Barack Obama released an ad with him looking straight at you, Spanish speaking Latinos, and he’s speaking in your language, Spanish. Apparently this as is supposed to appeal to our emotional side, and while his pronunciation isn’t too bad, the ad has as much emotion as a rock.
Via / Politico
I dunno, Fey is amusing and all, but I really prefer Will Ferrell as George Bush. Dude, I want to be heavily patriotized.
Listen, I’m the first one to say that I believe women until there is clear and compelling reason not to. Far too often, women (and girls) who are raped or otherwise beaten by men are not believed, mocked, ridiculed and/or attacked endlessly until they finally ‘recant’ at which point because they ‘recant,’ those who were defending the accused rapist/abuser suddenly say, “See, I knew he was innocent!” Think Kobe Bryant, Mike Tyson, the Duke Lacrosse team, and so many others.
But in this case, something reeked of untruth from the minute I read about it:
A John McCain volunteer in Pittsburgh who said she was robbed and sexually assaulted because of her political views has admitted to fabricating the story and will be charged, police said Friday.
20-year-old Ashley Todd, of College Station, Texas, “stated that she made up the story which snowballed and got out of control,” Pittsburgh police said in a statement, adding that she would be arrested and charged with filing a false police report.
It wasn’t just that the story seemed untrue (how many white women have said some ‘dark’ or ‘black’ man have kidnapped/raped/hurt/etc them/their children, only to find out it’s not true?), but more that when I saw the woman’s face–I’ve seen both women who were truly beaten by partner AND people who cut themselves, or who have been cut–and I can promise you, that is one mighty well shaped B to have been done by an attacker against a struggling woman.
All the news stories say that the woman may have mental health issues–and I certainly wish her the very best in finding treatment and help. But I have to wonder, what would have happened if this woman was black? How would she have been treated? I remember when the Duke Lacrosse case was at the center of the blogging world, and that woman had her identity revealed as well as just about everything else you could think of. She was called names that make me sick to this day to think about, AND even though she *never* recanted her story (it was a lack of evidence which prevented the case from going to trial, which is NOT the same thing), there was a vociferous crowd of people who demanded that SHE be charged in the case.
I don’t mean to suggest that I hope that this women is on the receiving end of that crap too, I don’t. I don’t think the worst liars of all liars should be subjected to that.
What I do mean to question is why are there differences in how these cases are being treated? Why is a white woman accusing a black man news, but ok, whatever–but a black woman accusing white men–that’s not just news, that’s enough reason to go out on a internet lynching campaign?
When the U.S. is spending money on sending students to wars or to jails (new tracking), are the numbers of American Fourth Graders Reading at or Above Grade Level in 2005 surprising?
· Asian American or Pacific Islander – 40 percent
· White – 39 percent
· American Indian – 19 percent
· Latino – 15 percent
· Black – 12 percent
With only 10 days left till election day, Voto Latino shows us in episode three on their online novela, that not registering may cause sex tapes and Vegas marriages.
As a New Yorker, I would be remiss if I didn’t write about how freaking angry I am that the NYC Council voted 29 votes in favor of extending term limits, to 22 votes, clearing the way for Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for a third term, and opting to not let the people of NYC who voted for term limits a few years back to vote to have the option of voting to change their mind.
Not surprisingly, the Mayor was thrilled.
Today, the majority of the City Council decided to give the people of New York a fuller choice in the November, 2009 election. I believe that was the right choice, and I want to thank Speaker Quinn for her leadership. Those of us who work on both sides of City Hall must now move forward with the important decisions that face us, particularly finding ways to soften the fallout from the economic downturn and balancing our budget as revenues decline. We have a lot of work to do together to get New York through these tough times.
I’m happy that my council person voted against the measure and while I don’t hate Bloomberg as much as I hate Giuliani, I am not down with playing on people’s fears as a control mechanism.
