February 5: Big Prizes

Barackface: 173 Vs 1433 Delegates: February 5 Is Key (August 31, 2007)

The February 5 states have been holding up. There is some movement as Obama gains in name recognition, but otherwise the February 5 states are acting like the January states don't matter. Howard Dean might just have managed to scuttle the importance of the early states in the nomination process.

Clinton, California

I am impressed with Hillary's strength in California. It has largely sustained. If she carries New York and California by a decent margin, it is over.

500 Years, 10,000 Years

White folks carry 500 years worth of guilt. Men carry 10,000 years worth of guilt. I think it is inevitable by now that both Barack and Hillary are going to end up on the ticket. It is just that people like me hope it is Barack, and Hillary supporters support Hillary. We are all Democrats, we are all progressives. This is our year.

Hillary's Gender Card

It worked great twice. She cried in New Hampshire. She talked Monica in Nevada. Expect her to play the gender card again on February 4.

Could Barack Turn It Around

I think he could. He has to address the race issue head on, or the racial polarization from his South Carolina victory will hurt him on February 5. Barack has to tackle race and gender.

Tackling Race As An Issue The Average Person Way
How To Play The Race Card In South Carolina

Amazing

I think we are at an amazing point in history when we find a black dude and a woman are going to be on the same winning ticket. The collective guilt on race and gender has hit tipping point. And these are two amazingly talented people. If you are a black guy, and if you are a woman, you necessarily have to be extra smart to get to the top. These two are extra smart.

Gender

There are so many women out there. And gender as it might play out in relationships, and career challenges, they are all over the place. I can see why women might identify with Hillary. They might feel like, finally, after a lifetime of getting gender-skewed by the social reality. They might also feel like if not now then when. It might be a long time before another viable woman candidate shows up. But if Hillary becomes Vice President or President, I think that will begin a new era of women rising up in politics, in this country and in most other countries.

Bill Clinton Is Loving It

He is one of those guys born for retail politics. He is loving it in South Carolina, pressing the flesh.

600 Page Hits

Looks like this blog got 600 page hits yesterday.

In The News

India must be in expanded G8, says Sarkozy Hindustan Times
China’s growth up to 11.4% amid inflation fears Financial Times

Tough to Campaign for Hillary, Bill Clinton Says New York Times campaigning for his wife was much harder than campaigning for himself ...... “When I was running, I didn’t give a rip what anybody said about me. It’s weird, you know, but if you love somebody, you’d think they’d be good — it’s harder.” ...... But Mrs. Clinton is back in South Carolina today, and it will be interesting to see how much attention shifts back to her.
WRAPUP 1-Obama dips but still has big South Carolina lead Reuters
Clinton, McCain Top US Presidential Campaign Polls Voice of America
Obama takes on the black community's homophobia Guardian Unlimited
Times poll finds Clinton holding on to lead Los Angeles Times Clinton maintains a solid lead in her party's presidential race among Democratic voters nationwide ....... Clinton was preferred by 42% of the likely Democratic voters polled, and Obama by 33% -- a significant increase for the senator from Illinois since a similar poll in early December, when he was the choice of 21%. Support for the senator from New York remained virtually unchanged over that period. ...... a pronounced racial divide among Democratic voters: About two-thirds of black respondents said they would vote for Obama, whereas only about a fourth of white respondents said he was their choice. ....... slightly more Edwards voters leaned toward Clinton than toward Obama ...... Most Clinton voters said they would like to see their candidate choose Obama as her running mate. Most Obama voters said they would like to see him choose Clinton for the second spot. ....... Obama's lead fell 3 points overnight to give him a 39 percent to 24 percent edge over Clinton in South Carolina ....... Edwards, a former senator from neighboring North Carolina, climbed four points to reach 19 percent -- within striking distance of Clinton and second place. ........ "Since the debate, Obama and Clinton have dropped and Edwards has been rising," Zogby said. ........ Support for Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black U.S. president, fell from 65 percent to 56 percent among African-Americans ...... Edwards held a slight lead over Clinton among likely white voters at 35 percent to 32 percent. Obama had 19 percent. ..... "If the trajectories continue, it's within the realm of possibility that Clinton could come in third," Zogby said.
Giuliani's Florida Win Appears in Danger The Associated Press
Obama Gains on Clinton, McCain Moves Ahead as Giuliani Stumbles Bloomberg voters say they want both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on a national ticket ...... Three out of five supporters of each candidate say they would like Clinton or Obama, if nominated, to choose the other as a running mate. ...... no contender in either party can claim the title of front- runner ..... ``She's really intelligent and straightforward and she's a good problem solver. He lifts your imagination.''

Building Social Muscles

Empire State

I had an appointment with someone in that building earlier in the day. After that was over, I decided to walk north. By the time I was done, I was at the northern tip of Harlem, by the water. I was wearing my new shoes, decent leather, otherwise I had been wearing my funky pair that I had bought for five bucks: Third World pride. I took the three train back. It is like you put on a white shirt for an event in a black neighborhood, you put on funky shoes for an event in Manhattan.

Bye Bye Drinking Liberally

Rudy's is not going to work for me.

Obama 2008

I go to Obama 2008 events. I participate more, learn names, engage in more talk, build social muscles. That will be better. You also end up with varied locations, a few different boroughs.

Justin Krebs

He obviously does not feel the Harvard thing for Barack. He instead feels the white guy thing for John Edwards and Chris Dodd. That is not Jewish angst, that is white guy angst.

Martha Kenton

When I crunch the numbers I realize I have spent more time in Kentucky than in the village I call my homevillage, kind of. But Berea and Lexington are night and day. Berea is Bible Belt with a strong small academic town feel. Lexington is a cute city, cosmopolitan. Martha is from Lexington. She knows the street I lived on for about six months after Berea, less than six.

She gave some time to when Cesnik ran for City Council. He had also been a Deaniac from 2004.

Barackface: Eric Cesnik For City Council
Barackface: Some Suggestions To The Cesnik Campaign

I think I have a lingering interest in the committee she is on, Women's Issues. If you are into group dynamics, gender is a goldmine as a topic. The first meeting I mostly listened. My enthusiasm for 2.0 might not have been shared though. Most people are like, I am here to socialize, and if I am here for an hour, that is all the time I have for it, not before or after. Understandable.

I guess I come from a little more hard core political action angle. NYC is the progressive capital of America and the world. If you are a group of women in NYC gungho on women's issues, I think you have an audience out there in small town America. Got to reach out to them.

But it's a free country, and I should put out my ideas in person at a meeting, and if the idea is rejected, I should just accept it. I think there is some discomfort among some people about putting your photos and videos online. Some people feel uneasy, maybe even a little unsafe: privacy issue.

At this last meeting, one person present said, "This is Hillary country."

I said, "I am a hard core Barack Obama guy in the city, but the good news is I am rooting for Hillary for vice president."

Martha stepped in saying she was supporting Edwards out of "Southern pride." She did that for the only man present. Only women do things like that, at least most of the time. Guys don't even notice half the time.

Martha Outed Kenton And Women With Issues

It was curious to me though as to why the meeting was at what would be church time. Was there a method to the madness?

I am still undecided about this next event of Martha's committee. Is this one where you get to meet local women politicians? That would be great. Like that woman who beat Cesnik, for example.

Thursday, February 7

6:00 pm

Planned Parenthood and DL21C's Women's Issues Committee present

A Night Out with Women in Politics
6:00-9:00pm
The Zipper Factory, 336 W. 37th St. between 8th & 9th

Please RSVP!

At some level I feel this committee might also fizzle out for me. I have no interest in event planning. There might not be enough policy talk. Or the chemistry might go awry: that is always the interesting part. Or I might not even show up. Or Martha might try to act the bridge back to DFNYC. That is always a possibility.

DFNYC

I am surprised that organization has not endorsed Deaniac Barack.

Caputo

I see a few different organizations in the rear view window. DFNYC, MYD, Drinking Liberally, and DL21C. Although Martha's committee is affiliated with DL21C, it is a satellite to the planet.

Somewhere along the way it struck me of all the people at all the organizations in the city, perhaps Caputo is one who might run for office at some point. Or maybe not so. I would still bet on it, but running for office is one of those things noone can decide for you. My judgment comes from a five second snapshot here, a five second snapshot there. But then all that might be rearview window stuff by now. I find that curious.

She has a way of wielding power, an instinct for it.

One

I got to know so many people running so many organizations, I have been to so many events, including Obama events. Caputo stands out as major office candidate material like nobody else. That is just a statement my political eyes want to make as if to show off my political instincts.

She could be the woman Barack.

Or I might be totally off the mark. Politics might just be a good, nice thing to do on the side.

My Hood



You walk one way and it is a Hasidic neighborhood, you walk another way and it is Little Bangladesh, best of both worlds. Yesterday evening I went to a local eatery and struck a conversation with a random Bengali over tea. I face a language barrier. I understand very little Bengali, and speak none at all. And we could barely follow each other's English. But it felt good afterwards, like nourishment.

Free Hand Exercise

It can feel like meditation. I am lucky in the slim department, the high metabolism department. The free hand exercise is a core component to building social muscles.

Clubbing

That would be the nonstructured way to do it. Meet people, build social muscles. I like big, rowdy kinds. Not small, gentle kinds. Opal and Red Lion are good stuff.

Street

I will take a street parade over some event at some bar any day. That is why summer is so much fun. I remember this parade I went to in the Bronx. Uh, that was so amazing.



Street Food

Street food makes you street smart.

Never A Corporate Job

I have never held a corporate job in America. I think the number one reason is I find it eery that so many people end up with this very narrow range of expressions on their faces. Easy, careless, smiles, loud laughs, mischievous looks go out the window. I have seen it happen to a high school classmate of mine who is a Citi guy.

So it gets unnerving when a political organization starts acting like it were some kind of a corporation. No, political events are like going clubbing. That is as far as I am willing to go.

Cloud Group Dynamics

That is what it was for Nepal work, for Obama work, and the young tech startup is an extension.

I love New York City, but I have to think Global South and so my career necessarily has to be online. I have to think of my people, my Global South people, in an active way, on a daily basis.

New York City

This is one place in America where it is the world at your doorsteps. If you are someone of my background, the outer boroughs are so very endlessly fascinating. It is like going on a world tour.

There is rest of America, and there is New York City. It is as if NYC were a different country altogether.

When I walk the streets, the city gets me. I see the full spectrum in my mind, from my homevillage to Times Square.

Third World To Times Square

My village I am going to call the center of the unknown universe, because it is your typical Third World village. Times Square claims to be the center of the known universe.

You get to call me Global South.

Spitzer

I was thinking about him today. He is a little bit in the doldrums right now. This guy is high on intellectual intelligence, relatively low on emotional intelligence. He is right, the point is not that he is not right. And he likes to take on big issues.

I have met Paterson in person and of course Pollak. These two are smart people, sure, but they happen to be high on emotional intelligence, both. If Spitzer were to form a close troika with these two - closer - I think these two will more than compensate in the emotional intelligence department.

But then nobody thought Bill Clinton was low on emotional intelligence, and the dude had rough years in 1993 and 1994.

Christianity, Buddhism

In the Christian worldview, it is your one soul, unique to eternity, it is one way street. In the Buddhist worldview, things get recycled endlessly. I think the two worldviews collide in social settings. In one worldview, you have hit the wall, crossed the line, in another you take what you take, you throw away what you throw away, and you start all over again, you recycle. It can feel like a culture clash, or it can feel like a power differential. I have the power to say I am done with you. Now, here I go off to eternity.

Observations like these on culture are also what get me about gender talk. They are fascinating to watch unfold. Women are hardwired different, and I mean in the mind. They see richer textures on the face. They bring different perspectives. And the gender power differential in general out there in the world is something to look at.

Bank

NYC thinks like a bank. From here to Silicon City is to be a major cultural challenge. You are trying to change the culture. The bank culture asks for a 50 page business plan. From there how do you move on to ideas scratched on napkins?

