Footnotes: political and social
Monday, 31 May 2010
Fazal M. Kamal
It seems that the person who gained most from the 2008 presidential election -- perhaps more than the victor Barack Obama in some ways -- is the pinup of the conservative extreme Sarah Palin. She has successfully parlayed her popularity/notoriety (take your pick) into millions of dollars worth of book deals, TV contracts and speaking engagements -- at a hefty fee plus luxury perks -- now, in addition to all that, the No. 1 darling of the Tea Party movement. And you certainly can't argue with success especially when nothing succeeds like excess.
She had correctly concluded that it was far better to resign the Alaska governorship (albeit amidst some controversy and investigations) and cash in on the national exposure that her vice-presidential attempt had provided her. Previous to that she was a little known governor of a state that is tucked away in a corner of the country. Then one day the extreme right of the Republican Party parachuted her onto John McCain's platform and -- help of vocal chords in perpetual motion -- suddenly she was more talked about than the presidential candidate.
Now it's unlikely that a day passes without some news item about her getting national coverage. When she is not venting at some speaking engagement or talking on the TV or radio she is savvy enough to keep herself in the public domain by putting out her comments, for whatever they're worth, on Facebook and Twitter. Naturally, given her level of comprehension of many subjects her expressed thoughts, in colourful colloquialism, often end up being the topic of late-night talk show jocularity.
As was recently the case with her comment on President Obama not grasping the "complexity" of the devastating BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This was followed quickly by many underscoring the fact that understanding the complexities of a subject and Sarah Palin are most often in conflict situations. She of course continues to state that the members of the national media -- in her mind that's the liberal media -- are always looking to entrap politicians in a "gotcha moment."
Lately she has been in the news primarily because of her tussle with an author who has decided to write a book on her for Random House. The writer, Joe McGinnis, had moved in next door to her in Wasilla and Ms. Palin has been complaining about it. Finally, in no time at all, a 14-foot fence went up between her place and Mr. McGinnis's rented home. Sarah Palin said the fence was put up by her husband and his friends while some others questioned if such a high fence did not violate local regulations. The reality is, all this is excellent media publicity for Sarah Palin, Joe McGinnis and his forthcoming unauthorised biography.
In spite of proving herself to be a political lightweight should she be taken seriously? The one word answer is, absolutely. She has ambitions that are much larger than reality. She has not made any secret of her multihued dreams of being on the ticket in the next presidential election. She also has the excited support of the extreme conservatives all across the nation as well as the persistent blessing of Faux News and the rightwing talking heads on radio and television, not to mention all those bloggers out there who view her as the one carrying their flag on the national stage.
Toxic political talk
Particularly since the debate on healthcare reforms picked up speed, which had upped the temperature in the political arena, the number of threats to politicians has seen a worrisome spike. In fact, soon after the healthcare bill was passed by Congress many members of Congress received threatening messages from anonymous sources. Politico reports in an exclusive article that "there may have been more threats -- the FBI won't release information on investigations that are still open -- and there will likely be more this year; Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer says threats against members of Congress were up 300 per cent in the first few months of 2010."
In a recently published book Bill Press says that conservative talk show hosts by utilising ugly rhetoric, dirty tactics and outright lies have worsened the political debate and diminished opportunities for the two main parties to work together. Mr. Press, in short, charges that their extreme observations are "destroying our democratic process." It maybe noted, as well, that since his successful election Barack Obama has been described as a "racist" and as being "un-American" by conservatives. These certainly do not assist in preserving a calm and/or civil political environment.
To provide a sense of what some right wingers are doing to the political debate here's a quote from a report by Media Matters for America which dealt with the reaction of the conservatives to President Obama's nominee to the United States Supreme Court, Elena Kagan: "Human Events editor Jason Mattera led the race to the bottom with an attack on Kagan's looks. Mattera said that Kagan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Sotomayor all 'look like linebackers for the New York JETS.' Responding to a caller who referred to Kagan as a 'horrendous creature,' radio host Michael Savage said that 'although I find it personally grotesque, there are many who find it attractive. ... Let's talk about her radical, Marxist policies.'
