Hate is the change you have been waiting for

I don’t usually write about politics, except as it touches matters of culture. Who said what in the daily back and forth is not usually all that interesting except to those whose careers rise and fall by it.

But the Democratic primary race has been getting a bit freaky. If you read the comments sections of the major news feeds, and even some mainstream media sources, you will see a dark, hating side of human nature that wants to degrade and hurt women.

Who are they? They claim to be Obama supporters. I know for a fact some of them are.
Here is one example from a progressive blog I know to be supporting Senator Obama:

It was accompanied by the slogan, “Babe, either you go quietly or we send in the Flying Monkeys.”

No, I’m not going to give a link. It could be from any number of sources–they’re all over the place now. But the writer is apparently so enamored of his candidate that his willing to use a tripple whammy of name calling, condescending epithets, and threats of bodily harm, so say nothing of trying to stop a democratic free election.

All this in the name of a candidate who claims to be able to end divisiveness and bring people together.

I don’t see much possibility of any candidate bringing about all this hoped-for change, unless it is as the candidate says: “You are the change you’ve been waiting for,” and the followers themselves are expected to bring about the change. In that case, the prospect is doomed. That campaign seems to be attracting nothing but haters.

“Sweetie???” Senator Obama just doesn’t get it.

“Hold on one second Sweetie”, was Barack Obama’s response today to a Michigan reporter who asked “How are you going to help the American auto workers?”

“Sweetie?”

And what about the reporter–does she have a name besides “Sweetie”? Yup. She’s Peggy Agar of Detroit’s WXYZ Channel 7.

Damozel, over at Buck Naked Politics reports a similar exchange last month described in Maureen Dowd’s column (no, I do NOT have the elite, premium NYT subscription):

Hillary has clearly raised Obama’s consciousness about the importance of courting the ladies. Touring a manufacturing plant in Allentown, Pa., Tuesday, he was flirtatious, winking and grinning at the women working there, calling one “Sweetie,” telling another she was “beautiful,” and imitating his daughters’ dance moves by twirling around.

Later, at a Scranton town hall, he went up to Denise Mercuri, a pharmacist from Dunmore wearing a Hillary button. “What do I need to do? Do you want me on my knees?” he charmed, before promising: “I’ll give you a kiss.”

Purrs Damozel acidly, “I am deeply shallow and he is madly attractive. But then I would switch back again to get a kiss from Bill Clinton or a smile from Hillary. I’m like that.”

Clinton supporters are already ticked off about the senator’s “Oh, you’re likable enough, Hillary” comment during a debate as well as his “brushing Hillary off his suit jacket” gesture the morning after the last debate, which many saw as condescending. There was the way he ridiculed her for handling a gun, too.

Whatever is he thinking? No wonder Obama only received 22% of the women’s vote in yesterday’s primary.

What to do. I have never given out Pinnochios–that’s a different website, and this really isn’t a Pinnochio type thing. What about Snobamas? Yeah, that’s the ticket. I hereby award three Snobamas to the senator for his distainful attitude towards women.

Update: The senator has apologized by leaving a message on the reporter’s cellphone—breezily using her first name… “Hi, Peggy…”

In case there is anyone who still just doesn’t get it, a commenter on the Chicago Tribune probably said it best:

“He can call me ’sweetie’ when I can call him ‘boy’.”

H.R. 5950 introduced to prevent abuses and death of detained immigrants

Maya Nand was a legal immigrant who had been living in the U.S. for seven years, when a routine check triggered by his application for citizenship turned up an old misdemeanor. Suddenly Nand was taken from his home in California and put in an Arizona detention center in Eloy, Arizona, twelve hours away.  Nand, a diabetic, started having pains in his heart, and would stand up all night because he couldn’t breathe. His guards told him to stop faking, says Nand’s family. In his last collect call home, Nand told his family, “If you don’t get me out of here today, I’m going to die.” The next day he was found unconscious and later died. He was one of five detainees to die at Eloy within a 26-month period.

