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Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
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Sitemeter Sez: Valley Stream, New York, Palatine, Illinois, and Whitwell, Norfolk UK came by and read about Indian (Bollywood) Movies, plus the daily scuttlebutt I've posted about my trip to France later this summer, Ringmistress Philomena, Christine Keeler, Mandy Rice-Davis, and Tanya Memme (she's on the TV right now). There's still a lot of guys peeking in for nude pictures of the former model and full-time announcer -- you'll find 'em, if that's what consumes your time.
Media Watch: Arianna Huffington sat on a panel with NYT writer Frank Rich, and a couple of (quote) conservatives (unquote), who shall remain nameless -- Lynn Scherr was the moderator, and gave a pretty good talk about her OWN book as an introduction. I'm skipping over most of what they said because I thought that Ms. Huffington's point about Democrat politicians needing AUTHENTICITY was worth pointing out to everyone. One example of her thesis was Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been shaming herself and her constituents by acting as INAUTHENTIC as a person with her well-known history can act.
Read her blog on this subject HERE
A lack of authenticity, especially out of unspecific fears, or motivated by money-grubbing, is degrading to a public official -- one ugly example is former war-hero John McCain whose mealy-mouthed cringing has turned him into an object of rightful scorn. When he spoke at the graduation for the New School in Madison Square Garden, a courageous student named Jean Rohe abandoned her own worthy speech to call the Arizona Senator's dirty hand (BTW Bob Kerrey is another war-hero from Nebraska):
The entire afternoon leading up to my speech I imagined that everyone who saw me knew what I was up to. I felt like an infiltrator. I wanted to go home and I was sick to my stomach. But when I heard an organizer on her walkie-talkie speaking nervously with another coordinator about the students outside who had leaflets and armbands, I knew that I would have my supporters. Later, John McCain arrived in the green room, and with the encouragement of Laurie Anderson, another honoree ... I almost wanted to warn the guy that I was about to make him look like an idiot so that he would at least have a fighting chance and an extra moment to change his speech to save himself. But he didn't even make eye contact when we shook hands, so I figured I didn't owe him anything.
The rest is a blur ... just before the end of the ceremony Bob Kerrey asked if I wanted to walk out with McCain. I said that would be OK. Kerrey led me over to him as the recessional music began, and I took McCain's arm. "I'm sorry, man," I told him, "I just had to do it." He mumbled something about it being alright, but I think he probably would've rather not had me there...
... I do feel that I need to respond to a couple of things that have been floating around in the news. It's been noted in several columns that anti-McCain sentiment coming from the left may actually help him to garner support from the conservatives by giving him the opportunity to paint us as extremist liberals, so we should all keep our mouths shut. I say we need some "extremist liberals" if we're ever going to get our democracy back. Others have said that he's a moderate at heart and that we should let him continue pandering to the religious right so he can get the vote. Once he gets into office he'll show his true colors and be the centrist he always was. I don't buy that. People who truly care about human beings don't vote for an unjust war, among other things, simply as a political maneuver. Enough said.
Here are some of Ms. Rohe's words prior to McCain's canned speech:
Right now, I'm going to be who I am and digress from my previously prepared remarks. I am disappointed that I have to abandon the things I had wanted to speak about, but I feel that it is absolutely necessary to acknowledge the fact that this ceremony has become something other than the celebratory gathering that it was intended to be due to all the media attention surrounding John Mc Cain's presence here today, and the student and faculty outrage generated by his invitation to speak here. The senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded. Not only this, but his invitation was a top-down decision that did not take into account the desires and interests of the student body on an occasion that is supposed to honor us above all, and to commemorate our achievements.
What is interesting and bizarre about this whole situation is that Senator Mc Cain has stated that he will be giving the same speech at all three universities where he has been invited to speak recently, of which ours is the last; those being Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, Columbia University, and finally here at the New School. For this reason I have unusual foresight concerning the themes of his address today. Based on the speech he gave at the other institutions, Senator McCain will tell us today that dissent and disagreement are our "civic and moral obligation" in times of crisis. I consider this a time of crisis and I feel obligated to speak. Senator Mc Cain will also tell us about his cocky self-assuredness in his youth, which prevented him from hearing the ideas of others. In so doing, he will imply that those of us who are young are too naïve to have valid opinions and open ears. I am young, and although I don't profess to possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that preemptive war is dangerous and wrong, that George Bush's agenda in Iraq is not worth the many lives lost. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction.
Finally, Senator McCain will tell us that we, those of us who are Americans, "have nothing to fear from each other." I agree strongly with this, but I take it one step further. We have nothing to fear from anyone on this living planet. Fear is the greatest impediment to the achievement of peace. We have nothing to fear from people who are different from us, from people who live in other countries, even from the people who run our government--and this we should have learned from our educations here. We can speak truth to power, we can allow our humanity always to come before our nationality, we can refuse to let fear invade our lives and to goad us on to destroy the lives of others. These words I speak do not reflect the arrogance of a young strong-headed woman, but belong to a line of great progressive thought, a history in which the founders of this institution play an important part. I speak today, even through my nervousness, out of a need to honor those voices that came before me, and I hope that we graduates can all strive to do the same.
See Huffington Post for their stories.
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