HOW TO RESPOND TO PALIN?
US TO GIVE GEORGIA A BILLION
THE NATIONAL ANTHEM WE ARE NOT HEARING

I am writing from downtown San Francisco where I spent the day at the offices of LINK TV, preparing for some programs I am doing with them about my film IN DEBT WE TRUST and new Book PLUNDER and election protection issues, and at day’s end watching the Baraacuda the Repugs have picked for VEEP and to change the story line of the campaign and to make John McCain look relevant and to mobilize the Republican base and to give FOX some one new to rave about and to sense the fear and loathing in some Dem circles as they have to try to counter the opening of a whole new front in the political war.

The Bush bashing we saw at the Democratic convention is not going to work against a folksy “mom” waving around a “special needs” child and electrifying crowds with her oh shucks approach even if it is riddled with, shall we say, half truths and a narrative designed for the celebrification of politics as entertainment. That word again: ELECTOTAINMENT.

KPFA, the Berkely based arm of the Pacifica network featured an interview with a women who knows SP well and undercut the factual basis of some of her claims but this campaign is not about facts or records or issues any more if it ever was. Its about emotion and perception and images and cutsey phrases and cutting comments and denigrating remarks about community organizers and a politics based on hope. Leave it to Rudy and Huck and Mitt and the whole rat back to bring us back to the cutthroat reality we have to cope with. This is going to be a street fight. That’s a for sure.

And its not about principles, it’s about personalities as the Financial Times explains:

In his widely lauded acceptance speech in Denver last week, Barack Obama challenged John McCain to a debate over the issues. But at their convention inMinneapolis-St Paul this week, Republicans have made it clear they want the presidential debate to be all about character.

Suddenly its Obama against the whole YOU ESS AY, against the iconic images behind the speakers on the minamalist GOP stage. Suddenly, humor and satire are being deployed against the earnest Obamanians. And their response: alas, more of the same. Does anyone remember John Kerry’s failure to respond quickly to the then new swiftboating challenge. Could that be happening again as the Repugs change their playbook and refuse to follow a predictable line of offense, while the Dems suck their thumbs?

Attention DEMS: This is not just more of the same.

If Palin didn’t exist, she would have been invented. And in fact she already was, almost as a reincarnation of a popular figuire from American history and popular Culture, Annie Oakley of “Annie Get Your Gun” fane, the feisty, fast-talking, and faster shooting woman who emerged in the wild west shows as a big star. She was the classic feminist before there was modern feminism with her show stopping song, “Anything You Can Do I can Do Better” that has, unbelievably as its refraim, “YES I CAN, YES I CAN, YES I CAN.” Sound familiar? And was it ever popular.

Palin came out of a CASTING process, not a PhD symposium. And surprise, surprise, her speech was hailed as populist and effective. This is the kind of “vetting” republicans do. They don’t care if the NY Times loves them. They want to win!

Part of the show which became a film was set on a TRAIN TO MINNEAPOLIS.” Already members of the NRA are evoking the image and name ANNIE GET YOUR GUN to refer to Sarah Palin and then use that symbolism for an attack on condescending Democratic elitests and sexists, a charge that a part of the Hillary campaign used against Obama. Maureen Dowd of the NY Times called it the “sexist card” against John McCain’s POW card. You will, I suspect hear more of this parallel and don’t be surprised if a new version of the song is revived with new lyrics.

THE SECRET WEAPON?

Bill Van Auken of WSWS had some insightful comments suggesting this is a maneuver by the religious right to find a popular personality to carry its water.

Palin’s candidacy, which was announced to general surprise if not outright incredulity last week, has been rolled out in a peculiar political atmosphere. The Republican leadership has kept her completely under wraps, canceling all of her public events and denying any access by the media.

The only report of any political activity by Palin at the convention before her Wednesday night speech, which was drafted by a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, came from AIPAC, the Zionist lobbying group. AIPAC said that she had met with its members in private, promising to “work to expand and deepen the strategic partnership between the US and Israel.”

Meanwhile, Republican operatives have been dispatched to Alaska, where they have instructed Palin’s friends and family members not to speak to the media.

For their part, the Democrats have largely maintained a discrete silence on the candidate and her political views. The Democratic Party has avoided any political confrontation with the Republicans during the latter’s convention in Minneapolis.

While initially announcing that they were setting up a center in the city to counter the Republicans, dubbing the operation “More of the Same” in a reference to Republican presidential candidate John McCain and the Bush administration, in the first three days of the convention it has barely functioned. Invoking the theme of bipartisan unity in the face of Hurricane Gustav, the Democrats cancelled daily press briefings and other scheduled events. The effect has been to give the controversial Palin candidacy a free ride.

In the context of this political vacuum imposed by the two major parties, there has been intense media focus on the candidate’s personal life, particularly the pregnancy of her 17-year-old daughter, which was revealed just days after she was named to the number-two spot on the Republican ticket.

The turning of this personal event in the life of an adolescent girl and her family into a media circus is symptomatic of the unhealthy character of American politics and of the media itself. Nonetheless, the Republicans have secretly welcomed the controversy as a means of diverting public attention from more substantive political questions and enabling it to lash out at the traditional villains of its right-wing populist demagogy—the “liberal” media and the Washington “elites.”

So you have the ultimate insiders who dominate Washington becoming the party that opposes Washington. The Dems have done this too in the past. Its all about symbolic positioning. The Republicans want to exploit the gender divide among Democrats and rebrand themselves.

A CYNICAL CHOICE OR A CLEVER ONE?

Paul Rojat Loeb seens a certain deviousness in her selection. But the reality is she that while may not have traditional policy wonk experience, she is an experienced vote getter. She’s good at it too. That’s what counts.

“What makes Palin such a cynical choice is that McCain doesn’t know her and doesn’t know what drives her. Until she was selected by the Karl Rove types running his campaign (like campaign manager and Rove protégé Steve Schmidt), McCain might not even have recognized her on the street. Instead, she’s a category selection, made for the crassest reasons by the same kinds of political operatives who brought us George W. Bush.

Their motives are obvious: Palin is an energetic and attractive woman who just might pick up some disgruntled Hillary supporters. She’s a westerner and a hunter who might appeal to rural voters. She’s likely to energize a previously tepid base of hard-shell religious conservatives through her opposition to abortion even in cases of rape or incest: Hard-right king-maker James Dobson just said that because of her he’d vote for McCain. What makes Palin such a cynical choice is that McCain doesn’t know her and doesn’t know what drives her. Until she was selected by the Karl Rove types running his campaign (like campaign manager and Rove protégé Steve Schmidt), McCain might not even have recognized her on the street. Instead, she’s a category selection, made for the crassest reasons by the same kinds of political operatives who brought us George W. Bush.

FROM HER SPEECH

“I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better. When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too. Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”

Contrast this with a speech she gave to her Church 3 months earlier:

“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,” she exhorted
the congregants. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that
plan is God’s plan.”

Don’t understimate these people. And by the way is VICTORY NEAR? And WHAT WAS BOMBER JOHN DOING IN VIETNAM? AND WHAT HAPPENED TO VICTORY THERE?

Eric Patton writes on Z:

There’s confusion among liberals as to McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin for VP. Actually, the choice was brilliant. I don’t know if Karl Rove was consulted on the pick or not, but regardless it’s a genius pick. The right wing loves Palin.

So how should the left approach her? It depends on which segment of the left we’re talking about. The liberal, coordinator-class, Democratic left doesn’t know what to do, and even if they were told what they should do (which I’m about to do), they still wouldn’t do it.

For the radical left, her nomination is largely irrelevant. Regular readers of radical left media already know why, but if you don’t, I’m going to tell you that in a moment also.

Liberals think “experience” means something. It doesn’t. No one outside of coordinator-class circles gives a damn. The fact that McCain talked about Obama’s “experience” is irrelevant. McCain had to talk about something, and no one cared then either, and McCain’s people knew it.

FREE ST PAUL

These people are not playing. Have a look at what’s happening outside the rally for god and country: This alert comes from activists:

We are sending you this message because the situation in St. Paul is very grave and we’re concerned that the real story is not being told by the mainstream media.

Over the past few days, the heavily armed and extremely large police presence in St. Paul has intimidated, harrassed and provoked people; and, in a number of instances, the police have escalated situations when they used excessive force. They have used pepper spray, including spraying at least one person just inches from her face as she was held down on the ground by several police officers. They have freely swung their extra long night sticks, pushed people around, rode horses and bicycles up against peacefully gathered groups, and surrounded people simply walking down the streets. On Tuesday evening, they used tear gas on a small group of protesters in downtown St. Paul.

The massive police presence and the uncalled-for actions by the police on the streets has not been the only problem. The police raided a convergence center and several locations where people are staying over the weekend and they have stopped and searched vehicles for no clear reason.

On Tuesday afternoon, they literally pulled the plug and turned off the electricity at a permitted outdoor concert. The timing of this led to a situation where hundreds of understandably angry people ended up joining a march being led by the Poor Peoples Campaign for Economic Human Rights, a march that organizers were insisting be nonviolent. In other words, the police set up a dynamic that could have turned ugly, but the skill of the organizers kept things calm and focused.

All of this - and much more - needs to be understood in the context of the overwhelming presence of police. Police from all around the Twin Cities have been put to work, and they have also brought in police units from around Minnesota and from as far away as Philadelphia, PA. The National Guard and state troopers are in the mix, to say nothing of the Secret Service, Homeland Security and who knows who else from the federal government!

We are very concerned about what this all means about the right to protest, the right to assemble, and the right to have one’s dissenting voice heard. We are worried about what it means about the growing militarization of our nation and the ongoing assault on the Constitution. We shudder to think about how the influx of new weapons and armed vehicles and everything else will be used in the neighborhoods of St. Paul and Denver: both communities each received $50 million from Homeland Security to purchase the equipment and pay for the policing during the conventions.

THE DNC IS RESPONDING TO THE RNC WITH A WEBSITE—“JUST MORE OF THE SAME” –BUT IS IT?

On the heels of President Bush passing the torch to the one candidate who has consistently promised more of the same failed Bush policies, the Democratic National Committee today launched a new website called www.JustMoreOfTheSame.com.

THE COLD WAR IS BACK ON

MORE US $ TO GEORGIA: U.S. to Grant $1 Billion Aid Package to Georgia

Q: WHERE”S DICK? A: BACK IN THE USSR….

US Embassy says Vice Presiden Cheney in Azerbaijan as part of tour of ex-Soviet republics. .

MORE INDICTMENTS ON WALL STREET

NOTE: VERY LITTLE MENTION OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AT THE GOP CONVENTION—MAKE THAT DONE.

SEC brings fraud charges against two former brokers

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has brought charges against two former brokers as its investigation into the collapse of the $330bn auction-rate securities (ARS) market continues.

The SEC, America’s leading financial regulator, has charged two former Credit Suisse brokers with auction-rate securities (ARS) fraud.

The ARS market collapsed in February as a number of banks withdrew support.