My own Bobby Kennedy and Barrack Obama connection

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Clinton’s remarks have been in the news for a while now…and that was why this weekend I watched a special on Bobby Kennedy. I honestly hadn’t known that much about him. For me, his politics and assassination was unfortunately overshadowed by his brother’s presidency and shared fate. So, I watched this special with new interest. I began to see the kind of candidate Bobby Kennedy was.

Like his brother John, Bobby planned to win the nomination through popular support in the primaries.

“I do not run for the Presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policies. I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I’m obliged to do all I can.”

He stood on a ticket of racial and economic justice, non-aggression in foreign policy, decentralization of power and social improvement. A crucial element to his campaign was an engagement with young Americans. He said they were the future of a reinvigorated American society based on partnership and equality

On April 4, 1968, Kennedy learned of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and gave a heartfelt, impromptu speech in Indianapolis’s inner city, in which Kennedy called for a reconciliation between the races. Riots broke out in 60 cities in the wake of King’s death, but not in Indianapolis, a fact many attribute to the effect of this speech.

He was then assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles on June 4th, 1968. He was 43.

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After the special I considered what changes this country would have seen if Bobby Kennedy had gone on to win the election, and then it occurred to me…

I began to see the similarities between Kennedy and Obama. Their age, the issues, the importance race is playing in this campaign, even our country in a war seemingly without end, and I glimmer of hope crept in. That maybe this man would do it, would unite a country in a terrible time, just like Bobby Kennedy wanted to do. I realize they are different people, I realize history has had time to paint Bobby Kennedy in a kind light, but I did see a connection.

And before you begin to tell me what a hardcore Obama supporter I am…I voted for Clinton in the primary.

Yes, I had my reasons…as does every voter, but now that the primaries are coming to a close tomorrow , I see the hope that uniting behind one candidate can bring, and I do see the will of the people in the majority of votes cast for Obama, and so I listen with renewed interest to a special on Bobby Kennedy and gain hope for my candidate…the choice of the majority of voters. Obama.

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Marc, whose blog In One Ear Out The Other, has great political and social commentary, just gave me the heads up on an article about this very connection: The Honorary Kennedy, New York Magazine.

Panties from Canadian women to frighten Myanmar junta

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That’s it…a photo of previously used underwear for sale…that’s all I’ve got. That’s all I really care to express on this matter.

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But here’s why they’re doing it from New Kerala:

At a press conference in Montreal, feminists and civil groups, working under the Rights & Democracy Student Network and the Quebec Women’s Federation, urged Canadian women to inundate the Myanmar embassy in Ottawa with panties to unsettle the military rulers in the south-east Asian nation.

“The Panties for Peace! campaign is basically aimed to play on the military junta’s superstitious fear that contact with a woman’s undergarment will rob them of their power,” organizer Mika Levesque of the Rights & Democracy Student Network told IANS.

She said, “We appeal to every Canadian woman to clean up her drawer, choose one piece of panties, glue a picture of the military rulers on it or scribble some slogan or message for the junta and then register it with us before sending it to the Myanmar embassy in Ottawa. Registering with us will help us to keep track of how many panties have been sent to the embassy.”

Levesque added, “Like all other cultures, there was a superstitious fear of female undergarments in Myanmar. Its military junta fears that any contact with panties will spell disaster for them. So ours is a non-violent method to force change in Myanmar.”

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Here though is the page for submitting your own “delicates”

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and a link to the website. Panties For Peace, Canada

Condoleezza Rice enlists in Kiss Army fan club

Rachel Maddow told me this personally…(actually she told everyone listening to her podcast).

From The Kansas City Star:

The Kiss Army fan club has an enthusiastic new recruit: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Rice was in the Swedish capital Thursday for an international conference on Iraq. Kiss had a sold-out concert to play Friday.

“I was thrilled,” Rice said of her late-night encounter with Kiss frontman Gene Simmons and bandmates Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer in the executive lounge of the Sheraton Hotel where they signed autographs and handed out backstage passes and T-shirts to her staff. (full story here)

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I wondering what the president listens to…

From the Herald Tribune:

First, Bush’s iPod is heavy on traditional country singers like George Jones, Alan Jackson and Kenny Chesney. He has selections by the folk-rock singer Van Morrison, whose “Brown-Eyed Girl” is a Bush favorite, and by John Fogerty, most predictably “Centerfield,” which was played at Texas Rangers games when Bush was an owner and is still played at ballfields all over America. (“Oh, put me in, Coach – I’m ready to play today.”)

The president also has an eclectic mix of songs downloaded into his iPod from Mark McKinnon, a biking buddy and his chief media strategist in the 2004 campaign. Among them are “Circle Back” by John Hiatt, “(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care” by Joni Mitchell and “My Sharona,” the 1970s song by The Knack that Joe Levy, a deputy managing editor in charge of music coverage at Rolling Stone, cheerfully branded “suggestive if not outright filthy” in an interview last week.

Bush has had his $300 Apple iPod since last July, when he received it from his twin daughters as a birthday gift. He has some 250 songs on it, a paltry number compared to the 10,000 selections it can hold.

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I tried to find out what’s on Dick Cheney’s ipod…of course, it’s classified.

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Not to be outdone, the Queen of England already has an ipod, and is getting a Blackberry.

From Pocket Lint UK:

Royal watchers report that our high-tech 81-year-old monarch is getting a BlackBerry.

She already famously owns an iPod, but is planning to get some BlackBerry goodness into her royal life “so she can e-mail her staff and family and surf the internet while she’s on the move between engagements”.