BuzzFlash Mailbag for September 08, 2008

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Subject: Florida Republican group to boycott Oprah

Should come under the category " And they are allowed to vote!"

Florida Republican group to boycott Oprah Posted: 07:58 PM ET

From CNN's Emily Sherman

Oprah Winfrey campaigned for Obama in February. (CNN)-The Florida Federation of Republican Women made the decision to boycott the Oprah Winfrey Show Saturday, after the media mogul refused to have Gov. Sarah Palin as a guest on her show until after the election wraps up.

"Women in Florida helped build Oprah into the icon she is today," Linda Ivell, President of the FFRW said in a statement. "We are deeply disappointed in Ms. Winfrey's decision to sit out the greatest political moment in the history of women since suffrage."

The talk show host denied accusations Friday, that she was even considering the vice presidential nominee as a guest.

"At the beginning of this presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a plat for any of the candidates," Winfrey wrote in a statement, responding to a story from The Drudge report claiming her staff was "sharply divided" on whether they should book the Alaska Governor.

Winfrey agreed Palin would be a "fantastic interview," but wouldn't invite her on until after the November elections.

The Florida Federation of Republican Women, the "largest political organization in Florida," celebrating the groups 58 year anniversary is also encouraging members to cancel subscriptions to O Magazine, Ivell said.

"We find it to be an abuse of her power - gained on the backs of our patronage of her advertising empire - to use her program to so blatantly support Obama in the face of this historic moment. So, we are tuning out and canceling our subscriptions to O Magazine and encourage other women to do the same," Ms Ivell said.

Winfrey came under fire from some of her supporters in December after campaigning with the Democratic nominee in South Carolina.

Ivell did not say the Florida Republicans would be tuning out indefinitely, but at least until 'after the election.' Adding, she and her members respect the decision to support Obama, "as every American is entitled to their personal opinion and vote."

These poor Republicans are so woefully ignorant of history that they seem to not know that the FIRST woman VP candidate was Geraldine Ferraro, nominated by the truly enlightened Democratic Party 24 (!) years ago in 1984. Now that was HISTORIC! Just confirms that those who are ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it. I guess that is why they support the candidates that they do. Sadly, if and when their candidates are elected, all of America suffers the consequences. Let's do all we can to elect the TRUE candidate of history in 2008, Barack Obama. Thank you!

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Getting to Know Sarah Palin

We know what Sarah Palin believes but what does it all mean?

Mitchell Golding.
Philadelphia, PA

Subject: Palin has brother(s) in jail?

One of the comments from the Anderson Cooper Blog is listed below. Please see last two lines. I never heard that one before. Could not find anything in Google. Is this another scandal waiting in the wings?

Linda September 5th, 2008 7:11 pm ET

Anderson,

Wooten might have done some things wrong and he definitely should suffer the consequences given by the State Troopers office. But it is not up to Sara Palin to make that determination.

As a life long Alaskan, there was a lot of sneaky things that she did in order to win the election for governor. I will be so glad when she is exposed for the fake liar that she is. Also did you know she has brothers in jail? check it out!!

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/05/exclusive...

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: America Save the Nation - Elect Obama

Although I have lived here some 50+ years I still feel as though I am experiencing an "out of body" experience. I see us reliving the past, circa 1930.in Nazi Germany.The fascists are in power aided by election shenanigans. Normal people are captivated by Nazi slogans and rallies. Bellicosity is rampant. Air power is tried out during the Spanish Ciivil . Big business-Krupp,Siemens etc is working hand in glove with the Nazis. Invasion supported by lies and constant propaganda is the fate of Austria , and other countries finally Poland succumbs. And war is the constant diet.

Doesn't this remind you of the USA over the past 30 years when the neo -cons or really fascists took over the country in a similar fashion to the Nazis? Now we have the most corrupt system of government in the Western world!. We even follow the aggression of the Nazis. We are surrounding Russia and its sphere of influence and wonder why the Russians are less than civil. We are in great danger if we elect an aging hero with fire in his loins whose partner is a ventriloquists doll!

Obama is the knight in shining armor who MUST win if we are to save this once great country from fascism and a policy of war.

A. Leslie Palmer
Mill Valley Calif

Subject: Police tactics in St. Paul

Anyone with any knowledge of labor history wouldn't be surprised by what happened in St. Paul.

Back in the 30s the Teamsters got pretty bloodied there and in Minneapolis during strikes when the police and Pinkertons beat demonstrators. The Teamsters got their licks in by using flying pickets to attack scabs, but Minnesota is no bastion of liberalism.

And whoever in the world thinks Hubert Humphrey would be turning in his grave is dead wrong. Remember the Humph was running on LBJ's record in '68 and he was all for the war. He would have applauded the police tactics just like he kept his friggin' mouth shut in Chicago in 1968.

The Democrats are moribund as a party and their refusal to stand up to Pelosi on the impeachment issue is going to come back to bite them in the ass. We'll be seeing these same criminals in future GOP administrations, those of us who aren't in the Gulag that is.

matt carmody
cornwall, ny

Subject: Confidential, LA Progressive Article on Palin

Please read this and post, too important to ignore.

http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/09/05/alaskan...

[BuzzFlash Note: The writer reports hearsay of Palin's racist remarks about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.]

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Sarah Palin and Reproductive Choice

Those of us who are professionals in the medical community, specifically in obstetrics, have been having a field day with the issue of Sarah Palin being in the initial stages of labor and choosing to (1) deliver an insignificant speech, (2) bypass excellent medical facilities and drive to an airport in a large American city, (3) run the obstacle course and wait time of security and check-in for a commercial flight, (4) fly for hours to another large American city with excellent medical facilities, (5) board yet another plane for a four-hour flight, (6) bypass excellent medical facilities in Alaska's largest city, (7) get in a car and drive one more additional hour (!) to deliver a PREMATURE baby in a small hospital in a small community where if there had been serious complications - always a possibility with near-term babies - the baby would have had to have been transported back to the Alaska city in which she landed just prior to her 40+ mile drive.

This issue of the prematurity (36 weeks) of the Palins' youngest child is going to go over the heads of a lot of people. It has been asked, did she endanger her baby's life?

Medical professionals who deliver babies everyday, and know the risks of delivering a baby whose gestation is less than 38 weeks without immediate medical resources available, do not believe that is the question, because it is clear that endangering the life of her child is exactly what took place.

Many of us have a different question - was Palin exercising a choice to allow her child to die? A choice she couldn't, given her religious extremism, make in a more conscious, deliberate manner? Because there was a series of conscious choices made by Sarah Palin that anyone who genuinely wanted a live, healthy baby would never make, especially when the baby was PREMATURE. And certainly a mature, experienced mother would not make those choices.

A series of choices like that are more the kind of thing we see in teenagers with behavioral and substance abuse problems, not responsible, well adjusted parents.

One of the jokes floating around the medical community right now is a flow chart of this specific decision making process, because to us it is so evident that something is terribly wrong here.

Blue Alaska

Subject: tidbits

Hi, Buzz!!

I like your idea for an "uppity" button. I have a button I saved from my feminist youth: "Uppity Women Unite!" Perhaps we feminists should have one for this election: "Uppity Women for Obama"?

The reader who identified "uppity" as a racial slur is exactly right; I can't remember it ever being used in the bad old days without the "n" word behind it (at least not until the feminists borrowed it). The Repugs are letting their racism show, and we should take advantage of that!

I also like the idea of a bumper sticker reminding us that Lincoln and Kennedy had no prior executive experience. The next time John McCain plays the POW card (which should be right about ... NOW), we should be ready to remind people that Lincoln didn't have any military experience to speak of either. He was captain of a militia company during the Black Hawk War, but they never saw any action. Lincoln himself later joked that the worst enemy they faced were the mosquitoes. And yet many of us consider him our greatest President. Imagine that.

Jane Hawes
Edmond, OK (still a red-state Democrat)

Subject: sarah palin

Sarah Palin is a Neanderthal and the scary part should McSAME get elected she would be at the helm if he croaked in office...Lord Jesus help us. She's a freakin' right-wing NUT, makes Bush/Cheney look like a Democrat. Now the GOP are once again trying to prevent an investigation of her TrooperGATE scandal and they will succeed b/c the Dems will roll over as per usual play dead and permit them to do so. Running for the second most important position in the land, Palin should be vetted properly. As a taxpayer I want to know all about her BEFORE she gets in office not AFTER the fact. For the GOP to try and prevent a valid vetting process of her is typical and we are back to the same old Bush Cheney corrupt way of doing business in secret and attacking the Media for doing THEIR job. Didn't Hitler use these tactics also? 'Attack the messenger'.

