Feeling the Hate In Jerusalem on Eve of Obama's Cairo Address

Bob Marley War Lyrics:

Bob Marley War Lyrics:

What life has taught me

I would like to share with

Those who want to learn...

Until the philosophy which hold one race

Superior and another inferior

Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned

Everywhere is war, me say war

That until there are no longer first class

And second class citizens of any nation

Until the colour of a man's skin

Is of no more significance than

the colour of his eyes

Me say war

That until the basic human rights are equally

Guaranteed to all, without regard to race

Dis a war

That until that day

The dream of lasting peace, world citizenship

Rule of international morality

Will remain in but a fleeting illusion

To be persued, but never attained

Now everywhere is war, war.....

Man detained and harassed at airport for carrying CASH!

Interesting Photo: Barak or Bush?

"Hail to the Chimp" video game? WTF?

UPDATE: To the ones who would minimize the offensiveness of this game, especially with ignorant comments, be gone. You probably weren't offended by the "gunned down chimp" news story either.

This game was released in June 2008, a few months before Obama was officially elected. Even if it were initially about Bush, it would STILL be offensive NOW. How can a country thrive without respecting its leadership?

The reality is that given the continued racism in this country and the FACT that blacks have been portrayed as "CHIMPS" and the FACT that we now do have a black president, this game IS offensive and should NOW be pulled from distribution.

Having my young BLACK son looking at the game and ask, "Why are they showing President Obama as a CHIMP is IMPORTANT to ME!!!!! If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it IS a duck.

As an avid game player who buys video games on a weekly basis, I have NEVER seen this game in Gamestop, BestBuy, or any other store that sells games until recently. Why would there NOW be a stack of the games at a local store NOW, especially given the nature of the race relations in this country.

WTF? I went into a BestBuy store (Willow Grove, PA) today and saw a XBox360 game titled, "Hail to the Chimp, The Presidential Party Game."

I actually thought it was a cruel, insensitive joke. I looked around to see if this was part of a hidden camera show....No camera crew was there....

When I got home, I discovered that it is an actual game being sold across the nation. If you don't believe me, check out this link to the game on the amazon.com website.

Everyone (as least those who are "educated") knows the history of blacks being portrayed and dehumanized as monkeys.

Now I am not one of those "hypersensitive" blacks who cry racism every chance I get....But damn, this is so obviously racially insensitive and/or downright intentional mockery of our black President Obama.

This is how the game is described:

Name: Crackers the Monkey
Home: Congo [Africa]
Bio: Crackers was the right-hand monkey to the King Lion before he was ousted from the throne. Rumor has it that Crackers' whole campaign is a ruse designed to restore his old boss to the throne, ensuring a cushy lifestyle for his favorite monkey.

Although this is the animal kingdom's first attempt at democracy it doesn't take these candidates long to figure out that the goal is to win at all costs. With that in mind players are free go at it alone or team up with competitors to gang up on the rest of the field. Each combination of characters creates a different special move that unless stopped, can decimate opponents, dashing presidential hopes and making an election year debate look like a tea party.

The GRR News Network
Taking political humor and satire to new levels, at least for a video game, Hail to the Chimp also features its own news coverage, the GRR News Network. Hosted by anchor Woodchuck Chumley, not only does GRR keep track of player standings in the election and broadcast candidates victory speeches direct from the podium, it also holds a wealth of additional game content regarding the candidates and their platforms. This mix of TV smears ads, talk show segments and commercials are in part available immediately on entry into the game and unlockable as the game progresses, providing relentless humor and hours worth of additional play time to a game destined to become a hit in every state whether red or blue.

Quick History Lesson

Excerpt from an article posted by the ScienceDaily website:

Discrimination Against Blacks Linked To Dehumanization, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Feb. 8, 2008) — Crude historical depictions of African Americans as ape-like may have disappeared from mainstream U.S. culture, but research presented in a new paper by psychologists at Stanford, Pennsylvania State University and the University of California-Berkeley reveals that many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes.
In addition, the findings show that society is more likely to condone violence against black criminal suspects as a result of its broader inability to accept African Americans as fully human, according to the researchers.

Click here for the full article.


Does anyone remember last year's new story about the OBVIOUSLY racist T-shirt in which Obama was depicted as a monkey?

Does the "Hail to the Chimp" video game offend anyone else? Please comment and share your thoughts.

Change Comes to the White House

First Visit to the White House

44th President

Yes, We Can! Yes, We Did!!!!

The most amazing thing about this election

The most amazing thing about this election is the broad base of Obama's support...

