TailOverTeaKettle.com

Excellent column from Dick Yarbrough this week, well worth the read win the Gwinnett Daily Post! (Bad president, worse hypocrite, 18 February 2006):

Jimmy Carter was arguably one of the least effective presidents of the 20th century. Historians say Warren Harding was nothing to write home about, but he couldn’t have been as mean-spirited and petty as President Peanut has turned out to be.
I found Carter’s conduct at Coretta Scott King’s funeral reprehensible and hypocritical to the max. He took the occasion to mention how the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mrs. King had been subjected to “illegal wiretaps,” for no other reason than to take one of his usual cheap shots at President Bush, who was seated behind him.
Bush is using wiretaps to try to ferret out terrorists before they can kill a few thousand more of us. The wiretaps on the Kings were unjustified and were put into effect by the Kennedy administration at the direction of Attorney General Robert Kennedy and were continued by the Johnson administration — both Democrats. I believe Carter omitted that little fact in his talk.
Carter also failed to tell the attendees that because of his own ineptness in dealing with terrorism, 66 innocent people spent 444 days as Iranian hostages.
With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight — something President Peanut seems to have an abundance of — I would suggest he might have prevented the Iranian hostage crisis from ever happening had he done a little surveillance of his own. After all, if his party was not hesitant to wiretap the Kings who were American citizens, why not wiretap that scumbag Ayatollah Khomeini?
One hostage was quoted later as saying the hostage taking was “a stepping stone to get the terrorist movement going. It was such a terrible loss of face … such a show of weakness that I still don’t think we’ve recovered.” It is fair to say that our current president has had to take drastic measures to combat terrorism because Carter didn’t do so when he had the chance.
Carter also didn’t mention at the funeral that he ran for governor of Georgia in 1970 at the height of the civil rights movement as an arch-segregationist. Veteran Georgia political observer Bill Shipp has written that Carter “ran a subliminal ‘fergit, hell’ campaign.” Shipp said, “Carter promised to be the antithesis of his Democratic primary opponent, former Gov. Carl Sanders, an urbane Augusta lawyer who had served Georgia ably as governor from 1963 to 1967. Sanders promised a fair shake for African-Americans in state government. Carter promised to invite Alabama Gov. George Wallace into the state to speak, and he vowed to retain an old-time segregationist as chairman of the state Board of Regents.”
During the campaign, Carter’s minions aggressively promoted a photograph to the media showing a smiling Sanders with his arm around a (gasp!) black athlete, and Carter referred to the highly respected former governor as a “Hubert Humphrey Democrat.” Carter won the gubernatorial election in 1970, but with less than 10 percent of the black vote.
Funny, but I don’t remember him discussing any of these facts at the funeral, nor do I remember him apologizing to the mostly black assemblage about running for office as a segregationist. Maybe he was pressed for time. After all, the funeral only ran six hours, and that’s not near enough time to confess your sins and bash a sitting president all in the same self-serving eulogy.
Bush, to his credit, did not let Carter’s barbs bother him. I guess he took my daddy’s advice and considered the source. Daddy used to say, ‘If the source is important, then you’d better listen to what they say. If they aren’t important, then neither is what they say.’ Bush probably decided a long time ago that President Peanut and his pontifications are about as important as a tattoo on an elephant’s rump.
Carter needs to understand that history is going to judge his one-term administration as weak and ineffective, and no amount of Bush-bashing is going to change that. The sooner he accepts that fact, the better. Maybe then he will honor us by keeping his opinions to himself. I hope so. Frankly, he is getting pretty tiresome.

I know that most would explain it away

“He wanted to appeal to the large middle class, blue collar type, predominantly white, and most of these people are going to be segregationists,” says historian E. Stanly Godbold. “Carter himself was not a segregationist in 1970. But he did say things that the segregationists wanted to hear.”

That’s just being a politian, right?

              

We’ve seen liberal pundits on TV wearing day-glo orange hunting gear (both Dana Milbank and Paul Begala), heard the jokes from late night TV hosts, heard that real Presidential types don’t like to hunt (courtesy of CNN’s Bruce Morton),

But the definitive (and final) statement about the Vice President’s accidental shooting of Harry Whittington on a hunting trip, is provided by Expose the Left.

              

Apparently Rock the Vote is a half-million bucks in the red (Rock the Vote attempts to regroup and recover from debt, 14 February 2006).

