Democratic Debate: Senator John Edwards Has Made A Grave Error
"Let me tell you, the last thing we need in the South is somebody like you
coming down and telling us what we need to do."
Who said this?
Was it a Civil War-era white Southerner speaking to Lincoln?
Was it a Civil-Rights-era white Southerner speaking to LBJ?
Was it Zell Miller speaking to Tom Daschle?
Most curiously, no.
It was Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards speaking to Howard Dean.
Why?
Because Howard Dean wishes to include all Americans under the "big tent"...proclaiming that those
with Confederate flags were welcome.
I think this one line may prove to be the biggest mistake John Edwards ever could have made..
for his own candidacy and for the self-destructing Democratic party.
If you are truly American, it's all our Heritage..whether you live in Bangor, Maine or Biloxi, Mississippi
I walked through a Confederate cemetary in Fredericksburg, Virginia last Spring.
I understood that the young men laid under that ground in their beloved and beautiful Virginia
didn't fight for that flag because they hated blacks. It wasn't as simple as that. I wish we could say it was.
There is still a civil war going on. It's a war of ideologies.
Howard Dean could be our Uniter.
God and Nature know we need a Uniter.
Our united nation is withering before our very eyes.
John Edwards sounded more like Zell Miller...or a rebel secessionist..or a resentful 1960s-Selma white... last night than sounding like a 21st-century enlightened, inclusive Presidential candidate.
He made a mistake far more revealing than anything Howard Dean could have said on the subject.
By simply separating Southerners from Americans and feigning offense at Dean's supposed Northern arrogance and
intervention, Edwards is showing America that he's a throwback to 1850s-America.
My God, we don't need that kind of thought anymore.
I suspect there is still strong Southern separatist thought within the GOP, but I did not suspect
that those who claimed to be progressive still harbored such territorial suspicion.
This isn't North vs. South..it shouldn't be.
THIS IS AMERICA.
We cry "United We Stand" and in the next breath betray animosty toward our
fellow party-member because of his geographical origin.
If this is still North vs. South, even among our most progressive politicians,
then we've made no progress since the end of the dreadful Civil War.
It only leads me to believe what I have believed for a long time.
The Civil War was never competely resolved.
War rarely provides a true healing or a true resolution.
When the North "won" the Civil War, they applied a really good band-aid, but I think it had a "TO BE CONTINUED" sign stashed under the bandage.
The GOP is slick and savvy enough to know not to air their filthy laundry in front of all America.
They are the worst of all in all their white hegemony.
We know it. It speaks for itself.
The Democratic party shows weakness by letting themselves fall all over each other in all these debates when they know the GOP Wolf and all the drooling right-partisan pundits are on their heels.
Howard Dean is a maverick who refreshingly spills the truth..he's the blatantly honest child in the
"Emporer's New Clothes" tale. He is intelligent enough to spill the truth and let all other candidates
betray themselves for the people they truly are.
Win or lose in 2004, he is the face of the future of America.
John Edwards made a grave error for himself and for his party last night.
Howard Dean is holding a hand out to the South.
(It's amazing-the lengths to which our politicians go to pander to them)
Howard Dean: "I am not going to take a back seat to anybody in terms of fighting bigotry.”
"We [Democrats] are not going to make progress if we don’t broaden the tent.”
John Edwards: "Let me tell you, the last thing we need in the South is somebody like you
coming down and telling us what we need to do."
WHO IS THE REAL SEPARATIST?
~~~~~~
see William Saletan's commentary about the bum rap that was laid on Howard Dean by his fellow Democratic candidates.
I heard James Carville on NPR saying that the Democrats lost a crucial opportunity to turn the whole issue around
to Bush's hypocrisy-through-silence on the Confederate flag issue in South Carolina.
They should have known better than to trash one another. As Anonymoses eloquently wrote recently,
"Democrats, Use Your Time Wisely".
