Thinking Right

By Camus

January 21, 2008 9:21 AM | Link to this

Hi Jim

You may be ‘right’ that the GOP can pull together behind any of the major candidates (except, of course, the nutter Huckabbe). And I’ve said often that McCain is the one GOPer who worries me as a guy rooting for the lib squad. But what do you make of the unvarnished vitriol from the likes of Limbaugh and Delay over McCain? Delay (in a bad case of pot insulting kettle) claimed St John has done more damage to the Republican party than any other person. That’s pretty strong stuff, and seems emblematic of the Freeper wing’s attitudes towards McCain. How does that square with handholding comity in the General?

As for Rudy (hi Glenn), his campaign strategy is either the dumbest idea ever, or it is pure genius.

By Aquagirl

January 21, 2008 9:28 AM | Link to this

Jim’s waiting on Florida to provide clarity? Good luck with that.

By The Race

January 21, 2008 9:37 AM | Link to this

Ask yourself: would you vote for MLK on Super Tuesday?

You have to give credit to Wooten and the rightics, (who are peaceful as opposed to the rightists who are violent yeehaw-dists). The rightics are blogging us the play-by-play snapshots of who’s ahead or what poll asked what question minute-by-minute in an ever-morphing cauldron of spin.

Wooten is correct in blaming the early Iraq occupation problems and the possible alleged recession dead ahead on the Clintons. The GOP deserves credit for trying to correct all the bungling those Clintons have done since 911, which was also clearly their fault.

But the one open question is this: the clintons have made all those international and domestic mistakes in the last 8 years and nobody has done anything about it. Who will stand up to the clintons in november and stop them from committing any more foreign policy disasters and domestic blunders? Somebody has to take charge away from the Clintons. Maybe what we needed was a GOP president who was a leader in the white house. If we would have had a strong conservative patriot in the white house in the last 8 years, then we’d be so much better off.

Who will stop the clintons, and remove them from political dominance?

That’s is for us the voters now to decide. Do we vote for Hillary, or do we vote for the Clintons. We need to decide on Stupor Foolsday.

We need to decide then, or we’re finished.

Paid for by the committe to re-elect Hillary Clinton.

By sandy

January 21, 2008 9:47 AM | Link to this

Fred has been beat soundly in every contest so far. If he loses in FL he should retire from the race. Rudy can take the lead in one week, but will most likely end up as the goat. Mac scares me a bit as a conservative, but even Ron Paul would do a better job than any of the Dems running. Mac better learn something different about immigration and free speech if he wants to win full support from the conservative base.

By Bubba Li Cious

January 21, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this

Any true southerner knows there is only one man to vote for, Go Huckabee! Besides, after hearing what he does with poles to people that turn against him, Go Huckabee! I even get to pull my old flag back out of the truck and fly it proudly agin, Go Huckabee! Best of all, we’ll get to pay a fair thrice our regular tithe to the revenuer, Go Huckabee!

By CantTouchThis

January 21, 2008 10:09 AM | Link to this

Welcome to Election 2008.

It’s going to be an interesting race all the way down to the wire. Most people are starting to call it Hot Potato 08. Every time someone gets a good grip on the top spot, they toss it away as though it were a just that — a Hot Potato.

By ReachingOut

January 21, 2008 10:20 AM | Link to this

for a Tot Inflato vote Obama.

By Turk Schonert

January 21, 2008 10:25 AM | Link to this

Drawing independents is a good thing in November. McCain could surge.

By deegee

January 21, 2008 10:28 AM | Link to this

If Dick Cheney weren’t such a Dick, he would be the front runner and the republican party could do what they have always done and herd themselves neatly behind the front runner. Now they have choices and they are forced to think for themselves, it ain’t pretty. Who knew there were so many types of conservatives? Fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, evangelicals, Mormons, compassionate conservatives, uncompassionate conservatives. Now contrast that with the Democratic race and you see why John McCain appears to be the stabilizing force in the party.

By Curious Observer

January 21, 2008 10:29 AM | Link to this

Alas, what’s a poor conservative Republican to do?

McCain will never do. He’s a liberal with regard to illegal immigration, and he authored McCain-Feingold and thus restricted free speech (interesting that conservatives equate the degree of speech freedom with the amount of money a candidate has to spend on campaigns.)

Rudi’s gonad-driven escapades and his ties to Bernie Kerik render him unelectable. Besides, there are rumors that he ran a Sanctuary City.

Mitt is a flip-flopper and a—horrors!—Mormon. He couldn’t win even one of the Southern states.

Huckabee, though he has the correct religion and is strong on merging religious faith with the constitution, is suspect on social issues. He simply let too many convicts out of prison, and it’s a known fact that he advocated for educating the children of illegals.

