Thursday, March 20, 2008

Maundy Thursday

Yes, we do foot-washing at our church.




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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

The Race "Card" in the Campaign

A lot has been made of President Clinton's allegedly "playing the race card" in South Carolina. For a look at one of the discussions, we need go no further than Chris Matthews' Hardball:
MATTHEWS (3/17/08): I was amazed to see Bill Clinton—I always say that somewhat sarcastically; I don’t mean to be sarcastic—I saw Bill Clinton on Good Morning America this morning said that he had nothing to apologize for when he compared Barack Obama’s victory in South Carolina with that of Jesse Jackson. He wasn’t marginalizing the minority candidate. He was doing nothing wrong. Whereas Hillary said, if I did something wrong or my husband did something wrong, please forgive him. Different points of view, obviously, here on the campaign trail by Bill and Hill.

GILES: Absolutely. And the funny thing to me is, if you watch and you remember the moment when sort of standing there saying, “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina, Jesse Jackson, Jesse Jackson;” he never said anything about him winning with a biracial coalition like he claimed this morning. He just kept repeating “Jesse Jackson” in this kind of wild-eye crazy way [emphasis added] like, remember, “Jesse, Jesse.” It’s totally disingenuous for him to say that today, I think.
Interesting. By now, everyone knows that President Clinton "just kept repeating, 'Jesse Jackson, Jesse Jackson'..." Great job, Chris. We're glad you brought on a guest to tell us what Clinton said, and just how "wild-eye crazy" he acted.

But wait! Is that what Clinton REALLY said? Let's take a look at the transcript and see for ourselves. Be sure to do a text search on "Jesse Jackson" so you can see how Clinton kept repeating that name over and over all "wild-eye crazy." View the transcript here.
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Monday, March 17, 2008

That Crazy, Wild-eyed Clinton

Here's the transcript of what Clinton REALLY said. Do a text search and see how a "wild-eye crazy" Clinton keeps repeating "Jesse Jackson, Jesse Jackson," over and over and over. To help you count the times, I've bolded all those instance of our "wild-eye crazy" former President's repeated mentions of "Jesse Jackson, Jesse Jackson" over and over. Count them for yourself. What a wild-eye crazy, eh?
"Bill Clinton: Wow. Hi, Everybody.

Reporter: How’s it going for you this morning, Mr. President?

BC: Oh, good. You know, I like election days and I think it’s interesting they vote on Saturday here, it makes it easier for working people to go. You know, there’s really not much you can do to change a lot of votes, but by stirring around you may induce people who are for you to go ahead and vote when they might not have.

Reporter: You proud of what you’ve done here in South Carolina?

BC: Oh yeah, we’ve done our best, and we’ve had, I particularly have enjoyed, you know, my role here has been almost exclusively to go around and do town meetings and answer questions, that’s most of what I’ve done, and I’ve really enjoyed that. I think it’s been immensely impressive to me to see in the audiences whether they were predominately African American, predominately white, or totally integrated, there has not been a great deal of difference in the questions people ask.

If the voters really are intensely interested in what we can do to change the economic direction of the country, what we can do about healthcare, what we can do to restore our country’s standing in the world.

And there doesn’t seem to be even a great deal of difference in the questions asked, depending on who they’re supporting, so I’ve – I like that, because, you know, I just answer questions. They know I know some things about this stuff, I make the case for Hillary as best I can, but basically I just tell them why I’m for Hillary, and then I answer their questions.

Reporter: That said, some of the folks in your own party have accused you of race baiting here.

BC: Yeah, well I would refer them to what John Lewis and Andrew Young – two people left who were with Martin Luther King every step of the way – said. I don’t have to defend myself on civil rights, and John Lewis and Andrew Young said what needed to be said about that. There’s nothing left for me to say.

Reporter: Mr. President, Senator Kerry that – had some critical comments too about some of the things that have gone on this week. He said being a former president doesn’t give you a license to abuse the truth. Just wanted your reaction to that.

BC: Yes, but did you notice he didn’t specify anything? You notice that? They never do. They hurl these charges, but nothing is specified. I’m not taking the bait today. I did what I could to help Senator Kerry every time he needed me, and every time he asked me, and I have no -- he can support whomever he wants, for whatever reason he wants, but there’s nothing for me to respond to because I don’t believe in labeling, I think he should have specifics, so today we just want everybody to vote.

David Wright: What does it say about Barack Obama that it takes two of you to beat him?

BC: [Laughs] That’s just bait, too. Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice, in ‘84 and ‘88. And he ran a good campaign, and Senator Obama's run a good campaign here. He’s run a good campaign everywhere, he’s got a, he is a good candidate, with a good organization.

DW: He says he is sometimes not sure who his opponent is, you or his wife.

BC: That is bait, too.

DW: Your wife, rather, sorry.

