Change or Die

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I’ve been thinking of how I was going to end this. The most important election cycle of my life (to date), has been filled with the most blogs I have ever written or posted (to date). I have followed each and every up and down, twist and turn for the last eighteen months. It has been serious at times, humorous at others. I have had my doubts and fears, and moments of joy and pride. I have debated the merits of Hillary Clinton and John McCain versus our next President Barack Obama. I have argued and admired with others. I have delved into this process far more than even I would have thought. It is no small event. The historic nature is of course the draw. The possibility and symbolism of a black U.S. president is no small feat. Those that feel otherwise are either fools or closet racist. I do not hide the fact that beyond his words his skin color is the reason why I support him. I did not support Alan Keyes in his 2000 bid and was too young to recognize the significance of Jesse Jacksons ’84 attempt. I could sit here and make a last minute plea for Obama, listing his ideas and proposals, but that’s being done across the board. It’s all out there if you haven’t heard it and I doubt it will sway you at this final night before the world changes. Instead in art inspired by the death of Barack’s grandmother on Sunday I will tell you my story simply and plainly and hope you understand why a man who once planted a fake bomb in a mall and wears proudly the symbols of Anarchy and Chaos on his arms has spent the last year and a half supporting a mainstream candidate for president.

For me this goes back to when I was a child. As a young Negro in Mocksville North Carolina there were very few examples of black success. Locally there were business men who owned black barbershops, or tree clearing services, janky auto dealers, or BBQ joints, but no real examples of wealth and success. On television you either had to shill Jello pudding or run a basketball up and down the court in order to be rich. It wasn’t until after I had begun to consider myself and adult that I believed any differently. I knew in my teenage years that blacks could own magazines and business, but only those that marketed to other blacks. The whole notion that if you grow up, and do what you’re supposed, to and you too could be president, was for whites only. Blacks were shown/not told that even if you grew up and became successful you would still be nothing more than nigger. Your money and position held only on how well you kept your place, how well you bowed and scraped and followed the white man’s way. My grandmother as strong and as independent as she was never once told me such lies. She never once uttered such nonsense. And it was nonsense. By all evidence presented a black man would never become president. Not until some mythical future where Whites were minorities and brown skinned people controlled the economy. Low and behold we are almost to that point. Yellow people are dominating the market and lending the U.S. money, it is only a matter of time my brown brothers and sisters. Not that I am some anti-white Farrakhan loving brother. I have often been told “You’re the whitest black guy I know”, though I am far from it. I cannot deny that my blackness has often been questioned, due to my taste in music, my associations and my choice in women. I was raised in the country not the city. There were very few kids in my neighborhood. I grew up with television as my number one companion, and as stated earlier there was very little blackness on TV. I can still remember when BET started and one of the first videos was Pattie Label and Michael McDonald. I can remember when the most famous black person alive was Sammy Davis Jr. and he was known for what? Tap dancing for Frank Sinatra! There was a brief time when I was in ninth grade I listen to some Nation of Islam speeches and read Malcolm X, watched Roots and thought I hated white people. While secretly I listened to the oldies station as I played Mario 3. That was mainly due to the shock of moving back from nearly all black Washington D.C., to little old white bread Mocksville N.C. That time however served as my education of black accomplishments. I wrote a 48 page Black History month paper that year. I thought I was a sleeper agent for the Black Panther Party. I was just a kid, and as I got older I thought I had worked through most of my race issues. I started to say that I don’t hate white people-I hate all people. I said it just the other day at work, though the reality of even that statement is false. If I truly hated everyone then I wouldn’t want to see this world progress. And whether you believe that Obama is just a puppet of the CFR or whatever there will be no mistaking his impact as a symbol for those of us of color. Even if is elected and begins to institute policies more damaging that George Bush he would have finally shown us that we can do anything. And before you point out that he is half black and half white, let me remind you that less than sixty years ago it was U.S. law that if you were 1/8^th black you were black! The history of race in this country is sad and ugly. But what do you expect from a nation founded on slavery and the thievery of land from an entire race of people. Genocide is in the blood of every white American. That’s exactly why the whole reverend Wright episode scared the shit out of people. He wasn’t being un-American or preaching hate. He was in fact simply telling the truth. And they feared that Obama would ascend to power knowing that. Let me tell you I have read both Obama books (one of which was named after a Rev. Wright speech), and Obama does know this. He would have known all those things without Jeremiah Wright. That’s what leads him to choosing that church in the first place. Much like myself and every other thinking black person in this country we have struggled with identity and race issues for our entire lives. The things that Reverend Wright said both in the sound bites and in the full speeches are real and felt by all of us. Obama played the petty game to get elected, but trust me you can pick up either of his books and find the truth. He grew up reading comics like me, and experimented with drugs, not as much as I but I feel his verdict. He moved own however unlike yours truly and decided to fight the system from within. And tomorrow we will find out if it worked. I have faith that it has but if not I hear the Oakland P.D. will be on the lookout for me. According to the Telegraph U.K., they have SWAT teams standing by in case McCain wins to quell any uprising. And I assure each and every one of you if you do not hear from me after Tuesday it is because McCain won and I went on the attack.

