Obama
Diana Veiga's reaction to Michelle's speech
Submitted by CEM on August 26, 2008 - 12:03pm.
I listened to Michelle Obama’s speech on the radio last night. Yes, I had to take it old school because I had to make an airport run. There’s nothing like listening to a speech on the radio, especially a speech of this magnitude. There I was driving down the highway and envisaging Michelle’s outfit, her hair & make-up, her gestures, the venue, the colors, the audience’s reactions. I depended solely on the cadence of her voice and my imagination to tell the story that was unfolding, the history that was being made.
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"Doing better this time around" by Dr. Mary Washington
Submitted by CEM on August 25, 2008 - 2:56pm. Doing Better This Time Around
by Dr. Mary Washington
So here we are just hours before the start of the 2008 Democratic Convention. The candidates have been at it for over 20 months. When this all began Gallup Polls showed Senator Hilary Clinton as backed by 29% of national Democrats followed by Senator Barack Obama at 18% and former vice presidential candidate John Edwards at 13%. And today, the presumptive presidential nominee, Barack Obama leads presumptive, Republican Candidate John McCain in the polls and the electoral map. My, what a difference 602 days has made in the political life of this country and the lives of those of us fortunate enough to see it. However the tumultuous seas of change that the Obama campaign have been riding so expertly until now have appeared to calm as they approach Denver and some fear that the Democrats will fall short of the horizon. Democrats will need to show the Republican Party leadership and the public that all hands are on deck and that they are comfortable and confident with Barack Obama at the helm.
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It's Party Time! by Dr. Eric Durham
Submitted by CEM on August 24, 2008 - 4:46pm.
Okay GoodPeople,
It's time to get this party started! ...and by the way, let's have fun...it's a joyous occasion, regardless of what the Republicans and the critics have to say.
The Number #1 reason to celebrate with absolute fervor is that this convention will be of historical magnitude! Senator Barack Obama, who has already made history in a number of ways, will address yet another arena-sized audience who is eager to hear more about a "different type of politics." No matter how the Republicans try to spin his ability to draw large crowds as a weakness...please "party-goers" rest asssured that if John McCain was able to do so, he would! ...and besides what do the large crowds symbolize? An intelligent person would go beyond Obama's oratory...and find that Americans are actually hungry for sincerity and relief from the "trickle-down" economic policies of the wealthy.
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Lea Gilmore - "Off to Denver"
Submitted by lea on August 23, 2008 - 10:35am.Off to Denver
by Lea Gilmore
In less than 24 hours, I will be on my way to cover the Democratic National Convention in Denver for the Center for Emerging Media (CEM) and public radio WEAA 88.9 FM. Wait, I need to say that once more: I am on my way to cover the Democratic National Convention in Denver for the Center for Emerging Media and WEAA! Forgive me, I had to say it twice so the enormity of it all could sink in.
Just for a bit of trivia here, did you know that the first ever Democratic Convention was held in Baltimore in 1832 where President Andrew Jackson was nominated? http://www.cnn.com/
Go and throw that fact out the next time you are sitting in Jimmy's having breakfast with the morning java crowd and watch them be impressed at your political acumen, or something like that.
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Thankful to be a witness: a guest blog from Diana Veiga
Submitted by CEM on August 22, 2008 - 2:43pm.
As part of our coverage for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, we're excited to bring you a series of posts from guest bloggers. We're thrilled to begin with Maryland Blogger Diana Veiga, who blogs over at 5andapossible.blogspot.com, which is a great group blog written by five young women (we'll be meeting another of their contributors later during the convention). Enjoy!
If you believe what the polls say, I am probably one of the few black people who is not ardently supporting presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama. When I mention my hesitation about Obama to an avid supporter (and they are all around us), I am often met with dropped jaws and disappointed looks. Apparently this is the black race’s one and only chance, so I better get on the bandwagon. “But what’s he going to do for us,” I ask them. “Girl, he’s not running for President of Black America, he can’t just cater to us,” they say. Perhaps. And then like any good believer would do, they “school” me on Obama’s credentials and end with, “and he’s going to change the nation.” We won’t go into the fact that when I ask how, I have heard some of the craziest responses, including, “We’re finally going to have a black angel on the National Christmas tree.” OK, that’s change I can believe in.
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Marc on Obama and Race in America
Submitted by CEM on August 11, 2008 - 3:58pm.Last week I wrote a blog about Obama. I originally wrote in my essay that 30% of the people in America would not vote for a Black man for President. Jessica Phillips, one of my producers, challenged the stat, asking me where it came from. Well, I could not pin point the source, if there ever was one.
Marc on the Banality of Mainstream Media
Submitted by CEM on August 6, 2008 - 3:27pm.Election 2008 and the Media
Pulling from the bottom of the deck? Playing the race card?
When Obama said, “What they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He’s risky.” he was right.
Who knows how many voters will not vote for Obama simply because he is a black man? It is not a white working class issue, but is an issue for many that cuts across the entire spectrum of white people in America-working class, middle class, rich. There are a lot of visceral things that define how we vote. We don't determine our
votes entirely on the outcome of long, intellectual deliberations of the issues. One would hope that is part of it, but that is not what motivates many people when they pull that lever or push that button or punch that chad or write in that name on the first Tuesday in November.
The creative campaign war team around Senator McCain are the same people, or mindset, who during the 1988 presidential campaign played the “race card” by using William Horton to help George Bush defeat Michael Dukakis and who brainstormed into being the sultry
white women asking Harold Ford to “call me” in Tennessee. All of this is playing on the innate racist fears of America. Tapping into the worst within us. They are the ones who cleverly rode the swift boat to sink Kerry and are now attempt to smear Obama with being the mindless pin up dreams of Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton.
This is going to be very ugly. Now, politics in America has always been ugly. It was historically contained and restrained by a media that was limited to print and partisan print, at that, read by a chosen few. Now the complexity of modern technology means constant accessibility every vantage point.
Unfortunately, whether you
believe the media to have a liberal or conservative or just a
corporate bias, it is mostly mindless bland blather despite all its immediacy and visual bells and whistles.
Obama is treading lightly, fearing to touch on race but you know his Republican opposition will keep bating him with it, subtlety and overtly, throwing it America’s face.
The network media will soundbite for all its worth into the shallowest part of our consciousness touching our deepest fears without any substantive conversation to jar us into thinking.
Twenty four hour news stations and all we get are drivel and sound bites.
Just look at this week. It seems as though major TV media and some print are working to trivialize this campaign and especially Obama’s message.
Now, let me clear, as I will post in my coming blogs, there is a lot about Obama’s platform and ideas that bother me, stuff I don't think he has thought through enough. I am not talking about critique of substance but a trivialization of ideas and the very future of America.
Obama came out with a major statement energy policy this week. It was well thought out, and one may have serious disagreements with it (as I did).
None and I mean none of the major TV media used this an opportunity to set up Obama’s vision of ending oil use in our lifetime versus McCain’s vision of more oil exploration and nuclear power. They could have produced a stunning debate on one of the most important issues of our time. It could have been visually and intellectually compelling. Where was it? Not there.
Instead, they trivialized Obama with NBC News anchor Brian Williams devoting 30 seconds to theses critical energy speeches. All Williams had to say was, with no details or analysis mind you, was some quip Obama was “refining” his energy plan. The other media didn't do much more with perhaps even less substance.
The McCain love fest is back, the media has grown tired of its new love interest, Obama, the uniqueness of the color of his skin fading in the dullness of their mindless coverage.
We face a critical juncture in our energy future, in the war in Iraq and our foreign policy, in issues of torture and our conduct internationally, our economy fraying at its carbonized edges with auto and airlines teetering on verge of collapse and own infrastructure bankrupting cities. All we get is Brian Williams and Katie Couric their ratings and their banality.
Sorry folks, had to vent .. it was driving me nuts.
What do you think?
-Marc
Marc on the New Yorker Cover
Submitted by CEM on July 21, 2008 - 4:16pm.
That infamous cover
Today I received a flurry of e-mails about the controversy that surrounded last week’s cover of The New Yorker depicting Barack Obama as a muslim in the White House with a picture of Osama bin Laden over the mantle with the American flag burning in the hearth. He is shown fist bumping with Michelle Obama who is sporting an Afro, ala 1960’s revolutionary Angela Davis, with an AK-47 slung over her back, camoflauge pants, and combat boots.
My initial response was to laugh at the satirical absurdity of the cartoon. Ah yes, all of us sophisticated readers of The New Yorker. I am one, I love the magazine. I always find one or two or three articles I can’t wait to read. We are all so erudite, that is why we know how to laugh at the cartoon on the cover, when others do not. (You're detecting my facetious tone I hope.)
But then I stopped a minute. I began thinking about how that cover plays into the hands of racists and those who deeply believe that this cover represents reality. I heard this morning of one blogger who has used this cover in an animated gif. First you see the cover, then a message that reads “Why take the risk? McCain 2008.” The alleged and purported sophistication of many New Yorker readers not withstanding,(and I run the risk of angering some people here) some liberals often lack judgment that may be inspired by a racism that they would deny, or perhaps are not aware even exists within their consciousness. It runs deep in America. Or maybe it is just real satire that New Yorkers and other cosmopolitans get but others don’t. Maybe it is all the above.
I oppose censoring any kind of speech no matter how hateful, racist, sexist, anti Semitic or insulting to any group it might be. I have a deep American rooted libertarian strain in me that chafes at any rules governing an individuals rights to say what he or she believes whether spoken in truth or satire.
Many people coming from minority cultures in America are often accused of being overly sensitive to what can be perceived as hatred, blatant or latent. I am one of those. I feel the anti-semitic and racial stings deeply. When I read Tim Wise’s critique of that cover cartoon, I found his comments to be at the very least latently or subtly anti-Semitic, though there was truth in his argument that the media is loathe to satirize Jews but are willing to do it to Blacks. And of course, we are all willing to satirize images of poor whites.
The New Yorker’s article became just another distraction in what needs to be a real conversation about this race. It even distracted from the interesting article in that issue about Obama’s Chicago political roots by Ryan Lizza. The story gave us new insight into how Obama got his political roots, lending to speculation about what kind of President he would make.
