Actually I'm not sure how much McCain learned at the Naval Academy, given his 894 out of 899 class rank.

Well, then call me a snooty lefty because I don't play her shallow litmus-test patriotism game. Obama certainly shouldn't.

Why do we have to love our country, Peggy? Why should I waste my love that way?

mbr + dv + woyg

What kind of racism is it that is so stupid and lazy?

The good, old fashioned American kind. After all, Americans like to gloss over the fact that while the Wright Brothers lived in a country that allowed them to go off on their own in North Carolina and change everything circa 1903, the brown brothers lived in a country of Jim Crow - especially in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Americans like to celebrate the liberation of Europeans from the clutches of tyranny on Omaha and Utah Beaches, even while Americans of a darker hue were living in the clutches of tyranny in Myrtle and Daytona Beaches here in America on June 6, 1944. Americans love to celebrate George Washington and his wooden teeth, but it probably didn't occur to most Americans that there's a reason why there are a lot of Blacks with the surname Washington - massa had a lotta slaves. Americans rarely remember that the reason why the losers and brigands who flocked to Sutter's Mill had to push their way west was because the indigenous people of them thar hills were defending their homes from the losers and brigands who were invading their homeland.

Yeah, there's gold in that history.

Americans like to be reinforced, to be told how right and good they are. Self-examination simply isn't American - self-glorification is. American racism is, in fact, an offshoot of White Supremacy - the idea that Whites are supreme or, kinder and more gently, that non-whites are somewhat lacking or lesser in certain regards. It was OK for prospectors to go get the gold because it was just a bunch of savages out there anyway who didn't have any use for the gold. People make too much out of all that Jim Crow stuff way back then anyway. Nobody's owned slaves for a hundred and fifty years - get over it already. Americans have a lot of defense mechanisms to keep cognitive dissonance at a distance, to avoid any stain of guilt from the actions or inaction of their forefathers. Americans have next to no desire to face the ugliness of this country's history intermingled with the glory of this country's history, because much of the good that has come from this country is muddled with a good deal of bad.

It's much like the Church - we the people have rarely lived up to the ideals upon which this country was founded, but that does not excuse abandoning the relentless pursuit of those ideals. We love this country in spite of its faults - and they are many - because of the ideals of this country. It is the United States of America that declared that all men are created equal.  It is the United States of America that declared that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. It is the United States of America that declared that the authority to govern is derived from the consent of the governed, and that taxation without representation is an abomination. The United States of America was founded upon some lofty ideals, but this country has frequently neglected or openly rejected those ideals - much like the Church - but we love this country because of those ideals. We remain in this country because of our fidelity to those ideals. We fight for this country because we believe that this country can and should live up to those ideals.

It's easy to love when everything is rosy, but true love endures the good and the bad, for better or for worse, in good times and in bad. It does not misrepresent the bad as good, the worse as better, or sickness as health. True love tells the truth, and then true love works to transform the best that is possible into objective reality.

That's what I mean when I say, "I love America." It's a patriotic thing - Ms. Noonan probably wouldn't understand...

The Underground Railroad

Check this out- A big defection from the Clinton camp. Since HRC is so good at coming up with new and creative metrics for measuring who is in the lead, how about we start a new one? We've seen a whole lot of defections, and they are all one-way; Clinton to Obama.
Let the superdelegates ponder that....

-------------------------------------

Big HRC fundraiser defects to Obama

Friday, April 25, 2008 2:18 PM by Chuck Todd

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/

From NBC's Chuck Todd
One of the things that both Dem campaigns are always nervous about is defectors. In particular, Clinton is more vulnerable to this problem since she's the candidate that is trailing. Well, NBC News has learned that a major fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, former Amb. to Chile Gabriel Guerra-Mondragon is leaving the campaign to join up Barack Obama's campaign. Officially dubbed a "Hillraiser," Guerra-Mondragon raised nearly $500,000 for Clinton's campaign, according to some estimates. He has been informing people inside Clintonworld this week in what's been described as some tough conversations. A formal announcement of a role for Guerra-Mondragon on Obama's national finance committee will be made next week. Guerra-Mondragon was appointed Amb. to Chile by Pres. Clinton in '94 and served until '98.

Among the reasons for Guerra-Mondragon to defect, according to one informed source, was he was uneasy with the tone of the Clinton campaign and was beginning to worry about what this would mean for the general election.

It's unclear if this defection will lead to others; the Clinton camp has been particularly effective at getting folks to keep their powder dry. For Obama, this comes at a time when his campaign is trying to re-convince insiders that the math indicates he has the nomination virtually wrapped up. In addition, Guerra-Mondragon's defection could serve as a tipping point with some key Hispanic Democratic leaders that Obama is ready to start making a bigger effort to court Hispanics

Don't ya know BooMan. Anyone who was not born on the mainland - the 48 contiguous states - is a naturalized American.  If you're born in Hawa'ii or Alaska it does not count, you're a furreigner b/c you're from a psuedo state.

With all the challenges we face, as we leap into the Greater Depression, an economy ruined, the cost of two wars; and all the media mavens can discuss is flag lapel pins.

So before 9/11 there were no patriots. No lapel pins, as a symbol of loyalty. Remind me what did we do before 9/11?

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

After reading your previous (VP) thread, I was drawn back to an old 2004 article on Brian Schweitzer (Gov-MT) by David Sirota on how they won the office.

Now Crazy Peggy's article makes the case for why Obama needs someone like Schweitzer. This is a weak spot for Obama and he could be really strengthened by it. In fact I would love to see a response letter to Crazy Peggy written by Schweitzer. He would tear her to pieces and show her to be the elitist snob that she accuses Obama of being.

Didn't Schweitzer offer to teach Obama to fly-fish? Maybe it's time they spend a little time together. Maybe he could also teach him how to bowl.

Here's a YouTube speech by Schweitzer. This is a progressive Dem who "gets" the regular guy low-information voter crowd. Very impressive.

She hhoit the nail onm tthe head, acctually.

What nail?

The one that Senator Obama must al least hit a glancing blow if he is to be the next President.

You think she's stoopid?

OK.

Then all the people that read her unquestioningly must also be stoopid. I will nit argue the relative truth or falsehood of that "stoopid" idea because it does not pertain to the nail upon which I am about to hammer.

Alla those people vote. AND THEY DO NOT LIKE PEOPLE WHO TRANSPARENTLY CONSIDER THEM STOOPID. Much like many of y'all don't like it when tell you that you are acting...temporarily, I hope...in very stoopid ways regarding this Dem nomination thing.

Senator Obama has indeed "been tagged as a snooty lefty, as the glamorous, ambivalent candidate from Men's Vogue, the candidate who loves America because of the great progress it has made in terms of racial fairness."

His fault?

He ASKED for it.

Abnd then he did nothing to change that perception.

Meanwhile the professional shape-shifters...errr, I mean big-time pols...have morphed like a MOTHERFUCKER.

Nasty ol' Hillary Witch has become Ma Clinton, downing shots with the boys, and sick, old, wasahed-up McBomb has dropped 30 years and is spoiling for a good fight.

Noonan?

She smells this stuff.

She's GOOD at what she does.

Being just smart enough tpoo give voice to "The Stoopid".

Who're what votes.

Obama better realize this and quick.

He can't get elected as the darling of the leftinesses. He will just be a more photogenic Kucinich.

Scant reward for failure.

AG

Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.-Mae West

Good God, someone actually pays money for this demoralizing drivel. I swear Noonan has slipped a few mental gears, her neurons are mismatched and somehow firing out of tune.  We judge love of our country by this ridiculous mishmash of  history?  And, McCain has it in his bones.  Has what?  A knowledge of how to evade the sanctions of the law as he demonstrated in his days with the Keating Five or his ability to rhyme
principles of foreign policy.

I respect my brain too much to  parse out Noonan's vapid thoughts.  Gosh, what a ditz. She represents no threat whatsoever to the robber barons who are trying  again to dominate America stealing its wealth and treasure.  I doubt if she even knows they exist.

Watch out for the familiar; it's addictive.

Suppose you scrub your ethical skin until it shines, but inside there is no music, then what? Kabir

I get the impression she wants to be hired to write speeches for him. Now there's  a bizarre thought.

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
(Samuel Johnson)
Peggy Noonan take note: "Boswell assures us that Johnson was not indicting patriotism in general, only false patriotism."

My 91 yo dad came to this country in 1939  illegally (I know- bad person). He worked and saved for 3 years, hired a lawyer, and attained legal status. In 1946, my Mom and brother (seven yo then) came over. They all became naturalized citizens within a few years. He and my mom (now deceased) voted in every election (local, statewide, and national). My brother, who served 2 years in post war Korea, has always been civic minded, and involved in his community. Nobody ever questioned my Dad's (and many of his friends who had similar experiences) patriotism because he has always been a good American citizen. Who the f**k is Peggy Noonan to decide what constitutes "loving America"? In some ways it mimics the idea that only birth mothers who breastfeed are cabable of truly loving their kids.
Really, if the discourse continues along this path of preying on the ignorance and stupidity of some of the electorate, we are doomed to a repeat of 2000 and 2004. God help America.