Take the Douchebag Tour of San Francisco

Oh thank goodness that Bill O'Reilly had the guts to expose the truth about San Francisco to the world. Here I thought that this city was chock full of culture, with a fascinating and diverse population, a unique and colorful history, and amazing architecture, parks and views. Not to mention great shopping, a veritable foodie heaven and the "little cable cars that travel halfway to the stars."

No no no. Watch this video and see how snookered I've been living here. Again, I'm so grateful that Bill and FOX had the courage to air this piece. Even though Bill apparently associated the famous neighborhood of North Beach (where Coit Tower, City Lights Books, a vibrant Italian community and where the Beat Generation made its home) in the Tenderloin, now I know I live in San Fran Freakazoid-Trannytown.



Tell me that people who watch this show are secretly snickering that this blowhard is still the host of "Inside Edition" who got an extremely lucky career break. Either that, or he's doing a great service to our fair city, keeping his mindless flock with their embroidered fanny packs out of our cool town.

(Just so you know, I promise this will be the first and last time this a-hole gets a nod on my blog.)

ps.: If you've never laughed your ass off at some mercilessly embarrassing tourist photos at Fanny Pack Antics, then you are really missing something quite special. White tennis shoe wearers UNITE!

UPDATE: In response to Tara's comment, I've added a link to a segment from the documentary Outfoxed. This portion with Douchbag O'Reilly verbally assaulting a guest is one of the most powerful of the film. If you haven't seen Outfoxed (I own a copy but there are clips available online), you should.

What About Change?

Don't you know
They're talkin' bout a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
Don't you know
They're talkin' about a revolution
It sounds like a whisper

While they're standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in the unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion

Poor people gonna rise up
And get their share
Poor people gonna rise up
And take what's theirs

Don't you know
You better run, run, run...
Oh I said you better Run, run, run...
Finally the tables are starting to turn
Talkin' bout a revolution

***

First, a tip of the hat to Johanna and A Cuban in London for providing the elements that made this idea for a post finally come together.

***
I remember years ago, my sister and I waiting for hours to see Tracy Chapman perform at the Shoreline Ampitheatre, sitting on the lawn on a warm summer night, our backs hurting from hours on the ground, trying to find a comfortable way to sit. Finally, when Tracy came out and sang, it was so worth it.

Looking back, what a thrill it was to see her perform and sing along with the crowd to songs that were very moving and beloved by all of us. But now this song seems like its time has finally come. Even this version of the song, sung years later (and how has her voice changed) only adds more power to the words.

***

In a way, the election seems like it was ages ago.

I just got an email from David Plouffe yesterday (you may have gotten one, too), about taking a survey about the campaign and offering ideas about the new presidency to come in a short time. I was glad to see his name in my inbox again. Seemed like old times. ;-)

It made me think, along with Johanna's post, about what we're prepared to do now that change could truly be coming to us. I know there's a lot of speculation about Obama's cabinet, and people are already griping about this historic presidency being Clinton's Third Term and the far right is already planning its attacks and the man hasn't even taken office yet.

Aside from those distractions (which I'm trying really hard to avoid because I feel like this election has taken an emotional toll on me--you might feel the same way--and it's almost like I'm recovering from an ailment that has alternately made me incredibly depressed and also crazily elated), I know that a shift has come over me. I can't not care anymore about the future of our political system and the impact it has on us and our children's futures. Holding my baby niece and watching Little Curly Girl play made me realize how much we owe our future citizens. This morning, the first news item on the radio I hear as I'm getting dressed for work is how the auto companies are asking Congress for money to avoid bankruptcy. I can't help thinking about those families, those children, the workers who will truly suffer.

I'm not sure exactly how it's going to all come together, but I know that somehow I'll be inspired to act and contribute, not just to do my best to support my new president, but to be more involved locally. Do you feel the same way? And if so, what thoughts do you have about how you'll do it?

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on the matter later, but I'm wondering how this election has affected you to be more aware and involved for the future.

You'll Never Guess Who I Saw Friday Night

10:30PM. I'm on the N-Judah train coming home from downtown. Sarah Palin herself is about five feet away from me, wearing her red skirt suit, black pumps and trademark sexy librarian glasses. In her folksy manner, she's identifying the mavericks on the train, and the passengers are loving it. They're asking her about where the real Americans live (her answer: Alaska) and what she likes to read (her answer: everything). She's also talking about the Communists in America.

And you'll never guess who was sitting next to her! You guessed it: Joe the Plumber. But he had grown a head of dark, thick hair so I didn't recognize him until he pulled a wrench out of his pocket. (I thought he was Todd.)

Yes, Halloween night on the N-Judah. I also saw Amy Winehouse, Gwen Stefani, a cute girl bee with a skateboard and a pregnant nun, just to name a few more revelers.

However, I did not have my hands free to take photos of them for you and for that, I apologize because everyone looked festive and wild and was having a rollicking good time.

***

Returning home, my hands were full of books and information from the second installment of my Mental Stimulus Package (man, I forgot to tell you about the first part with Ben Frankin and the glass armonica. Next time.).

I went to The Leakey Prize Laureate Lectures, honoring Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Toshisada Nishida, at the Herbst Theatre. From the program description: The Leakey Prize was established in 1990 to reward intellectual achievement and express appreciation for research performed with courage and perseverance in the fields of ape and human evolution. Both Dr. Goodall and Dr. Toshisada Nishida will discuss the highlights of their pioneering careers. Through their diligent work, these scientists have shaped the field of primatology and uncovered pivotal findings that help us better understand one of our closes living relatives, the chimpanzee.

I don't even know where to start in describing the feeling of seeing Dr. Goodall on stage, speaking in her trademark calm, collected yet passionate story of her early years, her tutelage under Dr. Louis Leakey and the incredible faith he placed in her, and her deep desire to help reverse years of environmental damage and endangerment of many animal species, not just her beloved chimpanzees of Gombe.

If you're like me, you grew up reading Jane Goodall's books, watching her on National Geographic television specials. I also was secretly envious of her son, Grub, who got to spend his childhood living amongst the tribe of chimpanzees that Goodall studied for almost 30 years.


“The most important thing is to actually think about what you do. To become aware and actually think about the effect of what you do on the environment and on society. That's key, and that underlies everything else.” ~ Dr. Jane Goodall

I saw Dr. Goodall speak once before, when I was in college and she visited my university. Then the talk was about the chimps, and her work with them. The talk this year was different. Dr. Goodall travels about 300 days of the year, all over the world. She talks about preserving animal habitats and shared stories of the villages that her foundation has helped, encouraging safe farming habits, microloans to women, keeping girls in school and reforestation techiques, all of which have greatly improved the lives of villagers that had been deforesting areas of Tanzania and endangering the habitats of chimpanzees and many other animals. Her talk focused on how improving and educating the people has only served to enhance and improve the lives of the animals she struggles to save. Through the Jane Goodall Institute and her outreach program for children called Roots and Shoots, she has been doing extraordinary work outside the forests of Tanzania.

I could not help relating her talk to the tempestuous presidential campaign and the incredible need for effective and immediate science and math education for our kids to maintain our standing in the world as a leading nation (I won't even begin to address that Sarah Palin fruit fly debacle) not to mention the important contributions that studying chimpanzees, our closest living relatives on the evolutionary ladder, holds for the understanding of our own species.

It became vitally clear to me that not only are we poised to destroy an amazing link in evolutionary biolology (over 1,000,000 chimpanzees in 1960s down to about 200-300,000 today) but we are losing such a stronghold by not teaching our children how important science is in the real world to protecting the only planet we have. Our presidential election only emphasizes the polarity in our approaches to these crucial subjects.

***

From a recent speech: “What gives me hope,” Dr. Goodall says, “is the amazing capacity of the human brain to come up with innovative solutions, the indomitable human spirit that fights back, and the resilience of nature.”

“It’s time to recreate the age of wisdom when elders would gather and ponder how any decision they would make would affect our future seven generations down the line,” says Goodall. Quoting the words of an Eskimo leader, she concluded: “Up in the north, the ice is melting. What will it take to melt the ice in the human heart?”

***

After the talk, I stood in line for almost as long as the talk, to have a chance to finally meet Dr. Goodall. While in line, we all shared stories of growing up with Jane, what a powerful impression she had made on us, and what a singular experience it was to hear her speak. I signed up to become a member of both of her organizations.

