You can’t surf the news sites without reading a superfluity of stupidity as it regards our first black president-elect. Like this nugget from America’s TV Dad, Bill Cosby, who believes that because Barack and Michelle Obama are the personification of the values his television family projected, as opposed to the real family he came from and doesn’t talk about, they are, in his opinion, the standard the rest of us dysfunctional black families miserably fail to meet. Which of course, means he’s been right all along when he calls us shiftless, irresponsible bad examples. From Politico:
“Who is Barack Obama and what did he tell us, when he talked about his mother? What was it he was saying when he said his mother woke up, 4:30 in the morning…to correct his homework, to get it done?” Cosby asked rhetorically. “Let’s listen to Michelle Obama who talks about her father with a disease, but he doesn’t call in work and say, let me call in later. He gets up an hour earlier.”
“Her father with a disease?“ Does she have another, disease-free, one? Presumably, he would have been able to get up early and let the sick one sleep in, relieving some of the burden, but I digress. And, didn’t Obama say his mother would wake him up to “take correspondence courses,” so, what does it say? White people in Indonesia stay up late just to torment their children? But, like I said, I digress.
While reading another article, this one about the Man Taking The Huxtable Torch of Camelot’s (when Caroline’s not using it) upcoming inaugural presidential trip to Canada, I was reminded of last month’s news that he wanted to make a Really Big Important Speech on Islam in a Muslim capital as soon as he was sworn in.
Barack Obama says his presidency is an opportunity for the U.S. to renovate its relations with the Muslim world, starting the day of his inauguration and continuing with a speech he plans to deliver in an Islamic capital.
And when he takes the oath of office Jan. 20, he plans to be sworn in like every other president, using his full name: Barack Hussein Obama.
Naturally, a couple things jumped out at me. First, I don’t think any other presidents were sworn in using the name Barack Hussein Obama, but I could be mistaken. Second, I thought his middle name was Steve. I also wondered just how many Muslims live in Canada and just when it became a hot bed of Islamic activity. Turns out, it’s not, not with Muslims making up only 2% of the population. So, I guess the Canada thing is just the first stop on an upcoming Official Rock Star Presidential Winter World Tour Avoiding The Troops, and a good chance to make up for that NAFTA-gate thing in the primaries. All that’s left to be decided is which Muslim capital will let him talk without starting shit global conflict.
Now, I know being president is hard, the last guy who effectively proved that the country could pretty much run itself into the ground without one told us that. A lot. So, I understand why a president-elect would practice multi-tasking, like having a photo-op at a legendary local soul food (black owned) eatery on a weekend to try to divert attention from the previous week’s bad news while grabbing a bite at the same time. It just seems strange that one would chose to add to one’s indigestion with a quarter pound beef and pork sausage with chili sauce and a side of cheese (not Velveeta) fries. Unless of course, bumping up one’s street cred was an essential element of said multi-tasking photo-op:
After Obama’s motorcade wandered through the U street district, passing the African-American Civil War Memorial and a flee market selling shirts that bear his face, he and Fenty surprised the restaurant around lunchtime. Patrons shrieked with delight and surprise as they saw his face. A mother blushed as Obama held her baby in his arms. The president-elect and the mayor moved slowly through the restaurant’s crowded rooms, shaking hands and getting pictures taken with patrons.
Still, they came there to eat. “Where the food at?” he finally asked the counter staff, drawing laughs from them and nearby patrons.
“Where the food at?“ I hope Cliff Cosby wasn’t listening, he’s got a thing about Ebonics. Besides, Obama doesn’t have to pander to the brotherhood, he’s good no matter how close he gets to Cosby. No, the black thing Obama should be worrying about, the one that’s giving him indigestion and threatening to blow his gig is that Roland Burris has let it be known he’s about to act ugly. While it might be all too true that keeping people busy looking into Rod Blagojevich’s business has the added (primary?) benefit of keeping noses out of Obama’s, pissing off Burris doesn’t seem to be a good way to do it, no matter what Big Dick Durbin says Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn can do:
Burris and his advisers, armed with both the Blagojevich appointment and White’s certification, are refusing to back down in their dispute with the Senate leadership, and they now want to increase the pressure on Reid and Durbin to accept him as the newest senator from Illinois.
“We are frustrated after doing everything we could to cooperate and to help diffuse this unfortunate situation,” said the Burris adviser. “We made a genuine effort to be respectful and to minimize our level of confrontation. But Reid and Durbin have forced our hands and have called into question their own credibility to be trusted as honest negotiators. They’re now nearly guaranteeing that there will be a direct confrontation on the week of inaugural.”
The adviser also said that having Quinn appoint an Obama successor is illegal and that Blagojevich’s appointment must stand.
“The option to have Quinn make a Senate appointment is not legal,” the adviser said. “The governor’s appointment can’t be retroactively revoked. Illinois already has two senators.”
All is not lost, however. The hopium is still strong in some places; others, not so much.
And the wheels on the bus…
Stop the presses! Hold the phone! Batten the hatches! Hold that line! Tote that barge! Lift that b…Okay, I get carried away, sometimes, but this is news! Barack Obama, the man who raised begging to a fine art, and cleverly figured out how hundreds of big donors could give him 
