Obama's DNC Acceptance Speech

The "O" Man knocked another one out of the park with this speech. This is the speech his supporters have been waiting for him to deliver. He took it straight to McCain and his so foreign policy experience, he laid out and defended a populist agenda, not any of that "centrist" mumble jumble. The video runs about 45 min. You are witnessing one of the greatest speakers of our time...Enjoy

Dennis Kucinich at the DNC: Wake Up America!

Dennis Kucinich at the Democratic National Convention. Man he had the best speech so far. For you that don't know Congressman Dennis Kucinich is the most principled and courageous politician in Washington. This speech should have been in prime time, Enjoy!

A message to the PUMAs: Get on board or get out of the way

There are Hillary Clinton supporters still angry at Obama
Simply because he won the primaries, now they want to start
drama

Obama didn't cheat to win the primaries, he ran a smart and clean
campaign
So if you can't accept the results, by all means go support
McCain

Yeah McCain is your man, he'll ease all of your worries
And if you have teenage sons, make sure their registered with
the Selective Service

Cause you know Mr. "Bomb, Bomb Iran" will need a lot of boots
on the ground
With his hundred years in Iraq, now he's poking at the bear, how
do a military draft sounds

And if you have young daughters, let them know they may loose all
their rights to choose
So you PUMAs need to understand, if McCain win, we all loose

You guys remind me of spoil kids, angry cause you didn't get what
you wanted
Are you all looking for attention, to be the subject of News Pundits

Are you trying to split the party and guarantee a Republican win
Knowing that four more years of Republican rule could bring our way
of life to an end

Hillary is supporting Barack, Bill is on board cause they know Barack
will bring a better day
So my message to the disgruntled Hillary supporters, GET ON BOARD OR GET
THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY!!

Barack Obama & Joe Biden Pics 08-23-08

This is the ticket yall - Now McCain it's your move.

Obama's Ridin' wit Biden

So Obama has finally decided on a V.P.
He kept people waiting and guessing espeacially
the pundits on T.V.

I think Biden is a good pick, he's tough and people
recognize his name
And when it comes to foreign policy, he can really
take it to McCain

We are in the 4th quarter and it's still a close game
But Obama will prevail, cause McCain's out of touch
plus he's old and lame

Up until this point Obama's been on the defense
Just trying to play it safe trying to win over moderates
that's still on the fence

I wish Obama would run as more of populist and speak for
the working class
And take off the gloves and knock McCain on his ass

McCain is an accident waiting to happen, known for putting
his foot in his mouth
So I'm ridin', with Obama and Biden, all the way to the
Whitehouse

Big John the Pimp

McCain be "Ballin" like the the rapper Jim Jones
Ballin so hard he can't even remember the number of homes
that he owns

McCain and his people say America is a nation of whiners
He said don’t hate on me bitches, cause I'm major and you're
minor

His first wife waited on him, took care of the kids while he
was a prisoner of war
She got in a life changing car accident that left her looking nothing
like before

Since she no longer resembled the young bride he first met
John asked for a divorce and stepped with no regrets

See when you are a pimp you don’t have time to sit around and mourn
So John kicked his first wife to the curve, to put a younger and richer bitch
on his arm.

A heiress named Cindy Hensley, a month later John made her Mrs. McCain
Move over Lil Wayne, Big John gone show you how to make it rain

When it comes to upholding morals values Big John is exempt
He's an old Washington politician with the mind of a pimp

America's Right Wing

They're the reason for America's red and blue divide
And the domestic problems stateside and most of the
chaos worldwide

The Neocons, theocrats and corporatist makes up their
coalition
A mixture of warmongering, greed and superstition makes
up their politicians

They don't care about facts and their anti intellectual
If their not hating on blacks then it's Hispanics or
homosexuals

That's because a big part of their base is made up of
racist and homophobes
while the corporatist rob us blind making money by the
truck loads

Many white blue collar workers support them by the masses
While the right wing politicians cater to the upper classes

George Bush even admitted his base is the have and have mores
Using wedge issues to rally the poor, but once in office the
poor they ignore

They control the media now a days, with their spin masters
all over the airwaves
Millions tune in daily and follow along like zombie slaves

The funny thing is the rural whites and the inner city blacks
are all in the same boat
Trying to make it through these rough times doing what they
can to stay a float

The right wing politicians advocate for corporate welfare
and more warfare
But will protest on the senate floor to prevent Universal
health care

White evangelicals make up their most loyal base
they will easily fall in line with talk of abortion
or anything about race

They demonize liberals and intimidate the democrats
They're don't want to help the less fortunate, so they
advocate for no tax

They claim to follow Jesus, every Sunday their in church
with their bibles
While worshipping the mighty dollar and clinging to their
rifles

They fought to keep slavery in tact then instituted Jim Crow
for the blacks
They gave birth to the KKK, domestic terrorism, committing
terrorist acts

They demonized, humiliated and finally assassinated Dr. King
You ask, who did all these evil things? It was the American
Right Wing

McCain got what he deserved

Bush is worthless and I got to be blunt about it
Do he care about you? No, I truly doubt it

Not if you aint rich or a corporate C.E.O.
John McCain is the same so my only choice is B.O.

Even though Barack leans to the right of my ideology
I will still go with him over McCain with no apology

The polls are close, the left is concerned and it's
starting to worry them
Saying stuff like "McCain is another Bush, Barack
should be burying him"

The media would like to see a close race, so they
can get more viewers
While they only care about advertisement dollars,
the country goes down the sewer

The meme in the media is that McCain's a war hero
and a maverick
But what they don't tell you as a fighter pilot he
was below average

He made it through the Academy because he was the son
of Admiral McCain
He graduated bottom of his class and crashed a total
of five combat planes

And what is so heroic about being shot down over Vietnam
Or bombing civilian villages, burning kids and their moms
alive with napalms

Dropping death from 20 thousand feet, soarig higher than
the birds
Lt. McCain was shot down, he merely got what he deserved.

Hip Hop Lives: Final Call News Interview with Nas

Final Call News

Though a young man (age 34) Nas has a long list of accomplishments. He is considered by most to be a legendary Hip Hop lyricist. Many of his lyrical appearances are considered some of the most memorable moments in Hip Hop and many of his albums are considered Hip Hop classics. Nas recently released his 9th album which debuted at No.1 on the charts. The Final Call’s Assistant Editor Ashahed M. Muhammad went One-on-One with the multi-platinum selling artist after his performance at the Rock the Bells Festival tour stop in Chicago.

The Final Call (FC) Let’s start with the song from your latest CD targeting Fox News called “Sly Fox.” What prompted you to make that song?

NAS: I kept hearing terrible things about FOX News. I never trust media outlets, so FOX News—when I heard bad things about them—I expected it to be real. But they didn’t really get on my radar until last year when I was supposed to do a concert for Virginia Tech University. Bill O’Reilly had three shows on me—he’s trying to do what he did to Ludacris and take away Ludacris’ Pepsi deal. So he had three shows on it. And, I said, “All right. I’m going to get him back,” you know? “I’ve got something to say too. I’ve got listeners the same way you got listeners”—except my listeners are more of a threat in today’s world. His listeners represent the Old Word, the old Republican, the old way of thinking about America. That is played out. And he doesn’t even know that most Whites don’t even think the way he thinks. But he has his ratings, right?

FC: Right.

NAS: So, I just said this is my way at getting back at him, [by] doing a song. It just so happens that the same time my album dropped, FOX News tries to be playful with “Obama’s Baby Mama” and all this. If I didn’t know who FOX was before, I really know who they are now and hopefully, some of my listeners can feel me.

