This is dreadful.

But I would not underplay the deeply ingrained misogyny among both the left and the right. One of the reasons I posted that Palin webpage is that the humor (and critique) were not misogynistic. And that hasn’t always been easy to find.

Racism is deeply embedded in our culture – it’s one of America’s original sins. But for the most part, it’s easy to identify racist discourse, and therefore it’s easy to condemn. Sexism on the other hand tends to be minimized because we can’t even agree on what it is half the time.

October 17, 2008 @ 8:13 am | Comment

I mailed in my absentee ballot last week. I voted for Obama. As it may take up to 2 weeks for overseas mail to reach some destinations in the US, please complete and mail in your absentee ballots this week. Thank you.

October 17, 2008 @ 8:58 am | Comment

If the economy dramatically deteriorates in the US over the next few years, then….

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=4fbpZXivv-M

October 17, 2008 @ 9:14 am | Comment

Go read this post by Echidne for a great example of what I’m talking about.

October 17, 2008 @ 11:20 am | Comment

At some of the McCain lynch mob rallies now taking place, some McCain supports have been seen carrying stuffed Obama dolls depicting Obama as a chimpanzee.. This is very dangerous as history shows that it is a very short step from dehumanization to extreme violence. The N//a..z-i s portrayed the J./e //w s as “ve..r m i..n”. The Hutus protrayed the Tutsis as “cockroachs”. The Red Guards portrayed Mao’s enemies as “dogs”. In each case, it was a very short step from such portrayals to extreme violence. Stop it!

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=pvG_wXWB-kU&NR=1

October 17, 2008 @ 11:48 am | Comment

Richard:

At one point in the past, your posts were objective. But those concerned what was going on in China. But now that we are onto the US presidential campaign, it seems that the ‘Peking Duck’ has become the ‘People’s Daily’ for the Democratic Party. Your liberal bent is as subtle as the PSB when they are rounding up petitioners.

Being that you are overseas, stick to a topic you know and understand. And that is not the election or politics.

Cheers

October 17, 2008 @ 11:53 am | Comment

Did anyone read blog4china’s latest shit-tacular about racism versus good ole boys’ fun in China? It was literally enough crap to put all of the diaper companies in the world out of business. I wonder what they’d say about this? Perhaps it’s less directly offensive than words like “heigui,” but still extremely offensive.

October 17, 2008 @ 2:08 pm | Comment

did you hear about the “waterboard obama” ad on sacramento GOP’s website?

disgusting.

October 17, 2008 @ 4:15 pm | Comment

Thanks Bigdog, I love you, too. I write about what I want to write about. I was a reporter in DC for two years and have been following and writing about US politics long before China caught my eye. If you can point to anything specific that is inaccurate or out of line please tell me. This is a blog – it’s supposed to be subjective. No one forces you to read it.

Lensovet, that’s amazing. They took down the waterboarding page. But can you imagine how nuts they were to put it up in the first place? Bigdog would have loved it. 🙂

Kevin, thanks – I guess – for pointing out that post. Yikes. And the way the poster couches the question in a pseudo-professorial tone, so erudite and urbane and solicitous. I enjoy reading portions of that blog, which is why I link. This wasn’t among my favorites.

October 17, 2008 @ 5:31 pm | Comment

PROTIP: Everything on that mock dollar bill is in fact a 4chan /b/ meme.

October 17, 2008 @ 9:07 pm | Comment

I’m not sure whether to be depressed or encouraged by this sort of thing. On the one hand, it’s ugly and racist and disgusting; on the other, everything that the ‘little people’ in the McCain camp do that is ugly and racist and disgusting will push independents and…well, non-bigots away, making an Obama sweep more likely. McCain will have to spend time and energy disavowing some of his more disgusting supporters, and that can only work to Obama’s benefit.

October 17, 2008 @ 9:59 pm | Comment

Fringe group antics, nothing more than political trolls, the people who used their miserable Photoshop skills to create this. Does nothing but feed the fire to the zealot Democrats who believe McCain is an extension of George Wallace and the Dixiecrat party. How utterly ridiculous, and really a disgusting thing to tie Senator McCain to.

What’s clear to me — a conservative who is leaning towards Obama for reasons mostly punitive, here in the south — is that this country has moved greatly forward in terms of racism but has a long way to go in terms of sexism and outright misogyny. This goes for both sides… a pox on both parties.

October 17, 2008 @ 10:41 pm | Comment

I don’t think McCain is any such thing, Matt. I used to admire him. And that Obama food stamp was not made by fringe lunatics but by a Republican voters group. The Dixiecrat thing you refer to – it’s totally new to me. Where are you hearing this?

