con-tem-plate

"That is who he is. The handwringers and bed wetters in the D.C. punditocracy should know that Barack..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:58:00 -0700

“

That is who he is. The handwringers and bed wetters in the D.C. punditocracy should know that Barack Obama will never be on their timeline. He does not value being first over being right. He will not spend his presidency chasing news cycles. He will not shake up his White House staff just because of some offhand advice offered to Politico by a longtime Washingtonian or a nameless Democrat who’s desperately trying to stay relevant. And if that means Dana Milbank thinks he’s too passive; if it means that Jim VandeHei will keep calling him arrogant and petulant; if it means that Chris Matthews will whine about him not enjoying the presidency, then so be it. He’ll live.

Barack Obama understands his own limitations and the limitations of his office. He has made mistakes and he will likely make more. But this is a president who has seen the nation through many serious and consequential crises, and he has done so without losing the core of who he is or why he ran for this job in the first place. In the end, those are the qualities that will serve him well—the qualities that will serve us well—in the months and years ahead.

”

- Jon Favreau, President Obama’s, now ex, speechwriter, who, I think, understands the President very well.

Two-mile-wide tornado slams Oklahoma City area Please text...

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:11:00 -0700

Two-mile-wide tornado slams Oklahoma City area

Please text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief

Pete Souza: ‘Graduates in the rain cheer POTUS at Morehouse...

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:50:00 -0700

Pete Souza: ‘Graduates in the rain cheer POTUS at Morehouse College’

Listen to President Obama’s address to the graduating class of Morehouse College. Remarkable.

Some excerpts…

“Dr. King was just 15 years old when he enrolled here at Morehouse. He was an unknown, undersized, unassuming young freshman who lived at home with his parents. And I think it’s fair to say he wasn’t the coolest kid on campus — for the suits he wore, his classmates called him “Tweed.” But his education at Morehouse helped to forge the intellect, the discipline, the compassion, the soul force that would transform America. It was here that he was introduced to the writings of Gandhi and Thoreau, and the theory of civil disobedience. It was here that professors encouraged him to look past the world as it was and fight for the world as it should be. And it was here, at Morehouse, as Dr. King later wrote, where “I realized that nobody…was afraid.”

Not even of some bad weather. I added on that part. (Laughter.) I know it’s wet out there. But Dr. Wilson told me you all had a choice and decided to do it out here anyway. (Applause.) That’s a Morehouse Man talking.

Now, think about it. For black men in the ‘40s and the ‘50s, the threat of violence, the constant humiliations, large and small, the uncertainty that you could support a family, the gnawing doubts born of the Jim Crow culture that told you every day that somehow you were inferior, the temptation to shrink from the world, to accept your place, to avoid risks, to be afraid — that temptation was necessarily strong.

And yet, here, under the tutelage of men like Dr. Mays, young Martin learned to be unafraid. And he, in turn, taught others to be unafraid. And over time, he taught a nation to be unafraid. And over the last 50 years, thanks to the moral force of Dr. King and a Moses generation that overcame their fear and their cynicism and their despair, barriers have come tumbling down, and new doors of opportunity have swung open, and laws and hearts and minds have been changed to the point where someone who looks just like you can somehow come to serve as President of these United States of America. (Applause.)

So the history we share should give you hope. The future we share should give you hope. You’re graduating into an improving job market. You’re living in a time when advances in technology and communication put the world at your fingertips. Your generation is uniquely poised for success unlike any generation of African Americans that came before it.

…

You now hail from a lineage and legacy of immeasurably strong men — men who bore tremendous burdens and still laid the stones for the path on which we now walk. You wear the mantle of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, and Ralph Bunche and Langston Hughes, and George Washington Carver and Ralph Abernathy and Thurgood Marshall, and, yes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These men were many things to many people. And they knew full well the role that racism played in their lives. But when it came to their own accomplishments and sense of purpose, they had no time for excuses.

Every one of you have a grandma or an uncle or a parent who’s told you that at some point in life, as an African American, you have to work twice as hard as anyone else if you want to get by. I think President Mays put it even better: He said, “Whatever you do, strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead, and no man yet to be born can do it any better.” (Applause.)

And I promise you, what was needed in Dr. Mays’s time, that spirit of excellence, and hard work, and dedication, and no excuses is needed now more than ever. If you think you can just get over in this economy just because you have a Morehouse degree, you’re in for a rude awakening. But if you stay hungry, if you keep hustling, if you keep on your grind and get other folks to do the same — nobody can stop you. (Applause.)”

