A President Like JFK

Caroline Kennedy wrote an endorsement for Obama in the New York Times, comparing him to her father, which I have spoken about in a previous post.

Domestic workers in Egypt

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=107275
National (as of 1/29/2008 5:13 PM)
DFA warns against domestics bound for Egypt

The Department of Foreign Affairs is telling would-be domestic helpers to Egypt to be wary of recruiters and recruitment agencies offering these jobs as they are most likely bogus.

In these cases, the DFA said in a statement, these recruiters should immediately be reported to the Department of Labor and Employment and to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.

A report from the Philippine embassy in Cairo revealed that there are no legal jobs available for foreign domestic helpers in Egypt and the Egyptian government only issues working permits and visas to foreign domestic helpers if employed by foreign diplomats accredited to Egypt .

Filipinos who seek jobs in Egypt as domestic helpers are in danger of arrest by the Egyptian immigration authorities for lack of valid visas and working permits.

The embassy in Cairo reiterated that Filipino domestic workers in Egypt who have no pertinent documents do not enjoy labor protection and are vulnerable to abuse and maltreatment.

In past cases, the embassy has found that most illegal Filipino domestic helpers in Egypt often have visas that show they were recruited to work in a neighboring country like Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. Later, they were brought to Egypt by their sponsors for delivery to their real employers. The third-country approach is commonly used because Egyptian immigration laws allow foreign employers to bring with them their foreign domestic helpers when they vacation in Egypt.

Other illegal overseas Filipino workers there have visas that show their recruitment as skilled workers (e.g., factory workers, nurses, hotel service staff, etc.) because highly-skilled foreigners are allowed to work in Egypt. The scheme is abused by some employers who hoodwink Filipinos to come to Egypt as skilled workers only to make them work as domestic helpers.

Many also enter Egypt as tourists and work as domestic helpers. Eventually, they overstay and are locked up in the homes of their employers to avoid trouble due to their illegal immigration status. When the OFW's demand payment of their salaries or to be repatriated, they are abandoned, overworked, unpaid and victims of maltreatment, or subjected to frivolous accusations of theft by their employers, as a means to avoid paying their wages and/ or plane fares back to the Philippines.

Books banned in Cairo book fair

Egypt censors book fair

Mon Jan 28, 4:45 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080128/ennew_afp/egyptbookscensorpublishing_080128214520

CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt has banned a number of Western and secular books from the 40th Cairo International Book Fair, including works by Czech author Milan Kundera and Morocco's Mohamed Choukri, publishers said on Monday.

The Cairo book fair, the Arab world's largest, is dominated by Islamist and educational works, an AFP correspondent reported, and the authorities have not said why the other works were seized at Cairo airport.

"The Egyptian authorities have given no explanation, we were neither informed nor consulted about this measure and the books have not been returned to us," said Rana Idriss, director of Lebanese publishing house Dar al-Adab.

She said that four works by Kundera, including "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting," were barred from the fair.

Germany's Al-Jamal publishers said the authorities had seized copies of Moroccan author Mohamed Choukri's autobiographical "For Bread Alone" which contains references to teenage sex and drug use and is banned in several Arab countries.

The taboo-busting "Love in Saudi Arabia" by young novelist Ibrahim Badi has also been banned, along with "Women of Sand and Myrrh" by Lebanon's Hanan al-Sheikh.

The story deals with the position of women in the Gulf and mentions homosexuality.

Elias Khoury, a renowned Lebanese writer who describes himself as atheist, secular and left-wing, had his "As If She Were Sleeping" seized.

Egypt's State Information Service says that the Cairo book fair has "over the past years become a great cultural event, and a spacious scene for conducting dialogue among intellectuals, men of letters and artists."

12 inch Macbook Pro

I'm happy with my 13-inch Macbook, but it's bigger and heavier than the 12-inch Powerbook that I just replaced. Were there still a 12-inch MacBook in the silver metal version, I would have gone for it. One website is dedicated to that cause.

Egypt and America

This is the most ignorant blog I have ever read in my life. It's absolutely shameful. I live in Egypt and this is so far from reality, to talk about how America can fix the Egyptian elections yet push for "Democracy" at the same time.

"Micro-managing political outcomes and manipulating politicians is a delicate task," Atlantic.com blogger Matthew Yglesias wrote.

