Saturday, January 21, 2006
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Primitive Liberals Need To Stop Attacking Hillary
Hillary got attacked on Iraq. And then Hillary got attacked on the plantation remark. These liberals have joined ranks with the right wing types who attacked Hillary when she delved into health care in the early 1990s.
Hillary is a woman. I think that is central to who she is. There is no skirting the gender issue. Hillary's person is key to progress on gender relations in the country and the world. It is just that Hillary is smarter and more capable than most men around her, like the all and sundry in the Senate.
Disagreeing on policy is one thing. But then if you disagree with Hillary on Iraq, you, by definition, also disagree with every other Democrat on the Hill who has had the same or a similar position. When was the last time you attacked John Kerry? That is another prominent Dem who also voted the same way. The gender divide becomes so very obvious when you compare how these two leading Dems are dealt with.
If you are a 5 (The Spectrum On Gender), you are still a Dem, if you vote Dem, but that requires you not be hostile to the 6,7,8,9 and 10 people. Otherwise I doubt your progressive credentials.
Liberals can sometimes sink the boat.
My policy difference with Bush on Iraq is he used war as the weapon of first resort. War should be the weapon of last resort, after all other options have been exhausted.
There should be phased out troop withdrawal, but it makes no sense to say come home tomorrow. Hillary is mostly being attacked by people who want all the troops to be home tomorrow, possibly yesterday.
Liberals will simply have to come around to the idea that winning elections is central to the progressive plank. And for that strong on defense in key. Defending Saddam is not how you go strong on defense. We disagree with the neocon way of dislodging Saddam. But then we have to offer a progressive way to dislodge the Saddams of the world. If it is between the liberals doing nothing, and the neocons waging war on Saddam, I am for war.
That does not mean I am for war. But I am for proactively spreading democracy the progressive way. But the isolationist liberals will have none of it, at least not yet. (Nepal Message To Top Democrats) So if you are anti-war, come around to the idea.
Some liberals are addicted to protest politics. They abhor power politics. They actually are against the idea of the Democrats coming into power, or at least they act like it. That defeatist mentality has to go. Shake up, wake up.
Pat Robertson Is Sick, Anti-Faith
Race, Gender, Progressive, Conservative Divides
The Spectrum On Gender
Pan American Desi Caucus: Brown Is Beautiful
Nepal Message To Top Democrats
Michelle Bachelet: Yet Another Woman
Soviet Health Care In America
Social Progress: Show Me The Money
The Israeli Wall Is Wrong, Hillary
Blacks, Hispanics At The Core Of The Democrat Rainbow Coalition
The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power
Obama Was In Town And I Missed It
French Society: No Easy Solutions
Dick Cheney, Nelson Mandela, Howard Dean
Say Hello To Appu
Bill Clinton Had Icecream For Lunch
Jesse Jackson On Martin Luther King Boulevard
50% Women Friends, 50% Women Colleagues
U2, Me Too
This Is What I Am Talking About
Soaking In Howard Dean
Who Is Leecia Eve?
To: The Good White People In The South
Dean-Hillary-Obama Ticket
Hillary Speaks Up For NYC
In The News
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf sworn in as Liberia's first female president ABC Online, Australia
Text of Inaugural Address by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of ... AllAfrica.com, Washington
South Africa: Mandela Says President Elect Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's ... African News Dimension, South Africa
Nation salutes Africa's first elected female leader The Age, Australia
Visitors
Friday, January 06, 2006
10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong
10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong (from Craig's List, emailed to me by Damien Mallen, KY)
01) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans. 
