First, body language:

http://www.businessweek.com/managing...+temp_managing

Now, on to the big issues:

Seven years ago, George W. Bush and his neocon pals wanted to lead this
country in the worst way. Since 2001 they have. Now, nearing the end of
perhaps the most disastrous U.S. presidency in history, the Democratic
Challenger to the incumbent party should be interviewing potential cabinet
members and checking out D.C. schools for his kids, observing the national
election as mere formality. Bush has done everything in his power to give
the White House keys to the Illinois Senator. But neither candidate from
either party has packed his bags or booked a moving van just yet. This race
is on when it should be all but over.
To a serious minded voter, other than lipstick, pigs and flag pins, this
election appears to be about the Big Three: war, the economy and energy. If
it were only so, we would read Nov. 5 headlines Nov. 5 stating "Slam Dunk --
Mr. Obama Goes to Pennsylvania Avenue ." Bush and Cheney failed. McCain
represents more of the same. Obama will bring us refreshing change. Why
isn't Obama just kicking butt?
Starting with Issue One, our current fiscal-conservative president spends
$10 billion a month on the war in Iraq . A colossal Weapon of Mass
Distraction, this war of vendetta not only took our aim off of Osama Bin
Ladin but in so doing consumed vast amounts of human capital, effort and
national focus in addition to yet untold money and lives. Surely, Mr. Obama
has easily made his case for correcting course away from Bush's misguided
efforts and restoring in the eyes of the world the respect and admiration
once held for the United States of America .

Here at home we demand our two presidential candidates to *really* address
the failing economy. We ask this as if Iraq and the economy have nothing to
do with one another. While this week's headlines are about Lehman and
Hewlett Packard, lost jobs, a tumbling Dow and nervous world markets,
there's no collective national connection between the failing economy and
the money, time, energy and focus -- not to mention lives -- being spent on
an ill-conceived war, waged by a dysfunctional civilian-military leadership
the likes we have never seen. Again, this should be a simple matter for
Candidate Obama to connect the dots and set an agenda for restoring our
economy. Another gift from W.

Energy independence? The most embarrassing expression of the prevailing
"conservative" view came from Rudolph Giuliani, Sept. 3, in St. Paul , Minn.
"Drill baby drill," he exhorted, focusing on the short-term divisive answer
at the exclusion of any real long-term policy. Much like the VP/phenom who
swept the nation, Sarah Palin, Rudy was rude, dismissive and denigrating of
anyone who would disagree. Continue to produce and consume, produce more,
consume more. The Republicans' creed is indistinguishable from that of any
other addict: "I want what I want when I want it." Layup for Obama. Just
talk up your sound energy policy that isn't knee-jerk and
Johnny-come-lately. Make it three for three for the Democrats.
Why is this election so close?
Because there is a fourth issue. Virtually ignored, it is ever present,
permeating all. "White privilege" is how we as a society accept and endorse
long-held prejudices without thinking. No one is immune from the lens of
white privilege. It colors everyone and everything including the Big Three
as well as a host of lesser and non-issues from college and experience to
family and relationships. How we all apply standards and old ways of
thinking to our current candidates and issues will be the single largest
determinant as to who resides in the house on Pennsylvania Avenue on Jan.
20.
Read Tim Wise's article, "This is Your Nation on White Privilege," below.
Wise, who wrote White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son
(Soft Skull Press), explains how the notion of white privilege is shaping
this election, framing issues important and silly, and distorting messages.
He is among the most prominent anti-racist activists in the U.S. , having
given lectures in 48 states and on more than 500 college campuses. He has
trained a multitude of teachers, corporate employees, non-profit
organizations and law enforcement officers in methods for dismantling racism
in their institutions.
Far be it from me to point out which party cynically uses and daily
manipulates white privilege to its advantage. I'm a uniter not a divider.
But if you want to say that there is none happier or more at home with white
privilege than the party that seated only 36 black delegates (out of 2,380)
at its National Convention in Minnesota , I won't disagree.
Read it and pass it on. It will color your world. Make you think. For the
better.
This is Your Nation on White Privilege
September, 14 2008 By Tim Wise
Tim Wise's ZSpace Page
Join ZSpace

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are
constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this
list will help.

a.. White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like
Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of
your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you
or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and
Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as
irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
b.. White privilege is when you can call yourself a "****in' redneck,"
like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes
with you, you'll "kick their ****in' ass," and talk about how you like to
"shoot ****" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy
(and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
c.. White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in
six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of,
then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college),
and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas
a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and
probably someone who only got in the first place because of affirmative
action.
d.. White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town
smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with
about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of
Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all
**** on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term
state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."
e.. White privilege is being able to say that you support the words
"under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for
the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately
disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written
in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the
1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their
rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a
prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only
supported by mushy liberals.
f.. White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make
people immediately scared of you.
g.. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of
an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union,
and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or
that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to
come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of
school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.
h.. White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers
and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women
to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child
labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely
question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no
foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow
being mean, or even sexist.
i.. White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even
agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running
mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has
inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party
a "second look."
j.. White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your
political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a
typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely
knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you
must be corrupt.
k.. White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years
whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize
George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly
Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological
principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict
in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and
everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if
you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin
Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often
the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism
and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates
America.
l.. White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked
by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such
a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word
answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question,
or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
m.. White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has
anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and
experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.
n.. And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly
allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90
percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing
their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from
world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole
"change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say,
four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com