I would like to finally have a POTUS that I can be proud of.
Me too. Unfortunately I'm stuck with these turkeys.
I can remember being in Paris during the whole Bill and Monica thing and my host saying that French politicans have mistresses, but are smarter than to mess with plump little girls and are too discreet to get caught. UGH.
I guess we have a lot to learn from the French about the proper etiquette for adultery. Here, cuckolded wives have to stand next to their husbands at the press conference. In France, wives stand next to the mistresses at the funerals of their husbands.
Predictably, Obama is trying to move to the center and the volatile elements of his coalition are angry. The agent of change is seen to be the agent of the same old same old. Obama is for Obama.
Big surprise. Yawn.
Is he flip flopping? There is a difference between changing one's mind in light of new evidence and doing it to follow polling numbers.
Take the changes individually and ask what new evidence caused his reconsideration. If he replies that a change signifies leadership, in other words, he defends his character but does not present new evidence, he is flip flopping.
Whoda believed Obama could make Dick Cheney look like a man of integrity and character? Sometimes it really is a well-scrubbed, well-polished act but that is all it is.
Now we have the New Yorker page. Liberals go crazy. Yawn.
Some complain "The satire is lost on average folks." and that they will believe it.
How many of them are reading New Yorker? Of course the right wingers will use it to make their case and so will the left wingers.
That's how satire works. People are up in arms because it is Obama and everyone knows he needs to be cuddled and coddled. And after that, they still expect us to vote for him?
Cluetrain: we don't care about white guilt. We don't feel guilty. In fact, the longer this goes on, the less guilt there is to be found. THAT is the cost of this campaign. It isn't making us more aware. It is desensitizing us not because we are haters but because we aren't hypocrites.
Sheesh. They said nothing about Hillary's picture on a urinal target and dozens of other tasteless displays. The elite needs to figure out another way to play Spy vs Spy because no one really cares what that cover means. They want to know how to keep themselves on the road at $4 a gallon and if their money is still IN the bank.
The question is did Obama flip-flop on his position on the right to bear arms in the case of the District of Columbia law that prohibited handguns. The answer is that based on his prior statements that this was constitutional law, yes he did.
But not so fast.
"A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed." Second Amendment of the US Constitution
Try to find the bit that says individuals have the right to own guns.
Try to find the bit that says a State or municipality can't pass laws about the kinds and types of arms that an individual can bear.
Try to find the bit that says this applies to women as well as men.
Try to find the bit that says a felon can't bear arms.
Try to find the bit that says deranged lunatics can't bear arms.
Try to find the bit that elaborates individual vs States rights.
Obama's statement that the new Supreme Court ruling striking down the DC law is useful guidance is correct. The Court did its job. Trying to determine if this makes sense in an era of ubiquitous unregistered Uzis and Glocks is an altogether different problem. That is the essence of Obama's dilemma or really any thinking person with an understanding of the implications of open borders and a society with a wide chasm between haves and have nots.
Understanding constitutional law is not the problem. Understanding the role of the executive in context of the oath of office in real world events is.
Guidance is not always given and there isn't enough time to ask for it in some situations. Caveat emptor.
Some days are just more interesting than others at my job. Really... my boss is the master of schwooze. Shaquille O'Neal was here a few minutes ago to meet with us. That's my programming team standing out front. They're the best crew I've sailed with in many a moon. In case you can't tell, Shaq is on the back row with his hand on the ugly guy with the glasses and thinning hair.
The difference in this job and my last job is simply astounding.
The turtles exclaimed, "Not nice. Possums have rights too."
(a) Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States, or the seal of the United States Senate, or the seal of the United States House of Representatives, or the seal of the United States Congress, or any facsimile thereof, in, or in connection with, any advertisement, poster, circular, book, pamphlet, or other publication, public meeting, play, motion picture, telecast, or other production, or on any building, monument, or stationery, for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States or by any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
Michelle Obama goes on The View to be one of the girls. She praises Hillary, talks about sexism, tries to make nice. This is the political makeover a very highly paid PR firm is putting together.
I don't mind the Obama's being blatant hypocrites. I mind them doing that while their supporters are still engaged in destroying Hillary Clinton to break that 18 million voter bloc Clinton controls. The Obama's believe possibly rightly that Goebbels was right: just keep saying it until they believe it.
Meanwhile the Obama campaign moved two women wearing hijabs from behind the platform for the appearance with Al Gore. This kind of staging has occurred before and Obama apologizes afterwards, but his campaign continues the practice so it isn't something he can honestly say he isn't aware of. "All for the show, ya no", as Mick Jagger said. His supporters defend it by saying Fox would have a field day with the photos. And they are right. On the other hand, courage is doing the thing that is dangerous because it is the right thing to do.
He is the rock candidate alright. Or as Reverend Wright said, "Just a politician." Whatever. This isn't change anyone with half a brain can believe in.
Obama isn't about change or hope or us. Obama is about Obama. That's what rock stars do... or candidates for the job anyway.
I've forgotten much about the music that affected me in the early days. Going from being a kid playing folk in the churches in the 1960s to the boy playing pop in the restaurants in the 1970s to the man playing rock/blues/jazz in the 80s to originals in the 90s, and now, back to folk, one rediscovers the roots and some surprises.
1960s folk was not just protest music. Grounded in the Hootenannies of the late 50s, it was very spiritual. Gospel is as much the tap root of 1960s folk and pop ever since. We tend to forget that as we have become dance-centric. Now that I'm past the time I really need or want to play in the loud bands, I am enjoying rediscovering these roots and wondering how this will affect my songwriting. The influence has always been there with different emphasis but as my son pointed out when I was orchestrating "Fee Fi Fo Fum" for the children's play, "Dad, that's really the Mamas and the Papas soundwise" and he was right.
Come the day, I find I want these sounds back in my life. Perhaps as a fan once noted about "Sam (for Liz)", we come to an age where we need a little innocence back.
More Seekers... Judith Durham is medicine to the wounds.
If you are one of the women who bought into the Obamalosi campaign, remember that the only reason he is the Democratic nominee is because the media was allowed to stomp on his competition while giving him a free ride.
If you don't get that, come Independence Day, be sure to clean house, wash dishes, iron shirts and all that. Free slaves is an oxymoron.
Father's Day is when I miss my Dad. We shared life and music. It was a grace-filled relationship. Evenings spent playing old songs, I miss that. I have my own song for Dad, but I found something special this year.
The web has delights for the finding. Judith Durham is one. Georgy Girl had me from the first note. For a long time I didn't know what became of the beautiful chestnut-haired singer so beguiling when I was a boy of twelve.
It has been a pure delight to discover she became even more brilliant and heartfelt.
A musician born is a musician forever. I love this one. She was first in a boy's heart and as she sang, "I know I'll never find another you", I knew I never would.
Then there is the issue no one talks about in any way that makes sense: the war.
I've never been to a war. I've lived in a country at war. I've lived with a family where my brothers and my father went to war. I've seen only the aftermath.
This is the issue that tears me in the middle. Obama doesn't have a solution and McCain can only tell us how terrible war is but how terrible it is to lose. Of the two, he knows the most but I don't know if he has the best solution.