...teachers, factory workers, Blacks, Caucasians, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, women, young people, middle-aged, senior citizens, engineers, doctors, bankers, intellectuals, truck drivers, former statesmen, mail carriers, retail clerks, Northerners, wealthy, poor, middle class, Southerners, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Agnostics, Atheists, gay, straight, dentists, writers, college grads, high school dropouts,...

McCain supporters...

...kkk memebers, aryan brotherhood types, white supremacists, hate-mongers, racists, bigots, skinheads, die-hard Republicans, amerikan nazi party members, segregationists... T

Pro & Con John McCain - Barack Obama

Colin Powell endorses Obama

Black "Crabs in a Bucket" Mentality; Prominent Blacks Slam Obama's Acceptance Speech

Me for Presidents?

Pat Buchanan Loved Obama's Convention Speech

Big Brother 2008

Barack Obama's Speech on Father's Day (2008)

Police to Seal Off D.C. Neighborhoods

According to an article from the examiner.com, a controversial new program announced today created so-called "Neighborhood Safety Zones" which would serve to partially seal off certain parts of the city. D.C. Police would set-up checkpoints in targeted areas, demand to see ID and refuse admittance to people who don't live there, work there or have a “legitimate reason” to be there.

WTF? Do we live in a "Police State?"

• Well, considering the current state of crime in urban and poor communities, I actually agree with their plan.
• Would this violate some peoples "rights?" Yes, and I don't care. If a "checkpoint" kept ignorant criminals out of a neighborhood by determining that they have no "real reason" for being in that area, I would wholeheartedly support the plan.
• What reasonable middle class homeowners honestly want random people walking around their neighborhood? If I saw any unfamiliar faces walking around my neighborhood, I would feel cautious and concerned about why they were in my neighborhood.
• Urban middle class communities will become "ghost towns" if the people in these communities do not feel safe. No urban middle class = no strong school/real estate tax, both which result in poor, disadvantaged communities.
  

FULL SPEECH: Obama Declares Victory

The following remarks are the text as prepared for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on June 3, 2008, his first speech after declaring victory in the Democratic nomination contest over Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. The speech was delivered in St. Paul, Minnesota, site of the Republican National Convention in August 2008.

Tonight, after fifty-four hard-fought contests, our primary season has finally come to an end.
Sixteen months have passed since we first stood together on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Thousands of miles have been traveled. Millions of voices have been heard. And because of what you said, because you decided that change must come to Washington; because you believed that this year must be different than all the rest; because you chose to listen not to your doubts or your fears but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations, tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another a journey that will bring a new and better day to America. Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

I want to thank every American who stood with us over the course of this campaign through the good days and the bad; from the snows of Cedar Rapids to the sunshine of Sioux Falls. And tonight I also want to thank the men and woman who took this journey with me as fellow candidates for President.

At this defining moment for our nation, we should be proud that our party put forth one of the most talented, qualified field of individuals ever to run for this office. I have not just competed with them as rivals, I have learned from them as friends, as public servants, and as patriots who love America and are willing to work tirelessly to make this country better. They are leaders of this party, and leaders that America will turn to for years to come.
That is particularly true for the candidate who has traveled further on this journey than anyone else. Senator Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign not just because she's a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she's a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight.

We've certainly had our differences over the last sixteen months. But as someone who's shared a stage with her many times, I can tell you that what gets Hillary Clinton up in the morning even in the face of tough odds is exactly what sent her and Bill Clinton to sign up for their first campaign in Texas all those years ago; what sent her to work at the Children's Defense Fund and made her fight for health care as First Lady; what led her to the United States Senate and fueled her barrier-breaking campaign for the presidency an unyielding desire to improve the lives of ordinary Americans, no matter how difficult the fight may be. And you can rest assured that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory. When we transform our energy policy and lift our children out of poverty, it will be because she worked to help make it happen. Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton.

There are those who say that this primary has somehow left us weaker and more divided. Well I say that because of this primary, there are millions of Americans who have cast their ballot for the very first time. There are Independents and Republicans who understand that this election isn't just about the party in charge of Washington, it's about the need to change Washington. There are young people, and African-Americans, and Latinos, and women of all ages who have voted in numbers that have broken records and inspired a nation.

All of you chose to support a candidate you believe in deeply. But at the end of the day, we aren't the reason you came out and waited in lines that stretched block after block to make your voice heard. You didn't do that because of me or Senator Clinton or anyone else. You did it because you know in your hearts that at this moment a moment that will define a generation we cannot afford to keep doing what we've been doing. We owe our children a better future. We owe our country a better future. And for all those who dream of that future tonight, I say let us begin the work together. Let us unite in common effort to chart a new course for America.

In just a few short months, the Republican Party will arrive in St. Paul with a very different agenda. They will come here to nominate John McCain, a man who has served this country heroically. I honor that service, and I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine. My differences with him are not personal; they are with the policies he has proposed in this campaign.

Because while John McCain can legitimately tout moments of independence from his party in the past, such independence has not been the hallmark of his presidential campaign.
It's not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush ninety-five percent of the time, as he did in the Senate last year.

It's not change when he offers four more years of Bush economic policies that have failed to create well-paying jobs, or insure our workers, or help Americans afford the skyrocketing cost of college, policies that have lowered the real incomes of the average American family, widened the gap between Wall Street and Main Street, and left our children with a mountain of debt.

And it's not change when he promises to continue a policy in Iraq that asks everything of our brave men and women in uniform and nothing of Iraqi politicians  a policy where all we look for are reasons to stay in Iraq, while we spend billions of dollars a month on a war that isn't making the American people any safer.

So I'll say this there are many words to describe John McCain's attempt to pass off his embrace of George Bush's policies as bipartisan and new. But change is not one of them.
Change is a foreign policy that doesn't begin and end with a war that should've never been authorized and never been waged. I won't stand here and pretend that there are many good options left in Iraq, but what's not an option is leaving our troops in that country for the next hundred years especially at a time when our military is overstretched, our nation is isolated, and nearly every other threat to America is being ignored.

We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in - but start leaving we must. It's time for Iraqis to take responsibility for their future. It's time to rebuild our military and give our veterans the care they need and the benefits they deserve when they come home. It's time to refocus our efforts on al Qaeda's leadership and Afghanistan, and rally the world against the common threats of the 21st century terrorism and nuclear weapons; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease. That's what change is.

Change is realizing that meeting today's threats requires not just our firepower, but the power of our diplomacy tough, direct diplomacy where the President of the United States isn't afraid to let any petty dictator know where America stands and what we stand for. We must once again have the courage and conviction to lead the free world. That is the legacy of Roosevelt, and Truman, and Kennedy. That's what the American people want. That's what change is.

Change is building an economy that rewards not just wealth, but the work and workers who created it. It's understanding that the struggles facing working families can't be solved by spending billions of dollars on more tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs, but by giving a the middle-class a tax break, and investing in our crumbling infrastructure, and transforming how we use energy, and improving our schools, and renewing our commitment to science and innovation. It's understanding that fiscal responsibility and shared prosperity can go hand-in-hand, as they did when Bill Clinton was President.

John McCain has spent a lot of time talking about trips to Iraq in the last few weeks, but maybe if he spent some time taking trips to the cities and towns that have been hardest hit by this economy, cities in Michigan, and Ohio, and right here in Minnesota, he'd understand the kind of change that people are looking for.

Maybe if he went to Iowa and met the student who works the night shift after a full day of class and still can't pay the medical bills for a sister who's ill, he'd understand that she can't afford four more years of a health care plan that only takes care of the healthy and wealthy. She needs us to pass health care plan that guarantees insurance to every American who wants it and brings down premiums for every family who needs it. That's the change we need.
Maybe if he went to Pennsylvania and met the man who lost his job but can't even afford the gas to drive around and look for a new one, he'd understand that we can't afford four more years of our addiction to oil from dictators. That man needs us to pass an energy policy that works with automakers to raise fuel standards, and makes corporations pay for their pollution, and oil companies invest their record profits in a clean energy future, an energy policy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced. That's the change we need.

And maybe if he spent some time in the schools of South Carolina or St. Paul or where he spoke tonight in New Orleans, he'd understand that we can't afford to leave the money behind for No Child Left Behind; that we owe it to our children to invest in early childhood education; to recruit an army of new teachers and give them better pay and more support; to finally decide that in this global economy, the chance to get a college education should not be a privilege for the wealthy few, but the birthright of every American. That's the change we need in America. That's why I'm running for President.

The other side will come here in September and offer a very different set of policies and positions, and that is a debate I look forward to. It is a debate the American people deserve. But what you don't deserve is another election that's governed by fear, and innuendo, and division. What you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge, but enemies to demonize. Because we may call ourselves Democrats and Republicans, but we are Americans first. We are always Americans first.

