Freddie Hubbard 1938-2008

Jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, one of the most brilliant players of the post-bop era, died in a Sherman Oaks, California hospital from complications stemming from a heart attack suffered on November 26th.

Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson was the first black heavyweight champion at a time when being black was sufficient to get you killed as evidenced by the lynchings which were in vogue in America in the early 1900s. His impact continues to resonate into the 21st century as evidenced by Trevor Von Eeden's serialized comic strip:

The legend of Jack Johnson, who became the first black heavyweight champion 100 years ago Friday, keeps growing. His story was already inspiration for a stage play and a feature film. Now he has inspired an online comic-book biography, “The Original Johnson.”

The comic, which is being serialized in weekly installments at www.comicmix.com, is written and illustrated by Trevor Von Eeden, and is unflinching in its depiction of racism in America, the brutality of the boxing ring and the tragedies and triumphs of Johnson’s life, including his sexual conquests. New chapters are scheduled to be posted every Wednesday.

It's a Wonderful Life

Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, it seemed to me, was emblematic of the sappiness and sentimentality associated with Christmas. But after reading Wendell Jamieson's essay in the New York Times, perhaps I need to take a second look. He writes:

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife. It is also a nightmare account of an endless home renovation.

Bernie's Hustle

Given the length and enormity of the alleged Ponzi scheme - more than two decades and by most accounts $50 billion - Bernard Madoff has earned the right of having this hustle renamed in his dishonor. Henceforth, it should be referred to as the Madoff Scheme, or, more informally, Bernie's Hustle.

Drama Queen

In a league with more than its share of self-obsessed egomanical simpletons, Terrell Owens reigns supreme. Regardless of whether it is the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, and now the Dallas Cowboys, there is invariably drama and whining from this self-centered, insecure idiot.

Governor Blagojevich

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's defense to the charges of bribery and corruption would seem to be obvious: plea insanity. For either he is profoundly stupid or certifiably insane to engage in the lunacy of trying to sell Obama's vacated Senate seat when he was already under federal investigation for pay for play and other crimes.

Juiced

There was something terribly pathetic in watching O.J. Simpson's plea for leniency during his sentencing for kidnapping and armed robbery. Through his rambling presentation, he couldn't quite shake the sense of entitlement that has been so much a part of his life since he demonstrated prowess on the football field, so much so that somehow the usual rules simply didn't apply to him. The Goldmans were understandably in a self-congratulatory mood for attributing Simpson's imminent incarceration to their unrelenting pursuit since Simpson was declared not guilty in the double murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Undoubtedly, the Goldmans' single-mindedness was a factor in O.J. going over their edge but given Simpson's attraction to the public limelight - like a moth to a flame - it was only a matter of time before this simpleton would do something stupid to get locked up.

Plaxico Burress' Toxicity

New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress' remarkable skills as a player between the white lines is only exceeded by his toxic combination of arrogance and stupidity, which unfortunately isn't limited to him (witness the asininity of fellow diva wide receivers Chad Johnson and Terrell Owens). As is well-documented at this point, Mr. Burress managed to shoot himself in the leg in a swank New York City nightclub while being declared inactive to play against the Washington Redskins because of a hamstring injury. His actions left the New York Giants organization with few viable options other than to suspend him for the remainder of the 2008 season.

Odetta 1930-2008

Odetta is dead at 77 years of age from heart disease. Her gift of song was an integral part of the United States civil rights movement in particular and the worldwide struggle for freedom and human rights in general.

Obama's Change

I find Obama's selections for financial and national security advisers rather troubling because they don't seem to square with the campaign rhetoric of "change we can believe in." Folks like Larry Summers and Timothy Geither are proteges of Clinton's former secretary of the treasury Robert Rubin. These people are partly responsible for the development of many of the exotic financial instruments and deregulation at the center of the current financial crisis. It is difficult to believe they represent the fresh thinking needed to extricate ourselves from this mess. As for national security, the main three - Hillary Clinton, James Jones, and Robert Gates - are interesting to say the least. Clinton's selection for state is easily the most problematical. I still believe that her foreign policy experience is vastly overblown, and with her you get Bill, which means a lot of drama. Jones is a close friend of John McCain and even appeared with the latter on the campaign trail. Gates is obviously a Bush holdover and the best thing that can be said for him is that he isn't Donald Rumsfeld. Now Obama claims that he values strong personalities and strong opinions, and he obviously thinks that his vision will dominate this motley crew. I say only time will tell.

Obama's Challenges

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Barack Obama faces the most awesome challenges of any president taking office since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the thirties. As A. Wess Mitchell, co-founder and director of research at the Center for European Policy Analysis , writes:

When Barack Obama enters the Oval Office as commander in chief for the first time in January, it's not hard to imagine him walking to the globe beside the window, giving it a good spin and running in his mind through the list of global burdens he has inherited from his predecessor. What he will see is unlike anything any American statesman has ever had to confront. Two simultaneous land wars; a rapidly arming Iran; an atomic, post-Musharraf Pakistan; a resurgent, energy-rich Russia; a China that holds 10% of U.S. currency; a $10-trillion public debt; the worst recession since World War II; and a weak dollar.

Hillary Clinton for the State Department?

It is difficult to understand just what Barack Obama sees in Hillary Clinton as secretary of state in his administration. Granted, other selections of former Clinton officials make sense because of the experience they bring to the table. But as Clive Cook argues experience isn't Hillary Clinton's strength for state:

I think choosing Hillary as secretary of state would be a mistake. Not because of Bill. The new administration can choose to use him or not, regardless. The "two for the price of one" stuff is ridiculous: they are not exactly chained together. Equally, if Hillary were the best candidate for secretary of state, it would be absurd to deny her the offer because of Bill's post-presidential connections. Scrutiny in future is really all that is required there.

The problem is that she is not well qualified. She is not by any stretch of the imagination a foreign policy expert. I would not call her a born diplomat. Her first priority would be to advance her own presidential ambitions, not to help make the Obama presidency such a success that those hopes die. The "team of rivals" idea is wonderful so long as the rivals are fully invested in the success of the enterprise. In this case, it seems doubtful. Could Hillary defer to Obama, and carry out his instructions to the best of her ability? I doubt it. And it would not help that everyone would be watching for the first sign of friction or insubordination. The soap-opera dimension would be highly counter-productive.

What is Obama thinking, I wonder? That the party would be delighted? Yes it would, but so what: the election is already won. Or is it something to do with keeping your friends close and your enemies closer?

Creepiness

The so-called pregnant man's 15 minutes of fame cannot end soon enough for me. The spectacle of this person making the media rounds is nothing more than the 21st century update or modernized version of the carnival freak shows popular in the 19th century.

Food for the Times

With the economy tanking and with so many families struggling to make ends meet, the Hormel Foods Corporation sees the reemergence of Spam, its signature product.

The economy is in tatters and, for millions of people, the future is uncertain. But for some employees at the Hormel Foods Corporation plant here, times have never been better. They are working at a furious pace and piling up all the overtime they want.

The workers make Spam, perhaps the emblematic hard-times food in the American pantry.

Through war and recession, Americans have turned to the glistening canned product from Hormel as a way to save money while still putting something that resembles meat on the table. Now, in a sign of the times, it is happening again, and Hormel is cranking out as much Spam as its workers can produce.

