My uncle is/was a Republican land developer in the Chicago area.  (I'm using the vague tense because I'd read on the Internet that he died, but there was no word from family.  If you've read Hillerman's "The Shape Shifter", you'll understand my doubts and disassociation.)  Allan Hamilton was Treasurer of the RNC in the 1980s, or thereabouts.  He was a major donor and insider.  They sited O'Hare near his properties and made him very, very rich.  Not wise, not tolerant, not human, but rich.  The later transparency laws drove him and many other wealthy men underground.  They eschew all publicity.  Fear?

The old-timers still are donors, but it isn't as massive or as direct.  They make their influence felt in other ways.  Providing hideaway retreats, for example, where the accumulated wisdom of their years of service can be brought into play.  In absolute privacy.  The perfect "undisclosed location".

For example... when Cheney shot that lawyer in the face?  It happened in Texas, but could easily have happened in Montana on one of my uncle's 5 ranches.  (I'm pretty sure he was the one who gave Cheney the $3000 fly-fishing rod, because those are custom-made in Dillon, MT... just up the road from Twin Bridges.)

That ranch has a lot of elk and there is plentiful deer (a lovely rolling property with brisk streams and good cover).  It is a real working ranch with cattle and horses.  My uncle would take a group of cronies... politicians and developers and business associates... out hunting.  No big deal, except this:  You know that thing with Troopergate and hunting on somebody else's tag?  It is a common scam up in Montana, and I bet Alaska is no different.

The old ladies like their bragging rights.  There is a lottery for tags, and a limit.  I think you can get a deer tag each year, but elk or moose or such have a delay before you can apply again.  Grandma hadn't fished since Grandpa died, and certainly hadn't hunted in decades, but she applied for those tags religiously.  She was handicapped.  If you are handicapped, you can shoot from the vehicle!  For someone like Cheney or Hastert or Gingrich or any other fat old coot, having such a tag in the truck was great.  The men could could drive over the ranch until they saw something instead of walking all day.  

Grandma gave her tag (always for a cow because the meat is tastier, and she wasn't interested in trophy racks) to my Uncle.  He rounded up tags for his buddies so they could go out and shoot things.  She got meat for the freezer and bragging rights.  The day the tags came in the mail, the ladies would all call each other bragging about which tags "they" got.  When the hunters came back, they could brag again about how much meat was in their freezer.  Total scam.  But if everybody else cheated by applying in multiple names of relatives, they all had to cheat.  Did Wooten's wife EVER shoot anything?  Maybe, maybe not... but with both people applying for tags, you double your odds of having free meat in the freezer.  Lotteries work that way.  The State doesn't care unless too many animals of the wrong type are harvested.  Or somebody decides to make it part of a political vendetta.

The main ranchhouse for the owners and their guests (you were wondering when I'd get to the point?) is a beautiful brick Victorian that was rebuilt and remodeled and redecorated.  There are large watercolors by a western artist on the first floor.  The one nearest the stairs, where you must pass by several times/day, is memorable in its bigotry.  It shows a corral, and the cowboys inside are roping and branding... hard messy work.  Outside the fence is a black cowboy, sitting on his butt, eating watermelon.  WHERE do you get watermelon on a ranch in Montana???  The title of this delicious exercise?  "Hiring him was like losing three good men".  

I regret that I don't remember the artist, and there is no record of this piece online.  There are probably other details besides the watermelon, but that seared itself.  My aunt, a gracious well-bred Texan, approved every piece of artwork on those walls.  I drove down with Grandma for a family reunion, ages ago.  Nobody else was bothered by the image or the sentiments.  Nobody.  I bit my tongue for a week.  However, year in and year out pasty white politicians and businessmen would pass by that image and accept it as part of the milieu.

How could they think that one man wasn't the equal of another... but was no better than the LOSS of three good men simply because of his skin color?  What is the opposite of good... bad? or evil?

And was the watermelon really necessary?

And this was art, to be purchased and hung with pride of place?

BTW, I am an artist, disabled and broke,... but I wouldn't create such a hateful piece for ANY amount of money.

If you want to know where the Yes votes on Prop 8 are coming from, look no further than this "Reagan Republican".

50 states, 210 media market, 435 Congressional Districts, 3080 counties, 192,480 precincts

And this part....well, it speaks for itself.

She said she doesn't think in racist terms, pointing out she once supported Republican Alan Keyes, an African-American who previously ran for president.

"I didn't see it the way that it's being taken. I never connected," she said. "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else."

"It was just food to me??????" WTF!!!!

Fried chicken....ribs....watermelon.

Nope.  Nothing significant there.

Purely coincidental.  My bad.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"

The Ugliest yet - McCain's Robocalls in Multiple states

TPM

Latest McCain Robocall Alleges That Obama Denied Babies Medical Care

We've obtained yet another McCain campaign robocall, and this one levels perhaps the nastiest charge yet: It claims that Barack Obama callously denied newborns needed medical attention by opposing a measure to force doctors to preserve their lives when they survive botched abortions.

The call, which was sent in by a North Carolina reader, labels Obama "extreme" and to the left of Hillary, and charges Obama doesn't "share our values."

[.]So let's take stock. We now have documented four McCain/RNC robocalls, some known to be running in multiple states:

• One that questions Obama's patriotism by saying he put "Hollywood above America" during the financial crisis.

• One that says that Obama and Dems "aren't who you think they are" and claims they merely "say" they want to keep us safe.

• One that attaches him to "domestic terrorist Bill Ayers," whose group "killed Americans."

• And, now, the above, which dishonestly paints him as indifferent to the lives of babies.

[.]

These aren't the work of any fringe groups. Every one of these is paid for by the McCain campaign and the RNC. It looks like there's a huge wave of them blanketing the country. Seems pretty noteworthy.

And she didn't see it was racist BUT she did it because Obama drew attention to his own race?

Just remember that this is what passes as fun humor in Republican emails these days. And she tries to blame Obama for her sick actions? There is a lot to be said about Republicans passing the buck on personal responsibility.

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