Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Barack Obama: Time For A Generation Shift


On November 7: In Harlem: For Obama

John McCain should have run against John Kennedy. Leave Obama alone. Kennedy was a generation shift, as was Clinton. 16 years of baby boomers is enough. It is time for Obama.

Next Stop: White House

It will be easy for Obama to neutralize Hillary on money and organization. He just has to turn Obama 2008 into the first internet campaign. The internet is going to have to take centerstage. And so you go on for a thrilling competition of ideas.

The Matrix
Democratic Vision For The 21st Century

Bill Clinton is Hillary Clinton's greatest strength, but also her number one weakness. The guy can't keep his mouth shut. He lacks discipline. He is going to suck up the oxygen, hog the space. He is going to think this is 1992, part two. Enter James Carville. That is going to be a putoff.

"I can't think in front of a computer."
- Hillary Clinton

Bill Clinton has sent a total of two emails in his life. Obama blogs.

The Audacity Of Gravitas: Restore Intelligence To The White House

Barack Obama can announce in January that he is running. Hillary can't. She will have to wait longer.

A Different Kind Of Campaign: A Scientific Campaign

Whities on Capitol Hill are trying to saddle Obama with Senate assignments. That is okay. When he announces he is running, he resigns from those ties and pins, but keeps his Senate seat.

Barack Obama: This Is A New Century
Barack Obama: New Approaches To Old Problems

Google Video: Martin Luther King
Google Video: Malcolm X

In The News

Top general to face Iraq questions CNN
Dems to press military on leaving Iraq San Jose Mercury News
Top US general warns against US troops pullout Raw Story
Lott bids for return to Senate leadership Seattle Post Intelligencer
Republicans choose McConnell, Lott as leaders WEAR
Trent Lott Regains A Key Senate Republican Leadership Post The Moderate Voice
US Airways makes an $8 billion hostile bid for Delta Boston Globe
US, EU officials in Nepal ahead of signing of peace accord between ...
International Herald Tribune
Obama will visit evangelical megachurch on World AIDS Day
San Jose Mercury News
The Race Purpose-Driven Candidate? New York Times a date next month with Rick Warren, the megachurch pastor and best-selling author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” a move that could give Mr. Obama, who is black, exposure to millions of white churchgoers
Obama gets new assignments WQAD
Barack "blank" Obama and disingenuous politics of "understanding" Town Hall has been anointed by the mainstream media as a frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. ....... the Obama media fawning has had a dramatic impact ....... He has virtually no voting record; he has virtually no articulated positions ..... Clinton ran as "The Man from Hope." Obama runs as "The Man Who Understands ." ......... he is an African-American man who doesn't threaten white folks -- he understands them ...... Only one question remains: Where's the meat? It's all well and good to campaign on the basis of "common sense" and "smart government" ...... blaming terrorism on "the underlying struggle" between "worlds of plenty and worlds of want" -- a neo-Marxist interpretation of the rise of Islamofascism. ...... how narrow the path is for them between humiliation and untrammeled fury, how easily they slip into despair and violence ...... "I know that the response of the powerful to this disorder -- alternating as it does between a dull complacency and, when the disorder spills out of its proscribed confines, a steady, unthinking application of force, of longer prison sentences and more sophisticated military hardware -- is inadequate to the task." ..... His positions, when he takes them, invariably lean toward radical liberalism. A true politics of understanding would recognize that some things are not worth understanding, or tolerating.
Barack 'Blank' Obama WorldNetDaily
ABC's Sawyer to Obama: Is the US 'More Racist or Sexist?' NewsBusters The most eyebrow-raising moment of the interview, however, occurred when Sawyer asked Obama about Sunday’s Washington Post article which questioned whether racism and sexism plays a role in the decision-making of American voters ...... 90 percent of Americans say that race does not matter when they go to the polls. However, a lot of pollsters think that not everybody is telling the truth ........ Obama: "You know, my sense is, whether it's a African-American candidate running, a woman candidate running, if it's non--a non-traditional candidate, there's an additional threshold that you have to meet. I think you have to show people competence in a way that, if you're a white male, you may not have to show initially. But once you do, I think people are willing to judge you on the merits, they're willing to judge you as an individual. The key is getting known and getting people comfortable. And at that point, then I think they're willing to, to, to look at the individual, as opposed to their, their sex or their, or their race."
Obama Needs 'a Little Bit More Time' to Decide on '08 ABC News
Clinton, Lieberman top recipients of $24.8 million from securities ...
MarketWatch
Clinton top choice of NY Democrats for 2008 White House run Capital News 9
Amitabh Bachchan will be Bhishma Pitamah in Mahabharat remake
South Asian Women's Forum
Soldier Pleads Guilty to Iraq Rape and Killings
New York Times
Lobbyist Abramoff to Report to Prison
Forbes
Arunachal asks Centre to counter China`s claim on state
Zee News
Making the US-India nuclear deal acceptable
Rediff
Bay Area might see soccer games in 2016
San Jose Mercury News
Clearwire Launches Wimax in Seattle
BroadbandReports.com The service offers 1.5Mbps downstream and 256kbps up for $38 a month, plus $5 a month modem rental.
WiMAX Poised For Rapid Growth Mobile Tech News (press release)
Al-Jazeera’s English channel readies to hit airwaves
Boston Herald
Middle Aged Men Can Live Long If They Want
Medical News Today
Want to Live to a Healthy 85? Stay Trim Washington Post
SUPERMODEL Naomi Campbell has appeared in court today, with ...
The Sun

