Lovin Missus Palin

Palin on the cover.

IN THE PAST couple of weeks, I’ve only RT-ed and read tweets instantly when they were related to WikiLeaks and Sarah Palin. Honest to blog, I cannot get enough of them, especially Palin. I found Palin to be oh so very entertaining, in the way that I get a good laugh every time I read her comments, statements, or answers to some international media.

Her gaffes are addictive, make you agree with the idea uttered by The Daily Beast’s Tunku Varadarajan: anti-sophistication about issues is her quality.

From her “anything and everything” reading list, to her lexicon “refudiate” tweet, to her poor geographical “our North Korea allies” and to the fact that she is considering to run for a presidential election? How sweet

She is my favorite, my most-liked! Especially after she listed some of Obama’s gaffes too

So despite critics that Time magazine is tossing its own credibility by getting all Palin’s strategy and ambitions explained “only” through e-mail messages [there is no guarantee that the answers actually came from her, it could have been her aides that wrote them down], I still cheered delightfully over their cover [US edition] last week.

After putting Assange’s face [sealed with an American flag] on the cover two weeks ago, last week they got my other “can’t get enough of” person: Sarah Palin.

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Obama visit, a pointless nostalgic?

let’s move to some serious talk now

WHO DOESN’T LOVE Barack Obama in this country? Yes, I am talking about the many of you, Indonesians, and not about some hard-liner groups.

I know that many of you quickly updated your Facebook and Twitter’s statuses once he landed in the Halim International Airport last Tuesday, typing “Welcome to Indonesia, Obama!”

Everybody cheered his brief stop. Employees inside office buildings along the Thamrin and Sudirman main streets ran to their “yards” [read: parking lots] or windows in the fourteenth floor wanted to see the car taking Obama to the Indonesian presidential palace in that rainy afternoon.

No, I am not making it up, yes, even people here wanted to see the car he rode.

That Tuesday, colleagues in my office joked HARD on me. Sorry, it’s only caps lock could explain how hard the ‘teasing session’ was, with cameras preying on me. Some even videoed me. They said they wanted to put my happy face seeing Obama, finally visiting Indonesia after his second visit cancellation, on a video. Oh yeah. Pfft.

I must admit that I was one of those fangirls ordered “Obama For President” bag from the Amazon.com. And I did join his inauguration party held here in Jakarta by the Democrat Abroad, or something, I forgot the organization’s name.

But who doesn’t love Obama back then in mid 2008? As long as your names are not McCain and Palin, I think you were feeling him. You know people were frustrated after some eight Bushy years of administrations.

This different man came. People in the US and Europe were praising him. He was an international celebrity. I seriously doubt that you could resist his charm back then. Do you still remember the huge crowd in Berlin, July 2008? Students, teachers, lecturers, copyeditors, traders, poets, celebs, journalists (?) couldn’t hide their enthusiasm and hopes [on him].

While in Indonesia, Obama is somehow seen as more than a celebrity. Many consider him as a comrade, as he spent some years of his childhood in this country. People in this city walk around wearing t-shirts with Obama’s face printed on them. A line under the face saying “Anak Menteng” or “Menteng Boy,” Menteng is an area in Central Jakarta, where little Barry lived with his mother and step-father during his childhood in Indonesia.

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Why are you so afraid of China?

Fareed Zakaria vs Joe Klein?

Warning: a very unimportant post I dedicate to myself.

I AM NOT a foreign-policy expert, I think you all know that. But I have been reading China for, uhmm, some months now [lol], it makes me believe that they are that powerful. Well, at least to mesmerize me.

That — as a friend put — most capitalistic commie country has been giving me the wow and ah! and ouch, every time I read the reports in the media.

And Time magazine October 18 issue gave me those wow, ah!, and ouch, again. My favorite columnist, former Newsweek’s, Fareed Zakaria wrote his first cover story [for Asia edition] on Time. And what was it about? China.

He wrote that America doesn’t need to take Chinese currency manipulation as the main issue. And a deliberated bill to punish China is not the instrument to save their economy, “structural reforms and major new investments to make the U.S. economy dynamic and its workers competitive,” Fareed wrote.

The recent bill passed by the American House of Representatives to punish China for keeping their currency undervalued [apart from the fact that that's true] “is at best pointless posturing and at worst dangerous demagoguery. It won’t solve the problem it seeks to fix,” Fareed cited.

I finished reading that, and directly turned the page, and found this: Joe Klein’s America from the Road. It told Klein’s 24-day, 6,782 mile journey by car from coast to coast. This is where the FUN began.

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