I love slow news days; you can travel off the beaten path and find real nuggets of gems among the huge boulders of cowpies that usually compose the unexciting filler that passes for “news” in lieu of…well, real news “news.” “The automakers are still trying to file bankruptcy in Congress to avoid filing real bankruptcy in court like they should be forced to since it’s their own damned fault they’re broke.” Yawn. “The Obamessiah is really probably for sure going to appoint Judas Richarson to Secretary of Commerce, like they’ve been reporting for weeks, since all the good jobs are filled by now, and ‘cuz, after all, he is Hispanic and it looks good.” Big whoop. Who cares what a bunch of governors asked for that they’re not gonna get? Or, who’s blaming who now for that India thing? So, Saxby Chambliss won in Georgia, and the current ex-president’s brother is thinking about running for the Senate? Big freakin’ deal! Some guy in Philly worked out with Obama!
The webpage for the local NBC affiliate in Chicago’s headline screams “I Worked Out With Obama!” The sub-headline says, “When the Obama buzz started, Stepp Stewart put his stinky clothes back on.” Stepp, a Philadelphia choreographer, was finishing up his own workout when he heard the One And Only President-Elect Of The World was coming. What’s a dancer to do? Well, here’s Stepp’s breathtaking account in his own words. Trust me, if you’ve got a pulse, you’ll be riveted:
“There has been no moment like this morning! I can’t stop talking about it. My mouth is moving a mile a minute.
This morning, I was late! I was gonna be on the treadmill (at the Philadelphia Sports Club on Hamilton Street) by 6. It’s more like 6:30.
I run. I’m done. I go to the shower, get all cleaned up and I’m just about to put my lotion on and I hear a rumor that someone is coming. Obama! And he’s gonna be here in 30 minutes!
Girl, I put my sweat-drenched, funky-smellin’ clothes right back on, got right back on the floor and started fakin’ a workout!
All the sudden, people are eyeballing the door. Here comes the secret service.Then here comes Barack, walking up with a baseball cap on. He stops at the front desk. All the sudden, there’s a line of people.
But here I was, sitting on a spin bike that was broken! It’s a prop. But it’s right by the door. I am faking it again, so I can have a good spot at the door!
I get off the bike. He looks me dead in the eye.
He shook my hand. I held onto it as long as I could.
HIS HANDS WERE SOFT AS BUTTER!
Girl, couldn’t you just plotz? I know I could. Chil’, how could you not, knowing that Stepp saw Obama, dressed in black sweat pants and a grey, long-sleeved shirt (presumably just as funky and sweat-stained as Stepp’s by the end) read a USA Today after they ran on side-by-side treadmills? And it was soooo clever of Stepp to stop fakin’ the funk on the broke spin bike and grab the adjacent treadmill after some silly girrrrllll had the nerve to get off when King Lord ObieWanNaRuleDaWorld came in. Can you believe it? Me neither, boo. I think I’m gonna have to go lay down, girlfriend, see if I can get my heartrate back down to normal, honey.
In announcing his “centrist, hawkish,” National Security team today, President-Elect, Barack Obama spoke, predictably, of “a new dawn of American leadership” and said, “the time has come for a new beginning.”
There is no question that the soaring rhetoric employed by Barack Obama, brazenly read from a TelePrompTer or not-so-discreetly placed index cards, reflecting not necessarily the views of the candidate, his handlers or scriptwriter, but of what those entities believe the nameless, poll-taking focus groups representing the “will of the people” want to hear, have been successful. Seemingly obsessed with clock watching, “now is the time,” the “fierce urgency of now,” “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” and similarly chronologically based phrases have been used to great effect, evoking a spirit of awakening to a new day, a better time, a different place, a new beginning. That these meaningless promises are so much total bullshit is also beyond question. Yet, for a lot of Americans, especially black Americans, it’s just the kind of bullshit we have indeed been waiting for.
Negative images of black Americans, predominantly young black males, litter the nation’s information highways. Coming of age in the era of the braggadocious boasting of “gangsta rappers,” alternating between lyrics full of swaggering, blustering claims of “wannabe ballers, shot callers”, and lamentations of their fears of early, violent death, to the buffoonish, minstrel-esque characterizations embraced by “sitcoms” and “standup comedians” as well as supposedly more mainstream, artistic, cinematic endeavors, it’s hard for young black men of this generation to find anything in our popular culture that reinforces anything positive about themselves and their lives.
Now, add to the mix a “black” man pursuing the highest office in the land, symbolically superimposing the image of positive potential over the media-generated “reality” of limited access to success and respect, and you have a powerful dynamic, whether the actual possibilities have increased, or the situation, for any but the new symbolic “black” man has really changed. In other words, while their lives haven’t changed, the lives they can now allow themselves to dream about have. Thus, even if this “symbol of possibility” sees fit to demean the very men he purports to represent in order to achieve their “shared” goal of ethnic respectability, it is excused as a necessary means to an end. “Pookie” and “RayRay” will accept being called irresponsible ne’er-do-wells as long as it furthers the cause of their “alpha male leader to the Promised Land.” Never mind the fact that the “Pookies and RayRays” AlphaMale needs to achieve his personal goals recieve no tangible benefit, the symbolic validation they get from basking in the glow of his victory is more than sufficient. It is essential.
So, the “promise” of the “dream” is said to be upon us “now” if we “believe” that the “time” we “have waited” for our long held “hopes” for “change” to “come” “has arrived” now that “we” know “we can.” Or, like schoolboys not invited to the snooty dance who are told by the one guy in the group who did get invited, “pretend you don’t know me, once I get in, I’ll open the door for you. And even if I can’t, I’ll sneak you out some food and tell you about it, later,” more often than not, the buddies left outside with their noses pressed to the window, have had to content themselves with being friends with the guy who can get in.
Sadly, given the current landscape of black America, that is enough.
Even sadder still, the same con worked for many other Americans, too. “I am the symbol of your hopes and dreams,” only works if people feel marginalized. Fortunately for the Democrats, half the country seemed to be able to be convinced they felt that way after “eight years of the same failed policies.” Empathetic identification goes a long way.
Those marginalized Americans, be they black, poor, progressive, “minority” or whatever, can expect more of the same “platitudes without promises” in the future. For those whom such empty words were enough, they will soon find that’s all they get. You got your “change,” the “promise” was fulfilled. Now the work must be done. Dreamers and hopers would only get in the way of actually governing. So when the president you elected, faced with the same daunting, overwhelming problems presidents always face, responds in a similar fashion to the other men who served before him, be content with your dream.
The “new day” is indeed here. Too bad it comes with the same old shit.
Is the President-In-Training really the Obamessiah? Or, just the black Obamessiah? Are the people who believe that he is certifiable? Is there any evidence that “Obamania” is finally, slowly, being played out? That question is being asked in a myriad of ways in an interesting variety of sources. Citing San Francisco Chronicle writer Mark Morford’s infamous “Lightworker” article as the height of Obama foolishness, Pajamas Media says the phenomenon they call “Obamamania” is “on the wane.” While Morford was either clearly delusional, or clearly having fun at Obama’s expense, his over-the-top testament to Obamanipotence was not the only example of hero worship at the feet of The Precious by a long shot.
The Chicago Tribune cites many others, including websites that spoof ObamaLove, in their “Obama: Was He Sent To Save Us?” article today. I’m not sure, but I think they think that the answer to their headline question is “not.”
CNN asks, “Which Hero Do We Want Obama To Be?” They limit their examination of Obama fascination to those who insist upon comparing the unproven, untested, some say unqualified, former junior senator with the short resume to former presidential greats like Kennedy, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Clinton, and conclude, basically, who the hell knows if he can be like any of them since nobody ever bothered to vet him in the first place?
While it is fun to lampoon the guy who invokes the “oceans to rise” and “lights to shine down” and the folks who bought into the “hopey dopey happy crappy” he spews, it’s even more fun to mock the “serious journalists” who are only now seeing the humor of the errors of their own ways. And, though it is good to see that some of the sources of the worst forms of suckupitude are finally “seeing the light,” ya gotta wonder, what took those guys so long? Maybe soon they’ll “wake up and get” the whole bogus “over-exploitation of the black half” national faux racial angst thing, as well as the “you’re likable enough, sweetie, so get over it” what sexism? thing too.
But hey, deprogramming a cult is a lot like overcoming addiction, right?
It’s official, just call her Madame President Secretary. Shhhhhh, it’s Secretary in public, okay? We’ll all play along and call him Mr. President ‘cuz…well, the sheeple voted for him, but, hey, how much damage can he do as long as he just reads what’s on the cards? Plus, it’s all good; keeps those women’s issues in focus and balances out the black thing. Cool. Now, unlike some people, I don’t think we’re seeing Bush II or Clinton III. I think it’s Clinton 1, Obama 0.
Game, set, match.
Oh, Susan Rice is short, and Janet Napolitano barks.
Jo(k)e Biden is extraneous.
And Hillary needs to work on her poker face. She looked like a cat in a room with a missing canary.
Who is responsible for our current economic crisis? How come nobody “saw it coming?” Because everybody involved is a one of an equally culpable bunch of lying thieves, that’s why. On October 2, I wrote a post called “Bailout, Misdirection and Lies,” one of a series claiming that anybody with access to Home and Garden TV should have seen the housing crisis coming years ago, since the network features a treasure trove of information about home buying, renovations, and all manner of real estate and home improvement transactions, nearly all of which have been “no money down,” 100% financing, double mortgage deals regardless of the income level and/or credit-worthiness of the purchasers. First time buyers, home flippers, vacation home purchasing retirees and any and everybody else was encouraged to buy more house than they could afford, take out additional home improvement loans, rennovate, redesign and redecorate these over-priced, too large homesteads, only to put them back on the market in short order at even more inflated prices. Anybody with any sense could spend a few hours watching HGTV and see the government sanctioned bank pirates’ Ponzi scheme they were promoting, wittingly or un-, develop right before their very eyes.
But, nobody knew nuttin’. Now the Associated Press is “breaking the news” that indeed everybody knew everything, and did it anyway:
The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.
“Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories,” California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.
Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.
In an article full of schoolyard finger pointing, AP reports that some, like Comptroller of the Currency, John C. Dugan, have been trying to sound the alarm since 2005. While that is true, it is not news. In my “bailout” post, even I provide the Dugan quote to which AP refers. From a Sept. 27, 2005, Washington Post article about an American Banker’s Association convention at which Alan Greenspan, along with Dugan, issued warnings, I quoted:
Dugan reinforced Greenspan’s message to the banking industry, expressing concern that “looser underwriting standards and the more widespread penetration of riskier mortgage products have raised questions about how these loans will fare in the event of a rise in interest rates or a softening in house prices.”
While I don’t expect AP to read me, doesn’t anybody read the Washington Post? What’s the point of this “breaking news” blame game bullshit that doesn’t pass the smell or laugh test? Whose ass are they trying to cover? The Republicans didn’t do anything, the Democrats didn’t do anything, the bankers, regulators, brokers, nor the buyers did anything at all to get out of the way of the approaching train barreling down the tracks they insisted upon having a block party on. Now they want to stand in the middle of the tracks saying, “It wasn’t my idea,” “he did it,” “I just heard the music and stopped by for the free food,” and all other manner of copouts, denials and lies, knowing that they can, since they hold the controls to the mechanism that switches the train to the track we’re standing on before it derails completely, taking everybody out but them.
Screw Fuck ‘em all. They’re all crooks. Whether they’re bankers, elected officials, regulators, realtors, contractors or any of the other runaway train riders, conductors or engineers, they should all be prosecuted to the fullest under existing RICO laws. Because if this is not a criminal conspiracy of the highest order, there’s no such thing.
UPDATE: We are now officially in a recession, and have been since December, 2007. They just decided to tell us that, though.
Since Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president, we as a nation have adopted, and tried to adapt, the concept of “post racial,” whatever the hell that means. Post racial what? Doesn’t the term suggest that until now, we were a country defined by race? Or, is it just about our national attitude about race? Wouldn’t “post-racism” be a better phrase? We are still a nation composed of many people of many races, and many combinations and variations of those races. How do you get beyond being whatever you racially are? And why would you want to?
That seems to be the point of an article by Krissah Williams Thompson in today’s Washington Post. Thompson examines her own racial perceptions and how they were shaped, altered, and crystallized while covering Barack Obama on the campaign trail, concluding that whatever “post-racial” is, she’s not that.
Another WaPo article today, by Marie Arana, claims that since his mother was white, Obama is not black. Arana, who claims to be of mixed race, and Thompson, self-identified as black, struggle to place the significance of the election of a non-white president in context, based on their own unique racial experiences. Neither is technically wrong in their conclusions, yet neither writer sums up the “post-racial” reality in any definitive way. Such a thing simply cannot be done.
Going back to a March 2008 article in The New Republic, the point was being made that Obama and “post-racial” racism was not only confounding the whole question of race in America, it didn’t seem that race was nearly as big a deal as many would have expected it to be. At least, not in any predictable way. Citing white supremicists like David Duke, TNR’s Michael Crowley found that Obama’s “blackness” was not as offensive to proponents of “white pride” as was the “betrayal” of Europeans like John McCain, and to a lesser extent, Hillary Clinton (they hate her on principle.)
Yet, far from railing at Obama’s rise, Duke seems almost nonchalant about it. Self-described white nationalists like himself, he explained cordially, “don’t see much difference in Barack Obama than Hillary Clinton–or, for that matter, John McCain.” Sure, Duke considers Obama “a racist individual,” citing his Afrocentric Chicago church. But soon the founder of the National Association for the Advancement of White People was critiquing Obama as overhyped and insubstantial in terms you might hear from, say, Clinton strategist Mark Penn. “They say he’s for change. What change? He’s become almost a cult figure. I don’t see any shining light around Obama’s head. I don’t see any halos,” Duke said.
edit
But there may be one more factor at work: hatred overload. It’s a testament of sorts to Hillary Clinton that, by virtue of her cartoonish image as a leftist man-hating shrew, she manages to arouse more vitriol among white supremacists than a black man. Meanwhile, white racists absolutely despise John McCain for his support of George W. Bush’s immigration reform plan, which they view as a dire threat to America’s European-based culture. “I don’t think Obama will be any more negative for the United States than Hillary or John McCain,” explains Duke. “In fact,” he added, “we probably have less preference for a European like a John McCain or a Hillary who has betrayed our interests, our heritage, our rights.”
There have been those who have made the point that the election of Barack Obama is primarily significant for the sense of racial possibility it represents for young people. However, unless one is trying to suggest that anyone can be president as long as he’s a male with at least one white parent, that argument doesn’t really hold water. There has never been a female, Asian, Native American, Hispanic, or openly gay American, nor Viet Nam veteran, little person, or circus clown elected president, either. In fact, to be specific, there’s never been a traditionally defined black American president, and there still isn’t. Are those children not allowed to dream of what most Americans perceive to be ultimate success? What about those who don’t even rate a mention in articles like this?
There are those who feel that we are now “post-racial exploitation.” That, now that we have a black president, the need for black activism has been eliminated. Those “subconciously racist racists” eager to rejoice and celebrate the demise of the Civil Rights Movement are deluding themselves into believing that merely putting a black face on the conductor of the political machine of systemic racial oppression is the same as eradicating it. Nothing can be further from the truth. The “illusion of inclusion,” and the exploitation of tokenism is as much a part of America’s racial fabric as slavery, Jim Crow laws and minstrel shows. From “The Man In The Middle: The Black Slave Driver:”
Wise planters of the ante-bellum South never relaxed their search for talent among their slaves. The ambitious, intelligent, and proficient were winnowed out and recruited for positions of trust and responsibility. These privileged bondsmen—artisans, house servants, foremen—served as intermediaries between the master and the slave community; they exercised considerable power; they learned vital skills of survival in a complex, often hostile world. Knowing, as they did, the master’s needs and vulnerabilities, they were the most dangerous of slaves; but they were also the most necessary.
Let’s face it, “post-racial” is a public relations slogan for a successful presidential marketing campaign, nothing more. “Vote for me in spite of the fact that I’m not white and you’ll feel better, and, if you’re black, then vote for me because I look like you and this is as close as you’re gonna get to the White House,” was too long to fit on a banner. To be painfully obvious, if we were indeed “post-racial” we wouldn’t need a word for it. The subject simply would never have come up.
Everybody still seems to be up in arms about the fact that President-Elect of the World, Barack Obama seems so hard to get a handle on. Is he a centrist? Progressive? Socialist? Liberal, conservative, communist, neocon? None of the above? All of the above? Some of the above and a few of the below? The short answer? Yes. Hillary Clinton has always known exactly who Obama is:
In an interview with ABC’s Cynthia McFadden, Sen. Hillary Clinton, when asked about the Barack Obama phenomenon, used a quote from Obama to describe her opponent. “I think the best description actually is in Barack’s own book” Clinton said, “where he said that he is a blank screen and people of widely different views project what they want to hear.” Clinton continued saying “he just hasn’t been around long enough.” Clinton continued saying “But with the blank screen it gives you a chance to just really infuse it with whatever you hope for, whatever you want without knowing.”
“I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views. As such, I am bound to disappoint some, if not all, of them.” (p. 11, 134, 355-61)
So, now that’s it’s semi-quasi, unofficially official that Obama will almost certainly for sure announce that his appointment of Clinton as Secretary of State is probably a 99% done deal, we can expect, with much more certainty, people from all over the political spectrum to continue howl in outrage about his cabinet appointments being a “betrayal” of his “base, whoever they think they are. The question is, as it has always been, what’s up with the fuss? Didn’t these people get the memo?
Some have compared Obama to limp lame duck president, George Bush, on policy, and more superficially. However, the true thing both men have in common is much more basic than most people recognize; it is the essential element that makes them tick, and it is the one thing to which they owe their success.
They’re actors.
Neither man fits the description of a classic politician. One gets the feeling that Obama would be far more comfortable pontificating in a classroom, while Bush seems like he’d be right a home in a bar. Yet they both have an uncanny ability to morph into a compelling image of whatever it is we wish a president to be. In 2000, after the press and the “vast rightwing conspiracy” had successfully designated Bill Clinton as a lying whoremonger, the country desperately needed a leader they felt they could trust. Who better than the “good ol’ boy” down at the end of the bar in the “place where everybody knows your name?” Similarly, Americans wanted to trust somebody this year too, anybody, as long as they bore no resemblance to the now lying warmonger, Bush. So, just as Bush was able to play the part of drinking buddy while simultaneously claiming to be a Bible thumping teetoatler, Obama is adept at assuming the role of anti-war hawk, or whatever else you want him to be.
Obama, like Bush, is a tightly scripted front man. In Obama’s case, he is so deficient as a natural politician that even his stump speeches came to be read from a TelePrompTer. That this caused little controversy is a testament to the abilities of his handlers and the sway they hold over the mainstream media. Though we know for a fact that he says whatever he’s told to say, his Messianic p.r. campaign is so effective that supposedly intelligent professional pundits argue passionately about his leadership qualities, his instincts, his acumen, his eloquence, his ability; even though the only evidence they have to back them up is of his reading skill.
The truth is just as Obama himself said; he’s a deliberately blank screen disguised as an adaptable political genius. Like his predecessor, he is far from presidential, he’s just pretty good at playing one on TV. In fact, Obama told Lynn Sweet just that after winning a Grammy for “Audacity of Hope” in 2006:
“I am going for an Emmy next. The best actor in a drama involving John McCain.”
Like many people, I was skeptical, and a little offended, when Barack Obama insisted upon anointing himself the Obamessiah by repeatedly invoking phrases like “a light will shine down,” and “the oceans will rise,” etc., but it seems that many in the black community, even some in the clergy, bought that crap believe that he is indeed divinely inspired, ordained by God, or even possibly fully divine himself. According to the Dallas Morning News, Larry Younginer, while not a clergyman, still went to his suburban Atlanta church the day after His Preciousness’ ascension to the presidency, and offered this prayer to the congregation:
“Lord, we have again come to you in prayer, and you have heard our cries from heaven, and you have sent us again from the state called Illinois, a man called Barack to heal our land,” said Younginer, a 62-year-old retired information systems worker at Coca-Cola in Atlanta. “We pray that you will build a hedge around him that will protect him from those who would do him harm.”
Despite the fact that the Obamessiah has not attended church on a regular basis, if at all, since he threw the pastor who “brought him to Jesus,” and who may or may not have baptized him, under the bus along with all the other inconvenient members of his flock, including the minister who some call the first viable black candidate for president, and his grandmother, the Morning News article is full of quotes from the faithful, many of whom see a direct line from Jesus through Martin Luther King to The One:
King’s sister, Christine Farris, would not say that Obama was sent by God. But she said she believes that, like her brother, Obama has a divine order from God and he has prepared himself to follow in the direction he believes God would ordain.
Yet, it is Younginer who seems most eager to play the role of proselytizer to the Star, comparing him to the Biblical John and Abraham as well as MLK and Jesus. And, he wasn’t finished:
Obama’s positive message during the campaign was a signal that he had been anointed by God, Younginer said. And, he added, God put events such as Sen. Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the primaries, the economic crisis and Sen. John McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his Republican running mate in place so that Obama could win the presidency.
“I felt it in my bones that this was what God wanted,” Lowery, 87, said of his civil rights work. “We were called by God to preach the word and to minister. Obama was not called to preach, but he was called to lead.”
Well, I guess it’s a good thing that God’s on Obie’s side since he is the “change” we’ve been told that “now is the time” we’ve been waiting for. If that’s the case, though, doesn’t that mean his work is done?
With the recent news that former Obama “monster-calling-the-kettle-monster,” Samantha Power, has re-upped (now that a suitable amount of time has passed since her “resignation“) as one of 14 members of the Agency Review “team-within-a-team” for the State Department transition, another “where are they now?” question comes to mind. Where’s Patti Solis Doyle? Given that the two women (Doyle and Power) have both been hostile to Hillary Clinton, putting Power in a position to influence Clinton’s appointment as Secretary of State is as much a slap in the face as was Solis-Doyle’s June addition to Team O, ostensibly as chief of staff to the then “as yet to be named” vice-president. Now that Jo(k)e Biden has “as yet been named,” and elected vice-president, and has appointed Ronald Klain as his chief of staff, where’s Doyle? And what was the purpose of hiring her for any position in the first place?
Solis-Doyle, was allowed to step down (shitcanned) as Clinton campaign manager in February, and was replaced by Maggie Williams, who served as chief of staff to First Lady Clinton, and had recently joined the team. It was said at the time that Doyle’s “resignation” was primarily due to “family considerations,” not hurt feelings because of the addition of Williams to the staff, or Doyle’s soap opera watching incompetence in the face of a string of caucus losses which derailed Clinton’s air of “inevitability.” However, make no mistake, she was canned. So, why would Obama reward such incompetence with an obviously meaningless, mythical job? Was it really just the big “eff yew and your veep hopes” many Clinton supporters took it to be? On Nov. 10, AP’s Beth Fouhy reported that Obama had offered Solis-Doyle a cabinet related position she was supposed to be mulling:
Democratic officials say President-elect Obama’s transition aides have approached Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former campaign manager about taking a senior White House post.
These officials say Patti Solis Doyle is considering taking the job, although she worries about the effect it would have on her two young children. She was contacted about possibly becoming Cabinet secretary, a job that involves coordinating the efforts of the White House and cabinet-level agencies.
That’s the last word I could find on Solis Doyle’s whereabouts. But it makes you wonder, was Obama merely paying a political debt to an ally’s family member, as MSNBC reported he said in June?
“Patti Solis Doyle I think is a terrific experienced campaign hand. She’s from Chicago. Her brother and I organized on the southeast side of Chicago when I first moved to Chicago as a community organizer, so I’ve known the family for a very long time. I think that she will bring not only a set of skills that we’re gonna need as we put our ticket together but shes going to be a terrific adviser and offer insight and judgment that will help us.”
It should be noted that due to Doyle’s longtime association with Obama campaign manager David Axelrod, as well as her Chicago family connections, her name was being bandied about by the Obama camp in mid-May, according to Politico:
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former campaign manager and confidante, Patti Solis Doyle, and Sen. Barack Obama’s top adviser have informally discussed the former Clintonite’s going to work for the Obama campaign in the general election.
So, was Obama just clueless or cunning? Or, both? Was Solis-Doyle a mole planted in Camp Clinton by Obama/Axelrod? Or is she just a walking screwup-waiting-to-happen, turning everything she touches to crap? That prospect makes knowing where she might pop up pretty relevant. Then again, maybe Obama is just a lying manipulator, releasing Axelrod-inspired, Astroturf press releases designed to play the public. A strong case could be made along those lines since “hiring” Solis Doyle put a female with a Hispanic surname on his roster, and Power always believed she would end up in his cabinet. Speaking at Columbia University in March, Power said:
And, to the delight of many in the crowd, she even hinted that she could be part of that hypothetical cabinet. “Because of the kind of campaign that Senator Obama has run,” Power said, “it seemed appropriate for someone of my Irish temper to step aside, at least for a while. We will see what happens there.”
Considering that with her views on Israel, Power is considered worthy of State Department related rehire by The Most Awesomest President-elect Ev-er, and that Solis Doyle was given a job to nowhere for unfathomable reasons, it kinda makes Barack Obama’s “judgment to lead” a wee bit suspect, doncha think? And it makes the prospect of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State seem like a deliberately laid rug about to be yanked just for the Camp Obama fun of it.
In late October, MIA Vice President-elect, Jo(k)e Biden told the country to “mark his words,” that if we elected his running mate, Barack Obama, it “will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy,” to “remember he said it,” that “we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” After alluding to Hercules’ Fifth Labor, cleaning Augean’s Stables, and all sorts of “doom and gloom” scenarios that would cause the country to find Obama’s response lacking, and react with comments of “Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don’t know about that decision,” Biden exhorted us to believe him because he has “forgotten more about foreign policy than most of my colleagues know, so I’m not being falsely humble with you.”
“Falsely humble”? Where’s the humility in “Oh, shit, you’re gonna elect a doofus and blame me when he fucks up!”? No wonder Camp Obama keeps him locked up, whenever he sneaks out, he says something stupid, or frighteningly revealing. Sometimes, like in the “gird your loins” speeches, he does both at the same time.
So, now that the country has gone ahead and elected the guy we were warned about, anyway (by a guy who should know, even if he is stupid) a world crisis has indeed erupted. Though Obama has not yet been inaugurated, and George (The Lamest of Ducks) Bush is the only politician keeping a lower profile than Biden, the media, and even Obama himself, to an extent, with his “Office of the President-elect,” have dubbed them “co-presidents,” at the very least. And, there are those in the press who see the horrific attacks in Mumbai as the Obama test to which Biden referred. From Der Spiegel:
The crisis could be Obama’s first big foreign policy test. The world is going to dissect his response. The president-elect has already been in the spotlight for days because of the worsening financial crisis. Given the extent of the economic catastrophe, the January 20th inauguration date seems too far in the future for an ever-growing number of Americans. For three straight days, Obama has held press conferences in order to introduce economics experts who will advise him and stimulus programs that should help the country out of the crisis. His message was clear: “Help is on the way.”
Now, Obama may also be forced into taking responsibility for foreign policy earlier than expected. Indeed, the attacks could be seen as a personal warning directed against him. During the campaign, his vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden attracted attention for announcing that, in the first six months of his presidency, Obama would be tested on the international stage.
With the revelation that British and American citizens were targeted in the attacks, it seems that many are looking to see how Barack Obama reacts. The Australian reports that Obama has previously consulted with former president Bill Clinton during their meeting in Harlem about the potential for conflict in the region, even going so far as offering him the position of “peace envoy,” a prospect that has been explored over on No Quarter. While Obama has issued a statement about the Mumbai attacks, and is said to have called Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, some see Obama’s “strong condemnation” as a rather weak response. And while speculation about Bill Clinton’s future is fun to contemplate, the burning question in my mind is, with the emergence of this “test” of Obama’s foreign policy strength, what are the new implications of his possible appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State?
The New York Times Caucus blog is reporting that President-elect In Taining, Barack Obama made his very most important staff announcement today. He’s making Jon Favreau, his speechwriter, not the actor, move to the White House:
In his latest round of White House staff announcements, Mr. Obama said Wednesday that he was naming Jon Favreau as his director of speechwriting. Mr. Favreau, 27, has had a hand in practically every speech that the president-elect has delivered over the last four years, following Mr. Obama from his Senate office to the presidential campaign.
“Had a hand?” Where? Up his bu In his back? Oh, the “TelePrompTer in the boudoir” jokes I could write! But, alas, I’ll restrain myself (this time,) and just move the story along. The Caucus gently tries to lay to rest the notion that the Really Wannabe President writes his own speeches:
While legend has it that Mr. Obama writes his own speeches longhand on a legal pad, a better historical account will show that he offers input and Mr. Favreau crafts them.
No, history will show that publications like the New York Times make stuff up to try to make Barack Obantos appear to be qualified. Gotta try to justify those baseless endorsements somehow. In other news, with food stamp use nearing a record-high, the Obamessiah and his family took the photo-opportunity to feed the hungry.
After holding his third press conference in as many days, President-elect Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters volunteered at a South Side parish that operates a food bank every Wednesday.
No mention was made in the article of the congregants’ reaction when His Preciousness multiplied the loaves and fishes and changed the water to wine, however. He did allow supplicants to “call me Barack” after they kissed his ring.
Lastly, but not leastly, the image above is the one that inspired Rev. Jeremiah (Uncle Wackadoodle) Wright’s “Audacity of Hope” sermon, that in turn inspired Barack Obama to write a book, which then inspired easily impressed voters to lose their minds and elect an inexperienced slacker guy who has been forced to admit to all those nervous about his “business as usual” appointments, that he is the change they’ve been waiting for, not the other way around.
“What we are going to do is combine experience with fresh thinking,” he said. “But understand where the vision for change comes from. First and foremost, it comes from me. That’s my job.”
Yeah, Obie, but how’re you gonna make ‘em listen? Pout? Tell Mommy?
The Hyde Park, Chicago guy, Abner Mikva, a “mentor” of Barack Obama, of whom it was said, “we don’t want nobody nobody sent,” gave a TimesOnline UK interview to the guy Michelle Malkin accused of fabricating war stories, and is quoted as being concerned about the appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State:
One of Barack Obama’s longstanding mentors and oldest friends said yesterday that he believes Bill Clinton will be a complicating factor for the new president and that his list of foreign donors could prove embarrassing.
edit
“I worry about the difficulty not that she brings, but that her husband brings,” he said over breakfast at the University of Chicago, where he recently retired as a law professor. “His entire career since leaving the White House has involved foreign contacts, foreign speeches and foreign contributions,” Mr Mikva, also a former US congressman, said.
My response? So what? Didn’t we deal with this issue last week? Why is one of Obama’s “boys,” who’s not affiliated with the transition team in any way, rehashing this now, and why is the Times reporting it? And, why is this being played up in the British press? Who cares what they think, anyway? Haven’t they embarrassed themselves enough?
There’s a political war being waged in America, with the internet being it’s primary battlefield. No, it’s not between the Democrats and Republicans, that one’s over for now. Nor is it the over-hyped, fake Clinton/Obama Drama, orchestrated just to keep the bad boyz of the blogosphere busy by allowing them to pretend to be relevant. It’s not the war between the mainstream media and the blogosphere either, given the corporate influence and partisanship of most publications and blogs, the blogger bully “pioneers” have now seamlessly been integrated into the “establishment” and are little more than their ideology enforcers. This point is explored by the National Review Online in an article about how the Center for American Progress-lead progressive left movement beat the GOP at it’s own game with the election of Barack Obama as president:
The Left has created not just a collection of unshaven bloggers but a machine that beat the Right at its own game. The Left’s response to idea mills like the Heritage Foundation and AEI is the Center for American Progress, except that it produces few ideas: A reported 40 percent of its budget is given over to marketing. The tip of the spear is ThinkProgress.org, a site written ostensibly by CAP policy wonks. Its sole function seems to be to discredit conservative candidates and personalities; it contains 11,000 pages with the words “Sarah Palin” on them, according to Google. ThinkProgress entries aren’t all that original, but they frequently serve as jumping-off points for the left-wing blogosphere and Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
The entire article is worth a look, but, as I said, I don’t think this is exclusively a “progressive/conservative” battle. The Soros-backed Center, lead by Obama transition team leader, John Podesta, does seem to be the architect of a “psuedo-movement,” however, it’s just part of the story. George Soros has not hidden his desire to remake the Democratic party in an image more to his liking, and it should be noted that in the primaries, he backed Obama over Clinton, even though she is supposed to be a co-founder of CAP. He did, however, claim to be fine with a Clinton win, and I take him at his word on that. Whether it was Soros himself, the Center for American Progress, the Democratic party, or some other, unknown entity who was crafting the game plan is not important; it seems clear, at least to me, that whoever the ultimate power brokers are, they were indeed fine with a win by either Democratic candidate.
The Black Agenda Report has been making the case all along that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were war-mongering, corporatist, ideological twins with not a soupcon of difference between them. Whether or not you agree with their assessment as a whole, it’s hard to argue with the main thrust of it, Clinton and Obama agree on more than they disagree. Both candidates have themselves made that point. So, their primary battle was not about ideology, but the methodology of implementation of their mutual policy philosophy; Clinton representing the old-school, tried and true fundraising and campaign approach, Obama, the new, experimental Howard Dean, web-based, 50 state one. If the trail-blazing, Wild, Wild West of the internet approach paid off, so much the better; if not, as many of the major donors and architects likely believed, their first choice would be enshrined in the Oval Office. Win-win, no difference, safe bet. Considering that a Democratic victory was almost a sure thing, such a gamble was pretty much a sucker bet, guaranteed to pay the house no matter what.
Many groups and individuals enthusiastically took that bet, though, believing that their efforts would pay off in a way that we now see will not come to pass. A lot of the cheerleading was done by those with a vested interest in the outcome, either financial or political, some were volunteers, some were big-time, self important bloggers, others were supposedly “objective” faux journalists. Then there were those who were skeptical all along, sensing that the primaries were a sham, the outcome was a done deal, and the fix was in, without being able to put their fingers on just what was wrong. A lot of that skepticism came from reasonably informed, but not overly invested, regular voters. The kind of workaday everyman and woman people who are the backbone of politics, though the outcry came from the slightly more involved faction of that group. In other words, PUMAs.
Lets face it, the average American voter on either side is not steeped in the knowledge and traditions of the respective political parties and their policies and positions, most folks could not care less. Most Democrats see the Republican party as the predominantly white, holier-than-thou, stingy busybodies who screwed everything up. The Democrats are everybody else. Most of the time, this rather simplistic view, and it’s equally simple alternate, work just fine. We are only called upon to exercise our obligations to decide who will make decisions for us every two to four years, and we’re content to believe that if we will only vote for the best-looking candidate with the most money who we like the best, everything will be cool. Frankly, we don’t have time or energy to dedicate to becoming better informed and more involved, we’re too busy working, raising families, paying taxes and doing all the things we rely on our government to help us do, to worry about political science. And our elected officials know it, in fact, they depend on it, it’s how they keep getting elected.
But a funny thing happened when the machine tried to run it’s usual game a slightly different way this time. The very means they tried to exploit, the internet, allowed those usually docile housewives and husbands sitting behind their laptops at the kitchen table, at their makeshift home office/den/bedroom desktops, in cars, trains, buses with Blackberries and I-Phones, in office cubicles, in coffee shops and libraries, or wherever they found internet access, to actually become not only informed, but involved. Unsatisfied with the unwitting accomplice role into which they had been cast in the farcical theatricalization of the democratic process, some of them began to howl in outrage. “Party unity, my ass!”
Without funding from the shadow forces, or donations from influence peddlers or seekers that power campaigns, with no access to daily talking point memos or press releases designed to tell them what to tell other people to think, these “kitchen table PUMAs” took matters into their own hands. When their indignant objections to the party line pushers got them kicked off the mainstream media enforcement-arm blogs, they founded Blogger, WordPress and Typepad blogs of their own, countering the party driven propaganda being spewed by dedicated, though misguided partisans convinced that the official party endorsement of their point of view regarding their candidate made it not only superior to anyone else’s, but them solely responsible for his/her success. Unlike the party-supported mainstream blogs whose proprietors were motivated by either party influence or financial reward, PUMAs are motivated only by principle. We know that when the illusion of democracy is shattered, the whole house of cards falls apart. Americans have to believe that the smiling, handsome, well funded guys we elect are nobly motivated, and the process fair. Otherwise, we have to suspend our complicity and really get involved.
Thus, PUMAs objected to the caucus fraud and crossover primary voting exploitation, as well as the results of the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting, not because they promoted a candidate they didn’t like, but because those activities made a mockery of democracy, and rendered the democratic process moot. Those same Democrats, former Democrats, Independents and even some Republicans comprising the PUMA membership were equally outraged by the treatment of “Joe the Plumber” and Sarah Palin for the exact same reasons.
So, while we consider the future direction of our own patriotic “movement,” as well as the recent appointments of people like CAP’s Melody Barnes, Tom Daschle, and John Podesta, by president-elect Obama, and of his entire economic team, and what it all means, I submit we only need to continue doing what we started out to do, monitor the process. The uncontrolled, uncontrollable American voters whose ultimate allegiance is to country, not party are the bane of the establishment’s existance. Since we can no longer expect the press or the media to objectively report or investigate, if, indeed we ever could, we now have the means and opportunity to assume that role for ourselves. As we become more knowledgeable and enlist more of the disgruntled, kitchen table electorate, our path and direction will continue to make itself clear.
We’re the squeaky wheels, the masses who reject the opiates, answering to no one, now fully awake and ready to roar. And if we keep making noise, we will continue to grow, we will not be silenced, and we will be heard. And our David will ultimately defeat the political Goliaths, because we’re right, and there’s a lot more of us than them.
In looking over the rather pointless “all things Obama” website, Politico 44, “A Living Diary of the Obama Presidency,” it is obvious that the parent company, in it’s attempt to take over Washington, D.C. press coverage, has more staff and money than they do innovative ideas and common sense. As if there’s not enough media coverage of a guy who’s not even officially president, and who schedules 2 back-to-back- press conferences on successive days, when one was too many, just to announce what could have been released to the media over the telephone, passed in a note or shouted out a window, we now have a dedicated transition site, complete with a nifty “what’s Obie doing now?” widget. Bite me.
Covering the same damned news everybody else does, Politico 44 also tells us that at 8:39 am Eastern time:
Obama left his home and heads to his gym at the nearby Regents Park apartment building for his regular workout.
At 10:04 am:
Obama’s motorcade left his gym and heads back to Obama’s home, where he showered and changed. Next, he will be heading to the Chicago Hilton hotel for a scheduled noon EST press conference.
At 10:29 am:
The president-elect leaves his home.
You get the idea. Who is this site widget designed for? Stalkers? Assassination plotters? Who else would possibly care? In a world of Obama media excess on steroids gone mad, this is over the top.
It was January 1999, President Clinton’s impeachment trial was just beginning in the Senate and Hillary Clinton was scheduled to speak at the foundation’s fund-raiser in Chicago. Despite all the fuss back in Washington, Clinton kept the appointment. She spent hours that day in the epilepsy ward at Rush Presbyterian hospital, visiting children hooked up to machines by electrodes so that doctors might diagram their seizure activity and decide which portion of the brain to remove. At the hospital, a local reporter pressed her about the trial in Washington, asked her about that woman. At the organization’s reception at the Drake Hotel that evening, Clinton stood backstage looking over her remarks, figuring out where to insert anecdotes about the kids. “She couldn’t stop talking about what she had seen,” Susan Axelrod recalled. Later, at Hillary Clinton’s behest, the National Institutes of Health convened a conference on finding a cure for epilepsy. Susan Axelrod told me it was “one of the most important things anyone has done for epilepsy.” And this is how politics works: David Axelrod is now dedicated to derailing this woman’s career.
Below is a portion of the event, featuring master of ceremonies, Paul Begala, introducing now President-elect, then, Senator Barack Obama, roasting Rahm Emanuel.
Former political director to Bill Clinton, demoted to “closet-sized office” occupying policy adviser by Hillary, and advocate of mandatory Civilian Defense training, Emanuel, known as “Rahmbo” is, as you can see, well-known for his abrasive nature, which was highlighted in a Saturday Night Live skit this weekend that did not make the West Coast cut.
For many of us, this year’s election cycle has seemed to be nothing more than theater, a scripted playlet mounted on the world stage with a predetermined outcome, performed to appease, rather than entertain, enlighten or engage the masses, at the same time occupying the time and attention of the fourth estate in order to minimize their relevance. I’d like to make the case that, at least for the Democratic party, that’s exactly what happened. So, get your tinfoil hat strapped on tight, your Orville Redenbacher ready, and your Barcalounger seatbelt tightened. We’re going on a bumpy ride.
At about 2:20 on the above You Tube clip from Yearly Kos, August 2006, Senator Clinton says:
We are certainly better prepared and more focused on, you know, taking our arguments, and making them effective, and disseminating them widely, and really putting together a network, uh, in the blogosphere, in a lot of the new progressive infrastructure, institutions that I helped to start and support like Media Matters and Center for American Progress.
Now, most of the information about this quote and what it means for future generations, blah, blah, blah, comes from conservative sites who seem to have had a real bug up their butts about HRC’s “confession” at the time. The other side seems noticeably silent on the issue. Discover The Networks, American Thinker, and Newsmax have all spun tales of evil Hillary witchery at political play in conjunction with equally evil billionaire Georege Soros. The theory goes, Hillary Clinton and George Soros hatched a plan in 2003 to take over the world. Or, at least, the country. The means for doing so, was to establish a think tank (Center for American Progress) and a media watchdog group (Media Matters) to manage the message and combat the “vast rightwing conspiracy.”) In 2006, the Washington Post ran an article claiming that CAP was funded by a group of mega-money men, Democracy Alliance, Soros included, who determined which “progressive” entities received funding, and which ones didn’t. One that didn’t is the Clinton-centric Democratic Leadership Council. What’s up with that? Why would a group reportedly founded to fund “progressive” entities give money to one organization supposedly founded by the Clintons and not another? Is the DLC an old school Bill Clinton faction and CAP Hillary’s new way of doing things? If so, where does Rahm Emanuel fit in? Tom Daschle? Are the Clintons the architects of the Democratic resurgence using both the DLC and CAP? Too much tinfoil?
Okay, moving on. On November 18, Bloomberg News ran a piece claiming that CAP was setting Barack Obama’s foreign policy. Say what? The Bill Clinton chief of staff-lead organization Hillary Clinton helped found, by her own admission, is now at the forefront of the new Democratic president-elect’s policy panel? Huh?
Thanks in part to funding from benefactors such as billionaire George Soros, the Center for American Progress has become in just five years an intellectual wellspring for Democratic policy proposals, including many that are shaping the agenda of the new Obama administration.
Now, in case you’ve forgotten, Barack Obama is said to be “thisclose” to naming Hillary Clinton Secretary of State. The recent media reports have been full of speculation about the impact and implications of such an appointment, with some praise and much gnashing of teeth, but there also has been specualtion that this deal was done in June when Obama and Clinton met at Dianne Feinstein’s house, though MSNBC says the Obama/Clinton “good vibrations” relationship began to evolve after the Democratic National Convention. Not only does MSNBC’s characterization seem unlikely, it also seems irrelevant.
Hillary Clinton is “dragging her feet” in accepting Barack Obama’s “unofficial offer” because it too, is irrelevant. This seems to me to have been a done deal all along. With the news that Clinton will choose her own team, with Obama’s loyalists being relegated to White House staff, or booted completely, it’s hard not to see this as a preordained fait accompli. Not that everybody was in on the deal, that wouldn’t be necessary, in fact, too many people in the know would likely screw things up. It’s not even like the outcome of the primaries was absolutely fixed, the deck was stacked to increase the likelihood of the ultimate desired result, but Clinton as president wouldn’t have been considered failure. After all, the goal, as stated by HRC, over, and over again, was to “get a Democrat in the White House.” However, Obama as president allows the Democratic party to not only re-brand itself while reinforcing it’s inclusive image, it redirects the party in the age of the internet in the manner John F. Kennedy did in the age of television. Therefore, with Obama as the puppet-face of the Democrats and Clinton actually wielding the power, an argument could be made that an impressive win-win situation resulting from a well-planned, long-term “plot” has been achieved.
Maybe all the angst and interplay between competing Democratic factions played out in the news and blogosphere was merely smoke and mirrors distractions all along. Perhaps PUMA was born out of the frustration of knowing something was wrong that we just couldn’t put our finger on. Could it be that the frustrations of those feeling disenfranchised by the results of the Rules and Bylaws Committee and the subsequent farce of the Democratic National Convention were just a byproduct of the implementation of a foregone conclusion? Is that why Obama selected an HRC supporting veep nobody would pay much attention to?
Could be.
Or, not.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Are you smarter than a government official? Probably. But probably not by much. At least not according to the results of a civics test given to ordinary citizens as well as those elected to serve just for giggles.
US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.
Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).
This test has been going around the blogosphere for a few days, with high scorers boastfully posting them, and everybody else noticeably silent, so we don’t know what the internet average really is. If you believe the posted bloggers and commenters, those who hang out online are friggin’ genii, scoring on average 30 out of 33, let them tell it. I didn’t do that good, I got 74%. So, while I’m no Joe Cannon, I’m smarter than a college professor, a government official and most of the people who elected them.
“No Drama Obama?” What a curious handle to bestow upon a professional TelePrompTer reader so obviously type-cast to play a real-life Matt Santos in the current installment of the reality show called “American Presidential Politics” that he should be a card carrying member of the Screen Actor’s Guild and be forced to show it to the country on You Tube along with the vault copy of his birth certificate before inauguration day. Are you kidding me? Barack Obama’s presidential campaign was one drama after another, yet there’s this larger-than-life myth of a seamless, leak-free campaign run with military precision, conceived of, and directed by, the greatest political general ever, Barack Obama. Puhleeze. The Telegraph is the latest media outlet taking that erroneous theme and running it ragged, quoting yet another source not close to anybody involved in anything:
Most shocking to Mr Obama’s team is the loss of discipline and control that they have experienced since coming to Washington.
The President-elect’s campaign was tightly controlled, with very few uncoordinated leaks. The candidate was known as “No Drama Obama.” David Corn, Washington Bureau Chief of the left of centre magazine Mother Jones, summed up the problem: “The presidential transition of no-drama Obama became infected by the never-ending soap opera of the Clintons. And it really is time to turn that programme off.”
No leaks? NAFTA-gate? The HuffPo “race memo?” Or, were those “coordinated leaks?” No drama? Can you say “Bill Ayers?” “Jeremiah Wright?” “Monster? “ “The Rezko he didn’t know?” “Illegal immigrant auntie?” Nothing soap operatic about “Bitter-gate,” right? What is wrong with people that they think they can just push a blatant, outright, bold-faced lie far enough, and long enough that it becomes an accepted truth? Maybe the most tightly controlled, well run, internet-savvy gaffe machine political campaign in history has conveniently forgotten about a little-known invention called “Google.” Which would be bad news to one of his biggest legitimate donors.
Who, besides, presumably Barack Obama, cares about Michelle Obama’s butt? Erin Aubry Kaplan, aka Erin J. Aubry, that’s who. She’s a columnist whose work has been featured in the L.A. Times, Essence Magazine, L.A Weekly, and Black Enterprise among others. She’s also contributed essays to books like Body Outlaws, and Mothers Who Think. And, she has a thing about butts. Big, black, female butts to be exact. The author of a 1998 Salon article about Jennifer Lopez’s abundance, entitled “Back Is Beautiful,” (she thinks Lopez is “a possibly African-descended Latina,”) Ms. Kaplan is back in Salon with a dissertation on the First Lady-elect’s derriere called “First Lady Got Back.”
Why?
Beats the hell outta me.
Again I ask, who the hell cares about Michelle Obama’s butt, let alone what it means to society? Forget about examining the socio-dynamics of it’s size and shape, and it’s impact on American women of color’s self-esteem and/or lack thereof, has anybody else ever even looked at it? I mean, I’ve seen Ms. Obama sitting down, so I assumed she had a butt, (when I happened to think about it, which was never) but, frankly, there’s nothing about her face that would make me want to look at her ass. Though many have spoken of her beauty, grace and charm, she “don’t float my boat,” if you catch my drift. Not to be indelicate, but as a woman who has enjoyed the company and favors of a few other women in my day, as far as I’m concerned, she’s a dog.
But that’s beside the point. Why would anyone, especially a woman, especially a straight woman, ever write more than one treatise on booty? I can’t imagine why any woman would write one, but I’m trying to give Kaplan the benefit of the doubt. But, really, what’s up with that? I’m a black woman and I’ve never once wondered what impact my ass had on society at large. Or anybody else’s, for that matter.
Yes, some people objectify women, but writing article, after article, about the particular cultural implications of black women’s behinds and the impact on the feminine psyche due to the exploitation of such objectification in our shared popular culture, runs the risk of objectifying us further under the guise of social commentary. Kaplan writes:
Lord knows, it’s time the butt got some respect. Ever since slavery, it’s been both vilified and fetishized as the most singular of all black female features, more unsettling than dark skin and full lips, the thing that marked black women as uncouth and not quite ready for civilization (of course, it also made them mighty attractive to white men, which further stoked fears of miscegenation that lay at the heart of legal and social segregation). In modern times, the butt has demarcated class and stature among black society itself. Emphasizing it or not separates dignified black women from ho’s, party girls from professionals, hip-hop from serious. (Black women are not the only ones with protruding behinds, by the way, but they’re certainly considered its source. How many gluteally endowed nonblack women have been derided for having a black ass? Well, Hillary, for one.)
Now, Hillary Clinton has a “black ass?” What the hell is Kaplan talking about? Black women are considered the source of the big ass? How? Is it just me, or is there something wrong with this picture? Don’t get me wrong, Ms. Kaplan seems to be a fine and justifiably accomplished writer, but this obsessive “thing” she has about her and other people’s butts is an issue she might want to spend some time discussing with an expert. It needs to be examined. It’s not healthy. And, if she really thinks Michelle Obama’s rear end is worth celebrating, for any reason, Erin Aubry Kaplan can forget about the doctor, any fool could tell her she has lost her mind.
And I bet her ass is huge.
UPDATE: Mr. Kaplan responds to her critics. Basically, she says she wrote the article because she felt like it. No other reason is valid, imo, regardless of other people’s reaction. If you have to explain it or apologize for it, you shouldn’t write it. If you do, let it stand.
The PUMA side of the blogosphere is just as conflicted about Hillary Clinton being appointed Secretary of State by Barack Obama, the president-elect we all know and loathe, as are their mirror image, alter ego, Obamabot blogger bullies. The hand-wringing, teeth-gnashing, clothes rending faction of PUMAs wailing about Clinton’s betrayal sound like a Kos/HuffPo “Paul is dead” recording about Obama’s selection played backwards. Get over it.
Yeah, I said it. It’s hard to see what the fuss is all about. First of all, Hillary as Secretary of State pisses the Clinton Derangement Syndrome suffering blogger bullies off royally. Reason enough for me to support it. But, more importantly, Clinton will likely be the “Best Secretary of State EVER;” she not only deserves the job, she’ll be great at it. Plus, we all know Obama is still the same unqualified, inexperienced candidate he’s always been, and was never going to be more than President In Name Only, so, if he’s going to be the public face of a “shadow” administration, it might as well be a Clinton one. A cabinet full of Clintonites with Hillary herself in the lead is the very best we could hope for, given the circumstances.
All of Obama’s appointments seem to be laying the groundwork for Hillary. His loyalists have been relegated to positions answerable to him, not the country. Axelrod, Gibbs, and Jarrett are White House staff hired to manage perceptions and don’t pose much of an impediment to actually getting work done. Let them send out “hope and change” memos while the Clinton contingent handles things. They’re good at it, and that scenario is probably the one sold to Bill and Hillary by the Democrats at the end of the primaries.
Hillary Clinton is a practical politician, smart enough to know where real power lies. Keeping the Obama p.r. machine out front insulates Clinton from the kind of counter-productive right wing maneuvering that hampered the first Clinton administration. Obama might be the president, but if Hillary becomes the Secretary of State, he’ll be president of the second Clinton administration, only this time, Hillary will be in charge. And, if the Democrats are smart, this is the way they’ve planned it all along.
In the mainstream media’s attempt to boost it’s deservedly shrinking profile, the battle of the “unnamed sources” vs. the absolute truth rages on. The Reuters headline quoting the New York Times screams “Clinton Accepts Obama Secretary of State Offer: NY Times.” Citing Clinton “confidants,” when they’re not citing each other, both articles are basically rehashing variations of the same themes everybody’s been pushing since Clinton and the president-elect met in Chicago. The only “twist” is that now she’s said to have “decided.” Right.
Mrs. Clinton came to her decision after additional discussion with President-elect Barack Obama about the nature of her role and his plans for foreign policy, said one of the confidants, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the situation.
Mr. Obama’s office told reporters on Thursday that the nomination is “on track” but this is the first word from the Clinton camp that she has decided.
So, Clinton and Obama talked, but she didn’t tell him she’d accepted an offer he hasn’t officially made yet? And this is news? Now, in another “unnamed sourced” article, Reuters is walking it back from the edge of satire in a new article claiming that Obama has now unofficially selected Timothy Geithner as Secretary of Treasury.
A senior Democrat told Reuters in Washington that Obama wanted Geithner for the Treasury job, but had yet to make a offer. He did confirm that Summers was no longer under consideration.
Reuters is also quoting NBC as saying that Bill Richardson might “officially” be offered Secretary of Commerce:
NBC also reported that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson — who was one of a crowded pack of Democratic presidential early this year — could receive Obama’s nod to become commerce secretary.
Associated Press says Geithner is “likely” and Clinton is “on track.” In other words, nobody knows nothing, but they’ve got deadlines and phony-baloney jobs to justify. To put my two cents worth of speculation in the mix, absolutely nothing has changed since Obama offered the job to Clinton in Chicago and she accepted. In fact, an equally plausible case could be made that they worked out the deal when they met at Dianne Feinstein’s house back in June after Robert Gibbs played “hide the candidate” with the press on Obama’s campaign plane. Everything reported since the Chicago face-to-face has been mainstream media gossip and blogger bully bullshit. He offered, she accepted, done deal, game over, it’s a wrap.
“What school you go to?” “I go to Obama.” Yep, 440 mostly black and Hispanic kids will be answering that question that way from now on.
It was only a matter of time. A New York school has been renamed in honor of President-elect Barack Obama.
The former Ludlum Elementary School, in Long Island’s Hempstead Union Free School District, was renamed at a school board meeting Thursday – effective immediately. The new name is the Barack Obama Elementary School.
School officials say most of the 440 students there are black or Hispanic, and Obama’s victory is a source of great pride.
“Good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally, I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances.” Barack Obama, October, 2002.
Barack Obama has never been anti-war. Let me repeat that. Barack Obama has never been anti-war. On the contrary, he has actively advocated for war, his promise to “end the war in Iraq” was only to facilitate moving the troops to Afghanistan and maybe Pakistan. By his own admission, he has only ever objected to “dumb wars.” So, why are so many anti-war types so surprised and disillusioned about his “hawkish” cabinet picks? And what makes them think they won the election for him?
Not being the most politically savvy person in the room (yeah, yeah, take your shots,) the terms “liberal” and “progressive” seem to me to be used almost interchangeably in the media. And, from what I can tell, both groups are royally pissed at the candidate they supported with all their hopey changey hearts, who now seems determined to renege on all the promises they feel he made them. But what did he really promise?
“There is a line between ‘moving to the center’ and stabbing your allies in the back out of fear of being criticized. And, of late, he’s been doing a lot of unnecessary stabbing, betraying his claims of being a new kind of politician,” said Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, the top site of the liberal netroots community.
That quote is from a July, Washington Times article. Have the progressive/liberal factions currently crying, “Oh my God! Oh, my God! He’s betraying his base!” like latter day Chicken Littles with a new mantra, just now woken up from a self-induced hypnotic spell? Marc Armbinder makes a wishy-washy case for Obama to appoint Republicans to his administration to help push through his liberal/progressive agenda, but it doesn’t make much more sense to me than Salon’s “liberals-in-the-closet vs. so-called progressives” essay which seems to suggest that the true meaning of “liberal” is “center-left, neoliberal progressive.” Or, vice-versa. Whatever.
Brave New Films, part of the Brave New Foundation and associated with Brave New Pac, the rah-rah Obama political PAC that has produced anti-McCain campaign ads in conjunction with Howard Dean’s Democracy For America, is running a Firedoglake post on it’s website which claims that even Pat Buchanan is feeling sorry for the way the “progressive netroots” is getting screwed by Obama. In July, Kirk Tofte, reporting on this year’s “Netroot Nation” and quoting many of the event’s attendees who described themselves as “libertarian progressives,” said their confusion about their own identity made Obama the perfect candidate for them.
However, all this Obama Drama is pretty disingenuous, if not patently bogus. Only the most KoolAid-drunk self-delusioned fringe folks could have ever seriously believed that Obama was really the “Kumbayah, Teach The World To Sing” poster boy they tried to make him out to be. If his NAFTA-gate, 2nd Amendment, FISA, and pro-war stances didn’t give them a clue, some of their favorite leg-tingling media outlets should have. In July, Salon ran a piece on OpenLeft’s post, “Why It’s Important to Note That Barack Obama is NOT Liberal or Progressive.”
Of course, most of the latest “Barack’s Breaking My Heart” lamentations center around reports that Obama has/is going to offer Hillary Clinton the office of Secretary of State. Given the realities of Obama’s policy positions, it’s hard to make an ideological argument against Clinton’s appointment without twisting oneself into a pretzel. Therefore, the “betrayal” is characterized as being one of the always empty promise of “hope and change.” Which means that these “progressive/liberals” are either trying to couch their “Clinton Derangement” in acceptable terms, or they just haven’t been paying attention.
John Ziegler, the documentarian who commissioned the “How Obama Got elected” video documentary and corresponding Zogby poll showing Obama voters as “media-influenced” but less than knowledgeable about key issues, tried to commission another Zogby poll featuring McCain voters this time. According to Politico, however, Zogby said no:
Pollster John Zogby has rejected a conservative commentator’s offer to sponsor a poll to test the knowledge of people who voted for John McCain.
The commentator was proposing to mirror a poll of Obama voters that caused a political uproar when it suggested that Obama supporters didn’t know what they were voting for.
Why? Zogby just doesn’t want to:
“I am happy to do a poll of both Obama voters and McCain voters, with questions that I formulated and sponsored either by an objective third party or by someone on the left, in tandem with a John Ziegler on the right — but poll questions that have my signature,” Zogby said.
“I believe there was value in the poll we did,” Zogby added. “I also believe it was not our finest hour. This slipped through the cracks. It came out critical only of Obama voters.”
“Only critical of Obama voters?” That’s probably because only Obama voters were interviewed. Duh. Predictably, Ziegler’s pissed:
Ziegler told Politico: “I’m outraged. I find this amazing. There was nothing wrong with the original poll. I’m the exact same person I was last week. The left-wing blogosphere basically demanded this.”
Reuters and the L.A. Times are still reporting, as that did last night, that Penny Pritzker will be Barack Obama’s Secretary of Commerce. They both claim CNN as a source, and they both “break” the story of Janet Napolitano being tapped for Homeland Security. But the Chicago Tribune says nuh-uh:
Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker has told Barack Obama’s team she does not want to serve as Commerce Secretary, said a senior Obama official.
“Penny Pritzker ultimately has decided she does not want to do the Commerce thing,” the senior official said.
The official also said reports that Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano will be Secretary of Homeland Security are premature.
“I expect Napolitano will end up in the cabinet. But whether she ends up where the speculation is (has her), I don’t know,” the official said.
Which only proves that whenever the press doesn’t bother to do it’s homework, they just make stuff up and copy.
The Congressional Black Caucus can expect no favors from the post-racial president elect of a racially divided country hellbent on pretending it isn’t. In fact, some are arguing that the fact of Obama’s election renders the organization that Obama never had much use for anyway, now obsolete. The public jockeying for position now happening within the caucus while some members pretend that such maneuvering indicates that the nation has moved beyond race, creates a unique situation whereby the mere fact of their existence argues against their position. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune writes that the CBC has a rather strained relationship with Obama, and in fact, at a news conference announcing new leadership, they didn’t even mention his name.
The all-Democratic, 43-member group has had a somewhat uneasy relationship with the president-elect, who for four years when he represented Illinois in the Senate rarely participated in caucus activities. Some black lawmakers wished he had been more involved.
Of course, this could all be a rather theatrical attempt on behalf of Obama and the caucus to appear to have an arm’s distance relationship in order to reassure white Americans who might be uncomfortable with a too cozy alliance. However, in October more than half the CBC initially voted against the bailout bill Obama supported, and during the primary contest, he did not enjoy the sort of monolithic support from the CBC afforded him by black voters:
Many caucus members endorsed Obama’s Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, before Obama’s campaign gained momentum. Some, including Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., switched their support to Obama under pressure from their constituents. Obama ended up winning 95 percent of the black vote — a higher percentage than caucus members can always claim.
Andra Gillespie of Emory University put it bluntly:
“Obama doesn’t enjoy a close personal relationship with members of the Congressional Black Caucus,” she said.
Caucus members have always been less likely to bow to the historic nature of Obama’s election; many of them made history too, and many did it years ago. Thus, when pundits and other fools try to chalk everything up to a generational divide, they miss the point. Longtime members of Congress are far more likely to want to play traditional “quid pro quo” politics, than the type of “consensus by symbolism” tactics newer black politicians like Obama seem to embrace.
William Jelani Cobb, a Spelman College history professor who’s writing a book on Obama, contended that the caucus has “tried to minimize the extent to which Obama’s emergence has changed the nature of their position.”
“A good bit of the old politics, the old positioning, was as brokerage. They have people who can be the brokers, the middle person, between the Democratic Party — largely the white Democratic Party — and the black voting base,” Cobb said. “Obama is the first president who doesn’t need them for that.”
Cobb misses the point that, in a way, Obama’s refusal to “respect his elders” is a large source of the tension between him and many black politicians. Seen by them as not having “paid his dues,” yet climbing up the ladder on their backs, some folks are understandably resentful. The dismissive attitude he has displayed on occasion doesn’t help. It was at a CBC meeting in June that Obama told Hillary Clinton supporters to “get over it.” Jake Tapper reported at the time:
According to Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., Obama then said, “However, I need to make a decision in the next few months as to how I manage that since I’m running against John McCain, which takes a lot of time. If women take a moment to realize that on every issue important to women, John McCain is not in their corner, that would help them get over it.”
Not everyone was offended, but Maxine Waters was. Waters, who has been in politics for over thirty years, and has been in Congress since 1991, took exception to being told to get over it, and said so. Responding to Waters’ assertion that there was a lot of healing to be done after the grueling campaign, Obama’s answer didn’t help:
“I agree,” Obama said. “There’s healing on both sides.”
Obama then said two sources at the meeting said that he’d held his tongue many times during the campaign against Clinton in the interest of party unity and sensitivity. Clinton and her allies had suggested he was a Muslim, had said he wasn’t qualified to be president.
Regardless of who is right or wrong, Obama’s apparent cluelessness about respect does not bode well for his future relationship with the Congressional Black Caucus, or black people in general. His election is historic, but in a very real sense, not much moreso than the nature of the candidacies of many of his former collegues in the CBC. Most black Americans who have achieved success have broken through barriers to do so, and the trend does not end with Obama. One need only look at his own appointment of Eric Holder as America’s first black attorney general to make that point. Until Obama acknowledges and embraces the fact that triumphs of his black brothers and sisters in politics, sports, medicine, business and plain old American life have laid the foundation that has allowed him to pretend to be “post-racial” to their common advantage, he’ll never transcend anything. And statements like this one by Arthur Davis, quoted in the Star Tribune article, will always ring false:
Artur Davis, a centrist Democrat and caucus member from Alabama who is close to Obama, said he doesn’t sense tension. He said black lawmakers simply understand that Obama is a new breed of politician who transcends race.
“I think that’s something that’s understood by the majority of the caucus,” Davis said. “Barack Obama is not a black president of the United States. He’s a president of the United States who happens to be black.”
And be a goddamned insult, to boot. Either he’s black or he’s not. If not, he has no right to claim the mantle of the first black president, post-racial or anything else. If he is, he owes a debt of gratitude to the very people he tries so hard to keep at bay until it’s convenient not to. And sooner or later, he’s going to have to pay up.
Those “unnamed” sources are at it again; this time saying Arizona governor Janet Napolitano will be Barack Obama’s choice to head the Department of Homeland Security, according to Politico:
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) has been chosen to serve as secretary of the vast and troubled Department of Homeland Security for President-elect Obama, Democratic officials said. Napolitano is a border governor who will now be responsible for immigration policy and border security, which are part of Homeland Security’s myriad functions.
The move is not entirely unexpected, the Washington Independent speculated about in on the 14th:
The Arizona governor is even being mentioned as a possible member of the Obama administration. Napolitano, a graduate of the University of Virginia law school, is a leading candidate to be the next U.S. attorney general, or, barring that, head of Homeland Security. With two years remaining on her second gubernatorial term, she refuses to discuss the possibility of joining the new administration — but she hasn’t taken herself out of the running either.
Unsurprisingly, Napolitano has Clinton ties. From American Prospect:
By all accounts, Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona agonized over the decision of whom to endorse in this year’s presidential primary. Sure, the choice was fraught for most Democratic politicians who built their careers during the 1990s. But not every politician worked on Bill Clinton’s campaign in 1992, or owes her subsequent career to a Clinton appointment. Not every politician is one of just eight female governors in the nation, making her acutely aware of the symbolic power of a woman coming in reach of the presidency. And not every politician’s endorsement was so highly coveted, due to her leadership of a conservative state in a swing region seen as key to a Democratic victory in November.
In short, Napolitano was under a lot of pressure. Nevertheless, on Jan. 11, a few weeks ahead of Arizona’s Super Tuesday primary, she announced her support for Barack Obama, citing his ability to attract independent voters and his appeal to national unity. For those who’d been tracking Napolitano’s rhetoric and career, the move didn’t come as too much of a shock, despite her Clinton connections. Napolitano has been dropping buzzwords like “unity,” “compromise,” and “nonpartisanship” since her first campaign for attorney general in 1998 — years before a young Illinois state senator burst onto the political scene.
Oh, and she has a unique relationship with Jo(k) Biden; she was Anita Hill’s lawyer for the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings Biden presided over. From WSJ Washington Wire:
A lawyer, U.S. attorney and state attorney general before being elected Arizona’s governor in 2002, Napolitano represented Anita Hill when she accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.
During her term as Arizona’s attorney general, Napolitano was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy in 2000 and an ovariectomy in 2004.
Oh, and Reuters and the L.A. Times say it’s Chicagoan Penny Prizker for commerce secretary. And on Anderson Cooper 360 just now, it was said that if Hillary Clinton decides not to accept the position of Secretary of State, Harry Reid and other Democratic leaders are prepared to create a whole new leadership position for her in the Senate.
Hillary Clinton should be president. Everybody knows that. That’s the one thing all PUMAs have always agreed, and each post-election Clinton-era appointment Barack Obama makes underscores that point. PUMAs are a loose coalition of diverse entities with various points of view and opinions, as they should be, in my opinion. Any group founded upon the myth of Democratic party unity would be suspect if all it’s members agreed on everything. The only thing necessary to be a PUMA, in fact, is the unshakable faith that Hillary Clinton was the best candidate in the field this year, and that the Democratic party erred by pre-selecting Barack Obama as it’s standard bearer and then shoving him down the country’s throat.
All the talk during the primary season about the danger of the “Clinton Dynasty” Hillary was accused of feeling entitled to, was always hooey. Sure, she’s married to a former president, so what? America has a tradition of trusting family members of presidents to follow in their predecessor’s footsteps, or do the names Roosevelt and Adams not ring a bell? No, the demonization of the Clinton family was not about hierarchies, dynasties, or entitlement. It wasn’t even about seizing power, per se. The Democrats who aided and abetted the Grand Theft Obama were motivated by a desire to control the true ruling “Clinton Dynasty,” not eliminate it. PUMAs always knew that.
With every Dashle, Holder, Podesta appointment, Team O proves that West Wing Wannabe Barack Obantos is simply playing the part of the face of the Clinton party. Hillary’s current “I‘ll think about it” consideration of what has been reported in various outlets to have been a firm offer of Secretary of State, only points up her power. Wondering what Hillary’s going to do is what is motivating all the nervous sounding “yes she will, no she won’t” pronouncements attributed to “Democratic sources” and other such shadowy non-entities trying to determine in just what capacity they will have to serve her and her husband. If she takes the job, the Dems’ machinations can effectively remove Bill Clinton from the world stage (they think,) but put her on it. If she doesn’t, Bill remains a wild card, and so does she.
The only thing really to be determined is just how many Clinton loyalists will take positions of power, and how best the “Clinton Dynasty” decides they can be used to their advantage.
Oh, and no matter what the media and their “unnamed sources” think, according to Gallup, about 80% of Democrats like the idea of HRC SOS.
Associated Press is reporting that Al-Qaida insulted president-elect Barack Obama with Malcolm X’s famous characterization of those he considered to be “collaborators” with, and “appeasers” to white oppressors of black Americans as “house Negroes.”
Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, describing the president-elect in demeaning terms that imply he does the bidding of whites. The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies.
Ayman al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites, that Obama is “the direct opposite of honorable black Americans” like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader.
In al-Qaida’s first response to Obama’s victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect — along with secretaries of stateColin Powell and Condoleezza Rice — “house Negroes.”
Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term “abeed al-beit,” which literally translates as “house slaves.” But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as “house Negroes.”
The message also includes old footage of speeches by Malcolm X in which he explains the term, saying black slaves who worked in their white masters’ house were more servile than those who worked in the fields. Malcolm X used the term to criticize black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites.
Most Americans are aware of Malcolm X statements, what they don’t seem to get is that he was clearly speaking of Martin Luther King’s non-violent, “hat-in-hand” approach to Civil Rights. In this 1963 interview with Louis Lomax, Malcolm makes his feelings clear:
LOMAX: Reverend Martin Luther King teaches a doctrine of nonviolence. What is your attitude toward this philosophy?
MALCOLM X: The white man supports Reverend Martin Luther King, subsidizes Reverend Martin Luther King, so that Reverend Martin Luther King can continue to teach the Negroes to be defenseless�that�s what you mean by nonviolent�be defenseless in the face of one of the most cruel beasts that has ever taken people into captivity�that�s this American white man, and they have proved it throughout the country by the police dogs and the police clubs. A hundred years ago they used to put on a white sheet and use a bloodhound against Negroes. Today they have taken off the white sheet and put on police uniforms and traded in the bloodhounds for police dogs, and they�re still doing the same thing. Just as Uncle Tom, back during slavery used to keep the Negroes from resisting the bloodhound or resisting the Ku Klux Klan by teaching them to love their enemies or pray for those who use them despitefully, today Martin Luther King is just a twentieth-century or modern Uncle Tom or religious Uncle Tom, who is doing the same thing today to keep Negroes defenseless in the face of attack that Uncle Tom did on the plantation to keep those Negroes defenseless in the face of the attack of the Klan in that day.
Now the goal of Dr. Martin Luther King is to give Negroes a chance to sit in a segregated restaurant beside the same white man who has brutalized them for four hundred years. The goal of Martin Luther King is to get the Negroes to forgive the people the people who have brutalized them for four hundred years, by lulling them to sleep and making them forget what those whites have done to them, but the masses of black people today don�t go for what Martin Luther King is putting down.
So, while black and white liberal Americans get their knickers in a twist about al-Zawahri’s “insult,” perhaps they should put Malcolm’s words in his context and compare them to their own attempts to characterize Obama as a latter day MLK, as well as Obama’s own. In his acceptance speech at the Democratic national convention, Obama embraced Dr. King’s legacy, without mentioning him by name:
“America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.”
Interrupted dozens of times by applause as flash bulbs flared, the 47-year-old U.S. senator from Hyde Park resurrected King’s memory and quoted from his 1963 speech to draw a modern-day parallel.
” ‘We cannot walk alone,’ the preacher cried. ‘And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back,’ ” Obama said. “America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done.”
But if Hillary Rodham Clinton could emotionally and authentically mention Harriet Tubman, couldn’t the man who has implied that he is the inheritor of the dream bother to mention Dr. Martin Luther King more explicitly than as “a preacher from Georgia”.
Some folk say that Obama didn’t have to invoke King, and that he, indeed, should not have. Some said that in order to reassure majority America, any explicit mention of race, and of Dr. Martin Luther King, should be avoided. But Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is an American hero, not an African-American hero. Dr. King is celebrated, not only in the African American community, but also in our nation. King’s dream was not a dream for African-American people; it was a dream for a more inclusive America. While Obama’s speech was not required to be a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it should have acknowledged him.
“Reassure majority America?” Is that like, “reassure white people?” By his continued refusal to actually promote Dr. King’s or Malcolm X’s philosophy while cashing in on Dr. King’s celebrity, it seems to me that Obama is behaving in a manner consistent with Malcolm X’s definition of a “house Negro.” Insulting black men repeatedly, as he did in his Father’s Day speech, as he has often done by using stereotypical “Cousin Pookie” and “Popeye’s fried chicken” references, Obama consistently proves himself to be neither Martin Luther King nor Malcolm X, to the relief of white Americans. However, he also does not prove himself to be above Malcolm X’s pejorative description.
According to News4Jax.com, Hillary Clinton got more write-in votes in Duval County, Florida than Jesus. While neither name was on the ballot, 736 voters decided to express their displeasure with the 13 candidates who were by writing in their preferences:
Some voters expecting to vote for Barack Obama or John McCain two weeks ago were surprised to see 11 other names on the ballot. But 736 voters in Duval County weren’t happy with any of the choices and wrote in 191 other names.
Among the write in votes were those who really ran for president or vice-president during the long primary campaign: Sen. Hillary Clinton, Rep. Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Sarah Palin and even Steven Colbert.
George W. Bush got two votes to serve a third term.Others getting multiple votes were Jesus, God, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Tim Tebow and that perennial favorite, “None of the above.”Perhaps surprisingly, Joe the Plumber and John Doe only got one vote each, tying Bill Clinton, Theodore Roosevelt, Bill O’Riely, Tiger Woods, Bobby Bowden, Tommy Chong, Willie Nelson and Homer Simpson.
WRITE-IN VOTES FOR PRESIDENT
Votes
234
HILARY CLINTON
174
RON PAUL
23
NONE OF THE ABOVE
23
JESUS
21
MIKE HUCKABEE
14
MITT ROMNEY
8
COLIN POWELL
6
GOD
6
LEFT BLANK
5
UNDECIDED
4
AL GORE
4
BISHOP V.M. MCLAUGHLEN
4
FRED THOMPSON
4
OBAMA
4
RUDY GIULLIANI
4
STEVEN COLBERT
3
DONALD DUCK
3
DONALD FOY
3
MICKEY MOUSE
3
T. BOONE PICKENS
2
BILL COSBY
2
BILL McMILLON
2
BILL NYE
2
CHUCK NORRIS
2
CONDOLEEZA RICE
2
FRANK HARDEN
2
FRANKLIN GRAHAM
2
LOU DOBBS
2
PAGO POSSUM
2
SARAH PALIN
2
SEANATOR BROWNBACK
2
GARY BENZENBERG
2
GEORGE W BUSH
2
JOHN EDWARDS
2
LEE GODDARD
2
TIM TEBOW
Among those getting a single vote: Abstain, Against All, Alfred E. Newman, Bill Clinton, Bill O’Riely, Bill Richardson, Bobby Bowden, Bugs Bunny, May the best man win, Me, Morgan Freeman, Mr. Bill, Newt Gingwrich, None (Anarchy), Oprah, Pat Buchannan, Ralph Nader, Hilary Bush, Homer Simpson, Jay Plotkin, Jimmy Carter, Joe the Plumber, John Doe, Lieberman, Theodore Roosevelt, They Both Suck ‘08, Tiger Woods, Tommy Chong, Truman, Weird Al Yancovic, William Crosby and Willie Nelson.
Hmmm…”Me” only got one vote, same as Oprah. Good to know that at least in some places in America, Jesus and God trump ego. Then again, Jesus tied with “none of the above,” and God tied with “blank.” That says something profound about us as a nation, I’m sure, but it’s way too deep for me to figure out exactly what. Sadly, these results do make you wonder how Barack Obama got elected, when four people wrote him in instead of checking his name.
The Concord Monitor reports that Hillary beat Ron Paul in the New Hampshire write-in vote; doesn’t say how Jesus did:
Clinton, the Democrat who finished first in New Hampshire’s presidential primary last year, also took first among all the write-in candidates in last week’s general election. She garnered 1,124 write-in votes. Clinton’s husband, former president Bill Clinton, also had his supporters, claiming 13 write-in votes from around the state.
Libertarians also made a strong showing in write-in ballots. Libertarian icon and Texas Republican Rep. Paul snagged 1,092 write-in votes. Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party nominee, snagged 226 votes.
Remember when speculation was swirling back in August about Barack Obama’s veep pick? Is it Kaine? Bayh? Sebellius? Whoever it was to be, Jo(k)e Biden famously told reporters camped outside his house before the announcement, “Hey, guys, I’m not the guy.” Of course, as it turns out, he was the guy, and likely knew it all along. Now, the “will she or won’t she” drama surrounding whether or not Hillary Clinton is to be Obama’s Secretary of State seems to be evolving along the same lines.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has engaged three prominent lawyers to help President-electBarack Obama vet her candidacy for secretary of state even as some insiders criticized the pick and advisers to the former first lady said she was weighing whether to take the job if Obama offered it.
If Sen. Hillary Clinton is to be picked by President-electBarack Obama as his secretary of state, it may well depend on a review of the business activities of her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
AFP wonders if Obama has taken leave of his senses:
Signs that Barack Obama may make once bitter foe Hillary Clinton his secretary of state are provoking a flurry of questions over the president-elect’s motivation and vision for foreign policy.
Politico claims HRC might be motivated by a desire to retire her debt:
If Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes Barack Obama’s secretary of state, she could wipe away her lingering $7.6 million presidential campaign debt.
But Bloomberg says her campaign debt might be a problem:
Hillary Clinton will face a financial decision if she is nominated as secretary of state: what to do about the more than $7 million in debts left over from her presidential campaign
Politico reported earlier today that Hillary might turn the job down:
Hillary Rodham Clinton isn’t certain she would accept the Secretary of State post even if Barack Obama offers it to her, several people close to the former first lady say.
Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration, the Guardian has learned.
So, obviously, nobody in the press really knows shit. However, none of the so-called obstacles seem to amount to much, and the “she’s thinking about it” stuff sounds like “I’m not the guy.” And, we all know how Jo(k)e feels about Hillary.
Can you say, FISA? How soon the blogger bullies of the “progressive left” forget that they are, in the eyes of real politicians, completely expendable. While they like to pretend they, and they alone, are responsible for every Democratic victory since Ned Lamont, the truth is, not. Unlike PUMAs, they keep being surprized at the realization that Democratic “party unity” is the same sort of public relations sales pitch tool as “hope and change,” and that nobody really in charge actually expects anybody to buy that crap, let alone to be held to it as a principle. Maybe now that Joe Lieberman will be allowed to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, as president-elect Barack Obama hoped, (Lieberman was his mentor) they will finally get the message that they simply exist to suck up as they’re told.
Howard Dean gets it. Nobody invested as much of himself and his reputation into getting Barack Obama elected as Dean did, putting his position as chairman of the DeaNC, his Democracy for America, and his 50 state strategy at Camp O’s complete disposal. DFA lobbied hard against FISA, at one point even asking Senator Obama directly to vote against it on their website. Of course, I can’t find that page now, but I remember it well. At any rate, it seems Dean has learned his “Obama is a fair-weather friend” lesson well. From the Huffington Post:
“My point of view is that Barack won,” Dean said. “He can afford to be magnanimous. And if we happen to win both recounts and Georgia, Joe is the 60th vote. And the truth is — and I certainly don’t have to defend Joe Lieberman because, you know, we have an interesting history — but the fact is, he does vote 90 percent of the time with the Democrats. And no, he shouldn’t have said all those things. But why not clean the slate? Why not start all over again? Why not allow him to vote with us on the 90 percent of the stuff? He will be a good vote on climate change — and this matters. He may be a good vote on election reform, which I hope we will get to. So, you know, he may end up – though it is a little against the odds — he may end up being the vote that allows us to conduct business when Mitch McConnell decides we shouldn’t.”
Greg Sargent over on TPM sounds a bit snippy in his description of a conversation he had with Dean:
Howard Dean says that he’s “fine” with the Senate’s decision not to kick Joe Lieberman off the Homeland Security committee and suggested that the Senate had acted in accordance with what Barack Obama wanted.
In a phone interview with me just after the vote concluded, I asked Dean if he thought the Senate should keep Lieberman. He said that the Senate had acted “in the spirit of unification, which is what the President-elect wanted.”
“He called the shots, and that’s fine,” Dean said, in an apparent reference to the tone Obama has tried to set in Washington as he prepares to take power.
Dean also said he understood the natural human desire for “revenge,” a description that will dismay many of Dean’s allies in the liberal blogosphere, who maintain (as do I) that this wasn’t solely about retribution.
Greg and all the other pissed off bloggers don’t understand the lesson Dean has learned so well; Barack Obama doesn’t give a spit what you think, want, or care about. Not only that, Dean knows that as far as Obama’s concerned, anybody who thinks they might be uniquely useful might as well be Kleenex tissue or toilet paper; use it once and throw it away. As Hillary Clinton also learned, you either hop aboard the Obama Express and hold on for dear life, or you stand on the platform and watch the train pass you by. Your choice. But then, TPM knew that, too. Or, should have.
In the case of both Senator Hillary Clinton’s and attorney Eric Holder’s damned near certain appointments to Secretary of State and Attorney General, respectively, the Obama team seems almost pathologically obsessed with popular approval. Will the Senate approve? Of course. Do Republicans support it? Doesn’t matter. Are the blogger bullies upset? Who cares, they caved on their big, bad FISA position, they’ll suck up as they’re told. What about the public? They’re clueless.
Doesn’t this guy realize he won? Is he the only person on the planet who doesn’t get how popular he is? He could appoint Zippy the Pinhead to head Homeland Security and get away with it. Somebody should tell him, he gets to choose. And the bottom line is, no matter what, the chips are going to fall where they may. Sooner or later, he’s going to have to decide which is worse, making a potentially unpopular decision, or looking like a wimp.
Given the fact that during the primaries, nothing excited the tinfoil hat wearing lunatic fringe of the PUMAsphere and the right wing like a good “George Soros backs Barack Obama” conspiracy theory, an article in today’s Bloomberg News should send PUMA-inspired sales of Reynolds Wrap straight through the roof. Entitled, “Soros Funded Idea Factory Becomes Obama Policy Font” the article documents the influence of the Soros-backed Center for American Progress:
Thanks in part to funding from benefactors such as billionaire George Soros, the Center for American Progress has become in just five years an intellectual wellspring for Democratic policy proposals, including many that are shaping the agenda of the new Obama administration.
Much as the Heritage Foundation provided intellectual heft for the Republican Party in the 1980s, CAP has been an incubator for liberal thought and helped build the platform that triumphed in the 2008 campaign.
“What CAP has done is recapture the role of ideas as an important political force, something the Republicans had been better at for 25 years,” said Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute, a non-partisan policy-research organization in Washington.
CAP’s president and founder, John Podesta, 59, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, is one of three people running the transition team for president-elect Barack Obama, 47. A squadron of CAP experts is working with them.
Claiming that though the group is not the largest think tank in the business, it may well be the most influencial to the Obama administration with at least 10 members on Camp O’s transition team, the article features a few enthusiastic quotes from CAP’ers on their mission:
“Others strive to be objective, we don’t,” said Jennifer Palmieri, CAP’s vice president for communications.
Podesta likes to say, “we’re not a think tank, we’re an action tank,” said Dan Weiss, an environmental activist who joined CAP last year.
George Soros has been quoted as saying that removing George Bush from office was the central focus of his life and something he would sacrifice his entire fortune to achieve if somebody could guarantee it. Since that wish was going to come true this year anyway without costing him a dime, maybe Georgie found a better use for all that leftover dough. Quoted in the New York Times in January, he said this:
‘’I personally support Obama, but I don’t have any particular relationship,’’ said Mr. Soros, who has sometimes been a contentious figure in criticizing American economic and political actions. ‘’If he talks the way I talk, he would have no chance of getting elected: So I wish him well, but I don’t talk to him.’’ (Mr. Soros did help play host at a fund-raiser for Mr. Obama at the home of Paul Tudor Jones II, another prominent hedge fund manager, in May.)
Mr. Soros added that he had ‘’very high regard’’ for what he depicted as Mrs. Clinton’s statesmanlike qualities. ‘’I prefer Obama because I think he would bring more radical change,” he said. “But if she is the candidate, I will be very supportive of her.’’
Maybe Soros’ think tank figured out that his interests would best be served with Clinton as Secretary of State in an Obama administration. If so, the fact that the self-appointed blogger bullies and Obama staff KoolAid drunken true believers are being reported by Politico as being “roiled” is an even more delicious irony than it otherwise would be.
From his supporters on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, to campaign aides of the soon-to-be commander-in-chief, there’s a sense of ambivalence about giving a top political plum to a woman they spent 18 months hammering as the compromised standard-bearer of an era that deserves to be forgotten.
“These are people who believe in this stuff more than Barack himself does,” said a Democrat close to Obama’s campaign. “These guys didn’t put together a campaign in order to turn the government over to the Clintons.”
Runnin’ ’round the ‘net, found these William Ayers tidbits. Seems Biily Sunshine was ready to hand out “get out of jail free” cards when he gave a “talk” (that’s ’60’s-speak for “informal speech,” like “had a coffee” is similar hippie jargon for “hosted a coming out party in my home for a good friend of mine”) somewhere in Washington D.C. tonight; the details are rather sketchy. The Washington Post says he will be at “Busboys and Poets” Tuesday to talk about his two books on education, but that the event has already occurred. Neato – time travel, far out.
This Ain’t Hell says they and a bunch of FReepers protested Ayers at a Washington event that was originally scheduled to be held in a bookstore, but was moved to a church to accommodate all 100 people who showed up.
William Ayers came to DC today to pimp his new book about race as only a pale white guy can pimp a book about race to a roomful of other pale white people. Some of my Free Republic friends were there to inform the public about William Ayers including This Ain’t Hell’s own Encyclopedia Raoul who ended up being the spokesman for the group.
Kerry Pickett, of Eyeblast TV, on their Video Done Right website, (Newsbusters also carried the story) says she was at a D.C. event where Ayers was supposed to be dicussing American education, but was really slamming Fox News and Sarah Palin. Pickett says the audience was a bunch of Ayers lovers and that pissed her off (I’m paraphrasing, here) so she busted up the lovefest with a little major-league hardball. (Not the Chris Mathtews, “oooh, my pants are wet, leg-tingling” kind of Hardball, the “you better have on a cup and a helmet” kind.)
PICKET: Professor Ayers you had an unusual dedication to Sirhan Sirhan in your previous book. Do you regret that?
AYERS: Absolutely, but that wasn’t a dedication…show me. You heard it somewhere. The dedication in Prairie Fire in 1974…It was a manifesto was to all prisoners, and if I were writing a book like that today, I would dedicate it to 2.1 million people in prison. I think it was a stupid thing to single him out, but I also think that we have created a monster in the prison system. We ought to abolish the prison system. That’s what I think.
Abolish the prison system, huh? Wonder what motivated that little philosophical development? Maybe years underground as a roadie for the Partridge Family while running from prosecution will make you disdain legal authority. And anyway, what does he mean, if it wasn’t a dedication, why was it stupid to single him out? What Pickett was referring to was this “Prairie Fire” dedication page listing a whole bunch of political prisoners Ayers obviously hearts, one of whom is indeed RFK assassin, Sirhan Sirhan:
In his first public event since the election, William Ayers, an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-founder of the Weather Underground, spoke to more than 250 people in Washington’s Universalist All Souls Church Monday night as part of his book tour. The Weather Underground claimed responsibility for bombing government buildings in the early 1970s and the McCain campaign used Ayers’s early associations with Barack Obama to accuse the president-elect of “palling around with terrorists.”
“I’m a little overwhelmed,” began the soft-spoken Ayers, squinting into the light of several television cameras and speaking over the chatter of camera shutters. “When I set this up six months ago, I pictured ten people sitting around a circle.”
Awww, the bomber guy is shy, isn’t that sweet? And he said he all those people who act like he killed people, or he’s a violent person are just mean, ‘cuz he’s not. Him’s a puddy tat, yes he is, who just wishes he knew Barack Obama better, like everybody else. Humph. So, there. (Yep, paraphrasing.)
But, I digress. Anyway, Three Dollar Bill also came under scrutiny by somebody named Doug Ross (sorry if I’m supposed to know who you are, Dougie, I’m not really as up on my Ayers chroniclers as I should be, my bad) says Ayers is not just a master Fractured Fairy Tale teller, he’s an outright liar. Ross takes exception to Ayers recent Good Morning America assertion that he first met Obama at the “coffee” he and his wife Bernadine/dette Dohrn held to launch the political career of some guy they didn’t know in their home:
I was asked by the state senator to have a coffee for Barack Obama when he first ran for office and we had him in our home and I think he was probably in 20 homes that day, as far as I know, but that was the first time I really met him.