While we waited in line, servers carrying trays of cookies and Halloween candy and apple cider kept us full of sugary treats. And then finally it was my turn to stand next to a childhood idol, have her sign my books and try not to be overwhelmed and cry.

She first signed a chimpanzee mask for Little Curly Girl, my niece. I told her the LCG was recently just two years old, so she signed it "with love" because in her words, "Being two years old means she should get lots of extra love." (Almost cried but didn't.)

Then she signed my books. I told her what an honor it was to be in her presence and then we had our photo taken together (which I'll post when I find it on her website). And then I walked to the train station in a bit of a wistful mood.

As I waited for the train, I looked at what Dr. Goodall had written in my book.

For Julie
Follow your heart.
Jane Goodall

And surrounded by crazily dressed adult trick-or-treaters, I did cry a little bit. Happy/sad crying.

***

"Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right." ~ Jane Goodall

Like Jane, I keep our fingers crossed for us primates. All of us primates. I think we can still pull it off and I think President Obama can help us get started.

See, It Doesn't Have to Be Like This

This morning I read something I've been waiting to see in the media for a while now. Especially given what I wrote about earlier in the week.

Promise me you will read this letter to John McCain, just published in the Baltimore Sun, written by Frank Schaffer, a New York Times best-selling author who worked on McCain's campaign in 2000. Promise me you will read it.

It's exactly the kind of accountability that has been sadly missing in the media lately, and as I read this letter, I felt more and more optimistic that good people from all places on the political spectrum will speak out and say what is true and right.

***

I felt so encouraged by what I read here, and grateful to Frank for writing this piece, that I knew I had to write him a thank you note.

Here I am, in my pyjamas, just woke up, hair standing on end, writing an email I know I won't get a reply to. But just in case he might read it, I wanted him to know I think he's a hero in my eyes.

And wouldn't you know it, he wrote right back.

See, we are all connected. It all matters. One voice can multiply into millions, to serve and uplift, or to bring down and destroy.

***

Dear Frank,

I don't know if you will even get this email or read it. I'm sure you're just deluged with email right now.

But I wanted you to know that I just read your Open Letter to John McCain. What you said there is exactly how millions of us feel, horrified and sickened by the rhetoric that the McCain campaign has intentionally used to assassinate Barack Obama's character, if not his person.

Thank you for writing this. I know it must have been a heartbreaking thing for you to do. But I think that many, many millions of Americans respect and thank you for your effort.

In 2000, I would have voted for McCain. Today, I just feel sorry for him.

All the best,

Julie
San Francisco, CA

***

Julie: I am deluged, as you say. Thanks so much for the note. Time to speak out!
Best,
Frank

PS You might enjoy my book Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back (Paperback)

***

I just bought a copy of his book on Amazon.

And here is the link to his letter, and I hope you'll read it.

What's In a Name?

"From our ancestors come our names, but from our virtues our honors." ~ Proverb

The thoughts in this post wove themselves together, finally, tonight. I had been pondering the first part for a while, then found a second portion that pulled out more of my thoughts like threads through a loom, and then it all became interwoven in the presence of a small friend who is "precisely seven and three-quarters years old."

So let me begin.

***

Do you like your first name, your middle name, your family name? If you were as wise as your parents, would you have chosen the names you bear now? How does your name make you feel?

If you haven't figured it out already, my given name is Julie. Julie Michelle. The last part doesn't matter as much (and that part's for another day). For most of the time I've had this blog, I was very careful about not using my name, and on several occasions asked friendly, good meaning people to edit their comments if they had inadvertently used my first name. It was very important for me to remain anonymous and be tangobaby.

Part of that desire to remain anonymous was because I was often writing about my feelings about tango and people I danced with, and I did not want to put myself or any current or potential dance partners in an awkward position. It seemed more prudent to remain mysterious, and it was also more fun to think of myself as somewhat unattainable. Must be the Scorpio in me.

Another part of it was that I like the name tangobaby. I made it up on a whim, basically to get my gmail account, and it kind of stuck (with me, at first) and then it became my nom de plume and I quite liked having one of those. I liked tangobaby better than my real name in some ways, because it described who I felt I was and also because it was a name I made up myself.

