This has been widely reported today, but if you read the actual transcript, Zawahiri is quoting Malcolm X in calling Obama (as well as Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice) “house negroes.”

And in you and in Colin Powell, Rice and your likes, the words of Malcolm X (may Allah have mercy on him) concerning “House Negroes” are confirmed.

Here’s what Malcolm X was referring to (from Wikiquote, apparently from a speech he gave in 1963):

• If you’re afraid of black nationalism, you’re afraid of revolution. And if you love revolution, you love black nationalism. To understand this, you have to go back to what the young brother here referred to as the house Negro and the field Negro back during slavery. There were two kinds of slaves, the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes — they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they ate good because they ate his food — what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near the master; and they loved the master more than the master loved himself. They would give their life to save the master’s house — quicker than the master would. If the master said, “We got a good house here,” the house Negro would say, “Yeah, we got a good house here.” Whenever the master said “we,” he said “we.” That’s how you can tell a house Negro.

• If the master’s house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the master got sick, the house Negro would say, “What’s the matter, boss, we sick?” We sick! He identified himself with his master, more than his master identified with himself. And if you came to the house Negro and said, “Let’s run away, let’s escape, let’s separate,” the house Negro would look at you and say, “Man, you crazy. What you mean, separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?” That was that house Negro. In those days he was called a “house nigger.” And that’s what we call them today, because we’ve still got some house niggers running around here.

• This modern house Negro loves his master. He wants to live near him. He’ll pay three times as much as the house is worth just to live near his master, and then brag about “I’m the only Negro out here.” “I’m the only one on my job.” “I’m the only one in this school.” You’re nothing but a house Negro. And if someone comes to you right now and says, “Let’s separate,” you say the same thing that the house Negro said on the plantation. “What you mean, separate? From America, this good white man? Where you going to get a better job than you get here?” I mean, this is what you say. “I ain’t left nothing in Africa,” that’s what you say. Why, you left your mind in Africa.

• On that same plantation, there was the field Negro. The field Negroes — those were the masses. There were always more Negroes in the field than there were Negroes in the house. The Negro in the field caught hell. He ate leftovers. In the house they ate high up on the hog. The Negro in the field didn’t get anything but what was left of the insides of the hog.

• The field Negro was beaten from morning to night; he lived in a shack, in a hut; he wore old, castoff clothes. He hated his master. I say he hated his master. He was intelligent. That house Negro loved his master, but that field Negro — remember, they were in the majority, and they hated the master. When the house caught on fire, he didn’t try to put it out; that field Negro prayed for a wind, for a breeze. When the master got sick, the field Negro prayed that he’d die. If someone came to the field Negro and said, “Let’s separate, let’s run,” he didn’t say, “Where we going?” He’d say, “Any place is better than here.”

It’s as though a lack of forethought were required to be in the McCain camp. Debra Bartoshevich, a pro-choice, ex-Democrat PUMA, has made a commercial for McCain. It turns out she thought McCain was pro-choice. D’oh!

Going back to 1999, John McCain did an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle saying that overturning Roe v. Wade would not make any sense, because then women would have to have illegal abortions.

Thing is, Debra isn’t wrong. McCain did give that interview, and did say those things. So is Debra stupid or just uninformed? Either way, it’s pretty pathetic. I wonder if she’s going to back-paddle on this. I’ll keep an eye on Debra and the other SHREWs PUMAs.

Long live the party!

Someone has filed some kind of legal complaint designed to get Obama disbarred.

The full text is here. The essence of the complaint is that Obama used illegal drugs and had outstanding parking violations, but didn’t disclose either on his bar application. The parking violations (a whopping $200 worth–can you believe it?!) I suppose were a no-no, but the funny thing is, the bar application didn’t require him to disclose drug use. The question is

Have you ever, either as an adult or juvenile, been cited, arrested, accused, formally or informally, or convicted of any violation of any law other than moving traffic violations.

(Yes, there is a period at the end.) So, was Obama busted for doing drugs? No. So did he have to disclose anything? … No. That’s the intelligent man’s response, anyway. The stupid man’s response is … well, I’ll let you read the complaint for that part.

Here are some other highlights. Please pay particular note to the atrocious grammar and editing as you keep in mind that this is an apparently official complaint, actually submitted.

By this time in his life he was very mature and sophisticated person that he either did or should have given a great deal of consideration to his response to question 18 a great deal of consideration. He has not disclosed if he consulted with anyone, such as Illinois attorney
Michelle Robinson(later his wife) before answering the question.

Just for reference regarding illegal drugs, this might be relevant.