~~~~~~
"Howard Dean is a maverick who refreshingly spills the truth..he's the blatantly honest child in the
"Emporer's New Clothes" tale. He is intelligent enough to spill the truth and let all other candidates
betray themselves for the people they truly are."................
"But he has nothing on!" cried a child.
"The child tells the truth," said his father quietly.
And the people began to whisper to one another what the child had said.
"He has nothing on ! The child says he has nothing on!"
And the Emporer, hearing what they had said, shivered. For he knew their words were TRUE.
But it would never DO to stop the procession...so he held himself stiffer than ever.
Real Men Aren't Metrosexual (?)....
Being Anti-Iraq-War is Gay...No decent Republican is Metrosexual...
infers Columnist Mark Steyn
Someone should suggest to Steyn that he use a better ending for his columns
than his cheapshot "Nah-Nah"-quality
"Or maybe that 7.2 percent economic growth will collapse to 6.4 percent.."
That 7.2 percent, over time will prove to be like the first little pig's house.
One huff..one puff of stinky air and it's bound to be blown to hell with no solid foundation.
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"7.2%, eh?"
( (whooooooooooosssshhhh) )
As Paul Krugman quoted the late Herbert Stein in today's NY Times column,
"Things that can't go on forever, don't."
A real man---a political metrosexual--would understand that in his trying to see Venus best
from his vantage point on Mars,
there is a very, very big picture to be viewed.
A dynamo-American political metrosexual would be concerned with liberty and justice for all instead of living in a state of denial in dark ignorance.
It is no sin for a real man to change his mind when he sees what a blooming disaster has been
produced by his darkness.
Ego-driven Republican men tend to fail to see things clearly and therefore fail to
do the right things..even though they claim to BE 'the Right'. What's worse, ego-driven Republican men tend to
pridefully and stubbornly hold to their "absolute truths" and destroy others in the process.
In order for any of us to 'do the right thing', we first need to see not only Mars,
but Venus and the rest of the big picture.
There is an entire universe out here, boys.
That's why I love Metrosexuals. They see the true and right relationship of all things.
That's the only path to liberty and justice for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters.
Oh---and they usually have the hottest coifs and threads.
Too, too Mars
No hinge-head hairdos will do for our men.
And ohhhh, they understand the secret to a happy life is well-moisturized skin!
Metrosexuals have the secret to happiness
I'm glad Steyn admits to being a Metrosexualphobe.
It confirms every suspicion I've ever had about the collective ego of the GOP male population.
Guess what?
Women adore Metrosexuals...
..and we still have the right to vote, much to your bloody chagrin.
Andrew Cohen on 21st century enlightenment
What does enlightenment mean in the 21st century?
What does enlightenment mean in the 21st century? It really means everything. It means the evolution of our species and the survival of our species. It doesn't mean anything less than that. And very practically, it means that more and more of us have to be willing to recognize who we truly are, take responsibility for the implications, and be willing to live the gift of human life for very different reasons than the ones we've been living for up until now.
Andrew Cohen
Oslo, Norway, May 2003
from AndrewCohen.org
or additional inspiration, see The Guru and the Pandit
-Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber in dialogue.
Andy Rooney: "If I Were Bush's Speechwriter ..."
Here's at least one good thing from CBS this week.
The bad news is that the cowardly CBS has allowed themselves to be censored by the free market.
The unobjective screamers who have never seen the television movie about Ronald Reagan
have ensured that it will be hidden from non-premium TV-customers' sight due to a risk of financial damage
to the network through advertising loss.
When first amendment rights are removed by 'special interests', via the free market, which is what has doubtlessly occurred here, we see
just another example of how "liberty" is imperfectly produced by the free market.
There were no real debates...no votes...only loud complants from a few partisan people with a stick up their ass
about artistic freedom.
I plan to boycott the integrity-challenged CBS and their sponsors..period.
I hate most of their shows, anyhow. They've nearly broken Dan Rather. He even looks broken nowadays..have you noticed?
CSI (not 'Miami') is about the only worthwhile production I've seen there in the past five years.
The damage caused to CBS by the silent majority will wind up doing them far more damage
than they could possibly imagine.
I hope the Showtime version omits nothing from the original script.
The anti-war camp was right, but that's no reason to be smug
By Jonathan Freedland
THE GUARDIAN
It IS, however, reason to elect new American leadership in 2004.
Freedland is right on the money, however, when he says:
"..It's no good thinking, as some on the left have, that there could be merit in the US (especially) getting a bloody nose in Iraq."
"..People who can murder UN or Red Cross workers do not deserve to be viewed as warriors in a heroic anti-imperialist struggle."
"..Those who opposed the war need to start thinking ahead. Some activists are already doing just that, debating what needs to happen next."
"..occupiers have responsibilities: once they take over a country, it is up to them to make sure power and water work, schools and hospitals function. The Americans and Brits cannot just cut and run. Rather, they should work out a fast-track plan for a peaceful withdrawal, handing power over Iraq to Iraqis themselves...In place of an American pro-consul, the country needs to come under a UN mandate. This would require a loss of face by Washington, letting the likes of France and Germany in on the action, but the alternative -- young American soldiers remaining a shooting gallery for Iraqi fighters -- is surely worse."
"...the peace camp has to put its victory in the last argument behind it -- and fight the battle ahead."
I suggest a full reading of ths article.
It makes a world of sense.
Political schadenfreude is dandy until you realize that the Iraqis are suffering injustice upon injustice.
I only hope people will not forget the dangerous stupidity of Bush if and when this is all said and done.
Afghanistan Will be 'Islamic Republic of Afghanistan'...
Nation to Remain a Theocracy
Will the progression from Islamic Emirate to Islamic Republic create conditions for healthy democracy at all?
Does the absence of sharia law equate to liberty?
An Islamic Republic is based more on obedience and allegiance and less on democracy.
There is always extreme contradiction when you have what constitutes the rule of God vs. the rights of citizens.
An open society, a crucial ingredient of healthy democracy, is discouraged when theocratic forces are allowed to
dominate.
THINK IRAN!
I am having serious doubts about America's post 9-11 success in Afghanistan.
It causes me grief to think our troops are dying for a similar result in Iraq.
~~~~
Ref: Afghanistan Constitution
Clinton the Philosopher
" Once you believe you have the absolute truth,
then it’s not possible for everyone to count..
or for everyone to have a role to play in the world.
There is a truth,
life is a search for it,
religion is a pathway to it,
but we’re all imperfect and nobody has it. "
_______________
William Jefferson Clinton
from a speech at Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
31 Oct 2003
~~~~~~~
Clinton the Democratic advisor
To a Yale student’s pessimistic query of how to battle what he perceived as a right-leaning uncritical media and the Republican dominance of the federal government, Clinton advised to fight against it.
"Instead of being bereft, go work for someone who wants to do something different and turn it around,"
the president said, pointing to the energy surrounding the presidential campaigns of Democrats Howard Dean and Gen. Wesley Clark.
HOPE
Mepkin Abbey
"It is not uncommon to find that what we have put our energy into, indeed what we have staked our lives on, is unreliable. What then is our reason for hope? Can we continue in such circumstances? It is precisely when our faith is shaken and our love grows dim that hope really begins; it is in the wonder and weakness of our faith that we find hope’s real meaning. Hope is the willingness not to give up precisely when we draw no consolation from what we have previously found trustworthy and reliable. Hope does not try to determine how God’s ways will be shown, but remains open to new and astonishing manifestations of the divine presence. It allows something to come into life that is not of our own making. Hope is the retrieval of possibilities that come as gift."
Care to do some Monastic Surfing?
Want to know where to find the best Monastic fruitcake and creamed honey?
Once Upon A Time....
