So many emotions fighting to take control of this page!
The first, that America, the country, the institutions, the people have come through and made good. It still will not compensate for the many lives that have been lost or marred forever, it will not bring back the vast sums of money and resources squandered in terms of arms and munitions equipment that were built to merely destroy life and property, it will not bring back the economy that was used to deficit-finance this paranoia-driven conflict. But America has brought itself back from the brink!
The second, that it was achieved by this brilliant talented young man so appropriately named Barack Hussein Obama, as Juan Cole so beautifully explained it:
"Barack is a Semitic word meaning "to bless" as a verb or "blessing" as a noun. In its Hebrew form, barak, it is found all through the Bible. It first occurs in Genesis 1:22: "And God blessed (ḇāreḵə ) them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."
Here is a list of how many times barak appears in each book of the Bible.
Now let us take the name "Hussein." It is from the Semitic word, hasan, meaning "good" or "handsome." Husayn is the diminutive, affectionate form."
The graceful way he carried himself, conducted his campaign, politically and strategically challenged his opponents through the primaries and the general elections, are so completely in synch that there is not one discordant note. All this while attending to the needs of his young family and holding on as much as possible to their privacy, while at the same time drawing on their support where possible... I'm just blown away by it all. My younger son, so presciently remarked - and he's just a human being after all. Well, he's a human being "with a righteous wind at his back."
This is what originally drew me to America. This is why I thought it would be a good idea to become a citizen. Only to be ruing the thought for the past 8 years!
But I have come back, come back from the brink myself! And I'm ready to believe in it again.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Well its all coming down to Texas vs Taxes.
And this year Americans will be going for 'Taxes', 'lower taxes', that is. Out with Bush from Texas, and in with Lower Taxes. Wish it didn't have to just be that - but we don't look gift horses in the mouth.
What I would have really loved though, would have been if things could have been rolled back in the following order:
1. Americans had voted Al Gore in with a resounding majority in 2000, because they could see the real thing.
2. Gore would not have been left hanging with the chads in FL in 2000.
3. Failing that, the Supreme court had sided with Al Gore in Bush v. Gore in 2000.
4. Pre-9-11 Bush had taken the Clinton admin briefing on Al-Quaeda threats, read the August Intelligence briefing on the same, and along the way stuck to his principles of Compassionate Conservatism and not splurged the Clinton surplus on unneeded tax rebates for the wealthy, and Social Security privatization efforts...
5. Immediate post-911, Bush had not taken the "let's see if we can squeeze out an Iraq war out of this 9-11 tragedy" stand
6. Congress had not gotten hoodwinked by Bush and given him via the AUMF what he thought was a carte blanche on War, but what they thought was merely the power to make growling noises to threaten the other side with war.
7. Colin Powell and the CIA had not gotten hoodwinked by Bush and cheney into placing all risks of misrepresentation about the war into little asterisked footnotes in their UN and Intelligence reports. (which footnotes were ignored the very same way as the American people refused to read the footnotes on the IPO and hedgefund and sub-prime mortgage offerings from Wall Street - same modus operandi as used by the 3-card monte scam artists you find in any urban back alley!!)
8. Members of Congress had the gumption to call Bush on his overstepping the authority granted by their AUMF when he did go to war.
9. Members of the Congress had the gumption to impeach Bush for war crimes that were beginning to be committed in their name.
10. The Dems had a better candidate to offer the country in 2004 (McCain was correct - wish Obama could have run in 2004!)
11. The country could have seen that only the Devil's side would swift-boat a real war hero like Kerry.
12. The country would have spurned Bush unequivocally in 2004, knowing he took us to war on FALSE PRETENSES, against a country that did us no harm, killed half a million people (both US soldiers, and coalition soldiers and Iraqi civilians), displaced another few million ordinary Iraqis, all in ever-changing reasons to go to war (Al-Q, WMD, democracy, ME chaos...). That would be the Pro-Life stance!
13. In 2008, when Obama eventually ran on an anti-dumb-war, pro-people, pro-economy platform, people would without pre-condition flock to his anti-war message.
But the Lower Taxes message resonated.
Yes $1000 saving in annual taxes to your pocket resonates far louder today than all the other tugs to American heartstrings and pursestrings and sense of fairness and logic and outrage and...!
Why am I not surprised???
What I would have really loved though, would have been if things could have been rolled back in the following order:
1. Americans had voted Al Gore in with a resounding majority in 2000, because they could see the real thing.
2. Gore would not have been left hanging with the chads in FL in 2000.
3. Failing that, the Supreme court had sided with Al Gore in Bush v. Gore in 2000.
4. Pre-9-11 Bush had taken the Clinton admin briefing on Al-Quaeda threats, read the August Intelligence briefing on the same, and along the way stuck to his principles of Compassionate Conservatism and not splurged the Clinton surplus on unneeded tax rebates for the wealthy, and Social Security privatization efforts...
5. Immediate post-911, Bush had not taken the "let's see if we can squeeze out an Iraq war out of this 9-11 tragedy" stand
6. Congress had not gotten hoodwinked by Bush and given him via the AUMF what he thought was a carte blanche on War, but what they thought was merely the power to make growling noises to threaten the other side with war.
7. Colin Powell and the CIA had not gotten hoodwinked by Bush and cheney into placing all risks of misrepresentation about the war into little asterisked footnotes in their UN and Intelligence reports. (which footnotes were ignored the very same way as the American people refused to read the footnotes on the IPO and hedgefund and sub-prime mortgage offerings from Wall Street - same modus operandi as used by the 3-card monte scam artists you find in any urban back alley!!)
8. Members of Congress had the gumption to call Bush on his overstepping the authority granted by their AUMF when he did go to war.
9. Members of the Congress had the gumption to impeach Bush for war crimes that were beginning to be committed in their name.
10. The Dems had a better candidate to offer the country in 2004 (McCain was correct - wish Obama could have run in 2004!)
11. The country could have seen that only the Devil's side would swift-boat a real war hero like Kerry.
12. The country would have spurned Bush unequivocally in 2004, knowing he took us to war on FALSE PRETENSES, against a country that did us no harm, killed half a million people (both US soldiers, and coalition soldiers and Iraqi civilians), displaced another few million ordinary Iraqis, all in ever-changing reasons to go to war (Al-Q, WMD, democracy, ME chaos...). That would be the Pro-Life stance!
13. In 2008, when Obama eventually ran on an anti-dumb-war, pro-people, pro-economy platform, people would without pre-condition flock to his anti-war message.
But the Lower Taxes message resonated.
Yes $1000 saving in annual taxes to your pocket resonates far louder today than all the other tugs to American heartstrings and pursestrings and sense of fairness and logic and outrage and...!
Why am I not surprised???
A beautiful comment on NYT
You will appreciate this comment below from someone on NYT (riffing off of one of loveliest Psalms in the Bible - "My Shepherd is the Lord, nothing indeed shall I want... "
"McCain’s experience is
defeat after defeat,
being captured,
crashing planes,
panickly picking Palin etc.
The Lord is Obama’s Shepherd,
He will not lack votes,
He makes him composed and not panicky;
The Lord leads him as like a Pastor tending great multitudes; The Roaring Crowds waving by;
Obama’s table hath the Lord furnished;
In the full glare of Palin and McCain;
As Abel’s Sacrifice was accepted by God in the full glare of ‘Cain!
Obama’s Vote boxes overflow with votes;
White house and Oval Office therein shall surely await Obama;
And he will dwell and reign there-from four years and four more;
To the pleasure of all Americans and all Men of Goodwill the World over"
He will not lack votes,
He makes him composed and not panicky;
The Lord leads him as like a Pastor tending great multitudes; The Roaring Crowds waving by;
Obama’s table hath the Lord furnished;
In the full glare of Palin and McCain;
As Abel’s Sacrifice was accepted by God in the full glare of ‘Cain!
Obama’s Vote boxes overflow with votes;
White house and Oval Office therein shall surely await Obama;
And he will dwell and reign there-from four years and four more;
To the pleasure of all Americans and all Men of Goodwill the World over"
Own 1/millionth of a chance to party in Chicago :) !!!