Then there’s Lazy Fred, jbmlaw’s dream candidate. He holds to all the desirable knuckle-dragging principles, and we might forgive him for once lobbying on behalf of a pro-abortion group. Sadly, this jowly, aw-shucks candidate with the child bride can never seem to get to the 20% level. Most voters go to sleep while he’s speaking. But if you listen closely, you can almost hear the Dickensian “Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons?”

How truly sad it is to see the extreme conservative wing of the Republican party faced with the prospect of having to compromise with the moderates. Old Newt, he of the Contract on America, must be salivating at the prospect of being begged at the convention to accept the nomination in order to save the party.

By Glenn

January 21, 2008 10:32 AM | Link to this

Jim’s thesis is valid, I think—-the importance of Super Tuesday. All but two of those states are, on paper, very favorable fields of battle for Giuliani, but Camus is right about Florida being a tremendous gamble for him. If he loses to McCain in Florida by more than a couple points, he won’t have the money for Super Tuesday and will get shelacked.

The Race asks an interesting question about whether we’d vote for MLK on Super Tuesday. My answer is that I’d vote for the pre-1966 King, and against the post-1965 one.

I agree with the late historical sociologist Christopher Lasch (who gave us the term “Me Generation”) and with my old friend Stewart Burns, co-editor of the King papers, that Dr. King experienced an existential crisis, or at least a major turning point, after passage of the second Civil Rights Act, in 1965. As a religious philosopher, he turned back to his first principles, which were the Gospels, Ghandhi and Thoreau, and the lives of those he admired, such as Frederick Douglass, A. Philip Randolph, and his own father.

What he came up with next was an idiosynchratic synthesis of the Sermon on the Mount (as ever) and his own fitful understanding of early Christianity. The result was a new King, a pacifistic, redistributionist, Christian Socialist, on the order of John Ruskin but without the anarchistic tendencies. This rather odd exegesis may have cost him his life, as it validated, for some—-notably J. Edgar and those in his thrall—-the suspicion that King was a Communist. The re-tooled, self-styled Martin King was not a Communist, however, only muddled.

So no, I would not vote for the King who met a terrible end in Memphis; but I would campaign, probably full-time, for the King who turned up in Oslo back when the Nobel Prize meant a great deal. I agree with e.g. Stewart and Professor Lasch: King was the most important American figure of the second half of the 20th Century.

{Rudy 08]

By Jack is out of Jail, Back on the trail of Al Cutie

January 21, 2008 10:34 AM | Link to this

Free, free at last, no more washing Bubba’s dirty sheets and pillow cases, with those funny ugly stains. Note to those without a super secret security clearance: Jack’s public idenity is that of a third rate actor. Kiefer Sutherland has been released from jail after serving 48 days on a drunken driving charge, according to a police official.

Two police spokesmen did not return phone calls seeking confirmation of a story on People magazine’s Web site saying the 41-year-old actor walked out of jail at 12:05 a.m. Monday, hours earlier than had been expected.

Sutherland, who plays the hard-as-nails agent of TV’s ‘24,’ was a softy during his 48 days in jail on a drunken-driving charge. Sutherland, scheduled to be released Monday, has spent his sentence cleaning sheets, pillowcases and blankets on laundry duty, police Officer John Balian said Friday, But a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity and wasn’t authorized to speak publicly confirmed that Sutherland had been released.

People quoted police Officer John Balian as saying, “(Kiefer) looked like he was glad to be out,” and that Sutherland was wearing a shirt and jeans when he left the facility.

Sutherland — the star of Fox television’s drama, “24” — has spent his sentence cleaning sheets, pillowcases and blankets on laundry duty, Balian told The Associated Press on Friday.

“He was very humble, never complained,” Balian said. “He didn’t give us any problems at all.”

Sutherland pleaded no contest in October to driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of 0.08 percent. He was sentenced to 30 days, as well as 18 days for violating probation stemming from a 2004 drunken-driving arrest.

After entering his plea last fall, Sutherland issued a statement saying he was “very disappointed in myself for the poor judgment I exhibited recently, and I’m deeply sorry for the disappointment and distress this has caused my family, friends and co-workers.”

He was granted a request to serve his time in suburban Glendale’s city jail rather than in the overcrowded downtown Los Angeles County jail. The trade-off was that he could not shave any time off his sentence for good behavior or early release because of overcrowding.

The actor must also serve five years probation and complete an 18-month alcohol education program and attend weekly therapy sessions for six months.

WATCH OUT AL CUTIE, JACK IS BACK ON THE CASE!!!

By deegee

January 21, 2008 10:39 AM | Link to this

Thanks, Glenn for reminding us of what it was to be a good negro.