Read the entire speech here.

Sting’s India: from Roxanne to Rajasthan The rock star...

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:16:07 -0700

Sting’s India: from Roxanne to Rajasthan

The rock star Sting has been travelling to India for more than three decades. On his latest trip, he told James Collard what keeps drawing him back.

“I’ve been coming to India for almost half of my life”, says Sting. “I think it’s essential for any traveller here to acknowledge its contradictions, its paradoxes: the abject poverty and the extraordinary wealth; the exquisite beauty of its spiritual traditions beside the horror of its religious hatreds; the patient good humour of its people and the Kafkaesque entanglements of bureaucracy. I’ve seen many sides of this country.”

Taking Gandhi's name in vain

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:53:17 -0700

WASHINGTON: Mahatma Gandhi should be turning in his grave after being invoked by the American gun lobby in its fight for the right to bear arms.

A maverick gun enthusiast who has asked 1000pro-gun supporters to march across the Potomac carrying loaded rifles on July 4 has pledged to respond “with satyagraha” if he and his supporters are met with force, as the capital police has indicated they would be.

Adam Kokesh, an ex-US marine activist has a history of rabble-rousing and self-promotion, according to various media accounts. But earlier this week, he carried his stunt to the edge of hilarity by virtually adopting Gandhi as a mascot for gun rights, saying he would use the Mahatma’s methods of peaceful resistance to fight the “tyranny” of the state if it cracked down on the right to bear arms enshrined in the US Constitution.

Read on…

Leaks, Bombs And Double Agents: More On That AP Story

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:30:22 -0700

The Justice Department’s subpoena of Associated Press phone records as part of an investigation into what Attorney General Eric Holder has called “a very grave leak” to the news agency has set off a political firestorm on Capitol Hill, but there’s a lot to the AP story published a year ago that started it all.

…

But, as NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston reports, there’s much more to the story:

“As we understood it then and still understand it, that suicide bomber that AP refers to in its story was actually a double agent working with Western intelligence agencies,” Dina says.

Although the double agent did hand the new underwear bomb technology to U.S. officials, “they had hoped the agent could do more [and] … one consequence of the story is that this agent’s identity was blown,” she says.

======================

Bold mine. Read on…

Deficit hawks unmoved by facts “Yesterday’s news...

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:23:00 -0700

Deficit hawks unmoved by facts

“Yesterday’s news from the Congressional Budget Office on the shrinking deficit came as something of a shock to those who pay attention to such things. We knew the budget deficit was getting smaller, but we didn’t realize just how quickly the perceived problem was vanishing — we’re now looking at over $400 billion in deficit reduction in just one year, and about $800 billion in deficit reduction since President Obama took office.”

Read on…

Notes on a Trumped Up Scandal: The IRS fiasco shows that conservatives can be PC too

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:07:00 -0700

Noam Scheiber at The New Republic writes: Democrats can’t say it; Barack Obama can’t say it; and the IRS certainly can’t say it, so here goes: The only real sin the IRS committed in its ostensible targeting of conservatives is the sin of political incorrectness—that is, of not pretending it needed to vet all the new groups that wanted tax-exempt status, even though it mostly just needed to vet right-wing groups.

How do we know this? Because, for one thing, the people submitting the questionable applications were overwhelmingly right-wingers. As others have pointed out, the early Obama era was a boom time for conservative activists, who were forming groups faster than NBC burns through “Today Show” hosts. This coincided with a series of court rulings that made it possible for these groups to claim tax-exempt status without disclosing their donors under section 501c4 of the tax code.1 As a result, there were suddenly way more non-disclosing political groups trying to claim tax-exempt status than there ever had been, and the vast majority were right-leaning. No surprise, then, that the IRS would focus on whether these groups actually qualified for that status—something that was questionable since the law said their primary activity needed to be “social welfare,” not politicking.

But, in fact, the IRS’s great conservative crackdown is even more innocent than that. It turns out that the applications the conservative groups submitted to the IRS—the ones the agency subsequently combed over, provoking nonstop howling—were unnecessary. The IRS doesn’t require so-called 501c4 organizations to apply for tax-exempt status. If anyone wants to start a social welfare group, they can just do it, then submit the corresponding tax return (form 990) at the end of the year. To be sure, the IRS certainly allows groups to apply for tax-exempt status if they want to make their status official. But the application is completely voluntary, making it a strange basis for an alleged witch hunt.

