Criticism Of Obama Based On Race?

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote on Sunday, September 13 that Wednesday’s (September 9) outburst by South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson during President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress was racially motivated. As we told you earlier, Wilson shouted, “you lie,” when the president said his health care plan would not cover illegal immigrants.

Dowd writes: “What I heard was an unspoken word in the air — you lie, boy!… Wilson clearly did not like being lectured and even rebuked by the brainy black president presiding over the majestic chamber.”

Liberal columnists are not alone in suggesting that any opposition to the president is race-driven. Texas Democratic Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson tells the Politico: “As far as African-Americans are concerned, we think most of it is.”

And California Democratic Congressman Mike Honda adds: “There’s a very angry, small group of folks that just didn’t like the fact that Barack Obama won the presidency. With some, I think it is (about race.)”

But White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says to CNN: “I don’t think the president believes that people are upset because of the color of his skin.”

It’s fair to say that *some* criticism is racially motivated. But there are plenty of other reasons why this is happening. It’s more partisan tension than racial.

The more conservative factions in this country don’t care that we’re the only nation without a universal health care system, because “socialism” is still a dirty word in this nation. The GOP has taken advantage of gullible citizens and convinced them that if Obama‘s plan gets passed, he’ll kill all the grandparents.  And even before that the Republicans convinced America that Obama has turned this country into a socialist country…even though it was Bush who gave the O.K. to bail out Wall Street a year ago.  In these respects and more, it’s fair to say that criticism of our president is more based on his politics than on the color of his skin.

What Does Politics Mean to Me?

This was for my American Politics class lol

What Does Politics Mean to Me?

So, what does politics mean to me? That’s a surprisingly difficult question for me to answer, but by the end of this paper, I’m sure I will have the perfect response. For most kids my age, politics means nothing to them, at least it appears that way. For some strange reason my brain is completely engulfed in politics. Well sort of…. When I say politics, I don’t mean typical CNN headlines or vapid Congressional hearings. When I think of fascinating politics I conjure up an image of Abbie Hoffman decked out in his inverted American Flag tee shirt holding a demonstration or Howard Zinn giving a lecture to an audience of intrigued students. I often hear the term, “political junkie.” I suppose I’m more of a “subversive junkie.”
Every day the aforementioned subversive politics enters my psyche one way or another. While other teens chat about fantasy baseball teams, my comrades and I propose our fantasy political systems. One of my amigos desires a classic free market, laissez-faire, libertarian society. Another friend terrifyingly insists fascism is the path of sound politics. I personally find anarchism to be the most appealing (and most misunderstood) political philosophy. Although, I initially favored socialism. Anyway, I also co-run a blog that often features strong social/political commentary of the radical persuasion. I read dozens of dissident books, essays, and articles over the year. Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent and Jerry Rubin’s Do iT! can be found on my bookshelf, just to name a few. My friends and family make every effort to eschew engaging in debates with me because they know how much I love political bull sessions. Like most folks, I love You Tubing ridiculously funny videos, but most of the time I use this enormous resource to discover alternative forms of media, which are anonymous in the mainstream, to inform myself on how the system truly works. I do however maintain an open mind and always question anything and everything I hear, conventional or unconventional.
Being of the leftist political affiliation, I have just a tad bit of cynicism for our system. I see America as two entities: the people and the government. In an ideal society these two are one and therefore no one has to obey orders from illegitimate authority. As denizens of this great country it is our duty today to push for this kind of government for tomorrow. Since, few politicians share this view of our nation, I don’t trust 99% of them. I believe they are merely corporate stooges in the Evil Empire. With that being said, there are a select few here and there that I like and/or endorse. These include Ralph Nader (above all), Cynthia McKinney, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, and Ron Paul, whom actually has a completely different ideology than myself, but I greatly admire for maintaining integrity in an arena where such a word is foreign. I side with him on ending the Military Industrial Complex, prohibition (the War on Drugs), the Patriot Act/FISA legislation, and the Federal Reserve.
So, to answer the title question: what does politics mean to me? I suppose it means a system in which some people win and some people lose. A system where the people in power are only concerned with their own interests and maintaining that power. But, based on my influences, there is a solid dose of resistance against this system that can never be curtailed.

Chris

Puff Daddy

Slate.com
In fact, a statistical trace of what I’ve taken to calling the “puff daddy” movement emerged a few years ago, when researchers at the National Institutes of Health compared national drug surveys conducted over two-year periods beginning in 1991 and 2001. Their analysis, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the percentage of people who say they smoked marijuana in the past year had remained fairly stable over the 10-year stretch. (That is to say, it ended where it started.) But they found a very different pattern among those between the ages of 45 and 64: As my parents’ generation matured, the number of smokers in that group had nearly tripled.

The baby boomer drug uptick turns up again in the recent data. According to the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, almost 6 percent of all adults between the ages of 50 and 59 reported smoking marijuana in the past year. That’s up from about 3 percent five years earlier. Meanwhile, the number of recent users over the age of 50 has climbed to 2.65 million people nationwide (and we can assume the real prevalence is somewhat higher, since these figures are based on self-reported drug use). Here’s something to think about: There are about as many boomers using cannabis today as there are high-school students doing the same.//

Still, it’s not easy to get an accurate picture of who these puffing oldsters are and how their drug habits have evolved over the last few decades. (It’s also not clear to what extent the legalization of medical marijuana has been a factor.)

Hahahahahaha.

Avenue Q closes on Broadway

avenueq
The Tony Award winning musical Avenue Q officially closes on Broadway after countless performances. The highly original musical features Muppet-style puppets with actors on stage providing voices and the such. But the real drawing point was its “South Park” style sense of humor. Characters included Kate Monster, the leading lady, Brian, an unemployed 32-year old, Rod, a closeted conservative homosexual, his roommate Nicky (very similar to Bert and Ernie) and a colorful collection of others. Featured songs include “It Sucks To Be Me,” “The Internet Is For Porn,” and “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist.” Below is a clip of “It Sucks To Be Me” from the 2004 Tony Awards. Avenue Q, you will be sorely missed.

MPP + 200 Mill. Thousand Revisited

This is just to assign grades to individual songs on these albums, that as of September 13 are in the running for album of the year. When it comes down to it, MPP is not a perfect album. I feel like that just by slapping the “10” designation on it, justice isn’t done. It’s been my thing, at least for the majority of 2009, to grade an album based on songs only. This system doesn’t work too well and doesn’t take much into account. I’ll be changing it (most likely) in 2010. But for now:

Merriweather Post Pavillion
(Animal Collective)
1. “Guy’s Eyes” – 9.5
2. “In The Flowers” – 9.8
3. “My Girls” – 10.0
4. “Also Frightened” – 9.8
5. “Summertime Clothes” – 10.0
6. “Daily Routine” – 9.6
7. “Bluish” – 9.9
8. “Taste” – 9.8
9. “Lion in a Coma” – 9.8
10. “No More Runnin'” – 9.7
11. “Brothersport” – 10.0

Grade
: 9.7
————————————

200 Million Thousand (Black Lips)
1. “Take My Heart” – 9.4
2. “Drugs” – 9.8
3. “Starting Over” – 9.9
4. “Let It Grow” – 9.2
5. “Trapped in a Basement” – 9.6
6. “Short Fuse” – 9.8
7. “I’ll Be With You” – 9.7
8. “Big Black Baby Jesus of Today” – 9.3
9. “Again and Again” – 9.7
10. “Old Man” – 9.6
11. “The Drop I Hold” – 9.4
12. “Body Combat” – 9.4
13. “Elijah” – 9.7
14. “I Saw God” – 9.6
15. “Meltdown” (Hidden) – 9.8

Grade
: 9.6

Shockwaves May Result In Damage

Physics Central
When today’s soldiers enter combat, they’re better protected from explosions than the military personnel of any previous war. Ultra-strong helmets shield them from the flying shrapnel of homemade bombs; high-tech cushioning cradles their skulls during sudden impacts with the ground. But because modern soldiers are surviving explosions that would have taken the lives of Vietnam-era infantrymen, army hospitals are seeing a rise in a particularly painful war wound—traumatic brain injury (TBI).

TBI can range from a simple concussion to damage with long-term effects, including impaired cognitive abilities and even anxiety and depression. New research is helping to explain how those injuries come about, potentially pointing the way to helmet designs to reduce brain damage. Using code originally designed to simulate how a detonated weapon rattles a building or tank, physicists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the University of Rochester in New York modeled an all-too-real situation: a 5-pound bomb exploding 15 feet from a soldier’s head. Their goal was to understand the effects of the high-speed shock wave that follows an explosion.

CCTV Useless

This makes sense:

(BBC NEWS)
Only one crime was solved by each 1,000 CCTV cameras in London last year, a report into the city’s surveillance network has claimed.

The internal police report found the million-plus cameras in London rarely help catch criminals.

In one month CCTV helped capture just eight out of 269 suspected robbers.

David Davis MP, the former shadow home secretary, said: “It should provoke a long overdue rethink on where the crime prevention budget is being spent.”

The Metropolitan Police has been extraordinarily slow to act to deal with the ineffectiveness of CCTV
David Davis MP

He added: “CCTV leads to massive expense and minimum effectiveness.

Boston based shows/fests – DIY, punk, noise