blackascoal
The Force is With Me
Barack Obama: A Horse of a Different Color
Barack Obama will ride into the White House on the winds of change blown by Americans who were inspired by his almost mesmerizing speeches, manner, and aura of being someone new and special. When his message of change slid sharply to the right, his supporters closed ranks and matter-of-factly dismissed those who questioned his abrupt rightward turn with, "He's only saying what he has to say to get elected." They danced to the beat of his song and nobody danced harder than African-Americans and the antiwar left.
Now that he has been elected, it's becoming increasingly apparent that they were right, he was only saying what he had to say to get elected, and now elected, he shifts even further to the right. He got off the horse that rode him to victory and has saddled up a horse of a different color. What America gets in Obama is the same corporate horse, just a different color.
It appears that the Obama Administration is shaping up to be even less diverse than the Bush Administration, and it includes some eye-raising choices. Out of the nearly all-white male selections on the menu, Larry Summers and Rahm Emanuel stand out.
Larry Summers, who appears to be at the top of Obama's list for Treasury Secretary, served as Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary. After leaving that post, he took over as President of Harvard University. His most notable accomplishment during his time at Harvard was the firestorm he created with the African-American Studies Department. That firestorm of his own creation led to his resigning from Harvard after a "no confidence" vote from the faculty and ever-increasing demands from within and outside of the university for him to step down. From the day he took over, Summers had the clear agenda of moving the political atmosphere of the university to the right and he aligned himself with the policies of the Bush Administration. He forced African-American Studies professor Cornel West out of Harvard and into Princeton and belittled the significance and importance of African-American study.
Summers also said that protests against Israel's occupation of Palestine and attempts to divest holdings in Israel by Harvard and other universities and institutions were "anti-semitic." He also wanted the reintroduction of the ROTC program at the university.
Summers was also once the chief economist for the World Bank where he implemented “structural adjustments programs” that were devastating to the people of Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere. While there, he also drafted a memo that called for "free market toxics" and he wrote that the World Bank should get behind sending toxic waste and industries that create these life-threatening wastes to these same "less developed countries." He said, “Health impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages”, and that these people don't live long anyway. Again, widespread outrage ensued and calls for his resignation.
Bill Clinton found that when he tried to install him as head of his Council of Economic Advisors, he was forced to withdraw the nomination because of widespread protests, so Clinton slid him in at Treasury. While he was the head of Treasury during the Clinton Administration, his feet were firmly planted towards the interests of corporations and financial institutions.
Why is such a man even considered for a top position in an administration that branded itself on change?
A decision that has already been made is yet another Clintonite from the republican wing of the Democratic Party, Rahm Emanuel, who was selected to be Obama's Chief of Staff. Emanuel is an Israeli hardliner and the son of an Israeli terrorist. He's a cursing, swearing blue dog democrat who probably will be the guy who keeps the hapless lemming-like left from making too much noise as Obama embarks on a foreign policy that is sometimes to the right of Bush. Pakistan is that example, and Obama continues to beat the drums of war towards Iran even though the so-called "evidence" against Iran's nuclear program, supposedly recovered in a laptop, has been proven to be forged documents and Iran poses no threat to the United States. Emanuel's selection slapped many Arab nations awake who hoped for a different approach and dialogue towards finding balance in the Middle East. In the coming days and months, lots of people are going to be slapped awake.
Get used to hearing the phrase "anti-semitic" during the Obama Administration, which doesn't appear to concern him. Obama himself has morphed into an Israeli hardliner right in front of our eyes, and "anti-semitic" will be the cover many of his policies, especially with regards to war. What he does appear to indeed be concerned with is that no one think him too black. Hell, he'll even consider appointing a man who believes the lives of non-white people have less value. What African-Americans will get for their overwhelming support is symbolism, but if they're looking for someone who'd appoint blacks to top positions in the government, perhaps they should have voted for George Bush.
With talk of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, the only Clintonite not on the short list of possibilities is Bill Clinton himself.
But none of this is any surprise to those of us who have been hearing the words of Obama's song, not just dancing to the beat. Nor will it be any surprise that Obamanauts will continue to dismiss the glaring evidence that Obama now rides a different horse. They'll continue to blame Bush and republicans and never once notice or acknowledge that Obama rides the very same horse Bush, republicans, and Bill Clinton did. They never once acknowledged or noticed that much of the enormous money Obama amassed came from corporations and the banking industry. Blacks will declare that Obama needs to find the "best people", not just black faces, thus countering their own argument for affirmative action. The antiwar forces will shut their mouths, close their eyes real tight and hope that when they open them, body bags won’t be staring then in the face.
Everybody dancing.
No matter what the evidence, like gansta' rap, the beat just sounds too damn good and the words don't matter.
But just as with the Bush Administration, there will be many Americans who see through the smoke and mirrors. Not through the lenses of the insane right who will attack him with every knucklehead notion they can dream up, but with the truth that this nation is fully in the hands of the plutocracy of corporations, monied interests, and the State of Israel.
Barack Obama will ride into the White House on the winds of change blown by Americans who were inspired by his almost mesmerizing speeches, manner, and aura of being someone new and special. When his message of change slid sharply to the right, his supporters closed ranks and matter-of-factly dismissed those who questioned his abrupt rightward turn with, "He's only saying what he has to say to get elected." They danced to the beat of his song and nobody danced harder than African-Americans and the antiwar left.
Now that he has been elected, it's becoming increasingly apparent that they were right, he was only saying what he had to say to get elected, and now elected, he shifts even further to the right. He got off the horse that rode him to victory and has saddled up a horse of a different color. What America gets in Obama is the same corporate horse, just a different color.
It appears that the Obama Administration is shaping up to be even less diverse than the Bush Administration, and it includes some eye-raising choices. Out of the nearly all-white male selections on the menu, Larry Summers and Rahm Emanuel stand out.
Larry Summers, who appears to be at the top of Obama's list for Treasury Secretary, served as Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary. After leaving that post, he took over as President of Harvard University. His most notable accomplishment during his time at Harvard was the firestorm he created with the African-American Studies Department. That firestorm of his own creation led to his resigning from Harvard after a "no confidence" vote from the faculty and ever-increasing demands from within and outside of the university for him to step down. From the day he took over, Summers had the clear agenda of moving the political atmosphere of the university to the right and he aligned himself with the policies of the Bush Administration. He forced African-American Studies professor Cornel West out of Harvard and into Princeton and belittled the significance and importance of African-American study.
Summers also said that protests against Israel's occupation of Palestine and attempts to divest holdings in Israel by Harvard and other universities and institutions were "anti-semitic." He also wanted the reintroduction of the ROTC program at the university.
Summers was also once the chief economist for the World Bank where he implemented “structural adjustments programs” that were devastating to the people of Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere. While there, he also drafted a memo that called for "free market toxics" and he wrote that the World Bank should get behind sending toxic waste and industries that create these life-threatening wastes to these same "less developed countries." He said, “Health impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages”, and that these people don't live long anyway. Again, widespread outrage ensued and calls for his resignation.
Bill Clinton found that when he tried to install him as head of his Council of Economic Advisors, he was forced to withdraw the nomination because of widespread protests, so Clinton slid him in at Treasury. While he was the head of Treasury during the Clinton Administration, his feet were firmly planted towards the interests of corporations and financial institutions.
Why is such a man even considered for a top position in an administration that branded itself on change?
A decision that has already been made is yet another Clintonite from the republican wing of the Democratic Party, Rahm Emanuel, who was selected to be Obama's Chief of Staff. Emanuel is an Israeli hardliner and the son of an Israeli terrorist. He's a cursing, swearing blue dog democrat who probably will be the guy who keeps the hapless lemming-like left from making too much noise as Obama embarks on a foreign policy that is sometimes to the right of Bush. Pakistan is that example, and Obama continues to beat the drums of war towards Iran even though the so-called "evidence" against Iran's nuclear program, supposedly recovered in a laptop, has been proven to be forged documents and Iran poses no threat to the United States. Emanuel's selection slapped many Arab nations awake who hoped for a different approach and dialogue towards finding balance in the Middle East. In the coming days and months, lots of people are going to be slapped awake.
Get used to hearing the phrase "anti-semitic" during the Obama Administration, which doesn't appear to concern him. Obama himself has morphed into an Israeli hardliner right in front of our eyes, and "anti-semitic" will be the cover many of his policies, especially with regards to war. What he does appear to indeed be concerned with is that no one think him too black. Hell, he'll even consider appointing a man who believes the lives of non-white people have less value. What African-Americans will get for their overwhelming support is symbolism, but if they're looking for someone who'd appoint blacks to top positions in the government, perhaps they should have voted for George Bush.
With talk of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, the only Clintonite not on the short list of possibilities is Bill Clinton himself.
But none of this is any surprise to those of us who have been hearing the words of Obama's song, not just dancing to the beat. Nor will it be any surprise that Obamanauts will continue to dismiss the glaring evidence that Obama now rides a different horse. They'll continue to blame Bush and republicans and never once notice or acknowledge that Obama rides the very same horse Bush, republicans, and Bill Clinton did. They never once acknowledged or noticed that much of the enormous money Obama amassed came from corporations and the banking industry. Blacks will declare that Obama needs to find the "best people", not just black faces, thus countering their own argument for affirmative action. The antiwar forces will shut their mouths, close their eyes real tight and hope that when they open them, body bags won’t be staring then in the face.
Everybody dancing.
No matter what the evidence, like gansta' rap, the beat just sounds too damn good and the words don't matter.
But just as with the Bush Administration, there will be many Americans who see through the smoke and mirrors. Not through the lenses of the insane right who will attack him with every knucklehead notion they can dream up, but with the truth that this nation is fully in the hands of the plutocracy of corporations, monied interests, and the State of Israel.
