As a Tennessean, I’m embarrassed for Tennessee.  The pompous windbag, Al Gore, has been named the 2007 Tennessean of the year.  Today’s newspaper had pages about him.  I tried to read most of it, but he is so insufferably and unwarrantedly self-righteous, it was difficult.  He and his disciples see him akin to Jesus - saving the world.  My gag reflex worked overtime getting through all the praises for this silly man.  His only claim to fame is that he lost the 2000 election and he and his supporters have spent the past eight years trying to prove that he isn’t really the loser he is. 

I was just watching CNN and saw a promo for a show about “The noose as a symbol of American hatred.”  How stupid.  Why not have a knife or a gun or a stick or a pipe or a spitball or any of a million things that people use as weapons against someone they hate.  You can select just about any object, and it has been used for ill will towards someone else.  The noose is definitely a symbol of something awful - hanging someone is terrible.  It was used by some racists against the racial group they hated.  However, it isn’t a symbol of racial hatred.  That’s ridiculous.

Unfortunately, hatred is something that people do.  We wish it weren’t so, but it’s true nevertheless.   Are we to do away with nooses as a prop for Halloween ghouls?  Should old western movies that show a noose hanging from a tree be banned now?  Should we push legislation to criminalize anything that has ever been used to show racial hatred?

Similarly, consider the words “nigger” and “fag.”  Sure, they’re reprehensible words.  So are the words “ho” “redneck” “honky” “jap” “wetback” “fuck” “fat” “skinny”, to name just a few.  Just because they’re reprehensible words doesn’t mean that people who use them should be charged with crimes.  Using such language is in bad taste and it is unkind, but it isn’t against the law.   For that matter, perhaps we should ban speech altogether. No telling when someone might utter a word that someone else might consider hateful or hurtful.  The jury of public opinion will curb hate speech of all kinds - not the court system.

Another “symbol” that has been vilified to the point where it is banned in certain places is the Confederate flag. It’s getting ridiculous. I won’t even get into all the positive things that came out of the Confederate states. Slavery was something that only a very small percentage of the wealthy could afford. Many, MANY white Southerners fought against slavery. Many MANY white Southerners knew that slavery was wrong and they worked to end it.  White people are not the enemies of the black people, and black people are not the enemies of white people.  We all are God’s creatures, and the sky is blue above all of us.

I’m tired of people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton making racial issues out of everything - to their own advantage.   Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are two of the most blatant racists in our world today.  Everything they say and do is all about white against black and black against white.   They are black, though, so they get a pass on their racial words and actions.  They are so color-driven, they can’t see anything else.  The amusing thing is that the ONLY slur that won’t be tolerated from a black person is a gay slur.  i.e. Isaiah Washington. 

Some day people are going to wake up to the fact that we’re all people, and we’re all in this together. All this racial hyping is hurting everyone.

Last night I gave in to all the pre-debate hype - all the talk about how THIS debate would be so unique and driven by the common people.  So I watched it.  At least for awhile.  Once you’ve heard a politician give his/her talking points, there’s no need to hear it regurgitated again and again. 

CNN screened the questions and selected a few out of hundreds submitted.  So only the questions the powers-that-be at CNN deemed worthwhile were asked.   What a waste of time.  And what a bunch of crap that the slightly varied format was something unique.

My guess is that the candidates probably had at least an idea of what the questions were prior to the “debate.”  But whether or not they did isn’t important.  Nothing new was brought out.  No new questions were asked.  Nothing of substance was learned.  It was just another re-hashing of talking points. 

The one small benefit of the debate is that it clearly showed that Barack Obama has no business whatsoever being president.  He answered that yes, he WOULD meet with the leaders of Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela his first year as president.  YIKES!   I hope people aren’t stupid enough to elect him.

AOL had a recap of the debates and included these quotes that had me shaking my head with incredulity:

“The greatest innovation of this debate is that we’re seeing candidates respond to real voters instead of polished TV personalities,” said Michael Silberman of the online consulting firm EchoDitto. “It’s a win for the candidates who are at their best when addressing voters. It’s a win for democracy, since average Americans outside of the early primary states now have the opportunity to ask direct questions of candidates.”

Incredible!  Not even a minimally rational person could honestly believe that last night’s debate was different in any major way than any other debate by presidential candidates.  The only difference was that people other than news reporters/journalists were the ones that asked the usual questions that enabled the candidates to give their talking points to a national audience.  The average American citizen learned nothing and gained nothing.

Listening to the candidates’ responses reinforced my belief that voting Democratic means voting against what America stands for.  It means voting for punishing people for working hard (via higher taxes - the harder you work and the more successful you are - the higher your percentage of taxes), rewarding people for not working (welfare and subsidies) and rewarding people for breaking the law (assistance to illegal immigrants).  They couch their socialist leanings in very lofty phrasing, but it is still socialism - and socialism has never been successful for any length of time.

Let’s get back to the basic American principles of rewarding and encouraging hard work and self-sufficiency, helping people rise out of poverty and bad circumstances by giving them a hand UP and not a hand-out, and having enough patriotic pride that we insist that anyone who wants to move here follow the legal channels to do so.  All are welcome - just follow the rules to get here. 

Seems simple, but there isn’t a single Democratic candidate that supports those basic tenets of American citizenship. 

And how about standing by your country’s leaders instead of doing everything in your power to bring them down?  Sure, the Dems have the right to disagree and protest and be general asses about the war in Iraq.  No matter that their words and actions result in the deaths of our soldiers or the destroying of our reputation abroad - criticize, lie and generally make it impossible for policies to succeed.   To the dems, as long as their protests put THEM in a good light (in their own minds), it’s okay.   It’s hard for me to respect anyone who believes that the policies of the Democratic party are in line with what America is all about.  It takes someone who is easily swayed by lofty sounding rhetoric.

There’s only one thing to say about last night’s debate:  ZZZZzzzzzzzzz!

Beth over at Blue Star Chronicles has a post containing an email from an American soldier responding to allegations by a  New Republic reporter about supposed crimes.  The Army officer responds to each of the allegations to show just how ridiculous they are. 

Here’s a snippet from the email Beth received:

The U.S. Army today is the most disciplined and professional Army in the history of the United States. This is the only war in our nations history where we have not instituted the draft to fill our ranks. Every man in the service today is there because he volunteered. They stood up in the face of danger, knowing we were at war, and said “I’ll go”. Most of these men are on their second deployment in support of the War on Terrorism, some are on their fourth and fifth. After five years of war with an increasing number of casualties, longer and more frequent deployments, and no end in site, these brave young men continue to volunteer their services, many of them reenlisting. No other Army in our history has been able to do that without the draft. Our military men and women today are true professionals, they are truly America’s best and bravest. While there are some bad apples and non-conformist in our ranks, we are quick to identify them and remove them from the service. The author of this story is a bad apple. He is trying to get attention by telling wild stories. He too will be identified and removed from the service.

What saddens me is that so many of the anti-war crowd will believe the allegations - no matter how absurd - because they want to.  It won’t matter what is true.  It will be one more arrow of discredit grasped from thin air to try to harm and dishearten our honorable service men and women.

I’ve watched CNN for awhile this morning, and one of the stories they’ve run several times is one about which Democratic candidate would get “the black vote.” 

To me, that seems the epitome of racist assumptions.  As though African-Americans are one block vote?  In essence, the MSM puts black voters into a box, and then assume that they ALL will vote for a Democratic candidate.  African-Americans aren’t given credit for being individuals with individual beliefs and goals.   I don’t hear discussions of the “white vote” or the “native American vote” or the “Muslim American vote.”  The assumption is that if someone is black - he/she is a Democrat.  And furthermore, all blacks will all vote for the same Democratic candidate.

It is surprising to me that the leaders of African-American groups don’t call the news networks on their obvious stereotyping.

