Monday, May 26, 2008

Hillary And The RFK Connection...

...a collaboration of thoughts I expressed elsewhere:

I'm not sure which is worse... invoking something as horrible as RFK's assassination (I didn't know that she had a pattern of mentioning this), or her "apology"... to the KENNEDYS... because she said that she had Ted Kennedy on her mind.

Let I get this straight.

She says that she is staying in the election because there is precedent for campaigns running until June. To prove her point (on several occasions), she not only invokes Robert Kennedy's campaign, but also emphasizes the fact that he was ASSASSINATED in June... she then says that she apologizes for this 'gaffe' because of how it offends the Kennedys, and that Ted Kennedy's brain cancer somehow tragically transmogrified in her mind into "hey, ANYTHING can happen in June, so why SHOULD I leave?" This is despite the fact that assassination (especially of progressive Black men who are breaking new ground) is all too real in this country - so much so that Obama has to have Secret Service protection.

Am I missing something?

This woman is campaigning for the Presidency of the United States, and her once-inspiring (to some) campaign has now denigrated into catering to the absolute worst attributes of human nature, and a series of lies -- not mis-speaks, flat out lies.

The woman who was accused of murder has embraced the endorsement of her accuser, the man who orchestrated the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy against her and her husband.

The woman whose husband's activities mobilized activist Democrats to create a website to convince the country to not wast resources on Bill's impeachment has now expressed utter disdain for such activism, because it doesn't suit her.

The woman who once spoke lovingly in a prominent Black church about the impact of the Civil Rights movement and didn't "feel no ways tah'rd" has gone on record minimizing the front-line soldiers of the Movement, and is now clinging (yes, I said clinging) to the ignorance, venom and hatred of racists as her last-ditch effort to clinch the Democratic Party nomination.

The woman who, with her husband, earned over $100 million since Bill left the Presidency has made a Black man who grew up in a single-parent home and had to depend on food stamps at one time an "elitist."

The woman who feels that "every vote should count" is relying on the "independent judgment" of the superdelegates to overturn that very same vote, look beyond the metrics that are used to select the party's candidate, and use a very elitist system to anoint her as Grand Ayatollah the Democratic Party nominee.

After all of this, the most tragic thing of all is that it's still OBAMA that has to somehow "PROVE" that he's qualified to be President.

=-=-=-=

(after seeing Terry McAuliffe on Fox News, blaming the Obama camp for the firestorm of Hillary's RFK comments)

The arrogance of the Clinton campaign is appalling. Terry McAuliffe is on Fox News Sunday, and he's co-signing Clinton's assertion that stripping Florida and Michigan is similar to slavery and Zimbabwe.

"This election they're having is not going to count for anything."
-- Hillary Clinton, after agreeing to the DNC rules about stripping Florida and Michigan of its delegates.

Chris Wallace (one of the few voices of reason on Fox News) was also taking McAuliffe to task on the "assassination" issue. McAuliffe's arrogance was especially repulsive, saying that "hey, Robert Kennedy Jr. wasn't offended, so why should anyone else?" McAuliffe kept saying that Hillary's comments were strictly regarding the timeline, and had nothing to do with Obama.

Really?

The only way that she can win is if something catastrophic happens to either Obama's campaign or Obama himself (personally, I think that Hillary and her camp are banking on the former). She mentions RFK, assassination, and June on multiple occasions and her camp is surprised that people are looking at her sideways? She's surprised that people other than RFK Jr. are offended? She kept talking about "...we remember what happened in 1968..."... does SHE not remember that King was assassinated in that same year? She must have, since she spent time at the Civil Rights Museum. Even Charlie Rangel, a Clinton supporter, said that her comments were unacceptable.

McAuliffe, in true Rovian form, said that the Obama camp was all over this. That would be true, if it weren't a bold-faced, outright lie. Obama himself said that the comments had no place in the campaign. David Axelrod gave Clinton the benefit of the doubt, saying that he didn't believe that Clinton was harboring any sort of death-wish fantasies regarding Obama.

This woman who claims to be "Ready On Day 1" does not have the common sense to not utter the word "assassination" while in the middle of a very heated and very close campaign expects to be the leader of the free world? If she can't recognize how her choice of words will sound to people who have lived through those horrific moments in history, how can she expect to be effective in a post-Bush administration?

