I followed over time the comments and insinuations by so-called African-American leaders about Senator Obama. I personally found the disparaging ones to be without merit. None of these folk spoke for me. They may give the impression that their views are predominant in the black community, but I don't see how that can be at this point established by facts. It is however true that President Clinton and Senator Clinton have been receptive and accomodating to the African-american community, and I think it would not be good politcs were all the black leaders suddenly to abandon ship and forsake proven political allies in favor of someone simply because he is also black. Such an occurence would have invited the worst criticisms of African-americans and their leaders as bold-faced bigots and racists, and would certainly not have helped Obama, as you pointed out, though I think your reasons are a bit different from mine.
It must also be considered that our self-appointed leaders and spokespersons are not held in exceptionally high esteem by us, being aware of their flaws and frailties, but nevertheless giving them the ovation when they do well, and ignoring them when they bring shame. Their words have no force of authority upon our beliefs or values, and they cannot deliver our votes to anyone, but may try to forecast or even influence our general inclination as to who to support. What I am trying to say is that of the 50-60 million African-americans in this country, there are social strata that perhaps are not being considered when describing the group as a whole. The outlandish and/or unprincipled behavior of some, even many, African-americans or their leaders cannot be generalized to the whole without a grand error being committed. That is all I am saying.
I am practically seething with all of the black people, especially so called "intelligent", "educated", black people giving a million tired excuses of why they won't vote for Barack Obama and will vote for Hillary Clinton: 1. He's not ready/He's not experienced. Man please. Who is? Was Bush? But he got in anyway. You have the top 3 Democratic candidates with 1 Senate term under their belt. Hillary as the First Lady as experienced? Not one executive decision is made being as the first lady. That's like Stedman recommending a book, endorsing a candidate, or having his own show...SO WHAT. I'll take Obama over Bush everttime! 2. White America is not ready for a Black president. Whaaa? Was White America ready for slavery to end? Giving us the right to vote? Desegregation of our society? When did black people ever let white people dictate when and where we were getting our just due, our break? We've always stepped up and demanded what we wanted, or we're either hitting the streets and tearin' up some stuff, escapin', marching, or picketing. White America is ready for a Black President because Barack Obama is the right man for President, PERIOD. Besides, that never stopped anyone from voting for Jesse Jackson, a man with NO political experience AT ALL from almost snatching the Democratic nomination in 1984, and coming darn close again in 1988 20 YEARS AGO. 3. Barak is half black and half white, so he's not really black anyway. I should back smack anyone who has ever thought that. Ever heard of the one drop rule? It has not only been a social standard for WHO is black, but it also upheld the constitution in keeping us from suing a white person over personal property. No black person ever refers to another black person as "biracial". You black. You might have another heritage in your lineage, but this country as well as any other sees you as black, PERIOD. Lame excuse people. 4. I don't know what issues Barack stands for. When the heck has that ever prevented black folk from voting for a black candidate, really? I guess now, but the main people saying that couldn't tell you anything about Hillary's or John Edwards platform either. Please stop fronting. Read up on him, get the 411. Get informed - Don’t just listen to the news propaganda. Be an intellegent voter. 5. All he did was give that one speech. How many great people have defined their lives, the scope of human history, and changed the world in a speech? Moses, Jesus, Paul, Martin Luther, Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Ronald Reagan, Nelson Mandela, Jesse Jackson, and Jim Valvano all have changed the course of history of the world and the hearts of billions of men and women in societies since the beginning of time with a speech. That is the purpose of a rally. A person speaks, and it prepares all to act in relation to the spirit of what is spoken. That is why we go to church, not to just hear our pastor blather, but to refresh God in our hearts and spurn us to take up God's will in our lives. So save all that ying yang about that speech. 6. If all of those white people are supporting him, he must be in their back pocket. Save the conspiracy theory home skillet. He's liked because he comes at a time where a person that looks exactly like them lied to their face (two in a row, if you include Bill Clinton with Monica and of course Bush with Iraq), and flat out said what no politician would admit: We have two Americas, blue and red, black and white. It was not publicly said, and on top of that proposed that we ACTUALLY DO something about it, not find more ways to be divided and not come together despite our differences. Noble concept and one to be championed. That's JFK, FDR, and Abe Lincoln material. So they were feeling it, just like I was and you should too. His legislative work has been indicative of this as well, including his Fuel Standard work with President Bush. Check the resume, it shines. THE REAL REASON BLACK PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO VOTE FOR OBAMA IS THAT THEY ARE AFRAID THAT HE'LL WIN, AND:
