THAT'S THE WAY TO DEFEND YOUR WIFE

I wondered how many potshots Senator Barack Obama was going to allow the opposition to take at his beautiful wife, Michelle, before firing back.

Apparantly, the brotha has more "brotha" in him than we gave him credit for:

Most notably is this line:

"The GOP, should I be the nominee, can say whatever they want to say about me, my track record," Obama said. "If they think that they're going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful because that I find unacceptable, the notion that you start attacking my wife or my family."

He called the strategy "low class."

And it is LOW CLASS. When you can't attack a candidate on the issues (and the GOP knows on the issues, 80% of the country is pissed at them)only the GOP would engage in an attack not on the issues, but the candidate's wife or family.

The only other person who has already gone there is Hillary Clinton, and y'all know how I feel about her. If you look up the phrase, "LOW CLASS" I swear there's a picture of Hillary Clinton next to the definition.

WHEN ASPIRING TO THE WHITE HOUSE...

...your candidacy facilitates you doing a whole lot of things you probably wouldn't otherwise do in order to win, by any means necessary.

That would also include slinging your Pastor under the bus.


Senator Barack Obama had to know his Christian faith, as well as the leadership he sat under while learning that Christian faith, was going to be the center of controversy at some point. I fault him for hoping the issue would go away before he was backed into a corner and forced to give a graceful speech on race before being backed again into a corner and forced to sling the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright under the bus.

The minute Sean Hannity decided to whine like a lil' byotch, Obama should have put him and his ilk on full blast and invited them to drink their cans of STHU.

Instead, he played nice. Again. And look where it got him.

I caught the good Dr.'s press conference, and I couldn't tell you if some of the things he said, he should have kept silent about, because the man was basically dropping knowledge on America and as usual, if you're not giving America her props, she tends to whine about it when the truth is less than praiseworthy.

Jeremiah Wright has seen and done things that Barack Obama will never even aspire to, and that has shaped, even developed, his Christian faith and philosophy. You are not going to tell me that Obama was absent from Trinity when some of these sermons were being preached by Dr. Wright; if he says so, he's lying. Even if Obama actually wins the Presidency - the bigger thing is, Jeremiah Wright decided long ago that his SOUL was NOT FOR SALE, while Barack Obama decided his soul could go to the highest bidder if it gets him the White House.

Does he not know that once he swears that oath of office, he will be far from being his own man, and will have to reward the labors of them that got him there - Corporate America, and not the grass-roots, as he has many of you believing? Because that is going to be the case. He will need a second term to become his own man - and he might be a one-term President because y'all know his margin for error is going to be more narrow than even Jimmy Carter's was.

He may get the White House. He may actually be the first African-American President in history.

But, what is the profit of history if you gain it, only to lose your SOUL?

I WILL STILL BLAME HILLARY

It does not matter if she weakens Obama to the point he can't win the General Election.

It will not matter if she gets the nomination and destroys what's left of the Democratic Party.

It does not matter that the ReThugs are salivating at the thought of another one of their own getting the White House while the Democrats eat their own.

It does not matter that the more Dr. Jeremiah Wright defends himself, the farther Fake News and Crew will sling him under the bus as they tie him to Obama.

It does not matter that Hillary succeeded in racial polarization to get what she wants, by any means necessary; no matter what the cost; no matter the damned sense of entitlement.

I will still hold her responsible for the destruction of the Democratic Party, the alienation of the usually loyal African-American base, and most of all, I will hold her personally responsible if the ReThugs get the White House for another four years when she had the opportunity to be a real human being and think about what was best for this country. Her leadership (or lack thereof) is not what's best for America, no matter how you slice it. Just like Tonya Harding was not considered good for the sport of Professional Figure Skating - her attack on Nancy Kerrigan forced the Skating Authority to give her a lifetime ban from the sport of competitive figure skating.

Just like Hillary's destruction of a fellow Democrat should force her being banned from the party for not being a Democrat, but acting and reverting to the closet ReThug I've always suspected her of being.

Make no mistake - Obama could have helped his own cause and in some instances, he decided to keep shooting himself in the foot and reload to keep shooting. I mean, if there is no earthly reason for him to lift his "ban" on Fake News, why would he cave in at this point? So he can collect more war wounds? So he can convince whites who weren't going to vote for him anyway, to change their minds?

Arrrgh - I can't take it anymore. Someone give up, please. But it won't be Hillary; Hillpatine, the Borg Queen, and any other name you would call a destructive individual like her.

But in the end, whatever goes down in Denver this summer and in the General in the Fall, I'm blaming Hillary Rodham Clinton for her scorched earth tactics and a selfishness that will single handedly destroy what's left of the United States of America.

If Obama wins or loses in the Fall, put the blame on his wounds where they need to be; some on him - most on Hillary. Obama will have more than enough blame to collect on what he should and should not have done. But, would he really have gone as far as Hillary has? Despite my take on his platform, I think the answer would be "NO". The brotha would consider what's best for the Party.

Unlike Hillpatine.

We can't blame the ReThugs if we are calling John McCain "Mr. President" next January. But we can blame Hillary for it, should it come to pass.

I will still blame Hillary for the whole shebangabang and I won't lose any sleep over it, either. Book it.

GOOD LAWD, I HAVE TO HEAR THAT "CACKLE"

...at least another day in this farce of a Democratic Primary campaign. Ugh.

The Borg Queen won't go away. She's like "Bebe's Kids". They don't die; they MULTIPLY.

God help us ALL if that happens.

So, she won the Pennsylvania primary, and I understand she got more than 50% of the vote from uneducated white people. It's not like she wasn't expected to win; in fact, it is one of the few primaries (maybe the only one) that Obama even expected he'd lose, but folks, he didn't lose by much; he still leads in delegates and the primary vote, and he might take Oregon and North Carolina, despite Rush Limbaugh's machinations.

The fact that the Borg Queen won with over half the electorate being uneducated white voters says a lot...not about her as a candidate, but about Pennsylvania as a state. It is uneducated voters like those in Pennsylvania, that sent George Bush back to office a second time, so he could continue to FUBAR the government and leave the mess for the next President.

They wanted a guy they could raise Coronas with - not someone with the intelligence to actually lead and entertain diversity of ideas and opinions.

I hope they like living below the poverty line and seeing their jobs leaving the country like Jefferson Airplane does. I never understood why poor whites would rather vote against their own interests in the name of keeping Black people out of leadership positions. I never understood why poor whites would continue to remain poor whites, when they have opportunities to improve their lots in life. They certainly have more opportunities than people of ethnicity, but in the idea of thinking themselves "superior" to ethnic people, they vote consistently to screw themselves over, content in the knowledge of holding down ethnic people, while feeling "superior" as the bank forecloses on their homes, their refrigerators go empty, their children go hungry and without healthcare to see a doctor when they need to.

The Borg Queen should be thanked for going "Tonya Harding" on poor whites, because if they would rather be screwed over than putting an effective leader in the White House, they get what they paid for, and I don't want to hear no pissing and moaning when they wake up and find out they're still being screwed.

As for African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, and educated, progressive Whites, I suggest we take our votes and go to another party, since the Democrats continue to diss US by allowing the Borg Queen to remain in the Democratic Party and destroy it to hell, because they're too cowardly to come out and say they don't want a brotha getting the nomination; yet, they would rather allow the Borg Queen to fling poo like monkeys do at the National Zoo. This party won't be worth staying in; especially if they find a way to cut a deal and make her the nominee, over the objection of those who have worked their asses off to get Obama elected.

A word for Obamaites - he is not the SAVIOR and stop treating him as such. Allow people who are truly skeptical of his position and platform to give voice to those skepticisms without going "Tavis Smiley" on them. And yeah, I certainly understand the hateration on Tavis - look, if my colleagues at Black Agenda Report are defending Tavis, that shows how much Obama-aid his supporters are drinking these days, and how far off the logic organization you have gone.

Yes, I've done my share of calling CBC members "Handkerchief Heads" "Mammy" and "Uncle Ruckus" because Bill and Hillary Clinton are throwing the race cards in their faces, and their hateration of Obama is such that they would rather throw in their lot with entities known for slinging misbehaving Blacks under the bus when they get in their way. Not because I'm an Obama fan - slinging Jeremiah Wright under the bus to shut up nuts like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, is still frosting my cookies to the point I might leave the POTUS slot blank in the General election, and especially if the Borg Queen steals the nomination.

And, after all that, we get a "I got my office in Harlem, how can I be a bigot" comment from Bubba; like we're supposed to shut up about how he's played the race card; hell, he made the campaign about race, ever since South Carolina, and Gentleman Jim Clyburn was doing his best to tell him to shut the hell up about race.

Now, this campaign is ALL ABOUT RACE. Thank you Bill and Hillary. Don't think having Bob Johnson tote your water gets you entre back into the Black Community - most of us are thinking about how to go into Northeast DC and burn down the BET station without getting caught and doing the Black Community some effective community service by pulling that nonsense of a television station off the air.

In the meantime, Good Lawd, can I be spared listening to that "CACKLE" for a while? How can that be shut the hell up?

THE CLINTONS GO "GANGSTA"

Starring Hillary Clinton as Tonya Harding.

You can't make this stuff up.

Okay, so I have fatigue from both Obama and Clinton - and the obvious one (cough, Hillary, cough) is beyond clueless at this point to stand down and save the Democratic Party.

I've no great love for Obama, either. He's good at speechifying - but I want to hear some solid political platform positions come out his mouth instead of another platitude (although he ripped it with the speech on race). I'm not drunk off Obama-aid, and I'm not likely to be any time soon. But when you start hearing talk coming out of the Clinton camp that at this point, in order to get the nomination for the Borg Queen, they may have to resort to "knee-capping" Obama - man, the adrenalin kicks in.

"Knee-capping" Obama? Have we ran into a lost episode of "The Sopranos" now?

The Clintons better ask Tonya Harding how did kneecapping Nancy Kerrigan 15 years ago work out for her (I recall lifetime ban from the sport of competitive figure-skating and somebody went to jail).

They just had their big donors threaten House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - telling her she'd best back off that talk about allowing us voters to have their say, and not those Pesky superdelegates (sorry, Pesky, no pun intended).

Honestly, after all the race-baiting (thanks Gerry Ferraro), the 3am Phone calls (like she would be up at 3AM to take any kind of calls, except looking for Bill in the street), Mark Penn (Jabba's 1st cousin), Handkerchief Head Mammy Maggie Williams (aka Chief Crab in Barrel), and getting caught in a prize whopper that even Captain Ahab couldn't have envisioned with that Bosnia trip ("Hey, it's too dangerous for me to go over there, so I think I'll send my wife and daughter - oh, and take a comedian and a guitar player with you..."), it has come down to this:

Going GANGSTA.

And they're not even doing that well, either. They could use some lessons from chief original gangstas, like, say, Al Capone, or, for the kids, Suge Knight.

Rule of thumb - GANGSTAS do not put what they're planning to do in WRITING. Nor do they allow themselves to be caught in a lie by having their actions recorded on video.

That's more like Keystone Kops BS, right there.

I kept wondering after Texas, which Hillary Clinton persona would show up for the remainder of the primary season, and I have my answer.

Kitchen-sink/Scorched Earth Hillary</span>. She's lied, cried, hissed, booed, cussed, fussed, mussed, missed and dissed a fellow U. S. Senator, a fellow Democrat, by saying the ReThug opponent was more qualified to be POTUS, and has now threatened to destroy the entire Democratic Party if she can't get the nomination for the White House by blackmailing the DCCC over superdelegates.

I don't know about you, but I don't want this woman's hands on the chicken switch with all these mood swings and looking like someone who desperately needs an "INTERVENTION" (calling Candy Finnegan). And, she's making it bad for women political candidates, because you know, when the dust clears, someone's going to throw it back in our faces how women aren't ready to run anything of great significance, and they will point to every machination, every manipulation, every lie, every Swiftboating smear, every attempt to physically, mentally, emotionally and morally tear down a fellow member of the same political party for personal gain, bootstrapping, fun and profit, done by Missy Hillary. Dismissing voters, threatening donors, and calling supporters "Judas" because they got tired of how fast and how willing you were to sling people under the bus because they no longer benefitted you - we must ask ourselves: DO WE WANT THIS TYPE OF PERSON IN THE WHITE HOUSE?

We've already had that for the last eight years and look where that's gotten us. We can't afford another "gangsta" in the White House. We just can't.

EVEN AS A "NON-THREATENING NEGRO"...

If you're Hillary Clinton (aka "The Borg Queen"), no matter how "non-threatening" you are as an African-American (Negro for ol' school), you're still considered a "Threat".

Senator Barack Obama, as stated by my colleague, Big Man at Raving Black Lunatic, played by every rule flung at him and some that fall into the "making ish up category"; yet, thanks to the Borg Queen, he has been made Blacker than Willie Horton.

You remember Willie Horton, don't you? Eh, some of you may be too young to remember when the elder Bush was running for POTUS, his opponent was a short Massachusetts governor named Michael Dukakis. Since Poppy wanted to portray Dukakis as soft on crime, during a debate, he brought up a brotha named Willie Horton, who was imprisoned for rape, got paroled, only to commit the crime again. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts had released Mr. Horton back into society, and he commits another rape while on parole.

Dukakis was asked by Poppy Bush to explain what he would do with Willie Horton if Horton had attacked his wife, Kitty.

As Dukakis tried in vain to respond, the collective groan of the Democratic Party could be heard from coast-to-coast. Twenty years later, I can still hear that groan, because we knew it was over and another ReThug was going to get the White House for at least another four years.

At the time, we had a "Rumsfeld" moment within the Democratic Party. We couldn't go with the candidate we wanted (Colorado Senator Gary Hart, cause he got busted cheating on Mrs. Hart) or Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy (the squeals about Mary Jo Kopechne and Chappaquidick are still being sung almost 40 years later), so the party was forced to go with who was left: Mike Dukakis.

Poppy Bush won in a landslide because he trotted out the "Threatening" Negro as Boogey Man extraordinaire. This, after the Democratic Party squeezed out Jesse Jackson with the "it's not your turn, yet, Negro" speech (and remember, Jesse picked up at least a million votes nationally both in 1984 and 1988)

Fast forward to 2008, and it appears we have an African-American bound and determined not to repeat what was considered the mistakes of Jesse, or Al Sharpton, or even Mike Dukakis. He was fresh and clean, articulate, too. Harvard-educated (affirmative action can get you in, but your merit and intelligence to do the work keeps you there), civil rights attorney; constitutional law professor. Married to a beautiful, career-oriented, got-her-own-thang-goin-on bonified SISTA. Total family man with two equally beautiful little girls. Throw biracial in the mix, and you have the perfect, appearing, non-threatening Negro in Senator Barack Obama.

He made White, Asian and Latinos comfortable with him. He could relate to them and they to him. We African-Americans were naturally suspicious - because every Black person other races embrace, we get suspicious because our history has been that one of those Negroes are usually sent into our communities on reconaisance missions to infiltrate and destroy the community from within and sell us off as chattel to their assigned masters.

If Hillary Clinton sticks to the issues, that would have been enough to continue facilitating our suspicions about Obama. But the moment she and the Big Dog (Bill Clinton) started playing the race card with Obama (this after she lost nine straight contests at the time), all hell broke loose and all bets were off the tables.

First shot across the bow: the husband of New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen, implies Obama may have been a drug dealer in his youth.

Like Shaheen wasn't sitting on some college campus during the 1970's tooting on some blow or passing a joint in college. Cause that's what most kids did (I went to a liberal arts Catholic college in Northern Cal and those kids majored in keg parties, so I know of what I speak).

After we raised a fuss, the Borg Queen gets rid of Mr. Shaheen. But the words have been flung and the damage done; but pretty minor at this point.

Second, Andrew Cuomo, the son of former New York Gov, Mario, describes Obama as a speaker full of "shuck and jive".

OOOOkayyyy, but what does Mr. Cuomo know about "shucking and jiving"? Don't tell me he's hanging out with Champagne Charlie Rangel down on 125th and Lennox Avenue, learning street slang from the brothas. After more firestorm, Cuomo protests his comments were "taken out of context".

To me, "taken out of context" is code speak of "I didn't know I'd get caught sticking my foot in my mouth for saying what I really mean."

Third, after South Carolina, the Big Dog disses Obama's win, and comes pretty close to calling him "boy" when he called him "kid". Cue the torches from Black folk at this point because we are shocked that the "first Black POTUS" would diss his peeps that way.

I think we revoked Bill Clinton's honorary Black card after that - many of us say we never gave it to him and that Toni Morrison should have checked with us before passing it out to him just because he blew sax on Arsenio's show, and eats fried chicken, collard greens and Big Mama's peach cobbler.

Fouth, someone from the Clinton camp (Campaign Manager and the Biggest Potential Crab in the Barrel, Maggie Williams, perhaps) starts circulating a picture of Obama in native land dress and whispers he's Muslim.

Ah, I think Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) is in a better position to identify who's a Muslim, isn't he?

There were other incidents which are being tracked by my friends over at Jack and Jill Politics, and the list keeps growing and growing.

Then she gets a platform to make nice to us at Tavis Smiley's Negro Super Bowl, better known as the "State of the Black Union" - where she proceeds to give us a "My Husband did a lot for you ungrateful Negroes" speech.

Yeah, Hillary, we need to thank Bill for "Mend It, Don't End It" attacks on Affirmative Action, the three strikes rule on law enforcement where if you have a $10 crack rock you get 25 to life in the joint, while someone with $1 million dollars of blow can walk away with the slap on the wrist. We'd also like to thank him for the growth of the prison industry complex, and I'm sure the gays and lesbians want to thank him for putting that bulls' eye on their backs when he had the chance to fully integrate the armed forces by implementing a non-discriminatory policy to include protection of gays - but he exchanged it with that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" BS and thought they wouldn't notice. We'd also like to thank him for deregulation in the media that guarantees monopolization of the airwaves and non coverage of real news because we have to suffer Fake News and Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly.

