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REPORTAGE BY A CINCINNATI TELEVISION STATION OF A TASTELESS AND DISGUSTING DEVICE QUESTIONING THE LOYALTY AND PATRIOT LOVE, LET ALONE QUALIFICATIONS, of Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama (thanks to Brilliant at Breakfast for the hat tip):
To which Brilliant at Breakfast adds these comments:
Yes, Senator McCain and Governor Palin -- this is what you have wrought. This is your campaign. This is your leadership at work. The man who did this is one of YOUR people. YOU have to answer for him. And if any of these nutballs is inspired to harm a hair on Barack Obama's head because YOUR campaign tactics are leading him to believe it would be OK, his blood will be on YOUR hands.
Oh, and the rest of you 43 or so percent who plan to vote for John McCain? This is what you're voting for. Just thought you should know.
To which Your Correspondent would like to add that the notion of America being a White Christian Nation, and that only White Christians should be entitled to Constitutional offices, excusing this exercise in tasteless "winning of hearts and minds" is up there with apartheid South Africa insisting that whites were entitled "as of right" to rule "by right of conquest," and that Divine Right justified this.
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AS IF RUSH LIMBAUGH'S "DOG-WHISTLE" INCITEMENT TO RAHOWA WASN'T DISGUSTING ENOUGH, THE SELF-APPOINTED "TRUTH DETECTOR" CONTINUED HIS DOG-WHISTLE WAYS with these remarks (by way of Mark Halperin's blog on time.com) in response to former Secretary of State Colin Powell's endorsing Barack Obama for President:
If Powell had endorsed McCain, you know what would have happened? Donna Brazile, the other black elites in the Democratic Party would never have forgiven him. This was all about Powell and race, nothing about the nation and its welfare. He said it's not about race -- show me all the inexperienced white liberals you've endorsed if it's not about race. Of course everyone's having a tizzy… he evolved over time into a calculating Washington insider who speaks incessantly to the media … He did great damage to the Bush administration. It stuns me how Gen. Powell and others can back someone whose judgment has been so poor … they are positioning themselves to perhaps get positions in an Obama administration.
[***]
Now back to Gen. Powell: I just want to button this up ... It was totally about race. The Powell ... endorsement -- totally about race. People have forgotten, but I have not, ladies and gentlemen. Colin Powell publicly broke with the administration over affirmative action, specifically affirmative action cases that were before the Supreme Court in 2003 ... He is pro-affirmative action, he is also pro-abortion ... I think he's still saying he's a Republican after all this, after endorsing Obama.
So how do we know The Oxycontin Boar isn't playing "dog-whistle" with appeals to, in effect, race war and racist violence where G-d and Country can be excused if and when pushed for a defence?
Come to think of it:
Perhaps it was time for stations carrying Rush Limbaugh's programme to drop same outright, especially considering what may be a trend of racist comments that, in the mind of some emotionally-unstable listener, could be a "call to action" as could carry enhanced penalties in the penal servitude department under the right set of circumstances.
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WHAT CERTAIN SO-CALLED "PATRIOTS" AS MAY PROBABLY BE USING SAME TO AVOID COMING TO TERMS WITH THEIR OWN EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY ARE AFRAID OF, come to think of it:
Turkey is all abuzz over a trial now underway in which 86 co-defendents stand accused of Associations with Terrorist Groups and Conspiracy to Incite Civil Disorder to the point where martial law would have to be imposed to restore order, whose opening session broke down into chaos and disorder @ a prison outside Istanbul (Not Constantinople) where the proceedings are being carried out.
Chaos and disorder as prompted the presiding judge to call an adjournment to restore order in the wake of angry protests and shouting matches as made the courtroom rather cramped.
As the BBC explains:
Among the 86 suspects charged at the Silivri prison-court were retired army officers, politicians, academics and also journalists, who are alleged to be members of the Ergenekon group.
The 2,455-page indictment holds the group responsible for at least two violent attacks - a bombing of a secularist newspaper in 2006 and an attack on a court the same year in which a judge was killed.
The attacks on these key parts of the secular establishment were supposed to provoke the military into launching a coup in defence of secular interests, it is alleged.
The suspects deny the charges, saying they are politically motivated.
[***]
The trial is unusual in a number of ways: the sheer size of it and the fact that the defendants include retired Turkish military officers, the BBC's Pam O'Toole says.
This is something that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago, given the power of the military, which has mounted three coups since 1960 and, in 1997, eased the country's first pro-Islamist prime minister from power, our correspondent says.
Then there is the nature and scope of the charges, some of which would not seem out of place in a Hollywood thriller, she adds.
But many Turks regard the trial as the latest stage in an ongoing power struggle between Turkey's secular nationalist establishment and the governing AKP.
The alleged plotters were indicted this summer, shortly before the ruling in a court case that was aimed at closing down the AKP for allegedly becoming a focus for anti-secular activities.
Government critics believed the timing was no coincidence.
Some believe this trial is the AKP's revenge for the Constitutional Court case, which in the end did not succeed in closing the party; others maintain the Ergenekon network simply does not exist.
Government supporters portray it as a step towards accountability and democracy by taking much-needed action against so-called "deep state" nationalist groups that have previously been virtually untouchable.
The military denies any links to such groups.
Turks will watch this case closely, but it could be months, or even years, before there is a result, our correspondent says.
No wonder the so-called "patriots" here in the "morally superior" United States have reason to be afraid, and then some--especially the prospect of what they see as "White Genocide" on a scale not seen since the Boer War (1899-1902) in South Africa, when British occupation troops set up crude concentration camps to deal with Afrikaner "troublemakers" since seen by such specimens of Afrikaner unlikely to come to terms with Reality as "martyrs" (as witness the monuments in Bloemfontein, capital of the Vrystaat, to the Martyrs of the Concentration Camps, in particular one dedicated to the women and children thus "martyred").
Especially the kind which would involve castration sans local anesthesia.
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY--YES, THE SAME GOP WHO KEEPS WHINING AND BAWLING CHARGES OF "VOTER-REGISTRATION FRAUD!" AGAINST THE DEMOCRATS OF LATE, boys and girls--now stands accused of the same charges they love to play against the Democrats with, seconded by their paid droogs and shills @ Fox Prolefeed.
Witness what the Los Angeles Times had to say @ the weekend:
Dozens of newly minted Republican voters say they were duped into joining the party by a GOP contractor with a trail of fraud complaints stretching across the country.
Voters contacted by The Times said they were tricked into switching parties while signing what they believed were petitions for tougher penalties against child molesters. Some said they were told that they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Others had no idea their registration was being changed.
"I am not a Republican," insisted Karen Ashcraft, 47, a pet-clinic manager and former Democrat from Ventura who said she was duped by a signature gatherer into joining the GOP. "I certainly . . . won't sign anything in front of a grocery store ever again."
It is a bait-and-switch scheme familiar to election experts. The firm hired by the California Republican Party -- a small company called Young Political Majors, or YPM, which operates in several states -- has been accused of using the tactic across the country.
Election officials and lawmakers have launched investigations into the activities of YPM workers in Florida and Massachusetts. In Arizona, the firm was recently a defendant in a civil rights lawsuit. Prosecutors in Los Angeles and Ventura counties say they are investigating complaints about the company.
The firm, which a Republican Party spokesman said is paid $7 to $12 for each registration it secures, has denied any wrongdoing and says it has never been charged with a crime.
The 70,000 voters YPM has registered for the Republican Party this year will help combat the public perception that it is struggling amid Democratic gains nationally, give a boost to fundraising efforts and bolster member support for party leaders, political strategists from both parties say.
Those who were formerly Democrats may stop receiving phone calls and literature from that party, perhaps affecting its get-out-the-vote efforts. They also will be given only a Republican ballot in the next primary election if they do not switch their registration back before then.
Some also report having their registration status changed to absentee without their permission; if they show up at the polls without a ballot they may be unable to vote.
The Times randomly interviewed 46 of the hundreds of voters whose election records show they were recently re-registered as Republicans by YPM, and 37 of them -- more than 80% -- said that they were misled into making the change or that it was done without their knowledge.
[***]
YPM and Republican Party officials said they were surprised by the complaints. The officials said the signature gatherers wear shirts bearing the Republican symbol, an elephant -- a contention disputed by some of the voters interviewed.
Every person registered signs an affidavit confirming they voluntarily joined the GOP, party leaders said.
"It does the state party no good to register people in a party they don't want to be in," said Hector Barajas, communications director for the California Republican Party.
The document that voters thought was an initiative petition has no legal implications at all. YPM founder Mark Jacoby said the petition was clearly labeled as a "plebiscite," which does nothing more than show public support.
He also said that plainclothes investigators for Secretary of State Debra Bowen, a Democrat, have conducted multiple spot checks and told his firm it is doing nothing improper.
"Every time, they gave us a thumbs-up," Jacoby said. "People are not being tricked."
But Nicole Winger, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office, said the agency "does not give an OK or seal of approval to voter registration groups."
Two years ago, Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas charged 12 workers for a petitioning firm hired by the local Republican Party with fraudulently registering voters as Republican.
[***]
In California, signature-gatherers are prohibited by law from misleading voters about what they are signing.
"You can't lie to someone to procure their signature," said Richard L. Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who specializes in election law.
Civil rights activists recently filed a lawsuit in Arizona accusing YPM of deceiving residents to get signatures for a ballot measure that would have prohibited affirmative action by that state. The lawsuit was dropped after supporters of the measure pulled it from the ballot.
In Massachusetts, former YPM worker Angela McElroy testified at a legislative hearing in 2004 that she had tricked voters into signing a ballot measure to ban gay marriage. She said she told voters they were signing in favor of a measure to allow alcoholic drinks to be sold in supermarkets.
YPM's Jacoby said McElroy was on loan to another signature-gathering company at the time the alleged deception took place.
But wait--the story only gets more interesting; again, by way of the Los Angeles Times:
The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud.
State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that all signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California. His firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM, collects petition signatures and registers voters in California and other states.
Jacoby's arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department late Saturday came after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by people employed by YPM. The voters said YPM workers tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters.
The firm was paid $7 to $12 for every Californian it registered as a member of the GOP.
Dan Goldfine, an attorney for Jacoby, on Sunday denied any wrongdoing by his client and called the charges "baseless."
He said the arrest outside an Ontario hotel, which involved seven squad cars and nine police officers, was part of a "long pattern of harassment against Mr. Jacoby for an entirely valid voter registration effort."
Goldfine said the case that prosecutors are bringing against his client involves charges that are rarely pressed.
Jacoby was released on bail Sunday evening from the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, Goldfine said.
After complaints by voters and Democratic Party officials, several agencies launched investigations into Jacoby's activities. They included the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which issued the warrant for his arrest earlier this month on felony charges of voter registration fraud and perjury.
"We contacted people at the addresses where he registered, and they have no idea who he is," said Dave Demerjian, head deputy of the public integrity unit at the L.A. County district attorney's office.
Goldfine said his client does business in many states, traveling frequently, and his permanent address has been his parents' Los Angeles County home, where he received mail and registered to vote.
Demerjian said his office is continuing to investigate allegations that YPM workers improperly re-registered voters with the GOP.
Several dozen voters recently told The Times that YPM workers said they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Other voters said they had no idea their registration was being changed.
