Squire Duncan on Diversity

Once again from the Plantation, the honorable George Duncan, esquire, today shares his views about "Rigid Diversity"

 

Folks, I just can't help myself.  Railing against Yankees is what the good squire does... Mired in the past? Certainly!  Unapologetic?  Most certainly! Unfailingly antique in his views about minorities, education, and economics? Sadly yes.  I therefore take up the pen and offer this response.

 

Not too long ago, author Thomas Frank penned a non-fiction critical success entitled, "What's the Matter With Kansas?" in which he pondered why Kansans and others in the Midwest voted "against their own economic and social interests," (meaning they voted Republican).

 

 

and therefore against their own economic and social interests... duh....

 

Apparently it never occurred to Mr. Frank that he might be wrong and the people of Kansas right. (But a book titled, "What's the Matter With Thomas Frank?"  wouldn't have sold many copies.)

 

Very true, but Mr. Frank actually did some research, some fact checking, and some cogent analysis.

 

Now the nation can ask, "What's the matter with Iowa?'

 

..now that they've left the plantation behind and are trying to ensure the welfare of ALL their citizens.

 

... Iowa Gov. Chet Culver has issued an executive order demanding "diversity"

 

...a  term is so distasteful that you'll just have to wash it down with another mint julip...

 

...in the state's workforce. The four-page statement includes such gems as:
 

- Agencies must submit a written summary of their hiring practices to the director of the Department of Administrative Services for approval.  (But don't states already have a written summary - it states "We hire the best, most qualified person for the job, which is of course a local member of the Republican Party.)

 

Seems that some of the local good ole white boys didn't get the jobs they were certainly entitled to on account of being the best and obviously most qualified, bein' white and all...

 

- Each agency shall develop a recruitment and retention plan that includes a timetable and achievement milestones. ("Achievement milestones" sounds like a diplomatic name for quotas. Quotas are not only repulsive to most Americans (at least all the good Republicans I know), but unconstitutional as well (given my considerable legal background, knowing that of course there are still pending court cases allowing that affirmative action may not be dead as a doornail just yet.)

 

or maybe "goals" which are constitutional and legal and definitely NOT repulsive to soccer fans...

 

Of course, in order to achieve these goals the state will need a new "Diversity Council." One is being created by the governor, although the state already has an Iowa Civil Rights Commission. Now there will be two commissions/councils wasting taxpayers' money.

 

... because any act of governance like forming a committee is a waste of taxpayers money...  In fact you just wish there wasn't ANY tax money to waste...

 

The state wants to "celebrate diversity." So if an employee is  less than cheerful about this order, perhaps he  will be sent to the Diversity Council for appropriate punishment.

 

Gee... I'm sorry they all aren't white!  Do you think we should just send them back where they came from, (except for all the folks you need to keep the plantation runnin')?

 

Not to be overlooked, there will be "diversity training" for all employees. (Diversity training, by the way, costs a great deal of money. The diversity snakeoil salesmen - er, teachers - often make five and six-figure sums for brief diversity sessions.)

 

Eat your heart out donut!  If you had a little of that despised education you're always railing about you might have been able to rake in a little of this "easy money."  Teachers are the only thing that KEEPS US OFF the Plantation! Thank God for Teachers!!

 

But was the Iowa state government, before this mandate, in a full rampage mode to stamp out diversity?

 

Yup.  Seems the white boys got pretty much all the jobs...  Anybody know if there are any minorities in Iowa?  Wait a minute, let's do the research!  Do a little background....  Here you go. Seems that Iowa is having a little immigration controversy that's being dealt with sanely and progressively!  They are actually trying to anticipate the arrival of the new folks by putting policies in place that might help the state economically and socially.  Way not cool to Plantation folks....

 

If this order just applied to Iowa, folks in other states could shrug it off as random governmental lunacy

 

...meaning the actual use of government FOR the citizens' welfare

 

from officials who had been drinking the main Iowa agricultural product in moonshine.

