Pocketful o' Wry

ABC "Made in America" analysis

2011-04-21T18:53:00.009-04:00

The ABC "Made in America" series of segments indeed made for good TV - challenging Smithsonian about its gift shop sourcing, daring an average American household to turn its possessions out for inspection, and collaring Everyman on the street daring them to strip down to American-made-only clothing if any right there in front of their candid cameras and all turning up at the short end.

However I'm not sure that I care too much for their in-your-face journalism.

Can we now turn the tables on them and ask them:

Diane Sawyer - what is the car you drive? your desk, your computer where were they made? your roofing, carpetting, at home... give us an accounting! where was the scarf you wore made? the suit? the jewelry? the perfume, the lipstick?

David Muir - hey is that name your own? or is it French? Scotch? and the suits you wear? the shoes? the car?

And ABC - could we please find out how local your suppliers are?

It would be so much better if they would just do their real job as journalists. There are so many layers to this story that I wish they would spend the remaining segments on addressing those layers: for e.g.

could they probe beyond the consumer level; is consumption at the business consumption level also all non-American? planes, trains, ships, tractors, elevators? perhaps we are ceding one type of production to the world, just so that we focus on where our country's value-add is greatest - is there enough mark-up and volume there in handmade furniture to keep all our demographics gainfully employed? if so we should all become hand-crafting carpenters and get the chinese out of the business of cheap machine made furniture, if not would we be better off learning the truth and redirecting our energies?

could they go beyond why America consumes so much more of goods produced outside but why does America consume so much at all? can we learn to live less largely, and within our means?

And then in this interconnected day and age, shouldn't we celebrate our so-very-healthy diversity of tastes and interests? granted much of the diversity is motivated by bargain-hunting, but some of it reflects our complete open-mindedness; I so love it when I walk into a World Market's store and can't tell whether I'm in my native India, or the Fisherman's Wharf at San Francisco where I first ran into one. And that is something that should be celebrated, something that the world, China, India, Brazil can emulate - for if they followed our lead and shut their markets to the rest of the world and to us, the whole world will very soon hear the giant sucking sound that Ross Perot (I never thought I'd be taking his name this reverentially!) talked about nearly 20 years ago!

Ai Weiwei - Julian Assange deja vu??

2011-04-20T19:35:00.011-04:00

I agree with Rushdie's observation, that artists even in free societies risk derision when they perform a public role. It seems that it is not just artists, it's anyone who tries to live an authentic life could be in such danger. Salman Rushdie writing in NYT yesterday in a piece titled Dangerous Arts tells about the experience of artists in protesting against public authorities. And as he rightly points out, this is something that happens in free societies as much as in repressed ones. So may be free societies need to set a better example?
Just read Rushdie's account of the treament meted out to Mr. Ai Weiwei.
"The authorities have embarrassed and harassed him before, but now they have gone on a dangerous new offensive.
On April 4, Mr. Ai was arrested by the Chinese authorities as he tried to board a plane to Hong Kong. His studio was raided and computers and other items were removed. Since then the regime has allowed hints of his “crimes” — tax evasion, pornography — to be published. These accusations are not credible to those who know him. It seems the regime, irritated by the outspokenness of its most celebrated art export, whose renown has protected him up to now, has decided to silence him in the most brutal fashion. "
If it isn't almost to the last line taken from the West's playbook on Julian Assange, I don't know what else is!!!
I think the only thing left for us to do is to slap an Intellectual Property lawsuit on the Chinese for stealing our tactics on dealing with artists, bohemians and now plain old database engineers who hold a mirror to our faces and dare to spill the truth!

Are we lost in the shuffle?

2010-09-19T11:30:00.020-04:00

And even if not, is it too little too late? or does it matter?

This week's issue of "America" - the Catholic weekly - carried a story that threatens my already fragile sense of identity - or maybe not! It's the story of the Church's attempt to address the problems of the "historic churches of the Middle East" including the Syrian Catholic church.

Wait a minute, did they say 'Syrian Catholic' without mentioning that other (Kerala) Syrian Catholic church? did they forget to include the Syro-Malabar or the Syro-Malankara churches even as they talked of 'historic churches' (see picture below from Wikipedia's entry on same subject)? Yes, and, yes!

Ok, perhaps the issues behind the story did not really relate to anything that might resonate with Kerala Syrian Catholics?

Oh, wait another minute! The issues they are to talk of, are Immigration and Emigration! If anyone has experience of those two topics that would be Keralites indeed! Whether the issue is that of immigration into the Middle East (Saudi Arabia) "where public observance of christianity is prohibited" and so presents a problem, or emigration to host countries like USA, Canada, Australia, Kerala Syrian Catholics have direct and relevant experience of both topics!

So why would the Church not include the Syrian Catholic churches of Kerala (the Syro-Malabar Church or the Syro-Malankara church) in these discussions? Is it perhaps that the Church is not so much interested in tending to the needs of her flock, as much as playing politics in the Middle East??

According to the story emigration puts "their historic communities in jeopardy. When they assimilate in their new countries, they are likely to lose their distinctive historic identities. Even when they remain Catholics, they are likely to join Roman Catholic congregations." You bet it does that - puts their communities in jeopardy - it's been doing that ever since Kerala Syrian Catholics have been migrating outside of their home state of Kerala whether to neighboring states within India or to countries outside. From the loss of their genealogically significant and colorful family names, to the slow mainstreaming of their womenfolk from chatta and mundu of yore to saris and now to the ubiquitous salwaar kameez, or the withering away of songs and hymns and ritual in Syriac, in favor of christmas trees and fruit-cake, Kerala Syrian Catholics in the diaspora in India and abroad, I think, have lost, failed to hand down or be handed down a core sense of Keralite identity, instead assimilating the dress, speech, and rituals of the dominant elements of their host societies.

Whether it's totally a bad thing is debatable - better to lose an atrophied identity and remain a living vibrant tolerant human being, I would say! In some later posts I'll try and document what those losses and gains have been for me on a personal level.

Dr. Lowery's Inaugural Prayer

2009-01-20T17:36:00.002-05:00

Dr. Lowery's Inaugural benediction

Also known to be the Black National Hymn??

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/01/rev_lowery_inauguration_benedi.html

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee. Shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand -- true to thee, O God, and true to our native land.

We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day. We pray now, O Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant, Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration. He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national and, indeed, the global fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hand, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations. Our faith does not shrink, though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.

For we know that, Lord, you're able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor or the least of these and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.

We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that, yes, we can work together to achieve a more perfect union. And while we have sown the seeds of greed -- the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.

And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.

And as we leave this mountaintop, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.

Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little, angelic Sasha and Malia.

We go now to walk together, children, pledging that we won't get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone, with your hands of power and your heart of love.

Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right.

Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen!

REV. LOWERY: Say amen --

AUDIENCE: Amen!

REV. LOWERY: -- and amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen! (Cheers, applause.)

Historic Day! Barack - the Blessed and the Good!

2008-11-05T08:38:00.004-05:00

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.

Well its all coming down to Texas vs Taxes.

2008-11-01T11:17:00.002-04:00

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???

A beautiful comment on NYT

2008-11-01T10:12:00.001-04:00

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... "

http://themedium.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/obamamercial-divided-we-watch/index.html?hp#comment-164057

"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"

Own 1/millionth of a chance to party in Chicago :) !!!

2008-11-01T09:55:00.002-04:00

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...

Response to NYT on Taxes and Regulation

2008-11-01T07:50:00.005-04:00

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.

What is $700 billion going to mop up?

2008-09-23T08:03:00.005-04:00

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.

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!

What Marrying into Money Can Buy You

2008-09-22T21:48:00.002-04:00

Difference between Bush 41 and Bush 43?

2008-09-20T06:49:00.004-04:00

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!

Unforgettable campaign 2008 quotes

2008-09-18T21:36:00.005-04:00

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!"

Voter Registration, deadlines

2008-09-18T07:03:00.008-04:00

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)

why does WP's Tom Toles read my mind?

2008-09-18T07:03:00.002-04:00

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!

ABMAFO - Signed onto campaign for O!

2008-09-13T11:32:00.001-04:00

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.

Do you hear the people sing? Les Mizbarack

2008-09-13T07:31:00.013-04:00

Geography Bee

2008-07-17T06:15:00.002-04:00

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!)

Obama - Right on Wright

2008-03-16T09:12:00.000-04:00

Obama leading Intrade on Superdelegates

2008-03-09T07:59:00.003-04:00

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?")

Imitation is the purest form of flattery

2008-03-09T07:41:00.003-04:00

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

The threshhold story - now I get it

2008-03-08T16:44:00.004-05:00

When you hear what she said here -

and put it together with what she says here

it all makes sense

that she meets the Commander in Chief threshhold when Obama's holding her hand helping her over the stile!

Obama nips that bud with style

Wyoming - first in women's suffrage - votes for Obama

2008-03-08T15:50:00.003-05:00

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!

Hillary - for Senate Majority Leader

2008-03-08T07:27:00.005-05:00

Just didn't want to forget this (*) -

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?

Guess what Hillary we heard you all last week

2008-03-07T22:29:00.004-05:00

Clinton on not criticizing Obama in Mississippi:

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

2008-03-07T22:10:00.002-05:00

Obama today:

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'.

Obama on his family

2008-03-06T20:58:00.001-05:00

On Apologies

2008-03-04T06:12:00.002-05:00

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:

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

C-Span - What is wrong with this picture?

2008-02-29T20:57:00.006-05:00

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????

Crazeee!

2008-02-26T06:25:00.004-05:00

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!

The Yes we can song!

2008-02-03T21:01:00.000-05:00

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!

Turgenev speaks to the Clintons from his grave!

2008-01-21T07:12:00.000-05:00

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; Mitya~~Iowa 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 ~~his~~their 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 Iowa had had time to get used to its visits. ~~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 Independence to begin with.’ 12

‘I think so too,’ observed ~~Arkady~~ the general public approving, ‘~~Stoff und Kraft~~Constitution 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 his~~tadpoles~~ 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~~ ~~Nikolaevitch~~The 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 ~~Kolyazin~~Lewis 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 Iowa caucuses. ~~Pavel Petrovitch~~ Bill Clinton came into ~~the drawing-room~~ New Hampshire, all ready for the fray, irritable and determined. He was only waiting for an excuse to fall upon the enemy; but for a long while an excuse did not present itself. As a rule, ~~Bazarov~~ Obama said little in the presence of the ‘old ~~Kirsanovs~~ guard’ (that was how he spoke of the ~~brothers~~ Clintons), and that evening he felt out of humour, and drank off cup after cup of tea without a word. ~~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 Petersburg~~ 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~~ Iraq Wars. Give me a break! I think it my duty to inform you that I do not share that opinion. I venture to assert that every one knows me for a man of liberal ideas and devoted to progress; but, exactly for that reason, I respect ~~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~~ America and its aristocracy, and maintains it for her.’ 43

‘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 ~~Kalmuck~~, in the ~~Mongolian~~ 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 ~~Moscow~~ ~~was 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 Rome our artists never set foot in the Vatican. Raphael they regard as almost a fool, because, if you please, he’s an authority; while they’re all the while most disgustingly sterile and unsuccessful, men whose imagination does not soar beyond ‘Girls at a Fountain,’ however they try! And the girls even out of drawing. They are fine fellows to your mind, are they not?’ 106

‘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, while~~Arkady~~ 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~~ Nevada caucuses barely winning a few percentage points more than Obama, and in fact taking home one fewer delegate. 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...

Gore: Go on, do it NOW! Endorse Obama!!

2008-01-20T18:16:00.000-05:00

Come on Al Gore, Endorse Obama now!

We need someone to counterbalance Bill Clinton, elder statesman of the Dems who's stooped low enough and sock Obama a few times, just so's Bill's "legacy" is preserved! he had his chance and blew it - sorry, he needs to move over and let a new generation get a shot! with 1.5 terms of his presidency he rolled the dice with the oval office and we know how that went! There's no saying what he's apt to do with another 4 to 8 years guaranteed to him and his wife!
I was all for Bill Clinton, and in fact all for Hillary too - but the possibility of having a no-baggage, all-american all-minority candidate is simply too much to resist - Obama of course must show staying power, as he does.. but not without support from the ground.

So Gore, help make it happen!

Just one last post, then no more race/gender posts

2008-01-17T22:26:00.000-05:00

Oh that Bob Herbert when he calls a truce he means it!

If there was ever a story that deserved more coverage by the news media, it’s the dark persistence of misogyny in America. Sexism in its myriad destructive forms permeates nearly every aspect of American life. For many men, it’s the true national pastime, much bigger than baseball or football.....

....If we’ve opened the door to the issue of sexism in the presidential campaign, then let’s have at it. It’s a big and important issue that deserves much more than lip service.

And so I had to wade through his entire column on Politics and Misogyny looking for the punch line and didn't find it! I think it was erased by the NYT editors, who else - but I think it was this..

But even more than misogyny, ladies and gentlemen, is racism. Look at homicide by race and gender. Look at unemployment rates by race and gender, at bankruptcy rates by race and gender, at mortgage rate bias by race and gender. Ratio of prison releases due to faulty incarceration as revealed by DNA evidence by race and gender. Why just study the TV/radio air time and print media devoted to kidnappings by race and gender. Look at the average time taken by store clerks to attend to customers by race and gender..and then tell me that misogyny is worse than bias against the color of one's skin.

