RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events President Barack Obama

Hmmmm....seems as if there may still be a few white folks that have a problem with the idea of a black president...or maybe just the existence of black people period.

I know that many of you think that all black people exaggerate racism in this country

and now that Obama has been elected we should all just shut up

because there's obviously no division between the races at all.

I truly believe that there's at least one of you that posts here regulary that would openly and loudly celebrate Obama's assasination.

In fact, I think that person would happily and quickly volunteer to pull the trigger himself and be celebrated a hero by his so-called moderate peers.

If anyone here can read the above article and deny or rationalize away the existence of a pathological and irrational hatred among some whites against ALL blacks, then the person that I am talking about is you.

Despite the fact that President-elect Barack Obama's vision for our nation leaves a lot to be desired, the fact that he was elected represents a remarkable national achievement. When the War of 1861 ended, neither a former slave nor slave owner would have believed it possible for a black to be elected president in a mere century and a half, if ever. I'm sure that my grandparents, born in the 1880s, or my parents, born in the 1910s, would not have believed it possible for a black to be president and neither did I for most of my 72 years.

That's not the only progress. If one totaled black earnings, and consider blacks a separate nation, he would have found that in 2005 black Americans earned $644 billion, making them the world's 16th richest nation. That's just behind Australia but ahead of Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Black Americans have been chief executives of some of the world's largest and richest cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Gen. Colin Powell, appointed Joint Chief of Staff in October 1989, headed the world's mightiest military and later became U.S. Secretary of State, and was succeeded by Condoleezza Rice, another black. A few black Americans are among the world's richest people and many are some of the world's most famous personalities. These gains, over many difficult hurdles, speak well not only of the intestinal fortitude of a people but of a nation in which these gains were possible. They could not have been achieved anywhere else.

Acknowledgement of these achievements is not to deny that a large segment of the black community faces enormous problems. But as I have argued, most of today's problems have little or nothing to do with racial discrimination. That's not to say that every vestige of racial discrimination has been eliminated but as my colleague Dr. John McWhorter said in "End of Racism?" Forbes (11/5/08), "There are also rust and mosquitoes, and there always will be. Life goes on." The fact that the nation elected a black president hopefully might turn our attention away from the false notion that discrimination explains the problems of a large segment of the black community to the real problems that have absolutely nothing to do with discrimination.

The illegitimacy rate among blacks stands at about 70 percent. Less than 40 percent of black children are raised in two-parent households. Those are major problems but they have nothing to do with racial discrimination. During the early 1900s, illegitimacy was a tiny fraction of today's rate and black families were just as stable as white families. Fraudulent education is another problem, where the average black high school senior can read, write and compute no better than a white seventh-grader. It can hardly be blamed on discrimination. Black schools receive the same funding as white schools and most of the teachers and staffs are black and the schools are often in cities where the mayor and the city council are mostly black. Crime is a major problem. Blacks commit about 50 percent of all homicides and 95 percent of their victims are blacks.

Tragically, many black politicians and a civil rights industry have a vested interest in portraying the poor socioeconomic outcomes for many blacks as problems rooted in racial discrimination. One of the reasons they are able to get away with such deception is because there are so many guilt-ridden white people. Led by guilt, college administrators, employers and others in leadership positions, in the name of diversity, buy into nonsense such as lowering standards, racial preferences and acceptance of behavior standards they wouldn't accept from whites. Maybe the election of a black president will help white people over their guilt feelings so they can stop acting like fools in their relationships with black people.

Obama Will Get Stimulus Bill First Day, Democrats Say (Update1)

By Daniel Whitten

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Congress will send President-elect Barack Obama an economic stimulus package the day he takes office Jan. 20, two Democratic lawmakers said today.

Senator Charles Schumer of New York said on ABC’s “This Week” program that the package will be between $500 billion and $700 billion. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, of Maryland, said on “Fox News Sunday” that he believed the Inauguration Day goal would be met, but he declined to put a price tag on the bill.

