Wow, Eric Etheridge of the Opinionater at NY Times sure puts the “pedal to the metal”

He is commenting on death of meritocracy in the US in the context of the fight for Change in the US these days.

His own last  two paragraphs in this piece says it all:

Real reform — tackling health care costs and access, finding a way to head off massive changes in the world’s climate, ending torture as the lynchpin of the war on terror, getting out of Iraq, preventing an Israeli-led Third World War in the Middle East, and reforming entitlements and defense spending to prevent 21st century America from becoming 17th Century Spain: these are being resisted by those who have power and do not want to relinquish it — except to their own families and cronies.

Nepotism is part of the problem; media corruption is also part; the total uselessness of the Democratic party and the nihilism of the Republicans doesn’t help. But something is rotten in America at this moment in time; and those of us who supported Obama to try and change this decay and decline should use this fall to get off our butts and fight for change.

Now that’s hitting the nail on its head, big time!

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Health care reform, birthers, violent protests and Hitler talk in the US

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Given my own childhood “escape” from Nazi occupied France in 1940, I feel something when media people like Limbaugh start painting Obama, the US President with the Hitler and fascism brush.

I read this blog post with great interest because of it’s title “So you wanna talk about Hitler”. I highly recommend it for the views expressed and the images from Nazi Germany!

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I guess I’m not a dog lover, and amen to that!

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The ongoing story about the “top dog” in the White House seems to me to be a form of escapism by triviality. Why should I care what dog Obama’s children enjoy? Not exactly big news. In fact, why didn’t they have a dog earlier than this!

In fact, I sense that Obama doesn’ t much care either except for the PR mileage.

The dumb and dumber factor in MSM is revealed more blatantly than is healthy here!

The right wing can’t say anything constructive and the left wing just  complains. When do the adults speak up?

Who cares about the top dog, except for trivializers, the say something nice people!

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Who says that Daily Kos is “too serious and lefty”?

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This was added to a Peggy Noonan “abbreviated pundit post” about Obama’s upcoming inaugural address on Jan 20, 2009:

I hope he uses phrases like “veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth” and “thou art a boil, a plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle long-tongu’d babbling gossip” or even “false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand” like Shakespeare did. Now those were the classics [and Cavett adds a few more]. And maybe if he speaks English, people won’t be so deferential the way they were to His Juniorness. Which I only care about because Obama is a Democrat. But I digress. Let me return to setting unrealistic high expectations for Obama.

Reads like funny and ironic to me!

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Even if very US, I like this from Daily Kos

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by Bill in Portland Maine

Wed Nov 26, 2008 at 06:00:21 AM PST

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

Things for Which I am Thankful: 2008

Barack Obama will be our 44th president. John McCain will not.
Joe Biden will be our next vice president. Sarah Palin will not.
This will be George W. Bush’s last Thanksgiving as president
Dick Cheney will leave Washington 100% disgraced
-
Howard Dean’s vision
Those Democrats in Congress who fight for us
Purple states
Michelle Obama’s class
Olbermann, Maddow, Stewart, Colbert
That my spellchecker this year recognized “Maddow” and didn’t try replacing it with “mad cow” or “mildew.”
-

And there’s more at!

Bush 43 sure fuc..d it up!

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And here are the words of Elizabeth Drew, a steely Washington journalist, that describe why the last 8 years have felt so dark:

Obama’s thrilling election—something not long ago many wise heads said wasn’t possible—also made more imminent the prospect that the dark night of the worst administration in history was ending. The American people had overwhelmingly rejected the Bush regime’s stupidity, cupidity, its wars, its lies, its torturing and its secrecy, its ineptitude and its power grab that threatened constitutional government. The relief was palpable. Washingtonians were simply smiling as they hadn’t in years. Something new was coming, and it was to be looked forward to. People felt cleansed.

If it’s the “thought that counts” then these thoughts get my vote for the most unequivocal concerning GWB’s real life legacy!

Only in red state America and from Al Qaeda!

 

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Here’s the msnbc headline:

Mayor sorry for kids’ ‘assassinate Obama‘ chant

Parents in Idaho town accused of ‘damaging young hearts and minds’

Yes it is 2008 and yes a black man was voted in decisively to be No. 44, but somethings don’t CHANGE much anyway! Click here to be disgusted!

After reading this I wonder which is worse vitriol in Idaho or from El Qaeda?

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the reputed second-in-command of Al Qaeda, has apparently responded to the election victory of President-elect Barack Obama in a vitriol-laden video message posted on Web forums on Wednesday.

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The first full interview of Pres-Elect Obama and Mrs. Obama

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It was on the CBS Sunday night TV stalwart “60 Minutes“. The interview was done by Steve Croft in Chicago. Apart from the usual program ending contribution by Andy Rooney, it was Croft and Barack and then Croft, Barack and Michelle.

I was so fascinated with the quality of the exchanges between Croft and his guests. It’s rare and moving to see and hear two sane politicians, and that is not an oxymoron in this case, responding to direct questions as well, as openly and credibly, even though guardedly, about the process of transitioning into the most powerful political office in the world.

Croft, Barack and Michelle gave the impression that they were engaged in a careful word dance between three people that respected each other and their words. Barack and Michelle left little doubt about the openess and closeness of their emotional and mental connection. It was a tour de force performance by all three, a rare event on public TV dealing with US politics!

The interview was a very fitting way station on this journey into political power. Watching it gave me happy goose bumbs, unlike the sinking feeling I always get when I see and hear McCain and his wife Cindy.

Dave Winer weighs in with choice video parts of the interview!

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One of those small luxuries I miss, The New Yorker

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I used to buy them quite often, not every week but every other week or so.
And pasted in below is an example of what I miss, the inspired use of color and form to evoke a time in US history:

And there is the writing, David Remnick, George Packer et al. A truly great magazine!

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The headline in Salon – Obama and the dawn of the 4th Republic

This photo leads a Michael Lind think piece that puts the 44th President in the line back to No. 1, George Washington:

This essay outlines is a novel integration of Obama’s election with the 43 elections that preceded his. I found this in Boing Boing.

UPDATE:

Check this link out for the Time Mags perspective “The end of the Reagan era”