Tag Archives: Barack Obama

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To Hell With Politics, This is WAR!

Several months ago I thought to myself, “You know, I hope President Obama wins a second term and I believe if he does he can get more things done than even his first.  But if Mitt Romney becomes president, it won’t be the worst thing that could have happened.”

Sure he’s pretty slick, but he certainly didn’t appear to be an off the chain loony like some of the previous candidates, i.e. Rick ‘Niggerrock’ Perry, Rick ‘No Birth Control’ Santorum, Michelle “Blame Obama for Everything” Bachmann and Herman “999 White Honeys I Screwed” Cain.  Romney seemed like the reasonable choice among republicans.  Much of his policies and politics in Massachusetts were fairly moderate for a Republican.

Since becoming the Republican nominee, I’ve done 180 on Mitt.  I’ve always said I don’t mind having a president whose policies I may differ with as long as I believe he/she truly cares about the nation and wants to serve it’s citizens.  Yes, one has to be ambitious to want to be the president, but ambition as the sole motivation presents a clear and present danger to the citizens of whom this person seeks to govern.

Mitt Romney is very rich. I’m perfectly fine with that.  However, when one has such a monetarily prosperous upbringing, it can be difficult to be in touch with or understand the plight of those who aren’t so prosperous.  Even that in itself shouldn’t be punished.  What is problematic instead, is when that same person has no interest in being made aware this plight.  What is downright unacceptable and morally reprehensible is when this same person goes out of his way to judge, demean and attack said people.  This is what we have in Mitt Romney.

Every time Romney opens his mouth regarding the majority of Americans he says something that either shows his willful ignorance or complete disdain for those who are not like him.

To college students at Otterbein University in Ohio he told them that if they don’t have the money to start a business to, “borrow money from your parents.”

****Keep in mind that the median family income for the 89 counties in Ohio is less than $60,000 per year. 

When he showed up in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac, (I have no idea why because he couldn’t do anything about it) he consoled Jodie Chiarello, 42, who lost her home in Isaac’s flooding by telling her, “There’s assistance out there,” go home and call 211.”

**Well, he must meant her SECOND or third home.  Well as it turns out she doesn’t have one of those.

Now in speaking at a private fundraiser he really let his true feelings known.

Exhibit A: On the disadvantages of being a rich White male in America:

“My dad, as you probably know, was the governor of Michigan and was the head of a car company. But he was born in Mexico. And had he been born of Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot of winning this… But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. He lived there a number of years, and I mean I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be Latino.”

**Apparently he believes this so much he painted his face in such a dark brown so that he can look the part!.  It’s hard to imagine this rich white man actually wants us to believe that he think he would be better off if he were Latino.  How amazing is that?

Exhibit B: On people who are not the wealthiest and richest in America:

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what.”

…”So my job is not to worry about those people, I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not, what he looks like.”

Juxtapose that to what President Obama said about those not voting for him in 2008, “What I said on election night was, even though you didn’t vote for me, I hear your voices, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to be your president.”

Look, this guy doesn’t want to show us his own personal tax returns over the last decade because he’s afraid of what they will reveal.  He has a shitload of off shore accounts to hide his personal fortune, and not only criticizes 47% of Americans who cannot afford to hide what little money they have in Switzerland or the Cayman Islands, but admitted that he doesn’t cares about them anyway!

As far as I’m concerned, the dye has been cast!  This is a guy who after passing universal healthcare in the state he governed, that the emergency room is an acceptable plan for folk who don’t have insurance now.  This is clearly THE most expensive way to handle ‘healthcare’.  Not only that, this defeats the purpose of the emergency room…which is to treat emergencies!  It’s not healthcare!

So memo for a few groups out there.

Racist White Conservatives: You can continue to believe the hype and buy into this racial crap if you want to.  But if you aren’t making serious bank Mitt’s policies are not going to pay dividends for your family!  Would you rather have a money in your pocket with a black man as president, or be broke as a joke with a white one?  I know many of you would take the former, but I’m appealing to some of you who have better sense and will think about your finances and get over losing the Civil War!

Black Conservative Christians: I’ve already talked to you before.  The bible says to get wisdom, and with that get understanding.  Mitt isn’t going to overturn abortion. And he can’t outlaw homosexuality.  That horse it out of the barn!  You’re going to have to deal with gays and lesbians for the duration.  Regardless of what you believe personally or scripturally, you still have a responsibility to vote on more than social issues.  We are already making less than white folks as it is for the same jobs. Unemployment and incarceration hurt us more than anybody else.  Don’t be fools and end up more jobless and broker than ever, only to end up praying in church to God about delivering you from financial ruin!  So many of the challenges we face are not the devil, it’s you and us making decisions totally opposite of what is in our own best interest.

