A line from the Music Man…..
“Brothers and sisters here in River City we got ourselves a real problem…”
Regarding Barack Obama’s myopia, I recently read an article covering an interview with Barack Obama’s sister. During the interview she attempted to answer the question as to why in the face of obvious continuing racial insults, Barack continues to cling to the argument that the public animus directed at him is not racially motivated but due to other reasons. She said that Barack attended Punahou School, a private college preparatory school as a youngster in Hawaii. According to her this school is well known among the locals for producing graduates that are highly passive and submissive when confronted with racial conflicts with white people. She said she believes it is this behavior in Barack that many white people misclassify as being “super cool”. More below the fold.
Assuming Barack’s sister has a correct assessment of President Obama’s personality, and after an extensive nine month high powered smear campaign, the right wing MSM TV Hosts (Beck, Dobbs, etc) have concluded that for some reason, they have no need to fear any repercussion from the Obama administration, then we all are in a heap of trouble!
Jimmy Carter had to say it for Barack, because those rose colored Hawaiian glasses put on Barack’s young psyche has disconnected him from racial reality in America. Now I have met a lot of black men who felt and behaved exactly like Barack when it came to matters of race. But these men did not hold the responsibility of the American Presidency in their hands, so in this respect, their respective attitudes were at the most inconsequential. So as President Carter put it, “racism is once again bubbling up because some people refuse to accept the reality of a black man as President of the United States”. Carter’s response to a question about the surge in racism in America was essentially a clear unequivocal warning not only to the White House but to the Congress and State Houses all over the country.
When the question concerning President Carter’s statement that the expanding animus toward the President was due to racism was asked at today’s White House press conference, the Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, “the President DISAGREES with President Carter and doesn’t believe he is being attacked because of his race. The President does not believe criticism comes based on the color of his skin”
Brothers and sisters here in River City we got ourselves a big problem….”
Currently the issue is one of control!! No government anywhere in the world would allow direct widespread public expressions advocating insurrection and calls for overthrow of the Federal Government to go on as long as the Obama administration has without taking strong direct suppressive action. There’s a time for ice cream and there’s a time for castor oil, and unfortunately for the Obama administration its castor oil time.
I realize that some after reading the foregoing will snark and leave comments of disbelief calling for tin foil hats and such. To these folks I say, pray stay a little while longer and take my short trip down memory lane.
I am old enough to recall life in the United States during the Joe McCarthy period. Congressman McCarthy turned his dedicated mission to root out communism from every aspect of American life into a blatant grab for dictatorial power. Initially, McCarthy was laughed off as another Congressional clown wasting the taxpayer’s money on another stupid crusade. However, as his power grew and people started losing their life long careers simply because of a possible association that they may have had with some person in college or elsewhere, a person now publicly branded either as a communist or a fellow traveler. In order to make his dream into a reality, McCarthy knew that he would need absolute control over the American military, so he turned his anti-communist probe onto the General Staff of the U.S. Army. At this point the entire nation was nervously watching the drama unfold down in Washington. The Army desperately needed counsel and picked Harvard Professor, Joseph Welch, to represent them before McCarthy’s committee. For a nation cowered by fear, Joe Welch’s dry wit and encyclopedic knowledge of law broke McCarthy’s threatening grip upon the nation, and in my estimation saved America from a McCarthy dictatorship. Historically, Joe Welch was the right man at the right place, at the right time and he saved the nation. I have seen absolute fear grip this nation twice in my life and the McCarthy era was one of those times, so I know that this nation is highly susceptible to fear tactics.
I am certainly aware along with most of the Nation that the President’s plate and work schedule is overloaded with high priority issues demanding attention. But in the overall scheme of things, nothing, in my opinion, outranks the peaceful preservation of domestic law and order and internal security. The right of all Americans to go about their daily lives without the fearful prospect of encountering brutal mob violence is a sacred trust guaranteed by the Constitution; and the unique priority status of that right shall not, yea must not be bargained away or abrogated no matter how temporary in the commerce of political necessity or political expediency.
