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November 7, 2008

Thank You George W Bush jr. for Our Black President

Filed under: Chicago, Society Ethnic Racial — Tags: Black President, Bush, Obama — Dave @ 12:59 am

No, no really! We couldn’t done it without you. Take a bow my brother-you deserve it. Stand back and observe what you have wrought (I know you’re big on the Bible so I threw that in for you). Now, no gnashing of the teeth! You must move forward. Get started on you Presidential “library.” Lot of people would underestimate designing a 2 foot by 3 foot space but I know, even that, takes planning so don’t let us hold you up on your next exciting adventure.

All kidding aside, many do view you and your presidency as a joke, but let’s be real for a minute. A lot of real live people died because of you. A lot of people died here in the country as a whole, in the Armed Services, in Iraq, in Louisiana! And all the people who did go to work and came back missing limbs, or missing jobs, or missing years of their kids lives, or coming back to NO FAMILY AT ALL. A wife who jut couldn’t’ take the stress. And a lot of people lost their homes. Your REFUSAL to deal with wall street gone wild cost people their retirement with the Enron and all the other companies who played with people’s lives. But turns out that was just the tip of the financial iceberg right? In other words your damage is very real. Very real. And so much carelessness because you surrounding yourself with a callous and greedy body of people. Cheney and his Halliburton money grab, Wolfowitz and his theories and Rumsfeld and his armchair general’s approach to combat. Real people really suffered.

But with Obama’s election the world is proud of America. The signal has been sent. That the ugly Americans have finally been beaten back into submission. Everybody recognizes that they’re still here, but that it will take an enormous effort for them ever to regain power and wreck havoc on the world again. People knew that we black Americans didn’t have the numbers to ever put a black man in office, that it was going to take all types of Americans pulling together to enact a actual “regime change.” But we did it, we ending a stranglehold that went on for too long. It’s over.

The thing that has struck me in life is how unusual are the people who want to be president. Invariable what I see is this desire to go down in history. I only see the desire to serve the people as in afterthought. Except in 2 cases Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, otherwise it’s been one history whore after another. As we’ve just seen with McCain’s use of Sarah Palin. His greed for that office prompted him to insult the American people to such an unbelievable degree that after the initial shock wore off his OWN party realized that guy couldn’t give a flying fuck what happens to us if it meant he would “get to be president.” I have a theory that I’m always telling people; toothpaste does not come out of the tube on its own. I’ve learned that in life almost no movement forward happens without the appropriate pressure. And you Mr. Bush backed the country into such a corner, such a corner, that they would vote a black man into office. That’s a hell of accomplishment. You will go down in history, not just as the worst president ever, but the main who made Obama possible.

So again, being the good Bible man that you are I guess there’s only one way to say goodbye; don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.

Here’s an image brought to my attention by HotRod at WFMU. As you know this blog is 1/5 about comics and Alex Ross who went to art school here in Chicago did this one.

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June 5, 2008

The Obama Assassination Hints Are Starting To Stack Up

Filed under: Society Ethnic Racial — Tags: 2008 Election, Assassination, Bush, Clinton, Fox, Hillary, Huffington, Jimmy Carter, McGreevy, Murdoch, Obama, presidential election, Yazmany Arboleda — Dave @ 2:37 pm

It’s amazing isn’t it? How we’re hearing all these Presidential assassination allusions. Obviously in private people must do it all the time, but probably not since Lincoln have we heard so many public figures make some kind of remark and then have to either make a retraction or face the consequences with law enforcement. After all it IS illegal to allude to killing a President, former President or even Presidential candidate. So in the last month there have been several public figures who’ve had to say things like “Oh I didn’t mean it that way” or “I was just kidding.” Obviously FOX News wasn’t going to allow itself not to be the FIRST place to get people thinking about this idea of a dead Obama . And of course Hillary herself got into the dead President game (and I don’t mean money). And of course I MYSELF said this kind of talk was going to start picking up momentum. White people can’t take it. Listen I know people keep talking about “young people” love Obama-of every color, Hurray! But maybe some young people are cut from a different cloth . Take, for example, this young guy…

This is Yazmany Arboleda and he just had his art show closed down. The title of the show? “The Assassination of Hillary Clinton & The Assassination of Barack Obama.” You say to me, “But Dave, he threw Hillary in there too.” And I say to you, that is what we call a “smokescreen.” Like gay guys and their “girlfriends” or “wives.” I mean you MUST remember Republican Jim McGreevy? He was just in the news! He came out and confessed to being gay, and recently the ex-aide brought out the whole three-way with McGreevy and wife. Oh how short our attention span. At any rate, Arboleda is a Boston artist (what? of course he’s from Boston; I think the black/white issues up there are quite well documented) and he had this great idea for an art show. The problem was that title. A title so inflammatory the NY city police and Secret Service shut him down . The content of the show doesn’t really show either of them getting killed per se, unless you consider maybe character assassination. You can see the contents yourself if you like at that link above. But I have to warn you; there is some graphic content. The Hillary stuff? Oh no, not that. The Hillary stuff includes year book photos of her, her pantsuits, her dog and cat, and allusions that she’s not sexy and takes political money. No. What you’ve got to prepare yourself for are the Obama images . And it’s not the Nappy Headed Hoe picture that’s a problem. Maybe it’s the painting of him and the deceased Kennedy and the word “passed.” Or maybe it’s the Hillary poster that says she’s the “cure for Niggeritis.” Or maybe, just maybe it’s the 18 foot long 6 foot high naked penis of a black man that stretches across all four walls of one of the exhibition halls. Maybe it’s that one.

So why this animosity? Why are people so ANGRY at the prospect of a black man being President. I mean that IS all it is. FAR lesser prepared people who walking into office. I liked Gerald Ford the person, but come on! And does the name George W. Bush ring any bells? But, Dave, he was a governor! Yeah, a bad one. I have a LOT of respect for Bush the elder, but the son? He was so busy killing death row prisoners instead of checking for DNA when almost every single state in the nation put a pause on the practice that he managed to make Texas Number One for number of prisoners killed. And shall we review his alcohol abuse, (unconfirmed?) drug use, failed companies and bail outs? No need to right? You’ve heard it all before. And how about his running of the country? How on earth can any single human American have any conflict about Obama after the Bush experience? Or any conflict about ANY person who is capable of tying his own shoes running the country at this point. The Republican Party got everything they wanted. The Senate, the House, the Presidency, the Supreme Court, and entire NETWORK dedicated to promoting their opinions and masked “leaks.” That’s the whole show. They had a LONG time to show us how good their rule was. They said if they could just get control of the country the “grown ups” would show us how it’s done. And boy did they show us! Let’s let companies police themselves, they’ll do right by consumers and the general public. Let’s let Greenspan run the money-he’s so smart we don’t understand him. (By the way Greenspan’s legacy is the nationwide home loan scandal that’s not just about to crush the American economy but the WORLD money supply-do 20 minutes of research and have your mind blown).

So the white fear; is setting in. But let me ask you-WORST case scenario, how much worse can he be than Bush? And it wasn’t JUST BUSH by the way, it was the other two branches of government AND a cabal of Right Wing Hawks. Who, by the way, have been slowly backing out the back door like thieves in the night and plan on leaving Bush holding the bag alone by next January. They know what they did. They’re like a kid whose mother comes home and he’s all alone with a broken lamp-and says I don’t know how it happened. They know. And WE know. So what is problem with Obama? He’s black. I don’t care what you say about him serving all those years in government here in Illinois AND the Senate. People don’t care. They just feel like he’s “stealing” the government. He’s the ONLY person to apply for this job with a clean record. Just LOOK at McCain’s history or anybody else. Bill Clinton managed to slip in DESPITE his dirty record, Obama’s actually lead a decent life. He’s a bright guy. What else do you want? Oh. White skin. Silly me. I sometimes get to the end of a paragraph and forget how I started.

Listen. I kind of DON’T want Obama to win. The aftermath of Bush is going to be so severe that the person who goes into office now is going to look TERRIBLE. Unless they’re a miracle worker. So Rupert Murdoch says “no” on Obama and people like former President Carter and Arianna Huffington say “yes.” I bring those 2 up because they agree with ME that Obama should not have Hillary as his VP. It’s a bad idea-the Red States would burn the country down first is what I believe. But Jimmy says their combined weaknesses would too easy to attack. Huffington says you’d get Bill in the package too, and that “three-way” as she put it would be too much. It’s a long time till November though. A long time.

