the art of the backdown

nevada gop senate hopeful sue lowden on health care reform:

i think that bartering is really good. those doctors who you pay cash, you can barter, and that would get prices down in a hurry. and i would say go out, go ahead out and pay cash for whatever your medical needs are, and go ahead and barter with your doctor. (apr 6)

i'm telling you that this works. you know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. they would say i'll paint your house. ... i'm not backing down from that system. (apr 19)

i, i, i'm not sure, uh, what to say, as far if it's been dragged out of proportion. ... (apr 28)

the comment i made about bartering was not, and was never intended to be, a policy proposal. (apr 30)

iowa gop house hopeful pat bertroche on immigration reform:

i think we should catch 'em, we should document 'em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going. ... i actually support microchipping them. i can microchip my dog so i can find it. why can't i microchip an illegal? (apr 26)

this idea isn't any more politically dumb than any other one. ... i was trying to call attention to how radical the conversation has become. (apr 29)

i don't support microchipping people, but if it's going to become part of the debate — which was not my intent — then microchipping people is not one of those things that is going to cause long-term cancer problems. (apr 29)

and so it begins

phoenix — a valley man says he was pulled over wednesday morning and questioned when he arrived at a weigh station for his commercial vehicle along val vista and the 202 freeway. abdon, who did not want to use his last name, says he provided several key pieces of information but what he provided apparently was not what was needed. he tells 3tv, "i don't think it's correct, if i have to take my birth certificate with me all the time." 3tv caught up with abdon after he was released from the immigration and customs enforcement office in central phoenix. he and his wife, jackie, are still upset about what happened to him. jackie tells 3tv, "it's still something awful to be targeted. i can't even imagine what he felt, people watching like he was some type of criminal." abdon was told he did not have enough paperwork on him when he pulled into a weigh station to have his commercial truck checked. he provided his commercial driver's license and a social security number but ended up handcuffed. an agent called his wife and she had to leave work to drive home and grab other documents like his birth certificate. jackie explains, "i have his social security card as well and mine. he's legit. it's the first time it's ever happened." both were born in the united states and say they are now both infuriated that keeping important documents safely at home is no longer an option. jackie says, "it doesn't feel like it's a good way of life, to live with fear, even though we are okay, we are legal ... still have to carry documents around." a representative at u.s. immigration and customs enforcement (ice) returned 3tv’s calls after researching the incident and she said this was standard operating procedure. the agents needed to verify abdon was in the country legally and it is not uncommon to ask for someone's birth certificate. she also said this has nothing to do with the proposed bill or racial profiling.

... and how this probably ends:

here’s an interesting clause in the keeping brown down act of 2010: disallows officials or agencies of the state or political subdivisions from adopting or implementing policies that limit immigration enforcement to less than the full extent permitted by federal law, and allows a person to bring an action in superior court to challenge an official or agency that does so. in other words, any minuteman who doesn’t see enough cops stopping mexicans in his town can file a lawsuit. if they win, the judge is mandated to award the militia member costs and attorney fees, and assess the town a $1,000 to $5,000 fine per day between the time the lawsuit was filed and the court ruling. between this and the inevitable civil rights lawsuits, every little town in arizona will either have to raise taxes or declare bankruptcy. since the former is politically impossible, expect to see bucket brigades and volunteer posses replacing fire and police departments. it’ll be a glibertarian paradise!

... but look on the bright side, mi amigos:

the only way for them to avoid endless civil rights law suits is if the cops harass large numbers of white people too. enjoy!

the white nightmare

the world-famous comics deity known as moebius, née jean giraud, is best known for his bouillabaisse westerns and sci-fi fantasies, but this following tale from 1981 unravels in more familiar urban territory, where an engaged and socially conscious citizenry becomes the stuff of bad dreams. sadly, almost thirty years later, it might have been written yesterday.

(story and art by moebius)

citizenship for dummies

(non-dummies may want to read the fine print for birthright, nationality and naturalization.)

time for a change, pt. iii

ok, it's time for a last-minute election eve post for simple posterity.

the democrats will take both the house and the senate.

the momentum clearly belongs to the democrats, for whom it's been building for months. most significantly, republican incumbents both nationwide and up and down the political hierarchy are trailing their challengers. i'll go so far as to say that any surprises coming tomorrow will break for the democrats. that's what momentum does.

conversely one could say that the republicans have been unable to gain momentum, despite their best (or worst, to be more apt) efforts to control the direction of the race.

the republicans and their enablers have not only been beset by a seemingly endless barrgage of viscerally disturbing late-developing scandals, but they are also bereft of any accomplishments to boast of and any message to trumpet — at least any the electorate still finds compelling — exactly what they have so srtridently accused their soon-to-be-masters of lacking.

the republican's still-favorite whipping boy, ex-president bill clinton, today in maryland summed up the gop message in his characteristic plain-spoken style:

clinton: ... that you have to vote for us because our opponents are no good. and because they'll tax you into the poor house. and on the way to the poor house, you'll meet a terrorist on every street corner. and when you try to run away from the terrorists, you'll trip over an illegal immigrant. isn't that their thing? that's what they're sayin' ...

but the main reason the republicans' short-lived "permanent majority" is coming to an end is their unrestrained corruption and incompetence. as i wrote in march ("cry uncle") and april ("the only thing we have to fear") in two of my numerous posts on republican malfeasance:

but it is far too late for this regime to save 2006 and 2008. bush's ratings have already dropped into the range of the worst presidents and the poisonous drip-drip-drip of scandal betrays no sign of abating. as long as the white house insists on treating its problems as a matter of perception, they will continue their pointless pantomine of leadership and never adopt the substantive remedies that might regain the public's trust. thus the drip-drip-drip will torment them to the bitter end.

the republicans had a choice; they always did, but they chose naked power over good governance and forgot that in a democracy power alone isn't enough to maintain power.

horseshit

adele fergusen's column is a huge pile of manure — and those are the author's own words, not mine.

not that i disagree.

in her march 13 political column, "why do blacks continue to support democrats?", that appeared in the kitsap peninsula business journal — which has already scrubbed the article from its site — adele enjoined her "black brothers and sisters" to abandon their "perpetual victimhood" and recognize that their past enslavement was in fact "the work of god", and that being bought and shipped as cargo was their big ticket to the so-called land of the free.

along the way, in building her case against the democratic party, she takes aim at those who criticized president bush at the february 7th funeral for coretta scott king and fires several shots at unions. curiously, she cites not a single positive reason for blacks to support the republican party.

one of these days before i die, i hope to see a shift in the attitudes of so many of my black brothers and sisters in this great country we share, from perpetual victimhood, to pride in their achievements on the road from slave to american citizen. remember ronald reagan’s story about the kid who had to shovel a huge pile of manure? he went about it with such joy he was asked why and said, “with all that manure, there’s got to be a pony in there somewhere.” the pony hidden in slavery is the fact that it was the ticket to america for black people. i have long urged blacks to consider their presence here as the work of god, who wanted to bring them to this raw, new country and used slavery to achieve it. a harsh life, to be sure, but many immigrants suffered hardships and indignations as indentured servants. their descendants rose above it. you don’t hear them bemoaning their forebears’ life the way some blacks can’t rise above the fact theirs were slaves. besides freedom, a job and a roof over their heads, they all sought respect. but even after all these years, too many have yet to realize that to get respect, you have to give it. the treatment given president bush at coretta king’s funeral was shameful. and these weren’t poor, uneducated black people who “dissed” him. they were among the country’s top-drawer blacks, there to bury black royalty. while bush got the cold shoulder, former president clinton was welcomed as if he still held the office. it mystifies me why the black population remains in thrall to the democratic party. black parents want a good education for their children yet they are consistently denied two opportunities that have proven enormously helpful in the few places where they are allowed because the d’s oppose them. school vouchers and charter schools. the teacher unions, among top contributors to the democratic party, oppose them for fear of losing control of the public schools which continue to turn out kids who have to be slipped through graduation by finding alternatives to standard requirements for learning, and where black kids fall behind whites. and what the teacher unions are against, the democrats are against. many a school board member is a democratic activist there to be on the ground floor against vouchers and charter schools. in the few places where vouchers to attend private schools and innovative charter schools are allowed, the unions file lawsuits claiming damage to the public schools by diverting the voucher money to poor families and limiting as much as possible the number of students who can attend the charters. they won one in florida last month. sure, the ultimate solution is to jack up the performance of the public schools, but so long as the unions are running the show, that isn’t going to happen. the unions don’t care if you’re a good teacher, just that you’re a member and pay your dues. it is nearly impossible to get rid of an incompetent teacher. their interest is themselves, not the kids, and their answer to the poor performance of the schools is more money. black students regularly trail white students because they get the more inexperienced and less qualified teachers and are plagued by low expectations. results of the use of vouchers and charter schools have been outstanding, yet the democrats say no, so why do black parents support them? why do they act the victim? blacks have no cesar chavez. jesse jackson isn’t going to buck the democratic party. neither is the naacp. black parents should confront democratic leaders at all levels and demand these tools of learning be made available or expanded or don’t count on our vote for your candidates. you’ve let the unions keep your kids down too long already. (adele ferguson can be reached at p.o. box 69, hansville, wa., 98340.)

as in my previous post "shaft's final solution" i'm not going to bother enumerating the absurdities in this column. i'm fascinated instead by two specific points.

first, obviously, racism manifests itself not just in the form of hatred, genocidal or otherwise. hatred is just the most visible and destructive manifestation of racism. affection, in a very counter-intuitive manner, can be another manifestation, whose pernicious effects are much more subtle:

patronize: 1. treat with an apparent kindness that betrays a feeling of superiority.

adele addresses african americans as her "brothers and sisters" but clearly she adopts the patronizing tone of the sweetly-scolding grandmother, who of course knows what is best for her troubled and "mystifying" charges.

second, it is amusingly ironic that adele utterly fails to grasp the point of reagan's joke about the pony, the point being of course that the pony doesn't exist.

by insisting that somewhere in the steaming pile of manure of slavery there actually existed a "hidden pony", adele only shows herself to be as hopelessly deluded as the child joyfully shovelling away.