Last posts on obama

Please, Pres. O! Don't listen to the spin that drags us to the MIDDLE.

2010-01-20T23:37:51+01:00

The middle is the quickest way down the drain. The only path to "middle" or "centrist" way is to create a more solid progressive agenda on the left. We musn't court the conservatives who WILL NOT change their minds or break ranks.

Read this article at t r u t h o u t

President Obama, Remember Who Your Friends Are

Wednesday 20 January 2010

by: Staff, t r u t h o u t | Editorial

President Obama plays basketball with members of Congress and Cabinet secretaries at the White House in October, 2009. (Image: White House)

In the wake of a crushing Democratic defeat in the Massachusetts Senate race, we find ourselves faced with the one-year anniversary of a spirit-changing day in the history of the United States, the inauguration of President Barack Obama. This odd confluence of events provides an opening for a very timely warning: It is time to remember who your friends are, Mr. President.

Your friends are not the suits on Wall Street, the same ones who fooled Timothy Geithner for years. Your friends are not the timid centrists, who Rahm Emanuel coddles. Your friends are not the giants of the mortgage industry, who fought you tooth and nail to keep the foreclosure crisis out of the courts. Your friend is not George W. Bush, whose crimes you continue to conceal.

Your friends are the progressives across this country, who, when you asked for their faith and inspired them with beautiful words, placed you on their shoulders and carried you to a historic victory.

The progressive movement needs results - we're too smart to be placated and spun. We're too cynical - and too determined - to compromise. And, soon, we'll be too jaded to believe that Democrats are anything but limp windsocks, pointing whichever way the wind blows.

Some have already walked away, according to a recent Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll, which states that 45 percent of Democrats are not likely to vote in the 2010 election.

We know that, in your heart, you're one of us. Your heart is the element you seem to have forgotten, the element we miss. You used to wear it on your sleeve; we could hear it pounding in your chest when you spoke.

We heard your heart during your 2002 speech at a Chicago antiwar rally, when you called out the "arm-chair, weekend warriors" in Washington for keeping our soldiers engaged in a "dumb war, a rash war." We heard your heart during your 2004 keynote speech at the Democratic Convention, when you said of the American people, "They know we can do better." We heard it beating loud and clear on New Hampshire Primary Night, when you spoke of true progress, saying, "Whether we are rich or poor; black or white; Latino or Asian; whether we hail from Iowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina, we are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction."

And upon your inauguration, one year ago today, we dared to believe you when you said, "The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history."

The right wing thrives on vitriol, hate and divisiveness. When the bile they spew goes unchallenged, their disease infects the people around them. They will not lie down, Mr. President. You are going to have to put them down - with true progressive action, not the frail rhetoric of appeasement.

No one has ever proclaimed a die-hard commitment to centrism. No one has ever held a rally to support bipartisanship. Those are Washington DC catchphrases that mean nothing, serving only as a fog for professional politicians huddling together inside the beltway, too timid and too immersed in campaign logic to stand for anything.

Your job is not to get re-elected in 2012, Mr. President. Your job is to fight tomorrow and then fight the next day. If you're constantly looking up at the scoreboard, worrying about the outcome, you're going to trip over your own laces. Watch the shot clock instead, and fire up three-pointers like you know they're going to sink every time. Get in your opponents' faces and make them work for every single point.

You have a choice now, Mr. President. With your help, 2010 could usher in a host of substantive policy changes: better health care access for millions of Americans, a strategic path to peace in Iraq and Afghanistan and a resounding series of Democratic victories in the midterm elections. However, if you stand aside and fail to challenge every shot, 2010 could give way to a fractured, crumbling Democratic Party - and the re-emergence of a vicious, feudal corporatism.

Choose our better history.

Bijobee gets better every day

2009-07-21T08:55:00+02:00

Greetings from Bijobee HQ. I’ve been up most of the night working on what needs to happen next but what’s happened so far is pretty cool. Have you seen our site? Pretty cool, eh? I love that we use Google and make it so much better. The latest thing I did was look for good, small hotels in Alacante in Spain by having my search results come back in Spanish and designating .es, the country domain for Spain. No Hiltons or Marriots here; I found what I was looking for in one go, small pensiones with great food.The other think I did was look up chocolate for some nutritional info and instead of getting pages of dross from Sees Candies and Godiva I chose my results to show nothing but .gov sites and the search brought back lots of good info. Did you know that in chocolate, more cocoa means higher antioxidant capacity? Blog soon, bijobee

Candies from Obama

2009-06-30T05:14:01+02:00

A race to the bottom?

2009-06-03T23:40:00+02:00

What happened today in the foreign exchange (Fx) markets? The last I looked the Canadian dollar fell 2.53% to US$ 0.9022, the British pound fell 1.92% to US$ 1.6267 and the Euro fell 1.3% to US$ 1.4199. In "normal" times these extreme moves would not occur in a month let alone one day. There was no apparent fundamental reasons for this to occur today. Sure crude oil fell $2.59 to $65.96/bbl which may have some negative impact on the Loonie but why would the BP or Euro fall as well? The UK is a net importer of crude oil as is Europe. Surely they would benefit (though likely not as much as much as the US does) when the price of oil falls. It is apparent to me that this was a co-ordinated hatchet job by the 2 countries and the Euro zone (along with lot of help from Uncle Sam) to sell their own currencies and buy the US$. As a result the US dollar index rose 0.96 today to 79.49 (this a basket of currencies which includes the 3 currencies mentioned above as well as the Japan Yen and the Swiss Franc).

Why would a central bank intentionally manipulate its currency downward? Because they are worried that their exports will suffer if their currency strengthens too much (and too fast) against their major trading partners. So what we saw today was an attempt to debase three major currencies in order to make the sick US$ look better. This is akin to a person taking low doses of poison in order to make a friend who has cancer feel better about his condition. Of course it doesn't help either party and in the end may prove fatal for both.

The US$ index had fallen quite steadily since its high of 120 in January 2002 to its low of 70.70 on March 17 2008. From there it had a nice bear market rally to 89.62 on March 4 of this year whereupon it started to resume its long term decline to 78.33 touched yesterday until the central banks started manipulating the currency (my belief, not fact). This of course is all a waste of money as manipulations of this kind can only have a short term effect until the market decides to resume its long term trend. Central banks cannot control the Fx market with their manipulations for long.

The US is petrified of seeing their currency retest the recent low of 77.69 reached on December 18 2008 since it is likely to fail. Once this level is breached it will likely fall quickly to test the 75.89 handle reached September 23 and should that fail it will likely fall all the way to its all-time low of 70.70 on March 17 2008. After that we are in unchartered territory folks so anything can happen. If the US does not get its fiscal house in order by drastically reducing spending and start to grow its GDP to levels at least as high as those projected (or rather hoped for) by the Obama administration over the next 5 years the world will completely lose confidence in the US$. This would not be a good thing for world trade and hence our standard of living since the US$ is by far the world's major reserve currency.

When will the Obama administration step up and do the right thing? It is pointless to keep playing these confidence games in an attempt to convince (fool) the public that the economy and monetary policy are doing well and are under control of the supposedly omnipotent and omniscient government. Debt must be reduced, not increased by the unimaginable amounts being attempted by the US government in a futile effort to re-inflate the already burst housing and stock bubbles that they created over the past decade or more. There is not much time left to change course. Government spending must be reduced and brought under control quickly. In addition, taxes must increase. I know that this flies in the face of neo-Keynesian thought but we have come to a crossroads (or Morton's fork) here. Either we allow the markets to deflate quickly, take the pain and start to rebuild a stronger economy that is not centrally controlled by governments and central banks or we will experience the unbelievable pain of hyperinflation as all world fiat currencies implode. Neither choice is desirable but one will be taken whether intentionally or not. I prefer the deflationary route as the lesser (just barely) of two evils.

As Yogi Berra once said: "When you come to a fork in the road ... take it."

Gerry

What the Gang of Perverts (GOP) Needs to Do Next

2009-04-30T05:53:00+02:00

In its story, G.O.P. Debate: A Broader Party or a Purer One?, the NYT's writes:

"A fundamental debate broke out among Republicans on Wednesday over how to rebuild the party in the wake of Senator Arlen Specter’s departure: Should it purge moderate voices like Mr. Specter and embrace its conservative roots or seek to broaden its appeal to regain a competitive position against Democrats?"

I have a better idea. Just retire. Move to Florida. Pick up a few hobbies (that aren't illegal, immoral). The world has moved on to the 21st Century and left the GOP behind.

Inaugration day

2009-01-20T23:05:38+01:00

At last! At last!
The Sleeper awakes!

Today, the national nightmare ends! We can now start to heal the damage that the Bush administration has done to the world.

Despite Mr. Bush's belief that history will vindicate him, he will go down as the more destructive reincarnation Herbert Hoover. For like Herbert Hoover, he has done massive damage to this country that will take many, many years to undo -- if ever. Consider, the problems: the economy, national prestiege, allied relations, poverty, the environment, verterans care, wars in Iraq and Ahfganistan, massisve debt, corporate give aways, unemployment and under-empolyment not seen since the Great Depression, government dissatisfaction at levels that would cause rebellion in any other country; and that is the short list. Unlike Hoover, Mr. Bush has engaged in a war of choice: Iraq. It is my opinion that Mr. Bush did this to outdo his father Bush Sr. (Bush Sr. did not take Baghdad because his Sec Def. Chaney knew that there would be an insurgancy that would be unwinnable). This fact alone makes him worse than Hoover.

Sic semper tyrannis.

President Obama has already (read actions taken as President Elect) taken actions to that continue the morale war on the failed ideals of Neoconservatism ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism ) by dining with conservative journalists ( http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/obama-dines-with-conservative-columnists/ ), He is reaching out to the oppsition. In any conflict there are at most 33% of the populaiton allied with you 33% oposed and 33% indiferent. The objective of any "Grand Strategy" is to persuade the indifferent, fortify your support, and bring the opposition to either the different or the support catagories.

I marvel at how well President Obama understands and practices strategy. While the American analogs maybe Lincoln, and FDR, the name that comes to my mind is Titus Flavius Vespasianus ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespasian ). The Roman Empire was staggering under the rule of Nero ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero ). This crisis of leadership if continued, would have eventually destroyed the Empire. Because of the reforms implemented by Vespasian, he was considered to be the savior of the Empire.

President Obama will need all of his skills and talents to heal this country and guide it to on a prosperous path in the 21st century.

While some believe that President Obama does not connect to the military, because he has not served, I believe that he will win them over because he understands the universal contract between a society and her warriors: we who will die for you ask that you not spend our lives in vain. He has shown that he understands Grand Strategy, that he is a ruler that understands the "Way". Master Sun says that he one of the factors in calculating which faction will succeed in a conflict is to assess the ruler.

" Ask:

Which ruler has the Way,

which general has the ability,

which has gained Heaven and Ground,

which carried out Law and commands,

which army is strong,

which officers and soldiers are trained,

which reward and punish clearly,

by means of these, I know victory and defeat!"

(http://www.sonshi.com/sun1.html).

For the first time in many years I believe that my country will be in good hands. With President Obama this country will see better times. Here is a President that understands the "Way". A ruler that will make our enemies cower in fear, give our allies hope, and our people peace, prosperity, and pride. President Obama has united us for the long hard road ahead.

Semper fidelis.

What time does the inauguration start?

2009-01-20T19:15:07+01:00

Inauguration Day 2009 starts at 11:30am Eastern Standard Time.This means if you are on the west coast it starts at 8:30am.If you live in another time zone, do the math yourself. =)The big guy takes the oath around 12:00pm Eastern Standard Time.More than 2 million Americans lost their jobs last year, the stock market fell by almost 45 percent from its peak, and comparisons with the Great Depression are becoming disturbingly commonplace.You'll find lots of places online to watch president-elect Barack Obama's inauguration on Tuesday.You'll find lots of places online to watch president-elect Barack Obama's inauguration on Tuesday.But that isn't stopping Washington from throwing a $160 million party, the most lavish ever, for Barack Obama's presidential inauguration on Tuesday.Technology companies are joining the festivities by hosting a number of inaugural parties, and a collection of news and other Web sites are aiming to let anyone who can't be in the nation's capital--or who doesn't want to brave probably-freezing temperatures--follow along online.Here's a partial list:• The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which is in charge of all the inaugural activities at the Capitol, will stream the entire event at its Web site, complete with closed captioning. The site has a wealth of information about what happens on Inauguration Day, including a handful of inaugural videos dating back to President Dwight Eisenhower's 1957 swearing-in ceremony, as well as videos of presidential luncheons dating back to the inauguration of John Kennedy. (It also reveals, for those interested, the recipe for Obama's luncheon meal, which features a main course of pheasant and duck served with sour cherry chutney.)• Our sister site CBS News will have day-long live coverage January 20 on TV and the Web, starting at 7 a.m. EDT. Katie Couric will also host a special Webcast that night with reporters and punditry, for which viewers can submit questions.Don't Miss * Latest CNET News videos * CNET News image galleries * More technology news from CNET• CBS streaming coverage will also be Webcast on Joost's Everything Obama page, which also features interviews, campaign highlights, and satire clips.• MSNBC will be live streaming the event on its home page and politics section, and visitors can embed the video into their own sites. Its inauguration page also features videos of inaugurations from decades past.• Fox News will provide live streaming coverage via Hulu beginning at noon for about two hours. After the live stream, Hulu will provide on-demand access to the ceremony. The live stream is embeddable, as is an inauguration countdown from Hulu. The video site's Obama Presidency page also features related content like speeches, commentary, satire, and past inaugural speeches.• C-SPAN will debut its Inauguration Hub on January 20, featuring an online "control room"--a multichannel grid designed by Mogulus with Webcasts of inauguration activities. Visitors will be able to choose from one of four live feeds featuring events like the swearing in at the Capitol, the parade, and a number of inaugural balls.• CNN is partnering with Facebook to provide live streaming of the swearing in and Obama's speech. Viewers can "RSVP" for the event on Facebook, and as they watch, they will be able to provide status updates with their thoughts on the events. A Facebook window on the CNN.com Live channel will show viewers their friends' relevant status updates.• Current TV and Twitter are teaming up, as they did during the election, to add real-time tweets to Current's broadcast and Webcast of the swearing in, which starts at 11:30 a.m. EDT and will be replayed throughout the day.• The New York Times, the AP's online video network, and the Online NewsHour will also live stream inauguration coverage.Once Obama is sworn in, he'll be party hopping through Washington that night. The Presidential Inauguration Committee has promised to Webcast some of the official inaugural balls--though there are plenty of unofficial parties, including some hosted by tech companies.The Recording Industry Association of America is hosting a charity ball featuring the recording artist Rihanna and the actors David Arquette and Courteney Cox. The ball benefits the nonprofit Feeding America and is co-sponsored by Yahoo, Comcast, Oracle, AT&T, SoundExchange, Time Warner, News Corp., and a number of other companies.Google is partnering with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to host "a break from traditional inaugural balls." Guests are encouraged to make donations--which Google will match--to organizations including the LCCR Education Fund, One Economy, the Sunlight Foundation, D.C. Central Kitchen, and Green For All.The Huffington Post, the news aggregation and commentary site, is hosting a pre-inaugural ball Monday night with the Atlantic Philanthropies and the Musk Foundation, which supports research on renewable energy, human space exploration, and pediatrics. The event is also receiving sponsorship from MySpace, Comcast, the wind power company Vestas, and the nonprofit Global Green USA, among others.The party, they say, is "to celebrate change in Washington, the rise of new media, and a renewed commitment to service and the environment," and features a performance by Will.i.am.Plenty of other parties will be celebrating a renewed commitment to the environment, including the Green Inaugural Ball, chaired by Al Gore and hosted by a number of organizations like the American Council on Renewable Energy, the Energy Action Coalition, and the Vote Solar Initiative.plus size lingerie
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2.o_O.8

2008-12-31T20:12:00+01:00

A post card came thro the mail the other day, thanking all supporters & volunteers.

