Top celebrities have announced their endorsement for Hillary Clinton in her bid to become the first female president of the United States. The Hillary magic has spread from basketball legends to soap opera stars. But will their star magic prove to be effective on putting Hillary back to the White House?
Hillary needs all the celebrity endorsers she could get especially with the influential and widely popular Oprah Winfrey openly campaigning for Barack Obama. It is no-secret that Oprah has a huge fan base that crosses all racial, political and economic lines. Having her in Obama's campaign trail will surely draw not only crowds but votes as well come election time.
Hillary's camp must not worry because the list of her celebrity endorsers is slowly getting longer and more powerful. Multi-awarded and highly-respected actor Jack Nicholson has recently given his support for Clinton. Other celebrities who have endorsed Clinton are Barbara Streisand, Whoopi Goldberg, director Rob Reiner, basketball legend Magic Johnson and Danny de Vito.
America Ferrera, lead star of the widely popular television show "Ugly Betty", is confident that Clinton will be "a champion for young women and men across the country." Her endorsement is seen to be a significant factor for Clinton to get the young generation's approval.
Amidst all the celebrities speaking out their support on their respective presidential bets, it is still up to the American people to decide who they will vote in the coming election. Hillary's positions on the pressing issues facing the nation such as the slumping economy and the war in Iraq are the real important factors which will determine her chances on the US presidency.
Hillary Clinton is a Woman of Power-Do You Agree? Read On
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roberta_Sullivan
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Hillary, Feminists And Culturists
The Educating Women Conference's keynote speaker, Jane Roland Martin, chose Hillary Clinton and misogyny as her main topic. When a man is aggressive, she told us, people admire the trait. When a woman is aggressive she gets called the "b word." This puts Clinton in a lose - lose situation. If she comes off as feminine, people will say she is not tough enough to be President. If she tells people she is tough, they consider her outside the pale of normal female behavior, an aberration, or even "a monster" Martin declared.
During the Q and A Martin got asked about Margaret Thatcher. Her reply was culturist on two fronts. First of all, she said, I do not know much and am not talking about other nations. Secondly, that nation has a tradition of strong women leaders going back to the first Queen Elizabeth. Yet even Elizabeth had to consider gender. The "Virgin Queen" put on armor to rally her troops against the Spanish. In her speech to the military she said, "I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king." But, in a culturist move, Martin noted that Hillary is only running in America and so was only speaking about American culture.
The woman I spoke about at the conference, Frances Kellor, has been labeled an invert. That was the official term of the early 20th century for people who assumed the gender characteristics of the opposite sex. In my work I tried to show Kellor taking an increasingly male view of immigrants. The academic challenge question here is how to connect gender and policy. The feminist question is whether you can say men are like "x" and women are like "y" without being sexist. When we say Kellor acted like a man, we implicitly accept that there are male behaviors and female behaviors.
The conference was held in Chicago's famous Hull House. This turn of the 20th century service center's head was Jane Addams. Addams, likely the most famous woman of her times, was a gender essentialist. She believed women different and superior. She lost her fame when she consistently berated World War One as a man's game. People thought her pacifism traitorous and unreasonable. If we say women are naturally mothering and nurturing, they may be reasonably disqualified for being President in a world of countries run by men. Our other alternative is to declare that there are no gender differences. But that does not seem right either.
Do men and women differ? Traditionally America has had a lot of tough women. The Puritan settlers, frontier sojourners and the film noir vixens were as tough as any man alive. Biology, sorry feminists, puts women and infants together. That does not mean, however, that women cannot be tough. Feminist thought is one of the great glories of the West. Traditional cultures treat women like beasts of burden. So while I will say long live gender differences, I will not say women cannot be tough or President. But to qualify women, like everyone else, have to be able to take the heat and stay in the kitchen. Thatcher was called the "Iron Lady." It would be a loss for all of us, men and women alike, if women such as Thatcher could not run for office or lead a nation.
John Press is the author of Culturism: A Word, A Value, Our Future. He is a an adjunct professor and doctoral student at New York University. http://www.culturism.us has more information about culturism.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_K._Press
During the Q and A Martin got asked about Margaret Thatcher. Her reply was culturist on two fronts. First of all, she said, I do not know much and am not talking about other nations. Secondly, that nation has a tradition of strong women leaders going back to the first Queen Elizabeth. Yet even Elizabeth had to consider gender. The "Virgin Queen" put on armor to rally her troops against the Spanish. In her speech to the military she said, "I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king." But, in a culturist move, Martin noted that Hillary is only running in America and so was only speaking about American culture.
