Day: September 24, 2006

College Teammates Remember Sen. Allen as Racist

Jon Ponder

Salon searched up Sen. George Allen’s teammates from college football and asked what they remembered about his views on race:

“Allen said he came to Virginia [from Los Angeles, where he grew up] because he wanted to play football in a place where ‘blacks knew their place.’”

Three former college football teammates of Sen. George Allen say that the Virginia Republican repeatedly used an inflammatory racial epithet and demonstrated racist attitudes toward blacks during the early 1970s.

“Allen said he came to Virginia [from Los Angeles, where he grew up] because he wanted to play football in a place where ‘blacks knew their place,'” said Dr. Ken Shelton, a white radiologist in North Carolina who played tight end for the University of Virginia football team when Allen was quarterback. “He used the N-word on a regular basis back then.”

A second white teammate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retribution from the Allen campaign, separately claimed that Allen used the word “nigger” to describe blacks. “It was so common with George when he was among his white friends. This is the terminology he used,” the teammate said.

Angelides Says He’ll Pull California Guard out of Iraq

Jon Ponder

Phil Angelides has had a tough making headlines in his campaign to unseat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — so this is good news:

In a move to bolster his appeal among Democrats, state Treasurer Phil Angelides said Saturday night that on his first day as governor, he would call on President Bush to withdraw California’s National Guard troops from the war in Iraq.

The Democratic nominee for governor said in a telephone interview that he would take court action against Bush if necessary to extract the state’s National Guard members from Iraq. He said he would also urge other governors and members of Congress to join his effort.

Frank Rich mentioned it on George Stephanapolous’ show this morning, which is good. Maybe the newsers will give it some play next week.

Classified Spy Document: Iraq War Is Inflaming Terrorism

Jon Ponder

In 2004, a Bush administration official (believed to be Karl Rove) described his team’s approach to governing this way:

If we lived in real reality, there would be no need for this information to be classified. It was kept secret because it reveals facts that run counter to the false construction of reality created by the White House political office.

‘’We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. It was kept secret because it reveals facts that run counter to the false construction of reality created by the White House political office.

But sometimes real reality has a way of intruding:

The war in Iraq has made global terrorism worse by fanning Islamic radicalism and providing a training ground for lethal methods that are increasingly being exported to other countries, according to a sweeping assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies.

The classified document, which represents a consensus view of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, paints a considerably bleaker picture of the impact of the Iraq war than Bush administration or U.S. intelligence officials have acknowledged publicly, according to officials familiar with the assessment.

“They conclude that the Iraq war has made it worse,” said a government official familiar with the document who spoke on condition of anonymity because of its classified nature.

No one should be surprised that the war is breeding more terrorism. If we lived in real reality, there would be no need for this information to be classified. It was kept secret because it reveals facts that run counter to the false construction of reality created by the White House political office.

Makes me tired to think about it. It must be exhausting for them. No wonder they screw it up so often.