The whole thing feels like " The Stepford Wives do Disneyland" It is heavily scripted and the plotline is very simplistic. It consists of Obama bashing and the obsessive repetition of spun " facts" over and over again. It's the old Karl Rove routine of " if you tell a lie long enough and often enough, people will accept it as truth"
The leitmotif of the evening seems to be high dudgeon at President Obama for declaring that Americans did not build their own businesses. Of course that is NOT what Obama said, but truth seems to be the first casualty of political conventions as well as of war. Obama observed that small business owners did not build the roads and bridges or light the streets or provide water. He was referring to the necessary role of government in building and repairing infrastructure.
The major event of the evening will be Paul Ryan's acceptance speech which should at least wake up the crowd. I won't last that long. I am already totally numbed by the platitudes of an Ohio businessman and an Iraq war vet. I've had it. I'm going to bed.
They say an elephant never forgets-- unless it is the GOP elephant criticizing the President for talking about taking out Osama bin Laden on the occasion of the first anniversary of bin Laden's death. That elephant has a very selective memory indeed. That elephant trumpeted far and wide that Obama was using the occasion for cheap political gain.
Tell me, my pachyderm pals, do the words " Mission Accomplished" ring a bell? Do any of you recall little Georgie Bush, all dressed up like a real aviator, dropping onto the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln amidst military bands and much fanfare? Talk about politics!!!!
Does anybody but me remember George Bush proudly proclaiming " mission accomplished" while patting himself on the back and taking a victory lap long before there was a victory to celebrate? In fact, May 1, 2003, when George Bush made that speech, was when things were just heating up in Iraq and Afghanistan. To use another well worn phrase,the chickens were only beginning to come home to roost.
Yes, indeed, the GOP elephant needs to remember that while George Bush was good at swaggering around the deck of an aircraft carrier in costume, and also not bad at " Dead or Alive" speeches, Obama is the guy who delivered the goods. Note, dear elephant, that for many of us, criticizing Obama and trying to paint him as a braggart, only underlines that reality.
In Obama's case, a victory lap really IS in order.
Talk about boys behaving badly. Eleven members of the Secret Service contingent charged with watching over President Obama at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia this past week-end have been relieved of their duties, along with five members of the military they were hanging out with. All this is pending a Presidential investigation into their bad behavior last Thursday. Boys will be boys, but these guys were like a college toga party gone wrong.
The Secret Service was not so secret in Colombia. Turns out these guys were out getting drunk in a strip joint and picking up hookers when they were supposed to be acting as advance men for the President's week end visit. Thursday night they all went for a big blowout at a cheezy local club where they drank expensive whiskey, picked up a few hookers and almost started a fight. But what really got to the folks in Colombia(where prostitution is legal, btw) was that after getting drunk on fine whiskey, and whisking the hookers back to their rooms at the oh so swanky Hotel Carib, they refused to pay one of them the equivalent of $47.00 for her services.
What creeps. I can't help wondering how their wives are going to feel about this. I know I'm not exactly enchanted by the way the Secret Service is using my tax dollars. What about you?
This cartoon, The Fireman and the Arsonist, which first appeared in Politico, is so cool that it is fast becoming an internet classic. I wanted to share it here just in case you haven't seen it.
It is just sooooooooooo on target and we all know what one picture is worth, don't we?
With a tip of the hat to Gilbert & Sullivan and another to Cogitamus, the fabulous blog where I found this delightful satirical goodie, I give you the laugh you need if you are beset by electioneering from both left and right, sick of the tea party, and just about ready to throw in the towel. Tah-dah !!!
At last, tee shirts for the tea party. I seem to be into tee shirts these days, but there are some very cool political ones around, especially if you are a sane American watching the far right fall apart. Nothing like a good laugh to clear the air-- and perhaps the mind as well.
These dynamite designsare the brainchild ofJeremy Kalgreen who describes himself as " a slacker, former art student, and general ne'er-do-well." You can view all of the reasons why Jeremy is voting tea party here on his website and online shop and order up any of a dozen in the collection for your next get-together on the White House Lawn. I love this guy and I hope he makes a fortune.
Meanwhile, maybe these tee shirts will keep the tea party crowd from carrying dumb mis-spelled signs making ignorant statements. Hmmmm then again, don't hold your breath. Oh well, at least they will keep the rest of us laughing.
H/T to Political Irony for putting me on to Jeremy and his political T's.