By Glenn

January 21, 2008 10:48 AM | Link to this

deegee,

What a swinish hit-and-run artist you are. Only without the art part.

By Bubba Li Cious

January 21, 2008 10:53 AM | Link to this

Let us not ferget about the writins of the po white trash either. Why it can still be found in the stalls of some of the south’s finer establisments.

Fer a good time, call 8675309.

The southern dough will rise agin.

By deegee

January 21, 2008 10:56 AM | Link to this

Not running, Glenn. I’m still here.

By Aquagirl

January 21, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this

There-there Glenn, don’t pout because deegee is funnier than you. It’s okay. Someone has to provide the pseudo-intellectual babble.

By Copyleft

January 21, 2008 11:04 AM | Link to this

King was killed after his campaign shifted to addressing the issues of class and money. But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.

I’d vote for either King—because both were right.

By Glenn

January 21, 2008 11:08 AM | Link to this

Aquagirl, that you find it funny to call someone a racist, and not say why, and instead stonewall (“not running…I’m still here”). Is just plain sick.

I bet you find David Letterman hilarious, and have done all your short life.

By deegee

January 21, 2008 11:16 AM | Link to this

Glenn, can you please rephrase your response in 2,000 words or more? We don’t understand you when you’re pithy.

By Disgusted

January 21, 2008 11:18 AM | Link to this

It looks as though Glenn was all for Dr. King until the latter started advocating for implementation of the political reforms to carry out the message. In other words, let’s have the ideals but not the reality.

Deegee isn’t being a hit-and-run artist. He’s merely pointing out the absurdity of Glenn’s argument.

By Glenn

January 21, 2008 11:18 AM | Link to this

Copyleftisis,

See my note on J. Edgar and the possible reasons behind the King killing. The House Committee on Assassinations, you’ll remember, found that there were definitely two, and possibly three, extant contracts on MLK’s life when it was taken in Memphis.

But pardon my pseudo-intellectualism.

By Dennis

January 21, 2008 11:19 AM | Link to this

By Glenn January 21, 2008 10:32 AM “I agree with the late historical sociologist Christopher Lasch (who gave us the term “Me Generation”) and with my old friend Stewart Burns, co-editor of the King papers, that Dr. King experienced an existential crisis….”

There occured a civilian/religeous parallel to this in Central and South America.

After many years of the Catholic church preaching to the poor that they should love Jesus and accept their status, a group of Catholic clergy began to IMPLEMENT THE GOSPEL and create ways to help the poor lift themselves out of their status.

(Read about “Third World Theology).

As this (demands on the governments for better treatment of the civilian populace and in particular, the poor) began to be successful, U.S. corporations became concerned that they might lose control of the natural resources in those countries and thus began to undermine the civilian populace by calling their movement and their gains “Communist”.

Hence, Henry Kissinger’s statement, “Why should we let Chile go communist just because the Chileans don’t know any better?” Of course there followed after that the political police policies of the supposed wonderfull president, Ronald Reagan, et.al. (Oliver North).

But the thing is, how our own government responded to the similiar situations; in the U.S., threats to the social situation of black Americans was settled by peaceful (comparatively) means, while in Central and South America they were settled by military means.

But one has to be an idiot not to see what is happening today in this country. Slowly, bit by bit, Americans are being watched more and more (and not trusted) by their own government - spying via illegal telephone intercepts, computer intercepts, spy cameras.

And NOW, a proposed national I.D. card. “The schedule …calls for compliant [drivers] licenses for everyone under 50 by May ll, 2014 and for those 50 and over, by December 1, 2017. The Homeland Security Department decided this would lower costs, according to Mr. Chertoff. He called it “risk management” saying older people were less likely to be terrorists.”

Yes, the American civil unrests of the intergration period and the civil protests of the Vietnam era (and now protests against the Iraq war) has scared the sh-t out of corporate America and the American government.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By Aquagirl

January 21, 2008 11:21 AM | Link to this

No, Glenn, thinking that you’re fit to judge the trajectory of MLK’s work is sick. Fortunately, not recognizing a good smackdown isn’t sick, it’s just being a weenie.

I’ve never watched Letterman except in clips on other shows. He’s not really funny to me. Why do you think I like him? Is that a “lib” thing for ya? After being caught stereotyping once, why don’t you knock it off for the day?

By @@

January 21, 2008 11:24 AM | Link to this

Hi ‘ya Jim. Today is the day we recognize the conservative Democrat, Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. I’ve always thought how sad it was that his inspiring message got hijacked by the political dem machine in Washington.

