Not A Post Racism Society: Boys and Apologies
Posted by Kevin

Geoff Davis, Republican from Kentucky, callled Obama a boy:

“I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button,” Davis said. “He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country.”

Then, when the furor erupted, he “apologized”:

My poor choice of words is regrettable and was in no way meant to impugn you or your integrity. I offer my sincere apology to you and ask for your forgiveness.

Though we may disagree on many issues, I know that we share the goal of a prosperous, secure future for our nation. My comment has detracted from the dialogue that we should all be having on legitimate policy differences and in no way reflects the personal and professional respect I have for you.

Notice what is missing? An apology for calling Obama “boy”. Boy, in that context, is a racist remark, period. Boy is what people in the South say when they want to say n*gger but don’t want to get called on it. It is as racist as it is possible to be, and yet Davis did not apologize for it. Lee Atwater would have been proud: not only did Davis blow the dog whistle but he then refused to mute it by apologizing for it.

This is going to be an ugly campaign. The GOP clearly intends to yell “n*gger, n*gger” or “b*tch, b*tch” for the entire campaign in a desperate attempt to divert attention away from the complete mess they have made of the country. If they did not, McCain wouldn’t have chuckled when the a questioner called Clinton a b*tch. If they did not, McCain would have fired the staffer that spread the email rumors about Obama instead of just suspending him/her. If they did not, Davis would have actually apologized for his use of racist terminology. But none of that happened.

Expect it tog et worse, folks. This kind of base “us and them” destructiveness is all they have left and they obviously feel no shame in using it.

April 15th, 2008 | General, Politics, Culture | 82 comments

Tax Day
Posted by tgirsch

Today is tax day, and that means that we’re bound to be “treated” to all sorts of anti-tax libertarian blog posts today about how horrible it is that the government rapes us, steals our money at gunpoint, takes “half” our money, etc., etc., whine whine whine, bitch bitch bitch. Now the part that these taxophobes don’t ever want to talk about is that while everyone hates paying taxes, people generally like most of the things that taxes pay for (unpopular wars aside). But I’ll let someone else write about that aspect. What I want to talk about, instead, is how horribly the anti-tax crowd exaggerates how much we’re actually taxed.

To counter that, without revealing too many personal details, I’m going to post a summary of my tax situation, and challenge the anti-tax folks to do the same. No specific numbers, just the generalities that I’m listing here.

To that end, for the tax year 2007: (Below the fold)

April 15th, 2008 | Politics, Economics, Libertarian Problem Solving | 29 comments