Pardon My Paranoia

The FT has an interesting article (by Christopher Caldwell of the weekly Standard) about race relations in the US; his launch point was the Obama speech, but we ended up here:

A very interesting book published this week shows why. In Racial Paranoia (Basic Books, $26/£15.99), the University of Pennsylvania anthropologist John L. Jackson Jr suggests that extravagant theories of white racism – from the widespread Aids rumour to Louis Farrakhan’s allegation that the US actually blew up the levees to cause the deadly New Orleans floods during Hurricane Katrina – have their roots in the decorous language that mostly white leaders have invented for talking about race.

The US has not managed to eliminate racism, Mr Jackson thinks, but it has succeeded in eliminating racist talk. Remarks the slightest bit “insensitive” draw draconian punishment. White people, because they feel thoroughly oppressed by this regime, assume that it must be some kind of “gift” to minorities, especially blacks.

It is not. It is more like a torment. It renders the power structure more opaque to blacks than it has ever been, leaving what Mr Jackson calls a “scary disconnect between the specifics of what gets said and the hazy possibilities of what kinds of things are truly meant”. If the historic enemies of your people suddenly began talking about you in what can fairly be called a secret code, how inclined would you be to trust in their protestations of generosity?

This is the core of the problem Mr Obama aims to address. Bringing subterranean racial narratives into the light of day, where they can be debated openly, is a risk. Although the early news coverage of his speech has been positive, polls appear show that what Americans most want from Mr Obama is a simple demonstration that he is not like Rev Wright.

Here is the "Racial Paranoia" website and author bio, with a helpful encoded picture to answer the obvious question Mr. Caldwell was too PC to tackle.  The New Black Man also clips some reviews.

As an example of the PC police in action we need look no further than my previous post.  "Old Punk" of the InstaPunk crowd posted his thoughts on why specific behaviors of a specific subset of the black community annoys him [that is a willfully generous but defensible characterization - see below].  Frankly, there is very little in his post I would be inclined to defend, but I would be very curious to learn how widely held his viewpoints might be.  As an example, I would guess his aversion to the hip-hop gangsta sub-culture is widely shared.

Well.  Rather than trying to look for the message in his message, the Usual Suspects, led by Glenn Greenwald, seized on the offensive sections as an opportunity to brand Glenn Reynolds and the entire conservative movement as racists.

So let me summarize the exchange:

Obama: We should have a national conversation about race.

Old Punk: OK, here is what annoys me about some black people.

Lefties:  The Old Punk is a racist, as are all righties.

One might well argue that this does discourage anything like a candid conversation.

Ann Althouse provides an interesting perspective.

BELOW:  I assert that the Old Punk has problems with "specific behaviors of a specific subset of the black community".  Does that square with this:

I don't hate black people. I can't pretend to be color-blind because absolutely nothing in my culture will allow me to be. I admire Thomas Sowell, Duke Ellington, Roberto Clemente, Muhammed Ali, Alexandre Dumas, Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Count Basie, Tiger Woods, and Bill Cosby. There are many others but that's a sampling of the famous folks whose courage, genius, character, and achievements I would be proud if I could get anywhere in the vicinity of. The bald truth of the matter is that they're better than I am, and it doesn't arouse a flicker of racial feeling in me to acknowledge it. They have enriched and elevated my own experience of life.

On the other hand, I am sick to death of black people as a group. The truth. That is part of the conversation Obama is asking for, isn't it? I live in an eastern state almost exactly on the fabled Mason-Dixon line. Every day I see young black males wearing tee shirts down to their knees -- and jeans belted just above their knees. I'm an old guy. I want to smack them. All of them. They are egregious stereotypes. It's impossible not to think the unthinkable N-Word when they roll up beside you at a stoplight in their trashed old Hondas with 19-inch spinner wheels and rap recordings that shake the foundations of the buildings. It's like a broadcast dare: Go ahead! Call me a nigger! And then I'll cap your ass.

There are black people he likes but he hates them as a group - what does that mean?  I am opting for the notion that he objects to specific manifestations of a collective black culture, but folks intent on shutting down the dialogue will insist he just doesn't like all blacks.

MORE:  John Cole provides a chuckle:

That being said, this Tom Maguire post had me laugh out loud:

...If Tom Maguire thinks that when Obama was writing his speech and Caldwell was writing his piece, what they had in mind for a candid discussion about race was a bunch of jackasses stating “Here is what I hate about niggers,” then he probably really didn’t understand the speech or the FT piece.

Hmm.  I have put about as charitable interpretation on the Old Punk's tirade as I care to, but it does lend itself to a less nuanced summary.

Comments

[GMax]

A possibly dubious hedge but not a lie.

Does this depend on what the definition of "is" is? Again?