Then I realized that, YES, at least we did get THAT ONE thing right in 2008 :)

America has a new President

2008-12-29T20:45:00+01:00

Finally, America has a coloured President !

OMG! Obama is a Filipino!

2008-12-27T04:39:47+01:00

Irony - Now, More Than Ever

2008-11-26T02:17:49+01:00

At least, that's what Joan Didion seemed to say, per a NYT article, at a talk she gave a week after the U.S. election, when she "lamented that the United States in the era of Barack Obama had become an 'irony-free zone,' a vast Kool-Aid tank where 'naïveté, translated into "hope," was now in' and where 'innocence, even when it looked like ignorance, was now prized.'"

Columnist Roger Rosenblatt, after 9/11, "said that while irony had its place and time, this was not it." Some events, he says, "are so big that they almost imply an obligation not to diminish [them] by clever comparisons."

John H. McWhorter, "semiconservative black commentator," sees a reduction in irony as a natural and praiseworthy reaction among white people to having voted Obama into office and in doing so expiating "white America's sins" and "showing that you are past the nastiness."

I gotta go with Joan. Irony (particularly phase III irony) is all about puncturing propaganda, "stating the lie in order to expose the lie," pointing out the discrepancy between what is expected and what actually results, and in doing so examining the nature of human folly and vanity. So particularly when we're feeling good about ourselves and what we've accomplished, and when much is expected and hoped, when so much faith and trust is put in one event, in one person (as New York magazine put it, a couple of weeks ago, "Obamaism: It’s a kind of religion. But one rooted in a deep faith in rationality."), and when results are so sorely needed, we benefit from that "distanced perspective" of irony more than ever.

Like P.J. O'Rourke's; he's writing a column for The Weekly Standard with the working title, 'Is It Too Soon to Start Talking About the Failed Obama Presidency Just Because He Isn't President Yet?'

Surround This Man With Light and Love

2008-11-15T21:50:33+01:00

From the Associated Press

Threats against a new president historically spike right after an election, but from Maine to Idaho law enforcement officials are seeing more against Barack Obama than ever before. The Secret Service would not comment or provide the number of cases they are investigating. But since the Nov. 4 election, law enforcement officials have seen more potentially threatening writings, Internet postings and other activity directed at Obama than has been seen with any past president-elect, said officials aware of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue of a president's security is so sensitive.

Earlier this week, the Secret Service looked into the case of a sign posted on a tree in Vay, Idaho, with Obama's name and the offer of a ''free public hanging.'' In North Carolina, civil rights officials complained of threatening racist graffiti targeting Obama found in a tunnel near the North Carolina State University campus.

And in a Maine convenience store, an Associated Press reporter saw a sign inviting customers to join a betting pool on when Obama might fall victim to an assassin. The sign solicited $1 entries into ''The Osama Obama Shotgun Pool,'' saying the money would go to the person picking the date closest to when Obama was attacked. ''Let's hope we have a winner,'' said the sign, since taken down.

In the security world, anything ''new'' can trigger hostility, said Joseph Funk, a former Secret Service agent-turned security consultant who oversaw a private protection detail for Obama before the Secret Service began guarding the candidate in early 2007.

Obama, of course, will be the country's first black president, and Funk said that new element, not just race itself, is probably responsible for a spike in anti-Obama postings and activity. ''Anytime you're going to have something that's new, you're going to have increased chatter,'' he said.

The Secret Service also has cautioned the public not to assume that any threats against Obama are due to racism.

The service investigates threats in a wide range. There are ''stated threats'' and equally dangerous or lesser incidents considered of ''unusual interest'' -- such as people motivated by obsessions or infatuations or lower-level gestures such as effigies of a candidate or an elected president. The service has said it does not have the luxury of discounting anything until agents have investigated the potential danger.

Racially tinged graffiti -- not necessarily directed at Obama -- also has emerged in numerous reports across the nation since Election Day, prompting at least one news conference by a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Georgia.

A law enforcement official who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly said that during the campaign there was a spike in anti-Obama rhetoric on the Internet -- ''a lot of ranting and raving with no capability, credibility or specificity to it.''

There were two threatening cases with racial overtones:

-- In Denver, a group of men with guns and bulletproof vests made racist threats against Obama and sparked fears of an assassination plot during the Democratic National Convention in August.

-- Just before the election, two skinheads in Tennessee were charged with plotting to behead blacks across the country and assassinate Obama while wearing white top hats and tuxedos.

In both cases, authorities determined the men were not capable of carrying out their plots.

In Milwaukee, police officials found a poster of Obama with a bullet going toward his head -- discovered on a table in a police station.

Chatter among white supremacists on the Internet has increased throughout the campaign and since Election Day.

One of the most popular white supremacist Web sites got more than 2,000 new members the day after the election, compared with 91 new members on Election Day, according to an AP count. The site, stormfront.org, was temporarily off-line Nov. 5 because of the overwhelming amount of activity it received after Election Day. On Saturday, one Stormfront poster, identified as Dalderian Germanicus, of North Las Vegas, said, ''I want the SOB laid out in a box to see how 'messiahs' come to rest. God has abandoned us, this country is doomed.''

It is not surprising that a black president would galvanize the white supremacist movement, said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who studies the white supremacy movement.

''The overwhelming flavor of the white supremacist world is a mix of desperation, confusion and hoping that this will somehow turn into a good thing for them,'' Potok said. He said hate groups have been on the rise in the past seven years because of a common concern about immigration.

------

Associated Press writers Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington and Jerry Harkavy in Standish, Maine, contributed to this report.

A Hopeful Future

2008-11-14T05:31:00+01:00

Things are looking up for so many reasons since the US presidential election. It was THE competitive event in the country for the last few months. We went straight from the Olympic Games to the White House race with barely a change of intonation. There's always a little too much mindless my team-your team in electoral politics, but enough people got over it that ... OK, who am I kidding? Enough people wised up to the fact that "my team" was the right team. : )

But the results are good for two big reasons, even if you don't care for the particular winner. One, we actually got through the election event with a "clean race." That is (disregarding pre-game trash talking, mostly by the other side), no protests, no major equipment failures, no doping scandals, no Supreme Court intervention. Phew.

Better yet, there's to be a hoops player in the White House! It's felt a bit like the love of basketball has fallen off since the turn of the century. Am I wrong? Is it the retirement of Jordan? The aging of Shaq? The souring on Kobe? The winners being in the wrong market? The women's game being undermarketed? I mean, just look at the output of movies with basketball as a subtheme (a post yet to come) and you see a huge peak around 94-95, and what lately?

Maybe getting some pick-up going at the White House will bring back some luster to the game across the land. Bring out more players. (More 40+ players?) Maybe more women players, even.

This is a pretty crappy video (below), but check out 25 seconds in: There's a woman on the court.

Golly, maybe there'll be a woman on the Supreme Court after another four or eight years....

