Thursday, November 9. 2006
The real winners and losers of the election. Funny. Neal Boortz  What would Jesus tax? (h/t, Asst Village Idiot)
Kim du Toit knows what the Repubs need to stand for. Yes, I did miss this grim story. Protein Unemployment: We have only seen these numbers five times in the past 50 years. It's the Bush Economic Miracle. And more self-employed people than ever: that has to be a good trend. New Dem senators support border defense and de-fence. PoliPundit Abandoning Iraq. Everyone would love to. But would it be wise? Quote from a David Warren piece: But in trying to build a secular democracy over the ruin of Saddam’s regime, the Americans tried something they had not the stomach for. From the outset, they imposed upon themselves restrictions that would make that fight unwinnable. As in Vietnam, they adopted a purely defensive posture. So far as President Bush can be blamed, it should be for showing insufficient ruthlessness in a task that could not be accomplished by half-measures. Alternatively, for failing to grasp that America was psychologically unprepared for real war, not only by the memory of Vietnam, but by the grim advance of "liberal" decadence in domestic life over the generation since.
Agreed, You cannot fight a long, slow "nice" war for "hearts and minds." You can only fight hard, and do the hearts and minds thing afterwards. Same lesson as Vietnam.
Many have already read Dick Armey's End of the Revolution at Opinion Journal, but, if not, it's recommended. I do not know whether Dick, or our Barrister (below) are correct, but it's all good food for thought. A quote from Dick Armey's critique of Repub performance: I've always wondered why Republicans insist on acting like Democrats in hopes of retaining political power, while Democrats act like us in order to win. I've also wondered why Republicans let their fears and insecurities get in the way of important reforms. They missed the opportunity of a lifetime by failing to embrace retirement security based on personal ownership. Instead, from both parties we heard about "saving Social Security"--to the extent we heard anything at all. Republicans should be for reforms that free individuals and their families from failed government programs. We should not be for "saving" failed government programs. When we took on welfare reform in 1995, we knew we were taking on a Goliath. Once we threw the first rock, we knew we had to finish the job. Otherwise, the worst claims of our opponents would have stuck with us in future elections. With legislative success, the horrible accusations of our opponents were replaced with reduced welfare roles, and the individual dignity and self-sufficiency that naturally followed.
That's Prada, in Florence. It's a guy's job to wait outside. 
Welcome, RWNH readers. Check out our blog, while you're here. You might like it, and the price is right. The loudest voices in political parties tend to be the ideologues, and ideologues always want ideological purity. Ideologies become almost like religions to some people but, like religions, most of them are wrong. (I write this as an old-fashioned Yankee conservative ideologue, for whom freedom from government intrusion, control, taxation, and annoyance is a primary consideration. And defence, of course, for national elections.) But American political parties are not liberal vs. conservative,and definitely not Left vs. Right - whatever "right" means. Both parties, most of the time, are pragmatic in governance, with a few sexy issues thrown in as red meat to their ideological base. (The news rarely reports the 99% of non-controversial governance that goes on in the executive offices of administrations, from the local to the federal.) Purity is not a good thing: internal debate is much more wholesome and American - unless politics is a religion to you. Mutts are always healthier than pure breeds. When you think about it, how do party affiliations begin? They are either inherited via argument or habit, or someone who wants to get into the game tends to join the party that has the most power where they live. I repeat: the Republican Party is not a Conservative Party, nor is the Democratic Party a Liberal or Socialist Party, in essence. Nor should they be, but the ideologues always want them to be. That is natural. What parties are, in essence, are fund-raising financial organizations designed to elect people who join their club, and to provide and support debate and opposition. Like baseball teams. That is why I was offended when a conservative Repub challenged liberal Republican Chaffee in RI, and I have no doubt that the damage from the primary is why Chaffee lost reelection: the controversy interfered with his quietly winning as people named Chaffee tend to do in RI, like people named