Doesn't have to be that way. You can either say "that's the game" or you can be part of something to change the way politics is run. You wouldn't be cynical if you didn't think things were' messed up. You're only cynical because you are convinced that politics can not be changed. But when you think about when Obama mentioned slavery and Jim Crow he uses it as an example of how this nation can overcome MUCH larger things than political punditry, the media and the silly way they divide this country by making politics not about substance, but about entertainment. It's only impossible if you decide it is.

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Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president he’ll take on, and I quote, 'the old boys’ network in Washington.' I’m not making this up. This is somebody been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he’s the one who’s gonna take on the old boys' network,” he said. “In the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting!- Obama, 9/17/2008

I’d love to be part of something larger; but unless Obama is willing to admit where the real problem lies, he’ll be entirely ineffective in dealing with it. I’m cynical (if, indeed, I am cynical) because I see crack dealers on the street corner with their pants’ asses dragging on the ground complaining about “Da Man”. In order for this nation, or the black community, to rise above Jim Crow or Brown vs. the Board of Education, the black community has to face the problems they’ve given themselves. If Obama were speaking out about this kind of crap, or about the lousy parenting going on in “da hood”, I’d believe he was a man of substance; but he doesn’t, which tells me he wants to blame those problems on the white man. Why not? He’s an easy target. So what if it entrenches the racial divide, as long as it helps him get elected, who cares?

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Election 2008 – Addicted to Placebos

About the faxnews's smear campaign--The Black panther endorsement lie, Barack Obama campaign has made an announcement:

When I last checked, ingenuity and candidness had been deported from the mainland due to illegal entry.

What else can be said about this "Faux" news story that aims nothing but muddy the water?

OK, you want blacks to do a better job of taking responsibility for themselves, but are you willing to take responsibility for failed policy like the war on drugs, that's wasted billions of dollars and millions of lives?

It's a two-way street, Cyd.

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Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush?

--Hunter S. Thompson

As the DNC and indeed the general election draws closer, all of the smear campaigns and innuendos and the off the record comments will only serve to strip away any pretense of whether a voter was truly willing to look beyond existing prejudices and / or view a candidate without bias as to race or gender.

In other words, if someone was never going to vote for a black man or woman anyway the net effect of these strategic salvos are minimal. If you were just "looking for an excuse" to not vote for that black candidate (or woman), frankly, what are the odds you were going to really cast that vote?

The media has received tremendous mileage from this year's historic Democratic nomination process as there will be a "first" no matter what. But the real litmus test, it seems to me, isn't going to be produced from the candidates themselves, but rather, the real test is whether the American public really is ready to elect a black man or woman to the highest office in the land. In this sense I think that Obama's speech hit the nail on the head, because this race is as much about "the first meaningful black candidate" as much as it is a general referendum on the state of race (and the progress made or depending on your point of view, the lack of progress made) in America today. I'm not sure we are really quite there yet.

When this process started with multiple candidates on both sides, there tends to be a lot of noise and its difficult to get serious about the election. Now we are at the stage where the spotlight is that much brighter and the close-ups that much closer -- only this time this process is very much like bringing up a mirror to the face of the state of race relations today. Do you like what you see?

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Maybe we, the voters, were so used to and happy with, every four years, to see male and WASP candidates compete with one another for the highest office in the country and this years strange political frame, as Democrats, [because "all is quiet in the Republican front--there was nothing to bother them] has, more or less, crippled our "intellectual" comfort. That's why we are still looking at the image of a young Black man speaking in front of the millions about the race issue that we had been keeping under the dusty pages of history books.

Believe this is a very good and healthy sign of American democracy and of our future as a nation with our good and bad sides.

OK....

That you still believe Obama is in "blame whitey mode" suggests one of a couple of things.
1. You didn't hear the speech and had decided that Obama was about "hate whitey" before he had even uttered his mouth about race relations in America.
2. You don't really care if Obama is critical of the Black community at all, you just want him to parrot back your own anti-Black predjudice with as much poison and disgust that you responded to in Bill Cosby's speech. Without calling people ignorant monkeys, Obama takes the notion of "self help" from Cosby's speech and makes it palatable. Frankly, if you REALLY think that the Bill Cosby school is the way to solve for Black inequality you should be excited about Obama because he is advocating that, just in a way that people will probably respond to.


Again, evidence that you've not paid much attention to Obama, you've made your decision as is.

You can project your feelings about "blame whitey" onto Obama, but you'll never find him saying anything even REMOTELY close to the kind of divisive racial rhetoric you are talking about. Again, if Obama is these things prove it with his words. If you can't you have demonstrated that nothing the guy could have said on race relations would have appeased you.

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Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president he’ll take on, and I quote, 'the old boys’ network in Washington.' I’m not making this up. This is somebody been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he’s the one who’s gonna take on the old boys' network,” he said. “In the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting!- Obama, 9/17/2008

I've alway thought the War on Drugs was a useless waste of time that caused more harm than good.

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Election 2008 – Addicted to Placebos

Great CYDdharta,

I agree. How do you feel about the RNC using illegal caging practices to disenfranchise black voters, despite their pledge not to do so in leu of Department of Justice litigation against them?

Johnny K

How do you feel about political operatives puncturing tires on opposition party vans? This is a cyclical argument. And what does this have to do with Obama?

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No individual can plan his own existence in their view.

So the state planners must arrogate to themselves the right to manipulate any sector of the economic system if the good of “society” or the “general welfare” is paramount.

Ipso- if the rights of the individual get in the way, the rights of the individual must be sublimated.

The Road to Serfdom
FA Hayek (interpretation)


Mortgage Backed Security survivor

About as much as the War on Drugs, I'd guess Imp.

BTW, where's your similar question to CYDdharta and Pogo?

Just askin',

Johnny K

( To hold up a proverbial mirror: ) You're embracing Hope there. That's dangerous territory... bordering on optimism.

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Congratulations President-Elect Obama

What are you talking about? Did you actually read my comments? Where did I say anything about “blame whitey”? My problem with Obama is that, all too often, his message of “hope” focuses on divisions and worsens them. If he wants to take that approach, I think there are more pertinent issues for him to focus on.

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Election 2008 – Addicted to Placebos

Cydharta, I'd love a response to my last post man.

Alsl, LBS, ha! genius. Yeah when your argument that optimism and hope are bad things you're sort of screwing your ability to advocate for any Presidential candidate, cause hope that they will succeed is a huge part of the issue.

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Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president he’ll take on, and I quote, 'the old boys’ network in Washington.' I’m not making this up. This is somebody been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign. And now he tells us that he’s the one who’s gonna take on the old boys' network,” he said. “In the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting!- Obama, 9/17/2008

I don’t agree with either side manipulating election results; either by stopping people from voting, or by falsifying vote records, or by any other means.

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Election 2008 – Addicted to Placebos