The women voters who support her have to be Neanderthals like herself, anti pro choice even under a rape situation, anti stem cell research, pro creationist, pro book banning in libraries and on and on it goes. Hillary Supporters out there, she is NOT Hillary Clinton, it's an insult to women to think they would vote for Palin just because she is a WOMAN ... stay with Obama who is in Hillary's mindset for women's future/ benefit.

margaret miller
wellington, florida

Subject: The Crazy Right

I have felt I lived in an alternate universe since Bush became president ... even the first time. I walked around in a fog of disbelief. What was happening to my country? I wanted to protest, to march, and to pull him out of the white house by his ears and yell "Shame!" But I had to work two jobs to make ends meet and did not have the time.

When I hear the Republicans talk, I feel I must be insane. What, after all they have done, they want more years from us?

This religion thing really frightens me. They do believe in a vengeful, angry god. I do not believe at all. My brain is too small to hold the concept of a god, so I just try to be a good, honest, and kind person. I believe in science and do not want crazy included in our children's education. What happened to separation of church and state?

Republicans say when the Dems are elected, there will be more rules from government. Really? I think governing my uterus and not giving me a choice in a country that was born out of religious freedom is the height of control.

How can they fix what they have destroyed?

Country, first? Nice concept but seeing other parts of the world teaches you more then TV can give you. English only? Other countries mandate two or three languages, and most Americans cannot speak English well. How will our children compete?

This is NOT JUST a christian country! There are, agnostics, mormans, hindu, muslim atheist, buddhists, catholic, etc, etc. All I know is here and now, so I do not wait for the rapture, but try to make my world a happy heaven.

Wanda Knipp
Myakka City, Florida

Subject: Bhutto's widower goes from prison to presidency 9/7

Wouldn't it be nice to see Laura's drunk go from the presidency to prison?

Will Wyche
Palm Springs, CA

Subject: Beth Arnold: Can Democrats Learn to Speak Redneck? 9/6

No, it's too late. Can Rednecks speak Progressive?

Will Wyche
Palm Springs, CA

Subject: Snowballs make snow angels

I happen to agree with Barack and his desire to run a campaign on the high road, to speak of issues and to build bridges not barriers to our solving our problems. But one cannot ignore the hypocrisy of the Republican Party. One cannot dismiss how they have raised a solid middle finger to all who contribute to bettering their community, and one cannot ignore that tragedy of abstinence only. Snowballs make snow angels unless the snow man is wearing a condom.

The child of Sarah Heath Palin is pregnant, and at 17 she is just a child. There is a tragedy in that. Children do what children do. What is sad is that one cannot help but wonder what if her mother would have been a mentor and leader? What if her mother had preached something other than just don't do that? What if mom had been a mom and had the sort of relationship and advice that may have resulted in a different sort of path for her child and the child that is the father of her child's child?

We all love children and know the smile a child can put on the face of a curmudgeon. A child can make a bad day good. But we also all know that a child is work and dedication and devotion. We know that at the ripe old age of 17 a child's life has ended way too early. That is the tragedy of Sarah Palin.

I am certain she loves her children but she did her daughter a disservice. She did what it has been reported she did in other roles, I want it done my way, and don't want to nor will listen to opposing ideas.

Despite what she may say, Sarah Palin can't even lead her own children let alone this nation. Sarah Palin cut funding for mentally challenged children, how absolutely heartless, once again despite her own challenges in that regard. Snowballs do make snow angels unless the snow man is wearing a condom.

I am suggesting here and now that we begin a campaign: "Condoms for Alaska" and we name them Palin's Penis Protector - apply before you make a snowball. For those times when abstinence is not an option.

Jim Ridout
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Subject: GOP comes out against Community Organizing

September 5, 2008

The GOP comes out against Community Organizing

I think maybe it is their potty training. I know they can’t possibly fathom why an African American might want to thank all those who have died doing community organizing to get him the vote, to allow him to go to any school he can get into by giving something back.

Giuliani, the guy who called on every community organization in the book after 9/11 said, “on the other hand, you have a resume from a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a community organizer. What? He worked, I said, I said, OK, Ok, maybe this is the first problem on the resume. He worked as a community organizer. He immersed himself in Chicago machine politics.” And he laughed and laughed and laughed and the people laughed with him.

