Barack the Magic Negro!

Apologies for my lack of posting since Christmas. Not much happening in the political world, and as a bonus I've been sick. But I'm back now.

I finally saw something that moved me to write a blog entry: Barack the Magic Negro! This is a song that's been played sometimes on Rush Limbaugh's radio show. You can listen to it here, but fair warning, it's pretty revolting. When I first heard about the song, I thought it was hilarious, in the sense that I couldn't believe anyone could think this song was a good idea. But after having heard the song, I'm quite sickened.

To the present: Here's an account of the story. We have an interesting situation here: apparently most Republicans are standing by Saltsman, but they won't go on TV to defend him (at least that's what my dad says). I find the whole situation absolutely crazy. Think about it: The Republicans lost big on election day partly due to their lack of votes from minorities and young folks. People 18-29 voted for Obama by a 2-1 margin, which is quite amazing. And now we have the potential RNC chair sending this song out as a sort of holiday gift. Does he want the Republicans to keep on losing? It's not so much the actual act of sending out the song - most people will probably never hear about that - it's about the Republican attitude. If you're a minority, if you're a young person, they don't want you in their party. That is boneheaded: there will be more Millennials than Boomers or Gen X voting soon enough. We've already made our political voice heard (black president). Minorities! Yeah, there's going to be more of them too. In Texas, white people are no longer a majority. (Insert joke about me being Asian here.)

You look at Congress: no Republicans in the Congressional Black Caucus. I guess that's obvious enough. There are 4 Republican Hispanics in Congress, all of them Cubans from Florida. (I can't find the exact number of Democrats - it's about 25.) Asians - it's kind of funny how one Republican face I've seen a lot is Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. Why? He's young (37) and a minority! Besides the aforementioned Cuban Hispanics, he is literally the only Republican minority in a prominent elected position. He's their token minority. (Vote Republican, young people! We've got a Desi!)

Watch Jindal. Mark my words, the Republicans will nominate him for president one day. (2016)

But I'm getting too far from Barack the Magic Negro! My point is this: It's patently obvious to me that a song like Barack the Magic Negro is offensive. And I think such a song is offensive (or at least obviously stupid) to most young folks and minorities. Republicans have few prominent minorities. Republicans were pretty bad at winning over young people in the last election. (There just aren't a lot of young people in Congress of either party. John Sununu, at 44, is the youngest senator.) And now we have this song being sent out and most Republicans like it. Are they trying to continue down the path toward electoral irrelevance?

My opinion: Well, not intentionally. Obviously. But next I expect there will be purges! The moderate Republican is dead. (Namely, Chris Shays, the last Republican representative from New England, who was defeated in November.) Oh, there will be purity tests galore. Don't you dare support that Magic Negro (Muslim!) or you'll get primaried by the ever shrinking Republican base.

And now we're getting into the topic of The Future of the Republican Party, which I'll be writing a lot more about. My thoughts about that are pretty twisty, as this entry's incoherence has no doubt shown.

I'll be doing one post a day for the entire month of January, so you can expect several entries on that. Also you can expect posts on Scott McClellan - I'm most of the way through his book, and let me tell you, he's my personal favorite person named Scott. I'm also about halfway through the biography of Senator Church, which is quite a read. I'll be writing about that as well. I said earlier that in Texas, white people are no longer a majority. That's important and shouldn't be glossed over. I'll talk about that as well. I also understand our first black/Magic Negro/Muslim president is going to be inaugurated at some point and he'll start doing stuff and (according to most liberal blogs) failing utterly!

JINDAL 2016

Today is Christmas!

Not much politically to write about over the last week, although I have the hunch that Paterson won't appoint Ms. Kennedy to the Senate. Just a hunch. Also, Obama's a failure as President, despite him being -26 days into his first term.

But let's talk about Christmas! Interesting presents this year. I got a book about this senator, a book by this chairman, and a book by this former lapdog. Also, Chopin mazurkas. Also, bigger flash drive. Also, external hard drive (160 gbs), Wall-E, a few CDs, and a few other things of lesser importance. My dad gave my mom stuff like a lantern and batteries, thanks to this bastard. I would prefer not to wear shorts and a T-shirt on Christmas.

I just rewatched Wall-E, and I'm starting to get a little pissed with the science errors, though I still find the film deeply moving. Maybe it's time to rewatch the Office season 3 Christmas special. There should be a Heroes Christmas special - Hiro can be the ghost of Christmas past, present, and future, I guess. I would also like to see the Star Wars Christmas special.

For some reason I have not heard much about Fox News's war on Christmas this year, so I think it's pretty safe for me to say Merry Christmas! And a happy New Year!

HO. HO. HO.

Caroline Kennedy!

So I guess the current liberal polarization du jour is Caroline Kennedy. Now I know none of y'all care much about Caroline Kennedy, and I don't much either. It's probably worth caring about her more than Rick Warren though because she's in the position to be a senator, and the Senate is where legislation goes to die. Unless it passes! But don't worry, the Republicans don't believe in helping out Obama by passing his legislation.

Oh yeah, and Governor Paterson sez he's already decided who the replacement will be. (Wait, for Aether and those who don't know: Hillary's probably gonna be Secretary of State, and Paterson needs to name her replacement, who will possibly be Ms. Kennedy.) I tend to be against Ms. Kennedy, because...what exactly has she done in life? She hasn't been elected to any political office. She's a lawyer. She also raised $65 million for NYC public schools, which sounds like a lot but it's a big city, so I'm not sure how much that amount actually means. She endorsed Obama in early 2008 which is the first I had heard of her actually doing something. She filled out a questionnaire for the NY Times saying her political views - mainstream stuff, she supports gay marriage, undivided Jerusalem, other stuff. But we didn't know all this before she filled out the questionnaire! That's a problem. She's not doing much press, not hitting Meet the Press or Face the Nation or the Daily Show. (My mom sez she did Meet the Press earlier in the year to talk about her support of Obama, if you're being picky.) You might remember the last prominent female political figure pilloried for not doing many interviews with the press. Her name was Sarah Palin.

