Since the DNC has chosen to not only ignore but outright spurn and reject the significant bloc of voters in their ranks who are not irrational people of faith, a demonstration is planned for 24 August at the Colorado Convention Center — you can RSVP if you want, but I’m sure you won’t be turned away if you just show up. The Coalition of Secular Voters has also put together an open letter to the Democrats, and I’ve heard that the Boulder Atheists will be turning out, too.
Let your displeasure be known. The DNC has to be shown that they’ve made a great mistake by alienating an important part of their base.
The Democrats have become so spineless and downright slimy that they’re starting to make the Republicans look attractive.
While you’re at it, explain to the gormless Democratic leadership that “tough stand” does NOT equal “republican”; it just means they have to stand up for their own bloody platform!
I can’t go, unfortunately. I’m a Canadian without a passport. Bleh. Then again, we have our own share of wakaloonery here.
And good news. If you decide to go, you won’t be surrounded by razor wire in the holding pen that has been set up as a demonstration area!
This is likely to be the final straw for me. With Obama in support of FISA and extending the priviledges of religious organizations, telling us to “trust” him when he gets in office, this outcasting of non-religious people really takes the cake. I have an Obama sticker for my car, but have no reason to put it on. I quit giving to the Democrats when they wouldn’t stand up for looking into all the voting irregularities. Yeah, I’m from Ohio, where I wonder if it makes any difference to vote at all. I’m a die-hard Democrat and this may be the first time that I take a pass.
//The DNC has to be shown that they’ve made a great mistake by alienating an important part of their base.//
Is it really an important part of their base tho? They dont seem to think that way.
I wonder if an event like this will be held in NY? I would love to let the democrats know that we don’t all necessarily want them to make religion a part of their platform.
Minor vaguely OT point from a Brit – our prime minister, Gordon Brown (try to stay awake)is in trouble and one guy who may replace him is called Stephen Miliband. Mr Miliband is an avowed atheist. There has been a very minor flurry of interest in this in Britain. The Atlantic sometimes seems far too wide.
Godless Coloradans, rise up!
but, y’know, do
Try to dress nice and plan to be respectful
Given the number of severe strategic blunders the democratic party leaders have made over the last 7 years, ‘they don’t seem to think that way’ is a weak objection.
PZ, you should run for President in 2012. The first major atheist candidate for president. I could see it now!
From their letter:
All Coloradans are godless. Some are just willfully ignorant of that fact.
Just don’t send any death threats. Death threat to John McCain, $250,000. Death threat to PZ Myers, priceless.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/22/mccain.letters.inmate/index.html
I would rather Obama didn’t pander to religion. OTOH, it’s not like I am going to vote for any Rethug. The choice is between a Baptist and a Nazi. Go with the Baptist. Honest Christians are easier to work with than Nazis.
Enjoy.
I haven’t been paying much attention. Has Obama been sucking up to people who think there’s a magic man hiding in the clouds? If that’s true it only means he’s doing what he has to do to get elected in Idiot America.
The alternative is McCain, a man so old and senile he doesn’t even know how many houses he owns. Even worse McCain is strongly supported by the Discovery Institute, a Christian creationist organization of traitors who are trying to destroy America’s science education.
I’m voting for Obama because America doesn’t need another idiot president after 8 years of George W.
How silly can you guys get, you want to belong to a group who beleive in God, but you don’t beleive in God. What do you try to do, buy fish in the vegetable market? Wake up and smell the coffee a**holes.
The DNC has to be shown that they’ve made a great mistake by alienating an important part of their base. – PZ
Think about that a moment. If you were important, you’d not have been alienated. Alienating that which is not important is anything but a great mistake.
And the actual risk of democrats losing the secular vote in significant numbers? Probably not much. We need to face a hard truth: Atheists are the safest group for democrats to risk alienating. The “non-religious” vote is locked in with much greater certainty than the “religious” vote. Until secularists start visibly campaigning for another party en masse, we’re in the bag and the DNC knows it.
