Like literally thousands of other groups formed around the BarackObama.com web space, JewsForObama is an open grassroots gathering place for Jewish Americans of all denominations interested in learning about, discussing, volunteering, and supporting the presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama.
The group hosts a vibrant semi-moderated mailing list (which you should set to "digest" or prepared to be occasionally overwhelmed!) as well as your own personal blogs. Blogs are kind of like old-fashion Soap Boxes. Our “sister group,” Jews for Obama Discussion, is for slightly more chatty mailing list traffic. Please see the moderation policy for both mailing lists.
You can immediately support the Obama candidacy by making a donation to the campaign. By using our thermometer (rather than responding to direct email, or clicking a generic donate button) you will be demonstrating that there are Jewish Americans who are resistant to the Schvitz Boating attacks.
We believe it is extremely important to show Jewish support for Obama's campaign, not only because of his well-known support of Israel's peace and security, but because Obama is aligned with Judaism's major moral and ethical values, including Tikkun Olam, social justice, the environment, education, family, and civil rights.
That is why some of our volunteers started a "Free Jews For Obama Bumper Sticker" campaign, and have given away hundreds! If you make a donation to Obama, or join thousands of others by signing our "We stand with Obama" Statement, please ask for one by clicking on the bumper sticker image below or visiting http://Jews4Obama.com/bumpers.html.
Its nice to put it on your car, but if you don't have a car, or are afraid that adhesive will affect its resale value, use it to cover the Dell or Apple Logo on your laptop -- You must get people to SEE it!
Here is our Principle: The more Jews who show they are NOT AFRAID of showing support for Obama, the more will seek the facts and discover what we already about our next President: LOTS!
But because there is such limited webspace here at My.BarackObama.com, and there have been so many false rumors and innuendos spreading through our community, several of our volunteers gathered together and formed an external website with INFINITE space. The Jews4Obama.com site hosts news articles, archives of Obama's videos and interactions with local Jewish communities, provides petitions and other tangible actions, and instant-response resources for dealing with the smears.
Again, before you leave this page, please make a multiple of CHAI donation to Obama2008 by clicking on the thermometer! If there are 100 Jews who donate $1800, or 1000 Jews who donate $180, or 10,000 Jews who donate $18, we will easily reach our $180,000 fundraising goal!
WELCOME TO THE PRESIDENCY WELCOME TO BEING COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF WELCOME FIRST FAMILY TO THE WHITE HOUSE KEEP BEING WISE ~ WE THE PEOPLE RESPECT YOU RESPECTFULLY,
U.S.NAVY SUB VET
HALLANDALE BEACH, FLORIDA
JANUARY 20, 2009 TUESDAY 0811 HOURS
IN LESS THAN 28 HOURS BARACK OBAMA WILL BE OUR NATIONS PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF . . . WE THE PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA will enjoy a GREAT CHANGE to OUR LAND . . . . . . From 12 NOON (1200 HOURS) JANUARY 20, 2009 TUESDAY these next 4 YEARS we shall look forward to being INSPIRED even more by BARACK OBAMA . . . . . . BARACK OBAMA is a GIFT to OUR NATION . . .
. . . WELCOME MR. PRESIDENT . . . . . . WELCOME COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF . . . . . . WELCOME FIRST FAMILY . . . . . . WELCOME TO THE WHITE HOUSE
RESPECTFULLY,
U.S.NAVY SUB VET HALLANDALE BEACH, FLORIDA JANUARY 19, 2009 MONDAY 0820 HOURS
Dear Friends,
There has been a growing cry for a community gathering about the Gaza crisis that calls for an end to the violence while expressing our anguish for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
Boston-area Muslim, Christian, and Jewish leaders have jointly written a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and expressing our desire to demonstrate that during these most difficult of times we are prepared to stretch our hands out to each other. The statement with initial signatures can be found at the URL below.