YPM has been accused of using bait-and-switch tactics across the country. Election officials and lawmakers have launched investigations into the activities of YPM workers in Florida and Massachusetts. In Arizona, the firm was recently a defendant in a civil rights lawsuit.
In a written statement Sunday, the state Republican Party called the charges against Jacoby "politically motivated." The party said the charges do not support accusations from voters and Democratic officials that YPM has been duping voters into joining the GOP.
The statement accused Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who announced the arrest, of "using her office to play politics."
Bowen is a Democrat.
So the GOP's been caught playing the same "dirty tricks" they accuse Democrats of doing, yet lack proof of save for highly-sensationalised accounts reeking of the supermarket tabloids--only in the GOP's case, proof exists of the charges against them (which the GOP, naturally, will quickly claim are forgeries cooked up by the Democrats).
Has the GOP ever heard the old proverb about "let not your left hand know what your right hand doeth"?
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WHY BUMPER-STICKER AND YARD-SIGN SURVEYS OF HOW ELECTIONS WILL GO ARE HIGHLY INCREDIBLE, AND SHOULD BE THUS REGARDED: Many of you readers are probably familiar with that classic gem of American folk humour, election survey department, about the wag who analysed bumper stickers on cars passing by his town to predict how the elections would go ... and one particularly close election had him predict, based on bumper-sticker counts, that some well-known "tourist trap" using bumper stickers as a marketing tool would be the winner of the Presidential race.
The "tourist trap" in question, for the sake of this story, tends to vary from region to region and from election to election ... but Your Correspondent has heard versions of the tale involving Ausable Chasm in upstate New York's Adirondack Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico and (especially so here in the Midwest, thanks to the late Mike Royko) Wisconsin Dells waterski impresario Tommy Bartlett.
And, I would suppose, there must probably be permutations of the story involving the likes of:
the Mt. Washington Auto Road in New Hampshire;
Kings Island theme park near Cincinnati;
Walt Disney World and Disneyland;
the Weeki Wachee Mermaids down Florida way;
Worlds of Fun theme park in Kansas City;
Wall Drug Store (we all know where that is);
Flintstones Bedrock City in Custer, South Dakota;
the 1880 Train in Hill City, South Dakota;
any of the original three Six Flags theme parks (as in Six Flags Over Texas, Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags Over Mid-America, now Six Flags St. Louis);
Rock City Gardens atop Lookout Mountain (even if their "See Rock City" birdhouse is itself more legendary as a marketing souvenir); and
Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach (especially so in college communities, what with Ron Jon's being an especially popular Spring Break stop).
(But then again, this dated to a time when it was common practice for tourist-trap places to put bumper stickers on the cars of all visitors in their parking lots, whether they liked it or not. Starting some 30 years ago, complaints prompted many such businesses to limit sticker applications to such cars as had the sun visor on the driver's side of the car lowered ... and in more recent times, the practive ended altogether largely because of high printing costs.)
Anyone have their own version of this rather unorthodox political poll?
THE WAY CERTAIN RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT SPECIMENS OF THE OLD ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF ARE WHINING AND BELLYACHING about the Clear and Present Danger of Our Beloved Nation, Shining City Set Upon a Hill, Jerusalem of Gold, being lost to the "New World Order" has me wondering:
How much longer in this the final fortnight before the elections before the Elmer Gantry element starts drawing parallels with the Afrikaner Peoples of South Africa in their paranoid delusions about what might happen under an Obama/Biden Administration, all the while seeking to identify with the "persecuted, yet simple" Afrikaner Peoples of South Africa "in clear and present danger of persecution by a Communist-influenced regime" for no other purpose than their own selfish vainglory?
(Especially when such employs appeals to the emotions guaranteed to attract especially the emotionally-unstable among White European-American Low Church Christians as draw parallels to the "persecution" of their Afrikaner Brethren across South Africa, and how their Honest and Simple Christian Faith kept them strong through such times of adversity as threatened their "rightful place of honour and glory" such as Die Voortrek and the Boer War ... and only now is "under clear and present threat all the more" because of "a Communist-influenced regime***having reckless and utter disregard for White Afrikaner Honour and Tradition" supposedly reducing them to even deeper poverty and distress after years of Hope and Glory under apartheid.
(Not to mention, of course, The Vow.)
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AS FOR THE DELUSION THAT AMERICA IS, WAS AND WILL FOREVER BE "A WHITE, EUROPEAN-AMERICAN, CHRISTIAN NATION," may I point out that nothing in either the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, or the United States Constitution makes such an assertion, either expressly or by implication.
Which has Your Correspondent wondering if such pushing this bromide and platitude for no other reasons but their own vainglory are likely to claim that such is "unwritten tradition" which "must be upheld and defended by whatever means necessary" lest Our Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity as a Pecuilar Among the Nations be compromised and usurped by the "New World Order."
Not to mention, perhaps, being unconscious apologists for apartheid South Africa's excesses of deluded pride vis-a-vis the Afrikaner Peoples such would likely identify with in an emotional instability such fail to recognise or come to terms with--and, instead, turn to Al Cohol as a ticket out, only to further worsen the delusion.
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YOUR CORRESPONDENT EXTENDS KUDOS TO KANSAS CITY GRANDMOTHER MARY KAY GREEN, WHO IS PUSHING LEGAL ACTION against the McCain/Palin campaign for Incitement to Hate Speech and Related Conspiracies in connexion with certain infamous acts, deeds and exploits @ recent rallies.
As RawStory.com explaineth:
The 66-year-old civil attorney, a lifelong Democrat, claims in the suit that the McCain campaign has intentionally and recklessly portrayed Barack Obama as a terrorist.
Green said, "You have to take these things seriously."
