Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. It speaks to my social and religious world view. It is a forces slow-down to be grateful and to acknowledge what you got. 

Like every year, this year other stuff is happening making it hard to be comfortable with being able to be Thankful. 

Gaza is Burning, Israelis are Running
While I stay far away from the blame game, it is clear that both sides have skin in this game. Israel shouldn't launch a ground offensive.  Hamas should stop lobbing rockets towards civilians.  The world should see this for the extremely complicated and convoluted situation it is and stop placing all the blame on one group. Ach.  Anyway, it is hard to be all happy happy joy joy when I have friends in harm's way and others digging out their boots and greens.

Remember that Storm that we Forgot About?
Yup people still don't have power and such.  Kids are still out of school.  Pets are still unclaimed. Sandy's impact won't be fully calculated until Q3 of next year.  That is nuts. We are talking BILLIONS and BILLIONS in damage but we should get back to talking about idiots waiting in line for Black Friday deals.

Complicated Number Things
Yeah the Fiscal Cliff is also getting me down. It could be the end of the world as we know it or other such doom's day things.

But, we get to eat pie.  So that is great. 

Media and the Israel Gaza Battles

In case you missed it, Israel and Gaza are fighting again. Hamas and others are lobbing rockets at Israel.  Israel is launching "eliminations" of Hamas leadership in broad daylight.  However the Twitter fight is something new.

Them's Fightin' Words

BuzzFeed is calling it how to fight a war for real and online.

I suppose this is to be expected.

It is the new face of war...Twitter. Something to think about. 

Jerusalem is the undivided capital of the Democratic Party

Save a Puppy.

So, that happened. 

AP is now reporting that President Obama intervened personally to change the recently adopted platform, which was pro-Israel by any account, to include more specific language about God and Jerusalem.  This was met with opposition by many of the party members and CSPAN zooming in on the only Arab it could find in the crowd.  The vote was close and most likely did not reach a two thirds voice approval. But that doesn't matter, it passed.

He is saying "No."

Now, I am a Democrat and a Jew.  I believe that Israel has a right to exist in peace and security; and I think the US should support Israel.  I know that Israel believes that Jerusalem is its capital. The United States has never recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital but still is its only staunch ally in the world.  Republicans and Democrats alike have not recognized Jerusalem and both have been supporters of the Jewish state. 

The fact that the Parties must include Jerusalem, even if neither has ever had a president that recognized the city as Israel's capital, as a plank in their platform doesn't make any sense. Supporting the country is clearly more important than this stupid semantic argument but hey, substance has no place in convention season.

This is a failure of democracy and transition.  This change and then regression, via presidential intervention, is a power play of small minded special interest politics. Good job AIPAC, you still have your chops.

Not only was this a back-track, flip-flop, or whatever else you want to call it, it was done shamefully. The Party builds the platform and nominates its leader...not the other way around.

So, no matter how you feel about the Jerusalem issue, this was just as bad, if not worse, than the rules changes forced upon the GOP by the Party Leaders that the wack-a-do Ron Paul delegates were so pissed about.

If you wonder why young people aren't interested, his presidential intervention a perfect example of why.  Party leaders say something and then it is done.  No voice for those not in the back room.  No voice for those without the ear of the special interests. No power for those who are told they are being empowered.

11 guys, 5 Rings, and 1 Minute

I love sports.  I have my teams and my preferred events, but more or less, I am a sucker for a televised or live competition. I will take tickets to anything off your hands and the game could be on ESPN the Ocho and I will watch it, choose a side, and yell at the refs (because they always deserve to be yelled at by the guy in his living room).  Just ask my lovely wife. She might say I would put the game on the TV and promptly fall asleep on the couch but that is a salacious lie.

I also love my country.  For all its bull, the United States is the best country in the world and I am proud to call myself an American.

So when these two things come together, I get crazy excited.  I love me some Olympics.  NBC has this thing down to a science.  Meaningful music, a story of some kid from [city/town/farm] had it tough.  Kid lost [mother/father/training facility/ability to walk] but made it to the Olympic team to win and wave the Stars and Stripes (insert crescendo here). USA USA USA USA!!!!! We all cry, we all cheer.

To be honest, nothing really gets me down about the Olympics.

"But why then," you ask, "are you blogging about it?  You never have something only good to say about something when you blog, so something about the Games must be getting you down."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is refusing to take a minute out of the open ceremonies to remember 11 athletes who were murdered in a terrorist attach 40 years ago in Munich.  Everyone from President Obama to Governor Romney, from Aish HaTorah to the Reform Jewish Movement has pushed for this minute.  The IOC refuses to take some time to remember 11 athletes who were murdered at the Olympic Games 40 years ago.

That has me down.

The IOC is a semi-governmental organization and should be accountable to someone. But they are not.  You can sign petitions and such but it won't make much of a difference; more than 100,000 signatures haven't made an impact yet.  The group of widows  have been brushed off (again) and will have a moment of silence during the opening ceremonies regardless of its official recognition, and while that is nice, it doesn't fix or really honor the memory of these guys in the right way.

The Palestinian Olympic Committee (POC) called this moment of silence "racist" today and that makes my head hurt.  The POC's own statement leads a logical person to believe that they would be supportive of this remembrance. "Sports are a bridge for love, communication and the spreading of peace between nations," the POC said in its statement, before it went on to say this remembrance was racist. The entire movement here is to remember people killed, not as a condemnation of terrorists, Palestinian or otherwise.

The politics of this situation are nasty but the reality is that 11 guys, kids mostly, were gunned down by bad dudes during the Olympics.  A minute to remember them during the ceremony would not only be right but should be support the sprit of the Olympics.  We all cheer and hope our country will win the gold but we all hope that one, lone athlete can make the splash, stick the landing, break the tape and make his or her home country proud.  The Olympics at least should be about the purity of sport and competition.  Not about politics. 

So as I watch the Olympics and in a mob-like manner, wave my flag, I will try to remember these guys.

Dark Horse and a Bright Quote

The IMF needs a new leader for some reason or another. Conventional wisdom and vote counting point to French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and then to a distant second of Mexico's Central Bank Governor Agustin Carstens.

However, Stanley Fischer, governor of the central bank of Israel, is also tossing his hat in the ring. (Fill in conspiracy theory here...)

But the real piece of news that I find fascinating is that in the Wall Street Journal article about Mr. Fischer, the reporter rightly points to the built in opposition that will inveitably surface within the Arab and emerging markets. But here is the sweet part.

George Abed, former head of the Palestinian Monetary Authority said this in an exchange with the WSJ via email:

Mr. Fischer is "the most qualified of all the candidates that I have seen mentioned din the media so far," calling Fischer "pragmatic, politically savvy, and a skilled manager."

Now this isn't an endorsement nor is it glowing but it is powerful.

In the real world, outside of college campus rallies and Washington think tanks, economics are key. Rhetoric and vitriol are fine and dandy, but wait until you can't buy a gallon of milk or bread cost as much rent. Then you will see real revolution. The fact that the guy in charge of the money of his enemy is willing to say he is the best for the job is a really powerful statement.