Today I succumbed one last time to Obama's plea for cash to outwit the OTHER One, the Maverick! The carrot (pshaw! I don't need no carrot!):
"As a bonus, any donation you make today means you could be selected for a trip to join Barack in Chicago on Election Night. We'll fly you and a guest in, put you up in a hotel, and make sure you have some of the best seats for our huge public event with tens of thousands of supporters"
Don't disturb me, I'm busy checking out the flight schedules...
"As a bonus, any donation you make today means you could be selected for a trip to join Barack in Chicago on Election Night. We'll fly you and a guest in, put you up in a hotel, and make sure you have some of the best seats for our huge public event with tens of thousands of supporters"
Don't disturb me, I'm busy checking out the flight schedules...
Response to NYT on Taxes and Regulation
I wrote this originally in response to a letter from an NYT reader to their OpEd editorial by Egan on "Party of Yesterday". But NYT came back with an autoreply on their standard conditions for publication - less that 150 words (this was more like 570), and while I made a half-baked effort to edit it it meant cutting out 2/3rd of the meat and potatoes, so I found a next-best home for it as a comment on NYT's economix blog, and which I'm transplanting down here.
One of the Letters to the Editor on Egan’s “Party of yesterday” is typical of Americans attitude towards taxes, as well as regulation and anything government-done.
The writer (Cliff Johns, KY) claims “Demand for our products and services, not government programs, allowed us to create these jobs.”
I have been raised and lived all my adolescent/young adult life in India, during a period where there was a rampant black market i.e. tax-free parallel economy. Paucity of public revenues forced all then existing infrastructure to go to pot, and new ones were built on black-market cement to faulty codes bringing with it post-construction mishaps. Adulteration of everything from foods to cement along the lines of the chinese baby-food scandal, was rampant. Even an honest entrepreneur in the India of those times would have to pay “black-market” protection money to everyone up and down the line that would guarantee his company’s existence, and allow his product, compromised as it might be, to reach the hands of his consumers. Not because Indians lacked the intelligence or creativity or even honesty of Cliff Johns and the like, but because the infrastructure and the environment (labor, electricity, roads, you name it) conspired to weaken their products and their attempt to reach them to the market, and there but for the grace of God goes you Cliff Johns!
On the other hand during my lifetime here in the US I’ve seen upstart companies like Fedex, Microsoft, Walmart, incorporate, set themselves up in business, grow and themselves become the infrastructure upon which newer American ingenuity can foster and become commercially productive. Were it not for roads, rail, electricity, law enforcement, and each one’s personal integrity, this could not be. The UPS that delivers my e-bay purchase within 2 days of the click of the mouse would not reach me were it not for all these invisible layers of infrastructure, laws, regulations, public supervision, that we take for granted.
Americans, the Republicans (really or mostly), take for granted such foundations of a civil society, and at their peril. They falsely and childishly attribute all their (real or stock market) success entirely to their own smarts. We are already seeing the unravelling of civil society in the Wall Street and corporate dishonesty that has produced the bailout crisis. The illness has spread so far so deep. And I am not talking of lack of demand and economic woes, but the inability to differentiate between the private good and the good of those to whom you have a fiduciary duty whether your customer, your shareholder, your employee; I am talking of the inability to differentiate between the private good and the civic good whether it is to contribute your share of the infrastructure, environment, the parks, the very emergency funds from which the bail-outers are so wantonly dipping their hands into. This myopia was so rampant in India, but so rare in the America that I was first privileged to see. The argument that it is the “rich” that are helping create the wealth that is trickling down fails to see that it is the many hands of the middle-class that have helped build and maintain the infrastuctures that the rich have built their empires on.
It is not “giving money away” as Cliff Johns the letter-writer says - it’s just paying the piper, and when you forget to pay the piper don’t be surprised to find the music will stop.
The writer (Cliff Johns, KY) claims “Demand for our products and services, not government programs, allowed us to create these jobs.”
I have been raised and lived all my adolescent/young adult life in India, during a period where there was a rampant black market i.e. tax-free parallel economy. Paucity of public revenues forced all then existing infrastructure to go to pot, and new ones were built on black-market cement to faulty codes bringing with it post-construction mishaps. Adulteration of everything from foods to cement along the lines of the chinese baby-food scandal, was rampant. Even an honest entrepreneur in the India of those times would have to pay “black-market” protection money to everyone up and down the line that would guarantee his company’s existence, and allow his product, compromised as it might be, to reach the hands of his consumers. Not because Indians lacked the intelligence or creativity or even honesty of Cliff Johns and the like, but because the infrastructure and the environment (labor, electricity, roads, you name it) conspired to weaken their products and their attempt to reach them to the market, and there but for the grace of God goes you Cliff Johns!
On the other hand during my lifetime here in the US I’ve seen upstart companies like Fedex, Microsoft, Walmart, incorporate, set themselves up in business, grow and themselves become the infrastructure upon which newer American ingenuity can foster and become commercially productive. Were it not for roads, rail, electricity, law enforcement, and each one’s personal integrity, this could not be. The UPS that delivers my e-bay purchase within 2 days of the click of the mouse would not reach me were it not for all these invisible layers of infrastructure, laws, regulations, public supervision, that we take for granted.
Americans, the Republicans (really or mostly), take for granted such foundations of a civil society, and at their peril. They falsely and childishly attribute all their (real or stock market) success entirely to their own smarts. We are already seeing the unravelling of civil society in the Wall Street and corporate dishonesty that has produced the bailout crisis. The illness has spread so far so deep. And I am not talking of lack of demand and economic woes, but the inability to differentiate between the private good and the good of those to whom you have a fiduciary duty whether your customer, your shareholder, your employee; I am talking of the inability to differentiate between the private good and the civic good whether it is to contribute your share of the infrastructure, environment, the parks, the very emergency funds from which the bail-outers are so wantonly dipping their hands into. This myopia was so rampant in India, but so rare in the America that I was first privileged to see. The argument that it is the “rich” that are helping create the wealth that is trickling down fails to see that it is the many hands of the middle-class that have helped build and maintain the infrastuctures that the rich have built their empires on.
It is not “giving money away” as Cliff Johns the letter-writer says - it’s just paying the piper, and when you forget to pay the piper don’t be surprised to find the music will stop.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
What is $700 billion going to mop up?
When you have a $ 45 trillion spill?
Here's some facts to remember/read on Three Times is Enemy Action by Devilstower
over at Dailykos Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 06:03:41 AM PDT
"Here's business correspondent Bob Moon and host Kai Ryssdal on American Public Media's Marketplace from back in the spring.
FYI - 'Credit default swaps' are just hot-air trades - i.e. as in trades in the hot-air that steams off of hot-potato (no-doc mortgage-backed securities) trades, exactly that!
Here's some facts to remember/read on Three Times is Enemy Action by Devilstower
over at Dailykos Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 06:03:41 AM PDT
"Here's business correspondent Bob Moon and host Kai Ryssdal on American Public Media's Marketplace from back in the spring.
BOB MOON: OK, I'm about to unload some numbers on you here, so I'll speak slowly so you can follow this.
The value of the entire U.S. Treasuries market: $4.5 trillion.
The value of the entire mortgage market: $7 trillion.
The size of the U.S. stock market: $22 trillion.
OK, you ready?
The size of the credit default swap market last year: $45 trillion.
KAI RYSSDAL: That's a lot of money, Bob."
FYI - 'Credit default swaps' are just hot-air trades - i.e. as in trades in the hot-air that steams off of hot-potato (no-doc mortgage-backed securities) trades, exactly that!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Difference between Bush 41 and Bush 43?
Just 2.
$2 Trillion, that is!
Iraq War (ref Joseph Stiglitz) -$ 1.5 Trillion
Crony bail-out so far* - $ 0.5 Trillion
Of course that's not counting the as-yet-to-be-decided bail-out to purchase the toxic securities on investment banks' books!
