Republican Convention Slime -- Can DEMS Sue For Slander?

John McCain's henchmen attacked last night. A squad of negative, cynical politicians lied about Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and attacked me (and you, if you support the DEMS) for being a part of this campaign.

Worst of all -- and this deserves to be noted -- they insulted the very idea that ordinary people have a role to play in our political process. Despite what John McCain and his "pitbulls in lipstick" say, everyday people have the power to build something extraordinary when we come together.

Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack's experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed. But community organizing has a long, illustrious history!

Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies. So it's no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions of people have found that by coming together in their local communities, they change the course of history.

That's what Barack's campaign has been about from the beginning.Throughout American history, ordinary people have made good on America's promise by organizing for change from the bottom up. Community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women's suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour work week. And it's happening today in church basements and community centers and living rooms across America. Community organizing all across America saved lives and resurrected hope following Katrina while the federal government was blowing out candles on John McCain's birthday cake and then flailed ineffectively at the "problem" of Katrina.

Meanwhile, during the entire Republican convention we still haven't heard much about the economy or how to lift the middle class and poorer folks who have been harmed by the Bush-McCain policies, nor anything about reforming the health care system. John McCain's campaign has decided that lies and personal attacks -- on Barack Obama and on his supporters -- are the only way they can win... Remember, folks: McCain has supported Bush's policies more than 90 percent of the time. He has a deplorable conservation record. He supports outlawing abortion under any circumstance. He doesn't want to tax rich people any more -- in fact, he wants to give the richest of them billions more in tax relief.

Joe Biden will need to take off his gloves when he debates "Barracuda"Sarah Palin, and Barack will have to take his off when he debates McCain. The Republicans are going for the jugular with lies and claims they cannot prove -- because lies cannot be proved. THEY ARE FALSE.

I really wanted this campaign season to be about issues. When it's about issues, the Republicans LOSE every time because it's they -- not Obama -- who are elitists. They want to keep every dime they earn and let the rest of us muddle through somehow.

We support this country every day in every way, too. Calling us out-of-touch celebrity chasers is ludicrous. We're "dream-of-America" chasers. We want our country back. We want to believe again in a government that gives "the least among us" a fighting chance... and ALL of us a living wage and a job to go to.

I'm sick of this mud-slinging. The REPs have no other weapon. They can't fight fair, so they fight dirty.

I got hope and energy out of the DEM convention. I've gotten nothing from the REP one so far (and there's only one day left to it). Just attacks. If that kind of strategy will win over undecideds and disgruntled Hillary supporters, they just haven't been paying attention the rest of the time. The REP platform -- go see it -- is the most conservative, restrictive, and repressive of all time.

Bush gave us the Patriot Act and its unparallelled restrictions. Now, watch out! McCain will do us one better: he'll put reproduction issues in the hands of governors who will a "allow" pregnant woman to commit suicide or use a hanger to abort, nothing else. (Abortions have been going on for centuries, resulting in untold agony and death.) He'll drill, drill, drill offshore and probably now in ANWR since he'll have Palin's blessing... and, perhaps worst of all, he'll continue to insult our enemies in Bush fashion and rattle our sabers everywhere even though our troops are already stretched to the limit and facing an intense battle fatigue (in a country that didn't attack us and wasn't developing weapons of mass destruction) that only an extended period of peace and tranquility can give them...

McCain doesn't know when to quit. His tenacity and intense patriotism served him well in Vietnam during his captivity, but we're trying to build a CIVILIZATION here day to day, not a living, breathing war memorial to brave American soldiers!

McCain is a certifiable, tested-and-true patriot. But he's just as certainly standing on the wrong side of most of the pressing issues of our day, in the opinion of millions of attentive people, both professional and lay).

I'm appalled by the attempt to denigrate our next Commander in Chief -- all polls presently indicate that it will be Barack Obama. Our side has, for the most part (except in rare instances by mostly "unofficial" DEM talking heads, all of whom I deplore as vociferously as I deplore official and unofficial REP talking heads) kept to the issues and the vision. The other side is slinging mud and hoping some of it sticks.

Not this time, America. NOT THIS TIME!

I implore you: Visit both candidates' websites and click on ISSUES. Read their plans and policies. HOW do they plan to "change" this country? Into what?

Who has the better vision? Who has ADVANCED that vision every day since he was a community organizer 25 years ago? Who had commanded a staff of thousands and led a group of millions over the past two years, and whose campaign organization has brought in well over a hundred million dollars (mostly in $25 and $50 donations) to engage in a political system that's usually won only by the richest of the rich, with the most PAC and dirty money lining their wallets? Barack's campaign hasn't cost the American taxpayer a dime, except for his secret security detail (something that's provided to every candidate). It has all been paid for by us -- by you and me.

I hate to be disparaging of America in this way, but the truth is the truth. America needs an Extreme Makeover. McCain-Palin are not it. We can expect more of the same with them in far too many ways.

Don't let fear steal your vote this year. Let faith in new leaders, hope for tomorrow, and a vision of a better future for your children and grandchildren sway you to believe again.

Please go to http://www.barackobama.com/ right now and donate whatever you can to be sure Barack and Joe have all the funding they need to produce and air ads which can be dedicated, at a moment's notice, to disproving the lies and slanders cast abroad by McCain-Palin.

Thanks!