Law Librarians for Obama/Biden

Comment by Karen B. Douglas on September 5, 2008 at 11:41am

Now, here's a group where we can safely air our feelings. I feel personally battered between reading LawLib and watching the RNC. I'm ready to fight on, though. I'm thinking about registering voters this weekend. Thanks Jim for setting this up.

Comment by Rebecca Belcher on September 5, 2008 at 11:53am

Yes, thanks Jim! I am so proud to support the Obama/Biden ticket. I haven't watched the RNC. I just couldn't stand it. I'm glad its over and I can go back to watching Keith Olbermann next week. I have missed my daily dose of Keith so much....

Comment by Deborah Sours on September 5, 2008 at 12:00pm

NO WAY, NO HOW, NO McCAIN-PALIN.

Comment by Kama Siegel on September 5, 2008 at 12:22pm

Personally, I'm surprised by so much support for McCain-Palin amongst librarians...

Comment by Prano Amjadi on September 5, 2008 at 12:58pm

I just watched Sarah Palin's speech last night. Whoever said she reminded them of Anita Bryant, I second that impression. I wish she had spent more time talking about herself and her stances than getting jibes in at Obama. The scariest thing for me was her talk about using veto power. Excuse me, but isn't the legislature elected by the people? Why would she be so proud to just kill all the work and effort of so many people to get her own agenda?

Comment by Deb Morse on September 5, 2008 at 1:08pm

Good editorial in LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,7915118.story

Comment by Deb Morse on September 5, 2008 at 1:16pm

Another good editorial:

Obama and the Palin Effect
Deepak Chopra - September 04, 2008
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses . In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an20unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin’s message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.

Look at what she stands for:
--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad.
--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.
--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and20globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.

Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.

Comment by Kama Siegel on September 5, 2008 at 1:53pm

Here's another good one from a citizen of Wasilla who has known Palin for years: http://www.crosscut.com/politics-government/17341

Comment by Jim Milles on September 5, 2008 at 1:56pm

I for one am tired of the Republican exaltation of "small town values" and dismissing of those of us who live in cities (even small cities like Buffalo)--i.e, the majority of Americans.

Comment by Chris Pickford on September 5, 2008 at 3:09pm

Your Pocket Guide To Speaking Palinguage (Vol. 1)http://www.npr.org/blogs/visibleman/2008/09/your_pocket_guide_to_speaking_1.html?sc=emaf

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