How may angels can dance on the head of a pin or some other hair splitting difference?

Joe Six pack makes no such distinction. A dubious hedge in his world is a "lie". And for that we can be thankful. Go look at the polls for your comfirmation.

[kim]

Bill Kristol's retraction is for a particular date. Obama's statement that he hadn't been present was not.

This is how YOU lie, you small insignificant liar, you.
===============================

[kim]

You've learned logic such that you parse lies into not lies. Some education, you pitiful self-deluded thing.
===================================

[PeterUK]

So Glen Reynolds, has been attending Old Punks sermons for twenty years?

[Other Tom]

Obama has now been fully exposed as just another far-left Democratic politician. All the hopes so many had invested in him have now been dashed as we have come to know more and more about just who he is.

It is not guilt by association. It is simply bad judgment by association, and an imputation of shared values by association.

Short weeks ago we might have expected that this apparently fine young man could possibly be elected president. Now that simply cannot and will not happen. Some people are going to have a very hard time coming to grips with that fact.

[slag]

He is a liar, a BIG, FAT, LIAR. That is why his numbers are dropping. People see Pinocchio.
=======================

Posted by: kim | March 24, 2008 at 03:08 PM

His numbers right now don't interest me. And I've already stated why I wouldn't characterize his statement as a lie. Sadly, I don't find all caps to be as persuasive of a rhetorical tool as you might think.

[kim]

Parse 'possibly dubious hedge' with 'Let me be honest with you'. This is easy for guilt ridden liberals, not for blue collar Democrats who admire most of the black people they work with, and see neither hatred for America, nor shysterly hedging from them.

Get over yourself. It's past time.
===============================

[kim]

Note I didn't capitalize 'small, insignificant liar', who cares not for the numbers of democracy.
================================

[PeterUK]

"The reasoning is common in Leftwing blogs, where you see "and blacks are 10% of the population but 30% of the prison population"

Thus should form 50% of the president?

[kim]

Big numbers, BIG LETTERS.
================

[slag]

It is not guilt by association. It is simply bad judgment by association, and an imputation of shared values by association.

You might be able to make a marginal case for judgment. But as for shared values, that's utterly disingenuous. Some of us were both born into families and associate with people who have entirely different value systems. Some of us even make it a point to intentionally associate ourselves with people we often disagree with. Some of us call doing so enlightening and educational and know that it often reinforces our own differing belief system. Just as my interaction here as done for me.

So...thanks! I appreciate it!

[kim]

So you recognize yourself as guilt ridden liberal still trying to get past your inherent racism. Yes, you are Obama's constituency. We could use a President for the rest of us. You can still go to the Trinity Church and be presided over by someone you can admire.

Oh wait, you wouldn't be very welcome there. Much too pale, I presume.
==========================

[boris]

as for shared values, that's utterly disingenuous

Utterly? Hardly, it is the natural default and the basis for the phrase fellow traveler.

[kim]

And please, recognize you are keeping the black people down, with your incessant cries of victimology. Forgive them, for they know not why they hate, those who do.
====================================

[PeterUK]

Some just hop from one sector of identity politics to another, like chameleons.Whatever gives the advantage.

[slag]

Parse 'possibly dubious hedge' with 'Let me be honest with you'. This is easy for guilt ridden liberals, not for blue collar Democrats who admire most of the black people they work with, and see neither hatred for America, nor shysterly hedging from them.

I can't speak for any guilt-ridden liberals, but I know a lot of Democrats who have some idea of how politics works in America and can sleep easily at night knowing that, sometimes, hedging is the best bet. Especially when you're being so obviously set up.

I'm sure no one here has ever supported a candidate or a Decider who has made a questionably dubious hedge in their lives, so I can understand why you don't get what I'm talking about.

[slag]

And please, recognize you are keeping the black people down, with your incessant cries of victimology. Forgive them, for they know not why they hate, those who do.

Odd. I don't remember saying anything even remotely like that. But if anyone knows "victimology", it would be a conservative, so I must have. Sorry about that.

[GMax]

OK lets imagine that John McCain is observed attending semiregularly a civic group with an innocent sounding name, but were David Duke espouses his views on anything and everything wrong with the world and mostly lays that at the feet of blacks and sprinkles in a little Jews bashing for seasoning sake.

McCain would not even get a chance to explain why there is no shared values. It would indeed be such horrible poor judgement that he would be verbally filleted and castigated for monumentally poor judgement.

And while it would never be enough, demands would be made for a public and full throated repudiation of the views espoused, something that Obama could not bring himself to do.

While we are imagining, consider the scence where McCain says he sat in the seat where views which "might be considered controversial" were made.

The tomatoes would be splattered all over him, and that is not what Obama has gotten. Yet the voters are voting with their feet, I wonder why? Oh yeah I know, you think they are racists. I pity you in a way.

[Other Tom]

"Some of us even make it a point to intentionally associate ourselves with people we often disagree with. Some of us call doing so enlightening and educational and know that it often reinforces our own differing belief system."

And some of us are given to sanctimonious and self-serving platitudes.

Not many of us take our children to a church that, by reason of its pastor, is a cesspool of anti-American and racist rhetoric and outright lies. Not many of us elect to have such a pastor perform our marriage ceremony. Each of us, of course, is entitled to do all of these things, but none of us is entitled to have voters disregard our behavior when they go to choose their president.

[kim]

Otis and Wright know victimology, and so does Obama. He's even victimized you.

Obama set himself up with 'Let me be honest with you'. That nearly always prefaces a lie, though it be hedged so decoratively.
========================

[clarice]

Identity politics has been the wedge for socialism here, PUK. So many precepts were tossed out to remediate the mistreatement of Blacks and despite the passage of new laws, their enforcement, voluntary action and a very substantial change in the legal and actual status of Blacks, the demands are unending...and the whines to extend these exceptions to more and more continues. Along with, of course, a bigger government and more taxes to run and finane all these good deed fixings.

[GMax]

so obviously set up.

The trick cigar that blew up in his face you mean? Why did he light the match? Barry was set up by Barack. Man I am learning a lot.

[kim]

Right GMax, it isn't racism that is dropping Obama's numbers, it is the revelation that he is a hypocrite and a liar. And a racist.

I love your justification for 'hedging'. It's politics, everyone does it. Yeah, Obama is a typical politician. Typical, mind you, typical.
===================================

[slag]

Oh wait, you wouldn't be very welcome there. Much too pale, I presume.
==========================

Posted by: kim | March 24, 2008 at 03:27 PM

I've never been to Trinity, but I suspect that my face would be more welcome there than it is here. No matter what color it was.

I hear Karl Marx was a whitey. And you all seem to think that Reverend Wright doesn't mind him. Apparently, some racists are less racist than others.

[Other Tom]

Remember when, during the course of the 2000 campaign, George Bush made a single appearance at Bob Jones University in South Carolina?

Remember how the press and the Democrats simply treated it as an instance of a man associating himself with people of entirely different values, since doing so was enlightening and educational, and served to reinforce his own values? You don't? Perhaps Google would help...

[kim]

Yes, OT, slag is pitiable. Look at his justification for the lying. For the hypocrisy. For the racism.

Get over yourself, slag. Go have an honest conversation with someone, black, white, brown or indeterminate. You, too, are an anachronism.
================

[kim]

slag, look at yourself and your 3:47 post. Do you call that persuasive? What point are you trying to make? Come closer, I'll bite your legs off?
==============

[GMax]

I am pretty sure due to the circular reasoning and general incoherence from post to post not mention occasionally within a post, that we are dealing with another one of GG alter ego sock puppets. TM, does the server log show a bunch of hits from a Rio De Janiero cabana?

[TexasToast]

Obama has now been fully exposed as just another far-left Democratic politician. All the hopes so many had invested in him have now been dashed as we have come to know more and more about just who he is.

...

Short weeks ago we might have expected that this apparently fine young man could possibly be elected president.

So the Wright “highlights” video “fully exposes” who Obama is? Please. Just because Obama understands the anger does not mean he agrees with the rhetoric. Would you suggest that Hagee ”exposes” who McCain is because he apparently believes the Katrina was God’s punishment for a gay pride parade in New Orleans? I certainly wouldn’t.

Apparently, the three of them are roughly tied. Its only March – the war continues – the economic signs are worrisome – and the closeness of the league championship game does not determine the Super Bowl winner. Who knows what to “expect”?

[slag]

Not many of us take our children to a church that, by reason of its pastor, is a cesspool of anti-American and racist rhetoric and outright lies.

The only evidence I've seen of a "cesspool" has been a two-minute clip of remarks taken completely out of context. I could make a sort clip of statements from this comments section alone that would make everyone here look like a bunch of hateful bigots and this blog a "cesspool". But that's not part of my agenda.

[PeterUK]

Same here Clarice,the left built "Rainbow Alliances" of the disparate groups of the "oppressed".That is how the odious Livingstone became Mayor of London Don't solve oppression,represent it!

[kim]

More likely just a generic facile liar of the progressive persuasion. They are a dime a dozen, GMax. I really liked that he was willing to admit 'dubious hedging'. There is self-consciousness there. No integrity, but self-consciousness. Well, gnothi seauton is just a beginning.
===================================

[Other Tom]

Why on earth would Slaq feel unwelcome here? We welcome him as the matador welcomes the bull, as children welcome the pinata.

And we welcome him because it is enlightening and educational, and reinforces our own belief system. What could be more noble?

[kim]

You missed my point, TT. Obama prefaced his remarks denying being present with 'Let me be honest with you', then changed his tune short days later.

The most inflammatory clips are just the precis, the double underlining of his message. You don't get it, but millions of Democratic voters do. They can smell racism in the air, because they deal with it at work everyday, and still 'Get her done'.
======================================

[Other Tom]

"..remarks taken completely out of context."

What was the context of the remarks about the HIV virus, to take one example, and how does that context render the remarks less vile?

How do we know it's a cesspool? Hey, Slaq, you don't need a Weatherman, etc.

[kim]

Was revealing your own dishonesty part of your agenda here, slag? I suspect not; but it was part of our agenda.
===========================

[PeterUK]

Charlie,Thanks for the reply.One of the conclusions we came to was that hip-hop is defined more by stylistic than formal means.Interesting about the metre.
Problem is,as is most commercialised music,Acid Jazz for example, a lot of it is something else with a new label.

[slag]

I really liked that he was willing to admit 'dubious hedging'. There is self-consciousness there. No integrity, but self-consciousness.

Yes. Because I make an intellectually honest statement, I have no integrity. Thank you for proving my point about politics in America today. As you were.

[Other Tom]

Slaq, what's the difference between "intellectually honest" and "honest?"

[clarice]

Anytime a politician says "let me be honest" or "to be perfectly honest" or anything like that you can be sure he's lying.

Here's more fun, after all that geshreiing about every vote counting, about what we have to drop the Constitution's electoral college in favor of a popular vote, Hill is now arguing that the supers should consider the electoral college votes of the states where she's won vs the states Obama has won.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/us/politics/24campaign.html?_r=1&ex=1364097600&en=80a0be31ed248fb0&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin>electoral College Ins and Ous

[PeterUK]

I agree with the poster who says the Pastor's speech was taken out of context.A bit like clipping the words "Juden Raus" out of Der Sturmer and saying it was a policy.

[GMax]

Would you suggest that Hagee ”exposes” who McCain is because he apparently believes the Katrina was God’s punishment for a gay pride parade in New Orleans?

Hagee is just not a very good cudgel to use on McCain. Hagee who lives and preaches in San Antonio Texas, much closer to you TT than John McCain in either Arizona or Wash DC.

He did endorse McCain, who did pretty quickly say that he did not agree with Hagee on a lot of things, but did appreciate the endorsement.

NO 2o year history, no mentoring going on. A fairly quick repudiation when it came up without a whole lot of dissembling going on.

The fact that you want to bring it up though, does mean that dealing with a brief association even at arms length is problematic, so a 20 year association is ever so much more so.

You want to wait on the polls? Fine by me, check in on Friday and lets see if it not continued straight down. Remember that many NYT readers, and CBS watchers know almost nothing of the controversy. When what you are selling goes well with a group that you probably already have locked up, and not with anyone else, usually mean that further dissemination of the views gets you no more votes in the former and loses you votes with the latter. When the latter is 6 times the size as a group than the latter, it looks like a bad strategy from where I sit.

[kim]

The problem, slag, and it is poignant that I have to make it explicit, is the attempt to justify the 'dubious hedging'. You don't get it, but it is not that you can't get it, it's that you won't get it. That is willful, and pitiable. And please stop whining.
=======================

[Cecil Turner]

Would you suggest that Hagee ”exposes” who McCain is . . .

Oh, please. Obama sought out that pastor/congregation, worshipped there (including marriage and baptism), called him a "mentor," and took recordings of his speeches off to school to study. McCain got an endorsement (and said he was pleased with it). Or, in the Instapundit case, he linked an Easter poem/artwork by a different author on the same site. You see a parallel there? Because if so, I'll be making some "judgment" inferences.

[GMax]

six times the former ( oops but I still say preview is for sissies ).

[Jane]

But I don't know anything about Obama's Marxist rhetoric.

Now that's just sad. Are you voting for him because he's black then? Or is it his long list of accomplishments?

[clarice]

Well, how would slaq know the truth about McCain and Hagee. The WaPo Ombudsman admits the paper never covered it? Was his repudiation of Hagee's more noxious sayings covered in the NYT? Has either mentioned Hillary's church is active in the devestment from Israel movement? (oops the waPo ombudsman says her paper hasn't told its readers about that.)

[Cecil Turner]

Well, back on the original, I'd note the ridiculous double standard here on what is considered acceptable. Jackson laments the PC stupidity that attempts to eradicate certain words (but instead of rightly noting the intrusion on individuals' word choice, claims the "offensive" words offend in their absence . . . and then makes broad-brush accusations about "historic enemies of [his] people" . . . okay tell me when to stop trying here, because I'm not seeing a lot of common ground). OldPunk says some stupid stuff, but I suspect the part that is most offensive is where he essentially recapitulates Chris Rock's humor. Why is that? I'd also maintain that the contention that statements by folks of Rev Wright's ilk suggest a fifth column are offensive; but less so than accusations of surreptitious genocide. (And possibly the only reason such generally draw less fire is that the latter are considered too ridiculous to discuss.)

[Rick Ballard]

The problem with this particular foray is that Clarice is the only one mentioning the fact that Red Witch is driving the whole "discussion". Forgetting that it's Bubba and Red Witch who have revealed the startling fact that BHO is actually black (and mentored by a racist pastor whose ravings are slightly outside the mainstream) fits into RW's schemes a bit too well.

There will be plenty of time to reflect upon the people with whom BHO chooses to associate after he knocks RW off her broom. The better tactic at the moment is to encourage him to stick it out to the most bitter of ends.

Bayh's trial balloon on "look at the electoral count" is a little less fun than the Clinton's "did you know that Obama is black and associates with racist nutters?" but it does deserve some laughter on the "make every vote count (except for active duty personnel)" mantra that the Goron's promoted in '00.

I believe that the question that should be foremost in the Dem superdelegates mind is "how much damage can the Red Witch do to me if she wins?". That's why Richardson's decision to back BHO is important. If he can swing 300 or so supers to his side, the Clintons can be placed on the shelf adjacent to the Borgias. They would be finished and America would be a fresher, brighter place.

[GMax]

Well Rick I dont want it to be over June with the superdelegates committing and declaring victory. I want it to go to the floor, after a nasty couple days of credential fights and see the raw savagery on display as hand to hand combat is deployed in a search for super to convert or reconvert and delegates to explain their lack of any real committment to vote as allocated. It makes so much better theatre.

[bgates]

I agree with GMax. Good theater, and good for you too.

[GMax]

Hey Slag, one of your fellow travelers like minded dissemblers is on HuffPo right now calling Pope Benedict ( Joseph Ratzinger ) a Nazi. That will fly really well with Catholic population in this country? Are there enough blacks, progs and never before voted youth to piss off Catholics ( which means also Hispanics by almost definition )?

[clarice]

Me, too..and if Richardson could control 300 superdelegate votes, he'd have cut a deal with the Clintons and endorsed the RW.

[Rick Ballard]

Guys, put on your Vizzini hats for a moment. The way to have a truly bloody fight is for enough supers to "committ" to BHO to make it look like the only thing that will "save" the Clintons is that sort of floor fight.

What value would you put on a Democratic politicians "committment"? The more that start wearing "Go BHO" buttons, the more vicious the Clintons will get.

You don't think the Odious Slattern will give up without invoking Götterdämmerung do you? In order to get there, BHO has to be encouraged - he ain't exactly a strong reed (although he has shown signs of the utter viciousness that battle with the Red Witch requires).

[Rick Ballard]

Where did the Red Witches Flying Monkey go? Gotta watch out for those Flying Monkeys. They're not what they seem.

[GMax]

Richardson made a calculated bet. He wants a soft seat with a regular paycheck attached. He thinks its likely that Obama wins the primary.

I think there will soon enough be a fair amount of Supers who think neither of these two can win, and that a compromise candidate will need to be drafted. A pox on both of their houses, especially if it puts a Super's reelection chances in jeopardy.

Will Howie Dean allow his name to be put into nomination on the 2nd ballot?

[Jane]

I think Hill wants it to go all the way to the convention in order to have enough time for Obama remorse to set in. June is probably too soon for the general public given the media adoration. Hell I suspect it will take a decade or two for it to sink in with Slaq.

[Bill in AZ]

"a compromise candidate will need to be drafted"

That would be Gore - heh heh, 'cept Global Warming hasn't been so hot for him lately... things are just tough all over for the progs.

[GMax]

Well the bulletins of Trinity should be a real harvest of information. One from 2007 has an "Open letter to Oprah" regarding her upcoming ( at the time ) visit to Palestine. The writer is described below. This is an exact cut and paste from the bulletin not something that someone else wrote after the fact, note what they think is a curriculum vitae :

Ali Baghdadi, an Arab-American activist, writer,
columnist; worked with several African-American
groups on civil and human rights issues since the
mid sixties; acted as a Middle East advisor to the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad the founder of the
Nation of Islam, as well as Minister Louis Farrakhan;
visited more than 80 countries throughout
the world and met with many of their leaders,
including Mandela, Castro, Saddam Hussein,
Hafez Assad, Qathafi, Abdallah ibn Abdel-Aziz,
Rafsanjani, Ayatollah Khamenei, among many
others.

[GMax]

Well the bulletins of Trinity should be a real harvest of information. One from 2007 has an "Open letter to Oprah" regarding her upcoming ( at the time ) visit to Palestine. The writer is described below. This is an exact cut and paste from the bulletin not something that someone else wrote after the fact, note what they think is a curriculum vitae :

Ali Baghdadi, an Arab-American activist, writer,
columnist; worked with several African-American
groups on civil and human rights issues since the
mid sixties; acted as a Middle East advisor to the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad the founder of the
Nation of Islam, as well as Minister Louis Farrakhan;
visited more than 80 countries throughout
the world and met with many of their leaders,
including Mandela, Castro, Saddam Hussein,
Hafez Assad, Qathafi, Abdallah ibn Abdel-Aziz,
Rafsanjani, Ayatollah Khamenei, among many
others.

[Other Tom]

"So the Wright 'highlights' video 'fully exposes' who Obama is?"

Learn to read. I did not say that the Wright videos fully expose him; I said that he has been fully exposed. The process has taken several weeks, and the timing and content of his remarks concerning Wright are simply a part of that process.

[Other Tom]

Actually, I think the principal thing on the mind of every Democrat superdelegate is, "how the Christ did I get into this? I thought we were just going to go to Denver and do a lot of free eating and drinking."

[PeterUK]

Al Gore or Ull Gore,God of Winter, is having a bad time all over the world.We are into Spring and there was two inches of snow late Friday night and flurries of light snow even now.It is COLD!

[kim]

Bill, and GMax, Gephart could win, as he could have last time. Gore is expecting to be drafted, but AGW is blowing up in his face. Kerry has his hopes, the poor thing.

When I saw how well Obama's campaign was organized and how shallow Obama himself was, I seriously considered that Dean was planning to have Obama knock out Clinton, then let Obama blow himself up, leaving the field to Dean. Dean has a lot of support.
======================================

[GMax]

John Derbyshire thinks it will be Gore/Patrick in 08.

As in Deval.

Jane stop doing those handstands, if he gets elected your gain is all of our loss.

[clarice]

I think that's nuts. Gore has too much money to bother and is way too fat to move around. Deval Patrick couldn't be reelected in his own state.

Sometimes NRO'ers have too much time on their hands.

[Rick Ballard]

Judas Richardson Refuses to Rejoin Clinton in Gutter

BHO Retakes Lead (Gallup poll)

BHO Has Big Money Edge

That's why the Flying Monkey landed here. It's an interesting tactic, akin to a Moby but not quite the same. A real BHO defender writes more like this. Not too bright prog.

[GMax]

Yeah I thought so too, Derbyshire was one that seem to show more than a little sympathy for Dr. Paul so he maybe has other issues.

I just wanted to see if Jane was lurking and not posting, and knew that getting rid of Deval would be something she would not pass!

[GMax]

Gallup poll link is a RV poll. Pretty worthless in my estimation. If McCain is up in a RV poll, he is up even more in a poll that filters down to likely voters.

As long as a primary fight is going on, Obama has to spend money flinging poo at Hill. He cant horde the cash to fight McCain the way McCain is now able to do. Its all running to McCain benefit right now, even the NYT in the latest hamhanded attack, reminds independents of some McCain independence. Its hard to imagine why they thought Republicans read their crap, or why independents wouldn't think that was a good thing.

[Other Tom]

I see that Hillary has now decided that she didn't spend Christmas in Cambodia after all.

What is it with these Dems imagining they were under fire? Remember Gore's entirely fictional account of standing guard duty out on the perimeter with his M16 with all the action going on? And Dukakis telling us how he was "scared to death in a rice paddy in Korea," even though the war was over before he arrived?

[kim]

Speaking of Gore, we were weren't we? Please look up Lorne Gunter, in Canada's National Post: 'Are the Climate Change Models Wrong?'. She talks of the Argos bouys which are not documenting warming oceans. The article can be found through RCP.

Someone bright over at Climateaudit.org said that the climate is the continuation of the oceans by other means. This article follows up the recent NPR article wondering where all the warming is going since it does not appear to be the oceans. All this is underlining, nay, doubleunderlining that the climate models have not modeled clouds worth a damn.

You know, clouds warm the earth at night, and cool it during the day. Believe it or not, these twenty or so highly complex GCMs, or Global Climate Models, do not even account well for that.

icecap.us is a good aggregator for climate skepticism.

I think I've never heard so loud
The quiet message in a cloud.
===================

[PeterUK]

The Message is going mainstream.
"Global warming update. According to NASA scientists in Maryland, the polar ice caps, far from shrinking, are actually increasing in size this year.

"To the north of Canada, ice now covers two million square kilometres more than it did the past three winters and is between 10mm and 20mm thicker than last year.

In the Alps, where last year's mild winter sparked a wave of hysteria about "global warming", they've just had their best snowfall for 20 years and the skiing season kicked off two weeks early."
Littlejohn-Daily Mail

You know things are going shit shaped when the tabloids start extracting the urine.

[Jane]

Actually, I think the principal thing on the mind of every Democrat superdelegate is, "how the Christ did I get into this? I thought we were just going to go to Denver and do a lot of free eating and drinking."

Actually the majority of them are wondering if they can get permission to attend from their probation officers.

Jane stop doing those handstands, if he gets elected your gain is all of our loss.

Now how did you know I was upside down? These new computers are amazing!

[kim]

Yes, PuK, Arctic ice extent is just now beginning to fall, and Antarctic ice has been increasing for a month. Polar ice has recovered just in the last year from a decade of decreasing extent. Sure, cold weather did it, but I think the cold weather is from the flipping of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation to a La Nina predominant phase from 30 years in an El Nino dominant phase. That would account for 30 years of warming, blamed by the warmistas on CO2.

Also, the sun is unusually quiescent, with an extended solar cycle #23. There are two new sunspots, today, but they are still old cycle. Even the finest solar physicists are not sure what is going on, but unless Solar Cycle #24 starts up soon and ramps up big, we are probably in for long term cooling.

It is ironic to be wishing for global cooling, just in order to stem the madness about global warming and carbon encumbering. Global cooling will be lethal.
=================================

[PeterUK]

"It is ironic to be wishing for global cooling, just in order to stem the madness about global warming and carbon encumbering. Global cooling will be lethal."

Especially here where the retards of the EU have made vast plans for reducing carbon emissions and immense projects for renewable energy source.7000 windmills round Britain,some as tall as the Eiffel Tower,grain production turned over to bio-fuels.
If the cold doesn't get us,poverty,de-industrialisation and starvation will.Could be 1789 before we know it.

[kim]

There'll be a tipping point on skepticism, soon. You can feel it gathering, and boy will it sweep all before its path. Science may take a while to recover, and politics is going to be just a little more curious before it takes up pseudoscience, again.
=========================

[hit and run]

Yeah, did you see the story about the storm causing huge waves in the Caribbean damaging coral reefs? Not one mention of global warming in that article related to the storm or the damage. What gives?

[kim]

I missed that, H&R, but even the head of the IPCC has recently wondered out loud about natural variability of climate.
==================================

[PeterUK]

The IPCC should be first in the tumbrils.Fat Ull Gore should be left on ice for the polar bears.

[ben]

AP and other news agencies apparently "forgot" to mention Kilpatrick is a Democrat. At Powerline, John Hinderaker, set the record straight for such a, hmmm, inadvertent lapse:

"Kilpatrick briefly addressed the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He is currently Vice President of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors and its representative to the Democratic National Committee. Kilpatrick served as the leader of the Democratic Caucus when elected to the Michigan State House of Representatives, making him the first African American to hold a leadership position in the Michigan Legislature."

[Jane]

Everyone on the planet should sue Gore for fraud. He's become a billionaire pushing a fraud.

Or he can become president. I hear the democrats are looking for a good candidate.

[PeterUK]

Or you could render Fat Ull down,enough blubber to solve a fuel crisis.

[kim]

Just put a windmill in front of his face, P.
==========================

[ben]

"A possibly dubious hedge but not a lie."

Slag, were you on board when Clinton said "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. ...? Did that sound honest to you?

If it did then I can see where you have no problems with "A dubious hedge is not a lie"

But of course you understand the problem was never about Wright. The problem is Obama. It's not the soundbites, its the DOCTRINE that has been preached for over 20 years. If Obama wasn't the guy running for President who listened and abided by the DOCTRINE for all that time and never objected, frankly, nobody on this blog or anywhere else would be discussing Wright. It was Obama's bad judgement, and it cost him his aura of Messianic healer and uniter, a man above the fray. Now he is a mere mortal trying to convince everyone he is NOT an America hater or a left wing radical. Good luck with that.

[PeterUK]

Actually Kim,what Fat Ull has done is criminal,governments are preparing vast plans to do exactly the opposite of what is required.If these go ahead people will die,it is a simple as that.
The credit crunch is already restricting finance for new power stations,just as costs are spiraling.
The greens have set back nuclear power generation for decades,renewables simply will not cut it.
Windmills are only some 27% efficient,do not produce power when needed,conventional power stations have to be kept running as backup.
Denmark,probably the most advanced wind power generator in the world,has to sell peak electricity to Norway,the grid won't handle it,and buy nuclear generated electricity from Germany at peak times.
It is a balls up of epic proportions,aided and abetted by Fat Ull Gore

[Other Tom]

Just saw a clip of the Rev. Wright's successor, Otis Moss, doing his Easter sermon.

