MOMocrats™

Hey, Cindy McCain: Military Families Think You Should Put On A Sweater!

Press Release

www.bsf4o.com

Blue Star Families Launch Video: Why We are Pro-Military, Pro-Obama

Blue Star Families for Obama launched a video today that articulates why Senator Barack Obama can count on military families for their votes on November 4th. The video features eight military spouses who share their reasons for voting for Sen. Obama over Sen. McCain.

Blue Star family members share: McCain claims to work for us. His actions don't always agree. He campaigned against the new GI Bill, Voted against troop safety equipment, against vets health care, has a 20 percent rating from the Disabled American Vets.

More Blue Star members add: Barack Obama shows he understands today's military. Obama will help reservists and military families, and he's front-lined mental health care, co-sponsored the GI Bill.

Video below the fold....

Shame on you, Cindy McCain!

Speaking in Pennsylvania today, Cindy McCain made a statement that made my head explode.  She said:

I’m proud of my sons, but let me tell you, the day that Senator Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body, let me tell you. I would suggest that Senator Obama change shoes with me for just one day, and see what it means, and see what it means to have a loved one serving in the armed forces, and more importantly, serving in harms way. 

I suggest [Obama] take a day and go watch our fine young men and women deploy, get on those buses and leave with a smile and a charge.

Are you sure you want to go there, Cindy?

The vote you were talking about has been well publicized.  Senator Obama voted against a bill that contained no time line for leaving Iraq and gave a blank war check to the current administration.  Cindy, you know damn well what that vote meant.  What's even more outrageous is that your own husband voted against a troop funding bill as well!

That's right, Cindy.  Your husband voted against a bill that contained a time line for withdrawal from Iraq.  Senator McCain said he couldn't support the time line, so he voted against the troop funding bill.  To take a line from Senator Biden, let me repeat that:

Senator McCain voted against funding our troops.

Go Read It: A Soldier's Mother Writes to Senator McCain

Blue Star Families for Obama has an amazing post up.  It's a letter from the mother of a soldier written to Senator McCain after the presidential debate on September 26th.

Go read it!

Stephanie also blogs at Lawyer Mama and is the Deputy Director for Outreach for Blue Star Families for Obama.

Virginia Veterans for Obama

The Obama campaign released this video today for Virginia Veterans for Obama.  It contains clips of Virginia veterans and military family members as well as clips of Senators Biden and Obama during events in Virginia.

And, yes, that's me in there.  Stephanie Nelson, military spouse.  I do think it's interesting that they de-hyphenated me, although I'll give them the benefit of the doubt because my name is really long!

Can We Expect an October Surprise?

The election is 52 days away. I'm hearing more and more talk of an "October Surprise" (defined as an event that occurs just in time to swing a Presidential election).

Earlier this week, ABC reported that the McCain campaign is worried that the Troopergate investigation into Sarah Palin's alleged abuse of power may be turned into one that will harm their campaign.

To be honest, I don't think the people who have fallen in love with Governor Palin would give a hoot over this. After all, these are presumably the same people who re-elected George W. Bush, despite evidence that he lied to the nation about weapons of mass destruction and diverted our military from capturing Osama bin Laden and eliminating Al Qaeda in Afghanistan so we could start an unnecessary war in Iraq. Next to that, bullying a public servant to fire a former in-law seems trivial.

But over the last few days, I've been hearing lots of speculation about an operation to capture Osama -- timed just right to be the kind of October surprise that could keep the GOP in power for another four years.

As NPR reported today, the opening salvo was a raid last week by US Special Ops in Pakistan, "part of a three-phase plan, approved by President Bush, to strike at Osama bin Laden and top al-Qaida leadership."

Of course, this is very good news - especially if we can do some real damage to the terrorists' ability to launch more attacks in our country and others.

But you have to wonder about the timing.

According to the Los Angeles Times, new Predator technology that is enabling the drones to accurately identify the precise location of their targets (even when they are inside buildings) has existed for quite some time, and may have had more influence on the "Anbar Awakening" than the so-called "surge."

The Times reports that plans similar to the one being implemented now have been around since 2003.

I wonder. Are the folks within the Bush administration finally listening to Keith Olbermann?

Today's LA Times features an opinion piece about such an October surprise, by Tim Rutten, who warns that capturing bin Laden at this late date could swing the undecided electorate firmly into John McCain's camp... or not:

"If a military technology heretofore monopolized by operations in Iraq finally brings Bin Laden to answer for his crimes, Obama and his supporters can argue that the war in Iraq delayed the day of reckoning in Afghanistan.

"That's the thing about suprises, no matter the month: The consequences are as unlooked-for as the event."

Donna Schwartz Mills is happy that her home town newspaper is still capable of breaking important news stories.

Palin on her "Mission from God" (with my apologies to the Blues Brothers)

OK, so maybe it was "task from God," but I couldn't resist the Belushi reference. 

In Sarah Palin's first interview with Charles Gibson from ABC News, Gibson attempted to get Palin to explain a comment she'd made to her old church congregation, Wasilla Assembly of God, that "our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God."

Watch the clip and let me know if you can make any sense of her "clarification" of that remark:

Gibson Interviews Palin

The transcript is below the fold....

Go Read It: In the Seventh Year, by Richard Cohen

Like you, I remember 9/11 all too well. We live with its aftermath. More have died because of it.

Will love, empathy, and justice prevail in our deeds? Or will we choose to live and act from fear, hatred, and the narrowest of self-interest?

Go Read It: Richard Cohen tells us what it begat, In the Seventh Year.

Cynematic writes at P i l l o w b o o k.

McCain-Palin: The GOP's Zombie Candidates Promise a Dawn of the Dead, Not "Morning in America"

It's a bit early for Halloween, but I'd like to suggest what we have in the GOP's McCain-Palin '08 ticket are a pair of zombie candidates. And I'm not just saying this because McCain's old and looks a little desiccated. Hear me out.

Zombies: they don't know they're dead. They just keep stiff-leggedly lurching around trying to eat human flesh and human brains 'til someone stops them and buries them for good.

Take a look at the GOP. They don't have a single vital idea besides Steal From the Poor and Give to the Rich, a rather cannibalistic creed if you ask me. That party is shit of out luck on ideas and policies, and George W. Bush is the Zombie-in-Chief culmination of their total lack of a clue. Even they know it. Their political consultants are running around saying consultant-y things like "The GOP brand is tired/tarnished/dead/damaged." Gee, you think?

The American people know it too. In January, April, and June of 2008, over 80% of people asked say they agree with the statement "America is headed in the wrong direction." That's a wrong direction pushed by--just in the past 8 years alone--a Republican president with the help of a Republican congress til 2006. And before that, 30 years of Republicanism with a slight speed bump of the Carter and Clinton years.

Note to Meghan McCain, We ALL Know War

Meghan McCain, appearing on the Today Show, made one of the most egotistical and ignorant statements I've ever heard.  It was stunning in its thoughtlessness and dismissive of the sacrifice of millions of people with loved ones serving in the Middle East.

 

When asked what she thinks when Barack Obama and others say her father doesn't "get it" she said,

I think my father gets it more than anyone.  I mean, my family — I have two brothers serving in the military. One is about to redeploy to Iraq.   My father is obviously a famous war hero. No one knows what war is like other than my family, period.

(Emphasis mine.) She then went on to point out that Sarah Palin's son, Track, is deploying to Iraq on September 11th. 

Biden Says He Won't Attack Palin, Only Policies

This morning I attended a national security roundtable event with Senator Joe Biden, Democratic nominee for Vice President.  Biden is widely regarded as an expert in national security and military issues, so this is a natural fit for him, particularly in the military community here in the Virginia Beach area.

My friend, blogger, fellow Blue Star Families for Obama leadership team member, and honorary MOMocrat, Vivian, was on the panel with Senator Biden.  While we all expected a major emphasis on the military, Iraq, and other national security issues, Biden surprised us all by taking off-topic questions from the audience.  He covered everything from the economy to the military "don't ask, don't tell policy."  This is the first in a series of posts covering Biden's responses to the issues raised during the roundtable.

Fortunately, I had my cell phone with me and was able to capture some of Biden's responses on video.  The quality is bad & you'll need to turn the volume up to hear him, but it's worth it.  (Although watch out for the clapping at the beginning.  It's quite loud.)