In a speech on Meet the Press worthy of Obama’s elecution, General Colin Powell explained that he feels Obama is not only a “transformational figure” but that Sarah Palin is not ready to be President of the United States (which is, after all, her job as VP) and that the Republican Party has swung too far to the right. Special mention should go to his addressing the insidious nature of calling Obama and Arab and Muslim. As Powell put it, it wouldn’t matter is he was, and if seeing Obama inspires some seven-year old Muslim American to someday become president, so much the better.
Michael Lewis, the author of “The New, New Thing,” recently rented out the biggest mansion in New Orleans, a house he’d lusted after as a boy and found overwhleming once he moved in. He also found that being inside a house thats way beyond your means, even if you’re renting it, says a lot about both the American psyche and the subprime mess the US currently finds itself in.
Matt Taibbi (who usually writes for Rolling Stone) has posted a cynical, angry and heartfelt screed on Smirking Chimp about what Sarah Palin’s candidacy says about middle-class America’s love of image over substance and blind consumerism over thoughtful discourse. It’s certainly biased and bile-filled, but it’s also exceptionally well written and not without some truth.
As seen above, Sarah Palin’s grasp of geopolitics leaves something to be desired. And there’s the outside chance she could be the President one day, so there’s that.
Rolling Stone has a great article up about how Bush, along with the Republican Party’s tendency to exploit and create polarity between Americans, has essentially ruined the party and flushed away a legacy that began with Reagan. It’s Rolling Stone, so it isn’t exactly the most unbiased source, but it’s a fascinating read.
Apparently, not only is Obama just a flash in the pan, but the voting public are stupid and easily swayed by celebrity. Which may very well be true, but McCain isn’t going to get any votes by rubbing that fact in their faces. All this ad does is reinforce how out of touch, old, and unconnected to regular everyday society McCain is. The guy doesn’t even know how to use a computer, for crissakes!
FISA, the amendment which will allow the American government to conduct warrantless wiretaps on its own citizens, is scheduled for approval this Tuesday. In the video below, Tim Ferris, the author of the “Four Hour Work Week“, interviews Daniel Ellsberg, who exposed the Pentagon Papers and was a key figure in both ending the Vietnam War and bringing down Richard Nixon. Watch the video and find out just how the privacy and freedom of American citizens is being frittered away in order to chase terrorist boogeymen.
CIA director Michael Hayden recently announced that Al Queda is on the ropes, a spent force, and that the group has failed to gain traction in Iraq. Well, not so fast. A recent editorial in the Guardian points out that mass uprisings may not be what Bin Laden has in mind when he calls for jihadist revolution, and more importantly, terrorists don’t even need mass support to achieve their goals. All they need is the loyalty of a hard-core group of supporters, and they can continue their operations indefinitely. Will the leaders of those die-hards be Al Queda? Maybe not, as recent intelligence has indicated some disillusionment with Bin Laden and Zawahiri. At any rate, the last time the United States took their eye off the ball, they ended up suffering the most devastating attack in the US history, invading Afghanistan and Iraq, and basically ruining their standing in the world. For their own sake, a little more vigilance and a lot less swagger might be a good idea.
Roger Stone learned the dark art of political hatchet-jobbery from Richard Nixon and Roy Cohn, two of America’s finest villains. He’s continued with their “win at any costs” philosophy, most recently applying his vile talents to both the 2000 recount and the 2004 smear job on John Kerry. And he’s an unrepentant horndog, though interestingly his habit of frequenting Miami swinger’s clubs actually led to the downfall of former New York governor and whoremonger Elliot Spitzer. An article in the current New Yorker lays out his perfidious ways in detail, and if you want to get his personal take on the world, check out his blog. I would hope that somehow this toad is kept out of the current election, but somehow I can’t shake the feeling that Obama has been in his sights from the word go.