Dr. King’s message was to grow in traditional principles stemming from a gospel seedling. Unfortunately it was the young black radicals of the Free Love Sixties who used to deride him as De Lawd. Poor Dr. King…hijacked by the costly liberals. Anyhoo…

No need to leave before….ABSOLUTELY Jim. Looking at the small lead McCain has over Rudy I’m thinking both entered fully exposed. The difference is McCain’s exposure revealed a deflated surrender to dems on national policy issues while Rudy, in NYC—working with Democrats said “This is mine. What have you got?”

It was a perfect fit for New York.

I’ve been reading where a Romney/Giuliani or a Giuliani/Romney ticket could be a win for the GOP and a win for America. I’d like to see Fred remain until Super Tuesday. Why not? Won’t cost him much.

Rudy (08)

Wicked is great!

By Glenn

January 21, 2008 11:25 AM | Link to this

Dennis,

That’s brilliant, your Liberation Theology analog. It never occurred to me, but you’re right. King (and also Cardinal O’Connor of NY) did anticipate Liberation Theology, which really kicked off the year after MLK’s death. It would have been so telling, and possibly wonderful, to have seen what he’d have made of it.

What do you think he’d have done in response to the militating Latino Catholics?

By Camus

January 21, 2008 11:37 AM | Link to this

Dennis raises an issue that has a great deal of resonance for me. Being raised in a good Goldwater conservative household in the South, I well remember the times my dear Dad and his serious friends would fulminate against the “godd@mned FDR ID card” (i.e., the Social Security card) and they would not sit still for being required to carry this as that would amount to a National ID Card and then we would be no better than the godd@mmed ‘Cahhm-you-nists’. Now, it seems, the worm has turned, and it is the Conservatrons who cry loudest for a National ID. I find this peculiar, at least.

So, Right Thinkers…why, why has this article of Conservative faith been so completely abandoned? Remember, if you answer, “Because times have changed,” you de facto undermine the very raison d’etre of Conservative ideology, and specifically attack the intellectual underpinnings of Scalia’s Strict Constructionist fetish.

(Note: I also recall with some wistful fondness this same crowd of good gents decrying the creeping ‘Cahhm-you-nism’ of teaching evolution in the schools. One guy, after a few drinks, could be heard yelling about “I didn’t come from no damned ape or some hand of a Buddha statue.” Ah, yes, good times. I’ll leave off now and not bore you with the diatribes against “flor-eye-day-shun”. I kid not.)

By Glenn

January 21, 2008 11:46 AM | Link to this

Dennis,

While MLK was moving from nonviolence to pacifism (not the same, as you know), the precursors of Lib. Theology were preparing to advocate violence in the name of Jesus. It would have been another Malcolm showdown. Its outcome?

@@,

What a great ticket either would be!

By Mark

January 21, 2008 11:55 AM | Link to this

Sad is the day people vote for skin color. The blacks vote democrat for all the free handouts they will recieve. And they back obomba because he’s black. How ignorant, tho I’m not surprised.

By getalife

January 21, 2008 11:55 AM | Link to this

Today is the day.

One year from today, the Clintons take back the White House to start cleaning up w’s mess.

Lets hope, w will not destroy our country anymore than he already has in the last year of his disaster.

By Dennis

January 21, 2008 12:00 PM | Link to this

By Glenn January 21, 2008 11:25 AM “Dennis, What do you think he’d have done in response to the militating Latino Catholics?”

That would be interesting to know.

I am saddened by the respones of too many of our Christian ministers to not lead a more forceful response to Iraq.

As you know the “alleged” “separation clause” of the Constitution is why our church properties are not taxed in return for our ministers not preaching, from the pulpit, anti-political sermons. And the few who have, have been threatened by the IRS. (But neither are the ultra conservative ministers supposed to preach pro government sermons, from the pulpit, either). (Interesting word, “pulpit).

One of our local churches is now engaging in an 8.5 million expansion, with 10% of their budget going to “outreach”. That’s pathetic.

But back to your question, I can’t say Dr. King would have noticed it anymore than other ministers of his day. And maybe even more so since he was occupied with things here at home.

He did decry at some point that his own country was the biggest purveyor of violence in the world.

You would enjoy the book of one protest minister, Davidson Loehr, “America Fascism and God”.

Personally, I feel like our churches are emulating the churches of Germany during the rise and reign of Hitler.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By TheTruth

January 21, 2008 12:02 PM | Link to this

Don’t delude yourselves wingnuts. Cain doesn’t need you wackos to secure the nomination and he certinly doesn’t need you to win a general election. What he needs is the majority moderate Republican vote, independents, and a good percentage of Latino vote that is going to run at warp speed to the Dems if anyone BUT McCain wins the Republican nomination. McCain is using a WINNING strategy when it comes to immigration. What you wingnuts call the “base” now consists of a handful of rabid xenophobic nativists that have absolutely killed the Republican party. The best thing the “base” can do is STFU before you imbeciles hand this country back to the Clintons.

