Unintentional Haw-haws

Here's a item currently being sold by one of my favorite mail-order/Internet retailers:

Wear your pride on your sleeve (and every place else) with this very patriotic Polo. Classically styled Shirt has images of both the U.S. Flag and the Declaration of Independence printed on it.

100% cotton knit with 3-button front, rib-knit collar and cuffs. Straight hem with side-split seams to ensure unencumbered flag-waving. Double-stitched hem. Machine wash / line dry. Imported[!!!!!!!!]

Now, don't get me wrong, I buy a lot of clothes from this particular retailer, and I won't embarrass the company by including an Internet link. I still want to buy things from'em. And they've embarrassed themselves enough by prominently displaying this "patriotic" shirt on the cover of their current mail order catalogue.

I'm sure the company will sell plenty of these shirts and the majority of the purchasers will never see the irony in a shirt emblazoned with the American flag and Constitution made in China, Bangladesh or some other Third World shit hole.

A fighter for the non-bitter, "common" man

I guess Hillary's ready to go out and slop some hogs, chew some chaw, noodle some catfish and maybe, just maybe, talk Chelsea into enlisting in the All Volunteer Force because it's such a great job opportunity.

I had the TV on during breakfast this morning and caught the tail-end of some ridiculousness about Hillary Clinton and John McCain's campaign saying that Barack Obama insulted small-town, under- and unemployed Pennsylvanians for pointing out that these people are in fact bitter and cynical after twenty-five years of political pandering, outsourcing, layoffs, tax breaks for the rich and a no-win war where their kids go to die.


It seems the elitist, effete, intellectual Obama had the temerity to say:

Here's how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter).

But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What's the concrete thing?' What they wanna hear is -- so, we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing -- close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama's gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we're gonna provide health care for every American. So we'll go down a series of talking points.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Mayhill Fowlers, Huffington Post.com April 11, 2008

But these good Pennsylvanians aren't bitter, responds Ms. Clinton. They're just happy-go-lucky "folks" who think that stocking shelves and chasing down shopping carts in the parking lot is the best job in the world, now that the steel mill moved it's operations to Bongo-Congo in order to remain competative in a worldwide "free market" economy. Said Ms. Clinton of these happy-go-lucky "folks":

"It's being reported that my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who've faced hard times are bitter. Well, that's not my experience. As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive who are rolling up their sleeves. They're working hard every day for a better future for themselves and their children. Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them."

Certainly these non-bitter, resilient optimists know how Ms Clinton fought for workers' rights during her six-year tenure as board member and general counsel for Wal Mart. And they must also know she fought her husband, Bill, tooth and nail over the ratification of NAFTA.

That was yesterday. Today this tireless fighter for the little guy, Ms. Clinton said:

"[I'm]taken aback by the demeaning remarks Sen. Obama made about people in small town America."

"Sen. Obama's remarks are elitist and out of touch, they are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans, certainly not the Americans I know, not the Americans I grew up with, not the Americans I lived with in Arkansas or represent in New York."
CNN Political Ticker.com

Now if that kind of crap isn't enough to make one bitter and cynical you're just not paying attention.

More Who Writes This Shit??

The things one finds in his email Inbox:

DO I HAVE THIS STRAIGHT?

HIS FATHER WAS AN BLACK AFRICAN MUSLIM FROM KENYA.
WE HAVE SEEN PICTURES OF HIS AFRICAN FAMILY.

HIS MOTHER WAS A WHITE AMERICAN ATHEIST FROM KANSAS.
WHERE ARE THE PICTURES OF HIS AMERICAN FAMILY?

HIS FATHER DESERTED HIS MOTHER WHEN HE WAS ONLY TWO YEARS OLD AND WENT BACK TO AFRICA BY WAY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. HOW? WAS HIS FATHER WEALTHY?

HIS MOTHER MARRIED AN INDONESIAN MUSLIM AND THEN MOVED TO JAKARTA WHERE HE WAS ENROLLED IN A MUSLIM SCHOOL.

WHEN HE REACHED HIGH SCHOOL AGE HIS MOTHER SENT HIM TO HAWAII TO BE WITH HIS WHITE GRANDPARENTS AND HE WAS PUT INTO AN EXPENSIVE PRIVATE SCHOOL. HE LATER WENT TO HARVARD UNIVERSITY. HOW? WERE HIS GRANDPARENTS RICH?

HE LIVES IN A $1.4 MILLION HOUSE OBTAINED THROUGH A DEAL WITH A WEALTHY FUNDRAISER. HOW?

HE "WORKED" AS A CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST IN CHICAGO. HE HAS NEVER HELD A PRODUCTIVE JOB OR RECEIVED A PAY CHECK THAT WAS NOT GOVERNMENT-FUNDED AND/OR TAXPAYER SUPPORTED.

THE PRESIDENCY IS NOT A CIVIL RIGHTS POSITION, NOR IS IT SUBJECT TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION SET ASIDES; ON-THE-JOB TRAINING WON'T CUT IT.

HE ENTERED POLITICS AT THE STATE LEVEL AND THEN THE NATIONAL LEVEL WHERE HE HAS MINIMAL EXPERIENCE.

HE IS PROUD OF HIS "AFRICAN HERITAGE" (A FATHER WHO GOT A WHITE GIRL PREGNANT AND DESERTED HER).

WHERE IS THE PRIDE IN HIS "WHITE HERITAGE"? (A MOTHER WHO FLAUNTED CONVENTION AND DID NOT BELIEVE IN GOD).

SOME MIGHT THINK THERE WAS NOT MUCH TO BE PROUD OF EITHER WAY.

