Daniel Lubetzky

If you have any doubts about your potential to overcome challenges, check this out.

It feels so frustrating to see so much abuse from insiders getting bailed out by taxpayers. It is true that the US government is providing terms to AIG that require high interest payments and a stake in the company.  But that is besides the point.  The main problem is that the damage has already been done by executives who took out billions of dollars over the last few years, even though the recent losses already accumulated far exceed the gains of AIG over many years.

The company has reported $38 billion in losses this year, wiping out the company’s total reported earnings for the preceding three years. -NYT

And that is not even taking into account what would be without the $150 bailout from US taxpayers, who are plugging in the hole, while executives got compensated ridiculous amounts for digging that hole!

Same story across Wall Street.

In Liar’s poker, Michael Lewis once wrote that if you don’t know who is the fool, it’s probably you. Here it is all of us as taxpayers.

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I’ve commented on how struck I was at the partisan bias against President-elect Obama by Fox News, and in particular by Sean Hannity.

But extreme bias is not exclusive to the right-wing.

Rachel Maddow is to Sarah Palin what Sean Hannity is to Barack Obama.

I also had big problems with Palin’s divisive meanness and lack of preparedness to be Vice-President.  But there is such thing as decency in allowing someone who is defeated to move on.  The opposite of a sore loser is an arrogant winner, and even more off-putting is an ungracious fan of a winning team.

In Sarah Palin Annotated, Rachel Maddow was so relentless in highlighting inane and inconsequential issues as if they were newsworthy, it felt as kicking someone when they are down. It was all the more jarring because she tries to be funny about it, but, well, let’s just say she is not Jon Stewart.

Have you ever wondered why some kids can be so mean, bullying others with cruel insensitive actions? A brain scan study hints that "bullies" actually derive pleasure from seeing someone else get hurt.

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On a ride to the airport around 5am, my taxi driver was listening to
melodic Muslim morning prayers. I wanted to see how he related to the
elections campaign, where much was made about whether Obama “is a
Muslim” or “an Arab.” He is not, but why should that have been seen as
such a threat? And how do Muslims relate to the way pundits and
politicians treated a religion or ethnicity with such suspicion?

How does an average devout Muslim immigrant from Egypt see it?

I asked him open-ended questions so as not to bias him, and his first
reply was:

“well, you see he just selected a Jew”

He was referring, disapprovingly, to Obama’s selection of Rham Emanuel
as his incoming Chief of Staff.

We have a long way to go – across all communities – to reach post-
racial politics that acknowledge our shared fate and responsibility to
tackle the big challenges that our globe will be facing.

Sent from my iPhone – pardon typos
.

Several friends called or emailed to let me know Danny DeVito was hilarious at the Israel Film Festival, where he also encouraged the audience to get involved with OneVoice.  This article will give you an idea…

“Look around. A lot of you are bald,” said the actor, who was introduced by Michael Douglas — DeVito’s oldest show business friend and former roommate in a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment — with a crack about absent hair. DeVito went on to make an earnest plea for support of the grass-roots organization in which he and his wife, actress Rhea Perlman, are involved: the OneVoice Movement, which pushes for peace in the Middle East.

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Ehud Olmert is on his way out.  He was attacked by former supporters who turned on him when his political positions evolved.  Now he has nothing to lose.  And it shows – finally he is standing up to extremists Jewish settlers, freezing funds and deploying legal tools like administrative detentions, arrests, and trials against Illegal settlers.

Israel Will Halt Funds to Illegal Settlements, NY Times, Nov 3, Isabel Kershner

JERUSALEM — Ehud Olmert, the departing prime minister of Israel, announced a series of measures on Sunday in response to a rise in violence by extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank, including a halt to all direct or indirect government financing of illegal outposts.

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President-elect Barack Obama did not just make history by being the first African-American elected to the Presidency of the United States.  He also is the first President who really utilized grassroots activism and internet tools to build a direct connection with millions of followers who identify with a vision for building the nation.

In this sense, we are entering a new chapter in history: back to true representative and participative democracy.

Some excerpts:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It’s the answer that led those who’ve been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

…I look forward to working with [Senator McCain and Gov. Palin] to renew this nation’s promise in the months ahead…

…

above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.

Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington… It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.

It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.

This is your victory.

And I know you didn’t do this just to win an election. And I know you didn’t do it for me.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime — two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

…The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

…This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can’t happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

…In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let’s resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

…while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

…And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those — to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

That’s the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we’ve already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

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I admired John McCain for years, during the Republican primary, and during his acceptance speech at the RNC.  Yet somehow during most of the general election, the John McCain many independents admired went AWOL.  In his concession speech, he came back.

McCain’s concession speech to President-elect Barack Obama was an elegant and noble exposition of the greatness of American democracy.  Some excerpts:

I’ve always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too.

But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation’s reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.

A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt’s invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.

America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States…

Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer him my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day. Though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise.

Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.

These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.

I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

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