I'm going to Toys-R-Us and buying one of these babies. That way, whenever I see Dubya, Cheney, or heck, maybe even Sistah Condie, I can shoot at my TV Elvis-style without actually damaging my equipment. :D

CTFU! I may join you.

And BTW, since most people come here, I will post this interesting article on Barack Obama:

An Appeal Beyond Race
By SCOTT L. MALCOMSON

Published: August 1, 2004

ON Tuesday, at about 9 p.m., Barack Obama was an Illinois state
legislator running for the Senate.

A half-hour later, after he had given the keynote address at the
Democratic National Convention, he was the party's hot ticket. Pundits even predicted he would be the first black president.

That's a lot to hang on one speech. But the reaction to his speech
tells you a lot about racial politics in the United States today.

Mr. Obama, 42, was not raised by black parents. His mother, who is white and from Kansas, split with his father, a Kenyan economist, when he was just a toddler. His father returned to Africa - and visited his son just once, when Barack was 10.

Meanwhile, Mr. Obama's mother and her parents raised him, mainly in Hawaii. He did not grow up in a black world and his family had no particular connection to the black experience in America. Yet Mr. Obama had black skin and that made him, like it or not, a black man with a place in the centuries-long story of race in America.

Mr. Obama seems to have realized early on that his situation would present him with some odd and complicated choices. In his memoir, "Dreams From My Father," he writes that he did not talk much about his mother's whiteness because he feared that "by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites" - a shrewd assessment of white people for a 12-year-old, and an even shrewder assessment of himself.

He would, therefore, go in the world as black because he thought it was the right thing to do, and because - it's clear from his book - he loved and missed and was mad at his father.

Not that he was always treated "simply" as an African-American. True, he was pulled up several rungs of the ladder by one of the black political barons in Illinois, Emil Jones Jr. But he also faced
you're-not-black-enough criticism from black rivals.

More important for his Senate race and his new role on the national stage, Mr. Obama's ability to win white votes is what has made him such a rising political figure. In the primary race for Senate, "two of his voters were white for every one that was black, and that makes him a star," said David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington research group.

Mark Blumenthal, who did polling for one of Mr. Obama's white primary opponents, said, "I don't think voters look at him stereotypically."

When Mr. Blumenthal removed African-Americans and most
college-educated liberals from his sample of Democratic voters, he
still found Mr. Obama's share going to 28 percent from 5 percent in just a few weeks near the end of the campaign. Mr. Bositis noted that Illinois voters have long been more willing than most to elect black officials, but this strong an appeal remains remarkable.

Yet some political analysts have wondered whether white voters don't also find him attractive because, while he is black, he is not the direct product of generations of black life in America: he is not black in the usual way.(ST's note: this has generated a lot of tongue-wagging on some of my other boards.)

In a May article about Mr. Obama in The New Republic, Noam Scheiber wrote, "The power of Obama's exotic background to neutralize race as an issue, combined with his elite education and his credential as the first African-American Harvard Law Review president, made him an African-American candidate who was not stereotypically African-American."

Certainly, Mr. Obama did not, in his convention speech, sound the
familiar notes of African-American politics. He spoke much more as an immigrant, whose father came to the "magical place" of America.

"In no other country on earth is my story possible," he said.

Orlando Patterson, a sociologist at Harvard, said Mr. Obama is part of "a transcending culture" that goes beyond particular identities.

"I see him as in the tradition of Colin Powell, and of a generation
that wants to emphasize American identity rather than racial
identity," Professor Patterson said.

Mr. Obama's immigrant story echoed President Woodrow Wilson's words to a group of immigrants: "If some of us have forgotten what America believed in, you, at any rate, imported in your own hearts a renewal of the belief. If I have in any degree forgotten what America was intended for, I will thank God if you will remind me." (Of course, as a segregationist Wilson did not have people like Mr. Obama's father in mind.)

In citing Thomas Jefferson's opening words on equality from the
Declaration of Independence, Mr. Obama also broke the mold;
African-American politicians have not cited those words without
sarcasm and qualification for many years, if ever.

