From Clarence Thomas to Palin

there are four pro obama and four nastily anti mccain articles on your front page and you wonder why we need foxnews and rush limmbaugh

Before I retired in 2007, I taught in an inner city school is South Los Angeles, located in a ???hood nicknamed ???the Killing Fields.??? It was one of those schools that folks like Dahlia love to hate. During the 2004 election, one of my students gave me a list of statements made by our Fearless Leader George W. Bush. Every day I would put a few of these statements on the overhead and ask my students to correct the errors. Even my 10th graders could recognize the mistakes and offer suggestions for improvement. I found it extremely ironic that maligned students from maligned ethnic groups in a maligned school were correcting the grammatical errors of a graudate of Deerfield Academy, Yale and Harvard.
When this occurs, something is definitely wrong.
Lithwick, blinded by her own self-righteousness, never examines the oldest form of ???affirmative action??? - one that ensures top spots for scions of rich wealthy white males. As a result we have suffered 8 traumatic years of rule by a drunken Yalie frat boy and face another 4 terrible years by a Navy brat who graduated 2nd to the bottom of his class at Annapolis.
As a so-called liberal, I have very mixed view about affirmative action. I have often told my colleagues that at best affirmative actions is a catch 22. Through affirmative action, we might be able to get a student into college, but keeping him or her there is another matter. As a result, I worked overtime to see that my students were prepared for whatever college they chose to attend.
Lthwick also fails to understand the glaring inequities in education. Rich people spend $ 20,000 or so on tuition in exclusive private schools for their children. Since I taught AP classes for a number of years, I often attended seminars at suburban country club schools which were a far cry from the unheated bungalow with a leaky roof that was my class room. Also, that fabulous educational ???reform???, the multi-track school year plus that other fabulous ???reform??? high stakes testing which wiped out several weeks of instruction, severely cut my teaching time, and short-changed students who come to me several years behind. Yet somehow, everyone expected me to make up the difference.
With those realities in mind, a student from my former school, who braves the deadly streets, gang-ridden streets of south Los Angeles to get an education or who has spent a year surviving in a homeless shelter, or who has spent her childhood taking her crack-addict mother to the emergency ward definitely has earned priority over the spoiled, selfish, stupid, drug-addicted off-spring of the rich and lazy. Call it affirmative action or call it poetic justice. But until we address the glaring inequities in our society, but for reason Lithwick will never understand, some form of affirmative action must remain.

The demeanor of our current president is very similar to that described here (defensive and overly sensitve to criticism), which clearly indicates that he, too, apparently realizes that he is in his current position not because of his ability, but because of the influence and power of his family connections. He may be a white male, but he is still an affirmative action pick thanks to the US Supreme Court.

This biggest bunch of BULL*s I have read in a long time..

"Palin was chosen not because she was the second-best person to run America, but to promote diversity on the ticket, even the political playing field".
Palin was poorly chosen to help McSame win...that was all he thought or thinks about.... Palin is so far out of her league...it is not funny... I am sure she is a wonderful person...Palin should have just said no to
to McSame..and been smart enough to see all this coming...

Palin is so far out of her league it is not funny...

She is the laughing stock of country and thanks to last week 's meeting the heads of state...now the world...

The USA should only have to display 1 idiot every 40 years. George Bush has that job for the next 39 years 8 months 14 days.

God Bless America

Regardless of all the rumor and supposition about Palin, I choose to focus on the facts. I agree with you that she was used as a political stunt and I do feel bad for her in that regard.

However. She is the one who chose to accept the nomination knowing her own qualifications, the present state of her family (a newborn child with special needs and a pregnant teen). She has plainly displayed not only a lack of knowledge about the issues, but doesn't seem capable of admitting it. When asked about the "I can see Russia from here" question by Couric, she continued to tout the party line in a meandering answer that I have no doubt embarassed my female collegues here at work by the way they talked about it afterwards. She could have bluntly stated; "Look, I don't agree with that statement and I realize that I don't have a great deal of foreign policy experience, but I believe my stance on domestic issues are more pressing in this hour of need for America. What I lack in foreign policy is easily made up for in Senator McCain and I look forward to working with him on it."

Hillary was the best qualified woman for the job, choosing Palin is a slap in her face and the face of any other self-respecting woman. Political Barbie should not be the inspiration for young girls to grow up with.

As a reference, I'm a liberal and I don't believe in affirmative action or any instances of reverse discrimination. A person should be treated on their own merits to succeed in college and in their workplace. Anything else is belittling to the achievements of social equality.