Without direct and immediate action to shut down this racially inspired growing micro-rebellion, the administration stands to lose control over law and order in many sections of the country in the near future. The current situation is made even more precarious by the teetering economy. If the economy experiences another downward spiral and employment climbs toward 15% nationwide, the ranks of the newly resurrected militias will explode with the rush of new recruits. The Obama administration needs to read the current issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report which details the return of the Militia Movement in the United States and its current explosive growth. This is serious stuff, remember the Oklahoma City bombing? Mr. President it’s time to take off those rose colored glasses and take a long hard look at America’s current reality.
You’re absolutely right about the threat and the danger if Obama continues to turn the other cheek.
Well. Check that. He’s doing more than turning the other cheek . . . he’s enabling his oppressors and actually ceding to their demands and actually making them stronger.
Glen Beck wrote up the game plan on his chalkboard for everyone to see. He’s going after Van Jones first . .. then he’s going after ACORN . . . .then the communists . . . which are all connected to . . . Obama at the top. Obama and everyone to the left of him are on Glenn Beck’s communist list. AND the Dems are actually scratching names off Glenn Beck’s list for him! As if this goober can be mollified by a couple of sacrificial negros, er, lambs.
But I don’t think reciprocating in kind is the way to go. We just saw that with the effort to try and label Joe Wilson as beyond the pale. In other words, the Dems tried to finally ‘stand up’ the the GOP, and throw a similar hissy fit, and it didn’t work. He won. He got all of his colleagues on the right to stand by him, he got his opponents to cave on his substantive policy wishes, he is a hero to his base, and even Obama doesn’t think these guys are going too far. He’s ready to work with them.
As a political matter, the Dems are not currently in the position to throw similar hissy fits and push certain people outside the bounds of acceptable American debate. It’s currently a one way street–the right and the media can make lefties not fit for polite serious discussions (see Van Jones, Rev. Wrigth, Michael Moore, Dennis Kucinich, MoveOn, ACORN, SEIU, peace activists, etc.) while the right’s even more extreme ideologues are treated as conquering heroes (Rush, Beck, Hannity, Coulter, etc.).
So I don’t think symbolic sanctions work against the GOP [KKK] party.
But I don’t know how you outlaw racism or marginalize these ratfucks via enacting laws. I guess we can have the FBI keep an eye on these guys and just prosecute the right-wingers as the shoot up liberal churches, or kill abortion doctors, or just a good old fashioned Southern negro hanging.
What the Dems do need to do is old-fashioned politicking. Give Van Jones and ACORN a God-Damned Medal of Freedom. Don’t give in an inch. Just like MLK would have done. He would have stood with Rev. wright or Van Jones and not thrown them under the bus! Just repeat the facts over and over. It’s long slow work to reverse this trend–but recipricating in kind, or banning their outbursts are going to be counter-productive. What do you propose? Gun control?
Sticking to the facts and redoubling efforts to get POLICY enacted are the ways to reverse this trend.
For instance. What is it the right-wingers claim they are screeching about? Socialized health care. Well, God-damned give it to them! Stuff it down their God Damned cowardly craven craws. Because of the GOP intransigence on health care reform I would schedule two votes. One vote to ban all of socialized medicine in America. Make the Repugs vote their conscience. Another vote should be the real bill which should be as far left as a majority in congress will allow; i.e. a bill to expand Medicare to those over 50, under 18, and those self-employed or out of work. That’s the compromise they get. Remind America this is the party that wants to take Medicare away! Stick to the facts, stick by our fighters (award them Medals of Freedom if the Right goes crazy against them), and don’t give in and stick it to these jerks!
I don’t know what is more infuriating . . . seeing the Dems whiff yet again after the ball was teed up for them . . . or the fact that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are beating us.
Good diary.
Thanks for the response. Obama has the entire apparatus of the DOJ at his disposal. He does not need to get involved personally to put a lid on the “Patriot” Militia upsurge. I don’t like Beck, Limbaugh, Savage, and those nutballs, f…k them, but these Militias really are dangerous. Militias don’t f…k around, they kill people. Remember there were only two militia guys acting independently that planned and executed the catastrophic Oklahoma City bombing.
Most people think that these Militias will attempt to stage an attack on Washington D.C. However, it is more likely that they will choose soft random targets initially, and that’s you, me and our respective families. This is the point of my concern.
Someone needs to break that cylinder of isolation around the President and get him to see that the time for action is NOW, before this hovering specter of domestic terrorism brings a crushing wave of destruction down upon the American public.
