Why does Pat Buchanan get a pass for saying this bullshit?

This is complete bullshit and it begs to question how the mainstream media can continuously go after the cut-and-paste soundbites of Jeremiah Wright while giving a racist pig like Pat Buchanan a pass.

In a March 21 syndicated column headlined "A Brief for Whitey," conservative commentator and MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan asserted, "America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known." Buchanan was discussing Sen. Barack Obama's March 18 speech addressing race and controversial comments by his former pastor, Jeremiah A. Wright. He continued, "Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American." Buchanan then asserted that "no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans." Later in the column, Buchanan added: "We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?"

[...]

From Buchanan's March 21 column:

Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.

Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.

This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.

Okay, let me get this asshole straight:

From Africans living in harmony in the motherland believing in Islam to,

• Being stripped of all dignity as slaves (against their will) in a strange land,

• For the most part forced to converted to Christianity,

• Suffered under Jim Crow laws,

• Due to hardships and racism, and poverty, looked towards welfare, section 8, public housing, WIC, and other programs for assistance...

And MY FAMILY SHOULD BE GRATEFUL! Rev. Wright should be grateful.

I could really go off the deep end with this post but fortunately, PBS Travis Smiley did the hard work for me on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher.



Thanks Travis.

Clinton leads shrinks in PA

So much for that double digit lead...

Senator Hillary Clinton’s lead in the Pennsylvania Primary is shrinking.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Pennsylvania shows Clinton leading Barack Obama by just five percentage points, 47% to 42%. For Clinton, that five-point edge is down from a ten-point lead a week ago, a thirteen-point lead in mid-March and a fifteen-point advantage in early March.

Support for Clinton slipped from 52% early in March, to 51% in mid-month, 49% a week ago, and 47% today. During that same time frame, support for Obama has increased from 37% to 42%.

Obama recently received a key endorsement from Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey and has also spent more on television ads than Clinton. If Obama is able to pull off an upset in the Keystone State, it would effectively end the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. Obama currently leads Clinton nationally in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. However, while an Obama victory could end the nomination battle, Clinton remains ahead in the state and recently demonstrated her ability to finish strong in the Ohio and Texas Primaries.

Cheney on 4000 fallen American soliders in Iraq: They volunteered

I'm speechless.

Vice President Dick Cheney was asked, in an exclusive interview with ABC News, about the effect on the nation of today's grim milestone of at least 4,000 U.S. deaths over the five-year Iraq war.

Noting the burden placed on military families, the Vice President said the biggest burden is carried by President Bush, and reminded ABC news that the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan volunteered for duty.

...speechless.

State Rep. Debralee Hovey: Mathematical genius

Last night, the Appropriations Committee passed S.B. 339, a bill, which according to the Connecticut general assembly's website, is designed "to increase participation in the four major federally funded childhood nutrition programs, as well as establish programs for child nutrition at schools."

Amazingly, several Republicans voted against the bill, with each offering an explanation, which sounded more like an excuse than anything else. That being said, as a person who once lived in Newtown, State Rep. Debralee Hovey's remarks in voting against the bill left me in a state of confusion.

Hovey: It [the bill] has a requirement that there be thirty-five consecutive days for the summer food service program. Most summer food service programs are a period of six weeks and four days a week and six times four is twenty-eight so there were some concerns about the mandate with regards to the summer food piece of this program and it's not really realistic...

6 X 4 = 28...well, that's new to me.

Shouldn't one of the qualifications for being a State Representative include having to prove to your constituents that you have a mastery of simple mathematics?