* Crony bail-out broken down as follows:
Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac (US Treasury) - $ 200 billion
Loans to banks - $ 183 billion
Loan to AIG - $ 85 billion
Loans to investment banks - $ 60 billion
Financing to JP Morgan to buy Bear Stearns - $ 29 billion
Total deal - $ 557 billion
(* Ref Washington Post, Sept 19, 2008, "The Insiders - In Crucible of Crisis, Paulson, Bernanke, Geitner Forge a Committee of Three")
And the tab for Bush 44, another Republican administration?
At the going rate probably another Trillion dollars!
$2 Trillion, that is!
Iraq War (ref Joseph Stiglitz) -
Crony bail-out so far* - $ 0.5 Trillion
Of course that's not counting the as-yet-to-be-decided bail-out to purchase the toxic securities on investment banks' books!
* Crony bail-out broken down as follows:
Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac (US Treasury) - $ 200 billion
Loans to banks - $ 183 billion
Loan to AIG - $ 85 billion
Loans to investment banks - $ 60 billion
Financing to JP Morgan to buy Bear Stearns - $ 29 billion
Total deal - $ 557 billion
(* Ref Washington Post, Sept 19, 2008, "The Insiders - In Crucible of Crisis, Paulson, Bernanke, Geitner Forge a Committee of Three")
And the tab for Bush 44, another Republican administration?
At the going rate probably another Trillion dollars!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Unforgettable campaign 2008 quotes
Maureen Dowd - NYT 9/18/2008: about an Alaskan protester's handpainted sign "McPain + Palin = McPain"
Obama in Nevada on 9/17/2008 on McCain fighting the old-boy network (as reported on NPR and paraphrased): "The old boy network? In the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting!"
Obama in Nevada on 9/17/2008 on McCain fighting the old-boy network (as reported on NPR and paraphrased): "The old boy network? In the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting!"
Voter Registration, deadlines
Made me want to tear up, reading this poem over at Daily Kos
Old black man
With cane
Slowly
walks by me....
...
Read in full here!
(For a full list of voter registration deadlines check out Rockthevote)
Old black man
With cane
Slowly
walks by me....
...
Read in full here!
(For a full list of voter registration deadlines check out Rockthevote)
why does WP's Tom Toles read my mind?
Like he's got a direct feed off my head?!
Newspaper cartoonists lend the news media - shameless advocates of the Bush regime - a little shred of dignity!
I've always loved Tom Toles!
Newspaper cartoonists lend the news media - shameless advocates of the Bush regime - a little shred of dignity!
I've always loved Tom Toles!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
ABMAFO - Signed onto campaign for O!
After being a lurker and $ (small) contributor, I have signed in to campaign for O!
Sent emails to some friends who so kindly replied and agreed to join! (Was scared about that at first, as I felt I was using my friends, but I think the cause is indeed right - I wonder though do all activists feel the same way - Republicans too (I'm going to stop calling them Repugs, for one thing - let it be a grown-up discussion, and may the best grownup win!)
First event at VA this Sunday!!
Will make calls, and go door to door in VA the next few weekends! A friend will also join me from Long Island on the weekend of October 3rd!
Why? I asked myself for the 3 most important reasons why I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and do this, and after going beyond the horse race aspect of it - the anger of the past 8 years, the disappointment over Gore's loss (a good man against an air-head only, I originally thought - boy, was I mistaken!), the anger over Kerry's loss (the deceitfulness of the swiftboating of a veteran by a draft dodger no less!), (all of which made me realize I was complicit in those events because I did not participate, tho' I did donate to Kerry's campaign, and kept up a pro-Kerry buzz at work; no one in my immediate circle of friends/office-mates were left unaware of my political persuasions) - after going beyond all of that I settled on the following three reasons why I need to be doing this.
First - I have 2 children who are born and bred here in the US and consider it their home, their country. I cannot bear leaving them a legacy of financial debt, deteriorating health, education, social, environmental, infrastrucutural prospects combined with foreign policy fiascos that will leave this country mired in one crisis after another, with only the law of the jungle - might is right - prevailing. That is the exact opposite of what attracted me and brought me to this country, and I certainly don't want that to be what I will leave my children to, if I can help it. McCain will guarantee that that will be the case. Obama will guarantee that it will not!
Second - I have friends and family in many parts of the world, and strong immediate family in India. The approach taken by the US in the past 8 years and under a McCain administration threatens the world, in short my friends and family, and indirectly pits my children against my own siblings' children. It is a metaphor for what is happening to others - unwittingly all of us, children of the same god, are being pitted against one another by right-wing paranoia that plays on our nerves. Under Obama, I know bridges will be built, friendships secured and we will be be able to rebuild from the present wreckage as after a disaster storm.
Third - while I come from and am in comfortable circumstances both when in India, and where I am now, I know of many who just struggling to get by there as well as here; and I can imagine many similar others the world over, in most of the ravaged political hot-spots of the world. I think a powerful, wealthy country in the name of its citizens in the US has an obligation to better the circumstances of such less fortunate people the world over, or at least do no harm to those less fortunate, and certainly not plunder and loot from the meager resources of those less fortunate (in the name of spreading democracy no less!). It is patently clear that the past 8 years we have seen such a devilish operation in place. And under McCain, Compassionate Conservatism Phase 2, will come into operation. This cannot happen.
So ABMAFO - Anyone But McCain, All For Obama!!
I understand I have just stated as a fact that McCain will continue what Bush and Cheney have set in place, and Obama will overturn or gradually correct things - how do I prove that?
Well for starters take a look at their campaigns - here's a good summation.
Sent emails to some friends who so kindly replied and agreed to join! (Was scared about that at first, as I felt I was using my friends, but I think the cause is indeed right - I wonder though do all activists feel the same way - Republicans too (I'm going to stop calling them Repugs, for one thing - let it be a grown-up discussion, and may the best grownup win!)
First event at VA this Sunday!!
Will make calls, and go door to door in VA the next few weekends! A friend will also join me from Long Island on the weekend of October 3rd!
Why? I asked myself for the 3 most important reasons why I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and do this, and after going beyond the horse race aspect of it - the anger of the past 8 years, the disappointment over Gore's loss (a good man against an air-head only, I originally thought - boy, was I mistaken!), the anger over Kerry's loss (the deceitfulness of the swiftboating of a veteran by a draft dodger no less!), (all of which made me realize I was complicit in those events because I did not participate, tho' I did donate to Kerry's campaign, and kept up a pro-Kerry buzz at work; no one in my immediate circle of friends/office-mates were left unaware of my political persuasions) - after going beyond all of that I settled on the following three reasons why I need to be doing this.
First - I have 2 children who are born and bred here in the US and consider it their home, their country. I cannot bear leaving them a legacy of financial debt, deteriorating health, education, social, environmental, infrastrucutural prospects combined with foreign policy fiascos that will leave this country mired in one crisis after another, with only the law of the jungle - might is right - prevailing. That is the exact opposite of what attracted me and brought me to this country, and I certainly don't want that to be what I will leave my children to, if I can help it. McCain will guarantee that that will be the case. Obama will guarantee that it will not!
Second - I have friends and family in many parts of the world, and strong immediate family in India. The approach taken by the US in the past 8 years and under a McCain administration threatens the world, in short my friends and family, and indirectly pits my children against my own siblings' children. It is a metaphor for what is happening to others - unwittingly all of us, children of the same god, are being pitted against one another by right-wing paranoia that plays on our nerves. Under Obama, I know bridges will be built, friendships secured and we will be be able to rebuild from the present wreckage as after a disaster storm.
Third - while I come from and am in comfortable circumstances both when in India, and where I am now, I know of many who just struggling to get by there as well as here; and I can imagine many similar others the world over, in most of the ravaged political hot-spots of the world. I think a powerful, wealthy country in the name of its citizens in the US has an obligation to better the circumstances of such less fortunate people the world over, or at least do no harm to those less fortunate, and certainly not plunder and loot from the meager resources of those less fortunate (in the name of spreading democracy no less!). It is patently clear that the past 8 years we have seen such a devilish operation in place. And under McCain, Compassionate Conservatism Phase 2, will come into operation. This cannot happen.
