Ameritocracy

Is race a late entry into the race?

For a presidential race that saw the first ever black candidate recieve a major party’s nomination, the subject of race has been kept surprisingly under the radar. Which is not to say it hasn’t been there: invocations of the Civil Rights movement here, a little paranoia about Obama being a secret Muslim terrorist there…

Is this an indication of America’s relative and emerging maturity on matters of race? Probably

So is it surprising that race has entered into the, um, race in a much more overt way in the last couple weeks as we all brace for the grand finale?

Seemingly, much of this began with General Colin Powell, a widely respected long time Republican of the “old guard” Reagan era, endorsing Obama:

I think he is a transformational figure, he is a new generation coming onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I’ll be voting for Sen. Barack Obama

Apparently outraged by his defection, right wing pundit Rush Limbaugh said Powell’s real motivation was race:

As many in the media have pointed out, however, if Powell’s endorsement were really all about race, wouldn’t he have endorsed Obama a long time ago?

Last week, a report came out of a McCain campaign worker in Pittsburgh having gone to the police claiming a black man assaulted her at an ATM, noticed her “McCain/Palin” bumpersticker, and pinned her down and carved a “B” into her face, alledgely telling her she would support Obama or else.

It was a hoax. The woman in question, Ashley Todd, had a history of mental instability, and police became suspcious at first for the obvious fact that the “B” carved into her face was backwards, suggesting it had been self-inflicted while Ms. Todd looked into a mirror.

Before all this was revealed, Fox News executive VP John Moody said this of the incident:

If the incident (the McCain campaign worker claiming assault by a large black man) turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.

Is that true? Does this hurt McCain’s campaign, or is this simply an unfortunate reminder that racism is still alive and well?

And now, with less than a week to go til election day, the conversation of race seems to be picking up. Philadelphia 76ers legend Charles Barkley, a former Republican, in an interview noted his intention to run for governor in his home state of Alabama as a Democrat. During this interview, he had this to say about the Republican presidential campagin:

The only way they can win this election is make it about race. That’s the only way they can win…the only way the Republican party can make this thing work is they get their tribe to get together and of course they use racial innuendo

Is Barkley outwardly accusing the McCain camp of being racist? Or is his subtle insinuation of racism similar to the “dogwhistle racism” tactics that many have accused major GOP figures of employing. Take a look at that quote and decide for yourself.

Finally, see what you make of this one, from author and professor of sociology at Georgetown, Michael Eric Dyson

Black people don’t vote for candidates just because they are black. If Clarence Thomas ran for president, he would get five black votes.

This quote is circling the media presently. Why? Is it really true? Or does it have more to do with the fact that it’s such a bluntly overt characterization of the mindset of black voters; a statement unlike any we’ve seen so far in this race.

What do you think?

Internet Sensation-of-the-Day: “WTF, WFTV”

The most talked-about YouTube video (today) is this interview between WFTV (Orlando, FL) anchor Barbara West and V.P. candidate Joe Biden.

It includes West invoking Karl Marx

It also includes Biden asking such probing questions as “Are you joking?”

Here is her interview with Biden:

And by contrast, here is her interview with John McCain:

What do you think? Fair and equal treatment? Is this good journalism? Are the questions answered accurately?

Questions, ladies and gentlemen? Questions?

As you may have read in out community email or on the blog last week, one of the many cool features of Ameritocracy is our Questions feature.

Here’s a picture of The Riddler. Y’know…’cause he asked a lot of questions. Right?…
What? Fine, I’m tired today.

One of Ameritocracy’s main objectives is to help our community members understand complicated issues that often get dilluted into soundbites or otherwise oversimplified to the point of meaninglessness.  The Questions feature allows you (yes - YOU!…the person reading this right now; start feeling special) to ask the questions concerning subjects that you want to know more about.  This gives the community the chance to post quotes relating to that question, which ultimately provides new and illuminating dimensions to the question, helping you answer it yourself.

Or, for the nonboring and non-lots-of-words approach to explaining, here are a couple recent examples you can check out on your own:

How far will the U.S. government go to truncate the civil liberties of its citizens in the name of ‘security’?

Why are we hearing so much about voter fraud? Is it really a serious problem that could influence the election?

Election protection in an acorn shell

The right to a valid, counted vote is a democratic (with a lower-case “d”) issue of such import that it should be a priority of all Americans - regardless of party afflitiation - and especially the media to point out when it occurs, to whom, and why.

The fact is, in the history of democracy, there probably never has been a 100% fair election.  Tampering happens, votes are miscounted or misread, and the factor of human error is always present.  Ideally, we would have a way to safeguard such instances.  But when tampering, fraud, error, and sly partisan tactics start affecting the outcome of the election, such that whether the will of the electorate is represented by the result of the election is brought into question as it was in 2000 and 2004, then it becomes a democratic and patriotic duty to assure that all legitimate voters are able to vote, and that their votes are counted.

Ameritocracy has recently seen a rise in voter-protection related from politicians and pundits on both sides of the partisan spectrum.  Here are a few starting points to help you educate yourself about what to look out for and how to protect your vote

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Republican election officials at the local and state level have used [HAVA] to give GOP candidates an edge on Election Day by creating new barriers to registration, purging legitimate names from voter rolls…and discarding valid ballots

Mark Crispin Miller

[The supposed ACORN scandal] is a pretext being used by a party that is itself committing election fraud and vote suppression on an enormous scale.

Click here for part 2

John McCain

We need to know the full extent of Sen. Obama’s relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy

Bill O’Reilly

We’re going to document every ACORN situation and any other voter fraud.

Greg Palast

If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat McCain at the polls - they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering.

Brad Friedman

About FoxNews- “In this segment. And I hope you’ll have me back to discuss the GOP’s ACORN ‘voter fraud’ hoax, about which you guys have been anything but fair and balanced over the last week or two…in fact, dangerously unfair and unbalanced

For more information on caging, purging, and how to protect your right to vote:

http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/

http://www.blackboxvoting.com

http://velvetrevolution.us

Muse Coffee Co. = awesomeness.

We got some coffee shop lovin today that totally tickled me. James and Porter have been patronizing Muse Coffee Co. as of late and awesomely (that’s the point here), one of the crew there wrote up a generous mention of us after discovering the two working on the site. That’s awesomeness right? I thought so too.

Muse is located in Queen Anne at 1907 10th Ave West.

Thanks guys!!!

Politics lesson #47: Saying stuff on the TV is dangerous

Especially in the age of YouTube. And Ameritocracy.

One of our goals here is to hold people accountable for what they say and to help you decide whether or not their words have been taken out of context.

Do did Michele Bachmann make an enormous, career-ending gaffe?

Just a few days ago (October 17) on Chris Matthews’ show Hardball, Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachmann came on to discuss robocalls, specifically the one that links Barack Obama to Bill Ayers.

Here is the full interview:

At one point in the interview, Bachmann went on to say this

“I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-American or are they anti-America? I think people would love to see an expose like that.”

Bachmann subsequently tried to turn on her own words. To a crowd in St. Paul, Minn.:

“I did not say that Barack Obama was anti-American, nor do I believe Barack Obama is anti-American. He loves his country, just as everyone in this room does. Nor did I call for an investigation of members of Congress for their pro-American or anti-American views. That is not what I said.”

Nope. Watch the video again. Indeed, she did not call for an investigation. She called for the media to run an expose on who is and who isn’t pro-American in congress.  To be fair, her idea outsources McCarthyism and anti-American paranoia to the press.

She claimed, too, that she had never seen Hardball and wasn’t properly prepared for what she would be facing. That’s hard to believe that she, a politician on the national stage, would not be aware of Matthews’ show, but even take at face-value, part of her response was to blame Matthews:

Her response takes a bit of logical gymnastics to accept, regardless of how much of lines up with the objective truth (take what she says in this video and re-watch the Matthews interview).

Other responses from Bachmann:

“Chris Matthews was using the term anti-american over and over… I was not using the term”
“My response was that it isn’t for me to say…this was a gross distortion of what I had said”
“I made a big mistake for going on the show…I didn’t recognize that he would lay a trap the way that he did”
“People got the wrong perception of what I was trying to say”

Politico goes on to report:

“Before Friday’s “Hardball” aired, Bachmann was favored to win a second term. National Democrats, sensing opportunity, announced Monday they would pour $1 million into TV ads in the district, which lies on a corridor from the Twin Cities northwest to St. Cloud.”

Finally, KARE 11 in Minneapolis/St. Paul has this story:

GOP, eyeing House losses, pulls Bachmann, others’ TV ads

WASHINGTON — National Republicans have yanked TV advertising for Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann’s re-election bid after she suggested Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may have “anti-American” views and urged an investigation of unpatriotic lawmakers.

In a word, oops.

In other words, holding people accountable for what they say when they say it…well, it apparently can have an impact.

…1 cup sugar, 1 lb cherries, 3 ounces Human Growth Hormone…The

The candidates have moved away from baseballgate and moved on to piegate.

Yep, that’s right - with two weeks to go til election day, the national dialogue has centered around apparently-genetically-modified enormous America-sized pies, which can be shrunk and grown based, apparently, upon which of the two candidates’ economic policies are implemented.

First, here’s John McCain.

“He believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs and opportunities for all Americans. Sen. Obama is more interested in controlling who gets your piece of the pie than he is in growing the pie.”

Hmmm…We’re all familiar with baking pies, eating pies, and throwing pies in the faces of others.  But “growing” pies is an entirely new one to us.  Okay, let’s hear what Barack Obama had to say in response.

“But let’s be absolutely clear — after eight years of Bush-McCain economics, the pie is shrinking. And what’s left of the pie has been eaten by millionaires and billionaires…We want to grow the pie. And then we want a slice of the pie.”



Interesting. The pie can shrink now.

Well, we suppose that by eating the pie, then the actual volume of pie available to the average pie-eater making fewer than 30,000 slices of pie per year would, in fact, have shrunk, assuming that particular pie eater aspires to eat an additional 10,000-20,000 slices of pie per year which he or she would hope to then regurgitate (NOTE: we didn’t come up with this dumb metaphor, we’re just sticking to it) in order to better feed his or her family.