I am sure he doesn’t recall the thousand points of light, or the Peace Corp, Doctors without Borders, Habitat for Humanity. Rudy, ask not what your country can do for you, laugh at what others do for your country. I can remember that even the GOP wanted college graduates, new doctors, lawyers, teachers, anything to give up a few years to help out.

“Guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening”, Sarah said.

Small town Alaska, Wasilla with its 1% African American population, 1% of 9,236 probably didn’t have much action during the civil rights movement. I am sure she thinks the Klan and White supremacists are non-existent. I recall back in June, 1998, when she was mayor of Wasilla something happened in Jasper, Texas. An African American named James Bird, Jr. was tied to the back of a pick-up truck and ripped to pieces because he was Black. I know you and Rudy do not think it could be possible that there are still communities that need help.

I don’t think Rudy and Sarah are racist or that they just don’t want people helping people. Let’s just say I hope that isn’t the case. They are just against giving back to your community. Making fun of community organizing just can’t be part of the GOP platform. Not after the Katrina.

You have no idea why I see nothing funny about making a joke of a Black man who could have gotten a job at some pretty fancy law firms, but instead he decided to go into community organizing. I am about as mad as I have ever been and that is really mad.

All those suffragists who got ridiculed and laughed at are the reason Sarah is where she is today. If Alice Paul, 218 others had not gone to jail and been beaten and force fed Sarah wouldn’t even be allowed to vote.

They sent Alice to be evaluated so they could put her in a mental institution to get her out of their hair and the doctor was on her side. The men who wanted her put away wanted her to be declared insane, but the doctor said, “Courage in women is often confused with insanity.”

During the civil rights movement many took on those responsibilities Sarah can see and suffered for it. James Peak, a White Freedom Rider, had to have 52 stitches in his face for community organizing at the bus station in Birmingham. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia was beaten several times for community organizing.

A mob slashed the tires on the bus in Anniston, Ala. and when it stopped they fire bombed it and blocked the doors because they were community organizing. Medgar Evers, James Chaney (White and killed on his first day organizing), Andrew Goodman (Black) and Michael Schwerner (White) and Mississippi wouldn’t allow them to be buried together. Viola Liuzzo was killed for community organizing and giving a Black guy a ride home.

Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X were both killed for organizing different types of groups. Martin’s mother was murdered while sitting at the church organ, playing The Lord’s Prayer, during a service in 1974 because of her son, the community organizer. Four young Black girls were killed in the same church because people were doing community organizing.

Sarah and Rudy, I know it is impossible for you to believe that Barack Obama might have wanted to give something back as a thank you for those who had done community organizing before him, but there was organizing still to be done and there is still community organizing needed today.

I think you call it grassroots organizing and you are doing it now because you think it funny that a very bright Black man would give up the chance to make money to help people that the GOP would just rather forget were there. Martin Luther King had a dream and you will do anything to keep it from coming true.

Please thank Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R, Georgia), for finally putting what we knew to be true out there in the light of day. We all knew that “elite” was a code word for “uppity” and now we have proof. How ironic that he is from the same state as Rep. John Lewis who was beaten for community organizing.

"Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama."

"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

Sarah, you are no Hillary Clinton and you are no Geraldine Ferraro. Not even close.

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok

Subject: Georgia

Did McCain start the Georgian Conflict? Can this be a story with legs?

McCain is on record that he sometimes phones Georgia President Mikheil SAAKASHVILI 2 or 3 times a day proving his good international knowledge and contacts. I can just see Quickdraw McCain irresponsibly encouraging the Georgian aggression, and promising American support. The Georgians are happy to 1) provide support for the present sympathetic American Administration, 2) regain rebel provinces before the American election 3) Assure future American support in return.

In his acceptance of the Republican presidential nomination Thursday night, Sen. John McCain called for "solidarity" with Georgia in a speech that was remarkably light on foreign policy issues. From the moment that hostilities between Georgia and Russia began, McCain, who considers Saakashvili a friend and spoke frequently by phone with him during the crisis -- he once gave the Georgian leader a bullet-proof vest -- has consistently called for stronger action against Moscow, including expelling it from the Group of Eight (G-8) nations, than the administration has been willing to take.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43811

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: the female Rush Limbaugh

How can anyone ignore that Ms. Lipstick on the wrong end of of the pitbull? I believe that advocating seceding from the Union to seize control of natural resources is serious. Seems like I recall when I got my degree in History (in less than 8 colleges), that we went through a sizeable war over that behavior ... Perhaps that's what the repugs are wanting ...

Rodney Talley
San Antonio, Texas

Subject: Heart Attacks McCain Over 'Barracuda'

I don't see why Heart is so upset. The lyrics "if the real thing don't do the trick, you better make up something quick" seem to be a perfect description of Sarah Palin.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Why I will never vote form McCain/Palin

Governor Palin was chosen as the Vice Presidential candidate to influence the evangelical vote.

With that in mind, I reiterate that Jesus Christ sacrificed his life to give man a chance at forgiveness - Sarah Palin sacrificed her daughter's private life for the Governor's own political ambitions.

It is the contrast between ultimate selflessness and pathetic selfishness.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Palin

I think she will drop out very close to the election if she doesn't do well in the debate.

If that happens I think it will be Lieberman before the GOP can complain.

I think the investigations will get her, especially if they have proof that either she or her aides took or looked at her brother-in-law's file.

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok.

Subject: Sarah's press conference

Did she have a script when she spoke in Dayton? Unless that was an unscripted speech you won't hear her, except in the debate, until they know what is going to happen with the investigation and they aren't expected to be out until maybe Oct 31, if the McCain campaign starts cooperating.

I suspect if there are cameras it will be just like with Bush, every question scripted.

We will have better luck with regular citizens showing up at smaller gatherings with phone cameras.

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok

Subject: Palin and the ANWR

Before she was whisked away to the Cone of Silence, Gov. Sarah Palin was interviewed on energy policy by Maria Bartiromo. Most of the discussion concerns the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and oil drilling, wherein Gov. Palin states emphatically that there are no moose, no polar bears, and (dismissively!) no mountains in the ANWR.

The official website of the refuge http://arctic.fws.gov/ includes studies on both polar bear and moose populations within the park. And the photo on the home page ... well, I'm from Louisiana and not an expert on these things, but those sure look like mountains to me.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/aug...

David Texada
Alexandria, La.

Subject: Who is the senile codger there?

(Sincere apologies to James Garner and Brett ... you know the tune!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYrsDT02OcE

Who is the senile codger there? Maverick is the name. Ridin' the base to you-know-where, Rove is his companion, Lyin' is his game. Dazed and befuddled as they come. Maverick is the name. Can't tell a bagel from a bun, Has no soul to speak of, Not a lick of shame.

Journalist, hide your notes, He'd tear out all your throats Lucky for him his pit bull does the rest. Baghdad to New Orleans Sarah looks good in jeans Maverick's just a cuckoo with no nest.

Journalist, hide your notes, He'd tear out all your throats Lucky for him his pit bull does the rest. Baghdad to New Orleans Sarah looks good in jeans Maverick's just a cuckoo with no nest. Maverick's just a cuckoo with no nest.

Fred Woolsey
Wallingford, PA

Subject: Palin's baby

It's surely not PC to bring this up, but ...

What if Palin's baby boy did not have Down's Syndrome? Would the mother, even (or especially) an experienced mother take on the stress and traveling and fatigue associated with a national campaign when her infant was only 4+ months old? How do you bond with an infant if you're hardly ever home? Or is being a "hockey mom" more about the mom than the children?

And re her teenager's pregnancy - I'm sorry but it's the Republicans who rub the country's face in "family values" and promote "abstinence education" (whatever that is) and restrict access to birth control - what if a black candidate for national office, especially a Democrat, had a pregnant teenage daughter? Wouldn't we all be treated to a feast of innuendo about "welfare moms" and family dysfunction, you know, among some kinds of people.

It's the hypocrisy that smells so bad.

If we're supposed to give the Palin family a zone of privacy, wouldn't it be wonderful if the Republican Party promoted doing that for the rest of us?

Colleen Clark
Cambridge, MA

Subject: McCain History

Hi. I came across these in an unrelated search. I haven't noticed your linking to them, but they certainly warrant light. This is the link to part one. Parts 2 & 3 are linked from it.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0806/S00095.htm

Mike Flagg
Washington, D.C.

Subject: Caribou Barbie and the Ruse of Patriotism

Most of the informed electorate can agree that as far as suitability for office, George W Bush lowered the bar. He gives credibility to the notion that Sarah Palin's proximity to Russia serves as foreign policy experience. In 1999, GW couldn't find most countries on a map, be they Axis of Evil, or staunch ally.

