The Choice is Yours (Asa Se Face Remix)

[sunrah]

obama nu e negru. e 50/50 - cu o mama alba ca zapada. and he will get things done, finally, in 5 ani sau cat va dura sa:

Obama Claus
October 30, 2008 11:00 PM

Once you get past the soaring oratory, to experience a speech by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is to be hit with an astoundingly lengthy list of promises.

"I don't know how any reasonable person" could think he'd really be able to accomplish everything he's pledging to do, said the mother-in-law of a colleague, a Missouri woman who intends to vote for Obama.

Just today in Sarasota, Fla., the Democratic presidential nominee said that he'd:

* "give a tax break to 95 percent of Americans who work every day and get taxes taken out of their paycheck every week";
* "eliminate income taxes on Social Security for seniors making under $50,000";
* "give homeowners and working parents additional tax breaks";
* not increase taxes on anyone if they "make under $250,000; you will not see your taxes increase by a single dime –- not your income taxes, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax";
* "end those breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas";
* "give tax breaks to companies that invest right here in the United States";
* "eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-up companies that are the engine of job creation in this country";
* "create two million new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling roads, and bridges, and schools -- by laying broadband lines to reach every corner of the country";
* "invest $15 billion a year in renewable sources of energy to create five million new energy jobs over the next decade";
* "reopen old factories, old plants, to build solar panels, and wind turbines";
* build "a new electricity grid";
* "build the fuel efficient cars of tomorrow";
* "eliminate the oil we import from the Middle East in 10 years";
* "lower premiums" for those who already have health insurance;
* "if you don't have health insurance, you'll be able to get the same kind of health insurance that members of Congress give themselves";
* "end discrimination by insurance companies to the sick and those who need care the most";
* "invest in early childhood education";
* "recruit an army of new teachers";
* "pay our teachers higher salaries, give them more support. But ... also demand higher standards and more accountability";
* "make a deal with every young person who's here and every young person in America: If you are willing to commit yourself to national service, whether it's serving in our military or in the Peace Corps, working in a veterans home or a homeless shelter, then we will guarantee that you can afford to go to college no ifs ands or buts";
* "stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq whole the Iraqis have a huge surplus";
* "end this war in Iraq";
* "finish the fight and snuff out al Qaeda and bin Laden";
* "increase our ground troops and our investments in the finest fighting force in the world";
* "invest in 21st century technologies so that our men and women have the best training and equipment when they deploy into combat and the care and benefits they have earned when they come home";
* "No more homeless veterans"; and
* "no more fighting for disability payments."

This on top of his 30-minute infomercial last night, and the myriad other pledges and promises he's made throughout the last 21 months.

It's quite a list!

He does call for some sacrifices, though nothing that would equal the cost of these measures.

* "Washington is going to have to tighten its belt. It's going to have to put off spending on things we don't need. As president, I'm gonna go through the federal budget, line-by-line, and we're going to end programs that we don't need. We're gonna have to make the ones we do need work better and cost less."
* Of course, he'll soon be "asking folks who are making more than a quarter million dollars a year to go back to the tax rate they were paying in the 1990s before the Bush tax cuts."
* And in a way of attempting to head off at the pass any criticisms that there's no way the U.S. can afford all this, he says supporters should tell skeptics that ending the war will save the U.S. $10 billion a month.

The AP's Calvin Woodward took a look at Obama's assertion that he's "offered spending cuts above and beyond" what he's pledging to spend, and he concluded that's "accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by 'eliminating programs that don't work' masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are -- beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq."

Even accepting the savings Obama pledges to bring, the bi-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says Obama will add a net $428 billion to the deficit over the course of his term.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., too is making unrealistic promises. As the Tax Policy Center says of both candidates, "Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next 10 years, according to a newly updated analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. Neither candidate's plan would significantly increase economic growth unless offset by spending cuts or tax increases that the campaigns have not specified."

-- Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller

[Nae.]

ricarda da cei cu tine?..ai inceput sa citezi si sursele? : (

[sunrah]

lol nu, e prea mare articolul.

