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Maliki extends ultimatum for gunmen to drop the hardware in Basra
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Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe Analysts Predict Easy Mugabe Victory
In the violent 2002 presidential election Mr. Mugabe won the vote with a 52 percent majority. The run up to Saturday's voting has been mostly peaceful and there has been a resurgence of popularity for main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as well as rejection of ZANU-PF in several key rural areas, but
The prediction in the state controlled daily, The Herald, is that Mr. Mugabe will win by 57 percent this time.
the prediction in the state controlled daily, The Herald, is that Mr. Mugabe will win by 57 percent this time.
So he's only stealing 50 percent of the vote, is he?
The researchers from the political science department at the University of Zimbabwe are openly supportive of ZANU-PF.
Having no other choice if they want to live ...
The department's chairman Joseph Kurebwa also predicted that the now seriously divided ZANU-PF will also win more than two thirds of parliamentary, senatorial and local government seats in voting on Saturday. He said his department conducted interviews with more than 10,000 people around the country.

However, founding legal secretary of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, David Coltart, disputes claims of Mr. Mugabe's continued popularity. He says in the southern Matabeleland provinces Mr. Mugabe is trailing badly. Matabeleland accounts for about 20 percent of the vote.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition party in Zimbabwe addresses a press conference in Harare, 20 Mar 2008 "What is absolutely clear is that Robert Mugabe is in enormous difficulty in Matabeleland," he said. "At the very least, the hardcore support of ZANU-PF that is provided to him by the old ZIPRA war veterans, I think is gone. What we don't know is whether Simba Makoni or Morgan Tsvangirai will benefit from that swing."
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Watched BBC today. He's literally giving TVs to doctors and tractors to rural supporters. Promising (seized) farms and companies to the masses. Geez, at least in the US, it's not so deliberate. They use earmarks...
Posted by: Vanc || 03/29/2008 2:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Zimbabwe Analysts Predict Easy Mugabe Victory
You mean there's an alternative?
Posted by: Spot || 03/29/2008 10:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Sumbuddy say Bob be givin away free tractors?
Posted by: Farmin B. Hard || 03/29/2008 10:54 Comments || Top||

#4  I could say something Mr. Hard, but I'll forgo it.
Posted by: Zebulon Angavick7428 || 03/29/2008 13:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah, and 40 acres. You can trust him.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 03/29/2008 14:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Without being (Too) racist, a Horse would be better, they don't use diesel, and produce more Horses free. (Mules are sterile, no offspring)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/29/2008 16:01 Comments || Top||

#7  No good if the horse is dead, Jim. Tractors are probably all broken, and there's only zanu-pf on the TV.
Posted by: rhodesiafever || 03/29/2008 18:08 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Green Helmet Guy is Back-Chinese Style
Evidence is accumulating that the Chinese regime orchestrated violence in Lhasa in order to discredit the peaceful protests of Buddhist monks. According to the Dalai Lama's Chinese translator, Ngawang Nyendra, a witness reported that a Chinese policeman in Lhasa disguised himself as a Tibetan and joined the protesters holding a knife in his hand. The man later took off the Tibetan-style clothes and put on a police uniform.

This woman was sent out of Lhasa with other foreigners the next day. When she arrived in India via Nepal, she recognized the policeman she had seen in Tibetan garb from BBC TV news and photos that the Chinese embassy had provided to the media.

This is a cropped copy of the photo released by the Chinese Embassy purporting to show a Tibetan with a knife taking part in a riot.

Ngawang Nyendra said the witness was shocked when she saw the policeman in the BBC broadcast. She realized then that the man had disguised himself as a Tibetan in order to incite people to riot. The witness contacted a Tibetan organization in India and told them what she had seen. At a rally on March 17, the organization publicized a news photo originally provided by the Chinese Embassy in India in which the policeman appeared as a Tibetan rioter.

On Xinhua and other Chinese-language Web sites friendly to the regime, after the rally at which the witness spoke, the policeman in disguise had disappeared from photos taken at the same scene in which he had previously been visible. Recently, the original man-with-the-knife photo has returned to these Web sites.
So we have communists engaging in acts to discredit peaceful people. Any surprised? Anyone? Bueller?
Posted by: Skunky Glins5285 || 03/29/2008 09:29 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It should be noted that the Western media are in the process of losing a ton of credibility with the Chinese due to their slanted coverage of the Tibet situation.
Posted by: gromky || 03/29/2008 12:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Re #1 ... pretty funny but still .. with our media it is more about getting the right story than it is getting the story right.
Posted by: crosspatch || 03/29/2008 13:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Now that's a knife!
Posted by: Crocodile Dundee || 03/29/2008 13:38 Comments || Top||


Police Close Off Lhasa's Muslim Quarter
Police closed off Lhasa's Muslim quarter on Friday, two weeks after Tibetan rioters burned down the city's mosque during the largest anti-Chinese protests in nearly two decades. Officers blockaded streets into the area, allowing in only area residents and worshippers observing the Muslim day of prayer. A heavy security presence continued in other parts of Lhasa's old city as cleanup crews waded through the destruction inflicted when days of initially peaceful protests turned deadly on March 14.

It was not clear why the area was cordoned off, although rioters had targeted businesses belonging to Chinese Muslim migrants known as Hui, who control much of Lhasa's commerce.

A small group of foreign journalists, including an Associated Press reporter, was taken to Lhasa earlier in the week on a three-day government-organized trip that ended Friday. The otherwise tightly scripted visit was disrupted when 30 red-robed monks pushed into a briefing being given by officials at the Jokhang Temple on Thursday, complaining of a lack of religious freedom and denouncing official claims that the Dalai Lama orchestrated the March 14 violence.

"What the government is saying is not true," one monk shouted out. "They killed many people," another monk said, referring to Chinese security forces. The outburst by the monks lasted for about 15 minutes before government officials ended it and told the journalists it was "time to go."

A vice governor of Tibet, Baima Chilin, later told reporters the monks would not be punished. However, Tibet activists voiced concern Friday over possible Chinese government retaliation against the Buddhist monks. "There are serious fears for the welfare and whereabouts" of the monks, the International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement. "The monks' peaceful protest shattered the authorities' plans to convey an image that the situation in Lhasa was under control after recent demonstrations and rioting," it said.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/29/2008 06:01 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Berlin hardens 'no' to NATO offer for Georgia and Ukraine
The German government underlined its opposition Friday to NATO opening the door to membership to former Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia.

Deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg told a regular news conference that Berlin believed that neither country had the necessary political conditions to merit membership in the alliance. "We are very reserved when it comes to the issue of deciding now on possible membership of Ukraine and Georgia," he said. "This is solely linked to developments in each country and in the region. We expect the necessary resolution (of outstanding issues) and stabilization, pacification to succeed before this question can have a different response than is the case at the moment."

He said there were regional stability issues linked to Georgia's bid and called it an "open secret" that there was fierce debate in Ukraine about whether the country should join NATO. "The situation in both these countries is decisive for the skepticism with which we view the question of membership," Steg said.
Fair point, we only want NATO members who are united in their desire to join.
Chancellor Angela Merkel signalled early this month that she opposed Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO, saying the alliance should wait until the people of the two countries back membership and the region becomes more stable.
Though NATO membership would help make the region more stable.
The two former Soviet states hope to win invitations to join NATO's so-called membership action plan, which helps aspiring countries prepare for future entry, when leaders gather at a summit in Romania beginning on Wednesday.

The issue has vexed Russia, with incoming president Dmitry Medvedev this week saying that the prospect of NATO coming closer to its borders was "extremely troublesome."

Despite strong support from the United States, plus Canada and most of the alliance's ex-communist members, there is reticence among many other states.
The French don't want to consider an attack on Kiev to be the same as an attack on Paris ...
Countries such as Germany are wary of provoking a further row with Russia on top of a dispute over US plans to deploy an anti-missile system in the Czech Republic and Poland. They also point to a lack of public backing in Ukraine for the NATO policy of the country's pro-Western leaders.

While Georgians are mostly in favour, concern there focuses on "conflicts" with the potential to create problems for the entire alliance if Tbilisi is given a green light. Separatists have controlled a swathe of northern Georgia since it broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in the 1990s.
Fair point, and the Georgian government isn't a model of democratic enlightenment.
Posted by: mrp || 03/29/2008 10:08 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remind me again why they want to join NATO. Might as well join the League of Nations.
Posted by: Spot || 03/29/2008 10:39 Comments || Top||

#2  The Germans are saying they would not spend the life of a Pomeranian grenadier to preserve Ukranian freedom from Russian domination. And, for once, I believe they are telling the truth. And I don't think Americans are willing to spend the life of a Kentucky rifleman for The Ukraine, either. So who's lying to whom?

Nato has served its purpose and served it well. It is now being perverted into an adventurous tool of aggressive international diplomacy that would have been an anathema to those opposed to entry to the League.

Out of Nato, out of the UN.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/29/2008 10:57 Comments || Top||

#3  But the Germans don't want to shoot in Afghanistan either. My guess is the really reason is Russian Natural Gas Exports.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/29/2008 12:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Wouldn't want Fat Fritz to be uncomfortable sharing the same table with those he tried to genocide 65 years before. Personally, I think dumping Germany and adding Ukraine would do more to advance freedom and democracy in that part of the world.
Posted by: ed || 03/29/2008 14:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Since their falling out with China, Russia just seems shit outta friends.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 03/29/2008 14:13 Comments || Top||

#6  My question is to ask why they would want to join NATO in the first place? Judging from what I see in Afghanistan, there's a two-tier NATO: one group that fights and another group that rides on the first group's back. I'm thinking that it's time NATO rode quietly off into the sunset because, like the UN, it's a mid-20th Century creation that has outlived its usefulness and been perverted to aims its founders never intended. It certainly carries damned few benefits for the U.S. these days.
Posted by: Pancho Elmeck8414 || 03/29/2008 18:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Old Europe wasn't willing to lift a finger to help eastern Europe, either. The only people who even tried was the US. The eastern Europeans haven't forgotten that, either.

Both Ukraine and Georgia are scared of Russia, and rightfully so. They know that it is only a matter of time before Russia tries to snatch them up again, and as of now, there is nobody to stop Russia from doing so.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/29/2008 19:02 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Condi: America racist. Sort-of. It used to be for sure. Might still be a bit.
Stop crying about the past. Just learn from it. Stop listening to the likes of "Reverend" Wright, who still lives in the past. Step forward into the present as more and more are thankfully doing. Opportunities abound for those who are conscious enough to sieze them. Black people's problems are more "internal" than "external" these days, for lack of a better way to put it.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United States still has trouble dealing with race because of a national "birth defect" that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country's very founding. "Black Americans were a founding population," she said. "Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding."
True as far as it goes, but let's remember that most of the Europeans who came to America were rabble, separatists, or prisoners, just the sort of people the European kings and ministers didn't want. The European elites considered us trash then and still do today.
As a result, Miss Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, "descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that."

"That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today," she said.

Race has become an issue in this year's presidential campaign, which prompted a much-discussed speech last week by Sen. Barack Obama, one of the two remaining contenders for the Democratic nomination. Miss Rice declined to comment on the campaign, saying only that it was "important" that Mr. Obama "gave it for a whole host of reasons."

But she spoke forcefully on the subject, citing personal and family experience to illustrate "a paradox and contradiction in this country," which "we still haven't resolved."

On the one hand, she said, race in the U.S. "continues to have effects" on public discussions and "the deepest thoughts that people hold." On the other, "enormous progress" has been made, which allowed her to become the nation's chief diplomat.

"America doesn't have an easy time dealing with race," Miss Rice said, adding that members of her family have "endured terrible humiliations."

"What I would like understood as a black American is that black Americans loved and had faith in this country even when this country didn't love and have faith in them — and that's our legacy," she said.
That's a fair point. When black soldiers were given the chance to fly airplanes in WWII, they became one of the finest squadrons ever. When black soldiers were given the chance to fight in the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, and Iraq, they acquitted themselves with honor.
Miss Rice also said that what "attracted" her to candidate George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign was not foreign policy, but his "no child left behind" initiative, which she said gave equal opportunities to black and white students.

The proposal, much criticized by Mr. Obama and his Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, has been successful, Miss Rice said.

During her wide-ranging interview with The Times, the secretary also said that boycotting the Summer Olympics in Beijing would be an ineffective way to address China's "troublesome policies" and called the U.S. boycott of the 1980 games in Moscow "feckless." "They invade Afghanistan and the best you can think of is to boycott the Olympics and keep athletes who have been training their entire life from going and competing," Miss Rice said of the Carter administration's decision to protest the Soviet regime at the time. "Who are you kidding? I do not see the benefit of boycotting," she said. "I do not think the boycott of the 1980 Olympics was very effective. In fact, I think it looked feckless."
Rather like our president at the time ...
President Bush plans to go to Beijing for the Olympics in August, and Miss Rice said he will bring up China's human rights record, Beijing's close ties with the Sudanese government, which Washington has accused of committing genocide in the Darfur region, as well as other issues of concern.