Pastors, if your congregation ain’t working, ain’t no tithes and offerings coming through the door!  Smarten up and lead the people with a purpose beyond what mainstream White Christians and White Christian radio is telling you!

To the rest of us, I say make sure you get out there and vote for Barack Obama.  Make sure your friends and family members are registered to vote and do the same!  Don’t take anything for granted.  Mitt, the hard right Republicans and The Tea Party are not playing with you.  You better take this seriously and understand the ramifications of the times we are living in.  This is indeed war on American and American families!  You best to soldier up unless you want to get run over!

Think about yourself and your families! Participate in the destinies of our lives so that we can have the best possible chances at thriving in our America too!

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The Politics of Race, Religion, and the Person of Jesus

This is a serious question for my Evangelical Christian friends who are hoping that Mitt Romney is the next president of the United States. I am not being flippant at all but wanting to understand a question central to your faith in Jesus and the way you generally express that faith as it relates to local and national politics.

My question is how do you justify supporting Mitt Romney for president when he is a Mormon?

My personal experience in church, evangelical churches in particular focuses on the central personhood/divinity of Jesus Christ as not only the Son of God but being God Himself.

Matthew 16:13-18

13When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

14And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

15He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

16And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

This has been the litmus test for a ‘legitimate Christian’. And truth be told regardless of the denomination, this central core of the identity of Jesus at the very least united the fold.

Romney_2012_04285Mitt Romney

This is slightly different than Catholics.  Even the hard right ones tend to vote for the political persuasion of candidates rather than looking for them to specifically be Catholics.  JFK is the one Catholic president we’ve had.  Therefore, being Catholic is not a deal breaker when voting for president.

Evangelicals don’t share that same standard.  For instance, George W Bush’s conversion to Christianity after alcoholism was a really big deal to White and Black Conservative Christians.  In addition to his alignment with the pro-life, anti-gay, anti-stem cell stances, he was an easy choice religiously; so much so that the rest of his politics were automatically supported.

The subject of Mormonism had come up earlier in the primaries.  Initially the Evangelical community were tremendously reticent on supporting Romney for this reason.  It was only after the likes of Perry and Santorum were dismissed that the litmus test was rescinded.  

In the Christianpost.com, a potential conflict played out between the views of mega preacher Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston and Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas differed.  Osteen who many would consider a less controversial and less confrontational preacher said he accepted Romney as a ‘believer’ in Christ.

Said Osteen, “What I see about Gov. Romney is that he says ‘I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He’s raised from the dead and he’s my savior.’ I see him as being a believer in Christ like me.”

Contrast this with Robert Jeffress, who said, “Rick Perry’s a Christian. (Former presidential candidate) He’s an evangelical Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. Mitt Romney’s a good moral person, but he’s not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity, it has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity.”

Jeffress-copy-264x200Robert Jeffress

This certainly fits with what I understood Christians to believe for many years now.  I was taught this about Mormons in my own church experience.  More specifically, the differences centered on several scriptural beliefs that including the one aforementioned regarding the person of Christ.  Here are more from an article also posted in Christianpost.com.

Other differences that Mormons don’t believe that are key to Christian doctrine are items such as the Trinity.  Mormons don’t believe in it. Nor do they believe in original sin of Adam, salvation through grace and faith in Jesus Christ, and among other things that the Book of Mormon is equal to the bible.  Further study of Mormonism would reveal a lot more than that Christians would find strange and rather off beat in comparison to their own beliefs.  I won’t get into those specifics here but I wanted to focus on core doctrinal differences in posing my original curiosity.

Ironically enough, since Romney became the Republican nominee Jeffress has now changed his tune saying that he endorsed Romney all along.  He goes on further to say that President Obama ‘opposes biblical principals.’

Lets just see now… Barack Obama, Christian man who has been married to one woman, father of two, the quintessential family guy, claims Jesus Christ as his savior,  church going and former community organizer opposes biblical principals.  This president even targets his policies and campaign partially on issues that Jesus Himself found important according to scripture, i.e. the poor, the downtrodden, the sick and so forth.  But the Mormon whose religion Christians have been calling a ‘cult’ for decades, who has not done anything to show forth the works and concerns of Jesus in the marketplace should now get the vote over Obama?  It doesn’t add up!