[NskY]

sa ma bata sfantu de pricep ceva din topicu asta.

[megga]

Prea mult bla bla pentru nimic. Alegerile astea sunt o gluma presarata cu clisee si demagogie. Cati negrii vor vota cu McCain? Sub 1%. Si asta spune multe despre criteriile ce stau la baza voturilor oamenilor. Plus treaba cu popularitatea, politica din US parca e un film prost cu liceeni.

In schimb, piesa suna bine.

au de ales intre un negru si un batran de 75 de ani...suna a film prost si atat:))) vba lu c.rock tocmai am avut un presedinte retardat...e logic sa urmeze unu negru:)))

[sunrah]

Cati negrii vor vota cu McCain? Sub 1%. Si asta spune multe despre criteriile ce stau la baza voturilor oamenilor. Plus treaba cu popularitatea, politica din US parca e un film prost cu liceeni.

In schimb, piesa suna bine.

o intrebare idioata, stii. si ce-ti spune, ca rasismul e in floare si ca trebuie sa-l lasam asa? sa nu mai vorbim de religie n shit. cu irak si siria bombardate, multi dusmani, economie la pamant, etc, etc - adica tot ce-i mai important ca lucrurile sa mearga normal, obama incearca, chit ca toate astea au fost facute chiar pentru a-i lasa astuia terenul cat mai praf. ideea e ca asta e optiunea cea mai buna, vrei nu vrei, mergi cu ea. asa e moral.
au fost n articole pe net, si nu cred orice "bla bla", doar presa mondiala e condusa de evrei, dar citeste articolul asta din economist - poate cel mai obiectiv dintre toate.

[Nae.]

obama e juma evreu : )
cealalta jumate...musulman...

[Meursault]

Sun|Rah, de ce e o intrebare idioata, ca esti tu entuziasmata de Obama si nu vrei sa accepti cat de superficial se voteaza? Era o intrebare retorica. Si eu vreau sa castige el, pentru ca ultimii 8 ani au fost un fel de "1984" mai subtil. Da, e alegerea morala, dar de aici pana la frenezia asta cu Obama e drum lung si naiv.

Eu il vad pe ca pe un simplu avatar; luati prea in serios ce vedeti/auziti. Vii cu lista aia de promisiuni de parca ar fi primul care promite si de parca ar fi facut-o el. Iti dai seama ce echipa are in spate care scrie fiecare cuvant si planuieste fiecare pas pe care il face. La miza din joc, nici una din tabere nu-si permite sa lase candidatii in voia lor. Stiti si voi asta, si atunci de ce puneti creditul in carca lui Obama?

Votantii sunt luati de partide drept ce sunt, adica prosti. Cum se dau la noi mici, bere si concerte kitchoase, asa si la ei campaniile se bazeaza mai mult pe aparatii glumete pe la emisiuni, poze cu copii in brate si discursuri emfatice.
Planurile lor economico-sociale vor avea o pondere minora in rezultatul final. Si mi-e scarba.

Daca ar fi candidat Hilary pentru democrati, ar fi avut exact aceeasi campanie, aceleasi promisiuni ca si Obama, dar ar fi primit muuult mai putine voturi din partea afro-americanilor. Si nu ai cum sa demontezi fraza asta deci termina cu prostiile.

[awaky]

daca era Mos Def presedinte..
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udwTkU1QKPc[/youtube]

[E.On Lockz]

Daca nu era despre Obama iti zic io ca nu atragea asa de tare atentia..sunt sute de mii de remixuri ...

daca esti negru in cazu in care un negru ar putea ajunge presedinte nici nu tre sa-i cunosti istoria ... daca esti alb ar trebui sa fii indiferent de culoarea lui si sa citesti despre ce a facut omu asta inainte sa-l votezi si nu stiu cati dintre voi au avut curiozitatea sa citeasca 3 randuri ...si chiar daca au citit a fost intamplator.

