Politics

Commentary (and rants) on national and local politics.

An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Jesse Helms is back! And this time he’s black.

You can’t make this stuff up.

“Jesse Helms is back! And this time he’s black.” That’s Winston-Salem city councilman Vernon Robinson’s campaign slogan as one of eight GOP candidates in the July 20 primary for North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District.

Pretty inoffensive, though, compared to the radio ad he’s running:

ANNOUNCER NO. 1: Vernon Robinson, conservative. The aliens are here, but they didn’t come in a spaceship. They came across our unguarded Mexican border by the millions — illegally.

They’ve filled our criminal courtrooms and invaded our school. They sponge off the American taxpayer by clogging our welfare lines and our hospital emergency rooms. They’ve even taken over the DMV. These aliens commit heinous crimes against us, like Maximiliano Esparza, who raped a nun and strangled her with her own rosary — illegally.

They commit crimes but won’t commit to learn our language. You walk into a McDonald’s restaurant to order a Big Mac and find to your horror that the employees don’t speak English — illegals. You may be in the heart of America, but you feel as though you are in the Twilight Zone.

Vernon Robinson will secure our borders, cut off the welfare payments and once and for all make English our official language. Press one for English? No. Vote Vernon Robinson for English.

VERNON ROBINSON: I’m Vernon Robinson, and I approve this message.

ANNOUNCER NO. 2: Yo Gringo! Este episodio de Twilight Zone era pagado para Robinson por congreso.

The ad’s come under fire, not for it’s extreme offensiveness but for the fact that the required disclosure at the end – “This ad was paid for by Robinson for Congress.” – is in Spanish.

…?

(more…)

Continue ReadingJesse Helms is back! And this time he’s black.
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Ladies and gentlemen: Mr. Trent Lott!

Lott Defends Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners By Helen Dewar, Washington Post, Thursday, June 3, 2004 Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) proved he has not lost his knack for inflammatory rhetoric when he defended "really rough" treatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers, including the use of dogs against a prisoner "unless the dog ate him." ... "Hey, nothing wrong with holding a dog up there, unless the dog ate him, scared him with a dog," Lott said. When WAPT news anchorman Brad McMullan noted that a prisoner died at Abu Ghraib, apparently after a beating, Lott responded, "This is not Sunday…

Continue ReadingLadies and gentlemen: Mr. Trent Lott!
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Dubya is no Reagan

The front page of today’s Daily News proclaims: TEAR DOWN THAT PRISON, inferring a ridiculous comparison of Bush’s speech last night and Reagan’s infamous “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” speech at the Berlin Wall.

I wondered last night whether or not the US had continued to use any of the German concentration camps once they had been liberated to house German civilians? enemy combatants? insurgents prisoners of war at the end of World War II, but everything I’ve come across suggests that conditions were so horrible at most of them that they had to be burned to the ground.

Interestingly, Abu Ghraib during Saddam’s reign was [still is] often referred to as a concentration camp, where numerous Iraqis were sent and never seen again. And yet, knowing its reputation, we thought it was a good idea for us to set up camp there and use it to detain Iraqis ourselves, many of whom were dragged from their homes in the middle of the night by their supposed liberators, the US military.

Families live in fear of midnight call by US patrols

by Daniel McGrory, The Times Online, 9 July 2003

NEVER again did families in Baghdad imagine that they need fear the midnight knock at the door. But in recent weeks there have been increasing reports of Iraqi men, women and even children being dragged from their homes at night by American patrols, or snatched off the streets and taken, hooded and manacled, to prison camps around the capital.

Children as young as 11 are claimed to be among those locked up for 24 hours a day in rooms with no light, or held in overcrowded tents in temperatures approaching 50C (122F).

On the edge of Baghdad International Airport, US military commanders have built a tent city that human rights groups are comparing to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Remarkably, the Americans have also set up another detention camp in the grounds of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad. Many thousands of Iraqis were taken there during the Saddam years and never seen again.

(more…)

Continue ReadingDubya is no Reagan
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Silence Protest or Consent?

Another valuable lesson for disaffected Americans that think voting is a waste of time: 'Queen Sonia' Is India PM-In-Waiting; Markets Crash By Terry Friel, Fri May 14, 2004 09:57 AM ET NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Italian-born Sonia Gandhi stitched up broad political support on Friday to become India's next prime minister, but investors panicked at her pivotal alliance with left-wing parties. Thousands of supporters partied in the street outside Gandhi's home, singing songs, beating drums and showering her with flower petals when she made a brief appearance, celebrating Thursday's shock election win over the ruling Hindu nationalists. "Sonia, we are…

Continue ReadingSilence Protest or Consent?
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

The Difference

Lawmakers Say New Abuse Photos Even WorseBy PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops went beyond the photos seen by most Americans, shaken lawmakers said Wednesday after viewing fresh pictures and video that they said depicted forced sex, brutality and dogs snarling at cowed prisoners. "I don't know how the hell these people got into our army," said Colorado Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell after viewing what he called a fraction of the images. Not everyone reacted the same way to the additional photos. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said he…

Continue ReadingThe Difference
An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

The stock market's been getting pummeled over the past week - with the Dow dropping below 10,000 again - despite three months of optimistic job growth and starry-eyed predictions of a full-on economic recovery. Much as the pundits want to, though, you can't force a rebound to happen with wishful thinking, and you can't play the smoke and mirrors game when the surface numbers don't play along. Three months of admittedly impressive job gains don't even come close to offsetting the previous three years of hemorrhaging, especially when many of these new jobs are lower-paying - with inferior or non-existent…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Fun with Merriam-Webster. con-tra-vene : The feeling that life is moving too slow and your kids are growing up too fast. sur-re-al-is-tic: Your mother telling your wife about finding the lingerie catalogs you used to hoard as a teenager, believing it's true but not really remembering it happening. stul-ti-fy: Between louderARTS and Urbana's combined 17 finals slots for 2004, there's only 14 people filling them; 8 of those have been on at least one national team, including several championships. ad-um-brate: "On the eve of the rollout of the new commercials, Mr. Kerry flew home to Massachusetts on Sunday for a…

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