Pulling a Matthews

I read Chris Matthews book Kennedy and Nixon: The Rivalry That Shaped Postwar America a few years ago and found it to be a fascinating read. The reader may or may not like Matthews performance on news television, but the guy is no idiot. An event flying across the airwaves and blogs (now here) is Chris's fabulous unmasking of the ignorance and bankruptcy lying just under the surface of Eggplant and his associates.



The above video should be mandatory viewing for the country. It exposes the path ahead and beautifully points to strategies and tactics all campaigns should distinguish in their upcoming elections. Kevin James bellows nonsense and asserts Barack Obama would do just what British Prime Minister Chamberlain did in 1938 when confronted with Nazi Germany. Matthews asks, "What did Chamberlain do?"

Watch.

A bit of a semantics guy, I have already written how those behind the vegetable-in-chief have become masters at shaping the rhetoric and dialog into vague catch phrases and exchanges intentionally designed to obfuscate reality and manipulate the duller minds in the electorate.

Semantics is the study of meaning. One of my favorites on the subject, Stuart Chase's The Tyranny of Words investigated the clever use of semantics in the speeches of Adolf Hitler. Remember Hitler took power in 1933 and WAS ELECTED. The people loved him for years. Nazi Germany crafted the art masterfully. Historiographer John Lukas's work The Hitler of History presents a compelling investigation into how history still hasn't figured out how to process the person. Remember, Hitler was a for real human being. We STILL cannot discuss the individual with academic rigor.

Consider the factual reality contained in the following phrases or words:

-We're making progress
-Experience
-Soft on Terror
-Appeasement
-Cut and Run
-Homeland Security
-The American People
-Some are saying the government should decide your health care
-Patriotism
-Some like to think we live in a world where America doesn't have any enemies

The answer? None.

Such language is completely empty if one requires rigorous discourse in reality. A conversation grounded in reality cites facts. As already noted here and elsewhere, 2008 is going to be the butt ugliest primeval political equivalent of a bloodbath, especially at the federal level, and the race for president will go nucular.

I'd like to see the whole country rise to a level where it "pulls a Matthews."

It's time to "pull a Matthews" on these gasbags and ask them WTF they are talking about. What facts support the assertion that Democrats "appease" or Obama is not "patriotic"? Where's the data that supports the assertion that electing Democrats raises the odds of another terrorist attack?

Days and Headlines

Tucson, Arizona. The weekend of May 10-11: Barack Obama starts picking up super delegates on a daily basis.

Tuesday, May 13:
1) West Virginia’s old and uneducated turned out in droves to vote against the African American. Hindsight suggests the Obama campaign should have made a few stops there even though he knew he would lose. No one’s perfect, but after the nomination Obama should budget some serious fence mending. Hint: Both John Edwards and Obama's VP (if different) should book some time. PS: Kentucky.

2) To the south, a Mississippi tsunami officially informed the GOP corporate whores that if they were dog food, voters would remove them from the shelf. Karl Rove suggests that the GOP find a message. The GOP starts thinking abouts its brand.

We lie for a war to slaughter your kids and produce record deficits that amass fortunes for our friends. We support energy policies written by oil barons and economic policies that skyrocket CEO pay while suppressing the incomes of everyone else. We gut education and empower health insurance companies to deny coverage. We pass and support Medicare legislation written by pharmaceutical companies.

3) Without mentioning said policies, the Tim Bee campaign sent an email blast blaming Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords for high gas prices in the United States. Giffords campaign spokesman CJ Karamargin remarked, "It sounds like they're reaching for an issue."

Coming soon: Giffords is to blame for the federal deficit, low wages, and the health care crisis.

4) Idiot-in-Chief Eggplant, cerebral equivalent of laundry detergent, stated that he stopped playing golf because it seemed inappropriate while soldiers were dying to profit his friends. The knee problems had nothing to do with it. Local Tucsonan Army Sgt. Victor M. Cota, was hit with a homemade bomb in Afghanistan. He died the following day. ExxonMobile's profits last quarter exceeded $11 billion. It's CEO makes over $1 million a day, and that's seven days a week.

5) The Tucson Museum of Art said it may have to leave downtown, perhaps moving to Marana. Six-figure salaried suits made statements.

Wednesday, May 14:
1) John Edwards announced his endorsement of Senator Obama for President, usurping press coverage and annihilating any boost Clinton received from those people in West Virginia. His pledged delegates quickly followed suit and shifted their allegiance to Obama.

2) McCain’s equivalent of Obama’s former church leader Jeremiah Wright, the pastor John Hagee, issued a non-apology apology to the Catholic Church. Having referred to the Catholic Church as the "great whore," Hagee in a letter of apology to the president of the Catholic League, stated that he didn’t mean the remarks to apply to the Catholic Church. The church eagerly agreed "the great whore" was a reference to another church.

3) Local blogger Tedski of Rum, Romanism, Rebellion was selected to be Arizona's floor blogger at the DNC convention. Way to go Ted!

4) New TUSD Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Celena-Fagan was welcomed to Tucson at an event at the University of Arizona Student Union. One of their chiefs denied the position, clothmeisters avoided the event.

Thursday, May 15:
1) Displaying the insight of a paper clip, Eggplant drooled that an Obama conversation with Iran would be tantamount to appeasing Adolf Hitler prior to World War II. With the tone of a four-year old crying about a toy, he added that Democratic leadership of the country would produce more terrorist attacks.

2) The California Supreme Court struck down a ban on gay marriage, saying sexual orientation, like race or gender, "does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights."

I wonder when the rest of the nation will figure that one out.

The reader does realize that we are now on the edge of a cliff standing over an abyss. The country is about to put bright lights and a magnifying glass on its arse as we proceed into the ugliest (ever) and most important (since 1860) election in the history of the country. We slay the beast, or the beast slays us.

New TUSD Superintendent Welcomed

(Dr. Elizabeth Celenia-Fagan) Tucson, Arizona. On Wednesday, May 14, at the University of Arizona the education community of Tucson formally welcomed the new TUSD Superintendent, Dr. Elizabeth Celenia–Fagin. Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias and Tucson Council Member Karin Uhlich attended, as did Dr. Ron Marx, the UA’s Dean of the College of Education. The elected officials were not addressed and did not speak, which shocked me. (At cloth events, all elected officials are duly recognized and usually, but not always, given the chance to say a few words.) This was not a cloth event. Almost everyone in the room was actively involved in the nuts and bolts hard reality of education and the challenges involved. I had the experience of being in a room with the people that "get it."