But the biggest play of the race card yet, has come from another Clinton surrogate, former Rep. and VP candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, with her "Obama is lucky to be a Black Man in America" comments, for which she has only apologized because Hillary has slung her under the bus. And if that wasn't enough, some enterprising individuals in the internet world, dug up similar comments she made about Jesse Jackson 20 years earlier.

The Borg Queen responded by saying Ferraro's comments were "regrettable"; but when Obama's foreign policy advisor, Samantha Power, called the Borg Queen a "monster", she was fired from the Obama camp before sunrise the next day after Hillary whined.

We have been treated to crying, throwing fits, and now, racial politics that threaten to destroy what's left of the Democratic Party. I say "what's left" because Hillary Clinton just tore the covers off that sucka and exposed the Democratic Party in all of its' glorious bigotry and exclusion that we Black people suspected was there, but didn't want to believe it was true.

The evidence has been presented and we must render a verdict. We can no longer be silent on the things that matter like our vote, or where we are included in the Democratic party platform. For Hillary Clinton to resort to race-baiting, scorched earth, kitchen-sink tactics, with a "win at all costs" mentality, she doesn't seem to care that in slinging Black people under a bus for her personal agenda, she sends the Democratic Party back to where it was preferable for Black people to be Republicans.

She doesn't seem to realize that if she eviscerates Obama, she still needs to come back to the Black community and beg for our votes. What happens if 99% of 36 million people (and that's the estimated Black population, y'all) decides that we won't vote for her, and we can't vote for John McCain, we'll decide that we'll just sit the 2008 elections out?

I'm not prepared to sit out 2008, but I am past ready to send a loud message.

Senator Clinton, you're not ready to be POTUS. You don't DESERVE to be POTUS simply because you put up with Bill's cheating behind for 35 years, cause from what I can see, that's where your experience lies. If you were sitting up taking phone calls at 3am in the White House, maybe it's because Bill was in the street and you didn't know which ho's bed he was coming from.

I've already said your voting record and Obama's are almost mirror images; however, he's not on record as authorizing money for a war that we were lied into. Former Senator John Edwards, as well as current Senator John Kerry, have apologized for their vote, but when you get asked, you raise a lot of hell and change the subject.

This campaign has demonstrated that you are highly emotional, and use a blowtorch to light a cigarette, when a match will do the job. You would rather destroy it for others, if you can't have it yourself. A good number of women in DC are really pissed at you right now, because they wanted you to be a strong woman in challenging Barack Obama. They are upset that you decided to channel Karl Rove, and think that when the dust clears and you have the nomination in your pocket through back room deals that thwart the will of the voters, you can make a nice speech to the African-Americas you've ridiculed and insulted, and we'll fall back onto the plantation, line up and happily vote for you.

I've got news for you; we Negroes have woke up. Like the Japanese said when they bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, "you have awakened a sleeping GIANT".

That's what you've done. Even Blacks like me, who are still suspicious of what Obama's bringing to the table, are willing to send you the message, if you didn't get it from the smackdown Keith Olbermann put on you on "Countdown" Thursday night. And he was worked up about it, too, because you could hear it in his voice; that he didn't want to have to be the one to administer that can of whip-ass on you. Olbermann's sense of decency demanded he call you out. The problem is: WERE YOU LISTENING?

That's how stank your campaign has become. That's how stank you have become. You even broke a cardinal rule in the Democratic Party: THOU SHALT NOT TRASH A MEMBER OF YOUR OWN PARTY. You did that when you said McCain was more qualified than Obama to be President. If you think that sets you up for 2012 if you don't get the nod this year. I've beachfront property in Arizona to sell you. We don't forget, and we won't be fooled again.

Obama was a non-threatening Negro who managed somehow, some way, to be a threat to your ambition and your agenda. After all, why did you stay with Bill unless it was part of your agenda to get the White House in exchange for being humiliated as a wife?

You don't get the White House cause you got cheated on. You're not ENTITLED to it because you suffered Bill's inability to keep it in his pants. And now, you'd rather destroy an otherwise decent human being politically, personally, morally, spiritually and career-wise, to get your way. We've had eight years of that under the current POTUS; we don't need another four years of that coming from you, nor do we need another four years of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" from John McCain.

If you go away quietly and with grace and dignity, you create an opportunity to rehab yourself back into the liberal we thought you were. If not, just quit the party, turn Republican and take Harold Ford and Joe Lieberman with you, because the Party can't afford you anymore.

MARYLAND HAS A NEW CONGRESSWOMAN

HOW DO YOU SPELL "UMEMPLOYED"
A-L-B-E-R-T W-Y-N-N


Congratulations to Donna Edwards in MD-04. Fat Albert Wynn will now be unemployed as of January 20, 2009, when Ms. Edwards takes her seat as the Freshman Congresswoman from Prince Georges and Montgomery Counties. Makes a Political Junkie like me very proud to have had a hand in Mr. Wynn's exit from Capitol Hill.

Second, there is no reason why Hillary Clinton should be demanding that MSNBC's David Shuster and Keith Olbermann apologize for the "pimping" comment he made about Chelsea Clinton, when no one called out Andrew Cuomo on his "shuck and jive" comment regarding Barack Obama. Obama, who has swept the Chesapeake Primary and has the Borg Queen reeling this icy morning.

And, the Rude Pundit agrees with me. Particularly with this comment:

That means that she leapt at Shuster's remark as a way of keeping sympathy for her and her family in the news, a distraction from Obama's primary/caucus sweep this weekend. She used this Chelsea situation as a way to kick start some desperately needed fundraising.

And that, motherfuckers, is pretty much the definition of pimping.

'Nuff said.

DEAR SENATOR OBAMA...

Everytime I'm convinced I should get on your bandwagon, you say or do shyt like this that forces me to think twice as to whether or not you're up for the job of POTUS.

When you praise the neocons who laid the groundwork for the economic situation that continues to screw over the poor to give to the rich; when you praise those who tell people of color, by their words, actions and deeds, that we are worth a damn; and especially when you continue to play nice with pit vipers and rattlesnakes in the hope they won't revert to their true natures and play nice, you keep convincing me that you're not up for the job.

Nevermind that House Negroes are beating you up - you don't help yourself when you give them ammunition like you did in that YouTube video.

How long do I have to see you shoot yourself in the foot, reload and continue shooting? Even Dead-Eye Dick Cheney hit his target - intentional or unintentional, we might never know.

I've already written about how you seemed to be a triangulating twit, inexperienced, and how your campaign seemed to be ran by the Keystone Kops. But somehow, you managed to right the ship and get it done in Iowa, followed by a strong finish in New Hampshire.

Then the Borg Queen decided to fire an arsenal of race clips, carefully concealed in code-words. Her trouble? She didn't count on "Gentleman" Jim Clyburn to call her and the Big Dog on the carpet for it. When you piss off the third ranking member of Congress who could practically deliver African-American Southern voting blocks to you on a gold platter, you know you've crossed the line.

Senator, you took the high road, and by doing so, you pushed the Borg Queen into a ditch, tore the covers off, and exposed her for the tool that she is. The white voters she counted on to cower in fear told her to her face that engaging in race-baiting was turning them off and driving them to consider you or John Edwards.

In other words, the shyt blew up in her face. She had to reverse course. And if she cries again, on cue, that might make everyone outside of New Hampshire suspicious enough to pass on her again. Eventually, you're gonna have to talk about race relations in this country, and what you might want to do to improve them if you got POTUS; but that's a battle you will be better equipped to handle if you can corral your impulse to self-implode.

But, that YouTube clip is not encouraging. In fact, I feel like a woman who had a man continue to promise he'd change, and then, once you're back in the fold, you revert to the same behavior that made me quit you in the first place.

Unlike Jack Twist in "Brokeback Mountain" I DO know how to quit you. In fact, it will be real simple. What was difficult for me was giving you consideration over the Borg Queen because she never had my consideration - given that she believes the POTUS should be hers by entitlement.

Let's be real; how serious are you about wanting the office of POTUS? I think you're deadly serious. So, stop with the self-annihilation, okay? Regardless of my supporting you or not, it is very painful to see you keep injuring yourself like this. Anyone else would have had the keys taken from them a long time ago...

IT'S HARD OUT HERE FOR A PIMP(ESS)

LAWN JOCKEY ALERT! Sorry, Bob, to the Lawn you go...

Especially if you're Hillary Clinton. She's done everything to make this campaign about race.

Not the issues - cause she and Barack Obama are twins in the Senate. At least Obama can say he was anti-war; the Borg Queen has the Iraq War vote on her record and refuses to apologize for it.

