Kissenger and Mccain are old buddies..

Whoa mccain is getting heated about Obama’s comments about former secretary of state Henry Kissenger…

A league of democracies?

John McCain wants a league of supermen and superwomen to affect ‘Iranian behaviour’ so I guess that would make the UN and G8 null and void?

Now they are talking about bracelets,which one is prettier?

OMG people!!! Talk about the issues.

Ohh..he’s used the dirty word..liberal..

John McCain..just used the dirtiest word in the current political vocabulary..liberal..LOL..Senator McCain I’m going to have to wash your mouth out with soap wonder if Barney Frank would like the job..lol

Obama’s main priorities even if the economy is bad..

Energy independence

Health Care

Education

Rebuild our infrastructure

Ohh..it’s getting fiesty…

Obama responds to a charge from McCain that he’s giving enormous breaks to the oil companies..

Too few taxes, cut taxes, taxes, taxes..

Ok..he wants to cut the business tax. Obama wants to cut taxes for the middle class..and now we’re back to pork barrelling spending..

Earmarks and pork barrell or evils..

I like John McCain’s line..’we came to Washington to change Washington and Washington changed us’..nice line..

Jim Lehrer trying to get the two to fight..

Jim Lehrer is an instigator..lol..

McCain sends a ’shout out’ to Senator Kennedy

McCain sends a shout out to Ted Kennedy in his opening remarks. WTF shouldn’t he be talking about where HE stands on the bailout..ok..ok he’s getting to it..he’s not looking at the camera..oh..he wants to create jobs and eliminate our dependence on foreign oil..

First question is economics..

Financial recovery, plan.  Obama is looking directly in the camera..good..

Oversight. Returns on tax payer money. No golden parachutes for CEOs and help for homeowners are Obama’s main economic policy points.

The first 2008 Presidential Debate

So it begins..

Why Obama stays cool all the time..

Now, I’ve never been accused of being the angry, black women or the angry, black person in general. That label just wouldn’t stick to someone who smiles all the time, is known for her positive disposition and is a diplomat at heart. 

But I do KNOW and have witnessed reaction to an angry black person. It seems that when a black person gets angry or becomes upset with a person of another race many times the individual or the people around them believe the black person will either become violent or that a violent altercation will later ensue. And usually the individual reacts with fear, to be honest this has happened to me on a few occasions. However, if I sense the person is scared I stop and ask, “Why are you scared? I’m not going to hurt you I’m just voicing my dissatisfaction with x, y, z..” I have received varying reactions to my blunt honesty over the years but usually the person reacting in that negative way towards me apologizes and tries to address my concerns in a more appropriate and constructive manner but  I must say that this fear reaction, from my observations, is more prevalent among people over 50.

But I do believe that many people subscribe to the violent, angry black person stereotype. Many of these people give validation to the stereotype and believe it to be a fact and thus react more negatively towards an angry black person. 

Obama, obviously, has had to and continually confronts and tactfully manuevers around this stereotype day after day. And he tries to constantly maintain his cool in order to never, ever appear as the angry black man, because we all know where that will lead to the inevitable..”Boy, he’s always angry,” ”I don’t think I want to vote for an angry black man,” “God, if he’s this angry now what will happen if he becomes President?” I can go on and on but his consistent coolness has led to the inevitable well, he’s too cool. He’s too above it all. He’s not one of us. He doesn’t have any ‘real’ passion.

So in a way Obama can’t win. If he raises his voice and gets a little more passionate about an issue, any issue, some people will get scared and believe he’s a militant black panther who wants revenge on whites. Yet, if he maintains an even and steady temperament he’s cold and distant. In times we often times recite, ‘let cooler heads prevail’ yet Obama is criticized for displaying these characteristics-he can’t win.

But I ask would you rather have a leader that is hot and unpredictable or a leader than is composed, reliable and steady under pressure?

I think the answer is quite clear.

Couldn’t Microsoft have done better?

I should be talking and writing about other things ( i.e, the economy going to hell in a handbasket, the first presidential debate on Friday, the Michigan polls, the Palin phenomenon ) I know, I know but the new PC ad just cracks me up and not in a good way.

As Gob from Arrested Development would say, ” Come on!”. I don’t care how many celebrities or prominent leaders they get to sign on to the ad or how many times they run it the fact remains it doesn’t even come close to beating one of the MAC vs PC ads. Not one!  And they were getting played out after a couple of months believe me!

