RSU: Obama and the Preacher
Sounds like the name of a 70’s movie– Obama and the Preacher 
Red State Update with Dunlap and Jackie discuss Barack Obama and his preacher troubles. This is really funny.
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Text of Obama’s Speech on Race
Obama was 100% correct when he said that we have to confront race if we are going to get some of these tough problems solved.
I encourage everyone to read this speech and/or watch it. This is a great speech.
Below is the text of Obama’s speech, as it was prepared for delivery. I added some bold for emphasis.
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“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well. [Read more →]
Obama’s Complete Speech
In Obama’s speech on race today, he answered the critics who were open to listening. I think that the majority of them will like his answer. However, there are some who would not be happy or satisfied with his answer. Those folks would not be impressed if he could whistle the Star Spangled Banner while walking a tightrope and drinking a glass of water.
This is really the second entry of a two-part post. The first portion is here.
Iraq War: Follow Up
I have recently written about the Iraq war (here and here). I’m not sure how the Bush administration is going to spin this, but I’m sure that they are going to try to get the American people to believe that the “surge” has worked.
I would argue that we have spent a ton of money and did not get what we had hoped for. We were promised that the “surge” would allow the Iraqis to make an oil sharing agreement. That really hasn’t happened. We were also promised that the “surge” would allow Iraqis the necessary peace for them to figure out how to share power. There was a hint of a power sharing agreement several months ago, but it broke down almost before it was announced.
So, my question to my Republican friends who continue to support the Bush Administration in spite of popular opinion: Where is our return on our trillion dollar investment? (Psst… Don’t tell me that it is security because those that caused 9/11 are still out there.)
Obama answers the critics, again
I’m trying to get the whole video of Barack Obama’s speech. As soon as I find a good copy, I’ll post it. I have found a bad YouTube copy.
Below, Obama again focuses attention on what we need in this country.
Update: As I listen to more of Obama’s speech (not just the short clips available on CNN or MSNBC) I began to smile– again. Obama explains why he joined the church, not just any church but that church. He explains why he loves Jeremiah Wright both as a person and as a minister. Again, he does a great job explaining what others can’t or won’t explain. He does a GREAT job at framing the debate.
John Bolton has no Credibility
The Vice President, Dick Cheney, is back in Iraq. It is completely unclear to me why he would be back in Iraq. As far as I know, during his tenure in the Bush administration, he’s been unable to negotiate with anyone except for other neocons in Congress.
Ten months ago, Cheney was in Baghdad. This is four months into the “surge.” He was there to “jumpstart” negotiations between Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. I guess that since he did such an excellent job last time, President Bush thought he was the man for the job again this time. John Bolton, former State Department neocon and (Senate-unapproved) United Nations ambassador, said Cheney has “enormous credibility there, and is able to say to them in words of one syllable that they need to get their act together.”
John Bolton is almost laughable in his continued neocon rhetoric. Why do reporters continue to report what he says? He, like Cheney, have been wrong about almost everything. I understand why reporters continue to report what Vice President Cheney says — he’s the Vice President. John Bolton, on the other hand, is not in the government anymore (thank God).
Do you like the way John Bolton demeaned the Iraqis as if they don’t know what’s at stake? I believe the Iraqis understand exactly what’s at stake. The problem is, some Iraqis believe they have more to gain by fighting than with negotiations.
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Errington C. Thompson, MD, is a surgeon, scholar, fulltime sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats...
