July 19, 2008 @ 6:55 pm
The two images will dominate the American media this weekend are for once not Obama and McCain, but rather the competing movies at the box office, the images of which dare I say it, can be seen to represent the dichotomy of the american landscape. One, the bleak and paranoid vision of Gotham that is The Dark Knight wanders through the territory of torture and urban decay and ponders rather somberly the question that really sums up the whole terrorism problem- how do you deal with someone who just wants to watch the world burn? As metaphors go for the world that 9/11 has brought us thats not bad. On the other side of the street is the perpetually sunny face of American optimism, filtered through the swedish pop of Abba. Mamma Mia! Meryl Streep already looks like an oscar candidate (she dances! she sings!), as does Heath Ledger's quite discomforting performance as the Joker. And there you have it: this is how world sees America. On the one hand a land of perpetual optimism, where a man (or woman) can leave the past behind and become who they want to be, find love and happiness, marry who they want and sing and dance to their heart's content. Perhaps even become President, as long as they were born here (sorry Arnie). The other America, the one that expresses itself in Abu Ghraib and some of our less pleasant inner city areas, is the face of Christian Bale's tortured hero, doing bad things in the name of good and having to live with the fact that no matter what he does worse things will happen. The tragedy is that no matter who we vote for we are all hoping for Mamma Mia's vision of happiness, and no matter who wins we are likely to end up with some version of the Batman, an elected hero/antihero sitting alone in an office trying to make the least bad decision in a world gone increasingly haywire.
The Huffington Post blog.
July 19, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
When Obama hits foreign shores, some of the billions of people who wish they could vote in the November US elections will come as close as they can get to getting their wish.
The McCain team, after goading Obama on to go overseas must now be kicking themselves to high heaven.
They finally figured out that when Obama goes to Europe, he will be greeted by tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people who wish they could be voting for him -- as a gesture repudiating Bush and his policies.
The images of those huge masses of people will be very powerful, showing independent voters what they'll be able to look forward to -- a president the world will love, a president they will be able to proud to have representing them.
If Obama's team is as smart as they have demonstrated themselves to be in the past, they will stop down in England, France, Germany, giving advance notice where he goes so the crowds can form. Yes, there will be security risks. That's part of the work nations have to do when very important people visit them. In each of those countries, it is very likely that tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands will gather to greet him. The participation in those crowds is the best shot the natives of those countries will have to cast a vote, or at least help Obama.
There will be risks. If significant groups of Muslims show up at the rallies, clad in burkas or other mideastern attire, you can be sure that Fox News and the McCain team will find them and use them as evidence that Obama is a Muslim supported by terrorists. The best way that Muslims can support Obama is to go to the Obama rallies dressed in western clothing or to stay home.
Israel will be an interesting case. Will right wingers demonstrate against Obama? Will the Bush-friendly Israeli leadership prevent large crowds from gathering to show support for Obama? Israel is probably his riskiest stop. Will settlers from the west bank join together to protest Obama, giving him a blackeye with American Jews?
Iraq could be another trap. There's no way to see what's really going on there. The army runs the show and tell. I'm sure, that while Obama will meet with the Bush appointed military leaders, he'll also meet with leaders and people he sources on his own, who don't sell the Bush-McCain Surge-Pollyana line that all is wonderful. The smart thing to do is to finesse McCain, but going to the power players that McCain never went to because he just followed Bush's and Cheney's footprints. If he shows more creativity and connectivity in his Iraq, Iran and Afghan connections, he could come out way ahead.
Of course, even if he does, McCain's people will spin anything he does as weak, incompetent, friendly to the enemy and evidence of inexperience. That's the best they have -- nasty spin.
Crossposted from OpEdNews.com
The Huffington Post blog.
July 19, 2008 @ 6:35 pm
In their story covering Obama's trip to Iraq and Afhganistan, the Old Gray Mare finds time to mention perhaps the biggest game-changing news of the campaign waaaaaaaay down in paragraph 12. And how do they describe al-Maliki's endorsement of Obama's timetable?
But Republicans were carefully watching Mr. Obama's trip, which is rare in its profile and scope for a presidential candidate. The White House also made clear on Saturday that it was monitoring Mr. Obama's travels, accidentally sending an internal e-mail message to a broad distribution list of reporters of a news report that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq supported Mr. Obama's proposed 16-month timeline for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq.
Yes, so the real story is.....White House paying attention to Obama's travels! Sounds like hell hath no fury like a Times reporter getting scooped by another news org. Open Left
July 19, 2008 @ 6:31 pm
Barack Obama kicked off his overseas trip this week with a visit to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait before heading to Afghanistan to meet with U.S. troops and Afghan officials. Here are photos and video from Obama's first two stops:
In this photo released Saturday, July 19, 2008, by the the U.S. Army, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., poses with SPC Lakeisha Willingham, 311th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), after a shoot-around game of basketball at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Friday, July 18, 2008, during a Congressional Delegation visit.
In this photo released Saturday, July 19, 2008, by the the U.S. Army, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shakes hands with service members at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Friday, July 18, 2008, during a Congressional Delegation visit.
In this photo released Saturday, July 19, 2008, by the the U.S. Army, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Friday, July 18, during a Congressional Delegation visit.
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) meets with troops in Kuwait, in this frame grab taken on July 18, 2008 and released on July 19. After leaving Kuwait, Obama met the commander of U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan Saturday to talk about the war he says is not getting enough attention from the Bush administration.
In this photo released Saturday, July 19, 2008, by the the U.S. Army, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., waves as he leaves the gym after talking to service members at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Friday, July 18, during a Congressional Delegation visit.
Obama In Afghanistan
U.S. Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama (L) stands with Gul Agha Shirzai, the governor of Nangarhar province, in the city of Jalalabad east of Kabul July 19, 2008. U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama met the commander of U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday to talk about the war he says is not getting enough attention from the Bush administration
In this photo released Saturday, July 19, 2008, by the the U.S. Army, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., gets help from service members wishing U.S. ARCENT a happy 90th birthday at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Friday, July 18, during a Congressional Delegation visit.
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (3rd R) poses for a photo at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan July 19, 2008. U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama met the commander of U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday to talk about the war he says is not getting enough attention from the Bush administration.
In this photo released Saturday, July 19, 2008, by the the U.S. Army, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., listens as Maj. Gen. Charles A Anderson, deputy commanding general, U.S. Army Central Command explains the differences between Humvee's at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Friday, July 18, during a Congressional Delegation
In this photo released Saturday, July 19, 2008, by the the U.S. Army, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., signs memorabilia for service members at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Friday, July 18, during a Congressional Delegation visit.
The latest news from the Huffington Post
July 19, 2008 @ 6:00 pm
News that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki supports Barack Obama's troop withdrawal plan was hailed by Congress' top Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, as evidence of deep flaws and inconsistencies in President Bush and John McCain's policies for Iraq.
"[Bush], McCain, and others have always talked about respecting the will of this sovereign government in Iraq," said the Speaker. "They have said that when it is secure on the ground we can leave, and they claim it is [secure]. So I think that with all the indications in terms of the will of the government and the security that they are claiming on the ground, it would follow that the time has come for us to go. It is long overdue."
In a wide-ranging interview with the Huffington Post, Pelosi threw sharp jabs at both the outgoing president and the presumptive Republican nominee. Asked whether Maliki's remarks - in which he explicitly favored Obama's approach to US-Iraq relations - had removed the philosophical basis for McCain's war policy, she responded: "I have never seen any basis for a policy to go into Iraq."
"It doesn't make any sense," she continued. "'Why aren't you happy that we have a secure situation on the ground,' they say. And yet we can't go home."
Pelosi also offered harsh words for the president's personal conduct. Asked for her reaction to Bush's declaration that he had given up golf out of respect for U.S. soldiers, the Speaker proclaimed herself at a loss for words.
Watch Pelosi on Iraq:
"What can I say that hasn't been said? The very idea that the president would say that he has given up golf as associating himself with the efforts of our troops in Iraq, speaks so eloquently as to how in denial he is about their sacrifice," she said. "We have been in Iraq more than two years longer than when we were in WWII, So when the president says he is giving up golf, it is as frivolous a statement as his other statements about this war: we are going to be greeted with rose petals, it was rocket propelled grenades; the Iraqis are going to pay for this war or do so soon, and we are still paying the tab to the tune of trillions of dollars."
The Speaker's remarks came shortly after she addressed the Netroots Nation convention in Austin, Texas. While on stage she was asked to respond to Maliki's interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel. Pelosi, then and in her interview with the Huffington Post, said the remarks provided an important opportunity to initiate high-level meetings with Iraq and American officials.
"It behooves the president to say we will have representatives from our government and the Maliki government to sit down and talk about a responsible, honorable and safe deployment of troops out of Iraq," she said.
The latest news from the Huffington Post
July 19, 2008 @ 5:53 pm
..So I bought a Mc gridle for the first time it was good..I felt like the Earl of Sandwich. I wonder while the government is bailing people out and all the money spent on campains if someone mite use Mc Hammer as a political gala consultant. Mc Cain might use an eclectic musical motif with a small orchestal ensamble a marine chorus some newgent with a mariachi and finish with some apolitical hip hop while rolling credits with gentle on my mind. Obama mite use something upbeat like opening with misty mountain hop then after the preliminaries get introduced with funky town. When hes done speaking they could play "all he left use was alone" with credits "I'm going to color him father". Now mite be a good time to start a project that cordinates all the comunications for an event it mite be ready for the next ellection cycle?Everything Linux and Open Source
July 19, 2008 @ 5:48 pm
If some of Barack Obama's fundraising techniques seem familiar, it may because they're so much like the ones public broadcasters have used for decades. Ben Calhoun of Chicago Public Radio reports.
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