Colin Powell's Endorsement: Some Rhetorical Fresh Air

These videos speak for themselves, but I feel compelled to add that hearing Powell articulate his thoughts in plain English, making his points without pandering, mugging, speechifying, or insulting anyone, made me wish he were running for something so I could vote for him. I really admire the way he dismisses as a non-issue Obama's supposed "terrorism" through his guilt-by-association with Ayers, and gets to the true heart of the matter of Obama's religious affiliation (both real and imaginary) with the simple but poignant image of a military gravestone.

Of course we know that Powell has made mistakes in the past. This isn't one of them. In the same vein, I have to admire the way he deals at the end of the video below with Obama's alleged tax-happy "socialism" with a one minute sound bite of common sense.

Reaping what you sow

I'm generally pretty jaded about open displays of smug stupidity and viciousness, especially in the poisonous atmosphere surrounding Presidential campaigns, but somehow the crowd captured in this YouTube footage really got to me. I watched the feed a couple of times over at Chapati Mystery, getting more depressed by the minute; I left a comment over there (#4) but still couldn't get this crap out of my mind. It was a bit like having a flashback , especially the repeatedly shouted admonition "Get a job!" Exactly what used to get shouted, among other things, at anti-war protesters in the 60s. Do such people really think, in 2008, that anyone who questions their bizarre conclusions must be unemployed?

And then this:

I have to wonder what really goes through McCain's mind when he has to confront such idiocy one-on-one, as he does in the exchange below. I don't think he's evil or stupid, but the woman he addresses is an inescapable part of his constituency, and this is where the continual pandering of the Republican party and their media goons must inevitably lead. Not that there is anything new here, except that we can all watch, as many times as we can stand, as McCain stares into the abyss and embarrasses himself yet again with a well-intentioned but painfully inappropriate response: Obama is not an Arab, as the woman insists, "...no, no, Ma'am, he's a decent family man...."

Of course I would love to believe that McCain having to admit that Obama is a decent man, and could be President without the world coming to an end, signals that his campaign is essentially over, but I'm not taking anything for granted. I won't believe Obama has really won until I see him on the podium in January taking the oath of office.

The Great Wide Whatever (1)

Visitation (17 July 2007)

This was taken a while ago during a highly touristic evening at Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, Cairns, North Queensland, Australia. The show is the sort of cultural rest stop I would normally avoid, for reasons that get more complicated the more I think about it. It's worth a long essay that I don't feel qualified to write, which is one reason I would rather not have gone there in the first place. In any event, I only snapped 4 or 5 photos the whole evening, all of which I was tempted to delete, but after I spent a little time processing this particular shot it seemed to take on a life of its own, and the issue of authenticity started to feel a bit less relevant. It is what it is, whatever that is.