Mind Vomit by the ikss ~ a journal
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Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2003debate synopsis
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somebody out there loves me
�Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead�
-Lucille Ball
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
REGISTER TO VOTE
"The time is always right to do what is right"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The "seven social sins": Knowledge without character,
Science without humanity,
Wealth without work,
Commerce without morality,
Politics without principles,
Pleasure without conscience,
Worship without self-sacrifice."
--Gandhi
"We have not inherited the world from our forfathers -
We have borrowed it from our children."
--Kashmiri, proverb
Turns out I will have to work longer hours over those days, though, and I have to work four instead of three. That means I have to use an extra vacation day from work, which is a bummer. Totally worth it, of course, but still... I have plans for those vacation days, peeps. Plans that have nothing to do with Gatorade.
Politics
So anyone watch the debate last night? Ooh-wee, was that entertaining!
I am not going to talk much about Dennis Kucinich today because, much as I hate to admit it, with few exceptions I actually found him to be rather unimpressive. That said, he didn�t have a lot of opportunity to be impressive, since I�d be willing to bet he again was given about half the talk time as certain other candidates. When he was given a chance to speak, he just wanted to cover all sorts of subjects on which he wasn�t given the chance to speak earlier. The result was kind of scattered.
The biggest fireworks of the night came over remarks Howard Dean recently made, having to do with going after the votes of low-income Southern people who drive around with Confederate flags in the back window of their pickup trucks. He was asked last night to either defend or apologize for his remark. He attempted to defend it.
Let me say this�I really don�t think Howard Dean is a racist, neither did I find his remark to be racist either. I don�t think black people are the ones who should be offended by it, though.
I think I understood what Dean was getting at: low-income southern whites tend to vote Republican for reasons that mystify when you consider the fact that Republican acts while in office rarely, if ever, benefit low-income people. I assume it has to do with the general misconception of Republicans, which is that they favor state�s rights (complete baloney, especially during this administration � an administration that has imposed more federal restrictions than any in the past and is trying to impose even more. Why, even today Dubya is signing the misleadingly entitled �Partial-Birth Abortion Ban�). Anyway, it�s the vote of these people that Howard Dean is after.
Where he made his huge mistake is in equating low-income, hard-working Southern people with the Confederate flag � a time-honored symbol of racism.
I am freely admitting to this being a touchy subject with me. My family is from the south. My roots go as far back in Virginia and Kentucky history as there has been white history on this land; longer, when you include my native blood line. My parents were the first of their families to leave Kentucky, which means almost all of my relatives still live there.
Let�s talk about my Aunt Pauline, for a moment. My mother�s sister, Pauline, was one huge woman. And I mean that in many different ways. Mostly, I mean she left some big shoes to fill. She was a scholar and a teacher; she was active in politics, acting as a Democratic Delegate for many years, among other things; she owned a home in which she allowed a poor family to live, rent-free, so long as their kids stayed in school.
I have an uncle who is a doctor and makes monthly trips to the Appalachians on free house calls for the poor there. I have relatives who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. (OK, way far away from him personally, but still participating in the same march); Coal miners who lost their lives in an effort to unionize workers. My mother�s mother fought to have her local cemetery integrated and while that may have been but a little battle, it was one worth fighting. My relatives have fought in every war we�ve had, through Korea.
OK, yes, I also have several relatives who were alcoholics, bootleggers and moonshiners and there is a slight possibility I am related to Frank and Jesse James who, regardless of how they may have been romanticized on film, were still nothing but murdering, thieving, guerilla war soldiers. Those people just aren�t my focus at the moment, OK?
My point is, there are a lot of people who live in the south. And very few of them drive around with a symbol of racism in the backs of their trucks.
I get very, very tired of the way southerners are viewed in our society. Racism and stupidity - that�s pretty much all the south has to offer, according to mass media. And grits. Think of the last time you heard a southern person on a television show or in the movies speak with any sort of intelligence. Aside from Julia Sugarbaker, I can�t think of a one. Even when southerners aren�t exactly shown as stupid, per se, they are shown to be unusual, quirky people who are often either alcoholics or prone to kill members of their family and oh my, aren�t they quaint with their cute little accents and their penchant for marrying their relatives (see Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, for example. And by the way, not a single member of my family has ever married anyone so close as even a cousin).
For Howard Dean to equate the Confederate flag with low income southerners whose vote we should go after is offensive not really to blacks, but to low income southerners. And he didn�t back down from his position last night. He did explain it, but he did not apologize. And I think he made a huge mistake.
So while I don�t find Howard Dean�s Confederate flag remark to be racist, I do find it to be arrogant. It makes him look like another arrogant Yank looking down on southern people as �poor white trash� or �trailer park trash� that are all racist and ignorant. It shows a huge disconnect with people who don�t live in Vermont and it�s really the first thing about Howard Dean that has seriously bothered me.
Al Sharpton tore him a new one. I must say, Al has been incredibly impressive throughout this whole campaign. We all would expect him to use colorful language, as he always has, but he has also shown exceptional poise and intelligence. His fire and passion were expected. I guess I just didn�t expect him to actually have beef in that bun.
That�s a retarded and quite possibly off-color expression, but you get my drift.
Anyway, Al made several impressive speeches last night. Because this debate was sponsored by �Rock the Vote,� most of the audience was below age thirty and there were a lot of people there interested in what Al had to say.
Wesley Clark finally impressed me a bit, too, when he stopped trying to act like a politician and was simply talking to the moderator about gays in the military. His facial expression, his whole body changed. It seemed like he was just having a conversation with someone by the water cooler; just exchanging ideas. It was great and the fact that he basically said gays should be allowed to serve in the military and not just under the �don�t ask, don�t tell� policy, was even greater. Plus, they showed little 30 second film clips on all of the candidates and his was actually funny.
The one who most impressed me, though? I knew you�d ask�
John Edwards.
It�s not just that he�s cute as a button either, although that don�t hurt none. I have found him to be increasingly more impressive with each debate. Last night he was on fire, especially after Howard Dean�s comparatively feeble attempts at defending his Confederate flag remark. Edwards is from a tiny (and when I say tiny, I mean tiny - like population 800) southern town. He was seriously offended by the implication within Dean�s remark and he ran with it.
But again � I�m probably biased in this area.
The debate ended with each candidate being asked who on the panel they would most like to �party� with. The question was very funny, because the gal who asked it went on to explain that �party� was more than it implied. One must pick the person whom they could most rely on to hold their hair back when they got sick, among other just as amusing things to say to a presidential candidate.
Dennis picked Al Sharpton
Al Sharpton picked John Kerry�s wife
John Kerry then said he was gong to pick Carol Mosely-Braun, but now picked Al Sharpton, just so he could keep an eye on his wife.
It was very funny. I love it when politicians are taken out of their comfort zone and have to act like real people.
Of course, the most important part of the debate was when we found out that more than half of the candidates have smoked the Evil Weed at one time or another. It seemed to be a badge of honor amongst last night's audience.
~~~
I do not need to write about the fact that Dubya is now talking about reinstating the draft...because rumblelizard has already done so, and with almost as much righteous vitriol as I would have. Go read her page, please.
~~~
Previously unseen videotape records the shoplifting of democracy!
Guaranteed you'll choke on your popcorn!
Watch "Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election" on the SUNDANCE CHANNEL this week.
Tuesday evening Nov 4th, 8 PM
Sunday afternoon Nov 8th, 1:15 PM
Sunday afternoon Nov 16th, 12 noon
Wednesday evening Nov 19th, 9 PM
Friday evening, Nov 21st, 12:45 AM
The one-hour investigative documentary never before broadcast in the USA features Greg Palast's discovery of Katherine Harris' purge of thousands of Black citizens from Florida's voter rolls. Plus Vincent Bugliosi, John Nichols.
A Robert Greenwald Production directed by Richard Ray Perez and Joan Sekler.
Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Subscribe to his writings for Britain's Observer and Guardian newspapers, and view his investigative reports for BBC Television's Newsnight, at www.GregPalast.com.
Contact: media@gregpalast
~~~
BUSH TOUTS ECONOMIC NUMBERS, BUT LESS ROSY REALITY LIES BENEATH THE SURFACE
President Bush toured a manufacturing plant in Alabama Monday, touting the success of his tax cut policies. "I went to the Congress, not once, but twice, and said, in order for people to be able to find work here in the country, let's pass meaningful, real tax relief." But the President's policies have thus far not resulted in jobs-since his first tax cut passed in 2001, the economy has lost a net of 2.75 million jobs.
Read the full Mis-Lead
~~~
Word of the Day for Wednesday November 5, 2003:
avuncular uh-VUHNG-kyuh-luhr, adjective:
1. Of or pertaining to an uncle.
2. Resembling an uncle, especially in kindness or indulgence.
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