March, 2008 archive
Let a Thousand Swift Boats Sail 1
The Republican smear machine cranks up:
In Obama’s case, this effective meme will be modified to portray him as secretly promoting “the militant black agendaâ€â€¦one that denigrates patriotism and seeks to install a Marxist inspired version of socialism. Take a moment to do a Google search with the term “Obama Socialist Marxist agendaâ€. If that doesn’t convince you, Google “Obama Marxist Posters†and you’ll note the efforts to connect Obama to Che Guevara.
Of course, the reason they resort to these tactics is that the truth about them–phony wars, crippling budget deficits, selling out the nation to benefit the rich, corruption that would make Harding blush–loses votes.
Five Years of Magickal Thinking 0
Professor Cole:
I posit that each year of the war has been characterized by a central lie by the Bush propaganda machine.
Year 1: “There is no guerrilla war.”
Year 2: “Iraq is a model democracy.”
Year 3: “Zarqawi is causing all the trouble.”
Year 4: “There is no Civil War.”
Year 5: “Everything is calm now.”I also suggest that John McCain is pushing for:
Year 6: “Total victory is around the corner.”
Via Dan Froomkin.
Wright, Wrong, and Race 1
From time to time in this space, I have spoken of race and racism.
As a Southern boy, I grew up surrounded by racists and racism. I grew up with persons who referred to their farm hands as “my people” (and they meant it with full paternalistic overtones). And that was amongst the kinder references.
Granted, the outward manifestations of racism weren’t as bad in my part of the world as they were in some parts of the South. Black folks were not expected, for example, to step into the street to allow white folks to pass on the sidewalk.
They were just expected to give way, without actually stepping into the gutter.
I know all the code words of the racist.
And when the racists come up with new code words, I recognize them by some kind of subliminal instinct. Because I’ve lived in that life, thank you very much.
I know what it is like to be complimented by the old black cleaning lady (the same lady who took care of me while my brother was being born 14 years earlier and whose grandson was my earliest playmate, aside from my brother, and who was as kind to me as ever anyone I knew) as being special because, for God’s sake, I let her ride in the front seat of the car with me, rather than making her ride in the back seat.
Ride in the front seat.
I never thought to let her do otherwise, for heaven’s sake, because, thank God, my parents taught me to be equally polite to everyone, even those who had the handicap (I speak from the view of those times, not from the view of today) of being “colored.”
Sheesh.
I watched the racists switch from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, as the Democratic Party stopped playing the race card, even as the Republican Party played it with glee.
And with the run of Senator Obama for the nomination of the Democratic Party for president, boy, have the racist code words started to echo off the wall.
And they have echoed, I am sad to say, not just from the usual suspects (here and here, for example), but also from members of the Democratic Party itself. Who should know better, for heaven’s sake.
The legacy of institutionalized, legislated racism in this country did not disappear when our elected representatives incongruously assembled passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
It was two years after the passage of that bill when one–one!–black student entered my all-white high school. It was the next year when seven–seven!–more black students entered my high school. And this in an area where 65% of the student population was and is black.
And I still remember how worked up my Latin teacher was when, in a local newspaper article, my name was transposed with that of one of my fellow black students in a photo of the track team. I didn’t care, but she was ready to die on my behalf and couldn’t understand why I wasn’t mortified.
Gasp.
Gunnar Myrdal famously concluded that the “Negro problem” in America is a “white man’s problem.”
And so correct he was. And nothing that has happened in the sixty years since his pronouncement has impeached his conclusion in any way.
It is time to stop ignoring this history, time to stop pretending that the 1960’s civil rights and voting rights laws fixed everything, time to stop with the damned code words.
And time to stop wondering why minority people get offended when representatives of the white majority say rude, offensive, disgusting things.
To my fellow white folks, I say, “Grow up, already.”
It is time to realize that, even though the concept of race is, frankly, bullshit by any scientific measure, it is a great big elephant, no, there’s got to be a better word, elephants are bad gorilla in the room that no one is willing to deal with except through code words and innuendo. And that the institutionalized racism of chattel slavery, the institutionalized racism of Jim Crow laws that I grew up under, the institutionalized de facto segregation of Yankee cities that exists till this day (just watch a random Law and Order episode if you think the effects don’t linger–the show would not be so believable if it did not seem real) still poison our society.
So come now the racists, making a big fuss about some remarks by Senator Obama’s pastor.
I’ve mentioned before that, as far as I have observed, what weds Protestants to their churches is most likely the congregation (though certain pastors, like, for example, Ted Haggard, seem to have a magnetism all their own).
Pastors come, pastors go, I’ve never had a pastor in any church I attended with whom I agreed on everything.
I know that my father would not have left the little Baptist church in which he was raised and which he attended for 82 years because one of the pastors offended him; he would have soldiered on, because pastors come and pastors go.
But now come the racists attacking Senator Obama because of selected comments of the pastor of his church.
Give me a goddamned break from the racists for once please.
And just pay attention to what matters.
(snip)
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
It’s Because They’re Brown, Stupid 1
From the SPLC (emphasis added):
But on this morning in September 2006, Mancha, a U.S. citizen, found herself in a situation she never expected to encounter in her own home.
“I started to hear the words, ‘Police! Illegals!'” she said. “It seems as if those words still ring in my head today giving me that fear of them busting into my home. I walked around the corner from the hallway and saw a tall man reach toward his gun and look straight at me.”
She was caught in the middle of a botched immigration raid in southeast Georgia. Federal agents barged into homes without showing warrants and targeted U.S. citizens of Mexican descent, like Mancha, solely because of their skin color.
You tax dollars at work.
Legacy 1
The Guardian:
UN inspectors were on the ground in Iraq and had not found a single weapon of mass destruction. Iran had stopped making nuclear weapons and was seeking a grand bargain with the west. The quality of the army was at an all-time high, the US had a budget surplus and oil was $25 a barrel.
Five years later, after nearly 4,300 US and allied military deaths and the wounding of another 30,000, the direct expenditure of nearly $1 trillion dollars, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and the displacement of millions, the US is still containing Iraq. Only this time it is containing Iraq’s multiple civil wars and propping up its weak and dysfunctional central government.
The cost to the United States goes far beyond the direct cost of the unnecessary invasion and mishandled occupation. America’s reputation around the globe is in tatters, and the country has little moral standing even among its traditional allies.
Like I said.
Lap Suit 0
Oh, my.
(snip)
According to the lawsuit, as the dancer swung around, the heel of her shoe hit him in the eye, causing him “serious injuries.”
Drinking Liberally 0
Tomorrow, 6-9 p. m., Tangier Restaurant, 18th and Lombard, Philadelphia.
I won’t be there. I have the mother of all colds. So go hold up my end for me.
Bushonomics 0
No doubt Bear Stearns was full of MBAs also. As someone recently pointed out in another connection, it’s not the experience, it’s the judgement that counts (emphasis added):
This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be when Bush took office in 2001. His supporters touted him as the first “MBA president” — Bush holds a masters of business administration from Harvard University — who would run the executive branch like a corporate CEO and manage the economy like a business.
But Bush’s Democratic critics contend that billions of dollars have been wasted on the nearly 5-year-old Iraq war and the large tax cuts he engineered have mostly helped the rich while doing little to lift the poor.
He now faces the very real threat of ending his watch in recession.
Adding to U.S. economic woes are record high energy prices, with Bush showing himself all but powerless to coax Arab oil-producing allies to increase production.
Bush’s stewardship of the economy, once seen as a bright spot in a legacy likely to be dominated by Iraq, could now end up as a black mark on his presidential record.
Delaware Liberal calls it something else:
Changing Religions 1
A couple of weeks ago, there was a big furor about a report on American religious leanings. Radio Times devoted an hour to it. From the website:
America’s changing religious landscape. We talk with GREG SMITH one of the principal authors of the latest “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey” by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Some of the trends it found include: Protestants are becoming a minority, Catholicism is becoming heavily Hispanic, and more people are saying they’re not affiliated with any religion.
(To hear the show, go to the website and search for the February 28, 2008, show or listen here.)
On top of that, the local rag–not the one I subscribe to, because I want a paper with more than five minutes of content; the other one–had a story today about persons looking for compatible churches.
There are certainly big changes in the religious make-up of the United States, big changes driven by demographic changes.
Nevertheless, I believe that the much of the fuss was overdone. Much was said about members of Protestant denominations changing from one denomination to another. That is really No Big Deal.
I was raised a Southern Baptist. Leaving aside that the Sourthern Baptist Convention has, in recent years, abandoned one of its core tenets (freedom of religion) and fallen into the hands of the Pharisees, when I was looking for a new church in this part of the world, I really didn’t care what denomination it might be. The doctrinal differences among the main line Protestant denominations are really very very minor.
What I looked for was a congregation in which I could feel comfortable. The congregation I found happened to be Methodist.
The fact that Methodists believe in infant baptism and Baptists believe in baptism of the believer upon profession of faith really is not a deal breaker. (Since infants are incapable of professing faith, infant baptism, is, well, how should I put this? scripturally insupportable.)
Baptists also believe in priesthood of the believer, which means I can attend this Methodist church and discount those tenets of Methodism which, as a good Baptist, I find not to have a solid theological basis.
Here’s my point.
It’s really no big deal when Protestants move between denominations. It’s not worth making up trends and theories. Such movement is likely to have more to do with the atmosphere of the local congregation than it is to have to do with doctrinal disagreements, since, frankly, most Protestants don’t know much of anything about doctrine (If they did, the Donald Wildmons of the world would never get traction, but that’s another story). That’s just the way it is.
It’s a little bigger deal when Protestants become Catholics or Ukrainian Orthodox or vice versa, but only a little bigger. It’s still the same tent.
As far as I am concerned, the findings of the report in question were grossly overbown.
Bushonomics 0
What Ray predicted is coming true (emphasis added).
The regional office of the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday reported that the average price of food eaten at home had risen 2.3 percent from February 2007 to February 2008. Food eaten away from home rose 3.7 percent.
Get Pine View Farm on Your Mobile Device 0
I’ve turned my mobile plug-in back on. It seems to have nothing to do with the connection problems experienced by my brother some users.
Bushonomics 0
Bank runs (emphasis added).
I’ve heard about bank runs from my mother. They happened in the Great Depression.
In a move that eclipsed the enforced rescue of Northern Rock (a British bank–ed.) six months ago, the 85-year-old Wall Street institution admitted it was looking for a buyer after being thrown a temporary lifeline by rival bank JP Morgan Chase guaranteed by the US central bank.
George Bush sought to calm fears of a deep recession in the world’s biggest economy when he said that despite the current “tough times”, the US economy remained fundamentally sound.
But the president’s words did nothing to dampen speculation on Wall Street that other blue-chip investment banks may also be facing a cash crisis as a result of their exposure to the collapsing US real estate market.
The ratings agency Standard & Poor’s responded to the rescue announcement by cutting Bear Stearns’s credit rating to BBB – the second-lowest investment grade – putting more pressure on its beleaguered stock.
Speculation about Bear had mounted for days. By Thursday, worried institutional clients were withdrawing large sums of money. That evening, the Fed’s governors unanimously voted to come to the bank’s aid by guaranteeing a 28-day loan provided by JP Morgan Chase. “Bear Stearns has been subjected to a significant amount of rumour and speculation over the past week,” said Bear’s chief executive, Alan Schwartz. “Concern on the part of counter parties, on the part of customers and lenders, got to the point where a lot of people wanted to get their cash out.”
S(pl)urge 0
I told you so.
Petraeus, who is preparing to testify to Congress next month on the Iraq war, said in an interview that “no one” in the U.S. and Iraqi governments “feels that there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation,” or in the provision of basic public services.
John Cole seems to have taken it harder than I did.
