This speech is so great it surpasses King’s “I have a dream” (Chris Matthews), It’s an unprecedented masterpiece, a breakthrough!! No one has ever talked this way about race before in America. It will be read and studied for generations to come….
No, really, stop you have to read some of it right now:
.. .. Abraham Lincoln reminded us that a house divided against itself cannot stand. When divisions have threatened to bring our house down, somehow we have always moved together to shore it up. My fellow Americans, our house is the greatest democracy in all human history. And with all its racial and ethnic diversity, it has beaten the odds of human history. But we know that divisions remain, and we still have work to do. (Applause.)
The two worlds we see now each contain both truth and distortion. Both black and white Americans must face this, for honesty is the only gateway to the many acts of reconciliation that will unite our worlds at last into one America.
White America must understand and acknowledge the roots of black pain. It began with unequal treatment first in law and later in fact. African Americans indeed have lived too long with a justice system that in too many cases has been and continues to be less than just. (Applause.) The record of abuses extends from lynchings and trumped up charges to false arrests and police brutality. The tragedies of Emmett Till and Rodney King are bloody markers on the very same road.
Barack Obama’s speech is already being lauded as a major speech on race in America. It was not. It was a campaign speech - a very good one, but with a select agenda, which is not the curing of America’s racial tensions, but getting Barack Obama elected President.
Although his presentation of the differing groups within the American mix was accurate and well presented, the conclusions or lessons to be drawn from such an outline were non-existent. Obama gave no specifics nor suggestions as to how we, as Americans, could do anything about these festering problems but to vote for him.
While everyone praises this speech they fail to appreciate that he has now defined the election not as a choice between “post-racial” candidates, or a color-blind race based on policies and qualifications but as a litmus test on racism itself.
We are not made freer to chose between the candidates independent of race, but are being forced into making our votes a referendum on racism itself. From this moment on, anyone who fails to succumb to Obama’s charm and his paper thin resume is simply a backward looking racist.Although Obama ticked off a list of polices we’re led to believe he would support, his actual policy papers and economic advisors remain the most conservative of the original Democratic troika. Read the rest of this entry »
Former Dkos diarist Alegre, now at mydd.com has an excellent post this morning laying out Hillary Clinton’s impressive record on Northern Ireland. While many have insisted that Mrs. Clinton did nothing but attend “tea parties” I hope that this article will put that lie to rest. (if only)
PS The YouTube clip above is from yesterday’s Patrick’s Day Parade in Scranton, PA. While the Central Committee for Obama will no doubt dismiss the enthusiastic reception as yet more proof of how terribly racist middle-America, I would suggest that it says or proves nothing of the kind. All we can take from it, once we leave paranoid speculation behind, is that - yes - some people like Hillary Clinton for who she is and what she has accomplished. Full Stop.
While on his “non-political” visit to Europe this week, Sen. John McCain happened to have a fundraiser with a bunch of ex-pats in Britain hosted by none other than Lord Rothschhild of the House of Rothschild
Poor John McCain, now he’s going to lose the kooky, survivalist wing of the Republican party by succumbing to the siren call of the New World Order. The proud but deluded and possibly pyschopathic militia men who came out of their foxholes a bit to cheer on good ole Boy, George W. may have no alternative but to retreat back into the glens and resume their target practice. Even John McCain’s bloodthirsty ambition to smite the Persian devil worshippers may not be enough to sway them back, however tempting it must be for them.
Right after, the Rev Hagee endorsement, I wondered if, in fact, Sir John, er Sen. John “No Surrender” McCain might not himself be an orangemen?
Of course, it may even be worse than that - Sen. McCain might even be a member of the British Israel World Federation.
Yes, they do exist, even if more geriatric with every passing year. (You can see a recent submission of the group to the House of Lords at Parliament’s website here It’s worth having a look as it’s pretty up front about their theology of empire and the importance of England as a “Protestant Christian Nation” The submission, btw, was against introducing the Religious Hatred Offenses Act since, after all, Englishmen have a god determined duty to denounce false religions. - You can see Rev Hagee lurking outside the door smiling!)
This is all quite funny, remembering the to-do among Republican’s about Gov. Romney’s Mormonism since Mormonism is just British-Israelism with a goodly dose of Yankee Hucksterism
I won’t go into the mystical mumbo-jumbo central to their theology (hint: it goes back to Cromwell and has to do with those lost tribes of Israel) but suffice to say that the British Israel World Federation was for many years the Opus Dei of Britain’s Imperial religion, and that the ministries of John Hagee and Belfast’s Ian “No Surrender” Paisley would be right at home in their midsts. (For whom else did such ministries even exist?)
