or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
January 08, 2008
Glen Ford On Barack Obama
This is a good day to start years of criticizing Barack Obama from the left. Here's Glen Ford in the Black Agenda Report:
Barack Obama's corporate-made and -financed presidential campaign is the product of three distinct factors, all mitigating against Black self-determination and political cohesion: 1) corporate decisions, made a decade ago, to provide media and financial support to pliant Black Democrats that can be trusted to carry Wall Street's water; 2) a widespread desire among whites to prove through the safe and simple act of voting that they are not personally racist, and/or to dismiss Black claims of pervasive racism in society, once and for all; 3) a huge reservoir of Jim Crow era, atavistic Black thinking that refuses to evaluate Black candidates' actual political stances, but instead revels in the prospect of Black faces in high places. A President Obama would, of course, be the zenith of such narrow, non-substantive, objectively self-defeating visions...In 2007, the Obama "package" amply satisfied all three "constituencies"...Given the prevailing racism in white American society - a racism that craves revenge for U.S. defeats at the hands of darker peoples even as it expresses opposition to particular, lost wars - and the ever southward thrust of U.S. aggression, Black America is the historically logical center for opposition to U.S. marauding, especially in Africa. Dr. King declared in 1967, in the heat of the Vietnam War, that Black America's destiny was to "save the soul of America" from the "triple evils" of "racism, materialism and militarism" - a huge historical fact that Barack "Joshua" Obama conveniently fails to process.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at January 8, 2008 02:49 PMYeah, yeah, and with respect due, talk about "saving the soul of America" has the same effect (on me, at least) as Moo Shi with too much MSG.
Better: Ralph Nader yesterday on Counterpunch on "Obamarama" and closer to home, Dennis Perrin today.
Why would Wall Street want specifically a black Democrat to carry their water? I don't think they care about the skin color or political affiliation.
Posted by: abb1 at January 8, 2008 03:55 PMWhy would Wall Street want specifically a black Democrat to carry their water?
Why is Condoleeza Rice the secretary of State?
To defuse opposition. Whites criticizing: racist. Blacks criticizing: disloyal.
African-American president gives an extra six months to a year of honeymoon riding on "give the brother a chance"-ism.
Posted by: Nell at January 8, 2008 04:22 PMActually, the hard left has been criticizing Barack Obama since 2004, haven't they?
Posted by: Dan Coyle at January 8, 2008 04:31 PMWhy would Wall Street want specifically a black Democrat to carry their water? I don't think they care about the skin color or political affiliation.
Posted by abb1 at January 8, 2008 03:55 PM
The reason? To kill two birds with a single stone.
The array of problems left behind by the Bush Crime Cabal is so huge and intractable that NO ONE will be able to undo all the damages, or even a significant number of them. All the crises facing any new President are past the power of any person to ameliorate.
By installing either Shrillary or Obama (the 'exotic' candidates), they guarantee themselves a very nearly perfect scapegoat for the inevitable failure of 'system' to fix any of the problems the new President will be expected--and elected--to fix.
The inevitable failures will discredit both the "idea" of government even further (the Bush agenda), as well as it will undermine the credibility of "change" as a political instrument.
This plan might come acropper, if there happened to be a liberal/progressive super-majority elected alongside the new President. But I think that's so unlikely as to utterly defy credulity.
So it's win/win for big money. If the Puke gets in, it's bidness as usual. If the Dem, then it's wait four years for them to reveal their inability to fix the problems, at which time the CorpoRats may return to the huzzahs of a desperate People.
Anyway, that's how the cynic in me sees it. And I don't care if the glass is half-empty or half-full as long as it holds liquor and I won't cut my lip when taking a sip.
Posted by: konopelli/wgg at January 8, 2008 04:46 PMDan
Who's the "hard left" in this country? The Revolutionary Communist Party? Cockburn and his fellow wannabe Leninists at Counterpunch?
And, since I'm gonna watch the Lampoon Vacation from New Hampshire soon, the required question: How hard are they? Comparatively speaking, of course.
perfect scapegoat
I don't think it's impossible to undo the damages, but even if it is, scapegoating is not the same as getting someone to carry one's water.
It's true: Wall Street wants someone who will do what they want (the usual things), but certainly they don't care if he or she is a Democrat or Republican. That's the genius of the system - the parties switch but the same people always remain in control. Anyone can be the figurehead.
Posted by: abb1 at January 8, 2008 05:29 PMThey didn't used to want a bonafide fuck-up in the WH, and all knew that's just what W was and is.
So, I think they really liked the malevolence he and his buddies embody. The nasty Yale frat prexy, with total contempt for the non-frat/non S&B weenies on and off campus. Beyond their agenda, that's the attitude they wanted and got.
Whatever. All the revolutionaries are dead or in jail already.
Posted by: Bob In Pacifica at January 8, 2008 06:44 PM"Cockburn and his fellow wannabe Leninists at Counterpunch?"
Shouldn't that be fellow wannabe Stalinists?
Posted by: Dan Coyle at January 9, 2008 12:36 PMThat would take the romance out of Marxism-Leninism, but since the non-aggression pact with Adolf didn't do it, Stalinism it could be.
Posted by: donescobar at January 9, 2008 02:52 PMObama and Clinton are both TAXPAYERS, and either one will be an improvement (but not much, I'm afraid) over George or Dick( which ever one is really President). Today's problems are real and here today. Tomorrow's problems are just speculation in ALL cases. (I'm still voting for Michael T. Meyer)
Posted by: Mike Meyer at January 9, 2008 02:57 PMCabal Online The Revolution of Action
Posted by: cabal clips at January 10, 2008 10:37 PMwait a minute-- Superman's adoptive father doesn't like Obama? No way!
Posted by: Jonathan Versen at January 10, 2008 11:21 PM