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Fuck-Tards are running our country

I’m sitting here at my desk playing spider Solitaire and listening to MSNBC in the back ground. As you know the Republican National Conference is going on and it’s an even bigger joke than anyone could fictionalize. These idiots keep spitting out the exact same lines over and over again no matter what the question. It’s starting to look like Dubbya is the smartest one in that party. These vie bastards who have done everything in the last eight years to destroy this country and disregard the constitution, alienate our allies and spread war and death across the globe. Have the nerve, after all their talk of family values, to defend their VP picks pregnant/unwed/seventeen year-old daughter. They have the unmitigated gall to present a woman who is a pot-smoking, elk hunting, former beauty queen/sports-caster and expect women to flock from the Democratic Party simply because she’s a woman. They are actually saying this on live national television. They are actually arguing that someone, who was the mayor of a town with less than 6,500 people and governor (for only 18 months) of a state with a population smaller than Houston, TX; is actually more experienced than a man who has served in public office for over ten years! I mean the balls on these assholes are huge. They find it perfectly acceptable to allow a child to raise a child but totally unacceptable to allow that child to decide what to do with their own body (i.e. abortion) they believe truthfully that the fact that this cunt will win them the White House simply because she has a cunt! Never mind the fact that she believes she doesn’t have a say so about what goes on inside it. Can you believe this! Can you even fucking believe this for one second! They are right now giving a standing ovation to George Herbert Walker Bush (George Sr.). As if he ever did anything good for this country. These of course are the same assholes who believe that Ronald Regan was the greatest thing to happen to this nation. Of course he was he was a senile old actor who allowed the top one percent to run away with this country as Old George the 1st sold everything that wasn’t nailed down to his old Saudi buddies. This is the most fucked up shit I have ever seen. I think this is even more fucked than the way they blatantly rigged the last two elections. Fuck if this shit goes there way I say it is truly time to take up arms. I don’t know if I could take another four years of these NRA, Pro-Life bastards. I have no idea if things will turn out okay but I hope that all of you will turn out in November and send these creationist fucktards back to their fake ass God.

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What A Diffrence A Day makes

Last night Barack Obama gave the speech of his life thus far. It was not the most dramatic or grandiose, but it was perhaps the most compelling pitch he has given thus far. It was the most compelling reason to vote for him he could offer to the few million naysayer’s and doubters. It was a speech so utterly amazing that it had renowned bigot and republican asshole Pat Buchanan chocked up and falling over himself to praise Obama. On the anniversary of Dr. Kings “I Have a Dream” speech Obama delivered a one- two punch to John McCain. I went to sleep last night amazed and astounded confident that I had just witnessed history. I woke up this morning as did the rest of you to the rug pulled completely from underneath the Obama campaign. McCain has chosen a woman as his VP. Trying not only to steal the thunder from Obama’s big night, McCain has picked someone who would also make history. They went after the weakest spot; the Hillary voters that Obama had spent all week trying to swoon. But will placing a conservative anti-abortion, anti- welfare, pro-Alaska-drilling, governor. Who-by the way-has only been governor for 18 months, and prior to that she was the mayor of a town with less than 10,000 residents. In her coming out speech this morning she immediately went for the Hillary voters. As if to say “Hey I’m a woman-vote for me now”. All the while the McCain camp has went after Obama’s experience record and said he was not ready. What now? This pick was clearly an attempt to steal the headlines and show that McCain’s ticket too will make history. So white people want feel so bad not voting for Obama. This gives the red carpet treatment to people who were supporting Hillary simply because of her gender. Surely anyone who was supporting her because of her issues they cannot support someone who claims to be as socially conservative as Sarah Palin. She is pro-gun, pro-life, and not ready for day one as they say. This is what McCain has said about Obama. This is insane. She won’t be able to stand up to Biden in a debate. But it will make this race even more interesting that it already was.

Strike Back!

