Prometheus 6

Your Pocket Guide to Speaking Palin-guage (Vol. 1)
Posted September 3, 2008 | 03:12 PM (EST)

Up in the Twin Cities area folks are speaking a new language. Or, should I say Palinguage. It sounds sorta familiar because it's Latin based [P6: though see part two for a correction]. But different from the plain English we're used to speaking, in Palinguage recognizable words take on new meanings. Won't you take a moment to learn some Plainguage so you can talk like a hypocritical conservative?

REPEAT THE FOLLOWING:

If you're a minority and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "token hire." If you're a conservative and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "game changer."

If you live in an Urban area and you get a girl pregnant you're a "baby daddy." If you're the same in Alaska you're a "teen father." (Actually, according to your own MySpace page you're an F'n redneck that don't want any kids, but that's too long a phrase for the evil liberal media to take out of context and flog morning noon and night).

Black teen pregnancies? A "crisis" in black America. White teen pregnancies? A "blessed event."

Imagine a Museum of the Third Reich in Nuremburg, celebrating the Second World War by preserving Nazi memorabilia?

You now have an inkling of how I feel about the Museum of the Confederacy and the American Civil War Center, which were profiled in the NY Times Arts section on Wednesday.

I mean, I might have some use for its existence if they really told the history they claim to want to preserve. Might.

But as things are...

This is more accurate than this.

I had a similar issue when I coined the term "Black partisan."

I am a Black partisan--one of those people that actively choose to accept racial kinship. My position is simple and straightforward-every event that affects Black people affects me. Therefore there is a connection between myself and other Black people that I must respond to in some fashion. What the mainstream thinks of Black people in general becomes my starting point in any new situation. My feelings of kinship with Black folks represents my recognition that my fate is linked to that of everyone else of visible African descent and my feelings of loyalty represents my recognition that the fate of everyone else of visible African descent is linked to mine.

via Darkstar

Palin Family Values: Thoughts From A Confused Conservative

This is a strange time to be a Republican. Am I just supposed to be cool with all this? Should I now recalibrate my family values to adjust for this unfortunate mess? Is teen pregnancy now just a sign of “An American Family?” Is the desire to secede from the United States now a sign of patriotism? What the hell is going on here?

First of all, I don’t want to hear from anyone that “Sarah Palin’s family should be off limits”. This isn’t about Bristol Palin or Trig Palin or Earwax Palin or Mack Truck or whatever the hell the other ones are called. This is about the judgement, the beliefs and the managerial style of the woman who could be President of the United States. I see no reason to be polite. I think Palin’s decision to drag her daughter’s teen pregnancy into the international spotlight is not just ill-considered, it is morally bankrupt.

You, sir, are confused for the same reason progressives don't understand the problem Republicans have with community organizers...or didn't understand before I explained it.

Afro-Netizen posted up this Young Turks vs. Young Turkeys clip. Conversation took place at the RNC.

I was amused enough until Shay asked, "If Black people don't care about Black people, why should President Bush care about Black people?" Talk about your self-referential questions...

Damn shame...the camera focus wasn't the best but she seems lime one of those folks who are cute until they talk.

After not just calling Obama uppity but repeating the term when asked ifhe was sure that's the word he wanted to use...

"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.” 

Westmoreland's staff said he is the only Georgian alive that didn't know it was a slur.

Instead, she offered one message: Here's who I am. Career woman, mother (specifically, lipstick-wearing hockey mom), loving wife, avid hunter, caring daughter, fierce fighter, product of her own spunk and determination. After the speech, Republican strategists were rapturous over her potential appeal to female voters who perform similar feats of multitasking every day without complaint or recognition. 

The Other Party's Playbook
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, September 5, 2008; A21

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Talk about role reversal. The Republican Party, which scoffs at the nonsense of "identity politics," has staked everything on the compelling life stories of its presidential and vice presidential candidates. The Democratic Party, ever conscious of the diversity of modern America, is doing everything it can to blur the lines of race, class and gender.

As if anyone thought otherwise, it is going to be an interesting few weeks until Nov. 4.

Judith Warner has had eeee-nuff of Gov. Sarah already.

Why does this woman – who to some of us seems as fake as they can come, with her delicate infant son hauled out night after night under the klieg lights and her pregnant teenage daughter shamelessly instrumentalized for political purposes — deserve, to a unique extent among political women, to rank as so “real”?

Westmoreland calls Obama ‘uppity'
By Mike Soraghan
Posted: 09/04/08 03:07 PM [ET]
Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland used the racially-tinged term "uppity" to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Thursday.
 
Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.
 
"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.” 

