I’m not sure why this episode of the local public television show, “Check Please!” never aired but thanks to YouTube, we can still enjoy it.
The panel on this show reeks of circa 2001 yuppiness, and who serves pancakes in a basket on paper? I have a feeling I would find the restaurant less than authentic, but I can understand that if you are in Chicago it might seem pretty good.
While pundits picked apart President Barack Obama’s inaugural address — did it meet expectations, was it too sober, did he rip off earlier presidents’ speeches — Chinese authorities were busy censoring parts of the 20-minute speech. Though most Chinese news sites carried the full text of the speech in English, the versions translated into Chinese were mildly redacted, according to the BBC.
In his inauguration address, President Obama said: “Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.”
That entire passage was retained for an English-language version of the speech that appeared on the website of state-run Xinhua news agency.
But in the Chinese-language version, the word “communism” was taken out.
President Obama’s comments addressed to world leaders who “blame their society’s ills on the West” also fell foul of the censor’s red pen.
“To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history,” the president said.
Once again, Xinhua included the passage in full in its English version, but the sentence was taken out of the Chinese translation.
Man, those Chinese are sensitive. I mean, Obama could just as easily been referring to Russia or to the United Arab Emirates as China. But the Chinese may be on to something, as Obama might not be as cozy as George Bush was with world’s third-largest economy.
As an editorial in the state-run China Daily put it: “Given the popular American eagerness for a break from the Bush years, many wonder, or worry to be precise, whether the new president would ignore the hard-earned progress in bilateral ties.”
Well, as long as they stop trying to poison our dogs and babies and toothpaste and break our Internet, we’ll stay on good terms with the Commies, er, I mean Chinese.
Green America (formerly Co-op America) offers seven solutions to our current economic crisis that simultaneously aid the environment. You can read all of them here, but my favorite is the idea of Clean Energy Victory Bonds:
How are we going to pay for this green energy revolution? Green America and our allies at Clean Edge propose Clean Energy Victory Bonds. Modeled after victory bonds in World War II, Americans would buy these bonds from the federal government to invest in large-scale deployment of green energy projects, with particular emphasis in low-income communities that are hardest hit by the broken economy. These would be long-term bonds, which would pay an annual interest rate, based in part on the energy and energy savings that the bonds generate. During WWII, Americans bought over $185 billion in bonds — that would be almost $2 trillion in today’s dollars.
I’d buy one, would you?
While you were watching Obama being inaugurated on T.V., elves were busy transforming the White House web site. Actually, it might not have been elves but one Macon Phillips, who in the first blog post (!) to the site, identifies himself as the White House’s “Director of New Media.”
By clicking on “the Agenda” in the navigation, you get a to-do list Obama and his team are planning to complete. Under “Civil Rights” you find this:
Support for the LGBT Community
“While we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do. Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is exploited by those seeking to divide us. But at its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans. It’s about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect.”
— Barack Obama, June 1, 2007
- Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: In 2004, crimes against LGBT Americans constituted the third-highest category of hate crime reported and made up more than 15 percent of such crimes. President Obama cosponsored legislation that would expand federal jurisdiction to include violent hate crimes perpetrated because of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical disability. As a state senator, President Obama passed tough legislation that made hate crimes and conspiracy to commit them against the law.
- Fight Workplace Discrimination: President Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees’ domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy. The President also sponsored legislation in the Illinois State Senate that would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
- Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: President Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.
- Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: President Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.
We were feeling it in St. Augustine this morning. The bells in the churches on the Plaza rang and the crowd that was gathered to share the moments together (via big screen T.V.) couldn’t stop cheering. The loudest outburst followed the announcement that, according to the Constitution, Obama became the president at noon, whether he had taken the oath of office or not. After that, the best moment had to be when Obama said, “we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals” and the camera cut to Bush, looking as pouty-faced as any three-year-old.
My friend Renee, an early Hillary supporter and atheist Jew, might have summed it up best. It’s as if, she said, someone knew exactly who our country needed now and sent him to us. Amen.
In advance of his appearance yesterday at the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta as part of ceremonies honoring Dr. King’s birthday, Rick Warren sent a form letter to senior African American clergy asking for advice, including this bit in which he devalues his controversial selection by Barack Obama to give the prayer at the inauguration:
From Trump’s “stolen election” lies, we can’t get no relief,
He carps on about stolen votes, but he never names the thief.
Somebody needs to tell this guy
Americans aren’t buying his lies,
And that he’s turned us into the United States of Disbelief.