In a factory that abuts Interstate 90, two shifts of workers have been making Spam seven days a week since July, and they have been told that the relentless work schedule will continue indefinitely.

Spam, a gelatinous 12-ounce rectangle of spiced ham and pork, may be among the world’s most maligned foods, dismissed as inedible by food elites and skewered by comedians who have offered smart-alecky theories on its name (one G-rated example: Something Posing As Meat).

But these days, consumers are rediscovering relatively cheap foods, Spam among them. A 12-ounce can of Spam, marketed as “Crazy Tasty,” costs about $2.40. “People are realizing it’s not that bad a product,” said Dan Johnson, 55, who operates a 70-foot-high Spam oven.

Change We Can Believe In?

The political world is abuzz with rumors that President-Elect Barack Obama summoned former rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to Chicago to offer her the position of Secretary of State. With already so many Clinton associates part of the transition team as well as the new administration and now H. Clinton being offered this significant position, is this the change we can believe in?

Bush's Dubious Distinction

President George Bush has achieved a remarkable 76% disapproval rating, a rating significantly higher than Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

Irritating Cliches

Researchers at Oxford University have compiled a top ten list of the most irritating cliches. They are in descending order: 1. "At the end of the day"; 2. "Fairly unique"; 3. "I personally"; 4. "At this moment in time"; 5 "With all due respect"; 6. "Absolutely"; 7 "It's a nightmare"; 8. "Shouldn't of"; 9. "24/7"; 10. "It's not rocket science". One cliche I find especially irritating that surprisingly failed to crack the top ten is "Throw (him or her) under the bus." This monstrosity has quite naturally found its way into presidential election postmortems, as in unnamed McCain campaign operatives "throwing Sarah Palin under the bus" for her role in last week's defeat.

Miriam Makeba 1932-2008

South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba, 76, collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack during a concert in Italy.

Soulja Boy's Idiocy

In a week that saw Barack Obama become the 44th president of the United States, the idiotic mutterings of the 18-year-old rapper Soulja Boy are a sobering reminder of the work yet to be done. His response to a question about which historical figure he most hated prompted this mindless observation: "Oh wait! Hold up! Shout out to the slave masters! Without them we'd still be in Africa. We wouldn't be here to get this ice and tattoos."

Ralph Nader's Descent

Ralph Nader's use of the epithet Uncle Tom in connection with Barack Obama is but the latest step of this self-righteous windbag's descent into irrelevancy. Nader's legacy has always been eclipsed but his self-righteousness and self-regard. Never thought I would ever be placed in a position of saying anything remotely favorable about the FOX network but Shep Smith was absolutely correct in calling Nader out.

This Moment

Last night I witnessed something I could not have imagined would happen in my lifetime: the election of an African American, Barack Obama, to the highest office in the land, the presidency of the United States of America. But as joyous as this occasion is, I could not help thinking of those who came before, both the famous and the not so famous, who made the sacrifices that set into motion the conditions culminating in this historic moment. As I try to sort it all out, I came across the words of Charles M. Blow of the New York Times. He writes:

History will record this as the night the souls of black folk, living and dead, wept – and laughed, screamed and danced – releasing 400 years of pent up emotion.

They were the souls of those whose bodies littered the bottom of the Atlantic, whose families were torn asunder, whose names were erased.

They were those who knew the terror of being set upon by men with clubs, of being trapped in a torched house, of dangling at the end of a rough rope.

They were the souls of those who knew the humiliation of another person’s spit trailing down their faces, of being treated like children well into their twilight years, of being derided and despised for the beauty God gave them.

They were also the tears of those for whom “Yes We Can, ” Obama’s campaign slogan, took on a broader, more profound meaning.

“Yes We Can” escape the prison of lowered expectations and the cycles of poor choices. “Yes We Can” rise above history and beyond hatred. “Yes We Can” ascend to Martin Luther King’s mountain top and see the promised land where dreams are fulfilled, where the best man wins and where justice prevails.

During this election African-Americans, their hearts weary from disappointment, dared to hope and dream again. Tonight their dream has been realized.

Whether or not you agree with Barack Obama’s politics, there is no denying that his election represents a seminal moment in the African-American narrative and a giant leap forward on the road to America’s racial reconciliation.

In fact everyone, regardless of race, should feel free to shed a tear and be proud of how far our country has come.

Distress

Melanie Scarborough is a right wing columnist who is obsessed with the prospect of Barack Obama actually becoming president. In recent days, she has become particularly agitated, concluding with yesterday's column Last-minute doubts about Barack Obama. What follows is a letter to the editor that as of yet has not been published:

Melanie Scarborugh's musings on the state of the Republic are an unflagging source of amusement and a surefire way to get the work week started with a good laugh. As the presidential election draws to a close and the prospect of Barack Obama as the 44th president of these United States almost a foregone conclusion, Scarborough's rants have become increasingly febrile and apoplectic. Her latest attack on Obama finds the splenetic Scarborough at the top of her game, as she ticks off her objections to the exotic junior senator from Illinois: out or touch with the American heartland; an unrelenting critic of capitalism and the U.S. Constitution, particularly the First Amendment; and possessing no small-town America experience. Scarborough would be well-advised to seek professional therapy for her malady that, if the polls are to be believed, will spread and intensify after November 4th.

Bad Analogy

A McCain political advertisement, questioning Obama's experience and readiness to be Commander-in-Chief, asks would you get on a plane piloted by somebody who has never flown before. Given McCain's record of having crashed four U.S. Navy aircraft during his career, this isn't exactly the analogy he should be using.

Joe, Where Art Thou?

"Joe's with us
today - Joe, where
are you? Where is
Joe? Is Joe with us
here today? Joe, I
thought you were
here today. All
right, well, you're
all Joe the
Plumber, so all of
you stand up!"

Thus spoke John McCain about his poster boy at a rally in the aptly named Defiance, Ohio. That missing mofo Joe was probably out conferring with his publicist in an effort to cash in on his proverbial 15-minutes of fame. Let's hope the numbnut pays off his tax debt to the state of Ohio before he inevitably sinks back into anonymity.

Obama the Better Choice

The Financial Times, in its lead editorial, makes the argument that Obama is the better choice:

Mr Obama fought a much better campaign. Campaigning is not the same as governing, and the presidency should not be a prize for giving the best speeches, devising the best television advertisements, shaking the most hands and kissing the most babies.

Nonetheless, a campaign is a test of leadership. Mr Obama ran his superbly; Mr McCain's has often looked a shambles. After eight years of George W. Bush, the steady competence of the Obama operation commands respect.

Nor should one disdain Mr Obama's way with a crowd. Good presidents engage the country's attention; great ones inspire. Mr McCain, on form, is an adequate speaker but no more. Mr Obama, on form, is as fine a political orator as the country has heard in decades. Put to the right purposes, this is no mere decoration but a priceless asset.

Rogue Sarah

Apparently Sarah Palin cannot wait until election results are in to look beyond next Tuesday. According to CNN, the Alaska governor has calculatedly gone off message - "gone rogue" - in distancing herself from the McCain campaign.

Thoreau's Advice for RNC

Before investing the exorbitant sum of $150,000 to outfit and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the Republican National Committee would have been well-advised to heed the admonition of Henry Thoreau in Walden:

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit? If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old clothes. All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be. Perhaps we should never procure a new suit, however ragged or dirty the old, until we have so conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some way, that we feel like new men in the old, and that to retain it would be like keeping a new wine in old bottles. Our moulting season, like that of the fowls, must be a crisis in our lives.

The Fashionable Palin

Besides her glib style on the campaign trail, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has garnered as much attention for her fashion style. Now the word is, the Republican National Committee forked over more than $150,000 to make the Alaska governor presentable to the rest of the country.

Joe the Plumber is a Fraud

The McCain campaign probably thought they had seized on something significant by having its candidate repeatedly invoke the name of Joe the Plumber in Wednesday night's final debate with Barack Obama. But Joe the Plumber is a fraud. Had they done their homework, the campaign would have discovered that the dude's first name isn't even Joe, it's Sam; that 95% of all small businesses don't earn $250,000 annually; that Joe Wurzelbacher's total earnings last year was $40,000 (which means that he would benefit from Obama's tax proposal); that he isn't licensed to practice plumbing in Ohio; and that he owes the state of Ohio $1,200 in back taxes, resulting in a lien against his property.

Another Hail Mary

Weekly Standard editor and New York Times columnist William Kristol advises John McCain, with about three weeks to go, to jettison his campaign and return to the happy warrior he was in 2000 (which is odd, given that George W. Bush after punking McCain, emerged as the GOP standard bearer). Kristol's advice amounts to another Hail Mary, which in football parlance is the last desperate gasp to wring victory from the jaws of defeat. Kristol, and perhaps McCain, suffers from a confusion of sports metaphors, in that he apparently believes that Hail Marys come in threes like the proverbial three strikes associated with baseball. First, it was his selection of the unremarkable Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate - a not so thinly veiled attempt to appeal to the voters who supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries. Then there was the self-serving suspension of the campaign to return to Washington amid the greatest financial crisis since the depression to assist in the bailout talks. In both instances, the calculation never really produced the desired effect. Thus there is no reason to believe that it won't be any different this time, as the clock is running out.

McCain's Latest Straight Talk

In John McCain's latest stump speech unveiled today in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the Republican presidential nominee and self-declared straight talker said:

We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent the last eight waiting for our luck to change. The hour is late; our troubles are getting worse; our enemies watch. We have to act immediately. We have to change direction now.

The McCain campaign has always had a surreal quality: at once labeling itself as the reformers while being part of the political party that was in power for the last eight years and largely responsible for the mess the nation finds itself in. Which raises the question, is he suggesting that the Bush Administration, which he supported more than 90% of the time, spent two terms in the White House "waiting for our luck to change"? And given his record, isn't it somewhat incredulous that he casts himself and Palin as agents "to change direction now"? Obama was right: a wheel has come off of the straight talk express.

Cunning Sarah

Jonathan Raban, writing in the London Review of Books, has an interesting take on the now apparently waning phenomenon of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin:

What is most striking about her is that she seems perfectly untroubled by either curiosity or the usual processes of thought. When answering questions, both Obama and Joe Biden have an unfortunate tendency to think on their feet and thereby tie themselves in knots: Palin never thinks. Instead, she relies on a limited stock of facts, bright generalities and pokerwork maxims, all as familiar and well-worn as old pennies. Given any question, she reaches into her bag for the readymade sentence that sounds most nearly proximate to an answer, and, rather than speaking it, recites it, in the upsy-downsy voice of a middle-schooler pronouncing the letters of a word in a spelling bee. She then fixes her lips in a terminal smile. In the televised game shows that pass for political debates in the US, it’s a winning technique: told that she has 15 seconds in which to answer, Palin invariably beats the clock, and her concision and fluency more than compensate for her unrelenting triteness.

Palin Exposed

News that an Alaska state investigator found that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin abused her authority in an attempt to fire her former brother-in-law should put to rest any notions about the governor being the true blue reformer and a cut above your garden variety politician who will stop at nothing to retain power.

The Big Payback

A Las Vegas jury found O. J. Simpson guilty of armed robbery and kidnapping exactly 13 years after being acquitted for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. True, the jurors prior to being selected swore they could render a verdict with no regard to the famous trial of the century in 1995 but it strains credulity to believe that it had no bearing on the outcome. Of course, the arrogant and incredibly stupid Simpson could never resist the allure of public regardless of the notoriety, so it was only a matter of time before he got himself in legal trouble for which he could not extricate himself. That he seriously thought he could engineer a heist to retrieve his "stuff" only underscores his imbecility.

A Diversion

Conservatives are in an uproar over Gwen Ifill, tonight's moderator in the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. They say that Ifill's ability to be fair and impartial is compromised because she has a book coming out in January about Barack Obama. The charge is nonsense. Ifill is a seasoned professional who is able to set aside her personal opinions and beliefs and treat both Biden and Palin. This is nothing but a lame attempt to divert attention away from Sarah Palin's performance.

Gotcha Journalism

John McCain complains that his sequestered vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin has been victimized by the media practicing "gotcha journalism." McCain's charge has about as much credibility as, say, Alaska's proximity to Russia imbuing Palin with foreign policy experience. Witness this pathetic exchange between Katie Couric and Palin on the mundane matter of reading material:

COURIC: What newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this -- to stay informed and to understand the world?

PALIN: I've read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media --

COURIC: But what ones specifically? I'm curious.

PALIN: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.

COURIC: Can you name any of them?

PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news.

Palin Needs to Bail

Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker calls for Sarah Palin to bow out after her disastrous interview with CBS's Katie Couric. Fareed Zakaria makes a similar argument:

Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be vice president. She is a feisty, charismatic politician who has done some good things in Alaska. But she has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start. The next administration is going to face a set of challenges unlike any in recent memory. There is an ongoing military operation in Iraq that still costs $10 billion a month, a war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan that is not going well and is not easily fixed. Iran, Russia and Venezuela present tough strategic challenges.

Domestically, the bailout and reform of the financial industry will take years and hundreds of billions of dollars. Health-care costs, unless curtailed, will bankrupt the federal government. Social Security, immigration, collapsing infrastructure and education are all going to get much worse if they are not handled soon.

Paul Newman 1925-2008

Paul Newman, 83, is dead. I will forever remember him for his unwavering commitment to his craft and for his integrity as an actor and, more importantly, as a human being.

McCain Gets Desperate

Sen. John McCain's decision to suspend his campaign and call to postpone Friday's night debate with Barack Obama to participate in the bail-out negotiations in Washington strikes me as little more than acts of a candidate desperately trying to redirect the discussion. And Obama is correct in calling for the debate to proceed as scheduled; after all, the whole idea supposedly behind the debates is to provide a forum for the candidates to articulate their positions on the issues, which includes the current financial crisis.

Leadership Question

The reaction of Barack Obama and John McCain to the Bush Administration's move to bailout a financial system in crisis is instructive and telling on the question of leadership. Obama's message both in substance and tone was measured and thoughtful; McCain's, pointedly partisan and risibly absurd in blaming Obama for profiting from the crisis.

A McCain Endorsement

Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a high profile supporter of Hillary Clinton and member of the Democratic National Committee's Platform Committee, will endorse Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain today. Rothschild's endorsement of McCain apparently stems from her intense dislike of Barack Obama. “This is a hard decision for me personally because frankly I don't like him. I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him.” The proletarian Forester, who is married to international banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, is chief executive officer for El Rothschild, a holding company with businesses around the world. She splits time between her homes in London and New York.