The Respondent knew that he had incurred multiple violations. These fines exceeded the $200.00 reporting threshold for a total of $400.00. Between October 5, 1988 and January 12 1990, violations included failing to put money in meters, parking in a resident-only area, blocking a bus stop, and multiple tickets in the same day for exceeding the time limit at a meter. At this time he was living at 365 Broadway, Somerville, Massacustts, 02144. The substance and frequency of his disregard for legally valid rules demonstrate a contempt for the rules. He obviously felt he was above the rules that “the common folk” were expected to follow. All the time that he was supposed to be attending to learning the law, he contemptuously thumbed his nose even at simple parking rules. Do as I say, not as I do! The fines and penalties went unpaid for almost two decades. He asks others to obey the law yet he is too good and it is beneath him to pay lowly parking fines. Its all about expediency, parking rules don’t apply to the “important people” and its too inconvenient and time consuming to bother with finding a legal parking space. He is so smart and virtuous that merely electing him will end the illegal war in Iraq but finding a legal parking space near the elitist law school it too taxing for him.

This obviously isn’t going to go anywhere, but it’s fun to watch them try.

Nice watch, honey.

Would someone please tell Clinton she isn’t winning?

“It’s really a rare occurrence, maybe the first time in history, that the person who’s running No. 2 would offer the person who’s running No. 1 the No. 2 position,” Daschle said.

Thank you, Tom Daschle.

Here’s the text of a letter written by Arkhangelsk’s mayor Aleksandr Donskoy to Russian President Vladimir Putin … from Donskoy’s prison cell.

Mr. President,

Although I was not given the opportunity to be a candidate for the post you currently occupy, I intend to participate as a candidate in the 2012 presidential elections. I am certain that the opposition forces will support me, and that Aleksandr Donskoy’s “Novaya Partiya” [trans.: "New Party"] will become a real political force in the country.

In connection with which I would like to point out that even in Myanmar, the military junta which is friendly to us places presidential candidates from the opposition under house arrest, and not in prison. We are not in a state of emergency yet, so it would be appropriate if the following articles could be included in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

• Making negative assessments of the activity of the President of the Russian Federation and his successor.

• Criticism of Putin’s Plan.

• Desire to be on the ballot for the post of President of the Russian Federation without an agreement with federal officials.

All of these articles can be applied to me, on the basis of which I can then be prosecuted. It would be more honest that way.

Happy New Year!

Aleksandr Donskoy, Mayor of Arkhangelsk
December 27, 2007

Russian journalist Anastasia Samorotova was fired from the RBC Daily for running a story on Nov. 28, 2007 titled “From the Buffet Table to the Toilet” in which she described the new restrictions on lower- and mid-level government officials from speaking to the press. (The title isn’t about the quality of the food served in the state press service building, by the way. Journalists can eat and use the bathroom in the state press service building, i.e., they can’t actually talk to anyone.)

The manner of her firing was ingenious and so Russian. She was given a series of impossible tasks, like getting quotes from high government officials at night (i.e., while they’re asleep). After she failed to perform a certain number of tasks, she was told she could quit or get fired, as per her contract. She quit. She seems pretty bummed in her recent blog entries, but least she’s alive.

Just for fun, I’m appending the entirety of the article for which she got fired. You never know how long it will stay online.

Премьеру PR не нужен

The New York Times is running a story on the OSCE’s decision not to send observers to the upcoming presidential elections in Russia, and, specifically, Putin’s remark that he has evidence that this decision was taken at the behest of the US State Department.

The OSCE flatly denies this, stating that the reason for the decision was the Russian government’s unwillingness to provide any visas to the organization.

I predict that this is as far as the discussion will go. In other words, statement, counter-statement, end.

Why won’t Putin counter the OSCE’s reason regarding the visas? Because Putin’s statement is exclusively for internal consumption within the Russian media, where the OSCE’s explanation will not be given any air time. To someone inside Russia, then, the matter is closed. Putin spoke, the media reported. Without some kind of statement from Putin, the media can’t act, since it’s not allowed to think on its own.

For the rest of us, of course, it looks ham-fisted, but that shouldn’t be surprising.

A piece of lukewarm reporting from KPRC in Houston on an unmanned aircraft test supposedly done with NO MEDIA ALLOWED. The newshounds were on the scene, however, although the questions raised were no more serious than whether this technology will be used for speeding tickets, and will these things crash in our schools?!

Questions I’m not entirely uninterested in, but still, the possibilities are a lot scarier than speeding tickets. With the ability to monitor the population comes the likelihood of that ability being abused.

Bin Laden – 3 USA – 0