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NO DOUBT THE CHAMPERS CORKS ARE POPPING WHOLESALE @ FOX PROLEFEED TODAY ON THE NEWS THAT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT is conducting enquiries into so-called "voter registration fraud" by the activist organisation ACORN over voter-registry drives in four states which were suspected to be "contaminated" to the point of "undermining electoral integrity and purity" come Indecision proper.

Never mind that the "contamination" in question involved voter-registry documents which contained fictitious names or characters, even with the laws in some states requiring third-party voter-registry campaigns to turn in all registrations collected on a timely basis (even if ACORN's staffers flagged such looking suspicious).

Which has Your Correspondent wondering if Fox Prolefeed, in league with their Neoconservative droogs, wants electoral franchise restricted all the more to white male European-American Low Church Christians owning real property on Free and Clear Title "to protect electoral purity and integrity"--in other words, maintain one-party rule from everlasting to everlasting, even playing word games to excuse what amounts to dictatorship with weasel words like "Unitary Executive Privilege" to excuse reducing the Presidential role to a superdivine "Prophet, Seer and Revelator" who, for all we know, is probably drunk, stoned or otherwise mentally unstable.

Methinks the whole smells of politically-motivated dirty tricks reeking of disenfranchisement. Especially of the poor and National Minorities.

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NO WONDER THE NEOCON/FASCISTI MOVEMENT IS AFRAID OF RAHOWA, AND WILL STOP @ NOTHING TO "PREEMPT" IT IN THE NAME OF "RACE HONOUR" most misguided--as witness this exchange transcribed by Media Matters for America from Bill Cunningham's nationally-syndicated talkback show of the 10th (originating from WLW Cincinnati for and on behalf of Clear Channel-owned or -controlled stations):

CUNNINGHAM: What are you going to do if he loses, Miss C?

MISS C: He won't lose.

CUNNINGHAM: If he loses, are you gonna burn down this town?

MISS C: There's too many good white people tired of white men.

CUNNINGHAM: White people are tired of white men?

MISS C: Yes. Yes. We've had 43 white men presidents, and we're in the lowest point of history. Our stock markets, our money, home foreclosures -- white people cannot lead -- white men. Now it's time for them to get out the way.

[...]

CUNNINGHAM: Will this town burn down if he loses?

CO-HOST: I don't know. What do you think?

CUNNINGHAM: Yeah. I think there will be 100 cities burning if Barack loses. Yeah, that's what the black intelligentsia says.

[...]

ERIC DETERS (700 WLW radio host): Is it true, Willie, that you've been playing this Flavor Flav. Is he really in charge of the Inaugural?

CUNNINGHAM: Yeah. Flavor Flav, 50 Cent, and Diddy.

DETERS: Oh my God.

CUNNINGHAM: It's going to be the best Inaugural. Normally you wear - you wear, you know, black tails, white -- this is going to be a rap concert. I mean, it's going to be the best ever.

Which is enough to wonder if the Ku Kluxer crowd is preparing for coded instructions to move in as agents provocateur to provoke rioting and civil disorder "just in case."

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MEANWHILE, IN KEEPING WITH THE BELIEF THAT "IT'S A SMALL WORLD, AFTER ALL," and that global events may have some interesting insight for us "morally superior" Americans in especially interesting times such as these, the BBC is reporting on the findings of a Kenyan Government tribunal into the notorious post-election violence earlier this year:

An international tribunal should be set up in Kenya to try those implicated in clashes after December's disputed poll, an inquiry into the violence says.

The commission found that in some areas, the violence was planned and organised with the support of politicians and businessmen.

It said if no tribunal was formed a sealed list of those responsible would go to the International Criminal Court.

More than 1,500 people were killed and some 300,000 more fled their homes.

The BBC's Peter Greste in the capital, Nairobi, says the political split after December's elections became an ethnic one, and Kenya neared a civil war.

President Mwai Kibaki and then-opposition leader Mr Raila Odinga signed a power-sharing deal in February, forming a coalition government.

The commission of inquiry was appointed following recommendations by the international mediation team lead by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Its report was presented to President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga and will be made public immediately.

Mr Annan is expected back in the country to receive the report on Friday.

On Tuesday, the cabinet said it would implement the recommendations of another inquiry into electoral fraud which called for a radical overhaul of the electoral commission.

[***]

What started as spontaneous violent reaction to the perceived rigging of elections, later evolved into well-organised and co-ordinated attacks on members of President Kibaki's community and Party of National Unity (PNU), he said.

"These were systematic attacks on Kenyans based on their ethnicity and their political leanings... Guilty by association was the guiding force behind the deadly revenge attacks," he said.

The commission would give Mr Annan a sealed list of names of prominent politicians, businessmen and a section of the police force who were behind the violence and supporting evidence, Justice Waki said.

If an international tribunal was not created, the list would be handed over to the ICC in The Hague.

The commission found that the police force and other security organs were overwhelmed by the scale of violence and failed to act.

"This free-for-all was made possible by lawlessness stemming from an apparent collapse of state institutions and security forces," Justice Waki said.