Palin's Inexperience

Criticism of Gov. Sarah Palin's readiness for the vice presidency comes from an unlikely source - New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks who writes:

Experienced leaders can certainly blunder if their minds have rigidified (see: Rumsfeld, Donald), but the records of leaders without long experience and prudence is not good. As George Will pointed out, the founders used the word “experience” 91 times in the Federalist Papers. Democracy is not average people selecting average leaders. It is average people with the wisdom to select the best prepared.

Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness.

The idea that “the people” will take on and destroy “the establishment” is a utopian fantasy that corrupted the left before it corrupted the right. Surely the response to the current crisis of authority is not to throw away standards of experience and prudence, but to select leaders who have those qualities but not the smug condescension that has so marked the reaction to the Palin nomination in the first place.

Palin and Hannity

Next on the Sarah Palin interview tour, Fox News's Sean Hannity who has said of Palin: "She is a rock star, a rising star, a governor with more experience than Barack Obama ever dreamed of having." Unlike, ABC's Charlie Gibson, Palin will be interviewed by someone equally lacking in gravitas.

Palin Out of Water

The much awaited interview by ABC's Charles Gibson of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was decidedly underwhelming. If there was any serious question about her readiness for the position, Gov. Palin erased all doubt. Her responses to Gibson's questions, particularly the segment on foreign policy and national security, demonstrated that she is clearly out of her element. Little wonder then, why the McCain campaign kept under wraps before finally granting the Gibson interview. Without a doubt, Palin has established her proficiency in two areas: (1) the ability to deliver a speech crafted by someone else; and (2) the ability to regurgitate talking points written by others in anticipation of certain questions.

Jimmy Slyde

There is an interesting piece in the Fall 2008 The Threepenny Review by Brian Seibert on the legendary tap dancer and aptly named Jimmy Slyde.

Except for Peg Leg Bates and Sandman Sims, the great tap dancer with the most illustrative name was Jimmy Slyde. Printed on a program or spoken by an announcer, the name told audiences what to expect: a man named Jimmy, not James or Jim, was going to slide around the stage, and as the unorthodox spelling hinted, he was going to do it without losing his cool. He was born James Titus Godbolt in 1927, but it was as Jimmy Slyde that he began a professional career that lasted from the mid-Forties up until his death this past May, and it is as Jimmy Slyde that he will be remembered.

Hijacking 9/11

Bravo to Keith Olbermann for having the courage to publicly state that the Republican Party hijacked 9/11, successfully turning it into a political commodity and exploiting it for political advantage.

Lipstick and Pigs

Barack Obama rightly calls the McCain campaign's response to his "lipstick on a pig" comment exactly what it is: "phony outrage." A point that is underscored by footage of Sen. McCain dismissing Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care proposals on three separate occasions as "lipstick on a pig."

Palin's Forthcoming Interview

The McCain campaign has finally agreed to allow Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to be interviewed later this week by ABC's Charlie Gibson in Alaska. Let's face it: despite the hype, all Gov. Palin has demonstrated is the remarkable ability to read from a teleprompter a speech written by Matthew Scully. Even allowing for the cute little ad-lib about lipstick being the critical distinction between a pit bull and a hockey mom, voters really haven't heard from Sarah Barracuda in her own words.

McCain's Retreat

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, in the oped Running From Reality, examines John McCain's retreat from reality as he recasts himself as the maverick reformer and outsider, despite supporting the Bush Administration 90% of the time:

If there was one pre-eminent characteristic of the Republican convention this week, it was the quality of deception. Words completely lost their meaning. Reality was turned upside down.

From the faux populist gibberish mouthed by speaker after speaker, you would never have known that the Republicans have been in power over the past several years and used that titanic power to lead the country to its present sorry state.

In his acceptance speech on Thursday night, Senator John McCain did his best Sam Cooke imitation (“A Change is Gonna Come”) and vowed to put the country “back on the road to prosperity and peace.”

Mr. McCain spoke at the end of a day in which stock market indexes plunged. The next morning the Labor Department gave us the grim news that another 84,000 jobs had been lost in August, and that the official unemployment rate had climbed to 6.1 percent — the highest in five years.

Sloppy Thinking

A letter to the editor of the D.C. Examiner that apparently was deemed unworthy for publication.

Re: Melanie Scarborough's "Obama scorns founders' vision of freedom" Aug. 25.

Unencumbered by logic, or anything remotely resembling sound reasoning, Melanie Scarborough writes, "Obama largely rejects the principles of individual liberty on which this nation was founded. His thinking is more closely aligned with Karl Marx's than John Locke's." Scarborough supports this rather dubious proposition by quoting selectively from writings of Obama and Marx, and concluding that because of the similarities, Obama is a Marxist. This is a textbook example of the fallacy of faulty analogy. That is, Scarborough assumes that because Obama and Marx made similar observations about the need for collective action, it necessarily follows that Obama subscribes to Marx's philosophy in its entirety. Under that argument, John F. Kennedy was a Marxist when he started the Peace Corps. Scarborough's descent into intellectual muddiness is also evidenced by the following contradiction: "Obama doesn't quote Marx word-for-word--but it's close. Looks like Joe Biden isn't going to be the only plagiarist on the Democratic ticket." If Obama did not use Marx's precise wording, how can he be guilty of plagiarism?

The Trio

Watching Michael Eric Dyson, Tavis Smiley, and Cornell West dance to Frankie Beverly and Maze at the Democratic National Convention is an excruciatingly painful experience. They all seem to be responding to different tunes. But it succeeds in achieving one thing: It puts to rest the notion that all black folks have rhythm.

Palin's Speech

Pardon me but I just cannot go along with the conventional wisdom that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin hit a home run, scored a touchdown, or whatever tired ass cliche that comes to mind in last night's speech. True, she solidified the base by attacking the elite Washington media and mocking Barack Obama but she didn't put to rest questions about her readiness to assume the presidency in the event of John McCain's incapacity or speak to the issues that Americans are concerned about - the housing crisis, a troubled economy, rising gas prices, health care, etc. As David McGrath points out, Palin's speech shed more light on its speechwriter Matthew Scully than candidate Sarah Palin:

Can voters this year be sure they learned something about the real Sarah Palin from her GOP vice presidential nomination acceptance speech last night, considering news that it was originally written by speechwriter Matthew Scully over a week ago for an unknown male nominee? The commissioned draft was subsequently customized by Palin and a team of McCain staffers in the 48 hours leading up to its presentation.

McCain's Lack of Respect

Sam Harris argues, quite correctly, that John McCain, by selecting the unqualified Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, demonstrates a lack of respect for the office of the presidency of the United States:

Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves. President Bush kept his edge on the "Who would you like to have a beer with?" poll question in 2004, and won reelection.

This is one of the many points at which narcissism becomes indistinguishable from masochism. Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages -- and loses -- both necessary and unnecessary wars.


McCain has so little respect for the presidency of the United States that he is willing to put the girl next door (soon, too, to be a grandma) into office beside him. He has so little respect for the average American voter that he thinks this reckless and cynical ploy will work.