From the time I can remember being conscious of it, I've felt somewhat indifferent to the name Julie. It's a fine name (from the French, a diminutive of Julia, and means downy or soft...ahhh) but it just never felt like it belonged to me. Perhaps because growing up I knew about three or four Julies (all more popular, more successful) so maybe I thought it was their name and not so much mine. I had little phases where I wanted to be called Julia or even Juliette. Those names seemed more classic, more fancy, dramatic, had more heft or meaning to them? I don't know. I was a kid.

When I was in my twenties, I went through a phase (I kid you not) where I seriously considered changing my name to Sabine or Rhiannon. My poor family. The truth was not that I really needed to change my name, but more that I needed to change my life. I was unhappy in a marriage that I didn't realize I didn't want, and in my unperceived desperation, I thought that having a new name would perk me up.

Getting a divorce took care of that, but I still remained Julie Michelle. Much more Julie Michelle than I had been before, probably, for most of my life until then. Until tangobaby came along.

***

Tonight I spent some time with one of my favorite friends. You remember my little friend C., my little girlfriend from the nail salon near my home. She is, and I quote, "precisely seven and three-quarters years old." She will turn eight on Halloween.

Somehow we got on the subject of names. She asked if I knew the meaning of her name, which I did not, and then she got a piece of paper to write some things down for me to take home, as is her way. (I also got some drawings of seed embryos, the reproductive parts of flowers--also known as stamen [it's the "men" in stamen that tells you it's the boy part) and pistil (which is not a stamen so it must be the girl part]--and a daisy because she is learning about plants in school.)

On the piece of paper she wrote her "American" name and then her Vietnamese name, and I said it several times so I would have the pronunciation down correctly, which pleased her. She was very proud to tell me that her name means "beautiful woman" in Latin. She was sweetly adamant that when I went home, I should look up the meaning of my name on babynames.com, which I did. Which is how I know tonight that Julie means downy or soft.

***

Hussein. What does that name mean to you?

What do you think it means? The following text I found on wiki.name.com.

"Hussein is an Arabic name that means 'good-looking.' It can be traced back to the Arabic hasuna, meaning 'to be good,' or 'to be beautiful.'

According to WhitePages.com, Hussein ranks at number 7,908 on the list of most common surnames in the United States. The highest concentration of people with the surname Hussein is to be found in Minnesota, followed by New York, California and Michigan. Other surnames with a similar ranking include Ginsberg, Lansing and Trump."

I wonder if you know where I am going with this.

***

Back in the early part of 2008, some people in the media took great pains to emphasize Barack Hussein Obama, and I know that I don't have to explain to you why. You're smart enough to realize that just because a person might have an unusual name, it doesn't mean that they are a terrorist or wishing harm on the people of the United States.

That's because if you're reading this blog, you're a person with some reasonable sense of the world and that's probably why you and I connect.

However, there are a lot of people who don't get it, and for that reason, the constant invokation of the name Hussein with the corresponding ominous intonation or pause makes the fluff-brained weak with fear. A presidential candidate who has the same name as Saddam! Let's take that mental leap together (in tiny minds, it isn't hard: Hussein = Muslim = Terrorist!). Say it ain't so!

I thought that idiocy had died down, but with the promised return to personal attacks by the McCain campaign (hey, they admitted it, I didn't make this up myself), it's now the second time in three days that this irrational guilt-by-free association bullshit has been used to introduce Sarah Palin and her running mate. Oh, did I get that mixed up? Sorry.

Why do I bother bringing this up? Why should it matter to us, those who see that this is just another juvenile stab at the Democratic candidate, that most people with half a brain would know this is so incredibly stupid as to not be given a second thought?

Because at a Republican rally this week, people in the crowd yelled out "terrorist!" and "kill him!". Do you think people are yelling that garbage at Obama rallies? And what do Sarah Palin and John McCain do? Nothing. And in doing nothing, they silently condone such behavior.

***

I've been told by one reader who won't be reading my blog anymore that my "hatred shines through my political entries."

Bullshit.