The group consisted of individuals with very diverse racial backgrounds, remarkably so and I am not just talking about Hispanic. It looked like an international event with us Anglos in the minority. I put my blogger name under my real name, and one individual approached, "Great job with the blog. Keep it up."

I would place odds quite high that those in the room overwhelmingly endorsed Dr. Celenia-Fagan over a distinguished cloth leader that likes to attend board meetings and never stood at the front of a room of kids for more than an hour, let alone run a school. A school district? Clothmeisters graduate from a different program featuring another expertise:

1. How to sound informed and important while saying nothing
2. Public flattery and ego inflation
3. Cloth Dress Code
4. Taking credit for results produced by others
5. Taking credit for what would happen anyway
6. Avoiding accountability
7. Insuring mishaps (plant closures, losing museums, baseball teams, etc.) reflect on factors beyond one's control
8. Destroying the efforts of others that produce embarrassing comparisons

I must acknowledge the cloth have it down to an art. They make serious money for the above. The cloth actually do have a leadership program designed to polish the above skills. Once you have the distinctions, you can tell who has graduated from the program.

Yesterday was not cloth, and it felt nice to be in a room of individuals committed to effective action that makes a real difference for real people. I had the chance to meet our new superintendent and wish her the best of luck. While I'm not a K-12 person, it all starts in kindergarten or earlier, and K-12 is a critical partner of the higher education community. Students unprepared (not only academically but in many ways) cripple the system. Perhaps less dramatically discussed than health care, our education system is deteriorating. I don't know how to get rid of cloth or solve all of the issues listed at my prior rant, but people do exist that care and understand the need to deliver real results.

I was reminded of Ayn Rand's masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged, which probably offers the finest distinction ever of the beauty of seeing a competent individual with a solid commitment producing solid results. After so much self-serving greed and arrogance, how refreshing it would be to see the country and local community start to shift towards the adept service of everyone.

Mississippi Tsunami

(Travis Childers) Mississippi held a special election, and Democrat Travis Childers defeated Republican Greg Davis on solid GOP turf. Most analysts considered the race a leading indicator of events coming in November. Much to a certain blogger's delight:

"No one could have imagined the tsunami that just crashed on Republicans in Mississippi," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in an interview after the victory. "There is no district that is safe for Republican candidates."

The 2008 election will show this country its arse, as West Virginia did yesterday, a bunch of old, uneducated boneheads voted for Hillary Clinton admittedly with racist motivations. McCain is going to lose, but not after some howling and foaming at the mouth that Obama and the Democrats stand for dissolving the military, dismantling our weapons, and surrendering our first born to Al Queda. You think I exaggerate? Wait three months. Allegations attempting to cast doubt on Obama’s patriotism will blend with the fanned flames of racism to place a microphone before the mouths of the most Neanderthal elements of the country.

Regarding Congress, in both chambers the GOP has far more incumbents tossing in the towel, and the DCCC is substantially outperforming the NRCC in fundraising. The GOP and its corporate whores have thrown the country into a tailspin on almost every issue from a disastrous war to unconscionable international arrogance to unprecedented deficit spending for corrupt companies and war profiteers. The White House has implemented dysfunctional incompetence at all levels of federal government and so politicized the Department of Justice that it has become an attack dog for a criminal named Karl Rove who laughs at the country while he commits blatant contempt of Congress. All national infrastructures without exception including transportation (all of it), education (all of it) and workforce skills, finance, health care, military resources, on and on, have deteriorated to conditions worse (in many cases, far worse) than they were when Eggplant took office.

May Mississippi indeed be a taste of upcoming events. The GOP forwarded and supported the most disastrous presidency in the history of the country. November is the time for them to reap the suffering they have inflicted on 99% of the nation, and worse, the debt and suffering they have made inevitable for millions of Americans who have not yet been born.

Tippers and Change

(Donna Branch-Gilby) Tucson, Arizona. Last month I wrote The Tipping Point and also discussed The Tippers as the set of individuals starting to find a voice regarding their frustration with community leadership. The Tucson community is growing past the one million mark, and an increasing number of people are starting to question how about fifteen or so people (most not elected) run the place. That's right. Fifteen people. They aren't difficult to identify. They like to sit on boards, chat profusely, feel important, and accomplish surprisingly little.

The distinction "tipper" in this context involves the first step, speaking out. Some, such as GOP Committee Man Bruce Ash, send emails and speak on radio shows. Some post on blogs. That it is easy to sit and pass judgment is duly noted, but as those who have seen "Network" know, step one is yelling.

(Barney Brenner) Some do actually bite the bullet and acknowledge the expression, "If you want something done right.."

They run for office. Just looking at the county board of supervisors for now, from the Democrats we have Donna Branch-Gilby challenging status quo county district 3 incumbent Sharon Bronson. One of the fundamental "tipping points" for Donna involved the ridiculous election integrity fiasco. Blogger Michael Bryan was all over the nonsense where county chieftain Huckelberry, whose administration is strangely accountable for county election machines and vote counts, didn't want to release information despite the inconvenient law that required him to do so. Bronson backed the administration's plan to refuse to release the data. Why? Well, ask Sharon. Donna's doing more than asking.

(Joe Higgins) All tippers with whom I have communicated share the common cry for accountability, integrity, and transparency in government. They don't want the tenth floor administrators just doing whatever they feel like. As Policon and others have pointed out, if you look at who sits on the boards of all these alphabet soup organizations like TREO, SALC, the Downtown Tucson Partnership, MTCVB, and so on, you see the same fifteen people.

For the Republicans in county district 3, we have successful businessman Barney Brenner. Ask Barney about getting permits in the county. Barney will have his work cut out for him in the general election regardless of who wins the primary. Speaking of primaries, causing some GOP consternation is another successful businessman, Joe Higgins, challenging county district 1 incumbent Ann Day in the primary. Some have asserted that Joe's motivation has roots tracing to Al Melvin. I am more inclined to think that Joe's motivation traces back to Joe Higgins, but make no mistake, others encouraged him to run, and not Al. County District 1 will elect the Republican, so Joe's prevailing over Ann Day won't disrupt Ray Carroll's widely acknowledged desire for change in the county administration. He is short one vote. While a Democrat, Branch-Gilby is a change agent and not something to chuckle about.