Kennedy in MA. And this is why I was offended by Lamont's primary challenge to Lieberman. Both of those challenges were done on the grounds of ideological purity, as if motivated by Stalinist party-line doctrine. That is silly, and self-destructive: it's a big country, with many points of view on things (and anyone who disagrees with me is, of course, also Wrong Wrong Wrong). America is a majority conservative, tradition-respecting country, but above all, it is a pragmatic country. DeToqueville figured out, a long time ago, that pragmatism was a big part of our genius as a nation. While we tend to think that the two parties do tend "conservative" and "liberal," in fact there is plenty of overlap. For one example, the federal budget grew faster during Bush's time than it did during Clinton. So who is fiscally conservative, really? And who is the big spender? (Yes, I know about the war, but that is just part of the spending of our money. And yes, I know, Clinton was restrained by Repubs - but Repubs cannot restrain themselves!) Why was that? Bush was trying to be a pragmatist, not a conservative. Same as his dad, same as B. Clinton, same as Nixon, same as John F. Kennedy, same as Truman, same as Eisenhower. FDR, I believe, was a pragmatist who was captured by ideologues. Our (and my) conservative hero, Reagan, was a great teacher, but he was not even able, in eight years, to get a majority to close the highly annoying and intrusive federal Department of Education. His most important domestic accomplishment was to add some good folks to the Supreme Court - and the same goes for Bush. My point is highlighted by the number of conservative Democrats who have been elected this go-round, including, late last night (giving the Dems a Senate majority), the seemingly excellent candidate Jim Webb of Virginia. Good for them. It's healthy - and sane, because you could not build a national party with 100 Ted Kennedys or with 100 Tom Tancredos (although I do like Tom very much). So although it makes it convenient for the MSM and blog ranters to ideologically divide the parties, and then demonize the image of the party they dislike, and to idealize the image of the one they like, usually the reality is not exactly like that. What I want to see are most conservative Dems from the South and the West, and more liberal Repubs from the Northeast and California. Rahm Emanuel learned this from Clinton - or vice versa. Yes, it makes things more complicated but, heck, it the whole system was designed to be complicated, on purpose. Is this really about the election? Not really, I guess. Mid-terms are usually rough on incumbent parties, and this was no different - except that the margin had grown so thin since the 1994 Gingrich Revolution that it tipped the balance. But conservatives always have a tough challenge: their goal is to devolve power back to the people and to localities - which means undoing more than doing. A tough row to hoe, always. Even for Reagan. Like Christians in the Coloseum, conservatives shine most brightly in adversity, and in opposition. Cheerful warriors!
Wednesday, November 8. 2006
 From a piece on paleoclimatology in the New York Times (h/t, Owner's Manual):
Skeptics say CO2 crusaders simply find the Phanerozoic data embarrassing and irreconcilable with public alarms. “People come to me and say, ‘Stop talking like this, you’re hurting the cause,’ ” said Dr. Giegengack of Penn.
Read the whole piece. Classic case of abusing science for a political agenda. The scientific debate hasn't ended: it has just begun. Image: a spectroheliogram image of good old Mr. Sun
Jerusalem. 11/1/06 From the corner of where I am living, is a kiosk called Zigmund. An outside stand with stools on two sides, flanked by Gaza Road and Metudelah. On its back wall are photos of... Zigmund. Three. The one
with the cigar resting comfortably on his fingers, another, strolling,and a third a bit Andy-Wharholish with various LSD hues. In the nighttime, Zigmund is duplicated on the southern glass windows, so he forms an "L", bracketing the gourmands. No way to avoid eyeing him if you are eating there, unless you keep your brow in your soup. In the back, below the cigar, is a single hot-plate with an ever-simmering open pot of soup, ladle within. Beneath Zigmunds reflection on the South is a semi-ancient cash register: you pay the analyst before you leave. In the center is a column surrounded an eye level and above by "charifim," literally, "spicy hot stuff," but in fact the word for hard liquor. Beneath the western counter is where crepes are made and various glops of your choosing are ladled on. Also, sandwiches here. (The Hebrew word for sandwich, karich, sounds much like the word for book cover, kricha. Food and learning seem imbricated in the Jewish tongue.)