1. WE’LL HAVE NO MORE EXCUSES LEFT. We won't be able to say, "America is racist", "I cannot get a break because I'm black", and all other random excuses many blacks make for not achieving anything in their lives. 2. IF SOCIETY IS LEFT UNCHANGED AFTER HIS PRESIDENCY WE'LL LOSE HOPE. If a black man becomes President, I honestly believe many black people feel that all of the world's problems should come to an end. No more crack selling, no more black on black crime, no more baby mama drama and dead beat daddies, no more people on welfare and on the chow line, no more winos, no more police brutality, no more DWB, no more predatory loans, no more ghettos, no more racism period, no more Middle East unrest, just everybody singing kumbahya. To some degree, I think a lot of white people, especially liberal, feel that way too, that's why they are all up on him like that. THAT'S RIDICULOUS. If it happened, he'd be one of the greatest people that ever lived, but that's way too much pressure to put on one man. DANG! I feel that people are really not ready for the world to get better anyway. It's like that father you never knew but won't make a relationship with because you don't want to be let down. It's unfair and let that go. Barak will make a great President, but he won't solve all of the world's problems, nor can he solve all of black peoples' problems either. 3. SO CALLED "EDUCATED" BLACK PEOPLE WON'T BE SO SPECIAL ANYMORE BECAUSE THE PLAYING FIELD WILL BE LEVELED. Absolutely hate more than anything else. The above 2 reasons were largely a poor disadvantaged black person's inner fear about Barack. Many of number 2 and all of this one is specifically tailored to you bourgeois folks that actually like being the only black person (or one of a very few) in your medical school, your law school, your master's program, your Ph.D. program, your high fallutin' Fortune 500 Company, your faculty at your prestigious institution. You feel deep inside being a talented 10th will become a talented population. As much as you detest and look down at your disadvantaged brothers and sisters, and claim they need to "get a job", "get an education", "pull themselves up from their own bootstraps", and "stop being so ignorant", you like them where they are. You are the one that has that shady feeling in your belly when a new black person is hired because you don't want them to screw it up for you. Yeah you...I'm talkin' about you. You know who you are. You think deep inside, Keishas, Darnells, Shequans are going to get theirs now that Barak is in office, and you won't be so special anymore. See you like racism. You probably are like Clarence Thomas, the man that benefitted from Affirmative Action but now you got yours, nobody else can get in too, so you vote against Affirmative Action. Yeah, claim you got your opportunity on merit. No, you got it on the backs of our ancestors that had to fight for you to get that job. Now you don't want a world where everyone has an equal opportunity. Well actually neither do poor blacks either, see 1. 4. IF HE MESSES IT UP, WE'RE ALL SCREWED. Back in the day blacks with degrees could do nothing but shine shoes outside the company. Now we're in them, making decisions, even CEOs like my man Stanley O'Neal, the first black American to take the helm of a major Wall Street firm. That brother completely mismanaged the company, like many others who mismanaged banks and because losing equity because of security back subprime loans. Now, those that are in the know are afraid that a black man cannot ever get that opportunity to be THE MAN at a major institution again.
Not only that, if Barack messes it up, there will be a backlash on all of black America. "You guys had your chance to run the free world, and you blew it". Sorry Charlie, Barak is one man. You can't use the logic for yourself as far as getting ahead, but lose it for this man. George Bush completely botched America's standing in the world, but I don't see anyone afraid to elect another white man. So come off of it. 5. BLACK WOMEN FEEL SORRY FOR HILLARY BEING CHEATED ON BY THE REAL FIRST “BLACK” PRESIDENT. This is so dumb, I cannot address with words, but it's the truth for a lot of black people, who felt Bill was the first Black President, and sistas especially would feel like they were vindicating a woman that was done wrong by anotha brotha. 6. BLACKS LIKE TO BE DIFFERENT FROM WHITES AND BARAK WILL BREAK DOWN BARRIERS WE LIKE HAVING UP. Keep it real people. You hate it when anything we do gets imitated. It is instantly uncool. Most blacks love that we have our own thing, our own culture. Having Barack win means for a lot of people America will have more of a shared consciousness. We'll actually have to come together and squash some beef to make this country cooperative. I don't completely believe this concept, but I'm down for it. Once again, Black people really do like racism. For all of you doubters out there this is what you really need to ask yourselves: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. That's all the brotha is trying to do. So vote for him, drop the excuses, and support the first viable Black Candidate. Our ancestors demand that we do so. Stand up, be proud and respect the fact that he’s here and on the road to making history for black people in America! After all, he and we got this far by faith, sacrifice, and determination for a better world with freedom for all God’s children!