Green believe that Palin has been working crowds into a frenzy. There have been reports from McCain campaign rallies with words like "kill him," "off with his head," and "Muslim terrorist."
According to Green, her father managed the Nebraska campaigns of John and Robert Kennedy. After both were felled by assassins, her father died "of grief."
"I think John McCain and Sarah Palin have no understanding of what we went through as a nation," she said. "[The lawsuit] will be dismissed as soon as I hear public statements from these two candidates that they abhor these death threats and that they will not tolerate these intruders in their audiences."
Further details from Kansas City station KSHB, which broke the story @ the weekend, can be read here.
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SO MUCH FOR THE McCAIN/PALIN CAMPAIGN'S ARTICLE OF FAITH SUGGESTING THAT SELF-REGULATED, "PURE" FREE-MARKET CAPITALISM is the Great White Father of especially the Lower Classes heretofore seen as "helplessly enslaved into un-American beliefs, and unwittingly," thanks to State welfare and "dependency" thereto:
It may be worth recalling that a classic example of industry-specific self-regulation, the National Association of Broadcasters' Television Code, was struck down by the Federal Trade Commission in 1983 as being inconsistent and incompatible with the best interests of the free market; specific concerns against the Television Code were addressed @ such provisions dealing with advertising, especially so:
proscriptions on certain products being openly advertised, especially so alcoholic beverages, firearms and contraceptives;
restrictions on advertising time allowed in each hour; and
provisions which amounted to artifically and arbitrarily inflating advertising rates inconsistent with a free marketplace.
(Earlier, in 1975, the Justice Department struck down Television Code provisions mandating that the first hour of prime-time programming be set aside as a "family viewing hour," such being seen as anti-competitive practices inconsistent with public interest.)
Remember, boys and girls: We choose to ignore the Lessons and Warnings of History @ our peril; as George Santayana reminds us, "those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
*************
THOSE OF YOU OF A CERTAIN AGE AS STIL RECALL THE NBC-TV DETECTIVE SERIES THE ROCKFORD FILES MAY STILL RECALL ITS OPENING SEQUENCE, just before a photo montage scored to theme music by Mike Post as later became a Top 40 hit.
In any event, Your Correspondent has, for some years now, imagined this as a Rockford Files episode opener:
(Phone rings 2-3 times ... and the screen shifts from pitch black to what appears to be the home desk of the title character.)
ANSAFONE RECORDING (JAMES GARNER): This is Jim Rockford; at the tone, leave your name and message, I'll get back to you.
(Camera pulls in closer to his ameche as we hear the ansafone "beep" which starts the recording process.)
CHEESY-SOUNDING CROSS BETWEEN PHIL HARRIS AND PAUL LYNDE (recording on ansafone): Hi, there ... this is Bloop from Magic Mountain! Have you thought of getting a little magic going for you?!
(Cut to photo montage and theme.)
What do you think of this Title Sequence We'd Love to See, especially so the cheesy-sounding attempt @ an awful sales call?
SO WHAT EXACTLY QUALIFIES AS "REAL AMERICA" FOR THE SAKE OF CERTAIN REMARKS MADE BY GOP VICE-PRESIDENTIAL WANNABE SARAH PALIN, as noted thusly by The Huffington Post's Sam Stein:
The McCain campaign is seeking to clarify a remark reported from a Sarah Palin fundraiser in North Carolina yesterday in which the Alaska Governor declared that she loved to visit the "pro-America" areas of the country -- implying, implicitly, that there were some parts of the United States she viewed as not pro-America.
The reporter who broke the story, the Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin, sends over the following, extended quote from a more detailed version of the pool report.
"We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington, D.C. We believe" -- here the audience interrupted Palin with applause and cheers -- "We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans. Those who are running our factories and teaching our kids and growing our food and are fighting our wars for us. Those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom."
Not sure how much this helps Palin out. Is the VP candidate saying that small towns are more authentically American than, say, suburbia or cities?
As Eilperin writes: "The upshot? Washington D.C. is neither 'real America' or 'pro-America.' Other parts of the nation? It's unclear, but if you live in a small town, you're probably patriotic from Palin's point of view."
To Your Correspondent, you have to wonder if this suggests an idealised concept of Americanism similar to what the Nazis saw for Germany reclaiming her rightful place of honour and pride out of defeat.
Or apartheid South Africa seeing apartheid as the only way by which Civitas Dei could be established on earth, preferably on the fringes of the veldt.
In any case, as epitomised by Die Bransoner Muzikschaukultur--which, as we all know, is the conservatives' preferred acid test for their "morally superior" vision of Amerikanischer Realkultur being The One True and Pure Such, notwithstanding such shows probably having the quality of Kraft durch Frude-sponsored folk-culture festivals back in Nazi Germany.
A time and place when The Saturday Evening Post, Grit and/or Capper's Weekly (that last one popular in the Midwestern and Plains states) were preferred among small-town and rural audiences over the "elitist"-leaning Time and Newsweek. Never mind that Grit and Capper's tended to overly saccharine and @ once glowing stories, the former's editorial policy being summarised thus by its founder, Dietrick Lamade, @ an employees' banquet in 1900 (as quoted by Wikipedia):
Always keep Grit from being pessimistic. Avoid printing those things which distort the minds of readers or make them feel at odds with the world. Avoid showing the wrong side of things, or making people feel discontented. Do nothing that will encourage fear, worry or temptation ... Wherever possible, suggest peace and good will toward men. Give our readers courage and strength for their daily tasks. Put happy thoughts, cheer and contentment into their hearts.
In its time, guaranteed to win friends and influence easily-influenced readers across Ms. Palin's distorted, outdated vision of "Real America," as seen through distorted, yet rose-coloured, glasses.
Not to mention a brand of True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command popular in such bastions of poverty, fecundity and stupidity as are "Real America," per Ms. Palin:
One as is simple and @ once easily appealed to "if and when required."
One as excuses isolationism, xenophobia, racism, bigotry and intolerance.
One as sees America to be The One True Centre of the World, the Universe and the 28 Known Galaxies, as well as the Gateway and Portal to Heaven (cf. Imperial China in its decline).
One as regards America to be the Final Perfection of Civitas Dei on Earth.
One where everyone does their shopping @ the likes of Ben Franklin, Woolworth's, Kresge's, Kress, McCrory's, Murphy's, Grant's or TG&Y, where one could also find a lunch counter serving "comfort food" of the "roast-and-two-veg" school.
One requiring an unyielding, unswerving orthodoxy and goodthought @ all times, not to mention deliberate poverty, fecundity and stupidity.
Unfortunately, such an idealised vision of "Real America" is NOT America. It's actually closer to what Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa had designs on until their evil regimes collapsed in the face of the glaring sunlight of Reality.
But what will it take to convince the Zealots and True Believers?
IF EVER THERE WAS A POSITIVE TO COME OUT OF THE PERIOD OF ABUSE AND MALTREATMENT I SUFFERED WITH EAU CLAIRE COUNTY (WI) DAY TREATMENT in 1980-81, by way of a misguided referral interstate for Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services by the Minnesota agency (which I will elaborate on shortly), it would have to be my being all the more a freethinker.
One who refuses to accept the status quo as the only logical answer for everything, especially when coming from conservative-leaning channels who see ignorance and stupidity (or, in Orwellian Newspeak, being "goodthoughtful"--i.e., accepting a hard-wired orthodoxy to the prevailing line as second nature) as being virtuous.
One choosing not to see the world through a badly-focused, rose-coloured lens of conservative Weltanschauung seeing America as the world and all else as Threats to Morals and Decency as much as Our Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity as a Pecuilar Among the Nations.
One subscribing to the perfectly logical belief that Silence=Acceptance in justifying speaking out and challenging what is wrong or otherwise flawed, perhaps fatally, and in my own way.
Even if it sometimes means using colourful or otherwise antiquated dictionary words and expressions to make clear my point ("Can't as for those of shining … it increases those of the bull which it can misguide glaringly," to use an Engrish adaptation of a T-shirt slogan from the early 1980's), or allusions to old-time radio programmes, Hanna-Barbera animations, the Muppets and suchlike.
Interestingly enough, the same period of my being subjected to abuse serving as a "blessing in disguise" to explain my opinionated nature was the same that saw the Religiopolitical Right first come to notoriety, aided and abetted by their dearest droog and patron saint, Ronald Reagan, holding Presidential office. And such can also explain my distrust for such trying to intermarry Church and State all the more, as if contending that the notion of America being a White Christian Nation is "unwritten tradition" which we should recognise "as of right."
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AS FOR THE UNFORTUNATE REFERRAL INTERSTATE BY MINNESOTA VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION FOLLOWING MY 1980 GRADUATION FROM HIGH SCHOOL, it should be noted that my having a preexisting mental disability dictated, in effect, the mere formality of referral to VR to determine fitness and eligibility for Social Security benefits.
Including an approriate period of testing and evaluation in the shelterted-workshop system to see whether such would be fit and proper in my instance.
As I still recall it, foster-siblings I resided with as I appoached graduation from high school were somehow "advising" me, based on such information they got on the latrine wireless (as it were), that my case for VR could be referred interstate, and they had the lawful right and power to do so. Which had me wondering if such was legal, let alone knowing what rights I had or who to contact in case problems arose--or, for that matter, receiving proper advice to the effect that I would be subject to the laws and policies of the state where I was being referred for further services and why they could not place me in approriate services in Minnesota.
In retrospect, I should have been advised more clearly beforehand as to:
whether they had conducted careful and approriate research into close-by facilities in Minnesota, particularly so from the standpoint of whether they had timely vacancies;
what prevented referral to Minnesota-based programmes @ the time, essentially dictating referral interstate under the circumstances (the only explanation I was given was that a Minneapolis testing centre that VR was looking @ was "in a very bad neighbourhood" by small-town/rural standards);
the fact I would be covered under the laws of the state where my case was being referred in case of criminal incidents or other serious problems, and who I should contact back in Minnesota in case problems developed;
what rights I had as a consequence of referral to programmes located interstate; and
whether the facility/ies I would be referred to met accepted Minnesota standards for quality of care.
Which, in any case, would be enough to pave the way for such serious psychoemotional abuse precluding my ability to hold down steady employment to this day. And for which, howbeit unsuccessfully, I have tried to pray petition VR and the prevailing agencies having purview for the VR scheme--and, to some extent, the agency responsible for the Day Treatment Programme--for compensation with respect to damages caused by:
emotional and psychological harm ensuing from the overly abusive therapy I was made to go through, especially considering the want of compassion and dignity employed (in particular, the frequent and uncalled-for use of bad words by counselling and therapy staff) as translated into my being unable to, and incapable of, find and hold down good work;
lack of due regard in seeking out other close-by testing and jobs-training facilities in Minnesota for timely vacacies (as opposed to extended waitlists) apropos testing and evaluation;
the reckless and arbitrary referral to facilities interstate without first exercising due care and skill in researching their fitness and compliance with prevailing Minnesota standards for VR clients, as well as checking nearby facilities in Minnesota for vacancies within reasonable and timely limits;
failure to check out patterns of abuse or harm vis-a-vis other clients as were likewise referred interstate;
failure to advise me beforehand of certain rights and responsibilities as a byproduct of my referral interstate, or advise me of approriate contacts back in Minnesota in case problems were to develop on my part; and
negligence in exercising due care and skill on the part of such counsellors assigned my case in relation to the preceding.