FC: You have a voice, you have fans, you have people who listen to you and they’re influenced by what you say and you are using that to bring light to issues that you feel are important. That’s good, but some of rappers say, “Well, my music doesn’t have a message. I don’t necessarily have a social commentary. I’m not trying to tell anybody to do anything, you do what you want to do,” Why do you think it is important to use your voice in that way?

NAS: Hmm. Well, the ones that say they don’t have a message and all that, they’re gangsters, man. Let them be gangsters. Let them do them. I support them. Not everybody wants to have that responsibility. Not everyone is thinking like that. A lot of people’s lives are simple, you know what I’m saying? I tend to see things and I’ve always questioned things since I was young. I question things. And when I see things that are unjust, I react. I may be a little bit more extreme than a few of the other artists, that’s just me, it’s who I am. So all my music has something about me. I’m not a “specialist on race matters.” I just have an opinion, I just have an experience to talk about. So, if one album is about one thing, then that’s what I’m thinking about that year, and that’s what I’m thinking about musically. It may not be the best chart-topping album, but, as long as I can sleep at night knowing that’s what I really wanted to represent, cool. Then I’m good.

I’ve been sprinkling little pieces of my opinions on all my albums, but this one was just more dedicated to it. God has been good to me just allowing me to be here. I know a lot of people that couldn’t make it here. So today what I want to talk about is how I see things. I’m not coming down on a lot of people this year. That was “Hip Hop Is Dead.”

FC: Now, of course, the song that’s being talked about, the song “Louis Farrakhan.” Take us into your thinking when you laid down the lyrics to that.

NAS: Louis Farrakhan has made me cry. You know, what do you say about that, you know what I’m saying? When you see a man who put his life on the line for something—be he right or wrong—you admire him. But to me, Farrakhan is all the way right! I’m not sitting here going line for line, detail for detail, everything he says and all of that. It’s a whole body of work that he’s laid—he’s laid his life down for his people. No matter if you like it or not. Anybody like that I admire. And, you know, anybody in this position, they would kill off. He was smart enough to say “I have an army who believe in what I’m saying, that this is the Truth.” That “I would die for everyone, every soldier in that army.” They believe that and they know that’s true. So, you know, how could I not acknowledge that’s that; that’s what I acknowledge in my life, then, it’s going to bleed into the music. It’s not even on purpose. It just happened. It’s just my thoughts. “Some revolutionaries get old, although I’m told...” you know?

It’s like everybody’s scared to speak out about what’s in their heart, just because they’re scared of who is going to come down on them. They’re scared they’re going to get “blacklisted.” They’re going to get all their endorsements taken away from them. They’re scared that they can’t feed their families. I understand that, but I admire those people who know that, and still go and do what they have to do, you know what I mean? If I had enough money, I’d buy him a Rolls Royce tomorrow! You know what I’m saying? Like, that’s just how I feel about him!

He is a serious piece of history, you know, coming from Elijah Muhammad; coming from Malcolm X, coming from—that part of history is so special because it’s what America is scared to talk about. They’re scared to talk about that. And, if they would talk about it, it would help a lot of people. I know a lot of White cats that listen to Farrakhan! I went to a Coldplay concert, and his introduction was Farrakhan’s speech! So, I was blown away! I’m sitting next to Gwyneth Paltrow—we’re rocking to a Farrakhan speech! So, it made me go: “Damn! If he—why didn’t I use that in my music? I’ve been wanting to!” So I’m just trying to show the love back now.

FC: You sound like you have a little bit more control over the content of what goes into your songs. I’ve talked to a lot of different hip hop artists who say, “Well, the label made me make this song or, I wanted to make a song like this and they wouldn’t let me.” Did you feel any pressure? Do you have a little more control because of your longevity and your success in the business?