Clarence Thomas has notably never chosen to return or reject all the privileges and advantages he has gained from being one of the most famous "beneficiaries" of Affirmative Action. He eagerly used his AA-assisted degree from Holy Cross to get into Yale Law, and then eagerly used that degree to start a law career that landed him at the pinnacle of our legal system. His statements and his attitudes would be akin to Madonna proclaiming that women shouldn't use their sexuality to further their career. He has always struck me as intellectually dishonest at very best.

Sarah Palin is a fraud. She was pregnant before she got married, has had an affair with one of her husband's friends, her 19 year old son is rumored to have serious drug problems, her 17 year old unwed daughter is pregnant, and she has used her political power to get even with people who disagree with her, yet all she talks about is being a "good Christian" and doing God's will. As a Christian she is a hypocrite who can not walk her talk, and as a politician she is completely unqualified to be Vice President. Her interview with Katie Couric showed her to be a woman with a disorganzied mind, a woman who is in over her head, utterly unprepared for the twist her fate has taken.

Even committed Republicans who support McCain have to ask themselves if they really would take the risk of putting our country into Palin's hands. Sure, being VP doesn't necessarily take a lot of skills, but being President requires great intelligence and a clear-eyed world view, one untainted by religious fanaticism. Look at the mess we got with the under qualified Dubya, and even he seems smarter and less fanatical than Palin. McCain is 72 years old, with high cholesterol and high blood pressure; his father and grandfather each died of heart attacks at age 72. McCain's Vice President HAS to be ready to lead. And by lead, I am not referring to a full speed charge into Armageddon.

For those of you who don't know, Palin belongs to a fundamentalist church that believes the end of the world is near: that war, financial distress and famine will kill off the sinful non-believers, and that when this holocaust occurs all good Christians will be taking refuge in Alaska. Furthermore, her church conducts witch hunts -- they actually use prayer to locate "witches" in their community, then publicly brand them as witches, and hold them responsible for everything that goes wrong in town. (Honestly, I think the long winters must be getting to their minds.) You can go on YouTube and watch videos of Palin participating during sermons like this. She stands on the altar facing the members. The congregation stands with outstretched hands, trancelike, speaking in tounges while the priest prays to "keep Sarah safe from all forms of witchcraft."

Could you REALLY feel comfortable knowing that a woman who holds these beliefs would have the power to declare war and deploy nuclear missles?

Less is more. Enough not said. Palin and Thomas prove it. Say less and be intelligent. Say nothing and be a genius. It works for Sarah. It worked for Thomas. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

In a few weeks we will make a choice that will decide our future. I follow a economist named bob proctor who has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly. He perfectly predicted the current real estate market meltdown ,and the picture he paints about what will happen in the next couple years Is terrifying. He thinks it will be worse then the great depression. Banks in the US are going under one after the other. Country wide the largest morgage bank in the world Bear Stearns and Lehman brothers , and Merrill Lynch which are 3 out of the top 5 wall street firms. And now Fanny and Freddy which hold 50 percent of the home loans in the United States. The goverment took them over because they are essentially bankrupt. If they didn't the entire financially system would virtually shut down, the stock market would crash And we would suffer beyond what any of us have seen before The future of these companies will fall into the hands of our next president
Bush just like Mcain doesn't understand the economy.

That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it
He does not understand exactly what is broken. Its no surprise that he doesnt. The people that make up these
securities use complex math models very few people understand.
Bush and mccain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.


Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks take risks with all of our future.
Now Phil Graham is the head of mccains economic policy ,and mccain wants to make him the next secretary of the treasury.
No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time bush met with his economic advisors was in march. He either didnt realize or didnt care that anything was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy in our lifetime.
It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as bush has done mccain would be
incredibly worse because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a surplus like bush did but a tanking economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 deficit. Most of Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
If you do what you have always done then you will do get what you have always __________

When it comes to policy bush and mccain are the same 90 percent of the time.
So why are the polls even close then ?

The chairman of mcains campaign recently said that people don't vote on issues

they vote on a personality composite which means. He is trying to sell you personality instead of results.
He believes people will vote against there own self interests.

Lets teach him we are smarter then that .
Hold them accountable now while it will still help
Elect Obama Biden 2008

In a few weeks we will make a choice that will decide our future. I follow a economist named bob proctor who has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly. He perfectly predicted the current real estate market meltdown ,and the picture he paints about what will happen in the next couple years Is terrifying. He thinks it will be worse then the great depression. Banks in the US are going under one after the other. Country wide the largest morgage bank in the world Bear Stearns and Lehman brothers , and Merrill Lynch which are 3 out of the top 5 wall street firms. And now Fanny and Freddy which hold 50 percent of the home loans in the United States. The goverment took them over because they are essentially bankrupt. If they didn't the entire financially system would virtually shut down, the stock market would crash And we would suffer beyond what any of us have seen before The future of these companies will fall into the hands of our next president
Bush just like Mcain doesn't understand the economy.

