. . . . Opened my “Obama’s World” yesterday and found his pic big and clear and colorful. Some call it the Sun-Times, but they are woefully misinformed or wrongheaded. He “faces tough questions,” I read, wondering who will have the effrontery. “Honeymoon over,” says harsh critic Mary Mitchell — unconvincingly. But how she gets away with her irreverence beats me.
. . . . For honest-to-God irreverence, on the other hand, consider this from a London newspaper, namely that O. stiffed the folks (favorite word — he uses it for Mideast heads of state) back home (where his father grew up and had his first dreams):
[A] bucolic scene in his father’s village of Kogelo near the Equator in western Kenya conceals a troubling reality that, until now, has never been spoken about. Barack Obama, the Evening Standard can reveal, after we went to the village earlier this month, has failed to honour [British spelling] the pledges of assistance that he made to a school named in his honour [again] when he visited here amid great fanfare two years ago.
At that historic homecoming in August 2006 Obama was greeted as a hero with thousands lining the dirt streets of Kogelo. He visited the Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School built on land donated by his paternal grandfather. After addressing the pupils, a third of whom are orphans, and dancing with them as they sang songs in his honour, he was shown a school with four dilapidated classrooms that lacked even basic resources such as water, sanitation and electricity.
He told the assembled press, local politicians (who included current Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga), and students: “Hopefully [gives him his out?] I can provide some assistance in the future to this school and all that it can be.” [Noble words, well spoken!] He then turned to the school’s principal, Yuanita Obiero, and assured her and her teachers: “I know you are working very hard and struggling to bring up this school, but I have said I will assist the school and I will do so.” [Italics added]
. . . . In an even more irreverent vein, is this the campaign weapon we’ve been waiting for?
. . . . Cutting to today Obama’s World, we find a 2/3-page headshot of Michelle in trademark tight grin. Had lunch with dutiful chronicler Lynn Sweet and others at the Palmer House, pulling in $1 million, said food is an “issue” — “one . . . we have to address.” She and O.? His cabinet? The nation? Below it,same page: O’s “to-do list” — Select running mate, take vacation.
. . . . Also in O’s World, back to being just Sun-Times: “Pop, juice risky for black women” on p. 9 — raising diabetes risk. Maybe, but not as risky as black fetuses, more than half of whom are aborted, per Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, citing Sheryl Blunt, “Saving Black Babies,” in Christianity Today.
. . . . Meanwhile, black life goes on, per “Fatal shooting closes [black] club” in Chicago Heights on p. 10. Are these events more common in black clubs than, say, Asian clubs?
. . . . And on p. 25, an editorial mocks Todd Stroger, which is what I call grabbing low-hanging fruit, and another takes Rev. and Sen. Meeks to task — gently: “Good cause, bad idea” — for his plans to bring black kids to Winnetka to register on first day of school. Meeks seeks statist solution to black learning problems — jiggle taxation to shift money around — but also takes a page from Alinsky, who bused black women to M. Field’s in the ’40s to try on dresses, back when the issue was blacks’ being waited on. In this case, it’s pure show biz.
. . . . On p. 27 we have everyone’s favorite columnist, Rev. Jesse Jackson, telling us about O. unleashing hope for the world, not just for us hopeless in U.S. Jesse, feverishly trying to make up for wanting O.’s nuts in a scissors, is identifying him as the world’s Savior, a la Farrakhan’s Savior Day motif. In fact, F. called him “the hope of the world” last February.
But if O. loses, we will need a savior badly, when we get multiple dirty looks from 200,000 once-cheering Germans — or was it 20,000, as has been alleged? And were they there for him or for beer, brats, and rock & roll music? People being what they are, it’s a fair question.
. . . . Finally, in another vein entirely, another Larry Finley obit got me reading about someone I neither knew nor had heard about. As has happened several times, I read, then looked to see who did it. Him again. He’s an old Daily News hand, long time on real estate beat for S-T but now making a very good thing about praising famous or not famous men and women. Clean copy there.abor
Blithe Spirit 