“I think Congress will work with the president elect starting now and will have a major stimulus package on his desk by Inauguration Day,” Schumer said. “I think it has to be deep. My view it has to be between five and $700 billion.”
...

what about the 350 billion that will be untouched from the original bailout?

I have a feeling Obama is not going to jump every time the dem congress asks him too. In fact I predict they will not like him very much which will actually make me like Obama more.

Good news for Democrats: I will not be joining the Obama administration, because I can't pass the seven-page job application. There are 63 questions, and I couldn't get past No. 8:

"Briefly describe the most controversial matters you have been involved with during the course of your career."

Briefly? They must be kidding.

And if that one didn't tie my shoelaces together, No. 10 would trip me up like a banana peel on a roller skate: "Please list ... each column ... you have authored." I thought there was a statute of limitations for things like that.

But here's good news for Republicans: The Clintons can't pass it, either. They would need a boxcar of butter to grease their way past No. 6 (payments from any foreign government), No. 31 (personal records that you or your spouse will not release publicly) and the deal-buster for Bill, No. 50: "Please list any workplace claims for sexual harassment or other workplace misconduct made against you."

Even a former president can't pass the job application to work for the next one.

And I'm not sure Barack Obama and Joe Biden could pass their own scandal-screening dirt detector.

How does plagiarist Biden answer the one about "all speeches you have given"? Does he include the one he shoplifted from a British politician? Should he include a separate sheet to list all his campaign brain-sneezes, such as telling a guy in a wheelchair to stand up?

And how does Obama answer No. 61: "Have you had any association with any person ... that could be used - even unfairly - to impugn or attack your character and qualifications for government service?"

Lucky for Obama, the New York Times and NBC didn't think it was important to ask any inconvenient questions like that about "family friend" Bill Ayers.

Then again, Obama's test is a lot more thorough than his background check by the media.

Private diaries, embarrassing e-mails (really?), pictures on Facebook or MySpace (OMG), even a physical exam are among Obama's snoopy questions.

It makes you wonder if someone who can pass the test is probably too dull for the Federal Department of Elevator Music and Test Patterns.

So put away that rubber glove, I won't apply. But I can offer a little unsolicited advice to our new president, because I want him to succeed:

Stay away from the Clintons. They are the flesh-eating bacteria of politics. If you hire one, you will get a chronic rash of incurable Bill-Hillaryitis. If Hillary has to be secretary of state, make sure she spends lots of time visiting Tierra del Fuego or Kazakhstan.

Ditto for all those Clinton retreads you're recruiting. Even Janet Reno is a better hire than Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But "Hope and Change" shouldn't look like a closet full of hand-me-downs from the Clinton Thrift Store.

Tell your gushing admirers in the Obama-Girl media to cool it or we will get tired of your presidency before it starts. (See "Jump the Shark.") Please, no more comparisons to Lincoln, FDR, JFK, Gandhi and the Messiah. I haven't seen such gooey puppy love since the Bobby Sherman Fan Club was banned from my junior high for causing mental tooth decay.

Surprise everyone with some real hope and change by telling Generous Motors they won't get a bailout until the bosses cut their salaries to $1 a year and the UAW retools its tailfin contracts for the 21st century.

Surprise us again. Send Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani to clean up the Wall Street mess. If it fails, you can blame a Republican - which got you elected. And if it works, you get the credit.

Tell brokers and bankers that anyone who takes jackpot bonuses after panhandling for a federal bailout belongs in stocks. But not the Dow Jones kind - they belong in the ones with holes for both arms and their head, and a big padlock to keep them there when it rains ripe tomatoes.

Don't believe the press clippings about your "flawless campaign." It was only flawless like some of those drug-enhanced home run records - with a big asterisk for media-bias steroids.

Stop answering every question with, "As I've said before..." If we knew you said it before, we wouldn't ask. It's pompous and annoying. Besides, it reminds us that you haven't said anything new since August.

Finally, don't take any advice from know-it-all columnists like me. If we knew anything worthwhile, we'd be able to fill out your job application and get a real job.

Welcome to Obama’s nation...
The “transformational” figure who will “change the world” is now in charge, and he’s on a mission. Emboldened by an overwhelming electoral victory and a near-supermajority in Congress, President-elect



Obama and his allies are preparing to implement his liberal, “post-American” agenda. Simply put, what President-elect Obama and the Pelosi-Reid Congress have in store has the potential to rapidly move America to the socialist Left.


1 million citizens resisting...
Who can stop the Obama agenda? Only an unprecedented idea-based Resistance from freedom-loving citizens can prevent the full implementation of Obama’s march to the Left. That’s why Grassfire.org is seeking to identify and mobilize grassroots citizens who will Join The Resistance— an alliance of patriotic, resilient and determined conservatives who will not forsake their principles. Our goal? One million citizens joining together by Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009.


The Resistance States:
As an American citizen, while I will show respect to President-elect Obama, I oppose the far-Left and socialistic elements that comprise the centerpiece of his agenda. I recognize that it will take a patriotic and resilient Citizen Resistance to block implementation of this agenda and I join with others who oppose these threats to our liberties.

Specifically, I Resist:


Socialistic wealth redistribution including any and all tax increases and big-government welfare programs.

Silencing conservatives through the Fairness Doctrine and other efforts that restrict free speech.


Open border anarchy including amnesty for illegal aliens and promotion of multi-nation “unions”.

Government-run health care that weakens our system and imposes more tax burdens on citizens.


Weakening of our military through rapid pullback from Iraq, defunding our troops and overall disarmament.

Social liberalism including radical pro-abortion agenda, the end of marriage and the homosexual agenda.


Liberal court activism that undermines faith, family and liberties while expanding government control.

Post-American globalismthat diminishes our global role and threatens our national sovereignty.


Environmental extremism, the CO2 tax,
undermining coal and nuclear, and bans on
exploration.

Weakening the 2nd Amendment through unconstitutional gun laws that take away or penalize us for owning firearms and our right to defend our family, our property, and ourselves.

More than a month before he takes the oath of office, President-elect Barack Obama already is testing the loyalty of his liberal base.

On Monday, he is expected to announce his national security team, which will include Robert Gates as his defense secretary, a carry-over from the Bush administration, and retired Gen. Jim Jones, who supported John McCain for president, as his national security adviser.

Liberal blogger Chris Bowers of The Open Left says the message sent by the selection of Gates undermines Democrats.

"The message would be clear," he writes in his blog. "Even Democrats agree that Democrats can't run the military."

Obama's outspoken opposition to the Iraq war before he became a U.S. senator was one of the reasons he was embraced early in the presidential race by the anti-war faction of the Democratic Party's base, so his apparent decision to keep a Bush adviser as defense secretary for at least a year has raised some eyebrows within that faction.

Bowers, a member of the Pennsylvania state Democratic committee, argues that Gates provided support and cover for practices from waterboarding to the use of psychotropic drugs on terror detainees. The blogger isn't as negative toward Jones but still called it "very disappointing."

"It is just so very frustrating," Bowers writes. "It seems like the only place progressives are making any gains is in the House. We are being entirely left out of Obama's major appointments so far. I guess everyone gets to play in Obama's administration, except progressives."

Democratic blogger Brent Budowsky, who served as a congressional assistant in the 1970s and 1980s, said he would have preferred to see Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska or former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia get the nod for defense secretary.

Budowsky said he fears that Obama's national security team will steer him toward a longer military commitment than the one he made on the campaign trail.

"It is unfortunate that on an issue so momentous as who runs the Pentagon at time of war, the views that were stated in the campaign, and supported so deeply by the base of the Democratic Party and the new voters and small donors who were the heart of the Obama campaign, are sacrificed so quickly, for Bob Gates," he writes in his blog.

GOP strategist Dave Winston told FOX News that some pushback was to be expected.

"The base is clearly going to say, where are you headed in terms of this policy?" Winston said. "And I think it will cause him some headaches with the base, although for the overall country, I think they will see it quite favorably."

Democratic consultant Bob Beckel told FOX News that objections from liberals over Obama's Cabinet selections isn't all bad.