Good luck all.

Way to Go, Harry!!

Tucson, Arizona. According to content at Barack Obama's website, Arizona Congressman and super delegate Harry Mitchell has officially endorsed Barack Obama for President.

Mitchell said:

I’m proud to support Barack Obama for President. Senator Obama and I worked together last year to improve care for our soldiers and veterans in the wake of the scandal at Walter Reed, and I know that, as President, he will work hard for our men and women in uniform. Like the primary voters of my congressional district, which Senator Obama carried, I am inspired by Barack’s vision for America, his ability to unify our country and bring much-needed to change to Washington.

We should note that Harry has the easier path since CD-5 went for Obama. Some districts did not. That said, February 5th was a long time ago, and numerous conversations with a large number of constituents have clearly demonstrated sentiments have changed.

Thank you, Congressman Mitchell, and best wishes for a re-election victory this fall.

Has the dear reader ever heard a blog screaming?

Yes.

Lightism to Nihilism

My profile's favorite film list is truncated by a 2000 character limit, forcing the exclusion of Rebel without a Cause and also the more thought provoking Philip Kaufman piece, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Properly viewed, the film distinguishes the experience of life from "light" (Daniel Day Lewis) to "heavy" (Juliette Binoche). His freedom from significance, his embrace of life as joy, is too much for her. She leaves him, declaring, "I'm too heavy."

In the final scene, shown below, her transformation is shown as we see her acheive lightness, breaking free from her chains. Kaufman brilliantly flashes ahead to Sabrina receiving a letter about what will occur, perfectly framing the road ahead. Ahh, the richness of experiencing distinction beyond language, which for me is the essence of art.



Light versus heavy indeed, and those with "heavy industry" experience will find themselves sucked into the screen of There Will Be Blood where the gifted Daniel Day Lewis, so weightless in "Unbearable," becomes tonnage itself. Shifting from the spectrum of "light" to "heavy" we have the lens of importance and significance, the faith that one is part a larger context that makes sense and has meaning, that life is worth living and valuable, that investment leads to reward, that hope is not folly. Some have seen how the experience of a certain opposite, the notion that life is utterly empty and meaningless, is in fact liberating and opens up a "lightness" and extraordinary sense of possibility.

Every stick has two ends.

Choose life.
Choose a job.
Choose a career.
Choose a family.
Choose a f***ing big television.
Choose washing machines, cars, and compact disc players and electrical tin openers.

Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance.
Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments.
Choose a starter home.
Choose your friends.

Choose leisure wear and matching luggage.
. . .

Choose your future. Choose life.
But why would I want to do a thing like that?
I chose not to choose life.
I chose Something Else.

And the reasons?
There are no reasons.
The journey along the road motif is also effectively utilized by the closing scene of the Six Feet Under series.



People think it's all about misery and desperation and death and all that shit which is not to be ignored.

But what they forget is the pleasure of it.
Otherwise we wouldn't do it.

We're not that f***ing stupid.

Crises in Color

Tucson, Arizona. Eric Sagara had a Citizen front page piece yesterday, Home foreclosures up 430%. He gets the percentage by comparing 4Q07 to 4Q06, and apparently the data come from RealtyTrac. Eric's piece is well written and quotes several elected officials. Tucson's economy is, uh, well, such that the destructive impact of the foreclosures is amplified. Betty Beard has an article in the Citizen today, Arizona is now in recession.

In Eric's piece, Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias said it this way, "There's not really manufacturing in this community. There's not really other kinds of industry jobs that are out there for people," he said. "Instead, growth is what fuels our economy in large part, so when growth gets damaged by a lack of investment in housing or something like the foreclosure crisis that we're facing, our economy is hurting. The reverberations are deep throughout our economy."

What I would like to call to the reader's attention is the map, which illustrates quite a bit. Look at the color distribution. Keep in mind that density plays a major role in those colors, and to get at the story one has control for density, which explains the tapering off as one leaves the city. The gray bulb by Old Vail road is an explosive growth spurt of less expensive homes as is the pocket up in Oro Valley/Marana above Ina, the vulnerable who swung out on shaky loans.

While shaky loans may be in the mix, the blue bulbs are poverty. What's going on at Golf Links and Kolb? Hint: It's not the Air Force Base.

It rhymes with death in more ways than one.

Drinking / Cigar Event

Tucson, Arizona. The Drinking Liberally and GOP Cigar group met last night at the Shanty for some conversation and introductions. The attendees matched my anticipation, i.e., in general those who believe that elected officials should represent the people that elected them. Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll, State Legislator Steve Farley, and Oro Valley Council member Salette Latas attended. Francine Shacter (prior candidate for CD 8) participated as did numerous candidates running for office including Vic Williams (R - for LD 26), Frank Antoneri (R - for LD 30), Barney Brenner (R- for Pima County Supervisor District 3), Brad Roach (R - for Pima County Attorney), and certainly some others. Bloggers present included Michael Bryan and myself. I did not stay late, so what happened after nine or so will have to come from others.

They passed the microphone to everyone. I had no agenda and kept my remarks brief. The reader cannot appreciate the event without recognizing that it consisted of ACTIVISTS on both sides, the people who carry the clipboards, dial the phone numbers, become precinct captains and campaign volunteers. Naturally everyone got along just fine. Events like these make very clear what mainstream media buries under a pile of hype, which is that we all want a functioning government that handles what we must organize to handle, items like education, infrastructure, national defense, and I would argue health care, environmental issues, and so on. The chorus was deafening for responsible and accountable government. Not a single person at the event gave a tinker's cuss about Reverend Wright, "bitter" or McCain's wife's taxes.

Key take away: the dramatization of politics into opposing camps has reached a problematic pitch that distorts the actual conversation. The politics of division has become part of what prevents the resolution of issues. In a fully functional national conversation stripped free of the nonsense, we would quickly discover the importance of education (largely abandoned), accountability in government (abandoned), financial responsibility (oh, god), corporate ethics (don't even), and the need to partner and collaborate with other countries instead of bullying them. The list goes on, and it's amazing, in some respects, how it isn't all that complicated, except that it is.

I wore my x4mr certified blogger badge, and a young computer programmer approached me. My cloth rants apparently annoy him because they do not offer solutions. I did not mince words, "What solutions?" Naturally it is not black and white. I'm offended, but only mildly so, with cloth that does nothing. More alarming is their destruction of what's productive. I won't name names, but there are some really angry professionals in this town who have gotten burned by the cloth's broken promises, incompetence, or criminal behavior.

I can't remember exactly how, but my conversation with the programmer was interrupted and left incomplete. Hopefully we'll be able to continue it at another event. Sparing the reader details, I fed a bunch of data into my computer, ran hundreds of thousands of numbers, and calculated the probable chronological occurrence of the following. From sooner to later we have:

1. Obama wins nomination
2. Eggplant leaves White House
3. x4mr gets PhD
4. Global warming fully acknowledged
5. US leaves Iraq
6. US has sensible energy policy
7. Cincinnati Reds win another World Series
8. Equal legal status for all sexual preferences
9. US has sane health care system
10. End of world hunger
11. Peace on earth
12. Effective economic development in Tucson

Let's Chat

Tucson, Arizona. I'd rather die with a pair than spend the rest of my life as a coward. I've attended a couple of the GOP cigar events and had a great time at both. In what I think is a first, the Democrat Drinking Liberally group and the GOP Cigar group are converging at the Shanty this evening for political discussions and dialog. I have no idea how the event is organized, but I plan to attend. I will be wearing my x4mr certified blogger badge.

The Shanty has a rich history and many places in my life. The bar is lined with pure copper, the only copper bar I know. Copper tugs at me in a certain way. Decades ago as an ambitious male and graduate math student, the Shanty provided a venue to exchange ideas and seek the other gender. I've spent time on a stool with the elbows on that copper drinking beers I'd never known.

I recently met Independent Congressional District 8 candidate Derek Tidball at the Shanty. Anticipating a sales pitch, Derek shocked me by asking, not telling. We spoke for over an hour about education and workforce development. Derek probably knows more about the subject than either of his rivals. I have respect for this courageous gentlemen and hope his desire to contribute finds its place.

A sad reality about our world is that the desire and ability to contribute are squandered beyond what can be spoken. The solution is most evasive, as egos flood the system with nonsense, myself a candidate, and the task of discerning what should be published, what should be elected, what should be funded. We drop $1.3B telling teenagers not to have sex, accomplishing absolutely nothing, and we shut down a training center that only needed $1/4M a year to develop 10,000 employees. I cannot tell you how painful it was in the May 2007 Tucson town hall to sit in a room unable to speak while know nothings pontificated nonsense about education and workforce development. By the time I got my chance, I had 30 seconds and no one was home.

For those interested in meeting and having conversation with some of those trying to actually do something in this town, the place is the Shanty, and the time is 6 PM until they kick us out. You will have the opportunity to meet people who care and who want to make a difference. Cloth avoids these events, because those that attend can think and ask questions.

Tim Bee Hit on Associations

Tucson, Arizona. One might expect Republican Tim Bee to associate with other Republicans. I wrote about the Steve Forbes Fundraiser Bee held at McMahon’s Steakhouse April 18. Steve supports the flat tax (I can get behind a modified version properly implemented that eliminates outrageous loopholes for the ultra rich) as well as the privatization of social security (properly understood a total scam, no exaggeration, to rape the vulnerable). I had no reaction to Bee’s bringing Forbes into town so solicit some checks over steak and a glass of wine. Such events are to be expected.

Bee had another fund raiser in Phoenix that brought Grover Norquist to Arizona. Grover Norquist is no Steve Forbes. Norquist is everything terrible about the GOP, a malicious and malignant piece of self-serving scum who profits most handsomely screwing the screwable to stuff the elite. The whole sordid career is at the link, but Norquist, one of the “Gang of Five,” represents the corrupt Dick Cheney, Bill Crystal, Ralph Reed “gorge without restraint” Jack Abramoff swine, which includes, of course, Karl Rove.

January 26, 2008: Sen. Bee hot-foots it south for Rove lunch (AZ Daily Star) Now officially in the District 8 congressional race, state Senate President Tim Bee sprinted from the Legislature down to Tucson midweek for a Wednesday luncheon with Karl Rove.

Bee had the chance to pick his brain about the congressional race that will pit Bee against U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Democratic incumbent.

I have no particular thing about Forbes, but if I were a Republican candidate, be it Ray Carroll (when it’s his turn again) or Trent or Vic or Pete or Paton or Schweikert or Bee, the last thing in the world I would do is enter the same room as Eggplant, Rove, Cheney, Abramoff, Norquist, Reed, or any of the garbage principally responsible for the most destructive events in the country’s history. I’d also stay away from the hypocrite meltdowns like Foley, Craig, etc. If Karl Rove comes to town, I'd find a reason to be out of town, let alone have the press run a story about my leaving the state capital to commingle with distilled evil. It's almost asking for a hit piece. Oh, what do we have here?

Update: There was a youtube video here until quite recently. It has been removed from youtube. The piece added no information to the above, just showing Bee with the delightful characters mentioned. I'm not half as annoyed as I am at the fact that someone also removed the youtube video of the fantastic The Ice Age introduction featuring Scrat, which I have watched repeatedly since I posted it last week.

Update II: A bird flew in my ear and whispered the new embed code for the video. The reader can now watch. The bird was gone before I could ask if it knew updated code for the Scrat video.




Unlike that school board ad fiasco, this video did not appear on television and clearly states that it was paid for by the Arizona Democratic Party identifying Treasurer Rick McGuire.

US to Hillary - Bye

May 6, 2008 Voting Results (Indiana--North Carolina---Total)

Barack Obama: 623,294--890,695---1,513,989
Hillary Clinton: 641,734--657,920---1,299,654

Total Popular Vote Change: +214,335 Obama
Total Pledged Delegate Change: +12 Obama

Yesterday's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina have handed Hillary her hat and shown her the door. If she persists, now the groans of "When will this be over?" turn really angry. Despite what I would consider press disadvantage created by the Wright frenzy and the inane, idiotic noise over "bitter," the voters sent an easily interpreted message. The scale has tipped, and the young and the new are turning out in unprecedented and fortunately sufficient numbers to outweigh the old and uneducated clinging to a white face.