Tell me: if that's not a crackpot church, how will we recognize a crackpot church when one comes along?

[GMax]

Other Tom

I thought Obama said it was excusable because Wright was old? So what is excusable about Otis? He looks younger than Barry to me. OOPS.

By the way, Dreams by My Father Obama's first book, are apparently not only in print but also in audio books. Worse for Obama the book is in his own voice.

And apparently there are passages where Obama will be heard to swear like a sailor a Trinity UCC minister on Sunday morning. It will be shocking to lots of folks, including young youtubers who think the mania is real cool. They get video and audio and pass it on p to p networks.

[Rick Ballard]

William Jefferson
Rod Blagojevich
Eliot Spitzer
Kwame Kilpatrick
David A. Paterson

Have I missed any other victims of the Climate of Corruption engendered by the Republicans in 2006? This story, concerning Tony Rezko teaming up with a doctor to heist a house, is interesting. The owners of BHO Manse were doctors who knew Rezko prior to their BHO transaction. Could be just a coincidence but real estate developers have been known to hook up with docs as investors and partners.

I wonder why we haven't heard more about that Climate of Corruption these days?

[fdcol63]

In 2004, Kerry and the Dems hysterically claimed they'd been "Swift-Boated".

In 2008, if the superdelegates negate the popular primary results by changing their commitments, Dems will be able to claim that they've been "Shift-Voted".

LOL

[PeterUK]

Lovely phrase Swift Boated,perhaps Obama has be "Pastorized".

[hit and run]

So, we all heard the Gen McPeak "Bill is McCarthy" line, right?

Did everyone hear Obama's IA campaign co-chair's reaction to Bill's NC speech?

Clinton should never be forgiven. Period. This is a stain on his legacy, much worse, much deeper, than the one on Monica's blue dress."

[clarice]

HEH--*thwick* (Sound of a nifty word, idea or phrase being vacuumed up and stolen..

[libarbarian]

I am opting for the notion that he objects to specific manifestations of a collective black culture

Even IF that is true, his post still shows serious problems and logical errors when it comes to thinking about groups of people (in this case, racially based).

There is clearly a lack of either attempt or ability to think about black people he does not personally know as individuals instead of a monolithic block of essentially interchangeable units.

His statement "Because you're never outraged by what the worst black people do. Because you continue to make excuses for what should be inexcusable to everyone." is particularly egregious. The idea that most blacks excuse the very murders, dealers, and lowlifes who plague their neighborhoods is simply ass-backwards. Obviously some do but the majority of working blacks who are trying to get by and raise a family, and who are the ones most victimized by the criminals, are unanimously and constantly making excuses for the worst in their community is flat-on-its-face FALSE.

He may not be "Racist" in terms of outright dislike of another racial group but Old Guy's post was a great example of some of the problems with A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLES views on race and groups of "other people" as well.

[clarice]

Libarbaraian--would you say that Obama's long term support of Revs Meeks and Wright feed the belief that "most blacks excuse the very murders, dealers, and lowlifes who plague their neighborhoods". I do. And I think it the most unfortunate aspect for the public weal of last week's explosive developments.

[PeterUK]

Kim,
The coldest Easter in forty years. Thanks Al.

[ben]

Al Gore has just announced that Global Cooling is a direct result of Global Warming and it is caused by the same forces of evil that caused the latter. Unless something is done right away the oceans will recede from the coastlines causing huge losses to beachfront properties. Hordes of Cubans will invade from the Florida Straights Desert. The U.S. will double in size and the Muslim World will be threatened by this infidel expansion and launch more attacks. He also announced he has been nominated for a Nobel Prize for his ground breaking research on Global Cooling.

[Sue]

Al Gore is now selling his carbon credits...in the reverse. Get them while you can. Do your part to heat the earth.

[clarice]

These people never pay the consequences o their folly. Robert the nitwit Kennedy has persuaded lotsof parents not to vaccinate their kids ..when that results in other kids getting diseases that they'd not have contracted had those parents been more responsible and knowledgeable, do you suppose it will affect his net worth? No, it will not. Just as he will never be called to account for all those Chavez has destroyed as he pimps for him.

[PeterUK]

Ben,
Glad you mentioned beach front properties,SCAM is offering $1 per square foot for prime locations.My advice is to take the money now,it will be down to 50 cents next year.

[PeterUK]

Clarice,
"These people never pay the consequences o their folly."

Time for some class actions.The human race versus Al Gore would be a start.As suggested above.