Random thoughts, observations and perspective about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness provided by Manhattan based lawyer and social documentarian.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Eight Years Later: Why Is There Still A Hole at Ground Zero? On this day of remembrance, we honor all Americans who died on 9/11 or in the battles fought in the name of 9/11 by remaining vigilant engaged citizens in the search for truth. That is how I choose to pay my respects to those who through no fault of their own tragically lost their lives and left behind friends, family and co-workers. This day is a reminder that there are many still broken hearts and changed lives. 9/11 is not a photo op to promote the political agenda of any politician or political party. The fact that it is should cause thinking Americans to pause. To quote another HuffPo commenter: "How can anyone who calls themselves a "lover of freedom" not find it appalling that the information surrounding the events of 9/11 should be blacked out from the public? It does not make any sense that any conservative, freedom-loving individual would find it strange to want the truth to be told about what took place. This is not some partisan issue." The Truth About the 9/11 Truth Movement is that under no circumstances should participation or affiliation in it ever be considered some "Litmus Test" of Patriotism or lack thereof. Patriotism is not blind submissiveness to government, nor loyalty to any particular leader or party. Patriotism is vigilance in protecting and preserving the US Constitution from all enemies foreign or domestic who would incrementally pervert or overthrow it, or trample upon the many rights, freedoms and sovereignties of the people. Thus, it is simply unacceptable to brow beat and label those who ask questions, as being unpatriotic. Ironically, it is the very same people who pose around the American Flag to burnish their patriotic brand who beat down those who ask questions. "9/11 Truthers" are not radicals who hate America. The truth is that it is just plain hard to know what the truth really is anymore. Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
RACHELLE HRUSKA: Social Journalist or Helping the Scissors Mafia Take Over NYC?
Many who are far more intelligent and knowledgeable than me have written about the culture of distraction, the dumbed down population of consumer zombies who are hooked on drugs, alcohol, sex or mindless infotainment and social networking, the more easily manipulated masses and what it means for the future of our society. As a study, the famegame in New York City is a perfect microcosm of the disintegration of intelligent or meaningful culture vs. smart culture, if only because what happens here gets broadcast to the rest of the world as that which is of social significance, a way of life to aspire to and what is quintessentially New York.
The New York Post labeled Nebraskan born socialite with a holly go lightly persona, Rachelle Hruska, Editor & Co-Founder of GuestofaGuest.com as the Queen Bee of the new wave of web scribes. One can only wonder, if we are so hungry for journalists that look good (see: Fox News Babes) that if you are attractive and throw up online press releases written by publicists who supply you with them along with the images how does that make said individual anything other than a faux social journalist pursuing her own famegame; even as she becomes part of the culture of distraction? Rachelle Hruska's appearance on the New York social scene and her ability to work the room, is curious in so far that she has with her somewhat sincere Holly Go Lightly pose and girl posse managed to become the face of a younger generation of Clubutante's promoting the vapid an inane lifestyle of those who call "the best 2K ever spent" in their life swilling over priced vodka at one velvet roped lounge or another in New York City and the Hamptons. Let me be even more clear, if the best 2K you have ever spent is on bottle service on 27th street's club row, you are truly and literally a phucking loser, and if you promote and celebrate that then what are you? You better check yourself before you reck yourself. If in fact you want to see who received a mental BJ or handjob from a certain sexy, blonde, social editor who herself looked damn fine partying in a designer dress last night, then by all means take a look at GuestofaGuest.com. Some have speculated, perhaps accurately (who knows), that she is actually the face of nightlife empressario Steve Lewis, who is trying best to encapsulate the aspirational values of the young, attractive, club going set in New York City to make swilling over priced bottle service at the 27th Street's club row as something all of us should actually aspire to. Why? Because these places need to stay in business.