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May 16, 2008

Is Edwards the Great White Hope for Obama?

Filed under: Society Ethnic Racial — Tags: Al Gore, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Bill Richardson, Bush, Democratic nomination, Edwards, election, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, john edwards, McCain, Obama, Obama Edwards, politics, vice president — Dave @ 7:33 pm

I was REALLY torn about what angle to take on this piece. It was either the obvious path I’ve decided to go, OR I was going to make a sort of Police reference and use the opening line “Don’t stand so close to me.” And why would Edwards be apprehensive about standing too close to Obama? Well ever since I was a little black kid all the way until I became a doddering old black man (40!) every single black comic I’ve ever heard has had a routine about a black man becoming president and how very SHORT his term would be with the gag line being about how fast he’ll be shot. So now that this premise has become a real "life imitating art" scenario I DO wonder about the prospect of that happening. But since presidential assassination is sort of an American tradition, I decided NOT take that angle on this piece. I’m trying to bring new idea to the table here!

So instead I want you to consider this premise; John Edwards is being presented as the safe white man who’ll "be there” to keep the ship on course. Just like good ole’ dad holding onto the back of jr’s first bicycle ride. Here’s the deal; have you noticed in the last few weeks how Howard Dean has popped up again like a rejuvenated, hibernating bear? Well, he clearly has been very busy behind the scenes, and one of the things I believe he spent May doing was convincing John Edwards to be Obama’s Vice President.

So Edwards, who repeatedly said (like they all do), that he had no interest in being vice president is doing a considerable amount of VP posturing. That endorsement looks VERY running mate/winning ticket photo op. So you know what this about right? I mean we’re all adults here, so let’s be real. This is how it’s GOT to be playing out in Dean’s mind an the DNC think tank. ”OK, let’s let Clinton and Obama fight it out and whoever seems to pull ahead in a definitive way is who we’ll throw Edwards at.” Because again, let’s be real; Clinton and Obama-a woman and black guy, sure that’s OK for democrats around the country but the Red State people? Get real! I mean really! Get real. No matter HOW sick they are of Bush, no matter HOW much money McCain’s wife wont disclose that she has, no matter how bad McCain’s temper is or how old he is-those Red State people will let this country burn to a cinder before they put a woman or a black guy in office-without a some kind of safety net. ESPECIALLY Bill Clinton’s wife. I mean really! Get real. So what do you do? You slap a standard issue, Southern drawl talkin’ white guy on the ticket. Fait accompli. Despite the tiff that supposedly happened between Obama and Edward’s wife-water under the bridge now that they’re looking at the next 4-8 years doing Air Force 1 flights together.

Meanwhile the temerity to suggest that anybody AT ALL was wondering what Al Gore is going to do with his super delegate vote. AS IF. As if this is a question in any way, shape or form. Listen Gore is NOT Bill Richardson. Gore can’t claim he “paid his debt” to the Clintons. Bill Clinton did a lot for Richardson and Gore, but he made Gore VICE PRESIDENT! There have only been 43 in the history of this country. And let’s face it; after Gore lost people were really ANGRY that he didn’t try a little harder only showed his "human" side after the election. So he spent the next several years doing all kinds of "works for the world" to rebuild his personal capital and become beloved. So if he switches over to Obama…that’ll go down the drain. He’ll revert to persona non grata. I don’t care if Hillary was some old broken whore in some old fashioned Western town, Gore would STILL have to sleep with her. He is DUTY BOUND to slap on 10 rubbers and get into bed with her. And so Gore’s vote is not even up for debate.

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May 6, 2008

PBS Look at Bush Senior Reminds Me I Applied to CIA

Filed under: MoviesTV — Tags: Bush, PBS — Dave @ 9:51 pm

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March 7, 2008

Wanna Know Why Obama Lost 3 of 4 States on Tuesday and Clinton Won?

Filed under: Society Ethnic Racial — Tags: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Bush, Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, Jesse Jackson, politics, President, Race, voting — Dave @ 9:03 am

Listen, there are exactly two reasons; race and cost . I have to assume that reason number one is CRYSTAL clear, so let’s deal with it. My name is Dave Rosenthal for example, and I’m a Black guy. That’s it! Now look at my last name again, and stop by my About page and take a look at my face. Starting to get the pictures? I’m a person of “mixed heritage.” And I’m not walking around taking the “Tiger Woods Approach to Racial Descriptions ” I, and everybody else, just call me a Black guy. End of story. Yes, when people hear the name they start asking questions, but UNTIL they hear the name I’m a Black guy.

I’m not a guy involved in politics. When it’s time to vote I site down a week before the elections and read then make my decision. That’s it. That’s the whole process. Now that reading part actually means something in LA where I lived for ten years, because that place is proposition crazy. But for every place else voting is not a big deal. So my mom, has been rooting for Barack Obama in the 2008 Election. But I told her months ago he didn’t have a chance-for the obvious reason. But this past week it started looking like he was going to get the Democratic nomination. So on Super Tuesday I got up and wrote a piece in the middle of the day, and then had to update it that night when the surprising results came in. And very briefly I explained what I’m essentially clarifying now. The reason for the loss.

RACE . Here’s what happened; years ago Jesse Jackson ran for President. He, and everybody else, never thought he had a chance in hell. But we all understood. He was running to show that we as Black people can run, and like Nader today trying to put some issues on the table that normally wouldn’t be presented. Plus it was a bit of a publicity stunt to raise not only Jacksons cache, but Black people’s in general. Again, we all understood-and I was just a kid! So when Barack threw his hat in the ring I said to myself, “now what is he up to?”

There’s a book out right now that talks about this giant debate the Abraham Lincoln had with this guy for a Senate seat here in Illinois, and how Lincoln lost the debate but became widely known throughout the country and 2 years later WON the presidency. Maybe, I thought, that’s what Obama’s got in mind. Or maybe he thinks he can win…that the momentum against Bush is swinging the political pendulum unusually far in the opposite direction. But no, I think he got into it like Lincoln with the intent to set the stage for the future. But what I think happened was…things changed. I think at some point he, and those others around him, thought he might REALLY be able to win. And he started running for real.

But then Super Tuesday happened. And he lost 3 out of 4 states. Wanna know a strange fact I learned a few years ago reading the Statistical Abstract of the US? Vermont has the highest interracial marriage in the country. So I was not surprised he won there. And I think like most people, my mother expected, if not a clean sweep, that he might lose one of the big states, but CERTAINLY not both. But it happened. And it happened because lots of people, of ALL colors, got into the voting booth where the Obama magic is no competition for that bland fluorescent lighting. And people started saying to themselves “a BLACK President? A Black president…well…yeah it’s almost time for one. Maybe when I retire in 5 or 10 years…” End of story.

COST . Time to address this issue; Seems a little mysterious? Let me expand; have you noticed how Hillary has been throwing this buzz word around. Experience. But see, that doesn’t make a lot of sense if you think about. She only made it to the US Senate 4 years before Barack. And yet Obama was elected to the state Senate twelve years ago. See that’s experience. But what if you look at the word “experience” as a subliminal cue? What if the “experience” she’s talking about doesn’t refer to herself? Are you catching my meaning yet? That’s right, He’s been keeping intentionally low key but nevertheless making his presence known. Bill. Do you see now? There’s been a subtle message that by voting for Hillary you get 2 for the price of 1. You get a guy who WAS president and woman who IS competent on her own, and sure, she’ll be president from 9 to 5 but when the doors close it’ll be both of ‘em. That’s what’s formed in people’s minds about her. We may not really like Hillary, but everybody loves Bill! And it’s 2 for the price of 1! And all Americans love a deal.

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There is some good news. Whoever does NOT win is going to be thanking their lucky stars and realize they really dodged a bullet. Because whoever DOES become President has to contend with the Bush mess. And I may need to write an entire piece to expend on that issue. But plain and simply, if a woman or a Black guy goes in after Bush they’re going to be blamed for the ton of hell that’s coming our way thanks to Bush. Even if McCain makes it he’s gonna have an awful time too.

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