Al Gore 2008 Presidential Campaign Petition

You know. Most of the time I'd be creating a petition to keep someone FROM running for president. It's in my nature. But not today folks!

Al Gore was our president in 2000! Let's show this nation who we REALLY want!

Al Gore for President! Sign this petition today and tell your friends about it!

Check out the following pages:
www.algore.com
www.algore.org
www.algoresupportcenter.com
www.draftgore.com
www.algore04.com

Anna Nicole? Hardly.

MSNBC top story, "Tabloid Life Ends," the next story regarding the Libby trial.

CNN top story, "Autopsy planned for Anna Nicole Smith," the third most popular video on their website a video entitled, "Anna Nicole on her weight."

Fox News top story, "What killed Anna Nicole?" The next top story being the paternity battle over her daughter.

Smith's contributions to our world including waitressing, exotic dancing, working at a Wal-Mart, posing as a Playboy playmate, appearing in several flop movies, and giving us the grand and intelligent reality series The Anna Nicole Smith Show shown on one of our nation’s proudest networks, E!.

She represented the product TrimSpa, their motto “Be Envied” exploiting the already devastatingly perverted image of female beauty in this nation. Just last month TrimSpa was fined $1.5 million for making false claims about their product by the FTC. It is also a product that includes some of the same ingredients that ephedra contained.

Her death is tragic, as any death really is, but the top news story on the major networks of the world? I won’t argue that our media’s priorities are skewed, and rational person knows that. I argue instead that our priorities are skewed… the media wouldn’t post those stories unless people were reading them. You have to provide for your demographic right?

What else happened today that might be a better-prioritized news story? This is a no-brainer.

Today, four men, armed with assault rifles, stopped a pickup truck carrying illegal immigrants in Tucson, Arizona. They proceeded to shoot—shoot—three of the immigrants, killing one on the scene and forcing six or seven others to come with them. Two more bodies were then found a few miles north of the original crime scene. The rest of the immigrants that had been kidnapped have yet to be found. They are now hostages of captors that are clearly willing to murder them in cold blood. There were four other immigrants that were left at the scene, one woman who had been shot in the neck, one man who had been shot in the hand and lost several fingers, and two other men who were taken into custody as witnesses.

Twelve hours prior, 70 miles south of this heinous crime scene, eighteen immigrants were robbed at gunpoint by four heavily armed men clad in ski masks.

Which of these events should take precedence in the American consciousness?

—iStephen

FAHRENHEIT 197, "Considering the incident of Nov 14 at UCLA"

I should be writing a school paper right now, but I think it's time to for another installment of FAHRENHEIT 197.

I think we should not let Amnesty International the American Iranian groups tell us what happened at Powell Library on the 14th.

According to the UCLA Office of Analysis and Information Management's 2005 Student Profile (http://www.aim.ucla.edu/home/Undergraduate_Profile_Fall_2005.pdf), there were 24,811 undergraduates, 10% of this population is marked as International or Other/Unknown, the other 90% is marked as Native American, African, Hispanic, or White. This means that around 2500 undergraduates are Middle Eastern or other nationalities, so I would hardly say that Mr. Tabatabainejad is the only Middle Eastern student to hang out in Powell, he was not singled-out because of his apparent nationality.

If indeed Mr. Tabatabainejad was profiled due to his race, let me throw out another statistic: According to the National Counterterrorism Center's 2005 terrorism report (http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/nctc2005.pdf), over 11,000 attacks occured resulting in 14,500 deaths and that "Muslims bore a substantial burden" of those attacks, 40,000 people beign killed or wounded due to Muslim terrorism. Those of you that argue that what I have stated just now is pejorative can take a hike, it's merely a statistic. Now, we cannot discount the psychological effect these attacks have on Americans, their own protective mechanisms tell them that a Muslim is more-likely to commit a terrorist act than a non-Muslim, this is NOT racism: let me explain.

Racism, and there are many forms of it, according to Robert Blauner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Blauner) racism is a tendency for people to categorize different cultures by physical attributes such as skin color, hair color and texture, eye shape and facial structure, and the dislike or distrust of that race simply based on the fact that they are 'of' that race. In the case of an individual, especially an American, profiling a Middle Eastern person, is considered 'discrimination' which is the behavioral manifestations of 'prejudice,' in this case 'utilitarian' prejudice. (from Lustig & Koester, "Intercultural Competence" Ch. 6) An American may believe that a Muslim is more-likely to be a terrorist based on the fact that the majority of violent terrorists are Muslims. But facts do not always reveal truth.

Mr. Tabatabainejad is a senior at UCLA, so is fully aware of the plurality of the campus' ethnicities. He should also be fully aware that on the back of his BruinCard (his identification) it states "BruinCard is the property of UCLA..." So when a UCLA official asks you for it, you give it to them without hesitation. Any of us would assume a defensive position if someone is hesitating to give their ID.

According to Democracy Now! (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/20/1448245), Mr. Tabatabainejad failed to show his ID...at 11:30 pm...so officers asked him to leave. What happened between the time this happened to the point where the now-infamous cell phone video begins is still uncertain, and is important for us not to jump to conclusions.

Word on campus is that Mr. Tabatabainejad was being verbally hostile toward someone before the incident occurred, it is not clear who, or if this rumor is even a fact. However, according to the transcript of an interview with Hussam Ayloush, the Executive Director of the Southern California Council on American Islamic Relations, it is understood that "...maybe Mostafa was a little bit obnoxious. Maybe he wasn't too compliant. We don't have the whole picture actually, but based on what we heard from news report, it seems yeah, maybe initially he was asked for an ID and he didn't show the ID." Interesting.

UCLA has, I think, acted in the best possible way, establishing their own investigation and paying for a third party investigation as well.

It seems strange to me that just because an officer asks you for your ID, the first thing out of your mouth is to claim racial profiling, and within days have a lawyer all ready with a Federal Civil Rights lawsuit in hand...

I'll tell you, as a UCLA student myself, I would rather the people protecting my campus and I be more tough than less tough, and if that includes overshooting on an incident like this in the interests of being better safe than sorry, so be it. Next time someone is asked for the ID, perhaps they'll be more apt to show it.

They can sure dish it out, but they sure can't take it

Alright - I am not the first to praise or glorify the latest pontiff - however - he WAS right.

From NPR: Translated from German, the pope cited the Manuel II Paleologas' view of Islam: "He said, and I quote, 'Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'"

Now the entire Muslim community is in an uproar - I'm surprised the Pope didn't see that coming from a mile away. It seems the Muslim leadership are the first to be offended but also the first to offend. An ultimate hypocrisy. Then THEY take it to the next level - the pontiff immediately said he regretted that he had offended the Islamic community, and to his credit he also stated his confusion at why there is a problem that he stated historical fact.

So, I suppose the Pakistani parliament has nothing better to do with their time than vote to condemn the Pope's comments – unanimously no less. The same bullshit the American congress did when they took out time from congressional duties to rename the fried potato treats in their cafeteria "Freedom Fries." Lord, grant me the strength...

You can take anything out of context and turn it in to whatever you want, if you're good at doing that, you should be a journalist and apply to CNN, they would love to have you on board.

Lincoln: Abolitionist? I think not.

This may be off-subject a skosh - but I think it's an important footnote to our latest discussion on the current state of the African-American community, and where it is headed.

Abraham Lincoln is considered one of the greatest American Presidents, this blogger is not about to argue with that. He managed to clean up the foreign diplomacy mess created by his predecessor, the mediocre James Buchanan, and took over the office of President as the U.S. stood on the verge of collapse. He was as a savvy a politician as they come - but still had to come into Washington unannounced and under the veil of darkness one evening because of the risk of an assassination attempt.

When the Confederacy was established, we were officially at war. The philosophers say this war was about morals and slaves. Moral and slavery were only tools used by the larger powers to solicit their men to fight. No war is every fought about morals, it's not worth the loss. War is fought for money and power, not a profound statement to be sure, but it seems that many people have forgotten this. It's nice to glorify the cause of the North and pretty up all the folks that were killed by stamping it with "We were freeing the slaves." You tell me - if an official from Lincoln's administration came to some town in the middle of New Hampshire and said: we need you to fight to free the slaves... would there have been ANY northern soldiers. I think not. These men weren't fighting to free the slaves, it didn't matter enough to them. Sure, a few die-hard abolishonists would have fought, but there wasn't enough to sustain a full army.

I'm not going to go into more depth about why the Civil War was fought - I believe you can see what I'm getting at. My friend, Ms. Krystal M. has envoked the name of Lincoln twice in our talks about the current state of the African-American community. I have heard his name mentioned a thousand times over by fellow students, on television and in literature when they talk about Lincoln "freeing" the slaves. I say, ya'll need to read Vidal's "Lincoln" before you shove your foot in your mouth again.

Lincoln believed that Whites and Blacks could never live together peacefully, and as far-fetched as it may sound, he actually wanted to transplant the newly-freed slaves to Nicaragua after the war. Lincoln was not an abolitionist. His main goal throughout his presidency was to be as neutral as possible, to be a joining force between the bitterly divided north and south. Claiming himself as an abolitionist would only further that divide.

We need to begin to put aside the racial problems of yesteryear in order to discuss their events now. We must look back and look the truth right in the face, no matter how ugly it is.

