What they can Digest Defines what they’re Offered

Gideon Rachman serves ‘em up “news”, NAY organizations tailor made for Euro-style public media consumption, in honest terms for once:

It goes as follows:

By reporters everywhere

An ineffectual international organisation yesterday issued a stark
warning about a situation it has absolutely no power to change, the
latest in a series of self-serving interventions by toothless
intergovernmental bodies.

“We are seriously concerned about this most serious outbreak of
seriousness,” said the head of the institution, either a former minister from a developing country or a mid-level European or American bureaucrat. “This is a wake-up call to the world. They must take on board the vital message that my
organisation exists.”

The director of the body, based in one of New York, Washington or an agreeable Western European city, was speaking at its annual conference, at which ministers from around the world gather to wring their hands impotently
about the most fashionable issue of the day.

Somebody should DO something!

Which Country in Today's World Can Be Compared to the Totalitarian Society as Described in George Orwell's 1984?

Le Monde's Jean-Marc Manach has an article in France's newspaper of reference comparing a country today to the oppressive and tyrannical society of George Orwell's 1984.

Guess which country t'is…
China?
Russia?
Iran?
Saddam's Iraq?

Oh, don't be so clueless…

Discount Journalism at Mayfair Prices

I’m often amused when I’m monitoring enemy broadcasts. By my guesstimate, fully ¼ of the open mouth blather since late 2005 on the BBC World Service seems to be about the “ailing US economy”. Ads for their ever rotating set of net only “documentaries” about the US, this one dwelling death of the American dream are aired twice an hour.

In other words, to them we have been dropping to death from a massive cardiac monthly for years now.

The glaring omission is that the only reflection you find on the UK & European economies is in passing comments by interviewed guests while discussing the Americans who have to eat their young to remain obese, or throw the poor into ethanol digesters to continue driving Hummers, or the other hideous images that they can’t help themselves from sketching all day – as though one needn’t not dredge their womenfolk through flour prior to pan frying, if’n you know what I mean...

That aside, Eurota keeps it real. When you have a big growth in Europe, it’s usually something you need to see a doctor about.

Obama's surge turns into a dead cat bounce

Obama can thank all of his sucking up to his uppity European friends for this.

This is Not What they Mean by “Giving Your Last Full Measure”

What exactly is it that you can say about people that get their rocks off by spunking on monuments to those that died protecting their culture?

The latest incident saw a French couple given a four-month suspended prison sentence for making a pornographic video at the Vimy Ridge memorial near Arras.

After being found guilty of exhibitionism, they were fined £400 each and ordered to pay a symbolic one euro (80 pence) in damages to Canada, which lost 60,000 men in the Great War.

Many Canadians perished in the Battle of Vimy Ridge, in April 1917, when four members of the Canadian Corps received Victoria Crosses.

Despite the courageous deeds and sacrifice honoured by the Vimy Memorial, the couple are believed to have stripped naked and performed sex acts beside the soaring stone structure.

They then posted the video on a website, invited people to pay to watch it.

It’s interesting how people in a place that’s supposed to be so the “historically aware” will take as entertainment someone taking one last, feeble cumshot at history.

Our Effete Sophisticated Friends, Part 292

You mean, besides the fact that they have shit for brains?

Why do Europeans like Obama?

Getting ready to sink Doha again

Seven years ago the WTO agreement was scuppered by the Europeans. It's taken that long to get it back on track. 24 hours ago, the US swallowed hard and accepted a compromise in order to get and keep India and China on board. Twelve hours later:

'Today, the cabinet considers that the project currently on the table is not acceptable as it stands, to the extent that it shows no advance on elements which are altogether essential in our eyes,' government spokesman Luc Chatel said after a cabinet meeting.

The last time around, the failure of the Doha round led to 10-15 million people being unemployed worldwide. What great injustice must now be addressed?

'the protection of indications of geographical origin', in a reference to such issues as the labelling of wine, and 'the defence of our European industrial interests in the face of emerging countries'.

In other words, the petty protection of a small franchise, and the need to stay on top of the ball by keeping the poor poor. France staying high on the chart, you see, is good for humanity, and humanity owes them some thanks.

The cabinet underlined that 'France was attached more than ever to the promotion of the poorest countries'.

