The Rise of the Angry White Female

Their Queen
Photo: blog.washingtonpost.com

In 1994 the Democrats lost control of Congress for the first time in 50 years in a wave of anger and resentment whipped up by the Republican party.

According to media reports the agent of that great change was the "Angry White Male" who was defined as the "regular guy" who in the wake of disturbing economic and social changes and a philandering and lying president that he could not tolerate exacted his revenge in the ballot box.

The Angry White Male was entitled to his anger in a world gone wrong where only his strength and moral guidance could make things right and the fact that he primarily responded with hate was something not to be questioned.

The time of the Angry White Male has passed.

Let's talk about his wife instead.

Meet the Angry White Female.

She is primarily concerned about sexism against her and her alone. There is no space for consideration of a broader analysis of sexism against women of color because women of color are subordinate.

Like her brethren, she is perfectly comfortable using xenophobia and racism and other types of hate to bolster her point and as an attack against the numerous forces working against her.

Hillary Clinton is the ultimate Angry White Female. She is strong, smart and capable. A wronged woman politically and within her own marriage and therefore is entitled to the presidency.

Forget her stand on Iraq, her questionable electability and her incompetence as the head of a political campaign. We OWE her! And goddammit if she doesn't get what she wants she'll stomp and scream until you do.

The Angry White Female a problem because she hurts the cause of women's rights by either crying wolf or self-centeredly spinning legitmate claims of gender based discrimination so far away from the real point that we all end up too disoriented to tackle the real issues.

The Angry White Female is not going to go away with a Hillary Clinton defeat. If anything she will be emboldened because Hillary's loss will be another example of the cruel world destroying her dreams.

As Democrats, leftists, hell anyone who wants to have a rational debate about women and the issues that effect them we have to stand up to them.

The irony of having to defeat the first woman to get close to winning the presidency can't be overlooked but we must not focus on that to the point that we forget the larger much worthier goal of speaking truthfully and loudly for the rights of all women.

I need a hazmat suit

The latest fashion for the spring

The right-wing smear machine is in high gear assisted as always by the supposedly leftist media outlets.

Tim Russert got the ball rolling with making Obama apologize to apparently all white Americans for having, if we are being extremely generous, an acquaintance with Louis Farrakhan.

That was followed by John McCain's campaign inviting a racist scumbag to introduce him at a Cincinati campaign stop and then being surprised that the asshole produced a racist and xenophobic rant using Obama's middle name.

This is just the beginning of the smear campaign against Obama's race and background.

These attacks need to be brought out into the open. Not just the ones that make it to the mainstream media but the conversations that the right hasamongst themselves on their websites and other media.

So I'm sacrificing my sanity for you in bringing you the lastest smears and other bullshit straight from the right-wing.

Obama Exposed is a pdf produced by Human Events a wing-nut magazine with a collection of the latest smears and fears on the rise of the senator

Link :http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfzgtt86_0gdwjd8dg

There are contributions from the stars of the right-wing media like, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin.

I would try to give a quick summary but it's so all over the place and insane that I could not do it justice. You really should read it for yourself.

A compromising position

Yes she thinks Latinos are stupid (and racist as hell apparently)

Democrats' racial divide becoming ever more evident

By JAY ROOT

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Democrats have long depended on a rainbow-like racial coalition to win races against Republicans, but the fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has revealed an increasingly common and sometimes bitter split between blacks and Hispanics.

As Hispanics have grown in numbers, the tension has increased, and it's produced a racial minefield for the Democratic presidential candidates. Both camps publicly downplay the divide, but it has occasionally spilled out into the open, and it could be a significant factor in the March 4 Texas primaries.

Raw feelings were evident in a recent complaint from Jesse Diaz, president of the Dallas-area League of United Latin American Citizens. Diaz, identifying himself as a Clinton supporter, said in a letter posted on the CNN Web site that Hispanics in Dallas are not about to "jump on the Obama Express."

"When Senator Obama's campaign rolls into Dallas, the 'Dallas Phenomenon' will reflect the racist and biased distaste Dallas' black leadership has shown towards Dallas' Hispanic community for decades," Diaz wrote.