It would be great if Americans knew more about the Empire or appreciated how much it’s “charm” continues to hold sway over the half-witted elite of our country, many of whom really do believe that American might is an extension of that Anglo Protestant need to dominate the world. (It is, after all, what God demands of them)
It’s something to think about. After all, tomorrow is St Patrick’s Day.
Some mornings it is really a challenge to know which issue, or news story merits front page attention on this blog.
There are just so many and they’re all so awful. Just spending a few hours each morning digesting the latest is quite enough to sink one’s entire day into a melancholic stupor.
The surest way to narrow the selection is to try and find a positive item, some bit of news that offers encouragement that our moribund Republic has not yet hit rock bottom. This, too, can be quite depressing.
The one ray of hope on the desolate landscape that is increasingly becoming our destiny was the passing of their revised FISA bill. Though it is still far from perfect, and still finds the Republicans en masse continuing to support the ILLEGAL wiretapping of American citizens and an immunity for the Telecom Companies that colluded with this rouge White House, it is still a tiny victory.
While I can appreciate that the shameless free for all the Republicans mounted against Bill Clinton in the ’90s, damaged the credibility of impeachment as anything but a naked political tool, it is still undeniable that the excesses of this Administration (and it’s bastard child “theory” of a Unitary Executive) are the very abuses the founders had in mind when crafting this option.
Without a meaningful and effective balance of powers, the American system ceases to be and we are left little better than a banana republic run by nepotistic thugs.
At any rate, Speaker Pelosi appears to have taken the lead on this one and despite a minimal number of Blue Dog defections she has scored a major victory. The Republicans, you may recall, demanded a rare secret session of the chamber - no doubt to lay out the Top Secret reasons why telecom immunity was so necessary.
That presentation, however, had little or no impact on the final 213-197 vote.
In truth the “national security” argument has always been a hollow one. The only benefit to derive from the telecom amnesty provision would have been to guarantee that the nature and extent of the President’s wiretapping would never be made public.
Of course, (and here you’ll begin to see why even the good news items are also rather depressing) there is still no guarantee the we will ever know who the President spied on, and why, as this bill will probably simply be vetoed by Bush and returned to the chamber anyway.
Well, at least between now and when President Bush vetoes it, we can at least pretend that the rule of law has won the day.
The only silver lining the Baltimore Sun sees in it’s reportage is the arrival of Spring Break heralded by the vote.
You can read about the bill and the pitfalls still facing it there. Which is here
Walter Williams and Bryan Jones, from the University of Washington have just published a new book called The Politics of Bad Ideas.
Today they have an op-ed in the Seattle Post Intelligencer on the genesis of the new “economic stimulus” plan that is an excellent distillation of the ways which ideology and sheer pig-headedness guarantee waste.:
As the United States teeters on the verge of recession, the emerging view is that the branches of government responded with notable swiftness to enact an economic stimulus package. Glowing accounts of the striking bipartisanship came forth from the president and congressional leaders of both political parties as well as mainstream analysts.
Quick, however, is not necessarily good. The stimulus package does not come close to bringing the biggest bang for the buck, despite widespread agreement among respected economists across the political spectrum about the most effective options.
One-third of the costs go for a business tax break that cannot help, while two options rejected by the Bush Republicans — extending the unemployment benefits and increasing food stamps — are actually six times more effective in stimulating economic activity per dollar of costs than the costly business tax break.
When I was at University I came upon an 800 page tome from the 1920s entitled “A History of Human Stupidty: An Introduction” I loved the fact that even at 800 pages it authors admited it could only be an introduction.
Similarly, I think Williams and Jones might be on to something here, their own little franchise, like Levitt and Dunbar have done with Freakonomics.
A more frequent airing of the economics of bad ideas, might actually, eventually, help better ideas succeed.
So, it’s “Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger”The theology is as whacky as John Hagee….Here I see is a response to Rev. Wright - from a black lesbian “visual artist” in
Philadelphia: here
The problem with Rev Wright’s theology is not how he expresses the rage all enslaved people feel, nor is it his prophetic condemnations of an immorally motivated nation (His name is Jeremiah, after all) it is his perpetuation of a racist theology, one which, like the “white devils” of the Nation of Islam,marks out “whites” as the source of all the world’s ills.
A spiritual leader moves us forward by ensuring a time out for empathy in all our lives.
Each human grows spiritually, not by nursing the grievances peculiar to their state (and blacks are far from the only people who have been abused, enslaved, degraded, or exterminated.) but by recognizing the universality of pain and suffering as a tangible and urgent experience.