The woman I spoke about at the conference, Frances Kellor, has been labeled an invert. That was the official term of the early 20th century for people who assumed the gender characteristics of the opposite sex. In my work I tried to show Kellor taking an increasingly male view of immigrants. The academic challenge question here is how to connect gender and policy. The feminist question is whether you can say men are like "x" and women are like "y" without being sexist. When we say Kellor acted like a man, we implicitly accept that there are male behaviors and female behaviors.
The conference was held in Chicago's famous Hull House. This turn of the 20th century service center's head was Jane Addams. Addams, likely the most famous woman of her times, was a gender essentialist. She believed women different and superior. She lost her fame when she consistently berated World War One as a man's game. People thought her pacifism traitorous and unreasonable. If we say women are naturally mothering and nurturing, they may be reasonably disqualified for being President in a world of countries run by men. Our other alternative is to declare that there are no gender differences. But that does not seem right either.
Do men and women differ? Traditionally America has had a lot of tough women. The Puritan settlers, frontier sojourners and the film noir vixens were as tough as any man alive. Biology, sorry feminists, puts women and infants together. That does not mean, however, that women cannot be tough. Feminist thought is one of the great glories of the West. Traditional cultures treat women like beasts of burden. So while I will say long live gender differences, I will not say women cannot be tough or President. But to qualify women, like everyone else, have to be able to take the heat and stay in the kitchen. Thatcher was called the "Iron Lady." It would be a loss for all of us, men and women alike, if women such as Thatcher could not run for office or lead a nation.
John Press is the author of Culturism: A Word, A Value, Our Future. He is a an adjunct professor and doctoral student at New York University. http://www.culturism.us has more information about culturism.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_K._Press
Barack Obama And Kenya - Is He A Closet Muslim?
Although he never lived in Africa, Senator Barack Obama - fully in the race for the American presidency - is half Kenyan by descent. He has a Kenyan father and an American mother. Rumors say Obama still is a Muslim. What are the facts?
Barack Obama's Parents
Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., was born in a poor town in Kenya's western Nyanza province as the son of a cook in British service. It was the kind of small village where chicken roam freely and children in rags wander around the streets. The family was from the Luo tribe. The Senator's father "grew up herding goats and went to school in a tin-roof shack", as the Senator himself wrote in his book "Dreams of my Father" (1995, reissued 2004).
But the father was a smart and hard-working young man, and when John F. Kennedy launched a program to offer American scholarships to promising Kenyan students, the father grabbed the opportunity with both hands. He was able to enter the University of Hawaii that way. There he met and married Senator Obama's mother, Ann Dunham who was a fellow student at the same university. She was a full-blooded American from Kansas, coming from a blue-collar family.
Senator Obama was born there in 1961. However, the marriage only lasted until 1965. The father went on to study at Harvard, and after that returned to Kenya to work for oil companies. He went on to become an economist in the government of Jomo Kenyatta, the first Kenyan president after independence in 1963. He died in a car accident in 1982.
The mother remarried an Indonesian oil manager, Lolo Soetoro, and together with Barack Obama (who was then 5 years old) the couple moved to Jakarta in Indonesia. When Obama was ten, he returned to his grandparents in Hawaii because of the better opportunities for education there. His father came to visit him there. It would be the last time he saw him. Eventually, after Occidental College and Columbia University, Obama would enter Harvard University just like his father did.
Two Visits To Kenya
Before enrolling in Harvard, Obama visited his relatives in Kenya for the first time. His second visit in 2006, the latest to date, was an official one. Joined by his wife Michelle and his two daughters, he was received by US Ambassador Michael Rannesberger at the aiport of Kenya's capital Nairobi. From there, a tour went through the city with thousands of Kenyans - proud that somebody 'from them' made it to the US Senate - cheering along the streets. A real Obama mania swept the country.
Obama also visited his 85-year old grandmother in her little village of Nyangoma-Kogelo. She cooked a traditional ugali meal for him. She didn't buy a new dress for the occasion, saying that Obama would hug her anyway, as he had done before. She doesn't speak English, so they talked through an interpreter.
Obama A Muslim?
