Posts from — February 2008

Despite now having pulled in over 1,000,000 regular joe shmoe donors like you and me, drawing in energized voters of all ages, colors, and creeds to his rallies like never before, and getting people up and excited about politics again for the first time since JFK, Obama continues to periodically face baseless right-winged lunatic-fringe accusations from the woefully misinformed. Alright, that’s a bit harsh, but as my wife will tell you (and likely my mother too) I don’t simply accept random statements as fact without some sort of basis to back it up and am often caught asking people to “Cite your source.” It’s no surprise then that the blind acceptance of random email forwards as fact, gets under my skin… especially when the claims are so easily verifiable against any number of media outlets that have published to the web for the last decade or so. But I digress.

As the title of this post indicates, a recent forward has me a bit stirred up so I’ve spent a bit of time, gathering the reputable sources that have already analyzed these claims to a fine level of detail. Hopefully this serves as a bit of a meta-reference for anyone seeking a bit more information on these topics.

On with my reply to the forward…

—
Sent: 28Feb2008 9:56 PM GMT
Subject: Re: What is wrong w/ a muslim president

Ugh… Where to begin…

Let’s start with the Muslim bit itself… forget Obama for a moment. This bit is just simply racist, akin to lets hang all the black people or force all the women into servitude. It’s also just plain inaccurate. There’s been an excellent write up over here if you want to see a bit more of the breakdown. The reviewer begins:
“I recently recieved an email forwarded to me from one of those well-meaning folks who constantly forwards stuff to his friends. It’s so full of misleading half-truths and outright lies it’s hard to know where to begin responding. It reads pretty much like a KKK or Neo-Nazi rant about Jews or Catholics. So let’s tear this apart bit by bit, shall we? read on…”

If you’re not dissuaded by that argument, the even simpler fact is that Obama’s not a Muslim. This has been getting forwarded around for some time by folks who’s only source of news are the forwards bouncing around their email accounts. There’s plenty of real journalism out there that completely covers the topic. For example:

Los Angeles Times: The Rumors About Obama Are “False And Vile.”
“The Los Angeles Times wrote in an editorial, “That the rumors are false and vile is self-evident… As always, the smears play to the ugly undersideof American politics: prejudice and hatred… Presidential candidates of both parties have a duty to denounce not only the smear against Obama but the bigotry that underlies it.” [Los Angeles Times, 12/3/07]

Newsweek: Sliming Obama
“Dueling chain e-mails claim he’s a radical Muslim or a ‘racist’ Christian. Both can’t be right. We find both are false. “Dueling chain e-mails claim he’s a radical Muslim or a ‘racist’ Christian. Both can’t be right. We find both are false. Another e-mail claims that Obama ‘is a Muslim,’ attended a ‘Wahabi’ school in Indonesia, took his Senate oath on the Koran, refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and is part of an Islamic plot to take over the U.S. Each of these statements is false.” [Newsweek, 1/11/08]

There unfortunately have been other false misinformed forwards floating around.

Obama’s been accused of not being patriotic enough because he doesn’t wear a flag pin on his lapel.
Via ABC News and The New York Times
Reporter: “You don’t have the American flag pin on. Is that a fashion statement?”
Obama: “You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”

“I’m less concerned with what you’re wearing on your lapel than what’s in your heart. You show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who serve. And you show your patriotism by being true to your values and ideals. And that’s what we have to lead with, our values and ideals.”

Another one that comes up from time to time is that he fails to say the Pledge of Allegiance or that he was sworn in on the Koran. Again both are simply incorrect.

Via the Washington Post
The Washingto Post awarded “The Scoundrel” who put the Obama/Pledge Of Allegiance email Into circulation “Four Pinocchios” on its fact checking scale, which classifies the attack as a “Whopper.” “Anonymous attacks by e-mail are, or at least should be, un-American. This particular one was also wrong on the facts. We award the scoundrel who put the e-mail into circulation four Pinocchios.” [Washington Post, 11/2/07]

Via Snopes (a Rumor debunking site)
Email Claim: “ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran.”
Facts: “This statement is completely false. It is a mistaken reference to a different politician, Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison, not Barack Obama.

There might be a few other nasty forwards out there that I’m missing too but the bottom line is, unless it’s backed up by some real sources, people need to use their brains and actually think things through a bit.

For the few months leading up to our move to the UK I’d been fine tuning our home entertainment setup. Finally, only a month or so before packing it all up to move I had it perfected (almost). Here’s the basics of the setup. Stay tuned for Part 2 where we’ll see how it’s all working over here in the UK.

Front view of the home theater setup. See here for a closer look at the kit.

For a while we had an old TV, DVD Player, TV Antenna, and VCR. Wow… old school. Gradually things started to change. We picked up an Infocus IN72 projector on Woot and ditched the TV. At first it was meant to be temporary, but the large screen, high resolution, and ‘poof it’s gone when you turn it off’ benefits were all compelling. Route the sound through the Hi-Fi and you’ve got the beginnings of a nice setup. Come to think of it, that likely marked the beginning of a quest to perfect it.

The Plan
I wanted a setup that would:

1. Be simple to setup, use, and maintain
2. Work internationally (compatible video formats and power)
3. Take up as little space as possible
4. Be flexible enough to support a wide range of content

The Setup

I’ve managed to put this all together with a few items gradually acquired over the last year and a half.
Mac Mini – $600
iPod Hi-Fi – $300
Nintendo Wii – $250
IN72 Projector – $400 (after rebate via Woot.com)
RCA Selector Box – $40

Features
One of the amazing things to me, and the reason for plucking a bit more down for the MacMini, was the flexibility of this all. AppleTV could have done some of it, but SlingPlayer was a must have and I didn’t want to fool around trying to hack it to bits. Anyway… the MacMini let’s us:

• Watch Movies, TV Shows, and listen to Music via FrontRow
• Rent and watch Movies via iTunes
• Watch US TV via Slingplayer and our stateside DVR.
• Watch DVDs, Joost, and Netflix video on demand (unfortunately the latter is only available via BootCamp)

Simplicity
The best part about all this is that it’s simple. It’s easy to use and it’s relatively few components which means less to buy, less to take up space, less to pack up when you move, etc.

Switching between components couldn’t be easier. The video sources are piped directly into the HDMI and Component Video inputs on the projector. A single button toggles back and forth between the two. The little RCA selector box handles the audio switching. At first this seems like an extra step but has the added benefit of being able to queue up some iTunes music and leave that on while Wii Bowling. It’s easy enough anyone can figure it out.

Well that should cover it for now… Stay tuned to see how things transfered to the UK only a month or two later. Hint – it’s even better than before!

Barack in Madison, Wisconsin

Originally uploaded by Barack Obama

Amazing! Keep rolling Obama. Only a few more to go!

This was just one of those simple things that got cut from the macForecast release but today I’ve just pushed basic email notification for account creation, forgotten passwords, and account deletion.

It took a bit of tweaking to make sure the settings and headers were right so as to ensure successful delivery, however things seem to be working now.

A friend of mine emailed me asking why I’ve been flying the Obama flag as of late. She’s been sitting on the fence.

It’s a great question because my first impressions were based on gut but since then, I’ve filled in the blanks and am more compelled than ever.

Well Spoken
I saw Obama on the Daily Show sometime last year and was really impressed by the way he carried himself. To me he came across incredibly well spoken, but more importantly, intelligent and with a refreshing look at politics. For example when discussing his vs. Hillary’s ‘experience’ he said:
Obama: “Let’s take the example of experience. We try to remind people, nobody had a longer résumé than Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and that hasn’t worked out so well. When people talk about experience, what they really want to know is, does he have good judgment? And you hope that if somebody has more experience, it gives them better judgment. Of course, everybody knows a lot of 50- and 60- and 70-year-olds that don’t have good judgment; they keep on making the same mistakes over and over again. So what we want to do is start talking about judgment, how do we get things done, what’s common sense.”

Depth and Experience
While he is incredibly well spoken, sometimes people assume this is all he has to offer. However, if you look at his history, his experience and record runs deep. The LA Times has this to say:
LA Times: “The U.S. senator from Illinois distinguishes himself as an inspiring leader who cuts through typical internecine campaign bickering and appeals to Americans long weary of divisive and destructive politics. He electrifies young voters, not because he is young but because he embodies the desire to move to the next chapter of the American story. He brings with him deep knowledge of foreign relations and of this nation’s particular struggles with identity and opportunity. His flair for expression, both in print and on the stump, too easily leads observers to forget that Obama is a man not just of style but of substance. He’s a thoughtful student of the Constitution and an experienced lawmaker in his home state and, for the last three years, in the Senate.”

The Issues
I like that Barack’s clearly and transparently laid out his position on all of the key issues including healthcare, Iraq, and poverty.
Barack Obama – Issues

On Healthcare
Obama and Hillary aren’t terribly far off in their proposals for healthcare, however Obama appears to have a clearer plan to me. Rather than just saying, “We need to mandate everyone have healthcare”, he’s trying to get to the bottom of the problem which is cost. He’s been criticized a bit for his plan not ‘mandating’ healthcare, but I think he explained his point of view well in the last debate:
Obama: “Let’s take health care. About 95 percent of our plans are similar. …explains similarities blah blah blah…

Senator Clinton has a different approach. She believes that we have to force people who don’t have health insurance to buy it. Otherwise, there will be a lot of people who don’t get it. I don’t see those folks. And I think that it is important for us to recognize that if, in fact, you are going to mandate the purchase of insurance and it’s not affordable, then there’s going to have to be some enforcement mechanism that the government uses. And they may charge people who already don’t have health care fines, or have to take it out of their paychecks. And that, I don’t think, is helping those without health insurance. That is a genuine difference.”
Watch the debate or read the transcript via CNN

Additionally, Hillary had 8 years to get this taken care of the last time around and couldn’t get it done. Maybe it’s time to give someone else a try.

Iraq
On Iraq I think it’s pretty clear. Hillary voted to authorize the war. Obama fought against it time and time again over the last 6 years. In 2002 he spoke out against the war saying it would result in “an occupation of undetermined length, with undetermined costs and undetermined consequences.”
From his website:
“In 2003 and 2004, he spoke out against the war while campaigning for the Senate.
In 2005, he called for a phased withdrawal of troops.
In 2006, he called for a timetable to remove our troops, a political solution within Iraq, and aggressive diplomacy with all of Iraq’s neighbors.
In January 2007, he introduced legislation in the Senate to remove all of our combat troops from Iraq by March 2008.
In September 2007, he laid out a detailed plan for how he will end the war as president.”

And as the LA Times mentioned in their endorsement, and I’ve heard from plenty of folks over here in the UK… Obama would give a fresh new face to American politics.
LA Times: “No public relations campaign could do more than Obama’s mere presence in the White House to defuse anti-American passion around the world…”

On Technology
Here’s one near and dear to my heart. Obama is by far the biggest proponent of improvements to the US’s technological infrastructure out of all the candidates. He’s outlined open access for the internet, using technology to make government more transparent, and improving communications infrastructure on his site, which by the way is consistently rated the best designed election site on the web.

This BusinessWeek article sums the difference between Hillary and Obama’s sites:
BW: “…Hillary sees her supporters as a series of constituents with individual interests that she needs to meet and Barack sees his backers as members belonging to a mass movement. One is a traditional political model. The other is a more modern engagement model.

…the two sites differ radically. On Obama’s I received “points” for creating a profile, making my profile public, logging in, befriending a link in my social network – which all told, puts me at 96,044th place in the my.barackobama.com universe. In contrast, the Clinton web site gave me an identification like TzQ$, so I could make sure that any donations were tracked back to me – sounding just like old style “frequent purchaser” numbers that everyone from CVS to American Airlines uses.”

Ars Technica also provides a nice summary and review of his technology proposals.
ArsTechnica: “Barack Obama’s campaign has now released a relatively comprehensive and extremely ambitious technology document that lays out a whole slew of general and specific proposals for doing everything from reforming the patent system to implementing a national broadband policy. In releasing this “technology and innovation plan,” Obama is the first major presidential candidate on either ticket to release a technology policy document that’s this comprehensive.”

LA Times Endorses Obama
This was a big one today and sums up Barack more eloquently than I ever could. Plus they haven’t endorsed a candidate in 36 years!
LA Times: “Democrats preparing to vote in Tuesday’s California primary can mark their ballots with confidence, knowing that either candidate would make a strong nominee and, if elected, a groundbreaking leader and capable president. But just because the ballot features two strong candidates does not mean that it is difficult to choose between them. We urge voters to make the most of this historic moment by choosing the Democrat most focused on steering the nation toward constructive change: We strongly endorse Barack Obama.

An Obama presidency would present, as a distinctly American face, a man of African descent, born in the nation’s youngest state, with a childhood spent partly in Asia, among Muslims. No public relations campaign could do more than Obama’s mere presence in the White House to defuse anti-American passion around the world, nor could any political experience surpass Obama’s life story in preparing a president to understand the American character. His candidacy offers Democrats the best hope of leading America into the future, and gives Californians the opportunity to cast their most exciting and consequential ballot in a generation.”
Read the Article – LA Times Endorses Barack Obama

In the last 20 years we’ve seen only 2 family’s in the white house. Isn’t it time for a change? You bet it is.

Further reading:
Barack Obama – Official Campaign Site
Wikiipedia Article
Obama’s Iowa Victory Speech
Yes We Can Music Video on YouTube