"Not so sure, from Obama's standpoint, it's bad politically," he said. "It helps him in his negotiation with Congress."

Obama's national security team also will include several former members of Bill Clinton's administration, eliciting some complaints about recycling people from the Clinton White House. And Obama is expected to pick Hillary Clinton to be his pick for secretary of state.

But Beckel says Obama needs experience from the last Democratic White House.

"If he went to a Democratic administration before that, he'd have to go to the nursing home," he said.

The financial crisis is hardly a cakewalk, but as he assembles his national security team, Barack Obama is getting into the really dangerous end of the job.

Fortunately, he's coming to the fight well-armed.

Reports the President-elect will keep Robert Gates as secretary of defense counts as the best news of the transition. The advice against changing horses in midstream was made for the Pentagon. With the Mumbai terror attack putting Islamic extremism back in the headlines and American troops fighting two wars, an election is not enough reason to change the military's civilian leadership.

Especially when that leadership has been as successful as Gates. The surge in Iraq, part of the change in strategy when President Bush selected Gates nearly two years ago, was the main factor in reversing the war's course. A conflict that sapped this nation's morale by trending toward defeat is now on a path to success.

Iraq is not yet a stable, self-governing democracy, but virtually every measurement, including our reduced casualties, shows those goals finally appear within reach.

Gates didn't lead the change alone, of course, and much of the credit belongs to Gen. David Petraeus, who suffered unforgivable slanders from the anti-war left for his courageous efforts on the nation's behalf. But no one should underestimate the difficult situation Gates inherited, both in Iraq and here at home.

Public unhappiness over Iraq was the single biggest reason why voters handed Democrats Congress in the 2006 midterm elections. Even before the votes had been counted, Bush tapped Gates to replace Donald Rumsfeld, whose planning and management will stand as a lasting example of how not to run a war.

Gates was the best possible choice to direct the surge and take advantage of Sunni tribes who were ready to battle Al Qaeda. A career operative in the Central Intelligence Agency and its director under the first President Bush, Gates was a college president in Texas when he joined the Iraq Study Group.

The bipartisan effort to break the political deadlock only partly succeeded, but it brought Gates back into the Washington orbit and helped him develop his ideas on Iraq. Among them was that a surge could head off a civil war and give Iraq's political leaders space to reconcile and compromise. Gates also came to believe the U.S. should talk to Iran and Syria.

Although Obama, as a candidate and senator, opposed the surge, he had arrived at the same conclusion about negotiations, although in a reckless fashion by promising to meet the leaders of those terror-sponsors without preconditions.

The issue is not whether to talk, but what to say. On that score, I'm still not clear what Obama intends to say to Iran and Syria after "Hello." And I'm not sure if he will press ahead with his plans to pull out of Iraq, even if Gates and others caution him to go slow.

Nonetheless, Obama and Gates have reached a general agreement on some of the next steps in the region, especially about adding troops to Afghanistan. Our commander there is asking for 20,000 more troops to combat a resurgence by Islamic extremists. Bush and Obama both support the idea and Gates said he will try to meet that goal.

Yet just as Iraq proved a moving target, Al Qaeda is, too.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told Congress America needs to develop a new strategy that focuses on Afghanistan and Pakistan, saying the countries "are inextricably linked in a common insurgency that crosses the border between them."

The head of the Marine Corps went further, telling The Wall Street Journal that Pakistan, not Afghanistan, is now Al Qaeda's strategic goal.

"Pakistan is the closest place where you have the nexus of terrorism and nuclear weapons," said Gen. James Conway.

Especially after the events of recent days, that's the kind of talk that puts the financial crisis in perspective.

This & Hillary's appointment to secretary of state should put to rest any idea that he's going to be some uber-liberal president.

...who hasn't done shit as a Senator...except run for higher office.

...just to play devil's advocate, let's assume that there are significant policy differences between Obama and Hillary, with Hillary to the right of the president-elect. By picking her either: (a) Obama expects her to come around to his way of thinking (which was, during the campaign, pretty far left on foreign policy); or (b) Obama expects to move to the right, thereby having broke yet-another campaign promise.

Gates is a good choice but, really, Hillary is almost as liberal as Obama.

...

I think the far left see her as being more conservative.

After naming his economic team and his national security team at record speed, President-elect Barack Obama will now focus on filling the last half of his Cabinet.
Rounding out his Cabinet will be the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Veterans Affairs, Transportation and Education.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is expected to be named commerce secretary and Tom Daschle has been widely touted as secretary of health and human services. And speculation is growing that Tammy Duckworth, director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs, will get the nod to lead the national department.
What has been most striking about Obama's nominations so far is the speed at which he has named them and the lack of controversy. The president-elect has moved swiftly to try to bring reassurances and continuity in the federal government as the world grapples with war, recession and terrorist threats, which erupted last week in Mumbai, India.
On Monday, Obama introduced his national security team, picking Democratic primary rival Hillary Clinton to be secretary of state and President Bush's defense secretary, Robert Gates, to continue at his post. The announcements marked a shift in emphasis after his of appointments last week of his economic team, led by Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary.
"I think the times demand this," Democratic consultant Martin Frost told FOXNews.com. "I don't think you can go at a leisurely pace."
Frost said the sequence in which Obama has announced his Cabinet members isn't unusual, noting that economic and national security issues are the top priorities for any president.
"I think he's done this in a very careful way," Frost said, adding that Obama's picks have drawn favorable reviews from both sides of the aisle.
GOP consultant Doug Heye praised Obama for how he he has rolled out his Cabinet members so far.
"The Obama transition team has made a strategic decision on how this will be done," Heye said, noting Obama's move to present his economic team last week followed by his national security advisers this week.
"We don't know yet what next week will be," he joked.
But Heye added that Obama, by not naming an energy secretary yet, runs the risk of signaling that energy independence is not as important to his administration.
"Energy policy is something he said would be a top priority," he said. "We haven't even got any real rumors of who's being vetted."
Even so, Obama's picks have allowed Republicans to breathe a sigh of relief.
...

Talking optimistically despite the recession, Obama also said, "We have everything we need to renew our economy, we have the ingenuity and technology, the skill and commitment — we just need to put it to work."

In central Alabama's Perry County, government workers already get a day off for President's Day, Martin Luther King Day, and Veterans Day. In 2009, they'll get one more: "Barack Obama Day."

The rural county, which overwhelmingly supported Obama in last month's presidential election, has approved the second Monday in November as "The Barack Obama Day." Commissioners passed a measure that would close county offices for the new annual holiday and its roughly 40 workers will get a paid day off.

Sponsoring commissioner Albert Turner Jr. said the holiday is meant to highlight the Democratic president-elect's victory as a way to give people faith that difficult goals can be achieved.

Perry County has 12,000 residents, most of them black. Voters there backed Obama by over 70 percent in a state that gave 60 percent of the overall vote to Republican John McCain based largely on strong support from white voters.

At the state level, Alabama observes the standard federal holidays as well as a handful of its own that include Confederate Memorial Day in April and the June birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. It observes Martin Luther King's birthday in January but the holiday is twinned with commemoration of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on the same day.

The Perry County Commission's three black members and one of its two white members voted for the Obama holiday.

Commissioner Brett Harrison said Wednesday he voted against the resolution because of the costs to the county, which has a $2.2 million annual payroll and is one of the poorest in the state. He said closing the courthouse would also idle some state employees.

"I'm a Democrat, but just in these financial times, it's not using the county's money wisely," Harrison told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday. "The recognition is certainly well-founded."

Turner said copies of the resolution, adopted at a Nov. 25 meeting, have been mailed to Obama and his transition team.

The Christians at least waited until Jesus was dead.

Gates is a good choice but, really, Hillary is almost as liberal as Obama.

And, just to play devil's advocate, let's assume that there are significant policy differences between Obama and Hillary, with Hillary to the right of the president-elect. By picking her either: (a) Obama expects her to come around to his way of thinking (which was, during the campaign, pretty far left on foreign policy); or (b) Obama expects to move to the right, thereby having broke yet-another campaign promise.