COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

How Obama Blew Pennsylvania


Pennsylvania according to Obama

For awhile, a week ago, I thought Obama would pull it off. He looked good. He sounded good. Then as often happens in politics or a sales pitch that lasts too long, Obama bought it back after he sold it. Every salesman should know that after you make the sale, quit talking. Obama made some missteps and his adversaries are not going to let it go. I doubt that many people in Pennsylvania really think that much about it, but one thing is clear; the magic is gone. A discordant note broke the spell.
__________________

In Darkest Pennsylvania
by Human Events, Patrick J. Buchanan
Posted: 04/15/2008

It was said behind closed doors to the chablis-and-brie set of San Francisco, in response to a question as to why he was not doing better in that benighted and barbarous land they call Pennsylvania.

Like Dr. Schweitzer, home from Africa to address the Royal Society on the customs of the upper Zambezi, Barack described Pennsylvanians in their native habitats of Atloona, Alquippa, Johnstown and McKeesport.

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and ... the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them.

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."


This is the pitch-perfect Hollywood-Harvard stereotype of the white working class, the caricature of the urban ethnic -- as seen from the San Francisco point of view.

As Linus clung to his security blanket, Barack is saying, out-state Pennsylvanians, bitter at the world that has passed them by, cling to their Bibles and guns and naturally revert to ancestral bigotries against "people who aren't like them" -- blacks, gays and immigrants.

Though he sees himself as a progressive who has risen above prejudice, Barack was reflecting and pandering to the prejudice of the class to which he himself belongs, and which he was then addressing.

A few months back, Michelle Obama revealed her mindset about America with the remark that, "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country." Barack has now revealed how he, too, sees the country. The Great Unifier divides the nation into us and them.

The "us" are the privileged cosmopolitan elite of San Francisco and his Ivy League upbringing. The "them" are the folks in the small towns and rural areas of that other America. Toward these folks, Obama's attitude is not one of hostility, but of paternalism. Because time has passed them by, Barack believes, they cannot, in their frustration and bitterness, be held fully accountable for their atavistic beliefs and behavior.

Though neither mocking nor malicious, Barack's remarks are, nonetheless, steeped in condescension. Inherent in his words is that these folks in Middle Pennsylvania are in need of empathy, education, assistance and perhaps therapy.

His remarks are of a piece with his address on civil rights that liberals have compared favorably to Lincoln's Second Inaugural.

Note, from that Philadelphia address, the highlighted words.

"Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race ... as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything. ... They ... feel their dreams slipping away ... opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense.

"Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism."

In Barack's mind, black anger and resentment at "racial injustice and inequality" are "legitimate." But the anger and resentment of white folks, about affirmative action, crime and forced busing are born of misperceptions -- and of "bogus claims of racism" manipulated and exploited by conservative columnists and commentators to keep the racial pot boiling and retain power, so the right can continue to do the bidding of the corporations that are the real enemy.

Barack has stumbled into the eternal failing of the left-wing populist. He cannot concede that the anger of white America -- that its right to equal justice has been sacrificed to salve the consciences of guilt-besotted liberals -- is a legitimate anger. The truth that Barack dare not speak is that reverse discrimination is pandemic and that the folks in Middle Pennsylvania have a valid grievance that ought to be addressed.

So, Barack sought in Philadelphia to redirect their anger.

"(T)hese white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze -- a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many."

Barack is not wrong here. Corporations, out of naked greed, have deserted America. And the Clinton and Bush administrations have been unresponsive to the social impact of deindustrialization. But Barack cannot concede that white Americans are today's victims of state-sanctioned racism.

A gifted candidate, Barack, after stumbling for 48 hours, has regained his footing with his witty ripostes about Hillary being "Annie Oakley" with her "six-shooter," spending her Sunday mornings "out on the duck blind."

Obama's remarks about small-town America told us little about small-town America, but a lot about Barack. He is yet another cookie-cutter liberal who has absorbed and internalized the prejudices of that blinkered breed. He is an African-American John Lindsay, the great liberal hope of the Nixon-Agnew era, of whom Frank Manckiewicz once said: He was the only populist he knew who played squash every day at the Yale Club.


137 comments:

  1. My wife's county, Lawrence, in the 6th District, went for Hillary 78%, most of any in the 6th. These people are the kind that bury there dead horses in the back yard.
    ---
    Unfortunately, the exit polls only tell us so much. Nevertheless, we've seen enough data to know which socioeconomic groups he's(Obama) having trouble with: rural/small town whites who do not make a lot of money. We can confirm this by looking at the counties in Ohio's sixth congressional district, which makes up most of the Ohio River Valley. This is the premier swing district of the 21st century. Bush won it by 5,000 votes in 2000 and 2004. Obama did horribly there last month, as the following chart details. REALCLEARPOLITICS

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  2. I do love the banjo. Flatt and Scruggs, anyone?