But don't worry, because as long as they're out there hating the poor, they want everyone to know that they don't hate the poor, that you should sigh and thank the heavens that if it weren't for them, millions of people would have jobs.

Given all of those PR shams parading shreds of aid, not trade, by “development Europe” or “human rights Europe”, we are supposed find this all very heartwarming.

Gee, Tim - Is Al Gore in Town?

Tim Blleah notes the faux snow in Sydney:

For the first time since 1836 it has snowed in Sydney - at least that’s what the locals are saying.

Meteorologists say technically it was soft hail, but that didn’t stop the locals making snowmen.

Dieudonné, Siné: separated at birth during the abortion?

The kind of human trash that France produces "à la pelle".

When you Can't Face your own Failures, Move the Goalposts

Can you smell the "élan"?

The French Senate has proposed developing a new European university ranking system to counter the powerful Shanghai world ranking, which is said to favour English-language institutions. With France holding the EU's six-month rotating presidency, the issue is likely to be discussed by EU education ministers in November.

Why? Because it doesn't give an entrenched, embarassing, corroded monopoly a way to keep their meal ticket.

At national level, the lack of a transparent system distorts the allocation of human and financial resources, notes the report. At international level, it harms the attractiveness of France as a destination for foreign students and researchers and decreases the visibility of university research.

Continuity you can Believe in

Eurota is back, and he notes the depressing familiarity of the European press' pressing need for “change” and “hope”:

European economic news ...... Still on the brink

European political news ...... Navel gazing all-around

European elites ignoring the will of the voters ...... Shock, horror

World's climate set to implode any second (still/again) ...... Zzzzzz

Why Worry About Weapons Being Banned when you can Just Steal Them?

Near Lyon:

A local athletic track is being investigated into the theft of 28 kilos of semtex found this weekend at the civilian arsenal at Corbas, a suburb of Lyon.

The police are trying now to make the link between this theft and a Sunday brush fire in the neighbouring area of Saint-Fons, where six detonators stolen and two grenades without fuses dating from the Second World War disappeared from their inventory, but were found by firefighters. Located less than five minutes drive from Fort Corbas, the overgrown former landfill is suspected to have served as a place to abandoning or field test equipment for budding terrorists. The discovery of the semtex has not yet led to any arrests.

O! the Rapture!

Compare and contrast:

Sure the South Koreans have food and freedom. But North Korea has something that totally wipes them off the map (figuratively, not literally, at least as I’m writing this). The Great Leader, the Sun of the Nation and of Mankind: Kim Jong Il. Put aside any notions you may have about the man. Put aside his lust for nukes, a penchant to torture and starve his people and the funky glasses. These things are irrelevant. The simple fact is this: Kim Jong Il is the greatest golfer in the history of, well, history. According to North Korea’s crack research department, the diminutive dictator shot a 34 his first time golfing. And no, not at mini-golf, at a championship, par-72 course. He drilled home 11 holes-in-one in his miraculous 34-under round and reportedly still shoots in the low 50s, though at 60-plus years of age, his holes in ones are down to four or five a round. So cheer on the South Korean women if you like, just remember that to the north there is a golfer that can handily beat them all. Or at least he would if he could get his hands on them.

"Hi, how’s it going?“ asks Obama in his deep voice. My heart beats. "Very good, and you?" I say. Obama replies: "Very good, thank you!" Obama (with toned arms and a strong back) puts on his headphones for his iPod to listen to pop music. He hums quietly. Then he jumps on a fitness bike. He pushes three times on the pedals – but then can’t be bothered with it. He goes and picks up a pair of 16 kilo weights and starts curling them with his left and right arms, 30 repetitions on each side. Then, amazingly, he picks up the 32 kilo weights! Very slowly he lifts them, first 10 curls with his right, then 10 with his left. He breathes deeply in and out and takes a sip of water from his 0,5 litre Evian bottle. Shortly before five o’clock Obama comes over and sits directly next to my cross-trainer on the mat. First he does 10 sit-ups, then stretches. Then he looks at his watch and says to his bodyguard: “It’s time, let’s go.” Quickly I ask: “Mr. Obama, could I take a photo?”. “Of course!” he answers, before asking my name and coming over to stand next to me. “My name’s Judith” I reply. "I’m Barack Obama, nice to meet you!” he says, and puts his arm across my shoulder. I put my arm around his hip – wow, he didn’t even sweat! WHAT A MAN!

Just what is it with these zombies? Do they think a set-up story about a lonely woman who can afford to work out at the Ritz-Carlton (and one apparently rather horny for a bland politico at that) who resorts to stalking political candidates is supposed to endear Europe to Americans?

Who does Bild think this feeble item is supposed to bring to political orgasm? Are we to believe that a Senator is so negligent of his duties that he has time to work his way up to being able to swing two supposedly real 72 lb. weights that she implies are free-weights?
Gee, not bad for 46 year old a smoker. Having seen men with muscles and joints of that vintage try this in the gym, I’m impressed at his stellar, superhuman qualities, truly. It recalls images of Leni Riefenstahl hero-making. The guys I’ve seen trying that end up calling their wives to come pick them up down the block, and just out of sight of anyone who saw them crawl out at best speed without changing back into their street clothes. I mean we really do have a mythical Beowulf-meets-Jesus-Christ kind of guy here. One attempted implication the the previous Barack-workout videos being that he could have plucked Mohammed Atta out of the sky with his bare hands, and that other pilot guy, whoever he is, wouldn’t be able to do a thing! NOT one THING, I tell ya... As for me, I’ll stick with the guy who knows when and when not to fire a missile, both literally and in the context of international policy.

And without someone spotting him, at that? Perhaps she’s too modest to mention him parting the seas, and making the loaves into protein bars, or the water into... bottled water.

It’s obviously a posed story that didn’t get cleared with even the provisional wing of the democratic party, where some German imagined him or herself so clued in by his prejudices as to what would sell in the US that this painfully awkward and childish stunt.

On another note, the same story in an completely different form appeared last night on Deutsche Welle Radio, lacking the tumultuous back arching, orgasm induced tears, and overt moaning. In other words, an unsophisticated attempt was made to package it using a Bild reporter positioning it one way for DW and another way for her own paper.

Keep up the good work there, Bonesky. Americans can come a step closer to being certain that Obama is so many things, that he’s a marionette of his handlers and a PR sleazebag’s fabrication - and that political outreach can be reduced to thinly veiled allusions to niche porn style “character blocking.” The sort where women, (possibly of a certain age,) who perhaps seems a lot like the ones drawn to Hillary Clinton, can dream of getting physical and imagine themselves possibly cuckolding some of what hung-up European simpletons imagine is forbidden fruit... Or some other unstated meta-crypto-political under-the-radar horseshit that most Wellesley grads are only good for at this point.

Either way, its drawing howls out of Americans, and the laughs seem to be on Judith, an entertainment and puff-piece writer for a trashy German tabloid who managed to pull off one decent stunt in her life that might get her away from doing page-six hoochie articles.

No doubt, my theory that this could be some sort of solo attempt at unstated meta-crypto-politics-under-the-radar horseshit or VHS-quality niche porn will draw “thoughtful reflection”, but it’s the only thing trash like this deserves. To give you a taste of what level of journalistic brilliance we’re dealing with here: today, Bild’s lead is a story about Annie Lennox dying her hair blond.

The Pulitzer committee must be struggling with their feelings at this point.

This was Supposed to Move Your Soul, America

The “expectation-reducing” estimate of 100.000 from 1.000.000 somehow turned into a 20.000 talked up to 200.000 as spirit moved them.

It turns out that Berlin’s Obamatons convention has turned out into something of a Dutch auction, where the bidding drops until the bien pensent can no longer stand it.

John Rosenthal:

ZDF Berlin studio chief Peter Frey added, "We do estimate that 20,000 [literally, "a couple of ten thousand"] people have turned out." Frey's tone, like that of Gelhard, reflected the gap between the relatively modest number cited and the lofty predications that had preceded the event. Moreover, while the ZDF live images showed that the "Fan Mile" was indeed populated from one end to the other, they also appeared to reveal patches of thinness and pedestrian traffic flowing easily on the half of the boulevard closer to the Brandenburg Gate (i.e. furthest from the "Victory Column").

And then: the candidate did not appear at the appointed time. Could his handlers have been disappointed by the turnout? Did they hope to buy time for more spectators to arrive? At this point, ZDF interrupted its special coverage and broke for the nightly news. When the coverage resumed some fifteen minutes later, ZDF host Claus Kleber promptly declared that there were "one hundred thousand" people on the Fan Mile. He then repeated the claim twice more in rapid succession -- now, more precisely, "over one hundred thousand people" -- as if repetition could somehow cover up the glaring discrepancy between this number and the number cited by his colleague Frey only 20 minutes earlier.

