street value

How much is a speech by Barack Obama worth? Five billion, apparently.

The final meeting of Group of 8 leaders [in July] in L’Aquila, Italy, started with $15 billion already on the table. Then President Obama gave a speech evoking the Kenyan village where his father herded goats as a child. In countless villages like it, millions of people face hunger daily, Mr. Obama said, and after he finished speaking, the pledges jumped by $5 billion, according to several officials present.

In Experts Worry as Population and Hunger Grow in this morning's New York Times.

The meeting in question concerned hunger, which is now part of the daily existence of 1.02 billion people worldwide.

Neil MacFarquhar goes on to write that "those pledges remain murky" and quotes a "financial official involved in the talks who was not authorized to speak publicly" who expresses the realities behind those good intentions:

The good news is that the political class considers this important and wants to do something about it. But nobody has 20 billion and spare change in their sock drawer.

Related (and a little more upbeat): California’s Food Banks Go Locavore »

oh! and if you want to feed someone without leaving your laptop, try Free Rice is Nice »

speaking of art (or: the transubstantiation of tacos)

I’m sure I don’t understand this.

I’m fairly convinced it’s an homage to Obama and, perhaps, tacos. Or are those celestial orbs doubling as sacred halos? No (scans the bottom of the frame) tacos: with meat, cheese, tomatoes and sour cream. No (scans the upper left corner; notes the rays emanating from the sun; notes the transmutation of rays to... lettuce? in the halo behind our President’s sainted head): these are celestial tacos; holy sacraments.

I think.

That our cast of characters, outside Obama in his staid blue suit, are all clad in underwear that, not incidentally I believe, shines the same bright white as the White House behind it, further baffles me. And the tighty whitey balanced precariously on point in Obama’s outstretched hand? Please. Help me understand.

The Mexican flag flying standard from the crown of the White House is the one visual reference that makes we wonder whether this is something less than an homage -- an image worked through with the fear of foreign incursion rather than cooperation. A what might be if Obama comes to be (I don’t know when this was painted but suspect, given the campaign sign, that it was during the campaign season).

But the exuberance calls me back. This is a celebration. The chorus is clad in their underwear not to seduce, but to call attention to their patchwork of ethnicity, each individual a many colored rainbow of skin tones.
 A fiesta of promised pluralism.

I think.

But I’m sure I don’t understand.


Found at http://badpaintingsofbarackobama.com/ via @heatherlorin.

live long & prosper

It is an exciting time to be a nerd.

John Hodgman at the Radio & TV Correspondents' Dinner.

In which John Hodgman quizzes President Barack Obama on his nerd credentials.

(This happened a little while back, but I've been busy and am just now catching up. It's worth sharing.)

doppleganger

Am I the only one who thinks that if Michael Jackson had kept his nose, he would have looked an awful lot like Barack Obama?



RIP Mr. Michael.

speaking of well mannered men

Photo: Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Mrs. Reagan kept her hand in the crook of the Mr. Obama’s arm for the entire time he spoke, and for the most part she gazed at him while he talked.

From Nancy Reagan and Obama Kiss and Make Up in Tuesday's New York Times.

I'm not going to beat this "glad my guy won" horse into the ground, but this piece about Nancy Reagan's visit to the Obama White House touched me. I was reminded of an interview I saw with Ronald Reagan Jr. after his father's funeral in 2004 which he expressed anger at George W. Bush for abandoning his mother at the side of his father's casket, after Bush had escorted her up the steps to pay her respects at the state funeral.

I'm sure it wasn't malevolent, but it was wholly inconsiderate, and demonstrated a lack of compassion or awareness regarding the condition of others.

Nancy Reagan is nearly blind, Ron Jr. explained, and it was difficult for her to find her way back down the steps without assistance -- made more so by the public nature of the event.

Obama's gesture, as he graciously guided her through their meeting, was all consideration and kindness. Pure class.

My president.

chiabama

Available in Determined (shown above) or Happy Pose.

Want more? Then maybe Baracklava is for you.

(Me -- I'm done. Enough already. Plus, I prefer my chia as a tasty beverage popular in Mexico.)

p.s. Looks like Walgreen's is done too »

showtunes for a queen

The Internets are bursting at the seams with the news that Obama gifted the Queen of England with an iPod -- but are paying faint attention to the fact that it was LOADED WITH BROADWAY SHOWTUNES.