 

No,no!  Franklin County, Virginia is the moonshine capital of the world!  Hush yo' mouth sir!

 

But such orders are becoming a staple of American life at the state, academic and federal level, and will do untold damage to the nation.

 

Yes indeedy.  The demise of the good life on the Plantation is in danger.  Why doesn't everyone just know their place?  Look... on the Plantation, you'd get taken care of, you'd have a nice place to live, some clothes and some food.  Just try not to remember that they'd OWN you!

 

President John Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson issued several executive orders proclaiming affirmative action in the federal government. But their orders were vastly different from the mutated version that has now morphed into the Iowa monstrosity.

 

Seems they did a great job getting the ball rolling.... Doin' your best to stop it?  Go back to school... learn something.

 

Their orders stated "applicants are employed and employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color or national origin."  (Emphasis added.)

 

Emphasis indeed...  Like you had to spit it out through your teeth...

 

But, as Dorothy said, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto." There was nothing, and is nothing, wrong with Kansas. But this new Iowa-land is fraught with racial politics, bitterness, strife and danger.

 

Listen to you sir!  Get down with your bad self! You're telling us about "racial politics, bitterness, strife and danger?" Sir, they are actually trying to solve the problems they are facing!  In the real world sir, there ARE minorities striving for economic and social equality.  Get off the Plantation.  The South lost.  We live in a diverse world.  We can't turn the clock back and just send everybody home.  There's room for everyone.  Go back in the house and get another mint julip...

 

Bye.

The South will Rise!

Hail the Confederacy!

From the honorable George Duncan, gentleman and scholar, an honest citizen and defender of the Confederate States of America.

Mr. Duncan:

"After needless delays..

Also called Congressional hearings and debate

and a few obligatory smears from liberal senators,

Also called the voice of the loyal opposition fulfilling their constitutional duty.

the Senate confirmed Leslie Southwick to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the fifth circuit, which includes Texas, Louisiana and the judge’s home state of Mississippi.

Another small victory for the Confederacy, where n****r is just another name for "good ole' boy."

The 59-38 vote is a victory for common sense and the Constitution.

A great example of horse trading and compromise that is necessary in legislative government to get the business done.

Judge Southwick’s nomination was opposed by the usual leftwing interest groups

Like the NEA, ACLU, Democrats, 

who  complained he was “insensitive” to civil rights, gay rights and, one assumes, transgender and multi-gender rights as well.

who are correct not that it really matters, 'cause you see that's the way we like it in the South.

The anti-Southwick arguments were nonsensical,

to any good Confederate,

but such verbal attacks are typically used when any conservative judge is nominated for the federal bench.

What would any good Confederate do if a liberal Yankee judge was nominated?

Nine Democrats and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman voted to confirm the nominee.

Blue Dog Democrats and good Senator Lieberman...  Democrats in name only,

Unfortunately, Virginia Sen. James Webb was not among the nine.

Unfortunately for this Rebel Writer.

This is sad because Mr. Southwick is not only a brilliant judge,

both in Mr. Duncan's mind and brilliant in spewing forth his outdated, conservative, pointless ideology.

but he is also a veteran, as is Sen. Webb. Judge Southwick joined the Army reserve when he was 42 and served on active duty in Iraq from August 2004 to January 2006, returning home just in time for his 56th birthday.

What in the world does Mr. Webb's military service for THE UNION have to do with his vote AGAINST a white, southern, Confederate judge?  Oh I get it!  The fawning conservative Mr. Duncan has FINALLY found a veteran of the Armed Services who was put in a job of importance!  RIGHT!

As both a veteran and an author, Sen. Webb has written about the military, and about such virtues as courage and honor.

Excellent point!

He should have recognized those traits in Judge Southwick

but he didn't, 

and stood against the low, dishonest campaign

Also known as democratic debate between party loyalists and the loyal opposition.  

waged against a fellow veteran.

Non-Sequitor...

The editor wants to return to the idyllic days of the deep South and the Plantation where life was gentle and everyone knew their place.  Gentlemen settled their disputes with honor and went off to fight for the Glory of the Confederacy.....  The South will rise again????

