Recently in Human Category

With all of the noise John McCain has been making this month about "elitists" and "Georgetown cocktail conservatives" and "Washington insiders" (not to mention the nasty spittle practically flying every which way), it is interesting to note that not only did his father, a four star Navy Admiral with whom he was raised, hold the political post of the Navy's Chief Liaison to the Senate, but so did John McCain III. The man was raised inside the Beltway and attended Episcopal High School, a prestigious and well heeled Capital prep school. Of course, we are all well aware of his twenty-two years in the US Senate. If those points, alone, are not enough to illustrate that Mr. McCain may well possibly be the mother of all "Washington elite", his brother sure is doing his best to remind the world that the McCains were raised in an atmosphere of entitlement and privilege.

While in Alexandria earlier this week, Sen. McCain's brother Joe was apparently caught in some rather annoying traffic. We, the unwashed masses, have learned to dutifully, if with frustration, wait our turn for passage. After all, there is nowhere to go when trapped in your vehicle. Joe, on the other hand, is a man of action. After fifteen minutes of unbearable prostration, he decided that the inconvenience was inappropriate for a man of his stature. The well heeled, apparently, are not designed to suffer the common indignities of waiting. Thus, he called 911 to complain about the traffic. Yes. The man vented his frustration using a public resource reserved for emergencies, a public resource that, by Sen. McCain's own definition must be one of those socialist plunders, as it is paid for with hard working, Real Americans'™ taxes.

When the dispatcher asked, "Sir, are you calling 911 to complain about traffic?" Joe shot back, "Fuck You!" and hung up.

It could have ended there, but the dispatch (who, in my opinion, should receive a special commendation), called back, only to receive Joe McCain's outgoing message toting his involvement in a "very important family political project." The dispatch left a message saying that it is criminal to frivolously tie up the 911 resource.

That would have been ironic enough on its own, but wait, there's more! Joe McCain called 911 back to complain about his treatment at the hands of the original dispatcher! I swear, I couldn't write this any better myself. While the indignant and, might I add, wickedly spoiled Joe McCain might have assumed the 911 dispatcher would apologize profusely and offer to send out a police escort to shuttle him through the delay, he was, instead, met with another sharp rebuke.

I can't embed the video, but you can watch WJLA Newschannel 7's story, which includes the 911 tapes, over at The Raw Story.

Sure, John McCain is not his brother's keeper and I certainly wouldn't want to be judged by my siblings behavior, but if John McCain is trying to convince the Joe Sixpacks and Joe The Plumbers and Real Americans™ everywhere that he is of the people, for the people, and not one of those martini swilling Georgetown types, it's best not to have those subtle reminders of your exceptionally privileged childhood popping up in the form of your petulant brother whining to the Alexandria, VA Emergency Services to do something about the damn traffic.

There has been no comment from Joe McCain or the McCain campaign. I suppose this could be an extraordinarily well crafted hoax, but until I hear other wise, I stand by the events as they were reported.

According to Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, liberal feminists dislike She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named because she is "very attractive," "very competent," and "very happy". I shit you not. So basically, liberal feminists are catty, petty, jealous, and inherently unhappy. Wow. I do not even have something snappy to say in response. Now I know for certain that the GOP really does think women are dumb as posts. It's as if the Republican party really does want to see the country split in two and watch it burn through the next decade.

You can hear it for yourself:

When I first watched this, I thought it was actually a satirical video. Unfortunately, it's real.

Regardless of who wins the election next month, how in god's name will we heal this country?

After having been on the receiving end of some of the most vile hatred I have ever witnessed for simply and silently holding up a pro-Obama/anti-Palin sign and after two weeks of deft mob manipulation and fear mongering at McCain/Palin events, you would think we would all be prepared for the culture war to simmer over to a boil. Perhaps because my sense of human decency is surprisingly still intact, I feel overwhelmingly depressed by the show of violence directed at the press pool recently reported from a Palin rally at Elon University outside of Greensboro, NC. Journalist and blogger Joe Killian was attacked by a McCain/Palin supporter as he attempted to interview a group of Obama supporters who had gained entry into the event.

The man began to say something about how of course I was interviewing the Obama people when suddenly, from behind us, the sound of a pro-Obama rap song came blaring out of the windows of a dorm building. We all turned our heads to see Obama signs in the windows. This was met with curses, screams and chants of "U.S.A" by McCain-Palin folks who crowded under the windows trying to drown it out and yell at the person playing the stereo. It was a moment of levity in an otherwise very tense situation and so I let out a gentle chuckle and shook my head. "Oh, you think that's funny?!" the large bearded man said. His face was turning red. "Yeah, that's real funny..." he said. And then he kicked the back of my leg, buckling my right knee and sending me sprawling onto the ground.

So this is what we have become. Correct me if I am wrong, but I have yet to see an Obama supporter attack a McCain protester or a reporter covering the campaign. John McCain may like to say that these are simply fringe individuals and how dare the media criticize the Veterans' Wives For McCain with their "you, know, little hats" who make up the bulk of his supporters. Well, John, I have news for you. I AM a veteran's wife and I know bullshit when I hear it.

All of this makes for some interesting political theatre, but the implications are grim for our nation's collective future. Americans may love to chant "U.S.A! U.S.A!", but that aggressive nationalism appears to undercut the reality of America's true diversity. With a large voting block now on an IV drip of unprecedented belligerent propaganda,
we are beginning to see the first stirrings of true violence. One American turned against another American, not in civil disagreement, but mano a mano.

Certainly, the Colorado Women Against Palin protest scheduled for the upcoming Palin rally in Loveland on Monday should be interesting. I was planning on getting a ticket and bringing our video camera, but perhaps, for fear of my own safety, I will instead document the proceedings from outside the Events Center. What shame.

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In an unusual turn of events, according to Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, the Secret Service is now under orders (from whom, exactly, I have no idea) to restrain the press from mingling with and interviewing GOP rally attendees. This comes after repeated attempts on the part of Palin staffers to restrict the media's movement at a Clearwater, FL rally, because "in the past, negative things had been written." I hate to drawn an unfair comparison, but that kind of media babysitting is quite similar to what western press sources used to experience while traveling within the Soviet Union and what they still experience when reporting from within China.

Morning is not electric for me. I do best with about ten hours in bed and need an hour or two before I morph back into some semblance of human right around noon. How I got my ass up and out of the house this morning at 7am is beyond me, as I didn't really catch up with the world till I was halfway to Denver (so strange to snap to it when you're behind the wheel, zipping along an interstate at 75). Nothing could have possibly enticed me, after a week of struggling with this autumn cold, other than the thrill of protesting Sarah Palin's appearance in Centennial. Colorado Women Against Palin organized the peaceful protest and it was both exhilarating and enlightening. I am too tired to go into details this evening, but let me give you just a few choice names I was called from the passenger window of passing pick up trucks: bitch, fucking bitch, stupid fucking bitch, asshole, stupid asshole, stupid fucking asshole. And then there came the addition of the imperative verbs: Die bitch; Die, you stupid bitch; Die, you stupid fucking bitch. And so on. Old men gave me the finger. Bleach blond, permed mothers sporting curled bangs screamed at me to fuck off over their children in the passenger seat. Anyone who doesn't think this country is bitterly divided along political and ideological lines has not recently stood at a ten lane intersection with a political sign. Yesiree. I saw a good deal of hate today, raw and furious, and heard a great deal of inaccurate ignorance. Luckily, there was a great deal of support to temper the impact. I'll write more tomorrow after a full night's sleep, but I will leave you with this David Letterman clip form last night. Enjoy!