HE BELONGS, AND HAS BELONGED FOR OVER 20 YEARS, TO AN "AFRO-CENTRIC" CHURCH IN CHICAGO THAT HATES WHITES, HATES JEWS, AND BLAMES AMERICA FOR ALL THE WORLD'S PERCEIVED FAULTS. (INCLUDING CREATING THE AIDs VIRUS IN ORDER TO INFLICT IT ON AFRICANS).

HE REPEATEDLY WHITEWASHES THE PASTOR, HIS CHURCH AND THE MEMBERS WHO CHEERED AFTER HEARING VITRIOLIC TIRADES AGAINST AMERICA.

HE COULD NOT CONFRONT HIS PASTOR BUT HE WANTS US TO BELIEVE HE CAN CONFRONT NORTH KOREA AND IRAN ?
YEAH RIGHT ! !

DURING HIS VERY BRIEF TIME IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE HE HAS MANAGED TO AMASS THE NUMBER ONE ULTRA LIBERAL VOTING RECORD OUT OF THE ONE HUNDRED MEMBERS.

HE HAS VOTED CONSISTENTLY FOR BIGGER GOVERNMENT AND HIGHER TAXES. HE HAS VOTED FOR BIG ENTITLEMENTS AND LEGISLATION THAT WOULD SEVERELY CURTAIL AMERICA'S ABILITY TO FIGHT TERRORISM AND TO PROTECT OUR BORDERS AND OUR NATIONAL INTERESTS AROUND THE WORLD.

BUT, HE IS A GOOD ORATOR. ISN'T THAT A COMFORT?

YEAH, I THINK I SEE HOW WELL HE COULD UNITE THE COUNTRY.

I THINK THE TRUTH IS THAT HE HOPES NO ONE WILL PUT THE PIECES TOGETHER.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO OUR NEW CHIEF PILOT. HE HAS NEVER FLOWN AN AIRPLANE, IN FACT HE HAS NEVER EVEN SAT IN THE COCKPIT, BUT HE SAYS HE HAS RIDDEN ON PLANES BEFORE. WE ARE SURE HE WILL GUIDE US SAFELY THROUGH THE STORMS WE MAY ENCOUNTER ON THIS FLIGHT. PEOPLE WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD THE STORY ABOUT THE WOLF HIDING IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING SO HE CAN DESTROY THEM FROM WITH-IN ? THE HAND WRITING IS ON THE WALL, DO YOU NOT HAVE EYES TO SEE IT ?BINGO IS THE ONE !

THINK LONG AND HARD BEFORE YOU VOTE FOR THIS GUY!

You would think that by now people would be savvy enough, sophisticated enough to question an anonymously authored, unattributed email purporting to be truth. But, alas, no.

Of course the most stinging "criticism" this list of half-truths and innuendos raises against Obama, besides being mothered by an atheist and being pastored by a "racist," Black, Christian minister, is that he never in his life worked a "productive" job, meaning in the private sector for a bank, lending institution, real estate, so on and so forth.

Of course this e-missive overlooks the fact that the never-mentioned "Senator" John McCain has sucked off Uncle Sugar's tit for his entire life. He was born on a Navy base in the Panama Canal Zone, both his father and grandfather were admirals in the U.S. Navy; after graduating fifth lowest in his Annapolis Naval Academy class of 1958 he went on to an distinguish himself by promptly getting shot down over North Vietnam and taking up residence in the so-called Hanoi Hilton for five years.

Here we pick up the narrative of McCain's life from the Web site Biography.com:

Though McCain had lost most of his physical strength and flexibility, he was determined to continue serving as a naval aviator. After a painful nine months of rehabilitation, he returned to flying duty, but it soon became clear that his injuries had permanently impaired his ability to advance in the Navy.

His introduction to politics came in 1977, when he was assigned as the Navy's liaison to the U.S. Senate. In 1980, after marrying his second wife, Cindy Hensley, McCain moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and began working on establishing connections in politics. He was first elected to political office in 1982, easily winning a seat in the House of Representatives when his well-known war record helped overcome doubts about his "carpetbagger" status.

So were is McCain's experience in the vaunted "private" sector. The only reference I find is this line from the Web site Keep and Share.com, "In 1980, McCain married Cindy Hensley and moved to Phoenix, where he went to work for his father-in-law's Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship." So two years working in his father-in-law's beer distributorship is all the experience in the "private" sector John McCain has on his resume. Two years later off to the U.S. House and back on Uncle Sugar's tit up to the present. Talk about your "Washington insider."

Of course our wing nutty friends rationalize this away. "Duh, McCain spend five years prisoner of war...he hero...he only get from 'Murican people what he deserve."

And, as I've pointed out before, this garbage works particularly well on white, suburban men, and women, who like to proclaim loudly and often how hard working they are at down at the bank, lending institution, real estate office and so on, as they put their feet upon the desk and lace their fingers behind their heads. The other audience for this type of propaganda are lower-working class whites, those most adversely effected by the looming economic depression (which "President" John McCain says he will do nothing about.) Perhaps this email, and others like it along with electronic lynchings by association, helps explain McCain drawing even with Obama in the latest presidential polls. These types of sub rosa campaigns are very effective because they appear to be written by an average Joe, like me, and so appear to echo the thoughts of the person, or persons, forwarding the email. But they are dishonest.

Once again let me paraphrase Jimmy Carter in noting that America deserves a government as good as its people. And if John McCain wins in November that can only mean that the American people are truly stupid, easily influenced, emotional babies who get exactly what they deserve.