This guy is ridiculous. I don't think he can actually be serious about what he writes. Has he ever been to Egypt? If you read this Matthew, please tell me you have.

"The main thing to keep in mind for anyone's pet schemes for US-driven political change in Egypt, Pakistan, wherever. The United States is a much more powerful country than are those other countries," he wrote.

I've never read this guy before. I've been a subscriber of the Atlantic for a few years now. His former blog says that he was blogging for a bunch of websites but he's leaving for something else. I guess that is blogging for the Atlantic.

The Atlantic has a long tradition of contributors that are influential thinkers and brilliant writers. If Yglesias is the best the Atlantic can find in the blogosphere to attract attention, then it must be a sad state of affairs at the magazine. And if I were editors at the Atlantic, I'd stay as far away from Yglesias as possible. It's obvious they are, as this entry is not edited well, if at all.

Yglesias made a huge grammatical mistake and constructed a very confusing sentence when he wrote, "My read of the report, which, as is frequently the case with CRS reports, is a very useful summary is that we should be skeptical."

'MY strikes again' posted a good response: "You should brush up on your grammar & sentence construction. Maybe re-read Strunk & White. Or something, anything."

Since I haven't read Yglesias before, I must only assume this guy is really, really, ironic. Cause if not, he has no idea what he is talking about. Maybe he knows that. A headline for one of his blog postings is "Why, Yes, I am An Asshole."

Don't read this:
http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/01/a_river_in_egypt.php

No way to contact blogger

There is no way to contact blogger.com from its website. Guess you gotta call google.

Raining on Obama's parade

The photoshopped picture here was taken by Roberto Schmidt of Agence France-Presse through Getty Images and with a story by Jeffery Gettleman of the New York Times. It's an amazing photo of a boy running down the street carrying a bucket with burning shacks behind him.

I have been to this part of Kenya. I was there two years ago, almost to the day. In the rift valley, at Lake Naivasha, looking at pink flamingoes and hippos. It is a beautiful part of the world. Naivasha is where the peace agreement between North and South Sudan was signed after two decades of civil war. Its Hell's Gate National Park was the inspiration for the drawing's of the Lion King.

Up the road yesterday, at a larger lake famous for flamingos, it was just hell.

"Hundreds of men prowled a section of the city with six-foot iron bars, poisoned swords, clubs, knives and crude circumcision tools. Boys carried gladiator-style shields and women strutted around with sharpened sticks," Gettleman wrote.

It's an ironic day for such a tragedy. Barack Obama won the South Carolina primary. I posted the video of his speech below. The New York Observer posted the entire speech, as prepared.

"This is a battle in our own hearts and minds about what kind of country we want and how hard we’re willing to work for it," Obama said.

I believe Obama thinks he can fight the politicians in Washington. But before he knows it, he will not just have slander from the lips of Hillary Clinton, but the dirty tricks of every interest group, lobbyist, politician and anyone else who are protecting someone's interests. Obama will wake up, and have to face that not only is America crumbling, but the world is in shambles.

At this lake where thugs stroll with poisoned swords, men from the same tribe as Obama's father, the Luo, are fleeing West, and have been accused of helping slaughter a rival tribe that is of the ruling president. Kenya is a country at the brink of collapse. Most people who were in America on this same night, most of the people who attended Obama's speech, have no idea that across the world, nightmares are reality.

So I wonder if Mr. Obama is truly happy in his heart for this victory. I wonder if as he turns on the television to watch the news of his victory speech, that he also watches what is happening to his people who never got the chance to go to America, to feel that anything is possible. We believe as Americans, that by the nature of being born in a place, that we are all destined for great things. Maybe Obama is what we all hope for inside, that anyone can run for president. But few of us know what it is like with no hope.

I hope that in some way Obama is linked to this day, that when he is asked many years from now if he dreams of January 27 as the day that he won South Carolina, or the day that his father's country was in shambles.

Bloggers plagiarizing journalists

I recently found a blog on treehugger.com that lifted a story by National Geographic writer Steven Stanek. I contacted the site and the writer, and eventually they took down the story. I posted the story on my website before it was removed. The email exchange is as follows:

Hello,
The author of this article at treehugger.com is plagiarizing an article from National Geographic's website. The byline is of a PhD student's name instead of the real author. Even the photo fails to give credit. It is misleading to say that Jeremy Elton Jacquot wrote this story from Los Angeles, when in fact a journalist traveled to the Western Desert in Egypt to do research and interview people. Jacquot is basically taking credit for something he didn't do. It is possible that treehugger.com subscribes to a service that gave them the story, but if not, it's unethical and also against the law to post copyrighted material and changing the name.