Especially on the internet, the rumor still goes that Obama is a Muslim. That seems to be without basis in fact. Obama's grandfather converted from Christianity to Islam as a young man and added the Arab-style 'Hussein' to his name. The Senator inherited that middle name from his grandfather and father: the Senator's full name is Barack Hussein Obama like his father. Also 'Barack' has an Islamic background, meaning "blessed" in African-Arabic (East-African languages have a lot of Arab words .
But Obama's father had already abandoned Islam before he met Ann Dunham in Hawaii, becoming a skeptic, atheist person at a young age like Obama's mother. Obama's stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was nominally a Muslim but considered religion as of little importance. The Senator himself was also leaning towards skepticism until he heard a sermon delivered in . He became a Christian and in 1988 joined Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
But political opponents keep circulating rumors about Obama being a closet Muslim. Even the Hillary Clinton camp fed into this by circulating a photo from Obama's Kenyan visit in 2006, with Obama wearing a traditional Somali (Muslim) costume. However, this seems to have been nothing more than Obama showing respect to his hosts and trying on the clothes that he received from them as a gift.
"In no other country on earth, is my story even possible"
During his keynote speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004, Obama drew comparisons between his background and his vision of an America with equal opportunities for all. "In no other country on earth, is my story even possible", he said, pointing to the fact he made it to the US Senate as the son of a poor black immigrant.
There's an irony in that. In Kenya, the Kikuy tribe dominates both politics and the economy. They keep out the other tribes through favoritism and even corruption. For a (half)-Luo like Obama, it would be extremely hard to become the President of Kenya. Indeed, the election violence in Kenya of December-January 2008 precisely has this background. There's evidence that sitting President Kibaki, a Kikuyu (as well as virtually his entire administration), stole the elections of his Luo opponent Raila Odinga. This sparked the riots, as the Luo as well as other smaller tribes saw this as again a signal that the Kikuyu will conspire to keep any Luo out of office.
So Kenyans are now telling each other the joke that a Luo will sooner become the President of the United States than the President of Kenya.
Arjen Koopman is an Amsterdam-based journalist, and editor of http://www.kenya-advisor.com the independent travel and country portal to Kenya. More about Barack Obama's Kenyan background is at http://www.kenya-advisor.com/barack-obama-and-kenya.html An article about the Luo tribe, from which Obama's father came, is at http://www.kenya-advisor.com/luo-tribe.html - Copyright: You may freely republish this article provided the text, the author name, the active links and this notice remain intact.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Arjen_Koopman
Barack Obama's Parents
Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., was born in a poor town in Kenya's western Nyanza province as the son of a cook in British service. It was the kind of small village where chicken roam freely and children in rags wander around the streets. The family was from the Luo tribe. The Senator's father "grew up herding goats and went to school in a tin-roof shack", as the Senator himself wrote in his book "Dreams of my Father" (1995, reissued 2004).
But the father was a smart and hard-working young man, and when John F. Kennedy launched a program to offer American scholarships to promising Kenyan students, the father grabbed the opportunity with both hands. He was able to enter the University of Hawaii that way. There he met and married Senator Obama's mother, Ann Dunham who was a fellow student at the same university. She was a full-blooded American from Kansas, coming from a blue-collar family.
Senator Obama was born there in 1961. However, the marriage only lasted until 1965. The father went on to study at Harvard, and after that returned to Kenya to work for oil companies. He went on to become an economist in the government of Jomo Kenyatta, the first Kenyan president after independence in 1963. He died in a car accident in 1982.
The mother remarried an Indonesian oil manager, Lolo Soetoro, and together with Barack Obama (who was then 5 years old) the couple moved to Jakarta in Indonesia. When Obama was ten, he returned to his grandparents in Hawaii because of the better opportunities for education there. His father came to visit him there. It would be the last time he saw him. Eventually, after Occidental College and Columbia University, Obama would enter Harvard University just like his father did.
Two Visits To Kenya
Before enrolling in Harvard, Obama visited his relatives in Kenya for the first time. His second visit in 2006, the latest to date, was an official one. Joined by his wife Michelle and his two daughters, he was received by US Ambassador Michael Rannesberger at the aiport of Kenya's capital Nairobi. From there, a tour went through the city with thousands of Kenyans - proud that somebody 'from them' made it to the US Senate - cheering along the streets. A real Obama mania swept the country.
Obama also visited his 85-year old grandmother in her little village of Nyangoma-Kogelo. She cooked a traditional ugali meal for him. She didn't buy a new dress for the occasion, saying that Obama would hug her anyway, as he had done before. She doesn't speak English, so they talked through an interpreter.
Obama A Muslim?
Especially on the internet, the rumor still goes that Obama is a Muslim. That seems to be without basis in fact. Obama's grandfather converted from Christianity to Islam as a young man and added the Arab-style 'Hussein' to his name. The Senator inherited that middle name from his grandfather and father: the Senator's full name is Barack Hussein Obama like his father. Also 'Barack' has an Islamic background, meaning "blessed" in African-Arabic (East-African languages have a lot of Arab words .
But Obama's father had already abandoned Islam before he met Ann Dunham in Hawaii, becoming a skeptic, atheist person at a young age like Obama's mother. Obama's stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was nominally a Muslim but considered religion as of little importance. The Senator himself was also leaning towards skepticism until he heard a sermon delivered in . He became a Christian and in 1988 joined Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
But political opponents keep circulating rumors about Obama being a closet Muslim. Even the Hillary Clinton camp fed into this by circulating a photo from Obama's Kenyan visit in 2006, with Obama wearing a traditional Somali (Muslim) costume. However, this seems to have been nothing more than Obama showing respect to his hosts and trying on the clothes that he received from them as a gift.
"In no other country on earth, is my story even possible"
During his keynote speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004, Obama drew comparisons between his background and his vision of an America with equal opportunities for all. "In no other country on earth, is my story even possible", he said, pointing to the fact he made it to the US Senate as the son of a poor black immigrant.
There's an irony in that. In Kenya, the Kikuy tribe dominates both politics and the economy. They keep out the other tribes through favoritism and even corruption. For a (half)-Luo like Obama, it would be extremely hard to become the President of Kenya. Indeed, the election violence in Kenya of December-January 2008 precisely has this background. There's evidence that sitting President Kibaki, a Kikuyu (as well as virtually his entire administration), stole the elections of his Luo opponent Raila Odinga. This sparked the riots, as the Luo as well as other smaller tribes saw this as again a signal that the Kikuyu will conspire to keep any Luo out of office.
So Kenyans are now telling each other the joke that a Luo will sooner become the President of the United States than the President of Kenya.
Arjen Koopman is an Amsterdam-based journalist, and editor of http://www.kenya-advisor.com the independent travel and country portal to Kenya. More about Barack Obama's Kenyan background is at http://www.kenya-advisor.com/barack-obama-and-kenya.html An article about the Luo tribe, from which Obama's father came, is at http://www.kenya-advisor.com/luo-tribe.html - Copyright: You may freely republish this article provided the text, the author name, the active links and this notice remain intact.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Arjen_Koopman
I Question Senator Obama's Ability, Experience, Judgment And Intelligence - Am I A Racist?
One thing is for certain, Senator Obama has sure gotten a free-ride with the media. Even during the darkest days of the campaign with the Reverend Wright Issue, admitted drug use, real estate deal with a member of organized crime, kick-back consulting deal with a government contractor, and Michele Obama's statement about not being proud of America until just recently; Obama's headlines have been extremely generous.
Every time Senator Obama has stumbled the headlines go out of their way to put a great spin on it. And if you question Senator Obama in anyway, you are immediately labeled a racist? Well, guess what, I am not a racist, but I do question Senator Obama's ability to lead, and now I question his judgment and intelligence to make smart decision.
You see, a lot is at stake and whereas Obama keeps telling us that we need to have a discussion with the American people about this or that other thing, I just cannot get past the idea that Senator Obama is the messenger or even able to hold such a discussion. Does this make me a racist? If I told you that Senator Obama has one of, if not the most liberal voting record in the US Senate, would you be surprised? Check it out yourself. I'd certainly like some justification on how Senator Obama achieved this in 2-short years? How is that even possible with the likes of Senator Kennedy, Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi around?
I question Senator Obama's ability, experience, judgment and intelligence - does that make me a Racist? For the record I am not a racist Obama so call off your left radical fringe attack dogs and start answering some questions, without the teleprompter, because this is getting to be a bunch of BS. Quite frankly, I think Senator Obama is a media made man, because he has never done anything that would lead me to believe otherwise. The emperor has no threads!
"Lance Winslow" - Online Blog Content Service. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance Winslow's Bio
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow
Every time Senator Obama has stumbled the headlines go out of their way to put a great spin on it. And if you question Senator Obama in anyway, you are immediately labeled a racist? Well, guess what, I am not a racist, but I do question Senator Obama's ability to lead, and now I question his judgment and intelligence to make smart decision.
You see, a lot is at stake and whereas Obama keeps telling us that we need to have a discussion with the American people about this or that other thing, I just cannot get past the idea that Senator Obama is the messenger or even able to hold such a discussion. Does this make me a racist? If I told you that Senator Obama has one of, if not the most liberal voting record in the US Senate, would you be surprised? Check it out yourself. I'd certainly like some justification on how Senator Obama achieved this in 2-short years? How is that even possible with the likes of Senator Kennedy, Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi around?
I question Senator Obama's ability, experience, judgment and intelligence - does that make me a Racist? For the record I am not a racist Obama so call off your left radical fringe attack dogs and start answering some questions, without the teleprompter, because this is getting to be a bunch of BS. Quite frankly, I think Senator Obama is a media made man, because he has never done anything that would lead me to believe otherwise. The emperor has no threads!
"Lance Winslow" - Online Blog Content Service. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance Winslow's Bio
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow
How Senator Obama And Clinton Will Change The 2010 Tax Expiration
The Current United States Government Tax Cuts Will Expire In 2010
Under George Bush several tax cuts were passed. The only problem was that the tax cuts were only temporary and are scheduled to expire in the year 2010. His administration knew that he would not be president after 2010, due to term limits, so like all other government rules, the last laugh is on the public who voted in the tax passing politicians. Now, the question is, with the economy in such dire straights based on other decisions the current administration has made, in addition to the temporary tax cuts, will the next president have the ability to improve the economy and renew the expired tax cuts?
The United States government is spending trillions of dollars on a war most U.S. citizens don't agree on, most people can't afford gas to get to work, food prices are going way up and our jobs are going to China. What is worse? Slightly higher taxes or we all perish from no gas to get to work, no job to go to, and not enough food to eat.
Democratic rivals Obama of Illinois and Clinton of New York both voted to extend only some of Bush's tax cuts while allowing cuts in income tax rates and investments to expire. They joined other Democrats in a 52-47 vote against extending $376 billion of tax cuts.
It was said that most of the previous Bush administration tax cuts benefited the rich anyway. If expiring some of the Bush tax cuts gets the U.S. out of deep debt, and the common, hard-working U.S. citizen out of the financial doom we are in, so be it, let the taxes benefit all of us.
Sign up for our Money eNews for updates in your box, go to the top yellow box at http://www.mfinancialsavvy.com
Lois Center-Shabazz is the founder of the personal finance website, Msfinancialsavvy.com and the author of the award-winning book, Let's Get Financial Savvy!
Msfinancialsavvy.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lois_Center-Shabazz
Under George Bush several tax cuts were passed. The only problem was that the tax cuts were only temporary and are scheduled to expire in the year 2010. His administration knew that he would not be president after 2010, due to term limits, so like all other government rules, the last laugh is on the public who voted in the tax passing politicians. Now, the question is, with the economy in such dire straights based on other decisions the current administration has made, in addition to the temporary tax cuts, will the next president have the ability to improve the economy and renew the expired tax cuts?
The United States government is spending trillions of dollars on a war most U.S. citizens don't agree on, most people can't afford gas to get to work, food prices are going way up and our jobs are going to China. What is worse? Slightly higher taxes or we all perish from no gas to get to work, no job to go to, and not enough food to eat.
Democratic rivals Obama of Illinois and Clinton of New York both voted to extend only some of Bush's tax cuts while allowing cuts in income tax rates and investments to expire. They joined other Democrats in a 52-47 vote against extending $376 billion of tax cuts.
It was said that most of the previous Bush administration tax cuts benefited the rich anyway. If expiring some of the Bush tax cuts gets the U.S. out of deep debt, and the common, hard-working U.S. citizen out of the financial doom we are in, so be it, let the taxes benefit all of us.
Sign up for our Money eNews for updates in your box, go to the top yellow box at http://www.mfinancialsavvy.com
Lois Center-Shabazz is the founder of the personal finance website, Msfinancialsavvy.com and the author of the award-winning book, Let's Get Financial Savvy!
Msfinancialsavvy.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lois_Center-Shabazz
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