Pretty Lady Picture

Nice picture. Pretty lady. American flag.

That by itself is enough of a gift for a Saturday. Enjoy it. If you choose to do so, click on the pic and be taken to her bio page. This is a woman I wish was representing me. Instead of Congressman Wu. Who, if didn't exist, wouldn't be noticed. At least by anyone in his district. Just figure out where the Democrat herd is heading, and you'll find him 2/3rds of the way back, going wherever anyone else is going. He does this well. You barely notice he's there.

This lady is Congressman Michele Bachman. She's from Minnesota. My roomie lives in the Twin Cities. I hope he voted for her. I'm sending him an e-mail recommending that he do so this year.

Why?

She figured out that last year's ban on incandescent lightbulbs was stupid. And has introduced the Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act. (H.R. 5616).

(Laughs out loud.)

"Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act."

Only in America would we have to pass laws that allow you and me to freely choose what kind of light bulb one may buy. Allow me to buy a lightbulb? In America? The ubiquitous lightbulb was outlawed.

Now I am a little upset that my plan for black market lightbulbs may not be quite the hit I thought it would be. I have 60 cases of 60 watt bulbs in my storage unit. Do you know how long that will last me? Yeah. Forever. I had planned to sell half of those for a tidy profit.

I should have invested in Bears/Stearns, huh?

Get the full-scooper from a Nice Doggy.

UPDATE: Can we pass a "Gasoline Freedom of Choice Act" in Oregon?

Senator Obama To Visit Oregon

"The Obama campaign announced today that Senator Obama will visit Oregon on Friday, March 21 and Saturday, March 22.

"Senator Obama will hold Stand for Change Rallies in Portland and Eugene. Further details will be announced as they become available."

Which brings us to the "dirty little secret" of the Democrat Party. In Oregon the party faithful are shameless. Senator Clinton is a ruthless opportunist. Senator Obama, today, proved that he is a ruthless opportunist. The fans will see their rock star. They will not see the shameless divisiveness of Senator Obama, nor, do they care.

It's all about Change, baby! They want to change things so they are in Control. Freedom? Choice? Independence? No way. That's so corrupt. It's what the corporations want.



This week, the color of Presidential candidates became an issue.



The leadership of the Democrat party is aware of the shallowness of their presidential candidates. And they're quite aware of the rift that exists between Senator McCain and the Republican party's base. Heck, the rift that exists between factions of the Republican party.

Since Senator McCain closed out the primary early, those rifts aren't on display. But, they are there. The question for Democrats is, what can we do to solidify the base on our side, given the current brittleness of our candidates?

Enter Oregon.

No one on the Left in Oregon is dispositive. There is no "there" there. After decades of Lefty leadership, the galvanizing issues of the Left remain controlling growth, controlling investment, controlling people. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year encouraging misallocation of resources, in industries ranging from forestry to energy.

What motivates the Left? Check out the Governor's latest on Iraq (via MaxRedline):

"The governor said he believes the war was planned from the start as a way to ensure U.S. access to the vast stores of oil in Iraq. As a result, he sees no end in sight unless Americans wean themselves from foreign oil supplies

"'That's one reason I'm so fervent on green technology and trying to find an independent energy source for this country,' Kulongoski said. Last year, he successfully backed a package of bills in the Legislature that dramatically increased tax breaks for renewable energy companies and for production of biofuel." (OregonLive, March 19.)

In Oregon, the Governor's success is measured in the number of additional gallons of gasoline we need to buy, at a higher cost, with fewer miles to the gallon. This is success. Not the better, cheaper gas designed by the best engineers in the business. The mandated gas of the Left. Let me posit that one of the best automotive engines in the world today is the Chevy Vortec. The world's top automotive engineers produced this engine. But, in Oregon, you'll never get to experience the perfection of this engine. The Governor is requiring you to put ethanol in your tank. So the millions of dollars used to produce the best engine, the best gas is being wasted by your Governor's environmental dreams. What a waste.

So the utter vapidity of Senator Obama's " STAND FOR CHANGE RALLY WITH BARACK OBAMA" rally, while pointless, is important because it will show the willing suspension of disbelief in great numbers among Oregon's Lefties.

They've been taught what to think. By union educators. Investment in energy is bad in Oregon. Change is good. Men and women making their own choices about health care, schools and education is bad. Change is good.

Change is good, as long as they get to direct change. Reliance on the market means a lack of control. Lack of Leftie control. If the world is going to get better, they have to have control. And the Change signalled by either Senator Clinton or Obama is their kind of change.

So how brittle are these candidates? It's obvious that the Obama campaign is looking for a venue where they can generate unthinking crowds of Leftist supporters. And the Left is reporting crowds of up to 20,000 last weekend for the Iraq War Protest.

Where better than Oregon, a state of unthinking Enviro/Lefties with a Vision of Change?


Problem is, I was in the Park Blocks Saturday. Never happened.

If Obama waited another week, the fact that school is out might have helped him. I'm not sure the youts are going to want to start Spring Break with an Obama rally. But maybe kids getting out of control is what they want. I've heard the words of Senator Obama's pastor. Yes, they do remind me of "Burn, baby, burn."

What a uniter.

The Senator is scheduled to appear in Portland at 9:30 am at the Memorial Coliseum. He's scheduled to appear at Mac Court at 9:00 pm. Go. Yell "Change."

Plessy v. Obama

The Fuller Court

I imagine Jester Hairston's knowing glance to Larry Gates in "In the Heat of the Night".

That one scene was a heartbreaker. The dignity of Sidney Poitier. The dignity of Jester Hairston. Mr. Hairston was a friend of my dad. My sister has a picture taken with Mr. Poitier. As a kid my home was blessed with great artists and musicians. Black and white. Asian. It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I can touch the idea of "disadvantaged" blacks.



I remember the pride my dad had when a friend of his was moved to Salem, to work at ODOT. At the time, Mr. Tibeaux' job was a curiosity. That he was Salem's first black engineer didn't mean anything to me. It was Sundays and a drive for me to play with his kids. He was a friend of my dad's, like many people were. Black, white...I didn't see any difference.

It wasn't until I came into contact with forced bussing that I had contact with a difference. Kids who were identified as victims of the system were forced to get up an hour earlier than local kids. Put on busses. Driven across town. Kids that were under the radar in their neighborhood schools learned how to live under the radar in a cross-town school.

I never had second thoughts about Brown v. School Board. Plessy was incorrect. If you and I are equal, you and I are equal. If you live in my school district, you go to my school. There's no black or white school. Just the school. The taxman doesn't care about your race. You pays your dues...you gets your ticket.

The type of racism that faced James Meredith is unthinkable to me. Yet, in 1980, when my ex- and I were off on our honeymoon, at the Raleigh-Durham airport there were yet visible signs over the drinking fountains. I drank from the colored. Unbelievable...

So, this life of mine has been spent split between knowing well-educated, successful men and women--white and black--and wondering why some--white and black--are successful and some are not. And I'm afraid it all boils down to "victimhood".

When I was working with the Poor People's Council back in the 1970's I spent all my time working on migrant workers' issues. AKA, illegal aliens. The few times I met with the leadership I tried to find a place to find agreement with the welfare moms and welfare activists, but I really couldn't. They had time to meet and plan "actions" but no time to find work. They had everything. Free education. Housing. A check. They didn't even have to work. With migrant workers it was different. They weren't the victims. It was their families that were victims. If you have never been to a migrant labour camp you can't know. Well...yes you can. Look at slave quarters in the Old South. Nope. Take that back. Did a quick search for "slave quarters" images and nothing compares to what I've seen in Ontario, Nyssa and Hermiston.

A friend of mine came back from a visit with his dad in Florida. This was back in the late '80's. He told me about walking down the streets with his dad and his dad changing the side of the street he was walking on so that he wouldn't come into a direct contact with a white woman. My friend told me he couldn't move back home to Florida. And hasn't. He will visit. But his brother has moved out west and is working at a sheriff's department in California. My bud is working for a police agency in the Northwest.

Are there still race based stereotypes in play in the Northwest? Yeah. Just ask a black cop. Things that white cops do to black kids are not always the things white cops do to white kids. Cops will deny it. But "driving while black" is still probable cause for a lot of cops to go into overdrive.

That being said, I have a real problem with statements made today by Senator Obama. And it has to do with stereotypes. And getting played. Here are the words of the Senator (from NPR):

"Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing and clapping and screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and, yes, the bitterness and biases that make up the black experience in America."

You've been pwned. You can't understand us. We are different than you. We behave in ways seemingly uncivil. This is what Black means to Senator Obama. Harkening back to Plessy. Separate. Different. Unequal is equal. Like a scene from "A Day At The Races," being black to Senator Obama has its own get out of jail free card. And who are you or I to criticize this separateness? This Plessy vision of equality?

A man who says it is his mission to unify us. Us? By throwing images from the worst Blacksploitation stereotypes imaginable? I don't get it.

Here's a guy who has been exposed as being a racist in his views. And he throws back racial stereotypes as explanation. As a defense. A unifier? In the form of a Fuller Court-styled Plessy vision?

I hope the Senator knows that his performance today, his request for us to move along, will be viewed skeptically by some. And at root, here's the reason. At what point was the Plessy decision bad and the Brown decision right? And this was the point ignored by the Senator today. I align myself with the remarks of the Great Dissenter, "Our Constitution is color-blind," he wrote. "In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law." (Supreme Court Historical Society)