Why are there some unabashedly evil people in the world? Makes me sad. Al-Qaeda will try to find anything to keep the power of their influence alive.
REUTERS
Qaeda scorns Obama with racial slur
Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:13am EST
By Randall Mikkelsen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's deputy leader accused Barack Obama of betraying his race and his father's Muslim heritage on Wednesday and urged more attacks, as the group tried to counter the incoming U.S. president's global popularity.
Osama bin Laden's second-in-command Ayman al Zawahri attacked Obama as a "house Negro," a racially-charged term used by 1960s black American Muslim leader Malcolm X to describe black slaves loyal to white masters.
"You represent the direct opposite of honorable black Americans like ... Malcolm X," Zawahri said in an 11-minute recording publicized on the Internet on Wednesday. It was al Qaeda's first high-level commentary on Obama's election on November 4. Bin Laden could also release a message on Obama within the next two weeks or so, one analyst said.
Zawahri criticized Obama's support for Israel and plans to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, where he said they were destined to fail. He urged Islamist fighters to keep striking a "criminal" United States until it withdraws from Muslim lands.
The recording was distributed on a videotape that carried pictures of Obama at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and Malcom X, flanking Zawahri in the center.
U.S. officials and analysts, alert for signs of an attack in the period leading up to the transfer of presidential power on January 20, said there was no sign of an imminent threat.
They cast Zawahri's message as an attempt to shift al Qaeda's focus from U.S. President George W. Bush and maintain an enmity against the United States among its supporters.
"They're faced with what is by any accounting a change in this country," said one U.S. counterterrorism official who asked not to be identified.
OBAMA BRINGING CHANGE
"The way they're dealing with the change represented by the election of an African American as president of the United States is to insist that nothing has changed," he said.
Obama's transition office declined to comment.
His election was greeted with broad hope in the Middle East, where U.S. relations with Arabic countries were deeply strained under Bush.
Daniel Benjamin, a counterterrorism official under former President Bill Clinton, said Obama's election on a platform of breaking with Bush policies was a boost to American "soft power," or nonmilitary international influence.
"I think they (al Qaeda) are deeply threatened by the fact there is a new American president and that he has come to office saying he wants to have a more constructive relationship with the one billion Muslims in the world."
Zawahri, he said, "feels like he has a competitor for the hearts and minds."
Zawahri referred to Obama's Kenyan father, who was raised Muslim but became an atheist. Obama is a Christian. "You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims," Zawahri said.
The Malcolm X reference probably reflects the influence of American-born al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn, believed to be close to Zawahri, said a U.S. terrorism monitor who goes by the pseudonym Laura Mansfield.
Zawahri has employed the "house Negro" insult before, when in 2007 he used it to label Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her predecessor, Colin Powell, who are both black.
"And in you and in Colin Powell, Rice and your likes, the words of Malcolm X ... concerning 'House Negroes' are confirmed," Zawahri said in the message released on Wednesday.
His spoken remarks could also be translated as "house slaves," but al Qaeda's accompanying English translation, distributed by the IntelCenter Web monitor, used "house Negroes."
Mansfield said it typically takes bin Laden, deep in hiding, longer than Zawahri to produce a statement reacting to events and relay it to an outlet. But it would not be a surprise if he released one soon, she said.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Me fail English! That's un-possible with Barack Obama as President!
It's been beaten to death, but it's true: America is facing another major culture war: The culture of terror versus the culture of thought. Nicholas Kristof cogently describes this below.
November 9, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Obama and the War on Brains
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Barack Obama’s election is a milestone in more than his pigmentation. The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual.
Maybe, just maybe, the result will be a step away from the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life. Smart and educated leadership is no panacea, but we’ve seen recently that the converse — a White House that scorns expertise and shrugs at nuance — doesn’t get very far either.
We can’t solve our educational challenges when, according to polls, Americans are approximately as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution, and when one-fifth of Americans believe that the sun orbits the Earth.
Almost half of young Americans said in a 2006 poll that it was not necessary to know the locations of countries where important news was made. That must be a relief to Sarah Palin, who, according to Fox News, didn’t realize that Africa was a continent rather than a country.
Perhaps John Kennedy was the last president who was unapologetic about his intellect and about luring the best minds to his cabinet. More recently, we’ve had some smart and well-educated presidents who scrambled to hide it. Richard Nixon was a self-loathing intellectual, and Bill Clinton camouflaged a fulgent brain behind folksy Arkansas aphorisms about hogs.