va place obama pt ca rapperii 90% sunt negrii si ei il sustin... nush de ce plm nu ies remixuri despre presedinti din Africa ! si nush de ce plm e asa de interesant pt Romania Obama... ca nu e vorba doar de topicu asta...am citit o gramada de bloguri si toata lumea se bucura de parca cine stie ce plm natie de sclavi am fost si noi si acum rasarim ...

e ca si cum ai asculta NYOIL - yall should all get lynched tu alb , dand din cap trecand prin harlem ... sau sa ai un tovaras negru si sa-i zici nigga !

e alegerea ta pe cine simpatizezi in alegerile din sua dar nu e recomanabil sa zici ca nu e interesant deoarece sua e una din natiunile care conduc lumea indiferent ca o fac prin politicieni sau prin oamenii care sunt in spatele lor.

eu de eemplu il simpatizez pe obama fiindca nu il pot sustine pe mccain atata timp cat el isi aege ca runingmate o femeie care habar nu are cu ce se manaca politica externa intr'o tara care pune o baza destul de importanta pe aceasta


ps: piesa e super tare atat ca sound cat si ca lirica(de asta se vb pe topicul asta, nu?)

[sunrah]

Sun|Rah, de ce e o intrebare idioata, ca esti tu entuziasmata de Obama si nu vrei sa accepti cat de superficial se voteaza? Era o intrebare retorica. Si eu vreau sa castige el, pentru ca ultimii 8 ani au fost un fel de "1984" mai subtil. Da, e alegerea morala, dar de aici pana la frenezia asta cu Obama e drum lung si naiv.

Eu il vad pe ca pe un simplu avatar; luati prea in serios ce vedeti/auziti. Vii cu lista aia de promisiuni de parca ar fi primul care promite si de parca ar fi facut-o el. Iti dai seama ce echipa are in spate care scrie fiecare cuvant si planuieste fiecare pas pe care il face. La miza din joc, nici una din tabere nu-si permite sa lase candidatii in voia lor. Stiti si voi asta, si atunci de ce puneti creditul in carca lui Obama?

Votantii sunt luati de partide drept ce sunt, adica prosti. Cum se dau la noi mici, bere si concerte kitchoase, asa si la ei campaniile se bazeaza mai mult pe aparatii glumete pe la emisiuni, poze cu copii in brate si discursuri emfatice.
Planurile lor economico-sociale vor avea o pondere minora in rezultatul final. Si mi-e scarba.

Daca ar fi candidat Hilary pentru democrati, ar fi avut exact aceeasi campanie, aceleasi promisiuni ca si Obama, dar ar fi primit muuult mai putine voturi din partea afro-americanilor. Si nu ai cum sa demontezi fraza asta deci termina cu prostiile.

because he gots the soul.

[Alin-San]

cine a zis asta/pe ce forum

[sunrah]

cine a zis asta/pe ce forum

pe forumul realclearpolitics, toti oamenii de culoare si nu numai.

Tonight, after Barack Obama was confirmed as the nation’s president-elect, I looked in on my children, as they lay sleeping. Though they are about as politically astute as kids can be, having reached only the ages of 7 and 5, there is no way they will be able to truly appreciate what has just happened in the land they call home. They do not possess the sense of history, or indeed, even a clear understanding of what history means, so as to adequately process what happened this evening, as they slumbered. Even as our oldest cast her first grade vote for Obama in school today, and even as our youngest has become somewhat notorious for pointing to pictures of Sarah Palin on magazines and saying, “There’s that crazy lady who hates polar bears,” they remain, still, naive as to the nation they have inherited. They do not really understand the tortured history of this place, especially as regards race. Oh they know more than most–to live as my children makes it hard not to–but still, the magnitude of this occasion will likely not catch up to them until Barack Obama is finishing at least his first, if not his second term as president.

But that’s OK. Because I know what it means, and will make sure to tell them.

And before detailing what I perceive that meaning to be (both its expansiveness and limitations) let me say this, to some of those on the left–some of my friends and longtime compatriots in the struggle for social justice–who yet insist that there is no difference between Obama and McCain, between Democrats and Republicans, between Biden and Palin: Screw you.

