Current Events One

“You’re probably not that good a rapper. Maybe you’re the next Lil Wayne, but probably not. In which case you need to stay in school.” So said Barack Obama while talking to a predominately black crowd in Powder Springs Georgia.

Obama was cautioning students to stay in school and not pin their hopes on a music career or a shot at the NBA. Obama, using a refreshing specific and concrete language rather than his usual empty rhetoric, told them that most of “you brothas” are not “really, really good basketball players,” adding “I know you think you are. But you’re not. You are overrated in your own mind. You will not play in the NBA.”

Kudos to Obama for the direct approach—now if he would just tell wanna-be gangstas to pull up their pants…(that also goes for the white kids in the burbs. Oh, and while we’re at it, turn down the car stereo.)

Obama knows about basketball. Jaymes Song, writing for the AP (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gwsvGknQXu2SINnNoGWy3G2GAuTQD91BB4TG0) said high school b-baller Obama was known as the “Obomber” for his jump shot. Despite that, Obama was delegated to the reserve squad. Obama’s high school coach said Obama may have started on any other team, but “We just happened to have just a team that was pretty loaded.”

In retrospect, Obama knew his limitations: “I could play basketball with a consuming passion that would always exceed my limited talent.” (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gwsvGknQXu2SINnNoGWy3G2GAuTQD91BB4TG0)

Obama stills plays, saying that he would like to put a court in the White House.

He went on to tell the students in Georgia that knowing a foreign language would also increase their chances at future employment. (So would pulling up their pants, but perhaps I am fixating).

This was Obama’s first visit to Georgia and part of his “Red State Express”. By visiting the so-called red states he hopes to gain ground in those states that are trending to Republican contender John McCain.

Sources:

http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/07/08/obama-tells-kids-to-stay-in-school-learn-a-foreign-language/

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/07/obama-slams-hoo.html

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gwsvGknQXu2SINnNoGWy3G2GAuTQD91BB4TG0

Sources close to the Barack Obama camp say Hillary Clinton will never be offered the vice presidential nomination because Michelle Obama doesn’t like her.

According to a story by Robert Novak on RealClearPolitics, “The Democratic front-runner’s wife did not comment on other rival candidates for the party’s nomination, but she has been sniping at Clinton since last summer. According to Obama sources, those public utterances do not reveal the extent of her hostility.

According to the Top of The Ticket blog at the LA Times,  Obama, when asked about Novak’s column replied, “My wife does not talk to Bob Novak on a regular basis”

The Top of the Ticket blog goes on to say that Ted Kennedy said, of the Obama-Clinton ticket, “”I don’t think it’s possible.”

Michelle Obama was not cited by Kennedy as the reason for his comment; instead, a spokesman for him later said his prediction was based on the “tenor of the campaign” of late.

Source: realclearpolitics.com
Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com

Last week, Bob Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia was on the Hannity and Colmes show on the Fox News Network.  Congressman Barr has launched a Presidential Exploratory Committee for the 2008 elections, and Hannity and Colmes wanted to take the opportunity to criticize Barr about his decision.  What had Sean Hannity’s tighty whiteys in a knot was that  Congressman Barr plans to run as a Libertarian.

Both Sean and his toady Alan Colmes peppered Barr with questions attempting to marginalize him and the Libertarian party:  “Would you vote for the legalization of heroin or crack?”  (Barr responded no, but added that drugs were an issue “better handled by the state than the Federal government”, as the never-ending War on Drugs would indicate).  When the hosts allowed Barr to answer a question free from annoying interruptions he noted that the Libertarians were not a single-issue party, but a party whose overriding doctrine is to “maximize individual liberty and minimize government power”—much like the framers of the Constitution had in mind.

The Republican Party was once the party of small government and individual liberty, but it has devolved into a megalith of social conservatism (occasionally boarding on theocratic dogma), a behemoth sized government and an eradicator of civil liberties.  Libertarians want a country where, as long as force or fraud is not involved, individuals are free to do as they wish; much like the old Republican Party.  The problem for Libertarians is raising public awareness.  Barr’s name recognition  would go a long way to raising that public awareness–something that would spell disaster for the Republican Party.   And Hannity knows it.

Hannity told Barr that if Barr pulls three percent of the vote from McCain, Hillary or Obama will win the election, Hugo Chavez will be Attorney General and Alec Baldwin will be Secretary of State.  Ok, I just heard the Chavez/Baldwin comment in my head, but Hannity’s voice was tight with fear when he said Barr might “steal” the election from the Republicans.  If the imaginary theft occurred, Hannity said he would hold Barr personally responsible.  Scary.   Barr’s response was if the Republicans were not strong enough to win by more than three percent that was hardly his fault.

The chances of a Libertarian winning in November, even one with as much name recognition as Barr, are about the same as Florida counting its votes right the first time.  Barr and Hannity both know that.  What Hannity and the rest of the Neocons fear are traditional and centrist Republicans defecting to the Libertarian party.  It is in the best interest of the Republican leadership for the public to see the Libertarians as dope smoking ex-hippies who want to privatize the sidewalks.  Neocons do not want you to think of Libertarians as the last bastion for resurrecting civil liberties.  They do not want you to see the Libertarians as the party who will bring the troops home and station them on the US boarders.  They do not want you to see Libertarians as the party who believe the best person to decide what to do what your money is you, rather than a bloated Federal Government with a voracious appetite for your income.

Libertarians tend not to get involved with ideological wars without an exit strategy.  A Libertarian will ask: are we winning the War on Drugs or are we just growing an ever-expanding bureaucracy of upper level DEA managers?  A Libertarian will say that rather than some phony War on Poverty—which actually creates more dependency on the Feds—let’s keep the money in the private sector where jobs can  be created for the poor.  A Libertarian will wonder how can we win the War on Terror if we do not know when it is over.   Perhaps we should end these other wars and start a war on war slogans.

While the democrats will tell you the government programs are the solution to all our problems, and Republicans believe government program growth is necessary in this time of slogan wars, Libertarians believe the only good government program is the one that just ended.  The unalienable rights of the individual to pursue life, liberty and happiness in whatever way that individual defines (barring force or fraud), those terms are paramount to the Libertarian party and most government programs that run counter to that end.  Regardless of Bob Barr winning the election, or even the Libertarian nomination, he can carry the Libertarian message to the people.

And that is why Sean Hannity is so angry.

One of America’s best weapons against Al Qaeda may be more Nancy Drew than Jack Bauer. In an engaging story that reads like Spying for Beginners, Jack Hitt tells the story of Shannen Rossmiller, a small-town judge and big-time amateur terrorist hunter. Using methods available to most Internet users, Rossmiller tells how she built the case against wannabe domestic terrorists Ryan Anderson and Michael Reynolds. With no formal espionage training, Rossmiller poses as a jihadist in online chat rooms and, with a little patience and a lot of gumption, has accumulated files on 640 potential terrorists. Compelling reading about an unexpected product of the war on terror.
in Wired by Jack Hitt, November 2007
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