Meanwhile, glad to see you’ll be voting Democrat. And I can’t disagree on the pox on both parties But there clearly is a lesser of the two evils. I think about America pre-Bush, and it was like a different country.

October 17, 2008 @ 10:45 pm | Comment

Richard, it was made by a Republican voters group but almost immediately shot down by just about everyone, including other Republicans. The Republicans don’t want to be George Wallace; they want to HINT and IMPLY that Obama is somehow sinister and untrustworthy, not whip out Sambo with a mouthful of fried chicken and watermelon. The latter is electoral suicide, and everyone understands that but a few mouth-breathing bigots at the bottom of the electoral campaign, uncontrolled and likely uncontrollable by McCain.

The McCain campaign is not, and never will be, flagrantly racist. The racism will always either be subtle, suggestive and deniable (‘he’s not like us’ and so forth) or blatant and officially denounced by the campaign (the subject of this entry).

October 17, 2008 @ 11:08 pm | Comment

I’m not proud of voting for anyone in this election. Obama will do fine, but also having Congress as Democratic-controlled by a strong majority will be like hungry hogs to a trough. Republicans were bad enough. The Union will go broke if we continue or expand this spending frenzy.

As far as the swipe at John McCain being like the populist racist governor and Dixiecrat candidate for president, George Wallace — here’s what John Lewis (contemporary of MLK) said recently, from which he has recently slightly backed away from:

“George Wallace never threw a bomb,” Lewis said. “He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Ala. As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all.”

Here’s an opinion piece about it in the WSJ:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122394063621930725.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

October 18, 2008 @ 12:20 am | Comment

Okay, one person called McCain Dixiecrat. We need to be careful about taking what one or a handful of people say and making it sound like that’s what “Democrats” or “liberals” are saying. And about expanding the trough – no one, but no one, ever spent more than Republican George Bush. It boggles the mind that he ran as a conservative who was for small government and non-intervention in foreign affairs.

Hong, no argument with what you say. Of course it had to be shut down once it was publicized. But oh, the publicity sure spread their message far and wide (and yes, my own blog was one of the spreaders, always a risk when reporting on smears).

October 18, 2008 @ 1:42 am | Comment

On another note, do you guys think Powell should be rewarded by Obama if he endorses him? It would be pretty big and probably seal his victory.

Could Obama give Secretary of State to a Republican, or is that unthinkable?

October 18, 2008 @ 2:22 am | Comment

And now… Some Food For Thought (another Bao google achievement, sponsored by the pathetic so called critical thinking of the human race):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke_political_party

And since Richard did not put up more finance related news for a while, I’ll use this occasion to plug some news: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg20026786.000-special-report-how-our-economy-is-killing-the-earth.html

Resource based economy at our door ? When Sci-Fi meets reality. Underlying consciousness momentum transcending the vox-populist trends ? Can’t be… No….

(Richard, I promises, I won’t spam the thread with delirious tin-foil hat material after this outburst).

Will it be red or blue ? I wonder.. Does it matter ? -> Reply -> repeat process until thread dies and people move on to the next “hot” topic.

October 18, 2008 @ 2:30 am | Comment

Raj, that is SUCH a hypothetical situation, is it really worth debating so early? I mean, there are many big “ifs” involved.

In any case, I’m going to sleep.

October 18, 2008 @ 2:35 am | Comment

But are these efforts to save the planet doomed? A growing band of experts are looking at figures like these and arguing that personal carbon virtue and collective environmentalism are futile as long as our economic system is built on the assumption of growth. The science tells us that if we are serious about saving Earth, we must reshape our economy.

This, of course, is economic heresy. Growth to most economists is as essential as the air we breathe: it is, they claim, the only force capable of lifting the poor out of poverty, feeding the world’s growing population, meeting the costs of rising public spending and stimulating technological development – not to mention funding increasingly expensive lifestyles. They see no limits to that growth, ever.

The science tells us that if we are serious about saving Earth, we must reshape our economy…

Think about that for two seconds… Unless most of the people here are creationists, it should make some sense to some of us no ?

BTW Richard, I’d like to suggest a new feature for your great blog: The ability to edit posts. This would avoid some thread spamming (OK mostly when I post I must admit, but still…). I think it would be a great feature to add, if possible at all.

October 18, 2008 @ 2:39 am | Comment

One last ting before I go to bed as well… So sad.

Paul said his revolution is about more than his campaign and more than just him. He also put in a plug for his forthcoming book — “The Revolution: A Manifesto.”