The continuing discourse on the state of the African-American community with my friend, Ms. Krystal M.

This entry is inspired by my friend, Ms. Krystal M., and her willingness to engage is fruitful conversation with me. I hope that perhaps her part of this discussion will make its way to a public forum so that you might be afforded the opportunity to read in full what she has to say. Until that time, I shall attempt to create the discussion for you.

First - I must be responsible - and admit when I've made an error in judgment. I am not infallible, but I will not use that as an excuse or deny the misjudgment. It seems as though the woman I mentioned in my entry "Trying very hard not to sound like a bloody racist," is perhaps suffering from a condition that allows her a mere 30 minutes on her feet at any given time. I have not heard too much about this condition myself, in fact, I do not know anyone who suffers from said condition, but then again, there's a lot I don't know.

I will not pretend that something I said was wrong or said without thought. I am not Fox News. (If you are not aware - I'm referring to Bill O'Reilly's twice-over repeated mistake regarding his comments on Malmedy during WWII, you may read more at Media Matters where they have a great article on the subject.)

My friend, Ms. Krystal M., says that she hopes I don't try to hide the racist I am by claiming to "have black friends." I do nothing of the sort - I don't have too since Ms. Krystal M. is my friend and happens to be black - this is called tokenism. I don't do it. However, she claims that my racism is "a condition that bleeds through." I'm not quite sure how to deal with this. I am not a racist, especially given the fact that I am Jewish and have had to deal with my own racism issues in the past. Jews and blacks have statistically been on board with each other for many years, especially among voting lines within the liberal parties. However, I believe there is huge difference in where the Jewish community is now compared with where they have been and where the black community is now compared with where they have been.

(((Technical Difficulty: I apologize - at this point I lost what I had written after this last paragraph due to a gross mistake of closing my Safari window... I will try to recover what I had written past this point which was quite a bit and learn my lesson to SAVE my work... it was good too. Damnit!)))

A great example of this is the secular use of the words "kike" and "nigger." (By the way - I don't if it came from Dr. King himself: "nigger" and "nigga" are the same fucking word. We all know the word "nigger" right? Right. However, it came as a surprise to me to find that MOST people, especially in my own generation has never even HEARD the work "kike" and could not identify or define it. "Kike" is the "nigger" equivalent used for Jews. The Jewish community rallied and refused to acknowledge the word or give it any credence, therefore, over a fairly short time span, the word has all but vanished from our conscience save for its short entry in the dictionary: "noun, informal offensive, a Jewish person." The black community on the other hand has embraced a word that RACISTS used to identify a race they believed inferior to their own, and according to Oxford American Dictionaries "remains one of the most racially offensive words in the [English] language." Until the black community unites and refuses to allow this word to be spoken by blacks and non-blacks alike it will forever remain in our conscience.

My friend, Ms. Krystal M., states: "...your unwillingness to be understanding of the historic issues that will be overcome GENERATIONALLY as they were created GENERATIONALLY." In my defense, I find myself quite aware and conscience of the history of the black peoples, and I do believe that we are in essence making the same argument, that the past atrocities, both on the individual and -more grand- societal scales, cannot be corrected overnight and with little effort. That instead, they must be approached from a new and fresh perspective, one that does not dwell on the past but looks toward a brighter future, one that is certainly in the distance and not right around the corner.

My friend says that I am judging the woman in "Trying really hard not to sound like a bloody racist" without the facts - and that I am judging an entire community based off this gross observation. I say nay - I have not judged the entire community - I have not even judged HER - I have judged something wrong with the African-American community - whether or not this woman had a real problem is a moot issue - if one should say that the things I have mentioned that are major problems the African-American community is facing are NOT real - that person in serious denial.

"We have changed the laws but not the hearts and minds of the people who make and enforce the laws." SO TRUE. I could not argue with my friend on this point. It is very easy to change the one - but an entirely other thing to change the other. More questions ensue: can we really change the hearts and minds of folks? No. They must undergo the same "generational" transformations that any society must undergo.

My friend, Ms. Krystal M., speaks at length about the "freshness" of racism in our country, and I could not agree more with her on this subject. Slavery, segregation, grandfather clauses and the civil liberties fight are very recent, and still exist in the conscience of the people of our country. The problem I see, is that not enough young blacks are concerned about these things or know enough about them. They don't take THEMSELVES seriously.

Until the black community takes their future seriously - I foresee an inevitable downward spiral in the lives of the members of that community, they have a lot of things to combat from within. My friend says: "he black race didn't create this mess alone and it will not be resolved by blacks alone." I have to disagree with her on this. Racism still exists in a big way, both against blacks and by blacks. In a previous essay written by my friend, she discussed the demonization of the black people throughout their tenure in North America, bell hooks speaks of it in her essay "Straightening Her Hair." This demonization has perverted the sense of "self" in the black community to an unfathomable degree, to the point where they themselves sometimes fail to recognize its effects because it is so routine for them to feel that way. It is up to the black community to unite, there is too much division between them now, they must together WANT something better for their children - for their future as a people.

I do agree however, with my friend, that the other sub-cultures of this nation should NOT take a hands off approach - but I fear the only thing we CAN do is to be as supportive as possible. To encourage the black young to succeed (to graduate from high school - not prison -- in reference to an argument made by a young black woman whom I unfortunately remember the name of that stated the "black ideal of success is different from the white." Is it really? Something to think about...) and to lift up our fellow Americans wherever possible - but just as WE cannot change the "hearts and minds" of the lawmakers, the black community must change themselves if there shall be anything TO support.

Are our opinions really that different my friend? Do we differ in substance or only in view?

Dancing my dance.
Zitaos

Trying very hard not to sound like a bloody racist

I'm not a racist - I'm not.

The famous last words of a racist right?

Disclaimer: I will not address the problems with all races today. I will not "balance" my arguement for I am not making one, just stating some thoughts of mine and some observations. Should one want to debate on issues confronting another race besides the one discussed here I shall be much obliged and am well-versed. Have a problem with my "ganging up" on the following race: kiss off.

As I sat in the front lobby of work today, an African-American woman drove into the room on a Rascal. An actual Rascal - not one of those cheep knock-offs. She is overweight - I'm not being a weightist either - she is. She rolled in, said hello, I said hello in return and she parked in the corner - It seemed she was waiting for the bus and wanted to wait in the air conditioning - hey, I'd do the same. Here is what appals me: she parked, then got up... let me repeat that... she parked, then GOT UP and walked around to the back of her Rascal and fetched a bottle of water. She stood there plain as day and drank her water, then shuffled around in her bag a little, then walked around the lobby looking at the literature. She sat in one of the LOBBY chairs for a while. Then she checked her watch, and realizing the bus was to arrive soon, hopped back on her Rascal - said goodbye and rolled on her bloody way.

Alright - I am not proposing that we attempt to regulate who does and who does not use a Rascal, that would be a ridiculous waste of energy. What I am proposing is that we recognize the REAL problems we face in America. A vague statement, I'm sure.

What, in this case, is a REAL American problem is a trend of laziness I've seen in the African-American community - especially in California. This is not a problem for Caucasians, Asians, Europeans, or anyone else to deal with - it is for the African-American community - and the African-American community alone - to deal with.

I call it laziness - yes laziness - I've heard it called many other things: restitution, pay-back, "workin' the system." I call it shear and utter laziness. I'm not sure what I owe the African-American community myself - but I'm sure there's something.

I am not going to say that only black folks "work the system." EVERY race in this country has fuckin' moochers. However, being that the African-American community is such a vital part of who we are as a country and our ability to operate, it is of utmost importance that African-Americans as a whole begin to evolve again.

What do I mean?

When native Africans were brought to the States to serve as slaves their growth was stopped and most of their culture perverted and twisted into what their white masters wanted and prefered. This was the beginning of the African-American culture as it stands today - and completely evident.

The African-American community needs to recognize that their culture began out of a very terrible place, and that is a very hard thing to build on. Still today, they are struggling with their history. It seems to me that the growth in the African-American community has been stunted by a myriad of variables. Technology and availability of social programs among them. I have the feeling that a great deal of African-Americans feel as though they are "owed" something and that they have the right to a little more for a little less.

I'm sorry folks: this is not the case. We all need to do our part, work for our dollars, and pull our weight. In my opinion the problems of the African-American communtiy are many, including single motherhood and multi-father families, significantly falling education rates and college-going students, crime and poverty (which are inextricably linked), and health issues. The next generation MUST make a change in their ways of doing things and most definatly in the ways they interact with their society. If they fail to do this: to encourage their children and fellow tribesmen to procure education (right now, it's more impressive to have graduated from prision rather than from high school), to live their lives in peace and in harmony with the world around them and to take care of their families and their health as much as possible... the downward spiral I currently observe their community in will worsen to a degree I cannot fathom. This is, of course, good advice for anyone of any color, but today I speak of the African-Americans. A culture that has tight ties to our early history (as well as being partly responsible for ensuring our continuing survival as a Union) and which is a beautiful sub-culture in our nation.

I plead with the future parents and scholars of the African-American community: please focus on yourselves and the improvement of your state in life, if you don't, I fear you will all find yourselves in a dire state of affairs that will ultimate lead to the self-destruction of your beautiful society that offers and provides us with so much - yet gives itself so little in return.

Dancing my dance.
Zitaos