MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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Beauty and the . . .

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Dwill at Sports on My Mind has already covered this a lot better than I will. Others have chimed in. Tom Withers, in an Associated Press report picked up by Huffingtonpost, breathlessly reported that “The Cleveland Cavaliers’ superstar will appear on the April cover of Vogue, joining actors Richard Gere and George Clooney as the only men to do so in the influential fashion magazine’s 116-year history.”

If we agree that these magazines sell fantasy, here are Lebron and Gisele in the image below. The next image, which was forwarded to me, comes courtesy of Amazon.com. George Clooney and I don’t know who are in the last image. Clooney is in a suit, a smile on his face, a woman in his embrace. Whatever is going on with Ms. Bundchen, how did Lebron end up with the yell, in workout clothes?

March 19, 2008
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Obama speech: some reactions

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Let me start with my friend Jim Sleeper:

As a demonstration of grace under immense pressure, his performance in Philadelphia will be a classic study for orators. As an act of moral witness and prophecy for a trans-racial America, the speech was straightforward yet profound in an inimitably American idiom that few partisans and pundits, soused in stale pieties and rancid evasions, comprehend.He’s gambling that most Americans will comprehend him anyway. Here’s hoping. Let me explain what I think Obama accomplished with a story I’m sure he’d appreciate, an experience I had 15 years ago with Brooklyn’s equivalent of Obama’s pastor and mentor, Jeremiah Wright.

* * *Mr. Sleeper mentioned some history about New York racial politics, especially his part in that history as a columnist for the New York Daily News. Some people heaped venom on him for some of his views and he and I debated some of those views. Although he often frustrated me in those days, our discussions were always civilized. I am not nearly as wise or as learned as Mr. Sleeper (he’s also a touch older than I am) but I take a measure of pleasure in the fact that our views seem to be a bit closer now.In his current TPMcafe column,

March 18, 2008
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A land divided

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Two friends, I’ll identify them as “M” and “Anon,” offered these reactions to the part of the speech by Sen. Barack Obama, (D-IL), that I said rang false to me.

First “M”:

It is a tactical decision indeed, as all actions and words are by all the candidates. And by all politicians in general. This looks to me like an insurmountable problem.This is not a government for the people, by the people.

Regarding the Israel comment of his I highlighted, it seems that he has acutely changed or modified his attitude. (Again or the attitude he tactically puts out in the public). It may be hard to believe, but my Arab-ness has really nothing to do with my feelings about Israel. I was also raised Coptic Orthodox (and am agnostic) and relate little if at all to Muslims or any religions. That being said, I do have very strong feelings about Israel occupying a country and committing countless inhumane acts (on a regular basis) against Palestinians.

The worst, almost laughable part of it, is that Zionism was born from the horrifying reality of the Holocaust.

And yet, here they are perpetuating and creating apartheid on another group of people. And no country is brave enough to stand up to Israel? To even discuss it in THOSE terms? For fear they may be labeled an anti-semite? It’s preposterous. Just today the news reported the German chancellor paying her visit to Israel.-and all the “shame” Germany felt for the past.I wonder if she took a look over the wall.

M

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March 18, 2008
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What we talk about . . .

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It was a consciously somber, serious disquisition on an incendiary topic. Going into it, I lamented the absurdity of Sen. Barack Obama, (D-IL), having to make the speech in the first place. A third of the way into it, I was glad he was making the speech.

I don’t believe the speech will settle anything for those who were not going to support Obama anyway. It may not even have persuaded former supporters who broke with him over the issue.

But, if you’re open-minded, this was the nuanced, heartfelt speech you hoped for. He eschewed the obvious rah, rah political applause lines and spoke quietly, calmly, without anger or frustration. I am glad he gave the speech.

I should say that one line in the speech rang false to me:

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

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March 18, 2008
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John "There will be other wars" Mccain

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Master Sgt. Andy Dunaway/U.S. Air Force, via Associated Press. Senator John McCain at Baghdad’s airport on Sunday. The presidential candidate arrived in Iraq for meetings with Iraqi and American officials.

This should be an impossibility but slowly but surely you can see the swagger returning to Republicans.

They can sense that victory is now more than a possibility in November. After George W. Bush’s calamitous presidency, no Republicans should have a ghost-in-hell of a chance of coming close to the presidency.

But Democratcs are, seemingly, deadlocked. This does not help the Democrats in any way. But you’ll find no person in America more certain about McCain’s fitness to lead this nation than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. He’s had “crossed the Commander-in-Chief threshold,” she famously said.

And then there’s the question of self-inflicted wounds in Florida and Michigan, Democrats’ racist rhetoric, visiting the alleged sins of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Sen. Barack Obama.

The Iraq war is five years old.

Hillary and McCain voted for it. No one would count Iraqi deaths, especially its civilian dead.

The shame of our nation.

March 17, 2008
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What must be said

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Transcript of Keith Olbermann’s March 12 “Special Comment” on Hillary Clinton’

s tactics against Barack Obama.

Finally, as promised, a special comment on the presidential campaign of the junior senator from New York. By way of necessary preface, President and Senator Clinton and the senator’s mother and the senator’s brother were of immeasurable support to me at the moments when these very commentaries were the focus of the most surprise, the most uncertainty and the most anger. My gratitude to them is unbiding.

Also, I am not here endorsing Senator Obama`s nomination, nor suggesting in it is inevitable. Thus I have fought with myself over whether or not to say anything. Events insist.

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March 14, 2008
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Spitzerations

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Other than the one sentence I’d mustered, so far, I have not been able to muster any enthusiasm to kick Gov. Eliot Spitzer while he is down. It would be so sweet to dance on his political grave because he was so righteous and fearsome in his element. Yet, I could not bring myself to.

I don’t know that I can even say anything intelligent about his case because I cannot bring

myself to read little more than the broad outline of the story. I feel for his wife and children, this humiliation that they have had to endure.

A friend of mine, Jim Sleeper, brings a great deal of intelligence to any subject and the matter of Eliot Spitzer is no exception. I’ll quote extensively from his two columns at TPMCafe on the subject. Jim puts his finger on the essence of the matter in his first column on March 11:

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March 13, 2008
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