I’m all for getting people to vote. It’s each citizen’s honor and duty. However, if there’s anyone who’s young or old who don’t yet know how to register to vote… then they really need more help than this.

You mean they can not finance the entire gig by selling Rock the Vote thong underwear for $14.99 or “I Love Social Security” T-Shirts for $15.

“I Love Social Security”??? That’s sounds like a bit of a political agenda to me… not just “getting out the vote”. I can understand the blog entries decrying changes to student loans… but anti-social security privatization? And links to Wonkette?

              

Apparently Joseph Smith believes that life is better than death. (Carlie Brucia’s Killer Pleads for His Life and Killer apologizes for strangling child, 14 February 2006).

“I do not ask for mercy for myself. The only thing I can see to give me a life sentence is for my family. I do not want to see them hurt any further.”

Remember, he was arrested 13 times over ten years. But someone else is always to blame.

“The defendant repeatedly sought help for his problems, but was either denied help or received ineffective assistance for his problems,” [Defense attorney Adam] Tebrugge said.

Ineffective assistance?!? His crimes were mearly a cry for help?

Cry me a river.

“When Joe Smith is not abusing drugs, he’s got a lot of redeeming qualities.”

Give me a break.

His life was so bad that we wanted to kill himself. (Apparently he was not so worried about hurting the feelings of his family on that day). But when consuming mass quanities of cocaine and heroin didn’t stop the ol’ ticker, he thought that he’d just go ahead and rape and murder a 11-year old girl who happened to be walking down the street.

Yeah, I feel really sorry for him. I guess he just had ineffective assistance for his problems. Carlie Brucia doesn’t get a choice. There was no assistance for her that terrible day.

But there’s one very effective assistance in preventing another crime like the one he already committed. It is available to the judge and has already been recommended by the jury: see the death sentance carried out on Joseph Smith… redeeming qualities and all.

              

It could almost be a set-up for a late-night TV joke. No, I’m not talking about Dick Cheney’s aim (or lack thereof) on his hunting trip. Al Gore complaining about America while in Saudi Arabia, of all places. Seems to be

• Al Gore: Gore said Arabs had been “indiscriminately rounded up” and held in “unforgivable” conditions. “The thoughtless way in which visas are now handled, that is a mistake,” Gore said during the Jiddah Economic Forum. “The worst thing we can possibly do is to cut off the channels of friendship and mutual understanding between Saudi Arabia and the United States.” Arabs in the United States had been “indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor charges of overstaying a visa or not having a green card in proper order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable.” “Unfortunately there have been terrible abuses and it’s wrong,” Gore said. “I do want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country.” (Gore Laments U.S. ‘Abuses’ Against Arabs, 12 February 2006)
• Hilary Clinton: She said a speech by presidential adviser Karl Rove two weeks ago showed the GOP election message is: “All we’ve got is fear and we’re going to keep playing the fear card.” “You cannot explain to me why we have not captured or killed the tallest man in Afghanistan.” ( Sen. Clinton: Republicans ‘playing the fear card’, 8 February 2006)
• Jimmy Carter: For example, he says peace is an American value, not pre-emptive war: “we don’t wait until our country is threatened,” Carter said, “we publicly announced our new policy is to attack a county, invade a country, bomb a county.” He says another American value is human rights. For decades the US has supported the Geneva convention saying we won’t torture prisoners, but he says now “our senators are voting to keep torture. It’s inconceivable this would happen in the United States of America.” (Jimmy Carter: Bush not in line with American Values, November 2005)
• Rep. John Murtha: “It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interest of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf Region.”War in Iraq, 17 November 2005)

For some reason, the only thought that comes to my mind when I hear this stuff is Darryl Worley’s voice:

I hear people saying we don’t need this war
I say there’s some things worth fighting for
What about our freedom and this piece of ground?
We didn’t get to keep ‘em by backing down.
They say we don’t realize the mess we’re getting in
Before you start preaching,
Let me ask you this my friend…

Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away?
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a living hell
And you say we shouldn’t worry ’bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

They took all the footage off my T.V.
Said it’s too disturbing for you and me
It’ll just breed anger that’s what the experts say
If it was up to me I’d show it every day
Some say this country’s just out looking for a fight
After 9/11 man I’d have to say that’s right

Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away?
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a living hell
And you say we shouldn’t worry ’bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

I’ve been there with the soldiers
Who’ve gone away to war
And you can bet they remember
Just what they’re fighting for

Have you forgotten all the people killed?
Some went down like heroes in that Pennsylvania field
Have you forgotten about our Pentagon?
All the loved ones that we lost
And those left to carry on
Don’t you tell me not to worry about Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

Have you forgotten?
Have you forgotten?

Indeed.

              

Couldn’t watch the Coretta Scott King funeral here in Atlanta yesterday, since I didn’t have 6+ hours to spare. But it was quite an event. It still takes a lot to assemble four former Presidents together. Much as been made of Jimmy Carter and Jospeph Lowrey getting in jabs to Bush. But everyone can see Carter’s delusions and we don’t expect any better behavior of him anymore. That is, unless he’s found another dictator to snuggle up to and praise.

Although he didn’t speak at the funeral (and it probably just killed him), Jesse Jackson did speak at the Memorial Service held the night before. He is quoted as saying something I find even worse than Lowry or Carter. According to the AJC (Political jabs pepper funeral oratory, 8 February 2006):

The Rev. Jesse Jackson questioned why Bush would attend. “I’m not sure the pharaoh went to Moses’ funeral,” Jackson said. “Mr. Bush, honor Dr. King. Feed the hungry in the Katrina zone. Remember the homeless and helpless.”

Oops… I’m sorry? The pharaoh went to Moses’ funeral?

Is that the analogy that Jesse is really trying to draw here? Which parts of the story is Jesse trying to draw parallels with? Bush’s oppression of the black race? Bush being smitten by God until he released his African-American slave population? Coretta leading people through the Red Sea?

I must admit… I thought that racism arrived long before George W. Bush. And it will have to “continue to exist” to keep Jesse in business.

              

Little Green Footballs is on the story that an Iranian newspaper is now holding a contest find the 12 “best” cartoons about the Holocaust, in response to the Danish editorial cartoon depicting Mohammed… supposedly the source of all of the manufacturered anger and protests.

If those in Iran think that this will cause a reaction condeming free expression… I think they may be disappointed. (I also doubt that there will be riots in the streets, but that’s another story).

But wait… how can we have cartoons about the Holocaust anyway? I thought that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad already declared the Holocaust a “myth”. (CNN, Iran plans Holocaust conference, 16 January 2006).

Something tells me that Kofi Annan won’t be weighing in on this one.

So now do people realize just how dangerous it is to develop the idea of “hate speech”? In a world where we are given to moral relativism and historical rewrites … “hate” is now defined only as ideas that run counter to certain ‘opressed’ classes.

Taranto has hit it right on the head with the description of “Folk Marxism” on Friday and again yesetrday:

There is also an ideological component, which goes back to the essay we noted last week on “folk Marxism,” or liberal multiculturalism. This ideology sees the world as a series of class struggles–not between economic classes, as in proper Marxism, but between racial, ethnic, religious, sexual or other identity groups, which are defined as either “oppressors” or “victims.”

Generally speaking, multiculturalists consider Christians to be an oppressor class, while Muslims are a victim class. A victim class’s grievances must be taken seriously and can even trump free expression, while the same is never true of an oppressor class’s. (The multicultural worldview sees Jews as an intermediate class–victims of Christians, oppressors of Muslims–which is why liberals can be outraged by anti-Semitic imagery in “The Passion of the Christ” but unperturbed by terrorism against Israelis.)

Because of such subjective definitions… it would be very foolish to define “hate” and “Hate speech” using only the feelings.

              

According to Reuters (I know that’s kind of like depending on gossip in the schoolyard these days), the Rolling Stones signed off on Super censoring : NFL turned down volume on offending words during halftime show. Imagine the shock and surprise!

But during “Start Me Up,” the line “you make a dead man come” was cut short, and a barnyard reference to “cocks” in the new song “Rough Justice” also disappeared.

“The Rolling Stones were aware of our plan, which was to simply lower the volume on his microphone at those two appropriate moments,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told Reuters. “We had agreed to that plan earlier in the week. The Stones were aware of it and they were fine with it.”

I guess that Reuters didn’t buy into the whole Janet Jackson controversy from last year’s Super Bowl. I mean, the Stones could never knowingly listen to “the man”, right? They would never sell out. It’s not like their music has been used in commercials, or anything like that.