Join us for a silent INTERFAITH VIGIL to make the declaration public and stand shoulder to shoulder with members of Boston’s Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities. Signs (drawn from the statement) will be provided. No other signs please.
I'm not sure the French-Egyptian plan will hold unless a full lifting of the economic blockade (while excluding arms shipments) is also implemented. I think the conflict (this and the larger conflict) can be settled without a single drop of blood being shed if these steps were followed:
Step 1:
Israel announces a unilateral, partial, temporary week-long truce and an end to the blockade, but will reserve the right to bomb Qassam teams that are on the road or in the act. No buildings will be bombed. Full humanitarian supplies go in.
Step 2:
Next, through Syrian and or Egyptian intermediaries, Israel negotiates an 18-month truce with Hamas and Fatah to allow time to negotiate a final deal. Hamas takes full responsibility of stopping rocket attacks from Gaza and returning the IDF soldier. Israel ends overflights, drone flights, and control of borders and sea access - handing it all over to Abbas' PA. Any rocket that is launched from Gaza would result in a "fine" that is deducted from the PA's treasury. Israel withdraws its troops.
Step 3:
Fatah negotiates with Hamas' political wing to figure out how to unify - with some gesture that will be an acknowledgment that Hamas won elections in 2006. Failing agreement, there would be elections within 6 months. This would come after the Israeli elections, so there would be pressure to not elect hardliners which is likely to result in hardliners winning on the other side. This would proceed simultaneously with PA negotiations with Israel (and including Arab states as needed) that work on some amalgam of the Taba Plan, the Arab Peace Initiative and Geneva Accord. Both sides would determine the composition of a bipartisan committee of academics and psychologists that will, after a final deal is signed, determine how history textbooks should describe the conflict for the children of both nations. Standards on what is "acceptable dialogue" on TV and in newspapers may also be suggested, but with some deference to free speech. The Syrian track on Golan will continue in parallel, and a US-Iran-Lebanon-Hezbollah dialogue that will result in absorption of Hezbollah into the Lebanese army if Golan and Palestine are resolved.
Step 4:
Israel and the PA announce they will accept land formulas based on the Geneva Accord or some variation of it, based on the negotiations in Step 3. The refugee return level to Israel hasn't been specified. It should offer approximately the 10% (who still wish to live in a Jewish-majority Israeli state) of the 4 million refugees the right to do so, with priority given to first and second generation refugees. Unless the "return" to Israel proper is significant enough, about 400,000, it will not be a stable equilibrium and may allow Hamas and other extremist groups to continue underground on the emotional "right of return" angle. The rest of the 90% of refugees would be resettled in Palestine, and receive some compensation from US, EU and Israel for helping Israel remain mostly Jewish. The same level of compensation will be paid by Arab countries to the descendants of Jewish refugees from Arab lands who left their homes in the 1940s (or later, under duress). If property compensation formulas can be worked out as well, great. Refugees from both sides should be allowed to visit their old homes if they wish, for some nostalgia/closure. Israel would be free to financially incentivize Israeli Arabs to move to Palestine, but they'd be under no obligation to go. Both sides would need to ratify the agreements with a referendum in each territory within six months of signing. The refugee diaspora should also be part of the Pal referendum, to declaw the rejectionists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Accord (overview)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=349832 (Haaretz's special section and links)
http://www.geneva-accord.org/mainmenu/geneva-initiativeisrael-palestine-permanent-borders (final status maps after land swaps)
I believe something like this will be the eventual deal, even if it isn't signed next year. It may take another 10 - but it has to be generous enough to be stable. Otherwise we'll be left with a one state problem that Olmert, despite his many faults, well anticipated: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929439.html
The first two steps can be easily finished in a week and the other two within six months of intense activity. The power lies with Obama to push this kind of a solution by out-smarting those in our establishment that may resist such a plan. Will he? No idea. But he could make a final deal happen by 2010 if he's smart about it. He'd win a Nobel by 2011 and get re-elected by 2012. Unless the economy's still in a recession!
