Everytime he opens his mouth he gives me another reason he needs to be beaten.

George Allen has no respect.  His arrogance knows no bounds.  From shoving teeth down Democrats' throats, to bullying people of color, to saying Virginians don't care about racist remarks he made, all of it shows his lack of respect for others.  His comment here that people don't care is a reflection of what's going on inside of him.  He doesn't care what impact he has on people, and so he thinks others don't either.  What a shallow man with shallow thoughts.

It is simply ridiculous for Allen to intimate that Virginians do not care about his now famous gaffe.  Likewise, to infer that we are incapable of independent thought enters the realm of the absurd.

Here in the "real world" and in the "real Virginia" we are proud that it was our state that gave birth to the Bill of Rights.  Our American history is a lineage of deep thinking Virginians who always tried to lift their fellow citizens up -- not put them down.  What school child has not heard of great Virginians like Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, George Washington, Booker T. Washington, and others? 

Senator Allen, like his joined at the hip president, will soon learn that the people are in fact the "deciders."  When this period of Virginia's history is written, George Allen's name will not be among the giants of the Commonwealth.

Virginia can do better.  George Allen is not better.

They have had the whole ball of wax so long theyve been corrupted. The whole absolute power thing.

I am going to Indiana for a couple of weeks, and I believe that by the time I come back allen will be down by 8 pts.

There is a Tsumami warning for the repulicans!!!!

By the way, a good conservative friend of mine HATES allen and Bush, probably worse than i do.

thing has Allen so scared he doesn't know which way to turn. Of course they take him on Fux News, where he appears like a frightened hostage in one of those proof of life videos, so he can tell us the "only the media cares."

What about us George? "The Real Virgnians," we want you to go onto a real news show, not Neal "the bootlicker" Cavuto, and take some hard questions. Show us crazy Macaca's some penance here.

I see one thing in Allen's eyes: Abject Fear. The smug smile of a lifetime of bullying people is gone and Allen is skulking around in the only safe place he knows. The road to November 7 is going to be sweet.

James Webb: More Than Senator Macaca’s Opponent
By Janar Joseph Wasito

James Webb is more than Senator George “Macaca� Allen’s opponent. At a now infamous campaign stop in Virginia, Senator George Allen twice addressed S.R. Siddarth as “macaca� and welcomed him to Virginia and America, even though Siddarth is an American citizen and a native Virginian. Siddarth could rightly say, “Welcome to Virgnia, Senator.�

Macaca refers to a genus of monkey and is a racial slur in the same European cultures in which Senator Allen’s mother was raised.

By contrast, James Webb’s book, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, discusses how Scots-Irish culture embraces members of other ethnic groups. The following passages are from page 38:

The “Celtic tie of kinship�… helps explain why such a high percentage of American combat units in today’s volunteer military are from Scots-Irish and Irish Catholic backgrounds. From the earliest known history of the Celts, military service was viewed not simply as an obligation, but as a high honor. Fighting for – and alongside – the tribal leader … or, as now, one’s branch of military service brought one into the family. And at this level – the willingness to face danger collectively – every family member was equal regardless of rank or wealth.
Another aspect of this notion of extended kinship is that it tended to embrace members of other ethnic groups rather than to demean them. …in the Celtic societies, if one stepped forward to serve, he was ‘of the kin’ so long as he accepted the values and mores of the extended family.

I identify with Webb’s description of the “Celtic tie of kinship� based upon military service for personal reasons. My father is Indonesian and my mother is German, but I was born in San Francisco. My father left when I was 4, and my Godparents, a Retired Air Force Colonel and his wife, helped my mother to raise my sister and me. From my Godparents, I learned to admire the military. I applied for the US Naval Academy while I was in high school. I read James Webb’s novel, A Sense of Honor. Though I did not attend the Naval Academy, I did follow Webb’s example in boxing in college, in serving in the US Marine Corps, and in attending law school after my military service. I wrote my college senior thesis on another of James Webb’s books, Fields of Fire. I’ve read his other 4 novels, and his non-fiction book, Born Fighting. Born Fighting describes the Scots-Irish culture of the Jesuit College Prep which I attended (I had a Murphy as a teacher or coach in 7 of 8 semesters), and it describes the culture of the US Marine Corps.

I don’t really think of myself as a “person of color.� But I am half Indonesian and I have a darker complexion than the majority of Caucasians. Personally, I took great offense to Senator Allen’s “macaca� comments. I felt bad for the Country and for Virginia, where I spent a total of a year between 1988 and 1992 when I was going through Marine Officer training. According to Goldman Sachs, the so-called BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are the rapidly growing countries which will shape the coming decades. In such a future, George Allen simply has no place as a leader in America.

At another point in his now infamous comments, Senator Allen states that Jim Webb is “with a bunch of Hollywood movie moguls… we care about fact not fiction.�

This reference to “Hollywood Movie Moguls� plays on a stereotype of left leaning, liberal, Hollywood movie producers. However, if we take a close look at the one movie that Jim Webb wrote and produced, we find that it contains many factual warnings of the challenges the country would face in 9-11 and beyond.

James Webb was the co-producer and writer of the screenplay for Rules of Engagement, starring Samuel Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones. In that movie, a Marine Expeditionary Unit reinforces an American Embassy in Yemen, which is near Iraq and Saudi Arabia, under attack from a hostile Islamic crowd. The Marines fire into a crowd which had been firing weapons at the Marines. Although the videotape evidence of the weapons in the crowd has been destroyed by corrupt policy makers, the defense attorney does find audio tape evidence which he presents at the trial. The audio tapes contain recordings of Osama Bin Laden inciting Muslims to anti-American violence. In the commentary by the director of the film, we learn that the tape is an actual recording by Osama Bin Laden. The defense attorney finds the Bin Laden tapes in the ruined American embassy, in the police station, and in the hospital where the injured are being treated.

The movie was released in 2000, a year before 9/11.

So much for Senator Allen’s attack on James Webb as consorting with “Hollywood movie moguls� who are out of touch with fact.

James Webb’s novels, his screen play for Rules of Engagement, his Emmy Award winning reporting from Beirut just weeks before Hezbollah killed 242 Marines, his article on Marines in Afghanistan – all together show that Webb has a detailed grasp of national security issues far beyond that of Senator Allen. In an age where an action by a Marine junior officer or non commissioned officer can have immediate, global consequences, we need elected officials like James Webb, who never forgot his roots as a highly decorated junior officer in the Marine Corps. During the same period in his life, George Allen declined to serve in uniform.

Senator Allen’s campaign will try to paint James Webb as a liberal who is aligned with Senator’s Clinton and Kerry. While this may be accurate with respect to some domestic issues, on foreign policy issues, Webb is closer to President Bush – George H.W. Bush. In September 2002, Webb wrote a criticism of the pending invasion of Iraq which was very similar to criticisms made by Brent Scowcroft, the National Security Adviser to President George H. W. Bush, and by Colin Powell, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs under President George H. W. Bush. In this regard, James Webb, who served as Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Navy, should be classified as a foreign policy realist. As Webb told Inside the Navy in January 2003, "I am not against fighting when fighting is necessary… What I am for is making sure you are fighting the right war."

Janar Joseph Wasito is a former Marine Officer who lives in San Diego, California.
Email: janarw@gmail.com
Cell: (415) 850-9217

Please, I.Publius, explain why Webb has gained in the polls and Allen has fallen recently.  I truly interested in your explanation.  If Virginians don't care about macaca, what is it that they care about so much that's caused Allen's collapse?

Also explain why Allen had to decline an award due to outrage in the minority community.  Don't you think that has something to do with recent events?

Please, I really would like to read your response.

and shift like the wind, depending on what's in the news during any given week. 

Regarding the award, that speaks volumes about Allen putting the scholarships above himself... AND speaks loudly about those donors who would have withheld their money.  Talk about petty and vindictive.  They would rather punish the ultimate recipients of their supposed generosity, for their own political reasons.

That's disgusting.

If it were one poll, I would see your point.  But three polls over a matter of three weeks have shown a huge shift in momentum.  It's been steady.

As for the award...doesn't it say something if the benefactors of the award are unwilling to support an organization that gives an award named after our first African-American Supreme Justice to somebody like George Allen?  I know the right will try to blame this on WEbb's supporters, or the NAACP.  But the truth is that Allen didn't deserve that award.  Did you even see the Richmond Free Press headline when the award was announced? The minority community called bullshit, and Allen had to give up or be covered in yet more controversy.

I believe that the many Filipino neighbors I have that are now intending to vote for Webb rather than Allen because of this will be very interested to know that they are being referred to by Allen's supporters as "left wingnuts."  These are lifelong Republicans who were completely disgusted by Allen's treatment of Sidarth.  Wow.  I must live in a really liberal neighborhood of Virginia Beach.  I guess we'll have to clear that up with people, since Democrats rarely break 40% in my voting precinct.  Amazing to know all these folks are actually "left winguts."

I have no idea how it is that Mr. Wasito wrote a comment on Mr. Webb for RaisingKaine, but thank you, sir.  And thank you, Susan Mariner, for telling us about your Filipino neighbors. Mr. Wasito's post should be published widely, including in the mass media.

Having lived in the Philippines myself, and travelled in the Far East and admired their ancient civilisations, it is more clear to me than ever that there is no room in this world for the stupidity of ethnic bigotry. To Caucasians like Mr. Allen--- hello, we are in a minority in the world, and have no lock on cultural superiority. If you, Mr. Allen, want to preserve your comfy life style you'd better reform your attitude, or you and yours will one day soon be toast.  This is not a threat (I belong to Mr. Allen's supposed Caucasian group, maybe even more thoroughly than does he) but what it is, is simple acknowledgment of reality. I have no intention of letting Mr. Allen and his ilk take America and the American promise down with him. That's why I am voting Jim Webb.