    Obama never had any hope of winning Pennsylvania. He'll end up with the nomination, though.

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  3. the best comment that Ive seen on Bittergate:

    neal5x5 :

    Date: April 14, 2008 @ 6:08 pm

    Thanks to Obama and his magic powers, I’m going to accept the wisdom of my social betters and let go of the bitterness in my soul. I don’t need the freedom to defend myself, the freedom to worship as I choose, or the freedom to associate with whom I will. I accept Obama into my life and embrace the change that his love will bring me. Obamadammit, it feels good to be free of bitterness!


    kudos to neal5x5 over at The Real Revo. Sorry to lazy to tag

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  4. How the MSM blew the whole election for both parties:
    Selective reporting and drumbeating.
    Obama was the only guy in Iowa that knew the price of arugula at the local healthfood store.
    (that didn't carry it)
    Big John was almost universally hated by the pubs.
    But here we are.

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  5. Hill never knows when to shutup when Barry shoots himself in the foot, gotta play Annie Oakley, with glorious manufactured details for Barry to riff on.

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  6. Another has given his life over to Obama.

    Easier than giving oneself over to Jesus, where you still have to think for yourself.

    But then, I'm a bitter xenophobic man, armed, biblically literate.

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  7. Cutler said...
    "Hopefully free trade will lead to free people.

    Much cheaper than arms, pays for itself in fact.
    "
    ---
    Imagine, a smart boy like that!
    Guess maybe livin through the Chi-com experience from ping pong diplomacy to present gives a different perspective than readin about it!

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  8. The good ole boy, and you Deuce, would never have voted for Obama anyway so I don't think he'll loose too much over his gaffe speaking a bit of truth.

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  9. Geez Ash, I had my finger close to the lever.

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  10. Trish, how about a COOOloombian news letter. Whit will send you a key to the front door.

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  11. well, bobal, when your turn comes in November you just may pull that lever. This tempest in a teapot will also pass especially once we get on to the fun stuff McCain has to offer (temper, looney wife, long record, war-mongering ect.)

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  12. Researchers at Cambridge University have determined that testosterone and cordisol (a stress hormone) play a part in financial market instability.
    Their recommendation is to hire women and older men as traders.
    Read all about it

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  13. Yes, Trish, send your email address to:

    elephant.bar@hotmail.com

    I'll set you up as a barkeep and you can begin posting your "Letter from Colombia."

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  14. Well, I feel of sound mind now, but come November one never knows. I am writting instructions to my wife now, to watch me vote absentee, and shoot me if I mark my X for Obama. And destroy the ballot.

    It's possible the reverse process might happen with you Ash, and you come to your senses by then.

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  15. yessss, time will tell, though looking at the 3 choices it seems pretty clear who is the best decision maker. The folly of poor decision making has been made painfully apparent the last 8 years.

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  16. If I live to be 109, maybe I'll become a successful trader.
    ...and be safe around women.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Carter Kisses Palestinian Terrorist competing with President Bush and the King of Saudia Arabia.

    Sickening.

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  18. Colombian newsletter:

    It rained again today. Can somebody please, for God's sake, do something about that? We came for the WEATHER, man. (That's the Bogota newsletter. The guys in Melgar or Cartegena have a completely different story.) Oh, yeah, I have this running toilet in the master bath...

    I dunno, dear host. Have to think about it.




    I dunno, dear host, I'll have to think about it.

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  19. careful Trish, if you post on the front page we can tar and feather you with 'their' views. Like Obama and Wright ;)

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  20. Obama the self-made man.
    Synthetic from head to toe.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Our dog's here. She loves it.

    Kitten is off to it's (oil executive's daughter's) rightful owner.

    Should I throw in recipes?

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  22. Redefines the expression,
    "How do you know when Barry's lying?"
    ---
    It's been a safe bet since he learned how to talk.

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  23. yessss, time will tell, though looking at the 3 choices it seems pretty clear who is the best decision maker.

    Yessss, indeedy, a statement even Hamas can agree with.

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  24. Recipes? Absolutely, cook 'em up and bring them in. I'm tired of the boiled eggs and pickled pigsfeet we've been serving here.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Thomas Sowell writes about Obama in A Living Lie

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  26. I'd be interested in condo prices, Trish, just to exercise my imagination, dream of far away. exotic lands.

    There a real estate broker here who is a real shit. Same high school class as me. One of his many excellent deeds was leaving his Columbian born wife to wander around the streets of Moscow for awhile, as he ran off with his new secretary. She finally made it back home, bitter and xenophobic, with good reason.