"Numerous conservative media figures seized on Kagan's college thesis to claim, as [conservative talk show host] Rush Limbaugh put it, that 'it is clear this babe is hot for socialism.' Conservatives have run with this ridiculous claim despite the fact that the thesis did not express support for either socialism or radicalism. Limbaugh and [Glenn] Beck [another similarly-inclined host] claimed Kagan wants to censor right-wing speech. This is literally the opposite of true. In the article they cite, Kagan stated that the government 'may not restrict' speech 'because it disagrees with ... the ideas espoused by the speaker.'"
In this atmosphere it is not too surprising, as the Politico report adds, that in testimony submitted to Congress, Capitol Police officials have said that the threats against lawmakers have caused them to dramatically increase their security efforts. Police who work on protective details say demands on their time have skyrocketed, and the department has requested a 54 per cent increase -- of $2.7 million -- to fund travel for its dignitary protection officers in fiscal year 2011. However, a congressional staffer asserted, "We're not going to be frightened. We're just going to go on with our lives and keep doing our jobs. We don't want to be defined by this."
Facebook footnote
In last week's column I had commented on the increasingly popular "social networking" that's taking place on the Internet and in particular about Facebook and its somewhat easy approach to users' personal information. However, in the face of mounting criticism of its privacy policies this past week Facebook has announced that it would soon make it easier for its "fans" to alter their privacy settings providing them with more options to prevent their personal data from being accessed by others. "Users use the service," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, "because they love sharing information. People perceive that as we don't care about privacy, but that's absolutely not true….There is a balance."
One of the U.S. lawmakers who had earlier objected to Facebook's changes in policies that made a user's current city, hometown, likes, interests and friends publicly available -- data which had previously been seen only by friends -- said after the Facebook announcement that it "represented a significant first step" in addressing his concerns. Senator Charles Schumer of New York was one of four senators who had originally expressed concerns about Facebook's privacy policies. Nevertheless, I'm afraid, I still find it somewhat perplexing that anyone would want to make so much of her/his personal information so public. But there are at least 400 million who clearly disagree with me.
Fazal Kamal: fmk222@gmail.com
It seems that the person who gained most from the 2008 presidential election -- perhaps more than the victor Barack Obama in some ways -- is the pinup of the conservative extreme Sarah Palin. She has successfully parlayed her popularity/notoriety (take your pick) into millions of dollars worth of book deals, TV contracts and speaking engagements -- at a hefty fee plus luxury perks -- now, in addition to all that, the No. 1 darling of the Tea Party movement. And you certainly can't argue with success especially when nothing succeeds like excess.
She had correctly concluded that it was far better to resign the Alaska governorship (albeit amidst some controversy and investigations) and cash in on the national exposure that her vice-presidential attempt had provided her. Previous to that she was a little known governor of a state that is tucked away in a corner of the country. Then one day the extreme right of the Republican Party parachuted her onto John McCain's platform and -- help of vocal chords in perpetual motion -- suddenly she was more talked about than the presidential candidate.
Now it's unlikely that a day passes without some news item about her getting national coverage. When she is not venting at some speaking engagement or talking on the TV or radio she is savvy enough to keep herself in the public domain by putting out her comments, for whatever they're worth, on Facebook and Twitter. Naturally, given her level of comprehension of many subjects her expressed thoughts, in colourful colloquialism, often end up being the topic of late-night talk show jocularity.
As was recently the case with her comment on President Obama not grasping the "complexity" of the devastating BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This was followed quickly by many underscoring the fact that understanding the complexities of a subject and Sarah Palin are most often in conflict situations. She of course continues to state that the members of the national media -- in her mind that's the liberal media -- are always looking to entrap politicians in a "gotcha moment."
Lately she has been in the news primarily because of her tussle with an author who has decided to write a book on her for Random House. The writer, Joe McGinnis, had moved in next door to her in Wasilla and Ms. Palin has been complaining about it. Finally, in no time at all, a 14-foot fence went up between her place and Mr. McGinnis's rented home. Sarah Palin said the fence was put up by her husband and his friends while some others questioned if such a high fence did not violate local regulations. The reality is, all this is excellent media publicity for Sarah Palin, Joe McGinnis and his forthcoming unauthorised biography.
In spite of proving herself to be a political lightweight should she be taken seriously? The one word answer is, absolutely. She has ambitions that are much larger than reality. She has not made any secret of her multihued dreams of being on the ticket in the next presidential election. She also has the excited support of the extreme conservatives all across the nation as well as the persistent blessing of Faux News and the rightwing talking heads on radio and television, not to mention all those bloggers out there who view her as the one carrying their flag on the national stage.
Toxic political talk
Particularly since the debate on healthcare reforms picked up speed, which had upped the temperature in the political arena, the number of threats to politicians has seen a worrisome spike. In fact, soon after the healthcare bill was passed by Congress many members of Congress received threatening messages from anonymous sources. Politico reports in an exclusive article that "there may have been more threats -- the FBI won't release information on investigations that are still open -- and there will likely be more this year; Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer says threats against members of Congress were up 300 per cent in the first few months of 2010."
In a recently published book Bill Press says that conservative talk show hosts by utilising ugly rhetoric, dirty tactics and outright lies have worsened the political debate and diminished opportunities for the two main parties to work together. Mr. Press, in short, charges that their extreme observations are "destroying our democratic process." It maybe noted, as well, that since his successful election Barack Obama has been described as a "racist" and as being "un-American" by conservatives. These certainly do not assist in preserving a calm and/or civil political environment.
To provide a sense of what some right wingers are doing to the political debate here's a quote from a report by Media Matters for America which dealt with the reaction of the conservatives to President Obama's nominee to the United States Supreme Court, Elena Kagan: "Human Events editor Jason Mattera led the race to the bottom with an attack on Kagan's looks. Mattera said that Kagan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Sotomayor all 'look like linebackers for the New York JETS.' Responding to a caller who referred to Kagan as a 'horrendous creature,' radio host Michael Savage said that 'although I find it personally grotesque, there are many who find it attractive. ... Let's talk about her radical, Marxist policies.'
"Numerous conservative media figures seized on Kagan's college thesis to claim, as [conservative talk show host] Rush Limbaugh put it, that 'it is clear this babe is hot for socialism.' Conservatives have run with this ridiculous claim despite the fact that the thesis did not express support for either socialism or radicalism. Limbaugh and [Glenn] Beck [another similarly-inclined host] claimed Kagan wants to censor right-wing speech. This is literally the opposite of true. In the article they cite, Kagan stated that the government 'may not restrict' speech 'because it disagrees with ... the ideas espoused by the speaker.'"
In this atmosphere it is not too surprising, as the Politico report adds, that in testimony submitted to Congress, Capitol Police officials have said that the threats against lawmakers have caused them to dramatically increase their security efforts. Police who work on protective details say demands on their time have skyrocketed, and the department has requested a 54 per cent increase -- of $2.7 million -- to fund travel for its dignitary protection officers in fiscal year 2011. However, a congressional staffer asserted, "We're not going to be frightened. We're just going to go on with our lives and keep doing our jobs. We don't want to be defined by this."
Facebook footnote
In last week's column I had commented on the increasingly popular "social networking" that's taking place on the Internet and in particular about Facebook and its somewhat easy approach to users' personal information. However, in the face of mounting criticism of its privacy policies this past week Facebook has announced that it would soon make it easier for its "fans" to alter their privacy settings providing them with more options to prevent their personal data from being accessed by others. "Users use the service," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, "because they love sharing information. People perceive that as we don't care about privacy, but that's absolutely not true….There is a balance."
One of the U.S. lawmakers who had earlier objected to Facebook's changes in policies that made a user's current city, hometown, likes, interests and friends publicly available -- data which had previously been seen only by friends -- said after the Facebook announcement that it "represented a significant first step" in addressing his concerns. Senator Charles Schumer of New York was one of four senators who had originally expressed concerns about Facebook's privacy policies. Nevertheless, I'm afraid, I still find it somewhat perplexing that anyone would want to make so much of her/his personal information so public. But there are at least 400 million who clearly disagree with me.
Fazal Kamal: fmk222@gmail.com