Minutes later, Obama was on stage. And a half hour after that, he was gone again. By 8 p.m. -- as the crowd filed out, obediently following the order to disperse given over the loud-speaker system -- the number being cited had grown to fully 200,000. As this German timeline indicates, the original source for the rapidly growing estimates was in fact the rally organizers: i.e. the Obama team. The 200,000 figure would also be attributed to the Berlin police -- which might represent the first time in modern history that the police and the organizers of a political rally agreed on their estimates of crowd size.

BBC evasively called it “some tens of thousands” which is beautifully non-numeric, as the press was trying to suppress it’s “hallelulias”. The other amusing feature of the 200.000 send-up is that it would represent 6% of the population of the city which seems to be as prone to general belly-aching and lacking in enthusiasm as you’ll find.

Reporting on the scene is Berlin-based Atlantic-Review, a blog run by former Fulbright scholars which is supposed to be focussing on NATO and the Trans-atlatic relationship with funding from the German Marshal Fund has for the last few weeks appeared to have drunk the juice. Taking sides under the dangerous pretense that they are sure who will win, and that there really isn't anything unseemly for a para-governmental think-tank grabbing its' ankles.

They even managed to call their needy-dope-on-the-street-interview post “continuity you can believe in”, somehow intellectually consolidating “continuity” and “change” without their heads imploding.

The premise behind their effort is that life would be just dandy if Germans liked America again. A silly expectation from the nation that brought you Realpolitik, which means throwing anyone under the bus if it's convenient or if there are enough molotov-cocktail tossing German adolescents outside.

Oddly enough, they seem unaware of just how many people this could alienate, and I don't mean the half of the population who will vote for McCain, I mean imagining that America should expend even one man-hour of somebody's time at Foggy Bottom on being liked by Germans when there are real problems in the world, and it isn't worth exciting ones shred of resentment from those governments leery of Germans, i.e. The Poles, Russians, and a cast of dozens for the sake of some collective sandbox jollies which won't matter to either relations or the broader German and American publics.

Europeans don't do change, at least not at anything faster than a glacial pace. Obama isn't going to magically compel anyone in Europe to do anything cooperative. If they like the fluff, fine, but there is no way in hell Americans will elect a man just to be told some silly fiction about being temporarily and conditionally liked by Europeans.



You'll be sure to enjoy the continuity the Jordanian guy expresses in his idea that all American politicians are alike, and the wacko at the end hoping for “Bush jokes”. On the planet that think-tank types live on, this is called a budding endearment to America

The sad thing is that now these people expect a possible President Obama to follow policy guidance that favors them. Fat chance getting that out of this shark. These very people will make no effort to conceal their resentment of America even more in 24 months out of simple disappointment for not having gotten out of him in policy terms, something for nothing.

Even among friendly nations, the exercise of seeking affection out of random citizens is pointless. If they like or dislike America, it's for their own reasons that shouldn't cost one drop of American blood or one single element of domestic interest. Only on a superficial cultural level could that emotional cultural bond matter, and Realpolitik being what it is - the Europeans would withdraw that bond in a flash if we ever needed it.

Nor would that effort of being broadly liked by the German public benefit Germans either. Want to be liked if you have a serious task in the world that might require cooperation from Europeans? Then get a dog. Affection hasn't been used as the basis of international relationship since the Soviets employed the pretense ran an annual “solidarity parade” for each of their satellites – where the children wore Marxist Pioneer or FDJ shirts and attendance was mandatory.

Democratic Candidate Attempts Impersonation of an Average American, Fails

One thing Americans know about the Euro-bama mystery tour is that it reveals why we don’t want the man his superficial promoters abroad want to be “the world’s candidate”.

Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama has compared Americans unfavorably with Europeans, which seems to be a recurring theme among Democrats in general. This time it has to do with language. When Europeans come to America, says Obama, they speak English along with their French and German. But when Americans go to Europe, all they can say is "Merci beaucoup." I guess that assumes they all go to France when they go to Europe. But be that as it may, the point seems to be, Europeans can speak the language of the country they visit, while Americans can't.

That is not the case. In fact, it is a ridiculous argument.

All it really is, is a the usual display of European ignorance by proxy.

When Europeans visit Spain (which they do in droves), do they speak Spanish? Perhaps the equivalent of "Merci beaucoup" but not much more than that. Not to mention when they visit Latin America. What language do they speak then? English. How chauvinistic! And how about when Europeans visit Portugal, or Denmark, or the Netherlands, or Poland, or the Czech Republic, or Italy, or.... What language do they speak? Either their native German or French (if that's where they're from), or ... English.

It’s even worse that they’re pandering to some notion that there is “one world view”, but that’s something that the left in Europe and America have always fallen for. To the surprise of German Green Party candidate who certainly learned everything she knows about the US from a protest sign or the hateful tirades of American leftists themselves:

But the Green Party's Deputy Parliamentary Leader voiced what many politicians, especially on the left, probably feel, when he told reporters, "Barack Obama's visit shows: there is another America."

Who knew? Everyone who isn’t ignorant and doesn’t share you narrow world view or doesn’t crave absolute uniformity of thought, that’s who.

All the while, the making of the myth-making continues, and anything that isn’t skin deep or based on a simple, flattering adjective is ignored. For example, can Democrats really call themselves “worldly” when they can’t even get a grip on the variety of things that the people worldwide find meaningful? Well, they never have in the past, especially when it comes to promoting views that most humans find repellant.

But the Ghanaian song [about Obama] adds two starkly negative chords. Over the rat-a-tat-tat of simulated gunfire, it cautions Obama about white racists who could harm him. Then it warns that his entire nation faces doom on Judgment Day, because of "legalizing abortion in America."

Do listeners realize that Obama himself is a strong advocate of abortion rights? I don't know. But here's what I do know: Africans are deeply conservative on cultural issues, especially abortion and gay rights. And when they find out that Obama isn't, he might start to lose some of his luster.

Consider a recent column out of Uganda, where, as in most of Africa, abortion is prohibited by law. "The Democrats whom Obama wants to take to the White House are known for killing unborn babies," columnist Owen Kibenge declared.

Even worse, Kibenge continued, Obama supports civil unions and adoption rights for homosexual couples. "I am certain that the majority of Ugandans would not subscribe to this, even if it meant not voting for a black man," Kibenge added.

Lefty, the world is listening. Some of them want you in govern the US because they hate America. Some of them don’t want you in power because you hate their values. Some of them are actually struggling with the idea that voting on racial lines might not be what someone meant by “content of their character”, but the idea of not having your own skin color or gender chaining you to a candidate is bubbling through, and it’s your loss, and democracy’s gain.

Your “hate Bush” campaign did more damage abroad than anything else the US has had to do militarily, succeeded in undermining US policy, damaging American leverage worldwide, and now you can’t wait to do some more of it. Thanks for doing your best to try to sink the ship.

The Essence of Evil had to be Found in a Pickle

Readers of the Times could be forgiven for feeling a little confused after reading that "the monkeys have not merely surrendered but are prostrating themselves at the Golden Arch" of McDonald's. The monkeys? The French. The evidence of their national surrender to burgers: the latest profit figures showing that France is leading the field for McDonald's in Europe with revenues increased by 11% to €3 billion (£2.3 billion) in 2007.

For decades on end, it couldn't just be a product or idea that people like or reject. It had to be ginned up into "imperialism," or some other item from the short list of buzzwords rolling from the tips of their tongues much as Pavlov's dog's drool.

French school canteens, with a menu du jour displayed every day in playgrounds, also educate young palates so that children don't become slaves to fast food in later years. Most teenagers in France go to McDonald's, but it doesn't prevent them from enjoying their grandmother's soupe de cresson their uncle's soufflé au fromage, and more importantly, they know the difference between junk food and gastronomy.

As they do everywhere else on earth, but in their great, superior enlightenment, able to leap tall buildings, etc., etc., to a degree which somehow must always be defined as greater or better, as they eternally try to define themselves banking on a distant past.

As if this grand, global drama (based on them, of course) really existed, there had to be a way to talk about oneself, and one's great inability to be taken seriously when something (anything) identified as being from some other nation competes with anything as minor as your own malbouffe, something MUST be rationalized.

But of course, to explain McDonald's parfum de success you may prefer to dig into the legendary contrarian nature of French behaviour ...

- H/T to Eurota

You Could Almost Write their Script Now

David Aaronovitch notes that the Europe’s anti-Americans resort to the same old things: the feeble recitation of comparing their high culture to others’ low culture, all the while pretending they’re assaulted by the tabloid papers and trashy TV that they exported to America.

But even if he had been a half-Chinese ballet-loving Francophone, he would have been hated by some who should have loved him, for there isn't an American president since Eisenhower who hasn't ended up, at some point or other, being depicted by the world's cartoonists as a cowboy astride a phallic missile. It happened to Bill Clinton when he bombed Iraq; it will happen to Mr Obama when his reinforced forces in Afghanistan or Pakistan mistake a meeting of tribal elders for an unwise gathering of Taleban and al-Qaeda. Then the new president (or, if McCain, the old president) will be the target of that mandarin Anglo-French conceit that our superior colonialism somehow gives us the standing to critique the Yank's naive and inferior imperialism.

Often those who express their tiresome anti-Americanism will suggest, as do some of the more disingenuous anti-Zionists with regard to anti-Semitism - that they, of course, are not anti-American, and that no one really is. But, coming as I do from an Anti-American tradition that wasn't afraid to proclaim itself, I think I know where the corpses are interred. For example, the current production of Bernstein's Candide at the English National Opera is a classic of elite anti-Americanism, in which we are invited to laugh at the philistine invocation of “Democracy, the American Way and McDonald's”. The laughter that accompanied this feeble satire showed our proper understanding that we, the audience, had a proper concept of democracy, and would never soil ourselves with an Egg McMuffin.

The true irony went way above the sniggerers' heads, which was that Leonard Bernstein was the American cultural import that we were, at that very moment, enjoying.

His title?

Eventually, we will all hate Obama too

Which is an exaggeration, but not that far from the mark. Unlike European political dynamics, it really isn’t necessary to join a cult of attendant party social organizations, only buy the party newspapers line, etc. In America is isn’t necessary to detest your political opponents as it would be among the “brain trusts” of the UMP and PS in France. Though those on the far-left do it, it's still mocked.

The sad thing about the title, is that except the reasons the usual European pedants will have to hate won’t be rational. They will be the “usual” ones. The complex of myths and prejudices that they’ve been flogging for ages. It’s a slightly more adult looking form of the “we invented that first” game, but only slightly so.

Tourism is not an International Relations Credential

Today on BBC, it was summed up quite nicely. There was a brief snippet of sound thrown into a horribly disorganized piece flashing uncritically from one bit of Obama-idolitry to another, where a German state minister was quoted saying [Obama] "he represents civil rights to me", in a statement based solely on his image and the color of his skin, is 40 years late to the lefty zeitgeist party, and is utterly ignorant of the involvement of the democratic party in Illinois being more along the lines of Bull Conner, a democrat, than with Martin Luther King, a republican.

The question is, do our news editor-created, airbrushed, bumbling, leftist idiots outdo their news editor-created, airbrushed, bumbling, leftist idiots.

To underscore just how badly Germans are struggling with their hideously poor understanding of a larger world that America inhabits, they can't seem to figure out how we can be so evil, yet so weak:

Among Germans, 88% believe the U.S. influences events in their country despite a simultaneous belief that the U.S. is a spent power; 47% think that influence is a bad thing; only 12% call it good. And 80% believe America has a negative impact on Germany's economy — an idea so plainly wrong as to be laughable.

What Germans Call “A Million People”

If they knew how to count.

Of course in the dizzy enthusiasm of groupthink, that isn’t the only error they’ve made lately. Speaking at the monument associated with another leftist, an American candidate canvassing for non-votes might find the local hype might not be all it’s cracked up to be, especially when practicing the usual progressive “forgetfulness” about history.

The “Victory Column” as such already existed before Hitler and Speer decided that it would form a suitable centerpiece for the “East-West Axis”: one of the two major thoroughfares laid out in their megalomaniacal plans for a “new” Berlin redesigned to reflect the power of the new German Reich. The polarity of column and gate — with the two monuments providing dramatic points of reference for the mass demonstrations so beloved of the Nazis — undoubtedly figured in their calculations. One can well expect both elements to be featured in the televised images of Obama’s mass rally on Thursday.