Fuck Obama. He’s on his own. If he hasn’t figured this Lucy kicking the football thing out by now he’s a lost cause or part of the problem.
And . . . I’m leaning towards Obama being part of the problem . . . like most of the Democratic party.
He’s giving liberals the big Fuck U. Well Fuck Him back. I’m sick of Obama pissing on me and having Democrats tell me Obama’s showering me with golden riches.
He’s reaping what he sows. Why should I lift a finger in his defense? He’s actively attacking my political allies, thwarting my policy goals, and enabling my enemies. And then he’s attempting to obfuscate his real agenda and lies to me about his true intent! I’m sorry he’s got some sort of emotional disability that causes him to attack his friends when his enemies attack him. I hope he gets over that but since I’m a realist it’s now more important for me to look out for my interests (and I guess I”m substituting “me” for “left of the left” or “liberal” or “progressive” or shit, what used to be called the Democratic party). I simply don’t believe Obama’s little shtick anymore that he’s trying as hard as dear little heart can muster (or, his winky winky messages to this effect). Hopefully more liberals will start seeing through his bullshit and realize he’s just not that into us–he’s got a steady on the rich side of town and he’s simply using us.
No. I’m done worrying about Obama’s future.
I’m a civil libertarian and while I fear right wing violence–we need to preserve our liberties. Desperately so. No more erosion of liberties in the name of terror. I wasn’t afraid of Muslim terror so that I gave up my rights and I’m not afraid of the right wingers so much that I will give up our rights. I don’t want our government infiltrating political groups unless there are some serious safeguards–(I’m not up to date on the constitutional law of this type of investigation, or the FBI guidelines, etc., but I want the most freedom possible).
In fact, I welcome future right-winger support for civil liberties (think of all the new readers Glenn G. will get :)) Too bad they didn’t care about it when Bush was in charge or when the victims were Muslim but I’m not going to feel bad for Democrats. They enabled Bush when he committed his worst crimes and now the Dems finally complain when their own personal liberty is at stake? Fuck You Obama. He shit all over the constitution both when he sat on his hands while in the Senate and now as President when his violations are even more egregious. Obama has willfully and knowingly violated the constitution for political expediency. There is no other reasonable interpretation of Obama’s actions. It is not reasonable to argue preventive detention is constitutional. Obama just knows that few care about Muslim people in America so he can cave in to this political pressure and violate the constitution (and he’s a law professor–he knows he violated the constitution).
In fact, can I tear up my DemocRAT registration card and join the ACLU political party?
Actual unemployment is already over 16%, I think.
The militias haven’t been “resurrected”; they never went away. Despite the fact that the media doesn’t report on them, I suspect the FBI has already infiltrated these groups. Since the OK bombing was a federal building, I’m sure they haven’t forgotten the danger and are ready to arrest individuals and groups who cross the line from posturing to planning actual acts. Will some nuts succeed in causing havoc somewhere? Possibly, BUT…
That’s the risk we have to accept under our Constitution. What “direct and immediate actions” do you want the government to take against people who are exercising their Rights to free speech and assembly? There’s a distinction between mouthing-off threats and plotting violent acts. Do you want a law against “hate speech”?
I’m pretty sure I typed the words, “I hate Bush,” on various blogs in recent years. Should I have been arrested for that? Stringing together “Federal Government…” with “…strong direct suppressive action…” makes me shudder with more fearfulness than raging Teabaggers.
SJCT wrote “I suspect the FBI has already infiltrated these groups.”
Aside from the Patriot Militias, there are new Patriot style groups coming onto the scene, namely the Sovereigns and the Nativists. In addition there are a multitude of race based hate groups who are also having a modest expansion from 602 in 2000 to 926 in 2008.(Ref. Southern Poverty Law Center.) Since the current year’s count totals for these groups will not be available until 2010, one can only use rough estimates for the total number of active groups. Therefore a rough estimate would reveal a count of over 3,000 violent hate anti-government groups operating in the U.S.
I doubt if the Fed’s have infiltrated one half of 1% of these groups. Historically, the FBI has relied on information available from the Southern Poverty Law Center for their critical data on hate groups operating in the United States. Therefore, I do not share your faith in the ability of the Federal Government to monitor these groups, regardless of the lessons of the OK City bombing.