LATEST DRUDGE SURVEY
( Editors Note: 74% of all white voters in South Carolina voted against Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.)
Tea Party" leader Mark Williams appeared on a CNN panel on "Anderson Cooper 360" last night and promptly set to work discrediting himself and his movement. Williams denounced those carrying blatantly racist signs against President Obama during the tea parties as "no more part of the mainstream of America than the hippies who wear nipple clips and feather boas in San Francisco streets during so-called peace demonstrations."
Cooper had done his homework, however, and caught Williams blatantly misrepresenting himself: "What you're saying makes sense to me here when I'm hearing what you say but then I read on your blog, you say, you call the President an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and a racist in chief."
Williams shrugs and responds, "Yeah, that's the way he's behaving." An incredulous Cooper asks Williams if he really believes Obama is an Indonesian Muslim and a welfare thug. The tea party leader digs the hole a little deeper: "He's certainly acting like it. Until he embraces the whole country what else can I conclude."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/15/tea-party-leader-melts-do_n_286933.html
Drudge, through its subsidiary DALAUN (Drudge Against Liberals And Against Uppity Negros) has just completed a six month study on racial issues in this country. The results are startling. It turns out that no one is really 'color blind' at all.
The study was exhaustive covering fifty states as well as Guam. When asked why they decided to include Guam in the mix, Colonel Robert E. Lee, formerly of the 532nd and currently Assistant to the Assistant to Matt Drudge said:
I had been stationed on Guam over ten years ago and never had a finer time. This important survey gave me the opportunity to return and see if he could relive those days of yesteryear. Turns out I only 'discovered' the worst hangover of my life along with a new order for child support. Geeeeeeeeeez
Survey Methods
Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,021,453 national adults, aged 18 and older, as well as in person 'blind' interviews with 679,789 national adults, aged 18 and older; both methods conducted Feb. 10, 2009 through September 10, 2009. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points. For a measly $300,000 more, we could have given you a 96.5% confidence with a sampling error of 2.5 percentage points but noooooooooooo. Drudge said it needed the money to print special invites to members of Fox News to its Fall Extravaganza. C'est la vie.
Phone interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).
In person interviews were conducted in the following manner:
Subjects were selected randomly from telephone books. This part of the study was blind. The interviewee was led into a dark room after electrical tape covered his/her eyes. The interviewer was certifiably blind as indicated by a government agency. No dogs were allowed during the interview.
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls. We were paid so much money to conduct this survey that we kind of like to down play this disclaimer.
One caveat. All interviewees had to supply a DL or a DL number. So most alcoholics, epileptics and blind people were omitted from the survey results. But who cares really since alcoholics, epileptics and blind people are not real Americans anyway. Picture ID's, that's what I always say.
Jewish people were allowed to participate but we sure the hell made an awful lot of surveys were taken on Saturdays.
CHAPTER ONE: SOUTH CAROLINA AND TEABAGGERS
PATTERNS
http://cheezburger.com/View.aspx?aid=2634717696
http://cheezburger.com/View.aspx?aid=2634749952
http://cheezburger.com/View.aspx?aid=2634808064
These patterns are indeed startling. Now, while it is true that our polling organization is just learning the basics of pie chart methodology, certain patterns emerge. However we leave any conclusions to the readers.
OTHER SURVEY RESULTS
The following questions were asked of all participants:
1. Are you a teabagger or have you ever participated in teabagging?
THE SURVEY SAID:
A. Yes, I am a teabagger........................................001%
B. Yes I have participated as a teabagger.....................002%
C. Once in Cincinnati but I really liked the guy..............0004%
D. What the hell is a teabagger?......................................40%
E. Afternoons and some weekends............................59%
2. Do you like teabaggers?
THE SURVEY SAID:
A. yes I like teabaggers........................................ 09%
B. No I hate teabaggers.........................................55%
C. What the hell is a teabagger?......................................35%
D. Once in Cincinnati but I really liked the guy..............0004%
3. Do you like Barack Obama?
THE SURVEY SAID:
A. Yes, I like Barack Obama................................61%
B. No I do not like Barack Obama.........................30%
C. Can we just lynch the son of a bitch?......................06%
D. Who the hell is Barack Obama?...............................02%
E. I think he is the greatest golfer who ever lived..........01%
On his radio show yesterday, Beck declared, "You can't convince me that the founding fathers wouldn't allow you to secede. The constitution is not a suicide pact. ...