Despite what the good Senator from Arizona said tonight, I have seen people of differing views and opinions find common cause many times during my two decades in public life, and I have brought many together myself. I've walked arm-in-arm with community leaders on the South Side of Chicago and watched tensions fade as black, white, and Latino fought together for good jobs and good schools. I've sat across the table from law enforcement and civil rights advocates to reform a criminal justice system that sent thirteen innocent people to death row. And I've worked with friends in the other party to provide more children with health insurance and more working families with a tax break; to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and ensure that the American people know where their tax dollars are being spent; and to reduce the influence of lobbyists who have all too often set the agenda in Washington.

In our country, I have found that this cooperation happens not because we agree on everything, but because behind all the labels and false divisions and categories that define us; beyond all the petty bickering and point-scoring in Washington, Americans are a decent, generous, compassionate people, united by common challenges and common hopes. And every so often, there are moments which call on that fundamental goodness to make this country great again.

So it was for that band of patriots who declared in a Philadelphia hall the formation of a more perfect union; and for all those who gave on the fields of Gettysburg and Antietam their last full measure of devotion to save that same union.

So it was for the Greatest Generation that conquered fear itself, and liberated a continent from tyranny, and made this country home to untold opportunity and prosperity.

So it was for the workers who stood out on the picket lines; the women who shattered glass ceilings; the children who braved a Selma bridge for freedom's cause.

So it has been for every generation that faced down the greatest challenges and the most improbable odds to leave their children a world that's better, and kinder, and more just.
And so it must be for us.

America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.

The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment this was the time when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

My immediate reactions to the night's events:

• Obama and Michelle are dynamic husband and wife duo. They walked out on the stage in Minnesota looking elegant, classy, and in total support of each other.

• Why didn't Clinton praise and support Obama as the democratic nominee? She lost the nomination. If she cared so much about the Democratic party as she said, why couldn't she have focused her speech on unity than about trying to PROLONG her failed campaign. Yes, she fought a GREAT fight, but it is over. There was no need to continue to focus on her accomplishments than on uniting the party. Why would she encourage her supporters to go to her website and tell her what her next steps should be? The FIRST step would be to recognize Obama as the official nominee...


• Overall, he did a good job with the speech. I loved its central theme of us being "Americans first" and of unity.

Racial Exhaustion

Abstract

Racial Exhaustion

Professor Darren Lenard Hutchinson

Washington University Law Review (vol. 86, 2008)

Contemporary political and legal discourse on questions of race unveils a tremendous perceptual gap among persons of color and whites. Opinion polls consistently demonstrate that persons of color commonly view race and racial discrimination as important factors shaping their opportunities for economic and social advancement. Whites, on the other hand, often discount race as a pertinent factor in contemporary United States society. Consequently, polling data show that whites typically reject racial explanations for acute disparities in important socio-economic indicators, such as education, criminal justice, employment, wealth, and health care. Echoing this public sentiment, social movement actors, politicians, and the Supreme Court have all taken a skeptical stance towards claims of racial injustice by persons of color and have resisted demands for tougher civil rights laws and race-based remedies. They have viewed these policies as: (1) unnecessary, given the eradication of racism and the prior implementation of formal equality measures; (2) excessive in terms of substance or duration; (3) futile because the law cannot alter racial inequality; (4) misguided because nonracial factors explain racial disparities; and (5) unfair to whites and a special benefit for persons of color. Adhering to these beliefs, a majority of the public has reached a point of racial exhaustion.

This Article argues that the public’s racial exhaustion did not recently emerge, and it is a product of a hard-fought and successful battle against racial subjugation. Instead, throughout history, opponents of racial justice measures have invoked this discourse to contest equality measures and to portray the United States as a post-racist society, even when efforts to combat racial hierarchy were in an embryonic state and persons of color lived in extremely vulnerable political, social and economic conditions. To elaborate this claim, this Article examines political resistance to civil rights legislation and remedies immediately following the Civil War and during Reconstruction, after World War II and through the Cold War era, and in contemporary political and legal discourse in order to demonstrate the persistence of racial exhaustion rhetoric. This Article then considers how social movement actors, civil rights lawyers and theorists, and scholars interested in the interaction of law and rhetoric could respond to the persistent portrayal of racial egalitarianism as redundant and unfair by dissecting the premise of these claims, placing them in an historical context, and, if necessary, by strategically modifying their arguments to focus on class and other structural barriers that correlate or intersect with racial inequality. Despite the presumptive constitutionality of class-based remedies, political opposition to social welfare policies and the depiction of these programs as handouts to undeserving individuals - including persons of color - might limit the efficacy of economic approaches to racial inequality. Moreover, the intersection of race and poverty suggests that class-based remedies alone might not adequately address racially identifiable material inequity.

Click here to download the entire 77 page manuscript.