In CBS's Saturday night pantheon, the girl who could turn the world on with her smile has been replaced by a man whose missing teeth may be his most compelling feature.
What is it? Do we need to sew an elastic panel in the waist of their pants? The above is from the Docker Boys' David Carr ("Golden Age for TV? Yes, on Cable," June 9th, New York Times). We hate to break it David Carr (who is younger than Mary Tyler Moore) but calling the actress or the character (Mary Richards) a "girl" is insulting.
So is stroking it over CBS EliteXC Saturday Night Fights and pretending that it's somehow this decade's equivalent to The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Read through the column and the thing you'll most likely be left with is "Middle Aged Male in a Panic."
While that's his own problem to deal with, his 'work' for The Times is a problem for the paper to deal with. It's been one sneering, sexist put-down after another from Carr of late. Or maybe someone missed the 'jocular' attitude on display in Carr's "Slumber Parties Go Digital" (June 2nd). Carr's writing columns for the Business section (they start on the front page of that section) and somehow "The Media Equation" (the headings his columns are grouped under) has translated into, "See my testes?"
In "Slumber Parties Go Digital" (even the headline -- a column on women using the internet -- is insulting), he takes to task Sex In The City (a popular target for a number of sexist pigs) and gets in a ha-ha about a real life woman's shoes. What?
Are we back to the days where a daily paper thinks a man is needed to navigate women (or, as Carr would call them, "girls")? Considering how few women the newspaper publishes and how much time has progressed, that's awfully strange.
Carr's output of late reads like a tired rehash of columns you could have found a century ago. And we've yet to see a female columnist at the paper who is lampooning men. But each week, while allegedly covering "media," Carr's been serving up ha-has on women. They sure are strange, he seems to laugh each week. If Carr truly can't understand women, here's a suggestion: Don't write about them.
Week after week, the chief Docker Boy is portraying women as some strange, crippled creature, not a full bodied person with all the rights and norms that would entail, but these barely thinking creatures who are so amusing as they attempt to be part of the world (would that be part of the "man's world"?). It's insulting and it's gone on long enough that it should have garnered some attention from the paper and been addressed.
But it hasn't.
And the same media that used sexism to take down Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign wants to pretend like maybe it happened, but maybe it didn't. What was done to Hillary wasn't offensive because it was done to Hillary, it was offensive because it reflected very real prejudices held by members of the media (male and female) against women. If you doubt it, just peruse some of Carr's recent work.
He apparently fancies himself a humorist. We don't hear anyone laughing.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
It started in DC . . .
We do read the e-mails. Jennifer e-mailed regarding "Editorial: What's your acceptance level?" and Elaine and C.I.'s response when Jim pulled up the Wikipedia entry on Liberation News Service and read to them that it LNS was "based in New York City". Jennifer ended up doing research on the issue and found a ton of information including Thorne Dreyer and Victoria Smith's "The Movement and the New Media" (The Rag) which notess the following:
In the fall of 1967, when LNS started sending sporadic packets of news out of a chaotic commune-office in Washington, D.C., major changes were advancing on the movement from without and within. Large scale ghetto rebellions in Detroit and Newark had infected America and the movement with a sense of violent apocalypse. The inescapable presence of repression, breathing down the necks of white radicals as well as blacks, stimulated the birth of a “new militancy” among youth.
[. . .]
But, almost in spite of itself, LNS began to attract movement journalists who were able to see the dynamic possibilities of the news service. Allen Young, a refugee from the Washington Post, was greatly responsible for keeping LNS together as he gathered in good people and churned out consistently readable and reliable copy. By the time LNS decided to move its headquarters from Washington to New York in the spring of 1968, a politically diversified group of writers, editors and photographers was working full-time with the news service.
It was soon after the move to Manhattan that a bitter factional dispute developed among the staff. The split was far too complex to adequately deal with here (or, perhaps, anywhere) but there were two major issues: democratic control of the news service, and more political content in the news packets. Personality clashes were also at play in the fracas. After several bitter all-night meetings, a vote was taken: ultimate decision-making power for the organization would be given to the entire working staff.
So, yes, LNS did not originate in NYC. What Jennifer found most interesting about the article quoted is that it's linked in Wikipedia's "External Links" for the LNS article. She found MSM coverage as well but we're highlighting the above because The Rat was one of the underground papers and both authors were part of LNS which, as the note at the top of the article explains, distributed their piece.
You can also check out Kat's Monday post where she noted that community member Susan had also done reference and found an article in The New York Times from 1968 noting it started in DC. Jim and Dona, who work the e-mails along with Ty (who does the bulk of the e-mails), are on vacation and we're not sure if this is the sort of e-mail that would be included in a "Mailbag" or "Roundtable" feature. But if you read Jennifer 37K e-mail with multiple citations, you'd realize she really worked her butt off on this and we're noting it.
In the fall of 1967, when LNS started sending sporadic packets of news out of a chaotic commune-office in Washington, D.C., major changes were advancing on the movement from without and within. Large scale ghetto rebellions in Detroit and Newark had infected America and the movement with a sense of violent apocalypse. The inescapable presence of repression, breathing down the necks of white radicals as well as blacks, stimulated the birth of a “new militancy” among youth.
[. . .]
But, almost in spite of itself, LNS began to attract movement journalists who were able to see the dynamic possibilities of the news service. Allen Young, a refugee from the Washington Post, was greatly responsible for keeping LNS together as he gathered in good people and churned out consistently readable and reliable copy. By the time LNS decided to move its headquarters from Washington to New York in the spring of 1968, a politically diversified group of writers, editors and photographers was working full-time with the news service.
It was soon after the move to Manhattan that a bitter factional dispute developed among the staff. The split was far too complex to adequately deal with here (or, perhaps, anywhere) but there were two major issues: democratic control of the news service, and more political content in the news packets. Personality clashes were also at play in the fracas. After several bitter all-night meetings, a vote was taken: ultimate decision-making power for the organization would be given to the entire working staff.
So, yes, LNS did not originate in NYC. What Jennifer found most interesting about the article quoted is that it's linked in Wikipedia's "External Links" for the LNS article. She found MSM coverage as well but we're highlighting the above because The Rat was one of the underground papers and both authors were part of LNS which, as the note at the top of the article explains, distributed their piece.
You can also check out Kat's Monday post where she noted that community member Susan had also done reference and found an article in The New York Times from 1968 noting it started in DC. Jim and Dona, who work the e-mails along with Ty (who does the bulk of the e-mails), are on vacation and we're not sure if this is the sort of e-mail that would be included in a "Mailbag" or "Roundtable" feature. But if you read Jennifer 37K e-mail with multiple citations, you'd realize she really worked her butt off on this and we're noting it.
The Christ-child is born
The following is entirely speculative. It's based on interviews done over a series of months with people who knew Ann Dumham before, during and after college as well as one person who was close to Barack Obama while he was attending college in Hawaii. Maybe they're all lying. They didn't sound like liars. Maybe they all have a grudge to work out. Didn't seem to be the case. Call it a gossip column, but it is what it is.
"What makes you think it's mine?" is not the worst remark a pregnant woman can hear after telling a man she's pregnant. The worst remark is: "Its not mine."
"Its not mine."
Over the years memories and facts blur. Especially when one or both parents pass away. Reinvention isn't uncommon. Many a person has 'scrubbed' unpleasant details from their past. From the film Imitation of Life to Diana Ross & the Supremes hit single "I'm Living In Shame," reinvention isn't an uncommon plot source in popular culture. "I mean, how do you know who your daddy is? Because your mama told you so?" So asks the Bill Brousard in Oliver Stone's JFK.
Barack Obama is the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president. He was born August 4, 1961. Recently his website pushed the notion that they were publishing his birth certificate. They weren't. The Los Angeles Times ran it and claimed they were publishing his birth certificate at their blog Top of The Ticket. They weren't. An official document has a seal on it.
Try remodeling your home (legally) and presenting the inspectors with copies of the plans when they show up on site. If the plans do not have a seal, you'll be "red flagged" and construction will not be allowed to continue until you produce plans with a seal. In other words, you can't do something as simple as add on to your home without official paperwork that holds up but the laughable Los Angeles Times wanted to trumpet it and even added an "UPDATE" to Andrew Malcom's laughable post backing up that it was Barack's birth certificate by . . . citing the Obama campaign ("In reaction to some of the comments left below challenging the veracity of the document, Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, sent the following reaction to The Ticket: "I can confirm that that is Sen. Obama's birth certificate."). Does the paper's blog know the first thing about journalism? They were 'confirming' the validity of the document by citing the campaign that provided them with the document ("The Obama campaign has provided at The Ticket's request what it says is a copy of the Illinois senator's official birth certificate . . .). That is no confirmation in a journalistic sense and that would be surprising were Top of the Ticket not known for being in the tank for Barack.
Barack's bi- or multi-racial and that's about the only thing that's not in doubt other than the fact that, no, his birth certificate has not been published by The Los Angeles Times. The bi- or multi-racial heritage detail is treated as a distraction by Barack and the press is more than happy to jump on board.
March 4, 2007 at the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma, Alabama, Barack passed on greetings from Jeremiah Wright and rushed to talk about his 'heritage' and how there are people "who question the audacity of a young man like myself" which of course meant it was time to insert race as a distraction. Barack declared of the Selma to Montgomery March, "It is because they marched thatI stand before you here today. . . . What happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. It worried folks in the White House who said, 'You know, we're battling Communism. How are we going to win hearts and minds all across the world? If right here in our own country, John, we're not observing the ideals set fort in our Constitution, we might be accused of being hypocrites.' So the Kennedy's decided we're going to do an air lift. We're going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is. This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great-grandfather had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going on because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that the world as it has been it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child. There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I’m not coming home to Selma, Alabama. "
Barack has no claim on Selma, Alabama. The march took place March 7, 1965. Barack was born August 4, 1961. Everything he declared was a lie. It was a lie from start to finish. Barack Obama did not come to the United States from Kenya due to the Selma March -- he'd come over years before. The "Kennedys" did not institue a program because of the 1965 March that then allowed Barack Obama to come to the United States (in the summer of 1959). John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
It takes a lot of 'audacity' to lie in a church but no baptismal record apparently exists for candidate Barack so his respect for churches is, at best, suspect. He stood in a church, appealing to voters, defending his campaign, with lies and, no surprise, the lies were based on 'race.' It's the distraction that he always goes to.
When someone lies (or, for the generous, is 'so wrong') about the basics, most reporters decide it's time to really examine the story. All the more so with a candidate who builds an entire campaign around biography.
Let's deal with the father because the lies there are many. First off, when he came to the US, he already had a family back in Kenya (wife Kezia, son Roy). Second, the 'glamor portrait' of him is that he was a reformer who fought the system in Kenyan government (upon returning with his Harvarad degree) and was broken by the 'good fight,' turned to drink and would later end up in an accident losing both his legs. He returned to Kenya in 1965 (with wife Ruth Nides), got in a drunken accident shortly afterward, lost both legs and then went to work for the government. That's an important detail and should raise the question of why and how he would visit in Hawaii in 1971 as candidate Barack has claimed?
The 1971 visit, candidate Barack claims, is when he finally met his father. "No such visit took place," insisted a friend of Ann Dumham's. And certainly, her claim sounds logical. By 1971, Barack has a three sons Auma (all by wife Kezia, the last born in 1970) and two children by wife Ruth (David and Mark). The marriage to Ruth was in the process of breaking up. Barack Obama flying from Kenya to Hawaii in 1971 to visit candidate Barack seems suspect in terms of the timeline even before you add in the difficulties of international travel when you're missing both legs, maintaining multiple marriages and fathering various children (son Roy was born in 1970). It's even questionable whether, at the height of Tricky Dick, the now avowed Socialist Barack Obama could have easily gotten into the country?
But the point the friend makes is that candidate Barack was in Hawaii because he had told his mother Ann that he wanted to live with his (White grandparents) there and not in Indonesia with her. "He could have easily said, I want to go to African and live with my father if he had any contact with Barack," she points out. The story of candidate Barack appears to be an attempt to turn a sad life into a Disney children's film.
