text:
Why the Democratic Party Clings to Racism
The continued nostalgia for racism on the part of the Democratic Party never ceases to amaze me. Last week, when Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) allowed as how the Tea Party Movement was similar to the KKK, my eyes rolled so far back in my head I almost had to clone a new cranium. Jewish boy to Jewish boy, Steve, that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard one of our co-religionists say in public. If anything, the Tea Partyers are the antithesis of racist – a collection of wild, freedom-loving quasi-libertarians who could care less about anyone's color or background, far less than a former Ivy League snob like me. (PERSONAL NOTE: I was a civil rights worker in the South during the Sixties and would stay miles, I hope, from any movement that smacked of racism.)
Nevertheless, self-described liberals, progressives and what-not persist in telling us the Tea Party Movement is racist, despite the fact they have yet to produce an iota of concrete evidence to prove this absurd point. Well, okay, the Tea Party currently polls at 48 percent of the populace to Obama's 44, so there's bound to be a racist or two in there somewhere, just as there would be in any group that large, but I haven't met them.
So what's the deal? Why is the Democratic Party clinging to racism like a wall full of barnacles on the hull of a rusted ship? The most popular explanation is that that is their lever on political power. With 99 percent of African-Americans and 77 percent of Jewish-Americans (excuse the reactionary hyphens), not to mention a huge percentage of Hispanic-Americans, voting their way, what's not to like? Keep America divided according to race and keep getting elected.
142 Comments, 79 Threads
1. Robbins Mitchell
Well,Rajah,this is the inevitable result of a party which championed slavery,Jim Crow laws,the Klan,segregation,'grandfather primaries', the poll tax for over a century…this is merely the flip side of that same coin.
April 7, 2010 - 11:43 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Noesis Noeseos
Ah, the party of Robert C. Byrd. The lynchings have become verbal (so far), but they still come, like the devil, under the cover of night and hypocritical self-exculpations.
April 7, 2010 - 12:05 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Read your history. The Dem Party compromised with the Unionists during Reconstruction. Give them control of the military bases in the south and mayoralities of the small burghs, and we'll shut up about Restraints of Trade Acts.
Thus the hard-core racists oligarchs that were the Democratic Party got back to national respectfulness. In the 20s/30s they played a Southern Strategy (yes, just like Nixon's) to entitle black minorities and ditch Jim Crow. Their rhetoric made them the darling of the Northern bleeding hearts. From then on, the Dems looked like Unionists.
The trick worked. The Country Club Republican stuffed shirts played the Daddy Warbucks role given them. And the entitlement, vote buying Demogoguic Party has had a simpering majority of hoi polloi and academia since 1932.
Yes, racism is dead in America but for a rare loony here and there that every society has. And yes, the Dems can't let go of their golden egg-laying goose. Does that mean they have become 'racist'? NO! They always were. Didn't you know it?
April 8, 2010 - 7:10 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
bob from district 9
"Yes, racism is dead in America but for a rare loony here and there that every society has."
You've got to be joking!
You don't know any black people very well, do you. Not one you can talk to seriously about this.
April 8, 2010 - 7:05 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
ROBBINS, you're being very abrupt, you have to give the morons a chance. Go one step at a time. Otherwise it cannot be absorbed.
April 8, 2010 - 12:43 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Many of the comments here refer to the Democratic Party and the more obvious kinds of racism it promoted. But there are subtler and more currently dangerous forms of racism that I describe here: http://clarespark.com/2010/04/08/racism-modernity-modernism/. Nineteenth-century "Radical Republicans" like Sumner and Stevens opposed political and economic racism; today's "progressives" actively promote racism through tokenism, co-optation, and above all, "multiculturalism" understood as a bogus "anti-imperialism" that helps no one but themselves, certainly not non-whites who want to better their condition.
April 8, 2010 - 1:26 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
2. David Thomson
"Putting it bluntly, the Democratic Party clings to racism because they are s–t out of ideas."
Yup, that's it. These "elites" are more often than not poorly read and intellectually limited. They cannot even begin to follow a logical argument. The softer discipline degrees awarded in the last some 40 years are usually phony. One doesn't need to do any serious studying. You merely have to place your wet finger into the air to see which way the wind of the politically correct zeitgeist is blowing. Yelling racism all the time is a convenient way to ignore hard questions.
April 7, 2010 - 11:49 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Shit out of ideas is only partially correct. The Dems rely on bribery as a fundamental political principle: in order to succeed politically, they must have someone who needs something–grievance groups like Blacks, Women, Latinos, the disabled, etc.
As long as Blacks, for example, can be convinced they're downtrodden victims of racism, the Dems have a reason to exist. That's why I can predict with 100% accuracy that the welfare of the Black citizen in the United States will never improve as long as the Left has anything to do with it. In fact, if we were to fall into a deep sleep like Rip Van Winkle and wake up in 100 years, virtually everything would be the same. The Dems' worst enemy is a Black man with a good education, a well-paid job, the keys to his own car, his own house and a happy family: they've got nothing to sell him.
April 7, 2010 - 3:25 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
And yet, that black man with a good education, a well-paid job, the keys to his own car, his own house and a happy family is almost just as likely to vote for the Democrat as his downtrodden brother.
April 7, 2010 - 5:33 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Very true, but then he might wake up one day and walk off the plantation–because that's what it is, a political plantation. When Black people realize that the keys to their cells are actually on the inside of the door, all they have to do is turn the key and walk out.
April 7, 2010 - 11:55 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Well, if that black man who has the keys to his own car, has a great job, nice home, etc, will likely vote the same way his down-trodden brother votes (Democrat), it seems to me that he'd be voting that way for racist reasons, e.g., purely to support his black brother.
April 26, 2010 - 1:40 am Link to this Comment | Reply
3. Jack
I think you hit the nail on the head, Roger.
The Tea Party is something outside of the scope of the ossified "Liberal" worldview.
"The People" do not protest to be left alone. All protest is to demand more from the government.
Any resistance to Big Government has to be illegitimate, after all the masses love being told what to do.
The reaction is what many do when faced with something outside of their worldview. They shift it into something that is.
Hence the shoehorning of the Tea Parties into something, anything that fits the narrative.
Resistance to a "popular" president's policies in specific and BG liberal policies in general cannot be mainstream, legitimate, or rationally based.
As you said, questioning these postulates invites disintegration.April 7, 2010 - 11:52 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Nevertheless, self-described liberals, progressives and what-not persist in telling us the Tea Party Movement is racist, despite the fact they have yet to produce an iota of concrete evidence to prove this absurd point.
They're just one-trick ponies. The tactic worked so well for so long that they're stuck on it, and their conditioning will keep them there until another generation of left-liberals displaces them.
In a way, I feel sorry for them…but not sorry enough to let them get away with their slanders. It's time we counterattacked with everything we've got.
April 7, 2010 - 11:53 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
5. reader
I think I understand this nostalgia very well. It's the same nostalgia you hear from some (not all) old war veterans. "When we were in the war, that's the only time in my life I felt truly alive." Their glory days have passed them by, and they can't stop lecturing people today about how much better it was back then — they can't see the glory of today.
April 7, 2010 - 11:53 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Nate Jensen
This is exactly right. As a war veteran I find myself on an almost daily basis nostalgic for the good old days six years ago when I was at the center of the maelstrom. The reason is simple: I knew my life had value then because many terrorists were trying to take it from me. The leaders of the left are entirely caught up with the nostalgia for when they were the targets of reactionary and occasionally deadly racism and their lives, too, had value and meaning. The irony of course is that they are now the reactionary bigots. As a former Democrat it saddens and enrages me deeply that the Democrats are so beyond parody. Down with the party of Slavery, Segregation, and Socialism!
April 8, 2010 - 3:49 am Link to this Comment | Reply
6. Constitution First
The (Democrat) Party is Over.
Like a chicken with it's head lopped off, it just keeps running around doing the only thing it knew, clucking foul!
April 7, 2010 - 11:53 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
David Thomson
The Democratic Party is probably no longer a national political entity. Its candidates are usually only viable in the bluer areas of the nation. Purple state voters are abandoning the Democrats in droves. They have learned the hard way that those who are even half way sensible regarding economics and defense issues—have been thoroughly marginalized. The controversial Ann Coulter is fairly accurate: there may be a lot of bad Republicans, but there are no good Democrats.
April 7, 2010 - 12:01 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Noesis Noeseos
Well, maybe Senator Lieberman, but, wait, he is no longer (officially) a Democrat.
April 7, 2010 - 12:08 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
David Thomson
I sincerely cannot name even one major Democratic Party elected official who seems to have their head on straight regarding economics. Is there somebody I possibly overlooked? The increasing focus is on redistribution. The fact that first the wealth must be created is ignored. Furthermore, it is deemed somewhat disgusting to even bring up the subject.
April 7, 2010 - 2:48 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Adobe Walls
IMHO at best there are two Democratic Parties the Social Democrats are definitely in charge in Washington and control all of the National and probably most of the state organizations. If there are any Democrats left (in the mid 20th century sense of the term) they have no voice in any meaningful way. This is why well before Obama's election I thought it appropriate to refer to Obama as a Bolshevik, using the Russian term for the majority of the Russian Social Democratic party.
April 7, 2010 - 5:10 pm Link to this Comment
7. Rob Crawford
Democrats use the "white racist" boogeyman to keep blacks voting for them. Just like they used to use blacks as a boogeyman to keep whites voting for them.
April 7, 2010 - 11:54 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
bingo. sharpton is the same aniamal as walis.
April 7, 2010 - 1:26 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
8. cfbleachers
Trolling for victims, it is sometimes necessary Roger…to simply invent villains.
There is nothing "progressive" about such an attitude, it's regressive. There is a desperate need to cleave onto the adrenaline rush of the 60′s. Those heady days when being anti-establishment was to be on the "correct" side of civil rights, the "correct" side against the engagement in Viet Nam, to be on the "correct" side against Watergate.
Therefore, to be against the war in Iraq, to be against all things Republican, to be against all "racists"…is simply 1968-1974 redux.
We are in a permanent replay loop in which the "anti" crowd is always "correct". The "other guy" is a bad guy.