(One reason given for the agencies' reluctance in considering compensation claims was because such were filed well past the seven-year deadline, after which files were routinely deleted in line with official rules and policy. In my defence, I will say that such was complicated by my being under such an extent of medication with sedating and otherwise mentally-damaging effects during the interim, which was seen as being "complementary" to psychiatric observation through the local Mental Health Centre.)
Nonetheless, I feel I am still entitled to substantial compensation for such misadventures in official negligence and poor judgement as translated into abuse which, in its turn, precluded fitness for employment, even if such occured over 25 years previous.
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AND NOW, AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO THE CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN OF GERMAN JEWS WHO WERE DEPRIVED OF GERMAN CITIZENSHIP AND BIRTHRIGHT under the Nazi regime's policies known collectively as the Nuremburg Laws:
You may be entitled to German citizenship, including a European Passport, thanks to a new German Government renaturalisation programme serving in atonement for past anti-Semitic policy.
If you would like further information, please contact @ your earliest opportunity:
German Citizenship Project Fridman Law Group 287 Spring St. New York, NY 10013-1406
You can also call a/c 646-468-7316 during regular business hours.
WITH NEARLY A FORTNIGHT TO GO BEFORE IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE AMERICAN ELECTORATE MAKING THE FINAL CHOICE on the path America must take between Freedom and Happiness for the 21st century, it's emerging that the Religiopolitical Right and their friends among the Dregs of Society are resorting to Drastic Measures for "winning of hearts and minds" into four more years of failed socioeconomic policy in the name of "saving America from herself" by keeping America a White Christian Nation not unlike apartheid South Africa in its zenith.
Some interesting details from Right Wing Watch, for starters:
Does anyone else get the sense that the Religious Right is starting to get a bit terrified about what the election has in store for them and their agenda?
Please vote! Our children's future depends on it!
In my 70 years, I have never seen an election where coverage was so one-sided and biased or where censorship by the liberal media was so widely practiced and where media coverage was so slanted as I have seen in this election process. Their plan is working. The only chance conservatives have is to make sure they care enough to vote.
If the liberals win the upcoming election, America as we have known it will no longer exist. This country that we love, founded on Judeo-Christian values, will cease to exist and will be replaced by a secular state hostile to Christianity. This “city set on a hill” which our forefathers founded, will go dark. The damage will be deep and long lasting. It cannot be turned around in the next election, or the one after that, or by any election in the future. The damage will be permanent. That is why it is so important for you to vote and to encourage friends and family to vote. This is one election where your vote really counts.
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Earlier today we noted the American Family Association starting to panic over the possibility of an Obama presidency, declaring that “if the liberals win the upcoming election, America as we have known it will no longer exist.”
And it is starting to look as if abject terror is slowly overtaking the entire Religious Right movement. For instance, Sarah Posner points us to this post from Stephen Strang proclaiming, in all seriousness, that “life as we know it will end if Obama is elected”:
[P]eople who hate Christianity will be emboldened to attack our freedoms. Christianity is already persona non grata in academia and in the liberal media. People such as Bill Maher and Michael Moore, who hate God and God's people, will think the election verifies that the nation as a whole believes as they do and will jump for glee. Meanwhile, Christians seem almost asleep. There is no outcry!
"I think what you'll see is Barack Obama solidifying power in short order, either through the legislative process with hate crimes legislation. And then he'll turn on talk radio with reenactment of the 'Fairness Doctrine.' I'm not so sure he'll wait for an act of Congress. I think he'll do some of this with unconstitutional but never challenged executive orders, but he will silence his critics within days," he explains. "One thing you can always count on is [that] liberals, unlike conservatives, know how to use power -- and they will use it swiftly and decisively. And all I can say is heaven help us if this man becomes president of the United States."
Scarborough contends Obama is a committed socialist who intends to radically transform the United States.
David Corn has a good post up on the MoJo Blog detailing the varying last-minute attacks the Right is throwing at Obama right now, ranging from “Obama is a commie who hates the rich and wants to kill the American Dream” to “Obama will destroy Christianity in the United States and enslave you within an Islamic dictatorship.”
And speaking of the so-called "American Family Association" whipping up the old weeping and wailing and boohoohooing about This Country That We Love being in danger: Doesn't this smack of apartheid South African appeals to fear over what might happen if apartheid were to suddenly collapse, especially so the Loss of White Afrikaner Honour and Pride?
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ANOTHER UNLIKELY PROPAGATOR OF PLAYING TO THE CRUDEST OF PREJUDICES AND IGNORANCE FOR THE SAKE OF INDECISION 2008 happens to be the Ku Klux Klan: Folders promoting same have been used over recent days as a wrapper for copies of Oklahoma's Ada Evening News, much to the chagrin of the gazetta's publishers and the district attorney of Pontotoc County (of which Ada is shire town), who is considering Hate Crimes charges against such responsible.
(The Klan, for its part, tries washing its hands, Pilate-stylee, of responsibility for what happens to its brochures as are downloaded and reprinted off their website. Which doesn't sit well with the publishers of the Evening News, who are prepared to file charges of Unlawful Distribution against such involved.)
Your Correspondent, though, is grateful that readers thereof are consigning such garbage to the most approriate place therefor: the recycling bin.
IN CASE YOU'RE WONDERING ABOUT THE RELEVANCE THEREOF, WE MAY BE ALL THE CLOSER TO HIGH-SPEED RAIL SERVICE BETWEEN CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE, MADISON AND THE TWIN CITIES within measurable distance thanks to freshly-signed legislation authorising funds for track upgrades and equipment that will allow for high-speed passenger rail:
between Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison in three years' time; and
continuing onward to the Twin Cities (via Wisconsin Dells, LaCrosse and Winona in five years' time.
