4um: Bye Bye Barry

Title: Bye Bye Barry
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Published: Aug 20, 2008
Author: Joel S. Hirschhorn
Post Date: 2008-08-20 15:55:42 by statusquobuster
Keywords: Barack Obama, John McCain, plutocracy
Views: 3860
Comments: 108

The final results are in on this historic November day. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars he raised, Barack Obama has lost the 2008 presidential election. American voters have boldly spoken truth to arrogance. Turned out that all those pre-election opinion polls that showed Obama’s inability to get over 50 percent support were prescient. Much of the public was never comfortable with Obama, though he clearly was so comfortable acting like he already was president.

Hillary and Bill Clinton are probably drinking champagne and having the sweetest time since Bill won his first presidential election. Hillary must now bite her lip repeatedly and resist saying publicly that “I told you so!” Hillary in 2012 will reveal that she learned her lessons well.

All that Obama audacity of arrogance from the smiling, glib politician finally died the death it so richly deserved. Too many pundits will blame his loss on his blackness and racist voters. But the larger truth is that sufficient voters saw through the many lies and deceptions. Obama always had a hard time giving a simple, short straight answer to tough questions. He was always mentally calculating exactly how to game his answers so that he would achieve all the benefits he had his eyes on. He was simply too damn presumptuous and too smart for his own good. In the end, Americans do not want the smartest person in the presidency or endless nuancing. They want someone they can easily understand and trust, despite their skepticism. There were many reasons not to trust the calculating Obama to do anything he promised to do or, for some people, to fear he might.

And now the bloviating pundits will also blame third party presidential candidates for siphoning votes from Obama, as if Americans have no right to exercise their political freedom and vote for someone they honestly think has the best policy positions and would most help restore American democracy.

Jon Stewart and other late-night comics will feast on these election results, as they should. I can’t wait to hear jokes about Obama’s wife becoming a more vocal and militant critic of the good old USA, now that she has proof positive that so many Americans are stupid white racists.

Of course, now the nation must suffer through the ineptness, confusion and dementia-like dullness of the living-in-the-past John McCain, tough-talking but brain dead. Will the McCain presidency look like an extension of the incredible terrible George W. Bush White House? Of course.

Still living off a once-true characterization as a maverick, McCain must now surround himself with people who actually are smart and knowledgeable about myriad issues. Should be no problem finding enough lobbyists. Pundits will start speculating that McCain will be lucky just to stay alive for four years, but thankfully his vice-president seems more capable. One thing for sure: the power plutocracy that really runs the country will have little trouble pulling the strings behind the scenes and keep the puppet McCain dancing to tunes written by corporate interests.

Ralph Nader summed up this way: “A large fraction of Americans know that we need a Jeffersonian political revolution to fix our corrupt system. They were not fooled by the Obama rhetoric about change, not from someone that has been a product of and servant for the two-party plutocracy. Yes, all the votes for me and the other third-party presidential candidates spelled the difference between Obama winning and losing. Our voters correctly protested against the corrupt two-party system. They did not elect McCain. Only those who voted for McCain elected him, and that is something they must live with as they watch a McCain administration continue dismantling American democracy and budget-busting global warmongering.”

Cynthia McKinney wisely noted that “It is time to stop saying God bless America, and begin repeating God save America. The good news is that we will build even greater public support for a true political revolution during the McCain presidency. All too often things must get much worse before they can get better. They will get worse.”

As to Obama, half-jokingly he said: “I may come back as a third-party candidate.” Or did that reflect a calculation that Democrats had learned their lesson? As to all the screaming from the left that the Republicans stole this election also, Obama immediately said “John won it fair and square.” Thanks Barry, exactly what I expected from a phony change agent.

I'm 58 y/o. Obama represents the worst selection either branch of the political machine has ever put forward. His background is questionable and it can't be examined w/o cries of racism by the very radicals who have damaged our nation. There is something about him that makes anyone with street sense suspicious. Again, if it weren't for his color, he'd be dismissed as a radical, left wing head case worthy of the Teddy Kennedy compassion award.

Further, you gotta be shittin me ... I suppose its the tree huggers that have filled his campaign coffers with kazillions, and now you'll have to retire.

"Every effort has been made by the Federal Reserve Board to conceal its power but the truth is the Federal Reserve Board has usurped the Government of the United States." "Mr. Chairman, the people of the United States did not perceive that a world system was being set up here that the United States was to be lowered to the position of a coolie country. . and was to supply financial power to an international superstate -- a superstate controlled by international bankers and international industrialists acting together to enslave the World for their own pleasure."

