The black thing haunts Barack

"I'm not sure America is ready to have a black president.
I think they might kill him." - 50 Cent on Obama as President.

That is something many wonder about but no one wants to talk about it openly. It was brought up once when Ted Kennedy was on The Early Show. It was eluded to, not overtly but still, the issue was poked at. Kennedy was asked if he was worried about Obama’s safety because he is a “JFK-like-figure.” It was a crude question, but how do you approach the subject? Michelle Obama has said she worries for her husband’s safety and he was reported to have the biggest secret service detail out of all the candidates. Or maybe he was the only candidate with any at all. Colin Powell’s wife had the same fear when Colin’s name was being floated as a possible candidate to run in 2000.

50 Cent is a successful businessman, has said he liked W. within the last two years, does not have a conscious message in his music, but still sees a problem with a black president. His instincts get right down to the nut of the whole thing. Will this man with the crazy name, almost like Osama but instead Obama, make it or get gunned down like usual? The anniversary of MLK’s assassination was just a little bit ago, have things changed enough in 40 years? It is hard to know, but we are thinking about it. We worry for Obama’s safety and root for him. We want to believe. We can taste it. We are ready for it. Let’s do this.

Bill Clinton knew exactly what he was doing when he brought up Jesse Jackson winning South Carolina twice and still losing the nomination. Bill is not dumb or insensitive to race, but that was his way of swatting down the black community. It was a signal heard loud and clear like “states rights” with Reagan or W.’s whisper campaign about McCain’s black baby in 2000. Or the rumor about Obama with his hand on a Koran during his senate swearing in ceremony in 2002, and the picture with Obama in traditional Ethiopian garb. Those were all lies but also signals to let White America know this one is not to be trusted. Chris Matthews believed the red phone ad the Clinton team put out was a classic ploy to show who will keep the kids safe, be scared of the black man he will not be the one to keep your family safe he lurks in the night.

50 Cent knows the limitations he has seen it too many times, the built up distrust and fear of blacks in the white community runs deep. Obama is half black, his mom is white yet he still is in the black column. A big part of me believes that The Establishment will make sure he is not the nominee. Watch, the Clinton’s will clamp down.

FOX has been attacking Obama and that usually means the rest of the news media is due to do the same. Recently ABC’s George Stephanopoulis used questions suggested to him by Sean Hannity and historically other networks fall in line behind whatever FOX is focused on. Not sure if there is an organized effort to do so or if it is cultural, a top down sort of thing, like proper etiquette, but in the 2000 election, all the networks declared Gore the winner and then FOX said it was W. and the rest flipped the switch.

The black thing looks like it may be the straw that breaks Barack’s back, early on in the 2008 primary I thought we might finally forgo beating a candidate purely because of his blackness, but it does not seem to be so, as the campaign drags on. Recently Bill Clinton accused Obama of throwing the race card at him, ironically Bill pulled out the freaking race card in the first place with his infamous Jesse Jackson South Carolina comments.

It has been hard to watch Obama as he refused to get down and dirty. He has been criticized for it, by me and many others, we think he should have been punching back much harder. Sheesh, I would have grabbed Hillary by her soccer mom mullet and thrown her off the stage ten debates ago, but Obama has been about as cool, calm and collected as a man can be with these charges being thrown his way. Remember John McCain has White Supremacist supporters and even as a Senator from Arizona, he has a history of not celebrating MLK Day.

I took the pictures of the Obama van near KeyArena when Obama visited Seattle during the 2008 Democratic primary.

Each candidate has questionable ties

Why did Obama have to make a speech explaining his relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright? None of the other candidates had to. Each one has a dicey relationship with religion. This is so hypocritical.

George W. Bush never made a speech explaining or denouncing Jerry Falwell’s comments in 2001 blaming “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians” for the September 11 terrorist attacks.

And John McCain spoke at Falwell’s Liberty University in 2006.

McCain has not had to answer constant questions about his relationship with Pastor John Hagee. McCain said he was “very honored by Pastor John Hagee’s endorsement.” He also called Hagee “the staunchest leader of our Christian evangelical movement,” citing the minister’s pro-Israel stance.

According to the Catholic League president Bill Donohue “for the past few decades Hagee has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church. For example he likes calling it ‘The Great Whore,’ an ‘apostate church,’ the ‘anti-Christ,’ and a ‘false cult system.’

Why doesn’t Hillary Clinton have to make a speech about her membership in The Fellowship? A group that has close ties to people like former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Senator Sam Brownback and former Senator Rick Santorum.

Here is a couple lines from an article about Clinton and The Fellowship in Mother Jones:

The Fellowship isn't out to turn liberals into conservatives; rather, it convinces politicians they can transcend left and right with an ecumenical faith that rises above politics. Only the faith is always evangelical, and the politics always move rightward.

Jeremiah Wright’s “incendiary comments” and “fiery rhetoric” were neither to me. My freaking 85 year old Irish grandma didn’t think much of them. She didn’t think they were all that shocking or even much to speak of. Much ado about nothing. Two Sundays ago I watched Meet the Press as Bill Bradley danced around the comments denouncing them and yada yada yawn. I sat and watched and thought “geez I wish he would just cut through all the bull shit and say to Tim Russert: you know what, Wright is actually articulating what many Americans believe not just in the black community, but goddamn it, I believe that shit too, have for years.”

