Clipmarks | Republicans Clips

Palin speech brings money to Obama's campaign

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:37:28 GMT

clipped by: Packrat61
clipper's remarks: Damn I wish every time someone spoke badly of me people would want to send me money.

Clip Source: www.newsmax.com

Obama Raises $10 Million After Palin Speech

Barack Obama's presidential campaign said it raised $10 million Thursday following the Republican National Convention speech by rival John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Palin's address, heavily laced with digs at Obama, prompted an outpouring of donations from more than 130,000 donors.

"We're up over the previous record and the number is still climbing the more Palin's attacks are covered on cable and network news," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.

The Republican National Committee announced earlier Thursday, at mid-afternoon, that it had raised well in excess of $1 million since Palin's speech. Republicans expect Palin to mobilize their donors. But the Obama camp promptly used the speech as a fundraising hook, sending an overnight e-mail to supporters to contribute.

The Resentment Strategy

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:19:23 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "What the G.O.P. is selling, in other words, is the pure politics of resentment; you’re supposed to vote Republican to stick it to an elite that thinks it’s better than you.
And when Mr. Bush turned out not to be that smart after all, and his presidency crashed and burned, the angry right — the raging rajas of resentment? — became, if anything, even angrier. Humiliation will do that.
That said, the experience of the years since 2000 — the memory of what happened to working Americans when faux-populist Republicans controlled the government — is still fairly fresh in voters’ minds. Furthermore, while Democrats’ supposed contempt for ordinary people is mainly a figment of Republican imagination, the G.O.P. really is the Gramm Old Party — it really does believe that the economy is just fine, and the fact that most Americans disagree just shows that we’re a nation of whiners.

But the Democrats can’t afford to be complacent. Resentment, no matter how contrived, is a powerful force.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Can the super-rich former governor of Massachusetts — the son of a Fortune 500 C.E.O. who made a vast fortune in the leveraged-buyout business — really keep a straight face while denouncing “Eastern elites”?

Can the former mayor of New York City, a man who, as USA Today put it, “marched in gay pride parades, dressed up in drag and lived temporarily with a gay couple and their Shih Tzu” — that was between his second and third marriages — really get away with saying that Barack Obama doesn’t think small towns are sufficiently “cosmopolitan”?

Yes, they can.

But don’t be fooled either by Mr. McCain’s long-ago reputation as a maverick or by Ms. Palin’s appealing persona: the Republican Party, now more than ever, is firmly in the hands of the angry right, which has always been much bigger, much more influential and much angrier than its counterpart on the other side.

What’s the source of all that anger?

Barracuda

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:45:21 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: Interesting and ironic how the R's used this song and violated copyright law...

Clip Source: www.bloglines.com

The ladies of Heart have contacted the McCain/Palin campaign and asked them to immediately cease and desist from using their song "Barracuda". A portion of the statement from Ann and Nancy Wilson:

"Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image. The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The 'barracuda' represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there."

When will the Republicans and the McCain campaign begin respecting artists and copyright laws? How many artists have to threaten and/or sue them before they stop ripping off their work? I'd say it is time for them to "band" together and put a stop to it once and for all.

Tags: republicans

GOP Using Song Riffs Without Consent

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:44:22 GMT

clipped by: maquser
clipper's remarks: Another megairony from the folks that harbor DMCA (music piracy and copyright protections)

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

The sisterly duo known as Heart sent a cease-and-desist notice to the McCain-Palin campaign Thursday afternoon after their hit "Barracuda" was used—twice—without permission

The Wilsons added that permission to use the song was never requested, nor would it have been granted.

John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne and Boston have all previously made noise about the GOP's unauthorized use of their songs during this year's campaign.

Tags: hypocrisy, hyprocrites, liars, losers, republicans, assholes, jerks, scumbags

Greenwald: The Republicans' Cheerful Viciousness

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:18:56 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Rendering issues irrelevant and converting campaigns into culture wars (h/t ratilfar!)

Clip Source: www.salon.com

With last night's cheerfully vicious speeches from Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin, the Republicans did what they always do in order to win elections: they exploited raw cultural divides while mocking, belittling and demonizing Democratic leaders.

