Tonight at the Saddleback Church, a mega-Church in Lake Forest, Orange County, California, both Senator Obama and Senator McCain met with Pastor Rick Warren in separate one-on-one one hour sessions in an event called the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency (transcript). I did not watch. I am not much for the religiously delusional who profess that the morality of a desert people from 3,000 years ago who lived in caves is a morality to which one should adhere. The news clips that I have seen so far center on Obama’s thoughts on which current Supreme Court Justices might not pass his mustard, apparently it’s Clarence Thomas, and on Obama’s view on marriage. It’s between a man and woman. He received a thunderous applause for denying me my rights. The news clips on McCain showed him answering what he thought his greatest moral failure was. McCain responded candidly that it was first marriage for which he seem to take the blame.
The report on the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency from Politico:
Asked which justice he wouldn’t have nominated to the Supreme Court, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Saturday night named Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s only African American.
Obama was asked the provocative question by Pastor Rick Warren, the moderator of the “Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency” at the megachurch Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, which is in Orange County, Calif.
Thomas was nominated by President George H.W. Bush, the current president’s father.
“I don’t think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time, for that elevation, setting aside the fact that I profoundly disagree with his interpretations of a lot of the constitution,” Obama began.
The forum went for two hours – the first hour with Obama, based on a coin flip, and the second hour with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
In between, they shook hands onstage in their first meeting since they clinched the nomination.
While Obama’s standing in the national polls have been softening it is become clearer that in the red states that the Obama campaign professes to think that it can win that his support is sagging. In past few weeks, McCain has closed the gap and in some cases taken the lead in red or reddish states like Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia, Missouri and now North Carolina. Previously, polls in the Tar Heel showed the race as dead heat up now McCain has opened a five point lead according to a new poll in the Raleigh News Observer.
Democrat Barack Obama will have to overcome tepid support from white voters and their high regard for Republican John McCain as an honest and principled leader if he intends to win North Carolina in the presidential election.
Obama has said he can bring traditionally Republican states into play, particularly in the South. He launched his general election campaign in Raleigh, has aired TV ads in North Carolina and has opened more than a dozen campaign offices across the state.
But a new poll from The Charlotte Observer and NewsChannel 36 shows that North Carolinians believe McCain would be a better president, 43 percent to 38 percent.
How might President Barack Obama respond to a 3AM phone call alerting him to a Russian invasion of Georgia? The ultra-conservative Investor’s Business Daily offers a clue. I do hate when conservatives are right, then again Saturday Night Live made the same point in a skit back in March.
Scientific American has a thought provoking article on the possible impact of the conflict in Georgia on NASA and on US-Russian cooperation in space:
Here’s a scenario that might be going through the minds of NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff and his two fellow Russian crew members on the International Space Station (ISS).
Lawmakers warned this week that escalating tensions with Russia may leave the U.S. without ready transport to the ISS after NASA retires the space shuttle fleet in 2010.
The space agency does not expect the shuttle’s replacement, the Orion—an Apollo-like craft being developed as part of the Constellation program—to be ready to fly until 2015. NASA’s plan was for the interim was to use Russian Soyuz craft (left) to send up crew and cargo to the $100 billion station.
U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D.-Fl.) sounded the alarm on Tuesday that Russia’s encroachment on contested Georgian territories jeopardizes that plan, which depends on Congress renewing a waiver to a 2000 law that prohibits American contracts with countries that have helped Iran or North Korea with their nuclear programs.
“In an election year, it was going to be very difficult to get that waiver to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to an increasingly aggressive Russia, where the prime minister is acting more and more like a czar,” Nelson told the Washington Post. “Now, I’d say it’s almost impossible.”
Congress waived the law once already in 2005, allowing NASA to negotiate a $719 million contract with the Russians to use the Soyuz until 2011.
NASA is playing it cool. The space agency “has no reason to believe that it will be unable to rely upon Roscosmos-provided Soyuz vehicles for future ISS activities,” spokesman Michael Curie told CNN.
Even if the waiver passes again, Nelson told Florida Today there’s still the concern that with no competing service to space, Russia may end up “denying us rides or charging exorbitant amounts for them.”
Then factor in the spotty performance record of the single-use Soyuz: it came down too steeply and landed well off target in an April return flight from the ISS carrying U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson. NASA is working with Russian engineers to identify the cause of the problem and correct it.
So what’s the backup plan? That’s the problem, experts said: There isn’t one. Getting Orion ready faster isn’t in the cards. NASA this week confirmed a report leaked last month when it announced that flat budgets and technical problems would delay testing of Orion until late 2014.
Extending the shuttle program would require a change of course from lawmakers. The Post notes that NASA has already begun laying off shuttle staff and has stopped buying parts for the aging fleet.
Assuming that diplomatic relations between U.S. and Russia do go south, might this be an opportunity for SpaceX, the commercial space delivery company founded by ex-PayPal billionaire Elon Musk? The company is developing rockets in two sizes to launch satellites and take cargo to the ISS.
The smaller Falcon 1 rocket failed its third test in a row two weeks ago. But it did successfully test fire the multi-engine first-stage of the larger Falcon 9.
By The Fault wishes Madonna the Happiest of Birthdays. The pop icon turns 50 today , though I read somewhere that in Kabbalah years, she’s only 36. No wonder she converted. I can’t say that I am a Madonna fan though certainly I have enjoyed many of her songs and more of her remixes on the dance floor. Still, Madonna has been a strong supporter of gay causes and there’s is no denying that she is incredible marketing machine. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention her work in Africa. Still sexy at 50, Happy Birthday.
The above video is a parody from the British comedy team of French & Saunders.
The By Fault Weekend Reader this week looks at what some leading global voices are saying on capitalism. In addition, I want to highlight a new strategic partner of By The Fault, the website Big Think that features leading thinkers from around the world. They offer provocative global thought. They have been added to the blogroll under the Blogs of Special Interest section. The videos below are from their website. By The Fault will be featuring their articles and videos. For the record, each of these videos is under two minutes in length.
Political Communications Strategist Lisa Witter on the Downside of Free Markets
Paul Krugman: Is American-style Capitalism Inherently Wasteful?
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus on Capitalism’s Successes & Failures
Fernando Lugo Mendez, a former Roman Catholic Bishop and a proponent of Liberation Theology, assumed office in Asunción. Lugo becomes the first non-member of Paraguay’s Colorado party in over sixty years. And Lugo joins the so-called “Club of the Left” in Latin America.
In reality, there are two clubs, a pragmatic left that includes Lula da Silva in Brazil, Tabaré Vázquez (a Socialist) in Uruguay and Michelle Bachelet in Chile. The other leftist club is the hard left one composed by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Evo Morales of Bolivia looks increasingly to join the latter but unlike the troika of Chávez-Correa-Ortega, Morales has not led an assault on the democratic institutions of his country. The other case is Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, whose government though only nine months old is quite unpopular after an ill-fated attempt to raise export taxes on agricultural commodities to exorbinant levels. Though probably a member of the pragmatic left club in truth, she is the sole member of the truly incompetent club.
Where Fernando Lugo fits in all this remains to be seen. 40% percent of Paraguayans live in endemic poverty and it is likely now that Chávez will unleash his petrochequera, his oil checkbook, in an effort to tie Paraguay to Chávez’ Bolivarian revolution for America India as Chávez now calls Latin America. On the other hand, Brazil’s Lula da Silva who in many ways has a similiar background to Lugo will likely pull Lugo towards the pragmatic side of the equation. Brazil is the largest foreign investor and largest aid donor in Paraguay. Paraguay’s hydroelectric plants power Brazil and Lugo wants to renegotiate the terms of the deal, a move that Brazil is resisting.
