Sunday, March 30, 2008

Who Gives a Flying Hoot..


Who really cares about which blogger is endorsing which candidate in a Democratic primary.

Call her preverse, but if if there's a bandwagon going on, Howling Latina is just as likely to go for the other guy or gal. Come to think about it, she thinks that's how Hillary became her choice.

It's the "outsider complex" from her Latina roots. Can't help herself...

Siegelman Appeal Could Take a Year or More to be Decided

The Birmingham News headlines that former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman's appeal will not likely be resolved until next year.

If you recall, Siegelman was convicted of bribery and mail fraud last summer; and before he could sneeze, he was hauled off to federal prison.

Additionally, his appeal was unnecessarily delayed by months when Alabama failed to produce a copy of his trial transcript.

Howling Latina wrote a post back in July, 2007 about the wingnut outrage that landed Siegelman in the pokey. Only two years after he'd lost a very close race by 3,200 votes in a disputed election, Siegelman had an ill-starred turn of fortune.

Prosecutors began to investigate Siegelman as soon as he started winning elections back in 1999; and in 2004, he was indicted, mostly unindicted and ultimately, the judge discharged the few remaining charges with prejudice; they could not be refiled.

A little over a year later, Siegelman was once again indicted; this time with a new set of charges. On June 29, 2006, he was convicted of "soliciting $500,000 on behalf of Alabama's lottery foundation" by a jury (accused of illegally consorting during trial).

Now, the lottery foundation was not some secret double-dealing boondoggle of the Cunningham, Ney, Libby, DeLay, Griles, Frist, Weldon, Abramoff kind; it was simply to benefit Alabama universities.

Since then, Alabama attorney Dana Jill Simpson has signed a sworn affidavit that she'd overheard a conference call where a Republican operative was assuring his pals that in the future, they would not need to worry about Siegelman. Rove and "Canary's girls" would be taking good care of him with a full throttle U.S Department of Justice investigation.

One of Canary's "girls" is the wife of the operative, Leura Canary, United States Attorney in Alabama's Middle District. The other 'girl' is Alice Martin, United States Attorney in the Northern District.

In an op-ed early this month, Cynthia Tucker of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that Leura Canary had "dr[iven] the Siegelman prosecution [and] didn't personally recuse herself until the investigation was well under way."
Her husband, for his part, has run political campaigns for Siegelman's chief rival, current GOP Gov. Bob Riley.
The reason the howler thinks the timing of the whole tawdry Siegelman affairs is oh, just so serendipitously delicious is that Congress will likely want to hear from the former governor many times over, especially close to November's elections.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Survey USA Poll Refutes Bogus NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll

Obama supporters are going to have to eat a little crow. A new SurveyUSA poll shows that Obama's negatives are equal to Hillary's. So much for that bogus NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

That's right, boys and girls. Obama is at 40 percent and Hillary the Witch who has absolutely zero chance of winning the general election because Independents will surely flock to McCain rather than vote for her, as opposed to Obama, comes in at 42 percent.

Well, Howling Latina surely hopes all those superdelegates are paying close attention. After all the attacks Hillary has attracted from mainstream media and all the calls for Hill to quit from every known Obama supporter from the Internet and Capitol Hill, she's still within the margin of error of 3.7 percent.

Just like the Slate's headline reads, "Obama's unfavorability rating is similar to Hillary Clinton's."

Feingold Tells Obamaphiles to 'Cool It'

In spite of Obamaphiles claiming that Sen. Hillary Clinton is a malevolent scheming bitch who secretly plots for hours on end to cheat and claw her way into superdelegates hearts and steal a Democratic presidential nomination that rightfully belongs to the Chosen One, one superdelegate ain't buying it.

And this wise superdelegate is someone whom Howling Latina deeply respects. In fact, he's the one she prayed and hoped would would run for president so she could vote for him.

"I'll tell some of the (Barack) Obama supporters here today: Cool it," Feingold, D-Middleton, said Wednesday to a group of about 50 people at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County. "Take it a little easy."
Wausau Daily Herald reports that Feingold mostly "aimed his censure at Obama supporters" by courageously reminding them that Clinton is not the enemy, she's a Democrat, for crying out loud.

For the record, Feingold voted for Obama in the Wisconsin primary and indicated that he'll likely support him as a superdelegate.

Obamaphiles are starting to piss off a bunch of folks. In fact, with all this Hillary bashing and misogynist comments from supposedly progressive bloggers, if Obama is the candidate, the howler isn't sure she is going to vote for him during the general election.