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  27. Colombian, jeez, I'd better vote just as soon as I can.

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  28. FWIW, my mother, who's never voted for a Republican in her entire life and is ardently for leaving both Iraq and Afghanistan, was leaning towards McCain a few weeks ago, since in her eyes he was the only relatively honest one of the bunch. Guess that'll cancel your mother, Trish.

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  29. Cutler, just curious, what is it that has your mum thinking Obama is dishonest? Was it the NAFTA contradiction? Or has she just fallen for the slogan on McCain's bus?

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  30. "Imagine, a smart boy like that!
    Guess maybe livin through the Chi-com experience from ping pong diplomacy to present gives a different perspective than readin about it!"


    I trust the current government to care about our interests about as far as I can throw them. But I'd rather not add Cold War II to our plate, if it can be helped. Hopefully there's still a few decades to figure out where that country's going.

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  31. Less to do with McCain than dislike and distrust of Clinton (of whom she was once a big fan) and Obama.

    I couldn't say for sure, but I suspect Jeremiah Wright's house of goodness and non-bitterness contributed.

    Not one for sanctimoniousness.

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  32. My mother has always adored her son-in-law, who has had, since the year after we were married, a cross-stitched and framed work that says "Republican Born and Republican Bred. When I Die I'll Be Republican Dead."

    Agree? Not always.

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  33. Bush on Global Warming   
    [Ramesh Ponnuru]
    Over atPlanet Gore, there's a lot of discussion, stimulated by a Washington Times
    story, about what President Bush is going to say tomorrow about climate change.
    My understanding is that Bush is not going to unveil or endorse any
    grand new legislation, and that he remains opposed to the Warner-Lieberman
    cap-and-trade bill.
    His aides are, however, offering advice to senators who are
    also opposed to cap-and-trade but want alternative anti-global warming
    legislation. Bush and his aides also believe that it would be better for
    Congress to legislate on global warming than for regulatory agencies to set that
    policy on their own
    , and he may make that point in his comments tomorrow.

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  34. "Republican Born and Republican Bred. When I Die I'll Be Republican Dead."


    hahahaha...I like that! Sounds like my mother-in-law, who, while always voing republican, had the good sense to always agree with whatever anyone else said about anything, thereby avoiding all arguments, and being liked all around.

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  35. What's with those whitey tighties on that boy?

    Wearin' skivvies in the woods, no wonder Obama is winnin' in the latest poll spoke of on FOX News.

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  36. Ash,
    His entire life is a living lie,
    what's so hard to get about that,
    instead of niggling details?

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  37. Infidelo-fascists

    Jihad in Turkey
    Andrew C. McCarthy chronicles our Willful Blindness.
    Wartime Malpractice

    You won’t ever hear from them the slightest misgiving — no careful references to Infidelo-fascists so as not to offend all the wonderful moderate infidels out there.

    Remember when the Israelis built their security fence and reduced Palestinian suicide bombings by about 95 percent?

    Prompted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the U.N.’s Court of International Justice promptly pronounced the fence — a passive, life-saving defense measure — to be a shameful violation of international law.
    In a nutshell, that’s where we’re headed:

    Ruled by a delusion that, in a world full of lawless savages abetted by rogue regimes, legal processes will save rather than enervate us.

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  38. Obama is a screen that folks project their hopes upon. Then they see Obama from the skewed perspective of thier own hopes. Very strange, not at all a rational look at the facts.

    As now we are reviewing Obama's direct statements, not by statements of association, to no more negative effect.

    Super teflon, so far.
    There could be that latent racial tensions in the "old folk" that make them suspect of a black man.

    Overcome by the youth vote turning out, if not in droves, at least in dribbles

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  39. "Motivated reasoning" as Megan McCardle rightly pegged it in this last month's Atlantic.

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  40. The results in Pakistan and Turkey are indicitive of the next steps in the democratic revolution that is sweeping across the Mohammedan Arc.
    Look, though, to who is brought to power, in free and fair elections.
    Hamas, Hezbollah, Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of murdered opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and head of her Pakistan People's Party, met with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Tuesday in Islamabad.

    Obama as the Dem candidate for President is an invitation to disaster, while AlGore/Obama would trounce McCain/Anybody.
    Even McCain/Rice

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  41. Would not be surprised to see AlGore emerge as the candidate, on the second ballot, in Denver.

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  42. I like Obama's emphasis on taking all my money and using it to end world poverty.

    Rat, do you know, before the income tax amendment, did the Federal government have the power to tax real estate? Not gains on property sales, but, just property taxes. They never did, but could they have?