RUSH: Hey, look, folks, the white kid on that bus in Belleville, Illinois, he deserved to be beat up. You don't know about this story? Oh, there's video of this. The school bus filled with mostly black students beat up a white student a couple of times with all the black students cheering. Of course the white student on the bus deserved the beating. He was born a racist. That's what Newsweek magazine told us in its most recent cover. It's Obama's America, is it not? Obama's America, white kids getting beat up on school buses now. You put your kids on a school bus, you expect safety but in Obama's America the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, "Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on," and, of course, everybody says the white kid deserved it, he was born a racist, he's white. Newsweek magazine told us this. We know that white students are destroying civility on buses, white students destroying civility in classrooms all over America, white congressmen destroying civility in the House of Representatives.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_091509/content/01125106.guest.html
We can spot these people among us by their conversational giveaways: References to "European heritage", "those people", immigrants, foreigners, and more. Assertions of illegal immigrants voting in large numbers, as The Toothless Chihuahua asserted in another post earlier today, all these and more are dead-bang indicators.
Most of these ass...hats cannot describe any Obama policy to any degree of accuracy, so their assertions of policy as a basis for their disagreement begin to ring false very quickly.
"I want my country back!" seems to refer to the antebellum south to me. That, or some feudal dystopia such as Ayn Rand's more devoted followers might set up given a lot more talent and drive than most of them exhibit.
"Law and order" was another one - old Nixon milked the hell out of that, and we all knew damned well what the slimy little SOB was referring to.
And for those who still idolize old Saint Ronnie, the smiling fascist, just do a quick Google on Philadelphia, Mississippi.
Now, we are treated to the sorry spectacles such as Rush and Beck put up. And they've dropped their register from dog-whistle to Acme Thunderer - it's really quite discernible these days. To say nothing of annoying as hell.
And lest we think old "moderate" McCain was kinder and gentler, ask someone of Asian ancestry how kind and gentle his views toward them remain.
I'm going to stop here, lest I work myself into a rage. And yes, there is such a thing as righteous anger. When it comes to the racist lowlifes slinking around the fringes of political discourse, and infiltrating further - as is their ambition - righteous anger, directed at them, is just that.
September 16, 2009 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
'They' are getting braver Grouch.
I think this interview with Carter (one of my heroes by the by) was very important. Matthews is discussing it right now.
Alabama, Mississippi, Lousianna....11-14% of the white voters voted for President Barack Obama. Nationwide it's 43%.
The demagogues are having a field day.
September 16, 2009 7:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Me too. Carter is a wonderful human being and I love his wife too. They have done so much good with their lives. He was a good president. He was just sabbotaged at every turn by the right wing.
September 17, 2009 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well he was certainly attacked by the right but factors were in play that made any progress in the country seem insurmountable.
The Carters really dedicated their lives to helping people.
September 17, 2009 12:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've got to disagree, DD. It's not "getting braver," it's that they've been given a new weapon: if you tell them they are being racist, they'll say "you're playing the race card! I'm just comparing Obama to a watermelon. You're the racist!!"
Well, I guess you are right. With the new weapon, they are getting bolder. And within the terrain of semantic distortion that prevails, they actually believe that they are not being racist.
September 17, 2009 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
I wont be leaving this issue alone for long. rush just opined that it would be better to have segregated buses. I am amazed at how brazen this is. Takes me back to the fifties and early sixties.
September 17, 2009 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
When you are middle class and grow up in a segregated society then you are living in a culture that is afraid of those outside the White ghettos. You don't know them and they are different.
When you are working class White you take the attitudes of the middle class (who you aspire to join) and then compete with the minorities for jobs.
When you are upper class wealthy you work hard to accentuate the racial divisions so that you can hold wages down and get richer. It goes right along with being anti-union and has the same motivation. The culture of the South especially has been manipulated this way since the plantations first became successful selling their product (especially cotton and sugar) into international markets.
All of this is true whether the segregation is de jure or de facto. Removing the laws that enforce segregation merely remove one barrier that maintains a segregated society. It doesn't stop the banks from redlining neighborhoods or real estate people from steering people to neighborhoods by race.
That's why in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana only 11-14% of the white voters voted for Barack Obama as President. That's why South Carolina sends Sen. DeMint and Rep. Joe Wilson to Congress. That's why the Republicans do everything possible to keep potential Democrats and people of color from voting. That's why ACORN is being attacked by Glenn Beck (on behalf of his masters) because they have been effectively working to enfranchise African-American voters.
