Indiana Jonesing
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That's the freakin Mayor ferchissakes! And he's willing to put it all in a letter and have it published!!
Media Matters has a frankly astonishing summary of the various whispering campaigns directed against Obama by a variety of wingnut commentators and broadcasters.
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The WaPo has a fascinating, if slightly chilling, story on various expressions of racist sentiment encountered by Obama campaign workers.
Creepy, but colour me saddened but not surprised that there are racist mofos out there. (Just as while I'm dismissive of knee-jerk cries of 'misogyny' whenever Clinton is on the receiving end of sharo criticism, I'm not naive enough to pretend there's people for whom her only disqualification is her vagina.)
I recommend (and not for the first time) that anyone with some spare time pick up John Campbell's excellent biography of Margaret Thatcher. Doesn't hurt to be reminded how many pundits there are out there out there who'd rather forget their confident predictions that Britain "wasn't ready" for a female Prime Minister, and the Tories would come to their senses and dump Maggie The Milk-Snatcher long before she lead the Tories into a general election. Britain begged to differ.
Senators Clinton and McCain, and their respective campaign staffs, might want to consider that before pimping themselves out to racists. Norm Ball's a fucking arse, and if you need friends like him you're the one I'm not ready to see holding (debatably) the most power elected office on earth.
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And here's another thought, I'm pretty sure anyone who's worked at the flaxroots here has had the depressing, time-wasting spectacle of vandalised hoardings -- and some of them are pretty scary. Obscene graffiti, that often takes on a sexual and violent cast where female candidates are concerned. Folks who've had the time and energy to slash pretty tough plastic into ribbons, and smash the timber supports into unusable pieces.
Don't know about anyone else, but that kind of cowardly shit just makes me angry and more determined to win. That Wash Po story Russell linked to did creep me out, but it also reminds me why I have nothing but respect for everyone who gets off their arse and gets involved, and does so with dignity and civility towards opponents and friends alike. Because if you don't, the creeps and the cowards win.
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You might be interested in this Craig The OutlawVern vs The Democratic Primary
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There's an on-line poll that everyone here should go and jump.
To me it's incredible that they even ask the question about whether or not it's racist.
BTW, the T-shirt was produced by the same person who has a billboard up saying "I wish Hillary had married O.J.
See the analysis at Shakesville.
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There's an on-line poll that everyone here should go and jump.
To me it's incredible that they even ask the question about whether or not it's racist.I don't know, is it? The guy doesn't seem to have any major feelings either way, he's clearly after the publicity ('it's my marketing tool'). It reminds me of a second hand shop in Cuba Street that a few years back displayed a massive nazi flag near the entrance. When I protested that most people would find it incredibly offensive, the owner suggested I put my money where my outrage was: "for fifty bucks you can remove it from the shop".
You know, I almost prefer people who are actually racist. At least they display a genuine sentiment.
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It's racist. Using racism for marketing purposes is racist. Being misogynist for marketing purposes is misogynist. Full stop.
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It's racist. Using racism for marketing purposes is racist. Being misogynist for marketing purposes is misogynist. Full stop.
49% of respondents to the poll disagree. Bizarre.
When I protested that most people would find it incredibly offensive, the owner suggested I put my money where my outrage was: "for fifty bucks you can remove it from the shop".
What an insensitive asshole. I'd be so sad when someone threw a brick through his shop window, costing him way more than $50.
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What an insensitive asshole. I'd be so sad when someone threw a brick through his shop window, costing him way more than $50.
Thank you, precisely, I was trying to come up with a response to Deborah but the words were eluding me.
Asking in a braindead poll whether printing a T shirt that portrays Obama as a monkey is "racist" or "fine" misses the point. On that special occasion, you've got to say it with bricks.
Fuck I hate online polls...
Do you also hate online polls? Vote yes or no.
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Oh yes. But every now and then there's a point to jumping one.
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See, I fail to see that the point is of jumping this particular poll. The way the problem is framed is sub-moronic, even if (in fact, especially if) you respond that "it's racist" you're actually siding with this guy. Who apparently is trying to make the point that you should have a right to be offensive, so if you're offended that makes him happy. Although he also says he didn't mean to be offensive. It's all very postmodern.
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49% of respondents to the poll disagree. Bizarre.
Or: 49% of these people have never taken a single American history class.
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Here's what I found absolutely hilarious:
But his defenders are just as resolute. Mulligan's is a refuge, they say, in an otherwise hypersensitive world. Here, smoking isn't only allowed, it's expected.
"This place is a diamond in the rough," said Gene McKinley, a Woodstock engineer. "People here are genuine and honest. It's the one place I can go without having to worry if I'm offending someone."
Goody... the next time I'm in the neighbourhood, I'll drop in and ask how many crackers in the room brought their sisters something nice for Mother's Day -- like some bedsheets without pre-cut eye holes. Since I don't have to worry about offending anyone.
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I haven't figured out how to embed You Tube clips, but this is turning into the cringe-inducing 'porch monkey' scene from Clerks II. (WARNING: Anyone familiar with the work of Kevin Smith should fully expect liberal use of NSFW language.) Who would have thought even Kevin Smith fans had limits -- and 'Porch Monkey 4 Life' t-shirts (you have to see the film to get it) was it?
The bitter end of the joke is that Randall isn't a racist -- he's a clueless moron who just doesn't have the brains to recognise racism when he sees and hears it. Perhaps Mike Norman is Randall Graves in real life, but that doesn't make him any less obnoxious.
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WH,
That WP article Russell linked to is interesting. While its generally a good read, the last page assumes what it needs to prove:
Pollsters have found it difficult to accurately measure racial attitudes, as some voters are unwilling to acknowledge the role that race plays in their thinking. But some are not. Susan Dzimian, a Clinton supporter who owns residential properties, said outside a polling location in Kokomo that race was a factor in how she viewed Obama. "I think if it was somebody other than him, I'd accept it," she said of a black candidate. "If Colin Powell had run, I would be willing to accept him."
Aaron Roe, 23, was mowing lawns at a local cemetery recently, lamenting his $8-an-hour job with no benefits. He had earned a community college degree as an industrial electrician, but learned there was no electrical work to be found for someone with his experience, which is to say none. Politics wasn't on his mind; frustration was. If he were to vote, it would not be for Obama, he said. "I just got a funny feeling about him," Roe said, a feeling he couldn't specify, except to say race wasn't a part of it. "Race ain't nothing," said Roe, who is white. "It's how they're going to help the country."
If I was Aaron Roe's mother (I'm not), I'd be asking how and why his comments were included in a list of racist anecdotes, thereby implying that he was a racist. I'd also want to know exactly how the WP could possibly justify using Mr Roe's explicit declaration that race was not an issue for him as an example of latent racism. (I'm not at all denying the phenomenon of latent racism, I'm just saying that using Mr Roe as an example of it involves a dangerous piece of guesswork.)
Complicated issue, this race thing. Don't really want to get into it. (Where is Tze Ming when I really need her, yeah?)
Some African Americans are voting for Obama because he is the black Democratic candidate. Some white voters are supporting the white candidate for the same reason. That both helps and hurts the candidates, but that's just how it is. (It sure didn't help Clinton, wife of the first black President, in South Carolina.) OTOH, promoting equality of opportunity and opposing racial and sexual discrimination are die-in-a-ditch objectives of modern Democrats - which makes this is a particularly difficult and sensitive strategic issue.
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If I was Aaron Roe's mother (I'm not), I'd be asking how and why his comments were included in a list of racist anecdotes, thereby implying that he was a racist. I'd also want to know exactly how the WP could possibly justify using Mr Roe's explicit declaration that race was not an issue for him as an example of latent racism. (I'm not at all denying the phenomenon of latent racism, I'm just saying that using Mr Roe as an example of it involves a dangerous piece of guesswork.)
Fair enough caveat, WH, but when you've been on the receiving end of enough conversations that begin "I've nothing against you people, but..." then it strikes me as fair enough to make the point that prejudice can be covert as much as overt. I don't think its narcissistic navel-gazing to ask yourself exactly what those "funny feelings" are made of; and, like it or not, they tend not to be terribly attractive when looked at squarely.
Some African Americans are voting for Obama because he is the black Democratic candidate. Some white voters are supporting the white candidate for the same reason. That both helps and hurts the candidates, but that's just how it is.
Again, I'd agree with you up to a point. As long as the United States (or New Zealand) has a secret ballot, people can vote for whoever they like for whatever damn fool reasons they like. But candidates do absolutely have a choice about the campaigns they run, and their own moral and political conduct.
IMHO, both McCain and Clinton are playing up to racial (and racist) anxieties, and if they're not accountable for their own fraking campaigns why the hell should they be trusted with the keys to the White House? As I said up thread, I don't for a moment believe that Senators McCain and Clinton are racists. They just assume they have to pander to people who are (overtly or covertly) to win, and in my book that makes them worse than some cross-burning, nigger-lynching, Jew-hating Klansman who's lived neck deep in that sewer her whole life.
In his first inaugural, facing the prospect of cataclysmic civil war, Lincoln still appealed to "the better angels of our nature". I guess nowadays we'd dismiss that as the rhetoric of an empty shirt, and say that appealing to the worse demons of people like Aaron Roe & Susan Dzimian is just "how it is" when you've got an election to win.
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IMHO, both McCain and Clinton are playing up to racial (and racist) anxieties...
I'm not concerned about McCain but if you are going to continue to make that sort of accusation about Clinton then how about providing some evidence.
Media Matters has a frankly astonishing summary of the various whispering campaigns directed against Obama by a variety of wingnut commentators and broadcasters.
And that the first bit of that story highlights how complete nonsense gets to be accepted wisdom -
On January 17, the day after Obama announced the creation of his presidential exploratory committee, the conservative website InsightMag.com published an article reporting that "sources close to [a] background check," which was supposedly "conducted by researchers connected to" Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), discovered that Obama "spent at least four years in a so-called Madrassa, or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia." The article further reported that the "sources" said "[t]he idea is to show Obama as deceptive." These "sources" also speculated that the "the specific Madrassa Mr. Obama attended" might have taught "a Wahhabi doctrine that denies the rights of non-Muslims."
Media Matters goes on to say that the claim that Clinton was behind this was debunked by CNN, AP and ABC. But that story, which was planted by various right-wingers, did the rounds very eary in the contest and very effectively muddied the waters with the Dems - especially for Clinton.
Might I suggest that a lot of the a lot of the wackier claims about Clinton are based on such unchecked stories. I think they tend to go unchecked because her support based is not well represented in the pundocracy - the echo chamber taks over.
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I forgot to say that the way the voting is going it might be that Clinton gets the plurality of votes but loses the nomination.
The race is so close it will be the vagaries of the Dem primary system that will determine the outcome (e.g. she won the popular vote in Texas but got less delegates). Not that I mind, either candidate is fine by me, but please excuse the Clinton supporters for thinking this aint over.
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I'm not concerned about McCain but if you are going to continue to make that sort of accusation about Clinton then how about providing some evidence.
Cheese and crackers, Neil, what's the point? I am concerned about McCain (consider that he is actually the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States); racist demagoguery is contemptible from anyone who aspires to high political office, regardless of partisan tint; and I do get that Clinton bears absolutely no responsibility for anything done in her name -- let alone the words that come out of her own damn mouth -- that's politically inconvenient.
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...and I do get that Clinton bears absolutely no responsibility for anything done in her name -- let alone the words that come out of her own damn mouth -- that's politically inconvenient.
provide some of those words and let's see.
I think that the issue surrounding the quite different demographics of Obama and Clinton are complex and because the media has only time for snippets of arguments those arguments often come across sounding a bit off.
Take the talk of white working class voters. Now, team Obama have been making the claim that they have a New, Winning Coalition of Afro-Americans plus the college-educated. That may be true. Or it might not. But since this argument implicitly says that the Dems no longer need the white working class to win in Nov, how is Clinton supposed to put forward the opposing position that, yes - the Dems do need the white working class, without saying it?
Add to that that we’re talking about the Appalachians- where the Clinton's come form then you've got a mix that is hard to talk about in an adult manner.
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And Neil, how do you explain away Bill Clinton pushing this button:
“I never thought it would be the Democratic Party that didn’t want to count votes in Florida,” he said at a rally at the University of Montana. “I thought that was a Republican strategy -- or strategery as the case may be. And I just ask you all this, do you really believe Florida would be getting this kind of treatment if the vote had turned out the other way?”
Yup, Barak Hussein Dubya-ma is trying to steal the nomination. And, please, Neil don't tell me you get up in front of a room full of partisan Democrats and go there without knowing exactly what you're doing. Bill Clinton may be many things, but he's not that kind of stupid.
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BTW, Edwards endorses Obama. Blatant sexism, obviously. :)
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And Neil, how do you explain away Bill Clinton pushing this button:
I don't have to explain away - what Clinton is saying is true. Obama doesn't want the vote of Florida counted unless they either beneift him or do him no damage. Either way it's underhand.
My Rage-O-Meter waddles all the way up to 2. They would both do exactly the same if their positions were reversed.
I take it you are aware of the legal battles Obama waged to get his Democrat opponets off the ballot when he first ran for the Illinois Semate.
Do you think he took his name off the Michigan ballot out of the goodness of his heart?
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I don't have to explain away - what Clinton is saying is true. Obama doesn't want the vote of Florida counted unless they either beneift him or do him no damage. Either way it's underhand.
Underhand? Neil, you need to spend less time at TalkLeft.
The reason the votes in Florida shouldn't be counted as cast is because there wasn't a proper election there.
Florida is "getting this kind of treatment", as Clinton put it, because it flouted the orders of the DNC and was disciplined. Hillary was happy enough with that when it suited her.
It's a debacle, but blaming Obama is nuts.
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