Why is Whoopi Naive?

In case you didn’t catch it, Senator John McCain was on the view the other day, and in a discussion of Supreme Court justices and the import of appointing strict constitutionalist judges Whoopi took the opportunity to make a wise crack about having to worry about being a slave again. Not like there’s been slavery here since 1865, but more on that in a minute. She put on quite a show of being flustered by that thought, and John McCain graciously ceded the point.

What else can you do without seeming boorish in the face of such blazing ignorance? (or such carefully crafted theater…)

Whoopi seems to think it was the Supreme Court that stopped slavery, however it was not. It was Republicans, and some War Democrats  who put the future of the country ahead of party, you know Whoopi, war Democrats like Joe Lieberman. Together with President Lincoln they ended slavery in the United States.

The first step was issuing the two part Emancipation Proclamation — it was one of those dreaded Executive Orders that the extreme left and right always condemn nowadays; if Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul were around back then they probably both would have been calling for impeachment of President Lincoln.

The second part of ending slavery since executive orders are sometimes impermanent was ammending the Constitution of the United States of America, adding the thirteenth ammendment. Doing that ended slavery for all time here. It was followed by the fourteenth ammendment that secured the rights of the ex-slaves, and the fifteenth ammendment that ensured their right to vote. Now since all of the ammendments are part of the constitution, what part of strict constitutionalism is Whoopi in fear of?

I mean doesn’t she want judges who interpret these ammendments strictly? If there weren’t a long history of judges doing just that we could still have shades of slavery today in some states, I guess strict is a good way to interpret the constitution when it comes to individual rights.

What part of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth ammendment doesn’t Whoopi get? Is this really naivete, or is this calculated political posturing and hysterical theater? I guess Whoopi’s the only one who can tell us which it is: just ignorance or just theater.

Thirteenth Ammendment:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Fourteenth Ammendment:

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3. No one shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Fiftteenth Ammendment:

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Wasilla Public Library on Sarah Palin: No banned books … EVER

On the left they are trying to paint Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as a warmongering end-of-days rabid Christian dominionist, and one of their sallies is to say that she tried to ban books. I happen to know who and where the Christian dominionists and rabid Christian Identity movement people are since we’ve been actively fighting them over their attempts to get creationism into public schools. (See here.) I can tell you that Governor Sarah Palin is not one of them.

If you look at the records of asks to ban books (and the Wasilla Public library records them all,) there aren’t any from Sarah. Here’s the table of requests, and the actions the library took from their records:

If this is the best the left can come up with, they better get ready to weep November 3rd.
Resources: PDF file Link in Wasilla

Some Humor From the Campaign Trail

From John McCain speaking in Chicago last night:

“We don’t pay any attention to polls,” when they show him behind, McCain said. “Now we’re up in the polls, 5 points up in Gallup. So those polls are always exactly right … right on the mark, totally accurate. It’s funny how life is with polls.”

Also it’s funny how the latest Obama ad gets things exactly wrong, from the McCain Campaign site:

It appears that two of the citations that the latest Obama ad uses are actually examples of John McCain voting for education funding and Joe Biden voting against it:
John McCain Voted For The Concurrent Resolution That Recommended “Increases In Defense And Education Spending.” “Adoption of the conference report on the concurrent resolution to set broad spending and revenue targets for the next 10 years. The report would reserve Social Security surpluses to shore up the program, call for $777.9 billion in tax reductions over 10 years, recommend increases in defense and education spending and reduce federal debt.” (H. Con. Res. 68, CQ Vote #86: Adopted 54-44: R 54-0; D 0-44, 4/15/99, McCain Voted Yea)

Joe Biden Voted Nay.
In 2000, John McCain Voted For The Labor, Health And Human Services, And Education Department Appropriations Bill, Which Provided $354.6 Billion. “Passage of the bill that would appropriate approximately $354.6 billion for the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education departments and related agencies, including $99.8 billion in discretionary spending.” (H.R. 4577, CQ Vote #171: Passed 52-43: R 44-10; D 8-33, 6/30/00, McCain Voted Yea)

Joe Biden Voted Nay.

Barack Obama, Democrat-Lagos?

In an official statement from the Obama campaign they say they will not accept funding from the Nigerian group “Africans for Obama,” which is being investigated by Nigerian authorities.

LAGOS, NIGERIA — Nigerian anti-graft police have seized $629,834 raised at a gala dinner in support of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, authorities said Sunday.

Obama’s campaign said it was in no way affiliated with the group Africans for Obama and would not accept funds from the organization. Although the fundraising was not illegal in Nigeria, it is illegal under U.S. law for foreign groups to donate funds to American political parties.

That’s all well and good, but it’s also bound to be the response when foreign donors are caught since accepting the donation would be illegal under US laws.

Obama’s donor website has no real audit of sourcing for the small donations, and as we’ve seen in the past the foreign support is out there, like the phone banks in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Dems have never been averse to courting foreign donations as past articles here and elsewhere have pointed out for both Barack and his primary opponent as well. See here, here, here, here.

Let’s reflect on the charge Obama flung at Hillary during the primary — He called her “Hillary Clinton, Democrat-Punjab” should we in turn start calling Obama “Democrat-Lagos?”

“Ask Not What You Can Do For Social Justice…”

The Newest McCain Ad in the “Not Ready to Lead” series, in this one you wonder if Obama will change and invert the famous John F Kennedy quote to “Ask not what you can do for social justice, ask instead what social justice will do to you…”

The Newest McCain Ad in the “Not Ready to Lead” series, in this one you wonder if Obama will change and invert the famous John F Kennedy quote to “Ask not what you can do for social justice, ask instead what social justice will do to you…”

Say What Barack?

This is hilarious.

[editor: Well it was hilarious, but now they’ve pulled the air gauge vid. Here’s the latest McCain ad as a poor substitute.]