It's a busy week in the Big Apple for President Obama. You have to admire his guts and his willingness to take on the issues. Today and tomorrow he is going to be busy non stop at the United Nations. In the evenings he'll be at official social events and at night he'll be resting his tired Presidential head in the Presidential suite at the Waldorf Astoria
This morning he got right to work. He addressed the special one-day climate change conference being held at the UN before tomorrow's opening of the General Assembly. This afternoon he will meet with a dizzying array of world leaders and focus on nuclear dis-armament and world peace. Well, good luck is all I can say.
Tomorrow, President Obama will address the General Assembly. He will also chair the meeting of the Security Council -- the first sitting American President ever to do so. There should be lots of shmooze time not to mention tons of photo ops.
Then on Thursday, it's good bye Big Apple and off to Pittsburgh for the meeting of the G20.
The airwaves and the internet are already abuzz with comment and speculation. Obama's speech on climate change this morning( see the video below) was an emphatic clarion call to action filled with beautiful glittering generalities, but short on specifics. In it he called not only on the developed world, but also on the developing nations like China and India to take a larger role in cleaning up the environment. A good move, I think. I'll be watching as tomorrow unfolds.
At the very least, President has now sent a message loud and clear, that unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush, he sees the United Nations as an important player on the world stage and a place where a real exchange of ideas is possible. So far it doesn't look like he is going to get anything going with the Israeli's and Palistinians, nor does it look like he will be able to pull any rabbits out of his hat when it comes to Iran and Afghanistan, but you never can tell.
Like they say in New York, " you gotta be in it to win it" and President Obama is signaling that as far as the United Nations is concerned, the USA is back in the game. It's a good start.
Something really important happened yesterday that passed almost unnoticed amid the domestic din here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
While most of us were distracted by the healthcare debate here at home, President Obama announced to the world that the missile system proposed by the Bush Administration to be built in Poland and the Czech Republic( nicknamed son of Star Wars,) will be scrapped and a water based missile program aimed at monitoring doings in Iran will be substituted.
This is really important stuff. It is the opening step in a complicated dance that will lead to a key collaboration between Russia, NATO and the United States when it comes to dealing effectively with the pressing international problems of Iran and Afghanistan.
You are going to hear lots of moaning and groaning from the right on this,but pay no attention. Obama has not lost his mind. We have much more to gain by working with the Russians than by antagonizing them, something the Bush Administration with its macho posturing,failed to grasp. It's not that Russia is a participatory democracy or that Vladimir Putin and his puppet president, Dmitry Medvedev are teddy bears. Not at all. It is just, as my grandmother used to say, that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Abandoning the missile program proposed for Russia's doorstep is part of a quid pro quo program of diplomacy and not, as the Bushies would have you believe, a sign of weakness.
I am sure that President Obama's announcement was part of an orchestrated ballet negotiated and agreed to before the event. It sparked an immediate response from Russia. No sooner had President Obama spoken than the Kremlin announced that in response to the American position, Russia would cancel the medium range ballistic missles slated for Kaliningrad, which borders Poland and Lithuania. See? Quid Pro Quo:-)
The next announcement came from Nato's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen who called for a new strategic partnership with Russia. and urged both Russia and the United States to study the possibillity of a joint missile defense system.
Next week, President Obama will chair a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York-- the very first American President to do so. Nuclear dis-armament and non-proliferation will be on the agenda.
I hope Tehran and Kabul are taking note. There is a new strategic alignment in the offing, one that bodes well for keeping the peace and preventing nuclear disaster. It's the old " enemy of my enemy is my friend" routine. Nobody wants to see nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran or the Taliban back in the saddle in Afghanistan.
One way or another, the world simply won't let it happen. And that is why America is dancing with the Russian Bear while Nato calls the tune.
Everybody is blogging the Birthers these days, So here's my two cents. A recent poll announced that 28% of Republicans believed Obama was not born in the United States and another 30% weren't sure. The fact that 58% of Republicans had doubts about something provable like where the President was born has a lot of people puzzled-- but not me.
I know only too well what makes people cling to the crazy idea that our President is not really one of us, is sinister, a fraud and a dangerous foreigner who is trying to destroy us. It's just good old fashioned American racism wearing a new set of clothes.
Once we elected an African American president, I knew it had to surface sometime and here it is. Not surprising that the strongest support for the Birther movement is in the south, where slavery once reigned supreme and where when I was a child there were separate but far from equal facilities for black and white Americans and where 40 years ago the marriage of Obama's mother and father would not have been legal or recognized. So great was the fear in those days, that Obama's father could have been lynched for simply walking down the street with a white woman let alone marrying her.
The Birther movement is nothing more than a new incarnation of a dark secret in our national past. Our founding fathers believed in liberty but owned slaves. Our original constitution counted every slave as three fifths of a man ( women didn't count for voting purposes at all in those days). We fought a bloody Civil War which pitted brother against brother to finally put an end to " the south's peculiar institution" 25% of the young male population of what was then the United States died in that war, but fear, racism and Jim Crow laws did not.
You can show the Birthers all the evidence you want-- legal affidavits and birth certificates and newspaper announcements and it will do no good. Their minds are made up. Do not confuse them with the facts. Their truth is made up of fear and guilt and downright paranoia. It is the sad legacy of slavery. Ironically it is the Birthers who are enslaved by their own distorted fearful notions of truth. The rest of us are moving forward behind a President who really is who we are: multi- cultural, multi-racial, and all American.
President Obama was speaking in Cairo at 6 am EDT this morning, so I didn't watch the speech live. I was still asleep. By the time I was sipping my first cup of coffee at around 7:30 am though, the speech was over and the President's crack communications team had posted it on the internet in several places and translated it into a dozen languages.
I could tell watching videos and TV talking heads, as I let caffeine revive my sleep- soaked brain, that Obama had knocked it out of the park once again. It was another home run for my President. Thank God we have a man like this at the helm right now.
This was more than a great speech. It was a rhetorical tour de force that will be remembered and talked about for generations. Where it stacks up for the rest of the world, I don't know, but for me, as an American, it ranks right up there with the Gettysburg Address or JFK's innaugural speech or MLK's" I have a dream speech
This was a speech that really moved people. It did not mince words or prevaricate or minimize very real, perhaps insoluable, political problems. It defined a moment in time with honesty, passion, and an intelligent understanding of the issues confronting both the West and the Muslim world. It did not patronize or threaten. It simply stated what is. A speech isn't going to solve all the problems. But this speech totally changed the nature of the engagement. It was a tipping point. Now we will at least talk to each other instead of shouting at one another and swaggering about Texas style.
The really important thing that Obama did in this speech was what he, as a multicultural person who has so often felt ouside the mainstream personally, does so well. He emphasized the humanity we all share, the similarity of what we all desire for ourselves and our children, the common roots our religions have and the respect we owe one another. Bravo Obama.
Sometimes the pen really is mighter than the sword and this morning was definitely one of those times.
The Republicans have done it again. After proclaiming themselves an inclusive "big tent" and reminding us all endlessly that they are the party of Lincoln, the Republicans have let Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gigrich open their mouths on the subject of President Obama's Supreme Court pick, Sonia Sotomayor.
Rush has been calling Sotomayor a " reverse racist" (whatever that is.) Seems to me one can be a racist or not a racist, but not a reverse racist. In fact to even use the term "reverse racist" infers a racist mentality on the part of the speaker. But then our Rush was never the most cerebral Neanderthal on the block. His heart trumps his brain every time.
Newt has been comparing Judge Sotomayor to Harriet Miers and making all sorts of silly noise, in spite of the fact that Sotomayor's educational and legal credentials are flawless and she is far from an avid lefty. She was even appointed to her current job on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by a Republican President.
All this right wing whining is not going to go down very well with either hispanic or women voters and is not going to do the GOP any good at all. President Obama is no fool. He made a very astute strategic choice and over at the White House they must be laughing their heads off at Rush and Newt. These guys are not only tearing up the Republican Party, they are making idiots of themselves. Why don't they just shut up?
Call me crazy, but it looks to me like over at the GOP, the inmates are running the asylum.
If President Obama ever wants to make a career change, he has a great future ahead of him as a stand up comedian. He wowed em in Washington at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner last night. Thank you MSNBC for broadcasting the whole thing live. I had a ball.
The prez was a hoot, throwing out zingers and one liners like a Las Vegas pro. His timing was perfect. My favorite line was about Dick Cheney's memoirs being tentatively titled " How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People. " I also loved the part about Rahm Emanuel having a hard time with Mothers Day because " he isn't used to saying the word day after the word mother". Is that clever, sophisticated material or what?
President Obama was polished, pointed and funny, but never stepped over the line into slapstick or bad taste. He even managed to make fun of himself with grace and style. What a guy!
It says something about the state of the media that the New York Times, for the third year in a row, refused to attend the event out of journalistic scrupulousness, while the twitterati were live blogging every real-time detail from their iphones(#nerdprom).
For those of you who didn't catch President Obama's comic debut last night, here's the video from Youtube-- all nine and a half minutes of it. Enjoy!
