A "Drop Squad" candidate didn't like Obama's speech. Wait until you read why.

A lot of you Negroes despise John McWhorter; you think that he has been dodging the "Drop Squad" for a long time. I personally have mixed emotions about the guy. Sometimes he makes sense, and sometimes he leaves you scratching your head.

His latest article about Obama's speech was a head- scratcher. Not because he didn't like it, but because of the reasons he gave for not liking it.

"Why was the President’s speech at the DNC convention kind of boring?
Especially when it's this President? Remember that sense of drama there used to be whenever he was about to do some talking? Yet let’s face it, most of us were more titillated in anticipation of Mitt Romney’s speech than Obama’s.
It’s easy to forget how novel Obama’s way of making a speech was just four years ago for someone in the Oval Office. Bill Clinton’s Southern speaking flavor was notorious, but hardly unknown at 1600 Pennsylvania. America had heard a similar sound from Jimmy Carter, not to mention Lyndon Johnson in his more buttoned-down moments.

Obama brought the black English “flava” to the Presidency. Who would have even imagined, as recently as six years ago, a State of the Union addresses sprinkled with the floating speech melodies of the black church? Who would have imagined a President who, with all of his dignity and even reserve, can speak with a faint but perceptible hint of the street?

It was easy to drift into thinking of that melody as lyrics. The humble honesty we hear in the black sound — hiphop, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock — can come off as a statement in itself. Many, for instance, might be hard-pressed to remember just what black rock star academic Cornel West actually says. What moves people is the funky way that he says it.

Obama got by on that kind of thing to a certain extent in the old days. But like songs that get overplayed and jokes that run stale, the novelty in Obama’s gift of gab has worn off for most of us.

It’s great that his oratorical gifts helped get him elected. But after four years we just hear him talking, again. Comedians do imitations. Reality has caught up to “24” and “Deep Impact”: the President is black and kind of sounds like it. We’ve moved on.

Now what we need from the man is content over form, and at the convention he underperformed on that.

“Explainer-in-Chief,” the media has dubbed Bill Clinton for his masterful bullet-point refutation of the Republicans’ nonsense charges against Obama. But why in the world isn’t the President himself the explainer-in-chief?
Why can’t a former law professor, who could even give a tease in his speech about how being American entails not only rights but responsibilities, give us as good a teaching as Clinton did?

“Think about this,” Clinton often said before launching into a careful elucidation. It’s Obama who should have done more of this. He’s got enough gray hair and gravitas now to do that without seeming pedantic. The black cadence would even help rub out any possible air of Adlai Stevenson, just as Clinton’s down-home accent does for him.

Yet many people still thrill viscerally to Obama’s rising intonations because it reminds them of being in church. There is even a whole book about to be published about how Barack Obama talks, written by people to whom this mindset is likely not alien.....

 ....But that brand of spoken-word poetry won’t have the potency today that it did in 2008. There are people who are more interested in how Obama will deal with Sen. Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Fox News than in whether he can bust a move." [Source]

"Black English flava"? Did he really write that? "Bust a move"? Yes, I think he did. McWhorter's incoherent and silly article was a serious waste of his time not to mention the folks who took the ten minutes or so out of their time to read it. When he writes about people liking the "funky way" that Obama says things you have to wonder where he gets his motivation for such crap. Is he simply trying to impress his white editors by showing them that he has some insight into black thought? If he is, using seventies lingo-- that is both silly and stereotypical-- to help his readers reaffirm their stereotypes was lazy and superficial on McWhorter's part.

Right now I am thinking that I just might have to make that call to the "Drop Squad" after all.   

Radicals needed.

I am trying to get ready and pumped up for O's big speech. Popcorn? Check. Television? Check. Foot up on coffee table? (Mrs. Field out of town on business.) Check. This should be fun.

But not so fast; someone is trying to be a killjoy. I was reading George Will's article today, and he was writing about what a radical president Obama is because of his political ideology and leanings.

I suppose, that in his mind, Mr. Will felt that he was dissing Obama by comparing him to Wilson and Roosevelt. In his mind. For those of us secular progressives in America, that article was actually an approbation of Barack Obama. If only Barack Obama himself would embrace all of the labels that the [right] wingnuts constantly throw at him.

"As such, Obama has earned what he now receives, the tribute of a serious intellectual exegesis by a distinguished political philosopher. In “I Am the Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism,” Charles Kesler of Claremont McKenna College rightly says Obama is “playing a long, high-stakes game.” Concerning the stakes, Obama practices prudent reticence, not specifying America’s displeasing features that are fundamental. Shortly before the 2008 election, he said only: “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming” America. Tonight, consider Obama’s acceptance speech in the context that Kesler gives it in the American political tradition.
Progress, as progressives understand it, means advancing away from, up from, something. But from what?

From the Constitution’s constricting anachronisms. In 1912, Wilson said, “The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of governmental power.” But as Kesler notes, Wilson never said the future of liberty consisted of such limitation"

I am not sure that Mr. Will -or Mr. Kessler for that matter- can read President Wilson's mind anymore than I can, but I certainly hope that is what he meant. Because, I would submit to Mr. Will, that by limiting government we do not insure liberty for all. Quite the opposite. Those individuals who owned slaves in the South were not going to end that practice on their own. They weren't going to stop the practice because their pastors said that it was wrong. Women didn't get the right to vote because their husbands all of a sudden wanted to discuss politics with them over the dinner table.

I have some news for Mr.Will: we are the government.The people. That is what makes a true democracy.

"Wilson, the first transformative progressive, called this the “New Freedom.” The old kind was the Founders’ kind — government existing to “secure” natural rights (see the Declaration) that preexist government. Wilson thought this had become an impediment to progress. The pedigree of Obama’s thought runs straight to Wilson.

And through the second transformative progressive, Franklin Roosevelt, who counseled against the Founders’ sober practicality and fear of government power: “We are beginning to wipe out the line that divides the practical from the ideal” and are making government “an instrument of unimagined power” for social improvement. The only thing we have to fear is fear of a government of unimagined power:"

No, the "only thing we have to fear" are individuals who would choose to subvert the government (and thus the will of the people) to push forward their own selfish and backwards agenda. The right is full of radicals, it's time the left got some radicals of their own. Sorry George, I know that it doesn't fit into your narrative, but Barack Obama is not a radical.

"This, says Kesler, is “the First Law of Big Government: the more power we give the government, the more rights it will give us.” It also is the ultimate American radicalism, striking at the roots of the American regime, the doctrine of natural rights" [Source]

Remember George, we are the government. It can't get any more natural than that.

MSNBC? Check.


   







 

"I believe we can be better,"

I know Sarah is glad that her children are no longer babies. Now the poor woman won't have to worry about the Jews getting their blood.

"Palin aide Rebecca Mansour said the former Alaska governor stands by her video.

"There has been an incredible increase in death threats against Gov. Palin since the tragedy in Arizona, since she's been accused of having the blood of those victims on her hands," Mansour said. "When you start to accuse people of having the blood of innocent people on their hands, it incites violence."

Yes, let's all feel sorry for Sarah. She is, after all, the real victim in all of this.

Anyway, let me stop, I just saw the O man's speech and my spirits have been lifted. He called for all of us to be nicer to each other and to elevate the discourse here in A-merry-ca. I feel that the least I could do is tone down the finger pointing and rhetoric for one night.

"But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized - at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do - it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds. "

I feel you O. Now let's see how the wingnuts react to your speech. I have a feeling that our little detente won't last too long.

Tough talk?

Let me go ahead and give my thoughts about the O man's health insurance reform speech.

I caught most of it tonight in between watching the U.S.A T&T soccer match on the Spanish channel.

First, how ignorant and disrespectful are republicans? If anyone saw a democratic congressman texting during one of the frat boy's speeches or saw anyone in the opposition yelling "liar" in the middle of a previous presidential address, please provide a link. I don't think one will be forthcoming, but I could be wrong. I did see Eric Cantor texting someone during the O man's speech-must have been calling his hair dresser for more hair spray-, and yep, there was a republican yelling "liar" in the middle of the speech. What a classy bunch.

Oh, and I loved the good doctor from Louisiana giving the republican response. (He has been sued for malpractice twice, so I am not sure he should be throwing any stones from his glass house.) The idiot actually brought up tort reform when his O ness already promised in his speech that it would be a part of his plan. That's what you get for writing your response before hand. But hey, it sure beats the governor from Louisiana giving the response, because as bad as bayou doc was he was better than the gov.

But back to the speech: First, let me say that it was a mistake for his O ness to give this health reform package to congress to work on. He should have crafted it himself and then handed to them to work out the details. I know he didn't want to do a repeat of what the Clintons did back in 1994, but that is exactly what he should have done. Different time, different mandate, and it would have worked. Now, unfortunately, our boy is playing defense. Having said that, let me holla at his O ness for a minute: I loved the tough talk O man. You aren't the first president to take up health care but you will be the last? Bringing up the ghost of John Dingell, Sr. was also a nice touch. You were all over the profit over people insurance companies, and rightfully so. If A-merry-cans weren't moved by some of those stories you told about real people, they don't deserve health insurance reform.

I loved the fact that you hit back at the right wing/FOX News smear machine. ( I see they bumped your speech for some dancing show. Just what A-merry-ca needs, more silly reality shows.) Who needs to hear about one of the most important legislation from our government in decades? I am still not sure about the public option part, but I think you were being intentionally fuzzy. I felt like you were talking to us progressives and telling us to chill while you try to get something done with health care. I am not a political pragmatist, but I know you are, and if most A-merry-cans can have access to proper and affordable health care I guess I am all for it. It sure as hell beats the insurance lobby driven system we have now.

I also loved the fact that you placed the blame for this mess that we are in where it belongs: at the foot of the frat boy and his crew. And, I loved the idea of putting actual facts into the speech. Facts should always get in the way of partisan bullshit.

"We are the only advanced democracy on Earth — the only wealthy nation — that allows such hardships for millions of its people. There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage. In just a two year period, one in every three Americans goes without health care coverage at some point. And every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage. In other words, it can happen to anyone. "

Not "anyone" O man, republicans don't believe it can happen to them. Only poor people immigrants and minorities can't afford health care.

"Then there's the problem of rising costs. We spend one-and-a-half times more per person on health care than any other country, but we aren't any healthier for it. This is one of the reasons that insurance premiums have gone up three times faster than wages. It's why so many employers — especially small businesses — are forcing their employees to pay more for insurance, or are dropping their coverage entirely. It's why so many aspiring entrepreneurs cannot afford to open a business in the first place, and why American businesses that compete internationally — like our automakers — are at a huge disadvantage. And it's why those of us with health insurance are also paying a hidden and growing tax for those without it — about $1000 per year that pays for somebody else's emergency room and charitable care."

More facts. Come on O man, you are letting it get in the way of a great political debate.

"But that's not what the moment calls for. That's not what we came here to do. We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it. I still believe we can act even when it's hard. I still believe we can replace acrimony with civility, and gridlock with progress. I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history's test.
Because that is who we are. That is our calling. That is our character. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.'

That damn Obama, I wonder if Mrs. Field have any of her O-Aid left?

"No Excuses"

I just caught his O ness doing his thing at the NAACP gathering in New York, (I wonder how many more of those will be coming here in A-merry-ca? Happy 100th B-Day NAACP. Now if you could just become relevant again. Digression alert!)and I must say that I was impressed. Yeah it was Cosbyish in its tone, but a lot of what he said needed to be said. We needed to hear it from the President. I am glad he didn't go in there trying to talk policy and democratic talking points. That would have been be too much like preaching to the choir. Black folks don't want to hear politics and Washington inside baseball, they want their president to speak to them about issues that are personal to their community. On that front I thought he delivered. The "Amen Corner" was in full effect, so you know he was reaching them.

“There is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child’s God-given potential,”

Education education education. A black leader cannot stress that enough for me. That is now the number one civil rights issue as far as I am concerned. But around the issue of education are many other complex issues as well. Issues such as failing schools, crime, broken families, a failing justice system, and policies from Washington that makes it harder for certain communities to gain access to funding. His O ness didn't bite his tongue when he admonished black parents to do right by their children and make sure that they are being educated in the right way. He stressed that we must give them every chance to succeed, and that there must be "no excuses."

Of course, it's easy for those of us who were fortunate enough to be given the right opportunities and who were blessed to be raised in a black version of Mayberry R.F.D. to talk. I grew up in a family of four and three of them had PhD's. For me, there was no doubt that I was going to further my education, and I had parents and a sister who set great examples for me. I can't even begin to imagine how tough it must be for a single mother of three, for instance, to try and raise her children in inner city_____________[fill in the blank with any city you want.] It has to be tough. Your kid's father is dead, in jail, or just a dead-beat, and you are holding it down all by your lonesome. A million speeches by his O ness won't make it easier for that single mother struggling in the hood to cope with her circumstances. But policies from Washington that raises that minimum wage and allows her to afford proper health care will. Still, she has to try. That's why that speech was so important. She has to realize that one of her children could one day be the person behind that podium with the presidential seal giving that speech. Those single parents and community activists are our new MLK's. They are on the front lines of the civil rights struggle now. It's up to them; not the leaders we elect, or the folks who hold themselves up as our leaders, (see Rev. inc.) to take the lead in inspiring these kids out here.

Tomorrow morning I will be speaking to some kids at an elementary school in North Philadelphia. I think I will start by asking them if they heard the president's speech tonight. I know only a couple of hands will go up, and then I will ask the rest of the kids why they missed it. The various reasons they give me will be a great jumping off point for the rest of my discussion. A discussion, to me, that will be all too familiar.

BTW, I couldn't sign off tonight without hollering at my man racism, again. Looks like he isn't even running from me anymore. In fact, I think the SOB is starting to chase me. :)

"ATLANTA — Former U.S. Sen. Zell Miller criticized President Barack Obama's recent travels overseas, telling a group of mostly Republican lawmakers Thursday that the White House Chief of Staff needs to put "Gorilla Glue" on Obama's chair to keep him in the Oval Office.
"Our globe-trotting president needs to stop and take a break and quit gallivanting around..."

Oh Zell, shut up, you are just trying to get attention. And racism, you are way too slow, you will never catch me, not after that speech by his O ness. I am inspired!