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Toward the end of Sarah Palin’s pugnacious nomination speech tonight, Republican National Convention officials clashed with one of the party’s faithful on the packed hall’s jammed floor.

Several convention “volunteers” blocked at least three elderly Republicans from leaving the floor of the hall to use restrooms – but threatened to arrest one of the few African-American delegates, who also happens to be a retired cop.

“You can’t come through here. We apologize for the inconvenience,” one stocky volunteer repeatedly told those trying to exit through a tunnel near the VIP seats during Palin’s long speech.

But Krim Ballentine, an elderly at-large delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands and retired chief deputy U.S. marshal, really had to go.

“You better let me through or I’m gonna wet myself like a baby,” Ballentine said.

The convention heavies wouldn’t budge.

“What is Feminist Politics Now? Local and Global”
19-20 September, 2008
Columbia University in the City of New York

The conference will explore:

• The changing meanings of feminism, and its goals (intellectual, social and political) in a global context: to examine whether these meanings can any longer be contained within the rubric of common social agendas.
• Emerging social movements within the United States and beyond, including those that foster the collective interests of women across national, class, religious, and racial borders; the common interests of women and men; and those that call for greater individual autonomy.
• Questions about how women within the post-industrial west can effectively relate to, and remain engaged with, issues that arise from diverse locations and affect differently situated women in different ways.

Not Every Woman Supports Women's Rights

August 29, 2008

Statement of NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy on the Selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's Vice Presidential Pick

Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and get them to vote, ultimately, against their own self-interest.

Gov. Palin may be the second woman vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket, but she is not the right woman. Sadly, she is a woman who opposes women's rights, just like John McCain.

The fact that Palin is a mother of five who has a 4-month-old baby, a woman who is juggling work and family responsibilities, will speak to many women. But will Palin speak FOR women? Based on her record and her stated positions, the answer is clearly No.

via Rust Belt Intellectual

The challenge

what would be on the list of a Prometheus 6 presidential ticket to offer to Black people?

If you start with the Presidential campaign it's too late to get it right. And remember, it's not going to be decided on issues.

I would like to say what the Democrats need is a story that recognizes Black people...this Borosage-designed narrative does not...and gives them a reason to say, "yeah, that's what I would do." The second would be a lot easier with the first in place.

Yes, I can be more specific about the problem in the narrative. It probably should be a post.

and

preferably contrasting with some other identity-group.

How are the rest of you Black Republicans faring?

Black Republican pundits at the convention have tremendous pressure to make negative remarks about Obama — there are well-scripted key message points to keep them in line. One group called the National Black Republican Association purchased 50 billboard ads in Denver to taunt that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican and that Obama is no MLK. In a three-minute video, MLK's niece Alveda King, a Republican, supports this claim. I'm not sure what time she is living in, but in the video she refers to us as Negroes.

To use the King legacy to divide and conquer is a useless tactic to prove one is not "monolithic." It's typical "crabs in a barrel" against Obama. It may be believed that acceptance brownie points will be garnered from white Republicans.

No Room At The Table For Black Republicans
By YVONNE R. DAVIS
August 31, 2008

With stiff upper lips and phony grins, black Republicans are going to the Republican National Convention in Minnesota to be dissed by the party. Many will make believe they are down for Sen. John McCain — too afraid to come out the closet for Obama.

The great Frederick Douglass learned to read from his white slave-mistress. Booker T. Washington--father of organic black conservativism--was a biracial black man. Malcolm X, in some ways inheritor of that same legacy, was a multiracial black man. But Barack is living in another time, and is the progeny of more courageous people. Bear with me if I'm lapsing into either/or, I don't mean to. But this jingoist idea that the exclusive black tradition deserves primary credit for Obama's place in history feels simplistic.

I find that fascinating. I wonder if they'll get into the Republican convention at all.

With an Assist, Minority Press Sends Reporters to Democratic Convention
By SAKI KNAFO

Denver

A DAY before the start of the Democratic National Convention, on an airplane somewhere over the Midwest, The New Yorker’s esteemed political essayist Hendrik Hertzberg was spotted eating a sandwich. About 10 rows behind him sat a group of reporters from lesser-known New York-based publications: The Irish Echo, The Haitian Times, Sing Tao Daily, The Weekly Bangla Patrika, a Polish-language newspaper called Nowy Dziennik and an Arabic-English paper called Aramica.

I hope Biden fillets Sarah.

What’s a woman to do? Or at least, the woman who so badly wanted to see a woman in the White House?

If it wasn't clear that electoral politics are identity politics before, it should be obvious now.

There are actually some Hillary supporters I understand. When the human qualities you identify with are validated on a national scale, it can unencumber you. Black folks who support Obama should have nothing bad to say about those folks because Black folks have gotten this same sort of benefit from the Obama candidacy. That was the point of those Identity posts yesterday.

But now it seems Hillary supporters were like salad dressing, a mix that flowed as one due to agitation, and as they seperate the Hillary Holdouts become clearly distinguishable from the Hillary supporters. The Holdouts aren't even voting based on gender issues, they are voting on gender.

When your choice is among seven candidates that support your issues, I can see choosing between them based on an irrelevancy. We're past that point now. 

I think the Republicans have been fooled by their own media campaign. They believe there are a lot more actual Democrats to whom Hillary is more important than victory than there are. And for some reason they think these Democrats will show up at Republican campaign events. 

They will not, of course. Their audience is Republican, Christian Right, crews like that. And when they talk past the crowd in an attempt to reach those imaginary Hillary Holdouts, the results are predictable unfit for broadcast and a predictable failure.

In just her second appearance on the campaign trail with John McCain, newly-minted GOP running mate Sarah Palin was showered with boos on Saturday for attempting to praise Clinton’s trail-blazing bid to become the first female president....

But in contrast with the mild reception that greeted her comments at the Ohio event, when Palin praised Clinton here for showing “determination and grace in her presidential campaign,” the Alaska governor was met with a noisy mix of boos, groans and grumbles around the minor league ballpark where the “Road to the Convention Rally” was held.

If (if?) McCain was going after the disgruntled Hillary Support vote, it seems he was less than successful.

From Rasmussen: Some 38% of men said they were more likely to vote for McCain now, but only 32% of women. By a narrow 41% to 35% margin, men said she was not ready to be president -- but women soundly rejected her, 48% to 25%.

Only 9% of Obama supporters said they might be more likely to vote for McCain.

Overall, voters expressed a favorable impression of her by a 53/26 margin, but there was a severe gender gap on this: Men embraced her at 58% to 23%, while for women it was 48/30.

And by a 29/44 margin, men and women together, they do not believe that she is ready to be President. 

Old dudes think a woman that was hot when THEY were young  is still hot. People to whom their own well being is more important than the defossilization of their hormone flow were unimpressed.

Bill Moyers got Prof. Reed to talk with Katrina vanden Heuvel about the Democratic Convention and Obama's platform. Really interesting show. In the first minute you'll see the answer to why Black folk left the Republican Party for the Democratic Party, in the form of a snippet of a speech by Hubert Humphrey. You'll see Ms. Heuvel and Prof. Reed talking about entirely different things.

Watch it here or download it here. Then go read about the Solid South and see why political geography is a far better predictor of racism than political party, no matter the era under consideration. It's why I would rather see Obama win without the South than with it (though I'll take either, thank you very much).

"He's taking an outcome and from that deducing a cause," said Tom Lifka, associate vice chancellor for student academic services. ...

Connerly said students ought to be told that any mention of race in applications would be grounds for denial.

University officials called that idea untenable and noted that Proposition 209 also bars admissions based on other factors, such as gender.

"Where do we draw the line?" UCLA spokeswoman Claudia Luther asked.

UCLA accused of illegal admissions practices
A professor resigns as an admissions committee member, saying the university is factoring race into acceptance decisions, a violation of state law.
By Seema Mehta
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 30, 2008

Arguing that UCLA admissions policies are being manipulated to circumvent the state's ban on consideration of applicants' race, a professor there has resigned from a faculty committee that he says refused to allow him to study the matter.

Political science professor Tim Groseclose resigned Thursday from the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with Schools, saying high-ranking university administrators and fellow committee members are engaged in a "coverup" to block illegal activity from being discovered.

Supporters of the measure submitted 334,735 petition signatures, but Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer said this month that reviews by state and county officials indicated that only 194,961 were valid. More than 230,000 valid signatures were needed to get the measure on the ballot....

Though county elections officials were helpful, "no matter how helpful they have been, the fact remains that our campaign and those who signed our petitions have been cheated," the campaign said.

They were cheated by what? Your putting 35,000 false signatures on your petition? 

It would be cheating to count the petitions. 

Ariz. ballot campaign on affirmative action ends
By PAUL DAVENPORT
The Associated Press
Friday, August 29, 2008; 6:52 PM

PHOENIX -- Supporters of a proposal to ban affirmative action in Arizona said Friday they were abandoning a lawsuit aimed at getting the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The Arizona Civil Rights Initiative campaign had contested the state's conclusion that it hadn't collected enough valid signatures, but the campaign issued a statement saying it couldn't review all the signatures rejected by election officials in time.