Tag Archives: Barack Obama

Ten Thousand and One Arabian Nights

2/10/2011 – 2:55 pm

I’ve been procrastinating all day. This is partially because, well, it’s what I do. This week’s excuse is that I’ve been waiting to see what happens in Egypt.
As I wrote last week, the Obama administration can’t seem to get its head out of the desert sand and make a decision about Egypt. [...]

By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

What Were We Thinking?

2/3/2011 – 1:32 pm

I was walking across campus that October afternoon when I heard the news. I rushed to the Journalism Department where the Associated Press Teletype was clattering in its insulated booth. Other J-students and professors were gathered around, tearing off the reports as they came in and silently passing them around.
Anwar Sadat was dead, [...]

By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

Numbers, Large and Small

1/6/2011 – 12:43 pm

“As the days lengthen, the cold strengthens.”
It’s an old Vermont weather proverb and reads like one, too. I can see the crusty old dude by the potbellied stove with the gumboots and plaid mackinaw draped over the back of his chair.
Alert readers will remember I referred to the proverb a year ago this week, [...]

By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Do It (For) Yourself

12/17/2010 – 2:54 pm

The Bush tax cuts for the rich are now the Obama tax cuts for the rich. As we wait for the Great Recession’s double dip, as the smart economists (Hello, Paul Krugman!) tell us we need more government spending to offset the consumer spending that just ain’t there, Congress today sends a bill to [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Electoral Politics | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Now Lie In It

11/4/2010 – 2:29 pm

I’m so glad the election is over; I can only imagine how bad it must have been for people who have tee vee. There were surprises, but every permutation of the race was called by some pundit or other – it’s a variation on the hundred monkeys theory and not that far off, either. [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

The Lunatic Fringe

10/28/2010 – 12:23 pm

Do you remember the incident, two years ago, as the presidential election campaign was winding down, an old lady at John McCain rally got a hold of the microphone and said she didn’t trust Barack Obama because “he’s an Arab.”
Senator McCain pulled the mike away from her and said, “No, ma’am, he’s a decent [...]

By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary, Electoral Politics | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Broken in Two

10/14/2010 – 12:33 pm

I attended the Gulf Gathering at Weeks Bay, Alabama last week. It was a conference of grassroots groups from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, coming together to try and figure how to put their region together again after the BP oil disaster.
This being the gulf, implications from the other recent disaster – [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Energy, Global Warming | Also tagged , | Comments (0)