Taking Credit

Here’s another interesting take on the response to the California wildfires. President Bush and his administration as stated through press secretary Dana Perino, have taken credit for the fantastic disaster response to this natural disaster.

“Lessons were learned, communications have improved and state and federal agencies are now able to work more closely together.”

In addition, President Bush states,

“because of the declaration I signed yesterday, there will be help for the people of California.”

Sounds like taking credit to me.

Let’s see…. Disaster response in liberal Southern California, bastion of the upper middle class, largely white communities is very effective. Lots of services, places to go, and helpers for the evacuees. 500,000 have been evacuated and most will return to scarred but intact communities. A large stadium all set up with cots, blankets, food, sun screen, yoga instructors, exersize classes, bottled water and entertainment for all. President Bush wants to visit and get involved… He must feel real comfortable in that environment. Not surprising that the emergency services worked like they were supposed to.

The good folks in California are also doing this emergency work without the help of the National Guard which is off keeping us safe in Iraq. The President’s war has taken most of the Guard and it’s equipment and has forced these local officials to forage and fight for funding and materials. This makes the success of the coordinated emergency effort a story to tell proudly.

Here’s what I remember: 1.1 MILLION evacuees from New Orleans and vicinity during Katrina; 500,000 STILL displaced. Folks with NO services at a large stadium for DAYS. President Bush famously absent and unwilling to get involved with the folks from the lower 9^th ward. Hmm… didn’t feel comfortable? Hmm….

Credit where credit is due you say? Well, according to the USA Today, Mimi Hall writes that

"experts said credit for the good response goes to California's officials, emergency workers and residents, most of whom followed instructions to leave their homes for safer ground."

The whole emergency effort was staged by LOCAL officials. The best news evidently was that FEMA stayed away and the Federal government didn’t respond! Thank goodness, fighting wildfires is not in their job description.

Credit? Get back Mr. Bush! Stay away. We know who’s doing the job in California.

What's the Best Response?

Today we hear and read about more “reality making” by our right wing friends and pundits. The whole process goes like this:(my emphasis and paraphrase) “We have an agenda and we are pursuing it relentlessly. We are right! We have the answers. We are creating the new reality. Any variation from our new reality is the fault of our enemies, the liberal left.”

The liberal left meanwhile looks up from its meanderings through life and tries to find a response to what is actually happening in their daily lives, culture, and politics. Figuring out the reality consumes them, what to do about it befuddles them, working together to find a way binds them together. They hear the right wing blustering about how everything is the fault of the left and if things followed the new “correct” reality all would be well… so…

In the Center for American Progress newsletter today we get a humorous example of this phenomenon. We have a natural disaster in California. Let’s see what has happened so far. On the right from the newsletter: “Fox News pointed the finger at al Qaeda terrorists. Glenn Beck said the fires were hitting some "people who hate America" and later blamed the fires on the "damn environmentalists" and their "bad environmental policies." Michelle Malkin, a leading conservative blogger, echoed the complaint, pointing to "litigious environmentalists" for "standing in the way" of Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative.” and “Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Exxon-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute, derided the supposition that global warming has played a role in the wildfires, mocking it as something "alarmists are talking about."

On the left: only a few responses are to be found from liberal pundits mostly to point out that the “Healthy Forest Initiative was more concerned with giving logging companies free reign over forests than enacting sensible forest-fire prevention.” Not to mention the fact that warmer and dryer summers make conditions for ground fires much more prone to ever larger wildfires. duh....

Meanwhile all the liberals and “enemies of America” concentrated on taking care of each other like this:

“Thousands of Californians who took refuge at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium had an experience far different from refugees who fled to New Orleans' Superdome in the wake of Katrina. Californians were greeted there by clean cots, tents, pillows, and blankets. "Volunteers offered massage therapy, yoga, kosher food, and art projects for kids," and others arrived in clown suits to entertain the children. "We have the luxury of being able to count on our neighbors," San Diego Mayor Gerald Robert Sanders said. "The folks in New Orleans didn't have that luxury, because everybody was impacted."”

Whose response was best in this emergency? Think about it!

Throw the Bums out!

So let me get this straight..President Bush is “not going to allow” Iran to develop nuclear weapons, but WHEN THEY GET THEM and get the capability to fire them in rockets capable of reaching the United States we’ll need a trillion dollar anti-missile defense against them that

"doesn't work, it's expensive and it's intended for a threat that doesn't exist..”

-Dan Froomkin

Ok, I exaggerated. So the Iranians get missiles and put conventional warhead on them….. Let’s see at last count, If they fire one missile at us, we could fire 100,000 back at them! I feel safer already and that’s without the cool “Star Wars” thing!

Check Salon today and read about Bush and folks just “winging it” They don’t know what to do except follow whatever ideological policy comes out of the American Enterprise Institute. Remember these folks make their own reality. They put their neocon ideals out there and expect the world to conform… When it doesn’t they are totally clueless!

Ok so, we’ll have to live with Iranian nukes so we can have our cool “Star Wars” missile defense. So now how will we get to go to war with Iran? Let’s switch our rhetoric to IED’s! Those awful Iranians are killing American boys! Sounds like invasion talk to me! But wait, no one is buying! It appears that everyone already knows that most of the damage is being done by Saudi’s! Can’t touch them, they’ve got all the oil. Hmm, back to the drawing board.

Hold the presses! We could bomb the Kurds! I know they’d find a way to be at war somewhere ALL the time! Now we’re going to help the Syrians! Actually we’re doing this to keep THEM from invading Iraq…. To fight terrorism…. To fight them there, so they won’t come here…. To protect the homeland….. What a web we weave… War is Hell.. Thanks for taking us there, keeping us there, and wishing we would stay there.
Throw the bums out!

Rep. Goodlatte is still digging the Health Care hole..

I just got a thoughtful response from Rep. Goodlatte to my concern about the SCHIP program that was recently voted down in Congress.  He voted against the bill AND voted to support the Presidents veto. His talking points are the standard Republican Party responses that are being repeated verbatim by every Conservative pundit and politician that still support what Tony Blankley of the Washington Times says is “political suicide.”  

Point one is made in the first sentence of the first paragraph (also by the way in the Daily News Record Forum on October 23).

“I have several concerns with this legislation, which takes the first steps towards pushing all Americans into government-run health care.”

This point only underlines Rep. Goodlatte’s complete allegiance to corporate profit and the privatizing of government services.  The term “government-run health care” is the new user friendly term that Republicans use instead of “socialized medicine.”  It’s pretty arrogant to simply assume that the words “socialized medicine”  can be the only debate.  Two words….  No discussion… Stop the presses, no need to go further.  Hmmm..

Point two was somewhat of a surprise to me.  It revealed a little more of the conservative ideology that frankly, surprised me.

“The authors of the CHAMP Act intend to pay for this massive expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by making substantial cuts to Medicare Advantage, a program that accounts for 20 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries.. Specifically, this legislation cuts funding for Medicare Advantage by $200 billion over the next ten years.”

Rep. Goodlatte’s support of the Medicare Advantage plan simply points AGAIN to his worship of corporate welfare.   Will Parry and Pat Scott in the Seattlepi.com Opinion page weigh in on this typical conservative ideological dogma. 

“Like all privatization schemes, so-called Medicare Advantage was developed under the false promise that private insurers could provide the same services as Medicare at lower cost. The reverse has been true. Costs have gone up, and, in many cases, available services have disappeared.

According to an analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, private Medicare Advantage plans cost taxpayers an average of 12 percent more than normal Medicare. In Washington, the average overpayment is 21.5 percent.

That overpayment isn't surprising -- it's exactly the kind of expensive waste that comes from funneling valuable public resources into the pockets of insurance industry CEOs -- but its scale is a cause for serious concern. The CBO report estimated that overpayments will total $54 billion over five years, and $160 billion over the next decade.

