April 2011 Archives

Would be GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump wasted no time eagerly snatching at another silly, deliberately distracting, but hopefully for him media grabbing attention issue when his crusade to get President Obama to release his birth certificate came to a quick end when Obama released it. The issue now is Obama's alleged mediocre academic performance. There's method to this idiotic issue and it's already paid off for Trump. The media has quoted him extensively on it and more than a few Obama critics are talking up the president's college days as a legitimate political issue.
Trump was even able to spin Obama's release of his long form certificate as some sort of heroic victory for truth and transparency, with Trump, of course, the self-proclaimed hero for accomplishing this dumb feat. This also supposedly proves that Trump has media and political star power that none of the other established mainstream GOP candidates can hope to match.

Even so, the grade issue, as the birth certificate issue, in any other season, and with any other president, would be both laughable and pitiable. But the grade issue has mild resonance not just because Trump has raised the issue, but because millions have an incessant compulsion to believe the most insipid, salacious, and back biting dribble about Obama.

Trump is by no means the first to pick at the issue of Obama's grades and supposed college failings for his own self-serving personal and political ends. The grades issue has run second to the birth certificate issue as a sideshow issue to discredit Obama almost from the moment that he announced his candidacy in 2007. The whispers and rumors flew freely on right wing blogs, and websites, and were fanned by some talk show hosts that candidate Obama might not be what he was cracked up to be academically, or worse, that he doctored or manufactured his academic credentials. The slurs about Obama's academic performance took full flight after he became the odds on favorite to win the presidency in the fall of 2008. A spate of articles in several on line outlets and the notoriously politically hatchet on line site World Net Daily flatly accused Obama of being a mediocre student at Occidental College and Columbia University, and hinted that there was a conspiracy to hide his academic records from public scrutiny. The allegations were that Obama was a borderline student at Columbia, wheedled his way into Harvard Law School, and became editor of the Harvard Law review because of affirmative action pressure, political manipulation, and deceit. They cited as proof that Obama produced no signed articles or essays in the Journal on law matters, or in any other law journal. The final proof of Obama's alleged academic failings was the refusal to publicly release his transcripts.

During the campaign, and at points during the first two years of his White House tenure, these falsehoods continued to be whispered and gossiped about on the usual suspect anti-Obama blogs and websites. It got almost no traction mostly because many Tea Party activists, the birthers, and much of the media continued to be obsessed with the birth certificate issue.

But now that Obama has effectively put that to rest with the release of his official long form certificate, his alleged academic failings will become another straw man distraction. The point of this foolish issue is not just to take another cheap shot at Obama, but to use it as a ploy to question Obama's wisdom and capability on the fiscal, economic and foreign policy positions that Tea Party leaders and activists, and much of the GOP relentlessly oppose.

Trump and the more virile Obama bashers want to paint him as a mediocre, or worse, a student, who got into Harvard by con and manipulation, rather than on his academic talent and excellence. If they can plant that seed, then it's just a short step to plant the notion that his alleged academic mediocrity has translated into failed, flawed, ill thought out and conceived policies.

Trump gets an extra bonus in spreading malicious gossip, and vicious innuendo about Obama's academic performance. He gets a pass from anyone pounding him on the legion of mediocre, bad and outright failed business decisions he's made. And even better know one asks him to show transcripts of his grades at Fordham and the Wharton School of Business. And one thing's for sure, he hasn't offered to show them. There's more than good reason to wonder why?

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He hosts a national Capitol Hill broadcast radio talk show on KTYM Radio Los Angeles and WFAX Radio Washington D.C. streamed on The Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on blogtalkradio.com and wfax.com and internet TV broadcast on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson

Would be GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump wasted no time eagerly snatching at another silly, deliberately distracting, but hopefully for him media grabbing attention issue when his crusade to get President Obama to release his birth certificate came to a quick end when Obama released it. The issue now is Obama's alleged mediocre academic performance. There's method to this idiotic issue and it's already paid off for Trump. The media has quoted him extensively on it and more than a few Obama critics are talking up the president's college days as a legitimate political issue.
Trump was even able to spin Obama's release of his long form certificate as some sort of heroic victory for truth and transparency, with Trump, of course, the self-proclaimed hero for accomplishing this dumb feat. This also supposedly proves that Trump has media and political star power that none of the other established mainstream GOP candidates can hope to match.
Even so, the grade issue, as the birth certificate issue, in any other season, and with any other president, would be both laughable and pitiable. But the grade issue has mild resonance not just because Trump has raised the issue, but because millions have an incessant compulsion to believe the most insipid, salacious, and back biting dribble about Obama.

Trump is by no means the first to pick at the issue of Obama's grades and supposed college failings for his own self-serving personal and political ends. The grades issue has run second to the birth certificate issue as a sideshow issue to discredit Obama almost from the moment that he announced his candidacy in 2007. The whispers and rumors flew freely on right wing blogs, and websites, and were fanned by some talk show hosts that candidate Obama might not be what he was cracked up to be academically, or worse, that he doctored or manufactured his academic credentials. The slurs about Obama's academic performance took full flight after he became the odds on favorite to win the presidency in the fall of 2008. A spate of articles in several on line outlets and the notoriously politically hatchet on line site World Net Daily flatly accused Obama of being a mediocre student at Occidental College and Columbia University, and hinted that there was a conspiracy to hide his academic records from public scrutiny. The allegations were that Obama was a borderline student at Columbia, wheedled his way into Harvard Law School, and became editor of the Harvard Law review because of affirmative action pressure, political manipulation, and deceit. They cited as proof that Obama produced no signed articles or essays in the Journal on law matters, or in any other law journal. The final proof of Obama's alleged academic failings was the refusal to publicly release his transcripts.

During the campaign, and at points during the first two years of his White House tenure, these falsehoods continued to be whispered and gossiped about on the usual suspect anti-Obama blogs and websites. It got almost no traction mostly because many Tea Party activists, the birthers, and much of the media continued to be obsessed with the birth certificate issue.

But now that Obama has effectively put that to rest with the release of his official long form certificate, his alleged academic failings will become another straw man distraction. The point of this foolish issue is not just to take another cheap shot at Obama, but to use it as a ploy to question Obama's wisdom and capability on the fiscal, economic and foreign policy positions that Tea Party leaders and activists, and much of the GOP relentlessly oppose.

Trump and the more virile Obama bashers want to paint him as a mediocre, or worse, a student, who got into Harvard by con and manipulation, rather than on his academic talent and excellence. If they can plant that seed, then it's just a short step to plant the notion that his alleged academic mediocrity has translated into failed, flawed, ill thought out and conceived policies.

Trump gets an extra bonus in spreading malicious gossip, and vicious innuendo about Obama's academic performance. He gets a pass from anyone pounding him on the legion of mediocre, bad and outright failed business decisions he's made. And even better know one asks him to show transcripts of his grades at Fordham and the Wharton School of Business. And one thing's for sure, he hasn't offered to show them. There's more than good reason to wonder why?

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He hosts a national Capitol Hill broadcast radio talk show on KTYM Radio Los Angeles and WFAX Radio Washington D.C. streamed on The Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on blogtalkradio.com and wfax.com and internet TV broadcast on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson

So you think that our long national nightmare is over? Obama was born in America. Obama is neither Bahamian, nor Panamanian. He's not Kenyan, nor does he belong to an Orthodox minyan. This is fact and not mere opinion. He was born in Hawaii and so goodbye to conspiracy theories.

It's settled. Or is it? I don't think so. Look what happened today. At the very moment he was releasing his long-form birth certificate, he cut the funding for SETI. Coincidence? I don't think so. Seems more like a cover up.

Donald Trump and the rest of the birthers are, even now, searching for the deadly debris from his native planet Krypton.

©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

Eww boy. The lid has been blown and Obama has shown his birth certificate. I used my magnifying glass to read the fine print. Birthplace: Honolulu, Hawaii. According to my recollection from Miss James' history class, which I attended when I wasn't asleep, Hawaii was part of the United States by the time his mother exited from the delivery room.

What next, o fair tea partiers? Donald Trump. For a while, I thought he was a mole designed to lead the Democrats to a landslide no matter who they nominate or how the economy is doing. And here are the reasons why:

Only a nit or a mole would pick on someone's birthplace as a kick off to his (or her) election when there are other things to worry about, like say, the economy, unemployment, immigration and who's going to win on Dancing with the Stars.

And only a mole would then go one step further and question Obama's educational credentials. When the aspiring presidential candidate came up with a dig on how Obama got into school, my newly installed mole alarm went off. For unless you are a Kennedy, or Columbia and Harvard went on an equal opportunity campaign, a candidate has to be smarter than the average bear to get into any of those schools. Even getting a janitorial job there probably requires a near Mensa membership. Not only does a being have to get in, but he has to figure out how to graduate and get out.

Even if Obama's grades were bad, he's not alone. Einstein was first thought to have a learning disability. Besides, the Donald isn't one to talk as he allegedly punched out a teacher during the halcyon days of his youth. For this reason, I wouldn't want to do business with him especially with anything involving beams, girders cranes or anything that swings. Given his logic, a person could wind up wearing cement shoes in the bottom of a swimming pool after a business transaction gone wrong.

Obama may not be the best president we ever had, and if his face winds up on Mt. Rushmore, I'm going to eat my hat, but anyone who can go from relative obscurity to the highest office in the world is certainly no dummy, either.

For all I know, maybe someone in the Democratic camp put the Donald and the rest of those tea partiers up to this.

We believe in democracy as a matter of unexamined faith and often assume that every important issue can be settled democratically. However, upon some reflection, even the most pro-democracy amongst us knows that voting cannot settle everything. There are issues of politics, morals, ethics and belief that neither you nor I would be willing to turn over to voters--however well informed or benign. (See Religion & Democracy Part I)

Democracy is not limited just by the fairness of the process or our social contract. It has other limits. As one wag remarked, "A vote cannot make a short person tall." We also know that in areas of love and faith other opinions, no matter how high we pile them, cannot change our own realities. Few of us, not sunk so low as to be on a "Reality Show," would turn over our hearts so that others might vote on whom we should marry. Love is not subject to votes.

Nor is faith. Most religious organizations know that they cannot be true democracies. You might vote on a creedal statement, but even that is dangerous and divisive. A 49% to 51% vote on an important religious issue (like the color of the new carpet in the sanctuary) could split the community. Now try voting on theological doctrine. Not a good idea. Democracy cannot command my faith. Even rituals are problematic. Change the melody of an old hymn or blessing, reword the 23rd Psalm, or, as the Catholics are trying, change the catechism. Know that in all these cases all holy hell will surely break out.

When we look at the religious conflicts around the world and the inter-religious conflicts, they aren't really the fault of religion or any particular religion. We cannot agree on what our own religions teach us. We could in theory (but never practice) agree to be governed by Biblical law. The Hebrew version or Christian wouldn't make any difference. It wouldn't make any difference if we all would stipulate to following Sharia Law. They all have the same problem. Who gets to interpret what they command? What does any particular holy book say? Depends on who is reading it.

Our Constitution is written in English, and while you and I, Mr. Justice Scalia and Madame Justice Ginsberg, all read the same black marks on white paper, we read very different constitutions. Now put the Law in Arabic, Latin, Greek, Aramaic or Hebrew. Make the languages reflect cultures one thousand or two thousand or three thousand years in the past. Now translate with 21st Century eyes, hearts and brains and tell me what it commands. When we get our different interpretations on the table, will we be willing to abide by a majority vote? I don't think so.

All of this is difficult enough in a secular world with our own Constitution. When we put disputes in religious terms settlements based on either voting or reason are far more difficult. Religion will not allow voting on articles of faith--even when faith becomes political. We can easily imagine individual Israelis and Palestinians saying, "You know if this were mine to give you I would for the sake of peace. But it isn't mine. God has the deed and I can't alienate this sacred legacy." You can imagine the same conversation between Indians and Pakistanis over Kashmir, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox in the former Yugoslavia. Religion can easily block the validity of just about any plebiscite.

The problem is that often the question in dispute is part of the definition of a group. Thus no Mosque could vote to allow pork or alcohol. No synagogue could allow pork into the building--not even Chinese. However liberal or well disposed towards Islam, no Christian congregation will recognize the prophethood of Mohammad. These are all definitional and not subject to votes.

So, when we look at our world and don't understand why reasonable people can't settle our disputes with clear and clean up or down votes, we are often missing the broader context that limits the legitimacy of even honest campaigns and counts.

©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

Ah, the Donald the master of self-promotion has Trumped up a case against Obama being qualified to be president. While Trumpeting his own status as a tasteless millionaire he is gaining more fame and infamy. In bridge Trump can be any suit. Donald Trump too can be any suit. He has been passionately pro-choice. Now, he's against it. He was for universal health care. Now he's against it. He thought Obama was a "fantastic" president. Now he's against him and calls Obama the "worst president in history."

©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

Real Estate tycoon Donald Trump's talk about a presidential bid is take your pick: a bad joke, a cheap publicity stunt, or the delusional raving of a guy with too much money, too much ego, and way too much time on his hands to stroke both. But Trump did manage to figure out one angle that was a sure fire, can't miss way to get attention. That was to dredge up the Birther's lie about President Obama.

Trump knew it would get the tongues wagging and an invite on a popular talk show. Though one of the hosts tore into him on it, Trump was non-plussed and repeated the stock line, "I want him to show his birth certificate" not once but twice. That as more than enough to get cheers from at least one Tea Party leader who gleefully said that Trump's revisit of the bogus issue got instantly elevated his presidential stock. It didn't. But the horrid and appalling truth is that it did put a household name, quasi public figure on record that the issue has enough merit to become a campaign issue. It won't, simply because it's now so discredited that it's joined the pantheon of politically correct no-nos for any of the pack of would be GOP presidential contenders to raise. Trump knew that, and that's partly why he blurted it out. But he also knew that why its taboo subject to raise in polite political circles, a significant number, if not majority of Republicans actually believe or want to believe that Obama's birth is a legitimate issue to dump back on the political table.

This is not an insignificant point. More than two dozen lawsuits and petitions have been filed in various state courts contesting Obama's U.S. citizenship. The Supreme Court's refusal to demand that Obama pony up his birth certificate has done absolutely nothing to take any steam out of the movement. If anything, it probably added some vapor to it, by convincing more that the Courts are in cahoots with the Obama White House to keep the real "truth" about his imagined foreign birth secret from the American people. In the past year, eleven states have in one form or another taken up the cry for presidential candidates , and of course the president to prove that they are bonafide U.S. citizens.

The even scarier thing about the bogus controversy is that in each of the states that are trying to get a birther law passed, the bills sponosrs have gotten dozens of legislators to sign onto to their bills. Georgia is a good example of the popularity of the birther line. GOP state rep Mark Hatfield got more than one -half of the Georgia legislature's 180 members (including one Democrat) to endorse the bill that flaly demands that President Obama produce his birth certificate to get on the Georgia's 2012 presidential ballot. Hatfield and the other bunch of signers rejected Hawaii's repeated public exhibit of Obama's birth certificate as "not sufficient."

The Obama birth certificate clamorers kicked their rumor mongering campaign about Obama's birth into even higher gear when some mainstream papers found the birth certificate controversy good copy and grist for public chatter. Since then the birthers have crudely cloaked themselves in the mantle of public spirited citizens and legal experts with no personal, political, let alone racial, ax to grind with Obama. Their sole goal they claimed was to insure electoral truth and accuracy, to make sure that all the legal requirements for holding a presidential office are met, and to head off a constitutional crisis. They even promised that they would put the matter to rest if Obama simply produced the original.

The real value of the Birther movement is that it's a tailor made back door movement to destabilize, or at the least keep the Obama administration off balance on policy initiatives he's pushing on health care, the economy, and a softer foreign policy outreach. The GOP and especially Tea Party leaders and activists are ferocious opponents of that.

Trump latched onto the birth certificate issue in part to keep his screwy, media grabbing presidential tease alive and along the way to make mischief against Obama. Beyond the Obama birther bash, Trump doesn't have a single policy idea that anyone one stage beyond comatose would listen too. But then again he doesn't have to there are just too many millions out there that want to believe and think the worst about Obama. The fraudulent birth certificate controversy will always fit that bill.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts a national Capitol Hill broadcast radio talk show on KTYM Radio Los Angeles and WFAX Radio Washington D.C. streamed on The Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on blogtalkradio.com and wfax.com and internet TV broadcast on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson

We are great believers in democracy. We believe in the law of large numbers and if enough people vote a kind of collective wisdom will emerge. Something like what techies call "group sourcing." It is a kind of religious faith and quickly leaps from group sourcing to group sorcery.

For all our faith in democracy, if we do not understand the historic, tribal and religious identities that will not and, at present, cannot stipulate to the results of a vote, we will remain clueless to the great factors that both move and stall progress in Africa, the Middle East and indeed around the world.

©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

is here at Wordpress.

Gail-Tzipporah ; )

Whoa there, Earl. I'm going to have to ask you to fan yourself off. Or stand in Mountain Pose, breathe deeply, and give off a few "Namastes." While Obama's primate family photo wasn't nice, as our illustrious readers have pointed out, it wasn't a first, either. George W. used to be parodied that way, too. Were you outraged then, or in silent acquiescence?

Besides, Obama's mother was white. Does that mean that at least some slander wasn't directed at her as well?

I didn't get the racial implication at first, either, as Davenport claims to have missed when she passed the picture along. It could also be a commentary on the state of this country and Obama's lack of experience in tackling such an undertaking. Realizing her error or trying to save face or her political hide, Davenport later apologized. You've already asked for her resignation, which is a little extreme given the crime and probably won't be forthcoming anyway.

But what I am wondering about is where is the indignation of those who cry wolf the loudest when other groups are parodied? The silence in some camps is so deafening you could hear a housefly sneeze.

Besides, like Jonathan said, if you're going to be in politics, you almost have to have the hide of a rhino, which seems like good advice not only there but for life I general.

The cartoon depicting Obama and his parents as chimps is not simply offensive--which would be okay. But this is deeply transgressive because of its clear racist history.

Presidents should expect no protection from being offended. They're open to judgment, criticism and even ridicule. There should be some areas that decent people hold to be off limits--and race would be the most prominent for me. Go after Obama's policies. Ridicule his failure to pass a budget or to engage immigration when he had the majority. Wonder what he was thinking when he escalated Afghanistan and diffidently entered into Libya without a plan to win or exit.

However, the depiction of blacks as monkeys always carries a direct implication that they are not quite fully human and are closer to the apes and monkeys than whites. This is a very old trope whose painful history cannot be denied. It's time to drive a stake through it.
©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

This one could save your wallet en route to saving your pet's life. Here at wordpress.com.

Gail-Tz. ; )

Orange County, California GOP Central Committee member Marilyn Davenport's email blast depicting President Obama and his family as monkeys was sick, vile, and disgusting. But it was not the worst part of it. Even her witless, dunderhead defense of the photo as just a "joke," was not the worst part of her slur either. The worst part was the reaction of GOP officials to it. The local party chair appropriately blasted it but he did not demand her immediate resignation or give any hint that he would make any move for her expulsion from the county GOP's top policy making body.

The weak, half-hearted, non-action paled in comparison to the reaction of other GOP officials who either downplayed it as "much ado about nothing" as Davenport branded it or defended her. Davenport is not some loose screwed, raving Tea Party haranguer. She's a member in good standing of the powerful and well-connected Orange County GOP party machine. In Democrat leaning California, this is not insignificant. Orange County is one of the reddest of red counties in Southern California, and a traditional bastion of GOP conservatism and GOP votes. The Orange County GOP has and can still muster tens of thousands of votes for GOP local, state, congressional and presidential candidates. GOP presidential candidates have beat a steady path to the county for decades to secure votes and money.

Davenport for her part has adamantly said she won't resign. She would not have dug her heels in on staying at her party post if she wasn't confident that she had the backing of more than a few party members.

Those GOP Davenport cheerleaders aren't just in Orange County. Other party officials essentially blew off the controversy as a non-issue. This strikes to the GOP's continuing denial, subtle or flat out stoke of the racial fires. Davenport underlined her despicable depiction of President Obama with the caption ""Now you know why no birth certificate." This is just the crude, stupid, version of what would be GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's been parroting with his media grabbing and Tea Party appealing crusade to bait President Obama on his birth certificate.

It's worked because polls consistently show that a significant minority, possibly a majority, of GOP rank and filers cling to the false, discredited, and bogus belief that Obama is a fake American citizen. Trump would not have gotten to first base with his birth certificate ploy if these millions didn't give credence to it. The controversy has had enough juice to even draw Obama into it. In a recent interview he made more than a veiled reference to it when he said "we're not really worrying about conspiracy theories or birth certificates."

Top GOP possible presidential contenders have either been mum on the issue, sent mixed messages about the issue, or as in the case of Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin gave tacit credence to the fraudulent issue. Despite the media ridicule, Trump hasn't backed away one inch from the issue. In a pep rally speech to a swooning Tea Party throng in Boca Raton, Florida he again questioned Obama's citizenship. Trump's slur didn't dampen the applause or enthusiasm of the crowd. Nor has it dampened the enthusiasm for him from millions of others. In the latest national poll of the names of the potential GOP presidential candidates commonly bandied about, Trump obliterated the field. Second place vote getter former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was a distant second garnering ten percent less of the straw vote than Trump.