Missing in Action

Thanks to hurricane Gustav bearing down on the Gulf Coast, yesterday President Bush was forced to forgo an opening night appearance at the Republican National Convention while he stayed in Washington to monitor the situation, something he manifestly failed to do three years ago for Katrina. So with poll numbers the lowest ever for an incumbent president, John McCain was probably grateful for Bush's absence, notwithstanding the flak generated by his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. Tonight with the threat of Gustav diminished, Bush will be speak to the convention via satellite for about eight minutes and, clearly by design, before the networks begin televising the proceedings. In prepared remarks, Bush praises McCain as a worthy successor:

Some told him that his early and consistent call for more troops would put his presidential campaign at risk. He told them he would rather lose an election than see his country lose a war. That is the kind of courage and vision we need in our next commander-in-chief.

When the debates have ended, and all the ads have run, and it is time to vote, Americans will look closely at the judgment, the experience, and the policies of the candidates — and they will cast their ballots for the McCain-Palin ticket.

Exception Warranted

In reaction to the revelation that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter, Bristol, is 5-months pregnant, Barack Obama says private matters concerning the candidates are off-limits and have no place in the campaign. On principle, it is hard to disagree with Obama but it seems to me that an exception is warranted when we are talking about a political party that has pretty fetishized traditional family values and Christian principles, especially during the campaign season.

A Meditation on Charles Mingus and Marcus Aurelius

Clifford Thompsom, editor of Current Biography magazine, has an interesting essay in the Fall 2008 Threepenny Review entitled Mingus, Marcus, and Us, where he makes the unlikely connection between bassist and composer Charles Mingus and the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius; or more precisely, the former's compostion Meditations on Integration and the latter's philosophical work Meditations. Thompson, in part, writes:

I find no evidence that Mingus had Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121–180) in mind when he composed "Meditations," which shares its title with the classic text by that Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher. In my own mind, though, there is a connection. Marcus was one who believed that there is an order to the universe, established by a good higher power, which he referred to variously as "Nature," "the gods," or even "Zeus." His philosophy, however, seems grounded at least as much in an assumption of hardship as in a belief in the goodness of Nature. (Marcus, who wrote his great work while at war with the barbarians, knew a thing or two about hardship.) For him, Nature and hardship were not conflicting things, or even different things. Just as a medical consultant "has prescribed horseback exercises, or cold baths, or going barefoot...so in the same way does the World-Nature prescribe disease, mutilation, loss, or some other disability," he wrote. How should one deal with hardship, whose forces have one outgunned? Largely through attitude: "Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not, 'This is a misfortune,' but 'To bear this worthily is a good fortune.'" For, in Marcus's view, what is important is not pleasure but how we conduct ourselves, how successful we are at bringing forth the best that is in us, in times of happiness or its opposite—especially its opposite. "Either the world is a mere hotch-potch of random cohesions and dispersions, or else it is a unity of order and providence," he wrote. "If the former, why wish to survive in such a purposeless and chaotic confusion; why care about anything, save the manner of the ultimate return to dust; why trouble my head at all; since, do what I will, dispersion must overtake me sooner or later? But if the contrary be true, then I do reverence, I stand firmly, and I put my trust in the directing Power." Here, some of us would disagree with Marcus, feeling that our conduct should not depend on an order to the universe or its lack. We just might, though, see wisdom in what he writes in another passage: "Be master of yourself, and view life as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, and as a mortal. Among the truths you will do well to contemplate most frequently are these two: first, that things can never touch the soul, but stand inert outside it, so that disquiet can arise only from fancies within; and secondly, that all visible objects change in a moment, and will be no more. Think of the countless changes in which you yourself have had a part. The whole universe is change, and life itself is but what you deem it."

Marcus also wrote that "oneness of feeling exists between all parts of nature, in spite of their divergence and dispersion"—not a bad description of Mingus's compositions. In the beginning of Mingus's "Meditations," the horns and bowed bass intersperse an ethereal melody with a repeated three-note phrase, the near-formlessness of the one bringing to mind primordial mist, the hardness, relentlessness, and unfeelingness of the other suggesting prehistory's great cataclysms—the forming and breaking of continents and other nonhuman events. Later, in wonderful, delicate passages, Dolphy—on flute—and Byard explore the ethereal mode further. Not until nine-plus minutes into "Meditations" do traditional-style solos, with piano/bass/drum backing, begin. In other words, the solos—individuals and their achievements and statements— are not the point here, at least not the whole point. That is true even during the solos: here, the rhythm section does not so much accompany or support each soloist as spar with him—Dolphy first (on bass clarinet), then Byard, Coles, Mingus, and Jordan; of them, only Mingus plays without such adversity. (Do we hear this as rare human triumph, or, since Mingus is otherwise part of the rhythm section, as total domination by external events?) Coles faces a particularly fierce piano/ bass/drum onslaught, and Jordan's solo is subjected to the return of the harsh, insistent phrase from the beginning of the piece. How do the trumpeter and saxophonist hold up? It is difficult to say if they triumph, or even what that would mean; but they are beautiful in the attempt. Not a bad thing to have said of us, when all is finished. Marcus Aurelius, of course, would scoff at our striving for even that modest tribute. "This mortal life is a little thing, lived in a little corner of the earth," he wrote in his own Meditations; "and little, too, is the longest fame to come—dependent as it is on a succession of fast-perishing little men who have no knowledge even of their own selves, much less of one long dead and gone."

Michelle Obama's Task

Columnist Robert Fulford, National Post, has an interesting perspective on Michelle Obama's speech last week at the Democratic presidential convention. In his view, Ms. Obama had to demonstrate her ordinariness despite a lifetime of achievement and accomplishment that suggest otherwise. He writes in The Tyranny of Stereotype,

Ms. Obama's chore, when she gave her speech the other night, was not to reveal herself but to reassure voters about their own values. She was there to reassert what the public needs to believe, or thinks it should believe. TV commentators who analyze speeches such as hers judge public figures according to a formula that has already been tested and found acceptable. And they judge themselves in a similar way. Not one of them dares to show more than a flicker of originality. They want to sound shrewd, they want to avoid repeating what someone else has just said, they may hope to insert a slightly fresh thought into the debate. But they never stray far from what everyone else thinks. They are there to say the right thing, which usually means a version of the national consensus. They will not be welcome on television if they are overly original, if they sound odd or weird.

Cindy McCain Vouches for Sarah Palin's Experience

Cindy McCain explaining Sarah Palin's national security experience is, at best, a dicey proposition. About the only thing more idiotic was George Stephanopoulous posing the damn question in the first place, as if we really needed to her what she had to say. But what the hell, Ms. McCain gets points for geography - "Alaska is the closet part of our continent to Russia."

Palin's Rough Start

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's references to Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro in her second campaign appearance was unexpectedly greeted with boos, jeers, and moans, suggesting that McCain's gambit in attracting disaffected Clinton women supporters might not go over so well as calculated.

Sarah Palin, Hockey Mom

Hard to argue with the Financial Times Gideon Rachman's characterization of John McCain's selection of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, the title says it all: Bold, exciting - but also stupid. McCain staked so much of his campaign on the experience factor - ready to hit the ground running as a commander-in-chief on day one, unlike the inexperienced Barack Obama. But by selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate, he has effectively ceded away whatever advantage he might have by picking someone even younger than Obama, less experienced in both in national and international affairs, and more of an unknown entity than Obama, who at least has been vetted through a hard fought, bruising Democratic presidential campaign. It is also an amazing choice for a septuagenarian with several bouts with skin cancer and, if elected, would be the oldest man to assume the presidency.