Geez.

Personally, I thought that their performance sounded awful. I have to agree with Neal Boortz today: “For the first minute or so they sounded like a high school garage band after quaffing an illicit keg.”

If only the NFL could have found a way to turn down their microphones for the entire performance.

Why is it that we feel that it is necessary to have half-time shows like this during the Super Bowl? I know… to keep eyes on the screen so that the network can charge the same for commercials during that time. But really, maybe start a new tradition starting next year. Maybe marching bands? Maybe something else. But spare the stadium show… it getting old. (And in this case… literally).

              

Last week Wolf Blitzer reported that the Georgia state flag had been changed back to include the Confederate flag (11Alive.com Politics Blog: Week 3):

During his “Situation Room” broadcast, Wolf Blitzer reported that the State Senate had approved a new state flag design–one that restores the Confederate battle cross that was part of the flag from 1956 to 2001.

Turns out, someone at CNN had read a “This Day In History” feature in the Columbus, GA newspaper. It cited the anniversary of the Senate vote that approved the battle cross design back in 1956. The CNN staffer somehow thought that was a current story, and put it in the “Situation Room” script.

An hour later, Blitzer admitted the mistake, and said, “Getting the facts straight is job number one for us here in “The Situation Room,” throughout CNN. We wanted to set the record straight. When we screw up, we are going to apologize and let you know the truth.”

It’s good that he fixed the mistake. The apology appears in the published transcript for the show, but the original story has been removed. Of course we must ask - how in the world could CNN make this mistake? They are based in Atlanta, not a mile away from the Gold Dome of the Capitol Building. Don’t they think that something like the state flag, an issue that was an election campaign issue, one of threatened boycotts and intense pressure… would only show up as a brief mention in a Columbus, GA newspaper. (“We learned this from a newspaper in Georgia. But we misread the article, got the facts wrong.”) That’s not just “screwing up”… that’s not just double-checking all of the facts… that’s just really sloppy.

OK, so maybe the staffers at the Situation Room don’t actually pay attention to the little peanuts of Georgia state politics. I mean who really has time to listen to all of that when you work for CNN. Why not read the information they saw for yourself, and see if you can pick up any context clues that might have tipped off the harried staffer prior to rushing the news flash into Wolf Blitzer’s hands. Direct from the Columbus GA Ledger-Enquirer:

Senate OKs State Flag With Rebel Symbol Georgia will have a new state flag resembling the banner of the Confederacy if a Senate bill continues its march through the Legislature.

The Senate yesterday approved the measure 41-3 after hearing an impassioned appeal by a senator appropriately named Jeff Davis.

One-third of the new flag would be blue and contain a replica of the Georgia seal. The Confederate battle flag with crossed blue areas containing 13 white stars would cover the remainder of the flag, which is primarily red.

Griffin Signs Libel Bill Gov. Marvin Griffin signed a sweeping new libel bill into law today, the first general measure to become law during the 1956 General Assembly.

The bill greatly widens the field of libel actions against newspapers by making it possible to sue any paper in any Georgia county where it has a circulation of more than 50.

Race Issues On Agenda The Georgia Legislature has scheduled next Monday for a joint session of the House and Senate to hear Gov. Marvin Griffin express his views on the doctrine of interpolation.

Following a conference with three other Southern governors last week, Griffin indicated a leaning toward a declaration of nullification of the U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing public school segregation.

Truman: Don’t Need South Former President Harry Truman said today the Democratic Party would probably lose “some” votes in the South because of the civil rights issue.

“But we don’t need the solid South to win the election,” Truman said.

Now let’s hear the explaination again: “We learned this from a newspaper in Georgia. But we misread the article, got the facts wrong.”

We misreadthe article?

Does the CNN staffer think it’s still 1956?

And why wouldn’t the story about a segregationist governor considering a Bill of Nullification regarding public school integration be the lead instead of something silly about a state flag? Or even an ex-President speaking from beyond the grave!?!

Geez!

              

Was there any Super Bowl Commercial quite as disturbing as Hummer’s It’s a Little Monster? In it a Tokyo-destroying giant robot and Godzilla fall in love and give birth to a Hummer H3.

Almost gave me the willys as much as that damned Burger King guy in the King suit and plastic mask… scary stuff.