Leave it to a German publication to report, with exactitude, the news that really matters. Adopted from Spiegel Online here's "Die royale Playlist" that Obama conferred with his gift:

"Oklahoma!" (no word whether it was just the title track of the whole dang soundtrack)
"If I Loved You", Jan Clayton, Carousel
"You'll Never Walk Alone", Jan Clayton, Carousel
"There's No Business Like Show Business", Ethel Merman, Annie Get Your Gun
"Once in Love with Amy (Where's Charley?)", Ray Bolger, South Pacific
"Some Enchanted Evening", South Pacific
"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", Carol Channing, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
"Getting to Know You", Gertrude Lawrence, The King and I
"Shall We Dance?" Gertrude Lawrence, The King and I
"I Could Have Danced All Night", Julie Andrews, My Fair Lady
"I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face", Rex Harrison, My Fair Lady
"The Party's Over (Bells Are Ringing)", Judy Holliday
"Maria", West Side Story
"Tonight", West Side Story
"Seventy Six Trombones", The Music Man
"Everything's Coming up Roses", Ethel Merman, Gypsy
"The Sound of Music"
"Try to Remember", Jerry Orbach, The Fantasticks
"Camelot", Richard Burton
"If Ever I Would Leave You", Robert Goulet, Camelot
"Hello, Dolly!", Carol Channing
"If I Were a Rich Man", Zero Mostel, Fiddler on the Roof
"People", Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl
"On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever)", John Cullum
"The Impossible Dream", Richard Kiley, Man of La Mancha
"Mame", Charles Braswell
"Cabaret", Liza Minnelli
"Aquarius", Ronald Dyson, Hair
"Send in the Clowns", Judy Collins, A Little Night Music
"All That Jazz", Chita Rivera, Chicago
"One", A Chorus Line
"Tomorrow", Andrea McArdle, Annie
"Don't Cry for Me Argentina", Patti LuPone, Evita
"And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going", Jennifer Holliday, Dreamgirls
"Memory", Elaine Paige, Cats
"The Best of Times", George Hearn, La Cage Aux Folles
"I Dreamed a Dream", Aretha Franklin, Les Misérables
"The Music of the Night", Michael Crawford, The Phantom of the Opera
"As If We Never Said Goodbye", Elaine Paige, Sunset Blvd.
"Seasons of Love", Rent

Sure he could have loaded it with American rock or blues or jazz tunes, but would HRH have dug Springstein half as much as the title track from Camelot? Or Zero Mostel singing If I Were a Rich Man? As a gift, Obama's playlist, loaded onto Apple technology, so beats a bald eagle Steuben paperweight.

faved

faved
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

[Niebuhr] is one of my favorite philosophers. I take away [from his works] the compelling idea that there's serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn't use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction.

Blurb by Senator Barack Obama on the back jacket of the recently reissued The Irony of American History by Reinhold Niebuhr as cited in the New York Review of Books.

Obama's blurb is unremarkable: It colors carefully within the lines with a moral prescription that the writer is advocating for us, that he wants us to believe he adheres to himself. "One of my favorites" gushes like a schoolgirl claiming a BFF (or more accurately, a BPhF) and doesn't go anywhere interesting or insightful from there. It doesn't say anything about Niebuhr that we all haven't already agreed Niebuhr is all about.

Obama's blurb is all about Obama.

"Look at me: I read Niebuhr. You should too."

That, of course, is why I'm posting it. Because I'm still in the honeymoon stage; still picking out things that I love about my dreamy new boyfriend. I love discovering that my president reads Niebuhr. (*You* love Niebuhr? *I* love Niebuhr!!!)

And speaking of Niebuhr (because I read Niebuhr: do you read Niebuhr? Did you know *Barack Obama* reads Niebuhr? OMG BFF!): Speaking of Faith ran a great panel on Niebuhr not too long ago »

Posting by cameraphone enroute to Austin.

I love Blue Barnhouse »

springs eternal

I don’t condone people taking things, just because they can, off the Internet. But in this case I think it’s a very unique situation.

If you put all the legal stuff away, I’m so proud of the photograph and that Fairey did what he did artistically with it, and the effect it’s had.

Freelance photographer Mannie Garcia commenting in this morning's New York Times on the image that has spurred the pre-emptive lawsuit that Shepard Fairey has filed against the Associated Press.

Since identifying the image as one of their own the AP has been negotiating with Fairey for a portion of all proceeds related to the work. Garcia claims that in fact he owns the image under the terms of his contract with the AP at the time.

Not mentioned in the lawsuit? George Clooney, who was sitting next to Obama at a 2006 National Press Club event at the time the shot was taken by Mr. Garcia.

Related: Shepard Fairey was arrested in Boston for doing what he does.

Update: The plot thickens »

blue man

Illus: Daryl Cagel

I don’t care. I’m making Obama blue today.

Political cartoonist (and Twitterer) Daryl Cagel posting about the struggle in his industry to caricature Obama without causing offense, in How to Draw Obama.

In his blog post Cagel describes a strange and enduring editorial prescription:

I worked for twenty years as a cartoon illustrator, doing drawings for books, magazines and advertising. I was often given clear guidelines on how I was supposed to draw African-Americans: with “small noses” and “thin lips”. I was instructed to make any crowds of cartoon characters racially diverse, but only diverse in color, not in facial features. Thick lips and wide noses on African American faces would be returned to me for correction, with a polite reminder of the corporate policies on depictions of minority facial features.

at the pleasure of the president

At a 2005 roast for Mr. Emanuel, who is a former ballet dancer, ... Mr. Obama credited him with being “the first to adopt Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ for dance” (a number that included “a lot of kicks below the waist”). When Mr. Emanuel lost part of his middle finger while cutting meat at an Arby’s as a teenager, Mr. Obama joked, the accident “rendered him practically mute.”

Cited in Obama’s Partisan, Profane Confidant Reins It In in this morning's New York Times.

Obama's appointment of Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff strikes me as pure Chicago. Smooth talking buttoned up Boss with the knuckle cracking henchman standing behind him. The Enforcer.

Hopefully not a Cheney to Mr. Obama's Bush, but there's no denying a certain political similarity: the President positioning someone else to be the tough guy. Someone else to dispense the blows.

I was charmed by Rahm Emanuel when I saw him in a Charlie Rose clip that @karigee posted a long long time ago. He's smart, he's shrewd, he's cute.

But I grew alarmed when Sara over at Shady Acres pointed out his father's deep Zionist sympathies. It's hard to imagine that Emanuel can be an impartial adviser regarding the conflicts that rock Gaza and Jerusalem.

Time will tell.

Update: Martin located the clip from the roast, which follows below.

the obama effect

Obama is obviously inspirational, but we wondered whether he would contribute to an improvement in something as important as black test-taking. We were skeptical that we would find any effect, but our results surprised us.

Vanderbilt University management professor Ray Friedman, one of three authors in a study currently undergoing peer review that suggests "Obama’s election could increase the sense of competence among African-Americans, and it could reduce the anxiety associated with taking difficult test questions." As reported in Study Sees an Obama Effect as Lifting Black Test-Takers in this morning's New York Times.

In brief:

Researchers have documented what they call an Obama effect, showing that a performance gap between African-Americans and whites on a 20-question test administered before Mr. Obama’s nomination all but disappeared when the exam was administered after his acceptance speech and again after the presidential election.

The research was conducted in the context of earlier studies that showed test performance among Americans of African descent was compromised when the test was introduced with questions that called attention to their racial identity.

this land is your land

First African-American president. Better be good.

Ten-year old Malia Obama speaking to her father, President-Elect Barack Obama, about the Inaugural Address that he'll give on Tuesday when he's sworn in as our 44th President.

Hot damn. New day dawning.

housewarming

lincoln monument drive-by
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

Something like the Grammy Awards as reimagined by PBS.

Jon Pareles writing the New York Times about the free concert that D.C. is throwing for our new president tomorrow night at the Lincoln Memorial.

Is there any better way to warm up a place than to throw a housewarming party?

Coming to the party are:

Stevie Wonder
Beyoncé
Mary J Blige
Usher
Bettye LaVette
John Legend
Bruce Springsteen
Bono
Sheryl Crow
Jon Bon Jovi
John Mellencamp
Garth Brooks
Jennifer Nettles
James Taylor
Shakira
Herbie Hancock
Pete Seeger
Renée Fleming
Josh Groban
Will.i.am
Denzel Washington
Queen Latifah
Jamie Foxx
Jack Black
Steve Carrell
Rosario Dawson
Tom Hanks
Ashley Judd
Martin Luther King III
George Lopez
Marisa Tomei
Forest Whitaker
Tiger Woods
Mstr.Sgt. Caleb Green (U.S. Army)

And the rest of the neighborhood.

HBO will broadcast the concert to all cable subscribers, regardless of whether or not they're HBO subscribers.

keeping it real

Photo: Silicon Valley Insider

I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry. They’re going to pry it out of my hands.

President-elect Barack Obama cited in this morning's New York Times.

Because of the Presidential Records Act, "which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review," [1] Obama is being counseled to go without his Blackberry for the duration of his term for fear that he might -- what? -- trip up? Communicate something through email that he wouldn't communicate through another channel? Be influenced to act in untoward ways by communications through his Blackberry that would put our country in jeopardy? Browse prØn during summit meetings?

Haven't we matured enough as digital communicators to understand that this is another mode through which we connect to the world -- and that digital communication should not be feared as a place where manners and good judgment are thrown out the window?

I want my President to be connected to the world the same way I am. I want him to experience the intimacy of communication that email and text messaging provides; I want him to have that kind of immediate access to the people who matter to him and to the information he needs.

I want him to stay real.

Past presidents have spoken of the isolation that the role brings. The security detail alone ensures that there's no more shopping at the local grocery store, there's no more getting your haircut at the barbershop on the corner. Aaron Sorkin's The American President plays on the President in isolation problem with a great scene in which the title character attempts to order flowers for a woman he's interested in and very nearly fails because he no longer has access to his own credit cards.

The New York Times recently wrote about the contribution the Obamas' circle of friends makes to keeping them real. Email and other modes of immediate digital access are increasingly the channel through which we maintain proximity to the people who keep us close to our real selves and help us maintain our authenticity while we head out into the larger world to get our jobs done.

What do we need to do: Start a petition? Launch a protest? I'm in.

Obama: Keep your Blackberry. It matters.


[1] Lose the BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe in the New York Times

ain't got time to take a fast train

It’s a little clearer now. Nice digs.

Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on board the presidential plane that took Obama and his entourage to Washington over the weekend. Gibbs was cited in the New York Times piece Emotional Trip on Plane Bound for the Presidency on "the realization that Mr. Obama had won the presidency."


p.s. entitled

freedom's eve

image via »

What I think moves people so deeply is not so much that Obama’s election was some kind of civil rights achievement. It was a human rights achievement.

The Rev. Albert Paul Brinson, cited in the New York Times on Watch Night, also known as Freedom's Eve, traditionally celebrated on New Year's Eve in the African American community to commemorate the evening before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863.

wired.

Do you know that God smiles when you be you?

Pastor Rick Warren speaking at TED.


I linked through to the TED lecture from John Hodgman’s piece on Obama’s selection of Warren to deliver the invocation at the inaugural.

The quote that I’ve extracted above comes at the very end of the twenty-plus minute talk in which Warren speaks to living a purpose-driven life and how crucial it is that each of us be who we are “wired to be.”

There’s heartbreak and hypocrisy in that statement, of course, because Warren’s stand against gay marriage suggests that he’s opposed to folks being who they are wired to be if they're wired to be gay.

On the upside of the Prop 8 debate, the New York Times ran a lovely piece on Mildred Loving, who combated miscegenation laws in her lifetime and voiced her support for gay marriage before she passed away this last year.

Let me know if you can read it without choking up -- I couldn’t.

full metal flak

s.trooper1
Originally uploaded by Scotch! ©

Podium alums share a bipartisan kinship, signified by the ceremonial flak jacket that hangs in the closet of the press secretary’s West Wing office. It was placed there originally by Gerald Ford’s podium man, Ron Nessen.

Outgoing press secretaries write notes of advice for their successors and leave them in one pocket. Every previous note remains there, neatly arranged and tied together in a ribbon.

Mark Leibovich writing in Between Obama and the Press in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine.