Ran across this ad gauging demographic reactions to Rev. Wright's speech:
Wright Demographic Reactions

But watching it I was reminded of the comments of so many at TPM - that "what Rev. Wright said was true". Well, kinda. Sure, Hillary probably never had a taxi pass her by or got called a n****r. And Obama probably never had to clutch his car keys in his hand as it got dark knowing he was "walking while female" - i.e. rape bait. He probably never had to tell a cop what he was wearing after he narrowly slipped away from someone who attacked him. He probably never left a meeting with the guys back in the room smiling and going, "nice tits - what'd she say?" (Or had a Washington Post article written about his "cleavage" or been called a "Vaginal American" on MSNBC). He has probably never been called a c*nt or a bitch either, though I don't know how we gauge whether n*****r or c*nt is worse. But I'm sure he's never been told he's angry or irrational because he can't control his chemistry, because it's "that time of month" (even if post-menstrual - men are often clueless about the specifics of female mechanics).

Dick Gregory went on and on in Louisiana recently about how even successful blacks have to clutch the steering wheel when getting pulled over, not knowing how the cop will treat them. Well, a woman has to clutch the steering wheel hoping the cop pulling her over won't rape her, that the flat tire she has won't lead to an assault by someone pretending to help.

And where Rev. Wright is definitely wrong is that yes, women also have to work twice as hard as men to succeed. If not harder. Blacks may be questioned as affirmative action cases. Women are questioned as to who they slept with. Blacks once they get the job go to lunch and drinks with the guys, are tied into the decision process. Women are in the "will she go out with me?" line. Unless they're married with kids, and then they get to deal with the kids and don't have time for after hours drinks. Because of course sharing home duties for a working couple with kids is at best 70%-30%, and quite often 95%-5%. Obama's a Senator working 4-5 days in Washington; Michelle's a VP who lives in Chicago - is there more than a 1 in 10000 possibility that the man would take care of the kids in such a relationship?

And after all the scheduling, arranging, organizing, team building, financial management involved in being a mother - coming up with ways to keep the kids from fighting and play nice together, new games to keep them from being bored, snacks and dinners and after-school schedules, diagnosing headaches and foul moods, getting night shifts when kids are sick - is there any way in hell a woman could put "mother 14 hours a day 7 days a week" down on a resume as having something to do with management and organizational experience, and not get laughed out of an interview?

And just where the hell are the women preachers anyway?

Here's a line about the woman who sparked a revolution in the 1950's: "In December 1943, Rosa Parks became active in the Civil Rights Movement, joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and was elected volunteer secretary to its president, Edgar Nixon. Of her position, she later said, "I was the only woman there, and they needed a secretary, and I was too timid to say no." She continued as secretary until 1957." That's right, we got a woman here, let's make her a secretary. The woman who discovered fission in Germany in the 1930's, Lise Meitner, had to work for free - women weren't allowed in the lab - and her male counterpart got all the credit including the Nobel.

Here's Sojourner Truth speaking at a Women's Rights Convention 150 years ago. Ain't I a Woman?
How much has really changed for women black or white since?

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It's good to see Obama's team worried about Hillary exaggerating in Bosnia.

That way, perhaps we can figure out whether Obama really overstated this job.

And whether his father was really a "goat herder" or actually a Nairobi clerk for 5 years as his first wife claims, which would seem more likely to win a transfer program slot.

And whether Barack really learned Indonesian (Javanese) in 6 months as claimed, and whether he really saw the lowest depths of poverty in Indonesia or whether his private school there more or less fit in with a mother teaching English at the embassy and father being an oil manager for Shell oil.

And whether he recruited 125,000 voters in Chicago or 200,000 as sometimes claimed.

And a few other items that might come to mind.

Of course maybe Hillary was completely over the top - maybe Bosnia was completely safe as Sinbad says, even in the face of this evidence. And maybe she didn't help out in Northern Ireland despite what Mo Mowland said.

And maybe Obama does have foreign policy experience beyond a gut feeling in 2002. This race has a chance to get really interesting. If the candidates stop exaggerating.

I've seen a few statements around the internet that state that Bosnia was safe and sound by the time Hillary visited - "safer than Seattle" one woman commented. A bit of a reality check. Sarajevo's blockade was declared over on Feb 29, 4 weeks before Hillary visited. IFOR had taken over the previous December and in its first 10 months suffered 50 deaths. There were significant village burnings, protests and unrest during this 10 month period. Sarajevo may have been relatively calm during this time; towns like Brcko less so. There were numerous foreign fighters in Bosnia in March 1996, though that's not to say they were actually fighting - it was a holding breath period waiting for the different factions to disarm and leave, with Al Zarqawi already in Bulgaria. It was more a period of various flareups around the "country" with as much worry about the potential for the daily confrontations to spiral out of control. Considering populations were being resettled, mass graves at Srebrnice being dug up, a whole lot of arson, and just continual face-offs between the different populations and gang activities controlling areas. Oddly enough, it was a week and a half before Hillary showed up that the arms embargo ended, allowing the flow of small arms to return legally. NATO was trying to get commercial flights started again in this period, but didn't succeed until September or so (I flew in on army transport in August; no commercial flights were available).

Another issue is described by one soldier: "His biggest fear was all the indiscriminate gunfire that goes off in the hills. The locals tend to fire their weapons in the air when they are drunk and partying. They don't seem to remember that what goes up must come down. "Whether they're aiming at me or not, in our viewpoint, a gunshot is still a gunshot," he said." Here's an article describing a 10km mined and barbwired perimeter around the Tuzla airport, and then describes a family working in a mined field after cutting the barbed wire: Tuzla airport. Life is strange in Bosnia.

Another issue to remember is that the Khobar Towers bombing took place in June of that year, and a serious attempt to assissinate the Pope took place in April 1997 in Sarajevo with a series of landmines. There is no assured safety.

Daily IFOR briefings
May 10 IFOR report
General descriptiong of combat readiness in Bosnia despite peace agreement
Very good 500-page description of IFOR mission and lessons learned: IFOR - Wentz Bosnia
Sarajevo blockade lifted