After posting a comment and then emailing the editor of the website, my comment was removed for no apparent reason. After looking through your website, I have found your writers to be responsible when it comes to properly citing sources. This author, Jacquot, however, appears to repeatedly plagiarize others' work. I request that you appropriately address this situation. As a PhD student, Jacquot should know better than to plagiarize, which should lead to repercussions at his academic institution.

Kind Regards,
Andrew Bossone


Dear Andrew,

I'm sorry to have deleted your comments, but it seems as though you misunderstand the premise of TreeHugger; as writers, we don't actually go out to various locations - except locally (in my case, for example, in Los Angeles) - and write original stories. We sift through stories we find online and report on them for TreeHugger.

Hence, in this case, I covered a story written by a writer who traveled to Egypt for National Geographic News. By no means am I suggesting I did all the research and work; I'm simply reporting on a story already written and including an image from said story. I have always done this (see my other work) so it seems strange to isolate this one story for my supposed "plagiarizing".

Best regards,

Jeremy

Jeremy,
Maybe you don't understand the premise of journalism, which is that reporters get paid for their work and it is the property of them and the publication they work for. Your story is neither original nor reported. You lifted Stanek's quotes verbatim and followed the same exact story structure. This is called plagiarism, and you do it in all of your stories. Just pick one. This is not the case for the rest of the bloggers on treehugger, who give credit for other people's stories, although even that is questionable. As a journalist, I depend on other people not to misuse or steal my work. Other websites attributed this article to you, therefore the real author was not properly given credit for his work.
The fact that you removed the comment yourself rather than answering it directly suggests that you have dubious intentions. Clearly, treehugger.com is not against free speech, and my comments were not inappropriate, so I wonder why you removed it other than to protect yourself.
If you were to write other people's ideas in a research paper without proper citation, you could be kicked out of school. Doing this in real life can result in a lawsuit. Please consider removing the story and begin citing authors appropriately as I do not want to take this situation further.

Sincerely,
Andrew

Dear Andrew,

I understand your concerns and, as per your suggestions, will take down the story (I will do so immediately though it may take a few minutes for the website to register the change). I will also do a better job of citing other authors' work as I do not wish to take away from their efforts; with regards to this, how would you suggest I best cite their work? I mean no ill intention in this question; you say that you consider even the citation work of my fellow bloggers "questionable" so I would like to best reflect in my work what you consider appropriate.

I also apologize for removing your comment; you are certainly right to note that it was by no means inappropriate and it would've behooved me to leave it standing.

I thank you for your input and am sorry for having behaved unprofessionally.

Best regards,

Jeremy

Dear Jeremy,
You certainly made the right choice and I appreciate your maturity on the issue. I will think about your question and answer more thoroughly, but the short answer is that every quote, idea and photograph should be properly attributed. If you want to represent yourself as a journalist/reporter/writer, then you should take it seriously and actually do reporting yourself. There is a space for blogging, but it should be done responsibly and original authors should have credit for their work.

Sincerely,
Andrew

Dear Andrew,

Thank you again for your feedback; I will certainly try do more reporting where possible and, since it will continue to account for a great majority of my writing, do a more thorough job of properly attributing quotes, pictures, etc to their proper sources. I will start by directly giving credit to the author at the beginning of my post so as to direct interested readers to the original story.

As someone who one day hopes to do more original reporting, I do appreciate your advice and look forward to hearing your further input.

Best regards,

Jeremy

Hi Jeremy,
I didn't take offense to your question, but I have one for you and I hope you don't take offense, even though it is a bit caustic: How is that you are a PhD student, yet you don't have a clear understanding of plagiarism?

I would suggest a few things for proper attribution. First, as you said, lead off the story with the name of the real author and where s/he was reporting from. You should also link the story up top, rather than at the bottom, as you have it.
You should put the author's name on the quote, although quotes aren't a good idea in my opinion(I'll explain that later). So instead of writing "I used to live on a farm," John said, you should write, "I used to live on a farm," John told reporter Brian Doe of the New York Times.
I would also be careful about using photos at all. These are subject to strict copyright laws. They are possession of the photographer and the news agency. Are you familiar with the concept of fair use? Basically it means that if someone posts a picture on a personal website and you find it on google images, for example, or if a website offers photos for free, then they are "fair use" and you can use them freely. Other pictures require express written permission from the owners of the photos.
This is why I said the citation work of bloggers is questionable. Rarely, if ever, do you see bloggers requesting permission before taking the ideas, quotes, or photos from the original author. It's one thing to cite a story and critique, its another to rewrite and use it on your own. This is why using quotes is questionable. A journalist goes to a specific location, with a specific person and uses it for a specific purpose. In the case of your story, you wrote it from LA, but the journalist had to do all the leg work in Egypt. At the end of the day, you get credit because other bloggers cite you, and your website generates a profit, yet someone else did all of the work.

I hope you found this informative and not bombastic. I am not a journalist that believes there is anything wrong with blogging, but I do believe that just as there are rules for journalists, there should be rules for bloggers. This way there is an even playing field. Bloggers are taking jobs from journalists, so let's make the game fair.
My last piece of advice since you are considering being a professional writer: You will have gained expertise in a field after your studies. That's great. There needs to be more expert writers to ensure the truth is out there. Just be careful about citing sources and opinions. There will be many people who disagree with you and will try to denounce what you write or you personally. Make sure your facts are straight, and you'll always be able to defend yourself.

Sincerely,
Andrew Bossone

Hi Andrew,

No offense taken; to answer your first question - a very fair one - I guess the same type of citing issues never arose in my work previously. You may consider this a poor excuse, but most of my citation work - being in the sciences - uses a specific format and typically leads me to catalog all my sources at the end of my reports, using one of several common formats (usually APA). Again, I know this isn't the most convincing excuse, but I've yet to write many papers employing sources other than primary literature; the image issue never really came up before.

I appreciate your advice and completely understand your point vis-a-vis the fairness issue. As I've stated before, I have no intention of misrepresenting or stealing other reporters' work and will do my best from now on to properly attribute where is necessary.

Best regards,

Jeremy

Letter to the Northwestern Provost

Dear Daniel Linzer,
I wrote this letter to you a few months ago and I don't know why I
never sent it. I guess now that the dean had his contract extended,
it's a moot point.

I can certainly understand why you feel it is your obligation to
support the dean of one of your schools. Just like a good editor will
defend a journalist when criticism comes from the outside, a good
provost will defend one of his deans. Unfortunately your predecessor
backed the wrong horse, however, and now you are responding to its
backlash.
I would like to assure you that our concerns are not based on
hearsay. I have been following the changes specifically at the
graduate program of the Medill School of Journalism with several
professors and students during the last two years. I have read drafts
of the curriculum and statements by the dean. I have corresponded with
him and believed it was time to raise it to the administration at
Northwestern.
While it is reasonable that you would direct me to a website for
answers rather than spending your valuable time addressing specific
concerns, that site does not adhere to the most basic of journalistic
rules: attribution. Only a few of the quotes on that site have the
names and background of the people who said them. To exclude
attribution is both misleading and lazy by the person who published
it.
In response to your specific remarks: Although it appears that
journalism is changing at a dizzying rate on a superficial level, upon
closer inspection much of these changes are happening at the business
model of media organizations, ie; the issue of declining advertising
revenues, rather than at the editorial level. This is typical of a new
industry with an expanding number players. It happened in broadcasting
several years ago with the influx of cable and satellite stations. It
would be imprudent to jump on the trend du jour just to cater to what
appears to be an industry in decline.
The dean will tell you the fundamentals of journalism are not being
sacrificed. I tend to disagree. Students need to write well and more
frequently on tighter deadlines than ever before; this is the nature
of the internet: immediacy. If students of journalism cannot file
frequent stories on deadline, consumers will turn to bloggers.
"Nowhere has truth so short a life as in Sicily; a fact has scarcely
happened five minutes before its genuine kernel has vanished, been
camouflaged, embellished, disfigured, squashed, annihilated by
imagination and self-interest; shame, fear, generosity, malice,
opportunism, charity, all the passions, good as well as evil, fling
themselves onto the fact and tear it to pieces; very soon it has
vanished altogether." By Le Anne Schreiber ESPN Ombudsman, quoting
"The Leopard," by Giuseppe di Lampedusa.
You will also hear that by enterprising more stories and
incorporating multimedia, the new curriculum is enriching the
reporting experience. This tells me that the previous reporting
experience did not include enough in-depth reporting. This was
certainly not the case when I attended the Medill School of
Journalism. As a broadcast student three years ago I created several
long-form journalism pieces for print, radio and broadcast. My
colleagues and I won awards from the Society of Professional
Journalists for our short documentaries created for Medill Reports
segments each quarter. Our print students also received applaud for
their work on long-form journalism that was a hallmark of Medill.

I am troubled because I do not find the new curriculum particularly
innovative. For example, incorporating audio slideshows does not add
significant value to the education of students. If the purpose of
audio slideshows is to increase the multimedia capabilities of
students, why are these programs so simple that someone with little or
no technology background can use them? Also, this technology is not
engaging for the consumer because they fail to utilize the interactive
elements that are the future of the media. Quite simply audio
slideshows are outdated and media outlets are unable to prove that
consumers are even interested in them.
The dean has come under particular criticism (as well as support)
for requiring journalism students to take marketing classes. It's a
risky proposition; on the one hand journalists today are more tempted
than ever to write favorably about a leading company or cater to the
vicissitudes of public opinion and entertainment trends. On the other
hand, the media is engaging in a fierce competition to grab hold of
consumers. Managers and editors need to know how to attract and retain
readers.
This needs to be done, for the most part, with the array of
technological tools available today. With the click of a button,
programs show the most detailed information about consumers of
websites. These programs can show a decision maker the peak times of
use, geographical data and time spent browsing, among others. Medill
can study this data, and with experience, outsource this service to
others in the media industry and publish academic work on it.
Establishing independent bureaus around the city to get closer to the
communities is only basic way to learn about consumers. And it
resembles the first assignment of the first quarter of the graduate
program: the person-on-the-street story.
I expect that a leading institution would invest in technology. When
I read that my alma mater received an $800,000 grant to combine
computer science and journalism I was pleased, of course. Until I
heard that the Chicago newsroom has actually decreased the number of
university computers. Instead, students are required to purchase
specific pieces of equipment that are not necessarily the most
pragmatic of journalism tools.
And how can we really justify that a journalism school should be
investing in real estate rather than technology? I'm not saying Medill
is not investing in this area; of course I do not know the details of
every purchase by the school. With the exception of a cumbersome news
management system and the training of professors in technology, I
cannot comment much further about the allocation of resources in
technology.

When I was a student at Medill about three years ago I was asked to
participate in discussion groups with accreditors (I use the term
'accreditor' loosely because I do not know if the consultants that
spoke to me were from the Higher Learning Commission of the NCA). The
number one concern among them was a lack of theoretical framework and
academic rigor. I had to agree with them, as I wondered why as a
master's student I rarely had homework assignments. To his credit, the
dean has added more specializations to the curriculum and has said he
is offering more elective classes. But the administration of
Northwestern probably knows that this would have happened with any new
dean because of recommendations from the accreditors.
It should also be noted that students in the past were rarely
prevented from taking electives. I took classes in religion, for
example, before travelling to the Middle East through Medill's global
journalism program. Others took classes at Kellogg and the School of
Law. It's just that now electives have been ensconced into the
curriculum.
I am certainly not adverse to change or technology. I uprooted my
life to move to Egypt and eventually left my first job to launch a
technology magazine. I believe that one approach Medill should take to
be a pioneer in technology and journalism is by establishing
relationships with technology companies that are investing billions of
dollars on R&D for the media. Medill could use the expertise of
companies like Cisco and Apple that are exploring ways to decrease the
size of media files and simplify the media creation process,
respectively, thus improving both the speed of delivery and quality of
content. Medill could build relationships like the one Reuters has in
which its political reporters on the campaign trail are using Nokia
phones to gather and develop content. And Medill could create a niche
of media technology experts from students rather than a producing a
group of generalists.
I also believe that both Northwestern and its students should get a
return on their investment. You said that it is too early to evaluate
the program. The numbers reveal if this should be the approach.
Several clients of the Washington program have recently dropped out or
accepted fewer stories from Medill reporters. Clients that left
include television stations in Monroe, LA and Lawrence, KS, both of
whom used to offer jobs to graduates (Lawrence, by the way, is
recognized as one of the best implementers of technology among local
channels in the nation). One Medill alumna said her newspaper is
refusing content from the school.
I am certainly not adverse to change or technology. I uprooted my
life to move to Egypt and eventually launched a technology magazine. I
believe that Medill should pioneer technology and journalism, but that
it could be done by establishing relationships with technology
companies that investing billions of dollars on R&D for media. Medill
could use the expertise of companies like Cisco and Apple that are
exploring ways to decrease the size of media files and simplify the
media creation process, respectively, thus improving both the speed of
delivery and quality of content. Medill could build relationships like
the one Reuters has in which its political reporters on the campaign
trail are using Nokia phones to gather and develop content. And Medill
could create a niche of media technology experts from students rather
than a group of generalists.
I also believe that Northwestern and its students should get a
return on their investment. You said that it is too early to evaluate
the program. The numbers reveal if this should be the approach:
several clients of the Washington program have dropped out or accepted
fewer stories. Clients that left include television stations in
Monroe, LA and Lawrence, KS, both of whom used to offer jobs to
graduates (Lawrence, by the way, is recognized as one of the best
implementers of technology among local channels in the nation). One
Medill alumna said her newspaper is refusing content from the school.
The dean's response to criticisms of the changes at the Washington
program is that students have greater potential to reach more
consumers because they are producing more web-based products. This is
roughly the equivalent of saying that a blog has the potential to
reach the entire world solely based on the fact that it is on the
internet. Reducing the importance of local news ignores the fact that
localization is a form of specialization. This is part of the future
of journalism, one that even the dean himself is advocating.
If you insist on waiting to let this program take its course,
however, I would monitor if any other outlets drop out from the
Washington service in the near future.
I do want to know if you stand on the laurels of the new curriculum,
why not allow all faculty to vote on it? Why not open it up to
criticism? While I have given you my opinion on many of the changes at
Medill in this email, but the issue of faculty governance is one that
so many alumni supported in the petition I sent to you. I can only
claim to represent the more than 80 former students this one issue,
which supports faculty governance.
I realize that openly criticizing the current program is not
something I can ever expect from you. But I do hope that you reflect
on what I wrote in this email and consider that there are other routes
to help Medill stand among the top schools in the world.

Regards,
Andrew Bossone

The dean's response:
Andrew:

I appreciate very much that you want Medill to remain at the top, and
I thank you for taking the time to write to me with this thoughtful
note.

Regards,

Dan Linzer

Pile On Pack Journalism

I saw this article by Rebecca Traister on Salon.com about the willingness of a group of angry white men to denounce Hillary Clinton after she lost Iowa. She makes a valid point that these pundits are unfair to Clinton, but Traister treads a fine line between journalist and columnist/activist. If she does claim to be a journalist covering politics, she should be careful not to use the rhetoric of a candidate. It was Clinton herself that said the same thing about an old boys' club attacking her during a debate in October, 2007. The first time Clinton didn't get a positive response, but after the New Hampshire primary the media turned Clinton into a victim, and it's amazing to see the pack journalism that's happening today. The pack mentality is exactly what Traister is criticizing, yet it's exactly what happened-- this time-- in favor of Clinton. It's what Clinton first called "pile-on politics," yet she is so adept at using the media that she was able to resurrect this idea.

Maureen Dowd had this to say in a column today: "Yet, in the end, [Clinton] had to fend off calamity by playing the female victim, both of Obama and of the press. Hillary has barely talked to the press throughout her race even though the Clintons this week whined mightily that the press prefers Obama."
It's not that she's a woman that I have a problem with, but that she seems to be willing to do just about anything to get elected. Is she liberal or conservative? Is a realist or an idealist? I don't know, because I don't think she says anything without an ulterior motive. Of course this is nothing new from politicians, but I'm sick of it, and she seems to epitomize it. I could respect her for having smart political strategies (part of me does, in truth) but it seems like such a transparent act to get elected that I can't get over it.
"Her argument against Obama now boils down to an argument against idealism, which is probably the lowest and most unlikely point to which any Clinton could sink," Dowd said. "The people from Hope are arguing against hope."




Here's the letter I wrote on Salon.com in response to her column:

Getting ahead of ourselves

The press certainly did jump rather quickly to denounce Clinton, which could have been their desire to discredit a woman. I would not put it past idiots like the tv pundits.

However, it is more likely that Brokaw was right to say that they were backing a cadidate early by falling in love with Obama. After Obama's speech at the Iowa caucus, journalists were all over him. Andrea Mitchell said it was the best speech by a politician since Bobby Kennedy. Obama certainly can be an inspirational figure, but the difference between a journalist and a columnist or pundit is that a journalist is not supposed to pick sides. This is why Ms. Traister would be wise to describe herself in other terms than a journalist. I believe there are exceptions to aspiring to objectivity, but politics certainly does fit that category. Otherwise, call yourself a blogger, a columnist, but not a journalist.

In the case of this article by Traister, it is not only unfair, but borderline bigoted to say that black people were allowed to vote 50 years before women. Because of Jim Crow laws African Americans were prevented from voting long after the women's suffrage movement. One should not talk about which minorities have suffered the most, but should share in a common history to prevent it from happening again.

Division vs Unity

Either John Edwards wants to be the next vice president or even he actually believes in Obama. In any case, in a few months, Barack Obama will have his endorsement. And Obama will be the next American president. I realize the timing of this statement is dubious. Obama has only won Iowa. Clinton came back and took New Hampshire.
If Barack Obama is who he says he is, however, if he actually can and will bring about change, then I believe that electing him will be the most significant election since Abraham Lincoln was voted into office. Our country, our world, is facing a most critical period. Since the turn of the millennium, our country has been divided. And Hillary Clinton is one of the most divisive figures in America.
We have been embroiled in partisan politics and media spin as our soldiers are fighting at war, as our economy has followed the course of failed states that favored corporate interest above those of the ordinary citizen, and as our environment is deteriorating to a point that my grandchildren might not get the chance to live on this Earth. Obama hopes to unify our country on several causes; he believes that hope will inspire us to make these changes.
"There is a moment in the life of every generation when, if we are to make our mark on history, this spirit must break through," he said. "This is the moment. This is our time."
"We will change the course of history, and the real journey to heal the nation and repair the world – will have truly begun."

My mother and my sister's boyfriend Hernan believe that Obama will never get to make changes. They believe an idealistic black man will be assassinated before he gets that chance. My fear is that they are right. He talks about facing powerful interests, about facing lobbyists and stripping away their power, but unfortunately these interests just might be more powerful than even the American president. If these interests take Obama seriously, he might never be sworn into office. Still, he talks about hope in a way that makes me want to shed my fear. It makes me want to hope that we can change the course of history.
"Hope is not blind optimism," Obama said in Iowa on December 27. "It's not ignoring the enormity of the task before us. Or the roadblocks that stand in our path. Yes, the lobbyists will fight us....Yes the problems of poverty and climate change and failing schools will resist easy repair."
Is Obama idealistic? He certainly portrays himself as someone who dreams of the change the American founders laid out in the 18th century. In Obama's autobiographies, particularly his second book, The Audacity of Hope, he shows a tremendous love for American history and respect for the tradition of law. As I read this book on an airplane to Egypt from France, I was nearly in tears. I could not believe that a politician could actually believe what Obama was saying. Yet if he is an idealist, then he is also a realist.
"I've been on the streets," he said during the same speech in Iowa, named "Our Moment is Now" posted on Youtube.
"I’ve watched legislation die because the powerful held sway and good intentions weren’t fortified by political will. I’ve watched a nation get mislead into war because no one had the judgment or the courage to ask the hard questions before we sent our troops to fight. I know this will be hard. I know it. But I also know this: I know that hope has been the guiding force behind the most improbable changes this country has ever made. I know that in the face of tyranny, it’s what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire. In the face of slavery, it’s what fueled the resistance of the slave and the abolitionist, and what allowed a president to chart a treacherous course."
Some people compare Obama to JFK. In some ways it's fair. For many years, Irish Catholics were worth little more in America than slaves. And just as Kennedy was the first to break this barrier, Obama could be the next to break another.
"That’s the power of hope – to imagine, and then work for, what had seemed impossible before."
"That’s what hope is – that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better is waiting for us around the corner. But only if we’re willing to work for it and fight for it. To shed our fears and our doubts and our cynicism."
My mother and her family once believed in Kennedy, and their hope was crushed when he was killed. I never had the chance to believe in a politician. I've never seen a great leader in my lifetime that inspires me. I have only been able to look to the past.

I have hoped for too long that someone will come along to change our country and our world. I have fallen in the hands of pessimism and doubt. I do believe we are at a point in history when we have run out of time. When our very existence is in question. I wish someone might be our hope.