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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
Inauguration Day Madman
January 28, 2009
A Surprise First Interview
People were shocked that President Barack Obama would sit down at the White
House and actually speak with an Arab-language broadcasting company reporter.
Al-Arabiya's Hisham Melhem, a critic of US policies in the middle east got the
surprise call from the White House asking if he would like to meet with new
President Barack Obama. Melhem and his employer were trying to get an interview
session with new Mideast envoy and former Senate Majority Leader George
Mitchell. Instead, they got the Big Dog.
Although Obama sat down with the more moderate of the Arab-language broadcasters
instead of Al-Jezeera, just his granting interview number one with what many in
the US consider to be a mouthpiece for the enemy has many a NeoCon head a-turnin'.
And when one throws in The President's statement that he has relatives who
practice the Muslim faith, those heads must have performed a 360.
Those of us paying attention, however, see a different side of the story.
The truth of the matter is that a new administration has to bring a new outlook.
Instead of going on The Today Show as Matt Lauer's guest (as Lauer presumed
Obama would do - and boy is he peeved about it!) and doing the soundbite thing
(something we have seen way too much of over these past eight years), President
Obama decided to throw the ball into the court of the Arab world.
The message was clear: We are here to talk and we expect a peaceful dialogue.
"My job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the
well-being of the Muslim world, that the language we use has to be a language of
respect,"
-President Obama, during the interview with Al-Arabiya
For years we have seen the Bush administration rhetoric of not sitting down with
those we consider to be our enemies. And while 9-11 can't be forgotten, it was a
terrorist deed enacted by a small militant group of Muslims, not the entire
Muslim population of the planet which encompasses some one billion people. By
sitting down with the moderate voice in the Arab world (Al-Arabiya is Saudi
-backed and headquartered in Dubai), President Obama has made a first move
towards Peace.
And the last time I looked, we were still striving for Peace... weren't we? In
the wake of the Bush years, it's hard to remember if that was ever the end
result we were searching for.
There will be dozens of ill-tempered hate radio icons blasting President Obama
for this made gesture-through-interview. But I ask those who may be against it
now, but with sense enough to know that the like of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity
and the Fox News Hounds will be against anything that brings an end to partisan
and sectarian violence this: How would YOU go about it?
And speaking of Fox News: Did anyone happen to catch Gretchen Carlson of Fox and
Friends, the morning shoe of Fox News Channel? As shown on Jon Stewart's The
Daily Show, The former Miss America (1989) turned Fox News attack dog was caught
reading the teleprompter and trying, unsuccessfully to pronounce AL-ARABIYA. Her
efforts went for naught until a voice off-camera was heard pronouncing the name
correctly. Carlson then gave it her best try and said "Al-Arabiya?" as if it
were a question.
Ted Baxter has been re-incarnated as a the former Miss America from Anoka,
Minnesota. And they call her "the Smart One" of the three hosts on Fox and
Friends.
According to Fox News, Carlson graduated Stanford with honors and "studied
abroad" at Oxford University. Now there's a sheepskin I'd like to see.
-Noah Greenberg
More on the GOP's Tax Cuts
What is it with the Republican fixation on lowering taxes? They claim to be for
small government but if they really were why do Republicans spend so much money
on the military, homeland security and whatever they feel they need to spend on
to get elected?
Every time there is an economic crisis I hear the same solution from the
Republicans - "cut taxes". It simply makes no sense. We cut taxes several times
under Bush and had the worse economy that I ever seen. We cut taxes under Reagan
and had a terrible economy until he raised taxes twice.
Trickle down economics doesn't work. Cutting taxes for the wealthy doesn't
create jobs. Now that Obama has heard the Republicans out (several times in
fact), I hope he plans on moving forward. Seems to me that there is no reason to
listen them anymore on this issue as we all know their strategy is to get more
tax cuts.
-Robert Scardapane
And Lew Warden argues:
Perhaps a “fair” tax would be one that taxed in proportion to the benefits one
received from governments, or one that taxed the flow of money entirely
automatically without the burden of filing tax returns, or even an income tax
that was dedicated to raising revenues and not shot thru with dubious social
engineering schemes, or one that excluded special benefits for the rich and
powerful, whether corporations or individual, or more heavily taxed obscenely
high “salaries” and other benefits, or obscenely high excess profits, or taxed
US citizens and those who profit from doing business in the United States and
resorted to off-shore banks and investments to avoid taxation. For sure Dems
ought to be looking beyond the income tax to saner and more equitable and less
burdensome systems. But, after all, most Dem politicians gobble their swill at
the same troughs as Rep hogs, so don’t expect anything significant in the way of
change.
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-Noah Greenberg