Two years, and God only knows how many bazillion $$$ to select a replacement sock-puppet.

Obama was packaged, gift wrapped and sold to the American sheep by the system.Sixty five to seventy million Americans will dutifully march to the polls and vote Obama.

The power brokers at the top will laugh all the way to coronation day as they owned both "candidates".

The RADICALS who damaged our nation? The LEFTISTS? Oh yes, it was the RADICAL LEFTISTS who shipped our ENTIRE MANUFACTURING BASE to CHINA in the pursuit of profits. It was the RADICAL LEFTISTS who disemboweled the entire concept of regulating Wall Street financial firms, and allowed them to package "Liar Loans" and "Ninja Loans" into CDO bonds that were the fiscal equivalent of toxic waste, and then stamp "AAA RATED!" on top of the packages! Oh yes it was the RADICAL LEFTISTS who did all of this.

True, and the Pubs deserve Obama for all the trash they're offered as an alternative. I'd drive ten penny nails under my fingernails before I took the time to vote for McCain. As for Barr, Baldwin, Nader, and whoever else is on some ballot...combine all their votes together and you won't hit 10%. We know the only solution to the mess we're in. We're ready. If it happens is anyones guess.

America deserves a black President for many years South Africa was 10 years behind America now America is 10 years behind South Africa....want to look into America's future?

Call them globalists, call them liberals, call them campus Nazis, but the motherfuckers who have driven PC, multiculturalism and diversity down our throats have roots deep in socialism. Feel free to use a label of your choice; rogue capitalists works fine afa our economic woes, just please......don't tell me this happy horse shit doesn't have firm roots in the hard political left. Been there, seen it, have the T-shirt.

By Gemma Meyer (Gemma Meyer is the pseudonym of a South African journalist. She and her husband, a former conservative member of parliament, still reside in South Africa.)

People used to say that South Africa was 20 years behind the rest of the Western world. Television, for example, came late to South Africa (but so did pornography and the gay rights movement).

Today, however, South Africa may be the grim model of the future Western world, for events in America reveal trends chillingly similar to those that destroyed our country.

America's structures are Western. Your Congress, your lobbying groups, your free speech, and the way ordinary Americans either get involved or ignore politics are peculiarly Western, not the way most of the world operates. But the fact that only about a third of Americans deem it important to vote is horrifying in light of how close you are to losing your Western character.

Writing letters to the press, manning stands at county fairs, hosting fund-raising dinners, attending rallies, setting up conferences, writing your Congressman - that is what you know, and what you are comfortable with. Those are the political methods you've created for yourselves to keep your country on track and to ensure political accountability.

But woe to you if - or more likely, when - the rules change. White Americans may soon find themselves unable or unwilling to stand up to challenge the new political methods that will be the inevitable result of the ethnic metamorphosis now taking place in America. Unable to cope with the new rules of the game - violence, mob riots, intimidation through accusations of racism, demands for proportionality based on racial numbers, and all the other social and political weapons used by the have-nots to bludgeon treasure and power from the haves - Americans, like others before them, will no doubt cave in. They will compromise away their independence and ultimately their way of life.

That is exactly what happened in South Africa. I know, because I was there and I saw it happen.

Faced with revolution in the streets, strikes, civil unrest and the sheer terror and murder practiced by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC), the white government simply capitulated in order to achieve "peace."

Westerners need peace. They need order and stability. They are builders and planners. But what we got was the peace of the grave for our society.

The Third World is different - different peoples with different pasts and different cultures. Yet Westerners continue to mistake the psychology of the Third World and its peoples. Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe are perfect examples of those mistakes. Sierra Leone is in perpetual civil war, and Zimbabwe - once the thriving, stable Rhodesia - is looting the very people (the white men) who feed the country. Yet Westerners do not admit that the same kind of savagery could come to America when enough immigrants of the right type assert themselves. The fact is, Americans are sitting ducks for Third World exploitation of the Western conscience of compassion.

Those in the West who forced South Africa to surrender to the ANC and its leaders did not consider Africa to be the dangerous, corrupt, and savage place it is now in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Those Western politicians now have a similar problem looming on their own doorsteps: the demand for power and treasure from the non-Western peoples inside the realm.