Not to take away anything from Herbert's story - but I think someone at NYT must have told him to write a pandering last-word-before-we-shut-up article saying your victimhood is greater than mine, and it would just sound more authentic coming from a black man! he's just keeping his job like black men and women will always do.

For information, here's the crime stats:
All crimes Against:
White Males 25.5%
Black Males - 32.5%
White Females 16.5%
Black Females - 25.5%

All crimes Against:
White Males 0.1%
Black Males - 0.2%
White Females 1.1%
Black Females - 3.1%

Clyburn takes the high road

2008-01-12T18:10:00.000-05:00

Almost as if in response to my plea/comment on TPM -
Clyburn takes the high road - confirming he'll remain neutral in S.Carolina primary
(Not really, I know - but I can make believe as well as anyone, can't I?)

Here's my comment on TPM elaborating on my own post on this blog -
"If you look at HRC's white women base and BO's black male base HRC's base may seem larger, but this slicing and dicing and micro-trending may be self-defeating...

Obama, if smart could appeal to a much larger base of perhaps non-white men?

Or an even larger base of non-white people, men and women!

Do we want to go down that route as a country - oh leaders, lead us!"

In fact Clyburn's stance may be a double-edged sword - giving Clintons what they may have asked for, but fanning flames of black resentment a bit when he apparently denies them his voice as an overt channel for their frustration.

MLK-LBJ: suggested Obama response

2008-01-12T10:30:00.000-05:00

Caught this post on one of the blogs:
"At the end of the day (using some of Clinton's words from the interview), being “able to get it through Congress” is something she’s been doing longer. The ability to inspire by the “power of dreams” is a worthy and necessary talent for all social justice leaders. When she spoke of the dream "becoming reality..”..she seems only to be saying she thinks she can do it better than Obama can." http://iddybudjournal.blogspot.com/2008/01/hillarys-mlk-jr-moment.html

Well, Obama should say that Hillary, then, should stay in the Senate since he will need experienced competent leaders there to pass things through in the Congress, when he is President.

Hillary's moment and race and gender

2008-01-12T10:27:00.000-05:00

The Dem's Primary cafeteria is a citizens gourmand's Envy - they have a simply great set of choices this year - can't lose the General Elections with any of the current options, including Edwards!

But it is critical for all of them to understand the answer to Drum's question (how did Hillary win NH?)

Firstly, do understand - Hillary, Barak and, yes, John too are more alike than not!

Each of them are, in their own way, trailblazers, and sometimes the positions they take that make many of the hairsplitters angry, are done mainly to counter the stereo-typed image that the media has, and presents, of their key demographic identifier.

Thus the story so far..

Hillary as the Woman has to work twice as hard as a man to prove she's tough - some of her pro-AUMF, anti-Iran votes, I think, were to insulate her against charges that she'll be soft and womanly, and ironically these have worked so well she has had to work hard to do the opposite!

Barak, (first names for all, as required by my EEOC advisor) as the black/minority of the group, has to work hard to prove that he does not just represent another victimized, marginalized, minority point of view as would an Al Sharpton or a Civil-Rights era politician - so he has the 'inclusive, work with the right, the left, the rich and the poor' message - it's not the '2 Americas' message he wants to deliver, but a message of reassurance that he's not going to be exclusively the Poor Man's President in the richest nation in the world - so Insurance cos. and (white) Business leaders, have nothing to worry. He could so easily be an Al Sharpton, but he picked the harder fight, to play in the old (white) boys' sandbox.

And John, the only Christian White Male has to fight against the "Me, Myself, and I" image of the stereo-typical privileged White Male and so rallies the country in favor of the downtrodden and the hard-at-the-heels American of all colors.

They could so easily stay within the stereo-typed molds that society and the media have prepared them. But each of them choose to carry the tougher message.

That is until now!

I think Hillary broke the post-Iowa tie with Obama because of two things - for one, her extensive back and forth question/answer lecture tours last week at NH demonstrated her intimate grasp of policy, and then there was THE tearing up. I liken that to the moment where Shakespeare draws the audience into his M of V story and invites empathy for that much-reviled figure of 16th century society - Shylock, the moneylender, the social outcast, through the latter's rants - If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh?

Hillary's tearing up humanized her, I would even say, it underscored her gender that which she has been working so hard to deny! In fact that was the second time in a week she let her gender guard down. The coy response to the NH TV anchor's likeability question was another girlish response for Hillary. I have no problems with it - whatever each thinks is needed to win, is par for the course, as long it's not a race-baiting Willie Horton ad!

Oh wait, that's the epilogue to the story - is the MLK-LBJ controversy a damning with faint praise version of the Willie Horton strategy from the Clinton camp?

Whether the Obama camp's response can be called playing the race card or not, where is this going to lead us?

For one thing, in simple numbers there are more white women than black men - or do you compare white women and non-white men? or white women against non white men and women?

Advice to Obama - pick your constituency thoughtfully and you may be able to mine a gold field!

An Obama Presidency?!

2008-01-05T14:47:00.001-05:00

Over at Sepia Mutiny they discuss Obama as a brown candidate - http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/004943.html

No he's really not running a racial campaign, whether brown, black or blue - he actually has built upon Edwards' 2004 theme of the 2 Americas, except he uses the red states/blue states' ideological divide when he may mean the racial and economic ones too. The only time he actually referred to race in his campaign speeches was on the Selma anniversary (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7630250 )

I had steadfastly dismissed him as a creature of the celeb-obssessed, fad-chasing culture; even when hearing him speak I have felt he touched upon generalities and abstractions. And, yes, I am wary of someone selling hope - I remember Marketing 101 and the quote attributed to Charles Revlon "In the factories we make perfume, but in the stores we sell hope."! And I wonder what is the Obama factory really making? He seems too good to be true, and everything I've learnt from life, is that if its too good to be true, it can't be true.

I do think that if he's as good as he sounds, Obama as a member of a racial minority can do much more to shake up the power equilibrium in favor of the dispossessed classes than can Hillary as a woman. But I am so afraid that if Dems choose Obama as the nominee and Americans follow suit to make him Prez, it may be in exactly the same mind-frame that they selected Jimmy Carter so close after Watergate. And the Obama Presidency like Carter's will be awash in goodwill but will beseiged by the cunning, ugly, manipulative obstructionist minority in the Republican camp and the world at large. They would be wroth to see any good come out of the Dem Party...give them a long enough rope to hang themselves will be their mantra and they will see to it that he comes out looking like another naive peanut farmer. To this day they will not credit Carter adequately for the Camp David Peace Accord, they blame him for the Iran hostage crisis, and the economic problems of the 70's -

I agree with the Dailykos diarist RenaRF (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/4/135059/1810/652/430574) things could get real ugly but not just on the way to the nomination - our candidates have been bruised one after the other, Kennedy, Carter, Clinton, Gore, Kerry, in so many ways in their path to the White House, their stays at the WH and/or with their post-WH history.

I am truly afraid to Hope.

164 million people and Bhutto's son

2008-01-02T20:14:00.000-05:00

Well, LA Times has it correct -
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-pakistan2jan02,0,6726194.story?coll=la-home-commentary

Furthermore it isn't clear whether she was bestowing Pakistan upon her family which might mean she thought Pakistan was her private property to distribute to her family as estate; or vice versa, whether she was bestowing her family upon Pakistan - kind of a little insulting both to Pakistan and her family? Surely a country of 164 million people who have lived and learnt to weather the dangerous political terrain of Pakistan can produce at least one successor more capable than the 19-year old Bilawal, even if he were Benazir's first-born son? And if it were me, I would never bestow upon my children an inheritance such as the country of Pakistan, however glorious and far removed from its present dismal state its future condition were guaranteed to be. Instead I would first want my children to atleast have the opportunities I have had education and experience wise - which in Bhutto's case means Oxford, Harvard and all the Ivy league degrees, the wisdom and connection that they supposedly come accompanied with, the freedom to choose their learning track, as well as their destiny - at the very least an education that his own peers in Pakistan would have access to.

So, in short Benazir's will is a little puzzling.

Bhutto's assassination

2007-12-27T13:21:00.000-05:00

The world continues to unravel under George Bush's savage US leadership.

The vast chain of events unleashed by his abysmally cock-eyed response to 9/11 now includes the death of Benazir Bhutto, his lame, preemptive, red-flag-raising, apology of an excuse notwithstanding "she knew that her return to Pakistan earlier this year put her life at risk."

And such aftershocks of his administration's excesses will continue to be felt in America and the world.

Only a goliath-sized Democratic leader of Jimmy Carter's moral stature and Bill Clinton's intellectual grasp can possibly mop and clean up the debacle GWB leaves behind - Hillary, Obama, Edwards, know and be clear now, you have to be in it for the tough long haul, not just the photo-ops.

War criminals take their cue from the US!

2007-12-15T09:45:00.000-05:00

Interesting thought raised by Mary-Jane Deeb on PBS NewsHour (re. the Algerian bombings, http://www-tc.pbs.org/newshour/rss/media/2007/12/12/20071212_algiers28.mp3) on 12/12, when responding to a question put to her by Margaret Warner on the extent of support to Islam in Algeria. According to Mary-Jane, and I'm paraphrasing, "the support is variously estimated at 15-30%, but

only a minority commit violent acts,
others may support violent action but not themselves kill,
yet others may give money for Islamic causes but do not want to know what these people are doing, and then
you have some who are neutral, and
finally at the other end of the spectrum those who are actually critical' of these actions"

This distribution bears a remarkable similarity to opinions on Waterboarding, destruction of those tapes by the CIA, or for that matter, any of the other brazenly criminal political events that have taken place in our country in the recent past and been aped in various parts of the world (remember we set ourselves as the 1st world, the leader, torchbearer, the gold standard, but that's another story in there..)

We could say for example

there are just a minority who actually participate in waterboarding, torture, wars of aggression (___name your crime) like 'Bush/Cheney and their minions' (love that phrase, heard it on the snippet on 'Climate change hearings' on PBS yesterday),
there are others who approve of such behavior but look the other way,
there are still others who give money for such right-wing neo-con causes that support these activities,
others who are neutral (the apathetic public), and then
there are those who are critical but probably afraid to speak out, and
lastly there are brave souls who are critical and do speak out...

Just being an armchair political scientist I would hazard a guess that this same distribution (the old Bell curve) of support for all kinds of political causes can be found in all parts of the world - Afghanistan, erstwhile Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon... YET, YET.. we have bombed two countries out of shape, and are blithely pondering annhilation of a third using the proclivities of the small violent minority in these countries for despicable causes, scapegoating in the process entire nations, cultures and religions as being EVIL, while we keep excusing ourselves of one atrocity after another conducted by our violent minority by saying - oh those were the bad apples in Abu Ghraib, oh this was a military error in the white phosphorous gassing of Faluja, oh that third was just enhanced military questioning while giving swim lessons...

And when you think that their violent minority consists of "non-state" actors, mostly disabled, disillusioned, handicapped out-of-work dregs of their society (http://disabilitytechnews.anhnses.com/archives/150 ), while our violent minority consists of the supposedly lawful (I say, supposedly, remembering the Bush/Gore tug-of-war) representatives of our government that have managed to hijack our systems of checks and balances and have wrapped the flag around themselves and their criminality, then you can understand the enormity of the world's problems!

Barry Bonds, Alberto Gonzales and Perjury

2007-12-15T09:37:00.001-05:00

It makes me want to PUKE!

We have spilt the blood of close to 4,000 of the brightest and best US military, with another 50,000-plus permanently physically wounded (loss of toes and fingers not counted!), uncounted mental casualties, bombed, slaughtered, raped, rendered homeless refugees of upto 85 to 655 thousand Iraqi dead (depending upon who’s doing the counting), another 2 million Iraqi wounded and displaced and YET - YET, the various commissions relating to the intelligence gathering or failure thereof, Abu Ghraib, NSA, FISA, CIA torture, Attorney purges (related and unrelated to the war) have been systematically lied to both by ex-Attorney General and White House personnel, false stories planted and leaked, key evidence has been suppressed lost, stolen, shredded, disks wiped clean, WH personnel have refused sub poenas, the President and the ex-Attorney General have both claimed loss of memory on specific questions, the President and the VP have consistently refused to appear under oath…

I have been diligently following these stories even though I lack a degree in law, politics, or have no degree in sewage cleansing, but I blinked for a second and the next thing I hear is - Barry Bonds is indicted on perjury!

I’m sorry I don’t understand sports; so I don’t understand what it is that he did that was even one-tenth as bad as the story I’d been following the past 7 years! Can someone please explain to me how this country can spend resources on a baseball commission to study the extent of drug abuse amongst players, list players who do not appear before the commission as drug abusers by default for non-appearance, and indict on perjury those who have appeared but claimed innocence when that is exactly what this country’s President, VP, ex-AG, and the entire WH gang have been doing for the past 8 years!!

Oh, thank you, I forgot that’s why you need a Harvard Law degree and an MBA! Poor Barry Bonds!

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001442_pf.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_conflict_in_Iraq_since_2003

Holiday decor

2007-12-15T09:34:00.001-05:00

As if winter is not tough enough to deal with, snow, sleet, and howling winds included, there's these holidays!

Not generous enough and you can be called a scrooge, but succumb to the subtle cues from all your service personnel - and you’ll single-handedly pressure the Feds into raising the Fed Funds rate!

Not merry enough and you’ll be diagnosed as suffering from SAD, too merry and you might convince the cops you’re DUI!

But the most conflicting of all holiday time chores is the DECORATIONS!

First there’s the timing of it.

It’s not even Black Friday after Thanksgiving and the neighbors have wheeled in their scarecrows, rushed back and torn down their cotton cobwebs off their trees, unpeeled all the decals of various ghouls off their twenty-two window panes, baked a couple of pumpkin pies off of their jack o’lanterns and in the darkness of the early November sundown replaced all that with three giant motorized and lighted reindeer galloping eternally skyward, a shimmering lace of lighted snowflake trimming hanging on their eaves, a lighted candle and wreath on each of their twenty-two window panes, a gleaming red sateen bow and wreath in front of their eight-cylinder Chevy Suburban, and both lyrics and aroma of chestnuts roasting on an open fire wafting off their hearth, warming the cockles of my heart - except NOT! I’m still struggling with the dishes from Thanksgiving Day - breakfast, that is! (Dinner was with kind friends who had invited us over!)

We just can’t catch up and so have resorted to an elaborate formula to calculate exactly when to start Christmas decorations: in years that Christmas falls on Wednesday or later - start decorating the weekend before, else two weekends before, unless snow, wind, rain, any other foul weather, work, housework, children’s homework, children’s EC activities, friends, or a Winter box-office opener gets in the way, in which case wait till the weekend before.

And that’s only the ‘when’ part of it! the ‘how’ of it is another story entirely! Promise you another post on that!

Capitalists in a Capitalistic Society

2007-12-15T09:33:00.001-05:00

Hah!

Browsing through Wikipedia for a bit on US Demographics, I was amazed to learn that only 1% of the US population was categorized as “Capitalists” by Dennis Giblert Professor of Sociology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_demographics)! I guess all the rest are workerbees whether it means they work for someone else or for themselves as Subway franchisees!! I guess you could still argue that the US can still claim the mantle of being the cradle of Capitalism with this miniscule 1% of its ‘Capitalist’ population, but would that be like saying India is a Christian nation with less than 2% Christians? or that Brazilians are a vegan nation with probably 1% vegans? or that China is … you get my point!

Who are the foolish wannabees that vote Republicans into power on the theory that they believe in an ownership society - ownership by the 1% of the 99% I suppose!

Vacation - I

2007-12-15T09:32:00.001-05:00

Growing up in India, vacations were the same every year – summers visiting our parents’ ‘native place’, Kerala, a trek our parents took to all that was familiar and known to them, which ironically became for us an adventure into the unknown or at least the semi-known. Ironically again, we were to mimic our parent’s roles in similar inter-generational treks reserved for us in the future with our children on transatlantic visits ‘home’ to India. The difference, of course, was that ‘home’ was redefined as the entire subcontinent, rather than just my parent’s birthplace, Kerala.

The trips to Kerala began and ended with a bone-crushing two-day train journey in the sweltering pre-monsoon heat on the Indian Railway’s Cochin Express pulled by steam-powered locomotives, puffing outbound from Bombay (now Mumbai) at the intricately carved, cavernous VT Station (the initials, which then stood for Victoria Terminus should rightfully have changed to CST, for the station apparently was rechristened as Chhatrapathi Sivaji Terminus in 1996, but the thoughtful public steadfastly cling to VT! which I must thank them for - can you imagine being stranded in Mumbai, bad enough that we have to call it that, and then having to ask for directions to VT and drawing a blank from the cabbie?). The trip usually in May at the height of the summer heat, then seemed tedio, draining every ounce of energy from all of us, but is now laden with memories so dear! The train would wind its way through Pune, Lonavla, the Western Mountain Ranges or ‘the Ghats’, the highlands and green forest jungles of Kerala’s Malabar Coast at the end of which we would emerge with faces blackened like chimney sweeps, coal dust in our hair, teeth, armpits and every exposed crevice and pore of our bodies. As my father’s fortunes rose we graduated to first class and then air-conditioned-first, which unfortunately resulted in sealing us off from contact with real life. Train travel in India in those days was nothing if not a contact sport - loud blustering arguments between coolies and customers, the jostling of co-passengers scavenging for more than their fair share of space, the explosion of aromas as an assortment of spices from home-cooked parathas, thayiru saadams, sambars, and railway canteen puri-bhajis assaulted all our senses, the trading pit frenzy of the station vendors’ pakoras and samosas competing for our attention and purse – all denied to us in the cool, silent, insulated comfort of the Indian Railways air-conditioned first-class left us feeling that we were at the losing end of the bargain. The mixed pleasure of that chaos and clamor were, as is usually the case, felt only in their absence and we continued our annual pilgrimage home in decorum, ease and respectability while cut off from all that raw life.

Little wonder then, that, much to my family’s consternation, on my very first attempt at independent travel over thirty years ago, I instinctively headed for the hills of Ootacamund (Ooty), to test the toy trains and view the hills and tea and coffee plantations of South India. To this day, that trip is rarely mentioned by me or others in the family - not quite as if I had eloped, had a child out of wedlock or committed some other equally grave social faux pas - but near enough! I had a fair idea as to what, about that trip, might have seemed irksome: for one thing there was the traveling at 25, and then the travelling as an unmarried woman, and then again the travelling unaccompanied, and, the nail on the coffin, so to speak, the travelling on a trip having nothing to do with work or visiting family! No, it wasn’t a visit to the ‘native’ place!

That was decades before the internet. All I did by way of trip planning was to get an airplane ticket and schedule to the nearest airport, Coimbatore. On landing, a short trip by cycle rickshaw to the interstate bus depot got me on my way to a two hour unreserved bus trip to Ooty, through some of the most picturesque landscapes I’d ever seen, between one bustling village after another. I don’t quite remember how I landed up at Hotel Dasaprakash, but it was clean, comfortable and well within my budget. I walked around exploring the neighborhoods in and around the hotel the first couple of days, before embarking on a tour of the mountains. And, at Dodabetta Peak in the Nilgiris, came upon one of the most stunning lookouts that I had ever seen, which I suppose, was not saying very much for me, at that time. But many, many years later I was to come upon another lookout, almost identical, almost half the world over, and I had a sense of indescribable déjà vu - but let me not get ahead of my story.

The valley that the Dodabetta Peak looked out at was misty with the cold air and oils from the magnificent eucalyptus trees that Ooty is known for. In the briskness of the mountain air I tugged hard at my thin shawl which I found wanting, having carried it more for show than substance. Some of my companions on the tour bus that took us to the mountain tops took pictures, but neophyte traveler that I was at that time, I hadn’t armed myself with the, now obligatory travelling appendage, a camera! I suppose my memory of those hills and trees and brisk mountain air has weathered the passing of these thirty years, but I search google for pictures of Ooty that might match the view from that lookout in my memory’s eye, and incredibly, I find none! Was it all a figment of my fevered imagination? Or did I once stand up there at the top of the Nilgiris on Dodabetta Peak?

[Crossposted at Paisleys and Peacocks.wordpress.com and to be continued…]

Well! Here’s to the first of many musings!

2007-12-15T09:29:00.000-05:00

Hopefully the world will provide enough occasions for many more! and if they are not wry enough for the tall claims of this blog, it will certainly be because of my own limits rather than the capacity of the world around us to surprise, provoke, astound, and sometimes leave us apoplectic!

For a timid start let me just point to the big gun story last week on all media - Number of mentally ill banned from buying guns doubles (http://www.cnbc.com/id/22026333/for/cnbc ). On reading the details my heart just bled for the gun industry! Doubles, mind you! not just your anemic 3.5% fall in housing prices, or 1.5% fall in job growth but a full 200% drop!! All the papers and newswires and TV outlets said so (ABC - “..soars..”, Chicago Tribune - “..more than double..”, NBC - “..doubles..”.)

I did a quick mental calculation, but found out the ole batteries needed a little charging and so I’d need to supplement with a calculator or an excel sheet or two.

Here’s the enormity of the NRA’s problem! Out of an US population of 301,139,947, only 218,627,602 unfortunately qualify for owning a gun, being above 20 (18 and 21 are the various cut-offs for hand-guns and rifles etc. - more detail than you want right now?).

Now prior to the VA Tech shooting only 174,863 of these were listed on the FBI ‘gun ban’ databases - i.e. 0.08% of the adult population approximately; and now that these databases have doubled (yes, doubled!) to 393,957 (or 0.18% of the adult population), the gun market is seeing its entire market collapse by a whopping 0.1%!!

Please someone pass this ole biddy her smelling salts!