Hear me out, please, fellow readers!

The radio program took place in 2001. It is clear that the recording consists of excerpts and not a single, unbroken 4m 17s of radio time.

I can't find the original, unedited recording of this radio program.

I can, however, find an excerpt from another radio program also from 2001:

http://apps.wbez.org/blog/?p=372

I wish it was a recording of the entire program and not just an excerpt...

In the recording at WBEZ that is at that link, the discussion at hand has to do with the history of voting rights for African-Americans. The discussion includes talk about the "three-fifths" solution where each African American man counted for three-fifths of a man in the census (without providing them with a vote) and that the POWER associated with those numbers gave southern states a disproportionate amount of power in Washington.

Could some of the excerpts included in the YouTube video recording have come from this African American suffrage conversation?

In the YouTube recording he says "redistribution of wealth" almost immediately. Subsequently, however, his use of the word "redistribution" is NOT qualified.

Could he have been talking about the "redistribution" of power in Washington as African Americans gained true voting rights?

A stretch? A possibility?

Regardless of the sources of these statements, I think it is important in ANY discussion of it - even here at our beloved Salon - to point out that this is a cherry-picked assembly of quotes from a longer interview, taken out of context.

The entire YouTube video is just 4+ minutes long, including pauses where they push strawman interpretations of quotes.

Even manipulated to this degree there aren't any unambiguous shocking statements by Obama in the recording. There is no story there at all absent the strawman analysis.

I cried during the Juanita Stewart part, too. I was surprised to have done so. I'm glad to hear that I wasn't the only one.

Tears before breakfast are disallowed! hehe

What a great video. I just sent it to my mom and sister - just another two people who are completely emotionally invested in an Obama victory tomorrow.

The menu sounds awesome. Frankly, I'm jealous.

The reason why it is of interest is because of the hypocrisy of the right. Don't forget what terrible people Sen. & Mrs. Obama are because they allegedly eat salad made from arugula!

As long as "the right" continues to push their asinine "real Americans" vs. "bi-coastal elitist snobs" meme, pointing out hypocrisy like the menu above is fair game.

I grew up American Middle-class with everything one could imagine. My wife is a foreigner, rural poor, who grew up with only "coconut shells and colored rubber bands" for toys. We both grew up happy and successful. Her siblings are happy and successful, and now our nieces and nephews appear to be doing just fine back in ye olde village with little more than coconut shells and colored rubber bands themselves.

We raised our sixteen year old daughter mostly here in America. I plied her with toys and things while for the most part my wife did not. As my daughter's own personality emerged she is more like her mother than she is like me with respect to having THINGS. I can't remember her ever asking for a specific toy - and while I've filled an entire house with my SHIT, she could probably put everything she cares about in a single small suitcase if she had to.

She's a happy, confident student with lots of friends who will be going to a good college before too long. Happy, confident, social and a good student - everything we want to see in our children.

Is she that way because of the toys she had or because of the toys she didn't have? Love, friends, family, good food and a safe and comfortable place to sleep seem so much more important than her access to toys.

Berkeley misses you.

In years past, this attack would likely have sparked anti-Muslim pogroms in Bombay and other Indian cities like Ahmedabad with histories of Hindu vs. Sikh vs. Muslim violence. That it didn't this time is a testament to how far India has come in recent years.

If this event has moved you deeply - and I'm sure it has - please read Suketu Mehta's op-ed in the New York Times about the attack and the resiliency of his "Maximum City."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/opinion/29mehta.html

If you want to take a peek at life in Bombay, do read Mehta's spectacular book Maximum City. It's 600 pages of engaging and fascinating [non-fiction] filth, glory, love, pain, sweat and joy. The well-known "encounter specialist" [summary execution] police officer Vijay Salaskar who was killed in last week's attacks is one of Mehta's interviewees in the book.

Also recommended:

Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games (a novel) set in Bombay [and reviewed by Salon's Laura Miller here: http://www.salon.com/books/review/2007/02/05/chandra/index.html ]

Gregory David Robert's Shantaram the incredible, mostly(?) true story of the author's life as a fugitive from Australia living amongst the unwashed in a Bombay slum, establishing a clinic for his fellow slum-dwellers and working for a powerful Bombay organized crime organization. The Leopold cafe that was the scene of one of last week's attacks plays an important role in the story.

Gemind bu shi qing ke chi fan.

I just finished watching it. It's a peek into a world I didn't know existed - an impoverished, violent and bleak suburb of Naples. It appears that many of the actors and nearly all of the extras were locals. The apartment block where much of the action takes place is an amazing crumbling dystopian behemoth.