Ever since Ronald Reagan's election, this is what the Republicans do every four years. They render issues irrelevant and convert campaigns into cultural wars and personality referenda

Republicans are well aware that they can't possibly win the election if it is even partially decided based on issues. They need and intend to win despite the fact that Americans hate their positions on the issues, and to do that, they want to ensure that a majority of Americans love and respect the strong, honorable, principled, culturally familiar all-American mavericks John McCain and Sarah Palin

while strongly disliking that wishy-washy, snooty, foreign, exotic, self-absorbed Eastern elitist Barack Obama (even if he says the right things on issues).

Tags: republican

A sarcastic view of Ms. Palin's travel plans

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:50:04 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: gotta love the irreverence....

Clip Source: tbogg.firedoglake.com

Seeking to lock up her states exceedingly valuable three electoral votes, Sarah the Obama Slayer has been dispatched back to Alaska as sort of a "fuck you, come and get me" to the national press. If one were cynical (which I am) one might think (and I do) that the Republicans are hiding Caribou Barbie away from America since that first dinner date went so well and they don't won't anyone to see the fundamentalist/creationist/extremist spinach stuck in her teeth.

Northern Non-Exposure or Things To Do in Juneau When You’re Dumb

Tags: palin

Lipstick Fascism

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:31:20 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: "This is the path that America is on with Palin and McCain. The election of 2008 is a choice between the United States Constitution and Lipstick Fascism."

Frank Schaeffer is the author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The
Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

We have seen the next Mussolini and she's wearing a skirt.

Sarah Palin is the face of a post-democracy America, post-constitutional and post-freedom America. She is the home town "little Austrian" vice presidential candidate to a cancer-riddled old man who, chances are high, won't see the end of his first term in office if he becomes president due to illness and old age. The woman who said that we don't need to read people their rights may well be the next president.

mock and belittle your opponents, nibble at the edges of the rule of law, promote violence,

grasp at a weird religion of "destiny" (their version of American exceptionalism) with an "us" against "them" mentality, blame others,

intellectual classes and the media, pit the working people against the perceived elite (Jews in Europe and today's university-educated Democratic Party leaders in America), take power based on grievance and fear and then set aside the constitution altogether based on claimed threats by outsiders.

Tags: palin, mccain, republicans, fascism

Bob Barr: The "Change" of the Republican Party

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:37:59 GMT

clipped by: blueridge
clipper's remarks: Powerful. The neo-republican party exposed from a former republican who pushed to impeach Clinton. Barr's credibility from being a very influential republican Congressman, and earlier experience in the CIA, make his arguments formidable.

During the last 8 years republicans have left their own platform, especially regarding limited government and individual liberty which they once championed.

Listen on REAL audio beginning at 1:00:00 mark.

Despite much talk of democracy the Libertarian candidate is being excluded from debates from the two-party tyranny.

Ron Paul and Bob Barr are just two effective witnesses to the "change" of the republican party and the great danger to freedom it poses.

[Note: My posting of select Democracy Now excerpts is not necessarily an endorsement of all their philosophy and views, only of some of the facts and relevant news and interviews they have, usually entirely passed over by the MSM].

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Libertarian Presidential Candidate and Ex-Republican Rep. Bob Barr on Impeachment, Opening Up the Debates, and Why He Left the GOP

A decade ago, Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr was serving as a Republican congressman from Georgia and led the Republican drive to impeach President Bill Clinton. Since then he has become a vocal critic of the Republican Party, the war in Iraq and the erosion of civil liberties. Barr joins us in St. Paul. [includes rush transcript]

LISTEN
WATCH

BOB BARR: The Republican Party left me. I mean, the Republican Party of this early twenty-first century is a party that has no regard for individual liberty, that is focused dramatically on increasing the size, the scope, the power of the federal government, particularly in the executive branch.

This is a party that bears no relationship to the Republican Party of ages past.

