Mosque? What Mosque.

Obama said this:
“Ground zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” Obama said at a White House dinner celebrating the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. “But let me be clear: As a citizen and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”

Kind of what I’ve always thought we were about as a nation, establish laws (The Constitution, Bill of Rights) and obey/enforce them.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41060.html#ixzz0xLsQ3SNa

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01.html

“Many of the British North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled in the seventeenth century by men and women, who, in the face of European persecution, refused to compromise passionately held religious convictions and fled Europe. The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established "as plantations of religion." Some settlers who arrived in these areas came for secular motives--"to catch fish" as one New Englander put it--but the great majority left Europe to worship God in the way they believed to be correct.”

If you follow the link you’ll see that the Pilgrims (1620) and the Puritans (1630) sought refuge from religious persecution in the New World (America and later the USA.) I see a precedent here. They were followed later by Quakers(Pennsylvania,) Mennonites and Martin Luther’s Lutherans, among many smaller sects.



Another take on the situation courtesy of William Rivers Pitt


http://www.truth-out.org/mosques-muslims-and-america-darkness62409

“First of all, the Cordoba House is not a "Ground Zero Mosque." It is a Muslim community center, it is two blocks away from the site, and in a neighborhood that already has a mosque...and a strip club, and a lot of other stuff that makes talk about "desecrating hallowed ground" sound like the nonsense that it is.
Oh, and by the by, a lot of the people quacking about "hallowed ground" are the same cretins who refused to pony up funding for 9/11 rescue workers who desperately need health care when the bill came before Congress. I'm pretty used to broadband Republican hypocrisy - the core of their power in politics, after all, is their utter and complete lack of shame - but this just sends me over the moon. Money for continuing the Bush-era tax cuts for rich people? Sure. Money for people who charged into the fire and dust and smoke on that day, who are now dying by inches
because of their heroism? Not so much. And P.S., all Muslims are bad. Got that? It's the Republican way.”

What really steams me about all this mess is the lack of sensitivity offered by the GOP aided by the mainstream media that has turned this “hallowed ground” into a political football. It’s election season and more than any other time it seems that nothing is sacred. I didn’t get that sense from Obama’s speech. More an admonishment to remember who we are and where we came from.

PSYCHOBAMATRONICS

If your as psycho as I have become, Xanax during the day, Wild Turkey at night, Ambian for sleep, espresso ALL the time, wake-up and repeat...AND you think you want to watch the returns tomorrow night with some semblance of sanity, I can't help. For those other, less than real Americans, here's a link to Intrade's realtime odds page. Just the thing to keep the evening lively. BTW, I think this map will update if you refresh the page periodically.

For what it's worth, Virginia, my dear purple turning blue home-state is looking pretty strong. Here's hoping that the O's coat tails are long enough to drag Sam Rassoul into the house and send Bob Goodlatte packing.

On the other hand, Kansas is looking grim. No surprise and I wouldn't care save for the fact that Miss W. and myself spend the better part of a day there twice a year on the east/west, west/east sojourns. I was just thinking that if they went blue they might learn how to brew coffee that could defend itself from the veal cutlet.

Throw a bearclaw in the radar-range, I'll be back.






Here's a link to the Dialy Kos tracker. Much prettier without the de rigueur RWB color scheme:

http://scoreboard.dailykos.com/map/electionMapBeta.swf?autoPlayOn=1&mapMode=President&mapView=election&colorScheme=manualSolid&currentElectionYear=2008&predictionMode=1&predictionString=2,2,2,2,1,2,1,1,1,2,2,1,2,1,2,2,2,2,2,1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2,1,1,2,1,2,2,2,2,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2,1,2,1,2,1,2&splitPredictionString=1,1,2,2,2&rootDirectory=http://scoreboard.dailykos.com/map/&outsideEmbed=1

"Be good in your lifetime." Drew Breckenridge

Work hard, kiddies. The day is upon us.

FC

Change

CHANGE

It's Obama's key message. Has been, all along. It's also Aron Leigh's message in his song, "Change," written in support of the O. From his website:

"Having gone through his own personal transformation in life, Aron Leigh, a Nashville recording artist, is a firm believer in the power of change. He wrote this impassioned song to encourage the American people to take responsibility for the hardships being endured by many in the nation today. Aron is a strong Barack Obama supporter, and he shares with Obama the fervent belief that it is not okay to let our nation continue at status quo. Change is possible and it must happen now. Aron’s song is a tribute to the power of people to come together in 2008 to make a change."

