Arkansas Blog

There's an old saying in Republican circles: The only thing worse than a poor person is a poor person with a lawyer. (Or, apparently, a poor person with an educated advocate.)

HEY - the only problem here is that CO's "cater" to those who these "religious folk" disdain - you know, the ones who need to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps," and such... The ones occupying all the empty seats at the Xcel Center. Amazing what these buttwipes can get away with in the "New Millennium!"
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My uncle is a die-hard Republican and he will tell you straight out that greed is the strongest human emotion.

When you look at things from that premise, the GOP platform makes perfect sense. It makes total sense to reduce taxes on the rich while raising the cost of living for the poor. It makes unassailable sense to privatize social security and make health care dependent upon income.

Max, thank you for pointing this out. For me his comment seriously diminished the relavency of the Republican Party last night. It was one of those moments where you knew you were seeing what they really think behind the scenes. His comment was astounding in it's sheer ignorance of grass-roots community service. Here is a political party that all night long harped about small government, lower taxes, family values...only to wash that all away by ridiculing someone for being a community organizer.

Even die-hard Republicans should be angered by that statement: especially those Republicans that are involved in such grass-roots community service. Is this not in some way a slam on 'faith-based' community service also?

I was thinking the same thing last night. Why is being a community organizer a bad thing exactly? People howled and cheered like mad when she made fun it.

And another thing, what's wrong with living in or being from a big city? Half the country live in the city, don't they? And weren't they the ones most affected by the terrorist attacks? Republicans have a lot of nerve telling "east coast, big city liberals" they don't know what's at stake in the war on terror. What is it about small town values that's so much better than those of the big city, and how come the Republicans get so much mileage out of it? Playing on people's inferiority complexes?

Max, thank you for pointing this out. For me his comment seriously diminished the relavency of the Republican Party last night. It was one of those moments where you knew you were seeing what they really think behind the scenes. His comment was astounding in it's sheer ignorance of grass-roots community service. Here is a political party that all night long harped about small government, lower taxes, family values...only to wash that all away by ridiculing someone for being a community organizer.

Even die-hard Republicans should be angered by that statement: especially those Republicans that are involved in such grass-roots community service. Is this not in some way a slam on 'faith-based' community service also?

Republicans don't hate working people. They hate people who want to upset the apple cart with more rights and benefits (like a real wage and police that come to all neighborhoods).

But it was a funny line given the grief she has taken over being mayor.

See this address, I went ot hear this man in my first American Planning Conference. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Davidoff

"Listen, in the early '80s the whole freaking place was burning down. And the politicians just wrote the place off."
Those politicians were Democrats, by the way.
"The Democrats were in control of the Bronx, and they were not prepared or responsive to what was going on then," said Mr. Reilly, who worked as an organizer in the Bedford Park area from 1975 until 1981. "We wanted to go to them to convince them of what the needs were. Whether they were Republicans or Democrats didn't really matter."

Sounds to me like Ms. Harr was just as disgusted with the Democrats as she was with the repubs.

I failed to understand the laugh Palin got when she said the phrase, community organizer, last night. Those Republicans laughed like they were at a Robin Williams one man show....and I didn't get it. I think rich white people think community organizer is sorta commie sounding or has something to do with a union. Don't they have the Google too?

And typical Republican....Sweet Sweet Sarah swelled Republican hearts by saying she would explain for the Democrats what the duties of mayor are ( as opposed to the big 0 work that community organizers do?), but did you all notice after the big line....she never told us what duties a mayor of a town of 6000 must du?

I wish I had the link, but I saw a picture of City Hall in Wasilla, Alaska last night in my digging....and if you want a one picture punchline to her Executive Experience....just look at Wasilla City Hall. And then think of Wasilla City Hall getting a Federal check totaling 27 million of our taxpayer dollars.

Country First my ass!

ARK. BLOG: The link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/djcn0te/319098225/in/set-72157594414445112/

Ignorance is bliss. Your math and philosophy teacher agree that the converse is true.

These people have had a silver spoon in their mouth, or worshiped those who do (that love of thing again) their whole lives. Among all of the other things that go with that is a complete absense of humility, self awareness, empathy, and compassion. It is simply not available.

Maybe, just maybe, that is why the love of money is the root of all evil. It is the absence of relationship.

"I thought it was a good idea, particularly if Republicans continue to demean honest toil. It seems that money and personal aggrandizement are the only measures of success for some Republicans. You see it expressed frequently, not just at the convention but among Repub visitors here. They seem to have contempt for people who aren't rich and -- worse -- don't measure their happiness by their bank account. They don't seem to understand that fulfillment takes many forms, sometimes the least of them money."

Max, A well writtend piece of text. Why do you ask? Because with a few change of words, could as easily be expressed about other groups. For example:

I thought it was a good idea, particularly if Democratics continue to demean honest toil. It seems that taxation and political aggrandizement are the only measures of success for some Democratics. You see it expressed frequently, not just at the convention but among Democratic Bloggers here. They seem to have contempt for people who create wealth and -- worse -- measure their happiness by personal achievment, family, and country. They don't seem to understand that fulfillment takes many forms, sometimes the least of them Faith in God.

I have been telling people all along that Obama's success as a community organizer strikes me as an important qualification for the leadership role for which he is offering. It means he is not just a policy wonk, but has first-hand experience, on the gournd, with distressed people in distressed neighborhoods. It means he had to learn how to find among people with very varied histories and interests and needs the commonalities that could unite them to accomplish something together. (Remember his acceptance speech lines about how we might not agree about abortion, but surely could about the need to reduce unwanted pregnancies? How we might not agree about handguns or hunting weapons, but surely could all see the need to keep AK-47 out of the hands of psychopaths?)

But it is important that community organizing was not "his first job." He decided that was what he wanted to do, despite his privileged education, but he had trouble finding a community organizing job. In the interim he took a job with a financial services company, according to his biography: "...as the months passed, I felt the idea of becoming an organizer slipping away from me. The company promoted me to the position of financial writer. I had my own office, my own secretary, money in the bank." He was on his way up, in other words. But when an organizer's job turned up in Chicago, he writes, "I remembered who it was that I had told myself I wanted to be...."

I think that background authenticates his candidacy. Perhaps he really means it when he says "This election is not about me. It's about you."

http://flickr.com/photos/djcn0te/319098225/

Wasilla City Hall pic

I wasn't surprised when Rudy "I'll say anything for a buck/my kids hate me; I don't give a fuck" Giuliani made fun of community organizers...every New Yorker knows he's a grade A asshole who personally congratulates himself for everything good that's happened in this city and would never give credit to grassroots activists, volunteers, or not-for-profits.

On the other hand, Palin's little self-satisfied zing (about mayors v. organizers) shocked me. We all know Sarah's indebted to God for giving her those great hints about pipelines and for blessing her with a son and a grandson in the same year (first National Party Convention to feature a Baby Daddy onstage - so historic!) I guess God didn't tell her that Jesus and all those disciples were pretty much community organizers...or that looking out for poor folks or sick folks or kids is just as big a responsibility as making sure your town's stoplight functions and the trash gets picked up.

I was always gonna vote for Obama (even though I wanted Hillary)...watching last night's freakshow, I got religion (and not the Palin kind). Signed up to go canvass in Pennsylvania for Obama-Biden. Might as well get my checkbook out before McCain even starts speaking tonight...

DBI...I was suprised that Palin did not get booed when she mentioned that her husband was a proud member of the Steel Workers Union.

There was nothing offensive about Palin's remark. She was being attacked on a phony charge that she was less qualified than Obama, when the record shows that she actually has more relevant experience as an executive decision maker. She effectively rebutted the charge, and some ill-tempered people who spend their lives in a perpetual rage are upset about it.

Some people just want to act offended by anyone who expresses an opposing viewpoint.

Arkansas Blogger...Guilianni and Palin's remarks went way beyond Barak Obama and became an insult to many Americans who volunteer their time, money, and compassion to help those who are less fortunate that themselves.

Saying community organizers have no responsibilities isn't offensive? Is it offensive to say teachers have no impact on students? Nurses no effect on patients? What about preachers on their congregations?

Palin's implication was that the only way to have an impact, and therefore, "experience", is to run a budget. If you're working on a shoestring, or not in an elected capacity, you can't be effective.

I'm calling shenanigans, Arkansas Blogger. This has nothing to do with Palin expressing an "opposing viewpoint". This has to do with her belittling people who do important work.