I’m all for speaking up for ourselves, but I’m also going to admit that Obama is still our best option.
Let us just be glad that the religious right finally has to choose between the lesser of two evils. Now they know how we feel. I hope they will feel this way forever more.
Let us be frank, you all are going to vote democrat anyway. None of you are going to break ranks and vote 3rd party or, god help you, republican. So the DNC is free to ignore you.
Hell, you all are so indoctrinated by propaganda and dogma about how voting if you don’t vote you can’t complain, nobody will consider skipping the election all together despite the fact they despise all the candidates
If you’re running for president, you have no choice but to pander to the religious. I’m not saying it’s a good thing, it’s what we have. So, the choice is between another 8 years of a republican party that isn’t republican, but religious conservative, and a democrat. To those who are thinking about skipping this election, I urge you to reconsider and vote.
Jimmy, you reminded me that I needed to clarify my definition of honest Christians. Your satanic name calling belies your true intentions. Honest Christians are just as delusional as dishonest ones, but do not engage in profane name calling and trolling on Atheist comment threads. They turn the other cheek and pray for the well being of the unbelievers.
Exactly what did you expect to find here on this board Jimbo? What kind of a**hole comes onto an Athiest website and gets so outraged that he feels it necessary to make ad hominem attacks on the participants? Is it low IQ or low self esteem that motivates such behavior? Do the girls think it’s sexy? If so, then I could see a positive evolutionary bent to the trait, otherwise you’re just being a dick.
Enjoy.
I agree w/ wjr. The important thing is that the Dems won’t let their religion “rule” them. It’s more important to vote and swallow a litle bile.
Posted by: llewelly | August 23, 2008 11:41 AM
Is it really an important part of their base tho? They dont seem to think that way.
Given the number of severe strategic blunders the democratic party leaders have made over the last 7 years, ‘they don’t seem to think that way’ is a weak objection.
This assumes that atheists ARE an important part of their base. It’s a strawman argument; DNC blunders = atheist alienation.
Is there evidence to support that contention? Or is this merely assumption by those of the “alienated base”.
Smells like spilled milk to me.
The DNC has to be shown that they’ve made a great mistake by alienating an important part of their base.
Oh, get serious.
As long as people keep voting for the lesser of two evils by picking one wing or the other of the Ruling Party, you can yell about it all you want, but the only thing that’s going to get their attention is if they see a drop in the number of votes they’re getting.
-jcr
This is interesting… I wrote a polite email and sent it to InterFaith@demconvention.com, only to have it returned. It was rejected as spam. For what reason? Because I signed it “An Atheist for Obama”?
Here is my actual email:
I am a Democrat. I detest the Republican Party partly because it has for decades married religion and politics. Democrats have historically stood for including people from all faiths, AND NONE, in political life.
A big InterFaith event that excludes those of us with no faith runs counter to the spirit of the Democratic Party. We need less God in our politics, not more. Leave that to the Republicans.
An Atheist for Obama
The Democrats have become so spineless
Careful what you wish for: the last Democrat with guts in the white house staged the Gulf of Tonkin incident and took us into the Vietnam war.
-jcr
Last I heard, the democratic party was a political party, not a church. And the core principles of the former superpower known as the USA was freedom of religion and separation of church and state.
I don’t think this is really Obama saying “It’s okay, I am religious,” as much as it is him saying “It’s okay, I’m not a muslim.” Cause remember, to a horrifying fraction of our country, muslims and atheists are the same thing!!! And I heard Obama is a Muslim!!!!!!!
He has included the phrase “or no religion” in several of his speeches, so I’m pretty sure this religio-up-sucking is just posturing. Don’t much like it, but the alternatives are a doddering guy fully beholden to the fundamental wackaloon base or misunderstanding math and not voting at all, like Brayton.