Ross seems to think that since Cannonfire ran a piece showing that event to have been held in November of 1995, the photo above showing Obama on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge in May of that same year, means either Ayers is in the habit of putting total strangers in charge of dispersing large sums of money, or he’s a bald faced liar. (Paraphrasing, again)
A website called How Obama Got Elected asks the question, “how the hell did Obama get elected?” In an attempt to answer the question of how exactly how a guy who only served a years worth of days of a term of office he won by kicking everybody else in the contest off the ballot, could come out of nowhere with a gazillion dollars in the bank, and win the presidency; a question burning in everybody’s mind who was paying attention, the documentarians (whoever they are) running this site filmed 12 Obama voters and asked them stuff. What they found is, stupid people who watch the news, vote. My only question about their findings is, knowing that “man-in-the-street” interviews can be easily manipulated by interviewing a large number of people and culling the answers that illustrate your point from them, such interviews are inherently suspect. However, the way the site reads, it looks like they might only have talked to the 12 people shown. If that’s the case, well, then, fuck all the assholes who put the Obaseeuh in office and the media they rode in on:
On Election day twelve Obama voters were interviewed extensively right after they voted to learn how the news media impacted their knowledge of what occurred during the campaign. These voters were chosen for their apparent intelligence/verbal abilities and willingness to express their opinions to a large audience. The rather shocking video below seeks to provide some insight into which information broke through the news media clutter and which did not.
To bolster their credibility, the producers offer this info:
Because obviously interviewing a relative handful of Obama voters, while interesting, is hardly scientific proof of anything, we also commissioned a Zogby telephone poll which asked the very same questions (as well as a few others) with similarly amazing results.
97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates
Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions
57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)
81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)
82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)
88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)
56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).
And yet…..
Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes
Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter
And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her “house,” even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!
Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.
Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we “gave” one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)
Seems that every church in Washington D.C. is eagerly anticipating the increased prestige and revenues associated with President-elect Barack Obama’s decision as to where he and his family will worship once he takes office. Cynical? Perhaps. But according to an AP-Yahoo (whose CEO, Jerry Wang is stepping down, btw) News article, since resigning from Trinity United Church of Christ in return for four of Hillary Clinton’s delegates, Obama has not attended any church he wasn’t slamming black fathers in, preferring instead to go to the gym:
Obama has attended church sparingly in the past several months. Since winning the election, he has spent Sunday mornings at the gym. Many Washington-area churches hope that will change after he is inaugurated.
Why anybody would expect that the Obamessiah would deign to go to church when he could spend his Sunday mornings worshiping himself, and Michelle and the kids could sleep in, is beyond me. Besides, there was no more political advantage to be gained by regular church attendance once the Rules and Bylaws Committee essentially handed him the nomination on May 31, so why go? And anyway, AP-Yahoo says some presidents don’t go to church at all:
Or he could choose, as many presidents have done, not to attend services at all. President George W. Bush, for instance, has only infrequently attended services in Washington, occasionally going to St. John’s.
Now that he’s been elected, a lot of people, especially black Christians, will be expecting a little something in return for their support:
Churches in the nation’s capital have started extending invitations to President-electBarack Obama and his family, touting their African-American roots, their ties to presidents past and to Obama himself.
While any number of Christian churches of all denominations are launching an all out public relations assault for the president-elect’s attention, they acknowledge there may be pitfalls associated with his attendence:
“I’m sure he’s going to be careful. He got burned,” Balmer said, referring to the Wright controversy. “He probably will be a little bit cautious with whom he associates.”
Pastors at D.C. congregations said they understand that their own words would be scrutinized more closely if the First Family were sitting in the pews, but universally said they wouldn’t change what they preach.
“I hope that I am deliberate and thoughtful about what I say every Sunday,” Snyder said.
He got burned? Wright burned Obama? Who sought who out? Who brought scorn and ridicule on whose life’s work? Who disowned who? Why are Columbia University religious history professors like Randall Balmer re-writing history this way? Are these eager-beaver preachers sure they want to compete with a guy who can make “lights shine down” and “oceans rise?” Who will they be asking their congregants to pray to, “Our Father, Who art in Pew 54?”
If Hillary Clinton does not become president-elect Blameless Obama’s Secretary of State, it will be all her own damned fault. Or, her husband Bill’s. But certainly not Barry’s; he’s a saint, doncha know? Oh, and Claire McCaskill’s a peach. But more on that later, first, let’s dig into this juicy little bitchpost from Politico with the headline, “Bill Vetting Could Cost Hillary Her Cabinet Post.” This particular “out” for Camp O disguised as a media-driven drumbeat is gaining traction in a self-generated, self-fulfilling kind of way. Paint the former president as a kinda sorta shadowy double dealer just in case Obie (or, more likely his brain trust) has a better idea, or she says “no.” In which case the Teflon TelePrompTer Reader would need a plausible excuse to retract his non-offer that he only extended as a courtesy in the first place. Get it?
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is President-electObama’s first choice for secretary of State but his aides are becoming exasperated by the Clinton camp’s pokey response to demands for extensive information about former President Bill Clinton’s finances, according to numerous Democrats involved in the process.
“Numerous Democrats involved in the process?” Hmmmm…wonder whose side they could be on, since they seem to be pissed off at the “Clinton Camp?” Now, this is important to note, because further into the “Cover His Ass As A Favor” Politico hitpiece, we learn exactly who is twying to hut widdle Bawwy’s pwesidenshul chances:
““The ball is very much in her court, but the president’s finances have been a major point of sensitivity from day one,” the well-connected Democratic official explained. “Given that everyone’s mystified by how deliberately public the Clintons have made this once secret process, the assumption is either that the Clintons are trying to use the public buzz to steamroll their way in, create a sense of inevitability that overcomes those concerns, or that it’s just a matter of time before they … satisfy vetting somehow, some way. Otherwise, after all this speculation, there’ll be a permanent dark cloud hanging over his finances.
”How deliberately public the Clintons have made this once secret process?” They employ the “well-connected Democratic official” sourced by Politico? What’s their motive? “A permanent dark cloud hanging over his finances?” Could creating that possibly be the reason for this whole silly exercise? Hmmmm. This stuff would be much easier to figure out if we didn’t live in a universe parallel to the mainstream media’s. All this alternate reality sure gets confusing sometimes. Like the Claire McCaskill thing. It’s her fault She gets the credit for encouraging Axelrod’s Puppet to run for president in the first place. She’s a pip, all right, that Claire. So says McClatchy:
It was on Barack Obama’s third trip to Missouri in 2006 to help Claire McCaskill win a Senate race that she urged him to run for president.
“We’re talking about it,” he confided after a rainy Sunday night rally in St. Louis , two days before the 2006 election. “Win on Tuesday and we’ll talk more.”
McCaskill did win, and she and Obama did talk. They became Senate allies and friends. A year later he was a presidential candidate, and she provided a pivotal endorsement. She quickly emerged as one of his most visible and nimble defenders.
Hmmmmm, again. They weren’t friends and allies until after she won her Senate seat, so…why’d he make three trips to Missouri on her behalf? And the fact that they were like, what, 99th and 98th ranked in Senate seniority couldn’t have had any bearing on forging a friendship after she got elected, right? And just how “pivotal” can an endorsement from the actually 97th ranked Senator be, anyway? And just what the hell was so “impressive” about the guy barely in front of her in line that it made her liver quiver to the point that she felt compelled to encourage him to run for president? His smooth, caramel skin perhaps, Claire? Whatever did it for her, it was going around. Republicans for Obama got the same thrill up their leg about Obie at just about the same time:
Republicans for Obama is a grassroots organization of proud party members who all share one important trait— we are Americans first and Republicans second. (Even if it is a close second.) Founded in late 2006 as part of the nationwide effort to encourage Senator Obama to run for the Presidency, our volunteer-run, grassroots group now includes thousands of members from across the nation. Together, we represent a cross-section of the millions of Republican and conservative independents who voted for President-Elect Obama in 2008.
Imagine yourself at the podium talking to a huge crowd, and the words on the teleprompter say things like: “This is the moment that the world is waiting for. . .” or, “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.” How do you pull it off? Maybe you flash to Peter O’Toole as Lawrence of Arabia, running across the top of a train shouting, “Acaba! Acaba!” with stirring music underwriting your every move. Even so, something in you hesitates at throwing your full self into such grandiosity. Something healthy in you that feels it’s just too way over the top. Besides, isn’t it up to other people to say whether you are a transformative figure?
Not only is it hard to understand how anyone could read an Obama speech aloud with a straight face, it defies belief that anyone could bear to listen to the silly twaddle he spews, let alone be taken in by it. As he steps down from the Senate to twiddle his thumbs until he is inaugurated a couple of months from now, in order to avoid actually doing anything substantive, like, oh, say, his job, Our Messiah-elect “wrote” (yeah, right) a “letter of thanks” to the people of Illinois for allowing him to serve, at least for the brief, intermittent moments he did so between running for yet another office. Full of the same sort of nebulous obfuscations, half-truths, outright lies, and “what the fuck” verbosity we’ve come to know, reading it in the state’s morning papers must have caused more than a few breakfasts to be lost. In what, I assume, is a gallant effort to help all Americans keep to their diets, the Washington Post has magnanimously reprinted the “thank you note to the Land of Lincoln” for those who might otherwise have gratefully missed it, for us to be sickened by it, too. I won’t reprint it all, I wouldn’t do that to a dog, as Stevie Wonder said in “Rocket Love,” but, just for giggles, here’s a snippet:
“It was in Springfield, in the heartland of America, where I saw all that is America converge — farmers and teachers, businessmen and laborers, all of them with a story to tell, all of them seeking a seat at the table, all of them clamoring to be heard. It was there that I learned to disagree without being disagreeable; to seek compromise while holding fast to those principles that can never be compromised, and to always assume the best in people instead of the worst. Later, when I made the decision to run for the United States Senate, the core decency and generosity of the American people is exactly what I saw as I traveled across our great state — from Chicago to Cairo; from Decatur to Quincy.”
I haven’t seen such sappy drivel since Lassie rescued the crippled kid. Here’s the predictable denouement:
With your help, along with the service and sacrifice of Americans across the nation who are hungry for change and ready to bring it about, I have faith that all will in fact be well. And it is with that faith, and the high hopes I have for the enduring power of the American idea, that I offer the people of my beloved home a very affectionate thanks.
“Your help…” “service and sacrifice…” “hungry for change…” have faith…” “high hopes…” “enduring power…” “beloved home…” and “affectionate thanks” all in one, two-sentence paragraph! Wow! It takes traveling tent revival, jackleg, lay “preachers” 2 or 3 hours to get that many kitschy cliches into one sermon! Lucky us, after two years of constantly being bombarded with infinite variations of the same theme and a similarly interminable number of reworkings of the same tired, “hope and change” jabberwocky, we get to hear pontification in lieu of policy, happy crappy like this everyday for at least the next four years.
Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist (say it with me) and Barack Obama’s “family friend,” and his equally unrepentant wife, “lawyer” (she doesn’t have a law license, she’s a criminal, duh) Bernadine/dette Dohrn, were interviewed on Democracy Now, and, boy! was it an eye-opener. For one thing, the reason they are “unrepentant” is that, according to them, they didn’t do anything. At least, nothing everybody else wasn’t doing too. It was the sixties, man! Everybody was against the war! What they don’t say, is that everybody was against war, period, not “the war” per se. War is a major buzz kill, dude, and in the sixties and seventies, it was all about the buzz. Everybody wasn’t setting bombs, either. Some people were sticking flowers in National Guardsmen’s rifles and not taking the brown acid at mega-concerts. But, I digress. Anyway, after listening to the Ma and Pa Kettle of bored rich kid activism spin their revised history Fractured Fairy Tales, I am now convinced that these two spent their fugitive years underground as roadies for the Partridge Family. Perfect cover, and, after ‘74 when the show went off the air, they could keep all the drugs and Boone’s Farm they scored for themselves. Remember, the Weather Underground was involved with getting drug guru Timothy (Come Together) Leary out of the country after his escape from jail on (trumped up) drug charges.
We are a nation of schizophrenics. Not in the clinical sense; in the popular culture definition sense of happily holding dear diametrically opposed views at the same time. We are tolerant bigots who elect a black man president while the majority of black voters vote down a gay rights measure. We support equal rights for all, except when it’s inconvenient. All men are created equally superior to women. We champion religious freedom for those who believe as we do. Those who don’t, have no place at our table. That’s just who we, as a nation, are. Deal with it.
At the forum shown in the following video clip, whenever and wherever it was, a panel of men discuss sexism against women in this year’s presidential election. Seriously. One of them, outgoing DeaNC chairman Howard Dean, makes clear the case that racism trumped sexism in the Democratic primaries, unfairly marginilizing Hillary Clinton, and trvializing the concerns of women who supported her as fervently as black Americans embraced the historic nature of Barack Obama’s candidacy and ultimate election. Not that Dean admits personal culpability, no siree, Bob. Everybody hated his neutrality, according to him. Somehow, the fact that he has been actively involved with Barack Obama since his Democracy for America (formerly Dean for America) tapped him as one of Dean’s Dozen in 2004, and whose 50 state strategy, DFA grassroots mobilization, and internet fundraising model was used to help him get elected to the Senate and the presidency, just didn’t happen to come up.
Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama.” Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.
Incidents around the country referring to President-electBarack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.
From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.
Yet, who can forget the Asheville, North Carolina grade school teacher, Diantha Harris, intimidating children for supporting John McCain?
Then there’s the Sarah Palin thing. Just like nobody but Hillary supporters cared about “Bro’s Before Ho’s” t-shirts, “Sarah Palin is a cunt” t-shirts were perfectly fine with most Democrats, it seems. And it’s okey-dokey to hang Palin in effigy, doing so might raise the ire of some neighbors and other rabid feminists, and eventually garner attention from the authorities, but hang Obama the same way and expect to get arrested, pronto. Everybody knows hanging a black man is worse than hanging a white woman. Sheesh, even the L.A.County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said so:
Whitmore said that potential hate crimes are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. If the same display had been made of a Barack Obama-like doll, for example, authorities would have to evaluate it independently, Whitmore said.
“That adds a whole other social, historical hate aspect to the display, and that is embedded in the consciousness of the country,” he said, adding he’s not sure whether it would be a hate crime. “It would be ill-advised of anybody to speculate on that.”
Yep, we like our prejucices, and do not believe for a minute that whichever one we like the most is nearly as bad as the one you prefer. Let’s face it, the only use we have for “honest” discussions about various forms of “feel good about yourself by putting down others” hate, is when it comes to assigning blame for our problems to somebody else.
The day after the “historic election of America’s first black president” I wrote a post called, “The Struggle Is Over,” where I speculated that white Americans who voted for a black man for president, whatever their stated reasons, were partially motivated by a desire to free themselves and the nation from the burden of “white guilt,” and would no longer tolerate protestations of systemic disadvantage by black people. I wrote:
Now that America has elected Barack Obama, “the struggle” is officially over. We are all equal; if you’ve got problems, they’re your fault. The feel-good liberals who voted to disprove the validity of our shared racial history will have no further patience for complaint. “Whaddaya mean? Ya got a black president!” Expect to hear variations of that refrain a lot in the next four years.
Well, it seems that not only “feel-good liberals” who voted for Obama are “feeling good” for their liberalism, staunch conservatives are positively giddy. Tom Adkins, said to be the publisher of CommonConservative.com, writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer:
The Era of White Guilt is over.
This seemingly impossible event occurred because the vast majority of white Americans didn’t give a fluff about skin color and enthusiastically pulled the voting lever for a black man. Not just any black man. A very liberal black man who spent his early career race-hustling banks, praying in a racist church for 20 years, and actively working with America-hating domestic terrorists. Yet white Americans made Barack Obama their leader. Therefore, as of Nov. 4, 2008, white guilt is dead.
So today, I’m feeling a little “uppity,” if you will. For more than a century, the millstone of white guilt hung around our necks, retribution for slave-owning predecessors. In the 1960s, American liberals began yanking that millstone while sticking a fork in the eye of black Americans, exacerbating the racial divide to extort a socialist solution to the country’s problems. But if a black man can become president, exactly what significant barrier is left? The election of Barack Obama destroys the validation of liberal white guilt. The dragon is hereby slain.
Adkins gleefully dismisses all the black individuals and entities he can think of who have dedicated themselves to the fight for racial equality as being suddenly, yet emphatically, irrelevant:
Congressional Black Caucus? Irrelevant. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.)? Shut up. ACORN? Outlawed. Black Panthers? Go home and pet your kitty. Black separatists? Find another nation that offers better dreams. To those Eurosnots who forged careers hating America? I’m still waiting for the first black French president.
No more quotas. No more handouts. No more complaining that “the man” is keeping you down. “The man” is now black.
Even as they rail against the election of the nation’s first black president, some white supremacist leaders are claiming that people have flocked to their organizations since Barack Obama’s victory.
“The League of the South is reporting a surge in new members within hours of the results from yesterday’s elections,” proclaimed an E-mail that the neo-Confederate group sent to supporters the day after the election. “League president, Dr. Michael Hill, stated that it is from an awakening of many Southerners that the constitutional Republic is now dead and has been replaced with a national socialist empire.”
Don Black, who runs the leading white supremacist hate site Stormfront.org, boasted in an online post Wednesday afternoon that his website was seeing six times its usual traffic. “There are a lot of angry White people out there looking for answers,” he wrote. “Let’s show them. We will not be defeated.”
The same kinds of claims were made after Obama secured the Democratic nomination however, it didn’t seem to hurt him in the general election. There was that thwarted “top hat and white tuxedo” assassination attempt, though. And just the other day, CNN reported that most Americans thought Obama would heal our racial divide:
The public thinks it’s likely that Obama will improve race relations, improve economic conditions, bring stability to the financial markets, make the U.S. safer from terrorism, reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil, reduce global warming, win the war in Afghanistan and remove U.S. troops from Iraq without causing a major upheaval in that country.
As many African Americans bask in the reflective glow of Obama’s so-called “monumental, historic achievement” on their (our) behalf, Reuters has a story today of young black people who say, “wait up, not so fast:”
The election of the first black president in U.S. history should send a powerful signal to young black Americans: If Barack Obama made it, so can you.
But some African Americans living in inner city Atlanta said that while Obama is a role model his life appeared so far removed from their own struggles that it was difficult to see how they could use it to spur their own success.
There are about a gazillion “what Obama means for racism” stories floating around on the internet, but the truth is, Obama’s election doesn’t amount to much in that regard at all. Race relationships in this country are just as complex today as they were the day before the election, as they were thirty years ago. While those who voted for Obama pat themselves on the back, and those who didn’t, pat themselves on the back for being part of a country that has progressed to the point that it can pat itself on the back, disproportionate numbers of black men still languish in jail, huge numbers of black families still live in poverty, and inner-city schools still suck. Nobody sitting in an overcrowded county hospital emergency room seeking substandard medical care they couldn’t pay for on November 3, can suddenly walk into a private hospital today and demand treatment.
If we’re completely honest with ourselves and each other, we would admit that a politician like say, Bobby Rush or Willie Brown probably wouldn’t make it past the primaries, even if they could marshal the forces necessary to get into them in the first place. They’re too black. For Democrats. If Barack Obama didn’t have an exotic background story to tell, he wouldn’t be…well, Barack Obama. He’s be just another Illinois state senator, since it’s doubtful an ordinary black guy gets the support and greasing through the system Obama enjoyed. If he had a mustache, or was a beefier, darker-skinned, “by his own bootstraps” kind of black man, he’d be toast. The truth is, racism wasn’t overcome with the election of Barack Obama, racism is what got him elected.
I guess West Wing-lite President-elect Barack Obantos is so uncomfortable making decisions that the idea of sitting back and letting Chris Matthews’ frat brothers in the media who want to help him be a success ‘cuz it’s their jobs, do it for him, is just fine. After handing out a couple of plum gigs to his ace boon cronies Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett, and naming a “transition team” straight out of the library of past Harvard year books, the soon-to-be-Waffler-In-Chief was tapped out. Since even he knows he’s got to name somebody to something sooner or later, he, or most likely David Axelrod, since Obie never thinks anything Axelturf doesn’t think first, dispatched a couple of the professional “unnamed sources” they keep on the payroll to metaphorically stick their fingers in the wind to see which way which trial balloons would float.
That’s what it looks like with the “Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State” rumors. Whether Camp O put Clinton’s name out as a serious contender, or for appearances sake in an effort to avoid a replay of the “not even vetted for veep” uproar, or, if, as I believe, the job really is hers for the taking, it’s also pretty clear that final approval comes not from the O Team or the Senate, but from the public, via the media. That’s why, in this American Idol-inspired public vetting process, AP has been running, and continuously updating, a story about Bill Clinton being a potential threat to a possible Hillary appointment:
Former President Bill Clinton’s globe-trotting business deals and fundraising for his foundation sometimes put his activities abroad at odds with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and could cause complications if President-electBarack Obama picks her to be secretary of state.
It’s doubtful that the current Senate-elect would reject any Democrat for anything for any reason. And if Joe (Gird Your Loins) Biden’s plagiarizing, racially insensitive, gaffe-prone ass can be a heartbeat away from the most powerful office in the world, which is soon to be occupied by the least experienced candidate for president in the world, Peewee Herman should be able to qualify any other job available. Therefore, I’m willing to bet Obama did indeed offer Clinton the job Friday, and she, as reported, said, “maybe.” Thus, the AP assist on a semi-plausible “out” in case “maybe” becomes “I’ll pass.”
With the economy headed into the crapper, I think a regular “Recession Recipe” feature might not be a bad idea. It came to me while reading PUMA Pac, where Murphy had posted a link to a New York Times article about how in this economy, Spam, the quasi-meat, not the web junk, sales are booming.
But these days, consumers are rediscovering relatively cheap foods, Spam among them. A 12-ounce can of Spam, marketed as “Crazy Tasty,” costs about $2.40. “People are realizing it’s not that bad a product,” said Dan Johnson, 55, who operates a 70-foot-high Spam oven.
While the article notes that the economic downturn is responsible for such an increased demand for Spam that workers at the Hormel plant can get all the overtime they want, it also says Spam is not the only cheap stomach stretcher selling off the shelves:
Pancake mixes and instant potatoes are booming. So are vitamins, fruit and vegetable preservatives and beer, according to data from October compiled by Information Resources, a market research firm.
“We’ve seen a double-digit increase in the sale of rice and beans,” said Teena Massingill, spokeswoman for the Safeway grocery chain, in an e-mail message. “They’re real belly fillers.”
Kraft Foods said recently that some of its value-oriented products like macaroni and cheese, Jell-O and Kool-Aid were experiencing robust growth. And sales are still growing, if not booming, for Velveeta, a Kraft product that bears the same passing resemblance to cheese as Spam bears to ham.
I don’t know about instant potatoes. Seems to me a bag of real potatoes is a better bargain. But, other than that, cheap, preservative-laden, chemically-processed, pseudo-foods just might be the way to go, considering the way the latest financial news is going.
Now, this could all be part of a nefarious plot by Barack Obama to promote Hawaii’s state meat. Just like he’s lobbying hard to bring the Olympics to Chicago, it’s conceivable that he’s planning to keep the overall economy depressed in order to help boost attendance at Waikiki’s “Spam Jam.” From Wikipedia:
In the United States, the residents of the state of Hawaii and the territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) consume the most Spam per capita. On average, each person on Guam consumes 16 tins of Spam each year and the numbers at least equal this in the CNMI. Guam, Hawaii, and Saipan, the CNMI’s principal island, have the only McDonald’s restaurants that feature Spam on the menu. Burger King, in Hawaii, began serving Spam in 2007 on its menu to compete with the local McDonald’s chains.[9][10]
In Hawaii, Spam is so popular it is sometimes dubbed “The Hawaiian Steak.” [11] It is traditionally reheated (cooked), resulting in a different taste than Spam eaten by many Americans on the mainland, who may eat Spam cold.[12] One popular Spam dish in Hawaii is Spam musubi, in which cooked Spam is combined with rice and nori seaweed and classified as onigiri.[13]
So, all things considered, maybe we should all stock up on Spam, Velveeta and free packs of ketchup from fast food restaurants. A couple packets in hot water makes a decent cup of soup. Laugh if you will, but if you don’t work for Hormel, these recipe suggestions just might be more handy in the coming years than any of us currently want to think.
Country Spam Casserole Recipe
Ingredients: 1 can Spam luncheon meat; cubed
1 Onion; chopped
1 pound Bag frozen mixed vegetables; thawed, drained
2 cans Cream of potato soup
3 cups Prepared instant mashed potatoes
1 package (3 oz size) Chives and onion cream cheese; softened
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. In skillet over medium-high heat, saute Spam and onion until browned. In bowl, combine vegetables, Spam mixture, and soup. Spoon into 3-quart casserole dish.
In bowl, combine mashed potatoes and cream cheese. Spread over Spam mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
No shit! I am not freaking kidding! Okay, maybe I am, but not by much. I’ve pretty much given up on the API soap opera; like all sudsers, they get tedious and predictable after awhile, then they inevitably “jump the shark.” But, checking in on the API website today, I find that they have not only “jumped” the shark, they have played hopscotch on it’s back before grabbing a fin and hanging on for a flight. First, seems that yesterday,(or maybe tomorrow or the day after, who knows Nowegian time?) Chief Editor Korir, (who has been exposed as a fraud many times by Mountain Sage) wrote his API “family” an open letter promising to “reach the mountaintop” and “overcome” the “evil doers” who “sabotoged the airing of the (mythical Michelle Obama) tape.” I have no flipping idea what this means, but hey, no matter, because today, (or tomorrow, or whenever the 15th of November is in Norway) an “imposter,” pretending to be Korir, “took over” the site in order to give API a “bad name.” So now, (or, later, or whenever Korir came up with this scheme, Norway time) the site has been “closed” so that it can be “cleared.” (The original post claiming Michelle Obama had called API saying that her husband was adopted, but still eligible to be president, has been already “cleared.”)
Now, I don’t know about you, but I say, props must be given for Olympic-grade execution of “shark jumping.” Korir might be a hoaxter and scammer, but he has definitely raised pointless posturing to a fine art.
Just when speculation surrounding Barack Obama’s possibly imminent appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State was reaching a fever pitch, AP had to throw Bill Richardson’s name in the mix. This pisses me off for two reasons. One, if this is some sort of lottery approach to filling the job, it’s an insult and a slap in the face to Senator Clinton. Why float her name if the decision is up in the air? Two, Bill Richardson? Are you kidding me? Considering Richardson’s Judas-like abandonment of his “dear friends and mentors,” Bill and Hillary Clinton, to make him the other one of two being considered for the job is beyond insulting, it’s a slap in the face with a dirty jock strap. What the hell is Obama thinking? Just when you’re ready to give him the slightest benefit of the doubt, he and/or his faithful servants do something monumentally stupid like interview Hillary Clinton’s arch-enemy for the job she’s perfect for (if she deigns to do it) and frankly, that he needs her to do.
President-electBarack Obama has interviewed primary election rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Richardson for secretary of state, according to Democratic officials who revealed his secret meetings with both as he weighed the decision on folding former foes into his new administration.
Obama met with Richardson late Friday afternoon, a day after conferring one-on-one with Clinton at his Chicago office, said several Democratic officials. He plans to meet there Monday with his Republican opponent, John McCain, but advisers to both of the general election rivals say they don’t expect Obama to consider McCain for an administration job.
Gee whiz Obie, grow a pair and make a decision just because it’s the right thing to do. President by Popularity is impossible to pull off, and a recipe for disaster to boot.
Recession, what recession? Some people just don’t need a bailout. President-Elect-Of-The-Universe, Barack Obama, is spreading the wealth around, according to the New York Daily News. It seems that the Obama treasure chest is so flush with cash after raising umpty-gazillion dollars for his campaign, that staffers are getting all kinds of goodies in return for services rendered:
Long-suffering political footsoldiers who toiled tirelessly, at least since September, to put Obama in the White House recently learned they will be getting extra paychecks worth a month’s salary, the Daily News has learned.
Hmmm, they worked a couple of months and are getting an extra full month’s salary. That’s “long-suffering? Better update my Funk and Wagnall’s. Anyway, Camp Obie has so much dough leftover, the perks don’t stop at cold, hard cash:
In addition to the cold cash, staffers also have the option of keeping their campaign-issued computers and BlackBerrys – but must pay income tax on the hardware if they do.
Positively “Oprah-esque,” that Obie. But, don’t get it twisted, there’s a limit to the King of All Media’s generosity. Oh, sure, campaign staffers get un-earned ducats and booty, but the DeaNC only gets a plea for help from Obama to his loyal donors who make the gift-giving possible. Guess they couldn’t just give those leftover t-shirts away. Wouldn’t want to over-extend himself, money-wise, to the all guys and girls who helped him get elected, just the ones who answer to him directly.
In other, totally non-related “news” the Huffington Post is claiming that Obama formally offered Hillary Clinton the job of Secretary of State during the meeting he requested with her in Chicago yesterday. Supposedly, she played coquette:
President-elect Barack Obama offered Sen. Hillary Clinton the position of Secretary of State during their meeting Thursday in Chicago, according to two senior Democratic officials. She requested time to consider the offer, the officials said.
“I’ll think about it?” Is that like, “Don’t hold your breath?” I guess all that sniping about “sniper fire” and “drinking tea” is not enough to keep Obama from issuing his own emergency “3:00 a.m. phone call.” When little boys playing dress-up actually get elected and realize they can’t just play president on TV, calling Mommy for help is the most natural thing in the world.
As we all know, Barack and Michelle Obama live in the neighborhood surrounding the University of Chicago, Hyde Park. So does Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, Louis Farrakhan (who thinks Obama is the Messiah,) Tony Rezko (when he’s not in jail,) Jesse Jackson, and on Obama’s block, James and Barbara Bowman, Valerie Jarrett’s parents, in the home in which they raised their family after returning to this country from London. Ms. Jarrett herself now lives just a few blocks away.
Why is this important? Well, there’s an old saying, “tell me who you are by the company you keep.” And while our new president-elect and King of All Media certainly “keeps company” with lots of people who don’t live in and around Hyde Park, and conversely, is not likely to spend time with most of the denizens of the area, given that it’s an oasis of wealthy academia surrounded by, shall we say, less well funded, much less intellectually curious people, some of those Hyde Park dwellers who are in Obama’s inner circle have often proven problematic in the past, and likely, will continue to do so.
Take for example, “unrepentant terrorist,” (say it with me) William Ayers. Obama has continuously tried to distance himself from the radical professor with the now famous “just a guy in my neighborhood” line, even though, from all indications, the two are quite close. During the campaign, Ayers obediently kept his mouth shut and did not contradict Obama’s characterization of their relationship. After the election, however, Ayers has crawled out of hiding, and yet, in his attempts to corroborate his “neighbor’s” assertions, has let a little too much truth slip out. Or, so says the Chicago Tribune. In a new afterword to the re-issue of his book, “Fugitive Days, which he will promote on “Good Morning America” Friday, Ayers writes:
“[W]e had served together on the board of a foundation, knew one another as neighbors and family friends, held an initial fund-raiser at my house, where I’d made a small donation to his earliest political campaign.”
Uh-oh. “Family friends?” Ooops? Or is Ayers just an egomaniac incapable of keeping quiet about anything?
Then, there’s Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s extremely close adviser and very close personal friend to the Obama family. Jarrett, who has been rumored to be a potential replacement for Obama in the Senate, though she says she’s not interested, has more plausibly been said to be in line for a cabinet appointment, possibly in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or Department of Transportation. With her background, with the Chicago Transit Authority, and as CEO of Habitat Company, which develops “mixed income housing,” such specualtion is not surprising. But it’s the Habitat association that could do her in. Habitat’s goal of eliminating public housing projects by developing privately owned housing projects for government assisted and other low-income families, hasn’t proven to be an overwhelming success. With the involvement of folks like Allison Davis and Tony Rezco and questions surrounding Obama’s assistace in acquiring subsidies for the developers, Jarrett’s background just might not be much of an asset. And now, Judicial Watch is sniffing around. From Standard Newswire:
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents linking Valerie Jarrett, an advisor to Barack Obama and the co-chairman of the President-Elect’s transition team, to a series of real estate scandals, including several housing projects operated by convicted felon and Obama fundraiser/friend Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
According to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Illinois Secretary of State, Valerie Jarrett served as a board member for several organizations that provided funding and support for Chicago housing projects operated by real estate developers and Obama financial backers Rezko and Allison Davis. (Davis is also Obama’s former boss.) Jarrett was a member of the Board of Directors for the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation along with several Davis and Rezko associates, as well as the Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization, an organization that worked with Rezko and Davis.
(According to press reports, housing projects operated by Davis and Rezko have been substandard and beset with code violations. The Chicago Sun Times reported that one Rezko-managed housing project was “riddled with problems — including squalid living conditions…lack of heat, squatters and drug dealers.”)
As Chief Executive Officer of the Habitat Company Jarrett also managed a controversial housing project located in Obama’s former state senate district called Grove Parc Plaza. According to the Boston Globe the housing complex was considered “uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage…In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale – a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.” Ms. Jarrett refused to comment to the Globe on the conditions of the complex.
“Like Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett is a product of the corrupt Chicago political machine. And it is no stretch to say that she was a slumlord,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “We have real concerns about Jarrett’s ethics. Washington already has plenty of corruption. We don’t need to import more of it from Chicago.”
Characterized as “the other side of Barack Obama’s brain” by CBS News, Jarrett first met the Obamas seventeen years ago when she offered Michelle Obama a job. While speculation has arisen that Jarrett could take Obama’s place in the U.S. Senate, the New York Times reported that it is more likely she will become a senior White House adviser, thus continuing her long record of being an important influence and mentor to Barack and Michelle Obama.
So, while Mr. Obama awaits his coronation inauguration, which is supposedly going to be witnessed by a million people live, (yeah, right, they said the same thing about the election night Grant Park celebration, turned out to be about 100,000) it might well be safe to bet that getting out of his old neighborhood can’t come fast enough.
Perhaps “President-Elect -For-Life” Obama shouldn’t have sold himself as the “Omnipotent Obamessiah of Hope and Change”. All that talk about “lights shining down” and “oceans beginning to rise” and whatnot has people who voted for him actually expecting him to deliver. Big time. Go figure. According to a CNN/Opinion Research survey, most people in America, and some from around the globe, are clearly delusional:
Nearly two-thirds of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday say President-elect Barack Obama will change the country for the better, with 25 percent saying Obama won’t change the country and 9 percent indicating that he will change the country for the worse.
But wait, there’s more:
The public thinks it’s likely that Obama will improve race relations, improve economic conditions, bring stability to the financial markets, make the U.S. safer from terrorism, reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil, reduce global warming, win the war in Afghanistan and remove U.S. troops from Iraq without causing a major upheaval in that country.
And, that’s not all:
“My fervent prayer is that there will be peace on Earth in all nations, and let all countries unite together to make this dream come true,” said iReporter Shari Atukorala of Kandy, Sri Lanka. “To the President-elect Barack Obama: Sir, you can do this for all of us.”
While the “hopey-changey true believers” are busy gratifying themselves truly believing in visions of hope and change, MSNBC via the New York Times is reporting that world leaders are not quite so “hopeful.”
The Russians want him to hold off installation of a missile defense shield in Poland. The Europeans want him to renounce the idea of “regime change” when it comes to Iran, while the Israelis want to be sure he doesn’t give Iran a pass when it comes to nuclear weapons.
Oh, and let’s not forget the Taliban, which issued a statement this week urging him to “put an end to all the policies being followed by his Opposition Party, the Republicans, and pull out U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.”
America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.
The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. This was the moment—this was the time—when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.
Well, King-Elect ObiWanNaBePresident, “this is your moment, now is your time.” Take it away, Obie!
Camp Barack Obama is famous for floating “trial balloons” to test the waters (mixed metaphor, yeah, yeah, I know) of it’s more controversial considerations. Pathologically fearful of doing anything the public could credibly hold the “Teflon President-Elect” directly accountable for, the Obama staff prefers to leak information to the media through “unnamed sources,” and see if it flies. The latest such “balloon” has Hillary Clinton’s name on it, and concerns speculation that she is being considered by the Beneficent One to be his Secretary of State. The earliest hint I’ve found is a Bloomberg News blurb buried in an article about Obama’s transition team and it’s ties to the Bill Clinton presidential era, dated November 10:
Obama’s most dramatic step would be to name New York Senator Hillary Clinton, his defeated rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, as secretary of state. Two Obama advisers confirm the idea has been discussed, though they say they don’t know how seriously the president-elect is considering it or whether Clinton would accept it.
Two Obama advisers confirmed Clinton is under serious consideration, according to NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell.
Adding to the intrigue, Clinton was seen aboard a flight to Obama’s hometown of Chicago today, but aides insisted she was on personal business.
Officially, the Obama campaign has declined to discuss any of the administration positions that have not yet been filled and made public.
The NY Post also speculates that Team Obie might have another motive:
Others wondered last night if the Obama camp – which is very disciplined about unwanted leaks – is even serious about floating her name or simply trying to compliment her by suggesting she’s in the running.
Whatever. Whether any of this pans out or not, it is definitely in keeping with Obama’s modus operandi. Which probably means that, barring any hue and cry, it’s a done deal. Or maybe it’s just a make-up play for the botched veep thing.
Barack Obama will give up his Senate seat Sunday since (duh) he’s been elected president. The only question I have is, will they save the meager records he’s accumulated in the brief time he’s been in the Senate, or will they get “disappeared” like the ones from Illinois? Obama, who only worked in the U.S. Senate long enough to establish his presidential run, probably doesn’t have much of a paper trail, since he never even held committee meetings unless they were personal ones that pertained to his presidential campaign, and they don’t count. In fact, Obama isn’t even sure what Senate committees he’s on. However, I bet requests for what documents do exist will be met with the same kind of “Uh…ummm, records? I don’t have no stinkin’ records,” answers earlier requests elicited. From AP, here’s the signature kind of “hopey-dopey-happy-crappy” statement from Obama that we’ve all come to know and loathe:
In a statement, the junior Illinois senator called his four-year term “one of the highest honors and privileges” of his life and said the people of Illinois will stay with him as he leaves the Senate to begin “the hard task of fulfilling the simple hopes and common dreams of all Americans as our nation’s next president.”
“Fulfilling simple hopes and and common dreams.” Awwwww. Heats up the old heart cockles, doesn’t it? Sounds like something Robin Leach would say on a Hallmark card. Anyway, Sunday is the last day of what seems like the first day Obama’s Senate life, and the first day our “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” go right out the window and down the toilet.
On September 7, 2008 Barack Obama told George Stephanopoulis that he registered with the Selective Service when he graduated high school, in compliance with the law.
“I had to sign up for selective service when I graduated from High School,” Obama said. “I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and you know, honorable option.”
Obama suggested his decision not to enlist was an issue of timing, not service. “I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren’t engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it’s not an option that I ever decided to pursue,” he said.
Pajamas Media, on August 12, 2008, had already established per the Selective Service System, that Obama was not required to register for the draft until 1980.
* Men born from March 29, 1957 to December 31, 1959 were never required to register because the registration program was not in operation at the time they turned 18. The requirement to register was reinstated in 1980 and applies to all men born on or after January 1, 1960.
The above is a direct quote from the Selective service website as of today. Pajamas Media, claiming to debunk No Quarter’s allegations regarding Obama’s draft status, printed this email:
Mr. Owens,
Barack Hussein Obama registered at a post office in Hawaii. The effective registration date was September 4, 1980.
His registration number is 61-1125539-1.
Daniel Amon
Public Affairs Specialist
Fine, but that’s a year after Obama graduated high school, when he presumably was attending Occidental College in Los Angeles. So, what did he do, fly home and register as soon as he heard the law had been changed? Now, Debbie Schlussel is asking questions about Obama’s draft status and the validity of his claims. In short, she seems to think the draft card reproduced here from her website, is a fake.
The official campaign for President may be over. But Barack Obama’s Selective Service registration card and accompanying documents show that questions about him are not only NOT over, but if the signature on the document is in fact his, our next Commander-in-Chief may have committed a federal crime in 2008, well within the statute of limitations on the matter. If it is not his, then it’s proof positive that our next Commander-in-Chief never registered with the Selective Service as required by law. By law, he was required to register and was legally able to do so until the age of 26.
But the Selective Service System registration (“SSS Form 1″) and accompanying computer print-out (“SSS Print-out), below, released by the Selective Service show the following oddities and irregularities, all of which indicate the document was created in 2008 and backdated:
In an exercise reminiscent of the whole “fake birth certificate” brouhaha, Schlussel points out a number of “inconsistencies.”
Regarding Schussel’s questions about Obama’s signature, here is a copy of it from Wikipedia:
I dunno. Is this just another “tinfoil hat conspiracy theory?” Possibly. At any rate, it probably won’t matter much in the long run. Even if it’s true that Obama and/or his minions faked the whole thing, it’s doubtful that revelations of such would have any more impact than the plethora of legal challenges to his eligibility based on questions regarding his Certificate of Live Birth as opposed to his long-form vault copy of his birth certificate have had thus far. Or, even of the undisputed fact that one of his supporters, Helen Jones-Kelley, misued her authority to breach Joe the Plumber’s records. Since nothing seems to stick to Obama, anyway, the whole thing is probably just another “pissing in the wind” tinfoil hat moment, no matter what.
Certain issues facing our nation cause entire “square peg” groups of individuals to force themselves into the “round holes” of an illusionary united front, whether those individuals really want to accede to the pressure or not. All black people must support Barack Obama, all Hispanics, mustnot support immigration reform, all gays must support gay marriage. The fact that individuals comprising these and other voting blocs may have divergent opinions about these and other issues, for a myriad of reasons, is beyond beside the point; birds of a feather must stick together for the common good, or face being ostracized.
There are no gray areas in politics, today, no celebration of the rugged individual willing to take a stand based on his or her personal beliefs. It’s either “for” or “against.” You’re black, you don’t support a black president, just because he has a resume you could print on a gum wrapper, what’s wrong with you? He’s black. You’re a second, third, fourth, twentieth generation Mexican American who thinks illegal immigrants unfairly tax the system to the detriment of all, what’s wrong with you? They’re your brothers and sisters, don’t they deserve a chance at a better way of life? What’s wrong with you, you (fill in the blank) homosexual, that you don’t care one way or the other about marriage or civil unions? What do you mean, not having to live up to society’s arbitrary marital standards is one of the perks of being gay? What are you, nuts?
Thus, 95%+ of African Americans voted for a man just because he’s black, and it’s time. Don’t believe me? Here’s a quote from a commenter on Black Agenda Report’s website regarding an article he felt unfairly critical of the new president-elect:
So who cares if Obama doesn’t live up to all of our expectations, or if he totally screws Black folk like all the past Presidents have..So what? We deserve our time to SCREW UP Too! I’d rather break my own cup than for someone else to break it, and thus, we as Black folk have allowed America to break our hopes and dreams since we were brought here as slaves. So, if Obama doesn’t meet YOUR expectations, at least we’ve earned the right to screw up like all the rest have.
Of course, that comment does not reflect the opinion of all black people, yet it is indicative of the mindset of many. I have read other comments all over the web from black Americans revealing that they did not vote for Mr. Obama, but could only reveal that fact with the anonymity of the internet, to do so to their friends and family would subject them to scorn and ridicule.
Now, the LGBT community is facing a similar situation due to California’s Proposition 8 banning gay marriage. Activists calling for blacklists and boycotts of the proposition’s supporters are pressuring less political gays to join forces against the evil bigots. Dissent, from those who voted for the measure as well as those in the gay community less committed to activism, is not an option. Case in point, a website called AntiGayBlacklist, “outs” everybody they can find who donated money to groups supporting Prop8, and calls for them to be boycotted by the gay community. One such individual, Scott Eckern, artistic director of the California Music Theatre, has been forced to resign after 25 years with the group, after it was revealed he donated 1,000 dollars to the “Yes on Proposition 8″ campaign, and a boycott was called for against the theater. According to the Sacremento Business Journal, Eckert said this in a prepared statement:
“I am leaving California Musical Theatre after prayerful consideration to protect the organization and to help the healing in the local theatre-going and creative community,” he said. “I am disappointed that my personal convictions have cost me the opportunity to do what I love the most.”
Performer Susan Egan circulated a long, angry, emotional letter on social networking sites, according to the San Francisco Examiner, which reprinted it in it’s entirety. I won’t, it’s too long, you can find it at the link. However, I will also post a link to Scott Eckern’s entire response. Eckern subsequently made a $1,000 donation to an unnamed equal rights group, and his supporters have launched a website supporting him.
My personal feelings about these issues are complex, much like abortion, which is debated by “pro-life” and “pro-choice” factions as if one can ever truly only be one or the other, it just seems to me that everyone has a right to their own opinion. These are complicated issues, full of conflicting emotion no matter which side you ultimately come down on. To force or pressure anyone to go along with a group, or to expect people to take simplistic, cartoonish stances on complex, life-and-death issues simply because it furthers your particular agenda, is just as wrong to me as any other example of intolerance. Might does not make right, it just makes already pissed off people hate you for life.
Barack Obama’s successful exploitation of the internet is a thing of beauty to be celebrated for some, and a frightening opportunity for unprecedented government privacy intrusion and information manipulation for others. Some even see a threat to journalism as we know it inherent in Obama’s White House internet plans. According to AP:
Transition officials call it Obama 2.0 — an ambitious effort to transform the president-elect’s vast Web operation and database of supporters into a modern new tool to accomplish his goals in the White House. If it works, the new president could have an unprecedented ability to appeal for help from millions of Americans who already favor his ideas, bypassing the news media to pressure Congress.
In sort of the political version of “MTV cops, Miami Vice” spinoff, Joe Trippi says “fireside chats” might give way to You Tube videos:
“He can do a half-hour YouTube address every Saturday, addressing millions,” Trippi said. “The networks would never give the president that much television time each week, but the press is still going to have to cover what he says on YouTube.”
In another wrinkle to the new internet government, Obama’s ties to Google and the Netroots (a contentious relationship, but one the netroots seem curiously reluctant to give up) are also rather worrisome. Politico reports that given that Google was one of Obama’ s biggest contributors, and that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is one of Obama’s financial advisors, competitors like Microsoft (another, even larger donor) are shaking in their boots:
Google CEO Eric Schmidt didn’t say anything as he flanked President-elect Barack Obama during his first post-election press conference. He didn’t have to.
The image alone of Schmidt standing elbow-to-elbow with Obama’s top economic thinkers was enough to send shivers up the spine of Google’s competitors.
“This terrifies Microsoft,” said a Democratic lobbyist familiar with the industry. “There’s a reason why people are scared to death of Google.”
Schmidt also donated $5,000 to Google NetPAC, Google’s very own political action committee. This site shows how Google’s PAC spread it around. Wonder what impact all this will have on Obama’s and the Democratic legislature’s stance on net neutrality? Matt Stoller of Open Left is getting worried about that, too; not about Google, per se, but about Obama’s tech transition team.
The potential marginalization of journalists by Obama due to his plans for a “straight to video” presidency, is not the only thing his media cheerleaders have to worry about, either. A bigger, more pressing threat is Obama’s spokesman, soon to be White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, a man quick to anger, and known to hold a grudge. Said to be so close to Obama he’s called “Barack Whisperer,” like Obie’s a wild horse, or something, Gibbs is the guy kicking reporters off of planes and limiting their access when they write articles he doesn’t like, according to the Washington Post. Gibbs is also the guy who yelled at Sean Hannity for booking Andy Martin for a segment about Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers, since Martin has been accused of being a rabid anti-Semite.
With all this cowboy-like exploration of the Wild, Wild West of the World Wide Web, opportunities exist for not only Obama, the Democrats and other politicians to get their message out efficiently at the speed of light, but for those opposed to his more thug-like tactics and methods, too. While the blogger bullies have intimidated net surfers on Obama’s behalf with great success, PUMAs stand ready to pounce back and give as good as we get. They must no longer be allowed to spin WORMs (what Obama really meant) to their advantage, especially since nobody ever really knows what Obama really meant, since everything he says is deliberately ambiguous.
Though PUMAs were late to the party, we’re good at playing catch-up, and while we experience inevitable growing pains as we feel our way through our next baby steps, internet watchdog is a role we’re already set up to play. In a way, the fact that we weren’t already in place during the primaries cost Hillary Clinton the nomination. That’s not our fault, we were born out of the injustice of the caucus and primary process and the need to push back against the Obots and blogger bullies. Let’s face it, Obama won because of a better p.r. campaign, using “astroturfing+ratfucking=astrofucking” Axelrodian techniques combined with Howard Dean’s inspirational use of the Netroots. In the AP article, Peter Daou, Hillary Clinton’s internet operations manger, indirectly spoke to the reality of PUMA’a potential influence:
Peter Daou, who ran Internet operations for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, said her campaign’s Web outreach was limited by the fact that older and lower-income people — demographic groups most supportive of the former first lady — weren’t using the Internet for communication. Obama will need to find ways to reach those people, Daou said.
“We spent a year trying to bring these people to the Web, and President Obama and his team will have to do the same thing,” Daou said. “It requires a huge public relations effort, using more traditional communications efforts to invite then to participate this way.”
So, PUMA’s it’s up to us. We need all those friends, neighbors, and grannies and granpas who were inspired to vote for John McCain or a third party candidate rather than reward Obama and the DeaNC’s unDemocratic behavior, to get online, now. Teach them the bascis, how to use Microsoft to Google PUMA sites. Let’s beat the bastards at their own game, or at the very least, make ‘em play fair.
We might never have another chance this good to get in on the ground floor of making a real difference.
Boy, oh, boy, talk about a thick plot. Sammy Korir, Chief Editor of African Press International, the little news web that couldn’t, is fighting back against those who say that his claims of having audio tapes (cassettes, are you kidding me?) of a surprise Michelle Obama telephone call are false. Korir, in a long, rambling post, says they’re just picking on him because he’s black. Yep, he went there. If you want to read his explanation, go here. If not, I more than understand, I overstand. Korir’s story of legal agreements to air the tapes, all sorts of allegations about mainstream media involvement and subsequent denials, combined with various elements of international intrigue is just..well, weird, and far too long, complicated and frankly, tedious, to recap in depth. For all the juicy details though, API, Mountain Sage, my archives, and the following video are good places to start. Get your popcorn and tinfoil hat ready though, and a mop to clean up your brains from the floor after your head explodes, and maybe some hip waders ’cause baby, this stuff is deep. All I can say is, it sure beats the hell out of daytime TV for mindless entertainment by a mile.
Barack Obama needs to do something soon; anything. For a guy whose whole smoke’n mirrors campaign was based on personality and charisma, the kiss of death would be to appear ordinary. Face it, an inexperienced, junior Senator from Illinois just isn’t that big a deal. He needs the grandiose backdrops, the sweeping, ghost-written, TelePrompTer-read speeches, the fake seals and such, or else he’s just a dubiously funded, mysteriously backed…guy. If he’s not careful, articles like this one on Ben Smith’s blog, just might do him in:
President-elect Barack Obama’s motorcade left his gym at 8:58 a.m., and Obama returned home seven minutes later. Staff said Obama showered and changed at home as press pool held outside. Pool unable to get clear view of Obama. Obama motorcade and press pool now (9:40 a.m.) en route to Obama’s transitional offices downtown.
C’mon, Obie, appoint somebody wierd, or something. Otherwise, the press just might start looking for something interesting to write about. And even Chris Matthews won’t be able to help you, then.
Every election cycle in America “protecting traditional marriage” becomes an issue. For some reason, gay people seem to only have the urge to attack “traditional marriage” during election years. The rest of the time, either gays are perfectly content to live their lives blissfully unwed, or straight people just don’t give a shit one way or the other. However, let somebody run for dogcatcher in Bumfuck, Wherever, and gay people go on the “marriage is my right” warpath, and straights collectively, and instinctively, band together and go, “yechhhh!”
Why?
What is a “traditional marriage,” anyway? If I remember my Old Testament correctly, “doing it” with somebody was enough to consider you wed, unless one of the partners had already “done it” with somebody else, then that was enough to get you smote. But, unless I missed the news one day, God has not smote (smited?) an adulterer or fornicator in years, and if “doing it” constituted marriage, instances of bigamy and the divorce rates would be more than twice as high as marriage rates, and the courts wouldn’t have time to do much besides process property dispute claims. In Genesis, Lot’s daughters got their father drunk and seduced him in order to reproduce, thinking they were the only people left on Earth. Were they both then married to him? And, how come nobody thinks that story is yucky?
30Lot went up from Zoar, and (IA)stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters.
31Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to (IB)come in to us after the manner of the earth.
32“Come, (IC)let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father.”
33So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
34On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our family through our father.”
35So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
36Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
37The firstborn bore a son, and called his name (ID)Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of (IE)Ammon to this day.
Jesus never married, as far as we know. Doesn’t that make marriage un-Christian? Why not, holier-than-thou Nosy Parkers?
“Marriage should be between one man and one woman.”
What man? Which woman? What about everybody else? Once you find that “one man” and the “one woman” he’s supposed to be married to, what happens? Is everybody else supposed to wander the earth alone? Of course, these arguments can be considered silly. But so can the whole emphasis on “traditional marriage.” Biblical considerations aside, what’s “traditional” in some countries, families, communities, eras, etc. can be very different than others.
Interracial marriage is pretty common in America today, but would you be lying if you said it was an American tradition? Maybe not. We were all taught the story of Pocahontas and Sacajawea, yet miscegenation was against the law until 1967. In 1961, when Barack Obama was born, his parents’ marriage would have been considered illegal, and certainly not “traditional” in most parts of the land he is now poised to lead.
What if everybody in your family had married blondes for generations, but you hooked up with a brunette? Not “traditional.” Or, what if you come from a long line of drunks who beat the crap out of each other for fun, but you find happiness with a quiet teetotaler? “Traditional?” How about the middle class girl who finds love with a filthy rich heir to a fortune, or a penniless bum? Her family just might not think either choice is “traditional,” but that probably wouldn’t have much to do with whether or not they were happy about the relationship.
People obsess about other people’s sexuality because they’re nosy and judgmental. No human has the moral authority to grant another absolution in any regard, especially with respect to affairs of the heart. Who cares who anybody else sleeps with, loves, makes a home with? Is your straight relationship better than, and morally superior to, my gay one, even if you like to sleep around with strangers and make them dress up like Little Bo Peep while you poke them with cattle prods, while I’ve been “spiritually married” to the same person for twenty years? (I haven’t really; not into the Bo Peep thing, either, just making a point, play along and don’t ask questions.) Is a child molester who only abuses kids of the opposite sex more likely to find favor with God and gain entrance to Heaven than same-sex offenders? If the abuser is married, are his or her offenses still crimes or merely infidelity?
We need to stop trying to legislate the un-legislate-able. Either all marriages are civil unions, or all civil unions are marriages. There is no reason to define marriage as anything other than a contractual agreement between two consenting adults. What race, religion, gender or anything else they are is completely beside the point. In my opinion, anybody who doesn’t see it that way, truly can’t claim to worship a loving God.
The PUMAsphere has been alive lately with “The Great Hillary Stance Debate.” Now assuming epic proportions, two opposing factions have emerged, those who feel that Hillary Clinton betrayed her supporters by stumping for Barack Obama and doing everything in her power to deliver the bulk of her 18 million voters to the Democratic selectee, and those who feel that HRC did what she had to do. On blog after blog, PUMAs are venting their frustration at the outcome of the election by yelling and screaming at each other over this issue.
I understand both sides. When I first started this blog, some of my earliest posts were of me telling Senator Clinton to take her pleas of “party unity” and shove them. Barack Obama’s methods for securing the nomination were unforgivable; there’s just no way in hell I can ever respect him. For me, the racial manipulation used as a p.r. tool in Axelrod’s “astrofucking*” campaign on Obama’s behalf, without regard to the damage done to both Hillary’s and former president Clinton’s reputations, not to speak of the potential damage to America’s youth and minorities when Obama’s inexperience shows itself to be as insufficient as it has always been, disillusioning those needy, gullible, and idealistic people who bought the snow job, hook line and sinker, is enough to disqualify him from even speaking in public, let alone running for any office, in my opinion.
But, I’m not Hillary Clinton. My career and political future is not tied up in my party affilliation. For me, changing parties was as easy as filling out a form online the night of the Rules and Bylaws Committee rape of democracy, and waiting for the mail. I suspect, Hillary’s choices are a bit more complicated.
To those ranting and raving about getting their donations to Clinton’s campaign back, about how her actions classically resemble those of a woman suffering from “battered woman’s syndrome,” those typing in all caps on website after website about their devastating sense of betrayal, I ask, what would you have Hillary do? Better yet, what would you do?
If your career was threatened by people you knew to be greedy, unscrupulous opportunists, easily seduced by the lure of record-breaking fundraising and the illusion of power unfettered, would you stand on principle and take on the bullies, knowing you would likely do so alone? To whose advantage do you imagine such actions would be? Would they not only hasten your demise? Wouldn’t you feel at least a little motivation to do all you could to deflect the inevitable blame sure to come your way from the adolescent finger-pointers who would be only too happy to heap scorn and derision on your head, simply for the pleasure of it?
It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and play Monday morning quarterback when the only thing you have at stake is your opinion. However, when it’s your ass on the line, when the thundering horde of humanity hurtling your way is made up not only of opposing team members, but the bulk of your own teammates, as well as half the people in the stands, the natural reaction is to try to get the hell out of the way and live to fight another day.
Am I happy about Hillary Clinton’s post-primary “support” of Barack Obama?
Yeah, that’s a lot to put in one headline, but after perusing the news this morning, that’s “all the news that’s fit to print,” as they say. Well, except for the fact that President-elect Obama tried to Bogart President-now Bush into doing his bidding with the auto industry yesterday, then had his boys drop a dime to the media in an attempt to show off his flex, but Bush got his boys to hip Drudge to the fact that Obie’s actions are crass and out of line. Being lectured about etiquette and protocol by Bush has to suck, but it’s just one more example of how Obie rolls.
But I digress. At a mainstream media panel discussion last night, reported here, here, and here, Joe Scarborough professed his love for Hillary Clinton:
Discussing the perceived bias against Sen. Hillary Clinton, Scarborough joked, “I love Hillary. She’s my girlfriend. We don’t like to talk about it much.” (She already asked him to be her running mate.)
Oh, what might have been. Clinton/Scarborough; beats Obama/Biden and Joe and Mika all to hell, doesn’t it? Moving on, last night’s festivities gave the mainstream media-types a rare opportunity to good-naturedly bash themselves while simultaneously patting themselves on the back. Neat trick, glad we finally figured out what they’re good at.
Next up, Ms. “If she can’t run her own house” Obama, suddenly feels that Hillary Clinton can run a house just fine, especially the White House. In fact, Shelley wants tips. Oh, happy day. Just what we need more of in the media, political “women’s place is in the home” girl talk.
“Michelle may not have loved the senator, but she always respected how the Clintons raised Chelsea,” said a person familiar with Clinton’s end of the call. “They need to talk. There just aren’t too many people who have shared that kind of experience.”
An aide briefed on Obama’s side of the chat said she was “grateful” for Clinton’s “pointers” on “raising children in the public eye.”
What’s next, friggin’ meatloaf and macaroni recipe swaps? I guess the two women do have something in common, though; they’re both being used and abused by the same man.
Yet a half-dozen Clinton insiders told Politico they are disappointed that Obama’s vaunted fundraising operation hasn’t reciprocated by planning new events or an Internet campaign to help Clinton pay off the $7.9 million she owes to vendors. (Clinton has already written off the $13 million she loaned the campaign during the primaries, aides say).
And in other news, talk about adding insult to injury; looks like Barack Obama’s prodigious, yet apparently dubious, fundraising will escape scrutiny, while John McCain is going to be audited up the yingyang, by law. Again, according to Politico:
The Federal Election Commission is unlikely to conduct a potentially embarrassing audit of how Barack Obama raised and spent his presidential campaign’s record-shattering windfall, despite allegations of questionable donations and accounting that had the McCain campaign crying foul.
Adding insult to injury for Republicans: The FEC is obligated to complete a rigorous audit of McCain’s campaign coffers, which will take months, if not years, and cost McCain millions of dollars to defend.
Obama is expected to escape that level of scrutiny mostly because he declined an $84 million public grant for his campaign that automatically triggers an audit and because the sheer volume of cash he raised and spent minimizes the significance of his errors. Another factor: The FEC, which would have to vote to launch an audit, is prone to deadlocking on issues that inordinately impact one party or the other – like approving a messy and high-profile probe of a sitting president.
So, if I’ve got this straight, Obama gets away with collecting gazillions of dollars from Doodad Pro and other fictitious donors, some from foreign countries, by disabling the security features on his donor site, because he decided to do it that way. Humph, imagine that. If he had actually agreed to play by the rules, like he promised, he would actually have had to play by the rules. But since he didn’t, he doesn’t.
Ya gotta hand it to the guy, he and his boyz and blogger bullies might be thugs, but they’re damned good at it. And, according to his ace gangsta bitch chick, Valerie Jarrett, he’s ready to “take power and rule” from Day One. Thug life, president for life, ride or die, a’ight?
A man claiming on his blog, and anywhere else he can find people who’ll listen to him, to be the source of the recent Sarah Palin smears, has “outed” himself. Other sources have “outed” him as the source of many other outrageous stories. Still others claim he doesn’t exist at all.
Somebody calling himself Martin Eisenstadt, of the “Eisenstadt Group,” says he works for the John McCain campaign and is “proud” to be the one who leaked the information that Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent to Fox News’ Carl Cameron. Eisenstadt has also, on occassion, claimed to represent efforts to have a casino built in Iraq. He also blames another blogger, William K. Wolfram, for spreading the “lie” that he (Eisenstadt) doesn’t exist. Whether or not Wolfram exists is unclear.
What does seem clear is that there is no Washington area think tank employing Eisenstadt, as he claims, called the “Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy,” named after Warren G. Harding, supposedly America’s worst president ever. There is a website for the institute, however, though it seems, that like everything associated with Mr. Eisenstadt, it’s part of an elaborate hoax.
Last week, the “Harding Institute’s” You Tube channel posted a video denying “BBC claims” made against him as part of “UK Sam’s” 10-part documentary, “The Last Republican.” It’s okay if you’re not quite following all this, neither am I, to tell you the truth, I’m just writing it up as it comes. It’s hard to be sure if the videos posted are supposed to be part of the “BBC thing,” or Eisenstadt’s multi-part response to the “BBC thing.”
Some of Eisenstadt’s whoppers; John McCain and Michelle Malkin did not “do it,” as the “BBC documentary” claimed Martin claimed, Joe the Plumber “canoodled” a SNL cast member ,and something about a Photoshopped Iranian missile picture. The Huffington Post ran the Palin story, and while they claim to know Eisenstadt himself is a hoax, they stand by the hope that the “stupid Palin/Africa” part is true. They even make fun of MSNBC for falling for the hokum, but they quote Wolfram, who seems to me to be part of the scam. His website is even subtitled, “Bill Wolfrum’s world of satire and commentary,” for gosh sakes.
Anyway, here’s Marty in his own words, from his blog, for whatever it’s worth:
So yes, to be clear, last week I was the one who leaked those things to a producer at Fox News who works with Cameron. Carl and his producers are good guys, and I don’t want them to have to worry about protecting their sources (and going through the wringer ala Judith Miller or Matt Cooper) on something like this.
As you know, I was one of the foreign policy advisers on the McCain campaign who worked with Randy Scheunemann to help prep Sarah on her debate with Joe Biden. Did we outright give her a geography quiz when we started the prep? No, of course not. But yes, in the context of the prep, it slowly became apparent that her grasp of basic geo-political knowledge had major gaps. Could she have passed a multiple choice test about South Africa or NAFTA. Probably. But it was clear that she simply didn’t have the ease of knowledge that we come to expect from a major party political candidate. Other slights came up, too: Not knowing the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas. Or the difference between the Shiites and Suni. Or when it came to international terrorist organizations, knowing that the IRA was in Northern Ireland, and ETA in Spain.
The real thing we had to constantly remind her was to never, ever compare herself in any way to Hillary Clinton, as she had at her announcement speech. We had it on good authority that Biden was prepping to unleash the inevitable line, “I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine. And Sarah, you’re no Hillary Clinton.” Alas, Biden would have been right.
Hot Air, Zimbio, Celebgalz, and all manner of other websites have variations of the complicated story, but, to be perfectly honest, all these tangled webs make my head hurt. As far as hoaxes go, I like Sammy Korir’s “Michelle Obama yelled at me” African Press International saga much better. It’s a lot more fun, and much easier to follow, even though Sammy’s got a much smaller budget.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post asking if Howard Dean was soon to become the Democratic Party’s most powerful man, given the fact that he is the architect of the once hated, now-hallowed “50 State Strategy” that many people credit with winning the election for Barack Obama and others. I concluded that since Howard is, by and large, a clueless, Dagwood Bumstead-type, lucky bungler, he would not; rather, that Obama would find him imminently expendable. Seems Howard Has come to the same conclusion. Adam Nagourney of the New York Times writes:
Howard Dean will not seek a second term as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, ending a tenure marked by an aggressive attempt to reshape the mission of the committee – and to court support by the so-called Netroots – but also marked by frequent quarrels with Democratic leaders over his abilities and the direction he was taking the party.
The truth is, nobody much likes Howard. Far from being the well-oiled machine the well-oiled, astroturfing, Obama pr machine promotes, the Democratic Party seems to be a loose coalition of back-biting factions, thugged into submission by Camp O. Though some may claim Obama owes at least a portion of his success to Dean, in reality, Obama basically sucked the juice out of Howard’s brain, took what was useful, and discarded the rest. Dean may have provided the blueprint, but Team Obama built the car Obama drove across the finish line.
Chris Cilliza tells us newly appointed White House Chief of Staff-elect, Rahm Emanuel, hates Dean, and his plan, and has never been shy about colorfully saying so. Paul Begala once said on CNN that Dean’s 50 State Strategy amounted to hiring people to “wander around Utah and Mississippi and pick their nose.” James Carville called Dean’s DNC “Rumsfeldian in its competence,” and called for his resignation. Though she seemed to be an active collaborator with Dean to disenfranchise Florida and Michigan to Obama’s benefit, Donna Brazile and Howie-baby have clashed, too, most notably over the inclusion of gay rights into the DNC’s Affirmative Action platform. Uptight Howard Dean testified in a deposition that sensible shoe-wearing Donna is against it, claiming it was an “affront to the Civil Rights Movement.” Though Brazile claimed to have no interest in being DNC Chairperson in 2004, her name is currently being bandied about as a possible replacement, as are Claire McCaskill, Tim Kaine, Kathleen Sebelius, and Bill Richardson. Given the Obama campaign’s rather complete takeover of the DNC operation, however, whoever gets the job will likely be nothing more than a glorified figurehead.
Not a lot of love going ’round, to put it mildly. But, since Brazile’s vision relative to gay rights most closely resembles Camp Obama’s, and since she was invaluable during his campaign with her “cheerleading disguised as neutrality,” on CNN, and her considerable input as Chair of DNC Voting Rights Institute, I’d say put your money on the “dark horse.”
Sometimes, the urge to just throw caution to the wind you’re tilting three sheets towards, and say, “piss on ‘em!” is just too strong to ignore. At least it was for New Jersey City Councilman, Steve Lipski, Friday night, according to the Washington Post:
A City Council member from Jersey City was arrested over the weekend after patrons at a Northwest Washington nightclub complained that someone had urinated on them from the balcony, according to police and media reports.
The WaPo article indicates there might be some confusion as to the identity of the “pisser,” however, yesterday’s New York Daily News offers no ambiguity at all:
A drunken Jersey City councilman was arrested for urinating on a crowd of concertgoers from the balcony of a Washington nightclub, police and club sources said Saturday.
Councilman Steven Lipski was caught relieving himself onto several revelers at the 9:30 Club during a concert by a Grateful Dead tribute band Friday night, club sources said.
“He was very drunk,” the source said, noting that it wasn’t the first time Lipski had caused a ruckus at the popular concert venue.
“We’ve dealt with this man before,” the source added. “He’s never peed on anybody, but he gets really belligerent and drunk.”
The Post article mentions that Lipski has been called a “wonderful and caring person,” who always put “the well-being of his fellow human beings first.” So, maybe Lipski just hated the band and wanted to make sure nobody had to listen to it. Or maybe it was the Grateful Dead tribute band he was aiming at. Or, maybe he just hates standing in lines. At any rate Lipski, says, no more booze.
“I’ve resolved not to touch alcohol again,” two-term Jersey City councilman Steve Lipski told the Fox 5 New York.
Many of Barack Obama’s “former” friends who had been shoved under the proverbial bus for appearances sake, obviously now feel comfortable enough to crawl out from under, now that he has been elected. Seeming none the worse for wear, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, loquacious all, are delightedly spewing forth long pent-up words of praise and frustration. The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Minister Farrakhan spoke glowingly about the new president-elect, who he once called “the Messiah,” and explained his recent reticence:
“For nine months, I kept quiet because I saw that the good words that I spoke about this beautiful young man at our Saviours’ Day convention and the way they were misused,” Farrakhan said of Obama. “I decided it would be better for me to just be quiet rather than be drawn into the controversy that was swirling around his pastor, Father Pfleger, and others.”
Farrakhan then added with a smile, “I feel freer today to say the things that are in my heart.
William Ayers, the “unrepentant terrorist” (say it with me) obviously feels pretty free now, too, according to the Washington Post. The day after the election, Ayers complained to WaPo that Obama’s opponents were trying to turn him into a “cartoon character,” even though he and Obama are “not that close.” And they most certainly do not “pal around.”
“Pal around together? What does that mean? Share a milkshake with two straws?” Ayers said in his first interview since the controversy began. “I think my relationship with Obama was probably like thousands of others in Chicago. And, like millions and millions of others, I wish I knew him better.”
Poor Bill. How well can you get to know a guy you share office space with, huh? And it must be hard to sit idly by while your good name is being besmirched by both the “liberal media” and the Republicans. Especially if you’re innocent:
“I didn’t do anything. It’s all guilt by association. They made me into a cartoon character; they threw me up on stage just to pummel me,” Ayers said. “I felt from the beginning that the Obama campaign had to run the campaign and I had to run my life.”
Seems old Bill is making up for lost time, when it comes to the spotlight, though. On Friday, he attended a Northwestern University appearance of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was speaking at the university’s first “State of the Black Union” in Cahn Auditorium. It was a make-up date for Wright, who had been dis-invited last spring when the school rescinded it’s offer to issue Wright an honorary degree. Much like Obama dis-invited Wright to his coming-out speech. Anyway, Ayers, obviously scarred by Tom and Jerry during a troubled childhood, repeated his “cartoon” characterization comments to reporters at the event:
“Both Rev. Wright and I were brought up as cartoon characters in this campaign because disinformation and dishonest news,” Ayers said. “I did not suffer as much as he did, but we both got out of it with a certain amount of dignity.”
The Chicago Sun-Times says Wright’s speech was uncontroversial, yet their headline screams, “Wright Rips Media in NU Talk.” The article claims Wright lead off his remarks by “criticizing” the media, then immediately quotes Fox News:
In a recent interview with Fox News, he said he’d been asked if he thought the media had treated him unfairly. His response, he said, was, “Ray Charles could see that.”
Other people under the bus, like Jesse Jackson and Father Michael Pfleger, are probably still going to have to stay there, and though Ayers, particularly, seems blind to the reality, there’s no guarantee that he, Farrakhan, and Wright are going to be allowed to stay out. Maybe that’s what Rev. Jesse was crying about. Maybe he’s the only one who knows the truth.
People, especially pseudo-journalists in the mainstream media and blogger-bullysphere, faux-celebrating the heralding of America’s new racial Kumbayah era being ushered in by the super-duper, “uber-historic” groundbreaking election of a self-described presidential “mutt” with at least one black parent, have written some amazingly stupid freaking things throughout the interminable nominating and election process. But today, on Jonathan Martin’s blog, we’ve gone from the ridiculous to the “you have got to be out of your fucking mind.” Quoting Dr. Alvin Poussaint as well as Dr. William H. Cosby, Jr., in a New York Times Arts piece with a hinky link, we learn that we owe the Huxtables for Barack Obama’s success:
Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, a psychiatrist at the Jude Baker Children’s Center in Boston and a professor at Harvard Medical School who was a script consultant on “The Cosby Show,” said in an interview that “there were a lot of young people who were watching that show who are now of voting age.”
Dr. Poussaint added: “When ‘The Cosby Show’ first came on, it was a professional, middle-class family. And they said, ‘That’s not a black family.’ We heard it from blacks and whites. I think that’s why Karl Rove calls it postracial, because it was universal.”
In an interview on Thursday Mr. Cosby praised Mr. Obama and his campaign operation as “the architects of the almost perfect run for, and winning of, the office.” He added, “This isn’t something that happened just because of a TV show.”
But Mr. Cosby strongly suggested that his series, which ended in 1992, had a lasting effect on America’s racial views. Its legacy, he said, might have played a role in the country’s embrace of Mr. Obama and his family.
“I would not be surprised with the comfort level of people looking at a family and not being afraid of them, and not holding them to some strange old thoughts of a nation,” he said. “It’s what people have done with themselves by watching that show and believing in it.”
The link for the more in-depth, but no more deep, NYT article is here. The Guardian wonders if rap music won the election for Obama, and on 60 minutes the Camp O architects lie about their efforts to exploit the race issue.
Please people, Obama has brown skin. That is no reason to vote for him, though it was promoted as such, and sadly, was used as an excuse to do so, while dire warnings that the opposite would be true blared from every electronic and print orifice as a sort of perverse motivational technique. All this happy crappy about “the fact that he’s brown represents a cosmic shift in the fabric of the universe” and all other such bullshit and drivel being shoveled by the dumptruck-full in order to sell newspapers, air time, and the office of the president, is beneath contempt and an insult to rational people. Anybody who swallows this kind of pap whole probably owns a Chia Pet and more than one Clapper.
There are plans underway to declare a Barack Obama holiday. Okay, take your time, read that sentence again if you need to, take a deep breath and I’ll continue. Better now? Anyway, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal Online, rallies and special fast-food cakes and everything are in the works:
Plans are being made to promote a national holiday for Barack Obama, who will become the nation’s 44th president when he takes the oath of office Jan. 20.
“Yes We Can” planning rallies will be at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. every Tuesday at the downtown McDonald’s restaurant, 1100 Kansas Ave., until Jan. 13. The goals are to secure a national holiday in Obama’s honor, to organize celebrations around his inauguration and to celebrate the 200th birthday of President Abraham Lincoln, who was born on Feb. 12 1809.
At 7:30 a.m. on Inauguration Day, Obama Cake will be served at the downtown McDonald’s, and a celebration is scheduled for 8 p.m. to midnight Jan. 20 at the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center, 420 S.E. 6th.
Oh, happy-hopey-joy-joy! Obama cake! I wonder what that is, white cake with chocolate icing? I can hardly wait to find out. You? Like always, though, we’re one step behind the Kenyans; they’ve already declared a National Obama Day:
Barack Obama’s Kenyan relatives and Africans across the continent sang, danced in the streets and wrapped themselves in U.S. flags Wednesday to cheer for America’s first black president. Kenya will party for two days, after the president declared a national holiday.
Scenes of jubilation broke out in the western village of Kogelo, where Obama’s late father was born. A group of exuberant residents picked up the president-elect’s half-brother Malik and carried him through the village.
TimesUK Online says those Kenyans really know how to party; slaughter a couple of large animals, pop a few sodas, and it’s on. A freshly purchased goat presented to the Obama family by the article’s writer was to be part of the merriment:
He was to be only one small part of a vast celebration feast starting last night and comprising four bulls, 16 chickens and assorted sheep and goats.
“We are Africans, so our plan is to slaughter a bull and have friends come over,” said Abongo, the candidate’s oldest half-brother.
“We invite Kogelo (the village where Mr Obama’s Kenyan family lives) to come over and it will be open house. People will just come on over and bring a couple of sodas.”
You know, God, or whatever you call that Holy Being you worship, dismiss, believe or don’t believe in, the One that most of us normal people pray to and ask for stuff, and recognize as Divine, you freakin’ heathen, is one smart Higher Power. I mean, Whoever came up with the system of people making new people and then living long enough to tell those new people “I told you so,” was clearly on to something. That’s the meaning of life, or, at least, the fun of it. Just as we allow our children to stumble and fall as they learn to auto-navigate on the planet, only to pick them up and comfort them as we stifle our sadistic laughter at their misfortune, opportunities increase, rather than diminish as we age to make fun of young people.
Yes, it is painful to watch younger people suffer, to lose their innocent optimism, but one of the most valuable things we learn in life is that suffering from your own foolish mistakes is the only real way to make a lesson stick. Good advice is just too easy to ignore. Besides, we’re all high-school minded at heart, now that we’re the upperclassmen in life, it’s just plain fun to sell freshmen non-existent elevator tickets, just because you know some of them are stupid enough to buy them.
While good-natured ribbing of your children’s missteps is part of parenting, personal or cosmic, witnessing those children’s exploitation by nefarious forces is hard to handle. You warn them, you counsel them, when possible you isolate your kids from those nogoodniks, and if you can, you take those scam artists aside and threaten to beat the crap out of them if they don’t leave your child the hell alone. However, the wrinkle in God’s plan is that where we were once 20, 25, 30 times older than those we are charged to love, nurture and protect, we are now simply 20, 25, or 30 years older than they are, and no longer allowed to nurture and protect, only to love them. Therefore, when we see them about to stumble and fall, all too often we are consigned to stand idly by and watch the impending horror unfold. Only when we assess the damage and are assured only their pride is damaged and self-confidence shaken, are we allowed to laugh. But we must never knock them down for their own good.
Which brings me to this year’s election. Those of us too old for the “new Democratic coalition” who were so unceremoniously brushed aside, dismissed and diminished, tried to warn those “hopey-changey” KoolAid-cooled, hopium-bong smoking, snot-nosed dependents that they were being played by a “system” just as corrupt and inept as the one they were so desperately trying to replace, only their front man was an incompetent sham, hired not to be a president, but to play one on TV. Straight from Central Casting, primped, permed and primed for the part, then scripted, produced and marketed by experts, their leading man might as well have been a Hula Hoop, Beanie Baby or Xbox 360 for all the substance he offered. Was it obvious? Of course.
IMAGINE the following scenario: A handsome, charismatic minority candidate defeats a heavily favored Democratic insider for the presidential nomination in an acrimonious race that drags out all the way to the convention. He then finds himself running in the general election against an aging, moderate Republican senator frequently at odds with his own party.
The current presidential race? Maybe, but it’s also the plot of the final season of The West Wing, which aired in 2005 and 2006. The similarities are not entirely coincidental.
Barack Obama’s chief strategist, legendary political consultant David Axelrod, was fresh off Obama’s successful Senate race when Eli Attie, a former speechwriter to Al Gore who was writing for The West Wing, had several conversations with him. Attie says he drew considerable inspiration from Axelrod’s impressions of Obama when conjuring Hispanic congressman Matt Santos, the successful dark-horse candidate on the show. Earlier this year, the web magazine Slate even edited the speeches of Obama and Santos together into an almost indistinguishable whole.
That was from a National Review article dated Nov 3. This one, dated Feb. 21, ran in the GuardianUK:
Devotees of the West Wing have been talking about it for weeks: the uncanny similarity between the fictional presidential contest that dominated the final seasons of the acclaimed TV show and the real-life drama of this year’s election.
Both the real and imagined campaigns have centred on a young, charismatic candidate from an ethnic minority, daring to take on an establishment workhorse with a promise to transcend race and heal America’s partisan divide.
But there’s a twist.
For what those West Wing fans stunned by the similarity between the fictitious Matthew Santos and the real-life Barack Obama have not known is that the resemblance is no coincidence. When the West Wing scriptwriters first devised their fictitious presidential candidate in the late summer of 2004, they modelled him in part on a young Illinois politician – not yet even a US senator – by the name of Barack Obama.
Did these brazenly targeted, easily influenced, young voters deliver for Barack Obama? Many sources, like this one, say yes. However, AARP begs to differ:
Over 25 million 50+ Americans voted for Obama compared to fewer than 14.5 million 18-29 year olds, 12 million 30-39 year olds, and 13 million 40-49 year olds.
So, while God invented old people to watch over and protect the young, when you consider that there’s no fool like an old fool, the kids are on their own. Maybe we’re not living West Wing after all; maybe it’s Star Trek.
And remember, he who laughs last didn’t get it the first time.
*UPDATE: Commenter “gmanedit” points us to this New York Times article that says that voters over 60 rejected Obama. Maybe God’s appointed protectors didn’t completely fall down on the job, after all.
After refraining from commentary about the mischief-making Kenyan-in-Norway, “Chief Editor” Sammy Korir’s African Press International and it’s wickedly outlandish claims of possessing audio tapes of a scandalous Michelle Obama telephone call for a few days, I decided to check in and see what was going on. Well, honey, let me tell you, a whole helluva lot seems to be happening with ol’ Sammy and Co. Looks like November 7, was a particularly busy day, what with API’s call for a national protest march against Barack Obama’s right to take office due to questions of eligibility. See, according to API, M. O. let it slip in her telephone call that Barack Obama was adopted by his stepfather, but that shouldn’t disqualify him from being president. Okay, stay with me now. Now that API has not released the tapes of this alleged phone call, and FOX News’ Greta Van Susteren has flat-out called API-generated rumors of a deal between them to air the tapes to be a bald-faced lie, and websites like Mountain Sage have exposed Mr. Korir’s rather colorful past flights of fancy, API is, rather than backing away from these imaginative claims, weaving them all together. In other words, we must protest Obama’s election because we haven’t seen his true birth certificate and we know he was adopted because Michelle Obama said so on the mythical tapes. Get it?
Also on the 7th, API says the tape thing is not a dead issue, by a long shot; according to them, they will be aired. When, where, how; who knows? They’ll get back to us on that, they say. Later, that same day, or earlier, who the hell knows? API claimed that a Mombasa Imam would release Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate…soon:
We have stated earlier that Barack Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya.
A confirmation to the effect will now be forthcoming. A Mombasa Mosque Imam has decided to release documents of birth that will indicate Barack Obama was born in Mombasa, given his middle name on the day he was born and blessed by the Imam of the day.”
All other documents pertaining to his registration of birth in Kenya have been sealed and categorised confidential.
Gotta hand it to Mr. Korir, I love a good story-teller, and in my humble opinion, he’s damned good. Who needs truth when you’ve got a fertile imagination?
In an AP News story about the “partisan shift” in Tuesday’s election is this nugget of wisdom, truth and beauty every PUMA has always known to be true in his or her heart; had Hillary Clinton been the Democratic nominee, she would have won by larger margins than Obama:
What if it had been Hillary?
There’s no way to be sure, but she might have won by even more than Obama did.
Voters in the Obama-McCain race said they would have preferred Hillary Rodham Clinton over McCain by 51 percent to 41 percent, a larger margin than Obama’s 53-46 win.
Among the differences: Women say they would have backed Clinton over McCain by 18 percentage points, bigger than Obama’s 12-point advantage with them. Whites favored McCain over Obama by 12 points but leaned toward the Republican by a narrower 5 points against Clinton. Eighty-six percent of blacks would have backed Clinton — solid, but shy of the 95 percent who supported Obama. Clinton almost matched the two-thirds of people under age 30 who voted for Obama, but nearly one in 10 of them said they wouldn’t have bothered voting at all.
And that’s without Hillary being given a chance to show her stuff and make her own case, instead of delivering almost, but not PUMA quite, all of her 18 million votes for Obama.
Oh, baby. Take a look at (ex) journalist from the Birmingham Mail, Steve Zacharanda, aka Adam Smith, who says he “jumped on a plane to volunteer for the Barack Obama campaign,” got drunk, and ended up in a Dutch video admitting to cutting and pasting his Mail report from the BBC. So goes the story from Times Online:
Sometimes, you wake up following a drunken night out and realise you have sent an inappropriate text to an ex-girlfriend or your boss.
And sometimes you realise you have drunkenly admitted to plagiarism to camera, and spectacularly resigned from your job, shouting “F**k you’ to your boss.
This is what happened to Birmingham Mail reporter Adam Smith on Wednesday morning, as footage appeared on YouTube of him writing a report on the US election, slumped on a Miami pavement, and barely able to speak.
Mr Smith, who also calls himself Steve Zacharanda in the hit video which was viewed almost 20,000 times in 48 hours, had taken a week’s holiday to go to Miami to volunteer for the Barack Obama election campaign.
A MySpace page for Steve Zacharanda, journalist, can be found here. He’s also on Facebook.
Barack Obama called himself a “mutt” and received kudos from at least one “journalist” for his racial ease and awareness. WTF? Isn’t a “mutt” by definition, a “son of a bitch?” Or maybe I’m too sensitive. Maybe expecting people who are obviously uncomfortably clueless about the realities of ethnicity to provide objective analysis of stupid statements from black people is too much to ask, even of people whose job it is to do just that. Otherwise, how could you excuse Alan Fram’s AP article entitled, “‘Mutt like me’-Obama shows ease discussing race”?
It popped out casually, a throwaway line as he talked to reporters about finding the right puppy for his young daughters.
But with just three offhanded words in his first news conference as president-elect, Barack Obama reminded everyone how thoroughly different his administration — and inevitably, this country — will be.
“Mutts like me.”
This is not satire; this Fram guy is dead serious:
If he thought nothing of such a remark in his first news conference, doesn’t that signal that over the next four years, the country is likely to hear more about race from the White House — and from the perspective of a black man — than it ever has before?
So, does Fram think all black people are “mutts?” Or does he think that’s what Obama thinks? Or, is Fram unaware that everything Obama says is likely to be from the perspective of a black man, since Obama is a black man, albeit one who thinks of himself as a “mutt?” Also, nothing Obama says will ever be representative of all black people, since he is only ever going to be one black person. Does Fram know this? Is this as stupid as I think it is? The article is full of such nonsense. Fram ends it (mercifully, eventually) with a quote from Silvio Berlusconi:
Ironically, Obama’s remarks came just a day after Italy’s Premier Silvio Berlusconi, in an apparent joke, described Obama as “young, handsome and even tanned.” Critics called the comment racist, while Berlusconi defended it as a compliment.
Just like John Kerry’s comment that Obama’s blackness is a foreign policy asset, and Jo(k)e Biden’s “clean, articulate black man” characterization, Fram’s article is an example of America’s discomfort with the reality of the “historic nature” of the bullspit they’ve bought into in electing this man. Calling himself a “mutt” can be classified as an insult to his mother, no matter what color she was. It’s dumb and unnecessary. By Obama’s definition, aren’t his daughters “mutts,” too? Is it a big deal? No. Is it a signal of the refreshing change in the hearts and minds of men and women suddenly able to embrace a new racial dynamic, blah, blah, blah? Please. To elevate such drivel to racial progress is a startling revelation of the utter cluelessness driving this phenomenon that is Obama. The only thing it shows is that given the level of racial discomfort existent in this country, Barack Obama can get away with just about anything.
Word History: Clipping not of sheep but of a word having to do with sheep has given us our term mutt for a mongrel dog. Clipping or abbreviating words, a standard process of word formation, sheared mutt from muttonhead, a pejorative term meaning “a stupid person” based on the notion that sheep are stupid. Mutt in its first recorded use in 1901 is used in the same senses as muttonhead, but it is soon recorded (1904) as a term of contempt for a horse and then (1906) for a dog. We can be reasonably certain that the New Yorker critic writing in 1970 that “The cast includes a Sheepdog, . . . a Mutt Bitch,” had no awareness that a sheepdog would make the ideal mutt.
Office of the President Elect? What’s next, Office of the President In-Training? Complete with little wheels? Then Office of the President In-Crisis? With a seal of Mr. Bill screaming, “oh, nooooooo!”? All leading to Office of the President of the World! That one comes with an embossed global seal of Obama in full Burger King regalia sitting on an ornate throne with a lion and a lamb at his feet and a serpent under the left one. All hail!
That’s my prediction; when all is said and done, the Obama administration will look like the VIP section of Comiskey Park . The selection of Rahm (Take Your Knitting And Shove It) Emanuel is the first step in that South Side headed direction. Other names to look for, in my opinion, will be Valerie Jarrett, William Daley, and Jamie Dimon, to name a few. AP reports Obama will be meeting with his finance committee Friday, Dimon and Daley, both of JP Morgan Chase, are on it, as well as Chicagoan Penny Pritzger.
Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden were to meet Friday with 17 members of their transition economic advisory board. Members include former presidential Cabinet officials and executives from Xerox Corp., Time Warner Inc., Google Inc. and the Hyatt hotel company. Investor Warren Buffett was participating by telephone.
In a July 28, CBS News article, Obama’s finance team was partially named thusly:
The list of attendees was long and impressive: Warren Buffett participated by phone; former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J.; Gov. Jon Corzine, D-N.J.; JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, former SEC Chairman under President Bush, William Donaldson; Chairman of Pepsi, Indra Nooyi; Former Treasury Secretary under Bush, Paul O’Neill; Former Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, Robert Reich; Google CEO, Eric Schmidt; AFL-CIO President John Sweeney; former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, among others.
Dimon’s name has been floated as possible Secretary of Treasury, Google it, the stories are numerous. Jarrett has already been named to Obama’s transition team according to the Telegraph:
In one of his first appointments, Mr Obama named Valerie Jarrett – an African American businesswoman, senior advisor and close family friend – as one of the leaders of his White House transition team.