A Manifesto..

I was stunned, saddened, and angry. The lowest common denominator should not be our goal as a nation. It seems every where I look in society there is slippage due to the lowest common denominator winning.

http://dekerivers.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/do-americans-want-intelligent-leadership-or-lowest-common-denominator/

The lowest common denominator…

Designing a society by committee…

October 18, 2008 @ 2:51 am | Comment

Powell will say I have been there and down that. Clinton’s SECDEF Cohen was a republican.

October 18, 2008 @ 4:59 am | Comment

Raj, that is SUCH a hypothetical situation, is it really worth debating so early?

The only reason I raised it was that so many news agencies were talking about the rumours that he would announce it on Sunday. I know it’s not a done deal, but I thought it would be interesting to discuss nonetheless.

October 18, 2008 @ 6:00 am | Comment

“On another note, do you guys think Powell should be rewarded by Obama if he endorses him?”

It would be the final nail in the McCain campaign coffin if Powell comes out for Obama. And why not reward him? He’s widely respected on both sides of the aisle. Hope the rumours are true.

October 18, 2008 @ 9:30 am | Comment

Feel free to discuss it. I admire Powell, but he played his own role in the buildup to the Iraq War, even if he tried to inject some sanity into a deranged administration. He fought back and he resisted, but in the end his loyalty superceded his integrity. I understand that. He’s a soldier and a team player, and he did try to voice his concerns. I always found him a noble person and would not complain if he were made SoS.

On another note that’s relevant to this topic: I think we need to be aware that the right-wing nutters who hover over Bush like flies over you-know-what aren’t just obscure bloggers. They are part of our government and they’ve managed to actually convince voters they are sane, an awesome accomplishment. Proof? Go and watch this brief video of an interview with a Minnesota congresswoman. You have to understand, Bush Derangement Syndrome is not an irrational disease – there is a long list of very specific and measurable horrors that Bush ushered in with him, and the notion that those who disagree with the Bush agenda are traitors and anti-American is one of them. We never heard this kind of discourse before (except, of course, in the McCarthy age), wherein your political opponents are actually accused of hating America for being, say, liberal. Hints of this kind of language began seeping into the political dialogue under Clinton, when talk radio took a sickening turn and began to introduce the notion that liberals are some kind of vermin. It started with Rush Limbaugh and then Michael Savage took it to a sickening new level. And this congresswoman can now say this sort of thing and many Americans listen and don’t feel she should be in a padded cell, or at least voted out of officer pronto. Because the rot and dementia of the extreme right managed to penetrate the mainstream, and now NRO and others legitimize it. People who wold have been seen as freaks ten years ago, like Michelle Malkin, actually get their own column in nationally syndicated newspapers. (This topic deserves a post of its own.) For one of the most sublime takedowns of Malikin, by the way, go here now.

October 18, 2008 @ 11:25 am | Comment

Hmm. Not that the congresswoman has any smarts, but I notice the thinkprogress blog compared her suggestion for a “penetrating expose” to the HUAC hearings, which is clearly idiotic.

I’d be in favor of “penetrating exposes” of almost everything (hell, we have them for almost everything already), except for the fact that we’re so overloaded with media blather our brains are burning out. Economics would make better subject matter than political beliefs, though, followed closely in importance by history. The American public seems to be singularly ignorant in both areas.

I think the anti-American theme is clearly past its sell-by date, except in the case of blatant and obvious purveyors like preacher Wright. Too much diversity, in politics, race, and class, to find an “America” that represents it all.

October 18, 2008 @ 12:03 pm | Comment

I notice the thinkprogress blog compared her suggestion for a “penetrating expose” to the HUAC hearings, which is clearly idiotic.

Maybe not brilliant, but not idiotic. Hearings into the anti-Americanism of Harry Reid and Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi? Sam, do you really think that’s not a McCarthy-style mindset? About Wright – I do hope you’ve seen his “God damn America” remarks in their entire context. I’m not going to agree with him or excuse his tone, but iI don’t think its fair to label him “anti-American.”

October 18, 2008 @ 12:39 pm | Comment

Hearings into the anti-Americanism

I saw a call for *penetrating expose* but not hearings. If she said that, and I missed it in my quick scan, I retract what I said. Otherwise it stands. I’ve seen extended clips from “reverend” Wright, and my recorded opinion of him is stated much more mildly than my true thoughts!

October 18, 2008 @ 8:31 pm | Comment

Sam, fair enough point on expose vs. hearings. But do you really think Obama and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have committed “anti-American” acts that call for a” penetrating expose”? Maybe they have – I just have no idea what she’s talking about.

