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You are here: Home / 2008 / Archives for October 2008

Archives for October 2008

Post Recommendation

by Michael Demmons|  October 30, 200811:37 am| 90 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links

Just finished reading this DailyKos recommended diary, Inauguration Ball 2009, and actually got goosebumps.

Update: I am as lily white as you can get. I grew up in a small town in eastern Canada (Clarenville, Newfoundland – 2200+ people) until I was 16. I never knew a black person in all the time I lived there. I moved to Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1986, and there I only ever knew one black kid. He was a member of a performing arts group I was involved with. Wonderful kid. The only reason I noticed he was black was because it was a novelty to me. I had never known a black person.

In 1998, I moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia for a year to do my Master’s degree. Halifax has a large black minority. Again, very little racial tension – at least none that I noticed. I studied and partied with a few black people while I was there. It never occurred to me that there was any difference between us except the color of our skin.

In 1999, I moved to Atlanta and all that changed. I could not believe how racial politcs was. I have never in my life had to walk on eggshells in conversations. It really never occurred to me that there could be such thing as racial tensions. I never knew that growing up. But moving to Atlanta really gave me an education that I did not want to get, because I never had any need for it. The politics of division was something I had never known.

I must admit, part of the reason I support Barack Obama is because he is black. But only part. I did not support Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton – not because they were black, but because I believed neither had the competence for high office. I also believed the only reason they were running was because of race.

In Barack Obama, we have pure, 100% competence. That he is black is a sidebar. But it’s a sidebar that I cannot wait to celebrate late in the evening on November 4th. We’re not only going to elect the most competent president of this decade. We’re going to make history by electing the first black president in this nation’s history.

I am tired of racial politics. Sick of it. I hope, with every fiber of my being, that Barack Obama is as competent as he seems. I want the Neanderthals to see a Black Man run this country well. I want them to eat Jim Crow. I want every decent white person in America to look at their racist friends and say “Look. He’s terrific. What were you thinking all these years you stupid fucktard?” I will be happy to have Obama in office – mostly because I think he is a smart, competent manager. But I admit, the prospect of a black man in office is the chocolate frosting on a very delicious cake.

In one of my first posts on this site (I can’t find it) I said that I didn’t have a racist bone in my body. I was mocked for that – as if to say every white person has at least a little racism running through him. Hopefully, from what I have written above, you can understand why. I just didn’t have those experiences growing up – and I am truly grateful that I did not.

Update: When I say “walk on eggshells” I don’t mean while talking with African Americans – implying that I would be saying racist things. I mean with white people who grew up here and have been subjected to racial politics all their lives.

Post RecommendationPost + Comments (90)

I Didn’t See This One Coming

by John Cole|  October 30, 200811:32 am| 86 Comments

This post is in: Clown Shoes

This one honestly surprised me:

Granted, it’s probably (okay, certainly) not true. But if that crazy person who runs Atlas Shrugged is right and Barack Obama really is the son of Malcolm X, that would make my day. Honestly, who wouldn’t give Malcolm props for that one? And think there’s anyway we can fit Tupac into the bloodline? Or maybe Obama actually is Tupac? You know that whole shooting was some bullshit, right?

So now Obama is actually the love-child of Malcolm X. Go figure.

A quick side note- every time I hear the name Malcolm X, I am reminded of a funny line by Dennis Miller, when he stated he wanted to get more in tune with black culture, so he went to the bookstore and bought the “Autobiography of Malcolm the Tenth.” That always makes me snicker.

I Didn’t See This One ComingPost + Comments (86)

Missing The Point

by John Cole|  October 30, 20089:29 am| 164 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008, Republican Stupidity, Clown Shoes

Patrick Ruffini and the Next Right:

What will it take to turn this around? If you’re a conservative blogger, the question you need to ask yourself is this. Is the main purpose of your blog to express your personal opinion? Or is its primary purpose to build political power for a cause? If you cannot answer yes to the latter, you’re probably not going to be comfortable with making the changes necessary to make online conservatism a political force to be reckoned with.

This is not a criticism, but an observation. Most conservative blogs are still stuck in 2003 — both in terms of the overwhelming focus on media criticism and punditry, and the tendency to outsource electoral politics to the Republican Party. This was in some ways legitimate response to what was happening in 2003-4, when media surrender-monkeys were undermining the War on Terror, Republicans had a kick-butt political operation, and Kos was going 0 for 16.

I don’t fault bloggers for holding on to this point of view in 2003 and 2004. What is unfortunate is that they clinged to it in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 and failed to pivot to the new reality, leaving the Republican Party without a powerful enough force to rein in the self-destructive tendencies of its elite.

Sadly, it’s human nature to cling to the frame in which you came up — traditional media people will never fully reconcile themselves to the blogosphere, talk radio people will always tend to view it as the center of the universe, and even denizens of the “new media” can become easily set in their ways. This is not unlike people who got rich on the housing bubble thinking it could never end. When things first start going wrong, it’s always just a momentary blip, not a sign of an impending crash. Only a catastrophic collapse is usually enough to make people rethink matters.

None of this matters a whit when you have no message, and that is the unenviable position the Republicans are in right now. What is John McCain’s core message? I will tell you, as it is very simple- “Not Obama.” That is it. That is the sum total of the message. He and the Wasilla Wingnut have done nothing for the past two months but provide weak and ugly reasons why you should not vote for Obama, starting with the sneer de force at the RNC and continuing on to the present, where we learn that we should not vote for Obama because some plumber (but not really) is worried about socialism and because Obama knows a guy named Khalidi who does not agree with everything Bill Kristol says about Israel.

That is the Republican message, when they are not busy yelling how different they are from the current President, who just so happens to be a Republican. You would think the folks who routinely mocked DKOS for going 0-16 would figure out the similarity between what happened to the Democats in 2004 and what is happening to the Republicans right now. In 2004, the sum total of the Democratic message was “Not Bush.” You saw how that worked out.

And that is why talks about building a grass roots movement for the Republicans are right now premature- should Obama/Biden win on Tuesday, what needs to happen next is an actual bloodletting in the GOP. They need to figure out what they stand for, and once they figure that out, then a grass roots movement might work. But, for now, when the vast majority of the middle feels alienated by the current GOP, when moderate Republicans are running for the hills and an endangered species in Congress (who is left? Chris Shays?), and the bitter base is calcifying around crazy dead-enders like Michele Bachman and Sarah Palin and Eric Cantor, you need more than a good online presence.

And that is where Republicans are now- they have a fractured and thinning party with no real ideas, loads of purity tests, and a good number of people who could form the intellectual base of the party fleeing for parts unknown. Over the past few weeks, we have learned that the GOP is apparently not big enough for Chris Buckley, Peggy Noonan, George Will, Daniel Larison, Kathleen Parker, and on and on and on. Meanwhile, in typical short-sighted fashion, they are elevating a know-nothing who the vast majority of the center finds appalling to be the new heir to the GOP throne, and the leading lights of intellectual conservatism at the National Review have spent the last few months donning tinfoil hats and screaming about Ayers, Khalidi, Obama’s birth certificate, and a load of other shit that no one cares about, while the bloggers chase down the dozen or so videotapes that are going to really bring an end to this whole Obama thing.

What the Republicans need are not organizational skills. Hell, mention one potential bombshell scandal that will hurt Obama, and every right-wing blogger has their obligatory link up at memeorandum predicting the end. Have any of them sat down and thought how silly they look- by my count, there are any number of videotapes out there that are supposed to end it all. The Michelle whitey tape, the tape of Obama’s mistress, the tape of Obama screaming about how much he hates Israel, the tape of Michelle ranting at API, and on and on and on. But back to the point- as far as echoing messages, right-wing bloggers are great. Remember the old Dan Bartlett quote:

That’s what I mean by influential. I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It’s a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we’ve cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on.

When it comes to message delivery, these guys are solid. I swear to God there are multiple wingnut blog email lists, because the moment one of them has a crazy idea, it is repeated on every high profile right wing blog within the hour. As a group, they are just not very good at building things, although their skill in tearing people down is unparalleled. Ask Graeme Frost. A quick example:

By my count, this is the umpteenth silver bullet that will finally bring Obama down, and our intrepid right-wing bloggers are on it like ugly on an ape. That callous Obama wants to redistribute the wealth, but he refuses to take care of some distant relative he met once and didn’t even know was in the country. And notice, the gang is all there- Malkin, Hot Air, the National Review, Pammy Atlas- the entire base turned out for this one. Go, conservatives!

A funny thing happened last night, and conservatives missed it, apparently. Last night, a major party candidate bought 30 minutes of time on multiple stations, and presented himself and his vision to the American people. If you missed it, you can watch it here:

Notice what is missing from that, conservatives? Attacks on John McCain. For 30 minutes, Barack Obama talked about what he thinks are the problems currently facing the country, about what he thinks he can do to help fix them, how you can help him, and why it is important to elect him. He did not spend his time telling you why you should not vote for McCain, he spent his time telling why you should vote for him. You may not agree with his ideas, but you can not argue he has them and is presenting them to the country in a clear and nonthreatening manner.

Now, for a moment, consider what the Republican 30 minute infomercial would look like this year- if I had to guess, it would be ten minutes about McCain as a POW, ten minutes of McCain saying he isn’t Bush, and then ten minutes of bullshit smears about Ayers, Khalidi, socialism, celebrity, and maybe Rick Davis could go before the cameras and pull a tire gauge out of his ass. For sheer nostalgia, maybe the lead McCain blogger could put those table-top gamers back in their place again. All the while, McCain could pepper his speech with folksy rejoinders about earmarks. And now that we are done with a hypothetical Republican 30 minutes, how did McCain actually respond to the commercial? In case you missed it, he whinged about public financing (when did that become a Republican cause) and then muttered something about Obama delaying the World Series, and even that was a lie.

What you all need are some ideas. Considering how much you hate people who think, and instead seem to consistently rely on people who act from the gut and don’t blink, I am not sure how you are going to work your way out of the hole anytime soon. Without any ideas, it does not matter what kind of online presence you have. If you don’t believe me, ask John Kerry. This election is not over yet, and anything can happen (I still think McCain has a 50% chance at winning, but I am a pessimist), but there is a reason things are going the way they are going right now. Only a miracle can save John McCain, and miracles, by nature, are not an organizing principle.

Missing The PointPost + Comments (164)

Not Socialism

by John Cole|  October 30, 20088:36 am| 50 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics

Lots going on in bailout news today:

U.S. banks getting more than $163 billion from the Treasury Department for new lending are on pace to pay more than half of that sum to their shareholders, with government permission, over the next three years.

The government said it was giving banks more money so they could make more loans. Dollars paid to shareholders don’t serve that purpose, but Treasury officials say that suspending quarterly dividend payments would have deterred banks from participating in the voluntary program.

Critics, including economists and members of Congress, question why banks should get government money if they already have enough money to pay dividends — or conversely, why banks that need government money are still spending so much on dividends.

Meanwhile, where the hell did all the money go at AIG:

The American International Group is rapidly running through $123 billion in emergency lending provided by the Federal Reserve, raising questions about how a company claiming to be solvent in September could have developed such a big hole by October. Some analysts say at least part of the shortfall must have been there all along, hidden by irregular accounting.

“You don’t just suddenly lose $120 billion overnight,” said Donn Vickrey of Gradient Analytics, an independent securities research firm in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Mr. Vickrey says he believes A.I.G. must have already accumulated tens of billions of dollars worth of losses by mid-September, when it came close to collapse and received an $85 billion emergency line of credit by the Fed. That loan was later supplemented by a $38 billion lending facility.

How long before AIG is back for more money, and how much will they need. And will they get it?

Not SocialismPost + Comments (50)

The Obama Chronicles

by John Cole|  October 29, 200810:29 pm| 120 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008, Clown Shoes

My Peak Wingnut theory has got to be an early front runner for the von Hoffman award of the year. Obama has not even won the election, yet here is a 67 page, 192 footnote pdf file titled “An Examination of Obama’s Use of Hidden Hypnosis Techniques in His Speeches.” Deep in the spittle, you can find insights such as the following:

Worse yet, his hypnosis probably has at least some effect on millions. Jews voting for the candidate endorsed by Iran, Hamas, Farakhan, and Khalidi should be a wake up signal that something is not Kosher.

Whatever the outcome on Tuesday, this is going to be the longest four years ever.

The Obama ChroniclesPost + Comments (120)

Country Palin First

by John Cole|  October 29, 20089:57 pm| 50 Comments

This post is in: Lies, Damned Lies, and Sarah Palin, Republican Stupidity

This is awesome:

In an interview with ABC News’ Elizabeth Vargas, the Republican vice-presidential nominee was asked about 2012, whether she was discouraged by the daily attacks on the campaign trail, and would instead pack it in and return to her home state of Alaska.

“I think that, if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the political shots that we’ve taken, that would bring this whole … I’m not doing this for naught,” Palin said.

Palin said she believed in the current GOP ticket and that she was “thinking that it’s going to go our way on Tuesday, Nov. 4. I truly believe that the wisdom of the people will be revealed on that day,” she said.

Maverick! After all, she has said she has nothing to lose.

I hope the ever-narrowing frothing right base rushes to embrace their new Queen.

(Graphic mailed in from a reader)

<del datetime="2008-10-30T02:54:21+00:00">Country</del> Palin FirstPost + Comments (50)

Obama TV Open Thread

by John Cole|  October 29, 20087:27 pm| 116 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008

I actually forgot about the damned thing.

Obama TV Open ThreadPost + Comments (116)

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