So ABMAFO - Anyone But McCain, All For Obama!!
I understand I have just stated as a fact that McCain will continue what Bush and Cheney have set in place, and Obama will overturn or gradually correct things - how do I prove that?
Well for starters take a look at their campaigns - here's a good summation.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Geography Bee
Ran into this c-u-ute video - Bet you can find the spot on the globe that's home to you!! (Say it's all of them!)
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Obama leading Intrade on Superdelegates
Obama trades at 57 (to Clinton's 36) on the "Receives most superdelegates" contract!
(go to from Intrade homepage go to Politics/Dem. Pres. Primaries / "Most Superdelegates - Clinton or Obama?")
(go to from Intrade homepage go to Politics/Dem. Pres. Primaries / "Most Superdelegates - Clinton or Obama?")
Imitation is the purest form of flattery
Hill-St.John co-opts Obama's message, tweaking it to personalize it like I do with my Yahoo homepage - it's still the Yahoo homepage, who am I kidding?
BHO - Yes we can,
Hill - Yes we will -
And now watch St.John at the end of the tape below - Yes we must
BHO - Yes we can,
Hill - Yes we will -
And now watch St.John at the end of the tape below - Yes we must
Saturday, March 8, 2008
The threshhold story - now I get it
Wyoming - first in women's suffrage - votes for Obama
Wyoming knows the real deal when it sees it!
Obama: Clinton 58:41 as of 4.pm EST
Wyoming is apparently the first state to grant women suffrage in 1869 (just heard it on CNN and googled this link to the full history). And its caucus results today at first blush may seem contrary to this this tradition; however that is not so. It has kept up the true spirit of the suffrage movement, that women's rights are symbolic of rights for every person, race, gender, creed; when we are so far removed from prejudice that we not only do not prevent another class of people (based on gender, creed, color, whatever) from voicing our choice, or do not prevent another person based on gender, creed, color, whatever from representing us in enforcing our choice, then only can we truly claim to have advanced as a democracy.
Till then we are still another "developing" nation!
Obama: Clinton 58:41 as of 4.pm EST
Wyoming is apparently the first state to grant women suffrage in 1869 (just heard it on CNN and googled this link to the full history). And its caucus results today at first blush may seem contrary to this this tradition; however that is not so. It has kept up the true spirit of the suffrage movement, that women's rights are symbolic of rights for every person, race, gender, creed; when we are so far removed from prejudice that we not only do not prevent another class of people (based on gender, creed, color, whatever) from voicing our choice, or do not prevent another person based on gender, creed, color, whatever from representing us in enforcing our choice, then only can we truly claim to have advanced as a democracy.
Till then we are still another "developing" nation!
Hillary - for Senate Majority Leader
Just didn't want to forget this (*) -
Are they ‘rumors’ or ’speculation’ - isn’t there there’s always more basis for rumors? someone drops a guard, and in this day and age you can track that down lightning fast - e.g. the ‘monster’ remark. But speculation is more difficult - the half attentive public composed of those who once liked her and feel sorry for her humiliation, and those who never liked her but like her grasp of the minutae of dry statistics (jobs are x% down, gas is x dollars up, you are sick with no insurance, vote for me), have often speculated that she could take her energy to the Senate and be Majority Leader - which is what I was thinking of when I wrote this post
But is it a rumor? what’s the basis? who told who told who told who?
Anyway - as I said in my previous post, Hillary you can forget about being VP on a "dream ticket" - you burned too many bridges with BHO. So this is as good a plan as any.
(*) Update - this was on the Hill's Armstrong Williams blog - Armstrong williams? he of the Bush Education fake/consultant fame?
Looks like it is so indeed: Ugh - I had to go and quote him, did I?
As a result, the Capitol Hill grist mill is now turning with rumors the New York senator is hatching a deal to replace the inept Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as Senate majority leader.
Are they ‘rumors’ or ’speculation’ - isn’t there there’s always more basis for rumors? someone drops a guard, and in this day and age you can track that down lightning fast - e.g. the ‘monster’ remark. But speculation is more difficult - the half attentive public composed of those who once liked her and feel sorry for her humiliation, and those who never liked her but like her grasp of the minutae of dry statistics (jobs are x% down, gas is x dollars up, you are sick with no insurance, vote for me), have often speculated that she could take her energy to the Senate and be Majority Leader - which is what I was thinking of when I wrote this post
But is it a rumor? what’s the basis? who told who told who told who?
Anyway - as I said in my previous post, Hillary you can forget about being VP on a "dream ticket" - you burned too many bridges with BHO. So this is as good a plan as any.
(*) Update - this was on the Hill's Armstrong Williams blog - Armstrong williams? he of the Bush Education fake/consultant fame?
Looks like it is so indeed: Ugh - I had to go and quote him, did I?
Friday, March 7, 2008
Guess what Hillary we heard you all last week
Clinton on not criticizing Obama in Mississippi:
Oh my, this sudden sensitivity about pro-Obama listeners in her audience! Guess she was a bit shortsighted - for wasn't she heard all the world over trashing him on the top of her lungs loud and clear all last week - pesky journalists aired her rants to keep their ratings up - and of course she stemmed her losses in OH and TX because of that, but she BURNED her bridge to Obama and his supporters FOR GOOD - Dream on about a dream ticket, Hillary!
Earlier Friday at a town hall meeting in Mississippi, where some in the audience were undecided or leaning toward Obama, Clinton raised the possibility that she might run with the Illinois senator on the Democratic presidential ticket.......
Perhaps mindful that her audiences in Mississippi and Wyoming might view Obama favorably, Clinton has leaned more toward criticizing the Bush administration and has mostly refrained from direct attacks on her opponent, other than a few veiled references to him with phrases like "reality versus rhetoric" and "solutions over sound bites."http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080308/ap_on_el_pr/clinton
Oh my, this sudden sensitivity about pro-Obama listeners in her audience! Guess she was a bit shortsighted - for wasn't she heard all the world over trashing him on the top of her lungs loud and clear all last week - pesky journalists aired her rants to keep their ratings up - and of course she stemmed her losses in OH and TX because of that, but she BURNED her bridge to Obama and his supporters FOR GOOD - Dream on about a dream ticket, Hillary!
HRC doesn't have standing
Obama today:
True, let's see there's a lot more issues on which she doesn't have standing:
HRC doesn't have standing on NAFTA, she doesn't have standing on truthfulness, she doesn;t have standing on flip-flopping - she and her husband promoted it, thought it was a good thing; backtracked when running for Prez in rustbelt states, winked and nodded with the Canadian Embassy when they got worried and then threw that lit granade into Obama's court, and then accused Obama of saying one thing and meaning the other on Nafta as well as on the war.
HRC doesn't have standing on fighting for anyone's rights but her own - seeing as she and her husband were ready to throw blacks under the bus, after they christened her husband the Black President; a friendly warning to Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. and son, state Rep. Eddie Lucio III, and all Latinos, your turn's next - it'll be when one of your kind stands in her way, until then she'll be peaches and cream.
HRC doesn't have standing on experience -
80 cities only makes 80 hotels, or 80 sight-seeing trips, or 80 weddings or 80 funerals or a mix of all of that - all at the tax payers' cost - looks like you owe them something back not bilk them for another 8 years'.
Clinton "doesn't have standing to question my position on this issue" because she voted to authorize the war in 2002, as did McCain, the Republican presidential candidate.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080307/ap_on_el_pr/obama
True, let's see there's a lot more issues on which she doesn't have standing:
HRC doesn't have standing on NAFTA, she doesn't have standing on truthfulness, she doesn;t have standing on flip-flopping - she and her husband promoted it, thought it was a good thing; backtracked when running for Prez in rustbelt states, winked and nodded with the Canadian Embassy when they got worried and then threw that lit granade into Obama's court, and then accused Obama of saying one thing and meaning the other on Nafta as well as on the war.
HRC doesn't have standing on fighting for anyone's rights but her own - seeing as she and her husband were ready to throw blacks under the bus, after they christened her husband the Black President; a friendly warning to Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. and son, state Rep. Eddie Lucio III, and all Latinos, your turn's next - it'll be when one of your kind stands in her way, until then she'll be peaches and cream.
HRC doesn't have standing on experience -
80 cities only makes 80 hotels, or 80 sight-seeing trips, or 80 weddings or 80 funerals or a mix of all of that - all at the tax payers' cost - looks like you owe them something back not bilk them for another 8 years'.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
On Apologies
Nothing to do with anything..
But I thought this would be as good a time as any to soliloquize about apologies. Top five things to remember:
But I thought this would be as good a time as any to soliloquize about apologies. Top five things to remember:
- No one owes you an apology - so if they do, consider yourself overpaid!
- The world being as it is, never expect an apology - but if they do, be surprised, astonished, overwhelmed!
- Sometimes, those ingrates, they mean to ignore you, insult you, rub your nose to the ground, hurt you, all of those things...BUT sometimes, sometimes their error can be purely inadvertent, and so when they do apologize, let it GO!
- And then again, in pure self-interest, while you may think right now you can be done with them, and that you don't really need them, who knows there may come a time when you do - so if they do apologize, when they didn't have to (see 1 above), when many others don't (2 above), when it was inadvertent (3 above), consider that you may sometime or the other need them, so be a grown up and save their face for them, let them live another day to save your face for you perhaps!
- And last of all - even if 1, 2, 3, 4, above do not matter, remember:
"The quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this-
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation; we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there."
Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/1ws1810.txt
Friday, February 29, 2008
C-Span - What is wrong with this picture?
I was looking for some Obama campaign news and thought to look on CSpan's website; reading their wiki entry it says:
".. C-SPAN was created as a cable-industry financed, , non-profit for televising sessions of the US Congress. It receives no funding from any government source, has no contract with the government, and does not sell sponsorships or advertising. It strives for neutrality a lack of bias its public affairs programming..."
Here's what I saw under their link Featured Topics/Campaign 2008!
This is the top half of their page:
And here's the bottom half:
Can you tell me what's wrong?
There's not a SINGLE current Obama event or ad featured on the CSPAN site claiming to cover Campaign 2008! Either CSPAN is slipshod or does it have a dog in this fight?
Guess Obama should rightfully be in the Bahama's 'cos he's creaming HRC - but I was sure he was still beating the pavements of TX and OH!
I went over to his site and here's what I find!
Obama campaign could you please lend some of your event tapes to CSPAN????
".. C-SPAN was created as a cable-industry financed, , non-profit for televising sessions of the US Congress. It receives no funding from any government source, has no contract with the government, and does not sell sponsorships or advertising. It strives for neutrality a lack of bias its public affairs programming..."
Here's what I saw under their link Featured Topics/Campaign 2008!
This is the top half of their page:
And here's the bottom half:
Can you tell me what's wrong?
There's not a SINGLE current Obama event or ad featured on the CSPAN site claiming to cover Campaign 2008! Either CSPAN is slipshod or does it have a dog in this fight?
Guess Obama should rightfully be in the Bahama's 'cos he's creaming HRC - but I was sure he was still beating the pavements of TX and OH!
I went over to his site and here's what I find!
Obama campaign could you please lend some of your event tapes to CSPAN????
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Crazeee!
Obama in Somali garb looked ado-o-o-rable!
Evoked such warm feelings... seemed to me he looked like the Maharajah of Gwalior in the early stages of his dressing up or Raja Ravi Verma in the final stages :) !! Reminded me of saree wrapping styles and parents and grandparents who usually wore white fending off the hot tropical sun!
And then what do I learn? it was a smear attempt by the Clinton camp - via the Drudge Report with a photo "which to the unschooled eye could look like a Taliban outfit."!!!!
Wha-a-a-t? Taliban? !!
Hey, do all turbans look the same to you?
What about this one?
Or this?
or these?
or all of these?
I have news for you - at least 5.5 billion people of the world dress differently from you - so DEAL with it, policeman of the world!
Here in the US itself now 20% of the populace being foreign-born or first generation, either dress differently or have parents or immediate family that dress differently or have native garbs that are different from mainstream pantsuits and 3-pieces - so DEAL with it !
Hillary campaign now claims innocence - “Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely."
Oh Puhleeeze!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
The Yes we can song!
Moving!
www.yeswecansong.com
Went to the grocery store today (Giant) - and I guess the Clinton lobby had strong-armed them into running "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow"! A very subliminal Clinton ad there - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBKkwxCV5ls
Ad then I came home and listened to the Obama song! - he is so correct this election is not about black or white, not about gender, about rich or poor, but about the past vs. the future - listen to these two songs and tell me it isn't!
www.yeswecansong.com
Went to the grocery store today (Giant) - and I guess the Clinton lobby had strong-armed them into running "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow"! A very subliminal Clinton ad there - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBKkwxCV5ls
Ad then I came home and listened to the Obama song! - he is so correct this election is not about black or white, not about gender, about rich or poor, but about the past vs. the future - listen to these two songs and tell me it isn't!
Monday, January 21, 2008
Turgenev speaks to the Clintons from his grave!
Some background:
I was sick of the back and forth between the Clinton and Obama camps and mad as hell against Bill Clinton! Does he think he's running for his 3rd term? Well the American people have to first decide whether they want 3rd term Presidents! And until then he better stay out of the fray. Don't misunderstand me. I was an absolute Clinton fan, even in the darkest days of the Lewinsky scandal - I gave him any number of excuses on that front, of how he was a people person and could not really estblish boundaries between politicking and personal relationships etc. But its now getting way beyond finding excuses for him.
And so, more as a way to distract myself, I've been resorting to catching up on my reading; so one of the first few books I picked up was Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, and got through the first 9 chapters successfully, but darned if I didn't find a message from Turgenev for the Clintons in Chapter 10!
The text below is from www.bartleby.com with some minor edits (deletes in strikethrough, additions in red) - apologies to Turgenev!
Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883). Fathers and Children.
The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction. 1917.
Chapter X
ABOUT a fortnight passed by. Life at Maryino the campaigns went on its accustomed course, while Arkady the general public was lazy and enjoyed himself itself, and Bazarov Obamaworked. Every one in the house country had grown used to him, to his careless polished manners, and his Nikolai Petrovitch curt and abrupt brilliant and empowering speeches. Fenitchka The youth, in particular, was so far at home with him that one night she sent to wake him up; MityaIowa had had convulsions; and he had gone, and, half joking, half-yawning as usual, he stayed two hours weeks with her and relieved won the child state caucuses. On the other hand Pavel Petrovitch Bill had grown to detest Bazarov Obama with all the strength of his soul; he regarded him as stuck-up, impudent, cynical, and vulgar, someone emanicipated, but not enough, not enough to be on par with him, enjoy the White House, the Air Force One and all its trappings that he had so missed just a month into his retirement that he now wanted to get back through a nepotistic third term, a Hillary Presidency, certainly not emanicipated enough to beat him and Hillary at this game that he was past master at ; he suspected that Bazarov Obama had no respect for him, that he had all but a contempt for him—him, Pavel Kirsanov Pre-sid-ent Bill Clinton! 1 .
Hillary Clinton was rather afraid of the young ‘nihilist reformer,’ and was doubtful whether his influence over Arkady the general public was for the good; but he she was glad to listen to him, and was glad to be present at his scientific and chemicalexperiments political discussions. Bazarov Obama had brought with him a microscope Hope, and busied himself for hours together with it. The servants media, too, took to him, though he made fun of them; they felt, all the same, that he was one of themselves, not a master. Dunyasha Washington Post was always ready to giggle with him, and used to cast significant and stealthy glances at him when she skipped by like a rabbit; Piotr The New York Times, a man paper vain and stupid to the last degree, for ever wearing an affected frown on his brow, a man paper whose whole merit consisted in the fact that he looked civil, could spell out a page of reading, and was diligent in brushing his coat—even he smirked and brightened up directly Bazarov Obama paid him any attention; the boys on the farm TV networks simply ran after the ‘doctor Senator’ like puppies. The old man Prokofitch veterans of the Congressional Black Caucus were was the only ones who did not like him; he they handed him the dishes at table with a surly face, called him a ‘butcher’ an imposter, not black enough and ‘an upstart,’ and declared that with his great whiskers light skin he looked like a pig in a stye he could pass off as a White, but not white enough as the Clintons. Prokofitch Veterans of the CBC in histheir own way was were quite as much of an aristocrat a divider as Pavel Petrovitch that old rogue Bill Clinton. 2
The best days of the year had come—the first days of June the primaries. The weather kept splendidly fine; in the distance, it is true, the cholera divisiveness was threatening, but the inhabitants of that province Bazarov Obama used to get up very early and go out for two or three miles, not for a walk—he couldn’t bear walking without an object—but to collect specimens of plants and insects his thoughts and ideas and gain support. Sometimes he took Arkady the general public with him. 3
On the way home an argument usually sprang up, and Arkady the general public was usually vanquished in it, though he said more than his companion. 4
One day they had lingered rather late; Nikolai Petrovitch Hillary overheard them went to meet them in the garden, and as he reached the arbour he suddenly heard the quick steps and voices of the two young men. They were walking on the other side of the arbour, and could not see him. 5
‘You don’t know my father the old guard well enough,’ said Arkady the general public. 6
‘Your father’s old guard’s a nice chap Old guard,’ said Bazarov Obama, ‘but he’s behind the times; his day is done.’ 7
Nikolai Petrovitch Hillary listened intently.… Arkady the general public made no answer. 8
The man Old guard, for Hillary was one too, whose day was done remained two minutes motionless, and stole slowly home. 9
‘The day before yesterday I saw him Hillary reading Pushkin LBJ’s Bills in painstaking thoroughness,’ Bazarov Obama was continuing meanwhile. ‘Explain to him her, please, that that’s no earthly use. He’s She’s not a boy Congressional Librarian, you know; it’s time to throw up that rubbish. And what an idea to be a romantic at this time of day! Give him her something sensible to read.’ 10
‘What ought I to give him her?’ asked Arkady the general public. 11
‘Oh, I think Büchner’s Stoff und Kraft Constitution, the Bill of Rights and most importantly the Declaration of
‘I think so too,’ observed Arkady the general public approving, ‘Stoff und KraftConstitution and Bill of Rights and even the Declaration are is written in popular language.…’ 13
‘So it seems,’ Nikolai Petrovitch Hillary said the same day after dinner to his brother her husband, as he sat in his study, ‘you and I are behind the times, our day’s over. Well, well. Perhaps Bazarov Obama is right; but one thing I confess, makes me feel sore; I did so hope, precisely now, to get on to such close intimate terms with Arkady the general public, and it turns out I’m left behind, and he has they have gone forward, and we can’t understand one another.’ 14
‘How has he have they gone forward? And in what way is he are they so superior to us already?’ cried Pavel Petrovitch Bill impatiently. ‘It’s that high and mighty gentleman, that nihilist reformer, who’s knocked all that into his their heads. I hate that doctor Senator fellow; in my opinion, he’s simply a quack; I’m convinced, for all histadpoles opinions, he’s not got very far even in medicine politics.’ 15
‘No, brother husband, you musn’t say that; Bazarov Obama is clever, and knows his subject.’ 16
‘And his conceit’s something revolting,’ Pavel Petrovitch Bill broke in again. 17
‘Yes,’ observed Nikolai Petrovitch Hillary, ‘he is conceited. But there’s no doing without that, it seems; only that’s what I did not take into account. I thought I was doing everything to keep up with the times; I have started a model farm Health Care reform package; I have done well by the peasants, so that I am positively called a “Red Left Radical” all over the province; I read, I study, I try in every way to keep abreast with the requirements of the day—and they say my day’s over. And, brother husband, I begin to think that it is.’ 18
‘Why so?’ 19
‘I’ll tell you why. This morning I was sitting reading Pushkin LBJ’s Bills.… I remember, it happened to be The Gipsies Civil Rights’ Bill … all of a sudden Arkady the general public came up to me, and, without speaking, with such a kindly compassion on his their faces, as gently as if I were a baby, took the book away from me, and laid another before me— a German Law book book … smiled, and went away, carrying Pushkin LBJ’s Bills off with him them.’ 20
‘Upon my word! What book did he they give you?’ 21
‘This one here.’ 22
And Nikolai Petrovitch Hillary pulled the famous treatises of Büchner Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration, in the ninth latest editions, out of his her coat-tail pocket. 23
Pavel Petrovitch Bill turned it them over in his hands. ‘Hm!’ he growled. ‘Arkady NikolaevitchThe general public is taking your education in hand. Well, did you try reading it them?’ 24
‘Yes, I tried it. 25
‘Well, what did you think of it them?’ 26
‘Either I’m stupid, or it’s all—nonsense. I must be stupid, I suppose.’ 27
‘Haven’t you forgotten your German constitutional law?’ queried Pavel Petrovitch Bill. 28
‘Oh, I understand the German law.’ 29
Pavel Petrovitch Bill again turned the book documents over in his hands, and glanced from under his brows at his brother wife. Both were silent. 30
‘Oh, by the way,’ began Nikolai Petrovitch Hillary, obviously wishing to change the subject, ‘I’ve got a letter from KolyazinLewis and the CBC .’ 31
‘Matvy Ilyitch John Lewis?’ 32
‘Yes. He has They have come to——to inspect the province defend me to the black community. He’s quite a bigwig They’re bigwigs now; and writes to me that, as aDemocratic relations, he they should like to see us again, and invites you and me and Arkady the general public to the town South Carolina.’ 33
‘Are you going?’ asked Pavel Petrovitch Bill. 34
‘No; are you?’ 35
‘No, I shan’t go either. Much object there would be in dragging oneself over forty miles on a wild-goose chase. Mathieu Lewis wants to show himself in all his glory. Damn him! he will have the whole province doing him homage; he can get on without the likes of us. A grand dignity, indeed, a privy councillor congressman! If I had stayed in the service, if I had drudged on in official harness, I should have been a general-adjutant by now kept up the dignity of the oval office, and not subjected myself to impeachment proceedings in my final term, I might have yet held sway with the public and not have to bow and scrape before them again. Besides, you and I are behind the times, you know.’ 36
‘Yes, brother husband; it’s time, it seems, to order a coffin and cross one’s arms on one’s breast,’ remarked Nikolai Petrovitch Hillary, with a sigh. 37
‘Well, I’m not going to give in quite so soon,’ muttered his brother her husband. ‘I’ve got a tussle with that doctor senator fellow before me, I feel sure of that.’ 38
A tussle came off that same day at evening tea week after the Pavel Petrovitch Bill Clinton came into the drawing-room Bazarov Obama said little in the presence of the ‘old Kirsanovs guard’ (that was how he spoke of the brothers Pavel Petrovitch Bill Clinton was all aflame with impatience; his wishes were fulfilled at last. 39
The conversation turned on one of the neighbouring land-owners the handling of the War. ‘Dumb, Rotten aristocratic snob Iraq War,’ observed Bazarov Obama indifferently. He had met him in said so way back in 2002 too. 40
‘Allow me to ask you,’ began Pavel Petrovitch Bill Clinton, and his lips were trembling, ‘according to your ideas, have the words “rotten Dumb” and “aristocrat War” the same meaning?’ 41
‘I said “aristocratic snob Iraq War,” ’ replied Bazarov Obama, lazily swallowing a sip of tea. 42
‘Precisely so; but I imagine you have the same opinion of aristocrats Wars as of aristocraticsnobs aristocrats— Wars real aristocrats Wars. Kindly remember, sir’ (at these words Bazarov Obama lifted his eyes and looked at Pavel Petrovitch Bill), ‘kindly remember, sir,’ he repeated, with acrimony—‘the English American aristocracy. They do not abate one iota of their rights, and for that reason they respect the rights of others; they demand the performance of what is due to them, and for that reason they perform their own duties. The aristocracy’s Wars has have given freedom to England
‘We’ve heard that story a good many times,’ replied Bazarov Obama; ‘but what are you trying to prove by that?’ 44
‘I am tryin’ to prove by that, sir’ (when Pavel Petrovitch Bill was angry he intentionally clipped his words in this way, though, of course, he knew very well that such forms are not strictly grammatical. In this fashionable whim could be discerned a survival of the habits of the times of Alexander. The exquisites of those days, on the rare occasions when they spoke their own language, made use of such slipshod forms; as much as to say, ‘We, of course, are born Russians Americans, at the same time we are great swells, who are at liberty to neglect the rules of scholars’); ‘I am tryin’ to prove by that, sir, that without the sense of personal dignity, without self-respect—and these two sentiments are well developed in the aristocrat—there is no secure foundation for the social … bien public … the social fabric. Personal character, sir—that is the chief thing; a man’s personal character must be firm as a rock, since everything is built on it. I am very well aware, for instance, that you are pleased to consider my habits, my dress, my refinements, fund-raising, my lobbyist friends in fact, ridiculous; but all that proceeds from a sense of self-respect, from a sense of duty—yes, indeed, of duty. I live in the country, in the wilds, but I will not lower myself. I respect the dignity of man in myself.’ 45
‘Let me ask you, Pavel Petrovitch Bill,’ commented Bazarov Obama; ‘you respect yourself, and sit with your hands folded in front of lobbyists; what sort of benefit does that do to the bien public? If you didn’t respect yourself, you’d do just the same.’ 46
Pavel Petrovitch Bill turned white. ‘That’s a different question. Its absolutely unnecessary for me to explain to you now why I sit with folded hands before lobbyists, as you are pleased to express yourself. I wish only to tell you that aristocracy is a principle, and in our days none but immoral or silly people can live without principles. I said that to Arkady the general public the day after he came home broken and beat after some of wars I chose to consciously object to, and I repeat it now. Isn’t it so, Nikolai good folks?’ 47
Nikolai Petrovitch The public nodded his head their heads. 48
‘Aristocracy, Liberalism, progress, principles,’ Bazarov Obama was saying meanwhile; ‘if you think of it, what a lot of foreign … and useless words! To a Russian an average American they’re good for nothing 49 .’
‘What is good for something according to you? If we listen to you, we shall find ourselves outside humanity, outside its laws. Come—the logic of history demands …’ 50
‘But what’s that logic to us? We can get on without that too.’ 51
‘How do you mean?’ 52
‘Why, this. You don’t need logic, I hope, to put a bit of bread in your mouth when you’re hungry. What’s the object of these abstractions to us?’ 53
Pavel Petrovitch Bill raised his hands in horror. 54
‘I don’t understand you, after that. You insult the Russian American people. I don’t understand how it’s possible not to acknowledge principles, rules! By virtue of what do you act then?’ 55
‘I’ve told you already, uncle, that we don’t accept any authorities,’ put in Arkady the general public. 56
‘We act by virtue of what we recognise as beneficial,’ observed Bazarov Obama. ‘At the present time, negation inclusion is the most beneficial of all—and we deny——’ 57
‘Everything all division?’ 58
‘Everything All division!’ 59
‘What? not only art and Martin Luther King’s poetry … but even … horrible to say Republican art and Reagan’s poetry …’ 60
‘Everything,’ repeated Bazarov Obama, with indescribable composure. 61
Pavel Petrovitch Bill stared at him. He had not expected this; while Arkady the general public fairly blushed with delight. 62
‘Allow me, though,’ began Nikolai Petrovitch Hillary. ‘You deny all division, everything; or, speaking more precisely, you destroy everything.… But one must construct too, you know; construct division between them that can lead and them that can follow, them that can dream, and them that can write Bills.’ 63
‘That’s not our business now.… The ground wants clearing first.’ 64
‘The present condition of the people requires it,’ added Arkady, the general public with dignity; ‘we are bound to carry out these requirements, we have no right to yield to the satisfaction of our personal egoism.’ 65
This last phrase obviously displeased Bazarov Obama; there was a flavour of philosophy, that is to say, romanticism about it, something of the fairy tale for Bazarov Obama called philosophy, too, romanticism, or fairy-tales, anything that was not built upon the hard fought battles that could lead to hard won victories built upon realism tinged with idealism, but he did not think it necessary to correct his young disciple. 66
‘No, no!’ cried Pavel Petrovitch it Bill, with sudden energy. ‘I’m not willing to believe that you, young men, know the Russian American people really, that you are the representatives of their requirements, their efforts! No; the Russian American people is not what you imagine it. Tradition it holds sacred; it is a patriarchal people; it cannot live without faith, because who other than a Patriarch would know what Americans need? …’ 67
‘Or Matriarchs.’ reminded Hillary dully.
‘I’m not going to dispute that,’ Bazarov Obama interrupted. ‘I’m even ready to agree that in that you’re right.’ 68
‘But if I am right …’ 69
‘And, all the same, that proves nothing.’ 70
‘It just proves nothing,’ repeated Arkady, the general public with the confidence of a practised chess-player, who has foreseen an apparently dangerous move on the part of his adversary, and so is not at all taken aback by it. 71
‘How does it prove nothing?’ muttered Pavel Petrovitch Bill Clinton, astounded. ‘You must be going against the people then?’ 72
‘And what if we are?’ shouted Bazarov Obama. ‘The people imagine that, when it thunders, the prophet Ilya’s Santa Claus is riding across the sky in his chariot. What then? Are we to agree with them? Besides, the people’s Russian American; but am I not Russian American and could I not as easily become an American Patriarch as Hillary a Matriarch?’ 73
‘No, you are not Russian American, after all you have just been saying! I can’t acknowledge you as Russian American.’ 74
‘My grandfather ploughed the land,’ answered Bazarov Obama with haughty pride. ‘Ask any one of your peasants which of us—you or me—he’d more readily acknowledge as a fellow-countryman. You don’t even know how to talk to them.’ 75
‘While you talk to him and despise him at the same time.’ 76
‘Well, suppose he deserves contempt. You find fault with my attitude, but how do you know that I have got it by chance, that it’s not a product of that very national spirit, in the name of which you wage war on it?’ 77
‘What an idea! Much use in nihilists reformers!’ 78
‘Whether they’re of use or not, is not for us to decide. Why, even you suppose you’re not a useless person.’ 79
‘Gentlemen, gentlemen, no personalities, please!’ cried Nikolai Petrovitch Hillary, getting up. 80
Pavel Petrovitch Bill smiled, and laying his hand on his brother’s wife’s shoulder, forced him her to sit down again. 81
‘Don’t be uneasy,’ he said; ‘I shall not forget myself, just through that sense of dignity which is made fun of so mercilessly by our friend—our friend, the doctor Senator. Let me ask,’ he resumed, turning again to Bazarov Obama; ‘you suppose, possibly, that your doctrine is a novelty? That is quite a mistake. The materialism egalitarianism you advocate has been more than once in vogue already, and has always proved insufficient …’ 82
‘A foreign word again!’ broke in Bazarov Obama. He was beginning to feel vicious, and his face assumed a peculiar coarse coppery hue. ‘In the first place, we advocate nothing; that’s not our way.’ 83
‘What do you do, then?’ 84
‘I’ll tell you what we do. Not long ago we used to say that our officials took bribes, that we had no roads, no commerce, no real justice …’ 85
‘Oh, I see, you are reformers—that’s what that’s called, I fancy. I too should agree to many of your reforms, but …’ 86
‘Then we suspected that talk, perpetual talk, and nothing but talk, about our social diseases, was not worth while, that it all led to nothing but superficiality and pedantry; we saw that our leading men, so-called advanced people and reformers, are no good; that we busy ourselves over foolery, talk rubbish about art, unconscious creativeness, parliamentarism, trial by jury, and the deuce knows what all; while, all the while, it’s a question of getting bread to eat, while we’re stifling under the grossest superstition, while all our enterprises come to grief, simply because there aren’t honest men enough to carry them on, while the very emancipation our Government’s busy upon will hardly come to any good, because peasants are glad to rob even themselves to get drunk at the gin-shop.’ 87
‘Yes,’ interposed Pavel Petrovitch Bill, ‘yes; you were convinced of all this, and decided not to undertake anything seriously, yourselves.’ 88
‘We decided not to undertake anything,’ repeated Bazarov it Obama grimly. He suddenly felt vexed with himself for having, without reason, been so expansive before this gentleman. 89
‘But to confine yourselves to abuse change?’ 90
‘To confine ourselves to abuse change.’ 91
‘And that is called nihilism reform?’ 92
‘And that’s called nihilism Reform,’ Bazarov Obama repeated again, this time with peculiar rudeness. 93
Pavel Petrovitch Bill puckered up his face a little. ‘So that’s it!’ he observed in a strangely composed voice. ‘Nihilism Reform is to cure all our woes, and you, you are our heroes and saviours. But why do you abuse change others, those reformers even? Don’t you do as much talking as every one else?’ 94
‘Whatever faults we have, we do not err in that way? Bazarov Obama muttered between his teeth. 95
‘What, then? Do you act, or what? Are you preparing for action?’ 96
Bazarov Obama made no answer. Something like a tremor passed over Pavel Petrovitch Bill, but he at once regained control of himself. 97
‘Hm! … Action, destruction …’ he went on. ‘But how destroy without even knowing why?’ 98