From IHT: William Pfaff: A fiction shattered by America's aggression
DO YOU?.....REALLY??
"......what actually has happened during the past nine months is something Americans have yet to grasp, and that others have yet to say out loud:
People outside the United States have stopped believing the American story. They say instead that terrorism is a way people wage war when they don't have F-16's or armored divisions.
They say that Chechens, Moros, Taliban, Colombian insurgents, Palestinian bombers and Iraqi enemies of the U.S. occupation do not really make up a single global phenomenon that the world must mobilize to defeat.
They say that, actually, they had never really believed the American story in the first place.
They had listened to it because Washington said it, and they respected Washington.
Now they don't."
CONTEST!
BUSH IN 30 SECONDS--
A political advertising contest sponsored by MoveOn.org Voter fund
"All eligible submissions will be posted on this web site and rated by visitors. The top rated ads will then be voted on by our panel of esteemed judges, including Michael Moore, Donna Brazile, Jack Black, Janeane Garofalo, and Gus Van Sant. The winning ad idea will be broadcast on television during the week of Bush's 2004 State of the Union address, and the winner will receive a recording of the ad as broadcast."
This and that....
World Net Daily says MSNBC is geting peeved at Chris Matthews for getting too critical of Bush these days.
"In a speech to university students, MSNBC host Chris Matthews characterized President Bush as a shallow-thinking, unlearned man.."
(If you ask me, this is no great, overly-critical, or new revelation. Chris is telling it like it is. We can all guess why GE might be concerned.)
The word is out that Chris Matthews is a Howard Dean-man.
"Matthews acknowledged that his personal favorite in the race is Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who many see as the Democratic front-runner..."
What's up with this Betina Mixon? She had been awake all one night arguing with her husband, was late for an event (which happened to be Bush's speech) and "grew increasingly frustrated as she was turned away from the building at checkpoint after checkpoint. She then "took the matter into her own hands" and crashed through the checkpoint.
I wonder if she realizes this is the kind of thing that gets families killed in Iraq and Palestine nowadays?
Betina was lucky her brains (and those of her children, for Pete's sake) weren't blown out of her skull.
From UPI: Interview with Chief Minister of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province
~~~~~~~~~~
"America wanted to be the sole superpower and the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan was the sine qua non of its quest. Then came Taliban in the vacuum that followed the Soviet withdrawal. Taliban are not just students from madrassas. They are the same jihadis (holy warriors) who chased the Russians out. Many came from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries to fight against the Russian invader. But when they tried to go home, they were treated as criminals and terrorists. Some were barred from returning home and others were sentenced to death or life imprisonment. So they returned to the region where they knew they would be welcome."
~~~~~~~~~~
This is a must-read.
See what the people of the PNF Province believe.
You may find yourself saying "I can't believe they see it that way"....
and in the next paragraph (or the next sentence)
you may be surprised to find yourself agreeing.
I'm certain there is a way to disentangle and reconciliate the disinformation which has caused seemingly wild accusations to be thrown our way by this Pakistani minster (and others like him), but it will never happen while we employ the tactics we are currently utilizing in this "war on terror".
I am certain that GW Bush will never be able to accomplish the difficult task of winning hearts and minds in the Arab world.
Just look at him...he miserably fails to win half of America's hearts and minds.
So where are we headed, people?
Bush is leading a divided nation.
Divided by his policies...policies for which he has had no mandate.
In this dangerous world we see angry, often-invisible, and misunderstood "enemies of the West". We are fools if we can't see that these "enemies" have been encouraged to join the hateful fight against us by the ignorant and aggressive actions of the Bush administration. We cannot trust Bush and his team of NeoCon idealists who have gotten us into a hornet's trap. We've been lied to....taken for fools. Our Congress has bought into the lies and facilitated this war with last year's Iraq Resolution. They should have known better.
It's time we start to listen to these people they like to call "terrorists".
It would behoove us to listen.
Either we listen or we fail.