“Let us be frank, you all are going to vote democrat anyway. None of you are going to break ranks and vote 3rd party or, god help you, republican. So the DNC is free to ignore you”.
Not me. In fact, I’ll probably “pull a Carlin” and stay home on election day and wank, so I’ll have something to show for my actions…
Or I’ll vote for any warm body that says he/she wants to dismantle much of the federal government and reliquish power back to the states…
C’mon people get real. It is all about voting for the lesser of two evils. There is a lesser of the two evils. Hmmm, well I think there is. Oh, wait a minute, at least there could be a lesser of two evils.
What a choice. Well vote anyway. The way things are going someday voting might have gone the way of $1.20 gas, the raptors, snail darters, and the spotted owl.
Really disappointed with the dems. They are running against the moronotheocratic party who have nearly wrecked the USA. There is now a serious backlash against the Death Cultist fundies and even many of their less than stupid members are hurting economically and rethinking what it means to try to recreate the Dark Ages. The Dems had 8 years to come up with viable candidates. Instead we got Obama and Hillary. This election is theirs to lose and they might well lose it.
What we need is not another politician but competent leadership with some vision. Doesn’t look likely.
But look on the bright side. All civilizations fall sooner or later. Not a one has lasted. It is inevitable that our American civilization will fall. I was hoping it would hold together for my projected lifespan but that just might not happen.
Several people have written that atheists are going to vote Democratic anyway, so none of this protest matters.
There is more at stake in alienating a portion of the electrate than losing votes. There is losing campaign contributions and labor-hours of volunteer work. A campaign that loses these things can lose an election even if the people still vote for them.
More importantly, I would suggest looking beyond this election to the next one – to becoming active members of the party and helping to shape policy, and to protesting those elements in our society that have brought about this situation.
I would put at the top of this list, a Pledge of Allegiance that equates atheism with rebellion, tyranny, and injustice for all, and a national motto that says, “Trust in God, or you are not one of us.”
Wow, that guy’s website is ass. The “Coalition of Secular Voters” is clearly one guy with a poorly-written website. Read his “Open Letter to the Democratic Party Regarding “Interfaith Gathering”.
He’s saying the right things, but in a totally unprofessional way.
“Firstly”? Seriously, he’s structuring a political call-to-arms with “firstly” and “secondly”. Where’s Thomas Paine when we need him?
“…many have faith in other things, such as humanity, science, America, freedom, ourselves, heck perhaps even our political party.”
Yeah, CSV really needs to use professional language. “Heck” really undercuts his point, making it all too clear that this is a coalition of one.
. The Dems had 8 years to come up with viable candidates. Instead we got Obama and Hillary.
That particular problem goes back way more than eight years. I mean seriously, were Gore and Kerry the best candidates available? Remember Fritz Mondale? Hell, we only got Clinton because Gary Hart couldn’t keep it in his pants.
-jcr
Jimmy – since you clearly think it’s important to believe, you might want to learn how to spell the word. I before E except after C, remember?
I would hardly call Obama honest.
OK – Here’s the plan. One of you with writing skills drafts a letter and sends it to Pete Starke.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Stark
He can claim it as his own and we can all sign it. It can then be sent to the DNC.
OR … there is an online petition program – that would probably work better huh?
I’ll go find out more about that.
Stacy
The first rule in elections is to get elected. After that, the winning candidate can declare that any popular wackaloonery that got him elected is impractical or needs further study. Let the man get elected.
Unfortunately, that applies to good-sense propositions as well. I once voted for the Conservatives after they announced that Canada needed a national daycare policy (About 60% of mothers were working outside the home and it helped them a lot with women, who are usually rightly suspicious of their backward social values.) Once they got elected, they said in so many words, “That was just a campaign promise.”
Alonzo Fyfe says:
“Several people have written that atheists are going to vote Democratic anyway, so none of this protest matters.”
