Framing the Issue

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Once again Charles Krauthammer makes me want to vomit.

Today’s interpretation of Barack Obama’s superb address on race and his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, this past week is vial and no more than a clever attempt at framing the issue. Krauthammer seems to imply that all of Wright’s speeches are volatile and venomous. He seems to want to believe that week after week Barack and Michelle Obama would bring their children to hear someone speak ill of America and sow the seeds of racial hatred. He wants to believe that Wright wasn’t a man who could get caught up in the intensity of sermon and perhaps loose sight of what he was saying. He wants to believe, like so many others, that this pastor is not a man of the Christian faith at all, but a man full of hatred and contempt for whites and America. Well, ninjas ain’t that stupid.

Krauthammer asks:

Why did you give $22,500 just two years ago to a church run by a man of the past who infects the younger generation with precisely the racial attitudes and animus you say you have come unto us to transcend?

Do you, Krauthammer, truly believe that Jeremiah Wright is a one faceted, America hating machine? Or will you acknowledge that as a pastor he, week after week, speaks of the gospels, of peace, of love, of truth and of unity? That he, too, would like nothing more than a nation indivisible, but that his observations and understanding of the past and present has made him realize that there is much moral and social progress to be made.

His language, at times, may not have been chosen with the utmost attention to political correctness, as yours and mine surely is. But he is neither politician nor pundit, he is a pastor. And Barack Obama has made it clear throughout this entire campaign that he is a rational, intelligent, independent and thorough thinker. The bottom line is: this relationship is of no concern in political discourse. If it is, then let’s talk about McCain asking Hague to support him.
And that whole thing about crack, well, let’s be real. As my ninja, Orange Menace, said “You think some hood from the PJs invented crack?” Who’s to say. But take a look at the sentences given for those involved with crack versus the much more expensive cocaine and you got yourself a f*cked up situation.

Dave Grohl for President?

img_2.jpg

He announces his candidacy. With statements like this he could go places:

I have never done cocaine, ever in my life. I have never done heroin, I have never done speed. I have had my share of acid and mushrooms and I have smoked fields of marijuana, but by the age of 20 I realized, if I don’t stop now, I’ll never have the chance to be the President of the United States of America. This dream is a long time in the making, it’s been almost 20 years of preparing to run silently. Gathering my ideas and support. I haven’t done drugs in a long time. Because they are against the law.

Keith Olbermann: Correct the Wrong Done

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtAja20kTCA[/youtube]

Keith Olbermann takes on Clinton and the Geraldine Ferraro scandal – calling on Clinton to do more to distance herself from the comments [and suggesting that they are part of a trend in Hillary's campaign to dismiss Obama as only in the race because of his race]. Plus, did you know this #*$%@ said this same thing about Jesse Jackson in 1988? Sounds like she’s been doing this crazy old rich white lady thing for decades.

Where am I at?

In the past day and a half I have received, literally, hundreds and hundreds of e-mails asking why I haven’t weighed in on the Spitzer scandal and Obama’s win last night. To you ninjas, I say: damn’ back the truck off. But it seems that you ninjas need ninja news, so stay tuned.

Blazing Saddles Redux

1984

Geraldine Ferraro, half of the 1984 Democratic ticket that lost in a landslide to Ronald Reagan, is offering her political wisdom to the Democratic party. Her revelation: Obama is only winning because he’s black. Whoa! I never saw that one coming. Let’s stand back and take a snapshot of this event, because it’s got to be the first time in history that being black with a Muslim name was ever an advantage in politics outside of a majority black district. I imagine Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are kicking themselves for not playing up race more in their token runs at the White House.

Furthermore, she claims Obama is dividing the party.  How dare Barack inject negativity, savage attacks and race into a presidential race by actually winning. But, in all fairness, the right thing to do is let Ferraro clarify her position, in case she was misquoted. In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, Ferraro said, “My comments have been taken so out of context and have been spun by the Obama campaign as racist that it’s doing precisely what they don’t want done — it’s going to the Democratic Party and dividing us even more.” Geraldine, you’re just the gift that keeps on giving!

How can assigning someone’s success to their race possibly be taken out of context? Maybe telling a California newspaper that, “if Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position.” OK, maybe this merited a response to Geraldine, but in a kinder, gentler form she’d better understand and not get offended, i.e. a musical, like “Fiddler on the Roof”. Obama could come out in a beard and hat and sing:

“If I were a white man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I’d biddy biddy bum.
If I were a free, white man.
I wouldn’t have to work hard.
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
In your campaign you biddy, diddy lost,
And Reagan diddle-didle-didle won”

His response would make about as much logical sense as Geraldine’s initial remarks, and she’d probably think it was hip-hop anyway, but it’s truly difficult to work up a righteous anger over a remark as inane as that. We don’t want her feelings to get hurt. Oh, this just in…she told ABC, “My concern has been over how I’ve been treated as well and hurt, absolutely hurt by how they have taken this thing and spun it to imply that in any way, any way I am racist,” she said. Whoop, there it is! She also said she has fought against discrimination for 40 years. Hmmmm…..sounds like Hillary’s resume writer. Maybe my history is faulty, but after losing to Reagan, I seem to recall two unsuccessful attempts at the Senate. Perhaps someone should remind Geraldine that she is actually not qualified to be giving advice in the first place. Advice should come from winners, not losers, innovators, not archaic technicians of failure. America needs new leadership…oops…sorry.

That’s HER line.