It is already too late for South Africa, but not for America if enough people strengthen their spine and take on the race terrorists, the armies of the "politically correct" and, most dangerous of all, the craven politicians who believe "compassionate conservatism" will buy them a few more votes, a few more days of peace.

White South Africans, you should remember, have been in that part of Africa for the same amount of time whites have inhabited North America; yet ultimately South Africans voted for their own suicide. We are not so very different from you.

We lost our country through skillful propaganda, pressure from abroad (not least from the U.S.A.), unrelenting charges of "oppression" and "racism," and the shrewd assessment by African tyrants that the white man has many Achilles' heels, the most significant of which are his compassion, his belief in the "equality of man," and his "love your neighbor" philosophy - none of which are part of the Third World's history.

The mainline churches played a big role in the demise of Western influence throughout Africa, too; especially in South Africa. Today's tyrants were yesterday's mission-school proteges. Many dictators in Africa were men of the cloth. They knew their clerical collars would deflect criticism and obfuscate their real aims, which had nothing whatever to do with the "brotherhood of man."

Other tyrants, like the infamous Idi Amin, were trained and schooled by the whites themselves, at Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard. After receiving the best from the West, they unleashed a resentful bloodlust against their benefactors.

From what I have seen and read thus far, I fear Americans will capitulate just as we did. Americans are, generally, a soft lot. They don't want to quarrel or obstruct the claims of those who believe they were wronged. They like peace and quiet, and they want to compromise and be nice.

A television program that aired in South Africa showed a town meeting somewhere in Southern California where people met to complain about falling standards in the schools. Whites who politely spoke at the meeting clearly resented the influx of Mexican immigrants into their community. When a handful of Chicanos at the back of the hall shouted and waved their hands at them, the whites simply shrunk back into their seats rather than tell the noisemakers to shut up. They didn't want to quarrel.

In America, the courts are still the final arbiters of society's laws. But what will happen when your future majority refuses to abide by court rulings - as in Zimbabwe. What will happen when the new majority says the judges are racists, and that they refuse to acknowledge "white man's justice"? What will happen when the courts are filled with their people, or their sympathizers? In California, Proposition 187 has already been overturned.

What will you do when the future non-white majority decides to change the names of streets and cities? What will you do when they no longer want to use money that carries the portraits of old, dead white "racists" and slave owners? Will you cave in, like you did on flying the Confederate flag? What about the national anthem? Your official language?

Don't laugh. When the "majority" took over in South Africa, the first targets were our national symbols.

In another generation, America may well face what Africa is now experiencing - invasions of private land by the "have-nots;" the decline in health care quality; roads and buildings in disrepair; the banishment of your history from the education of the young; the revolutionization of your justice system.

In South Africa today, only 9 percent of murderers end up in jail. Court dockets are regularly purchased and simply disappear. Magistrates can be bribed as can the prison authorities, making escapes commonplace. Vehicle and airplane licenses are regularly purchased, and forged school and university certificates are routine.

What would you think of the ritual slaughter of animals in your neighbor's backyard? How do you clean up the blood and entrails that litter your suburban streets? How do you feel about the practice of witchcraft, in which the parts of young girls and boys are needed for "medicinal" purposes? How do you react to the burning of witches?

Don't imagine that government officials caught with their fingers in the till will be punished. Excuses - like the need to overcome generations of white racism - will be found to exonerate the guilty.

In fact, known criminals will be voted into office because of a racial solidarity among the majority that doesn't exist among the whites. When Ian Smith of the old Rhodesia tried to stand up to the world, white South African politicians were among the Westerners pressuring him to surrender.

When Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe murders his political opponents, ignores unfavorable court decisions, terrorizes the population and siphons off millions from the state treasury for himself and his friends, South Africa's new President Thabo Mbeki holds his hand and declares his support. That just happened a few weeks ago.

Your tax dollars will go to those who don't earn and don't pay. In South Africa, organizations that used to have access to state funds such as old age homes, the arts, and veterans' services, are simply abandoned.

What will happen is that Western structures in America will be either destroyed from without, or transformed from within, used to suit the goals of the new rulers. And they will reign either through terror, as in Zimbabwe today, or exert other corrupt pressures to obtain, or buy votes. Once power is in the hands of aliens, don't expect loyalty or devotion to principle from those whose jobs are at stake. One of the most surprising and tragic components of the disaster in South Africa is how many previously anti-ANC whites simply moved to the other side.