Oh, I love the idea of the protest…let’s just not kid ourselves that without a complement of more concrete forms of action, it will necessarily mean anything to the DNC.
“There is more at stake in alienating a portion of the electrate than losing votes. There is losing campaign contributions and labor-hours of volunteer work. A campaign that loses these things can lose an election even if the people still vote for them.”
Of course — but what evidence can you give the DNC that any of this will actually happen as a result of alienating atheists? The point is, so long as the DNC doesn’t see any evidence they will lose concrete forms of support by alienating secularists, they will continue to pander to the religious, because they know from experience they CAN lose the lose the support of faith-bots.
The DNC know that having to put up with a protest at the convention isn’t going cost them much compared to the potential payoff they get by attracting the religious. And it will continue to be that way until atheists actually do something prove their support cannot be taken for granted. A protest doesn’t prove this. An visible track record of taking our money, time, and votes elsewhere will.
“Let your displeasure be known. The DNC has to be shown that they’ve made a great mistake by alienating an important part of their base.”
Ha! What are you going to about it? Not vote for them? *snicker*
No, I’ll tell you exactly what you are going to do, PZ. You’re going to reward the DNC (again)by voting for Obama. You’ll reward them, even though they are effectively telling you to piss off. And if the DNC sees that you will reward them for religious pandering, what makes you think they will cease and desist?
The only way to change the situation is to quit rewarding them for bad behavior.
Yes- I know what you are thinking, “But the Other Guy will Destroy the Country!” It’s the same thing a friend of mine said when I tried to convince him not to vote for McCain (who he despises). See a pattern here???
Paul
PZ – Can you start a petition please? You get record support at the “polls” daily – Just think what you can achieve in a week?
Here is a place to start. It’s free. :-)
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/create-online-petition
And the Dem party wonders why their ratings, and their candidate’s ratings, keep dropping. Could the continual disenfranchising of large portions of their base have anything to do with it? Gee, I would think it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.
Good luck with trying to capture the Repubs base, at the expense of tossing away their own.
“If you were important, you’d not have been alienated. Alienating that which is not important is anything but a great mistake.”
Right on! This is a superb explanation of why that insane heliocentric theory so miserably failed to become mainstream belief.
“And the Dem party wonders why their ratings, and their candidate’s ratings, keep dropping. Could the continual disenfranchising of large portions of their base have anything to do with it?”
There is indeed a grand irony here– the great liberal push of the last thirty years or so (to have the feds DO MORE and HAVE MORE power and control over everything) is coming back in predictable waves off the shores of human imperfection, sleeper-waving well-meaning, high-intentioned liberals onto their kindly arses…
The Iraq war (voted for and pushed for by big government Democrats, including Hillary), huge debts(aided and abetted by big government Democrats)housing bubbles (aided and abetted by big government Democrats) the world’s highest incarceration rates (again, big G Democrats have been in on all of this)job exportation, oh, LOSS OF LIBERTY, the rights of privacy… ALL aided and abetted by big government Democrats…
The POTUS is demonstrated to have lied to create a war fury and the big government Democrats (except for a few) prefer to bargain away the accountability of government for MORE government control.
The federal government runs up a whopping deficit and the big government Democrats elect a candidate who campaigns on MORE government spending.
Meanwhile, the price of bread keeps rising on the poor and those on fixed incomes…
The mind boggles…
When will it occur to folks that “blaming it all on Bush” is a half-arsed explanation? And I do mean about half…
Here’s the big thing…
The democrats have a choice to make. They can either court secularists, or evangelicals.
Now, evangelicals are a big group. They vote as a block, because they do what they’re told. They’ve traditionally voted for republicans, but they spent the entire primaries demonizing John McCain, they really, really hate the guy. This provides the democrats an “in”, and they’d like to take it. On the other hand, if the democrats offend them, they’ll vote for John McCain out of irrational spite.
