Tag Archives: America

First, Crowley and Gates, then O’Donnell and Trump?

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USREPORT-US-OBAMA-RACEObama hit the BIG KUMBAYA with Officer Crowley and Professor Gates.

Even those commentators who rail against Obama actually complimented him.  I don’t really know how I feel about it because the president cannot settle every dispute and he is not the Referee-In-Chief.  So, maybe it was a teachable moment in do-it-yourself mediation, preferably with some form of social lubricant or liquid confidence.

So, here is the lesson.  IT WASN’T ABOUT OBAMA.  It is about two people who need and WANT a forum to work things out.  And that makes Officer Crowley and Professor Gates the true stars of this summit.  This was a racially/socially/politically charged event and the two in the middle reached across the divide and set an example for a nation.

So, in that vein, Rosie O’Donnell made an overture to the Donald, which he turned down in a way in his typical fashion.  He was offensive.  Rosie, nice gesture, but don’t wait for Donald. He doesn’t have the right stuff.

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A beer with the Prez

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I don’t drink beer.  After four years of smelling mung beer in fraternity basements in college, the mere suggestion of beer makes my nose hair curl.

Have a beer with the President? You bet.  What, my strong aversion to beer?  Nah, dude.  If that is my ticket to have a sit down with the most powerful man in the nation (who happens to have the cutest ears in the nation), then, what me, an anti-beerist?  I’d even drink a rusty can of Rheingold circa 1969 if it gets me on the patio in the Rose Garden.

So, as I see it, here is how I need to orchestrate my 45 minutes with the Big Guy.  I have to do something outrageous that actually sparks outrage.  (I do outrageous stuff all the time, but no one seems to care.)  It has to threaten the kumbaya veneer of society in a menacing, yet ultimately not physically harmful, way.  Then it has to be on the 24-hour news RE-cycle, just in time for a Presidential press conference where the President is tired and talking about really important things critical to the nation’s future. Then, with seconds to go before he gets to leave the press room, have his make-up washed off and kick back with Michelle, a friend with press credentials has to ask about my incident.  Hopefully, he will be annoyed and the incident will touch a chord in him and he will have an authentic, I-am-human-and-I-have-unscripted-opinions moment.  POUNCE!!  I got my beer.

So, here is my checklist to close this deal:

  1. outrageous behavior: easy
  2. outrageous behavior that is offensive but does not involve weapons: hmmmmm.  Watch celebrity TV shows for ideas.
  3. get attention for outrageous behavior: Get a walk-on spot on “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!!”
  4. get on 24 hour news RE-cycle: [Do I have to say nice things about CNN?] Start by being an iReporter.
  5. time it with an important press conference:  after August recess when Congress is fighting over the health care bill.
  6. have a friend with a press pass to the White House:  We need to break this agenda item into 3 subparts:  (a) Find a friend, (b) find a friend with press pass and (c) find a friend with press pass to White House.
  7. have friend ask a question on my outrageous behavior (which I learned from the celebrity TV shows or the coverage on the Michael Jackson family circus):  do you think tickets to the US Open Tennis men’s and women’s finals will do it?
  8. Get Obama ticked off:  easy, just ask my partner.
  9. BEER TIME!!!!
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Thought for today, July 30, 2009

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Of course Obama’s ratings are going down.  The real issues facing our nation are complicated and the choices are hard.  And good compromise means no person or constituency gets everything he or it wanted.   Including the President and the Republicans.

The debate should be about facts.  Not scare tactics.  Glenn Beck called President Obama a racist.  Why, because he had a visceral reaction to an incident involving Professor Gates?  Glenn Beck had a visceral reaction to President Obama’s statement.  Let’s look at this:  Obama’s reaction caused him to say that police acted “stupidly”.  Glenn Beck’s reaction is to call Obama a racist. Who over-reacted?  Hmmmmm.