It is now chilly in Jerusalem. Rain and greys much of the morning; sudden sun after noon, then the chill returns to the hills. I have regained my yellow Land's End jacket. Even with this, I sip my espresso quickly, express so to speak, before getting my laundry around the corner from Zigmund's. The yound ladies next to me ladle their soup with a thick crust of bread and smoke. There is a kerosene outdoor torch above us, which warms if you stand just beneath it at the corner. Traffic is the background noise, as Gaza is a major thorougfare, or major for and ancient city: it still noodles around, leaves little room for shoulders.
My espresso is a break from writing. Perhaps Ziggy will refresh my thinking.
I would tip my hat to Zigmund if I were wearing one. Since boyhood,
Ihave abjured hats. Instead, I nod and am off.
More later.
 I see Repubs just lost Montana. Montana? And I see Rummy is stepping down. I enjoyed the man's brain, but six years is enough for anyone.
The skelaton to the right is what's left of the Gingrich Revolution. Sad, but recently deserved. However, the country is no less conservative now. Things come and go. The six worst cars ever. Did you hear that Frank Sinatra parody of Strangers on my Flight that was going around last year? If not, here 'tis. Bird's brains have more power than we thought. Live Science Superb war post, at Eject Eject. No, it's really a meandering, thoughtful essay. One quote: People like Michael Moore and Bill Maher and Keith Olberman would not be able to figure out how to close the canopy on an F-102. These people would be weeping with fear when those afterburners light up and you barrel down that runway hoping that engine doesn’t flame out and roll you inverted into the asphalt, or when you’re rocketing through the soup at 300mph watching two little needles chase each other, praying the next thing you see out the window is a runway and not a mountain goat. George W. Bush is not stupid. It’s not possible to be a moron and fly a supersonic jet fighter, and everyone knows it. What George W. Bush is, however, is inarticulate. English is his second language. From what I can see he does not have a first language. Abraham Lincoln spoke in simple frontier language in an age of rhetorical flourish. Like Bush, he was considered a bumpkin and an idiot, and like Bush, he realized that there were times when having people misunderestimate you repeatedly was a real advantage. That’s goal-oriented. That’s playing the deep game. That’s cunning. I personally have gotten to the point where Bush’s malapropisms cause me to look at the floor and shake my head with an affectionate smile, in much the same way supporters of his predecessor used to do with every new revelation of coerced sex from former employees. He is what he is. But he is a damn sight more intelligent than the graphic designer in the Mini Cooper with the Village Idiot sticker. Me, personally, I look at the man’s entire catalog of flaws in the same way Lincoln looked at Grant and his drinking: I can’t spare this man. He fights. So to me, anyway, given the above information I feel that anyone calling President Bush a moron and an idiot comes off sounding like…well…a moron and an idiot.
Take a couple of minutes and read the whole thing. Yes, it has pictures too.
Long-time readers of Maggie's know that I am an evil Dem, but not an ideological Dem. My advice to my Repub friends after this lousy day at the polls: 1. Dump your baggage of sleazebags. 2. Find some decent leadership who can communicate: Frist was worthless, as was Hastert. 3. Make a stand on illegal immigration, or Hillary will do it for you 4. Show some interest in regular people - how they live and what they worry about. Don't offer them freebies - offer them cheer, interest and inspiration. 5. Iraq may or may not be a good thing - but it's not the only thing going on. 6. Listen to Mike Pence, below (h/t, NRO): Election day 2006 will be remembered as a turning point in American political history. Twenty-five years after the Reagan Administration came to Washington with a conservative agenda of limited government, the American people chose a different course.
It is the duty of the losing party in a free election to humbly accept defeat and to acknowledge that the people are sovereign in the People's House.
As we examine the results of this election, it is imperative that we listen to the American people and learn the right lessons.
