Joshua Judges Ruth.

I never dreamed that I could vote Republican, but I can and will, if Hillary is not offered the VP.   My vote will be a PROTEST vote...about disrspect of Hillary, distortions about Hillary, trying to force Hillary out of election, and on and on.   My vote is all I have left to voice my opinion.

I have called and emailed every Democratic Senator,  many members of the House,  the DNC, and mass media repeatedly during the Primary about treating Hillary fairly.

My grievances are many.   And, no, I can not be patted on the head,  called chilish, insulted, called not a true Democrat and a liar on Kos when I stated that I have voted a straight Democratic Ticket for over 30 years.  Obama GET MY VOTE NOW???    The Democratic Party tell me to step up now.   What hurts the most is to be dissed now by a Party that I have worked for diligently fo 30 plus years.  

If Hillary is offered the VP will I vote for Obama.

There were several times during the campaign where he could have shown leadership ....

1.  allowing a revote in Florida and Michigan, instead of him and his campaign setting up roadblocks

2.  calling the press out on sexism...showing that America was truly a land of equality for all in his eyes...

3.  disavowing Wright the first time, quitting the Trinity church very early on, denouncing Pfleger , denouncing Rezko, Ayers

4.  Saying that Bill Clinton, especially was not a racist early on

He never did.  IN fact, he fertilized it with his "finger" on the cheek at the appropriate time when he mentioned HRC; his claws reference; his periodic reference....I will never forgive him.  

Obama can, now, talk until he's blue in the face about women and HRC and his daughter and me...and I will simply flip the bird right back at him!

Not the "well racism is worse", teh Clintons "were so awful", the pats on the head and the "you'll get over its."

Obama is the LAST person to claim a mantle of "new politics".  He used so many old tricks to slam Hillary Clinton.  Luckily for his policy-lacking a55 this is a patriarchal society, so HE's going to be able to BEAT her because the boys' clubs over at MSNBCrap and CNNonsense were going to ensure it.

I know that TL is an official sponsor of the Democratic candidate Obama.  However, it pains me to know that Obama's blatant sexism, a compliant media, a silent DNC and the collusion of the RBC have gotten us to where we are today.

The sexism paid off for him.  Where in history have women earned votes and taken away from them and given to their less than adequate male competitor?

Sexism is what put Obama over the top.  The race card was just gravy.

One school of logic states that some of these woman don't see themselves as 'victims' of any kind of sexism, and see that argument as defeatist.

The MCM is still going on about how Bill and Hillary made racist remarks during the primary.

This is unforgiveable, from one Dem to another decent Dem.

And now? Oh, the wonderful Clintons--as long as they campaign for him?

I took both personally: I actually asked a friend if she thought I was racist in some ways that I wasn't recognizing. She's pretty apolitical, but was herself angry with Obama for things he said and what he let his supporters do. Purely malicious. And coldly calculated to drive black voters away from the Clintons.

As legal workers we have great opportunities to "not be shut up about" sexism in our daily lives, especially in the workplace, and especially when it is a superior, judge or an opposing counsel -- a deputy attorney general, say -- who acts or speaks in a sexist manner.  

1 - http://tinyurl.com/55mb27

Redefines the tumultuous 1960s, a decade that saw the rise of the rebellious children of the greatest generation, to reveal how American social, political, economic, and cultural institutions were transformed by an era of dramatic change.

Some of us resist it and fight back. But many women do not. They may not know their behavior is conditioned by fear, but it is.

Our culture puts a tremendous of pressure on young women to be attractive to men, and that means more than just physically attractive. It also means being pleasing and hip and uncritical. Its a very strong force exerted on young female minds. I suspect that many young women don't see the sexism because its painful to see and goes against all that cultural training. Its easier to see sexism and easier to stand up against it with more maturity and after life has given you a few good lessons about the pitfalls of always being "pleasing".

It's also the elitism and it's still going on.

Andrea Mitchell's comment the other day about "rednecks" is a case in point.  She apologized for the mention, but only after an editorial trashed her.  The fact that a TV News anchor (albeit working for a gutter station) would think it's okay to label a whole class of people "rednecks" just goes to the atrocious elitism that is acceptable discourse in the media.  