And the extra cost doesn't even necessarily mean extra benefits. The higher prices in the private plans come with promises of improved flexibility and benefits, but some beneficiaries discover after signing up that they're actually getting less than traditional Medicare offers.

Everyone agrees that Medicare Advantage is more boondoggle than benefit.”

Next Rep. Goodlatte stands up strong for that conservative ideology that that is most dear... 

“Furthermore, the "CHAMP" Act, which includes large tax increases..”

This must refer to the “repressive” tax on cigarettes.  Since when does Rep. Goodlatte show concern about the lower income folks?  Isn’t corporate welfare all about “screw the middle class?”  This just sounds fishy because according to the good Congressman, it encourages folks to smoke, smoke, smoke, those cigarettes in the name of the children.  Sigh…  Friends, remember?  Virginia?  John Rolfe? Tobacco?  Goodlatte and corporate tobacco?  ‘Nuf said.

“... and even includes a new tax on private health plan policies, creates incentives for families to drop their private insurance coverage and force the taxpayers to foot the bill.”

Never mind that the proposed SCHIP legislation requires eligible families to PAY A PREMIUM to a PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANY. From Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post: But as the New York Times editorial board writes today:

"nobody who enrolls in S-chip would be living on government handouts. The families would all be paying appropriate premiums and co-payments. It is also highly unlikely that a lot of people would drop private coverage to enroll in S-chip."

“The legislation expands the original SCHIP program in some states by providing coverage to children whose families have an annual income up to $82,000.”

Conservatives everywhere are using this $82,000 threshold as the demarcation line for the “needy.”  Some others throw around percentages like 200% or 400% of the poverty line…  Anybody want to guess how much a catastrophic injury with associated surgeries and after-care costs?  How big of a bite would that take out of that 82 grand?  I make a little more than that and if that type of health disaster happened to me, my nest egg is gone.  Rep. Goodlatte is for reducing human need to cold cash and arbitrary ideology. 

“ The Congressional Budget Office estimates that over 2 million children currently covered by private insurance plans would now rely on an inefficient government-run health care system.”

Rep. Goodlatte leaves out the unfortunate fact that if the current Bush version of the SCHIP is passed, more than 5 million FEWER children will be covered than under the present legislation WITHOUT the increase. Again from Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post:

"The president's own budget proposal for maintaining the current S-chip program is so stingy that it would not even cover the number of children currently enrolled -- and would probably increase the number of children forced to go without health coverage by hundreds of thousands."

  And of course, go back and check the above quote from Seattlepi.com to find out more about those “inefficient government-run health care systems.”  Remember Point 2, Rep. Goodlatte is FOR this one…..

Rep. Goodlatte is very much for squeezing the illegal immigration issue for every ounce of political gain.  Never misses a chance to play on prejudice. 

“..but the "CHAMP" Act removes previously enacted reforms which require states to verify lawful presence in the U.S. before approving a benefit under Medicaid. This important provision has done much to decrease taxpayer dollars funding health care for illegal immigrants but its repeal paves the way for illegal immigrants to access government benefits.”

I always question the sincerity of this particular conservative talking point.  In reality, they are for privatization, corporate profits, and corporate welfare, yet they rail against one of the economic engines that drives the agribusiness in the Shenandoah Valley!  Over and over Rep. Goodlatte’s voting record supports big Agribusiness, the very industry that relies on this cheap and sometimes illegal labor pool.  Here again, Rep. Goodlatte is advocating conservative ideology over pragmatic legislative policy.

Rep. Goodlatte’s conclusion:

“When Congress first created SCHIP there was no question that this new program was intended to help low-income, uninsured children. Unfortunately, those same principles are not evident in the "CHAMP" Act. By pitting children against seniors, the "CHAMP" Act will jeopardize seniors' access to the high-quality care that they expect from Medicare and force individuals who already have private health insurance into a one-size-fits-all government-run health care program.”

