Thor's Blog

I'm a Decider Not a Debater!

Thor — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:39:57 EDT

Lately I have been hearing from my Republican friends how "decisive" McCain has been this week.

Decisive? Yes - like the "decider" Bush: unthinking reactions based on minimal information leading to disaster after disaster until the adults started taking away the sharp objects post-2006 drubbing.

This could not be a better time for both these men, for one brief moment, to stand up before us in a forum and give their perspective checked by a moderator. It will take about as much time as McCain took to do the Katie Couric interview. Please.

Meanwhile, Obama: providing the same, consistent plan he has been offering since last year calmly matching it to the current situation. McCain: helter-skelter, shoot-from-the-hip, bouncing from economy is sound, economy is a disaster, fire the SEC chief(?), it's Obama's fault... What's next? In the words of George Will, worse than supposedly being "unprepared" for president is a temperament not "suited" for president. As this week has progressed, even the preparedness question has been answered in favor of Obama.

Mockery and Lipstick

Thor — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:25:44 EDT

The mockery of policies as lipstick on a pig

The mockery of community organizers?

One demands an explanation (not whining) the other demands fighting back.

We need something audacious. Community Organizers unite! We could do a million person march but I know you're too busy taking the responsibility of organizing and helping others - versus yourselves.

Time to Grow Up

Thor — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:51:40 EDT

It's time to stop this amazing Naivete'! This is the way things actually get done - attempting to remove a not-good portion of a bill (retroactive immunity), finding that will fail and then voting for the real meat of the bill - stopping the warrantless part of FISA. At least now, going forward, we can watch these telecoms follow a much better law. Let's not blame Obama for the water under the bridge that Bush and team have already wrought - especially while McCain yet again hides in another corner of the US during an important vote.

If you want utopia then stay in your bed, don't vote for anyone and live in your dreams. If you want to take back this country bit-by-dirty bit, then look for the best possible routes to getting there and take them. I am now actually respecting Obama more for his actual as opposed to pie-in-the-sky approach to change.

As he moves closer to the general election, I am finally seeing him clarify into reality the more general positions he has taken in the past. With that, I can also see more clearly the specific areas where I agree/disagree with him and, as a result, am able to make a more rational v. gut choice on him as President.

Under those terms, if I wanted the Saviour for President, Obama would lose my vote. If I remove Obama - and all - potential candidates from that absurd pedestal, Obama has my vote - gut AND rational - more than ever.

Wanted: A New Foreign Policy

Thor — Tue, 20 May 2008 01:07:19 EDT

I was told by a McCain supporter today that our getting into Iraq was nothing more than “spilled milk” and to stop crying over it. “Anyone with sound mind” knew that the original intelligence on Iraq pointed to imminent threat. “Even Obama acknowledged that”.

Funny thing – I remember Obama speaking vociferously against the Iraq war here in Chicago in Daley Plaza. Was it all a dream?

McCain supporters seeing their “straight talker” morph into the Bushian “speech/truth mangler” are trying to make us all think it so – “please, just go back to sleep, everything will turn out just fine with the SURGE”…while telling us that Obama wants to “take our victory away” by leaving Iraq to the Iraqis.

My response:

Anyone with "sound mind" did not, in fact, think Iraq was an imminent problem IF they had read (or were given access to) the underlying intelligence of the delayed and then finally produced NIE "Iraq's Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction". This NIE, requested by Congress in the run-up, was supposed to provide the basis for determining whether Iraq was a true, imminent threat. In fact, the final NIE was judged accordingly by the 2004 Report on the Prewar Intelligence Assessments:

"Most of the major key judgments in the Intelligence Community's October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), Iraq's Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction, either overstated, or were not supported by, the underlying intelligence reporting. A series of failures, particularly in analytic trade craft, led to the mischaracterization of the intelligence."

I won't use up any more space going through the remaining 5 conclusions - each more damning than the first - but it was not the underlying intelligence originally brought in by our analysts, Clinton or confirmed by foreign services - but the packaging of that intelligence for our consumption in the final NIE - that pointed us in the wrong direction. Obama, being of “sound mind”, and other, very courageous patriots, did not parrot the talking points and did their best to stop the train wreck.