What I would say now is think of the little C.'s of our country. You might know a few yourself. Young, curious, bright-eyed, smart boys and girls of all different ethnic backgrounds who call America home. What if the name Caroline became the name du jour to shun, to say with hushed tones, the name of a killer? How many little Husseins are going to school now, worried that someone might beat him up because a schoolmate's parents said Hussein is a terrorist's name?

Because that is what happens. Kids can be cruel but grownups are obviously worse. And this is how ignorance grows and feeds itself on young minds and spreads like the fucking plague.

And so I come back to these kids. I don't want little Julies or little Carolines or little Husseins or little anyones to grow up in this country and be maligned or racially profiled by the people who would want to govern us. Attacked and singled out from people at the height of this nation's power. Because if they're doing it now, what makes you think they'd stop after November 4th?

And for the apologists who might come here and say this is all made up, that I'm blowing things out of proportion, I say to you, you're fucking wrong. And you know it. Call off your dogs.

***

ps. If you've never read my first post about little C, called Hope for the Future, I hope you will take a moment to do so. It's really one of my favorite posts ever.

Let's Get Something Straight Here

Man, I had to read this before I've even had my coffee today. A comment from eilandkind on my post, What We Learned.

I figured if I had so much hatred shining through in my political entries, I should share it with all of you and let you see my reply.

***

Water tangob, only water, maybe you should try that next time.
Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about the confusion liberal women leave me with.
I've been trying to understand your meltdown, as demonstrated by some feminists who want to jump out of high windows, because of desperation over SP.
I realised after reading your post, about Republican men and Barbie dolls, that it is the typical old story of liberals, who cannot, for the life of them, put themselves in the shoes of a conservative. At least intellectual conservatives can look at both points of view and make a choice, but it is impossible for liberal intellectuals, who seem to only be 'tolerant' towards people who think and act exactly the way they do.
You are dead wrong when it comes to the generalisation of Rep men, none of the Rep men (and that includes my husband) think the way you think that they do.
I have to wonder how many Republicans, you've actually ever met in your life.
I am totally baffled, I must say. Politics in the USA, taught me a lot more than what a doctorate in anthropology, would have done.
Anyway, I've decided not to comment on your political entries anymore, it is hard for me to understand how so much hatred can shine through in your political entries as opposed to your other entries.

***

Dear eilandkind,

Here it is, once and for all, and then you're welcome to read or not read my blog as you see fit. I really don't care one way or another.

I am a fiscal conservative.
I am a social moderate.
I believe in the separation of powers.
I believe in the separation of church and state.
I do not believe that the government should deny any woman an abortion or access to birth control.

Back in the day, before the Republican party began to appeal to religious conservatives with the election of Ronald Reagan, you would find that this would have been their platform. I'm sure even your husband would agree that his party's ideals have shifted somewhat.

If you can tell me that George Bush and the Republican party have upheld these ideals, please illuminate me and millions of other people who are heartbroken at the shambles that this Republican president has left our country in. We are in the biggest financial crisis that our country has ever faced. My two baby nieces and children all over this country will inherit the most massive debt of any country in history. Is that fiscal conservatism? Do you remember something called the Patriot Act? An Attorney General named Roberto Gonzales? We see our constitutional rights being unraveled before our eyes. All of this wilfully done under a Republican administration.

And you think that McCain and Palin are going to be a change from the past eight years? In 2000, I would have said perhaps, because John McCain was a different candidate then. Since then, he has given up any credibility of the "maverick" qualities he once had. Now that word is completely hollow. Check out the senator's voting record.

John McCain chose a candidate who is much less tolerant than even you accuse me of being due to her strong religious beliefs. There were several other qualified Republican women (Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Elizabeth Dole or Olympia Snowe, to name a few) but he chose one with such extremist beliefs that would ensure votes from the farthest right of the political spectrum, a small portion of the electorate, but a very vocal one. Strong religious beliefs are fine, but they have no place in the political arena. Go back and read the Declaration of Independence, which makes it very clear that governments created by humanity derive their powers from the consent of the governed, not from anyone's god.