But all this did was divert attention from the issues. We don’t have time for this nonsense.  But at least Glenn Beck’s reaction shows that the right can’t counter President Obama’s plans and policies on the facts.

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Sixes and Sevens

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I am feeling at sixes and sevens as my partner’s grandmother used to say.  It is the summer but it doesn’t feel good to take time off since productivity has been low. 

It isn’t like the old days when you were rushing around before vacation and leaving phone numbers where you can be reached while away and all the time thinking, “I deserve this time off, why can’t people leave me alone?”  Once I closed a deal near a beach (I stepped away so other vacationers couldn’t hear my drill sargeant shouts) and, according to a colleague with whom I spoke after my vacation, my rapid fire instructions (ok, yelling) were punctuated by the sounds of sea gulls, much to the pleasure of some on the phone. 

Now we are afraid that our blackberries WON’T buzz or beep or vibrate or whatever.  So, I just put mine on quiet so I control the silence, and not the economy.  (Little petty victories are important.)

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Did anyone understand what she said?

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On Sunday, Sarah Palin gave another speech, this time, REALLY stepping down.  As a parting gesture of kindness, I will assume that her unintelligible press conferences of last month were the result of a hastily-made decision to quit.  (Because we she says she is not a quitter and yet she is quitting in the middle of her term, there she goes again speaking English words strung together in a most fascinating way.  Maybe it is Palinese.)

She had over a month to prepare her REAL good-bye speech and calibrate her parting impression on her former constituency and the nation.  Hmmm.  She did not put that time to good use.  I wonder what her high school English teachers think?  Are they cowering in a corner?  Is this the product of a public school education in one of the richest countries in the world?  If so, G-d help us.

Sarah, dear, get a speech writer and stick to the teleprompters.

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On my mind (with apologies to A.M. Rosenthal)

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No one ever trusted politicians.  Even our Founding Fathers flung the muck around to win an election.  Many of them did not in their personal lives live up to the high ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutions which they so lovingly drafted.  So, even in hoary (or whore-y) times, you could tell most politicians were lying because their lips were moving.

In the last 30 years (which is roughly equivalent to my adult memory), the clergy have disappointed me mightily in big and small ways.  First, Bernard Bergman and the nursing home scandal.  He dared to wear an outward sign of piety as he sat accused of heinous acts against other human beings.  Then the priests who abused children, making a mockery of the cross that they wore and the robes they donned. Then the Taliban clerics destroying cultures and killing people in the name of their haywire fundamentalism.

Even with all of this, I assume that people start out dealing with each other in good faith and with decency.  (Yes, I am a schmuck.)

So, why am I on a rant? The straw that broke the camel’s back: New Jersey.  This is not some small scandal.  Money laundering, trafficking in human organs, influence peddling and stealing from the  public coffers across many cities and communities.  Not just any time.   IN THESE TIMES WHEN WE NEED OUR POLITICIANS AND CLERGY TO LEAD US OUT OF THE BIGGEST FINANCIAL AND SOCIAL MELTDOWNS SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

I want to yell at each of those arrested in this New Jersey scandal who as politicians or rabbis enjoyed our collective trust and faith: “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” (to quote Joseph Welch, a lawyer at Hale & Dorr who represented the Army at the 1950’s McCarthy hearings)

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE!!

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Sunday night dinner chez nous

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When we are not subverting nature, the social fabric of this country and the Word of G-d, my partner and I have (together with our son) have my sister, my brother-in-law and my dad over for Sunday night dinner.  Sometimes, my cousin joins us and, in the non-summer months, my partner’s father comes, too.  (Both our mothers are now of blessed memory.)

My brother-in-law and my son look at books that contain facts about lots of different things in the ways that big boys and little boys do.  So far, not subversive.  But wait, they are reading about pre-historic animals and their presently existing descendants, if any.  Ok, evolution and not creationism or intelligent design (has anyone holding the latter view ever looked at these scary ugly beasts?) Check the subversive box.

We gather around the table for dinner.  A summertime fare.  No chilled white wine from the Napa Valley.  So, ok so far. Wait, watercress, roasted pine nuts and pasta in the pasta salad.  Effete eastern liberals.  My dad and partner have camomille tea.  AAAAArgh. Check another subversive box.

We talk about world events.  Concerned citizens.  Good sign.  OH, NO, we are talking about health care and end of life care and how not every test is necessary and, even under orthodox doctrine, a procedure can be rejected if it prolongs the function of an organ but not the functioning of the person.  Crazy liberals using orthodoxy against those who would preserve life at all costs (except when these same people condone capital punishment).  Oooh, looking like a strike out, but since we caught the “pro-life; pro-death penalty” group in its own hypocrisy, let’s call that a foul tip. No check in the subversive box.

It is 7:45pm and time for our son to have a bath, read a story and go to bed and for me to do the dishes.  Sounds a little Cleaver-like.  We all hug and kiss at the door and our son yells, “family hug!” so three generations huddle together in a big hug, squeeze and many kisses.  Uh, oh, hippie commune.  Strike three. Big check in the subversive box.

Guess we’ve clearly drank the Obama kool aid.  It tastes good, so I think I’ll get more.  And for the record, my partner and I have had Saturday night dates since our son was a 1 year-old (he is 7 now). So, if POTUS and FLOTUS need some date night ideas, they should feel free to have their staff members ask us.

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Thought for today July 26, 2009: Why newspapers must survive

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The 24 hour news REcycle needs information to feed the machine it created.  If there is no news, then the machine requires that the hosts “dig deeper” to create news or to raise ancillary issues to the level of important news.  Michael Jackson and Jon and Kate are not as important as (although they are very important to those who love them) news items as are the recent North Korean alleged shipment of arms to Myanmar, the election issues in Iran, the health care bill, the economy and about ten other issues that have fallen into the news black hole.

True, the newspapers are not necessarily heroic purveyors of important information  — they were complacent about the Iraq war.

But the pressures of a 24-hour newsday does not encourage in-depth journalism.  Just because a headline ran over cable the night before doesn’t mean that the news is stale the next day.  Headlines do not contain all of the information one needs to know.  News is not like an iPod or a Nintendo game — good until the next version comes out.  A news story evolves as people and movements weigh in and complicate the issues.

I prefer newspapers.  I prefer articles that have taken a week in creation.  They are more informative, more textured and better considered than the regurgitation of the same pat phrases heard on television journalism. But they are not gospel.  So, one needs to read many sources, including some representing the opposite side of one’s general political leanings.

If independent newspapers become obsolete, the free flow of information will be drastically curtailed in our society and that is a threat to our freedoms and liberty.  And if it happens, I will get my news from Jon Stewart.

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Obama’s comment

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I, for one, cannot imagine what it is to be racially-profiled or black in America.  So when No Drama Obama says something out of character, it may come from a place that I have never been and can never understand.  And I am grateful never to have been “there”.  So, I don’t judge the comment.

At his news conference, President Obama spoke almost entirely about health care until the last question.  The 24-hour news recycle only focused on his answer to that last question, the one about Professor Gates.

Here is a man who is handling crises at home and on every continent every day and who is juggling numerous policy initiatives toward a stronger country (many may disagree with his approaches, but not his commitment to this country).

Whether or not he needed to apologize, he did apologize.  SO, LET IT GO and get back to hitting him hard on the issues that matter — economy, Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, healthcare and where Michelle and he are going for their next date night.

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Thought for tomorrow July 24th (because I will be pondering this tomorrow, too)

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There were more than 40 arrests in NJ today on any number of federal crimes. Many of the arrested were orthodox Jews, and RABBIS at that. Here are my two thoughts on this:

Religious people doing criminal things always makes me wonder how they think they’re closer to G-d.

Jews leave the corners of the cemeteries to bury thieves and prostitutes. I bet the cost of those graves in NJ sky-rocketed today.

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