Because if the "other guy" is indeed NOT a "bad guy"…then it foils the narrative of the "anti" being always "correct". His "badness" must be invented and perpetuated.
This is, of course…regressive. And, it is anything but "liberal". It's simply bootstrapped leftism trolling for victims as a recruiting tool.
April 7, 2010 - 11:54 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Yes. Regressive. Many boomers are stuck in a time warp — too old, comfortable with, and "clinging" to their old-fashioned ways to keep their minds open and move with the times — or to acknowledge that time has passed and things — and people — have changed.
April 7, 2010 - 10:09 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
9. A.M. Mallett
"If anything, the Tea Partyers are the anthesis of racist – a collection of wild, freedom-loving quasi-libertarians who could care less about anyone's color or background, far less than a former Ivy League snob like me."
I am hoping and assuming you meant antithesis rather than anthesis.
April 7, 2010 - 11:55 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
Because the Democrats (being marxists) they are themselves racists.
Alinsky the thug taught them how to attack: "what you think they attack you for, attack them with and then some." Put it differently, two eyes for an eye.
April 7, 2010 - 11:55 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
…And a fun little trick that I've been taught- use the Alinsky tactics right back at them personally, especially at the really smug ones like Steve Cohen.
Shame the hell out of them- point out the disparities between the advantages they have had all their lives and the dire misery of the minorities they profess to be concerned about- then ask them what they PERSONALLY STAND TO LOSE if the little social experiments with minorities that they are always attempting fail. Better yet, have a black friend who's on your side start a "confrontation" with people like that and have him ridicule them- losing a black person's support is like kryptonite to them, because they have nothing else.
The unemployment rate among black youths is something close to 35%, with gang murders and violence getting worse each year under Pres. B. Hussein, school voucher programs being shut down, etc.. Why is Steve Cohen so self-satisfied?
April 7, 2010 - 5:40 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
bob from district 9
"Better yet, have a black friend who's on your side start a "confrontation" with people like that and have him ridicule them- losing a black person's support is like kryptonite to them, because they have nothing else."
Few among those who agree with you have any black friends who are on their side.
You bring your black friend, I'll bring half a dozen. All with degrees and with experiences they will share with you, but you will chose not to believe them.
April 8, 2010 - 7:07 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Ah yes, the good old standby: "argument by strength of numbers". Well, I have one for you- most battered women prefer bad boys, the kind of guy who willingly beats the p-ss out of them instead of the "nice", harmless guy. With the nice guy, they could have a healthy relationship and live normal lives; with the bad boy they continually set themselves up for misery and abuse- YET THEY KEEP GOING BACK to the bad boys no matter what! But, hey, because percentage-wise these women prefer the bad boys, we should just accept as correct that outcome (regardless of the negatives), right? Don't ponder any other possibility.
And further, if you really want to defend the situation I described in the last paragraph of my original post- all the power to you, my friend. IMHO there is so much potential that is being wasted, for absolutely no reason. But hey, bring 100 "friends" if you want- I'll prefer my odds.
April 9, 2010 - 9:29 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
11. S. Clark
There really is a simple term that applies to those you describe: bigot. Seriously. It's unfortunate that in its usage, bigot is considered equivalent to racist. It isn't. It is a more generic description. The reification you describe is a necessary condition for the bigot. Those you describe represent a comedic inversion of the Archie Bunker character. When viewed as analogous to a photographic negative, how in any meaningful way are those you've described different in their attitudes and views in regard to race, class, and gender?
April 7, 2010 - 12:04 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Rob Crawford
I use "bigot" to describe leftists all the time. It's amazing how often their view of anyone to their right have been formed primarily by popular entertainment, and how incorrect they quite often are.
April 7, 2010 - 1:38 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
12. MarkTheGreat
"Why the Democratic Party Clings to Racism"
When all you have is a hammer …
April 7, 2010 - 12:10 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
13. Victor Erimita
When leftists use the terms "racist" and "far-right," they mean "witch." A non-believer, possessed by fearsome primitive forces that must be destroyed.
April 7, 2010 - 12:11 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
14. Charlie
Nice of you to notice, Roger. Or, since I'm sure this has been on your mind for some time (as it has mine), glad you put the words on electrons.
It's been blindingly obvious for some time that the race hustlers, all of whom seem to be democrats (I've never heard of a republican one, but anyone can feel free to correct me), have been perpetuating racism as a way to line their pockets or bolster their support numbers.
April 7, 2010 - 12:12 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
15. GregS
I think there might be another factor at play too: nostalgia for the battles of the past. Today's liberals cut their teeth during the fighting of battles against racism, against the Vietnam war, for women's equality, for gay rights, for an end to the risk of nuclear war, etc. Today, these causes are no longer relevant or they've essentially been won. (Yes, there may still be some lingering elements of some of these problems left, but what's left to do is essentially mopping up). So what do you do when the work is done on the causes you fought for and you're not ready to retire from the field? Either find new causes, or find ways to keep re-fighting for the old ones. Since liberals, as you've said, are out of ideas, they've chosen the second course – trying to find new racism to fight, new Vietnam wars to oppose (as they tried with Iraq until their guy became responsible for it), new injustices against women to oppose, new nuclear arms races to be solved by further disarmament (for example, the current president's weird obsession with reducing American nuclear stockpiles), etc.
Added to this is their reluctance to confront, or even acknowledge, the real issues facing us today, like the danger of Islamic fundamentalism. Focusing on causes they feel more comfortable fighting for is a way of distracting themselves from facing the real issues.
They're out of ideas, they're afraid of facing the issues of today, but they seem themselves as brave fighters for noble causes, which leads them to obsess over the causes of yesteryear.
April 7, 2010 - 12:13 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
16. MartyB
"In effect, the Democratic Party has inadvertently turned itself into the party of racism…"
Is it inadvertent?
In the heat of the slavery debate just prior to the civil war, a standard argument of the pro-slavery plantation owners (Democrats all) was "the black man isn't capable of getting along without someone to put a roof over his head and food on his table." The same thing the party is saying today, except now instead of exploiting blacks for plantation labor, they are exploiting them for votes.
The Republicans are also saying pretty much the same thing they said when the party was formed by Abe Lincoln and his contemporaries, largely to end slavery: "Everyone must be equal before the law."
This puts them in agreement with Republican Martin Luther King and others.
April 7, 2010 - 12:14 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
17. Noah Nehm
Principles of the Tea Party, as I see it:
1) Limited Government. The government can't solve every problem, and for those that it can, it often doesn't offer a very effective solution. What's more, the process of taxation to obtain the money to solve these problem, and the expansion of bureaucracies to administer their solutions produce greater ills than they cure (e.g., corruption, fraud, graft, waste). Limited government leads to a more effective and less corrupt government.
2) Subsidiarity: This is the corollary to limited government, namely, that all government action should be decentralized to the smallest competent authority. This makes the government more responsive to the people, particularly to those who are funding it, and makes the government more robust against corruption.
3) Empirical over theoretical: John Dickenson, one of our founding fathers stated that in governing, we must look to our experience because pure logic can sometimes lead us astray. The point is that some ideas that on the surface seem reasonable or justifiable have been proven, through experience, to be disastrous or unsustainable in the long run. Only programs that have been shown to work should be retained, and those that don't should be eliminated.
4) Self reliance and self discipline: Everyone should pull their own weight, to the extent that they can, and not use the political process to acquire largesse at the expense of the hard work of others.
5) Liberty: That ultimately we value God-given freedom over government-provided security.
It seems self-evident to me that these principles are accessible to all, no matter the race or creed.
April 7, 2010 - 12:15 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
M. Report
6) Transparency
Starting with _everything_ the Federal Government
does; Even Classified actions should be reviewed,
by independent Declassification Committees.
Proceeding to Banks, and other Organizations too big
to fail (Looking at you, Fannie and Freddie);
If they are functionally part of the government, as
measured by the amount of power they have over people,
other organizations, and even the Feds, they lose
their right to privacy.
Continuing to ordinary companies, which should be
required to keep _complete records_, private until
Ending with private citizens, who should not be
required to provide _any_ information to the State.April 7, 2010 - 1:16 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
18. Vinny B.
The reason Republicans are viewed as racists because they are racists. Look at how Bush handled Katrina. No one, not even Bush, is that incompetent. The only way it goes that bad is through positive action or positive inaction. Bush could have stepped in and saved those people anytime. Instead, all he cared about was getting rid of Democrat voters and keeping his pals in Big Oil reaping in windfall profits due to high oil prices.
And look at all the racial slurs being hurled at the tea parties. They are clearly upset that the Black President is giving American the hope and change they voted for. White people can't stand that blacks will now have the same access to health care as them and will live longer as a result.
Plus, look at who they ran against Obama in 2008, McCain and Palin, two states where they are hardly any blacks. That message is unmistakable. Republicans only care about white people.
And don't point out Condi Rice or Clarence Thomas to me. They are Uncle Toms that only got their jobs because they were black, token appointment whose sole job was to hide Republican racism. They are both incompetents who couldn't get their jobs on merit.
April 7, 2010 - 12:20 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
And speaking about leftist propaganda, Alinsky and trolls, heeeeeeeere is Vinny B.
April 7, 2010 - 12:29 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Ms. Attitude
Vinny B is a racist…see how he groups all whites together and calls names based on non facts? Open your eyes, brother, freedom is for everybody and so is slavery. Pick your side wisely, for one is trying to enslave the middle and lower classes with laws and taxation and the other is offering freedom.
April 7, 2010 - 12:47 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Allow me to make my usual request for (documented) examples of racial slurs hurled at Tea Party rallies. The fact that you can't find any will no doubt not effect your convictions. Ah, nothing like the reality-based progressives.April 7, 2010 - 12:52 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Was George Bush the Mayor of New Orleans or the Governor of LA? I can't remember.
April 7, 2010 - 1:33 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Paul -Indiana
'reality-based progressives'? Now there's a classic oxymoron.
April 7, 2010 - 1:39 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
You don't recall when liberals were calling themselves reality-based, unlike conservatives who cannot stand the spotlight of truth shining on them? I haven't heard them talking about it much since ClimateGate.
April 7, 2010 - 2:53 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Victyor Erimita
I think it's just a regular moron.
April 7, 2010 - 9:21 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Vinny, you are a fool.
The racist remarks supposedly uttered at the Tea Party protests were clearly made up as none of the video or audio recording of the even demonstrate even the slightest truth to the rumor and the timing of the press releases claiming such events occurred implies that they were written in advance of the race baiting walk.
Katrina was a disaster because of Ray Nagan and the deep distrust blacks in New Orleans have of government (can't blame em' dems have failed them for as long as can be remembered)who warned them to leave, and incompetence at the state level and within FEMA, you can blame Bush for the last one but that was bad hiring not racism.
I live in the South, a so called hotbed for racism I am a life-long Republican and I have met exactly one other person identifying himself as a Republican who was racist.
On the other hand I pledged and later left a fraternity in college due to blatant racism from my "brothers" in their selection of pledges, deep seated resentment for people of color, all of the members in leadership roles were active participants in the liberal protest of the day (Gulf war 1, George HW Bush, etc) and all were active members of the College Democrats. Many hailed from out of state locations, NY, NJ, CT, etc. And when race and politics were discussed it was mocking of the minority vote and discussion of the "value" specifically of black Democrats, i.e. when they wake up and stop voting Democrat they will find their usefulness to the DNC has ended.
Democratic leadership felt it had to do something for blacks in the last election cycle since it has done nothing but promote policies that reward a few black "leaders" while subjecting a majority of blacks to nothing more than indentured servitude for the last 80 years. This is why they and their pawns in the MSM willingly played along with the destruction of Hilary's campaign. They knew they would win regardless of which of their top two candidates was nominated due to the hatred for Bush and epic failures that are McCain and Huckabee and thought that giving blacks their first president would reset their dominance of the black vote, which it did until Obama demonstrated just how incompetent his policies and leadership are.
Your retort against Condi, Steele, and Thomas calling them Uncle Toms just further demonstrates the brainwashing and slavery that the Dems have put 85-90% of black voters into. Is it that incomprehensible that some blacks feel differently than the 90% who follow in lock step with the DNC? Are you honestly telling me that the DNC is so aligned with black voters that this level of commitment is justified? If you are and can then you have confirmed my initial hypothesis, you are a fool.
There is no political party in this country or elsewhere that can legitimately match the goals, morals, social objectives, etc of 90% of any grouping of people. The only cases where this level of commitment is or has been found is where physical harm is threatened Communist China, the former Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist Cuba, Iraq under Saddam, etc. So what exactly are Reid, Pelosi, Obama, et.al threatening you with? Oh thats right they will call you an Uncle Tom, throw you out of the tent, and attempt to discredit everything you've done.
Slavery still exists in economic and political sense and it is perpetuated on us all by the Democratic party. Wake up Vinny.
April 7, 2010 - 1:01 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Bush handled Katrina fairly well, it was the gov of LA and the mayor of NO that blew it.
If I remember right, McCain was the presumptive Rep. nominee long before Obama managed to wrap up the Democrat nomination. Additionally, last time I checked AZ has a lot of blacks. It also has tons of hispanics and a non-trivial number of American Indians.
April 7, 2010 - 1:46 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Vinny, you're not only a fool but a tool as well.
Emergency response in the US is organized in a series of concentric rings with local police and fire departments at the inner ring, county (or parish) personnel the next ring, state personnel further out and finally FEMA at the outer ring. The system is designed so that the each ring adds personnel and equipment to the ring inside. As you might imagine, the more local the ring the faster the response. Again, it makes sense that the outer ring would take the longest to assemble and respond.
In the case of New Orleans and Katrina, FEMA is nearly the only emergency response organization that did respond. Where where the local, parish, and state personnel?
April 7, 2010 - 2:01 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Mikey NTH
And the federal agencies that did respond immediately (Coast Guard, Navy) did a lot of nearly-unreported good flying their helicopters as soon as it was clear and rescuing people (as did the Louisiana National Guard).
April 7, 2010 - 2:35 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
The ballad of Vinny & Katrina! I'm impressed!
And here's the best buried story by the MSM about Katrina and Nagin's and Blanco's ineptitude (Per LA Times, which fleetingly mentioned this situation, then it quickly railroaded it to the no news liberal bin – PJM might want to review this affair) –So, we are talking about the Katrina debacle?
Fine – but wasn't the only hard copy of the New Orleans disaster emergency plans at that time in… Los Angeles, of all towns around? (While the presence of that hard copy [a big package] in Los Angeles was caused by a national, mandated plan of mutual revision of urban disaster response plans, the phenomenal ineptitude of the New Orleans administration magnified this, since they SIMPLY HAD NO COPY OF THE BOOK, CHARTS, SCHEDULES, YOU NAME THEM, SENT TO LOS ANGELES city urban disaster crew for revision, comparison and feed-back!And topping this monstrosity, the Los Angeles city hall (per LA Times), tried for days to contact the New Orleans City Hall to find out if they need the plan that was in their possession, and where to rush it to New Orleans, if necessary!
To no avail –You did a heck of a job, MSM – believe it or not -
April 7, 2010 - 10:23 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Hey, Vinny! Could you use a quick and easy $10,000?
It's simple. Just send Andrew Breitbart (of BigGovernment.com) video proof of those racist slurs at the pre-ObamaCare-signing walk, and he'll give you ten thousand of his own dollars.
If you can't do that, then you're spreading falsehoods (i.e. lying) and should be labeled as a liar.
April 7, 2010 - 3:17 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Vinny –
Below is the answer to what YOU (& your cohorts) DO here on PJM and WHAT LIBERALS CLAIM THAT HAPPENED AT TEA PARTIES:Daily Caller:
"Tea Partiers to police Tax Day rally to search out 'liberal infiltrators' attempting to taint the event with racism"Agent provocateur, troll, troll, troll –
Still – try to be smarter, buddy -Regards -
April 7, 2010 - 9:55 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Right, it's Republicans (code name for "whites") who are racist. And what was the percentage of descendants of individuals from Africa who voted for Obama, 95% or so? That far, far exceeds the percentage of Democrats and Independents combined, so what should we make of that?
There is no significant amount of white racism in the country today, nor for about the past 20-40 years (varying by location). Almost no black (or any other race) is denied a job, housing, education, or even friendship on the basis of his or her race today.
Time for Democrats to move past the issue.
April 7, 2010 - 9:57 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Bush dealt with Katrina by ordering the largest US military peacetime domestic deployment EVER.
Ever. Biggest, Ever.
I gather Vinnie thinks that was a bad idea and would have ordered… umm…what, instead?
April 8, 2010 - 4:24 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
If you want to see a racist look in the mirror. How did GWB conjure up Katrina to get rid of Dem voters? I'll concede you're not real concerned about reality but more whites than blacks died during Katrina. But keep repeating the lie about racist remarks at Tea Party rallies – funny how nobody has any evidence of them.
April 8, 2010 - 5:58 am Link to this Comment | Reply
19. Trainwreck
Why do Dems like to cry "racist?" Because it works!! To be called a racist nowadays is the equivalent of being called a "communist" in the 50′s, a "witch" in the 1600′s, a heretic in the middle ages, or a "capitalist enemy of the people" in any communist country. You have been smeared, tried and convicted in the court of public opinion, and now must be made to suffer. You are now on the defensive, and any argument you make is irrelevant. You have already been debased as a person, so anything you utter in your defense is suspect. In America, you can lose your livelihood. In Europe and Canada, you can be brought up on legal charges and made to appear before a kangaroo court. Just look what happened to this 14-year old girl in England:
The beauty of the left's choice of Obama as president is that anything you say against him or his policies is ipso facto racist, which is why he can push his agenda much more easily than Clinton. And when republicans are called racist, they fold like cheap cameras.
So why not use the race card? It is the true nuclear option of the left.April 7, 2010 - 12:26 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
20. Mike K
Vinny, remind me when Bush was elected Mayor of New Orleans. I guess I've forgotten. Or do you agree that "the black man isn't capable of getting along without someone to put a roof over his head and food on his table."?
April 7, 2010 - 12:28 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
21. Old Soldier
They use racism for the same reason they always have – to keep them on the plantation.
April 7, 2010 - 12:28 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
22. progressoverpeace
To add an interesting detail:
Steve Cohen was the imbecile who was turned down for admission to the Congressional Black Caucus because he isn't black, even though he represents a majority black district. Cohen's insane reaction to this blatant racism was to introduce legislation apologizing for slavery. Okay doke, there.
Democrats are racists because as collectivists, they view the world as nothing but competition between groups, and their particular view goes with the academic marxists' refrain of "Race, class, gender". Without racist ideas, the democrat party would whither away and die. Their class and gender arguments don't hold full blocs and dissipate quickly.
April 7, 2010 - 12:28 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
23. Seerak
Nowadays, hyphenated racial groups do the opposite. They have become inherently reactionary, seeking to divide us as Americans for their own advantage. That preserves racism in perpetuity, just as the American people themselves are fed up with it and long since ready to move on.
refutes this:
Racism is pretty unpopular in our culture for good reason and I don't think anyone's projecting here.
You aren't paying the fullest of attention, Roger… and besides, you missed the biggest reason why the Democrats are waving the "racism" flag: Genuine Americanism must not be permitted back into the mainstream, lest the artificial Left-conservatism political "spectrum" lose its pincer grip on the political milieu.
April 7, 2010 - 12:30 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
24. Paul A'Barge
… taking a big sigh here … *SIGH* … ok, better now.
Look. These people (and I use the word "people" loosely) don't believe there is an ounce of racism in the Tea Party. These people are dishonest beyond limit.
Look again. These people (and again I use the word "people" loosely) use the word "racist" because these people want to win. And they want a nuclear win. And for them, calling people "racist" in the past has accomplished precisely that … a complete, nuclear, STFU (do I have to spell out the acronym?), full dead stop, win.
Here is the bottom line … these people, some of whom were righteous civil rights workers in the past (Cong. Lewis for example) have morphed into the very embodiment of evil that these people used to confront. Think about that. Please. Up has now become down, with respect to who is on the right side of freedom and justice in America.