Diaz' chief complaint is that black leaders show favoritism to African-Americans in government jobs and leadership posts. He stood by his comments in an interview, saying that "what Anglos did to African-Americans, African-Americans are now doing to Hispanics."

The rest of this bullshit report can be read here.

I don't know who Jay Root is. After reading his report I really don't care because his report is pure crap. What concerns me about this story is that it is a prime example of the unsavory relationship between campaigns and reporters.

I know campaigns leak stories and the media plays favorites but this is something different.

We've already gone through the news cycle where the Clintons tried to play the "Latinos hate blacks card".

And we've already seen that idea debunked not only at the ballot box but also in writing
Here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Never mind the real divide is generational as it goes with how Latinos are voting in the Democratic primary or that even if they don't vote for Obama it doesn't necessarily have to come down to racist reasons.

So why are we seeing this resurface now? There are two reasons.

First, the new SurveyUSA poll which shows Obama up by four points in Texas.

Second, is the fact that she has run out of any real ideas of how to attack him (and the previous ones she's used have not worked) and now is chucking any negative attack she can at him.

This report is part of that line of attack.

So what does that say about Jay Root, that he is a willing vessel for some racist smear that is thoroughly debunked by a desperate and dying political campaign? It says that the man doesn't deserve to write for the local Pennysaver, let alone a newspaper.

And it also says that as readers we all must look beyond the story and realize that understanding the motivations of the people behind the scenes of the stories of the day are as important as the stories themselves.

I'm trying to control my anger

The racist bitch in her own words

The photo in question - AP

From Mike Allen of the Politico:

Obama slams smear photo
By: Mike Allen
February 25, 2008 10:16 AM EST
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe accused the Clinton campaign Monday of "shameful offensive fear-mongering" by circulating a photo as an attempted smear.

Plouffe was reacting to a banner headline on the Drudge Report saying that aides to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) had e-mailed a photo calling attention to the African roots of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

"The photo, taken in 2006, shows the Democrat front-runner dressed as a Somali Elder, during his visit to Wajir, a rural area in northeastern Kenya," the Drudge Report said.

The Clinton campaign did not deny the charge, but did not comment further...

Link to the article: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8667.html

Despite my initial apprehension of Matt Drudge as a source, the fact the the Obama campaign has responded to this and more importantly the Clinton campaign hasn't denied it, the idea that the Clinton campaign has done this puts to rest any possible equivocation that the campaign is employing racist tactics and is trying to use Barack Obama's Muslim heritage as wedge issue.

It also for me is the last straw in cutting the Clintons any slack on the shit that they've been pulling.

I've been reluctant to call them racists for the many attacks they've used on Obama. I figured that they like many white Democrats see Rovian racist tactics as fair political play and that was what was fueling their smear machine.

After this however, I can't believe that they haven't gotten the message, especially given their incredible loss of standing with black folks over the previous smears, that this kind of crap is racist and has no business being employed by any political campaign let alone a Democratic one.

Fuck Bill. Fuck Hillary. Fuck that mammy looking bitch Maggie Williams for condoning this shit.

I don't want Hillary to lose at this point. I want her smited. I'm offended that I have to share the same planet as these people.

Some initial blog reaction:

Jack and Jill Politics, Daily Kos, The Moderate Voice, Marc Ambinder

MSNBC is straight fucking garbage

MSNBC's liberal beard

Courtesy of diarist Shane Hersinger at Daily Kos:

UPDATED: MSNBC's and Now CNN's Odious Attack on Obama Today

by Shane Hensinger

Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 03:05:14 PM PST

No flag pin, no hand over his heart: Is he exposed?

Exposed as what exactly? Not wearing a flag pen is to be "exposed" for not adhering to the Fox News/Republican Party-version of patriotism, which means meaningless gestures like wearing a lapel pin are far more important than words and deeds?

Glenn Greenwald linked to this image today on MSNBC which follows a Fox News attack line that Obama is not patriotic for "refusing" to wear a flag pen on his lapel, as if a flag pen is mandatory and not wearing one is tantamount to treachery and treason against this country.

Sen. Barack Obama's refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin along with a photo of him not putting his hand over his heart during the National Anthem led conservatives on Internet and in the media to question his patriotism.

Now Obama's wife, Michelle, has drawn their ire, too, for saying recently that she's really proud of her country for the first time in her adult life.

Conservative consultants say that combined, the cases could be an issue for Obama in the general election if he wins the nomination, especially as he runs against Vietnam war hero Sen. John McCain.

Yes, because meaningless gestures of patriotism are so important, especially when you're the Republican party, which makes a show of "supporting the troops" and then undercuts them by awarding no-bid contract to Republican donors and lackeys who then manufacture sub-standard equipment every time they get the chance.

Link to the discussion : http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/24/17467/0743

The fact that CNN has stooped to this doesn't surprise me. They have been Fox News lite for years now and anyone who employs Wolf "They are so black" Blitzer isn't worth a damn anyway.

The difference here is MSNBC. MSNBC when compared to the right wing nut cases at Fox and the Fox wannabes at CNN have earned a bit of a reputation of being more left leaning in their news.

With Keith Olbermann anchoring the network's highest rated show, they unlike the others feature real lefty pundits like Rachel Maddow, who has been rumored to be the next in line for a show there.

That veneer of liberalism is so thin however that it might as well not exist considering the other fools they have working the place.

My earlier post, Brothers, I briefly touched on Chris Matthew's sexism. This new salvo against Barack Obama is obviously just the start of the networks racist campaign against Obama.

I'm not naive. I knew that the media's love-fest towards Obama would end as soon has he got within spitting distance of the Democratic nomination so they could get down to the more important business of kissing John McCain's shriveled ass. MSNBC has already shown that it is comfortable spewing sexist garbage at Clinton and her family and it's protection of Matthews is gauling. No one can really expect them at this point to have the scrupples to stand up to the racist shit that will be headed Obama's way.

And yes an anti-American charge against a black politician is racist because it reinforces the idea that blacks are somehow separate, untrustworthy and not real citizens of this country.

So what about Olbermann? I like his reporting but the fact is he's being used as a beard to hide the channel's obvious lack of ethical standards.

None of us are privy to what goes on in the newsroom but as the campaign goes on and the smear campaign heats up Olbermann will facr increasing pressure to speak out about what is going on.

During the whole Shuster "pimping" debacle he went on air to personally plead for the Clinton's forgiveness of his network.

One has to wonder if Keith already has some text prepared for the inevitable apology he'll have to make for the upcoming Muslim and racist smears that will be made by his colleagues.

Must Reads-February 24, 2008

The Congresswoman h/t C-SPAN.org

The indispensable Jack and Jill Politics on the State of the Black Union and Sheila Jackson Lee:

1. SOBU Open Thread
2. Highlighting the remarks of Nicole Lee of TransAfrica a global justice non-profit
3. A really good SOBU overview w/ clips
4. Sheila Jackson Lee and her hypocrisy

Brothers

Two peas in a fetid pod

This post started as a screed about Juan Williams and the fact the man still feels ok drawing a paycheck from Fox News when the channels biggest star talks about the possibility of going to a lynching party when referring to Michelle Obama.

While pondering Williams' motivations and lack of ethics I thought of Alex Witt, Norah O'Donnell, Tamron Hall and all the other women who work with Chris Matthews and the personal compromises they must make to work with such a sexist pig.

I caught myself in my own hypocrisy when I realized I felt more sympathy for the women than I ol' Juanito.

Maybe it's because as a woman who has worked in a corporate setting, observed the frat house antics of male colleagues go unchecked and has caught her boss blantantly staring at her tits, I understand the horrible compromises that women make everyday just to earn a freaking paycheck. Maybe it's because I feel on some level Juanito has more of a choice at where he works and that unfortunately the atmosphere of the average newsroom isn't going to be more woman-friendly no matter where they go.

Ultimately, as much as I would like Juan to suddenly appear on Monday's Factor with a noose and a rainbow and unicorn emblazoned mylar ballon that says "Happy Retirement Bill!" and give the pervert a personal lesson about the fun of "lynching parties", the responsibility lies not with the unfortunate folks who have to work with these assholes but the networks that continue to employ them.