Look, those of us in the conservative community know that this blog is nothing more than a liberal propaganda rag. Take it for what it is. It is just so absurd to paint demos as the little people against those rich repubs. What are the pelosis, kennedys, soros, etc types---chopped liver?
Palin comes from a regular folks background not one of privilege like the kennedys. You only look foolish when you try and peddle this crap.

I mean you demos have a very light ticket when it comes to executive type experience. The voters out there know it. They knew that hillary's claim that being the wife of the president is the same as being president. Most people laughed at that nonsense. The only people who appeared to believe this junk were the lefty lunkheads found so numerous on this blog. The only people that you guys are talking to are the other left wing zealots that populate this blog. You all feed on each other. It amuses me but the rest of the populace finds it obnoxious.

Community organizing experience is 'nice' if you are aspiring for a career with ACORN but it doesn't have any thing to do with being a Chief Executive Officer of the federal government. It doesn't have anything to do with being commander-in-chief. Stiring up the pot in Chicago is probably the norm for that kind of big city but most of us don't see the value when it comes to ruling over the federal bureaucracy.

Scottie - I respect Barak Obama, and his early work as a paid community organizer. I believe he was sincerely motivated by a desire to help the community. That was also Palin's motivation in her history as a small-town mayor. But it's a fair statement to say that a mayor has actual statutory responsibilities that community organizers don't have. There is no reasonable basis for anyone to be offended by that observation.

ARK. BLOG: Only the mocking tone used by both Giuiliani and Palin and the side-splitting laughter from an audience that fully understood that mockery was intended.

They were feeding their base of thugs with the derision of community organization. Problem for Dems is that the vast majority of people who haven't needed nor seen the benefit of services of community organizers will agree with them and the ridicule. There is a broad segment of the population who see community organization as the first cousin to unions and regardless the good they do, they hate unions because.........just because.

Explaining their work will help, but unfortunately those that 'have' tend to look down on those who 'don't have', so even with an explanation of the importance of community organization they may likely equate it to welfare workers who give away their tax dollars to the lazy and undeserving.

It's nasty, it's unfair, but I think it will work for them better than we realize.

One of my college friends came up with this observation when he updated his "status" on Facebook this afternoon:

(Friend's Name) would like to remind Mrs. Palin that Jesus was a community organizer and Pilate was a governor.

"The only people who appeared to believe this junk were the lefty lunkheads found so numerous on this blog. The only people that you guys are talking to are the other left wing zealots that populate this blog. You all feed on each other. It amuses me but the rest of the populace finds it obnoxious."

Not so, Strangelove.
We're also talking to self-serving radical right wing Jesus-loving, poor-trampling blowhards who come in here and try to show us all how smart they are by repeating the talk radio crap they listen to all day. You know, the kind of shitkids that the teachers in grade school used as "classroom monitors" when they were out of the room because they knew they'd narc everybody out for an oportunity to clean the blackboard and get a pat on the head. Those kids who needed "I'm telling mom!" tatooed on their foreheads. The young college folk who adopted "Revenge of the Nerds" as their credo. Barry Manilow lovers. The jerk at the office who likes to impress everybody with his superior knowledge about.. .everything...around the water cooler, thinking that when those co-workers excused themselves from the conversation they were not going to puke from having to stand so close for 2 or 3 minutes. You know, those kinds of folk. Republicans. There's some of them on here too, really! Sorry, but I can't think of any examples, just now.....

Remember these are the same people who mocked Kerry's military service with purple heart bandaids.

Democrats have rich folks too and most of the folks on the stage in Denver were millionaires. There isn't anything wrong with being rich. What's wrong is when the rich wants to keep taking from the poor so they can add a 2nd billion to their bank account. What's wrong is when war profiteers like Rudy stand on a stage and make fun of honest work. What's wrong is when a man with 7 to 11 houses tries to tell us he's one of us. What's wrong is when the Party who FK'ed everything up tries to tell us if we'll give them 4 more years they'll fix all the things they've ruined and ignored.

I'm not that stupid and finally after being raped for 8 years the voting sheep are getting an idea that maybe Republicans aren't their friends after all. No politician is going to help you change your tire unless it is a pre-arranged photo-op. George Washington begged us to not set up political parties as he was going out the door. I know some great people. I don't know any great political parties. But at the moment the Democrats have less blood on their hands and have figured out the little people have been FK'ed nearly to death. So they're offering us a few years of King's X so we can rest up and fatten up and get ready for the next grinding down era.

Gov. Palin is a liar. As much as we already know she's lied, you can bet there's more to come. But she is in an impossible position. She has to make Republican caused poverty, joblessness, war mongering, torture, carnage and death smell sweet. Look at car ads and TV commercials, the best way to sell a piece of shit is put a good looking woman in the picture. It must work...look how long they've been doing it. But it won't work with me this time and I think there is a nation behind me shaking their heads and thinking the same thing.

Obama came from nothing and made something of himself. No husband fished him up 93 thousand the first few years. He's smart and he's fair. We haven't had a President like that in years. Let McCain get all packed up for the nursing home. Let Miss Wasilla go back to her menagerie in Alaska and executive them to death. We need a new FDR......Barack looks as close as they get. It's time for a great President!

From the NYT

Turns out Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's speech did not just electrify the Republican faithful inside the Xcel Energy Center Wednesday night.

Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign is reporting that it has taken in $8 million over the Internet since Mrs. Palin's speech, in which she tore into Mr. Obama.

By Thursday afternoon, more than 130,000 donors had kicked in, and the Obama campaign is on pace to collect $10 million by the time Senator John McCain takes the stage tonight.

Remember, the McCain campaign said it took in $10 million by mail and Internet right after Mrs. Palin made her debut as Mr. McCain's running-mate last Friday.

Hoping to continue the momentum and "livin' on a prayer," Mr. Obama will be collecting cash at Jon Bon Jovi's home on Friday in an exclusive dinner where the entrance fee is $30,800 a person.

Max - The issue at the heart of her statement revolves around relevant experience, not the nobility of community service. The Obama camp laughingly mocked Palin's lack of experience first, and she gently mocked back at Obama's lack of experience. Touché.

Let's be honest here. Obviously, both Palin and Obama have a lot less government experience than their respective running mates - McCain and Biden. But for the GOP, the order of the candidates is more sensible - their more-experienced candidate is at the top of the ticket. On the Democratic side, the less-experienced candidate is on top.

ARK. BLOG: That's horseshit and you know it. Mockery is mockery. And the audience got it if you refuse to see it. Plus, please cite mockery by Obama of Palin for comedic effect.

You know, I made most of my money in jobs I'd never done before, in positions I was supremely unqualified for by the criteria people are using against Obama.

Youth, energy, attitude, innovation, the ability to bring people together, and a vision of what the future needs to be count for much more in my book than how long someone has hung around D.C.

There can be no better qualification for President than to come from a poor background, get through Harvard -- and beat Hillary Clinton.

Palin lacks the experience of having a new thought. She simply parrots Republican talking points. You could run a sock puppet on the Republican ticket and win -- isn't that what Rove did with Bush? --

I can't add much to the excellent job my fellow AT'ers have written here, but my observation is this: Rudy, speakign for the GOP, is mocking community organizers because what tyrants fear most of all is power that comes from the people. Sound familiar?

"that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

-Abraham Lincoln

/irony

Poor teachers with, for example, ten years teaching time are often described as having one year of experience ten times instead of having ten years experience.

I fear this description applies to McCain. He has never been in charge of anything relevant and his current position on most issues runs counter to what he has advocated during his Senate career. Which John McCain is running for President?

The nation needs an intelligent President and it is really a no brainer -- Obama is the choice.

"...Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign is reporting that it has taken in $8 million over the Internet since Mrs. Palin's speech, in which she tore into Mr. Obama..."

LOL---sweet justice! It's moments like this that make me glad to be alive...and an American. Go Obama! Just when I think the Republican Masters have succeeded in destroying the country, I find out it's alive and kicking them out of office. Yippee! To know Obama is out-raising the Master Race is joyous...rejuvenating.

Oh yeah...community organizers are in general (exceptions to every group) wondrous, hard-working and civic-minded people. Let's see...mayor of a small town in Alaska or a community organizer in the heart of Chicago...ha. But evidently most of Palin's speech was rehashed Republican fiction.

The John McCaine of 2000 is nowhere to be seen in 2008. My wingnut kin HATED him in 2000,
just another liberal they said, fast forward 8 years and he is God's gift to the world.
What happened to him along the way?? I'm not smart enough to figure that one out.

As a woman I can see one thing,,,Cindy Cunt is bored with the whole idea, her heart is just
not in it.

Max, help your daughter out with some funds to go to Pa.---she was mulling over her
checkbook.

I worked in a position here in LR where I had dealings with ACORN (aka community organizers). They were experts at stirring the pot and facilitating voter fraud. The only qualification they took from that experience was 'rebel rousing'. It is laughable that someone is trying to parley that into a Chief Executive job. Why don't you have those guys apply for the next CEO job opening in LR?

It seems that Barack Obama and John McCain are tied:

>>There was nothing offensive about Palin's remark. She was being attacked on a phony charge that she was less qualified than Obama, when the record shows that she actually has more relevant experience as an executive decision maker.
"Let's be honest here. Obviously, both Palin and Obama have a lot less government experience than their respective running mates - McCain and Biden.<<
Ark Blogger

Executive experience of McCain: Zero
Executive experience of Obama: Zero

(note: Palin is on the V-P ticket)

Number of years in the 'hated D.C. establishment' which must be "reformed:
John McCain: 26
Obama ......:3

"Executive experience of McCain: Zero"

Excuse me, what is commanding an air wing and 26 years as a naval officer---chopped liver?

Well, McCain is no Palin.

Exactly, Strange, chopped liver -- when you have daddy and grandaddy, big bad admirals both, as implications of John McCain's' expertise. Doesn't seem like that boy quite measured up. Too much of a party boy. He might have made one star if he'd stayed in the Navy, but he wasn't exactly moving up fast. He needed a choice sea command to go much higher and for some reason, he never got one. Think it could have been because he lost a plane or five, mostly in non-combat situations?

Excuse me, what is commanding an air wing and 26 years as a naval officer---chopped liver?<<

He [McCain] had NO command experience.
General Wesley Clark.

.

>>"Excuse me, what is commanding an air wing and 26 years as a naval officer---chopped liver<<

McCain....................72 yrs old

U.S. Senator..............-26 yrs

26 yrs as officer.........-26.
. _____
. 20 yr balance.

"in 1976 he became commanding officer of a training squadron stationed in Florida."
"McCain served as the Navy's liaison to the U.S. Senate beginning in 1977" *

""Listen, pal. I spent 22 years in the Navy. My father was in the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy."*

Looks like one year of "command" experience.

*wikipedia

Max, we'll just have to disagree about it. Her remark was clearly a rejoinder to the Obama camp that was claiming that he had more experience than her, but not to anything that Obama himself said, and it was not disparaging to the work of community organizers as a whole. I expect that most organizers and volunteers won't take any offense at her remark at all.

But I realize that whatever Sarah Palin says, no matter how innocuous, some people can always manufacture a reason to claim to be offended about it. I also understand about tossing red meat into an internet forum, spinning it a certain way and get a predictable response. It's fun for a while, but after a few years, it loses it's novelty.

ARK. BLOG: The commentary is overwhelmingly against you on this one. She didn't compare their resumes. She specifically demeaned the job as something without worth. That's the issue. She could claim she has a more important job. But she didn't imply, she said flatly that the job had no responsibilities. Biting sarcasm and mocking derision of ogthers seems to be her forte. Your defense remains horse shit.

Well Christ (oops can't mention his name) said the poor will always be with us and in saying that I have never needed nor wanted anything from the Government and here comes Obama offering all these government handouts to the "poor" aka "community organizers" I wonder if that is another term for being on the govenrment tit.....proud Conservative.

Hey QH, if you're worried about unnecessary government expenditures, you might want to look into "The Bridge to Nowhere". Palin was for it, then she was against it. Although, due to her efforts, it was not built, the money did NOT return to the US Treasury. Bottom line: she took the money. You and I spent tax money there whether we liked it or not.

Even Obama thinks "organizing" is a lost cause.

Per TNR, "Obama told Kellman, he had decided to leave community organizing and go to law school. Kellman, who was already thinking of leaving organizing himself, found no reason to argue with him. "Organizing," Kellman tells me, as we sit in a Chicago restaurant down the street from the Catholic church where he now works as a lay minister, "is always a lost cause." Obama, circa late 1987, might or might not have put it quite that strongly. But he had clearly developed serious doubts about the career he was pursuing."

So spare me this feined outrage over some imagined slight of the "poor community organizers" who grow up to be big time elitist snob presidential candidates.

at the link.