A Speech We All Can Believe In

Barack Obama's acceptance speech addressed two critical points that had been sorely lacking in the campaign, especially over the last 3 or 4 weeks: policy specifics and sharp criticism of John McCain.

Now, now, let me -- let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and our respect.

And next week, we'll also hear about those occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.

But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time.

Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but, really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than 90 percent of the time?

Thriller

At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.
George Orwell

Michael Jackson, the self-proclaimed "King Of Pop," turns 50 years old today. Happy birthday, Michael. Coincidentally, he shares the birthday with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Whatever that means, I am not sure, so I'll leave it at that. But one thing is certain: Jackson's seemingly endless talent is rivaled only by his strangeness.

Bill Clinton Rises to the Occasion

Last night it was former president Bill Clinton's turn, following wife Hillary's lead, to put the harsh feelings engendered by a hard-fought Democratic presidential campaign behind him and declare his support for Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. And he didn't disappoint by coming out emphatically in support of the junior senator from Illinois:

I say to you: Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world. Barack Obama is ready to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States.

Hillary Comes Through

Last night's speech by Hillary Clinton hopefully began the process where the Democratic party will emerge united to do battle against the presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. If there was any lingering doubt about Sen. Clinton's support for Barack Obama, her call for acclimation in the nomination of Obama should put it to rest:

“With eyes firmly fixed on the future in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and country, let’s declare together in one voice, right here and right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president.

“I move that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois be selected by this convention by acclamation as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.”

McCain's Get Out of Jail Free Card

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd writes that John McCain risks overplaying his 5-year stint as a P.O.W. in North Vietnam, often invoking it in instances where its relevance is questionable at best:

His brutal hiatus in the Hanoi Hilton is one of the most stirring narratives ever told on the presidential trail — a trail full of heroic war stories. It created an enormous credit line of good will with the American people. It also allowed McCain, the errant son of the admiral who was the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific during Vietnam — his jailers dubbed McCain the “Crown Prince” — to give himself some credit.

“He has been preoccupied with escaping the shadow of his father and establishing his own image and identity in the eyes of others,” read a psychiatric evaluation in his medical files. “He feels his experiences and performance as a P.O.W. have finally permitted this to happen.”

The ordeal also gave a more sympathetic cast to his carousing. As Robert Timberg wrote in “John McCain: An American Odyssey,” “What is true is that a number of P.O.W.’s, in those first few years after their release, often acted erratically, their lives pockmarked by drastic mood swings and uncharacteristic behavior before achieving a more mellow equilibrium.” Timberg said Hemingway’s line that people were stronger in the broken places was not always right.

So it’s hard to believe that John McCain is now in danger of exceeding his credit limit on the equivalent of an American Express black card. His campaign is cheapening his greatest strength — and making a mockery of his already dubious claim that he’s reticent to talk about his P.O.W. experience — by flashing the P.O.W. card to rebut any criticism, no matter how unrelated. The captivity is already amply displayed in posters and TV advertisements.

Following the Money

Last week Washington D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee announced plans to offer students cash for academic achievement. To be sure, this is a proposal that grows out of desperation. As the story notes, "school officials have used detention, remedial classes, summer school and suspensions to turn around poorly behaved, underachieving middle school students with little results." But whatever its eventual outcome, this pay cash for learning gambit signals the death knell for the apparently quaint and antiquated notion of learning for the sake of learning.

What Obama Needs

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert argues that if Barack Obama wants to win this presidential election, gentility simply won't get it done:

Barack Obama was always a long shot to win the White House. It’s no secret that some portion of the electorate will never vote for him because of his color. But he has made the odds even longer by running a campaign that, since the primaries, has seemed directionless, uninspired and addicted to the empty calories of generalities.

And the candidate himself has seemed flat. No fire. No passion.

Herbert's colleague Charles M. Blow makes a similar point, focusing on how Obama allowed the McCain campaign to exploit the energy issue so effectively that it cut into Obama's lead in the polls.

Lately, you’ve demonstrated an unsettling penchant for overly nuanced statements that meander into the cerebral. Earth to Barack: to Main Street America, nuance equals confusion. You don’t have to dumb it down, but you do have to sum it up.

Lowering the Drinking Age

I basically agree with the college presidents: the drinking age should be lowered to 18. If drinking is brought out into the open, there's a much greater opportunity to control it in a manner that will diminish binge drinking and other forms of abuse. And as a general matter, it is hard to tell an 18-year-old that he or she is old enough to serve in the military or to cast a vote in an election but not old enough to drink an alcoholic beverage.

Overlooked Principle

With all the discussion about pastor Rick Warren's interviews of Barack Obama and John McCain about religious faith and spiritual belief dominated by the respective candidates contrasting responses, Kathleen Parker raises the fundamental principle, pretty much overlooked:

Both Obama and McCain gave "good" answers, but that's not the point. They shouldn't have been asked. Is the American electorate now better prepared to cast votes knowing that Obama believes that "Jesus Christ died for my sins and I am redeemed through him," or that McCain feels that he is "saved and forgiven"?

What does that mean, anyway? What does it prove? Nothing except that these men are willing to say whatever they must -- and what most Americans personally feel is no one's business -- to win the highest office.

Warren tried to defuse criticism about staging the interviews in his church by saying that though "we" believe in the separation of church and state, "we" don't believe in the separation of faith and politics. Faith, he said, "is just a worldview, and everybody has some kind of worldview. It's important to know what they are."

Presumably "we" refers to Warren's church of fellow evangelicals. And while, yes, everybody has some kind of worldview, it shouldn't be necessary in a pluralistic nation of secular laws to publicly define that view in Christian code.

Musharraf Exits

Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf resigned after nine years in office, a move largely precipitated by the opposition's attempt to impeach him. George W. Bush once called Musharraf "one of the world's most committed partners in the war against terrorism and extremism", an estimation only exceeded in fatuousness by Bush famously saying that he looked into Vladimir Putin's eyes and gazed upon his soul. And despite Bush's fulsome praise, Musharraf never quite lived up to the hype: within Pakistan's borders, the Taliban is reconstituted and Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawari, and al-Qaeda continue to avoid capture.

Obama Vows to Fight Back

Barack Obama has suddenly realized that he can ill-afford to let Republican attacks on his character go unanswered but must respond swiftly and emphatically. Otherwise he will find himself but the latest incarnation of pathetically weak Democratic presidential nominees with no taste for battle. The question is, does this realization signal a sufficient shift in strategy to undo the harm inflicted by the McCain over the last two or three weeks?

Cokie Roberts on Obama's Exotica

From her days with National Public Radio and ABC News, Cokie Roberts has consistently been one of the most uninteresting and conventional commentators of the inside the Beltway variety extant. But her recent musings on Obama vacationing in "exotic" Hawaii suggests that I seriously underestimated her as well. Cokie is also incredibly stupid.

Jerry Wexler 1917-2008

Jerry Wexler, the legendary music producer and one of the creative forces behind Atlantic Records, is dead at 91.

Chad Johnson's Delusion

Chad Johnson claims he can beat Olympic champion Michael Phelps in swimming. Chad Johnson is a moron.