Transition team appointee John Podesta is also a Chicagoan, while Pete Rouse, the other team member named by the New York Times, is linked to Obama through Harvard Law. I expect that most of Obama’s administration will be made up of Harvard and Stanford alumni and/or Chicagoans. Pay no attention to the media insistence on Clinton links, they’re coincidental. Also look for the names David Axelrod, David Plouffe and Austan Goolsbee to be prominent in the coming days. One prominent Obama supporter with University of Chicago ties, Lawrence Lessig, just might not make the cut. It’s a very telling toss-up on that one. At any rate, the Hyde Park-ization of the Democratic party will soon be extensive and dramatic, unless I’m wrong. In that case, Obama’s cabinet will be entirely different. But I don’t think so. Like the move of DeaNC headquarters in June, “Washington to Chicago” is likely the “change” Obama has always been talking about.
PUMA site after PUMA site, mine included, repeatedly warned Republicans not to fall for the tactics employed by “Axelrod’s Tools of Astroturfing,” i.e., the mainstream media and the bullies of the blogosphere. We told you they would try to create a culture of inevitability designed to suppress Republican enthusiasm and voter turnout. We told you we would do our part and vote against the Democratic ticket, “Country Before Party” was the PUMA rallying cry. Did the Republicans listen? No. And I blame Karl Rove.
For some reason, the Republican leadership was perfectly content to let this one go; hell, that’s why John McCain got the nod in the first place. But cross-partisan Americans could have prevented an Obama presidency if Republicans had held up their end of the bargain. However, it seems that cross-partisanship the other way held sway. Karl Rove and Donna Brazile have had a weird kind of “strange relationship” since at least 2000. From Donna’s website:
Last year, following the Supreme Court intervention in the 2000 presidential campaign, I called my friend and Bush chief strategist Karl Rove to wish him well. I offered to send him a map of Washington, DC and recommended that the President sit down early with Mayor Tony Williams and with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. He listened and I appreciate Karl’s tenacity and commitment to making things happen. We also talked about cooking — one of my favorite hobbies when I am not running around stirring the pots and cooking up ways to win a campaign.
Karl and I met over a year ago at a small restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire. Like most political operatives who meet for the first time, we made a bet on the outcome of the 2000 presidential election. Karl also likes a hot kitchen, so we bet on a meal. The winner would cook his/her favorite dish; the loser would probably pick up the tab. Back in December, Karl reminded me that it was time to get back to cooking. We planned the menu: I’ll stir up some Louisiana-style Creole — red beans and andouille sausage. Karl will likely provide some Texas-style chili and rice. With the election no longer in doubt, and two Southerners in the kitchen, all we have to agree to is who will fry the chicken.
The final Rove & Co. electoral map of the 2008 election cycle points to a 338-200 Barack Obama electoral vote victory over John McCain tomorrow, the largest electoral margin since 1996. All remaining toss-up states have been allocated to the candidate leading in them, with Florida (27 EV) going to Obama, and Indiana (11 EV), Missouri (11 EV), North Carolina (15 EV), and North Dakota (3 EV) going to McCain. The two candidates are in a dead heat in Missouri and North Carolina, but they go to McCain because the most recent polls conducted over this past weekend show him narrowly ahead. Florida, too, could end up in McCain’s column since he’s benefited from recent movement in the state.
However, CNN had this to say about the actual voter turnout:
“A downturn in the number and percentage of Republican voters going to the polls seemed to be the primary explanation for the lower than predicted turnout,” the report said. Compared to 2004, Republican turnout declined by 1.3 percentage points to 28.7 percent, while Democratic turnout increased by 2.6 points from 28.7 percent in 2004 to 31.3 percent in 2008.
If Republicans had just matched their 2004 totals and added a lousy 1.4 percent, or maybe held on to those “Obamacans” who voted for “hope and change,” we’d be talking about President-elect McCain right now. So, to those Republicans who care, don’t blame us. We did all we could.
Poor Diantha Harris, Cumberland, North Carolina fifth grade school teacher. She has no idea she’s as out-of-bounds as she clearly is. In an article from today’s Asheville Citizen-Times comes the story of a Swedish documentary capturing Harris “belittling” a young student for supporting John McCain back in May:
First of all, like I said in an earlier post, buck up, guys, it’s not the end of the world! And, contrary to what anybody says, PUMA is a HUGE success. Or, it can be. Sure, the naysayers in the mainstream media, the blogger bullies, and the disappointed Republicans who didn’t know we were alive until they got desperate and now want to blame us, are minimizing us, our numbers and our impact. What makes it easy to discount us and our numbers is the same thing that makes us unique and powerful; PUMA is a true grassroots movement. Unlike those well-organized “Astroturfing Tools of Axelrod”, we have no corporate funds to buy ad time, and pr firms to bump up our “presence” in the media, no political sponsorship giving us decades old, well researched membership lists to exploit, just like-minded people, united in principle, dedicated to effecting change. That’s power, baby, and it blows that “GOP sponsored, ratfucking operation” nonsense straight to hell. We’ve got what Howard Dean exploited and turned into Democracy for America, even though he did have his Dean for America base to build on. But we’ve got a PUMA base to build on, now, too. If we want to. If not, hey, it was a helluva ride, and before we do anything rash, it might be prudent to sit back and wait to see how this thing shakes out. I’ve got a feeling we might be desperately needed in the very near future.
A lot of us have the blues right now, that’s to be expected. But the truth is, there’s so much to be admired about all of you who call yourself PUMA, and those of you who sympathize with what PUMA stands for, that it’s hard to know where to start. You guys forced the DeaNC to at least pretend to live up to it’s principles. With no money, no headquarters, no nothing, really, but integrity, spirit, devotion and hard work, you took a contingent of real Americans to the freaking Democratic National Convention and were heard! Ignored, but heard. All things considered, that’s pretty amazing for a loose-knit coalition of people scattered across the country, connected only by the internet and faith. There isn’t really even one central PUMA…anything, other than the absolutely unshakable belief that democracy should be central to the Democratic party, and the willingness to play David to the DeaNC’s Goliath, if need be.
Just because it’s the right thing to do.
I am so grateful to all of you, you are what America should be. So, have a long hot soak and a glass of wine, watch a DVD, get some rest, and chill. This movie just started.
First of all, to all those who voted for Barack Obama, congratulations, you won! To all those who didn’t, buck up, it’s not the end of the world, even if it does feel that way right now. We survived George Bush, we’ll get by. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t drunk the KoolAid, I still stand behind everything I’ve written about my feelings for the new president-elect. That being said, the majority of voters did not agree with me, and he will soon be the leader of my country. I intend to hold his feet to the fire every step of the way, too.
For all those who voted for “hope,” how will you know if you get it? You’ve already gotten “change,” America has it’s first black president, that’s “change” for your ass! Whether it’s ultimately enough, remains to be seen. Anyway, good luck to all, and Obots, try not to gloat. You won. Celebrate. The real world resumes spinning tomorrow.
Okay, I admit it, I’m a wimp. I can’t watch the election results. I PUMA voted, could not for the life of me bring myself to let my race trump the Democratic candidate’s inexperience and lack of accomplishment, nor the DeaNC’s treachery in selecting such a candidate by undemocratic means to represent them and the things they’re supposed to stand for. If that revokes my black card, take it. And stick it. So, if any kind souls care to keep me updated, please do. I’ll be busy measuring my oven for headspace.
I haven’t yet voted; it’s still early here on the West Coast, but as I contemplate, still, how exactly I’m going to cast my protest vote, there are a few things about this election I find hard to believe. I find it hard to believe that millions of people are willing, nay, enthusiastic, about voting for a man of little accomplishment and experience, just because he’s black. I find it equally hard to believe that millions of people are willing to vote for a man whose own party is lukewarm about, just because he’s not the black guy. In other words, I find it hard to believe that these are our two choices for the highest office in the land. Is this really the best we can do?
We will wake up tomorrow to a new president-elect, and the only thing we can be sure of, is that we will get the government we deserve.
Obama wins! At least according to the mainstream media pre-election, vote-suppression, cheerleading. It seems that among 7-11 customers participating in their unofficial, unscientific 7-Election, Barack Obama is favored by people who drink cheap coffee. Huzzah!
North Carolina and New Hampshire show the candidates being tied, 18 states have no 7-11 representation, and the rest of the map on the 7 Election webpage has the contest 60% Obama – 40% McCain.
If that’s not bad enough, McCain lost Dixville Notch. Yep, ’tis true. U.S. News and World Report tells us that two tiny towns in New Hampshire validate the 7 Election findings:
Barack Obama came up a big winner in the presidential race in Dixville Notch and Hart’s Location, N.H., where tradition of having the first Election Day ballots tallied lives on.
Democrat Obama defeated Republican John McCain by a count of 15 to 6 in Dixville Notch, where a loud whoop accompanied the announcement in Tuesday’s first minutes. The town of Hart’s Location reported 17 votes for Obama, 10 for McCain and two for write-in Ron Paul. Independent Ralph Nader was on both towns’ ballots but got no votes.
I guess Nader was too busy looking for Obama’s nuts to campaign. All is not lost, however. Take heart you McCainiacs. The AOL unscientific, unofficial presidential straw poll shows an almost completely red map with McCain up 57% – 42%, with McCain getting 493 electoral votes to Obama’s 45. Take that, Obamabots! Ha!
People trashing Sarah Palin have extra-strength blinders on when it comes to Joe (If I Said It And Didn’t Steal It, It’s Probably Stupid) Biden. One never need question whether what Biden says is stupid, one need only note if his teeth are showing. Today, FOX News is reporting that Joe, though relatively good at telling time, lacks comprehension about much of anything else, and is largely unintelligible:
Biden called his sister a “girl-boy,” meaning a tomboy, and then explained that girl-boys are softer than “girl-girls.”
“You know why I think Jill likes Claire McCaskill so well, Senator McCaskill? Jill is one of five sisters, Claire is one of three sisters. And I tell you what, you women raised with sisters are different than women raised with brothers,” Biden said as both women joined him on stage.
“My sister is smart, runs every one of my campaigns; is beautiful; graduated with honors from college; is homecoming queen. But she’s a … she is what I call a ‘girl-boy’ growing up, you know what I mean?”
“And I tell you what? Girl-girls are tougher than girl-boys,” he said. “But there’s one important thing I noticed.The great thing about marrying into a family with five sisters, there’s always one that loves you. ‘Cause you can count on splitting them a bit. You know what I mean?
“I shouldn’t be going off like this, but — hey, folks, 37 more hours, 37 more hours,” he then said.
One can only imagine the stunned silence and blank expressions of those exposed to this gibberish. The perplexity continued as Joe kept talking:
“In the most recent debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, John McCain felt the need to say to Barack, to the commentator and to all America that he was not John McCain,” Biden said in the slip-up. “I mean, he was not President Bush.”
After all the ballots are cast and all the votes counted, one of two men will be President of the United States of America.
One is a war hero with 26 years of service in the Senate.
The other is a junior Senator with more time logged on the campaign trail than actually spent legislating.
One Senator’s whereabouts and associations are, and have been, pretty well documented for over thirty years.
The other has large, unexplained gaps in his slim resume and refuses to provide documentation regarding those gaps, as well as rather dubious relationships.
One Senator won his party’s nomination fairly.
The other was selected by his party’s elite in a sham of electoral theater.
One man has raised more money than has ever been raised by any two presidential candidates in any given presidential contest; much of it “questionable.”
The other accepted public financing, as he and his opponent had previously agreed to do.
On Wednesday, one of these men will be President of the United States of America.
Yep, that’s African Press International, alright, and then some. The wonderfully melodramatic website that claims to have in it’s possession “explosive” audiotapes of a Michelle Obama rant, as well as an agreement with FOX News to air them, (which has been flat out denied by Greta van Susteren, one of the anchors API names in it’s “agreement) is now saying that since FOX has ignored their ultimatum to air the tapes immediately, they’re just going to have to go ahead and cancel the deal. Oh, boy, that’s…audacity, maybe?
There is no exaggeration when we�say we�struck a deal with Fox N.N�in good faith and that was done due to information we had at the time causing us to believe that the network was serious to air the tape.
API has waited this long for the release of the tape, while at the same time giving hope to many who wanted to listen to the contents of the tape.
We will not drop the idea to release the tape to the public because we are well aware API�s credibility has been put on the line.
There’s more, you can go there and read it, if you wish, I’m tired of…the whole thing really, but of providing links, specifically. The above’s cheeky enough, don’t you think, but the “chutzpah” comes into play with their posted “cancellation” letter, sent as an attachment to a “pre-cancellation” email:
Re: Our contract: anticipatory repudiation
We have to face the fact that you have decided not to comply with the letter and spirit of our agreement entered in good faith insofar as we are concerned.
We hereby anticipatorily repudiate our agreement with you and hold you responsible for all the damages we have incurred and will incur by your breach of the agreement.
It is clear that, with the repudiation of the contract, we are no longer by its confidentiality provisions and its terms and conditions.
We will publish the substance of this letter so as to�inform the public and interested organizations of the legitimacy and reasonableness of your actions to perform your obligation to broadcast the tapes as well as any other of the obligations you had agreed to perform.
The genuineness of the tapes has been verified by your organization and we trust that you will advise any interested party accordingly, In any event, this is now a largely theoretical question, since a fair number of independent�persons will be able to make their own opinion on the matter.
We wish to thank you for the courtesy you have shown to us at the personal level.
As to the actual damages, our counsel will contact you after we have performed your obligations and reviewed the whole situation.
It’s all deliciously complicated, given that API has always had the option to simply post the transcript, if not the actual tapes, on their website at any time they saw fit. Obviously, “fit” they never saw. Anyway, that’s the Michelle Obama/API Drama update for today. I keep thinking each one will be the last, but API manages to come up with something new on a pretty regular basis, so we’ll see how it goes. Like my mother never said, keep smiling, it can only get worse. And if it does, people will leave you alone if you’re standing there grinning like a fool.
Barack Obama has a bad habit of scratching his face at exactly the same time he’s delivering scathing remarks about an opponent. He might want to get that in check. Tends to tick people off, whether he meant to do it, or not.
The race baiting of camp Barack Obama has pissed me off since the primaries. His “post-racial” both sides of his mouth, in your face, hands off, passive/aggressive, taunting/pleading has been both painful and frightening to watch. As I head off to the voting booth tomorrow, I will do the one thing in my power to stop such “race-rallying by proxy,” I will vote against it.
“Selma got me born” was a bald-faced lie. Selma, the violence associated with the historic march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge and it’s impact on the Civil Rights Movement had nothing to do with Hawaiian teen hot pants for Kenyans, and to even have the gall to suggest such a thing is worthy of rebuke and scorn.
Lyndon Baines Johnson passed the Civil Rights Bill. Martin Luther King’s leadership created an environment where doing the right thing by the president became imperative, regardless of the political implications. Saying that one will take a Johnsonian approach to today’s black issues is a promise to pursue a results-driven agenda. To demean this sort of commitment, as Camp B.O. did of Hillary Clinton’s Martin Luther King Day speech, is shamelessly inexcusable. That he got away with his lame, yet now predictable “unfortunate” characterization, is worse. Clinton’s “it took a president to get the job done,” is historically accurate grade school civics. It takes a president to sign legislation. Obama’s comment makes no sense for a “constitutional lawyer:”
“She made an unfortunate remark about Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson,” he said. “I haven’t remarked on it. And she offended some folks who thought she diminished the role about King and the civil rights movement. The notion that this is our doing is ludicrous.”
“I’d have to see him dance.“ This one did it for me. The Jim Crow buck-and-wing stereotype is so ingrained in our culture that Barack Obama was not only not called to task for invoking it, he was applauded by blacks and whites alike. How dare they? Yet, when some marginal Hillary Clinton surrogate used the phrase “shucking and jiving,” it, along with other, more dubious examples of “race-baiting,” was decried as “proof positive” that the Clinton campaign was wholly comprised of vicious, unscrupulous, race-baiters willing to engage in the worst sort of low politics in their brazen attempts to smear a black man to their advantage.
The other, well documented instances of Obama and his minions crying foul at every reference to the color black, while at the same time claiming post-racial “above-it-all-ness,” while at the same time exploiting and demeaning black Americans for the sake of scoring Brownie points with “color-blind” white Americans, are too numerous to mention. Yet, guilt-ridden, smug-assed, supercilious white people of influence who have likey never been closer to an inner-city neighborhood than their morning commute will allow them to skirt, perpetuated the myth that there was something noble in supporting a “not-too-black” candidate, primarily for the symbolism involved.
Barack Obama and his merry band of assuagers have played the one-note racism song with virtuosity. They should not be allowed to exploit America’s troubled racial legacy this way. As we head into election day, the song sung black is getting louder and more discordant, yet, unfortunately there is no sign that it will be any less effective. The Christian Science Monitor is running one such piece online. In a story of an insular white man, coerced into canvassing for Obama by his wife, we are treated to his eye-opening epiphany that black people need something to believe in. Guess what Mister, they’re human. Buy a freaking clue. This sappy, drippy essay proves only that the author needs to get out more.
A New York Times article headlined, “McCain Finds Some Hope In Philadelphia,” assures us that the large number of bigots in the area gives McCain a shot. We have been told over and over again that being black is a disadvantage that could cost Obama up to six points due the “Bradley effect,” or the cowardliness of white voters determined not to vote for a black man, but too chicken to admit it. Or, maybe, a “reverse Bradley effect” will net him six points. What about the “novice effect,” or the “empty suit effect,” or do no other factors come into play when a candidate is black? What about the hoped-for increase in African American voter turnout? Where’s the cute, comfy, feelgood name for that effect?
As a black woman, I’m tired of watching my “positive image-starved” sisters and brothers be played by this overconfident “cock-of-the-walk” con man whose only accomplishment is running for office, and whose only known attribute is a willingness to win using any means neccessary. While la-di-da liberals and all other manner of starry-eyed white Americans vote for their own need to reinforce a mythical image of an America that never was, and is unlikely to be, as long as rubber-stamping Hollywood script-written “reality” is the extent of committment to real social change, I’ll cast my vote elsewhere. A lie of this magnitude should not be rewarded.
ACORN , the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has consistently refuted claims of voter fraud against them as being voter suppression “stunts.” According to the L.A. Times, after a Nevada raid that seized records of bogus registrations, ACORN rep Bertha Lewis said just that:
Bertha Lewis, interim chief organizer for ACORN, said the group has been working with election officials to weed out fraudulent forms from those submitted by its canvassers.
“Today’s raid by the secretary of state’s office is a stunt that serves no useful purpose other than to discredit our work registering Nevadans,” Lewis said.
Lewis also said that ACORN is diligent in scrutinizing their records:
“For the past 10 months, any time ACORN has identified a potentially fraudulent application, we turn that application in to election officials separately and offer to provide election officials with the information they would need to pursue an investigation or prosecution of the individual,” Lewis said.
However, a Politico article disputes ACORN’s claims:
ACORN’s second line of defense has been that fraudulent registrations can’t turn into fraudulent votes, as if the felony of polluting voter lists was somehow not all that serious. But that defense goes only a short distance. “How would you know if people using fake names had cast votes in states without strict ID laws?” says GOP Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, who this year won a major Supreme Court case upholding his state’s photo identification law. “It’s almost impossible to detect and once the fraudulent voter leaves the precinct or casts an absentee ballot, that vote is thrown in with other secret ballots there’s no way to trace it.”
Anita MonCrief, an ACORN whistle-blower who worked for both it and its Project Vote registration affiliate from 2005 until early this year, agrees. “It’s ludicrous to say that fake registrations can’t become fraudulent votes,” she told me. “I assure you that if you can get them on the rolls you can get them to vote, especially using absentee ballots.” MonCrief, a 29-year old University of Alabama graduate who wanted to become part of the civil rights movement, worked as a strategic consultant for ACORN as well as a development associate with Project Vote and sat in on meetings with the national staffs of both groups. She has given me documents that back up many of her statements, including one that indicates that the goal of ACORN’s New Mexico affiliate was that only 40 percent of its submitted registrations had to be valid.
MonCrief also told me that some ACORN affiliates had a conscious strategy of flooding voter registration offices with suspect last-minute forms in part to create confusion and chaos that would make it more likely suspect voters would be allowed to cast ballots by overworked officials. Nate Toller, who worked on ACORN registration drives and headed an ACORN campaign against Wal-Mart in California until 2006, agrees. “There’s no quality control on purpose, no checks and balances,” he told me.
Supporters of Hillary Clinton have our own bone to pick with ACORN and caucus fraud in the primaries as documented here and here. In February, the website Writes Like She Talks was one of many to print an email supposedly received from the group:
GOTV for Obama! Ohio ACORN is doing a Get Out The Vote project with the OBAMA Campaign. Ohio ACORN is hiring canvassers to go door to door encouraging voters to vote for Barak Obama.
ACORN is hiring in Cleveland (216)431-3905 , Columbus (614)425-9491, Cincinnati (513)221-1737, for Dayton (call Cincinnati), and for Toledo call Cleveland. Or email polnatoh@acorn.org and your inquiry will be routed to the appropriate person in each of these cities. Intake and training will be held daily at local ACORN offices. Canvass begins on Wednesday Feb. 27th and will work through election day. Please, only persons wishing to work all or most of these days (Saturday and Sunday included) should inquire.
Please do not contact the Obama campaign directly regarding this post as they are not the organization doing the hiring and it will only distract their staff and volunteers from the other important work they are doing on behalf of Senator Obama.
ACORN has not only been accused of employing thug-like tactics on behalf of Obama during the primaries, caucuses and general election, the New York Times says they’ve exaggerated their legitimate efforts:
On Oct. 6, the community organizing group Acorn and an affiliated charity called Project Vote announced with jubilation that they had registered 1.3 million new voters. But it turns out the claim was a wild exaggeration, and the real number of newly registered voters nationwide is closer to 450,000, Project Vote’s executive director, Michael Slater, said in an interview.
The remainder are registered voters who were changing their address and roughly 400,000 that were rejected by election officials for a variety of reasons, including duplicate registrations, incomplete forms and fraudulent submissions from low-paid field workers trying to please their supervisors, Mr. Slater acknowledged.
Is that newly registered, or eligible newly registered? And given the fact that some of them can, and have, voted fraudulently, presumably on behalf of, and possibly at the behest of Barack Obama, shouldn’t somebody do something about it?
First, Barack Obama’s running mate Joe (Will Somebody Shut Me Up?) Biden tells at least two different audiences (Seattle and San Francisco) that Obama, if elected, though made of steel (like Superman) would be tested as soon as he got in office, so “gird your loins,” because you’d never want to be caught in a crisis with an inexperienced president with your loins ungirded, everybody knows that. Before that, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, told a crowd to vote for Obama, just to piss Bill O’Reilly off. Now, according to ABC’s Jake Tapper (a reporter everybody hates for the right reasons since he’s one of the last decent journalists left, imo) via Atlas Shrugs, another Obama supporter has made it difficult for the novice junior senator to get by with this kind of help from his friends:
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, was down in Florida over the weekend, and one supposes that he thought he was helping Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., but it will ultimately be hard to make that case.
Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugged has posted some video of Nadler at a synagogue in Boca Raton trying to explain why Obama was able to stay in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church for 20 years.
He starts off my saying he has no idea of what he’s talking about. And then he proceeds to open mouth, insert foot.
Tapper proceeds to tell Nadler’s tale, editorializing along the way. For purposes of inserting my own editorials economically, I’ll just post Nadler’s direct quotes; you can read Jake’s takes later:
Says Nadler: “I have no personal knowledge of what I’m about to say. What I’m about to say is my guess…”
“My guess,” Nadler said, “knowing how politics works, what I’m about to say is not particularly…”
“…not particularly complimentary towards Sen. Obama,” he says.
“Think of the history here,” says the six-term New York congressman. “You have a guy who’s half-white, half-black. He goes to an Ivy League school, comes to Chicago … to start a political career. Doesn’t know anybody.
“Gets involved with community organizing — why? Because that’s how your form a base. OK. Joins the largest church in the neighborhood. About 8,000 members. … Why did he join the church? … Because that’s how you get to know people.
“Now maybe it takes a couple years,” Nadler says, suggesting that soon Obama starts to think of Wright, “’Jesus, the guy’s a nut, the guy’s a lunatic.’ But you don’t walk out of a church with 8,000 members in your district.”
Suggests a woman: “You don’t walk in though.”
“He didn’t know it when he walked in, presumably,” said Nadler.
“Now, what does it tell me?” Nadler asked. “It tells me that he wasn’t terribly political courageous. Does it tell me that he agreed with the reverend in any way? No. It tells me he didn’t want to walk out of a church in his district.”
“He didn’t have the political courage to make the statement of walking out.
Tapper says this is not the first time Nadler has been less than supportive of Obama. Supposedly, when asked by Hillary Clinton in 2005 for his support for a potential presidential run, Nadler said, “sure,” explaining:
“‘I don’t see a lot of other good possibilities in our party,’ said Nadler… ‘Someone like Barack Obama, who is suddenly a real candidate, always worries me, because he is a novice candidate. He hasn’t done it before. Novice candidates, not always, but 95 percent of the time make a mistake. I made some terrible mistakes in office, when I was district leader, no one remembers what they are. I wasn’t in front of all the news cameras.’”
Golly, Nader says Obama’s got no nuts, and now Nadler says, “ya got that right.” So, remind me why anybody should vote for him, again?
According to Politico, Ralph Nader is accusing Barack Obama of being nutless:
Ralph Nader’s 2008 presidential campaign has been defined by bizarre Web videos intended to attract attention away from the two major-party candidates. So it should be little surprise that in the campaign’s final days, he’s doing it one last time.
The subject line of the release announcing the video: “Nader Campaign says Obama has no nuts.”
The video, “The Obama Nuts,” debuted Sunday and chronicles an “Obama supporter,” at least according to the release, wearing a Nader T-shirt and in search of said nuts.
Whether Nader thinks Jesse Jackson made his Obama nuts dream come true is unclear, what’s for sure is Nader is convinced Obama ain’t got ‘em. Maybe Barack sold ‘em for candy. Oh, well, sometimes you feel like a nut…
The PUMA Movement, composed largely of Democrats and recently former Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries, is, and has always been, warily dismissed as a myth or ridiculed by those deliriously supporting Barack Obama. Because PUMA is a loose-knit coalition of websites dedicated to the proposition that an unfairly selected nominee is unworthy of true Democratic support, pooh-poohing the reality is easy to do. However, the sentiments driving the movement are not so easily dismissed. There is no true PUMA Party in the same sense as other organized political parties, in fact, not all PUMAs-at-heart even know that they are, thus the stealthy PUMA is harder to identify. Yet, to think that a quiet setting denotes safety from prey, is to invite being preyed upon.
It’s also rather funny to realize that those attempting to minimize the PUMA effect were perfectly willing to exploit mischief making Republicans hellbent on undermining the Democratic nomination process by registering as Democrats simply to vote against HRC. When pre-PUMAs were decrying the process, Obots were applauding it.
Payback’s a bitch, ain’t it?
Just think about it this way Obama supporters, we’re just following your leader’s example and “working across the aisle.” Only, we’re doing it where it counts, and we’ll see how dismissive you’ll be come Tuesday.
Whether you consider the African Press International Michelle Obama Adoption Drama to be soap opera, mystery, spy thriller or high camp, ya gotta admit, it’s been rollicking good fun. I must have gained twenty pounds over the last couple of weeks from the amount of popcorn I’ve consumed following this fiction. In keeping with my recent tradition of bringing you the twists and turns as they develop, I offer you API’s “ultimatum” to FOX News to release the doggone tapes immediately or…or, I’m not sure what. Seems to me, API could have released a printed transcript weeks ago, which probably would have even gotten MSNBC into the act. Anyway, here goes:
API chose Fox News Network as a partner in Michelle Obama tapes’ deal, due to the advise received from all the readers who informed API that the News outlet was one we could trust to air the tape unedited.
Now that the Network has not done as agreed on the 28th of last month, API remains with only one choice in order to force the issue to be resolved immediately. The choice API has now chosen is to give an ultimatum to Fox News Network and hope the situation will be resolved in a few hours to come.
Today afternoon, API took a bold step to give Fox News Network a six hours ultimatum to decide on an immediate release of�the tape�- “that the tape be aired as soon as possible,�latest tomorrow the 3rd of November if it has to have any value in connection with the US Presidential elections taking place on Tuesday the 4th of this month.
In a strong worded letter dictated by API’s Canadian Counsel, Fox News Network has been given the ultimatum to come to its senses and respect the agreement reached in New York on the 28th of October.
API has reminded Fox News Network of the responsibilities that the News outlet took upon themselves in connection with the Michelle Obama tape.
API is not ready to give up on this. The tape must be aired as agreed by the parties. This tape has caused a lot of headache to many people. Demands to release the tape has been enormous and some people have gone as far as getting angered because they do not think the deal is there, and have resorted to the assumption that API is pulling their legs.
Any denials by any one in Fox News Network that seeks to embarrass API will not be taken lightly. Any such denials will be treated as a breach of contract and API will not hesitate taking legal action against the Network. We view the tape as a very important instrument that will serve to enlighten a number of people whose total interest is to have a leadership that earns their trust and will serve them diligently no matter what their beliefs are in today’s America.
The ultimatum has been necessitated by the News outlet’s laxity in taking a decision favourable to the political�environment that many voters finds themselves in, after discovering that there is a taped conversation bearing the voice of�their “probably incoming First Lady.”
We still hope that our readers and the American people who are interested to listen to Michelle Obama’s voice will not be deprived of that opportunity and we are hopeful that the tape will be aired latest tomorrow the 3rd of November., unless Fox News Network chooses to remain arrogant and deny the American people the right to listen to the tape and interpret the meaning of the contents themselves before the main election day on the following day.
New York’s Working Families Party was first organized in 1998 by a coalition of labor unions, ACORN and other community organizations, members of the now-inactive national New Party, and a variety of public interest groups. The party blends a culture of political organizing with unionism, 1960s idealism, and tactical pragmatism. The party’s main issue concerns are jobs, health care, education and energy/environment, and it has won notable policy gains at the city, county and state level by piggybacking on Democratic or Republican candidates.
New Party members and supported candidates won 16 of 23 races, including an at-large race for the Little Rock, Ark., City Council, a seat on the county board for Little Rock and the school board for Prince George’s County, Md. Chicago is sending the first New Party member to Congress, as Danny Davis, who ran as a Democrat, won an overwhelming 85% victory. New Party member Barack Obama was uncontested for a State Senate seat from Chicago.
Candidates must be approved via a NP political committee. Once approved, candidates must sign a contract with the NP. The contract mandates that they must have a visible and active relationship with the NP.
The political entourage included Alderman Michael Chandler, William Delgado, chief of staff for State Rep Miguel del Valle, and spokespersons for State Sen. Alice Palmer, Sonya Sanchez, chief of staff for State Sen. Jesse Garcia, who is running for State Rep in Garcia’s District; and Barack Obama, chief of staff for State Sen. Alice Palmer. Obama is running for Palmer’s vacant seat.
Twice in the last week, Barack Obama has said his relationship with ACORN — the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — began and ended with legal work he did for the group in 1995.
Besides, even though ACORN makes no bones about helping found the Working Families Party, they claim to be non- partisan:
ACORN is a non-profit, non-partisan social justice organization with national headquarters in New York, New Orleans and Washington, D.C.
As a PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) survivor of Camp Barack Obama’s brand of slash-and-burn campaign tactics, I think it only fair to give dispirited Republican and Independent voters a heads up. Snap out of it! You’re being played, big time. The inflated polls, the mainstream media predictions of a blowout, the pervasive blogosphere contention that “President Obama” is a done deal the whole world wants, are all examples of Team Obama’s business-as-usual tactics designed to discourage you from exercising your voting power. I mean, if he’s as good as elected already, might as well stay home, right?
Over at Riverdaughter’s place, the Confluence, they call what’s happening a haka, named after the Maori war dance designed to intimidate opponents and discourage them from fighting. I call it “astrofucking,” a practice perfected by David Axelrod, combining his successful shadow p.r. technique of manufacturing fake grassroots support, with old-fashioned Republican Segretti/Rove dirty tricks, i.e. “ratfucking.” Given the success of “astrofucking” in the primaries (with a lot of help from the DeaNC) I implore those Republicans and Independents interested in actually winning this thing, to vote. No matter what you hear; no matter what “authority” says otherwise.
Now, just as the PUMA position of actively promoting the Republican ticket is unusual, so too is the largely ignored-by-the-media reality that some Republicans don’t really want to win. Whoever wins the White House is going to inherit a shitload of trouble; in one of his rare moments of clarity, even Joe (What The Hell Am I Talking About?) Biden admitted that much. It’s even plausible to me that the active participation of Bill and Hillary Clinton as campaign surrogates, is the result of the post-primary realization of this reality and the implications relative to Obama and the DeaNC. So, a lot of Republicans, understandably, are willing to sit back and let the Democrats take the blame for the massive screw-up on the way. Personally, I think that’s a bad idea if you care about your country and really believe your party has a better way of doing things.
This is an unusual election year for a lot of reasons, but the bottom line is, this is not Barack Obama’s race to lose. From what we experienced in the primaries, PUMAs know that this election is up for grabs, no matter who says what. If you, like us, resent having your elections rigged from on high, if you believe that the voters should decide who becomes president, not the media, blogger bullies, or big money, backroom, corporate wheeler-dealers, the solution is simple.
Vote.
Like your life depended on it.
Take it from PUMAs, you can still win, as long as you don’t buy the hype.
Barack Obama is, by his own admission, the most clueless man the American public has been acquainted with since Hogan’s Heroes’ Sgt. Schultz never saw contraband being smuggled in and out of Nazi Germany through a tunnel under a POW camp on that old TV show. Obama “didn’t know” William Ayers was a terrorist, he “didn’t know” Tony Rezko was indictable, he “didn’t know” Rev. Jeremiah Wright preached sermons not exactly embraceable by most American Christians. He “knew nuttink!” Now, according to his campaign surrogates, he “didn’t know” his aunt was living illegally in the United States, but as far as he’s concerned, she can just crawl right under the bus with the rest of ‘em. From Politico:
Barack Obama did not know a relative was living in the United States illegally for the past nearly four years prior to today’s Associated Press report, “but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed,” the campaign said Saturday in a statement.
The Democratic nominee last heard from Zeituni Onyango, who attended his swearing-in ceremony to the U.S. Senate in 2005 and is a half-sister of Obama’s late father, two years ago, when she called to say she was in Boston, the campaign said. Campaign officials said they did not assist her in getting a tourist visa and had not known that she was living in America.
Obama, who also has a tendency to point fingers like a little boy caught arm-deep in the cookie jar insisting upon blaming his imaginary friend, also says “the Republicans did it!” Since Obama never says anything Axelrod didn’t say first, we can treat any statements from either as interchangeable:
“The American people are pretty sensible,” said Obama chief strategist David Axelrod, “and I think they are pretty suspicious of things that are dumped in the marketplace 72 hours before a campaign, so I am not concerned about that.”
Asked whether he was suggesting there were political motives from a Republican administration, Axelrod said: “I am not saying anything at this point.”
Seems like a strange reaction from a group who “benefited” from leaks about “Joe the Plumber” traced back to Obama supporter, Helen Jones-Kelley, who according to the Las Vegas Examiner, now seems to be lying and pointing fingers herself:
The Ohio employee who ran a child support check on Joe the Plumber says a supervisor told her the man contacted the social services agency about his case.
Niekamp told The Columbus Dispatch she is unfamiliar with any policy in which the records of the newly famous are checked.
That sounds like Camp O, alright. First, deny, then blame somebody, anybody, else. If that doesn’t work, just stop talking about it, like Obama surrogate Robert Gibbs is now trying to do about “Auntie-gate:”
Senior strategist Robert Gibbs shut down any line of questioning Thursday when news broke about Obama’s relative, telling reporters, “I’m not going to get into it.”
He likes to be called African Press International’s Chief Editor Korir; that is, when he’s not being called “officer.” Is he either? Apparently not. Mountain Sage has done a tremendous amount of research on the guy, rather than do it any injustice, I recommend you go over there and take a look see for yourself. In case you don’t know, African Press International is a website making claims of being in possession of “soon-to-be-released” audiotapes of Michelle Obama ranting, complete with CIA and FOX News involvement, as well as threats and bribes from the Obama camp. Again, rather than regurgitating their words ad nauseum, as I have been doing, just for the fun of it, I suggest you head over there and take a look see for yourself.
I have personally read 2 articles from the Norwegian newspaper site, Dagbladet.no, that accuse Korir of being a major nogoodnik. This one, dated today, examines this year’s campaign “smears” and links back to an earlier Dagbladet.no story re: Sammy Korir’s claims of being an undercover Norwegian police agent, that I posted a few days ago, here. The translations are kinda rough, but the meaning is pretty clear.
I also recieved a report in my comment section of an email solicitation alledgedly tied to Korir’s API, supposedly posted originally on the API website. Don’t know anything about it, but I’ll pass it on.
It’s an email harvesting operation folks…
Just opened my comcast account… I’ve had this email account for five years.. no spam…. tonight I had several… Anyone else getting email from ‘Shopper’s Discount’? I’ve never heard of them.
Did you verify an email from one sent to you by Mr Korir (I don’t address semi-literates as ‘Editor.’)
I did get an unsolicited email from Mr Korir the other day…with a request to verify receipt…
Guess I know now why he uses the verification system.. he wants to sell his email lists as verified…
Say it isn’t so ‘Sammy’….
‘Clowd’.. try finding two brain cells to rub together… you’re pathetic. Same goes for Meg, Hope, W00sh, Kathy etc, etc…
Anyone who believes that tripe at the the top of the page about FOX being worried about how their employee’s will find jobs in government must be delusional.
This man has a documented history from news sources.. REAL News sources, like the BBC and the local media there in Norway..showing a clear pattern of extortion and deceits.. He fits the typical pattern of the anti-social personality… he has no concious…
He only has attention seeking games and promises he can’t deliver on, because ultimately he is a big zero. He belongs in jail in Kenya for the crimes he comited against those kids, but you ‘god-fearting’ people just wink at extorting money from impoverished kids like it was mere jay-walking..
You are emotionally stunted and intellectually vulgar. You’d have an excuse if you were just a casual passerby, but you have become colluders with this snake.You have earned my distain.
I hope a pleasant time was had by all.
Spelling errors aside, the email is credible in the sense that, to be fair, Korir has not asked for money in relation to his “bombshell” story, as far as I know, and every scam needs a payoff. To this point, however, it’s unclear whether any API readers have actually been fleeced; so far, it seems they’ve just been played for the hell of it. As far as the other scams are concerned, I know nothing about them. If I find out more, I’ll pass it on, too.
That’s what Barack Obama wanted to know as he walked his daughter to a Halloween party at a friend’s home. Walked? A friend? In his neighborhood? Wonder who that might be? Okay, that’s neither here nor there, I just brought it up because I felt like it. Anyway, it seems like the “cool,” “unflappable” “first viable black candidate for president” lost his “cool” and got majorly “flapped” at a bunch of reporters who just happened to catch him out and about. You buying any of this? Me neither, but let’s pretend he didn’t know the press was lodged outside his house, or wouldn’t notice him walking down the street with a kid dressed as a “corpse’s bride.” What the holy cow was he thinking with that? Reuter’s says:
Barack Obama had taken a break from the campaign trail for a few hours of Halloween fun at home with his family four days before the election, but ended up visibly annoyed when news crews dogged their footsteps in their Chicago neighborhood.
“That’s enough. You’ve got a shot. Leave us alone,” Obama told reporters as he walked down the block with his 7-year-old daughter Sasha in her costume on the way to a party at a neighbor’s home.
Okay, I think I get it now. The press, who followed him home, was supposed to know that they were supposed to act like they do when it comes to any other Obama story. Don’t really report it.
He grew especially testy when a Polish television cameraman tried to approach them.
“Come on guys, get back on the bus,” he pleaded with journalists, many of whom had accompanied him from the airport to Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
Obama, wearing sunglasses but no costume, and his daughter, dressed up as what campaign aides said was a “corpse’s bride,” then broke into a sprint, leaving the journalists behind.
Too bad the rest of the neighborhood didn’t get the “ignore all those Secret Service guys following the Greatest Black Man Ever and his child” memo. They didn’t go back to their homes; they thought there was something to see there.
Secret Service agents and vans followed closely behind, and stunned trick-or-treaters broke into shouts of “Obama, Obama” as he rushed past.
There was no neighborhood trick-or-treating for the Obama family. “He didn’t want to cause a disruption to the neighborhood,” campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Instead the family attended a Halloween party behind closed doors at a friend’s home. Obama’s 10-year-old daughter Malia had planned to dress up as an “evil fairy,” the campaign said.
Suuuure, he “didn’t want to cause a disruption.” Yeah. Right. Got it. Uh-huh. Now, you may ask, why would I even snarkily suggest that an honest, trustworthy, transformative, messianic figure like Barack Obama would stage a committed Dad “Kodak moment” so close to the “Most Important Election In Our Lifetime?”
The fact that Obama took time out for Halloween showed a candidate feeling confident about his chances on Tuesday, with polls showing him leading Republican nominee John McCain.
Susan Estrich once again puts forth the notion that the only reason Barack Obama might lose this election is because of racism. She cannot for the life of herself, understand how anyone could be troubled by Senator Obama’s dubious funding, or his campaign’s race-baiting, or his system gaming thuggery during the primaries. Nope, it’s racist alright, to be even a teensy bit uncomfortable with Obama’s lack of experience and accomplishment, or to question the character of a man who would lie about how often he went to church. He made the “Greatest Speech On Race In The History Of America, Nay The World” to explain it, didn’t he? Doesn’t bother Ms. Estrich at all that said senator withdrew from said church on the same day his party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee violated their own rules to award him delegates he didn’t even bother to compete for. Uh-uh, it’s race.
Golly, gosh, gee whiz, Susan, give it a rest, will ya? It’s not now, nor has it ever been, about race. To think so, is just stupid.
Okay, I’ve been following African Press International’s claims of being the recipients of an angry phone call from Michelle Obama since day one. They claim to have tapes of said call that will be aired on FOX News’ Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren’s shows. Greta has called such claims an outright lie. Now, API is calling Greta a liar right back. API’s Chief Editor Sammy Korir, as he likes to be called, has been accused of being, shall we say, less than truthful on occasion, here on this blog, and here, on Mountain Sage. Yet, he continues to proclaim that the tapes will be released and all details will be revealed.
Many people have been occupied with the Michelle Obama tape, wondering whether it will be made public by Fox News Network.
API would like to inform the readers that the denials by some people that there is no agreement to air the tape has no basis in truth.
API has a valid agreement with Fox News Network. The negotiation was done secretly between API’s 3 representatives and Fox News Network�represented by two people. If any one comes out there and denies that we have a deal, such denials must be ignored.
The parties involved in the negotiations exchanged many emails in a 8 days period and that resulted in a written agreement. API is pleased to have Fox News Network as a partner on the Michelle Obama tape issue.
Despite denials by some people, we assure the readers that the tape, according to the agreement, is supposed to be aired by 2 Fox News Network shows, namely: The Sean Hannity Show and On the Record show by Greta Van Susteren.
We assure the readers that if Fox News Network does not do as stipulated in the�agreement, API will breach the secrecy deal stating that – there shall be no publicity of the details in the agreement page, by any of the parties involved in the deal. If that happens, API will make public all the email correspondences and the whole agreement with Fox News Network.
If things do not�go as planned between API and Fox News Network, API will ensure that the contents of the tape will be released one way or another so that the People who have believed in us will continue putting their trust on us. The release of the tape is also important for API’s credibility
CNN is reporting that Barack Obama is warning his followers that those mean ol’ Republicans are going to try to do everything they can to make him lose. Duh.
“Don’t believe for a second this election is over. Don’t think for a minute that power concedes anything. It’s gonna get nasty, I’m sure, in the next four days,” Obama told a crowd in Columbia, Missouri, on Thursday night.
“They will throw everything at us like they’ve been doing, and we’re gonna have to work like our future depends on it in this last week. You know what? Because it does, and every single young person here tonight — I’ve gotta have every single one of you voting, and you’ve gotta grab five more, all of you, have gotta vote,” he said.
FOX News says, because Obots are delusional, Camp O knows they’ve got to take pains to let them down easy, even if Obie wins:
Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harboring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.
The sudden financial crisis and the prospect of a deep and painful recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, after a campaign in which his soaring rhetoric and promises of “hope” and “change” are now confronted with the reality of a stricken economy.
One senior adviser told The Times that the first few weeks of the transition, immediately after the election, were critical, “so there’s not a vast mood swing from exhilaration and euphoria to despair.”
Gee, I wonder why you would have to lower expectations of what a novice, junior senator with no practical experience doing anything but running for office and rabble rousing could potentially accomplish if a rock star obsessed nation actually elected him president? Hmmmm, it’s a puzzlement, all right. I guess you don’t want too much truth too soon to assault the senses of true believers, kinda like you don’t want to force drug addicts to quit cold turkey. System overload leads to massive breakdowns or something. Anyway, one way to “massage the message” is to manage the messengers. Politico’s Ben Smith verifies Drudge’s report that Team Obama is doing just that:
Obama spokesman Bill Burton confirms Drudge’s report that two right-leaning papers, the Washington Times and the New York Post, have lost their seats on the Obama plane, along with the Dallas Morning News.