And given her zeal in which she feasted on "bitter", "clinging to guns", Rev. Wright, Farrakhan, Rezko, and Ayers, can she really be surprised that people are looking at her mentioning the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and saying "WTH did you just say?!?" McAuliffe expects everyone to "just get over" Clinton's comments regarding RFK, but it's a crying shame that when she had the opportunity to do so regarding Rev. Wright, she chose the opposite approach. As the Wright issue was dying down somewhat, and as she was being grilled about Bosnia, someone asked her about Obama and Wright. Rather than take the high road and talk about respecting someone's right to privacy regarding religion, she said that she "would've left that church."

Hillary's chickens... are coming home... to roost.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Why Do You Hate America? Part I

One of the topics that the presidential campaign brought up was people who hate America. That's who I want to talk about, people who REALLY hate America. The people that I'm about to introduce seem to have such a visceral hatred for this country and its citizens that they must want to see the country destroyed.

When I talk about people hating this country, I'm not talking about people like Jeremiah Wright or Michelle Obama. This country was founded on dissent from the voice of tyranny (hypocritically enough -- but that's not the point today). People like Barack Obama, who may or may not wear a flag pin, don't hate America. Rev. Jeremiah Wright doesn't hate America because he said 'God damn America.' He has said nothing different than what other (white) evangelicals said about the hypocrisy of America's foreign policy. Michelle Obama doesn't hate America because she "expressed pride for the first time in her adult life" due to the unity behind Barack. People speaking up about how this country failed them is true patriotism. "Loving America" has been reduced to jingoistic slogans, empty posturing, and issues surrounding costume jewelry on a man's suit. But before I get too deep into my rant, let's talk about people who REALLY hate America.

The Blue Dog Democrats
Who are these people? These conservative "Democrats" cling fast to conservative ideals, and are basically DINO's (Democrats In Name Only). But they don't hate America for being conservative Democrats. Click on the link, and you will see the story about how they are against the 21st Century G.I. Bill. Are they against it because it doesn't have Democratic support? That can't be it, seeing as how it has the support of both Obama and Clinton. Could it be because it's not "support the troops"-y enough for Republicans? That can't be it, because it has strong Republican support. But what about the troops themselves? They must be against it for some reason. But no, servicemen across all of the branches, and a variety of veterans groups support this bill. So, why did this esteemed group of conservative Democrats stall on something that is obviously so beneficial to the troops?

It's because they want to appear "fiscally responsible" and not support a bill that doesn't go through some "pay-as-you-go" system. By attaching the bill to some form of "emergency spending", the Blue Dogs reason that the 21st Century G.I. bill will "create some new entitlement program." Really, Blue Dogs? In a war that costs billions of dollars PER DAY, you want to show fiscal responsibility at the expense of the servicemen who are VOLUNTARILY making the ultimate sacrifice?

Blue Dogs, do you hate America so much that you would rather hold up a bill that obviously benefits and rewards the troops for their years of committment, than expedite this bill through so that it can get signed? Do you hate America so much that you would leave its men and women who are on the front lines stranded, because the bill runs the risk of becoming an "entitlement program"? Do you hate America that much, Blue Dogs?

John McCain
It may not be apparent that the presumptive Republican nominee for the Presidency of the United States hates America, but he does. Oh yes he does. Why? Because as the de-facto leader of the Republican Party, he is setting example for the Republicans, and the example that he sets is that he has not endorsed the aforementioned 21st Century G.I. Bill. Why would a veteran, a former prisoner of war, and a man that's part of a military legacy stall on this important piece of legislature? It's not for petty reasons such as "fiscal responsibility" that the Blue Dogs are harping on. No, McCain's goals are loftier. He is withholding his support on this bill because it doesn't address or do enough to promote re-enlistment. As a veteran, I can tell you that the Montgomery G.I. Bill that I got had nothing to do with retention. It was a "thank you for your service" for 2 years of my life. The G.I. Bill was never designed to address retention, so why should it change now? McCain, do you hate America so much that you are selling out your fellow veterans because legislation that is designed to update their reward doesn't address retention? Do you hate America so much that you can't even separate recruitment incentives with retention issues? You must hate America, because otherwise, you'd leave the retention issues up to the Department of Defense, and lead the charge in getting this piece of legislation ordered. But let me guess... you're too busy floating around your ridiculous notion of a gas tax holiday to be concerned with trite issues such as the welfare and treatment of veterans.