Sunday, December 13, 2009

Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com - My Friend the President: "In other words, the Leave-Obama-Alone protestations posted by Sullivan are fairly representative of the genre. How far we've fallen from the declaration of Thomas Jefferson: 'In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.'

With regard to many of the above-referenced criticisms -- as well as ones I haven't included -- there are reasonable disputes over the validity of the critiques, and many Obama defenders voice those on substantive grounds. Obama admirers like the ones featured above are a minority, albeit a vocal one. But far too many have an emotional attachment to him and investment in him that is deeply unhealthy, particularly when it translates into intolerance for the very act of objecting to his decisions and policies, as one sees on vivid display in the responses Sullivan posted."

I expect the Olbermanns, Maddows, Stewarts, and Colberts of the world to hold the Obama administration to the same standard they held the previous administration of crooks and con-men. We should all expect and demand a return to the rule of law.

Labels: Obama, progressivism

20:58 cdogzilla

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Merciless: "This blog is not only my [Charlie Stross] personal soapbox, it's my public face. Folks who read what I post here may or may not thereafter buy my books. Consequently, these days I try to avoid writing about stuff that is likely to be controversial. Call it the chilling effect of capitalism; I can say what I want if and only if I'm willing to do without that portion of my book royalties that comes from the folks I piss off.

There are some folks I can do without, mind you. (If you're a BNP member or voter you can fuck off right now. I don't care if you don't buy my books; I don't want your bloody money.)

However, this comes at a cost. I don't like biting my tongue continuously. I have strong opinions on a number of subjects — including politics — and what use is a soapbox if I can't use it from time to time? ...

This brings me to my topic of the day: mercy, and the lack of it.

I've been suppressing the urge to explode angrily ever since Thursday, when Abdelbaset Al Megrahi was officially released from prison and flown home to Libya. His release — on compassionate grounds, as he is suffering from terminal cancer and has weeks to live. Mr Al Megrahi was serving a life sentence, handed down by a rather oddly constituted Scottish court for his part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 — the biggest aviation disaster ever in British airspace, and one of the biggest acts of terrorism of that decade.

What am I angry about?

Let's leave aside the fact that many people (including the UN observer at the trial) consider Al Megrahi's conviction to be a serious miscarriage of justice. (The allegations of fabricated evidence should to be taken seriously; the Flight 103 investigation took place in the middle of a very chilly period in US/Libyan relations, and we have seen since then that the CIA is a pliant tool in the hands of those who want to fabricate evidence justifying action against uncooperative Middle Eastern nations. The CIA is an intelligence and covert operations agency under political direction, not an independent investigatory/detective bureau; its emissions should be considered with the utmost skepticism.)

What makes me angry ... Well, to start with it's worth noting that the loudest denunciations came from the White House — an entity with no legal standing whatsoever in the Scottish judicial system. But we expect external interference from the White House: it's what the Imperial Presidency is there for.

What bugs me is the complete lack of comprehension of the quality of mercy that seems to have crept over the US political class this century.

Even if Al Megrahi is a mass-murderer, the fact remains that he is dying. It is long-standing policy in Scotland to exercise the prerogative of mercy when possible; in general, if an imprisoned criminal is terminally ill, a request for release (for hospice care, basically) is usually granted unless they are believed to be a danger to the public.

That's because the justice system isn't solely about punishment. It's about respect for the greater good of society, which is better served by rehabilitation and reconcilliation than by revenge. We do not make ourselves better people by exercising a gruesome revenge on the bodies of our vanquished foes. Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Minister, did exactly the right thing in sending Al Megrahi home to die.

Meanwhile, the angry spectators who're throwing scat come from a country where prison rape is endemic and tolerated to the point where it's a subject for cheap jokes.

American attitudes to crime and punishment are unspeakable; disturbing, mediaeval, and barbaric are some of the adjectives that spring to mind. But above all, the word that most thoroughly applies is merciless. The commission of a crime is taken as an excuse to unleash the demons of the subconscious, however dark, however disproportionate, upon the perpetrator. Once labeled a criminal, an individual's right to fair treatment is utterly expunged, and any violation or degradation, however grotesque, is seen as something that they brought on themselves.

Why?

Well, let's pan across the political landscape and look at another current cause celebre that provides a window into the darker corners of the American psyche; the issue of healthcare reform.