McCain Misfires

While condemning Russia's military move against Georgia in the province of South Ossetia, Republican Senator John McCain managed to mangle the pronunciation of Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvilli, three times. The pundits claim that with Obama vacationing in Hawaii this week, now is the time to look presidential. But seriously, how presidential can he be if he cannot pronounce a foreign leader's name, despite reading from prepared text? Or perhaps he's more like Bush in ways we didn't fully comprehend.

Isaac Hayes 1942-2008

Isaac Hayes, 65, singer, songwriter and composer, died Sunday afternoon in Memphis, Tennessee.

Lee Young 1914-2008

The jazz drummer and music producer Lee Young, 94, brother of tenor saxophonist Lester Young, died at his Los Angeles home.

Bernie Mac 1957-2008

Comedian and actor Bernie Mac, 50, died early Satruday morning in a Chicago area hospital from complications due to pneumonia.

Victoria Osteen's Tantrum

Victoria Osteen, wife of evangelical minister Joel Osteen, apparently does not invoke the question What would Jesus do? [WWJD] as a guidepost in her interpersonal relations.

McCain's Attack Ad

The McCain campaign attack ad on Barack Obama comparing him to celebrity airheads Britney Spears and Paris Hilton is stupid. But having said that, I am not surprised that it has proved effective as evidenced by most polls that show McCain eating into Obama's lead. One should never underestimate the intelligence, attention span, or discriminating taste of the typical American voter.

OJ, Obama, and the Race Card

Political analyst Tom Porter, who blogs intermittently at pansfricanviews.blogspot.com, was the first to mention to me the similarity in wording between McCain campaign manager Rick Davis's claim of Obama playing the race card and former O.J. Simpson lawyer Robert Shapiro's post-mortem on the Simpson verdict. Davis said: "Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong." Shapiro told interviewer Barbara Walters that "not only did we play the race card, we dealt it from the bottom of the deck." Pure coincidence? Perhaps. But on the theory that hardly anything in a political campaign passes without forethought or calculation, Davis' remarks are facially suspect.

All in the Family

Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick's hysterical defense of her beleaguered son Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's legal predicaments underscores the enduring bond between mother and son. But it also indicates how mentally unhinged the mother has become under the weight of her son's legal difficulties and her own hotly contested primary campaign.

The Raised Fists

Dave Zinn poses the question why the image of the raised fists of sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics continues to resonate forty years later. Zinn writes,

There's another reason why the image of raised, black-gloved fists has retained its power. Smith and Carlos sacrificed fame and fortune for a larger cause -- civil rights. As Carlos told me in 2003: "A lot of the [black] athletes thought that winning [Olympic] medals would supersede or protect them from racism. But even if you won a medal, it ain't going to save your momma [from the effects of racism]. It ain't going to save your sister..."

Carlos' view resonates because we still live in a world where racism exists. If Hurricane Katrina taught us nothing else, it's that for every Barack Obama and Condoleezza Rice, there are many communities, including in L.A., where the combination of poverty and racism weigh down black Americans.

It also resonates because Smith and Carlos used the ubiquitous platform of sports to make their stand. Today, sports is a global trillion-dollar business that, thanks to cable television, the Internet and corporate sponsorship, is vastly more influential than four decades ago. Yet the idea that today's athletes would use their hyper-exalted-brought-to-you-by-Nike platform to speak out against injustice seems almost unthinkable. Athletes Etan Thomas of the NBA and Scott Fujita of the NFL have spoken out on war, poverty and racism in the U.S. Some platinum-plated stars on the U.S. Olympic basketball team -- notably Kobe Bryant and LeBron James -- have raised concerns about China's connection to the genocide in Darfur.

The question is whether any Olympic athlete will match the audacity of Smith and Carlos in the 2008 Games. On Friday, the possible appearance of Tibet's flag would again remind us that the world of sports isn't immune to the politics of protest.

McCain's Unforgivable Lie

There is an interesting profile of John McCain in the Washington Post that portrays the presumptive Republican presidential nominee as a complex politician defined by emotion and ambition. McCain has gotten a lot of mileage for his maverick ways and unaccustomed honesty and candor. But the defining moment for me, the reason why I could never vote for him, was his stance in the South Carolina primary of 2000. " The flag symbolized both slavery and the South's secession from the country I love, and should be lowered forever from the staff atop South Carolina's capitol. I had promised to tell the truth no matter what. When I broke it, I had not just been dishonest, I had been a coward, and I had severed my own interests from my country's. That was what made the lie unforgivable." Yes, that lie is still unforgivable.

Playing the Race Card

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, on the McCain campaign's charges of Obama playing the race card, writes, "it’s frustrating to watch John McCain calling out Barack Obama on race. Senator Obama has spoken more honestly and thoughtfully about race than any other politician in many years. Senator McCain is the head of a party that has viciously exploited race for political gain for decades." Indeed, the Republican Party has come to power by its cynical use of race since the days of Richard Milhous Nixon's Southern Strategy. Apparently old habits are difficult to abandon.

Mr. Magoo

I thought the McCain campaign had lost it when it began running attack ads blaming Barack Obama for higher prices at the pump. But the latest ad suggesting Obama is so lacking in substance as to be comparable to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton is downright silly. Democratic Party strategist Donna Brazille dismisses the ad, claiming that Americans are able to separate the substantive from the superficial. I hope she's correct but history tells me that this is a standard move from the Republican Party playbook that has been quite successful in past elections.

And since celebrities have now been introduced into the campaign, how about John McCain's uncanny resemblance to Mr. Magoo? Apologies to Mr. Magoo.

Monica Goodling, Loyal Public Servant

Monica Goodling is the Bush Justice Department aide who zealously sought to cultivate a cadre of "prosecutors and immigration judges who espoused conservative priorities and Christian lifestyle choices." This according to a report by the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility that found that "Goodling and others had broken civil service laws, run afoul of department policy and engaged in 'misconduct,' a finding that could expose them to further scrutiny and sanctions." Among the more fascinating questions posed by Goodling to job applicants: "What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?"

What indeed.

Kwame Brown

Kwame Brown, the first overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft, has agreed to a 2-year contract worth $8 million with the Detroit Pistons. Brown has averaged an unremarkable 7.5 points and 5.7 rebounds while playing for the Washington Wizards, Los Angeles Lakers, and Memphis Grizzlies. Joe Dumars, the Pistons general manager, has demonstrated uncanny adeptness at resurrecting the careers of players who fell short of expectations with other teams. But in Brown, Dumars might have met his match because Brown is on course to go down as one of the biggest busts in league history. That Brown is still in the NBA and able to ply his trade with yet another team underscores an old NBA adage: as long as you're tall with a modicum of agility, you will always have people willing to take a chance on you.

Fiddy's Good Name

Rapper 50 Cent is suing Taco Bell for the latter's nationwide advertising campaign that is "diluting the value of (50 Cent's) good name." Excuse me, but I didn't think it was possible to make any serious claims about the existence of Fiddy's good name, much less its alleged value.

Misspent Resources

Yesterday the Washington Post's unprecedented 12-part serial on the death of intern Chandra Levy based on more than a year of investigative reporting came to an end. Admittedly, I read every installment, trying desperately to find a justification for the paper's decision to run the story. And aside from the obvious - the death of one white woman who was romantically involved with an obscure, inconsequential California congressman - there really is not a good reason for the Post to devote this much space to what is essentially one unsolved homicide among many such homicides. By focusing such exclusive attention on the Levy case, the Post, perhaps unwittingly, made a value judgment about all those other nameless, unsolved homicides.

McCain: The Man and the Myth

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert raises an interesting question: Who is the real John McCain? Contrary to the conventional wisdom which says that mainstream media has given Barack Obama a free ride, a strong case can be made that McCain is the recipient of media favoritism, having glossed over McCain the man in favor of McCain the myth. Just this week, McCain accused Obama of putting personal ambition ahead of the national security interests of the United States and, in what can only be described as risible absurdity, blamed Barack Obama for Americans having to pay more than $4 a gallon for gasoline. Not exactly behavior one would associate with McCain the mythical figure.

Johnny Griffin 1928-2008

Tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, 80, famously known as the "Little Giant" for the incongruity of his short physical stature and prodigious technical facility and musicianship, has died.

McCain: Fit to be President?

John McCain invariably touts his considerable experience in the realm of foreign affairs that allows him to assume the awesome responsibility of Commander-in-Chief on day one. Apparently, that knowledge does not include facts about basic geography. In a recent Good Morning America interview he referred to the situation in Afghanistan as "a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border." Needless to say, those countries, as any schoolchild will attest, do not share a border.

Osama's Driver to Stand Trial

This is an historic moment in the War on Terror. A federal judge has cleared the way for the first military trial next week at Guantánamo Bay of Salim Hamdan. Mr. Hamdan is noteworthy for serving as the elusive Osama bin Laden's chauffeur. Apparently, the thinking is if bin Laden is unavailable, get the next best thing: his driver.

McCain: Viagra and Birth Control

When questioned about the disparity in the way insurance companies cover Viagra and birth control, John McCain, the self-styled straight talker, had remarkably little to say, straight or otherwise. His pregnant silences were deafening. And he came across as something less than a candidate knowledgeable about issues that matter to a lot of people. Too bad his good buddy Joe Lieberman wasn't available to bail him out.

Bernie Mac Bombs

Comedian and actor Bernie Mac apparently violated what should be a cardinal rule for those who speak or perform in public: know your audience. The self-described king of comedy had the privilege of opening for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama at a Chicago fundraiser but unfortunately his choice of language and crude jokes proved be less than a hit with the 600 donors in attendance. Among Mac's gems that didn't go over well: "Being a president is tough 'cause you're not just running the country. You got to run your family too. Having a black first lady is different. You're still going to have to do the dishes and the laundry and all that shit. 'You got to pick up the kids. You didn't pick up the kids?' "

The New Yorker Gets It Wrong

This current New Yorker magazine cover has produced criticism in some quarters for perpetuating rumors and falsehoods about Barack and Michelle Obama. Both the Obama and McCain campaigns have condemned it. Editor David Remnick defends the decision: "It is clearly a joke, a parody of these crazy fears and rumors of scare tactics about Obama's past and ideology. And if you can't tell it's a joke by the flag burning in the Oval Office, I don't know what more to say." Employing satire to make a point is often a dicey proposition at best, and that is especially the case with a significant number of Americans already predisposed to believe all the lies about Obama bandied about primarily over the internet. For this group of literal-minded numbnuts, the cover only serves to reinforce their prejudices and preconceived ideas.

Bush's G8 Farewell

In a defiant farewell to members of the G8, which is emblematic of his term in office, President Bush said: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." January 2009 cannot get here soon enough.

Nuttin' Out

Okay, a whole day has passed since we learned of Jesse's desire to sever Obama's nuts for having the temerity to speak out about the need for black males to take responsibility for themselves and those that they bring into the world. And I still can't figure out why the Country Preacher felt the need to use castration, from all the metaphors that were available to him, to register his displeasure. Judging from the video clip, he seemed to take unusual delight in the choice of words. Jackson's remarks were punctuated with an emphatic thrust of his right fist, as if to drive the point home. Given his outsized ego, it is entirely plausible as some speculate that Jackson is envious of Obama's success. But one thing is certain: his unfortunate choice of words did him, not Obama, more harm than good.

Centering Obama

Barack Obama claims that critics who accuse him of moving toward the political center haven't been listening. In recent weeks, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has applauded the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the District of Columbia's gun ban, despite saying the opposite before the decision was rendered; effectively endorsed Bush's faith based initiatives that blur the distinction between church and state; and voted for FISA despite asserting his opposition to the bill during the Democratic presidential campaign. Apparently Sen. Obama, it isn't only your critics who haven't been listening.

Cashing In

Getting your own reality TV show after engaging in morally dubious or scandalous behavior is rapidly becoming part of the American Dream, a means of cashing in on one's 15 minutes of fame. The latest individual to take this path to celebrity and riches is Ashley Dupre, the $4,300 a night prostitute, noteworthy for her contribution in ending former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer's once promising political career.

Renee Marie and the Star Spangled Banner

Granted, the Star Spangled Banner ain't exactly the easiest song to sing but Renee Marie's decision to sing Lift Every Voice and Sing, based on nothing more than artistic license, is a bit much. There just isn't any justification for substituting your personal preference for a situation where you were expected to sing a specific song, regardless of the aesthetic considerations.

Two Perspectives About America

Washington Post op-ed columnist Colbert I. King offers a comparative look at Frederick Douglass's famous 1852 4th of July speech before the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society and Barack Obama's recent speech "The America We Love." King writes, "The two men's remarks, touching on loyalty, race and the country's moral foundation, underscore the difference 150 years has made in the life of the nation."

Obama on Israel

There is an interesting piece in the London Review of Books by Uri Avnery, leader of Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, that examines the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's appearance at the Aipac conference. In Avnery's view, Obama's speech "broke all records for obsequiousness to the Israeli lobby. That is shocking enough. Even more shocking is the fat that nobody was shocked."

Interesting still is Avnery's analysis of what accounts for Aipac's influence in US politics:

What has caused the rapid ascent to power of the American Jewish establishment? The more I think about this phenomenon, the stronger my conviction becomes that what really matters is the similarity between the American enterprise and the Zionist one. The Mayflower passengers, much like the Zionists of the first and second aliya (immigration wave), fled from Europe, carrying with them a messianic vision, whether religious or utopian. (The early Zionists were mostly atheists, but religious traditions had a powerful influence on them.) The founders of American society were pilgrims, the Zionist immigrants called themselves olim – short for olim beregel, or ‘pilgrims’. Both sailed to a ‘promised land’, believing themselves to be God’s chosen people. Both suffered a great deal in their new country. Both saw themselves as ‘pioneers’ who would make the wilderness bloom, a ‘people without land in a land without people’. Both completely ignored the rights of indigenous people, considering them savages. Both saw the resistance of the local peoples as evidence of their innate murderous character, and felt that this justified even the worst atrocities. Both expelled the natives and took possession of their land, settling on every hill and under every tree, with one hand on the plough and the other on the Bible. True, Israel hasn’t committed anything approaching the genocide performed against the Native Americans, nor anything like slavery. But in the unconscious mind of both nations feelings of suppressed guilt make themselves evident in the denial of past misdeeds, in aggressiveness and the worship of power.