The Rev.is a demagogue and some of his comments really are beyond the pale, his “Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger” may be factual, but is gratuitous and cheap.
After all, that same comment might just as easily be said of Obama’s mother.“Obama’s mama ain’t never been called a nigger”, might also be factually true, but I think Obama supporters will more easily see how vicious it’s intent is when directed at someone other than Hillary Clinton.(In fact, I think they will go insane and I will be burned in effigy at Daily Kos, but that alone will, of course, prove my point.)
I am not sure how a man who grew up with a white family, a family he claims to have loved and whom he counts as a force for good in his life, could have tolerated the Rev Wright’s cartoonish theology
Rev Wright, in many respects, has served as a surrogate father to Sen. Obama.Did that mean he had to throw his mother and her family out the window?
Of course, a psychoanalyst could have a field day with the implications here (Obama’s own unresolved anger at his father leaving and blaming his mother and grand parents for that), there is, of course, another possibility:that he joined this church with the specific intent of buffing up on his “blackness” and building his credibility within the district he would go on to represent in the state senate.
So, no, I’m not actually suggesting that Obama is driven by some subterranean anger at his white mother (ie Hillary)but I am suggesting that he didn’t “hear” the substance of Rev Wright’s sermons because, like many social interlopers, he was simply trying to build his own cachet by being in the parish.Just like mostpoliticians.And, Senator Obama is nothing if not a politican.
What I resent here, aside from the Obamabots dangerous insistance that politics should be transcendent, is the intimidation that also dangerously insists that any and all criticism or doubt about Sen. Obama, his judgement, his experience, his policies or his ability to win a general election be dismissed as racism in the most over wrought and self-aggrandizing manner possible.
I resent that David Axelrod would create a success story built almost entirely on building repulsion at Hillary Clinton’s hitherto unobserved racism.
Perhaps the Rev Wright can give Axelrod a short talk about the meaning of the Biblical phrase, “He who sows the wind, reaps the whirlwind”
For myself, I grow to wonder ifObama-ism has evolved to the point where it fits Karl Kraus’s famous dictum:“Obama-ism is the disease which it claims to cure.”
Admiral Fallon resigned his post as head of CentCom this afternoon, though the European Press seems pretty clear that he was pushed out.
A voice on the tee vee says that Defense Secretary Gates gave Admiral Fallon the message - that he should resign - by refusing to take his phone calls. Refusing to take his phone calls? And if that didn’t work what was he going to do, Hold his breath?
I mean, seriously, is this the Sec of Defense and the Head of CentCom or characters in Mean Girls?
The bad news is that the Republican plan to hand John McCain the White House is probably a go, with Bush kindly providing the pretext for heating things up with Iran just in time for American Hero, John McCain to take over the red button.
Read the transcript of this afternoon’s press conference with Secretary of Defense Gates here
The first version of this story, the one that had the Gov caught up in an ongoing federal investigation of a high end prostitution ring, appears to be misleading at best. More recent coverage suggests that Gov Spitzer was the target all along and that the Emperor’s Club was sort of a bonus.
Curious they helped spread the hookergate version then. Unless, of course, they specifically wanted to mask that fact that it was the Governor they were tracking.
I mean, given all this concern about the Bush Administration routinely abusing the Justice Department in it’s aim to get democratics, guilty or not, tied up in Grand Jury’s and indictments, one is entitled to be skeptical.
Let’s face it. Gov. Spitzer was one scary character. If you don’t think the Republican leadership would have loved to see his rising star extinguished ASAP you’re just not thinking. The only question is, was Gov. Spitzer the target of a politicized witch hunt here?
My instincts tell me that this may be a really tragic loss for the Democrats. Even if he stays in political life his Dudley Doright persona is tarnished and any presidential ambitions will probably be put on hold.
Any details on how or why Justice approved the wire tap in the first place if the target was Spitzer and not the Emperor Club? Was there probable cause or was the governor just one of those terror suspects there was no time to get a warrant for?
I hope he stays anyway. No reason to cave under the sanctimonious BS from the opposition.
Within moments of Spitzer’s statement this afternoon, the NRCC was blasting out e-mails demanding that dems who received monies from the Governor should return the “sleazy” money.
This is rich coming fron the same Republican Party whose members gave Louisiana Senator, David “Diapers” Vitter a standing ovation when he returned to the chamber after his hookers started talking.
The selectivity of moral outrage never ceases to amaze me. After all, using a prostitution ring isn’t the same as owning one. Is it?
Any thoughts? Is Spitzer the target of a politically motivated witch hunt?