As for President Bush, he adopted anti-intellectualism as administration policy, repeatedly rejecting expertise (from Middle East experts, climate scientists and reproductive health specialists). Mr. Bush is smart in the sense of remembering facts and faces, yet I can’t think of anybody I’ve ever interviewed who appeared so uninterested in ideas.
At least since Adlai Stevenson’s campaigns for the presidency in the 1950s, it’s been a disadvantage in American politics to seem too learned. Thoughtfulness is portrayed as wimpishness, and careful deliberation is for sissies. The social critic William Burroughs once bluntly declared that “intellectuals are deviants in the U.S.”
(It doesn’t help that intellectuals are often as full of themselves as of ideas. After one of Stevenson’s high-brow speeches, an admirer yelled out something like, You’ll have the vote of every thinking American! Stevenson is said to have shouted back: That’s not enough. I need a majority!)
Yet times may be changing. How else do we explain the election in 2008 of an Ivy League-educated law professor who has favorite philosophers and poets?
Granted, Mr. Obama may have been protected from accusations of excessive intelligence by his race. That distracted everyone, and as a black man he didn’t fit the stereotype of a pointy-head ivory tower elitist. But it may also be that President Bush has discredited superficiality.
An intellectual is a person interested in ideas and comfortable with complexity. Intellectuals read the classics, even when no one is looking, because they appreciate the lessons of Sophocles and Shakespeare that the world abounds in uncertainties and contradictions, and — President Bush, lend me your ears — that leaders self-destruct when they become too rigid and too intoxicated with the fumes of moral clarity.
(Intellectuals are for real. In contrast, a pedant is a supercilious show-off who drops references to Sophocles and masks his shallowness by using words like “fulgent” and “supercilious.”)
Mr. Obama, unlike most politicians near a microphone, exults in complexity. He doesn’t condescend or oversimplify nearly as much as politicians often do, and he speaks in paragraphs rather than sound bites. Global Language Monitor, which follows linguistic issues, reports that in the final debate, Mr. Obama spoke at a ninth-grade reading level, while John McCain spoke at a seventh-grade level.
As Mr. Obama prepares to take office, I wish I could say that smart people have a great record in power. They don’t. Just think of Emperor Nero, who was one of the most intellectual of ancient rulers — and who also killed his brother, his mother and his pregnant wife; then castrated and married a slave boy who resembled his wife; probably set fire to Rome; and turned Christians into human torches to light his gardens.
James Garfield could simultaneously write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other, Thomas Jefferson was a dazzling scholar and inventor, and John Adams typically carried a book of poetry. Yet all were outclassed by George Washington, who was among the least intellectual of our early presidents.
Yet as Mr. Obama goes to Washington, I’m hopeful that his fertile mind will set a new tone for our country. Maybe someday soon our leaders no longer will have to shuffle in shame when they’re caught with brains in their heads.
November 9, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Obama and the War on Brains
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Barack Obama’s election is a milestone in more than his pigmentation. The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual.
Maybe, just maybe, the result will be a step away from the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life. Smart and educated leadership is no panacea, but we’ve seen recently that the converse — a White House that scorns expertise and shrugs at nuance — doesn’t get very far either.
We can’t solve our educational challenges when, according to polls, Americans are approximately as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution, and when one-fifth of Americans believe that the sun orbits the Earth.
Almost half of young Americans said in a 2006 poll that it was not necessary to know the locations of countries where important news was made. That must be a relief to Sarah Palin, who, according to Fox News, didn’t realize that Africa was a continent rather than a country.
Perhaps John Kennedy was the last president who was unapologetic about his intellect and about luring the best minds to his cabinet. More recently, we’ve had some smart and well-educated presidents who scrambled to hide it. Richard Nixon was a self-loathing intellectual, and Bill Clinton camouflaged a fulgent brain behind folksy Arkansas aphorisms about hogs.
As for President Bush, he adopted anti-intellectualism as administration policy, repeatedly rejecting expertise (from Middle East experts, climate scientists and reproductive health specialists). Mr. Bush is smart in the sense of remembering facts and faces, yet I can’t think of anybody I’ve ever interviewed who appeared so uninterested in ideas.
At least since Adlai Stevenson’s campaigns for the presidency in the 1950s, it’s been a disadvantage in American politics to seem too learned. Thoughtfulness is portrayed as wimpishness, and careful deliberation is for sissies. The social critic William Burroughs once bluntly declared that “intellectuals are deviants in the U.S.”
(It doesn’t help that intellectuals are often as full of themselves as of ideas. After one of Stevenson’s high-brow speeches, an admirer yelled out something like, You’ll have the vote of every thinking American! Stevenson is said to have shouted back: That’s not enough. I need a majority!)
