Daughter of slave votes for Obama
109-year-old Bastrop woman casts her vote by mail.
By Joshunda Sanders
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, October 27, 2008
Amanda Jones, 109, the daughter of a man born into slavery, has lived a life long enough to touch three centuries. And after voting consistently as a Democrat for 70 years, she has voted early for the country's first black presidential nominee.
The middle child of 13, Jones, who is African American, is part of a family that has lived in Republican-leaning Bastrop County for five generations. The family has remained a fixture in Cedar Creek and other parts of the county, even when its members had to eat at segregated barbecue dives and walk through the back door while white customers walked through the front, said Amanda Jones' 68-year-old daughter, Joyce Jones.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
What it's all about.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Deep Thoughts on the Economy
You knew this was coming, that it wouldn't be long before the right pointed out that the broad destruction of wealth caused by the global economic meltdown happened at a very interesting moment...
AHA! It's a conspiracy of the lefties.
And we'll know the real story just as soon as the election is over and B Hussein Obama is safely ensconced on Pennsylvania avenue, I suppose?
Indeed.
On another note, a proposal that I helped Bill Hambrecht put together was highlighted at Joe Nocera's blog yesterday. We've actually put together four white papers on the recent financial meltdown, they can be accessed here.
Why the crescendo of economic collapse right before the election? Why didn't the media and congress act just as concerned some time ago or wait until sometime after the election to go into crisis mode? The timing of the current financial crisis seems too planned and calculating to be just a coincidence. Polls show that people's number one concern right now is the economy and that for the most part, voters believe Democrats are somewhat more likely to help with the economy. Could it be that the liberal media and those in Congress, knowing that, is blaring the bad economic news from the rooftops in order to manipulate voters into voting for a Democrat? If so, it won't be the first time.
AHA! It's a conspiracy of the lefties.
And we'll know the real story just as soon as the election is over and B Hussein Obama is safely ensconced on Pennsylvania avenue, I suppose?
My guess is that if Obama gets elected, the true facts of the economy will come out. Suddenly, our economic outlook will look much brighter after November 5th. In the coming months and years after the election, we will be told how Obama has managed this crisis and overcome it
Indeed.
On another note, a proposal that I helped Bill Hambrecht put together was highlighted at Joe Nocera's blog yesterday. We've actually put together four white papers on the recent financial meltdown, they can be accessed here.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Seeing through the now
One thing that worries me a bit about the inevitable rout of McCain and the ascendancy of an Obama administration (aside from the enormous task that faces that administration) is the propensity of our press and pundits to quickly spin the "meaning" of the election and explain the results in real time. This focus on interpreting the results of great public exercise of an election tends to run to the near term and skews towards the ahistoric.
On November 5th, when we wake up after having elected this nations first black President in a landslide, the recriminations will run deep and the punditocracy will look for the usual suspects. My hunch is that the deepening and rolling economic crisis will be indicated as a key reason why the McCain candidacy failed, and in some ways it is one. Further, the absurdity of McCain, his inept and lurching strategy, his muddled and plainly contradictory messages and his bizarre and frankly irresponsible choice of Caribou Barbie as his running mate will also be cited.
But those are all derivative. What cannot be ignored and cannot be forgotten is that the election of Obama and the rejection of McCain is part of a larger statement made by the Republic. It is a repudiation of the failures of George Bush, a complete rejection of the man, his character, his words, his actions and his smug entitled philosophy of governance. If the economic troubles that the Second Bush Recession are the near term causes of our discontent, let us not forget that these troubles are his failure. The "MBA President" proved to be as incompetent and unsympathetic as Richard Fuld at Lehman, or Kenny Lay at Enron. When he speaks of the crisis he is unconvincing and seems blissfully unaware of the nuances, inevitably glossing over the differences between liquidity and insolvency, proving over and over again that he has not matured from his days as the failed CEO of Harken Energy. The aggressive effort to leave the credit default markets as unregulated and opaque as possible, led by Phil Gramm has much to do with where we find ourselves today, and it is an attitude towards regulation that springs directly from this President's head. The disdain for institutional oversight and the petulant disgust for our system of checks and balances pervades Bush's worldview, is something so grand even exists.
His foreign policy has been flatly rejected by all but a desperate few dead-enders, who lust for Arab blood and flatly consider "the other" a threat to our white, heterosexual, male-dominated protestant culture. The blatant fear-mongering and manipulation that this administration has wielded like a club on the American public has left the majority of the country weary, and as the slow moving disasters in Mesopotamia and Afghanistan grind on, the scales have fallen from the all but the most paranoid and angry jingoists.
For Bush's approach to government is in no way "conservative" and certainly not laissez faire. Thousands of signing statements directly undermining signed legislation is hardly "hands off", rather, it points to an aggrandized and obnoxious belief that the unitary executive should be unfettered, that the will of the people, expressed through our elected legislature is to be ignored, and that the wishes of a small group of privileged insiders should be paramount. This, and a cynical and opportunistic appeal to the inherent fear, racism and homophobia of a portion of our electorate has corroded and destroyed the Republican Party in America, and the inevitable result is McCain, an almost comical candidate that carries their standard today.
The complete failure of the Bush presidency cannot be forgotten, and cannot be ignored. There were too many people who were derided as unpatriotic and whose reputations were besmirched by this band of fools for stating the obvious, that this man is more than an incompetent buffoon, but rather a plague upon our country, a dangerously incurious vessel that happily acceded to the nefarious advice of a group of cynical, disdainful and ultimately wrongheaded advisors who brought shame and tragedy upon our heads.
This is why we have McCain and Palin, cartoon characters both. Don't let us forget that their failure is Bush's failure.
On November 5th, when we wake up after having elected this nations first black President in a landslide, the recriminations will run deep and the punditocracy will look for the usual suspects. My hunch is that the deepening and rolling economic crisis will be indicated as a key reason why the McCain candidacy failed, and in some ways it is one. Further, the absurdity of McCain, his inept and lurching strategy, his muddled and plainly contradictory messages and his bizarre and frankly irresponsible choice of Caribou Barbie as his running mate will also be cited.
But those are all derivative. What cannot be ignored and cannot be forgotten is that the election of Obama and the rejection of McCain is part of a larger statement made by the Republic. It is a repudiation of the failures of George Bush, a complete rejection of the man, his character, his words, his actions and his smug entitled philosophy of governance. If the economic troubles that the Second Bush Recession are the near term causes of our discontent, let us not forget that these troubles are his failure. The "MBA President" proved to be as incompetent and unsympathetic as Richard Fuld at Lehman, or Kenny Lay at Enron. When he speaks of the crisis he is unconvincing and seems blissfully unaware of the nuances, inevitably glossing over the differences between liquidity and insolvency, proving over and over again that he has not matured from his days as the failed CEO of Harken Energy. The aggressive effort to leave the credit default markets as unregulated and opaque as possible, led by Phil Gramm has much to do with where we find ourselves today, and it is an attitude towards regulation that springs directly from this President's head. The disdain for institutional oversight and the petulant disgust for our system of checks and balances pervades Bush's worldview, is something so grand even exists.
His foreign policy has been flatly rejected by all but a desperate few dead-enders, who lust for Arab blood and flatly consider "the other" a threat to our white, heterosexual, male-dominated protestant culture. The blatant fear-mongering and manipulation that this administration has wielded like a club on the American public has left the majority of the country weary, and as the slow moving disasters in Mesopotamia and Afghanistan grind on, the scales have fallen from the all but the most paranoid and angry jingoists.
For Bush's approach to government is in no way "conservative" and certainly not laissez faire. Thousands of signing statements directly undermining signed legislation is hardly "hands off", rather, it points to an aggrandized and obnoxious belief that the unitary executive should be unfettered, that the will of the people, expressed through our elected legislature is to be ignored, and that the wishes of a small group of privileged insiders should be paramount. This, and a cynical and opportunistic appeal to the inherent fear, racism and homophobia of a portion of our electorate has corroded and destroyed the Republican Party in America, and the inevitable result is McCain, an almost comical candidate that carries their standard today.
The complete failure of the Bush presidency cannot be forgotten, and cannot be ignored. There were too many people who were derided as unpatriotic and whose reputations were besmirched by this band of fools for stating the obvious, that this man is more than an incompetent buffoon, but rather a plague upon our country, a dangerously incurious vessel that happily acceded to the nefarious advice of a group of cynical, disdainful and ultimately wrongheaded advisors who brought shame and tragedy upon our heads.
This is why we have McCain and Palin, cartoon characters both. Don't let us forget that their failure is Bush's failure.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Hugo!
Hard to argue his point, actually.
"Bush is to the left of me now," Mr Chavez told an audience of international intellectuals debating the benefits of socialism. "
Comrade Bush announced he will buy shares in private banks."
Mr Chavez, who has insulted Bush in the past as a drunkard or the devil, called him clueless.
He accused him of simply parroting the words of his aides without understanding the new policies that rely on heavy state intervention.
"I am convinced he has got no idea what's going on," said Mr Chavez, who has nationalised swaths of the OPEC nation's economy in recent years and is in negotiations to take over a Spanish bank in Venezuela.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The GOP falls all over itself....
Digby points out that the conservatives who are suddenly having second thoughts on the question of whether or not Sarah Palin is a blithering idiot aren't really being that consistent.
David Frum had the audacity to point out that Sarah Palin isn't quite up to the task of stringing three coherent sentences together, and apparently the knuckle-draggers at the National Review aren't too happy with him stepping out of line. Digby points out that
I actually feel sorry for McCain on this one. He had every reason to believe that the conservative intelligentsia would support putting a functional incompetent on the ticket. After all, people like David Frum wrote glowing books called The Right Man about the current functional incompetent in the White House. How was McCain to know that these rats would scurry over the side squealing about "competence" and "intelligence" all of a sudden?
David Frum had the audacity to point out that Sarah Palin isn't quite up to the task of stringing three coherent sentences together, and apparently the knuckle-draggers at the National Review aren't too happy with him stepping out of line. Digby points out that
Frum is getting slammed by his own side for being an inconvenient truth-teller about Palin's incoherence. How could they?
I suspect it may because Frum was positively giddy about the man who said this:
"Because the—all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those—changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be—or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the—like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate—the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those—if that growth is affected, it will help on the red."—Explaining his plan to save Social Security, Tampa, Fla., Feb. 4, 2005
Monday, October 13, 2008
Billy Kristol is a Comedian
It's hard to read Bill Kristol and not burst into uncontrollable laughter these days, but sometimes he outdoes himself. The basic premise behind today's column is that McCain needs to take a complete mulligan on his entire campaign efforts to date, and get back to some state of grace in which the American people can get to know the real McCain/Palin ticket as a couple of Happy Warriors who is amenable to bipartisan rule and willing to govern reasonably and competently from the center.
William the Bloody:
It's a lovely idea, but ignores the reality that this campaign will end up exactly where we knew it would all along. The campaign is McCain, it is unfocused, erratic, angry, incoherent and nasty, even a bit addle-brained. At the time McCain was ensured the Republican nomination, I predicted that he would "bring on the nasty", and I've not been disappointed. Pundits like Kristol have in their mind a version of McCain that not only doesn't exist, but has been proven to be demonstrably wrong time and again. From his well documented temper to his long history of erratic swings, both in policy and in approach, McCain is less a maverick and more of an angry old coot. The American people have come to realize that the more that they know of McCain, the more they dislike him.
UPDATE: Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly piles on Kristol a bit more:
And if you want to get right down to it, Kristol was banging the table for Palin for veep months before anyone had even begun to experience her profound absurdity.
William the Bloody:
And let McCain go back to what he’s been good at in the past — running as a cheerful, open and accessible candidate. Palin should follow suit. The two of them are attractive and competent politicians. They’re happy warriors and good campaigners. Set them free.
Provide total media accessibility on their campaign planes and buses. Kick most of the aides off and send them out to swing states to work for the state coordinators on getting voters to the polls. Keep just a minimal staff to help organize the press conferences McCain and Palin should have at every stop and the TV interviews they should do at every location. Do town halls, do the Sunday TV shows, do talk radio — and invite Obama and Biden to join them in some of these venues, on the ground that more joint appearances might restore civility and substance to the contest.
It's a lovely idea, but ignores the reality that this campaign will end up exactly where we knew it would all along. The campaign is McCain, it is unfocused, erratic, angry, incoherent and nasty, even a bit addle-brained. At the time McCain was ensured the Republican nomination, I predicted that he would "bring on the nasty", and I've not been disappointed. Pundits like Kristol have in their mind a version of McCain that not only doesn't exist, but has been proven to be demonstrably wrong time and again. From his well documented temper to his long history of erratic swings, both in policy and in approach, McCain is less a maverick and more of an angry old coot. The American people have come to realize that the more that they know of McCain, the more they dislike him.
UPDATE: Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly piles on Kristol a bit more:
This is, of course, the same Bill Kristol who devoted his column just seven days ago to urging McCain to do the opposite, attacking Obama with guilt-by-association smears. Kristol said he was looking forward to McCain taking off the "gloves."
McCain's strategy coincided nicely with Kristol's previous advice, and most evidence suggests the tactics failed. So, Kristol is now arguing that McCain should disregard all that advice from last week, and take his new suggestions to heart.
And if you want to get right down to it, Kristol was banging the table for Palin for veep months before anyone had even begun to experience her profound absurdity.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Monday, October 06, 2008
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
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