To John McCain and his campaign: I am sick of you

Being 19 years old, next Tuesday will be the first presidential election that I will be old enough to participate in. And quite frankly, I can’t wait for the election to be decided. I have a feeling that we will be sitting, anxiously biting our nails, as this and that is contested, perhaps repeatedly, but I am really looking forward to the end, which I hope hope hope comes with a victory for Obama/Biden.

This election cycle has brought the ever-infuriating John McCain and his campaign to a frightening point. Frightening, because he might very well become President if we aren’t careful.

I recently had a friend send me a link to a CNN article about Campbell Brown’s response to a story that an adviser to John McCain called Sarah Palin a “diva” because she has gone "rogue" and has been trying to “bust free” mismanagement that her candidacy has faced.

I admit, I am not a fan of Sarah Palin as a politician. But when I heard about this story, I was not happy at all. I agree with Brown in her assessment of the word “diva.” Here, it is used to shame Palin who dared to try to straighten things out for herself when she perceived that they were not going well. A woman trying to take control of a situation that she does not see as beneficial? How dare her! The diva!

And then, on Shakesville today I ran across this article that claims that the McCain camp is using Palin as their scapegoat for their problems, and possible loss of the election. Um, hello? Did McCain and his advisers forget that McCain chose Palin as his running mate, despite her lack of qualifications? And now that he’s realizing that she might not have been a good choice, McCain’s advisers are attacking her? Great. Why not let the woman take the fall for the man’s mistakes. Shame on you, John McCain, for allowing this to happen. I hope you do not make it to the White House. If you can’t even stand by your team, the team YOU helped pick, I can’t even begin to imagine what kinds of trouble you could get this country into. So many things about John McCain make me quiver, both out of fear and anger.

John McCain is a “tar baby” with a lovely temperament who would give you an IED as a gift and then tell you a joke about domestic violence after refusing to come forward and state that rape isn't funny. John McCain knows how to "beat the bitch" as long as the trollop/cunt doesn't receive equal pay or get more “education and training.” John McCain is full of ideas, especially when it comes to appropriate times to use the term "gook," bombing Iran, and killing those suckers with cigarettes! Nevermind the fact that he once threatened suicide over the thought of a Democrat majority in the Senate and the fact that he has no idea what it's like to be a normal American!

Perfect picture of an American President, if I ever saw one. And to think, I left out so many of his other "qualifications"...

Dear, I want this election to be over. I want Obama to win. Because, if not, well, there isn't much for anyone who isn't a misogynist, racist, super-privileged American to look forward to, is there?

*Thanks to Melissa at Shakesville for many of the links*

McCain: Obama flipflops on the World Series

I swear to God, I thought this was an Onion article when my roommate read it aloud:

McCain in baseball election play

US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has accused his rival, Barack Obama, of supporting both teams playing in the baseball World Series.

The baseball championship series begins on Wednesday, and both teams - the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phillies - are from key swing states.

Senator McCain said Mr Obama backed the Phillies when in Pennsylvania and rooted for Tampa Bay when in Florida.

But the Obama campaign said that its candidate was a Chicago White Sox fan.

Speaking in Pennsylvania, Mr McCain said: "Now, I'm not dumb enough to get mixed up in a World Series between swing states.

"But I think I may have detected a little pattern with Senator Obama. It's pretty simple really. When he's campaigning in Philadelphia, he roots for the Phillies, and when he's campaigning in Tampa Bay, he 'shows love' to the Rays.

"It's kind of like the way he campaigns on tax cuts, but then votes for tax increases after he's elected."

OMFG. Can we just elect Obama and get rid of having to listen to McCain already?

The View and John McCain

Why is it that The View is asking John McCain great, substantive, issue-based questions and actually holding him accountable for his recent (misleading, even straight out lying, in my opinion) ads on Obama, court appointees, and Palin's questionable stance on her role as a reformer while no other media source is?

Apparently they've done it before in April, asking McCain about Iraq.

It's a sad day when we have to rely on The View to actually get answers out of a politician.

John McCain: Doesn't have half a clue what life is like for average Americans

Mayors have the toughest job, I think, in America. It's easy for me to go to Washington and, frankly, be somewhat divorced from the day-to-day challenges people have.

Thanks.

McCain: An f---ing hypocrite

As a Minnesotan, I've been particularly irked time to time when the 35W bridge collapse last summer was exploited for political gain. I'm sure other citizens of other cities feel the same way about their tragedies get politicized and debated over with little regard to the lives affected.

However, this one gets me:

“The bridge in Minneapolis didn’t collapse because there wasn’t enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects…. I think there is a long, long list of earmarks which went to unnecessary and unwanted projects that I think should have gone to the bridge in Minnesota. I don’t know whether it would have gone or not, but if you’re spending $223 million on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it. …”

–John McCain in Allentown, Pennsylvania on April 30, 2008.

It was a month later that Palin changed her position on the Bridge to Nowhere but kept the $223 million for Alaska, spending it elsewhere.

So, John McCain, you really want to call Palin a reformer still? Praise her for cutting down on pork barrel spending?

Funny, when you were in St. Paul this past week, you forgot to mention how the money given for the Alaskan bridge would have been better spent on the 35W bridge. Huh.

I don't think McCain's solution of cutting special earmark spending would have solved the problems with the 35W bridge. I do find it incredibly ironic that he uses the Bridge to Nowhere as an example of unecessary pork barrel spending, yet praises Palin for reforming the system while she endless repeats her "thanks but no thanks" crap without mentioning that she never gave back the $223 million of federal money meant for the bridge.

Please, please, please, mainstream media. Pick up the story - it's all there in the Minnesota Independent.

Life and Blogging: Incompatible, accompanied by relevant comic and video

Planning my grandparent's 50th anniversary luncheon with my mother was such a time-suck that I've been completely absent from the internets for the past week or so. I didn't even read any of my blog subscriptions which was a blasphemy of the highest degree. My very small audience will be happy to note that I'm currently sitting on a rant on the pornification of bisexuality.

In other news, I totally caught that interview with Jessica Valenti, writer and founder of the popular Feministing.com, on Moblogic:

Nothing particularly hard-hitting there, but we feminists tend to be a bit stand-offish in wider forums with our views. Probably because of trolls on comments like this:

Jessica Valenti is a bigot, she just happens to back what is currently a politically correct and popular form of bigotry.

The way they talk on her website you'd think women were living in some kind of planet of the apes scenario and yet she seems to manage to live a rather privileged life of celebrity, book deals and socialising.

She's not even an intelligent bigot, or she's highly intellectually dishonest, but then again her career is based on this notion that women are horribly oppressed - it's in her interests to keep perpetuating this idea.

No, I will not link to the comment. Trolls don't get free audiences here.

First of all, since when is feminism popular? I think our dear troll is confusing feminism with Suicide Girls or the various teenie-bopper fads that confuse titillation with empowerment and equality.

It's really obvious that Jessica is "privileged". I mean, she has to put up with asinine trolls and their sophomoric logic day in and day out! I do that too, although on a much smaller scale, and I can tell you how much fun it is, and how much money I make. Jessica's "socializing" is called activism. Instead of getting drunk and shooting the breeze with buddies, which is fun in moderation, try something more productive like writing books.

Finally, our dear troll punctuates his sentiment with the tired-and-true, "shuttup opportunistic man-hating whore!" sentiment. Any feminist knows she's doing something right when she gets this gem thrown at her. From trolls in my very personal rape thread whining about teh poor menz to anonymous emails about how I alienate people from feminism with my awful, terrible book reviews and pop-culture sociology, there seems to be no shortage of men, and the occasional woman, who seem to think that the people pointing out discrimination are somehow more to blame for society's ills than the people that perpetuate those attitudes with the defense of their willful ignorance.

In more colloquial terms, via Penny Arcade:

(Cross-posted)

Power of Repitition - McCain, Cunt, Cunt, McCain

I found this video on Feministe, and I actually laughed out loud when I saw it.

Here it is: "At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." - John McCain, to his wife, Cindy, in 1992.

I also thought it was interesting because when I wrote a post about this topic back in April, people accused me of taking a "slow news day" to dig deep into the candidate's past in order to discredit him with irrelevant information (read the post for more).

Ha.

McCain called wife c-word in '92

WARNING: Yeah, I don't really feel that this warrants this big of a warning, but because some people may not know what I mean by "c-word" I will just put this out there - this post will contain a few words that some readers may find offensive. But I hope people aren't too discouraged, because I feel that a discussion is in order here.

Yes, this did happen in 1992, but it is newsworthy because this man will be running for president of the United States and he has a history of offensive language. Please read this for more. And this. And this for more examples of McCain's use of offensive language.

I found this on Feministing. Apparently, Raw Story obtained an advance copy of a book called The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter, which contains this description of an exchange between McCain and his wife Cindy back in 1992 when he was running for Senate.

"Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, 'You're getting a little thin up there.' McCain's face reddened, and he responded, 'At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.' McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days." (emphasis mine)

I don't know what to say about this. It really speaks for itself. I will say this, however: I hate how some of the worst names you can call a person are related to the female (whore, pussy, cunt, etc.). And how does John McCain choose to put his wife down after "a long day?" By calling her a cunt, which is a vulgar term for a part of a woman's body (the vagina).

The word culture of which such words are a part, helps oppress women by equating female body parts and attributes with some of the worst kinds of insults.

How do you guys feel about the presumptive Republican nominee for president's choice of words?

Note: I am not trying to say that there are no offensive words that relate to the male/male body. I was just focusing on the female related words because they relate to the quote from this book. I would also like to make it clear that I am not trying to vilify John McCain, here. Some of the early comments accused me of looking too far in his past, and if I wanted to make him look bad, I should look for more recent things. That is not the point of this post. It's more about the choice of words used by someone in a prominent position. I would have posted the same thing about Obama or Clinton if I had found it about them.

McCain receives Bush endorsement

After a victorious showing in last night’s elections, Sen. John McCain made a trip to the White House today where President Bush endorsed the senator’s run for president. Both the Republican and Democratic parties seemed please about this.

The Republicans see this as an opportunity for President Bush to help McCain unite conservatives.

“Despite overall approval ratings hovering just above 30 percent, Bush receives far higher marks from conservatives, and the McCain campaign thinks the push from Bush will bring the party in line behind their presumptive nominee.”

The Democrats are happy to see the Republican nominee associated with the current President in quite the opposite light: The unpopular president will probably steer people away from McCain.

"[McCain’s] embraced the Bush tax cuts that he voted against. He was against them being temporary; now he wants them being permanent. That's like marrying a girl you didn't want to date. He is rushed to Bush's Social Security plan, even disavowing his own Social Security plan on his own Web site. He has now become Bush's third term," [Democratic strategist and CNN contributor Paul] Begala said.
__________

Why John McCain offends the feminist in me.