Does anyone wonder why the Christian evangelicals went to the South in the 1830's to evangelize the slaves and work for their freedom, and a generation later the evangelicals were preaching that the Bible teaches that slavery and segregation were God's will? Look at the structure of evangelical churches. They were bought by the plantation owners.
They are independent and depend on local funding to spread their message. If the plantation owners wanted a specific message preached, they supported the church of the Preacher who put out the "right" message. The other preachers were starved out if they weren't run out of town, or when it came time to hire a new preacher the church board would hire the one who offered the message the main church funders demanded.
The culture of the South is mostly rural and is spread by the churches. Once any culture is set, it is very hard to change without some centrally lead organization setting out to do it, and the evangelical churches are independent. The large ones will always go with what the crown demands and won't try to force it. Instead they will defend that local culture from "outside" attacks - as they have done since the federal government began desegregating schools and the military.
Those cultures, nurtured by the local churches and by the politicians who pander to the culture, are still fighting the "outside influence" of the federal government. That is the basis of the states rights argument, and it is a major element behind the conservative effort to kill health care reform.
One other thing. The oligarchs with wealth have moved on from the plantations in a lot of places as the economies became less dependent on agriculture. They now run big businesses and banks and often have become wealthy through real estate development. In Texas the worst run oil companies. But they still control State Government and fight to maintain an effectively segregated non-union work force. Another shift the oligarchs have made as the legal workplace segregation was reduced is the shift to stronger anti-union measures. The states where they are in control are called "Low tax - low service" states. The wealthy oligarchs are a subculture of their own and George W. Bush is a perfect example of that subculture.
Yes. The demagogues are having a field day. They are in their element and the wealthy oligarchs are funding them.
September 17, 2009 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, the oligarchy is afraid and I think this fear is being play on the right wing radio shows.
But they sure were jumping up and down in jubilation over the Baucus Bil--all this new money going directly to insurance companies.
This is all too complicated for me to comprehend. It is an impenetrable shield that even the greatest software cannot pierce.
September 17, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it gets simpler if you break it into three different interest groups each with different motives.
There is the base that is afraid of the social and economic changes. The conservative base is made up of people who look to authorities to determine what they believe. They are hierarchical in culture. A large part of that base is made up of fundamentalist religious cultural conservatives. Conservatives tend to be very much focused on hierarchy and on identity politics. Work and life functions are done more on the basis of personal relationships than on impersonal contracts between strangers. When they move to the city to get jobs, they prefer to live in homogeneous suburbs.
Democrats have their base in the cities which are more impersonal, fragmented, and where society is made up of people who work in more specialized jobs and functions. Diversity is important in the cities while cultural and religious homogeneity is much more important in the rural areas outside the cities.
Then there are the political leaders who depend on the base for their leadership positions, so they cater to that base. They get elected by being spokespersons for the ideas that the base accepts. The money for conservatives to run for office and to support themselves when out of office comes first from wealthy oligarchs, who provide seed money to politicians with messages they approve of. Some of the politicians actually believe what they are telling everyone - Bachman and Palin are two of those, I think. Many of the rest are opportunists who will say what is needed to get elected. Cornyn comes to mind there. Democratic politicians are more dependent on the base and less on oligarchs because the Democrats are the modern, urban party.
Finally there are the wealthy oligarchs whose main goal is to protect and build their wealth. They provide the seed money to help appropriate politicians gain power and they fund the think tanks that provide the messages (Identify alleged problems or enemies and recommend solutions) that are broadcast to the base. They also provide seed money to religious leaders who preach the appropriate messages to their flocks, and who organize their churches to support the proper politicians. This group is the source of the low-tax movement and the effort to repeal the inheritance taxes.
The biggest difference I can see between the Republican and the Democratic politicians is that the base each plays to has either a traditional or a modern culture. That makes the conservatives with their traditional culture a much more comfortable home for the wealthy oligarchs. They depend on the status quo to maintain their wealth. That means that conservative politicians are much more dependent on the oligarchs and on the think tanks they fund. Democratic politicians will tend to be more dependent on the base itself.
That's the political structure as I see it right now. There are additional details and subgroups, but this is the main structure.
September 17, 2009 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is just too damn funny. LSOHIH (Laughing so hard I hurt).
C
September 16, 2009 9:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am afraid only you and I are laughing C. hahahah
September 16, 2009 9:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
There does seem to be a lot of racist empowerment lately.
It's so depressing.
September 16, 2009 9:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
"But noooooooooooooooooooooo!"
Hahaha!
Best stat is right there at top: 74%, eh? Whew!
Rec'd heartily, and I petulantly urge you not to go there with the razzmatazz about Carter being not such a bad President! Yipes! Lead with strength, Mr. Day!
Your allegiant servitor,
Overreach THIS!
September 17, 2009 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, how about the Carters as great citizens OT and leave it at that.
So many real enemies out there.
They seem defenseless when you break down their blather...but they sure have a following.
damn!!!
September 17, 2009 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
They are amazing citizens, an awesome inspiration, and I mean that fully. Awesome.
September 17, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great blog, DD. Hilarious! Lots of work, but worth it. I love this: DALAUN
But. . .Carter is your HERO??? Say it ain't so.
September 16, 2009 9:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jimmy Carter has done more as a citizen than any single person in this country. And I should include his partner, his lovely wife.
He is America's Bono.
His admin was not as bad as some recall.
He is and was always a saintly man.
I should do a blog on him.
September 16, 2009 9:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yup, Rosalyn was my favorite first lady. Until now.
September 16, 2009 9:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know, I am in love with Michelle myself.
Jesus, a Harvard attorney, a mom, First Lady, has a wonderful mommy and brother.
September 16, 2009 10:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
And i always felt safe from Jimmy pushing the nuclear buttons; back then, that was no small item. Plus he foretold the energy crisis, and wore his little sweater to remind us to turn the thermostats down. Would that we had listened to him about energy conservation and imported fuels! He inspired me and my husband to write articles for the local papers on dependence on foreign oil, and how to conserve, and winterize our houses. I admot, most people thought we were extreme nut-bags. (That hasn't changed much.) (smile)
September 16, 2009 10:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
see, you tell truth. If certain measures had been put in place...er kept in place through the fascist reagan dynasty....
THINGS WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT
September 16, 2009 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. And Carter actually defended himself against that aqua-rabbit attack, instead of relying on the Secret Service. Seriously, Carter was the first liberal to be assaulted by the then recently organized "New Right." Buying into the line that he was the "worst President" just shows how vulnerable one is to a very toxic species of propaganda.
Hail Jimmy!
September 17, 2009 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
I really liked and still like and respect Carter, but he should never have been President. He was an engineer who solved problems, not a politician who built coalitions and identified problems to solve. It's been my experience that the best engineers need to work for a good politician who can protect them from the political problems caused by the engineer's tendency to tunnel-thinking and objectifying the problem and its solution.
There's a reason why the Army calls Annapolis the Trade School. It turns out people who think like engineers. And the nuclear submarine program in the 50's got the best and the brightest engineers they put out. Carter wasn't an effective politician in 1976. He didn't have to be. Nixon in essence handed the Presidency in 1974 to a Democrat to be named later, and Jimmy Carter was able to solve the problem of how to get the nomination in 1976.
Unfortunately, Carter did not like party politics. a large number of engineers share that attitude. Politics are messy and highly inefficient. But the result was that as President Carter and his Georgia Mafia did very little to build the Democratic Party and when he solved problems individually he did not consider how his solutions would effect the power of the Presidency in the next issue. In essence the Carter team handed the Presidency off with relatively little effective fight to the people who had organized to get Reagan elected. They did not build strength to defeat the opposition in 1980.
I very much agree with your opinion of Carter other than that, and I think that Carter himself has taken a lot of the lessons from his time as President. Unfortunately, he learned a lot of them in the 1980 election when he lost. I'll also agree that I am drawing a distinction between engineers and politicians that is more stark than is true in reality. But the best engineers generally don't like the best politicians much.
That's my opinion, anyway.
September 17, 2009 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
You touch on many issues as usual. This talk of engineers....someone should write a book on engineers from the standpoint of the real origin of inventions over the last thousand years.
It was not the philosopher, or the 'scientist', it was the engineer who 'came up' with things.
This model does not work in the context of leadership.
September 17, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. What I think is the difference in thinking is that engineers objectify the problem and solution, then implement it. The politicians go the opposite direction and instead of objectifying the problem they build coalitions of people who want something done, then get them to work together.
I think that's the core difference between engineer thinking and political thinking. Most of the failed computer programs I have used over my life have failed largely because the programmers did not consider "the human element" sufficiently. That phrase "the human element" is engineer-speak for "How do we objectify this problem and remove the human uncertainty?" In large businesses that would also explain the perpetual conflict between the sales and production departments. The best people in each department find it difficult to understand how the best people in the other department think.
September 17, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
All this fuss over some African-American who can play golf really well, I don't get it.
But seriously folks CSNY probably said (sang) it best
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB_qmRjetdE
September 17, 2009 12:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
One of my all time favorite. A straight punch by Young right into the face of good old strom and helms and the rest.
You KNOW there is some ridiculous percentage, some large number of people WHO REALLY DO NOT KNOW WHOIS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES--in the United States.
September 17, 2009 12:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
and 70% of Repubs either think Obama isn't a citizenm, or are not sure. On Rachel Madow, Repubs in NJ, 17% think he is the antichrist, and another percentage aren't sure.
Really, it comes down to humanity or as a video you posted on my last blog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k34COolbdmY
September 17, 2009 12:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
After the last few months, I'm ready to leave security behind now. It is time social justice and peace.
Let Arlo and Pete say it the way it needs to be said
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSIy0wq_-8A
September 17, 2009 12:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
I bookmarked this for later and chat. I do shed a tear...Woody's son and his old song mate Pete...singin what should be our national anthem.
AC, if I were younger I would surely eschew any potential family and opt for Move-on or some far far left organization.
THIS FIGHT IS NEVER ENDING.
And I am irrelevant.
Funny, how Woody, from his grave still makes me feel relevant. ha!!!
September 17, 2009 12:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
In whatever we do, we do for Woody. A true American.
September 17, 2009 12:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
All you need to do is offer a couch for weary. Bless us all.
September 17, 2009 12:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Many thought Woody was unamerican - That's it, let's blast out the tea parties with Woody Gutherie tunes! Starting with this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2eO65BqxBE&feature=related
September 17, 2009 11:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
That would do just fine. Probably get them flailing like Damien approaching a church.
September 17, 2009 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
And in sweet memory of Mary, peace be with her
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ9vuQvx1Eg&feature=related
September 17, 2009 12:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Dang, acamus - great song, but did you read the comments below? These MoFos are everywhere, even slimming the incredible CSNY. I'm calling the Toxic Avenger.
September 17, 2009 11:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
The big fat idiot is claiming that the black kids were screaming right on, right on, right on, right on? Wasn't there a sitcom a few decades ago where the major characters (black?) said right on?
What's a mother to do? I went back and watched the video again. The kids weren't screaming right on. That was the bus driver yelling sit down!
Laughed and cried through your blog. That's how I know it was excellent. Thanks, dd.
Rushbo has jumped the shark and I hope the Coast Guard is tired of rescuing his fat whale-like ass. It's time to feed the fishes.
September 17, 2009 3:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Glad you liked it Seashell.
You know every time I find myself in a bit of a rut a couple of items from a couple web sites hit me.
I have followed the big fat idiot by just sticking with Mediamatters who have a couple of staff members who just follow him every day for three hours.
rush and savage and beck especially have become braver and braver, bolder and bolder....
nobody does a goddamn thing about it either.
Remember, we lost Moyers, Mahr, Koppel, Rather...so many when the right wingers took over.
There are regulations being violated pursuant to
licensing agreements even though its radio.
These nazis are rallying the troops.
Very dangerous.
September 17, 2009 3:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Speaking of jobs, did you see this? Secretary by Day, Royalty by Night: Embassy Worker Remotely Rules a Ghanaian Town.
Now that is what I call moonlighting. Monday through Thursday, Peggielene Bartels works as a secretary in the Embassy of Ghana in D.C., something she has done for the last 30 years. Thursday evenings she flies to her kingdom and takes up her rightful position as King of Otuam, Ghana.
No, dd. I would not kid you! Bog about that why dontcha?!. :-)
September 17, 2009 5:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is Bizarro Superman Seashell. I went to bed at five or something and everything is still kind of blurry--which reminds me, how do you get hangovers without any alcohol?
At any rate, a female 'king' with a part-time job. There is a fairy tale, probably Grimm Bros...actually saw a presentation of this as a play many years ago.. I shall have to think about this.
It was about a poor monarch.
September 17, 2009 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink