Jan 05 2008
Lithium Cola’s essay, The Perlocutionary Force of Obama’s “Moment” Speech
don’t rec the pony…
and oh god, i know i’m late, i’m late… really late
sorry all. i’ve been packing, listening to music, and getting sentimental over the little objects that remind me of yesterday…
but it’s hustle and bustle now… and really, LC’s essay is fabulous.
mwaaaaaaaaaaaa to all of you… and remember, be excellent to each (as much as is heavenly possible)
Jan 05 2008
A lot has been said of the record shattering numbers from last night’s caucuses – moreso on the Democratic side. The numbers are staggering, no matter how you slice them.
With that, there has been some talk about the demographics in terms of young voters, new voters and how they are more energized or motivated than in years past. While we saw this as well in 2004, there is a further uptick now. Of course, this is only based on one state’s caucuses, but there are stories from New Hampshire as well about the level of motivation by “younger folk”, and judging by the large number of Facebook “elections” (and votes), this may be something that has legs.
All that being said, I wanted to go through a few numbers, but also to explore what this means – less in terms of which candidate it works best for, but more along the lines of the Democratic Party and the potential for keeping these votes in the future as well as keeping them engaged enough in the political process that it adds to the movement that we here on the left have been trying to build for the past few years.
According to CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement), the youth turnout rate rose to 13 percent from 4 percent in 2004 and 3 percent in 2000. About 65,000 Iowans under the age of 30 caucused.
That, in and of itself is a huge number. Taking into account that the temperatures were frigid, at best, yesterday, and this is even more impressive. More stats from Young Voter PAC are as follows:
Jan 05 2008
S: Mr. Smith’s office, may I help you?
CALLER: LET MY PEOPLE GO!
S: Excuse me?
CALLER: I AM MOSES. LET MY PEOPLE GO!
S: Well, Mr. Moses, this is Mr. Smith’s office and I don’t see any people …
CALLER: LET MY PEOPLE GO!
S: Well I’m TRYING to tell you that we don’t HAVE your people! Are you quite sure you have the right number?
CALLER: MOSES SAYS LET MY PEOPLE GO!
S: All right, all right. I think it’s Pharoah you are looking for, Mr. Moses. I think he’s the one that has your people, if I recall correctly.
BBRRRIIINGGG!
Jan 05 2008
Nothing substantial, just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year since I’ve been out of town and only recently started re-popping up on the blogs. Long story short, I was in southeast Asia for a friend’s wedding (traditional Sikh ceremony, at that).
In lieu of a longer essay, some pics I took of the orchid garden where the reception too place. Enjoy!
Jan 05 2008
After reading various posts on Obama’s “Moment Speech,” for example the thread to Adam B’s diary (with video), it seems to me that a number of people are misunderstanding the speech itself.
In this diary I’m going to offer some stuff from contemporary philosophy of language that I think is directly relevant to this discussion. I’m gonna use some technical terms, but remembering those isn’t important. If nothing else, we can at least have better arguments (over Obama’s speech and other speeches) if we keep some general distinctions in mind that were made by some folks in that field.
Part One: The Dispute Over Obama’s Speech
Part Two: Speech Act Theory, or What is Perlocutionary Force?
Part Three: Obama’s Speech Again
Jan 05 2008
A new year can open new possibilities. It can also provide impulse to past fears.
Some of you may know what’s been going on the past few days.
At the end of September my sister wrote me a comment:
I am just thinking now that you could contact a publisher in Corvallis that I know that historically publishes women’s literature. The publisher’s name is Margarita Donnelly, and the magazine publication is Calyx. For what it’s worth.
I’ve got to say that my initial thought was that she was insane. Check that. She’s sane. I’m the insane one.
I was already familiar with Calyx. I had grave doubts about belonging among the women they have published. I still do. Ursula LeGuin…Paula Gunn Allen…Barbara Kingsolver…and me? Give me a break.
Jan 04 2008
News and open thread.
From the Washington Post, a story about one soldier’s death in Iraq in A drunken night in Iraq, a soldier is left behind.
Pfc. Hannah Gunterman McKinney was 20 years old, the brown-eyed mother of a toddler son, when she was spotted in the headlights of a passing Humvee on a perimeter road at one of the largest U.S. military camps in Iraq.
Thirteen hours later, in Redlands, Calif., Barbie and Matt Heavrin, who had three children in the military, learned they had lost their elder daughter to ‘injuries suffered when she was struck by a vehicle,’ as the Army first described it…
Her case would become one in a litany of noncombat deaths in Iraq, which number more than 700, from crashes, suicides, illnesses and accidents that sometimes reveal messy truths about life in the war zone…
Her parents want her story to be fully told. They cannot reconcile themselves to the idea that, on that terrible day in Taji, their daughter was left behind…
Barbie Heavrin took McKinney’s son, Todd, not yet 2, to her coffin to bid goodbye.
“Mama sleep?” the boy asked, patting her forehead.
Follow the link to the WaPo story above to read about one soldier’s life and death in a war zone. Mr. Bush’s war is destroying our troops.
The New York Times reports At Huckabee central, cheers for Evangelical base. “Mr. Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, rode a crest of evangelical Christian support to victory… A poll of people entering the Republican caucuses on Thursday showed more than 8 in 10 of his supporters identified themselves as evangelicals. The same surveys showed extraordinary turnout among evangelicals, who represented some 60 percent of Republican caucusgoers. In years past, Republican Party leaders in Iowa put evangelical turnout at about 40 percent.” Iowa takes America one step closer to becoming the Republic of Gilead.
Are we in a recession yet? The Guardian reports US jobless figures up as economy suffers severe downturn. “Unemployment in the US rose to its highest level in more than two years last month as the job-creation machine in the world’s biggest economy virtually ground to a halt… The Labor Department… said the jobless rate rose from 4.7% to 5% in December… Employers added a mere 18,000 jobs last month – the weakest performance by non-farm payrolls since 2003, when the economy was starting to recover from the short-lived recession that followed the collapse of the dotcom bubble.” The news also sent the dollar and share prices down.
More news from Rep. Jane “too little, too late” Harman… according to the Washington Post, Harman knew the CIA in 2003 planned destruction of tapes. “Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) released a declassified copy of a letter she secretly wrote to the CIA in February 2003, in which she quoted then-CIA General Counsel Scott W. Muller as telling her a tape of the agency’s interrogation of Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, better known as Abu Zubaida, ‘will be destroyed after the Inspector General finishes his inquiry’… She urged Muller to ‘reconsider’ that plan and predicted that the tapes’ destruction ‘would reflect badly on the agency’… Harman said she never received a direct reply to her advice that destroying the tapes would be a mistake.” And, evidently she didn’t follow-up on her letter, nor did she make her knowledge public until too late. Marcy Winograd, it’s time for another primary in CA-36.
Jan 04 2008
Seldom have we seen a politician who so relished and justified the grisly business of state killing. Mike Huckabee actually brags about his willingness to kill. And justifies it by talking about Jesus.
This from the reactionary conservative Washington Times:
Mike Huckabee has started to cite the 16 executions he oversaw as Arkansas governor in his presidential campaign, pointing to them as a type of experience no other candidate in the Republican race can claim.
It’s a grisly claim to make, but Huckabee is trying to counter Mitt Romney’s attacks that he is soft on crime.
“The 16 people I carried out execution on in Arkansas would hardly say I’m soft on crime,” Huckabee told supporters while campaigning in Indianola, Iowa, over the weekend.
Last week he made a similar statement to voters in Pella, telling them, “Ask the 16 people on which I carried out executions.”
The implication is this: Huckabee is tough and will kill. Romney is weak. He has not killed as governor.
If this were isolated tough talk it would be disgraceful enough. But, in fact, it’s part of Huckabee’s long willingness to act as executioner.
More across the jump.
Jan 04 2008
And thus ends my silence on Election ’08! For the record, my choices were Kucinich, then Dodd, then Edwards, (still active!) then Obama.
Iow….ABH, LOL.
Nothing I was going to say was going to make a difference in Iowa, and we all have seen the “ridiculousness and danger” of candidate diaries on Dkos….which were all speculation…at best. Now that we have some actual NEWS to talk about and analyze, hopefully things will be a little different. For good or bad, Iowa sets the tone and the narrative..so now it is set. These are not normal times though, and I have a feeling that this will not be a normal race!
For what it is worth, some thoughts below the fold.
Jan 04 2008
Michael Moore has it partly right, a Big Part, for the Failed Foreign Policies, The War in Iraq and on Terrorism, of this Incompetant, Corrupt Administration will be defining what this Country faces for Decades!
We have Set In Stone, what many in the World, had already thought about Us. And in doing so have Created even More Hatreds, towards the Country, but even more Damaging, towards Us the Citizens Of!
Jan 04 2008
If the liar torturer simian commander in chief gets stuck, just click and drag him to get him moving again….
Jan 04 2008
Cross-posted from THE ENVIRONMENTALIST
The University of East Anglia (UK), working with the British Met Office, has made its annual temperature prediction for 2008:
2008 is set to be cooler globally than recent years say Met Office and University of East Anglia climate scientists, but is still forecast to be one of the top-ten warmest years.
Each January, the climate scientists at the university work with the British Met Office to forecast the expected temperature, taking into account conditions such as El Niño and La Niña, greenhouse gases, industrial aerosols, particulates, ocean trends and solar impact.
The assessment for 2008 is that there will be a “strong La Niña” event in the Pacific, which will limit the warming trend for the year (whilst still being one of the warmest years):
During La Niña, cold waters upwell to cool large areas of the ocean and land surface temperatures. The forecast includes for the first time a new decadal forecast using a climate model. This indicates that the current La Niña event will weaken only slowly through 2008, disappearing by the end of the year.
More below the jump…