Turn around: The week in review at Blog 440

A re-cap of posts for the week of May 11 - May 17, 2008

Thought for the weekend: When your child is being born you may want to move away from the cell phone. Move away from the cell phone.

My favorite post: Doing Good: Myanmar PSA

Most viewed post: News (WKYC): Pat O’Malley to resign - The sex always sells.

Least viewed post: Technology: Twitter Birthing - Just posted.

The post I didn’t want to feel the need to write: Politics: Barack’s Sweetie

Tags used this week: 2008, afghan, attorney general, audette, barack, birth, cavaliers, cavs, checkpoint one foundation, cleveland, clinton, cuba, cyclone, democrat, democratic, gas, hillary, interpreters, iraq, israel, jason falen, john mccain, junk food, liberty, marc dann, myanmar, obama, odp, ohio, ohio democratic party, palestine pangea day, papa johns, pizza, politics, presidential election, primaries, primary, twitter, vote, voting

Tag used that I never imagined I would use: twitter and birth in the same post.

Best comment of the week: None.

Worst comment of the week: None

My favorite search engine term someone used to find this blog: “the parents of barack obahama”

My favorite line from another blog: None this week.

The thing about this blog that distressed me the most this week: You know what I’m going to say - still not an answer to the question of 2008.

Here are all the posts for this week:

Sunday May 11:

No posts.

Monday, May 12:

Thought: Voting, the News, and William F. Buckley

Tuesday, May 13:

News (Columbus Dispatch): Articles of impeachment against Marc Dann

News (Cleveland.com): Dann holds on

Doing Good: Myanmar PSA

Wednesday, May 14:

News (Cleveland.com): Dann resigns

News (WKYC): Pat O’Malley to resign

Op-Ed (Rasmussen Reports): Obamites pile on Clinton at own peril

Thursday, May 15:

News (VOA): Palestinians mark Israel’s 60th anniversary with protests; Israeli forces open fire

Politics: Barack’s Sweetie

Friday, May 16:

Technology: Twitter Birthing

Saturday, May 17:

No posting on Saturday.

Technology: Twitter Birthing

Audette on Twitter

Dr Murphy may want to break her water.

Blog 440 here.

So much wrong here I can’t even start.

Jehovah help us.

Politics: Barack’s Sweetie

If you haven’t seen it:

Blog 440 here.

I was not going to comment on this, but it’s all over the news so here’s my point-of-view.

Obama called the reporter to apologize, saying he has a bad habit of calling people “sweetie”.

Bad habit, my butt. Maybe a bad habit of pandering, though.

Think about it.

Obama just lost West Virginia (read: “working class”) by a wide margin. He just brought John Edwards aboard (read: “working class”). He’s in Detroit, in an auto plant (read: “working class”).

He needs to get himself endeared to the “working class”.

Who says things like “sweetie”? The stereotype is a waitress in a truck stop (read: “working class” women).

Who can empathize with Obama for being chastised for saying “sweetie”. Let’s see, maybe a “working class” male?

Pathetic attempt at appeal to the “working class”, although ya’ gotta admire the guy for killing four birds with one stone there - appealing to the women, the men, the whites, and the blacks with one quick comment.

Ugh. They try to say Obama is the “new” politics, but really, he’s just the worst of the old, re-packaged.

News (VOA): Palestinians mark Israel’s 60th anniversary with protests; Israeli forces open fire

From VOANews.com:

Palestinians Mark Israel’s 60th Anniversary With Protests; Israeli Forces Open Fire

Blog 440 here.

There is so much wrong here I don’t know where to start. That may be the root of the problem on a larger scale. No side is right. No side is wrong. Except if you are on a particular side, then you are right.

Last week in Thought: Israel at 60, I asked:

Why have these two relatively small entities - Israel and Palestine - been at the center of the world stage for 60 years?

I’m realizing now that the question is too small. The issue goes beyond simple geographic area and population size.

We are still feeling the effects World War II, World War I, maybe even going back to the Crusades.

Bad policy is not just our problem. It’s our children’s children’s children’s problem, too.

Why do we always fail to see that?

Op-Ed (Rasmussen Reports): Obamites pile on Clinton at own peril

From RasmussenReports.com: Obamites pile on Clinton at own peril

Blog 440 here.

Read this - it echoes my feelings precisely.

News (WKYC): Pat O’Malley to resign

Update: May 15, 2008: O’Malley pleads guilty to obscenity charge

He’s gone, although the charges are rather strange.  There’s more to this story than they are telling us.  That’s OK, though.  I don’t need the lurid details.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

From WKYC: WKYC Exclusive: Sources say Cuyahoga County Recorder Pat O’Malley to resign

Also being reported on WEWS TV at 6:00 pm.

Blog 440 here.

I’m so disgusted with Ohio politicians right now I want to move to Middlefield and turn Amish.

News (Cleveland.com): Dann resigns

From Cleveland.com - The Plain Dealer: Dann resigns

Blog 440 here.

Good riddance! It looks like there are still ongoing investigations that we will be hearing about, but at least the Attorney General’s office can start to get back to work.

The Ohio Democratic Party still needs a lot of work, though. A lot of work.

Doing Good: Myanmar PSA

Donate to UNICEF for Myanmar. Or, donate to any other reputable organization working in (or trying to work in) Myanmar or anywhere else where people need help.

As I’ve said before, the money I would have donated to politicians this year went instead to UNICEF.

Another way to look at it is: Your car gets 20-miles per gallon. Cut out 100 miles of driving over the next four weeks. Price of gas about $4.00. That’s $20.00 for Myanmar.

Easy.

News (Cleveland.com): Dann holds on

From Cleveland.com - The Plain Dealer: Dann holds on

Blog 440 here.

I’m just a little blogger who can’t keep with both breaking news and mowing the lawn.

The lawn won today.

So, I will refer readers to Cleveland.com - The Plain Dealer for “The Breaking Dann” news.

I will have a comment once it is done as it looks like he is going to resign at some point soon.

News (Columbus Dispatch): Articles of impeachment against Marc Dann

From The Columbus Dispatch via Writes Like She Talks: House Dems seek Dann’s impeachment

Blog 440 here.

Now, I’m no fan of Marc Dann and I’m no expert at this impeachment stuff, but some of these articles look weak to me.

I especially enjoy this one:

Neglected to perform the duties of his office and by his own admission was not competent or qualified for the job.

Yeah, note to Ohio Democratic Party… you guys were the ones who endorsed him and gave him to us in the first place. Sort of reflects back toward you, doesn’t it.

News (CSMonitor.com): Why the presidential candidates won’t talk about Israel

From CSMonitor.com: Why the presidential candidates won’t talk about Israel

Blog 440 here.

From the story:

Considering the horrific history of the holocaust, politicians “run like rabbits” to avoid the charge of anti-Semitism, Findley adds.

Are we seeing a parallel here with racism in the current U.S. presidential election? Hillary Clinton voters are obviously racists, according to many Obama supporters, because they didn’t vote for the African-American. This is, of course, the most ridiculous sentiment of the campaign.

Say something anti-Israel, or pro-Palestinian, and the charge of anti-Semitic will be hurled at you quicker than you can blink. Ask Jimmy Carter.

Thought: Voting, the News, and William F. Buckley

From NYTimes.com: Vote like thy neighbor

Blog 440 here.

For me, the most telling line of this story is:

Most strikingly, political polarization has become akin to political segregation. You are less likely to live near someone whose politics differ from your own.

They probably could have added that you may be less likely to even talk with someone whose politics differ from your own. Or blog with, for that matter.

Has debate, true conversation about ideas and ideology and philosophy and who we are as Americans and world citizens, has this completely vanished from our society?

“Vanished” may be too strong of a word. But, I do think we may be looking for it in the wrong places.

We look for debate by watching AC 360, Countdown, The O’Reilly Factor, and countless other programs on television and radio.

It’s not there.

Watch any of the pundit conversations on these shows for three to five minutes and you will figure out which campaign each is working for (or at the very least which campaign they are sympathetic to). They are all towing their campaign’s line. “Campaign”, not “philosophy”.

Even worse with talk radio. Seriously, don’t even bother (and I’m talking both right and left talk radio).

Many of the A-list and lesser blogs seem to be nothing more than lower paid extensions of the television shill network.

I’ve discovered that more and more, I’m not watching CNN, or FOX, or MSNBC on a nightly basis. Only when something big is happening do I tune in for more than a minute or so.

I don’t listen to talk radio. I just don’t.

I rarely read The Daily Kos or the Huffington Post. Or Salon.com. Or Slate.

What I have discovered is that more and more I’m reading the major daily and local newspapers, mostly online, although I do subscribe to the print versions of The Plain Dealer and The News-Herald.

We keep hearing that newspapers are dead. Maybe not. Maybe they are the ones who are still providing us with the most accurate information and the most level-headed and considered debate.

I’m finding that I’m missing William F. Buckley. Not because I agreed with him. Heavens no, I never agreed with him. I miss him because he made me just angry enough to start thinking.

Turn around: The week in review at Blog 440

A re-cap of posts for the week of May 4 - May 10, 2008

Thought for the weekend: Moms make the world go ’round.

My favorite post: Thought: Liberty as progress

Most viewed post: Thought: Marc Dann - Yeah, sex sells.

Least viewed post: Doing Good: The Checkpoint One Foundation

The post I didn’t want to feel the need to write: Thought: Marc Dann

Tags used this week: 2008, afghan, attorney general, barack, cavaliers, cavs, checkpoint one foundation, cleveland, clinton, cuba, cyclone, democrat, democratic, gas, hillary, interpreters, iraq, israel, jason falen, john mccain, junk food, liberty, marc dann, myanmar, obama, odp, ohio, ohio democratic party, palestine pangea day, papa johns, pizza, politics, presidential election, primaries, primary

Tag used that I never imagined I would use: papa john’s

Best comment of the week: From Alexander on Thought: Myanmar Cyclone Donation

“Great idea! ”

Worst comment of the week: None

My favorite search engine term someone used to find this blog: papa john’s riot - which led to News: Papa John’s doing the right thing (I think)

My favorite line from another blog: From Anglachel’s Journal:

The concrete has no place in Obama’s campaign narrative. Speaking too much about material benefit pulls you down into the weeds and you are no longer shiny and new and unifying. You take on interests which incur expectations and interfere with the abstract pursuit of the ideal, a government cleansed of politics, run according to bipartisan, technocratic and efficient methods. Kind of like the 50s, but without all that civil rights and women’s rights stuff.

Which naturally leads to…

…The thing about this blog that distressed me the most this week: You know what I’m going to say - still not an answer to the question of 2008.

Here are all the posts for this week:

Sunday May 4:

No posts.

Monday, May 5:

Resource (FactCheck.org): Gas price fixes that won’t

Op-Ed (Plain Dealer): Dann must do what’s best for Ohio, not what he mistakenly thinks is best for himself — editorial

Thought: Marc Dann

News: Papa John’s doing the right thing (I think)

Thought: Myanmar Cyclone Donation

Tuesday, May 6:

Thought: Ohio Democratic Party

Reminder: Pangea Day

Question: Change #3

Wednesday, May 7:

Doing Good: The Checkpoint One Foundation

Thought: The bad, the good, and Mahatma Gandhi

News: Junk Food Cleveland

Thursday, May 8:

Thought: Israel at 60

Friday, May 9:

Thought: Liberty as progress

Saturday, May 10:

No posting on Saturday.

Thought: Liberty as progress

From NYTimes.com: Cubans Permitted to Buy Computers

Blog 440 here.

Read this.

This article should remind us all - Americans, Iraqis, Afghanis, Palestinians, Israelis, Burmese, and everyone else - that liberty and the pursuit of liberty is a work in progress.

Cuba, and other countries - including the U.S., -  will get there.

We have had and will have set-backs along the way.  There will be a lot of pain before the world is rid of things such as Myanmar (Burmese) junta and others.

But we will get there.

One step at a time.

One individual at a time.

It may not come in our lifetimes.

But it will come.

Thought: Israel at 60

Update at the bottom of this post.

————————————————————————————

News story at VOANews.com: Israel Celebrates 60th

Most Americans living today have heard at least one reference to Israel and Palestine every day of their adult lives. In fact, we can barely say “Israeli” without following it with “Palestinian”.

The combined population of Israel-Palestine is about 10 million. The population of the New York City metropolitan area is about 18 million.

Israel is slightly smaller in area than New Jersey.

Although I can’t verify this with time cards, I suspect that every U.S. President in my lifetime has spent much more time and energy on the Israeli-Palestinian issue than they have on New York City, New Jersey, or Cleveland for that matter.

The Bush Administration is working hard on the issue as we speak in an attempt to get it settled before leaving office. Clinton tried this exact same thing eight years ago. He negotiated right up to Inauguration Day.

Didn’t work.

I don’t even want to think about about the total foreign aid the U.S. has given both countries.

Israel is one of four countries that has not ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The others are India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel has nuclear weapons, although they don’t publicly acknowledge it. Wink, wink.

I don’t want a debate on which one is correct and more noble in this issue - that will never be settled. But I do want to ask a question:

How have these two relatively small enitities - Israel and Palestine - been able to hold the world hostage for 60 years?

Update, 5/8/2008: That’s not the correct wording.  This is more accurate:

Why have these two relatively small entities - Israel and Palestine - been at the center of the world stage for 60 years?