But If I were an advertisng exec for Apple I would be LMAO right now at the gift they just handed me, because it just confirms everything MAC has every said about PC and I didn’t have to spend a dime.

The funny thing is I have a PC..lol

A tale of two men, Obama and Kilpatrick a tale of America..

One was born with almost every advantage and was destined to succeed.

Family:  A powerful well connected upper class political family.

School: Attended one of the top historically black colleges in the nation and earned his law degree from Michigan State University.

Political Life:Guaranteed. A bit of money. The right family. The right connections. A successful early entry into US political life by becoming mayor of one America’s largest cities at the age of 31.

What he did: He is the first sitting mayor in the history of Detroit to face felony charges.

What do the people say?: Easy come, easy go.

Born with EVERYTHING. HE lost EVERTHING

The other man had the wrong name, the wrong background and to many the wrong views.

Family: Raised by an educated single woman and middle class grandparents with few political connections.

Schools: Attended a two year liberal arts college before attending two of the top schools in the nation. Graduated with a law degree from Harvard.

Political Life: Toss up. Not wealthy. No family. No connections. He won his first race by signatures. His second race his major opponent dropped out.

What he did: He became the first black man to hold the presidential nomination for a major political party.

What do people say? By the sweat of your own brow, shall you eat bread…

Born with NOTHING. He earned EVERYTHING.

Why such divergent paths for these two politically talented men? One didn’t have anything to prove, the other had everything to prove. One got everything handed to him the other had to work for it all. One had a HUGE sense of entitlement. The other felt and knew he was entitled to nothing.

Yes, their stories are complex and I have indeed simplified them here but I think their stories are more reflective of our society than many of us would care to admit.

August 28th 2008, Obama’s acceptance speech……

And just in case you were wondering. why I didn’t blog after Obama’s historic speech.

An explanation, I figure (it might just be me that thinks this..lol)  is indeed necessary.

You see, although, I had seen this day coming for months now, when it finally happened I was and if I’m honest with myself and with you I continue to be overcome with emotion. If I sit and think about what happened that night my brain is flooded with images.

And I’m not talking solely about the image of him on that stage, or the thousands of flashing lights that greeted him as he walked onto the stage to the deafening cheers of thousands (millions if you count the ones watching on tv)  in fact the most pronounced images of that night, for me, were created by strangers I had met only a few minutes before Obama’s speech.

You see, I watched Obama’s acceptance speech holding the hand of my husband, in the living room of the home a young, jewish family surrounded with strangers of every race, of every persuasion and of every age group.

Young, old. Black, White and Asian. Jewish, Christian and Muslim. We all sat together in hushed silence listening to a man we have come to admire and to trust. A man that we want to lead us and this nation to better days.

And as I looked at these people cheering and clapping loudly in support of this black man, who happens to share the same skin tone of my mother, I was instantly transported to a moment I once shared with my historian father (a man of the 60s and 70s but a realist of the 80s..lol) one afternoon while driving, we were discussing the state of black America and how far we’ve come when he said that he would know that things had really changed in the world when America elected a black man as its president.

I remained silent as I had often done when he made this observation. Unusual for me, but what is there to say when you do know that this one change would indeed speak volumes about the state of the world in which we live?

I should add that my father didn’t think that day would happen in his lifetime and he went to his grave believing that it may never come at all.

Over the years, I came to believe that in my lifetime I WOULD see a black president but I thought, to be honest, that day would come when I was in my later years.

But to watch Obama that night and to watch his supporters of every race, of every background in that living room, holding the hand of my husband was such an intensely personal moment to me..that to be honest I didn’t know if I wanted to or even more honestly if I could accurately articulate my feelings about what I witnessed that night.

To understand and to come to a realization, that you are helping to shape a future that will be infinitely better than the one your parents gave you while recognizing their sacrifice and the role that they have played, including my pessimistic father, in helping to create that moment I witnessed on August 28th..at times fills my heart with such pride, my throat with a lump and my eyes with tears because it took so long but at the same time, thoughts of that moment,  of that day leaves me breathless…because I KNOW for a fact that the world has finally changed and it will never, ever be the same again  and I could finally say these words to my father. “Dad, the world has finally changed.”

The next time I visit his grave I will.