The report also noted that the security forces failed to act on actionable intelligence on the likelihood of violence and other early warning signs.

[***]

Human rights groups say that in the past, the government has tended to ignore the findings of similar inquiries.

But they warn that the government cannot afford to do that this time round, if it wants to avoid another blood-bath.

Hassan Omar, the vice-chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, said the "big fish" had to be held accountable.

"We need to end the culture of impunity in Kenya," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

"The country needs to come to terms with its past. They need to afford some level of justice to those who are the victims."

Insightful ... and @ once a warning about the potential for what could happen after Indecision 2008 in case certain Dregs of Society continue to act as if they had an ur-Soverign Immunity to pervert and manipulate electoral purity and integrity.

Hence, a reminder to remain all the more vigilant for warning signs of electoral interference and intimidation, especially such tending to the anonymous or coming from groups with patriotic-sounding or otherwise "feel-good" names with what turns out being mail drops such as FedEx Office, The UPS Store, Mail Boxes Etc., Mail & More and suchlike which (in theory) allow for privacy being protected. And report on any such timely to law-enforcement agencies, not to mention the Election Protection Hotline on freecall 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Remember: Intimidation of voters, or interference with voter registry campaigns, is a penal offense, no matter how low or crude it may get. And if evidence exists that such intimidation campaigns are racially targeted, enhanced penalties may apply @ the court's discretion.

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EN 'N DING MAAR: Even with John McCain's using a deceptively-smooth tone and nuance of voice in campaign appearences, there's always the danger for such concealing sinister intentions which may prove dangerous in and of themselves.

Consider Keith "Countdown" Olbermann's comments from the other night as suggested where The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang, in the interest of preserving the peace, safety and good order of the Nation, should suspend his campaign (hat tip to Brilliant at Breakfast):

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To whom it may concern:

It is rather unfortunate for your ilk (and you no doubt know who you are) to accuse anyone and everyone suspected of supporting "liberal" or "secular-progressive" causes or movements, and/or their articles of faith, as being "Communists" or "Communist sympathisers" without any proof or substantiation, in the Joe McCarthy stylee back in the 1950's.

Which, in the end, would turn out to be his own undoing, especially after the CBS News programme See It Now devoted the entire 9 April 1954 broadcast to depicting the Real Sen. McCarthy (a Republican from Little Chute, Wisconsin, know)--as a drunken boaster, for one, not to mention rather fast and loose with the facts. Which, in the end, would be a setup for his own undoing in the nationally-televised Army-McCathy Hearings in the summer of 1954, finally unravelling when he was asked on live television "Have you no sense of Decency, Sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of Decency?" and he tried to evade the issue--but to no avail.

By that fall, there was talk in the Senate of a censure motion against McCarthy--which occured on November 9th that year, voting 67-22 to censure Sen. McCarthy for "conduct tending to bring the Senate into dishonour or disrepute" in the name of anti-Communism. And it would be his political death knell, eventually succumbing to liver disease brought on by years of heavy drinking on May 4, 1957.

Which I have presented in the interest of History Lesson.

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AGAINST THIS BACKDROP, THEN, AND IN VIEW OF WHAT AMOUNTS TO A WOEFUL LACK OF KNOWLEDGE ON YOUR PART on what exactly "Communist," "Communism" and "Liberal" mean in their meanings captured standard, permit me to enlighten you--even if it means such amounts, in your own view, to infection with a Loathsome Disease--as to the meaning of "Communist," which has both a noun and adjective sense.

As a noun, "Communist" is defined thus:

1. (initial capital letter) A member of the Communist Party or movement.
2. An advocate of Communism.
3. A person regarded as supporting politically leftist or otherwise subversive causes.
4. (initial capital letter) A Communard.

As an adjective, meanwhile, "Communist" is defined thus:

1. (initial capital letter) Of or pertaining to the Communist Party or Communism in general.
2. Pertaining to communists or communism.

Meanwhile, "Communism" is this defined, as a noun throughout:

1. A theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.
2. (often initial capital letter) A system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.
3. (initial capital letter) The principles and practices of the Communist party. 
4. Communalism.

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I WILL ACKNOWLEDGE THE POINT OF THE LEADING IMAGE TO THIS BLOG ITEM in view of my being under such circumstances which preclude my being able to hold down a traditional 9-to-5 position, let alone some having "advised" in past that persons in circumstances such as mine (i.e., receiving targeted jobs assistance) should consider applying for later-shift positions where "greatest need" exists to fill vacancies, in turn translating into better pay and benefits thanks to "shift differentials."

Meanwhile, on to business:

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SO MUCH FOR THE GOP'S SEEING IN THE ACTIVIST GROUP ACORN SOME CLASS OF A "BLACK BEAST" "UNDERMINING ELECTORAL INTEGRITY AND PURITY" though their voter-registration initiatives that the GOP and their media lackeys (Fox Prolefeed especially) are seeing as favouring the Democrats all the more: Firedog Lake makes note of how the GOP and ACORN may actually be all the closer than most realise thus: 

Republicans are trying to pretend ACORN is part of some grand Democratic conspiracy. What are they actually doing? Registering new voters - the horror, the horror.