Visitors
| 00:32 | Shaw Internet, Canada |
| 02:47 | Asahi Net, Japan |
| 10:36 | Playboy Enterprises, United States |
| 13:47 | University of Louisville, Louisville, United States |
| 13:48 | CTX Mortgage Company, Dallas, United States |
| 13:57 | University of Florida, Gainesville, United States |
| 15:52 | Cablelynx, Little Rock, United States |
| 15:52 | Opal Telecommunications Internet Service Provider, United Kingdom |
| 15:53 | ProXad, France |
| 15:53 | Data Fortress Systems Group Ltd., Canada, United States |
| 15:57 | Tele2 France SA, France |
| 16:02 | AppliedTheory Corporation, United States |
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Pat Robertson Is Sick, Anti-Faith
Your first reaction is disbelief when this guy opens his mouth. Then you realize he is catering to a ready constituency. That constituency votes Republican. Pat Robertson appeals to the ignorance of his crowd. He calculates. The Bible is just an excuse for his bigotry and his stupidity. The apartheid people also quoted from the same book.
The Republican party at its core houses people who are fundamentally hostile to the non-Christian faiths. The Republican party is an anti-faith party.
Robertson suggests God smote Sharon CNN
Robertson: God punished Sharon
Imperato Blasts CNN’s Cafferty on For Critcizing Robertson’s ... I-Newswire.com (press release)
Conservative Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson links Sharon's ... Mainichi Daily News, Japan
UPDATED AGAIN: Ariel Sharon Said Paralyzed, On Life-Support The Moderate Voice
PatRobertson.com
CBN.com - The Christian Broadcasting Network - The 700 Club with ...
The Anti-Pat Robertson/Christian Coalition Site
Pat Robertson and Christian Coalition Quotes
Pat Robertson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robertson: Positive Atheism's Big Scary List of Pat Robertson ...
Media Matters - Robertson called for the assassination of ...
CNN.com - No casualties? White House disputes Robertson comment ...
CNN.com - US dismisses call for Chavez's killing - Aug 23, 2005
Robertson said that Sharon's illness was retribution from God for his recent drive to give more land to the Palestinians. He also claimed former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 for the same reason.
Bush Disavows Pat Robertson Remarks on Sharon Voice of America
White House condemns Robertson's comments CNN
White House Denounces Robertson's Remarks on Sharon Washington Post, United States
Pat Robertson Imagines God as a Petty, Clownish Thug Yahoo! News
US attacks TV host on Sharon slur BBC News, UK
Robertson slammed by White House for comments CTV.ca, Canada
Rage Over Robertson's Wrath Remark CBS News
White House Criticizes Pat Robertson Forbes
Robertson, Iran leader imply stroke was deserved Boston Globe, United States
Jewish Leaders Take Issue With Robertson Comment WXii 12.com, NC
White House offended by evangelist's comments on Sharon Monsters and Critics.com, UK
Race, Gender, Progressive, Conservative Divides
What I am saying here goes with the theme of this blog: how to get the Democrats back into power and keep them there. You are trying to get a majority vote. How do you go about it?
The race-gender diagram by the way is one where the whites in America have already become a minority, which will be a few swift decades from now, already true in places like Texas and California, not to say in all the big cities. And there is a major omission here: class.
And I am not really talking protest politics. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King were masters of protest politics. I am more interested in power politics. That is why I like to read up on presidents and prime ministers. And I also think one thing that really holds progressives down is the crowd has almost an aversion to power. They just want to be able to protest forever. I find that self-defeating. Protest is all good, but ultimately it has to lead to power. The actual good is done with power.
The race-gender equation is simplistic. It does not quite work that way. We need to be looking at the progressive-conservative divide instead. The spectrum concept could be applied to more than race and gender, it looks like.
The Spectrum On Gender
The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power
You define your segment of the spectrum in a way that you are targeting about 60% of the voters. There is plenty of room for the 9s and 10s, and people at the other end of the spectrum and in the middle have the option to move up. But you don't let the puritst hijack the agenda and pedal you right out of power.
Another thing is political consciousness. Political consciousness is like literacy: it has to be acquired. Most of the political work is to do with helping raise people's political consciousness.
A woman who is a 3 on the gender spectrum is not with us, a woman who is a 6 is with us. The same applies to race and ethnicity. I know too many brown folks who have internalized the racism to think otherwise. A white male who is a 7 on race is with us, a brown guy who is a 4 is not with us.
If you think about it, all those ethnic and cultural boundaries are sexual. I wrote this up on that one: Interracial Connections.
There is right and wrong, desirable and undesirable, and there is social reality. Ethnic demarcations happen to be reality, but they do not have to be negative reality. We progressives are not offended by diversity, we celebrate it.
Assembly Debate And After LinkUp
I got lost again last night. I get lost on local issues despite paying rapt attention. But the event was lively. There was great attendance. There were seven candidates. Some guy Tom showed up. He is apparently running for the Senate against none other than Hillary herself. Betsy Godbaum has described her a stalker. I got a flyer from Tom that claimed he had wrongfully been emailed an invitation to the debate. He was running for the US Senate, not the State Assembly. He had another flyer that claimed Hillary had conspired and rendered him homeless. I guess there were two guys with the same name.
These DFNYC top dogs are fiercely for Norman Siegel, let me tell you. I first saw Siegel on TV. I was curious. Then I met him twice in person. If I could advise him, it would be as follows.
"I have met you in person and I have seen you on TV. If you can show up on TV like I see you in person, you win. When people see you on TV, all they are asking is, do I want this guy in my living room? You come across as too worked up on TV. Relax."
The guy is so pleasant in person. But on TV he gets worked up and comes across as "someone who eats children for breakfast." Okay, I think I just earned a few enemies at DFNYC. But that is not an original phrase. Some voter described James Carville that way in 1992.
Siegel is so qualified and so passionate. But he does have to work on his TV appearance.
Scott Stringer became Manhattan president, his assembly seat got vacated, and so there were seven in the run. The debate was on the Upper West Side, a block from Mridula Koirala's restaurant. Mridula is like the unofficial mayor of Nepalis in New York City. I dropped by to say hello to her. She is a self-described feminist.
I met a guy who is a top guy at Playboy, met him and his wife. I also met Jeremy who I met first on the Ferrer campaign. I like to say I became for Ferrer after I learned Jeremy has been to Nepal.
Merle and Heather hosted the debate.
"Heather makes everything happen," Merle said to me.
"All of you here know Heather Woodfield," she told the crowd. I also have a Nepal connection with Merle. (September 16 Protest Rally)
Hosting the debate was quite a challenge, because speed dating was going on at the same time, same place.
"I am trying to run for office here," one candidate walked over and complained.
"I am still trying to run for office," he walked over two minutes later.
Got to meet the usual suspects at the After MeetUp.
All you have to say is "I want Hillary to be president because she is a woman" and you just sit back and watch some progressive white men react. It is a spectator sport.
Class And Race
If an Asian woman makes a classist comment to you, and you fire back a racist comment, and you are a white male, are you a guilty party? That is an open question.
When I moved into the city six months back, I was delighted I did not need my car no more. I still own it, but it goes mostly unused. Sometimes I like to get in and get lost in the city on purpose.
I love the subway. I love walking the streets. I can walk for hours.
But then here people have the cab, and the train thing.
"I am taking a cab" is supposed to be some kind of a status symbol, like "I have a cellphone" was in the early and mid-90s.
What do you say in response, besides being amused?
"I am taking the train. Some of us are Democrats around here!"
Alisa Roost From Hell
More specifically from Hell's Kitchen. (Does Hell Have A Kitchen?) I am trying to run a pilot project with her. I am more an ideas person. I like to team up with people who are nuts and bolts, not my forte. I am not much of an event planner. (The 90 Minute Experience)
This From Abhishek Mistry's Blog
Abhishek Mistry is one of those really, really, really smart guys. And he has good news: Crazy Howard's Success!
The Democratic National Committee raised more than $51M in 2005, a record for an off-year ... Dean's been kicking ass and taking names. The Democratic party has never raised so much money in an off-year, even when Clinton rented out the Lincoln bedroom (which incidentally Bush does as well now) or when Democrats controlled Congress and took millions in lobbyist money..... this $51 million is clean money from small donors
There are people at DFNYC, of all places, who believe Howard Dean is not running in 2008. Are you nuts! Of course he is running. If not, 2004 was sham, and I know it was not sham, I was part of it.