And this is an issue I will puzzle over because although it seems that while we all can agree it is terrible, we can't agree on much else.
The problem of the economy as an issue is it is like sitting at a crowded table eating an expensive meal; the crowd blames the restaurant, the waiter is asking if anyone wants more, the chef wants a compliment but no one wants to pick up the check.
Obama's weakness is he projects the feminization of America and that isn't a sexist or racial issue. It is leftist and this is a right-center country except for the millenials and they aren't nearly as large a voting bloc as the baby boomers who are increasingly conservative and had enough of rock stars about the time hip-hop was born.
What is interesting is the current punditry on the veepstakes. The McCain pundits are saying he needs a VP that will brighten his image given his age. The Obama pundits are saying he mustn't pick a VP that dims his brightness.
The Obama camp is still afraid of Hillary Clinton even having taken the nomination. It doesn't matter that she is out of the race; it does matter that they keep working the message of Obama Girl that his image needs to be protected. That's a real fear and a real weakness that can be exploited: rock stars can't lose the bad boy image or they become working stiffs.
It's another day on the political blogs. Now that Clinton is out of the race, I can relax and taunt the contenders. Some such as Jake Tapper at ABC are still beating on Hillary Clinton but that may just be bad boy habits. He misses her.
The first part of the day is the expected attempts to humiliate Clinton supporters to come over to Obama. I suspect some will but I know a lot won't. It's just been too painful and insulting an exchange over the last few months. People who only know Obama from CNN's glowing adoration miss the real action which is where his supporters spent those months insulting and kicking in the teeth of the Clinton supporters. Those angry attitudes about Barack are quite real. One can only be called 'racist', 'idiot', 'fear monger', 'geezer' and so on for so long before it becomes a reason to not vote for their candidate.
jeanne sez:
I understand your feelings about Obama, but he claims to kick out the special interests and that is a start.
Think Jeanne. How many so-called reformers have told us that? Has it ever worked? All interests are 'special interests'. Satisfying them and getting elected are what politicians do. So try not to be as disappointed as you probably will be when yoou realize that as his classmate at Harvard said, "Obama is about Obama".
The campaigns will only give us a hint about his special interests. If his past performance is a clue, it will include prodigious amounts of tax dollars going to his cronies who espouse extreme ultra-left causes.
He can do little about the war until the conditions improve there. As Colin Powell said, "You break it; you own it." That's non-negotiable at this point.
The real interests are purely economic. A tsunami of debt and price hikes are coming our way and so far, nothing in his speeches suggests he has a single clue about what to do.
It comes down to what he is for, not what he is against.
ObamaKnew sez:
Hillary does not want the VP spot.
I hope you are right and that Senator Clinton returns to the Senate where she can do the most good for the causes she has fought for her whole life.
Otherwise she is betting her career on a campaign that has a less than even odds of winning. We really need her to stay viable. An economic tsunami is hitting our shores. The only color it favors is green and the only race it discriminates against is the one to the gas pump every Sunday night just before the prices go up.
She has already made history. If she wants to support Obama, that's her choice to make. She has an enormous amount of power right now. I'd like to see her use it to help people the way she always has. Obama's candidacy might not be the best place to leverage it in the months to come.
On the other hand, the Manly Man Contest is heating up and becoming real fun for those of us with no dog in the hunt. Obama is trying for that virile thing and so the first thing he does is push Joe Lieberman against a wall and demand his lunch money. Typical.
Now that's classic mau-mau. Push someone against a wall and demand they give you their lunch money.
Lieberman should have decked him. At some point, someone will.
So now we see that not only is Obama arrogant, he has a need to act out his aggression in public for others to approve.
This will get interesting as the heat turns up. The Republicans just got the Golden Compass to where his character flaw buttons can best be pushed. We saw flickers of it in the debates. He is a disciplined guy, but that breaks down when he thinks he has the upper hand.
That explains why McCain asked for Town Halls. McCain only needs to make him angry one time with enough surprise that Obama reacts as he did with Lieberman.
anon sez:
Lieberman is simply a mouth piece for Israel..
Which has historically been a position of some influence in American elections.
So are you pitting the Internet noveau riche against the pro-Israeli lobbies and New York wealth based on a guy who pushes old Jewish men around only when the guy has Secret Service agents to watch his back?
He's going to get creamed.
@mr coffee says Obama and McCain should
both be psychologically evaluated:
Not a bad idea. So will Dr. Phil do the evaluation? They have to get health exams. Maybe a psych eval is a reasonable request.
McCain wears his temper on the outside. That's a fighter jock. Obama wears his temper on the inside. That's a thin walled teapot waiting to blow. Experience is that if you have to deal with either of those types, the outie is a lot easier and more reliable. The innie is very unpredictable and hard to manage.
Pelosi has her work cut out for her. Obama will be a PIA to manage. She needs a waterboy and he won't be that because he is only servile until he gets the power. As we say, don't use attack dogs because they circle back to the hand that holds the leash.
That incident in the hallway with Lieberman is a loser for the ticket. Qui bono? Not the Democrats. It just made them look bad right when they were trying to keep the spin cycle pointed at Hillary to humiliate her into being more generous with her mail list. Obama needs that desperately and she doesn't have to do anything but be polite, supportive and let him self-combust.
Or his supporters will light the fire. They are his Achilles Heel.
Enuff stuff! Let's ROCK WITH THE BO THAT KNEW DIDDLEY!!!
It’s the eve of the Big Meeting in Washington of the DNC Fools Committee and from where I sit, Michigan and Florida are losing. Meanwhile, another close associate of Obama comes out of the closet as a looney spouting racist rhetoric that would make John Brown spin in his grave. The death march to the sea continues.
The DNC and the Obama supporters know what mainstream Democrats know: these ministers are Obama's friends, not Johnny-come-lately admirers seizing fifteen minutes of flame. These are the people he chooses to associate with. This is who Obama secured many thousands of dollars in Federal grants for. These ARE his people, white, black, racist, sexist or just crazy. This IS the Obama Nation.
That is why Hillary is winning the national vote. This is why he loses the general election.
The fascinating bit is the narrative arc. Nancy Pelosi sets up a candidate with money and support, pushes all the right buttons to set him against her chief rival, Hillary Clinton. With his delegate count soaring but his campaign losing in the popular vote, she steps in as the great power broker to “stop the fighting”, anointing herself as the queen while her knight errant is sent off to slay the monster but leaving her with the magic money machine and the voter list. She doesn't care that he is losing; she needs him to create the perception of herself as the real power in the party. Very slick moves by Pelosi one must admit to set her self up as the presumptive nominee for 2012 and the hegemon during his presidency.
Almost Shakespearean. Very Grendel. At least, bad Disney.
Except it is falling apart in the third act. Why?
The scenario in the beginning was Pelosi brokering Silly Valley money and making deals with Chicago politicians to take the White House and both houses of Congress. It seemed simple. The Republican numbers were in the basement. They could run a fresh face if a weak candidate and use the dry tinder of white guilt and intimidation to fuel the fire.
So far so good, but elite liberals who use black politicians seldom associate with them in black social circles; so they know less than nothing about the culture of blacks among blacks. They don't understand the depth of anger, hostility and racist rhetoric or how much of that signal is there on the very instrument they use to fuel the money machine: the Internet.