That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it
He does not understand exactly what is broken. Its no surprise that he doesnt. The people that make up these
securities use complex math models very few people understand.
Bush and mccain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.


Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks take risks with all of our future.
Now Phil Graham is the head of mccains economic policy ,and mccain wants to make him the next secretary of the treasury.
No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time bush met with his economic advisors was in march. He either didnt realize or didnt care that anything was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy in our lifetime.
It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as bush has done mccain would be
incredibly worse because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a surplus like bush did but a tanking economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 deficit. Most of Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
If you do what you have always done then you will do get what you have always __________

When it comes to policy bush and mccain are the same 90 percent of the time.
So why are the polls even close then ?

The chairman of mcains campaign recently said that people don't vote on issues

they vote on a personality composite which means. He is trying to sell you personality instead of results.
He believes people will vote against there own self interests.

Lets teach him we are smarter then that .
Hold them accountable now while it will still help
Elect Obama Biden 2008

It's time for the BLACK POWER !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kent2008, with Liberals like you, we don't need any conservatives :-)

This is a twisted bit of prose. Takes quite an effort to decode it to its essentials.
(There have been some great rebuttals in the comments.)
1. We eastern liberals hate Palin and Thomas because they are conservatives when they should be liberals like us.
2. No one should be able to make it into the public eye without the full approval of eastern liberals, who, after all, own this country, or ought to.
3. Affirmative action programs are good, but the only affirmative action programs that should be allowed to operate are those that promote liberals and suppress conservatives, based on ideology, regardless of race or gender. Ideology tests should be part of the ???constitution.??? That is OK, even if ???religious??? tests are not.
4. In other words, the ???equal protection??? clause only applies to those with a liberal ideology, and Congress can and ought to pass laws that only benefit such people.

This is a tribal or special interest logic, not constitutional logic, but, still, its morality is thought to be much higher than traditional ideas of ???fairness.???

5. Somehow, her affirmative action preferences should control the VP slot, even though there are no laws on this point (the liberal Congress must get busy on fixing that oversight). Choosing a liberal male or female is OK, but choosing a conservative female is not. (Of course, choosing a conservative male would be bad too.)

6. We superior eastern liberals should have a veto over who is allowed to run for any office or be appointed to any office.

7. We liberals love to advocate tolerance, but only for ???our??? kind of people. There are some in our country who do not rise to the level of personhood, and therefore do not deserve respect, and we get to decide who that is. (Didn???t the Civil War settle that issue of partial personhood? Apparently not on the east coast.)

This is a twisted bit of prose. Takes quite an effort to decode it to its essentials.
(There have been some great rebuttals in the comments.)
1. We eastern liberals hate Palin and Thomas because they are conservatives when they should be liberals like us.
2. No one should be able to make it into the public eye without the full approval of eastern liberals, who, after all, own this country, or ought to.
3. Affirmative action programs are good, but the only affirmative action programs that should be allowed to operate are those that promote liberals and suppress conservatives, based on ideology, regardless of race or gender. Ideology tests should be part of the ???constitution.??? That is OK, even if ???religious??? tests are not.
4. In other words, the ???equal protection??? clause only applies to those with a liberal ideology, and Congress can and ought to pass laws that only benefit such people.

This is a tribal or special interest logic, not constitutional logic, but, still, its morality is thought to be much higher than traditional ideas of ???fairness.???

5. Somehow, her affirmative action preferences should control the VP slot, even though there are no laws on this point (the liberal Congress must get busy on fixing that oversight). Choosing a liberal male or female is OK, but choosing a conservative female is not. (Of course, choosing a conservative male would be bad too.)

6. We superior eastern liberals should have a veto over who is allowed to run for any office or be appointed to any office.

7. We liberals love to advocate tolerance, but only for ???our??? kind of people. There are some in our country who do not rise to the level of personhood, and therefore do not deserve respect, and we get to decide who that is. (Didn???t the Civil War settle that issue of partial personhood? Apparently not on the east coast.)

One point missing is that C. Thomas is a smart man. Sarah Paalin can barely spell smart.

While Lithwick make an erudite arguement, one significant fact missing from her arguement is that both Palin and Thomas are creations of republican conservatives which reaffirms the monolithic view that conservatives have of minorities and women. Democrats have generally supported and promoted people like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, people whose intelligence, knowledge, accomplishments and standing in society cannot be questioned. Democrats promote qualified candidates, while Republicans have been promoting one villiage idiot after another since the days of Dan Quayle.

"Xpat in Switzerland " I guess you have never been to Detroit, Cleveland, East St Loius and Gary , then. Typical know it all liberal