A straw poll that at this stage of the presidential derby tells nothing about who the GOP voters, party regulars, and party money backers will ultimately decide on. It won't be Trump. But that's hardly the point. The fact that a political non-entity can work up the kind of mania and media attention that he has on the strength of virtually one issue, namely Obama's birth, tells much about the crazed state of millions of GOP voters.
Davenport's slanderous email depiction of Obama and family, her refusal to see anything wrong with it, and the foot-drag by GOP local and state officials in California, and nationally to say or do anything about it, speaks volumes for GOP leaders. Trump, Davenport, and the Orange County GOP top brass are not bizarre aberrations. They publicly echo the sentiment of a wide swath of Americans about President Obama, and that sentiment has nothing to do with any political criticism of his policies or criticism of him on the issues. Davenport's racial belligerence on Obama and the Party's official inaction about it is just prove again that the GOP blows every chance it gets to show that it's Obama's policies, and not his race, that is their only concern.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts a national Capitol Hill broadcast radio talk show on KTYM Radio Los Angeles and WFAX Radio Washington D.C. streamed on The Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on blogtalkradio.com and wfax.com and internet TV broadcast on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson

Boy, Earl. Talk about convoluted logic. Just because a black person is accused of something doesn't mean that the accuser is a bigot. Maybe, and I hope you're sitting down or holding onto something sturdy here, it's because that black person actually did something wrong.

Let's take Michael Vick. Not only did he engage in dog fighting, but he tortured, killed and electrocuted those poor animals and allowed the female pit bulls to be raped. If you think that he was arrested because he is black, then you're missing the point. His behavior didn't make society the bigot. It made Vick the bully who deserved to have the book thrown at him. Even if his last name were Kennedy or Gandhi, he would have gotten what he had coming.

Then we have your other friend, a Mr. Kobe Bryant. We all slip up from time-to-time. We are only mere mortals. While a one hundred thousand dollar fine would be enough to make most people's eyeballs rotate to the back of their heads, Kobe Bryant is making nineteen million dollars a year. So the fine is around one half of one percent of his salary. Even though he apologized for the slur, he can't be all that sorry because he's appealing anyway. He said that it is a matter of course, though if he were that sorry, he wouldn't take that course.

Now the Lakers are on a damage control campaign, and watching these guys mumble things like "I know we can all do better than this" while the cameras roll is worth the entertainment value alone because we all know how kind and humble they are in the locker room. Though on the other hand, if one person listens, then it may be worth it.

In a world where words precede actions, like you once said, this might be a start.

Laker superstar Kobe Bryant apologized for uttering the dread F word slur in a moment of rage and frustration at a ref's call. Bryant made it perfectly clear that he is not a homophobe, and has nothing but respect for gays. The Lakers have apologized for the words and action. NBA Commissioner David Stern apologized and slapped Bryant with a $100,000 fine. But that's still not enough. Gay groups want more. They demand that the NBA launch a full blown educational campaign and presumably anywhere else pro sports touches on the evils of anti-gay bigotry.
My guess is that even if the NBA agreed to that demand it still wouldn't be enough. Bryant likely will be hounded, harassed, and heckled from here on out by gay groups whenever he takes the court, and that word that he used in a moment of dunderheaded rage will be eternally tossed in his face. But that's to be expected.
He's a superstar, a black superstar, and as was the case with Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, any deviance, big as in the case of Vick and his relentless public pounding and having the legal book tossed at him for dog fighting, or small as in the case of Bryant for his utterance will be immediately pounced on by conservatives, advocate groups, and unreconstructed racial bigots as an I gotcha moment to prove that blacks are closet bigots, intolerant, and inherent homophobes.
The pattern has been repeated so often it's become a ritual. And the reason is two-fold. It fits in with the racially conscience salving narrative that blacks have turned reverse racism and bigotry into a refined art, and that a bigoted utterance from a black celebrity, athlete, or notable is somehow the same as Birmingham, Alabama Police Commissioner Bull Connor unleashing the police dogs and turning the fire hoses on blacks marching against segregation in the 1960's.
Blacks, in other words, have become America's arch bigots, at a time when whites supposedly have long since buried racism. After all, wasn't the election of a black president with millions of white votes the ultimate proof of that?

There's more. Bryant and Vick are the pitch perfect poster boys for deviance and bigotry not solely because of what they did or said, but because of who they are. They have monster PR value for advocacy groups that can use them to pump their name, agenda, and cause. So Bryant is the latest to be slain on the altar of political correctness. It's not about an apology, or a fine. It's about hatin' on a black superstar to snatch a headline.

Our sometimes hero Kobe got into trouble. In the middle of a game, he dropped two F-bombs on a ref. The first was the normal F-bomb, the non-biblical word for knowing someone in a biblical manner. The second F-bomb was a word used to demean and humiliate gays.

I think that most of us know how very seriously hurtful and inappropriate the K & N words are. However, to far too many an anti-gay slur does not yet reach that level of impermissibility. To me it does. Hate speech is hate speech, and when we slur by race, religion or sexuality, it is the same offense and deserves the same level of rebuke.
©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

The French are kind of doing the right thing but for the wrong reasons. They are, with their traditional indirection and moral confusion (which they incorrectly believe is subtlety), arguing that outlawing the veil is not directed at Muslims. This is silly, you should pardon the expression, on the face of it. Of course it is directed at Muslims.

