Seattle Times Op-Ed Columnist Bob Herbert's Toxic Bigotry

The Seattle Times ran an op-ed piece today by Bob Herbert

The article seemed to take a lot of the facts about Ben "Pitchfork" Tillman straight from Wikipedia.

On Saturday, in a cold, steady rain, voters turned out for the Republican primary. Nearly all of them — close to 100 percent — were white. At a dinner here Saturday night, I was reminded ruefully by one of the guests: "It used to be the Democratic Party that was the white man's party in South Carolina. Now it's the GOP. The black people vote next Saturday."

They still honor Benjamin Tillman down here, which is very much like honoring a malignant tumor. Astatue of Tillman, who was known as "Pitchfork Ben," is on prominent display outside the statehouse.

Tillman served as governor and U.S. senator in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A mortal enemy of black people, he bragged that he and his followers had disenfranchised "as many as we could," and he publicly defended the murder of blacks.

In a speech on the Senate floor, he declared: "We of the South have never recognized the right of the Negro to govern white men, and we never will. We have never believed him to be the equal of the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him."

He just seemed to miss this one line.

Tillman was a member of the Democratic Party

Bobby Fischer Dies, The Nation Yawns

Except for one guy...

In the recent book "White King and Red Queen," British author Daniel Johnson said the match was "an abstract antagonism on an abstract battleground using abstract weapons ... yet their struggle embraced all human life."

"In Spassky's submission to his fate and Fischer's fierce exultant triumph, the Cold War's denouement was already foreshadowed."

Please.

Add This Guy To My Hero List

He is a publisher from Canada who is being asked to explain, be a Canadian government employee, his reasons for publishing cartoons.


H/T Hot Air

New Hampshire Democrats Do Not Want A Black President

That is my take on the New Hampshire primary. Let me see if I can explain it a little better... traditional democratic voters recognized that if Obama won the New Hampshire primary, there was a good chance he would become president.

That was not the case in Iowa. Obama winning Iowa just stirred up the race and sent a message to the Clinton camp that she should not take the nomination for granted. An Obama win in Iowa and a win in New Hampshire, now that would have had some serious consequences.

So the question is why were the polls so wrong? The answer is do you cheat on your taxes? Do you watch porn? Are you a bad driver? Almost everyone will answer no, no and no. But what people say and what they do... especially in the privacy of the voting booth...

Seattle is a lot like New Hampshire, mostly white, mostly liberal. I have lived in Seattle all of my life, I know that what liberals tell you about diversity and inclusiveness and how they act when the rubber meets the road is often in contradiction.

Feel free to disagree but that is how I see it.

Mike Huckabee, Conservative?

Love him or hate him, and I really do not love him, one thing we should all be able to agree on is Mike Huckabee is not a conservative. Just do not tell that to Pat Regnier, Money Magazine editor at large. Who in an article on CNN, says this:

With Mike Huckabee's big win in the Iowa Republican caucus Thursday, more people are asking, "So what's this guy actually stand for?"

Answer: For the most part, he's a pretty conventional conservative Republican.

About the only thing that ties Gov. Huckabee to conservatives is the fact that almost all of his supporters go to church. That is it because few if any of his positions can be described as conservative.

When one of your top strategists says this:

His aides are wary of New Hampshire. "It's all no tax, no government there," said Bob Wickers, a top strategist. "It's not ideal."

I think it is safe to say you may not actually be a "conventional conservative".

About the only thing I do agree with the Governor on is the "fair tax", what is really nothing more than a national sales tax. The CNN article labels the idea as "radical" and regressive while glossing over the massive benefits. Remember, "THIS IS CNN". The last thing they would advocate is for an idea that would reduce the size of government and help reward productivity.

Hillary!, Paying For Large Crowds

When you do not have real support, pay to have supporters bused in.

Reporters who walked into this Nashua high school today were immediately struck by the crowd — there are visibly more people here for Sen. Hillary Clinton than were here for Sen. Barack Obama yesterday in the same location.

The Clinton crowd was loud and boisterous and their foot-stomping was thunderous.

Many of them were also from Massachusetts.
...
Serap Sankoh, a biostatistician from Acton, Mass., said she had been actively recruited to attend and wave signs wildly by the Clinton campaign. "I got the telephone calls not last night but the night before and I'm a die-hard supporter, so I made the drive," she said.
...
UPDATE, 4:20 P.M. — When the event ended I talked to some of the out-of-staters, including Julia Fuchs, 65 and a recent graduate student. She was about to board one of the buses back to New York after spending two days in the Granite State for Clinton.

"We are crazy about her. We came here to stump for her, they told me where to go," she said. "The campaign paid for everything."

Fuchs also told me that one questioner who asked about student loans during the event was one of the volunteers from New York.

UPDATE, 5:20 P.M. — I just spoke to the student loans questioner, Dominique Wilburn, who told me she actually is an intern in Clinton's New York senate office.

Originally by way of Ace.

Is The 2nd Ammendment Outdated?

Apparently that is the opinion of Lee Gaillard who wrote an op ed piece in the Seattle Times stating such. Actually he states that "public safety" should trump the outdated 2nd amendment and he cites the upcoming Supreme Court case which will decide if the ban on handguns in Washington D.C. is constitutional. Washington D.C. has the strictest gun laws in the country and a murder rate 3.5 times higher than any state in the country. It is almost as if criminals know in advance that their victims will be unarmed.

But that lack of logic is not good enough for Mr. Galliard. He goes on to state:

The nine justices should hone their grammar skills. The introductory absolute phrase ("A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State,") preceding the main clause sets the condition for why the people collectively had a right to keep and bear arms: to be able quickly to muster their local "well regulated Militia," individually lifting smoothbores down from over their fireplaces so they could assemble and march off to defend "the security of [their] free State" against aggressors

Um.. no, what you call an introductory absolute phrase that is a condition of the main clause is a dependent clause that serves as a justification for the main clause, but does not limit the main clause. If being part of a militia was a condition, then the wording of the main clause would not be the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Instead it would need to be the right of the people who are part of a militia to keep and bears arms shall not be infringed.

Are Any Of Them Electable?

I am not thrilled with any of the candidates for President. And by not thrilled, I mean I can not remember a more pathetic list of candidates. I simply do not see how any of them are electable. Someone will have to win but it is going to only be because "none of the above" is not an option on the ballot. They all have issues, some really serious, some that should not be serious.

But here is what I think is going to be interesting. The Democrat that wins the primary is going to most likely be either Clinton or Obama. Now what nobody wants to talk about is that last I checked, neither a female or African American has ever been elected President... or Vice President.... or been nominated by one of the major parties... or even been a serious candidate. In the primary it is probably not going to matter all that much since it really is the hard core cool aide drinkers that get out and vote, but come November 2008, if the Democratic ticket does feature either of the two front runners... in the privacy of the voting booth... will the party of diversity come out and back up what they preach? I have relatives from the mid west that have never ever even considered voting Republican who I think are going to have a really hard time pulling a leaver that says either Hillary or Obama. That is just reality.

And just so it is clear, I would vote for a female and / or an African American in a heartbeat. In fact if Condi Rice jumped in the race tomorrow, she would probably jump to the top of my list.

Chicago Lawyer Wishes He Would Have Simply Been Beaten To A Pulp.

What could be dumber than claiming a pterodactyl caused you to drive your car into a light pole? How about keying a Marine's car?

Marine Sgt Mike McNulty is on activation orders to Iraq (second tour). On December 1st, 2007, Mike went to visit a friend in Chicago before deploying to say goodbye.

While saying goodbye, at about 11am, he noticed a man leaning up against his car. Mike left his friend's apartment and caught the man keying his car on multiple sides.

After caught in the process, the man told Mike, "you think you can do whatever you want with Department of Defense license plates and tags". (In Illinois you can purchase veteran, Marine, or medal plates. Mike has Illinois Marine Corps license plates.) During the exchange, he made additional anti-military comments.

Mike called the Chicago police and had the man arrested. A citation against the man was issued for misdemeanor criminal damage to private property

The jerk in question is a lawyer named Jay Grodner. I am going to guess that Mr. Grodner may regret his actions. Seems his office phone lines have been disconnected, his long list of legal problems published for all to see.

"In addition to being disciplined for being involved in a scheme to forging documents, it has been reported to CLR that attorney Jay Robert Grodner has since then engaged in a conflict of interest with his clients, has abandoned his clients, has engaged in false billing, has engaged in a fraud upon his clients, provided ineffective assistance of counsel, and has engaged in a "fraud upon the court". "

But it gets worse... a lot worse for him. He has a listing on an internet "dating" site. And by dating I mean skip dinner and the movie dating. What a creep. Click at your own risk.