Rather than positioning him within a black tradition, Mr. Obama's
speech evoked, through his and his family's varied races, trades and professions, a diversity that aims at unity.

His biography gave him a credibility no one else could have: he was able to identify with the poor and the Arab-American, with immigrants, with African-Americans. In other contexts, he has identified with
white farmers - people like his mother's family.

Most people can find something to identify with in Barack Obama, and he can find something to identify with in them. We have never had a politician quite like this.

It may be a paradox, but only someone this rare could be so universal.

I will not be watching the Republican convention for what? I've experienced more than once the effect of their so called policies toward education and employment. When Regan was in office jobs were tight and thus the same thing with Bush, all they are for is tax breaks for the wealthy. They can not relate to the average american especially African Americans, I wish I could have gone to Yale and gone to Law School and been Governor of Texas what are my chances of doing that-- as An African American Female --next to none! I know more about being President then Bush does. That's why I've decided to go with Kerry, at least he's sympathetic to those who don't happen to be born wealthy and who still earn their money the good old-fashioned American way-work - if your lucky enough to find it here in America! Something is wrong when I as an educated African American Women can't get a break- I pray for some Affirmative Action- because I haven't seen any for me -employment wise! Level the playing field Mr. Bush! GO TO JOHNKERRY.COM if your ready for a change! Lord, I would hate to see four more years of this!

speaking of Barak Obama, he now has competition in the form of Alan Keyes. Alan Keyes, a non-IL resident who spoke against Hillary Rodham Clinton in her run for the NY Senate as a non-resident. Alan Keyes, a professional "runner" who has yet to win an election.
this oughta be interesting:rolleyes: :confused: :mad:

He probably is just cannon fodder. If Obama's that popular and if he's going to win, I can't see the Illinois GOP putting up a more promising candidate against Obama. I did see an interesting article in one of the Chicago papers that said Keyes could f*** up what was described as a moderate suburban coalition that some GOPers were doing thre.

I saw a (fake) bumpersticker on a website that said:

KEYES 2004
You're gonna be voting for a black guy anyway.

I about died. :D

The Daily Bushism
 

This is priceless. Spoken at the Unity 2004 (Minority journalists) conference:

We actually misnamed the war on terror, it ought to be the struggle against ideological extremists who do not believe in free societies who happen to use terror as a weapon to try to shake the conscience of the free world. - GWB

Oh and another goody - when asked what he thought about tribal sovereignty for Native Americans in the 21st century, that man in DC said this:

Tribal sovereignty means that, it's sovereign. You're a -- you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And, therefore, the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities.

The full transcript is here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0040806-1.html

As someone once said, vote early, and vote often! ;)

I feel what the original author is saying here, but somewhere in the back of my squirrelly little brain, this reads like "there are black people, and there are (insert N-word)." I admit it's a stretch, but it's the same argument that people -- bigoted people -- use to talk about the differences between black immigrants and black Americans.

It's been said on other forums, but...

I really think Keyes is just running to get some of his ideas out there; much like candidates like Dennis Kucinich was doing in the presidential election. It's a way to try to bring issues to light and possibly affect legislation.

More power to him, but this still looks like a runaway for Obama.

I think your "squirrely little brain" (LOL) is on to something and although it may be a stretch, I think that could be true. Years ago, I read this book called Hard Living on Clay Street for one of my college classes, and the subjects, who were Caucasian, referred to the difference between "good colored" :rolleyes: and insert n-words.

KSigkid,

i believe that's true. so much so that if Keyes actually did win, for the first time after several tries, i think his eyes would bug out of his head upon hearing the announcement and his mind would be like, "so what h#% do i do now?" he's prepared to discuss why he thinks America is going to Hell but not prepared to work to keep us from going there:rolleyes:

ttt

I'm sorry, but I about died laughing at the title of this thread! The RNC...racial diversity? BWAHAHA!

I feel an oil and water analogy coming on.

CTFU! CTFU!

You are not alone on that!

But hey, there are all of two black republicans out there, right?

If anyone saw any coverage. I felt as though they were trying to keep the camera on someone of color. :confused:

As far as the topic of the thread goes, my local paper had that as a headline, so I said...GC: Why not? :p