Hillary is on the attack! Wait for it, she just may cry again. After the water-works trick worked so well in New Hampshire, she tried it again before Super Tuesday, and I suspect we'll see more tears before Texas and Ohio. She's holding up boxing gloves and accusing Barack of everything from stealing speech lines to copying her economic plan. Her campaign has contacted CNN and complained that she's being unfairly scrutinized while Obama is getting a free ride. These juvenile tactics aren't going to work. Does she really think we're that gullible, or is she simply that desperate? According to a February 12^th New York Times article, “She has to win both Ohio and Texas comfortably, or she’s out,” said one super-delegate who has endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to share a candid assessment. “The campaign is starting to come to terms with that.” Campaign advisers, also speaking privately in order to speak plainly, confirmed this view. So this is it, the final stretch. After losing eight straight contest in a row the great Clinton machine is showing signs of breaking down. The campaign is shaken and visibly so. Clinton's deputy campaign manager has stepped down, key super delegates have expressed interest in jumping over to the Obama side, and she can't get an endorsement out of Edwards. Yet we can't count out the Clinton's just yet. If anything they atre fighters and dirty fighters at that. Out of desperation, the Clinton campaign is lobbying the Democratic Party to reverse its prior decision and count the Florida and Michigan delegates in the final delegate count, despite their earlier disqualification. Before the primary season began the Democratic Party reached an agreement with its potential presidential candidates that they would not campaign in Florida or Michigan and that the delegates from those states would be meaningless. All the candidates agreed, which in effect, made the Florida and Michigan primaries a moot point, since none of their delegates could be used by any of the candidates vying for the nomination. The Clinton campaign was the main advocate for this “ban”, because at the time they felt that they were invincible and would have little competition from the other candidates. The cold hard truth is now Hillary is in danger of losing the nomination. Despite the fact that she went against her word by campaigning (and winning the non-races) in Florida and Michigan. The result of Super Tuesday (for the Clinton camp), was a loss of momentum over the last few weeks. Which has led to less money being raised, less positive talk in the news media, less volunteer sign-ups, and a lot less energy than Obama. She shook up her campaign by removing (or forcing the resignation of) her deputy campaign manager.

What Hillary fails to see is that this isn't just about Barack Obama, this is a movement for change. Obama's victories are both greater in number, and magnitude than Clinton's victories. The percentage in all contests as of now shows Obama performing much better on average. Obama's median percentage is 48.5% to Clinton's 32%. The disparity reflects Clinton's inability to perform well in smaller states, especially those holding caucuses. The average margin of victory in caucus states is even greater for Obama. There are hundreds of thousands of us who are tired of the same old bullshit! We're tired of the government revolving around the establishment elite. She wants to tout herself as experienced well what has she truly accomplished with all her years? How come things aren't better because of what ever it is she claims to have done? How has her experience helped shape the world so far? She failed at health care in the nineties even though she wasn't actually an elected official and should never have been involved in the process to begin with. As a Senator she has side with Bush on the War and on Tax cuts for the rich. She has signed her name on nearly ever bill that John McCain has. How will the two of them debate on the national scale? Obama's average vote share is not only high due to his strong performance in caucus states. He has also shown the ability to eat away at Clinton's lead in states that she was expected to dominate. For example, her margin of victory in her home state of New York and neighboring New Jersey was half that of Obama's margin in his own home state of Illinois. Perhaps as important as anything else in this non-election period, Hillary Clinton and her team have done a better job than anyone in modern political history at creating a narrative they want with the press corps. The media then writes and re-writes that story until it becomes (magically) conventional wisdom. With a campaign based in DC and a huge number of operatives who have twenty years of personal relationships with the national political press corps, it's no wonder that the national punditry has written of her brilliance in defusing the Iraq War issue and her inevitability in becoming the Democrats' nominee. No other candidate has that kind of lobbying power with the media -- they dine together, vacation together, work together -- and it has paid off. There will be a CNN debate on Thursday between Clinton and Obama, and my money is on some mud being slung-big time!

Why the focus shifts from Super delegates to eleged plagiarism, the Clinton camp can not escape the fact that Barack Obama’s campaign is on track to raise more than $30 million in February, while Hillary Clinton’s had to loan her own campaign $5 million. “Obama’s financial superiority is straining the Clinton campaign at this point. That’s reflected in how he spread the field on her in Super Tuesday. His ability to advertise in more states than she did, to put more resources on the ground than she did,” gave Obama an edge, said Anthony Corrado, an expert on campaign finance at Colby College. This is something that the super delegates will look at. Can you really hang your hat on a nominee who can't even raise enough money to compete in the primaries, when you have a candidate who people are more than willing to trow money at. It's because Barack Obama unites progressives, independents and Democrats, and discourages rather than unifies Republicans. He unites independents, the young, minorities, and progressives alike. And unlike Hillary, he will not unify the GOP, and indeed will take Republican votes. I have a friend who said that her mother whom has voted Republican for twenty-years voted for Barack Obama in the primaries here in Missouri. This is incredible, it has nothing to do with momentum this is a national surge for change and the people are saying that they are tired of politics as usual. In the polls Barack Obama can beat John McCain, Hillary can not.

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