France, you should drop the dignity excuse and tell the truth: This is legitimately about security.

©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

I like seeing a person's face during a conversation, unless it's by phone because then there's no way around it, and I don't have Skype.

And if I were a police officer writing tickets, I'd want to see the person's face as there are few things more disgruntling than talking to a pair of eyes beneath enough yards of fabric to drape the Sistine Chapel. Such is the case with a Muslim woman's face and body covering called a "niqab," which they wear as a sign of modesty, though it has come under question lately and France has enacted what amounts to an anti-niqab law.

No one would care had the Muslims been a peace loving lot. And in spite of what they say their religion says, some of them haven't done some very peace loving things. Let's just put it like this: No one ever thought that Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie were singing about them when they were singing all those songs in the sixties and seventies. And no one would think so today.

After all, how many peace-loving lots blow others up and destroy, maim and kill with such carefree abandon? Though like love, I guess we all have our own version of what peace means and how to get there. Theirs seems to be by way of blowing up and clearing out the overgrown weeds and brush (the infidels) to make way for the vegetation and good stuff (them).

And now the French have said "alors," "enough" and have started to take action by outlawing the veils in public.

Other religious groups have their dress codes, too. Orthodox Jewish men wear shtreimels (fur hats) but no one ever hears about them carrying dynamite around in them, though there might be a matzah crumb or two riding on them on occasion. And no one ever hears about any Orthodox Jewish women harboring any explosives or pepper spray in their wigs and scarves, which married women wear for modesty's sake. So no one tries creating any laws.

Last month, a policeman in England stopped a woman with a niqab for a traffic violation. Not too thrilled about it, she threatened to report him, though he wrote the ticket anyway. She later claimed that he'd assaulted her and tried to lift her veil to get a glance at her face. What she didn't know was the whole encounter had been taped from a camera on his dashboard, so the she looked rather foolish when she showed up in court and he presented the evidence. If he didn't have the tape, it could have spelled the end of his career as well.

Not willing to leave well enough alone, her lawyer then said it was a case of mistaken identity since he couldn't see her under the veil. The judge didn't buy it and she was sentenced to jail and had to pay a fine.

Once the law was enacted in France, some Muslim women claimed that the government was restricting their movement and trammeled on down to City Hall. They were arrested and now one of them is going to take it to a European court, which is either comprised of other Muslims or afraid of them to begin with.

A peace loving lot? If they think you're on the same side of the niqab as they are, I suppose.

After having led a UN panel that condemned Israel for targeting civilians during the Gaza war, South African former Justice Robert Goldstone has recanted. But it is messy work trying to put this blood libel whine back in the decanter.

©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
JonDobrer@mac.com

What is the sound of protest not happening? What are the political consequences of three wars, ruinous defense spending and more anti-war sentiment among Republicans than Democrats? What noise does Bob Dylan make in China by not singing Masters of War?

And yet. And yet, I am so very uncomfortable remaining silent about these three failing, ill considered and ruinously costly wars. While killing and dying abroad and not achieving our goals, we are strangling the heart of our once compassionate society. We are letting our roads, bridges, cities and educational systems crumble. We fight about abortion, death panels, NPR and retired teacher pensions while using our genius to become failed Masters of War. Our soundtrack truly is Sounds of Silence.

©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

Dear Four Readers:

Here's a PSA on Wordpress.

Thanks and a bientot,

Gail-Tz.

"Our long national nightmare is over." Uh, make that, "Our long national soap opera is over." Better still, "Our long national Kabuki dance is over." Put them all together and they spell: Shameful Farce. But of course, it is not over. We're just good to go till October, and then, like Groundhogs Day (the movie) we replay the same sorry charade.

I can't wait for the announcement: Coming soon to a cable station near you, When Harry Met John--the Sequel!

©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

The first rumbling that the party may be ending is in, and for more than a few it's none too soon. The party in this case is the Tea Party. Two things in rapid succession signaled that the light may be dimming for the party. A recent CNN poll shows that more, far more Americans, now have an unfavorable view of the Tea Party than a year ago. Even more ominous for the Tea Party, the biggest number that expressed disaffection with the party is lower income Americans, for the most part whites.
They have been one of the bedrocks of support for the Tea Party. Their crude borderline racist signs, Confederate flags, Texas Lone Star flags, and the posters that depicted a Hitler or demented looking President Obama were on full display and virtual fixtures at countless local and national Tea Party street actions in the year after Obama's election. They were the shock troops in the streets for Tea Party leaders and groups. They have deserted in droves.

The second bad note for the tea Party is the budget fight that has torn up Congress, and threatens to decimate legions of education, health, social service and law enforcement programs locally and nationally. In November, Tea Party backed candidates scored big victories and even upsets of GOP incumbents in a number of races. They had one mantra and that was to shrink government, and shrink it fast. Millions of Americans cheered their war call, and voted for the candidates that yelped it the loudest. But it's one thing to scream about big government, bloated federal spending, and whopping federal debts, and it's quite another to actually hold Congress, and by extension, the nation hostage in an uncompromising, shrill battle to accomplish that. It's even worse when the hostage takers start ticking off a telephone thick list of programs that will either be cut, if not outright eliminated, and then compound that by demanding that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security either be radically downsized, or dumped in the exclusive hands of private providers, and corporations. The shouts about knocking down big government all of a sudden take on a different sound. That's a sound that millions of Americans that rely on government services, programs, employment, contracts, and payments of every kind suddenly don't like the sound of.
Since that's been the only sound heard from the Tea Party leaders within and without Congress, that has caused more Americans than ever to have second, and even bad thoughts about the Tea Party. Polls repeatedly show that the majority of Americans want Congress and the Obama administration to work in tandem to solve the big ticket problems of the economy, joblessness, and debt reduction. But they want them to do it in a responsible way without the relentless carping, sniping, bickering, finger pointing and political gamesmanship that has been the trademark of the GOP egged on by the Tea Party.

