Not A Lott In Trent's Pinhead

If I wanted to just bash out a quick droning, I could easily do one on Trent Lott's stupid remarks of about two weeks ago at Strom Thurmond's 100th Birthday party. I know that no one saw it at the time, since it was barely broadcast on C-Span, and the clip I saw creeped me out as a hideous woman in her late Ugly years was dressed as Marilyn Monroe to sing Happy Birthday in a parody/homage/sick twisted mirror universe version of the Happy Birthday Marilyn sang to John F Kennedy back in 1962, before both of them died under circumstances that a commission was able to say was perfectly explained so that there needs to be NO QUESTIONS ABOUT IT.

Damn, that was a long convoluted sentence.

Anyway.

Trent Lott said "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

He has since apologized and gone on FAUX News and a radio show for a FAUX News host to issue an apology.

Why?

Well, in 1948, Strom Thurmond was a Democrat, but was one of a large group of Democrats who were upset that Harry Truman was going to give black people some of the rights they were given by Lincoln back in 1865. So, they broke off and ran as "Dixiecrats" whose only issue was making sure that segregation continued. They lost, but they didn't lose the south.

In fact, here's what was in Thurmond's campaign literature:

"The negro is a native of tropical climate where fruits and nuts are plentiful and where clothing is not required for protection against the weather ... The essentials of society in the jungle are few and do not include the production, transportation and marketing of goods. [Thus] his racial constitution has been fashioned to exclude any idea of voluntary cooperation on his part."

Now there's some great science. Then again, this is a guy who thinks that you can shoot missiles out of the sky with particle beams out of Star Trek, but science really should be replaced by religion in schools.

Thurmond and most of the other Dixiecrats joined the Republican Party because of the segregation issue, and the migration continued through the 60 's. Kennedy finished it up and turned the south into a solid Republican bastion because he insisted that about 100 years after blacks were given rights, they should be allowed to exercise them. Oddly, the Republican Party was formed by people who felt slavery was wrong, and in order to win elections 100 years later, they welcomed people like Thurmond and other racists under the guise of "State's Rights".

So, my first major question I haven't had answered is: What are the problems that Lott spoke about?

Terrorism? At most, Thurmond could have been President until 1956, and no matter what you think of the politics of the 50's, there aren't a lot of Bin Laden allies who are still fuming about things done back then. I don't think that's it.

The economy? I think we can safely say that Thurmond wouldn't have been able to do much about the economy of 2002 back in 1948, so it's not that trouble.

Um.there's really not a lot I can see that he could have done back then that would have affected today's world unless he was able to hop a ride in Marty McFly's Delorian when he was in the first Back to the Future movie.especially when the only thing on Thurmond's agenda was stopping integration.

Oh, that's the "troubles" Trent Lott was speaking of. Having to go to the bathroom next to the Black Man. Or the fact that there might be a black man kissing a white woman when he takes his dog for a walk. Or the fact that he has to hire a black person or two because those black people vote now.

I guess I can see how that might be considered "troubles." If you are able to ignore he fact that every middle class Saudi who can't get laid wants to blow us all up to get his 76 virgins. Maybe I'm a bit picky, but I think having to drink from the same water fountain as Michael Jordan if you go see a Washington Wizards game pales in comparison to the fact that the money we are spending on oil is being used to train people who want to KILL US.

So, if Trent Lott did have a slip of the tongue, that's not a bad thing, right? He was just praising a guy who'd done the amazing thing of living off the public dole longer than the Bush family, right?

I'd almost buy that, if not for the fact that he said the exact same thing back in 1980 and apologized in the exact same way. You know, if we buy this apology, aren't we pretty much like the dumb woman in the trailer park, telling the police not to arrest her husband for pistol whipping her because he said he's sorry and won't do it again, and the cops can recite the apology word for word?

Before that he was a member of a student organization dedicated to ending integration, and he himself was working with a committee to get US troops to stop integration. And he's also a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, which is an organization that started to fight the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that outlawed segregation in schools, but changed their name when the people in it wanted to run for office.

Other "enlightened" Lott quotes include:

"The spirit of Jefferson Davis lives in the 1984 Republican Platform." -- Speaking to the Convention of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Biloxi, Mississippi, 1984

"I think that a lot of the fundamental principles that Jefferson Davis believed in are very important to people across the country, and they apply to the Republican Party."
-- interview in racist Southern Partisan magazine

For those who don't know their history, Jefferson Davis was the leader of the Confederacy, which was in favor of slavery. Yes, there were a lot of other reasons for the South To Rise, but it's pretty much assured that Lott wasn't thinking of Davis's belief that railroads are a poor substitute for river travel or his feelings on working with the French when he made these statements.  I also kind of think these things were going through his head as he tried to stop a set of sanctions against South Africa under apartheid and opposes any sort of aid going to Africa (only countries that have oil get aid without a fight under Lott...but they can get assistance in buying tobacco, yet another nice way of raising money while killing black people).

So, with this amazing amount of evidence, we have to conclude one of two things:

Lott is a racist liar who violates his deeply held religious beliefs every time he says anything involved in this. He is also a man who is giving signals to his racist voting block to let them know that he still is working pretty hard at keeping darkie down.

Or

Lott is a moron who is allowed to spout off at the mouth spontaneously and really has no clue that all of the things he does and says make him look like a guy who would be much happier if black people would just take their baggy pants and loud music back to Africa where they can be utterly ignored unless Nike needs to build a new factory to make us nice white folks some shoes dirt cheap.

I don't know about you, but I find it hard to believe that a man who has never walked in front of a TV camera or radio microphone without the morning briefing from his party "slipped up." Lott is a slimy snake of a politician, but I have a hard time believing that any political party would let a moron have a position of power, unless they knew a lot of corporate heads who could contribute a lot of money. let's face it, Mississippi isn't exactly a hotbed of industry, unless you count cousin-dating and the lowest education scores in the nation as an industry.

To be honest, I don't hate Lott for being either a liar or a moron. I hate Lott for being a corporate tool and selling our country to the highest bidder a little faster than the Democrats were selling our country to the highest bidder. I think it's perfectly fine for Lott to be a racist weasel with a toupee that makes William Shatner's hair look natural. You don't like black folks, you have that right. Just like I have the right to point out that you pathologically make obscure references to liking racist policies that have since been discredited. The great thing about America is that Ashcroft hasn't gotten very far in making it so we can't say the truth when it is painful to those in power.

But he's working on it.

Oh, and how weird is it that the only people showing any backbone in this at all are Al Gore who said that Lott's statements were pure racism, and "President" Bush, who said that any sort of inference that segregation was a good idea is counter to the principles of this country. Now, why don't they have a spine on any issue that matters?

Thankfully, this sort of stupidity has kept us from focusing on anything that actually matters for yet another week.

Oh, and for all the pinheads who bring up people like Robert Byrd and Al Gore's dad, saying, "They voted against Civil Rights.why aren't you spouting off against them?"

BECAUSE IT WAS 40 YEARS AGO AND LOTT SAID HIS MORONIC STATEMENT LAST WEEK.

Thanks.