Greta’s Sporadic Blog Carnival #4: Election Edition

Carnival

And it’s time for another round of cool, funny, snarky, interesting, informative stuff I found in the blogosphere and the Interwebs. The election edition, what with it being the day before election day.

On Undersized Red, White and Blue Balls, on Faster than the Speed of Satire… A very funny and pertinent piece, comparing the Obama campaign to ABA basketball… and asking why the Right even bothers to play if they don’t like or respect the game. “I’ve noticed that in this election cycle, there’s one side trying to shoot out the lights, one side trying to set a record with teamwork, and everybody playing their hearts out for the full game. And then there’s the other side. Far from working to run up their own totals, they seek instead to hold down the other side’s scoring.” By a great entertainer, a great humanitarian, and my close personal friend for 29 years, Nosmo King.

No on Proposition 8: Debunking the myths used to promote the ban on same-sex marriage. A totally kick-ass editorial by the Los Angeles Times, comparing the Yes on 8 campaign to the misdirection of a stage magician. “The campaign promoting Proposition 8, which proposes to amend the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriages, has masterfully misdirected its audience, California voters. Look at the first-graders in San Francisco, attending their lesbian teacher’s wedding! Look at Catholic Charities, halting its adoption services in Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage is legal! Look at the church that lost its tax exemption over gay marriage! Look at anything except what Proposition 8 is actually about: a group of people who are trying to impose on the state their belief that homosexuality is immoral and that gays and lesbians are not entitled to be treated equally under the law.”

Kay Hagan’s Staff Explains Her Position on “Godless Americans” (and Her Position on Us), by Richard Wade at Friendly Atheist. Pretty much what it sounds like. There’s been a bit of a dustup in the atheosphere about Kay Hagan, Democratic candidate for Senate in North Carolina, defending herself against the atheist smear, and seeming to agree with the notion that being godless would be a bad thing. This letter clarifies her position… and makes me feel good about her all over again.

If You Are Undecided, You’re Not Paying Attention, by Helen of the Margaret and Helen blog. Helen walks an undecided voter through the choices, as patiently and un-snarkily as she can manage without the top of her head coming off. “If you are undecided — and I am at a complete loss for how you could be — please consider the following: Which party has been screaming terrorist, socialist, Marxist, murder him and kill him… and which party has been talking about hope and unity. Which party has been throwing everything but the kitchen sink at you everyday for the past two weeks hoping to scare you into thinking that there is an Un-American part of the country… and which party has been saying that there is no red America and no blue America but only the United States of America. Which party thinks war is the answer to everything… and which party has suggested that maybe we need to sit down and talk this out to see if peace is possible.”

California Prop 8: Vote No to Extortion, Exploitation, and Denial of Religious Freedom, by TruthWinsOut. A summary of the sleazy, dishonest, and downright illegal tactics used by the campaign to ban same-sex marriage… in California, and elsewhere around the country. “But the religious-rightists who support these propositions can’t win popular support by telling voters the truth. So instead, Focus on the Family, Exodus, wealthy Mormon donors, and others have caved in to the immoral gutter instincts of dirty politics, illegal Internet attacks, and alleged election-law violations.”

Ironic: 12,000 vs. 12,500, by Frontlines, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Blog. Pointing out that the number of soldiers affected by “stop loss” — having your tour of combat duty extended involuntarily — is about 12,000… and the number of service members discharged by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is over 12,500. They’re just saying, is all.

Palin’s Constitutional Ignorance, on Dispatches from the Culture Wars. In which Sarah Palin apparently thinks that media criticism of political candidates threatens the First Amendment. No, really.

And winding up with another fine piece from Nosmo King, which I meant to link to earlier but didn’t: Everybody’s talkin’ bout the new kid in town…. A wickedly funny evisceration of Sarah Palin, and the decision- making process used to select her as McCain’s running mate. “I guess she thought, When life gives you rape, and you have to make rape-aid, make sure you charge by the glass.”

That’s it for today. Vote tomorrow, if you haven’t already. If there are lines, for the love of Loki, wait in them — an insufficient number of voting booths are a common form of voter suppression, so please don’t let voter suppression work. And if you have any sort of trouble with voter suppression or intimidation, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE, the national election protection hotline set up by the the ACLU.

And don’t just vote for President. Spend a little time tonight finding out about candidates for other offices — Governor, Senator, Representative, city council, school board — as well as ballot initiatives. Or, if that seems overwhelming, find an organization or two that you trust, and see what their endorsements are. (My own technique is to compare the endorsements of two or three organizations whose politics more or less dovetail with my own. Where they all agree, that’s how I go; where they disagree, I do more research.)

On a national level, elections for Congress will matter almost as much as the election for President if we want to actually get anything done in the next four years. And on the local level, your city council and school board and whatnot, as well as whatever ballot initiatives you may face, may wind up having more of an effect on your day- to- day life than the national government. Besides, today’s local officials are tomorrow’s national ones. So vote all the way down the ballot. Happy Election Day!

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Greta’s Sporadic Blog Carnival #4: Election Edition
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