BC: I am working for my wife because I believe she’d be the best president. If weren't married, I'd be working for her if she asked me to. And his wife’s done a good job for him, and --

DW: She’s not an ex-president of the United States, though.

BC: I know but that doesn’t mean that – I’m still a citizen now, when, you know, I can't wait to get back to my foundation work. I’m not a direct, directly involved in politics but I am concerned about my country and I think she’d be the best president.

And I would be working for her if we had never been married. She’s the best qualified person I’ve had a chance to support for president in my lifetime. For, because of the variety of experiences she’s had but because of the things she has done in every stage of her life to change other people’s lives for the better, and that’s what I say, my message has been 99.9 percent positive for 100 percent of this campaign.

Not only about her, but about the other candidates. And I think that when I think she’s being misrepresented I have a right to try to, with factual accuracy, set the record straight, which is what I have tried to do.
Andy Fies: Do you feel that you’re more actively involved than you ever thought you’d be at this point?

BC: Not exactly, I just –

AF: Or out on the trail more?

BC: No, I just, you know -- before what I was doing was trying to help her raise funds and not make any public impression, because I wanted America to have time to get to know her, the way New Yorkers have, the way people in Arkansas do. You know, she’s doing terrifically well in the polls down there because they know her. She did well in the Republican as well as Democratic areas of New York because they know her. She’s done immensely well in the U.S. Senate, passing bills with Republicans with stunning levels of success because they know her.

So - but now, you know, what happened is there’s so many elections happening so fast that you need all your family members, I mean I think Chelsea’s working in a way I’m not sure she thought she would be, we just all wanted to be hands on deck and I think it’s been the right thing, it’s kind of a family affair. My 88-year-old mother-in-law is working harder than she thought she would, but she likes it.

Oh yeah, I like this, I like the one thing I’ve been criticized for that I think is accurate - I have not said anything that is factually inaccurate and that’s why when people say I have they never specify because they know I’ll win the fight. But the - but I do think that the difference between now and running when I ran for myself, shoot, when I ran in ‘92 I could have cared less what anybody said about me.

Really, I didn’t. I mean, you just go right on, you’ve got your positive message, you stay on message, if somebody has an argument, you have an argument. When it’s your, spouse I think it’s harder to take when you hear people say things and call them names for months. That’s harder, you know, and I think I was a little hot in New Hampshire, and I think I got criticized for that, and one person said to me, she said, I talked to one person who had been critical, who said, look you told the truth, everything you said was true, but people don't want to see you mad about it. Just relax, chill out. And I think that’s, that was right, and I think that’s advice that I should have taken and I have tried to take.

David Wright: That’s Congressman Clyburn said too, chill out.

BC: Yeah, but he, Congressman Clyburn is a good man and he, he didn't dispute the accuracy of what I said, he just said that, that, people, we don’t want to get mad, and I agree with that, I don’t – I agree with that. We have got to try and hold everything together here because we’ve got a big campaign to win in the fall, whatever happens in this primary, and our side wants to change the economic and foreign policy direction of this country. And in order to do it, we’ve after – we’ll have a vigorous primary fight then we’ve got to put our party back together. And I am looking forward to that. I --

DW: But is that going to be tougher to do after the ugliness of South Carolina?

BC: No, man you've never been in very many campaigns if you think this was ugly, this was a cakewalk. This is not any big deal. This is a, you know I -- ever since, when I first stared running for president I was used to people just mauling me. You know, in some ways it hasn't been as ugly as Iowa was, you know it just didn’t get, the ugliness just was not publicized. The differences were not publicized.

[Crosstalk]

Well, I mean Hillary was called untruthful, manipulative, changing her position on everything, you know, a lot of things. You’ve just got to blow through this, that just all happens, it’s just part of politics, and you just shouldn't take the bait, you should be positive and go on and make our cases. But when it’s over, if you listen to - the most important thing to happen in that debate, that achieved no notice, was when they all sat down and cooled down, in the second part of the debate here in South Carolina, and all of them observed that they were all discussing their different approaches to issues that weren't even being discussed in the Republican primary. That’s the most important thing, because keep in mind, you have -- I am not being critical. But you have to cover this race as a horse race between candidates, but the really, the thing that matters to the people who are going there and voting is how their lives are going to change. So in the end the election is really about the American people and how their lives will change.

So for me as a citizen the most important thing that happened in that last debate was to see Senator Obama and Senator Edwards and Hillary agree that they were talking about things and caring about things that were not even being discussed in the other primary and that keeps saying to America we need to make a change and that means that whoever we nominate in this process can still be elected in the fall, that’s what we’ve got to do.

We’ve all got to hold it -- They should argue, it’s healthy, heck, let them argue about who’s got the best healthcare plan, who’s got the best stimulus plan, let them do that. But the main thing is to do it in a way that makes it clear to the American people that our party represents the fundamental departure in American needs, and that’s what I think’s going to happen. I basically feel good about it. But, you know, by the standards of southern politics and what I went through in the ‘80s at home, and even the ‘92 campaign, this has been a walk in the park there’s not much negative. We just need get this show on the road and get back to making our positive cases. All of us.

Staff: Thanks, guys.

Reporter: [unintelligible]

BC: Yeah I think they both did a good job, if you look at it, the campaign, the debate ended on a positive note and nearly as I can tell from just the press coverage I read, you know, I mean he put a few licks on her, and other people said what they said, but both of these, these campaigns are making a very -- three different distinct, positive appeals to their voters. [Crosstalk] And that’s what I think, and I think you’re going to it because I think we’ll have a good turnout today, but I -- you shouldn’t, you guys, you know, that stuff happens, but it’s very bad to have 100 percent of the interpretation of the campaign come out of 2 or 3 percent at most of what is said. If you look at the general thing, the Democrats offer a rather dramatic change in economic and foreign policy from the Republicans. And that’s what the American people are looking for. And I say -- Ok, so you’re going to change, so how will the healthcare deal work, how will the economic deal work. I’ve been going -- all I do is go to these meetings and let people ask questions, so I know how they look at it. And that’s good for us. And we’ll keep it together, it’ll be fine.

BC: Thank you."
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Memphis Underground

The LP version of "Memphis Underground" was done at American Recording on Chelsea in North Memphis. If you listen to the title track --- there's an interesting story that goes with it. Selecto-Hits is right across the street from American -- Herbie and the boys went across the street and bought some records. They were trying to figure out something to record. Herbie never identified the record, but I'm sure I know which one it is. They hit on one they liked -- and Herbie asked the session players if they could work that same groove.

"Work that groove?" they laughed. "Hell, it IS our groove."

Listen closely, and you will hear Wilson Pickett's version of "Mustang Sally." Admittedly, it's hard to pick up on this live version, but it's unmistakable on the LP.

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This is an interesting look at where the immigration debate has taken us. From AARP's Bulletin:
"Bernice Todd's Choctaw family roots are sunk deep in the soil of Oklahoma, a state whose very name is Choctaw for "red people." But in the middle of a debilitating battle with cancer, Todd, a 39-year-old who cleans homes at a trailer park and baby-sits for a living, lost her state Medicaid health care coverage because, although she's a Native American, she could not prove she is a U.S. citizen.

While Todd's case is rich in irony, she is one of tens of thousands of Americans who are falling victim to a new federal rule—aimed at keeping illegal immigrants off the Medicaid rolls—requiring that recipients prove their citizenship and identity with documents many don't have."
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Ferraro in Context

The news media have been very careful to "disappear" one of the telling comments uttered by Geraldine Ferraro recently to Jim Farber of The Daily Breeze. And that has to do with the way the press has been uniquely hard on Senator Clinton. Considering the context, this adds a bit of a different take as to the point Ferraro was attempting to make. Indeed, compare the treatment of Obama by the media to that of Clinton - and it's apparent that there is something unique in the way they go after her, but give him a free ride. I have to agree that there is a lot of truth in what Ferraro had to say.
""I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama's campaign - to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against," she said. "For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It's been a very sexist media. Some just don't like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she continued. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." Ferraro does not buy the notion of Obama as the great reconciler.

"I was reading an article that said young Republicans are out there campaigning for Obama because they believe he's going to be able to put an end to partisanship," Ferraro said, clearly annoyed. "Dear God! Anyone that has worked in the Congress knows that for over 200 years this country has had partisanship - that's the way our country is.""
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Saturday, March 15, 2008

Obama Dumps Pastor


If there is something wrong with Wright's views -- why did it take Obama until now to realize it?

I'm trying to imagine my distancing myself from our parish priest. I just can't see it.
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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Some States Are "More Equal"

Gene Lyons addresses the matter of which states are more important in the Democratic Primaries. He compares the race to a 7-game series.
"And if nobody’s won after seven? Well, the rules say the superdelegates get to decide. And when they do, they’ll be looking at the stats, such as Obama losing 83 of Ohio’s 88 counties; the fact that so far Clinton has won states totaling 263 electoral votes to Obama’s 193; or which one polls ahead of the GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain, and where."



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Thursday, March 6, 2008

Why Didn't Clinton Deny That Obama Is a Muslim?

Asked on CBS 60 Minutes if she believes Obama is a Muslim, Clinton replied without hesitation, "Of course not. . . There is no basis for that . . . "

NBC's Meredith Vieira later asked Senator Clinton, why she hadn't answered, "No."

I'm not kidding. you.

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Nicholson Ad for Clinton



Ya' gotta love ol' Jack! *S*
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