Being a part time political blogger, I feel I should say something about the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Make no mistake about it, this guy was an evil fuck and deserved much worse than he got by getting shot in the eye and dumped into the ocean. OK, just to make that clear? I have absolutely no sympathy for someone who planned the mass murder of thousands of innocent people.

So, with that out of the way, here are some of my admittedly confused thoughts about the whole subject.

1. I was rather surprised that the mission statement was to have OBL killed and not captured. For one thing, ordering someone killed, even someone who deserved it as much as OBL did, isn’t really what I thought we did in this country. Yeah, it’s a myth, sure. I understand that. But still, to break with that ideal so easily and not let justice really take its course, as we normally do things even with the most evil murderers, seemed not in step with how we like to think of ourselves. The whole thing felt like it was a lot more about revenge and retribution, rather than justice. I have seen some mention of "closure" as well, which I think is a total rationalization. It's closure by the fact that a mass murderer got what he deserved. That's a lot more about revenge than some sort of metaphoric sense of "closure", in my way of thinking. And if you really want to get down and call it for what it was, that was an assassination, pure and simple. That's what South American drug lords do. That's what the old Soviet bloc used to do. Is that really what America wants to be? I suppose that train has long left the station, as we now seem to be quite fine with the concept of being known for torturing prisoners and holding people for years without charging them with anything. We seem to have already stepped off that slippery slope.

2. I know that the events of 9/11 were devastating to us individually as well as a country as a whole. And I don’t want to tell anyone how they should feel or celebrate the killing of OBL. But the whole deal of large masses of people getting together and chanting “USA! USA! USA!”, like at some hockey game or something, didn’t feel right. It was a bit unseemly, I thought. But then again, I am not in those people’s shoes, so I don’t know how they felt. My own feelings were something like, “Finally. It’s about time… Good riddance.” I really didn’t feel any elation.

3. Maybe now we can get the heck out of Afghanistan. We haven’t really understood why we are there for years. Al Quaida isn’t there anymore. Yeah, the Taliban is there and they aren’t very nice. But aren’t those the same people that the Soviet Union fought for so long and the U.S. was giving them arms to help them fight “The Evil Empire.” And look what it got them, a breakup of their huge country and a complete collapse of the central government. Sure, the U.S.S.R. was already rotten to the core and ready to go anyway, their losing war in Afghanistan only hastened it on. But isn’t the same exact thing happening to us? Let’s get out now while the death of OBL at least gives us some cover of getting out with our “honor” intact, since that seems to matter a great deal to some people.

4. It will be really interesting to hear the rationale from the Pakistani government, our supposed allies, about why they didn’t know that OBL was in this huge compound just miles from the country’s military school and where many retired military people live. Sure, it is JUST within the realm of plausibility that they might not have known he was there, but really, this doesn’t look good. They need to come up with some sort of explanation, and pretty quickly. It is a pretty telling indication about how much we don’t trust the Pakistani government that we didn’t tell them about the raid beforehand. Something is really going on here behind the scenes.

5. Those Navy Seals are really scary.

President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

Wow. As many people are saying this morning (even the White House, apparently), "My, that was unexpected." I tend to agree. I am not sure that an award of this stature should be given just for a general sense of changing the direction of the country and its standing in the world. It seems like it should be given for some breakthrough moment, such as signing an Israeli/Palestinian peace accord, or something along those lines. So, in that context, I think some criticism of this award may have some merits.

On the other hand, it's certainly going to be fun to watch wingnut heads explode, like some mass viewing of Scanners or something, for the next few days. Oh, the outrage! After all, it's rather difficult to give a Nobel Peace Prize to someone who is JUST LIKE HITLER!

UPDATE: I saw where some commenter at DailyKos said "It sounds like the, 'Boy, is the world relieved you guys didn't choose McCain' award."

UPDATE II: From Steve Benen at Washington Monthly:

For all the recognition of George W. Bush's unpopularity, it's easy to overlook the ways in which the international community was truly mortified by the U.S. leadership during the Bush era. The irreplaceable leading nation could no longer be trusted to do the right thing -- on use of force, torture, rule of law, international cooperation, democratic norms, even climate change. We'd reached a point at which much of the world was poised to simply give up on America's role as a global leader.

And, love him or hate him, President Obama changed this. I doubt anyone on the Nobel committee would admit it, but the Peace Prize is, to a certain extent, an implicit "thank you" to the United States for reclaiming its rightful place on the global stage.