These people are now and/or have become the living embodiment of evil.
We're talking no-holds-barred, demonic, vile and detestable, anti-freedom and anti-justice evil. These people don't just disagree with us. They want to own us. They want to enslave us. They want to make us their "strange fruit". And they want to use our government as their tool to accomplish this.
Government is not the problem. Evil people are the problem.
April 7, 2010 - 12:38 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
M. Report
The Left had to become the
Other in order to defeat it.The greater their sacrifices
for the People, the greater
their Right to wrong the People.April 7, 2010 - 1:27 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
myth buster
Then it's time for a nuclear retort. When they call us racists, we call them National Socialists.
April 7, 2010 - 6:15 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
25. Joe Y
Roger: I don't think "racist" is quite the correct term for what the Democrats have evolved into; rather, I think racism is what they have evolved from.
The accurate identification would be that they have evolved FROM being "racists," who believe that their is such a biological classification as "race," and that consequently some "races" are superior to others, and evolved TO being "racialists," who believe that something called
"race" does exist, but that it is not (or not primarily) biological. Rather, it is an identity that is imposed from birth and reinforced constantly by the political, social, and economic systems that people live in.This is why Democrats and other leftists can say that someone who would otherwise be "black" is betraying "blacks" by holding certain opinions that those of other "races" could hold without "betraying" their "race." I don't know what the hell any of that means, and I have never seen a racialist be able to explain it coherently in a genuinely serious discussion. They seem quite sure of themselves, though.
Racialism is a common term in the UK, and would be an invaluable forensic tool here.
April 7, 2010 - 12:41 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
26. Insufficiently Sensitive
Many thanks to Roger for making this argument. It has illuminated an important issue which has bothered me for years.
I have lived in two worlds since Berkeley in the 60s. As a professional in municipal public works, and as a musical linguist (performer and composer in several traditional musical dialects). The music world is unanimously dominated by center- to far-leftists. I don't share those politics, and find expression of alternate views received with instant hostility and minds slammed shut. As long as I don't raise politics, all is peace and brotherhood and good feelings.
Roger's post addresses my bewilderment at my music friends' unwillingness, or incapability, to address or discuss any political differences with them, regardless how hard I work to use reason and keep the discussion on point and civil. They simply will not engage, except for spiteful caricatures of non-leftist viewpoints, or their own pre-recorded talking points.
Agreed that the coming months might provide the first opportunities to crack that closed-mindedness. It is the emergence of the tea parties into the grudging attention of the MSM that will admit the first rays of light – particularly now that some polls are seeping into public consciousness, that tea parties have more public approval than the policies of Obama himself. Perhaps the paragons of collective thinking on the left, including the MSM, will be forced to actually defend their assumptions. And in order to do so, to engage in some form of debate with us pariahs who are more Constitutional than collectivist, and more for liberty than authoritarianism.
April 7, 2010 - 12:43 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
27. Andrew
HEY Robbins Mitchell!!!!
KKK Terrorist Arm of the Democratic Party
http://www.nationalblackrepublicans.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=pages.DYKKKKTerroristArmoftheDemocratParty&page_id=93&tp_preview=trueApril 7, 2010 - 12:52 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
28. Jeff Carter
As we talked about when you came to the CME Group trading floor, racism doesn't enter into this. You were interested at the time in Rick Santelli and his rant on CNBC post stimulus. I wrote an article for PJM about it. Recall, as soon as Santelli said what he said, the opposition played the race card.Santelli is not racist-and the tea party is not racist. I just wish that the tea parties values were not misinterpreted by so many folks seeking to expand the role of government in our lives. Poor people have to deal with the government too. They understand tea party values.
Keep expanding on this topic. The internet is powerful. Eventually the message will get through. The tea party has nothing to do with race, and everything to do with FREEDOM.
April 7, 2010 - 12:56 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
29. grichens
Roger, I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss the projection argument.
Born in Sri Lanka, my wife has been told by big-L liberals in our former church that she cannot be racist because she is not white – and in any event her racism, such as it may be, is harmless. Talk about exclusion!
April 7, 2010 - 12:56 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Rob Crawford
That's call the "No True Scotsman" fallacy. Rev. Wright cannot be racist — despite his hate-filled rants against whites and Jews — because he is black and blacks cannot be racist.
April 7, 2010 - 1:43 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
30. JJust
"The continued nostalgia for racism on the part of the Democratic Party never ceases to amaze me."
Excellent summation Mr Simon. Have you considered selling stock in your Pajamas Media?
April 7, 2010 - 1:12 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
31. Terrye
I kind of thought the same thing. Democrats are trapped in this, they do not know how to break free from this mindset.
April 7, 2010 - 1:18 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
There's no reason for them to break from this mindset as it is accomplishing everything they want. Rather than trying to escape it, they're doubling down; that's why they've moved so far to the Left. Read Gramsci.
April 8, 2010 - 12:04 am Link to this Comment | Reply
32. Howard Hirsch
One would think that after what Steve Cohen went through in his last re-election bid he would know better. The term you're looking for, Roger, is "goyische kop".
April 7, 2010 - 1:40 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
33. Ruebacca
To me democrats are the party of government. The unifing principle of the Democratic party is pork. The stimulus was pure pork. The second bill Obama sighned had 10,000 earmarks. Healthcare was pased only with the help of huge amounts of pork. In fact it is pork. Massive expantion of the burocracy hlps the party of government hand out patronage and pork. Join the government and get your student loans nulified. It goes on and on.
Raceism is just a distracting tactic to keep the buzz away from the feeding fest the dems are doing. A few fools fall for it and thats all the dems need. Becuse fools are a critical voting block for the democrats.
April 7, 2010 - 1:41 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
34. beejeez
Yes, everybody knows Republicans are the non-racist party. I wonder what could be the explanation for Democrats winning about 80% of the black vote all the time.
April 7, 2010 - 1:51 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Possibly, like you, they're too willing to believe?
April 7, 2010 - 3:49 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
35. Dave
So.. first you guys are going with the old revisionist history 'Democrats are the party of racism'… by of course completely ignoring the fact that the parties are not at all the same as they were pre civil rights -
The parties were more like 4 parties back then.. both having a conservative and liberal wing. The Southern Democrats were the racists back then – but after the civil rights movement the parties switched places in this regard – the Republican party became the party of choice for the racist groups – but sure, keep playing games – you can learn the truth anywhere.. even wikipedia will point out as much.
But I know you prefer to tell your version disregarding that the parties we have now are nothing at all like the ones from then..
from wiki 'southern democrats'
'After the Civil Rights Movement successfully challenged the Jim Crow laws and other forms of institutionalized racism, and after the Democrats as a whole came to symbolize the mainstream left of the United States, the form, if not the content, of Southern Democratic politics began to change. At that point, most Southern Democrats defected to the Republican Party, and helped accelerate the latter's transformation into a more conservative organization.'
please.. stop lying – it's a really sad strategy and reflects poorly on your integrity.
And yes, everyone has seen the racist signs in dozens of pictures from the tea party.. we've also heard racism spouted from their mouths. The tea party is largely Republican and the Republican party has representatives that make racist statements practically daily.. but if you wish to pretend – and if that's your only game plan.. guess you have to go with what you got.
April 7, 2010 - 2:00 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
"And yes, everyone has seen the racist signs in dozens of pictures from the tea party.. we've also heard racism spouted from their mouths. The tea party is largely Republican and the Republican party has representatives that make racist statements practically daily"
I call bullshit. Prove it, troll.
You're nothing but another pathetic leftist poo-thrower.April 7, 2010 - 2:36 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
And the thrust of Roger's article, and virtually the entire comment thread, applies: Turd-hurling is all they have left.
You've got the right idea: Don't let them get away with it.
April 8, 2010 - 6:14 am Link to this Comment | Reply
"And yes, everyone has seen the racist signs in dozens of pictures from the tea party.. we've also heard racism spouted from their mouths. The tea party is largely Republican and the Republican party has representatives that make racist statements practically daily.."
The usual lies. You have not seen such signs, certainly not in any significant numbers. If you believe you have, provide the evidence.
Further, the partisan makeup of the Tea Party movement is very mixed, like the country as a whole. Full of Democrats and Independents, as well as Republicans.
The Tea Party movement only seems exclusively Republican to you because – though it's pretty weak tea in reality – the Republican Party stands in the popular imagination for individual liberty, limited government, and capitalism – as does does the Tea Party movement. Democrats, for the past 40 years, have been the party of slavery – this time by the Federal Government rather than plantation owners, but no less so.
April 7, 2010 - 10:10 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
36. Dave
The Southern Democrats – who were the racist part of the party – over time defected into the Republican party… please stop spreading history revision bull.
'After the Civil Rights Movement successfully challenged the Jim Crow laws and other forms of institutionalized racism, and after the Democrats as a whole came to symbolize the mainstream left of the United States, the form, if not the content, of Southern Democratic politics began to change. At that point, most Southern Democrats defected to the Republican Party, and helped accelerate the latter's transformation into a more conservative organization.'
April 7, 2010 - 2:05 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
WOW – Have you ever been to Detroit? How about New Orleans? East LA maybe? These areas have been run by Democrats for eons and, from what you imply these should be paradise for the poor, not the shit holes they are. And you call Republicans racist? Dude, stop drinking that Kool Aid…
April 7, 2010 - 2:16 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Funny thing is, all of today's racists can be found in the Democrat party.
So the claim that the racists ever left the Democrat party is quite clearly false.April 7, 2010 - 2:26 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
Dave is of course assuming that southern and conservative is synonomous with racist.
April 7, 2010 - 2:27 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
37. Phoenix48
I think Roger is right but would add this; The progressive's electoral strategy via the Alinsky method.
It seems eons ago since two fundamental stories broke – first Judd Gregg's revelation about Obama's WH's intent to take over the Census revealing in turn just how dedicated a bunch of chicago thugs his inner circle was – and how they intened to dupe him into being a bi-partisan cross over stooge…
& 2) – the Acorn scandals.