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  43. Hard for the Dems to crow about the democratic process, will of the people and all that if Gore should head up the ticket. Ain't gonna happen...

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  44. Pennslyvanians have an illustrious history of punishing those who Step In It

    "I'm the savior of this sorry ass state", one losing candidate said.

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  45. Once the prohibitive front-runner, Clinton's hopes of winning the nomination now rest on her ability to finish the primary season with a series of strong victories, beginning next week in Pennsylvania.

    She then must persuade enough superdelegates _ party officials who are not picked by the voters _ that she is a more electable candidate than Obama, and overtake him in the weeks immediately after the primary season ends on June 3 in Montana and South Dakota.

    So far, despite the furor over his remarks, Obama has not lost the public support of any previously committed superdelegate.


    Once Front-runner

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  46. No doubt calling Obama a Phoney just because he is a Phoney belies the latent racism of old folks!
    Jeesh!
    He LIES ABOUT WHY HE WAS CONCEIVED!
    He LIES about his own grandmother.
    He lies about whatever he needs to lie about to make his phoney persona "whole."

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  47. Trish chimes in w/the latest bs from her left-wing readings.

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  48. Motivated BS you brainwashed ninnies!

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  49. People who criticise Dave Duke are closet racists.

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  50. Oh, for Christ's sake, Doug.

    You don't even know what she had to say.

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  51. 35,000 Year Old Tools Unearthed In Australia

    Sydney--Tools dating back at least 35,000 yearts have been unearthed in a rock shelter in Austalia's remote northwest, making it one of the oldest archaeological finds in that part of the country, archaeologists said recently.

    The tools include a piece of flint the size of a small cell-phone and hundreds of tiny sharp stones that were used as knives. One local Abo elder saw it as vindication of what his people have said all along--that they have inhabited this land for tens of thousands of years.

    "I'm ecstatic, I'm over the moon, because it's now indisputqable," Slim Parker, and elder of the Martidja people told AP.

    The tools, along with seeds, bark and other plant material, were found nearly 6 1/2 feet below the floor of the shelter on the edges of an iron ore mine.

    "This area of land, in regard to our culture and customs and beliefs, is of great significance to us," Parker said. "We have songs and stories relating to that area as a sustaining resource that has provided for and cared for our people for thousands of years."

    "These could be another 5,000 to 10,000 years old, and that would be really exciting," archaeologist Draper said, refering to finds in the dirt layers below the tools. The find is significant because it confirmed that the first people had moved into the more arid parts of Australia earlier than previously known.
    ----
    That might put it back 45,000 years ago, there.

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  52. First it was Princeton- and Harvard-educated Michelle Obama finally being proud of her country. Then it was Jeremiah Wright's tirades.

    Now this.

    Pandering to $2,300-a-head donors on San Francisco's Billionaire's Row, Obama was right at home.


    What's Up with Obama?

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  53. Thanks to you, Michael Kelley is turning over in his grave about now.

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  54. About the same time Obama was sweet-talking San Francisco sophisticates, the senator from New York and her sometime campaign partner at long last made public their tax returns from 2001 to 2007. During those years, the Clintons reported earning $109 million, mostly in speaking fees and book deals.

    It's a tough life being a critical elitist.

    Damn, I knew I should have gone into the critical elitist business. Even podiatry would have paid better than farming.

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  55. (2008-04-15) — As former President Jimmy Carter meets this week with Hamas leaders in the West Bank and Syria, sources at the State Department say President George Bush will soon honor Mr. Carter’s decades of freelance diplomacy by appointing him as the first U.S. Ambassador to Hell.

    “Bush just wants Carter to go there,” said an unnamed State Department source, “and to set up an embassy, and try to be a good listener, open a communication channel, find common ground.”

    Mr. Carter has said his discussions with prominent Hamas member Nasser al-Shaer today and with the group’s exiled leader Khaled Mashaal on Friday will seek to discover areas of flexibility on the part of the terrorist organization which exists to destroy Israel.

    Mr. Bush reportedly chose Mr. Carter as U.S. Ambassador to Hell because it’s a post that will allow the aging former president “to just keep on doing what he’s been doing on the foreign relations front for many years.”

    scrappleface

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  56. Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith Youth Core based in Chicago, said that he was inspired as a boy by the interreligious outreach of the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.

    Patel, a Muslim born in India, said he had no concerns at all about participating in the Washington gathering, even though he wished the Easter conversion hadn't been so public.

    "I think that we have to find ways to cooperate on important matters concerning the earth, including climate change, reducing disease, reducing poverty, increasing respect," he said. "That's where our focus should be."


    Eboo Patel

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  57. doug, you are so sensitive.

    Darkies hidin' in the shadows?
    Ready to pounce!

    Well, sure, Obama is a roll of whole clothe, to be tailored to suit each individual hope.

    For changes' sake!

    The process in Denver is easy to forecast, ash.
    Each side votes its' pledges, on the first round. Neither wins, the super delegates, some vote, most abstain.
    No one wins on the first go-round.

    Tensions are high, the Party ready to splinter, when Gore steps in or is drafted.

    Choose Obama as the VP in the deal, which will annoit him the successor, in '16.

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  58. I went to college with a guy identical to Barry.
    (gave some examples at BC)
    Phoney as phoney could be.
    White.
    You imply racisim in others while ignoring the manifest racism of Obama and Co.

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  59. I lived with a Black guy for a while who actually DID escape one night by hiding in the bushs!
    ...offloading bales of some kind on the central coast.

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  60. A bunch of white guys w/him got caught in the moonlight in their whiteness.

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  61. Americans are "right to be offended when the extravagant salaries and severance deals of CEOs -- in some cases, the very same CEOs who helped to bring on these market troubles -- bear no relation to the success of the company or the wishes of shareholders," McCain remarked.

    "Something is seriously wrong," he added, "when the American people are left to bear the consequences of reckless corporate conduct, while Mr. (James) Cayne of Bear Stearns, Mr. (Angelo) Mozilo of Countrywide, and others are packed off with another 40 or 50 million for the road."

    That populism went beyond words, with McCain calling not only for a summertime suspension of the gas tax and a halt to filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.


    Tax Cutter McCain

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  62. Just heard that CEO stuff on Rush, Sam.
    We won't be hearin Big John complain about the Clinton's Hundred Million in 5 years, tho.

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  63. "Pope Benedict XVI began a six-day visit to the United States after a flight during which he made his most extensive remarks about the child-abuse scandal."
    ---
    Everybody's favorite Saint, John, was a bit more tight-lipped about that stuff.

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  64. Doug: Everybody's favorite Saint, John, was a bit more tight-lipped about that stuff.

    When Pope Benny was still Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, he called pedophilia in the priesthood "filth" and won kudos from me for doing so. It's a hornet's nest he needs to clean up, and he's already 81 years old.

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  65. "Pedophilia is absolutely incompatible with the priesthood," Benedict said. "It is more important to have good priests than many priests.

    We will do everything possible to heal this wound."

    "That's very powerful, very strong. That's even more powerful than even most people would have expected," said Ray Flynn, the former ambassador to the Vatican.


    Abuse Scandal

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  66. You know what is kind of ironic about all this kerfuffle about Obama's SF comments? What he said wasn't "politically correct". Those that wail about PC'ness are now wailing about PC'ness.

    hehehe

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  67. What he said wasn't "politically correct".

    Oh yes it was, for that group. The 'mike' got left on.

    I was going to suggest you go into the critical elitist business, Ash, but now I'm not sure you have the knack.

    hehehe

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  68. On the other hand, you have the right carbon footprint for a critical elitist, flying to Arizona to play golf, as People Starve

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  69. Racism is a natural part of human nature, but is also something we can overcome. Unfortunately, the current stigma against a natural occurring psychological reaction only creates more fear and anxiety.

    The white participants in the Northwestern study instinctively avoided the stimuli that made them nervous; in this case it was interaction with a seemingly threatening black person. This same pattern of avoidance has been found attached to other stimuli, such as pain.

    In order to increase acceptance, what we need to address is not eradicating prejudice, which is impossible, but rather what can be done about prejudice when it does occur.


    PC Makes Racism Worse

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  70. Isn't anybody pissed off at the government, over one complaint, seizing all these kids out of their mothers' arms, in Texas? To me it seems a little draconian; they should have gone after the patriarchs if they want to do a mass roundup. Embarrass Romney at a critical juncture in vp discussions? Nah.

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  71. I thought I saw the other day that this cult's got nothing to do with the Mormons.

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  72. Isn't' it the old Mormon way, rednecks that didn't keep up with the times, when the Mormons changed? I'm not sure.

    World's Biggest Garbage Dump

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  73. John McCain named former eBay CEO Meg Whitman as a possible cabinet member if he is elected President of the United States in the Fall, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Ever since it became public that Whitman co-chaired Mitt Romney's national finance committee (she switched camps when Romney dropped out of the race), it was rumored that Whitman was angling for a top spot in the next administration.

    But the billionaire businesswoman will have to take a pay cut. According to the newspaper, McCain said he would ask his cabinet to serve for "a dollar a year."

    The author joked, "Of course, when you're a billionaire, it's a little easier to give up that $166,700 annual salary from the federal government."


    Buck/Year

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  74. Sam: I thought I saw the other day that this cult's got nothing to do with the Mormons.