Watching the Republican National Convention while trying to keep one's food down is a daunting task, but we must persevere. "Change" as a campaign slogan must have credibility as well. Thanks to clever manipulation, and help from the winds of change, the sitting president has been dissed and marginalized from basking in the glow of his party's national convention. His name is rarely uttered, especially in prime time, likewise, his partner in crime, the President of Vice, Dick Cheney. How better to co-opt and sell to the American people, the concept of change as one's own? It would be quite the impossible trick to stand before us as the authors and instigators of some of the worst economic times since the Great Depression, as well as a pattern of greed-based foreign policy and tell us that the Republicans are the true party of change for the American people. They do not qualify their statements and explain that it only applies if you happen to be in the top 10% of income earners in America. The reality is, if you are not in that 10%, you will continue to live with further regressive wages as the value of your homes decline, your cost for EVERYTHING that you buy continues to rise, millions more jobs cut entirely, and continuing education for yourself and your children get further from your reach as the health care you no longer possess.

These changes are not as much of a goal for the Republican Party as they are a requirement for their permanent majority.

A fearful, ill cared for, uninformed and uneducated electorate has always been and continues to be, a Republicans' best hope. If you are uniformed enough to believe in the change the GOP is offering up, then spare change is what you will have to work with in these economically devastating times. You will become like that "uniquely American" woman, Mary Mornin, with three jobs that GW Bush introduced to America while on the Republican campaign to decimate Social Security. We will ALL be Mornin in America with the further busting out of America by the corporate sponsored Republican Party.

Here is another ruse, "Country First". Don't buy it. The reality is "Corporation First."

Next ruse - "Reformer & Maverick." "John McCain has gone after the lobbyist and special interests." This is true, he has. The lobbyists and special interests comprise the bulk of his campaign, and if elected, will slide right on over to cabinet and other high level critical positions in his administration.

Ruse - John McCain is ready to lead. Reality - John McCain is ready to be led. This hot tempered, self-serving individual does not have the capacity to lead. Arrogance and intolerance are not leadership skills. The man also possesses six out of ten warning signs of dementia. He will be led by his entourage of special interest corporate lobbyists and fed his scripts by some of the finest right-wing writers of this generation. But, alas, Unlike Saint Ronnie, John McCain is no actor and the lines generally fall flat.

Ruse - John McCain is an American Hero. We all owe McCain a debt of gratitude for his service to his country. However, such service does not qualify one to lead the nation. What has finally put John McCain in this place of being the Republican nominee for President at the tender age of 72 is his stellar work as Chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee investigating the Jack Abramoff scandal. He assured his congressional colleagues that their misdeeds and involvement would not be the focus of the investigation and would keep their names from public view. He delivered, and his colleagues' names were redacted but mostly unreleased. As Committee Chairman, John McCain made use of Senate rules to subpoena 750,000 pages of documents related to Abramoff’s lobbying including billing records, memos, appointment calendars -- keeping 99.7 percent of them out of the record, and buried the rest in locked files in the basement of the Hart Senate Office Building . For this, he was rewarded with the nomination. At our peril.

Mike Flagg
Washington, D.C.

Subject: Uppity comment and GOP convention starting on Labor Day

I have felt for awhile that what was really annoying some of the bigots of this country about Obama is that a person of color had the audacity to pursue a presidential candidacy and to succeed in getting it. They still prefer that African-Americans know their place and accept it. Rep. Westmoreland, Republican congressman from Georgia, has called Sen. Obama, "uppity". I guess he slipped and/or forgot that he should have used the code word, "elite", which other GOPers are using!!

Another thing! How does the GOP think that working class people would support them when they started their convention on Labor Day? The Repugs have no regard for the working person. So, turn your backs to them and walk away!

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Cedarburg Wisconsin McCain visit

As I write, they are talking on MSNBC, how McCain and Palin are visiting Cedarburg, Wisconsin today and how they are taking their message to the average small town person. Cedarburg is a small town but for your information, Cedarburg is in Ozaukee County which is a Republican stronghold. It is located north of Milwaukee and is considered an area for the wealthy with above average prices for their homes and the people have better than average incomes. Both of which are way above what you would find in relationship to the majority of Milwaukee citizens -- homes and income So it appears McCain/Palin are just playing it safe, since nobody in Cedarburg is apt to ask them any serious questions. Now I'm wondering where they'll stop next on their tour, or if all of their visits will be in safe havens.

Kay
Hartford Wisconsin

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