*

The Root has an open letter from Alice Walker to Barack Obama, “on expectations, responsibilities and a new reality that is almost more than the heart can bear.”

Thanks to Rethabile Masilo for the lead to this one.

*

In the closing days of the US election, Ralph Nader also wrote a letter to Barack Obama:

Far more than Senator McCain, you have received enormous, unprecedented contributions from corporate interests, Wall Street interests and, most interestingly, big corporate law firm attorneys. Never before has a Democratic nominee for President achieved this supremacy over his Republican counterpart. Why, apart from your unconditional vote for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, are these large corporate interests investing so much in Senator Obama?

*

The Guardian reports on McCain’s sense of humour over his defeat:

Asked how he had been since the election, McCain resorted to a joke he used eight years ago after losing the Republican nomination battle to George Bush. “Well, I’ve been sleeping like a baby. Sleep two hours, wake up and cry.”

Asked why he had hidden the funny, likeable part of his personality during the campaign, McCain said times were tough: “I don’t frankly think that a lot of people wanted a stand-up comic.”

Thanks to Tom Baker for this one.

Twelve prominent Americans give their verdict on Bush’s cultural legacy.

*

Art Nouveau - 6 rue du lac, Brussells

Fonk has a photograph of a wonderful art nouveau door. I’ve reproduced it here, but there are more on his Flickr page:

*

“One major difference between love and hate appears to be in the fact that large parts of the cerebral cortex – associated with judgement and reasoning – become de-activated during love, whereas only a small area is deactivated in hate.” Steve Conner at The Independent.

*

“It’s dog-eat-dog time, and the big dogs have the best lobbyists.” In The Guardian, five writers, Danit Brown, Hari Kunzru, Kevin Brockmeier, Harry Shearer, and Paul Maliszewski imagine what happens after the election.

The state police superintendent who authorized the operation, Thomas E. Hutchins, defended the program in testimony yesterday, alleging that the program was a bulwark against potential violence and called the activists “fringe people.”

*

The Guardian reports on the Palinistas and their chameleon. Headed by a striking photograph of the vice presidential candidate behind an ugly-looking automatic weapon, Ian Cobain reports from Anchorage, Alaska, where Sarah Palin seems to be scaring the hell out of everybody.:

The churches are places where many of the faithful see signs that judgement day cannot be far away and where the infallibility of the Bible is rarely, if ever, questioned. The gun stores are places where you can pick up the new Ruger 10/22 carbine, the one that comes in bright pink with a 10-round magazine – “perfect for your wife or daughter”.

*

Forty two of the UK’s most celebrated writers each published a short story, essay or poem on the 13th October attacking the government’s determination to proceed with legislation to hold terrorist suspects without charge for 42 days.

Philip Pullman, the author of the trilogy His Dark Materials, said: ‘We don’t know how lucky we are to live in a nation where police officers have all of six weeks to discover why they’ve locked us up. Ask them after 41 days why a prisoner is still behind bars and they can honestly and innocently say, “No idea, mate.” But give them that extra day, and they’ll crack it.’

The plan was defeated in the House of Lords and the UK government announced that it would be dropped.

*

In the latest government move to create a surveillance society, everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under UK government plans to massively extend the powers of state surveillance.

*

BBC Scotland have a video of a French announcer at Edinburgh’s Haymarket Station who is proving to be a hit with female commuters.

*

Without Chuck Berry we wouldn’t even be here. Laura Barton on The Guardian’s Music blog asks, “Who is the world’s greatest lyricist?” But you have to spend time with the comments to get right down to it.

*

Lhasa locked down for procession of the Olympic torch. A one-minute video from Tibet, lest we forget . . .

*

The Tom Cruise indoctrination video that scientology tried to suppress is on Gawker.
The actor’s style on the video was recently compared to the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels.
Guido Knopp, who has written a number of books on Hitler and his inner circle, said the video, which surfaced on YouTube last week, “inevitably” recalled Goebbels’ speech in a Berlin sports stadium when he asked “Do you want total war?” and the crowd thundered “Yes!”

*

A goth who leads his girlfriend around with a dog lead and collar was stopped from getting on a bus in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, amid fears for passenger safety. Just another day in a small market town in England. The full story with pictures is on the BBC site.

*

Ten extraordinary literary suicides in Times Online. Do you still want to be a writer?

There has been, and will continue to be, a lot of back and forth in the political arena over my father’s legacy. It is a commentary on the breadth and depth of his impact that so many people want to claim his legacy. I am concerned that we do not blur the lines and obscure the truth about what he stood for: speaking up for justice for those who have no voice.

I appreciate that on the major issues of health care, the environment, and the economy, you have framed the issues for what they are – a struggle for justice. And, you have almost single-handedly made poverty an issue in this election.

You know as well as anyone that the 37 million people living in poverty have no voice in our system. They don’t have lobbyists in Washington and they don’t get to go to lunch with members of Congress. Speaking up for them is not politically convenient. But, it is the right thing to do.

I am disturbed by how little attention the topic of economic justice has received during this campaign. I want to challenge all candidates to follow your lead, and speak up loudly and forcefully on the issue of economic justice in America.

From our conversation yesterday, I know this is personal for you. I know you know what it means to come from nothing. I know you know what it means to get the opportunities you need to build a better life. And, I know you know that injustice is alive and well in America, because millions of people will never get the same opportunities you had.

I believe that now, more than ever, we need a leader who wakes up every morning with the knowledge of that injustice in the forefront of their minds, and who knows that when we commit ourselves to a cause as a nation, we can make major strides in our own lifetimes. My father was not driven by an illusory vision of a perfect society. He was driven by the certain knowledge that when people of good faith and strong principles commit to making things better, we can change hearts, we can change minds, and we can change lives.

So, I urge you: keep going. Ignore the pundits, who think this is a horserace, not a fight for justice. My dad was a fighter. As a friend and a believer in my father’s words that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, I say to you: keep going. Keep fighting. My father would be proud.

Sincerely,

Martin L. King, III

Well, yes, usually.

But it’s sometimes funny as well.

Yesterday’s article in The Times by Tim Reid and Tom Baldwin from New Hampshire, reported on a Democratic debate on Saturday where the rivals fell into arguing which one of them represented real change. John Edwards joined forces with Barack Obama, asserting that, unlike the former First Lady, both he and Obama were “agents of change”.

Hillary Clinton responded angrily, in the most heated moment of the night. “I want to make change, but I’ve already made change. I will continue to make change. I’m not just running on a promise of change. I’m running on 35 years of change.”

Earlier in the day, Bill Clinton, working non-stop to save his wife’s campaign, told a crowd in a school gymnasium in Amherst: “She’s a change-maker, the best I ever saw.”

Hey, you got to smile.