From CNN Election Center's Joe Von Kanel
Former Pres. Bush spoke about Obama Monday.



(CNN) — There’s been plenty of second-guessing from Republican critics about Barack Obama's large-scale public events and speeches scheduled for his visit to Europe this week — but former President George H.W. Bush isn't one of them.

Asked today whether, as a former head of state who has a sensitivity about protocol, he has any thoughts about the appropriateness of Obama's planned events, the former President replied,

"A little jealous, is all."

The former president, who says he's just returned from a visit to Germany's Brandenburg gate, added that Obama will "figure it out."

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MSNBC political analyst and republican strategist Joe Watkins also floundered miserably in his failed attempt to explain way Senator Obama's Berlin speech was inappropriate.

And the timing couldn't be more suspicious or obvious. As long as Washington lifers, milk toast Democrats, but especially Republicans, toured and returned from Europe and the Middle East all was "stay the course" under a cloud of misleading perennially hammered home talking points, pro-war propaganda and the occasional confusion of military testimony before congress.

Just as soon as Democratic Presidential hopeful Senator Barack H. Obama boarded the plane for the first leg of what is essentially his world tour all the stalwart, unyielding orthodox foreign policy that has kept the United Stated quagmired in an endless war began to be dismantled.

Over 400 U.S. news correspondents vied for the coverage. The few granted the honor rushed ahead of Senator Obama on an interview spree of the military hierarchy and any foreign official they could find.

When politicians from the President on down for months on end ridiculed Obama's speeches encouraging diplomatic talks with the likes of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, suddenly we've sent our Iranian Ambassador to sit with world leaders IN IRAN just as Obama sets foot on Afghanistan soil.

For months he has made clear his desire to set a timetable for withdrawal in 16 months and redeployment of troops to the real "ground zero" for terrorism in Afghanistan with more focus on Pakistan.

Then before his plane took off the news was filled with military-speak for redeployment to Afghanistan. And Iraq raised for the first time this week the prospect of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces as part of negotiations over a new security deal with Washington - and Bush is on board!

No, actually they've said as much months ago, but no one paid much attention.

To top it off Iraqi Prime Minister Malaki stated in an email that was released to the press that he agreed with presidential candidate Obama's (he said so by expressly referencing Obama's name) withdrawal plan, subject to possible adjustments based on future developments.

Since Obama has also noted that he is willing to make adjustments based on future developments, the Iraqi PM has essentially endorsed Obama's position in totality. Malaki also reportedly stated that the aspect of victory or defeat is no applicable to a timeline for withdrawal, albeit (no doubt strongly encouraged by Washington) he has attempted to retract such claims.

Obama greeted the troops in Kuwait who welcomed him with a rousing enthusiasm Senator McCain can only dream of. He hit the gym and was challenged to shoot a three-pointer, and he hit it. He was later challenged to do it again, and he made it again, to roaring cheers.

Pundits and Op Ed columnists are in a flurry to explain the swell of enthusiasm over Senator Obama in the Middle-east and the great anticipation in Europe over his upcoming visit. It is because he is in the right place at the right time. The man of the hour. A leader for our time.
The remainder of his tour will certainly prove is the leader we need to set things aright both abroad and at home.

...The Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 desegregated school districts nationwide. Proponents of the public-school explanation argue that following the Brown decision, schoolchildren who once attended classes only with the homogenous population of their urban neighborhood enclaves were suddenly placed in classrooms alongside children from less desirable urban areas. By locating outside the jurisdiction of the central city and its corresponding school district, white families were able to circumvent the Brown decision by placing their children in districts with a majority white population. Using the separate political institutions of the newly forming suburban communities, whites were able to escape the rising tide of integration and establish their own schools, libraries, police, and parks...

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Brace your emotions and reserve judgement 40, 30, and 20 somethings. If you're a caucasian American suburbanite you're parents and grandparents likely already know. But do you?
With the push towards urban renewal many city centers are shining new destination spots many times unaffordable for the average middle-class family. Yet, how then did they go into such decline in the first place? Was it market driven or people driven? How did inner-city ghettos get that way? What is really behind the "American Dream" of suburban living?

"Hundreds of thousands of families moved into suburban homes in the 1970s.
It was much like the land grabs of the 1890s, except that in this modern land grab of the 1970s, the land wasn't being given away. We were paying for it.
Oh, some may tell you how much they longed for the comfort and serenity of "suburbs." It was the "American Dream." Their dream. That's what they'll say.
They'll even try to convince you about all the comforts they found in the suburbs during those early days of suburban settlement.
But did any of these families fleeing the terrible conditions of the city ever really stop to ask themselves why they were moving? Or, where they were going? We were running from, not running to, remember.
Well, if they had paused to think about it, or really know what they were getting into, they might have had second thoughts."

An except from the online novel



One family's experience of White Flight, race and the racial transformation of Chicago's South East Side.


It is a firsthand snapshot and true to life account that reverberates from the nationwide post WWII phenomenon that changed the face of an America most 30 somethings and younger have only seen in movies. And drew racial lines that have never been significantly crossed since.
When you read it understand that similar happenings occurred in large and mid-sized city across the country, perhaps even your town!

This is the legacy of the United States and the darkside of Americana, the ill that our generation has been given the chance to change.