Once you lose social, cultural, and political dominance, there is no getting it back again.

Unfortunately, your habits and values work against you. You cannot fight terror and street mobs with letters to your Congressmen. You cannot fight accusations of racism with prayer meetings. You cannot appeal to the goodness of your fellow man when the fellow man despises you for your weaknesses and hacks off the arms and legs of his political opponents.

To survive, Americans must never lose the power they now enjoy to people from alien cultures. Above all, don't put yourselves to the test of fighting only when your backs are against the wall. You will probably fail.

Millions around the world want your good life. But make no mistake: They care not for the high-minded ideals of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, and your Constitution. What they want are your posessions, your power, and your status.

And they already know that their allies among you, the "human rights activists," the skillful lawyers and the left-wing politicians will fight for them, and not for you. They will exploit your compassion and your Christian charity, and your good will.

They have studied you, Mr. and Mrs. America, and they know your weaknesses well.

Actually it was the Dimwit lefties like Feinstein and BillyJeff Clinto who got the ball rolling for off shoring manufacturing to China. Of course Junior finished the job.

As for Wall Street it was Clinton who left loopholes for corporate theft of retirement funds and started easy credit for illegals and real estate brokerage houses making easy credit available to everyone that had a pulse. Junior carried on BillyJeff's good work.

For example, the "Enron Loophole" created by the enactment of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 and was signed into law by Bill Clinton who had was a personal strong advocate.

And the Clinton Housing Bubble as explained by Professor Vernon Smith in the WSJ:

"...The joint housing and mortgage-market crisis once again reminds us that all financial implosions stem from the same cause: borrowing short and lending long without enough equity to weather periodic storms in the gap between.

But this bubble was different. Besides being fueled by housing purchases and repackaged loans, each with inadequate equity -- doubling down with other people's money -- at the end of the capital-gains rainbow was the right to take up to $500,000 of profit, tax free.

Thank you President Bill Clinton for your 1997 action, applauded by the banks, the realtors and all citizens in search of half-millionaire status from an investment they could understand and self deceptively believe to be low risk; thank you for fueling the mother of all housing bubbles; thank you for enabling so many of us who bought second or third homes, and homes before construction began, which we then sold to someone else who dreamed of riches from owning homes long enough to sell to another fool..."

Hey I'm not saying the GOPers did not sell us out in various ways but I will take you to task on your depicting the leftie Dimwits as cherubs who have allergies to greed and money. You are wrong if you believe Dems are all sweetness and light and for the little guy.

Believe me, I have no affection for the Dems. As far as I'm concerned, the Democrats and Republicans are two wings of the same bird. Vote all you want, the flight plan never changes. But man do I get hot under the collar when people go to say "It's all the leftists fault". That's just as wrong as saying it's all the right- wing's fault. Both sides are dirty and corrupt, no question there. As far as I can tell, the primary difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that Democratic politicians tend to prefer to have their illicit affairs with adult members of the opposite sex...

It's one thing to want what is perceived to be the lesser of two evils, but it is another thing entirely, to believe that Obummer is actually going to be good for America.

Although I don't disagree with you I must say when Kennedy had a affair with Marilyn Monroe every man on the planet cheered when Clinton did it and went for the frump doll..men around the world turned to viagra

They all blow, but I content the destruction of this nation began with creeping socialism disguised in multiple forms, up to, and including neoconservativism which is simply Trotsky thought or Fabian socialism, take your pick.

IMHO Mr. Hirschhorn's confidence in McCain's win is not warranted. While what he says about Obama may or may not be true, it would appear that he has not taken into account the number of disgruntled conservatives who absolutely refuse to vote for McCain and will either stay home or vote for someone else. If the race is close, these lost votes could very well tip the scale to an Obama win.

"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media." ~ William Colby, Director, CIA 1973–1976

I support the Government of SA, and I remain a strong and committed supporter of the ANC.

I also keep the current laments about alien cultures strongly in the context of remembering what happened to the majority that existed here before Europeans invaded these continents. I still have revulsion and disgust at the Trail of Tears, the Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, Pequot and other massacres by our culture.

Simply put, I know too much to buy the hate and cultural myopia and shortsightedness of that piece. That is just the way it is.

Where can I find companies that build tall walls with broken glass on top, and carjacking-proof cars?

As I remarked before that if McCain had an unossified brain cell in his which he doesn't i'm sure, McCain would take on Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as his VP running mate.

