WASHINGTON (AFP) — Americans opened the voting in their historic election on Tuesday, with front-running Democrat Barack Obama seeking to become the first black president and his Republican rival John McCain hoping for a poll-defying comeback.
After an epic campaign , voters could also spark a political realignment in Washington, with Democrats targeting big gains in the Senate and House of Representatives after eight turbulent years under President George W. Bush.
Polls opened in the northeastern state of Vermont at 5:00 am (1000 GMT), an electoral official at a polling station in the town of Bennington told AFP by telephone.
History’s longest, most costly White House campaign ended with Obama the hot favorite, enjoying wide leads in national polls and the edge in a string of battleground states which could swing the election either way.
The GAY RIGHTS movement, is like the womens right and african american rights movement — to serve the purpose of EDUCATING the IGNORANT and INTOLERANT. Those women and men were this countries true REFORMERS!! REAL MAVERICKS!!
Times have changed. Time was when an Ann Coulter could spout off a line like “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity,” or muse dreamily about what might have been if Timothy McVeigh had bombed the New York Times, and it would barely have raised more than a guffaw among the right-wing chattering classes. It certainly wouldn’t have harmed Bush’s re-election prospects.
In 2008, the ritual brainfarting that ensues each time a drooling authoritarian follower decides to open its mouth is embarrassing the Republican presidential team. Said team, of course, executed the initial shooting of itself in the foot with its desperate attempts to link Obama to terrorism. As this footage of a McCain rally in Ohio demonstrates (and where you’ll hear the “bloodlines” soundbite), where authoritarian leaders lead, authoritarian followers follow, with consequences by turns outrageous, racist and stupid:
There’s even more in this NBC report, in which political analyst Richard Wolffe advises the Republican team to take a leaf out of the Australian conservatives’ playbook and engage in dogwhistle politics rather than foghorn politics which, he suggests, will turn off the swing voters and independents.
Months after John McCain dumped the anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic Rapture-welcoming televangelist John Hagee from his campaign, it appears that his would-be Vice-President Sarah Palin has a Hagee-sized albatross of her own to hang around the neck of the Republican Presidential hopeful. Ed Kalnins, senior pastor of the Wasilia Assembly of God, of which Palin was once a member (and which she addressed as recently as June), has preached that
critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war “contending for your faith;” and said that Jesus “operated from that position of war mode.”
[. . .]
“I hate criticisms towards the President,” he said, “because it’s like criticisms towards the pastor — it’s almost like, it’s not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That’s what it’ll get you.”
Kalnins, who claims to have received direct revelation from God, believes hundreds of thousands will flock to Alaska in “the end times”, and he has “asserted that Palin’s election as governor was the result of a “prophetic call” by another pastor at the church who prayed for her victory.” Thanks to John Evo for the heads-up. Read the rest of this entry »
[McCAIN:]I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation.
I think the number one issue that is in the selection, that which people should make a selection of the President of the United States is, “Will this person carry on in the Judeo-Christian principled tradition that has made this nation the greatest experiment in the history of mankind”?
I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles that, I, that, that’s a decision that the American people would make, but personally, that’s, that’s just, I prefer someone who I know with a solid grounding in my faith.
I just feel that, that, my faith is probably a better spiritual guidance, a better spiritual guidance. I just would, I just feel that that’s an important part of our qualifications to lead.
We welcome the poor, the tired, the huddled masses, and, but they, when they come here, they shouldn’t, they know that they are in a nation founded on Christian principles.
Our Founding Fathers were concerned about church being part of the state such as had been in England and the imposition of a certain type of Christianity imposed on people. So, they didn’t mean, in my view, separation of church and state, that there is no place for God or a Superior Being, a Creator. They also continued to emphasize the Christian principle, “In God We Trust”, “created equal.” Every statement that they made had to do with the belief in a Divine Creator.
We are a nation which is uniquely designated in many respects. But I think it was Man implementing the teachings of Christ. [Emphasis added. Transcript from a commenter at Atheist Media Blog]
So not only does he believe (or, given the likelihood that he’s pandering to fundamentalists, purporting to believe) that the US Constitution founded America as a “Christian Nation,” he also believes that there should be a religious test for public office. Via Pharyngula.
Of course, there’s much worse in store for humanity if TEH EEEEEEEEEEVIL GAY AGENDA is carried through to its fruition. If that erstwhile paper of record WorldNetDaily is to be believed (and is there any reason why it shouldn’t?), God sent the Flood because people in Noah’s time practiced same-sex marriage. And considering that “4,000 out of 5,000 prophecies have already occurred exactly as the Bible predicted they would, you might want to pay attention to the rest.” For God so loves the world that he’s prepared to drown the lot of us, men, women and children, if we dare give those filthy sodomites equality before the law. It’s a good thing the Australian Government is heeding the warning, huh? (Via Fundies Say The Darndest Things)
Mr van Bigot [. . .] It's interesting the new morality of atheists. Commenting off topic is normal to humans. But atheists have such a rigid mind.
Your hypocrisy in accusing me of abuse is too breathtaking for words.
"Epic non sequitur." Your repetition is typical of the atheist misuse of Latin as being a magic language (also an RC delusion). Bless. (novparl, Five Public Opinions)
I’m bored waiting for signs of intelligence on this website. That’s justification enough to ignore it. Go back to your group hug now, and reassure yourselves that you’ve formed your views based on “reason” and not “faith”. (Alan, Five Public Opinions)
Hey, AV’s back. This is the infant who called me a nazi up above. Hi precious, welcome back. How was your kindy nap? Have you had your milk? ("Rebellion")
AV,
eloquence will not persuade me.
you may have a captive audience amongst your peers,but your words are like a clanging cymbal, a rather obnoxious noise after awhile. ("Saved Sinner", OzAtheist)
Cogitating about irrational, self-contradictory and anti-empirical intellectual dogmas such as falliblism does not interest me. Nor am I interested in the bigoted, selective applications of these nonsenses by one such as their zealous, close-minded ideologue. (Paul Robotham, A Churchless Faith)a religious fundamentalist is by definition someone who is without doubt about their faith position and who spends a great deal of their time and energy promoting their faith by denouncing any person's contrary understandings of the universe.You meet this definition in with out any difficulty (Iain Hall, Malott's Blog)
Surely the community can find someone to teach their children who doesn't have a problem with porn. ("Malott", Five Public Opinions: the Blogger Years)
Arthur reveals a little more of himself with each comment. Soon you’ll be confronted by the whole picture: Arthur uses everyone as a mirror for his own misplaced narcissism. ("Daniel", Old Lines From a Floating Life)
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