Barack Obama's pastor quits campaign after explosive 9/11 remarks Telegraph.co.uk The clips show Mr Obama's spiritual mentor railing against Hillary Clinton because of her race, comparing Mr Obama to Jesus and blaming America for the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks. In one sermon he takes aim at former US president Bill Clinton's supposedly good relationship with the black community...... "Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain't! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty," the clergyman boomed. ..... Geraldine Ferraro, a prominent Clinton supporter and 1984 vice-presidential candidate, had earlier asserted that Mr Obama was “only in this position” because of his skin colour. ....... a newspaper column in which Rev Wright was quoted telling audiences that they should sing “God Damn America” instead of “God Bless America”.
One wrong white woman, one wrong black man, both of them prominent, one having run for Vice President, another a pastor to a would be president. This is a perfect example of two wrongs not making a right.
Hillary is not responsible for what Ferraro said, Barack is not responsible for what Wright said. Neither Ferraro nor Wright will see the light any time soon, but both are out of the campaigns, and that is the best the two campaigns could hope for.
But let's get real. The sentiments these two expressed did not come from the moon. These sentiments pervade life in America, now they also need to be talked about in public life. Conversation is the best, most healing way to deal with the issues of race. Ferraro and Wright have given us an opportunity to discuss race openly. Race is the elephant in the room we too often ignore. I hope we also talk gender. But I hope we don't wait until some prominent Obama person says something so very clearly sexist.
I too was hoping this thing would be over on March 4. (Hillary Should Concede March 4) Instead it just keeps going on and on and on. I did not lose my temper, actually I am having fun. This can go on all the way to the convention, and I will be okay. But Ferraro and Wright blew off the top. They could not contain themselves. They lost their cool.
Ferraro is from a different generation. She probably thinks black people are poorer because they are lazy, stuff like that. I met people in Kentucky who talked of people living in the trees. That was their idea of foreign students.
Black America feels the frustrations. Black America has been wronged. History is testimony. Black America continues to be marginalized. There is concrete data on racial disparity. I felt the disenchantment as a Madhesi in Nepal. I have said after Nepal gets a new constitution that gives us Madhesis our own state, then, in that new Nepal, for the first time, we Madhesis can claim Nepal as our own country, a country that has never before really been ours. (Madhesi Movement Victory In Nepal) I can imagine blacks feeling the same way about America. We were born here, we live here, but this country is not fully ours. We are second class.
I hope we can capitalize on some of Wright's comments to stare focus on the concrete data on disparity.
There is legitimate anger in the black community in this country. That anger has to be vented. But that can only be the first step. Ultimately it has to be less about finger pointing, and more about dealing with the concrete data on disparity. That is why Barack talks little about race and talks mostly about education, health, jobs. But there is no avoiding race as a topic.
Ferraro and Wright are two Clinton and Obama fans who went overboard. We should forgive both.
Note To Ferraro
Barack is a white man. What do you mean? He was born half white. He was raised by his white mother and white grandparents.
A WiMax Breakthrough in India ...... Tata Communications unveils an ambitious plan to become global leader in wireless broadband by launching the world's largest commercial network India is about to become the frontier for high-speed, mobile Internet connections. ....... countrywide rollout of a commercial WiMax network, the largest anywhere in the world of the high-speed, wireless broadband technology. ..... by next year Tata will offer service in 115 cities nationwide. ...... "WiMax is not experimental, it's oven-hot" ...... a WiMax network in Washington next month, and in other U.S. cities next year. ..... Predicting that the new technology will make other types of Internet access obsolete, he boasts "Tata will set the cat among the pigeons." ....... The company has invested about $100 million in the project, which will increase to $500 million over the next four years as it begins to near its goal of having 50 million subscribers in India. ...... And as WiMax scales up fast, it will give service providers greater flexibility and costs will drop equally rapidly. ....... an early morning worship service at the famous Balaji temple in South India. The temple permitted Tata to install cameras so that Hindu devotees from around the world could watch the proceedings in the temple around the clock. ...... To get connected initially, users will simply have to go to a store, buy a router, install it, and then they become instantly connected. It will be as easy as buying apples ...... a chance to launch a brand new. fourth-generation technology that the world can follow. "India is becoming the knowledge center of the world; it should take the lead in this"
Message To David Pollak
Chairman Pollak, Sir. Do me a favor. Pass on this email to the Governor. You yourself are someone I hope to have on my corporate team some day, even if only like Terry McAuliffe tipping his toe in companies while still politicking full time. You are one of those people to have on one's side every day if possible.
Message To Governor Spitzer
Governor. Granted its been dramatic, but I see a silver lining to the cloud. I have a young, ambitious tech startup. The vision statement is "to connect every human mind to the web, and then some." That can not be a vision statement for one company, likely a few different industries, a vision statement for an ecosystem of industries and companies. But it is what it is.
My company hopes to play a key, defining role in the next era of computing, the IC era. Mainframes to PCs to ICs. IC, Internet Computer.
Internet access is the voting right for this century, and the agenda is global. Politics is war by other means. Business is politics by other means. You would come in as a small investor to start with. And you take six to nine months off. Then we together create a role for you that will get you plenty of telecommuting. You are plenty rich to never have worked, but you are too young to retire. You have not lived half your life yet. If you want to live long, get into another intense career. Don't tank, don't drift, don't wallow in the mud of tabloid attention. I promise you greater intensity than what you felt as Attorney General. We are going to be picking fights as we create markets, invent markets, eat into markets, destroy markets for others. Feel like a fresh college graduate all over again. Launch a new career. If the idea of public service through elected office is to do good, you will do more good for more people through this than anything you have done yet.
We will also be spearheading a major effort down the line of spreading democracy the progressive way, the war of communications technology way, the nonviolent way. We might be part of some battles with the military-industrial complex part of the way, and that's okay, you will love it. The government can be a huge customer. (Progressive Political Religion: No Place For Superpowers)
My man Friday on my corporate team is a guy named Adam Carson who starts looking like my personal hero Larry Ellison when he grows a slight beard. Adam wrote directly to the Morgan Stanley CEO Mack to create his 2.0 job a few years ago which he has now duly quit to come along with the startup. When he first said he will quit, they promoted him, but he quit regardless. Adam has raised most of the early seed money from his personal circle of contacts. Right now he is on a cross country road trip - his vehicle is much smaller than mine was, but then he is not the top guy on the team, is he? - with his wonderful Romanian girlfriend: he telecommutes to work. He learned this from me: before you take over a country, it is a good idea to take a good look at it.
Ellison has said he is too uncompromising to be any good in politics, precisely the trait that has made him a legendary CEO. Your candidate was better on merit but the legislators went ahead and appointed someone mediocre and you went ahead and campaigned against legislators from your own party who were part of such an idiotic move. Mofos. That uncompromising subservience to merit is not a bad personality trait at all if you are in a functional setting that Albany is not. My way you don't have to go through the indignity of asking for votes to make large, positive impact, especially votes of unaccountable Albany warlords who function best in smoke-filled rooms, never coming out to see daylight.
So what's it gonna be? I hope we can cook something up. We are listing this baby on Nasdaq. Come be part of the Silicon City dreams. Someone uniquely gifted as you deserves a front seat. You are perfect to be part of my team. This swing could last a few decades. All the early people will get hugely rich.
Let's meet and talk. I am not in the same borough but I am in the same city, the magic city, first place on earth where I felt really comfortable, first hometown I ever had. (Madhesi Movement Victory In Nepal)
We are the New York Mafia. And we are here to take over the world.
Paramendra Bhagat Chairperson, CEO JyotiConnect Inc.
Eliot Spitzer's Seven Deadly Sins BusinessWeek As a leader and manager, Spitzer made plenty of other mistakes ...... the lessons they contain for any leader or manager. ... 1. Failure To Deliver ..... a disappointment as governor. .... Lesson: You've got to deliver consistently. You're only as good as your most recent accomplishment. ...... 2. Wrong Tactics for New Job .... a combative nature, an unwillingness to compromise ...... 3. Alienated Too Many ... Lesson: You can't expect to get things done if you only have adversaries, not allies. ...... 4. Hypocrisy .... 5. Hubris ..... Lesson: No one is above the law; no one is untouchable, and no matter how smart you are, it doesn't matter. ........ 6. Underestimating the Crisis ..... Albany came to a standstill for two days ..... 7. Some sins just aren't forgivable. .... cheating, on a seemingly perfect wife, with call girls
Obama's calculus to victory Sydney Morning Herald, Australia In politics, there is spin and doctoring and downright monstering on message management, and it is waged with no holds barred 24/7. It's the foghorns of war. And then there is calculus and the clarity of numbers. ...... Obama is in fact closer to clinching the Democratic nomination. .... Even if Clinton wins Pennsylvania 55-45 per cent, Clinton will net a gain of only 15 delegates. In the polls today, the candidates are tied in Michigan and Clinton is comfortably ahead in Florida. Even if those two states revote, and the outcome tracks today's polls, Clinton would net perhaps 30 delegates. ..... Obama for his part is expected to do well in North Carolina, Oregon, Montana and South Dakota, where 250 delegates are at stake ....... he has more voter intensity behind him. ...... Democratic voters, by a 48-38 per cent margin, say that Obama has the better chance of beating McCain than Clinton. ..... Bill Clinton is now viewed unfavourably (42-45) by more voters for the first time in five years. ..... "I have the most delegates, have won the most states, have won them more convincingly, and am the more electable. Ratify the verdict of the voters of our party, and do the right thing." .... It will be hard for most of the supers to reach a different conclusion. .... Obama today is poised to win the nomination.