Barack Is Deaniac From 2004: His Anti-War Image Is No Fairytale
Progressive Political Religion: No Place For Superpowers
Tackling Race As An Issue The Average Person Way
Why Bill Clinton Is Misbehaving
An Ode To White Women: I Think I Am Going Hispanic
5.0 With Manhattan Organizations

Amardeep Singh: Tunku Varadarajan: on Amartya Sen, Racial Profiling Mr. Sen, now a professor at Harvard, was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in economics for his contributions to the field of welfare economics. He has a CV so seriously good that everyone, surely, knows of his being (in his previous post) the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, the apex of the British academic pyramid. Everyone, that is, except a British immigration official at Heathrow Airport a few years ago who, on looking at Mr. Sen's Indian passport and then at his home address on the immigration form--"Master's Lodge, Trinity College, Cambridge"--asked whether Mr. Sen was a close friend of the Master. This question made Mr. Sen enter into a private contemplation, rather self-indulgent in the circumstances, of whether "I could claim to be a friend of myself." As the seconds ticked away without answer, the immigration officer asked whether there was an "irregularity" with Mr. Sen's immigration status. And can you blame the man? Yet Mr. Sen--in his amused-but-chippy recall of the episode--says that the encounter was "a reminder, if one were needed, that identity can be a complicated matter." Well of course it can, professor. But in the 700-odd years of its existence, Cambridge had never before had a nonwhite head of college. Cannot immigration officers be just as empirical as economists?

Howard Dean Was Grassroots 1.0, Barack Is Grassroots 2.0

Time: Tuesday, February 5 at 7:00 PM
Duration: 4 hours
Host: katherine bernhardt
Location:
cafe enduro (Brooklyn, NY)
51 lincoln road
Brooklyn, NY 11226
Directions: take the Q train to Prospect Park station, exit Lincoln road. cafe is just to the left.

Time:	Thursday, January 24 at 6:30 PM
Duration:	7 hours
Host:	Martin Sutler
Location:	Madame X (Upstairs Lounge) (Manhattan, NY) 94 West Houston Street (between LaGuardia and Thompson) Manhattan, NY 11217

Barack Is Deaniac From 2004: His Anti-War Image Is No Fairytale

When Bill Clinton called Barack "the biggest fairytale I have ever seen," he meant the totality of Barack. The person, his lifestory, his candidacy, his blackness, his whiteness, his Boston convention speech, everything, the package deal.

Then the remark backfired a little, especially among leading African Americans across the country, especially after Hillary went right ahead and belittled none other than MLK himself (And The British Left India On Their Own), and she topped it off with her use of the word "slum" to describe a black Chicago neighborhood. And Bill Clinton backpeddled. I just meant his Iraq War thing, he said. As in, his image of being an anti-war person is a fairytale.

Fairytale, now that is a loaded racial codeword. Suggestion: don't take this guy seriously. People who don't take my blog seriously call it The Onion. If once in a while I am funny, I am glad. But this blog is no Onion. There is some cutting edge stuff going on at this blog.

Bill Clinton has not backpeddled enough. He needs to go ahead and eat his words. When Bill Clinton is talking about Barack and Iraq, he is lying. Again. Is there anything Bill Clinton has not lied about over the vast expanse of his career? He probably calls it political skill. I call him a guy who just does not get it. He does not get the politics of hope, the new kind of politics. What Barack is preaching is a new religion, and Bill Clinton has not the slightest clue. Bill Clinton is acting like a holdover from the 1990s that he is.

Barack's new kind of politics is a foreign language to Bill Clinton, he does not get it. Hillary is the same way, she must be married to Bill: she talks derisively of "false hopes" and "hoping for change."

Barack's hope message is not one that is naive, it is a muscular message that will deliver as many states to him in fall as Reagan managed in 1984, his muscular hope is the kind that can take you to the moon. This is not a weak hope of hoping the computers crash at the credit card company headquarters and all your credit card debt goes away. This is the kind of hope that ends slavery, the kind of hope finds the polio vaccine, the kind of vote that takes you to the moon.

This is also the kind of hope that ends a war that should never have been authorized - Hillary? - and never have been waged. Bush?

Barack was a staunch Dean 2004 person. When that organization became Democracy For America, it got behind the Senate candidate Barack Obama. Today Barack is the most prominent Deaniac there is.

Howard Dean Was Grassroots 1.0, Barack Is Grassroots 2.0

Guess what defined Dean 2004 more than any other thing: Howard Dean's anti-war stand. If anti-war is cool today, all the credit goes to Howard Dean. Barack took the right anti-war stand in 2002, but he did not have Howard Dean's clout at the time to go national with it.

Howard Dean made anti-war cool in 2004, Barack Obama gave the Dems a big victory with it in 2006. Dean was anti-war 1.0, Barack was anti-war 2.0 in 2006. The Dems took the House and the Senate in 2006, thanks to Barack.

To doubt Barack's anti-war stand is to doubt Howard Dean's anti-war credentials. That is like saying George Washington is not the Father of the Nation, Ernest Hemingway did not write The Old Man And The Sea. It really is that basic.

Barack was anti-war in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and this year too. Barack will be anti-war in 2009 as president. Barack will stay anti-war until the war is over, until he brings it to an end as president.

Barack was the most sought after Democrat during the 2006 election that turned the tide for Democrats in this country after six lonely years. The anti-war plank is what got the Dems the victory in 2006 and there was general consensus that Barack was the mascot nationally for that anti-war theme.



So how do you explain a few things?

Why did Barack say right before the 2004 convention that he did not know how he might have voted on the war if he were Senator in 2002? Duh. He was trying to enhance the chances of the Kerry-Edwards ticket. Both Kerry and Edwards had voted for the war, but now they were the candidates who were going to end it. So if your goal is to end the war, you do all you can to enhance the chances of a Kerry-Edwards ticket. So Barack said what he said. That was still an anti-war stand. Don't you get it?

And why has Barack voted to fund the war? That is what any responsible Senator would do. You don't say because I am opposed to the war, now I am going to cut the funds to starve the American troops out in that desert.

