Daniel Lubetzky

This is neat.  Could be useful for a viral marketing campaign.

THE BALL
You must click on the ball to make it change colors.
Click here: http://mazzanet.id.au/ball.php

Worthwhile excerpts of President Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention:

Our nation is in trouble on two fronts. The American dream is under siege at home, and America’s leadership in the world has been weakened. Middle-class and low-income Americans are hurting, with incomes declining, job losses, poverty, and inequality rising, mortgage foreclosures and credit card debt increasing, health care coverage disappearing, and a very big spike in the cost of food, utilities, and gasoline.

And our position in the world has been weakened by too much unilateralism and too little cooperation…

… by a perilous dependence on imported oil, by a refusal to lead on global warming, by a growing indebtedness and a dependence on foreign lenders, by a severely burdened military, by a backsliding on global nonproliferation and arms control agreements, and by a failure to consistently use the power of diplomacy, from the Middle East to Africa to Latin America to Central and Eastern Europe.

Clearly, the job of the next president is to rebuild the American dream and to restore American leadership in the world.

…As president, he will work for an America with more partners and fewer adversaries. He will rebuild our frayed alliances and revitalize the international institutions which helped to share the cost of the world’s problems and to leverage the power of our influence.

…The choice is clear. The Republicans in a few days will nominate a good man who has served our country heroically and who suffered terribly in a Vietnamese prison camp. He loves his country every bit as much as we do. As a senator, he has shown his independence of right-wing orthodoxy on some very important issues.

But on the two great questions of this election — how to rebuild the American dream and how to restore America’s leadership in the world — he still embraces the extreme philosophy that has defined his party for more than 25 years.

And it is, to be fair to all the Americans who aren’t as hard- core Democrats as we, it’s a philosophy the American people never actually had a chance to see in action fully until 2001, when the Republicans finally gained control of both the White House and the Congress.

Then we saw what would happen to America if the policies they had talked about for decades actually were implemented. And look what happened.

They took us from record surpluses to an exploding debt; from over 22 million new jobs to just 5 million; from increasing working families’ incomes to nearly $7,500 a year to a decline of more than $2,000 a year; from almost 8 million Americans lifted out of poverty to more than 5.5 million driven into poverty; and millions more losing their health insurance.

Now, in spite of all this evidence, their candidate is actually promising more of the same.

Think about it: more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that will swell the deficit, increase inequality, and weaken the economy; more Band-Aids for health care that will enrich insurance companies, impoverish families, and increase the number of uninsured; more going it alone in the world, instead of building the shared responsibilities and shared opportunities necessary to advance our security and restore our influence.

This is an article that showed unusual insight and courage, in writing and in life.

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Worthy of real concern is the relationship between Venezuela’s dictator-in-development Hugo Chavez, Iran’s Ahmadinejad and the Hezbollah terrorist network, which has been reported to be basing itself in Venezuela to target anti-US operations.

After Senator Clinton gave an extraordinary speech at the DNC, hitting
every chord in endorsing Senator Obama for President, I flipped
channels between the different news stations to listen to reactions to
what to me qualified as mastery.

CNN & MSNBC seemed in agreement this was an epochal, historic speech.
But it was striking to hear the interpretations that the FOX team was
ascribing to her speech. Bill Kristol led by claiming it was an almost
shockingly minimalist endorsement that reflected her lack of trust in
Obama. Everyone followed like a chorus of propaganda you’d expect to
hear from Saddam Hussein’s military attache, or from Soviet or Chinese
officials disconnected from independent thought. Did we listen to the
same speech?

I wondered if I had lost the nuance. So today I listened to the entire
speech again. It was even better than I imagined. It was warm, it was
selfless, it was sincere and passionate in its strong endorsement of
Obama.

As an independent, I am often struck at how partisan extremists lose
sight of reality and see things the way they want to. This was a prime
example.

Sent from my iPhone – pardon typos
.

I hope every American family tonight got a chance to listen to Michelle Obama’s speech and to see the girls playfully send regards to their Dad.
Her speech should shatter any sown doubts about her patriotism, & her commitment to what is great about America & the American dream.  More important, seeing the family interact with such natural warmth should highlight their commonality with all Americans and hopefully uproot vestiges of race-based suspicion.

To the many well-intentioned Iran scholars who wistfully point out that Ahmedinajad’s rants can be discounted because true power lies in Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the ‘Supreme Religious Leader,’ his recent defense of Ahmadinejad, including of his nuclear policy and confrontational style, should cause pause.