It’s no surprise that “stars” like Jane Fonda, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn were a part of a war protest in Washington today.  It’s their right.  Unfortunately, our soldiers are being endangered, our enemies are becoming bolder and our reputation in the world is being ruined by these short-sighted, self-involved idiots who have no understanding of the concepts of patriotism and loyalty.  So be it. 

One paragraph in the news story puzzled me, though.  Isn’t this a contradiction?

The rally on the Mall unfolded peacefully, although about 300 protesters tried to rush the Capitol, running up the grassy lawn to the front of the building. Police on motorcycles tried to stop them, scuffling with some and barricading entrances.

It “unfolded peacefully” but 300 of them tried to rush the Capitol and ended up scuffling with police who had to barricade entrances.  Doesn’t sound too peaceful to  me.

CNN is reporting that viewers reacted positively to Bush’s State of the Union Speech this past Tuesday evening.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — More than three-quarters of Americans who watched President Bush’s State of the Union address had a positive reaction to it, although the reaction was muted from that in past years, according to a poll released Tuesday.

Forty-one percent of 370 adults who watched the speech said they had a “very positive” reaction to it. Another 37 percent said their response was “somewhat positive.” In 2006, however, the “very positive” number was 48 percent; in 2005, it was 60 percent.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll was conducted by telephone just after the speech. The sampling error is plus or minus 5 percentage points. (Key poll results)

Of those responding, 32 percent identified themselves as Republican, 31 percent as Democrats and 36 percent as independent.

Sixty-seven percent of speech watchers said they believe Bush’s policies will move the country in the right direction, the lowest total of his presidency. In 2006, the number was 68 percent; in 2005, it was 77 percent.

Meanwhile, 53 percent said they believe the speech will lead to more cooperation between Bush and the Democrats who control Congress. Forty-three percent said it will lead to more disagreements.

It’s interesting to me that every single “positive” statement in the report had to be qualified with a comparison to other years.  However, at least it gives those positive statements.  Maybe that’s a step forward for the MSM anyway.

Unfortunately I’m stuck watching CNN more often than I’d like because my husband watches it.  The obvious left-wing bias is hard to stomach at times.  They love to spout their opinions as facts.  Last night, I heard something that was hard to believe - even for CNN.

Jack Cafferty (I THINK that’s his name) was giving the results of some poll.  I don’t remember the numbers or what all the categories were, but one phrase stuck with me.

He said (and this is paraphrased - except for the last few words - since I didn’t write it down),  “XX percent of the people polled think we should not send more troops to Iraq TO BE KILLED.”  (emphasis mine).  Not “sent to Iraq” but “sent to Iraq to be killed.”

My guess is that 100% of people polled would say they don’t think any more troops should be sent to Iraq to be killed.  If the question was about sending troops to Iraq to bring stability to a ravaged country, or sending troops to Iraq to honor our commitment, or sending troops to Iraq to stop the terrorism there, then the answer might be different.

I tried to find the poll on the CNN website, but didn’t have any luck. I wonder how much of the wording was from the poll and how much was from Cafferty himself.  What an idiot.

I love this cartoon  I watched some newsperson interview Pelosi last week, and Pelosi seemed so plastic and smug. Her responses to questions were rote and lackluster.  From my perspective, this cartoon is exactly on the mark.  The idea of being responsible for oneself seems foreign to so many on the left.  They expect the government to do everything for them, and if anything is wrong, they look around to find someone to blame.

More about Pelosi  here and here.

Tiara-Tip to Darleen

I heard a sermon the other day about how important it is to watch out for people who only swim in the kiddie pool.  The kiddie pool is all one depth - shallow.  There are no gradations of depth.  People can splash around and make a lot of noise that demands attention.  Sometimes people even lie down in the kiddie pool and pretend they’re deep, but the reality is that they’re still in a shallow pool.

My immediate thought was that the sermon illustrated the left perfectly.  The talk is sometimes sophisticated and it certainly SOUNDS intellectual.  However, there is no depth - no long-range thinking about the consequences of their words and actions.  No consideration of the big picture.  Shallow. Shallow. Shallow.