Al Qaeda seeking nuclear kit for attacks: UK official Reuters
The Terror Suspect Who May Go Free at TIME Magazine
Orange County Man Rises in Al Qaeda Ranks at The Los Angeles Times
The root of terror is clear at The Guardian
Osama's Party at The Nation
American Strike in January Missed Al Qaeda's No. 2 by a Few Hours at The New York Times
Lebanon crisis deepens, cabinet backs Hariri court Reuters
Christian, Muslim Britons say leave Christmas alone Reuters

Leading blogger thrives on "obsessive" focus
FBI probes YouTube video of LA cop hitting suspect
"BlackBerry Thumb" sparks new form of hand massage
Democrats say will push for Iraq withdrawal
Olmert heads to U.S. to gauge post-election policy
Lawmakers gear up to fight some old battles
Wounded Bush meets rising China at APEC summit
Black candidates head for middle at polls
Baghdad morgue took in 1,600 bodies in October: source
2 ex-presidents tour with well-honed act
Texas town considers anti-illegals bill
McCain edges toward '08 presidential run
Bush's advisers adopt new tone on Iraq
After US election, partisan collision looms
US Republicans lick their wounds

Sunday, November 12, 2006

No To Neocons, No To Islamists



The neocons and the Islamists do have similarities. One makes dogmatic use of the Bible, another makes dogmatic use of the Koran. Both believe it is through use of force that you make your statement.

The Democratic disagreement with Bush in Iraq is not to say let's pull out now and handover the country to the Al Qaeda. The Al Qaeda people misunderstand.

We have to get aggressive with the progressive way of spreading democracy.

White trash lefties who look down upon the Third World people try my patience. You go toe to toe against the neocons. They have spent $500 billion in Afghanistan and Iraq and counting. The progressives have to come out saying we will wage a $50 billion war of communications technology to ensure a total spread of democracy. We will save $450 billion. Instead some lefties are too busy talking isolationist talk. Let's get the hell out of Iraq, they say. The US troops do have to leave Iraq, sure. But you don't counter wrong foreign policy with no foreign policy. There has to be a Plan B. It has to be aggressive.

JFK said we are going to the moon before the decade is over. Spreading democracy should prove easier. We already have all the technology we need, we already have all the political jargon we need. We just now have to have the will to go out there and do it.

Iraq is not going to be an Islamist dictatorship. The world will pay any price to make sure that does not happen. We did not get rid of one dictatorship to bring on another. But sometimes you can get dumb and blunt and end up paying a huge, unnecessary price in terms of lives and money.

Monarchies are dictatorships no matter which way you look at them. You can not say you are for spreading democracy, and cosy up with the House of Saud at the same time. All monarchies in the Arab countries have to go.

The US as a state has its limitations. And so a private sector effort has to be stoked. If Nepal is any example, give me a million strong matrix in New York City, and I will give you the burning core of a mechanism that will spread democracy across the Arab world and beyond.

The Matrix

Since 9/11 the American state has been hostile to the Arab Americans, more so than it already was before. The American state has been hostile to those who trace their roots to the Global South. That is the exact opposite of what needs to be happening.

Those who leave their countries to come to America are often cream of the crop. They stay tight with each other. They admire America. That is why they are here. They can be foot soldiers for democracy in ways the American military can not imagine, can not fathom.

The Matrix is surprisingly a zero cost mechanism. The Matrix feeds itself. But funding can speed things up.

The First Major Revolution Of The 21st Century Happened In Nepal
Democracy Spreading Mechanism
The Demosphere Manifesto

The Democracy Spreading Mechanism will play out slightly differently for each country. And it can be perfected and made better each time. If all democracy movements were to coordinate with each other - and that coordination is not even active, it is made possible by the sheer fact that The Matrix is a transparent mechanism constantly feeding the search engines - every succeeding movement will go through less pain.

We have to build the kind of momentum that was felt when the Soviet Union collapsed. The wind of freedom has to engulf the globe.

If I had $100,000 at my disposal while I was doing full time work for the Nepal movement, that would have made a huge difference to speed things up. Make it one million. Or even 10. That still comes out much much cheaper than the $500 billion.

The same apply to Iraq and Afghanistan. We have to strengthen the political parties and the nonviolent political workers in both countries.

The Republican Party in America and the BJP in India - the second largest party there - both have religious fundamentalists at their cores. In democratic Arab countries parties that are similarly Islamic - as opposed to Islamist - will sprout. In a free speech environment, the Arabs in the streets will still vent strong anti-US, anti-Israel venom. And that is okay. That is democracy.

But freedom truly rings in every human heart. It needs help getting expressed. Let's help.

In The News

Ford longest-living US president
BBC News
Levin Says US Should Begin Iraq Withdrawal Within Six Months
Bloomberg
And They're Off: 2008 Race Heats Up ABC News Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the apparent Republican frontrunner, is moving closer to a formal candidacy, even though he says a formal decision won't be made until he talks it over with his family during the Christmas holidays. ...... "I still plan on running," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., whose 1988 presidential bid floundered after he was discovered to have lifted significant parts of his stump speech from British politician Neil Kinnock.
UN hunts for sites to confine Nepal’s rebel arms Daily Times
OHCHR welcomes peace deal in Nepal
People's Daily Online
Clooney: Obama Didn't Drop Presidential Bomb-a
TMZ.com
Obama for president -- just not in 2008
Roanoke Times
Book Review: The Audacity of Hope By Barack Obama BlackNews.com (press release) This tame tome, ostensibly carefully crafted with the intent of being all things to all people, unfortunately ends up reading like little more than the transparent game plan of guileful politician. He’s clearly courting both Republicans and Democrats, here, by praising President Reagan as much as he does FDR. .... When discussing racism, he comes off as no liberal, but more in the “content of your character” camp as advocated by African-American neo-cons like Shelby Steele and John McWhorter. In this regard, he has no problem putting the onus on blacks to accommodate themselves to the mainstream culture, because “members of every minority group continue to be measured largely by the degree of our assimilation.” ..... Obama goes on to conclude that “the single biggest thing” we could do to reduce inner-city poverty “is to encourage teenage girls to finish high school and avoid having children out of wedlock.” If these sort of simplistic “blaming the victim” pronouncements are truly Barack’s best ideas on how to reclaim the American Dream, I suggest he keep dreaming.