Then, she trots out her husband to tell us "Uppity Negroes" to get in line and vote for his wife, because, to hear him put it, Barack Obama is nothing more than a "kid" whose campaign is a "fairy tale". She's even got Bob "Sell-Out" Johnson to crack that whip on us uppity Negroes, and round us up back to the plantation.

Excuse me, but since I was born during "Camelot", I kinda like that shyt, and wouldn't mind seeing it revisited, even in the guise of Barack Obama.

Why? Because his campaign is about hope. And if you give up Hope, you have given up, period.

No, the Christian Progressive Liberal hasn't hopped on the Obama train just yet. He needs to quit talking noise about bombing Pakistan, and keeping troops in Iraq until 2013. He also needs to come clean on where he's getting his cheddar for this race. Grass roots can do plenty, but he's beyond grass roots (I'm smelling DLC largesse here).

However, having the Big Dog to imply that I need to get in my place and vote for his wife is giving me gas. His wife can't win on the issues; so they dig up race. Need we be reminded that when all is said and done, while Hillary may have the nomination at a very high and bitter cost, unlike 1980, when Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter kissed and made up, Hillary Clinton's smoking the good stuff that would facilitate such delusions if her camp keeps it up with the Obama attacks.

And trotting out Bob Johnson, the biggest corporate sell-out ever, does not do the campaign good; in fact, it might help Obama. African-Americans are still trying to live down that minstrel show known as Black Entertainment Television. Johnson sold out to Viacom, took his payday and told us Black people to "piss off; I never knew ya."

African-Americans like me have been trying to beg Comcast to extract BET from our cable lineup, as well as Faux Network. We shouldn't have to pay for cable channels we don't watch.

Well, guess what Bob? You're not "Big-Time" Bob Horry and this campaign is not the NBA playoffs. You want to be a fool, do it on your own dime. You can even carry the Borg Queen's water. I'm just wondering what the hell has she promised you, Magic Johnson, the Congressional Black Caucus members like John Lewis, Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Eddie Bernice Johnson and Champagne Charlie Rangel, to go out and diss Obama like y'all doing?

I know, I know - the brotha stepped into Congress and when he didn't do his "lawd-mercy; I's glad to be up in here Senate" dance and jive for y'all; when he didn't start up with passing out the money train passes for campaigns like you wanted, and when you damned near had to put a gun on him to venture into Tennessee and campaign for someone he absolutely could not stand (Harold Ford, Jr.), Obama pissed off all of you with his independence. Not to mention some of you sistas were engaging in reverse sexual harassment and the brotha has a fine woman at the house. Why would you think he'd want ground round when he had filet mignon waiting for him at home?

So you're now engaging in a deranged and retarded form of payback on Obama by endorsing the Borg Queen. That was fine, as long as race wasn't the factor.

But her husband, her minions, with their code words "fresh & clean" "Shuck & Jive", "fairy-tale", "Kid", accusing the man of being a drug dealer, and trashing speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., so damned close to his birthday - well, as it did for the top Negro in Congress, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), you should be having second and third thoughts about hitching your wagon to this woman.

You know why Clyburn's having second thoughts? That brotha's a Southern brother who's fluent in code-speak, as most African-Americans who know their history, are fluent in code-speak. We know what a white person is trying to say when they want to be racist, but not sound racist. We know what "kid" means (calling a Black Man a boy as insult); we know what "he speaks so well" mean (as in "Damn, he can talk good for a Negro!?). Clyburn is now thinking, "If that's how the Clintons really feel about African-Americans like me, I might need to give Obama another look-see, cause I'm not feeling the Clintons."

In other words - "If I can't eat at your table, I damned sure don't want your scraps."

As a matter of fact, until Clyburn went public with his remarks, all of this was flying under the radar, but riding high in the Black Blogsphere. You know this pattern of "code-speak" has gotten bad, to the point that Donna Brazile quit straddling the fence and calling a spade a damned spade.

Like anyone else who actually wants to diss MLK, but knows better, you quote his speeches and stretch them the hell out of actual content and context to fit your dissin'. When called on it, you say in protest that you didn't mean what you said. That it came out wrong than you intended. Taken "out of context", if you will.

But, you cannot unring a bell. You cannot recycle a postage stamp. And you damned sure can't eat words back up into your mouth as if they were never said, no matter who's telling you "she didn't mean what she said."

I know Hillary Clinton's getting a bad deal from the press - let's face it, in one of her proudest moments on the "Today" show sixteen years ago, she said that it was a "vast, Right-Wing conspiracy" out to get her and the Big Dog. And, guess what? We cheered that shyt - we loved having a First Lady who was smart, and knew how to hold down a friggin' 9-to-5, and could call the press on their bullshyt, not to mention being politically savvy and not zoned out on Prozac as is the current First Lady. They only trot out Miss Laura when Bush needs to look human.

Hillary's had a target on her back ever since. But that does not give her the right to make this campaign about race, because she has nothing in her arsenal upon which to fight Barack Obama in this campaign. So, because they are determined that nothing - NOTHING, will stop the Clinton agenda, they resort to the one weapon of mass destruction guarateed to destroy the progress made in this country, miminal as it is; that's guaranteed we take our eyes of George Bush's machinations that continue to send this country to hell, and finally, guarantees that the damage done from using this weapon will be of nuclear magnitude. Once those wounds are created, no soft words of apologies or kind words spoken to African-Americans; even the gesture of naming these House Negroes to positions in your Administration where they become nothing more than Lawn Jockeys, will be enough to facilitate healing the breach and polarization that weapon will cause.

And it will all be for nothing, because the rifts caused between the Clintons and African-Americans will be so wide, John McCain and another ReThug Administration will be able to drive right on through, pass "GO!" and collect their $200 dollars.

I hope the Clintons can live with gambling against such high stakes and we all look on, knowing she bet against the House and the House always wins. Even if you have Bob and Magic Johnson in your hip pocket to try and round up the rest of us who ran off and escaped the plantation, because we're hoping for the better.

TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT - LOOK FOR THE "CODE"

FIRST "BLACK" PRESIDENT....YEAH, RIGHT

It was only a matter of time before Andrew Cuomo would take his "shuck and jive" comments, catch heat for them and complain they were "taken out of context".

"Taken out of context" is always used to explain away a racial comment. As in saying, "I said something racist, but it really wasn't racist."

Why don't you just say "I don't want that N----er to become President" and get it over with?

I knew it was only a matter of time before the “my comments were taken out of context” line would be used by Cuomo, and hopes that this all blows over.

The Clintons and their surrogates are now using “code words” racism regarding Obama, and it’s time we exposed their desperation. First the Big Dog coins Obama’s campaign as a “fairy tale”; now Cuomo with the “shuck and jive” comment, a phrase, which was coined by African-Americans when we called out those who were House Negroes back in the 1920s.

The Clintons have lost this African-American voter, and not because it’s Barack Obama, because he’s not my first choice for President.

They lost me because they assumed that all African-Americans are monolithic and we’re showing them we’re not. Some of us are in the Obama camp; some were in Richardson’s camp and a good deal were on the Edwards train. The Clintons lost me because they think they can easily traverse between Blacks and Whites, burn Blacks and think it won’t come back to haunt them. They think people like me are stupid and so loyal in the voting booth because of past history.

Past history also shows African-Americans have long damned memories - if they engage in this “Southern Strategy” (ala Richard Nixon) to get the White House, African-Americans won’t forget how they got POTUS, no matter how many House Negroes they trot out to persuade us to return to the plantation.

I’m betting Al Gore might come out and endorse Obama - that would be a bigger blow to the Clinton campaign than Kerry endorsing Obama over Edwards, because it would be swift payback to the Clintons for slinging him under the bus in 2000 to clear the way for Hillary in the first place.

The Clintons are showing their true colors and Toni Morrison needs to apologize for giving Clinton the label of “first Black President” when he slung Blacks under the bus at a faster rate than Ronald Reagan did.

THE BORG QUEEN RENTS A NEGRO

THE BORG QUEEN AND HER RENTAL NEGRO

Y'all knew that the Borg Queen (aka Senator Hillary Clinton) wasn't going to take Sen. Barack Obama's stealth move in bringing out talk-show mogul Oprah Winfrey to campaign for him lying down.

I waited to see what she would do. At first, all it looked like she was going to do was throw down roundhouse punches at Obama's campaign, by digging up what the brotha wrote on his Kindergarten essay, then trying to play on American's fears by bringing up his full name, which his middle name is Hussein (y'all know where she tried to make that connection), and finally, enlisting the aid of Bill Shaheen, the husband of former New Hampshire governor Jeanne Shaheen, to start talking about Barack's youthful indiscretion (cocaine use), and allegeging he was probably a drug dealer.

Obama a drug dealer? You can't make this stuff up.

But, not to my surprise, the Borg Queen came back with a lil' stealth move of her own.

Magic Johnson. Yes, that Magic Johnson (how many did you think there were?). He joined the Borg Queen on her campaign in Iowa, and instantly went from hero to Handkerchief Head Negro with sly digs and comments about Hillary's "experience" and how we didn't need an inexperienced person getting the White House.

To which, I say, "Negro, please!" As in "Please shut your friggin' mouth; you don't know jack about politics."

Now, this is painful for me to write, because I've always been a Magic Johnson fan. Long after his HIV status forced him to retire from the game. I remember when he made the announcement about his status, thinking, "If anyone can beat this, it's Magic Johnson."

But, to turn into a Handkerchief Head is hard for me to swallow, because Magic Johnson is the last African-American I'd care to pin that label on. Campaigning for the Borg Queen, after her husband goes on Charlie Rose's show and literally dissed an African-American for even daring to consider any other candidate except his wife, frosted my cookies in a huge way that I won't be forgetting too soon.

If Obama's candidacy shows anything to politicos, it should be this: YOU CAN'T CONTINUE TO TAKE AFRICAN-AMERICANS VOTES FOR GRANTED AND NOT HAVE IT COME BACK TO BITE YOU IN THE ASS. We are not a monolithic group - and we don't like African-Americans like Magic Johnson trying to lecture us on who we should elect as POTUS. Especially when the brotha's only foray into politics was a worthy one - stepping up legislative efforts on HIV research, education and prevention.

At least he's done better than Michael Jordan - Mike wants you to "be like him" when he's collecting his checks. Political forays into issues like, say, CIVIL RIGHTS, are alien to him and problematic when it comes to getting that check. Magic eschewed that and remade himself into a remarkable businessman, purchasing and running Starbuck establishments and his Magic Johnson theaters, where going to see a movie can be a really fun experience (he even employs people to throw out those who would talk at the screen non-stop during a movie, and he has good eating going on in there, too). Magic's even gone on to make some forays into Civil Rights issues as well, so going over to what I consider "The Dark Syde" is making me toss my breakfast this morning.

Now, you're probably saying I'm being too hard on Magic, by tagging him a Handkerchief Head for spewing Hillary's talking points about Obama. Even if he didn't mention Obama by name, we all knew who he was talking about. I thought Lawn Jockey was too strong - he didn't go that far off...yet. He should be able to endorse anyone he wants - everyone African-American doesn't have to get on board with Obama. And, you're right, because at this point in the game, this African-American woman is not on board the good ship Obama, because his vagueness on his political platform reminds me of John Kerry - whenever someone asked Kerry for specifics on his campaign promises, he'd tell you to "go to www.JohnKerry.com" for more information, when it's just easier to tell us what you got planned.

A gospel tour with Donnie McClurkin damned near gave the LGBT community apoplexy - I thought John Aravosis at Americablog was going to do more than lynch Obama on his blog. And sending white campaign workers to black hair salons to ask sistas getting perms or their weaves hooked up, what they thought about Obama, showed an inherent unfamiliarity with the demographics of the very base of voters Obama was trying to reach.

My friend Skeptical Brotha, cynically referred to this period of the Obama campaign as "Amateur Hour", and I couldn't have agreed with him more.

Obama appears to have corrected that - just as the Borg Queen begins her own fumbling of her front-runner status.

Should the Borg Queen win - will there be a Cabinet position for loyalist Negroes like Magic? Create a government agency that provides oversight of professional sports, perhaps? I want to know what's in it for African-Americans like Magic Johnson, or, for that matter, half of the Congressional Black Caucus that have hitched your wagons to Hillary Clinton's campaign. You need to review just what the Clinton Administration did for people of ethnic background during the 1990s:

• Gave us trade agreements that took your jobs out of the country (NAFTA & CAFTA);
• Increased taxes on the working and middle-class;
• Opened the door for media consolidation and monopoly (and probably gave birth to Pravda networks like Fox Network);
• Dismantled any and all gains made by Civil Rights and Affirmative Action with that "Mend it, don't end it" shyt;
• Refused to stand up like Harry S. Truman and further integrate the Armed Forces by allowing gay and lesbians to be open about their sexual identity, instead of hiding it with that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" shyt;
• Pushed through all legislation that the ReThugs wanted that would screw over anyone else through cutbacks in social policies and programs;
• Slung people like Joycelyn Elders and Lani Guinier under the bus because Oren Hatch whined about their positions on masturbation and affirmative action like a lil' byotch.

So, I want to know what's in it for you that support the Clintons when it's well documented that everytime he had the opportunity to do some real Field Negro stuff, he always choked and put away that honorary Negro card Toni Morrison gave him. Because his wife is no better on her track record either. You can find continuous votes to fund the mess in Iraq among her atrocities, and her recent attacks on Obama should wake all of us the hell up.

I'm on record about Obama - he has not articulated his policy platform well enough for me to co-sign. But whenever I see a brotha being attacked, as if, by virtue of being Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton, Hillary thinks she's entitled to the White House because she hitched her ambition wagon to Bill and suffered the public humiliation of being cheated on because her husband got a blow job in the Oval Office; well, what qualification for the job is that?

Magic Johnson - you can add him to the list of Rent-A-Negroes. I'm wondering who's going to be next, because you know, John Edwards is going to have to trot out a rental Negro, too.

OBAMA BATTLE FATIGUE THAT'S NOT MY OWN

I've been lagging a lot with my posts on my own blog (too busy posting comments on other's blogs, LOL).

But this South Carolina primary that Sen. Barack Obama is trying his damndest to lose, is really giving me a battle fatigue I'm not really used to experencing.

I've said in earlier posts on this very blog, that Obama was, at best, a triangulating twit, and got royally flamed for my trouble. My fellow bloggers, such as Skeptical Brotha, or the Field Negro, didn't take as many hits (well, the Field didn't, anyway, cause SB and I took major ones). We tried to warn everyone drinking Obama's kool-aid and treating him in rock star fashion worthy of Derek Jeter, that Obama wasn't who you thought he was.

Black Agenda Report, and Black Commentator (when Glen Ford was the Editor), was on Obama early and often.

He showed considerable amounts of disingeniousness when he denounced his membership in the DLC, yet he takes campaign contributions from them and continues to benefit from their largesse to this very day.

But, what is causing me this fatigue now, is continual reading of how he's managing to screw up his budding Presidential campaign in particularly craptacular fashion. Let's review, shall we?

He announced his candidacy on the same day as Tavis Smiley's "State of the Black Union" conference down in Hampton, Virginia. It was presumed to steal thunder from somewhere, because C-Span cut out on the SOBU and went directly to Springfield, Illinois, where Obama had also disinvited his pastor to the event. - CHECK.

His campaign took over, usurped, bogarded a fan's MySpace page that was set up exclusively for him and his campaign. Something about copyrights and ownership - CHECK.

His lack of action in confirming Supreme Court Nominees Alito and Roberts to the Bench - CHECK.

His campaign pledge not to pull troops out of Iraq until 2013 should he get the White House. - CHECK.

Sending campaign workers ignorant of the demographics where they are campaigning, and insulting the very voters they are courting - CHECK.

And now, his Gospel Tour featuring a "cured" ex-homosexual who's spouting anti-gay rhetoric, Donnie McClurkin - CHECK.

Follow that up with in trying to balance out the shyt storm he's stirred up, Obama invited an openly gay pastor to open up the event. Two problems with that, though. The guy is WHITE, and the event is being held in SOUTH CAROLINA. Are you still with me at this point?

If you're trying to appeal for tolerance between African-Americans (who have a long history of being homophobic), gays and religion, what Obama has done is definitely NOT THE WAY TO GO. Especially since it's looking like you couldn't find any gay Black people to speak to a Black audience about Gays, and therefore, further confirm the myth that being gay is a white man's problem.

I don't know if being gay is genetic, biological, or learned, so, even though I'm a Christian, I can't buy off on treating them as perverts, pedophiles or anything else, and what's more, I don't want to. It's like being born African-American - I didn't have a choice, and I can't cover it up, or live in a closet, either. When you see me, you see I'm African-American (although some Latinos have tried to claim me, LOL) but it is what it is.

What the good Senator from Illinois has done is create a campaign atmosphere where no one is going to take him seriously anymore. The ever-growing list of gaffes, faux-pas and flat out crapping up, have prospective voters thinking "If he can't handle his campaign, how the hell is he going to handle the problems that go with being POTUS?"

Everyone's sobering up off the rock-star kool-aid, Senator. They're seeing you for what you really are - A TRIANGULATING TWIT, who's trying to be all things to all people. What's really pissing people off is your ego maniacal refusal to scrap shyt and admit when you've blown it; not to mention your tendency to sweep things under a rug, and your timidity in taking firm stands on anything - always, you have to put your finger up into the winds of political climate to determine which road you'll take. Hell, you didn't even offer to back Sen. Christopher Dodd on filibustering FISA until Sen. Russ Feingold got in the boat first.

And it's always to upstage and distinguish yourself from your closest rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton. Not out of motivation for it being the right thing to do.

