Weekly Address: "We can renew our nation"

Loser's Logic: On the way to the gym this morning, I listened in on a discussion among black conservatives about why Obama's election did not mean that the black vote was lost to Republicans for the foreseeable future:

1. Obama's election broke through the ultimate glass ceiling. Now (and search me as to why this necessarily follows), black people will be interested in hearing alternative conservative ideas. As near as I could tell, the argument is that there's no longer a need for black voter solidarity.
2. If/when Obama fails at being all things to all people as he promised, disillusioned black moderates will turn to the Republican party, which after all has this long history of being race neutral (sarcasm mine). That this is a fragile reading of Obama's appeal went unrecognized.
3. If/when Obama fails, the way will be open for the new generation of fiery, articulate black conservatives. Now, there's been a new generation of fiery, articulate black conservatives who can't get elected for, well, generations. The reason they can't get elected is that they have no constituency among black people. 

So this is the rationale: Win, lose, or draw, the election  of the most liberal Democrat since Lyndon Johnson is inherently a boon for black conservatives. Yep, and Hurricane Katrina was good for New Orleans, too...

One conservative black who did get elected was J. C. Watts, who represented Oklahoma's Fourth District from 1994-2002. Oklahoma's mostly rural Fourth includes Norman, home of the Oklahoma University, where Watts starred a quarterback in the late '70's. Oklahoma itself is 83% white; judge for yourself whether the Sooner State is, ever was, or ever will be a likely launching pad conservative black hegemony...

Years of driving in Ireland left me with the firm conviction that the Kit Kat bar is the national candy of the Emerald Isle. I've purchased and eaten a half-dozen varieties unavailable in the States. It turns out, though, that Ireland has nothing on Japan, which offers 142 varieties including Brandy & Orange, Caffe Latte, and Pineapple. See for yourself here...

She was just kidding about the giblet jello!...

Word Choice of the Day: 

Currently, Governor Sarah Palin is the only Republican politician who is in high demand on the talk show circuit, has galliardising support, is directly or indirectly responsible for developing massive email distribution lists, growing the online presence of conservative chat rooms, networking site and blogs and has the ability to fund-raise at the level of President Bush

-Kristofer D. Lorelli, Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President

According to my dictionary, the galliard is "a lively dance in triple time for two people, including complicated turns and steps. It's possible that this is an erudite reference to the logical contortions necessary to believe that Palin had a positive impact on the Republican ticket. It's more likely that my man Kris can't tell a galliard from a galvanizer...

Thanks to bumblebums at Daily Kos, we now know a galliard when we see one:

For the record, here's a galvanizer. It doesn't seem to have much in common with a galliard: