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(part 1):
New shopping, new life: (Which is intended to help Your Correspondent supplement his disability benefits, for the most part, as well as Some Good Causes, foremost among them being Reduction of the U.S. National Debt):
(part 2):
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READERS, AN APOLOGY OF THE HIGHEST ORDER IS IN ORDER FOR THE EXTREME TARDINESS OF POSTING MY ITEM FOR TODAY: For starters, Your Correspondent was rather busy @ the motel this morning with the leaf blower, not to mention raking up the leaves and, following that, sweeping up leaf dust and grit. (I decided to get it done today in view of the forecast for the Minnwissippi calling for showers tomorrow.)
Returning to my flat, I showered and changed clothes, then took a late luncheon buffet @ Rubio's, a newly-opened Mexican restaurant @ the Winona Mall. The food, though spicy in turns, was rather good ... and was followed by a little browsing around @ a local bookstore before returning to the flat.
This should answer any concerns some of you readers may have about why I'm rather late with this item for today. If any of you wound up grossly inconvenienced, my apologies.
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AS A WARNING AGAINST COMPLACENCY HEADING INTO WHAT MAY BE THE MOST CRUCIAL ELECTIONS OF THE 21ST CENTURY TO DATE, MoveOn.org has issued the following Top Five list that is worth sharing among especially would-be supporters for the Obama/Biden ticket:
TOP 5 REASONS OBAMA SUPPORTERS SHOULDN'T REST EASY
1. The polls may be wrong. This is an unprecedented election. No one knows how racism may affect what voters tell pollsters—or what they do in the voting booth. And the polls are narrowing anyway. In the last few days, John McCain has gained ground in most national polls, as his campaign has gone even more negative.
2. Dirty tricks. Republicans are already illegally purging voters from the rolls in some states. They're whipping up hysteria over ACORN to justify more challenges to new voters. Misleading flyers about the voting process have started appearing in black neighborhoods. And of course, many counties still use unsecure voting machines.
3. October surprise. In politics, 15 days is a long time. The next McCain smear could dominate the news for a week. There could be a crisis with Iran, or Bin Laden could release another tape, or worse.
4. Those who forget history... In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote after trailing by seven points in the final days of the race. In 1980, Reagan was eight points down in the polls in late October and came back to win. Races can shift—fast!
5. Landslide. Even with Barack Obama in the White House, passing universal health care and a new clean-energy policy is going to be hard. Insurance, drug and oil companies will fight us every step of the way. We need the kind of landslide that will give Barack a huge mandate.
And be sure to call your local Elections Board to make sure that your voter registry information is correct and timely; if not, make sure to register @ your new address ASAP. (The address and telephone number should be in your local telephone directory's Government Offices listings.)
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MEANWHILE, SPEAKING OF INDECISION 2008:
The GOP's Vice-Presidential wannabe, Sarah Palin, probably overdid it on the ur-blasphemy with her claim that G-d blessed America with an overzealous abundace of unexploited oil and natural gas--as if to justify what may best be called "Wise Use" exploitation policies excusing the wasteful, the inefficent and the just plain stupid. And then invoke G-d and Country as a defence all the while.
So the GOP has been caught in its own lie about "voter fraud" by registering voters in California through fraud, trick and intimidation after accusing ACORN of engaging in "practices which threatens to undermine democracy"! How will they spin their own way out of the Big Lie when the evidence exists of such going on in the GOP's name, and on a much broader scale than what's been claimed for ACORN?
As for John McCain's delusion of a refundable $5,000 tax credit to encourage the purchase of free-market health insurance under the banner of "health-care reform:" Should a McCain victory ensue, and he manages to push it through, watch out for all manner of misleading and deceptive advertising offers from health insurers seeking to exploit the tax incentive, with particular targets being the easily-influenced and the vulnerable. Not to mention wholesale risk and danger of high-pressure sales tactics translating into fraud, especially where sales quotas come into the equation (cf. the MediPlan Plus scandal in Illinois a few years back). With that in mind we should be reminded of Basic Principle 2 in the Better Business Bureau's Advertising Code: "Advertisements which are untrue, misleading, deceptive, fraudulent, falsely disparaging of competitors, or insincere offers to sell, shall not be used." And Basic Principle 3, op. cit.: "An advertisement as a whole may be misleading although every sentence separately considered is literally true. Misrepresentation may result not only from direct statements but by omitting or obscuring a material fact."
As for the McCain "health-care reform" proposal: What about those who don't pay taxes themselves because their taxes (almost certainly paid by their employers through Pay As You Earn) wind up being clawbacked thanks to general credits and deductions? Or, for that matter, such now in Medicare or Medicaid or equivalent; would they wind up in so-called "pool" plans on a vendored-pay basis?
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MEANWHILE, WHEN IT COMES TO INCOME TAX REFORM, WE MAY WANT TO TAKE A CUE FROM THE BAILIWICK OF JERSEY IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS, which has adopted a new tax policy known as "20% Means 20%"--as in ending a number of overly-advantageous tax credits and other benefits for high-income earners in the interest of tax fairness (as in limiting certain allowances to 80% of the usual amount for tax year 2007 and beyond).
Meanwhile, also from Jersey, comes another worthwhile approach to tax reform for certain low wage earners (as in such whose earnings are just above the mininum threshold for tax purposes) as is worth looking @ here in the "morally superior" United States. We'll let the Income Tax Office there explain the "Marginal Rate" approach thus:
Income Tax personal allowances in Jersey are quite low. The single person's allowance is £2,080 and the married man's allowance is £4,160. Although there is also a tax allowance of one quarter of earned income (earned income allowance up to a maximum of £2,720) this still makes a single person or a married man potentially liable to tax on a comparatively low income.
There are tax exemption thresholds to prevent liability to tax on low incomes. These are as follows for 2007.
Single person £11,300
Married person £18,130
Single person over 63 years of age £12,610
Married person over 63 years of age £20,760
These exemption thresholds are increased if the single person or married man is entitled to any of the following allowances or reliefs.
Lower child allowance (child at school) £2,500
Higher child allowance (child in higher education) £5,000
Additional personal allowance (single parent) £4,500
Wife’s earned income allowance (wife working) £4,500 (max)
Child care tax relief £6,150 (max)
Qualifying maintenance payments
Qualifying interest tax relief
Because of these exemption thresholds (increased as appropriate by the above allowances or reliefs) it is only those with high incomes who do not benefit from them.
Lower and middle income earners whose total income is in excess of their exemption threshold fall into what is termed the “marginal band”. The calculation of their liability to tax at the marginal rate of 27% ensures that there is no disproportionate increase in their tax bill if their income exceeds their exemption threshold.
(That 27% Marginal Rate, BTW, is based on the difference between actual earned income for the year and the prevailing exemption threshold, which can vary depending on age and marital status.)
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AND SO MUCH FOR THE DEFENCE OF CAPITALISM BEING ONE WITH THE DEFENCE OF AMERICAN SOVERIGNTY AND SOVERIGN IDENTITY, ANDVICE VERSA: Are we to assume from especially its more overzealous specimens of Zealotry and True Belief that if free-market capitalism is expected to survive all the more, then such requires the maintenance of racist, classist and otherwise intolerant polices reeking of contempt and disgrace for the vulnerable and marginalised for a "pure" form of capitalism to be achieved to its final perfection?
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."
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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?