Here's the editorial I mentioned, which makes some really great points:

Link

A quote from the editorial:

IF MITCHELL were telling Jeff Foxworthy jokes, and let's hope she could do it without all the "uhms" and "you knows," her lead would be: "You might be a redneck if you live in Southwest Virginia."
I have a retort, however: You might be a gold digger if you marry a Fed chairman older than your daddy.
Harsh? Maybe. But the last bastion of acceptable, politically incorrect stereotyping is making fun of Southerners. And we're damned tired of it.
WHAT IF Mitchell had used this line for a John McCain rally in Harlem: "Interesting images today. John McCain and Mitt Romney, in Harlem. This is a real homeboy ... sort of ... uhm ... bordering on ghetto ... country. This is not the west side of Manhattan ... uh ... you know ... the upper crust of the island?"
Al Sharpton would be protesting and the ACLU would be suing. And perhaps rightly so. But where are our special-interest defenders?

I'm both proud and sad. Either way, whoever would have won, I'd be both proud and sad.

That's all I'm saying, people. It was a disgrace to women and an actually real hope (unlike Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton) to African-Americans. Since I'm both female and African-American, I get offended and joyed on both fronts, and it has been an emotionally draining dance that I've been doing this primary season.

Yes, I understand he was talking about his policy positions, bit let's "get real." Neither Bill nor Hillary are racists. However, it has been perceived by some Obama supporters that both Clintons belittled Obama personally and on more than one occasion. In no way am I implying that this is sentiment of only the Obama supporters.

It was not the "fairytale" just in itself that is perceived as racist, but the tone of the Clinton campaign that belittled Obama and his supporters (at times, of course not all of the time), and specifically, although not blantant or outright, targetting and molding Obama as "the black candidate," who doesn't stand a chance just like the other "the black candidate"s.

Now look, we can sit here and play he said she said all night (ET), but when it comes right down to it, all I'm saying that bigots existed on both sides of the table, and for "some people to still be unaware of it or to blatantly ignore it" don't have the right to contribute to this discussion (/sarcasm).

Newsflash: The current scorecard for the woman (who actually lives in the South and has experienced both overt sexism and racism) is as follows. 10-years-old, and undeserving to contribute to a discussion about race. Any bets that she is also undeserving to contribute to a discussion about sex? Stay tuned!

Seriously, for the most part, I've really been enjoying and enlightened by this discussion, despite what may be perceived (again pereption is key), but I have to go to work tomorrow afternoon after my Chinese class, so I must say "Zai Jian" or better yet, "Ming Tian Jian," and also, "Da Jia, Xie Xie Nimen, Wo Juede Nimen Hen You Yisi!" It's been fun having a civil discussion (perception), and no trouble that was caused was intended on my part, and if there was trouble, I am truly sorry, and apologize for those who do make trouble for the sake of making trouble. I'm just trying to bring my perspective (I like that word, too) into the picture without being a sexist man, an ignorant child, or an outright reverse-racist.

www.journalism.org

But, In addition to the sexism, there were a couple of other issues that damaged her campaign.

1. The media's constant interpretation of anything Hillary or any one of her surrogates said in the worst possible light.  The media always took the opinion that if a Clinton said it, it had to have a "hidden negative" meaning to it somewhere because nothing would ever come out of their mouth without such a meaning.  Along with this, anytime a surrogate spoke, it was automatically assumed that they spoke at the direction and with the full knowledge and support of Clinton.  The media NEVER did this with Obama or his surrogates.  In fact the constant refrain from Obama supporters was that if it didn't come directly from Obama's mouth, then he had nothing to do with it.

2. The media pile on early in the race in labeling Clinton statements as racist when they were not.  I have heard the fairytale remark called racist, Shaheen's drug use comments, the LBJ/MLK comment, Bills statement of "roll of the dice" on the Charlie Rose show was called racist by Chris Matthews.  The 3AM phone call ad was called racist by a guest on Chris Matthews show.  He basically said it was racist because there was not a black child depicted in the ad.  But, when Clinton came back and showed the black child in the ad, the racism charge wasn't corrected.

This primary season has been a real eye opener and what I see isn't pretty. Dems demonizing the Clintons, bogus racism charges against them and their supporters and the concurrent use of sexism to advance. What did I learn-Dems are no better then Repubs in many ways.

I think that this reality, and history, provided a financial motivation for a lot of Hillary bashing features and articles -- in broadcast, in the small circulation poltitical magazines like The New Republic (which is still bashing away, days after she has left the race), in the online version of magazines like The Atlantic, in left blogs like Kos and TPM. Olbermann has obviouosly been just following the American Spectator marketing plan -- and in doing so garnered a lot of new, young male viewers (one of the hardest demographics to capture, and, for advertisers, one of the most desirable). Sad to say, misogyny pays. And pays big.

It is kind of ironic, isn't it, that the most virulent sexism exhibited over this primary season has come from young men -- the contemporaries, partners, lovers, co-workers and friends of the young women who claim sexism is no longer a problem. These young women either don't have a clue, or have totally accepted and internalized the disdain and disrespect with which they are regarded.

Well, maybe I would be, if I said being stuck with Obama was like being stuck with Shrub.  But I didn't.  The Nader folks couldn't bring themselves to vote for Gore, who was pro-death penalty, so they voted for Nader, thus splitting the anti-Shrub total.  Thus, Shrub got close enough for the Supreme Court to bail him out and the rest is history.

The same thing's going to happen again.  "Oh, we couldn't vote for someone who voted for the AUMF!" (never mind that she would have lost her Senate seat and thus not be a candidate if she voted against it.) so the weaker candidate got enough of a boost to limp across the finish line.  

HRC could have taken McCain apart; Obama's barely ahead as it is.  If Obama loses, as I'm afraid he will, we'll be stuck with McCain who's far more pro-war than Hillary ever was on her worst day.  

Now I think I've sort of lost my point . . . To make my long-winded statement short, while I am female and do believe that Hillary was treated unfairly, I don't believe that Obama is 100% responsible for the unfairness, and I quite honestly think it is unfair for some supporters of either candidate to blame the opposing candidate entirely for society's perception of what is acceptable and what isn't.

Tell your wife Michelle to share her favorite recipe. I know it sounds sexist, but her "never in my lifetime" remarks have some thinking "never let her speak again."

So how about the "brush off the shoulders" thing? I think I can clarify. In my community, it's an old move signaling that when people are trying to put you down, you just have to get up, brush the dirt off of your shoulders and keep running. Kanye West did a rap song and video doing that very same thing (as an aside, I hate his lyrics, but I generally get his point). I'd post a link to a music video, but I really hate his lyrics and don't want to distract from the main idea. That move is almost as old as the "hip, new" fist bumb (that the media seems to be so fascineted with) in my comm.

Like I said, that move existed way before Kanye West was doing it, so Obama wasn't referencing hip-hop, per se, he was referencing something that has been in our culture probably since the 60s (like the aforementioned "fist bump"). Heck, my own mom was doing it before Kanye ever made a song about it

Also, as an aside, hip-hop by nature is political/social. Rap by nature is sexist. I think the term ho is inappropriate, not cute and not funny, just as I think the term n*gger and all of its variations is inappropriate, not cute, and not funny. Hip-hop is dead, rap is an abomination, and Bob Johnson (among others) should be arrested for terrorism against the black communtiy.

OK, let me say it loud and clear: I am not a fan of rap. I am a fan of "old-school" hip-hop and "99 problems," my friend is rap. I hate Jay Z just as much as I hate most of Kanye's lyrics. I'm greatly disappointed that that song was playing at his rally, and it just goes back to my point of being proud and sad at the same time. Does he control the music at his rallies, or does he have someone plan it for him? I've been to his rallies, and all I've heard was clean music (this, of course, was after that incident), so he probably took note of that offense and made sure it didn't happen again.

Anyway, could he have apologized? Yes. Did he? Not on record. Was he asked to apologize? Not on record. Does it really matter whether or not he was asked? No, but you know as well as I that none of the candidates of either party would have liked to draw any attention to their not-so-nice sayings/doings if they could get away with it. Of course, this is not to say that all of the candidates conspired to triwl their evil mustaches and committ evil deeds just to see what they could get away with. Bad choice in words, actions, and yes, even music, has permeated this entire primary season, but no one is perfect.

It is so sad that in a historic campaign like this, with what I see two great candidates for the democrats, with the biggest turnout for primaries ever the democrats are accusing each other of being evil, sexist and racist.   Are we sure Karl Rove did not arrange for this, that we are all offended at each other so we don't win?  

Fight the battles that matter.  
1. Fix and fight the press, the  press is shameful, let us change it.  2. If you don't like the situation with Florida and Michigan, get involved with your state DNC and argue for primary reform, and not just getting your particular state earlier on the calender. 3. FInd good candidates and support them.