    Yeah, this cult of pedophile polygamists was the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Mormons are just plain vanilla Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Nothing in common at all.

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  75. I do not ignore it, doug, it is the market that does.

    Obama gets a pass.
    The reasons are not for me to endorse, but to see and therefore, believe.

    No leap of faith required

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  76. Same book, same Christ
    Different spin to the preaching

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  77. National Democrats remain strongly divided by education as to their preferences for their party's presidential nomination, with less well-educated Democrats supporting Hillary Clinton, while those with college and postgraduate educations are just as strongly skewed toward Barack Obama.

    ...

    Black Democrats strongly favor Obama regardless of their educational level. Among non-Hispanic white Democrats, the difference in support for the two candidates remains large among those with postgraduate educations, and becomes greater among those with high school educations or less.

    ...

    One of the most significant issues in the Democratic campaign this year was the focus on the controversial sermons of Obama's former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Even though overt objections to Obama's race did not appear to be behind the educational differences among white Democrats, it is possible that the focus on the Wright controversy could have affected the support for Obama among Democrats with lower levels of education, as some have suggested.


    Obama Dominates College Grads

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  78. PHOENIX (Associated Press) -- Sen. John McCain's status as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has done little to ease the criticism he faces from a small but vocal group of conservatives in his home state.

    A week ago, Republican activists living in the same state legislative district as McCain rejected nearly all the names his campaign submitted as candidates to become delegates to the party's state convention on May 10.

    Six people on McCain's slate eventually became delegates, said Rob Haney, the district's Republican chairman and McCain's most prominent critic in Arizona.

    "The people who know him like him the least. He is a media darling, so the general population doesn't know his record _ and conservatives do," Haney said, though noting he doesn't believe the development could derail McCain's campaign.

    The group of conservatives has dogged McCain since he first ran for Congress in 1982, objecting to his views on illegal immigration and campaign finance, among other issues. They rallied around him during the "Keating Five" scandal but were turned off by his moderate positions in the 2000 presidential race.

    While the group has at times been an embarrassment, McCain remains strong in Arizona. The latest polls show him with a sizable lead in the state in matchups against either of his two Democratic rivals.

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  79. You know what is kind of ironic about all this kerfuffle about Obama's SF comments? What he said wasn't "politically correct".

    - ash

    Western Penn, at least, is full of skanks and retards.

    After a casual perusal.

    And I don't think that most western Pennsylvanians will disagree.

    According to my daughter, though, it beats Richmond.

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  80. Who in the fuck are we kidding?

    Small town and backwater are often nasty and just damned depressing.

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  81. Small town and backwater are often nasty and just damned depressing.

    True

    And Vegas, LA and New York City suck.

    True

    About the best you can do is a midsized town with a college, but I'm prejudiced. Or a good working farm.

    Try to get a good wife or husband, that helps alot.

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  82. The renegade Mormon sect is led by Warren Jeffs, who was convicted last year in Utah of being an accomplice to rape and is awaiting trial in Arizona on similar charges.

    A company founded and run by members of the church received more than $1.1 million in government contracts between 2003-2007, a federal online database shows. Most of that money was spent by the Department of Defense on aircraft wheel and brake parts.

    NewEra Manufacturing's president and CEO is John Wayman, a sect member who runs the Las Vegas business. NewEra was previously known as Western Precision Inc. and based in Hildale, Utah, where thousands of church members live.


    Polygamist Retreat

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  83. In Salt Lake City, dozens of polygamist wives - with children in tow - held a rally to denounce the Texas raid.

    Polygamist Wives All Shook Up

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  84. Their wages were automatically tithed to the church, Sam, for their eternal good. :)

    You're goin' to heaven, like it or not....

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  85. Offshoots continued the old ways, and bitterness between the two runs deep.

    “All the polygamists all over the world are up in arms over this,” said Marvin Wyler, a polygamist and former sect member in Colorado City, Ariz. “How can they not be, seeing children taken from their parents?”

    Mr. Wyler, 63, who has two wives, 63 and 58, said he knew what it was like to be separated from parents by the state. He was taken from his family in a 1944 police raid in Utah, and his father went to jail and his mother to a mental institution, he said.


    Sharing Tears

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  86. Roy, from Southend, U.K. says--

    If there is abuse, it is the abuser who should be taken away and isolated, not the victims. These children will be terribly traumatised by these actions.

    Let's hope it doesn't give our own social workers ideas, they'll be descending on whole streets, housing estates, and villages en masse to haul our children away. We should all be afraid if Texas gets away with this.

    - Roy, Southend, UK

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  87. POLYGAMISTS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

    Where are our muslim brothers and sisters when solidarity is needed?

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  88. You got multifockers down there in Australia, Sam?

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  89. Just morning chores, deuce, why would people think it a myth? That hay, by the way, is real comfortable to roll around on.

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  90. Shee-it. I'm movin' to Moscow.

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  91. Hicks probably had it in the back of his mind to introduce polygamy to Australia. Kind of a smirky bastard from the wiki pic, a little like Lee Harvey Oswald.

    More than welcome to, Sam. We can start you out at the University of Idaho Cattle Barns, where plenty of co-eds work. You'll pick it up real fast.

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  92. Nasty "small" towns:

    A kid w/a scholarship to Stanford getting ethnically cleansed in front of his house by illegal Latino felons protected by the Mayor and Police Chief, otoh, is downright Cosmo and Urbane.

    White racists tend to be dealt with rather swiftly, Hispanics in urban America, not so much.

    no truth to what your mom says about mongrelizing our society, tho, Trish, right?

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  93. When markets malfunction because incentives are misaligned, information asymmetry exists, and there are large externalities imposing costs on innocent bystanders, government intervention is called for: not to replace the invisible hand with the long arm of government, but to replace an atrophied hand with one capable of functioning. Mortgage brokers who misinformed borrowers can be prosecuted; lenders can be made to retain some of the risk associated with any loan they make rather than securitize the entire loan and pass the risk off as part of a bundle; rating agencies can be barred from accepting fees from lenders, eager for an AAA rating for the securitized bundle of loans that they plan to peddle, or rating agencies can be required to assume some of the risk of nonpayment.

    Yes, these are regulations. But of a special kind.

    They are aimed at making markets work better, so that further government intrusion is not necessary to protect consumers. Yes, there is a risk of creating moral hazard, or of creating government agencies that don't die a natural death when they are no longer needed.


    Inner Teddy Roosevelt

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  94. Your old dry skin don't get itchy rollin around like that, Al-Bop?
    You an Alien, or somethin?

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  95. Your old dry skin

    What old dry skin? And I'm not ailin'.

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  96. Real helpful to have 9th graders dropping into class that can't speak English, according to an LAUSD Board Member.
    (she's a cleansing candidate now)

    All you mofo's that are so compassionate about the sweet little invaders don't seem to give a shit about what happens to the REST of the kids in those destroyed classes.

    ...or in the CLOSED Hospitals.

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  97. Cherry Juice did the trick, huh?

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  98. Trish's mom said that? I thought she was a democrat. They can't say that.

    Juice o' the cherry.

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  99. You must have noticed, al-Bob, the younger people are the more PC-Brainwashed in general.
    Cutler being the exception that proves the rule.
    Mom may be a Democrat,
    but her mind ain't washed.

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  100. Life in LA in the 50's versus now a clear example, yet some still profess not to see.

    Eyes Wide Shut.

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  101. One illegal immigrant in the Chicago area who was driving a cab because construction work had dried up said he was thinking of chucking it all and going back home, the implication being, however, that he would sneak back if times improved.

    And that brings up another point. One research economist told the Journal that apprehensions of illegal immigrants are considered a leading indicator, meaning they are early warning signs of what is to come.

    These numbers begin to fall as much as a year before an economic downturn, then pick up again in advance of good times.


    Illegal Indicator

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  102. Don't get me wrong, I love small towns. As a spectator.

    I've got my eye on one, Buchanan, VA, for retirement. Why? The setting is magnificent.

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  103. No comment about the mongrelizing.
    ...all systems normal.

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  104. The pope met in private with the Bushes for about 15 minutes but made no public remarks. This was the president's second meeting with Benedict, after a Vatican visit in June.

    Eileen Dickey and her two children -- Jamie, who has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair, and daughter Gabrielle -- were in the front row of the risers at Andrews. The Anne Arundel County family was attending because Dickey's husband works in security at the base.

    "It would be great to talk" to the pope, Gabrielle said. "But as long as I can see him, that's okay."


    Historic Visit

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  105. Does anyone have any idea as to what happened to Allen?

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  106. I love my mom, but the woman has this thing against the...swarthy. It's a part of her upbringing.

    She's a northern Europe fanatic (once a year, at least) and doesn't really glom onto anything else. As she freely admits.

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  107. Allen..

    That rings a bell. From the old BC days?

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  108. What happened to Fred, for that matter. Damn, he could post some good shit. Problem with his mother-in-law, or something, as I recall.

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  109. Funny, that Trish mentions Buchanan, VA. I have to be in Charlottesville, VA tomorrow for lunch.

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  110. I wish Allen would show up too, and I hope he is ok.

    no truth to what your mom says about mongrelizing our society, tho, Trish, right?
    11:33

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  111. If you get a chance to meet Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the U.S., how should you act? NPR asked Monsignor K. Bartholomew Smith.

    ...

    If you are invited to an audience with the pope or will be attending an event where he'll be present, this is a time to put on your best, says Smith. For men, that means a jacket and tie and polished shoes.

    ...

    Stand and applaud, the monsignor says. He says applause for the pope often varies according to the type and place of the event.


    Papal Etiquette

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  112. My grandfather had a "bloody wogs" issue. That was before there was such a thing as an issue.

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  113. Black Billionaire Says Ferraro Had It Right that Obama wouldn't be where he is if he were white, with his positions.

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  114. Sam, It is refreshing to see some straight honest talk about race. I better get some rack time.

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  115. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  116. Papal Etiquette

    this is a time to put on your best, says Smith. For men, that means a jacket and tie and polished shoes.

    Just like Jesus always demanded of his followers.

    Nite, deuce, thank you for all the effort you guys put into this.

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  117. Maximo Garcia, the 31-year-old father of soon-to-be baptized Yoselin, speaks excellent English. His wife Yolanda's is decent.

    But they said it would never occur to them to attend an English Mass. Not only do they doubt their proficiency, but they know only other Hispanics.

    And they value that fellowship.


    Changing Church

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  118. There's a HQ in Charlottesville.

    Nice place.

    Not as nice as Buchanan.

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  119. Obscured amid the failures of Israel’s 2006 Lebanon War was the extent to which Tel Aviv’s wartime leaders were willing to wager on speculative, strategically dubious, image-boosting operations.

    ...

    As the war dragged on and Hezbollah continued to pummel the Israeli homeland with daily rocket barrages, IDF leaders turned up the pressure for positive publicity. Tel Aviv brass became increasingly impatient with IDF’s Northern Command for failure to deliver the digital goods, and the frustration in turn filtered down through the chain of command.

    ...

    Information now available through the Winograd report and three books published by Israel’s leading correspondents illustrates the extent to which IDF leaders fell victim to their own self-generated psychological warfare.


    Hoisted by its Own PR

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  120. From the be careful what you wish for department--

    Some gay couples are having trouble obtaining divorces By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer
    Tue Apr 15, 7:02 PM ET

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Gay couples had to struggle mightily to win the right to marry or form civil unions. Now, some are finding that breaking up is hard to do, too.

    In Rhode Island, for example, the state's top court ruled in December that gays married in neighboring Massachusetts can't get divorced here because lawmakers have never defined marriage as anything but a union between a man and woman. In Missouri, a judge is deciding whether a lesbian married in Massachusetts can get an annulment.

    "We all know people who have gone through divorces. At the end of that long and unhappy period, they have been able to breathe a sigh of relief," said Cassandra Ormiston of Rhode Island, who is splitting from her wife, Margaret Chambers. But "I do not see that on my horizon, that sigh of relief that it's over."

    Over the past four years, Massachusetts has been the only state where gay marriage is legal, while nine other states allow gay couples to enter into civil unions or domestic partnerships that offer many of the rights and privileges of marriage. The vast majority of these unions require court action to dissolve.

    Gay couples who still live in the state where they got hitched can split up with little difficulty; the laws in those states include divorce or dissolution procedures for same-sex couples. But gay couples who have moved to another state are running into trouble.

    Massachusetts, at least early on, let out-of-state gay couples get married there practically for the asking. But the rules governing divorce are stricter. Out-of-state couples could go back to Massachusetts to get divorced, but they would have to live there for a year to establish residency first.

    "I find that an unbelievably unfair burden. I own a home here, my friends are here, my life is here," said Ormiston, who is resigned to moving to Massachusetts for a year.
    --
    Oh the headaches of the married life...till death do us part.

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  121. The study calls for more natural and ecological farming techniques to be used and a reduction in the distance between production and the consumer.

    Right, and I can tell you with absolute authority and certainty that would lead to mass death. The fact is the way it is being done with machinery and herbicides and insectidices now is the most ecological it has ever been, at least in North America. If they are talking about slash and burn in the third world, sure, but not in the industrial world.

    With these price rises, it's time for the government to let the farmers buy out of the Conservation Reserve Contracts. I heard a blurb on the radio today, and I'm not saying it's true, that the USA had to import some wheat recently, for the first time in forever. It's time to open up those CRP contracts. Since I'm going to Farm Sevices next week I was planning on asking what's up with that, and will report.

    Hey Sam, if you hear about big droughty conditions, or other ag disasters, in Australia, keep it posted, would you?

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  122. We're in the middle of drought where I'm at right now. Been going on since '00.

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  123. Man, that is a whole lotta stuff in that sky. You'd think there'd be something out there.

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