I've been watching the war of words with increasing disbelief for the past month, trying to get my head around the reason why so many loud, vocal citizens seem to be so adamantly opposed to something that's in their own best interests — the US healthcare system is utterly dysfunctional, even for those with health insurance costs are spiraling out of control, and the current system is becoming a major drag on economic productivity — many business start-ups abort because the founders can't obtain healthcare, many novelists of my acquaintance are in serious financial trouble or are terrified of giving up the day job (that comes with insurance), and so on. The current mess is responsible for 22,000 avoidable deaths per year — a 9/11 scale catastrophe every six weeks.

And yet we hear rhetoric about death panels, idiotic allegations that Stephen Hawking would be dead if he lived in the UK and was dependent on the NHS (this just in: Stephen Hawking is British and, er, alive because of the NHS), and so on. What's going on?

What's noticable is that the 'debate' isn't about the need for healthcare, or about actual medical issues. It's about ideology, and outlook ...

Near as I can work it out from over here (caveat: I've spent somewhere between four and eight months of my life in the USA — this doesn't make me an expert) there is a small but significant proportion of the US population who hate the poor and want them to die. (Or at least to go somewhere where they're invisible and can't act as a perpetual reminder to the haters that their own security is at best tenuous.) I'm not sure why there's this hatred — my personal feeling is that it springs from numerous sources: from prosperity theology (if you're poor it's because you're ungodly and deserve to suffer), insecurity, lack of empathy, or a combination of these factors in different people. Other observers have different theories: M'Learned Friend opines that it's because the American conservative movement rejects Rawls's preconditions for justice. (That doesn't go far enough for my taste; they also seem to want to reject the entire concept of the Social Contract.) And then there's the growing tendency towards eliminationist rhetoric against socially sanctioned out-groups. (Arguably the endorsement of maltreatment of convicts is an emergent part of this trend, feeding into and normalising it.) .

The subjects vary — crime and penal policy, healthcare, don't get me started on foreign policy — but there is an ideological approach in America that is distinguished by one common characteristic: words and deeds utterly lacking in the quality of mercy.

There is a cancer in the collective American soul — a mercy deficit that has in recent years grown as alarmingly as the budget deficit. Nor is it as simple as a left/right thing: no political party has a monopoly on merciless behaviour. Rather, a creeping draconian absolutism has cast its penumbra across the entire arena of public discourse, tainting every debate, poisoning and hardening attitudes across the board.

Calls for revenge on a sick and dying man are part and parcel of the pathology, as are shrieks of outrage against the mere idea of subsidizing healthcare for the indigent or unlucky, or rough talk about 'every now and again ... pick[ing] up a crappy little country and throwing it against the wall just to prove we are serious'.

Mercy, it would seem, is a scarce commodity in the Empire.

Are you ashamed yet? If not, you're part of the problem.

(And by the way, I don't want your money.)"

Labels: crime, Obama

22:13 cdogzilla

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Here's a great E.J. Dionne Jr. column Leave the Guns at Home. I'm glad someone finally had the courage to point this out:

The simple fact is that an armed citizenry is not the basis for our freedoms. Our freedoms rest on a moral consensus, enshrined in law, that in a democratic republic we work out our differences through reasoned, and sometimes raucous, argument. Free elections and open debate are not rooted in violence or the threat of violence. They are precisely the alternative to violence, and guns have no place in them.

I'm kind of sick of hearing from people who believe that their firearm collection ensures my freedom. Speaking of loudmouths, I should link to this letter to the editor from someone who shares E.J.'s fine last name, if not the patience he demonstrates in his writing.

Labels: Conservative Goons, local flavor, Obama

14:50 bone daddy

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Blakk Rasta's Obama "Theme Song" In Ghana: Let's play predict the response of the ODS afflicted. Goes a little something like this, "Oh noes, teh Africans have infiltrated our Preznidensey and are singing about taking over America. This proves BHO is not a citizen. Birth cert in Ghana? Also must be a fake Christian since Rasta Muslims only sings about teh other Rasta Muslims. Good thing Palin bravely elevated self from AK governorship, was holding her back from investigating who Anti-C. is pallin' around with now."

Labels: music, Obama, youtube goodness

13:08 cdogzilla

Friday, June 19, 2009

Unlistenable, But Nice Job on the Video

Labels: Obama, youtube goodness

22:32 cdogzilla

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Obama Endorses Indefinite Detention Without Trial for Some Now at Guantanamo - washingtonpost.com:

"President Obama acknowledged publicly for the first time yesterday that some detainees at Guantanamo Bay may have to be held without trial indefinitely, siding with conservative national security advocates on one of the most contentious issues raised by the closing of the military prison in Cuba."