NAS: Yeah, yeah I did. But, because I was that guy from the beginning, people can respect that I’m that same guy now. When I played this song, a few people were scared. When I played my album, a few people around me were scared. None of my family—they’re riders, they know who I am, you know? But, a few friends were scared for me, and just scared in general. I had to let them know there’s nothing to be scared of. What can you do to me that you haven’t to me already? So, whatever’s going to happen to me, I don’t (care.) I mean, if you’re talking about “Can you put out records that you want to put out?”—that’s been my whole career. I always have issues with the record company. I’m also a business man, and I want to appeal to everyone sometimes. Sometimes I don’t care, but there are times when I want to appeal to everyone.

So, there’s conversations with record labels, rumors, they shake my hand and smile at me, then there’s rumors that they’re going to drop me because I’m doing what I’m doing. But, at the end of the day, everybody realizes I’m really just trying to not just come out as a crazy extremist or anything like that. I’m just having fun doing who I am. People tend to call it “controversial.” As far as a marketing plan, the marketing plan is the people!

FC: On your CD, there is a song called “Black President.”

NAS: Mmm-hmm.

FC: What are your thoughts?

NAS: I’m excited like everybody else. I think it’s cool. A cool brother. Who could front on him? I think a lot of the leaders from the Civil Rights Era feel like they didn’t want to leave this Earth acknowledging another Black man going to the next level. They wanted to be the “end all, be all” of it all and they can’t stand to see another—that’s why I said, you know it’s colored folks and Negroes hate to see one of our own succeeding, because they feel like their moment was their moment, you know what I mean? And, that we should only acknowledge their moment because they’ve been through the (thrown) bricks, and the name calling and segregation and all that.

So now that things have been smoother, things are different now, and they feel like this guy may have it easy. That has nothing to do with anything! The kids don’t relate to that. All the kids relate to is seeing him the same way they see Kobe Bryant and want to play basketball. The same way they see Tiger Woods and now want to play golf. It’s the same way—or even better that they can see Barack and they could see themselves becoming him.

So we don’t have time to hate each other. We don’t have time.

FC: Have you thought about what you want to do when or if you decide that you don’t want to keep on making records?

NAS: Yeah! Tons of times! That is not a reality. The reality is like B.B. King. The reality is that I was buying tickets to a James Brown concert a month before he died. You do this to the grave—whether you like it or not!

People say, “I don’t want to rap when I’m this age.” There is no exit! That does even make sense! We can sit here and lie and say “You know, I’m too old to be rapping.” It does not make sense. B.B. King works like 365 days a year. A Tribe Called Quest has been around 20 years, or something like that. So, maybe you don’t want to do it and somebody’s trying to offer you that check. Beyond the check, your love for what you do (makes) you want to get out there again and entertain or please people. It’s just, God gave you a gift, and you just use it.

FC: You can tell tonight at the show that you really enjoy performing. Thank you and I appreciate your time.

NAS: I appreciate you too.

Approval Ratings: The Public v. McCain

USA, RIP: Remembering the richest third-world country on Earth

From Unknkown News

We in the US are suffering a crisis of loyalty to our country.

Historically it is as if we have moved from a jingoistic nativ-ism directly to national nihilism in a couple of generations. The deep self-serving polarizations between the two dominant political parties, the hidebound commitment of so many to various political and economic ideologies, the increasing fundamentalist fanaticism of various religious groups and, most of all, deep allegiances to corporate and
multinational goals, have left no room for simple patriotic loyalty to country.

Everywhere we see patriotism proclaimed by scoundrels and the simple-minded and ignored by the rest. To an increasing number of US citizens their chief identity is couched in membership in some ethnic, religious or political group. Nowhere do we see people saying that we are all on the same side and, for the sake of the country as a whole, we need to compromise and settle our differences. No-one seems to place the welfare of the entire nation before their parochial con- cerns. This is dissolution.

To an astounding extent, people identify first as members of a faction and only as an afterthought as members of a community that contains within it members of other competing factions. We have become a nation of accidental traitors who care little about the welfare or reputation of their country.

As a functional reality, the United States of America has ceased to exist. We have a Constitution that is ignored and disowned by every center of power. We have a system of laws that are so selectively applied and enforced that it has become more of a system of excuses for the powerful. We have a government financial structure that has primarily been used as a convenient cash machine for criminals. We have developed a national debt, as a result of this looting, that can not conceivably be repaid and hence has driven the country effectively into bankruptcy.

We have a military that has been massively overbuilt and over-funded to the benefit of war profiteers, and which is sent on missions that only decrease the security of the country while pursuing economic gains for the multinational companies whose incestuous tentacles embrace the officer corps and their co-conspiring politicians with bribes and promises of future corporate positions and club membership in an international cabal of wealth.

We have a "representative" legislature that consistently ignores the will of the people who elect them. We have become a nation of irony, conceived in liberty but now dedicated to oppression.

Our real, unspoken pledge of allegiance goes like this, "I pledge allegiance to my faction and the lies for which it stands. One nation under the thumb of international conglomerates with impunity and wealth for marketplace winners and suffering and poverty for the rest."

Our true national religion is unbridled capitalism and opportunism, known in ancient times as the worship of mammon. We have abandoned our souls to the pursuit of commodities. We treat as enemies anyone who champions social reform, lest in the change that is called for we end up having to make some material sacrifice.

We watch as our nation is led in opposition to the rest of the world with actions that are indifferent to the climate crisis. In the face of dire warnings of worldwide catastrophe we accelerate our contribution to climate change as a matter of pride. We enforce with military might grossly unfair trade policies that are causing worldwide hunger and thirst.

We are a nation of individual petty tyrants with a depraved indifference to the suffering that we cause. We lack the attitude of mutual concern that defines a nation. We are no longer a nation. We are a loose association of consumers and pirates.

Finally, on every measure of standing except for strategic military power, the US has fallen to a dismally low status. Last amongst industrial countries in health care, public education, lawfulness, justice, fair elections and much else. We are the richest third-world country on Earth.

The US is dead. Long live the ideals on which it was founded.

Racism and the Race

From the NY Time

This is supposed to be the Democrats’ year of destiny. Bush is hobbling out of office, the economy is in the toilet, voters are sick of the war and the party’s wunderkind candidate is raking in money hand over fist.

So why is the presidential race a statistical dead heat? The pundits have offered a host of reasons, but one in particular deserves more exploration: racism.

Barack Obama’s candidacy has shed some light on the extremes of racism in America — how much has dissipated (especially among younger people) and how much remains.

According to a July New York Times/CBS News poll, when whites were asked whether they would be willing to vote for a black candidate, 5 percent confessed that they would not. That’s not so bad, right? But wait. The pollsters then rephrased the question to get a more accurate portrait of the sentiment. They asked the same whites if most of the people they knew would vote for a black candidate. Nineteen percent said that those they knew would not. Depending on how many people they know and how well they know them, this universe of voters could be substantial. That’s bad.

Welcome to the murky world of modern racism, where most of the open animus has been replaced by a shadowy bias that is difficult to measure. As Obama gently put it in his race speech, today’s racial “resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company.” However, they can be — and possibly will be — expressed in the privacy of the voting booth.

If the percentage of white voters who cannot bring themselves to vote for a black candidate were only 15 percent, that would be more than all black voters combined. (Coincidentally, it also would be more than all voters under 24 years old.) That amounts to a racial advantage for John McCain.

And this sentiment stretched across ideological lines. Just as many white independents as Republicans said that most of the people they knew would not vote for a black candidate, and white Democrats were not far behind. Also, remember that during the Democratic primaries, up to 20 percent of white voters in some states said that the race of the candidate was important to them. Few of those people voted for the black guy.

Some might say that turnabout is fair play, citing the fact that 89 percent of blacks say they plan to vote for Obama. That level of support represents a racial advantage for him, too, right? Not necessarily. Blacks overwhelmingly vote Democratic in the general election anyway. According to CNN exit polls John Kerry got 88 percent of the black vote in 2004.