If I was editor of the New Yorker, I would have said no to the cover but maybe yes to it on the inside of the magazine as an illustration to create a discussion. Satire should attract intense debate not distract us from debate.
What did you think?
-Marc
P.S. Some cartoonists have made their own versions of this cover, swapping John and Cindy out for Michelle and Obama. What do you think?
Marc on Money and Political Power
Submitted by CEM on July 8, 2008 - 1:27pm.Money and Political Power
The Baltimore Sun came out with a story this morning about the Mayor’s former boyfriend, Ronald Lipscomb, being part of a deal that won a lucrative contract even though another firm was given a higher rating, from the city’s housing commissioner, to receive the contract (read that article by clicking here).
I wish I had a dollar for every time we have reported or had discussions on a government contract going to "favored sons" instead of a seemingly more qualified group. I don’t think Mayor Dixon’s relationship with Lipscomb had anything to do with who was awarded this contract. The Sun raises a non-issue here, connecting dots that do not meet.
The real story is the cozy relationship between developers and local politicians. The real story is the inside track conversations that take place between the financially powerful and politically powerful over a drink, on the phone, during dinner or at some high priced ticket event.
It is almost impossible to keep money out of politics. All we can do is pass laws and have rules of ethics that elected and appointed officials of government must follow. We must have watchdog agencies that do not allow the wheels of power to be greased so they speed passed us unseen.
It appears that Mayor Dixon did not follow the rules. Successful politicians and their powerful friends get over on us all because they follow the disclosure rules. Then they go about making their millions perfectly legally (or at least getting away with it because they follow the modicum of procedural rule) though unethically.
Mayor Dixon and Senator Ulysses S. Currie (get up to speed on that story here) appear to not have made full legal disclosure of their contracts and contacts. They did not recuse themselves or make their relationships known before voting on contracts involving friends, clients or families.
Speaking of power and money...
Many of Senator Barack Obama's supporters and others who want to and may very well vote for him were very disappointed when he did not accept public financing of his campaign. I must admit that I was shocked at how he went about this decision.
I was surprised that he, and his advisers, did not enter into serious discussion and negotiations with the McCain campaign to come to an agreement on public financing. If he had entered into those talks they may have come out with a plan that would have worked. Of course negotiations might have fallen apart. If the latter happened then they could have announced no public financing. Instead, they did not even try. He made great statements about public financing before he became the front runner and then presumptive nominee.
Given the legal lay of the land he could have accepted public financing as a show of integrity and still counted on hundreds of millions of dollars not covered by the public finance laws. Congressional and Senatorial campaign committees, independent 509 committees and other groups could have raised all the money they need to support anyone’s candidacy.
We should not be surprised. In politics, money seems to be the most powerful medium for alleged free speech.
Many are upset at what appear to be Obama’s moving to the center and changing positions, but we will save that commentary for another time.
What do you think?
-Marc
Medgar Evers & Obama
Submitted by CEM on June 12, 2008 - 4:22pm.
Today is the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Medgar Evers. Medgar Evers was a Mississippi civil rights leader, and the head of the NAACP On this day 45 years ago, June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers was gunned down in the drive of his home, the same day that Alabama’s segregationist Governor (and later Presidential candidate) stood on the steps of Alabama’s all white university to personally block the entrance of two black students.
President Kennedy gave one of his most impassioned speeches about the moral crisis that America was facing. He sent federal marshals to ensure the safety of those children.
The man who killed Medgar Evers was a man tied to the White Citizens Council, Byron De La Beckwith. He was never convicted in two trials, by two all white juries. They were both declared mistrials. It took thirty years but De La Beckwith was finally convicted of those murders before he died.
I will never forget the photos of Medger Evers, the great civil rights warrior lying in his own blood just feet from his home.
I was thinking about how so many died to end segregation in
, when Jessica Phillips, my producer, asked if I had seen what Fox News said about Michelle Obama. I had not and I wish I still hadn’t.
They are doing stories on their news about how the Republicans are going to go after Michelle Obama. The title on the screen under the story which ran on TV, that I was shown on the web, said “ Outraged Liberals: Stop picking on Obama’s Baby Mama.”
How outrageous, how disgusting, how blatantly racist. How is it that we have come this far and someone could still think this is ok?!? This is a major TV news operation, owned by Rupert Murdoch, known for its conservative slant and blatant untruths...but this reaches new heights, or should I write, new lows of despicable behavior.
This is the state of our media. This is the mindset that must be defeated. This is why we need to take back our media from corporate, uncaring bottom feeders who only think about the bottom line.
FOX News, Rupert Murdoch, you owe the Obamas, you owe your viewers, and you owe the nation an apology. Local outlets should stand up.
I am outraged.
Since we live here in Maryland, let’s call up Fox 45 to ask them if they will repudiate what their parent company has done.
Medgar Evers and Barak Obama are the bookends of our history of building an
that is a nation of hope for all our people and children. Fox News is the expurgated entrails we thought were thrown in the garbage, only to have its slime ooze over the edges onto our floors.
