The Coloured European Observer's Blog

What did Bush do that was so bad?

2009-10-28T11:06:35Z

Found this somewhere. Worth repeating.

God didn't bless Bush because he was out for the rich white men alone. He cared nothing about what happened to the poor, the middle class, blacks, Asians, white women, Hispanics, Indians, Native Americans, etc:

1. "One of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people's money to help prevent there to be a crisis." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009

2. "I'm telling you there's an enemy that would like to attack America, Americans, again. There just is. That's the reality of the world. And I wish him all the very best." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009

3. Sat back and did nothing for a week and a half as New Orleans drowned in rape, looting and water during Hurricane Katrina. He let this happen because he knew that poor whites, Democrats and blacks lived there and he knew that they weren't supporting him or his party.

4. Threw 2 white female war protesters in a cold jail cell naked on fake trespassing charges.

5. Did nothing as more black women were strip-searched at airports more than any other group...although studies showed that they weren't more likely to carry guns, drugs or contraband onto planes than other races or genders. The ones most likely to hijack planes were white men. Bush should have been strip-searched before HE got on a plane. He fit the profile.

6. Did nothing as gas prices rose. Told Americans if they couldn't afford the high prices then they shouldn't drive.

7. Sat back as jobs went overseas.

8. Allowed regulations on Wall Street and the banks to fade away...resulting in the Stock Market crash, the Banks collapsing, etc.

9. Auto companies failed. Houses went into foreclosure. The housing bubble swelled.

10. Black-listed the Dixie Chicks so that they couldn't get jobs or get their songs played on the radio. He did this because they criticized the war in Iraq, or rather said they were ashamed of him.

11. Wasted the surplus Clinton left on 2 unnecessary wars (from 5 BILLION plus, to to 5 BILLION deficit).

12. Brought back the deficit that Clinton eliminated for the first time in American history...along with the national debt...which Bush brought back by borrowing money from China and using it to fight for his war-for-oil struggle in Iraq.

13. Forged documents to get us into Iraq and then lied to say that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction even though one weapons inspector had already come forward to assure him that there were NO weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

14. Pretended to cut taxes for all Americans but actually cut taxes for the wealthy and the top corporations.

"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008

God wasn't testing him. He brought on the disasters by himself. Do you know that I looked up George Bush's name in the World dictionary and I couldn't find it.

Do you know why?

Instead of being listed under "George Bush," he was placed under the list of the five worse apocalypses that have struck our nation.

Please add more if you have them.

A Day in the Life of Joe Republican (the rapist)

2009-10-28T10:21:44Z

A Day in the Life of Joe Republican

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare
his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some
tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With
his first swallow of coffee, he takes his daily medication. His
medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought
to insure the safety of medications and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical
plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for
paid medical insurance -- now Joe gets it, too. He prepares his
morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because
some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing
industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo.
His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in
the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right
to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath.
The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko
liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He
walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to
work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation
fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public
transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a
contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical
benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy
liberal union members fought and DIED for these working standards.

Its noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some
bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some
godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous
bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and
earned more money over his lifetime.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at
his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His
car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating
liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood
home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by
Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural
loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government
liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural
electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired.
His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some
wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of
himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk
show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and
conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved
Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe
enjoys throughout his day.

Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our
lives! After all, I'm a ~~self-made~~ man who believes everyone should
take care of themselves, ~~just like I have.~~"

===========

The original version of this essay doesn't address Medicare, which the conservatives fought against, and of course voting rights for women, which KKKonservatives were against, too.

And just this week 30 repub senators all white, all male, voted Pro-RAPE!!!

FOR corporations' right to be free from legal consequences if their female employees are raped by her co-workers in the Halliburton/KBR rape case.

Of course they lost that vote, as per usual.

It's unforgivable on moral level, but if you don't have morals, it's even really STUPID on a simple vote-count political level: They must have known that they would lose, so why not even withhold or just vote with the majority? Ah, they don't care about the raped-women constituency, it's too small, right? WRONG! People who hate rape supporters are a dazzling majority.

Amongst those who voted pro-rape? David Vitter and John Ensign, big time wife-cheaters, and whorists.

