Palm Pre Released

Dubbed by some as “the iPhone killer,” Palm released its Sprint-exclusive touch-screen phone, the Pre on Saturday. What do you think?

Darren McClintock,
Systems Analyst
“Yeah, me and a bunch of other guys camped outside the Sprint store all night. When it opened, however, I found out that everyone else was just homeless.”

Carly Strait,
Embalmer
“In my experience, being drunk is really the most effective iPhone killer.”

Kevin Scarpula,
Rivet Spinner
“All these touch-screen devices are leaving people with greasy hands back in the dark ages.”

Today’s photo of the days shows the Los Angeles Lakers, who won their 15th championship last night. Not to say I told you so [editor's note: that's exactly what you're doing, marc!], but I once again predicted the NBA champion correctly.

Today’s video of the day comes from Bill Maher, who went in on the president last night. Thoughts?

As always, I’ve had too much time on my hands. Here are the twenty questions that have been swirling around my odd little mind:

How come Black officers never accidentally shoot White undercover cops?

Shouldn’t NBC already be regretting its decision to replace Jay Leno with Conan O’Brien?

Aren’t those Lebron-Kobe puppet commercials hilarious?

Is anybody surprised at Wells Fargo’s admission that they targeted Black people for sub-prime loans?

Isn’t it hypocritical for Kanye West to diss reading at the same time that he promotes his new book?

Given how thoroughly they were dominated by the Orlando Magic, can people finally admit that the Cleveland Cavs were overrated?

How would the media have responded if Allen Iverson had walked off the court without shaking hands or talking to the media like Lebron James did?

Didn’t Obama’s speech to the Muslim world feel like a stale remix of his 2008 race speech?

Isn’t it cool that more people are wearing G-Shocks instead of gaudy diamond watches?

Why do conservatives hate race-based policies when discussing Affirmative Action, but embrace them when it comes to racial profiling?

Isn’t Twitter surprisingly addictive?

Whose bad idea was it to put Chris Brown on Maino’s new single, “Don’t Be Scared?”

Who decided that socialists can’t be patriotic, democracy loving Americans?

What are we nerds going to do once this final season of Monk ends?

After multiple September collapses and no championships this century, why are Mets fans so damned smug?

Why are the Minnesota Vikings even considering signing the now-geriatric Brett Favre?

Why do we buy dozens of jeans but always seem to wear the same two pair?

Am I the only person grateful that Jay-Z declared the “Death of the Auto-Tune”?

Isn’t it funny that every wack Auto-Tune artist has sworn that he wasn’t talking about them?

What exactly does Joe Biden do?

Obama In Cairo
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
[col. writ. 6/4/09]

As in the election itself, President Barack Hussein Obama benefited more by who he wasn’t, than who he was as he addressed an audience in Cairo.

He was not George W. Bush, a man known as a mangler of words, and one able to turn a speech into an instrument of torture.

With quiet confidence, a clear oratory, a well of knowledge and the power of his personal story, Obama played on strings never strummed by an American president.

Initially, it must be said, no other president would’ve tried such a stage, so conscious are they of security threats in regions where the U.S. is regarded as an imperial bully.

Where past presidents have projected arrogance, he evoked compassion; where his predecessor evoked idiocy, he demonstrated erudition.

For an act of political theater, his performance was masterful, but it was theater.

Politics is ultimately about power, and as the power of the U.S. empire is on the wane, this speech was a call for Arab and Egyptian “partnership” in America’s  imperial project against “violent extremism.”  As such Obama continues the 9/11 project begun under Bush-Cheney, but he seeks to avoid the unilateralism of past administrations.  Thus, Afghanistan, he said, was a war of necessity; while Iraq was a war of choice.

Which makes it interesting why he chose Cairo as the site of this speech, or for that matter, any Arab capital. For while Egypt is a large Muslim country, it is far from the largest. That honor goes to Pakistan, which has almost three times Egypt’s Muslim population.  In fact, of the 10 countries in the world with the largest Muslim populations, Egypt comes in 7th — and is the first Arab country. Most of the world’s Muslims live in Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India and throughout Africa.

But, Egypt is one of the biggest recipients of U.S. foreign aid, both civilian and military, thus it all but guarantees a nice, elite reception.  But, Egypt is as far from a democracy as a mouse is from the moon, a fact that Obama politely ignored.  Further, why are almost all U.S. allies in the region dictatorships, where the leaders train the enmity of their militaries and police against their own people?

It says something about American trust in the very notion of democracy, does it not?

Brutal, lethal internal armies, secret police, and torture are the trifecta of America’s favored allies, and these realities echo louder than the sweet and eloquent niceties of Obama’s diplomacy.

But, in truth, Obama had them at “Salaam Aliekum”, the universal Muslim greeting meaning “Peace be unto you.”

Peace, sad to say, is hardly a reality when one’s own government is at war with its people to defend its corrupt political leaders.

The Obama administration billed this as ‘a new beginning’, and that is was, given his extraordinary political and oratorical gifts. He cited the Quran at leas twice; endorsed women’s equality; and called the Israeli occupation, “occupation.”  As for what this is a ‘beginning’ of, only time will tell.

–(c) ‘09 maj