Now that we're in this mess (as Obama has acknowledged - the bus is in the ditch) what is the best approach? I think Obama has been clear that there needs to be a new mission with the generals laying out the tactics for that mission. The Surge, as a tactic, has “succeeded” - I agree – with a superficial lull. But it is not the mission. Nor does it appear sustainable as a tactic based on the multiple tours and stretching of resources. Meanwhile, what’s with McCain supporters and this apparent Mission of "winning" through military means in Iraq?

Right now, I am convinced that winning in Iraq can only occur through a balance of security (short term surge - while it can last) and on-the-ground diplomacy with a more realistic assessment and leveraging of group differences toward their own goals.

This is why there is mention of a timetable of which to hold the Iraqi groups responsible. Even McCain is following Obama's lead by targeting a date now! It is arrogant and naive to think we can accomplish this otherwise. Meanwhile, the surge is only a means to create enough security to do so in a timely way - it is not sustainable otherwise.

Take our victory away? “Our” victory is when Iraq is self-governing and we don't need oil.

Responding to MisQuotes - "Dreams" and "Audacity"

Thor — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:06:21 EDT

There have been a series of misquotes going around again recently from Obama's "Dreams of My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope" that I think warrant a quality response. I had been wanting to directly fact-check these for some time but it's been tough since none are cited by page number (surprise!) so I finally decided to just download an unabridged copy from ebooks.com to assist in the search and went through each one below. I hope that you find this useful in quickly dealing with these emails and posts.

As a side benefit, and not the intent of the original posters I am sure, was the opportunity to re-read and put into context many of the rites of passage I think many of us can relate to in this well-written account that just so happens to be from a great candidate for President. As for the target audience:

There are some who have already made up their minds and will see what they choose to see regardless of context. This is not for them except to let the posters know they are found out.

There are others who are equivocating: Democrats or Independents or new voters or Republicans "on-the-fence" who, although they may not find the source of the original taken-out-of-context sound-bites credible, could be left with an impression that may sit in their minds to come back again on election day. This is for them.

Finally, for those of us who look forward to voting for Barack Obama in November I hope this is a tiny way to take another look at this very insightful and truly American story. This is for you too.

Following are the six (mis)quotes that you've probably seen lined up in a row in emails and postings - each in bold followed by the actual quote and context with paginated citations so that anyone can check for themselves and/or build on this:

Misleading quote: 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites' - claimed to be from "Dreams of My Father"

In the paragraph prior to this quote (Introduction: pp. xiv-xv), Obama talks of his mother's 6 year old cousin who had "already lost" his innocence after reporting to his parents that some of his first grade "classmates had refused to play with him because of his dark skin". As you read further you can see the implications of this on Obama's life growing up and why he felt compelled to bring up his mother's race until "the age of 12 or 13":

Actual quote: "When people who don't know me well, black or white, discover my background (and it is usually a discovery, for I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites) I see the the split-second adjustments they have to make, the searching of my eyes for some telltale sign." (Introduction: Page xv)

Fake quote: 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mothers race.' - claimed to be from "Dreams of My Father"

I cannot locate this anywhere in "Dreams of My Father" after searching on each key word through an unabridged copy downloaded from ebooks.com. We can simply shoot this one quote down and rightfully attack the credibility of the entire post.

Fake quote: 'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.' - claimed to be from "Dreams of My Father"

When Obama was still in New York (after graduating Columbia) and at the point of almost giving up on organizing, he gets a call from Marty Kaufman who had "started an organizing drive in Chicago and was looking to hire a trainee." (Story begin on page 140). After talking about Chicago, the Cubs, his organizing efforts, Harold Washington, the South Side community, etc... he offers Obama the job with a small salary and travel expense. When Marty leaves, Obama walks home and thinks about this man and the offer (starting his community organizing days in Chicago):

Actual quote: "He was smart, I decided. He seemed committed to his work. Still, there was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white - he'd said himself that was a problem." (Page 142).

Later, Obama sits down on a bench to consider his options. A "black woman and her young son approach" and the boy asks him why the East River goes one way and the other. Obama explains the tides. "The answer seemed to satisfy the boy..." "As I watched the two of them disappear into dusk, I realized I had never noticed which way the river ran. A week later, I loaded up my car and drove to Chicago." (Page 143). Obama quickly recognizes that his back and forth on Marty, the situation, etc... is like the East River - it's going to go back and forth no matter what - it's time to act and he does.

Misleading quote: 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names' - from "Dreams of My Father" (Page 101)

Obama is IN COLLEGE not running through the riot-strewn city streets. He is posing, finding his identity.

How do we know? Prior to this quote he explains the early pressure of fitting in with the so-called campus "radicals" to "avoid being mistaken for a sellout." (page 100). Starting on page 101 right after the quote, he goes through an incident where he is "called out" on this attitude. Thinking back, he realizes that "the whole year seemed like one big lie..." as he then matures beyond this perspective (Page 102).

I am sure none of us copped similar attitudes while in college or in our late teens/early twenties.

Fake quote: 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.' - claimed to be from "Dreams of My Father"

Actual quote: (in context, he is specifically addressing his earlier attitude towards his stepfather and grandfather): "...men I might love but never emulate, white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela." (Page 220).

In the very next paragraph Obama writes, "Now...that image had suddenly vanished." " To think all my life I had been wrestling with nothing more than a ghost!" as Obama comes to terms with the image versus the reality of his father.

Anyone out there not go through a similar process with their father?

Fake quote: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.' - claimed to be from "The Audacity of Hope"

Actual quote: "Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." (page 261).

If someone requires further context on this last, actual quote, heaven help them.

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

But wait - there's more:

Fake quote: "The emotion between the races could never be pure..... the THE OTHER RACE (WHITE) WOULD ALWAYS REMAIN JUST THAT: MENACING, ALIEN AND APART" - taken from "Dreams from My Father"

To assist them in "helping" us understand that Obama meant "WHITE", the libelist leaves out several key parts phrases such as "Whether WE sought..." and "...missing in OURselves" to avoid the messy reality that Obama is, in fact, talking about all of us - not just whites. Also conveniently left out is that he had just transferred to Columbia and, when his idealism hit the reality of New York, Obama began to acknowledge the challenges of living an authentic, integrated life in such a reality without finding "yourself on the side of the line that you'd never intended to be on." (page 122)

When his mother and sister visit, they find him in the midst of "this humorless mood". (page 122) There are some moments during that visit followed by similar memories (pp 123-4) that cause Obama's over-idealistic image of black community and racial harmony to plunge into an equally over-pessimistic view as he realizes:

Actual quote: The emotions between the races could never be pure; even love was tarnished by the desire to find in the other some element that was missing in our selves. Whether we sought our demons or our salvation, the other race would always remain just that: menacing, alien and apart." (page 124)

Sounds like a young guy getting hit with life's realities - no?? Given the context, this is one step on that journey - not the end.

Is there a Difference?

Thor — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:00:03 EDT

Is the Obama campaign truly "different"?

Gas Tax Holiday-o-Rama - or - An Elitist Holiday from Reality

Thor — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:48:17 EDT

Amazingly, no matter how many economists, editorials and even former Clinton advisors come out against this wondrously panderous gas tax holiday - there are those who are simply taking it at face value and saying, "So what? I don't trust all those "elitists" who don't understand me telling me about their long-term plans. Hillary is just trying to help us out a little."

I Bitterly Cling to my Latte

Thor — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:58:41 EDT

As we are seeing from the latest LA Times/Bloomberg poll showing the PA race actually returning to narrowing today (5%), the independents could not care less about this whole "bitter-gate" issue.

Ribirth of the Citizen

Thor — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:54:04 EDT

How effective and possible will it be to have a President that drives change through citizen action? Is it possible to run the US Government through active citizenship while maintaining a coherent vision and decisive action?