A rural county pining for a racist past
Ah, good memories
With all the polls it feels like there’s been a sea change in how America sees race, or maybe not. Maybe it’s W’s 22% approval rating skewing the numbers, because there are obvious still some serious misconceptions and racism playing big in the election. Interviews in the ‘bootheal’ region of Missouri (only a few hours South of me here in St. Louis, where Obama drew 100,000 people under the Arch last week) show that indifference, mixed with the old school racism and ignorance, is still alive and well. My favorite part is:
“But Douglas’ cousin Ronnie Johnson is voting for McCain. Or rather, against Obama.
He is reluctant to explain this at first — “You don’t want to know why,” he says.
The others on the porch goad him. And Johnson, a lanky 20-year-old white man who works as a meatcutter at a grocery store, starts to talk about an issue that has persisted throughout the campaign: race.
It is not just that Obama is black, Johnson says. He has heard that Obama is Muslim. (Obama is Christian.) He also has heard rumors that Obama refuses to salute the American flag, and that Obama has promised that black men will have more rights than white men. (Independent fact-checking groups say these rumors are false.)
So Johnson is voting for McCain.
“He’s white,” Johnson says.”
And we wonder why W was elected twice. Someone save us…
John McSame – why M.c.Cain would be 4 more years of the same
UPDATE: months after confusing Iran and Iraq, (multiple – times), M.c.Cain continues to try to upstage Bush’s famous canon of mis-spoken quotes by stating that Putin is President of Germany.
Say what you want about Barack Obama’s ‘change’ message, just know if you go with J.o.hn M.c.Cain you’re saying yes to four more years of Bush style politics. While he’s still hawking that ‘maverick’ tag, don’t believe the hype, instead, let’s look at some statements by the senator. Recently M.c.Cain perked my interest when he came out in favor of FISA, warrantless wiretapping/eavesdropping and executive power. Funny thing is, he had the exact opposite opinion on these topics when he was asked in December 2007!
On Wednesday, I documented J.o.hn M.c.Cain’s complete reversal of views — in the last six months alone — on FISA, warrantless eavesdropping and executive power. M.c.Cain’s diametrically opposite views were contained in a questionnaire M.c.Cain completed for The Boston Globe last December (wherein he rejected many of the Bush/Cheney theories of presidential omnipotence and warrantless eavesdropping) and then a statement M.c.Cain issued this week to National Review (wherein he embraced those same theories in order to persuade the Right that he approves of and would continue Bush’s lawless surveillance policies).
Another source states more of what transcribed at the National Review:
A top adviser to Senator J.o.hn M.c.Cain says Mr. M.c.Cain believes that President Bush’s program of wiretapping without warrants was lawful, a position that appears to bring him into closer alignment with the sweeping theories of executive authority pushed by the Bush administration legal team.
In a letter posted online by National Review this week, the adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said Mr. M.c.Cain believed that the Constitution gave Mr. Bush the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and e-mail without warrants, despite a 1978 federal statute that required court oversight of surveillance…
Robert De Niro on Obama’s inexperience
http://www.fak3r.com
Today one of the greats gave Obama the nod at a rally in New Jersey. He surprised people by seeming attacking the Senator though, “Barack Obama does not have the experience to be president of the United States. He wasn’t experienced enough to authorize the invasion of Iraq. And that’s not all, it’s clear Barack Obama does not have the experience to let the special interests run the government. That’s the kind of inexperience I can get used to. I’ve never made a speech like this at a political event before, so, what am I doing here? Finally, one person has inspired me“
The premature crowning of Hillary
Hillary is being crowned the ‘come from behind kid’ after ‘winning’ the New Hampshire primary; but this appears to be nothing but spin. First of all the results, Hillary took 39% of the popular vote to Barack ’s 37%, so Hillary wins, right? Not exactly, if you look at the delegate count you’ll see a different picture. Remember, people can win the popular vote and loose the election (Gore). From the article/discussion on CNN’s Political Ticker you’ll see the results: (more…)
Stewart, Colbert back on without writers for now
Yep, call me a day late and a dollar short, but after all this time, Stewart and Colbert were back on last night, although still sans writers. While I understand it’s a tough situation for all, having this many people out of work (not just Jon, Steven and the writers, but everyone from makeup to camera to sound, etc) is crazy. Think about your job if you were ‘off’ for two months and had no way to resolve it yourself? Anyway, here’s to the shows (and people’s lives) getting back on track soon. As for the ‘talent’, they were back in the guises we love, with Stewart showing his solidarity with the writers by claiming that, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ is a show we do with our very creative team of field producers and correspondents and studio people and, of course, our writers,” he said Monday night, then added with pointed irony, “From now on, until the end of the strike, we’ll be doing ‘A Daily Show with Jon Stewart.’ But not ‘THE Daily Show.’” Meanwhile Colbert kept it in character with a tirade I can see in my head, “I got a problem here,” snapped Colbert in his most indignant tone. “There are no words on my (Tele)prompter.” Refusing to concede that writers are required to provide his “commentaries,” Colbert declared, “My understanding is, this little magic box (the Teleprompter) reads my thoughts and lays them up on the screen for me to read to the audience.” His director advised him the words would have had to be furnished by staff writers. “The writers!” Colbert scoffed. “The guys on the fourth floor with the opium bongs, playing Guitar Hero all day! I find that a bit of a stretch.” “I don’t like unions,” railed Colbert, whose on-air persona is a right-wing blowhard, “and I don’t need writers. Which brings me to tonight’s Word” — a favorite feature of the show. But Colbert was quickly mortified: There was no word. That would have required a writer.” Ah, so nice for them to be back, maybe tonight I’ll actually have the TV on again; bring on the election coverage Jon!
Glassbooth – how do you line up with the candidates?
You owe it yourself, or me, to visit Glassbooth and fill out their survey. It’s all about politics, specifically how your thoughts line up with the current batch of candidates. Of course mine pull up to Dennis Kucinich, followed by Mike Gravel and John Edwards. Hills is fourth, with Obama a disappointing sixth. Once you have your results you can cross reference every candidate with every issue and get information about how they stand, what they’ve said and how they’ve voted on everything. Really a great site that has educated me far more than I expected. I’m a big Kucinich fan (heck, Willie supports him!) but I’ve never read so much about Gravel, he’s pretty damn impressive too. With all the candidates jockeying for position on the seemingly 100s of debates, it’s nice to have a resource to get some facts. There’s no third party candidates thought, but hey, it’s far more than what most American’s will know about the stances of the candidates on the issues. Everyone should register to vote, then become educated about things; if you don’t you can’t complain.
Colbert into double digits in recent poll
Apparently Stephen Colbert’s “candidacy” has started to take off, apparently a new poll (in South Carolina only natch) shows him in double digits! “Comedian Stephen Colbert, who recently announced he would run for U.S. president as both a Democrat and a Republican but only in the state of South Carolina, scored 13 percent in a new poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports. The national telephone survey found that 13 percent chose Colbert as an independent candidate in a race against Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and former New York mayor Republican Rudy Giuliani. Colbert received 12 percent support when former Sen. Fred Thompson was suggested as the Republican candidate. (Clinton won both match-ups in the poll.) The host of “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central declared his newfound political intentions last week and clarified his position a few days later, telling NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday: “I don’t want to be president. I want to run for president. There’s a difference.”
Hi, I'm fak3r and I've been online for over 15 years, blogging for 10. I work with open source software, various hardware and whatever else that I can hack on. I enjoy learning by doing, painting infrequently and listening to more music than the law allows. Feel free to follow me and comment on my thoughts and ideas; we're all in it together kid.
