The Old Haunt
-
- October
- 28
Whhooooo!! The ghost of campaign tactics past. Usually people buy the Democrats-raise-taxes-and-spend-like-socialists pantomime line, which may or may not be true, but it glosses over the fact that modern day Republicans spend even more than Dems do. They are all at it. Look at federal spending over the last decade.
Add to that the fear of unemployment and shrinking retirement nest-egg syndrome and the old ghost costume probably isn’t going to trick anyone this time around.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 10:56 am by Matt Davies.
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If that ghost costume had a pointed hood on it, it would be a little closer to the truth. But it would also be a little too inflammatory.
So that’s what McCain looks like without all the celebrity-caliber make-up…
I think that the punch-line would have been more effective if the voter had been being held by the monster’s fist upsidedown instead of rightsideup. Or maybe the recession isn’t that deep yet? (Not pointed sarcasm, I don’t really know because I have no stake in the economy)
Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?
-jp (actually, Joseph Nye Welch)
Good quote, JP. Now I’m curious to know who the Joe McCarthy is in your scenario?!
I don’t know about you Sharon but with Obama’s ties to the
racist swine reverened wright and Michelle Obama’s anti-American stance i think the white hood would be more appropriate on Obama’s head than McCain’s.
Sharon/Bulldog.
I think a KKK hood would be inappropriate in both cases. To call either of the candidates racist is a cheap shot.
Hood or no hood, I’m quite sure that Mcain is just a touch past the age cut off to go trick or treating. Enough with the handouts!!
Hey, Bulldog (and you really have to wonder about a guy who calls himself “Bulldog”), get your head out of your ass – it’s stinking up your thinking.
Hey BASHEA (and you really have to wonder about a dip who calls himself BASHEA,whatever that means) tell me where i’m wrong? reverened wright is not a racist? What’s stinking up
your thinking?
I tread into these waters reluctantly…
Rev. Wright is no more hateful than Rev. Hagee (who endorsed McCain) and is certainly less bigoted. Rev. Wright, in denouncing how the U.S. has failed to care for its black minority citizens, was entirely correct within the context of his personal experience. Unless you have stepped outside of your white privilege (something I always try to do even though it is uncomfortable) and really experienced the manner in which the mainstream U.S. culture systemically suppresses, demeans, and vilifies black Americans, then you have no platform upon which you may stand and shout ignorance. Let us hope, then, that you can tread water…
Delicately put Toaster.
The Al-Jazeera race at rallies scandal raises the whole question quite acutely. It seems people see two different scandals, strangely almost on Rep/Dem lines. One view, a scandal that the voters said it, the other a scandal that Al-Jazeera said it.
For those of you who haven’t had the chance to experience Al Jazeera, give it a go if you can. It’s not pure rabid muslim propagands – it can’t be, or they’d have probably been bombed already
In fact, in terms of balance, they are the anti-Fox, reporting on issues from all over the world, giving great weight to opposing views, highly critical of regimes like Russia, China, Burma, N. Korea et al. and most likely you will be surprised to find not simply a hot-house of anti-Americanism. It’s really rather good – it certainly surprised me, and I actually prefer it to the BBC in many ways.
Oops. I fogot, they were bombed, weren’t they?
Failed to care for it’s black citizens Toaster? Here’s an
idea. Why don’t they care for themselves? I’m tired of excuses. Try pulling your own weight instead of needing a babysitter all the time. The U.S. has never “Cared” for me.
Guess what? I had to care for myself. I don’t know much
about this Rev. Hagee but i’ll believe what you say. This
being the case which Racist candidate are you voting for?
What a sad state we are in.
Bulldog,
Every time you have used a road or a bridge, you have been “cared” for.
The police “care” for you.
The firefighters “care” for you.
The military “cares” for you.
If you went to public schools, you were “cared” for.
Every time you flush the toilet, you are being “cared” for.
The list is endless of ways you have been “cared” for through the redistribution of wealth with tax money. Get off your high horse and get a clue.
Get a grip McGriff. I PAID for those services. Nobody “cared” for me. It goes back to pulling your own
weight. Toaster is talking about “cared for” handouts.I don’t have a high horse to get off of, i can’t afford one and the government isn’t going to give me one. I have to earn it which is what this discussion is about.
It’s all about perception. Bull, if (God forbid) you lost your job tomorrow, you would, like anyone else, be entitled to unemployment benefits and healthcare for your family, until you could get back in the saddle. That’s why you and I pay – So that nobody falls through the cracks, including us. It’s not a perfect system, and if you are very lucky you will never have to avail yourself of its services. Yes, there are a small percentage of people that abuse it, but there are those that abuse the free market system too (as we know all too well.) The point is that a cohesive, calm, legally bound economic system won’t work unless there is a basic level that we won’t let any citizen fall below. That is what I expect my Government to provide. The result of allowing people to fall through the cracks en mass is chaos and lawlessness. Look at the seeds of any revolution in history. Look at what happened in Iraq when it was “between Governments.”
No thanks. I think our system works better. I’m actually quite proud of it.
I should also add that I do understand the fears of redistributionism. It’s scary trusting elected officials with our tax money. We must be very careful to vet the character of a politician before handing him/her the keys to the public coffer.
I for one was horrified when Dubya used my hard-earned money to invade Iraq, create an extra legal gulag, gut federal environmental protections, authorize torture and wiretapping and then used even more of it to bail out banks that got burned played fast and loose.
Talk about Big Government.
i don’t have a problem with a social service system Matt
it’s just that the ONLY thing i qualify for is unemployment. I worked for it though. I pay for many other services that I DON’T get. All i’m saying is that you should do something for that money,anything and not just
sit around waiting for the next check. Happy Halloween.
Bulldog,
You’ve personally paid for every road and bridge you’ve used? You’ve paid for the entire police and fire departments? You’ve personally paid for the courts and prisons? Of course you haven’t. You help pay for these services like the rest of us. We need each other for this society to work. That’s how the country is caring for you. You seem to have no idea the goods and services you are getting. It would be a lot more expensive if you had to pay for your own police, fire, military, teachers, etc.
Matt,
None of your hard-earned money has paid for the invasion of Iraq – yet. That $600 billion present (and growing by $10 billion a month) is all on the country’s credit card, mostly borrowed from China. Now let me think, who holds the power: the person borrowing or the bank lending?
Bulldog,
I was simply trying to address the hypocritical bias you created when you put Rev. Wright’s face on a straw man argument and falsely called it truth by pointing out that Rev. Wright is no more extreme than the pastors who support McCain (yet McCain isn’t attacked for their support or affiliation) and to shed light into the context around his rather blunt indictments of the U.S.. You, however, have brought up the racially-coded argumentative trope of “I PAID FOR IT! THEY DIDN’T!”. And by proxy, you’ve also invoked affirmative action. As an aside, the government was most certainly bailing out your ancestors with great bailouts when it pursued Manifest Destiny and conquered the West from Savages.
Let me try to explain this:
It is true that everyone must pay taxes that go in to a pool that pay to provide basic infrastructure and public services and that everyone is entitled to the fruits of their taxes. It is also a current truth that certain demographic minorities rely on these services at a rate disproportionate to their total contribution, however, they are still citizens of this country and as such are guaranteed the support of their government. It would be rather quite un-democratic of us as a nation to decide that low-education, low-income rural white Americans no longer deserve Medicare assistance or foodstamps because they don’t pay as many gross taxes. We are a free country where everyone is at least equal on paper. Nonetheless, when African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans continue to suffer from disproportionately greater mortality and morbidity regardless of cause, lower net life income despite education, and greater rates of incarceration even when crime per capita is controlled for (just to name a few), there exist undeniable systemic inequalities in American society. These inequalities are the remaining echoes of past overt racism and they continue to affect people greatly even today. Affirmative action and social programs are not ideal solutions, but they are the best Band-Aids we have. Ideally in a free society, everyone would be judged and rewarded solely on the basis of the work they have done, yet study after study has shown that a black American with an ethnic name is much less likely to get a job than a white American with a white name even when experience and education are controlled for. These truths are uncomfortable because we now like to pretend that the 48 years since the Civil Rights Amendment was passed have healed everything. These truths force us to acknowledge that maybe the American dream isn’t as all-encompassing or inclusive as we thought. But it’s true, so please stop wasting your time with petty tropes and acknowledge it. Perhaps then we can all move towards a more just society.
You can give me all the history you want toaster which is
just another way of making excuse after excuse for people
who don’t pull their weight. I wish i could make excuses but i’m not alllowed.
Yeah, Toaster, history and facts are bad; conservative radio talking points are good.
Nothing wrong with history McGriff all i’m saying is don’t
use it as an excuse. I don’t listen to conservative radio
so i don’t know much about it but if you say it’s good i’ll
believe you.
Bulldog, you’re being naive.
What happened in the past informs the present. The past is not an excuse, but the past shaped the present directly. In order to have an equitable and just present where everyone is equally free, then we must acknowledge the past.
When a black man is followed around a shop incessantly because of subconscious fears that he may steal something, he is being made less free than his white peers. When a Hispanic American is paid less than a white American for the same labor and skills, he is being made less free. I am not talking about opportunity nor about demeaning the work that you have put in to building your own success, I am speaking about fundamental equity among all people of this nation and their accompanying equal freedoms.
This is about people in modern day America pulling their weight toaster not about a black man being followed around in a store or a hispanic man not being paid enough. What
you’re talking about is something my mother taught me years ago. “Life isn’t fair get used to it.” Do you really think
no white people have ever been screwed in this country?
Bulldog, I think we’re just going to have to agree to disagree.
You see life as fundamentally unfair. I realize this truth, but see it as a moral imperative to make sure that life is as fair as possible for the greatest possible number of people.