Charles Krauthammer, with usual wit and verve, explains why Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers, and Jeremiah Wright are legitimate issues for Barack Obama.

Why are these associations important? Do I think Obama is as corrupt as Rezko? Or shares Wright's angry racism or Ayers' unreconstructed 1960s radicalism?No. But that does not make these associations irrelevant. They tell us two important things about Obama.

First, his cynicism and ruthlessness. He found these men useful, and use them he did. Would you attend a church whose pastor was spreading racial animosity from the pulpit? Would you even shake hands with -- let alone serve on two boards with -- an unrepentant terrorist, whether he bombed U.S. military installations or abortion clinics?

Most Americans would not, on the grounds of sheer indecency. Yet Obama did, if not out of conviction then out of expediency. He was a young man on the make, an unknown outsider working his way into Chicago politics. He played the game with everyone, without qualms and with obvious success.

Obama is not the first politician to rise through a corrupt political machine. But he is one of the rare few to then have the audacity to present himself as a transcendent healer, hovering above and bringing redemption to the "old politics" -- of the kind he had enthusiastically embraced in Chicago in the service of his own ambition.

Second, and even more disturbing than the cynicism, is the window these associations give on Obama's core beliefs. He doesn't share Rev. Wright's poisonous views of race nor Ayers' views, past and present, about the evil that is American society. But Obama clearly did not consider these views beyond the pale. For many years he swam easily and without protest in that fetid pond.

Read the whole thing.

Alex Chediak finishes off his post with an interesting question, saying,

Incidentally, in Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, Obama recounts Jeremiah Wright's sermon on the day he first visited the church. It included statements like "white folks' greed runs a world in need." Can you imagine McCain's political chances if he had spent twenty years in the church of a pastor with white supremacist leanings?

Someone requested this one on my youtube account, so here it is!

Don't Forget, Support the artist! BUY THE ALBUM

Alex "Feel Like Making Sunshine" (English Subtitles)

Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATRTCe0gnXs

Download
credits: anniah@youcangetit.wordpress.com or ANiDee@z-degrees

I miss you Kim ko! I miss her kiss on my cheek.!!!

SORRY!

this post was so weird ryt?

i JUSt miss her a lot.!!! that' s it..

It's only 5:00 am.

Everyday, we start anew, calling old contacts, making new ones at the docks, filming, photographing, talking to them, getting to know their stories. Everyday, we make new friends, see new potential for visual ideas and wonder how in the heavens are we going to take this bunch of visuals and concoct them into a story. Or maybe that's true for me. Yet, everyday is also basically the same experience. In the mornings, we are too tired to care and just get on with the job. As the day wears on, inevitably, shrill complaints ring out. "I swear my back is breaking from the weight.", "I swear tomorrow I won't bring as many lenses out." or "Damn Hussain tua us again.", along with some other choice expletives are the lingo of the afternoon.

And at night, when the sun has set, we yearn for the cool atmosphere, the cute plastics seats and friendly demeanour of that famous ice cream joint just 5 minutes away from our place. Ideal. The ideal place for everything. And Shyam, you were right about the Gadbad.

So after a long day's work, just as we walk back from a satisfying desert, we know work is not done. Usually, we sit around and have the Interview Of The Day with important contacts that we've called the previous day and try to get more out of them. After these extremely helpful sessions, we sit and plan for the next day, and then try to get back to bed by 1 am. Hopefully.

And what about the product? Well, for me, photojournalism is always about walking on the knife's edge. You never know if the photos you make are good enough and if the last good photo you made might really be the last good photo you make, and that it might be better if you had gone into accountancy or engineering. Some days you feel like all your images are shit and some days, all your images are like a certain other photographer's award winning shots. Yet, we sleep at night with these fears and wake up the next day, raring to go at it again. Why?

