fight for unity will be a hard one.

Update: Now, I don't want to leave the impression that I think that spending an exorbitant amount of money on a political campaign is a good thing. When a very rich person has a lot of disposable money to spend on his or her campaign, this is definitely not a good thing, for the process then eliminates the less rich but equally or better qualified. However, when hundreds of thousands of Americans pour money into one person's campaign, $10 here, $25 there, $100 when he or she can afford it, that's the voice of the people speaking. I wish there were better ways to fund political campaigns in this country--but that's where we are now.

And here is another voice on campaign financing, from Hilzoy, over at Political Animal, The Washington Monthly: "McCain on Obama's Fundraising"

And James Fallows on John McCain and Colin Powell: "Intersecting Arcs: McCain, Powell".

The REAL America?

One of the most vile ideas coming out of the McCain campaign is the view that there is a REAL America, represented only by people who support John McCain, and that there are REAL Americans, represented only by people whom the McCain campaign designates as true and patriotic, that is, only those who are conservative.

I have become more and more discouraged as I've heard this viewpoint promulgated by spokespeople of the McCain campaign. We hear this view from Sarah Palin, the woman who would be one heart-beat away from the presidency were John McCain to win the presidential race, when she says that Barak Obama doesn't see America as her supporters see America. Again and again, Palin attempts in her speeches to paint Obama as "other," not a true American.

This view that only far-right conservatives are true patriots can be seen in the ranting of Republican Representative from Minnesota, Michelle Bachman, who recently on Chris Matthews' Hardball, suggested that Barack Obama is unpatriotic and called for an investigation of members of Congress to "find out if they are pro-American or anti-American." Good God! Are we going to return to the McCarthyism of the fifties?

And now here is McCain advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer claiming that a part of Virginia in which Democrats are the majority is not the "real Virginia." (And I really took offense with Pfotenhauer's claiming that the part of Virginia that's more of the traditional South is the more truly American. Has she thought of what that claim sounds like? The Old Slavery South versus the Union North?)

We might be generous enough to give Joe McCain, John McCain's brother, a pass when he makes a bad joke about Democrat-leaning parts of Virginia as being "Communist Country," but Sarah Palin is on the Republican presidential running ticket, Pfotenhauer is an official spokesperson for the McCain campaign, and Bachman represents Republicans in Minnesota.

During this financial crisis that our country faces, during these trying times, we need leaders who can unite us, not divide us.

One Fall Afternoon

This afternoon we strolled a little over a mile to a neighborhood festival, one we had attended for the first time last year, just a couple of months after moving here. I haven't been feeling well and won't feel well until I get another tube inserted in my right ear. The world seems muffled, distant, and subdued. So at first it seemed to me as if my ill-health were affecting my experience at the festival. However, even one of the vendors observed to us that the atmosphere was subdued, not "as crazy" and lively as last year. Last year, I drove my art car in the parade. This year the parade was very short and consisted mainly of fire trucks, community groups, and politicians. No high school bands. No women dressed up in costume (except for the Red Hat Ladies), no art car. As these pictures illustrate , however, we did see people in costume lurking among the vending tents. (Click on photo for an enlarged view.)

Nothing illustrates the subdued atmosphere so much as the two pictures below. I took the first picture of this vendor last year at the festival. The artist didn't really want me to take her picture, but I cajoled her into letting me do so, and I took a couple of photographs. She was very vivacious, and we talked for a while. This year I didn't speak with her, but as we passed her tent, we noticed that her lovely handmade hats were a little less crazy this year--lovely but less flamboyant. She herself seemed sad, lonely. I wish I had talked with her, but I wasn't well. Also, I get tired of asking people to speak louder. Until I have this Eustachian tube blockage taken care of, I prefer talking intimately with people where I can lean in close and won't be distracted by extraneous noise.

When we walked up to the edge of the festival, we first noticed a vending area with tiny clothes hung around the white fabric of the canvas pavilion top. Beside the tent was a large machine of fluffy polyester stuffing. Someone was holding a plush bear up to a pipe hooked up to this machine and--this shows how my mind was working--it seemed to me as if all the stuffing from the bear were being sucked into the machine with its clear, bear-shaped window. "Is this where plush toys go when they die?" I wondered. "Someone sucks out all their stuffing, and their flattened bodies are turned to other uses?"
Silly me. Children would be appalled by such an idea, and here they were happily gathered around this vendor with whom I talked later. The vendor and her husband are hired for birthday parties. They bring their flat plush toys, and the birthday party participants choose a toy and then have the toy filled with the polyester stuffing. The machine injects the stuffing in the toy. Then the kid gets to choose an outfit for the now-happily-plump plush animal.

