apparently it’s ok for churches to take an active part in bigoted oppression, spending time and money promoting hatred and division, instead of championing social justice. apparently it’s ok for the church to take political stands in clear violation of federal tax laws, despite the scriptures stating to honor the laws of the land. apparently it’s ok for them to declare people with alternative sexual preferences as abominations, despite the fact they should deem themselves abominations because they trim their beards and eat fish and swine and don’t throw their wives out of their house every month when they’re on their period.

so, to these churches and to the people who support their policies i say this sincerely: fuck you. your oppression is your own doing. pull your heads out of your hypocritical asses and realize this: you are the problem with society, not them. maybe if you spent more time reading and focusing on the parts of scripture that teach you how to love, you wouldn’t have enough time to spread all that hate. gay people and even homosexuality in general are not your problem, YOU ARE. grow up and grow a pair, and confront your leaders when they speak out in bigotry and hatred. speak out for social justice and the human rights of others, or you will only stir up more hatred against yourselves.

stand up, grow up, and act right, or any oppression that you may face will be your own doing, and will be for the cause of hatred and evil, not for god. i promise you that.

-h

tonight, i encourage you all, whoever you are, however you voted, and whatever you may have heard and/or decided about our newly named president-elect…

please, let’s join together as americans, and walk forward in peace. this last 8 years has brought incredible division in this country, defining us as red states or blue, as real americans or anti-americans…

tonight, we are all americans.

let’s work for peace, to end war and in-fighting amongst ourselves. for equal rights for all americans to health care, to education, to love and marriage and family. let’s work to innovate, to end our dependence on oil and create new, cleaner technologies to provide for our children a future with a clean environment and a prosperous economy.

let’s send a message both to our next-door neighbors and to those we affect overseas via our foreign policy: we will fight no longer, but we will work together to make not just america, but this world a better place for all of us.

YES, WE CAN.

-h

so i ask of you, please, take 15 minutes this evening before you go to the polls tomorrow to watch the video above.

consider, like i did:

• …that voting for a republican with a stated pro-life agenda will likely never bring about an end to abortions, as republicans have held the presidential office for 20 of the last 28 years, and still have not accomplished anything to that end.
• …obama’s stance on preventing the need for abortions and how that will positively impact our communities.
• …that a woman’s right to healthcare privacy should be something we support, and that there is no biblical directive to force upon others our own interpretations of how they should live their lives. i was particularly impressed by obama’s VP nominee joe biden when he was interviewed on meet the press(see this clip for the whole dialog), and how he talked about the intersection of his own faith and his political agenda, and how the two are separate. holding pro-life religious views and voting pro-choice are not mutually exclusive.
• …that even though obama has a record of attending the same christian church for 20 years, mccain’s supporters still make the claim that obama is muslim, while mccain himself very rarely attends church, and yet he is being touted by pastors and evangelists as god’s candidate, as seen in the clip below:
  
• …the impact of criminalizing abortion while the church still does little to nothing to raise the orphans already in society. consider that occurrences of child neglect and abandonment will rise exponentially, especially without efforts to reduce illegitimate pregnancies(and not relying on using abstinence-only education) and also promote adoption and make the adoption process easier for anyone interested(not just married christian families).

consider for yourself the motivations that religious leaders have for supporting the candidates that they do. consider for yourself that what makes this country great is its religious freedom - the same freedom that god gave you - and that elections are not contests to prove whose religion is better than every one else’s, but are a new chance for us as a country to come together to affect positive change and new directions for our common future.

remember that you can disagree with me and those candidates/causes i stand for, but that doesn’t make me anti-american or even pro-babykilling. let’s come together this election for a candidate who works to break down those barriers for ALL AMERICANS. so tomorrow, please…

Join me in voting for Barack Obama. -h

“If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations,” Palin told host Chris Plante, “then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.”

clearly she has no idea what our rights are. like the right to free speech, and the right of a free press to tell people what is actually going on: that she is running a negative campaign… or my own right to blog about her comments today and remark that i think she is ignorant, completely inept in matters of constitutional law, and that i think she must be stupid to think that the press is infringing on her rights. what’s next? is she going to lead a campaign to take away americans’ right to a free press so she can say whatever she wants without being questioned?

sorry, that was mean. maybe i’m just trying to make a point about how liberties are taken, not given, and maybe i’m taking the liberty to say let’s raise the bar in washington, and vote for someone who brings experience, KNOWLEDGE OF THE CONSTITUTION, wisdom and discretion under attack, and hope for real, positive change both at home and abroad. let’s cast our votes this week for barack obama.

vote early, vote often.