What Andrew Breitbart was able to tie together with the second in particular helped shed light on how Obama sold America – campaigning as a center-left candidate poser – that he had some semblance of a Reaganesque mandate when addressing the sea of adoring citizens at the historic inaugral zero hour.
The true revelation of the Acorn scandal was just how deep that corruption represented the very kind of '70-'80′s activism Obama proudly boasts as his early apprenticiship; and how important reviving it was to getting The One elected – and implimenting his agenda.
Why did a rather pedestrian (when it comes to a governing mandate) 54% in the popular vote translate into an impressive electorial victory? Besides the fawing press – it was because of the formerly Red states Obama peeled off; North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, Virgina & Florida.
Scrutinze these states and what you see is that since 2000 there were ongoing liberal efforts as far as voter 'registration' (making voter fraud eaiser to pull off) – be it motor voter or absentee ballot or such time honored traditions as 'raising the dead' or 'welcoming the new' (immigrants granted citizenship for a day)
Obama had a profound superior advantage beyond mere conventional wisdom; facing a somewhat weak opponnent – in an economic crisis – following a dramatically unpopular Prez leaving office.
He had Acorn & the Soro's folks to impliment a fantastic ground campaign – assembled first to defeat Hillary – and then following that victory – more money for the national than ever imaginable to buy those murky 'walk around folk' – everyone from the happy to be sell out (for a big Mac & a beer) homeless to the willing to be criminalized (expecting a post election pay off) as mentioned.
It's not hard to cruch the numbers and surmise what almost shockingly (given the economy & McCain's slavish devotion to 'clean' campaiging) was a close race at %50-%52 became that coast to victory %54.
As for the 70% of the Jewish vote – given what Obama has already done in only a year, it's hardly inconcievable that conservatives can mount a real challenge to take away Jewish voters. I mean several writers here at PJM alone have made a pretty good case that unless American Jews are ready to essentially abandon Israel there is little rational room to continue supporting this guy.
And as for Blacks – for all the grief Michael Steele has lived with he has managed to recruite 37 black candidates to challenge for mostly House races. Would it be a strech to claim vicrory if 5-7 gain eleciton? For the chance to see a real alternative to the Black Caucus? Really?
Prop 8 in California proved that blacks can been peeled off in sizable numbers on some social issues – AND – if one could do that congressionally – take that 95+% down to say 85% – it is a math that favors conservatives in enormous ways electorially.
If you could extropolate dropping %20-%30 of the black vote from the Democrat Party in every election cycle in the future THEY WOULD CEASE TO BE A NATIONAL PARTY. Because they would lose every time.
Which is why they usually do lose when they lose – Blacks don't show up when needed. The Black Vote is like giving the top ten golfers in the world a sliding handicap to face Tiger.
Take it away and the Dems cease to exist – with or without Obama. It would be interesting to hear a goof like Frank Rich try and contort his arguments on how this country is still in population free fall as far as a white majority WHILE BLACKS STARTED VOTING THEIR INTERESTS RATHER THAN RACE….
Rogers on to something here for all of the folks who are statistic geeks when it comes to elections.
April 7, 2010 - 2:09 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
38. chambers
Well the Democrats have transformed racism into a business. And not just a business but an entire industry. It's the only "big business" that they endorse. There are tens of thousands of diversity bureaucrats at the local, state and federal level all feverishly counting noses and on the lookout for "insensitive" remarks. There are tens of thousands of federally-funded "community activists" in the our neighborhoods and in our schools all "organizing" against racism." There are tens of thousands of academics and university administrators who are teaching about racism, devising racial quotas, creating new victimized groups and isuring that the student body is 100% "diverse" (whatever that means.) This is an industry tht needs raw material in the same way Henry Ford once needed steel. You provide it by inflated claims of racial intolerance and round-the-clock demonizaiton of your opponents are "racists." We all know the drill. And this "workforce" stands ready, every election day, to fall in line and take orders. Who says that the Democrats can't create jobs?
April 7, 2010 - 2:12 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
39. misanthropicus
For some it's good business, politically – I still watch PBS and I am impressed by their resilience in pushing to an, anyway dwindling audience a fare that doesn't interest anyone, anyway –
The issue has lost its any potential traction, and this for many reasons, out of which I'll point to a few -1) What happened was wrong, but happened long, long time ago -
2) In the post Jim-Crow era (we live in that era), society has allowed blacks to make remarkable advances in any possible fields, that neutralize Sharpton' and Wright's lamments -
3) The routine, liberal crying "Wolf!" is constantly erroding the claims of racism (existent or not) -
4) The the liberals' dismay, what they praise in the ethnical changing make-up of the country, is actually lessening the traditional "progressives'" grip on racial oppression claims – new immigrants and descendants of new immigrants, be they Koreans, Guatemalans, Indians or Ukranians simply have no interest for the Selma march – and while they, if taken to task will go through the motions about the past's injustice, their minds are looking elsewhere –Virginia, let's worry about those redcoats just seen sloshing through the water on New Jersey' beaches, each carrying three musquetes and a few pistols -
April 7, 2010 - 2:14 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
40. Richard Nieporent
Often this takes the form of self-hypnosis. These people have to be racist, they have to be wrong (if you can't argue ideas with them). Poor Steve Cohen is a perfect example of this, as are numerous members of our media.
No, Roger, Steve Cohen is not deluding himself. He knows what he is doing. This is a cynical attempt on his part to demonize the Tea Party by portraying them as racists.
April 7, 2010 - 2:14 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
41. Bohemond
Part of it is the Leftist's purblind but ironclad belief that his beliefs are so self-evidently Correct that no intelligent person of good will could possibly disagree- in other words, conservatives are necessarily either stupid or evil, probably both. Accordingly, the Tea Party must be driven by some vile, wicked, ulterior motive; and racism comes readily to hand, since by trying to paint the Tea Party as "rednecks" the Libs can claim a dumb-and-racist twofer.
Which this multiple degree holder finds rather amusing….
April 7, 2010 - 2:40 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
42. vb
When the G8 was held at Heiligendamm in 2007, German TV questioned several protestors about why they were there. One young guy answered that he wanted to participate in his own Woodstock. So yes, there is an element that wants to cement its legacy and is actively passing stories of its glorious past to future generations. They will allow no second looks into their youthful beliefs, especially those with regard to race. If they didn't intend bad results from their advocated policies, the bad effects didn't occur. Only racists would say otherwise.
April 7, 2010 - 2:41 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
43. Alan
This needs to be the most public issue of all. I have absolutely had it with Public Radio (chief among many) constantly programming its audience to believe that it's still 1951. This -has- to be stunting people's aspirations.
April 7, 2010 - 2:43 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
44. Delia
-And what happens when Peter encounters an actual wolf in Margaret Sanger's eugenicist clothing?
April 7, 2010 - 2:46 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
45. Dave in Dallas
Just offhand here, just shootin' from the hip–
didn't the DEMOCRAT party start the KKK? Wasn't it a domestic terrorist organization trying, thru violence and fear, to return black folks to pre-emancipation status? Wasn't the KKK the Democrat response to the successful Republican party platform of emancipation? Wasn't it the evangelical Christians who were the forward edge of emancipation? Didn't the Democrats oppose what the Republican Christians believed was right?
I suppose we could ask Robert Byrd, seeing as he is one KKK man who is still in the Democrat party. Can't think of any KKK men in the Repub party, not now, not ten or twenty or thirty or forty years ago… no klansmen… Democrats are klansmen, but not republicans.
These goofball leftists really think Republicans are klansmen. Do they not read history books?
April 7, 2010 - 3:00 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
46. Doug King
They cling to racism not only because they are out of real ideas but because it reinforces their smug sense of moral superiority.
April 7, 2010 - 3:06 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
47. bloomergal
I am a Celtic-American baby-boomer aka "white" and my dearest wish is to see Allen West win this upcoming election. Nothing would make me prouder than to see this authentic American hero of African ancestory succeed. I'm betting a very large percentage of tea partiers feel the same.
Tea Party support of West's campaign will refute the myth of Tea Party "racism" the left is trying to foist on the world.
Now I understand Chris Matthews "tingling leg" syndrome. When I caught Allen West's impromptu speech on Youtube, the guy just knocked my socks off!
April 7, 2010 - 3:53 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Forty years ago, when I was a captain in the Army JAG corps stationed in Korea, it was sometimes said that there were no Blacks, Yellows or Whites in the Army; everybody was the same color, green. It may not have been true then, and it may not be true now. But it's a good thought.
Lt. General Benjamin O. Davis was not green; he was in the Air Force and was accordingly blue. I met him only once, and then only to exchange hand shakes, when he was the chief of staff for the United Nations Command and U.S. Forces in Korea. I came to admire him greatly based on his performance in that position.
Although I have never met LTC Allan West, I would very much appreciate the opportunity to do so. What I have seen of him impresses me very much, and I join in the hope that he gets elected. I think and hope that he will go far higher than the House of Representatives.
April 7, 2010 - 4:52 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
48. george
I want to send your excellent article to my little Massachusetts sister who is up to her eyelids in "right-wingers are racists" crap. But you need to fix the second sentence of this article:
"Last week, when Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) allowed as how the Tea Party Movement was similar to the KKK, my eyes rolled so far back in my head I almost had to clone a new cranium."
I guess what you've written is actually grammatically correct, but "allowed as how the Tea Party Movement" is a clumsy phrase and causes a reader stumble.
April 7, 2010 - 3:53 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
49. Bilgeman
Mr. Simon:
"So what's the deal? Why is the Democratic Party clinging to racism like a wall full of barnacles on the hull of a rusted ship?"Because it's the only thing keeping them afloat. There's no steel to that hull any longer.
See, if you want to keep your Federal slaves and other forms of valuable chattel where you put 'em on your plantation, you can do it in two main fashions.
The first is to erect barbed wire fencing and have armed guards stationed along the perimeter within rifle shot of each other, as well as roving patrols.
This "concentration camp model" is actually pretty expensive, (since full-time sentries who are proficient at marksmanship and mounting guard at all hours are expensive…not to mention the cost of the barbed wire).
It also removes any doubt in your livestocks' minds about their station in your grand scheme of things.The other method is to make the property WANT to stay in bondage.
