Wish I'd Said That

"Of course, the guy is an Obama supporter, which apparently gives him the freedom to question the motivations of blacks who complain just a bit too much about racism. Stop whining and assimilate!, he more or less told them through me. White people are sick and tired of listening to your crap! It was an astonishing moment, as I had not until that instant guessed that this guy harbored such feelings. But it further underlines my belief that Obama is the perfect candidate for race-challenged liberals, since Obama makes them comfortable in their grayish-pink skins, and does not pester them with tales of racism and oppression. This will become more evident now that Obama has nailed down the nomination."
Dennis Perrin, A Red State Son

Kudos from Floyd and Silber

Aside from Black Agenda Report, my two favorite web sites are Chris Floyd's Empire Burlesque and Arthur Silber's Once Upon a Time, Power of Narrative.

Today Silber did me the great honor of quoting from a column I wrote last year. The subject of that column was the the book Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. Floyd in turn quoted Silber, and thus my name is linked with greatness in not one, but two places.

Silber and Floyd are heroes of mine because they tell the truth. They tell the truth about Bush, and Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. They spare no one and they have no allegiance to either of our dreadful political parties. I am truly honored that Silber would give me some attention and put my name alongside that of Jeremiah Wright.

Wright is being pilloried because he is a truth teller. Black Americans used to be the most consistent truth tellers in the country, but the ascendance and possible presidency of Barack Obama has changed all that. That will be the subject of my next Black Agenda Report column to be published this Wednesday.

Thanks again Chris and Arthur. I truly appreciate you both in so many ways.

Sami al-Hajj speaks of his Guantanamo ordeal - 02 May 2008

Sami al-Haj was an al-Jazeera camera man imprisoned on Guantanamo since 2002. He was never charged with a crime, he was interrogated more than 200 times.

Wright and Obama

"Almost every politician lies, and most politicians lie repeatedly. Yet in one sense, Obama's speech is exceptional, rare and unique -- but not for any of the reasons offered by Obama's uncritical, mindless adulators. It is exceptional for this reason: it is rare that a candidate will announce in such stark, comprehensive terms that he will lie about every fact of moment, about every aspect of our history that affects the crises of today and that has led to them, about everything that might challenge the mythological view of America. But that is what Obama achieved with this speech. It may be a remarkable achievement -- a remarkable and detestable one, and one that promises endless destruction in the future, both here and abroad." Arthur Silber

I didn't weigh in on the latest Obama/Wright contretemps because my personal life has been much too busy of late. You can as always check out Black Agenda Report, which keeps it very real as always. "In order for his race-neutral strategy to appear sane, Obama must constantly paint a picture of an America that does not exist. This cannot be accomplished without mangling the truth, assaulting the truth-tellers, and misrepresenting America's past and present."

I'll keep it short. Obama is still bad news for the nation and for the world. He wouldn't be a worse president than Hillary "we'll obliterate them" Clinton. But he wouldn't be any better. He is pledged to continue the dominance of the ruling class and the ever growing American empire. The best that can be said of him is that he will be no worse than anyone else who is acceptable to the ruling class.

But for black people he will be worse. Hillary Clinton would have been taken to task if she had said she would have a foreign policy "like Ronald Reagan's." Obama was allowed to get away with that and other outrageous remarks and it doesn't bode well. He will do what he said he would do. He will keep the empire intact, he will keep government lawlessness intact. After all, he still sees no reason to impeach Bush or Cheney. Obama will be very bad news indeed.

Remember you read it here first.

Sami al-Haj is Free

Sami al-Haj has been freed from Guantanamo and is now in his home country, Sudan. He was a camera man for al-Jazeera who was seized by Pakistani officials and turned over to the U.S. in 2002. al-Haj went through more than 200 interrogations, and was subjected to forced feeding. His family say that the 39 year-old now looks like a man in his 80s.

His interrogators offered al-Haj freedom if he would agree to spy for the U.S. but he always refused, hence the 6 years behind bars. Obviously goodness and nobility have nothing to do with his release. The U.S. government must have seen some advantage in releasing him now.

Sami al-Haj is a living witness to the criminality of the American government. His brother, Asim al-Haj, said it best. "Today, I'd like to urge the United Nations, international human rights organizations and the international press to bring a serious investigation into the case of Sami al-Haj, because we really have no idea what happened to Sami al-Haj while he was at Guantanamo." Asim al-Haj might have added the United States Congress to that list of investigatory bodies. Of course they will never investigate anything because that would mean taking some sort of action, like impeachment.

Oh No He Didn't

"The world owes Bush a huge debt of gratitude." - Gordon Brown

Watch it, if you can hold down your lunch.

Bilal Hussein is Free

We have to rejoice when there is some justice in this world. Pulitzer prize winning photojournalist Bilal Hussein is now a free man. Hussein was held by the U.S. military in Iraq for more than two years without ever being charged with a crime. He was one of more than 25,000 Iraqis who shared that fate.

Hussein became a target of Uncle Sam's wrath because he told the truth about the occupation. Apparently a picture is worth 1,000 words. Hussein's photos of the destruction of Fallujah were the final straw and he was arrested.

