Oy Vey, Maria

Ken AshfordElection 2008, Race, Right Wing Punditry/Idiocy4 Comments

Oh, Marie Jon Apostrophe.  You’re so self-parodying, it’s not even fun anymore:

Hope and change worth having without an Obama racial test

Ok.  So I’m going to gather from Marie’s awkwardly worded headline, that she is in favor of hope and change.  Not in favor of Obama’s racial test (I guess we’ll have to wait and see what that means), but nevertheless, Marie is happily in favor of "hope" and "change".

Let us be extremely wary when we ask for "change."

Ok, maybe not so happily.

The Democrat Party is guilty of injecting race into the presidential campaign.

Oh, are we now?  Let’s take a look at some of Marie’s columns from the last few months….

And those are just the headlines.  Why it seems that almost every week in her column, Marie wants to remind her readers that Obama is, you know, black.  BLACK, I tells ya!  But of course, it’s the Democratic Party that is injecting race into the presidential campaign (presumably by running a candidate who has a different race than everybody else).

America is no longer a racist country, and Americans are deeply offended when it is portrayed as such.

Yes, I never see or hear about racism in this country.  Why, it’s totally unheard of.  It just doesn’t happen.

Seriously, that’s a bizarre statement to say, Marie, given how Jesse Helms just died and the right wingosphere is falling all over themselves to sing his praises.

These accusations and the apprehension tied to them have been insidiously worked into our collective subconscious. Keep that in mind when you’re feeling guilty for something in which you most likely took no part. The days of slavery and segregation are gone.

Oh, I see.  Unless you’re actually whipping the coloreds in the cotton fields, or preventing from drinking from white drinking fountains, then it can’t be called "racism".  Good to know.

It is not anyone’s imagination that voices of dissent have been heard throughout our land ever since Obama became a lightning rod for Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s bigoted inflammatory words: "God Damn America."

Actually, Wright’s words were not inspired by Obama.  Had nothing to do with Obama.  They came from Wright’s experiences with racism, which, as Marie insists, does not exist.

Something very evil has been purposefully created. Many Americans know and feel this. Some can’t quite put their finger on it, but they can sense trouble. If we are not wise and prudent, our country will move into a very dangerous area.

Translation: "I don’t know what it is about Barry Hussein Obama, the first black presidential candidate ever, but it’s something.  Something I can’t quite put my white finger on…."

This is not the time for problems caused by manipulative racial divisiveness.

Especially the kind of deviseness caused by Barry Hussein Obama, who, we want to stress, is the first black presidential candidate ever.  I mean, seriously.  The dude is black.

It has been noted that, in his world, it is perfectly acceptable for Barack Obama to play the race card.

Noted by….?

He will undoubtedly continue to do so if and when he sits in the Oval Office.

Undoubtedly.

Obama is not a uniter; he only sounds like one.

As opposed to McCain, who doesn’t sound like a uniter.  Oh, wait.  That’s not good.

What legislator will dare question President Obama with the spectre of being branded a racist looming before them?

Poor Marie.  She just wonders why, oh why, can’t we live in a world where Obama’s race can’t be pointed out with nearly every breath without being called a "racist".

It was no coincidence that the woman who sang at the Denver State of The City Address was inspired to change the words of our National Anthem. She did so because Obama is the presumptive presidential candidate for the Democrat Party. The lyrics to "Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing" were intermingled with the melody of The Star Spangled Banner.

A mashup?  Cool.

The Black National Anthem was used to create hostility and division where none should exist.

I guess that’s why the crowd applauded and cheered.  Hostility.

When interviewed, Rena Marie said she would do it over again. She recanted her apologies later on…

Neat trick.  Recanting apologies that were never made.

…and appeared to be not only disrespectful, but antagonistic.

Appeared that way to whom?  The same nameless people who note that Obama plays the race card?

And she was "antagonistic"?  Yeah, well — death threats will do that to you, I guess.

As the campaign clock ticks on, more unpleasant tactics will be employed. When it becomes excruciatingly obvious, it will be too late to retreat from a very disingenuous dialogue about race.

Apparently so, Marie.  Apparently so.

Black activism and activist churches are dividing America.

Because now we have to see them and hear about them in the news.

The sanctuaries of these churches contain political pulpits.

This used to be a good thing for Marie.  Not so much anymore.

There is far too much harsh rhetoric spoken openly during a time that God intended for worship and reflection upon His word.

His Republican word, people!

It is taking its toll upon our society, because what is spoken inside of a church has repercussions on the outside.

Because what happens in vespers, stays in vespers.

Spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not of the uppermost importance to the pastors therein. Let it be understood that what is being taught in these militant denominations is called the "Social Gospel." Scripture is set aside and replaced with man-made theology.

Not like white people’s churches, where they talk about things mentioned specifically in the Scripture, like abortion and school vouchers.

So far, religion has been a big part of this election. In March, Obama gave a speech about race to cover up for his former pastor. Dr.James Dobson accused Obama of distorting the Bible. Obama has never made a clear statement about his present attitude towards Rev. Wright, Rev.Otis Moss III or Father Michael Pfleger.

Pssst, Marie.  Only one of the people you mentioned isn’t a pastor or have a theology degree….

If he is elected, it is more than likely that they will be allowed back into his good graces once again.

Apparently, Obama must have made a clear statement about his attitude toward Wright et al.  How else could Marie know that they are not in "his good graces"?

Hold on America. Seems like there may be more ranting and scolding in store for us…

Oh, good.  Is this the part where you explain what you meant by Obama’s "racial test"?

It is not by chance that Obama is proposing a government-funded faith based program.

Honestly?  I didn’t think it was by chance.

Church-affiliated programs where the Bible is not taught in a traditional manner will benefit from Sen. Obama’s plan. While there will probably be some that reject the plan to maintain their religious liberty, organizations such as Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition will have its coffers filled to overflowing. The devil is in the details.

So we should have government only fund faith-based programs for churches where the Bible is "traditionally" taught?  And who decides which churches will those be?  Interesting how Marie always seem to focus on black churches and organizations exclusively as those undeserving of respect or, indeed, government assistance.  Yeah, Marie.  No racism in America.

The United Church of Christ as well as those which belong to the Council of Churches are made up of far Left constituents. Their biblical teachings are progressive. They have no problem updating God’s immutable word to meet the needs of the immorality that they embrace. A big government-funded faith-based program will not bother them in the least.

Among others who belong to the lefty Council of Churches: The United Methodist Church, National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., The Episcopal Church, and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 

Bunch of commies.

The plain truth needs to be understood. A black Republican presidential candidate would not have brought with him the racial rumblings being heard today.

I guess we’ll have to take your word on that Marie, seeing as how the pool of black Republicans is the size of a the puddle on my sidewalk.

Oh, wait.  Alan Keyes.  (Hahahahahahaha!)  (Interestingly, when Obama was running against Keyes for the Illinois Senate, it was Keyes who asserted that Obama possessed insufficient "negritude", because Obama was not a descendent of slaves.)

The party of Abraham Lincoln is not invested in the color of a person’s skin; only the Democrat Party takes an unhealthy interest in color.

So sayeth Marie Jon Apostrophe, in her tenth column this year dwelling on Obama’s race.

Anyone can be a success story in America; the opportunities are there for the taking.

Which is, of course, WHY you see so many black Republicans running for president.

Obama is a questionable man. He obviously cares little for the issue of the company he has kept, then thrown under the bus on his way to the White House.

So he’s a racist if he stands by Wright’s statements, and uncaring if he disavows them?

Terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the New Black Panther Party are cheering for an Obama presidency.  Various radical groups and people gravitate toward him. That alone should trouble all Americans.

Actually, the leader of Hamas said Obama was preferable to McCain because, like JFK, Obama "has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance".  Any problem with that, Marie?

This upcoming election is being viewed by some as a test.

Oh, I get it now.  It’s not "Obama’s racial test".  It’s a "test" by people who don’t like Obama.  Not that their making race and issue or anything.

America has shown a willingness to vote a black president into office and lead our nation, but what we need at this crucial hour is an experienced leader. This fact is race-neutral. Hope and change that is worth having should not bring with it an Obama candidacy racial test. America simply cannot afford such disunity.

It’s simply fascinating how Marie and her ilk can invoke Oabama’s race with almost every utterance while trying to make the point that this election has nothing to do with race.  It’s the blogpsphere equivalent of "Racist?  Me?  Why, some of my best friends…."

Methinks they doth protest too much….

UPDATE:  Okay, and now she’s spamming me to death….

President A-Hole

Ken AshfordBush & Co., Environment & Global Warming & EnergyLeave a Comment

You know, it’s not just that he’s wrong; it’s that he’s arrogantly wrong.  Proud of it.

Read this:

President George Bush signed off with a defiant farewell over his refusal to accept global climate change targets at his last G8 summit.

As he prepared to fly out from Japan, he told his fellow leaders: "Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter."

President Bush made the private joke in the summit’s closing session, senior sources said yesterday. His remarks were taken as a two-fingered salute from the President from Texas who is wedded to the oil industry.