It's indicative of a degree of relief. Much of the world has wanted America to take the lead again, and they're rightly encouraged to see the U.S. president stepping up in the ways they hoped he would. It's hard to overstate the significance, for example, of seeing a U.S. president chair a meeting of the United Nations Security Council and making strides on a nuclear deal.

This is not to say Obama was honored simply because he's not Bush. The president really has committed himself to promoting counter-proliferation, reversing policies on torture, embracing a new approach to international engagement, and recommitting the U.S. to the Middle East peace process. But charting a new course for American leadership, breaking with the recent past, no doubt played a role.

UPDATE III: So, when President Obama fails to convince the International Olympic Committee that the Olympic Games should be held in Chicago, that is a reason for celebration, but the President of the United States winning the Nobel Peace Prize is a reason to go trashing both the giver and the recipient? Uhhh..... Excuse me for being cynical, but what does this look like to you?

Amazing presidential press conference from President Obama

That was SO refreshing to be talked to as an adult, by an adult, with carefully formulated answers that actually supply information. This is in contrast to President Bush's approach, which was to bully, to confuse, to dismiss, to talk down to. I do not agree with everything that President Obama said. I am VERY upset that he has apparently decided that he isn't really going to look into the abuses of Bush administration officials about anything that went on that may have been illegal or unethical. But what a difference! I hope that the American people sat up and took notice that we actually have an adult in the White House that can articulate his vision of what he wants to accomplish in a way that most people can relate to.

And he can correctly pronounce the word "nuclear!" Amazing!!

My thoughts about today’s inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Every blogger in the country must have a similar post up by now. I am certainly not going to add anything new or insightful. But this joyous and historic occasion really calls out for a post.

What I am thinking and feeling is no different than 75 to 80 percent of the rest of the country. I am extremely proud that this country has made one significant step beyond the overt racism that has dominated the cultural landscape since the country’s inception. Electing an African-American man to the highest office in the land is something truly amazing. I am old enough to remember the assassination of John and Bobby Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King. I can remember, although comprehension on my part was not really there, the race riots, the civil rights movement. I also had a closer look, as my family (my protestations notwithstanding) moved to Alabama in 1970 when I was a freshman in high school. Rural Alabama... Extremely rural Alabama... My step-father, who was responsible for this abrupt move, bought a drive in restaurant that had walk up order windows. The one in front was prominently labeled “Whites Only.” The one around the side of the building was labeled “Blacks Only.” And what’s more, this was no anachronism, no holder from some bygone time. These were “here and now” signs of the time that were expected to be obeyed. The high school close to mine went through some upheavals when adults found out that some of the white cheerleaders were dating a couple of black kids on the basketball team. I don’t really know what happened, but it was made VERY clear to the girls that, under no circumstances, they were going to go to the prom with the black kids. This town was on the Alabama/Mississippi border, and was only about 70 miles from Philadelphia, Mississippi. I don’t think I need remind people what happened there. In 1970, I was only 6 years removed from those horrible events.

I saw, for myself, the hatred and distrust from very hardened individuals. My step-father turned out to be a drunk, ignorant, racist bastard. To my everlasting shame, I even bought into some of the hateful rhetoric of the time. I remember once, probably just after I had moved there, the white kids in my school asking me if I was “a nigger lover.” I rapidly and strongly disagreed, as I was conscious of which way the river was flowing and I wanted to “fit in.” I don’t remember ever feeling any dislike or animosity toward any of the black kids. I think some of them treated me more fairly than did the white redneck kids. I think I just didn’t know how to relate to them and had no idea what to say.

So, given my rather peculiar personal history, I can truly say how proud I am that Barack Obama is taking the Oath of Office today. In many ways, this country has come a very long way. Many parts of the country, however, still remain mired in the 1930’s. But there is progress. I can’t tell how many times I have choked up a little or gotten teary eyed when I see a picture or video of black people, young and old, cheering or overtly crying from sheer joy. I cannot imagine what these people must be feeling now. Maybe they are thinking that this country isn’t quite as bad as they thought and that maybe the deck isn’t so stacked against them that they can’t overcome the barriers that still exist. The celebration in Chicago during and after Obama’s Election Day victory still is one of the highlights in my memory.