At any given time, some 31,000 people in the U.S. are being held in custody waiting for the government to decide whether to deport them.  Information about these detainees is difficult to find–where they are being held—even how many of them die in custody.

Through the Freedom Of Information Act, the New York Times so far has obtained  the names of 66 individuals who have died in custody. They are maintaining an index of articles on the subject as they try to obtain more information.

California’s Rep. Lofgren has introduced legislation–H.R. 5950 to provide oversight for immigration detainees.

WordPress.com endorses Obama, adds campaign vitriol to toolbar

The Democratic primary campaign has become increasingly vitriolic on both sides. This week the Obama surrogates managed to inject their venom into no less than the icon tables on WordPress.com’s “Write Post” toolbar.

If you have a WordPress blog, go to the “Write Post” function, then mouse over the extended functions icon that looks like a small keyboard. A small popup window displays the message:

Show/Hide Kitchen Sink (Alt+ Shift + Z)

In case anyone has NOT been following American politics, this “kitchen sink” meme is being used all over the internet by obamabots–individuals claiming to support Obama who write the same few slogans over and over again into comment sections of online political news stories.

The phrase did not appear at all on the Clinton campaign site–which should give you a clue.

Is this a reminder from WordPress.com for women to stay in the kitchen instead of running for public office?

The official Obama campaign website itself, which back in March had 593 references to “kitchen sink”–not to mention the “b-word”–on its pages, has been cleaned up. Now an advanced google search turns up no instances of that negative rhetoric on the official website.

But Obama’s surrogates have no such scruples about civility. They’re still using the same old poisonous, divisive campaign tactics-with a little help from WordPress.

Who Would Jesus Vote For?–thirty black preachers say Obama

Undaunted by the experience of the church in Pasadena a few years ago that spent $200,000 to defend its tax-exempt status after an anti-war sermon preached by a guest preacher, a dozen or so black preachers gathered in a Chicago church this week to announce their endorsement of Senator Obama for President.

One preacher told the group that “Sen. Barack Obama best represents our hopes and aspirations” while another said the “black church supports Obama” and another called him “the man of the hour”. The “black church”? Whatever happened to God’s church? And all the “render unto Caesar” stuff in Luke 20:25?

We’ve got boots and shoes on the ground and we’re knocking on doors,” Finney said. (Rev. Leon D. Finney Jr. of the Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church). “We’ve got busloads of people leaving from Chicago over the weekend and they will be in Indiana.”

Maybe if Obama wins, the IRS won’t pay too much attention to these churchs’ tax exemptions or to issues of separation of church and state.

On the other hand, John McCain has been endorsed by evangelical preachers Rod Parsley and John Hagee. So how do we know which bunch of pastors really has the hotline to what God is thinking?

My own pastors? None of them–former or current–appeared in the picture.

J Street–a new American Jewish lobby for a two state solution

Time is running out for the Bush administration’s Middle East policy.

We remember the Nixon presidency for Watergate, but also for recognizing China.

History will remember George W. Bush for Iraq. It is not too late for Bush to also be remembered for recognizing Palestine as a state.

But the American Jewish community has often been seen as the deal-breaker in any peace negotiations, whether fairly or not, I don’t know. As a result, American politicians only show active support for the Palestinian state when they are lame ducks in the last phases of their terms. That means that realistically, the window of opportunity for Palestinian statehood only opens up once every eight years, when the incumbent president is ineligible to run for reelection.

Now another piece of the Palestinian statehood puzzle is falling into place–an American Jewish interest group called J Street that says it supports a two-state solution.

Palestine the Nation.

Just do it.

Arabic language: “Tasmeem” computer script uses the secrets of calligraphy

When I signed up for Google feedreader, I also subscribed to a couple of language websites. They tend to be peopled by linguists with their own special esoteric sense of humor and a penchant for delving into the arcane aspects of medieval Irish or Russian literature. But every time I think about removing the feed to simplify my display, I get caught up in whatever they are saying and forget to delete it.

This week they surprised me by talking about Arabic.

I was always taught that Arabic letters have four forms depending on whether they are in a word: at the beginning, middle, end, or standing alone. Thomas Milo, the inventor of the Arabic computer script Tasmeem, just made writing Arabic letters even more difficult. Above is an exhibition in Amsterdam using the computer script to write the Corsi Aya from the Koran. Below he shows how the letter “ha” can be written in various forms depending on what form of the letter is used and what letters are attached to it.

If you have ever been puzzled by Arabic calligraphy, much less the handwriting of ordinary Arabs, this is absolutely fascinating. There is also a powerpoint presentation of Milo with audio describing the challenges in making the script into a computer language. A few minutes into the presentation is Milo’s not-to-be-missed overview of the history of the Arabic script with the original letter order–he describes it as being originally a “numerical” alphabet.

If that isn’t enough, Languagehat this week has discovered that the word “barrio” meaning “Spanish-speaking neighborhood” comes into the English language from Arabic through the intermediate stage of Spanish. Probably something they forgot to sweep out after the Reconquista. There are supposed to be some one hundred English words derived from Arabic. The only other one I know about is “potato”–Spanish “patata”, Arabic “batata” البطاطا.

Links: Jeremiah Wright transcripts and videos

Links to transcripts and videos of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, NAACP speech in Detroit, National Press Club speech, Sen. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton response.

Chickens come home to roost

A longer excerpt of the “chickens” soundbite:

Rev. Jeremiah Wright attributing the “chickens come home to roost” quotation to both former ambassador to Iraq Edward Peck and Malcolm X–ABC video (after a 30-second commercial) |here|, transcript |here|.

The Moyers Interview

Moyers/Wright interview April 28, 2008–full transcript |here|, video from PBS |here|

National Press Club Breakfast

10-minute video clip and excerpts from Huffington Post |here|

Jeremiah Wright at National Press Club, April 29, 2008–the speech in its entirety–video segments are about 10 minutes each |part 1| |part 2| |part 3|comments: |part 4| |part 5| |part 6|

Video–Obama response to Wright National Press Club remarks: |here|

Video–Obama answers questions after press conference April 29, 2008 |here|

Sen. Hillary Clinton response on Fox O’Reilly show: video (after commerical) |here| transcript |here|

The National Press Club audience included officials from the New Black Panther Party and Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. Wright’s security was provided by Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam bodyguards.

NAACP speech

Jeremiah Wright speech to NAACP April, 27, 2008, transcript |here| video |here|

Chicago’s increasing violence–the latest “white alert” lockdown in a south side school

Up until now, all I knew about school violence was from reports in the newspaper. Today, while at a meeting in a school building, an announcement came over the PA system that we were in a Code White. All the doors were to be locked and no one was to leave.

I visit schools fairly often, and lately have noticed signs of increasing security. Visitor passes. Notices about color code alerts. Police presentations to parent groups about gang activity. Doors locked where they weren’t locked before.

And lately, in this area at least, violence seems to be especially targeting schools. So far this year, 20 school children have been killed in gun violence. In April alone, threats have been received at Rotolo Middle School in Batavia, South Suburban College in South Holland, St. Xavier University in Morgan Park, (prompting more school closings for the surrounding Mother McAuley High School, Brother Rice High School, Queen of Martyrs Elementary School and Evergreen Park Southwest Elementary), Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Malcolm X College on the West Side, and St. Charles North High School in the western suburbs.

All of this is taking place against the backdrop of shootings at Columbine High School in April 1999, Virginia Tech in April of last year, and the five deaths last month at Northern Illinois University.

Our group was eventually permitted to leave the building under escort, but not without some worrisome moments. Some of our group still had pre-school children in a daycare area of the school who continued to be held in lockdown.

Links: Live Coverage of Election Results on Internet

For anyone who is following the election results by internet, here are some links for live coverage:

PBS
CNN
Fox
NYTimes
ABC