Thursday, July 24, 2008

THE NYC RUSH HOUR SUBWAY CAR -THE KEY TO WORLD PEACE







It may not seem like it when you’re struggling to stay vertical in a packed NYC rush hour subway car - praying that the smelly guy is not you - but that human mush is a model for world peace.

Like the earth - the subway in rush hour is not big enough. There’s not enough fresh air, light, and clean space. People shuffle onto those packed iron beasts from every walk of life lugging with them all the available racial and ethnic hostilities and isms but for the most part - they get along.

Of course you’ve got your jerks, your door blockers, your leg spreaders and the occasional early morning condemnation to eternal hell but mostly its regular folks who just want to get where they going - everyday people who give up seats, keep comments and judgments to themselves; pull out a napkin to wipe water from the seat next to them so a stranger can sit down, hand a mom the rubber toy fallen from the stroller or help the lost tourist, the disabled, the sick, the elderly while perfecting the New York art of not getting caught staring -every day folks quietly making it work

In the worlds hot spots - the Middle East, Africa or the Balkans - extremists set the agenda. Things are not going to get better until the agenda is set by regular people with no ax to grind - like New Yorkers in the subway - who just want to get where they are going - quietly making it work

Photo by Markus Hartel (markushartel.com)

Saturday, July 19, 2008

I AM AN UPPERWEST SIDE LIBERAL- I LIKE IT WHEN OBAMA MAKES ME UNHAPPY-IT CURES MY MCGOVERN ANXIETY



Obama supporters are worried about his swerves into right wing territory this summer - telling evangelicals that he will expand faith based initiatives -expressing a pro death penalty sentiment in agreement with Thomas and Scalia and recently an opinion in favor of FISA's warrantless wiretapping.

Im more worried about not getting our country and our flag back from the violent fundamentalist nuts with no respect for human life who stole the White House along with our wallet and car keys and for 8 years have been plowing the nation's car into buildings and pedestrians all over the globe.

One thing is clear - I don't have a clue.
I will never understand how Americans were persuaded twice to vote for this idiot frat boy prince. So Im not sweating Obama's recent swerves to the center and right because if he makes guys like me unhappy thats good.

He won't win this election if he cares too much about what people like me think of him. In fact when I like him too much I start having 1972 Nixon 49 McGovern 1+DC - "don’t blame me Im from Massachusetts - anxiety attacks

So you keep swerving Mr. Obama. What matters now is getting our wallet and car keys back - then we will figure out how to dig our way out from under W’s legacy of lies, bloodshed, squandered billions and anti US hatred.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

BARKING BACK - Friends weigh in with responses to the "barking" about Obama's swerve



"Well stated. I wish I could get comparable pleasure out of Barak's becoming a moderate Republican. I agree that if a candidate was remotely as progressive as we'd like, he'd have no chance at winning. And nothing that he does will so disenchant me that I wouldn't vote. Not a chance. But I have to admit my stomach turned when in the course of two weeks he sounded or tried to sound like he agreed with the pro-death penalty dissent on the court and agreed with the pro-gun owner majority on the court, then he opted out of federal financing on his campaign, hedged on withdrawal from Iraq, and more. All this a week or so after he waffled on his willingness to talk with even foreign leaders we don't like. Without a doubt I'll still vote for him, but at some point I may have forgotten why. Will his campaign reform efforts, Supreme Court appointments, and Iraq strategy and foreign policy decisions be based on these latest statements? Or can I, as some friends argue I should do, rely on the belief that he really is progressive but will only let that fact emerge once he's been elected? "


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"I'm with you--although i just hope he doesn't pass the center and join the right!"

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"On the other hand

The ideals that a politician actually holds inside himself, let alone those he openly espouses, and let alone those that remain by the time he enters office, rapidly degrade through enlightenment to reality, repeated compromise, pervasive peer pressure, and the corruption that inevitably accompanies power. Whatever he once may have been, 0bama is now very much a politician, very much subject to external manipulation, and not just until the election. That is, he can be steered so that harsh pressure from progressives may be well worth exerting. If he takes the support of progressives for granted, he will act like a "centrist" and could turn out worse for the country in the long run. If many progressives turn away in disappointment and he loses, that may even be best.There is something to be said for letting McCain be elected. It could be that the country's current problems will worsen no matter what, and whoever is president will be blamed. A full economic depression, a war of annihilation between Iran and Israel, a widening of the chaos in Africa, severe disruptions caused by global warming, including all sorts of of diseases, agricultural disasters, rioting and mass migrations all occurring during Obama's presidency would cause the country to quickly turn to a frankly dictatorial "man on a white horse" eager to declare emergency and substitute authoritarian rule for the already flagging American experiment in freedom..On the other hand, if the country gets the president it seems to deserve there would be an opportunity for another Roosevelt-like administration to follow. Obama would have a clear mandate and would be pushed by an outraged public to prosecute the people illegally profiting from the war, to break up the de facto monopolies, to balance the Supreme Court, disband the CIA and perhaps to form an uneasy alliance with China against Russia and our other enemies so that when we finally go down we would go down more gently."


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and someone else sent me this link with more on the subject
http://www.laweekly.com/news/dissonance/dissonance-obamas-middle-ground/19203/