Most hypocritically Republicans have been working with ACORN for years. Earlier today I posted a picture of John McCain at an ACORN rally. (Here is another one on the left.) According to a Miami-Dade Community College press release,

The rally will feature sponsors of the bill, prominent leaders representing various constituencies, and immigrants themselves. Sen. John McCain, chief co-sponsor of the legislation, will be the main speaker.” The release notes the event “is being sponsored by the New American Opportunity Campaign (NAOC), a coalition of local and national advocacy organizations, in partnership with ACORN.

And according to the Sun-Sentinel, McCain was the “principal speaker” at the “immigration reform town hall rally” organized by “the Archdiocese of Miami, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, ACORN, People for the American Way, and the Service Employees International.”

Why would McCain speak at such an event? Maybe because ACORN was backing his immigration bill. The ACORN website states,

"Fortunately, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) have introduced a good immigration reform  bill, the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act (S. 1033).” ACORN “strongly supports this bill and will work hard to make it become law.”

John McCain Wasn't alone among Republicans who have worked with ACORN. Texas Governor Rick Perry worked closely with the group.

According to the Houston Chronicle,

the Houston chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has raised its profile and earned the respect of local officials.” The article notes, “the group's proudest moment came last week when Gov.  Rick Perry signed a bill that makes important changes in the use of contracts-for-deed, a form of home lending that withholds a title from buyers until they have fully paid their loan.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist? He wasn't "bothered’ by  ACORN FL registration efforts and even signed a voting rights bill promoted by ACORN. According to the Orlando Sentinel,

Both Gov. Charlie Crist and Secretary of State Kurt Browning have said they don’t mind ACORN being active in Florida’s election process. When reporters asked Crist if there was a problem with ACORN here, he said, ‘No.’

The New York Times reported, ACORN supported a law signed by Governor Crist which,

changed the rules last year to restore the voting rights of about 112,000 former convicts.

And according to Governor Crist's own website, Laura Goodhue, ACORN’s Florida policy director, and Travis Munnerlyn, an ACORN member, contributed to the agenda and presented for the Governor’s “H.O.P.E.” task force.

Chris Shays? He supports ACORN too.  Shays put out a press release stating,

Congressman Christopher Shays (R-CT) today announced the availability of free tax assistance for low- and moderate-income residents of Bridgeport, Norwalk and Stamford.

ACORN is among the centers recommended by Shays.

Michael Bloomberg?  He kissed ACORN’s New York leader while announcing an affordable housing plan. The scandalous moment was caught on film.

What was all the excitement about?  According to the July 1, 2005 edition of City Limits,

Bloomberg finally made good on a decades-old promise to include affordable housing in the development--though, as Alyssa Katz reports, it took an army of organizers to get there. The real prize for the mayor graces our cover: a warm smooch from ACORN's Bertha Lewis for his modest plan to protect or create 65,000 affordable units.

And when Bloomberg visited New Orleans, the Times-Picayune notes the

only time on his schedule when the public can see him will be at the 10:30 a.m. dedication of the ACORN Community Center at 1024 Elysian Fields Ave.

Arnold Schwarzenegger? According to the San Francisco Chronicle on 7/9/08, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed SB1137, a bill designed to help California homeowners avoid foreclosure.” He was joined by “members of community group ACORN, which helped draft the measure.

And the Mercury News reported the governor signed three copies of SB 1137, giving one to Perata, one to Dellums and one to a beaming Dorothy Hicks, an east Oakland resident and Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) activist.

Senator Mel Martinez even awarded a grant to ACORN:

According to the Times-Picayune on 10/3/03 the

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez recently announced that his agency has awarded grants to Xavier and Tulane universities as well as ACORN and the city of New Orleans. The money will be spent to remove lead, educate the public about the dangers of lead-based paint and support research.

Tim Pawlenty sign into law a bill partially drafted by ACORN. According to the Northwestern Financial Review,

The legislature passed two bills designed to help home-buyers get a fair deal on their mortgages. Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed the first bill April 20 and was set to sign the second bill as this issue goes to press.” The article notes, “The legislation was drafted according to recommendations made by a predatory lending study group established by Swanson prior to the legislative session. The study group contained representatives from the banking industry and the mortgage brokers association, as well as consumer advocates from organizations such as Illegal Aid and ACORN.

Even Mitt signed into law a bill supported by ACORN. According to the South Coast Today, Governor Mitt Romney signed a law that “cracked down on the practice of ‘loan flipping.’” The article notes state legislator John Quinn, who authored the bill, held “nearly two-years-plus of hearings and meetings” with ACORN and that ACORN supported the final bill.

And of course Joe Lieberman has met with ACORN. According to the Washington Daybook on 02/09/06, Joe Lieberman met with members of the ACORN Katrina Survivors Association.

Somehow, the GOP and their propaganda droogs have yet to "get the message" manifest in the old proverb about "let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing."

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AND TALK ABOUT SUGAR-COATED FLATTERY IN FORM OF "FEEL-GOOD," PATRIOTIC-SOUNDING NAMES FOR VIRTUALLY EVERY RECENT INITIATIVE OF JOHN McCAIN'S in trying to salvage what little support remains for him in the final run to Indecision 2008 among especially "home folks" types, as AllSpinZone's Steven Reynolds discusseth:

McCain has announced where the next “surge” is going to be, and it appears he will not put David Petraeus in charge. No, McCain isn’t going to replicate the surge from Iraq to Afghanistan, nor is he going to surge us into a confrontation with Iran. Well, that’s not what he announced today, anyway. He announced a new economic plan, just 21 days before the election, and according to CNN.com he’s calling it the “Pension and Family Security Plan,” to join last week’s “American Homeownership Resurgence Plan.” Note the martial language they use to promote this stuff, evidently hoping to cash in on a subject they think the American people feel confident in Mr. McCain, foreign policy. Why the heck doesn’t he just call for the creation a new agency, the “Department of Home Security” or use one of those nifty Bush-era slogans like “Operation Homeownership Freedom,” or something like that. Seems a bit all hat and no cattle to me.

McCain has failed here once again, appealing to the people with false labels that are far more marketing slogans than real solutions. But we’ll know that in a couple days when he comes out with yet another economic plan, which will be followed by another still, until about three months from now when he finally gets it right by supporting Obama’s plan from his seat in the Senate. Please, someone tell John McCain that panicky repackaging of the same old same old just isn’t going to cut it in this election? Then again, let him do as he must do, and leave the rest of us alone.

I envision the debate going something like this:

McCain: The people deserve my Homeownership Resurgence Plan, and they deserve to be protected by my Pension and Family Security Plan. . .

Obama: I believe Mr. McCain is a good man who is trying nearly every day to define another package to help Americans. Still, even after several revisions of John McCain’s visions for our economic future, the centerpiece is that John McCain still wants to give hundreds of billions of tax breaks to oil companies and the wealthiest of the wealthy, while taxing the health benefits of middle class America. We could call one of these plans “The Sweet Potato Pie Renewal Act,” but the title of the plan still means that average people will be his second priority compared to the most wealthy people in this country.

McCain, channeling Homer Simpson: Mmmm! Pie!!

Of course, that confrontation won’t happen, but John McCain has telegraphed his punch for tomorrow night’s debate at Hofstra University. Remember when Barack Obama talked about how John McCain wouldn’t address him face to face about William Ayers? That was then, and this is now. McCain says here he’ll bring it up, in an interview with KMOX in St. Louis. McCain’s spokesperson, Tucker Bounds indicates McCain will bring up William Ayers at the debate, too. As reported by Seth Colter Walls at Huffington Post:

After being asked by a Fox News host whether the lack of any mention of William Ayers during today’s speeches from McCain and Palin meant that “the gloves [are] going back on” after a week of tough attacks, Bounds rejected the idea.

“I don’t think so at all… If you see some of the advertising coming from the RNC today, which we stand behind, and some of advertising that we’ll see going forward,” Bounds said, hinting at another onslaught of Ayers material still to come.

When asked if McCain plans to “go after” Obama on these topics this Wednesday, Bounds added: “So much of a debate is determined by the moderator and the questions that are posed to the candidates. I expect it could come up and I expect John McCain will ask Barack Obama to speak truthfully about his relationship with friend and unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. I think that voters deserve to know, deserve to vet these candidates to the fullest extent… Certainly, Bill Ayers raises questions. Certainly, Tony Rezko raises questions.”

The reason McCain himself has allowed surrogates to attack on the so-called character issues, rather than going out there himself 24/7 on them, is because Americans don’t like personal attacks, and are far more interested in solutions to problems than the barely disguised conspiracy theories that those personal attacks really are. If his aides persuade McCain to bring up William Ayers in front of a huge national audience, he will be sorry for it because of the effect in the polls. Oh, McCain should fire all of his campaign staff in that event. Because here’s the thing — Obama will handle such attacks smoothly and with dignity.

McCain was whining in just the last debate that he though Barack Obama was telegraphing his punches by announcing military policies as concerns going after Osama bin Laden. I’m thinking McCain meant that one shouldn’t alert the other side to any strategy in advance. Oops! That’s what he and Tucker Bounds just did!

We’re going to see a new economic strategy every day for the next three weeks from the McCain campaign, and each one will have a silly patriotic name dreamed up by refugees of the Bush White House. We’re also going to see some lame sparring that will border on the embarrassing for Mr. McCain tomorrow in the debate if he decides to go after Barack Obama on trivialities in this time of economic peril. This is just pathetic.

And remember, boys and girls, the McCain/Palin ticket's articles of faith insist that free-market capitalism--"pure" free-market capitalism, to be precise--is, was and will forever be the Great White Father, the Shining Hope and Beacon for the Lower Classes Heretofore Enslaved into Helpless Dependency Upon State Welfare and its Socialistic Tendencies, among other cheap platitudes in the vein of North Korean propaganda's hagiographic lavishing of "Eternal Leader" Kim Il Sung and "Great Leader" Kim Jong Il.

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Mr. Ronnie Ford
West Plains, MO

Dear Mr. Ford:

May I remind you @ this time of this rather infamous and notorious billboard as was spotted on your property along US Hwy. 63 over recent days:

In so doing, I would like to question your Logic and Wisdom behind the same, especially so:

• The invocation of a stereotypically offensive image reeking of the salad days of Jim Crow-model racism and White Supremacy;
• Your failing to disclose proper sponsorship information for the billboard in question, and why you cannot disclose that information @ this time;
• Whether you were paid by certain weird and unwholesome elements to have this billboard put up on your property, and if so, how much was offered in leasehold; and
• What sort of associations, political and otherwise, you would have, especially such of the weird and unwholesome sort (including racists, White Christian Supremacists, eugenicists, bigots, "patriot" elements and suchlike), and whether you have provided financial and/or moral support to such groups in the recent past.

The public has a right to know these things, Mr. Ford. We will not stand for any sort of pathetic-sounding patsies, platitudes or bromides you may offer just to excuse yourself of any liability you may wind up causing Our Beloved Nation and its prestige upon the world stage.

So who are you trying to protect by your silence in this regard? And how much are you receiving to keep quiet, if this be the case?

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MEMO TO READERS: Your Correspondent, in line with past Open Letters in this blog, would like for you to share this with your friends and e-mail circles in the interest of spreading Knowledge and Enlightenment.

However, please share this responsibly and avoid "spamming."

Which can only cause harm and damage to a campaign, if truth be known. 

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IT'S PROBABLY JUST ME, BUT THERE COULD BE OTHERS AMONGST YOU READERS OF THIS WEBLOG WHO MUST CONCUR WITH ME that the Delusions of Grandeur which the McCain/Palin campaign must be having are inspired by what amounts to the Dream of Olwen dripping with hate and ultraviolence by which means they (and they alone) think they can be assured victory.

Which they (and their Neoconservative drookies) know is only likely to backfire, given past resort to the tactic as could flare up again under the right set of circumstances, unaware all the while that the vast majority of Right-Thinking Americans objects to a "whatever-means-necessary" approach in line with Machiavelli's dictum that "the ends must justify the means," regardless of cost, ethics or morals:

In other words, the belief that Evil is necessary so that Good may come as a key article of faith. Not to mention lies and distortions as required:

Meanwhile, perhaps it was time to ask:

1. how much longer it will be before the sick excesses of crude and potentially explosive hyerfanaticism returns to McCain/Palin rallies in this the homestretch into the election;
2. how much longer before a McCain/Palin rally deteriorates into disorder and violence, especially with casuaties or injuries, stoked by fanatical excesses rejuvenate; and
3. whether the request by the McCain/Palin campaign to tone down the vitriol and fanaticism translates into improved poll numbers, even if they still trail Barack Obama/Joe Biden in significant measure, since the appeal to reason was made.

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AS FOR THE WHOLE NOTION OF JOHN McCAIN PACKAGING HIMSELF AS A "MAVERICK" FOR PURELY POLITICAL PURPOSES AND EFFECTS, which is itself rather spurious (as some commentators have suggested), "Philologos," who writes about language for the Jewish weekly Forward, devoted one of his columns recently to the nuances behind the very word "maverick" in especially this particular context:

Although I try to keep this a Jewish-language column, sometimes a question is asked of me that offers a pretext for sneaking in an outside issue. Such is a letter I recently received from David H. Margulies of Bethesda, Md. Mr. Margulies writes:

“Contemporary political rhetoric has driven me to explore the origin and meaning of ‘maverick.’ A rather old Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary derives the word from one Samuel A. Maverick, (1803-1870), a western cattle rancher who did not brand his calves, and defines it as meaning: ‘1) An unbranded range animal; esp: a motherless calf; 2) an independent individual who refuses to conform with his group.’ To this, the Oxford English Dictionary adds, ‘A masterless person; one who is roving and casual,’ and ‘Western U.S. Anything dishonestly obtained, as a saddle, mine, or piece of land.’ Thus, part of the difficulty with proudly choosing to call oneself a maverick, as John McCain has done in his campaign, is that the word’s connotations are not necessarily positive. Also, do you have any view, or evidence, as to whether the branding of cattle might be viewed as contrary to Jewish law, and whether the original Samuel Maverick may have been Jewish himself?”

I have no evidence at all, but I do have a view, which is that Samuel Maverick is as likely to have been Jewish as is my Russian-born grandfather to have descended from Apache Indians. Presumably, Mr. Margulies asks this question because of the rabbinic prohibition on tsa’ar ba’alei h.ayyim — that is, on causing animals unnecessary pain, a feature of Jewish law that is not found in other traditional legal systems. But you don’t have to be Jewish to pity animals, and cattle branding, although an ancient custom that already existed in Pharaonic Egypt, is not mentioned in, let alone prohibited by, the Bible or (to the best of my knowledge) any other code of Jewish law.

Yet now that we’ve corralled “maverick” for this column, we can permit ourselves a brief discussion of it. Mr. Margulies is certainly right about the word having changed its ambience over time, moving steadily in a more positive direction. Looking at the word’s use in a political or social context alone, we find my 1961 (although based on older editions) Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defining a maverick as “A refractory or recalcitrant individual who bolts his party or group and initiates an independent course”; my 1966 Random House Dictionary of the English Language giving us “A dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician,” and my 1999 Encarta World English Dictionary offering an “independent person … who refuses to conform to the accepted or orthodox thinking on a subject.”

From a disagreeably “recalcitrant individual” to a neutrally viewed “dissenter” to a gutsily “independent person” is a fair stretch for a word to travel in half a century. Clearly, it’s better to be considered a maverick today than it once was. But for that very reason, I don’t think Mr. Margulies need worry that John McCain, by advertising himself as one, may be giving Americans the impression that he is recalcitrant. When words shift meanings, their speakers are quick to adjust. In 1960, “awesome” could mean only inspiring fear and wonderment, but no one thinks that’s what you mean when you call a rock band awesome today.

In general, languages are never static. Although we who speak them may have the impression that the words we use are like items in a department store, all having their assigned place and value and waiting to be taken off a shelf, they are more like the flora and fauna of a jungle, each inhabiting an ecological niche that may be in the process of expanding or contracting, and each competing for living space — some being born and others growing old and dying, some devouring others and others being devoured.

The words that change most quickly are usually slang words that sometimes have life spans of only a few years. Those that change the slowest do so at a glacial pace. (That’s pre-global warming, of course; the word “glacial” itself is now undergoing a meltdown.) “Nice,” which is one of the most commonly used adjectives in the English language, has meant what it means today since the 18th century; before that, however, it also meant foolish, wanton, extravagant, elegant, rare, slothful, delicate, effeminate, coy, modest, fastidious and finely discriminating. (This last meaning perished not long ago. Within recent memory you could still say “That’s a nice distinction” and be understood to be talking about something subtle, not about something pleasant.)

“Maverick” was originally a negative word because, among ranchers and cowboys, someone who didn’t brand his cattle was considered headstrong and irresponsible; he’d end up having the cattle stolen and causing quarrels over their ownership. Nowadays, not only are we all against tsa’ar ba’alei h.ayyim, but we’re also hungry for authentic-sounding politicians who have their own opinions and stick to them, so that “maverick” has found a new environment in which to prosper. Mr. Maverick, were he alive today, might even have ended up being nominated for vice president. If elected, though, he wouldn’t have been the first Jewish one.

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IN RESPONSE TO ANOTHER DEMOCRATIC-SPONSORED SCHEME OF SOCIOECONOMIC STIMULATION BASED SOLELY ON ISSUING MORE "CHEER CHEQUES" to encourage especially wasteful and needless spending among the Lower Classes @ Wally World especially, the GOP is taking exception thereto by contending that such lacks anything remotely resembling "healthy" jobs creation.

This from the same crowd seeing low taxes=jobs=social order as an article of faith all too important to gloss over, unaware that such an article of faith is coming back to haunt Our Beloved Nation and threaten Our Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity as a Pecuilar Among the Nations. That, and their desire to see unemployment reduced to a theoretical nil rate consistent with free-market capitalism.

Which, come to think of it, IMHO, they would prefer to achieve only through a "complete and final" ban on abortion, contraception and family planning aimed @ creating a pool of poor, undereducated and easily-influenced unskilled labour, in turn to be reinforced by blanket bans on the immigration of "undesirable peoples" (further reinforced by the old Natal Dictation Test, and the traps deliberate) and "essential industries" (manufacturing in particular) being given what amounts to disincentives to update or modernise plant and machinery in the interest of keeping a "morally superior" American agro-industrial socioeconomic base all the more labour-intensive by way of outdated or otherwise superannuated plant and machinery for which parts may no longer be available without cannibalising older machinery (and taking some factories out of production in the process, all the while "advised" not to modernise production for the sake of a nil unemployment rate).

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MEMO TO MIDDLE- AND HIGH-SCHOOL PARENTS: Tired of all the whispers and rumours of bullying, hazing, taunting and other forms of harrassment targeting your children falling on deaf ears, especially such considered "prominent and powerful citizens" in the community who, Tradition expects us to believe, are Good Christians All and, ergo, can do no harm by virtue of their faith?

Fear that reporting such incidents to The Proper Channels will only result in "reprisals" as can include "shunning," harrassment, threats of dismissal from jobs, loss of livelihood, damaged credit records, etc.?

Fear Not!

There is a newly-launched website, www.schooltipline.com, which allows you to discreetly and confidentially report real or suspected reports of teasing, taunting, bullying, hazing and other forms of abuse, harm or torment targeting students, which will be shared with local school authorities in utmost confidence and trust.

Which you will no doubt want to make use of. Even if the reports are mere rumours or whispers "east side, west side, all around the town ..."

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IT'S ONE THING FOR THE McCAIN/PALIN CAMPAIGN TO URGE ITS SUPPORTERS TO TONE DOWN THE VITRIOL AND START PLAYING NICE with their dominant opponent, Democratic Presidential wannabe Barack Obama.

Still, though, Your Correspondent feels that "actions speak louder than words;" hence, there may be the possibility that the sleaze and vitriol may return in this the final fortnight or so before Indecision 2008. Hence, all the more importance of remembering that YOUR vote, and YOURS ALONE, makes all the more difference to where Our Beloved Nation will be heading into the 21st century.

Whether we will remain Land of the Free ... or whether we risk becoming usurped by the New World Order.

For one thing, Your Correspondent is inclined to concur with Treasury Secretary Paulson's suggestion that isolatinist and protectionist policies, and related articles of faith, will only make the danger of socioeconomic meltdown worse.

Not to mention the potential for Certain Very Dangerous Elements exploiting same for their own perverted purposes and ends.

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MEANHILE, TO HIS CANADIAN READERS, YOUR CORRESPONDENT EXTENDS TO THEM BEST WISHES on this their Day of Thanksgiving.

Or, if you prefer it in French, la Fête de l'Action de graces.

Never mind that we Americans have to wait until 27 November to celebrate their Thanksgiving this year.

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MEANWHILE, GAS PRICES CONTINUE TO GO INTO FREEFALL AND OIL PRICES HAVE FALLEN BELOW $100/BBL in response to the prevailing climate of socioeconomic turmoil and uncertainty heading into Indecision.

As for Winona, gas prices, by Unwritten Gentleman's Agreement, are now @ $2.799/gallon (73.9¢/litre) for regular unleaded, $2.819/gallon (74.4¢/litre) for super unleaded and $2.919/gallon (77.1¢/litre) for premium unleaded; E85, thanks to subsidies, sells @ $2.199/gallon (58¢/litre).

(Remember, the per-litre price is based on 3.785 litres=1 United States gallon, and should be used primarily for comparison, especially in such countries where gasoline is sold by the litre. After all, this is the World Wide Web, is it not?)

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ONE OF THE MORE RHETORICAL QUESTIONS BEING ASKED IN THE ELECTORAL RUNUP FOR NOTHING LESS THAN PURE, UNADULTERATED "SWIFT-BOATING" PURPOSES from the 527 fraternity of the weird and unwholesome is "Who can you trust with the economy?"

I would have to say "Trick question!!!" in view of the ad being presented by a "swift-boating" group whose associations with the Zealots and True Believers in free-market capitalism-as-Great-White-Father (Good Christians All, remember?) are inherent. And would stop @ nothing until their ultimate article of faith is achieved: No less than complete and final regulatory relief, to be based instead solely on Self-Regulatory, Industry-Specific Codes of Good Practice.

Said Codes, on closer reading, actually serving to excuse cartel behaviour @ expense of both consumers and business equally ... howbeit by having to sugar-coat the intentions therefor with code and weasel words about such things as "preventing unhealthy and destructive competition" and "protecting traditional market share" in ways not even the most notorious of all cartels, Nazi Germany's IG Farben, could have dreamed of.

And all the while still insisting that low taxes=jobs=social order.

Not to mention seeing among other Articles of Faith held dear the belief in achieving a theoretical nil rate of unemployment within the paradigms and constraints of a free-market, self-regulated, capitalist socioeconomic model (cf. Communist propaganda forever insisting that mass unemployment would be one of capitalism's failings, that they had finally achieved nil-rate unemployment--unaware all along that such considered what amounted to "make-work" jobs to create the aura of nil-rate unemployment, let alone the use of forced and convict labour).

(Come to think of it: Can you Zealots and True Believers in the Ayn Rand vein name just one "developed" soverign state where such a concept actually works in fact and in deed? And what could America learn therefrom? Or what exactly stands in the way?)

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FROM THE "WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?" DEPARTMENT, via The Capital Times (cyberspace, via Madison, Wisconsin), comes these comments in editorial form about overdoing it on the paeans for a faltering candidate to reinforce its endorsement of the opposition:

The Wisconsin State Journal says: "John McCain is a great American. He would make a fine president. McCain is impressively steeled to say 'no' to runaway government spending and commitments that could lead America to financial ruin."

That absurd statement, contained in its presidential endorsement on Sunday, was meant to soften the blow to readers of the conservative newspaper who had expected a full-fledged endorsement of the Republican nominee for president.

Instead, the State Journal made the only available choice and backed Democrat Barack Obama. At a point when McCain is discrediting himself and his party, he is unworthy of support -- by Democrats, independents or Republicans.

Yet the State Journal suggests McCain would make "a fine president" and pins it on the fantasy that the senator from Arizona is some kind of fiscal conservative.

The truth is that McCain backed the Bush/Cheney administration's high-deficit, high-debt, bridge-to-bankruptcy approach more than 90 percent of the time.

Worse yet, he has championed the radical deregulation agenda that created the current financial meltdown.

And what has McCain's response been to the crisis of the moment?

He backed the flawed $850 billion bailout and pork bill that was designed to flood more taxpayer money into the accounts of the nation's most irresponsible bankers and investors.

In fairness, Obama made the same mistake.

But then McCain added insult to injury by proposing a mortgage-restructuring scheme that would reward bad bankers with as much as $300 billion more. And he continued to promote privatization of Social Security, along lines that gamble (and lose) the retirement security of Americans on flawed and dysfunctional "investments."

The suggestion that McCain would make a "fine president" is ridiculous.

The suggestion that there is a fiscal responsibility argument for McCain is madness.

It is, as well, a dangerous deception that cannot be allowed to stand.

Sooooo: "Whose side are YOU on," readers? 

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FIRST OFF, MAY I MENTION THAT THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE THIS YEAR TO SUPPORT THIS WEBLOG by way of the Bloggers' Choice Awards, voting for the 2008 edition closing Wednesday.

As reminder, I am nominate in the Best Blog of All Time, Worst Blog of All Time, Freakiest Blogger and Most Obnoxious Blogger categories in same.

Once the balloting closes, the Bloggers' Choice Awards go on hiatus until the 2009 awards open early next year. Your vote, ergo, would be greatly appreciated.

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SPEAKING OF THE "PARANOIA" IMAGE @ THE HEAD OF THIS ITEM, such could best serve as an illustration of what the most extreme specimens of Poor White Trash hubris and arrogance fear all the more in case Barack Obama wins the Presidency come November:

Videlicet, the prospect of the White European-American Working Classes being shipped off to "reeducation camps" as are really closer to concentration camps not unlike those set up by the British during the Boer War to deal with the Afrikaner Peoples, memories of which are no doubt ingrained in the inner consciousness of Unreconstructed Afrikanerdom even after the end of apartheid.

Only in this case, the tortures, beatings, humiliation and fear would be carried out by National Minorities living the worst fears and paranoias of "white trash" since time immemorial, with particular emphasis and attention of the abusers being directed @ the yarbles of the imprisoned.

Preferably through such shows of sadisto ultraviolence guaranteed to maximise pain and suffering ... crass "experiments" whose sole purpose is discovering what would happen in cases of the old miscegenation (as in interracial sexual relations) ... not to mention castrations performed without the common courtesy of local anesthsia, the better so gangrene can kill off the victims all the easier and sooner.

Especially when the pain and suffering involves brass knuckles, billyclubs, truncheons, steel-toe bovver boots, knees--in short, such implements of mayhem sure to maximise same.

As for why the yarbles would be especially targeted, consider the argument such specimens of hubris would have about "maintaining racial honour, purity and integrity," notwithstanding where animal-breeding experience teaches us that attempts to create a race of "pure-breds" will, over time, translate into increased risk for undesirable traits of breed being all the more obvious.

In turn translating into genetic harm.

Hence, my advice to such "white trash" fearing such a prospect: Get over it. And start realising the likelihood of a President of colour. And like it for once. Only resorting to Al Cohol for "comfort" will only make things worse, even heighten the paranoia as above.

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FOR SOMEONE WITH A FAMILY HISTORY OF HEART DISEASE AND ACCELERATED RISK OF CHOLESTEROL, Your Correspondent cannot help but become rather fond of Haagen-Dazs Sticky Toffee Pudding Ice Cream from time to time.

Fond enough for reasons unclear to moi that he can't help but devour a whole pint thereof in one sitting. (In my own defence, I will acknowledge where, on doctor's advice, I have a pot of yoghurt in lieu of one meal every day, usually lunch.)

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IMAGINE THIS, IF YOU WILL, AS PERHAPS THE CLOSEST TO A "PURE" DOLPHIN ENCOUNTER, one as is closest to natural as possible:

I acknowledge having the occasional fantasies from time to time about some Polynesian archipelago hitherto unknown to the effects of civilisation, surrounded by rather beautiful coral reefs amongst clear and sparkling waters and populated by natives with traditional Polynesian frankness vis-a-vis sexuality and nudity, being its own natural "dolphin encounter."

Where, for some reason, the trust between human and dolphin is of such a pure and beautiful nature that, even in their traditional nakedness while diving underwater (which the natives learn practically from birth), the local dolphin pods treat the locals with respect and trust ... and the dolphins return the favour by encouraging the natives to swim along with said dolphins and allowing the natives to witness their matings out of friendship and trust.

Not to mention the prospect of such friendships between human and dolphin tending @ times to the sensual, as if reinforcing such trust and friendship (as a matter of fact, many who have studied dolphin beahviour have discovered that, after awhile of getting acquainted with their handlers, dolphins will try to use sexual means to further establish the bond, much to the annoyance of such who would consider such a resort "perverted and unnatural").

Breathes there a more natural sort of dolphin encounter?