By The Artist Formerly Known as Heywood

January 21, 2008 12:02 PM | Link to this

Mark,

Sad is the day when people who are willing to vote only for white males refuse to recognize their own pig ingnorant bigotry. Sad is the day when ignorant wingnuts vote for the tax cut handouts they expect to receive under a Republican, especially when they get economically bungh0led in so many more significant ways. Sad is the day when ignorant f^cktards like Mark stand up on their hind legs and pretend to be sentient human beings, tho I am not surprised.

By RealRep

January 21, 2008 12:06 PM | Link to this

Mike had a wonderful stop in Atlanta. Georgia knows true conservatives when they see them!

While Mike salutes John McCain as the only other Real Republican in the primary, he shares the concerns of John’s team about the Senator needing a rest.

A vote for Giuliani is a vote for Hillary.

Huckabee ‘08

By The Race

January 21, 2008 12:21 PM | Link to this

MLK today!

By RealRep's worst nightmare

January 21, 2008 12:22 PM | Link to this

Mike would also like to thank all the good Georgians who embrace Mike’s enthusiasm for flagpole sodomy. Georgia knows a Real Christian when they see one!

Few theologians know that Our Saviour, when confronting the money changers in the Temple, turned a few of them across an overturned table a “comforted” them with his rod. It is a sacred means of retribution, and served well to discourage others from angering Our Lord. This is prominent in Mike’s Bible, though it does not appear in the “liberal” translations that most people recognize. It’s a kind of super secret book, just like the one the Heathen Romney believes, only Mike’s does not come straight from Satan.

Mike knows how to protect us from our enemies. Roger that.

By Dennis

January 21, 2008 12:29 PM | Link to this

By Camus January 21, 2008 11:37 AM You’re right that conservatives (and liberals alike) go to church and spout we ought to take care of the poor (and I did, too).

In response to the Social Security card being a national identity card, since individuals were/are required to make contributions to it, I see the financial part of it as a bank account number. I see Social Security as “deferred compensation” for the contribution that the individual has made to this country - with the understanding that everyone cannot be a President/CEO of a nation/corporation, but even the custodian of a corporation contributes to the bottom line of that corporation/nation and deserves a living share of its profits.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By deegee

January 21, 2008 12:37 PM | Link to this

I believe the schmuckabee was being Thompsonian in his remark about the flagpole. I think that sealed the deal for him by revving up the “hell no we ain’t forgettin’” conservatives. Rebel flag trumps illegal aliens. Let’s see if it has legs as we move across the southland.

By Camus

January 21, 2008 12:49 PM | Link to this

Dennis,

I’m trying, but I can’t quite understand how your response relates to my question of how current conservatives can resolve the conflict with the long-standing conservative aversion to the government imposing a national ID system. Any staunch conservatives willing to tackle this one? I really would love to know the reasoning.

By Mark

January 21, 2008 12:52 PM | Link to this

The Artist Formerly Known as Heywood

Sad is the day we have a black or a woman as president. Sad is the day illiterate morons such as yourself actually believe either one has a chance in hell of taking over the whitehouse. Ignorant nogs such as yourself will screw this country up much worse than W ever did.

By Politics Aside

January 21, 2008 12:54 PM | Link to this

the server is useless today. good, man oh man.

oh well. I’m hardly a troll who would post just to drown out others. Let my comments be sacrificed to the poll gods.

Let the noise resound. We dont know what the american people want because the early polls suggest they want everyone and everything. forget Guilliani.

We are leaderless again listlessly adrift in the poll-doldrums, forced to endure the churning graffiti that muddies our caucus and scars our earnest heading.

By Attn: Clayton Parents

January 21, 2008 12:58 PM | Link to this

So Jim, since you assail Democrats for running government like a “jobs program” why haven’t you commented on Democratic State Rep. Celeste Johnson’s illegal double dipping (drawing a full paycheck from Clayton schools while serving in the General Assembly?)

Couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that her husband on the school board (yes the school board the AJC has written close to a DOZEN stories on, you YOU have commented on) Rod Johnson is a MACE opponent now could it?

Is there any doubt if Celeste Johnson was married to a MACE board member (instead of a GAE member) you’d be hitting on this story harder than Slick Willie would be hitting on a “Sorority Babes for Hillary” party?

For someone who preaches the gospel of “personal responsibility” I wonder if YOU will step up to the plate and explain why, given the BLANKET coverage the AJC and the editorial board have given the Clayton school board, you haven’t said the first word about this?