SHARE MY DABBA - A SMALL STICKER CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE Take...

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:05:12 -0700

SHARE MY DABBA - A SMALL STICKER CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

Take a look at how the legendary “dabbawallahs” (people who transport lunch carriers) of Mumbai are helping children in poverty get one square meal, with just a little sticker. Brilliant idea.

Infographic: The Myth of National Gun Registration/Confiscation

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:49:02 -0700

Infographic: The Myth of National Gun Registration/Confiscation

My mom I love her and it’s a secret. I love her so much it kills...

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:42:04 -0700

My mom

I love her and it’s a secret. I love her so much it kills me, and you bet I’d sooner die than tell her

Mary H K Choi’s deeply personal essay on her tortured relationship with her mother. But oh, the love is palpable.

reuters: Documenting the missing children of New Delhi: between...

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:40:21 -0700

reuters:

D ocumenting the missing children of New Delhi: between January 1 and May 8 of 2013, 725 children in Delhi were reported missing and are untraced.

REUTERS/Mansi Thapliyal

A Final Embrace: The Most Haunting Photograph from...

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:09:25 -0700

A Final Embrace: The Most Haunting Photograph from Bangladesh

Writes Taslima Akhter:

“Every time I look back to this photo, I feel uncomfortable — it haunts me. It’s as if they are saying to me, we are not a number — not only cheap labor and cheap lives. We are human beings like you. Our life is precious like yours, and our dreams are precious too.

They are witnesses in this cruel history of workers being killed. The death toll is now more than 750. What a harsh situation we are in, where human beings are treated only as numbers.

This photo is haunting me all the time. If the people responsible don’t receive the highest level of punishment, we will see this type of tragedy again. There will be no relief from these horrific feelings. I’ve felt a tremendous pressure and pain over the past two weeks surrounded by dead bodies. As a witness to this cruelty, I feel the urge to share this pain with everyone. That’s why I want this photo to be seen.”

"Let’s stop this facade that we are a beacon of tolerance. I don’t need you to..."

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:09:00 -0700

“Let’s stop this facade that we are a beacon of tolerance. I don’t need you to “tolerate” me. I don’t want you to merely put up with my presence. All I ask, all I have ever asked, is to be treated as a human being, that bigoted jingoism is not injected into every minute facet of my life, that there remains at least the illusion of decency.”

- Seema Jilani reports on her racist encounter at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Boy, 13, accidentally shoots sister, 6, at Oakland Park home.

Sat, 04 May 2013 21:01:00 -0700

Boy, 13, accidentally shoots sister, 6, at Oakland Park home.

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s..."

Wed, 01 May 2013 21:35:51 -0700

““Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.””

- http://www.positivelypositive.com/2013/05/01/seeing-a-whole-new-world-through-the-power-of-words/

“It’s a legal oddity that doesn’t get talked about much: if you’re an American on the federal...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:01:00 -0700

“It’s a legal oddity that doesn’t get talked about much: if you’re an American on the federal Terrorist Watch List, you can’t buy an airplane ticket, and you’re likely to have quite a bit of trouble at the border, but you can still buy an assault rifle.”

Photo

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:34:41 -0700

Gun Control Fight Finally Lays to Rest the Obama-as-Timid Meme

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:24:19 -0700

“What Obama did in the four months between Newtown and Wednesday’s Senate defeat showed some of the greatest presidential guts in U.S. history, says Peter Beinart.

Why did he do it? In part because the Obama-as-timid meme was always a lie. Timid politicians don’t oppose the Iraq War when virtually every other nationally ambitious Democrat is supporting it. Timid politicians don’t challenge the Clintons in a Democratic primary. Timid politicians don’t overrule their chief of staff and push through health-care reform when the polls show Americans oppose it and their party has just suffered a devastating defeat at the polls.

But beyond that, I suspect that once Obama saw an opportunity, he pushed gun control so hard because he simply cares more. As a community organizer, he worked and lived in the kind of communities where Americans are most often shot. And even when he left, he remained a black man living in a city, and a country, where government often treats black life as cheap. Try imagining Ann Romney or Cindy McCain or even Hillary Clinton saying, as Michelle Obama did in 2008, that her husband “can be shot going to the gas station.” Try imagining them saying that “Hadiya Pendleton was me.””

Read the rest here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/20/gun-control-fight-finally-lays-to-rest-the-obama-as-timid-meme.html

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev read his Miranda Rights

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:27:24 -0700

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev read his Miranda Rights