Hail Biafra Posts: 1700 | From: Minnesota USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Accept tribunal’s verdict, Yar’Adua tells Buhari, Atiku By Our correspondent Published: Wednesday, 27 Feb 2008 President Umaru Yar‘Adua on Tuesday advised former Head of State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) and ex-Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to accept the affirmation of his victory by the Presidential Election Tribunal in good faith.
Yar’Adua, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, said Buhari and Abubakar needed to do so in the interest of the country.
The statement titled, ‘The Ruling of the Presidential Elections Tribunal,’ reads, “President Umaru Yar’Adua welcomes with humility and gratitude to God Almighty from whom all power and authority come, today‘s (Tuesday’s) affirmation by the Presidential Election Tribunal that he was duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the majority of votes lawfully cast in the presidential election of April 21, 2007.
“The President is gratified that the tribunal unanimously confirmed his often stated belief that the acknowledged imperfections notwithstanding, he was the clear winner of the presidential election which were conducted in substantial compliance with all relevant laws.
“President Yar‘Adua seizes this opportunity to, once again, thank all Nigerians who have remained steadfast in their support for his administration as it strives to fulfil its mandate for positive and significant changes in the living conditions of all citizens.
“The President urges his two valiant opponents in the elections who petitioned against its outcome to accept the verdict of the tribunal in good faith. His invitation for them to cooperate with him in moving Nigeria forward remains and he calls on them to accept it now in the greater interest of the country.
“He reaffirms his total commitment to serving Nigeria to the best of his abilities and running a purposeful and result-oriented administration that will yield tangible and visible benefits for all Nigerians.
“The President also reaffirms his commitment to working with all stakeholders to fully address the problems associated with past elections in the country and achieve a positive reformation of Nigeria‘s electoral system that will ensure that the problems do not recur in future.”
Adeniyi, who later spoke with journalists, was evasive on the Presidency’s position on the impending appeal by Buhari and AC.
“I will not respond to speculations. They have not appealed yet and if they appeal, it is their right, so there is no big deal about appealing,” he said.
Adeniyi added that Yar’Adua would leave for China on Tuesday night.
“The President is leaving for China for a four-day state visit. It had been long planned before this judgment.”
In his own reaction, Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, said the judgment was a clear victory for the Federal Government, the Peoples Democratic Party and Nigerians.
Jonathan said in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Mr. Ima Niboro, that the verdict further justified the faith Nigerians had in the Yar’Adua administration.
He said, “Today (Tuesday) is an important day in our history as a country and we thank Nigerians for keeping faith with the administration, we thank the Almighty God for this judgment, and we reiterate our resolve to ensure good governance and maintain the stability of the nation.”
The VP called on all political parties in the country to join hands with the administration to fashion out a path of mutual trust and unity of purpose.