You still want to end the war, and you take the necessary political steps. It was not the mistake of the armed men and women who have done everything that has been asked of them. It was the mistake of George Bush, it was the mistake of the Republican Party.

And so Barack took the political step of being the most visible Democrat in the country for the 2006 elections. Victory came along, but he realized that had not been enough to end the war. So he changed his mind on not running in 2008, and he ran. He ran to end the war.

So, if a guy was anti-war in 2002 when he was a nobody trying to be a somebody and anti-war was not how you became somebody in 2002, if a guy was a Deaniac in 2004, the most prominent Deaniac in the country, and the guy was The Anti-War Mascot Of The Democratic Party for the 2006 elections, and the guy became the only prominent Dem running in 2007 who had actually opposed the war from the very start, what I would like to know is when did he become not anti-war.

I respect and admire Bill Clinton. He gave good eight years. Personally I am thankful for the dot com boom. So I will give him the benefit of doubt. It might have happened in 2003. 2003 is the year that escapes attention. Barack might have made a pro-war lapse as a desperate nobody that year. Somebody go do the digging on this one and help Billie Clinton out.

Barackface: Critiquing A Critique Of The Iraq War Critiques
Barackface: Obama's Weapon On Clinton: Iraq
Barackface: Barack's Fairytale Position On Iraq War, Fairytale ...
Barackface: Complicated Iraq
Barackface: Hillary Messed Up On Iraq, And Al Qaeda Is Strong ...
Barackface: Movie: Iraq For Sale
Barackface: Iraq Movie, Liberally, But Not Drinking
Barackface: Obama Gameplan: Stable, Democratic Iraq
Barackface: Impeach Bush-Cheney, Nancy Pelosi Gets To Become First ...
Barackface: Iraq Intel: The Spy Who Failed Me
Barackface: Lamont: The Iraq War Ferment In The Democratic Party
Barackface: Iraq: Dumb War
Barackface: Iraq Did Not Have The Bomb, Iran Does Not Either
Barackface: Hillary's Iran Vote, Not That Different From The Iraq Vote
Barackface: Lieberman, Lamont
Barackface: Flatten It Out
Barackface: The Unthinkable: Nuclear Weapons Are Not Made To Be Used
Barackface: I Don't Doubt Hillary's Compassion Overall, Just Her ...
Barackface: Barack's Politics Of Hope, Hillary's Politics Of Fear
Barackface: Hillary's Pro-War, Anti-Immigration Plank







Barackface: Howard Dean Was Grassroots 1.0, Barack Is Grassroots 2.0
Barackface: Dick Cheney, Nelson Mandela, Howard Dean
Barackface: Dean-Hillary-Obama Ticket
Barackface: Messages To Dean, Ferrer
Barackface: I Am Running For Dean 2008 Campaign Chair
Barackface: Dean Was In Town Yesterday
Barackface: Dean, DFNYC, Daily Kos, Justin, Brooklyn, Nepal
Barackface: Bill Clinton Is Now Anti War Like Dean

Progressive Political Religion: No Place For Superpowers

The spectrum concept is a powerful concept, and it can be used to create a near permanent progressive majority. You map the electorate on each issue, 1 to 10. So 5-10 is 60% of the electorate. You are trying to get them to vote for you. One person's map might not agree with that of another. And candidates might differ on exactly what position to take to get all of 5-10 to vote for you.

And you make the 1-4 feel like you have really really heard them. You have listened to them and you have understood what they have to say and why. This makes for a compassionate progressive. You are being respectful of the fact that in a democracy, a voter, no matter how wrong, is still rightly entitled to one vote. All votes are equal. Your ideology does not, should not, determine the weight of a vote.

Barackface: Health Care As A Spectrum
Barackface: The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power
Barackface: The Spectrum Concept: Wide Applications

So mapping is step one. Positioning is step two. What position can someone running for office take to get the 5-10 to vote for them? And it is not like there is only one issue. There are a host of issues. Your positions on one issue might make you lose someone who might agree with you on something else. So you have to account for that. Mapping might be great material for the brains, the intellectuals, the pollsters, the think tank types. But positioning will be best done by the professional politicians, people who go out there and shake hands.

So there is the spectrum. And then there is The Matrix that is an ideal. It will not take shape just like I have outlined. But in a scenario when near everyone is online, The Matrix will come alive. The democracy will become almost direct. I don't think the political offices will go away, there is no replacing humans, but all the offices will become fundamentally transformed.

You introduce democracy into a country with a Big Bang.

Spread Democracy
Revolution

Then you introduce the spectrum and The Matrix, if the country is online enough.

Basically what you are doing is you are building political infrastructure. Political, and social, and economic infrastructure. A state, any state, a country, any country, a government, any government, is but a tool to building that political, social, economic infrastructure, the goal always being to benefit the individual.

Money is not everything, money can buy you bed but not sleep, and they say the best things in life are all free, but money just so happens to be a big, big chunk of all policy talk. And so, to keep things simple, I am going to put a dollar figure on every human forehead. That is how much money that person makes in a year.

The progressive goal is to acquire power to build the political, social, economic infrastructure so as to make the dollar figure go up on every forehead.

It is about the individual. It is not about this or that country being a superpower. If all of humanity were engulfed in a one person one vote arrangement, there would be no superpower at all.

So, no, I am not someone plotting to have America replaced by India and China as superpowers. I am a progressive. That is my political religion.

I think the spectrum concept is particularly well suited to handle social issues that have been the trickiest for progressives generally.

I am going to work much more on the Democracy Spreading Mechanism (Spread Democracy). It was forged through work on Nepal's April Revolution 2006, with some collaboration, but it failed me during the Burma protests, primarily because I just did not have the network and the penetration that I had with Nepal. In Nepal's case I had managed to penetrate all the political parties, top human rights NGOs, and diaspora organizations. This Democracy Spreading Mechanism (Spread Democracy) is the weakest link in the chain right now. I think I need to define it more, and add ways to measure readiness level. For example, at what point do you finally call people out into the streets? Too early, and you fail, like in Burma. But then there is also such a thing called too late.

In The News

Obama cannot beat Republican attack machine, says Clinton Guardian Unlimited She presents herself as a battle-hardened veteran, having weathered whole books full of smears, innuendo, half-truths and unfortunate facts. ........ The possible lines of attack against Obama are already being rehearsed on rightwing websites and talkshows. A claim on InsightMag.com - owned by the Unification Church - that he had attended a radical Islamic madrasa as a boy, was repeated on Fox News and other conservative outlets. In fact, the primary school Obama went to for two years when growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia, was a state school with a largely secular curriculum.
Barack Obama targets southern barbershops Telegraph.co.uk
Clinton, Obama shake up politics of identity Reuters 40 percent of blacks in South Carolina are likely to vote for Clinton ..... Obama scored well among women in Iowa and around 40 percent of blacks in South Carolina are likely to vote for Clinton ...... No black candidate has been elected to the Senate in the U.S. South for over a century, a fact seen as evidence that black candidates are at a disadvantage in a region where the legacy of slavery and racial segregation remains visible. ...... the Democratic race has turned assumptions of the role of race and gender in presidential campaigns on their head and helped energize the voting base .... the Democratic nominee in 2004, John Kerry, won just 30 percent of the white vote in the south
Momentum turns toward Obama in SC Chicago Sun-Times National polls may show Hillary Clinton slightly ahead of Barack Obama .... In New Hampshire, an Obama win was mistakenly predicted. ..... Obama's heady win in Iowa and his close seconds in New Hampshire and Nevada ...... No one cares about the Rezko issue outside Chicago ..... Young is a "has-been," one of the old guard of civil rights workers whose hard struggles have become just history book anecdotes for the younger African-American generation that has embraced Obama as an icon of change. .... Obama now leads among African Americans in South Carolina by 64 percent to Clinton's 20 percent.
Clintons lying about Obama's Reagan remark Baltimore Sun
Bill Clinton raises eyebrows as campaign surrogate for his wife The Canadian Press Obama made it clear he was going to hit back. ..... "This has become a habit and one of the things that we're going to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he's making statements that are not factually accurate."
Pitbull Bill - the 'other' Clinton revelling in his return to the fray Guardian Unlimited It has come down to Obama versus Clinton in the key southern state of South Carolina - but the Clinton that Barack Obama is up against is Bill, not Hillary. ....... At Lizard's Thicket diner, beside the Columbia highway yesterday, he let his breakfast of omelette and grits grow cold. He was enjoying taking questions from reporters far too much to care about food. After weeks of Hillary and Barack Obama being top of the news agenda, he was the story. ...... Arguments were inevitable in politics, he said. "This is a contact sport." ...... as he put it, the First Laddie ...... he took time to work the room ..... The Clintons have a reputation in Washington for ruthlessness. Their research team has spent a year digging through Obama's background, examining in detail his upbringing and, more specifically, his voting record while a senator in the Illinois legislature. ....... negative campaigning, no matter how often the public claims to dislike it, is effective ...... Bill Clinton is a brilliant and intelligent politician who makes no chance remarks: it's all deliberately worked out.
Obama Offered Dance Test for Clinton The Associated Press
Bill gets some shut-eye at MLK day event Boston Herald

Tackling Race As An Issue The Average Person Way

There are more than whites and blacks in America, there are also Latinos, there are Asians. But race seems to tango primarily between blacks and whites. I believe race has to be tackled as an issue at the level of the average person, one conversation at a time.

It can start as an in-group thing where blacks are primarily talking among blacks, and whites are primarily talking among whites. It's okay to start that way if only because that is what the living arrangements are for the most part. Blacks live with other blacks. Whites live with other whites.

You bring forth simple questions and you go around and have people answer them. Among a black group, I would pose these questions.

What does race mean to you? How big an impact do you feel race has had in your life? Slavery happened. How do you feel about that? Segregation happened. How do you feel about that? What have been your personal experiences in racism, if any? In what forms does racism exist today? Do you think those can be tackled? How? What constitutes the black identity? How do you fight internalized racism among blacks? How do you take pride in your black identity? Black identity can not be to do with slavery and segregation. Those were aspects of race relations that did not quite work out. Black identity has to be to with music, and culture, and history, and religion, and art, and black heroes and role models, it has to be positive, and it has to be independent of anything to do with white misbehavior in the past or present. So what is that black identity? Tell me.

Don't get me wrong, I am mad as hell at racism, and I have experienced it myself, but it really bothers me to realize so much of the black identity revolves around slavery and segregation. I am not saying don't talk about it, quite the reverse. But I am saying slavery and segregation are not identity. They were diseases. They can't be identity.

So what is that positive black identity? What is it made up of? Swahili? African art and artifacts? I think for a big part Africa is the answer. Blacks in America would do well to learn some Swahili for pride purposes. Not necessarily fluent Swahili, broken Swahili would be just fine. There was Swahili before there was slavery and segregation. Swahili can be identity, slavery and segregation are not identity.

Mind you, I am not saying don't talk about slavery and segregation. Talk to your heart's fill. Talk as much as you want. Just don't talk like they are your identity. Disease can not be identity.

Some people say blacks should adopt Islam. What I say is those blacks who want to convert to Islam should happily do so. If you feel like adopting a religion that is different from that of most white folks will make you feel more whole as a person, heck, it is called religious freedom. It is guaranteed by the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights. By all means do so. Any religion is fine. If you were to ask for my recommendation, I would say Buddhism. Wink, wink.

Racism hits the family structure hard. There has to be enough grassroots organizing at the community and church levels among blacks that people raise their political consciousness level to say the external reality of racism can not be allowed to affect the internal reality of one's self or the semi-internal reality of one's family.

Racism is still wrong, and it is hurting enough, but you can make it not seep into the walls of your home where no white people are around, it is just you and your family. And that requires conversation, that requires political education.

We don't live in a time when racism is the law. We do live in a time when there is much social segregation. You could say the institutions of power are infected, some more so than others.

But those black people who might ask that the whites cleanse their hearts of racism must exhibit the guts to also cleanse their hearts of internalized racism. And if they can't cleanse their hearts of internalized racism, they must acknowledge it is hard for anybody, black, white or other, to do any kind of cleaning.

Not everything that whites have and blacks don't have can be attributed to racism. Life and the institutions of society and wealth creation are a little more complicated than that. You can argue whites got a headstart because their ancestors owned slaves, and their fathers got to eat lunch at segregated lunch counters, and they got to go to whites only beaches. But at some point you have to get out of memory and walk the current reality. Life is unfair, but you can seek opportunities.

The black schools are not as well funded. On average black children do not get the early childhood education that the average white kids might. The gates to the big seats of learning might favor the whites more than the nonwhites. It is a complex situation. There might be glass walls and ceilings at the workplace. Not there might, there are.

But despite all that there is no denying the importance of knowledge in wealth creation. Whites might have an unfair advantage in accumulating that education, and whites might even have unfair advantages at the workplace. But one of the starting points is strong families and strong communities that make the best of what is already available in terms of opportunity. The beauty of that argument is that strong family, and that strong community will also take the political actions necessary to expand the opportunities. You don't get to say, damn those white people, because of them I don't have a strong family, my community is not that strong, and it is not very well organized politically. All that you got to do on your own, and if you do that, good things start happening.

Grassroots organizing has amazing power.

And the conversation has to expand and move to mixed groups. It could look like this.

Black Person: Slavery happened. My people got wronged.
White Person: I could not agree more.
Black Person: Segregation happened. My people got wronged.
White Person: I agree.
Black Person: Slavery and segregation is the reason why I am still lagging behind in life today.
White Person 1: It is possible that is true.
White Person 2: C'mon, man. Get a life. If carrying the burden of dead white men is hard for you, why do you think it is any easy for me? I don't want to carry it either.
Black Person: Racism exists today.
White Person: Like how?
Black Person: America never had a black president. India has a Muslim president and a Sikh prime minister. An Italian born woman almost became prime minister of India.
White Person: Sorry, we are running late. But I am for Barack.
Black Person: All institutions of society are infected.
White Person: Most of the time most of the people in most of the institutions are doing things that are right and necessary and not racist at all. Don't throw the baby with the bathwater. You are going to have to get more specific than that.
Black Person: But racism exists.
White Person 1: Yes, it does.
White Person 2: No it does not.

I think the idea is to find common ground among blacks and whites that slavery and segregation were wrong. And then disagree on if racism still exists or not and in what form. The disagreement will be of degree, it will not be total one way or the other. The important thing, the most important thing, is that race has to be talked about. It matters less what form that conversation takes than that the conversation takes place in the first place.

If a Barack victory in South Carolina generate a white backlash on February 5, America is a sick country. Give a biracial man a biracial treatment. Barack is America's best hope of moving beyond the old and tired arguments on the issue of race relations.

Barackface: How To Play The Race Card In South Carolina
Barackface: Race, A Few Different Angles
Barackface: Race, NYC, Future, Globalization, Internet, Glass ...
Barackface: Race, Gender, Progressive, Conservative Divides
Barackface: Race, Gender
Barackface: The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power
Barackface: White Media Says The Clintons Won Nevada
Barackface: Landscape Talk



Rediscovering Drinking Liberally

I think I might go ahead and become a regular. That would be a great way to build back my social muscles. I sorely need that.

The first day Justin Krebs saw me, he saw me do the hot dog thing that you do at Rudy's. If you don't know there is free hot dogs at Rudy's at the center of the known universe: Times Square. Krebs went ahead and ordered pizza for everybody. We had not talked yet.

All these videos down below are my handiwork.

I think I have always liked it so much that Drinking Liberally is so unstructured. I find that appealing. Some of the other organizations are too structured and not online enough for me. I think people don't realize NYC is the progressive capital, and going online is a way to reach out perhaps to small town across the country, for one. But then most folks get involved because to them it is more socializing and less political action. And, as they say, it is a free country.

Barackface: Drinking Liberally
Barackface: Facebook And Drinking Liberally
Barackface: DFNYC, Drinking Liberally, DL21C, Cosmopolity
Barackface: Laughing Liberally Brings The House Down December 30
Barackface: Hands Off Brooke Ellison
Barackface: Justin Krebs
Barackface: Murderball
Barackface: Liberally Tipsy
Barackface: Iraq Movie, Liberally, But Not Drinking
Barackface: Knock, Knock, Knocking On Heaven's Door

Jewish

I have talked about at this blog about how I had to google him and that is how I found out Spitzer is Jewish. He looks like a white guy to me. And his last name is no better.

But then, can you tell the difference between a Pahadi and a Madhesi? Or a Tamil and a Maratha?

Born

Most people are born into a certain religion. Most people are born black or white. What side of the race argument/discussion you are on often depends on that. And so I think it is a big deal that Barack is biracial, like really really big. The voters need to know he was raised by a white mother. That is fundamental to his identity. If voters on February 5 have to vote before knowing he was raised by a mother who happened to be white, Obama 2008 has not done a good job at all. I am dedicating February 5 to Barack's mother.










In The News

Obama, Reagan and the Internet New York Times In 2006, he says, he was the person whom most members of Congress (Democrats, presumably) sought to have come into their districts ...... “’Now, it is blasphemy for Democrats,” Obama pollster Cornell Belcher said of Reagan, “but that hope and optimism that was Ronald Reagan’ allowed him to ‘transcend’ ideological divisions within his own party and the general electorate.” ..... he says that when you discuss war with Baby Boomers, their frame of reference is Vietnam. “My frame of reference is what works” ..... The campaign is now running a biographical spot across the country.

Obama's Relationship With Alleged Fixer The Associated Press

Why Bill Clinton Is Misbehaving

Let's Finish This Thing On February 5
Become Aggressive, Or Become Adlai Stevenson

Fairytale

Bill Clinton's use of the word fairytale was a 21st century version of the Willie Horton ad. It was/is racially coded. When you are a nonwhite person trying to climb up the ladders of success, what are you doing? You are trying to be taken seriously.

But Bill Clinton goes ahead and says Barack Obama is a fairytale. Don't take that guy too seriously. He is a fairytale. He is harmless, he is cute, but he is a fairytale.

Slum

The South Side of Chicago where Barack Obama was practicing civil rights law, Hillary went ahead and called it a slum. That is a Willie Horton ad. Who lives in the slums? Black people. Barack is black. He is charming, eloquent, but black.

Hillary's use of the word slum is designed to give her the white vote on February 5.



Barack Has Work Cut Out For Him

A guy who is going to be the first black president of the United States does not have the option to avoid race as a big issue. He has to prove America is ready to elect him, a black man. And he has to prove if America is not fully ready, he will help America become a little bit more ready.

Whereas Bill and Hillary are counting on the fact that deep in its heart, white America is not ready for some black dude to go occupy the ultimate house in the land. All they have to do is use some racial code words - fairytale, slum - and the white sentiment will come gushing to the Clintons. White America will fall head over heels for the Clintons.

Barack has to do a few things.

One, you do not get to avoid this topic. You do not get to pretend as if something other than race is being alluded to.

Two, you have got to point out that the Clintons are misjudging America. This is not the America of the 1960s, or the 1990s. This is a 21st century America that is ready for a biracial president.

Three, you have to hit back and make America more ready to be accepting of its diversity. If America is not fully ready, you work to make it ready. That is where leadership comes in.

White Media Says The Clintons Won Nevada

Number One Reason Bill Clinton Is Misbehaving

It is not a man in love with his wife. It is a man scared of his place is history. Barack is going to be a greater president than Bill Clinton, and Bill Clinton does not like the idea. Otherwise Bill Clinton beats many others. He beats the two Bushes, he beats Jimmy Carter, Ford, Nixon. But if Barack becomes president, Bill Clinton will spend the next 40 years having to know Barack became a greater president than him. That is an idea Bill Clinton is not at peace with. And so he is campaigning with a vengeance. He is swinging any which way he can.

Bill Clinton In Top 10, Barack Obama In Top 5

Guess what, I think after Barack's eight years, somewhere along the way, America will see a woman Barack, a woman who rose up politically on her own, and who did for men what Barack is doing for white people. Men are carrying 10,000 years worth of guilt, and they would like some relief. The relief will not come from a woman whose campaign was fully run by her husband. The relief will come from a woman fully in charge. And she will compete not with Bill but with Barack in the greatness ring. So Bill, chill.

Don't Cross The Line

If the Clintons don't stop using the racial code words, Hillary should not be considered for running mate. That is what is at stake. Spitzer might not be a bad running mate to have if you have a serious opponent in a guy called Bloomberg. America has never seen a more serious third party bid for the top job. Bloomberg will not win, but he will do good.

Barackface: Eliot Spitzer For Running Mate
Barackface: Spitzer Is Right, Albany Is Wrong
Barackface: Eliot Spitzer
Barackface: Hands Off Eliot Spitzer
Barackface: David Paterson
Barackface: Obama-Spitzer Vs. Giuliani-Romney
Barackface: Eliot Spitzer, Aliza Fatima

An Ode To White Women: I Think I Am Going Hispanic

Barackface: Tracey Denton Of DFNYC
Barackface: DL21C Events: High Class Acts
Barackface: An Open Letter To Elizabeth Caputo

I think I am taking a cue from my Facebook friend Matt Damon and going Hispanic. The racial skin ceiling is proving a little too much for me. The chances of Hillary breaking the glass ceiling are greater than me breaking the skin ceiling, I think. Skin wall, skin ceiling, skin floor. There's skin all over the place.

Carrie was the editor of the college newspaper when I was SGA President. She first published a demonizing, racist article by someone that essentially called me a rapist. That someone succeeded me as SGA President: attacks work. The woman in question was Jewish, summer flame. My introduction to racism in America was a package deal: anti-Semitism was part and parcel of it. A few months later Carrie published an article by a guy who urged all girls who get boinked by me to go public with the information. 10 years later Carrie emailed me out of the blue, her first email to me ever. She was at a Buddhist monastery in Colorado. I was more than welcome to join her, she said. A Russian friend Olesya once called me a "sex bombino." Once in a while she shows up on Yahoo Messenger from Moscow. Political office can do strange and wonderful things to your image. You become vocabulary.

Among many white Kentucky conspiracies, sending me off to New York City might have been one. I am having to start from scratch.

I blogged a paragraph about Good White People Living In The Asian Century. Not long after the Chinese went public with PetroChina, world's first trillion dollar company.

Women are relational. Men are instrumental. That is the hardwiring. That is why women enjoy shopping so much. They are weaving into the social fabric when shopping. Women also thus have a third eye for the social reality, the us and them, the silos. They are aware white guys will love them for sending them out to protect the boundaries, something like that. That is one way to create social space, especially white guys who are not WASP. Romney calling Obama Osama was him trying to figure out how to get into this white thing.

There is a concrete difference between someone who makes 100K and someone who makes 50K. The difference is 50K. That is money. Power works the same way. Having internet access, and not having internet access. If you can smell the contours, power is as concrete as money.

The software loop/bug of an organization that performs a few basic functions: will you join, will you not join, will you come, will you not come, can you come, can you not come.

There's the spider organization and there's the starfish organization. Spider is hierarchy. That's all the big companies in NYC. Starfish is the Al Qaeda, the Wikipedia. The Apache Indians who fought the Spanish for centuries, they were a starfish organization.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez locked himself up for 19 months or so and wrote One Hundred Years Of Solitude. I came to NYC to launch a company but instead found myself giving two years of a zombie existence to Nepal: best work I ever did. There is a social price to be paid for that. I paid. You are socially absent at the time, and you have weak social muscles in the aftermath. You build.

What do you do? Where do you live? Standard questions.

It gets exotic. Like watching a coral reef. Watching the social reality in motion. There's the observation part. There's the analysis part. There's the action and participation part.

There are three obvious Harvard people on the Manhattan political scene. Dave Pollak, Elizabeth Caputo, and Justin Krebs. They all liked me at first sight, before I found out where they went to school. It felt very similar each time. And I am thinking I must be some kind of a good looking guy.

I sometimes wonder about smarts. Are some people biologically smarter, or have they just read more books? How does that work? I mean, I know it is both. But even if everyone had books, are some people still biologically smarter? Am I one? Can you see that on my face? My eyes?

I am long past the age of worrying about who went to college where.

I was the top student at the top school in Nepal, a top country, but that was before the Bahuns and the British got me. Nuru was number two. He went to Harvard.

It is possible Pollak, Caputo, and Krebs mistook me for Harvard people. Caputo's first question was, "Where did you go to school?" But I would like to stick to the good looks theory. Makes me feel better during this oncoming recession.

I will compare my Nepal and Obama work to anything Pollak, Caputo, and Krebs might have done. I am okay in the self esteem department.

Some day I would like to make corporate use of Pollak. McAuliffe did that a lot while working for the party for "free."

There is a reason all the top names in tech are college dropouts. Ellison could not have worked his way up IBM. He was in his 30s when he launched Oracle. One wife of his dumped him for a Harvard MBA. He claims his first wife left him because he did not work at all. His second wife left him because he worked too hard. After his third divorce, he called up his first wife and asked, "How does this work?"

Middle and upper middle income mindsets can not fathom the early stages of big money mindset. Ellison is proof. He went ahead and bought a boat and that sent his first wife into therapy. She decided it was between insanity and divorce.

At some level you could say I am both a high school and a college dropout, mentally, emotionally. After high school I launched a national political party. At Berea, I was still there after year one for the room, the food, the internet access - T1 - and the library. Going to class was a price I was willing to pay.

Faith, Family, Work, Health
Zone 3/The Blue Zone: Positive, Creative Group Dynamics.

If you are in the blue zone, the green zone people look exotic, the brown zone people look exotic. But to the brown zone and the green zone people, you look like you are part of some hierarchy, usually one where they are above and you are below.

Spider organization people are kind of like green zone people. They think hierarchy. The culture clash is very real.

My young company is both, spider and starfish. Ultimately when everyone everywhere is online, everyone is potentially an Apache Indian. But the institutions of society, of power and money, will not go away. They will change for the better. They will become more transparent, more agile. But many of their outlines will remain.

If you love New York City like I do, and if your target audience is the Global South, your career goes online.

5.0 With Manhattan Organizations

In The News

Giuliani banks on Florida to spring back into race CNN
Clinton goes national, Obama looks to lock in South Carolina AFP
Daschle: Bill Clinton's comments about Obama are not 'presidential' USA Today going to "truth squad" any and all attacks ..... the "incredible distortions" aimed at Obama by the Clinton campaign ..... "When Senator Clinton says -- or President Clinton says -- that I wasn't opposed to the war from the start or says it's a fairytale that I opposed the war, that is simply not true," Obama said.
Clinton keeps up Obama attacks in DC Baltimore Sun another dizzying day of losses in global stock exchanges .... Clinton said Obama “clearly came (to the debate) last night looking for a fight.” ..... she was somehow belittling Obama with “code words” meant to degrade his race ...... Clinton warned that a recession was "inevitable" and said she worried it could be deep and long. ..... her calls for a 30-day moratorium on home foreclosures and a five-year lending rate freeze.
Analysis: Hillary, Obama Battle Over Bill CBS News Since Obama's victory in Iowa, the Clintons have responded with a methodically aggressive campaign. With his own campaign now on the defensive, Obama came to Monday's debate determined to confront ....... "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Obama sarcastically noted during one exchange. ...... Obama has learned how formidable the Clintons' political machine can be, particularly when its future is on the line. The former president has played the lead role in taking the fight to the senator from Illinois. ....... the comments have raised frustrations in the Obama campaign to the boiling point. ..... "I was fighting against those [Republican] ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor . . . in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago." ..... Bill Clinton, who attacked Obama's assertion of consistent opposition to the Iraq war as a "fairy tale." Those words rippled through the African American community as a slight against Obama's candidacy -- drawing warnings from prominent black leaders to the former president to tone down his language. ........ his wife was asked whether he is overshadowing her candidacy and her message. ..... people who believe Clinton has crossed a line a former president should not cross. That debate will continue through the primaries, but on Monday Obama decided he had to push back.
Obama ready to rumble The Australian Obama has shown everyone he can float like a butterfly. Last night, he started stinging like a bee. ..... Obama has infuriated the Clintons with a run for the presidency that has defied predictions. .... He won the first round, jabbing hard and winning the Iowa caucuses, then had the audacity to goad the Clinton machine with a victory speech so powerful that ...... never rule out a streetwise fighter. A last-minute counterattack had team Clinton win New Hampshire, and then Nevada ....... Bill Clinton, the hitman in the one-two team with his wife, Hillary, has been getting redder and angrier as he pounds away at Obama. ..... Obama's oratorical gift and elegance in the political ring makes it easy to liken him to Ali, whose mouth was a powerful weapon. Obama, like Ali, can be a cocky showman who dares to lead with his chin. Then there's the Clinton Machine, which boasts awesome firepower, like Foreman. .......... He then attacked Clinton as just saying "anything to get elected". ...... "Your husband did," Obama said. She snapped: "I'm here. He's not." Obama retorted: "Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes." ...... Insiders in the Obama camp are still shocked they lost that second round in New Hampshire. ...."Staying on the ropes is the beautiful thing with a heavyweight when you make him shoot his best shot and you know he's not hitting you."
How Is Obama Doing? ABC News "Other than not getting much sleep and missing my kids, I'm doing great," Sen. Barack Obama ....... we're running not just against Senator Clinton but also a former President, who gets coverage any time he wants. ..... a former President who is actively campaigning
'Special Report' Panel on Barack Obama Taking on Bill Clinton FOXNews "I have a formidable opponent — actually, I have two," and this whole line about "I'm not just running against Hillary, I'm running against Bill Clinton" ...... Ted Kennedy said "Take it easy." .... Emanuel said "Hey, slow down a little bit President Clinton." ..... It is like a basketball team that you are facing, and they have two great scorers. And you concentrate on one and be pretty good against one, and then the other one — you concentrate on Shaq, and then Kobe Bryant buries three-pointers. .... the Clintons have been effective in their strategy and there is no backlash.