Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Useful Obama links
Posted by Harold Henderson on 01.23.07 at 06:50 AM
I won't claim I read all the Obama coverage so you don't have to, but here are links that added to my knowledge rather than subtracting from it:
- Is Obama "too pious" for nonbelievers? PZ Meyers of Pharyngula thinks so, and Frederick Clarkson of Talk to Action has slagged Obama for echoing religious-right talking points in a June 28, 2006, speech. But Chicago blogger, grad student, and unbeliever Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist thinks their standard is unrealistic. Writing at the Institute for Humanist Studies, Mehta takes heart from that same speech: "Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers," concluding that "It will be some time before we see an atheist in the White House, but for many of us non-religious Americans, Obama might be the best candidate we will see for quite some time."
- Given that the liberal-conservative spectrum isn't very nuanced, how liberal is Obama's voting record? The indispensable Brendan Nyhan gives the gist using a more sophisticated measure than usual, developed by UCSD political scientist Keith Poole. Obama ties with Hillary as the 14th most liberal voting senator.
- Jameson Campaigne offers a surprisingly good analysis from Real Clear Politics by Jay Cost: "He seems to claim that he can move our political spirit beyond partisanship. If there was substantial evidence on his résumé that he can indeed do this, he would be better off. Barring that, it all boils down to his personality.... The wager Obama placed this week is that the country's desire for partisan transcendence will be greater than its skepticism about his capacity to deliver it."
Comments (3)
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Cost is a bit too generous to Sen Obama here...As he mentions Obama has a 10 year voting record of which the last two years have shown is is one of the most partisan voters in the Senate. What Cost and Obama are proposing is that voters separate the voting record and mind numbing ethics of the Senator using ADM's airplane, and Tony Rezko's yard, and voting for the Bridge to Nowhere....and accept Obama's rhetoric. Why on earth we would believe another pile of rhetorical horse manure from another politician, when voting records and lousy ethical records are quite well know is beyond me. Why should we accept Obama's PR rather than an occasional fact? JBP
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I agree (see our Clout City blog on Obama's endorsement of Daley). There's something Reaganesque here, not in the ideology, but in the yawning gap between rhetoric and reality. Talk may be cheap, but it got Reagan through two terms with what Dave Barry calls the ultimate political achievement of not having been indicted [or impeached].
Dear Oprah, I am writing to you about discrimination which has been expressed by the selective enforcement of city ordinances against me with respect to my rental business in Southern Indiana once city officials discovered that I am a Jewish person. More about me: I was named to the "30 under 30" list by my alma mater and did my PhD work at Princeton Univ. under John Nash. I am a applied mathematician/ entrepreneur in my day job. In the years since I completed my undergraduate work at IU in 1998, I proceeded to buy a small number of rental properties in Bloomington, Indiana, which I have successfully run as a side business for a number of years. However, about 2-3 years ago, the normal flow of my side rental business ran into some serious roadblocks. It started when two housing inspectors made a number of explicit anti-semitic statements to me and to a Jewish tenant at one of my rentals. Soon thereafter, four (4) groups of my otherwise law-abiding and happy tenants were threatened with $10,000 + fine (assessed PER tenant) for alleged ordinance violations. Long story short, I was soon stuck with numerous vacancies and left paying the mortgage payments on these properties which were subsequently burglarized and vandalized. At the same time, the Housing Department caused complaint inspections to take place at these properties, identifying dozens and dozens of "defects" in the properties not otherwise noted in previous move-in inspections and causing me to incur thousands of dollars of needless "improvements". And then the Legal Department went to work on me, filing at least five (5) lawsuits against me for alleged ordinance violations, and at the same time, the Legal Department Chief's wife, over at Student Legal Services, encouraged my erstwhile tenants to sue me for recovery of their security deposits, in spite of their breaches. I was soon dealing with about ten lawsuits at once. So in April 2007, I filed a lawsuit against the City of Bloomington for violating my right to equal protection of the law, and a number of other civil rights violations. For reasons unbeknownst to me, I have become of the despotism of city government in small town Indiana. My attorneys have recently discovered that my case is not unique. Another Jewish landlord also has a case pending in federal court against the City, regarding the improper withholding of a building permit based upon the impermissible consideration that the prospective buyer of the commercial property in question was a Jewish investor from New York. My life has been turned upside down by the systematic abuse of ordinances and judicial proceedings. I find it outrageous that such a negative spirit still thrives in modern America. I would love the opportunity to talk about my story on your show, as I think it is in the public interest. ~~ Never Stop Learning ~~ markkruzan.blogspot.com monroe-county.blogspot.com william-j-beggs.blogspot.com bungerlaw.blogspot.com lawbr.blogspot.com bunger-law.blogspot.com kevinrobling.blogspot.com martha-szatkowski.blogspot.com cityofbloomington.blogspot.com patriciamulvihill.blogspot.com margieschrader.blogspot.com margie-schrader.blogspot.com seth-patinkin.blogspot.com sethpatinkin.blogspot.com
