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It is unprecedented in contemporary American politics for a former Vice President to openly challenge the views and policies of a sitting President, four month into their term.Vice President Gore waited two years before he made his speech, and it was not covered in its entirety on all three networks at the time.

Vice President Cheney has absolutely no credibility. Just a few minutes spent on Google can refute nearly every public statement Cheney has made. He is a documented liar. Put Cheney's ass under oath, sit him at a table and let him spew away.No other VP in American history has gone so out of his way to defecate on the Constitution of the United States and the laws of the United States that they faced the possibility of war crimes charges. Cheney is a very special character.

Of course the fact the media allows Cheney to present his views as a 'he said/she said' phenomenon does show the power the GOP has over the corporate media. When Gore spoke against the war, he was mercilessly mocked by the kewl kids bloviating on television. Cheney, a gullible paranoid cowardly sadist, gets endless time to spout his drivel, uninterrupted by pesky pertinent questions.

The Problem is, too many Democrats feed this beast. A 90-6 Senate vote refusing to appropriate money to close Gitmo played right into Cheney's hands. When the Dems openly concede that there should be an actual concern about the country's safety once Gitmo is closed, they're tacitly conceding that Cheney is making legitimate points. Obama is being severely handcuffed here by members of his own party. I imagine quite a few of them are feeling pretty foolish right now. They just got schooled by the president. Like Franklin Roosevelt said “ the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” Now if only the GOP will get a life and stop fear mongering. I won’t hold my breath for that, but shaming gutless democrats who cower to the fear mongering should be a progressive mantle.

Edmund Burke wrote in "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful the following:

"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear ... To make anything very terrible, obscurity seems in general to be necessary. When we know the full extent of any danger, when we can accustom our eyes to it, a great deal of the apprehension vanishes. Every one will be sensible of this, who considers how greatly night adds to our dread, in all cases of danger, and how much the notions of ghosts and goblins, of which none can form clear ideas, affect minds which give credit to the popular tales concerning such sorts of beings. Those despotic governments, which are founded on the passions of men, and principally upon the passion of fear, keep their chief as much as may be from the public eye."

This is so true of the situation in the Gambia. Instilling fear through torture, murder and other vices has been the constant tool in Yahya Jammeh's authoritarian rule. Raiding communities, arresting, detaining and forcibly making their elderly drink concoctions that are lethal is a brutal way to instill fear and power over a people. Yahya has succeeded to a certain extent. Most of the people subjected and will be subject to this craziness will be waiting on God to come and rescue them ... as if that ever happens if you don't put in the effort.

The only bright spot in this saga is the stance taken by a single man...Halifa Sallah. Here is an interview he granted Foroyaa after his release from prison because he dares question the government on the legality and morality of their actions...vis a vis the witch hunts.

“MY RIGHT TO DEFEND THE SOVEREINTY AND WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE IS INVIOLABLE AND NON NEGOTIABLE” ...Halifa

Halifa understands Burke's assertion clearly and he refuses to be fearful. Go and read the whole interview at Foroyaa online. It is beautiful.

We have a moron running the Gambia into the ground. When men like Halifa Sallah stood up for the downtrodden against the bully, he send his minions to arrest and imprison him. But like all bullies, Yahya has a glass jaw. Anytime Halifa stood his ground, he finds some lame excuse for arresting him in the first place.

Halifa Sallah isn't only talking, but doing it where it matters the most. For that we are grateful.

For more info check out foroyaa at this link

Halifa Sallah has been arrested and imprisoned by the thuggish regime of Yahya Jammeh for coming to the defense of innocent victims of Yahya's witch hunt. As usual and as if on clue diasporan Gambians took to the usual spots online to denounce the actions of Yahya. We have become victims of circumstance...always reacting to the whims of Yahya.

Whatever you may think of the politics of Halifa Sallah, you have to admit that he is walking the walk. He is putting his life and livelihood on the line to defend what is right. I am not going to start asking about the whereabouts of the other political leaders on the ground like some of my countrymen are doing from the comfort of Europe and good old US of A. We are asking of others sacrifices that we refuse to make. So while we admire the courage of Mr. Sallah and call for his immediate release, we should be mindful of castigating others.

Here is Foroyaa's reporting on this outrage:

Halifa Sallah, former NADD presidential candidate and Foroyaa Editorial Board member, told supporters and sympathisers at the Brikama Magistrates Court, that he is willing to become a sacrificial lamb to ensure the liberty and dignity of the people. He made this remark at the close of his first appearance in court since he was arrested on Sunday 8 March, 2009.

“I am ready to suffer for others not to suffer, but what is going on must come to a stop,” he told his audience. He told them that there is no need for them to despair. He asked them to go home, but they need not worry that he could not possibly meet the conditions of the bail granted. He indicated that he was looking for their strength and not their weakness. He stressed to them that they needed to be strong.

These words evidently touched the audience and the grim faces soon became bright.

Shortly after the adjournment of the case he was whisked to the Remand Wing of Mile Two Prison.

Many people in court were dumbfounded when the Magistrate imposed the following bail conditions:
(1) A bail bond in the sum of 1 million dalasis to be signed by three sureties;
(2) Two of the sureties must be Ex-Inspector General of Police or Ex-Brigadier of the army who have been retired for at least eight years;
(3) One of the sureties must be an Alkalo (village head) from Western Region

When he appeared in court, three charges were read to him:
(i) Spying, in that while at Makumbaya, he had obtained confidential information which he knew is useful to the enemy
(ii) Control of processions in that he held a procession while in Makumbaya
(iii) Seditious intention in that he unlawfully assembled the people of Makumbaya in order to collect information that would bring hatred or contempt or excite disaffection against the Government of The Gambia.

He pleaded not guilty to all three charges.

The police prosecutor then stood up at this point to oppose the granting of bail. He argued that they took a lap top from Halifa Sallah’s home which is in their possession and if Halifa is granted bail he may tamper with the ‘website of the lap top’.

Halifa Sallah, who was unrepresented, submitted that the offences alleged are bailable. He further submitted that every accused person is presumed innocent until he/she has pleaded or proven guilty. He also submitted that the hearing of the case should be free and fair. He concluded that the court should not restrain his ability to defend himself.

He opined that what is significant is for the court to ensure his appearance whenever it deems it fit. He pointed out that he had sought the highest office of this land as a presidential candidate in 2006. He assured the court that he would comply with whatever condition the court imposes to ensure his appearance at an adjourned date as long as the conditions are reasonably justifiable in a democratic society. The magistrate did not like the last bit of the statement and after a brief exchange Halifa amended it to: “I will comply with whatever the court deems just.” He therefore asked the court to grant him bail.

He pointed out that the submission of the prosecution regarding the lap top is neither here or there in that in the first place the lap top does not belong to him but his wife.

Fishing Expedition
He asserted that the prosecution were simply engaged in a fishing expedition. He emphasised throughout his detention that he had never been confronted with any witness.

The jackasses decided to set insurmountable obstacles to his bail. They are trying to make his life miserable. His courage under the circumstances is exemplary. Take this portion of the story for instance:

“I am ready to suffer for others not to suffer, but what is going on must come to a stop,” he told his audience. He told them that there is no need for them to despair. He asked them to go home, but they need not worry that he could not possibly meet the conditions of the bail granted. He indicated that he was looking for their strength and not their weakness. He stressed to them that they needed to be strong. These words evidently touched the audience and the grim faces soon became bright.

I hope he realizes that he needs a movement to get rid of this dictatorship. Telling your supporters to go home while you endure injustice is no way to broke the yoke of a tyrant. He can't suffer for the people and ask them not to join him in the struggle. This is a fight for the soul of a nation and he needs all the help he can get.

Free Halifa Sallah......

The 44th president of the United States been sworned into office is a vindication for the sacrifice made by the thousands of men and women from the abolitionist movement to the civil rights movement. They have a few things in common...courage, conviction, idealism and hope. They stood up to power and along the way some pay the ultimate price. Today's festivities is the fruits of their labor. Congratulations, President Obama. Good Luck and God bless.

On a different note, I liked this from Nate:

For as much as some parts of the world have developed a habit of looking down on America, it's highly unlikely that any nation in Europe or most of the rest of the world would have elected someone like Barack Hussein Obama as their leader.

I agree.

The erudite Gambian writer Suntou Touray recently wrote on the Gambia-L that he is embarking on a project to outline the tribal competencies of Gambians. I am one of the respondents pooh-poohing this idea as silly and counterintuitive. Suntou tried to allay our reservations with the trust me meme and recently took to his blog and the Bantaba forum to push this idea. He didn’t make mention of my name, so it is fair to say that I am outing myself by writing this post in response to what I think is a mish-mash of a very convoluted thought process. Take this sentence from Suntou’s post for instance:

The vital point to note here for all is that, The key word is 'TRIBAL COMPETENCES'. This doesn't mean, what one tribe is competent at another is
incompetent with.

Which begs the question what pray tell is the purpose of allocating competencies if it doesn’t empirically settle the incompetence of other tribes at doing the exact same thing? Isn’t assigning a certain competency to a certain tribe, in essence, saying that tribe X is superior in performing a certain task than the rest? Mr. Touray went out of his way to disprove his own proposition in the same sentence in an effort to allay fears and thus have it both ways.

My objection to Suntou from the jump centers around my libertarian disposition that nothing is impossible for the cognitively developed individual. Erickson’s theory of nature versus nurture comes to mind. To this point, Steinberg argued that through a process of assimilation we try to "restore cognitive equilibrium by incorporating new information into existing schemes". Personality development continues throughout the life span as a result of every new experience within that environment. He has the belief that life is composed of changes in which everyone must go through. Therefore it is safe to say that unless a tribe lives as a hermit unto itself, ideas developed in their environment will be shared with other tribes and members of the later may become equally or more competent in the task than the originator tribe. Thus assigning competencies becomes arbitrary and caricaturist.

Further reading of Suntou’s posting does reveal a serious flaw in his argument: he is confusing culture and cultural affinity with competence. Why else would he write something as absurd as the following if he is not confusing the two:

I am well aware of prejudice and bigotry and seriously as a Muslim, that is the last thing that comes to my mind. The 'social construct'of each individual is different. Even two Mandingos from different region in one country will have different social construct. A Baddibunka mandingo for instance may culturally value money differently to a Kobomka mandingo. Similarly a Senegalise Wolof may see marriage differently to a Gambian Wolof. Is writing or talking about this peculiarities sensitive? Yes, because our society is very rigid and sensitive.

If you notice that he didn’t mention anything regarding the competencies of the groups of people he is using as an example, you are not alone. It will be helpful, for example, if he can enumerate how competent Senegalese Wolofs are at a given task than say a Mandinka from Badibu. Instead, we are treated to this caricature of Badibunkas as money-grubbing species that have been going around albeit subtly. I happened to be culturally Mandinka and hailed from Badibu. Does this mean I like money than Suntou? Is this the kind of caricature Suntou will be trying to pass off as serious research into our tribal competencies?

Maybe just maybe, my understanding of the word Competency is different from Suntou’s. When I think competent, I visualize skill. Case in point, it is safe to assume that Suntou having spent years in the financial management corridor is more competent to handle issues related to finance than a person of another tribe without that prerequisite training and experience. However, it will be a fallacy to assume that people of different tribes are more competent at doing certain things all things considered.

The question of whether the competencies of humans are the result of predisposed genetics or if their lives and personalities are shaped by the surrounding environment are critical to this discourse. This is why Erickson’s view of development supports nurture. Nurture holds a substantial sway over how we become who we are, rather than whose we are.

If you think political whoring in the Gambia started with the ascendancy of Yaya Jammeh to power, then you are sorely mistaken. Granted the brutality that befalls the Gambia since Jammehcracy is unique in Gambian political life. However, the sycophantic nature of our people didn't start with him...if anything it got reinforced. Click on the link below and listen to the 1992 PPP MansaKonko congress and see if much has changed in the sycophancy department since, save for the players. 

Nothing in my life has actually changed in the last weeks since Obama become our president-elect. I have the same bills, the same amount of money in the bank, my disdain for the dictatorial rule of Yahya Jammeh is at an all-time high (granted I don't talk about it much). Everything in my life is exactly the same as it was two weeks ago; and yet I feel as though everything is different.

I feel so much hope. I feel so much pride. I feel like my one vote was a single drop of water in a great Tsunami of change. I feel like I was one of a million voices screaming in the night, " I love my country and I'm taking it back!" I'm so proud of the country that I love and have so much hope in my heart that we can together heal the wounds that have been such a source of pain and anger to us all.

I know Obama isn't going to fix the economy overnight, I know he won't be able to provide healthcare to all Americans by February '09. I know Obama isn't a Messiah who four years from now will have turned this country into a fabled utopia. But I also know Obama will make moral decisions. I know Obama will try to unite where others try to divide. I know Obama will help to make America the beacon of hope it once was to others. I know that at 33 years of age, I witnessed one of the most important and hopefully glorious chapters in American history.

I know hope.

In a  couple of hours we will be calling Barack Obama ...president elect. Ponder that for a minute. The returns coming in are marvelous for our man.

There is nothing false about HOPE... Yes We Can....

It is showtime tommorow. Barack obama has run a competent and dignify race. It is left to us to show up at the polls tomorrow rain or shine to join history's march. It is been a long tweenty two months for Obama supporters like yourstruly. But we are not taking anything for granted. We are going to work harder tomorrow ... Getting our supporters to the polling stations. We are giving it all we got. No time for complacency. The only poll that count is the final tally. We hope for the best, but it is showtime for now. Time to show up and vote. Time to showup and volunteer in getting folks without transportation to the polls or give them water or snacks as they wait in line. It is a one in a lifetime opportunity to show up and take a stand. We can't afford another four years republican theocracy.

A couple of weeks ago, John McCain was bitching about comments made by John Lewis counseling him to tamp down on the hate been spewed at his and his running mate's campaign events. Dengre at the DailyKos...that bastion of liberal activism in America set him straight. I posted below in its entirety because more eyes need to feast on this truthiness:

"In recent weeks I’ve felt drained, tired, and yet, determined to take this country back. I’ve been fighting since that dark moment in my youth when Reagan became President. There have been many moments when it was hard to scrape even a teaspoon of optimism from the news of the day.

But tonight, hope and optimism are in the air. A real victory is in reach as we gathered for yet another battle with the old merchants of fear, hate, and division. So, volunteer, take action, donate—do what you can to ensure a victory.

We are on the cusp of a great change in America. That is good news. Of course, any defeat on Election Day will give conservatives "permission" to release their demons—and that is the bad news.

Recently, Civil Rights Hero John Lewis, warned John McCain and the Republican Party about their growing embrace of a culture of hate. He was attacked (yet again) for speaking truth.

We should listen...

It is not hard to gather evidence that rallies for the McCain/Palin ticket are becoming hate fests. The appeals to racism, code words and dog whistle invitations to the dark side are well documented. Many newspaper Editorial Boards have cited this atmosphere of hate as a reason to endorse Senator Obama over Senator McCain. It was high on the list of reasons that Colin Powell gave when he endorsed Obama last Sunday on Meet the Press:

I also believe that on the Republican side over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower. Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He's crossing lines--ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He's thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values.

And I've also been disappointed, frankly, by some of the approaches that Senator McCain has taken recently, or his campaign ads, on issues that are not really central to the problems that the American people are worried about.

I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

Powell’s longtime aide, Larry Wilkerson, elaborated on the embrace of hate in a recent interview with Foreign Policy Magazine:

FP: What’s your take on the tone of the campaign?

LW: I was fully expecting the grand wizard of the Klu Klux Klan to arrive from Maryland and endorse McCain. I was becoming frightened that we were returning to 1968, when they assassinated Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Those were bad times.

One of the most dramatic moments for me was when I was watching McCain on television, and I thought I saw in McCain’s eyes himself, when someone yelled something out, a recognition of, ‘Oh, God, what have I done?’ This is not McCain; he doesn’t cater to this. But for the first time in his political life, I think he realized that there are some strange people in the Republican tent. My father used to say, ‘Larry beware of the left because they will bankrupt you; beware of the right because they will kill you.

That look in McCain’s eyes was something I have noticed as well. His only pathway to victory is through hate. To win, he must harness vast amounts of hatred and fear and encourage those emotions to trump hope, self interest and reason. It has happened before, so it is a viable pathway to victory, but it has a huge moral cost. Every now and then you can see in McCain’s eyes an awareness of that cost and a real fear for his soul.

John Lewis saw that in McCain’s eyes and tried to warn him about the path he was embracing. The comment was made on the Politico web site in a thread where "known" political figures weigh in on topics posted by the site. On that day, the question was about the "tone" of the McCain/Palin Campaign. Here is what John Lewis wrote:

As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign. What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.

During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.

As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better.

Of course, McCain latched onto the mention of George Wallace and he was hurt and outraged by the comparison of his campaign to the late Governor of Alabama. Quickly, the actual words and message of John Lewis were buried in a dust storm of spin. Suddenly, Lewis was "out of line", "wrong" and attacked for a slanted interpretation of his words. The Obama campaign backed away from him and so did many progressives. And yet, John Lewis was correct. He was spot on and once again speaking truth to any with ears open enough to hear it.

John McCain is exactly like George Wallace. This is a fact. Both men, willingly embraced the dark side of human nature in the pursuit of power and both men have been horrified by that embrace—you can see it in their eyes.Wallace has gone down in history as one of America’s most well known racists. For many, he is the archetype Southern Racist, but the truth is more complicated. Wallace began his political career as a FDR Progressive Democrat. He was tolerant on the "race question" and in his first run for Governor of Alabama in 1958 he was endorsed by the NAACP. His opponent was endorsed by the KKK. His opponent won through his embrace of hate and fear.


And this is where John McCain and George Wallace shared their first common bond. Both men were beaten by candidates who embraced negative politics and direct appeals to racism, fear and hate for political power. Wallace had his lesson in 1958. McCain was schooled by the dark side in 2000. And both men chose the same response to their defeat—they decided to enthusiastically embraced the politics of hate in their next run for the office they had just lost.


A few years ago, PBS ran a great documentary about George Wallace called "Setting the Woods on Fire" (a transcript of the show can be found here and here). An interview with Dan Carter, an aide to George Wallace, captured the moment when Wallace sold his soul for power:

And so, the night that he lost that race, he sat outside the hotel -- his headquarters hotel in Montgomery -- with some of his friends, and they went over "why did we lose?" -- these different factors. And he said, "Boys, we can talk about this all we want to; we know why I lost. I lost because John Patterson took a tough line on this race business." "John Patterson," he said, "outniggered me, and I'm never going to be outniggered again."

Wallace kept that promise and became the archetypal face of racism in America. At one point in the PBS documentary an aging George Wallace lies in a hospital bed, dying. He looks into the camera and through a haze of cigar smoke apologizes and admits that he was wrong. It was years after his embrace of the dark side and the terror of what he unleashed was still in his eyes.
John Lewis tried to warn John McCain about that fate and McCain has waved him off. More than that, McCain has attacked Lewis. And yet, when McCain is asked about the "tone" of his campaign or John Lewis you can see the flicker of terror in his eyes. Like Wallace, he has embraced the darkest demons of our collective fears as a pathway to victory. And like Wallace he knows that he is releasing demons that he cannot control.


In last Friday’s NYTs, Russ Rymer wrote about John Lewis’ warning to John McCain. Rymer knew George Wallace. He covered him during Wallace’s runs for the White House in 1968, 1972 and 1976. He makes the case for the complexity of George Wallace (a complexity that is not dissimilar to the complexity of John McCain):

Likewise, to describe George Wallace as a simple racist is to give his biography short shrift. As a circuit court judge in the 1950s, Wallace was respectful toward blacks, and as a legislator from 1947 to 1953, he was a moderate. In 1948, when Strom Thurmond led the Southern delegations out of the Democratic convention to protest the party’s pioneer civil rights plank, Wallace stayed in his seat. Though no fan of the plank, he was yet more Democrat than demagogue, and was instrumental in rallying the other Southern alternate delegates to save the convention’s quorum, and pass its platform.

He might have carried a tolerant message into the Alabama governor’s mansion in 1958, but he lost the race after spurning the support of the Ku Klux Klan (which then backed his primary opponent, John Patterson) and being endorsed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Sadly for Wallace’s state, his region, his nation and himself, he did not respond as John Lewis did after his defeat by Carmichael. Mr. Lewis, whenever confronted with calls to divisiveness, chose to redouble his commitment to reason and tolerance. After his loss to Mr. Patterson, Wallace is said to have turned to an aide and declared, "I was out-niggered ... and I’ll never be out-niggered again."

After Wallace finally won the governorship in 1962, his administration was never as race-hostile as his campaign appeals implied; black leaders found his office door open, and often his mind, too. But he would eternally pay the price for the methods he used to gain that office.

Wallace had released the hounds of hate. It started as a tool to mobilize voters—a tool Wallace thought that he could control. He could not. Rymer relates a story that could happen any day now at a McCain/Palin rally if the culture of hate is allowed to grow unchecked:

I once saw that price on vivid display, at a Wallace for president rally in downtown Boston. In 1975, that city was contorted by its own race war over school busing, and the enormous two-tier assembly hall was packed. It was an angry crowd — a black television cameraman was punched as he walked up the aisle. In the middle of Wallace’s remarks, there was a loud explosion, and Wallace, who had been paralyzed by a bullet three years earlier, fell forward from his wheelchair into safety behind the podium.

The noise was caused by a crashing klieg light, knocked over in a fracas as a heckler in the balcony was attacked by the crowd. As Wallace clambered back into his chair, his supporters beat the protester bloody and tried to dump him over the balcony rail. "Just an undecided voter, folks. Just an undecided voter," Wallace pleaded into his microphone, but there was no quelling the fire. "Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!" people in the hall thundered, until the man was rescued — barely — by Secret Service agents.

Mr. Lewis might be deemed generous in wishing on no other member of his profession the harrowed look I witnessed in George Wallace’s eyes as he struggled up off the floor in Boston and beheld what a hell he’d wrought.

The questions, "was George Wallace a racist?" or "is John McCain a racist?" are both irrelevant. Racism is not their prime fault, nor is it their motivation. No, it is the cynical embrace of hate politics as a pathway to power that binds and damns both McCain and Wallace.


I've spent a lot of time over the years thinking about the politicians who so fully fuel the fires of race-based hate in America. Some were straight up tell-it-to-your-face old school racists. They were bad, but you always knew were you stood with them.Others were racist, but hid their views in weasel words that were designed to always give them cover from accountability. These folks are worse than tell-it-to-your-face racists in my book, but the good news is that this pathetic breed is dying out.


And then there were the ones who cynically exploited racism as a political tool for political gain. They knew what they were doing. They did not agree with the goals of a racist agenda, but they knew a well placed pander here and there could win elections. And so, they fueled the fires of hate for their own political gain. George Wallace was one of those politicians and so is John McCain. IMHO this puts both men in a class far below racists in the order of despicable creatures.Wallace was not a racist in my book, but he is a creature that is even worse. And so is John McCain.


Both men, have embraced what divides us as a pathway to power and both men came to that choice after losing a political battle to the forces of hate. Instead of getting back up and fighting for what is right, both Wallace and McCain surrendered their integrity in an embrace of hate and fear as a pathway to power.It is a horrific choice and they know that they made it—from time to time you can see it in their eyes.


John Lewis courageously offered John McCain a lifeline and he has been attacked for the effort. He deserves our praise. John McCain should beg his forgiveness.It was on the eve of the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln gave his First Inaugural speech. He closed the speech with an appeal to the better angels of our nature:

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

It is great advice for our Nation as we try to get pass the many years of Republican appeals to the basest demons of our fears. There is a lot of work to do to repair the damage of years of Republican failures. We will need to appeal to the best in each of us and yet, John McCain is actively working to release the demons of hate and racism that have long plagued our Republic. Shame on him.This hate is in the air and it will have to be confronted and dissipated. It will not be easy, but we can do this.


The Drive By Truckers capture the essence and the costs of this kind of political pandering in their great Southern Rock Opera (emphasis added):

[Scene: set in Hell, September 1998. Told from the Devil's point of view]
Throw another log on the fire, boys, George Wallace is coming to stay
When he met St. Peter at the pearly gates, I'd like to think that a black man stood in the way.
I know "All should be forgiven", but he did what he done so well
So throw another log on the fire boys,
George Wallace is a coming...
Now, he said he was the best friend a black man from Alabama ever had,
And I have to admit, compared to Fob James, George Wallace don't seem that bad
And if it's true that he wasn't a racist and he just did all them things for the votes
I guess Hell's just the place for "kiss ass politicians" who pander to assholes. [snip]
Now the Devil's got a Wallace sticker on the back of his car.

Long ago the Devil placed a Bush sticker over his Wallace tag and McCain is pandering to all the right assholes to ensure that the Devil’s Ford Explorer now sports a McCain/Palin 2008 sticker.
McCain’s pandering is amazing, but he does it with just enough Straight Talk rhetoric to fool the easily bamboozled. Any close inspection of McCain’s record since 2000 shows him selling out any principled stand if it competes with his ambition.


McCain/Palin panders to the basest elements of their party and America. They are playing with fire and they should be called on it. I am, yet again, proud of John Lewis. I have long been impressed by Barack Obama. Two things have really inspired me about him. One, he does not appeal to our fears—he appeals to our hopes. And two, like Lincoln he encourages our Nation to embrace the better angels of our nature.


Meanwhile, John McCain and the Republican Party seek to release our fears, our terrors and our hate. They hope that once again and appeal to the basest demons of our fears will sweep them into office.Not this time!


It is 2008. We have less that ten days to Take Our Country Back. Now is the time to reject the politics of fear and hate. Now is the time to volunteer, take action, donate and do what you can to ensure victory.


John McCain does not know it yet, but maybe, just maybe, once he has been defeated he will realize that we saved him from following in the footsteps of George Wallace. I’ve seen the fear in his eyes and McCain needs to be defeated, not only for the good of the Nation, but for his own good as well."