The reason many women (and not just liberals or feminists as you are so quick to assume we are) dislike Sarah Palin is that they can see she is relatively unschooled and has a very narrow view of the world. She governs a state that has fewer residents than the city I live in and little or no access to or interest in diverse opinions, all of which does not convince us that her experience is even close to being relevant to the enormous job ahead of her, whether or not McCain would live out his entire term of office. She has never encountered people from other countries until quite recently and has never developed any world view. In her time as mayor, she ran her own small town into $25 million of debt. Look it up.

You are incredibly naive. A doctorate in Anthropology or anything else doesn't matter if you don't understand what is happening before your eyes.

Now feel free to move on. You don't need to keep checking in to see if I've answered your comment. Here it is.

I'm More of a Fortune Cookie Person Myself

But years before the fortune cookies, I was really a Bazooka Joe person.

Do you remember Bazooka bubble gum? The powdery dust on that hard-as-a-rock gum, how good it smelled, how you almost broke your jaw trying to chew it before you got enough spit into it to make it soft?

And the little cartoon folded up inside the wrapper, on that waxy paper? My sister and I used to collect them. You got a cartoon and a fortune. Remember? (And then Bubblicious got invented and that semi-disgusting Freshen-Up gum with the goo in the middle and we stopped chewing Bazooka.)

***

Anyway, I was just pondering my inspirations for wisdom since I did not ever notice that you can get it from Starbuck's cups, too. But Sarah Palin does:



I know it's nitpicky, but if you want to see what those words of wisdom really were on her cup, look here. But if she had used those words instead, the story wouldn't have been as cute.

I don't know why she's so down on us in California!

"Okay, now, thank you so much for receiving that well. I didn't know how that was gonna go over. And now, California, let's see what a comment like I just made, how that is turned into whatever it'll be turned into tomorrow with the newspaper."

***

And now I'm going to hell because I wouldn't vote for her because she's a woman? I thought I was going to hell because I was born Jewish. Or at least that's what some Born Again Christians have politely told me in the past. (Someone is going to have to explain the Rapture again to me because it is so confusing. Why is Israel so loved but we're still going to hell? Ah well, if there is a hell, I think I'll see a lot of people I enjoy there, so maybe it won't be that bad.)

I just learned that the real reason I don't like Sarah Palin has nothing to do with the fact that I am not impressed with her record and experience in the PTA, as a mayor or governor, her education and mostly, her positions on things that are important to me, especially when put into context of holding the second highest office in the country (or the first, if you consider Dick Cheney).

No! I've been undermining Palin because I'm jealous! Wow! Who knew?! Apparently Brenda Luscombe knows my motives better than I know myself. Which would explain why I posted that Barbie Doll head photo recently.

I'm such a bitch!

Does this mean Letterman won't be burning in Hell because he's a man? It's so not fair. Here it is... I'm allowed to think and vote and be a woman, but I'm still wrong.

***

ps. I don't know if you noticed, but the fortune on this particular Bazooka Joe comic says "Don't take a detour on the path to greatness." I should send that in to the RNC and see if a speechwriter picks up on it. heh heh.

pss. And if I am such a bitch like that article says I am, then I'm going to have to say that Sarah needs to apply her blush/bronzer differently. Applying that bronzer in a line back to her ears like that...it's sooooo Eighties. And she needs to blend.

psss. And do I have a crush on Joe Biden now? Yeah, I think I do. And it looks like I'm not the only one. Well, I've had non-traditional crushes before-- I've had the hots for Carl Sagan since I was twelve.

***

UPDATE 10/5: Looks like Madame Albright isn't okay at all with Palin misquoting her.
Her reply:

Albright responded to Palin's remarks in a statement to the Huffington Post on Sunday. "Though I am flattered that Governor Palin has chosen to cite me as a source of wisdom, what I said had nothing to do with politics. This is yet another example of McCain and Palin distorting the truth, and all the more reason to remember that this campaign is not about gender, it is about which candidate has an agenda that will improve the lives of all Americans, including women. The truth is, if you care about the status of women in our society and in our troubled economy, the best choice by far is Obama-Biden."

Zing!

Hungry for Obama: Brinner for Barack

My friends Amber and Mike (along with their kittens, Henry and June) are hosting a fundraising "brinner" to help raise money for the Obama campaign on Sunday night. (I did not know what a brinner was either, but it's when you have breakfast for dinner.)

***

In case you missed this article on the AP a couple of weeks ago, which is where this no-brow product package image comes from:

"Activists at a conservative political forum snapped up boxes of waffle mix depicting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a racial stereotype on its front and wearing Arab-like headdress on its top flap.

While Obama Waffles takes aim at Obama's politics by poking fun at his public remarks and positions on issues, it also plays off the old image of the pancake-mix icon Aunt Jemima, which has been widely criticized as a demeaning stereotype. Obama is portrayed with popping eyes and big, thick lips as he stares at a plate of waffles and smiles broadly.

Placing Obama in Arab-like headdress recalls the false rumor that he is a follower of Islam, though he is actually a Christian.

On the back of the box, Obama is depicted in stereotypical Mexican dress, including a sombrero, above a recipe for "Open Border Fiesta Waffles" that says it can serve "4 or more illegal aliens." The recipe includes a tip: 'While waiting for these zesty treats to invade your home, why not learn a foreign language?' "

***

Actually, what makes me laugh is to imagine the doofuses who designed this waffle box, so confident in their humor and congratulating themselves on how incredibly snappy they are, having their gut-wrenching comedic sense so far ahead of the rest of us dummies.

But what's really ironic is that the McCain campaign just naturally (all organic, no artificial flavors added) provides its own fodder for the late-night talk shows, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and more, just by being themselves. No one needs to make up anything about John or Sarah because they show their ineptness unaided.

***

Isn't it amazing that learning a foreign language (as excoriated on that sophomoric waffle box) is presented to be a fault of character by the far right? Funny thing, I always thought having an education was beneficial to individuals and the world at large, but what do I know? I'm one of those dipshits that speaks French.

But then Thomas Jefferson knew French, Spanish, Greek, Latin and Gaelic. And we all know what a crappy president he was: The Louisiana Purchase (the largest land acquisition in US history that did not require a war), founder of the Library of Congress, founder of the University of Virginia (go Lala!) and all that other stuff, like drafting the Declaration of Independence...yeah, we should just eat our waffles and go back to sleep.

In advising his future son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. on his education, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "With respect to modern languages, French, as I have before observed, is indispensable. Next to this the Spanish is most important to an American. Our connection with Spain is already important and will become daily more so. Besides this the ancient part of American history is written chiefly in Spanish.

Yeah, those McCain waffle pushers really know what's best. Wake me up when he fixes the economy. And bring me a side of bacon.

***

UPDATE: Amber has kindly provided me with the Hungry for Obama link, in case you would like to host your own party, too. Hmmm, do we know any talented gourmet chefs in Milwaukee? I think we do!

Happy 5th of July

(I apologize for being a little late with this post... I was not feeling well on the official holiday. But since the Declaration of Independence was not signed by all the delegates until August 2nd, 1776, I figure that I have a little bit of leeway on my Independence Day post and/or observations.)

***

I took this photo of the Stars and Stripes on California Street on a blustery day a few months ago. I love how strong and flowing and proud this flag looks.

What I want this flag to be most of all, though, is not a lapel pin. I don't want it reduced to a litmus test of media brainwashing, absurd posturing, pandering and goosestepping: of What Being Patriotic Means. I want this flag to represent the best part of our country's strengths, and that is that we are so strong as a nation that we can afford to question our leaders and hold them accountable to the great public trust they hold.

Accountable to us, the People of this great experiment of a government.

My wish for all of us is that the essence of the freedoms that the 4th of July represents remains in our consciousness in this important election year, and that we who comprise this brave experiment--this United States of America--that we will all rise to the occasion this year and educate ourselves and vote. Let us together restore our country to what it can be.

I think that the words that move me most, even though they were uttered almost 100 years after the revolution that made us a nation, are these:

"...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Of the people, by the people, for the people. That is what we need to return to. We cannot afford to lose our way any longer.

***

Truth can be taught in a variety of ways. I really admire Penn & Teller not as much for their brilliant magic performances, but for their dogged insistence that we actually think about what we believe in.



And for those of you who have not yet discovered her, Paris Parfait is where I always go to first to find very well-written and informative posts about the direction of our nation's politics.