And for those who aren’t up on this, Celeste Johnson’s double dipping isn’t “speculation”. An Open Records request has CONFIRMED it, yet nowhere in close to the DOZEN stories the AJC has done on the school board, there hasn’t been a single mention of it.

Does “Jim’s a cherry picker” have your modus operandi tagged perfectly when it comes to the Clayton school board and SACS?

By Bubba Li Cious

January 21, 2008 1:02 PM | Link to this

Why president Huckabee is a mighty fine feller. Ain’t no North Georgia feller in his right mind gonna say otherwise, specially as long as he has that pole in his hands. Jest the thought of squeelin is enough to put the fear in me. Yessiree! Stupid is as stupid as it gits.

By kirk

January 21, 2008 1:24 PM | Link to this

Is MLK the greatest american? Or was Lincoln.

Lincoln enlisted the better angels of our nature to shore up our nation. MLK pointed out that better wasnt best. Only our best angels could save us. It’s like we were children who didn’t know how to act until MLK showed us.

I like Sitting Bull too, as the greatest American. He saw a machine grinding up his people to the greedy pulse of an arbitrarily-inferred manifest destiny. Sitting Bull lets us see what we are. Custer would have slaughtered those families clustered along that river if he’d been able to. He failed and He’s still our greatest hero. If he had succeeded, then the dynasty of his lineage would still be in power.

Thank you, Sitting Bull.

By deegee

January 21, 2008 1:26 PM | Link to this

Mark says,

“Sad is the day people vote for skin color.”

“Sad is the day we have a black or a woman as president.”

“Sad is the day illiterate morons such as yourself actually believe either one has a chance in hell of taking over the whitehouse.”

So Mark, does this mean that you will be voting for your favorite white male candidate regardless of his skin color?

By getalife

January 21, 2008 1:27 PM | Link to this

Mark,

It takes a Clinton to clean up after a bush.

By Glenn

January 21, 2008 1:31 PM | Link to this

Camus & Dennis,

On the Hill the ID issue is led by Sen. Sam Brownback, a textbook GOP Conservative. He wants one. He wanted one prior to 9/11. The general belief is that the issue is stalled because of the collision, not of security v. privacy, so much as of security + immigration enforcement v. immigration + privacy.

Dennis,

The political scientist Martin Shapiro, one of the country’s leading Constitutional scholars, made his name largely as a result of his work on the interrelationship of two historical forces at work in the U.S. circa 1954-1974. The first was the so-called “Southern Strategy”, in which the GOP played a pick-up game to build a majority tipped by collecting white Southerners who’d peeled from the Democratic Party in protest of the civil rights acts, which the GOP managed, for these purposes, to pin on the Democrats (though it was really the strange bedfellows—-GOP + LBJ—-who put together the votes). This is what LBJ meant when he told his mentor Sen. Russell (as it happens, on tape) “It’s time we kissed the crackers good bye.” Enter the GOP.

This crucial political development—-really the most important one in our lifetimes—-occurred precisely because of the work of Dr. King and his contemporaries, including of course Mr. Marshall. The key thing is that to say that their success made a big impression on LBJ’s “crackers” would be an enormous understatement. Indeed, Shapiro’s point is that it was that very success of the Civil Rights Movement which also caused the single most important American theological development of our times. And that was the rapid abandonment of that old Southern tradition, “Don’t talk politics or religion at the dinner table”, and its correlate, “Don’t mix the two”, in favor of political engagement of white Southern churches, in view of the successful mixing of politics and religion in the Black Church.

So Shapiro chronicles how one white Southern preacher after another came to report to his congregants his directive from God (often, by sheer coincidence, in the person of Richard Viguerie, in expensive junkets choreographed for just that purpose) to embrace a new eschatological dispensation in which it was the duty of the Church to usher in the Second Coming through direct political action.

You can’t get a lower wall of separation than that. These people were and are literal. Even Dr. King, when he said e.g. “I will go out, and speed up that new day” when the lion will lie with the lamb—-even then he was speaking metaphorically, of race relations. The Evangelicals, on the other hand, when they said “Second Coming”, meant—-guess what—-The Second Coming.

And all of it—-all of it—-based on race hatred!

By The Artist Formerly Known as Heywood

January 21, 2008 1:33 PM | Link to this

getalife

It takes a Clinton with a bush, apparently.

Beware Mark…the Clagina is coming!!!

By Dennis

January 21, 2008 1:35 PM | Link to this

By Camus January 21, 2008 12:49 PM Dennis, I’m trying, but I can’t quite understand how your response relates to my question of how current conservatives can resolve the conflict with the long-standing conservative aversion to the government imposing a national ID system.”