First Family 2President Obama & Family

Strangely enough, Jeffress believes Romney and other Mormons are going to hell.  He also says that he believes that President Obama is a Christian.  But yet he will vote for the man he believes is going to hell not the one he believes serves the same lord and savior he claims to serve himself.

Now in hoping that my friends on the right are willing to give me honest and sincere answers, let me first offer two answers that won’t cut it.

A) Obama is not pro-life.

I have yet to meet anyone who is pro-abortion.  The ability for a woman to choose whether to carry pregnancy to term has several complicated factors within it.  They range from poverty, rape, incest, life of the mother and so forth.  Church denominations have always differed in the level of importance they’ve held to this topic.  Most do not see this as a central theme of faith but a personal choice whose merits will ultimately be decided by God’s providence.  Even former Vice President Dan Quayle said that if his wife were raped and became pregnant she would have a DNC.  This is clearly a distinction without a difference.  The truth is that rich women have and always will be able to obtain the safest care in terminating a pregnancy regardless of the laws or what they claim to believe in public.  With all of these factors, surely one cannot with a straight face make a presidential choice based on an opinion that he has that is already the law of the land anyway.

B) Obama’s faith is not ‘like ours.’  Look at his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Christians cannot legitimately rail on Wright as an excuse to say bad things about Obama’s faith.  Not when they have their own pool of radical preachers who’ve said controversial things like Pat Robertson, who said of the US State Department in Washington DC, "Maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up."  Then there’s Jerry Falwell who said, "AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose it would be like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save one of Pharaoh’s charioteers … AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."  I can only imagine what would happen if Wright had said something encouraging terrorism and violence against American citizens.

Obama  has had one wife and two children.  He’s never had any family scandal, and his wife and kids are a reflection of the American dream.  They show what one can do when starting with little and making the very best of what they have.  They were not born into wealth.  They are both highly accomplished people in large part because they worked their asses off and on top of that, they used those talents to help others not just themselves.  Till this day.  President Obama’s biggest income generators has been the books he’s written.  This is more of an example of Jesus than any other candidate that has run for president in several decades in the least.

So I am asking for real answers.  It seems to me even when it comes to Christianity, many Christians are willing to compromise when it comes to the politics of race.  I can only imagine if President Obama were claiming some other religion where there was a history of polygamy, an unwillingness to ordain white men in ministry as recently as less than 40 years ago, there is no doubt to me that this religious thing would be a much bigger issue than it is now among White and Black evangelical Christians.  He would be perceived as having an un-American womanizing anti-Christ belief system. Right leaning Christians would easily be comfortable rallying against him all the way through November on faith principals alone.  Instead, right wing Christians have totally given Mormonism a free pass, while turning their backs on the Christian already in the White House.  I’m merely curious as to how it is justified.

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Shhhh, Where are the Right Wing Tyrants?

Ed Rollins says President Obama was right to authorize the rescue attempt for a freighter captain held by pirates.

I like Ed Rollins because he always keeps it real regardless of political affiliations.  Which is why I have to give it to him for his praise of President Obama in handling the Somali pirate crisis and saving the life of a ship’s captain. 

Where the hell are Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the likes on this matter?  I can’t hear them at all.  I’m certain they would rather things gone awry regardless of the captain’s ultimate fate since it would give them fodder to spill their hate filled rage against the man. 

Instead of the praise they should offer as Americans… all we have is silence!

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Education in America

As both a  parent and a advocate for children I am always concerned about the direction of our public education.  President Obama today in speaking to Teachers Unions rebuffed the Democratic party and touted among other things merit pay for successful teachers.  He also talked about removing teachers who are ineffective as well along with investing more in early childhood education. 

Obama said,

“Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom. Too many in the Republican Party have opposed new investments in early education, despite compelling evidence of its importance.”

Obama also called for more charter schools and longer school hours.

I have some mixed feelings on all of these.  I am definitely for rewarding excellent teachers, I just don’t know how one will be able to measure that.  While good and bad teachers are often easy to spot, too often office politics, personalities and union mandates can prevent the better teachers from being rewarded.  I have seen successes in some charter schools.  My daughter attended one for 6 years before moving and having to go public again.  Her particular charter experience was wonderful.  She is further ahead than her current classmates.  At the same time, some charter schools are merely money making projects and I live in a town where the mayor is trying his very best to place all public education in private charter school creating hands.  He wants his political friends to get that steady stream of government education money. 