On the other hand, secularists are a significantly smaller group. W’re notoriously independent, we do not do what we’re told. But very, very few of us are inclined to vote for the party of theocracy. And we are rational: we can see what’s going on, and we are not going to vote for a candidate we disagree with in most generalities and particulars out of spite.
So the democrats have chosen to court the evangelicals. It’s a political move, a cynical move, and it stinks, but it’s one I’m willing to hold my nose for.
It would be interesting to observe the reactions if Sen. Obama were to inject himself into this little foofaraw, by saying something like:
“Anyone who’s willing to work to get me and other Democratic candidates elected is welcome at any campaign event, anywhere, anytime.”
I don’t suppose it’s worth the risk, though. Pity.
This blog must become the
flagshippirate ship for the American Secularist Party.Someone should set up a wiki where we can crank out a platform.
I’d normally be all over this, but I’m not a godless Coloradoan anymore.
PZ, what do you hope to gain by protesting our only hope in this election? Honestly save it til after he’s elected. We need unity and solidarity.
Exclusion from exploitation is hardly an insult to me.
It’s the notorious DNC setting up these events.
The DNC is the slimy poison corporate toad in the black hole at the center of the Democratic Nebula.
This ridiculous interfaith spectacle is nothing but base pandering to dumbass religious glorps stoopid enough to have Faith that anything said at their godsucking dog and pony show will make one whit of difference, or even a splinter in a single platform, it’s a farce.
They are being trotted out like trained seals, and made to feel like the powers that be give a shit about Buddhists or Muslims, or the flavor of the millenia, it’s a joke.
Any atheist who would submit themselves to a humiliation like that, is either a sucker, or an attention slut.
Why would any intelligent person want to be pandered to? It really is one of the lowest forms of social relationship.
Who would lower themselves to that? The framers, the brights? How about the sprites, thats what they call a neutered ferret.
That would be appropriate for anyone who would lower themselves to participate in this sideshow.
If you want to find out how it feels to be pandered to by Democrats, just ask any African American, and take their word for it.
I heard Obama mention non-believers as part of America in one speech, that’s enough for me, I’d rather not be invited to swim in the slag pond of immeasurable hypocrisy, and boundless bullshit that defiles a heated presidential race.
Should this really be a surprise to anyone. Like it or not, we are the most despised minority in the country. And the only one for which it is politically correct to be against. And, the Dems need to reclaim (or at least neutralize) the religious issue. All I’ve been hoping for in politics is something resembling a level religious playingfield. So go to the demonstration, your protest will paint the Democrats as at least somewhat religious, i.e. it might give them a small boost. And come November, hold your nose and vote for them anyway. They at least believe in the separation of religion and government, which is the best we can hope for for the foreseeable future.
bigTom
sooooooooo
you missed Obama’s Faith Based Initiative memo, huh?
Actually I won’t even be holding my nose voting Obama, I will have my fingers crossed, though.
My wife & I live in Lakewood, just west of Denver, and she rides a scooter downtown to work every day. She just got back and had a funny story. The craziness is beginning downtown, apparently, and she reached an impasse at an intersection crowded by a throng of people passing out roses. Many of them complimented her on her scooter etc (she looks damn cute on it, I must say). Then she realized they had these anti-abortion signs. She (quite out of character for her generally) yells at them “Why don’t you fucking take away my right to vote while you’re at it?” and sped off.
Of course, most of them would like that very much, and may not have gotten the sarcasm, hence the profanity.
Me, I plan on avoiding downtown as much as possible, being rather crowd-phobic. She, the poor thing, will have to continue to scoot through the crazies till this blows over.
No — probably you have an idiotic provider that sends e-mails in some way that looks like spoofing. When my provider introduced a spam filter, I had to make a pretty long whitelist so mail from people with stupid providers is let through.
I see a logical fallacy here. You see, PZ is right, and your friend is wrong. PZ’s opinion is based on knowledge, your friend’s on a lack thereof.
