[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P26bLG3lGw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Watch the current crop of ads from both Democrats and Republicans alike in Washington state, and you’ll find one thing that nearly all of them have in common: they feature either women, or women’s issues.
That’s because both public and private polls show undecided women representing the most coherent demographic chunk still left up for grabs, and thus the campaigns’ best shot at swinging the race in their direction. And you gotta think that this development favors Democrats.
Why? Because I’m not sure there’s a single Republican congressional candidate in the state with a record of supporting women’s issues; they are all anti-choice, anti-equal-pay, and in many cases even anti-family-planning. It’s actually kinda astonishing how the socially libertarian moderate Republicans have been drummed out of the party over the past couple decades, leaving a crop of candidates behind that would probably have made Ellen Craswell proud.
And when women understand this, they’re more likely to vote Democratic.
anti-war queers
http://www.democracynow.org/20.....reinstates
“Craswell” nails it. The Teahadists around these parts are really just the Craswell people — they never went away, they’re organized, and they’re crazier than ever. They’re also smarter since they’ve managed to keep their christo-fascism underwraps and stick to the empty fiscal talking points.
It’s gonna be a nailbiter of an evening, 2 Nov. GOTV!
rare opportunity for “swing voters” to shitcan an openly racist wash supreme court justice by voting for wiggins nao:
State Supreme Court justices Richard Sanders and James Johnson stunned some participants at a recent court meeting when they said African Americans are overrepresented in the prison population because they commit a disproportionate number of crimes.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....es22m.html
no doubt about it: Sanders later confirmed his remarks about imprisoned African Americans, saying “certain minority groups” are “disproportionally represented in prison because they have a crime problem.”
“That’s right,” he told The Seattle Times this week. “I think that’s obvious.”
There are still a few women who vote Republican. Click here for photo of one:
http://heddalettuce.com/wp-con.....rkha_1.jpg
@1 What’s wrong with being anti-war? Only sick bastards are for war.
Republicans like wars (as long as they don’t have to fight or die in them), depressions (as long as they don’t lose their jobs or businesses), and human suffering in general.
Ever wonder what happened to the kid who pulled wings off butterflies? He grew up to become a Republican!
@7: Or pay for them!
@1 What’s wrong with being anti-war? Only sick bastards are for war.
did i say anything was wrong?
Dry Fly says vote no!
Washington Iniatives I-1100 & I-1105
# 3 & 4: Sadly, a common perception among the right wing.
A more accurate statement would have been that black men are stopped, arrested, charged, prosecuted, and imprisoned in disproportionately greater rates than whites. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they commit more crimes.
The sad fact is that a young black man is far more likely to be charged with offenses where a young white man would be released to his parents (if a minor) or given a warning. The neighborhood they live in might also be a factor – police sometimes assume that everyone in a high-crime neighborhood is automatically a suspect, and treated accordingly.
If the wingnuts choose to not believe me, then I’ll refer you to Bill McCartney, former Univ. of Colorado football coach and founder of the Evangelical group Promise Keepers. He was confronted with this situation when his policy of automatically suspending players who were “under investigation” by police resulted in a marked disparity in the treatment of his white and black players. White players were routinely given preferential treatment by the police, even ignoring offenses for which the average white citizen would be charged, but black players were routinely stopped and brought in for questioning anytime there was an “incident” in the area and they happened to be caught out walking on the street or in a car with their friends.
It isn’t unknown for some police departments to charge everyone and sort ’em out later, hoping to compel somebody to confess in return for leniency or immunity if they will just implicate one of their friends. This happens more often to minorities than whites, perhaps because (a) the police believe they are probably guilty of something, if not this specific offence, or (b) they believe the minorities have less ability to have complaints against the police for this tactic sustained by internal affairs departments or civil lawsuits.
So unfortunately, we simply don’t know if blacks commit more crimes than other races. The statistics don’t measure the number of times a police officer decides NOT to stop and search a group of white teenagers walking down the street. They only record instances in which a police officer decides TO stop and search a group of black teenagers, sometimes resulting in arrests for contraband (pot or other contraband).
And more importantly, it doesn’t really matter. Justice is supposed to be blind, and that includes being color-blind. It doesn’t matter if 99% of your particular group is engaged in crime, you have the presumption of innocense on your side. Any judge or justice who doesn’t believe this to the depth of their being doesn’t deserve to sit on the bench.
Libertarian = One who opposes government regulation on the free exercise of private business, yet requires government control over citizens life (government can kill you, but you can’t legally end your own life), government control over marriage choice (based on religious dogma), government control over sexual positions engaged in private residences, government control over decision of drug use (vodka good, pot bad), government control over choice of abortion, government control over choice of birth control, government control over well…everything, just not corporations.
@1
I guess Dan Choi, who just filed papers to re-enlist, is one of those tyo whom you refer. Am I right, or am I right? Nothing pisses me off more than gay people who oppose war enlisting and going to fight with distinction. Dammit!
Too bad. I came in here betting with myself that one of the trolls would have already posted a “women are really stupid to vote for Democrats instead of their friends the Republicans” screed. I lost. But then again, I won.
Perhaps the current crop of Republican campaigns, focusing on the federal debt and it’s imagined impact on our grandchildren, is in part an attempt to pierce the gender gap? Most politicians believe, with some justification, that women tend to place issues related to their children and grandchildren in a higher priority than do men.
Of course, you heard nary a peep from the Republicans about the national debt or budget deficits when they were spending our national treasury like a bunch of drunken sailors in a strip bar….
Daddy Love spews:
@1
I guess Dan Choi, who
you could watch or read the story link perhaps.
New Evidence Supports Anita Hill
A former girlfriend of Clarence Thomas broke her silence today and said Thomas was obsessed with porn and sized up every woman he worked with as a potential sex partner, AOL News reported today.
“The ex-girlfriend of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says he was ‘obsessed’ with pornography and made lewd sexual references to the women he worked with.
“Nearly two decades after Anita Hill testified that Thomas had sexually harassed her, Lillian McEwen, who dated Thomas in the 1980s, says Hill’s allegations are not unfounded.
“‘He was always actively watching the women he worked with to see if they could be potential partners,’ McEwen, 65, told The Washington Post. ‘It was a hobby of his.'”
“McEwen, who never testified during the 1991 Senate Judiciary Committee hearings that nearly derailed Thomas’ appointment to the Supreme Court, is speaking out for the first time about her experience. ‘I have nothing to be afraid of,’ she told the Post. She is a former assistant U.S. attorney and Senate Judiciary Committee counsel.
“The justice, McEwen said, often made lewd comments about women’s breasts and would ask them about their bra size. She also said he would talk about pornography in the office.”
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/.....n/19685574
Roger Rabbit Commentary: This is powerful evidence. McEwen has nothing to gain by speaking out now, and much to lose — her allegations are sure to make her a target of rightwing hate backlash. And she’s not some country bumpkin — she’s a lawyer and former federal prosecutor.
During his confirmation hearing, Thomas denied Hill’s allegations and portrayed himself as a victim of politically motivated character assassination. If McEwen’s statements are true, Thomas gained his seat on the Supreme Court by lying to the Senators who confirmed him.
Supreme Court justices have resigned in the past for much less than this. Thomas’s continued tenure on the Court should now be on the table. The Senate should open an investigation and hold hearings. And if these new allegations are substantiated and Thomas refuses to resign, then the Senate should proceed with impeachment proceedings.
GOP Candidate Calls For Violent Overthrow Of Government
A Republican candidate for Congress said in a media interview yesterday that if voters don’t kick the Democrats out of office a violent overthrow of our government should be “on the table.”
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2.....-of-gover/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Just because Republicans are nuts doesn’t mean they’re not serious and not armed. They’re both serious and armed! As I’ve said all along, LIBERALS MUST ARM. Don’t forget, Republicans don’t just talk about taking over our government by force, they also talk about exterminating their political opponents and people who disagree with them. In other words, the Republican Party is evolving into a Nazi-like movement with Hitler-like intentions of committing mass murder.