You People Are Like Cellophane

It’s almost becoming laughable the extent that some will go to deny the agency of black people now that Barack Obama is poised to upset the natural order and become President of the United States. When I first heard that Colin Powell had endorsed Sen. Obama, I was pissed that I had to go to work because I wanted to hit up all of the Righty blogs to see which would be the first to claim that he did so out of racial solidarity . While I wasn’t able to catch one of the first, Republicans and other righty types have proven that they are as predictable as ever. There was at least one surprise, though. I was all set to head over to Michelle Malkin’s place to watch her screech “because he’s black!” and it turns out that she didn’t go there. Go Figure.

Now, this wouldn’t be a good post-racial society about to elect the first black President if there weren’t plenty of hanging imagery, stereotyping, and a little bit of proud racist language just for shits and giggles, but I hadn’t considered that these fools were just waiting for the moment to use some good ol’ fashioned blackface.

Yes, Gen. Colin Powell is now a traitor. And ooh gee! A blackfaced traitor at that! Nevermind that he’s endorsed plenty of white Republicans. Nevermind that he’s one of many white Republicans that are also endorsing Obama. Nevermind that the friggin Chicago Tribune, which has never in it’s existence endorsed a Democrat for President, endorsed Obama. No, Colin Powell is black, Obama is black, and so there can be no other reason that he would endorse Obama other than because they’re both black. And of course, no one is openly calling any of those white Republicans traitors. No, they’re all free thinkers exercising their free thinkedness.

Seriously, you people can’t be any more transparent.

Group Liveblogging of Tonights Debate at Angry Brown Butch

Tonight is the final debate between Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain. I have to miss the live debate because I’ll be at work, but there will be some awesome liveblogging of the debate going on from Jack, Holly, Maegan la Mala, Nezua, Jose, and Sylvia.

Jack has a niftly little group liveblogging thing going on, so you can catch all of this liveblogging goodness in one spot, and seeing as these are some of the best and wittiest minds on the internet, you most certainly don’t want to miss their commentary and the opportunity to join the discussion.

Obama Really Does Want My Vote

Obama Reaches Out to Gamers

He’s reaching out to gamers!

Now, I admit. I’m a gamer because I like to remove myself from reality every once in a while, and so the thought of being reminded of reality while I’m gaming kinda puts me off. Nonetheless, I also have to admit that this is an innovative move on the part of the Obama campaign. Still, I have to ask, is nothing sacred anymore?

The Roof Is On Fire!

Ha! Jay Smooth brings the funny!

No Excuses

Generally, as a matter of keeping me from head-desking myself a concussion, I stay away from places like The Free Republic. As anyone who has ever dared dirty their eyeballs by venturing over there knows, it’s a cesspool of hate, racism, ignorance, homophobia, hypocrisy, you name it. Besides, stronger bloggers than I often remind me of what goes on over there and that’s enough for me these days. Last night (or really early this morning), a good friend and ST reader pointed me to this lovely thread (conveniently hidden by an is.gd address…sneaky mofo!), and I followed it and discovered this lovely picture in response to a post about the possibility of Obama and McCain working together in an Obama administration. Needless to say, the folks over there are aghast at the thought.

Racism Alive and Well

[ETA: It's come to my attention via this thread that I should point out that Ted Szukaiski, the photographer of the original photo, and whose name appears underneath, had nothing to do with this photoshopped piece of garbage.]

The point, of course, is that this is the job that Obama should get in a McCain/Palin administration.

Why do I bring this up? Why do I bother pointing out what most folks expect from a site like The Free Republic (and frankly, compared to a lot of what I’ve seen recently, this is almost sorta tame)? Well, I do so because I’ve been thinking about Renee’s question in comments lately. Why is it that I and so many other bloggers are shocked by any of this recent upsurge in bigotry and hatred, when, as she rightfully points out, “This is an old school tactic by the ruling elite. Whenever there is an economic crises they hyper value whiteness and blame brown bodies for all of the evils of the world.”

‘Tis true indeed.

I suspect that part of it is the “old school” part of the equation. I somehow managed to convince myself that we are now in some sort of new school, where the bigotry and hate is coded, not quite so obvious (well, unless you hang out at The Free Republic, that is). No doubt that it’s still there, but not so out in the open. This is what I said to Nezua in a similar conversation over on Twitter: ” That’s what I think gets me. The transparency. I’ve gotten so used to the structural, the hidden. Now it’s so out in the open again.” There’s no hiding behind shields of irony or intent or humor. It’s just out there in all of its naked ugliness for the world to see. I don’t experience the same sort of shock that I felt when nooses became en vogue again. There was that pathetic shield of “humor” put up. I almost expected it and the excuses that would follow.

But now, not even excuses. This is how people honestly feel and they aren’t afraid to let anyone know it.

All because a Black man might become the President of the United States.

When a woman is factually and absolutely incorrect in her assertions, and even John McCain in all of his racist, sexist bs calls her on it, and she still jumps through hoops to stick to her beliefs about The Scary Black man…well, I’m left feeling a lot less optimistic about the world than I was even just a week ago.

Because this is the stuff that matters to me. I find it hard to be all up in arms over the current economic crisis. I don’t feel any more broke than I did six months ago, a year ago, and I’m hard pressed to feel bad for a bunch of crooked investors whose stock portfolios now value $250,000 rather than the $750,00 they did three weeks ago. Am I pissed about all of this bailout business? Yes, but a lot of the people I know have been feeling this crunch for a long time before it hit Wall Street. That it doesn’t matter until it hits Wall Street is all you need to know about the priorities of our current government.

No excuses. That says it all.

[Update: This post has been updated to correct some grammatical errors I've found. I've also corrected a sentence or two to better get my point across.]

Out Of The Woodwork They Come

I just watched this video via a link at Shakesville. I’m speechless. The author of the video isn’t, though:

I’ve been doing blog video for a while, and presidential rallies a lot longer. And this is the most strange, ignorant, uninformed, angry, up-to-no-good, and gullible group of people I’ve ever seen at a political rally.

You think it’s bad now? I suspect it’s gonna get worse once Obama is elected President. Prepare thyselves.

Who Would You Vote For In A Blind Taste Test?

Tip o’ the hat to Villager for pointing me to this nifty little online test from ABC News that is designed to determine whether you identify politically more with Sen. Obama or Sen. McCain. It’s set up so that you are given two statements, one by each of the candidates and you choose which one you agree with the most. Of course, you don’t know which candidate said what. It’s a blind taste test!

I found it interesting for two reasons. One, for many of the statements, I couldn’t discern that much difference. It almost seemed like a toss up to me. Two (and this is definitely related and informed by the first), for me, it often came down not to which I agree with more, but which do I disagree with less. In other words, it’s often exactly like asking me to choose between Coke or Pepsi. I don’t, for instance, agree in the slightest with either of these statements, which are a part of the quiz:

I personally believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. But I also agree with most Americans…that decisions about marriage should be left to the states as they always have been.

Um, yeah. I personally believe that marriage is between any two people that want to get married, so I’m lost on that one. And there’s that State’s Rights bit. You will excuse me if I’m a tad bit wary of that argument.

I do not believe gay marriage should be legal…but I do believe that people ought to be able to enter into contracts, exchange powers of attorney, other ways that people [who] have relationships can enter into.

Um, what? So, If you believe that people should be able to “enter into contracts that people [who] have relationships can enter into,” then why is that contract called marriage off limits? And, um, are you really saying that gay folks don’t have relationships? They shouldn’t be able to marry each other, but should still be treated like those normal het folks who have relationships?

WTF? I can only choose on which statement comes off less hypocritical.

Y’see? Hard for a brotha to pick a statement that he agrees with more here. I’d prefer to call bullshit on all sides, but alas, I had to choose to get my results, and when it was all over, it seems that I disagree with Obama less than I disagree with McCain. But, is that really a surprise to anyone?

Here’s what really freaked me out about this quiz, though: out of all the statements provided, the one proffered by McCain that I agreed/disagreed less with was on Health Care. I gotta say, that scares me a bit. I need to figure out what the hell I’m thinking.

Regardless, check out the test. Did it make you think more about who you support this election and why?