I just can't understand the negative fuss about Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize... the man is staggeringly inspiring and deserves it (although I think he should cool it with the waltz he constantly does with the media... the media ain't as great as the media makes itself out to be... it is full of flawed, petty, socially dysfunctional people!)
What can you do but call a highly inspirational man like President Barack Obama THE INSPIRATION!!!!! This tall, elegant, eloquent, compassionate, very able leader is now the leader of the most powerful nation in the world.
Only great things can be expected from President Barack Obama. And we know he will live up admirably to all out aspirations and expectations. Sigh, what a historic day this is -- the day President Barack Obama's swearing in as President. It is a proud day indeed to acknowledge our humanity and what a great world this world can be.
Photo caption: President Barack Obama: truly the face of a new generation -- for the whole world.
Photo credit: Barack Obama portrait by Martin Schoeller
Barack Obama has announced his new political team and he has gone for experienced and capable people. It is one of the best moves he can make.
Selecting Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State is the right move. She is a very capable woman and has the experience (and access to the experienced) that is crucial for her role.
Considering that Barack Obama is going into office while the economy is self-pulverized by American businessmen's misguided notion of what pure capitalism should be (i.e. unfettered and unmonitored way of making vulgar profits), he needs able and experienced hands to give ONE-TIGHT-SLAP to the system when the system (and greedy businessmen!) need it.
In life, Barack Obama knows I am sure, intervention is needed so that the less able are taken care of and looked after. Otherwise, the money-begets-money monster squad will leave the disadvantaged behind and you will have a state of union that will be absolutely unacceptable.
It is a challenging time also for Barack Obama because, disturbingly, with the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, it is also a time when the United States is reminded to be ever-vigilant against nutcases who hide behind dubious religious tenets for license to carry out their shitty, murderous work. These religious zealots should be dealt with severely and wiped off the face of this Earth.
(Photo of President-elect Barack Obama's new team by Jim Wilson for New York Times, and photo of Hillary Clinton by Chris Keane for Reuters)
One of the most remarkable persons in the Bush Administration has been Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In my opinion, she has done an incredibly admirable job as Secretary of State and deserves to be praised and celebrated.
As the first female African-American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice has tirelessly traveled around the world in her mission t broker peace and attend meeting and I am very proud of the work she has done.
She has never complained about anything, she has always maintained a dignified front and has given her all to the work she has been entrusted with. That is my perception from the sidelines anyway. And I am very sure it is an accurate observation of Condoleezza Rice.
President George W. Bush and the rest of his honchos, on the other hand, have been nothing but disappointment. President Bush's people, especially the utterly evil and remorseLESS Dick Cheney, have mostly been a curse and a bane to the world at large. All semblance of morality and accountability has been flushed down the toilet not only in the US (where the woeful state of of the corporate entities clearly bear this out!) -- but the trickle effect around the world has been profound.
Hope, as always, springs eternal, and the world again looks to the United States for leadership and it looks like great promise is held by Barack Obama!
(Photo of Condoleezza Rice by Stephen Crowley for New York Times)
(Illustration of Condoleezza Rice by Nathan Fox for New York Times)
November 5, 2008
EDITORIAL
The Next President
This is one of those moments in history when it is worth pausing to reflect on the basic facts:
An American with the name Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a white woman and a black man he barely knew, raised by his grandparents far outside the stream of American power and wealth, has been elected the 44th president of the United States.
Showing extraordinary focus and quiet certainty, Mr. Obama swept away one political presumption after another to defeat first Hillary Clinton, who wanted to be president so badly that she lost her bearings, and then John McCain, who forsook his principles for a campaign built on anger and fear.
His triumph was decisive and sweeping, because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens. He offered a government that does not try to solve every problem but will do those things beyond the power of individual citizens: to regulate the economy fairly, keep the air clean and the food safe, ensure that the sick have access to health care, and educate children to compete in a globalized world.
Mr. Obama spoke candidly of the failure of Republican economic policies that promised to lift all Americans but left so many millions far behind. He committed himself to ending a bloody and pointless war. He promised to restore Americans’ civil liberties and their tattered reputation around the world.
With a message of hope and competence, he drew in legions of voters who had been disengaged and voiceless. The scenes Tuesday night of young men and women, black and white, weeping and cheering in Chicago and New York and in Atlanta’s storied Ebenezer Baptist Church were powerful and deeply moving.
Mr. Obama inherits a terrible legacy. The nation is embroiled in two wars — one of necessity in Afghanistan and one of folly in Iraq. Mr. Obama’s challenge will be to manage an orderly withdrawal from Iraq without igniting new conflicts so the Pentagon can focus its resources on the real front in the war on terror, Afghanistan.
The campaign began with the war as its central focus. By Election Day, Americans were deeply anguished about their futures and the government’s failure to prevent an economic collapse fed by greed and an orgy of deregulation. Mr. Obama will have to move quickly to impose control, coherence, transparency and fairness on the Bush administration’s jumbled bailout plan.
His administration will also have to identify all of the ways that Americans’ basic rights and fundamental values have been violated and rein that dark work back in. Climate change is a global threat, and after years of denial and inaction, this country must take the lead on addressing it. The nation must develop new, cleaner energy technologies, to reduce greenhouse gases and its dependence on foreign oil.
Mr. Obama also will have to rally sensible people to come up with immigration reform consistent with the values of a nation built by immigrants and refugees.
There are many other urgent problems that must be addressed. Tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance, including some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens — children of the working poor. Other Americans can barely pay for their insurance or are in danger of losing it along with their jobs. They must be protected.
Mr. Obama will now need the support of all Americans. Mr. McCain made an elegant concession speech Tuesday night in which he called on his followers not just to honor the vote, but to stand behind Mr. Obama. After a nasty, dispiriting campaign, he seemed on that stage to be the senator we long respected for his service to this country and his willingness to compromise.
That is a start. The nation’s many challenges are beyond the reach of any one man, or any one political party.
(Photo of Barack Obama from vibe.com)
(US flag photo from http://www.albanyaerialphotos.com/cemetery.htm)
THE WORLD IS VERY HAPPY INDEED THAT BARACK OBAMA HAS BECOME THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES -- NEW IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD: OBAMA IS USHERING IN A NEW ERA OF AMERICAN POLITICS, A NEW ERA OF THE GROWTH OF AMERICAN SOCIETY, A NEW PHASE OF WORLD POLITICS. CONGRATULATONS!
(Photo of Barack Obama from Associated Press)
"Omigod! I swear if that old bastard says he fought for the country again, I will go veteran on him! For God's sake -- IF I WAS AS OLD AS HE WAS, I'D HAVE BEEN IN EVERY GODDAM WAR THERE EVER WAS, TOO!!!!!!".... these were the thoughts going through Barack Obama's mind as he sat down with his staff in the room given to him and his staffers before the second presidential debate.
No one said anything. It was one of those moments where Obama demanded silence -- not by using words, but by simply gently raising his index finger (with the thumb sticking up straight just so, like a slanted 'V', apart from the index finger and the other three fingers bent just so slightly -- all at a slight angle) at the person who was just about to say something.
His staffers knew that Obama sometimes needs some silent time before a big occasion. Through the expression -- a frown that brought creases to his forehead or an internal smile that lit his eyes from inside or a look of uncertainty or anger... he was obviously thinking of things and mulling about them.
"That old bastard called me a socialist! What about that stinked-up plan of his to bail out homeowners and letting them stay in their houses? Isn't THAT socialism?! What a moron that old bastard is! All he is going to do is screw things up and ruin this glorious nation of ours exactly as Bush did!"
"He is old and disrespectful! At this stage of the elections, is there a need to be disrespectful?"
Hmmm, Obama reflected on something... "Looking back, I suppose I was slightly mean to Hillary as well. I should not have been. I will not listen to my advisors the next time they suggest I take potshots at a fellow Democrat! I should have put my foot down! I wish I did. All that mudslinging between me and Hillary really did no one any good! I should have nominated her as my running mate. That would have made things easier!"
"But God is not a believer in making things easier. HE wants us all to earn our keeps and places in this world! And I sure as hell will do all I can to take America back to the days of her glory!"