Bullshit. They can simply talk about real issues: health insurance, Iraq, education, the budget deficit, etc. etc. etc.! Or what have I missed?
IAmSoWise writes:
nobody will consider skipping the election all together despite the fact they despise all the candidates
I won’t vote until a candidate runs for office that I want as president. I’ve been a registered voter since I was of legal age, but I still haven’t seen that candidate.
Ames @ #48
So any tactic is acceptable so long as the end result justifies it in your mind, huh? That’s either sad as a personal worldview or a very sad comment upon the American electoral system.
From this side of the pond it is beginning to look like the rosy-tinted spectacles and euphoria of democratic supporters is rapidly being replaced by distaste for the election system and political parties in general.
And it is also beginning to look like the democrats could in fact mess this whole election up. I agree with Raven above, it’s sad to see the unmistakeable signs of a once great civilisation falling inexorably into decline.
@ scooter #49
I feel the same way – I read the letter and cringed. I can see the point when Richard Dawkins states he is willing to say grace at an Oxford dinner gathering for the sake of politeness. I can’t see beating on the door to join a group of people who have come together for the sole purpose of celebrating their various opinions on the nature of an invisible Sky-fairy.
Exactly!
When in Rome do as the Romans do?
This particular insult to our collective intelligence is trivial in comparison to picking Joe “Status Quo” Biden – whose crimes against America range from giving Boy George a license to launch wars wherever he wants to allowing Clarence Thomas to take a seat on the Supreme Court – as a running mate, and still proclaiming “Change!” as a goal.
I think my words were misconstrued
I wasn’t meaning to be rude
I only simply asked if you’d be letting others in.
I did not mean to cause you grief
But still, you seem to have a beef
With those of us who lack belief–you tell us that we sin.
It seems to me that you, not I
Are being rude–the reason why
Is that your statements all imply your view’s the one that counts,
And mine’s irrelevant, I’m told–
A view, if I may be so bold,
I’ve heard so much it’s growing old–my aggravation mounts.
The arguments you sometimes see–
Is God one part, or is He three?–
They simply don’t apply to me; I do not hold those views.
To have the government maintain
One view is right, is just insane;
For if one faith is set to gain, all others, then, must lose.
A secular society,
I think religions must agree,
Maintains each church’s right to be possessed of their belief.
To separate belief from state
Should really be beyond debate–
For me to be accused of hate for saying so? Good Grief!
http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2008/08/those-rude-atheists.html
On the other tentacle… if somehow this demo gets any coverage (hah!), a vocal protest against Democrats by atheists will probably result in a significant net gain in votes for Democrats. :-P
“This particular insult to our collective intelligence is trivial in comparison to picking Joe “Status Quo” Biden – whose crimes against America range from giving Boy George a license to launch wars wherever he wants to allowing Clarence Thomas to take a seat on the Supreme Court – as a running mate, and still proclaiming “Change!” as a goal”.
That was my reaction, as well…
Although I have to say, I am surprised that people are surprised that Obama is turning out to be a Washington politician through and through. For those that drank the Obama Kool-Aid early on, I wonder what screw would you like me to tighten for you? It looks quite like you bought an Edsel, boys and girls…
Hating Republican Washington politics is no rational reason to ignore the crimes of the Democrats.
A change in skin tone and a notebook full of platitudes is not going to alter the business as usual mindset of those who call Washington DC their place to do business, and unless reformers go in there with chain saws and white out, you are going to be dissatisfied for the next four years, I can pretty much guarantee it.
Vote! The winner of every presidential election of at least the last 50 years has been, “don’t care enough to spend 30 seconds writing in ‘Mickey Mouse’.” I have this crazy dream that I’ll be watching the election returns one night and Mickey Mouse will be polling at 10%. That would send a message. It might even inspire at least one of the parties to field a higher quality of candidate; better yet, it might inspire an independent candidate to challenge for the nearly 50% (closer to 70% on midterm election years) of voting-age Americans who perennially stay home on election night.