Which, once the service is up to full strength, will see six return trips ever day @ top speeds of 100 mph or thereabouts. But will it play in LaCrosse?
READERS, TRY TO SPOT THE CODE, WEASEL AND "DOG-WHISTLE" TERMS IN THE FOLLOWING TRANSCRIPT OF REMARKS (VIA CROOKS AND LIARS) from Rush Limbaugh's radio programme of Tuesday the 14th as suggests that blacks are somehow secretly preparing for the imminence of what white supremacists call RAHOWA (RAcial HOly WAr):
From the time of my birth, 57 years ago, to today, this country has grown and expanded, prosperity has opened its doors for more and more people around the world, not just people born in this country. We know the stories of Asians emigrating and running rings around people born in this country academically in California. We know all about the immigration, legal and illegal, to get into the country. We know that the standard of living has risen. We know that technological advancement is going along at light speed. And yet during this period of time, whether it be the last 57 years or be it the last 20 years, it seems that a majority of the black population has remained angry, frustrated, and behind. They've been left behind. They are acting like they've been left behind, and of course we've heard that this is because of racism, natural systemic institutional racism in America, that we are unfair, that this country is just horrible and rotten.
You ever ask yourself how it is that people not even born here can come here and in a few short years begin prospering in school, their own business or what have you, yet people who are born in this country somehow have been raised to hate it, to think they're still back in the days of slavery. I actually think, after studying all this ACORN stuff and reading what Stanley Kurtz has written about this, I actually believe that what has taken place here in addition to liberal Democrat legislation, such as the Great Society and the war on poverty, which a lot of people will now acknowledge really busted up the black family by the government taking the place of the husband and father, free to roam around and bear no responsibility. The mother remained the mother, she got the financial assistance from this legislation, from the federal government. The federal government became the father. The father didn't have to hang around in order for the kids to be okay, depending on how you define okay. But as you study more and more of this ACORN stuff, you find that it has been part of an entire movement that has been going on for two, maybe three decades, right under our noses.
We thought that it was just liberal welfare policies and all that that kept blacks from progressing while other minorities grew and prospered, but no, it is these wackos from Bill Ayers to Jeremiah Wright to other anti-American Afrocentric black liberation theologists with ACORN, and Barack Obama is smack dab in the middle of it, they have been training young black kids to hate, hate, hate this country, and they trained their parents before that to hate, hate, hate this country. It was a movement. It was a Bill Ayers, anti-capitalist, anti-American educational movement. ACORN is how it was implemented, right under our noses. They're doing far more, folks, than just cheating when it comes to elections and registration. They are in deep in this mortgage crisis. ACORN and Obama and Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, the Democrat Party, have their fingerprints all over the subprime mortgage crisis. The whole concept of affordable housing was people that can't afford a mortgage are going to get one, because America is unfair.
It has been a movement, it has been a religion, and Obama and Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers were all up to their big ears in it.
Which should be enough for the REAL "Right-Thinking Americans" amongst us to take this self-annointed "Truth Detector" to task for what essentially borders on incitement to insurrection or violence in especially the emotionally-unstable among his audience of Angry White Men Eating Krispy Kreme Donuts to the Point of Gluttonry.
The kind who may unconsciously be allying themselves with the Dregs of Society who associate with racists, white supremaists and apologists for apartheid South Africa--or, to paraphrase Stewie Griffin, "the kind of idiots you see @ Taco Bell @ one in the morning! The guys who just whiffed their way down the bar skank ladder, and then some!! (Especialy if such Dregs of Society tend to be alcoholics, drug addicts, gamblers, chronic spendthrifts, spousal and/or child abusers, sex fiends or maniacs or suffer from certain emotional disorders making them unable to face Reality.)
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STICKING WITH THE APPEALS TO LATENT AND CRUDE RACISM FOR THE MOMENT, YOUR CORRESPONDENT CAN JUST IMAGINE the white-supremacist community calling for a Global Day of Solidarity with the Oppressed and Persecuted Afrikaner Peoples of South Africa coincident with the traditional Day of the Vow holiday on 16 December, commemorating a supposed Voortrekker victory against a massed Zulu army in 1838 (itself commemorated by the Voortrekker Memorial outside Pretoria).
And expect among the highlights nothing less than a manufactured display of vitriolic white-supremacist emotion in form of a recitation (in the original Afrikaans) of The Vow prior to combat (via Wikipedia):
Hier staan ons voor die Heilige God van hemel en aarde om ´n gelofte aan Hom te doen, dat, as Hy ons sal beskerm en ons vyand in ons hand sal gee, ons die dag en datum elke jaar as ´n dankdag soos ´n Sabbat sal deurbring; en dat ons ´n huis tot Sy eer sal oprig waar dit Hom behaag, en dat ons ook aan ons kinders sal sê dat hulle met ons daarin moet deel tot nagedagtenis ook vir die opkomende geslagte. Want die eer van Sy naam sal verheerlik word deur die roem en die eer van oorwinning aan Hom te gee.
Which, in English translation, is as thus:
Here we stand before the Holy God of heaven and earth, to make a vow to Him that, if He will protect us and give our enemy into our hand, we shall keep this day and date every year as a day of thanksgiving like a sabbath, and that we shall erect a house to His Honour wherever it should please Him, and that we also will tell our children that they should share in that with us in memory for future generations. For the honour of His Name will be glorified by giving Him the fame and honour for the victory.
As well as "freewill offerings" expected to go to causes expected to assist in the "evacuation" as "religiopolitical refugees" of the Afrikaner populace "from danger of further persecution," and resettled in the hope of reclaiming their past desire of being honest and simple farmers and pastoralists--only to wind up diverting funds to "other, more pressing causes" without prior notice, and trying to keep the whole a secret.