Casting Spells

2008-11-09T22:26:20+01:00

Not sure why Booker-prize-winning novelist Ian McEwan (Amsterdam, Atonement, Saturday) was asked for his opinion on climate change policy and the new U.S. administration, but in this piece in the WSJ (8 Nov. 2008), he wrote this lovely bit:

"The contest for the presidency, like all elections, had the self-enclosed quality of a squash game, a chess match, a post-modern novel -- and this one was far better than most. While the candidates appeared to address an external reality, they were bound by strictly ethereal requirements: to cast spells on large crowds while seeming ordinary, to trample their opponent into oblivion while seeming pleasant, to be inspirational yet sensible, to avoid offending a score of sensitive constituencies, and, an old wizard's touch, to promise the electorate various gifts without further borrowing or raising taxes. ...

btw, McEwan argues that Obama must act decisively on climate change, taking advantage of the "unearthly powers" now attributed to him.

Doing the inevitable

2008-11-09T00:56:00+01:00

Well Obama has been elected, whoopee

I don't sound excited? "But this is the greatest thing evar!!"

Firstly let me state that I actually always hoped Obama would win, unlike Labour and most other Democrat supporters who wanted Hilary Clinton, and the Tories who supported McCain for some reason - he's a clever bloke and I felt he was the best choice, after eight years of that idiot Bush this is a great moment - but I am not as happy about this as the media

Why? Because what I see in Obama is a reflection of this country just over 11 years ago - a young (ish), inexperienced man with a belief in change was elected in a landslide of hope and optimism, his name was Tony Blair - and while I think he was a decent PM and I would probably support him if given the option to go back, he wasn't the new Jesus - a handful of decent measures and a lot of crap that left us with a war in iraq, ridiculous levels of debt and a leftist government snuck in by the back door

yeah I'm a cynic, sorry Obama, you've made history because you aren't (completely) white, and you're a decent bloke who I expect I will support for 8 more years, unlike that cock Bush - but I am not getting caught up in the hysteria of this historic day, and I hope that you live up to more than just being remembered for being the first black president

anyway, getting on to the issue I really want to talk about - this election has of course got our media in a tizzy over the fact that we've been beaten by the americans, who we generally regard as racists, or least regard a solid block of them as racist - therefore is Britain racist?

umm, not really - as the decent branches of the media occasionally point out the black population of Britain is less than 3%, compared to 13% of the US - that's about 1 in 8 there compared to 1 in 30-something over here, 13% is a massive minority - Britain only has 8% who aren't white, let alone black - so I think people get a little carried away when they compare America with Britain and the rest of the west, America has a much bigger history with their black population, and they have of course have had them for 200 years - whereas most of our ethnic populations arrived after the war (my grandad's old chestnut of never having met a black man until the americans appeared in the war comes to mind) - surprisingly, immigrants from the carribbean and asia generally did not enter the upper levels of British society straight off the boat and often ended up in the worst inner city areas

So it does slightly grate at me when you get Americans saying "only in America could a working class black man be elected president" - yeah pretty much, because the whole world has had your experience with black people, had the whole segregation thing and martin luther king freed the US while the rest of the world remained racist...idiots, the arrogance of the statement is what really gets me

One area where you can compare far more easily is that group that make up 50% of every population - women, so whilst we are apparently racist - Britain, Germany, New Zealand and a few others in Europe I can't remember exactly, have all had female leaders

the fact that Obama is (half) black is great for America, but it is precisely that - great for America, the same rules don't apply to Poland or Sweden - so while the US came close to being able to elect a woman we did actually beat them by over 30 years on that front - not that I particularly care, I don't like grouping people - it just seems a fairer approach, especially as the colour of a politician's skin is probably far less important than if they can have babies and have hormones and things

But the question remains - would we? will we?

I think the electorate would have no problem with electing a person who isn't white - we're a pretty integrated society where many of our most hailed sportsmen are coloured, and indeed our newest hero (lewis) is half-caste, I think they would not bat an eyelid over skin colour frankly - I do think religion and wearing funny clothes would be a problem - a muslim would have no chance, and probably not even a catholic either (at least a devout one) but colour? no, you talk like an englishman, then you're an englishman

so why haven't we? well, first considering the statistics I've already mentioned it's quite unlikely, and my other point about immigrants I feel stands - most black people reside in some of the worst areas, there aren't many established middle or upper class black families - there are some of course, but they are a very small group - is that inherent racism? no, because there's plenty of white people stuck in the inner cities and living a life that will never allow them into politics, just a higher proportion of ethnic minorites are going to be in there because they're going to be 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants - simple fact is you have to be in the right social scene to get into politics, and there are very few people who aren't white who have made it there - it's not racism

And of course the Americans elect a president, one person appeals to the whole country - not the leader of a party who has to work his way up through party conferences and gain approval

so basically you will have to find a middle-class, oxbridge-educated black guy who is either a conservative or a socialist before you will get that chance - pretty slim odds - but I'm sure Labour will degrade the situation by forcing all-ethnic candidate lists and completely removing any sense of achievement and merit

We should be colour blind, and I think the general population do a pretty good job of that - the media and politicians not so much

Still Warm Election-Related Links

2008-11-08T12:34:00+01:00

Yes, I know it's over. These are some of the links I found most funny (if sometimes rivalrous and cynical), most moving, most interesting. Followed by a modest compilation of lengthy and detailed lists of 'what Obama needs to do,' proposed by various folk!

Moving

Greene: If you can’t (or can) say anything nice... by Bob Greene at CNN (31 Oct. 2008)

From 52 to 48 With Love at Ze Frank (begun: 5 Nov. 2008)

images by Patrick Moberg

Funny

I watched Fox News for five hours last night by Andrew O'Hehir at Salon (5 Nov. 2008)

Blowing Off Steam at the Margaret and Helen blog (6 Nov 2008)

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job in the Onion (5 Nov. 2008)

Obama Deletes Another Unread MoveOn.org E-Mail in the Onion (17 Sept. 2008)

Election-Related Signs: Why? by Scott Adams (4 Nov. 2008)

This.Fucking.Election.

Sarah Palin for Poet Laureate in Prospect magazine (Dec. 2008): "A great poet needs to leave open the door between the conscious and unconscious; Sarah Palin has removed her door from its hinges. A great poet does not self-censor; Sarah Palin seems authentically innocent of what she is saying."

Interesting and Useful

PolitiFact.com, applying factchecker and truth-o-meter to politicians' assertions

Political Speech by Nancy Hitt at Preaching Peace (5 Nov. 2008)

The Perils of Populist Chic by Mark Lilla in the WSJ (8 Nov.2008)

Change.gov - Office of the President-Elect (official website) - the 'agenda' section is pretty meaty

Obama's To-Do Lists

Obama's to-do list in the Boston Globe (6 Nov. 2008)

What Obama's Next Steps Should Be on Health Care, Transportation, Iraq and More at AlterNet (6 Nov. 2008)

A Towering Economic To-Do List for Obama in the NYT (5 Nov. 2008)

Economists' Advice for the President-Elect in the NYT (10 Nov. 2008)

Obama's global to-do list from John Hughes at the Christian Science Monitor (6 Nov. 2008)

Barack to the future: What can Obama do around the world at mirror.co.uk (6 Nov. 2008)

Top 10 foreign challenges for Obama at BBC News (5 Nov. 2008)

Obama's Top Three Foreign Policy Priorities at Foreign Policy in Focus (7 Nov. 2008)

Judith Kipper's Memo to the President at Huffington Post (6 Nov. 2008)

Environmental leaders offer their elevator pitches for Obama (Guardian, 7 Nov. 2008)

What the tech industry needs from President-elect Obama at CNET (5 Nov. 2008)

A Small Business Agenda for President Obama by Keith Girard at AllBusiness.com (6 Nov. 2008)

Let's consider three overlooked priorities for the new Obama administation by Judah Freed in the Portland (ME) Examiner (6 Nov. 2008)

Dave Pollard's view of Obama's Top 10 Tasks (5 Nov. 2008. Ten sounds small but wait until you see them ... 'Herculean' comes to mind)

Garrison Keillor has some advice, too: On this beautiful day, a few words for the happy couple (6 Nov. 2008)

requests for Advice for Obama at Freakonomics (see comments) (5 Nov. 2008)

what Obama should be reading from Inside Higher Ed (5 Nov. 2008)

Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw has a memo to the POTUS-elect (8 Nov.2008)

advice from Alice Walker, at Ekklesia: Care for your soul, Barack (10 Nov. 2008)

advice from folk at Sojourners: Jim Wallis (7 Nov); Elizabeth Edwards (10 Nov); Richard Rohr (11 Nov)

leaders in sustainable food and agriculture weigh in at Grist (10 Nov. 2008)

(to be continued ...)