-h (p.s. happy halloween!)

click here to sign the petition.

click here to sign the petition.

EDIT: for more on this, you should also view this special comment from keith olbermann from yesterday…

i guess if you lie often enough, even when the facts on paper clearly refute your case, if you’re pretty enough and talk about god enough then people won’t notice.

-h

he seems hell-bent on dividing this country with his hate and fear-mongering, and obviously doesn’t know a “brazen and baseless attack” if it comes out of his own mouth.

-h

after all that’s happened in the political landscape this week, especially all the accusations made by palin herself about obama, her credibility is now officially toast. this is a blatant ethics law violation, and consisted of not 1 or 2, but 19 separate phone calls by both palin and her husband trying to get his ex-brother-in-law fired.

apparently, a maverick is someone who roams the countryside spreading hatred and racism after abusing power and public office for their own personal gain, at least if you use her own quotes against her. of course, now she’ll blame political partisanship for this report - even though the investigation was launched before she was even tapped to be the VP nominee - because that’s just what a maverick does!

did i mention already how she does not deserve to be anywhere near the white house? i think i did, but i’m not sure…

-h

at a rally today, mccain finally acknowledged that obama is a “decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States,” going on to say that “He’s a decent, family man, [a] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign is all about.” kudos as well for making these statements even while being booed by his supporters - that takes guts, and i’ll give him that.

while this is a good step, calls should be made to his campaign and to the RNC to cancel their TV ads which echo the same misleading and hateful sentiments, including a new one released for broadcast even today which states that he “worked with a terrorist when it was convenient” which is a blatantly dishonest implication. in addition, the american people should be demanding a public apology and denouncement for john mccain, sarah palin, and the RNC’s previous statements.

i believe an apology is necessary here, because even though mccain seems to be abandoning the rhetoric, his and palin’s comments were clearly “over the line” and if he hopes to be taken seriously as a positive candidate, being able to acknowledge fault would be a big first step.

-h

to examine some of the quotes:
“he’s a one-man terror cell”, yes, the first guy quoted the fact that obama attended a madrasah when he was a boy, which is literally the arabic word for “school”. so, because he went to school as a boy, he is a terrorist?

“he’s not a terrorist but his policies will lead to [unintelligible]“ this wasn’t really followed up with any evidence, probably because there is none to support this claim.

“he’s got the bloodlines… just think about it” so, essentially being born to a kenyan and a woman from kansas means you have terrorist bloodlines? that’s certainly news to me.

“there’s more interviews with sarah palin than there are with barack…” this is simply untrue, and shows ignorance of the facts. sarah palin has conducted only 3 interviews thus far in the entire 5+ weeks since she was introduced as the VP nominee - one to charlie gibson, one to katie couric, and one to shawn hannity, not to mention she only has allowed questions from the press maybe a couple of times, whereas obama is frequently taking questions from the press and granting interviews. for a newcomer to the national scene, sarah palin is doing her best to stay a stranger.

and of course, the antagonizing blonde woman who pops up almost every five seconds in the video says that she heard of sarah palin 3 years ago… which is VERY interesting because palin has only been governor of alaska for about two. maybe she’s been closely following wasilla, alaska local politics online? in strongsville, ohio? somehow i doubt it.

while i’m not making the argument here that the clips above are representative of all mccain supporters, this is showing that the mccain campaign is actively courting voters by inciting violent mob-like reactions, preying on people’s ignorance and fears. trying to frame their opponent as a terrorist based on his look or his name(by the way, hussein is a common name which means “good” or “handsome”) or someone he has loose associations with who used to be a criminal decades ago.

oh yeah, and the real reason these accusations about obama “palling around” with william ayers is bullshit? because ayers has not been involved in terrorism for decades, and is now 64 years old. the city of chicago even named him its “citizen of the year” in 1997 for his work on school reform. this is not a dangerous man, and his “terrorist acts” were acts made in protest of the vietnam war. obama and ayers haven’t even spoken in years. thus, the entire argument is ridiculous.

the actions being taken by the mccain/palin campaign are deplorable, seeking to motivate people based on racism and fear-mongering. plain and simple, this is how wars are started, and shows yet again - mccain is putting mccain first, not america. -h

the washington independent and keatingeconomics.com have more, plus, don’t miss rolling stone’s article on the “make believe maverick”.

don’t be fooled, what mccain did should be criminal, and he got away with being a party to swindling thousands of people out of their life savings. this man is a liar, and his self-serving politics don’t deserve to be anywhere near the white house. -h