I think for me, it's because photography is and always will be about the failing process and what we get from it. And most importantly, when we do get it right, the resulting photos are a wonder to behold. It changes lives, both that of the subjects and your own and you feel that you would be ready to do this for the rest of your life. Believe me when I say these times are few and far between. I shot an average of 250 photos of photos every day on the trip and only about 200 photos are useable ones. That's less than 10 percent. Maybe I'm not really cut out for this job after all.

But I think to myself again and say that maybe it's meant to be difficult. It may come naturally to some, but for me, I think I have to fight to express my vision, the way I see, and transfer all these into my photos. It's not easy but that's the beauty of photography - failing is an option after all.

Bineînţeles a avut loc o nouă confruntare în paradisul numit "Meredith and Derek" atunci când ea este pusă în situaţia de a alege între prieteni şi McDreamy. De asemenea are loc o mică rotaţie în relaţiile de prietenie unde Lexie începe să devină tot mai apropiată de McSteamy, ar fi cel puţin interesant, dar să vedem. George îşi dă examenul de rezidenţă abia la sfârşitul episodului, asta din cauza unei inundaţii în spital. Această inundaţie aduce în prim-plan dorinţa lui Chief de a recăpăta controlul asupra spitalului. Dorinţa se dovedeşte oarecum nocivă, însă creierul lucid a lui Bailey îl ajută să revină totuşi cu picioarele pe pământ. Alex trebuie să-l îngrijească pe cel mai ghinionist pacient care în final se dovedeşte norocos. Izzie devine outsider, cel puţin aparent şi pentru moment. Not steamy moments for Christina în schimb dovedeşte ca de obicei că are şi un suflet sub masca de oţel pe care o afişează.

Enjoy!

Powerful Performance 2PM, How many points? 10 Points!

Wonder Girls Yeeun, Sexy and Cute

Wonder Girls Yoobin, Cute

Man of Fall Kim Jongwook, Soft voice singing ‘갈증’

Piano Fairy Yoonha singing Lee Juk's ‘다행이다’

Cute Yoonha singing ‘Telepathy’

Epik High Tukutz-Tablo, ‘Let's start~’

Tablo, ‘Should I fall asleep like this?’

Brown Eyed Girls Gain, Adorable eye smile!

Adorable and Lovely Brown Eyed Girls singing ‘How Come’

Oxygen like Shinee's amazing performance

Shinee dancing amazingly and singing ‘You who is like oxygen’

Female singer 아이유(Aeyoo) singing sweet ballad ‘Mia’ ~

This week, however, was much more interesting in that different groups and friendships are growing. I am very pleased with the group I have come together with, even if it is just a result of sitting on the same table. I have interacted with others from the class, but I seem to have formed a good group of six or seven people.

I also learned this week of a planned trip to the Royal Armouries. In my life before uni, this was where I worked. I am not sure how I feel about this sudden meeting of two periods of my life, but I am sure the experience will be...interesting.

Regardless, next week looks to be fun, with a bit of work on 3D and digital comic books!

Until then,

Alex P. Twigg

Seriously.

I'm going to a friend's house with a few people I've known since high school. We will drink. We will eat delicious food. We will play games. We will be merry. I will be a 20-something again.

Best of all? Alex will be with my Mother overnight. I can sleep in a bit in the morning, head to my morning dance class, and then come home to Alex.

Mama needs a break. And oh-how-happy she will be to see her charming little man in the morning.

Hola que tal mi nombre es Alex, y estoy entrando al mundo de los Bloggers a ver si me es posible seguir el ritmo y no dejar tan abandonado mi Blog, bueno mi intencion es mostrar mis experiencias al usar un sistema operativo, que pienso acerca de lo nuevo en la tecnologia y lograr algo bueno, igual me gustaria recibir muchos comentarios y poder intercambiar ideas y opiniones.

Sin mas nada que decir a ver que tal me va y sigamos Aprendiendo de Tecnología.

Meanwhile I'm still getting over my dodgy back. I'm taking a few walks to keep moving, and the pain killers take the edge off of that, but they make me feel really tired during the day. Trouble is they mask the pain, but don't remove it, so I'm tired, but unable to get comfortable to sleep...

Ob es zu einer weiteren Feldstudie über die Nützlichkeit des EKA-Schlagstocks kommt, entzieht sich meiner Kenntnis. Ich hoffe natürlich nicht.

Wir sehen uns am Samstag um 14 Uhr am Alex zur Demo "Freiheit statt Angst". Zahlreich und friedlich, ich hoffe die Polizei ist es auch. Nein, liebe Polizei, wenn es geht, ihr nicht zahlreich, aber friedlich! Wir sind das Volk, ich versuche daran zu glauben...und ihr gehört auch dazu.

Wenn das Wetter morgen so ist wie heute, dann gibt es eine Demo bei Sonnenschein. Hier ein paar Eindrücke von anderen, leider wenig besuchten Kundgebungen aus Berlin.

Ich hoffe es kommen so viele Menschen wie beim Dalai Lama

Zu den Veranstaltungen mit dem Dalai Lama und auch bei Obama hat die SPD in ihren Rundschreiben die Mitglieder zu zahlreichem Erscheinen eingeladen. Zur Veranstaltung "Freiheit statt Angst" verlieren die " Genossen" kein Wort. Schade, noch ein Minuspunkt für euch!

[Ibuki, mein Wunsch-Fighter fürs Game, wer mehr Ibuki sehen will, klickt einfach unten auf ansabbern XD.]

Capcom Games and Fighters

Lost Planet - PTX-40A
Darkstalkers - Morrigan Aensland
Street Fighter - Ryu
Street Fighter II - Chun Li
Street Fighter III - Alex
Megaman Legends - Rock Volnutt
Megaman Legends - Roll Casket (Megaman's Schwester)
Rival Schools United by Fate - Batsu Ichimonji
Onimusha Dawn of Warlords - Sôki

Tatsunoko Animes and Fighters
Karas - Karas (jepp aus der godlike anime ova)
Yatterman - Doronjo4
Yatterman - Yatterman
Hurricane Polymar - Hurricane Polymar
Hakushon DaimaM - Hakushon DaimaM
Neo-Human Casshern - Casshern
Tekkaman: The Space Knight - Tekkaman
Golden Warrior Gold Lightan - Gold Lightan
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman - Ken the Eagle
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman - Jun

bleibt mir nurnoch zu sagen, hoffentlich kann man das spiel bald kaufen. und Hoffentlich kommen noch jede menge altbekannter gesichter vor, die man schon seit langem vermisst.
mein Wunschcharackter: Ibuki (Street Fighter III) [weiter...Ibuki Pic's ansabbern..]

Work now, talk later. Have a good day, guys.

EDIT:

Sheesh. What a day. Working is starting to piss me off. I'm looking for jobs that require writing, on the side. Difficulty is, I'm trying to keep ahead of these comics so I don't shit out some crap stuff. Aw, dammit, Jack still hasn't made one for Sunday yet. That fuckstain.

I'm thinking about getting some kind of logo to put in the top left corner of every comic. What do you guys reckon? Anyone want to design one? I'm lazy.

I'm going to try and put in a link to the Archives on all the comics this weekend. Hopefully it'll be easier to browse through this that way.

Also, we broke 3,000 hits today. Good work gang.

For this, I have to thank the owner of Riyaz Kerala Beef Stall in Johnson Market (maybe that's why the market's good), Mr. Riyaz himself. He was such an affable chap, even taking the time off to talk to me when there were like twenty customers waiting in line for his meat. He gave me all the info I needed to continue my search as well as all the tea I needed for the next stop on my journey. Brilliant.

So, besides the new found fishy friends I had in Mangalore (Yes, that includes you, Nikhil, Hemanth and Karthik), I managed to make new beefy friends in Bangalore. And so, I reckon, that's been my greatest satisfaction so far. It's not the photos that I've been editing for the past 4/5 days, it's not the witty captions that I've been dreaming about, it's the poeple I've met along the way and the company I've kept. For that, I thank them and hope that eventually my photos will turn out as brilliant as them.

Mr Riyaz of Kerala Beef Stall in Johnson Market.

In the hold of a fishing vessel in Bunder, Mangalore.

One of the friendlier stall owners in Russell Market, Bangalore. They have wildly varying mood swings. The first day, they chased me away. The second day, they made peace with me. The third day, when PQ went with me, they were really nice and docile. The fourth day, when Adeline went with me, they nearly beat me up. Weird.

More fishies waiting to be transported to the markets in Karnataka.

Prof. N.S. Ramaswamy. Brilliant orator and vociferous critic of meat. "Eating meat makes people evil."

Gestern Nacht ist es mir sehr schwer gefallen einzuschlafen. Ständig musste ich darüber nachdenken, mir selbst nicht mehr helfen zu können. Alles geht wieder aufs gleiche hinaus, einpaar Wochen schaffe ich es mich auf einer guten FrequenzLaune zu halten und wsccht geht wieder alles in den Keller. Ich kann nicht andauernt ein Lächeln zaubern, und mich jedem so zeigen wie sie es wöllten.
Nein, ich werde mir kein längeres Bein amputieren lassen, ich werde mich nicht weniger schminken, meine Piercings abnehmen, anfangen andere Musik zu hören und schon ganz nicht mich der Gesellschaft anschließen.

Bin ich etwa doch blind oder tue ich zu wenig?

Ich mein ich habe mich selbst in einem Sportverein - Verein angemeldet indem ich andauernt allein gegen die Wand spielen musste weil ich nie einen Partner hatte. Auch in der Schule gehöre ich immer zu der Gruppe die einen zuwenig hat. 2er Partnerarbeiten mache ich entweder zu 3tt oder allein. Wieso weisst mich jeder ab geht überhaupt auf mich zu, bin ich denn so schrecklich, habe ich denn so eine Negative Aura/Anziehung (was auch immer). Selbst die Arogantesste, Hinterlässtigste oder Despressivste Person findet freunde Menschen, oder sogar Zugeigung. Von all dem finde ich nicht mal einen. Da kann es doch nicht mehr an mir liegen.

Ich fühle mich schrecklich und ertrage diesen druck nicht mehr, der mich manchmal zu boden drückt. Immer und immer tiefer falle ich in ein schwarzes loch von Gefühlen, die ich verzweifelt zu verstehen versuche. Ich weiss nicht wie oft ich noch falle, wie oft ich noch aufstehen kann, wie lange ich das noch mitmache, aber ich ständig das Gefühl, das so nicht mehr schaffen zu können.Wie oft habe ich versucht etwas zu verändern, ich kann nicht mehr.

• Makino, oh,.......Makino?! : They recently announced who would be playing the female lead, Makino, in the Korean "Boys Over Flowers" set to come out late this year. An actress named Goo Hye Sun and all I have to say to that is......WHO?! [caption id="" align="alignright" width="140" caption="And the role of Makino goes to.....WHO?!"][/caption]

  Apparently she recently starred in a drama called "Strongest Chil Woo" and another drama "Pure 19" which, obviously, I haven't seen yet. I looked her up on DramaWiki and so far it looks like she has a pretty respectable resume so it may not be as bad as I'm thinking. I must say I was rather impressed with the fact that she had a cameo in "August Rush" which is one of my favorite movies. Now I have to go home and pull a "Where's Waldo?" because as of this moment I don't remember seeing her at all. "Hana Yori Dango" forum participants are freaking out a little because she's older than the boys who will playing F4......which is depressing because she's only two years older than me. Let's face it though: Most Asian actresses don't look their age until they hit ohhhhh....... 60!! And even then they only look like they're in their late 40's or at least they're early 50's. I was a bit nervous about this announcement because I have loved this character in every version and it'd be a shame if they ruined it in the Korean version of all versions.  So here it is ladies and gentleman, the lead actors in the Korean "Boys Over Flowers":

Koo Hye Sun as Yeon Woo (Makino Tsukishi) (Shan Cai)

Lee Min Ho as Go Jun Pyo (Domyouji Tsukasa) (Dao Ming Si)

Kim Hyun Joong as Yoon Ji Hoo (Rui Hanazawa) (Hua Ze Lei)

Kim Bum as So Yi Jung (Sojiroh Nishikado) (Xi Men)

Kim Joon as Song Woo Bin (Akira Mimasaka) (Mei Zuo Ling)

They're all a little TOO pretty don't you think? I have to admit that I am hopelessly devoted to "Meteor Garden" while the production is not nearly as good as the Japanese version was and what the Korean version will be it WAS, technically, the original. Plus I kinda have a semi-crush on Jerry Yan. Not only

 is he abnormally cute but he is an ambassador for World Vision Taiwan (he

sponsors a rather LARGE handful of children,) AND he pulled an Angelina Jolie by adopting a child!! Talk about bringing your work home with you!!! Although one thing that none of the "Hana Yori Dango" remakes can claim is that they have Jun Ki Sang directing it. Jun Ki Sang directed "Delightful Girl, Choon Hyang", "My Girl", and "Witch Amusement"-all awesome, all will be in the next issue of "Of the the Asian Persuasion". So far it looks like they have got all the necessary ingredients to make "Boys Over Flowers" a MAJOR HIT!!! But it hasn't air yet and in the "biz" what seems like a sure fire thing could turn out to be a sure fire bomb.

• All that hype.....FOR THIS?!: Well, they finally announced who would be leaving "We Got Married" and turns out it was.......well, Andy and Solbi. That's right. The mystery couple leaving.....is the [caption id="" align="alignright" width="194" caption="Thanks!!......FOR NOTHING!!"][/caption]

  couple we already knew was leaving. All the other couples will be sticking around for a little while longer and they have added two other couples bringing the grand total up to five couples. Of course I'm ecstatic to know that Alex and Shinae are sticking around. This episode was especially special to any "Alshin" lovers.  I'm excited about the other couples sticking around but they all feel like their expiration dates are coming up fast. Crown J and In young are now the only couple that have been together since the very beginning and now that they are going on a year pretty soon here. While the show is fun I'm sure doing this every week can be tiring. Even I would be tired of it after a while. As you may have noticed Kim Hyun Joong is all set to start filming "Boys Over Flowers" so we'll see how long he'll be able to stick around. Between filming, publicity, and the pure mania this role has in store for him he may have to choose between the two shows. My gut is telling me that he won't be choosing WGM over BOF anytime soon. Honestly, I wouldn't either. Lastly, as much as I love to see Alex every week the fact of the matter is that he is still having back issues and I would rather he give up the show if it gets to be too much for him than to continue the show in pain. Then to top it all off one of Shinae good friends committed suicide this past week and I hear she's taking it pretty hard. There, unfortunately, seems to be a string of suicides happening in the entertainment industry over there. Prayfully, the trend will cease and desist ASAP.

• Stephen Chow is the SHIZZZ!!!!: I recently found out that the oh-so-lovable Stephen Chow will [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="132" caption="The SHIZZZ!!!"][/caption]

  be directing and co-starring in The Green Hornet......coming out in

  [caption id="" align="alignright" width="107" caption="The Green....WHO?!"][/caption]

  2010. Yes, I know it's a long ways off but that doesn't mean it's not worth getting excited about. Double bonus: Seth Rogen will be starring in the film and the script was written by him and Evan Goldberg. You know? Evan Goldberg. The OTHER guy who wrote Superbad. Honestly, I could care less about The Green Hornet (I'm a Superman fan), there's a good chance that this could go completely wrong, and I think the first few people that see this will have to be established fans of any or all of the people involved.  I've been trying not to be so pessimistic lately but, honestly, I don't know one person who sat and thought to themselves, "Wouldn't Stephen Chow and Ken Miller from "Freaks and Geeks" make a GREAT TEAM?!?" Of course I don't think anyone was thinking of teaming Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan and that turned out pretty nicely for all parties involved.

Please click the thumbnails for larger pictures.