Comments Posted By MikeDevx
Displaying 1 To 7 Of 7 Comments
OBAMA DROPS PRE-EMPTIVE RACE BOMB
WEll, you can't judge everyone based on a few personal observations of a few people, but here goes.
I grew up in the Detroit area, and racial attitudes between blacks and whites were hardened. Among those 30 years old+, I believe the antagonism persists. And that's among both blacks and whites.
Blacks want "one of their own" to be President - and this is apparently true not just in Detroit but across the country. At least among those whites that I know, there is significant resistance to him because he is black. And these are liberal Democrats I am talking about! They're not really paying attention to the primaries or election politics yet. This resistance is based on the virulently racist rants of Rev. Wright and Obama's closeness to it.
I would say that racial politics are all around us on both sides, but I would not call people's voting plans "racist". Prejudiced, yes. Racist, no.
If you are CERTAIN that based on Rev. Wright's sickening commentary that Barack Obama would be a President that agrees with Wright's vomit-worthy pronouncements, then you are prejudiced. There's as much to point to that indicates the opposite of that, as there is that would indicate that he actually is radicalized alongside Wright.
Or I can put it this way: I tend to be an Ayn-Randian Libertarian. I am VERY comfortable listening to people rant and rave about needing to return to the gold standard. Yet, were I President, I would never even bring it up, nor would I ever act upon that preference for the gold standard. I should not be judged as intending to implement the gold standard, simply by enjoying being around people who advocate for the gold standard. It's a prejudice-based mistake.
Comment Posted By MikeDevx On 23.06.2008 @ 06:18
I couldn't care less about public financing of elections. If you can raise more money than public financing provides, do it. If you can't, go the cheap public financing route.
What's troubling is not that Obama chose his own fundraising, nor that he reneged on an earlier promise made when he was a dark horse candidate. What's troubling is the deception he offered about why he did it.
Obama has a CHANCE - just a chance - to remake the electoral map with a high-powered campaign. The American people seem willing to give our socialist, tree-hugging, America-hating leftist Democrats their chance to rule us via the Executive, Legislative, and Anthony-Kennedy led 5-4 Supreme Court. Obama would be insane to pass up this chance.
If McCain had the fund-raising prowess of the Obama campaign, does ANYONE seriously think McCain would stick to public financing? If you do, I have a fine desert canyon in Louisiana I'd like to sell you.
Let me do a 180 on Michelle Obama. As much as I detest Jimmy Carter, he was at least the beneficiary of a Republican uber-scandal in Watergate. The American people have no such excuse this time. And so, for the first time in my adult life, I am beginning to think that I am ashamed of my fellow Americans as a whole, for this insane desire to experiment with hard-core socialist leftism.
Comment Posted By MikeDevx On 20.06.2008 @ 21:45
WHO'S TO BLAME FOR HIGH GAS PRICES? LOOK IN THE MIRROR, AMERICA
So, this is simply a matter of supply and demand?
How many of our Congressmen are in the pay of OPEC to prevent us from developing and drilling any of our oil fields? (Or a promise to pay, as in the secret financing of Bill Clinton's Foundation?) No one can know for sure...
Suppose a hurricane were coming, and your local Home Depot and Lowes pulled half their supply of plywood and electric generators off the shelves, and hid them in the back. Some time passes; The hurricane is still a day and a half away, and the shelves are bare. "Do you have any plywood? Or electric generators?" "No, we have none for sale," speaks the manager, snickering inwardly at his careful truth.
So, consider that under severe demand, OPEC has frozen (or even curtailed) production of oil. It's the same situation. Quite frankly, they are f*cking with us, and perhaps turnabout would be fair play.
Never mind the report that OPEC countries have massive construction projects that could not be paid for when the price of gas sat at $3 per gallon. At $6 per gallon, with 80% of that going for the cost of oil itself, they'll have an absurdly easy time meeting their goals. Due to the world-wide outrage, one suspects they overshot, however, with this blatant manipulation and outrageous wealth transfer. We'll see.