I'd be interested in everyone's feedback and comments.
Mark
Check out the story behind the Obama logo as told by Sol Sender, who led its creative development. Sender recounts the story in two parts on the VSA Partners website. A graphic presentation of the other ideas that were considered in the development process leading up to the ultimate selection of the now ubiquitous design is at "Obama logo ideas that weren't chosen."
Both parts of Sol's interview are on YouTube. And if you advance to minute 2:18 on "Sol Sender - Logo Design Part 2 of 2" you will see our Food Tasters for Obama logo -- conceived by me and executed by my son Zach -- used as an example of the "viral expression" of the grassroots movement.
We will be back with more political analysis and satire soon. If you would like to be notified when a new article is posted join Food Tasters For Obama.
This was written as a response to an ongoing discussion in the "Jews For Obama" email list-serv which was closed (understandably so) before I could post. It was suggested I post it in the blogs:
As one of the resident Israelis in this group I've found the discussions lately quite interesting and appreciate the basically civil tone in which they have been conducted.
But I do have to disagree with the comment of "Israel being the primary aggressor and not acting with restraint".For anyone who doubts that we don't act with restraint, here is an open invitation to join me on my next miluim (reserve duty). It will probably be in June or July so you have plenty of time to look for a ticket and you'll be on an Army base so no need to book a hotel room. Come sit in on the daily briefing as we go over the rules of engagement (which we do EVERY DAY, every briefing, whoever is not on duty is required to attend the briefing) in the event of an attack. It is absolutely mind boggling the restrictions on us. To put it simply, the level of aggression that has to be shown to be able to open fire essentially comes down to being actively shot at. Anything else, about all you can do is fire in the air at the most. And even then there are steps that have to be taken before hand. Ok, you may argue, that is fine for one soldier, or one unit in the field, but how does that apply to the military as a whole? Kal V'Chomer: The structure of the IDF is such that the single soldier operates according to the same principles as the whole. Now that doesn't mean that sometimes someone goes out of control, or a shell is fired wrong, but these are the exceptions, and not a matter of IDF policy.Here is a story from my last miluim this past summer:Part of the area we were in was the backside of a training base. One Friday night our roving patrol saw three suspicious figures on donkeys wandering in the firing ranges in that area so they persued them. The three figures abandon the donkeys and run off carrying bags. Apparently Palestinians often sneak onto the firing ranges Friday nights when they know no training is going on to collect the spent shells to sell as brass scrap. So the patrol set up to watch the donkeys incase the owners (who were probably hiding somewhere nearby) came back. When I went on duty the next morning we had to bring water for the donkeys, and relieved the patrol, which meant I spent my Shabbat morning keeping watch over three donkeys. We were relieved later, only to return around noon to 'escort' the donkeys back into Palestinian territory when it was decided that the owners weren't going to show themselves. Now those donkeys were worth a few thousand shekels which would have bought a lot of steaks for the end of miluim BBQ, but they didn't belong to us. We could have confiscated them and turned them over to some moshav or kibbutz, but that didn't happen. I know this is kind of a silly story, but stuff like this happens all the time and the IDF tries, or at least its soldiers try, to behave as decently as possible. And that is the policy of the IDF. I can tell you it is not pleasant to tell someone your father's or grandfather's age that he can't go home because the checkpoint has been closed for whatever reason, in fact it is downright embarrasing. But you do it with the best civility that you can since you know that even if it is embarassing and keeps this older man from his home for several hours, it could be preventing an attack that will take lives. And on another note: I was doing some filming for work today inside the Foreign Ministry. And I can tell you unofficially that there are lots of things going on behind the scenes that we have no idea about and probably will never hear about and gives me hope that things aren't as bleak as they seem to be.
Dear Obamanation, Everyday, we meet with organizations that present ideas for the Transition and the incoming Obama-Biden Administration. In past transitions, meetings like this have been held behind closed doors. Not anymore. Today, every Obama-Biden Transition staff member received a MEMO outlining the "Seat at the Table" Transparency Policy.The policy is pretty simple: the people and groups we're meeting with, the subjects of the meetings, and any documents shared in the meetings will now be made available on CHANGE.GOV. Most importantly, the American public can weigh in with comments or their own materials. WATCH YOUR 'SEAT AT THE TABLE' VIDEO
This is our latest step toward a more transparent and accessible Transition. We look forward to benefitting from the many more voices that will now be a part of the decision-making process.Thank you, John D Podesta, Co-chairThe Obama-Biden Transition Project
TRANSPARENT ADMINISTRATION - EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
delivery method: my.barackobama.com
Oogedy-Boogedy in the BloxiconBy Kathleen Parker
Friday, December 5, 2008; 12:00 AM
When it comes to irresistible words, "oogedy-boogedy" has few peers.
In the several days since I first used the term in a column describing the Republican Party's "religious" problem, oogedy-boogedy seems to have entered the bloxicon. (New word invented right here, meaning: the blogosphere's lexicon.) Google produces more than 26,000 references.
Despite its sudden popularity, oogedy-boogedy is nonetheless causing some consternation and confusion. What does it mean and whence does it come? In the Dec. 15 issue of National Review, Ramesh Ponnuru writes that he doesn't know what oogedy-boogedy means, "but I gather it's bad."
Not so bad, really, but not so good either. Like most things religious and political, it's a matter of taste and timing. (See Ecclesiastes 3:1).
We were doubtless talking about our shared Southern heritage, about which one does not speak long without mentioning religion.
And, you betcha, oogedy-boogedy.
Marlette, whose childhood was spent among Pentecostals, Baptists and other passionate believers, had religion in his bones and forgot more scripture than most preachers can recall on a given Sunday. He also won a Pulitzer Prize for his lampooning of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker (peace be upon them) and their "PTL Club."
If Jim and Tammy Faye put you in mind of oogedy-boogedy, you're getting warm.
Otherwise, the term may best be illuminated by two connoisseurs of the linguistic arts: Fats Waller and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart.
The latter, unable to define pornography, famously said, "I know it when I see it." Waller, responding to a request to explain "swing," said, "If you got to ask, you ain't got it."
The list of commentators who ain't got oogedy-boogedy is long, though Ponnuru is the most recent to out himself. While dismissing assertions -- mine and others' -- that the Republican Party has a religion problem, Ponnuru acknowledges that social conservatives "could present themselves more attractively," and "pick their spokesmen more wisely."
That's a start, but let's take it another step. How about social conservatives make their arguments without bringing God into it? By all means, let faith inform one's values, but let reason inform one's public arguments.
That was and remains my point. It isn't so much God causing the GOP problems; it's his fan club.
The broad perception among centrists, moderates, conservative Democrats, renegade Republicans, etc., is that the GOP is the party of white Christians to the exclusion of others, some of whom might also be social conservatives.
One can believe this or not. But as the gazillions who have written me to say either that "God Is Here To Stay" or that "Conservatives Won't Be Silenced" ought best to know: Just because you don't believe something doesn't make it untrue.
It may be, as Ponnuru insists, that Barack Obama won for other reasons (health care, for instance) than that evangelicals repelled the less overtly religious. But oogedy-boogedyness remains a problem for the GOP, as hundreds of other letter writers confirm.
As long as the religious right is seen as controlling the Republican Party, the GOP will continue to lose some percentage of voters, and that percentage likely will increase over time as younger voters shift away from traditional to more progressive values.
The cause is not helped when someone of the stature of Rick Warren interviews the leading presidential candidates in his church, questioning them about their faith. If that's not a religious test, I don't know what is.
