Is Grandma Next Under The Bus?

Well, we've finally learned what upsets the usually unflappable Barack Obama - "But at a certain point, if what somebody says contradicts what you believe so fundamentally, and then he questions whether or not you believe it in front of the National Press Club, then that's enough. That's -- that's a show of disrespect to me."

The trigger for this was Rev. Jeremiah Wright's remarks at the National Press Club, where he offered his opinion that Obama's increasing attempts to distance himself from the Rev.' s loony ideas was 'just what politicians have to do', i.e., an insincere ploy to lure the white simpletons into supporting him. Porcupine cannot help but observe that the decades of repeated disrespect to the Government, Nation, Italians, Caucasians, President, Jews, Etc. were not enough to push Obama over the edge, but disrespect to him was enough to repudiate the Rev.

Porcupine has long thought that Wright's remarks are not that unusual in 'liberation theology' circles, and that Obama's career as a community organizer may well have deafened him to how offensive these remarks are outside that charmed circle. There are facts, and there is Truth (with an aggressive capial 'T'). It may not be a fact that the Government developed AIDS as a means of decimating the black community, but it is a Truth that they would do something that vile. Hyperbole is routine in Community Activist cirlces, and after a while such rhetoric ceases to shock or offend. Obama is probably telling a sort of Truth when he says that he didn't hear Rev. Wright say such things while he sat in the pew at church - it may be a fact that he said such things, but the Truth is that is faded to buzz, religious Muzak, after a decade or so.

As recently as March 18, Obama spoke of Rev. Wright in these terms (full text of his speech HERE) - "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe". The politician in him managed a slam at Geraldine Ferraro as well.

If Barack Obama would be the President of the United States, he might have to disavow the segment of the black community which harbors attitudes just as racist as the attitudes he ascribes to his grandmother. The underside of Obama's bus could become a crowded place.

DANGER (to Open Government) WILL ROBINSON!

Point of Information - the Republican Members chose not to submit amendments this years, both as a protest to the system, and as a recognition of current fiscal crisis.

One Nation Under Blog

Porcupine went to see the Second City Touring Company production, live at the Strand Theatre in Rockland, Maine, called 'One Nation, Under Blog'.

Second City has been around for ages, giving comics like Peter Boyle, Bill Murray, Andrea Martin, Harold Ramis, John & Jim Belushi, Mike Myers, Steve Carell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, Joan Rivers, John Candy, Bonnie Hunt, Stephen Colbert, Chris Farley, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis and more their start as improv comedians. New talent combined with blogs and politics as subject matter seemed irresistable.

So Porcupine was a mite disappointed when the word 'blog' wasn't mentioned from start to finish.

That said, it was a good show. The six young comics were on a tour, and were bringing live, Second City style, comedy to hundreds of theatres. They had a few prepared sketches to start off. One was an office party - "Thanks for bringing the sandwiches! Punch! OK, everybody, let's get started. I'd like to thank you all for attending the annual Company Outing - - - - CHRISTOPHER'S GAY!!!!" Or a sketch with husbands vs. wives playing Pictionary, with the memorable line from a defeated, shreiking husband, "WE will keep playing, if I have to cut off my hand and draw with the bloody stump!!!!"

They asked the audience for promts - one was for 'an object, no matter how odd or exotic'. A flat, Maine accent drawled from the back of the hall, "Egg Separator!". While they did a passable skit, it would seem that wasn't the sort of unusual object they were used to getting! Later, they asked for news stories or current events. People called out - Chinese Olympics, Obama vs. Hillary - and so on, but then "Taser Tag!" shouted one voice. All of the cast members looked up slowly, thinking, "Uh, huh..." "It's a local thing" (and the Sheriff's office may be in big trouble with the County Commissioners over the drunken tasering of a deputy at a bachelor party gone out of hand). Tim responded, "So everything we've heard about Maine is true...."

The next day, Porcupine saw two of the young comics trying to climb up onto a scrap metal parking lot of the World's Largest Lobster, in his hotel parking lot, while simultaneously taking their own picture. Porcupine complimented them on the show, and they replied that Rockland was the end of their nationwide tour, and they while they were happy to be heading home. But they found the ocean and the small town atmosphere amazing. Porcupine agreed, and wished them well, as he headed across the street to start the morning at the Rock City Coffee Roasters.

Maybe later HE would blog......

Return to Maine - 2008

Porcupine has been spending time in the Great, not Terribly White, North - opening the hut for summer. Only three weeks ago, the summer burrow looked like this -


Now, despite a few patches of snow in the shadows, the ground is clear, the rivers are running strong and the great melt has begun. It was still a little chilly, so Porcupine chose to stay across from the Lighthouse Museum and travel over to the hut. Also, there were entertainment opportunities in Rockland, which Porcupine will detail in another post.

Still, Porcupine worries about Maine. It's getting citified, less rural. It saddens him, as he has watched the same process gradually transform Cape Cod over the last few decades, and he hopes the same sort of suburbanization won't afflict Maine as well.

But perhaps not all is lost. Porcupine was eating lunch is the most excellent Brass Compass Restaurant - enjoying the Daily Duo. Wee fried Maine shrimp paired with tiny fried bay scallops - and the taste of bay scallops is unmistakeable, as the sweet juice explodes in your mouth when you bite down, so unlike the grotesque chopped-up spongy sea scallops that get palmed off on you sometimes - with hand-cut french fries which taste like...potatos. A heaping plate, all for $7.50.

While enjoying this splendid meal, a whiny lady from Noo Yawk was snivelling to her bored husband that she couldn't finish such a huge portion, it would be cold and greasy, and did her new nails make her look like a high class prostitute (Porcupine was of the opnion they did, but thought the lady was a little optimistic about her success in such a career)? Unbidden, a slender teenaged girl who was a waitress went to the table and said, "Here. Let me give you some tinfoil, to keep the food fresh and warm so you can take it with you."

The child came of her own accord. And she called it 'tinfoil'.

Maine is still Maine. Porcupine was so cheered that he had that Lemon-Blueberry bundt cake with the crumbled maple topping after all....

More To come...

And now, for tonight's Top Ten List....

What Do The Simple Folk Do?

"It is true I am amused about this notion of elitist."
Barack Obama, CNN, April 16, 2008

Yes, blogging has changed everything. At a soignee fundraiser, closed to the press, a blogger for the Huffington Post recorded a speech given by a candidate she supports, Barack Obama. These are the words which have casused the great Bitterness Debate -

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Obama's analysis of the economics of the situation is accurate. Where he falls down, and opens himself to charges of elitism and snobbery, is his odd lack of empathy for working and blue-collar people. Poor people - people he grew up with, met as a community organizer in the Chicago ghetto - he can understand. Indeed, it's the explanation for his long term relationship with a hater like Rev. Wright. Liberation Theology both blames the capitalist government for all the ills of the descendents of slaves, while simultaneously exaulting their natural superiority, which makes it problematic how they continue to be so exploited. No, it's working class people he looks down on as Archie Bunkers.

His words sneer at their affirmative choices. People of all ages and stations have a fulfilling relationship with God. Rural people hunt and fish, and enjoy the forest and stream as a treasure, a balm available to all. They have good cause to be angry that their government will not enforce immigration laws, as they are outbid for painting and roofing jobs to support their family. Some may be bitter, some may be exasperated. But they do not cherish their First and Second Amendment Rights as a crutch; rather, they would go to church or the rod & gun club whether economic times are good or bad - because they like it. They aren't inferior to the people you organized in Chicago, or the hoi polloi you solicit donations from, Senator - they're different.

Simple people, Sen. Obama. It's a regular person thing - you wouldn't understand, Senator.

Third Blogoversary!

test - I am done with this blog. Blogging is over for me; three years was enough. Bye.
Carpundit - August 8, 2007

Three years ago today, Porcupine began his reconsituted political writing with this post - Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself...

As this Blogoversary approached, Porcupine considered the 'CarPundit Solution'. Porcupine had gained new responsibilities in the last three years, including a different and more traditional venue for political prognosticating. And yet - as the cartoon below describes - there was a comelling reason to continue with this incarnation of Porcupine's Gazette -

Also, Porcupine needed to consider if he wished to continue to hide his identity - about every 18 months, Porcupine is outed, usually by a Democrat who is losing an argument. Over a year ago, in explaining an attack on Blue Mass Group, Porcupine wrote, "I was maliciously outed by a person who had hoped to get me fired. 'Nuff said about him. I chose to write not only with a pseudonym but as a persona - that of a person, William Cobbett, who wrote under a pseudonym at the birth of the free political press. I try, when I write, to espouse his point of view, and use quotes and citations which he would have known or approved of. It is part of the flavor of my blog. Also, I wanted my IDEAS considered on their merits - not just as a product of such and such a person, who could be dismissed. I've never posted anything I am ashamed to own. But people write with different styles, and surely the masked ball aspect of the Internet is part of its charm."

Even earlier, in a discussion about the use of 'handles' and pseudonums on blogs and message boards, Porcupine had written this - I was AT the Constitutional Convention (the discussion was about the use of pseudonyms by the Founding Fathers). For fifty bucks, I'll tell you who Publius was! Seriously, when I began blogging, I deliberately chose a persona from that era - William Cobbett, ex-soldier and rabble rouser, who chose to write under the name Peter Porcupine. Cobbett, in his day, was the most widely read author in North America - and other people in Philadelphia didn't know exactly who he was, and argued about it. Cobbett's belief was that the IDEA was paramount, and should stand or fall on its own merits, independent of personality, religion, class, gender, and all the other markers used to decide if an idea was 'worthy' of consideration. That attitude was my goal in blogging - to be a disembodied intellect. It's no accident that at the beginning of the last great change in public communication befoe the internet, the pamphlet, most writers did use a nom de plume (or guerre). I absolutely agree about building up a 'track record' - but Charley and Ernie Boch both have, in their own way. Until the Globe article, I hadn't a clue who Charley was - but exchanged emails with him anyway, phantom to phantasm. Obvious bias will always out (did I ever mention I backed Kerry Healey?) and I wouldn't be overly concerned with who's working on what campaign. Instead, pay attention to the words and the ideas because in the final analysis they are the only things that count.

So, Porcupine has reached two decisions - the blog will continue (perhaps mre dilatory, but it will keep on), and Porcupine sees no need to expose his true identity to the world. As things stand, it COULD be that guy next to you in the supermarket, or the clerk at the drugstore, or....And, as tribute to The Blogfather, Walter Brooks, Porcupine cheerily offers this image, stolen from his blog just the way he taught Porcupine to do...