Tags: republican party, gop, change, bob barr for president, libertarian, constitution, 2008 candidates

The Relevance of Community Organizing

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:31:02 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

Obama spent three years in housing projects in Chicago and — according to his book, Dreams of My Father — even he couldn’t explain what he was doing. “When classmates in college asked me just what it was that a community organizer did, I couldn’t answer them directly,” Obama wrote. Indeed, who could say what a community organizer does? The Obama campaign sent out an e-mail after the fact: “With the nation watching, the Republicans mocked, dismissed, and actually laughed out loud at Americans who engage in community service and organizing.” That misses the point. Palin and Giuliani didn’t mock people who work for the betterment of their communities. They mocked Obama for embracing the vague title of “community organizer,” which might as well be the political equivalent of “I’m working on a screenplay.” It also doesn’t help that “organizer” is essentially a morally neutral term and to the extent it’s political it evokes shades of left-wing labor politics.

Word cloud of Democrats and Repulicans

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:59:07 GMT

clipped by: magicaldroplets

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The words that speakers used at the two political conventions show the themes that the parties have highlighted. Republican speakers have talked about reform and character far more frequently than the Democrats. And Republicans were more likely to talk about businesses and taxes, while Democrats were more likely to mention jobs or the economy.

Tags: politics, elections

Repubicans Steal from Everyone

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:27:34 GMT

clipped by: powerof2
clipper's remarks: The GOP hasn't had a new idea since 1860.

Clip Source: www.eonline.com

Republicans Take Heart; Heart Takes It Back

The sisterly duo known as Heart sent a cease-and-desist notice to the McCain-Palin campaign Thursday afternoon after their hit "Barracuda" was used—twice—without permission as the official rallying cry for the vice presidential candidate after her nomination acceptance speech at the Republican

The song was chosen as a would-be cute tie-in to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's past—"Barracuda" was her high school nickname.

Only problem, campaign officials failed to ask either the group, Universal Music Publishing or Sony BMG whether the song was fair game to use. It wasn't.

Why Palin's weaknesses may be irrelevant

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:41:00 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: And why Democrats (including me!) miss the point when they campaign against them. Thought-provoking! This clip just grazes the surface of a very important article.

Clip Source: files.tikkun.org

the Palin nomination is not basically about external realities and what Democrats call "issues,"

The Republicans can't win on realities. Her job is to speak the language of conservatism, activate the conservative view of the world

Our national political dialogue is fundamentally metaphorical, with family values at the center

Conservative family values are strict and apply via metaphorical thought to the nation: good vs. evil, authority, the use of force, toughness and discipline, individual (versus social) responsibility, and tough love

Palin is the mom in the strict father family

Yes, the McCain-Palin ticket is weak on the major realities. But it is strong on the symbolic dimension of politics that Republicans are so good at marketing

But such truths may nonetheless be largely irrelevant to this campaign. That is the lesson Democrats must learn

initial Democratic response to Palin

based on realities alone

indicates that many Democrats have not learned the lessons of the Reagan and Bush years

Tags: palin

The American President-Republicans Your 5 Mins Are UP!

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:15:28 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: One of the best dialogues in an American movie.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: president, movie, obama, mccain, republicans, truth

Obama Answers Republican Ridicule

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:58:33 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

Republicans have spent days heaping scorn on Barack Obama, with Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin leading the way

Today, Obama fired back.

Obama said the St. Paul gathering won't discuss issues because it reminds voters of Republican failures on many fronts.

"You haven't heard a word about how we're going to deal with any aspect of the economy that is affecting you and your pocketbook."

"Not one time did I hear the phrase middle class pass their lips," he said.

How many of the Republican delegates, 93 percent of whom are white, are familiar with community organizers is debatable. More than half have a net worth in excess of $500,000

"I've been called worse on the basketball court," he said. "It's not that big of a deal."

Tags: politics, united states

RNC Picks Up $1 Million After Palin Speech, Obama picks up $8 million!

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:49:04 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: I like that ratio 8:1, and from grassroots net donors. Nice!

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

Sarah Palin’s speech to the convention Wednesday night energized conservatives, allayed concerns of some nervous party insiders – and inspired excited Republicans to donate a cool $1 million to the Republican National Committee’s effort to elect John McCain.

UPDATE: Bloomberg reported that Palin’s speech was even better for Democrats–Barack Obama has raised $8 million since Wednesday’s speech. “Sarah Palin’s attacks have rallied our supporters in ways we never expected,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said. “And we fully expect John McCain’s attacks tonight to help us make our grassroots organization even stronger.”

Tags: palin, mccain, obama, contributions, donations, money, oops