As we were walking away from the vendor's tent, I noticed a pale green crocheted table cloth on a table under the tent. I stroked the cloth and asked, "Did you crochet this?"

"No, my husband's grandmother did." She stroked her belly and added, "She has crocheted several blankets for our baby."

"I crochet, too," I said, "and my grandmother crocheted baby blankets for my children. I still have the blankets, but the babies are now grown," and I motioned toward Mary-Margaret.

The most memorable sight of the afternoon was a garden we passed on our walk to the festival. I've walked by this garden a number of times but today stopped to take a few pictures of the funky art scattered among the herbs and flowers.

A kitty came out to greet us, and we stopped to communicate.

Despite my ill health, the afternoon was pleasant. We finally received close to two inches of rain earlier this week after a month of dry weather, so the fall foliage has perked up. It's really been a lovely day.

Disappointed, Digusted, Almost. . . Scared

As the presidential campaign has become darker and more negative, I've limited my statements of judgment to a few friends and immediate family. I am loathe to add anything more incendiary to the public domain. I've watched clips of Sarah Palin telling the almost--99%-- all-white crowds in Michigan and Ohio that Barack Obama is not "one of us," that he "doesn't see America like we do," and I've been exceedingly disappointed by the few conservative voices lifted in protest. Instead, what we've all heard are people yelling "Kill him!" and "Terrorist!"

The people at these rallies are angry. They're angry at the "mainstream media" for asking Palin questions. Palin whips up resentment with her whining of the way she has been "treated" (interviewed, gasp!) by the mainstream media. At one rally, people began yelling obscenities--and racially-tinged comments--at the reporters present. I've watched all of this with disgust and a little bit of fear. Why are these people so angry? The people they support, Republicans and conservatives, have been in power for years; the Democrats won the House and Senate only two years ago. Before that, we had six years of Bush and before that a Democratic President but a Republican legislature. And more Republican leadership previous to Bill Clinton. Why aren't these white people angry with Republicans who have been running the country all of these years? Why are they so angry with Barack Obama?

George Packer has a recent article in The New Yorker about Ohio's working class. Descriptions of the prevalent racist attitudes toward Barack Obama are an important part of that article. Too many white people won't vote for Obama because he's black. Read the article: "The Hardest Vote." It has been particularly dispiriting to see John McCain use this resentment in his rallies. While he isn't responsible for the anger and almost mob mentality at these events, he is responsible for not counter-acting it. I agree with George Packer's post today on his blog, Interesting Times:

Palin is too shallow to understand the weapon she’s playing with; she’s just thrilled to be the birthday girl and the object of so much semi-erotic devotion. But McCain knows better. His manner in debates and at rallies tells me that he’s conflicted about the forces his campaign is unleashing. Win or lose, he’s already damaged his cherished reputation beyond repair. But there’s still time for him to show leadership and do what’s necessary. The responsibility lies with him.

However, I think Sarah Palin is equally responsible. She's not standing in the pulpit of her Assembly of God church in Alaska, and she's not just addressing the folks before her at those rallies; she's addressing the nation. And the nation, I hope, has the good sense to reject her message with a winning vote for the man who very much is "like us," like America: Barack Obama.

Update:

• Who else is responsible for the angry mobs? Fox News, evidently, according to Jonathan Stein.
• Steve Benen has a post about conservatives who are supporting Barack Obama. Christopher Buckley is one.
• And, another hat tip to Steve Benen, read Publius' blog on Obsidian Wings. I can relate.
• Also check out this post of Josh Marshall's at Talking Points Memo: "Weird. Sad. Surreal."

Feeling Poorly

Updated

Friday I showed the symptoms of a cold, and by Saturday I was sick enough to stay in bed all day. Sunday I was feeling a little better, but not much, and Monday I stayed home from work to recuperate further. Since the fall of 2006, I've had problems with Eustachian tube blockage. For the first time in my life, I had tubes put in my ears. I thought only kids needed those! The tubes, however, have to be replaced every 12 months or so. The last time I went to the otolaryngologist, I suggested not replacing one of the tubes, just to see if maybe my problem might miraculously disappear. No such luck!

My first otolaryngologist in Texas had me undergo an MRI just to make sure that no tumors were causing the Eustachian tube blockage. Everything appeared to be normal. I've come to see the problem as just another sign of aging. Things start breaking down. My hair is gray, my knees hurt, and my ears get stopped up every time I get a cold. So I've made another appointment with my otolaryngologist to have a tube re-inserted in my right ear. Until then, I'll walk around feeling woolly-headed. Fortunately, I don't usually suffer from dizziness with this problem; I'm just hard of hearing. The tinnitus in my ears is more obvious. Having a blocked ear makes me turn inward; the outside world is muffled, distant.