October 18, 2008 @ 9:14 pm | Comment

To the other commenter who was, you know, a little rude – I never said this was the Republican Party that put out the food stamp graphic, I said a “Republican voters’ group.” Read carefully. The GOP proper, as I clearly said, is subtler.

October 18, 2008 @ 9:19 pm | Comment

Y’know, I said before I wasn’t sure whether to be depressed or encouraged by this sort of thing, since it’s ugly but I’m pretty sure it’s going to hurt McCain more than Obama. But no matter how much it hurts McCain, I think these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHrExRHZnm0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itEucdhf4Us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjxzmaXAg9E

…can only inspire depression. It’s saddening to see how many Americans are still that ugly, bigoted, and out-and-out stupid. Not to mention easily manipulated; it takes an awful lot of ignorance and/or chutzpah for ANY Republican to be screaming ‘Socialism!’ so shortly after a Republican administration virtually nationalized the banking industry.

October 19, 2008 @ 12:35 am | Comment

Otherlisa has (once again) nailed it. The underlying (and sometimes blatent) sexism in this campaign has been appalling. As the father of two daughters, it has truly pained me to watch and it has convinced me that I grossly (and naively) underestimated the level of sexism in this country.

We as a nation will end up having to pay a heavy price for the shit that has been flung in this election by the candidates themselves and, even more so, by their attack dogs. The candidates talk about unity but all I see them do is create fissures along racial, religious, economic and sexual lines.

You are right to condemn these Obama Bucks as racist (of course they are!), but there has been so much more than this among the followers and, as otherlisa points out, women have taken some of the worst hits, from all sides.

October 19, 2008 @ 7:21 pm | Comment

Yes, it’s true. I think the selection of Palin herself was an act of sexism, choosing somewhat supremely unqualified on the sole grounds of her being a woman at a moment when they need to attract the a certain type of voter. I saw sexism everywhere, and nowhere worse than in the media,

October 19, 2008 @ 7:53 pm | Comment

Richard, see told you Powell was tipped to endorse Obama.

The question is, what:

a) will he be rewarded with.
b) what should he be rewarded with.

Obama and many Democrats may disagree on what should happen subsquently.

October 19, 2008 @ 10:01 pm | Comment

Raj, for once, try to look at something having to do with Obama without being completely cynical. Maybe, just maybe, Powell endorsed Obama because he believes he will be better for America than McCain. Maybe he did it without any kind of bribe or promise. Powell can do whatever he wants to do and I doubt he is that eager to get back into the world of American politics. There is no sign whatsoever that this is a quid pro quo. But typically, instead of congratulating Obama or reflecting on the grandeur of Powell’s decision to go against his own party and endorse a Democrat, all you can see is a payoff, a bribe. Is this some sort of projection? Some people, believe it or not, act out of conscience, and I always put Powell in that category; that’s why he resigned, and that’s why he was one of the few in the Bush cabal to question the actual threat of Iraq. Anyway, think whatever you want, but if you just want to throw out theories with no basis in fact I’d prefer you keep them to yourself.

October 19, 2008 @ 10:35 pm | Comment

This is nothing! As a communist sith, I support fully Obama – the socialist’s efforts in providing us with all the fried chicken, and ribs that we can possible hope to eat. (Anything beats that retarded stupid azz death star food.) We can wash it all down with some koolaids… shit, we can have watermelons too.

This is nothing but a sick rovianesque republican jedi light-sider lamer tactics. Fuck the haters Jedis!

Darkside forever bitches!

October 20, 2008 @ 5:44 am | Comment

Raj, for once, try to look at something having to do with Obama without being completely cynical. Maybe, just maybe, Powell endorsed Obama because he believes he will be better for America than McCain. Maybe he did it without any kind of bribe or promise.

Richard, you’re doing the words in mouth thing again.

I never said Obama bribed him. McCain could have offered him a position too, so there had to be something else. But people can be rewarded for doing the right thing.

Perhaps you could try not assuming the worst about what I have to say.

October 20, 2008 @ 7:52 am | Comment

You have is backwards. Powell did not endorse Obama for a cabinet job quid pro quo. He did that from principle. He was used and lied to about wmd intelligence and mobile anthrax labs. He has not puiblicly said he was lied to by the Cheney and Rumsfeld out of principle.

If he has any role in an obama administration it will be because obama asked him and appealed to his patriotism.

He may be envolved as a special envoy or ambassador on an issue he cares about such as Aids in Africa, but it will not be a quid pro quo for an endorsement.

October 20, 2008 @ 10:05 pm | Comment