President Obama Takes Questions at GOP House Issues Conference

Obama and the Public Option

Today's Glenn Greenwald post links to Ezra Klein's post about the question of whether Barack Obama campaigned on the public option. It's rather a question of semantics. Perhaps the public option was not a major theme of his campaign, but it or what was called a public program was certainly in his campaign.What's the difference?

As of today, what Organizing for America has for the Obama Plan includes a public option.

This is in regards to Obama's recent statement: "I didn't campaign on the public option."

Bill White for Governor

Bill White, former mayor of Houston, is running for governor of Texas. His campaign website doesn't mention it, but he is running as a Democrat. I guess White wants to present himself as non-partisan, but probably as well it still must not be politically safe to be proud of being a Democrat in Texas. Anyway, I'm glad White is running. He is a strong candidate with a very good record as mayor of Houston. I think he should be competitive against the Republican candidate, either current governor Rick Perry or Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson.

The original reason for this post was to link to White's commencement speech to Rice University graduates in 2006. At the time I watched the speech on C-Span, I was somewhat moved by seeing someone so openly promoting public service. It was one of the most stern but also most inspiring commencement speeches that I have ever seen. I've been a stronger admirer of White since.So finally, here is a link to it. Unfortunately, I can't embed it into this post.

Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

I was referred to this talk by a friend. It's quite an indictment of our capitalistic society that has become delusional about reality.