Senator, I'm tired of seeing you shoot your campaign in the foot, and be the real test of whether or not America is ready for an African-American president. Judging by the millions of votes Jesse Jackson got in 1984 and 1988 was more than enough evidence that America was at least willing to entertain the idea of an African-American president, so all you really had to do was get in it to win it.

Additionally, John Aravosis at Americablog is foaming at the mouth and calling for Obama's head (read his posts for most of this week), Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend (and yes, she's steaming), not to mention my friend, Jasmyne Cannick on her blog as well. John, being the gentleman he is, posted a blog entry well worth reading:

And for the record, Jasymine, Pam and Keith Boykin are three African-American gay activists who make better friends than enemies, as Obama, in his constant triangulation, is finding out.

Face it, Senator; I'm tired of labeling you as a "TRIANGULATING TWIT", but lately, you've left me no other options.

THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO KNOW, TOO...

Daily Kos has this up:

Sharpton went on to criticize Obama on other issues, including his relationship with Sen. Joe Lieberman, who's controversial within the Democratic Party.

"Senator Obama and I agree that the war is wrong, but then I want to know why he went to Connecticut and helped Lieberman, the biggest supporter of the war," Sharpton told TV.

Skeptical Brotha also informs us that John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are peeling off Congressional Black Caucus members to support them and not one of their own.

Which blows the "African-Americans are monolithic" theory to hell.

I've run out of adjectives to describe the junior Senator from Illinois...and it's getting very painful to watch him detonate his very own WMDs on his quest for the White House...which are Barack Obama himself.

Jeez....

OBAMA DISSES HIS PASTOR

IN CHURCH...THINKING ABOUT HOW TO DISS HIS PASTOR

It is said that "Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely". We may want to think the same thing when it comes to politicians, substituting the word "Power" for "Politics".

Because it appears that Senator Barack Obama, the newest Presidential candidate; the one so vocal about his Christian faith, has decided that being President is much more worthy than standing firm on said Christian beliefs and principles. So much so, that upon the advice of his campaign handlers, he's publicly dissed his own Pastor.

I don't know about you, but the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., a Nationally and globally respected Pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ; a respected Christian author and political leader in Chicago, is NOT someone you diss, or dismiss in cavalier fashion as Obama has. Consider this tidbit from the New York Times:

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., senior pastor of the popular Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and spiritual mentor to Senator Barack Obama, thought he knew what he would be doing on Feb. 10, the day of Senator Obama’s presidential announcement.

After all, back in January, Mr. Obama had asked Mr. Wright if he would begin the event by delivering a public invocation.

But Mr. Wright said Mr. Obama called him the night before the Feb. 10 announcement and rescinded the invitation to give the invocation.

“Fifteen minutes before Shabbos I get a call from Barack,” Mr. Wright said in an interview on Monday, recalling that he was at an interfaith conference at the time. “One of his members had talked him into uninviting me,” Mr. Wright said, referring to Mr. Obama’s campaign advisers.

Some black leaders are questioning Mr. Obama’s decision to distance his campaign from Mr. Wright because of the campaign’s apparent fear of criticism over Mr. Wright’s teachings, which some say are overly Afrocentric to the point of excluding whites.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said the campaign disinvited Mr. Wright because it did not want the church to face negative attention. Mr. Wright did however, attend the announcement and prayed with Mr. Obama beforehand.

“Senator Obama is proud of his pastor and his church, but because of the type of attention it was receiving on blogs and conservative talk shows, he decided to avoid having statements and beliefs being used out of context and forcing the entire church to defend itself,” Mr. Burton said.

Instead, Mr. Obama asked Mr. Wright’s successor as pastor at Trinity, the Rev. Otis Moss III, to speak. Mr. Moss declined.

Many of you who read this blog have been very vocal in your objections to my opinions about the Senator. However, the fact that he will do anything and position himself any way to make himself appealing to white voters; to the point that he is apparently okay with dissing his own Pastor, should be enough to give you pause. This is what I, as well as Skeptical Brotha have been trying to communicate to you, since most of you say you're able to think for yourselves. We just wanted you to have the facts, and communicate our opinions about this brotha. We got flamed, accused of "crabs in barrel" mentality, etc., when your own responses to our posts appeared to continue suggesting a Jim Crow mentality that says Black people should celebrate "Black Faces In High Places".

It also means, just like the Edwards' camp, that the Democrats are going to cave in and run their campaigns like the ReThugs want them to, because they're complaining that Democrats aren't being "nice". Well, "Niceness" went out the door on Capitol Hill for twelve years, and really got nasty during the last six years of Bush Cartel rule. It's bullying and I will be glad when the Democrats grow a pair and tell the ReThugs to go to hell about how to run their own campaigns. Looks like Obama wants to play "nice" with the vipers in the snake pit.

And having Black Faces In High Places don't mean squat if said Black Faces are going to vote for and implement legislation and run the country in ways that because they are catering to corporate interests in exchange for money and personal favors - to the point that the Black Communities wholeheartedly supporting them get screwed over and over again.

If Barack Obama is an example of "New Black Leadership"... think about what I highlighted in red for your consideration. There is always something when a statement is divided by the word "But" that always indicates to me that the person is about to make a compromise in their "stand" or opinion. Sometimes, it qualifies the statement for clarification; but (LOL), it usually means they're about to backtrack on their previously stated position. There should be nothing that would not make Obama proud of his pastor...but, I digress.

You know the Rev. Al Sharpton was asked to weigh in on this and he didn't disappoint:

In recent weeks, word of Mr. Obama’s treatment of Mr. Wright has reached black leaders like the Rev. Al Sharpton and given them pause.

“I have not discussed this with Senator Obama in detail, but I can see why callers of mine and other clergymen would be concerned, because the issue is standing by your own pastor,” Mr. Sharpton said.

Exactly. If you can't stand by your own Pastor when it matters, you will cave in during a spring day when the temperature gets above 70 degrees.

For those of you who want to still support Obama after this, I say to you, "Thank God, we still live in a Democracy. That is your right." But, please, do not come to blogs with your whining and bellyaching when you feel as though you got screwed by your vote for Obama, because we've been like voices in the wilderness, giving you plenty of warning not to be taken in by Obama's bling.

Four years ago, when I first heard about Barack Obama, I had the Audacity to Hope that this brotha was on the real, and would be able to demonstrate to established sellouts like Harold Ford and Artur Davis that you could obtain National Office without engaging in the fine art of selling out.

How wrong I was. I won't go as far as calling him a "Harvard Law Grad Snake Oil Pimp" though I must admit, I'm sorely tempted.

Barack Obama is just another opportunistic politician who will once again take the African-American vote as his due, and for granted.

THE VALUE OF THE BLACK VOTE

APPARENTLY, THE ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE MADE A DETOUR THROUGH SELMA

The Value of the Black Vote is such that Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went to Selma, Alabama this past Sunday to have a good, old-fashioned showdown. From Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:

Road to the White House Goes Through Selma

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) "came to an emotionally evocative touchstone of the civil rights movement Sunday seeking to strengthen their bonds with African American voters and tie their campaigns to the cause's unfinished work," the Chicago Tribune reports.

Sunday also "marked the first entrance into the presidential campaign by former President Bill Clinton, a popular figure with African-Americans whom writer Toni Morrison once called 'our first black president.' He avoided upstaging his wife at her speech by staying away from the church. But people cheered and rushed to be near him when he joined his wife and Obama for a re-enactment of the 1965 march."

The visit -- which we called the Showdown in Selma -- "became a proxy battle for black support between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama, whose candidacy represents a threat to Mrs. Clinton's traditional base," according to New York Times.

Verdict from the New York Daily News: "Barack Wins Battle of the Bridge"

The Montgomery Advertiser has video of the event and the Huntsville Times features a photo gallery.

African-Americans have a unique opportunity to make our vote work for us. Barack and Hillary are already demonstrating that our vote counts. But we should not leave it there.

We should also let them know that if we support them and they screw us over, that we have long memories of being screwed over by people we trusted (400+ years, to be exact). We should let them know that if they screw us over, we won't be as forgiving as usual - that schmoozing and a few kind words will put things right. That used to work for Rastus and Rufus, not Raheem, Charles, Jack and Jill or Skeptical Brotha.

They need to know that if they get the White House, we will be on them like a fly on stink. One wrong move, and we call in our chits (and we will have chits to call in, boys and girls). They need to know it will not be Business as Usual.

Especially Barack. Now that your "blackness" quotient has been settled, while we know you won't be the "President of Black America, but all of America", we are also demanding that you go in the House and do your job, because the POTUS is not a Carnegie Institute training class for you to "win friends and influence people". In short, don't be another "snake oil pimp"with a Harvard Law Degree, cause we're watching.

Shakespeare Would Have Said It

From my friend, Lower Manhattanite, who wins the Oscar Nod for Blogger Who Needs to Get His Own Damned Blog:
"Political Masturbation Theatre Presents: William Shakespeare's 'Obamo'"

Quite the couple

THANKS to LowerManhattanite for this great piece - THANKS LM!

(Curtain rises on a smoke-filled, oak-lined study. In it stands OBAMO, a noble Moorish/Amfrerican, newly chosen to the Senate and HILLAMONA, a proud, steely blonde of noble lineage, also to the Senate selected. They are at opposite ends of the room—brooding in smoldering silence. The tension between them could be cut with a plastic spoon/fork hybrid {“spork”}. Hillamona wheels on Obamo suddenly with fire dancing in her eyes)

HILLAMONA: (Flushed and holding her throat as if just choked) Varlet! You sought to steal the air from my lungs—my campaign’s very lungs!

OBAMO; You drape your anger ‘pon a hook in the wrong man’s castle. T’was not I, Hillamona—your quarrel lay with King David of the Western Hills. Yet you assail me.

HILLAMONA: He mouths words as thy proxy, Obamo—deny it not, for you know it to be true.

OBAMO: He is his own man. I do not control him.

HLLAMONA: Thy denial fairly rings with implausibility, Moor.

OBAMO: (with venom) Hah! Irony abounds woman. You who would cast doubt ‘pon my words! Look thee to the linens—and find there a bib to sop the mendacity that drips from thy mouth. I pray one will do.

HILLAMONA: (enraged) Stripling!

OBAMO: Virago!

HILLAMONA: (hissed) A Virago favored by your own Moors!

OBAMO: (stepping back for a moment) Your words…ring of an anger contrived. Thou art are a snake, snapping fangs at the air madly, as blood leaks from thy own body.

HILLAMONA: I do not hear thee!

OBAMO: The wolves smell your blood. (He sniffs)’Tis sweet in the air. Your war vote wound betrays you.

HILLAMONA: I do not regret it, Moor. You say it wounds me, but is it not a graver wound to retreat? To renege? Yea, bleed I do, but die I will not. While you…

OBAMO: I?
HILLAMONA: Risk not, lose not, hatch-ling. When the vote was cast, thy were but an egg. Barely a’ borning.

OBAMO: And from the moment beak sundered shell, this bird’s song was ‘nay’ to the war you championed. Thou…and the traitorous Joseph of Nutmeg, and other craven practicalists.

HILLAMONA: Misled were we!

OBAMO: Nay, Lead you did not. And now you stand o’er the ashes of defeat and claim to have lit no flame.

(Hillamona brandishes a dagger and points it at Obamo)

HILLAMONA: Thou shalt not quicken the vessel (*1). with me! The first strike shall be mine—

OBAMO: (Standing his ground and deepening his voice) You would raise a hand to me? Thy comrade? We stand on the same side, you and I. Your fight be not with me. ‘Tis with our enemy. Giuliano. MacCain and the Mormom Mitt.

(Hillamona hesitates, blinking, unsure)

OBAMO: (Moving to her) They on whom the nut hath sprouted wings that fly. (grasping her now) Let you,,,and I…and Edwardio—

HILLAMONA: The maned?

OBAMO: And feckless. Let us loose the arrows in our quivers at the real enemy…not each other. Leave us forget the mundaneness of despair…

HILLAMONA: (Grasping him back) And embrace…?

OBAMO: The audacity…of hope.

(He holds her tightly cradling her head back—until, she gasps and gurgles from choking on her own saliva. She wrenches herself away, eyes again ablaze with mistrust and anger.)

HILLAMONA: (Gasping) Again you seek to take the breath from me!

OBAMO: Twas you! Thy choked thyself Hillamona!

HILLAMONA: The injury is from without, cur—as always! And I shall smite he who hath swung at me. I shall smite all!

(She swings wildly with the dagger, missing Obamo who dodges. Hillamona chases him about, catching air instead of flesh, running him off the stage and following close behind. Enter MEDIAGO from the wing, rubbing his hand together gleefully.)

MEDIAGO: (laughing conspiratorially) Yes…yes! Let slip the dogs of war! Mistrust, my mistress! Deceit, my liege! Confusion and rancor ! (Sniffs hard at the air) Like the spoor of fresh roses in the air, that smell so sweet, Obamo thinks me his friend, and Hillamona sees me her coronator, yet neither the two knows me for what I am truly—that which serves neither their interests, but craves only nearness to power. It, the flame…to my nature-drawn moth. Power! Quo of status! I crave theeeeeeeeeeeeee!

(Mediago runs madly from the stage, exiting—pursued by an elephant)

(*1.) quicken the vessel = to swift boat

- posted by LowerManhattanite

BLACK LEADERS? OR LEADING BLACKS?

I DON'T THINK SO. HOMEY DON'T PLAY THAT...

From Black Agenda Report:

We are grateful to Dr. Julia Hare, a founder of The Black Think Tank located in San Francisco, for the title of this article. She forced us to think about the distinction between authentic Black leadership and those Blacks who purport to lead us, but have been chosen by others. Dr. Hare asked the question - "Do we have Black Leaders? Or do we have those who are Leading Blacks?"

Mistake no #1 made by the Barack Obama for Prez campaign: BEING ABSENT from the SOBU, and making his announcement of his candidacy on THE SAME DAY.

African-Americans don't like it when we don't have a say in who will be our leaders, and I can say that Obama's announcement got a lukewarm reception in Hampton Roads on Saturday. A wise campaign organizer would have had him there promoting himself. As a result, his candidacy is being viewed with skepticism by the African-American community and the corporate media can't understand why he's trailing Capitol Hillary in the polls.

They should come to the African-American community (fat chance) and find out... However, the main issue here is that by not attending the State of the Black Union, Senator Obama has already fired the first missile in this campaign and has probably ensured that Hillary Clinton will get the share of African-American votes he needs to win.

What is the missile he fired?

He's distancing himself from African-Americans. Didn't he learn anything from Harold Ford's Senate campaign, or Ken Blackwell's Gubernatorial campaign, or Michael Steele's gubernatorial campaign (though Steele came back singing his "Homey the Clown" song later in the game)?

African-Americans don't like it when you distance yourself from us because you want to be President. And while he still has time to correct this political faux pas, the clock is ticking...

SEN. BARACK OBAMA; TRIANGULATING TWIT?

AMERICA'S NEXT FIRST FAMILY? NOT SO FAST...

...So sez Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California) of the Out of Iraq Caucus. And she's right. NOW is the time for either of them to stop being clones of one another and take a clear stand on the Iraq War. From all accounts, these two are not only going to be battling for the African-American vote, but they will also be engaging in Battles Royale to distinguish themselves from each other.

In my opinion, it would serve Obama right, because I'm tired of the triangulating twit he's become. He came to DC and learned how to play the Beltway Insider game a little too well for this African-American. I wish the media would quit serving him up to African-Americans as the next MLK or Malcolm, because those brothers put their lives on the line when it mattered. Already, he's concerned he might catch a bullet on the campaign trail. Well, Senator Obama, if you had not believed your own press clippings, maybe you wouldn't be worrying like you are now. I like how sister Maxine is ignoring her own skeletons and calling you out to stand up for something, instead of pussy-footing around and trying not to be defined by the media or your now-adoring public.

The way I see it, Obama threatens to desecrate all those brothers stood for. I also don't like when he claims ethnicity when it's convenient, and runs away from it as fast as the former Rep. Harold Ford, when it's necessary. Also on my crap list regarding Mr. Obama are the following:

His having to be dragged by Senate leadership to vote with the Caucus against cloture in the Supreme Court Confirmation "Sudden Sam" Alito;

His vote to confirm Condoleeza Rice for Secretary of State and make the argument that sounded suspiciously like he voted for her because of the "Jim-Crowism" of some African-Americans who are all to happy to see a Black Face in a Perceived High Place. I say "perceived" because for all she has done as Secretary of State (demonstrating massive levels of incompetence) we can almost be inclined to forgive her predecessor, Colin Powell, for selling the world what he knew then, and what we know now, was outright lies to start a global war.

His vote to pass the Net Neutrality Bill and his sorry, triangulating attempt to defend himself over on DKos. Voting for the above should be enough to get you disqualified from running for President.

Other things that I may not have included from my DKos posts are voting for the Iraq War (glad John Kerry got the memo, finally), voting for the BK bill, voting against Net Neutrality, and voting to continue sending money into the Black Hole known as the Iraq War. Hillary has yet to apologize for her vote; although she's doing her best to distance herself from it. Obama ran on an anti-war platform; Illinois voters must be pissed to learn he's no longer anti-war, and, in fact, favors part of Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq.

We want someone who is as different from the current Looney Tunes in the White House from Al Sharpton. We want someone who makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X. We want a Russ Feingold-Jim Webb type, with some Harry Belafonte thrown in for flavor. And neither Obama or Hillary has it; they're blander than vanilla, but well-trained in the art of circular firing squads, triangulation and fence-straddling. They, like Bush, surround themselves with people who say what they want to hear, but can't give them the real deal advice for fear of losing their jobs.

Hillary is referred to on some of the blogs as this. And here's my reasons why I can't vote for her in 2008:

And I've now coined the phrase for Obama - Triangulating Twit. Until he proves himself and take a firm stance on the Iraq War, neither of them are qualified to run for President, because I don't want anymore DLC, Beltway Insiders in the Oval Office, period.