See that’s the thing.  If we look at this thing honestly, we’ll find that every education opportunity will not be the same for every child.  As much as I would like it to be, it’s just not a realistic thing to expect in a capitalist society.  If one can afford to pay for a high performing private school where that type of money invested more often than not assures the parental involvment and community support necessary to advance in the marketplace, more power to you!  Still we should value public education which means being innovative and trying new things.  Getting rid of bad teachers is an excellent idea.  School competition is a good thing as well.  Which is why the ideas of charter schools don’t particularly offend me.  The problem comes with excess of political pandering and bull$%#@ ways of doing things.  Ideas are great but the devil is always in the details.  I have been to enough school board meetings to see for myself.

I look at it like a double edge sword.  Back in the day big businesses used labor to generate profit but were reluctant to offer labor it’s fair share.  There is no question that there was a strong need for unions to bargain for workers.  Similarly, many unions have abuse bargaining ideas giving way to overpaid labor who don’t feel the urgency to put in a good days work since they have a level of protection.  For decades they have been steeped in their own level of corruption.  What are you going to do?  The powers that be on both sides are often inherently corrupt.  This is what we are dealing with when it comes to education in many ways.  And both sides are still fighting for majority and in some cases total control.

Because people take sides based on their affiliations, we usually get an either or approach instead of combining good ideas  to try to gain a viable solution.  And again if integrity is not at the center of the ideas and most of all injected into implementation of ideas, then far too many of our elementary and secondary educational facilities will remain inept.

What do you think?

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Preach Preacher! Obama Chooses Right “Man of God”

Obama's inaugural choice ignites outrage

I hear liberals are in an outrage that President elect Obama chose Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the inauguration next month.  Supposedly the most vocal resistance is coming from the gay rights movement.  On the heels of the gay marriage ban in California as well as a few other states, they aren’t too keen on the idea of an evangelical Christian praying the president into office. 

I have a message for my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters on this one.  “Stand down and pick another battle!”  Its is silly and short-sighted to raise hell over this one.  For one, Rick Warren isn’t being appointed to any office here.  He is a minister and author.  He is not going to set forth any policies that affect the gay and lesbian communities.  If you do some research on him, you will find that he is one of the most forthright, honest and fair ministers in the country.  Warren is no James Dobson or Pat Robertson.  Billy Graham, (the traditional presidential preacher)  walked away after the election became official cause he didn’t want to deal with a black man.  Warren was the only minister who could pull off a presidential form the way he did.  He allowed each man to speak on his faith and not offer an opinion on who he thought was “morally right.”

Does Warren believe in gay marriage?  No.  But everyone who does not agree with you is NOT necessarily your enemy.  Faith as well as the precepts that support that faith are a personal issue and he has a right to his beliefs as you do yours.  Again if you read his works and listen to his messages, you won’t find a person preaching today who is less judgmental than Mr. Warren.  He’s been on the forefront of using his influence for AIDS prevention and awareness, holding an AIDS Summit at his church, with none of the slandering or gay blaming of other ministers.  Who was speaking against Warren as he reached out to Obama for support of that program?  People like Dobson and Robertson who are notoriously anti gay.  Additionally, he is a guy who will listen and dialogue with the gay community.  If one is willing to listen, you never know what could come of it.

I did a post on Rick Warren earlier this year when he was on Meet The Press with Tim Russert.   In the midst of evangelical leaders vying for position to bring more of the divide and hate tactics to the campaign, Warren’s words were so bright and encouraging, I could see the glow in Russert’s face to have a minister of the gospel speak with such love and perspective.  As a man who grew up in the church, loving its virtues and hating its hypocritical and judgmental ways, I felt good about Warren’s message, and even more so his presentation.  This guy has it together.  Of course you should fight on for what you believe in.  However, Warren is the wrong target!

**As an added feature, I am posting the participants of proceedings on January 20th.  You will also notice that Rev. Joseph Lowery (a pro gay rights minister) is also speaking and giving the benidiction.  Obama said this morning that the fact that Lowery and Warren do have some differences of opinions reflect why he chose them both as a reflection of our nation.  Thats a good thing.  What do you think would have happened with a McCain administration?

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Things I Hope Black Youth Learn from the Obama Presidency

Sen. Barack Obama will take a break from campaigning so he can visit his ailing grandmother.