The glue that binds the GOP's religious right -- social issues, especially abortion -- is not insignificant and doesn't deserve to be dismissed. But nor should those issues be tied to scripture. Some religious conservatives understand this, but the memo apparently isn't reaching all the pews.
They might take a cue from Nat Hentoff, a self-described Jewish-atheist, who has written as eloquently as anyone about the "indivisibility of life" and the slippery slope down which abortion leads.
He uses logic and reason to argue that being pro-life, rather than resolving the religious question of ensoulment, is really a necessary barrier against selective killing, such as when someone else decides it's your time to die.
Hentoff's arguments, and others on related issues, ultimately may fail. But at least they will fail for reasons other than that oogedy-boogedy got in the way.
kparker@kparker.com
Is Obama Truly Like Lincoln - As His "Team of Rivals" and Other Parallels Suggest?
By EDWARD LAZARUS
Thursday, Dec. 04, 2008
As President-elect Barack Obama selects his cabinet and other top-level advisors, he is being widely hailed as having assembled a "team of rivals," a description borrowed from Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about Abraham Lincoln and the cabinet Lincoln assembled from among the powerful political figures that he had battled on the way to the presidency.
This is but one way in which Obama's victory, and the anticipation of his Administration, are linked in the public imagination to the Civil War now more than 140 years distant. And as I will discuss further below, this is altogether fitting. But while much of the linkage between Obama and Lincoln is cast in a rosy light, there is also a cautionary aspect to these ties that should not be wholly overlooked.
From the outset, it was inevitable that Obama would be considered against the backdrop of Lincoln, and he actively invited the comparison. Obama formally launched his campaign from the steps of the Old Capitol Building in Springfield, Illinois, the very place where Lincoln began his own run for the presidency. Obama's soaring rhetoric on that day, and on many since, borrowed openly from Lincoln's own exceptional eloquence. Recasting Lincoln's inaugurals for a modern-day audience, Obama called upon the better angels of our nature and the mystic chords that bind us together as Americans in divisive times.
As Obama's opponents attacked his relatively thin resume in elected office, the Lincoln comparisons deepened. Lincoln had served but a few years in Congress when he sought the presidency. It was his judgment, temperament, and political acumen - not long experience -- that guided the nation through its darkest hour. Obama's supporters, myself among them, saw similar strengths in him.
At an even more fundamental level, too, the very possibility of Obama's candidacy was tied directly to the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the enactment of the post-Civil War constitutional amendments granting persons of all races equal protection of the laws and equal access to the privileges and immunities of citizenship.
As is well-known, the road from constitutional promise to constitutional reality was long and arduous and full of backtracking and the occasional U-turn. By 1877, the Reconstruction of the South, imperfect as it was, had come to a close and the nation had sunk into decades of government-tolerated and government-sponsored racial subjugation.
It took a thousand small steps for the nation to find its way from Lincoln to Obama. Over decades of legal battles and boycotts and marches, amid sacrifice, lynchings, and even assassination, black Americans redeemed their Constitutional rights to vote, to attend desegregated schools, to live in the neighborhoods of their own choosing, and to participate in civil life on equal terms.
The landmarks on this path are legion: the early cases opening up previously all-white primaries to black voters, Truman's order desegregating the armed forces, Brown v. Board of Education, Selma, the Little Rock crisis, Martin Luther King's March on Washington, the court decisions enforcing the rule of one person/one vote, the great civil rights bills of the 1960s, the black legal and political leaders from Thurgood Marshall to Shirley Chisholm and Jesse Jackson.
