where the media's not allowed (thank god)

I'm forever interested in what Barack Obama is actually like as a real human person, and I just stumbled upon this video at Youth Outlook (orginally from SuperNews on Current TV). Perhaps this will offer some insights into the private side of the world's most famous couple--or at least be hilarious. It sounds exactly like him!



Reminds of a unique--and powerful--political tactic deployed by women in patriarchal societies.

Yemen Update

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The super-on-top-of-it Rachel Maddow reports: She reminds us that the government of Yemen, which has very little money and very little legitimacy in its country (as do many if not most governments), has partnered with the U.S. ever since 9/11 in the war against terrorism, but President Obama, specifically, has dramatically escalated military and surveillance operations in there. Indeed, she also show how Abulmutallab had links to many more countries than just Yemen, and that the U.S. government's focus on Yemen is part of a larger and longer strategy to escalate warfare there.

Pointedly calling al Qaeda terrorists "goons," Maddow makes the important point that these dudes aren't necessarily expert terrorists. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Penninsula's claim that Abulmutallab's attempted bombing was in retaliation for the Yemen bombings is bogus, she asserts, because Abdulmutallab bought his plane ticket on December 16th--BEFORE the recent U.S.-Yemeni military strikes on Dec. 17 and Dec. 24.

These are very important points: We, as the lay public, should be skeptical about anything the media says about "al Qaeda" because both sides--the so-called al Qaeda groups as well as the U.S. government--have mutually-reinforcing incentives to propagate propaganda that paints al Qaeda as a scary, competent, extremely threatening enemy of the U.S. It gives al Qaeda more power (symbolically and in terms of recruitment), and it justifies the U.S. war machine as it bombs and occupies so many countries in the Middle East and South Asia.

That said, I still stand by my original point that Abdulmutallab's attempted bombings must not be taken out of context of, as it's phrased on Democracy Now today, the U.S.'s simultaneous wars in five different Muslim countries, . While maybe al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula doesn't even deserve the justice of being quoted, their statement that they are targeting U.S. civilians because U.S. civilians are "supporting the leaders who kill our women and children" is not COMPLETE propaganda. Of course many of us do not support the military strikes (if we even know about them) and none of us have authorized them. Never would I condone these acts of attempted terrorism against American civilians. It's also true that so-called al Qaeda leaders are appropriating real human grief to their own masculinist, warmongering ends, and this is no better than what the U.S. did in co-opting the grief caused by 9/11 to justify war and occupation.

But that grief in Yemen is real. And those men, women, and children WERE slaughtered by a joint operation of the U.S. and Yemeni governments, and many more continue to suffer attacks and the potential threat of attacks every day, especially as the U.S. and Yemeni government plan to escalate military strikes in the coming days.

Can we please get rid of the double standards that paint some people as more human than others?

Yemen: The U.S.'s newest (proxy?) war

In response the recent attempted airplane bombing in Detroit, Obama has said, "Those who would slaughter innocent men, women and children must know that the United States will do more than simply strengthen our defenses. We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us, whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the US homeland." Not wanting to only "strengthen our defenses" but to "defeat violent extremists...[with] every element of our national power" makes him a WAR president! Also notice that "those who would slaughter men, women, and children" is set up as the inherent opposite of "the United States." That's because, according the logic of the U.S. state, men, women, and children who live in Yemen are not as human as the (middle-class, obdient, law-abiding, mostly white) men, women, and children who live in the U.S.

This is crazy. We would do well to listen to today's editorial in the SF Chronicle, which states, "there are always more security holes, and more failed states, for the militants to discover. We may never fully defeat terrorism, and it would be helpful if we had political officials who were brave enough to say that...What we can do is minimize risk."

Furthermore, Obama (and the media!) are hiding the plain truths of cause and effect! The group that calls itself "al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula" is claiming responsibility for the attempted Northwest Airlines bombing as RETALIATION for the U.S.'s very recent bombings in Yemen. Their statement reads: "We tell the American people that since you support the leaders who kill our women and children ... we have come to slaughter you [and] will strike you with no previous [warning]. Our vengeance is near." I'm not defending their acts, but simply pointing out that their statements about "supporting the leaders who kill our women and children" are not untrue.

December 17th strikes: The southern Yemeni province of Abyan: Yemeni security officials claim 34 people are killed, including 30 "militants" and 10 "al-Qaeda suspects." Abbas al-Assal, a local human rights activist who was at the scene, and Ali Mohammed Mansour, a resident of the area who helped bury the dead in a mass grave, both said about 64 people were killed, including 23 children and 17 women (Al Jazeera). The NY Times (which ONLY reported that "some witnesses said a number of civilians were also killed") says that "the United States provided firepower, intelligence and other support to the government of Yemen" for the bombings, which were meant to thwart attacks against "American assets," according to the "officials who are familiar with the operations." Yemeni leaders insist that they alone made the decision to carry out the bombings--as it doesn't look good to come off as a US ally in the Middle East (NY Times). But according to Brian Ross at ABC News, (though other news sources have not reported this level of detail) Obama directly ordered the attacks and later "placed a call after the strikes to 'congratulate' the President of Yemen, Ali Abdallah Salih, on his efforts against al Qaeda, according to White House officials" (ABC News).

December 19th protests: The southern Yemeni province of Lahj: Many Yemenis take to the streets in the town of Al-Habilain to protest the recent joint U.S.-Yemen bombings.

(AFP photos)

December 21st protests: The southern Yemeni province of Abyan: In the village of al-Maajala, many Yemeni citizens of the recently bombed area participate in protests against the joint U.S.-Yemeni bombings.


In the midst of the protests, men claiming to be leaders of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula go public in stating that their fight is not against the Yemeni state but against the U.S.

(Al Jazeera, AFP photos).

December 24th strikes: The eastern Yemeni province of Shabwa: The Yemeni government claims that this second round of bombings killed 30 al Qaeda militants at an al Qaeda meeting, including "leaders." "Local sources" have said the bombing only killed seven people (Al Jazeera).

December 24th protests: The Radfan district of the southern Yemeni province of Lahj: Yemenis take to the streets to protest the most recent bombings.



The AFP notes that these antiwar protesters are holding "pro al Qaeda" banners. (AFP photos.)

December 25th attempted bombing of U.S. airplane: Detroit: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, after spending several months in Yemen, flies from Nigeria, his home country, to Amersterdam to Detroit, attempting to blow up the almost 300 passenger plane upon its final landing, but failing---throwing the U.S. media into a frenzy.

December 29th: On the internet, al Qaeda in the Arabian Penninsula claims responsibility for Abdulmutallab's attempted attack, saying that it was revenge for the U.S. bombings in Yemen.

The U.S. President says Abdulmutallab's attempted explosion justifies bombings in Yemen--"or anywhere they are plotting attacks against the U.S. homeland." Is the president referring to the bombings in the past, as I've just documented, or bombings in the future in retaliation? Or perhaps bombings right now? Or in 1984? Perhaps all of the above?

As Noam Chomsky says, U.S. military actions--such as the one in Yemen--fit any standard definition of terrorism.

EDIT: CNN reports on Dec. 30th that Obama is looking for more places to bomb in Yemen.

EDIT: It's important to note that the Yemeni government's war against al Qaeda is in ADDITION TO the fight against southern seccessionists and northern Houthi Shia seccessionists. Nadia Al-Saqqaf, the first woman to be appointed an editor in Yemen and editor-in-chief of the Yemen Times, laments this third war being waged by the Yemeni government within it's own borders:

With all the political and security wars going on in Yemen, today the living conditions have become unbearable. Commodity prices have gone up over night with no reason. The hungry people are getting poorer and we have more displaced Yemenis today than we ever had in history.

Yes we need to fight terrorism and protect our country’s security and sovereignty, but at what price? And how will we ever recover from these damages to the infrastructure, state institutions and even social texture? What foreign aid our government will call for then?

Yay!!!! Obama is spending his holiday vacation in Hawaii!

The President and his family are spending their holidays in Hawaii, which is fitting as he spent much of his childhood and high school years there. In 1999, Obama wrote, "The opportunity that Hawaii offered -- to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect -- became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear."

But there are some other things about Hawaii that make its history more complicated and are worth mentioning.


Throughout the 1800's, the Hawaiian Kingdom was recognized as fully independent, legitimate nation state. But in 1893, a group of elite white American men led a bloodless coup against the Hawaiian state with the support of U.S. Marines. In an environment of extreme racism and belief in Manifest Destiny, the U.S. government annexed the island nation in an illegal 1898 joint congressional resolution, against Hawaiian will. This colonized nation was already largely owned by the U.S. plantation elite, but the third of the land that was still directly belonged to the Hawaiian "crown" came under the trust of the U.S. federal government. Indigenous Hawaiians continued to fight as they suffered from continuing disease and dispossession that wreaked havoc on their population and ways of life.

The islands became the site of strategic U.S. military presence in the Pacific, today hosting the largest military complex in the world: the U.S. Pacific Command. Indeed, it was the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 that led the U.S. into World War II, though it wasn't until 18 years later in 1959 that Hawaii was "granted" statehood (giving the Union that nice round number of 50, making the DC statehood fight that much harder - awkwardness of 51 states, etc). Teresia Teaiwa uses the following word to describe the islands' subsequent history under U.S. rule: MILITOURISM,"a phenomenon by which a military or paramilitary force ensures the smooth running of a tourist industry, and that same tourist industry masks the military force behind it" (p.252). Voila. Here we have Hawaii, the perfect home for militaries and tourists.

And here we have Obama, commander-in-chief and tourist extraordinaire.


He hugged Honolulu mayor Mufi Hannemann. That's pretty cool right! Male politicians hugging each other.


Of course, he paid his respects to soldiers stationed in Hawaii. As of 2000, there were 11,827 Marines stationed in Hawaii (and that's just Marines).


Tourist got as close as they could to the Obama beachfront, and did what tourists do: take photos of themselves.


A surfer, after he was just escorted away by the Coast Guard for drifting to close to the ObamaZone.

Hawaii is also the only state that has never had a white majority and where indigenous struggles continue to be fought against the United States government. In 1993 the US congress passed a "symbolic" resolution apologizing for the annexation of Hawaii, and ever since indigenous activists have been pressing claims for the return of the one third of Hawaiian land that U.S. federal government current owns - about 1.2 million acres (the rest is privately owned). After DECADES of litigation over this single claim, the Supreme Court unconditionally DENIED their claim THIS YEAR. Sovereignty struggles continue, though, in all their diversity and complexity.