The I-like-rape voters got a bad press:

Senators Crapo, Risch, (lmtribune.com in Idaho!!! of all places!!!) Cochran, Wicker, (clarionledger.com Mississippi???? Aaargh!!) sen. from Kansas (Osawatomie Graphic?? I guess the Kansas media elites don't mind a bit of rape), in Tennessee!!!! the Crossville Chronicle was harsh against their own senators. As was the case in Georgia, (Athens Banner Herald Online) Louisiana (shreveporttimes.com).

I guess all others don't want a bit of rape get in the way of GOOD business, i.e. good means: swindling the taxpayers out of their taxdollars, like Halliburton/KBR did.

Obama gets the bonuses! Why do poor repubs without health care keep defending millionaires?

2009-10-23T19:52:57Z

Obama's anti-bonus measures go even further than anyone expected and further than even European measures!

I CAN'T WAIT how poor repubs, most of them with NO health will come to the aid of those poor, poor, poor defenseless millionaires and billionaires who took our tax money and then awarded themselves bonuses.

I predict that reactions will go from insults, calling our President names and such to screeching things which are not related to bonuses at all.
Actual arguments against this plan, I don't expect to hear. They will try to pretend they are, but they won't BE actual arguments against this plan.

PS
Obviously Obama expected these greedy coyotes to do "the right thing", and yes, that was naive. At least he's setting up a system with the right incentives: They get stocks if the company performs well.

Not a hero: He joins the Army so wife can battle cancer

2009-10-19T21:51:09Z

This is the preceding story. Read the full story here

Like many others in this economy, Bill and Mary Caudle faced a predicament when it came to maintaining health care once Bill Caudle lost his job. In their case, Bill decided to join the Army to receive health care coverage, even as his wife was fighting ovarian cancer.

What do you think of their decision?

My opinion:

Nice, heartbreaking story, but I'll be damned before I see Bill as some big hero who's sacrificing his life for his wive. No, no, no. We should see Bill as someone who wanted to be so unaware of politics that he let himself be taken in by the Republican lies and distortions over the summer. We all make choices, but staying a-political, and especially these times, seems woefully inadequate to me.
Why were they a-political? How could they be? And were was the shouting coming from? Not from the left. No, the angry, ugly shouting came from the extremist rightwing, and the moderate rightwing stood idly by and did nothing.

If only much MORE people, the Caudles included, just had been a little LESS a-political, had just been a little MORE aware of what is going on. Then they might have persuaded their anti-Health care Senators not to be a party of NO, not to be in bed with the HMO's and Big Pharma. And to vote YES on the Democrats health care bills.

It really doesn't take a genius to see that Repubs are fighting against the people, and FOR some corporate interest.
This is a republican mess, and to use a republican solution, enlisting, to clean it up, seems crazy. So the Republican solution to all societies ills is, make peoples lifes so miserable, that they are forced to join the Army, something they don't want?

Ultimately, these troops are dying for the bottom line of Pfizer and such.
and both sides will use this to make their point, as if there's balance to this issue. as if this is a game, to score points on.

In the meantime, Republicans hope Mrs. Caudle will follow the Repub Health Care Plan which is: Don't get sick, but you do, then die quickly. Oh, I'm harsh? Well, 44,000 dead Americans each year, AVOIDABLE deaths through UNDER-insurance, say we're not harsh enough towards Repubs.
And if you think the majority of those dead Americans is either black or immigrant, then ask yourself this: Is Mary Caudle black? Or immigrant? Nope, she's according to Palin, a 'real American'. Now ask yourself the ultimate question: When will this happen to me?

And if Bill and Mary voted Obama, and voted for Democrat Senators who were willing to change, then I'm sorry. But "a-political" suggests they didn't even bother to vote.

This country made many choices AGAINST universal health care (which is NOT free, but simply a better spread) Solidarity is a dirty word in American politics, sticking out for one another is ... socialist? Nazism?
We choose to follow irrational, foolish leader because of some ideology which came down to being cruel to other people who never done us no harm. Then we killed them or poisoned them not just for life but for generations by spreading lowgrade uranium amongst them. Now we're suffering the consequences, and now Bill is a hero? Get real.

Bill is joining an instrument of destruction, not one of peace, of occupation not one of defense and no US soldier is a hero for defending ... country? Get real. The US army primarily defends corporate interests. Like it always did.