“We’re trying to reach as many swing voters that we can and unfortunately had to make some tough choices. but we are accommodating these folks in every way possible,” he said.
The Post and the Morning News are both read primarily in states that aren’t in play, but the Washington Times is read in Northern Virginia.
Burton said the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times had returned to the plane, and confirmed that Ebony and Jet magazines have seats on the plane. (The Tribune has had a reporter on the plane for most of the cycle, but recently added a photographer.)
Makes you wonder why the Sun-Times, Tribune, Ebony and Jet, Chicago publications all, were not all on the plane to begin with. The move pissed the Washington Times off, the Dallas Morning News was just a little miffed, and the New York Post doesn’t seem to care much at all, as far as I can tell.
Some Obama apologists pointed out the fact that “McCain did the same thing,” referring to the ejection of Maureen Dowd and Joe Klien from the Straight Talk Express, but it seems nobody wants MoDo aboard:
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd said in an email that, contrary to Drudge’s suggestion, she won’t be on Obama’s plane.
But Dunn insisted that editorial criticism was not a factor. She said her staff is working with the excluded reporters to find them hotel accommodations if they can catch up with Obama on their own, and has offered them space on the plane of running mate Joe Biden. “It’s not like we’re trying to block coverage of our campaign,” she said.
Naaaah, and it’s not like anybody should have any unreasonable expectations of truth, logic, and fairness from your guys, either. Right?
Good Lord! Erica Jong, the woman who literally wrote the book on doing it with strangers on airplanes, is now running around telling the foreign press that if Barack Obama is not elected, look out for another Civil War. Obviously, the woman needs a new prescription for whatever she’s not taking at the moment. Running out of meds right before an interview, as Jong apparently did before talking to Italian paper Corriere della Sera, can be a bitch. The New York Observer writes:
Basically, Jong says her fear that Obama might lose the election has developed into an “obsession. A paralyzing terror. An anxious fever that keeps you awake at night.” She also says that her friends Jane Fonda and Naomi Wolf are extremely worried that Obama will be sabotaged by Republican dirty tricks, and that if an Obama loss indeed comes to pass, the result will be a second American Civil War.
Shamelessly name-dropping, Jong is quoted as having said:
“My friends Ken Follett and Susan Cheever are extremely worried. Naomi Wolf calls me every day. Yesterday, Jane Fonda sent me an email to tell me that she cried all night and can’t cure her ailing back for all the stress that has reduces her to a bundle of nerves.”
“My back is also suffering from spasms, so much so that I had to see an acupuncturist and get prescriptions for Valium.”
“After having stolen the last two elections, the Republican Mafia…”
“If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. And it’s not a coincidence that President Bush recalled soldiers from Iraq for Dick Cheney to lead against American citizens in the streets.”
“Bush has transformed America into a police state, from torture to the imprisonment of reporters, to the Patriot Act.”
Over on RedState (yeah, yeah, I know) they have a post up from someone going by the name Anonymous_14 who claims to be a former Clinton staffer, now a researcher for the Obama campaign. Supposedly, her/his conscious is getting the better of him/her, and he/she must come clean and purge her/his soul. You get the idea. Anyway, here’s the story; like I said, take it for what it’s worth:
After a long and careful consideration of all the implications and possible consequences of my actions today, I have decided to go through with this in the hope that our country can indeed be guided into the right direction. First, a little personal background… I am a female grad student in my 20’s, and a registered Democrat. During the primaries, I was a campaign worker for the Clinton candidacy. I believed in her and still do, staying all the way to the bitter end. And believe me, it was bitter. The snippets you’ve heard from various media outlets only grazed the surface. There was no love between the Clinton and Obama campaigns, and these feelings extended all the way to the top. Hillary was no dope though, and knew that any endorsement of Obama must appear to be a full-fledged one. She did this out of political survival. As a part of his overall effort to extend an olive branch to the Clinton camp and her supporters, Obama took on a few Hillary staff members into his campaign. I was one such worker. Though I was still bitterly loyal to Hillary, I still held out hope that he would choose her as VP. In fact, there was a consensus among us transplants that in the end, he HAD to choose her. It was the only logical choice. I also was committed to the Democratic cause and without much of a second thought, transferred my allegiance to Senator Obama.
I’m going to let you in on a few secrets here, and this is not because I enjoy the gossip or the attention directed my way. I’m doing this because I doubt much of you know the true weaknesses of Obama. Another reason for my doing this is that I am lost faith in this campaign, and feel that this choice has been forced on many people in this country. Put simply, you are being manipulated. That was and is our job – to manipulate you (the electorate) and the media (we already had them months ago). Our goal is to create chaos with the other side, not hope. I’ve come to the realization (as the campaign already has) that if this comes to the issues, Barack Obama doesn’t have a chance. His only chance is to foster disorganization, chaos, despair, and a sense of inevitability among the Republicans. It has worked up until now. Joe the Plumber has put the focus on the issues again, and this scares us more than anything. Being in a position to know these things, I will rate what the Obama campaign already knows are their weak links from the most important on down.
1 – Hillary voters. Internal polling suggests that at best, we are taking 70-75% of these voters. Other estimates are as low as 60% in some areas – particularly Ohio and western PA. My biggest problem with this campaign’s strategy was the decision NOT to offer Hillary the VP slot. She was ready and able to take this on, and would have campaigned enthusiastically for it. This selection would have also brought virtually all of her supporters into the fold, and the Obama campaign knew it. Though I have no way of knowing this for certain, and I do admit that I am relying on internal gossip, Senator Obama actually went against the advice of his top advisors. They wanted him to choose her, but the only significant opposition to this within the campaign came from Barack and Michelle Obama. In short, he let personal feelings take precedence over what was the most logical thing to do. Biden, by the way, has been a disaster inside the campaign. Everyone cringes whenever he gives an interview, and he creates so many headaches as the campaign has to stay on their toes in order to disseminate information and spin whatever it was he was trying to say.
2 – Sarah Palin. Don’t believe what the media is telling you about how horrible a choice she was. Again, our internal polling suggest that though she has had a minimal impact on pulling disaffected Hillary Democrats to McCain, she has done wonders in mobilizing the base for McCain. Another thing – we were completely taken by surprise with her pick. In my capacity in the research department, I looked into the backgrounds of Leiberman, Romney, Pawlenty and Ridge, and prepared briefs. I don’t mind bragging that we had pretty good stuff on all of them. With Leiberman, the plan was to paint him as an erratic old-timer who didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing (pretty much a clone of McCain). In Romney, we had him pegged as an evil capitalist who cut jobs. Pawlenty was going to get the “Quayle treatment”, or more precisely: a pretty face, with no valid experience. Tom Ridge was going to be used to provide a direct link from McCain to Bush. As you can see, we were quite enamored of all of them. Then the unexpected happened – Sarah Palin. We had no clue as to how to handle her, and bungled it from the start. Though through our misinformation networks, we have successfully taken some of the shine off. But let there be no doubt. She remains a major obstacle. She has singlehanded solidified “soft” Republican support, mobilized the McCain ground game, and has even had some appeal to independents and Hillary voters. This is what our internal polling confirms.
3 – Obama’s radical connections. Standards operating procedure has been to cry “racism” whenever one of these has been brought up. We even have a detailed strategy ready to go should McCain ever bring Rev. Wright up. Though by themselves they are of minimal worth, taken together, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfelger, and now, Rashid Khalili, are exactly what the campaign does not need. The more focus on them, the more this election becomes a referendum on Obama. The campaign strategy from the very beginning was to make this election a referendum on Bush. Strategists have been banging their head on how successfully McCain has distanced himself from Bush. This has worked, and right now the tide is in his favor. People are taking a new look at Barack Obama, and our experience when this happens tells us this is not good news at all. When they take a look at him, one or more of these names are bound to be brought up. McCain has wisely not harped on this in recent weeks and let voters decide for themselves. This was a trap we set for him, and he never fully took the bait. Senator Obama openly dared him to bring up Ayers. This was not due to machismo on the part of Obama, but actually due to campaign strategy. Though McCain’s reference to Ayers fell flat in the last debate, people in the Obama campaign were actually disappointed that he didn’t follow through on it more and getting into it. Our focus groups found this out: When McCain brings these connections up, voters are turned off to him. They’d rather take this into consideration themselves, and when this happens, our numbers begin to tank.
4 – The Bradley Effect. Don’t believe these polls for a second. I just went over our numbers and found that we have next to no chance in the following states: Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire and Nevada. Ohio leans heavily to McCain, but is too close to call it for him. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico and Iowa are the true “toss up states”. The only two of these the campaign feels “confident” in are Iowa and New Mexico. The reason for such polling discrepancy is the Bradley Effect, and this is a subject of much discussion in the campaign. In general, we tend to take a -10 point percentage in allowing for this, and are not comfortable until the polls give us a spread well over this mark. This is why we are still campaigning in Virginia and Pennsylvania! This is why Ohio is such a desperate hope for us! What truly bothers this campaign is the fact that some pollsters get up to an 80% “refuse to respond” result. You can’t possibly include these into the polls. The truth is, people are afraid to let people know who they are voting for. The vast majority of these respondents are McCain supporters. Obama is the “hip” choice, and we all know it.
As part of my research duties, I scour right wing blogs and websites to get somewhat of a “feel” as to what is being talked about on the other side. Much of it is nonsense, but there are some exceptions which give the campaign jitters. A spirited campaign has been made to infiltrate many pro-Hillary sites and discredit them. A more disorganized, but genuine effort has also been made to sow doubts among the unapologetically right wing sites such as redstate.com. Don’t you guys get it? This has been the Obama campaign’s sole strategy from the very beginning! The only way he wins is over a dispirited, disorganized, and demobilized opposition. This is how it has been for all of his campaigns. What surprises me is that everyone has fallen for it. You may point to the polls as proof of the inevitability of all of this. If so, you have fallen for the oldest trick in the book. How did we skew these polls, you might ask? It all starts with the media “buzz” which has been generated over the campaign. Many stories are generated on the powerful Obama ground game, and how many new voters were registered. None of this happens by coincidence. It is all part of the poll-skewing process. This makes pollsters change their mixes to reflect these new voters and tilt the mix more towards Democratic voters. What is not mentioned or reported on is not the “under-reported cell phone users or young voters” we hear so much about. What is underreported is you.
I changed my somewhat positive opinion of this campaign during the unfair and sexist campaign against Sarah Palin. I will never agree with her on the issues and will probably never vote for her, but I am embarrassed of what has happened. I can’t ignore our own hand in all of this. What I do know is that I will not be voting for Obama this time around. Treat that as you will.
Not exactly earth-shattering information since we all know this stuff to be true already, that’s why we’re PUMAs. So, even if this is some kind of reverse psychology “astrofucking,” it’s unlikely to change anybody’s mind or resolve.
Well, they never! HuffPo, Kos, and TPM are sporting twisted knickers and are sp…sp…spittin’ mad at a GOP mailer featuring Hillary Clinton in a McCain/Palin lovefest, designed to appeal to disaffected HRC supporters in Pennsylvania. Though a Clinton spokesperson denounced the ad, it’s safe to say that those to whom the ad is targeted, might have very comfortable, untwisted knickers, and absolutely no trouble swallowing.
Responds Hillary spokesperson Kathleen Strand: “It is safe to say Hillary Clinton does not approve this message. She made history earning 18 million votes and has urged everyone who supported her to vote for Barack Obama because they have so much more in common with him than they do with Senator McCain. Voters should not be distracted by last minute, desperate attempts that claim otherwise.”
Nothing last minute about it, Katie. From where I sit, this looks like a very smart, not-desperate-at-all move.
First, Team O moved the day-to-day operations of the DeaNC to their home turf in Chicago, now, he’s filling his yet-to-be-assembled cabinet with homeboys. According to “sources unauthorized to say shit they’re going to say anyway,” Barack Obama is planning to reward Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D.-Ill) for services rendered by making him White House Chief of Staff, says Politico:
All sides deny, but AP has the buzz:
Barack Obama’s campaign has approached Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel about possibly serving as White House chief of staff, officials said Thursday, looking ahead as the marathon presidential race entered its final, frenzied stretch with a Democratic tilt.
The Democrats who described the contact with Emanuel spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to be quoted by name.
Think Politico and AP’s own personal Deep Throat would back down just because some Democratic scrub said the original AP story was “way too forward?” Nope. Politico says, “it’s in the news, so we believe it:”
But there’s little question–and press reports already –of potential interest in Emanuel.
For their part, AP says, “yeah, they said it wasn’t true, but we don’t believe ‘em:”
The Democrats who described the Obama campaign’s approach to Emanuel spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to be quoted by name. An aide to the congressman, Sarah Feinberg, said in an e-mail that he “has not been contacted to take a job in an administration that does not yet exist. Everyone is focused on Election Day, as they should be.”
Asked about Emanuel after touching down in Colombia, Mo., on Thursday night, Obama said only: “I’m trying to win an election.” Then, referring to campaign manager David Plouffe, he said: “Plouffe is my chief of staff.”
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton earlier had said: “There’s no news because there’s no job to offer.”
The article then goes on forever as if no denial had been issued. I guess when it comes to the truth, the news media doesn’t believe Obama any more than the rest of us do.
Speaking of denials, in another AP account, and on a completely unrelated topic, Michael Jackson is denying reports that he and his brothers are reuniting.
“My brothers and sisters have my full love and support, and we’ve certainly shared many great experiences, but at this time I have no plans to record or tour with them,” the self-proclaimed “king of pop” said a statement.
Thank God! Who wants to see 50 – 60 year old men hopping around in loud clothes and Afro wigs singing “I Want You Back?” Whether you do or not though, Jermaine says they’re going through with it, Michael, too, no matter what he says:
“It is going to be more like a family affair,” he was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press. “(Younger sister) Janet’s going to open and, of course, the original Jackson 5 … Michael, Randy and the whole family. … We’re in the studio, we’re planning on being out there next year.”
Anybody else noticing a pattern here? I mean besides the fact that the Jacksons are originally from the Chicago area, too? Seems you can get somebody to say anything you want them to and the media will report it. Then you can deny it, but, if the media doesn’t believe you, or doesn’t like what you said, or just doesn’t give a shit, they’ll keep reporting it until the truth comes out and they have to stop. Boy, what a great gig! Once you eliminate legwork and fact checking, that journalism thing is a cinch.
Okay, we all know Chris Matthews has a…”thing” about Barack Obama, right? As far back as January he was gushing about how “attractive” Obama is:
“I did think he looked incredibly attractive up there with his wife, his beautiful wife, Michelle. Again — they are one hell of an attractive couple up there. When they took the stage there it reminded me a bit of Jack Kennedy and Jackie back in ‘56. … There’s something nice about it.”
Jack and Jackie Kennedy? Was Matthews on acid in the 60’s? You’ve got to be looking at history through a seriously distorted lens to get a Kennedy-esque vibe from the Obamas. Then, there’s the famous “tingly leg” comment Matthews should rightly never live down:
I have to tell you, you know, it’s part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama’s speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often. No, seriously. It’s a dramatic event. He speaks about America in a way that has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the feeling we have about our country. And that is an objective assessment.
“Objective?” C’mon, Chris. The saddest part of that statement, though, is Matthews’ assertion that he doesn’t get that feeling too often. Wonder what his wife thinks about that? I also wonder what was happening to Chris’ leg when he said this:
I thought it was Hollywood. It was romance. It was realism. The technical quality of it, the production values were perfect, the way they timed going to live, the biographical material. But most important, the connection with the average person in the economic turmoil we face right now I thought was fabulous. Of course, there we see the setting, which is very much like an Oval Office setting, showing that he’s comfortable and we should be comfortable and will be with him in such a setting. I thought everything was just right.
READ BELOW: THIS IS SIMPLY A LIE ABOUT ME AND I HAVE NO IDEA IF A LIE ABOUT FOX AND / OR SEAN HANNITY BECAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS STUFF BELOW IS. I HAVE NO IDEA WHO API (AFRICAN PRESS) IS…this is the first I have heard about them….BUT I DO WANT TO “KILL THE VIRUS” LYING ABOUT ME.(Note that I lifted only part of the quote below because I just wanted to correct the lie about me..the website goes on and on.)
Greta left this in the comment section.
i wonder how they even come up with this stuff…if you don’t confront it as a lie, it goes all over the internet and people think it true..so, when i see this stuff, i fight back
I don’t know how they come up with this stuff, either, but maybe next time, you could check the nifty links I provided and deny the source.
Oh, man, the self-writing jokes just keep coming. The highly offensive West Hollywood Halloween effigy of Sarah Palin has thankfully been removed. That’s not the funny part. The funny part is why. Seems it had something to do with the Secret Service, enterprising neighbors, the mayor, and an effigy of the “artwork’s” creator that did it. Here’s the AP story as reported by BayNews9:
Amid a growing frenzy of protesters and media surrounding his home, Chad Morrisette decided his noosed Sarah Palin mannequin should be cut loose.
He and his partner had created the effigy of the GOP vice presidential hopeful three weeks ago and vowed to keep it outside their home until Halloween, despite widespread criticism from neighbors and local officials. On Wednesday the mayor convinced Morrisette the mannequin should come down.
“I explained to them that this could be dangerous to you and your neighbors,” said Mayor Jeff Prang, noting that he received hundreds of venomous e-mails from people offended by the display. “They were totally unprepared for this kind of international attention, for the amount of impact on their home and their neighborhood.”
Besides a constant flow of angry callers, the homeowners had received a visit from the Secret Service and criticism from a Los Angeles County supervisor who ordered an investigation into whether the effigy constitutes a hate crime.
Then, on Wednesday, neighbors covered up the Palin mannequin with sheets, and more protesters showed up later in the day accompanied by a man driving a vehicle adorned with an effigy labeled “Chad,” with a noose around its neck, said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore.
“This evening, it wasn’t as friendly,” he said.
Prang said he drove by after work and saw protesters and media around the home with helicopters overhead. Morrisette saw the mayor and waved him inside for a talk.
Afterward, the mannequin came down, but Morrisette kept the rest of his Halloween decor intact, including a display of Palin’s running mate, John McCain, popping out of a flaming chimney.
Poor Johhny Mac. At least Sarah got cut loose. And just so you know, an effigy of Barack Obama found hanging on the University of Kentucky campus was immediately cut down by police, and, as far as I know, no photos were taken. Fair’s fair, right?
Golly gee whiz, darn it to heck, I was so busy thinking about watching my imaginary friend play Tic Tac Toe with her imaginary friend, I forgot all about watching Barack Obama’s “Not Ready For Primetime But I’m Going For It Anyway” three million dollar mega-media extravaganza. Majorly bummed, I immediately went looking for reviews of this epic, once-in-a-lifetime event. The L.A. Times seems to say I didn’t miss much. What do they know, though? They won’t even release the tapes they have of him, so I couldn’t watch that instead. Plus, they’re on their, what, fortieth round of layoffs?
Chances are, tonight’s 30-minute Barack Obama infomercial will have minimal effect on the final outcome of the 2008 presidential election.
Those leaning against the freshman Illinois senator were unlikely to be swayed by it (or even watch it).
Well, at least they got that right. They also said Obama didn’t even mention John McCain or Hillary Clinton.
As befits a front-runner’s status, Obama saw no reason to spend any time during the half-hour directly attacking John McCain. Indeed, the Republican’s name was never uttered.
We were struck by another omission. Several prominent Democrats had cameos in the ad — Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, among them. Conspicuously absent (at least to us) — Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.
“Me, me, me,” huh? What else is new? Well, I guess he’s entitled, since he’s paying for it. Michelle Malkin anticipated the text of Obama’s “Greatest Show On Earth” before live-blogging it:
Higher purpose…blahblahblah…Change We Need…blahblahblah…Every American must play a role…Take care of one another…blahblahblah…
Just doing a little pre-liveblogging of the Obama-mercial, which begins in just a few minutes.
Say what you will about Ms. Malkin, it takes guts to sit through thirty minutes of Obama self-love to validate your pre-conceived notions about him. Me, I just spent the time contemplating belly lint. AP-Yahoo News, though, says I could have had a rollicking good time dizzying myself from all the spin, but I thought, and still think, that examining my cuticles for fungus was a lot more fun.
“I do know him because I taught at the University of Chicago,” Obama said. “And he is Palestinian. And I do know him and I have had conversations. He is not one of my advisors; he’s not one of my foreign policy people. His kids went to the Lab school where my kids go as well. He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel’s policy.
“To pluck out one person who I know and who I’ve had a conversation with who has very different views than 900 of my friends and then to suggest that somehow that shows that maybe I’m not sufficiently pro-Israel, I think, is a very problematic stand to take,” Obama said. “So, we gotta be careful about guilt by association.”
If you said William Ayers, you blew it. He’s a terrorist, not a Palestinian. According to ABC News’ Jake Tapper, Obama was explaining his relationship with Rashid Khalidi at a May 22 appearance before a group of Jewish voters in Florida. This is what Obama said about Ayers in the ABC Philadelphia debate as reported by Media Matters:
George, but this is an example of what I’m talking about. This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who’s a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.
And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn’t make much sense, George.
Ben Smith of Politico reported in February that it was David Axelrod who said this about Obama/Ayers:
“Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school,” he said. “They’re certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together.”
Seems Ben had raised the Ayers question in an article a few days before. Good excuses are hard to come by, might as well recycle ‘em.
Note: the Tapper piece explores a McCain/Khalidi connection which Camp Johnny Mac doesn’t seem to deny, they just claim it’s beside the point.
Asked to respond to this seeming contradiction, McCain-Palin spokesman Michael Goldfarb writes, “It’s long been clear that Obama and Khalidi have a close relationship — that they were frequent dinner companions. It is another in a series of questionable associations, but it is not the focus of our request that the LA Times release this tape. It’s clear from the Times story that the evening featured speeches that were anti-Semitic in tone and anti-Israel in nature. As our initial statement said, ‘This campaign wants to know how Barack Obama responded to that hate-speech, whether he was mingling with Ayers, who he once described as ‘just a guy in my neighborhood,’ and anything else that might be of interest to voters now deciding who to support in this election.’”
African Press International says they have tapes of Michelle Obama having a hissy fit about them and their coverage of her husband’s campaign, where she lets it slip that he was adopted by his stepfather, and so what? Supposedly, she said lots of other things Camp O would rather not have people hear, and according to API, they’ve gone to great lengths to see that these tapes never see the light of day. Also according to API, they are just as determined to see that the tapes are released, and have entered into an agreement with FOX News, the terms of which apparently include a clause that FOX will not confirm the deal until 15 minutes before airtime. Now, API says, due to phenomenal pressure, they’re revealing the names of the FOX reporters involved: Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren. You now know what I know and here’s how I know it, straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak:
Many have been wondering about what will happen to the Michelle Obama tape, now that API has received death threats for planning to have the tape aired. Death threats mounted after API refused an offer of 3 million US dollars by Senator Obama’s Campaign manager.
There has been speculations that Fox News may deny that there is an agreement already reached that gives the them permission to air the tape. The public who are aware of the existence of a tape should be aware that some elements in our society would not like the message in the tape to come out.
The agreement stipulates that any information on the day and hour the tape will be aired will only be announce 15 minutes to the airing time. This was agreed upon to avoid any pressure being directed to Fox News Network by individuals who would want to get the details about the tape in question.
The airing of the tape can take place any time from this day and due to its sensitivity, people who will inquire from Fox News and API for details will either get a no comment answer or that there is no agreement on the table.
We are aware of the fact that some people made inquiries today by emailing or telephoning Fox News and may have been disappointed with the answers they got. API is not here to mislead anyone and takes the responsibility to inform�its loyal readers�that the tape will be aired unless pressure wins over�any of the parties involved, of which case that will amount to a�breach of contract. �Such a thing�is unacceptable because API is committed to let the American people get the information in the tape and judge for themselves what value it may have in their political lives.
Although the parties had agreed that the particular shows going to air the tapes should not be made public before�15 minutes to airing of the tapes, public pressure has forced us to make this revelation earlier than we should.� Both parties, API and Fox are in agreement that no further details will be released on the subject.
�While we struggle to have the Michelle Obama tape, the McCain camp is struggling to have another tape that has information relevant to the campaign. The taped conversation has Mr obama when he was dining with friends considered radicals and supporters of terrorism.
The second tape in question is of a dinner for Rashid Khalidi, attended by the Obamas and possibly by William Ayers and Bernadine/Bernadette Dohrn, among others. The Los Angeles Times reported on the dinner in April, and have confirmed possession of a videotape of the evening’s event, which they refuse to release to the public.
I am sick of the Undemocratic Party, who thinks that because I refuse to accept a dubiously funded, novice Senator who can’t compose complete sentences unless they’re ghost-scripted and read from a TelePrompter, who thinks all black people look alike, who seems to believe that over-exposure is a sure-fire method of convincing people to vote for him, and who was force-fed to an unwilling rank-and-file in a completely undemocratic process, that means that I’m a bitter, deadend, racist bitch, no matter who I really am, or what I believe.
I am sick of the mainstream media, in conjunction with a self-appointed gang of blogger bullies, trying to cram illogical bullshit down my throat as if it’s calorie-free Snickers bars, while they ignore any hint of negative truth about their fake Messiah. News articles from “reputable” news sources promoting the blarney that because there are racists in America who don’t like black people, we should all vote for the black candidate in order to give these bigots a giant electoral “noogie,” are embraced by an ill-informed electorate gung-ho to put a charlatan in office in order to assuage their neatly Madison Avenue packaged and sold inherited racial guilt. Black people allow themselves to be played by these same co-conspirators in this unholy coup, simply to give a metaphorical finger to the society who would, and still will, continue to ignore their needs once they’ve been sufficiently exploited by a candidate who doesn’t even pretend to give a damn about them since it might piss off the other voters he needs to exploit.
Those of us who reject the notion that democratic principles are expendable in an “ends justifies the means” modus operandi, are villified for holding onto dearly held principles. The fact that we became Democats because we believe that these principles are the bedrock of everything this country is supposed to stand for makes us unwelcome dinosaurs in the party we helped to build before it was hijacked by thieves and liars willing to make a mockery of our faith in fairness for their own benefit. We’re supposed to be the good guys, the champions of the little guy, not the “yield to expedience, anything to win” guys.
Barack Obama was rejected by half of his party, probably more if the gamed caucusses were ever fairly evaluated, for a reason. He does not represent us. The fact that he is not a Republican is not a reason to vote for him, it is the singular reason not to.
Like Al Pacino, PUMAs say, “I’m gonna get him.” We don’t care how many self-produced American Idol episodes his ill-gotten gains allow him to purchase and air, how many voters take the day off to be bussed around making astroturf crowds designed to give the media and blogger boyz enough ammunition to back up their fairy tales of overwhelming support, or how many glassy-eyed acolytes “get in our faces” to badger us to set our principles aside so their Messiah can hoodwink and bamboozle us the way he’s done to them. We see the tricks so clearly that even when, and if, a rare moment of sincerity were to slip in, we would dismiss it, willing instead to believe every bad thing we hear. That happens when you lie, cheat and steal.
So, we don’t believe that a candidate willing to game the system and use unethical means to create the illusion that an unaccomplished politician who by all rights should be obscure, should be the standard bearer of the party we once loved. We don’t believe such a person could really love this “imperfect” country enough to properly lead it in spite of its’ flaws. We believe that anyone who would employ the sort of tactics used by Barack Obama and the corrupt Democratic Party elite who enable him, can not be rewarded in the name of our party. Some of us would rather break with our party altogether rather than co-sign that.
Therefore, a lot of Democrats and newly independent former Democrats will vote for John McCain. We will not watch infomercials and/or endless ads designed to shame and coerce us to toe the party line. Many will speak out, some, more convincingly than others, like the guy in the following video who makes some good points before he dives off the deep end; if you listen to us you will find nuggets of pure gold in our anger. Your clever tricks should all fail. Your party might win, but you’re no Democrats.
Da daaaa da dum… or nuh nuh nuhnuhnuhnuh…pick the dumdum music of your choice, you need something to lead in to the latest development in the Michelle Obama Audiotape Drama. African Press International says that there are some really unhappy people willing to do them grave bodily harm over releasing tapes they claim to possess of Michelle O ranting about this and that, and these people have made their displeasure known. Therefore, the API guy might have to delay his departure for a trip to New York for a “few hours” while authorities investigate. Whether that means that the airing of the tapes will also be delayed is unclear. Anyway, the drama continues:
The Obama camp is not saying anything publicly now, but have chosen to work behind the scenes in their efforts to influence the release of Michelle Obama tape. The impact the tape is expected to have on National Security�when finally released will be huge.
Peaceful approach to have the tapes not to be released has now turned into direct threats directed against API.
API on the other hand does not want to surrender to the pressure being mounted, even though faced with danger for ignoring the warnings not to allow the release of the tape. API is being bombarded with death threats from people who say have been�hired to silence API and those involved in the plan to have the tapes released.
The US embassy in Norway together with the Norwegian Security Service has been duly informed of the situation and has promised to give the matter the priority it deserves.
Due to the situation that has arisen, and security considerations, API reprentative’s trip to New York today to participate in a� planned live interview�will be temporarily delayed for some hours while the Embassy�looks into the matter.
Now that the situation has become so dangerous because some people are afraid to let the American people know the truth about Michelle Obama’s stand exhibited by her in the tape, API will thread carefully and will classify details on what is going on, especially details on when the API representative�will fly to New York, which flight�and where he will be housed while in the US. This will be done to avoid exposing him to any danger while on US soil
API will not rest until the tape is aired so that the American people may judge for themselves whether the contents of the tape is of relevance to the elections taking place�November the 4th.
Oh, baby, bay-bay! It’s getting hot in herre! African Press International claims they’ve been offered 3 million dollars for tapes they swear to possess of Michelle Obama spilling the beans about her husband’s adoptive status during a far-ranging general rant at them and the world. Angered that a black site would question Barack about anything, Ms. O supposedly strongly implied that if they played nicer, she’d hook ‘em up once hubby became prez. Now that API has reported a deal in place with FOX News to air the tapes, they say the O Team is in a panic:
Six hours after the release of information by API on the planned broadcast by Fox News Network of�the Michelle Obama tape, in accordance with an agreement that has been reached between API and Fox News Network, API� was contacted by Obama’s Campaign Manager.
Those who are close to the democratic presidential candidate must be�desperate to win the elections no matter what, otherwise they would not have taken such bold step to contact API with an offer of a bribe in order to stop the airing of the tape.
�Obama’s campaign manager�contacted API by telephone and�email offering 3 million US dollars followed with a request to�API to�cancel the deal with Fox News Network.
Ten days ago API�received the first request�to accept 2 million US dollars�by Mr Ed Hale, President�of Plains Radio, Texas -�USA, in an effort to suppress the information from reaching the public before the coming US Presidential elections.
�API has now taken a decision to contact the American Embassy in Oslo, Norway as soon as possible in order to report the matter and hand over the�evidence�for investigative purposes.
API’s Canadian lawyer is expected to fly�to Oslo shortly in order to assist in the legal matters that arise from the bribery attempt.
API’s Chief editor is expected to travel to New York, together with the Canadian lawyer, where he will appear live in one of the shows that� will air the Michelle Obama tape.
Okaaaaay? Wonder if they’ve got a tape of that?
Gotta hand it to API, though. If this is a hoax, it’s a damned good one.
The following videos and lyrics come directly from the You Tube site, no editorial commentary from me, followed by T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” lyrics.
The kids from the Ron Clark Academy performing live “You Can Vote However You Like,” a parody to TI’s “Whatever You Like”. Atlanta Georgia Ron Clark Academy.
for full interview click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEKNAZ…
Lyrics:
Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah
Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah
(McCain supporters)
McCain’s the best candidate
With Palin as his running mate
They’ll fight for gun rights, pro life,
The conservative right
Our future is bright
Better economy in site
And all the world will feel our military might
(Obama supporters)
But McCain and Bush are real close right
They vote alike and keep it tight
Obama’s new, he’s younger too
The Middle Class he will help you
He’ll bring a change, he’s got the brains
McCain and Bush are just the same
You are to blame, Iraq’s a shame
Four more years would be insane
Lower your Taxes – you know Obama Won’t
PROTECT THE LOWER CLASS – You know McCain won’t!
Have enough experience – you know that they don’t
STOP GLOBAL WARMING – you know that you won’t
I want Obama
FORGET OBAMA
Stick with McCain and you’re going to have some drama
We need it
HE’LL BRING IT
He’ll be it
YOU’LL SEE IT
We’ll do it
GET TO IT
Let’s move it
DO IT!
Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah
Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah
I’m talking big pipe lines, and low gas prices
Below $2.00 that would be nice
But to do it right we gotta start today
Finding renewable ways that are here to stay
I want Obama
FORGET OBAMA,
Stick wit McCain you gone have some drama
MORE WAR IN IRAQ
Iran he will attack
CAN’T BRING OUR TROOPS BACK
We gotta vote Barack!
Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah
Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah
Earlier today, I said the whole African Press International “we got Michelle Obama tapes, nyah, nanna, na na” thing appeared to be a dead issue, and it well may be. Then again, maybe not. API has a new post up, claiming they have entered into an agreement with FOX News to air a significant portion of a 54 minute tape of Michelle His Belle talking politics she shouldn’t have been talking. Hey, I’m just the messenger:
A final�agreement has been�reached between African Press International�(API) and Fox News Network (USA) on the dates to air the Michelle Obama tape arising from a discussion Mrs Obama had with the API�two weeks ago. The show will take place any day/time from now, with a 15 minutes alert�on when it is to take place. Other programmes will be interrupted. This is a precaution taken to avoid interference from any quarter.
In the agreement, Fox News Network will broadcast 39 minutes�of the �54 minutes long tape. The whole tape cannot be aired unedited due to security reasons and especially due to the explosive political temperature in the country because of the�Presidential elections that is just around the corner, November 4th.
The tape will be aired in two portions by two�separate units in the Network. API’s representative will appear live in one of the shows.
The parties have agreed that the information to be released to the public on the agreement will not include the naming of the units at Fox News Network that will air the tapes in order to avoid outside pressure and influence of any kind before the show has taken place. Nondisclosure of the name of the shows that will air the tapes has become necessary due to pressure�from�groups interested to block the release of the contents to the public.
Due to a huge interest in the tapes�shown by some private individuals, groups belonging to some political camp(s) and persons connected to a section of�an intelligence network, it has been decided that the 54 minutes long unedited tape is to be kept outside the United States�in safe custody of one of API’s�Lawyers based in Ontario, Canada.
The day and time schedules of the�broadcast will only be announced 15 minutes before the Show begins in order to avoid attempts to block the Show from airing the tapes.
Any pressure from any outside forces that may want to know the exact day and�time schedule of the Show before-hand or any other details in the agreement will get no answers to their requests either�from API or Fox News Network.
The decision to have the above information public was a difficult one due to the�sensitivity of the case and huge interest against, and for, the release of the�contents of the tape for public consumption.
So far, there’s nothing about any of this on FOX News’ website, and we can’t ask them about it, we’ve been warned. But, look, if API’s got ‘em, I wanna hear ‘em. If they don’t, they should quit screwing around. Whether they do or not, I’m still not voting for Barack Obama. But, either way, this whole thing is a hoot and a lot of fun to watch.
At one time, I actually tried to follow primary election coverage by reading Slate Magazine as one of my news sources. Boy, was that short-lived. Took almost no time at all to realize that those guys were so far in the tank for Obama that getting out of bed in the morning should give them the bends. Tempted by attention-grabbing headlines declaring that I, as a PUMA, am a harridan, I have also occasionally peeked in to see if the Obamalove tank had been drained and refilled with journalistic impartiality, and lo and behold!
Nope.
Seems they took an internal office poll on the election, and guess who won? G’head, guess. I’ll wait.
Hmmm hmmmm hmmmm hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…
Give up? Well, his initials are “I Have Less Experience Than Sarah Palin But Slate, HuffPo And Kos And All My Other Homies Make Fun Of Her For Me And Make It Look Like I’m Winning.”
Today, Slate’sstaff and contributors reveal how they’re voting in next week’s presidential election. This continues a tradition we began in 2000 and repeated in 2004. It will come as little surprise to many of our readers—and certainly as no surprise to Sarah “Media Elite” Palin—that Barack Obama won Slate in a landslide. In capturing 55 of our 57 votes, with 1 to McCain and 1 to Libertarian Bob Barr, Obama won an even bigger Slate majority than Al Gore in 2000 (29 of 37 votes) or John Kerry in 2004 (46 of 52 votes). Incidentally, this is a voluntary project: Our staff and contributors can reveal how they voted, but they are not required to.
But, they’re not journalistically compromised, no way, uh uh, no sireee Bob.
Why did Obama win the swing state of Slate? Like Mike and Jacob before me, I don’t think a candidate’s Slate victory reflects a bias that has corrupted the magazine during the campaign. There are obvious reasons why Slate would lean heavily toward Obama: Most of our staff and contributors live in extremely Democratic cities on the East and West Coast. (It’s worth noting that our lone McCain voter, Deputy Managing Editor Rachael Larimore, lives in Ohio.) Slate’svoters tend to skew young, and all polls show younger voters favoring the Democrat. Also, a significant number of former Slate contributors, among them Austan Goolsbee, Jason Furman, and Phil Carter, are now advising Obama. It’s understandable that our affection for them and respect for their views may be accruing to Obama. (He’s taking Jason and Austan’s advice on the economy? Then he must be pretty smart.) And, finally, we are journalists, and, to quote Kinsley:
No doubt it is true that most journalists vote Democratic, just as most business executives (including most media owners) vote Republican, though neither tendency is as pronounced as their respective critics believe. This is a natural result of the sort of people who are attracted to various careers. It is not the product of any conspiracy. There is no Liberal Central Committee drafting young liberals into journalism against their will or blackballing young conservatives. And there is nothing that can be done to change this disparity, unless conservative press critics would like to see the media institute a political quota system, favoring conservatives over better-qualified liberals (affirmative action for opponents of affirmative action).
But—for the millionth time!—an opinion is not a bias! The fact that reporters tend to be liberal says nothing one way or another about their tendency to be biased. It does suggest that when political bias does creep in, it is more likely to tilt liberal than conservative. But there are so many other pressures and prejudices built into the news—including occasional overcompensation for fear of appearing biased—that raw political bias plays a fairly small role. …Of course it is not easy to persuade folks of this, and many will never believe it. No doubt it is easier just to keep your political opinions secret and imply that you don’t have any. But that absurdity or dishonesty itself undermines your credibility. Or it ought to.
Now, do you really, really, finally get it? All right. In case you’re interested, though I can’t imagine why, you can click here to see why your favorite, impartial, rationalizing, lying Slate writer voted for Obama in their office poll. Or you can watch this cool video.
Every time you turn around there’s a new “Obama Tape Drama.” A couple of weeks ago now, African Press International claimed to have tapes of Michelle Obama reading them the riot act for questioning her husband’s citizenship eligibility, especially with them being black and all. It’s pretty obvious by now to even the most ardent Obama hater that these potentially explosive tapes do not exist, since API’s self-imposed deadline, Oct. 27, has come and gone all over the world. Unless I hear differently, that’s a dead issue.
But there are potentially explosive tapes that do exist, or rather one tape, of Obama in the company of Palestinian University of Chicago/Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi, said to be in the possession of an L.A. Times reporter, Peter Wallsten, who says he said all he’s gonna say about the matter in April:
CHICAGO — It was a celebration of Palestinian culture — a night of music, dancing and a dash of politics. Local Arab Americans were bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights, who was leaving town for a job in New York.
A special tribute came from Khalidi’s friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi’s wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking.
Now, since John McCain’s camp has a thing about who Obama “pals around with,” they’re demanding that a videotape of the evening’s events be released immediately. So says Politico’s Ben Smith:
John McCain’s campaign is demanding that the Los Angeles Times release a video of a party for a prominent Palestinian activist that Barack Obama attended in 2003.
The Times described the going-away party for former University of Chicago professor, and Obama friend, Rashid Khalidi, in a story in April. The story reported that Palestinians thought they might have a friend in Obama because of his friendships in that community, despite the fact that his positions have never been particularly pro-Palestinian.
“A major news organization is intentionally suppressing information that could provide a clearer link between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi,” said McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb, citing Obama’s friendship with Khalidi, who is now a professor at Columbia University.
He said the video could, among other things, show how Obama responded to a poem recited at the party accusing Israel of “terrorism” and warning of consequences for U.S. support for Israel, which Goldfarb described as “hate speech.”
“The election is one week away, and it’s unfortunate that the press so obviously favors Barack Obama that this campaign must publicly request that the Los Angeles Times do its job — make information public,” he said.
The campaign hadn’t previously demanded the video, though conservative bloggers have, and neither other reporters nor McCain’s researchers have been able to dig up a copy.
Khalidi is a controversial figure, reviled by pro-Israel activists, though not a marginal one. A former professor at the University of Chicago, he’s now Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia, and respected by many in academia. He’s been criticized most for saying that Palestinians have a right to resist Israeli occupation and has been described as a former P.L.O. spokesman, a label he has denied.
Wallsten basically says, “bite me,” in an email response to requests to release the video, but won’t say why:
“Over six months ago the Los Angeles Times published a detailed account of the events shown on the videotape. The Times is not suppressing anything. Just the opposite — the L.A. Times brought the matter to light,” wrote the readers’ representative, Jamie Gold.
L.A. Times spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan wouldn’t discuss the decision not to release the tape in detail.
Whatever the reason for Wallsten’s reticence, you gotta wonder why so much Obama info is kept so assiduously under wraps. Why not show the original birth certificate, college transcripts and Illinois Senate records? What’s in there? Who or what’s on the tapes that Wallsten doesn’t want people to see? Whos’ he protecting, if anyone, and at whose direction? Obama wants to be president; it’s only natural that people want to know exactly who he is. If papers, records and tapes can help shed some light, it makes people suspicious when he seems so determined not to allow people access to them.
Screw Barack Obama. Can you say that about “god” and get away with it? Guess I’ll find out. Anyway, screw Barack Obama. Who is he to ask people to take the day off work to badger and try to hoodwink people to vote for his still inexperienced behind? He still can’t make complete sentences without a TelePrompTer, nowadays he doesn’t even try. And just because his over-funded campaign can make slick commercials saying whatever people want to hear, people are supposed to lose a day’s pay? It’s not enough to vote for him, now they want you to work for him, too? For free? He’s raised the equivalent of the national debt and he wants free labor? Screw that.
I know, I know. It’s a provocative headline. But I couldn’t bring myself to use the title of the article to which I refer, which, in my opinion, is much worse:
White people shouldn’t be allowed to vote
It’s for the good of the country and for those who’re bitter for a reason and armed because they’re scared.
For the good of the country? If the author, Jonathan Valania, chief editor of the blog, Phawker.com, really cared about the “good of the country” he would stop blogging. What is it with these “chief editors,” anyway? At any rate, here’s why Valania thinks white people shouldn’t vote, in his own words, ‘cuz I’m not that good:
As a lifelong Caucasian, I am beginning to think the time has finally come to take the right to vote away from white people, at least until we come to our senses. Seriously, I just don’t think we can be trusted to exercise it responsibly anymore.
I give you Exhibit A: The last eight years.
In 2000, Bush-Cheney stole the election, got us attacked, and then got us into two no-exit wars. Four years later, white people reelected them. Is not the repetition of the same behavior over and over again with the expectation of a different outcome the very definition of insanity? (It is, I looked it up.)
Exhibit B is any given Sarah Palin rally.
Exhibit C would be Ed Rendell and John Murtha, who in separate moments of on-the-record candor they would come to regret, pointing out that there are plenty of people in Pennsylvania who just cannot bring themselves to pull the lever for a black man – no matter what they tell pollsters.
These people are ruining things for the rest of us white people who are ready to move on. Sure, they have their reasons, chimerical though they may be: He’s a Muslim. He’s a terrorist. He’s a Muslim terrorist. He’s going to fire all the white people and give their jobs to blacks.
But those are just the little white lies these people allow themselves to be told, a self-induced cognitive dissonance that lets them avoid saying the unsayable: I cannot pull the lever for a black man.
Uh, Jonny, white people should be scared, even though, “black” and “Muslim” have nothing to do with it. “Inexperienced” and “liar” are much more compelling, fear-inducing reasons to oppose Barack Obama. And before you “move on” to the “she must be racist” rigmarole, for your information, I’m a life-long African American. Maybe if you did “move on,” you might get to the place where you lost your freaking mind and pick it up and use it, if it’s not too damaged.
According to African Press International, the once obscure website now famous for their claims to be in possession of inflammatory tapes of Michelle Obama going off, if we elect Barack Obama there “will be blood.” Now, there are more than enough reasons for black people not to vote for a dubiously funded, freshman senator who barely knows how to find the bathrooms in the Capitol Building, let alone how to legislate, and whose main qualification for president seems to be the ability to read ghost-written sermons from a TelePrompTer, but threats of violence are not among them. However, API says we can count on being “brought to our knees” as a nation if not enough people wake up in time; look at what happened in Kenya:
It may sound as a dream. It may sound as fiction and it may sound as fantasy, but it is around the corner. Bloodshed can only be stopped by the Americans themselves by execising their voting right wisely. Personally, I do not have any agenda or intention to bring forth confusion only days to the election, but the truth must be told to the Americans and the world.
America, the only powerful nation in the world right now, will be brought to its knees between the 5th of November 2008 and January 20th 2009 if the American people do not vote wisely on the 4th of November.
Looking at what happened in Kenya during last year’s Presidential elections, one may understand why bloodshed is around every street corner and home in America. In Kenya last year, everybody sang the song of change and change was to be at whatever cost, people said. Those who wanted some excitement wanted immediate change, but got bloodshed in the end and lost families. Kenyans were not prepared for the bloodshed that followed, bringing the country to a standstill for 4 months. People were killed. Neighbours murdered neighbours in the name of change. So Americans should be prepared for that which may come in the name of change.
It is good to have change, but change�that people are prepared to deal with. Kenya did not get the change promised by some leaders, even after�brainwashing their followers making them to believe that President Mwai Kibaki was a old man who could die of health reasons. Some were brainwashed that the best thing for Kenya was to have change by electing a younger man in the name of Raila Odinga to be the President of the Republic. My fear is coming from here, now that Americans have been brainwashed that McCain is old and may die in office and the best for America is to have a younger man in the name of Obama. Most of those who were brainwashed in Kenya got wild when they did not get Raila as the president. Some chose to accept defeat while others chose to go on rampage raping and killing their neighbours. If Kenyans were ignored by the international community when the bloodshed started, the country would be very unstable today. The country was rescued from a brink of collapse, thanks to the international community. Who will rescue America, the most powerful Nation in the world if they start travelling on the road of bloodshed?.
For some it did not matter that people were dying. There was only one was in their mind, “Change”. They were, however surprised not to get the change they had been promised, but instead they lost their loved ones killed by those who were funded by�some of the leaders who had promised them change. Those who killed for some leaders are now languishing in Kenyan jails waiting to be prosecuted. Where are the leaders who promised them change? Some are now having high positions in Kenya’s coalition government and making a good living for themselves and their families.
The same shall surely befall America if they do not vote wisely.
When people talk about change it is�a very good thing. But the question they should ask is, yes we want change, but,�change from what to what? People should know where they are heading to and should not be blinded and misled to fight for change they do not know where it is leading them to.
There’s more to this post, but enough is enough. Chief Editor Korir may be well-intentioned, or he may be an unscrupulous hoaxter, but either way, indulging in racial fear-mongering makes him no better than any of the other rabble rousers using threats to blackmail voters. Barack Obama is a lousy candidate, unworthy of overwhelming support from anybody. Make that case, and everything else will take care of itself.
Looks like another tv station asking Joe (Yeah, I Said It) Biden questions he didn’t like, has been banned by the Obiden campaign at Joe’s request. I say, “looks like,” ‘cuz, this one kinda smells. You decide.
Since, according to AP-Yahoo News, the Feds have proven that some loony white skinhead guys were determined to kill Barack Obama by driving really fast and shooting at him, after they killed over one hundred other black people for no reason, I guess I have to vote for him now, huh?
Federal agents have broken up a plot by two neo-Nazi skinheads to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives said Monday.
In court records unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn., federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school in a murder spree that was to begin in Tennessee. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.
Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of ATF’s Nashville field office, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.
The men also sought to go on a national killing spree after the Tennessee murders, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.
“They said that would be their last, final act — that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama,” Cavanaugh said. “They didn’t believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying.”
An Obama spokeswoman traveling with the senator in Pennsylvania had no immediate comment.
The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond. Agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested. Authorities alleged the two men were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more.
Attorney Joe Byrd, who has been hired to represent Cowart, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.
Cowart and Schlesselman are charged with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer, and threatening a candidate for president.
The investigation is continuing, and more charges are possible, Cavanaugh said.
The court records say Cowart and Schlesselman also bought nylon rope and ski masks to use in a robbery or home invasion to fund their spree, during which they allegedly planned to go from state to state and kill people.
For the Obama plot, the legal documents show, Cowart and Schlesselman “planned to drive their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama shooting at him from the windows.”
“Both individuals stated they would dress in all white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt,” the court complaint states. “Both individuals further stated they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt.”
Cavanaugh said there’s no evidence — so far — that others were willing to assist Cowart and Schlesselman with the plot.
He said authorities took the threats very seriously.
“They seemed determined to do it,” Cavanaugh said. “Even if they were just to try it, it would be a trail of tears around the South.”
I can understand the rope, ski masks, etc., but they would both wear white tuxedos and top hats? My other question, if the records were unsealed in court today, when did this happen? Well, according to KAIT in Jonesborough, Arkansas, last week:
The pair was arrested on October 22, 2008 by the Crockett County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Department.
Good thing they didn’t tell us about all this last week, we might have missed all that Biden stuff.
I have learned so many things this election cycle. I learned that just running for president qualifies as presidential experience, since the guy who didn’t have enough to run in the primaries now has enough to win! Boo-yah! I have also learned that girls can’t spend a lot of money on clothes if they want to be taken seriously as major party candidates for high offices they won’t win anyway, since they’re girls. Alllllrrriiiiight! And, I learned, just today, in fact, that it’s okay to depict women as lynching victims, but if you show black men hanging from a chimney, that’s bad. Who knew? If I didn’t read news stories, I know I wouldn’t know that.
See, some guy in West Hollywood has a mannequin dressed as Sarah Palin hanging from his chimney below another mannequin dressed as John McCain surrounded by flames (which, of course, would mean that his house was on fire, since flames aren’t supposed to shoot out of chimneys) as, get this…a Halloween gag! That not only makes it okay, that makes it “art.” From KTLA:
The creator of the display, Chad Michael Morrisette says the mannequin may be unacceptable any other month, but he says it’s Halloween and that makes it okay.
“It should be seen as art and it should be seen within the month of October. It’s time to be scary and spooky,” Morrisette said.
“I know if we had done it with Barack Obama, people would’ve probably thrown things through our windows,” Morrisette said. “The image of a hanged black man is a lot more intense than the image of a hanged white woman — for our country — in the history of our country.”
From what I can gather, the whole thing is okay because they guy who put it up is gay:
The Republican vice presidential candidate is not considered to be a friend of the gay community and has been the subject of rumors throughout West Hollywood in recent days. First, there was word the city was going to ban Sarah Palin drag queens at its upcoming costumed street party, which draws some 500,000 people annually. But, that rumor turned out to be false.
So, I guess, if you’re gay and working under false assumptions, it’s fine and dandy to express your misplaced faux outrage by depicting the person not responsible for your misconceptions as a lynching victim, if it’s Halloween. Who the hell knew?
What’s next, burning “fag” giggles? Fun with witches? The possibilities boggle the mind. With so much hilarity to pursue, I sure am relieved it’s not a problem as long as the “fags,” witches, whatever, aren’t black.
This lovely, yet typical, email was received by and posted on over on PUMA Pac. Hardly persuasive, one can only hope that these sorts of communications are somebody’s idea of a joke. However, given the kinds of emails, photos and comments often illustrated on other PUMA friendly sites, like HillBuzz and Cannonfire, it’s far more likely that whoever composed and distributed this, with the subject line, “You need some penis,” was dead serious:
Why don't you bitter lonely chicks give this crap up?
Obama will be your President so bend over and enjoy it
If Obama was a socialist/terrorist why do so many Americans support him
Bill and Hill
Al gore
Colin Powell
Dick Lugar
Scott McCllelan sic
Chris Buckley
Etc. Are all these people stupid?
Face it, you are a bitter broad who is upset your candidate lost and now support
Palin who goes against all of Hillarys views. She does have a pussy though. So I
guess she qualified
What a bunch of stupid irrational BITCHES you are
And you should be ashamed the way you con these maladjusted chicks. out of their
money. I bet you have made a nice comeup huh?
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
And now, a couple of examples cited on Cannonfire, in a post entitled “Let’s Look At The History,” this one sent to radio talk show host, Steve Corbett:
In the thousands of emails I’ve received in the year that “Corbett” has been on the air, I have not received a single death threat – until yesterday.
“We will kill you when Obama become PRESIDENT OF USA.,” the email reads. “You would see!!!”
Most death threats do not result in death.
But some do.
What makes this threat to kill me all the more mysterious is that it appears to have been sent through Barack Obama’s official campaign website – barackobama.com – the website that sends me official announcements of Obama’s campaign comings and goings.
Another one, supposedly also sent from Obama’s official website, re: Hillary Clinton:
“Just slit her throat, lock her in a car boot, and drive the car into river in West Virginia. Ain’t gonna let no whore screw with the man”
And people wonder why we found Ashley Todd believable. I don’t support McCain/Palin, but behavior like this should not be rewarded. For people like me, who are uncomfortable voting for McCain, but can’t see themselves voting for Obama under any circumstances, this stuff turns a third party vote into a “screw you back” vote. Too many of those and polls become meaningless.
Is this him? The picture on the left is from a Dagbladet.no newspaper article referred to me by a commenter identifying him(her?)self as “umm yeah” in the comment section of my post, entitled African Press International Conference Call. “Chief Editor Sammy Korir” is the supposed editor of African Press International, a WordPress website claiming to be based in Norway and in possession of potentially explosive audio tapes of Michelle Obama. API now claims to have reached an agreement with an American cable news company for the release of these tapes:
We hope our readers understand how difficult some negotiations can be especially when there are considerations to be taken into acount�as a result of wishes of the people involved. However, things have moved very fast and we can now confirm that API is in agreement with A US Cable TV Network and the Michelle Obama tapes will be aired without unnecessary delay.
However, the Norwegian news report seems to indicate that Mr. Korir has a history of misrepresenting himself. The translated-into-English article is rather difficult to follow, but as near as I can figure, Dagbladet says that Korir’s claims of being some sort of agent for some kind of police agency, are untrue. Mr. Korir has asserted on his website that he has been in contact with the CIA regarding the Michelle Obama tapes. The Dagbladet story calls all that into question, though:
Sammy Korir will not talk to Dagbladet, but in a letter to several chief says he openly that he has been with the Police Immigration Unit (PU) from February 2007, and until he said the job and ended as police agent at the end of April this year.
While police servants in the PU failed to identify the African asylum seekers in Norway, will Korir soon identified many of the African men – and got them out of the country.
Korir has traveled around in Norway and abroad with its own police ID issued by the Immigration Police unit.This has happened without the senior leadership team of PU have been aware that Korir operated for the police.
It is entirely possible that I have misinterpreted the translated article; I encourage anyone interested in the story to follow this link and read it for themselves. I have chronicled events from the beginning, anyone who wants to can search my archives for African Press International or follow the link I’ve provided to their website for more information. Or, you can just kick back with a beer and watch TV.
The editor of The African Press International website, known as Chief Editor Korir, is inviting any and all to join him in an “online discussion” (whatever that is) at 16:15 Norwegian time (whenever that is) to discuss the Michelle Obama “leave my husband the hell alone” tapes he claims to possess. In case you’re interested (still) here’s the info:
We have noted your concern as readers. It is important that you understand�we are doing our best and our interest is to ensure that we do the right thing so that nobody handling or who has handled the tapes gets hurt. It serves no purpose to continue speculating whether we have the tapes or not, or whether we are genuine or not.
The answer is simple: The tapes exists and will be aired. We also�want you to know that we are genuine in all this and API has had not intention to mislead anyone. The truth of the matter is that there has been a delay, yes we understand, but there is nothing wrong being careful in situations like this one.
There is no question in our minds that you as a reader understand why it is important to� be careful when dealing with information that touches on the security situation of any nation.
There has been a lot of pressure from the readers and the same from those who represent Nations in question. API has to way and balance its act so that nobody is put into an embarrassing situation and for that matter danger to any ones life.
We are not about to drop airing the tapes. It will be done even if some continue to place obstacles on our way.
If you want to join in our short discussion at 16.15 Norwegian time, please email us on africanpress@getmail.no and place your number so that we can call you. Your number and name will not be made public in any way.
�If you join, it cost you nothing at all to participate!
Apparently Team Obama/Biden has their knickers in a twist about an interview Biden graciously gave to a spiteful inquisitor who unfairly asked questions she should have known Joe would rather not be asked. Questions a Republican, or anybody who challenged the “inevitable” Obama/Biden coronation might ask, instead of the “how can I help you make your case to the American people?” questions they usually get. This is clearly not acceptable, as we who opposed Senator Obama in the primaries know all too well.
Predictably, the Obamanation has lashed out at WFTV’s treacherous infidel, Barbara West with a vengeance. She, as well as her employers have been cut off from access to anyone associated with Camp O for the duration. In canceling an upcoming Jill Biden interview, the campaign said this:
“This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election,” wrote Laura K. McGinnis, Central Florida communications director for the Obama campaign.
Why did Barack Obama’s campaign cancel a WFTV-Channel 9 interview with Jill Biden, wife of Sen. Joe Biden? The campaign cited “an unprofessional interview” WFTV’s Barbara West did Thursday with Joe Biden. In a statement Friday, Adrianne Marsh, Florida spokeswoman for Obama’s campaign, said the station, in talking with Sen. Biden, was “both combative and woefully uninformed about simple facts.” Marsh said West’s insistence that Obama was an organizer for ACORN was “100 percent false.” “In a line of questioning that would make Rush Limbaugh proud, West even went as far as to quote Karl Marx, a Communist icon, in a disturbing attempt to associate Barack Obama with socialism,” Marsh wrote. West said, “I think I asked him some pointed questions. . . . I don’t think I was rude or inconsiderate to him.” –
The ABC moderators found themselves under fire for focusing on campaign gaffes and training most of their ammunition on Obama. Huffington Post blogger Jason Linkins called the debate “utterly asinine.” Washington Post television critic Tom Shales called the duo’s performance “despicable.” Philadelphia Daily News columnist Will Bunch said the moderators “disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself.”
The Obama campaign issued a statement blaming anybody but Obie for his “performance”
“Tonight we saw a real choice between the old politics of point-scoring and distraction and a politics that focuses on bringing us together to actually solve the challenges we talk about every single election. Continuing the theme of her campaign, Senator Clinton used every single opportunity she had to launch misleading attack after misleading attack against Barack Obama, which is why polls show that most Americans think she’s running the most negative campaign and don’t believe she’s trustworthy. Barack Obama spoke about the issues that actually matter in people’s lives, like how he plans to end the war in Iraq, cut middle-class taxes, help people stay in their homes, and provide a secure retirement for our seniors. That’s why more Americans are putting their trust in Barack Obama to bring about the change we need in Washington.”
Barack Obama, in his first appearance on “FOX News Sunday,” says there will be no more debates before the two May 6 primaries despite repeated challenges from Hillary Clinton to meet him face-to-face.
That Obama/Biden team, fool them once, shame on you. Fool them twice…ain’t gonna happen. You won’t get another chance. They’ll see to that.
The stupid media is at it again. Do they think we can’t read? Obviously, they think we’re stupid. Headlines everywhere are screaming, McCain Guarantees Victory. Here’s the quote from Politico:
“I guarantee you that two weeks from now, you will see this has been a very close race, and I believe that I’m going to win it,” McCain told interim “Meet” moderator Tom Brokaw. “We’re going to do well in this campaign, my friend. We’re going to win it, and it’s going to be tight, and we’re going to be up late.”
He guaranteed a close race. He believed he would win.
I guarantee you that most people are stupid enough to buy this crap. I believe they should be smacked.
She’s a witch, she’s incompetent, she’s inexperienced, she’s entitled, she’s Hillary Clinton, she’s Sarah Palin, she’s…any woman with the nerve, the temerity, the unmitigated gall, the huevos to actually challenge Barack Obama. How dare she? Who does she think she is? Doesn’t she know who he is? How come she’s not fainting? Hasn’t she seen his crotch?
We supporters of Hillary Clinton for president have seen this movie before, up close and personal, in black and white, in living color. In fact, everybody’s seen it, the same tactics are used against anyone, male or female, unwilling to act like they’re dying to fellate the Democratic candidate at the drop of a hat.
You can’t blame Obama for generating this media-enforced, mandatory, must-jock-Barack, love doctrine all on his own, rather, it seems that the subconscious fantasies of the press, blogosphere and fan base also power this love train. “As badly as I want to do him, why don’t you? What’s wrong with you? You must be gay! Or just really, really mean! Or, worse, a stupid girl, who only cares about herself! Nobody likes you anyway!”
Now Palin is bearing the brunt of the attack. According to CNN, Palin-hate has entered the “diva” phase.
McCain sources say Palin has gone off-message several times, and they privately wonder whether the incidents were deliberate. They cited an instance in which she labeled robocalls — recorded messages often used to attack a candidate’s opponent — “irritating” even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign’s decision to pull out of Michigan.
A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.
“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” said this McCain adviser. “She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.
“Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.”
There is something weird going here. Hillary is the diva, the fabulous woman who is fabulous just because she says so. She’s the woman who is abused (by her husband), ridiculed (by the press), hated (by Republican mouth-breathers), yet she’s still standing. She’s like from some exploitation film where the heroine is beaten and barely raped before pulling a knife out of her sock and slicing the mean guy’s balls off. Her supporters have stood by her and fought her battles with her – and sometimes for her – since the 1990s. The emotional connection runs too deep. R-e-s-p-e-c-t, she shakes her finger. Find out what it means to me. And the crowd eats it up.
Next thing you know, somebody will claim McCain is a “girly-man” who thinks he’s entitled to be president.
This election, like most recent Democratic elections, is supposed to be determined by the “youth vote.” Like they do every year, the Dems are pulling out all the stops to motivate the young voters who traditionally can’t be bothered enough to stop having fun being young long enough to actually vote. According to everybody under the sun, this year, like every year, is different. If this 24 year-old young lady, Bree Barton, writing an opinion piece for the L.A. Times is typical, all I can say is, Lord, I hope not:
Both presidential candidates offer their own brand of hope for the future. I chose to believe in Barack Obama’s promise of change. That’s why I put an Obama ‘08 bumper sticker on my car. I saw it as a symbol of hope — my hope — that the political process is worth my time and energy. A sticky strip of plastic was my statement that yes, I’m young, but I give a damn.
So when someone smeared an “N” on my sticker and slashed through the “O” — making it NØBAMA ‘08 — it felt like a slap in the face. All it took was a purple marker to transform my message of hope into something ugly.
So, basically, Bree’s faith in Barack Obama is reinforced by vandalism. And she’s defiant about not letting the vandals “win.”
I won’t let a coward with a purple marker defile my beliefs — that’s old school.
On Nov. 4, I vote for the future of my country.
Tomorrow, I buy Wite-Out for my car.
Bree, who blogs here, used a slightly different word to describe how her car was damaged in this post. What was “smeared,” is here, “slashed.”
As I was leaving with my miscellaneous bunch of goods, something caught my eye in the parking lot. My “Obama ‘08” bumper sticker, bright white against my burgundy Honda, looked slightly amiss.
That’s right: someone put a nice fat slash through my “O,” and squeezed in an “N” to the left.
Wonder if she knows Ashley Todd. Todd, 20, is the young “McCain supporter” who made up a story about being attacked by a big, black Obama supporter. But, if she lied about that, who knows whether she’s lying about who she’s voting for, if anyone.
In March, Ms. Todd was asked to leave a grass-roots group of Ron Paul supporters in Brazos County, Texas, group leader Dustan Costine said. He said Ms. Todd posed as a supporter of former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and called the local Republican committee seeking information about its campaign strategies.
“She would call the opposing campaign and pretend she was on their campaign to get information,” Mr. Costine said last night. “We had to remove her because of the tactics she displayed. After that we had nothing to do with her.”
About a month earlier, he said, Ms. Todd sent an e-mail to the Ron Paul group saying her tires were slashed and that campaign paraphernalia had been stolen from her car because she supported Mr. Paul.
It’s no wonder that young people “think differently.” With professors like William Ayers, and this guy, “Truth First,” who claims to be a Central African Republic history professor, how could they not?
Very soon Barack Obama will be your new President. This is a reality you cannot alter or escape from. It is fact. It is history. It is justice for the world.
Many of you have seen the light and have accepted the truth. And we thank you for your support and aid in electing Barack Obama.
To those who have rejected the truth you have no reason to fear Barack Obama. He is wise and just and he will follow the principals followed by his African forefathers. Barack Obama is the son of Kings and Queens who started human civilization thousands of years ago. Barack Obama remembers his heritage and his obligations to the Truth, Justice and the Future.
Barack Obama understands what is wrong and what needs to be done. Barack Obama has intelligence and vision that has lasted for over a millennium. Barack Obama was born with the appropriate ways of thinking, speaking, and acting and this will inspire you to be liberated for now there is no shackle which can keep you enslaved.
An African Proverb tell us: “Then command the servant, thusly: Make an Elder’s staff causing my son to stand in my place I will instruct him through the speech of the listeners and the counsels of the first of the ancients who listened to the divinities. In so doing troubles will be removed from the people.”
Barck Obama is here now to listen, to instruct and will lead you to your new life.
America will have a new start. A change to right itself. A change to correct its wrongs and address its sins. If you support change that will bring forth social and economic justice, you will stand with Barack Obama. Those who have been denied justice in America will get justice. Those will have been denied opportunity will be given opportunity. Those will falsely imprisoned will be freed. Those who are guilty will be punished. America’s salvation is at hand.
Those who have profited in America will play a role helping others. Justice requires equality and fairness and those who have the means will now be fair and will contribute to equality.
Stand with Barack Obama and you will be honored you for your work, sacrifice, dedication and devotion on behalf of all oppressed peoples.
Stand with Barack Obama and you will be honored and celebrated and remembered in song and praise and by your children.
Say you’re the Obama campaign team (okay, I know that’s distasteful, but play along, I won’t hurt you) and you’re (rightly) worried that whenever Joe Biden opens his mouth, he’s going to stick your foot in it. What would you do? Limit him to untelevised fundraisers? Appearances at VFW halls? Local TV interviews? Probably. But what if that didn’t work? What if no matter what you tried, Joe (You Really Wanna Elect My Guy?) Biden found a way to screw it up? Well you could try punishing shows that ask hard questions and then blame the station for it. And, according to The TV Guy, Hal Boedecker, in Orlando, Florida, that’s exactly what Camp O did:
Why did Barack Obama’s campaign cancel an interview Jill Biden, wife of Sen. Joe Biden, was going to do with WFTV-Channel 9?
The campaign cited “an unprofessional interview” that WFTV’s Barbara West conducted with Joe Biden (pictured) on Thursday. WFTV news director Bob Jordan has defended the interview as hard-hitting and unlike many satellite interviews where softball questions are posed.
In a statement Friday afternoon, Adrianne Marsh, Florida spokeswoman for Obama’s campaign, said the station, in talking with Sen. Biden, was “both combative and woefully uninformed about simple facts.”
Marsh said West’s insistence that Obama was an organizer for ACORN was “100 percent false.” “In a line of questioning that would make Rush Limbaugh proud, West even went as far as to quote Karl Marx, a Communist icon, in a disturbing attempt to associate Barack Obama with socialism,” Marsh wrote.
Saying that since Jill Biden wasn’t running for anything, they weren’t going to put her through that kinda stuff, the O Team also said they weren’t going to let anybody on their side play with WFTV anymore:
The Obama campaign earlier Friday suggested that future interviews with WFTV were unlikely before Election Day.
Poor Joe. They could always try limiting his press availability to his campaign plane. No chance of a screw-up when you’re talking to yourself.
African Press International is either in possession of some highly explosive tapes of a phone call with Michelle Obama, or they’re the best pranksters in the history of journalism. According to API, Mrs. Obama called them about ten days ago, railing about the “unfairness” of their coverage regarding her husband. In the call, she supposedly admitted that Barack Obama was adopted. Now, API says she also discussed foreign policy with them, specifically matters concerning Kenya’s election and Raila Odinga:
The Michelle Obama tapes lasting for 54 minutes discusses many important issues. The tape will most probably be released to the American people and the world at large, before the US Presidential elections because many people are pushing for that to happen and API does not want to disappoint the majority in the name of democracy and being transparent. The tape is expected to be aired by a reputable US network who will determine the best time for the public to get the information and if it should be aired unedited or partly edited.
Although the contents in the tape is sensitive, API is of the opinion that the US people have a right to know their leaders and what to expect from them once they get to the highest office in the land. The tape, when made public, will reveal the immediate tasks and where the new administration will give priority. Africa, Iran and Venezuela will end up in the priority list of the “chosen” to be attended to and Kenya will play a very important role through Kenya’s Prime Minister Mr Raila Odinga who is said to be a distant cousin of Obama.
Kenya has very good trade relationship with Iran and Obama’s first priority is to have high level discussions in the Kenyan capital. The first meeting will be chaired by Raila Odinga. The US is said to be represented in such a meeting by the US Ambassador in Nairobi. Iran is one of those to attend the meeting, but as an observer so that Obama will not be accused by his opponents for dramatically changing US Foreign policy.
To work with the Kenyans, the Obama administration will have Colin Powell, the former US Secretary for State as Obama’s Special envoy to Africa and the Middle East.
The first meeting will take place in central Nairobi in the newly Libyan purchased Hotel, that has now changed the name from Kenya Regency Hotel to a new name proposed by the new owners., Libya.
The tape further reveals why the meeting should take place in the Libyan owned hotel. By doing it this way, the outside world will not view Raila’s engagement negatively as a move to connect Kenya, Iran and the US.
The Kenyans and the Libyans (Now US friends) will not be accused of initiating relationship between the US and Iran in any way.
API challenges Mrs Obama to personally deny the information if she believes that she has not been quoted by us in a correct manner.
The information has for sometime now caused headache within the intelligence circles fearing that if Obama really got the presidency, will totally change the US foreign policy by having US-Iran trade relationship.
Adjust your tinfoil hats, kiddies, you might want to get a face mask, too. ‘Cuz, either something is about to hit the fan, or we’re all going to end up with egg on our face. Either way, best to cover your…face.
Now that the Ashley Todd story has been disproved, Obama supporters seem to be celebrating anew, curiously rationalizing not only that, since this story about a mythical Obama supporter is false, all stories about Obama must be similarly false, and that if any blame is to be assigned, it’s to John McCain. On some planet, in some universe far, far away, that might make sense, but where I sit, it’s pretty ridiculous, so I’ll leave that alone.
Instead, I’ll ask the question that has intrigued me for a long time, but doesn’t seem to bother people who follow Barack Obama at all. What if all, or any, of the allegations that have been made against the Senator turn out to be true? It’s possible, none of them have actually been factually proven to be wrong, rather, the available facts have been spun to Obama’s advantage. This, in itself, is curious.
It seems that nowadays “rumor” and “conspiracy theory” are negative characterizations about anything potentially affecting Barack Obama. Yet, the truth is, all conspiracy theories are based on rumor until they’re proven. Watergate was a rumor, Monica Lewinski was a rumor, John Edwards’ affair was a rumor. Once the facts were revealed, a conspiracy to cover-up the truth became obvious. That’s where the word “cover-up” came from.
But, all rumors about Barack Obama are “evil lies” designed to derail the noble aspirations of a near-saintly, yet, simultaneously, traditionally oppressed, black man. What the fuck? We know for a fact that he is a liar. Every step of the Rev. Wright way, Obama lied. He never told any more truth than he needed to to get away with his lie, in fact, he even gave a forty-five minute national speech designed to make every American citizen complicit in his lies; but those devoted to him still see no problem. And that wasn’t the end of his lying. It wasn’t until Rev. Wright told one unforgivably inconvenient truth about him that Obama stopped lying and admitted that Rev. Wright didn’t mean that much to him, after all. Because you see, the biggest lie, and the one Rev. Wright objected to, was that Jeremiah Wright was ever really important to Obama.
“He’s a politician.”
That was Jeremiah Wright’s sin; telling the world that Obama was not “more than a politician” to him. Did Wright ever refer to Obama as a “devout Christian” or a “cherished member” of his “flock”? Why did he make such a big deal about classifying him by his job description and not by his status in Wright’s church? On March 27, 2008, Huffington Post did post a March 11, 2007, letter from Wright to the New York Times claiming that he had indeed said those things about Obama in an interview, but the NYT writer chose not to use those quotes. You would think that by that time, Wright’s support of Obama would be so well established, HuffPo wouldn’t need to post a year-old letter to illustrate it.
“Ya better watch him.”
Every black person who has spent any time in a black church has heard a black preacher utter those words as a warning against everything from Mr. High Cholesterol Foods, to Mr. Street-Slick Hustler, to the Devil himself. “He’s gon’ getcha, if ya don’t wach out. Watch ‘im.” That’s what Rev. Wright’s comments to the National Press Club sounded like to me:
Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls, Huffington, whoever’s doing the polls. Preachers say what they say because they’re pastors. They have a different person to whom they’re accountable.
As I said, whether he gets elected or not, I’m still going to have to be answerable to God November 5th and January 21st. That’s what I mean. I do what pastors do. He does what politicians do.
“Watch ‘im.”
But this isn’t about Jeremiah Wright, or about the persistent “Muslim” rumors, this is about Barack Obama being a liar. Who cares if he is a Muslim, but why would he lie about it? There’s no record of his being baptized, since leaving his church in return for Hillary Clinton’s Michigan votes he hasn’t joined another, there’s enough evidence of his being enrolled in Indonesian schools as “Muslim,” he’s the one who said the Muslim call to prayer was “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth,” and his Freudian, “my Muslim faith” slip is enough to give one pause. Given that he is a liar, why is the media so reluctant to investigate any of this fully? On Oct. 20, Newsmax reported that their investigation indicates the “smears” Camp O is so dedicated to fighting, are largely based on fact. Of course, the Obots will dismiss such an article out of hand since it’s Newsmax, and unflattering. However, if you’re convinced there’s nothing to the “smears” why object to having them fully, instead of superficially, investigated, and thus, exposed as the lies you believe them to be?
What accounts for the media’s reluctance to investigate Obama fairly? Journalist Michael S. Malone admits to being “ashamed” to even call himself a journalist anymore due to the one-sided, biased coverage of this year’s election:
The traditional media is playing a very, very dangerous game. With its readers, with the Constitution, and with its own fate.
The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few months I’ve found myself slowly moving from shaking my head at the obvious one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television and my laptop computer.
But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I’ve begun — for the first time in my adult life — to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was “a writer”, because I couldn’t bring myself to admit to a stranger that I’m a journalist.
Many people will attribute everything to race. Some will chalk it up to the partisanship of the “liberal media.” I think the Obama campaign’s successful “Messiah-zation” of the candidate is the more likely reason.
A Light Will Shine Down
A website called Obamamessiah chronicles the many times early in the primaries that Obama used a variation of the “light will shine down” “joke” in his stump speech. Every time he made the statement, it was reported, sometimes mockingly, sometimes admiringly, but always reinforcing the “Messiah” narrative. On January 9, 2008, The Washington Post ran this quote:
“I am going to try to be so persuasive, so that those of you who are still wavering…will suddenly come to the conclusion — a light beam will shine through — will light you up — and you will experience an epiphany — I have to vote for Barack!”
“A light will shine”…”epiphany?” Can anyone argue that this was not deliberately messianic? “If you believe,” “this is the moment,” “yes we can,” “hope,” deliberately oft-repeated in sermons disguised as speeches, these phrases plant specific seeds in the minds of those receptive to serving as vessels. They’re even more scary if the candidate really believes them, himself. At a fundraiser in May, 2007, MensVogue reported this quote:
When Morgan Freeman comes over to greet Obama, the senator begins bowing down both hands in worship. “This guy was president before I was,” says Obama, referring to Freeman’s turn in Deep Impact and, clearly, getting a little ahead of his own bio. Next, a nod to Bruce Almighty: “This guy was God before I was.” (Okay, more than a little ahead.)
Once the “messiah” seed takes root, criticism becomes unacceptable. “Don’t Swiftboat me,” becomes “Don’t Swiftboat Jesus.” While some dismiss such observations as over-reactions to what they consider to be obvious jokes, the reality is a little more complex.
“Many a true word spoken in a joke.”
My mother liked to speak in homespun, old school idioms like that. Though she was very young when I was born, she embraced the traditions passed down from generation-to-generation of African American women known as “mother wit,” kind of a cross between common sense and women’s intuition. Another favorite saying of hers was, “Child, don’t be no fool.” When acolytes are commonly described as “KoolAid drinkers,” the messianic, cult-like status of the one being served is no longer in question. Believers were so convinced of Jim Jones’ godliness, they followed him to a foreign country to their deaths. No amount of pleading admonitions by fearful loved ones deterred these true believers, true faith trumps common sense.
In the case of Barack Obama, his god-like, rock star (same thing) status has insulated him from scrutiny. That is the purpose. Dubious associations, legitimate criticisms, in-your-face flaws and weaknesses are not only forgiven, but defended, due to the flat out refusal of the faithful worshippers to entertain such heresy against their god. “There are none so blind as those who will not see,” is a particularly apt description of Obama followers; it’s not really Biblical, either.
Therefore, when it comes to Tony Rezko and Obama’s proven lies about their “boneheaded” realtionship, and William Ayers, and Obama’s obvious lies about their relationship, Obots don’t see. Videos like this one, might as well not exist:
When it comes to the fact that Obama refuses to show his true birth certificate, even to a judge, preferring to offer the less official Certification of Live Birth, which contains much less information and may be forged, devout Obamabots question the legitimacy of those making the request. Why? Why not show the original document, easily obtainable from the State of Hawaii Bureau of Vital Statistics, and be done with it? If he is indeed the son of Frank Marshall Davis, why not say so. What difference does it make if Andy Martin is a kook? And how does attacking a website like African Press International’s claims of a phone call from Michelle Obama alluding to her husband’s adoptive status mitigate against the truth? Even if it’s a hoax, that doesn’t answer the basic citizenship questions at the heart of all the allegations.
The bottom line is, if Barack Obama is elected November 4, he will not get a record contract, he will become President of the United States. Any of the allegations against, and questions surrounding, Senator Obama would be enough to get him kicked off American Idol; should our standards for the highest office in the land be less? This is not a reality show, this is reality. If any or all of the “smears” turn out to be facts, how will those who blindly vote for him justify their devotion? Maybe before we cast our votes in “solidarity” to “the brother,” or in “hope” for a “better future,” maybe we should honestly assess who Barack Obama is today, and was yesterday. Because if any of the “smears” are true, what happens after he is elected will be on your heads.
The mythical “black assailant” strikes again, it seems. Ashley Todd, who told police she was attacked by a big black Obama-loving guy who became enraged by a McCain sticker, made the whole thing up. So says WTAE-TV, The Pittsburgh Channel, on their website:
Pittsburgh police said a 20-year-old woman who originally said she was robbed and assaulted at knifepoint in Bloomfield because of her political views made the story up. Ashley Todd — who has a backward letter “B” scratched into her right cheek — confessed to faking the story and will be charged with filing a false report, Assistant Police Chief Maurita Bryant said at a news conference Friday. Todd, of College Station, Texas, admitted there was no robbery or attacker and said she had prior mental health problems, according to Bryant. It’s not yet clear whether Todd’s face was mutilated by her, or if she had somebody else do it, because a police report states that she told them she can’t remember. Todd said she was driving around in her car, looked in her rear-view mirror, saw a “B,” and the first thing she thought of was Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, according to a police report obtained by WTAE Channel 4 Action News.
Todd may be nuts, but she’s not the first to blame stuff on a scary “black man.” Remember Susan Smith, the woman who killed her kids because she wanted to date, then went looking for “pen pals” in prison?”
The 31-year-old inmate wants to hear from those willing to forgive her for pushing a car containing sleeping children into a lake, placing blame on an imaginary black man and crying for the American public to help search for the victims.
Then there was the guy in Boston, Charles Stuart, who killed his pregnant wife and blamed it on a “black man” and damned near started a riot:
Perhaps the most famous case of a conjured attack story is Charles Stuart, who inflamed racial tensions in Boston, when he killed his pregnant wife, Carol, on Oct. 24, 1989, but blamed it on a black man who jumped into their car as they left a childbirth class at a hospital. Mr. Stuart, 29, who claimed he was seriously wounded from the attack, drove her to a hospital. The infant son, delivered eight weeks premature by Caesarean section and named Christopher, died about two weeks later.
In the intensive manhunt that followed, the police arrested William Bennett, a black man with a criminal record. The arrest, the release of his name in the news media and the resulting hubbub resulted in the commission of a 300-page report.
When Mr. Stuart himself became the lead suspect in the killing, he ultimately committed suicide. His brother, Matthew Stuart, was charged with aiding in the murder but ultimately pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of insurance fraud.
Michelle Malkin, among others, was suspicious of the Ashley Todd story from the start. I, on the other hand, will always give the victims the benefit of the doubt, even when, as in this case, they clearly don’t deserve it. That being said, I cannot condone or abide inflaming racial tensions by placing blame on stereotypical characterizations black male savages straight out of Birth of a Nation. That our society encourages these stereotypes through it’s popular culture, consciously or not, is a huge part of the problem. And while Barack Obama, his supporters and black people in general have been vindicated in this instance, any entity that condones or exploits racial disharmony for it’s own advantage, black or white, must be held accountable. Personally, for me, the Obama campaign’s tactics in this regard have always been worrisome, and a big part of the reason I do not support him. However, in this case, he is owed an apology.
Joe Biden is “likable” like that uncle every family has who only shows up once every couple of years or so, out of the blue, with a bottle of Scotch, so they let him in, and everybody seems to like him well enough, even though nobody really knows him very well, except whichever parent he’s related to, and they don’t talk about him much. He’s easy to make fun of because he talks too much, really loudly, and he always says something he shouldn’t have because your parents didn’t want the kids to know.
Alright! Earlier today I was lamenting the lack of drama coming from African Press International re: the bitchy tapes they supposedly have of Michelle Obama ranting and raving about evil white people and her husband’s “adoption.” Well, the drama has arrived, straight from the clouds. Or, at least, one cloud. Really, from somebody calling themselves “Cloud,” but, I digress. Whatever. Here’s the skinny, straight from the source:
The tape is less than an hour. That’s new news for you all. I can validate that the tapes arrived 2 hours ago plus which would be about 4-6pm EST. I was not able to get how or where when asked. His lawyer has restrictions on what he can and can’t say and how I can talk about this to others.
He is a gentleman and a caring and considerate man based on our discussions concerning his site. His language is definitely not American. His terminology was such that I had to verify what he was saying and express them in my terms so he could agree.
We could not discuss anything about the tape content. I understand and did NOT force the issue.
He is concerned about the abuse between the visitors on this site and wishes that folks would treat each other better.
He is confident about this issue and therefore isn’t necessarily concerned about the doubters. Also, he absolutely doesn’t want censorship on this site.
There is a contract/deal in place with a media source. I was not given the details of that. I don’t think that he will mind me telling you that the eagle has landed.
From what I can understand and perceive from the CIA contact story, he is comfortable with CIA folks.� That’s all I can remark about that.
I will be at a meeting for a couple of hours and will not be able to respond if you ask a question until I return.
Okay, who else has mental images of somebody in tinted Groucho glasses and a Bogie-style Fedora, with the collar turned up on his trenchcoat, whispering, “the eagle has landed” to a shadow figure who answers back, “but the tree has no ACORNs” before the tapes are surreptitiously exchanged?
This article from Conservative Badlands asks the question a lot of us have been considering lately, “what’s up with all these polls?” It seems that they’re all over the map, with the consensus being that Obama’s on the way to a landslide victory. For many of us, that just doesn’t feel right. Some have wondered if the discrepancies are due to over- or under-sampling one group or another, others have blamed the “Bradley effect,” (the assumption that racists lie) still others have offered up the theory that the 80% hang-up rate supposedly reported by Gallup is responsible.
The Conservative Badlands guys consider all that, and come to the conclusion that the polls are likely unfairly weighted, with a lot of that being due to the under-representation of “the PUMA effect.”
Yet Gallup Polling claims that the Bradley Factor is a wash at best and could actually be adding an extra 3 points to Obama’s total in a kind of reverse Bradley Effect. Looking at where the McCain folks are competing when they would seem to have no chance, they all have one thing in common. They were carried by Hillary Clinton and in some cases even after it was obvious that Obama had it locked up. Clearly the McCain folks think that there is a Hillary Factor in play which is a variation of the Bradley Factor. The results that Hillary got simply cannot be explained by race alone. It was the positions that she took that were different than Obama’s that resonated with these voters. Because Obama has such an extremely liberal voting record, there were some issues where even Hillary agreed with McCain more than she did with Obama.
McCain was bound to pick up some of Hillary’s supporters anyway after the way Hillary was treated by the Obama campaign. These are the so-called PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) folks. This effect was heightened by the selection of Sarah Palin which gave these folks an even better reason to vote for McCain and Palin. These supporters are primarily female and given the political differences between Sarah and Hillary, one would think that the PUMA people would be few and far between. What is missing in all of this is the males who voted for Hillary over Obama. They are far less inclined to be upset about how Hillary was treated. On the other hand, Sarah Palin is more their kind of woman than even Hillary is. They are blue collar Democrats who are into hunting and fishing just like Sarah is. They were not buying what Obama was offering then and they still feel the same way.
The key point here is that these people are actually Democrats who plan on voting for McCain. Because such people are being called racists for this by people like John Murtha of Pennsylvania, they are not telling the pollsters that they are planning to vote for McCain. Most of the pollsters are weighting their samples based on the usual voting splits between Democrats and Republicans. If the Hillary Factor is upsetting this voting pattern, the pollsters are giving too much weight to the Democrats in their samples. If the polling firm for the McCain campaign has figured out how to adjust for the Hillary Factor, then they are getting radically different results and that is especially so in some blue states that Hillary carried by wide margins. This same adjustment has caused them to realize which red states are not good bets any more and which blue states are up for grabs in spite of what other pollsters are showing.
There’s more mumbo-jumbo info over on the CB site, it’s worth a read; I only call it mumbo-jumbo because number stuff makes my eyes bleed. But basically, the article says what PUMA’s have been saying all along: nope, ain’t gonna vote for him, ignore us if you want to. And contrary to what some would like to believe, it’s not about spite, or over-reaching Hillarylove. The bottom line is, we don’t want to be represented by an un-Democratic Democratic party, which is what it would be if Obama wins. We’d rather have an earnest Republican than a crooked pseudo-Democrat.
What’s so hard to understand about that?
Now, I don’t know anything about Russia Today, except the info on their You Tube page, but hey, this video is interesting, so, here goes:
Thanks to HillBuzz via Politico via Drudge via a Pittsburgh news station, it has been “confirmed” that the violence between warring campaign supporters is reaching unprecedented stupid levels. Here’s the Politico report:
Here’s the most serious actual violence, via (natch) Drudge:
Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Diane Richard tells Channel 4 Action News that the victim was robbed at knifepoint on Wednesday night outside of a Citizens Bank near Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street just before 9 p.m.
Richard said the robber took $60 from the woman, then became angry when he saw a McCain bumper sticker on the victim’s car. The attacker then punched and kicked the victim, before using the knife to scratch the letter “B” into her face, Richard said.
Richard said the woman refused medical treatment after the assault, which happened outside the view of the bank’s surveillance cameras.
UPDATE: Richard confirms the account to Politico, and says the victim was from Texas, and didn’t know the area.
Rog Coverely said several pellets pierced his Longwood home. Coverely showed several spiderwebbed-holes in the front windows of his home.
The Republican manager said he is convinced he was targeted because of new McCain signs he added around his home.”All I can tell you is this, I have a very good relationship with my neighbors,” Coverely said. “I mow my lawn. The only thing that has changed is I have two McCain signs in my front yard.”Coverely said he has taken about 300 calls concerning stolen or vandalized McCain signs in the area.”It says this campaign is getting vicious,” Coverely said.
Then there was the AP-Yahoo News story of a Cullowhee, Fla. brown bear shooting reported here Monday:
Police at Western Carolina University and wildlife officials were investigating the discovery early Monday of a dead bear cub draped with a pair of Barack Obama campaign signs.
C’mon, people. Sure, this is an important election, they all are. And passions run high. But violence, beatings, shootings, animal cruelty and the like have no place in our society, let alone our elections. People are being hurt, and no minds are being changed.
First of all, Andrea Mitchell was wrong. Surprise! Joe Biden has not been muzzled and sent to a neutral corner after his, “vote for my guy and you’ll be sorry” comments this weekend. Nope, no how, no way, baby. Joey’s still talking, and nobody’s yet sure about what. Campaigning in Charlotte, N.C., Joe took aim at “John McClain,”
“John McClain. John McClain. Excuse me, John McCain. John McCain — I don’t recognize him anymore,” Biden said to laughter from several hundred supporters in attendance.