Nepotism: Sure, it's not so good in principle, but look at Ted Kennedy. He hadn't done too much in life before being elected to the Senate. Key word: elected! It would probably be best for Paterson to appoint a caretaker, or call a special election - although the latter is expensive. As for nepotism, what can we do about it? Nothing, really - just make sure that the sons and daughters of political figures get elected fair and square, without special help from their parents.

Moment of zen: So I was looking at the Huffington Post earlier, and their headline is O! accompanied by this image. Straight ladies and gay guys: You're welcome.

airplane hell

So no entry about politics today! Instead I'm going to tell about yesterday! So I flew back to Houston from Philadelphia yesterday - made it, eventually. Let's go through a timeline, shall we?

Noon to 1:00: Goodbyes to friends and well-wishers in Dana basement.
1:00: Wait for airport shuttle by Wharton - I'm in the tunnel, but rain is pouring down and it's cold, probably in the 30s.
1;30 or so: Arrive at airport, check in, find that the flight (initially supposed to leave at 4:50) has been delayed until 7:40. Not so great. But I was kinda expecting that, seeing as how nearly every flight has been delayed due to nasty storms on the East Coast and Midwest.
2:00: At this point I've made it through security and into Terminal E.
Wumps of time pass here, I read Kate Chopin and the Economist world in 2009 edition, I go browse news sources - Obama is Time's person of the year, apparently.
5:00: I eat dinner (Burger King)
Hazy blurred together stuff here. I used the Internet at one point - Palin could beat Murkowski in an AK-Sen primary, but we'll talk about that another day.
7:00: I've been sitting in wherever's empty in the terminal but at this point I make my way to gate E3 because hey, plane's leaving soon, right? (At this point it's projected to leave at 7:55)
7:30 or so: Plane arrives from San Antonio, passengers disembark
8:15 or so: I start to wonder why we haven't boarded yet, find out that we're waiting for the pilot to show up from his flight from Orlando to Philly. Est time of that plane getting here: ~9:45. Flight currently projected to board at 10:00.
9:45: We get in line to board - oh yeah, this is Southwest and I'm in the A group. Turns out we have to stand in line just a little longer because they're de-icing the plane. (It's been raining the whole evening, and it's cold, but afaik it's not below freezing)
10;00: We board! I am happy. They're still de-icing the plane outside my window.
10:15: We take off. I settle down and finish a collection of Kate Chopin short stories - Bayou Folk, I think it's called. It's pretty good, but everyone speaks in dialect and Chopin throws some French phrases in (these stories take place in Natchitoches). I fail at doing the difficult crossword and the hard sudoku in the inflight magazine. Sorry.
1:15: We land in Hobby and are greeted by the surly faces of people waiting to board this plane on its next leg of the trip: to Los Angeles.
1:45: Gee, it's warm and humid in Houston, isn't it?

Now what?

I note that finals are over and papers are done, so maybe it's time I create a blog. A nod to the fine folks who put me on this path, especially p-static. (nods) This blog will be different, seeing as how my interests revolve not around computers or anime, but more like politics or classical music. I plan for my posts to be pretty diverse, though. Anyway, I guess a bit of explanation is in order? Y'all know Frank Church, of course. He's not a pun, he's a senator. He's important, but I'll get into that another day. Allegro assai, sehr trotzig - it means very fast, very stubborn. It's the tempo mark for Mahler's 9th symphony 3rd movement, which seems to represent well the world as I see it today. Although tonal, it is more motivic than melodic and very vagrant tonally. Youtube, that purveyor of Sarah Palin and Foghorn Leghorn, can help you out in this department.

One topic I plan to write about a lot is the Obama transition. I notice the outrage du jour isn't over a Cabinet pick or policy proposal, but professional Chuck Todd lookalike Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church in California and the guy who's going to be giving the invocation at the Obama inauguration. In the recesses of your mind you might recall the Saddleback faith forum from back in...August? It was a while ago. Obama and McCain went there to talk religion and stuff because it's a Christian nation and all of you non-Christians can just go to hell. Anyway. Rick Warren's one of the new types of Christian leaders - evangelical, but not an asshole about it, and prioritizes social justice over abortion. Don't mistake him for a social liberal, though, he was a supporter of Prop 8.

So that's Warren. You go look at Daily Kos and every other diary is on Rick Warren, and most of the rest are on Caroline Kennedy. (I'll probably talk about her another day.) Controversy: I'm just not too fussed about Rick Warren giving the invocation. Hell, the inauguration address is quite a bit more important than the invocation. What matters much more to me is what Obama's going to do in office. The cabinet appointments also are important, although y'all should remember that Obama's setting policy. He ain't weak-willed like Bush and won't be walked all over by Biden or Gates or whoever. Also, something that I think people forget is: what if McCain were elected? Can you imagine who he would choose for the invocation? Probably someone like John Hagee or Pat Robertson or who knows. (Actually, now that I think about it, he very might well choose Rick Warren too, because of the faith forum.) But McCain would be substantially different in terms of cabinet posts. Also he would probably die (look at that cheek) and then you'd get President Palin. (Ah, I was rewatching some of Tina Fey on SNL earlier tonight. I'll be writing much more about her. She's not going away quietly, just you watch.)