Yet times may be changing. How else do we explain the election in 2008 of an Ivy League-educated law professor who has favorite philosophers and poets?
Granted, Mr. Obama may have been protected from accusations of excessive intelligence by his race. That distracted everyone, and as a black man he didn’t fit the stereotype of a pointy-head ivory tower elitist. But it may also be that President Bush has discredited superficiality.
An intellectual is a person interested in ideas and comfortable with complexity. Intellectuals read the classics, even when no one is looking, because they appreciate the lessons of Sophocles and Shakespeare that the world abounds in uncertainties and contradictions, and — President Bush, lend me your ears — that leaders self-destruct when they become too rigid and too intoxicated with the fumes of moral clarity.
(Intellectuals are for real. In contrast, a pedant is a supercilious show-off who drops references to Sophocles and masks his shallowness by using words like “fulgent” and “supercilious.”)
Mr. Obama, unlike most politicians near a microphone, exults in complexity. He doesn’t condescend or oversimplify nearly as much as politicians often do, and he speaks in paragraphs rather than sound bites. Global Language Monitor, which follows linguistic issues, reports that in the final debate, Mr. Obama spoke at a ninth-grade reading level, while John McCain spoke at a seventh-grade level.
As Mr. Obama prepares to take office, I wish I could say that smart people have a great record in power. They don’t. Just think of Emperor Nero, who was one of the most intellectual of ancient rulers — and who also killed his brother, his mother and his pregnant wife; then castrated and married a slave boy who resembled his wife; probably set fire to Rome; and turned Christians into human torches to light his gardens.
James Garfield could simultaneously write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other, Thomas Jefferson was a dazzling scholar and inventor, and John Adams typically carried a book of poetry. Yet all were outclassed by George Washington, who was among the least intellectual of our early presidents.
Yet as Mr. Obama goes to Washington, I’m hopeful that his fertile mind will set a new tone for our country. Maybe someday soon our leaders no longer will have to shuffle in shame when they’re caught with brains in their heads.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States of America
The following article (directly lifted from the New York Times, I am not trying to plagiarize!) sums up perfectly everything I have been feeling about this whole election. It talks about how Obama was such an unlikely but qualified candidate that had the right generation and circumstances behind him, the fatal flaws of the other candidates that led to their downfall, and most of all, the fact that Obama (and all of us) have much work to do to improve our country's embattled condition.
In Obama's acceptance speech, I felt that it was the first time I really heard OBAMA speaking, not his campaign advisors. It's not that I think Obama was a sham for the campaign, but it is true that you have to put on a game face, and that means some rhetoric. But I think Obama's promise to try to serve America in the most holistic and logical way is sincere, even if it gets dolled up in different packages to help appeal to multiple audiences. And the man is fucking eloquent.
I think my favorite line is when he said "I will listen to you, especially if we disagree." It shows that he is open and willing to grow. But it is evident that he has the strength of logic, reason, and a background in the law to guide him, so any decisions he makes will be well-informed and well-deliberated. That's what I voted for and that is what I have faith will occur. We shall see in January!
And now, the article:
The New York Times
November 5, 2008
Editorial
The Next President
This is one of those moments in history when it is worth pausing to reflect on the basic facts:
An American with the name Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a white woman and a black man he barely knew, raised by his grandparents far outside the stream of American power and wealth, has been elected the 44th president of the United States.
Showing extraordinary focus and quiet certainty, Mr. Obama swept away one political presumption after another to defeat first Hillary Clinton, who wanted to be president so badly that she lost her bearings, and then John McCain, who forsook his principles for a campaign built on anger and fear.
His triumph was decisive and sweeping, because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens. He offered a government that does not try to solve every problem but will do those things beyond the power of individual citizens: to regulate the economy fairly, keep the air clean and the food safe, ensure that the sick have access to health care, and educate children to compete in a globalized world.
Mr. Obama spoke candidly of the failure of Republican economic policies that promised to lift all Americans but left so many millions far behind. He committed himself to ending a bloody and pointless war. He promised to restore Americans’ civil liberties and their tattered reputation around the world.
With a message of hope and competence, he drew in legions of voters who had been disengaged and voiceless. The scenes Tuesday night of young men and women, black and white, weeping and cheering in Chicago and New York and in Atlanta’s storied Ebenezer Baptist Church were powerful and deeply moving.
Mr. Obama inherits a terrible legacy. The nation is embroiled in two wars — one of necessity in Afghanistan and one of folly in Iraq. Mr. Obama’s challenge will be to manage an orderly withdrawal from Iraq without igniting new conflicts so the Pentagon can focus its resources on the real front in the war on terror, Afghanistan.