Think racism isn’t a major factor in this election? Think again.

Comedian, South Sider Bernie Mac dies at 50

I woke up this morning to some sad news on the entertainment front. I learned that Commedian Bernie Mac has died from complications due to pneumonia. The full story from Chicago Sun Times:

Comedian Bernie Mac died at Northwestern Memorial hospital early Saturday morning, according to his publicist, Danica Smith. He was 50.

"Actor/ comedian Bernie Mac passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital," Smith said in a statement. "No other details are available at this time. We ask that his family's privacy continues to be respected."

Sun-Times columnist Stella Foster said that she received calls early Saturday morning from a close friend of the Mac family, confirming the reports of Mac's death.

The columnist also said she was deeply saddened to receive such a phone call just an hour after Mac was pronounced dead.

"It brought tears to my eyes because Bernie Mac has always been my all-time favorite entertainer and comedian. It pains me to have to report that," Foster said during a phone interview on Saturday morning.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for the actor, whose real name is, Bernard McCullough, said that he had been responding well to treatment for the illness.

Smith said Thursday in a statement that Mac's condition is ''stable.'' Smith first announced Aug. 1 that Mac was hospitalized in Chicago.

Smith said Mac's pneumonia wasn't related to an inflammatory lung disease Mac also had. That condition was in remission since 2005.

Foster noted that last weekend several web sites reported wrongly that the comedian died.

Mac made waves last month with off-color jokes during a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The comedian starred in the critically acclaimed Fox television series ''The Bernie Mac Show.'' His film credits include roles in the ''Ocean's Eleven'' franchise.

Foster says she was remembers Bernie's comedic beginnings through his show, "Midnight Mac," which aired for four shows on HBO and was taped in Chicago in 1995.

"It was a variety entertainment show," she said, "He even had dancers called Macaroni's. That was my first exposure to how talented Bernie Mac was. And after that show, that's when Hollywood started beating down his door."

Mac started his comedy career at age 8, with a standup performance at a church dinner. In 1977, at age 20, he took that act to comedy clubs in Chicago.

His film career started with a small role as a club doorman in the Damon Wayans movie "Mo' Money" in 1992. Mac went on to star in the "Ocean's Eleven" franchise with Brad Pitt and George Clooney and his turn with Ashton Kutcher in 2005's "Guess Who?" — a remake of the Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn 1967 classic "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" — topped the box office.

Mac also had starring roles in "Bad Santa," "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Transformers."

The comedian drew critical and popular acclaim with his Fox television series "The Bernie Mac Show," which aired more than 100 episodes from 2001 to 2006.

The series about a man's adventures raising his sister's three children, won a Peabody Award in 2002. At the time, judges wrote they chose the sitcom for transcending "race and class while lifting viewers with laughter, compassion — and cool."

The show garnered Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for Mac. He also was nominated for a Grammy award for best comedy album in 2001 along with his "The Original Kings of Comedy" co-stars, Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Cedric The Entertainer.

In 2007, Mac told David Letterman on CBS' "Late Show" that he planned to retire soon.

"I'm going to still do my producing, my films, but I want to enjoy my life a little bit," Mac told Letterman. "I missed a lot of things, you know. I was a street performer for two years. I went into clubs in 1977."

Mac was born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough on Oct. 5, 1957, in Chicago. He grew up on the city's South Side, living with his mother and grandparents. His grandfather was the deacon of a Baptist church.

In his 2004 memoir, "Maybe You Never Cry Again," Mac wrote about having a poor childhood — eating bologna for dinner — and a strict, no-nonsense upbringing.

Mac's mother died of cancer when he was 16. In his book, Mac said she was a support for him and told him he would surprise everyone when he grew up.

"Woman believed in me," he wrote. "She believed in me long before I believed."