Before he was arrested he was the target of right wing bloggers such as Michelle Malkin who told outright lies about him. The military in fact told Malkin they had Hussein in custody before they told his employers at the Associated Press.

Malkin is always a villain, but so are the corporate media. None of them bothered to do any serious reporting on Hussein's case. The New York Times hired liar Bill Kristol while never telling readers about the injustice committed against Bilal Hussein.

If there is any real justice in this case Bilal Hussein will act like a good patriot American and get a lawyer. A law suit against Michelle Malkin would be the perfect ending of this story.

"Get out of that seat. You have no right to be here."

Who does not have the right to testify before government representatives? I thought every American had that right, but noooo. I was very wrong.

Last week Robert Sherman, a candidate for a seat in the Illinois state legislature, was testifying before the State Government Administrative Committee to oppose the governor's decision to grant a Chicago church $1 million to rebuild after a fire. Sherman argues that the allocation to Pilgrim Baptist Church is unconstitutional. Not only is the grant in all likelihood unconstitutional, but the money that was supposed to help rebuild instead went to fund a school housed in the church. Governor Blagojevich claims it was all a "bureacratic mistake." Well, the mistake is considerable because the school is more than a little shady.

The grant came as state and federal authorities were trying to collect thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes from the school, the Tribune reported Wednesday. Other potential roadblocks also were cleared to make the grant possible: The governor gave a rare and swift pardon to the school's director, a convicted felon; the school registered as a charitable organization for the first time in its 25-year history; and the school filed three years' worth of required state tax documents in one day.

But I digress. Representative Monique Davis could not contain her rage when an atheist dared to show up and ask questions about the use of the public's money. "And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!" She told Sherman he had no right to testify and tried to show him the door.

Where does one begin? The ignorance spewed by Davis is just astounding. The transcript is bad enough, the audio which clearly indicates that she was getting exhortations of "amen" are even worse.

So it comes to this. Christians can't bear to even know that atheists exist? Shameful.

Obama's Lies

Nearly two weeks have passed since Barack Obama gave a speech on race. I never knew why so many people fainted, wept or saw God when they heard it, but then again I don't get the appeal of Obama at all.

I am stuck on an Obama truth telling mission and I don't want to stop. So, not to beat a dead horse or anything, but these statements emanating from the Jeremiah Wright controversy just stuck in my craw. I had to share my dismay at the outright lies and slanders that came out of Obama's mouth when he was a guest on The View last week.

"The statements that were made were rightly offensive. What they spoke to was a brilliant man caught in a time warp where he grew up and didn't have a good enough sense of how America's changed."

"Imagine someone compiled the 5 stupidest things you ever said, and then played them over and over again for weeks."

"I spoke to Rev Wright after this episode, and I told him I felt badly he's been characterized in this one way. But he was my pastor. I think people overstate his role as my mentor or spiritual advisor."

I shouldn't be speechles and yet I am. Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a stupid old uncle, caught in a time warp, who was a pastor but not really a mentor or advisor or anything. So much for the question of whether or not Obama threw him under the bus. Wright has tire marks all over his body.

I have never thought that ignorance was in any way blissful, so I will see you in the time warp. That time warp is called reality and I like living there.

Hat tip America Blog

Players, Not Cheerleaders

"There is no question that the Bush administration has proven impervious to public pressure. That's why it's time for the anti-war movement to change tactics. We should direct our energy where it can still have an impact: the leading Democratic contenders.

Many argue otherwise. They say that if we want to end the war, we should simply pick a candidate who is not John McCain and help them win: We'll sort out the details after the Republicans are evicted from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Some of the most prominent anti-war voices--from MoveOn.org to the magazine we write for, The Nation--have gone this route, throwing their weight behind the Obama campaign.

This is a serious strategic mistake. It is during a hotly contested campaign that anti-war forces have the power to actually sway U. S. policy. As soon as we pick sides, we relegate ourselves to mere cheerleaders."

Thank goodness someone gets it. In this case those persons are Naomi Klein and Jeremy Scahill. They seem to have figured out what ought to be obvious to everyone. Neither Clinton nor Obama are serious about ending the Iraq occupation. If the anti-war movement had acted strategically earlier, there might have been a possibility to move the agenda and have a true anti-war nominee.

The most basic rules of political strategy have been ignored in this campaign. Politicians respond to pressure. They don't respond to adulation. Actually I have to take that back. They do respond to adulation. They respond by treating the idol worshippers like chumps.

Moveon and The Nation have done great damage to the progressive cause by backing Obama without demanding anything from him. Now he has no reason to do as they want on any issue. Of course, I could be giving progressives too much credit. Many of them don't really want change either. Some are tired, some are cynical, some just want invitations to the White House.

Hillary Clinton could have been useful, in spite of her ham handedness and blatant lies. She might have been used strategically earlier on when it counted, despite her weaknesses. Obama might have been forced to stop the double talk and truly promote an agenda for change.

Now we are left with a nomination that is all but decided, and a probably nominee who won't end the occupation. The 2008 election will go down in history as an enormous wasted opportunity.