NYC Junta

Earlier in the day yesterday, I tweeted that I’d like to hear Obama admit the truth about the state of our Union. While he couldn’t come out and put it the way I did, I noticed that he avoided the traditional opening of the speech, “The state of our Union is strong.”

Obama opened with a frank assessment of the tough times we’re facing, but put them in a historical context so as to soften the blow of bad news. It was not until the twelfth paragraph of his speech (six minutes into it), as he concluded his introduction and came to specific proposals, that he affirmed the strength of the country.

It’s because of this spirit — this great decency and great strength — that I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight.  Despite our hardships, our union is strong.  We do not give up.  We do not quit.  We do not allow fear or division to break our spirit.  In this new decade, it’s time the American people get a government that matches their decency; that embodies their strength.

I found the speech uplifting, and welcomed the return of Obama the Force. Throughout 2009, it seemed the strong, eloquent man I had voted for was taking a back seat too often, and not standing up for important principles. Despite the power of the speech, I still find fault with his policies on the war, national security, and the prosecution of war crimes which were clearly committed by our government. I will still fight him on that. But this was a welcome return of a strong leader with the right ideas on jobs, energy and education.

One of the high points was when he said we need to reject those who say his program is too ambitious, and “that we should just put things on hold for a while.” Obama’s response channeled Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, where the civil rights leader wrote, “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ … This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’”

As the President put it:

For those who make these claims, I have one simple question: How long should we wait?  How long should America put its future on hold?

You see, Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse.  Meanwhile, China is not waiting to revamp its economy.  Germany is not waiting.  India is not waiting.  These nations — they’re not standing still.  These nations aren’t playing for second place.

I’m looking forward to the ways in which Obama might rally his party to avoid a monstrous November defeat. It will be difficult. But as he said, they still have the largest majority in decades, and we the people expect them to pass some meaningful legislation.

What did you think of the speech?

Articles, In the News obama, politics, usa

I don’t know how you can read/watch/listen to what’s going on in Haiti and not feel awful about it. But at the same time I wonder if anyone else out there rolls their eyes when they’re scrolling through their facebook feed and sees every single person putting that Red Cross text number for $10 in there, as if they were suddenly a humanitarian. A few things bother me about that kind of thing (and I’m not talking about the idiots that “like” that post). Firstly, the issue with Haiti right now isn’t money or supplies, it’s actually getting into the country and the huge lack of infrastructure to distribute aid (which was a problem before the earthquake, only exacerbated now). So really that leads to the second issue, which is that people were generally okay not kn0wing anything about Haiti and the horrible conditions in which most people live there (poorest country in the western hemisphere). When it’s thrust in their face, in particular the context of a massive natural (and I stress natural, not a war caused by human depravity) disaster people feel guilty and want to help, and it’s convenient to have a text message to off-set that guilt, and even more convenient to have facebook to advertise your altruism and urge others to do the same. I think it’s ugly to draw attention to your charity.

If this post wasn’t grouchy enough for you and you want a further dose of contrarian thinking that is most certainly both racist and misanthropic, but still a fascinating read, check out this short piece on Haiti.

Articles contrarian thinking, haiti, racisim, sanctimony, white guilt

Good for Google, finally standing up to China, I hope this embarrasses the Chinese government. The Chinese government has been extraordinarily effective at censoring the internet, contradicting many who thought initially that the internet would be the trojan horse through which more liberal ideas circulated through to the people. I don’t care about the justifications about keeping order, or the tired story about protecting people from pornography, any regime afraid of ideas is a bad one.

I’m the benefactor of a smart colleague who is a voracious reader and, like I occasionally do, leaves magazines around the office for others to read after he finishes them. Among the mags I got today was Foreign Policy, just read Walter Russel Mead’s excellent piece that has gotten a lot of attention this past week for really exploring the comparison between the foreign policy of Obama and Carter.

In the News carter, china, google, obama, usa

Read this essay on the state of the music industry this morning and thought I’d post about it. It speaks to a lot of the issues that are discussed on another blog a friend runs on music where I post a lot. The biggest thing in 2009 for me musically was that I get my music almost exclusively (aside from some trading with friends) from the many blogs that are out there where you can get full albums. I thought  Jon Pareles made all the right points about how musicians are going to have to get out there and play for people rather than wait for sales of albums to keep them going. It is a changing landscape out there, creative destruction at work before our eyes, and that is surely creating hardship for people associated with music. But mostly I think it is a hugely positive trend to have access to so much music, to have the bar lowered for entering in with all the easy to use technology out there, and the chance for music to be cross-pollinated so that weird and interesting new hybrids are formed. Maybe we’ll get into this at the next Junta, which we will think will be art related.

Articles art, music