Now it is too late to weasel out and in the mean time, the enemies of America in the Middle East are supporting Obama in public. How easy will it be to create the perception of a loose confederation of like minded left wing liberals who espouse causes that threaten Israel, the US and the European allies? Too easy. Why? Pelosi didn't understand what she was setting in motion. She is blinded by her ambition to take down Hillary Clinton. She forgets that once Hillary is out of the picture, the MSM and the hard right wing will defile Obama with the same tactics and more money. She and hers spent theirs defeating Clinton.
This begins to look like the voyage to Hell for Pelosi and her band of merry Internet Pranksters as they are sucked down into the maelstrom of anti-American sentiment and actions, a twister she fueled by heating the atmosphere with racism and sexism.
Pundits want to make this about Hillary but Pfleger made this about reparations. It's a one two punch with Wright delivering the message and Pfleger delivering the terms. Obama is simply expected to deliver.
Because of the events that have transpired, there is going to be a lot more of this between now and November. The problem with Obama's Big Speech is it is a one trick pony. His support has been clearly eroding in the popular vote since the Reverend Wright fiasco. Because his entire political career is built on association but no substantive work, all he can be judged by ARE his associations.
That will be enough to put McCain in the White House by a blow out. We had a better than even chance with Senator Clinton at the helm. Now we have less than one in three and those odds depend on the voters worrying about McCain's age. That is pretty weak. So then it becomes about the war. That is two edged. If the surge keeps working and there are draw downs between now and the election (something Bush can be sure to make happen), all they need is for Osama and his merry band to repeat a performance somewhere in Europe, something they can manage, or for the Middle East terrorists to make a campaign video endorsing Obama which they probably will do.
Nothing is certain but the odds on favorite is McCain at this point courtesy of Nancy Pelosi whose blind ambition had split the Democratic Party and ruined the one chance it had at the White House.
Past performance is a predictor of future performance, but only McCain and Clinton have a genuine legislative record. Even there, the campaign never focuses on the issues. In this election, no one owns the real issues. Everyone has a plan. In the case of the Democrats, the plans are close in nature kind and objectives. Some are not achievable because they go too far too fast or cost too much. People know this. It is part of the campaign.
So in the end it comes down to who do you trust to do their very best. Character assessment is precisely how most make that decision. Hillary is ahead in the popular vote and her lead is widening. The Democrats woke up and paid attention to Obama too late because they didn't take him seriously. Pfleger is right about that. They already know her or think they do. The $40 million character assassination done by the Republicans had a lasting effect.
Now they are wide awake and seized with a horror of what seems unavoidable. They have not only set up the weaker candidate for nomination, but one who's associates guarantee a scandal a week for years to come. So we get four years and the Republicans get another twelve and that is the BEST we can do.
It didn't have to be this way. Maybe we learned something but history indicates lessons learned are lost one generation after they are acquired.
Let's see if we can untangle the pundit spin.
1. Obama is a likable guy even if arrogant and aloof. He is an election 'horror' because his associates’ positions plus the pile on from the Middle East put Pelosi and her Pranksters on a day-glo bus to hell. They can't lead, they can’t follow, they can’t get off, they can’t stand still, they can’t slow down, they can’t take Hill, and if the thunder doesn’t get them, the lightning will (apologies to the Grateful Dead). The electorate will tire very fast and the down ticket races will reflect that. IOW, it’s woody weeding time for the DNC.
2. He hasn't earned this nomination. Pelosi's Amazing Money Machine bought his delegates and his ability to outspend 4 to 1. Nothing in his legislative achievement says he can govern effectively when it comes to world policy. Then there are those pictures of Hillary Clinton in the green zone with John McCain among thousands of others showing she goes where the crosses grow and comes back with the facts. Say what you will about Bosnia, she was there.
What I am saying is 'THIS' first lady is far more qualified, and THIS Senator is the strongest candidate. That the Pelosi cabal in the DNC chose to use all their resources to destroy her says clearly we need to push them out of power. They fear her more than they want Obama.
The Democratic nomination process is straight out of MAD Magazine. Even Alfred E. should worry.
As the nominating process comes to a close, the press piles on and the pundits gleefully recite their litany of putrid prose for the profanity that has become the Democratic National Committee, I am reminded of an old folk song from my youth that exactly describes my celebration of the well-deserved futilities to come.
The voting results tonight are astounding. After all the press told the voters Barack is the presumptive nominee, he gets mauled. We see continued erosion of Barack's core and accelerating loss of the working class precisely when by the game rules he is the front runner.
Delegates are the game. The people pick the President.
Who rules?
Barack Obama is winning the nomination and losing the election.
Many thanks to the Obama supporters who sent me those *informative* and *morale boosting* emails last weekend. It was a beautiful weekend in Alabama with the honeysuckles blooming. The rodeo was fantastic and the smell of fear from Chicago was overwhelming. God bless you. You do make me feel better about living here.
Obama telling everyone not to talk trash about his wife is admirable and probably prudent. He could have mentioned it when his wife told the supporters that if Clinton can't handle her house, how can she handle the country?
Well, what goes around comes around, Bo. You know that. It was time to suckle some honey up your way. I'm married. I get that. :-)
But despite the press, the delegate math and the out-of-towners bussed into Oregon to make that crowd, some trends are not going the way of the Democratic Party these days.
The revealing trend is the Democratic Party is splitting in a way it hasn't before. Yes, Clinton and Obama have created an unusual interest in the election, the process and the parties. Party bosses say this makes the process healthier and that might be so, but it may not be working as they think.
Many who have for years supported their party of choice like it was a weekend sports contest or because their family supported the party or it once had a candidate they supported have done so sleep walking. Now they are awake. Now they are looking.
Now many don't like what they see. The same people who are resisting one candidate or another are also resisting their party leadership for reasons they feel justify that resistance.
Some party leaders are losing more than they know. Pelosi, Dean etc., have sided with the same candidate that Hamas is siding with. That may not work out very well for them.
You can get 75,000 people in one place in Oregon by lighting a joint on the same day the wind is blowing. "Too Much, The Magic Bus!" So Obama flipped a Byrd. He should have gotten David Crosby. That at least would be entertaining.
1. Obama's State count doesn't reflect the electoral count. He is losing to Clinton and would lose to McCain when you examine the electoral math.
2. Hillary Clinton is ahead in the popular vote. That lead will get bigger tomorrow.
3. Obama's core constituency has been weakening since Ohio and the rate of erosion increased since West Virginia. The defection of the Reagan Democrats and a not inconsiderable number of women voters weakens him further.
4. Obama is picking up delegates with promises of cash and positions. No one who commits has to vote the same way twice except the popular vote. The delegates know that on a second vote at the convention, they are free to vote anyway they like. That means they can take money and play again. Alice Palmer will enjoy this wherever she is.
5. Obama continues to show weak character and bad judgment in the press. Michelle is fair game while she campaigns for him. Obama supporters told Chelsea to toughen up. I suggest you forward that to BO. A man making hollow threats is not about to bargain credibly with Hamas.
It gets better on CNN. John King admits and the Democratic insiders admit that Hillary is stronger in the electoral math. She will win. Obama? They aren't sure. He has to turn an eroding constituency around but the constituency he needs appears growing only angrier at the Democratic Party and Barack Obama.
Meanwhile the delegate count is slipping away from Clinton as if the Dems have signed a mutual electoral suicide pact.
And McCain? Enjoying it. As he should. "Imagine the excitement of leaving the convention and still not knowing who the nominee is?"
However this nomination fight goes, the Democratic Party needs to throw Pelosi and Dean to the wolves. The party claims to be uniting but it isn't going to happen this time. Overmanaging and blind ambition have cost us the one election we could not lose.
Suckle up to honey, Sweetie. The drums are beating and the natives are restless.
It seems the women are waking up to the power of the media, big money and men in this campaign. They also realize that Hillary Clinton has been screwed over by all three. The creeping realization of Nancy Pelosi's role in this is also dawning as they see articles like this from Atlantic Monthly.
Here are some exchanges from an ABC blog.
To John Cowan: as I said, too disorganized for their own good. Otherwise, you would be right.
I support the HC supporters who realize that sexism not racism was the real issue here. I am thrilled that the women have *finally* decided to fight for Hillary. Great.
But do understand that this has NEVER been about Obama vs Clinton. Obama did not have the organization or clout to create the "Amazing Money Machine" as Atlantic Monthly calls it. That was done by Nancy Pelosi using her contacts in Silly Valley. This race is about her blind ambition to be the first female president and not to become Hillary Clinton's water boy.
So step back and consider this: you've been hustled by one of your own and you didn't notice because the sexism and racism issues blind you to the reality of one woman working hard to derail another. Until you get that and manage it, you're majority status is useless.
From IndigoGrrl comes:
I agree with you that Pelosi has had her hands in this... but do not discount the part of Dean, Kennedy & Daschle in this charade!
Yes, IndigoGrrl, but before you walk into the sexist trap all fired up, go cold and go slow. Read the Atlantic Monthly article and understand the power behind the throne here. It was Pelosi that built the money machine. Everyone else is a front dummy. Men just aren't usually that smart.
Otherwise, this revolt is coming too little and too late and won't mean a thing to this election or Hillary Clinton.
Remember, they want you to fire up and act like 'teed off girls'. The anger you feel is real, but if it becomes Lysistrata 2008, defectors will disable you before you can do anything useful.
Remember: Go slow. Go cold.
Then the paid Obama male blogger chimes in:
the sexist argument hurts women...
if this was a sexist situation then why was hillary the presumptive nominee in October with what 53 to Obama's 20 in the consistent polls...
there would have had to be a massive sexist movement in the 3 months.
calling her loss on sexism...hurts every woman who faces real sexism.
dl
and the fast riposte
Wrong dl. Sexism is the oldest of the isms. It's been in play as long as there have been sexes, for any practical measure, forever. It just turns ugly sometimes.
But if you missed the MSNBC comments, the "w**re, c**t, b**ch, kitchen, laundry, kewpie doll, let's gang up on her" affairs, you are a real latecomer to this process and I know that isn't true, so you are hoodwinking.
My quandary is why it took other women so long to notice and get angry about it. The finest woman candidate of a generation got belitted and stomped without much reaction because everyone was so caught up in the fear of being called 'racist'. The women let The View shut them up when they should have been declaring Lysistrata 2008.
But it is Pelosi who did the damage to them. That may take some time to be clearly understood.
The problem of letting an ism take hold is it blinds us to the other isms.
indigoGrrl sez:
I've bookmarked your blog -- good stuff...others here should do the same.
@indigoGrrl:
Thanks. Good idea because the ABC moderators will delete these messages almost as fast as we post them. That at least tells us where that network stands with regards to women's rights although Desperate Housewives should have been a ringing bell.
Don't give up. Go Slow. Go Cold.
HRC: 16,691,639 BHO: 16,648,060
Hillary has the popular vote. The DNC with able maneuvering by Nancy Pelosi and the MSM takes the victory away. The Republicans win in the General Election because of defections from the Democrats angered over a corrupt process and rampant sexism.
Lysistrata 2008. Make them eat their campaign signs.
It should be an entertaining summer. Go get 'em ladies!
$70 to a widow on a WWII US Navy pension is a month's worth of gas if she scrimps and only makes necessary trips.
But it's something.
So screw you, Obama.
Thanks for remembering when a little means to a lot to the many, Senator Clinton. Thanks for remembering my Mom.
On a more fun topic..
I met Chelsea in Puerto Rico. For my generation, she is forever young, the big eyed big smile we watched grow up on her parent's arm. It was grand to see that Miss Clinton is an amazing woman, too. An Obama supporter asked on the ABC list why she wears those jeans. Umm... because she can. The coat? The coat I thought almost tacky in the heat until I saw how close the crowd was allowed for pictures. I took a few Secret Service elbows until my company contact arranged it. Chelsea is a very brave woman to go through that wherever she goes. True courage. But like a diamond, hard pressed for so long she has quite mastered the smile that betrays nothing. Que lastima.
Bad investment. First strike is not the American way. Disengage and deal. Even if Carter is not where he is supposed to be or even if he is, his message is LISTEN. Embrace his actions while not endorsing them.
Pick your fights: Defend those who will vote for you.
The damage from the published character assassination is done.
Speak in clear hopeful terms about how we will create markets, not just in high tech, but also in commodity products. How can we do that in an economy where the American Dream is not something everyone can get, but has the equal opportunity to try? Cost vs Function.
What America wants is to feel good about itself again. The good bits in life are not faster cars, bigger houses, a huge individual carbon footprint; the good bits are the shared bits.
My Take: Breathe America. You are a very powerful nation. Be Proud, but quit condescending to the rest of the world. Pick your fights. Booty raids are a bad reason to wage modern war.
If we want the rest of the world to respect us, we must respect ourselves. If we want the rest of the world to love us, we must respect them. Love is not force or the absence of force. It is the respect in the application of force.
Leave Iraq. If they kill each other, that is their business. Cold but the only way we can completely disengage.
Say NO to Thugs.
Show some love, Hillary, show some love.
On the web, the cost of communication is borne by the listener.
When a woman wins in this election, the Obama supporters turn vicious. Read the MoveOn instructions to attack ABC. See the tenor of the Obama supporters and the language.
Do you not see the bullies? How dumb are we?
She was great because she showed the strength and leadership and knowledge of the issues that are very important to the next president
Precisely right, President Clinton. Precisely right.
But tell her, No We Won't. If not Hillary, then McCain.
The long bitter butter battle over OOXML should have ended with the ratification from ISO. Instead, those who cannot accept that decision decided to go to the streets. I respect Steve Pepper, but this time, he is wrong. I respect Tim Bray, but he is very wrong. Bob Sutor is an IBM VP of Standards. He is working for a corporation on a suicide mission. He has my sympathy, but between the anti-Microsoft tactics and now the push to move all IBM employees to Macs, thus killing off IBM's most profitable business units, IBM is moving beyond wrong into dumb.
Don't engage the anti-OOXML forces with explanations. Their tactic now is to accuse ISO of corruption, thus making it even more difficult to create international standards by negotiated consensus. They are moving on to a scorched Earth strategy that will ultimately destroy any real chance at maintaining open standards organizations if they succeed.
These are not reasonable people. They were full of fury before the vote, and frustration will drive them to be even more furious. You won't win them over with logical arguments or appeals for professional behavior.
The John Legend interview Jake Tapper at ABC blogged illustrates that the news coverage of the election has run out of stories. Obama is doing what Nixon did with George Wallace: every issue that resonates, he adopts and the media goes along with that.
Legend can't see beyond the color of his skin. Obama can't see past the demons that have chased him since birth. Hillary sees that poverty is a far more potent source of misery than race. She has more insight than either of them.
Vote your skin color or vote for change. It's that simple. As Mahalia Jackson said, "Get up today and help someone. If you can't today, try again tomorrow."
That is the way to get it done.
It's time to quit pitting the rich against the poor, young against old, white against black, Christian against Muslim. This is how we are manipulated. That is why we are fools fighting in a burning house.
If you are tired being the meat, vote your conscience and your self-interest. When you can figure out how to do both at once, you'll do the right thing.
Otherwise, we are fools for the fooling, meat to the spit, and yet another failed generation.
Ever been to your local jail? I played a gig at the jail. 90% of my audience was black. Now there is no way that racism creates that kind of disproportionate number. There aren't enough racist cops on the street to do it and in this case, a large percentage of the cops ARE black.
Only poverty and a thug culture can create that number. This is a Chinese finger puzzle. The only way out is for one side to push TOWARD the other. Only the blacks can look at their culture and decide how best to change it. Many have. Ask Cosby.
At the other side, we can ALL work on the poverty trap.
How do we do that in a broken economy? I don’t know, but we’ll have to do it together or it won’t get done. Nothing will change.
Actions speak louder. Choices illuminate character. The wisdom of choice is not in how it makes us feel but in how it enables us to change for the better.
Reverend Martin Luther King was a fighter for the spirit as was Gandhi. If we are to stay on the road to social justice, we need a fighter for the spirit.
Does our judgment hold us back?
It is not just about freedom from Jim Crow, but from judgments that imprison our hearts and separate us from each other. We forge our own chains that way. When will we spiritually understand the deep meaning of "Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
Racism doesn't end the day we quit hating each other for what we are; it ends the day we start loving each other for what we are. We can break those chains.
We have to get the mote out of our own eye first. Then get on the bus.
Today we celebrate the legacy of Reverend Martin Luther King. We'll all get through this. If we can't do it today, we'll try again tomorrow.
We come to the anniversary of the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, and of course, it is folded into the current political contests. That is understandable. Regardless of what we pretend, race and gender are twin elephants in this room. The story of gender is so old we can barely tell it. The story of race is very fresh in my mind. I was born in 1954 and grew up in Alabama. That story circumscribes my life tightly.
It's a story with many sides. Media, movies, popular books, etc., tend to tell only one. That would be the real value of The Conversation: to get all the stories out where all sides can hear them and maybe understand the demons each has living inside them to this day.
We didn't get over racism. We decided to do everything in our power to keep it from being passed on to our children.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
We found out too late, they pass it on to each other. But this much is true: our children in Alabama play together today and no one gets in their way. Whatever we could not fix in the inequalities of wealth, we've done a lot for opportunity and equality before the law. While there are exceptions, we do live together peacefully.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
Things have changed. Responsibilities have shifted. This is where Obama and I agree.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I can't get past Obama attending Trinity with his family for twenty years and denying he knew what his pastor was on about. I can't understand a man exposing his children to so much racist rhetoric unless this is the way he wants them to perceive the world they live in today. There are so many contradictions in his character, one wonders if the demons he is wrestling with will get the better of him.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
Jake Tapper at ABC reports that he smelled cigarette smoke on Obama. Yesterday it was video of Obama being rude to a fan seeking a photo.
Hmm... Obama lies about Rezko, his resume, the Kennedy's, his contributions from big oil, and on and on and on. In fact it's hard to find out where he told the truth about anything. But sneaking off to suck on a cancer stick? Wow! What a big phony!
"SMILING FACES SMILING FACE SOMETIMES THEY DON'T TELL THE TRUTH!"
... then someone with a real nicotine aversion finds you out.
We can bitchslap this country into a depression. We can forget everything that makes us proud of who we are. We can lose the election and continue the war. We can ignore the homeless. We can walk past the hungry. We can saddle our grandchildren's grandchildren with debt. We can keep on polluting the air for them. We can keep on teaching them to hate. We can keep on showing them how to lie. We can pave a road straight to hell for them and light it like the second coming.
... or maybe
we could remember that there is world of hurt out there
... and do something about it.
Do the right thing by America If you call yourselves leaders Show it. Embrace the change. Be the change. Join hands.
Everyone needs a friend. Everyone follows a leader.
Here's how it plays out. Obama squeaks out a narrow victory in the General Election. Once in office, lacking a credible legislative agenda, the ultra-left wing extremists in the DNC are able to force bills onto the floor with more spending, reparations, etc. With the US economy tanking, a recession becomes a searing depression. Inflation soars.
In two years, the Republicans sweep both houses of congress with calls to repeal Obama's socialist agenda. In four years, the executive branch falls to the Republicans.
So much for the election we couldn't lose.
Obama didn't throw his grandmother under the bus. He exaggerated a situation he thought would buy him time. It worked. None of the people in his circle who made the statements causing the uproar are allowed anywhere near a microphone. That is working too.
The problem is, it won't work all the way to November much less for four years.
He had a normal upper middle class childhood and found himself feeling guilty about that. Why? Ask him. He has led a very successful life but is still telling us about his pain filled background of self-loathing and doubt? Why? Ask him.
In fact, this man is not a race candidate. In the mixed neighborhood I grew up in, the blacks would have referred to him as an 'oreo' and me as 'buttermilk'. Those names stick hard and hurt but we raise ourselves above them and move on because we learn that the only names that matter are the ones we call ourselves. The beliefs that matter are the ones we choose.
Justice is not found in nature. It is found in the choices of the heart.
Obama didn't move on. He married, embraced his wife's faith and church. He chose a base of political support that chooses to preach Black Liberation Theology. Obama can't speak to those beliefs so he puts them down as 60s rhetoric but they still are the tightly held beliefs of his base in Chicago.
Obama is a man with demons. He needs to work those out and the conversation will help. But he can't be doing that and running the country at a time of economic crisis and threats to our security. Give him some time and one day he might be ready for this.
But that time is not now. He is unelectable.
Bosnia: well that was dumb, big girl. On the other hand, screw the lie. I saw the movie, folks. She was there. Where was Obama? She was in the Senate for the vote? Where was Obama? She was in the White House for eight years? Where was Obama?
Tell you what, I'll trade you a verse of "My Baby Does the Hanky Panky" for a verse of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone". Then we can all drink ripple and smoke gold together while we dance on the grave of the Democratic Party.
A caucus is not an election. It is a screamfest. Rumors are it is getting mean at these. The caucai are getting caca. Should we mau mau our way to the nomination?
How did the guy at CNet put it?
Write like a strategist and think like a stoner.
Now the TUCC scrubs their site. For a campaign that is rumored to be very good with technology, not knowing about Google cache wasn't too bright either. Nor is ignoring that your competition and not just a few nutcases have it archived in their personal cache.
We've let our parties be hijacked by the extremes. Bummer.
Scrubbing the web site is just the opener. It gets even more Orwellian from this point forward. It is one thing to misstate memory. It is quite another to start erasing it. That's fear. With a double digit lead and the press piling on, moves like this means the Chicago machine is terrified of what has yet to surface.
You want to win this. Listen to Mario. Mario knows things. Like getting 28% back in the fold is the difference between winning and losing no matter who is nominated.
Or ID_NilCorrecto: Mario is Italian. Italians know things. Capiche?
The following video has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of this blog, but seriously, doncha need a laugh right about now?
Don't let either side divide us. Don't come together for Hillary. Don't come together for Obama.
Come together for each other.
Or have you already? Someone said that Senator Obama being elected would be the fulfillment of Reverend King's dream. When the black and white children began to play together in Alabama, and no one stopped them, that was the fulfillment of the dream. That dream was for black and white, together, unbound.
I suggest both candidates get over themselves and sit down and work out the deal for a victory in November for all Americans.
I read that the reason white people don't get Reverend Wright is because white people have not had to sort out the issues of race.
Oh yes, some white people had to sort that one out. Come to Alabama. For those of us born in the fifties, we've been sorting that out all of our lives.
We live together in peace and prosperity. We have attitudes but we have common causes: our children and our God. People who love their children and honor and respect their neighbor do not hate. We worship.
This isn't about misunderstanding; it is about not caring. We care about our children and our God, and that is common purpose enough for living together. Gandhi was right. Reverend King was right.
Two suggestions:
1. Ask Reverend Wright to appear on a Sunday morning with a panel of theologians from all religions and ethnicities. Let them ask him questions about Black Liberation Theology.
2. Create a YouTube channel called "The Conversation" for the people to contribute their thoughts and memories of the race issues in America and the world. Mainstream media by fact of concentration of power must not manage the limits of a converation that must be honest.
Leave the campaigns out. No ads. No sneaky posts. Make it a conversation among people, one at a time, two at a time, whatever.
Ask the hateful, ask the faithful, ask the powerful to let it be.
David Mamet wrote an excellent article on why he quit being a 'brain-dead liberal' in the Village Voice. He explains
I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind. As a child of the '60s, I accepted as an article of faith that government is corrupt, that business is exploitative, and that people are generally good at heart. These cherished precepts had, over the years, become ingrained as increasingly impracticable prejudices.
Dean, Pelosi and MoveOn do not represent the Democratic Party any more than Reverend Wright, Michelle Obama and Black Liberation Theology represent the black faithful in America. They are both examples of extremism. We need competency in the white house, not another eight years of extremism. The infatuation with the minority view of extremists is how we got ourselves into this mess. More extremism is simply fighting in a burning house.
Extremism and extremists are the death knell of the Democratic Party. If ever we have needed moderation in our actions and words it is now, but the media will not enable it because anything said in low tones with deliberate thoughts does not play well.
I am voting for Hillary because she has the best grasp of the policies and the problems. Obama and Michelle are students of the school of Black Liberation Theology. I am liberal but I am not brain-dead. When told to take Wright's comments in 'context', I find even more scary rhetoric. When told to read Obama and Michelle's writings, I find more separatism and inability to articulate a united vision.
Take it all the way to August and beyond. Senator Clinton, it is time to quit parsing and worrying about who you will offend by speaking truth to bigotry. The bigots won't vote for you anyway. Instead of worrying about who you will offend, speak loudly for those you must defend. They will vote for you.
It's a matter of loyalty. If she says vote for Obama, I will....
.... as soon as he can explain Black Liberation Theology to the rest of the faithful.
We are told we cannot hold another man's religion against him. True for some. Not others.
How otherwise can one reply if another holds it against you?
This is a real hurt, Senator Obama. This is a real wound. Is it your intent to spend the duration of your term closing that wound?
Or fixing the economy, the environment, the war, the housing crisis, the cleanup (FINALLY!!) of New Orleans, you know, FIX STUFF.
In my generation, we believed we had taken down the ropes. Two very powerful forces were at work: the media and our shared belief in God. Black Liberation Theology hammers our souls on the anvil of our shared beliefs.
Is it a goal of your administration to take our souls off the anvil, or to hammer harder? When the anvil breaks the hammer, what is between them remains undone.
Shelby Steele made points worth making. It is the black perception of themselves as victims (we keep being told that politics are about perceptions) that is the strongest link in the chain that binds them to the past. Senator Obama cannot change being black, but he cannot make the campaign about "The Conversation" without distracting the electorate from issues of more immediate importance to the electorate as a whole: the war, the economy, and the environment.
A conversation has to be two way. Consensus is compromise. If Senator Obama's supporters want to discuss race, they can't just complain. They have to offer solutions.
Reparations? No. That won't change anything. It leads to the same victim mentality that keeps the issue of racism on the table. So precisely what will be considered 'the end of racism in America'? I don't think the textbook definitions from sociology help here, Joy Behar not withstanding. The fact of Senator Obama's successes suggest we are past "oppression of a minority by a majority", a phrase she used to make the claims that blacks cannot be racist.
Puhleeeze... ask Hispanics about that one.
Guilt-proscribing definitions won't further The Conversation. We have to change The Conversation from the past to the future and that means we need to talk about our shared goals.
Perhaps a change of term is needed. Try this: white America does not fear black America. It is intimidated by black culture. Our government does not practice racism if the laws on the books are enforced. But nothing can change the preferences for culture except appeal and excellence.
So now white America might ask itself: what about black culture is intimidating?
I will not vote for Obama. He lacks the depth of character I require for a President at this time. On the other hand, no one is prying my Temptations collection out of my lily white hands. I'm not giving them up. Black music has black soul and black soul is a very powerful force for good and comfort.
Is it really about hate or fear? We've shown we can get past fear. When the ropes came down, when the signs came down, when the neighborhoods integrated, when the mixed marriages became non-notable, we put down fear. I'm not saying there are no racists and that we have eliminated fear. Racism is a disease. It can't be eradicated but it can be made statistically irrelevant and manageable. Polarities are not resolved; they are managed.
Fear has to be conquered by individuals. There is no universal solution.
Hate? Each generation has to decide for itself one person at a time just as they have to understand their fears. The difference is hate inspires violence. Wherever we can use the tools of culture to reduce hate, we must. This must be the goal we share. Culture can be a means. Ask Whoopie Goldberg. Ask Sinbad. Ask Reverend Wright. Ask Obama.
Hate? My advice? Lay it down. Then pick up the prize of love and celebration of distinctions. It isn't enough to quit fearing or hating. In my opinion, racism ends the day we walk into our daily lives and instead of accepting someone for being black or white, we revel in it, we enjoy it, we love it. It isn't about loving them despite who they are, but because of it.
Here's the fun bit: this many years later, we all still know who Tonya Harding is. Few remember Kerrigan and almost no one can pronounce the winner's name.
