“If there is actionable intelligence, I will not hesistate to strike Pakistan” – Obama

I wonder if these type of quotes will bring in older Indians toward Obama.

“White skin notwithstanding, this is our first black president. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, he displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas…� This is not all that Morrison said. There was a lot more irony and not a whole lot of joy in what she wrote in that essay. Unfortunately this gets spinned into some grotesque anointment of Clinton by the famous writer. She actually did no such thing.This is what Morrison actually said in the summer of 1998, at the height of lynch season for Bill Clinton:

African-American men seemed to understand it right away. Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to disappear, when the President’s body, his privacy, his unpoliced sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was metaphorically seized and bodysearched, who could gainsay these black men who knew whereof they spoke? The message was clear “No matter how smart you are, how hard you work, how much coin you earn for us, we will put you in your place or put you out of the place you have somehow, albeit with our permission, achieved. You will be fired from your job, sent away in disgrace, and–who knows?–maybe sentenced and jailed to boot. In short, unless you do as we say (i.e., assimilate at once), your expletives belong to us.” For a large segment of the population who are not African-Americans or members of other minorities, the elusive story left visible tracks: from target sighted to attack, to criminalization, to lynching, and now, in some quarters, to crucifixion. The always and already guilty “perp” is being hunted down not by a prosecutor’s obsessive application of law but by a different kind of pursuer, one who makes new laws out of the shards of those he breaks.

If there is some parallel being drawn to Obama as the first desi President – heaven help him.

Man I hated when folks said Bill was the first black president and this guy who wrote that stereotyped so bad it made my head hurt reading it. I have never and I mean ever considered Bill the first black president and don’t give that joker to me when he is acting a fool in the white house or eating Mcdonalds yes I know all black people do that. Bill showed his true colors.

I got tired of deleting, I have a life too. Maybe after I eat dinner. Next time don’t participate. I had to delete a lot of yours too.

abusive, illiterate

56 is ok. And #59? and #70? It’s your blog, but some uniformity in policy enforcement would make it a better place.

abusive, illiterate, content-free or commercial comments; personal, non-issue-focused flames; intolerant or anti-secular comments; and long, obscure rants may be deleted.

Ideologically purity is Satan.

That should read “Ideological purity is Satan.”

Its not just brahmins obviously as we can see by the highly emotional defensiveness of PS, Harbeer and Amitabh.

You just refuse to see this from any but your own dualistic black/white perspective. My pride in my heritage has no bearing on how I treat others and move through the world–if anything, I’m probably more critical of my own people than I am of “others”–and I willingly own the “bad” aspects of this group identity along with the stuff that makes me proud. Here’s an analogy: I’m also an anarchist who is proud to identify as American, even though I’m theoretically against any hierarchical state and the US has done plenty of things I wish it hadn’t. I don’t feel the need to erase our historical and cultural distinctions, I don’t see how their maintenance necessarily implies a subordination of “the other,” and I’m not confused I’m just comfortable with contradictions. Ideologically purity is Satan.

Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) Song of Myself – 1856

Amardeep wrote about Rabbi a little while ago, but I was at work and couldn’t listen to the videos and later forgot about it. For whatever reasons you posted the link, I did listen to it and it was pretty good. TY

Dude, EVERYONE knows about that song already! It’s old…