Rally route to RJD ‘revival’ Calcutta Telegraph “Genuine party workers will now be encouraged,” the RJD chief claimed, adding: “We are in the process of converting the RJD into a cadre-based party on the lines of the Left parties.”
Lalu wants to become PM Daily News & Analysis Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, who has received copious praise of late for his performance as Railways Minister, says he would for sure like to become the country's prime minister. .... "Haan banna hai... pacca banna hai... bina jhagra jhanjhat se banna hai lekin banna hai... apna kam kariye... the basic judge is people, our country people (Yes I want to become the Prime Minister for sure. But I will do that without any quarrel or fuss. Our people are our chief judge)" ....... "Kaun janta hai kab kaun kya ban jayega (who knows when somebody may become what)... ham sab sochte rehte hain, kam karte raho, mauka milega to ho jayega (we keep thinking... keep working... it will happen when an opportunity arrives" ...... "I am not disappointed (for not getting the Home Ministry), it was my choice... hamari dilchaspi thi ki is desh ko sahi dhang se law and order... aur is desh ko aur government ko agar chalana hai to law aur mazboot hona chahiye (I wanted that the country should have a strong law and order mechanism)..." ...... "Yeh kehna ki Lalu ko maine (VP Singh) ne kaha arrest karne ke liye, yeh sach nahin hai (This is not true that he told me to arrest Advani)" ..... He claimed that officials declined to carry out his orders until Singh gave the "go-ahead" to arrest Advani.
Lalu's train of thought Daily Pioneer an indigenous marketing genius at work. ..... two of his favourite topics, the underdog and secularism ...... No matter which corner of the country I go, people always greet me, 'Oh Lalu, aye Lalu.' It's the greatest of blessings, people love me ...... he can realise his ambition given the electoral system such as we have ..if Mr HD Deve Gowda and Mr IK Gujral could become Prime Ministers, Mr Yadav is entitled to claim he, too, can... "Kaun jaanta hai," he says, "kaun kab kya ban jaayega"
Does big NY win prove Clinton has a shot? Chicago Sun-Times
Support for Rodham Clinton in 2008 at 30% in US
Angus Reid Global Scan
Amitabh Bachchan to star with Jaya and Abhishek Bachchan
Apun Ka Choice
Arab foreign ministers meet in Cairo over Israeli offensive ...
Monsters and Critics.com
Georgia Region Votes on Independence Bid
Washington Post
S Ossetia votes on independence BBC News
Lebanon crisis is a foreign tug-of-war
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Rise of India, China good news for Africa
East African
Through Howard Dean’s ‘fifty state strategy’ it was ‘ ...
Collective Bellaciao
Transcript: DNC Chairman Dean on 'FNS'
FOX News
Google vs. Guruji.com - A Desi Perspective on Search Engines
Desicritics.org
Brazil beats Uruguay 4-1 to win Beach Soccer World Cup
International Herald Tribune
Palestinian conflict a topic for Olmert-Bush talks
CNN International
Ortega's Encore
TIME
Bangladesh violence injures hundreds
Bangkok Post
Best ever Bond?
Telegraph.co.uk
White House pledges open mind on Iraq but opposes timetable for ... WLNS
China's economy seen growing 9.5 pct in 2007
China Daily
China's Inflation Rate in October Unexpectedly Slows to 1.4%
Bloomberg
The Linux World Learns How Larry Ellison Does Business
InformationWeek Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is determined to shape Linux's future, and he's not waiting for someone to ask his opinion. ..... the central role of Linux in Oracle's future ..... Oracle will strip the Red Hat trademarks and symbols out of Red Hat Linux ...... the 42,000 attendees of Oracle OpenWorld this week in San Francisco ..... Oracle zeroed in on the Linux that dominates business servers (Red Hat commanded 61% of the paid Linux market last year) and promised that Oracle's version of Red Hat's product would be better than Red Hat's. ..... Oracle is claiming that its 24-by-7 worldwide technical support will cost less than half the price of Red Hat's. ..... Did the world take Ellison seriously? Red Hat's stock plunged 24% the next day. ...... Ellison cited faster bug fixes as the rationale for moving to Oracle's Linux. The wait for bug fixes "is the most serious problem confronting the Linux community today. It's slowing the adoption of Linux," he said in his keynote speech. ....... Red Hat's market cap was about $3 billion at the end of this week; Oracle paid $10.3 billion for PeopleSoft and $5.8 billion for Siebel. Oracle had its eye on JBoss, the popular open source Java application server and middleware company, until Red Hat acquired it.
India and US step up defence cooperation Times of India
Um, Is That You, Bond?
TIME
The New Congress: Can the Democrats Get Anything Done?
The Realists Take Charge

Democrats may use probes to force policy shifts Boston Globe
ANALYSIS-Cheney may no longer be power he once was Reuters AlertNet
Bush Says Vote Didn't Change Commitment to Terror War (Update1)
Bloomberg
Election Doesn’t Shutter Clinton Campaign Offices New York Times re-election race may be over, but she is hardly closing up her campaign shop or worrying about deep debts. ..... she has more than $10 million left in her political bank account, not to mention a priceless reservoir of speeches, issue research, and financial networks nationally ...... she does not intend to disassemble her campaign apparatus and staff, as many candidates do when an election ends ....... a re-election team that could easily shift into gear for a 2008 presidential bid ...... a fistful of I.O.U.’s from winning Democratic candidates nationally ...... an important period of strategy talks, reading and reflection while deciding whether to run ....... the senator’s political gains on Tuesday in traditionally moderate and Republican areas of New York. ...... Clinton is expected to make a decision on a presidential bid this winter, and there has been slightly more open discussion about 2008 between her inner circle and outer circle advisers in the last couple of weeks ........ Vilsack is a longtime admirer of Mrs. Clinton ...... Giuliani is also making his first postelection foray to a presidential swing state, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, where he will give a speech on leadership, hold a brief news conference, and dine privately with a group of young entrepreneurs ....... fellow Democrats in the House and Senate are assembling a governing agenda and message. ...... She won 61 percent of the vote upstate, compared with 48 percent in her 2000 race, and she won 64 percent of independent voters, up from 46 percent in 2000. ......... Hillary headlined 131 events in 57 different cities on behalf of other Democrats ..... Clinton drew only slightly fewer votes than Eliot Spitzer
Activists urge Pelosi to halt war in Iraq San Jose Mercury News
Russia to join WTO as Bush backs down Telegraph.co.uk
Pain and disbelief in Gaza BBC News
Borat faces lawsuit and ban Guardian Unlimited
Britney Spears Heads Back to Class
TheCelebrityCafe.com
A peace deal in Nepal
Economist
Clinton: Send more to Afghanistan war
Victoria Times Colonist
Clinton argues for peace
Victoria Times Colonist
Bush, Democrats Pledge to Work Together
ABC News
President, new Dem leaders of Senate discuss agenda AZ Central.com
It's showtime for giddy Dems Newsday
Motorola enters e-mail fray
Globe and Mail
Oil falls; demand forecast to ease
Boston Globe
Russia: Talks with Iran may resume soon
Ireland Online
Senior Hamas official: Unity gov't deal near
Ynetnews
Britain's 50-year struggle with Islamic terrorists
UK Express
Google Toolbar gets personal in Arabic
AME Info (press release)
Google Toolbar 4 for IE Now in Hindi, Arabic Tech2
Google faces legal challenges over video service
Washington Post
Yahoo! To Offer IM Within E-Mail
All Headline News
New Phone Uses Yahoo! Messenger Techtree.com
Dean gives us a new slogan, and Carville is pissed--
Salon
Search engines to unearth tax evaders: Chidambaram
Hindu
Regulator: 6 companies apply for WiMax
Sydney Morning Herald
Q&A: Why Sprint is bullish on its WiMAX gamble
NetworkWorld.com
Photo: Samsung's twisty WiMax handheld
CNET News.com
A Jerusalem Gay-Pride Clash Is Averted TIME
Israeli gay rights parade called off Los Angeles Times
Storm's giant eye on Saturn
CNET News.com
Week in review: Vista release on the horizon
CNET News.com
Is Google Really The New GP Service?
Life Style Extra
The incredible shrinking presidency
Hamilton Spectator