The Nobel Peace Prize is for us, not Obama.

2009-10-10T13:14:30Z

I mean, let's be real, it's not as if he would have gotten the prize if he hadn't been president. So actually the prize is a prize for all of his voters since it wouldn't have been possible without them.

And don't you think THAT is the REAL reason the repubs are screaming, howling and foam-at-the-mouth mad???

Who actually is responsible for Obamas election, his voters or man himself who convinced them to vote for him is another matter entirely ...

Of course he should NOT say that, he should say that it's a prize for all Americans in making the choice to return to the world. But we would know, and more importantly the RepuKes would know that it would NOT include them. Because they made another choice entirely: Scarah imPalin AKA the starter-of-the-Deather-movement (but I hear she turned on them AGAIN ...)

Obama IS your Momma

2008-11-03T21:23:54Z

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411750_updated_candidates_summary.pdf
1. "We conclude that the McCain plan, which would replace the current exclusion for employer-paid premiums with a refundable income tax credit of up to $5000 for anyone purchasing of health insurance and make other changes to the healthcare system, would increase the deficit by $1.3 trillion over 10 years and modestly trim the number of uninsured. The Obama plan, which would make relatively low-cost insurance available to everyone through non-group pools and subsidize premiums for low- and moderate-income households, would cost $1.6 trillion, but would also cover virtually all children and many currently uninsured adults."

2. "Including interest costs, Obama's tax plan would boost the debt by $3.5 trillion by 2018. McCain's plan would increase the debt by $5 trillion on top of the $2.3 trillion increase that the Congressional Budget Office forecasts for the next decade."

I get the distinct feeling that Democrats are the far more responsible party, and always have been. The repubs are, in many ways the more irresponsible party, with it's reckless wars, and increased spending without taxation to pay for that.
This is very much like female behavior vs. male behavior. Females, by and large, and on average, act more responsible than males, more thoughtful, than males. Especially among poor whites and other ethnic minority groups, females are more employed than males.
Democrats can be the tax and spend party. There's an inherent logic to this: you can't spend what you don't have, so you tax for that. The Repub philosophy is completely different and so illogical: Govt has to tax less, but spend MORE, on defense. Reagan, Bush and Bush have all increased the deficits and broke records doing it.

Questions for debate:
1. Are Democrats, like women and mothers, significantly more the responsible, thoughtful party, than Republicans? (1a. Is the female nature of the Democrats the prime reason for the fact that the Democrats, even if they had and have logic on their side, have let themselves been beaten into submission by the Republicans?
2. Is there a pendulum in American politics: With the Democrats cleaning up house, earning the cash frugally (Clinton), followed by rash spending by the Republicans? (Reagan, Bush and Bush)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/09/ST2008060900950.html

Joe the Plumber Owes Back Taxes & has a tax lien

2008-10-17T01:46:41Z

So, this guy is soooooo serious about not wanting to pay taxes, he doesn't pay em now! What a freeloader on the rest of the honest, hard working taxpayers. This guys a leech, and with his Sammy Davis comment, proves himself to be bigot. Plus, he's related to Charles Keating, the crook and jailbird who stole 3.4 Billion and payed off john mccain.

for your pleasure.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&refer=home&sid=aWDHvDjnDnTs

`Joe the Plumber,' Who Dislikes Obama Tax Plan, Owes Back Taxes

By Ryan J. Donmoyer

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- ``Joe the plumber,'' the Toledo, Ohio, man whose complaints about Barack Obama's tax plan were featured in the final presidential debate, owes the state of Ohio almost $1,200 in back income taxes.

According to records on file with the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas, the state filed a tax lien against Samuel J. Wurzelbacher for $1,182.98 on Jan. 26, 2007, that is still active.

Wurzelbacher was thrust into the national spotlight this week when he told Obama he worried that the Illinois senator's proposals to roll back Bush administration tax breaks for Americans earning more than $250,000 would prevent him from buying a plumbing business that would earn between $250,000 and $280,000 a year.

Republican John McCain, the Arizona senator, pointed to the exchange during the debate last night when he turned to the camera and said, ``I will not stand for a tax increase on small- business income.'' Directly criticizing Obama, he added, ``what you want to do to `Joe the plumber' and millions more like him is have their taxes increased and not be able to realize the American dream of owning their own business.''

