Dear Barack Obama: Where’s my job? December 7, 2008

So this is appropriate… President-elect Obama’s speechwriters can party hard and that’s fine. But please explain to me how someone so inarticulate that they have to grope a cardboard cutout of Senator Clinton instead of scathingly critique her– and so misogynistic that this is how they treat women in politics– is head of speechwriting for the whole freaking White House?

Mr. Obama, give me a break. If you’re going to give this silver-platter job to some twenty-something screwup… I’ve got your screwup right here. See, I thought I wasn’t bestest and brightest enough to make the cut for the Obama dream team… but seeing staffers such as Favreau makes me realize I, too, have a chance! If this kid is qualified, I’ve no doubt that my intellectual prowess and communications skills are up to snuff. I have… what’s that… word… hope!

I’ll tell you this much: Closeted skeletons or past e-mail indiscretions aside, I’d definitely disable my Facebook upon acceptance of the job– and I can promise you I’d find better criticisms of political rivals than pointing out that they have breasts. Oh yes, yes I can.

So give that speechwriting gig to me instead, President-elect Obama. I may not have the Heineken-drinking skills or cardboard-breast-groping talents of Jon Favreau, but I promise you I could do the job at least as well as that guy.

A Mercy December 5, 2008

A quick note: Toni Morrison’s new book, A Mercy, is a bullet where her other books are adrift… though it’s sharper and leaner than Paradise or Song of Solomon, it’s still Morrison at the top of her game. It still gives you chills, it still weaves together all of its threads at the end, and it opens up those vast and deep caverns of womens’ experience and human bondage that take immense courage to peer into. That hurt is so vast, it threatens to overwhelm us, but Morrison has the courage to bear those stories and bring them into permanent record with the written word. But I digress…

I had the opportunity to see Morrison speak last night at 6th and I Synagogue in DC. She is gracious and sharp; although she’s a Nobel laureate, she is humbled by the grand reception her new novel has received. Morrison read selections from A Mercy for about 20 minutes, and went on to answer questions from the audience. She spoke about the way she felt the morning after Obama’s election: the curious absence she wasn’t expecting, a feeling that a steel band she didn’t know had been wrapped around her forehead was lifted. Asked for her response to a literary critic who says she writes too much about slavery, Morrison simply whipped back: “Who?”

She elaborated on why the door can never be closed on the history of genocide and human bondage, but her one-word response was enough to blow that criticism out of the water. Besides, she’s only written on slavery twice. I can’t blame those critics for feeling overwhelmed by Beloved, though– it haunts me still.

Maybe that’s why people brought copies of every single book she’s written, even the nonfiction pieces in paperback or library sale copies. Morrison was patient and kind, and she signed everyone’s books, uncomplaining, for about 90 minutes after the event. I brought two, and was overwhelmed when she signed my copies of Love and A Mercy. We are so lucky to have Morrison among us, writing and teaching, and being kind enough to meet and speak to her fans. Oh, and everyone should run out and buy this new book… because it’s great.

This is for my bitches November 6, 2008

This is for everyone who said we couldn’t rock the youth vote…

This is a referendum on the poor choices that 51% of the electorate made in 2004…

It’s a real mandate for change, instead of a Supreme Court-delivered sham victory grotesquely twisted to allow a group of diabolical men to wreak havoc on the United States under the guise of a “mandate from the voters”…

It’s my generation standing up and saying, We’ve done this your way for 40 years. It’s not working. It’s our turn.

This is about realizing that it’s Christian to stop worldwide hunger, pollution, rape, and needless death at least as much as it is to blindly prohibit abortion.

This is me saying I didn’t just vote Obama for selfish reasons — I did it for my mom, and for my grandmother, because I believe he is the right choice for young and for old, for Americans.

It’s my answer to four years of asking, America, do we misunderstand each other so fatally?

This is me having my Michelle Obama “proud” moment. Not just feeling patriotic about living in a country where civil liberties most people only dream of are guaranteed; the pride that must have been felt by greater generations when they realized their achievements were more than the sum of their parts.

This is about the right to belief being contingent upon upholding the Constitution that protects it.

This is the first day of the end of Republican anti-intellectualism. This is the rejection of Karl Rove’s tactics. This is the moment when attitudes of individuals around the nation will start to shift as they learn that the quality of a person’s mind is more nuanced than the color of his skin.

This is not going to fix everything, but it’s a start.

Check out this lazy-eyed slag May 8, 2008

Hillary Clinton’s most unattractive supporter is playing dirty with Nancy Pelosi. In yet another desperate last-ditch attempt to garner the nomination for Clinton, one of her key supporters– and a major donor to the Democratic party– is threatening to stop contributing to the 2008 Congressional campaigns of Democrats unless he gets his way. He’s told Nancy Pelosi to finance revotes in Florida and Michigan.

I’d just like to point out what blatant arm-twisting this is. Last time I checked, a contributor threatening to withdraw their fundraising support unless they get their way was called SPECIAL INTERESTS. So, now the tables are turned– Hill’s got the special interests doing her bidding?

In other news, this guy is responsible for some amazing movies. It’s a shame that, despite his wealth and relative influence, he hasn’t been able to alter his underground-mole-with-a-goiter appearance. I guarantee you that, when Weinstein made that threat to Pelosi, she put his tiny balls in a jar like Lucy Liu when she decapitates that guy in Kill Bill. Nobody messes with Pelosi.

Changing the establishment from within January 29, 2008

I’m receiving messages asking why I’ve chosen to support Barack Obama’s presidential campaign– both general questions, and specifically why, when Ron Paul is running. My political philosophy is, essentially, libertarian; I believe government involvement in the private lives of citizens should be limited, that in the U.S., states are more apt to govern their citizens appropriately than the behemoth of national government is, and that people and trade should be essentially unregulated. Theoretically.

Problem is, this isn’t the way the world, or our government, works. The national government is not going to stop taking at least 50% of the average American’s income away from them anytime soon. Hence, I support a candidate who I believe will at least funnel those dollars into causes I can support: environmental initiatives to lower carbon emissions, financial aid for college students, international charitable aid. The government is not going to stay out of my body or my bedroom; I need a president who will support my right to choose abortion, advance the causes of gays and lesbians, develop a plan (however flawed) to provide some kind of healthcare to people like… me in an economy where pharmaceutical companies are top blue-chip earners.

Then there is the issue, as much as I hate to admit it, of electability. Ron Paul is not going to win a general election. Kucinich isn’t going to, either (especially now that he’s out of the race). Those figures are important– the candidates on the fringe, though they lack the massive financial resources that are unfortunately needed to win a national election, bring new issues to the forefront of discussion. People like Paul and Kucinich are often chosen as Cabinet members, advisors, or experts on subjects about which they are passionate. For me, Obama displays the blend of charisma, general appeal, and sound policy positions needed to win an election. Fortunately, I can support him without secretly wishing I were supporting someone else– he has squarely held my vote since early 2007.

Toni Morrison said something unique in her endorsement of Obama. She described his star quality– the trait that sets him apart from Clinton and Edwards– as wisdom. That statement articulated for me the singular trait of Obama’s inspirational quality. Morrison wrote the following:

“In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don’t see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it.

Wisdom is a gift; you can’t train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace — that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.”

Surely the other candidates exhibit education. Clinton has an excellent Democratic pedigree and there is something understandable in the argument that she “deserves” the nomination. If the nomination were a promotion within a private company where time of service were a factor, she’d be the one who “deserved” the promotion. But the 2008 election is not about the ascension of a party insider, and it’s not about maintaining the status quo. It’s about a seminal moment in our history as a nation, one in which I truly believe a radical shift in the perspective of our governance is required in order to maintain the United States’ position as a world leader.

Unipolarity cannot last forever; it is being challenged every day, by China, India, and the radical Islamic movement. The US’ image abroad– not just our image, but our substance as a nation, our character– has been badly damaged by our government’s actions during the Bush administration. I honestly believe the only catalyst for radical change is the radically different candidate. Obama has the internationally experienced perspective, leadership skills, and humility needed to see our international relations in a new light. The very green-ness that so many question is part of his appeal; he isn’t promising to enforce the same party policies of the past 20 years that essentially don’t apply in this new world. And that is precisely why he’s set apart from the other candidates.

Others are beginning to come around. Many of my favorite party figures– Leahy, for instance, and Kansas’ governor– are endorsing Obama. He has shown me he should win, and he has shown them he is capable of winning a general election. I hope everyone reading this will head to www.barackobama.com and check out his positions… DC, Maryland, and Virginia’s primaries are Feb. 12.