In a few days the people of Berlin will celebrate the 20th annivesary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall – an event that truly changed the world.
The Wall, built overnight on August 13 1961, lasted for 28 years, dividing families, a city, a nation and the world.
But what really was it that was called the "anti-fascist protective rampart" in the East and "Iron Curtain" in the West? Was the Wall really just a wall? Find it out here…
We’re so disgruntled nowadays, aren’t we? We who worked so hard to get this fresh, inspiring, and — gasp! — intelligent President (oh yes, and black, too) elected look back now and assess his accomplishments so far. And we’re comparing where we thought we’d be by now with where we actually are. We note that the unemployment rate’s still climbing; we’re still in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and may even be sending more troops; DADT hasn’t been repealed; health care reform is fighting for life; no investigations of the previous regime’s deep corruption; and other drivers still sometimes cut me off in traffic. Wasn’t the world supposed to be set on a fundamentally different path last November?
It would appear that fox got a bit excited over the weekend about the upcoming election in New York’s 23rd district.
Oops. Gee whiz, that was fair and balanced (snark). What was it the White House was saying about fox the other day? Oh yeah. That they are a partisan wing of the conservative republican party. Maybe they will have to take out the republican part now.
Mr. Cavuto was a bit defensive about all of the criticism today.
“The (gentleman) doth protest too much, methinks.”
But look, “According to the fair play of the world, Let me have audience.”
So Shep, are you being sincere or are you just playing the game as well?
Joe Wilson lets slip a skosh more of his nationally famous stoopid-i-tee. Via TPM:
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) says President Obama has endangered American lives by not doing more to alleviate the nation’s short supply of H1N1 vaccine.
Except earlier this year, Wilson, along with 170 of his Republican cohorts in the House voted against the Supplemental Appropriations Bill ( H.R. 2346, which included the investment of $2 billion to assist the government in combating the H1N1 outbreak and to allow for further pandemic flu preparedness and response capacity.
I recall RNC Chairman Michael Steele saying a few months ago that the era of apologizing was over for his party. Fair enough. I don’t recall hearing very much in the way of apology prior to that, but that’s his call. Still, that oddity has really stuck in the back of my mind. The Republican Party has sadly decided to dodge the most valuable lessons of the Bush era, and instead is trying to avoid any and all pain related to their incompetent involvement in staggering stupidity.
And I swear, these folks honestly do not think they did anything for which they should apologize.
…so where does that leave us?
We’ve been waiting for Obama to make his decision on what to do with troops going into Afghanistan to attack Al Qaida (who aren’t in Afghanistan any more) after the rerun of the election which was proven to be fraudulent and allowed Karzai to win.
Whew.
I’m really sick of our playing games in the world. With Karzai’s brother accused of being a top Heroin Chief, with General McChrystal calling for more troops (while being criticized for his dealings with the Pat Tillman controversy), with a Civil War going on amid the Afghans that WE CANNOT CORRECT (just ask the Russians)… we are perceived as Occupiers and we should get out.
We’ve all had those moments when something finally becomes clear. I had one of those tonight while reading a NY Times article about the Obamas’ marriage. I’ve only read a couple of pages. It’s pretty good, so far. But, that’s not what I wanted to talk about.
One of my many blind spots is caused by my being who and what I am – a middle-aged nearly-senior, middle-aged, white male. That blind spot makes it hard to see what all of the fuss is about when it comes to the whole gender bias issue.
That’s not to say that I don’t get gender bias. I know it is a male dominated world. I also know that automatically creates gender bias in many situations. I say I know, but what I really mean is that I know in a very hazy, never-happened-to-me kind of way. That may be why I missed the significance of what played out recently over the President’s choice of golfing and basketball partners.
When that story first hit the news cycle, I read a couple of articles about it and read a few comments and then tuned it out. As far as I was concerned, it was way over-blown.
That’s the last I thought about it until a few minutes ago when I read this sentence in that NY Times article I mentioned – “This summer, the first lady surprised her husband for his birthday by gathering his old basketball buddies for a weekend at Camp David.”
Reading that reminded me of golfing-gate (sorry, couldn’t resist). My first thought was a rather sardonic, “Guess they’ll blame that one on Michelle.”
My second thought was a more serious, “What was that all about?”
When first confronted with a complaint like this, most guys will react the same way I did. Something along the lines of, “What’s all the fuss about?” Very few sports are co-ed at any level. Boys play with and against other boys. Girls play against girls. There are a few girls who play on varsity boys’ teams, but the vast majority of boys and girls play on single-sex teams once they are out of grade school. Men and women don’t play against each other at a college or professional level. Why should the White House be any different?
That’s when it dawned on me that there is one very good reason why it matters.
The biggest obstacle women face on a professional level is the old boy network. Events like a basketball game or a golf outing give the participants a feeling of camaraderie. The President is going to look a little more fondly on the person who set him up for the winning shot than he is going to look at a person who he only sees during working hours.
Each person the President spends time with in some enjoyable pursuit is going to have an easier time selling his/her ideas. If my boss is asking for my opinion on something then I’d sure like to have him thinking of that putt I dropped yesterday to seal the win for our team.
There’s also the matter of status. Those who play sports with the President are part of a special group. They get to have a closer relationship with the President. That kind of sucks if you happen to be a woman and women never get invited.
That is enough to convince me that this wasn’t such a silly story, after all. I’m glad the story came out and I’m glad the White House acted on it. Women are the majority in this country. They are a larger majority of Democratic voters. We need more women involved in all levels of government. Practices like the ones that led to this story only serve to perpetuate the old boy network.
Now back to that ten-page article.
Faux “news” and republicans have been complaining that the White House is giving fixed “news” a rough time. Boo hoo. Why should the Obama Administration and Democrats give fox a pass? As far as I am concerned it is about time fox was outed for being a partisan tool of the republican party.