Over time, changes in law were matched by changes in attitudes. Explicit expressions of racial bias became socially unacceptable. African-Americans rose to prominent positions in politics and business. Society as a whole inched closer and closer to King's dream of a world in which individuals would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
The Cautionary Side of the Obama/Lincoln Parallel: A Journey that Is Far From Finished
Obama's election, of course, was made possible by and reflects that very progress. To the last day, there were those who said that the so-called "Bradley effect" - the idea that many voters, in the privacy of the voting booth, simply would not pull the lever for a black man, whatever they might have claimed to pollsters - would swamp Obama's lead in the polls and vault John McCain into the White House. That did not happen and, on November 4, the death of the Bradley effect became another chapter in the long saga of the redeeming post-Civil-War possibilities and the ongoing challenge of healing the wounds of a conflict still lingering generations after the death of all of its combatants.
But for all that, the election results suggest that the Civil War still haunts us. Candidate Obama did better than his Democratic predecessor John Kerry in almost every section of the country. The one section, however, in which he did worse than Kerry - and significantly worse - is the swath of the old Confederacy that runs down the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, down to the Gulf Coast, and then across through Texas. The stubborn, unfortunate truth remains that, across most of the South, Obama commanded much less support from white voters than his less charismatic and otherwise less successful Democratic predecessor did.
One of Obama's challenges, thus, is Lincoln's unfinished business. In the hearts and minds of many in some parts of this country, the Civil War remains unfinished business. We are not yet fully one nation, blind to caste and color, indivisible. And it will take all of Obama's political skill - which is towering, as was that of the great President whom Obama self-consciously evokes - to end this conflict altogether.
In America, no one is above the law. Speak out against preemptive pardons and restore the American values of justice and due process.
"The Bush administration distorted statutes and case law to legally justify interrogation techniques that had long been considered torture under domestic and international law. It relied on sloppy or aggressive legal analysis as a basis for evading judicial review of a warrantless wiretapping program. It has at every turn chosen the most expansive interpretation of the law to rationalize indefinite detentions and deny federal court review to those in custody. It has, in short, determined its preferred course of action first and then stitched together absurd readings of the law to defend those choices."
© ACLU, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004
I am forwarding this post to those in the Philadelphia area who may know of someone in need on Thanksgiving Day.
Subject: Thanksgiving Dinner> > Pass it along. This is wonderful information.> > Maybe you know some family that need a place to eat on Thanksgiving> Day!! Be a blessing!!!!!!> > Pass it on!!> > On Thursday, November 27th from noon to 4pm The Manayunk Brewery and> Restaurant will be hosting a Thanksgiving meal for any families or> singles in need. There is no cost and the meal will be a traditional> Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and all the fixings as well as live jazz> music to enjoy. We are able to accommodate approximately 300 people.> > We are having some trouble finding people to actually come out and dine> with us on that day. We were wondering if you might have anyone that> would be interested or if you can refer us to anyone that could help us> out with this. Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated.> > Thanks!> > Nicole Healy> Marketing Director> Manayunk Brewery and Restaurant> 4120 Main Street, Philadelphia , PA 19127> P: 215.482.8220 ext. 22> F: 215.483.0266> E: _nicole@manayunkbrewery.com_ <mailto:nicole@manayunkbrewery.com>> W: _www.manayunkbrewery.com_ <http://www.manayunkbrewery.com/>>
Good Morning Change Agents,
I just wanted to remind you that help is needed in GA to GOTV for the Dec 2 runoff. barackobama.com is still up and running. Please login to your personal page and print out a call list to contact Georgia voters. There is also a training video online if this is your first time phonebanking.
Also, if you live in GA or are able to travel to GA, volunteers are needed to canvass and other GOTV activities.
I am so happy that BO.com will remain active. This is a great resource to organize community events in your own neighborhood.
We are going to be active in our communities to effect change.
Thank you for your continued support of the Obama Administration.
Peninnah
Change Agent 002
An open invitation to join : President Barack Obama Inauguration Day 2009 - Washington, DC Group!!!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/InaugurationDay2009
Make plans to be in DC on this historical day!
Make plans to be tuned in with TV and/or the Internet.
Be out in public with friends and fellow citizens.
A Grand and Wonderful Celebration!
