Barack Obama should be ashamed

Electronic Cerebrectomy is one of my favorite, if not my favorite blogs. The administrator, who calls himself SamuraiFrog gave a great assessment of something that's been bothering me recently in a post earlier today.

"I’m very unhappy when it comes to Barack Obama’s decision to ask homophobic hatemonger Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. This is a hurtful choice. Many of us don’t find Warren’s hate speech acceptable in a civilized world. And for the gay population, this is an affront. Warren successfully spearheaded legislation to strip a segment of one state of their civil rights because they don’t line up with his religious agenda, and he’d like to do the same for the country. Imagine that this man has been telling you that your lifestyle is sick and wrong, that you’re marriage is invalid, that your feelings of love for someone of the same sex are morally the same as pedophilia, bestiality, and incest... and now the next President of the United States is legitimizing those words by putting him in a place of high honor at his own inauguration. Now, I will admit that Obama is more inclusive of gays and lesbians than any president has been before. But Obama is wrong when he calls himself “a fierce advocate” of civil equality and his view on gay marriage amounts to, let’s just say it, separate but equal. That’s not civil equality. That’s backward thinking. And, frankly, Obama’s attempt to defend this by saying he was invited to speak at Warren’s church (as were many others) is weak and lame. Bringing people together doesn’t mean you invite the Grand Dragon to a national audience. And once again gay people have been put in this disgusting position, as they were with the protest of Mormons, of being made to look as if they’re solely liberal and solely against faith. It’s a distortion that Warren keeps returning to, and it denies the diversity of gay and lesbian Americans; this is not a protest against faith and the political right, this is a protest against the language of hate. As a non-believer and a supporter of equal rights for all and as a human being, I’m offended that Rick Warren has been invited to participate. Gay bashing is not acceptable, and nothing is going to change that. And to see Barack Obama, the first black president, the man who liberals kept telling me was symbolic of a new era of acceptance and tolerance and equality and diversity, asking a man who represents oppression and hate to speak the words of a deity that so many believe in, it makes me sad and angry."
-Samurai Frog.

And really, what else is there to say? Well, I have something to add. This whole thing about Barack Obama and Rick Warren really angers me for all of the obvious reasons. But one aspect of this whole fiasco, which I think people have really failed to hit on, is how stupid and avoidable it was. Why did Obama have to pick Rick Warren to give the invocation? He could have picked anyone and he chooses this guy? And at a time when gays are (rightly so) furious about the state of affairs in this country that came to a head with the passing of Proposition 8. AND when black people are (wrongly) being assigned blame for said passing. Obama could have easily chosen a more progressive, inclusive Christian minister. Wouldn't that be representative of the change he purports to personify? At the very least, he could have chosen a preacher who isn't so vocally bigoted and hateful. Obama winning me over has been a slow process, like I've stated on this blog. I'm for him. I want him to do well. But I have a healthy critical attitude about him. But he was showing a shrewdness and an intelligence when it came to choosing his cabinet, and other decisions about his presidency. He was slowly pulling me in. But this Rick Warren thing really and truly gets to the heart of what I DON'T like about Barack Obama. His desire to please everyone. It's such an obvious ploy to pull the religious right onto his side, maybe sink in a few of those people who still doubt whether or not he's truly a Christian or a "MOOZ-LAM." There's playing the game, and then there's playing into people's hatred and fear. Obama did the latter.

Thoughts on the Election

I was at a bar on Tuesday night when the news poured in that Barack Obama had won Virginia, pushing him over the threshold of 270 electoral votes to become President Elect of the United States of America. The election of Barack Obama will definitely fight it out for moments that defined this generation. I'm glad he got elected, obviously. I don't think I could have stomached a McCain-Palin administration (then a Palin-Lieberman administration) for the next four or eight years. No thank you. It has taken me a few days to gather my thoughts. It still hasn't sunken in yet that the country in which I live elected this guy who nobody thought had a chance when he announced his candidacy in 2007. It excites me. It renews my faith in the American political process that all of the "scandals" (Williams Ayers, Reverend Wright, ACORN) proved to be non-starters. Whether Barack Obama is the best president we ever had, the worst president we ever had, or completely forgettable, America finally stopped being influenced by fear and bullying. It will be interesting to see an America led by an open intellectual again. Not to say that Bush was stupid. I have said many times that I think the whole Texas Cowboy image is largely self-constructed. I think Bush reads Dostoevsky at 4AM on the toilet so no one can catch him. He had to pretend that he was stupid because stupid equals down-to-earth. It ingratiated him with his constituency and that's sad. Obama did a lot of things during this election, but pretending he was stupid was not one of them. Let's hope he leads us into a better age. Congratulations President Elect Barack Obama.

Some Thoughts on the Presidential Race

This is the first post actually dedicated to the 2008 Presidential Election and may very well be the last for any number of reasons. Not the least of which are that I don't want to make it the focus of this blog. Also, I'm a legal permanent resident in this country, which means I am not allowed to vote until I become a citizen (if and when I choose to), so I'm not really supposed to be complaining, nor am I allowed to have an input. This is all fine with me of course, because even though the election is more than five months off, I'm already bored/done with it. My candidate of choice (Kucinich) is nowhere near the ballot, and in the end who ever wins is going to feel so much like the less desirable friend of the person you really wanted to have sex with. That being said, I hate the Hillary-or-nothing Democrats just as much, if not more, than the Obama-or-nothing Democrats. They're both just as foolish and short-sighted in my book, but in the end, it's the former that may cause John McCain to coast to a victory come November and that's what makes me feel bored/done.

Here's the thing. I am not particularly fond of any of the three remaining presidential hopefuls, that is Obama, Clinton, or Mccain, for different reasons obviously. As a black man, I am surprised how immune I've been to this notion that Obama represents change--real, meaningful change. It might have something to do with the fact that his voting record/political positions are hardly reflective of this so-called "change" he speaks of. Are we to assume he represents change because he's black? Yet he wants people to look beyond his race when making their decision, which is understandable and necessary if he hopes to win (and, since he's the presumptive Democratic nominee, I do hope he wins by the way). But he can't go in wanting to be both exempted from and exalted because of his race. It's kind of a crapshoot either way and he's just got to hope for the best when it comes to how the electorate reacts to the possibility of a black president.
I flat-out dislike McCain because of his ridiculous plans to keep us in Iraq well past his own life-expectancy.

And Ms. Clinton. A lot of people have given her a lot of flack over the past...well, always. That's why I admire her for going at this head-first and getting as far as she did. She put up a hell of a fight and either her or Obama are more than qualified, IMHO, to be president of the United States. Again, neither would be my top choice. But I think that enough really is enough. By staying in the race, all Clinton is doing is fueling those ridiculous rumors about her wanting John McCain to win so she can run again in 2012. Which is (repeat) a ridiculous theory. Hillary is a smart person and she knows that this country will never elect a 65-year-old (which is how old she'll be) WOMAN into the Whitehouse. Though the same country seems to have no problem with potentially electing Crimean War veteran John McCain into the same position. But sexism abounds when it comes to politics--that's just a fact and Hillary knows this. However, she needs to drop out so that the party can rally around Obama as the nominee (which he pretty much is anyway), pick a VP nominee (which, if he's smart, he'll seriously consider picking her. Don't know if she'll accept...) and start campaigning against McCain. And I hope that Obama is ready for the big show. Because the battle between him and Hillary is going to seem like shits and giggles compared to what McCain and the Republican party have in store for him...

That is all. Peace. Love. And Pretension.