She's popular in her own state, no skeletons in her closet that I've read, she's young, she's sensible and down to earth, she's refreshing, she's a very attractive female, and she did the walk re: abortion by choosing not to abort her fetus who amnio identified as having Down's Syndrome.

The evangelicals would absolutely adore her as VP and bring their votes to McCrazy on election night. Ditto for undecided fence sitting females and males - for different reasons of course. Palin would cancel out negatives about McCain such as not having Governor managerial experience, that he's too old, and that he's too leftie on social issues like abortion.

Governor Sarah Palin could make McCain a winner but because McCain is a senile loser, he'll go with some 0 asset VP pick like Cantor or Lie-berman or Tom Who Ridge.

As I remarked before that if McCain had an unossified brain cell in his head, which he doesn't I'm sure, McCain would take on Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as his VP running mate.

Governor Sarah Palin could make McCain a winner but because McCain is a senile loser, he'll go with some 0 asset VP pick like Cantor or Lie-berman or Tom Who Ridge.

There's a big difference between having a down syndrome child and being the governor of a fairly small (population wise that is) State and the VP of the United States, not to mention the task of campaigning before they get there. The big question is, would this lady, who by every account is a very dedicated mother and all around "good guy," be willing to do the things that need to be done to get her and McCain to office and then perform the VP job once she gets there. I would assume that having a down syndrome child would require a lot of time and effort.

"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media." ~ William Colby, Director, CIA 1973–1976

A Joburg police inspector has appeared in court after investigators found guns stolen from two guards during a cash heist hidden in the officer's BMW.

Samuel Tshioma, 43, was arrested at his desk at Jeppestown police station on August 6, five days after a gang ambushed three security guards filling an ATM with cash at Faraday taxi rank in the city centre.

But the arms were fitted with tracking devices and for five days after the heist, investigators were quietly tracking their movements.

"If you remove our cables, you had better move all the power from the area. No-one can have it if we are not allowed to (have electricity)."

This is part of a bizarre threat made to the city after vandals destroyed a mini substation and totally blacked out a large part of Sea Cow Lake from Friday. The electricity supply was restored on Tuesday.

A note was left behind holding the city to ransom and threatening more of the same if the city clamped down on illegal connections and cable theft.

Durban Electricity deputy head Roy Wienand on Tuesday confirmed a major act of sabotage in the Sea Cow Lake region, saying vandals blacked out a large area after tampering with the equipment.

An intruder slit the throat of a 56-year-old businessman in Durban's Morningside area and stabbed his girlfriend in the head on Wednesday morning, KwaZulu-Natal police said.

Superintendent Muzi Mngomezulu said the Johannesburg-born man and his 34-year-old partner were asleep in their flat on Bridge View Avenue when the intruder entered around 2am.

"A neighbour was awoken by the woman's screams and spotted a man leaving the flat through a window and contacted the police."

The man - who owns a business in Richards Bay - was declared dead at the scene while his girlfriend was rushed to a local hospital in a critical but stable condition.

A senior SABC employee is lucky to be alive after enduring a harrowing two-hour ordeal at the hands of a gun-toting hijacker in Durban on Monday night.

Ndabezinhle Sibiya, communications manager at the public broadcaster, encountered a hijacker on the N3 near the Pavilion shopping centre where his car had mechanical problems.

'He parked the car and threatened to shoot me' "Something was not right with my car, so I decided to stop and have a look," he said.

Here are two photos showing the Church Street bombing. As mentioned before, in his so-called book,” Long Walk to Freedom”, Mandela says that he “signed off” with this act of terrorism. People should take a look at what Mandela “signed off” with while he was in prison – convicted for other acts of terrorism! President P.W. Botha told Mandela way back in 1985, that he could be a free man as long as he did one thing: Publicly renounce violence. Mandela refused. That is why Mandela remained in prison until the appeaser F.W. de Klerk freed him unconditionally. The bottom line is that Nelson Mandela never publicly renounced violence - and we should never forget that.

"Nelson Mandela is a symbol, an icon, one of the world's most famous statesmen, recognised and revered by all. He dines with royalty, associates with the world's great leaders and his opinion is sought and valued on all weighty matters. He has achieved an almost divine status in the world, equal to that of the Pope or the late Princess Diana."

Most people on the left of the political spectrum would agree wholeheartedly with the above quote. But they run into an unexpected problem when someone asks "why is he considered such a great statesman?"

The problem is that Mandela, apart from having a likeable personality, has achieved next to nothing in his relatively short political career which saw South Africa rapidly decline to the status of the world's most violent and crime-ridden country, and, to add to the confusion, his greatest friends are communists and dictators like Fidel Castro, Moammar Qaddafi, Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein. His ex-wife Winnie Mandela, whom he quickly jettisoned when it became clear she was a considerable embarassment to his political career, is a self-confessed advocate of terrorism and violence and has even committed murder.

These sorts of articles or letters should be required reading here. Thank you for posting this. I had thought to, within the next few days, start a thread about what each of us would consider will happen with the election of Obama.

But I don't believe there is much that any of us could add to this piece. We already know that riots are started here because a hurricane hits, a sports team wins, a sports team loses, a court decision is correct, a court decision is incorrect. We already know what happens in a nation that allows illegals to infiltrate the county by the millions, with never the desire to assimilate into the society; rather, it is demanded they be able to celebrate whatever they want. We already know what the concept of justice is to many.

We know we have an aging population that were raised essentially as 'civilized' rather than 'barbarian'.

Its truly frightening to contemplate what can be. On a thread here this evening, I saw the words, "Payback is a bitch"--that seems to be SA's fate, and I fear it will be the USA's fate.

"I also keep the current laments about alien cultures strongly in the context of remembering what happened to the majority that existed here before Europeans invaded these continents. I still have revulsion and disgust at the Trail of Tears, the Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, Pequot and other massacres by our culture."

Only one problem with Obama as President...McCain could be worse...we are so screwed...buy gold and lots of it!

I think she and her husband would be willing to bring their family to the WH - they both seem like old fashioned American patriots, seeing public service as "giving back" to their country, they are devoted to one another and to their children. I think you may be mistaking Downs Syndrome for Autism. The latter can be quite disruptive to family life and require alot of attention from primary care givers, but Downs Syndrome children are very emotive and loving, temperamentally fairly easy going, and not as demanding of primary care givers as one might think, they love those who love them back. I think if Sarah Palin had the support of her husband and her older children which she most certainly does along with a trusted nanny - which she probably has in place already due to her Gubernatorial responsibilities, she'd do just fine moving into VP digs. Plus what's good for America is that she's not a corrupted Beltway re-tread. She's be new and refreshing and no lobby group would have had its tentacles deep into her looking for favors.

I think she might off-set McCrazy's warhawk nuttiness - she'd bring the perspective of middle-aged parents with young kids who might not be too keen on perpetual war for young Americans' future.

Have you looked at her photos? If she was not known to Americans before because of little exposure outside Alaska, she'd be known mighty fast once she hit the campaign trail. She is gorgeous even with the glasses. She represents clean cut American wife, mother, sister, girl next door. The cameras would love her smile, her face, her unadorned wholesome look.

McCain would be nuts not to pick her - I read she was interviewed by the old fart - but because McCain is a senile confirmed loser he will not choose the one person who could help him win the Oval Office.

Oh yeah, Mc can be worse as president, but there won't be riots in the streets if he loses; or if he wins because his supporters felt he was 'wronged' or are just giddy over the 'rightness' of his winning.

I wouldn't select either of them for dog catcher or cat keeper. Can't stand lawyers and politicians.

I think Cindy is pretty secure with her Mcnutty hubbie - Cindy is beer dynasty heiress and she bank rolls John John every time he wants to run for President - he'd be nowhere without Cindy's check book and he knows it.

I think Palin as vp would attract much media attention, as well as a lot of interest with the Downes Syndrome child. Attention that wouldn't be focused on the first family.

South Africa's Joe Slovo dies; ANC leader had `warm jewish heart'

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

01-09-1995

South Africa's Joe Slovo dies; ANC leader had `warm Jewish heart'.

South African President Nelson Mandela declared next Sunday a day of national mourning for Housing Minister Joe Slovo, who died Jan. 5 at the age of 68.

He had been suffering from bone marrow cancer for some time.

Born Yossel Mashal Slovo in Obelei, Lithuania, he was a longtime Communist who devoted his life to the fight for full racial equality in South Africa.

He was the first white to be elected to the executive of the African National Congress and was one of two Jews to become part of the Cabinet after Mandela won the country's first all-race elections last April.

"His death is a tremendous loss to our whole country. He was a man who, until recently, was vilified by a section of the people who saw him virtually as the devil incarnate," said Ronnie Kasrils, deputy minister of defense and now the only remaining Jew in the South African Cabinet.

"Now he has emerged as virtually as hero for all in his record and contribution in transforming our country. This is what Slovo was about.

"His struggle was to overthrow racism in this country and to create a truly democratic society. The transformation that has occurred in South Africa has won the support of overwhelming numbers of our people - whites as well as blacks. Slovo was one of the chief architects of that change," said Kasrils.

ANC Secretary-General Cyril Ramaphosa announced that a state funeral for Slovo would be held Jan. 15 at the Avalon Cemetery in the black township of Soweto.

Although Slovo was a proclaimed atheist and Communist, he never denied his Judaism.

In an interview about a year ago in the South African cultural journal Jewish Affairs, Slovo said, "I'm not defensive at all about being a Jew. I'm quite proud of it. And I regard anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish cultural activities on the same basis as racism in this country.

"I regard myself as from Jewish extraction and coming from a group with a very rich history and culture. And part of that history and culture has impacted on my own choice of a way of life," he said.

South African Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris, who has been invited to participate at a multifaith memorial meeting for Slovo at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto, said the late civil rights leader had a "very warm Jewish heart."

While Slovo had no connection with the official Jewish community, Harris said, he had close Jewish ties and used to read the poet Shalom Aleichem in the original Yiddish.

"Joe Slovo was a contradiction - a Marxist-Leninist-Communist who nevertheless always put the well-being of the people first. He was therefore able, on the demise of Communism in Eastern Europe, to foster what he called democratic socialism," said Harris.

"Although in the formal sense Joe Slovo was not a good Jew, he will go down in history as a great human being."

Slovo emigrated form Lithuania to South Africa with his family when he was 8 years old.

Attracted to the credo of universal human equality, he joined the communist Party of South Africa at the age of 16.

The Communists were the first official party in South Africa to welcome black members. Slovo was chairman of the party at the time of his death.

During World War II, he served as a radio operator in Egypt and Italy. After the war, he studied for a degree in law at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he met fellow law student Nelson Mandela.

He graduated with distinction and went into practice in Johannesburg.

In 1949 he married Ruth First, daughter of Julius First, a founding member of the Communist Party. Because of their political beliefs, they were later banned by the government from attending meetings or having their statements quoted in the press.

In 1950, after the government passed the Suppression of Communism Act, the party dissolved, but went underground in 1953 as the South Africa Communist Party.

In 1961, Slovo took part in the formation of Umkhonto we Sisze, the armed wing of the African National Congress. He was a member of its national high command.

Slovo, Mandela and more than 150 others were charged with treason in December 1956 for supporting the Freedom Charter, which called for full democracy in the country, regardless of race.

Slovo was both a defendant and a member of the defense team during the trial, which ended with the acquittal of all the defendants.

After the apartheid government banned the ANC in 1960, Slovo, along with Mandela and others, launched a campaign of sabotage against strategic government installations.

After Mandela was arrested in 1963, Slovo fled into exile and served as chief of staff of the ANC's armed wing.

During the next 14 years, he lived in Tanzania, Angola, Zambia and England.

His first wife, Ruth, was killed by a letter bomb in 1982 in Maputo, Mozambique. He later remarried.

There years later, Slovo became the first white elected to the national executive of the ANC.

Under an amnesty for political exiles in 1990, Slovo returned to South Africa. That same year, Mandela was released from prison, and he and Slovo became involved in negotiations end apartheid.

After the ANC made the pledge to hold peaceful negotiations with the ruling National Party, Slovo proposed a crucial plan - know as the "Sunset Clause" - allowing for power-sharing in South Africa.

The agreement broke a deadlock in the negotiations with the government and led to the country's first all-race elections in April 1994. Mandela's victory in that election officially ended apartheid and brought the ANC to power.

Slovo was fourth on the ANC's list of parliamentary candidates in the elections. As minister of housing, he pursued the goal of providing affordable housing for everyone.

His last public appearance was at the ANC's national conference in December 1994, where he received from Mandela his party's highest honor, the Isithwalandwe/Seaparankoe ("He Who Wears the Leopard's Skin") award.

"What I did, I did without any regrets," he said upon receiving the award. "I decided long ago that there is only one target, and that target is to remove the racist regime and obtain power for the people."

Wow. Surprising to read your mindset on BO. Good luck with it. I decline to participate in the sham, but may your hope pan out.