THE "NUCLEAR OPTION" HAS BEEN AVERTED (FOR NOW) - and John McCain has won the
first debate of the 2008 Presidential Campaign ...
McCain spat back, "Because there was nothing he could do about it!"
And the gracious smile returned.
As much as I remain unconvinced that the Dems can describe anything that happened during these negotiations as a "victory" - McCain pulled a significant coup while Senator Frist was having his hair done . . .
(Click thumbnail to view)
Black Commentator
From William Rivers Pitt @ truthout.com:
" ... All of a sudden, the old-school conservatives found themselves lumped in with the fundies who drove the bus off the cliff. Approval ratings for Congress plummeted to the low 30s, and the Democrats had been handed an unexpected public relations coup.
Flash forward to the recent filibuster fight. Majority Leader Frist stapled himself to the cause of getting rid of the filibuster come hell or high water as yet another Schiavo-esqe kowtow to the movement conservatives whom, he believed, would catapult him into the Oval Office. The old-school conservatives watched all this unfold with growing disgust and, in a moment of Caesarian calculation, stabbed their majority leader in the back by cutting a deal with the Democrats behind Frist's back to preserve the filibuster ... Mr. Frist lost control of his caucus, and the so-called 'moderates' who broke ranks even had the temerity to scold Mr. Bush, reminding him that the Senate does, in fact, have the right and requirement to advise and consent on nominees. Furthermore, the movement fundamentalists were slapped down because they dared to tamper with Senate tradition ...The day after Frist lost control of his caucus, 50 GOP House members defied Bush's promised veto and piled onto an impressive majority that passed legislation approving stem cell research. Bush, whose threatened veto was yet another political sop to the movement conservatives, expected his threat to kill this legislation, but it didn't ... "
WHITE RIGHT-WINGERS CAN'T CONTAIN THEMSELVES - THEY SAY, REV:
"THE LIBERALS CAN'T STAND THOMAS SOWELL -
(Walter Williams, Armstrong Williams, or any
other of a handful of right-wing black pundits)
'CUZ HE'S 'RIGHT', 'DARING', 'BRILLIANT', ETC., ETC."
Well, Thomas Sowell is not stupid. I'm sure he knows quite well that larger, interrelated forces of capitalism and racism play a role in the creation of deep and disproportionate black poverty. He may go along with the prevailing post-Civil Rights struggle classist assessment that "blames the victim". Sowell and other black-skinned apologists for white capitalists may, in fact, sincerely believe that there are no living historical forces of racism.
Every honest, seriously interested white citizen of these dis-United States should come to recognize that everyone’s position in America reflects a combination of inherited structure AND personal agency. If one's self-assessment is colored by biases born of a need to get oneself off the hook, then the right-wing’s vicious victim-blaming insistence that we are all personally responsible for our own wealth and status probably rings true. But I maintain that a white citizen who honestly evaluates where he started his journey and what he carried with him, should realize that a claim that continues to blame the victim serves mainly to provide ideological cover for a regressive and racist policy agenda that heaps benefits on the affluent - most of whom are whites.
What does this mean to the Thomas Sowells who draw sustenance from the white establishment even as they ignore the metasticization of decadence therein. Is it enough that he enjoys entre to their prestigious institutions - in addition to his middle to upper class status?
(Click)
The Cram-Down Decade
You met your obligations;
your employer didn't.
Result: You're screwed.
By Daniel Gross @ SLATE
An excellent delineation of yet another
reason to move to Canada!
Doin' da Darwinian Hump ...
Rev. Art - Freethought Evangelist
