msnbc.com: BREAKING NEWS: Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in firing official, legislative panel rules

http://breakingnews.msnbc.com

This is Your Nation.. on White Privilege

By Tim Wise

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.  

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."


White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.


White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.


White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.


White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.


White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."


White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.


White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.


White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.


White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.


And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain...


White priviledge is, in short,the problem.

Chilling stuff from the British Daily Telegraph but comes as little surprise.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew s/middleeast/israel/2182070/Israel-'will -attack-Iran'-before-new-US-president-sw orn-in,-John-Bolton-predicts.html

The Hawks are getting very very itchy trigger fingers and A McCain victory would  certainly go a long way towards helping to scratch that itch.

 I thought that the whole purpose of picking Biden was that he had  the experience neccessary to compliment Obama,and all that that entails, AND ...that he would be FEROCIOUS. You know,as in  the sort of thing he,s known for AND does pretty damn well.
 So where is this ferocity? What the fuck is going on with Biden?I've hardly heard a peep out of the guy lately and when he does speak ,he almost sounds like an excusist for  his  "long  time friend" John  McCain. He make it sound as though his old buddy is just a bit misguided.
 I mean WTF?? Why isn't he attacking the shit out of McCain and Palin??? Don't anybody tell me that  he needs to  play it above the fray because thats just total bullshit.
Playing it like he's playing it now,will do nothing towards contributing to an Obama win. Biden says  that he wants to protect "his brand" referring to  why he won't be the viciuos attack dog that he normally is when needed.PROTECT HIS FUCKING BRAND? Is he kidding?
 I defy anybody to defend his strategy. It's crazy. It makes no sense ,and unless both he and Obama start getting down and dirty,the Demcorats  can spend the next 4 years patting themselves on the back for taking the moral high ground..while the coutry sinks further and further into the mire under Pres McCain and VP Palin.
That....is worse then a nightmare scenario.

Right now,not in  one week or one day ,but right, now is when the Obama camp needs to wake up from  the sleep that they are in and start to fight back.
I have maintained that the very way to beat  the Cons at their game is to very pointedly demonstrate to the American people how they're being played for fools and how they're being manipulated.  Krugman wrote the best piece the other day in the NYT  Or at least the one that echoed my feelings best.  All about the art of resentment.  It's part of what the Cons do so well.They  make the public RESENT Obama and the Dems.  Well, two can play at that one.  If people are made to see that they're being played and condescended to they will come to resent the Cons.  The Cons are doing it now with Palin making constant reference to Obama's SF comment about clinging to their guns and religion.  IE: Obama says one thing about voters when he's speaking publicly and another in private when he's among his team in liberal SF.  That is a blow to him and they're banging on it every day.  And wait till they get to the Rev Wright tape loop in the days before the election.
Obama and his surrogates can and must demonstrably nail them on the laundry list of lies but they must do more.  They must frame it to make clear what he only hinted at the wrong way the other day when he said, "The American people aren't stupid!"  That's the WRONG way to frame that.  The cons will come right back and say he's suggesting they MIGHT be STUPID.  He must instead make it clear that the Cons clearly believe  that THEY ARE stupid and are playing them all for fools on the basis  that they can say anything and folks will trust it's true.  If they can hardcore prove what's not true and prove they KNEW it wasn't true, they can turn that around quite a bit.

They also have to hang BUSH around McCain's neck more effectively by forcing McCain to SUPPORT OR CONDEMN the Bush presidency.  For all the 3rd term talk, they're not doing that one most important thing.  In the debate or on the stump, they need to put forth a Bush report card and grade him on the key aspects of his presidency.  They must give him an F down the line and press McCain to grade him as well.  If he won't they can press him on why he won't.  They can say here's your opportunity to help distinguish yourself as a change agent.  Let us know what you really think and feel.  Make him SUPPORT Bush or CONDEMN Bush.  If he supports him, which he won't, it will hurt him bad given Bush is anathema right now.  if he condemns him, which he won't, it will also hurt him with the Republican base which will still see that as part of what they never liked or trusted about McCain and they will turn on him.  Instead, they'll give a dodgy answer like, "we're not going to get pulled in to the Democrats game" etc or they'll just say "We think the president deserves an A for keeping us safe on the basis that we haven't been hit again since 911."  and they'll accept the cheers on that point.  But it's a good conversation to have to keep THEM on the defensive.

They must also diffuse Palin.  I personally believe many will now vote McCain on the basis that they're setting her up as the first female President, crazy as that is.  In a matter of a week or two, they're satisfied that she meets all the criteria they're looking for and they're hoping that she'll get a couple of years of on the job training and either McCain won't complete his term or will not run in 2012 and it will be Palin vs Hillary - just as Maureen Dowd postulated the other day - if anyone  happened to see that.

I absolutely don't think  think that  Obama  should be counted out  just yet..not yet by a long shot.   I agree it's a tough situation as do most on here  The Cons are the lowest of scum but that's no revelation.However   he HAS  to be far more pointed and strategic in his attack,otherwise  he might as well start writing his concession speech now.
 And I would urge  the perennial optimists  out there who  might be tempted to pass McCains surge off as simply a bounce from the RNC,you  take that attittude at your own peril.
Obama is in deep shit  because they simply are not playing the scumbags at their own game and time is running out.

I saw this on Robert Greenwalds site, www.bravenewfilms.org

Everybody should see it.

http://therealmccain.com/butler/