Now, this is from the British journal, The Independent, so keep in mind that the "two-fingered salute" is the Brit equivalent of the "one-fingered salute" in our country.

In other words, President was snotty and snide about our country being the world’s biggest polluter, and world leaders at the G8 correctly understood his comment to be snotty and snide.

Six more months of this doofus.

UPDATE  Hilzoy weighs in…

In a sane world, no diplomat would care about such things as: the shape of the table used in negotiations, whether they personally are treated with basic respect, etc. But we do not live in that world. We live in a world populated by human beings with egos. And that creates a wonderful opportunity: to get things we want not by conceding anything of real importance, but just by listening earnestly when the Minister of Whatnot wants to tell us about his grandkids, or by holding the door for His Excellency, or — who knows? — by not giving one’s rival leaders "the verbal equivalent of a kick in the nuts."

Giving up that opportunity is just dumb, if you care about whatever it is that you’re trying to get other countries to agree with.

But what’s even dumber is to make other countries so annoyed at you that they don’t agree to deals they might otherwise sign on to, just because you’ve been such a jerk. If you do that, you’re not just failing to get potential freebies; you’re giving up real successes for no reason at all. Again, imagine the counterpart from normal life. Suppose you were engaged in a complicated contract negotiation, and it turned out that your lawyer just couldn’t keep herself from telling the other negotiators what total assh*les and idiots they were. She might be right. And you might feel tempted, for a moment, to think: good for you! that’s telling them! But that moment would pass, and when it did, you’d either sit her down for a long stern talk or fire her. Because she’s endangering your prospects for success for no good reason.

Obviously, there are moments when you have to blow up, and when blowing up can be productive. But the G-8 meeting was not one of them. Moreover, when losing your temper works in negotiations, its working generally depends on its being rare, and on other people believing that it’s not calculated. When a normally self-controlled and decent person blows up, it can, under the right circumstances, be a salutory shock. But if it’s your standard operating procedure, you’re just a jerk.

When I read people saying things like "More please", or "Horray!", I think: these are people who are willing to sacrifice our success in actually getting what we want for some short-term emotional gratification (and pretty dubious emotional gratification at that.) Why they would think that it’s a good idea is completely beyond me. It’s like discovering that a car dealer can be induced to give you a free car if only you gratify her ego, and thinking not: Wow! How wonderful! but: Why the hell should I cater to her psychological needs? (To get a car without paying for it, silly!)

Except that in this case, it’s not the diplomat (or President) who would get the car; it’s all of us.

My Thoughts On The FISA Bill

Ken AshfordWiretapping & SurveillanceLeave a Comment

Greenwald summarizes:

The Democratic-led Congress this afternoon voted to put an end to the NSA spying scandal, as the Senate approved a bill — approved last week by the House — to immunize lawbreaking telecoms, terminate all pending lawsuits against them, and vest whole new warrantless eavesdropping powers in the President. The vote in favor of the new FISA bill was 69-28. Barack Obama joined every Senate Republican (and every House Republican other than one) by voting in favor of it, while his now-vanquished primary rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, voted against it. John McCain wasn’t present for any of the votes, but shared Obama’s support for the bill. The bill will now be sent to an extremely happy George Bush, who already announced that he enthusiastically supports it, and he will sign it into law very shortly.

Prior to final approval, the Senate, in the morning, rejected three separate amendments which would have improved the bill but which, the White House threatened, would have prompted a veto. With those amendments defeated, the Senate then passed the same bill passed last week by the House, which means it is that bill, in unchanged form, that will be signed into law — just as the Bush administration demanded.

Unlike many on the left, I can’t get all exorcised about the bill’s provision regarding telecom immunity.  Granted, I don’t think the telecoms should have legal immunity for assisting in illegal wiretapping, especially retroactively.  But in the scheme of things, it is small potatoes.  I’m less concerned about punishment for past wrongs, and more concerned about, well, the future and the Constitution.

The new FISA bill is a HUGE stab at the Fourth Amendment.  It’s worse than the old one.  And least the old one required some sort of judicial approval (not that the Bush Administration borke the law by avoiding it).  This new one simply takes that protection away.

Sadder still is the fact that Obama voted for the new FISA bill.  Oh, Barry….

Man Of Principle

Ken AshfordLocal Interest1 Comment

357reg19768211275029embeddedprod_afNot sure I would have the guts to do this, but good for him:

L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he’d ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.

Eason, a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly the U.S. or North Carolina flags at half-staff Monday, as called for in a directive to all state agencies by Gov. Mike Easley.

When a superior ordered the lab to follow the directive, Eason decided to retire rather than pay tribute to Helms. After several hours’ delay, one of Eason’s employees hung the flags at half-staff.

The brouhaha began late Sunday night, when Eason e-mailed eight of his employees in the state standards lab, which calibrates measuring equipment used on things as widely varied as gasoline and hamburgers.

"Regardless of any executive proclamation, I do not want the flags at the North Carolina Standards Laboratory flown at half staff to honor Jesse Helms any time this week," Eason wrote just after midnight, according to e-mail messages released in response to a public records request.

He told his staff that he did not think it was appropriate to honor Helms because of his "doctrine of negativity, hate, and prejudice" and his opposition to civil rights bills and the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Eason said in an interview Tuesday that he did not typically lower the flag himself, but that, as head of the lab, he supervised the technician who did. He also trained new employees on proper flag etiquette, including a one-person folding technique he learned in Boy Scouts.

When the lab opened Monday morning, the flags were not out at all. An employee called Eason’s boss, Stephen Benjamin, who worked in another building in Raleigh. About 10:45 a.m., Benjamin told one of Eason’s co-workers to put the flags at half-staff.

Another of Eason’s superiors later drove by the lab to make sure the flags were up properly.

No one in the Governor’s Office was aware of any time in recent memory when a state employee refused to lower a flag. Brian Long, a spokesman for the Agriculture Department, said Eason’s refusal was unexpected.

"We’ve never had any conversations like that," he said.

An ultimatum

In a string of e-mail messages with his superiors, Eason was told he could either lower the flags or retire effective immediately.

Though he’s only 51, Eason chose to retire, although he pleaded several times to be allowed to stay at the lab. Eason, who had worked for the Agriculture Department since graduating from college, was paid $65,235 a year as the laboratory manager.

Move Over Facebook, MySpace, and Second Life

Ken AshfordPopular CultureLeave a Comment

It’s Lively:

The big thing about Lively is that it’s backed by Google.  Some info:

Google thinks Lively will encourage even more people to dive into alternate realities because it isn’t tethered to one Web site like Second Life, and it doesn’t cost anything to use. After installing a small packet of software, a user can enter Lively from other Web sites, like social networking sites and blogs.

The Lively application already works on Facebook, one of the Web’s hottest hangouts, and Google is working on a version suitable for an even larger online social network, News Corp.’s MySpace.

"We know people already spend a lot of time online socializing, so we just want to try to make it more enjoyable," said Niniane Wang, a Google engineering manager who oversaw Lively’s creation over the past year.

Although Google is best known for the search engine that generates most of its profits, the company has introduced other services that are widely used without making much, if any, money. Google’s peripheral products include its 3-D "Earth" software, Picasa for sharing photos and programs for word processing, calendars and spreadsheets.

Google has no plans to sell advertising in Lively, Wang said.

But the service could still indirectly help the company if it encourages people to remain online longer. Google’s management reasons that more frequent Web surfing ultimately will lead to more moneymaking clicks on the ads it shows alongside its search results and millions of other Web sites.

Lively’s users will be able to sculpt an avatar that can be male, female or even a different species. An avatar can assume a new identity, change clothes or convey emotions with a few clicks of the mouse.

The service also enables users to create different digital dimensions to roam, from a coffeehouse to an exotic island. The settings can be decorated with a wide variety of furniture, including large-screen televisions that can be set up to play different clips from YouTube.com, Google’s video-sharing service.

Lively users can then invite their friends and family into their virtual realities, where they can chat, hug, cry, laugh and interact as if they were characters in a video game.

As a precaution, Google is requiring Lively’s users to be at least 13 years old _ a constraint that hasn’t been enough to prevent young children from running into trouble on other social spots on the Web.

Stupidest Poll Of The Campaign Season (So Far)

Ken AshfordElection 2008Leave a Comment

The Associated Press wrote up results from an AP/Yahoo poll showing that John McCain does better than Barack Obama among pet owners than among Americans who do not own a pet.

John McCain leads by Barack Obama by five points among pet owners (42% to 37%), while Obama leads by 14 point (48% to 34%) among those who do not own a pet.

That’s right… Obama is suffering from a pet-owner gap.

The poll is being appropriately mocked by everyone, simply because it is so mockable.

A few things to consider:

(1)  First of all, if you poll on any metric, someone is probably going to come out ahead.  However, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.  I suppose if you surveyed scrambled egg lovers vs. fried egg lovers, you’ll find that either Obama or McCain is favored by one group over the other.  So?

(2)  That said, there may be some underlying (and totally reasonable) explanation for the results.  I’m only speculating here, but one could easily see that wealthier people, or home-owners, or married people are more likely to own pets than poorer people or apartment dwellers or single people.  And wealthier people and home-owners and married people probably skew more Republican.  Mystery solved. 

In other words, correlation is not causation. Pet owners may prefer McCain for reasons that have nothing to do with pet ownership.  Didn’t they teach that in Surveys 101?

Bush Is An Embarrassment To The GOP

Ken AshfordBush & Co., Election 2008Leave a Comment

…which is going to make the GOP convention very… aaaawwwwkward.

I mean, the last thing the McCain people want is to have their boy up on stage, in front of the whole nation, being embraced by their party’s leader, who just happens to be the most unpopular President in the history of polling.

The solution?  "Give the president a first-night speech, and then get him out of town before McCain arrives."

Yeah, I’m sure nobody will notice or comment on that.

Not Funny

Ken AshfordElection 2008, IranLeave a Comment

John McCain once again "jokes" about his desire to kill Iranians.  And he’s not talking about the Iranian military or anything — he’s joking about killing Iranians.

I guess that’s good red meat for the conservative masses, but the targets of McCain’s blood lust "joke" are ordinary Iranian civilians.

I know it’s easy to think of Iran has some sandy backwater country with occupied by sandy backwater bedouins on camels, but it’s really not.  Here are some people and places in Iran:

Iran_girl

Park_saei_2

Wedding_car_in_tehran

Displayimage

Cinema_azadi_2008_3

Daneshju_park_3

Iran_food_fair_12

Passer_by_bridge_exhibition_7

So when McCain "jokes" about bomb-bomb-bombing Iran, and killing Iranians, these are among the people he’s talking about.  Remember that.

Yglesius writes: "If a major Iranian political leader were to repeatedly joke about bombing the United States and killing Americans, you can just imagine the shit-storm about how Iran isn’t a normal country with normal interests…."

So true.

What I Learned From Rehearsing Musicals

Ken AshfordTheatreLeave a Comment

Working_pointingSelections from Ken Levine’s HuffPo post today:

The director must encourage everyone to share ideas. He must then discard 80% of them…

You need six weeks to rehearse a musical. But if you have six weeks, you’ll need eight.

If the choreographer had her way, seven of the eight hours of rehearsal everyday would be devoted to the dance numbers. If the music director had his way, those same seven hours would be devoted to teaching and practicing the music.

If there’s a fight scene or even fight moment there has to be a daily fight rehearsal before a performance. For West Side Story you can rehearse without the knives.

Wireless mics that stick out of cast members foreheads produce better sound and are not noticeable and distracting beyond the fiftieth row.

You need a good drummer. A real good drummer.

See a night time performance rather than a matinee.

Actors need to yell out their dialogue. Not just speak loud, but YELL. Even if the line is "Pssst, let me tell you a secret."

When your wife or girlfriend needs forty-five minutes to change her clothes, just know it can be done in as little as ten seconds.

Every performer comes from a dysfunctional family but thanks them profusely in their Playbill bio.

Most people pad their Playbill bios, listing every credit since they played a kitty in grammar school.

During performances there are nine people walking around with headsets. No one knows who they are or what they’re doing.

A good running time, including a fifteen minute intermission is 2:20.

No two people have the same script. Everyone is on stage working off different drafts.

It’s always better to say it in a song rather than dialogue. But those few lines of dialogue can galvanize the entire story.

Casting decisions are still the most important. Everything else can be fixed. Except if you want to do C-SPAN: The Musical, that idea might kill it.

That’s about right.

Milestone

Ken AshfordEconomy & Jobs & DeficitLeave a Comment

I saw my first gas station with over $4.00 for a gallon of gas.

It was $3.99 yesterday.  Today it was $4.05.

What’s particularly disconcerting is that five years from now, I will probably be amazed that gas prices were once as low as $4.00.

UPDATE:  Discovered this today….

Gasmap

Comment Of The Day

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

HuffPo’s Chris Kelly, on the subject of the American Family Association’s recent boycott of McDonald’s for that resturant chain’s donation of $20,000 to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce:

It feels a little like the American Family Association was looking for someone to boycott and it was just McDonald’s’ turn. They’ve already boycotted Sears, Kohl’s, Kmart, Target, Old Navy and IKEA. As a result, they’re naked and don’t have anywhere to sit. The McDonald’s boycott follows boycotts of Burger King, Carl’s Jr., 7-11, Proctor & Gamble and Kraft, which means [AFA Predient] Donald Wildmon hasn’t eaten anything for sale in America since the late 70’s. You’d think he’d be dead, but no.