Politicians care about one thing – getting elected – and the only way to get their attention is to vote. Staying home on election night is a profoundly irrational way to register dissatisfaction with your favored party’s platform.
The Coalition of Secular Voters need to check their stats.
“There are over 30 million non-religious Americans, a very significant number of people. The “Big Tent” cannot be built without them.”
next section:
“…yet roughly 1 in 5 Americans is non-religious and essentially everyone lives with, works with, and is friends with non-religious people in America whether they know it or not.”
The US population is about 305 million. 30 million is roughly 1/10 of 305 million last time I checked. It’s shocking that nobody from such a rational group caught that error. I’m sure that somebody at the Democratic Party party did and had a good laugh. Better luck next time, CoSV, lol
For a different point of view:
The whiny Democratic atheist brigade
Don’t worry about it. The Repubs will steal this election, and after that,how the electorate votes will be irrelevant (if it isn’t already).
Sic ’em guys! Not that it’ll do any good but it’ll sure be satisfying…
Huffington Post has a blog article written by the “CEO” of the DNCC, Leah Daughtry, the same one promoting this nonsense about Democrats. Not that it would do any good, but anyone interested may decide to go speak your mind to her.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leah-daughtry/from-the-dncc-ceo-putting_b_120874.html
I’ve got mixed feelings about a protest, but it could accomplish something if it’s done right.
I think it could actually work against the stereotype that atheists are aggressive, raving lunatics and that they’re rude and insulting. If the protest is smarter and more polite than any other protest ever seen and still gets on the news it could drive home some important points.
Everybody thinks of all protesters as screaming, in your face, wanting to get arrested to make a point types. You don’t have to do it that way.
@Cuttlefish #59
Well poem-ed (The blockquote thingie lost the line character returns)! That’s why Thomas Jefferson (a Deist if not an Atheist) defended the Baptists in Virginia when the Anglicans were being so mean (Build UP that wall!).
@Reginald Selkirk # 64:
Excellent article and thank you for posting the link!
Leah Daughtry is a bigot.
Three cheers for Cuttlefish! (The doggerel that loves to bite…)
I live in Denver. I’ll be there!
Now, admittedly, I just turned old enough to vote and I’ve been largely ignoring politics up until recently – (a mistake I hope to begin reconciling by doing things like going to this thing.)
So, any advice, anyone? I’ve never done anything like this before. And I get the feeling that I should be more outraged than I am. :)
I’ll report back to pharyngula once it’s over and let everyone know the going-ons.
Taran: “So, any advice, anyone?”
Maintain a sense of humor at all times for your own sanity. And represent yourself well in the eyes of others (not only those who agree with you, but also those who don’t), while being true to yourself.
Who knows… I might even see you there!
-Rusty
Just let me draw some attention to comment 60. :-)
————————–
Well, yes, but there’s a very good reason why so many Americans don’t vote. That’s because they live in safe states, all of whose electors are guaranteed to vote the same way every time. If you don’t live in a swing state, there’s no point in voting whatsoever.
Abolish the Electoral College, and watch vote participation go up, up, up — easily to European levels, if not beyond.
/Polonius, Hamlet (W. Shakespeare)
Katharine @ # 70: Leah Daughtry is a bigot.
Details of (some of) her problems with the lesbigay community at Pam’s, plus an update. She doesn’t seem to be a very effective manager, either.
Hey everyone. I went to the demonstration. It was a good time.
There were 9 of us in total, with enough signs to go around. We had 1,000 flyers and ended up using all but about 50 of them. I heard that inside the convention center, it looked like about half of the people had one of our flyers. The organizer (dang it, I forgot his name again.) got interviewed by C-span.
Afterwards we went to Chili’s.
There were a lot of anti-abortion protesters around, holding very large posters with disgusting pictures of aborted fetuses on them, using a megaphone to shout things like: “Planned parenthood was started by racists to kill the minorities of America!” and “Americans are turning into nazis!” and “Let’s turn the democratic party into a pro-life party!” and “Aren’t you glad your mother didn’t kill you?” and plenty of other things which converted everything into 5-second soundbytes about nazis and racists and murder and the holocaust. A woman walking by shouted at them, “how many children have you adopted?”
There’s another event being held on Sept. 28 3:30-6pm, on the west steps of the capitol building, which I might go to, about supporting the seperation of church and state, and speaking out against various issues such as:
– The case where the 10th District Court ruled against Colorado’s ban on tax money going to pay tuition at colleges that discriminate on the basis of religion.
– The “personhood” amendment, which would define a fetalized egg as a human being, thereby making abortion and some forms of birth control murder under the law.
– Faith-based initiatives that give taxpayer money to religious charities.
– And plenty of other issues like reproductive freedom, prayer in school, etc.
More info: http://atheists.meetup.com/636/
So there it is. If anyone wants details, ask away.
#59:
Cuttlefish, you rock. That was terrific.
I really wanted to go to the rally yesterday. Unfortunately (fortunately?) we were in Middle of Nowhere, WY on our way home from South Dakota. I’d really like to go to the Separation of Church and State rally – I think I already said yes at the meetup site, but I need to check.
Yes, the demonstration went really well on Sunday. It was great meeting you, Taran. I just want to clarify one point. This demonstration was organized by the Colorado Coalition of Reason, an umbrella group of secular groups in Colorado. The Coalition of Secular Voters is one of the member groups. Other groups that participated were the Boulder Atheists, the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs (yes they do exist), and our group, the Denver Atheists and Freethinkers (D.A.F.T.).
As Taran mentioned above, we will be holding a rally for the separation of church and state on the west steps of the state capitol building from 3:30 – 6 PM on Sunday Sept. 28. Here is the link for the information: http://atheists.meetup.com/636/calendar/8483418/
We have invited other groups to attend and anyone is welcome to attend and participate in any way. We especially need more people to speak at the gathering.
OK. That’s funny.
Oops, forgot to mention Humanists of Colorado in the groups that were represented at the demonstration.
With Obama in support of FISA
That claim demonstrates multiple levels of incredibly stupid ignorance about the bill Obama voted for (supporting FISA is a good thing; the bill undermined FISA by granting telecom immunity, a component that Obama opposed, but he supported the bill as a whole because he thought (wrongly, IMO) that the alternative was worse) — the sort that leads people to go against their own interests and end up with the greater evil, people like Bush and McCain determining policy. I’d be inclined to say that know-nothing cretins who write things like “Obama in support of FISA” get what they deserve, except that the whole world gets the consequences of their stupidity.
The Republican strategy is to make this election a referendum for Obama, knowing that McCain has no hope if the spotlight is focused on his views and policies, or even on a fair comparison between Obama and McCain. They appreciate your cooperation, folks.
This is interesting… I wrote a polite email and sent it to InterFaith@demconvention.com, only to have it returned. It was rejected as spam. For what reason? Because I signed it “An Atheist for Obama”?
What a bunch of lying troll bulshit. emails aren’t “rejected as spam”, they are filtered out as spam. And they don’t get returned. And returned emails aren’t identified as being returned because they’re spam. And they certainly aren’t identified as being spam because of how they’re signed. But I’ll bet that quite a few people here swallowed this swill despite the fact that neither the rejection email or any other sort of supporting evidence was provided.
Careful what you wish for: the last Democrat with guts in the white house staged the Gulf of Tonkin incident and took us into the Vietnam war.
That’s somewhat inaccurate, but Johnson did sign the Civil Rights Act, which he accurately predicted would destroy the power of his party for a generation.
The DNC is the slimy poison corporate toad in the black hole at the center of the Democratic Nebula.
You’ve apparently confused the DNC with the DLC, moron.