The actor's upcoming movies include "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" starring Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and David Schwimmer; and "Soul Men" with Samuel L. Jackson and Isaac Hayes.

There is no word on whether public services will be held.

McCain Unplugged

Checkout John McCain at a rally unscripted and unplugged. He's stumbling about on stage, not making any since what so ever. Is this the guy that America might pick as the leader of the free world?

Why can't Iran have nukes?

Anyone who thinks nuclear weapons aren't already in the worst hands imaginable right here in America has never been to Houston, Texas.

It is patently racist to say that white Christian global expansionists can have nukes, but Brown Islamic global expansionists can't. Especially when the price for not having nukes is that your country is subject to a drop-by US Marine "Liberation" at any time.

Iran is a sophisticated modern country with a lot of really smart people and a very rich culture.

They would probably use nukes the same way every-
one except Truman has used them: Not at all.

"But they are enemies of the United States!" Yeah, and so was Joe Stalin, who didn't ever drop the bomb or smuggle one in to a port or so much as spit on us with a pea shooter.

Why, because the scariest monster in the room is: us!

The Ayatollah and his Islamic state were classic blowback resulting from our installation of the Shah, a cruel right-wing dictator in the employ of a certain classified agency we all know and love.

Incidentally, my dad was a counselor at an upstate New York summer camp where the Shah's son was a camper. The young prince taught my sister how to tie her shoes, no shit. My mom, who is the quintessential West-Texas Fascist, got to meet the Shah and his wife.

"They were such nice people..." she would always say of them whenever something came on the television about how he was a brutal, unpopular dictator that was Charlie McCarthy for the U.S. Government.

Real Persians on the street just want cell-phones and Mercedes now. Denying them nuclear technology just because they stand up to the United States a little bit is incredibly immature, bully behavior on the part of our chest-beating, bully, so-called foreign policy apparatus.

With Obama, a little uncertainty

You may not like the article below, but it does make some decent points. Even if some of them make McCain look good, and Obama look iffy.

I must admit the only thing I too know about Obama doing that I admire, was give a spectacular speech once. He even made me believe he was anti-war. But all the points he scored with me there he has since lost with his FISA betrayal, and his talk that he will continue to war-monger and throw infinite cash at the Pentagon much the same as Bush or McCain after elected. And he might not do much towards universal healthcare, either.

No, I'm not voting McCain. I preferred him over Bush in 2000 as the Republican candidate, especially when he bad-mouthed the Pat Robertson bunch. But since then he's turned completely around and kissed their ass.

I prefer Obama simply in the hope he'll be a better President than he says he will at the moment (yeah, that sounds dumb, but we ain't got many choices here, do we?). Where my vote is concerned, McCain is doomed for becoming Pat Robertson and the GOP's water boy, plus the real-life catastrophe his Republican party has made of America over the past 8 years. We pretty much KNOW terrible things are going to happen if the Republicans retain the office. With Obama, there's a least a little more uncertainty about how terrible things will get.

Obama's problem is many progressives like me — the bedrock of Democratic support — have had Obama puncture our hopes of him like a child's balloon, since getting the nomination. We're no longer as enthusiastic and willing to talk him up as before. When we go to the polls, we'll be hanging our heads and muttering "Goddamn it, I wish I had somebody better to vote for." That feeling could easily translate into lots of voters switching to a third party candidate (as helped Bush win in 2000). Or simply not showing up at the polls at all (as may also have helped Bush in 2000).

One of the strategies Republicans love most to use in elections is to dampen down voter enthusiasm for Democratic candidates, in order to reduce Democratic turnout. Since capturing the nomination, Obama has been doing that all on his own.

To me, that seems awfully stupid of him. But maybe he's really smart, like some say. In that case, maybe it's not stupidity on his part, but plain old arrogance or egotism instead.

Whichever it is, the end result could be the same: a Republican win in 2008.

Source