The United Nations said it would suspend flights into Myanmar after the military government seized the food and equipment it had sent into the country.

But then, some small portion of detente began to be worked out between the UN with the US, UK, and Burma. We shall see.

Various and sundry claims by relief agencies are flying over the internet today, adding to the garble instead of keeping the facts straight, in part, because no one can get a large enough overview of the facts. By all reports, General Than Schwe, the dictator of Burma has declined to get into a helicopter and survey the damage at close range.

The bottom line for Burma regarding aid at the moment is that those aid workers, such as a small contingent of Doctors to The World, that was already in Burma doing malaria intervention and education, et al,– before the tsunami/cyclone hit– and some Red Cross workers and some church group workers who were already there also before the disaster hit, say they’d been distributing supplies from their cupboards, and those are now exhausted.

Otherwise, if, and it’s a big if, there are other aid workers landed in Burma, it is most likely they are tending to Than Schwe and his friends’ families, or the city where Than Schwe can watch over them. It is highly unlikely, on this, the sixth day after the disaster, that workers and supplies have been given effective and rapid access to those who truly suffer in the interior — which is more than 200 miles from where Than Schwe is enthroned with his junta.

When A Nation’s Leader Chooses Hubris over Humanity, and Why It’s Important To Allow Experienced Relief and Rescue Workers In To A Disaster Site
As a post-trauma specialist working two earthquake disasters in various ways, Armenia and Mexico City, I can attest to the fact that one can load all the aid workers onto transport planes, fill the hold with all the cargo it can carry, fly more than halfway across the world, stopping to refuel at least once, and finally land at the target tarmac….

and then sit on the tarmac in the destination country for days, even weeks, raring to go, fully inoculated for every creeping grunge disease under the sun, full of heart and especially filled with modern skills, and having all the best supplies in the world… and nothing happens, no aid expert is allowed to go to the dying, the ill, or the dead, because the leader of the leader of the country literally bars the way.

More so, in so-called rogue countries, in countries run by juntas, really in any country where the leader is naive or ignorant about catastrophic relief and rescue operations…. often the supplies so lovingly and quickly assembled and shipped are confiscated by the ruling class, and often given to their own first, or sold for profit, or in many cases as with perishable food goods, just stacked in shelters, left to rot.*

This is why it is so very important for a government in a devastated country that might have lots of soldiers, as Than Schwe has by conscription, but has little infrastructure, and perhaps plenty of experience in ignoring or assailing people, but no experience in helping/healing them… to allow experienced aid organizers and service givers to bring in and execute a known and time tested recovery and rescue plan.

For the leader, this means a relinquishment of a certain amount of control. One can see that in a leader who has more experience in personal hubris than in public humanity, this can be quite a leap; but it oughtnt take 6 days to pat Than Schwe’s ego.

It oughtn’t take a pile after pile of newly dead children’s bodies to convince anyone to allow medicine, food and water to those most afflicted in Burma. Those piles of children’s bodies that have come about because of Than Schwe’s lag time may be the very thing he wishes to hide most.

The international community is calling out to Than Schwe to stop perseverating on his own image, or his trying to cover up his own mistakes, and instead to turn to the works of mercy needed now.

If Than Schwe did so, even today, the world would suddenly believe Than Schwe has a heart.

This good article from Asia Pacific reporter Seth Mydans, New York Times, an hour ago:
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RCP’s Tom Bevan shares a Clinton letter sent today to Obama re: Florida and Michigan.

My completely biased, semi-tongue-in-cheek translation of that letter follows, below the fold. I’m sure this translation will offend many people, so if you’re a Clinton supporter and agree with her efforts vis-a-vis these states, please either (a) skip this post, or (b) let me have it in the comments section.

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Showing up on the Google “Quotes of the Day” widget this morning, these back-to-back entries struck me as potentially relevant to the ongoing Democratic primary season.

Garrison Keillor, perhaps channeling Sen. Clinton on her chances to win the nomination: “I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it.”

Philip K. Dick, perhaps channeling the Obama campaign in response: “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann (D), who, during his race for AG in 2006 named Eliot Spitzer as his role model, has refused twice to acquiesce to multiple calls to step down in the wake of admitting last week that he had a romantic relationship with his former scheduler (Dann is married with three children) and firing two of his top aides.

As a result of this refusal, the Ohio Democratic Party has made their intentions to force Dann out extremely clear. From the Columbus Dispatch:

The Ohio Democratic Party, which strongly backed Dann’s come-from-behind campaign in 2006, is preparing to sever its ties with Dann. Chairman Chris Redfern said he expects the party’s executive committee to rescind its 2006 endorsement of Dann when it meets Saturday, which Redfern said would make Dann an independent officeholder. Democrats also are prepared to lead the impeachment drive, Redfern said.

“Pending Saturday’s events, he’ll be holding office as an independent who was elected as a Democrat,” Redfern said. “We will distance ourselves both figuratively and literally from Marc Dann until he makes the right decision, which is to step down.”

Ohio Daily Blog reports that one of Dann’s hometown papers says that the Ohio House Democratic Caucus had a conference call this afternoon and will begin impeachment proceedings tomorrow if Dann doesn’t step down tonight.

Plunderbund writes about the removal of information about Dann from the ODP website and also has a video of Gov. Strickland in which he says that they’ll use “whatever action is necessary” to remove Dann.

Pho writes about the legal provisions related to replacing Dann.

This article from ePluribus Media includes most of the key information from today and last week, but the situation is developing minute by minute, as it has been all day today. And it’s been exhausting.

I’m somewhat restricted from saying too much (code words on my blog entries are “mmmumbble mummmble damn packing tape”) because my SO is in the same law firm as an attorney whom Dann has asked to help clean up the AG’s office. Although it’s a voluntary role, and I’ve been told my right to express myself is being respected, I don’t feel comfortable writing about this situation in as an unbridled manner as I might.

I can say that I’ve had off the record conversations with the Ohio Democratic Party stating my intense upsetment about the hostile work environment that came to exist in the AG’s office and my belief that it must not be tolerated, not only because of the women who were subordinates but for the sake of the entire 1400 person “law office” that is an AG’s office.

Obviously, I wasn’t and still am not the only one saying that this is an intolerable situation that demands dramatic and obvious attention.

But as a Democrat in Ohio, who wanted to believe in Marc Dann, even when I wasn’t the most certain, it’s also just a very very, as another Democrat expressed to me, profoundly sad experience.

That’s all. From today to Guam; from Guam to South Dakota. Five weeks until May 29, and five days after that it’s June 3 and the end of the Democratic primary season.

Some will argue that it will take another three months, through the convention, to end this race. I doubt it.

I doubt it, in part, because I think the superdelegates will follow the DNC’s lead and swarm to the presumptive winner on June 4(Obama).

I also doubt it because, selfishly, I’m exhausted with this damn mess, and I want it to end — and I’m not even a Democrat and I’m certainly not alone. From Obama supporters to Hillary supporters to McCain supporters, I have yet to hear anyone ask for this to continue much longer. Five weeks + five days? Sure. Eight months plus or minus X-more days … no. No way. Nada. Not in a million years. Not for a million dollars.

Five weeks, five days.

That’s all.

Buck up, cheer up, ye tired ones. This endless amble is almost over.

The very final results are trickling in and it looks like the true margin of victory for Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania will be about 9 points. With 99% reporting, she has 54.7% of the vote and Obama has 45.3%, or a difference of 9.4%. Considering the only precincts remaining are in Philadelphia, Chester County and Delaware County, it’s likely that the 9.4 number will nudge closer to a clean 9 percent.

Hillary Clinton will not technically get her double-digit win. But Obama will not have done a whole lot better than Ohio either (which he lost by 10). Yes, Pennsylvania is older, whiter and less educated than Ohio. It also has a lot more Appalachia within it than does Ohio. So I suppose Obama gained something by treading water in the final result.

But all of this just goes to show how little has changed in this race after tens of millions of dollars spent on a primary with six weeks of campaigning leading up to it. Obama closed the gap from about 20 points, but he’s done that many times before. Clinton managed to win by more than a tiny handful, but not the large margin she needed to make up pledged delegates and popular votes. What’s more, all of this will be negated by North Carolina in two weeks.

So where does the Democratic nomination go from here? Does the ongoing battle help the party by rallying supporters and organizing voters? Or does it hurt the party’s chances in November by giving ammunition to McCain and by making each side’s supporters more insistent that they will ONLY support their own candidate in November?

It’s close to impossible for Hillary Clinton to win this nomination for reasons many others have laid out. She cannot overtake him in pledged delegates. She will almost definitely not overtake him in popular votes - even if Florida is included. She has not been gaining superdelegates since Super Tuesday even as he’s racked up about 75 new ones. Her only path to the nomination seems to be to raise enough electability doubts about Obama that superdelegates will balk at supporting him. But that may end up handing the election to John McCain.

So what should she do? She’s earned the right to continue; her 9-point win grants her that. Obama has major work ahead to consolidate blue collar women and Latinos for the general election; Appalachian voters and blue collar men don’t vote Democratic anymore and will go to McCain no matter what.

Will Obama have a better chance of consolidating his support from Hillary’s base if she goes to the end and gets beaten after ALL the votes are counted? Or can she better serve the party by bowing out after, say, a loss in North Carolina where she can work to convince her supporters to back Obama and the Democratic ticket? I have no idea. I’m just annoyed that the race is continuing on in the same fashion as before: no momentum, no game changers, no resolution.

Via Think Progress, we find a rather unusual tidbit from a recent John McCain interview. When the topic turns to the economy in general and gas prices in specific, Senator McCain is proposing a summer vacation from gas taxes to help out Americans. Strangely, though, he doesn’t seem to think it’s really going to change much.

I’m very concerned about it, Neil. And obviously the way it’s been going up is just terrible. But I think psychologically — and a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological — the confidence, trust, the uncertainty about our economic future, ability to keep our own home. This might give them a little psychological boost.

Let’s have some straight talk, it’s not a huge amount of money. But it might be nice to be able to save a few bucks and maybe buy something else the next time that they have to fill up their gas tank and say, “You know I’m going to be able to afford that little expense now.” A little psychological boost. That’s what I think it would help.

See? You may think that gas and food prices are rising, jobs are being lost and the housing market is swirling near the bottom of the bowl. But it’s all in your head.

Senator McCain has recently stated that he believes the country is in a recession, while earlier this year he was sticking with the White House line in saying that it was just a temporary slow down. However, this interview seems to indicate that he simply can’t drag himself away from the idea that everything if going well enough but the bad economic news is some sort of partisan political plot. However, with consecutive months of job losses and another anticipated report of gross domestic production shrinkage, it may become harder and harder for politicians to paint those skies such a bright shade of blue.

Again, a disclosure: I am a Catholic.

Catholic social teachings
disagree with abuses of power,
disagree with politics that omit and oppress the poor and needy,
disagree with trampling the preciousness of the life force,
disagree with any idea that preemptive war is good,
disagree with any idea that humans are not worthy of justice and dignity… and much more.

These principles are in place to keep the world from going dead black with avarice and sloth and cruelty and the sounds of many mouths banging in scorn like empty pots. They are not always easy to live, but they are to be rooted in the heart and soul, and to be striven toward even though it is hard in the winds that swirl through this world.

Here, one journalist writes about some who present George Bush as having a seemingly ‘Catholic conscience.’ You can read the entire article by Daniel Burke here “A Catholic Wind in the White House,” and you can read my article I filed this morning at The National Catholic Reporter in my weekly column there where, speaking as a Catholic, I felt I had to refute the idea that George Bush is in any way following sacred Catholic social teachings. You can see that article, entitled, “Silencing a Woman: Retrieving Her Voice,” here.

April 13, 2008, in the Washington Post, Daniel Burke, a national correspondent for Religion News Service, writes about how some imagine President George Bush is actually a secret Catholic ‘believer,’ and has met with and surrounded himself by Catholics during his administration… that his policies have directly grown out of Catholic social justice teachings… and that the Pope is coming to see the President and his Catholic appointees specially, as the Pope is his ally… even though the Pope disagrees with President Bush’s Iraq war and torture.

“Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, another evangelical with an affinity for Catholic teaching, says that the key to understanding Bush’s domestic policy is to view it through the lens of Rome. Others go a step further.

“Paul Weyrich, an architect of the religious right, detects in Bush shades of former British prime minister Tony Blair, who converted to Catholicism last year. “I think he is a secret believer,” Weyrich says of Bush. Similarly, John DiIulio, Bush’s first director of faith-based initiatives, has called the president a “closet Catholic.” And he was only half-kidding.”

Mr. Burke’s article goes on to say,

“As the White House prepares to welcome Benedict on Tuesday, many in Bush’s inner circle expect the pontiff to find a kindred spirit in the president… this Protestant president has surrounded himself with Roman Catholic intellectuals, speechwriters, professors, priests, bishops and politicians. These Catholics — and thus Catholic social teaching — have for the past eight years been shaping Bush’s speeches, policies and legacy to a degree perhaps unprecedented in U.S. history….”

But, I must say otherwise:
…At a time when hardworking fathers and mothers are literally piling the children’s toys and bunk beds at the curb, for they are losing their homes in the sub-prime mortgage bunco scheme promoted by the grotesquely avaricious…

…at a time when 25% of older women only have a social security check to live on and nothing more… and they have inherited nothing but a President who wishes to do away with social security… and who admires those who call this hard earned savings account belonging to individuals who worked all their lives long, “an entitlement…”

…during a time when the last small farmers, ranchers, and overland independent truckers are being run out of business from sudden spikes in fuel and government’s one-sided subsidies… and our farmers, ranchers and trucker-heroes are becoming desperate for they not only take care of their own families, but have long taken care of us, their nation’s families at a root level, delivering the food and necessities we need…

…at a time when pharmaceutical companies produce much good, and have some charitable programs, yet still, at the back door, many also hold onto medicine patents that would have expired, thereby allowing the formulas into public domain and bringing down the costs of vital medicines for human beings in need…. but instead, some change the formula in slight and meaningless ways and thereby file to re-patent the medicine again, so they are its only producers, and prices remain high… often out of reach of those in most dire straights… and all this is okay-ed by our government…

To read the rest of both Mr. Burke’s article and mine, please see the links above….

————–
h/t Helaine

Well, if only Nixon could go to China, who knows? I have to confess, when it comes to matters of Israel and the Palestinians, I’m lucky to be able to spell “Gaza” since it’s not in my spell checker. When I get confused, I turn to my own personal authority on All Matters Jewish, The One True Tami. Her Hebrew bona fides are fine by me and include having studied extensively in that country. She takes a look at some of the criticism Carter is receiving for opening talks with Hamas and has questions.

Really? Carter supports extremism? Why is it that I honestly feel that this guy supports peace above all else? Is it his mild demeanor? His lack of declaring wars? His work to provide housing to low-income families? His willingness to sit down with people who have their thumbs on an entire race of people and can influence their emotions at the drop of a hat to try and convince them that working with the US could help them more than working against it? Am I the only one who thinks he’s trying to make things better for everyone?

You can read the rest at the link above. Reference this article for the background work.

Apparently Barack Obama is not only far less popular than some of us previously thought, but he can take down the careers of anyone who comes in contact with him. Even Oprah Winfrey! I hate to hint and run, but I’m short on time so you can read more here. (Warning, large snark and satire content.) And in case you think it’s just comedy, the story really came from The Poltico.

Jon Stewart does a pretty hilarious take on how the presidential candidates exploited the anniversary of MLK’s assassination last week. The entire Hillary “recollection” is just too much. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Swedish company, Absolut, wants us all to drink to Mexico reconquering the entire U.S. Southwest? Interesting. I can just imagine the eyeballs of several FOXNews hosts exploding out of their sockets. Honestly, I’m not very happy to see that ad either and I’m sure many other Americans aren’t amused.

While I could hysterically call for a boycott as others have, I don’t drink, so I’m not really an authority here. I know people get hooked on a certain type of liquor and will ride it till they die. Word on the street is the mass exodus to Grey Goose is in the works. Personally, I think people are too lazy for all that boycotting stuff unless its something very important.
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Continuing, on my personal blog, to analyze some of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s public communiques from the standpoint of one Christian pastor, I found myself, as I wrote the third installment last evening, considering the super-heated discussions we have as the result of new media:

For now at least, the mainstream media and the blogging world have, for the most part, left the Jeremiah Wright controversy behind. That’s too bad in a way and it showcases the problem with what has become not a twenty-four hour news cycle, but a constant assault of headlines, sound bites, video clips, and rapid fire stereotyping often devoid of context or real analysis.

Before 1980, when TV network news was established as part of a pantheon of journalistic outlets, joining newspapers and radio, supplanting the latter and in some ways, supplementing the former, there was time to develop stories responsibly, covering multiple aspects. There was even a place for a dispassionate analyst to give nightly commentary, as was true of Eric Sevareid five nights a week on CBS News, his wise words treated almost like wisdom from Mount Sinai.

I’m grateful for the Internet. It allows for an increased public dialog and has made it possible for even someone like me, a preacher in a small Ohio town, to reach an audience I could not have otherwise reached. (And every writer wants people to read what they have written, no matter what other motives they may have.)

But the Internet of today is a bit like the media landscape of Europe in the 1500s, after Gutenberg’s presses had started to make their presence and potential apparent, or of the young united colonies, then United States, immediately before and after the Revolution. In both contexts, pamphleteering, those eras’ equivalents of blogs and YouTube videos, became major sources of information and ideas.

In the case of early-16th.-century Europe, the printing press and the wide distribution of his essays made Martin Luther, the Reformer of whose movement I am a part today, the very first media superstar, as others have pointed out. (That was also an era when copyright laws and royalties did not exist, proof that Luther cared not a fig about wealth, but simply wanted people to know that we are made right with God not by what we do, but by who we know.)

The Internet is a wild and woolly world. The conventional media, which includes the cable TV networks, feel a need to respond to and carry items making the news on the web in order to keep up.

But at times, this causes all of the media players–conventional and otherwise–to express opinions and pass judgments before facts have been established…

The Internet gives us access to all sorts of information and ideas. It also gives an unprecedented capacity to put in our own two-cents’ worth. But we shouldn’t allow the low cost of admission to cheapen our discourse…

New media have let old genies out of Western culture’s bottles. In times past, old media was a gatekeeper that suppressed many opinions and much information. Preponderantly, that was a bad thing, something which old Sevareid himself lamented. (I found a 1989 CSpan interview with Sevareid, an excerpt from which appeared on this past Sunday’s edition of Q and A, fascinating.)

But there were positives, too. Kooky ideas or scurrilous personal attacks on public figures that one may have heard at the water cooler or at informal gatherings with friends and family weren’t turned into blog posts, YouTube videos, or headlines on CNN.

New media give us all new freedoms we haven’t enjoyed since the advent of mass culture. We can talk back and have a part in national and international discussions. As a Christian who considers the Bible’s account of the Garden of Eden, I note that we human beings have, in fact, always had awesome freedom for independent decision-making and for forming our own opinions and ideas. But never has this freedom been matched by such an extraordinary capacity to affect others. That’s an awesome thing. But it’s also Kryptonite and, because what happens on the Internet can have immediate and significant consequences, should, I think, be handled with care.

Just a few thoughts.

[The posts of the Is Wright Wrong? series as it’s appeared so far can be found here, here, and here.]

The always interesting Ed Morrissey of Hot Air will be on CNN tonight at 8:45 eastern, 5:45 pacific tonight offering his views to the old media from the new media. Be sure to check it out! Joe Gandelman has also appeared on CNN, along with other bloggers, and it’s always good to see some of the voices of new media getting some face time with the general public!

Some interesting news appears to be coming out of Minnesota this week. I found a very comprehensive and informative article over at Ladies Logic (an excellent Minnesota conservative - moderate blog, by the way) which details an ongoing investigation into the affairs of one Lori Swanson, the Democratic Attorney General of the state. There is still much more to be revealed, but some intriguing questions have already arisen.

Why have so many Attorneys General resigned or been driven out of that office?
Was there some sort of union busting activity going on?
Was there a cover up?
Were there any illegal activities?

We won’t know the answer for a bit, but according to the Minnpost, an investigation is kicking off. Something’s afoot in the North Star State, so do yourself a favor and swing by Ladies Logic for all the details. This one might blossom into a hot story in the near future.

I had just recently finished reading about the results of Earth Hour Chicago and the tons of carbon emissions which were not released into the atmosphere when I was suddenly put in mind of a sandwich I made recently - and my grandmother. The combination may sound strange, but programs such as Earth Hour nudge me to remain mindful of some efforts my family and I have undertaken recently to be less wasteful. You see, my grandparents grew up during the great depression. The lessons they learned during those hard times and the habits they adopted stayed with them throughout their lives, though both lived to near the century mark.

Nothing went to waste in my grandmother’s house, and very little was ever purchased at a store if it could be created at home. All “wet trash” went into a compost pile for the garden. Paper towels were unheard of, since rags could be used for years on end with regular washing. And wasting food was a sin punishable by a spanking that could make you long for a prison cell. Taking a long, hard look at our own lifestyle last year, I realized that we were not only tremendously wasteful, but we were acting that way foolishly and for no reason at all.

As to the sandwich, you may ask? Among a number of my wasteful ways, I noticed that we had gotten in the habit of taking the two crusts of bread at either end of a loaf (known in this part of the country as the “heel” of the loaf) and tossing them outside to feed the birds. What could be nicer than feeding the local sparrows? I can assure you, no bread would ever be tossed outside at my grandparents’ home. In fact, I don’t believe my grandmother ever bought a loaf of bread in her life, proclaiming that she could bake five loaves for what one would cost at the grocery store.

As such, I’ve gotten in the habit of keeping the heels and making a sandwich out of them as a reminder. Last year my wife began the process of buying compact fluorescent bulbs in bulk and replacing all of our old style lights as they burn out. (I’ve yet to have one of the new ones die.) I’ve also gone around my home and sought out all of the “vampire” appliances which run constantly and slowly drain energy from our house. You would be shocked how many there are.

A disturbing trend I’ve noted around the blogosphere of late, though, is a tendency for some authors to scoff at any such efforts, up to and including Earth Hour. Why? Because it seems to be immediately associated with global warming – a subject which has become such a partisan political football that any suggestion of it sends some of our more conservative friends into an apoplectic tizzy. Should you find yourself in a similar state of mind, however, allow me to put a few questions to you.
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Professor Martin Marty’s full comment on Trinity United’s former pastor can be found here.

And just who the heck is Martin Marty?

Andrew Sullivan writes that he knows “of few more distinguished, principled or decent public figures.”

Hillary Clinton had almost won my respect in the last week for not jumping directly into the Jeremiah Wright debate. So much for that, according to RCP.

UPDATE: Steve Benen offers some thoughts on this development, concluding:

… we now have a situation in which John McCain defended Obama against Wright-related charges, and Mike Huckabee defended Obama, but Hillary Clinton sat down with editors of a conservative newspaper to reignite a fire that had already largely gone out.

Less than a week ago, former Mondale campaign manager Bob Beckel said, “Many liberals like myself, who would be happy to support Hillary Clinton if she earned the nomination, would abandon her if her campaign seeks to exploit the Wright controversy either in the remaining contests or with superdelegates.”

Now, it appears she’s doing both. I’d hoped Clinton was above this.

I respect Hillary Clinton as one of the most capable First Ladies in US history. She failed in some of her signature efforts, including especially health care reform, but she persisted in offering substantive advice on policy matters. She was no Laura Bush.

But throughout this campaign Hillary Clinton has gone very close to the sin of resume-padding: making her White House experience more than it really was. The release of her First Lady calender offers mixed results on her claims to major policy experience in the White House. Her claims on Northern Ireland are mildly exaggerated, but seem significant nonetheless. Her assertions about NAFTA seem completely confused, but I have no idea what to make of it in total.

However, the one issue that seems to be most exaggerated is her claims about her 1996 trip to Bosnia. She has offered that trip as an example of her courage and ability to literally show poise under fire. It’s a pretty harrowing tale with references to sniper fire and corkscrew maneuvers. But it’s probably not true. Comedian Sinbad already called her out on it, saying the trip was as routine as you can get. She responded by offering more detail about running from the plane with heads covered and a greeting ceremony canceled. She was doubling down.