The campaign began with the war as its central focus. By Election Day, Americans were deeply anguished about their futures and the government’s failure to prevent an economic collapse fed by greed and an orgy of deregulation. Mr. Obama will have to move quickly to impose control, coherence, transparency and fairness on the Bush administration’s jumbled bailout plan.
His administration will also have to identify all of the ways that Americans’ basic rights and fundamental values have been violated and rein that dark work back in. Climate change is a global threat, and after years of denial and inaction, this country must take the lead on addressing it. The nation must develop new, cleaner energy technologies, to reduce greenhouse gases and its dependence on foreign oil.
Mr. Obama also will have to rally sensible people to come up with immigration reform consistent with the values of a nation built by immigrants and refugees.
There are many other urgent problems that must be addressed. Tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance, including some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens — children of the working poor. Other Americans can barely pay for their insurance or are in danger of losing it along with their jobs. They must be protected.
Mr. Obama will now need the support of all Americans. Mr. McCain made an elegant concession speech Tuesday night in which he called on his followers not just to honor the vote, but to stand behind Mr. Obama. After a nasty, dispiriting campaign, he seemed on that stage to be the senator we long respected for his service to this country and his willingness to compromise.
That is a start. The nation’s many challenges are beyond the reach of any one man, or any one political party.
In Obama's acceptance speech, I felt that it was the first time I really heard OBAMA speaking, not his campaign advisors. It's not that I think Obama was a sham for the campaign, but it is true that you have to put on a game face, and that means some rhetoric. But I think Obama's promise to try to serve America in the most holistic and logical way is sincere, even if it gets dolled up in different packages to help appeal to multiple audiences. And the man is fucking eloquent.
I think my favorite line is when he said "I will listen to you, especially if we disagree." It shows that he is open and willing to grow. But it is evident that he has the strength of logic, reason, and a background in the law to guide him, so any decisions he makes will be well-informed and well-deliberated. That's what I voted for and that is what I have faith will occur. We shall see in January!
And now, the article:
The New York Times
November 5, 2008
Editorial
The Next President
This is one of those moments in history when it is worth pausing to reflect on the basic facts:
An American with the name Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a white woman and a black man he barely knew, raised by his grandparents far outside the stream of American power and wealth, has been elected the 44th president of the United States.
Showing extraordinary focus and quiet certainty, Mr. Obama swept away one political presumption after another to defeat first Hillary Clinton, who wanted to be president so badly that she lost her bearings, and then John McCain, who forsook his principles for a campaign built on anger and fear.
His triumph was decisive and sweeping, because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens. He offered a government that does not try to solve every problem but will do those things beyond the power of individual citizens: to regulate the economy fairly, keep the air clean and the food safe, ensure that the sick have access to health care, and educate children to compete in a globalized world.
Mr. Obama spoke candidly of the failure of Republican economic policies that promised to lift all Americans but left so many millions far behind. He committed himself to ending a bloody and pointless war. He promised to restore Americans’ civil liberties and their tattered reputation around the world.
With a message of hope and competence, he drew in legions of voters who had been disengaged and voiceless. The scenes Tuesday night of young men and women, black and white, weeping and cheering in Chicago and New York and in Atlanta’s storied Ebenezer Baptist Church were powerful and deeply moving.
Mr. Obama inherits a terrible legacy. The nation is embroiled in two wars — one of necessity in Afghanistan and one of folly in Iraq. Mr. Obama’s challenge will be to manage an orderly withdrawal from Iraq without igniting new conflicts so the Pentagon can focus its resources on the real front in the war on terror, Afghanistan.
The campaign began with the war as its central focus. By Election Day, Americans were deeply anguished about their futures and the government’s failure to prevent an economic collapse fed by greed and an orgy of deregulation. Mr. Obama will have to move quickly to impose control, coherence, transparency and fairness on the Bush administration’s jumbled bailout plan.
His administration will also have to identify all of the ways that Americans’ basic rights and fundamental values have been violated and rein that dark work back in. Climate change is a global threat, and after years of denial and inaction, this country must take the lead on addressing it. The nation must develop new, cleaner energy technologies, to reduce greenhouse gases and its dependence on foreign oil.
Mr. Obama also will have to rally sensible people to come up with immigration reform consistent with the values of a nation built by immigrants and refugees.
There are many other urgent problems that must be addressed. Tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance, including some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens — children of the working poor. Other Americans can barely pay for their insurance or are in danger of losing it along with their jobs. They must be protected.