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AS IF RUSH LIMBAUGH'S POSSIBLE USE OF DOG-WHISTLE CALLS TO ARMS IN THE NAME OF G-D, COUNTRY AND "RACIAL HONOUR" WEREN'T DISGUSTING ENOUGH, consider where the Anti-Defamation League is spotting fresh patterns in anti-Semitic conspiracies seeking to cash in on the current or otherwise imminent socioeconomic meltdown, which, if History is any barometer, is prime time for anti-Semitic propaganda @ its crudest, targeting especially such Who Should Know Better:
Conspiracy theories linking Jews and Israel to the global financial meltdown are taking on global reach as the financial crisis on Wall Street continues to affect markets around the world.
According to Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which first reported a spike in anti-Semitic postings on U.S. financial Web sites, "anti-Jewish invective and conspiracy theories are spreading globally" in European and Latin American countries and the Middle East as a result of the global economic crisis.
One widely circulated conspiracy theory suggests that "$400 billion in funds was secretly transferred to Israeli banks" just prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and other major investment banks.Launched on an anti-Semitic Web site sponsored by a Washington, DC-based Holocaust denial publication, the false rumor has ricocheted across the Internet and around the world, appearing on numerous Web sites and comment boards with few questioning its veracity or citing its origins.
"One disturbing side effect to the global economic meltdown is the resurgence of the Big Lie," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director."Anti-Jewish invective and conspiracy theories are spreading globally.While it is still early, we know from experience what can happen when anti-Jewish myths gain a foothold and move from the far fringes into the mainstream."
Mr. Foxman pointed to similarities between the "$400 billion" conspiracy theory and the myth that spread around the world after 9/11 -- that "4,000 Jews" did not report for work the day of the attack on the WorldTradeCenter – which is today believed by many around the world."Whenever world events are difficult to explain or understand, Jews are the most convenient scapegoat," said Mr. Foxman.
"This belief that only Jews could be responsible for something so catastrophic and damaging to the global economy plays directly into some of the worst anti-Semitic stereotypes," said Mr. Foxman. "The idea that there is Jewish control of the banking system and the world economy has its antecedents in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Nazi-era propaganda."
International Response: Europe and Latin America
Anti-Semitic expressions in response to the financial crisis are spreading in European and Latin American countries, with many appearing on Web sites as articles or comments from unidentified individuals who are angry and seeking to place blame for the spreading impact of the crisis.Some are accompanied by vicious anti-Semitic caricatures and images.
The following is a snapshot of the global anti-Semitic reaction that has emerged as a result of the ongoing financial crisis as compiled by ADL:
• United Kingdom: The Web site of the mainstream British newspaper, The Independent, featured in its comments section a post by a visitor identifying himself as "Errol Flynn" that repeated the claim about the alleged $400 billion transfer from Lehman Brothers to Israeli banks. In response to a second article on the economic crisis, another reader commented, "So the banks used to be Jewish-owned … has anything changed?" Both posts were eventually removed by the site's administrators.
• Russia: The Web site of Pravda newspaper published an article arguing that French, German and Italian leaders are advocating a bailout of European banks to benefit "Rothschild, Kuhn Loeb, and other banking magnates," a reference to well-known Jewish banking families. The article continued, "The trouble is most of Europe is sick of their Zionist puppet governments, the wrecking of the universities and the flood of third world immigration. Another Hitler, running a united Europe, could be elected in a heartbeat."
• Germany: Some discussion forums and blogs made casual linkage between the crisis and Jews or repeated anti-Semitic stereotypes of the "money-savvy" and "financially dominating Jew." One comment on Ariva.de, an independent provider of financial news, stated: "When it comes to money Jews are always in the say."
• Spain: Op-eds making reference to Jews and the financial crisis appeared in the newspaper El Pais. While the articles did not directly accuse Jews of causing the crisis, the comments section following the articles contained several anti-Semitic entries. One writer declared, "The crisis is not a financial problem but an economic one … it is what is behind this gruesome scene of savage capitalism of the Zionist students of Milton Friedman." Additionally, several financial Web sites featured articles with anti-Jewish themes, including one stating that "Lehman's management board is made up of Jews who were only interested in results no matter at what price." (Cincodias.com).
• Venezuela: The host of a virulently anti-Semitic radio program claims that the fact that the U.S. Congress recessed for the Jewish High Holidays after voting on the $700 billion bailout proposal was evidence "that the U.S. government is controlled by the Jewish lobby."
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
Which has Your Correspondent, for one, wondering whether such specimens of Zealotry and True Belief in anti-Semitic conspiracies about Jewish control of business and finance have in mind for what may best be called "Christian Business and Finance," let alone "capitalism based on Christian Principles."
In particular Low Church such.
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SO MUCH FOR JOHN McCAIN'S INVOKING A FREE-TRADE PACT WITH COLOMBIA IN THE FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE THE OTHER NIGHT as among several Worthy Jobs-Creation Initiatives as would Help Save America From Herself within the parameters of free-market capitalism as Great White Father:
Human Rights Watch is taking the Colombian Government and its judiciary to task for failing to investigate real or likely interconnexions vis-a-vis right-wing paramilitary goon squads in the provinces and prominent Colombian politicos, especially in its legislative chambers.
Come to think of it, how many prominent and powerful GOP politicos here in the "morally superior" United States have interconnexions themselves vis-a-vis racists, white supremacists, Christian Reconstructionists, anti-Semitic elements, apologists for apartheid South Africa and suchlike among those who "just whiffed their way down the bar skank ladder" thanks to alcohol and Certain Explicit Sexual Practices That Some Readers May Find Offensive? Something worth thinking about there....