Here are my notes from the day of the now famous Obama Race Speech:

My neck hurts and I don’t know what to do. I missed the speech on race by Obama today all because I was soaking wet from fighting a massive dog with a power washer. I blasted the shaggy beast from every angle and after 4 hours and 10,000 gallons of water I was soaked to the bone and I retreated to my dark wooded bungalow up the hill from the shaggy beast. I poured a hot bath and turned the tv on.

All the news channels were talking about Obama’s speech. Fox News basically said it was all over for Obama because his “unfavorability” rating went up in the latest Rasmussen Poll.

Wolf Blitzer at CNN said the speech was a preemptive strike on Clinton, whatever that means. Blitzer is always good for analysis that says almost nothing and won’t get him in real trouble he is real safe and boring as fuck.

Turned to Race for the White House with David Gregory on MSNBC. All I can ever think of when I see Gregory is that he was in the background dancing at the White House correspondence dinner when Karl Rove rapped.

I think Gregory called the Obama speech a “hail mary” or maybe it was someone else, but someone said that. The best thing anyone called it was “gutsy.” Joe Scarborough, David Gregory and Chuck Todd agreed that this was the speech that may be Obama’s downfall because he did not throw his pastor under the bus. Rachel Maddow and Eugene Robinson had to fight just to say it actually was a good speech.

The Old Boy Network is actually a stronger pull than the true thoughts and feelings that instinctively come to the forefront. Or maybe its the same old thing where: white-guy-network-forever people are the true and serious gatekeepers. And this Obama craziness is scaring the fuck out of everybody in charge because they need to somehow take him down without a bullet and it is a little too close for comfort.

Why was Hillary out there that day of the Obama Race Speech? She said she did not see or read it, but still commented on it. What was the point? Did she just want the public to know she can’t waste her time listening to what her opponent says? She took reporters questions with this glazed over look on her face and talked down to everyone.

Bush "Waster" board taken by Reed Wacker with a fish eye. Bush in the vines.

Note to Obama: Fight like a panther

It is 7 in the morning and I look out the window to gaze at the gray sky, is almost white and blinding. This is the kind of city where the sun never comes up and never goes down and the horizon is met by never-ending gray. The cars are zooming by my window, a diesel motor is spitting as they tend to do, but instead of a car it is strapped to a man’s back: the leaf blowers are out. Like the machine gun man in The Predator movie mowing down a section of jungle with the pull of the trigger, the leaf blower man shoots dust and debris all over the street, moving it from one lot to the next, in constant motion for no reason. The haze of diseased material won’t go away, it just moves. Like a drunk wandering from one bar to the next all day. Existing, but not moving forward. Just being blown around by the fuel power, the liquid courage. Aha. Did I just hit the nail on the head? Surely sounds like it. Stumbled upon it of course. Now lets get down to business.

In The Scotsman Samantha Power, Mr. Obama's key foreign policy aide called Hillary, “A Monster...” because she had stooped so low in her attacks. What pisses me off is that today Power resigned from the Obama campaign probably because the Clinton’s called for her to be fired for the comments. Why? Who cares. She called Clinton a monster, she is a monster with eyes bulging and looking so desperate all the time, so tight faced, she looks like a balloon ready to pop.

No interpersonal skills to speak of. For some time now I have thought maybe she is some kind of speed freak. Her eyes are so big, Is she on Meth? Her face so tight. Remember 2004 when people piled on Kerry about possible botoxing? Well its 2008 and Hillary is definitely filled to the top with botox, look at her forehead, it looks like a clay teapot.

Larry David posted something on Huffingtonpost.com today and I think he keys in on something that we have all been seeing, but maybe people are too afraid to call her out on it. This is an interesting paragraph from the post:

How is it that she became the one who's perceived as more equipped to answer that 3 a.m. call than the unflappable Obama? He, with the ice in his veins, who doesn't panic when he's losing or get too giddy when he's winning, who's as comfortable in his own skin as she's uncomfortable in hers. There have been times in this campaign when she seemed so unhinged that I worried she'd actually kill herself if she lost. Every day, she reminds me more and more of Adele H., who also had an obsession that drove her insane.

Indeed. She seems to be completely unhinged to me. Scratching and clawing at the White House door like a sick puppy. Constantly pacing, nothing moving fast enough and no satisfaction ever. I thought with age came wisdom. I thought you learned to be a bit more philosophical. Veteran athletes force it less with more experience, don’t throw the ball away as much, live for another play. Brett Favre is old as McCain and in the playoffs this year executed precision shovel passes vs. the Seattle Seahawks in the midst of a blizzard at Lambeau Field. The Great Favre retired yesterday, but still kept repeating, “I know I can still play.”

I am not so sure Hillary ever learned how to play, never calmed down enough to be herself and confident with it, still trying to get her father’s approval. She has actually talked about and been pretty open with the public about her lifelong struggle of living up to her father’s idea of success. That is a skeleton in her closet, that may haunt her until the end.

Who cares what anyone thinks? Do whatever the fuck you want and don’t apologize to anyone for it. Family or friends. Be yourself.

Note to Obama: I know you are above the fray, cool, calm and collected, distinguished and academic, cut from a John Kerry cloth. I support you I just wish you would get a little bit more mad sometimes. Stand up and hit back. Or the least you could do is not fire or “let go” or “accept the resignation” of a campaign aide that is fighting back for you. Especially one hour after your rival The Clinton’s complained. They are the last people to be whining about attacks.

Note from the Editor: I was just thinking about this today...He is too focused on cleaning up America to be bothered with the pettiness of dirty politics, but isn’t that his appeal? Peace.

I took the pictures of the Obama posters under the Ballard Bridge.