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I seem to have picked an apt title for my Daily Beast column, or blog, or whatever it’s called: “What Fresh Hell.” My last posting (if that’s what it’s called) in which I endorsed Obama, has brought about a very heaping helping of fresh hell. In fact, I think it could accurately be called a tsunami.

The mail (as we used to call it in pre-cyber times) at the Beast has been running I’d say at about 7-to-1 in favor. This would seem to indicate that you (the Beast reader) are largely pro-Obama.

As for the mail flooding into National Review Online—that’s been running about, oh, 700-to-1 against. In fact, the only thing the Right can’t quite decide is whether I should be boiled in oil or just put up against the wall and shot. Lethal injection would be too painless.

I had gone out of my way in my Beast endorsement to say that I was not doing it in the pages of National Review, where I write the back-page column, because of the experience of my colleague, the lovely Kathleen Parker. Kathleen had written in NRO that she felt Sarah Palin was an embarrassment. (Hardly an alarmist view.) This brought 12,000 livid emails, among them a real charmer suggesting that Kathleen’s mother ought to have aborted her and tossed the fetus into a dumpster. I didn’t want to put NR in an awkward position.

Since my Obama endorsement, Kathleen and I have become BFFs and now trade incoming hate-mails. No one has yet suggested my dear old Mum should have aborted me, but it’s pretty darned angry out there in Right Wing Land. One editor at National Review—a friend of 30 years—emailed me that he thought my opinions “cretinous.” One thoughtful correspondent, who feels that I have “betrayed”—the b-word has been much used in all this—my father and the conservative movement generally, said he plans to devote the rest of his life to getting people to cancel their subscriptions to National Review. But there was one bright spot: To those who wrote me to demand, “Cancel my subscription,” I was able to quote the title of my father’s last book, a delicious compendium of his NR “Notes and Asides”: Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription.

Within hours of my endorsement appearing in The Daily Beast it became clear that National Review had a serious problem on its hands. So the next morning, I thought the only decent thing to do would be to offer to resign my column there. This offer was accepted—rather briskly!—by Rich Lowry, NR’s editor, and its publisher, the superb and able and fine Jack Fowler. I retain the fondest feelings for the magazine that my father founded, but I will admit to a certain sadness that an act of publishing a reasoned argument for the opposition should result in acrimony and disavowal.

My father in his day endorsed a number of liberal Democrats for high office, including Allard K. Lowenstein and Joe Lieberman. One of his closest friends on earth was John Kenneth Galbraith. In 1969, Pup wrote a widely-remarked upon column saying that it was time America had a black president. (I hasten to aver here that I did not endorse Senator Obama because he is black. Surely voting for someone on that basis is as racist as not voting for him for the same reason.)

My point, simply, is that William F. Buckley held to rigorous standards, and if those were met by members of the other side rather than by his own camp, he said as much. My father was also unpredictable, which tends to keep things fresh and lively and on-their-feet. He came out for legalization of drugs once he decided that the war on drugs was largely counterproductive. Hardly a conservative position. Finally, and hardly least, he was fun. God, he was fun. He liked to mix it up.

So, I have been effectively fatwahed (is that how you spell it?) by the conservative movement, and the magazine that my father founded must now distance itself from me. But then, conservatives have always had a bit of trouble with the concept of diversity. The GOP likes to say it’s a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.

While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

So, to paraphrase a real conservative, Ronald Reagan: I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me.

Thanks, anyway, for the memories, and here’s to happier days and with any luck, a bit less fresh hell.

- Christopher Buckley’s blog

politics bipartisan, Chris Buckley, GOP, National Review

If you’re not viewing this content from Postblink.com, you may not be seeing video content embedded on the original page. Please follow the links at the bottom of the videos to view these YouTube clips.

Ah, where to start? Let’s start with the positive. Well, it’s a guilt trip - but one you should actually take to heart. Check out this clip featuring Jonah Hill, Forest Whitaker, Dustin Hoffman, Sarah Silverman taking her bra off and more.

Don’t Vote?

And of course I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to expose McCain. Sure, I think it’s important to get registered and vote regardless of your candidate preference, but it’s obvious I’m an Obama supporter so here’s a video of McCain lying like a stubborn ass.

McCain Interview with Des Moines Register

politics mccain, Obama, voter registration

I’m stuck in a coma, stuck in a never-ending sleep
And some day I’ll wake up and realize I made up every thing

I’m not sure what’s more annoying. There appears to be a single cricket somewhere in the building that I’m in, chirping away the following fourty minutes until my next class. On the other hand, the only sound I have to drown it out is this stupid Senses Fail song that’s stuck in my head. I didn’t even like their latest album, but it’s just this stupid chorus being sung over and over in my conscious that’s driving my crazy. On that note, here’s three random thoughts.