Aron Leigh is just one of thousands of Nashville musicians struggling to rise to the next level, get his head just a bit higher than the rest and move from the musicians pool to the "other' pool. That's the pool where dreams come true. Or at least one can start to dream that they will.
Mr. Leigh is a country rocker. That's "new" country. Electric guitars and high production values. Not your Daddy's country. Not even my country. It's the crossover country sound that could be rock and roll. It is also, like most country music, "white people" music. Mr. Leigh is white as well which should be a perfect fit. And would be, that is, until he penned a song in support of the Obama philosophy of Change. A song in support of a black man. Judging by some of the comments in his YouTube version of this video, he's in for a bit of status-quo white honkey backlash. I wish him well and have every confidence he will rise above the racism which is inherent in a small but significant portion of his music genre.

Link to Aron's website if you're interested in the higher def mp4 download of this video. It's worth the effort, IMHO:

http://aronleigh.com/

Here's your Sunday bonus. Not quite to the level of Mr. Leigh, but a worthy effort none the less:



A Sunday 3-fer from Alaska:



As Drew would say, "Be good in your lifetime."


FC

Inspiration Again

When I was a young man, like in the days of whale oil lights and parchment, my friends and I would fantasize about the day when our people would rule this country. We would be enlightened. We would seek peace. We would commune with the earth.

Fast forward to Frank's side tracking.

Yeah, it happened. I aspired to own THINGS. My car, my stereo, my walkman, my bicycle, my fly-rod, my every damned thing I owned had to be the best and coolest and most illusive on earth. I wanted material wealth. I wanted sensual wealth. I wanted respect. I wanted the cool.

I got some of it.

Then I got something else. A slapdown from the one woman that could slap me down.

Fast forward to Frank's LIFECHANGE.

Self-Help is the key to salvation. I know this because I actually did it. I helped myself. I read all the books. I did all the exercises, I did all the work. I rooted out the demons of my self-centered soul and vanquished the vile ego. I wrote the journals, walked the walk and ate the placenta. I had a rebirth experience where I gave birth to my new self and I was me. Again. But better. Or at least different.

Fast forward to now.

NOW. Now,now. I am remembering the fantasy we used to have as pot-smoking hipster-wannabe adolescents. You know, the one where our people ruled. Guess what.

I. THINK. IT'S. HAPPENING.

OMFG

I'm 52 and I'm gonna get my wish.

Life is good.



"Be good in your lifetime." Drew Breckenridge

FC

O Speaks

After eight years of mush mouthed mispronunciations and surreal reality constructs supported by soft-balling surrogates (good alliteration, FC,) it is a refreshing thought, dare I say hope or dream, that we may at last have intelligent discourse. Damn, I'm excited.

Tip: Don't miss the laugh-track finale.


Two clips from the Rachael Maddow interview on Wednesday:






The O and The Stewart:




The Laugh Track.
What if Sarah Palin were black. Really. What if...



Link to the site:

http://youtu.be/cEKxEBkkz4w
Work hard, play hard. Happy Helloween.

BTW I'm going as Lester the Republican this year. Use your brain, vote McCain. Twelve more years. Obama's a scary, scary man. I'm voting for the chick.

FC

"Be good in your lifetime." Drew Breckenridge

Out of Many One

"You see, the challenges we face will not be solved with one meeting in one night. It will not be resolved on even a Super Duper Tuesday. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We are the hope of those boys who have so little, who've been told that they cannot have what they dream, that they cannot be what they imagine. Yes, they can.

We are the hope of the father who goes to work before dawn and lies awake with doubt that tells him he cannot give his children the same opportunities that someone gave him. Yes, he can.

We are the hope of the woman who hears that her city will not be rebuilt, that she cannot somehow claim the life that was swept away in a terrible storm. Yes, she can.

We are the hope of the future, the answer to the cynics who tell us our house must stand divided, that we cannot come together, that we cannot remake this world as it should be.

We know that we have seen something happen over the last several weeks, over the past several months. We know that what began as a whisper has now swelled to a chorus that cannot be ignored — that will not be deterred, that will ring out across this land as a hymn that will heal this nation — repair this world, make this time different than all the rest. Yes, we can.

Let's go to work."

Barack Obama speaking after Super Tuesday, 2008

We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.


Emphasis on We.












"Be good in your lifetime." Drew Breckenridge

The Real Deal

That's who Charles Alexander is. That's also who his peeps are. And that is why we will win this thing.
I'm very, very cautious about the prediction jinx. I've been burned before. But I'm starting to feel the love.