In Deep Macaca

Sen. George Allen, on the fourth or so day of walking back his on-camera slur of an Indian-American Democrat, is feeling the effects in the polls. Rasmussen Reports has Allen falling to a measly 5-point lead (47-42) over former Navy Secretary James Webb, the Republican-turned-Democratic Senate candidate. It's still a lead, sure, but Webb has been outfundraised roughly 15-1 by Allen, and run zero TV ads to Allen's million bucks worth. By comparison, rival presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is whomping her underfunded Republican opponents by 30 points.

Webb won the coveted Ronald Bailey endorsement back in June. (Full disclosure: I also voted for him in the Democratic primary, although I've since moved from Virginia to Washington, DC.)

Comments

[Ruthless]

I don't vote, but I want to point out Webb wrote a fantastic book about hillbillies that I identified with on the deepest level.
I hope he wins.

[Al]

I appreciate the disclosure!

[hostile]

Also, did you know that macaca's can't even really swim?

Republican Tramm Hudson says, "I grew up in Alabama and I understand, uh?I know this from my own experience; blacks are not the greatest swimmers, or may not even know how to swim."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYiLggwfpVc

[D.A. Ridgely]

I don't believe Mr. Bailey actually committed to voting for Webb in the general election, did he?

In any case, although I too am a fan of the prospect of gridlock, I would much prefer the House going to the Democrats and the Senate remaining under the Republicans, the reason being judicial appointments and especially Supreme Court appointments. That, too, may change after a few more years, but it remains my "lesser of two evils" choice for now.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

Well, Hostile, when I was in basic training every black guy in our platoon failed the swimming and floating part of the training. The DI's predicted it would happen and even offered to work it out, which they did.

Reason Style Full disclosure: I failed the floating test as well. My svelte body fat ratio at the time was near zero percent and skin and bone don't float.

[Asian Driver]

He so offend me. I not too bad behind wheel. No accident in 13 month.

[MUTT]

IrememberWebb when he was crackpot Reagan's SecNav. A belligerant nitwit. a profligate. you remember when we would all wake up in chains, with only the dead having reason to celebrate, unless the Navy had 600 floating hull numbers? How many umpty billions did that cost?
But, hey, who's quibbling.......

[Ayn_Randian]

I'll openly back up TWC and Rep. Hudson; black Soldiers always had a more difficult time, if not finding it impossible to pass the swimming test. And yes, that's all of them. It's not a big deal, though, and I think race plays no part of it...I would say that being raised in poorer urban areas doesn't give you the opportunity to hit the Country Club's pool that much.

[Bob Dobalina]

I'm not here often, but I always knew that Weigel was a Democrat. In fact, I suspect that he is a spy from The Nation.

[kevrob]

....being raised in poorer urban areas doesn't give you the opportunity.... Ayn Randian

In my locality, some high-profile drownings of young African-American children has led to a push to provide no- or low-cost swimming lessons to inner city kids. Our local YMCA has always offered these programs, and has raised funds to allow it to waive the nominal fee for those who judge that they can't afford it.

The idea that swimming is off-limits to lower income folks seems a bit silly when one lives within spitting distance of a Great Lake. There are many county-owned public pools here, too. I would guess that teaching your kids to swim may not be a tradition in familes where the parent(s) moved from a community without much in the way of swimmable beaches, lakes or ponds. When that demographic was mostly rural, I'd suspect that swimming was a common skill among blacks from the country. I grew up where swimming in the ocean, or in a more sheltered bay or lagoon, was normal for everyone. Swimming pools were for AAU competitions or for showing Mr. and Mrs. Jones how well you were doing.

Swimming at urban beaches was huge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of those venues sufferred from decline due to health fears. Any place where many young folks congregated in the summer heat was suspected of being a "hot spot" for polio virus transmission. The popularization of air conditionong after WWII made going ocean-, river- or lakeside less popular then it once was. The recognition that favorite swimming spots had pollution counts that made them an unsafe choice has hurt quite a bit, too. The village I spent my summers in as a kid has outlawed swimming on at least its public beaches. The state issues beach closing orders after rainstorms that can last for a week or two, as runoff drives up e coli counts. I don't even know if the health authorities even bothered to do such tests, back in the mid-20th. I'd expect that legal liability has cropped up as an issue, too. It used to be that, when no lifeguards were around, one could swim at one's own risk. Then the "No Swimming" signs went up when there was no guard on duty. Next, swimming is banned completely. Now, along the riverbank where two local girls who had wandered away from their unobservant parents drowned, the city is putting up fences. All public amenities must be child-proofed today.

Kevin

[Pi Guy]

One of my bosses, a former Marine Infantry officer who served two tours in Gulf War I, said that it was true that some of the black guys had trouble with the water training. They pretty much all learned before graduating - they had to or they couldn't be a Marine. But, following that, he said that they also tended to be the best marines in almost every unit he every commanded. They worked hard, were loyal to and tended to be looked up to by their peers.

And there's not too much swimming to be done in downtown Baghdad!

[independent worm]

IN ORDER TO KEEP OUR PARK SAFE, PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR THE ANIMALS. THANK YOU

[Mark B.]

MUTT -

John Lehman was SecNav for most of Reagan's term in office and was the chief architect of the "600-ship Navy" plan. Webb did refuse to reduce the size of the Navy during his one year as SecNav, but seeing as Gorshkov's boys were still cranking out Kirov-class battle cruisers and trying to commission aircraft carriers, it's hard to blame him. Looking back, it's difficult to remember how suprising the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union was to everyone, including the Soviets.

Webb's critiques of both Kerry and Bush in 2004 were spot-on as far as I was concerned, and I saw nothing either "nitwit" or "profligate" in them.

[plunge]

The worst part about the macaca thing is not that he said it, but that they've so far given like 6 different mutually contradictory explanations for it. First it was mispeaking mohawk, which is pretty hard to believe because they have different numbers of sylables, Allen said it clearly twice, and they start with different sounds (and while I could see not knowing what else to call the kids hair but mohawk, it definately isn't a mohawk anyway). Then Allen claimed he had no idea why he said it or what it could mean. Then his campaign declared that it was a mix of mohawk and caca, and that what Allen really meant was that the kid was a shithead. Great! Then it was back to "I don't know what I meant by it" which is pretty hard to square with "it doesn't mean monkey, it means shithead!"

I've also seen precious little mention in the MSM of the telling fact that Allen just so happens to have rare cultural background that WOULD know and use the term "macaca" as a racial slur. That coincidence is pretty darn damning.

[independent worm]

Looking back, it's difficult to remember how suprising the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union was to everyone, including the Soviets.

You're kidding, right? The USSR was fucked decades before the axe finally fell. Our govt kept up the "Red Menace" spin because it fed the war machine. (i.e. needlessly lined the pockets of ex military and govt types).

[Lord Duppy]

"...the telling fact that Allen just so happens to have rare cultural background that WOULD know and use the term "macaca" as a racial slur. That coincidence is pretty darn damning."

Just curious, but what cultural background would that be? I've never heard the word before and have no idea where it comes from -- I thought he was trying to make up a ridiculous "brown people" name.

[joe]

M'Lord,

"Macaca" is the word that French settlers in North Africa used when they wanted to call the locals "monkeys." Purely by coincidence, Senator Allen's mother is of French-North African descent.

independent worm,

Maybe you had a great deal of prescience, but circa 1980, most people did consider the Soviet Union to be a military superpower that had near-parity with the US.

[MUTT]

"Webb's critiques of both Kerry and Bush in 2004 were spot-on as far as I was concerned, and I saw nothing either "nitwit" or "profligate" in them."
Unfamiliar with his take re: above. Can you direct me?
His take there may indeed be one of restraint & wisdom. His being on a apex of intel re: Soviets , and his browbeating demigogery (shoulda stayed in school) against critics of the nitwit Reagan era wastrel "defense" industry welfare handouts marks him- then- as a shill, less interested in the health & well being of the Republic than shoving billions in the right direction.
I do not preclude the notion he might have come about to a new heading. I hope he has.