And love for freedom (both religious and political) and love for personal independence and love for hard work and ingenuity, and respect for individual responsibility, etc etc After all, Americans were no more racists and sexists than the rest of the world - it was a global disease that's, hopefully, starting to pass, at least here and in Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia, etc. Yes, the old racists are dying out, thank God (wasn't senior Democrat Senator Byrd a Grand Wizard in the KKK?) but some new, very scary ones are asserting themselves daily, many of them from the south side of Chicago...
Laura Ingraham: Lie Of The Day "Barack Obama, putting his oil ignorance on full display, claimed: "We could open up every square inch of America to drilling and we still wouldn't even make a dent in our oil dependency. We could open up ANWR today, and at its peak, which would be more than a decade from now, it would give us enough oil to take care of our transportation needs for about a month. Clearly, this is not a solution.""
HOW TO PICK A VICE PRESIDENT By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN "Bill Clinton's selection of Al Gore changed forever the calculus presidential candidates need to use in choosing their running mates. Previously, presidential candidates usually used their VP pick to help them to carry a pivotal state or region, as JFK did in choosing Lyndon Johnson in 1960. But the single state theory doesn't work anymore. Voters can tell the difference between the first and second place on the ticket and don't let the tail wag the dog in determining their votes. After all, John Kerry couldn't carry North Carolina even after putting Edwards on his 2004 ticket. Instead, presidential candidates should use their VP choice to make a statement about their own candidacy. The vice president is a candidate's first and most important appointment. Gore served Clinton well because his selection made the generational subtext of the race against Bush Sr. explicit â two babyboomers challenged the last of the G.I. Generation presidents. This year, Barack Obama suffers from an obvious lack of Washington and national security experience. Even his most avid fans have to wonder if two years in the U.S. Senate (before he started to run for president) is enough experience. Just as Bush, who had never served in Washington, chose Cheney and Dukakis looked to Lloyd Bentsen to provide gravitas and federal expertise, so Obama needs to look toward Washington in finding his running mate. He needs to select someone with national security credentials and DC know-how. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Biden (D-Del.) impressed us all in the Democratic debates. He, or Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), would make good choices. Obama would be ill-advised to choose Hillary since Bill comes as part of the package. The former president's lack of campaign trail discipline and questions about his recent financial dealings would dog the Democratic ticket, burdens Obama does not need. The obvious temptation for Obama is to choose another woman to reach out to the Hillary supporters. But it's hard to find one who satisfies the need to bolster his national security credentials. For McCain, the pressing need is to lend excitement to his candidacy. His low key delivery (one often wonders if he is putting himself to sleep with his own speeches) does not provoke anything like the excitement that Obama does. He needs to go for a "WOW" in his choice of a vice president â like Mondale did in 1984 when he chose Geraldine Ferraro. He lost, but it wasn't Gerry's fault. Where could McCain get a "WOW"? The most obvious choice would be Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Her intellect and genuine model of feminism (moving up without a husband to blaze the path) make her very attractive. She's identified with the Iraq War, but no more so than McCain himself, and her forthright battle against Iranian and North Korean nuclear ambitions would burnish her credentials. But Condi may not want it. Her predecessor as secretary of state, General Colin Powell would also bring a pretty good sized "WOW" with him. While he was tarnished by the false intelligence information on which he relied to defend the Iraq War in the United Nations, Powell still has plenty of star dust. And both Powell and Rice know how to handle themselves under pressure. Or McCain could cross party lines and choose Connecticut Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman. By demonstrating that his candidacy is truly post-partisan, McCain could be the first presidential candidate to run on a coalition ticket since Abraham Lincoln did it at the height of the Civil War in 1864. The prospect of a bi-partisan ticket would be irresistible to many swing voters and would graphically offer rebuttal to the charge that McCain is just Bush III. Even if Rice says no, McCain could still achieve a "WOW" by choosing a woman for his ticket. But here he has to be careful. There is no clear standout choice among GOP female senators or governors. To reach down and tap one of those who are available could carry a risk that she would not be able to handle herself well at the national level. So Obama needs a VP who offers reassurance and McCain needs a WOW. No ordinary running mate will do for either ticket."
IMAO: Explosive Wuss "Harry Reid is trying to spread the rumor that McCain has an explosive temper, but do you get feeling that the guy is such a little wimp that everything just seems like a scary explosive temper to him? I mean, if you look up "dickless" in the dictionary, there's a picture of Harry Reid right next to it smiling like a goober. I bet if you're around him and you raise your tone of voice even slightly or make one movement faster than the norm, Reid will wet his pants and scream, "Explosive temper! Don't hurt me!" Really, if McCain had an explosive temper, wouldn't Reid be dead? I'm angry just hearing about him. Being around that slimy weasel should provoke about anyone to a violent outburst."
And if, God forbid, they get the POWER to oppress an entire group of people through systematic means, then you might have a case. Until then, you have no more a case than saying an Indian or a Mexican is "racist". You don't treat a man eating lion like a vegetarian.
Oh my.... ALL white men ages 17-40 are white collar criminals. How do I know? Every white collar crime, which extensively more harmfull long term than blue collar crime, has been committed by a white man between the ages of 17 and 40. Wow.
Something tells me that if MLK were with us today he would say (among others) something to the effect: "...I have a dream that ... will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their collar but by the content of their character."
I don't think you and I disagree deep down (or at least I hope not) but for me, living in a society free from racism means that a black murderer is as guilty as a white murderer, a black racist is as guilty as a white racist, in the same way that blacks and whites are all the same in the eye of the law. The point is that from a racist society we are advancing rapidly towards a non-racist society, or you can call it "color blind" society. We don't want to go from a white dominated society to a black dominated society... and then we see, who knows! Some kind of social revenge in this context makes no sense, it's fairness we want to establish and keep. I know that certain people don't agree with this position (look, for example, at this "black liberation theology" stuff) but I also believe that the vast majority of Americans, blacks and whites alike, are with me on this.
Chuck Norris Supports The "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" Petition From www.AmericanSolutions.com: "As gas prices are at an all-time high, the American people are demanding that Congress take action to drill here and drill now. More than 650,000 Americans have signed the "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" petition, and that number keeps growing rapidly each day. Increasing domestic energy resources is not a Republican or Democrat issue; it's about lowering gas prices for hard-working American families. With more than 650,000 Americans on board, a groundswell of grassroots support is rising up to pressure Congress to stop playing partisan politics and start using more of our domestic energy resources. We're excited to announce today that Chuck Norris is supporting our "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" campaign. Watch him talk about it in this new YouTube video: http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=JnVVkCsw41c "