Thursday, February 14, 2008
The Race for White House
Disturbing....what is happening in the race for White House. The contenders are behaving just as others did in past presidential elections. Mud-slinging, while not yet very pronounced, is going on. And in the battle for support they continue to trample on truth and do somersaults. They want to please all interest groups. They are ready to play the 'race card', 'abortion card', 'faith card'. You name it, they are ready and willing. John McCain, formerly an Episcopalian is now a devout Baptist.
Recent passage of the eavesdropping bill and protection for telecom giants who cooperated with the Bush Administration by providing records without court order was a glaring example of the failure of the Democrats to stand up to such abuses. Some of them, including our Senator Feinstein, fully support the Bush Administration on this issue; others are plain gutless, still under spell of 9/11, or they receive contributions from the telephone companies.
- Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) is reportedly steering the secretive Senate Intelligence Committee to give retroactive immunity to telecoms that helped the government secretly spy on Americans.
- He has also recently benefited from some interesting political contributions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Tuesday approved new rules for government eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails, giving the White House much of the latitude it wanted and granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped in the snooping after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Protection for the telecom companies is the most prominent feature of the legislation, something President Bush had insisted on as essential to getting private sector cooperation in spying on foreign terrorists and other targets. The bill would give retroactive protection to companies that acted without court permission. |
Few comments from friends:
DM, Massachusetts: " Today's senate voting to grant immunity to phone companies about tapping got me curious. Dem big mouths always come on TV saying they opposed everything about Bush and yet they can seem to never overturn any of his bills. So I looked up the Senate voting record for today's bill just for kicks.
To me it seems the Dem party is filled with republican moles, inclduding some from CA, who put on dem party suit simply to sabotage the notion that dems will stand up to bush.
SG in California, wrote: "My interest in US domestic politics flagged after Clinton took office in 92 (I recall listening to Bill at a discussion group on education at Stanford the day before he announced his candidacy), because the war between the Clintons and the "vast right-wing conspiracy" did not interest me.
The Obama-Hillary battle is interesting because it pits baby-boomers against the generation that grew up with civil rights bill having passed the Congress. It's brought our the closet misogynists, the closet racists and the liberal hypocrites all out in the open.
Obama and Michelle are high-achieving blacks who do not constantly bitch about racism but expect to be treated equally as whites.
The white liberals are oh-so pro-affirmative action because they carry the burden of white guilt and holier-than-thou attitude as a badge of honor. Most of them have little social (and in many cases, little professional) contact with non-whites. Clintons belong to this group. They are all for black upliftment as long as they and their (mostly white) buddies do it. Note that George Bush has had more non-white senior executive and White House staff than Clinton did.
The younger gen voting for Obama is much more racially integrated and do not continually mouth affirmative action and other platitudes like the old liberals (except the members of the rapidly expanding Hispanic Separatist Nation who also seem to like Hillary more :).
It's like the caste system in India. Congress and the Commies (particularly in Bengal) were always dominated by Brahmins who wanted to uplift the lower castes but did not care to have them in their own social or political power circle. Our generation started breaking the caste barriers in school, college dorms, in friendship, and in marriage.
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The Obama-Hillary battle is interesting because it pits baby-boomers against the generation that grew up with civil rights bill having passed the Congress. It's brought our the closet misogynists, the closet racists and the liberal hypocrites all out in the open.
Obama and Michelle are high-achieving blacks who do not constantly bitch about racism but expect to be treated equally as whites.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/us/politics/14michelle.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
I like that attitude.The white liberals are oh-so pro-affirmative action because they carry the burden of white guilt and holier-than-thou attitude as a badge of honor. Most of them have little social (and in many cases, little professional) contact with non-whites. Clintons belong to this group. They are all for black upliftment as long as they and their (mostly white) buddies do it. Note that George Bush has had more non-white senior executive and White House staff than Clinton did.
The younger gen voting for Obama is much more racially integrated and do not continually mouth affirmative action and other platitudes like the old liberals (except the members of the rapidly expanding Hispanic Separatist Nation who also seem to like Hillary more :).
It's like the caste system in India. Congress and the Commies (particularly in Bengal) were always dominated by Brahmins who wanted to uplift the lower castes but did not care to have them in their own social or political power circle. Our generation started breaking the caste barriers in school, college dorms, in friendship, and in marriage.
DM, from Massachusetts: One of my takeaways from this election as I hear various call in talk shows on TV/radio during this ballot bowl season: conservatism is another name for war mongering and hate spewing free speech, and how important it seems for the republican candidate to pander to the the handful bastion of these conservative media personalities instead of serving the people that elect them. For it is they who best decide what is good for the country. If this kind of arrogance and hate was being spewed by the leaders of another country we all know what would that be labeled as.
Some claim they want to hear about specifics instead of motivational oratory. Remind me when was the last time a president was able to deliver on specifics they promised to the people. They only managed to deliver what was promised behind closed doors away from the public eye.
Unfortunately this 2 party system manages to perpetuate this conservative and liberal mentality and gives meaning to their existence. These labels give these people something to rally around and plot around. I wish someday these would just disappear instead of these spy vs spy mentality they seem to foster in many - "I as a staunch conservative want HRC to win because she would mess it up so much that the (neocons) will then rule the (world) for another 20 years after that" - almost an exact quote from a Talk of the Nation episode.
and of course the way Latino population is growing in a few years everybody else will be hasta la vista :) We will all be worshiping Mother Mary & baby Jesus in bathtubs in our front yards."
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Perhaps a bit of a stretch but that possibility cannot be completely shrugged off. I'll not be around when the Hispanic community becomes a dominant force in California and a few other states. The prospects, however, are disheartening and I cannot help feeling sad about the inevitable changes on the distant horizon. Currently, a debate is raging in the United Kingdom about recognition of Sharia Law for Muslim citizens. One gets the feeling that it will not happen as long as majority of the Brits oppose it.
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Some claim they want to hear about specifics instead of motivational oratory. Remind me when was the last time a president was able to deliver on specifics they promised to the people. They only managed to deliver what was promised behind closed doors away from the public eye.
Unfortunately this 2 party system manages to perpetuate this conservative and liberal mentality and gives meaning to their existence. These labels give these people something to rally around and plot around. I wish someday these would just disappear instead of these spy vs spy mentality they seem to foster in many - "I as a staunch conservative want HRC to win because she would mess it up so much that the (neocons) will then rule the (world) for another 20 years after that" - almost an exact quote from a Talk of the Nation episode.
and of course the way Latino population is growing in a few years everybody else will be hasta la vista :) We will all be worshiping Mother Mary & baby Jesus in bathtubs in our front yards."
Perhaps a bit of a stretch but that possibility cannot be completely shrugged off. I'll not be around when the Hispanic community becomes a dominant force in California and a few other states. The prospects, however, are disheartening and I cannot help feeling sad about the inevitable changes on the distant horizon. Currently, a debate is raging in the United Kingdom about recognition of Sharia Law for Muslim citizens. One gets the feeling that it will not happen as long as majority of the Brits oppose it.
