Weekly Address: Working Together on the Economy

Obama's rhetoric switched back toward an advocation of bipartisanship, something he'd seemed to abandon early in Aught-Nine. He's also rocking a violet tie and deep-purple suit, while the video itself has slightly purple cast to it ─ I don't want to call it subliminal messaging ─ but, the tie and suit definitely offer a subtle and deliberate statement, combining the Republican Red and Democratic Blue, whereas the skewed colour in the video may be incidental or just my eyes. I'm genuinely impressed and optimistic after this weeks address, something Obama hasn't inspired in me for a while.

The President's rhetorical shift itself, is coloured by his Wednesday interview with Jon Stewart, and perhaps Jon Stewart's Rally To Restore Sanity. But, the looming contextual punctuation is the 2010 Midterm Election results ─ common wisdom is that Republicans will regain the House and the Democrats will lose their super-majority but maintain control of the Senate ─ the overall message is, therefore, conciliatory.

What I like, is that this address seems to pick up on the tone which national politics have been taking on at the local level. There seems to be discordant harmony among conservatives and heavy dejection among the liberals, both of which play into an apathetic malaise afflicting the non-affiliated and centrists. It feels like it doesn't matter who you vote for ─ not because there's no substantive difference between the parties ─ not because there are fascist cabals controlling the government ─ but because the House and more especially the Senate, follow arcane & defunct rules of procedure.

If the President finally gets it, and if the Democratic party follows his lead, and if the Republicans understand that their victories represent a referendum on the state of politics and government (not on their Democratic opposition), maybe we will see some cooperation, leading to long-overdue institutional reforms in the Congress.

Vote.

Happy Halloween

This is no time for politics...

A little bit of hypocrisy never hurt a political movement

Some months ago, Dr. Laura Schlessinger decided not to renew the contract for her syndicated radio show, after backlash to her use of a particular racial epithet in response to a Black caller's query. At the time, I defended her, and specifically the notion that we, as citizens, shouldn't take actions (e.g. boycotts or lawsuits) in order to impinge the First Amendment Rights of others. I do believe that deliberately and continually undermining the right of others, diminishes our own, personal liberty.

I didn't realize at the time, that from then on, some on the right would call foul whenever some pundit lost their soapbox ─ as happened with Juan Williams, formerly of NPR, now of Fox ─ more recently to Dan Fagan, an Alaskan radio commentator, currently suspended for allegedly advocating some potentially illegal electioneering scheme. Sarah Palin commented via a note on facebook, redacted below, full text here: