Open letter to The New Yorker

Dear Editor:

Congratulations. The caricatures of Michelle and Barack Obama on the cover of your magazine have certainly drawn plenty of attention. Of the tens of millions of Obama supporters across the country, many are well educated, socially conscious citizens -- exactly the type of people who may well be inclined to subscribe to The New Yorker. I can personally guarantee that having seen this cover, I will never subscribe. If I had been a subscriber, I would have cancelled before even reading the headline. This is the kind of messaging we've come to expect from Fox News, and I would never have imagined that The New Yorker would lower itself to compete on that plane. The sad irony here is that most of the people who will be impacted by an image of the candidate and his wife burning an American flag in the Oval Office will never get past the front cover. Many of them don't even know the meaning of the word 'satire'. And you know as well as I do that they won't need to get anywhere near a copy of this publication. This abominable denigration of two of the most important public figures in our lifetime will be cheerfully paraded about by every second-rate media outlet around the world. You've led the pack.

Both campaigns have indicated that they view this as tasteless and offensive. I agree, and I'm sure the vast majority of Obama supporters do as well. Maybe you were hoping to deliver a damaging blow to the Obama campaign. Maybe you simply hoped to increase your circulation. In either case, I suspect you'll be unpleasantly surprised. Need I remind you that Barack Obama has inspired the most potently activated Democratic base the party has seen in over 40 years?


Sincerely,

Dorian Cheah

Blue Plate Specials!

Well I did it again. I participated in WaPo's "Gene Pool Forum". The first time I identified Fox News Headquarters as the "Armpit of America" (see below). Political soapboxing was not what Gene had in mind, of course, but apparently I wasn't the only one up to the task. This time, the host of the forum challenged us to politicize our favorite dish or kind of food. Hah! Here goes:

CULINARY FAVORITE OF MINE: BLUE PLATE SPECIALS.

I love Blue-Plate Specials. I go to Fromin's which is an elderly hangout. As a young taxpaying worker, I love to watch the beneficiaries of Social Security spend my hard-earned cash on matzo ball soup and beef stroganoff.

I know, John McCain is looking out for me and wants to end this disgraceful practice of actually funding Social Security. Thank god somebody finally got to the bottom of how this Social Security thing actually works.

"Paging Dr. Kevorkian...paging Dr. Kevorkian...we need to end the mental recession in John McCain's head."

The Armpit of America

I just participated in the Washington Post "Gene Pool" forum. The host invited readers to nominate a place to win the title of "Armpit of America".

I nominated Fox News.

The site of the Fox News broadcast is most certainly the most vile, putrid, and rotten place in the country, if not the world. It is the place where the most toxic elements of American ignorance congregate and fester. Remember BAN Deodorant? We need a BAN on Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Karl Rove and the rest of those stinkoids. We need to give them the AXE. Their rancid diarrhea-of-the-mouth spewage needs to be kept a SECRET. Raise your hand if you're SURE.

...Okay I feel better now :)

Quote of the Day

"The Republican Party is a dead rotting carcass with a few decrepit old leaders stumbling around like zombies in a horror version of 'Weekend With Bernie,' handcuffed to a corpse."

- Larry Hunter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Innovation, Chief Economist for the Free Enterprise Fund, hardcore supply-sider... HA!!!!

Zakaria on the war in Iraq

I just had to post an excerpt from Zakaria's Newsweek piece on what he thinks Obama needs to say about Iraq. Need anybody say more:

The war has resulted in over 4,000 U.S. combat deaths, four times as many grievously wounded, and tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths. Over 2 million Iraqis have fled the country and 2 million more have been displaced within the country. The price tag in dollars has also been staggering. In the last five years, the United States has spent close to $1 trillion on the invasion and occupation of Iraq. That is enough money to rebuild every school, bridge and road in America, create universal health care and fund several Manhattan Projects in alternative energy. Whatever benefits the invasion of Iraq might produce, it cannot justify these expenditures in lives and treasure.

Obama, pop culture, and the 1st amendment

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/395394.aspx

Mr. Obama speaks out against "filth" on the airwaves. I find it interesting to see somebody on the left come out repeatedly and unabashedly with strong religious beliefs. Many liberals criticize him for it, but they should remember that there is a difference between a public figure expressing an opinion and a policymaker trying to infringe upon our first amendment rights. Mr. Obama is clearly well aware of this difference and perhaps as importantly, of the fact that for decades the GOP has seemingly held a monopoly on "family values". I am not a Christian and I may or may not agree with Barack Obama's definition of filth, but I applaud him for promoting his ideals and reclaiming morality from the thugs on the right who have long exploited the concept for political gain.

Oil Drilling on the Outer Contintental Shelf and in ANWR

I sometimes take my son Dylan down to the beach. Pretty soon, he will be old enough to swim in the ocean. I do not look forward to the day when I will have to tell him that he cannot swim in that water because it is too polluted. When he points at the dolphins and asks me why they can swim in the water, I'll have to tell him that those dolphins are getting sick and dying because our politicians did not do enough to protect our environment.

If the folks at the American Petroleum Institute are not overly optimistic when they say that if we begin drilling in our coastal waters and in ANWR, in five years we will be pumping an additional 1 or even 2 million barrels a day, and if we were to wrongly assume that we would keep it all for our own consumption, that would still leave our country's daily oil habit 90 to 95 percent unsatisfied. Do you honestly believe the temporary and negligible gains from such a venture would be worth the price our children and grandchildren will pay? According to some estimates, federal subsidies to the oil industry total $15 to $35 billion annually. Over the next 5 years, that is up to $175 billion. That would be a good start toward funding the research and development of new technology that would forever eliminate our need for oil. You may scoff at the idea, but before the Apollo space program, many people scoffed at the idea of a man walking on the moon.

When I hear people advocating for oil exploration in ANWR and our coastal waters, I can't help but think that they imagine the human race will not survive long enough to regret those decisions.