My bad. I didn’t contribute well to that question.

There has been, of course, a lot brainwashing, especially from the Right, of conservatives to verbally spout againist a national I.D. via a Social Security card number.

But, if you notice, in practice, both the poor and the rich (alike) support such a practice when it comes time for the payouts.

The I.D. card now being proposed, (and let’s go ahead and say implimented because Americans are, just like the Germans under Hitler, are going to take the easy way out and play the game - Americans, too, just don’t want to be inconvenienced by standing up for their rights, let somebody else do it (until it’s too late)) will contain not only a number, but your personal data of one sort or another, your address, physical discription, social security number, blood type, religious preference, emergency data, family history - it’s all coming down the pipeline somewhere.

I wouldn’t be surprise if someday there is a chip that tells your physical location at all times.

All legal, to protect you from terrorists.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By Camus

January 21, 2008 1:51 PM | Link to this

Glenn and Dennis

I agree with the facts on nat’l ID as you state them. Brownback is behind it in the Senate, and there is the inevitable progression to a coded card that contains all pertient info, with tracking system not at all beyond the imagination…yes, yes, all that is correct.

But what I am looking for is the specific conservative reasoning that rejects the long-standing conservative opposition to something even as minimal as an SocSec card and now embraces the full panoply of Big Brother technology.

How about a weigh-in from our host? I doubt Mr Wooten is out in this chill covering the parade, so perhaps he can enlighten as to this fundamental shift in conservative ideology.

By Glenn

January 21, 2008 1:53 PM | Link to this

Kirk,

I vote for Lincoln, then MLK, then Chief Tecumseh or Chief Parker somewhat before your guy Sitting Bull (who’s still very much admired in the war colleges, BTW).

Good line about the better angels.

By The Artist Formerly Known as Heywood

January 21, 2008 2:05 PM | Link to this

Yielding to a master of the form, the following:

When Bush makes whatever bullsh!t little speech he makes today, it will be like John Wayne Gacy praising the work of Marian Wright Edelman. Once he began to speak out against the Vietnam War, King knew, f^cking knew, that economic justice is inextricably bound to the grotesque exercise of a nation fighting a war that was to the detriment of and against the will of the vast majority of its citizens.

Read it all.

TAFKAH over and out.

By Dennis

January 21, 2008 2:12 PM | Link to this

By Camus January 21, 2008 1:51 PM Glenn and Dennis”…what I am looking for is the specific conservative reasoning that rejects the long-standing conservative opposition to something even as minimal as an SocSec card and now embraces the full panoply of Big Brother technology.

“How about a weigh-in from our host? I doubt Mr Wooten is out in this chill covering the parade, so perhaps he can enlighten as to this fundamental shift in conservative ideology.”

Regarding a nationla I.D. card, the best that I can come up with is that the conservatives are buying into the mantra, “It will make us more safe from terrorists.” As example, recall how many of the conservatives (and some liberals for awhile?) bought into the need to attack Iraq for that same reason.

With the Social Security card, the conservative thought was then (AND NOW!!!) they’re taking your money and giving it to somebody else who hasn’t worked as hard as you have.

As to Mr. Wooten, he’s not going to buck this.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By John

January 21, 2008 2:27 PM | Link to this

The problem with the GOP is that it’s divided into equal thirds: Romney, McCain, and Guilliani. And none of the camps would ever vote for any but their own man. On MLK’s birthday, it’s painfully obvious that The GOP is finished because when it comes to race relations, the GOP is a million men short of a march, and one mountaintop short of a promised land. Good riddance, GOP. Dont let the chartered jet door hit you on the bum when you board the flight that gets you clean out of our sight.

By getalife

January 21, 2008 2:29 PM | Link to this

I see your mayor decided to make it political but the President took the high road

By deegee

January 21, 2008 2:39 PM | Link to this

I loved the comment Dusty made last week about how she liked her Jewish family doctor so much that he is the reason she holds Jews in high esteem. She sounded like she was talking about their golden retriever. And republicans can’t understand why they have a problem with “diversity”. Who wouldn’t barf up a fundraiser chicken dinner after sitting around with that crowd?

By Wendy

January 21, 2008 2:48 PM | Link to this

Glenn, you’re not fooling me. You voted for Bill Clinton and Pocahontas as the #1 ad #2 greatest americans. You admire our post-potus’s hocus-pocus about the pole-pokus with his pocahontas, you polecat.

admit it.

By Wendy

January 21, 2008 2:49 PM | Link to this

Glenn, you’re not fooling me. You voted for Bill Clinton and Pocahontas as the #1 ad #2 greatest americans. You admire our post-potus’s hocus-pocus about the pole-honkus with his pocahontas, you polecat.

admit it.

By Dusty

January 21, 2008 2:51 PM | Link to this

deegee,@2:39

I think you have a problem and it is your own bigoty and “diversity”. You excel in bigotry and defer the diversity and then try to blame it on others. Take a look at your own deficiencies and maybe you will barf some more.

By Tom

January 21, 2008 2:59 PM | Link to this

Good one, Dusty! How does it feel, deegee, to have been bettered by a woman who’s one wet t-shirt short of a girls gone wild?

By deegee

January 21, 2008 3:04 PM | Link to this

better to have been bettered by the best bigot than never to have been bettered at all.

By Tom

January 21, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this

say it, dont spray it, deegee.

By GaVoter

January 21, 2008 3:09 PM | Link to this

John McCain/Ron Paul

Now that’s a GOP ticket worth voting for.

By RealRep's worst nightmare

January 21, 2008 3:19 PM | Link to this

John McCain/Ron Paul

Now that’s a GOP ticket worth voting for.

Mike says these guys are like two nuts in a sack. Where’s the Dick that hangs with that pair?

C’mon, you had to know that Mike would move from flagpole sodomy to pecker-fascination in a few short moves.

F*** ‘08.

By Kim

January 21, 2008 3:24 PM | Link to this

Happy Birthday, MLK!

By Dusty

January 21, 2008 3:24 PM | Link to this

Tom@2:59 aka PoFo

You are never short of a dozen IDs but a little short in the IQ measure, Right, Tom, Dick, Harry, Wendy, John, Sara etc etc etc?

Now don’t bother Deegee. She’s a bit sensitive about being a bigot. Poor baby. She just can’t help it.

By GaVoter

January 21, 2008 3:42 PM | Link to this

Dick Cheney for campaign rep for our next White House leaders:

John McCain/Ron Paul

Really! Don’t study that ballot too hard looking for F* to cast your vote for. There will be others in line behind you waiting to vote.

By Peter

January 21, 2008 4:03 PM | Link to this

Well folks no matter who gets in as the new president, the mess he or she will have to clean up will huge.

Heck with the great Bush Economy, all you Rights must be coming un-glued with the stock market !

By GaVoter

January 21, 2008 4:09 PM | Link to this

Peter,

Bush gave us a tax-free [capital gains] way out of the stock market starting this year. Wasn’t that thoughtful.

By Dusty

January 21, 2008 4:40 PM | Link to this

Earlier today (before insults started) I had posted a few thoughts but they never showed. Anyway, they went something like this:

Conservatives like IDs at the polls because that verifies the legality of the voter. No other reason. Just legal. Conservatives and legal are one.

We do not “occupy” Iraq because we are at war with terrorists there. Being anti-war won’t stop terrorists.

We have plenty of time to choose our candidates. Don’t get in a lather yet.

Dumping loads of political propaganda will not encourage me to vote for the likes of an (often) lying litterbug.

Americans fight terrorists here with security measues. We do not kill American citizens like the Germans under Hitler who killed Jews who were citizens. No one should be so ignorant that they would make such a comparison.

AGAIN…Americans are not “occupiers” in Iraq. We fight terrorists for the freedom of Iraqis and for our own security. Our troops will come home ASAP.

Oh yes, Custer was a fighting fool. Brave but not a hero. Sitting Bull was a Chief. Sagajawea was brave and a heroine.

And the BIG question: Did RedNeck turn into BubaLicous??

G’nite…

By Kevin

January 21, 2008 5:05 PM | Link to this

Thanx for the reprisal of your earlier unpublished thoughts, Dusty. I was wondering all day long about why you were so unrepresented when usually your treatise is front and center. The server didn’t serve you very well today, and I want to aplogize for that. I was downloading some Hannah Montana songs with video, and it must have caused a regional blackout.

By Economics 101

January 21, 2008 5:09 PM | Link to this

Here’s the problem.

By Camus

January 21, 2008 5:52 PM | Link to this

Glenn,

Is not winning his home state also part of Rudy’s grand plan?

I kid you, Glenn. I’m a kidder.

By Dusty

January 21, 2008 6:02 PM | Link to this

Well, K…K…Kevin@5:05

No sacrifice is too great for downloading Hannah Montana. Regional blackout, you name it.

But why have I not seen your ID before? I am sure we have a great need for your appreciation of representative thought. My kindest regards for your apology and I hope Hannah will not move to Savannah and desert Montana. I’m sure you feel the same. Bon soir, mon ami…

By Dusty

January 21, 2008 6:06 PM | Link to this

Camus,the kidder…

I thought you were a bald hairdresser. Toupee’ anyone?