Some thoughts on the kinderlekh

2008-11-07T14:26:42+01:00

I was glad to see Obama win the presidency; for one thing, I felt that a Democrat was needed in the White House if the Republican Party is to have any hope of reforming itself and distancing itself from the Bush administration (several poli-sci friends will likely laugh and remind me that I'm an English major). I also feel that with Obama in the White House, there's a (somewhat) better chance that all children will get the same opportunities early-education-wise. (I'm not a critic of No Child Left Behind because of its testing program; rather, I am frustrated the backwardness of its testing program. As it stands now, schools with better test scores are rewarded, while schools with lower test scores are not, leaving administrators and teachers on their own to raise those scores. This -- perhaps purposefully? -- *leaves behind* underperforming schools in economically challenged areas and simply strengthens the status quo.) Ultimately, it will be nice to see people in office who don't think that socializing an institution or two within an otherwise-capitalist system means we've been defeated by the Reds. One concern about Obama's potential administration that has been circulating among pediatricians and science bloggers in the last two days: he's supposedly considering appointing Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who published a wacky article at Salon.com about the "connection" between vaccines and autism, as the head of the EPA. The Respectful Insolence blog probably details the situation best. I hope Obama has some good science advisors on his side to let him know that the more the conspiracy theory about vaccines causing autism is spread, the more measles-mumps-rubella outbreaks we'll see in children in "First World" countries.

Obama Night Before the Election--Wonderful!

2008-11-06T23:50:59+01:00

Obama on South Park

2008-11-06T02:22:00+01:00

South Park Episode 1212: Obama Elected

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/207897/

OH YES WE CAN!

2008-11-05T06:55:00+01:00

For the first time in my life, I feel that America is the greatest country in the world.

For the first time in my life, I really believe that equality can be achieved.

Congratulations, Mr President!

* * *

[Excerpt from: Obama Acceptance Speech in Chicago 11/04/2008]

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer...

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin. And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

It's a Beautiful Day

2008-11-04T16:38:00+01:00

a polling booth in my neighborhood

I've never wanted someone to win so badly!

2008-10-25T06:04:00+02:00

Statistically speaking, the wealth gap between the rich and the poor in America always, always shrinks under a Democratic government...

Portraits of Obama Supporters

2008-10-22T05:54:00+02:00

If you sign up as a volunteer, you won't have to go to the zoo area towards the back, where latecomers snaked around the whole memorial more than once...

"Vote Now"

"What are the conservatives conserving?"

"Yes We Can"

"No third term" "Ask me how many houses I have"

Smiley gangsta

"Time for a Change"

"That One"

"History in the Making"

The VIP Stand

Portraits of an Obama Rally

2008-10-21T06:18:00+02:00

Location: WWI Museum, Liberty Memorial, Kansas City

Time: 2008-10-18, 4-7pm

Attendance: 75,000

Show Me Your Vote!

Yard signs

Obama memorabilia, even a cardboard cutout!

A glimpse of the podium

Men in Black everywhere

It was like going through airport security.

Safety is of paramount importance, specially for an outdoor event.

Anything can happen here... remember those Palin's rednecks shouting "kill him"?

Glad to see so many enthusiastic young volunteers.

Hello boys

I saw Obama!

2008-10-19T20:26:00+02:00

Rally for Change, Kansas City, Liberty Memorial, 2008-10-18

The vibe was very positive, the atmosphere was electrifying but also kinda relaxed.

Yay! Obama entering the Memorial Park.

(have to say GOOD JOB! to my Sony alpha DSLR)

I could tell that he was slightly tired, coming all d way from St Louis that morning. But he did a fine job.

There was definitely a sense that this is history in the making.

You should've seen that miles of cars that clotted the street afterwards... I simply didn't know there can be that many!

McCain-Palin Desperation Foments Racism

2008-10-13T00:09:00+02:00

by: Frank Rich, The New York Times The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama
Sunday 12 October 2008 Frank Rich believes that, "the McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism." If you think way back to the start of this marathon campaign, back when it seemed preposterous that any black man could be a serious presidential contender, then you remember the biggest fear about Barack Obama: a crazy person might take a shot at him. Some voters told reporters that they didn't want Obama to run, let alone win, should his very presence unleash the demons who have stalked America from Lincoln to King. After consultation with Congress, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, gave Obama a Secret Service detail earlier than any presidential candidate in our history - in May 2007, some eight months before the first Democratic primaries. 'I've got the best protection in the world, so stop worrying,' Obama reassured his supporters. Eventually the country got conditioned to his appearing in large arenas without incident (though I confess that the first loud burst of fireworks at the end of his convention stadium speech gave me a start). In America, nothing does succeed like success. The fear receded. Until now. At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of ‛Treason!' and ‛Terrorist!' and ‛Kill him!' and ‛Off with his head!' as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets, are actually something new in a campaign that has seen almost every conceivable twist. They are alarms. Doing nothing is not an option. All's fair in politics. John McCain and Sarah Palin have every right to bring up William Ayers, even if his connection to Obama is minor, even if Ayers's Weather Underground history dates back to Obama's childhood, even if establishment Republicans and Democrats alike have collaborated with the present-day Ayers in educational reform. But it's not just the old Joe McCarthyesque guilt-by-association game, however spurious, that's going on here. Don't for an instant believe the many mindlessly ‛even-handed' journalists who keep saying that the McCain campaign's use of Ayers is the moral or political equivalent of the Obama campaign's hammering on Charles Keating. What makes them different, and what has pumped up the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially (though not exclusively) by Palin: Obama ‛launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist.' He is ‛palling around with terrorists' (note the plural noun). Obama is ‛not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.' Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops. By the time McCain asks the crowd ‛Who is the real Barack Obama?' it's no surprise that someone cries out ‛Terrorist!' The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama's middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies. This sleight of hand at once synchronizes with the poisonous Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail blasts and shifts the brand of terrorism from Ayers's Vietnam-era variety to the radical Islamic threats of today. That's a far cry from simply accusing Obama of being a guilty-by-association radical leftist. Obama is being branded as a potential killer and an accessory to past attempts at murder. ‛Barack Obama's friend tried to kill my family' was how a McCain press release last week packaged the remembrance of a Weather Underground incident from 1970 - when Obama was 8. We all know what punishment fits the crime of murder, or even potential murder, if the security of post-9/11 America is at stake. We all know how self-appointed ‛patriotic' martyrs always justify taking the law into their own hands. Obama can hardly be held accountable for Ayers's behavior 40 years ago, but at least McCain and Palin can try to take some responsibility for the behavior of their own supporters in 2008. What's troubling here is not only the candidates' loose inflammatory talk but also their refusal to step in promptly and strongly when someone responds to it with bloodthirsty threats in a crowded arena. Joe Biden had it exactly right when he expressed concern last week that ‛a leading American politician who might be vice president of the United States would not just stop midsentence and turn and condemn that.' To stay silent is to pour gas on the fires. It wasn't always thus with McCain. In February he loudly disassociated himself from a speaker who brayed ‛Barack Hussein Obama' when introducing him at a rally in Ohio. Now McCain either backpedals with tardy, pro forma expressions of respect for his opponent or lets second-tier campaign underlings release boilerplate disavowals after ugly incidents like the chilling Jim Crow-era flashback last week when a Florida sheriff ranted about ‛Barack Hussein Obama' at a Palin rally while in full uniform. From the start, there have always been two separate but equal questions about race in this election. Is there still enough racism in America to prevent a black man from being elected president no matter what? And, will Republicans play the race card? The jury is out on the first question until Nov. 4. But we now have the unambiguous answer to the second: Yes. McCain, who is no racist, turned to this desperate strategy only as Obama started to pull ahead. The tone was set at the Republican convention, with Rudy Giuliani's mocking dismissal of Obama as an ‛only in America' affirmative-action baby. We also learned then that the McCain campaign had recruited as a Palin handler none other than Tucker Eskew, the South Carolina consultant who had worked for George W. Bush in the notorious 2000 G.O.P. primary battle where the McCains and their adopted Bangladeshi daughter were slimed by vicious racist rumors. No less disconcerting was a still-unexplained passage of Palin's convention speech: Her use of an unattributed quote praising small-town America (as opposed to, say, Chicago and its community organizers) from Westbrook Pegler, the mid-century Hearst columnist famous for his anti-Semitism, racism and violent rhetorical excess. After an assassin tried to kill F.D.R. at a Florida rally and murdered Chicago's mayor instead in 1933, Pegler wrote that it was ‛regrettable that Giuseppe Zangara shot the wrong man.' In the ‛60s, Pegler had a wish for Bobby Kennedy: ‛Some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow falls.' This is the writer who found his way into a speech by a potential vice president at a national political convention. It's astonishing there's been no demand for a public accounting from the McCain campaign. Imagine if Obama had quoted a Black Panther or Louis Farrakhan - or William Ayers - in Denver. The operatives who would have Palin quote Pegler have been at it ever since. A key indicator came two weeks after the convention, when the McCain campaign ran its first ad tying Obama to the mortgage giant Fannie Mae.

Rather than make its case by using a legitimate link between Fannie and Obama (or other Democratic leaders), the McCain forces chose a former Fannie executive who had no real tie to Obama or his campaign but did have a black face that could dominate the ad's visuals. There are no black faces high in the McCain hierarchy to object to these tactics. There hasn't been a single black Republican governor, senator or House member in six years. This is a campaign where Palin can repeatedly declare that Alaska is ‛a microcosm of America' without anyone even wondering how that might be so for a state whose tiny black and Hispanic populations are each roughly one-third the national average. There are indeed so few people of color at McCain events that a black senior reporter from The Tallahassee Democrat was mistakenly ejected by the Secret Service from a campaign rally in Panama City in August, even though he was standing with other reporters and showed his credentials. His only apparent infraction was to look glaringly out of place. Could the old racial politics still be determinative? I've long been skeptical of the incessant press prognostications (and liberal panic) that this election will be decided by racist white men in the Rust Belt. Now even the dimmest bloviators have figured out that Americans are riveted by the color green, not black - as in money, not energy. Voters are looking for a leader who might help rescue them, not a reckless gambler whose lurching responses to the economic meltdown (a campaign ‛suspension,' a mortgage-buyout stunt that changes daily) are as unhinged as his wanderings around the debate stage. To see how fast the tide is moving, just look at North Carolina. On July 4 this year - the day that the godfather of modern G.O.P. racial politics, Jesse Helms, died - The Charlotte Observer reported that strategists of both parties agreed Obama's chances to win the state fell ‛between slim and none.' Today, as Charlotte reels from the implosion of Wachovia, the McCain-Obama race is a dead heat in North Carolina and Helms's Republican successor in the Senate, Elizabeth Dole, is looking like a goner. But we're not at Election Day yet, and if voters are to have their final say, both America and Obama have to get there safely. The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder. The onus is on the man who says he puts his country first to call off the dogs, pit bulls and otherwise.

Thanks, as ever, to t r u t h o u t .

SNL: Sarah Palin as Sarah Palin

2008-09-28T06:17:00+02:00

When the real Sarah Palin interview with Katie Couric is funnier than its Saturday Night Live spoof, John McCain has a real problem...

Love, Campbell Brown

2008-09-24T08:20:00+02:00

9/23/08 Sarah Palin the "delicate flower that will wilt any moment"

9/1/08 McCain spokeman Tucker get grilled on air

9/17/08 Side-switcher "Lady" Lynn Forester de Rothschild" calling Obama "elitist"

Liar Liar

2008-09-20T06:55:00+02:00

What she wouldn't repeat in front of her home crowd...

Bullshit: Number One Issue for Voters '08

2008-09-19T09:15:00+02:00

Kansas City For Obama

2008-09-14T07:00:00+02:00

Missouri has always voted for the winner in past Presidential elections. In national polls that exclude newly registered voters, Obama is 5% behind McCain here in MO.But go for a short drive around Kansas City, you'll find nothing but a sea of HOPE and Change that We Can Believe In.Missouri for Obama~ YES. WE. CAN.

Swinging Missouri For Obama

2008-09-13T20:05:00+02:00

Everyday, I drive pass this HUGE Obama sign at a busy cross-section and I finally met the lovely grandmother this afternoon :)

I was ”thanks” b4 I was ”no thanks”

2008-09-13T04:20:00+02:00

(and it wasn't inappropriate)

Smoke, Fire & the Wasilla Library Book Banning

2008-09-13T03:05:00+02:00

Obama should take on the Repuke like this really...

2008-09-13T02:25:00+02:00

[[How to: wipe those smirk off their face and burst their little lies]

Sarah Bush: I personally believe that US Americans...

2008-09-12T02:40:00+02:00

"if there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country. In fact, the president has the obligation, the duty to defend." (preemptive strike)

"For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable" (Georgia)

Gibson: Do we have toright to be making cross-border attacks into Pakistan from Afganistan, with or without the approval of the Pakistani government?

Palin: As for our right to invade, we're going to work with these countries, building new relationships, working with existing allies but forging new also, in order to, Charlie, get to a point in this world, where war is not going to be a first option, infact, war has got to be a millitary strike a last option."

Excerpts: Palin interview by Charlie Gibson from ABC

abc factcheck: Palin could be the 1st VP in 30 years not to have met with any foreign head of state.

Miss Alaska

Miss Teen South Carolina

Troopergate hitting the fan?

2008-09-11T23:30:00+02:00

McCain: Obama is too old

2008-09-11T05:00:00+02:00

Honestly, I just can't believe we are even discussing dogs and pigs and lipsticks in the presidential election.A POTUS election, for Christ's sake!Look who's the original "sexist"~John McCain: I think they put some lipstick on the pig, but it's still a pig [2007 October, McCain referring to Hillary's failed 1993 health care plan] [again in May 2008, during the primary]John McCain: Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno. [1998 during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal]John McCain's phoney spin doctor Torie Clarke, who tricked the whole America into the phoney Iraq war, wrote this phoney book "Lipstick on a Pig" [2006]Why would a dog complain about being called a pig? Beats me...

No Country for Senile Man

2008-09-10T07:05:00+02:00

What are friends for?

2008-09-09T21:19:09+02:00

I Supported the Bridge to Nowhere and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt

2008-09-09T07:55:00+02:00

The number of nights Gov. Sarah Palin billed Alaska for staying at her own home: 312The amount of earmarks Sarah and her lobbyist got for the small town of Wasilla: $27 millionThe amount of pork-barrel earmarks Sarah requested for Alaska: $450 millionThe T-shirt that proves she was for the bridge-to-nowhere before she's against it: PricelessSpin this!

POW... President of War

2008-09-08T23:15:00+02:00

Who's Stupid?

2008-09-08T22:50:00+02:00

Original Huffington Post

Flip Flop Sexism & Republican Cottaging

2008-09-05T08:05:00+02:00

You just have to watch News with popcorn these days...[I do apologize if you cant stand this convicted criminal fuck face Karl Rove parading on TV...][Why the Republican National Convention is held in Minnesota][George McCain]

McPAIN

2008-08-30T02:55:00+02:00

Sarah Palin: What is it exactly that the VP does everyday...

(CNBC July 2008)

* * *

I really thought the republicans picked her to pull the Christians rather than women voters.

But I noticed that this afternoon, they've removed (amongst other things) this 2007 picture of her wearing fur from her wikipedia.

So I guess they aRe trying to woo the animal-loving, pro-fetus, pro-gun, pro-wildlife reserve drilling, pro-beauty pageant, modern independent female voters or someone as confused as ex-Hillary backer Debra Bartoshevich...

Surely, any mother who truly loves her 4-month old special-needs baby would concentrate on the kid rather than trying to get the most time-consuming job in the world?! How much does Palin really care when she went back to work 3 days after giving birth 1 month pre-term? Family value my arse!

Besides, what kind of mother stays at a conference and then takes an 11hr flight AFTER "the water broke"??!

... the grandmother?
(part of me really hope that this is just a sick joke...)

May be I should just be grateful that the GOP shot themselves on the foot and chose Sarah Noname over Meet Phony.

Dream Comes True

2008-08-29T05:15:00+02:00

Obama = (JFK + MLK) + 45 years of waiting for old people and their old prejudices to die out so that America can have her 1st black president[Obama's nomination acceptance speech in full]

Scapegoating the Leader's Leader ?

2008-03-24T17:35:00+01:00

The media focus on the relationship between U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Obama's pastor for the last 20 years, Jeremiah Wright (who retired last month as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago), is surprising and disheartening to me. I can't help but feel that something is sorely amiss in the call to repudiate and neutralise both Wright's sermons (though most of us have read or heard only the barest snippets in a body of work over 20 years in the making) and the man himself.

Please don't take my remarks below, or endorsement of other people's remarks, to mean that I agree with everything Wright says. I haven't heard most of what he's said, and I'm aware that what any person says is open to many interpretations. What we say can be understood literally, metaphorically, symbolically, as part of a larger story narrative, intending to bring to mind words of others, a frame for historical events, to promote violence and unity and to inspire the imagination. In fact, sermons taken out of context -- read instead of heard, outside the church and the ritual of liturgy -- seem particularly liable to be miscontrued. (Just think of Jesus's words, or most of the Bible or the Koran, and how even adherents of the same religious path differ greatly on beliefs and actions concerning wealth and poverty, living in community, family life, fairness in society, social justice, the body and sex, the legal system, retribution, forgiveness, and so on.)

...

I'm surprised by how widespread is the belief that most people agree with what their pastors preach, or the idea that most people would leave a church because their pastor's sermons aren't always in line with their beliefs. My experience is different -- the church is a group of people, the spirit and presence of a pastor is expressed not just in what s/he says in weekly sermons, the mission and vision of the church can supercede the influence of the pastor, the sensory experience of the rituals may matter more anything spoken during worship. Mark Oppenheimer says all this very well in his essay "How the Obama/Wright debate gets religion all wrong":

"In short, you only think Wright matters is you think that Obama attends Trinity Church because of the beliefs taught there. And while it might seem obvious that people choose a church (or synagogue, or mosque) because they agree with its teachings, that's not necessarily the case. In fact, I'd argue that for most people the beliefs of their church are a small, often insignificant part of why they attend."

Oppenheimer goes on to enumerate other compelling reasons for being part of a church: the sense of community there, cultural loyalty, the music and ritual, even perks like free babysitting and childcare; and one that resonates with me, "because having a pastor whom they disagree with is more interesting than having a pastor who never says anything controversial." I like to be challenged during worship, which means I won't agree with everything I hear from the pulpit.

...

Franky Schaeffer, son of the late Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer, makes the case that the essence (not every particular) of what Wright said was said years before by his dad, with rather a different response. When Francis Schaeffer "denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr. ... Dad became a hero to the evangelical community and a leading political instigator. ... Take Dad's words and put them in the mouth of Obama's preacher (or in the mouth of any black American preacher) and people would be accusing that preacher of treason."

Some have noted in the comments to Frank's story that Francis Schaeffer spent his life preaching against abortion, against euthanasia, using values and arguments "based and steeped in the bible." As Scott Hutchinson at Preaching Peace argues in his essay, "No Longer Do I Call You Friend?," however, many of Jeremiah Wright's most inflammatory words, even taken out of context as they have been, can be seen as social gospel, in the pattern of the Old Testament prophets and of Jesus himself.

...

Melissa Harris-Lacewell at theroot.com (associate professor at Princeton and seminarian at Union Theological Seminary) makes the same comparison to the Biblical prophets and also sees the similarity of Wright's oratory to that of American abolishionist Frederick Douglass's when he was speaking against slavery. (We studied Douglass in high school as a great American orator.) She says that Douglass and Wright are both speaking in the tradition of the 'black jeremiad.' Jeremiah, the Biblical prophet from whom the word 'jeremiad' is derived and the namesake of the Rev. Wright, "was among the biblical truth tellers who regularly warned the government that divine destruction was imminent if the nation continued to oppress the powerless. Frederick Douglass was a master of the jeremiad. He called slavery a curse to the nation and argued that, 'we shall not go unpunished.' He said it was the patriotic duty of blacks 'to warn our fellow countrymen' of the impending doom they courted and to dissuade America from 'rushing on in her wicked career' along a path 'ditched with human blood, and paved with human skulls.' Jeremiah Wright is a modern Douglass. Both men are like the Old Testament prophets who condemn the injustice and corruption of the rulers of their government."

While his overall take on the matter seems wrong to me, E.J. Dionne Jr. at the WaPo compares Wright's "un-American" remarks with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s. Some excerpts from some of those speeches are here.

For instance: Here's King preaching against the Vietnam War at his own Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (4 Feb. 1968):

"'God didn't call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war. . . . And we are criminals in that war. We've committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I'm going to continue to say it. And we won't stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation. But God has a way of even putting nations in their place.'

"King then predicted this response from the Almighty: 'And if you don't stop your reckless course, I'll rise up and break the backbone of your power.'"

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Back to Hutchinson's essay. He says that "the whirlwind enveloping Presidential candidate Barack Obama and his relationship to spiritual mentor and friend Reverend Jeremiah Wright" seems "a particularly Lenten drama, where we witness the powers of the world at work, demanding blind allegiance, wielding mechanisms of labeling and scapegoating, asserting dominion over matters of faith, threatening a bottom line quite at odds with God's realm."

Hutchinson says that rather listening to Obama defend his relationship with Wright even as he distanced himself from the pastor, "one longed for him to give as much, or more attention, to the gospel of Jesus Christ that he gives Reverend Wright recognition for preaching to him. ... How about the integrity to challenge when others would shamelessly prooftext Reverend Wright's sermons, to confront the failure of those howling in protest to listen more deeply and carefully to a word preached from the context of communal pain and alienation, to embrace a common commitment (even in honest disagreement and anger) to discern a deeper, penetrating, eternal voice speaking to us through this experience? Isn't September 11th part of a larger, tragic cycle of human violence and retribution (while indeed being inexcusable)? Don't the scriptures indicate that the taking of innocent life comes under the judgment of God?"

Hutchinson makes clear that he's not condeming Obama: "His dilemma is ours, albeit on greater public display. ... For me, this is a recognition scene. .. I am beckoned to make an honest appraisal of the titans of this world that demand my allegiance and the spiritual 'pretzel logic' they insist I embrace. I must also be honest about the ways I accede to those demands."

(I am noticing my own pretzel logic this tax season, as the country seems to be in recession and house values are falling. I'm trying to maximize the tax return, thinking about how charitable gifts can be used to do so, worrying about the (paper) losses to my retirement funds, etc., and recognising in a corner of my being that this is not living as Jesus lived. My money anxieties and greed are not furthering the gospel. To the contrary.)

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Others have commented on the similarity of Wright's "God damn America!" to the prophets' and Jesus's "Woe unto you!" Just a few examples: Prophets: Isaiah 3:9, Isaiah 5, Isaiah 10:1-3, Jeremiah 13:27, Jer. 23, Habakkuk 2:12,15,19, Ezekiel 13:3,8, Hosea 7:13; Jesus: Matthew 23:23-33 or its parallel in Luke 11:42-54, and Matthew 18:7 and Luke 6:24-28.

United Methodist pastor Eric Folkerth's comments at TPM are particularly thoughtful. Also helpful, Kevin Considine's comments at religionand spirituality.com. Kevin is a graduate student at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

On the surface, "Woe unto you" seems more ambiguous about where the woe comes from than "God damn" does about where the damning comes from. We don't know if "woe" is a punishment for evil deeds or a consequence of those deeds. It's certainly possible that it's the latter. A simple example that removes the ambiguity might be if I said to someone who eats twice his required calorie intake every day and who doesn't get any exercise, "Obesity unto you!" Yes, obesity is what will probably happen, and it may feel like punishment, but it's clear that I'm not bringing anything to pass, that it's his actions, colliding with reality, that lead to some pretty predictable consequences. The meaning of Isaiah 3:9 seems to be similar to this: "Woe unto their soul for they have rewarded evil unto themselves."

On the other hand, "God damn" seems to be unambiguous. We have an external causal agent, God, and a type of action, i.e., damning, which is de facto a punishment. I'm not so sure of this, though; it may be just a rhetorical way of recognising that actions and consequences are part of the natural order of reality, the way, some might say, that God created them. Or it could be an actual request or demand of God that God condemn people to suffering.

If the latter, while I can relate to the feeling and desire to bring suffering to those who I believe are causing others to suffer, I don't think this is a truly Christian call, and I think it is always counter-productive as a way to reduce suffering. Jesus in the Drama of Salvation by Raymund Schwager SJ and Mark Heim's Saved from Sacrifice: A Theology of the Cross are particularly good explorations of Biblical passages that seem to posit God's condemnation and punishment but that ultimately can be understood as God handing us over to the consequences of our actions; God, in other words, doesn't intervene (see obesity example above).

The full text of Obama's speech is here.

As Betsy pointed out in the comments (thanks), you can watch Wright's 9/11 sermon (from which the "chickens coming home to roost" line was taken) in context on YouTube, and his "God Damn America" sermon in context on YouTube as well.

25 March 2008 Update:

Gary Kamiya's article in Salon today -- "Rev. Jeremiah Wright isn't the problem: The hysteria over Obama's former pastor's attacks on America shows we're still in thrall to knee-jerk patriotism" -- is worth reading:

"But beyond the fake shockand the all-too-familiar racial politics, what the whole episode reveals is how narrow the range of acceptable discourse remains in this country. This is especially true of anything having to do with patriotism or 9/11 -- which have become virtually interchangeable. Wright's unforgivable sin was that he violated our rigid code of national etiquette. Instead of the requisite 'God bless America,' he said 'God damn America.' He said 9/11 was a case of chickens coming home to roost. Now we must all furrow our brows and agree that such dreadful words are anathema and that no presidential candidate can ever have been within earshot of them. ... It didn't matter that Wright uttered his curse in the context of demanding that America live up to its ideals -- all that mattered were those three talismanic words. Anyone this angry, our media gatekeepers solemnly informed us, must be rejected. ...

"Turkey has a notorious law, Article 301, that makes "insulting Turkishness" a crime. We're a lot closer to this than we like to think. ...

"Our currently mandated version of patriotism is banal and genteel, as if we are afraid to dig beneath the surface of America and find out what's really there. But there is another tradition of patriotism -- a prophetic one. It is dark, angry, disturbing, even terrifying. And it cannot be dismissed, for its exponents include figures who exist at the very heart of the way Americans define themselves and their nation," including John Winthrop, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr."

7 April 2008 update: More today on the similarity between some of what Wright said and some of what MLK Jr said at the blog of America: The National Catholic Weekly.

30 April 2008 (can you believe it?) update: Essay entitled "Black Church, Black Theology, and the Politics of Religion in America: A Reflection on the Theology-Race Controversy" by Lee H. Butler, Jr., Ph.D. Professor of Theology and Psychology, Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Black Faith and Life at Chicago Theological Seminary, and President, Society for the Study of Black Religion.

Cerebral Static

2008-02-19T04:45:00+01:00

A cop follows the path of a serial killer she has been tracking for years be for he can get to his magic number. After using the killers own thoughts and delusions it starts to change her. The police officer becomes what she fears. Loves what she hates. What's on his mind might be you.
Cerebral Static from Judas on Vimeo.

Giuliani Right on Health Care

2007-08-01T21:27:22+02:00

Sentora, M. (2007). Giuliani seeks to transform U.S. health care coverage. New York Times. August 1, 2007. Available online: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/us/politics/01giuliani.html.Neither his plan nor the article covering it are perfect, but hard not to like this:

Rudolph W. Giuliani on Tuesday called for transforming the way health care coverage is provided in the United States, advocating a voluntary move from the current employer-based system to one that would grant substantial tax benefits to people who buy their own insurance...And to help the poor or others struggling to afford health insurance, Mr. Giuliani said he would support vouchers and tax refunds, but he gave no details about how he would pay for them.Mr. Giuliani’s vision stands in stark contrast to the plans offered by the leading Democratic candidates. Both Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina have proposed bolstering the employer-based system by requiring corporations to buy insurance for their workers, and raising taxes or rolling back tax cuts to increase subsidies for health care for the poor.

Corporatism, the idea that companies should be simultaneously protected by the government but expected to fund welfare societies for their workers and dependents, is one of those bad ideas that are just hard to killed. From China's State-Owned Companies to Detroit's dinosaurs, too many enterprises and too many workers have been dragged down because governments made the stupid prediction that large companies cannot possibly go bankrupt.There needs to be some form of universal healthcare, and it should be at least funded by the government through the income tax. Calls for "employer-based healthcare," like from the junior Senator from Illinois and former junior Senator from North Carolina, are steps in the wrong direction.

Barnett wrong on Obama

2007-07-28T18:15:00+02:00

Tom Barnett and I agree on a lot (such as the use f private contractors to counter the excessive relative value given to individual lives in public discourse), but he's wrong in his defense of Senator Barack Obama and his attacks on Senator Clinton (see posts from July 28 and July 25). Specifically, in a recent Democratic Party debate Obama said that he would freely meet with rogue leaders without preconditions, while Clinton emphasized the need for care and concern when meeting with rogue states.Meetings with high-level American officials are goods. They benefit not only the regimes hosting the officials, but those factions within the regimes seen as orchestrating it. The opposite is also true: when American officials are too busy to visit some country or organization, the snub hurts not only the would-be host but those elements that are seen as having "lost" or "depended on" the visit.It's is foolish to pretend that high-level American officials have an infinite amount of time and energy, or that as much time as possible should be spent visiting our enemies instead of our friends, "on the fence states," or even doing the other jobs they are employed to do.Barnett's defense of Obama is wrong, and I fear it has a lot more to do with exasperation against Senator Clinton and the "baby boomers" in general (or perhaps the physical pain Tom's enduring) than with the validity of Obama's statements or even Barack himself.For a more reasonable analysis of Obama's statement, see zenpundit's Obama's lack of sea-legs in foreign policy.Update: A social faux paus! As I'm complaining, Tom is complimenting!