This is much cheaper, since you need only hire one of the many travelling "minstrel shows of racial hatred" to show up every once in a while and perform a mummer's play…hyped to the gills, and…voila!
You then needn't buy the barbed wire, or hire the guards.
The poor weak-minded cattle will yelp and bleat for you to keep them locked up, nice and safe in their drudgery, from the scary peoples out there in the dark.The slaves will even shout down those among them who betray any notions that it seems safe to venture out beyond the Master's kind and caring sight.
Works like an effin' charm, bud.
Back in your salad days was, I think, when the phrase:
"Free your mind and your @ss will follow"
was coined, was it not?
Lotta wisdom in that saying.
April 7, 2010 - 4:05 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
50. Brenda G
They can't market their ideas effectively so they name call. It's below adolescent and the public sees right through it. The hate speech is just to get a reaction while searching for relevance.
Every accusation of racism leveled at opponents of Obama and his administration and policies rings more hollow and absurd than the one before. In truth, it's the last, pathetic, weak cry of individuals, including those in the MSM, who have lost all other arguments.
April 7, 2010 - 4:06 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
51. stuart williamson
Roger, do you really think there is a Democrat party anymore? Or have they just segued into the Socialist Party? The official Socialist Party in America is moribund, its membership at the lowest level in its 100 year history. The young gradate from "institutes of Higher Learning" fully committed to Socialism but calling themselves Democrats or Liberals.
In Europe they call themselves Social Democrats or Democratic Socialists. In America Socialism is the politics that dare not say its name. The conservative punditry bumbles, "Surely he couldn't be a Socialist!" The word never passes the lips of anyone in the White House. Conservatives are scared silly the Socialists will call them "McCarthy-ites." The Republicans pussy-foot about liberals, and progressives, and left-leaning.
For God's sake! The Democrat Party is dead. The Blue Dogs have been bought out. McCain lost the election because he could not bring himself to accuse his friends across the aisle as guilty of Socialism.
We have met the enemy and he is SOCIALISM. It is the best word we have to send them into a frenzy – so why don't we hound them with it?
April 7, 2010 - 4:06 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
52. Chris Bolts Sr.
"Another argument is that there is a form of projection going on (the Dems are the real racists projecting their true feelings on Republicans, conservatives, libertarians, etc.), but I don't really buy that. Racism is pretty unpopular in our culture for good reason and I don't think anyone's projecting here. It's an even more desperate wish that is being fulfilled."
I have to disagree with you on this point, Roger. I think a good number of Dems ARE racists and ARE projecting their racism on conservatives. I'll give you an immediate example: my father. He's a black man who feels that he has been wronged by whites for all of his life. Recently, my father called me asking for my help in an auto-injury lawsuit that my brother was involved in. His lawyer wanted to exploit a law that would help my brother get more money. I thought it sounded fishy and demanded more information, but my father's ultimate reason was as follows, "You know these stupid white folks and their laws and how they make no sense." Now, why would he bring race into this issue especially since it's a) a black attorney looking to exploit the law and b) blacks were looking to benefit? Now, my daddy would say he is not a racist, but when you listen to him talk about whites, Mexicans and Jews you get a different picture. And you think that's bad, just wait until you listen to my friends who are part of the Nation of Islam!
These people hate people because of skin color HOWEVER society has made it difficult for people to be outwardly racist and, in a bit of an irony or disingenuity, or just plain dumbness, many of these racists are really friends with people of the races they hate. So let's not cut the Dems' any slack, Roger: the Dems play on race because they have always been at their core racists going all the way back to the days of Jefferson.
April 7, 2010 - 4:08 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
The other evidence that many democrats really are white-on-black racist is revealed by Joe Biden's "clean and articulate" comment. It wasn't Jesse Jackson's political radicalism that kept him from gaining any traction in the party, it was his authenticity. The white demos wouldn't consider someone who talks black.
The man elected president was as radical as Jackson, but he gained traction within the party, and was able to knock Hillary Clinton out of a certain nomination, because the white liberal racists in the party finally found someone who talked like them.
In the end, he was perfect for white liberals – he was nominally black, so they could pat themselves on the back for supporting a black man, but at the same time, he was culturally and linguistically a white college sophomore. IOW, a member of their tribe.
April 7, 2010 - 6:47 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
53. Anonymous
The condescending regard of "caring" white liberals who want to "help" black people, whether they want or need it or not, in order to feel about themselves… what my friends called "liberal racism" (aka "dysfunctional rescuing"– the pernicious help that doesn't help) growing up.
April 7, 2010 - 4:14 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
54. Dan Miller
Willie Sutton, AKA Slick Willie, had a simple explanation. He co-authored a book explaining why he robbed banks. The book is entitled, That's where the money was.
Racism is a great source of votes and money. Slick Willie would be envious.
April 7, 2010 - 4:19 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
55. Don
And yet the typical conservative blogger tends to portray Blacks and Indians and Mexican-Americans and let's not forget the White-trash-trailer-liven'-good ol' boys, as perpetual grifters on the dole.
If there is any hope for the Republican Party we gotta drop that thrash talkin' Rush and Ann poor hatin' jive rhetoric. We gotta stop blamin' the poor for everything, that is not even an idea, thats just a diversion. Stop portraying the poor as the problem. Stop mexico from dumping its unemployed on us and reglamorize the trades as some unpopular feminist put it.April 7, 2010 - 4:31 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
56. Shelby County Boy
I am an avid reader since before you were on PM. I agree with virtually all you have to say, but in this instance, my sympathy goes with Steve. He is in a serious battle in the August primary which he is likely to lose because of his race! He will say anything to get though the primary.April 7, 2010 - 4:59 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
57. don't care
Maybe it's because clowns like Governor Clown of the state of Clownginia don't think slavery was a significant part of the Civil War.
April 7, 2010 - 5:38 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
Or, maybe the Left wants to continue to make the Republicans the owners of their history. After all, it was the Republicans who stood against slavery and saved the Union, but somehow they are not ridden with the guilt of carrying the Democrats' evil on their shoulders. A cunning move, I will say, but devious nonetheless.
April 7, 2010 - 6:56 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
And just so I can drive home the point that what Bob McDonnell did was not only shameless, but harmful to the entire GOP, let me post this:
"Among the 37 black Republicans running for U.S. House and Senate seats in November is Charles Lollar of Maryland's 5th District.
A tea party supporter running against House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Lollar says he's finding support in unexpected places.
The 38-year-old U.S. Marine Corps reservist recently walked into a bar in southern Maryland decorated with a Confederate flag. It gave his wife Rosha pause.
"I said, 'You know what, honey? Many, many of our Southern citizens came together under that flag for the purpose of keeping their family and their state together,'" Lollar recalled. "The flag is not what you're to fear. It's the stupidity behind the flag that is a problem. I don't think we'll find that in here. Let's go ahead in.""
There are black conservatives, myself included, who do not fear the Confederate flag. That has been a tool used by race hustlers to silence any form of dissent. What those race hustlers won't tell you is that not all blacks fought for the Union and a great many blacks supported the Confederacy. As the black candidate said, it ain't the flag that is fear: it is the stupidity behind it. That extends not only to foolish GOP'ers who feel they have to apologize for something that is not a part of their history, but also for race hustlers who use the flag as a weapon of fear (white racists) and for a means for profit (black racists).
April 7, 2010 - 7:23 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
HOLY SH*TF*CKBALLS truth to POWER, TRUTH to the PEOPLE, TRUTH to the BLIND, TRUTH to the DEAF, TRUTH to the MINDLESS, TRUTH to the DUMB_DUMB_DUMB.
Sorry for the all_caps but, it's good to see a black [I assume by your daddy] man speaking his mind here and REALIZED fully and AWARE of what he is dealing with.
The political race war on the black man resides solely on the limp shoulders of the Democrats who serve NOT to help black people understand how amazingly talented and gifted they are but to be denigrated by 'victim status' and told they are 'less than' and need a 'leg up'.
AMEN, brah! This coming from an African of *gasp* melanin lacking decent.
Your posts kick arse!
April 7, 2010 - 10:33 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
don't care
Was that you in the crowd at the Palin/Bachmann rally in Minnesota? I was scanning the crowd trying to see if there were any black folk there, and I think I saw one. Can't be sure. Was that you?
April 8, 2010 - 7:21 am Link to this Comment | Reply
Slavery wasn't a significant cause for the civil war. Economic issues were predominant. The north was attempting to turn the south into an economic colony.
April 8, 2010 - 6:13 am Link to this Comment | Reply
58. Ken Hahn
The nostalgia is based on pure self interest and simple math. The Democrats can't win without an overwhelming majority of African Americans so it becomes vital to make sure Blacks believe that racism is rampant. So long as African Americans vote their race not their personal interest, the Democrats are viable nationally.
Think that's an exaggeration? Look at 2008. Barack Obama was the most attractive candidate the Democrats have produced in a long time. And John McCain was about as lackluster as any Republican I can remember. Obama won by 7 %. African Americans made up almost 12% of the electorate. Obama won 95% of their vote. The split comes up Obama 11.4, McCain 0.6 . Obama wins the Black vote by 10.8% of the national total. McCain, as bad as he was carried everyone else by nearly 4%. If McCain had won 1/3 of the Black vote, it would have been a tie.
Given that it is unlikely that the GOP will produce as poor a candidate as McCain and that Obama has lost a lot of his luster, anything other than a huge and hugely one-sided turn out among African Americans creates a disaster for Democrats. They have to be obsessed with race, it's all they've got.
April 7, 2010 - 6:20 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
59. westerncanadian
In my mind, racism is a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities. Racialism is racial prejudice or discrimination. The first produces the second.
Nowadays, every "ism" spawns its own industry. The racialism industry, complete with its own professionals is what Roger is describing here. Lefties being workers in the larger "victim industry" are often professional racialists.
The genetic joke is, according to the anthropologists and their "Out of Africa" theory of the emergence of modern man, that all white people are really just pale black people. If this is true (and it seems to be), then hasn't racism been smashed already?
So this pale black person wonders what sustains lefty racialism? Back to Roger's point – it protects a Democratic Party voting bloc.