Pie growth is a little trickier, though. We’re not quite sure how that one works, so we typed in some keywords to the Googles and guess who stepped in to clear up our political metaphor-based confusion? Noted political expert Rachel Ray, of course. The answer? Yeast! From Robert Wolke’s  ”Ask Einstein”* column on her website:

During their sugar feast, the yeast cells burp carbon dioxide gas, which forms bubbles in the dough, making it rise. Without this rising, a loaf of bread would be more like a brick.




So, in other words:

John McCain is concerned that Barack Obama’s policies are anti-yeast, pro-distribution towards those with yeast allergies. McCain suggests his plan would inject the US economy with a kind of genetically-altered superyeast that would “grow” the pie to an epic size, enough to feed the entire US electorate.

Barack Obama is concerned that John McCain’s superyeast approach is impractical and suggests that the bakery has charged too much for pie in the past, because only rich people can buy pie, and if we grow a bigger pie that only rich people can afford then we still rob those with lower incomes with their inalienable pie-eating rights, and thus obesity rates in America remain dangerously low.

Right?

*note: not actually written by Einstein, who is dead.

Let’s go [insert local team name here]!!!!

We love politics. And we love baseball. And we love the absurdity of political campaigns.

So we couldn’t help but feature this quote on the homepage this afternoon.

Seemingly out of angles of attack, McCain appears to have attempted a Hail Mary play (<—- see what I did there?) tapping into the deepest fear of the American electorate: that the man they are electing president does not, in fact, support their favored sports team as he claims to.

Barack Obama throwing out the first pitch for his ACTUAL favorite team, the Chicago White Sox, who as recently as 100 years ago were involved in a massive scoring-fraud scandal.

This would be a tenuous argument anyway, considering the Rays (for whom McCain suggests Obama is only pretending to root, having expressed his goodwill toward the Phillies as well) have only had fans for the last 3 or 4 weeks, when Tampa Bay residents were informed a) they have a major league baseball team and b) that major league baseball team was headed for the playoffs (and now the World Series).  Quickly, TB residents learned how to say things like “Longoria”, “sacrifice fly”, “bullpen”, and “Carl Crawford”, who, it turns out had been playing baseball in the Tampa Bay area for some time, patiently awaiting the day the locals would express curiosity over his status as an “All-Star”.

Alas, just ths past July, McCain decided a story he wrote about in his autobiography concerned the Pittsburgh Steelers (possibly due to him having been speaking to the press in Pittsburgh) and not the Green Bay Packers, despite evidence (flimsy stuff, like him having said so in writing) to the contrary.

Brad Friedman accuses Fox News of being “fair and balanced”.

Check it out right here at ye olde Ameritocracye

Of course, I’ve buried the lede here, pretty dramatically, by disguising the true story - the arrest of GOP worker Mark Anthony Jacoby in California for registration fraud. The story just happened to break during an interview with Friedman on Fox News, and he took the opportunity to rein in Fox’s obsessive coverage of the ACORN non-scandal.

Here’s the video:

Ameritocracy is here to help you help others and you (was that too meta?) sift through the noise and half-truths that too often are passed off as “information”.  Here’s an interesting case of actual information coming to the forefront so forcefully and immediately that even Fox had no choice but to cover the Jacoby story (which they later did).

So says Friedman:

Host Julie Banderas asked me, kindly, near the end of the segment (video below), if I’d felt they’d been “fair and balanced” with me during the segment. I believe they were, which was much appreciated. Though I wish I had answered “Yes, you were, thanks. In this segment. And I hope you’ll have me back to discuss the GOP’s ACORN ‘voter fraud’ hoax, about which you guys have been anything but fair and balanced over the last week or two, and, in fact, dangerously unfair and unbalanced.”

Ici, c’est le histoire complet de l’arret de Mark Anthony Jacoby: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6534

(For those of you who don’t speak bad French, that’s bad French for “Here, it’s the complete story of the arrest of Mark Anthony Jacoby”)

Ici, c’est une image de Mark Anthony:

Read me, Seymour. READ me!

Ameritocracy’s mad scientists have been hard at work in their lab the last couple weeks, and in the midst of accidentally producing 3 mutants spiders that can recite the works of Beckett backwards and our CTO now having the ability to program his TiVo from 40 feet away using only his mind (which, in an unfortunate coincidence, due to brain trauma resulting from a previous mad-scientist-related accident, never stops thinking about Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne” and “Mad TV” reruns), they did manage to pull this one off:

Now you can click on the profile of a member whose work you like and (like, say, this “James” person) and “Read” them. This tells other members that you are a fan of “James” (or whoever) AND allows you to find out when “James” (or whoever) posts something to Ameritocracy.com

Omg i luv ur quotes so much i could totes EAT them…

And all that without us jacking up the price of your user profile!  In this economic climate, how is that possible?  Well, it’s because we love you.  Love. You.

On a related note, since we’re sure you all read our terms-and-conditions policy thoroughly, we are all looking forward to receiving our $5000 yearly membership check from each and every one of you next week…