Leave it to a Brit to put it in perspective. http://www.timesonline.co.u...

"And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites."

In light of the Bakersfield Californian's and their surrogates opinions, this is especially surprising!   

Putting Money Where Mouths Are: Media Donations Favor Dems 100-1

Here is a new Pew Research Center news IQ quiz.  My score indicated that I really need to get out and go fishing more.

The economy is getting so bad they can't afford meat and have to walk. http://www.npr.org/template...

Still a 'hick town'?

The Bakersfield Californian | Friday, Jul 11 2008 9:17 PM

Last Updated: Friday, Jul 11 2008 9:20 PM

Over the years, The Californian has published several letters about whether Bakersfield is a "hick town" or not. I am not offering an answer to that question. I merely wish to point out that Vicente Fernandez recently appeared in concert here. Top ticket was $150 and the arena was sold out. http://www.bakersfield.com/...>http://people.bakersfield.c...>

Last fall Andre Rieu came to town with a full orchestra of world-class musicians playing selections from the world's greatest music. Top ticket was $75 and the arena was maybe 80 percent full.

DALE STEWART

Bakersfield

From no less than the Washington Post:

The Red, White and Eat Your Greens Party

By David Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 11, 2008; C01

The folks organizing (if you want to call it that) the Democratic National Convention have spent all week trying to squash a major flapdoodle involving political correctness and color that threatened to confirm every negative stereotype about how Democrats are so hilariously sensitive to the full rainbow of creation and secretly want to legislate good behavior and punish the pursuit of wallowing, self-indulgent, unhealthy happiness.

The colors white, black and brown (skin) were not implicated.

We're talking about red, yellow and "blue/purple" (vegetables).

Oh, and green. Especially green. Green food, green buying, green selling, green money, green -- absolutely everything.

This will not be another story making fun of the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee's Lean 'N Green guidelines for caterers and restaurants feeding conventioneers Aug. 25-28.

But if you must know, for your own reasons, here they are:

"Lean: Half of the meal (or 50 percent) of the plate is made up of fruits and/or vegetables. A colorful meal -- include at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white (garnishes not included). No items are to be fried.

"Green: 70 percent or more of ingredients by pre-cooked weight are certified organic and/or grown or raised in Colorado. 70 percent or more of ingredients by pre-cooked weight are fresh (and not pre-processed)."

Mocking these standards would be wrong. Especially after the committee's strong statement posted on its Web site, entitled "Fiction Fuels Frivolous Food Fight."

As the committee's Greening Director, Parry Burnap, explained in the statement --

Wait!

Greening Director? Is that like, Dancing Instructor? Or Tanning Protector? Or Programming Selector?

What does the verb "to green" mean? Does it mean to staple plastic turf on your rowhouse stoop like in Baltimore? Does it mean to spray electric lime paint on a highway median strip? Is "to green" the opposite of "to brown," so instead of getting old and fried and wrinkled and cynical, you devolve to something young and fresh as a lettuce head?

To quote the Greening Director: "We are merely creating a voluntary option to demonstrate the connections between good nutrition and a healthy environment, to highlight the healthy and environmentally responsible character of our city, and provide voluntary choices that respond to consumer preferences for healthy, local or organic food while promoting Colorado growers."

That's a mouthful.

Note the repetition of the word "voluntary."

(Voluntary! Voluntary! Voluntary! Take that, you snarky bloggers and scribes, you browned-out purple-people-eaters. You've been laughing all week behind headlines like "Democrats Unleash Food Police" and "Food Guidelines Have Some Seeing Red. And Blue. And Purple.")

The Greening Director's team wishes to make it clear that these are guidelines, people, not rules. Fried foods are "NOT FORBIDDEN" and, "If a restaurant or caterer chooses to voluntarily serve a designated 'Lean 'N Green' meal option, that particular option would include fruits and vegetables from different color groups -- a key component of healthy eating. However, there are no 'color requirements' for every meal."

(Remember when healthy eating involved concepts like "calories," "carbohydrates," "protein," "vitamins," "minerals"? That became too much like organic chemistry. The food pyramid morphed into some kind of inexplicable rhombus. Now it's all about color. And the Good Humor Man who sells Rainbow Pops is loving it.)

Voluntary is nice, but it makes us wonder: Say two vendors are bidding for a catering gig. One proposes factory-farmed, battery-caged, deep-fried chicken, and the other proposes sustainable, grilled Pacific cod. Who wins the business?

A spokesman did not return telephone messages left yesterday. But when the Lean 'N Green guidelines were announced last month, host committee president Elbra Wedgeworth did say: "The Host Committee must balance many factors in selecting our vendors. We prefer but do not require proven experience with greening."

Enough about food. What else can we talk about?

The Web site promises "green media stories."

(Nah.)

The Dems are trying to paint the entire convention, and the entire city, green. There are "green teams" working on everything from promoting "green businesses" to doing "green event training" and "green facility operations."

There will be "carbon-free maps" (what are they going to print them on?) to help convention guests explore Denver on foot or bicycle. Don't even think about bottled water.

When all else fails, shop: The convention's "green merchandise" includes "organic" baseball caps, a "nature spun tote bag," an "organic hat/tee combo," recycled denim pencils, a BPA-free plastic water bottle and a recycled Frisbee-style disc.

(Color us jaded.)

Just read this New York Times article on how well the Democrats have been doing with their own convention preparations.

"With the Denver convention less than two months away, problems range from the serious — upwardly spiraling costs on key contracts still being negotiated — to the mundane, like the reluctance of local caterers to participate because of stringent rules on what delegates will be eating, down to the color of the food."

"Overly ambitious environmental goals — to turn the event into a “green” convention — have backfired as only three states’ full delegations have so far agreed to participate in the program. Negotiations over where to locate demonstrators remain unsettled with members of the national news media concerned over proposals to locate the demonstrators — with their loud gatherings — next to the media tent."

"And then there is the food: A 28-page contract requested by Denver organizers that caterers provide food in “at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple and white.” Garnishes could not be counted toward the colors. No fried foods would be allowed. Organic and locally grown foods were mandated, and each plate had to be 50 percent fruits and vegetables. As a result, caterers are shying away.

For the Democratic Party, the danger is that a poorly run convention, or one that misses the mark financially, will reflect badly on the party and raise questions about Democratic management skills."