But what is even more significant than the fact of the first African American president is the fact that his race, although vitally important, is not the biggest amazement to me. Barack Obama was not elected because of his race, nor was he elected in spite of his race. He was elected because he represents the best hope at this time when the nation is facing about five severe crises simultaneously. He truly wants to bring people together and work with people on all sides of politics. He is one of the first politicians I remember who really seems to believe that scoring political points off your opponent is nowhere near as important as actually solving the problems of this country. People are tired of the Bush years, and yes, of the Clinton years before that. The country, as a whole, wants to move beyond all that and really get problems worked. Couple this with the fact of his race and that’s where all the joy, hope and pride come from.

This really is an amazing thing to see. I truly hope that President Obama can follow through on his promises and inclinations, and that this country gets behind the hard solutions that will be proposed for very tough problems. I sincerely hope that the bad old days of playing political games to try to ensure a “permanent majority” for either party is over and that politicians will just shut the hell up and work together for once.

That was a very impressive performance, all the way around, by Barack Obama last night.

There has been a lot written and said about Obama’s performance last night already. I don’t have that much to say that really adds anything to the conversation. He certainly is a very good, if not great, speaker. I was going to say “orator”, but then I am not sure if that is really what he was doing. Perhaps… Anyway, great stuff. It must have been very electric to be there. I was also struck by this history of the moment. Here is a non-Caucasian speaking in front of a multi-racial audience of about 85,000, and there were huge numbers of white people, both old and young, who were on their feet, cheering and quite a few with tears in their eyes. I lived in Mississippi and Alabama in the 70’s, and although it is more than obvious that the United States has a very long way to go to make race a total non-issue in our society, I think this is a huge step forward.

Here is one of my favorite quotes that I have seen so far about last night. This is from a story in the Seattle P-I.

"You young ones, you think this is natural," said Mimms, the octogenarian. "But to see old white men in red ties saying, 'I pass on a legacy to a 46-year-old black man,' it's unbelievable to me. He is talking about being president of the United States. It just blows me away."

That’s pretty cool.

[As a totally irrelevant aside, this is post number 500 at Barking Rabbits. Three Musketeers bars all around!]

Thoughts on Barack Obama’s historic nomination: the audacity of hope.

I haven’t been blogging very much, for a variety of reasons. I’ve been very busy at work, and am in the process of changing organizations. My home computer is tied up just about all evening, plus or minus about 45 minutes each side of dinner, by my wife and daughter. I had a bit of a disagreement with a tree that I was cutting down last weekend, in that it apparently didn’t appreciate being cut down. In the process of attempting to extricate my chain saw, which it had in a death grip, a very large tree splinter came very close to severing many veins, arteries, tendons and nerves in my wrist. I was exceedingly lucky and unlucky at the same time. I don’t really want to think about the possibilities that deeply. And, of course, I have run out of things to complain about regarding the Chimp-In-Chief and all his assorted thugs, enablers, obfuscators and the vast echo chamber that accompanies it all.

But I thought that I would take some time and write about my thoughts and feelings regarding the fact that the next President of the United States will likely be Barack Obama, a black man. Many people, including myself, have been so absorbed in the personal psychodramas of the various candidates of both the Democrats and Republicans that we lost track of what a truly monumental thing this actually is for the United States. I, for one, am exceedingly proud and amazed at the same time.

As a candidate, Obama is amazing. Yes, he is relatively young and “untested”. But to hear him speak is almost an otherworldly experience. I am a huge cynic, but even I get some goose bumps and allow myself to start thinking, “Maybe things really can change.” He really has captured the imagination of a huge percentage of the population of this country. From the perspective of just him as a person, a politician, he is doing great things for this country.

It’s difficult to talk about race and the fact that he is the first black man to successfully capture his party’s nomination. I, for one, don’t really want to slip up and sound something that sounds racist. It’s also very hard to get one’s hands around. But there is no way around this; this is an amazing moment in the history of this country. I think we regained some of the respect we lost with most of the countries of this world with his nomination. Obama is amazing about this very touchy subject as well. He goes out and acknowledges the issues and existing prejudices of many in the country without making that a central theme. He is saying, in effect, yes, it exists but we all have to go beyond that. And now is the time. Amazing stuff.

My family moved from Colorado to rural Alabama when I was in the 9th grade. This was in early 1970. When I look back on that, I realize it wasn’t that far (in time or distance) from the awful happenings in Philadelphia, Mississippi and Birmingham, Alabama. My step-father ran a drive-in restaurant that had outside service windows that were still marked “White” and “Black”. The “Black” window was around the corner of the building. I saw and heard some amazing things, and (I am ashamed and distressed to admit) I bought into some of that crap back then. My only defense was I was only 14 years old and we had no exposure to race issues in the small town in Colorado that I lived and went to school. I was witness to some of the overt and hidden racism that still exists in this country.

That is why I have been marveling at what has been going on during the Obama campaign. Black people and white people, along with people of many other colors and backgrounds, have stood shoulder to shoulder, cheering wildly for this person who has captured our collective imagination. Barack Obama drew over 70,000 people to hear him in Portland, Oregon last month. Staggering. He has managed to not only cross that white/black boundary for the most important position in America, he has vaulted over it to the extent that race is no longer a major issue in the minds of most people. We must go out of our way to remind ourselves how historic this moment actually is.

The Clinton campaign and its “What Does Hillary Want” mentality do not matter. John McCain and his metamorphosis from the engineer on the “Straight Talk Express” into a clone of George Bush do not matter. What matters is that this country seems to have turned a corner. We were getting there, little by little anyway, but this is the most visually stunning way of showing us, along with the rest of the world, that we are ready to make that leap. Now, we just need to make that one last step and actually elect the man.

I still harbor very few illusions about our society and our ability to cope with the huge problems that are going to face us in the very near future. However, for the first time in a very, very long time, I do have a small glimmer of hope. Maybe things can really change for the better, and we can overcome some of our shameful past at the same time. That would truly be an amazing thing to behold.

Photo from CNN.

This is one of the best sports-related stories I have seen in quite some time.

I don't normally post stuff like this, as I happened to be a terrible cynic and distinctly un-sentimental about most everything not related to puppies or young children. However, after months of months of just terribly depressing news stories, one after another, this one was just too good to ignore. And it has nothing to do with winning or losing. Or maybe it does, but shows that there are other, more important considerations than “winning”, such as sportsmanship, respecting one’s opponents and being a compassionate human being.

This is from the Seattle Times.

Something remarkable happened in a college softball game Saturday in Ellensburg. At least, I am conditioned to think it was remarkable, since it involved an act of sportsmanship, with two players helping an injured opponent complete the home run she had just slugged.

Why this generous act should seem so unusual probably stems from the normal range of bulked-up baseball players, police-blotter football players, diving soccer and hockey players and other high-profile professionals.

The moment of grace came after Sara Tucholsky, a diminutive senior for Western Oregon, hit what looked like a three-run homer against Central Washington. Never in her 21 years had Tucholsky propelled a ball over a fence, so she did not have her home run trot in order, gazing in awe, missing first base. When she turned back to touch the bag, her right knee buckled, and she went down, crying and crawling back to first base.

Pam Knox, the Western Oregon coach, made sure no teammates touched Tucholsky, which would have automatically made her unable to advance. The umpires ruled that if Tucholsky could not make it around the bases, two runs would score but she would be credited with only a single. ("She'll kill me if I take it away from her," Knox thought.)

Then Mallory Holtman, the powerful first baseman for Central Washington, said words that brought a chill to everybody who heard them:

"Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each bag?"

The umpires huddled and said it would be legal, so Holtman and the Central Washington shortstop, Liz Wallace, lifted Tucholsky, hands crossed under her, and carried her to second base, and gently lowered her so she could touch the base. Then Holtman and Wallace started to giggle, and so did Tucholsky, through her tears, and the three of them continued this odd procession to third base and home to a standing ovation.

"Everybody was crying," Knox recalled Tuesday. "It was an away game, and our four fans were crying. We couldn't hit after that."

Not sure I can say much after that.

UPDATE: I had originally thought this was a local story. That is one reason I posted it. However, I was wrong. This has become a national story, with the same information showing up on Yahoo News and the CBS Morning Show. Well, that's great for all the ladies involved and both teams. I guess a lot of people were just as taken by this story as I was. But, it is a bit sobering to think one reason this hit such a nerve with people is that this kind of story is so damn rare these days. Sportsmanship and respect is, along with many other concepts that used to be part of the fabric of this country, some quaint and obsolete notion that just has no place in our society these days. See? My cyncial side returns...