The fact that these men still have their jobs is the best argument anyone has against the rightwing's idea that the media is liberal or we are ruled by politically correct language.

It's a reason to doubt the motives, fairness and veracity of anything that appears on any of those channels because if the kind of racist and sexist crap that these fools spew is what makes it on the air what the hell must be going on behind the scenes.

When journalists wonder why people don't trust them or why bloggers and other forms of independent media are growing like weeds while their market share shrinks they only have to look at the continuing presence and power of these jerks and that should answer the question.

The White Media and Tavis' ego

Image from blackstudentallianceyale.squarespace.com
The negro will shine your shoes too.

Sigh.

CNN: Obama takes heat for skipping State of the Black Union
Taylor Marsh's crazy ass: Obama Ducks State of the Black Union Forum
CBS News: Clinton leaves Primary States for "State of the Black Union"

The larger media is reporting on Tavis Smiley's "State of the Black Union" forum and the tempest in a teapot that has been stirred up about Obama's abscence from the event.

As usual, the media does a drive by with the facts not even touching on the fact that this is not a controversy at all within Black America if they are being fair to outright lying about the 99% of us who have no problem with Obama missing the event.

I can't get too angry at these media outlets. They really don't know better at this point and any energy spent on wondering why they are so duplicitous and stupid is wasted energy.

I'll save my venom for Tavis.

The question isn't why isn't Obama there it's why is Tavis doing this?

There is no reason for any report of infighting within the community. There is no controversy and any reports of such could be put immediately to rest by Smiley who knows from the angry emails and calls he's been receiving that his listeners have spoken and that's that.

So what does Tavis gain by the larger media portraying a split in the black community and a split between the community and himself?

For Tavis us black folks are the first wife. We're the ones who have supported him why listening and watching his shows and buying his books while no one else knew or cared who the hell he was.

We have been with him every step of the way paving his way for potentially a larger career.

And the larger career is what this is about.

Tavis can now portray himself as the victim of the irrational group-think of the blacks in America. He can shake his head and sigh as he has a meeting with some media bigwig and say "See what I do for these people and this is hwo they repay me. You know I would do a better job in a larger forum. How about a primetime show."

This about his name and his money and being able to reach out to a larger white audience using what was traditionally a black forum. By keeping the idea of a controversy going and by only having Clinton there in the last desperate throws of her campaign, he will get a slice of the demographic pie that would have never thought of tuning into C-SPAN on a Saturday afternoon.

If you go to Tavis' website you can see his slogan "Enlighten. Encourage. Empower."

From how he has acted over this apparently that only applies to his fan's ability to advance his career.

A Democrat in Dallas

Star-Telegram/Rodger Mallison

Links to the articles:
http://www.star-telegram.com/667/story/486413.html
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/490522.html

From the second of two articles in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about an Obama campaign rally in Dallas yesterday:

Secret Service defends security strategy at rally in Reunion Arena

By JACK DOUGLAS Jr.

Star-Telegram staff

The U.S. Secret Service on Friday defended its handling of security during a huge rally in downtown Dallas for Barack Obama, saying there was no "lapse" in its "comprehensive and layered security plan," which called for some people to be checked for weapons while others were not.

A report in the Star-Telegram that said some security measures were lifted during Wednesday's rally sparked a public outrage across the country, with most people saying they were shocked that a routine weapons search was lifted at the front gates of Reunion Arena an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage.

The articles tell of a huge crowd at a Dallas rally that was not fully screened for possible weapons.

The Dallas Police Department and the Secret Service are disagreeing on whether this was a lapse by Obama's Secret Service detail but the fact remains people got in without being screened.

To make matters worse the Star-Telegraph reports that this may not be the first time that this has happened citing an email from Jeremy Dibbell of Boston who said that the same relaxing of procedures happened at a rally he attended in Boston.

The Secret Service says that it is normal procedure not to screen every single person. What they have are random checks of people and their belongings.

I'm not surprised by this but it is worrisome.

In all the awe over Obama's swelling crowds it's disturbing that no one has really thought about the quality of the man's security apart from the occasional fear that pops up in most people when they remember how easily assassinations of the past happened.

John Hinckley Jr. was an insane man who had an obsession with Jodie Foster that his mind twisted into a reason to shoot Ronald Reagan.

Squeaky Fromme was a Manson follower who got up close to Gerald Ford with a loaded .45 but mercifully didn't pull the trigger.

Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan and John Wilkes Booth succeeded in killing their targets with only Booth giving a clear reason why he felt the need to kill.

Turner Classic Movies is running a Alfred Hitchcock marathon today. In between my normal weekend chores around the house I've gotten to see the results of human madness from the old master.

Hitchcock's work always revolved around the idea of inexorability of a person's madness and it's consequences. It is a force that can't be stopped with love, friendship or reason.

I guess part of me isn't that worried about Obama's security because if he will be assassinated there probably won't be anything anyone could have done about it.

That isn't comforting I know because I suppose it's a thought that is too cold but also because that idea goes against our own ideas of the importance of some people, to believe that they can fall for the most trivial of reasons but it does happen.

Of course, like everyone, I hope that doesn't happen to Obama.

What anger I do have toward the Secret Service is because I think their job is more about the appearance of top-notch security than the actual complex plans they have to protect someone.

The most damaging thing about this incident is that it makes the Secret Service seem clumsy and fallable. For someone who is sick and would like the free publicity that would come from killing Obama, what is there to make them hesitate now?

In a crowd of thousands of people why not take the chance of sneaking in a weapon, since they not only don't check everyone but even the cooperation between the Secret Service and the local police doesn't seem very well coordinated.

We can only hope that whatever prompted this incident that the security around Obama will take time to learn form this and not just point fingers.

That idea of mutual cooperation could also be learned by Jessica Santillo a spokes-idiot from the Clinton campaign who when asked about the incident responded that their campaign works to "protect the safety of everyone who attends our campaign events."

The Idiot to English translation of that remark is "We try to keep everyone safe unlike that
feckless Obama guy."

If Obama is shot I guess Hillary will trot out Chelsea to say "At least my parents love me enough to be able to dodge a bullet." or some other nonsense.

The Clintons are a bunch of classless assholes.

It's the oppression stupid!

Photo from worldsecuritynetwork.com

Matthew Yglesias has a post up about the possible precedent set by Kosovo's independence and it's application to the Palestinians and other peoples around the world who seek the same freedom:

...Now, I'm for Kosovo independence. But at the same time, I really don't think it's viable to support independence for every ethnic minority group everywhere around the world. So why Palestine? What makes the Palestinians so special that they deserve their own country when the Catalans and the Québécois and all the rest don't have them? The answer is pretty simple -- the alternative to independence is citizenship. The Québécois don't have an independent country, but they are citizens of Canada. Catalans are citizens of spain. Flemish and Walloons are both citizens of Belgium. Komi are citizens of Russia. When you see legal discriminatory treatment against citizens -- as with African-Americans in the United States until very recently -- that's a problem. People are owed equal citizenship.

It's clear, though, that granting Israeli citizenship on terms of equality to residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is incompatible with the idea of Israel as a Jewish state. Thus, Palestinian independence emerges as a reasonable, practical, and moral alternative. Basically, there are four things you could do with Israel-Palestine. One option is partition and independence. Another option is equal citizenship and the end of Israel. A third option is "transfer" and ethnic cleansing. And a fourth option is apartheid...

The idea of citizenship v. independence is flawed. Yglesias says the the Quebecois, Catalans, et. al. have not been supported in bids for independence because they are citizens of some nation.

What happens when the lucky citizens want independence?

The point of Kosovo's independence isn't about them being a minority group but an oppressed minority of citizens of the Serbia state. Oppression isn't just a "problem" it's the issue around which many independence movements are created.

If a people are oppressed it makes it a non-starter for many of them to consider the idea of citizenship as being worth anything. Citizenship means trying to make an alliance with people who have been kicking them in the teeth.

Now sometimes that can be overcome. The example of Quebec is notable because French-Canadians were discriminated against by their English speaking brothers. The province well may have been on it's way to breaking away from Canada but a number of societal and political changes increased the power of the Francophone community and made it politically smarter to end the discrimination. The possible break away of Quebec was never about citizenship because the Quebecois were already Canadians, they were treated as lesser citizens.

The best example I can give where citizenship is not enough is our own fight for independence.

The people of the 13 colonies were British citizens but that didn't prevent a revolutionary war. Read the Declaration of Independence. It's a list of transgressions against the people by the state. If anything the fact that they were British citizens made the oppression seem worse because there was a feeling that the British were hurting their brothers.

The idea of citizenship v. independence doesn't hold up.

In my post earlier I listed the Catalans and Basques in Spain and the people South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia as potential flashpoints because of the situation in Kosovo.

In all of those cases those peoples are citizens of that country but that doesn't stop them from feeling slighted by those states and dreaming of their own land, where they can speak their own language under their own flag.

The Palestinians aren't fighting for their own state because the idea of citizenship is the best solution in an untenable situation or because citizenship is incompatible with what the people of Israel want. They are fighting for their own land because of the oppression they have faced for 60 years now.

The same way the people of Israel did.

This is not about Barack

From the AP:

Atlanta Minister to Challenge Lewis

By BEN EVANS – 22 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. John Lewis' waffling over his pick for the Democratic presidential nomination has earned him a primary challenger.

Markel Hutchins, a 30-year-old minister, announced Wednesday that he would run for Lewis' congressional seat in the Atlanta district. Hutchins said he had been considering a bid for several weeks but was ultimately swayed by Lewis' recent equivocating over whether he supports Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama.

"Political experience can often times lead to political indebtedness, and I think such political indebtedness has caused Congressman Lewis in some real sense to separate himself from the winds of change that are blowing in his own congressional district," Hutchins said.

Link: Atlanta Minister to Challenge Lewis

Today is John Lewis' birthday. He is 68 years old. His challenger, the man pictured above, the Rev. Markel Hutchins is 30.

I'm sure it's very flattering to an Obama supporter's idea of a people driven movement to think that Obama is such an important figure to inspire a young man to run for office against an intrenched incumbent but that isn't what's happening here. If we could have an honest moment from Rev. Hutchins I would bet that he had been thinking of running for more than a few weeks. John Lewis' fumbling has provided the opening he's needed to run. Barack Obama isn't the reason, he's the excuse.

The post civil rights era within black America has been a time of silence. There are conversations about class, education, violence and most importantly the results of the civil rights policies, that people like John Lewis risked their lives for, that we as a people have not bothered having.

I'm talking about Bill Cosby-like rant but an real conversation where myths are laid bare and where there are real proposals to move forward.

There has been no honesty about the civil rights movement in black community. This is understandable because the men and women who faced down water cannon and police dogs don't want to hear criticism of what they fought so hard to achieve but that doesn't mean that the lack of attention to how those changes were implemented hasn't been disastrous.

Desegregation of schools meant the firing of good black teachers and closing of black schools. It meant the busing of black children like me to hostile white schools that weren't the least bit interested in actually educating black children but warehousing them in separate classrooms. How much institutional knowledge has been lost on how to teach our children?

The upward movement of blacks into universities and the workplace because of anti-racism laws and affirmative action has meant that there is a larger black middle class. Affirmative action has largely benefited white women. Is that what was meant when those policies were proposed?

What about the people in the ghettos of this country that have been left behind by their richer friends and relatives? Is that what we were fighting for?

There is no feeling that lessons should be learned from those years or god-forbid we should be doing things differently.

Instead we have older leaders who are used to their lofty positions who haven't had anyone call them to account for decades. A recipe for intellectual and political lethargy.

So it comes to Markel Hutchins, first of what I'm sure will be a wave of young blacks who actually lived the policies that men and women like John Lewis fought for, who can speak to a new way of doing things.

We all are indebted to our elders sacrifice but holding up a picture of being hauled off by the police sometime in the 60s will no longer be enough to keep the questions from coming.

Punë Muti!

For those who don't speak Albanian the title translates to Shit! in English.

The only thing saving the U.S. embassy in Serbia form being burned to the ground right now is the phalanx of Serbian police officers turning away the drunken rioters angry about our aiding of Kosovo to gain it's independence.

I'm not going to debate the wisdom of our governments decision to recognize Kosovo. However I think this is a good time to talk about foreign policy and what is at stake in the upcoming presidential election.

The Bush administration's spectacular failure in Iraq has overshadowed the other foreign policy issues that our country is facing. The potential chaos in the Balkans is one of those issues.

Eastern Europe has not enjoyed the stability economically or politically that Western has. Poles, Bulgarians and other Eastern Europeans are leaving for Western Europe by the thousands. The Balkans however are teetering on the edge of something horrible right now because for them the issue was never something that could be solved by joining the E.U. and having their citizens hop a plane to London.

A competent administration would understand the underlying complex ethnic tensions surrounding the former Yugoslavia. They would also understand how dealing with the people of would-be states like Kosovo would impact similar hopes of independence not only in Eastern Europe but around the world.

What we have however is a president who, in a press conference, acted too quickly, congratulating Kosovo for achieving independence while the State Department was taking a more cautious tack to see how our European allies would react before advising him on what action to take.

What we have is a military stretched to the brink of total collapse which couldn't respond as it did in the 90s to restore order and a NATO alliance that hasn't been able to define a new mission for itself since the USSR broke up.

We have an adversary in Vladimir Putin that has more brains in his left pinky than Bush has in his entire body, who as an ally to the Serbs to make this into even more of a mess should he choose by stirring up even more nationalistic rhetoric in other provinces that want to break away just to tick us off.

In short we may be screwed and there is no guarantee that the situation in Europe won't get worse before the next president can come in an restore some intelligence to our foreign policy.

So for now memorize and educate yourself on these names, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Catalonia, Euskadi and E.T.A because if we mishandle this we'll be seeing conflict in these places.

Look at the picture above and look at the news tonight, where you see the anger and rioting of the people in the streets of Belgrade as a reminder of all the other things that are at stake.

Even if we get out of Iraq there are still many more challenges requiring our country's leadership than what is going on in the Middle East.

Michelle Obama and the war

Michelle Obama made what for some was a controversial statement at a Wisconsin campaign rally yesterday by saying:

“Hope is making a comeback and, let me tell you, for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change. I have seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues and it has made me proud."

Now the media and many in the blogosphere have done their part in truncating the quote, editing out anything after the first sentence, making her seem like all she doing was America bashing. But even shortened the remark is, no pun intended, unremarkable. That is to say, given the last eight years, let alone the 26 years that have passed since Mrs. Obama was 18, there is more than plenty not to excite many folks into spontaneous ecstatic waving of Old Glory.

This is the richest country in the world that can't keep it's people out of poverty, educate it's children properly, has a dysfunctional healthcare system that makes people fiscally ill while it makes them physically well and seems obsessed with war even if it means making us less safe and jeopardizing our already fragile economic safety net.

There can be no doubt that there are many good things about the United States but the country's wholesale failure to provide for it's people is a tragedy.

Michelle Obama knows this, as many African-Americans do, having grown up in poverty in the south side of Chicago and should be thanked for telling a bit of truth about where we are as a people and how people are finally beginning to understand what needs to happen for us to live in the country we should.

The angry response to her remark is another disturbing example of the willful blindness that people in this country exhibit to the issues facing us.

It's this kind of stupidity that explains why we are in Iraq today. There are too many people in this country who lack even the basic sense of self-preservation and common sense that God gave a dung beetle to recognize what really is happening around them.

This should give everyone pause because no matter how many people now believe the Iraq War was a mistake the same idiocy that got us there in the first place is still there ready to be fearfully brought forth again.

Barack Obama talks about changing the mindset that got us into war. I wish him luck because the terrible truth of the matter is he can count every single fool who is criticizing the veracity of his wife's statement now as a future deterrent to any social, economic or foreign policy programs he wants to implement. Not because they will have reasoned arguments against them but because it is far more comfortable to to be a kneejerk reactionary than to act with reason.

Remember the first thing we can do out of the womb is scream and holler. It takes alot more time to learn how to talk.