If you are incapable of mustering pride in this moment, and if you cannot appreciate how meaningful this day is for millions of black folks who stood in lines for up to seven hours to vote, then your cynicism has become such an encumbrance as to render you all but useless to the liberation movement. Indeed, those who cannot appreciate what has just transpired are so eaten up with nihilistic rage and hopelessness that I cannot but think that they are a waste of carbon, and actively thieving oxygen that could be put to better use by others.

This election does indeed matter. No, it is not the same as victory against the forces of injustice, and yes, Obama is a heavily compromised candidate, and yes, we will have to work hard to hold him accountable. But it matters nonetheless that he, and not the bloodthirsty bomber McCain, or the Christo-fascist, Palin, managed to emerge victorious.

Those who say it doesn’t matter weren’t with me on the south side of Chicago this past week, surrounded by a collection of amazing community organizers who go out and do the hard work every day of trying to help create a way out of no way for the marginalized. All of them know that an election is but a part of the solution, a tactic really, in a larger struggle of which they are a daily part; and none of them are so naive as to think that their jobs are now to become a cakewalk because of the election of Barack Obama. But all of them were looking forward to this moment. They haven’t the luxury of believing in the quixotic campaigns of Dennis Kucinich, or waiting around for the Green Party to get its act together and become something other than a pathetic caricature, symbolized by the utterly irrelevant and increasingly narcissistic presence of Ralph Nader on the electoral scene. And while Cynthia McKinney remains a pivotal figure in the struggle, the party to which she was tethered this year shows no more ability to sustain movement activity than it was eight years ago, and most everyone working in oppressed communities in this nation knows it.

It’s like this y’all: Jesse Jackson was weeping openly on national television. This is a man who was with Dr. King when he was murdered and he was bawling like a baby. So don’t tell me this doesn’t matter.

John Lewis–who had his head cracked open, has been arrested more times, and has probably spilled far more blood for the cause of justice than all the white, dreadlocked, self-proclaimed anarchists in this country combined–couldn’t be more thrilled at what has happened. If he can see it, then frankly, who the hell are we not to?

Those who say this election means nothing, who insist that Obama, because he cozied up to Wall Street, or big business, is just another kind of evil no different than any other, are in serious risk of political self-immolation, and it is a burning they will richly deserve. That the victorious presidential candidate is actually a capitalist (contrary to the fevered imaginations of the right) is no more newsworthy than the fact that rain falls down and grass grows skyward. It is to be properly placed in the “no shit Sherlock,” file. That anyone would think it possible for someone who didn’t raise hundreds of millions of dollars to win–at this time in our history at least–only suggests that some on the left would prefer to engage politics from a place of aspirational innocence, rather than in the real world, where battles are won or lost.

So let us be clear as to what tonight meant:

It was a defeat for the right-wing echo chamber and its rhetorical stormtroopers, foremost among them Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.

It was a defeat for the crazed mobs ever-present at McCain/Palin rallies, what with their venomous libels against Obama, their hate-addled brains spewing forth one after another racist and religiously chauvinistic calumny upon his head and those of his supporters.

It was a defeat for the internet rumor-pimps who insisted to all they could reach with a functioning e-mail address that Obama was not really a citizen. Or perhaps he was, but he was a Muslim, or perhaps not a Muslim, but probably a black supremacist, or maybe not that either, but surely the anti-christ, and most definitely a baby-killer.

It was a defeat for those who believed McCain and Palin would be delivered the victory by the hand of almighty God, because their theological and eschatological vacuity so regularly gets in the way of their ability to think. As such, it was a setback for the religious fascists in the far-right Christian community whose belief that God is on their side has always made them especially dangerous. Now, having lost, perhaps at least some of these will be forced to ponder what went wrong. If we’re lucky, perhaps some will suffer the kind of crisis of faith that often prefaces a complete nervous breakdown. Either way, it’s nice just to ruin their Young-Earth-Creationist-I-Have-an-Angel-on-My-Shoulder day.

It was a defeat for the demagogues who tried in so many ways to push the buttons of white racism–the old-fashioned kind, or what I call Racism 1.0–by using thinly-veiled racialized language throughout the campaign. Appeals to Joe Six-Pack, “values voters,” blue-collar voters, or hockey moms, though never explicitly racialized, were transparent to all but the most obtuse, as were terms like “terrorist” when used to describe Obama. Likewise, the attempt to race-bait the economic crisis by blaming it on loans to poor folks of color through the Community Reinvestment Act, or community activists like the folks at ACORN, failed, and this matters. No, it doesn’t mean that white America has rejected racism. Indeed, I have been quite deliberate for months about pointing out the way that racism 1.0 may be traded in only to be replaced by racism 2.0 (which allows whites to still view most folks of color negatively but carve out exceptions for those few who make us feel comfortable and who we see as “different”). And yet, that tonight was a drubbing for that 1.0 version of racism still matters.

And tonight was a victory for a few things too.

It was a victory for youth, and their social and political sensibilities. It was the young, casting away the politics of their parents and even grandparents, and turning the corner to a new day, perhaps naively, and too optimistic about the road from here, but nonetheless in a way that has historically almost always been good for the country. Much as youth were inspired by a relatively moderate John F. Kennedy (who was, on balance, far less progressive than Obama in many ways), and much as they then formed the frontline troops for so much of the social justice activism of the following fifteen years, so too can such a thing be forseen now. That Kennedy may have been quite restrained in his social justice sensibilities did not matter: the young people whose energy he helped unleash took things in their own direction and outgrew him rather quickly in their progression to the left.

Tonight was also a victory for the possibility of greater cross-racial alliance building. Although Obama failed to win most white votes, and although it is no doubt true that many of the whites who did vote for him nonetheless hold to any number of negative and racist stereotypes about the larger black and brown communities of this nation, it it still the case that black, brown and white worked together in this effort as they have rarely done before. And many whites who worked for Obama, precisely because they got to see, and hear, and feel the racist vitriol still animating far too many of our nation’s people, will now be wiser for the experience when it comes to understanding how much more work remains to be done on the racial justice front. Let us build on that newfound knowledge, and that newfound energy, and create real white allyship with community-based leaders of color as we move forward in the years to come.

But now for the other side of things.

First and foremost, please know that none of these victories will amount to much unless we do that which needs to be done so as to turn a singular event about one man, into a true social movement (which, despite what some claim, it is not yet and has never been).

And so it is back to work. Oh yes, we can savor the moment for a while, for a few days, perhaps a week. But well before inauguration day we will need to be back on the job, in the community, in the streets, where democracy is made, demanding equity and justice in places where it hasn’t been seen in decades, if ever. Because for all the talk of hope and change, there is nothing–absolutely, positively nothing–about real change that is inevitable. And hope, absent real pressure and forward motion to actualize one’s dreams, is sterile and even dangerous. Hope, absent commitment is the enemy of change, capable of translating to a giving away of one’s agency, to a relinquishing of the need to do more than just show up every few years and push a button or pull a lever.

This means hooking up now with the grass roots organizations in the communities where we live, prioritizing their struggles, joining and serving with their constituents, following leaders grounded in the community who are accountable not to Barack Obama, but the people who helped elect him. Let Obama follow, while the people lead, in other words.

For we who are white it means going back into our white spaces and challenging our brothers and sisters, parents, neighbors, colleagues and friends–and ourselves–on the racial biases that still too often permeate their and our lives, and making sure they know that the success of one man of color does not equate to the eradication of systemic racial inequity.

So are we ready for the heavy lifting? This was, after all, merely the warmup exercise, somewhat akin to stretching before a really long run. Or perhaps it was the first lap, but either way, now the baton has been handed to you, to us. We must not, cannot, afford to drop it. There is too much at stake.

The worst thing that could happen now would be for us to go back to sleep; to allow the cool poise of Obama’s prose to lull us into slumber like the cool on the underside of the pillow. For in the light of day, when fully awake, it becomes impossible not to see the incompleteness of the task so far.

So let us begin.