But the Tea Party tune marchers in Congress haven't gotten that message. And while President Obama, House and Senate leaders frantically tried to hammer out a budget compromise to keep the doors of federal agencies open, and tens of thousands of federal employees on the job, Tea Party zealots, led by the top Tea Party polarizer, Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachman screamed "shut it down" at rallies, on websites, blogs, and any other venue that they could get some attention.
The quiet backlash against the Tea Party hasn't been lost on GOP mainstream leaders, who even in the best of Tea Party days were anxious, if not downright terrified, that their shock battalions might get to unruly, and go too far overboard, and alienate the moderate and conservative independents that they got back in the GOP fold in the November midterm elections, and need to keep in the fold to have any chance of beating Obama in 2012. They are watching in horror as that chance may be slipping away with the over reach antics and intransigence of the Tea Party in Congress, and the growing disgust of millions of Americans, at it for it.

This in no way is to write the obituary for the Tea Party. There are still millions that despite the consequences of the draconian government cuts the Tea Party is bound and determined to ram through Congress, still think the idea of smaller government, caps on spending, and debt reduction are noble goals worth fighting for. But the polls show that even that fight has limits, and if Tea Party leaders and activists can't or won't figure that out then it's a sure bet that the plunging popularity of the Tea Party won't take an upturn. The one person who will smile the broadest at that prospect is the man that the Tea Party has loved to loath, and that's the man who sits in the Oval Office.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts a national Capitol Hill broadcast radio talk show on KTYM Radio Los Angeles and WFAX Radio Washington D.C. streamed on The Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on blogtalkradio.com and wfax.com and internet TV broadcast on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson

President Obama must get down on his knees daily and thank God for giving him an opposition that is so amazingly self-destructive. Once it was the Left that traditionally formed the circular firing squad and slew (figuratively) any one showing signs of moderation. Now it's, thank God the Republicans who are self-cursed with ideological Puritanism.

Obama may be the one candidate who polls weaker against an un-named generic opponent that against any of the real challengers. Yes, he might fail to get a majority if he ran unopposed but against any of the likely foes, he's winner and still the luckiest politician around--if being president in these poisonously partisan times is a sign of good luck.

©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

It's a good thing I don't work for a think tank. I would have been tossed out long ago especially when it comes to picking winners in a political race. For a while I was on a roll there, but now I seem to have lost my touch. Take John McCain. The day before the election, I told Gary Aminoff, the president of the San Fernando Valley Republican Club that Mc Cain would win. Wrong.

Who would have thought that Obama would have picked up so much steam and that his name would become a household word? Certainly not I. I also predicted along with Earl that he'd be a one-term president. Wrong again.

But I never could have predicted that he'd get a boost from the Republicans. Some of them could save the Democrats billions in campaign funds. Although I may remain staunch, some of them aren't making the rest of us look very good.

First up we have Sarah Palin. Anyone who can't finish a term in office for reasons unknown certainly can't be expected to finish a term in office. She also has been hypersensitive about her daughter and needs to develop a thicker skin if she wants people to stop smirking when they say her name. Positive attribute: She has nice hair.

Then there's the effervescent Scott Walker. Need I say more? Need anyone? If the fair (and not so fair) citizens of Wisconsin knew what a wolf in sheep's clothing he'd be, he'd probably be the Koch brothers' landscaper by now. His positive attribute: His hair.

Donald Trump: He thinks he's going to be president by questioning Obama's birth? How silly of me. Of course, stranger things have happened. On the plus side, he's a wonderful businessman and knows how to mug for the camera. Though we elected one of those and it didn't work out so well.

Welcome, President Trump. You have interesting hair.

Hi, All:

Here's my latest on Wordpress about plastic surgery.

Thanks and Peace and Blessings,

Gail-Tz. : )

Two Dodger fans beat a Giant fan into a coma. Fans do bad things; they start fights in the stands. They yell, curse and intimidate. They riot when provoked by the slightest incitement. Alcohol can drive them into violent stupidity--and we sell lots of alcohol at sporting events. But we also bring alcohol to tailgate parties.

If you root for a different team, come from a different tribe, worship in a different way, I may feel that this disrespects me, and I have to act--or so too many people feel. Fanaticism has replaced fun not only in sports, but also in politics and in too much of life. Tragically, there is no easy fix. Stop selling beer in the 6th inning and people will make up for it early or later in the parking lot. The beer doesn't help but the common thread is made up of young males who project their vulnerable insecurities onto a side and are prepared to give our "all" for their cause.

©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

Some say that UFO's tend to visit our fair planet whenever there's a disaster. Maybe they show up at rush hour or during car accidents. I think I've seen some in their cars. My neighbor, who appeared eccentric, though sober, said that he saw one hovering around the hospital across the street. An online report said that even the royal family has an interest as well. One photo showed a field in England that had lots of large circles in it, and the caption said that Queen Elizabeth was interested in how they got there.

And since they apparently show up for major events, some in the royal family are supposedly expecting them at the end of the month for the royal wedding.

