What I'm reading, hearing, seeing and thinking about March 23 - March 29, 2008:
What I'm reading:
A great article here from Spencer Ackerman of The American Prospect writing an editorial on The Obama Doctrine, which lays out in a concise and well researched way how Obama is offering a change in foreign policy and providing an opportunity for an approach to foreign relations that hasn't been seen in 40 years. The best quote, and perhaps the reason that I think Obama is the best opportunity for US leadership this November comes from Obama at the January 31 Debate when he said:
" ...I want to end the mind-set that got us into war in the first place"
---
What I'm Seeing:
The Chronicle for High Education has opened up it's truly brilliant "Back of the Envelope design contest" asking readers to come up with designs for the George Bush Presidential library scheduled to be built at Southern Methodist University. The designs run the range from whimsical to angry, all of them taking stabs at Bush 43. I can't describe each of the wild clever ideas, outside of the one submission including the "Underground Cheney Lair" You can view some of the designs and vote for your favorite here. Don't forget to check out the Chronicles Video talking about the contest!
What I'm Hearing:
Don't miss the PBS/Frontline documentary "bush's war" that you can view online. An excellent exhaustive chronology of lies, half truths and manipluation from the Bush administration over the past 5 years.
----
For fun I'm totally into the Great B52 new single "FUNPLEX" Damn them how can you not love :
Faster Pussycat
Thrill!
Thrill!
I'm at the mall on a diet pill"
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
A responsible plan to end the war
With the Military death toll topping 4000 this week, and a giant shrug of in-difference from Cheney and Bush it is encouraging to see some of this year's Candidates for Congress endorsing and campaigning with a Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq.
While the plan is not perfect, it presents a clear path to ending Military Action in Iraq, addressing humanitarian concerns and strategies to eliminate mistakes like Iraq from happening again. You can check out and hopefully endorse the plan here. If you want to check out the candidates endorsing the responsible plan and support them this November, here is the list of endorsees,
Don't forget to take a moment and endorse the plan yourself!
Dear Hillary
Dear Hillary;
Sorry, but you did not misspeak about Bosnia. You were not truthful. You made up another fantasy about your foreign policy experience. Unlike you, a sane person remembers jumping out of a helicopter and ducking as we are being strafed with gun fire. We generally recall what we wrote in our autobiographies and journals that the gun fire was in the hills not some uprising on the tarmac as you landed. Even the B Movie comedian Sinbad who was with you remembers it well:
"I never felt that I was in a dangerous position. I never felt being in a sense of peril, or 'Oh, God, I hope I'm going to be OK when I get out of this helicopter or when I get out of this tank.'"
So Hillary no you did not misspeak on Monday. You made it up. It's another Alice in Wonderland moment for you! If Sinbad has to remind you of what really happened oh those many years ago, perhaps you should take a rest and read a book - like your own.
Sorry, but you did not misspeak about Bosnia. You were not truthful. You made up another fantasy about your foreign policy experience. Unlike you, a sane person remembers jumping out of a helicopter and ducking as we are being strafed with gun fire. We generally recall what we wrote in our autobiographies and journals that the gun fire was in the hills not some uprising on the tarmac as you landed. Even the B Movie comedian Sinbad who was with you remembers it well:
"I never felt that I was in a dangerous position. I never felt being in a sense of peril, or 'Oh, God, I hope I'm going to be OK when I get out of this helicopter or when I get out of this tank.'"
So Hillary no you did not misspeak on Monday. You made it up. It's another Alice in Wonderland moment for you! If Sinbad has to remind you of what really happened oh those many years ago, perhaps you should take a rest and read a book - like your own.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Pastor Wright, or the Fellowship
With all the talk about Barack Obama's connection with Pastor Jeremiah Wright this week and the endless replay of Pastor Wright's comments I was somewhat surprised not to hear a great deal from the Hillary camp on the whole matter. An Article from "the Nation" web site , is worth a look as it talks about a "widely under-read article" from the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones Magazine documenting Hillary Clinton's participation is a secret Capital Hill group
"The Fellowship".
Check out the article here: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080331/ehrenreich "Hillary's Nasty Pastorate"
After reading it, it is beyond me why she would want to be involved in this creepy secretive cultish society, but I suppose the pursuit of power knows no bounds.
"The Fellowship".
Check out the article here: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080331/ehrenreich "Hillary's Nasty Pastorate"
After reading it, it is beyond me why she would want to be involved in this creepy secretive cultish society, but I suppose the pursuit of power knows no bounds.
Monday, March 17, 2008
From My Lai to Abu Ghraib
There is a sad coincidence this week in marking not only the 5th anniversary of the Iraq war, but also the 40th Anniversary of the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War.
It was March 16, 1968 that the US armed forces, stuck in a war that was increasingly desperate and un-winnable, undertook a reconnaissance mission to locate and flush out members of the Viet Cong. Military intelligence believed that Viet Cong were located in the hamlets and villages of Son My and My Lai and a major offensive was executed.
As Charlie Company landed on the morning of March 16th, Soldiers, unable to find any evidence of Viet Cong guerilla forces in the villages began to attack anything that moved, a massacre that resulted in the death of up to 500 Vietnamese civilians, many of them women and children.
The details of the massacre, along with searing images of the carnage was a turning point and an attitude shift for the public, fueling outrage from the anti war movement and world nations condemning the attack.
Fast forward to this week’s 5th Anniversary of the Iraq War, a conflict that seems eerily reminiscent of the Vietnam War. A war in Iraq that was approved based completely on false and misleading evidence of WMD’s and Al Quaida Connections. A War in Iraq that brought us the images of Abu Ghriab prison torture. A War in Iraq and a President that supports torture techniques by vetoing the Intelligence Authorization Bill. A War in Iraq that even the Pentagon debunked by quietly releasing their report last week admitting there was no smoking gun, no direct connection between Saddam’s Iraq and Al Qaeda. 600,000 Official Iraqi government documents that disproved all the statements of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.
Almost 4,000 American troops killed, anywhere from 82,000 to 1.1 million Iraqi civilian deaths directly or indirectly related to the Iraq War.
Helicopter gunner Lawrence Colburn returned to My Lai this weekend to pay tribute to those killed during the massacre 40 years ago. Remembering the terrible event, Colburn is reminded not only of My Lai but recent images from Abu Ghraib:
“We’re supposed to learn from the mistakes of history, but we keep making the same mistakes.”
It was March 16, 1968 that the US armed forces, stuck in a war that was increasingly desperate and un-winnable, undertook a reconnaissance mission to locate and flush out members of the Viet Cong. Military intelligence believed that Viet Cong were located in the hamlets and villages of Son My and My Lai and a major offensive was executed.
As Charlie Company landed on the morning of March 16th, Soldiers, unable to find any evidence of Viet Cong guerilla forces in the villages began to attack anything that moved, a massacre that resulted in the death of up to 500 Vietnamese civilians, many of them women and children.
The details of the massacre, along with searing images of the carnage was a turning point and an attitude shift for the public, fueling outrage from the anti war movement and world nations condemning the attack.
Fast forward to this week’s 5th Anniversary of the Iraq War, a conflict that seems eerily reminiscent of the Vietnam War. A war in Iraq that was approved based completely on false and misleading evidence of WMD’s and Al Quaida Connections. A War in Iraq that brought us the images of Abu Ghriab prison torture. A War in Iraq and a President that supports torture techniques by vetoing the Intelligence Authorization Bill. A War in Iraq that even the Pentagon debunked by quietly releasing their report last week admitting there was no smoking gun, no direct connection between Saddam’s Iraq and Al Qaeda. 600,000 Official Iraqi government documents that disproved all the statements of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.
Almost 4,000 American troops killed, anywhere from 82,000 to 1.1 million Iraqi civilian deaths directly or indirectly related to the Iraq War.
Helicopter gunner Lawrence Colburn returned to My Lai this weekend to pay tribute to those killed during the massacre 40 years ago. Remembering the terrible event, Colburn is reminded not only of My Lai but recent images from Abu Ghraib:
“We’re supposed to learn from the mistakes of history, but we keep making the same mistakes.”
Obama-ton advertising
Here's a frightening but clever ad from Brussels, Belgium Hogeschool-Universiteit A combined College and University. In the new ad the tag line reads: "Why choose if you can combine?" Nice fun photoshop ad that makes the viewer look back. What struck me is how a US primary process can spread around the world and create iconic images of Clinton and Obama that are instantly recognizable.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Hillary Clinton and the Lord of the Flies
Hillary Clinton is the Lord of the Flies
I swear as every week of this primary campaign grinds on I start to feel more and more convinced that Clinton's winning strategy is some weird screwed up contemporary version of William Goldman's Lord of the Flies. You will recall that Goldman's book was pretty much an allegory about individuals trying to create a utopian self-governing society. Proper English school boys, stranded on a deserted island attempting to self govern and “elect” the most popular and worthy of their clan to lead them to greatness.
Life on the island is far from idyllic what with the warring factions, abusive rule at the hands of Mr. popular and finally the system collapses blaming the weak and marginal members for failing to live up to the expectations of the elite. It’s all very grim.
I can’t get that book out of my mind every time I think of the state of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. It seemed like only a few news cycles ago that Clinton was ready for her coronation as the leader for the next 8 years and all those pesky Democrats would fall in line, hold up the ermine robe and hand over the tarnished scepter this November.
Except Barack Obama buggered that plan for her, and that started the Lord of the Flies strategy, presumably for lack of any other back up strategy. In Clinton -land, people’s heads started to roll, Bill was reigned in before he got too far out of control and HC made sure to distance herself from all this sordidness.
When memos about Obama’s stand on NAFTA and the “Is he / is’nt he” a Muslim question started to “leak”, HC flicked them away, refusing to be forthright on 60 minutes and laying blame on all those nasty minions that would be ousted in due course. All along HC flirting with the race card, downplaying election math, phoning herself at 3AM, and finally the Orwellian double speak of foreign policy experience based on a lunch with the IRA.
Now the Flies campaign takes a new turn as HC fails to condemn Geraldine Ferraro’s comments that Obama wouldn’t have made it this far if it wasn’t for his race. Ferraro, who seems to think she needs to get back with the media spin in a big way, appears to play the patsy for the self appointed leader. The bitter and judgmental Ferraro falls on her sword the next day defending her self and refusing to back down on her statements.
For Hillary Clinton, her minion has done the job, as she appears demurely calling Ferraro’s comments regrettable and making a passing, almost lackluster attempt at apologizing. Except it’s not an apology, it all smells of a set up and Ferraro, with her insignificant role on the campaign finance committee is the perfect patsy. It’s like Geraldine is dragged back into the limelight only to be trotted out for abuse – pretty much the realization she must have had after she got off the phone with Walter Mondale.
I feel sorry for Ferraro. She’s like Piggy the fat kid in Goldman’s book. Piggy has his glasses broken, he has to grunt like a wild boar to the assembled masses, humiliated and eventually is reduced to a quivering mass of broken dreams and bitter resentment to the self appointed elite. At the end of the book, the clan degenerates into chaos and anarchy – the social experiment failed and the elite broken and bitter.
I sort of have this dream of the Clinton campaign heading in that direction, crashing and burning and collapsing in a gigantic angry glorious heap of back room deals, cynical fear based politics, gossip and innuendo. In my dream, I wake up in a cold sweat with that same final image of Hillary and Bill lashing their life rafts together, leaving the flames of the campaign island behind and sailing into the sunset………
I swear as every week of this primary campaign grinds on I start to feel more and more convinced that Clinton's winning strategy is some weird screwed up contemporary version of William Goldman's Lord of the Flies. You will recall that Goldman's book was pretty much an allegory about individuals trying to create a utopian self-governing society. Proper English school boys, stranded on a deserted island attempting to self govern and “elect” the most popular and worthy of their clan to lead them to greatness.
Life on the island is far from idyllic what with the warring factions, abusive rule at the hands of Mr. popular and finally the system collapses blaming the weak and marginal members for failing to live up to the expectations of the elite. It’s all very grim.
I can’t get that book out of my mind every time I think of the state of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. It seemed like only a few news cycles ago that Clinton was ready for her coronation as the leader for the next 8 years and all those pesky Democrats would fall in line, hold up the ermine robe and hand over the tarnished scepter this November.
Except Barack Obama buggered that plan for her, and that started the Lord of the Flies strategy, presumably for lack of any other back up strategy. In Clinton -land, people’s heads started to roll, Bill was reigned in before he got too far out of control and HC made sure to distance herself from all this sordidness.
When memos about Obama’s stand on NAFTA and the “Is he / is’nt he” a Muslim question started to “leak”, HC flicked them away, refusing to be forthright on 60 minutes and laying blame on all those nasty minions that would be ousted in due course. All along HC flirting with the race card, downplaying election math, phoning herself at 3AM, and finally the Orwellian double speak of foreign policy experience based on a lunch with the IRA.
Now the Flies campaign takes a new turn as HC fails to condemn Geraldine Ferraro’s comments that Obama wouldn’t have made it this far if it wasn’t for his race. Ferraro, who seems to think she needs to get back with the media spin in a big way, appears to play the patsy for the self appointed leader. The bitter and judgmental Ferraro falls on her sword the next day defending her self and refusing to back down on her statements.
For Hillary Clinton, her minion has done the job, as she appears demurely calling Ferraro’s comments regrettable and making a passing, almost lackluster attempt at apologizing. Except it’s not an apology, it all smells of a set up and Ferraro, with her insignificant role on the campaign finance committee is the perfect patsy. It’s like Geraldine is dragged back into the limelight only to be trotted out for abuse – pretty much the realization she must have had after she got off the phone with Walter Mondale.
I feel sorry for Ferraro. She’s like Piggy the fat kid in Goldman’s book. Piggy has his glasses broken, he has to grunt like a wild boar to the assembled masses, humiliated and eventually is reduced to a quivering mass of broken dreams and bitter resentment to the self appointed elite. At the end of the book, the clan degenerates into chaos and anarchy – the social experiment failed and the elite broken and bitter.
I sort of have this dream of the Clinton campaign heading in that direction, crashing and burning and collapsing in a gigantic angry glorious heap of back room deals, cynical fear based politics, gossip and innuendo. In my dream, I wake up in a cold sweat with that same final image of Hillary and Bill lashing their life rafts together, leaving the flames of the campaign island behind and sailing into the sunset………
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
A local spat on Religious Dominion-ism
Warren Young consumed a fair bit of print lines in the Friday March 7, 2008 Spruce Grove Examiner Letter, "Impressed with youth". It is one of those fascinating letters that one reads hoping that at some point the writer will get to the point. By the last few paragraphs Mr Young does attempt to bring this well intended youth clarion call to some sort of conclusion by suggesting that "older" readers support youth by speaking on the merits of Faytene Kryskow.
Mr Young is obviously a fan of Ms Kryskow and effuses about her book "Stand on Guard", her meetings with elected officials and TV station interviews along with a curious statement that Ms Kryskow has been referred as the "Canadian Joan of Arc". Further, Mr Young let's us know that Kryskow book is a "best-seller".
I wouldn't normally give much credence to all this rambling if I was not struck by (a) the best seller reference and (b) the lack of any concrete discussion of what Ms Kryskow stands for. In fact after reading the letter a couple of times searching for content I wondered if this wasn't all some veiled sales pitch for Kryskow speaking engagements or books sales or some such.
One of the first things I learned about Ms Kryskow is that her book is in fact not a best seller. It appears to be a self published work that is presently available through her website with Paypal. It is not distributed through the largest Canadian book retailer; Chapters.ca nor through amazon.ca. This is a relatively minor fact checking issue however once one begins to check out Ms Kryskow.
A quick search of the big ole Internet will tell you that Faytene Kryskow is a peculiar mix of youthful exuberance, evangelical dominion-ism and anti-abortion rhetoric. While waxing on about righteous foundations in Canada, Kryskow mixes in a few youtube videos on her personal testaments and calling those to arms to "raise a generation of revivalists and revolutionaries" - sort of biblical Trocky-isms I guess.
The anti-abortion issue aside, some of Ms Kryskow's comments on video are truly bizarre. Speaking at a youth conference last year in Ottawa, Kryskow's video puckishly discusses the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love as the start of sexual perversion and then proceeds to draw a direct line between Women's Rights and the US ERA Amendment; done in order to advocate abortion rights.
What is most disingenuous about Faytene Kryskow is not her her perky anti abortion stance or summer of love / women's rights leaps of logic but rather a comment from her own official website. Assuring readers that she has "strong accountability" she follows this up with the warning that her home church will not be listed so the media can not attend and report on it. - Accountability indeed.
So I suppose the message here is while Mr Young probably has the best intentions in mind when he wrote his letter, I think it is only fair that he be open and honest and forthright on the subject matter he is speaking of. It does a huge disservice not only to youth, but to all of us when a thinly veiled moral or political position is wrapped in touchy feely, inaccurate and the obtuse language like Mr Young's letter.
Mr Young is obviously a fan of Ms Kryskow and effuses about her book "Stand on Guard", her meetings with elected officials and TV station interviews along with a curious statement that Ms Kryskow has been referred as the "Canadian Joan of Arc". Further, Mr Young let's us know that Kryskow book is a "best-seller".
I wouldn't normally give much credence to all this rambling if I was not struck by (a) the best seller reference and (b) the lack of any concrete discussion of what Ms Kryskow stands for. In fact after reading the letter a couple of times searching for content I wondered if this wasn't all some veiled sales pitch for Kryskow speaking engagements or books sales or some such.
One of the first things I learned about Ms Kryskow is that her book is in fact not a best seller. It appears to be a self published work that is presently available through her website with Paypal. It is not distributed through the largest Canadian book retailer; Chapters.ca nor through amazon.ca. This is a relatively minor fact checking issue however once one begins to check out Ms Kryskow.
A quick search of the big ole Internet will tell you that Faytene Kryskow is a peculiar mix of youthful exuberance, evangelical dominion-ism and anti-abortion rhetoric. While waxing on about righteous foundations in Canada, Kryskow mixes in a few youtube videos on her personal testaments and calling those to arms to "raise a generation of revivalists and revolutionaries" - sort of biblical Trocky-isms I guess.
The anti-abortion issue aside, some of Ms Kryskow's comments on video are truly bizarre. Speaking at a youth conference last year in Ottawa, Kryskow's video puckishly discusses the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love as the start of sexual perversion and then proceeds to draw a direct line between Women's Rights and the US ERA Amendment; done in order to advocate abortion rights.
What is most disingenuous about Faytene Kryskow is not her her perky anti abortion stance or summer of love / women's rights leaps of logic but rather a comment from her own official website. Assuring readers that she has "strong accountability" she follows this up with the warning that her home church will not be listed so the media can not attend and report on it. - Accountability indeed.
So I suppose the message here is while Mr Young probably has the best intentions in mind when he wrote his letter, I think it is only fair that he be open and honest and forthright on the subject matter he is speaking of. It does a huge disservice not only to youth, but to all of us when a thinly veiled moral or political position is wrapped in touchy feely, inaccurate and the obtuse language like Mr Young's letter.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Baffling Billary
It's kind of funny is it wasn't so sad that the Billary campaign has had to resort to deciding what role Barack Obama can play on a joint ticket for the presidential race. First was Hillary raising the possibility of a joint ticket last week (presumably the morning after guilt effects of the shrieking monkeys and kitchen sink campaign) but by this weekend, after that spin had worn thin, there is Bill espousing that Obama would make a good VP candidate since he did not have the same foreign policy experience as Hillary. Then Wolfson stated that Obama "hasn't passed the commander in chief test" but he might just be able to by Denver
huh?
Oh my gawd what are these people drinking? There is a big rip in reality with the clinton camp when you are trailing in the primaries and suggesting that the one beating you should be number two in the election campaign. Toon Town logic.
huh?
Oh my gawd what are these people drinking? There is a big rip in reality with the clinton camp when you are trailing in the primaries and suggesting that the one beating you should be number two in the election campaign. Toon Town logic.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Hillary's very Own Nafta-gate
Dear Mrs Clinton;
Brodie allegedly also discussed musings by Obama's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, saying people from her camp also told Canadians to take her NAFTA concerns with a grain of salt.
Isn't that like the pot calling the kettle black Mrs Clinton? Why even your campaign strategist Mark Penn was gloating and a bit self righteous when talking to reporters stating that:
"It had a significant impact," Mark Penn said during a conference call with reporters. "I think it is going to be a serious issue moving forward in this campaign. It raised serious questions about Obama."
So how come it raises serious questions for the Obama campaign but not yours? Lot of flip flopping going on in your campaign as well?
Better dial the red phone way before 3AM on this one!
You need to get on the phone to Canada - and fast! I'm a little worried up here what with Ian Brodie, Prime Minster Stephen Harper's chief of staff is not only being implicated for leaking the Obama Nafta Gate memo but he's mentioning you as well!
As reported by CBC, Canwest News Service and on the Canadian news program "the National", Brodie says:
Isn't that like the pot calling the kettle black Mrs Clinton? Why even your campaign strategist Mark Penn was gloating and a bit self righteous when talking to reporters stating that:
"It had a significant impact," Mark Penn said during a conference call with reporters. "I think it is going to be a serious issue moving forward in this campaign. It raised serious questions about Obama."
So how come it raises serious questions for the Obama campaign but not yours? Lot of flip flopping going on in your campaign as well?
Better dial the red phone way before 3AM on this one!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
How the Clinton camp sleeps at night
There is a certain irony in Barack Obama's speech last night to supporters in Texas. As Obama conceded the loss in Ohio and acknowledged the ongoing Texas primary battle the crowd cheered and a swarm of bats fluttered overhead in the night air.
It comes off a weekend of nasty politics on the part of the Clinton campaign who seem hell bent for leather on making every minor issue such as "Nafta-Gate" a cause and opportunity for attack. Not wanting to be forgotten, the Clinton machine sent lawyers to invade Obama campaign press conference calls, ramped up the militaristic commander in chief language and generally chose the Bush/Rove fear strategy as the only possible winning strategy.
Bat's indeed. You can only hope that that the Clinton campaigners woke up this morning with a nasty hangover, with that nagging sensation that the three day drunken kitchen sink campaign worked if only you can still look in the mirror after sleeping with your wife's sister.
It's one thing to attack your opponent in a general election, quite another to attack your opponent in a party race - that has delegate math, public support and a winning state track record on his side. But the Clinton's and their campaign machinery doesn't seem to draw this distinction. They would rather leave blood on the tracks and try to win at all costs, even when there is no rationale mathematical process for them to win. Even this morning Hillary was hinting at a possible coordinated effort between the billary and barack campaign; akin to making dinner for your hosts after you raid the liquor cabinet and drain all the 10 year old scotch.
Playing this game is nasty business. It's expensive, it hurts the party and sends Obama into the general election battered and bruised against John McCain. The Clinton campaign can bask in the morning after glow of Texas and Ohio but eventually they need to wake up and smell the Starbucks, do some math, call it a day and bow out. For the good of the party, for the good of putting America back on track, for ousting the beltway bastards and for bringing back hope and vision into national politics. If that doesn't work then at least Hillary should consider her own future legacy is she continues this nasty smear campaign.
After all, being compared to bats only worked with Vincent Price......
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Political Trading Cards
Political trading cards? Yes it must be America when trading cards featuring, Obama, Clinton and McCain randomly inserted in Tops Baseball Card packs are making mega bucks on Ebay according to the NY Times.
Obama-cards leads the pack on Ebay, with a card recently selling for over 3,000. Hillary is selling for 1,325 and McCain goes for $1,200
Wacky.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Rove and the Romney love
Karl Rove is speaking out on who should be the Veep with McCain this Fall. Rove suggested that the none other than spray on hair mittens should be the VP choice. Not that Rove has an ideological rationale. Choosing Romney is the best choice since he has all those bucks. Romney's 190 Million personal fortune is the major reason. That and it will make Ann Coulter happy.
So off to the races are the Republicans - choose the biggest purse available and burn through the cash!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
