STATE OF THE ANTI-UNION

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UNGRATEFUL IMMIGRANT SON SLAMS AMERICA, CASHES HER CHECKS

REPUBLICANS SEND RADICAL RIGHT-WING RELIGIOUS NUT TO SABOTAGE RECOVERY

YOUTUBE:
"Gov. Bobby Jindals Republican Response To Obama's State of Union Address; Part 1/2, 02-24-09"
I got mine, baby, SCREW you!


Piyush "Bobby" Jindal Wants The U.S. Recovery To F**k Up Like The Louisiana Recovery Did Under Bush

Directly or indirectly, everyone in the Jindal family works for or with the government. And everything they do hurts ordinary Americans. These are the kinds of people you want making and implementing public policy? Hypocrites?

"Republicans are not competent to govern," the crazed Louisiana Governor mewled over and over in his little "Kenneth The Page" voice. (He should know: His Mom works for the G. His brother used to. His Dad does, too, by contract.) Coming on like a perverted Mr. Rogers trying to seduce a child, Billy-Bobby-Booby-Ray-Jimmy-Joe-Jackoff Jindal explained how disaster relief for his State was desperately needed and reluctantly given by the incompetent Bush government, and how that was the reason he was refusing economic disaster relief readily given by the highly competent Obama government. Hunh?

The Repukelickin's could have had one of their fat-assed white Southern morons deliver the SOTU "rebuttal." But they're trying to get away from that tired old white guy thing. Instead, they give us airhead female redneck hypocrite Sarah Palin, dirty trickster & human Oreo cookie Michael "Uncle Tom" Steele, and creationist technocrat Indian immigrant Jindal. Like, maybe we'll vote for them if they quit LOOKING like Repuke's. Why not try a transexual who beats up on lesbians for fun? Or, as corrupt-but-not-yet-indicted incoming GOPer Chairman Steele suggested, some "one-armed midgets." (Exact quote.)

I guess those opinion polls that finally showed America's real attitudes toward Obama (Lovin' him!), the stimulus package (Want it BAD) and Congressional Republicans (Hated 'em) and their obstructionist tactics (QUIT IT!), maybe put a dent in their heads, finally. So no Mitch McConnell, no John Boehner, no John Kyl, no John Cantor. Instead we get Red State Governors cashing their own government checks while turning down unemployment benefits on behalf of their record unemployed workers, and refusing mortgage help on behalf of their record foreclosed homeowners. Naw, it ain't the Party of No. It's the Party of NUTS.

Other Governors have stepped up to take the Red States' share of the rescue moneys. I say give it to 'em. F**k the Red States. They've been collecting more Federal dollars than they paid in taxes every year for many, many years. Let 'em go it alone, if they want to: Give 'em nothing, no-how, not one red Federal cent, ever again. If their citizens don't like it, maybe they could QUIT VOTING REPUBLICAN. They're not even keeping the "n*gg*rs" down, any more, anyway. One of 'em's President now, crackers. Get used to it. Start voting on something besides hatred and prejudice. Like, maybe, your own interests, for a change? And the interests of the Country, which the 'Pukes OBVIOUSLY do not give a sh*t about?

Here's the scoop on Jindal and his lifelong-government-dependent family. They're associated with some REALLY slimy people: Washington DC corporate law firms & political fixers that specialize in screwing reg'lar folks. Corporate polluters that mismanage toxic radioactive waste.:


NOLA.COM
"A Passage from India"
"Bobby's" Mom's a government worker.

' Amar Jindal works for an engineering company called URS and Raj Jindal works for the state Department of Labor. Enjoying life at his home in the Country Club of Louisiana, Amar Jindal is a long way from his humble origins in a rural Punjab village. '

URS.COM
"Washington Division > Federal/National Governments"
Looks like Dady-ji's a G-man too! His company is responsible for the messes at Los Alamos, Hanford and Savannah River, all nuclear nightmare sites. The radioactive trifecta!

' Washington Division manages high risk, technically complex programs and facilities for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), other federal agencies, and the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. As one of the Manhattan Project’s original six industrial partners, the Washington Division has a heritage partnership with the DOE and its predecessor agencies that spans more than six decades. Today, we continue our support of government agencies by safely managing and operating a segment of the world’s remaining nuclear facilities; providing expertise in environmental remediation, hazardous material stabilization, decontamination and decommissioning; and cleaning up more of the Cold War’s chemical and radioactive legacy than any other company. We also help manage and operate national laboratories, including the Idaho National Laboratory, the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. We hold long-term contracts for work at the majority of the DOE’s environmental management and nuclear cleanup sites, including the design, construction and current operation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico; cleanup at the Hanford Site along the Columbia River in southeastern Washington State; management of the remediation of radioactive underground waste tanks at the Hanford Site; management and operation of the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York; and previous management and operation of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. '

GIBSON DUNN.COM
"Nikesh Jindal "
Little bro's a g-rat, too!

' Prior to joining OMB, Mr. Jindal was the Senior Counsel at the Department of Energy, where he was actively involved in several key Department initiatives, including the drafting of guidelines implementing a multi-billion dollar loan guarantee program for innovative energy technologies authorized under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Before joining the Department of Energy, Mr.Jindal was a litigation associate at another law firm in Washington, D.C. Mr. Jindal served as a law clerk to the Honorable Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, in Portland, Oregon. '

LAW.COM
"Gibson Dunn Helps to Shape the Supreme Court"
Inside baseball: Jindal's brother's law firm helped insurance companies screw Louisianians out of billions of dollars in Hurricane Katrina money. How? Well, they put two current SCOTUS judges on the bench, and Dubya in the White House. So they got CLOUT, baby, that's how!

' Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's appellate team is on a streak. With warhorse Theodore B. Olson in the lead, the appellate group has won eight of the 11 U.S. Supreme Court cases it has argued during the past three terms. Overall, the firm claimed victory in 75 percent of its high court cases. "Getting 11 cases to the Supreme Court -- then winning eight of them -- in a given stretch is an incredible success," said Paul Watford, co-chair of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation's appellate practice committee and partner in the appellate practice group at Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles. In 2007 and early 2008, Gibson Dunn had four Supreme Court victories and a solid collection of wins in other federal and state appellate courts. What's behind the record? Firepower: Olson is a highly regarded Washington insider, whose 40-plus years in practice and solid conservative credentials have given him a deep understanding of the philosophies of the Supreme Court justices -- two of whom he helped get appointed to the high court as a Bush administration confidant. Helping to shape the court and having a deep affinity for its appointees is one way to get insight into the minds of the justices. "We work hard to give the court our best analysis to find the way that at least five justices will agree with our approach to the case," Olson said. "You can't win every case, but we try to win as many as we can." Richard J. Doren, a Gibson Dunn partner in Los Angeles, brought his national class action defense experience to an appeal involving insurance policyholders and the floods that followed Hurricane Katrina. Doren convinced the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a trial court ruling that insurance covered the flood caused by the breach of New Orleans' levees. With more than 200,000 policyholders, the stakes were very high and the challenge intense. Still, "putting together a good argument -- that's a lot of fun professionally," Doren said. Opposing counsel in the Katrina insurance case, John Ellison, a Reed Smith partner in Philadelphia, said the insurance coverage issues are still being litigated before the Louisiana Supreme Court. He praised Doren's job, then added: "I am still surprised with the result." Olson has worked at the firm since 1965, with two notable intervals: Between 2001 and 2004 he was U.S. solicitor general, and from 1981 to 1984 he was a key presidential adviser in the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel. Olson ranks among lawyers with high court insider status. He represented George W. Bush in the two cases that settled the disputed 2000 presidential election. After helping Bush take office, he advised the president on his two Supreme Court nominees, fellow conservatives John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr., both of whom Olson has known since the 1980s, when all three were Reagan administration legal advisers. "Those have been exciting places to put my foot in the stream," Olson said. "These are really outstanding people. I'm glad I was able to participate in a very small way in their preparation in their confirmation hearings." '

ESQUIRE MAGAZINE
"Bobby Jindal, All American"
"Bobby" ditches his immigrant parents --too foreign & dark-skinned for Republicans. Oh, and he grew up in government housing, BTW.

' Now here was Bobby Jindal on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the glad-handing Mayor of America. "Tell us about your background," Leno said. "First-generation American, correct?" "Born and raised in Baton Rouge," Jindal said with a distinct drawl. He launched into the story of his parents' journey to LSU. "[My dad] walked uphill going to school . . . and coming back from school," Jindal joked. "So your parents have an accent?" Leno asked. The young governor winced, like a bookish kid who's just realized he's wandered into the wrong area of the playground. He looked down into his spidery hands, arranged at the moment as if they were holding an invisible bowl. He searched inside the bowl for the answer to Leno's question. "My dad more than my mom," Jindal said of the accent. "But my dad, you know . . . none of his brothers or sisters got past the fifth grade. . . . He went all the way to college. That's pretty amazing." "When you were born . . . did he say--" Leno bobbled his large head, playing to the studio audience. He put on a corny, over-the-top, Apu-from-The-Simpsons accent: "We will name him Bobby!" The crowd roared. "Nooooo," Jindal protested, faint though distinct, his chin drooping to his chest, clearly mortified. His hands knit together protectively and fell into his lap. The first time he ran for governor, in 2003--his very first attempt at public office of any kind--Jindal lost in a runoff to Kathleen Blanco (the governor during Hurricane Katrina, which hit in 2005). Four days before the runoff, polls showed Jindal with a comfortable 10-point lead. Then Blanco's campaign started running a television ad featuring a picture of a young, very dark-appearing Jindal with his hair disheveled and sticking up. "Wake up, Louisiana! Before it's too late!" viewers were urged. By Election Day, Jindal was trailing Blanco by 3 points. He did especially poorly in what they call Bubba Country, the northern part of the state, usually a Republican stronghold. Over the course of the next four years--during which time he successfully ran for a seat in the House of Representatives, raising so much money in the process that he was able to donate to other GOP candidates around the country, ensuring his election as president of the incoming freshman class of congressmen--Jindal visited northern Louisiana, by his own count, more than seventy-seven times. Many of those visits took place on Sundays at small evangelical churches, where he gave testimony about his conversion from a Hindu to a Roman Catholic. Some churchgoers noted that they had never before heard a Roman testify in quite the way Jindal did, casting his own experience in terms similar to that of a born-again fundamentalist. Reporters noted that Jindal had taken to wearing cowboy boots. The Jindals settled into graduate-student housing near LSU. In the eyes of an immigrant, Louisiana in 1971 was paradise on earth. There were abundant oil and gas reserves, thriving industry, major ports, multiple railroads, jobs aplenty, the guarantee of schooling for all. Amar got a good job with one of the railroads; Raj switched from nuclear physics to the budding field of computer science and was hired by the state of Louisiana as one of its first IT people. (Thirty years later, she is still working in the same department. Technically, Bobby is her boss.) The Jindals lived in a series of apartments for nearly seven years, until the birth of Bobby's younger brother, Nikesh. Today, Nikesh Jindal is a thirty-year-old lawyer in Washington. He went to Dartmouth and Yale--"Quite a shock for a southern boy," he said on the phone recently with a chuckle. Unlike Bobby, he has no southern accent. Nikesh remembers fondly the family's one-story, three-bedroom house in a "small little neighborhood where you knew all the people on the street." When asked if his family ever got together with other Hindu families to worship during holidays, Nikesh, who has never before been interviewed, became flustered. "I'll have to think about it and get back to you on that," he said. (All requests for an interview with Amar and Raj Jindal were declined.) Because he feared the "inevitable confrontation with my very unsympathetic Hindu parents," Bobby simply didn't tell them. He found refuge in his closet, where he studied the Bible by flashlight. In his writings, he would later compare his situation to that of the earliest Christians, worshipping in caves, "hiding from government persecution." '

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U.S. KIDS & GUNS: KILL OR BE KILLED IN KINDERGARTEN

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LITTLE BOY SHOOTS FATHER & ROOM-MATE

ARIZONA POLICE CHARGE CHILD WITH PREMEDITATED HOMICIDE

Flip Side Of Gun Culture: No Mercy For Abused Children

I smell a TV movie. Maybe a series.

"MURDER ONE, JR."

"LAW & ORDER K-12"

"ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, WATSON"

Cops grilled the kid without an adult or a lawyer present. Here's what might have happened:

GOOD COP:
OK, Little Johnny, now just tell us what happened.

BAD COP:
Yeah, talk ya little punk, or we'll beat it out of you!

GOOD COP:
Now, Johnny, we don't want the officer to beat us up, do we? No. So, just tell me how you killed your Daddy, and say "I'm guilty" into Mr. Microphone.

LITTLE JOHNNY:
On TV, they get a lawyer.

BAD COP:
HAH! On TV, hunh? Well on my TV, you're gonna get the BOOGIE MAN man putting his wee-wee in your bum-bum! How'd you like that, you goddam little murdering BASTARD!?!?!?

LITTLE JOHNNY:
WAAAAHHHH!!!!

BAD COP:
I'll give ya sumpin to CRY about, PUNK!

GOOD COP:
Jesus, McCain! Ya can't HIT the kid!

BAD COP:
I'm a McCain! This is Arizona! I can do any Goddam thing I want! I'll shoot the little freak!

GOOD COP:
Why don't you go cool down, McCain. I'll handle this.

BAD COP:
Yeah, sure you will. I'll be back in five minutes. If the punk hasn't made a full confession by then, he's MINE!

LITTLE JOHNNY:
WAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

GOOD COP:
OK, OK, Johnny. Don't cry now, he's gone. You just take this crayon and write: "I KILT MY DADY," and then sign your name.

LITTLE JOHNNY:
"L-l-like this?

GOOD COP:
That's right. Ooops! You spelled "Daddy" with two "D"s. That's OK. I think we can still get you the chair. Good boy.

LITTLE JOHNNY:
Can I go potty now?

GOOD COP:
Did you sign the confession? Just put your name there at the bottom, then you can make a poopy.

LITTLE JOHNNY:
I'm sorry.

GOOD COP:
Don't write that.


YAHOO NEWS
"Ariz. boy, 8, accused of killing 2, including dad"
Apparently, the kid was of human ancestry. Figures.

' The boy, who faces two counts of premeditated murder, did not act on the spur of the moment, Police Chief Roy Melnick said. On Friday, a judge determined there was probable cause to show that the boy fatally shot his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, of San Carlos, with a .22-caliber rifle. Under Arizona law, charges can be filed against anyone 8 or older. The judge ordered a psychological evaluation of the boy. Melnick said police are pushing to have the boy tried as an adult, but he acknowledged it's unlikely a judge would grant that motion. "This is a severe double homicide, premeditated, and that's the right thing to do," he said. "We're going to use every avenue of the law that's available to us, but we're also looking at the human side. Melnick said police obtained a confession but the boy's defense attorney, Benjamin Brewer, said police overreached in questioning the boy without representation from a parent or attorney and did not advise him of his rights. "They became very accusing early on in the interview," Brewer said. "Two officers with guns at their side, it's very scary for anybody, for sure an 8-year-old kid." Prosecutors aren't sure where the case is headed, Carlyon said. "There's a ton of factors to be considered and weighed, including the juvenile's age," he said. "The counter balance against that, the acts that he apparently committed." '

KTAR-FM
"Priest: Slain dad had taught boy, 8, to use guns "
The family that kills together, um, kills together.

' A man who police believe was shot and killed by his 8-year-old son had consulted a Roman Catholic priest about whether the boy should handle guns and had taught him how to use a rifle, the clergyman said Saturday. The father, Vincent Romero, 29, was from a family of avid hunters and wanted to make sure the boy wasn't afraid of guns, said the Very Rev. John Paul Sauter of St. Johns Catholic Church. The boy's stepmother had suggested he have a BB gun, the priest said. Romero taught his son how to use a rifle to kill prairie dogs, Sauter said. Police say the boy used a .22-caliber rifle Wednesday to kill his father and another man, Timothy Romans, 39, of San Carlos. The priest did not say how he advised the couple but said Saturday that the boy "was just too young." "That child, I don't think he knows what he did, and it was brutal," Sauter said. '

INTERNATIONAL HERALD-TRIBUNE
"8-year-old charged with murdering dad, another man"
If you look hard enough, I'll bet this kid had detention, more than once. Prob'ly clapped a few erasers, too. Maybe even whistled in church. A bad seed. Execute 'im!

' By all accounts, he was a good boy. No problems in school. No disruptions in his religious education classes at St. Johns Catholic Church, where he was to mark his First Communion this year. So police and neighbors in the 8-year-old's small eastern Arizona community are at a loss to explain why he would have used a .22-caliber rifle to kill his father and another man at their home. The boy, who faces two counts of premeditated murder, did not act on the spur of the moment, St. Johns Police Chief Roy Melnick said. Police are looking into whether he might have been abused. "I'm not accusing anybody of anything at this point," he said Saturday. "But we're certainly going to look at the abuse part of this. He's 8 years old. He just doesn't decide one day that he's going to shoot his father and shoot his father's friend for no reason. Something led up to this."The boy had no record of complaints with Arizona Child Protective Services, said Apache County Attorney Brad Carlyon. "He had no record of any kind, not even a disciplinary record at school," he said. "He has never been in trouble before." The boy's lawyer, Benjamin Brewer, said his client is generally in good spirits. "He's scared," he said. "He's trying to be tough, but he's scared." Sauter, the priest, also said the boy didn't cause problems in his classes at the church. The third-grader was to make his First Communion this year. "They were just really nice people, and that's why it's such a sad thing," Sauter said. "Of course you can't do anything about Vinnie, but (the boy), there's gotta be something they can do for him. At that age, he's just a baby." '

AND IN OTHER "SECOND-AMENDMENT" (Gun-nut) NEWS:

NPR
"Gun Sales Rise On Fear Of Democratic President"

YAHOO NEWS
"Police: Shooter feared trick-or-treater was robber"

CNN
"Eight-year-old shoots self with Uzi, dies"

WXII-TV WINSTON-SALEM, NC
"Police: Father Shoots Son, 12, In Chest"

REDDING, CA. RECORD-SEARCHLIGHT
"Investigators trying to find out how 4-year-old got gun"
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IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:

Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

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THE BLACK MCCAINS

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JOHN SYDNEY MCCAIN III'S SLAVE-TRADER ANCESTORS FATHERED "MIXED" CHILDREN

MANY DESCENDANTS STILL LIVE NEAR THE OLD PLANTATION & HOLD INTEGRATED FAMILY REUNIONS



Mississippi John McCain Refuses To Acknowledge Black Relatives, History; Won't Attend Reunions Of His Own Family

John Sydney McCain III's racist attitudes and campaign tactics begin to make a little more sense when you read his history. He's not a native of racist Arizona, where he opposed the institution of the Martin Luther King holiday. McCain was born in a segregated military base in Panama, and raised, in part, in Teoc, Mississippi, his family's ancestral home. His great-grandfather was a Confederate soldier, which led McCain to oppose removing the Stars & Bars from the State flag, citing "tradition." The tradition included, and in fact was based on, buying, selling and ruthlessly exploiting human beings with black skin. McCain's great-grandfather and other McCain's were slave-owners and slave-traders in Mississippi.

Whether John McCain himself has black blood is a matter for the geneticists to work out. It is of little interest, except to his racist supporters. It is ironic that he finds himself running against another man of "mixed" ancestry, a man whose own father came from Africa. The McCain campaign has made much of Obama's African ancestry. The Republicans have also tried to smear Obama by digging up Obama's distant African relatives, and claiming that Obama has neglected or refused to acknowledge them. Yet here we have McCain himself neglecting and refusing to acknowledge his whole family, even the whites who accept their black cousins and acknowledge their troubled shared past in an attempt at reconciliation.

As the historic 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign draws to a close, the true histories of the two candidates provide insight into their character and their future conduct. As a man of the people, son of an immigrant, a minority within a minority who pulled himself up by his own bootstraps and worked his way to the top, Barack Hussein Obama exemplifies the American Dream, and holds out a shining example of true democracy to the entire world. He knows what it is like to struggle and do without, and he can be relied upon to represent the interests of all those who struggle and do without in hopes of a better life.

John McCain is a man of wealth and power, a son of privilege, an hereditary member of the ruling elite who slacked off and relied on his family connections all his life, finishing by abandoning his crippled wife and children to run away and live off a rich, drug-addicted woman. Now he is appealing to the worst elements of the American polity in a desperate grab for power. John Sydney McCain III is a banana Republican, and hardly an American at all: Certainly no example to the rest of us. He represents the worst of our past, and no future at all.

Unlike Obama, McCain neither knows nor cares what it is like for the rest of us to have to struggle daily to provide our families with food and shelter, health care and transportation, education and some kind of a future. John Sidney McCain III, of the Mississippi McCain's, is, by his own admission, wholly ignorant of every element of the real lives of ordinary Americans. His knee-jerk defense and support of the interests of corporations and wealthy individuals like himself is in direct opposition to the interests of the rest of us: Hard-working Americans who need a defender in Washington like Obama who will fight for our interests, not against them as McCain has done all his life.

The choice is simple: The dark, racist past of privilege and abusive, untrammeled wealth & power, the parasitic few lording it over us all; or a bright, inclusive, tolerant, diverse, truly democratic future of economic fairness and equal justice for all, where we take control of our own destiny, and manage our country for our own benefit, all of us. It's all there in black and white.

GATHER.COM
"McCain's black family ties"

' Since the advent of the Southern Strategy under Nixon, the Republican Party has embraced its role as the Party of White Privilege. John McCain has made a modest career out of making rumbling noises toward some of the uglier aspects of this legacy within the GOP, and he's hoping that those rumbles will be enough to persuade moderate voters to back him. However, the cold realities of the history of race relations in America -- dating back to those dark eons when black women held in slavery were routinely raped and impregnated by their white owners -- still hover like a dark cloud over whites' vision of Golden Age America, the very vision that John McCain and Sarah Palin like to sell to their flocks like so much Coca-Cola. So it's perhaps not a surprise that, given the chance to banish that cloud by doing the human thing, the right thing, and embracing the black side of the McCain family, the Straight Talking Senator From Arizona chose essentially to run from them and hide. Because acknowledging them not only was too painful, but might prove too harmful to his chances of success in a political party predicated on white privilege. '

LONDON TELEGRAPH
"Descendents of slaves owned by ancestors of John McCain will vote for Barack Obama"

' Lillie McCain, 56, a professor of psychology in Flint, Michigan, traces her lineage from two of more than 120 black slaves before the end of the Civil War at Teoc, the Mississippi plantation owned by the family of Republican nominee John McCain's great-great-grandfather. Lillie McCain's family is descended from two slaves, named Isom and Lettie, according to interviews and examinations of family documents, county files and U.S. Census Bureau records. According to members of the white McCain family, the plantation was purchased by Mr McCain's great-great-grandfather, William Alexander McCain, in 1851. "We've had the pleasure of meeting Joe McCain," she said, "He attends the reunions at Teoc ... I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Senator McCain. "I heard him say on, I believe it was Meet the Press, that his ancestors owned no slaves. Well, I certainly have carried the name McCain from the beginning of my life, and I've known the ties to John McCain, and have tried to get him to communicate with me about that, but he has been unwilling at least to date." Miss McCain urged John McCain to "acknowledge the reality of the relationship that we hold." "I am absolutely supporting Obama, and it's not because he's black," said Lillie. "It's because he is the best person at this time in our history." '

SALON
"McCain's ancestors owned slaves"

' The family's storied military history stretches back to Carroll County, Miss., where McCain's great-great grandfather William Alexander McCain owned a plantation, and later died during the Civil War as a soldier for the Mississippi cavalry. But what McCain didn't know about his family until Tuesday was that William Alexander McCain had owned 52 slaves. The senator seemed surprised after Salon reporters showed him documents gathered from Carroll County Courthouse, the Carrollton Merrill Museum, the Mississippi State Archives and the Greenwood, Miss., Public Library. "I didn't know that," McCain said in measured tones wearing a stoic expression during a midday interview, as he looked at the documents before Tuesday night's debate. "I knew they had sharecroppers. I did not know that." "It's very impactful," he said of learning the news. "When you think about it, they owned a plantation, why didn't I think about that before? Obviously, I'm going to have to do a little more research." '

BND.COM
"McCain families sprang from Mississippi plantation"

' One of the slaves was Roy McCain's great-great-grandmother, Evelyn McCain. She never married but had four children. "They were mixed kids by the slaveowner and her," Roy McCain said, speaking of William's brother, Joe. "They were bi-racial." Such relationships were neither confirmed nor denied by the Wall Street Journal when it published a profile of the family two weeks ago. But reporter Douglas Blackmon noted that the black and white McCain families have long acknowledged their shared history. Sen. McCain's younger brother, also named Joe, and other white McCains have attended family reunions organized by the black McCains. "The black McCains were raised to believe that they were blood relatives of the white McCains dating back to slavery," Blackmon wrote. "White McCains say they're unaware of any biological connection between the families. A spokesman for Sen. McCain declined to comment." '

SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES
"Some of McCain's black relatives support Obama"

' In the rural Teoc community of Carroll County, Miss., where the ancestors of Sen. John McCain owned enslaved Africans on a plantation, black, white and mixed-race family members unite every two years for their Coming Home Reunion, on the land where the plantation operated. Some of McCain’s black family members say they are not sure exactly where they fall on the family tree, but they do know this: They are either descendants of the McCain family slaves, or of children the McCains fathered with their slaves. White and black members of the McCain family have met on the plantation several times over the last 15 years, but one invited guest has been conspicuously absent: Sen. John Sidney McCain. “Why he hasn’t come is anybody’s guess,” said Charles McCain Jr., 60, a distant cousin of John McCain who is black. “I think the best I can come up with, is that he doesn’t have time, or he has just distanced himself, or it doesn’t mean that much to him.” Other relatives are not as generous. Lillie McCain, 56, another distant cousin of John McCain who is black, said the Republican presidential nominee is trying to hide his past, and refuses to accept the family’s history. “After hearing him in 2000 claim his family never owned slaves, I sent him an email,” she recalled. “I told him no matter how much he denies it, it will not make it untrue, and he should accept this and embrace it.” She said the senator never responded to her email.The McCain campaign did not respond to repeated questions about John McCain’s black relatives, or about his relatives of both races who support Obama. Pablo Carrillo, a media liaison with the McCain campaign, said the senator was aware of his African-American relatives, but asked the reporter to put his questions into writing, and that someone would get back to him. After the reporter sent questions in writing, and made repeated follow-up phone calls, neither Sen. McCain nor anyone else from the campaign responded. Based on information obtained by the South Florida Times, the senator has numerous black and mixed-raced relatives who were born on, or in, the area of the McCain plantation. The mixed races in the family can be traced back to the rural Teoc community of Carroll County, Miss., where his family owned slaves. Sen. John McCain’s great, great grandfather, William Alexander McCain (1812-1863), fought for the Confederacy and owned a 2,000-acre plantation named Waverly in Teoc. The family dealt in the slave trade, and, according to official records, held at least 52 slaves on the family’s plantation. The enslaved Africans were likely used as servants, for labor, and for breeding more slaves. William McCain’s son, and Sen. John McCain’s great grandfather, John Sidney McCain (1851-1934), eventually assumed the duty of running the family’s plantation. W.A. “Bill” McCain IV, a white McCain cousin, and his wife Edwina, are the current owners of the land. Both told the South Florida Times that they attend the reunions. They also said the McCain campaign had asked them not to speak to the media about the reunions, or about why the senator has never acknowledged the family gatherings. In addition to distancing himself from his black family members, John McCain has taken several positions on issues that have put him at odds with members of the larger black community. While running for the Republican Party nomination in 2000, he sided with protesters who were calling for the rebel battle flag to be removed from the South Carolina statehouse, only to alter that position later. "Some view it as a symbol of slavery. Others view it as a symbol of heritage,” John McCain said of the flag. "Personally, I see the battle flag as a symbol of heritage. I have ancestors who have fought for the Confederacy, none of whom owned slaves. I believe they fought honorably.’’ Novelist Elizabeth Spencer, another white cousin of John McCain, noted the slaves the family owned in the family’s memoirs, Landscapes of the Heart. Sen. McCain has acknowledged reading the book, but claims to have only glossed over entries about their slaves. “That’s crazy,” said Spencer, who also attends the reunions in Teoc. “No one had to tell us, because we all knew about the slaves. I may not vote, because I don’t want anyone to think that I have an issue with John, but I don’t want to see him become president because I think Obama is entirely adequate, and it’s time for a Democrat.’’ Sen. John McCain was born in 1936 at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station, a segregated military installation in the Panama Canal, where his father was stationed in the U.S. Navy. His family returned to the states shortly after his birth; where he went on to attend segregated schools in the Teoc community and elsewhere around the country. He served in the Navy, where he was a prisoner of war during Vietnam, before being released and eventually running for Congress. After he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, McCain voted against the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday in 1983. When he arrived in the U.S. Senate in 1986, he joined North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms in opposing the holiday again, and voted in 1994 to cut funding to the commission that marketed it. John McCain also aligned himself with former Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham. Mecham was the governor in McCain’s home state of Arizona from January 1987 to April 1988, when he was impeached and removed from office for campaign finance violations. As a state senator and governor, Mecham publicly used racial slurs against black people and other minorities. He was also a member of the John Birch Society, which opposes civil rights legislation. In 1986, Mecham campaigned for governor on a promise to rescind the state’s recognition of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, which he did in 1987. “He is denying his black and white relatives in Teoc,” said Joyce McCain, 54. “I think he may not want the country to know his family’s full history, but times have changed and we need to move on, and that’s why I’m supporting Obama.” '

IREPORT.COM
"McCain's other history!!!!!!"

' Tracing the genealogies of slaves is often easy, because slaves frequently adopted the surnames of their owners. In 1876, for example, a Mary J. McCain married Isham Hurt. The two had a son, blues guitarist "Mississippi" John Hurt, in 1892 on Teoc, the plantation community where the McCains owned 2,000 acres. "Is that right?" McCain asked, after considering his possible connection to the famous bluesman, who died in 1966. "That's fascinating," he said.
'

[McCain family blues music posted at CoffeeHouseStudio.]
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PAIN, SORROW, GUILT, REGRET

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THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF MEMORY

WHILE WE CANNOT REMEMBER OUR MULTIPLICATION TABLES, THE LOVES WE'VE LOST CAN NEVER BE FORGOTTEN

The Mind Is A Funny Thing: Sometimes It Seems It's Only There To Preserve Our Suffering

Perhaps you have never lost anyone you love. Maybe you have never had that sudden, terrible realization that you will never see that person again. So you cannot know what it means, what it feels like, to have that sharp, cold penetration of your heart by regret and pain, sorrow and suffering you had never imagined possible: You didn't say goodbye. You forgot to tell him or her that you love them. You said something you shouldn't have. And now you cannot take it back. You cannot ask forgiveness. You cannot say or unsay, do or undo anything ever again. So you do not know what it means to experience an abrupt break in your life, and you will never know what it means to have become stranded in a future forever cut off from your own past, alone. You will never experience, hour by hour, minute by minute, day by day, year by year, the loss of your own life, that part of it that died with the one you loved.

How sharper than a serpents tooth it must be to lose a child, especially for the mother. To have carried another life within you; to have watched the person you created grow and mature and become an entirely new and different human being. To watch him struggle and learn, suffer and rejoice, get sick and grow better, every day for ten, twenty, thirty years. And then to lose him. How, how do you bear that loss?

This is what our exalted leaders should think about, before they send our sons and daughters into combat.

This is what we hope Barack Obama thinks about before he becomes just another President.

I know he is thinking about this now, as he watches his grandmother die, just as he watched his mother die, of cancer. May all of our thoughts go out to him, and remain with him when he finds himself with the power of life and death. May he never do anything that causes infinite regret.
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