In May, Lugo won 41% of the vote, beating Blanca Ovelar of the Colorado party, who received 31%. Lugo, known as the Bishop of the Poor, has pledged to crack down on corruption and channel Paraguay’s wealth into social programs. Here’s a background report from Democracy Now:
The United States Deepens Its Military Ties with India
The United States has long had a closer relationship with Pakistan that it has had with India, which after independence help to found the non-aligned movement, but this is now changing. It is not just the Indo-U.S. Civilian Nuclear Deal that has gained momentum in recent days, nor is it just the ever growing economic and business ties but the Armed Forces of the two largest democracies in the world are coming together at an unprecedented rate even as the Government of India has gotten rid of its Communist backers in the Indian Parliament. Now the United States and India are holding their largest joint training exercises ever. More from India Defence.
Musharaff Impeachment Update
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s chances of avoiding impeachment appeared to dim Saturday as a key ruling party held firm against any deal that would protect him from criminal charges. Musharraf also on Friday rejected reports that he would step down before the launch of impeachment proceedings against him, saying he was prepared to face the motion in parliament in a “democratic spirit”. Stories from the International Herald Tribune and the Times of India. In addition, Pakistan’s ruling coalition has prepared impeachment charges against President Pervez Musharraf focusing on violation of the constitution and misconduct, a coalition official said on Saturday. More on this from Reuters.
Indo-Pakistani Ties in a ‘Free-Fall’
The Asia Times provides an overview and analysis on the deepening chasm between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Within the past few weeks, things have begun unraveling. A local controversy over the donation of government land in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) to a Hindu shrine snowballed into protests in the predominantly Muslim state. The government, which was taken aback by the fury of the protests, retracted its decision. In turn, that led to a Hindu backlash and more violence followed, leading to tensions between Muslims and Hindus, forcing the authorities to introduce a curfew.
Protests & Marches in India’s Kashmir
Tens of thousands of Muslims marched in Indian Kashmir on Saturday to pay homage to a separatist leader killed by police in violent protests over a land row that is testing New Delhi’s hold on the troubled region. More from the BBC and from Reuters.
Prachanda To Take Oath of Office on Monday in Nepal
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who goes by the nom de guerre Prachanda, or “the fierce one” in Nepali, will be sworn in as Nepal’s Prime Minister on Monday in Kathmandu. The leader of the decade-long Maoist rebellion in Nepal was finally elected Prime Minister on Friday, after four months of political wrangling. His victory sets the stage for the former rebels’ toughest challenge: how to uplift the lives of 27 million people in one of the poorest countries in the world, at a time of soaring food and fuel prices. More from the International Herald Tribune.
I’m sure my largely heterosexual readership has never heard of Manhunt but it’s one of the largest online Gay cruising and hookup for casual sex websites in the world. Based in Boston and founded in 1999, Manhunt has become a very successful business with operations on six continents and in five languages. It’s been disclosed that the one of the owners of Manhunt is a John McCain fan and has made a $2,300 contribution to his campaign. Apparently Obama doesn’t own the gay vote though I personally think that Obama will win 75% of it or more. In terms of demographics groups, the LGBT community is the second largest in percentage terms after African-Americans in terms of support for the Democratic Party.
In an interview on National Public Radio (NPR) yesterday, Dr. Howard Dean committed quite the faux pas. When the topic turned to the recently released demographic study by the Census Department that predicts that Caucasians will no long be a majority in the United States if current demographics continue, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee said this:
“If you look at folks of color, even women, they’re more successful in the Democratic party than they are in the white, uh, excuse me, in the [laughs] Republican party.”
Not good. The comment is now all over the conservative blogs and their comment boards as well as making the rounds on the cable networks. I happen to believe that Obama is likely overpolling. He did so during the primaries and I am sure that he is doing so now. In the United States, we have something called the Bradley Effect named after the former mayor of Los Angeles, an African-American, who twice ran for Governor of California and lost twice to the Republican George Deukmejian despite leading in the polls both times. For fear of being called racists, whites in polls say they’ll vote for a black candidate but then in the privacy of voting booth do something else.
Dr. Dean’s comments are a serious faux pas and will hurt the Democratic Party.
