Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Very Credible Testimony
Larry Sabato, the most quoted college professor in the land, had said earlier on Hardball with Chris Matthews “the fact is, [Sen. George Allen] did use the n-word [in college], whether he’s denying it now or not. He did use it.”
Via Talking Points Memo: Prof. Sabato is presenting himself now, as a second-hand source for this.
One of Virginia’s best-known political analysts says that he had never personally heard Senator George Allen use racial epithets.
But Larry Sabato insists that that claims by former Allen football teammates and acquaintances are valid.Sabato is the director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. He said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that he didn’t personally hear Allen say the n-word. Sabato went on to say that his conclusion is based on — quote — “very credible testimony.”
Sabato was a classmate of Allen’s at the University of Virginia in the early 1970s. Yesterday, he said on M-S-N-B-C’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” that he knew Allen had used racial slurs, but declined to say whether he had witnessed them.
Allen is a Republican running for a second U-S Senate term and has been mentioned as a presidential contender. His campaign said yesterday that Sabato’s claim was inaccurate.
Allen campaign manager Dick Wadhams says the campaign is obviously glad that Sabato clarified his comments.
The allegations against Sen. Allen have been compared to “Swift Boating,” a reference to the 527 group of Vietnam veterans who had mobilized two years ago to fight John Kerry’s bid for the Presidency. There are some similarities; the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth advanced the notion that Sen. Kerry did not truly earn his three purple hearts during his brief tour in that war. Those who criticize Senator Allen, therefore, are saying certain things happened three decades ago, just as the Swift Boat Vets were saying certain things happened 36 years ago in ‘Nam. Another similarity: Those who wish to follow the Allen controversy, are called upon to exert a little bit of mental effort just to figure out what’s first-hand testimony and what’s second-hand, for things are not always what they seem to be. It seems many among the Swift Boat Vets shared the river with the Massachusetts Senator during one of the conflicts in question but not the boat. The Kerry campaign, you may recall, had sought to advance the argument that this made for some kind of a problem, although I recall much of what the Swift Boaters had to say concerned the nature of the conflict, not so much with Sen. Kerry’s actions during that conflict.
Well, people seem to be forgetting the comparison itself has some problems. What the Swift Boat Vets wanted to tell us, had to do with a war…George Allen’s critics seek to tell us unseemly things about the Senator’s character and beliefs, based on things he was supposed to have said and done a few years ago. The thing of it is, if Sen. Allen was a racist then, he’s probably a racist now — otherwise, what would be the concern?
And if that’s the case, can someone find some anecdotal evidence with a little bit of freshness to it? Maybe some wisecrack he made last year, or the year before?
Anyone who takes that rhetorical question and turns it around, attempting to apply it to Sen. Kerry’s conundrum with the Swift Boat Vets, would necessarily leverage their position with the argument used to spring a child rapist or a chainsaw-murderer from the pokey based on his “good behavior” in jail. Good behavior is fine and good…there are no children in jail. At least, I hope, not in a jail to which a child rapist would be sent. There are no chainsaws in jail. What is good behavior, if it’s just an absence of the kind of behavior that cannot be exercised anyway?
Sen. Kerry hasn’t ended any tours in Viet Nam lately by manipulating the system for a quick deluge of purple hearts. He hasn’t been called on to go on such a tour lately.
Sen. Allen is accused of throwing around the N-word. You know, you can do that anytime you want.
Sabato has just proven that there are some people involving themselves in this issue, persuading others that they heard something first-hand, that they really didn’t. He’s proven that because he’s shown himself to be one of those people. How many others are there?
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