One of the most profound questions regarding Obama is his approach and tenor towards those most of us around here consider the scum of the earth, the war criminals and torturers at the top of the Republican Party. John McCain is not much more than a replacement part for their Reign of Terror to continue unabated. And of course he is as full of shit as a row of portapotty's after a three day rock concert and has held more positions than the KamaSutra.
An aggressive, attacking campaign posture will destroy his credibility, despite his protectors in the Merde Stream Media. The question is....will Obama attack? Or play the post-partisan, "reasonable" (in the face of Repub madess) nice guy?
We got a clue last night. These lovely words did NOT come out of Obama's mouth, but from Obama spokesman Bill Burton.
"What's reckless is continuing the Bush-McCain foreign policy that has cost us thousands of lives and a trillion dollars in Iraq, strengthened Iran, enabled Hamas to take Gaza, took our eye off al Qaeda, failed to capture Osama bin Laden, failed to finish the job in Afghanistan, and left us less safe and less respected in the world. No amount of utterly predictable fear-mongering and tough talk can change the fact that John McCain is running to continue the most disastrous foreign policy in recent American history," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
Today's New York Times features a column by David Brooks wherein Brooks claims that Obama's statements about the current violence in Lebanon, "has the whiff of what President Bush described yesterday as appeasement." The statement which Brooks feels has that whiff is:
It's time to engage in diplomatic efforts to help build a new Lebanese consensus that focuses on electoral reform, an end to the current corrupt patronage system, and the development of the economy that provides for a fair distribution of services, opportunities and employment.
Leaving aside the question as to whether or not that would actually appease Hezbollah in some way (I would contend that Hezbollah is plenty enthusiastic about corrupt patronage systems and unfair distribution of goods and services, merely wishing that they be in charge of the corruption and unfair distribution), let's focus for a moment on what is actually happening in Lebanon, and what Obama is saying should be done about it by the United States.
On May 15th, the Supreme Court of California struck down all of the laws preventing same-sex marriage. Here's my thoughts on the creatures attempting to overturn that decision
Unlike A Flopping Fish Politician The News Here Is As It Should Be
Straight Forward
U.S. Planning Big New Prison in Afghanistan WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre detention complex on the main American military base in Afghanistan, officials said, in a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue to hold prisoners overseas for years to come.
The proposed detention center would replace the cavernous, makeshift American prison on the Bagram military base north of Kabul, which is now typically packed with about 630 prisoners, compared with the 270 held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Until now, the Bush administration had signaled that it intended to scale back American involvement in detention operations in Afghanistan. It had planned to transfer a large majority of the prisoners to Afghan custody, in an American-financed, high-security prison outside Kabul to be guarded by Afghan soldiers.
I told you not to do that A man in Gifu who was arrested for theft and traffic violations got himself into deeper trouble after setting fire to a futon at the police station where he was being held.
A 41-year-old Tochigi man was arrested for making some 8,000 "silent phone calls" to his 30-year-old ex-girlfriend after she broke up with him last July.
What's the kanji for "Wear goggles, you idiot!"?
Ikea Japan has agreed to modify its instruction manuals after a Chiba man suffered a serious eye injury from a cracked screw while assembling a chest of drawers.
It was revealed that the Japan Swimming Federation is in a "crisis" over a new brand of Speedo that it says gives foreign competitors an unfair advantage.
Proximo: Random tube seventies centric surfology loosely to do with bass lines and blamelessly inspired by Robyn's mention of Nilsson. Could these be the absolute best bass lines evaahhh???
No.
Surely not.
Not even close, AAMOF, as you are about to prove in the comments! Show me up and dress me down....just don't call me Shirley! But this first vid is surely the best bass song evah!
Obligatory YouTube -- The Harptones "OOH Wee Baby":
I was reading NLinStPaul's essay, Full-Blooded Americans and I read the linked article as well as the comments in the article, most of which agreed that heritage and culture and background were very important.
Reminded me of an old Jewish story from A Treasury of Jewish Folklore edited by Nathan Ausubel:
Usually the orthodox rabbis of Europe boasted distinguished rabbinical geneaologies, but Rabbi Yechiel of Ostrowce was an exception. He was the son of a simple baker and he inherited some of the forthright qualities of a man of the people.
Once, when a number of rabbis had gathered at some festivity, each began to boast of his eminent rabbinical ancestors. When Rabbi Yechiel's turn came, he replied gravely, "In my family, I'm the first eminent ancestor."
His colleagues were shocked by this piece of impudence, but said nothing. Immediately after, the rabbis began to expound Torah. Each one was asked to hold forth on a text culled from the sayings of one of his distinguished rabbinical ancestors.
One after another the rabbis delivered their learned dissertations. At last it came time for Rabbi Yechiel to say something. He arose and said, "My masters, my father was a baker. He taught me that only fresh bread was appetizing and that I must avoid the stale. This can also apply to learning."
There are still teaching things to attend to over the summer, some of which will be fairly onerous, like building an evaluation instrument for one of our computer literacy classes, a mechanism by which students can test out of the course. Our students do not come from the burbs, for the most part. They are what is euphemistically now called "urban." Inner-city New Jersey. They do not generally come complete with computer skills beyond texting and MySpace/Facebook. Email is a foreign substance, except that you have to have an email address to sign up for things. I just got half of the gig to build a fair assessment instrument for $1000.
And I maybe need to design a Special Topics class for fall (unless it gets canceled for lack of enrollment) . The topic is Internet Support Tools. I may be bugging the shit out of some of you because the topic is blogs, wikis, widgets, RSS feeds, etc. I suppose I'll need to learn some stuff myself so I can teach it. Maybe we can figure out a way for my students to wander around behind the scenes of Docudharma for a bit. :-)
But that's the me who is a teacher. Summer is the time for working on grand ideas...my life's work, so to speak...for weaving the next layer on the tapestry.
This is what appeasement looks like. Something... From Voice of America, Bush in Saudi Arabia for Nuclear Deal. "Bush and King Abdullah... will discuss a deal to help the kingdom develop civilian nuclear power for medical and industrial uses as well as generating electricity. The agreement provides access to safe, reliable fuel sources for nuclear reactors and demonstrates what the Bush Administration calls Saudi leadership as a non-proliferation model for the region."
For nothing...The Guardian reports Saudis reject Bush's plea to ease oil prices. "Saudi Arabia today rebuffed George Bush's appeal to increase production and help cut record oil prices, the White House said. It was the second time this year that the pleas of the US president, who is visiting King Abdullah, have fallen on deaf ears. Bush's latest request came as the price of crude oil hit a new high of more than $127 (£65) a barrel."
The Great Lakes Compact is becoming more and more likely. In Cleveland, The Plain Dealer reports the Great Lakes Water Compact nears agreement in Ohio legislature. " Lawmakers in both Wisconsin and Michigan this week nearly unanimously approved the proposed interstate agreement, which supporters say would guard the region's water from diversion outside and overuse within its borders. That leaves only Ohio and Pennsylvania as states that have not signed on to the water deal."
"The Council of Great Lakes Governments conceived the compact, which also includes a less-formal agreement with the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, in 2005. Six states - Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin - have now approved the plan." In addition to the states, Congress must also give its approval.
According to NPR, "The Great Lakes Water Compact... lays out rules for conservation and water use in the region." Or as the Detroit Free Press explains the "historic regional agreement that would prevent Great Lakes water from being diverted to thirsty parts of the country or globe."
Four at Four continues with barbarisation and laissez-faire ethnic cleansing.
While research etc. proceeds on the Maddow Movement, I intended to do a little report on our recent progress down the slippery slope of the Bushco and Friends induced/aided slow slide of civilization back to savagery. Short for "going to hell in a handbasket" the Handbasket Digest is where I try to depress the hell out of everybody by listing as much bad news as I can find.
From an editorial by Kathleen Parker titled, appropriately enough, Getting Bubba:
"A full-blooded American."
That's how 24-year-old Josh Fry of West Virginia described his preference for John McCain over Barack Obama. His feelings aren't racist, he explained. He would just be more comfortable with "someone who is a full-blooded American as president."
Whether Fry was referring to McCain's military service or Obama's Kenyan father isn't clear, but he may have hit upon something essential in this presidential race.
Full-bloodedness is an old coin that's gaining currency in the new American realm. Meaning: Politics may no longer be so much about race and gender as about heritage, core values, and made-in-America. Just as we once and still have a cultural divide in this country, we now have a patriot divide.
Who "gets" America? And who doesn't?
I'd like to be clever and snarky about this, but my blood is boiling just a bit too hot for that right now. So I will have to succumb to rant mode.
Corporatist War Monger President George W. Bush, in a pathetically desperate attempt to use an International speech to smear his domestic Democratic opposition as appeasers, quoted a Republican Senator as an example of American appeasement of Hitler prior to World War II.
While delivering an address before the Israeli parliament commemorating the 60th anniversary of Israel, President Bush said that Sen. Barack Obama and Democrats favor a policy of appeasement toward terrorists. CNN reports that Bush was comparing Obama to "other U.S. leaders back in the run-up to World War II who appeased the Nazis."
In his speech, Bush said, "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
From 1924 to 1933 [Borah] was chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, and his major interest was in foreign policy.... An advocate of disarmament and the outlawing of war, he suggested the Washington Conference of 1921-22 and promoted the Kellogg-Briand Pact; in 1939 he fought revision of the Neutrality Act.
Of course Borah was far from the only 'appeasing' Republican. Indeed, prior to WWII, the Grand Old Party was home to many of the fiercest advocates of appeasement.
Chinese Open Wallets for Quake Aid Individual Giving Blooms in a Society Long Under Sole Care of the State BEIJING, May 15 At the headquarters of the Red Cross Society of China, volunteers turned a boardroom into a makeshift cashier's office Thursday, sending tens of thousands of fluttering bank notes through counting machines and handing receipts to people like Cai Lili, 30, who stood in long lines with bricks of cash to donate to earthquake relief efforts.
Since a massive earthquake struck Sichuan province and surrounding regions three days ago, Chinese have donated $192 million to help their countrymen, according to China's Civil Affairs Ministry. The fundraising has come as officials have issued a rare public appeal for cranes and rescue equipment, hammers and shovels, bandages and medicine.
California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban The California Supreme Court, striking down two state laws that had limited marriages to unions between a man and a woman, ruled on Thursday that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.
The 4-to-3 decision, drawing on a ruling 60 years ago that struck down a state ban on interracial marriage, would make California the second state, after Massachusetts, to allow same-sex marriages.
The decision, which becomes effective in 30 days unless the court grants a stay, was greeted with celebrations at San Francisco City Hall, where thousands of same-sex marriages were thrown out by the courts four years ago.
Yesterday I ran across the piece that NLinStPaul discusses in Full-Blooded Americans at Atrios and it sent me scurrying to teh Google to find some speeches by Hitler that contained "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher". As it turns out it is so pervasive a theme of Nazi propaganda that searching on it is kind of hopeless, though I did run across some of Goebbels "Our Furher" speeches (birthday speeches for Hitler) that were evocative but not entirely on point. Just as well because NL's essay is much better than mine would have been and I'll Front Page it tomorrow.
So I went instead with my little celebration of Republican party disarray which continues today with-
Hagee's commitment to Israel, however, is itself controversial: It's rooted in the belief that the Jewish state will -- soon -- be the site of Armageddon.
Hagee, who leads the evangelical group Christians United for Israel, is a proponent of U.S. aid and support for Israel, and he is a major ally of Israeli conservatives who reject any "land for peace" formula in dealing with the Palestinians. But Hagee is viewed with distrust by some Jews and Israelis because his brand of Christian Zionism closely links support for Israel to the end of the world and the conversion of the Jews to Christianity.
Hagee's predictions are very clear. Armageddon, the final battle, could begin, he wrote in his 2007 book "Jerusalem Countdown," "before this book gets published."
Indeed Troutfishingsaid today that he had a copy of Hagee's specially annotated Bible (free for a small "faith donation") where he lays out all his eschatology.
This Thursday's Writing in the Raw is sponsored by The Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, so call them and book a trip to the Netherlands! Right now! Tell them Rusty8 sent you and don't forget to send me a postcard.
Because of the intense subject matter of tonight's WITR, it is being presented with limited commercial interruption.
I'm a big fan of the Counting Crows, so I want to explain in their defense that the song you are about to hear was written ten years ago, before all the Mrs. Potters in this country began to experience the alarming cognitive/rectal conditions that are the topic of tonight's WITR . . .
We've all seen Mrs. Potters. They're everywhere. The Republican Party is filled with Mrs. Potters who still respect and admire the war criminals, traitors, psychopaths, racists, and thick-skulled idiots of the GOP who've been perpetrating fascist hackery in Washington D.C. this entire millennium. I'm not a neurologist, I'm not a proctologist either, but anyone who has paid any attention at all can verify that the GOP's Mrs. Potters are experiencing sensory and cognitive difficulties because their heads are firmly lodged up their asses. As one might expect, this condition is acutely impairing their ability to perceive and understand what's happening beyond the confines of their permanent Republican rectums.
They're everywhere.
You can never escape from them, Buhdy, you can only move south down the coast.
In an increasingly complex world, many people find it difficult to cope with the stresses of day to day life. The strain of caring for a family, paying the mortgage, job insecurity, and terrorists lurking at the Dairy Queen, can result in crushing anxiety and fear. But now, from the makers of The War in Iraq™ and Katrina Neglect™ comes a breakthrough in the treatment of depression caused by incompetent and dishonest national leadership. Now there is an alternative to the endless years of suffering brought on by deficient representation.
We urge you to write your Senators and Representative today to support the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act of 2008.
Shocking exposés this week by the New York Times, Washington Post, and 60 Minutes have confirmed the alarming breakdown in health care for detained asylum seekers and other immigrants in custody of the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), resulting in needless suffering and, in the most tragic cases, avoidable death.
This is what appeasement looks like. Something... From Voice of America, 
"The Council of Great Lakes Governments conceived the compact, which also includes a less-formal agreement with the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, in 2005. Six states - Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin - have now approved the plan." In addition to the states, Congress must also give its approval.
