Never Forgetting, But Moving On

Last year, on September 12, 2012, the day after the eleven-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I read an article in the New York Times. I found one snippet of the article to be profoundly disturbing. Like many 9/11 anniversaries, there was a rally at Ground Zero on this day last year. Someone was speaking to the assembled crowd and the line that received the loudest applause was not, “We will never forget,” but “We will never forgive.”

I understand if someone who lost a loved one on 9/11 has not forgiven those who are responsible, but I don’t think “We will never forgive” should be our rallying cry on this day or any other. If we rally around a statement like that it puts us in a reactive state of mind, the one everyone was in the morning the towers fell. 

I have searched for and have failed to find a video I remember watching on this day twelve years ago. The video was of a man, one of the thousands walking out of Manhattan on the Brooklyn Bridge that day. He saw that a news camera was filming the scene and he took a moment to yell into the camera. His voice was understandably filled with rage and he said, “You see this, you see this?” as he pointed toward downtown, “Whoever you are, wherever you are, we are coming for you. We are coming for you!” It was a moment of raw emotion that we all felt that day. It was healthy to have that feeling, to express it, but not healthy to hold on to it.

During the interregnum, between that crisp, fall morning and this morning twelve years later, the US’ ventures in the Middle East have often been misguided by the “We will never forgive” attitude, an attitude that helped fuel erroneous claims that Saddam Hussein was connected to 9/11 and that he was intent on using WMDs or getting them into the hands of terrorists. It is an attitude that has fueled the rise of Islamophobia in the US. It is a “shoot first—think later” state of mind that some still cling to and that others are slowly beginning to shed as the country learns how to walk that fine line between Never Forgetting and Moving On. Do both today.

Just Because This Is Awesome

Sullivan referring to Dick Cheney:

But I guess when you’ve been caught red-handed torturing prisoners, you go big or you go home. He’s gone big, and as far as I am concerned, he can go to hell.

Election Eve 2012

I have really missed being able to blog about this election season. The other day I looked back at how many blogs I was writing in 2008. It was a lot. On average 28-33 blogs per month leading up to and during the month of the election. 

I just went back and looked at my election live-blogging from 2008. I don't think I will be doing the same tomorrow, as I don't have the kind of audience that I did four years ago. Nor do I think I'll have much to say, but we'll see about that. 

I haven't read the live-blog from 2008 since, well, November of 2008, so there were definitely things I forgot about. Like this:

7:15pm - A CNN correspondent at the McCain celebration in Arizona says, "It is a much different mood here." Yeah, like a funeral. 

8:23pm - MSNBC calling Ohio for Obama. Self-protective denial is wearing very, very thin. And with that, Josh Marshall isn't live blogging anymore. He is "F--k Ya Blogging". Priceless. 

8:59pm - Via TPM, the Rocky Mountain News calling Colorado for Obama. [Remember the Rocky Mountain News?] 

9:23pm - The shots of Grant Park are extraordinary. I'm a little nervous about such a huge celebration. I hope people are smart and safe. I hope Obama is safe. Meanwhile in Arizona, it looks like a singalong for McCain fans. 

9:50pm - Fox calls Virginia for Obama. 10 minutes out from calling the whole race? Possibly. Tap the keg. Sullivan writes, "You drinking yet? Stupid question." 

10:00pm - Called it for OBAMA! OBAMA! OBAMA! OBAMA! I can't believe Americans just did that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

11:19pm - I've said all I can say at this point. What a night. What a night. All is not wasted. Goodnight.

I think what's clear about the election this year, is that we probably won't have the race called by 9pm Mountain Time, like it was in 2008. I have a busy day on Wednesday so I am not prepared to stay up very late tomorrow. I might have to call it quits at midnight if nothing has been called by then. But, if Obama would somehow manage to win Florida and Virginia or Florida and N.C., the race could easily be called by 9pm. However, that's extremely unlikely to happen. Even if Obama manages a victory in Florida, it'll be too close to call tomorrow. At least that's my view. Nevertheless, I remain hopeful for a called race sometime tomorrow evening. I still think this is a possibility because of Obama's appearing to hold on to Ohio, PA, N.H., Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and maybe Virginia. If his margin of victory is great enough in those states for them to be called blue tomorrow night, then Obama will get his four more years. 

To me, the choice couldn't be clearer tomorrow. If you paid attention from 2001-2008, what makes you think returning to those policies is a good idea? That's what a Romney presidency is, a return to the past. The economy was in free fall when Obama took over. We were losing approximately 750,000 jobs a month at the time Obama moved into the White House. It took him some time, but he started to reverse that trend and he still is. It's a slow recovery and I understand some of the frustration out there. But I don't understand American impatience with the recovery. This impatience signals to me that these people never grasped the severity of the economic crisis. I generally don't understand American impatience with nearly everything anyways, but when it comes to the idea of just returning to the same old policies because four years of different policies haven't dug the country out of the deepest economic abyss it has seen since the 1930s is preposterous. This is to say nothing of Obama's other accomplishments like the Affordable Care Act (which actually does insure 30 million people who otherwise wouldn't have health insurance and who won't if Romney is elected and successfully repeals ACA, don't believe me? look it up), ending our atrocious, misguided war in Iraq, and concentrating on the only one that mattered and putting it to an end in Afghanistan, and killing Osama Bin Laden (something Bush had lost sight of ever since his obsession with Iraq truly took ahold of him in the wake of 9/11). 

I have never believed in a President who is going to solve all of your problems. No such President exists. And I think too much of America doesn't know that, which is certainly a contributing factor to the impatience I referenced above. However, I truly believe that there is an honest, caring man in Obama who cares for the greatest number of Americans, far more than Romney does. And because of this I am not choosing the lesser of two evils. 

I voted early last Friday for the man who has expressed deep and passionate concern for working-class Americans and their plight, who actually has the guts to ask for a tax increase for the very wealthiest in the country. If I was in that "wealthiest" category I would gladly accept the tax increase, but I'm not, and I don't feel bad for anyone in that tax bracket who would be asked to pay 3-4% more. 

I still believe in Obama. I don't believe a vote for Obama means a vote against America, but that's exactly the meme that the Right has pushed over the last two years of campaigning. This idea that America is becoming un-American, that our opportunities are slipping through our fingers, and that Romney represents the "true" American spirit is simply vacuous. 

I am hopeful for tomorrow and I believe there is clearly a right and a wrong choice on the ballot. I hope America makes the right one.

The Power of Propaganda

I was recently visiting with a friend who is smart, wise, successful, and much older than me. We were just starting our day together and as a topic of discussion I shared my class lineup at the University of Denver this fall (I’m an MA candidate at the Josef Korbel School). One of the classes I am taking there this fall is called modern Islamic political thought.

Thinking my friend was about to further the discussion of Islamic political thought I listened intently to the words that came out of my friend’s mouth. “Egypt’s looking for a new Islamic leader. I say let’s give him ours.”

I might have looked like a deer caught in the headlights for a second while I took these words in, realizing my friend truly wasn’t joking. And then I held a private funeral in my head for the intelligent conversation that was clearly not going to happen.

I played dumb. “I don’t get it,” I said. “What do you mean?”

“Well, that’s a political thought,” my friend said.

I was thinking that to call it a political thought is to give it more merit than it’s due. “What’s a political thought?” I asked.

“That we should give Egypt our Muslim leader,” my friend responded.

“Obama is not a Muslim.” I tried to say this as calmly as possible.

“Oh, he’s not?” My friend responded.

“No, he’s not. And for you to call that idea a political thought isn’t right. It’s absolutely garbage.”

My friend looked taken aback. My stare was intense and I could feel my pulse rise as I waited for a response, but there was none. That was the end of our political discussion for the day. But for the rest of the afternoon I thought about our conversation and I was embarrassed over and over again for my friend. That my friend could believe such a lie, such propaganda, was sickening.

It was my first personal experience with someone who has truly been fed a political lie enough times that in their head the lie has found a permanent home as a supposed truth. This particular lie is often presented as a legitimate concern by right-wing media outlets. On Fox News someone might joke about it, but no one is reprimanded for it, no one speaks up and says, “We are better than that.”

Yesterday’s conversation exhibited the power of this propaganda machine. The lie starts with one person and is then adopted by a cabal, whose only interest is their own, whether it be the political downfall of a certain politician or a desire to stay rich, powerful, and barely taxed, or a combination of these. These people are powerful enough to own TV stations, radio networks, whole news organizations, and they use these assets as hugely powerful tools to present myths and rumors as fact while simultaneously hiding the truth from our eyes. (See Roger Ailes and Donald Trump.) Gradually, the lie spreads across the audience, who might have even dismissed it as ridiculous the first time they heard it or read it (I hope my friend did at least that). But the saturation and the never-ceasing tide of money coming from the wealthiest Americans has proved itself strong enough to hold hostage the intellectual and independent-thinking abilities of many Americans. (See the continuing belief by some that Obama isn’t American or that Obama is a Muslim.)

One of the more popular lies among the Right (although, to clarify, it’s not a lie for them) is to compare the Obama administration to that of the Third Reich. Yes, the same propaganda machine that convinced my friend that Obama is a Muslim, would also have you believe Obama harbors a secret agenda of spreading national socialism across America.