"If you go there, I do think you have an obligation before, during and after to continue to engage the regime about troublesome policies," the secretary said. "This is a moment of international recognition for the Chinese people, too, and I would hate to do anything that is insulting to them as well — the people, not the regime," she said.

Miss Rice cited resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ending North Korea's nuclear programs, and securing Iraq and Afghanistan as the Bush administration's main foreign-policy priorities for the rest of its term. She leaves today on yet another Middle East trip to nudge Israelis and Palestinians toward reaching an agreement that would establish a Palestinian state by year's end.

On Iraq, Miss Rice said she knew that rebuilding the country after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion would be tough, but she "didn't think it would be this tough."

"What we didn't know was how truly broken the society was," she said.

Although Saddam Hussein's regime was mostly to blame for that, she said that U.N. sanctions contributed as well, because as a result of them, "agriculture is virtually dead in Iraq." "As necessary as they might have been to try to put pressure on the regime, they also did a lot of damage," Miss Rice said of the sanctions.
Posted by: gorb || 03/29/2008 03:44 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Black Americans were a founding population," she said. "Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains.

Missed that part about importing African slaves cause the 'elites' of that time ran out of white slaves, indentured servants, and the usual collection of 'losers' of the last fight back in the o'home country?

But you don't understand. The new racism is 'just ignoring them'. The run of the 'guilt card' era is quickly ending, so the race hustlers have got to find a new gig to keep the game going. Its never been about 'equality' for them, it's been about POWER.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/29/2008 12:05 Comments || Top||

#2  "a national 'birth defect' that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country's very founding"

I'm white. Most of us white families were not here at the country's founding. And most of those that were here did not own plantations.

My family's earliest forefather here came from England in the mid-1600s as an indentured servant. He did not have land or slaves. The generations that followed were mostly fisherman and small farmers. No wealth. No plantations. No one went off to college until the GI Bill made it possible after WWII.

My wife's family's earliest forefather here came from eastern Europe by way of Ellis Island around 1910. No slaves or land or wealth there either. My wife's generation was the first to go to college in that lineage.

I'm getting tired of hearing about slavery. My people didn't have anything to do about it.

I'm getting tired of being lumped in with all whites as the rich descendants of evil plantation owners. It's a sham. Get over it.

Shame on you, Condoleeza Rice.


Posted by: Darrell || 03/29/2008 12:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Damn Yankees. Think of losing 30 pu trucks, I wants recompensery
Posted by: Zebulon Angavick7428 || 03/29/2008 13:21 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm flat-out sick of the race hustlers. For me, that argument closed out a long time ago when I saw a Vietnamese boat person graduate valedictorian from the Air Force Academy.

If a person who doesn't even speak the language can come to this country as a preteen dirt-poor refugee, work hard, and graduate top of his class at arguably the nation's most academically rigorous service academy, no one born here has any right to complain about lack of opportunity.

Blacks have lots of problems, and they're all self inflicted. It's not people of other races that are knocking up young black women without marrying them and causing that 70+% illegitimacy rate. Whitey's not forcing drugs and liquor down black throats and into black arms at gunpoint, and he's not doing drive-by shootings in the 'hood, either. Blacks are handling that very well themselves, thanks.

As a group they've largely rejected the social path that every other ethnic group in America has invariably found to lead to success: hard work, cooperation, and education to the maximum amount possible. Apparently they're not into that because it's acting too "white."

I've worked with a lot of blacks over my life and I have no special sympathy for them; if they're not treated as equals, it's because, like the Muzz, they've shown themselves to not be worthy of such treatment.

In my experience, blacks who worked hard and played by the rules got treated just like everybody else, if not better. The problem I saw was that there were just too many "playas" who had a chip on their shoulder the size of a log about their race and who thought the rules everyone else obeyed didn't pertain to them.

A better question to ask would be to wonder why so many blacks from the Caribbean seem so squared away and ready to follow that well-trodden path to success, while the U.S. home-grown variety has so many losers wanting to point fingers everywhere but at the real cause of their problems: themselves. I have no real idea why there is such a difference, but it's definitely there and I've heard both black and white confirm it many times. Find out what creates that difference and you're well on the road toward solving the problem.
Posted by: Pancho Elmeck8414 || 03/29/2008 13:25 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm flat-out sick of the race hustlers. For me, that argument closed out a long time ago when I saw a Vietnamese boat person graduate valedictorian from the Air Force Academy.

