What's the Word, John?

Miscegenation (Latin miscere "to mix" + genus "kind") is the mixing of different racial groups, that is, marrying, cohabiting, having sexual relations and having children with a partner from outside of one's racially or ethnically defined group.



Obama. Britney. Paris. McCain. This should be one of the stupidest attack ads ever, but ultimately it's not. (For actual stupidity, check out this RNC ad - must be seen to be believed).

But. But. What's really going on here? This ain't McCain taking a cheap shot at Obama's "celebrity" status. Too bad, because then he just looks cranky, as usual. I didn't catch it at first. My wife, though, nailed it instantly, without even seeing the ad, soon as I told her about it. (She's sooooo much smarter than me).

This vicious, nasty, disgusting ad is about the black mens and the white womens. And how the former ain't supposed to touch the latter. It's about a threat to the white womens! Rape! Why else juxtapose two comely young white ladies in striking profile shots against the vaguely threatening, kinda shadowy image of a black man, with sorta scary chanting in the background. That chanting has a purpose, too - it says the black man has somehow bewitched the white folk and fooled them with his mystical savage black powers somehow. This is so freakin' 19th century. Is Nathan Bedford Forrest McCain's Veep-pick?

But lookout, black man! It's John McCain! He's white and he's old and he sees through you and knows that all you really wanna do is get them white womens and do nasty things to them. John McCain will save you, white folks! Huzzah! Huzzah!

Postscript: So far, I've only seen Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman go at this ad from any perspective other than "Huh? What?" And they see the racism inherent in it, too, enough so that Rachel tore Pat Buchanan a royal new one, basically calling him a racist to his face albeit very tactfully. They cut to commercially immediately after she did it. And even Keith was scared of really going for it in his analysis. This is a disturbing place John McCain is taking the election and it's on his head, his heart and his conscience assuming he still has one.

What She Said

Rachel Maddow was right last night and everybody else was wrong. As usual.

Yesterday I read the story about how Clinton, when asked about the required number of delegates needed to cinch the nomination, said she thought it was "2209" -- a few numbers off the actual number of 2028 that the DNC claims are needed. Why did she say this?

I thought then and so did Rachel, who tried valiantly to convince all the smarter-than-thou white (and one black) males on MSNBC last night, that this was a throw-down, a gauntlet from the Clinton hand, the message being: "I'm taking this to Denver. I'm not dropping out!"

But as much as it pains me, I have to disagree with one part of Rachel's analysis. This was said in the afternoon when she and her people all fully expected a sizeable win in Indiana - not the "squeaker" she got. That and the hoped-for miracle of either besting or coming very close to Obama in North Carolina would have "closed the deal" for Clinton and left staying in the race a no-brainer.

Today, she has no hopes of getting the needed delegates, even if she somehow forces the acceptance of Michigan and Florida by the DNC, the money will by drying up, superdelegates will come out for Obama even more handily and the popular vote is against her (again). The only metric she can use is that she is more electable. And that one only works from the peculiar side of the looking glass the Clinton campaign has been peering dimly through for the last few months.

But she still ain't gonna quit. She may not last to the convention, but I think she's still gonna try and bleed every possible delegate and vote she can from Obama in the remaining few weeks. I don't even like to think about the why of this anymore, but I'll be amazed if she doesn't. Rachel was right.

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Now playing: Wooden Shjips - We Ask You To Ride
via FoxyTunes

Don't Worry About the Government (Our Founding Fathers, Fifth in a Series)

Talking Heads - Live at Max's Kansas City, NYC (10-9-76)

August, 1984. Driving on some unknown highway, in the middle of nowhere Connecticut, trying to find fabulous Willimantic to visit my favorite bookseller in the world (and good buddy), Mark Zeising, my best friend Dan in the car with me after we'd dropped our other friend Mark off at MIT for his freshman year - Dan of the motorcyle, Mark of Camper Van, you may recall - and the only good things about being lost were the gorgeous green and black patterns of sun and shadow we were driving through in this oddly forested Eastern state and the Talking Heads. My boombox was on the back seat and we were cranking the first album. Nothing like "Psycho Killer" to keep you focused! Whether you want to be or not.

On the eve of the Pennsylvania primary (hey, we drove through PA twice on that trip, getting lost in scary Pennsylvania "Deliverance"-country at one point thanks to major-smartman Mark's deficient map-reading skills), this post goes out to the two hottest political talking heads on TV - Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow! If only you guys would marry, mate or somehow protoplasmically merge and give us a million little Chuckdows or Madtodds to make the world a better place. Yet, somehow, I'm thinking that ain't gonna happen. Anyway, there is nothing more refreshing than to hear the clear, intelligent voices of Todd and Maddow cut through the baloney and explain the reality of the unreal, of politics. Thank you both!

Buy shit!

And VOTE OBAMA!