There is no more chilling image than the thought of this man as President of the United States.
Happy All Hallows' Even and remember to get out and vote for Barack Obama on or before November 4th, or you'll see this horrifying "mask" in every diplomatic negotiation, every national policy debate, on all television stations and in every newspaper and magazine for, potentially, at least 4 years!!!
Like so many others, my most heartfelt condolences go out to Jennifer Hudson on her tragic loss this weekend of her mother and brother. Moreover, I'm sending prayers to her and her family to find her missing nephew alive and well.
For those who, like me, love opera, another stunning, inspired move from Peter Gelb's brilliant, multimedia-driven team at the Metropolitan Opera.
Starting today, the company is offering MET PLAYER, a catalog of -- as of now -- 13 on-demand HD performance videos, 37 historic video performances and 120 Met radio broadcasts (audio), all available for web streaming, with many more to come. It is a subscription service and clearly worth every penny.
What I would have given for such broadaccess to the MET's archives as a young listener! It took years to finally break open and make available the vaults of the MET's historic radio and other media archives. Now, with technology, we not only have Gelb's great effort in negotiations with unions, etc. to enable us to behold this priceless legacy, but the chance to hear and see it at our fingertips.
I'm thrilled to know that this woman, Mother Cecelia Gaudet, age 106, a Catholic Nun, as deeply religious as one can be, feels that Barack Obama is the right person to be the next President of the United States. She has lived through EIGHTEEN Presidents.
She says in the interview that the next President "should be like a father and love his people and do the best of course."
In last night's unexceptional so-called Presidential "debate", I heard a candidate for an extraordinary position -- a position once reserved for exceptional individuals -- use a term to describe his opponent which brought new meaning to pejorative. If I were to choose one part of the dictionary definition of the word "pejorative" to best describe the context and application of the term used last night by that candidate, it would be "belittling" but with a meaning far uglier than even pejorative can portray.
For me, the term used was among many things an abhorrent personification of the inherent RACISM of the campaign. Not the expected direct racism of certain voters, or the the "silent racism" of others who may even be genuinely supportive of the positions or overall personage of the Democratic candidate but because of things they would never say to anyone else will pull the lever differently on Election Day. Instead, it blatantly exposed the racism of the Republican Presidential candidate. THE TERM WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN USED BY THIS WHITE CANDIDATE TO ANOTHER WHITE CANDIDATE OF ANY AGE OR PERCEIVED LEVEL OF POLITICAL EXPERIENCE. It showed that the Republican Presidential candidate lives within the framework of belief in WAR AGAINST AN ENEMY. All of those "enemies" in the Republican candidate's personal experiential framework have been PEOPLE OF COLOR. Last night, without a shadow of a doubt, he was AT WAR WITH AN ENEMY... an OTHER.
The Republican candidate's running mate, either when she is on or .0002 seconds off script, is spewing or goading from the crowd a hurl of fear-mongering, bigoted epithets waylayed at the Democratic candidate. The comments being made at the Republican rallies are frighteningly reminiscent of the pre-Civil War or pre-Civil Rights South.
The Democratic Candidate for President of the United States in the 2008 Election is NOT "THAT ONE"... he is BARACKOBAMA, THE ONLY ONE WHO DESERVES MY VOTE. The person who used that awful, derogatory term to describe a candidate for the United States Presidency is not just wrong, he and his running mate are DANGEROUS.
There is no more chilling image than the thought of this man as President of the United States.
Barack Obama said last night on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" that:
Like so many others, my most heartfelt condolences go out to Jennifer Hudson on her tragic loss this weekend of her mother and brother. Moreover, I'm sending prayers to her and her family to find her missing nephew alive and well.
For those who, like me, love opera, another stunning, inspired move from Peter Gelb's brilliant, multimedia-driven team at the Metropolitan Opera.
In last night's unexceptional so-called Presidential "debate", I heard a candidate for an extraordinary position -- a position once reserved for exceptional individuals -- use a term to describe his opponent which brought new meaning to pejorative. If I were to choose one part of the dictionary definition of the word "pejorative" to best describe the context and application of the term used last night by that candidate, it would be "belittling" but with a meaning far uglier than even pejorative can portray.