Biden also said this:
“What worries me most is the McCain campaign seems to have gotten a little loose,” Biden said. “John’s getting a little loose. He doesn’t have much of a steady hand these days. Now’s the time we most need a steady hand.”
Wonder what’s got Joe talking double? Anyway, with Barack Obama heading out of Indianapolis lickety-split to run and see his gravely ill “Toot,” Biden and Michelle Obama are left to do all the heavy campaign lifting. Look for a couple of “this country sucks, so elect my husband,” and “if I wasn’t scared to death my guy would win, I could remember my lines,” comments from the Dynamic Duo over the next two days.
Moving on, I don’t believe Alan Greenspan is “shocked” about shit. The “Bankers are greedy? Say it ain’t so!” routine sucks, and is about as believable as Joe Biden’s teeth. And whether you’re “shocked” or not, Al, it’s still partially your fault.
African Press International is pissing me off. Not because they haven’t released any tapes of Michelle Obama yelling at them about being black and oppressed, like they promised, I didn’t expect them to really do that. What I’m pissed about is, they’re letting the story get stale. Where’s today’s “twist”? I was all ready for a juicy development and…nothing. And the “Chief Editor Korir’s going to be on MommaE’s radio show” report hardly counts. Bummer. I need drama, dammit!
And lastly, Andy Martin, a bit of a professional yahoo, is claiming that Barack Obama is really the son of Frank Marshall Davis, based upon the fact that he (Martin) is in Hawaii, and…well, it really, really makes sense. Whatever. But, in his bugle-blowing statement Martin says a lot of things that don’t make sense. (Okay, that’s redundant. Andy Martin, don’t make sense. I know. It’s the residual Biden influence from above.) Anyway:
“Ironically, what I have to say today dilutes the ‘Muslim’ theory that has propagated. Davis was not a Muslim.
There’s other stuff about Martin’s “investigation” to nitpick, but enough about him, and that. I want to talk about the current media narrative of Barack Obama’s “inevitability.” They can write and report all the “McCain sucks” stories they want, Obama’s not inevitable in my house. Unlike the unseen “great unwashed” the media selectively depicts, through their creative coverage, of a nation of seemingly hypnotized, if not lobotomized, Obots determinedly clomping to the polls, chanting, “Must vote Obama, must vote Obama,” the members of my household are far more likely to throw something at any television screen showing such reports, and if asked about voting for Obama, are likely to respond by throwing the question back in the infidel’s face. “Me, vote Obama? You must be joking. I know you’re not talking to me!” This is only the beginning, the opening strains of a litany of incredulity and rejection of an objectionable, unacceptable premise, unworthy of consideration. “What time was it when you lost your mind? And who let you in?” Those are typical of the sort of questions one who bespake the unthinkable might be asked in return.
And we’re black. Democrats, until this year. So, I don’t know what kind of polls they’re taking, but they sure haven’t asked me.
With Joe Biden being sent to his room without supper for being an idiot in front of company, and Barack Obama “rushing” off to Hawaii to visit his “gravely ill” grandmother after a quick campaign stop in Indianapolis, Thursday, who’s minding the store? Monday, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski (Mika Brzezinski?!) were commenting about the lack of mainstream media attention to Biden’s “gird your loins, they’re comin’ after Barack” comments…
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Well you know it’s interesting, because I’m going through the papers. I figure there’s got to be, just as you analyzed, Joe, political ramifications to that comment, gaffe, however you want to make it—two in a row, though—but I’m seeing spotty media coverage. I feel like half the media covered this. I’m just going through the papers and seeing if it plays highly, and I’m not finding it in the [Washington] Post so far.
and yesterday, Andrea Mitchell said he’s been spanked.
We know Biden was in Colorado Tuesday because AP-Yahoo News reports he warned us off the whole “birth certificate/who’s your daddy?” stuff:
“If it’s about the economy, talk about the economy, not about Barack Obama’s heritage,” he thundered to a crowd at the University of Northern Colorado.
We also know he was in Richmond, Va. Wednesday, because Politico’s Ben Smith says so:
Answering questions after a meeting with Biden and national security advisers, Obama insists that Joe Biden intended to say that the next president will be tested by foreign powers, regardless of who is elected.
“Joe sometimes engages in rhetorical flourishes, but i think his core point was that the next administration is going to be tested, regardless of who it is,” he said at the Richmond, Va., event.
Talk about “rhetorical flourishes.” Notice, it says Obama met with Joe, but he didn’t let him come out and talk. But, according to Lynn Sweet, who claims to have audio of Sunday’s Seattle fundraiser, that ain’t quite what Joey said, anyway. This is kinda long, but it’s important. Lest we forget:
“We’re gonna find ourselves in real trouble when we get elected. This is gonna be really hard. This is gonna be really, really, really hard. We’re gonna have the largest systemic deficit in modern – not modern – in the history of the world. Literally. Literally. We’re gonna find ourselves inheriting a debt, yearly debt this year, that may approach three-quarters of a trillion dollars. You hear me? We left this guy with a $232 billion surplus. At a minimum when we take office – God willing – we’re gonna have a $450 billion deficit. And the way the economy is tanking the way it is now it may be as high as $750 billion.”
“28 states are in serious trouble and they’re about to contribute to the economic downward spiral because what are they doing? Cutting services, laying people off as they lose their tax base. So there are going to be a lot of tough decisions Barack’s gonna have to make, a lot of tough decisions, including on foreign policy.”
“And here’s the point I want to make. Mark my words. Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. And he’s gonna have to make some really tough – I don’t know what the decision’s gonna be, but I promise you it will occur. As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it’s gonna happen. I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate. And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you, not financially to help him, we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right. Because all these decisions, all these decisions, once they’re made if they work, then they weren’t viewed as a crisis. If they don’t work, it’s viewed as you didn’t make the right decision, a little bit like how we hesitated so long dealing with Bosnia and dealing with Kosovo, and consequently 200,000 people lost their lives that maybe didn’t have to lose lives. It’s how we made a mistake in Iraq. We made a mistake in Somalia. So there’s gonna be some tough decisions. They may emanate from the Middle East. They may emanate from the sub-continent. They may emanate from Russia’s newly-emboldened position because they’re floating in a sea of oil.”
After again touting Cantwell’s judgment, Biden told the crowd to “gird your loins.”
“Only thing I’m asking you is, you know, gird your loins. We’re gonna win with your help, God willing, we’re gonna win, but this is not gonna be an easy ride. This president, the next president, is gonna be left with the most significant task. It’s like cleaning the Aegean stables, man. This is more than just, this is more than – think about it, literally, think about it – this is more than just a capital crisis, this is more than just markets, this is a systemic problem we have with this economy.”
That’s not even all the scary stuff Joe said, Lynn’s got more. Now, The Prophet of Doom did say that the “next president” was gonna have a huge task, but he also made it abundantly clear that he believes that next president is Barack Obama, when he said, “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama.” Kinda hard to fudge the meaning of that one. And here’s the thing, just like Andrea said, Biden said it twice! From Fox News:
Biden made the comments over the weekend to two fundraising audiences, saying he expects that Obama will face an international challenge early in his presidency if he is elected on Nov. 4.
See? Remember, the long quote is from a Seattle fundraiser, this site refers to the earlier San Francisco one:
At a recent fundraiser in San Francisco, Joe Biden dazzled his audience with his grasp of foreign policy: “Mark my words, ” he said. “Within the next, first six months of this administration, if we win, they’re going to — we’re going to face a major international challenge. Because they’re going to want to test him, just like they did young John Kennedy. They’re going to want to test him.”
No wonder they sent him home. Hasn’t it dawned on Camp O, though, that they might want to send somebody with a leash and a muzzle out with Joe to these things? That is, once they let him out. It’s not like there’s no room on the plane. If I was Obama, I’d want to take some time off, too. Maybe, he’ll stop in Vegas, see what Mark Davis has to say about things. Compare COLB’s, perhaps?
Sarah Palin, speaking in Henderson, Nevada, invoked Hillary Clinton’s reference to “the highest, hardest glass ceiling,” and verbally smacked Barack Obama upside the head for his lack of commitment to feminist values. As reported by The Washington Post:
Palin surrounded herself onstage with two higher-profile defectors from Sen. Hillary Clinton’s camp — Lynn Rothschild, a member of the Democratic Platform Committee, and Elaine Lafferty, a former editor-in-chief of Ms. Magazine — along with Shelly Mandell, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, Linda Klinge, the vice president of Oregon’s NOW chapter and Prameela Bartholomeusz, a small business owner and member of the Democratic National Platform Committee. The L.A. chapter of NOW has endorsed Palin’s bid.
The Post amended it’s original article, lining out the L.A. chapter of NOW endorsement, without noting that Shelly Mandell, NOW’s L.A. chapter president, did indeed endorse Palin, as an individual. Palin went on to say:
“When the time came to make a decision, Barack Obama couldn’t bring himself to pick the woman who got eighteen million votes in the primary,” Palin said of Obama’s vice presidential pick, comparing it to the discrimination women face in the workplace every day. “The qualifications are there, but for some reason the promotion never comes … You’ve got to ask yourself, why wasn’t Senator Hillary Clinton even vetted by the Obama campaign?”
“Our opponents think they have the women’s vote all locked up, which is a little presumptuous,” she said, as the crowd’s roar of approval drowned her out. “A little presumptuous, and only our side has a woman on the ticket.”
While it is true that Obama did not choose Clinton as a running mate, it is also true that she has served as a better surrogate advocating for his campaign than Joe Biden, the man who was actually chosen, and who has by his own admission, acknowledged Clinton’s superior qualifications, if not her efforts. It is likely that Clinton will be responsible for delivering far more votes to the ticket than Biden ever could, especially when his tendency to spew gaffes is considered in tandem with his general lack of popularity.
When Sarah Palin called Obama out about “equal pay for equal work”…
“There is a difference between what Barack Obama says and what he does,” she declared. “Out on the stump, he talks about things like equal pay for equal work, but according to Senate records, women on his staff get just 83 cents for every dollar that the men get. What is with that? Does he think that the women aren’t working as hard? Does he think they’re 17 percent less productive?”
…she missed the opportunity to point out that in the injustice of using Senator Clinton as a de facto running mate, he was reaping the benefits of using a woman’s considerable services and not paying her anything at all. In fact, she’s paying him.
The details of Barack Obama’s Columbia/New York years (1981 – 1985) are pretty sketchy. We know, that for some reason, Obama decided to leave California’s Occidental College in favor of New York’s Columbia in 1981. We know from this article, that Obama lived at 339 E. 94th St. for most, if not all of that time.
While no residents, current or past, who were contacted by The Times remembered Mr. Obama, they shared tales of a building with low rents and dicey circumstances during the early 1980s, when Mr. Obama apparently lived there, before and after he graduated from Columbia University in 1983. (“B. Obama” was listed in telephone directories at 339 East 94th Street in the early 1980s. Mr. Obama did not specify the building number in his memoir, and his campaign has said that he has forgotten specifics of his youth.)
The apartment building is described as being located on East 94th Street, between First and Second Avenue. The National Review says that while Obama was studying at Columbia, William Ayers came out of hiding and started going to school in the neighborhood.
Said had a wide circle of radical acquaintances. That circle clearly included Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. When they came out of hiding in the early 1980s (while Obama was attending Columbia), Ayers took education courses at Bank Street College, adjacent to Columbia in Morningside Heights — before earning his doctorate at Columbia’s Teachers College in 1987.
After leaving the underground, he earned an M.Ed from Bank Street College in Early Childhood Education (1984), an M.Ed from Teachers College, Columbia University in Early Childhood Education (1987) and an Ed.D from Teachers College, Columbia University in Curriculum and Instruction (1987).
The college gets its name from its former location on Bank Street in Greenwich Village. It moved to its current location in the early 1970s.
What’s interesting about the Greenwich Village location is that Ayers and the Weathermen also had a ’70’s connection to the Village. From The New York Observer:
On March 6, 1970, five members of the radical Weather Underground accidentally detonated dynamite at a makeshift bomb factory in the basement of 18 West 11th Street. The bombs were, according to rumors, destined for a military compound in New Jersey and for Butler Library at Columbia University.
Ayers now teaches at the University of Illinois in Chicago. That’s an outrage in and of itself, but at least he does not teach bombmaking, the craft that what made him infamous. Ayers was a Weatherman, and was resident in a Greenwich Village townhouse where his lovely group was working on a bomb intended to kill army personnel at Fort Dix in 1970. Fortunately, the device destroyed the Greenwich Village townhouse where it was being assembled and killed three of the bomb assemblers instead of innocents.
The question that remains, however, is where exactly did Ayers live while he was at Bank Street College and Teachers College of Columbia, presumably during the same years Barack Obama lived and studied there? Understandably, Ayers Columbia years are shrouded in mystery, but curiously, Obama’s Columbia years are also murky, at best. Another New York Observer article:
NOT MANY PEOPLE AT Columbia between 1981 and 1983 seem to remember Senator Obama when he was a student.
edit
In fact, there is not a single picture of Senator Obama in any of the yearbooks from the period when he was a student–he is not even listed as absent in the BSO photo from 1983.
No one from the library in the School of International Public Affairs, the building he would have had most of his classes in as a political science major, remembered him. The chairman of the Political Science Department when Senator Obama was an undergraduate, Mark Chalmers, wrote in an e-mail that he did not remember him, and the two alumni I managed to reach from the class of ‘83 refused to answer any questions about their old classmate.
So, if Obama lived at 339 E. 94th during the same time Ayers was studying close by, where did Ayers live? When he says, “he’s just a guy in my neighborhood,” which neighborhood is he talking about? That little piece of information might answer quite a few pertinent questions once and for all.
Well, well, well. African Press International, API, they of the “Michelle Obama called us pissed about people questioning her husband’s citizenship status” tapes “scandal,” is now saying they have officially retained attorney Philip Berg, he of one of the “If you’re really a citizen, Barack, prove it,” lawsuits fame. Here’s API’s statement, or should I say, latest installment of As The WORM Turns:
“Parties involved -LAW OFFICES OF PHILIP J. BERG (USA)
and African Press International – API (Norway) have agreed on the wording of the notice below now being made public”
To whom it may concern
CONFIRMATION OF ATTORNEY/CLIENT RELATIONSHIP
This is to inform members of the public that there is Attorney/Client relationship between:
LAW OFFICES OF PHILIP J. BERG
555 Andorra Glen Court, Suite 12,
Lafayette Hill, PA 19444-2531
Office: (610) 825-3134
Fax: (610) 662-3005
Att: Phil J. Berg or Lisa Liberi
email: philjberg@gmail.com
email: lisaliberi@gmail.com
and
AFRICAN PRESS INTERNATIONAL – API, Oslo – Norway
Subject matter: The Michelle Obama tapes.
In case of legal questions pertaining to the above subject, members of the public are asked to contact the Law Offices directly.
Any other matters of no legal character may be directed to API’s Chief
Editor Korir by email: africanpress@getmail.no or +4793299739.
Okay, this started on the 15, and now it’s a week later and we’re still waiting for some mythical tapes. Sounds fishy. But, then again, we’re still waiting for Obama to produce his birth certificate in any one of the lawsuits demanding it. Maybe he’ll find it while he’s in Hawaii.
HIS GRANDMOTHER’S STRANGE SILENCE IS THE KEY TO UNLOCKING THE MYSTERY OF BARACK OBAMA
(HONOLULU, HI)(October 21, 2008) Where his white grandmother is concerned, Barack Obama talks the talk but he does not walk the walk. The presence of our investigative team in Honolulu, the first media investigation of Obama’s Hawai’i heritage in the entire presidential campaign, triggered panic attacks in Obama’s organization. Obama has suspended his campaign and plans to arrive in Hawai’i Thursday in a desperate attempt to blunt the thrust of our reporting.
In this article dated December 11, 2006, Susan Milligan of the Boston Globe waxed poetic about the awesomeness of The Newly Chosen One. Filled with quotes attesting to the wonderfulness of the The One Who Voted Present, it’s a wonder how she wrote it with all the stars in her eyes. Or, were those dollar signs?
Barack Obama , a national political newcomer with an uncomplicated message of hope and promise, won standing ovations from enthusiastic crowds yesterday as he tested the New Hampshire landscape for support for a 2008 Democratic presidential run.
edit
And while the 45-year-old freshman senator offered no detailed solutions — “this is not a 10-point plan to solve every problem,” he said of his new book, “The Audacity of Hope,” at an earlier appearance in Portsmouth — the New Hampshire crowds cheered for what many see as the freshest face in Democratic politics.
“We had scheduled the Rolling Stones to perform here today,” Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire quipped at the Manchester rally, welcoming Obama in the senator’s maiden visit to the Granite State as a potential candidate. “But we canceled it when we realized Barack Obama would sell more tickets.”
So little has changed in the Obama coverage that one must wonder if the above referenced article was really written by Ms. Milligan or did David Axelrod have her sign a campaign memo and submit it under her byline? The over-fawning Obama coverage was skewered at the time by NewsBusters, who offered up this gem:
Despite the fact that Barack Obama hasn’t really done anything of substance, he will continue to receive overwhelmingly reverential coverage in the media. Of course, such uncritical reporting leaves itself wide open for satire. In response to a suggestion in a recent edition of the DUmmie FUnnies that the lyrics of I Don’t Know How To Love Him from the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar be updated for Barack Obama Superstar, Charles Henrickson, a Lutheran pastor in St. Louis, MO came up with these brilliant parody lyrics titled, I Don’t Know Why I Love Him:
I don’t know why I love him,
My Barack, my Obama;
I’ve been charmed, yes really charmed,
By his trim physique, so slim and sleek–
I’m awed by his mystique.
I don’t know why he’s running,
I don’t see any substance;
No real plan, flash in the pan,
And I’ve heard such empty words before
That when I close my eyes
He’s just a bore.
But I like his face,
And I like his voice;
Makes my heartbeat race!
Makes me feel all moist!
I never thought I’d come to this:
Obama is my choice.
Don’t you think it’s rather shallow
I should vote for this fellow?
I’m the one who’s always been
So pure, so pissed, so feminist;
I don’t need men, oh no–
He scares me so.
But I like his face,
And I like his voice;
Makes my heartbeat race!
Makes me feel all moist!
I never thought I’d come to this:
Obama is my choice.
Yet, like in a romance novel,
I’m in love with a male model;
I’ve got to look! He signed my book!
My heart runs wild! I’ll bear his child!
I want the world to know:
He’s my “Big O”!
Obama, go!
I love you so!
Obama’s finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don’t even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it. He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color, over despair.
On February 5, Kathleen Geier felt the need to state the obvious in a TPM piece entitled, “Barack Obama Is Not Jesus,”
That said, I’m getting increasingly weirded out by some of Obama’s supporters.
On listservs I’m on, some people who should know better – hard-bitten, not-so-young cynics, even – are gushing about Barack, raving about his “game-changing” politics, about his “power to inspire,” about how they wept while viewing the now-famous Dipdive video, and on and on.
edit
Excuse me, but this sounds more like a cult than a political campaign. The language used here is the language of evangelical Christianity – the Obama volunteers speak of “coming to Obama” in the same way born-again Christians talk about “coming to Jesus.”
The “Dipdive video” is a reference to “Yes, We Can,” one of will.i.am’s creepy hymns to Obama. Jake Tapper wrote this about the Obanomenon on Feb. 7, in an article chronicling all the other creeped out commenters at the time:
Inspiration is nice. But some folks seem to be getting out of hand.
It’s as if Tom Daschle descended from on high saying, “Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of Chicago a Savior, who is Barack the Democrat.”
Website, after website has made note of the deliberate “Making of the Messiah” Obama campaign, yet noting it has done nothing to derail it. Who can forget this quote by Spike Lee on the inevitability of Obama’s election:
“When that happens, it will change everything. … You’ll have to measure time by `Before Obama’ and `After Obama,’” Lee said during the panel. “It’s an exciting time to be alive now.”
Louis Farrakhan called Obama, “the Messiah” in a Founder’s Day speech, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The Washington Posts trips over itself writing such glowing articles about the Unaccomplished One that it’s a wonder that none of the writers have had to take medical leave from being blinded by the Light. And, of course, we all threw up a little in our mouths when we watched this video of innocent children singing the praises of He Who Is Rewarded For No Reason. Those of us whose jaws dropped open at the sight of such a thing almost choked on our own vomit.
Now, here’s a charming little hymn from Beliefnet:
Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living sanctuary for You.Here’s the updated version from the video:
“Love prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy tried and true. With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living sanctuary for you.”
Yesterday, it was reported that Barack Obama’s grandmother was “gravely ill.” Obama spokesman, Robert Gibbs issued this statement:
“Senator Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has always been one of the most important people in his life. Along with his mother and his grandfather, she raised him in Hawaii from the time he was born until the moment he left for college. As he said at the Democratic Convention, she poured everything she had into him. Recently, his Grandmother has become ill, and in the last few weeks, her health has deteriorated to the point where her situation is very serious. It is for that reason that Senator Obama has decided to change his schedule on Thursday and Friday so that he can see her and spend some time with her. He will be returning the the campaign trail on Saturday.”
First of all, she raised him “from the time he was born until the moment he left for college?” So he never went to Indonesia, now? Second, is she “ill,” “seriously ill,” or “gravelly ill?” According to Chicago Tribune, two out of three:
Barack Obama will suspend campaigning for a day and a half so that he can fly to Hawaii to be at the side of his gravely ill grandmother, a campaign aide said late Monday.
Madelyn Dunham, 86, was released from the hospital at the end of last week and returned to her home in Honolulu with a health condition the aide described only as “very serious.”
At any rate, why is he still campaigning?
But Obama’s decision to cancel campaign events “underscores the seriousness of the situation,” communications director Robert Gibbs told reporters during an evening flight following a campaign event in Orlando.
Uh, Bobby, the seriousness of the situation would be underscored had he left yesterday, when those stories came out. Campaigning for 2 full days after such an announcement underscores something else. Obama’s great-uncle, Charles Payne, explains the situation this way:
Barack Obama’s 85-year-old grandmother broke her hip recently and is “gravely ill,” her brother said Tuesday.
Madelyn Payne Dunham, who helped to raise Obama, “has not been well for a long time. Then she fell and broke her hip fairly recently,” Charles Payne said in a telephone interview from his home in Chicago. “She’s unhappy with the condition that she’s in, I can tell you that.”
Payne, who is Obama’s great-uncle, said his sister was hospitalized briefly but is back home in her Honolulu apartment, where Obama’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, cares for her. Obama plans to suspend campaigning later this week to visit his grandmother, and Payne is planning to fly there for her 86th birthday, which is Sunday.
While my prayers go out to the Dunham, Payne and Obama families, I would be less than honest if I didn’t admit that I find Obama’s foot dragging in this situation, as it has been described, puzzling. Given his reported lead in the polls and his record-breaking fundraising, it doesn’t seem like he should be desperate to squeeze in as many campaign stops as possible before dashing off to tend to his “gravelly ill” grandmother. With so many news outlets issuing testimonials to her life, as if the end is imminent, Obama’s behavior doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Here’s audio of Joe [Urkel (Did I Say That?)] Biden’s “you sure you wanna vote for this guy?” Seattle moment. If anyone has video, or knows where I can find it, please let me know.
And here’s Sarah Palin’s “gee, thanks for the endorsement, Senator Joe (Have You Been Drinking Again?) Biden!” Reno, Nevada response.
Will the now famous Michelle Obama “I’ve got a bug up my butt about the way my husband’s been portrayed in the media” phone call to African Press International soon be available via Fox News? That’s what API says:
API has an ongoing discussion with FOX NEWS on the best way forward in the process of releasing Michelle Obama tapes to the American people.
API hopes the negotiation will be completed as soon as possible so that the tapes can be made available to FOX NEWS in the next few days and specifically before the voting day – the 4th of November.
API will make use of Legal Representation in the US when finalising the hand-over of the tapes and on any�legal matters that may arise after the contents of the tapes become public.
It will be filled with expletives, swear words, cursing, cussing and every other way to fucking say I’m going to use the word “fuck” a lot. I’m fucking sick of this election and just about everybody associated with it. I’m furious at both major political parties, the mainstream media, the blogger bullies, and all the self-interested entities masquerading as being “compassionately concerned” about our “rights” and “freedoms” and “well-being” when all they really want is the post masturbatory good feeling that comes from the greaseless rape-by-proxy butt fucking of the electorate for profit.
The Democrats force-fed us an unacceptable novice whose running mate thinks is a clueless jerk, yet the rah-rah boys employed to keep us informed think it’s a-okay to pump and prop him up because he’s black and if they don’t people might think they’re “racist,” and Lord help us if that happens because all those just-shy-of-savage black folks who never had a president before might get mad and riot.
The Republicans basically washed their hands of the whole affair from the beginning and figured they might as well give their least favorite perennial loser a shot since they don’t have a chance in hell to win anyway given the fact that their last “shoot first and ask questions later” standard bearer is a total bungler and just slightly more popular than herpes.
The mainstream “infotainment” media abandoned all pretense of journalistic objectivity in favor of leg-tingling partisanship, gleefully fudging inconvenient facts whenever well-aimed mud-slinging wasn’t enough, while the misogynistic bullies of the blogosphere adopted a “by-any-means-necessary” mindset to promote the candidate they flipped a coin to decide to promote over the qualified candidate they hated for being born female.
Then there are the fucking fringe elements, disguised as relevent, nobodies, pushing their personal career agendas down the throats of the “let’s get Mikey, he hates everything” minded public in an attempt to secure their extraneous phony-baloney jobs, whether we like them or not.
And let’s not forget the corporate rapists-turned-extortionists holding our global finances for ransom, boldly demanding 7, 8, 9 hundred billion dollars a pop or they won’t let us borrow any of our own money back from them so we can pay too much for things we need, and their fox in the hen house government homeboys who laid the foundation and greased the wheels and paved the way for the scheme to work. But fuck us, what do we know?
African Press International, Larry Sinclair, Joe the Plumber, Keating 5, William Ayers, Fannie, Freddie, and all the “spaghetti against the wall” distractions that have been thrown out to divert attention from the fact that we are being asked to choose a fucking president from a 2 man pool of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, piss me off too. When a guy can’t form whole sentences without help, who cares if he was born in a manger or in a Muslim country, and who cares if a man called his wife a “cunt” when people can wear t-shirts calling his running mate the same thing, and everything’s hunky-dory?
The head-in-the-sand public is no better. Don’t you guys get it? When you hear a candidate say, “vote for me early, you never know what might happen,” doesn’t that set alarm bells off in your head? When somebody raises enough money to bail out Wall Street, but won’t name his donors, doncha get at least a little bit suspicious? When one side says. “you’re cheating,” and the other side says, “no I’m not, I’m winning so your guys might as well stay home,” don’t you see the game on both sides?
If you’ve been following the presidential election at all, you know there have been some, odd, shall we say, stories from both sides of the aisle, hell, from everywhere, since the beginning of the primaries til today. But nothing is as sadly weird as this one from North Carolina:
Dead bear covered with Obama signs found at school
CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Police at Western Carolina University and wildlife officials were investigating the discovery early Monday of a dead bear cub draped with a pair of Barack Obama campaign signs.
Leila Tvedt, associate vice chancellor for public relations, said Monday night that maintenance workers found the 75-pound bear cub shot to death in front of the school’s administration building at the entrance to campus. The Obama yard signs were stapled together and placed over the bear’s head, Tvedt said.
The bear had been shot in the head, Tvedt said.
“Western Carolina University deplores the inappropriate behavior that has led to this troubling incident,” Tvedt said. “We cannot speculate on the motives of the people involved nor who those people might be. Campus police are cooperating fully with authorities to investigate this matter.”
University police called in state Wildlife Resources officials to remove the body and help in the investigation.
Bear season is under way in western North Carolina.
What the hell is the point of that? What the hell could a person be trying to prove by shooting a baby bear? And what’s up with the Obama signs? Political protest is one thing, but this, this is on a whole ‘nother level. No innocent animal deserves to die to make a political point. That’s just wrong.
Things are getting completely out of hand. People are actually afraid to speak their minds, for fear that some nut is going to harm them for backing the “wrong” candidate. Have we all lost our minds? Physical violence against people who hold different political views is as unacceptable as physical violence should always be. It’s inexcusable:
CALEDONIA, Wis. — Police in Caledonia are investigating the assault of a campaign volunteer as she was canvassing for Senator Barack Obama Saturday afternoon.In an exclusive interview with 12 News, 58 year-old Nancy Takehara of Chicago says she was going door-to-door when she came across a disgruntled homeowner.“The next thing I know he’s telling us we’re not his people, we’re probably with ACORN, and he started screaming and raving,” Takehara said. “He grabbed me by the back of the neck. I thought he was going to rip my hair out of my head. He was pounding on my head and screaming. The man terrified me.”
Politico’s Ben Smith got confirmation from the Manhattan DA’s office about an incident last month where a female McCain supporter was assaulted at Lexington Avenue and 51st Street. According to conservative blog The Silent Majority, a man–without provocation–grabbed the woman’s McCain sign, ripped it up, and hit her with it, bruising her face. The victim followed him into the 6 train subway station and found police officers on the platform; she added that he was only arrested after she showed the cops her bruised face. The assailant allegedly said, “I don’t know why I did this. It’s just those signs, and this election, it has me so upset.” Smith reports that the man, Bernard Feuerman, was charged with second degree assault and has a January 23 court date.
My primary reason for not supporting Hillary Clinton right now is two-fold. One, she’s not running for anything at the moment, and, two, she’s stumping for Barack Obama.
I decided very early on in the primary season that I did not like Barack Obama, at all, and have always felt that he would make a lousy president. I agreed when Joe Biden said so, and, unlike FootMouth Joe, I have seen no reason to change my mind. In fact, as the election process plays itself out, my resolve not to vote for Obama, under any imaginable, or unimaginable, circumstances, grows ever stronger.
My initial reaction to the Oily One was, “eh.” The only thing he inspired in me, once he appeared on my radar, was mild curiosity, at best. If that. I’ve never heard him say anything that gave me confidence, let alone hope, and his canned, generic, ghost-written speeches, read from a TelePrompTer, nose-in-air, drone on interminably, and have grown from the mild annoyance associated with sharing living space with a housefly, to the full-out rage and frustration of living with that same pest for over a year.
Lacking any accomplishment of note, surrogates tout his “policies,” yet his inability to articulate them in off-the-cuff situations only serves to highlight his inadequacy. Incessant media drumbeats attesting to his wonderfulness, coupled with nonstop ads intruding every avenue of modern day entertainment and intellectual pursuit, ratchet up the annoyance factor to intolerable levels. Especially since they’re all lies.
Hey, HuffPo, Who’re You Callin’ Conservative?
As evidence of the “it must fit the narrative” media mindset, I offer up my own experience. On Sunday, upon hearing of Colin Powell’s “officializing” his “help a brother out, hook a brother up,” Obama endorsement, I immediately posted my opinion on my blog. Imagine my surprise when I noticed a dramatic traffic uptick on my small little site, linking here from Huffington Post. Peeking into the situation, since I’m reluctant to expose myself too fully to the rancor against all those not pledging allegiance to He Who Must Not Be Examined, I found that my site was included as an illustration of conservative racism in a post by Sam Stein.
There were, down the conservative line, other voices who gave credence to the race-over-politics theory. A prominent Republican attorney in Maine, Dan Billings, accused Powell of racism, stating: “If Obama was a white man, Powell would not have made the endorsement.”
I’m the “other voices.” Obviously, Mr. Stein didn’t bother to read my post, had he, he might have noticed the PUMA/Just Say No Deal tags I use to label each one. Heaven forbid he read my “About” page which features a short paragraph identifying me as a black woman so fed up with the faux nominating process employed by the Democratic party to coronate their “selectee,” that I now have no affiliation to any political party. As far as being a “George Will/Rush Limbaugh” conservative is concerned, had HuffPo not included me in their post, I probably would not have known what either man thought. The only thing I can see that we have in common is…well…we all walk on two legs, and at least two of us still have hair on our heads. This sort of “racism to prove racism” narrative of the Obama campaign and their mainstream media/blogger boyz enablers is one of the main reasons I could never vote for him. Having experienced it for over a year, as a Hillary Clinton supporter, not only can I attest to the ugliness, I lament the coming to fruition of the fears I’ve had since first becoming aware of the Obama practice of pouring gasoline on smoldering racial fires and encouraging his pre-pubescent-minded bullies of the blogosphere to climb on chairs and point gleeful fingers at the flames.
Which brings me to Hillary Clinton. That she stumps for Obama distresses me, though she obviously has her own reasons for doing so. Given what she experienced at the hands of the Obama thugs, what those reasons might be, boggles the mind. Since I haven’t seen or heard about the whereabouts of Chelsea lately, I’m of the mind that David Axelrod has her locked away in a secure location, only to be released once her parents have done his bidding to his satisfaction. Whatever, that’s Hillary’s business, not mine.
So, since Hillary Clinton is not running for anything, and she, for her own reasons, sees the benefit of supporting Barack Obama, a man I will never vote for, I cannot support her. At this time. If she were to run for national office again, I’d probably be the first one aboard the bandwagon.
That “Party Unity My Ass” thing still works for me just fine, though.
Man, oh, man, “As The World Turns” has got nothing on this story. After promising to release audio tapes of Michelle Obama going off on white people at 16:00 hours Norway time, now African Press International (API) is giving her an unspecified amount of time to come clean, or they’re going to spill the beans all over her. Baby, bay-bay! In their “Open Letter to Michelle Obama,” someone who I assume is Cheif Editor Korir, says they’ve talked to a CIA official in Norway:
The intention of writing to you this open letter is to appeal to you to confirm that we had a talk because it is the only right thing to do now, so that we avoid any embarrassment should the whole tape be aired unedited. You are well aware of our discussions touching on thorny issues like Iran’s good trade relationship with Kenya and the fact�Kenya may play a role in mending the relationship between Iran and the US so that healthy trade relationship may be achieved if your husband gets the presidency. Remember the length and the depth of our talk on�other issues of importance in this hotly contested election where as you have stated – is an opportunity for the black people to start being proud of America and to be patriotic.
API was disappointed that one of your husband’s spokespersons rushed to the press to deny that you had called API. It is best that they check with you first before jumping to conclusions as if they control your private calls everyday.
Heh, heh, heh.
We have decided to write to you after our discussion today with a US CIA official�in Oslo.
Is Joe Biden working for the McCain camp undercover, or what? Why else would he try to scare people about Barack Obama? After months of Camp O telling us the world looks forward to Obama’s election with bated breath, now his running mate says the world can’t wait to test his mettle. From ABC News:
“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
WTF, Joe? And we should elect him because…why, exactly?
“I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,” Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. “And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you – not financially to help him – we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”
And we should believe you Joe, because…?
“I’ve forgotten more about foreign policy than most of my colleagues know, so I’m not being falsely humble with you. I think I can be value added, but this guy has it,” the Senate Foreign Relations chairman said of Obama. “This guy has it. But he’s gonna need your help. Because I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, ‘Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?’ We’re gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I’m asking you now, I’m asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you’re going to have to reinforce us.”
I don’t know about anybody else, but I can’t think of a better argument for electing John McCain than that.
African Press International, the news site that swears they have audio tapes of Michelle Obama ranting and raving about her husband being adopted and evil white people, now swears (again) that they’re going to release those tapes to the public, just as soon as they find the right venue. To prove it, they’ve even retained counsel, attorney Phillip Berg, the guy with a bug up his butt about Obama’s birth certificate. They claim to have been forced to do so by unscrupulous people acting on their behalf, against their wishes, as evidenced by this email:
Hi Will: I have been in contact with the African Press International, who ran the Michelle Obama story. I have talked to them about releasing the audio tape they have of her. It would appear that this is going to happen. The format will be, I will bring the reporter on and let them tell us how they obtained the tape, and then I will run the audio tape, and bring the reporter back on to verify that it is the real thing. Once I have this done, I will place it on my web site, file for and get a copyright on it. Once I have this done, I will contact you with the link. What I would like for you, since you live in Washington DC,�to do is contact CNN, Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC and MSNBC. Let them listen to the audio tape. I will then take bid on this tape. The starting bid will be 2 million dollars. Once you have received the high bid, we will break the money down this way, 45% to Bar H Farms Inc, parent copy of Plains Radio network, 45% to African Press International and 10% for yourself. If you can do this, please call me at 806-447-0010. Thanks Ed
The editors categorically deny that they are selling the tapes, and continue to stand by their story.
API wants the readers to know that we are for the truth and such�email being circulated in the US makes us look bad. This serves to further delay the release of the tapes because we�do not know who we can trust to air the tapes unedited and without cashing in on them.
The same group of people we thought we could trust have gone ahead and signed�unilateral agreements binding them and API, agreements stating that API surrenders all the rights to the tapes to them and that the tapes will belong to them and they are the one to decide who should listen to the tapes on cost. This is against API’s principles.
Now that we have an agreement for representation with a US law firm, we think things will move faster in the direction of releasing the tapes. The Law firm will help us get out of the unilateral agreements not signed by us.
We ask the readers to bear with us. We owe you the truth and the tapes being released.
Well, for whatever it’s worth, you gotta admire one thing, they’re still not backing down:
The tapes are there and the truth must be told. If some people want to continue imagining that this may be an hoax or something connected with Nigerian scam, then let them continue believing so because we cannot force any one to believe in us.
The New York Times says Barack Obama shattered fundraising records in September, raising somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 million dollars:
Senator Barack Obama’s announcement on Sunday of his record-shattering $150 million fund-raising total for September underscored just how much his campaign has upended standards for raising money in presidential campaigns.
His campaign has now raised more than $600 million, almost equaling what all the candidates from both major parties collected in private donations in 2004.
It is a remarkable ascent to previously unimagined financial heights — Mr. Obama’s September total more than doubled the record $66 million he collected in August — that has been cheered by some and decried by others concerned about the influence of money in politics.
snip
David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager, said in a video message sent to supporters that Mr. Obama had 632,000 new donors in September, bringing the campaign’s total to 3.1 million. The average contribution, Mr. Plouffe said, was less than $100.
632,000 new donors, huh? Name ‘em. Of course, that’s not something Camp O is likely to do. In a Newsweek article about dicey campaign contributions dated Oct. 4, it was reported that Obama flat-out refused to name small donors:
This summer, watchdog groups asked both campaigns to share more information about its small donors. The McCain campaign agreed; the Obama campaign did not. “They could’ve done themselves a service” by heeding the suggestions, said Massie Ritsch of the Center for Responsive Politics.
However, all the money in the world might not buy Obama the White House. A few days ago, it was announced virtually everywhere that the Obama campaign was pushing into traditionally red states. Politico, on Oct. 16, said:
With the markets in turmoil and the real economy starting to suffer, Obama will spend the final 19 days working to connect with voters who are “voting their pocketbooks, voting their interests,” said Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.). He’ll be making that case, however, on what has long been Republican turf. The Democrat heads out Friday on what aides are calling a “red state tour,” taking in Virginia, Missouri, North Carolina and Florida.
However, today, Politico is reporting that not everyone in those red states is exactly rolling out the welcome mat. At a food stop in Fayetteville, N.C., the reception “turned ugly:”
Barack Obama’s stop at Cape Fear BBQ and Chicken in Fayetteville, N.C., this afternoon underscored the continued resistance of some voters to his candidacy — and his identity. The trip, according to a pool report, offered “some powerful and at times ugly interaction.”
Campaigning in a traditionally Republican state, the Democratic nominee found lots of supporters of John McCain, at least one woman who believes the Illinois senator is a “closet Muslim” — and another who repeatedly shouted “Socialist.”
According to pool reporters contributing to the story, some of the patrons clearly are not buying the Obama media love spin:
Fanning said she’d heard that former Secretary of State Colin Powell had endorsed Obama but said that “Colin Powell is a RINO, R-I-N-O, Republican In Name Only.”
Later, Obama came to the long table where Fanning and other members of a local First Presbyterian church were gathered. He held out his hand to her and asked, “How are you, ma’am?” but she declined to shake his hand.
Fanning, first name, Dianne, was the patron who yelled “Socialist!” and also commented that she still thought he was a “closet Muslim” when he left her table. Some patrons were receptive to varying degrees, especially a woman named Sheila Evans, identified as bi-racial:
Sheila Evans, 39, who is biracial, told Obama, “I’m so proud of you.” She told your pooler Obama had chosen a restaurant frequented more by whites, while one a couple of doors down had predominantly African-American diners on Sundays.
Curious. Equally curious is the itemization of Obama’s order that ended the article:
Obama ordered some food to go for himself and his aides. They ordered chicken, collards, baked beans, slaw and wings. The tab was $13.91. The visit lasted about half an hour.
Stark contrast to that Michelle Obama $450.00 “snack” the other day, huh?
Maybe that was the point.
Wonder why NYT used that “shadow man” photo in its’ Obama money story, though.
AP-Yahoo News reports that ratings for Sarah Palin’s quick shot appearance on Saturday Night Live were durned good:
Although a complete audience estimate for the rest of the country won’t be available until later in the week, it is likely to be around 14 million.
For the first half-hour, when Palin first came out, the audience was about 17 million. That’s pretty impressive for a TV program around midnight. The week before, only two other shows in prime time had a bigger audience, Nielsen said.
The linked article suggests that SNL and NBC/Hulu owe Palin big-time:
Michaels owes Palin a debt of gratitude. “Saturday Night Live” so far this season has been up 76 percent over last year at this time, Nielsen said.
Even beyond that, the Fey skits have gone viral over the Internet, drawing more attention to the show. One study last week said only one-third of people who had seen Fey’s impersonations did so on live TV; the rest saw them on DVRs or on their computers.
I bet most of that increased internet viewership was due to the airing/retracting Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae sketch.
And/ oh, by the way, some people think this is funny.
I love slow news days; you can travel off the beaten path and find real nuggets of gems among the huge boulders of cowpies that usually compose the unexciting filler that passes for “news” in lieu of…well, real news “news.” “The automakers are still trying to file bankruptcy in Congress to avoid filing real bankruptcy in court like they should be forced to since it’s their own damned fault they’re broke.” Yawn. “The Obamessiah is really probably for sure going to appoint Judas Richarson to Secretary of Commerce, like they’ve been reporting for weeks, since all the good jobs are filled by now, and ‘cuz, after all, he is Hispanic and it looks good.” Big whoop. Who cares what a bunch of governors asked for that they’re not gonna get? Or, who’s blaming who now for that India thing? So, Saxby Chambliss won in Georgia, and the current ex-president’s brother is thinking about running for the Senate? Big freakin’ deal! Some guy in Philly worked out with Obama!
Is the President-In-Training really the 
Who is responsible for our current economic crisis? How come nobody “saw it coming?” Because everybody involved is a one of an equally culpable bunch of lying thieves, that’s why. On October 2, I wrote a post called “
Like many people, I was skeptical, and a little offended, when Barack Obama insisted upon anointing himself the 
With the recent news that former Obama “
In late October, 
Are you smarter than a government official? Probably. But probably not by much. At least not according to the results of a civics test given to ordinary citizens as well as those elected to serve 
“No Drama Obama?” What a curious handle to bestow upon a professional TelePrompTer reader so obviously type-cast to play a real-life 
In the mainstream media’s attempt to boost it’s deservedly 
Those “unnamed” sources are at it again; this time saying Arizona governor Janet Napolitano will be Barack Obama’s choice to head the Department of Homeland Security, according to 
Hillary Clinton should be president. Everybody knows that. That’s the one thing all PUMAs have always agreed, and each post-election 
According to 
Remember when speculation was swirling back in August about Barack Obama’s veep pick? Is it 
A website called 
The day after the “historic election of America’s first black president” I wrote a post called, “
Just when speculation surrounding Barack Obama’s possibly imminent appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State was reaching a fever pitch, 
Perhaps “President-Elect -For-Life” Obama shouldn’t have sold himself as the “Omnipotent Obamessiah of Hope and Change”. All that talk about “
Sometimes, the urge to just throw caution to the wind you’re tilting three sheets towards, and say, “piss on ‘em!” is just too strong to ignore. At least it was for New Jersey City Councilman, Steve Lipski, Friday night, according to the 
People, especially pseudo-journalists in the mainstream media and blogger-bullysphere, faux-celebrating the heralding of America’s new racial Kumbayah era being ushered in by the super-duper, “uber-historic” groundbreaking election of a self-described presidential “mutt” with at least one black parent, have written some amazingly stupid freaking things throughout the interminable nominating and election process. But today, on 
After refraining from commentary about the mischief-making Kenyan-in-Norway, “Chief Editor” Sammy Korir’s African Press International and it’s wickedly outlandish claims of possessing audio tapes of a scandalous Michelle Obama telephone call for a few days, I decided to check in and see what was going on. Well, honey, let me tell you, a whole helluva lot seems to be happening with ol’ Sammy and Co. Looks like November 7, was a particularly busy day, what with API’s call for a 
