But ‘Mr. Race’ can’t help himself. After saying it’s not about race, Ballantine drops his mask and makes the whole thing about race. He forgets he’s not on his slanted radio show and calls JW an Uncle Tom. Worse, he drags in the President with the ‘Magic Negro’ trivia.

As payback, Juan linked the White House to the Limbaugh dust-up, saying the campaign was orchestrated from the White House as part of Team Obama’s race war on dissenting opinion. Ouch!

Look at Obama’s numbers, 56% ‘favorable impression’ but 43% would vote to re-elect. That tells me people don’t blame Obama, but they think this whole ‘black President’ experiment is not working, perhaps because of race leeches like Ballantine.

This control freak Anita Dunn thinks Fox is the problem. She needs to stop worrying about Fox and start worrying about people like Ballantine and Jimmy Carter.

If this is the “New” Democratic Party, they should all rot in hell. The hyprocrisy alone is enough to make you gag.

I agree, and HRC should be given no pass on that score. She is one of them. The only support that she gets can be seen only as idolatry and rank feminism, country be damned. I pray for our country that she is flushed down the toilet with the rest of them in 2012.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123249791178500439.html

While one would think it was neither brave nor outlandish for Juan Williams to ask that the President be judged solely on the merits, the fact that he was criticized just show what a senseless environment we are in. More enabling.

P.S. Earlier this year, Juan Williams wrote a beautiful article saying that Obama should be judged for what he does the same as every other president and not be given a “Pass” like so many wanted to do just because he is the first African American president. He was widely criticized by many for this stance, as at that point, everyone was walking on eggshells where Mr. Obama was concerned, afraid to “make him look bad”, or question anything he did or said.

I see now that Obama should win the Road-to-Hell Award, that I am a weed and that I formerly belonged to those trying to throw cheesecakes.

I, too, liked Molly Ivins and always looked for her voice in Texas Monthly among other journals. The world is a colder place without her and Ann Richards.

Ballantine just sent Williams a wake-up call similar to the one that caused the most excellent Tammy Bruce to shift her political thinking. In fact, I think the excesses of the present administration and the party that used to be “democratic” represent (unintentionally on their part) a wake-up call for America. The party that used to be “republican”, never to be left out of a good case of stupid “me, too-ism”, has chimed in on that call–and don’t even get me started about how what happens when you examine the platform of the party that calls itself “Libertarian” through an actual “libertarian” viewpoint.

I’m hoping that this wake-up call will inspire Americans (of whatever basic personal/political philosophy) to approach politics in a new way. Having worked in both major parties, and having seen the “sausage-making” process for myself, I’ve decided that the best political philosophy is, to quote someone wiser than myself, “Put not your trust in princes.”

First corollary: All politicians are either entrenched princes, or potential princes, or wanna-be princes; their condition/state depends on how long they’ve held office, how much they’ve been corrupted by power politics, or if they were ever less than corrupt; good intentions don’t matter–we know what road is paved with that substance, don’t we?

Second corollary: All political parties are primarily organized to create princes of their own line, to put them into positions power and maintain them there, and to share in and direct their influence to the enrichment of the party and its aristocracy, always at the cost of the citizens who support the political system.

Third corollary: Even the best of politicians tell lies for a living until lying gets to the point of being compulsive. They’re like spies and fiction writers in that regard, but they’re not as honest about it as spies and writers are, not even to themselves … and lying to oneself is the ultimate corruption.

Fourth corollary: The age-old strategy of “divide and conquer” still works quite for our modern political aristocrats. The supposedly positive effect of “diversity” is a cover for the negative effect of “division”. Political correctness is a poison that politicians use in much the same way that farmers use targeted herbicides. If you disagree with a prince, you’re a weed.

Conclusion: No matter how much you agree with the stated positions of a political party, no matter how much you like or or are drawn to a politician’s public persona, you are mistaken if you believe that you can trust any political party or any politician any farther than you can throw a cheesecake under water.

Best shorthand description of this precis: A quote from Lord John Worfin/Dr. Emilio Lizzardo (see “Buckaroo Banzai”), “Character is what you do in the dark.”
In fact, our self-appointed princes have become so arrogant that they’re not even bothering to wait for the cover of darkness.

And as for trusting news organizations, pundits, op/ed writers, celebrities, radio talk show hosts, or even someone who posts a reply to a blog site (yes, talking about myself, here) not to lie to you in order to achieve political advantage, don’t trust anyone until you verify.

Before she died, I used to look forward to reading Molly Ivans’s columns. I’ve always found both her and Rush quite entertaining and valuable. I’d use Molly’s work (excellent op/ed writing) to balance Rush’s radio shows, and vice-versa. That worked because each of them was correct/factual/telling the truth half about the time. I could always trust Molly always to tell me pretty truthfully just how bad the Republicans were, and I could always trust Rush to tell pretty truthfully just how bad the Democrats were. Between the two of them, they provided a reality check by which I could triangulate (verify) an actual point of fact, or even a point of view. I miss Molly, but I can still triangulate by using her point of view. Too bad there isn’t anyone to match her in today’s crop of pundits on the left

In short, verify everything, create your own reality check, and put not your trust in princes, or any analogue of such.