Many I have had the opportunity to speak to have stated that blog if studied closely is actually somewhat of an intelligent riff of or rip off of the formula used by Celebrity blogger Tia Walker's"the quest for it", Cityfile and Gawker, but then again, aren't alot of these folks looking to emulate what Nick Denton did with the most successful of the new media blogs? In this new media, even Meghan McCain of McCain Blogette gets to host The View and serve as a columnist for The Daily Beast. Ok so she is Senator McCain's daughter and did graudate from Columbia University and her pleasantly plump curves are not exactly a turnoff to this blogger. So as much as I might want to kiss her fat ass in real time, whether it be Meghan's or Rachelle's, I can't do it via the written word. I can't not critique cause you're phucking hot. Capische?
Jealous maybe Christopher? No, not really, more traffic, fame and money would sure be nice but then again I would have to dumb down, become the friend of or kiss the ass of stupid people or those who claim that "the Best 2K Ever Spent" was out on club row instead of on vacation or at one of New York's finest restaurants with my family or a close group of friends. Truth is that I skipped the Dale Carnegie course and forgot to read the book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" as the only folks I am likely to influence are those who largely already detest the moral bankruptcy and emptiness of stupid culture being proffered by the purveyors of New York Nightlife. Maybe I would have more friends if I smoked from the crack pipe of the "you kiss my ass, I will kiss your ass" school of New York social journalism. Can't we all get along you say. Sure, but somewhere along the way, a somewhat sincere pose turns into a perpetual smile behind an insincere enterprise and people start believing their own press. Nobody is as good as their best press or as horrible as their worst. Truth is somewhere in between. At present, in society rarely will anyone feel inclined to speak in a questionable fashion about those who might promote them, and that is a trusim not just in the social media but the media at large. If you stop being fake, there may be more artistry in what you do, but if you do, there may also be less money in it. So sell the lie and cash in has become the motto of our culture. If it hurts me to speak or write this way so be it.
Have an itch for fame? Do you have a publicist? Are you a ridicutard? Have you done anything of marginal social significance? Then have your publicist send the press release with photos to GuestofaGuest.com. Wait, you don't have a publicist? No problem, Rachelle has contributors like Ariel Moses who are publicists on staff who write about their clients. Make sure to take as many photos of yourself in the Scissors Mafia pose (see also: scissor gang mafia), preferably with drink in hand, eyes half shut from drunkeness because you will look uber cool, perhaps as cool as Justin Ross Lee, who resembles a caricature of an actual human being, but who's legend is the stuff of urban mythology on the blog. Now, I am not saying GuestofaGuest.com represents the best of the D List but let's just say, Kathy Griffin is your A List if Mr. Lee can garner that kind of attention. Enough said, so Rachelle, about that drink we discussed nearly a year ago, still want to have it? ;-) I still think you are one of the Top 10 Hottest women in New York City and give props to the small town girl (even if Omaha ain't so small) from Nebraska who has somehow managed to become part of the mainstream social media.
REPUBLICAN MCCARTHYISM: Underming Van Jones, White House Green Jobs Czar Is Part of a Larger Overall Agenda to Bring Down the Obama White House
Van Jones is the Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. If you have the opportunity to meet Mr. Jones, listen to him speak, examine his public record you will find a clearly intelligent, well educated, grounded, forthright and passionate man who seems to me to be a solid, earnest American, the best of what this country is all about. If anything, he has a past, like many of us, where he questioned truth and aligned himself with those assisting the weaker parties. He perceived injustice and sided with those who have less of a voice in our society. In short, Van Jones is guilty of speaking truth to power, simply a Patriot fighting the good fight. To the extent that is revolutionary, we should recognize that there is often little or no money in assisting the weak and powerless in America. If anything it costs you brownie points in the corporate world. So we need to be careful about condemning the altruistic for their passion, lest we risk having our society become one where it is every man for himself with nobody who speaks up when they see injustice for fear that it will get them labeled a socialist, a communist, anti-American. And if we as citizens stand by when that happens, we are complicit in the demise of our democracy and the destruction of our constitutional principles.
Yesterday, I read this piece on Fox News entitled, The Radicalization of Obama's 'Green Czar' that does more than imply, that Mr. Jones is some sort of unhinged radical for the simple act of fighting the good fight, standing up against powerful interests when it would have been far more convenient to seek cover than involve himself in the Rodney King protests, a man mind you who was beat senseless by the L.A. Police, who were acquitted. They then point to his signing a petition calling for then Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to investigate 9/11 and paint him as some fruitcake 9/11Truther. Yet if that is so awful why do not paint those that lied to the American public, obfuscated the truth, operated in a veil of secrecy and essentially flipped off legitimate inquiry, perhaps even obstructed justice as fascists? To date, Dick Cheney and crew have still not felt it was their patriotic duty to speak the truth to the American people. So you tell me, who are the radicals?? But maybe as The Huffington Post reported, the attack on Van Jones has more to do with a vendetta being pursued by Glenn Beck. As stated:
"Van Jones is the co-founder of a group called Color of Change. Color of Change organized a boycott of Glenn Beck's TV show. So Glenn Beck spent the last week with a dry erase board proving that Van Jones is behind everything that scares white people in America, including the beach......Beck also called Jones a communist -- about a thousand times -- and proved, with his white board, that President Obama has put him in charge of the Federal government. Which is a line that even the McCarthyites never crossed. I mean, they never went after the president. They never said the communists were in charge. "
If you want to blame anyone for the 9/11 Truth Movement, blame Dick Cheney for the veil of secrecy that enveloped both our government's Executive & Judicial branch from 2000-2008. The 9/11 Truth Movement arose and was sustained largely in the vaccum of the Bush/Cheney Administration's arrogance and unwillingness to cooperate with a commission that they initially attempted to rig and stack against those demanding a legitimate and thorough inquiry into one of the greatest catastrophes on American soil. As stated by Glenn Greenwald in a piece in Salon in January 2008, "The bi-partisan co-chairmen of the 9/11 Commission, Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, jointly published an Op-Ed in the New York Times which contained some extremely emphatic and serious accusations against the CIA and the White House"-- which in short essentially concluded that they engaged in an obstruction of justice. You compound that fact with the Stolen Election of 2000 which took the Presidency away from AL GORE, who let me remind you once again WON THE POPULAR VOTE by more than 550,000 votes. Furthermore, in the wake of 9/11 a published Zogby Poll indicated that nearly 50% of New Yorkers believed that the Bush White House was not telling the truth, was holding back information and even now a substantial number of Americans support a new investigation. So again, even if Van Jones was even briefly part of the 9/11 Truth Movement, it put him in the mainstream of New Yorkers at that time and not so far out of the mainstream at present.
Dare we forget those days where merely asking a question about the Bush administration's knowledge or preparedness regarding 9/11 or their motives for unchecked never ending war, were met with said individuals being dismissed as Un-American, Un-Patriotic and even slandered as engaging in conduct that supported terrorists? I choose to NEVER FORGET. Those who simply ASK QUESTIONS should never be demonized. My thesis is that Mr. Jones is and has always been a man with a love and passion for America that is every bit as strong, if not stronger, than those who claim they love freedom and democracy then try to shut anyone up who dare excercise their First Amendment rights or express opinions contrary to Joe the Plumber, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter and the right wing noise machine.
The 9/11 Truth Movement remains the "third rail" of American politics, and you have largely the Bush/Cheney Administration's obstruction of justice and veil of secrecy to thank for that. Anybody who wants to have a viable social, political or business life in American simply need not ask the question, "what if?" It is career suicide. If we attempt to destroy all those who may have ever considered or participated in the the 9/11 Truth Movement by radicalizing them and politically destroying them, does that actually lend more credence to those that still believe that Bush/Cheney has 8 years of LIES that the American people still have not uncovered? I say STFU. Back up and check yourself before you wreck yourself.Do we really want to make this some form of litmus test as to one's suitability to serve the American people? Apparently, Fox News' Kimberly Guilfoyle Villencythinks so:"clearly (Jones) wasn't vetted. All (the White House) had to do was go and ask a couple of questions in San Francisco about this individual." All roads do not lead to Rome. They may instead lead to a hell of your own making. My advice to those in Sean Hannity's orbit is to end your witch huntagainst those who may have ever expressed any sympathy or even participated in the 9/11 Truth Movement. Leave these people alone. Have we not learned anything from the Salem Witch Trials and Nazi Germany's rounding up all the Jews? The crime of these so called "truthers" is not believing the lies of their government. Our leaders created this monster. It is no wonder that it took some widowed New Jersey women, the "Jersey Girls" and their Press For Truthto get the attention of a nation. Shall we now round up all Americans who believe that the Bush/Cheney Administration was less than straight forward with the American people as well as the 9/11 Commission? If so you will have to start with those who led the 9/11 Commission, Lee Hamilton and Tom Kean.
It is not that I condemn the mainstream media or do not recognize the role it plays in preserving and maintaining a sense of order in what has been referred to as the American Empire, but at this juncture Fox News can no longer on any rational level be considered a mainstream media, it's disinformationalist agenda is now clear for all the world to see. Let it be known, that my revolution stops short of bringing down the American Empire. That’s right, revolution for the sake of destroying everything, including some of the good with the false hope that starting from scratch may some how be better, is truly insane. In my estimation, this is why the 9/11 Truth Movement has sort of jumped the shark; often the life that is enabled for many through a capitalistic democracy requires some painful choices to be made to advance the interests of a nation. America is at a crossroads, the global economy is competitive, at this point we need to lift up our nation, lift up this economy and our people. At this point, I choose to move forward rather than look back and recognize that some may label me a hypocrite for doing so. In the end I have seen “the man” and he is us.
But to those in the radical right and their friends in the disinformation media who also want to look back and condemn a man's belief systems, his moral code and his honor because he used the force of his passion, his intellect to question those in positions of power, GAME ON. Bring it! If you really want to go back to that time and place, then we can once and for all expose for all the world to see the hypocrisy of your agenda, the lynch mob mentality and your censationalism and distortion of the truth to fear monger and scare Americans. Is it all in the name of ratings? Or is it something more? What Fox News talking heads are engaged in, plain and simple is the attempted lynching of an American citizen because his political affiliation and identity is more liberal than some influential corporatistsprefer. Every thinking American recognizes the total bullshit that belies FOX NEWS "fair and balanced" moniker. The only reason why it rings true for some folks is simply because the American population has been dumbed down and turned into consumer zombies via the culture of distraction and they are unable to see folks like Sean Hannity for what he is, a minister of propaganda.Watching these guys, it is like watching a competition between folks vying for the title of America's Joseph Goebbels.
We have but one choice and one choice only and that is we must rally in support of and defend Van Jones against the McCarthyites because if we find ourselves living in a country where Truth Patriots can be politically destroyed then, my friends, we do not live in a free country at all. Consider the implications for all of our citizens if those that dare ask questions of those in positions of power, fighting the good fight for us all, can be pulled down so easily. The attack against Van Jones is an attempt to undermine one of the pillars of freedom and democracy upon which this country is founded. This Right Wing Hatchet Job is evidence of GOP Thuggery at its finest and must be snuffed out in its infancy because although now it is just Van Jones, who's next? The GOP is channeling McCarthy, throwing around the same labels, in the absence of a coherent ideology of their own in an effort to derail progressive policy by attempting to chipping away and trying to pick apart Obama's White House at the fringes. One can only hope that the White House's apparent tepid support of Van Jones is not indicative that the whacko's succeeded in finding the chink in Obama's armor.
America's right wing fruitcakes need to honor the election results. There is a reason why so many Republicans find themselves on the outside looking in. Its as if they have learned nothing from the prior 8 years and are engaged in a continuing Assault on Reason. In the absence of reason gathering mobs and torching the country to achieve aims you could not at the ballot box is not only criminal, it is cowardly. President Barack Obama is not a dictator but the people have spoken, so you better listen, obey and STFU. They seem to be hell bent in bringing about The End of America. So yes, you can quote me and if it precludes me from higher office, so be it: "Glenn Beck, you and those who traffic in dishonest, radical rhetoric, whether they dare call themselves conservatives and/or are in the GOP, you are all ass_oles!"
The American Economy is on the brink. Americans are losing their jobs, their savings and their homes and the GOP with scrooge like machiavellian streak is engaged in a goal line stand attempting to insure that this President does not suceed in bailing out the economy. Make no mistake, they are not "fighting the good fight" but are trying to insure that the stimulus fails so that they can say they were against it from the get go. The plan is to battle the President Obama to the end, whittle Obama's Stimulus down to something inconsequential and thereby reducing the likelihood of its dramatic success. Then they can run against Democrats in 2010 and 2012 while continuing to put forth false arguments that returning money to the most privileged classes is the only way that the economy can be restarted when the reality is that it is Republican wealth concentration agenda over the last 30 years that has resulted in record economic disparity in America and pushed the American economy over the cliff. The people chose Obama's agenda, not John McCain's in this last election. While many Americans will end up homeless and bankrupt, John McCain can wax philosophic about his patriotism from one of his eight homes while his countrymen are in the streets. It is time to start priming the pump and investing in American infrastructure and society. Bottom line, the wealthy classes will not be safe in America if Americans cannot buy a sandwich, have a roof over their heads and heat in winter. Excess wealth concentration is placing American Society on the brink of revolution. What good is rebuilding Afghanistan if our society is crumbling all around us? I do not hate rich people or begrudge entrepreneurs for their success or even those that have inherited wealth. To the contrary. This is not about that. This is about preserving the integrity of our democracy. The GOP is the defender of what Paul Krugman has called The Madoff Economy and folks like McCain are battling to perpetuate it while posturizing as conservatively trying to protect the average citizen. About Stimulus Package Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama Pushes for American Colonic: Fights Against GOP Trickle Up Economic Policies
America needs a colonic to remove the toxic waste that lines the intestinal walls of our Democracy. An American Renaissance under President Obama will only begin when we can move on some fresh new ideas and not have them die in the bowels of our Democracy. In order to renew we must purify our system of the fraudulent gunk and intellectually dishonest policies that have led to decay of the integrity of our nation's culture. Obama is up against a powerful GOP that has hunkered down for a fight even as its back is up against the wall and the will of the American people aligned against them, having already given President Obama a mandate for change. The GOP needs to reinvent itself and sees defeating or humiliating Obama on a much needed economic stimulus as the way to do so. Obama needs our support.
The GOP and folks like McCain, McConnell & Co. are the defenders of what Paul Krugman has called The Madoff Economy and they are battling Obama to perpetuate it while posturing as conservatively trying to protect the average citizen. John McCain is not a voice of reason, he is merely another lunatic standing aboard the Titanictrying to maintain the status quo with life boats for his friends, pushing bad ideas at a time of national crisis, while the American ship is on the verge of sinking. The notion that we should continue to provide more tax breaks to the upper classes, and those who benefited the most in the new gilded age ushered in by Ronald Reagan, including the very people who have ripped America off by rigging the tax code and pilfering the National Treasury even further is blasphemous. McCain is a fictional man who graduated at the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy, could not fly his plane, had repeated crashes while at the academy and was subsequenly shot down in Vietnam. McCain and his outdated ideas which are based on a fraudulent supply side myth were defeated by Obama in the recent Presidential election. History has shown the supply side myth to be irresponsible and intellectually dishonest, and is one of the key variables that has led us to the brink of economic collapse.
McCain's intellectual dishonesty is eclipsed only by his stubborn stupidity in making the same old tired arguments that he has memorized to sell the supply side myth that you can eliminate taxes on the upper classes, engage in unlimited miltary spending, cut investment in every sector of the economy that does not benefit one of his constituent groups, balance the budget, have record surplus and enough will trickle down to the little people and we will all be happy. This is the great lie of supply side economics and the American people rejected it by electing Barack Obama as our President and giving him a mandate for change. So, just who the hell is John McCain and why is he still selling this load of shit even as America is collapsing? John Sidney McCain is a make believe maverick, the product of a never-ending stimulus package from (i) Cindy McCain (ii) the American taxpayer and (iii) Defense Contractors. McCain is a military industrial complex, war college brat, who’s family fortune was derived by marrying into a clan that makes money selling beer to the lower classes in America's Southwest while serving as a soul less shill for America's aristocratic classes in Congress and the Senate. The mainstream media props this guy up as the Republican common man, a regular guy, a war hero but make no mistake John McCain is the quintessential opportunist, a self made one at that!
Let me be clear, let us not demonize wealth creation but rather question policies that have resulted in excess wealth concentration. An increasing percentage of this country's wealth is in the hands of fewer and fewer people. The last time the disparity was this great was prior to the Great Depression. Unfortunately, fattening the bank accounts of hundreds and thousand of multi millionaires and billionaires will do far less than making sure millions have a few more thousand to pump into the economy to pay their bills and purchase necessities. John McCain blasted Obama with a degree of disrespect perhaps not recognizing fully that he already tried to make the sale for tax cuts for the wealthy and lost to Barack Obama in a veritable landslide. John McCain appears to have nothing left to offer in response to the stimulus package on the table being considered by the Senate but more empty rhetoric.
These same folks challenge any attempted investments in education, the arts, infrastructure, health care and energy as pork barrel spending. Government money funneled to a cross section of projects which benefit the middle and lower classes is labeled as pork while diverting the national treasury into the hands of a the privileged few is considered wise economic policy and an investment in our country's future. America will be reborn when membership in the middle class is exploding not when fewer and fewer people control an increasing percentage of societal wealth. So if you want to know why the attack on Obama from the right from Limbaugh, Gingrich, Coulter, Hannity, Drudge and the GOP is increasing in volume and will get even more deafening in the weeks and months to come, understand, they are defending the greatest rigging of our Society that began to occur under Ronald Reagan.
Our society is on the verge of economic collapse not because privileged Americans have too little money and the rest of America is lazy but because we have been hoodwinked by the mainstream Corporate Media and the GOP that low taxes for the most affluent and eliminating regulation and oversight would liberate the entrepreneurial spirit, usher in a era of unbridled capitalism that would lead to unprecedented levels of prosperity for all. Instead we have created a Bernie Madoff culture that has destroyed the middle class and given some folks a lot more leisure time, bigger homes, cars and yachts and a level of income disparity unseen since the Great Depression.
Matthews Slams NY Daily News Political Reporter Liz Benjamin For Citing Blog Rumors About Caroline Kennedy: "Let's Stick To Journalism. I Don't Do That Here"
There is a lot of meaningless nastiness that has been directed at Caroline Kennedy. It is especially disturbing and probably was unnecessary if the goal was to make a stronger case for the choice of of another candidate. While Caroline is a woman from a prominent family, it is also one that has suffered great tragedy. Caroline Kennedy has remained mostly a private citizen and extended her name and relative celebrity to meaningful causes like education, even if some question the extent of her actual record. Truth is, it did not seem that Caroline was much concerned about creating a record as much as she appeared to be lending the Kennedy name to important issues. Obama inspired many people, including Caroline Kennedy, who may have otherwise been content to remain on the sidelines, to get more actively involved. The foregoing being said, going from private citizen to the klieg lights of Broadway which is the rough and tumble New York political scene may have been a bit naive on her part, even with her having some strong allies at City Hall and the White House.
The selection of the relatively unknown, but nevertheless in my estimation, highly qualified Kirsten Gillibrand, a Blue Dog Democrat was a bold stroke by New York Governor Patterson, even if the process left much to be desired. If nothing else is clear is that the Clinton machine wanted one of their own to fill Hillary's seat and Governor Patterson viewed placating Hillary as important to his electoral success in 2010. Clintonism has affected or infected (depending on your perspective) the New York Democratic political apparatus. One suspects that the jockeying for Hillary's seat went on long before the media began to focus on this in earnest. New York politico's enthusiastically bent over backwards to support their adopted New Yorker. The scorched earth tactics pursed in an effort to lower Caroline Kennedy's standing and to neutralize Andrew Cuomo were curious, if not downright foolish. The case for elevating Gillibrand could have been made without undermining a Kennedy or a Cuomo. Allies close to Hillary and the Clinton's in general ought to be careful leaving their fingerprints all over this selection and the smear job used to attain it. VOTE FRAUD in the New York Democratic Presidential Primary by those loyal to Clinton was largely overlooked by the mainstream media, despite Bloomberg and Citizens Union raising questions about the mystery in Harlem. Spitzer became mirred in his own scandal shortly thereafter and was forced to resign before he could even consider the request to investigate the fraud.
To bully a progressive like Caroline Kennedy with an inquest in to her private life serves no meaningful purpose. Clinton surrogate, Chuck Schumer let on that Gillibrand's selection was a thinly veiled appeal to upstate voters, as well as Conservative Democrats. Patterson strategy appears to be to hold downstate Democratic voters while hoping that Gillbrand expands his base sufficiently to get him elected in 2010. Having Kennedy's, Cuomo's and Progressive Democrats in New York City aligned against you, however, is definitely a gamble. Does this not illustrate once and for all the “questionable” progressive bona fides of “liberal” icon Hillary Rodham Clinton? Was this her parting shot at those who abandoned her campaign to support Obama in New York and a reminder that the Clinton's still have major juice in New York? Abandoning Hillary seems to carry ramifications indeed. Perhaps it is just a coincidence that Governor Bill Richardson, Caroline Kennedy and Charles Rangel all became mirred in scandal or became the subject of rumor and innuendo in the media after jumping aboard Obama's train. And the timing of the Spitzer scandal, just so curious on so many levels. The Clinton Legacy should be re-examined, lest history keep repeating itself. Now that Hillary is at the State Department, let's see if our local leaders could regrow a set of balls and make decisions without consulting the Clinton Machine. See also, The Huffington Post
J Lo's Big Ass Move on Obama: Enter The Opportunists
Obama's grand Inaugural Celebration is attracting 'SURPRISE" celebrity opportunists from every corridor, including those who did not support his candidacy and did not work to help him get elected. J Lo will speak at the Inaugural Latino Ball and husband Mark Anthony will sing despite their repeated snubs of Obama during the electoral cycle. Of course the prima donna and her scrawny husband want to be front and center in the media spectacle of the century, Obama's Inauguration. "I need to Know" what Mark Anthony had to do with Obama's election. According to Page Six: One power player called them "vile opportunists for worming themselves into anything Obama related even though they had nothing to do with his win." But what they do not get is: this ain't about them. It is about all the people who gave donations of $5 and $10 bucks at a time, like my self and millions of others around the country. They did not even support his candidacy yet J Lo and Mark Anthony, for purposes of publicity and exposure seek to place themselves front and center at the party of the century. Personally, I have more of a right to be there than these two. If Obama needs someone with a Big Ass at the Inauguration, he would be better off having his people connect with Milani Rose or the publishers of KING MAGAZINE, where you will be more likely to find Obama supporters and those who actually worked to make a contribution to his campaign. The Hip Hop communityhelped Obama significantly in raising funds and getting out the vote in many battle ground states. Many in the Latino community did as well, but notJ Lo or Mark Anthony, even when they were called upon. And here is the deal, I actually like J Lo, her big ass, big voice especially in her portrayal of Selena and big style. But there is a time and place to "know your place" in the pecking order--with all due respect.
Americans need to wake up from the haze of our culture of distraction. As a people we have become so consumed, pre-occupied and distracted with celebrity culture, reading, watching and speaking about what celebrities do and say on a daily basis to the detriment of focusing on our own lives. J Lo and Mark Anthony's desire to be at the party of the century has more to do with receiving publicity and exposure from one of the biggest events of modern times. The "little people" in America need to remain engaged, read more books, alternative sources of media to the mainstream press, turn off the television from time to time and spend a little less of their time, energy and money on consuming the culture of celebrity. Perhaps then we will be able to tone down the relative significance of the culture of celebrity and celebrate the work of writers, painters, poets and artists who can truly help lead us towards a cultural reawakening to reshape our society rather than continuing to support those who currently prey off and enrich themselves off our ignorance. We need a little less bling and a little more of the real thing. Or as stated by Ayn Rand: “Every aspect of Western culture needs a new code of ethics - a rational ethics - as a precondition of rebirth.”
Inaugural Kick Off Celebration (Where Change Meets Hope) @ Union Station. Join Russ Parr and other special guests for a kick-off celebration at the Historic Union Station! Tickets available at http://unionstationfriday.eventbrite.com