When politics become entertainment, the news media becomes a ring master. Beware of tigers and clowns.
If we let this nomination be about race, we are stupid.
If we let this nomination be about Bill Clinton, we are stupid.
If we let this election be a web blog conversation instead of a campaign to win, we are stupid.
If we lose THIS election to the republicans, we are blithering professional A-lister STUPID!
They could run together and the Democrats could have the White House for sixteen years. Any Democrat who can't work out what kind of real change that would be shouldn't be in the Democratic Party.
It isn't hard to be stupid but it takes practice to be good at it. I know it sounds stupid, heck it is stupid, but wow, should we make stupid moves that give us the White House for 16 years or stupid moves that give it back to the Republicans after the last eight?
How stupid can we be before it qualifies as brain-dead?
Well, you have to pick your stupid moves too. And wow, can we be stupid in the Democratic Party!
She can. Together they can run the table and show in one election the power of the right choices by people who REALLY DO hold the good of the country above their own.
It just keeps getting uglier. Some one posted the following today on one of the news sites. The quote is from a professor who teaches Black Liberation Theology, Dr. James Cone whom Reverend Wright cites. You can google him for Cone.
Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community. . . . Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.
Maybe there is a context for this. I'm not sure it matters. Lanny Davis, a hard nose attorney, posted this as the two questions Barack Obama will have to answer before or during a General Election.
1. If a white minister preached sermons to his congregation and had used the "N" word and used rhetoric and words similar to members of the KKK, would you support a Democratic presidential candidate who decided to continue to be a member of that congregation?
2. Would you support that candidate if, after knowing of or hearing those sermons, he or she still appointed that minister to serve on his or her "Religious Advisory Committee" of his or her presidential campaign?
Therein is the crux of what Obama has to explain in conversation. For my colleagues who use the Internet to promote Obama, like it or not, this is what you are involving yourselves and the technology in. One wants to believe Obama is not involved in this theology, but he will have to answer those questions. Some one really should have vetted all of this before the Democratic National Committee allowed this to go this far. Howard Dean is toast no matter how the election fares.
One astute reporter said it best noting that Obama did not grow up as poor or oppressed: he won't be defeated for what he is, but he may be defeated by what he pretends to be.
We tell ourselves we won't be fooled again. Then we are.
Obama is the Kareoke Candidate. He presents well but every note is borrowed and his sound is the sound of overamplified overprocessed machinery.
Kareoke and disco became popular for the same reason: people with no talent and no discipline could pretend to be dancers and singers. As an old band mate of mine put it, 'it is the audience as the stars instead of the professionals'.
Populism succeeds in elections. It simply cannot govern. If we elect this man, we'll go from a ruthless DJ who only spins what he likes to amateur singers who can stay on message but not on beat. Meanwhile, the sucking sound in the background is our economy being flushed to syncopated blues notes.
Using Bill Richardson and other surrogates, the Obama campaign will keep picking 09-09-Race and giving it to the media kareoke masters of ceremonies for today's news spin cycle. The Wright affair and the Rezko trial are causing Obama's base to erode. That base is passionate about the race issue. His campaign will keep finding ways to hit that button. The best thing the rest of us can do is yawn. It isn't that the conversation isn't important, it is that this isn't a conversation. It is a one-sided attempt to guilt us into voting for Obama. Ignore it.
Barack Obama isn't the Manchurian Candidate; he is the Kareoke Candidate picking his songs from a playbook. He does that well. He is a good singer. That doesn't mean he is a good musician or a bandleader.
13.4 and women don't get along with each other well enough to be 51.4. Hence, the Democratic Party.
Friend Obama, does a great service, Dr. John. He introduces a conversation. Conversations are the soul of the Web. If our technology is a greater good, this is where it is more easily sensed.
Whatever the greater scary of economics and war, what America wants is to feel good about itself again. What change we make we make because we need that.
The conversation of race is a conversation the people choose. It is a conversation that may indeed be a healing force in our country.
Whatever we speculate, it is a conversation that the young want or a very important demographic drops away from Friend Obama.
>>Will his speech help or hurt his chances of becoming President?
It won’t change the fact that he waited too late and made too many contradictory statements. Obama lacks discernment and the ability to make the right decisions even on topics to which he has given considerable thought. When it got to the crunch, he chose to protect his candidacy instead of the values he espoused. He is not ready for the toughest job in the world. He may be someday, but his time is not yet come.
>>And is our nation in a racial stalemate?
No. If it were, Obama's candidacy could not have come as far as it has. He is the proof of change if not the agent of change. Have we come far enough? The fact as stated by him that statements such as those made by Wright are typical of the black church experience in America proves we have not. We have a lot of anger and hate yet to lay down.
However, the sad fact is if he does lose this nomination, it will be the statements of his pastor and his own refusal to confront him many years ago that beat him. Trying to spin that any other way is exactly the kind of response that keeps us from making that progress so many desire so earnestly.
America is a land divided. Are we a family divided, too?
Lord, let us find a way from the hate that divides us. Show us the bridge across these troubled waters In this saddest of weeks for the followers of Jesus Show us mercy and a way into the Promised Land Undivided by hate United by your purpose Living together in hope of His Return Lead us Love us Keep us Forever in your hands.
That moment between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the Senate floor yesterday counts for something. I do hope earnestly that supporters on both sides pay attention.
The Obamites make much of what Obama says, and repeat over and over that words matter. If words really matter, then will Obama take responsibility for belonging to a church for so many years and espousing the words and works of a man who is clearly a black racist, his minister? Where I live, if a minister says things like that, we fire him or go to another church. Obama full well knows what his base believes. It isn't just what a man says that he is judged by, but also who he listens to attentively.
Is this really the campaign you want to run? Can the black community in America get past those remarks? Can the rest of us ignore them? If we keep ratcheting this up, only bad will come of it.
For the kids in the campaign, step back and ask yourselves if you want to be the ones to set back race relations in this country fifty years. For the adults of my generation, try to remember when we promised each other that despite what our parents said or did, the horrible disease of racism stopped in our generation.
Do it for your children. An election isn't worth this.
"Lay down lay down Lay it on down Let your white bird smile up At the ones who stand and frown." - Melanie Safka -
Jack Cafferty asks at CNN.Com if Obama should go negative.
Not if he wants to win. He needs to get his supporters to quit being shrill.
Explain this, Jack: if he claims that his rival believes his followers are delusional, what does it mean when he claims her support is all blue-collar and undereducated, or in short form, stupid?
Obama is running out of speeches fast. If he continues to repeat himself, he begins to sound like a caged parrot. If he squawks too loudly and shrilly, he is a cooked goose. That is the fatal flaw of populism: it is based on the popularity of an idea, not the execution of a plan.
Maybe common sense is prevailing at last. People who understand that their government is actually NOT a vast right wing closed conspiracy, but a representative democracy (say Republic) in need of competent executive leadership are voting for Hillary Clinton. They understand that we don't have to overturn the government; we need to fix the mess left by the current administration. This isn't 'old school' thinking; it is common sense patriotism. It is belief we have a good system; we need better leaders.
She governs best who governs least, isn't that the conservative mantra, Jack? We want a change of leadership, not a swift boat to hell.