Nothing about Obama’s policies has ever evoked, for me, a whisper of Nazi Germany. In fact, it was the conversation with my friend that had me contemplating many a table conversation in 1930s Germany, when it might have been shared by a friend or family member that they had joined the Nazi party to the absolute dismay of anyone at the table who had a brain. I am not calling anyone a Nazi here. If you want to see that, watch a week of Fox News and you’ll see someone hint, at least once, that an Obama policy is strikingly familiar to one of Hitler’s policies. No, I am referencing the power of propaganda. The Nazis certainly mastered it and both the Right and the Left have adopted some of their strategies. But now, at this point in America’s history, I think it’s clear that the Right’s propaganda machine is churning out a lot of lies and doing whatever it takes to shift the mantle of power back to their side by spreading fear and angst that we have a president who is not American, but also a president who is a secretive Muslim who is colluding with Islamic nations across the world in order to favor that religion’s interests.

I am in awe of the propaganda machine and its ability to convince smart people that they most adopt such vacuous ideas. Next time, don’t consume the lies. Instead, try to do the thinking yourself. 

Watch To The End

The Daily Show
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Brilliant.

The 20th Debate

I'm not watching every minute of this debate. I gave up on them a long time ago, but I do read Sullivan's live blog of the events. This bit from his reaction about the Iran issue is great:

 

9.40 pm. Santorum really does seem to be implying that Obama has some kind of secret agenda vis-a-vis Iran. And he pretty obviously would launch a massive war on Iran. We're hearing the kind of language we heard after 9/11. Exactly the same language; exactly the same arguments; exactly the same paranoia.

There seems to be no memory of the Iraq war at all. It never happened. There was no error. There is nothing to explain. And yet they do not seem to realize that that catastrophic war is the reason Barack Obama is president. It's like an etch-a-sketch party. Shake it one election cycle - and the past disappears completely!

Worries About Iran

John Mueller has a good comment on Iran published on The Guardian's website on February 16. For all those people getting their panties in a bunch about Iran's nuclear program, this is a good read. So much of the talk about Iran is exactly like the talk about Iraq in 2002 and 2003. Have we forgotten how that turned out for us and thousands of Iraqi people? Never get involved in a land war in Asia. Haven't all the saber-rattlers in the US seen The Princess Bride:

Money quotes:

Iran would most likely "use" any nuclear capacity in the same way all other nuclear states have: for prestige (or ego‑stoking) and to deter real or perceived threats. Historical experience strongly suggests that new nuclear countries, even ones that once seemed hugely threatening, like communist China in the 1960s, are content to use their weapons for such purposes. 

Indeed, as strategist (and Nobel laureate) Thomas Schelling suggests, deterrence is about the only value the weapons might have for Iran. Such devices, he points out, "would be too precious to give away or to sell" and "too precious to waste killing people" when they could make other countries "hesitant to consider military action".

...

There is also an uncomfortable truth. If Iran wants to develop a nuclear weapon, the only way it can be effectively stopped is invasion and occupation, an undertaking that would make America's costly war in Iraq look like child's play. Indeed, because it can credibly threaten invaders with another and worse Iraq, Iran scarcely needs nuclear weapons to deter invasion. This fact might eventually dawn on its leaders.

Air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities might temporarily set them back, but the country's most likely response would be to launch a truly dedicated effort to obtain a bomb, as Iraq's nuclear weapons budget was increased twenty-five-fold after its facilities were bombed by Israel in 1981. Moreover, Iran might well respond by seeking to make life markedly more difficult for US and Nato forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The GOP Debates

Yes, I am actually watching part of the first GOP debate of the 2012 election. My first thought, I think I know why Palin isn’t up there, besides the obvious reason (she hasn’t announced an official run for the presidency), because she would have to talk and answer questions if she were in a debate. And the less she speaks and attempts to answer tough questions, including those on U.S. history, the more likely she is to keep the support she has. It is best if she stays away from talking so people don’t have the opportunity to be reminded of her striking lack of common sense, knowledge, and grasp of the English language.

Secondly, the GOP has a lot of work to do. There are a lot of people on the stage tonight and not one of them, at least in my opinion, is a standout. It feels like 2008 all over again. That’s not good for the Right.

Thirdly, Pawlenty just referred to Iraq as one of the “shining examples of success in the Middle East.” I’m sorry, but I didn’t know eight years of our presence there was considered a success when Iraq still suffers from civil war-type violence with car bombs and suicide bombers on a monthly basis. It was an amazingly stupid comment.

The Sunday Paper

A sleepy, lazy Sunday. A day of rest, at least this week, and the Sunday New York Times. Perfect. No interruptions as I read the main section of the paper front to back. First, a story about soldiers returning home after a year at war. Their ability, or lack thereof, to adjust to normal life. Clearly not a soldier, I am left to imagine how difficult this might be, but the reporting and the pictures make it possible to an extent.

Then I read about G.O.P. legislators moving to tighten rules/laws on voting. Basically, in about 13 to 15 states there are movements under way to make it necessary for voters to present a valid driver’s license, passport, or other state issued ID when they go to vote. Considering you have to have one of those in order to register to vote, I don’t think you should be required to show up with one in order to vote. Voting, at least to me, seems like one of the last great bastions of democracy, unfettered by bureaucracy and legislation. Great, you are registered to vote. All you have to do is show up to the right polling place, give your name, the volunteer or paid election worker checks it off a list, and you go make your vote. And then, of course, you get a sticker. Everything else related to electing our public officials is so damn complicated. Making the process of voting more complicated will truly discourage some from voting.

Next, a story on the F.B.I. and how vigilant they have been since 2001 in wasting their time and money by monitoring domestic terrorists who don’t have a crime more serious than trespassing on their record. I understand some of these people aren’t outstanding members of society, but 24-hour surveillance, really?

Not surprisingly, there were articles on suicide bombings in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The bombers targeted fellow Muslims. And as I read these articles, an overwhelming, and now familiar feeling of hopelessness about our wars in the Middle East swept over me. When the terrorists are so willing and committed to kill their own brothers and sisters then it seems clear that no extended American occupation of a country over there is ever going to end this violence. I just feel it is their problem to address. Ten years in Afghanistan, progress here and there, ups and downs, and still rumors of corruption swirl around President Hamid Karzai’s government. When does it end?

There is one Arab country where Americans are wildly popular right now. Libya. Wildly popular should be put in context though. This means the American flag and effigies of our leaders aren’t regularly burned and stomped on. An American or Westerner out for a jog in eastern Libya might even get an enthusiastic yell or honk. NATO rules the skies between Gaddafi loyalists in the west and the rebels in the east. And this, “Many Libyan parents with newborn girls are reportedly naming them Susan, in honor of Susan E. Rice, the Obama administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, for her vote in the Security Council in favor of establishing the no-fly zone.”

And the French legal system would likely approach the Strauss-Kahn case with timidity. It seems it is common practice that high-ranking officials or celebrities get preferential treatment upon being accused of a crime. Or, their case is hidden from the public eye and no one really finds out about their crime or punishment.

This past week, when President Obama attempted to toast the Queen of England, the band playing “God Save the Queen” cut him off. The Queen, refusing to acknowledge the President during the song, eventually turned to him once the song was over to end the toast. I love England and British culture, but some of the etiquette world leaders and the public are expected to adhere to when they are around royals is so ridiculous. I just have a hard time taking all that pomp and circumstance seriously.

Lastly, amid all the articles I read, was an account of the devastation in Joplin, MO. Here is a passage from that article:

Here, one day, is a distraught man who describes how, while helping to dig in search of the living, he heard the distant cry of a little girl. “Don’t worry, honey, I’m getting there!” he called out, again and again, digging so frantically that his hands began to bleed. Then, suddenly, he was there. He uncovered a talking doll, and he wept.

Then he dug elsewhere, he says. This time he uncovered a dead girl, and he wept.

Midterms

This is my push, my one political blog before the midterm vote next week. This is where I stand. I voted for Obama, a human, not the second-coming of Jesus, so getting crap done takes a long time and given the problems the country faces now his presidency is one of the hardest in decades. He is doing his best and I believe it is much too early to see if his best is good enough for what America needs. I believe the rising tide of fear in this country is a cyclical event pushed on us by the party not in power and by the media. But I also believe the opposition has gone over the edge with claims of socialism and comparisons of Obama to Hitler. I think if Obama’s 2008 supporters go out there next Tuesday and vote for a Republican, they are voting in fear and they will be fueling a machine which runs on myth and superstition, a machine which is led by Glenn Beck, who hasn’t completed one college-level course in anything, and Sarah Palin. To so soon hand the reins of power back to the Republicans would be a huge mistake. Think about it. Agree or Disagree. Just be patient and sane and go vote in one week.

Like I said, I voted for Barack Obama in 2008. I was part of that liberal tide that swept across America in the wake of eight Bush years. But I was not under a magical spell when I worked for the campaign, nor was I when I voted for the man in November. I voted for a young, relatively inexperienced politician, but I also voted for a Constitutional Law professor, a man with a top-notch education, which a disturbing portion of America believes makes a man disconnected and out of touch with the “real” America. I thought then—and I still do—that a president with an Ivy League education isn’t a bad idea, but a good one. Some say his education classifies him as an elitist. Good.

I was wary of lavishing too much praise on candidate Obama when I was working for him. And now I am wary of agreeing with every one of his policies just because I voted for him. I don’t agree with some things he has done. Frankly, he hasn’t been as liberal as candidate Obama, almost kowtowing to the Republicans at times. I want him to be tougher and show off the intelligence I know he has. It reminds me of the debates with Hillary and the other Democratic candidates running in the primaries. Obama’s levelheadedness was agonizing at times in the face of ridiculous criticisms he faced about his friendship with Reverend Wright and his connection with William Ayers. I wanted Obama just to lash out once and put these absurd people in their place, both in the media and in the party. But it never happened.

I eventually really appreciated that about candidate Obama, but I am having a hard time appreciating that about President Obama. By voting for Obama I gave him a personal mandate to run the country the way candidate Obama wanted to run the country. Really close Gitmo, don’t just try once, hit a roadblock and give up. Really end the wars in the Middle East…don’t get bogged down in Afghanistan, much more of an endless war than Iraq ever was. Really end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, not just keep promising it will end on your watch. Really restore sanity and an America I can be openly proud of when I am not in America. Don’t let the people across the aisle get you down, not tiptoe around an issue until it is too late for it to be resolved the way candidate Obama promised it would be.

But do not mistake me for someone who regrets voting for Obama. Not. Even. Close. At times, as explained above, I am impatient with the progress, but then I see someone from the Tea Party on TV or I read the signs pictured at right-wing rallies and I realize I am very, very patient and comfortingly sane. For now, the Democrats deserve to keep their hold on the House and the Senate. Obama hasn’t been in power for two years yet. How would he have solved the greatest recession since the Great Depression in 22 months? Americans need a heavy dose of patience and sanity. Give the man two more years and see what happens. Hell, we gave Bush eight years, we can afford to give Obama and his squad half that much.

Hate for Hastings

I noticed it. All this contempt for this so-called freelance journalist, Michael Hastings, with the word 'freelance' uttered in such a way as to connote he is one of those not-so-good journalists who has to take assignments as they come to him and that's why he is writing for Rolling Stone, a magazine that doesn't do journalism anymore. On the contrary, the Hastings piece is the type of journalism that is now, for the most part, extinct at the larger media outlets. It is so extinct that the publication of a great story makes for a story itself, at least for all the mainstream outlets.

All this to say, there's a great piece over at Vanity Fair about the hate for Hastings. This is the second semi-political post in as many days and another interesting article. Here the link: Why the Hacks Hate Michael Hastings.

Petraeus for McChrystal

Sullivan has a must read post about hiring Petraeus to replace McChrystal. Money quote:

This much we also know: Obama will run for re-election with far more troops in Afghanistan than Bush ever had - and a war and occupation stretching for ever into the future, with no realistic chance of success. Make no mistake: this is an imperialism of self-defense, a commitment to civilize even the least tractable culture on earth because Americans are too afraid of the consequences of withdrawal. And its deepest irony is that continuing this struggle will actually increase and multiply the terror threats we face - as it becomes once again a recruitment tool for Jihadists the world over.

Oscar Predictions and Results

I broke my Lenten fast from TV to watch the Oscars last night. Call it cheating, whatever you want, I wanted to see them and I think watching one program in 40 days is still okay.

Anyway, let’s see how I did with my predictions. I started out okay, but then I hit a streak of three bad picks in a row. That’s okay. Those were all guesses.

16 Correct Picks. 8 Incorrect Picks.

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker – I was right. This movie was good, but had I seen all ten of the nominated films, I’m not sure I would have felt it was worthy of a win. Overall, I think the field seemed a little weak this year. I was left with a lot of feelings after watching The Hurt Locker, but not the feeling that I had just seen a movie worthy of Best Picture.

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow – Right. Not much surprise here I think. Although, in my opinion, the movie she directed wasn’t downright amazing, the work that went into it had to be amazing. I mean, think of all the successful movies about the Iraq War. Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock – Wrong. I went with Carey Mulligan, the underdog. After seeing how truly young she looked I knew I wasn’t going to get this one right. Bullock must put in a hell of a performance in The Blind Side because I have never thought of her as an actress that could beat out the likes of Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep. Odd.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges – Right. Easy pick. I don’t think anyone was shocked. His acceptance speech was great, not necessarily the words, but the childlike giggles that came out of him in between sentences and natural pauses in his speech. You could see and hear his genuine happiness. Very cool.

Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique – Right. She said something about the Academy awarding the performance and not the politics and how she was very thankful about that. Well, I don’t really know what that means because in my recent memory most of the actors that did the best job were awarded the Oscar. She would probably disagree with this sentiment, but that’s the way I see it. She was awarded an Oscar because she deserved it and for no other reason.

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz – Right. Easiest pick of the night. I love his English. He sounds so damn proper.

Animated Feature: Up – Right. Also an easy pick. It is hard to dethrone the genius of Pixar.

Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker – Right. You have to give the award to the writer who finally made an interesting movie about at least one of our current wars. All the rest, unless they were documentaries, have failed miserably.

Adapted Screenplay: Precious – Right. I just went with momentum here because Precious has it. Although, Up in the Air would not have been a bad pick.

Art Direction: Avatar – Right. Any surprise here? It would have been like snubbing Christoph Waltz. Just not going to happen.

Cinematography: Avatar – Right. This was a beautifully shot movie. Lots of long shots with little cutting to make you feel like you were in Pandora. It is hard to turn it down.

Film Editing: The Hurt Locker – Right. This movie, compared to the rest, seemed the most artfully cut with very little wiggle room. Meaning, if it was done just slightly different, it would have been a completely different movie.

Foreign Language Film: El Secreto de Sus Ojos – Wrong. I don’t know anything about these movies. Totally guessed. Totally wrong.

Original Score: Up – Wrong. I picked Avatar, but I did mention Up as a strong contender. I did think Avatar’s soundtrack was impressive. It wasn’t stale and over-the-top like it had a great danger of being. Just right.

Best Original Song: Weary Heart – Right. Jeff Bridges said this song helped make the movie. I went with his feeling.

Costume Design: The Young Victoria – Right. Rule #1: When making a prediction for the award for costume design, go with, when available, the movie made about the monarchy.

Best Documentary: The Cove – Wrong. I didn’t see any of these, but this movie looks depressing, which is often a good sign when you are in search of great documentaries.

Best Short Documentary: Music by Prudence – Wrong. I went with the GM movie. This was the acceptance speech where one of the people involved in the movie totally interrupted the winner’s acceptance speech. A weird moment. He didn’t look happy.

Best Short Film (Animated): Logorama – Wrong. Where does one see these movies is my question?

Best Short Film (Live Action): The New Tenants – Wrong. This was part of my bad streak last night.

Best Makeup: Star Trek – Right. Okay, back on track. Sort of easy to pick this winner.

Best Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker – Right. See what I wrote about the editing.

Best Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker – Wrong. I went with Transformers. I wonder how often do the two big sound awards go to different movies?

Best Visual Effects: Avatar – Right. Surprise. Surprise.

Sorry, no charts

People sure are getting their panties in a bunch about the potential cost of healthcare. You see them, mostly Republicans, all over the TV these days bitching and droning on about how much $1 trillion is? We are presented with all these arbitrary descriptions of what one trillion dollars would look like. For example, if one trillion in dimes were laid out end to end, the line would stretch around Rush Limbaugh’s head 12 times! Do these childlike charts define one trillion dollars to us any better than $1,000,000,000,000? Perhaps to simple minds, but for most, I think, that number perfectly conveys its size. We get it. It’s big.

You know what’s also a big number? 3 x 1,000,000,000,000. That’s 3,000,000,000,000. This is also known as the cost of war in Iraq. This isn’t a secret. It has been researched by and written about many news organizations. You can read about the cost of the Iraq War here, here, and here.

I don’t know about you, but I would rather spend a trillion on healthcare than three trillion on a war we should have never been fighting in the first place. However, a lot of people feel differently. They would rather keep the only superpower in the world from having some sort of nationalized healthcare option than spend some time getting pissed off about how we were duped into a war that is costing three times as much as this healthcare plan.

The PO - Political Orgasm

When was the last time the evening news started off its broadcast with a story about Iraq? I have heard this question posed many different times, but I’ve been thinking about the answer a lot more lately because the news is completely saturated with the last four days of the campaign.

The answer for me is several weeks ago and months ago if you exclude any story about the economy. What will the pundits and journalists have to talk about and report on, respectively, after November 4^th? I am sure they will find something. Hopefully, we have a clear winner on the 4^th so that this doesn’t become 2000 all over again.

The pundits have been talking politics for a good year now and some of them hit it 24 hours a day. Actually, the news networks have just evolved into political news teams all day, every day. If you really want news you might have to read the paper. Of course you will have to turn a few pages in to get non-political news, but it is there.

I think some of the talking heads are going to spontaneously combust on Tuesday night. They have been building and building for this moment, some for months and others for years, and now it is time for them and the whole country to climax Tuesday night.

What an unfortunately accurate choice of words. 

Town Hall Debate

Live-blogging the VP debate was a first for me. It is something the pros do quite often and I thought I would try to emulate them and possibly disguise myself as a pro blogger. Anyway, as you can see below, there was no live-blogging for the presidential debate the other night. I was busy that night, but I did record the debate on my sleek VCR and finished watching it last night.

I quickly get bored when the debaters dive into Washingtonian and their round about way of speaking far beyond the time limit, but not really answering the questions. There was a lot of that Tuesday night from both candidates. This seemed to be the pattern of the debate. The question is asked. McCain speaks first, offering one to three sentences throughout his speech that sort of answer the question. Obama gets a chance to respond, also offering one to three sentences, and then getting interrupted by Brokaw because he is talking too long. Might I add, Brokaw's persistent mentioning of the answer time limits did get a little annoying. I say, let the candidates answer the question and hack it out for a healthy amount of time. What is two minutes?

Anyway, in a debate like this, where questions aren't really being answered, the candidates use the question as a catalyst to launch them into some aspect of their platform. There is a lot to judge, but I am not necessarily judging a candidate's answer, but what they spend their time talking about. With that said, I thought Obama spoke eloquently about where he wants to lead America and how he will lead America. McCain did this as well, but since McCain maintains that he and his running mate are the ticket for the average American, then he needs to be able to relate to them in a debate like this and he didn't. This is somewhat ironic because all afternoon the news networks touted his skills in town-hall style debates, but McCain seemed uneasy in this format with Obama. He was nervously wandering around the stage, barely making eye contact with Obama and referring to Obama as "that one" during one point in the debate (I don't believe McCain's use of "that one" was at all a racially charged comment, as some have suggested, but it was definitely a poor choice of words).

One thing that I love about the way the Obama campaign operates is their relatively clean campaign strategy. I was disappointed earlier this week when the campaign rolled out a criticism against McCain for his role in the Keating Five. Although that is an important part of McCain's political career, discussion of that old scandal is not going to move the country forward. Anyway, since McCain has been going with spectacularly dirty attacks for about a week now I think those attacks reserved Obama the right to bring up McCain's "Bomb, bomb, Iran" and "Next up, Baghdad" quotes in the middle of the debate. Admittedly, I was laughing out loud when Obama did this because that is a funny attack, but also because it is entertaining to hear attacks like that from Obama because truly, it seems to go against his character.

Many questions posed to the candidates dealt with the country's biggest struggles: the economic crisis, the war in Iraq, successfully capturing/killing Osama Bin Laden, Social Security and health care reform. And throughout the whole debate, McCain was saying he had the solutions to all these crises. He wouldn't necessarily explain how he would solve them, but would just offer something up like this on finding Bin Laden:

"I'll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I'll get him. I know how to get him. I'll get him no matter what and I know how to do it."

I know McCain cares about solving these issues, but since he has all these magical solutions to the country's biggest problems he should share them with the current president. What the hell are you waiting for McCain?

The Daily Show also picked up on this last night in their debate analysis. I post the whole video because it is all great, but they touch upon the all-knowing McCain at the very end.

The VP Debate - Live Blogging

Holy Crap! This is good television.

9pm

Palin just winked at me.

I love how Palin injects slang into her answers. "Darn right." What the? She just said Joe Sixpack. I've heard that one before, maybe even from Obama, but it just sounds so dorky.

TPM already mentioned this, but Biden does look scared to look at anybody but Ifill.

Biden's response to the tax accusation was level-headed.

Again, Palin emphasizes her "straight talk" so she can speak to the American people.

Palin just referred to herself as middle class. I read a report today that estimated the Palin family assets. Wait for it...wait for it...$1.2 million. Damn, I want to be in that middle class.

Characterized, Joe. Characterized. Get it out.

Err, McCain does say one thing to one group and say another thing to another group. Palin should know this. She reads all newspapers and magazines.

That bankruptcy bill that was passed seems like a bad idea. Watch Maxed Out.

Oh, yes. Palin is going to talk about energy. Go on. I mean, after all, McCain says you are the foremost energy expert in the country! Is she really lecturing us about energy independence? Unbelievable.

Palin acknowledges the global warming trend, but she still refuses to say it was caused by man and refers to cyclical global temperature change.

Hah, Palin just corrected Biden on the Republicans chant "Drill, Baby, Drill." Biden said, "Drill. Drill. Drill."

So, to the support granting benefits to same-sex couples question, her answer was "No." Right?

We have a plan for withdrawal, Palin says. Do tell. I don't know of this. "Your plan is a white flag of surrender." - Palin to Biden. Hm, it didn't sound like a white flag of surrender to me.

Palin talking about Iran is scary. Very, very scary.

Sullivan thinks Biden is throwing this debate away. He thinks Palin's chirpy, stylistic approach is beating Biden. He may be true.

Her smiles are outrageously distracting. It is so comical. "Maverick." Blah, blah, blah. "Ruffling feathers."

Palin is lecturing on truth. Funny.

I agree with Palin. It is very obvious she is a Washington outsider.

10:06pm...The longest pause from Palin. She made it over an hour without an overly awkward silence.

A Palin Administration? I saw that last night on The Daily Show. She would put it on eBay. I'll post the video later.