[Op-ed by MNP correspondant Jill The Shill]

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSN1216129120080312

It’s Because I’m White

geraldine_ferraro.jpg

A member of the House of Representatives, Geraldine Ferraro is best known for being the first and only woman to represent a major party in a presidential election. Today she’s known for her support of the Clinton campaign – attacking the media, the Obama camp, and basically everyone else for being biased against a female candidate. Not only that, but she has made it a point that Obama plays the ‘race card’ too frequently [he has?], arguing both points February 26th on Tom Ashbrook’s NPR show ‘On Point‘ [Gender and the Clinton Campaign – definitely worth listening to, if you’re following the campaign].

“Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says, ‘Let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world,’ you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up,” she told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, California. “Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. How’s that?”In another interview Tuesday, she compared Obama’s situation to her own 24 years ago, when she was the first female candidate for vice president.

“I got up and the question was asked, ‘Why do you think Barack Obama is in the place he is today” as the party’s delegate front-runner?

“I said in large measure, because he is black. I said, Let me also say in 1984 — and if I have said it once, I have said it 20, 60, 100 times — in 1984, if my name was Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would never have been the nominee for vice president,” she said [CNN].

So…basically, to sum things up: it’s okay that she was almost VP because she’s a woman, but she’s using Barack’s being black to diminish his viability as a candidate. AND while she’s suggesting [inaccurately, I might add] that the Obama camp cries racist every time something doesn’t go their way [which they do NOT - they claim offense when OTHERS bring up ethnicity/skin color, which is Obama's right as the only non-white candidate in this race], she [and the Hillary campaign] are doing everything they can to force this whole ‘people don’t want Clinton to win because she’s a woman’ thing down our throats. Hypocritical? This ninja thinks so. I’m actually insulted by the suggestion that these WASPy rich ladies have it harder than a black man. And frankly, let’s face the facts: most people don’t care that Hillary’s a woman – people don’t like her because she’s herself, not because she has female parts.

Just to throw this out there: is anybody else simply exhausted by “rich white people” [since I already used the term WASP] and their ability to turn themselves into the victim in any and all situations? And the Clinton’s do it best – with their ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ defense [and Bill’s being black, of course]. But seriously – when was the last time these people really got the short-end of the stick? The collapse of imperialism?

Full story – Ferraro: ‘They’re attacking me because I’m white‘ – at CNN.

Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC

obama_mac-clinton_pc.jpg

Reporters covering the candidates have already resorted to traditional analysis of style — fashion choices, manner of speaking, even the way they laugh. Yet, according to design experts, the candidates have left a clear blueprint of their personal style — perhaps even a window into their souls — through the Web sites they have created to raise money, recruit volunteers and generally meet-and-greet online.On one thing, the experts seem to agree. The differences between hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com can be summed up this way: Barack Obama is a Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC [NYT].

So basically, Obama can do everything Clinton can – but he looks cooler, is more user friendly, doesn’t break down/crash, and is GREAT at making photo albums + playlists for you iPod. What more could you ask for?

We have all seen the ads, we know the right thing to do is to buy a Macintosh, but we hesitate. Will I be able to open all my PC files? Will it be able to run Outlook? Am I really going to make those photo albums and movies anyway? Am I cool enough for a Mac? [Huffington Post]

Full article at the New York Times, and the Huffington Post.

Open Letter to Hillary Clinton

You all should go check this article out over at the green site. It’s an open letter written by one of Hillary’s fellow Wellesly grads. An excerpt:

You have connections to Monsanto through the Rose Law Firm where you worked and through Bill who hired Monsanto people for central food-related roles. Your Orwellian-named “Rural Americans for Hillary” was planned with Troutman Sanders, Monsanto’s lobbyists.

Genetic engineering and industrialized food and animal production all come together at the Rose Law Firm, which represents the world’s largest GE corporation (Monsanto), GE’s most controversial project (DP&L’s – now Monsanto’s – terminator genes) [here], the world’s largest meat producer (Tyson), the world’s largest retailer and a dominant food retailer (Wal-Mart) [here]. 

[ ...]

What Bill did for Monsanto “genetic engineering” goes beyond inadequate concepts of giving corporate friends influence: He unleashed genetic engineering into the world. And then he helped close off people’s escape from it.

Just Ig’nant

Over the weekend an Iowa Republican, Rep. Steve King, has claimed that “terrorists would be ‘dancing in the streets’ if Democratic candidate Barack Obama were to win the presidency.” Well, yesterday King reiterated these comments on (surprise surprise) Fox News. TPM, as always, hookin’ us up with the clip:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nu0QbLrDAg&eurl=http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/[/youtube]

It is most unfortunate that 1. people think like this and that 2. other people listen and agree. Aren’t we supposed to be a really well educated country?

Also, where the hell is Barack Obama coming out against these kinds of statements? He needs to be all over this kind of thing.

Cuba and the Computer

Thank you to our ninja trIzlam for bringing this to the attention of the politricksters.

The New York Times’ piece on Cuba’s “Cyber-Rebels” suggests a very new type of revolution going on in the socialist nation. The technological advances of the 21st century have, apparently, proved to be quite trying for Cuba’s government. The island nation has major restrictions on internet access  (which is not widely available to the public) and has a press that is strongly regulated by the state. As a result, Cubans are going cyber to get and spread information that may be considered sensitive [read: unacceptable] by the government. One such instance of unsanctioned information was the result of a recent confrontation between students and the president of Cuba’s National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, in the form of video footage. The video can be seen below. A situation like this rightly begs the question: what will the information age do to/for Cuba?  

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MNX8skoZNc&eurl=http://guanabee.com/2008/03/digital-underground-smuggles-r.php[/youtube]