NOT EVERYONE LOVES OBAMA...

So sez the Skeptical Brotha. And I'm in agreement with him. I do apologize for the lengthy time between posts, though. And a belated Happy New Year.

I don't know what's annoying me more: Harold Ford, Jr. becoming the next Whore for the DLC, or the manufactured ascendency of Barack Obama to the White House, and he hasn't even done anything of significance yet.

I stole this from Skeptical Brotha. Read it and then head over to his site and show him some love, okay?

“And so we shall have to do more than register and more than vote; we shall have to create leaders who embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with an enthusiasm that enables us to rally support for them based on confidence and trust. We will have to demand high standards and give consistent, loyal support to those who merit it. We will have to be a reliable constituency for those who prove themselves to be committed political warriors in our behalf. When our movement has partisan political personalities whose unity with their people is unshakable and whose independence is genuine, they will be treated in white political councils with the respect those who embody such power deserve. ” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As we profess to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr this week, we should be mindful of his words. As the leader of a movement tasked with dealing with politicians large and small, he came to become intimately familiar with human nature and the psyche of the black politician. He came to understand what made each tick and was able to separate the wheat from the chaff. Barack Obama has taken a step this week on a journey that no other African American has ever been on. It is a step leading to the precipice of ultimate power: the Presidency. We, along with the entire world, will get a chance to see what this brotha is really made of. Unlike the dashing enigma that some in the corporate media have portrayed him to be, in reality, he is nothing of the sort.

His path to power has been eased by his gracious personality and his craven political accommodations to those of greater power. His unique positioning in the field of 2008 contenders is both calculated and largely deceptive. While Senator Obama is one of us, his candidacy is not from us.

This boom-let of uncritical and fawning praise and publicity culminating in his announcement for President is not a creation of the black community. We actually chose Jesse Jackson. He spoke for an undiluted consensus of black political thought. He did so eloquently and forthrightly despite the enormity of his vanity and ego. In contrast, Al Sharpton’s political persona is substantially weaker and his vanity, ego, and manifold character flaws are even greater. However, the substance of his critique of the Democratic Party as an institution which takes African Americans for granted is valid. Obama, on the other hand, speaks for those to whom he is indebted.

Dr. King was insightful when he wrote, “The majority of Negro political leaders do not ascend to prominence on the shoulders of mass support. Although genuinely popular leaders are now emerging, most are selected by white leadership, elevated to position, supplied with resources, and inevitably subjected to white control. The mass of Negroes nurtures a healthy suspicion toward these manufactured leaders.”

Obama is a manufactured leader who has allowed himself to be advanced by a cabal of media elites and “DLC centrist” political actors determined to choose an alternative to Hillary Rodham Clinton. Those of us in the progressive black blogosphere have ample reasons to be suspicious of brotha Barack. While it is important to examine what a politician stands for, it is just as important to examine who stands behind them pulling the strings.

Standing foursquare behind Senator Obama is the Chicago Daley machine. The Daley machine of old led by their father, and the Daley machine of today, have always stood for the maximization of white ethnic political power and the subjugation of minority communities to their corporate backed rule. As I’ve said before, Mayor Daley has endorsed Obama for President in a self-serving power move designed to eliminate the looming black threat against his re-election in a metropolis that long ceased to be majority white. His brotha Bill Daley, the former Gore Campaign Chairman and Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton Administration, has also come aboard ship Obama, signing on as a senior advisor.

In the Daley Machine of old, the contenders had to make a great show of coming to Chicago and kissing daddy’s ring. During that time, he controlled the Illinois delegation of convention delegates to the Democratic National Convention. His active support was usually critical and his active efforts in 1960 led to JFK’s narrow win over Nixon. Today, the Daley brothers exercise that power as a team.

Mayor Daley heads a Chicago political fiefdom in which he is virtually unchallenged. He has maintained that control by buying off black elected officials with patronage and pork barrel projects and by shamelessly catering to rapacious corporate interests. He issued his first Veto in 17 years as Mayor to prevent the City of Chicago from mandating that Wal-Mart and other big box retailers pay living wages of at least $10.00 an hour. He did this despite an accumulation of over $78.9 billion in assets for Wal-Mart’s founding family.

Mayor Daley’s brotha Bill Daley negotiated NAFTA on behalf of the Clinton Administration and PNTR with China. These, and other regressive free trade packages advanced by the corporate friendly Clinton Administration facilitated the ongoing destruction of America’s manufacturing base by shipping jobs to Mexico and other developing nations better suited to paying workers poverty wages and leaving Americans unemployed. He is now the Chicago front-man for the investment banking firm of JPMorgan.

Obama’s vote for the Oman free trade agreement is probably the source of Bill Daley’s enthusiasm and should be a basis for progressive skepticism. Oman prohibits union organizing and is nothing more than a top down dictatorship with a record of human rights abuses. Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis as he supported a strike by black sanitation workers for living wages and collective bargaining rights. It is an affront to King’s legacy and contrary to his dream to support right-wing trade agreements that fail to uphold people’s basic human right to a living wage.

Political Scientist Michael Parenti has postulated that “American capitalism represents more than just an economic system; it is an entire cultural and social order, a plutocracy — that is, a system of rule by and for the rich — for the most part.” Now that Obama’s moderate, mealy-mouthed political manifesto has met with critical acclaim and made him a millionaire, he is acceptable to the ruling class as a colored proxy and Trojan horse for their malevolent interests.

During the contentious debate over the nomination of dangerous black reactionary Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nations second highest and most important appellate court besides the Supreme Court itself, Obama said, “I am not somebody who subscribes to the view that because somebody is a member of a minority group they somehow have to subscribe to a particular ideology or a particular political party. I think it is wonderful that Asian Americans, Latinos, African Americans, and others are represented in all parties and across the political spectrum. When such representation exists, then those groups are less likely to be taken for granted by any political party.” Part of that statement contains a kernel of truth but also reveals a stunning lack of insight about liberation movements and progressive social change. Nobody tasted freedom by becoming an Uncle Tom reactionary.

None of the groups he has mentioned has been unscathed by a bald-faced economic, social, and politically directed racism meant to subjugate them under a paternalistic white hand. His lack of fortitude in filibustering the nominations of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court and Appellate Judges like Clarence Thomas Clone Janice Rogers Brown, reveal a political moderation that goes against the progressive grain of the black political consensus and a capitulation to the contemporary forces of reaction.

This betrayal and lack of fortitude make him palatable to the teeming masses of white political activists yearning for the chance to wave their support of Obama in our faces as proof of their liberalism while the racist underpinnings of our imperialistic domestic and foreign policy remain intact. I believe in the old adage “show and prove.” Both Obama and the liberal white blogosphere must do copious amounts of both before they are “absolved of all sin” by me. His run for the White House was paved by the efforts of Jesse Jackson and the black community 20 years ago. Obama has yet to show himself worthy.

While Jesse Jackson was at heart a black politician and part-time preacher in search of political legitimacy. Al Sharpton is a street hustler with a clerical collar in search of a better hustle. If that means partially representing the black political consensus by running for President while simultaneously living the high life on campaign funds solicited by GOP operatives trying to embarrass and weaken the democratic party, he seems to be O.K. with that. That, in a nutshell, describes Reverend Al’s 2004 Presidential bid.

Al is always getting in bed with disreputable people he has no business dealing with in an unscrupulous effort to make a damn dollar. Rhetorically however, he comes closer to being on point than most of his so-called mainstream brethren. He sounds the right notes at the right times from an undiluted, and politically honest sheet of authentically black music.

“This is not about a party. This is about living up to the promise of America. The promise of America says we will guarantee quality education for all children and not spend more money on metal detectors than computers in our schools.”

“The promise of America guarantees health care for all of its citizens and doesn’t force seniors to travel to Canada to buy prescription drugs they can’t afford here at home.”

“The promise of America provides that those who work in our health care system can afford to be hospitalized in the very beds they clean up every day.”

“The promise of America is that government does not seek to regulate your behavior in the bedroom, but to guarantee your right to provide food in the kitchen.”

“The issue of government is not to determine who may sleep together in the bedroom, it’s to help those that might not be eating in the kitchen.”

“The promise of America [is] that we stand for human rights, whether it’s fighting against slavery in the Sudan, …AIDS in Lesotho; (or)… police misconduct in this country.”

For the aforementioned reasons, I feel it necessary to sanction another run by Al Sharpton. America, especially black America, could use a sober dose of candor regarding race and its relationship to the Democratic Party. While this falls far, far, short of an endorsement, I feel his presence necessary to articulate what Obama always fails to say. If for no other reason, I relish the chance to see Sharpton “spank the donkey” one more time. If he has to slap some damn rhetorical and policy sense into Barack Obama in the process, so be it. If nothin’ else, it might keep Barack honest enough for black folks to eventually support and honor the legacy and dream of a King.