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Results of an Opinion Poll: Hamas and the Truce, the Government, Security Campaigns, The Peace Process and Elections
Publication Date: 18 August 2008
Dr. Nader Said

Field work: 6-8 August 2008
Sample Size: 1200 Young Palestinians (16-25 years) in the West Bank & Gaza
Margin of error: + 3
Introduction:

This poll took place during the final days of fighting between the Executive Force of the Hamas-led government and the Helles family in Gaza. The violence followed a number of explosions that took place in various locations in Gaza City, leading to the killing of 6 Palestinians, most of them from Hamas’ military wing. The subsequent fighting led to the killing of 11 Palestinians, among them were two Hamas fighters and eight members of the Helles family. AWRAD’s field work had to be postponed during the early period of heavy fighting, as the movement in Gaza was highly restricted by Hamas. Some areas selected to be included in the poll were out of reach and dangerous. The reality on the ground in Gaza led to shifts in public opinion towards Hamas and Fateh at the same time, confirming the fact that both factions are losing in Gaza, most especially Hamas. 
Moreover, months of discussions and negotiations have produced no visible progress on key issues of the conflict such as Jerusalem, refugees and borders.  Furthermore, no signs of hope have followed the announcement of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s resignation.

Highlights:

This poll shows the following significant findings and trends:
·            President Abbas enjoys a 63% approval rate, 18 points higher than Haniya.
·            The popularity of Haniya and Hamas in both the West Bank and Gaza declined immediately after the Helles neighborhood fighting.
·            The positive evaluation of Haniya’s government decreased from 55% to 46%.
·            The positive evaluation of the Fayyad government increased from 46% to 55%.
·            Intent of voting for Fateh increased from 47% to 53%; intent of voting for Hamas decreased from 37% to 29%.
·            35% believe that Fateh is more capable in leading the Palestinian society; 17% believe that Hamas is more capable.
·            Abbas, Fayyad, Marwan Al Barghouti or Mustafa Barghouthi could defeat Haniya in a presidential election.
·            93% of Gazans say that economic conditions in the Strip have worsened or have not improved.
·            57% of Gazans feel that the security situation has deteriorated or stayed the same.
·            59% of West Bank respondents believe that the security agencies are fighting crime more effectively now than before.
·            65% say that they are witnessing less car theft now than before.
·            74% support carrying out a legislative election now.
·            92% experience no improvement in the quality of their lives after the Annapolis Meeting.
·            64% believe that the current negotiations will not lead to a Palestinian state.
·            Still, 63% support the continuation of negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.
·            61% believe that Hamas should continue to commit to the truce.
·            52% support that Hamas prevents rockets attacks, while 42% are opposed.
With support from the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI)
more information, please contact Team Leader – Dr. Nader Said, or visit our website: www.awrad.org.
AWRAD – Arab World for Research & Development
Ramallah – Gaza, Palestine

Totally unrelated to silly Republican attacks against Obama for being too popular and too hip, the Obama campaign (to which, though an independent, I’ve contributed the maximum allowed) some times seems to not quite get the need for a bit more gravitas.  I just got an email (the umpteenth one in the last week) asking me to send $30 and be the first to get an Obama-Biden T-shirt.  The subject of the email:

First Edition Obama-Biden T-shirt

Really?  Is that the message the campaign should be disseminating?

Now, if some putz out there wants to hawk political campaign t-shirts as epochal collectors items, that’s fine.  But the official campaign team?

Show your support for the Obama-Biden ticket today. Make a donation of $30 or more and you will receive a first edition Obama-Biden T-shirt.

This follows a neat idea to have Obama supporters be the first to get an email advising who Obama had selected as his VP – and in Biden he made a great choice with gravitas.  That was a smart choice.  And it is great that the campaign can be "with it" and appeal to the young and use all necessary tech tools. 

But let’s hope the Obama team doesn’t get too enamored with itself and it’s appeal to the new generation.  It also has to appeal to the older generations.

The only thing better than lyrics from Coldplay’s songs are their actual songs.  Chris Martin’s vocals melt and reassemble the soul at once.  Here are the lyrics from FIX YOU – but if you haven’t heard the song, you should.

When You Try your best but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse.

When the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you’re too in love to let it go
But if you never try you’ll never know
“Just what your worth”

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream, down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I..

Tears stream, down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I..

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you.

COLDPLAY

FIX YOU