The racial distraction allows that aspect to be ignored. "So progressive" is said of Ann, implying the story there is that, in 1960, she was forward-thinking enough to have no fears of inter-racial relationship in a racist society. It allows things to be overlooked, especially how a seventeen-year-old gets pregnant and ends up giving birth to the baby during that time period.
What was Ann's favorite film. It was pointed out by a classmate of Ann's in Washington that Barack makes "a big to-do" out of the film Black Orpheus in his first book (Dreams From My Father) and how that gave Ann her view of "Black people but does anyone talk about how much Sandra Dee damage she carried?"
Ann was a "round" (pudgy) young woman with bad teeth. She did not turn many heads. But, after seeing A Summer Place in 1960 (the film came out in late 1959, it made it to a theater near Ann in 1960), she "became convinced she could look like Sandra Dee. She went round and round with her parents about bleaching her hair blonde. She lost that battle but she did adopt Sandra's winged eyebrows."
She adopted other things as well. A Summer Place was considered a scandalous movie, daring, during its day. The plot revolves around Sandra Dee becoming pregnant and, happily for all on screen, Troy Donahue marries her. Speaking to classmates and friends in Washington and Honolulu, the battles between Ann and her parents were legendary (though all stress it was a loving family). Long before the move to Hawaii, Ann had began speaking of the Sandra Dee route as a way to independence from her parents: pregnancy and then marriage.
As a result, she began experimenting heavily with sexual relations. "She couldn't be the girl you went steady with," said one, "but she could be the one you spent time with." As this was confirmed repeatedly by one friend and aquaintence after another, it became obvious that if candidate Barack wants to talk about 'movie damage,' it didn't begin with Black Orpheus. Ann's blueprint was A Summer Place, she saw it as her avenue to freedom. (And, yes, this is in contradiction to reports that she never wanted marriage or children but it was cited repeatedly.)
Ann defined "independence" at that time as "independence" from her parents. Not surprising because once you strip away race, you're left with a young woman in that time period and that is how many saw 'independence.' Long before the family moved to Hawaii, there was said to have already been one false pregnancy scare which and that's what prompted Stanley's refusal to let her remain on the mainland and attend the University of Chicago while he and her mother moved to Hawaii.
Ann's definition of independence, her seeking that route wasn't surprising or "untraditional." Women were taught to believe that marriage and motherhood were "natural" and that college, for those whose parents could afford it, were the best place to meet a husband. Like 74% of her movie attending peer group, Ann learned a lot from the big screen, instilled a great deal. And if she couldn't go blonde, she could borrow the winged eyebrows, she could imitate Dee's laugh and manner of speaking (and did) and she could use A Summer Place as a template for her own life. As a first-term freshman at the University of Hawaii, Ann didn't distinguish herself in the classroom where she was described as "shy" and unable to participate in classroom discussions. But on campus, she was no "wallflower" and was infamous for repeatedly touching males.
"She was always flirting," explained one who has less than kind memories. "She would feel a bicep, touch a shoulder, brush a man's hair to the side with her hands."
In word and deed, she telegraphed what she was looking for. In 1960, "the pill" (birth control) would begin to make inroads (at $4.00 a month, it was inexpesnive) and Gloria Steinem would pen "The Moral Disarment of Betty Coed" for Esquire in September 1962; however, Ann wasn't interested in the pill in 1960 and had begun her battle with outdated morals after seeing A Summer Place the first time (she saw it three times on the big screen). Black Orpheus may have predisposed her to interest in Barack Obama, but A Summer Place set her on the path that determined so much of her life.
"It's not mine," was what Barack supposedly told Ann when she informed him she was pregnant. That was due to the fact that, in one brief semester, Ann had already allegedly had multiple partners. It was also due to the fact that as an exchange student from Africa, as a Black man, fathering a child with a White woman could bring serious repercussions. In 1963, "The University of Connecticut threatened punitive measures against students guilty of uncontrolled public displays of affection." That was 1963. Barack was informed by Ann she was pregnant in December of 1960.
"She cried and cried over that," explained one of her two closest friends from that period. "But it probably was a fair response even if he could have worded it better."
What followed was Ann's determination to go through with the pregnancy with or without Barack. She kept the news from her parents for as long as possible. When Barack realized she wanted nothing from him ("everyone knew he already had one wife"), he became less stand-offish.
After her pregnancy became apparent, her parents insisted she produce the father. Was there a marriage? No one could remember a wedding, just vague words by Ann. A few insisted they were told her parents had told her that she would say she was married, she would leave the islands to give birth and give the child up for adoption. When she returned to Hawaii, they would all say a miscarriage had taken place and that the marriage was dissolved.
Reportedly, Ann did leave the island and did give birth (in the US) but she stalled on signing the papers giving up claim to candidate Barack. When she informed her parents that she wasn't going to do that, she was allegedly told ("with resignation") to come home and bring the baby with her. "That's why she was in Washington with the just born [candidate] Barack and had to be taught by a friend how to diaper a baby," explained one. The August 1961 visit is puzzling for a number of reasons including Ann's inability to diaper her weeks old baby. ("She was only allowed to breast feed. She told me they were doubtful she was really going to give the baby up" at the home for unwed mothers, "so her only contact with her child was when it was time to feed him.") A trip to Washington with a just-born baby is very strange for a number of reasons including the fact that Ann would shortly go on food stamps, that Barack was not wealthy and that if her parents were 'gifting' at the time, they would have been focused on the child, not on puchasing a pleasure trip for their daughter. (And since classes had not started yet, why wasn't 'husband' Barack along for the trip?)
Memories fade with time. And people bear grudges they never admit to. So possibly, all the statements we were told resulted from faulty memories or old axes to grind. But the story that emerged was of candidate Barack being born outside of Hawaii (but born within the US) at a facility for unborn mothers and an original birth certificate that reads "Father Unknown." After the birth, when Ann refused to give candidate Barack up for adoption and her parents told her to come home (with the baby), she would file for a live birth certificate in Hawaii claiming she'd given birth at home. Candidate Barack, as the story goes, has two birth certificates.
Father (or 'father') Barack wasn't having anything to do with it and quickly left for Harvard without Ann or candidate Barack. Another puzzler is why candidate Barack didn't enroll at Harvard immediately upon graduation from high school since he should have been able to gain admission as a "legacy" regardless of his poor grades?
Ann Dunham was a woman slightly ahead of her times. As a teenager, her biggest influence was what she saw on the big screen. She craved a freedom (an undefined freedom, but a strong desire for it) and shifted through several personas as the US view of women shifted.
Were she and Barack ever married? "I think it's far more likely they were divorced," explained a man who identified himself as closer to Barack than Ann. "She had passed herself as married, he [Barack] had gone along with that to get her off his back, so a divorce would have been smart to ensure any issues of a common-law marriage. But I don't think anyone would ever be able to produce a marriage certificate."
So what's true and what's false? One thing that everyone who knew Ann stressed was that finding the truth behind anything she said required stripping away a lot of fictions. (A trait candidate Barack appears to have inherited from his mother.) "She would make you believe anything while you were face-to-face but, a few minutes after she'd leave, you're realize what she said wasn't very . . . realistic or true," explained one.
Candidate Barack's biography matters because he has made it an issue. He did that long before his campaign falsified a birth certificate (that is not his birth certificate). He did it in speech after speech. John Kerry elected to build his campaign around his Vietnam service. As such, his Vietnam service was examined and targeted. It was also distorted.
We're making it very clear that what we've written about was told to us and that time and personal events may have reshaped some recollections -- possibly all. A July 1961 letter shown to us (written by Ann) backs up a great deal of what we were told by various people. In that letter Ann is despondent and does not come off as a young bride or a hopeful mother-to-be. We admire Ann's strength throughout her life. But we question the details provided to the public. We also can't overlook the fact that Ann's mother (dubbed "a typical White person" by candidate Barack) is kept from the press. The woman who raised the candidate is kept from the press. When candidate Barack elects to take a vacation during the campaign in March, he goes to the Virgin Islands and not to Hawaii -- both are tropical locales. One contains the woman who raised him. Madelyn Payne Dumham is over eighty-years-old and continues to live in the high-rise candidate Barack called "home."
A friend of Ann's from Washington recalls a dinner at the Dunhams where Ann began telling the "most incredible story of a car accident" that had taken place earlier that day and Madelyn let her finish the tale before correcting her with, "That never happened." Fear of a similar comment today may be why the Obama campaign keeps the press away. When Jimmy Carter was running for president, no one could keep the then 78-year-old Miss Lillian Carter away from the press. What gives? Is this part of the "unspoken pact with my grandparents," candidate Barack wrote about in Dreams From My Father, "I could live with them and they'd leave me alone so long as I kept my trouble out of sight"? In other words, he can invent any fantasy and, as long as Madelyn Dumham doesn't have to be party to the lie, she'll leave it alone?
At 96-years-old, Roberta Wright McCain is considerably older than Madelyn Dunham but the former can be found on the campaign trail, can speak to the press and is out there attempting to get her son (presumed Republican Party presidential nominee) John McCain elected.
It's strange. Had the Obama campaign not produced a non-birth certificate and attempted to pass it off as legitimate, we wouldn't be raising the issue. But after months of discussions with friends and acquaintences of Ann Dunham (we were only able to track down one friend of Barack Obama's from their college days), it appears Ann had the same issues with truth that candidate Barack does.
Last week, Campaign Obama began another character assassination on a competitor: Ralph Nader. They (as usual) distorted his remarks, attempted to smear him as a racist and used the narrative of candidate Barack as a template for honesty. So maybe it's time candidate Barack got honest?
That he was born out-of-wedlock is really not in dispute but is thought to be the motivating factor behind his fanciful tales of his parents. Since Barack Obama came to the United States an already married man (and already a father), ceremony or not, there could have been no legal marriage between him and Ann Dumham. Abraham Lincoln signed the Morril Anti-Bigamy Act into United States law in 1862, nearly 100 years before candidate Barack was born. Even if a ceremony took place and a license was issued (we doubt either), there was no legal marriage between Barack Obama and Ann Dunham.
While that would be no fault on candidate Barack, the fact that he continues to lie publicly about it is an issue since his campaign -- lacking a record -- rests on his biography and his biography does not add up. It needs to be explained why new mother Ann, having just given birth, was in the state of Washington? Without her alleged husband. It needs to be explained why money would be wasted on a plane ticket for travel if Barack and Ann were indeed married and living together since, with a child just being born to two unemployed parents, the last thing in the world the new family would need was to do was immediately splurge on a trip for Ann? (Babies flew free.) It needs to be explained why the Obama campaign is pushing a 'birth certificate' that isn't an official anything?
We were told there were two birth documents. The certificate issued when candidate Barack was born outside of Hawaii and the certificate of live birth issued when Ann returned to Hawaii and claimed a live birth. Again, maybe some unknown grudges and/or faulty memories account for that being told (by seven different women). Equally true is that any official Hawaiian document would list the date it was issued. If the date it was issued wasn't the date of the birth, producing it might cause problems for the Barack campaign.
During the time period of Ann's pregnancy, the issue of race would have been an eye brow raiser, no question. But even had the father been White, it still would have been seen as a scandal. The race issue allows that to be ignored repeatedly. 1961 was not like 1991. A pregnancy before-wedlock or out-of-wedlock was a scandal in of itself. Considering the region (Hawaii) and how White people were the minority (but held a large amount of power) any White woman getting pregnant before marriage would have been a scandal, especially one so young and one so new to the state. Candidate Barack has called his grandfather more easy going while noting that his grandmother did not like scenes. He's reflecting on his much later memories of them. Equally true is that Ann was an only child and had no older sister or brother to wear the parents down before she became a teenager seeking independence.
That their only daughter ended up pregnant without a ring on her finger would have been a very big deal regardless of the race. That aspect of the story is never examined as everyone marvels over how 'progressive' Ann must have been to enter into an interracial relationship. But that story is the one that played out countless times throughout the chronological sixties. With Stanley's military background and Madelyn's reserved nature, it's difficult to believe that the pregnancy itself wasn't a big issue and didn't lead to the standard discussions for that time period of 'options' which largely involved moving away for a brief time to give the child up for adoption. If in fact, those conversations didn't take place, then Madelyn wasn't a "typical . . . person" regardless of her race.
"What makes you think it's mine?" is not the worst remark a pregnant woman can hear after telling a man she's pregnant. The worst remark is: "Its not mine."
"Its not mine."
Over the years memories and facts blur. Especially when one or both parents pass away. Reinvention isn't uncommon. Many a person has 'scrubbed' unpleasant details from their past. From the film Imitation of Life to Diana Ross & the Supremes hit single "I'm Living In Shame," reinvention isn't an uncommon plot source in popular culture. "I mean, how do you know who your daddy is? Because your mama told you so?" So asks the Bill Brousard in Oliver Stone's JFK.
Barack Obama is the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president. He was born August 4, 1961. Recently his website pushed the notion that they were publishing his birth certificate. They weren't. The Los Angeles Times ran it and claimed they were publishing his birth certificate at their blog Top of The Ticket. They weren't. An official document has a seal on it.
Try remodeling your home (legally) and presenting the inspectors with copies of the plans when they show up on site. If the plans do not have a seal, you'll be "red flagged" and construction will not be allowed to continue until you produce plans with a seal. In other words, you can't do something as simple as add on to your home without official paperwork that holds up but the laughable Los Angeles Times wanted to trumpet it and even added an "UPDATE" to Andrew Malcom's laughable post backing up that it was Barack's birth certificate by . . . citing the Obama campaign ("In reaction to some of the comments left below challenging the veracity of the document, Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, sent the following reaction to The Ticket: "I can confirm that that is Sen. Obama's birth certificate."). Does the paper's blog know the first thing about journalism? They were 'confirming' the validity of the document by citing the campaign that provided them with the document ("The Obama campaign has provided at The Ticket's request what it says is a copy of the Illinois senator's official birth certificate . . .). That is no confirmation in a journalistic sense and that would be surprising were Top of the Ticket not known for being in the tank for Barack.
Barack's bi- or multi-racial and that's about the only thing that's not in doubt other than the fact that, no, his birth certificate has not been published by The Los Angeles Times. The bi- or multi-racial heritage detail is treated as a distraction by Barack and the press is more than happy to jump on board.
March 4, 2007 at the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma, Alabama, Barack passed on greetings from Jeremiah Wright and rushed to talk about his 'heritage' and how there are people "who question the audacity of a young man like myself" which of course meant it was time to insert race as a distraction. Barack declared of the Selma to Montgomery March, "It is because they marched thatI stand before you here today. . . . What happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. It worried folks in the White House who said, 'You know, we're battling Communism. How are we going to win hearts and minds all across the world? If right here in our own country, John, we're not observing the ideals set fort in our Constitution, we might be accused of being hypocrites.' So the Kennedy's decided we're going to do an air lift. We're going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is. This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great-grandfather had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going on because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that the world as it has been it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child. There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I’m not coming home to Selma, Alabama. "
Barack has no claim on Selma, Alabama. The march took place March 7, 1965. Barack was born August 4, 1961. Everything he declared was a lie. It was a lie from start to finish. Barack Obama did not come to the United States from Kenya due to the Selma March -- he'd come over years before. The "Kennedys" did not institue a program because of the 1965 March that then allowed Barack Obama to come to the United States (in the summer of 1959). John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
It takes a lot of 'audacity' to lie in a church but no baptismal record apparently exists for candidate Barack so his respect for churches is, at best, suspect. He stood in a church, appealing to voters, defending his campaign, with lies and, no surprise, the lies were based on 'race.' It's the distraction that he always goes to.
When someone lies (or, for the generous, is 'so wrong') about the basics, most reporters decide it's time to really examine the story. All the more so with a candidate who builds an entire campaign around biography.
Let's deal with the father because the lies there are many. First off, when he came to the US, he already had a family back in Kenya (wife Kezia, son Roy). Second, the 'glamor portrait' of him is that he was a reformer who fought the system in Kenyan government (upon returning with his Harvarad degree) and was broken by the 'good fight,' turned to drink and would later end up in an accident losing both his legs. He returned to Kenya in 1965 (with wife Ruth Nides), got in a drunken accident shortly afterward, lost both legs and then went to work for the government. That's an important detail and should raise the question of why and how he would visit in Hawaii in 1971 as candidate Barack has claimed?
The 1971 visit, candidate Barack claims, is when he finally met his father. "No such visit took place," insisted a friend of Ann Dumham's. And certainly, her claim sounds logical. By 1971, Barack has a three sons Auma (all by wife Kezia, the last born in 1970) and two children by wife Ruth (David and Mark). The marriage to Ruth was in the process of breaking up. Barack Obama flying from Kenya to Hawaii in 1971 to visit candidate Barack seems suspect in terms of the timeline even before you add in the difficulties of international travel when you're missing both legs, maintaining multiple marriages and fathering various children (son Roy was born in 1970). It's even questionable whether, at the height of Tricky Dick, the now avowed Socialist Barack Obama could have easily gotten into the country?
But the point the friend makes is that candidate Barack was in Hawaii because he had told his mother Ann that he wanted to live with his (White grandparents) there and not in Indonesia with her. "He could have easily said, I want to go to African and live with my father if he had any contact with Barack," she points out. The story of candidate Barack appears to be an attempt to turn a sad life into a Disney children's film.
The racial distraction allows that aspect to be ignored. "So progressive" is said of Ann, implying the story there is that, in 1960, she was forward-thinking enough to have no fears of inter-racial relationship in a racist society. It allows things to be overlooked, especially how a seventeen-year-old gets pregnant and ends up giving birth to the baby during that time period.
What was Ann's favorite film. It was pointed out by a classmate of Ann's in Washington that Barack makes "a big to-do" out of the film Black Orpheus in his first book (Dreams From My Father) and how that gave Ann her view of "Black people but does anyone talk about how much Sandra Dee damage she carried?"
Ann was a "round" (pudgy) young woman with bad teeth. She did not turn many heads. But, after seeing A Summer Place in 1960 (the film came out in late 1959, it made it to a theater near Ann in 1960), she "became convinced she could look like Sandra Dee. She went round and round with her parents about bleaching her hair blonde. She lost that battle but she did adopt Sandra's winged eyebrows."
She adopted other things as well. A Summer Place was considered a scandalous movie, daring, during its day. The plot revolves around Sandra Dee becoming pregnant and, happily for all on screen, Troy Donahue marries her. Speaking to classmates and friends in Washington and Honolulu, the battles between Ann and her parents were legendary (though all stress it was a loving family). Long before the move to Hawaii, Ann had began speaking of the Sandra Dee route as a way to independence from her parents: pregnancy and then marriage.
As a result, she began experimenting heavily with sexual relations. "She couldn't be the girl you went steady with," said one, "but she could be the one you spent time with." As this was confirmed repeatedly by one friend and aquaintence after another, it became obvious that if candidate Barack wants to talk about 'movie damage,' it didn't begin with Black Orpheus. Ann's blueprint was A Summer Place, she saw it as her avenue to freedom. (And, yes, this is in contradiction to reports that she never wanted marriage or children but it was cited repeatedly.)
Ann defined "independence" at that time as "independence" from her parents. Not surprising because once you strip away race, you're left with a young woman in that time period and that is how many saw 'independence.' Long before the family moved to Hawaii, there was said to have already been one false pregnancy scare which and that's what prompted Stanley's refusal to let her remain on the mainland and attend the University of Chicago while he and her mother moved to Hawaii.
Ann's definition of independence, her seeking that route wasn't surprising or "untraditional." Women were taught to believe that marriage and motherhood were "natural" and that college, for those whose parents could afford it, were the best place to meet a husband. Like 74% of her movie attending peer group, Ann learned a lot from the big screen, instilled a great deal. And if she couldn't go blonde, she could borrow the winged eyebrows, she could imitate Dee's laugh and manner of speaking (and did) and she could use A Summer Place as a template for her own life. As a first-term freshman at the University of Hawaii, Ann didn't distinguish herself in the classroom where she was described as "shy" and unable to participate in classroom discussions. But on campus, she was no "wallflower" and was infamous for repeatedly touching males.
"She was always flirting," explained one who has less than kind memories. "She would feel a bicep, touch a shoulder, brush a man's hair to the side with her hands."
In word and deed, she telegraphed what she was looking for. In 1960, "the pill" (birth control) would begin to make inroads (at $4.00 a month, it was inexpesnive) and Gloria Steinem would pen "The Moral Disarment of Betty Coed" for Esquire in September 1962; however, Ann wasn't interested in the pill in 1960 and had begun her battle with outdated morals after seeing A Summer Place the first time (she saw it three times on the big screen). Black Orpheus may have predisposed her to interest in Barack Obama, but A Summer Place set her on the path that determined so much of her life.
"It's not mine," was what Barack supposedly told Ann when she informed him she was pregnant. That was due to the fact that, in one brief semester, Ann had already allegedly had multiple partners. It was also due to the fact that as an exchange student from Africa, as a Black man, fathering a child with a White woman could bring serious repercussions. In 1963, "The University of Connecticut threatened punitive measures against students guilty of uncontrolled public displays of affection." That was 1963. Barack was informed by Ann she was pregnant in December of 1960.
"She cried and cried over that," explained one of her two closest friends from that period. "But it probably was a fair response even if he could have worded it better."
What followed was Ann's determination to go through with the pregnancy with or without Barack. She kept the news from her parents for as long as possible. When Barack realized she wanted nothing from him ("everyone knew he already had one wife"), he became less stand-offish.
After her pregnancy became apparent, her parents insisted she produce the father. Was there a marriage? No one could remember a wedding, just vague words by Ann. A few insisted they were told her parents had told her that she would say she was married, she would leave the islands to give birth and give the child up for adoption. When she returned to Hawaii, they would all say a miscarriage had taken place and that the marriage was dissolved.
Reportedly, Ann did leave the island and did give birth (in the US) but she stalled on signing the papers giving up claim to candidate Barack. When she informed her parents that she wasn't going to do that, she was allegedly told ("with resignation") to come home and bring the baby with her. "That's why she was in Washington with the just born [candidate] Barack and had to be taught by a friend how to diaper a baby," explained one. The August 1961 visit is puzzling for a number of reasons including Ann's inability to diaper her weeks old baby. ("She was only allowed to breast feed. She told me they were doubtful she was really going to give the baby up" at the home for unwed mothers, "so her only contact with her child was when it was time to feed him.") A trip to Washington with a just-born baby is very strange for a number of reasons including the fact that Ann would shortly go on food stamps, that Barack was not wealthy and that if her parents were 'gifting' at the time, they would have been focused on the child, not on puchasing a pleasure trip for their daughter. (And since classes had not started yet, why wasn't 'husband' Barack along for the trip?)
Memories fade with time. And people bear grudges they never admit to. So possibly, all the statements we were told resulted from faulty memories or old axes to grind. But the story that emerged was of candidate Barack being born outside of Hawaii (but born within the US) at a facility for unborn mothers and an original birth certificate that reads "Father Unknown." After the birth, when Ann refused to give candidate Barack up for adoption and her parents told her to come home (with the baby), she would file for a live birth certificate in Hawaii claiming she'd given birth at home. Candidate Barack, as the story goes, has two birth certificates.
Father (or 'father') Barack wasn't having anything to do with it and quickly left for Harvard without Ann or candidate Barack. Another puzzler is why candidate Barack didn't enroll at Harvard immediately upon graduation from high school since he should have been able to gain admission as a "legacy" regardless of his poor grades?
Ann Dunham was a woman slightly ahead of her times. As a teenager, her biggest influence was what she saw on the big screen. She craved a freedom (an undefined freedom, but a strong desire for it) and shifted through several personas as the US view of women shifted.
Were she and Barack ever married? "I think it's far more likely they were divorced," explained a man who identified himself as closer to Barack than Ann. "She had passed herself as married, he [Barack] had gone along with that to get her off his back, so a divorce would have been smart to ensure any issues of a common-law marriage. But I don't think anyone would ever be able to produce a marriage certificate."
So what's true and what's false? One thing that everyone who knew Ann stressed was that finding the truth behind anything she said required stripping away a lot of fictions. (A trait candidate Barack appears to have inherited from his mother.) "She would make you believe anything while you were face-to-face but, a few minutes after she'd leave, you're realize what she said wasn't very . . . realistic or true," explained one.
Candidate Barack's biography matters because he has made it an issue. He did that long before his campaign falsified a birth certificate (that is not his birth certificate). He did it in speech after speech. John Kerry elected to build his campaign around his Vietnam service. As such, his Vietnam service was examined and targeted. It was also distorted.
We're making it very clear that what we've written about was told to us and that time and personal events may have reshaped some recollections -- possibly all. A July 1961 letter shown to us (written by Ann) backs up a great deal of what we were told by various people. In that letter Ann is despondent and does not come off as a young bride or a hopeful mother-to-be. We admire Ann's strength throughout her life. But we question the details provided to the public. We also can't overlook the fact that Ann's mother (dubbed "a typical White person" by candidate Barack) is kept from the press. The woman who raised the candidate is kept from the press. When candidate Barack elects to take a vacation during the campaign in March, he goes to the Virgin Islands and not to Hawaii -- both are tropical locales. One contains the woman who raised him. Madelyn Payne Dumham is over eighty-years-old and continues to live in the high-rise candidate Barack called "home."
A friend of Ann's from Washington recalls a dinner at the Dunhams where Ann began telling the "most incredible story of a car accident" that had taken place earlier that day and Madelyn let her finish the tale before correcting her with, "That never happened." Fear of a similar comment today may be why the Obama campaign keeps the press away. When Jimmy Carter was running for president, no one could keep the then 78-year-old Miss Lillian Carter away from the press. What gives? Is this part of the "unspoken pact with my grandparents," candidate Barack wrote about in Dreams From My Father, "I could live with them and they'd leave me alone so long as I kept my trouble out of sight"? In other words, he can invent any fantasy and, as long as Madelyn Dumham doesn't have to be party to the lie, she'll leave it alone?
At 96-years-old, Roberta Wright McCain is considerably older than Madelyn Dunham but the former can be found on the campaign trail, can speak to the press and is out there attempting to get her son (presumed Republican Party presidential nominee) John McCain elected.
It's strange. Had the Obama campaign not produced a non-birth certificate and attempted to pass it off as legitimate, we wouldn't be raising the issue. But after months of discussions with friends and acquaintences of Ann Dunham (we were only able to track down one friend of Barack Obama's from their college days), it appears Ann had the same issues with truth that candidate Barack does.
Last week, Campaign Obama began another character assassination on a competitor: Ralph Nader. They (as usual) distorted his remarks, attempted to smear him as a racist and used the narrative of candidate Barack as a template for honesty. So maybe it's time candidate Barack got honest?
That he was born out-of-wedlock is really not in dispute but is thought to be the motivating factor behind his fanciful tales of his parents. Since Barack Obama came to the United States an already married man (and already a father), ceremony or not, there could have been no legal marriage between him and Ann Dumham. Abraham Lincoln signed the Morril Anti-Bigamy Act into United States law in 1862, nearly 100 years before candidate Barack was born. Even if a ceremony took place and a license was issued (we doubt either), there was no legal marriage between Barack Obama and Ann Dunham.
While that would be no fault on candidate Barack, the fact that he continues to lie publicly about it is an issue since his campaign -- lacking a record -- rests on his biography and his biography does not add up. It needs to be explained why new mother Ann, having just given birth, was in the state of Washington? Without her alleged husband. It needs to be explained why money would be wasted on a plane ticket for travel if Barack and Ann were indeed married and living together since, with a child just being born to two unemployed parents, the last thing in the world the new family would need was to do was immediately splurge on a trip for Ann? (Babies flew free.) It needs to be explained why the Obama campaign is pushing a 'birth certificate' that isn't an official anything?
We were told there were two birth documents. The certificate issued when candidate Barack was born outside of Hawaii and the certificate of live birth issued when Ann returned to Hawaii and claimed a live birth. Again, maybe some unknown grudges and/or faulty memories account for that being told (by seven different women). Equally true is that any official Hawaiian document would list the date it was issued. If the date it was issued wasn't the date of the birth, producing it might cause problems for the Barack campaign.
During the time period of Ann's pregnancy, the issue of race would have been an eye brow raiser, no question. But even had the father been White, it still would have been seen as a scandal. The race issue allows that to be ignored repeatedly. 1961 was not like 1991. A pregnancy before-wedlock or out-of-wedlock was a scandal in of itself. Considering the region (Hawaii) and how White people were the minority (but held a large amount of power) any White woman getting pregnant before marriage would have been a scandal, especially one so young and one so new to the state. Candidate Barack has called his grandfather more easy going while noting that his grandmother did not like scenes. He's reflecting on his much later memories of them. Equally true is that Ann was an only child and had no older sister or brother to wear the parents down before she became a teenager seeking independence.
That their only daughter ended up pregnant without a ring on her finger would have been a very big deal regardless of the race. That aspect of the story is never examined as everyone marvels over how 'progressive' Ann must have been to enter into an interracial relationship. But that story is the one that played out countless times throughout the chronological sixties. With Stanley's military background and Madelyn's reserved nature, it's difficult to believe that the pregnancy itself wasn't a big issue and didn't lead to the standard discussions for that time period of 'options' which largely involved moving away for a brief time to give the child up for adoption. If in fact, those conversations didn't take place, then Madelyn wasn't a "typical . . . person" regardless of her race.
Highlights
This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.
"Katty-van-van frets the 'big stuff'" -- Katty-van-van will be on This Week today so of course she spent yesterday asking friends what she should wear. Having no friends, she held Betinna hostage.
"Rice with Mushrooms in the Kitchen" -- Trina is very serious about the economy. And the response is strong. Since this posted Saturday, readers have e-mailed ideas including one that she's already decided to highlight next week.
"I Hate The War" -- Last week, we forgot to note C.I.'s entry. Ty says readers wrote in complaining. Sylvia wrote the longest e-mail which began, "I have a real hard time believing I was the only one who said that needed to be highlighted." She wasn't. We forgot. That link goes to Thursday's "I Hate The War." That was per C.I. who said, "Oh, that's already last week, just move on and forget about it." This week it was the most requested highlight, the Thursday entry. Our apologies for forgetting to include last week's "I Hate The War" in the highlights.
"Tomas Young and thoughts on war resistance" & "Wounded, Tomas Young, etc." -- The first was requested by reader Bob. We think they work as bookends and highlight both of Ruth's posts.
"Nader, Carly Simon" -- Rebecca insists that this post of Kat's be highlighted. It is a funny story about determination and what can be accomplished. (And, it is a true story. Elaine vouches for it as well.)
"Bambi's confession" & "THIS JUST IN! THE HOPE AND HYPE REVUE!" -- Cedric and Wally explain what Barack's remarks must mean about another woman being more 'brutalized' than Hillary was.
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Wheel of Greed" -- Isaiah's instant classic. This one really was something.
"Barack has no clue" -- Marcia covers an obvious point (Barack) but also addresses a lesser known aspect of historical war resistance.
"Isaiah, Third, 2 US soldiers killed in Baghdad" -- Jim called Saturday from France just to check on things and to remind that this post by Mike needed to be highlighted. Mike's breaking down last week's edition of Third.
"katty-van-van and state of the world" -- Rebecca weighs in on what it means when an airhead runs (ruins) a political journal.
"Justice Dept, Ballot Access" -- Elaine covers the do-nothing Congress.
"James Burmeister and Matthis Chiroux" -- Marcia explains the importance in how war resistance stories are told.
"Justice Dept., impeachment, Ralph" -- If you're working on impeachment, you might want to check out Kat's post. Some good ideas.
"want ad: nation mag seeks new p.r. director," "Barack steals from Hillary and also tries to smear," "Is there room for Arab-Americans under the bus?," "Barack smears an Arab-American," "Barack (falsely) screams racism (again)," "LAT needs to fire biased polictical 'reporters'," "Barack's 'catty girl' problems," "Bonus," "THIS JUST IN! BARACK -- IT RHYMES WITH 'WITCH'," "Barack the Witchy Worm" and "Iraq snapshot" -- Barack decided to go after Ralph Nader and the community loudly declared, "Forget about it."
"Matthis, Gore Vidal" and "Eugene Kane is an Idiot or Liar" -- In the first, Mike's offering a quick post. In the second, he's taking on a Liar for Barack. Wally and Cedric did not note these posts in Saturday's joint-post. It was an oversight and they point out that you will see where they should have been listed if you check out their Saturday posts.
"From the dessert tray" & "THIS JUST IN! BETTY CROCKED CAKE MIX!" -- Cedric and Wally say that ideally this is the sort of the post they'd like for each day.
"Katty-van-van frets the 'big stuff'" -- Katty-van-van will be on This Week today so of course she spent yesterday asking friends what she should wear. Having no friends, she held Betinna hostage.
"Rice with Mushrooms in the Kitchen" -- Trina is very serious about the economy. And the response is strong. Since this posted Saturday, readers have e-mailed ideas including one that she's already decided to highlight next week.
"I Hate The War" -- Last week, we forgot to note C.I.'s entry. Ty says readers wrote in complaining. Sylvia wrote the longest e-mail which began, "I have a real hard time believing I was the only one who said that needed to be highlighted." She wasn't. We forgot. That link goes to Thursday's "I Hate The War." That was per C.I. who said, "Oh, that's already last week, just move on and forget about it." This week it was the most requested highlight, the Thursday entry. Our apologies for forgetting to include last week's "I Hate The War" in the highlights.
"Tomas Young and thoughts on war resistance" & "Wounded, Tomas Young, etc." -- The first was requested by reader Bob. We think they work as bookends and highlight both of Ruth's posts.
"Nader, Carly Simon" -- Rebecca insists that this post of Kat's be highlighted. It is a funny story about determination and what can be accomplished. (And, it is a true story. Elaine vouches for it as well.)
"Bambi's confession" & "THIS JUST IN! THE HOPE AND HYPE REVUE!" -- Cedric and Wally explain what Barack's remarks must mean about another woman being more 'brutalized' than Hillary was.
Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Wheel of Greed" -- Isaiah's instant classic. This one really was something.
"Barack has no clue" -- Marcia covers an obvious point (Barack) but also addresses a lesser known aspect of historical war resistance.
"Isaiah, Third, 2 US soldiers killed in Baghdad" -- Jim called Saturday from France just to check on things and to remind that this post by Mike needed to be highlighted. Mike's breaking down last week's edition of Third.
"katty-van-van and state of the world" -- Rebecca weighs in on what it means when an airhead runs (ruins) a political journal.
"Justice Dept, Ballot Access" -- Elaine covers the do-nothing Congress.
"James Burmeister and Matthis Chiroux" -- Marcia explains the importance in how war resistance stories are told.
"Justice Dept., impeachment, Ralph" -- If you're working on impeachment, you might want to check out Kat's post. Some good ideas.
"want ad: nation mag seeks new p.r. director," "Barack steals from Hillary and also tries to smear," "Is there room for Arab-Americans under the bus?," "Barack smears an Arab-American," "Barack (falsely) screams racism (again)," "LAT needs to fire biased polictical 'reporters'," "Barack's 'catty girl' problems," "Bonus," "THIS JUST IN! BARACK -- IT RHYMES WITH 'WITCH'," "Barack the Witchy Worm" and "Iraq snapshot" -- Barack decided to go after Ralph Nader and the community loudly declared, "Forget about it."
"Matthis, Gore Vidal" and "Eugene Kane is an Idiot or Liar" -- In the first, Mike's offering a quick post. In the second, he's taking on a Liar for Barack. Wally and Cedric did not note these posts in Saturday's joint-post. It was an oversight and they point out that you will see where they should have been listed if you check out their Saturday posts.
"From the dessert tray" & "THIS JUST IN! BETTY CROCKED CAKE MIX!" -- Cedric and Wally say that ideally this is the sort of the post they'd like for each day.
Bonus
Special to The Third Estate Sunday Review.
BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & TY'S DESK AT THE THIRD ESTATE SUNDAY REVIEW -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
THE FUN NEVER ENDS WITH BAMBI.
FRESH FROM ANOTHER DAY OF PROVING HE COULD BE JUST AS "BITCHY" AS TRUMAN CAPOTE, FRESH FROM HIS ATTACKS ON BLACK FATHERS, FRESH FROM HIS BANNING MUSLIM WOMEN FROM PHOTOGRAPHS, BARACK DECIDED TO RESPOND TO RALPH NADER'S CRITIQUE OF OBAMA'S CORPORATIST POSITIONS BY BEING . . . WELL, BITCHY.
HILLARY SAID IT TAKES A VILLAGE BUT BARACK SETS HIS SIGHTS MUCH LOWER AND WORKS IN THE GUTTER.
THE BI-RACIAL CANDIDATE CANNOT AFFORD TO LET ANYONE POINT OUT THAT HE IS NOT, IN FACT, BLACK. SO HE WORKS REALLY HARD, OVER AND OVER, TO ATTACK ANYTHING THAT MIGHT WEAKEN THAT POSITION -- THE TRUMP CARD HE TRIES TO PLAY WHENEVER HE'S CRITIQUED.
"BUT I'M BLACK!" HE WHINES.
BLACK WHEN HE WANTS TO BE.
WHEN REACHED FOR COMMENT, BARACK TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "I THINK I WAS FUNNY WHEN I SAID RALPH WAS JUST DESPERATE AND ALL OF THAT. I WAS ASKING MYSELF, 'HOW WOULD ALEXIS CARRINGTON HANDLE IT?' I'M REAL TIRED OF THE UNITY CAMPAIGN AND HAVE STARTED THE BITCHY CAMPAIGN. I'M HOPING TO GET SOME OF JOAN COLLINS' OLD JACKETS, WITH THE SHOULDER PADS. I'LL BE SMOKING THEN!"
IN OTHER NEWS, WEB CESSPOOL RACIALICIOUS, FRESH OFF THEIR ATTACKS ON THE CIVIL RIGHTS ANTHEM "KUMBAYA," DECIDED TO THE WAY TO HANDLE THE ISSUE WAS TO SPIT ON AN ARAB-AMERICAN AND HAVEN'T THEY HAD IT EASY? IT'S NOT LIKE THEY WERE THE ONES TARGETED IN THIS COUNTRY FOLLOWING 9-11, RIGHT? RACIALICIOUS, CREATING A BIGOT A TIME ONLINE. HOW PROUD THEY MUST BE READING OVER THE 54 COMMENTS TO THEIR POST -- ESPECIALLY THE MOST RACIST ONES.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Starting with war resistance. The War Resisters Support Campaign notes:
With less than 16 days remaining until U.S. warresister Corey Glass' scheduled deportation, three parliamentary parties andAmnesty International are urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Citizenshipand Immigration Minister Diane Finley to cease deportation and removalproceedings against Glass and U.S. war resisters seeking refuge in Canada.The federal government's July 10 deportation order against Glass is stillin effect, creating enormous stress, anxiety and turmoil for him and all warresisters and their families who are hoping the government will be guided bythe expressed will of Parliament. The successful passage of a June 3 landmark parliamentary motion calledon the Conservative government to allow U.S. war resisters who have refused orleft military service related to the illegal invasion of Iraq, and theirimmediate family members, to stay in Canada and be able to become permanentresidents, and to immediately cease any removal or deportation actions thatmay have already commenced against such individuals. A poll carried out in June 2007 by Stratcom Ltd., showed that 64.6% ofOntarians agreed that the war resisters should be allowed to stay in Canada.
They will be holding a "Rally to Stop the Deportation of Parkdale Resident Corey Glass" July 3rd, begins at 7:00 p.m. (with doors opening at six p.m.) at the May Robinson Building, 20 West Lodge, Toronto: "In 2002, Corey joined the Indiana National Guard. He was told he would not have to fight on foreign shores. But in 2005 he was sent to Iraq. What he saw there caused him to become a conscientious objector and he came to Canada. On May 21, 2008, he got his final order to leave Canada by July 10, 2008. Then on June 3 Parliament passed a motion for all the war resisters to stay in Canada. However the Harper government says it will ignore this motion." To pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca -- that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, 613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at "pm.gc.ca"). Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send before the vote. Now they've started a new letter you can use online here.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
[. . .]
Turning to the US presidential race, Paul Farhi (Washington Post) profiles independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader: "Joan Claybrook, who has known Nader since 1966 and worked with him on his pioneering auto-safety crusade against General Moters, says he reads 10 books a week and speaks seven languages (Chinese, Portugese, Italian and Arabic among them) well enough to converse with native speakers. . . . 'Ralph is really a charming guy,' says Claybrook, who heads the advocacy group Public Citizen. 'He has a great sense of humor. If the public knew him really well, they would be enthralled with him'."
Meanwhile Margaret Kimberley (Black Agenda Report) scores Barack: "Give AIPAC everything they want and then some. Check. Slander black men. Check. Continue illegal government surveillance. Check. Endorse conservative white Congressman against black progressive challenger. Check. . . . Obama is held to no standard at all. He is free to do exactly as he pleases to black people, who are all too happy to go along with any treatement that he chooses to mete out. This sorry state of affairs is the result of years of black political inaction and misleadership. The Congressional Black Caucus long ago gave up the fight, the movement tat gave black Americans full citizenship has been derided as a relic from a past age, instead of being seen as a blueprint for present da action. It is little wonder that the Obama campaign 'come-to-Jesus' meeting is consider a substitute for true political organizing." Slander Black men? As Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report via ZNet) explained, "The Democratic presidential nominee-apparent seldom speaks directly to Black people, but when he does it is usually to denounce individuals once close to him or to criticize The Race in general for some moral failing. Thus it was no surprise that Barack Obama used the occassion of Father's Day to give Black males the back of his hand, no doubt to the delight of millions of potential white supporters. Black males have 'abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men,' said Obama, citing statistics on female-headed households. 'You and I know how true this is in the African-American community.' Even the New York Times could see through Obam's transparent bid for white approval at Black people's expense. Reporter Julie Bosman noted that Obama 'laid out his case in start terms that would be difficult for a white candidate to make' -- terms (such as boy?) that 'his campaign hopes [will] resonate among white soical conservatives in a race where these voters may be up for grabs'." And see Cedric and Wally's "Bambi attacks" and "THIS JUST IN! BARACK ATTACKS AGAIN!". That's something to keep in mind because something true was said about Saint Obama and it's time for The Cult of Saint Obama to start screaming.
Rocky Mountain News' M.E. Sprengelmeyer asked Ralph Nader if he thought there was a difference between Barack Obama and the 2000 candidate Al Gore (or any other Democratic candidates in the recent past)? Here for audio of the first half, here for full transcript.
Ralph Nader: No. I mean, he's deceiving people. He takes, he takes -- in this very building he would take money from corporate lawyers who are not registered lobbyists but whose desks are across the aisle from corporate lawyers who are register lobbyists in the same law firm -- that's been reported more than once in the mainstream press. Six out of seven industrties as of a month ago have given more money to Obama than they have to McCain. Only transportation industry was more equal opportunity corruption . Look at the health care industry which has poured money into his campaign. The Secuirty industry. Defense industry. No. There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comees to being a Democratic presidential candidate he's half African-American. Wheter that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk White? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards. I think his main problem is that he censors himself he knows exactly who has power, who has too much, who has too little what needs to be done right down the community level but he has bought the advice that if you want to win the election you better take it easy on the coproation abuses and do XYZ and when I hear that I say Oh I see. So he's doing all this to win the eleciton and then he'll be diferent? Well let's see if it worked. Did it work for Mondale? Did it work for Dukakis? Did it work for Clinton? Yes, but only because of Perot? Did it work for Gore? Did it work for Kerry?
M.E. Sprengelmeyer: Do you think he's trying to, what was your term, 'talk white'?
Ralph Nader: Of course. I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a Black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas, and have a very detailed platform about how the poor is going to be defended by the law, is going to be protected by the law, and is going to be liberated by the law. Haven't heard a thing. I mean, the amount of economic exploitation in the ghettos is shocking. You'd think he'd propose a task force to at least study it. I mean, these people are eroded every day. The kids, bodies are asbestos and lead, municipal services discriminate against them because it's the poor area, including fire and police protection and building code enforcement. And then the lenders, the loan sharks get at them, and the dirty food ends up in the ghettos, like the contaminated meat. It's a dumping ground for shoddy merchandise. You don't see many credit unions there. You don't see many libraries there. You dont's ee many health clinics there. This is, we're talking 40-50 million Americans who are predominatly African-Americans and Latinos. Anybody see that kind of campaigning? Have yous ee him campaign in real poor areas of the city very frequently? No, he doesn't campaign there.
M.E. Sprengelmeyer: What do you think the purpose of that is?
Ralph Nader: He wants to show that he is not a threatening, a political threatening, another politically-threatening African-American politician. He wants to appeal to White guilt. You appeal to White guilt not by coming on as a Black is beautiful, Black is powerful. Basically he's coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the White power structure, whether it's corporate or whether it's simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up.
And the response? Muted from the Obama campaign . . . at first. They set out their Holler Monkeys to yet again scream "RACISM!" All the usual crew was there yet again. Latoya Peterson (Racialicious) needs someone to explain to her that Nader is not White. Not that facts matter to her. At Josh Michah Marsh's Hairy Crack, Eric Kleefeld at least has more sense than Peterson (he doesn't call Nader "White"). Kathy (LeftField) plays dumb -- it's playing right? -- and stresses Barack is a "black presidential candidate." Barack Obama is bi-racial. The Christ-child's lineage must not be questioned. See, there was never the conversation on race that the press told you was talking place. It never could take place because it would mean facing the fact that Barack was bi-racial, not "Black." And look, there's Ben Wyskida of The Nation, the arm pit sniffing Benny-boy, making cracks about Nader's race ("deeply black"). Does Ben think saying that to someone of Arab descent is 'funny' because that sounds pretty RACIST.
Isn't it cute that the publicity director for The Nation should blog at PINKOMAG.COM -- it's only natural, right? Pinko? Oh, it's a joke? Like Sam Graham-Felsen 'pretending' to be a Marxist? (And Ben, that's not a hint for you to bother/bore me again.)The push back's really important because the Christ-child has to be seen as Black. Even though he isn't. (It's the White guilt vote that Nader gets at.) So all the usual Holler Monkeys are recruited into service of the lie. Including 'plays mainstream journalist' Don Frederick whose ass should be fired from the Los Angeles Times -- in fact they should all be fired, all their 'political bloggers.' Having stated that John McCain was having a "hissy fit" over campaign finance should have made it clear how in the tank for Obama the paper is and, guess what, that's exactly what a MSM outlet CAN NEVER BE SEEN AS.
If the paper won't police their own, it may be time for others in Real Media to point out the problems. This is how the charges of bias get started (and they are true in LAT's case) and it these charges amplify and grow and soon all MSM outlets are tarred and feathered due to the actions of one outlet. It's unacceptable.
Sunday at Third, interesting feature that will be a docu-drama piece on the Christ-child's miracle birth and other things. Noting that allows me to pull six paragraphs and get the snapshot reduced to a reasonable size. Julie Bosman (New York Times) reports Nader's spokesperson Chris Driscoll said there would be no apology. Nor should their be. Bosman quotes Driscoll reading a statement attributed to Ralph Nader, "Obama's abstract campaign has been delusional and irresponsible when it comes to avoiding concrete policies that truly defend and empower the 100 million Americans living in poverty or near poverty." Sugar (Sugar N Spice) notes that Barack's made clear that he doesn't "care about inner-city crime and poverty" and notes his 'joke' "in Philadelphia last week. A city so plagued with murders and mayhem it is now commonly called Killadelphia. He stated, 'If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun . . . Because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl. I've seen Eagles fans.' He thought it was cute. I think it akin to telling folks in a Cancer ward, 'I guess we better not take any of you guys on a tour of Chernobyl site anytime soon, huh? Heehee."
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
"Other Items"
"3 more US soldiers announced dead"
"iraq, nader"
"Community business and sexism"
"Justice Dept., impeachment, Ralph"
"Barack has no clue"
"Justice Dept, Ballot Access"
"Iraq, Nader"
"From the dessert tray"
"THIS JUST IN! BETTY CROCKED CAKE MIX!"
BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & TY'S DESK AT THE THIRD ESTATE SUNDAY REVIEW -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
THE FUN NEVER ENDS WITH BAMBI.
FRESH FROM ANOTHER DAY OF PROVING HE COULD BE JUST AS "BITCHY" AS TRUMAN CAPOTE, FRESH FROM HIS ATTACKS ON BLACK FATHERS, FRESH FROM HIS BANNING MUSLIM WOMEN FROM PHOTOGRAPHS, BARACK DECIDED TO RESPOND TO RALPH NADER'S CRITIQUE OF OBAMA'S CORPORATIST POSITIONS BY BEING . . . WELL, BITCHY.
HILLARY SAID IT TAKES A VILLAGE BUT BARACK SETS HIS SIGHTS MUCH LOWER AND WORKS IN THE GUTTER.
THE BI-RACIAL CANDIDATE CANNOT AFFORD TO LET ANYONE POINT OUT THAT HE IS NOT, IN FACT, BLACK. SO HE WORKS REALLY HARD, OVER AND OVER, TO ATTACK ANYTHING THAT MIGHT WEAKEN THAT POSITION -- THE TRUMP CARD HE TRIES TO PLAY WHENEVER HE'S CRITIQUED.
"BUT I'M BLACK!" HE WHINES.
BLACK WHEN HE WANTS TO BE.
WHEN REACHED FOR COMMENT, BARACK TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "I THINK I WAS FUNNY WHEN I SAID RALPH WAS JUST DESPERATE AND ALL OF THAT. I WAS ASKING MYSELF, 'HOW WOULD ALEXIS CARRINGTON HANDLE IT?' I'M REAL TIRED OF THE UNITY CAMPAIGN AND HAVE STARTED THE BITCHY CAMPAIGN. I'M HOPING TO GET SOME OF JOAN COLLINS' OLD JACKETS, WITH THE SHOULDER PADS. I'LL BE SMOKING THEN!"
IN OTHER NEWS, WEB CESSPOOL RACIALICIOUS, FRESH OFF THEIR ATTACKS ON THE CIVIL RIGHTS ANTHEM "KUMBAYA," DECIDED TO THE WAY TO HANDLE THE ISSUE WAS TO SPIT ON AN ARAB-AMERICAN AND HAVEN'T THEY HAD IT EASY? IT'S NOT LIKE THEY WERE THE ONES TARGETED IN THIS COUNTRY FOLLOWING 9-11, RIGHT? RACIALICIOUS, CREATING A BIGOT A TIME ONLINE. HOW PROUD THEY MUST BE READING OVER THE 54 COMMENTS TO THEIR POST -- ESPECIALLY THE MOST RACIST ONES.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Starting with war resistance. The War Resisters Support Campaign notes:
With less than 16 days remaining until U.S. warresister Corey Glass' scheduled deportation, three parliamentary parties andAmnesty International are urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Citizenshipand Immigration Minister Diane Finley to cease deportation and removalproceedings against Glass and U.S. war resisters seeking refuge in Canada.The federal government's July 10 deportation order against Glass is stillin effect, creating enormous stress, anxiety and turmoil for him and all warresisters and their families who are hoping the government will be guided bythe expressed will of Parliament. The successful passage of a June 3 landmark parliamentary motion calledon the Conservative government to allow U.S. war resisters who have refused orleft military service related to the illegal invasion of Iraq, and theirimmediate family members, to stay in Canada and be able to become permanentresidents, and to immediately cease any removal or deportation actions thatmay have already commenced against such individuals. A poll carried out in June 2007 by Stratcom Ltd., showed that 64.6% ofOntarians agreed that the war resisters should be allowed to stay in Canada.
They will be holding a "Rally to Stop the Deportation of Parkdale Resident Corey Glass" July 3rd, begins at 7:00 p.m. (with doors opening at six p.m.) at the May Robinson Building, 20 West Lodge, Toronto: "In 2002, Corey joined the Indiana National Guard. He was told he would not have to fight on foreign shores. But in 2005 he was sent to Iraq. What he saw there caused him to become a conscientious objector and he came to Canada. On May 21, 2008, he got his final order to leave Canada by July 10, 2008. Then on June 3 Parliament passed a motion for all the war resisters to stay in Canada. However the Harper government says it will ignore this motion." To pressure the Stephen Harper government to honor the House of Commons vote, Gerry Condon, War Resisters Support Campaign and Courage to Resist all encourage contacting the Diane Finley (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration -- 613.996.4974, phone; 613.996.9749, fax; e-mail finley.d@parl.gc.ca -- that's "finley.d" at "parl.gc.ca") and Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, 613.992.4211, phone; 613.941.6900, fax; e-mail pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's "pm" at "pm.gc.ca"). Courage to Resist collected more than 10,000 letters to send before the vote. Now they've started a new letter you can use online here.
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste, Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).
[. . .]
Turning to the US presidential race, Paul Farhi (Washington Post) profiles independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader: "Joan Claybrook, who has known Nader since 1966 and worked with him on his pioneering auto-safety crusade against General Moters, says he reads 10 books a week and speaks seven languages (Chinese, Portugese, Italian and Arabic among them) well enough to converse with native speakers. . . . 'Ralph is really a charming guy,' says Claybrook, who heads the advocacy group Public Citizen. 'He has a great sense of humor. If the public knew him really well, they would be enthralled with him'."
Meanwhile Margaret Kimberley (Black Agenda Report) scores Barack: "Give AIPAC everything they want and then some. Check. Slander black men. Check. Continue illegal government surveillance. Check. Endorse conservative white Congressman against black progressive challenger. Check. . . . Obama is held to no standard at all. He is free to do exactly as he pleases to black people, who are all too happy to go along with any treatement that he chooses to mete out. This sorry state of affairs is the result of years of black political inaction and misleadership. The Congressional Black Caucus long ago gave up the fight, the movement tat gave black Americans full citizenship has been derided as a relic from a past age, instead of being seen as a blueprint for present da action. It is little wonder that the Obama campaign 'come-to-Jesus' meeting is consider a substitute for true political organizing." Slander Black men? As Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report via ZNet) explained, "The Democratic presidential nominee-apparent seldom speaks directly to Black people, but when he does it is usually to denounce individuals once close to him or to criticize The Race in general for some moral failing. Thus it was no surprise that Barack Obama used the occassion of Father's Day to give Black males the back of his hand, no doubt to the delight of millions of potential white supporters. Black males have 'abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men,' said Obama, citing statistics on female-headed households. 'You and I know how true this is in the African-American community.' Even the New York Times could see through Obam's transparent bid for white approval at Black people's expense. Reporter Julie Bosman noted that Obama 'laid out his case in start terms that would be difficult for a white candidate to make' -- terms (such as boy?) that 'his campaign hopes [will] resonate among white soical conservatives in a race where these voters may be up for grabs'." And see Cedric and Wally's "Bambi attacks" and "THIS JUST IN! BARACK ATTACKS AGAIN!". That's something to keep in mind because something true was said about Saint Obama and it's time for The Cult of Saint Obama to start screaming.
Rocky Mountain News' M.E. Sprengelmeyer asked Ralph Nader if he thought there was a difference between Barack Obama and the 2000 candidate Al Gore (or any other Democratic candidates in the recent past)? Here for audio of the first half, here for full transcript.
Ralph Nader: No. I mean, he's deceiving people. He takes, he takes -- in this very building he would take money from corporate lawyers who are not registered lobbyists but whose desks are across the aisle from corporate lawyers who are register lobbyists in the same law firm -- that's been reported more than once in the mainstream press. Six out of seven industrties as of a month ago have given more money to Obama than they have to McCain. Only transportation industry was more equal opportunity corruption . Look at the health care industry which has poured money into his campaign. The Secuirty industry. Defense industry. No. There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comees to being a Democratic presidential candidate he's half African-American. Wheter that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk White? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards. I think his main problem is that he censors himself he knows exactly who has power, who has too much, who has too little what needs to be done right down the community level but he has bought the advice that if you want to win the election you better take it easy on the coproation abuses and do XYZ and when I hear that I say Oh I see. So he's doing all this to win the eleciton and then he'll be diferent? Well let's see if it worked. Did it work for Mondale? Did it work for Dukakis? Did it work for Clinton? Yes, but only because of Perot? Did it work for Gore? Did it work for Kerry?
M.E. Sprengelmeyer: Do you think he's trying to, what was your term, 'talk white'?
Ralph Nader: Of course. I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a Black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas, and have a very detailed platform about how the poor is going to be defended by the law, is going to be protected by the law, and is going to be liberated by the law. Haven't heard a thing. I mean, the amount of economic exploitation in the ghettos is shocking. You'd think he'd propose a task force to at least study it. I mean, these people are eroded every day. The kids, bodies are asbestos and lead, municipal services discriminate against them because it's the poor area, including fire and police protection and building code enforcement. And then the lenders, the loan sharks get at them, and the dirty food ends up in the ghettos, like the contaminated meat. It's a dumping ground for shoddy merchandise. You don't see many credit unions there. You don't see many libraries there. You dont's ee many health clinics there. This is, we're talking 40-50 million Americans who are predominatly African-Americans and Latinos. Anybody see that kind of campaigning? Have yous ee him campaign in real poor areas of the city very frequently? No, he doesn't campaign there.
M.E. Sprengelmeyer: What do you think the purpose of that is?
Ralph Nader: He wants to show that he is not a threatening, a political threatening, another politically-threatening African-American politician. He wants to appeal to White guilt. You appeal to White guilt not by coming on as a Black is beautiful, Black is powerful. Basically he's coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the White power structure, whether it's corporate or whether it's simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up.
And the response? Muted from the Obama campaign . . . at first. They set out their Holler Monkeys to yet again scream "RACISM!" All the usual crew was there yet again. Latoya Peterson (Racialicious) needs someone to explain to her that Nader is not White. Not that facts matter to her. At Josh Michah Marsh's Hairy Crack, Eric Kleefeld at least has more sense than Peterson (he doesn't call Nader "White"). Kathy (LeftField) plays dumb -- it's playing right? -- and stresses Barack is a "black presidential candidate." Barack Obama is bi-racial. The Christ-child's lineage must not be questioned. See, there was never the conversation on race that the press told you was talking place. It never could take place because it would mean facing the fact that Barack was bi-racial, not "Black." And look, there's Ben Wyskida of The Nation, the arm pit sniffing Benny-boy, making cracks about Nader's race ("deeply black"). Does Ben think saying that to someone of Arab descent is 'funny' because that sounds pretty RACIST.
Isn't it cute that the publicity director for The Nation should blog at PINKOMAG.COM -- it's only natural, right? Pinko? Oh, it's a joke? Like Sam Graham-Felsen 'pretending' to be a Marxist? (And Ben, that's not a hint for you to bother/bore me again.)The push back's really important because the Christ-child has to be seen as Black. Even though he isn't. (It's the White guilt vote that Nader gets at.) So all the usual Holler Monkeys are recruited into service of the lie. Including 'plays mainstream journalist' Don Frederick whose ass should be fired from the Los Angeles Times -- in fact they should all be fired, all their 'political bloggers.' Having stated that John McCain was having a "hissy fit" over campaign finance should have made it clear how in the tank for Obama the paper is and, guess what, that's exactly what a MSM outlet CAN NEVER BE SEEN AS.
If the paper won't police their own, it may be time for others in Real Media to point out the problems. This is how the charges of bias get started (and they are true in LAT's case) and it these charges amplify and grow and soon all MSM outlets are tarred and feathered due to the actions of one outlet. It's unacceptable.
Sunday at Third, interesting feature that will be a docu-drama piece on the Christ-child's miracle birth and other things. Noting that allows me to pull six paragraphs and get the snapshot reduced to a reasonable size. Julie Bosman (New York Times) reports Nader's spokesperson Chris Driscoll said there would be no apology. Nor should their be. Bosman quotes Driscoll reading a statement attributed to Ralph Nader, "Obama's abstract campaign has been delusional and irresponsible when it comes to avoiding concrete policies that truly defend and empower the 100 million Americans living in poverty or near poverty." Sugar (Sugar N Spice) notes that Barack's made clear that he doesn't "care about inner-city crime and poverty" and notes his 'joke' "in Philadelphia last week. A city so plagued with murders and mayhem it is now commonly called Killadelphia. He stated, 'If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun . . . Because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl. I've seen Eagles fans.' He thought it was cute. I think it akin to telling folks in a Cancer ward, 'I guess we better not take any of you guys on a tour of Chernobyl site anytime soon, huh? Heehee."
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
"Other Items"
"3 more US soldiers announced dead"
"iraq, nader"
"Community business and sexism"
"Justice Dept., impeachment, Ralph"
"Barack has no clue"
"Justice Dept, Ballot Access"
"Iraq, Nader"
"From the dessert tray"
"THIS JUST IN! BETTY CROCKED CAKE MIX!"
Ralph Nader on today's This Week (ABC)
Ralph Nader will be on ABC's This Week shortly. We probably will not have posted any articles before it starts. So we thought it wise to be sure anyone dropping by had a heads up.
"We" is Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. Dona and Jim are on vacation (out of the country). The rough version of the edition is done. All that's needed is typing and polishing and we're minuse four hands (Dona and Jim). We long ago released everyone else. What's probably finished already is a short piece that notes an e-mail, the TV commentary, a piece on sexism in the MSM and, yes, the speculation piece.
Ty pulled up the e-mails and a number of visitors are convinced we're not posting the speculation piece and that's why nothing's up. For us, on our normal schedule, we're not even late in posting articles. Newbies, take note, there have been Sundays where new content has not gone up until 6:00 p.m.
The speculation article is written. We'd like to do a note of some kind at the top to be sure that everyone grasps we're recording what was said, we weren't there. With the exception of stating that a document produced thus far is not authentic, we're not stating anything is true. We are noting what has been told in multiple interviews. "You're worried about your credibility!" scoffs one who accuses of us "chickening out". Credibility?
We had credibility?
Who knew.
No, we're not "chickening out." We need a better conclusion for a piece on war resistance during Vietnam, we need a better opening for the editorial and we haven't even given a thought to illustrations (we may not use any). Dona and Jim are not just sitting around each edition asking, "What have you got?" They're actively participating in the writing, they're actively editing Dona especially remains an editor until the last thing is posted -- saying, "No, that's not what our readers count on. Pull that, grab the notes, there's got to be something better." There's a reason she goes through three packs of cigarettes and two two-liters of Diet Coke each edition. Jim is very good at finding the note of grace in a peace and polishing it.
We couldn't "chicken out" on the speculation piece if we wanted to. We worked four hours on the first draft. To "chicken out" would require that we stay up past the time required for editing and polishing to do another feature article and we're not in the mood. We also have a dealine with Ty who leaves in thirty minutes. The edition will post. If we have to drink Dona's Diet Cokes and smoke her cigarettes, it will post.
"We" is Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. Dona and Jim are on vacation (out of the country). The rough version of the edition is done. All that's needed is typing and polishing and we're minuse four hands (Dona and Jim). We long ago released everyone else. What's probably finished already is a short piece that notes an e-mail, the TV commentary, a piece on sexism in the MSM and, yes, the speculation piece.
Ty pulled up the e-mails and a number of visitors are convinced we're not posting the speculation piece and that's why nothing's up. For us, on our normal schedule, we're not even late in posting articles. Newbies, take note, there have been Sundays where new content has not gone up until 6:00 p.m.
The speculation article is written. We'd like to do a note of some kind at the top to be sure that everyone grasps we're recording what was said, we weren't there. With the exception of stating that a document produced thus far is not authentic, we're not stating anything is true. We are noting what has been told in multiple interviews. "You're worried about your credibility!" scoffs one who accuses of us "chickening out". Credibility?
We had credibility?
Who knew.
No, we're not "chickening out." We need a better conclusion for a piece on war resistance during Vietnam, we need a better opening for the editorial and we haven't even given a thought to illustrations (we may not use any). Dona and Jim are not just sitting around each edition asking, "What have you got?" They're actively participating in the writing, they're actively editing Dona especially remains an editor until the last thing is posted -- saying, "No, that's not what our readers count on. Pull that, grab the notes, there's got to be something better." There's a reason she goes through three packs of cigarettes and two two-liters of Diet Coke each edition. Jim is very good at finding the note of grace in a peace and polishing it.
We couldn't "chicken out" on the speculation piece if we wanted to. We worked four hours on the first draft. To "chicken out" would require that we stay up past the time required for editing and polishing to do another feature article and we're not in the mood. We also have a dealine with Ty who leaves in thirty minutes. The edition will post. If we have to drink Dona's Diet Cokes and smoke her cigarettes, it will post.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Truest statement of the week
Sgt. Matthis Chiroux: Good afternoon. We gather here this Father's Day on a very somber note. The American occupation of Iraq -- an illegal, immoral war which is ripping this nation apart as well causing an immeasurable harm to the Iraqi people and the people of the world alike. We gather in the remembrance of the sacrifice of many whose fathers weep on this joyous day for they know their own flesh and blood has been torn and siphoned from them for what we collectively hope will be this last blunder of American military might. We gather here and hope that our fathers will forgive us for the wrongs we have perpetrated on our bodies, hearts and minds alike in this cruel decade of disaster which stems from the very city in which we stand.
This father's day, we gather here to calm the vicious and vengeful alike. The first day I came to Washington, D.C. was less than one month before I shipped out to basic training. I was so moved by this country and its history that it reinvigorated my belief in the righteousness of what I was doing: Joining the army not only in search of personal progress but to participate in the efforts to bring justice to the individuals responsible for 9-11.
I remember standing at the base of the Washington Monument and watching the fireworks explode in the sky that Fourth of July and wondering how it was that we could have come under attack on American soil and believing firmly that I would be participatingin dealing justice for September 11th.
I remember standing before the Lincoln Memorial and feeling the presence of not just the former president and emancipator but of Martin Luther King and his dream for a brighter and more united future for the children of this nation.
That young me could not have known where he'd be standing almost six years later and what he would be saying this Father's Day. I am Sgt. Matthis Chiroux and tonight at midnight I may face further action from the army for refusing to reactive to participate in the Iraq occupation.
This fact hangs heavy on my heart as I look back at my five years of service in uniform. But I understand that what I am doing is in keeping with the values I shared with my friends-in-arms while we wondered if things could really get any worse?
Today I stand in resistance to the occupation of Iraq because I believe in our nation, its military and her people. I resist because I swore an oath to this nation that I would not allow it to fall into decay when I may be serving on the side of right. And my country is in decay and in these times of crisis Thomas Paine once said, "The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will flee from service to our country."
I stand here today as a Winter Soldier. To serve our nation, its military and its people in this dark time of confusion and corruption.
I stand here to make it known that my duty as a soldier is first to the higher ideals and guiding principles of this country which our leaders have failed to uphold.
I stand here today in defense of the US Constitution which has known no greater enemy, foreign or domestic, than those highest in this land who are sworn to be governed by its word.
I stand here today in defense of those who have been stripped of their voices in this occupation for the warriors of this nation have been silenced to the people who need to start listening.
We are here to honor the memory of our fathers who more than two centuries ago brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, as Abraham Lincoln once noted.
We are here to honor the struggle of our fathers and their fathers and their fathers before them to build this nation and bring it together -- through slavery and poverty, to sexism and racism, through materialism and imperialism. They built this nation and struggled to keep it alive as we've blundered and learned and blundered again. We owe it to our fathers to stand for this nation now when a dark cloud has descended upon it in the form of an administration who is stealing the lives of us all to wage an illegal war -- conceived in lies and birthed [born] of manipulation.
As a soldier I was told it was not my place to question the orders of those appointed above me. I had that lie trained into me from my first day of basic training to my last day of active duty. But I have learned the truth, the truth that the occupation of Iraq is inherently illegal and that it is my duty as a soldier to refuse illegal orders to reactivate and deploy in support of it.
I have learned that in these times of crisis one must look deep into their own values to know the path that they must walk. I have learned that feeling and thinking and speaking and acting and keeping with courage and honesty in preservation of a righteous cause is blessed and may give a person strength to utter truths that may calm the vicious and the vengeful alike.
I believe that this nation and this military may come to know the same truth: That the rule of law has been forsaken and we must return to it or be doomed to continue disaster. I believe in the goodness of the American people and I believe that justice is not dead because we as a people believe that it is our responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government in our names. We know this truth to be self-evident that our nation can unite to oppose an illegal occupation which is killing and scarring and shattering the lives of our youth and the Iraqi people.
On this Fathers Day, know, America, that your children need you. We need you to care for us and to care for our country which we will inherit when you are finished with her. We need you to end this occupation of Iraq which has destroyed a country and scattered its people to the wind like ashes in the tempest -- a tempest that has engulfed the nation of Iraq and scrubbed any sign of peace and prosperity from the surface of a civilization older than even history itself.
Fathers, we need you to care for your children and the children of Iraq for they know not why you fight and carry no fault in the conflict.
Fathers, your sons and daughters need you now to embrace peace for though we were attacked, we have dealt in retaliation that same suffering one-thousand times over to a people who never wronged us. The nation will know little healing until first we stem off the flow of blood and human life for justice and healing will never be done by a blade or a bullet or a bomb or a torture cell.
By continuing to participate in the unjust occupation of Iraq, we, as service members, are contributing to that flow of human life and we cannot now -- nor could we ever -- call the Iraqi people an enemy in the fight against the use of terror. But terror is all we now know. We are terrified of the prospect that we have been lied to. We are terrified by the idea that we have killed for nothing. We are terrified to break the silence. We are terrified to do what we know is right.
But never again will I allow terror to silence me. Nor will I allow it to govern my actions. I refuse terror as a tactic for uniting a people around an unjust cause. I refuse to allow terror to motivate me to do violence on my fellow man especially those who never wronged me in the first place. I refuse to be terrified to stand in defense of my Constitution. And I refuse to be terrified of doing so in great adversity.
As a resister to the Iraq Occupation, I refuse to be terrified by what may come for I know those who stand against me are in terror of the truth. But I will speak my truth, and I will stand by it firmly and forever will my soul know peace. Thank you.
-- Matthis Chiroux' Father's Day Speech in D.C. Chiroux is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and they are noting things you can do:
Contact your congressional representatives and ask them to publicly support Matthis.
Contribute to IVAW's legal defense fund to help Matthis and other resisters.
Send a message of support to Sgt Matthis Chiroux at thankyoumatthis@ivaw.org.
Find out more about Matthis Chiroux.
This father's day, we gather here to calm the vicious and vengeful alike. The first day I came to Washington, D.C. was less than one month before I shipped out to basic training. I was so moved by this country and its history that it reinvigorated my belief in the righteousness of what I was doing: Joining the army not only in search of personal progress but to participate in the efforts to bring justice to the individuals responsible for 9-11.
I remember standing at the base of the Washington Monument and watching the fireworks explode in the sky that Fourth of July and wondering how it was that we could have come under attack on American soil and believing firmly that I would be participatingin dealing justice for September 11th.
I remember standing before the Lincoln Memorial and feeling the presence of not just the former president and emancipator but of Martin Luther King and his dream for a brighter and more united future for the children of this nation.
That young me could not have known where he'd be standing almost six years later and what he would be saying this Father's Day. I am Sgt. Matthis Chiroux and tonight at midnight I may face further action from the army for refusing to reactive to participate in the Iraq occupation.
This fact hangs heavy on my heart as I look back at my five years of service in uniform. But I understand that what I am doing is in keeping with the values I shared with my friends-in-arms while we wondered if things could really get any worse?
Today I stand in resistance to the occupation of Iraq because I believe in our nation, its military and her people. I resist because I swore an oath to this nation that I would not allow it to fall into decay when I may be serving on the side of right. And my country is in decay and in these times of crisis Thomas Paine once said, "The summer soldier and sunshine patriot will flee from service to our country."
I stand here today as a Winter Soldier. To serve our nation, its military and its people in this dark time of confusion and corruption.
I stand here to make it known that my duty as a soldier is first to the higher ideals and guiding principles of this country which our leaders have failed to uphold.
I stand here today in defense of the US Constitution which has known no greater enemy, foreign or domestic, than those highest in this land who are sworn to be governed by its word.
I stand here today in defense of those who have been stripped of their voices in this occupation for the warriors of this nation have been silenced to the people who need to start listening.
We are here to honor the memory of our fathers who more than two centuries ago brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, as Abraham Lincoln once noted.
We are here to honor the struggle of our fathers and their fathers and their fathers before them to build this nation and bring it together -- through slavery and poverty, to sexism and racism, through materialism and imperialism. They built this nation and struggled to keep it alive as we've blundered and learned and blundered again. We owe it to our fathers to stand for this nation now when a dark cloud has descended upon it in the form of an administration who is stealing the lives of us all to wage an illegal war -- conceived in lies and birthed [born] of manipulation.
As a soldier I was told it was not my place to question the orders of those appointed above me. I had that lie trained into me from my first day of basic training to my last day of active duty. But I have learned the truth, the truth that the occupation of Iraq is inherently illegal and that it is my duty as a soldier to refuse illegal orders to reactivate and deploy in support of it.
I have learned that in these times of crisis one must look deep into their own values to know the path that they must walk. I have learned that feeling and thinking and speaking and acting and keeping with courage and honesty in preservation of a righteous cause is blessed and may give a person strength to utter truths that may calm the vicious and the vengeful alike.
I believe that this nation and this military may come to know the same truth: That the rule of law has been forsaken and we must return to it or be doomed to continue disaster. I believe in the goodness of the American people and I believe that justice is not dead because we as a people believe that it is our responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government in our names. We know this truth to be self-evident that our nation can unite to oppose an illegal occupation which is killing and scarring and shattering the lives of our youth and the Iraqi people.
On this Fathers Day, know, America, that your children need you. We need you to care for us and to care for our country which we will inherit when you are finished with her. We need you to end this occupation of Iraq which has destroyed a country and scattered its people to the wind like ashes in the tempest -- a tempest that has engulfed the nation of Iraq and scrubbed any sign of peace and prosperity from the surface of a civilization older than even history itself.
Fathers, we need you to care for your children and the children of Iraq for they know not why you fight and carry no fault in the conflict.
Fathers, your sons and daughters need you now to embrace peace for though we were attacked, we have dealt in retaliation that same suffering one-thousand times over to a people who never wronged us. The nation will know little healing until first we stem off the flow of blood and human life for justice and healing will never be done by a blade or a bullet or a bomb or a torture cell.
By continuing to participate in the unjust occupation of Iraq, we, as service members, are contributing to that flow of human life and we cannot now -- nor could we ever -- call the Iraqi people an enemy in the fight against the use of terror. But terror is all we now know. We are terrified of the prospect that we have been lied to. We are terrified by the idea that we have killed for nothing. We are terrified to break the silence. We are terrified to do what we know is right.
But never again will I allow terror to silence me. Nor will I allow it to govern my actions. I refuse terror as a tactic for uniting a people around an unjust cause. I refuse to allow terror to motivate me to do violence on my fellow man especially those who never wronged me in the first place. I refuse to be terrified to stand in defense of my Constitution. And I refuse to be terrified of doing so in great adversity.
As a resister to the Iraq Occupation, I refuse to be terrified by what may come for I know those who stand against me are in terror of the truth. But I will speak my truth, and I will stand by it firmly and forever will my soul know peace. Thank you.
-- Matthis Chiroux' Father's Day Speech in D.C. Chiroux is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and they are noting things you can do:
Contact your congressional representatives and ask them to publicly support Matthis.
Contribute to IVAW's legal defense fund to help Matthis and other resisters.
Send a message of support to Sgt Matthis Chiroux at thankyoumatthis@ivaw.org.
Find out more about Matthis Chiroux.
A note to our readers
Hey --
Another Sunday.
This is our fourth annual summer read/fiction edition.
Helping out here were Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
and Marcia SICKOFITRDLZ.
We thank them all. We curse Flickr which added three hours on to what should have been a smooth edition.
Truest statement of the week -- Matthis Chiroux's statement last Sunday on why he is not deploying to Iraq. The only choice for truest this week.
Editorial: What's your acceptance level? -- This is longer in the print edition and does not include the asides. Dona wanted it shorter, tighter and more personal. Did Ava or C.I. jot down Elaine's remark? Or C.I.'s? Could they remember it if they didn't because "that's what our readers will enjoy." This is part of out continued efforts to provide the forgotten history and, as Dona pointed out, the Vietnam era includes what was going on here, not just in Canada and Vietnam.
TV: Breaking what? -- In the tradition of their CSI and 7th Heaven commentaries, Ava and C.I. had worked out a fiction angle for this week's commentary. They tossed it aside as Jim asked, "Can you raise this issue?" repeatedly. It was not a slow news week. (Some issues were also taken over to another feature.) A summer-read may not have been fully possible any week but there was a ton to comment on this week. Ava and C.I. decided to do a 'straight' commentary. Which doesn't mean there aren't laughs (for example, check out their opening sentence). My apologies to them (this is Jim) for asking them to put aside what they had planned but without this grabbing a number of things, I could feel the e-mails pouring in asking, "Where is your committment!" (Again, we do this summer read edition every year and this is our fourth year doing it.)
New York Times, Early Edition -- a funny short story that Cedric, Ava and C.I. led on was tossed aside online (it ran in the print edition). It needed a "strong polish" (Ava). As noted above, I was worried about the fact that we weren't covering any of the big topics of last week. C.I., Elaine and Dona came up with the idea for this to calm my nerves. This begins our summer read offerings.
Clouds -- This was the short story everyone loved and, if it suffers from anything, it was too much care and too much time. To shorten it, we pulled out numerous details. The long version runs in the print edition and will also run Friday in the gina & krista round-robin. A note on the illustration. It was done for the humorous short story we're not running online. Jess wondered if Rebecca could reverse one detail in photoshop? She did and saw why Jess asked. Removing a detail created a completely different illustration and one that would work for this short story.
The non-whistle blower -- This is mainly Mike, Wally, Cedric and me. All stories went through several drafts but we had this idea and worked on. The David Gregory thing may be the only detail that was added to it (Ava and C.I. said "put that in" and Kat and Dona wrote it into the story).
Bee-bees and cockle bugs -- Ty had an idea for a short story that would have some sort of horror theme. It would not work out. Marcia said flip it so that it's one girl and one boy (it was two boys originally) and once that was done, it came together fairly quickly.
Circling -- With no time to do the polish needed for the humorous short story (and Ava and C.I. rejecting "dashing" one off as they have in past years -- they still had to do their TV commentary), we were at a loss. Betty said, "Did we ever try anything in the Dorothy Parker style?" I reminded her we didn't have time to polish a humor piece so we didn't have time to write a new one. She corrected me by noting Parker wrote obsessively about love obsessions.
Nader-Gonzalez -- We carry campaign finance over to this. Community sites hit hard on this issue last week and Ava and C.I. grab it in their TV commentary (at my request) but I wanted us to note it in at least one other article. This is a big issue, there's a great deal of silence on it from the left and 'left' and I didn't want us to be guilty of that.
Highlights -- Mike, Ruth, Kat, Betty, Wally, Cedric, Marica, Rebecca and Elaine wrote this and picked all highlights unless otherwise noted.
That's it, we'll see you next week.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Another Sunday.
This is our fourth annual summer read/fiction edition.
Helping out here were Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
and Marcia SICKOFITRDLZ.
We thank them all. We curse Flickr which added three hours on to what should have been a smooth edition.
Truest statement of the week -- Matthis Chiroux's statement last Sunday on why he is not deploying to Iraq. The only choice for truest this week.
Editorial: What's your acceptance level? -- This is longer in the print edition and does not include the asides. Dona wanted it shorter, tighter and more personal. Did Ava or C.I. jot down Elaine's remark? Or C.I.'s? Could they remember it if they didn't because "that's what our readers will enjoy." This is part of out continued efforts to provide the forgotten history and, as Dona pointed out, the Vietnam era includes what was going on here, not just in Canada and Vietnam.
TV: Breaking what? -- In the tradition of their CSI and 7th Heaven commentaries, Ava and C.I. had worked out a fiction angle for this week's commentary. They tossed it aside as Jim asked, "Can you raise this issue?" repeatedly. It was not a slow news week. (Some issues were also taken over to another feature.) A summer-read may not have been fully possible any week but there was a ton to comment on this week. Ava and C.I. decided to do a 'straight' commentary. Which doesn't mean there aren't laughs (for example, check out their opening sentence). My apologies to them (this is Jim) for asking them to put aside what they had planned but without this grabbing a number of things, I could feel the e-mails pouring in asking, "Where is your committment!" (Again, we do this summer read edition every year and this is our fourth year doing it.)
New York Times, Early Edition -- a funny short story that Cedric, Ava and C.I. led on was tossed aside online (it ran in the print edition). It needed a "strong polish" (Ava). As noted above, I was worried about the fact that we weren't covering any of the big topics of last week. C.I., Elaine and Dona came up with the idea for this to calm my nerves. This begins our summer read offerings.
Clouds -- This was the short story everyone loved and, if it suffers from anything, it was too much care and too much time. To shorten it, we pulled out numerous details. The long version runs in the print edition and will also run Friday in the gina & krista round-robin. A note on the illustration. It was done for the humorous short story we're not running online. Jess wondered if Rebecca could reverse one detail in photoshop? She did and saw why Jess asked. Removing a detail created a completely different illustration and one that would work for this short story.
The non-whistle blower -- This is mainly Mike, Wally, Cedric and me. All stories went through several drafts but we had this idea and worked on. The David Gregory thing may be the only detail that was added to it (Ava and C.I. said "put that in" and Kat and Dona wrote it into the story).
Bee-bees and cockle bugs -- Ty had an idea for a short story that would have some sort of horror theme. It would not work out. Marcia said flip it so that it's one girl and one boy (it was two boys originally) and once that was done, it came together fairly quickly.
Circling -- With no time to do the polish needed for the humorous short story (and Ava and C.I. rejecting "dashing" one off as they have in past years -- they still had to do their TV commentary), we were at a loss. Betty said, "Did we ever try anything in the Dorothy Parker style?" I reminded her we didn't have time to polish a humor piece so we didn't have time to write a new one. She corrected me by noting Parker wrote obsessively about love obsessions.
Nader-Gonzalez -- We carry campaign finance over to this. Community sites hit hard on this issue last week and Ava and C.I. grab it in their TV commentary (at my request) but I wanted us to note it in at least one other article. This is a big issue, there's a great deal of silence on it from the left and 'left' and I didn't want us to be guilty of that.
Highlights -- Mike, Ruth, Kat, Betty, Wally, Cedric, Marica, Rebecca and Elaine wrote this and picked all highlights unless otherwise noted.
That's it, we'll see you next week.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
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