As to Rick's point about nuclear fission plants, I agree, especially since in the last twenty years its technology has advanced so dramatically. But I don't view it as transformational. Now, if we ever solve the nuclear FUSION puzzle, that will be as transformational as any other human advance. It's right up there with the creation of agriculture/farming, the written word, the printing press, and the discovery of electricity. Nuclear fusion would be so transformational you have absolutely no idea. And we already know that it is incredibly safe. There is simply no comparing fission and fusion. Maybe in 25 years...
Comment Posted By MikeDevx On 15.06.2008 @ 21:31
People are not going to like me for saying this about Michigan... but I believe it is the truth so I shall say it anyway.
I grew up in a southern suburb of Detroit, 1962-1980.
You cannot overestimate the antagonism generated between whites and blacks due to Coleman Young's ascension to mayor of Detroit. White flight to the suburbs accelerated, and the resulting tensions caused each side of this racial divide to harden their positions phenomenally and they still blame each other for the Detroit area's endemic problems.
I've lived in Texas (in Brownsville, Austin, and Dallas) since 1985 and I have never heard anything at all like the vicious racism I grew up with in Michigan, and I still hear whenever I return home.
Therefore I think that racism will be the defining issue in Michigan. Perhaps in other states it will play out similarly? I don't know. But I can guarantee you that in Detroit itself, Black support for Obama will not be the simple "we are breaking the barriers down" support that it might be elsewhere. It will have a much nastier edge. And on the white side of the division, it will be hidden racism but very pervasive: "I will never vote for a black man. Never. Period."
And it all goes back to the explosive racial divide that opened up during the ascension of Coleman Young. I won't blame either side, but I do heartily affirm that the vicious divide still exists. Until you see and hear it for yourself, on the streets and in the bars, you really won't believe how very bad it is there in Michigan.
Comment Posted By MikeDevx On 8.06.2008 @ 10:07
THE 'MAN ON A WHITE HORSE' SYNDROME
Well, Rick, I think that the people in a country can have a vast yearning for something. If that happens, they may fall head over heels in love with a candidate based solely on charisma and a cult of personality. Say the right things - in just the right way - and they're GONE. (drumbeat...beat...beat) Lucy in the Skyyyyy with Diaaaaaamonds....
If the people are ready for it, is it any surprise that there will be a politician that rises to meet the needs? Maybe we shouldn't only be cursing the politician.
Perhaps we should take a good look at our entire system and way of life, and figure out why so damn many people are so damn VULNERABLE to a soft-soap-selling savior figure. Where did we all go wrong?
Comment Posted By MikeDevx On 19.05.2008 @ 20:40
DELEGATE PROJECTION SHOWS OBAMA A SHOO-IN
Rick,
The problem is that superdelegates are free to switch at any time.
As long as Hillary sees any hope at all of getting those delegates to switch to her, she won't quit.
Therefore, sometime after June 3rd, the superdelegates will put Obama over the top. Hillary will not surrender. There will be an outpouring of appearances by Obama supporters in the media at that point, and the fireworks will be intense. It will be a joy to watch.
In the end, I think she caves into the political pressure and SUSPENDS her campaign, hoping against hope that between June 10th and the Denver convention, something will happen where she can revive her campaign to get the superdelegates to switch to her.
It will be a very tense June-August between Obama and Clinton as she continues to seek to weaken him. But behind the scenes.
I think that is a very realistic scenario.
ed.
Comment Posted By MikeDevx On 4.05.2008 @ 22:07
ONLY A REPUBLICAN COULD BE SO STUPID...
“I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button,” Davis said.
Davis is 49. Obama is 45.
A white man - especially a Southerner - calling a black man "boy" is never a good idea.
Especially a man who is 49 years old, in referring to a 45 year old man. This is the kind of inadvertent remark that reveals a low-key racism. Just as Obama's use of "clinging" to guns, God, and xenophobia is a slip that reveals an elitist disgust for small-town Americans.
I'm sure Davis wouldn't think of himself as a racist, nor would Obama think of himself as elitist. But they need, both of them, to dig a little deeper and consider their basic (hopefully minor) prejudices.
Comment Posted By MikeDevx On 18.04.2008 @ 05:59