Mr. Obama will now need the support of all Americans. Mr. McCain made an elegant concession speech Tuesday night in which he called on his followers not just to honor the vote, but to stand behind Mr. Obama. After a nasty, dispiriting campaign, he seemed on that stage to be the senator we long respected for his service to this country and his willingness to compromise.
That is a start. The nation’s many challenges are beyond the reach of any one man, or any one political party.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Jesse Jackson Apologizes for Open Mic Slight Against Obama
This whole incident pisses me off.
First of all...if you have a microphone strapped to your chest...assume it is on. Always.
The complete quote is paraphrased according to the captions on the O'Reilley Factor:
"Barack Obama is talking down to black people...I wanna cut his nuts off"
I can completely understand Jesse Jackson's frustration with wanting Obama to be more attentive to the African-American community. Jesse Jackson is a leader in the African-American community, so he should be an advocate on its behalf. But the fact is, Barack Obama is no longer just a community leader. He is running for the President of the United States, one of the most daunting and powerful jobs there is. He has to appeal to as much of the American demographic as possible. It's not that he is neglecting black people...it's that there are even MORE pressing problems that he needs to address that apply to a more generalized population - the war, the economy, national security, blah blah blah...let the man get elected first before you start banging on his door! If Jesse Jackson wants Barack Obama to be able to live up to his promise of helping the black community, he needs to be supporting him unequivocally so that Obama can even have a chance at this race.
And as far as Obama pulling Bill Cosby-like comments against the black community...let us not forget that Obama grew up with a single mother, so he probably has a soft spot for the plight of single parents. How is it bad that he is trying to advocate for two-parent households and general personal responsibility? Yes, there ARE societal and racial issues that plague poorer communities that ultimately result in these broken families. But at this moment in his campaign, there isn't much else that Obama can do except advocate, advocate, advocate, and try to be a positive influence. I guess Jackson's beef with that is that Obama talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. All I'll say to that is, at least Obama didn't have a love-child!
I do think Jesse Jackson has immense resentment for Obama...he too tried to seek the presidential nomination. But Obama is a wholly different candidate than Jackson, so the comparison isn't even there.
There are conspiracy theorists who think that the whole incident was a ploy by Fox News to make Obama look even worse for black voters. I wouldn't have put it past them...the whole thing seemed too perfect, that Jackson happened to say a loaded comment when they left the mic on. But if that is the case, then I have absolutely no respect for Jesse Jackson. Way to take us backward 10 steps just because you wanted 15 minutes of fame.
First of all...if you have a microphone strapped to your chest...assume it is on. Always.
The complete quote is paraphrased according to the captions on the O'Reilley Factor:
"Barack Obama is talking down to black people...I wanna cut his nuts off"
I can completely understand Jesse Jackson's frustration with wanting Obama to be more attentive to the African-American community. Jesse Jackson is a leader in the African-American community, so he should be an advocate on its behalf. But the fact is, Barack Obama is no longer just a community leader. He is running for the President of the United States, one of the most daunting and powerful jobs there is. He has to appeal to as much of the American demographic as possible. It's not that he is neglecting black people...it's that there are even MORE pressing problems that he needs to address that apply to a more generalized population - the war, the economy, national security, blah blah blah...let the man get elected first before you start banging on his door! If Jesse Jackson wants Barack Obama to be able to live up to his promise of helping the black community, he needs to be supporting him unequivocally so that Obama can even have a chance at this race.
And as far as Obama pulling Bill Cosby-like comments against the black community...let us not forget that Obama grew up with a single mother, so he probably has a soft spot for the plight of single parents. How is it bad that he is trying to advocate for two-parent households and general personal responsibility? Yes, there ARE societal and racial issues that plague poorer communities that ultimately result in these broken families. But at this moment in his campaign, there isn't much else that Obama can do except advocate, advocate, advocate, and try to be a positive influence. I guess Jackson's beef with that is that Obama talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. All I'll say to that is, at least Obama didn't have a love-child!
I do think Jesse Jackson has immense resentment for Obama...he too tried to seek the presidential nomination. But Obama is a wholly different candidate than Jackson, so the comparison isn't even there.
There are conspiracy theorists who think that the whole incident was a ploy by Fox News to make Obama look even worse for black voters. I wouldn't have put it past them...the whole thing seemed too perfect, that Jackson happened to say a loaded comment when they left the mic on. But if that is the case, then I have absolutely no respect for Jesse Jackson. Way to take us backward 10 steps just because you wanted 15 minutes of fame.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Coldplay - Viva La Vida (live in Amsterdam)
I am so spiteful toward Coldplay for totally selling out and going on iTunes ads like U2...but this song is infectious!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
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