Did you know there’s an Islamic fashion festival?

I found this out in one of my Google adventures. Google adventure-my term for a pointless or random web search that can you lead you anywhere.

Anyway, this four day Islamic Fashion Festival was held in Kuala Lumpur last year. From November 24th-27th 44 designers showcased their designs for muslim women.

I didn’t have a clue that such an event existed. The clothes..umm..er..let’s just say they aren’t my style  but what I found really interesting were the models and the blogs about Islamic fashion.

The runway models were all different heights, sizes and ages. Now, I don’t think we would ever see such variety on a western runway but if you think about it the idea of having women of all diferent sizes modeling clothes is well kinda liberating.

 

A bit of housekeeping..

I’m sending a big thank you to the people over at Slate.com  for linking to my humble blog last week to all the guys and gals over there…

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

And I can’t forget all the people out there who keep coming back day after day and are linking and posting comments to my ‘ramblings’ thank you so much..I’m moving on up people and you all will be going with me.. our next stop CNN but I’ll settle for Air America…lol

 

 

 

Obama’s tune up..

 

Barack Obama said today that he’s going to fine tune his campaign in order to reach those low income, white voters that will be critical to winning the presidency come November after losing them by a pretty high margin to Clinton, once again, this week in Pennsylvania.

Obama as I have said on numerous occassions and in earlier blogs needs to reach out and connect with this demographic on their terms and in their communities in order to make inroads into Clintons’ base.

In order for Obama to win this constituency he must convincely and sincerely convey who he is and what he stands for since many even at this late stage still claim to have little or no knowledge about Obama.

Now, I don’t profess to know the inner workings of a presidential campaign or any political campaign but I do believe that if a candidate has had consistent problems with a particularly crucial demographic, like Obama has had with the white working class, he/she should work harder and consistently speak with the members of this group in order to understand why he/she isn’t at least breaking even with their opponent especially if they are both offering pretty much the same policies and ‘promises’.

This is what Obama needs to do.

He should be doing more impromptu stops. He should be greeting the farmer in his fields. The waitress at her dinner and the construction worker on the job site. And more importantly he should look comfortable doing it. He sometimes looks as though he doesn’t know what do in those settings and it comes off as if he’s uncomfortable around everyday folk he can’t appear that way anymore. This is the end game. And in the end game every thing matters.

His novelty, has started to wear off and he’s now got to show them, the white working class, why he’s the best and only man for the job and not just some black guy, with a Harvard degree and a funny name who is the democratic party’s flavor of the month.

I concede Obama, may never win the majority of them over completely for a number of reasons including race.

But, if he fights tooth and nail with Clinton and then McCain for every single white working class vote and he’s willing to convey that he understands and show that he respects that God and guns sometimes go hand in hand in many places in this land, without compromising his own core positions on specific issues like gun control I’m willing to bet the same people that are now voting for Clinton and have voted for a Republican in almost every single presidential election since 1977, wouldn’t ‘hold their noses’ and vote for him come November but will actually on voting day march to the polls in greater numbers than we expect and cast their ballots in support of the black guy, with a funny name because they know that he’s the best man for the job and he earned their votes and their respect just like any other candidate.

Ultimately, for the first viable black presidential candidate it boils down to if he can earn their respect he’ll gain their vote!

 

 

 

Obama and his pastor..

Obama’s pastor and spiritual advisor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who married the candidate and baptized both of his children, has made some extremely controversial comments about 911, American foreign policy and Hillary Clinton.

Rev.Wright in trying to fire up and motivate his congregation on behalf of Obama made this insensitive and racially charged comment about Hillary Clinton, ” Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary would never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a n**ger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.”

Now, we can argue the merits of this statement which is akin to saying that a white person will never understand what it’s like to be black in America (of which I can talk about from now till the end of time…lol) but in the end I have to say that a statement like this, in this particular context, from this particular individual, should not have been made in the first place.

And Obama should, quite rightly, distance himself from such comments he’s tried to do that for the entire day via press releases and on blogs but that’s not enough.

In addition to those avenues Obama should take the opportunity tonight, when he appears on MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann to reject and repudiate (those two words are quite popular this week aren’t they..lol) the statements of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. On a current blog  Obama states that he believes, ‘ that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit…I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.’

He should reiterate this once again tonight just to hammer home the point that he’s not just running for president of the African American community he’s running to be president of America!

Obama and those around him should remember that in order for him to achieve the presidential post he cannot allow himself  to be labelled as just another ‘black politician running for president’. Obama cannot win by just garnering the black vote. He can only win by amassing the majority vote and some of these comments by Rev.Wright and others could ultimately marginalize and confine Obama as ‘just another angry black guy’ and cost him the presidency.

And the more time he spends talking about and defending statements made by his surrogates, campaign staff and associates and even in some cases associates of his opponent, on race, detracts from his overall message and his policy agenda!

In addition Obama, his surrogates and any one with even the slightest association with the campaign must remember that Obama is not running to be the president of the African American community he’s running to become the president of the United States of America and he can’t achieve that if other communities believe that he can’t or wouldn’t represent their best interests of the United States as well as the interest of the black community.

Obama, ultimately will have to put country first and community second and of that there should be no disagreement!

When Obama wins the nominatin will Hillary support him?

 

You know what I wonder will Hillary and Bill Clinton support Obama when he’s the nominee..now I don’t think Hillary will be his running mate but I wonder if she will actively campaign for him..will she put aside the bitterness she will obviously feel towards him and those in his campaign and travel around the country talking about how great and wonderful he is?

You know people talk about putting the party first and doing what’s best for the party and the country but we’re all human and after such a tough, tough campaign will she able to put aside her loss and support this upstart guy who took the nomination from her?

And I wonder how Bill Clinton will be received in the black community after all the things he’s said and hinted at in this campaign..this will make for some very, very interesting blogs I can’t wait..lol

 

NBC projecting Obama to win Wisconsin..

With polls closing just 19 minutes ago they are projecting Obama as the winner..wow!!!  Clinton like I said a couple blogs ago is done for I just want to see how desperate she will become and how much stuff she’s going to sling before she accepts the inevitable..I mean plagerism isn’t all she’s got I’m sure..but it does go to show how desperate she’s become..