No. No. No. It was wrong when W. and Cheney were doing it, and it's still wrong. If the detainees did something wrong, prove it. If they're conspiring to do something wrong, prove it. If you can't prove it, that doesn't mean you get to lock them up and throw away the key. In fact, it means the opposite. I thought Obama got it and this was all understood. This is discouraging.

Labels: Conservative Goons, crime, Obama

22:38 cdogzilla

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Wanda v. Rush: Back on the desktop now after watching the President and Wanda Sykes give their speeches. Funny stuff but, oh man, is the right wing going to go apeshit -- particularly over Sykes's crack about Rush being one of the 9/11 hijackers, but missing the flight because he was strung out on oxycontin at the time.

Labels: Conservative Goons, Obama

22:35 cdogzilla

Obama is doing a nice job at the Correspondents dinner. He just told Michael Steele that the GOP doesn't qualify for a bailout and that Rush doesn't count as a troubled asset. I can't type fast enough on the BB to keep up but he's been on a roll the whole time I've been typing.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Labels: Obama

22:05 cdogzilla

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Regift, Please!:

"A decade ago, I and the other two co-authors of the 'Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot' devoted a chapter to refuting the historical and ideological fallacies contained in Galeano's tract, which we called the 'idiot's bible.' Everything that has happened in the Western Hemisphere since the book appeared in 1971 has belied Galeano's arguments and predictions. But I guess Chavez has given it the kiss of life and, since people are asking, here I go again."

I opened Galeano's Century of the Wind to a random page and read:

1980: Santa Marta
Marijuana
Out of each dollar of dreams that a U.S. marijuana smoker buys, barely one cent reaches the hands of the Colombian campesinos who grow it. The other ninety-nine cents go to the traffickers ...

... [T]he drug mafiosi live in ostentatious mansions. In front they like to display on granite pedestals the small planes the used in their first operation. They rock their children in gold cradles, give golden fingernails to their lovers ...

The mafiosi habitually fumigate their forces. Four years ago they machinegunned Lucho Barranquilla, the most popular of the traffickers, on a streetcorner in the city of Santa Marta. The murderers sent to the funeral a floral wreath in the form a heart and took up a collection to erect a statue of the departed on the main plaza.

It was pretty easy to find something relevant and topical in Galeano's 20+ year old writings. I'm not familiar at all with Open Veins, and maybe it is bad, but I'm inclined to give Galeano the benefit of the doubt here.

Labels: Books, crime, history, Obama

16:56 cdogzilla

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Chávez Proposes an Ambassador to the U.S. - NYTimes.com: Galeano (author of the book Chavez is handing Obama in the articles lead photo) was required reading in my Latin American studies class back at UConn. Century of the Wind was pretty amazing.

Labels: Books, Obama

23:54 cdogzilla

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Obama's Barack-et: March Madness at the WH: Obama's Bracket | 44 | washingtonpost.com
UNC? Nah. If not UConn, and probably not, then another Big East school. Louisville or Pitt.

Labels: 2009, Obama, sports, uconn

11:43 cdogzilla

Monday, February 23, 2009

"Fun fact: Jeri Ryan [Seven of Nine] dumped her husband [Jack Ryan] to be with [Trek Producer Brannon] Braga, which led to the divorce filing that destroyed her husband's Illinois senate candidacy -- paving the way for Obama to become a senator [by easily defeating Alan Keyes], and then president. Thanks, Brannon Braga!" Star Trek Voyager saved the country.

Labels: Obama, sci-fi, TV

18:39 HD

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Change is Gonna Come
Obama just became President Obama and Cheney was just wheeled away and ... is it really happening? The Bush era is over?

I look at this day through the eyes of my kids (8 and 6) who have just seen the inauguration at school. When I was a kid I probably had a dozen or so conversations around the question "Could America ever elect a black president?"

Our answers were all wrong. "Never." "There will be a black vice-president first." "Yes, but it will be a Republican."

The country my kids grow up in has already had a black president. But Obama is so much more than the first African-American President and my kids know that too. Politics are finally happy for them. They knew about the war and John Kerry and saw me react to the loss. Around town for the past couple years everyone recognizes my car as the one with the Ned Lamont bumper sticker. Even though 2006 was a good year, my kids were only familiar with Ned Lamont and that was a loss. I eventually replaced the Lamont bumper sticker with an Obama one and the kids knew it was anti-war. "Remember this one," I told them the other day. "When you're old, you're going to want to tell your kids about this one."

Labels: Obama

13:01 bone daddy

Monday, January 19, 2009

Barack Obama, Reader-in-Chief. (via to wit) Mrs. BoneDaddy recently finished Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, recently read by the President Elect, and seemed to like it.

Labels: Books, Obama

18:37 bone daddy

Saturday, November 08, 2008

How come nobody says this? - Colin McEnroe | To Wit

Almost nobody mentions the fact that Obama -- after living down a cascade of accusations (including from Joe the Plumber) that he would be a soft ally to Israel, that he himself was a Muslim, that he was in the thrall of an anti-Semitic preacher, that he was a confederate of Farrakhan -- picked as his right hand man an Orthodox Jew.

Somewhere on the interwebs, forgot to blog it and can't find it at the moment, is a post that lists a whole bunch of things that, if any one of them happens, the blogger will eat a hat. The list includes things like "President Obama makes it illegal to criticize President Obama," and "President Obama launches an invasion of Israel," &c. All the fear-mongering, wingnut doomsday predictions that have a probability approaching 0 of happening.

Labels: Obama

18:29 cdogzilla

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Good Morning

Labels: 2008, Obama, pictures, sports

08:44 bone daddy

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Whoo-Hoo!
Anyone notice how McCain has claimed, several times now, that if Obama had accepted his offer for ten townhall style debates, he would not have been forced to go as negative as he has? (And even with this, McCain doesn't get his facts straight.)

Republicans really are thin-skinned these days, aren't they? A few weeks ago we were all told that House GOP'ers rejected the urgent bailout that would have saved our country because Nancy Pelosi was a big meanie. Now, because Obama didn't want to debate precisely the way McCain wanted, McCain had to question his patriotism and call him a big pervert.

I would like to thank Senator Obama for rejecting the ten debate proposal. One, it brought out Mr. Crankypants and that's just great. Two, it spared me from having to watch seven more of these awful things. Debates have become horrid events. The moderators are tepid. The questions, when they aren't dodged entirely, are predictable. It's an excercise in returning to your talking points. The contemporary debates matter for two reasons - the big gaffe and style. Now that they are concluded I can fully appreciate how smart Obama's approach was. Obviously, I wanted every McCain lie smacked down hard. I wanted Bush mocked. I wanted sharp facts and sharper sarcasm.

But these debates aren't for me. I'm voting for Obama even if he sighs too much or claims communist-occupied Poland is Freedomland. (Gee, which one of those gaffes was more important?) The general population doesn't want much in the way of attacks and finger-pointing. Obama simply needed to remain gaffe-free (yep) and appear presidential (big-time).

McCain has shown a surprising tin ear of late. The hard right wants him to get nasty and go all smear all the time and he doesn't recognize that this advice is turning a squeaker into a bloodbath. (And Senator, if you think the hard right will take the blame for your loss, you don't know them like I do.) The most telling moment of last night's debate came when they talked about the negativity. McCain brought up Ayers, after saying he didn't care about him. Then McCain complained about Representative John Lewis' comments. He accused Obama of "not repudiating" the comparison between himself and George Wallace.

What did McCain think would happen next?

First of all, you've pointed out that a civil rights hero has criticized you. Then, you hand Obama an opportunity to point out that you're wrong again, Obama did repudiate the comparison. And who didn't know that the next step in this conversation is the hateful, violent crap shouted at McCain/Palin rallies? Obama talked about hearing "Kill him" and "terrorist" shouted about him. Who looked calm and reasonable during this exchange? Who looked thin-skinned and, well, erratic?

McCain spent time in an earlier debate complaining that Obama would go after bin Laden in Pakistan. Did he think that would score points with the American people? Obama is going to be too aggressive pursuing bin Laden? "I'll follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell ... unless, you know, we have to cross some sort of border to get there." Tin ear.

Time to close the deal.

Labels: 2008, Conservative Goons, Obama, TV

16:20 bone daddy

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Nutmeg News
The All-Bad Edition
So everyone has probably seen the video of the hit and run in Hartford of Angel Torres. If you type "Hartford" into YouTube search, about four of the suggestions lead you to it. Nothing else you'd want to see in Hartford, I guess. Or you probably saw it on your local news. (So no, I don't feel like linking to it.) What's shocking is after two cars race into the wrong lane and one of them hits the 78 year old nobody does much of anything for forty seconds or so. None of the bystanders reach him and not one of the ten passing cars stop. Of course it's the existence of video that turned Hartford into the latest example of man's inhumanity to man.

Colin McEnroe, as usual, has the thing worth reading about this. Sometimes, we want to believe the worst about ourselves. Or hey, not ourselves, we're good people. I'm talking the worst about people who live in cities. There's a reason the legend of Kitty Genovese (referenced by Colin) has lasted for so long. Ĺnd if you think none of this has anything to do with race, you're welcome to visit the Hartford Courant's reader forums, which have gotten pretty ugly, even by Internet standards. So ugly that Mayor Perez has complained to the Courant. Meanwhile, the police chief has complained about our "toxic relationship with ourselves." Okay guys, maybe you could do something better with your time, like catch a hit and run driver or something.

I won't excuse the people in the video who do nothing except to point out that four people called 911 within a minute, a fact being dropped from almost all reports.

Forgive me for thinking this is mostly an excuse to call blacks and Hispanics "sub-human" and "savages." I don't remember this rhetoric being quite this heated for the college students responsible for the fatal hit and run of a 19 year old. Heck, the parents chipped in after the fact to help cover it up so you have some man's inhumanity to man there too and for longer than 40 seconds.

Meanwhile, the Mark Twain House and Museum is in financial trouble, despite some recent state grant help. The Twain house is much more than just a house he happened to live in. Twain designed it and the house remains imbued with his personality and life story. It's a literary and architectural landmark. I've taken the tour three times now and each one was different (except for the "tainted money" line, which was included on all three). Most of the trouble comes from a visitor's center built a few years ago. It is impressive, but seems in size and design better suited to a convention center and it's probably a monster to heat, even in reasonable times.

There are also layoffs and news page reductions coming at the Hartford Courant, which does not currently exactly overflow with news coverage.

Also, what the Courant calls "possibly the state's single most recognizable product" (Hey, not an insurance form!), the United Technology spacesuit, will now be made in Texas by a deep sea company with no space experience. Thanks for forty years of problem-free performance, too bad you HQ in a blue state. At least the company that won the bid isn't named Halliburton Space & Sea.

Also making us sad around here is the news that UConn recruit and national player of the year Elena Delle Donne has left the summer program after two days to return home. I take the statements at face value that this has nothing to do with UConn or her teammates. I'd guess that if she plays basketball it will probably be for UConn. While it would be a shame for someone so talented to give up the sport, you just have to wish her the best and hope things work out for her.

Meanwhile, Dodd looked like he wouldn't be a VP candidate, now maybe he will be. I like Dodd and he certainly didn't get a chance to shaw what a good campaigner he can be during his bid, still I'm not sure what he adds politically to the Obama ticket. Connecticut is certainly in Obama's column and Dodd is nothing if not a Beltway insider. Still, I think he'd be a far better campaigner than the miserable performance turned in by our other senator in 2000. I was rooting for Webb, but that's not to be.

I will be posting even less than usual around here because I'm going on vacation for the week. Any wonder why?

Labels: Books, crime, local flavor, Obama, sports, uconn

23:11 bone daddy

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

This Is Our Time
Maybe you missed Obama's speech last night. Obviously, suspense over who the nominee would be has been gone for weeks. You might want to check it out. It's a good one. Also eye-opening, refreshing and joyous is the fact that 17,500 people were there to hear it with another 15,000 waiting outside. I've faced the mocking "Oh, Obama's just a good speaker. That's it, and you get to be President. Talking!" As if it would be bad to have a President who can complete a sentence. As if speaking isn't a component of leading. The sentiment behind the mocking is fear. Fear that our country is changing.

Years from now, we will look back on Obama's nomination with pride except ....

Look, It Just Isn't Your Time
Um, Hillary's gone off the deep end. Her speech has been parsed elsewhere so I'll just add a couple of thoughts. 1) Look, even W. congratulated Obama. It was his night. 2) At some point in the past few weeks - and even last night - Hillary could have given a good speech, saying she wanted to carry her campaign the distance because of her passionate supporters, endorsing Obama, highlighting the historic nature of her campaign and then returned to the Senate as its most powerful member. Why on earth would you give that up for miniscule leverage on a bid to be Vice President in an administration that wouldn't let you do anything under any cirumstances? 3) Mrs. BoneDaddy and I are really baffled by this repeated explanation offered by her supporters that "Hillary has been campaigning for a long time. You can't expect her to just suddenly concede." Doesn't every politician have to suddenly concede when they lose? Hundreds of them do it every November. Isn't this exactly the kind of patronizing, sexist crap her supporters have been complaining about? And if she can't psychologically adjust to a reality that I could spot months ago, why would I want her anywhere near the White House? Until the Last Dog Dies, indeed.

Labels: 2008, Obama

22:35 bone daddy

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

I've been pretty quiet about Clinton for months now because the whole spectacle is a little sad. I've found over the years that I'm only a Hillary fan when she's getting unfairly attacked, which has happened quite a bit over the course of her political life. I've always thought she was less than inspiring but often worth defending against the talk radio flying monkeys. I expected to vote for her, but I'm frankly relieved I won't have to.

So I don't post this picture out of malice, but because I'm mesmerized by it. Did a supporter really think "Until the Last Dog Dies" was a stirring campaign sign? There's a sad, mean fatalism here dressed up as cheer. I'm just going to assume it's a supporter and not someone playing a joke. Should someone sneak into Clinton rallies with a sign saying "Time to Kill the Last Dog"? I don't type this as just an animal-lover. Obviously, dog is a metaphor for campaign workers, money, Democratic voters and political capital. Shouldn't they be pledging some kind of success with these things rather than death.

"What do we want?"

"To be left frozen and starving on a lonely tundra!!"

"When do we want it?"

"As soon as the sun goes down and the winds pick up!!"

Labels: 2008, Obama

10:08 bone daddy

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Obama read Letterman's Top Ten list. Is there nothing he can't do? (Except bowl.)

Labels: 2008, Obama, TV

23:22 bone daddy

Thursday, February 14, 2008

I alluded to the Clinton tendency to fight things out. Even with Obama's recent 8 for 8 string of victories, even if Hillary doesn't take both Ohio and Texas, I fully expect her to be in it. If you are hoping for a orderly conclusion to the Democratic primaries, you should read this post at Ghost in the Machine. In order to avoid some ugliness, Obama needs a knockout. Hillary will fight to turn this thing on the unrecognized delegates of Florida (Obama hasn't won a major state), on the superdelegates (The mature leaders of the party have an obligation) or on P.R. (They're picking on me again) She didn't lend herself five million (try it, it's fun!) just to concede.

Here's hoping the voters do their bit and/or Howard Dean earns his pay.

Fortunately, upcoming Romney harmony aside, I expect a bit of mess among the GOP as well.

Labels: 2008, Obama, rich people

11:35 bone daddy

Monday, February 11, 2008

Daniel Negreanu, poker player, Obama supporter. Possibly also Canadian, so don't expect him to do all the voting work.

Labels: 2008, Obama, poker

11:02 bone daddy

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Something Happening Here
When Rep. Rosa DeLauro endorsed Barack Obama for President, she did it in front of her house that has an entrance hall filled with pictures of Bill and Hillary Clinton. DeLauro's husband is Stanley Greenberg, Bill Clinton's longtime pollster. I don't read more into DeLauro's endorsement than what she says,

"We all were challenged to engage and serve our country by John Kennedy. That is my starting point," DeLauro said. She believes Obama is now the charismatic figure inspiring the young to register for the first time. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment, and I felt compelled to join."

Still, she travels quite a bit of personal distance to reach that conclusion.

Labels: 2008, local flavor, Obama

11:05 bone daddy

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Knows When to Hold 'Em James McManus on Barack Obama's poker history. Obama took up the game in the Illinois legislature apparently as a way to make connections. This is the third time or so I've heard he's a decent player, which makes me more inclined to vote for him. (I plan to drop this info at my next home game, which has members that lean too far rightward. That Obama's poker playing may switch votes says a lot about the fanaticism my group has for poker or the utter lack of enthusiasm many republicans have for their field.) McManus wrote Positively Fifth Street, about covering and playing in the 2000 World Series of Poker and the Binion murder trial. It's a decent book and he's supposedly at work on a book about the history of poker, which might be even better since the parts of Fifth Street that I didn't like were mostly autobiographical. (Link via Ghost in the Machine, which has become a nice clearinghouse for all things Obama.)

Labels: 2008, Books, Obama, poker

20:18 bone daddy