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Obama: Not at his center fundamentally American?

Josh Green reports in The Atlantic that in March 2007 Hilary's former chief strategist, Mark Penn, wrote, "all of these articles about [Obama's] boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared toward showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light. Save it for 2050. ... It also exposes a very strong weakness for him -- his roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values."

Obama was born in the United States (Honolulu). He has lived out of the country for only 4 years, from the age of 6 to the age of 10 with his mother and step-father in the latter's home country of Indonesia. Is it this that "limit[s] ... his roots to basic American values and culture"?

In contrast, his current opponent was born outside the United States (Panama), and spent at least 7 years "living" out of the country as an adult.


Penn apparently felt that not only Obama but anyone else raised in Hawaii and proud of having been part of its multi-ethnic and diverse culture is unqualified to be president -- at least until 2050.

Travel

A colleague back east asked me today why I still call the downtown airport in Washington "National" instead of it's proper name, "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport" or just "Reagan." It's something that's so ingrained that I don't always think about it.

The answer, though, was simple: PATCO.

My colleague's response? "What's PATCO?"

So, Cyndi, this is for you: The Pressures of PATCO

To hell in a handbasket

These are the CNN.com headlines as of 3-4 minutes ago. Just read them through, without worry about the stories behind them. It sounds like something from a Philip K. Dick post-apocalypse short story:

Latest News

• High court strikes down gun ban
• Obama: McCain's energy plan empty 'gimmicks'
• Lawmakers vow to execute child rapists
• 3 workers burned after pipeline cut
• California wildfires threaten hundreds of homes
• Briton gets life sentences for killing wife, baby
• N. Korea declares nukes; Bush responds 52 min
• Ticker: Polls show Obama leading in key states
• Russert's son: Sometimes he'd interview me 49 min
• Bomb on belt kills sheikhs in Karma 29 min
• China slams Dalai Lama; Olympic brass rebukes
• City aims to test all Bronx adults for HIV
• Zakaria: S.A. president should be ashamed
• Recycling plant blaze rages
• Questions to ask before being a guinea pig
• Gas scammers refill rentals with water
• Couples fight over who's the 'trailing spouse'
• MTV, BET too XXX for some firms' ads
• Glenn Beck: Obama no, McCain maybe
• Women spin atop escalator handrails
• Heather Locklear enters mental hospital

Activist judges

District of Columbia v. Heller illustrates the ideological vacuousness of the phrase activist judge(s), despite its having been adopted by the right as a pejorative for any judge who issues almost any decision with which they disagree. Judges are lawyers, and Supreme Court justices are, for the most part, very good lawyers. Justice Stevens, in his dissent (a dissent that artfully illustrates the error of the majority's analysis even if not sufficiently to persuade the critical 5th vote), made the point in referring to Scalia et al.'s treatment of the introductory “well-regulated militia” clause: “Perhaps the Court’s approach to the text is acceptable advocacy, but it is surely an unusual approach for judges to follow.”

One can't help but suspect, from this and other outbursts, that the drafting and conferencing must have been, relatively speaking, incendiary.

Michelle Malkin, cluelessness expert

Dunkin' Donuts pulled a Rachel Ray ad because the perpetually cheerful EVOO lady was pictured wearing a kaffiyeh, thereby knowingly or not - according to Malkin - symbolizing Palestinian jihad: ''The kaffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,'' Malkin wrote in her syndicated column. "Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not-so-ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons," she said.

Could everything in Malkin's closet survive a third-party search for associative guilt? A Yankees cap, perhaps?

Luna

Luna's mostly Lab, with maybe a bit of Border Collie or something. She came to live with me last August, from a rescue shelter, when she was about a year old. Six weeks later, she stepped on the power window button in the back of my Jeep, lost her balance at 30 mph, tumbled out, and snapped her left hind femur in two. A whole lot of money, a plate and 9 screws, seven sessions with the doggie physical therapist, and 6 months later, she's almost as good as new.

Luna's X-Rays

In the old days, we would have taken her out back and put her out of her misery. That doesn't seem like an option any more. Not for Luna, anyway.

She's genetically a retriever who doesn't retrieve. Oh, she'll chase a tennis ball or a stick like a bat out of hell - no Frisbees yet - but then instead of bringing it to me she throws it up in the air and plays catch with herself. Once she gets tired, she drops it where it is and wanders off to play with something else while she waits for me to walk to the other end of the park to retrieve the ball or stick or whatever.

She's a retriever who's shown no affinity for water. Maybe that'll change. Because of her broken leg she hasn't been to the ocean or run on the beach yet. Maybe the seagulls will bring out her latent instincts.

She's cross-eyed. They asked me at the vet if I wanted a referral to a doggie opthalmologist, who would evaluate her for surgery. She can spot a squirrel at a block away and another dog at 3. She doesn't bump into things any more than most 1 year olds. Cosmetic surgery for dogs?