White supremacy is like fossil fuels: ultimately unsustainable. There is no going back. The idea of a black president is no longer revolutionary, it was in 2008, but not anymore. The idea of a nonwhite president is ordinary like milkshake.
New York Times: G.O.P. Uses Obama ‘Otherness’ As Campaign Tactic: Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, who this week accused Mr. Obama, whose father was a Kenyan economist and spoke out against the occupying force in his country, of exhibiting “Kenyan, anticolonial behavior.” ..... Dinesh D’Souza, who, in exploring Mr. Obama’s attitudes toward business, settled on the theory that Mr. Obama was taking directions from the anticorporate apparition of his long-departed father. (That Mr. Obama never really knew his father is apparently beside the point.) ..... these attacks seem to be having little influence on the general electorate ..... only about 28 percent of voters said their vote this November would be a vote against Mr. Obama ..... “The mosque is an interesting point, but tell me how you’re going to get jobs and fix the economy.” .... three distinct factions: the champions of free enterprise, the foreign policy types often described as neoconservatives, and the social conservatives who became the spine of the party’s grass-roots campaign apparatus. ...... If Ronald Reagan was the party’s Great Communicator, then Republicans seem to be hoping that Mr. Obama is its Great Galvanizer. The assault on Mr. Obama’s cultural affinity, the clear implication that he is neither suitably Christian nor American in his values, adds a sinister subtext to the argument against his economic agenda. ...... Mr. Obama’s alleged sympathy for so-called Muslim extremists who would desecrate the World Trade Center site, his socialist African ancestry and his early years in Indonesia — all of this creates a shadowy archetype that every conservative enclave (fiscal, foreign policy and religious) can find a reason to fear...... the constant innuendo about Mr. Obama’s allegiances may be doing exactly what Republicans need it to do.
If the War On Terror is like the Cold War, we are perhaps 20% done. The War On Terror does not have to last as long as the Cold War, and it does not have to end in America getting trounced. America can still win. But racism is not how you get there.
China has done many things right. It is right now taking the lead on clean tech. It is not playing catch up to America on clean tech. If China could somehow get to multi-party democracy without losing the total campaign finance reform it already has, and if China could become better at handling immigration, welcoming, pragmatic, and proactive, then America is yesterday's power faster than the Tea Party can say tea. Languages can be learned.
Or perhaps
India will do total campaign finance reform. It already has plenty of democracy and immigration. India is a more diverse country than America. It can sometimes feel like a billion people speaking a billion languages.
In a global era an Indian in America is no minority person. The Americans might elect the President Of The United States, but by now that office is very much a global office. Face it.
New York Times: Rebel Republican Marching On, With Baggage: became quickly known to Americans as the woman who once made dire warnings about the negative impact of masturbation. ..... Ms. O’Donnell’s decisive victory over one of the state’s most popular and longest-serving Republicans ...... she has reported earnings of only $5,800 between most of this year and last and she has defaulted on her mortgage — and fudged her educational background ...... her role in an abstinence organization in the 1990s that denounced masturbation as a form of adultery ...... denounced by Karl Rove as unelectable, untruthful and “nutty” moments after her victory ...... (the state Republican Party’s Web site did not even acknowledge her victory) ..... a state that a month ago looked solidly in Republican hands ..... “a major chapter in the civil war among Republicans” ...... “Republican, but not a Delaware Republican.” ..... evolution is soft science .... She feels she is following biblical principles.” ...... Ms. O’Donnell, an avid cook, was disappointed that she had not married and had children ...... A file in a 2007 Federal Election Commission dossier features a note she wrote by hand pleading, “We are not professionals and for many of us, this was our first campaign!” ...... “As O’Donnell’s manager, I found out she was living on campaign donations — using them for rent and personal expenses.” ..... while she participated in the cap-and-gown ceremony nearly two decades ago, she was unable to formally graduate because of unpaid tuition.
Poll Suggests Opportunities For Both Parties: while voters rate the performance of Democrats negatively, they view Republicans as even worse ..... one-third of those in the coalition that elected Mr. Obama, now say he does not have a clear plan to solve the nation’s problems or create jobs ..... far more people still blame Wall Street and the Bush administration .... 63 percent disapproving of Democrats and 73 percent disapproving of Republicans .... the federal budget deficit barely registers as a topic of concern ...... Voters do not perceive Republicans as having better ideas and disagree with them on the biggest economic issue of the campaign — whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy ..... Nearly half of voters say they are undecided or have not heard enough about the Tea Party to form an opinion ..... 30 percent of independent voters have an unfavorable view of the Tea Party, with 18 percent holding a favorable view ...... 45 percent of voters said Mr. Obama would not be a factor in their vote in November .... the public has an increasingly negative opinion of Sarah Palin ..... Two-thirds of Americans think that Ms. Palin’s primary motivation is staying in the public eye, rather than helping conservative candidates get elected. ..... “whether it be or financial purposes or in order to run for something again.”
Image via WikipediaArmchair revolutionaries like myself have to be extra, extra respectful of the people who brave the streets. We have to suggest strategies that minimize human casualties without compromising the broad goal of democracy and human rights. 