One of the best mini-commentaries on modern race relations I've ever seen...congrats, Pancho!

As for Condi herself, "bitterly disappointed" is what comes to my mind. She's proven herself both strategically and tactically inept; allowed herself to become a captive of the Foggy Bottom bureaucracy and its "clientitis" disease; and-if this article's any indication-willing to entertain the arguments of the grievance-mongers and race hustlers.

Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 03/29/2008 13:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Pancho, I think you're seeing one end of things. As a doc in the south side of Chicago, I see another.

... blacks who worked hard and played by the rules got treated just like everybody else, if not better.

Sometimes. It's generally true at the medical center; black people who are good at what they do are treated as one of the team. It's not necessarily true all the time. "if not better?" That might be an issue with affirmative action, but I haven't seen it very often here.

Blacks have lots of problems, and they're all self inflicted.

In part but not in whole. The black family disintegrated in the last half of the 20th century in part because of government policies on welfare. And anyone who's taken a sociology class knows that if you crowd any group of people into a ghetto, leave them poor, deny them upward mobility, beat on them with racist police and German shepards, etc., then you'll end up with a culture that strongly resembles what we have in the black sub-culture in today's large cities.

There are plenty of American blacks are who moving up the ladder. I encounter them every day. But let's not deny the effects of four centuries of racism, slavery and segregation. That would be denying reality.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/29/2008 14:07 Comments || Top||

#7  I like to point out that the real divide isn't race, it is class. But ironically, that is where race comes into play.

When blacks achieve the middle class through hard work, they were and are horrified that middle class whites do not *seem* to distinguish between them and the lower classes, black or white.

The irony comes into play because the white middle class associates "being ignored" with success. When you achieve the middle class, you have earned the right to be like "anyone else", with no recognition of your middle class status.

But to the blacks in the middle class, they think it means that they are being snubbed. More than anything, they are desperate to to blend in to the "middle class conversation."

Once you become aware of this, and make the minimal effort to have just an ordinary, boring conversation with a middle class black person, you see the unexpected: gratitude. They are deeply grateful, as they see it as *recognition* of their middle class status.

It is bizarre that such a seemingly trivial thing would build up such apprehension in middle class blacks, but it does. It is added on to the stress they feel in rejecting the ways of the lower classes: "No, your serving four years in prison is *not* equivalent to my Bachelor's degree!"

The bottom line is that a problem still exists, yet it is not a great problem, but a petty problem. And once it is resolved, the disregard all the middle class feels for the lower classes will still be there. It won't be racism, however, it will be "classicism".
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/29/2008 14:32 Comments || Top||

#8  We're coming up on 150 years since the end of slavery. My ancestors on both sides of my family came to N. America (U.S. and Canada) after the turn of the century. I was born in the early 70's. I have never denied a black person a job, a loan, an apartment lease, an education, or anything else for that matter because of their race. We were broke when I was growing up, I worked my ass off and later returned to college and financed that through student loans.

For all these reasons and more, I get pretty sick and f*cking tired of hearing blacks bitch and cry about terrible injustices that they cannot even quantify with words. They can all suck my ass, every one of the whining bastards that claim to be oppressed, repressed, suppressed or whatever. If a dumbass son of a mick policeman can go out and make his way in this world, all the while getting ripped off and kicked around by anyone who could manage to get in a position to do it to me, than anyone can.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 03/29/2008 14:52 Comments || Top||

#9  Miss Rice cited resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Litmus paper.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/29/2008 15:56 Comments || Top||

#10  True as far as it goes, but let's remember that most of the Europeans who came to America were rabble, separatists, or prisoners, just the sort of people the European kings and ministers didn't want. The European elites considered us trash then and still do today.


True as far as it goes, but look at Australia, Criminals and guards all, and they've done wonders with the folk they have, People forget that the "Dissatisfied" are the ideal founders and adventurers, exactly what's needed.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/29/2008 16:13 Comments || Top||

#11  The black family disintegrated in the last half of the 20th century in part because of government policies on welfare.

And in some places, deliberate destruction of thriving black middle class neighborhoods.

Durham NC routed an interstate right smack dab through the middle of one such. Emminent domained black leaders' houses and businesses. The resulting highway also cut the neighborhoods in half with almost no through streets from one side to the other.

There's a reason Durham is a racial mess with a heavy black underclass. And it's not just welfare.
Posted by: lotp || 03/29/2008 16:28 Comments || Top||

#12  And you will never, never, never hear about the civil war that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans that settled the question that freedom is for all races, never will they mention that deadly and bloody conflict and the resulting defining moment in favor of African-Americans.
Posted by: www || 03/29/2008 16:31 Comments || Top||

#13  The poor get the crap end of the stick. When the poor are white they understand it's because they are poor. When the poor are black they believe it is because of race.

If they could/would understand the roots of the poverty rather than writing it off as racism something could be done. Until then race relations will not change.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/29/2008 16:41 Comments || Top||

#14  In Baltimore, at least, the numbers racket was also a black enterprise until the State of Maryland decided to take it.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/29/2008 16:54 Comments || Top||

#15  There you go, NS - the State taking over successful businesses. ;-(

Seriously, tho - what happened in Durham was deliberate and devastating. When we lived there in the early-mid 90s I talked with elderly white political and business leaders who admitted it - and spoke ruefully about the unintended consequences of those actions.
Posted by: lotp || 03/29/2008 17:07 Comments || Top||

#16  I too am disappointed in Ms. Rice's comments. She knows better than to play into Obama/Rev. Wright's hands with these comments.

Of course, the above arguments are some of the reasons I love living in Atlanta metro area. This is the "black Mecca", and while downtown and certain other areas have TONS of issues, this entire area is becoming a middle-class black playground. In fact, I believe Atlanta metro has been labelled the biggest group of middle class blacks in the nation.

Now on to another point. Most of them are younger (like me) and have gone to college (albeit often a "Black historical" college like Morehouse, Tuskegee or others), but have had to "make it" on their own in the corporate world. Granted, yes, there are some effects from Affirmative Action, but as a whole, they do work just like anyone else, and worry about the same things I do (feeding their families, raising kids, etc.).

The minus is, is that most of them (even the young ones, growing up AFTER the Civil Rights era) will vote Donk "because that's the way we've always done it." It's funny, because often when we talk, they find that (at least on social issues) they have the same beliefs I do (lower my taxes, promote marriage, defeat the homosexual agenda-pushers, and even some agree with me on abortion). I think the "school choice" subject is REALLY important to them, and most of them agree with it in principle. Yet, when I say "You're a Republican", they say "No way, man. That's for rich white guys."

Shaking off *that* prejudice will move them forward light-years. I enjoy living here and relating to them (at work, at Church, etc.) and trying to show them how Gov't programs (like Welfare) do effect "their brothers" being stuck in the hood. Contrast these comments of Condi's with the recent comments (from Dr. Alveda King, MLK's neice) that abortion was "a Racist, Genocidal Act" and you see how far we've truly come. When you consider that America's richest woman is a black from "nowhere" Mississippi (Oprah), you see how far we've come. When you consider our nation's first black/female Nat'l Security Advisor and Secretary of State, as well as our first black Secretary of State (Powell) were under a "white rich guy's Party", you see how far we've come.
Posted by: BA || 03/29/2008 17:37 Comments || Top||

#17  Is there still predjudice? Yes
Can government do anything but make it worse now? No

Blacks need to pay a lot more attention to Bill Cosby than J. Wright and his ilk.

The one thing that needs to be taught to Blacks is that most of the whites here back in the day were only a short step higher on the pecking order.

Re: the Black flyboys et. al. of WWII they are a perfect example of part of the Peter Principle. Because of the bigotry then, only the best got even close to those roles. And the best of the best Blacks who made those units were awesome compared to anyone.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/29/2008 18:20 Comments || Top||

#18  This is bad news, I think, because if Ms. Rice is giving interviews on race relations then that means they are trial ballooning a vice-presidential run for her.

I was initially very enthusiastic about Condi but reluctantly conclude she has not lived up to my high expectations, and I do not think she should be on McCain's ticket.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/29/2008 22:12 Comments || Top||

#19  good call, Em. - No can do with her USDS attitude and these recent pronouncements
Posted by: Frank G || 03/29/2008 22:19 Comments || Top||


More Dem Hit & Run: Daddy gets run over by Chelsea!
Video at link! :-)
Posted by: gorb || 03/29/2008 03:41 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  CHELSEA SAYS HILLARY WOULD MAKE ‘BETTER’ PRESIDENT THAN FATHER

Ain't saying too much. Chelsea should raise her standards.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/29/2008 13:18 Comments || Top||

#2  tiechelseastubes.com is still avilable.
Posted by: Zebulon Angavick7428 || 03/29/2008 13:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Ugh, ZA.
Posted by: lotp || 03/29/2008 16:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Psychologists say that abused children tend to support their abusive parent more, hoping to curry favor with them.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/29/2008 19:04 Comments || Top||


Pa. Sen. Bob Casey endorses B.O.
Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey endorsed Democrat Barack Obama on Friday, a move that could help the presidential candidate make inroads with white working-class voters dubbed "Casey Democrats" in the Keystone State.

Appearing on stage beside the Illinois senator, Casey told a boisterous rally, "I believe in my heart that there is one person who's uniquely qualified to lead us in that new direction and that is Barack Obama."

Pennsylvania's April 22 primary will allocate 158 delegates, the biggest single prize left in the drawn-out nomination battle between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. Clinton is leading Obama in the state, by 12 points in one poll this month.
This article starring:
Bob Casey
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The rats are boarding the sinking ship.
Posted by: McZoid || 03/29/2008 0:13 Comments || Top||

#2  I can say something BUT WON'T PART IV/QUATRO.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/29/2008 1:22 Comments || Top||

#3  We need Nittany insight Joe. Do tell.
Posted by: Zebulon Angavick7428 || 03/29/2008 4:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Use Lifebuoy daily.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/29/2008 4:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Casey is proof that there is such a thing as "spontaneous inbreeding." He has the brain of a rotten turnip, and the intellectual firepower of a small, grimy soap dish...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/29/2008 11:54 Comments || Top||

#6  The above taken into account, try, (but pleasse don't hurt yourself) to imagine what a casey democrat is...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/29/2008 11:58 Comments || Top||


B.O.'s Former Pastor Getting $1.6M Home in Retirement
This was supposed to be the week that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. returned to the pulpit to preach for the first time since his anti-American sermons generated nationwide outrage and drew condemnation from his longtime parishioner, Barack Obama. But, citing security concerns, Wright canceled his speaking engagements in Florida and Texas. A spokeswoman at his former church in Chicago said his schedule is pending.

FOX News has uncovered documents that indicate Wright is about to move to a 10,340-square-foot, four-bedroom home in suburban Chicago, currently under construction in a gated community.
A two-week FOX News investigation, however, has uncovered where Wright will be spending a good deal of his time in retirement, and it is a far cry from the impoverished Chicago streets where the preacher led his ministry for 36 years. FOX News has uncovered documents that indicate Wright is about to move to a 10,340-square-foot, four-bedroom home in suburban Chicago, currently under construction in a gated community.

While it is not uncommon for an accomplished clergyman to live in luxury, Wright’s retirement residence is raising some questions. “Some people think deals like this are hypocritical. Jeremiah Wright himself criticizes people from the pulpit for middle classism, for too much materialism,” said Andrew Walsh, Associate Director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life with Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.
Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It isn't middle classism, so I guess he isn't really a hypocrite.
Posted by: James || 03/29/2008 1:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Nice little racket you got there, Jeremiah. Preach to the rubes against the white devil and win the cash prize.
Posted by: Thaing Johnson1215 || 03/29/2008 5:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Dammit! How did this one get past us?! Find out who was asleep at the switch!!
Posted by: The Cabal of Greedy White Men || 03/29/2008 9:02 Comments || Top||

#4  A "gated community"?
Looks like the "Rev" is movin on up...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/29/2008 9:22 Comments || Top||

#5  hmmm - just who are the gates designed to keep out?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/29/2008 10:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Does BO get to use the front gate/door? Who else?

Does his congregation have to come in through the back door/gate?



Posted by: AlanC || 03/29/2008 11:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Wright is about to move to a 10,340-square-foot, four-bedroom home in suburban Chicago, currently under construction in a gated community.

Right next to Al "keeping Africa down by heating his own home" Gore and John "Two Americas" Edwards, I presume.
Posted by: BA || 03/29/2008 17:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Give the Rev. some credit. He's there to keep an eye on the typical rich white folks.
Posted by: ed || 03/29/2008 17:29 Comments || Top||

#9  According to the 2000 census, Tinley Park is 90% white, 2% black.
Posted by: mhw || 03/29/2008 21:06 Comments || Top||

#10  pretty obviously then, keep the whites out? Does that make sense? Check the data, again
Posted by: Frank G || 03/29/2008 21:48 Comments || Top||


B.O.: Had Wright not retired, I'd have left church
  • Sen. Barack Obama says Rev. Jeremiah Wright "saddened" by controversy
    "That's his sad face!"
  • Obama says he'd have left church if Wright hadn't conceded he'd offended people
    "Honest. I was just packing when he resigned!"
  • Obama discusses his former pastor on ABC's "The View" airing Friday
    "'If I were a tree, what kind of a tree would I be?' Gosh. That's a tough one..."
  • New controversy brewing: Church bulletin reprinted articles seen as anti-Israel
    Whoa! Anti-American and anti-Israel! That Rev. Wright is just chock full of surprises!
  • Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  I can say something, but won't Part I.
    Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/29/2008 1:18 Comments || Top||

    #2  Wright retired with at least two million dollars. Two million dollars he extracted from the pockets of his parishioners. Yes, of the pockets of those people who are kept in poverty by the eeeeeevil, raaaaaaacist white man.
    Posted by: JFM || 03/29/2008 2:26 Comments || Top||

    #3  Obama says he'd have left church if Wright hadn't conceded he'd offended people

    "That's the first time he's ever said anything like that. Honest! That I remember hearing, anyway."
    Posted by: gorb || 03/29/2008 2:52 Comments || Top||

    #4  On the other hand in 'Dreams of My Father', Obama says that what drew him into the church was Wright's preaching about how all the black world's suffering was caused by the greed of whites. The sermon moved him to tears.

    Since when has Obama taken mock offense at what Wright was spewing for years? Since running for president based on a phoney 'heal racial divisions' pose.

    Obama is just Sharpton or Jackson with Harvard diction.
    Posted by: Thaing Johnson1215 || 03/29/2008 5:30 Comments || Top||

    #5  "Had the reverend not retired and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying there at the church," the senator said.

    Ummmmmmm, when did the "Rev" do all of this "acknowledgement", Barack, cuz I musta missed it...
    Posted by: tu3031 || 03/29/2008 9:08 Comments || Top||

    #6  Yeah sure. It is easy to say after the fact.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 03/29/2008 13:12 Comments || Top||


    Sen. Leahy calls for Clinton to drop out
    Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, gestures prior to a committee hearing in Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 2008. The Vermont senator, a prominent superdelegate, says that 'there is no way' Hillary Clinton can win enough delegates to take the Democratic presidential nomination from Barack Obama.
    This article starring:
    Patrick Leahy
    Posted by: Fred || 03/29/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  RUMORMILLNEWS/OTHER > Inter-Dem deal in the works? IS HILLARY BEING OFFERED/PRIMED TO RUN FOR NY STATE GOVERNOR???
    Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/29/2008 0:03 Comments || Top||

    #2  I can add and say something BUT WON'T PART V/CINCO.
    Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/29/2008 1:24 Comments || Top||

    #3  I call for Leahy to go back to Vermont and suck maple syrup outta the trees.
    Posted by: tu3031 || 03/29/2008 9:12 Comments || Top||

    #4  How long before the horse's head winds up on his doorstep?
    Posted by: Raj || 03/29/2008 9:37 Comments || Top||

    #5  I ain't leavin. I know best what's best for everyone. After all, I am the hero of Bosnia and Northern Ireland. I will take down the party if necessary to make them buzzards realize I am the smartest woman person alive.
    Posted by: JohnQC || 03/29/2008 13:22 Comments || Top||

    #6  I might be willing to tolerate an independent 'Republic of Vermont' if they agree to take Leahy home and keep him there ...
    Posted by: Steve White || 03/29/2008 14:12 Comments || Top||

    #7  There are a lot of really bad Senators from the Northeast; they seem to specialize in them. I was going to say that Leahy was the worst of the lot, but then I remembered upchucky, the swimmer and Her Thighness, and then I wasn't so sure anymore...Maybe he's primus inter pares in the lowlife Sen scumbag world.
    Posted by: Pancho Elmeck8414 || 03/29/2008 18:48 Comments || Top||



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