Saturday, September 23, 2006

Why Allen's recent revelations about his family matter.

Friends of Allen do not like his mother's background.
Ordinarily, a person's religious beliefs or ethnic background really do not matter in who I decide to vote for. First and foremost I am a liberal. I believe in equal rights and access to education and opportunity for all. I believe the government has a responsibility to keep the economic playing field level. I also believe the government should stay out of people's private decisions as far as life and death decisions go. I would rather vote for an Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) than a Zell Miller (D-Crazyland). The recent revelations about George Allen's maternal family under different circumstances would be no big deal. The family histories of Madeleine Albright, John Kerry and Wesley Clark had no bearing on their performance as a diplomat, Senator or soldier.

However, George Allen has a history of hanging out with white supremecists. You know, the people who think Hitler had good ideas other than the autobahn (which inspired our interstate highway system). He owes his political career to these pariahs of society. George Allen may try to paint himself as a moderate, but the company he keeps says he's not. And that is the issue, pointing out that George Allen's mother is Jewish is not anti-Semitic. Hanging out with the members of an organization whose charter says
"We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called "affirmative action" and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races."
is anti-Semitic.

And I understand that George Allen's mother's family is from Tunisia which is on the African continent. When I see George Allen, I see more self-loathing than at a meeting of Log Cabin Republicans.

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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Flip-flop

You can buy this shoe here
From Crankyboy, I find out that technically, George Felix Allen is Jewish. I say technically, because his mother is a Sephardic Jew from North Africa. When he was asked about it in a debate with Jim Webb on WUSA, Felix got really pissy about it. Now, I don't think asking about one's parents religious or ethnic heritage is really relevant to who I vote for, but Felix's reaction was relevant. Can you say self-loathing? (More on that later)

Now, he admits that his mother is Jewish. It also turns out that his grandfather was a member of the Jewish resistance in North Africa during World War II. I wonder how his grandfather would feel about George Allen's infatuation with the Confederate Flag? Or about Felix's refusal to endorse Martin Luther King's birthday as a state holiday. Instead of getting the third Monday in January off, Virginia's civil servants get Jackson-Lee Day instead. (That was the self-loathing part I was talking about.)

Considering his mother's heritage, you have to wonder about George Allen's psychological history.

Hat tip to d.k. who is back blogging after a long absence. Please go visit him.

Here's the video of the debate:


Hat tip to Pandagon for the video.

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Webb Allen Debate MTP

Jim Webb and George Allen Debate on Meet the Press Sept. 17, 2006

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Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Another reason to dislike George Felix Allen


Not only is Felix a racist, he doesn't like vets either. It's not like Felix's kids are going to Iraq, isn't it?
Hat tip to Atrios. To donate to keep the ad on the air in Virginia, click here.

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Christianity has suicide bombers too!!

As aW kisses the ring of the fundies. Christian extremists believe they are morally superior to Islamic terrorists. From Pandagon, I see this story about a "pro-lifer" who decides to ram a women's health center with his car and set it on fire so it would explode. Hmmmm, sounds like what they call in Iraq a VBIED. That's a vehicle bourne improvised explosive device. Except this guy was too stupid to rig his car with explosives, and what he thought was an abortion clinic was really a gynecology practice that didn't even refer women for abortions. And he didn't off himself in the process.

So can someone explain to me how religion is a force for good in the world?

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Monday, September 11, 2006

So what do you say on a day like today? Happy Patriot's Day? Happy is not a word that should go with today.

I remember the day five years ago. I had officially been out of the Army for a week. I turned in my military ID card to the personnel office at NAS Jax the day before. I was going to a job fair that day when I heard the news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center on the way out the door. I listened to NPR on the way to my father's house to drop off my son so I could find a job and be gainfully employed. The career fair still went on, everyone was huddled around a TV set. There was the usual assortment of employers that had high turnover rates because wages have stagnated and they were thankless jobs like telemarketing and bill collections. I dropped off a few resumes and went home. Traffic at the local Navy base's gate was backed up for miles. I needed to go by the base to get home.

As I was stuck in traffic, I was filled with three emotions: shock, rage, and guilt. Shock because the message traffic I had seen about al-Qaeda's plans to fly airplanes into buildings was too fantastic to believe. It sounded like a plan that had no way of being carried out. Rage that my country had been attacked by a transnational terrorist group that no one in the administration had taken seriously. Guilt because I could have been the one to connect the dots. O.K. so the highest level of counterterrorism analysis I did was for USAREUR in the late 1990's. But still, I felt guilty about it. But I could have been Cassandra, no one would have listened to me.

I actually had respect for the one who should be impeached when he invaded Afghanistan so quickly. That respect returned to pre-9/11 levels when Osama bin Ladin escaped and our attentions were turned to Iraq. So when neo-cons accuse us of pre-9/11 thinking, it was their pet president who let Osama bin Ladin get away. Don't blame us. It was your president who let the man responsible for the murder of 2500+ Americans get away. The terrible events of 9/11 were the best thing that ever happened to George W. Bush (other than being born into the right family). aWol never would have been re-elected without 9/11. aWol's approval ratings soared after 9/11, so why shouldn't he return the favor to the man who saved aWol from one term obscurity? Now aWol will be remembered as the President who got re-elected despite his gross imcompetence.

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