Can we please stop using "Maverick"? That reminds me, at the RNC I saw someone holding a sign that read "Mavrick". That was amazing.

"Say it ain't so, Joe." And "doggone it." Classy.

Check the video. I don't think Palin's comment about not knowing what the VP does was a lame attempt at a joke.

Sullivan seems to be changing his opinion on the debate. This great bit from the Dish:

"Doggone it." "Say it ain't so, Joe." "God bless her." A shout out to her home town school. A total ramble of nothing on education. Total ramble.

Biden's criticism of Cheney was sweet.

10:19pm - I was hoping Palin would wink at me again. She just did.

Damn, Biden's getting choked up about his son was powerful. Staged? Doubt it. But either way, it worked. But then he goes a little long with his "Maverick he is not" speech. That was a little painful at the end.

10:30pm - Palin's closing statement...Ah, here comes the attack on the media. Palin loves answering questions, but she doesn't like interviews and press conferences. That was classic.

Biden's closing statement...Hitting the economy. That's smart. That's the weak spot right now and Biden seems to be doing a good job by hitting the reestablishment of the American dream as a core tenet to an Obama-Biden Administration.

Joe wins! But hey, I'm in the tank.

The Blues

Blogging is somewhat foreign to me now. I don't know how much I like that. Actually, I don't like it at all, but I am dealing with it. There are times to write about life and there are times to live it. For most of the last year I've been dealing with the former. So, right now it is exciting to be caught up in a new experience and something I really enjoy.

It has been a busy week. Tomorrow is a big day for the campaign. The Unite for Change House Meetings are launching tomorrow across the country. In Milwaukee alone, there are over 100 of these meetings taking place. I am leading one of them tomorrow. I should be leading two, but that host flaked on me. That's a different story. Anyway, I'll hit the house meeting again in a later blog.

Summerfest started yesterday. If you need a refresher, Summerfest is "the world's largest music festival". It is held every summer right here in Milwaukee. A bunch of us went down there to canvass the crowds coming in and it was a tough day for me. I think the Juneteenth crowd spoiled a lot of us because everywhere we turned during that event people were screaming for Obama. However, the midday Summerfest arrivals were on the opposite end of the spectrum. They were nearly all folk from well outside Milwaukee who had traveled in from the dairy land country of Wisconsin. I was told to "Fuck Off" several times. I also had an Obama shirt on that people liked to point at and simultaneously say "Fuck Obama." That was a lot of fun.

Right before leaving I was having a somewhat heated talk with a man that was wearing his son's dog tag around his neck. He told me his son was killed in Iraq. He was primarily concerned about Obama's stance on abortion, but I tried, unsuccessfully I might add, to guide the discussion elsewhere. He wasn't having it. He kept coming back to abortion and then to the question of experience. I then mentioned that Obama has as much experience as Lincoln had before he became the POTUS. His response came in three stages. First, he immediately mentioned that Lincoln was assassinated, which is a pretty disturbing response. What does that have to do with anything? Did the assassination of Lincoln make him a poor President? Second, he mentioned that many more Americans died under Lincoln than Bush. This was another pretty weak argument. Did he really expect me to think that the Iraq War should be fought and that the Civil War was a waste of our time? Up to this point he didn't sound like that much of a Lincoln fan, but then he switched sides on me with the third stage of his argument. He said the Lincoln/Obama comparison wasn't a fair one. That in no way does Obama measure up to Lincoln. I was confused and I had to cut the conversation short anyways. That was a frustrating moment for me because it is hard to cut those talks short because they really get me fired up and I want to stay engaged, but those people are not the people I should be spending my time and energy on. At this point in the game, we just shouldn't be doing that, but nonetheless, it was an intriguing conversation, but very, very depressing as well.

Summerfest left me in a funk, but all I had to do to get in a better mood was to think back to the guy I saw on Sunday. He must have just gotten out of church. I saw him get out of his car from where I was standing outside a Family Dollar store. He was dressed from head to toe in blue. Blue suit. Blue leather shoes. Blue hat. Blue accents on his sunglasses. The only thing he was missing was a blue cane.

I don't feel blue anymore, but I do feel tired.

Another Tour

This picture from Sunday's paper made me stop what I was doing. Without reading the caption I assumed it was related to the Iraq War. Sure enough, dad just left for a second tour. One of the saddest pictures ever.

There is no line to cross

From last week's Newsweek:

“We have enemies for which no attack is too cruel.” – Republican presidential candidate John McCain, in a major address to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, in which he argued that the United States has a moral duty to remain in Iraq.

Although McCain isn’t specifically referring to torture, his thought process here is the same one being used by the current administration. It is an especially striking quote to come across after reading the torture memo last week.

The government’s overwhelming message is that we have enemies for which no interrogation is too cruel, for which no method is considered torture.