She can see how a McCain presidency, especially if he selects a moderate Republican for v-p, might be the death knell for the GOP batwing faction and worthy of her vote instead.

Prince William County Should Have Remembered Riverside, NJ


Anyone remember Riverside, New Jersey...? The sleepy town of 8,000 "nestled across the Delaware River from Philadelphia" that hounded those horrid illegals away...?

“It changed the face of Riverside a little bit,” said Charles Hilton, the former mayor who pushed for the ordinance. (He was voted out of office last fall but said it was not because he had supported the law.)

“The business district is fairly vacant now, but it’s not the legitimate businesses that are gone,” he said. “It’s all the ones that were supporting the illegal immigrants, or, as I like to call them, the criminal aliens.”

Well, don't say the howler didn't warn Prince William County voters last fall; the same thing was bound to happen to them. And indeed, the rooster has come to feast at the county's just deserts.

That's right, no longer flush with Latinos, county coffers are starting to feel the pinch. Legitimate businesses are going belly-up; real estate prices are plummeting; and property taxes are going up.

Here are a few lines on the topic from yesterday's Washington Post :

With Latinos fleeing the combined effects of the construction downturn, the mortgage crisis and new local laws aimed at catching illegal immigrants, Latino shops are on the brink of bankruptcy, church groups are hemorrhaging members, neighborhoods are dotted with for-sale signs, and once-busy strip malls have been transformed into ghost towns.
Howling Latina just learned that Prince William County teachers are being fired due to budget shortfalls. Next school year, county school kids will have to make do with disgrunted and harried school teachers as well as larger class sizes. Now that should warm any taxpaying parent's heart; but hey, at least their sweet kids won't have to learn alongside those filthy "illegals."

And what sayeth immigration alarmist and favorite glad-hander Corey A. Stewart about this sad state of affairs...?

"I believe the benefits will far outweigh the drawbacks," said Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large), chairman of the Board of County
Supervisors and a leading advocate of the new policy allowing police to check the immigration status of people stopped for other violations. "And there will continue to be . . . a thriving Latino community in the county into the future."
Wah, ha, ha, ha, ha.

GOPers have proved time and again they simply DO NOT KNOW how to govern. Republicans are doing to Prince William County what they recklessly did to the rest of our nation. Contrary to Mr. Stewart's gift of spin, as long as he is in charge, things will only get worse.

Update: Oops, the howler failed to note that back in February, Virginia Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) was making the exact point as the howler. The single person most responsible for the real estate meltdown in PWC is Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large). Saslaw was quoted in an article by the Washington Post saying that "Stewart 'pretty much trashed [the] county" with his successful effort of driving immigrants away. Sorry about that...

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Who Are You Going to Believe, Me or Your Lying Eyes...?

He said, she said, who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes...?

Earlier, Howling Latina wrote about the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. Irrespective of what spin Obama supporters may try to put on the poll, here's a little gem from Taylor Marsh that should put the oversampling issue to rest.

I’m surprised they released this poll. The actual results mention the over sampling but it doesn’t match up with the question about race. This shows 11% were AA which would be 77 out of 700. But, they state they oversampled by 100 which means 177 were AA (25%). I don’t see how they can make any inferences about overall voters since the sample sizes aren’t reflective of the actual population. They don’t say what they did with the extra 100 AA respondents. Plus, the AA respondent results have a higher error (since it’s a smaller sample size) so you really can’t say anything about those results. (This poll's results has an error of +/- 7.4%!]

The howler stands by her post. Allowing African Americans (a group supporting Obama by 90 percent) to make up 25 percent of a poll sample to test whether voters became disaffected after the Wright incident is dishonest.

But she's mighty glad to see the survey mirrors Democratic primary voters by allowing Republicans to vote in the poll. As Marsh writes, this "poll should never have been released."

NBC/WSJ Poll Oversampled

For all Obama fans who planned to sleep a whole lot better after learning about a new NBC/WSJ poll that showed Rev. Jeremiah Wright didn't hurt Sen. Obama's campaign one tiny little bit, well, start worrying again.

Taylor Marsh links to a post from First Read that fesses up to oversampling in the much-hyped poll.

The new NBC/WSJ poll (pdf) out today has Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama tied at 45%. The margin of error is 3.7%. The poll was of all registered voters, not just Democrats. Both Hillary and Obama's unfavorability ratings increased somewhat from two weeks ago. Combining the "somehat "and "very negative" categories, Obama was at 28% unfavorable two weeks ago and is at 32% now. Hillary was at 43% and is now at 48%.
At first blush, it would appear that Hillary was tanking with Republicans. But as Marsh writes, the amazing phenomena about the NBC/WSJ poll is not how Obama was better liked than Hillary; it's the pesky part about oversampling from First Read that places the entire exercise into question:
[W]e oversampled African-Americans in order to get a more reliable cross-tab on many of the questions we asked in this poll regarding Sen. Barack Obama's speech on race and overall response to last week's Rev. Jeremiah Wright dustup.
Yep, makes perfect sense. Or perhaps not...Especially after Marsh's eagle-eyed analysis with a link from A/P noted that perhaps First Read "should also have included [a very] important nugget."

Yet people familiar with Obama's remarks were about evenly split between those who said they felt reassured about his feelings on race, and those who said they still had doubts. Slightly more said Obama has said enough about race than said he needs to address it further.

In all instances, whites were more dubious than blacks about whether Obama had handled the issue successfully. Democrats were far more supportive than Republicans, while independents were likelier to be divided.

Oh dear...

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Nancy, STFU - Part Deux

This morning, Howling Latino kindly asked Speaker Pelosi to STFU. It looks like the howler wasn't the only one with this sentiment.

Riverdaughter of The Confluence writes that "some wealthy patrons of the party have sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi asking her to zip it. Zip it good."

By the way, riverdaughter is must read for Sen. Hillary Clinton supporters.

Double Whammy for Prince William County Homeowners


Once again, Howling Latina is rolling on the floor with tears of laughter and schadenfreude.

It's bad enough that home prices in Prince William County have fallen by 35 percent or more, but we learned today that county supervisors approved a huge tax hike at their last meeting.

That's right, the gang who cautioned voters to be very, very scared of Democrats during last year's election, the very same bunch who promised to never, ever, ever raise taxes. Lo and behold, stop the presses! They just executed one of the most formidable about-face, worthy of a Bronze medal in the flip-flopping category, for sure.

The Washington Post reports the Board "struggling with the costs of being one of the state's fastest-growing counties in an era of slumping real estate values" will publicly announce a "27 percent increase in the county property tax rate."

Let's see, property values have plummeted, neighborhoods have emptied, wealth has vanished, and we're supposed to keep voting for the same illustrious GOP gang of idiots for the privilege of disjointed and bush league governance.

As real estate values have fallen and home foreclosures have increased, government officials have been coping with budget shortfalls.
Well, don't say the howler didn't warn you. Republicans are very good at making over-arching promises they know they can't keep. Especially coming at the rump of their sheer incompetence.

Rasmussen Poll

Rasmussen Report posted a very interesting poll. And this is not one of their online whacko jobs but an actual telephone survey.

It seems that despite David Brooks and his merry band of brothers at Obama Central, the country is evenly divided as to whom should get out of the race.

Twenty-two percent (22%) of Democratic voters nationwide say that Hillary Clinton should drop out of the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

However, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that an identical number—22%--say that Barack Obama should drop out.

For all those Dem girlie wimps, grow a spine. The Democratic party will be just fine. Just like Harold Ford told his audience on "Morning Joe" this morning.

A solid majority of Democrats, 62%, aren’t ready for either candidate to leave the race.
Here's the hair-raising skinny, too. Obama supporters, the very same ones who want to 'unite' the party by disenfranchising Florida and Michigan (because if they were allowed to revote we all know who would win), lead the cry for Hillary to get out of the race by a full 9 percent.

However, the great equalizer in the poll is the pool of independents; you know, the voters who are voting for Obama in November, for sure.

Those who remain undecided are a bit more likely to suggest that Obama should leave.
Think Progress notes that Ford left Fox and will now be analyzing the '08 election on MSNBC.

Hmmm...how about a Clinton-Ford ticket?? Now that might nicely transcend and rescue the Dems.

Nancy, STFU

Howling Latina loves House Speaker Nancy Pelosy, but she truly wishes the gentle lady from California would STFU.

Once again, she's insisting that superdelegates must not overturn the will of the primary and caucus voters. Rassmusen poll begs to differ.

Meanwhile in the Drudge Report, er, I mean Politico, former Democratic Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is quoted as fully agreeing with Nancy in an ominous warning to Dems.
If Obama were denied the nomination by Democratic insiders after winning the party’s popular vote, Bredesen said, 'There would be hell to pay in the party for a long time to come.”
Oh really?!?

