Man, Lots Of Politics I Missed...

...I took a bit of a day away to post about something near and dear to the heart of my good buddy Fairlane and new buddy Torrance of http://rawdawgb.blogspot.com/ and of course to do all sorts of housekeeping relevant to the NHL trading deadline. Raw Dawg Buffalo is well worth the time. Torrance covers the waterfront. Politics. Finance. Sports. Music. Very lively stuff.

But there is some nifty stuff out there. Let's start with John "Walnuts/Manos De Piedra" McCain. This guy may not have the huge IQ but he knows what he's doing on the hustings to be sure. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080226/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_talk_radio_host;_ylt=AsXjIlC1zOqxKt7CfWFhNoNh24cA

This is a guy who won't apologize for telling a vile joke about Chelsea Clinton when she was a child. And won't apologize for that whole "bitch" business this year with regard to Chelsea-mere, but is apologizing and clarifying some hyperbolic, albeit true, remarks by a Wingnut radio host about Barack Obama? A Wing-nut radio host warming up a pro-McCain rally? No make-a sense at first glance. Sure, it makes sense. McCain wants to face Obama instead of Clinton in the worst possible way. McCain knows how badly Clinton has made him look in the past and how personal a head-to-head with her would be. He also knows that Obama's strength over Clinton -- Republicans voting in open Democratic primaries and far-right Democrats -- will all vote for him. McCain knows that Obama will not criticize him during the campaign but rather will AGREE with whatever McCain says. Is it possible to put down the lollipops for one second, to look, to listen? Both Clinton and Obama are centrists. And the MSM has it all wrong: Clinton is campaigning with the platform of her husband, whle Obama is campaigning with the platform of Paul Tsongas versus Bill Clinton in 1992. I'm sorry. Skin color be damned. Some remark made with nothing on the line in 2003 be damned. The populist message is coming from Clinton. The collaborator's message is coming from Obama.

I have no business telling African-Americans how they should vote. If they're into Obama, mazel tov. What can I say except that the Democratic party tried to shove this ethnic shit down my throat in 2000 with Lieberman as VP and I gagged on it and went for the Arab-American consumer guy? And speaking of the meshumedim (traitors or apostates), we have our very own Howard Fineman to tell us more horseshit.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23352812/#storyContinued

This is my favorite Fineman gem from the article: "The pressure's off Sen. Barack Obama in Cleveland this evening, he just has to keep on keepin’ on. ..." [Italics and emphsis mine]

KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON? For real he wrote that? Look, I speak English and I speak Spanish and I know enough slang in both, but wasn't the phrase "KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON" from like The Jeffersons or something? Torrance will confirm that I do not go on his site and write Black idiom like some kind of mega-asshole but as sure as I'm drinking an ice-cold Balboa right now and don't speak much English anymore let alone African-American slang, I know that "keep on keepin' on" is not much used in contemporary African-American vernacular. At least not by young people.

Howard Fineman is a dildo. He may be of Ashkenaz heritage like me but he is very much not part of my conversation. At least, I'm within my rights to make that point, because if African-Americans take some pride in the candidacy of an aristocrat who's father was a diplomat and whose mother's roots go back to let's say a less enlightened time racially in the USA, again, mazel tov.

I despise identity politics and I'm pretty happy where I am. Fineman is not part of my conversation. The president of Panama, Martin Torrijos, has darker skin than both Fineman and Obama and isn't Jewish but he's very much part of my conversation. He's shown how a pro-business populist platform can work. A few years ago Russian-Jewish emigre I know who used to run a private poker club in the Flatiron district and I were having dinner. We were talking about the growing anti-gambling sentiment among the Bush base and Justice Department and assholes like Lieberman and so forth. My friend who's a pretty sharp guy, about 35, was Komsomol during the commie days and has used his Rutgers math-engineering major to become ultra-capitalist, said "we new Russian Jews have a word for Jews like Lieberman. We call them 'Christians.'" That friend is part of my conversation. Finally, I don't give a rat's ass if she now supports Obama, Clinton, McKinney, Nader, Paul, Huckabee, McCain or Judas Escariot, Barbara Lee is also very, very much part of my converstation. She was the first big-time Congressperson to say "no" to George Bush. About all of it. http://lee.house.gov/ You can argue she had a safe seat in Oakland but there is no shortage of safe Democratic house seats and there wasn't a shortage even in the fall of 2001. She's great.

I really hope that the Clinton campaign didn't have anything to do with the Obama Muslim head-gear photo dust-up. I would like to think that she'd be above that having been trashed over the rather trivial Suha Arafat hug thing, but it's hard to explain away asshole Bob Kerrey's earlier ploy like this on her behalf. Obama's donning the head-gear is one of the few things I like about him, one of the few things that show me he might be more than just words. I know of what I speak. One of the real joys of Panama is that not only are the Jewish and Arab communities not enemies, they are particularly close. Life's a lot mellower that way. Believe.

Kelso's Nuts love you