ARAB MEDIA Crash Course: Obama's Interview

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Wednesday January 28, 2009 · 12:46 AM PST

2009/01/28 · 00:46

I wanted to thank Trivium and Palestinian Professor for actually linking to some Arab news sources to try to give us kossacks a clearer perspective on the Arab World's reaction to Obama's Al-Arabiya interview. I'll try to shed some more light on the interview's significance and the nature of Arab media more broadly. The discussion on Trivium's entry has almost gone off the rails a number of times - both to the right ("Al-Jazeera is Al-Qaeda's propaganda arm") and the left ("Obama knows Israel is the main cause of terrorists"). Why? Because people aren't bringing Arab media (or English-language reportage about it) in to back up their opinions. Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiya are not Fox News or the BBC - to paraphrase Popeye, they am what they am. Read why after the jump.

Decatur

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Thursday November 20, 2008 · 1:11 AM PST

2008/11/20 · 01:11

I wanted to share a quick thought about Arizona's Janet Napolitano's nomination as Director of Homeland Security. What I really think we're seeing here is Barack Obama at his most farseeing and strategic. This week, we learned that John McCain plans to run for re-election in 2010. By tapping Napolitano, Obama has probably neutralized the only real threat to McCain's hopes for a fifth Senate term. Why is this smart? Because a soothed, magnanimous-feeling McCain would be a tremendous asset for Obama's climate change/energy agenda. Obama, as Rahm Emanuel put it, will "throw long and deep" on health care reform and climate change/energy legislation (Hallelujah!). Now get this: McCain and some guy named Joe Lieberman introduced the Senate's first ever climate bill in 2003. Climate change appeals to McCain's Teddy Roosevelt complex - McCain calls it "a national security issue." So Obama is pursuing an ego-stroking strategy with McCain like's Lieberman strategy: votes over revenge.

Decatur

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Tuesday October 28, 2008 · 6:20 PM PDT

2008/10/28 · 18:20

Kos put out an excellent diary about the RNC ad buy in Montana. Kos thinks the buy demonstrates that the RNC has given up on McCain and is just trying to hang onto as much territory as possible - for propaganda purposes as much as anything else (there was a lot more red than blue on 2000 and 2004 maps). This sounds quite plausible to me (although Occam's razor would probably tell us that the RNC is just flailing around like a beheaded chicken right now). It got me thinking about numbers, so I thought I'd play "Poblano" (a game where you imagine you're Nate Silver and try to do something clever with numbers - like playing "House" with a spreadsheet). I wanted to figure out the percentage of the United States' land area that Obama might plausibly win. I will omit Alaska and Hawaii, which together comprise about 16.5% of the 50 states' land area. Here's some quick numbers:

Decatur

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Monday October 20, 2008 · 4:24 PM PDT

2008/10/20 · 16:24

Daily Kos has admirably generated a tremendous amount of attention and discussion about Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama and Powell's beautiful attack against the anti-Muslim hatred unpinning much of the Obama hatred we're seeing now. But I wanted to share this post by a Muslim American whose nom-de-plume is Mash on www.docstrangelove.com. Mash's entry is as beautiful as Powell's statement itself, and the quotation and video's are embedded beautifully. It's the perfect way to spread Powell's message among your friends and colleagues. First, here's the link:

http://www.docstrangelove.com/...

Mash wrote:

"I - a Muslim American - have been a rhetorical punching bag for the McCain campaign. Too cowardly to openly declare the racism that is the underpinning of his campaign, the McCain campaign has instead been using the "Obama is a Muslim" smear as a proxy for "Obama is Black". Obama has been forced to defend against the false charge. No one has been able to defend my faith. It is just not done in American politics - post 9/11.

Until now."

Decatur

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Saturday September 20, 2008 · 9:38 PM PDT

2008/09/20 · 21:38

Nate Silver (Poblano) has written that Obama’s ads are failing to move voter sentiments because they lack the kinds of striking images or metaphors that stick in voters’ minds (think Reagan’s “Bear in the Woods” or the “Celebrity” ads). This TIME article about why Obama loves poker and McCain loves crapsgave me an idea. Here's the second half of my 30 second Obama commercial attacking McCain for wanting to privatize Social Security.

NARRATOR: "John McCain will roll the dice with your future."
[Viewer sees a stack of casino chips labeled “Social Security" on a craps table. Dice fly through the air, then land on snake eyes. A craps rake coldly pulls the “Social Security” chips away from the camera.]

NARRATOR: “And that’s a bet…that Americans can’t afford to make.”
[Cut to destitute-looking elderly white woman.]

BARACK OBAMA: “I’m Barack Obama, and I approve this message.”

Decatur

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Thursday September 04, 2008 · 10:56 PM PDT

2008/09/04 · 22:56

Hey guys, this is my first diary. After watching McCain's acceptance speech, I started a list of vital issues that John McCain never mentioned ONCE in his speech – not even to name-check them. I think it would be fun for people to re-read McCain’s speech and discover more issues where John McCain "just doesn’t get it" – and to read Obama’s speech and find out where Obama does. Here goes...

#1 Climate Change
#2 Health Care/Insurance (okay, one sentence)
#3 Torture
#4 Abortion
#5 Police Work/Crime/Illegal Drugs
#6 Same-Sex issues (marriage, benefits, etc.)
#7 The War in Afghanistan
#8 Pakistan (or the Taliban)
#9 Counterinsurgency doctrine
#10 [drumroll, please...] Osama bin Laden

There’s more after the jump:

RSS

ARAB MEDIA Crash Course: Obama's Interview

Obama's Napolitano-McCain strategy: Climate Olive Branch?

Let's play Poblano! How much land area can Obama turn blue?

Colin Powell's Beautiful Defense of American Muslims

ATTACK AD idea: McCain at craps table, betting our Social Security, gets snake eyes

Words McCain never mentioned: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Climate Change, Abortion, Torture, Osama...