[Image by Victoria]Almost makes one feel sorry for the old coot. I said, almost!
McCain has pulled off so much chicanery in his lifetime, that one just can't feel sorry for him; his sins, unfortunately, are unpardonable.
Maybe that's why he is pushing President Obama to issue a presidential pardon for Jack Johnson: so he can enjoy a pardon vicariously.
Now, you're supposed to ask, who the hell is Jack Johnson? Jack was the first American black heavyweight boxing champeen! But Jack, back in 1913, got into a lot of trouble (yup, 1913!) by screwing around with a white woman. He took her across a state line and so they got him on the Mann Act. But this was no one-night stand; the woman later became his wife.
All this turmoil (he ran off after his conviction for a number of years, but later ended up serving 10 months) wrecked his career. He was killed in a car wreck in 1946. He was 68 years old.
I have no problem with Obama pardoning Johnson. That's fine, even if presidents have rarely pardoned dead people, thinking, I suppose, that's a job for the deity. But if it would clear his name from what were most likely racially-motivated, trumped up charges, then go ahead and do it.
Won't help him any, of course, 'cause he's dead and gone. But it might make his survivors feel better.
The real question, though, is why John McCain is fooling around with this? I thought he was busy telling the Republicans how to win elections, praising Sarah Palin, and, because he still doesn't realize he lost the election, writing his own budget, which will be read by two people, he and his wife.
The world economy is in the tank; the depression is deepening everywhere as more and more people lose their jobs and their homes; we're still screwing around in Iraq; Afghanistan is become a deeper quagmire; Pakistan has nuclear weapons and is unstable as hell; the crazy fool in North Korea is planning to shoot off a missile into the sky which maybe, might could reach the U.S.; Mexico is falling apart and the drug dealers may well take over the government; Iran is, well, Iran; hunger goes unabated across the globe; McCain's wife still wears too much makeup ... all of this and McCain is spending his time on trying to get a presidential pardon for a guy who's been dead almost 100 years!
And what about all those other black folks who received a raw deal from racially-motivated, trumped up charges? Shouldn't they get pardons, too? Or is a pardon just for an prominent athlete and the rest of us don't count?
Oh, that's right. We're talking about John McCain. The rest of us really don't count!
2 comments:
I think it's all a ploy to garner the black vote for the Rethugs. He figures if he pushes it enough he'll get the credit for it, thereby making him a "hero" to the black population.
I hate to tell him it ain't gonna work, I think they all know what he's really up to.
And you're right Jacob, he lost the election. I don't remember either Al Gore of John Kerry ever bringing it up that they had been the Democratic candidate to persuade people to listen to them. It's time for McLaim to just go away.
It is amazing how some Republicans and far too many pundits, crazies, etc devote so much time to trivia while we ignore over 6 million lost manufacturing jobs in America since Reagan’s time and enormous numbers of unemployed every month for far too long.! They are not just a numbers, they are real people and represent a person, family , kids, our neighbors, lost opportunities, poverty, crime, sickness, etc. That should be on every politicians mind until we turn a corner. They can always play politics later, after we can afford silly name calling, dumb games, playing gotcha etc. They should be spending overtime developing as many alternative plans, suggestions, as we need to win two wars, or give up on them, feed our people, rebuild industry where possible, fix what is broken and live with what isn’t for awhile until we can afford to make mistakes again.
Sometimes smart business people do take enormous risks to resolve a current problem in order to be around to solve any new problems. Standing still will not do anything but prolong or delay disaster. No risk, no gain is a good thing to remember. Experts disagree, so we will not know which are right until we know! Then we might have to back pedal, tweak, change etc.
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