Some will argue that we lost our majority because of scandals at home and challenges abroad. I say, we did not just lose our majority, we lost our way.
While the scandals of the 109th Congress harmed our cause, the greatest scandal in Washington, D.C. is runaway federal spending.
After 1994, we were a majority committed to balanced federal budgets, entitlement reform and advancing the principles of limited government. In recent years, our majority voted to expand the federal government's role in education, entitlements and pursued spending policies that created record deficits and national debt.
This was not in the Contract with America and Republican voters said, "enough is enough." Our opponents will say that the American people rejected our Republican vision. I say the American people didn't quit on the Contract with America, we did. And in so doing, we severed the bonds of trust between our party and millions of our most ardent supporters.
As the 110th Congress convenes next year, Republicans must cordially accept defeat and dedicate ourselves to advancing our cause as the loyal opposition knowing that the only way to retake our natural, governing majority, is to renew our commitment to limited government, national defense, traditional values and reform.
As we await the results of the Virginia and Montana senatorial races, we note with pleasure that the only candidate in the elections who was supported by Maggie's Farm - Joe Lieberman - won. We are also impressed by the levels of voting across the country. We feel bad about Michael Steele, though. He does have a political future, doing something. He has good vibes. No pontificating about the elections here - this was a normal and predictable swing of sentiment and energy at this point in a Presidential administration but, still, each individual election has to be understood in its own local context. Gandelman at A Moderate Voice has a nice selection of opinions.
Tuesday, November 7. 2006
 We are not going to even try to keep up: it's not our mission. Ice a few or more brews, ring up Domino's, and go over to Pajamas.
All we know is that if you won, it's certainly because you ran a sleazy, dishonest campaign. (Same thing holds if you lost.) Image: Too funny. Harold Ford appeared today with a camo baseball cap, just to let you know his polls are not looking good. h/t, Michelle. I'm sure he's not a bad guy, but he's never had a job and couldn't pass the bar exam. Is it true that his family builds cars?
Re-posted from Nov 1, 2005. Was that trip a year ago? 
Our bird hunting trip to the Adirondacks this past weekend was a delight, thanks to excellent, lively companionship, but no thanks to an unseasonably early dump of 16" of snow on Tues/Weds. Conditions up north were not ideal for grouse, or for walking in the deep woods and gnarly alder patches. Nevertheless, the mix of good guys, birds, dogs, guns, and tough-walking, leg-challenging woods, followed by excellent tobacco and moderate amounts of good alcohol, is always one hell of a fine combination for the average American male. And, as I always say, "Hunting isn't shopping." Especially the way I have been shooting this year. On Saturday we headed east, close to Lake Champlaine, where there was no snow, and we had the good fortune to run into a couple of migrating flights of woodock (one flush every five minutes), which redeemed our trip, as did our gala game dinner Saturday night at our gracious hosts at The Hungry Trout, featuring trout, moose, woodcock, grouse, Canada Goose, venison and duck, accompanied by witty conversation and good stories, both the lies and the true. Thanks to a pal's Citation, (next time you are in one, ask the pilot to show you how fast he can climb that machine, and then lean back) the trip was rapid and luxurious, with all necessary adult beverages. NetJets is one way to do it, but there may be better deals if you shop around, or so I am told - but I do not play in that league. This photo from Friday, up towards the Canadian border, close to Dannemora, NY.
In keeping with our non-political Election Day on the blog, here's the camera that I use these days, and like very much: The Casio Exilim.
Monday, November 6. 2006
 Karl Rove admitted to a reporter last night, after a lengthy series of tequila shots in a bar known to be frequented by political insider and evangelical Christian transvestites in Georgetown, that "We never expected the Dems to anticipate our game plan."
In a moment of uncharacteristic candor, the genius went on to say that "I have the Diebold master key code in my briefcase, and I can get any result I want, just through my laptop - even without our usual black voter intimidation program and our magic chad trick." "The only risk was that we overplay our hand with the computer voting," he bragged. "but now that the Dems are on to us, we may need to go to Plan B - martial law." News reports from Pierre indicate that Dick Cheney has already retired to what is rumored to be his CIA-constructed "duck blind" command center in South Dakota, ready to put Plan B into effect at a moment's notice. Before removing his wig and scarf to make a quiet, if stumbling, exit, Rove added "Don't try to come up here after the election with no ACLU lawyers - Cheney fired his warning shot last fall, so now everyone knows what he is capable of."
From Dr. Tawfik Hamid (via piece at Singleton): .... "We're not talking about a fringe cult here," he tells me. "Salafist [fundamentalist] Islam is the dominant version of the religion and is taught in almost every Islamic university in the world. It is puritanical, extreme and does, yes, mean that women can be beaten, apostates killed and Jews called pigs and monkeys.".... But I can tell you what it is not about. Not about Israel, not about Iraq, not about Afghanistan. They are mere excuses. Algerian Muslim fundamentalists murdered 150,000 other Algerian Muslims, sometimes slitting the throats of children in front of their parents. Are you seriously telling me that this was because of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians or American foreign policy?"
He's exasperated now, visibly angry at what he sees as a willful Western foolishness. "Stop asking what you have done wrong. Stop it! They're slaughtering you like sheep and you still look within. You criticize your history, your institutions, your churches. Why can't you realize that it has nothing to do with what you have done but with what they want."
Election. By the sixth year of an administration, one must expect some attrition, and plain voter fatigue. Whatever the country wants, it will get. I always vote for the least bad person: I vote for freedom, not for my (empty) pocketbook. If the Dems do take the House, however, watch the voters say, next year, "WFT? Did I vote for these jokers?" No, you did not. Seniority goes to those with the safest, most uncompetitive seats; to those who are in there for life. US out of Vietnam, says our buddy Bruce at Dem. Project. Bruce: it's called realpolitik. Saving the world is out of fashion this year. Dem leaders refuse to comment on terrorists' endorsement. 91% of Australians want renewable energy. My guess is 91% of Australians want pie in the sky, too. Try nuclear, Aussies. Canadian identity: At Dust my Broom, "Canada is a place to hang out until something better comes along." A newspaper endorsement that has to make you laugh: Blue Crab And more newspaper idiocy: Cheney is hunting quail in South Dakota tomorrow? I doubt it. There are no quail within 1000 miles of South Dakota. But I'd love to join him for some pheasant hunting - call me, Dick, and send Air Force 2 over here to pick me up after work. Brit docs want euthanasia. I'd be inclined towards euthanasia for those Brit docs, because their consciences are defective. Lebanon: A fun place for guys. Wow. Even I could get a girl there, I think. Don't we already have baloney degrees in the US? Inside Higher Ed
 At Maggie's Farm, we are always skeptical when people try to politicize science, whether the subject is stem cells or climate. Rush Limbaugh always says "Follow the money," but here our rule of thumb is "Follow the power." Since politics tends to be more about power than about truth, I believe that we are wise to be skeptics.
Monckton has a series in the Telegraph: Climate Chaos? Don't believe it, which I highly recommend. If I could remember who linked it, I'd give them credit. Quotes: This week, I'll show how the UN undervalued the sun's effects on historical and contemporary climate, slashed the natural greenhouse effect, overstated the past century's temperature increase, repealed a fundamental law of physics and tripled the man-made greenhouse effect. Next week, I'll demonstrate the atrocious economic, political and environmental cost of the high-tax, zero-freedom, bureaucratic centralism implicit in Stern's report; I'll compare the global-warming scare with previous sci-fi alarums; and I'll show how the environmentalists' "precautionary principle" (get the state to interfere now, just in case) is killing people.
Is Mr. Stern a fearmonger? You bet. TCS. Do human activities effect climate? Sure - they have for 10,000 years, at the margins. But we just have to cope with change. Change is always with us, and we humans are clever sorts. Image: Work garb in the year 2050, as predicted by global warming fearmongers. Image scientifically demonstrates that the crisis of global warming will result in women going around in scanty clothing. The so-called experts never calculate in just how much money we will all save on winter coats and long johns - and winter heating. Plus the ladies can give their seal coats back to the baby seals.
If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog goodies in your pocket, and give him only two of them. Phil Pastoret
Sunday, November 5. 2006
 Is there an election coming up? What's the deal? Nobody told me. I've been away hunting all weekend, enjoying guns, dogs, friends, beer, and wild America. What a great country. We encountered more woodcock than grouse this weekend, but it will all be dinner tonight. Woodcock liver-brandy sauce for the woodcock breasts, on toast, is the first course. Second course is rare Ruffed Grouse breast on lentils with a gibier sauce. Dessert? Home-made apple pie with ice cream. Guys cook: the gals are our guests, but appropriate gratitude is expected.
Who to blame for the difficulties in Iraq? Anybody, and everybody? Balloon Juice. They aren't even fighting the Americans now as much as they are fighting eachother. I suspect many of them just enjoy fighting. It's a multicultural thing, ya know? Some cultures are just naturally imperialistic. You read this all already: Ramsey Clark is a mockery. Michelle. Of course, the moonbats are upset about Saddam's conviction. Including those at the LA Times. Now, why is that? How soon before we see Free Saddam bumperstickers? Charlie Rangel's friends. Moonbattery. Steve Harrigan gets the gold star for reporting. A simple statement of faith. LaShawn Giuliani's stump speech, if you are interested. Dino. Giuliani is OK, but a New York City Italian guy will not be the presidential candidate in 2008. Is Massachusetts the canary in the coal mine? Lots of folks are quoting this, but I saw it at Powerline first.
 Attended a talk by a preacher on that subject on Friday morning. I don't know the answer to the question, nor do I know the answer to the larger question: "Does God want us to be happy?" Or to the sillier question: "Does God want us to have fun?"
However, I suspect larger, deeper issues than these preoccupy God, and that "life in abundance" does not mean owning five expensive cars, or a 10,000 square foot house, or having a million sycophant friends, or a gun room full of Purdys and Perazzis - however pleasing and desirable those things may be. Speaking as just one regular guy, who is wealthy by world standards but well below average by my local neighborhood standards, it has always seemed that God is more interested in humbling me, and teaching me gratitude, and seeking my devotion, than in raising me up by worldly measures. But what I want to post is a quote from Nelson Mandela, with good comments following from Worstall, which which I agree: "Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is people who have made poverty and tolerated poverty, and it is people who will overcome it." If you start out with such a misdiagnosis you'll never be able to offer the right treatment.
Poverty is, how ever much we wish it wasn't, the natural state of mankind. It is the starting point, not something that is created at all, it's something that is there before we start to try and do anything.
The thing that is created is wealth, not poverty. What we need to study is not how poverty is created, for that is what is there already, but how wealth is created, which is the different and interesting thing.
 How to get rich in public education. Edn Wonks. Key issue: know nothing about it.
James Bond's guns up for auction. Alphecca. It was more fun when eBay allowed guns. French union threatens strike to protect Islamist airport workers. What a country. A look back at Izzy Stone. New Criterion. He was not a "useful idiot:" he knew exactly what he was doing in defending Stalin. Stone was just another Lefto-fascist benefiting from American freedom while celebrating its absence elsewhere. Like the folks today who love Fidel...but do not move to Cuba. CA library bans church from using their space, on separation grounds. Ninth Circuit (duh) upholds. Cramer begs to differ. More Michigan: Even you are better off than the French! The Kyoto scam, free speech, and global socialism warming: TCS The Economist has a blog (h/t, Marginal Rev.) This blog competition is getting intense. How can the little guy survive, with day jobs? We demand government support now for our blogging lifestyle, or an entire way of life may disappear. Hollywood hubris. A quote from Horsefeathers on Clint Eastwood and Flags of our Fathers (the book was fine - not great): Some men (and women) whom the gods would destroy, they first raise high for all to see. These men (and women) have been so successful, have amassed such wealth, and have acquired so many playthings—the grand houses on Lily Pond Lane, Chateaux en Provence, estates in Scotland surrounded by rushing streams rich with trout, or vast glass and steel condos looking out over Central Park, that they yearn for things that wealth cannot buy. These are men (and women) like George Soros, Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg. Besotted with their wealth they forget that they are ordinary men (and women) with small gifts for entertaining or trading in markets. The gods first enchant them with dreams of changing the world and then cast them into the outer space of narcissistic illusion, where they are doomed to watch their own inner movies forever. One fears that Clint Eastwood is heading in that direction. He has become so successful as an actor, director and producer of movies that he may have forgotten that the gift he was given was to be used simply to entertain us, like a juggler, or a trapeze artist who makes us breathless with fear and then takes a smiling, confident bow. Now he wants to teach us something important, to tell us what is right and what is wrong about the world.
Saturday, November 4. 2006
 We need a name for the environmentalist-religious-socialists. They creep me out, too. Gaiatologists?
This guy is a heck of a good shot, with a bow. Invite him to your next deer hunt. The election aftermath, anticipated. Wise post at YARGB Nacho Libre. From the guys who brought you the great Napoleon Dynamite. Here, h/t The Shelf The stem cell BS: wow - what an advt. Slightly dishonest? Has no-one heard that embryonic stem cells cause cancer? And that there is a slight moral issue here? Prayers for Cuba, NYC style. Sheesh. Sometimes there is just nothing to say. Sees it like we do. Mr. Free Market on the global warming scam. Scott at Powerline takes a look at racial preferences.Go, Scott: The depth of the racial discrimination practiced in the university setting became evident in the two University of Michigan cases decided by the Supreme Court a few years back. In the undergraduate school, applicants for admission were simply sorted into different pools with lower admission standards if they identified themselves as African-American, Hispanic, or Native American, and higher standards if they identified themselves as white or members of non-preferred minority groups. In the law school, the university rigged its standards year after year to achieve a minimum 10 percent quota of students from designated "underrepresented" minority groups (African American, Mexican American and Native American). For years the university covered up the existence of the racial discrimination that it was practicing. Now it defends what it cannot conceal, and it does so in the name of "affirmative action" and "diversity." The defense of racial preferences in the name of "affirmative action" and "diversity" has become part of contemporary civil rights orthodoxy and many purportedly sophisticated arguments have been advanced to justify them. Hillary Clinton has stated, in express disagreement with Martin Luther King's great 1963 speech on the Washington Mall, "If we don't take race as part of our character, then we are kidding ourselves."
 The Dem strategy for these midterm elections has involved a very clever sleight of hand, and it's all about Obama and Foley.
What they did was to say "Look at Obama and Foley, don't look at us." Reid, Pelosi, Kennedy, Dean, Gore, etc. all went into hiding (Kerry's gaffe blew that scheme, and Dean has trouble keeping his mouth shut), and the MSM cooperated mightily to distract the country with the fresh face of the likeable but thus far unaccomplished Obama - a guy with no track record who goes to church, and with the now-unlikeable mug of sleazeball Mark Foley. This is indeed a strategy of distraction: distraction from the people who may be in charge of the House, and from their unspoken (and unspeakable) goals. Above all, remember: It's NOT THE ECONOMY, STUPID. And just one additional question: How come the Dems can call Michael Steele a "Republican lawn jockey" but you cannot call Obama a "Dem plantation slave"? The real secret is that the Dems only love blacks and gays and women, etc. as long as they stand with their wealthy and privileged Dem masters. When they think for themselves, and stray from the Plantation, they are tracked down by the Party Hounds, and find themselves targets of hate, and in big trouble. It is a filthy business.
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