Prometheus 6

Gotta make that dramatic entrance.

I tuned into C-SPAN for Hillary's speech so as to avoid the cable news noise. I'm trying to see all this noise from Hillary supporters as exceptional.

While we're waiting for Her Majesty's entrance let me answer the question that's been all over the news this morning: What Should Hillary Say?

Hillary should give a nice, basic concession speech. Nothing dramatic. See, no matter what this breech will not be healed by a single statement. So the first thing she must do is be sane. If she further inflames her cohort or Obama's, she is a problem.

Going forward, ESPECIALLY if she gets the VP nod (which is yet a possibility), she's going to have to talk to us. Black folk.

How ya like THAT?

Hillary is going to have to explain the racialism in her campaign in a way that satisfies us. And in my opinion it is possible to do that. Just not in this speech.

Recoil Election

We will hear a lot of tasteful tributes this weekend to Hillary Clinton's grit and fortitude. The Washington-based media may go a little over the top, but only out of relief. They know her well and recoil at what she stands for. They also know they don't like her, so to balance it out they'll gush.

But this I believe is the truth: America dodged a bullet. That was the other meaning of the culminating events of this week.

Mrs. Clinton would have been a disaster as president. Mr. Obama may prove a disaster, and John McCain may, but she would be. Mr. Obama may lie, and Mr. McCain may lie, but she would lie. And she would have brought the whole rattling caravan of Clintonism with her—the scandal-making that is compulsive, the drama that is unending, the sheer, daily madness that is her, and him.

We have been spared this. Those who did it deserve to be thanked. May I rise in a toast to the Democratic Party.

Hey, I like good writing. Now that she's over her crush on Dubya I can read without retching. 

We bow in the general direction of ubstu34.

Mad About the Guy

Lots of men go gaga over other guys. George Clooney goofs about his attraction to Brad Pitt. Nicholson Baker pines for his literary idol, John Updike. Giants fans nurse a thing for Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. It’s really kind of sweet. But in the realm of politics—where Tony Blair and Karl Rove were enslaved by George Bush’s ersatz cowboy cool, Bush fell for Vladimir Putin’s soulful eyes, and half the media is in love with John McCain—such passion is perilous. The author examines the Man Crush, and why it can end in tears.

by James Wolcott July 2008

First, a moment of silence.

Next, a quote rather than the cryptic hint I intended to leave.

We have to start asking ourselves a basic question whenever we hear the adjective “Black” attached to anything, especially a negative trend. Is it Black because it involves Black people, or because it stems from Blackness itself? If we don’t start making that distinction, we are going to keep creating caricatures of ourselves.

(Basically I'm doing whatever takes less effort.)

And a request for opinions on this.

None the worse for his harrowing experience.

Obama denies a rumor and questions the question

Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday batted down rumors circulating on the Internet and mentioned on some cable news shows of the existence of a video of his wife using a derogatory term for white people, and criticized a reporter for asking him about the rumor, which has not a shred of evidence to support it.

“We have seen this before. There is dirt and lies that are circulated in e-mails and they pump them out long enough until finally you, a mainstream reporter, asks me about it,” Obama said to the McClatchy reporter during a press conference aboard his campaign plane. “That gives legs to the story. If somebody has evidence that myself or Michelle or anybody has said something inappropriate, let them do it.”

Asked whether he knew it not to be true, Obama said he had answered the question.

More People Undergoing Colonoscopy in New York
By DAN HURLEY

The number of New York City residents 50 and older who have undergone a colonoscopy has risen by about 50 percent in five years, city officials announced on Thursday.

John McWhorter - thank you Darkstar

Juan Williams (may he get swept up in a anti immigrant raid in Texas) - thank you dnA

Wails of shock and grief - thank you Ta-Na

Never thought I'd need that title, but Hillaryites are still pushing it. I'll keep it tight to minimize collateral damage.

We know "Older American Women" are part of the heirarchy because they believe in the classic indicator of heirarchical behavior: new guy is last. And historically there's always been a struggle over whose "turn" it is, Older American Women or Black men.

From some of the comments Hillary's peanut gallery is spreading around it is apparent Older American Women don't understand the difference between their stuggle and ours.

This is it: Older American Women are assumed to be beneath men in the social hierarchy. They struggle to be considered on equal terms with the men in the social hierarchy. Black people are assumed to be outside the social heirarchy. We struggle to be included in the social heirarchy. 

Trying to cover Black women here, who folks want both outside AND on the bottom, would not be flattering to Older American Women or Black men.

It can, however, buy ecstacy. 

Former Chief of Broadcom Is Indicted
By LAURA M. HOLSON

Henry T. Nicholas III, the flamboyant co-founder and former chief executive of the chip maker Broadcom, was indicted Thursday in California on fraud, conspiracy and drug charges, including allegations that he spiked the drinks of other executives with ecstasy.

One indictment said he also maintained several residences that were used to distribute and sell drugs, including cocaine and methamphetamine, and threatened to kill people if they talked about his activities.

A second indictment filed in the Federal District Court in Santa Ana, Calif., and also unsealed Thursday, charged Mr. Nicholas and William Ruehle, the former chief financial officer of Broadcom, of improperly backdating stock options, forcing Broadcom to take a $2.2 billion write-down.

Lawyers for both men said they were innocent of all charges.

Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control
Bush wants 50 military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors
By Patrick Cockburn
Thursday, 5 June 2008

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.

The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq's position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country.

But the accord also threatens to provoke a political crisis in the US. President Bush wants to push it through by the end of next month so he can declare a military victory and claim his 2003 invasion has been vindicated. But by perpetuating the US presence in Iraq, the long-term settlement would undercut pledges by the Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, to withdraw US troops if he is elected president in November.

Voters to Hillary: No, You Can't

Dear Stumped,

Sen. Hillary Clinton's attempt to be the first woman to be the most powerful politician in the world has been momentous. It has also been the most revealing political campaign in American history. Does the wide availability of offensive anti-Hillary paraphernalia in stores and on the Internet provide evidence that sexism reigns supreme? Would the many personal, gender-based attacks on Clinton and her supporters be tolerated if she were not a woman? Would the deafening silence on this topic prevail if such crude references were made in relation to Sen. Barack Obama or his followers? Is the hatred of women that has been exposed in this campaign an accepted part of our culture?

-- Tony

Dear Tony,

There is plenty of sexism in America, but I disagree with your contention that Hillary Clinton's failed candidacy, and the way it was covered by the media, revealed a widespread disdain for powerful women across the country. It would be insulting to the American people, and grossly unfair, for Clinton and her supporters to push such a postmortem.

Clinton's candidacy was always more about advancing the cause of one political dynasty than it was about advancing the cause of women -- and much of the visceral reaction against her bid was a visceral rejection of her familial claim to the throne. Clinton had a chance to become the first woman to occupy the White House, yes. But another historic milestone would have been her status as the first presidential spouse to be elected president. That she and her husband would have moved back into a White House most recently occupied by the son of a former president would have only perpetuated the notion that our nation's presidency is in danger of becoming a nepotistic trophy.

When Clinton first embarked upon her quest for the Democratic nomination, there was no sense that hers was a long-shot candidacy seeking to break through the proverbial glass ceiling. No, her candidacy was first and foremost the establishment/dynastic steamroller. The other Democratic candidates were deemed hapless underdogs. And remember those rumblings about whether staffers who dared to join other campaigns would ever again find gainful employment in Washington?

Johnson said he believes Clinton understands that is it important now for her to recognize Obama as the presumptive Democratic nominee.

All that experience, and she just figured it out? I don't think so.

Maybe the Clintons sold shares in their campaign and Johnson is protecting his investment.

Clinton's Vice Presidential Campaign
By Dan Balz

Hillary Clinton is "absolutely ready" to discuss the vice presidency with Barack Obama and has authorized supporters to encourage Obama to pick her if he feels that will help unify the party and help Democrats win the White House, according to Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television and a prominent Clinton supporter.

Clinton, having risen politically in her husband's orbit, is a moon shining with reflected light. Were Obama to hitch himself to her, he would reduce himself to a reflection of a reflection.

For Obama, A Ticket Test
By George F. Will
Friday, June 6, 2008; A19

An axiom. When voters watch a presumptive presidential nominee considering this or that running mate, they think: What if the president dies? When the presumptive nominee considers this or that running mate, he thinks: What if I live?

Which brings us to the dotty idea that Barack Obama should choose to have Hillary Clinton down the hall in the West Wing, nursing her disappointments, her grievances and her future presidential ambitions while her excitable husband wanders in the wings of America's political theater with his increasingly Vesuvian temper, his proclivity for verbal fender benders and his interesting business associates. That this idea survived her off-putting speech Tuesday night, after Obama won the right to choose a running mate, is evidence that many Democrats do not fathom the gratitude that less-blinkered Americans feel for Obama because he has closed the Clinton parenthesis in our presidential history.

After some of the boilerplate geographic pitter-patter that today's candidates consider Periclean eloquence (". . . from the hills of New Hampshire to the hollows of West Virginia . . ."), she obliquely but clearly identified herself as the person who would be "the strongest candidate and the strongest president" and, pointedly, the person most ready to "take charge as commander in chief." There is a fine line between admirable tenacity and delusional denial, and Clinton tiptoed across it.

Even as Mrs. Clinton began to outline her exit strategy, discussing among advisers what she wanted her delegates to do, the race between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain rolled along.

What's to discuss? Seriously. 

I LOVE it when I can correct a brilliant muhfugga! Ego strokes abound!

I examined the past six weeks of polls, taken in 19 important states, that separately pitted Mrs. Clinton against Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama against Mr. McCain. The polls were compiled by realclearpolitics.com and include states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.

So Hillary would win if the USofA consisted of 19 discontinuous states. NOT the way to predict the results of a national campaign...

Two questions arise in the face of this result. Whom should the Republican candidate prefer to run against to maximize his party’s chances of retaining the White House? And what does it say of the Democratic delegate selection system when its winner would lose the presidency if an election were held today, yet its loser would win it?

Ending with questions means your evidence only allows you to imply, not conclude.

The article was crafted to mislead.

Stick to astrophysics, bruh. Your rhetoric is weak.

Vote by Numbers
By NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

IT appears that Hillary Clinton is going to suspend her presidential campaign this weekend, at the urging of Democratic Party leaders and superdelegates. Before that happens, Mrs. Clinton and the superdelegates might want to know this: if the general election were held today, Barack Obama would lose to John McCain, while Mr. McCain would lose to Mrs. Clinton.

About 1 in 11 Mortgageholders Face Loan Problems
By VIKAS BAJAJ and MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

About 1 in 11 American mortgages were past due or in foreclosure at the end of March, according to a report released on Thursday, a figure that is rising fast as home prices fall and the job market weakens.

Adviser Says McCain Backs Bush Wiretaps
By CHARLIE SAVAGE

WASHINGTON — A top adviser to Senator John McCain says Mr. McCain believes that President Bush’s program of wiretapping without warrants was lawful, a position that appears to bring him into closer alignment with the sweeping theories of executive authority pushed by the Bush administration legal team.

Ousted Executive Provides a Feminine Face to the McCain Campaign
By ELISABETH BUMILLER

WASHINGTON — Three years ago, Carleton S. Fiorina was the celebrity C.E.O. who was spectacularly fired by the Hewlett-Packard board. She produced a best-selling memoir, “Tough Choices,” but for the most part spent the years after her ouster in relative self-imposed exile from public life.

No longer. Ms. Fiorina, universally known as Carly, is back, this time reincarnated as a telegenic, take-no-prisoners surrogate for Senator John McCain.

On MSNBC on Thursday, Ms. Fiorina praised Mr. McCain’s fund-raising prowess with the announcement that he had raised $21.5 million in May. Last month on the ABC program “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” she pushed Mr. McCain’s proposal for a gasoline-tax holiday and brushed past the fact that she could not name a credible economist who supported it.

Clinton May Come Home to Find a Little Fence-Mending Is Needed
By DAVID W. CHEN

Do not get Antoine Njeim or Jaye Griffith started about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

To Mr. Njeim, 41, a jewelry store owner in Astoria, Queens, Mrs. Clinton was far superior to Senator Barack Obama, and was dealt an unkind hand in Florida and Michigan.

“Even now, I still think she has a chance,” he said. “If he stumbles, she can be the nominee.”

To Ms. Griffith, though, Mrs. Clinton’s expected endorsement of Mr. Obama on Saturday could not come soon enough. “She was starting to tick me off,” said Ms. Griffith, a retired legal secretary from Astoria. “This was long overdue. Just come back and be our senator now.”

A day after Mrs. Clinton effectively bowed out of the race for president, many New Yorkers were trying to purge their raw sentiments about the epic Democratic primary.

"Pre" because she hasn't withdrawn yet.

Superdelegate says Clinton campaign used 'divisive tactics'
Posted by dmurphy June 06, 2008 01:00AM

A Democratic superdelegate from New Jersey said he is worried that unifying the party behind Barack Obama may be difficult because the Clinton camp "has engaged in some very divisive tactics and rhetoric it should not have."

Rep. Rob Andrews, who supported Hillary Clinton throughout the primary season, disclosed he received a phone call shortly before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary from a top member of Clinton's organization and that the caller explicitly discussed a strategy of winning Jewish voters by exploiting tensions between Jews and African-Americans.

Ferraro said she has not been asked to raise funds for the Obama campaign.

Her grimy ass would be skimming the collection plate.

She really needs to shut the fuck up. Nothing she says now can help.

Ferraro wants Obama to pay Clinton’s debt
By Jordan Fabian
Posted: 06/05/08 12:42 PM [ET]

Geraldine Ferraro has a plan for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to recoup her sizable campaign debt: Have Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) fundraisers pick up the tab.

After a long primary season, the Clinton campaign’s expenditures have far exceeded the amount of donations it has received so far, and the campaign has accumulated debt of more than $19 million, according to campaign finance reports. Much of that debt consists of unpaid salaries and bills to vendors. 

When questioned about Clinton fundraisers being asked to join the Obama campaign, Ferraro told The Hill, “These are the people raising hundreds of thousands of dollars. I would hope that [Obama] would do the same thing with his fundraisers to pay off Hillary’s debt.”

Madame De Stael & Friends

Yes, we women are volatile and angry over the sexism Clinton has faced -- and that they face every single day -- and they have every right to be outraged.

Women are the largest Democratic constituency. Winning without support from these women -- these white Democratic women who are understandably feeling angry, insulted, and bitter -- will be impossible for Obama.

But there is a solution. Joan has outlined it, but she didn't make it clear and specific enough. Joan mentioned "a few simple pointers," but she needs to spell it out for Obama and the Obamabot/Obamanaics/Obama Boys.

Obama must apologize.

And he must apologize a lot.

In fact, if he takes Joan's advice, he should plan on apologizing from dawn to dusk, day in and day out, until November. Yes, Barack Obama has a lot of apologizing to do. Here is just a few of the many things Joan Walsh thinks he should apologize for:

The study was commissioned by the nation’s largest health-related philanthropy, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which on Thursday planned to announce a three-year, $300 million initiative intended to narrow health care disparities across lines of race and geography. Officials said it would be the largest effort to improve health care quality ever undertaken by a charity in the United States.

Two "for the record" statements. I appreciate the effort to "narrow" health care disparities, but it's like Hillary said about universal health care: if your goal is to eliminate the problem, that must be your goal. Eliminating health care disparities is NOT a national goal at this point.

Second point: This could become a series. Not beating up on Obama, just pointing out that voting for President isn't all that needs doing...and it's stuff we can't do alone. This, for instance, is a problem that can't be lifted by all the bootstraps that ever existed.

Research Finds Wide Disparities in Health Care by Race and Region
By KEVIN SACK

Race and place of residence can have a staggering impact on the course and quality of the medical treatment a patient receives, according to new research showing that blacks with diabetes or vascular disease are nearly five times more likely than whites to have a leg amputated and that women in Mississippi are far less likely to have mammograms than those in Maine.

The study, by researchers at Dartmouth, examined Medicare claims for evidence of racial and geographic disparities and found that on a variety of quality indices, blacks typically were less likely to receive recommended care than whites within a given region. But the most striking disparities were found from place to place.

A second committee report, also made public on Thursday, detailed a series of clandestine meetings between Pentagon officials and Iranian dissidents in Rome and Paris in 2001 and 2003. It accused Stephen Hadley, now the national security advisor, and Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy defense secretary, of failing to properly inform the intelligence agencies and the State Department about the meetings.

Senate Panel Accuses Bush of Iraq Exaggerations
By SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON — In a report long delayed by partisan squabbling, the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday accused President Bush and Vice President Cheney of taking the country to war in Iraq by exaggerating evidence of links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda in the emotional aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.