With broad conservative support of policies that discriminate against gay and lesbian Americans, McCain’s suggestion of a free and equal country was inappropriately timed.

Bryce Neuman, Daily Texan

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Ken Mitchell

In his concession speech last Tuesday night (Nov 4), Sen. John McCain took the opening moments to recognize the step forward that this election represents for civil rights. “Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship,” he declared, saying that the country was “a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry” of the past.

While McCain’s congratulatory remarks were the result of good intentions, the context is unfortunate — marginalizing ongoing struggles for civil rights and overstating America’s advancement toward equality.

As expected, race and ethnicity were consistent talking points, and recent research suggested that age discrimination affected a surprising number of voter opinions. Evidence of sexism was also strong, just as it is in every day life outside the political realm. With broad conservative support of policies that discriminate against gay and lesbian Americans, McCain’s suggestion of a free and equal country was inappropriately timed.

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Fred Vagle, St. Joan of Arc Church, Bulletin

We are honored to host renowned pastor and peacemaker Fr. John Dear who will be reading from his new book A Persistent Peace today (Nov 9) at 3 pm in the church. This event is free.

Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing after his presentation. Fr. John Dear is a fervent believer in and activist for - the Gospel of peace and nonviolence and was nominated in 2008 for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Video of Fr. Dear's Reading...

Related:

Speaking Peace to Power, Colman McCarthy, Washington Post
A review of A Persistent Peace: One Man's Struggle for a Nonviolent World ~ John Dear

A Persistent Peace: One Man's Struggle for a Nonviolent World ~ John Dear, LoyolaPress.org
All of us say we want peace, but only a few are willing to prove it.

Read the book free...

Think Progress

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Thomas Sklarski

When George W. Bush leaves office in January, he’s likely to join other past presidents and write a memoir. However, publishers aren’t that interested in producing something from history’s most unpopular president at this point and are suggesting that he “take [his] time.” Even Marji Ross of the conservative Regnery Publishing said, “Certainly the longer he waits, the better.” President Clinton received $15 million for his autobiography, “My Life,” although few expect Bush will command the same sum.

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Studs could be cute, and damnably perverse.

John Nichols, The Nation

Terkel at a 2007 rally promoting universal health care

When Studs Terkel was in the seventh grade, his teacher, Miss Henrietta Boone, asked the smart young whippersnapper who he was supporting in the presidential election of 1924.

"Are you for Calvin Coolidge or John W. Davis?" Miss Boone inquired, mentioning the names of the Republican and Democratic nominees.

Terkel, who had already imbibed the radicalism of Chicago's labor left, was for neither of the major party candidates. Rather, he favored the third-party contender who was campaigning against imperialism abroad and Wall Street at home.

"Innocently--or was I damnably perverse even then?--I piped, 'Fightin' Bob La Follette,'" Terkel recalled eight decades later, mentioning the name of the progressive senator from Wisconsin who earned his support that year. "She was startled, poor dear. Why have I always upset such gentle hearts? Why couldn't I have been my cute little button self and said the right thing: 'Keep Cool with Coolidge.'"

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Related:

Studs Terkel: The Power of His Prose, Dennis Kucinich, The Nation
Studs Terkel knew the real America. The America of grit and gumption, heart and soul, passion and nerve. He chronicled five generations of American history with a compassionate and deep understanding of the American character.

To get 85 votes on anything in the Senate, you're telling lobbyists and the corporate cons who pay them that they've got veto power over any legislation. Eighty five votes is the political equivalent of the status quo.

Jane Hamsher, The Nation

There is much speculation going on right now about how Obama would govern if elected president. On Sunday John Kerry was on Meet the Press talking about how he would urge Obama to "build 85-vote majorities" in the Senate. Doug Schoen, the political mastermind whose strategy for the past eight years has largely been telling Democrats to accommodate George Bush, says that Obama must demonstrate his commitment to bipartisanship by appointing Republicans to his cabinet.

That may be fabulous political speech, but people who pay even remotely close attention to politics know that in order to get 85 votes on anything in the Senate, you're basically telling lobbyists and the corporate cons who pay them that they've got veto power over any legislation. There is no shiny new bill with pearly white teeth that is going to make everyone happy--if there were, it would've passed already. Eighty five votes is the political equivalent of the status quo.

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Where, O where are you, Dubya, as the action passes you by like a jet skirting dirty weather?

If the Statue of Liberty were alive, she would be weeping tears of blood.

Simon Schama, The Guardian | UK

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Thomas Sklarski

Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau

"Forgotten but not gone" was the way in which the supremo of Boston politics, Billy Bulger, liked to dismiss the human irritants he had crushed beneath his trim boot. The same could now be said for the hapless 43rd President of the United States as the daylight draws mercifully in on his reign of misfortune and calamity. How is he bearing up, one wonders, as the candidate from his own party treats him as the carrier of some sort of infectious political disease? How telling was it that the most impassioned moment in John McCain's performance in the final debate was when he declared: "I am not George Bush."

Where, O where are you, Dubya, as the action passes you by like a jet skirting dirty weather? Are you roaming the lonely corridors of the White House in search of a friendly shoulder around which to clap your affable arm? Are you sweating it out on the treadmill, hurt and confused as to why the man everyone wanted to have a beer (or Coke) with, who swept to re-election four years ago, has been downgraded to all-time loser in presidential history, stuck there in the bush leagues along with the likes of James Buchanan and Warren Harding? Or are you whacking brush in Crawford, where the locals now make a point of telling visitors that George W never really was from hereabouts anyroad.