Is Barack President Yet?

New Hope On The Uniter/Divider Front?

(click for full size)

What is significant about this otherwise "elementary" photo-op is the way Obama -- in contrast to Bush/McCain -- continues to model a fundamentally different response to hate, to schism, to "the other."  His prevailing attitude -- this setting and the class assignment admittedly playing right to it -- is to approach conflict with greater thought and in a larger context.

The way Obama is drawn to Lincoln in this collage -- as Lincoln bridges the divide and "sees through" the division -- seems to suggest there is new hope on the uniter/divider front.

Also, in contrast to Bush's infinitesimal attention span, it feels like Obama is not just posing for a picture but actually absorbing what the student has to say.  Which raises the question, how come so little has been made of Obama's career, not just as an organizer or a politician, but as a teacher?

Obama offers students pointers on public speaking  (KansasCity.com)
Beyond the political back-and-forth regarding Obama's approach to bad guys, notice which pic -- by the same photographer -- the NYT went for: Obama Seeks to Clarify His Disputed Comments on Diplomacy (NYT)

(revised: 5/29 9:12 PST)

Update: For the purposes of character contrast, Contributer John Lucaites emailed me the following "warrior image," taken this morning at the Air Force Academy:

(image 1: Rick Wilking/Reuters.  Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts. Thornton, Colorado. May 28, 2008. image 2: Charles Dharapak/AP. Colorado Springs, Colo.

(May 28, 2008)

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AEW

Memorial Day

Memorial Day, 2008

Memorial Day is about honoring those who have sacrificed themselves for the nation, in our armed forces. We cannot honor them properly unless we know the full extent of their sacrifice.



We have to count the victims of Post Traumatic Distress Syndrome, what we used to call being shell-shocked, as victims of the war. The number of those victims has been covered up.

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AEW

Do You Read Juan Cole?

"Americans need to be told that Usamah Bin Laden does not own the name Usamah, and there are lots of wonderful people named Usamah. It is just a classical Arabic word for "lion." It is given by Christian as well as Muslim families, and some of the physicians who heal us of serious maladies are named Usamah. Moreover, there is no "o" in Arabic. It is not Osama but Usamah. It does not rhyme with Obama and is not related in any way to it. Obama is an African (presumably Dholua or other West Nilotic) word, not a Semitic one."

From Juan Cole's Informed Comment blog

He writes today eloquently as always...and I hope you all glance at his work from time to time.

If we all actually got real news and made informed comments based on the best information and not FOX/Right Wing propaganda or ABC News snippets, maybe in coming Memorial Days, through the tears of pain and loss, we can know we did the best we could to avoid the last option of extreme violence and ultimate sacrifices...

What year was this?

1995 it was

I MADE IT!

I have no pictures to give at the moment but I can say this: The amazing technological world at times seems ironically gentle, prodding me forward like some foreign object in a course of obstacles I can't quite wrap my brain around. I likey!

I don't know why I am so lucky now in this funny world of unlucky people...

more photos...

Post the post... Can you see now...

I remain very lucky (and rich) spending the the day with Sinaya and (SURPRISE) Hila at the Weiss Family Mansion in Van Nuys.

Pictures to follow but here is a taste... Now if I can only get every one else to do the job!

We can post some where like Picassa or Flickr or what not...

Sinaya's 21 st Birthday

Nobody knows the troubles I've Seen!

Cuz nobody knows that this exists...

Here's to you world... You are the best!

It's us folks that wreck the deal, neh?