‘We shall destroy the old ways, because we are a force,’ observed Arkady the general public. 99
Pavel Petrovitch Bill Clinton looked at his nephew erstwhile electoral bloc and laughed. 100
‘Yes, a force is not to be called to account,’ said Arkady the general public, drawing himself up. 101
‘Unhappy boy people!’ wailed Pavel Petrovitch Bill Clinton, he was positively incapable of maintaining his firm demeanour any longer. ‘If you could only realise what it is you are doing for your country. No; it’s enough to try the patience of an angel! Force! There’s force in the savage strikes KalmuckMongolian Labor Unions; but what is it to us? What is precious to us is civilisation Industry; yes, yes, sir, its fruits are precious to us. And don’t tell me those fruits are worthless; the poorest dauber, un barbouilleur, the man who plays dance music for five farthings an evening, lobbyist or CEO is of more use than you, because they are the representatives of civilisation Industry, and not of brute Mongolian Labor force! You fancy yourselves advanced people, and all the while you are only fit for the Kalmuck’s hovel Laborer’s assembly line! Force! And recollect, you forcible gentlemen, that you’re only four men and a half, and the others are millions, who won’t let you trample their sacred traditions under foot, who will crush you and walk over you!’ 102
‘If we’re crushed, serve us right,’ observed Bazarov Obama. ‘But that’s an open question. We are not so few as you suppose.’ 103
‘What? You seriously suppose you will come to terms with a whole people?’ 104
‘All Moscowwas burnt down the British were chased out, you know, by a farthing dip little tea-party,’ answered Bazarov Obama. 105
‘Yes, yes. First a pride almost Satanic, then ridicule—that, that’s what it is attracts the young, that’s what gains an ascendancy over the inexperienced hearts of boys! Here’s one of them sitting beside you, ready to worship the ground under your feet. Look at him! (Arkady the general public turned away and frowned.) And this plague has spread far already. I have been told that in
‘To my mind,’ retorted Bazarov Obama, ‘Raphael’s not worth a brass farthing; and they’re no better than he.’ 107
‘Bravo! bravo! Listen, Arkady the general public … that’s how young men of to-day ought to express themselves! And if you come to think of it, how could they fail to follow you! In old days, young men had to study; they didn’t want to be called dunces, so they had to work hard whether they liked it or not. But now, they need only say, “Everything in the world is foolery!” and the trick’s done. Young men are delighted. And, to be sure, they were simply geese before, and now they have suddenly turned nihilists reformers.’ 108
‘Your praiseworthy sense of personal dignity has given way,’ remarked Bazarov Obama phlegmatically, whileArkady the general public was hot all over, and his eyes were flashing. ‘Our argument has gone too far; it’s better to cut it short, I think. I shall be quite ready to agree with you,’ he added, getting up, ‘when you bring forward a single institution in our present mode of life, in family or in social life, which does not call for complete and unqualified destruction reformation.’ 109
‘I will bring forward millions of such institutions,’ cried Pavel Petrovitch Bill Clinton—‘millions! Well—the Mir Dot com economy, for instance.’ 110
A cold smile curved Bazarov’s Obama’s lips. ‘Well, as regards the Mir Dot com economy,’ he commented; ‘you had better talk to your brother wife. He She has seen by now, I should fancy, what sort of thing the Mir Dot com economy is in fact—its common guarantee, its sobriety, and other features of the kind.’ 111
‘The family Racial ties, then, the family racial ties as it exists among our peasants citizens!’ cried Pavel Petrovitch Bill Clinton. 112
‘And that subject, too, I imagine, it will be better for yourselves not to go into in detail. Don’t you realise all the advantages of the head of the family choosing his daughters-in-law the widening gulf between majority whites and minorities of all kinds, in educational opportunities, jobs, income, health care, crime, incarceration, the good indicators and the bad? Take my advice, Pavel Petrovitch Bill, allow yourself two days to think about it; you’re not likely to find anything on the spot. Go through all our classes, and think well over each, while I and Arkady the general public will …’ 113
‘Will go on turning everything into ridicule,’ broke in Pavel Petrovitch Bill. 114
‘No, will go on dissecting frogs the numbers. Come, Arkady people; good-bye for the present, gentlemen!’ 115
The two friends walked off. The brothers Clintons were left alone, and at first they only looked at one another. 116
‘So that,’ began Pavel Petrovitch Bill, ‘so that’s what our young men of this generation are! They are like that—our successors! May as well roll the dice!’ 117
‘Our successors!’ repeated Nikolai Petrovitch Hillary, with a dejected smile. He She had been sitting on thorns, all through the argument, and had done nothing but glance stealthily, with a sore heart, at Arkady the general public. ‘Do you know what I was reminded of, brother husband? I once had a dispute with our poor mother ; she stormed, and wouldn’t listen to me. At last I said to her, “Of course, you can’t understand me; we belong,” I said, “to two different generations.” She was dreadfully offended, while I thought, “There’s no help for it. It’s a bitter pill, but she has to swallow it.” You see, now, our turn has come, and our successors can say to us, “You are not of our generation; swallow your pill.” ’ 118
‘You are beyond everything in your generosity and modesty,’ replied Pavel Petrovitch Bill. ‘I’m convinced, on the contrary, that you and I are far more in the right than these young gentlemen, though we do perhaps express ourselves in old-fashioned language, vieilli, and have not the same insolent conceit.… And the swagger of the young men nowadays! You ask one, “Do you take red wine or white?” “It is my custom to prefer red!” he answers in a deep bass, with a face as solemn as if the whole universe had its eyes on him at that instant.…’ 119
‘Do you care for any more tea?’ asked Fenitchka Chelsea, putting her head in at the door; she had not been able to make up her mind to come into the drawing-room while there was the sound of voices in dispute there.’ 120
‘No, you can tell them to take the samovar,’ answered Nikolai Petrovitch Hillary, and he she got up to meet her. Pavel Petrovitch Bill said ‘bon soir’ to him her abruptly, and went away to his study.
Chapter XI
HALF an hour later Nikolai Petrovitch Hillary went into the garden to his favourite arbour He She was overtaken by melancholy thoughts. For the first time he she realised clearly the distance between him her and his son the general public; he she foresaw that every day it would grow wider and wider. In vain, then, had he she spent whole days sometimes in the winter at Petersburg Chappaqua over the newest books; in vain had he she listened to the talk of the young men; in vain had he she rejoiced when he she succeeded in putting in his her word too in their heated discussions. ‘My brother husband says we are right,’ he she thought, ‘and apart from all vanity, I do think myself that they are further from the truth than we are, though at the same time I feel there is something behind them we have not got, some superiority over us.… Is it youth? No; not only youth. Doesn’t their superiority consist in there being fewer traces of the slaveowner in them than in us?’
.....Chapter XI continues...
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