The Pleasure (and Privilege) of Indignation
Indignation clicks on in moments of perceived injustice. Unchecked, it rolls quickly out of control, gaining momentum at the expense of perspective.
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Posts Tagged: obama
The Last City I Loved: Washington D.C.
DC is traffic circles, non-working fountains in some circles’ centers, jammed downtown corridors and quiet Anacostia neighborhood streets no taxi driver wants to know after midnight. It’s Muslim taxi drivers unfurling prayer mats in alleyways near the homeless guy singing to himself
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The Week in Greed #16: How to Take a Salesman to the Woodshed
Voters at home, the ones still open to voting for him, need Obama to take the fight to Romney, to speak with urgency and moral force. He needs to have lines of attack prepared for particular topics, and those attacks need to tell a larger story.
...moreBecause He Makes The World Safer
Rumpus editor Stephen Elliott writes about why he’s voting for Obama for the 90 Days, 90 Reasons project.
“Mitt Romney… goes on the attack before he knows all the facts. He wants to draw red lines (with regards to Iran’s nuclear plan) rather than leave his options open, and he’s more concerned with national pride than with making peace.”
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A Matter of Dignity
Certain constituencies are always shoved aside, always told their issues will be addressed at some nebulous point in the future. During a lengthy debate, to see these issues merit neither discussion nor debate speaks to how little dignity is valued on the political stage.
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The Week in Greed #15: Seven Unpopular Truths About Last Night’s Great Debate
1. Mitt Romney convincingly portrayed a sympathetic human being.
...more90 Days, 90 Reasons
With time waning in the electoral race between Obama and Romney, the lack of energy and enthusiasm is striking.
Obama’s reelection seems to be met with the proverbial sound of crickets chirping — a sound indicative of apparent voter apathy. Disillusioned by unmet expectations, and unimpressed by what this president has delivered while in office, those who got him into office in the first place seem to have thrown in the towel and are standing idly by this time round.
...moreJudith Butler At Guernica
“All I really have to say about life is that for it to be regarded as valuable, it has to first be regarded as grievable. A life that is in some sense socially dead or already ‘lost’ cannot be grieved when it is actually destroyed.
...moreChomsky At Guernica
“The people we call intellectuals aren’t necessarily smarter or more knowledgeable than anyone else. But they happen to have a lot of privilege, and privilege confers responsibility. And so they oughta do things. I don’t expect them to.”
At Guernica this month, Joel Whitney interviews Noam Chomsky about his latest book, his “friendship” with Hugo Chavez, and the consequences of “Brand Obama”, among other things.
...moreSecret Treaty Is Very, Very Scary
Boing Boing, the EFF and Michael Geist are reporting that a secret treaty that could determine the future of file sharing is being negotiated without any input from the public at an international conference in Seoul.
The treaty, called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, has, of course, leaked, and it goes way beyond counterfeiting.
...moreQuotation of the Day—Obama Joins the Slow-blogging Movement
“It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.”
–President Obama, defending his decision to wait a few days before expressing anger over bonuses paid to executives of the insurance giant A.I.G.
Eliza Doolittle in the White House
In her essay “Speaking in Tongues” in The New York Review of Books, February 26, 2009, Zadie Smith examines Barack Obama’s doubleness, not just his biracial genetic history but how he inhabits multiple voices. She reviews his first book Dreams From My Father and sees him as an artist as much as a politician, but Smith warns: “For reasons that are obscure to me, those qualities we cherish in our artists we condemn in our politicians.
...moreThe Rumpus Long Interview with Bill Ayers
The Unrepentant Terrorist?
Founder of the Weather Underground, and favorite whipping boy of the failed McCain campaign, Bill Ayers talks to The Rumpus about the ’60s, the present, and his fans in the Chicago Police Department.
...moreWhat I Learned at AWP
The Rumpus dispatched dozens of our top reporters to Chicago. None of them were heard from again.
...moreMainstream K goes to Washington
For last week’s investigation, I decided to take part in the ultimate patriotic Mainstream activity–the Inauguration of President Barack Obama!
If you’re rolling your eyes because you think this is another gloaty blog entry about someone’s awesome, pimped-out day 
with Barack, Michelle, and Bono.
Faint Praise for “Praise Song”
As a poet, I appreciate the gesture made toward the arts when the President-elect asks a poet to present a work at his or her inauguration.
The Lego Inauguration
Thousands of tiny people have gathered to witness the historic Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama early in Legoland, California. (via Ted)
THE EDITOR’S DESK: What’s Been Going On
Well, we’re getting ready to launch this bad boy. I know for a lot of regular readers the site is already launched, but things are going to be different around here once Obama is sworn in as president. For example, after Obama is sworn in there will be design on every page, not just the front page.
...moreObama Gets Advice from America’s Kids
Hot off the presses is a new book by kids titled Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country. Students of non-profit writing center 826 Valencia have
Barack Obama: Those Johnny Cakes’ll getcha
Obama moonlights as a food critic on Chicago’s WTTW. He plugs the Dixie Kitchen for its Southern Sampler (perfect, he says, for the indecisive),
Random Political Notes
At a press conference with Maliki an Iraqi journalist throws a shoe at President George W. Bush.
Governor Palin’s church damaged by arson.
Pentagon pro-troop program became slush fund for itself.
Al Franken: “Norm Coleman is desperate because he knows he is going to lose.”
Karl Rove to lead Gop fight against Obama Attorney General nomination.
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