In that case, the aliens must spend a lot of time in the Middle East. Some may even be in those crowds for all I know. The latest incident, aside from the daily bombings, burnings, looting and riots, is last week's murder of three UN workers and four guards in Afghanistan in retaliation for a Florida pastor burning a Koran.

The Afghanis had a right to be upset. Most people would have been put off had someone desecrated their holy book. But these guys will use any excuse to take offense and torch, ransack, loot and kill. Not only shocking is how the mob expressed themselves but Afghani officials' reactions to the murders.

In response to the burning of the Quran, Staffan De Mistura, the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan said that "Freedom of speech does not mean the right of offending culture, religion or traditions." Prime Minister Karazi merely condemned the burning of the Muslim book.

It's all enough to even give an alien heartburn.

Every Jew should understand the hurt, rage and pain that Muslims feel when the Quran is desecrated--as it surely was by that pathetic publicity-seeking pastor (who should and will remain nameless). The Quran to Muslims is much more than a book, just as the Torah is more than scrolls to Jews.

When I was honored to carry the Torah scroll during this years New Year (Rosh Hashanah) service, I felt deeply honored. When I was called to chant the blessing before and after the reading of the Torah on Yom Kippur, I was profoundly moved.

As hideous as the desecration of holy books, cemeteries or dead bodies are, they are not of the moral equivalent of living human beings and neither their defense nor avenging warrant the taking of life.

©2011 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

President Obama's re-election bid announcement was pro forma. There was never any doubt whether he'd run again, and if the GOP has anything to do with it, the odds are looking better every day that he'll win in a walk away. It didn't start out that way, though. The first year of his White House tenure, things looked shaky for re-election. There was double digit unemployment, home foreclosures soared, the GOP scored wins in key governor and senate races, the war without end in Afghanistan raged at a staggering cost. There were hordes of livid, screaming Tea Party activists tromping around the Capitol. There were defections of key administration staffers rising. And the carping, hectoring, and even fury from liberal Democrats and progressives of Obama at what they considered and his timid, cautious, conciliatory, even back slide on issues and polices rose to a higher pitch with each passing day. The president's precipitous slide in the polls and popularity came crashing to a head with "shellacking" the Democrats took in the November mid-terms.

But in the months since then the GOP came to the rescue. In rapid succession it has ticked off millions with its bellicose threat to meat ax spending on every vital government program around and if it didn't get the cuts it wanted shut down government. Its parade of would be presidential candidates sounded more bizarre, contradictory, and downright goofy on everything from spouting the phony Birther line about Obama's birth certificate to flailing away with inconsistent, and confused statements about Libya. Polls have consistently shown that even while Obama's popularity has edged down mostly over the handling of the economy, more Americans than not said they were disenchanted, even fed up with the Tea Party's antics, bluster and intransigence. Even if House Republicans pull back from making the colossally stupid mistake of padlocking government for a few days to get the budget slashes they want and the likelihood is they will, they have gone even further to imprint in the public mind that the GOP is the party of pig-headed, nay-saying, whining, intransigence.

Then there's Sarah Palin. She has gone from at best a political curiosity to a downright embarrassment. Her popularity poll numbers, never anything to write home about even in her best days, are hurtling toward single digit numbers. Even she's had enough sense to stop the hint, no tease, mostly for the media, that she's a serious contender for the GOP presidential nomination. But Palin almost rises to the stature of Lincoln and FDR when compared to the clownishness of real estate mogul Donald Trump, Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachman and African-American businessman Herman Cain. Both have made themselves and worse the GOP into even bigger laughingstocks by conning the press and the party into thinking that they have a clue about politics and the presidency. Trump especially has worked the con to a tee with his high profile media appearances slamming Obama's birth certificate and offering a few canned soup bromides about his plan for America. Bachman has gone to prodigious lengths to try and top herself in seeing how many Tea Party and media grabbing odd ball quips she can make about whatever comes in her head. Cain just by being black, and getting some paper cheers from Tea Party leaders, has managed to keep himself in the media limelight for a minute. The three of them send chills up the spine of GOP mainstream leaders at the sight of them gabbing away on talk shows while wearing the tag of the GOP.

Meanwhile, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman have been repeatedly mentioned as GOP presidential challengers. Not one of them has a prayer. In major polls since January, none has cracked the 40 percent mark against Obama. Two real possibilities to make a race against Obama competitive: Mitt Romney and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee are playing it cautious, and close to the vest. They are watching the political winds, hoping for a fatal mistake by Obama, and banking that their political credibility and name identification will be enough to propel them to the GOP nomination. That won't be nearly enough to beat a sitting president.

In the past century, only one sitting Democratic president has lost his re-election bid. That was Jimmy Carter in 1980. And even the one Democratic president who suffered a massive defection and split within his party, a troubled economy, and voter fatigue at the Democrats for holding office for a seeming eternity, he still steam-rolled his Republican challenger. That Democrat was, of course, Harry Truman in 1948.Overall, only nine sitting presidents in American political history have been defeated.

Just think of the GOP names that immediately come to mind when the 2012 presidential campaign is mentioned, Trump, Cain, Palin, Bachman, Newt Gingrich, Pawlenty and then think this. The GOP makes Obama's re-election easier by the day.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts a national Capitol Hill broadcast radio talk show on KTYM Radio Los Angeles and WFAX Radio Washington D.C. streamed on The Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on blogtalkradio.com and wfax.com and internet TV broadcast on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson