Farewell to Illinois

Today, Obama resigns his post as junior senator of the State of Illinois. His farewell letter is published in Illinois newspapers and marks an important milestone in the transition to presidency. Here it is in its entirety:

Today, I am ending one journey to begin another. After serving the people of Illinois in the United States Senate -- one of the highest honors and privileges of my life -- I am stepping down as senator to prepare for the responsibilities I will assume as our nation's next president. But I will never forget, and will forever be grateful, to the men and women of this great state who made my life in public service possible.

More than two decades ago, I arrived in Illinois as a young man eager to do my part in building a better America. On the South Side of Chicago, I worked with families who had lost jobs and lost hope when the local steel plant closed. It wasn't easy, but we slowly rebuilt those neighborhoods one block at a time, and in the process I received the best education I ever had. It's an education that led me to organize a voter registration project in Chicago, stand up for the rights of Illinois families as an attorney and eventually run for the Illinois state Senate.

It was in Springfield, in the heartland of America, where I saw all that is America converge -- farmers and teachers, businessmen and laborers, all of them with a story to tell, all of them seeking a seat at the table, all of them clamoring to be heard. It was there that I learned to disagree without being disagreeable; to seek compromise while holding fast to those principles that can never be compromised, and to always assume the best in people instead of the worst. Later, when I made the decision to run for the United States Senate, the core decency and generosity of the American people is exactly what I saw as I traveled across our great state -- from Chicago to Cairo; from Decatur to Quincy.

I still remember the young woman in East St. Louis who had the grades, the drive and the will but not the money to go to college. I remember the young men and women I met at VFW halls across the state who serve our nation bravely in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I will never forget the workers in Galesburg who faced the closing of a plant they had given their lives to, who wondered how they would provide health care to their sick children with no job and little savings.

Stories like these are why I came to Illinois all those years ago, and they will stay with me when I go to the White House in January. The challenges we face as a nation are now more numerous and difficult than when I first arrived in Chicago, but I have no doubt that we can meet them. For throughout my years in Illinois, I have heard hope as often as I have heard heartache. Where I have seen struggle, I have seen great strength. And in a state as broad and diverse in background and belief as any in our nation, I have found a spirit of unity and purpose that can steer us through the most troubled waters.

It was long ago that another son of Illinois left for Washington. A greater man who spoke to a nation far more divided, Abraham Lincoln, said of his home, "To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything." Today, I feel the same, and like Lincoln, I ask for your support, your prayers, and for us to "confidently hope that all will yet be well." With your help, along with the service and sacrifice of Americans across the nation who are hungry for change and ready to bring it about, I have faith that all will in fact be well. And it is with that faith, and the high hopes I have for the enduring power of the American idea, that I offer the people of my beloved home a very affectionate thanks. 

The Obama promises.

On NPR this morning, I heard that the Obama website, change.gov, has deleted the promises page completely. The entire platform is gone. Could it be that it is infeasible for him to make good on some of his promises? we will see.

On Affirmative Action

As many of you may know, Barak Obama graduated Harvard Law School Magna Cum Lauda. As a child living on food stamps in his early ages, he showed great promise.Because of the poor area he grew up in, and his family circumstances, there would have been no way he could have gone to Harvard without affirmative action (albeit he did attend a prep school). But this is not a bashing of Obama nor affirmattive action, merely a comment on the past. It worked, he is now president. Furthermore, it should be eradicated now because it has come full circle, a man who 50 years ago would have been segregated now has great power, he is the quintential maverick.
Now that we know it worked, the program should be disabled. Although they are exceptions, some minorities hide behind affirmative action. It is a fact that an African-American in a poor area has a much better chance of going to an Ivy-League University with financial aide and scholorships than a white person in an affluent suburb, even thought the latter probabaly went to a better school.
This is my opinion, what do you think? I have yet to hear any compelling arguements for affirmative action that do not have something to do with segregation, newsflash: the students benefiting from the program never experienced it.

Fireside Chats 2.0

"President-elect Obama plans to to publish these weekly updates through the Transition and then from the White House."

It seems that President-elect Obama is going to bring FDR's fireside chats to the modern age by going to be the first President to deliver their weekly address by video. From his first video address, it is quite clear that he plans to do something about the current economic crisis when he is inaugurated. One of his points is, "It means investing $150 billion to build an American green energy economy that will create five million new jobs, while freeing our nation from the tyranny of foreign oil, and saving our planet for our children." seems like an ambitious plan, perhaps too ambitious....

Regardless of his plans for the future, his decision to make his weekly address more accesible to everybody deserves merit. +1 Obama

Keith Olbermann on Prop. 8

Powerful stuff.

Election Simulation Articulation (Open Thread)

This is going to be an open thread for you to comment on the upcoming election (Woot! It's tomorrow for Corti's class at least). Feel free to promote the party you support and bash the ones you don't (just kidding).  Even if you have already voted, your comment is nevertheless important.

Racial profiling? Since when?

The East Palo Alto police department recently has been inundated with burglary and breaking and entering reports. The vast majority of witnesses say that they saw black males leaving the properties. The police chief of East Palo Alto, following her logic, instructed her police officers to look for suspicious middle-aged black males and ask who they were. This incited an uproar, and there have been multiple marches and protests about the "racial profiling" that the police department is engaged in. This is not racial profiling, it is merely looking for a suspect based on eyewitness reports and the descriptions of the perpetrators thereof.
If the police department was arresting minorities because they thought that such people may have committed a crime, but had no evidence to support this, then that is racial profiling, but looking for suspects based on criteria which is based on eyewitness descriptions is good police work. It would not make sense to question Hispanic females rather than black males when all reports point to black males committing the crimes.
However, recently, the East Palo Alto police chief went to a black church to apologize for the misunderstanding, but they shunned her, and refused to hear her point of view, and dismissed her as a racist. The lieutenant, a black woman, argued for the chief, and said that what she was instructing her officers to do was in no part racist.
The debate ensues, and is drawing the attention of the NAACP, ACLU and other minority rights organizations, outraged at the racism that the police department is allegedly proliferating.
In my opinion, this is ridiculous. Nothing is wrong with searching for suspects based on eyewitness reports, and this whole fiasco should never have happened.

(by the way, the article linked to in the title is an argument that it is racial profiling)

What ever happened to priorities?

After this summer's war between Georgia and Russia, threats to the United States from Russia over the missile defense shield, and two casualty intense wars that have no end in sight, all the news networks can cover is the scandal over whether the Obama family will cave to the public and buy a dog from the pound. This seems a little ridiculous. after all of the domestic problems in America, be it home forecloses, poverty, the recent spike in burglaries, and the manic-deprissiveness of the NYSE, all the media (and most of America for that matter) cares about are frivolous issues of non-import.
Something has got to give. The media has truly overstepped its madate this time; they should be covering to housing crisis, or how Iran's president supported Obama until he realized that Obama doesn't want Iran to have nuclear weapons either. Seriously, can anyone say they acutally care about what kind of dog the Obama family will have over serious international and domestic crises?

Yay! It's Veterans Day

Ninety years ago, World War I ended with the Germans signing the Armistice on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Today, we celebrate and honor the services of those who served in our country's military. It is interesting to know that another name for World War I was the War to End All Wars, but it has evidently failed to do so. Nonetheless, today remains the day to pay our respects to veterans, in both wartime and peacetime. Whether or not you agree with United State's current involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is important to recognize the sacrifices that soldiers give to their country. 

Anyhoo, enjoy your holiday and may God bless America. 

Here is George C. Scott's rendition of Patton's famous speech to the members of the Third Army. 

Caution: Strong Language

The war on terror has gone way too far.

In a recent article by the Guardian, cross-border attacks from Iraq and Afghanistan are apparently the tip of the iceberg of illegal raids into foreign nations in order to perform strikes on Al-Qaida. The article details raids into at least six nations other than the ones that the United States is occupying, including Ethiopia, Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen, Oman, Syria and reconnaissance missions into Iran. This is unacceptable. America has overstepped its mandate on combating terrorism around the world. America must stop, or we will face dire consequences with both the world community and the UN.
However, it is important that we save face in the world community by finding Bin Laden and finishing the Iraq war, both of which President Obama plans to do. This may prove risky, as the war is unpopular and many people have forgotten the war in Afghanistan. I think that all troops need to be sent home today, period. But practically, this is impossible.

Obama is already sitting down with an unpopular, aggressive world leader without preconditions!

For many, this sight would have been impossible to imagine. George W. Bush, the 43th president of the United States, walking side by side with the future president of the United States, Barack Obama. Today, the Obamas toured the sacred halls of the White House, a place they would be living in for the next four years. President Bush talked with President-elect Obama about the change of power that is going to occur when Obama is inauguarated to be President and leads the country in a new direction. Ironically, both Obama and Bush wore nearly identical suits. Judging from their appearances, I would have naively assumed that they might be similar. However, it seems that the only thing the two have in common in the picture is their clothing. Obama promises to be a complete change from the Bush Adminstration  and repair the nation back to its glory. In constrast, the lame duck president is looking to ride out the rest of his troubled presidency.

Today, for the first time in his life, Barack Obama saw the Oval Office in person. In ten weeks, he will not only take the oath to be the highest political office in the United States, but also be the first black American to do so. Along with the White House, Obama is given a mandate to command and a democratic Congress. However, whether or not Obama will preside wisely and carefully have yet to be seen. Like they say in Spiderman the movie:

"With great power comes great responsibility." 

I hope President Obama will heel these words.

Obama Making Good on Campaign Promises

As I'm sure many of you recall, President Obama made many promises to the American public through out his campaign. One of his many promises was that he would go through "the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work". He has also promised to fix "the failed promises of George W. Bush". It looks as if Obama is already making good on this promise. Obama and his advisors have already begun the process of reveiwing all of Bush's executive orders. Reports have said that Obama's transition team has already identified a number of issues where Obama can issue executive orders once Obama assumes the office of president.

International Congrats

I have a lot of friends and family abroad and the day after Obama was announced the President-elect I got several emails from them commenting on our new president. My Norwegian friend said "maybe the whole world won't hate you anymore!" and she tells me often the dislike her country has for Bush which by the way she describes it rivals ours. So I just thought it was interesting to do a search for news articles concerning our election in other countries, like this one by the Prime Minister of Norway. If you go to Google news you can pick which country you want news articles from although not all of them offer English settings. There are some funny articles from Google España for anyone speaking Spanish...

Edit: For anyone who gets the San Francisco Chronicle look at the front and back cover of the front section today (sunday). It is exactly what I was looking for when I made this post last night, it shows a ton of front pages from newspapers around the world. The Chronicle publishes most of their articles free online as well but I couldn't find this particular one.
Here is another interesting link though concerning Obama and the President of Russia.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/09/MNG514152T.DTL

Obama's Winning Demograhics!

How exactly did Obama secure victory for the Democratic party? Who do we get to thank for this amazing acomplishment? Well for starters, no surprise but Obama won the low income vote. Surprisingly, Obama also did well with the wealthiest of Americans. According to exit polls Obama won 52% among voters who earn $200,000 and more. Obama also won the Catholic vote, something that John Kerry was unable to do when he ran for President, despite the fact that Kerry is Catholic, while Obama is a Protestant. Obama won 66% of the youth vote. Among suburban areas in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, and Indiana, Obama managed to win counties that had gone to Bush in the 2004 election. So Obama secured a pretty impressive victory! He managed to win the votes of some groups that have historically recently gone republican. So congrats to President-Elect Obama!

As the Election dies down, the economy troubles return.

"People all over the world are celebrating Obama’s victory. Sarah Palin watched the Russians celebrating from her house. ---Craig Ferguson

I saw this quote and it reminded me, suddenly of the economy, but it's kind of confusing why it reminded me of it. Here we are, all pumped for the outcome of this election, but I've forgoten about the current ecomonic crisis, not only here in the US, but also overseas (like in Russia, that's why the quote reminded me about this subject in the first place).

On a more serious note, Obama has much to think about regarding the economy. Obama held his first press conference as president-elect, stressing that the focus of his efforts would be the struggling middle class.

"We need a rescue plan for the middle class that invests in immediate efforts to create jobs and provides relief to families that are watching their paychecks shrink and their life savings disappear," Obama stated.

I think that the choices he makes first will reflect stopping the economic disaster that is hanging in the balance. I searched for an article of any sort regarding Obama and his ideas to "rescue the middle class" with jobs and such, but all I found was that statement. Obama might be too busy preping for the White House, but in my opinion he should lay out his ideas to get us out of this mess.

CBS news this morning said that although the economy dropped a few weeks ago, here in California we are only just being hit with it. For some, it won't be too bad, but for others, it means losing jobs and homes. Nonetheless, this is an important issue and I think Obama would be making a smart choice by making it his top prioity when entering the White House.

Prop Hat8? No, just 8

A fair number of students asked me this week what will happen next in regards to gay marriage in California now that Prop 8 is part of the Constitution.

Here are several excellent sources on this:

Eugene Volokh on what will likely happen, legally speaking
Matthew Yglesias on the "backlash"
And of course Andrew Sullivan has a bazillion posts on this subject, which is fitting, since he -- FAR more than Gavin "Whether You Like It Or Not" Newsom -- really helped make gay marriage a reality over the past 15 years.

As mentioned in class, I don't see there being a legal remedy besides putting it back on the ballot and convincing more people on the merits. Maybe this will be ruled to be such a significant change that it requires a 2/3 vote, as there are 2 mechanisms for changing the California Constitution, and that would invalidate prop 8 (and enrage its fervent supporters.) But I doubt it. The best way to get gay marriage is to increase the respect in society for gay people, and frankly, I thought the no on 8 campaign completely failed in that respect. To earn more respect, we have to embrace the real fears that people have and talk them down. I find it telling that prop 8 passed by wide margins where few gay people live and was voted down by pretty wide margins where gay people are commonplace. Hmm. Familiarity breeds respect.

The Yes on 8 campaign capitalized on those fears, and their ad and direct mail campaign was pretty outrageous to me. "Hate is not a family value" remains the best bumper sticker of all time. Yet, while there is some irrational prejudice that borders on hate out there, calling all the Yes voters haters is not a winning strategy. Turning the other cheek and talking to people with respect? Much more difficult, but much more effective.

So tomorrow, some number of people, including myself, will be wearing black as a symbolic protest. I hope that no one gets overly confrontational about it on either side. Asking someone to articulate their reasoning is not offensive. Being outraged about holding a position that approximately half the State holds could be, and, moreover, it doesn't change anyone's mind.

I must admit that it was more than a little disheartening to be left out of what was a moment of national pride and reconciliation. Obama's victory was a very nice moment for the country that I celebrated heartily. Many Republicans who couldn't vote for Obama on policy grounds were similarly patriotic. Progress is good, even with a band of counties from Texas up through West Virginia that went against the otherwise across-the-board trend for Democrats which can't be explained away without involving race.

Still, it stung, more than I would have thought. As a teenager, as I realized that I was actually a disrespected minority, I became very interested in the struggle for racial justice. I loved my college coursework on the subject, and the civil rights movement was my favorite unit when I taught US history. I fear that had I not faced prejudice of my own that I might not have had much empathy or understanding for cultural identities beyond my own experience. So, far beyond the policy and politics of the moment, I cherished Obama's rhetorical calls for unity as well as his victory. And then, a few hours later, a major letdown, one that would not have happened had African-American turnout been especially high for this particular election. Had prop 8 been defeated by a narrow margin, it would have felt like a huge win, but really, we are talking about a different level of respect from 5% of the population, which is within sight, and I thank the many students who have expressed their solidarity over the past few days. There is little doubt that by the time your generation takes the reins of national power this issue will be about as settled as race seems to be here in 2008.

What would the world be like if...

I was emailed an extremely funny video of the possible futures for both candidates, depending on who won. It's quite funny, but could some of it be a little more truth than parody? You can be the judge of that:

http://www.comedy.com/blog/2008/11/03/what-the-world-will-be-like-if-obama-wins-vs-what-will-happen-if-mccain-wins/

Obama chooses Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff

Today Obama announced Rahm Emanuel as his White House Chief of Staff. This is the first of many appointments our president-elect will have to make and allready there is controversy over his very first pick. Emanuel has a reputation for tough politics, a disregard for hurting feelings, and for relishing media attention. He once mailed a dead fish to a political foe. Emanuel has been a Democratic member of Congress since 2003. While some critics of Obama's choice claim he is too aggressive, others praise his agression as a perfect complement to Obama's general disposition. So, is this choice a shrew political move on the part of the president-elect, or is this something we should be concerned about?

106 year old woman.

If you watched Obama's speech last night then you probably heard Obama mention Ann Nixon Cooper, a 106 year old woman who voted for Obama. Cooper was born a generation after the end of slavery. She lived to see women earn the right to vote, and the end of segregation. This is a woman who has lived through a lot!!! It was only fitting that Obama honor her with his speech, and with this call that you see in this video.

San Mateo County Info

I was interested to see the particular results of our county and this is the official site, its interesting to see what you can find. A list of all the precincts showed the percent outcome, the lowest one is about 42 percent and the most was 92 percent but mostly the averaged around 60 and 70 percent, so it's good to know lots of people vote in atleast our area.
And HERE:
http://www.shapethefuture.org/elections/results/november2008/resultsarchive.asp
It shows all the other results from past elections which is really cool to see the difference in turnout.