Do you want us to fail?
Because, frankly, I don't want to see us fail in making this world a kinder and more peaceful place.
I'm not just talking about Kumbayah, either.
It's all about using the good sense we possess instead of our base savage instinct.
Sorry, war fans...
Bombing the hell out of this world and occupying the freshly-fried space just doesn't seem to work.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"....Durrani firmly rejected the accusation that the NWFP's ruling coalition comprises Taliban-like religious zealots. "We are true democrats," he responded, "witness the way we conduct our policies in NWFP, in sharp contrast to the military dictatorship at the center. We also advocate peace with India over Kashmir; again witness the recent journey to New Delhi by one of our three top leaders with an offering of peace. As a result, India has responded with 12 confidence-building measures. The Holy (Koran) book teaches us peace, love and cooperation...."
"....Asked if he was suggesting that Taliban are for the most part foreigners, Durrani said, "in the literal sense (they) were no more than 1,000 at the outset. Later Taliban came to symbolize the entire Afghan nation. You might ask where did Osama Bin Laden come from? Who brought him back to Afghanistan after Sudan asked him to leave? The United States didn't seem too concerned about him in 1996 when he decided to go to Afghanistan. Later America was not interested in a negotiated solution. Imagine what the United States could have done if it had devoted the money it spent on bombing Afghanistan -- about $8 billion according to published reports -- to the reconstruction of the country after two decades of warfare. That would have been statesmanship of the highest order. Instead, you have chosen war and occupation and now you are faced with an increasingly hostile population...."
".....Durrani concluded the interview by saying that a world with one superpower "is very dangerous. There is no counterweight. Things were less dangerous during the Cold War when we had two superpowers. The same applies in a village that only has one elder. He could take unwise decisions with no countervailing force. A village is much safer with two elders. So was the world."
~~~~~~~~
For those of you who may find Durrani's suspicion of any Mossad / 9-11 connection as an insane and preposterous thought, see today's Herald (Glasgow).
While I'm away....
Make yourself at home.
Grab a hot cup (or cold bottle) of your favorite beverage and take a look around.
This October 28 wil mark the 41st anniversary of the end of the Cuban missile crisis.
The world breathed a collective sigh of relief after two superpowers headed off a potential nuclear confrontation.
President John F. Kennedy was praised for his diplomatic skills in averting a nuclear war.
I am very much afraid that our current President has no such diplomatic skill...and this is a far more dangerous time in which we live.
In 1962, the two superpowers found a new appreciation of the danger of nuclear weapons, which led to arms-control accords.
We are now a lone superpower.
We have a President who is not interested in honoring or creating accords.
He seems to have no knowlege or remembrance of the reasons we entered those accords.
We have a President who makes unsophisticated and one-sided demands of his allies as well as his enemies.
If we continue on this path...with this leader unwilling to employ respectful diplomacy...the animosity toward our nation and the people of our nation will be so strong that we will eventually be weakened and/or pulled down to an ugly and unrecognizable version of what was once a great and influential member of an international community.
While I'm away, consider the words of James G. Blight and Philip Brenner one year ago in their article entitled
"Cuban Missile Crisis: The Lessons for Iraq"
Think about all that has occurred this past year...and what we might be saying one year from today.
Take Care,
Jude
"...So one lesson we can learn by looking at Cuba's experience during the 1962 missile crisis is that our approach to weaker powers is fraught with danger and is not likely to achieve the results we seek. The United States tends to expect a weaker power will cower when the superpower roars, but in fact American efforts to intimidate are more likely to produce the opposite effect. Intimidation emboldens the small power, and however irrational the resulting behavior may seem to us, a weaker power may resort to unimaginable acts as a last line of defense. The Central Intelligence Agency recently came to the same conclusion in its assessment that Saddam Hussein would become "much less constrained" if faced with an attack led by the United States.