So the whole objection is “pitting children against seniors?”  Folks this is what is called, “shoot it full of shit and kill it for stinkin’.”  First let’s create a boondoggle for a Medicare program that is so bad it stinks.  Make sure the private insurance companies get to rake in profits by making it very difficult for seniors to get benefits.  Now let’s point out in every debate that in order to expand coverage for children, these so-called benefits for seniors need to be cut??  Amazing!  

Amazingly, the Shenandoah Valley is a staunchly conservative stronghold and yet….

Scoreboard:  For expansion of the SCHIP and against Rep. Goodlatte: 78.9%;  for Rep. Goodlatte and cuts to the SCHIP 22%.  This poll is borrowed from Cobalt6 and was taken at the Staunton News Leader.  

And finally, from the opinion pages of the same Staunton News Leader, Mike Radiou: 

“The president's (and Rep. Goodlatte’s) claim that this program was too expensive rings hollow in the face of the massive deficit spending resulting from a war in Iraq — now in its fifth year and costing between $6 billion and $9 billion each month to prosecute, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It is profoundly hypocritical to have government employees, who enjoy federally controlled health care, deny the same to their constituents on the grounds that it will lead us down a slippery socialist slope. Finally, claiming that SCHIP's expansion will benefit too many "wealthy" kids neglects the fact that many of those kids belong to the long beleaguered middle class whose families find it increasingly difficult to carry on the American dream in light of skyrocketing medical bills through no fault of theirs.”

We Don't Torture

From the Rolling Stone this month I read that John McCain actually spoke out against torture in the South Carolina Debate several weeks ago,  He made two points.  First, he was concerned that our POW's would now be tortured.  The second point was simply that waterboarding was invented as a torture device during the Spanish Inquisition.  He went on record in defiance of the Bush Administration by REFUSING to support the torture methods of the Spanish Inquision!  Good work Senator McCain! 


In the "I couldn't say it better myself" catagory, take a look at this:

Sidney Blumenthal writes in his Salon opinion column:

"Torture is state-sanctioned deviant behavior. It is degrading, arbitrary, cruel and illegal. As all responsible intelligence officers know, torture is the least productive technique of all, and torture yields inherently tainted information. Torture destroys the humanity of more than those tortured. It destroys the souls of those performing the torture. When Americans torture, Americans are shattered. Torture feeds secrecy. It undermines democracy. And it is shameful. Even the Gestapo and the KGB tried to hide their torture. Torture is considered uncivilized by most of the world's nations. At the Nuremberg war crimes tribunals, the U.S. tried, convicted and executed Nazi leaders for engaging in torture. Those that do not adhere to international treaties against torture are rightly branded rogue nations. Torture is the mark of tyrannies.”

I can only say AMEN!

Stuff I'd like to see:

President Bush accept the invitation to Ferdowsi University in the northeastern city of Mashhad in Iran, to answer questions and accept insults from the students and administration there. (Dan Froomkin)

Michelle Malkin trash a few more 7th graders by saying "the boy is fair game" and calling him an "Equity Moppet." Evidently she thinks that “anytime I send my seven-year-old out to argue policy you’re welcome to clobber him, too.” So everything’s fair in war… Maybe folks will see through the adolescent ranting.

Someone ask Dana Perino or any Bushie why Seymour Hersh is being smeared for “committing journalism” with his reporting of the Administration’s desire to bomb Iran.

Find out if George Duncan is a conservative, a Republican, a republican, an extremist, a crazy man, a simplistic button-pusher, a fire-eyed radical, a confederate, a lazy plagiarist, a simple minded reactionary, or an opinion editor.

Find out if George Duncan is so adolescent that he truly believes that Democrats don’t believe in obeying laws and Republicans do.

Find out if George Duncan truly believes that telecommunications companies who do the bidding of the Republicans AND break the law doing it are Patriots.

Find out if George Bush actually KNOWS anything about HealthCare, Socialized Medicine, and how many citizens need it.

Someone hold Rep. Goodlatte's feet to the fire for his mindless rubber-stamping of anything President Bush wants.

Go ahead. Make my day!