Well you may want to read the latest Gallup poll and then tell the voters in Michigan and Florida about the will of voters. As to the idiocy that superdelegates must vote how their states voted, please be sure to give the news to Gov. Bill Richardson and then take your own advice as well.

Twenty Eight Percent of Dems Would Vote for McCain

Only days before Super Tuesday's primary, Michelle Obama told the media that she "would have to think about supporting Clinton if she [were] the nominee."

Obama also claimed that Hillary Clinton's supporters would vote for him in the general but unfortunately for the 'bitch that won't quit,' the same was not true of her.

"I am confident I will get her votes if I'm the nominee. It's not clear she would get the votes I got if she were the nominee."
Of course, media elites bobbed their heads up and down for months and repeated the mantra with electromechanical certainty.

Hillary was bound to lose independents in the general election; all those wonderful Reagan Democrats that Obama had lovingly brought back into the Dem fold would never vote for her.

Never mind that Obama didn't exactly win over Reagan Democrats as evidenced by his loss in Ohio, Arkansas, Texas and Tennesee. Shhh, don't ruffle the media meme.

Except...

Now as usual, conventional wisdom is being bitch slapped by conventional reality. AGAIN.

"A sizable proportion of Democrats would vote for John McCain next November if he is matched against the candidate they do not support for the Democratic nomination," the pollsters at Gallup report this morning. "This is particularly true for Hillary Clinton supporters," they add, "more than a quarter of whom currently say they would vote for McCain if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee."
A whopping 28 percent of Hillary supporters indicated "they would vote for Republican Sen. McCain in the general election if Sen. Obama ends up being the Democratic presidential nominee."

And although 19 percent of Obama supporters claimed they could not support Hillary, folks, that's still a 9 percent gap, with only a 2 percent margin of error.

So for all you Obamamaniacs, here's your next assignment, should you choose to accept it. Spin, spin away the latest poll and keep trying to knock Hillary out of the race.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Federal Appeals Court Trumps Leslie Gore


For some reason, mainstream media and progressive bloggers have failed to post on a significant ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals released two days ago.

Although the Court initially dismissed a lawsuit by Victor DiMajo, a Florida resident who'd accused party officials of "disenfranchising Florida's Democratic voters by barring them from having their say in choosing their party's nominee," The Associated Press reports that the argument is not moot, after all.

[Sung to Leslie Gore tune with Obama-rade]

It's their party and they'll disenfranchise if they want to...disenfranchise if they want to, disenfranchise if they want...you would disenfranchise too if it happened to you.

Initially, Mr. DiMaio filed the lawsuit before even voting; and the Court ruled the suit lacked standing. But as the wire service noted, the latest Court directive gives "the plaintiff an opening to amend and refile the lawsuit."

Mr. DiMaio told the press that he will refile.

In the meantime, Democratic party officials claim that everyone knows how this party will end...everybody knows how it will....super delegates have already left the party with Barry...and now they're holding his hand...

It's their party and they'll disenfranchise if they want to...disenfranchise if they want to, disenfranchise if they want...you would disenfranchise too if it happened to you.

McLaughlin & His Guests Give Hillary Even or Better Odds


No surrender...

There's gotta be a reason why this Sunday on "The McLaughlin Group," media pundits gave Sen. Hillary Clinton even or better odds to win -- not only the Democratic nomination -- but the general election as well.

It seems so absolutely insane for Sen. Barack Obama supporters to call on Hillary to suspend her candidacy for the good of the Democratic Party.

Mr. Congressman/ Ambassador/ Secretary/ Governor/ Would-be President/ Vice President Richardson, you're kidding, right...?

Jerome Armstrong of MyDD makes a very strong case why this is about the most un-Democratic ranting by any Democrat to date.

While Obama supporters remain extremely worried about Clinton's chances of winning, and her state of campaign finaces, I can't help but recognize that the call to shut down the nomination battle before all the votes are counted, hopefully a position held by a vocal minority, is unfortunately reminiscent of the Bush supporters mantra against Gore in Dec of 2000.
Like Mr. Armstrong, Howling Latina likes Hillary's chances in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, West Virginia, Oregon, Kentucky and Puerto Rico.

Indeed, it certainly looks like Hillary is going to have the kind of run that Obama had in February next month and the next.

Geez, come to think about it, maybe that's why so many people are refusing to drink the Obama-rade and give scrappy Hillary more than a fighting chance to win it ALL.

Update: H/L still waiting for link to transcript...and here it is.

'Ring of Ruin'


This Sunday's Washington Post leads their Metro section with yet another heartbreaking story about the sad, sad shape of the housing market in Prince William County.

Last fall with her tiny blog, Howling Latina tried to exhort her fellow Dems to hold Republican politicians in Prince William County accountable for the current real estate meltdown.

To her, it seemed the huge elephant in the room that EVERYONE was ignoring was the inescapable link between over-the-top massive hysteria by GOP politicians over immigration in Prince William County and the county's disastrous housing market.

As the surge in foreclosures continues and banks repossess more and more houses, property values are declining -- but not everywhere, and not by equal measure...

[...]

But drive with Thompson through the hardest-hit areas of Prince William County -- the epicenter of the region's foreclosure trouble -- and the loss of value has been precipitous. "That one's listed at $125,000," Thompson said one recent afternoon, sizing up a dowdy green rambler in Manassas Park that had been foreclosed on. It wasn't the fanciest house on the block, but it wasn't a shack. Two years ago, homes in the neighborhood were selling for $300,000 to $400,000, Thompson said.

That's right, except for the lonely article here and there, the media and Virginia's progressive blogosphere paid scant attention to the looming equity meltdown.

Not to go out too far on a limb, but the howler would be willing to gamble that most homeowners trying to sell their homes this spring and summer would cheerfully overlook the legal status of ANY prospective buyer as long as he or she had a job and a decent credit rating.

Pick up the torch Jackson Miller, Corey Stewart and Bob Marshall. Tell your constituents why you thought it was a good idea to demonize immigrants. Did you not think there might be a price to pay, oh, like a sea of foreclosures as Latinos packed up and moved in droves to friendlier communities?!?

Well, thanks to their short-sighted leadership, Prince William now leads the Metropolitan area with the most bank-owned homes.

For you "legal" bargain shoppers, Dale City, Woodbridge, Manassas/Bull Run and Manassas Park surpass all other areas in foreclosures.

Happy trails!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

It Was All an Illusion

'My House. My Dream. It Was All an Illusion,' a poor mother's words as her story is front-paged in the Washington Post.

[Glenda Ortiz] looked at only one house and paid too much for it: $430,000 for a run-down, one-story duplex in Alexandria, triple what the house had sold for the year before, and $5,000 more than the asking price, according to real estate records.

She agreed to a high-interest loan that would cost her more than $3,000 a month, more than 70 percent of the $4,200 that she and her husband brought home monthly.

Of course, Ortiz' dream ended up in foreclosure; and there is enough ground for blame to go around the Beltway and back. The folks involved in the house deal should've never done it, especially with looming red flags flapping up and down in front of their noses.

But who can blame the Latina lassie for trying to live the American Dream? Too bad for Ortiz that her happy dream turned out to be an ugly American nightmare.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Thank You Corey Stewart, Gregory Letiecq and the Rest of the Gang


That's right, Howling Latina wants to give a shout-out to all her Prince William batwing friends.

Thanks to their immigration hysteria, her son was able to purchase a home in Gainesville/Haymarket for $115,000 less than paid by the previous owner.

The poor sap had been a tax paying Latino who went into foreclosure. The word out is that Latino homeowners are walking away from their properties and moving to friendlier pastures in Maryland.

Of course, her son plans to immediately call the county assessment office and request that his taxes be lowered to reflect the current market value of his home.

With real estate values in Prince William County in the toilet, you gotta love "Save Manassas." Sure hope all those law abiding homeowners in Prince William County who voted for Republicans enjoy their current paltry wealth status. Homes are routinely losing one-third of their values.

More Death, Give Me More Death

A few days ago, the Georgia House passed a bill that would have allowed judges to impose the death penalty if 10 out of 12 jurors rendered a guilty capital murder verdict.

Now never mind the pesky American notion that verdicts should be unanimous. That's just oh, so Old Mutual...
House Majority Whip Barry Fleming (R-Harlem), who is running for Congress onto [another bill].
That's right, boys and girls; there are elections to be won, after all.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed one day later. In a strong rebuke to the lower chamber, the Senate rejected the House bill by 44-7.

But this reproach may be only temporary. As some will recall, Georgia is the very same state that thinks it's just peachy to execute an innocent man.

CBS Poll

As follow up to my earlier post, the howler came across the CBS poll that once again confirms the howler's worst fear. America is overwhelmingly sexist.

Not only did 17 percent of poll participants feel no qualm in admitting their sexist bias by answering they would prefer voting for a male over a female, but a whopping 45 percent euphemistically told pollsters that even though they might vote for a woman, "most people [they knew] would…not vote for a woman candidate."

Geez, it's a wonder females ever won the right to vote at all...Feels more like 1919 than 2008. Guess we haven't come all that far, baby...

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

America is More Sexist than Racist


Howling Latina has previously written about the state of affairs for women in America; especially for women in power.

Well, a new poll confirms and adds to the howler's worst fears. A majority of people are both racist and sexist.

Slate reports on a new poll that shows both sides of the same sad tale.

."Thirty-nine percent of those polled think that a woman candidate would "face more obstacles in presidential politics today," as compared with 33 percent who believe a black candidate would. Additionally, 42 percent of voters believe that Hillary Clinton has been judged more harshly on account of her gender, while only 27 percent think the same for Obama and his race.
Read the rest of the eye-popping article about the cheerless condition of public opinion in racist and patriarchal America.

Brian Ross of ABC News Reports a Lie

What ever happened to fact-checking and telling the unmitigated truth?!?

Once again, mainstream media is making false statements that have been disproved time and again by others. Only this evening, award winning investigative reporter Brian Ross of ABC News breathlessly told his audience a whopper of a tale.

In a special segment about Sen. Hillary Clinton finally releasing over 11,000 pages from her First Lady schedule, Ross darkly noted that even though the much hyped schedule was finally released, no doubt about it, Hillary was still hiding SOMETHING.

You see, to date, unlike Saint John McSame, Hillary is refusing to release her tax records.

Oh really?!? Well, not so fast...at least not according to this and this and this and this.

Perhaps ABC News needs to do a little more research before going on the air and telling millions of viewers a gold-plated lie. Either that, or give back its Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism they received last year.

Finally, now that Hillary has made her schedule public, you gotta love the headline, "Clinton to Obama: I Showed You My Records, Now Show Me Yours.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Edwards to Endorse Hillary????

This morning on The Chris Matthews Show, Richard Stengel, editor of Time, dropped an atomic news bomb.

During the usually lame "tell me something I don't know" segment of the show, Stengel claimed that former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards will be endorsing Hillary Clinton -- possibly before the North Carolina and Pennsylvania primary races.

Holy COW!

If this turns out to be true, then Obama's boast that he can put North Carolina into play during the general election will be shown to be as hollow as any batwing boast during the '08 campaign about keeping the House and Senate.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Frederick Douglas Defends Rev. Jeremiah Wright


This post begins in the City of Destruction, weighed in by the great affliction of Rev. Jeremiah Wright lamentations -- not for the future like his Old Testament namesake -- but for the past.

In the beginning...what part of Wright's statement, "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans...and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own frontyards” is deservant of rebuke and gnashing of teeth?

Don't hold back; speak out!

News stories are all abuzz today, happily quoting the reverend's supposedly treasonous smoking gun, which the howler will later on post. But first in Wright's defense, here's a little history lesson about social justice in America with words from Frederick Douglas.

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.
Now as promised, here are Wright's words:

Government “wants us to sing ‘God Bless America’ ” despite treating black people as second-class citizens. “No, no, no,” Mr Wright said, “God damn America!”
Hell's bells, Wright was also absolutely right when he said that whites like Hillary Clinton "aint' never" felt the cruel savagery of being called a "nigger." In the case of the howler, she was lovingly called a spic and wetback in her youth so she knows of whence she speaks...

Truth to power always hurts. Now suffice it to say that Howling Latina feels no outrage when people, in the spirit of truth, speak the straight dope.

Too Long, Too Long


It's been over a month since the howler wrote a post. Personal business, too boring to get into. Suffice it to say, she's back and will try to post every day or so...

Yes, she still supports Hillary and is amazed that the chase for most delegates in Denver is still going on; and indeed, she is saddened that the race has disintegrated into name-calling, "racist this" and "sexist that."

Certainly since it all began back in the oh-so-innocent days of wintry breaths in Iowa and New Hampshire, both the Clinton and Obama camps have added more than a few rotating bands of ammunition to the media's gilded metal-jacket frenzy and blogger hysteria.

But in the spirit of new season buddings and mixed metaphors, let's not only put the kitchen sink into perspective but the whole enchilada.

To help you along, here's a link to Michael Kinsley column in today's Washington Post; it's side-splitting snark.

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