Ultimately, what Cuba demanded from the United States in 1962 is the same attitude that American allies have been furiously urging the United States to adopt in general and toward Iraq in particular: that the lone superpower act like a "normal" country and accord others the same rights to survival and sovereignty that the United States demands for itself. The allies have implored the United States to engage Iraq diplomatically and to rely on the United Nations and established international legal principles, which recognize that all nations -- great and small powers alike -- should be treated equally.
Is Iraq "another Cuba"? Not exactly. There are many differences between the two cases. But we believe a key similarity between them has received too little attention from those advocating pre-emptive action against Baghdad. It is this: The inability (or unwillingness) of the United States to empathize with those who feel the threat of annihilation -- people who may be willing to fight to the last man, woman, and child and even to use unthinkable weapons -- increases the likelihood that such weapons will be used, with all the horror and uncertainty that would follow.
We now know that the hawks advising Kennedy in October 1962 were dead wrong to recommend attacking Cuba with what they (mistakenly) believed would be an "acceptable" cost and risk. Might those advocating a pre-emptive strike on Iraq also be wrong in their assessment of the likely consequences?
Based on our reading of Cuba's mind-set 40 years ago, we believe it is worth considering that the hawks might also be wrong about Saddam Hussein and Iraq today. It just may be that the events of October 1962 constitute, if not a crisis for all seasons, at least a cautionary tale with disturbing relevance to the season that is upon us."
Take This Test!
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
The social dimension of politics is important. That's the dimension that the mere left-right scale doesn't adequately address. So Political Compass has added one, ranging in positions from extreme authoritarian to extreme libertarian.
My result was here:
Close to this fellow:
NOTE: Don't spoil the results by reading the Analysis section before you take the test.
FLORIDA may "big-foot" the DNC Dems into participating in straw poll
Certain DNC Dems' personal campaigns are worried about the straw polls, I'm sure.
I find it curious that all candidates signed a "snub-letter" to the Florida DNC, yet Howard Dean had recently urged Florida to push on with the straw poll. See Palm Beach Post article here.
My personal opinion?
The mainstream media is about nothing if it's not about beauty contests.
We hear the "media mouthpiece" day in/day out without ever being able to talk back en masse.
Media polls are unreliable pieces of doo-doo because they rely on the usual 1000-1500 people who are dumb enough to answer their phones at dinnertime.
That's politics..and with straw polls, we have democracy in a healthy form.
(As opposed to the one-way media).
I say "bring 'em on".
Let's see what the people are thinking.
Warning to DNC and Dems: REMEMBER CALIFORNIA!
The people are desiring more of a voice in politics..ignore them at your own peril.
Here are some quotes from the article highlighted above:
"...Democratic activists on the state party's central committee are scheduled to vote Nov. 16 on whether to hold a straw poll. Even in the face of threatened boycotts, support for a straw poll appears to be overwhelming..."
"...Gov. Howard Dean and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards have assured *him they will be at the convention no matter what."
*speaking about Jon Ausman, a DNC member from Tallahassee
"I don't think any of the top-tier candidates can afford to ignore Florida and alienate the very people they will need."
Florida Democratic Chairman Scott Maddox
"I am announcing Jean-Claude van Damme as the new governor of Montana!"
-quote from Daily Show host John Stewart at 8th Annual GQ Men-of-the-Year Awards
Bush Heckled by Aussie Senator
"I love free speech." GW Bush 10-22-03
ie: go ahead, ass
".... they're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is..." Bush Press Secy Ari Fleischer 9-26-01
ie: shuddap, ass
Wal Mart Employees arrested by U.S. government in 61 different stores across the country
I'm certain Wal Mart was more than cooperative in this Ashcroftian crusade.
So the world's largest retailer who imports goods made from some of the cheapest labor in the world doesn't want to promote the same kind of people here in America...let 'em go back to where they belong and make that nickel a day.
I'm sure you'll be happy to know Wal Mart shares were up 4 cents at $58.28 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