And now she has gone bust. Video of her Bosnia trip has surfaced and it shows a decidedly different picture of the Tuzla trip. Watch the video below and you’ll see: there was no sniper fire. She made that part up. And she got caught on video.

Frankly, I think this is a killer for her campaign. It isn’t complicated and it isn’t just controversial. It’s just so embarrassingly and insultingly wrong. This is just a lie that she thought wouldn’t get reported. If - and when - the mainstream media pushes this prevarication with the video, she will face enormous pressure to correct herself. This was her only trip to Bosnia, and this video came from that trip. Who are we going to believe: Hillary Clinton or our lying eyes?

The reason this is so bad for her is timing. If this had come out last year nobody would notice. There’d be a few late night comedian jokes about it, but then it would fall down the memory hole. But today she is trying to make a desperate case for why her candidacy is still viable. With no Florida or Michigan revote, she would need an historic stomping of Obama in ALL remaining states to take the pledged delegate lead OR the popular vote lead.

The Wright controversy could have been the opportunity she needed to pull Obama down, but Obama handled it with such class that he may have actually benefited from it over the long term; he confronted the issue long before the fall and he delivered a historic speech on race that clearly impressed many arch-conservatives like Charles Murray, Christopher Caldwell, Jack Kemp and Peggy Noonan. Polling shows he recovered from the Wright issue quite well too.

So now Hillary Clinton is left needing a perfect campaign and more bad news for Obama. What she could not afford was an embarrassing revelation about resume-padding that will certainly get mocked by late night comedians and even journalists. She couldn’t afford a massive error like this at this time. It conjured up the claims of serial exaggeration by Al Gore and even John Kerry. It made her look fake, and her claims to executive experience and crisis readiness look fraudulent. I don’t think she can recover from this.

Some things should make everyone laugh like the picture of a puppy & kitten locked in an embrace/fight/whatever they’re actually doing.

Some things aren’t as funny to certain people as it is to others. Try race. One of the reasons I think race is still such a big issue in America is because a lot of people lack a sense of humor. Look, people like to laugh and, for some, safe stuff just isn’t that funny. We like to laugh at things that straddle the line and sometimes we like to laugh at things that cross the line. While I see some people get so upset over Obama’s statement about his grandma, some of us just laugh because we all have a nana or uncle who is kind of racist and/or crazy, but we still love them despite disagreeing with 90% of what they say or believe. A lot of us actually think they’re the funniest person in our whole family.

People like us think this blog, Stuff White People Like, created by white people, is actually pretty funny. The ability to laugh at yourself is actually a good thing as is the ability to laugh with each other about all of us. Black people do it all the time. Check out any black issues blog and you’ll see what I mean. The comments section will include a lot of joking with the ocassional comment that this is racist, isn’t funny, how can you say that about your own people, yada yada yada. We ignore those people.

Some of the “Stuff White People Like” - Expensive Sandwiches, Having Gay Friends, Sushi, Outdoor Performance Clothes, Bottles of Water, Musical Comedy. “Being Near Water” is my favorite because I love that more than anything short of Jesus. I guess I got that from my Irish grandmother. That was a joke. Okay, so some people got upset with the post titled “Asian Women,” but none of this is mean-spirited and its sarcastically poking fun at generalizations.

“Dean Rader, a pop culture critic who authors weeklyrader.blogspot.com, says readers flock to Stuff White People Like because it’s hip and hot and the place to be seen and heard online. ‘It’s just as much about class and coolness and yuppiness and consumption (as race).’ And yes, if the some of the posts push far beyond the boundaries of good taste, readers seem to find liberation in an environment unfettered by political correctness.”

Other sites like The Assimilated Negro or The Angry Asian do the same thing and most people find them very entertaining. The only mean-spirited aspect is in the minority of comments. But now, Stuff White People Like has become so popular that mainstream media is picking up on it and will do what they always do; mess everything up by blowing it out of proportion and analyzing it to death. This comic site will now become controversial, offensive and will likely get labeled as an instigator in our country’s quarrel over race. Well, it was nice while it lasted.

From Blog To Riches? The Stuff of White People - washingtonpost.com
Race-related blog drawing white-hot reactions - Chron.com