Declan McCullagh writes an article at C-Net on the topic "In a technological upset, Obama bests Clinton". Someone writes in that Obama has a grand plan of opening up the corrupt closed insider system in Washington DC to the people.
Sounds good. Answer these questions before we start spending the money:
How many hours of C-Span do you watch a week?
How many letters do you write to your Congressman?
When your local council has meetings, do you attend?
Do you read the local political news and review the published bills?
There is an abundance of information and opportunities. There are few users or takers. The US government is not a large closed conspiracy (Bush I and II being exceptional). It is a large bureaucratic form of representative democracy (say Republic).
What you need to understand is WE ELECTED BUSH TWICE WITH ALL THE INFORMATION WE NEEDED IN FRONT OF US.
What Obama is saying sounds good, but that is it. Neither he nor those programs will change the culture or the goals of our government. Once elected, all those neat sounding ideas vanish into budgets and hearings and costs and taxes and finally into a low dull snore.
Technologists like the sound because they can sell more technology and they can *feel* empowered but this won't change Washington in the least. Competent persistent knowledgeable executive leadership can. When you vote, you are not voting for machinery but a machine. Be very very sure the machine you are voting for has your best interests at heart because once in, they have the power for four years, and the agenda they set determines the cultural changes possible within the limits of that power (and the limits are considerable).
The most telling aspect of Obamamania is that it sells hope but is driven by deep seated paranoia. That is why the shrillness in that camp when debating. It isn't that they are delusional but that they believe everyone else is stupid (citing the blue collar vote for Hillary Clinton). Technology cannot fix the government. In fact nothing can. The system we have is the one we passed legally, is in the Constitution, and is not in need of radical overhaul.
In his own words, anything you care to put there. Caveat emptor.
"... overturn the machine"
Do that without a new one ready to roll and you walk home. Caveat vendor.
I don't take the bloggers that seriously. The Nixon generation didn't take us that seriously. It is easy to campaign and put enough spin there, and you can win. But to govern, you have to have the people in place who have the knowledge because no single man, woman or President will change a government of laws. For Larry Lessig, the answer has always been, ignore the laws and do what feels best for you. As a result of that, I can go to YouTube and find one of my songs taken without permission or acknowledgement and used in a video. There is another web site selling that song, also without permission and without sharing the profits.
Boy howdy, what a deal for me.
However you slice it, that's theft, and worse, theft of goods that I have shared graciously when asked and credited. But Lessig and now Obama keep promoting an idea among the young that whatever they want they can take without any preconditions because They Are The Internet Generation. In fact, they are a mob organizing for a generational war.
It will fail but with a price. Perhaps they are a generation that history and power should by-pass because they have failed to learn the lessons of history, and have not earned the power.
Security is a boat in a storm where the captain keeps a light hand on the tiller. The tiller is technology. You need it but it is just stuff. The hand requires experience. You can't steal that.
The latest distraction is whether or not Obama's critics are baiting by using Obama's middle name, Hussein.
Get real. Some words DON'T matter.
The name isn't important. The problem Obama is having is he is late to realizing when something is important. With Rezko, he gives the money to charity but only after the press notices. With Farrakhan and his minister, he denounces and rejects but only after the press notices. With Al Qaeda in Iraq, surely he noticed? With the chair of the sub-committee, he should have held hearings but said nothing until the press noticed. He knows there is a puppet government in Russia but doesn't know any details until the press notices and Clinton explains it to him.
What this buttresses is the charges that he is long on rhetoric and short on real experience because all of these are the kinds of details a leader absolutely must be aware of at all times. It's no good to be in California when a hurricane roars into New Orleans as Bush was.
Why will moderate Democrats vote for McCain? At the age of a lot of us, we've been watching "movements' all of our lives. Most failed to deliver so we are very cynical about that and not just a little creeped out by Obamamania. We know by experience this kind of thing doesn't deliver. We don't want 'a dream'. We want a plan. We know Obama may someday be a good leader but these gaffes in judgement are too frequent and too noticeable.
At voting time, we vote for real change, and we do what Obama says we should do: we cross the party lines to get leadership and a practical approach to government based on our perception of the person best qualified to lead. If the Democratic Party has decided it is more important to make a statement than it is to lead effectively, then the Democratic Party has abandoned us to its feel-good politics which we know don't work when the choices are hard and unpopular but ultimately the right choices.
I'm a Democrat and I support Hillary Clinton, but if I have to choose between party loyalty and loyalty to the country, I choose the country. Had the Republican Party done that, the last eight years would not have happened. I didn't make that mistake last time and I won't this time. It isn't that Obama is the same thing as Bush; it is that a choice for Obama is a choice for the same kind of thing: feel good over experience.
It comes down to doing the right thing and if we lose doing that, we lose doing it right. If we win, we won for the right reasons.
Looking at the CNN political ticker, the Farrakhan question caught fire as I thought it might.
In the South, if a minister espouses a position a person of conscience can’t abide, the person works with the church to get a new minister or goes to another church. Bifurcating churches are a reason the landscape and real estate market here is flooded with church buildings. This is the danger because those looking the Trinity pages now understand that it is a bigger deal than Louis F., that this is Obama's base and it is a separatist base. So now the moderate Democrats have more in common with McCain given an Obama v.s. McCain bid. Meanwhile, the separatists get pushed to the front of the debate and unless Obama clearly puts some distance between him and them really fast, at the end of this, we still get a Republican president and set back race relations in America fifty years.
On the other hand, the loser of last night's debate was Tim Russert. Mean little man.
So to be for Hillary is to be against the JPL, John? In other words, Obama is all inclusive and somehow her opponent is all divisive?
Ok. Here is the web page for Senator Obama's church in Illinois. Read it.
http://www.tucc.org/about.htm
I've seen this sort of stuff in the papers the guys who stand in suits on the corner sell here. Not new news. For people who don't live in heavily mixed neighborhoods, the words may be a bit of a surprise. So here are the typical positions taken by those who encounter this stuff.
The problem about the hard positions is it is tough to sort the words that matter from the words that don't, which means effectively, no one knows what Obama is about if that is his professed beliefs as a member of Trinity. It may be that that church is his political base and the means to get elected. Ok, politics as usual, but it means that only some words matter to him and his political base. Or it means his congregation has been duped by his membership. Not possible?
Then it means he believes all of that.
So John, which words matter?
Pro or anti, the message that church is espousing is political dynamite. This is what the Republicans will go after him with because they can get this message to their base without having to go through the Big Media outlets, and when it does, it will go through without traceability. That is how Obama will be Swift boated, except not with third party assertions, but with his own. Get ready for it.
It seems to me that for too many this is about some kind of Great Get Even. Some want to get even with the rich, some to get even with the Baby Boomers, some to get even with whoever. But that is exactly how the right elected Bush twice.
I won't vote for that. I vote for real change, a change of leadership that actually is inclusive and actually has a real plan to get our economy out of the dumps and our troops out of the desert. Not a cause, a movement, or a "people's liberation". If we need liberation, it is from those self-serving whining delusions that somehow a grand conspiracy got us in this trouble.
We did it to ourselves. Twice. What does it say if we do it a third time and call that liberation? Which words matter?