Things I hope will inspire black youth regarding an Obama’s presidency: 

 

1. It’ts cool to be smart.  (I don’t want to ever again hear that to be smart is to “act white.” We come from a history of brilliant people!)

 

2. You can be both smart and cool at the same time.  (Look at the picture above!  Tell me who looks cooler than this cat?)  Plus he balls too like many of us.  The point is he balances his ball and his business!)

3. You can keep a calm demeanor when your haters come at you.  (Notice he didn’t say anything about Hillary, Palin, or McCain “disrespecting” him in the campaign. Even as some of his opponent’s supporters were calling for his life, < remember when Hillary went with the assisination comment earlier this year> he still kept his cool. )

4. Who you choose as a life partner is a vital decision, and he is all about home.  (For a man, women can either be king makers or dream killers.  Michelle is a real winner and she’s obviously his backbone.  Speaking of home, want to know what the Pres. Elect did the morning after the election?  He took his girls to school.  He understands his role as a father!  He even read books to his younger daughter consistently, even if he meant doing it from the campaign trail over the phone.)

5. You may or may not ever be president, but you can make something of yourself if you set goals and work towards them without quitting!  (There is a difference between reasons and excuses. Reasons may be stumbling blocks or circumstancs that cause delays.  But they can be oversome with the right game plan, hard work and perseverance. Excuses are just that.  They are the beginning of a lifetime of failure and demise.)

 

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Pick One

Barack and Michelle or Will and Jada (Coolest couple to hang with for a night)

Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles

Denzel Washington or Billy D Williams (heart throbs in their prime)

Denzel or Sidney Portier (acting skills only)

Dianne Carroll or Ruby Dee 

The Grammys or the AMA’s

Bird or Miles

Venus or Serena

Cracker Barrell or IHOP

The Pope or the Dalai Lama (to dine & have have an open and honest dialogue with about religion & world affairs)

Malcolm or Martin (one conversation…why)

OJ or Clarence Thomas (black folks that black folk don’t care about the most)

OJ or Osama (person of color Whites hate the most)

Rush or Hannity (most ignorant racist in media)

The Five Heartbeats or The Temptations

Hannible Lecter or Kevin Spacey in Se7en (coldest criminal)

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Obama gets the click!

    Pre-election Obama makes a slightly smoother call.

Oh the times we live in today.   Our President Elect attempts to reach out to a Florida republican congresswoman via telephone and was abruptly hung up on…….. twice.

Congresswoman Illeana Ros-Lehtinen was initially told by an aide that Obama wanted to speak with her.  She took the call and after hearing his voice said, “This is a joke from one of the South Florida radio stations known for these pranks.”   Then she ended the call.

Soon afterwards, Rahm Emmanuel, Obama’s pending Chief of Staff called her as well to tell her that it was indeed the President Elect.   She didn’t believe him either so he got the click too!  LOL

Obama persisted having Howard Berman chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee phone her.  After an exchange of recouting things only the two of them would know, she conceded and took the call from Obama.

I can’t say I blame the congresswoman.  In these days of “Punked” and crank calls on morning radio, one can’t be too careful less he/she looks like Sarah Palin when she thought she was talking to the French President – only to find she was talking to silly ass DJ’s.

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Please Obama, Say NO to “The Diva” William!

bill_clinton.jpg

It was only recently during the campaign that William “The Diva” Jefferson Clinton was going Joe Traderman Lieberman and dogging the soon to be President Elect every chance he got.  Not just during the primary when his wife was running for her own piece of history.  (That was understandable.)  But once the primaries past,  The Diva was bitter and all but campaigned for John McCain.  He was going around calling McCain a “great man” but wouldn’t even say Barack’s name. 

Now he’s all on Obama’s nuts-sack trying to get put on like Bonita Applebaum for some “Super Ambassador” role.  What the hell is a Super Ambassador?  Is that like Superman Lover or a Super Delegate?  Just some shit he made up to gloss himself once again and get under Obama’s “spotlight.”  (Somebody get this fool a copy of Jennifer’s CD)

The Ultimate Collection

Anyway – The President Elect already made Hillary Sec of State.  I think he’s given the Clinton’s enough bones to play with and if The Diva is left to do his speaking engagements and collect cheddar from the world’s leading crooks for his “charities,” then go right ahead.  Don’t be trying to get all up in the Kool-Aid now!  Ya HATER!

kool_aid.jpg