If after yesterday the Democratic leadership STILL fails to produce the appropriate "Come to Jesus" meeting that starts to bring unity to the party, the whole lot of them deserve to be thrown out. Be it Vernon Jordon, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, or others, the time has come. I cannot possibly be the only one whose respect for HRC declines each day she continues. If she wants to burn borrowed money to plaster her face on TV next to American flags and factory workers, whatever, but no more needles in Obama's neck.

Those in the GOP hoping for the Meltdown Scenario have cause for concern. Yesterday points to a departure from stupidity. Also the Blue Tsunami I have forecasted is not dead. Seen the voter turnout and the fund raising? Seen the outbreak of college youth and well connected omnivores? Eggplant's disapproval rating is now higher than any president's since the measurement started, five points higher than Nixon's at its worst right before he resigned in August, 1974.

Republicans are defecting from a party increasingly seen as nothing but warmongers and whores for ultra rich war profiteers and robber corporations. Demonstrating his keen sense of the will of the American people, McCain is promising to continue the war ad infinitum, do nothing about health care, assure us the economy is fine, and appoint even more conservative supreme court justices. Go, John.

The GOP is guilty of producing and supporting the worst presidency in the history of the country, and hopefully the worst presidency to EVER OCCUR. Ironically, like Lincoln, Obama inherits a nightmare. It will take a century to repair the extensive and far reaching damage inflicted by the most self-righteous, arrogant, corrupt, incompetent, malevolent, self-serving, and criminal administration to ever occupy the White House. Something should happen to the Republicans this November so abhorrent, so terrible, so unacceptable, that they will obliterate any future effort to ever again shove a money marinated vegetable into the White House.

TIF for TAT Saga Continues

Tucson, Arizona. Remember, in the world of cloth, it's about absorbing, like the horror movie The Blob. After showing the Congress Street Stakeholders the door, cloth meisters SALC and TREO "took over" the existing non-profit Tucson Downtown Alliance to create the Downtown Tucson Partnership. Why? The cloth are like the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. Recalcitrant Executive Directors (an idiot running a training institute comes to mind) get their throats cut if they don’t bow to the cloth. Naturally the "new" group needs a new boss at twice the salary.

June 27, 2007: It’s time for action on Rio Nuevo, new Downtown coalition agrees (Andrea Kelly, AZ Daily Star) The newest group of Downtown problem solvers already seems to be willing to accept a mantra of less talk, more action.

"We want to focus on action, not discussion," said Steve Lynn, Tucson Electric Power VP.

"We need to reinforce the consensus that revitalization of Downtown is essential to all of Southern Arizona," said Larry Hecker, who represents TREO on the partnership board (cloth distilled).

July 9, 2007: 25 DOWNTOWN PROJECTS show promise for Rio Nuevo (Teya Vitu, Tucson Citizen) Teya’s article lists 25 projects under the above headline, correctly noting what the dismissed stakeholders had insisted, "What’s missing is retail, retail, retail." The semantics must be distinguished. He is talking about 25 downtown projects, not Rio Nuevo projects. Cloth meisters have this credit taking down to an art. If Raytheon gets a missile contract Roach holds a press conference.

COMPLETE: We’ve already noted the four RN projects now complete: 1) The TCC Box Office, 2) The Rialto Theater, 3) The Fox Theater, and 4) El Presidio de Tucson.

Regarding the others, wait a minute. 5-Academy Lofts, 6-Ice House Lofts, and 7-Armory Park Del Sol are housing projects (cannot use TIF) outside the RN district. Projects 8-Pennington St. Garage and 9- The Home Depot restoration were already happening anyway and not RN. Projects 10, 11, and 12 are also housing outside RN district and not TIF funded.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: 13) more homes, but RN sold land and built the Avenida del Convento street, 14) Tucson Origins (later), 15) the Post (oh, God), 16) Depot Plaza MLK Apartments (not RN or TIF).

PENDING: 19) Presidio Terrace (Peggy Noonan is suing the city), 20) The Rialto Block Project (a good project, but not RN managed (one reason it’s good)), 21) the Santa Rita Hotel (project dead), 22) the TCC hotel (oh, God, part II), 23) the arena (oh, Jesus), 24) arena extras (mother of Mary), and 25) the 14.3 acres by Tucson Origins.

September 3, 2007: Pima needs good companies and high paying jobs (AZ Daily Star) Over one out of five Arizonans have no health insurance. TREO comments that good companies are looking to relocate where there are high skilled workers. (Would someone please pass the Dramamine?)

September 3, 2007: Downtown hotel, condo, pub project moves ahead (Teya Vitu – Tucson Citizen) El Mirador will feature 220 rooms, 150 condos, and the Nimbus Brewery.

September 8, 2007: The city gets four hotel proposals (#22) (O’Dell, AZ Star). A Hilton (709 rooms @ $166M), Marriott (450 rooms @ $101M with follow up 300 more @ $110M), Hyatt (700 rooms @ $188M) and a Sheraton (708 rooms @$203M).

September 23, 2007: Five who will pick hotel face big decision (Rob O’Dell – AZ Daily Star) The five distinguished suits to select the hotel are 1) Kendall Bert (Wesley Mouch himself, the genius who thought SAIAT managed property), 2) Randi Dorman, real estate developer with experience branding Crest toothpaste, Charmin toilet paper, and Old Spice cologne. 3) Chris Sheafe, representing the Citizen’s Advisory Committee, and 4) Karen Valdez, representing the Business Development Finance Corp., and 5) Jonathon Walker of the TCC.

November 4, 2007: The Arizona Daily Star’s Rob O’Dell runs the Albuquerque comparison pieces each pointing out all that Albuquerque has done that Tucson has not. The next day O’Dell runs a piece on Albuquerque's many accomplishments.

November 8, 2007: City kills deal for downtown condos (Teya Vitu – Tucson Citizen) RN manager hands Peggy Noonan her hat. She is suing the city.

November 8, 2007: The five select the $203 M 707 room Sheraton to be the downtown hotel to pair with the remodeled TCC. An additional $45 M is thrown in to buy the Hotel Arizona from Humberto Lopez and seven acres of downtown land from Allan Norville.

November 18, 2007: Council expected to ok $300 M hotels deal (Rob O’Dell – AZ Daily Star) The Sheraton ($203M), Buy and renovate Hotel Arizona ($28M+$47M) and buy Norville's seven acres ($17M).

November 26, 2007: Marketing Exec sees a lack of ‘wow’ factor in Rio Neuvo (Teya Vitu – Tucson Citizen) Margaret Pulles, deputy director of the Smithsonian’s Affiliations Program, looks at what is going on and declares, "You’re going to have a ghost town if you don’t change your frame of thinking."

After landing the city contract to brand Rio Nuevo, Margaret declares that she didn’t see much to brand, i.e. where are the clothes on this emperor? (Remember Bablove Ridgewood Workgroup? Lack of clothing didn't stop them from taking a quarter mill or so to make a yellow streak.) Margaret's "Where's the beef?" remark infuriated Rio Neuvo Director Greg Shelko. He declared, "I don’t think she knows what we’ve been doing the past two years."

I've never met Greg or Hecker, but the cloth alarm is screaming. I have met Snell. I speak with confidence that if you asked these three to team up and bake a pizza, they'd drop fifty grand on an oven study, twelve grand to fly to Greece and watch them, $40 grand to consultants to study 1) dough, 2) sauce, 3) ingredients, 4) cheese, 5) baking temps, 6) pizza size, and 7) crust thickness policies. After extensive meetings and interviews, Snell would drop 75 grand for glossy pamphlets no one will read because everyone's already left for Pizza Hut, where it takes 20 minutes and costs about twelve bucks.

January 10, 2008: Glen Lyons, the new director of the Downtown Tucson Partnership, arrives. Salary $100-$120K. Now things will really start to happen.

January 17, 2008: Another downtown Tucson business is shut down (Rob O’Dell, AZ Daily Star). "Simply Convenient" packs it in.

February 13, 2008 New downtown exec ready to prowl at night (Teya Vitu, Tucson Citizen) Lot 175 (the lot across from El Charro) is mentioned as a hot priority. Lyons will change the lack of progress.

February 22, 2008: Developer proposes hotel-condo conversion for Rio Nuevo (Rob O’Dell, AZ Daily Star) Ahh, the Post. Bourn got premium land for $100. Not sure whether to cry foul, given the full picture. They sure tore a bunch of stuff down in a hurry. Suffice to say, what’s there now? Not to worry, construction starts next week.

April 5, 2008: Thank business for progress downtown (Tucson Citizen) We have cause for optimism, all. Thank all the suits for encouraging business to take the lead and forge ahead with downtown development.

April 8, 2008: One more Downtown project teeters on the brink (Arizona Daily Star) Now we hear the arena is going to cost $200M, not $130M. City arena cost projection rises to $166M (Teya Vitu, Tucson Citizen) plus “extra expenses.”

Now, of course, we’re not sure we have the $28M for the purchase of Norville’s seven acres or the purchase ($17M) and upgrade ($47M) of the Hotel Arizona. In fact, do we have the money for the Sheraton?

April 10, 2008: Rio Nuevo panel quietly folds tent (Rob O’Dell – AZ Daily Star) The Citizen’s Advisory panel regarding Rio Nuevo, like the Stakeholders before them, disbands, calling themselves irrelevant. Developer Richard Studwell asserts the group had been rendered irrelevant for more than a year and should be terminated.

May 4, 2008: City likely to scrap tortoise arena plan (Rob O’Dell, AZ Daily Star) Faced with spiraling costs, the City Council is set to abandon the arena's tortoise design and its location along the Interstate 10 frontage road. Not to worry, the development won’t cause delays in the construction of the new 700+ room Sheraton and the purchase and upgrade of the Hotel Arizona.

May 5, 2008: Downtown businesses offered fix up grants to help older buildings to retain some of their historic character. The first phase of the program will give up to eight applicants $7,500. That's right, 75 hundred dollars. Oh, wait. That's not to do anything. That's just to study what they might do.

I swear I am not making this up.

Mildred Loving

Mildred Loving died last Friday at the age of 68. Fifty years ago almost to the month (June), she married a white man. They lived in Virginia, but traveled to DC to get married. When they returned to their home in Virginia, they awoke one night to a sheriff and five deputies standing around their bed shining flashlights in their eyes. Richard ran to his dresser to produce the marriage license, "We're married."

The sheriff declared, "Not in this state, you're not."

The two were arrested at once for violating the The Racial Integrity Act against interracial marriages. The knuckle-dragging Neanderthal judge Leon Bazile pronounced:

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

The state knew better than to imprison the otherwise law abiding couple, so the one year prison sentence was suspended provided they leave the state. They moved to DC. The reader can easily explore further if interested, but they pushed over dominoes that led to the Supreme Court, which ended the nonsense in a unanimous decision. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote:

Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.

Mildred Loving did not live to see a man of colored skin win the presidency or even the nomination of his party, but she saw both Obama and Hillary become contenders. I don't know which of the following will happen first:

1. Election of African American to the White House
2. Election of a woman to the White House
3. Equal rights for all sexual preferences

I am very clear which will happen last.

Giffords and Franking

Tucson, Arizona. The instant I saw the headline about Gabrielle Giffords, D-AZ, ranking first in expenditures for the use of franked mailings to her constituents, I knew that certain blogs would be all over it, in particular Sonoran Alliance (link to the right), which did not disappoint. The reader can read the article and the link, but for purposes here, let's just say the practice is monitored by an oversight committee and must adhere to guidelines.

Nationally we have ($000s):

1. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.: $234 (freshman)
2. Fortney Stark, D-Calif.: $227 (long term incumbent)
3. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind.: $209 (freshman)
4. Henry Brown, R-S.C.: $208 (long term incumbent)
5. Dan Burton, R-Ind.: $190 (long term incumbent)
6. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz.: $186 (long term incumbent)
7. Jason Altmire, D-Pa.: $173 (freshman)
8. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla.: $173 (long term incumbent)
9. Wally Herger, R-Calif.: $163 (long term incumbent)
10. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn.: $161 (freshman)

I find the freshman/incumbent distinction interesting. Every freshman in the above list is a Democrat, but among incumbents, most are Republicans. I don't consider this an issue of consequence, but my meters tweak and suspect the following:

The freshmen figures drop from a different machine than the incumbent numbers producing two (at least) different yardsticks. It would not surprise me that one report includes printing, collating, stuffing, folding, design, image processing, and actual postage, while other report lists the postage alone.

An accurate picture of the situation, which is beneath my blogger threshold, would require breaking the expenses into components to level the comparisons and the rankings.

Not happening here. The Bee campaign may try to use this in some fashion, but they do so with the risk of said details being brought to light.

Tidball Files for AZ CD 8

Tucson, Arizona. May 4, 2008. Derek Tidball, combat veteran and Independent candidate for Arizona’s 8th U.S. Congressional District, has registered with the F.E.C as an official candidate in the race. Mr. Tidball’s campaign committee, Tidball For Congress, has surpassed $5,000 in donations. Tidball For Congress has also registered with the F.E.C, and will make its initial financial disclosure as required at the close of the second quarter in July.

Questions and interview requests can be directed to Mr. Tidball’s Media Coordinator, Adriana Moerkerken at Tidball2008@gmail.com, or his Campaign Manager, Brandon Dow, at BrandonM.Dow@gmail.com.

I wish Derek success in contributing to the discourse and debate as he faces incumbent Congresswoman Democrat Gabrielle Giffords and GOP challenger Tim Bee.

The Scar

Tucson, Arizona. As above, so below. Like human beings, systems of human beings can exhibit collective consciousness remarkably similar to those of individuals, and we often recoil or develop pathologies based on past traumas. Undiscussed so far (here) but embedded in the Tucson psyche is the Christmas of 1970. Newcomers may find it difficult to believe there was a time when Tucson's downtown was bristling with retail and restaurants and "places to be seen and heard."

One of those places was the Pioneer Hotel, a cornerstone of things happening downtown in a location now directly across Stone from the main library. Nowadays, you'd see the TransAmerica building to the right of Stone. What isn't talked about so much concerns the events of Christmas, 1970, December 20 to be exact, when the hotel caught fire. Caught with their pants down, the city lacked the equipment to address the old architecture and size of the building, and real people, including hotel owner Harold Steinfeld and his wife, Margaret, died in the fire. They were found dead of smoke inhalation in their 11th-floor penthouse.

Authorities found a marginally suspicious scapegoat as guilty of arson, a sixteen year old kid. This individual, the evidence against him weak by today's standards, remains behind bars 38 years later. The subject is not one people eagerly discuss. The fire claimed 29 lives, thirty if you count the teenager still in prison, now 54 years old. Witnesses saw him helping guests flee the building.

Although the hotel fire itself did not kill downtown, Valdez and other city leaders agree it sped the process. "I don't think downtown Tucson was ever the same after the fire," said former Mayor Lew Murphy. "It took the community a long time to get over it."

The Scar, duly noted, is no longer the excuse. Inside Tucson Business David Hatfield laments the pathetic state of affairs and in our non politically correct guts we know that together we are guilty of allowing overpaid do-nothing suits to talk and produce minimal results.

Bound by certain principles, but entirely unbound by what ties the local press, expect this blog to discuss what you won't read in the press. The next TIF for TAT coming soon. Heard the latest on the arena?

What arena?

Some might recall something about a science center. A hotel. Another hotel. A pub. Perhaps some condos. But of course, you have to drive 20 minutes to get a loaf of bread.

Eggplant Obstinate to the End - Of Course

The above montage is made with the faces of soldiers killed in Iraq. The particularly unsettling full size image made me nauseas. Every face is a life cut short, most of them never reaching legal drinking age.

Eggplant has now earned the highest disapproval rating in the history for a president of the country, his 71% disapproval easily surpassing that of Richard Nixon’s 66% prior to his resignation in August 1974. It should surprise no one. Bush allowed Cheney and his oil pals to set the nation’s energy policy to produce the greatest profits in the history of the world. He allowed a GOP congress to pass pharmaceutical legislation written by drug companies. Iraq will go down in history as the greatest foreign policy blunder ever committed by the United States. At least his leadership made great strides against global warming, the advancement of scientific research, and the national debt. Oh, wait.

Does what public opinion or the counsel of anyone else matter to the Pighead in Chief? Of course not, and at no time in the life of this poster child for self-righteousness has he wavered in his commitment to his own point of view. Some things never change, and George W. Bush’s opinions are among them.

Democrats say that on Colombia and other issues, Bush is marginalizing himself by repeatedly snubbing congressional leaders rather than attempting to work with them…he gets his ideas set, and he won't change them."

Everything I have learned about leadership (taught it for awhile) suggests that leadership involves the inclusion and consideration of all views and generating context that leads to common ground, alignment (itself a distinction of rich discussion), and the ability to move forward that may not please everyone, but maximizes overall utility.

Whose utility this abomination of a president has maximized fits into a single conference room.

Cognitive Economic Development

Bill Clinton’s Labor Secretary Robert Reich coined the term "symbolic analyst" back in the 90s when he published The Work of Nations. By the term he refers to specialized and highly educated individuals that can process abstract information and solve problems / add value in the world of ideas. In terms of economics and economic development, traditional entities like nations and corporations are fragmenting into smaller economic units whose prosperity depends not on location or nationality but on the ability to provide value in the information age. Think Google. What kind of people does Google hire?

A decade later Thomas Friedman published best seller The World is Flat which presents a bold and confronting view that provoked some controversy, in particular from his lack of sympathy about outsourcing jobs and objections that his view exaggerated the speed of the development. The reader can learn about his "ten flatteners" and the "triple convergence." For our purposes here, I want to underscore his emphasizing, like Reich, the importance of a well educated workforce in creating high paying jobs.

David Brooks has a short New York op ed piece, The Cognitive Age noting that worldwide communication can now send information anywhere in seconds. He claims we have moved beyond the globalization paradigm and have entered a Cognitive Age. High paying jobs and economic development follow cognitive skills. He writes, We’re moving into a more demanding cognitive age. In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information. This is happening in localized and globalized sectors, and it would be happening even if you tore up every free trade deal ever inked.

Brooks is making a an important point. The globalization paradigm emphasizes the fact that information can now travel 15,000 miles in an instant. But the most important part of information’s journey is the last few inches - the space between a person’s eyes or ears and the various regions of the brain. Does the individual have the capacity to understand the information?

What is most sorely needed? Not only education and training, but education and training with updated consideration of the distinctions of psychology, culture, and pedagogy, the processes that produce learning.

Google, Microsoft, Facebook, eHarmony, Amazon, eBay, Cisco, Apple, hires what kind of employee? The jobs chase the skills and the skills chase the jobs. To those inside the box, it looks like the chicken and the egg. What if you develop the workers already working? Improve a local company’s productivity? They run a little smarter, succeed a little better. They need to hire more people. No chicken. No egg. Not a huge scale, just 10,000 or so a year in customized venues using the specific components the tailored training requires for their context, distilled employee development straight into the existing economy.

While it does not happen overnight, communities with the capability of providing cost effective, high end, customized training services for local employers have a distinct advantage over those that do not.

The Race about Race

Tucson, Arizona. Liza posted Race and the Swiftboating of Obama over six weeks ago, and back then, she placed her focus on the GOP as those writing the script. At the time I thought: 1) the Democrats could not possibly be stupid enough to give the nomination to HRC, and 2) The GOP would defer the carnage until Obama got the nomination. A John Dixon piece reinforces Liza's remarks as well as the ones I'm about to make.

We can only speculate what the Reverend Jeremiah Wright sought to accomplish earlier this week. Perhaps Texpatriot is correct that Obama endorsed Wright's making statements strong enough to create the opportunity to conduct a split inoculating Obama from the GOP association assault. I don't think so. At present, I think Sunday (NAACP) and Monday (National Press) are distinct events with different dynamics. Although intense, Sunday was polished and frankly moving, a powerful performance I found inspiring but perhaps ahead of its time for today's audience. My current speculation, subject to revision, is that Monday was a slip.

Without blinking about the color of his skin, the students across the college campuses of the country (she won Pennsylvania, but look at its colleges) overwhelmingly embrace Obama. Older white America that came of age at a time when few attended college have fears about what a "black man in the White House" means. We see racism distilled, concern shifting from an assessment of the individual's character and capabilities to nothing but the color of his skin and what that might mean.

The advertisements Clinton is running against Obama are so disgusting and repulsive that my ability to vote for her, already tenuous, has been annihilated. The recent events put a Hillary nomination in the context of race, at worst racism on the part of the party itself and at best the racism the party anticipates among general election voters. Either inflicts massive damage, and the belief spreads among the African American community that Hillary's campaign is deliberately undermining Obama (knowing she cannot win) so he will fail and give her a shot in 2012. Correct or not (I think not), the view points to growing cynicism regarding Clinton's motivation and character.

If by fluke the Democrats cave and nominate Clinton, the flag of racism flies over their ship. If they nominate Obama, we can safely conclude the GOP will fly the flag of racism without shame. They haven't hesitated in the past.

Clinton's shift from theme to theme to theme (now she's a working girl) show a frantic search for message and marketing, not authenticity. McCain has nothing to add. The candidate with soul, a fresh perspective, and remarkable courage walks into the lion's den facing likely annihilation. If a young African American with Obama's character wins the presidency of the United States, a shock wave will inspire the world about what is possible. He tells us that yes, we can. Can we? If this nation can elect as its president a young African American over establishment insiders with lifetime political careers and connections, what else can it do?

Wright Right and Wrong

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, despite what Fox News wishes the public to believe, is no idiot. Inspired by JFK's "Ask not" speech, the man joined the Marines, transferred to the Navy, and graduated valedictorian from the naval training center. He became a cardiopulmonary technician who treated president Lyndon Johnson before getting all of his college degrees including a doctorate, since then receiving seven honorary doctorates and a Carver Medal from Simpson College as "an outstanding individual whose life exemplifies the commitment and vision of the service of George Washington Carver."

The press has gone nuts over the guy. With full awareness the media would open their veins and inject the entire syringe, Wright gave a speech to the NAACP on Sunday, cameras and microphones running full steam. From Wikipedia:

Wright argued that Americans were beginning to change their attitudes and perceptions about differences among societal groups. Citing linguistic, pedagogical, hermeneutic, and other differences, and contrasting varied musicologies, he sought to show how Black culture is "different" but not "deficient", while pointing out how European-American culture has historically held it to be deficient, and punctuating his speech at numerous times with the dinners' annual theme "A Change is going to come".

As CNN continued to play the speech, I became increasingly uncomfortable, even though I in principle agreed with just about all he was saying. Thinking of CNN, MSNBC, FOX, ABC and the current reality of the country, I had a sinking sensation and my gut said, "We're not ready for this."

I doubt anyone working at Fox News has heard the word "pedagogy" let alone Fox viewers. When was the last time you heard Bill O'Reilly discuss the hermeneutics of African American sermons? This post has more questions than assertions. How significant was the Sunday, April 28, 2008 speech by Jeremiah Wright? What was the objective of the speech, clearly the result of extraordinary time and effort? Was it about the country, religion, the election, or simply about Wright himself? Was it delivered in the spirit of a profound contribution to the country (succeeding or not), in the spirit of helping a presidential candidate (succeeding or not), or delivered with the objective of telling a bunch of white folks to F themselves? On Sunday, I wondered if Wright was acting with Obama's prior knowledge and approval. Subsequent events answered that question.

NAACP Speech Full Transcript. One excerpt:

It's going to take people of all faiths including the nation of Islam, but we can do it. It's going to take people of all races, but we can do it. It's going to take Republicans and Democrats, but we can do it. It's going to take the wisdom of the old and the energy of the young, but we can do it. It's going to take politicians and preachers, the government and NGOs, but we can do it. It's going to take educators and legislatures, but we can do it. If I were in a Christian Church, I would say we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. If I were in a Jewish synagogue, I would say is anything too hard for Elohim. If I were in a Muslim mosque, I would say Sha Allah we can do it. If I were pushing one particular candidate, I would say yes, we can.

On Monday, Wright addressed The National Press Club in the morning (full transcript) and the conversation got testy as Wright's frustration with the limitations of the awareness and intellect of others got the best of him, allowing toxic sound bites to erupt forth. I am angry with what angers Jeremiah Wright. I am outraged at what outrages him. Anyone that becomes knowledgeable of his history and accomplishments knows that he has made a huge contribution to this country. Still, his tactics of the last few days overstep what the country can handle and represent the wrong strategy in an insane campaign with its obscene politics by association.

Don't people know that Hillary's parents' gardener exposed himself to third grade girls at a Catholic school? Why doesn't the press tell us how McCain's uncle's football coach was caught with child pornography?

Now would be a good time for Reverend Wright to take that long deserved vacation in the wilderness of New Zealand.

TIF for TAT 2007 Part I