Today, at a rally in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, McCain said that ``the real winner last night was `Joe the plumber.'''

Wurzelbacher's home telephone number is unlisted, and efforts to reach him by calling his neighbors and family were unsuccessful. Attempts to reach Wurzelbacher at the plumbing company where he works were also unsuccessful. The address on the lien and other records for him matched the address published by the Toledo Blade, which also noted the lien.

A Lien

The state of Ohio places a lien on real property after several steps to try to collect a tax debt, according to John Kohlstrand, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Taxation who said he couldn't discuss any specific case.

If a delinquency notice goes unheeded, the Department of Taxation issues a billing notice, Kohlstrand said. If that is ignored, a more formal assessment notice is sent. Failing to appeal an assessment or losing an appeal puts the debt into the hands of the state attorney general for collection. The attorney general typically sends a collection notice and simultaneously files a lien.

``The taxpayers may not necessarily know about the lien,'' Kohlstrand said, although they would receive other notices.

In Wurzelbacher's case, the lien indicated that the notice was sent to a previous address in Toledo.

Under Obama's proposal, Wurzelbacher would face about $900 more in taxes if he netted $280,000 of income from his new business, said Gerald Prante, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation, a Washington research group that is examining both candidates' plans. ``His average tax burden, the final bill he pays to the IRS isn't going to go up much if he's just making $280,000 a year,'' Prante said. He would face higher marginal tax costs to expand the business beyond that, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan J. Donmoyer in Washington at rdonmoyer@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 16, 2008 13:57 EDT

The Real Elitist: McCain's Collection of Mansions Reveal He's Not Your Average Joe

2008-08-19T20:31:38Z

Can we spread this further and farther?
http://www.alternet.org/election08/95550/the_real_elitist%3A_video_of_mccain%27s_collection_of_mansions_reveal_he%27s_not_your_average_joe/

Basically, it's amazing how a significant part of america's poor and middleclass population gets sucked in by these multi-billionaires, who convince them that THEY are Joe Sixpack. It's not only the rich stealing from the poor, it's the rich CONVINCING the poor to vote for the rich, so they CAN GO ON stealing from the poor ....

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

What must Obama say to the "Race Card!"-whiners? Is there a good defense against it, in preferably in ONE soundbite?

2008-05-14T04:49:41Z

Republicans and racists have been master in crying foul, whenever a politician dared to bring up any sort of racial issue.

The way this works is this:
A politician says something race-related like, "African-Americans are racially profiled extremely in this place" or "African-Americans are under represented in the job-market" or "African-Americans are unfairly denied bank loans" and republicans or racists very effectively kill that issue by screaming: "he's played the Race Card!!"

Some how that is seen as sooooo unfair to whites, all conversation stops, most voters think: "those blacks are getting an unfair advantage, so f ... them all!" and the election is lost.

What can be done about this? Anyone has any ideas to an effective rebuttal?

The North-Carolina win is a day of doom for Obama

2008-05-09T15:13:03Z

Despite what everybody and the MSM seems to think, Clinton is too the more electable candidate

http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Clinton/Maps/May09.html

http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Obama/Maps/May09.html

She's beating mccane in florida, while obama loses that.

And sure. sure, the race is long, but it's kinda telling.
Obama loses even Penn to mcan

swing states under clinton v mccane:
wisconsin Kentucky, missouri, iowa, oregon, wash state, and new hamp

swing states under Obama v mccane:
wisconsin, Colorado, new mexico, nevada, michigan, ohio, indiana, penn and florida

Rev. Jeremiah Wright is ... RIGHT.

2008-05-07T18:21:54Z

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-oe-brooks1-2008may01,0,7295326.column

Wow, Brooks just said it all and hit the nail right on the head.
It is a really good piece, especially where it warns of ease for "the comfortable white majority to write off black anger and mistrust as crazy"
This was the same as the rightwing explanation for 9*11: They hate us because ........ their crazy! I mean, YEAH RIGHT!

And what about McCains preachers: Hagee (thinks Catholics are spawn of the devil ... literally!), Fallwell etc?

There's definitely some double standard going on here. Extreme rightwing repubs get a free pass with THEIR conspiracy theories, but J. Wright is a national threat?
Gimme a fat effing break.

Wrights AIDS conspiracy theory might stem from a investigation by a British journalist that AIDS could be the result of a medical experiment performed on villagers in Africa, in the 60s, by ... major American Pharmaceutical companies, battling to find a cure for polio. This hypothesis however, has been rejected by British medical pundits.
What gets me about the whole Wright hype is that he's saying things that even most white Americans agree with these days:
Bush is a bad man, the Iraq war is bad, and it's worse for black people than whites as a whole. It probably is equally bad for both POOR whites and black people, but comparing blacks v whites, the war has hit ALL blacks harder than ALL whites put together. Not many could disagree with that, I think.
Oh, and he's also saying that black people have it worse than whites in America. Also, nothing new and ... true.

My conclusion is that the whole "Wright-issue" was, perhaps not drummed up but still excessively squeezed bone-dry by both Clinton and extreme right wingers, like rush limbo.
It was supposed to be their golden get out-of-jail-free card, Clinton to the nomination, and the repubs to an easy win in November. North Carolina proved that it might be neither.

With Democrats like these, you don't need racists

2008-02-29T05:59:10Z

I really want to do a trade with Sean Wilentz. I will give him 10 bucks and I expect him to give me 24 dollars back ....

It seems the racist attack on Obama has now started in full force ... from within the Democrat party itself. The Republicans, including their court-jester Tucker Carlson, (who in 2004 expected comedian Jon Stewart to be critical of John Kerry, while he himself gave Bush a free ride), just sat back relaxed and enjoyed the show, while Clintonesian Sean Wilentz accused Obama of playing the race card.
Now, accusing someone of playing the race card as a means to hide your own racist attacks ... this is like rednecks neocons accusing Susan Sarandon of being a nazi.

First the expansion of the Lyndon B. Johnson helped Martin Luther King meme, and now this stuff about wether Bill Clinton made covert racial comments about Obamas South Carolina win
Bill actually wanted to peg Obama as black, by saying: Hey Obama is black because he won like a black man, just like Jesse Jackson

SW argues that Bill Clinton was right about that, because Obama won with the same percentages as Jesse Jackson, 55 percent.
He tries, in passing to paint Bill Clinton as humble, since he won SC bigger than any Democrat, but BC didn't mention that.
Obama's win was of course very different from Jacksons since he won with 24 percent of the white vote. and 75 of the black vote. Jackson barely managed 10 percent in 1988 and even less in 1984.

So, Obama didn't win like a black man, he won like a man who got more of the white vote than any other black man before him.

Just like he did in white states.

Therefor, linking him with a black candidate was despicable race tactics.
These sort of diversion ploys, trying to push Obama on the defensive, by accusing Obama of racism, this are the most foul, the most despicable, the most vile and vitriolic sort of attacks, especially because it comes from within ...
We expected them to slither from under a kkk slimy rock, not from within the Democrat rank and file, which has the chutzpah to label himself as an independent.

How Hillary will win the White House ... with Michelle

2008-02-22T01:51:42Z

Hillary's campaign is in the doldrums, it's going really bad, and all the pundits are saying she has to decide whether to go negative ... or negativer. I have the illusion that within the Democratic camp only, in this election cycle, going negative is hugely gonna backfire, so here's my rabbit out of the hat:

Go Positive! Even, go Positiver! And an excellent opportunity would be Michelle's so called "proud" gaffe, or rather ... O'Reilly's lynch party suggestion about that.
O'Reilly said that he wouldn't call out the lynchparty on Michelle Obama just yet, unless he found out she had a negative view of the United States! And to find that out, he would "track that down!" Does anyone hear "escaped slave manhunt"? This is using extreme KKK code here, I can hear those dogs barking right now.

Even Bush (!), just last month, unequivocally discarded the symbol of the nooze, and distanced himself from it, saying that is wasn't just a way of killing but a tool of intimidation!

Hillary could score a lot of points, by calling for O'Reillys resignation. She should go after him with a vengeance. She can go out there and state in no uncertain terms that she is outraged, (which I imagine she really is, she might just be so jaded with rightwing neonazi attack machine, it just might not register anymore).
It would be hard (and unpleasant) for Obama to do it himself, since he's so directly involved and since the current climate is such that, any defense against a racial slur is perceived as racist in itself.

