Filed under: politics | Tagged: 2012, election, obama, poll, president, Romney | 1 Comment »
Who will win the 2012 Presidential election (and by how much)?
ken starr named president of baylor university

Kenneth Starr, Dean of Pepperdine University's Law School, has been named President of Baylor University.
yesterday, it was announced that pepperdine law school dean, kenneth starr, has been named president of baylor university. it was no surprise that the former solicitor general of the united states and former independent counsel, whose investigation led to the impeachment of president bill clinton, was named to lead a university. i just always figured he’d be pepperdine’s president one day.
regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, and regardless of what you think of bill clinton and the monica lewinsky scandal, and regardless of where you stand on california proposition 8 and gay marriage, dean starr is a wonderful man. he is kind and very sensitive to the opinions of others. in my interactions with him, i have always found him to be a fair and sincere man and scholar.
even though we disagree on prop 8 (he testified in defense of the measure, arguing that the same-sex marriages performed in california while it was briefly legal should be nullified, while i wrote against of the measure), i find him to be a wonderful thinker, educator, and leader. and despite the fact that one may disagree with him on a particular issue, dean starr remains a professional, open to debate, and always very soft spoken and kind.
and of course, he knows the law very, very well ;-)
i wish dean starr well on his new challenge at baylor, and thank him for being a wonderful leader during his time at pepperdine. baylor has certainly gained an incredible scholar and leader.
Filed under: justice and legal, scholarship | Tagged: baylor, bill clinton, ken starr, law, monica lewinsky, Pepperdine, president, prop 8 | Leave a comment »
kanye west: jackass
the scene was a typical mtv video music award presentation. taylor swift had just won the award for best female video. she was in the middle of her acceptance when something highly unexpected happened. kanye west stormed the stage to protest the fact that his friend, beyoncé knowles, should have won. in doing so, he humiliated himself, embarrassed winner taylor swift, and set race relations back a few years.
west grabbed the microphone from taylor swift and stated:
i’ll tell ya, i’m really happy for ya, i’m gonna let you finish, but beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. one of the best videos of all time.
and then west handed the mic back to swift as he was roundly booed off the stage.
swift was speechless, her moment ruined. those in attendance booed west, then applauded swift. music fans cringed. white americans shook their heads. country music fans were furious. african-americans were embarrassed. and according to a tweet by terry moran, someone else was even more upset. while sitting next to president obama, moran tweeted the following:
tmz obtained audio of president obama saying kayne west was a jackass, corroborating the story.
regardless of the fact that the tweet was deleted minutes later, the word was out: the president doesn’t think much of kanye west.
it can’t be any fun for the president to call you out by name. i remember an interview with rap pioneer ice-t shortly after the congressional hearings in 1992 that investigated profanity and hate lyrics in popular music and resulted in the riaa’s (recording industry association of america) ‘parental advisory: explicit content‘ labels being added to album covers. ice-t said he knew he had overstepped a line when the vice president of the united states (then dan quayle) called him out by name.
well, kanye, this isn’t the vice president, and he’s not of another race. he’s the president and he’s a fellow african-american. he’s president barack obama and he’s absolutely right: kanye west is a jackass! and i agree with the president 100%.
kanye west has set back race relations another couple of years. perhaps this is why president obama had such a visceral reaction. following his own slip of the tongue when he said the cambridge police department acted ‘stupidly’ when investigating the report of a break-in at the home of harvard professor henry louis gates, president obama does not want to see anything that could further ignite any possible race relations conversation. kanye west didn’t help.
taylor swift handled the matter maturely. and the outcry against kanye west from others besides the president is completely justified. can you imagine if the roles were reversed? can you imagine if beyoncé had won the award for best video and some country singer had stormed the stage and humiliated beyoncé by stating in a drunken stupor that taylor swift was should have won? there would be riots and protests. los angeles would be burning like it did after the lakers’ nba championship (any reason to riot is a good one in la).
i don’t care if terry moran deleted deleted his tweet or not. president obama said it and should stick by it!. i’ll say it too: kanye west is a jackass!
fool me once shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me.
west humiliated himself (and mike myers) in 2005 when during a live telecast on national television, he stated the now immortal words:
george bush doesn’t care about black people.
while comedians have had years’ worth of field days with that line, and while kanye’s words resonated with many bush haters back when openly hating the president and heckling him during a joint session of congress was still in fashion (apparently joe wilson didn’t read the vogue article that declared heckling a president is only fashionable when the president is a white republican), kanye’s ‘bush doesn’t care’ quote cast serious doubt upon his credibility as anything other than a talented hip hop artist. but now, with this latest drunken offering, kanye west has solidified his position as true jackass: the man whose music african-americans love, but who they wish would shut up, sing, and stop embarrassing them.
west has since apologized four times, but only once (the last) to taylor swift personally.
kanye west may think george bush doesn’t care about black people, but barack obama thinks kanye west is a jackass. i could not agree more with the president.
Filed under: gender issues, i'm not making this up, idiocy, nonsense, race relations | Tagged: beyonce, dan quayle, george bush, ice-t, jackass, joe wilson, kanye west, mike myers, mtv, obama, president, taylor swift, terry moran, tmz, video music awards | 3 Comments »
chief justice john roberts botches the presidential oath of ofice
so the question is: who botched the presidential oath office? on a nearly flawless inauguration day, which leader of two of the three branches of government botched the constitutional presidential oath of office?
the answer: it was chief justice john roberts.
the oath is as follows:
‘i do solemnly swear (or affirm) that i will faithfully execute the office of president of the united states, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the united states.’
roberts forgot the word ‘faithfully,’ placing it after the words ‘united states’ instead of before the word ‘execute.’ president obama, who must have practiced the oath a thousand times, politely paused and allowed chief justice roberts to correct himself. the chief justice caught his error, and corrected himself, but only after president obama began to say the altered oath.
roberts also said ‘to the unided states’ instead of ‘of the united states.’
it was a bad day for the chief justice. thirty-five constitutional words, and the chief justice mixed them up. talk about rewriting the constitution…
the beginning was no better. president obama may have started a little soon, beginning after his name was spoken by the chief justice, instead of waiting for the line ‘do solemnly swear.’ it is unknown if president obama spoke too quickly, or if the chief justice forgot to pause.
i also found it clever that the chief justice asked, ‘so help you god?’ at the end of the oath, which allowed president obama the option to say the line, which is not in the constitution. however, it would have been awkward had he not repeated the line. president obama said that he would indeed conclude with the line ‘so help me god.’
if this isn’t a snl sketch by this weekend, i’ll be surprised.
JAN 21 2009 UPDATE – president obama has retaken the oath of office. because of the botched oath of office taken yesterday, the president has retaken the oath of office despite the fact that the constitution understands the president elect to become president at noon on jan. 20th.
it also could be an attempt to extend the inauguration celebration just one more day… ;-)
Filed under: politics | Tagged: chief justice, inauguration, john roberts, oath of office, politics, president | 3 Comments »