Barak Hussein Obama Elected 44th President of the United States

Wow.

Palin Rap

Wow! This is awesome.

Intermission

Funny stuff. If you haven't seen this, McCain and Obama exchange turns as humorist at the Al Smith Foundation dinner in NYC.

Both are very good.

John McCain in a nutshell

Wow. Got this from TalkingPointsMemo.com today. Amazing really. It's like McCain stole his whole campaign from the joker!

KP

Global Air Traffic Patterns

Wow! Now this is just cool!

Global Air Traffic simulated over a 24hr period...

Chris Matthews Holding Republicans to Account

To listen to John McCain and the Republicans talk these days, you'd almost think they hadn't been in charge for the last 8 years. After all, they keep talking about how things need to change. Well I say to the party of the "ownership" society that it is time to "own" your failure.

Chris Matthews does a good job of this...

Lily Pad USA in the News

The Lily Pad project was profiled by Jacinta Spinola from Lucrum Radio recently. Here is a copy of the broadcast...

Lily Pad USA Interview

A Country Reaches a Turning Point

I think Barack just did what I've been hoping for from a Democrat for many years. He made a powerful and confident case from the progressive core of America.

Lincoln, Jefferson, and Martin Luther King would be proud. I know I am.

I'll be shocked if Obama doesn't run away with it in November.

KP

Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech

Fun times in Politics

Historic!



Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans

Mr. No Short Term Memory

I think Saturday Night Live once did a skit about a guy without any short term memory.

Amazing that Bush could say this with a straight face after what we did to Iraq and what we continue to do to Iran, Cuba, France, and anyone else that doesn't agree with us.

I guess our standards are only meant for others to meet...

"Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century," the president said. "Only Russia can decide whether it will now put itself back on the path of responsible nations or continue to pursue a policy that promises only confrontation and isolation. "

Here's the source...
USA Today

Cracks in our Democracy

Andrew J. Bacevich, is a retired Army Colonel and International Relations expert who appeared on Bill Moyers this week. He elequently lays out the issues we must face to regain our footing as a nation.

The Fruits of Limiting Copyrights

Ahhh... thank you internet for making my day!

KP

Terry Tate in the House

Blast from the past. Every office needs one of these.

KP




Terry Tate - Office Linebacker

Tony Robbins was on Charlie Rose. If you've wondered who Tony is, this is a pretty good interview.

Tony Robbins w/ Charlie Rose

John McCain Debates Himself

Ha! This is great.

KP

John McCain Debates Himself

Media and Technology Debate

Technology and Communications Debate

Want to hear the difference between Obama and McCain on Telcom/Technology? Check out this debate.

During the Bush Administration, the US has moved from 4th to 15th in Broadband penetration. So what you say? Well one way to cope with high energy prices is to video conference instead of business travel. Cheap video conference over high speed broadband could reduce energy consumption by 5%!

McCain's campaign falls flat on its face. They say they support competition, but they support policies that allow mega media companies to block entrepreneurs.

It matters, and it's about more than you think...

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my dad and all the other dads out there.

Here is a great speech about Dads, that Barack Obama delivered today.

KP



http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gG5nFK

He Got Game

The Celtics made the NBA finals last night. Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett are in the Finals for the first time in their career. Way to go guys.

A brief tribute to two of my favorite players...


Kevin Garnett



Ray Allen

Should Bush Fire Gates?

Oh yeah. and this from Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the Washinton Post yesterday...

"We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage and then sit down and talk with them." Them being Iran.

Other Negotiations that Bush may not like

I had forgotten this, but the Bush Administration has negotiatied with:

- North Korea
- Sudan
- Syria (who we invited to Annapolis, MA)

So what are we really talking about here with Iran?

Bush is Mixed Up on Foreign Relations Again

"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals"

"We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement."

The above comments are from a speech President Bush delivered today to the Israeli Knesset. Once again, our President abdicated his responsibility to accomplish the hard work of leadership, and repeated a pattern of falling back on the military as his preferred choice to address conflict. He again cast US negotiators as helpless victims of foreign duplicity and confused real solutions with imagined problems. If Reagan negotiated with the Soviets, one wonders why Bush is so unable to negotiate with Iran.

Yes, appeasement is a bad idea, but that’s not what we are talking about here. We are talking about negotiation (a prerequisite to problem resolution taught in almost every leadership book in the world). To not know the difference is irresponsible and undermines his ability to lead.

He’s ability to lead is undermined by a misconception about what true negotiation really is. He seems to view it as a hard bargain, where both sides take from the other and the one who takes the most wins (often destroying relationships in the process). Much like war, this process has one winner and one loser. The alternative to the hard bargain is the “friendly” bargain. Here each side (or at least one side) views the other as friends and emphasizes agreement and the relationship as the goal, rather than victory. This approach is good at producing agreements quickly, but quite often these are shabby. And paradoxically, giving in on interests can be viewed as weak and often does little to strengthen the relationship. This second approach is what Bush referred to when he says “appeasement”. But that isn’t negotiation, that is capitulation.

The problem with these approaches is that neither of them is actually negotiating. They are limited and unprincipled, and calling them negotiation is like putting money in a bank savings account and calling it investing. It’s loosely related, but it’s not the same thing.

True negotiation is an entirely different animal. True negotiation is done “on the merits”. It’s based on principles and focuses on meeting underlying interest, not superficial positions. It is soft on the people, but hard on the problems. It recognizes that giving in on underlying interests to protect a relationship might end up jeopardizing both, so it is hard on the interests. Yet, it also recognizes that reducing the “Other” to “the enemy” and ignoring their legitimate interests, destroys the partnership and any chance of creating agreement that is sustainable. So it soft on the people and views the “others” underlying interests as part of the solution. Finally, it’s criteria based and demands that any agreement reflect a fair “objective criteria” independent of either side’s mere desires.

It’s this type of negotiation that resulted in the breakthroughs in Northern Ireland. After almost thirty years of bloody conflict, the opposing parties in Northern Ireland eventually signed an agreement about how to share power, thus bringing to an end the conflict that had claimed so many lives and caused such human suffering. To reject the use of such a tool is irresponsible.

A true leader engages others in their vision, enrolls them in the plans and compels them toward action. Negotiation is part of this. Yes, it’s hard work, and no it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes courage, dedication, and commitment, but the outcome is far better than alternative. Of course, it’s much easier to simply apply Power and bend “the other” to our will (thereby avoiding the need to negotiate). But this short term fix makes ultimate resolution even more difficult because it leaves the underlying issues unaddressed while turning friends into into adversaries.

President Bush states that Iran can’t be trusted and believes we are victims of their duplicity, hopelessly cast on a course to war. But have we not also done things to abuse that same trust? Let’s not forget that in 1953 the United States used the CIA to stage a coup of the democratically elected prime minister of Iran. And for more than a decade during the Iran/Iraq war, it was the US who sent weapons to support Iran’s enemy, Iraq. When was the last time Iran did anything even close to that to us?

It may feel good to portray ourselves as the victim of Iranian deception, but if we are serious about a human life, then we need to have the courage to get past our artificial sense of self righteousness. It’s time we take responsibility for our actions (all of them, not just the ones we like), and get on with the hard work of resolving this conflict.

Update: Looks like CNN was reporting that White House made it clear this speech was talking about Obama.


On a lighter note... Here is a pretty cool segment where Chris Matthews skewers a right wing radio DJ for mindlessly parroting the "appeasement" talking points.

Forget Total Points - Now only touchdowns count

The best part of the Clinton campaign argument regarding delegates is how little sense it makes. Here are some of the points I've heard:

• She is winning in the latest polls - Huh? has anyone ever seen how often these change? It would be foolish to believe we should overturn elections and rely on the latest poll. If we want to do that, why hold elections in the first place?
• If this was the republican party, she would have already won
• If we could Mi and Fl, she would be a lot closer
• If we look only at PENN, NY, CA she should win (see previous post on this one)
• If... if... if

If then arguments are the most enjoyable. It's almost as though she just lost the AFC Championship 34 to 25, but is trying to argue that she should still go to the superbowl because she scored more touchdowns and the opponent got most of his points through field goals. I can just hear it now...

Media: Mrs. clinton, why do you believe you should be the superbowl champ
Clinton: well it's quite clear that I scored more touchdowns that my opponent. and when you look at the facts, you have to score touchdowns if you are going to win the superbowl. In addition, our team through for more yards, and we did it with all running backs.
Media: hmm...

Good stuff!

KP

Why can't Hilllary win more states?

I was talking a friend at work today, and we got to talking politics. He was an Obama supporter, but said he was worried because Hillary was winning all the big states and that might cause trouble in a general election. I was stunned, and later dissapointed that so many people have fallen into this logic trap. Thought I would take up some blogg space to spell out two reasons why we need to start talking about something else.

1. Obama will win the 4 largest states in the General Election - It's true. Does anyone seriously think that Obama won't win California in the general election? Put it in the bank. It's going Democratic. Same with New York. Same with Pennsilvania. Just like all three have since 1992. Heck, New York even voted for Dukakis! These guys always go for the Dems. Primary's are not the same as general elections, and its a mistake to equate the two.
2. The general election takes place IN ALL 50 STATES - Hillary's camp would have us think that the votes of the smaller states don't count. And she probably believes it's true too (after all, her campaign originally had no plans to campaign past Super Tuesday). However, the truth is that all the states count. Obama is winning all over the country, and his candidacy would put in play several states that Hillary can't like Virginia and Colorado.
   

And if you still aren't convinced, Obama has won 5 of the top 10 largest states (Texas, Illinois, North Carolin, Virginia, Maryland), and over half of the top 15. He's also won 22 of the remaining 33. Perhaps the real question we should be asking is why is Hillary's appeal so limited?

KP

Update: Check out this chart, particularly the number of states Obama has won by greater than 30 points.

Image:2008 Democratic Primaries Delegate Vote.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roots of Democracy

An important piece on the Promise of Democracy. This article lays out some good points about how empathy and responsibility are at the core of what makes a democracy work and why having everyone vote is important.

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/democracy

My First Post

This is the first post of my new Blog "Chuck's Adventure Machine". Today is May 2, 2008.

Thanks to Raman for suggesting I post.