So, by throwing herself on this FoKKKs grenade, Hillary would earn the respect of a lot of people. Self sacrifice is still valued a lot. She could and should make the point that she's sick and tired of these slimy, racist attacks, and that she can relate, having been in Michelle Obama position. She should make the point that on this egregious issue, she wants to close ranks with Obama. She can say that, she's old and she can take it, but that she won't stand for it being done to another Democratic First Lady.

If this would get twisted and spun into either sucking up to Obama, or signalling defeat/desparate measures/political suicide then she should shrug that off with: So f---ing what? But in more diplomatic terms, of course ;)

At worst, this will unite the Democratic party by exposing the real enemy, but at best this will make inroads for her among black women, and women in general.
Voters, and especially Democratic voters are suckers for a "everybody be friends, lovy dovey" approach, which is why Obama is so appealing in the first place.
This would affirm her aggressive persona but in a good way: That of the Mother Lion, the Lionesse
Thoughts?

Voter turnout and the American dominance of the Nobel Prize

2008-02-21T10:56:45Z

There are some oddities about present day America which have baffled me for sometime now.

Primaries
When I first started to tune into the US primaries, I was amazed by how much the higher the voter turnout is on Democratic side. Simple straightforward reasoning would indicate that the next president MUST be a Democrat, since it was always at least 20 percent higher, often more than 50 percent higher and at times the even the Democratic loser had more turnout than the two leading Repubs combined.
Yet, when Gallup polls they don't find that either Obama or Clinton trounces McCain, McCain's even beating Clinton?

And then I hear that Democrats ALWAYS have had a higher turnout.
What's going on? Do Democrat primary voters all have a lot to do around the house come November?
Do Repubs just don't bother with the primaries? Do Democrat voters think they have to vote just once, in the primaries? Are they really that dumb?
This is my American mystery # 1

The Americans and the Nobel Prize
European higher education officials have been complaining that over the course of the last 50 years, the American portion of Nobel laureates has been increasing, up to the point, that there are no European Nobel prize laureates anymore, at all.
They are all American.
This baffles me because I hear American politicians constantly complaining about the deplorable state of high school education in the States. How can a country that as a whole, is so "dumbed down" that Intelligent Design is credible to a lot of people, still produce so much scientists that they completely dominate the most important science prizes? Boggles the mind!
This is my American mystery #2

CEO

Because being black in America is so easy for Michelle

2008-02-20T07:03:05Z

What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud.

The people who think this are unpatriotic statement are clearly unaware of how difficult it is to be black in this country. They live in some dreamworld where there's no racism, no racial profiling, and where a young black girl from the Southside has as easy a life as say, Cindy McCain?

When you're a white kid, your grandpa tells you stories about how much fun his childhood was. Then you go out the door into the suburb and ride your bike and play and you feel all warm and fuzzy.

When you're a jewish kid, your grandpa tells you stories about his childhood about persecution in Europe. Then you go out the door into the suburb and ride your bike and you're relieved because that was far away and long ago. And those Nazis are all dead.

But ... when you're black, your grandpa tells you stories about his childhood how he was always afraid at night, listening if there was that hard knock on the door, meaning that outside were these hooded men, a burning cross and he was gonna get lynched. This was how he felt EVERY night. And then you go out the door and you see that you STILL live in a ghetto and you realize, that the grandkids of the people who did that your grandparents, live just a couple of blocks away.

Yeah, Michelle Obama has LOTS to be proud for.

-------------

PS And yes, yes, I'm sure there are some white grandpa's who had it hard too ... only not in the same numbers black grandpa's had it hard, i.e. virtually ALL of them.

PS Perhaps the need to viciously attack Michelle Obama comes from delayed guilt?

PS Some have suggested that it was all semantics, that Mrs. Obama was always proud, but now she was REALLY proud. I don't think that was what she meant.

I think she meant that growing up black in America means that you are basically f'ed up the old wazzoo. You get a raw deal, no matter what. And that for the first time, the rethorical bullshit about "Everybody can be president" can really become true.

I dunno if anybody realized it, but if Obama becomes president, he won't ONLY be the first black president of the USA, but also the first minority leader of all white countries, of all the industrialized nations, of the G8, of Nato.

He might be the first minority head of state of the entire world, not counting some African consensus/powersharing presidents.