Sir, we have to take our place near the stage. It's time, his aide told him gently.
(Barack Obama portrait shot by Martin Schoeller.
Photo of Obama seated from New York Times)
Oh wow, indeed. Barack Obama is featured on the cover of the November issue of Men's Health magazine in the U.S.
It just goes to show that Obama is getting endorsements from every imaginable segment of society.
From his early days of the U.S. Presidential election when he appeared to have been on uneven ground as he battled Hilary Clinton for the top spot in the Democrat camp, he has come quite a spectacular distance indeed today.
Clearly, he is a very likable and charismatic man whom the whole world is rooting for. He holds the great promise of bringing great change all around the world.
I am putting all my support and goodwill on Obama's side and hope this promising politician will reach the very top of the U.S. politics.
Bravo Obama for being the great man that you are!
I can't wait to write a short story about Cuban ex-president Fidel Castro... but before that I must point out some of the more intriguing things he has said in recent times in relation to the US Presidential elections. He basically said of Barack Obama's survival thus far -- LITERALLY! -- things that are in the minds of millions of people around the world who know too well what is going through the minds of white supremacists in the US.
Here, read the following report from: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Castro_says_its_a_miracle_Obama_hasnt_been_assassinated/articleshow/3587065.cms
HEADLINE: Castro says it's a 'miracle' Obama hasn't been assassinated
HAVANA: Former Cuban president Fidel Castro charged that American society was marked by "profound racism" and that it was a "pure miracle" that US presidential hopeful Barack Obama has not been assassinated.
"Profound racism exists in the United States," Castro wrote in a commentary that appeared on the website Cubadebate Saturday as he weighed in on the US presidential race ahead of the November 4 election.
"Millions of whites cannot reconcile in their minds with the idea that a black man with his wife and children would move into the White House, which is called just like that -- White," he wrote.
He added that it was a "pure miracle" the Illinois senator, who became the first black politician to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, had not been assassinated thus far.
The ailing Cuban communist leader, who handed power to his brother Raul earlier this year, described Obama as a politician who "has the habit of looking at his opponent with serenity and laughing at his rhetorical attacks."
Castro's comments came as a war of words with racial undertones marked the US White House race after civil rights icon John Lewis accused Republican candidate John McCain of sowing "hatred" against Obama, who is developing a commanding lead in opinion polls.
Castro also mocked McCain's poor grades at the naval academy and said Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin "knew nothing at all about anything."
(These most excellent photos are from the venerable New York Times' online edition. To see more Castro pictures, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/02/19/world/0219-CASTRO_index.html)
Republicans who caught the debate between Presidential hopefuls Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain must have been shocked by his appearance.
McCain never looked at Obama when McCain spoke. And when Obama rebutted McCain's points, McCain still never looked at Obama.
McCain came across as a nervous little white man, uncomfortable in the presence of a colored man.
It is bad enough that McCain always speaks in a way that seems like he is forcing himself to sound young, he is so insular in his view. His so-called experiences as a veteran mean nothing if he has not grown as a person.
(We expect an old man to sound his age -- like CNN's Larry King or even the late Republican President Ronald Reagan! Not sound like a 30-year old trapped in the body of 72-year old.)
Americans should wake up and know for sure that John McCain is not fit to enter the White House as the next President.
VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA!
PHOTO: From the excellent New York Times.
Barack Obama did something he should not have done: stoop to the low levels of the Republicans.
He sure did when he said, "...You can put Lipstick on a pig -- it is still a pig!"
The jibe is squarely directed at Republican Sarah Palin, the woman from probably the most corrupt state in the U.S. and the-now-an-interesting-choice-of-candidate-for-vice-president but-soon-to-be-a-costly-mistake-for-McCain gal.
Obama should have left her to her own downfall -- she is a failed mother (how she is going to govern the most powerful nation in the world when she can't even be a good parent, is anyone's guess), a creationist who is going to screw things up is a big way in this modern and increasingly free-thinking world (my bet is that she will be so out of whack with the rest of the world, that Europe is going to laugh all the way to the top position as the dominant world-influence peddler -- and let's face it, Europe is all about what people around teh world want: modernizing society; equality of the people and empowerment of the masses; and the U.S. is soon going to be non-invincible should Palin take a mistep)
Anyway, we managed to sit down with Miss Piggy, of The Muppets fame, and she had a thing or two to say about the Presidential election in the United States.
FD: Yo pig, what's up!?
Miss Piggy: Snort! Snort! Hey you lambchop! How ya doin?
FD: Doin good. WHat do you thin of Obama's crack about pigs and lipstick?
Miss Piggy: It was an utter insult! I am no Republican, in case you didn't know. I am a Democrat pig, like all them other pigs!
FD: Yikes! That didn't sound quite right! Anyway, do you actually wear lipstick?
Miss Piggy: I sure do. My favorite shade is pork-chop red!
FD: Pork-chop? Hmmm, I feel hungry suddenly. C'here my little bacon!
Miss Piggy: Err, ciao kids!
FD: Wow... that pig sure can fly!
And Miss Piggy ran like hell and disappeared into the horizon.
Photo of Miss Piggy from New York Times website.
Photo of Sarah "Lipstick on a pig" Palin from BBC MUNDO website.
Minneapolis was descended by a horde of Republican hicks recently where Republican John McCain was officially nominated by his fellow Republicans to be the next Presidental candidate. Unfortunately, for the rest of the world, anyway, as if the thought of McCain running the United States wasn't horrific enough -- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was nominated to the be McCain's vice-president.
Worst of all, the Republican National Convention, on the whole, looked like the National Convention of the Aged, with so many oldies in the audience. McCain himself, apparently, ran free with the dinosaurs!
This is about when the world will run and hide for cover in fear of irrational American foreign policy should the US fall into the hands of Republicans in the November elections.
As a result, all the liberals and progressives are now intently channeling all their positive thoughts towards Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden to take the top two posts in the US come the the November elections.
These photos from the venerable New York Times show the faces of Republicans (and their hats, too!) at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. Oh, the man facing the audience in the hatful picture is President George W. Bush, the numero uno Republican at the moment.
Hillary Clinton was my preferred choice for President of Unite States. Unfortunately, a few misteps by her -- not to mention the awesomeness of Barack Obama -- has made Obama the choice candidate for the US presidency.
Anyway, we love ya Hillary. Great speech at the Democratic National Convention.
As for Obama, he is making all the right moves. It will be interesting to see him become the president of the United States. Obama's choice of Joe Biden as vice president is positively and infinitely more inspired than Sarah Palin by Obama's rival for the US presidency, John McCain. (McCain, in case you have not read my earlier blog entry, is Paris Hilton's arch nemesis.)
Anyway, here are some nice photos:
1. Hillary Clinton picture from UK's most excellent Telegraph UK website
2. Barack Obama portrait shot by the incomparable Martin Schoeller
John McCain's choice of candidate as vice-president would make or break his presidency bid, I'd thought. And when I saw his choice -- LIZ LEMON!!!!!! -- I thought Obama was doomed. Who on Earth could counter the brilliant choice of Liz Lemon as a vice-president candidate. It was an inspired choice, I thought.
Then I realized that it was NOT ACTUALLY the lovable Liz Lemon (the brilliant alter-ego created by Tina Fey for her superb television comedy series, 30 Rock), but someone called Sarah Palin.
I don't know who Palin is, and frankly, because don't care. I don't think a country like the United States can afford to risk having a woman as President. McCain is 72, and the chance is there that if anything happens to him, the most powerful country in the world would fall onto the lap of a 44-year old woman. It is a risk no American should be willing to take, I think.
(Don't take me wrong, I think Germany's Angela Merkel is a brilliant leader. But that is because Germany is a country with a superb due-process system in place and so Merkel only had to oversee Deutschland. But running a country like the US would, to a large part, be dependent on the personality of its leader. And the emotions of its leader. And a woman at the top spells trouble.)
Pictures of:
1. Sarah Palin and John McCain
2. The incomparable Tina Fey
It is so good to see Hillary Clinton get back on track in the the American Presidential race. She won the Ohio and Texas primaries. It is a relief indeed that Hillary has gotten off the bitchy mode and is more focussed on issues (rather than slandering Obama). Let Obama play the dirty game of name calling and bury himself in the resulting avalanche.
Hillary should keep herself clean of this tactic and she will easily glide into the White House as I said she most definitely would earlier.
Oh dear, after all the optimism I had for Hillary, even proclaiming that she would take over the White House, she has turned out to be a disappointing presidential candidate indeed.
All that sarcasm and mean-spirited remarks directed at Obama are very unbecoming and she is becoming a testament why women are not up to running the United States of America. Being a president is a man's job, by the looks of things.
So, thank God indeed that my all time favourite Ron Paul is still in the race, nevermind that he is somewhere at the far back. Ron Paul is a good man and deserves everyone's love and respect for his admirable aspirations for the U.S.
Just a short note on the U.S. elections -- the candidates should remember that morality counts a lot in how voters vote. Hillary is viewed as clean. It was Bill Clinton who strayed -- and he has had the good sense to be goood to Hillary. On her part, Hillary has been perceived as a good wife who stood by her man. She is seen as exemplary woman and spouse to Bill Clinton and all the clips of her and her daughter together shows that she has the most excellent relationship with her daughter. Bravo.
Barack Obama is also seen in a moral light. He has a good relationship with his wife and daughters and this comes through to voters and television viewers alike. (One prays that Obama will not do a Tony Blair on the American -- and by extension the world -- public: i.e. have another child while in office. We would like to think that leaders are in office to make the country a better place and NOT SPEND THEIR TIME FORNICATING WITH THEIR OTHER HALVES! Can you imagine a world leader getting up in the middle of the night to feed the baby etc etc. What kind of attention can such a leader give to his country?)
As for the other candidates, there are a couple of old men with young wives and Rudy Giuliani is a standout for all the wrong reasons. He was involved in a nasty divorce and, morally, is obviously unfit for the White House. Whatever the lives of the American electorate might be like - be they happy, sad, miserable, in a depression, socially dysfunctional, have addictions, be in an unhappy relationship, have secret lives etc etc -- when it comes to their leaders, they want a role model of sorts! Like the rest of the people in the world.
It is kind of shocking and shameful to read the American media trying to rationalise why Hillary won the New Hampshire round. Everyone is saying that it is because there was that moment when her voice broke and her eyes welled up and thus all women voters in a frenzy of sympathy went into th epolling stations with a vengeance and save their sister, as Oprah Winfrey would have said.
But Oprah-fying the situation is the most idiotic thing that the American media could be doing (which it IS doing!). It shows the media writers/commentators' utter lack of undertanding of their fellow Americans.
To a keen observer of world politics like me, the reason is plain and simple: it is the words that she uttered (her vision of what the U.S. should be and can be) during the so-called teary-eyed-moment that convinced voters that she should be sitting in the white house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As for the American media's foolish obsession with exit polls and also a propensity for conjecturing things out of thin air (like women like to see Hillary's softer side etc) -- this is all utter rubbish.
Like one of Larry King's guest put it SO accurately -- American's will choose a candidate who they think can best do the job in the White House and not choose a candidate because she is a woman or he is black. (Sorry Obama - you are inexperienced - so you're out! Along with the rest of the men. It is going to be Hillary's White House!)
Interesting things are unfolding at the race for the U.S. White House.
Barack Obama has youth on his side. And he seems to be able to speak to the younger people in the U.S.
Hillary Clinton is showing that she is a blueblood politician and increasingly augurs hope for those who hope to see a spectacular America on the global arena
The Republicans are a reflection of the Republican-fatigue plaguing United States at the moment, because of all that George W. Bush stands for and has done (undone???). None of the Republican candidates are interesting at all.
John McCain is just too old and should go back home, put his feet up with a nice warm cup of cocoa and take it easy playing with the grandkids.
My favourite person in the U.S. elections is Ron Paul and it looks like he has disappeared off the radar at the over hyped Iowa and New Hampshire caucussess. I am sure the youth of America will revive his presence at the bigger cities as the U.S. elect
ions rolls along.
