It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and this time around in addition to the usual quota of brain-searing irony we get the bonus of breathless claims that this man's dreams…:
I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent. … [America] can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over.
…are realized by this man's ascendance:
I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies.
Don't get me wrong; there's real progress in the fact that a black man can now rise to lead the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today. But I suspect that King would have been happier with a change in substance, not just a change in skin color.
The Distant Ocean 
Depressing as it often is, this site is a cool, dark, refreshing drink, sorely needed during the seemingly never-ending beatification of the Big O. From the BBC coverage, you’d think he was being inaugurated as president of the UK as well.
Well, BBC coverage and UK government policy….
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President, hell! You would think that he was Emperor of the “Free” World!
Here is a long cool drink called the Bailout Game!! Its cute (dont really know the source) and, you get to blow up big bank, call Greenspan for advice, etc…its cute! (there ia also the link to Bailout Sleuth, which tells you where some of the money has been spent–its NOT “fun”, though)
“Do you laugh?” “I rather weep, cus”
http://www.thebailoutgame.us/
MLKJ believed that class inequlity and a lack of decent medical care , were two of the uS’s greatest injustices—not a lack of wars and bank bailouts. Lincoln would be appalled at Obama–the way they are all being portrayed in the media is just more than I can watch.
I’ll be at the Bailout Game…
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Thanks, Mike. This site’s your tall cool one, and it’s built to please.
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Wow. Bush is gone. Thats good. Obama is a hawk–thats bad. Is your srouce of income “inefficient”? Who knows…Are you an Arab that needs to be “outlasted” or “extended a hand”? Who knows…
Double entendres, double messages, etc. I am not sure what I heard.
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i can’t get over people who are essentially cheering for the idea that now the douchebag-in-chief is a black guy.
do i need to resign myself to the fact that a LOT of people (some of whom i call friends) are REALLY stupid?
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I’m afraid so, steve—they need to STOP talking about RACE!! We get it! His father was black!
I honestly think it is a white guilt thing—so many rich whites backed (and funded) Obama, partly because he is smart and attrractive (alot of people think that this is VERY important–for all jobs) and ‘classy” , but, also , they think theyve “done their penanace ” to racial bigotry, and, can now go on with their rich, white, unsatisfying lives, if they do not break their arms patting themselves on the back. Fuck poor people.
It is very clear, trying to talk to Obamas supporters (some paid) onthe web—poor whites, Latinos, and others, are jhust not an important demographic to them. If you dont “get it”–it is because you are a dumb hilbilly—way to “bring us together”!
I have lived in integrated neighborhosd ever since I left my rural hometown. I have always worked in integrated workplaces. The fact that I do not agree with Obama , on what the “purpose” of the US shoudl be, taken as evidence that I am a “bigot”, is VERY devicive to me, and, as you can see, I am sick to death of it.
Not a word for the poor (especially the poor black community). That is clear. He has poor blacks by “loyalty” and need do nothig for them. Except lecture them about responsibility. Barf
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I think there’s progress in the fact that the ruling class can no longer sell its policies using solely old white guys. The ruling class has so discredited itself with wars and economic collapse that it needs people who at least appear to be “outsiders” to maintain control.
Why is that significant? Because it opens up the possibility of real outsiders assuming power, as has happened in South America, with successful outsider candidates like Evo Morales and Fernando Lugo. Obama is not Morales, but his election lays the groundwork for the election of an American Morales.
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@kdelphi
yeah, white guilt is definitely a PART of the obama phenomenon, but the simple fact is that a lot of liberal supporters of the democratic party in the US have missed (or refused to see) how far the party is from real liberalism. many obama supporters are the same sort of lame-assed apologists who had a ready explanation for every repulsive thing bill clinton did. obama does MEAN something more to these people (however dumb that may seem to be), but it is also the same disgusting willed blindness.
@steve b
i’m pretty sure the democrats would have won with almost any candidate this year, considering the circumstances (the financial crisis, john mccain’s sheer awfulness) so i don’t believe the (purely cosmetic) make-over was especially necessary. maybe in the larger sense some may see the election of obama implicating blacks more fully in the vomit-inducing hypocrisy of this nation, but that’s reaching. i don’t see any other message from his election.
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“I think there’s progress in the fact that the ruling class can no longer sell its policies using solely old white guys.”
Yes! now they can use old black guys! (women are movin’
on down the ole morality train too!) Like the Wall St Bailout, which,Rep Cummings said that he VOTED for “because Obama said he would fix it when he got in office.”
NOw, he said he feels like a “chump”.
Maybe we should stop cutting taxes–ya think? You know, get some revenue?
President Obama has already said that Chavez and Morales were “Neither of them democratically elected”. (like we have a democracy)
The more I listen to the hawkishness of his speech, the more discouraged I become. NO war crimes tribunals, or , even truth and reconciliation committees. I am tired of being called a “cynic”–I am not. I NEED for the uS to “make it”–I cant afford to go anywhere else! But, I am never called one here, and, I appreciate it. You can tell me I’m wrong-that is not the same thing.
If we want to be “on the road ” to a “Chazvez or Morales”, we need to first, take govt ownership of those banks we bought. There is an article on it in UK Independetn. Also this, by Robert Fisk “Posturing and Laughing as Victims Rot”) Its not about Obama, or not about him,specifically.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-posturing-and-laughter-as-victims-rot-1451410.html
Sorry typos—it is 1 degree here, and, ra is actin gup
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Well, I was actually thinking about more than Obama’s election, and about more than his race. The Green Party, for example, almost always faces the problem where our candidates are less “experienced” than the Democratic candidate. That’s a problem, because lots of voters still look at elections as a “job interview” and give points to the candidate with the most experience.
But then there comes a point where things have been so badly fucked up that experience in government or business becomes a negative. The gray-haired man in a suit is no longer a reassuring picture of competence, and instead is suggestive of corruption. That’s when the public turns to outsider candidates like Morales, or Chavez or Lugo or Lula.
Or, in our case, a not-even-one-term African-American Senator.
I’m not claiming Obama will be a better President because he has the appearance of being an outsider (mostly it is just appearance, after all). Just that Obama’s election is evidence that we’re in a better political environment than in the past.
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Bush had no real experience in govt. It is not “experience” per se, that ia am worried about. The Obamas have not been middle class for quite awhile. And, I think the presentation of him as being brought up “impoverished” is disengenuous.
I dunno, SteveB–what concerns me most is that , if the Am people view Obama as LIBERAL–where he would be a conservative in almost every other democracy in the world—what chance do real liberals have?
BTW–I do NOT want to “lead the world” (i just heard him on the “neighbors’ tv, saying it again)We need a whole new paradigm.
The problem with neo-liberals (and, yes, I do think that that is what he is), is that, they “feel your pain”, they use soaring rhetoric, and, they cater almost exclusively to upper middle claas (although they say middle class). If you think “rich ” is $250,000 a year—??? I didnt hear him mention the poor once. (except in terms of “responsibility”)
I would love to see the day the uS elects a Chavez or Morales–aint gonna happen. But, if the Dems cant do any more “liberal ” than that, after EIGHT years of Dubya–they never will. And, I just cannot support them anymore. I’ll never “win” another election. But, I wont have to beat myself up when someone I voted for, “sends in more troops”, continues the “war on terror”, gives more tax cuts to the rich and big business., etc.
It has to stop sometime…if it doesnt, I will die trying. I cant “fake it”.
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steveb–I noticed that you mentioned Greens. If Obama had said something , when the Israelis rammed Cynthis McKinneys’ aid boat, i would have been impressed. On things that really concern me–not so much, so far.
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