1. I hope the debate happens tonight. As far as I’m aware, it’s still up in the air. I wish McCain would stop procrastinating and just get it over with. After some progress Wednesday and an agreement almost having been reached earlier in the day Thursday, everything ended up falling apart Thursday night when House Republicans walked out. Obama had suggested the candidates presence might cause that outcome and that’s likely what happened.
2. If tonight’s debate does not happen, I hope it won’t it end pushing back the vice-presidential debate on October 2ND. I’m really looking forward to watching Sarah Palin get her ass handed to her by Biden. What business does she have being a vice-presidential candidate? That interview with Katie Couric was pathetic and Palin was obviously very coached on her responses, except for maybe one - I doubt the McCain campaign would be dumb enough to coach her “foreign relations” experience with Russia. . .
3. I have tickets to see Weezer with Angels and Airwaves and Tokyo Police Club on October 3RD in Minnesota at the Excel Center. Probably the biggest venue show I’ll have ever been to. I’m hoping Weezer plays the old stuff too, I haven’t heard much off their new album.

music, personal, politics ava, biden, mccain, Obama, palin, weezer

Omar, John, Adams, Benjamin, Thomas, James, Abraham. Have I offended you yet? How about Hussein? How about Barack Hussein?

These names are all Aramaic, Arabic, or Hebrew in origin. They are not, of course, necessarily Muslim in origin. Not that there would be anything wrong with them if they were. Unfortunately the name Hussein has a nasty reputation because of a terrible dictator. As terrible as that dictator was, however, he was not responsible for the attacks on our country on September 11TH, 2001 and, regardless, any link you feel there is between him and the democratic presidential candidate is, for the lack of a better term, just plain stupid.

It’s too bad you can’t find some sort of imaginary link between Barack Hussein Obama and Jordan’s King Hussein, who was a strong US ally and major advocate for peace in the Middle East, or perhaps General Hussein Kamal, former director of Iraq’s Military Industrialization Corporation. General Kamal defected to Jordan, where he assisted the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency in their search for weapons of mass destruction. He was later assassinated, after being labled a traitor, upon returning back to Iraq– despite Saddam’s promise for his safety.

Yesterday I was in a car with some friends driving around town when something spurred a discussion of the upcoming election and one of the four occupants of the vehicle asked why I would ever vote for someone who was named Hussein. As you can imagine, I shook my head in disbelief.

I responded that Hussein was in fact a name Obama was given after his grandfather, from Kenya. Although many people think the name is Muslim in origin, Obama is in fact a Christian and the name is merely inherited. I also questioned what made her think that all Muslim’s were “bad people”. She told me that she didn’t think that, she just didn’t know why I’d vote for someone named Hussein– you know, because it sounds like Saddam Hussein apparently?

Sharing a name with someone does not make you that person. It does not make you related to that person. It creates no magical affiliation or bond with that person.  Names are not a system of beliefs. They are not a political idea. A name does not make you a saint. It does not make you a sinner. It does not make you a terrorist. It’s quite a shallow decision to assume these things.

I believe in the end, many of these conclusions arise as some sort of mask for racism. People come up with wild accusations and make odd comparisons. They use these as an excuse to hate someone, but they’re not really kidding anyone but themselves.

In my state of Iowa, Obama won the caucus. We saw a predominately caucasian state vote for a black candidate. People understand that this isn’t about skin color, but about who can lead this country. Most people understand that, anyways.

Our night of cruising about comes to an end as we drop off some friends and meet up with others. We arrive at our destination and head down the stairs to a smokey basement in our search for a few games of table tennis. I’ve gone down these stairs many times before but it’s always a bit unsettling.

Hanging from the ceiling supports are two flags I had first seen in two very different but just as disheartening sections of a history book from the past. One black and white flag contains symbols from the Nazi political party and several swastika. The other is a confederate flag. The owner hasn’t the vaguest idea of how truely offensive they are to people. He doesn’t really know what they represent. He hangs them with pride, feeling some sort of affiliation as if he’s in some sort of hate club. Somewhere he thinks he belongs. Someone walks over to the stereo and places a CD containing songs ripped from the internet into the drive. The songs celebrate the klan and racial slurs. They were written and performed by Clifford Joseph Trahan using the fake name Johnny Rebel as a sort of anthem against the civil rights movement.

Three or four of the songs play until the group notices how quiet I’ve gotten. If they had tried to put this in my stereo at home, they’d have been thrown out. We leave shortly after.

I grew up with some of these kids. They’re not bad people, but horribly misdirected. They probably couldn’t name five people they knew that were not white. They’re disgustingly ignorant, but I can’t replace them.

I can, on the other hand, get my own ping pong table.

personal, politics names, prejuidice, racism

It’s almost one in the morning and my insomnia switch was hit. The only way to flip it off is the occasional prowl through the news sites I frequent. Digg brought me to this little gem. From www.dailykos.com…

Eight months ago, I was a registered Republican, standing in a cold room in Iowa supporting Ron Paul in the Iowa caucuses.  For most of my life, I’ve been a believer in small government and individual liberties, the ideals that, according to what I learned in high school civics, the Republican Party stood for.  I voted Libertarian in 2004, simply because I felt that the Libertarian candidate seemed to best voice those ideals at the time.

As I stood in that cold caucus room, I listened to several people stand up and talk about their candidate.  For the most part, instead of giving me compelling reasons to vote for that candidate, each stump speaker (aside from the bubbly young woman who spoke about Ron Paul) spent their time not talking up their own candidate, but hurling shovels of specific insults at the people in the Democratic caucus in an adjacent building.  I didn’t learn much about Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney or John McCain, but I did hear a lot of talk about the negative character, poor experience, and profound ignorance of the primary Democratic candidates, Obama, Edwards, and Clinton.

Over the next several months, as the campaign season went along, I started actually opening my ears and listening to talk radio a bit.  Previously, I would just listen to music in my truck during my commute, but I started tuning into a pair of local talk radio stations, which aired programs by Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and the like.

And I was deeply disturbed.  Instead of hearing compelling arguments for why John McCain was the right man for the job, I would hear three nonstop hours of insults levied toward Barack Obama, much of it not directly aimed towards him, but intended to serve as character assassination by association.  Breathless stories about his pastor, Reverend Wright, and a guest pastor at his church, David Pfleiger.  Amazing tales about William Ayers.

Very rarely did I hear a word about policy, and when I did, it was usually just deriding a specific plank of Obama’s plan.

After a month of listening to a large daily dose of talk radio, I learned virtually nothing about what John McCain actually planned to do for this country.

What I did hear, though, is a lot of supposedly negative things about Barack Obama, most of which seemed nonsensical and completely frivolous compared to the problems of this nation.  The worst, for me, was repeated harpings on the idea that Barack Obama was somehow “bad” because he was a community organizer.

I know what community organizers do.  I have friends and family who are involved with social work and community organization.  They register people to vote.  They get people involved with the political process.  They know the real, day-to-day problems of the people in their community like the back of their hand.  They help people with their life problems, helping elderly folks keep the lights on and helping groups with a significant problem get organized enough to get the attention of an alderman or city hall.  The people on the ground, the “community organizers” and very local politicians, do a ton of good work for the people of this country. And through that process, they gain a deep understanding of the real problems and thoughts of everyday people.

That brings us to last night.  Until last night, I was slightly leaning towards Obama, but I hadn’t firmly decided who I was voting for.  I held out hope that during the Convention, I could get a real grasp on where the Republican Party was.

Last night, Sarah Palin gave a speech that was in theory meant to get people like me excited about the Republican ticket.  This was one that should have gotten me back on board and excited about the McCain/Palin platform.

Instead, it sickened me in a very deep and personal way.

I could go through some of the quotes that made my stomach turn, but many others have already done a great analysis of the speech.

All I heard was a long stream of extremely bitter attacks against Barack Obama, none of which go even the slightest step towards solving the problems of this country.  When I tuned in, Rudy Giuliani was firing off some attacks, but I expected that - every convention has some room for criticism of the opposition.

But Palin’s speech was obviously meant to be the centerpiece, the real statement about the direction of the Republican party.

And I heard absolutely nothing about their plans for the future.

All I heard was a long, long stream of pointless attacks against Barack Obama, the Democratic Party in general, and the media.

No solutions.  No real content.  No anything.

There was one line at the end that really twisted things for me.

“Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America … he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights?”

Every single human being has the right to a fair trial and to be treated humanely by their captors.  John McCain, of all people, should understand this.  He was a prisoner of war.

On the one fundamental issue that his entire campaign is centered around - the character-building experience of his POW stint - he gets it wrong.

America cannot be a shining beacon of light in the world when we condone policies of treating our enemies with the same standards as the Viet Cong treated their enemies.

Every criminal, no matter how heinous their crimes, deserves humane treatment and a fair and expedient trial.  Period.  That is a fundamental human right.

When you’re giving the central speech of your party’s convention, to make a joke out of it makes a joke out of me.  Not just as a (former) Republican, but as an American.

This morning, I donated $250 to Barack Obama’s campaign. Tomorrow, I’m stopping by the voter registration office to change my party affiliation to Democrat.  Saturday, I hope to plant an Obama-Biden sign in my front yard.

This lack of respect for your political opponents, this denial of basic human rights to those who oppose us, this complete emptiness of policy - it ends.  Right here, right now.

I think that sums up Palin’s speech. Olbermann is going to take a shot at summing up Thursday’s RNC coverage with this clip.

politics issues, mud sling, RNC coverage