Less successful than Obama, perhaps, in negotiating the treacherous currents of race, self-image, stardom, etc. And not much older than Obama, either.
     RIP MJ.

     Nuff said.

     You couldn’t make it up: see NYT on Dick the Trick, Tapes Reveal Nixon’s View of Abortion,

     On Jan. 23, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down state criminal abortion laws in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But privately, newly released tapes reveal, he expressed ambivalence.
     Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster “permissiveness,” and said that “it breaks the family.” But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases, such as interracial pregnancies.
     “There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding: “Or a rape.” …
     The tapes also reveal that in February 1973, after Israel shot down a Libyan civilian passenger jet, killing 113 people, Nixon talked about his views of anti-Semitism in America in a phone conversation with the evangelist Billy Graham.
     Mr. Graham complained that Jewish-American leaders had denounced efforts to promote evangelical Christianity, like Campus Crusade, and Nixon and Graham agreed that the Jewish leaders risked bringing anti-Jewish sentiment to the surface.
     “What I really think is deep down in this country, there is a lot of anti-Semitism, and all this is going to do is stir it up,” Nixon said. At another point he said, “It may be they have a death wish. You know that’s been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries.” …

     Lucky that Nixon wasn’t around to abort Obama!!

     See Salon, Mike Madden’s Twitter won’t bring down Ahmadinejad: The real action in Iran is in the streets. Social media is documenting the revolution — not leading it,

     …But before you — or the media — get too carried away with all the Iranian cyber-activism, take a step back. Yes, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and other social media sites are helping the world outside Iran learn about what’s happened there since last Friday’s apparently phony elections, especially since the regime has barred foreign journalists from doing their job. And the eruption of solidarity in the U.S. and around the world is clearly important symbolically. Still, so far there isn’t much evidence that the Internet is driving events in Tehran — the protesters don’t seem to be using it to plan, and the government’s hackers don’t seem to be doing as much of the malicious tracking as people here think they are. The revolution, to borrow the Gil Scott-Heron-inspired phrase that’s been thrown around a lot in the last week, may not actually be Twittered, after all. …
     Though U.S. media outlets can’t get enough of the idea that Twitter — already a press darling — is the greatest thing to hit the democracy movement since Gandhi, reality is a little more complicated. Authorities in Iran probably realize that the Tweets and Facebook updates aren’t the main threat to the status quo right now — instead, it’s what’s happening in the real, not virtual world. Iranians who are Twittering the protests are mostly doing to help spread the word to people outside Iran, not inside the country (as Business Week and Slate have noted). “The main message with respect to social media and Twitter is not so much that it’s having an impact on the political situation in Iran,” Fassihian said. “What those tools are really having an impact on is how the outside world is viewing what’s happening in the country.” Relatively old-fashioned text messages, using cell phone networks that also appear to be straining during the crisis, is helping to spread the word much better than any newer tools. So the idea — which even the State Department seems to believe — that Twitter is essential for organizing the rallies and marches in Tehran is a little much. “That would be really stupid,” Morozov said. “If you want to plan a revolution, you never do it in public — the authorities show up and arrest everyone. It’s just beyond me that somebody would start posting locations on secret meetings on Twitter.” …
     …The crackdown by Iranian authorities on traditional journalism means Twitter and Facebook updates — at least the ones by people who are actually there — are providing a real service; the more widely the message is spread, the more the world can be outraged by the government’s oppressive reaction to the protests. Still, the Internet isn’t causing a revolution — it’s documenting it. That’s plenty to be proud of, without needing to exaggerate things in the name of solidarity. So keep the Tweets coming. Just don’t forget that the real action — and the real risk — isn’t happening anywhere near a computer.

     Excuse MEEE? People are more important than COMPUTERS?? –Tha noive!!

     See AFP via Google News, Under pressure Brown mixes Obama and Omaha,

     Prime Minister Gordon Brown renamed the famed Omaha beach “Obama beach” in a slip-up while giving his D-Day commemoration speech in France on Saturday.
     Brown, who is fighting for his political survival at home, was meant to be enjoying a few hours’ respite in Normandy with US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prince Charles.
     “And so next to Obama beach we join President Obama in paying particular tribute to the spectacular bravery of American soliders who gave their lives on Omaha beach,” Brown said, almost stumbling again when he said Omaha the second time.
     No correction was made and Brown went on to give a gracious tribute to the “sacrifice and valour” of those who died in the World War II landings….

     What a clown, that Gordon Brown.

     See the New Zealand Herald, Gender test spurs abortion fears ,

     A new test to reveal the gender of a fetus in early pregnancy has sparked a row over whether it will lead to sex-selection abortions.
     The American-designed IntelliGender test kit, which can be used from eight weeks after conception, went on sale in Australia last month. Its Australian distributor hopes to launch it in New Zealand within a fortnight. …
     The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is worried about what the test might lead to.
     “The concern we would have is that people would then terminate pregnancies on the grounds of sex selection,” said college president Dr Ted Weaver.
     Anti-abortion group Voice for Life echoes this concern. Spokesman Bernard Moran said abortions for sex selection were a problem overseas and the test would facilitate this in New Zealand. “Certain ethnic minorities here might be more prone to use it.” …

     Ouch.

     See, e.g., Antiwar.com, Obama Versus Osama,

     Fearing a new, more formidable opponent than the often buffoonish and macho cowboy George W. Bush, the two leaders of al-Qaeda have tag teamed Barack Obama with twin audiotapes condemning him. Unlike Bush — who made little effort to understand the Islamic world and whom al-Qaeda could easily bait into reckless acts that raised its stature among Muslims — Obama is more thoughtful and empathetic to Muslims and consulted many experts, including scholars on the Islamic world and actual Muslims, before delivering his much-promoted speech on U.S.-Islamic relations in Cairo, Egypt.
     The twin audiotapes indicate that Osama bin Laden and his sidekick, Ayman al-Zawahri, are worried about Obama. Instead of blundering into talk of spreading democracy in the lands of “evil-doers” through “crusades” as Bush did, Obama, being the son and grandson of Muslims and growing up in Islamic Indonesia, gets the benefit of the doubt, at least initially, from many Muslims. …

, and ShortNews.com, Osama Slams Obama,

     President Obama is “walking the same road of his predecessors to build enmity against Muslims,” according to a tape said to be a voice recording of Osama bin Laden which was aired on al Jazeera TV as Obama visits the Middle East.
     A U.S. counterterrorism official believes the tape is authentic, adding, “there has never been a fake Bin Laden tape.” The al Qaeda leader specifically criticized U.S. military actions in Pakistan, which sowed “new seeds of hatred and revenge.”
     White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he doesn’t think it’s surprising that bin Laden would try to distract attention from Obama’s attempts to reach out to the Muslim world….

     Maybe bin Laden is just jealous of Barack and the attention he’s getting. Probably not the other way around, though.

         Well, make up your own acronyms.

     See AP via Goog News, Obama plays golf after Memorial Day observance,

     President Barack Obama hit the golf course after marking his first Memorial Day as commander in chief. …
     Obama grabbed his clubs after he participated in Memorial Day observances at Arlington National Cemetery. He laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and, in brief remarks, saluted the men and women of America’s fighting forces as ‘the best of America.’
     It was not immediately clear who joined the president for the round of golf.

Probably not any of our dead veterans, that’s for sure.

     Although maybe the US of ObamA has trouble following its own Const (ratified in 1789)–re “”torture”" and all that–, the “United Kingdom” doesn’t even have a C yet, cf. the recent trouble there with the recent Parliamentary expense scams.
     So some baffled and bluefaced Britons want reform, including Consty reform, see Jon Freedland in the Guardian, The Speaker exits with revolution in the air. I say, bring it on: The great expenses fraud is a symptom of a larger disease. We need a new constitution, with the people as sovereign,

     …It is the shift from our current system – which rests on the belief that the crown-in-parliament is sovereign – to the simpler notion that it is the people who are sovereign in their own land.
     Plenty of other nations have made that move, most famously the US, whose founding document asserts that power starts with “We the people”. But we never did. …
     …the common thread that must run through any new constitution for Britain has to be the shift from parliamentary to popular sovereignty. Once you understand that in a true democracy the people are sovereign, the next moves become obvious. …
     In the 21st century, we can no longer accept that 646 individuals plus an unelected monarch are sovereign. Power should belong to all of us. And if that means revolution, bring it on.

     Or as TG Ash, also from the G, notes in A new politics: Build a constitution: We need an explicit, clear and transparent written constitution, by constitutional means,

     We need a written constitution. That is the largest conclusion we should draw from a crisis that is also an opportunity. Our legislature has compromised itself. Our executive has long been over-mighty. Our judiciary remains largely credible, but its independence needs to be reinforced. …
     The immediate question is how we go about this. In the final analysis, we will need a government ready to propose to parliament a new great reform bill. We must build a constitution by constitutional means. But before we reach that point, we need a great debate.    That can start right now, and right here.

     “Right here, right now”… Isn’t there a song that goes like that?