April 7, 2010 - 7:36 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
60. boomerstuff
And what's the thing with the 10% tax on tanning salons in the health care bill? Isn't that racist? A tax on light skinned people who want to get some color. An awful lot of progressive congressmen are laughing up their sleeve at that one, and no one noticed.
April 7, 2010 - 8:19 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
61. Brian G.
MarktheGreat said:
"Why the Democratic Party Clings to Racism"
When all you have is a hammer …
Mark, that is not completely accurate. They have a sickle too.
April 7, 2010 - 8:42 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
62. Poor Citizen
number one is correct. The democrats get most of the credit for being the progressive human rights party these days and deservedly so, however, that was not always the case.
There was a time when the majority of the democratic pary, specifically in the south, was racist. Fortunately, most of that sector has left the party, with very few remaining and unfortunately found a new home within the Republican party. However, as we can see the Republicans are not all that happy with the rush limbaugh, strom thurmond wing either. Good Luck with that….its their problem now.
April 7, 2010 - 9:52 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
"get most of the credit for being the progressive human rights"
"Progressive" and "human rights" is a contradiction in terms. All the printing press 'rights' the progressives tout destroy the real ones.
April 7, 2010 - 10:15 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
It simply amazes me how the left has to keep it's lies alive in order to prosper.
April 8, 2010 - 6:16 am Link to this Comment | Reply
63. Gary Rosen
"Another argument is that there is a form of projection going on (the Dems are the real racists projecting their true feelings on Republicans, conservatives, libertarians, etc.), but I don't really buy that."
You should reconsider that Roger – look at this link:
Yep, nearly twice as many Democrats as Republicans blame "da Jooos" for the economic crisis despite the fact that the vast majority of Jews vote Democrat. My own suspicion is that it is not as quite as high as the 78% that is bandied about but there is no question it is a large majority. It drives me nuts that my fellow Jews do not understand this.
April 7, 2010 - 9:55 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
64. Aqua
"… seeking to divide us as Americans for their own advantage…. In effect, the Democratic Party has inadvertently
turned itself into the party of racism
by depending upon these vested interests to maintain power."
"Using" false divisive claims of "racism" to "maintain power" — Is Racist!
Just because the people involved don't personally "hate" minorities, their — callous — use of them for their own purposes is just as damaging, and ultimately hateful.
It's time to turn the conversation to the truth and call the Leftist Democrats out for what they truly are — and that is that they are the Racists!
April 7, 2010 - 10:14 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
65. Aqua
We spend our energy trying to get the facts and our ideas across — to "explain," to help them "see," and then, we attempt to "understand" where they are coming from and why — to analyze — why don't they "get" it…
While they don't care if we understand, or why, and instead show nothing but contempt, attack and use whatever dirty trick seems advantageous.
Sound familiar?
April 7, 2010 - 10:28 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
66. Gary Rosen
"The democrats get most of the credit for being the progressive human rights party these days and deservedly so"
Bull as my link proves. Of course, for Poor Citizen "progressive human rights" probably means blaming it all on da Joooos.
April 8, 2010 - 12:46 am Link to this Comment | Reply-
Speaking about the Jewish-American, without the ISAS straw man, can you explain the 77% voting pattern.
April 8, 2010 - 8:30 am Link to this Comment | Reply
67. rashputin
The democrat party throws around charges of racism for the same reason that a stage magician diverts your attention, in hopes of keeping you from seeing what they're really doing.
Democrat sycophants here and elsewhere who claim their party is no longer racist are the most distracted of all, especially those poor souls sentenced to the democrat plantation system. The fact is democrats rabidly demand that race be the central focus of their decision making. Far from aiding minorities, quotas insure that minorities are limited to "their" share and "their" share is determined by party bosses, not by individual character or ability. That is, by definition, racism. God forgive the black folks in this country who have turned their backs on Him and consistently voted for their own murderers. It is no accident that the rate of decay of the black community is a mirror image of the rate of increase in black voters supporting the democrat party.
The democrat party is now and always has been the party of racism, slavery, sedition, secession, civil war, KKK terrorism, Jim Crow laws, eugenics laws, anti-Semitic immigration restrictions in response to Nazi Nuremburg laws, Stalin worshippers, the welfare plantation system, voter fraud, voter intimidation, and the eugenics driven mass murder of minority infants. Any organization that denies those who inconvenience their plans even have a right to life is not only by definition racist, it is by definition agreeable to the eventual slaughter of those who disagree with that organization. It isn't even a baby step from aborting black infants who are a "burden on society" to murdering black adults who "suffer from expensive health problems". The democrat party has to be so thoroughly destroyed as a national political party that it is no longer a factor in national politics.
have a nice day
April 8, 2010 - 1:06 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
68. Steve
'A great contribution the Tea Party Movement could make – perhaps its greatest contribution – would be to truly "smash racism," as we used to say in the Sixties.'
I would say a big contribution the tea party movement can make is to smash multiculturalism. It can be the "American" party–no hyphens necessary.
April 8, 2010 - 4:57 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
69. J.J. Sefton
In the words of Woody Allen, I'm a real New York Jew. So that said, let me get this straight; Steve Cohen, a Jew, gets elected in Tennessee? The birthplace of the KKK? Yeah, the country sure is racist.
Oy gevalt.
April 8, 2010 - 5:24 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
70. Prologue
63. Gary Rosen said:"…the vast majority of Jews vote Democrat. My own suspicion is that it is not as quite as high as the 78% that is bandied about but there is no question it is a large majority. It drives me nuts that my fellow Jews do not understand this."
Yes, but a crisis is hitting American Jews. A lot of them are beginning to get it, and they are scared and angry. For several months, my family and acquaintances simply stopped talking politics. Then the verbal floodgates began to open. I also see battlelines being drawn among American Jews. Things are going to get very interesting.
April 8, 2010 - 5:32 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
71. new utopian
I'm reminded of Obama's recent forays into international diplomacy, specifically his demands that we not call Islamo-terrorists Islamo-terrorists. Is he acting out of his misanthropic hatred of all that America stands for, or is he simply being "nice," hoping that, if we're nice to them, they'll be nice to us?
Well, white Repubs have been nice to blacks, as have black Repubs, yet blacks still don't like Repubs. I think we can all agree that no amount of our being nice to radical Islamists will suddenly cause them to lose the overwhelming desire to chop off our heads, Dems and Repubs alike. Is that where blacks' hatred of us will lead them next? You know that many on the left want a race war, to entrench their power even more. Will that be what Obama needs to call off the November elections and declare martial law?
April 8, 2010 - 6:13 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
72. scythe
I have been to every DC gathering since a year ago. Have met some pretty outstanding black Americans whom I would rather associate with than any left wing white cracker any day of the week. What I and some of the people I have gone with have noticed is how COMFORTABLE we are with so many people with whom we agree. The atmosphere is one of fun, revelry, and relief that so many people are starting to fight back and are informed and concerned. Like you said, we really don't give a crap what "ethnic" pedigree one can claim – it's the character that counts. Ironic, isn't it? The Tea Party People follow the teachings of MLK, the lefties are concerned with color. Their politics are truly skin deep. I wonder how many more black Americas we would have enjoyed the time with had the media not "warned" them that we were "racist". In that regard their strategy is working – to separate us from each other because were the separation to dissolve, they really would be s–t out of luck. Let's hope it happens.
April 8, 2010 - 6:55 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
73. Bob Miller
The people
Cannot stand ObamaApril 8, 2010 - 11:42 am Link to this Comment | Reply -
74. ehunter
"Racism" is the perfect trap.If you defend yourself agains the term, if declare that you arent a racist..and offer proof that you arent racist..you legitimize the witchhunt. The opposition finds flaws in your
defense, a bit of hypocrisy here…a bit of inconsistency there..you promise to be much more rigourous in your thought control..and the vicious
game goes on.
The way out is to say.."why, yes I am racist and whats more so are you, in fact your ignorance of your motives makes your little game far more dangerous"April 8, 2010 - 12:40 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
75. Bob Miller
Re. 74: Or say, "First I need to hear you denounce the racist Al Sharpton"
April 8, 2010 - 1:22 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
76. bob from district 9
"Putting it bluntly, the Democratic Party clings to racism because they are s–t out of ideas."
Putting it bluntly the right clings to accusations of racism against the democratic party because they are the ones s–t out of ideas.
The fact that the comments are filled with references to things 30, 40, 50 and more years ago is evidence of that.
Nothing current?
"They have nothing else to say. At this point, almost everyone acknowledges liberal policies don't work economically"
Just the opposite, conservative economics got us into this near depression, and may still get us into one. It was Cheney's "deficits don't matter" that sunk the US deep into debt.
As pitiful as Reagan's recovery was, it only occured at all because Reagan followed pure Keynsian economics.
Clinton has been the only president in the last 50 years to actually shrink the US government, and Reagan/BushI/BushII expanded it drastically.
You have been betrayed by your saints.
"Progressivism, liberalism, call it what you will, has completely lost its appeal to the majority of Americans on an ideological level."
Progressive ideas are the mainstay of America today. You can smear the label, but the ideas are the currency of decency today. Even the Catholic Church only agrees with the Republican platform on two issues, Abortion and Gay marriage.
The republicans have controlled this country for most of the last 28 years, and the courts for as long as I can remember, and they haven't done a damn thing about Abortion.
And Gay marriage is an issue libertarians will say is none of the government's business.
On all other issues of significance the Catholic Church is far more in line with democratic party principles.
"So what's a poor Dem to do? Wave the bloody shirt. Cry racism!"
The Tea Baggers wave the bloody shirt, in the form of the signs they carry in their demonstrations. And those who do not carry those signs tolerate them.
As to crying racism, the ultimate proof of your racism is in the utter contempt you show for minorities. To be more specific, the utter contempt you show for blacks.
Your commentary only makes any sense at all if you think black people in general are stupid. You have to think black people are so stupid that, over the course of generations, over the course of half a century, they can't tell who is really with them and who is really against them.
That is the ultimate measure of your bigotry.
April 8, 2010 - 6:44 pm Link to this Comment | Reply-
"Your commentary only makes any sense at all if you think black people in general are stupid."
Your unfortunate views reveal that deep down, you have no faith in your own abilities (and hence you need Big Gov. to hold your hand for you).
April 9, 2010 - 11:37 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
77. Gary Rosen
"The fact that the comments are filled with references to things 30, 40, 50 and more years ago is evidence of that.
Nothing current?"
My link showing Democrats to be markedly more antisemitic than Republicans is from less than a year ago. Is that your best debating tactic, just making stuff up?
April 8, 2010 - 10:57 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
78. njcommuter
A suggestion: Instead of writing "s-t out of ideas" (or "s-t out of luck)" why not write "sore out of ideas" or "sore out of luck". Same abbreviation, good meaning, and the other word is obvious to anyone who reads it.
April 9, 2010 - 8:40 pm Link to this Comment | Reply -
79. Elliot
"Putting it bluntly, the Democratic Party clings to racism because they are s–t out of ideas."
"Putting it bluntly the right clings to accusations of racism against the democratic party because they are the ones s–t out of ideas."
Taking it a step further, frankly, both political parties are s-t out of ideas-hence, we have the Tea party movement.
"Progressive ideas are the mainstay of America today.
You can smear the label, but the ideas are the currency of decency today."Which ideas do you speak of and how do you define decency ?
April 9, 2010 - 9:05 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Comments are closed.


text:
Carpet Squares in Basement
After working for an architect for over 20 years, I amassed a collection of commercial carpet tiles over the years that were discontinued. I didn't have
Gardening is my favorite followed by most DIY projects ...I usually do things myself if I think I'm capable of it .....and I surprise myself a lot!!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Building brand awareness is an important component of marketing, particularly if you don't have a set of effective inbound marketing strategies, such as PPC & SEO. When thinking about Download wordpress themes strategies and tactics for building brand awareness, you can do the direct brand connection route where the brand is prominently featured. Three examples of this are the Will It Blend, Old Spice and the Dollar a Day Shave Club commercials/videos:
Will It Blend
Old Spice – The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
The other road you could go down is where you build brand aware through association with something else that is interesting, inspirational, famous, funny or otherwise attention grabbing. Usually, you're tapping into a subject matter that is bigger than your brand. It's a lot riskier because you're not focused on driving sales. Instead, you're shaping perception. Chrysler has done this superbly with their last 3 superbowl commercials.
Halftime in America
Detroit – Eminem
Jeep – Whole Again
A few others that do this well:
Apple – 1984


text:
Nico Hulkenberg articles on F1 Fanatic archive
Hulkenberg returns to Force India for 2014 3rd December 2013, 15:05
Nico Hulkenberg will drive for Force India again in 2014 after his departure from Sauber was confirmed.
Sauber fined for incorrect radio message 12th October 2013, 9:13
Sauber have been fined ?�?�16,980 (?����?�20,000) for giving an incorrect radio message to Nico Hulkenberg which resulted in him holding up Max Chilton.
"We punched above our weight" – Hulkenberg 10th October 2013, 8:41
Nico Hulkenberg says Sauber exploited an opportunity to finish ahead of quicker cars in Korea.
Weight no issue for picking 2014 driver – Boullier 8th October 2013, 9:05
Lotus team principal Eric Boullier says weight will not influence their choice of driver for 2014.
Hulkenberg hails "one of my best races" 6th October 2013, 10:49
Nico Hulkenberg said his drive to fourth place in the Korean Grand Prix was one of his best but doubts it will help him claim a place on the grid next year.
McLaren move in 2014 unrealistic, says Hulkenberg 3rd October 2013, 17:38
Nico Hulkenberg doubts he has a realistic chance of joining McLaren next year despite rumours the team are considering a change in their driver line-up.
Hulkenberg surprised by race pace 8th September 2013, 16:04
Nico Hulkenberg said he was surprised by how strong his Sauber was in the closing stages of the Italian Grand Prix.
Half-day for Hulkenberg at Silverstone test 12th July 2013, 13:28
Nico Hulkenberg will appear for Sauber in next week's Young Driver Test at Silverstone along with two test drivers.
Hulkenberg: Sauber problems "a difficult situation" 4th July 2013, 14:37
Nico Hulkenberg admits Sauber's financial problems are "a difficult situation" for the team.
Hulkenberg expects Sauber to do better in Monaco 17th May 2013, 15:10
Nico Hulkenberg says he expects Sauber to perform better in next week's Monaco Grand Prix following their poor start to the season.


text:
The City of Lake Oswego has a council-manager form of government. The mayor and six councilors are elected at-large and serve four-year terms. The current City Council will serve from January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2014.
Three Council positions will be elected at the November 4, 2014 General Election for terms beginning January 1, 2015.
2014 November General Election - Council Candidates
As of the deadline on Tuesday, August 26, 2014, five candidates completed filings for the November 4, 2014 General Election:
2014 November General Election - City Referral Measure 3-452
On July 1, 2014, the City Council adopted Resolution 14-52, referring a measure to the voters for the November 4, 2014 General Election and on July 29, 2014, the City Council adopted Resolution 14-54, approving an explanatory statement for inclusion in the Voters' Pamphlet.
Shall the City Charter be amended regarding signatures, and degree of road-widening, necessary to require elections approving road projects?
This measure was referred to the ballot by the Lake Oswego City Council.
The Lake Oswego Charter currently requires a city-wide election to approve construction of any "major road" or "major road expansion" if an election request is signed by at least 25 registered City voters. This ballot measure increases the required number of signatures to at least three percent of all registered City voters (under current registration numbers, 758 signatures).
The Charter defines "major road" as any new road having pavement over 32 feet wide. This will remain unchanged.
The Charter currently defines "major road expansion" as increasing the pavement width of an existing road by any amount, if the road will be over 20 feet wide after the widening. It does not include road maintenance or repair that does not significantly increase road width. This ballot measure changes the definition of "major road expansion" to mean increasing pavement width to add at least one new automobile traveling lane extending for at least 500 feet.
A "yes" vote amends the Charter as described.
Election Resources
The Oregon Secretary of State Elections Division publishes candidate manuals, filing forms, information on State election law, and campaign finance.
The City of Lake Oswego is located in three counties, Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington. For more information on county election offices:
- Clackamas County Elections Office
- Multnomah County Elections Office
- Washington County Elections Office
For questions, please contact the City Recorder, Catherine Schneider, at 503-675-3984 or by email. You may also contact the Secretary of State's Office at 503-986-1518.
Voter Registration
The Oregon Secretary of State's website offers an online voter registration form. Voter registration forms are also available at City Hall and the library.
November 2012 General Election
Elections for the position of Mayor, three City Council positions, and Ballot Measures 3-405 and 3-406 were held during the General Election on November 6, 2012. For a list of results, see the Declaration of the Vote below.


text:
Friday, July 20, 2012
For Information Contact:
Public Affairs
(202) 252-6933
District Man Sentenced to 43 Years in Prison
For 2003 Sexual Assault in Northeast Washington
- DNA Tied Him to the Crime in 2010 -
WASHINGTON - Shepardson Ray Blair, 48, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 43 years in prison on charges stemming from the kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman in Northeast Washington in 2003, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.
Blair was found guilty by a jury in May 2012, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, of charges of first-degree sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances, kidnapping, and assault with significant injury. He was sentenced by the Honorable Ronna L. Beck. Blair also is required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
According to the government's evidence, the victim, then 27, was walking home from Union Station at about 10 p.m. on July 14, 2003. At the time, she was a law student completing a summer internship at a non-profit in Washington D.C. She was less than two blocks from home, in the 800 block of Second Street NE, when Blair accosted her on the sidewalk, grabbed her by the neck, and choked her. Blair dragged the victim into the bushes, slammed her face into the ground, and sexually assaulted her. When the assault was over, he fled.
The victim immediately reported the assault to police and was taken by ambulance to George Washington University Hospital, where she was treated for injuries and swabbed for DNA. The case was cold until 2010, when a DNA hit identified Blair as a suspect. Detectives with the Metropolitan Police Department obtained a search warrant from the Superior Court for the District of Columbia to collect a sample of the defendant's DNA for comparison. When Blair's DNA was analyzed, it matched the DNA left behind by the assailant in 2003.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen commended detectives from the MPD's Sexual Assault Unit, First District patrol officers, and officers from the Forensic Science Division. He also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney's Office, including Victim/Witness Advocate Tracey Hawkins; Paralegals Jason Manuel, Joyce Arthur, and Cynthia Muhammad; Legal Assistant Tanisha Nelson; Elizabeth Fischer of the Finance office; Intelligence Specialists Sharon Johnson and William Hamann; Victim-Witness Specialists David Foster and Katina Adams-Washington, and Litigation Technology Specialist Leif Hickling and the entire Litigation Support Staff. Lastly, Mr. Machen thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Cassidy Kesler Pinegar, who investigated and indicted the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Zubrensky, who tried the case.


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Makes 8 mini Peanut Butter Croissants
Peanut butter rolled up into a steamy hot croissant – the ultimate snack, perfect with breakfast, lunch or dinner. While you are welcome to use homemade croissant dough, I had to take a short cut – it was one of those weeks. We'll call this fast food for the home cook.
I guess you could say that my super-cook is giving way to super-mom. There was a time when I made my very own croissants from scratch. And I'll surely do it again, once Ava gets a little bigger and I can borrow her muscles to roll out the dough. For now, thank goodness for all-natural convenience products, like Immaculate Crescent Rolls.
1 package refrigerator crescent rolls (or make your own croissants with the amazing recipe in Tartine, as recommended by David Lebowitz)
8 tsp of peanut butter (1 tsp per roll)
Preheat the oven to the temperature indicated on your Crescent roll tube.
Gather your ingredients…
Roll out the dough into neat little triangles and spread with a thin layer of peanut butter. Leave a quarter to a half inch border.
My husband had lots of comments about what this looks like. I'll leave it to your imagination. Boys are so fifth grade
Roll it up…
Getting there..
Done! Place them on a cookie sheet and bake until golden (according to package instructions).
Just look at this. I'm telling you, it tastes like "good."
Simply fill in your details below.