Maybe this isn't such a bad time to turn inward, away from the craziness of the presidential campaign. The rhetoric is heating up. I read of Sarah Palin's outrageous claims against Barack Obama ("He pals around with domestic terrorists!") and John McCain's increasingly negative attacks against his political opponent, and I wish the month away--the votes having been counted, Americans having decided who best represents their ideals, and my health once again restored.

Meanwhile, I'm with James Fallows on the presidential campaign, and I agree with the points my friend David Crisp has made recently in a couple of his posts. Read these recent posts:

• James Fallows, "Our Capacity for Self Government," posted 06 October 2008.
• James Fallows, "A Comment that Dumbfounds Me", posted 06 October 2008.
• David Crisp, "Debate Hash," posted 03 October 2008.
• David Crisp, "Bugged," posted 05 October 2008.

Oh, and read George Packer's blog, too: "The Parts of Her Speech," at The New Yorker. He hits the nail on the head here:

Palin’s candidacy is pure identity politics—a play for Christian conservatives, women, and anyone who resents the coastal big-city know-it-alls. The only verb that matters in identity politics is “to be.” What does Palin offer these voters? Herself. String along a chain of nouns in the form of politically symbolic platitudes—“Hockey Mom Pitbull Joe Six Pack Wasilla Main Street Reform Soccer Mom Every Day American People Maverick”—and you have practically the whole of her program, her policies, her world view. Palin’s self-infatuation is staggering: asked any question, she describes herself, again and again. It’s the opposite of empathy and identification with others. No one with a sharp, clear image in her head of a hard-pressed American would use a term like “Joe Six Pack,” an insulting cliché on the order of “the little people.”

The VP Debate, Doggone It!

The beauty of watching presidential and vice-presidential debates on PBS is that one doesn't get a lot of pre- and post-debate silliness from campaign spinners. The conversation between Jim Lehrer and his guests is genial and thoughtful, probably somewhat boring to those who like commentators to scream at one another. I missed the pre-vice-presidential debate spin, but according to Think Progress:

On MSNBC Hardball, McCain policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin claimed that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are advocating for an “artificial arugula-style middle class.” When pressed by host Chris Matthews to explain what he meant, Holtz-Eakin said an “arugula middle class” is “a not very real middle class.”

This is a good example of silly spin. What does Holtz-Eakin mean by "artificial arugula-style middle class"? I eat arugula; you know, it's a green. I grow it. Or rather, I would grow it if we would get some rain here in metro Atlanta. I planted seeds about three weeks ago, and those doggone little greens sprouted and then just sort of hunched down waiting for rain that never came. Instead, some nasty bug started nibbling at them, darn it! (Do I sound folksy enough here? I can do folksy, too, Governor Palin.) In what whacked-out universe does eating greens make one artificial and not a real member of the middle class? Enough with the arugula already!

As for the VP debate: Palin did pretty much what I thought she would do, based on her performance at the Republican Convention and her performance in those interviews. She put on her smiling face--smiling, smiling, smiling--and she looked directly into the camera, appealing to all those "hockey moms and Joe-Six-Packs" whom she thinks will be impressed more with her feistiness, her smiles, and her folksy language than with any substantive response she might give in this debate. She didn't fumble like she did in the interviews with Katie Couric because there were no real follow-up questions to her responses. In fact, she openly refused to answer some of the questions:

And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also. (from partial transcript of the debate: The New York Times).

Doggone that moderator, asking Sarah Palin questions she doesn't want to answer and trying to keep Sarah Palin from talkin' to the people! And that darn Joe Biden--he actually included details in his answers rather than general accusations and homey assurances. And, oh yeah, I shuddered over Palin's alarming agreement with Dick Cheney's version of a powerful vice-president. (We're learning more and more of Cheney's work behind the scenes influencing the White House and at times making decisions that were kept from the White House.)

Here are some other viewpoints I found interesting:

• Joan Walsh, at Salon, "How Sarah Palin Blew It"
• James Fallows, at The Atlantic, "Your VP debate wrapup in four bullet points
• Kevin Drum, at Mother Jones, "Debate Liveblogging--VP Edition"
• Noam Scheiber, at The New Republic, "Joe Biden--Inspired Veep Pick"
• Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker's faint praise at The Washington Post, "The VP Debate: She Won Fersure, also" (I'm getting so tired of conservatives categorizing Americans as elites or non-elites. The terms are so meaningless.)
• The New York Times checks some of the claims of Biden and Palin in the vice-presidential debate. Go to Factcheck.org for more information.