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___________________ Feel me? Ofu onye ana asi unu abia go. - Ednut Igbo-American . www.airamericaradio.com visit her. Posts: 2454 | From: Mother Earth | Registered: Mar 2001
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The real Hillary Clinton stood up at the Democratic presidential debate this week: angry, sarcastic, stubborn, secretive, arrogant, mired in the past, victim of the media, and still firmly convinced that she is uniquely entitled to the Democratic Party nomination and the presidency. That Hillary hasn’t really been on display much since the debacle of her disastrous health care plan and the end of Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial, when she haughtily flaunted her combative personality. But make no mistake about it — that’s the Hillary Clinton that we’ll see if she somehow manages to steal the Democratic nomination. She’s found her voice. The one that so alienated everyone she came into contact with over her health care plan that her own party destroyed it. The one that publicly and loudly defended Bill and arranged for attacks on Monica Lewinsky when she knew the complete and sordid truth. She’s always had a chip on her shoulder and a strange paranoia, but it’s definitely gotten worse. Now it’s not just the vast right wing conspiracy that is out to get her. Now it’s the mainstream media. How are they doing that? By asking her the first questions at the debates! Related
Hillary’s snide comment about whether Barack needed a pillow to be made more comfortable was downright embarrassing. The anticipated applause line on her script never happened. The audience was silent. The press was amazed. And Barack seemed genuinely startled by her nuttiness — he looked over at her as if he was viewing a dotty old aunt at a family dinner, the one that everyone politely humors. Her lifelong pattern of secrecy was once again evident. While publicly promoting transparency in government, she steadfastly refuses to release her personal income tax returns. That’s a clear tip-off that there’s something to hide. Recall that the Clintons selectively released tax returns in Arkansas, but refused to go back to 1980, when Hillary had her windfall in cattle futures. During the debate, Hillary suggested that she’d release the returns “soon,” but her staff quickly backtracked. She implied that she’s been too busy to deal with releasing the returns. Does she really think anyone believes that it will take more than simply making a copy of the return? She’s stalling and there’s a reason for that. Most likely, the return will show how much Bill has been making from his partnership with the Sheik of Dubai and his other business ventures. Should the spouse of a presidential candidate be in business with a foreign leader who needs favors from the U.S. government? Definitely not. That’s why we’ll never see those returns. And then there are the Clinton Library records that document her schedule as first lady. She doesn’t want them released either because they will definitively show that she was never the co-president. The Library has been stalling on the release of those documents for years. During the debate, she said that she wanted them released as quickly as possible and seemed to blame the Bush administration for the delay. But today, the White House indicated that she had made no requests for any expedited release. The old Hillary, the real Hillary, is back. And there’s apparently been no one to stop her from acting on her own worse instincts. Underneath the veneer of the practiced smile and the strategically used giggle, there is a rage that is always close to the surface. It was on display in the debate. Hillary Clinton is furious that America has not agreed to her coronation. She doesn’t understand why voters are rejecting her and embracing Barack Obama. She just doesn’t get it. Never one to engage in self reflection, she can’t blame herself or even her incompetent strategists and advisers. They’re too close to her. She can’t accept the sorry fact that her campaign has been a disaster because it was based on the past and not the future, because it was premised on her phony experience and maintaining the status quo, and because her negative outlook is completely out of step with the mood of America. And finally, because in the positive message of Barack Obama, Americans see a stark contrast with her doom and gloom view of the world. So, she’ll blame the media. It’s their fault. And she’ll keep screaming about what a fighter she is. More like a bully.
Hail Biafra
Posts: 1700 | From: Minnesota USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Obama may be sinking gradually, he appears to be guilty by association and frankly, I am disappointed. I have never had any fancy for black militants in this Century blaming white man for their problem. And I ask, why should a gentleman like Obama have any relationship with Rev Jeremiah of Chicago? and how do you expect him to disown the man who christianed him? Kinda complex. This association with the Rev may put a stop on Obama's rock star image.
Hail Biafra
[ March 19, 2008, 02:38 PM: Message edited by: Waypoint1Biafra ]
Posts: 1700 | From: Minnesota USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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....Then again I'm impressed by his speech and the way he tackled the issue of color struck America. Once gain he has been tested. Read on....
updated 4:56 a.m. ET March 19, 2008 It was an extraordinary moment — the first black candidate with a good chance at becoming a presidential nominee, in a country in which racial distrust runs deep and often unspoken, embarking at a critical juncture in his campaign upon what may be the most significant public discussion of race in decades. In a speech whose frankness about race many historians said could be likened only to speeches by Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, Senator Barack Obama, speaking across the street from where the Constitution was written, traced the country’s race problem back to not simply the country’s "original sin of slavery" but the protections for it embedded in the Constitution. Yet the speech was also hopeful, patriotic, quintessentially American — delivered against a blue backdrop and a phalanx of stars and stripes. Obama invoked the fundamental values of equality of opportunity, fairness, social justice. He confronted race head-on, then reached beyond it to talk sympathetically about the experiences of the white working class and the plight of workers stripped of jobs and pensions. Story continues below ↓
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"As far as I know, he’s the first politician since the Civil War to recognize how deeply embedded slavery and race have been in our Constitution," said Paul Finkelman, a professor at Albany Law School who has written extensively about slavery, race and the Constitution. "That's a profoundly important thing to say. But what's important about the way he said it is he doesn't use this as a springboard for anger or for frustration. He doesn't say, 'O.K., slavery was bad, therefore people are owed something.' This is not a reparations speech. This is a speech about saying it's time for the nation to do better, to form a more perfect union." Broad coalition Obama's address came more than a year into a campaign conceived and conducted to appear to transcend the issue of race, to try to build a broad coalition of racial and ethnic groups favoring change. In the issues he has emphasized and the language he has used, as well as in the way he has presented himself, he has worked to elude pigeonholing as a black politician. He has been criticized as "not black enough" and "too black," he acknowledged Tuesday. In recent months, the issue of race has stirred up the smooth surface of his campaign and become a source of tension between him and his opponent, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the past week, videotaped snippets of the incendiary race rhetoric of Obama's longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., seemed on the verge of tainting Obama with the stereotype he had carefully avoided: angry black politician. He faced a choice: Having already denounced Wright's ferocious charges about white America, he could try to distance himself from the man who drew him to Christianity, married him and baptized his two children. Or he could try to explain what appeared to many to be the contradiction between Wright's world view and the one Obama had professed as his own. To some extent, he did both.
In a setting that bespoke the presidential, he began with the personal: He invoked his own biography as the son of a black Kenyan man and a white American woman, grandson of a World War II veteran and a bomber assembly line worker, husband of a black American who carries "the blood of slaves and slave owners." Seared into his genetic makeup, he said, is "the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts — that out of many, we are truly one."
Obama urges U.S. to grapple with racial issues. He condemned Wright’s remarks as divisive but at the same time embraced him as family, "as imperfect as he may be." He traced the roots of black church preaching deep into "the bitterness and bias" of the black experience. He offered a primer on the link between today's racial disparities and the system of legalized discrimination that prevented blacks from owning property, joining unions, becoming police officers and firefighters, and accumulating wealth to pass on to future generations. "For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away," Obama said. "Nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table." And occasionally, he said, "in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews." CONTINUED: Obama addresses 'white anger.
Obama addresses 'white anger' He acknowledged white anger, too — over things like affirmative action and forced school busing — but urged both sides to address the subject to find a way forward. "Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now," Obama said. He said the controversies over the past couple of weeks "reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through — a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American." Historians and others described the speech's candidness on race as almost without precedent. John Hope Franklin, a Duke University historian who led an advisory commission on race relations set up by President Bill Clinton, said Obama pointed out how easily the question of race can be distorted in this country, "which has three centuries of experience with it and yet we act like this is something new."
Hail Biafra
Posts: 1700 | From: Minnesota USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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"It will be nice to see two people who love this country go against one another" in the general election_____> PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON.... referring to his wife and John McCain as white petriots and Obama as a foreigner from Africa.
Hail Biafra
Posts: 1700 | From: Minnesota USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Is over for the Bitch, mathematically . She needed a big victory from the Caroliner Panthers and a jaw breaking victory from the Colts, instead she lost the former and won the later by only 2 points. Obama was an over drive. Hillary is in the race because of her reputation for road Kill, destroy the party and make it hard for Obama come November not because of her capability for the impossible. The next election is West Virginia, Puerto Rico, Oregon and Kentucky not much numbers to convince the Sup for her. Her last savior is AL Gore, and I particularly do not see him siding for the bitch since her husband indirectly caused him the Presidency via Monica Luwinski sex, lies and video tapes. Congratulation Obama, you now can go and attack the 78 year old one armed man, MCcain who has no clue about the economy, being a War hero and Patriot has long gone and will not put food in Middle class household.
Hail Biafra Posts: 1700 | From: Minnesota USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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. She needed a big victory from the Caroliner Panthers and a jaw breaking victory from the Colts, instead she lost the former and won the later by only 2 points. Obama was an over drive. Hillary is in the race because of her reputation for road Kill, destroy the party and make it hard for Obama come November not because of her capability for the impossible.
