The post-racial nirvana

jack

The BBC also lauded this racist
benediction. Where are the rest
of the MSM?

Alf Tupper

Precisely the import I got from this silly and frankly embarrassing part of the proceedings. It's official: white's are evil. Is that all of them or just some? Which ones?

The poem was bad enough, but this? Why would the gathered white people, those who voted for Obama, be wanting to cheer to this ill-mannered statement - this rubbishing of a race?

How much of this stuff is in the locker, it has to be wondered?

ed hall

The poem was truly atrocious. The elevation of Muslims in his boring speech above Jews was worse, amd the doddering old reverend with his racist speech was topped only by the sad spectacle of Aretha Franklin wailing like some friday night pub drunk

dominic lennon

As GK Chesterton said, when people stop believing in God they will believe in anything. Obama, Diana - the false gods of our fickle, dumbed down age.

John Ward

I (fairly) often link to your articles, and I have done so again with this one.

We all need to be alert to what is really going on, and the hidden (and sometimes not so hidden!) agendas of those who have acquired power, and at least keep an eye on the writings of those who are good at keeping their attention locked onto these matters. By such events as this one, they give themselves away, a lot of the time, and we must all pay attention when they do.

anglicus

Debbie Schlussel says, "Who needs mushrooms and pot, when you can get high on Obama?"

Joe Strummer

I'm not a fan of Obama, but I wish him well as the new leader of the free world. Just how free we will still be, however, when he leaves office is another matter. The media hysteria though,regarding Obama, is disturbing. Its not about his ethnicity or racial make-up they say and we must all move on they cry, whilst repeatedly stating the obvious that he's the first black American president.

Lorenzo

Indeed. Despite having spent all that time in the company of his anti-white mentor Rev Wright, we’re told Obama wasn’t all that aware of Wright’s views and, of course, he was never in the church whenever those spiteful sermons were yelled out (all the sermons were, of course, mailed to Obama, although, no doubt he didn‘t read them either). Perhaps having spent all that time being so ‘unaware’ of all these anti-white sentiments, Obama ran off for a cigarette afterwards when he heard this. I mean, that it should slip out on inauguration day.

Mind you, being a smoker is also something Barack Obama officially isn‘t. Can you imagine all the mess keeping that quiet? The senior menial White House staff not thinking they need to put lighters or matches out for him anywhere. Him sneaking into the kitchen to light all his cigarettes by turning on the gas hob, putting a rolled up bit of paper into the flame and then using that to light up the end of his smoke. The cook just wishing the bits of paper he keeps setting fire to on the hob weren’t pages out of what Obama calls the “imperfect” Constitution. Might actually want that back, one day, once people work out what this shyster’s about.

Neil Saunders

The arrival of Barack Obama in the White House IS an historic moment, but not for quite the reasons that his misty-eyed worshippers think it is.

(Their excesses really are quite embarrassing, and will surely come back to haunt them before very long. In their immoderation you really would believe that Obama was some long-awaited Messiah who can literally walk on water.)

The very fact that so much is being made of the fact (half true, as it happens) that Obama is black is a sure sign that we have not moved beyond racial discrimination (positive or negative), and are never likely to. Indeed we are moving towards more of it.

What we are really witnessing is a pivotal moment in the breakup of the United States, along racial, cultural and linguistic lines (a process finding an eerie echo in the Islamisation of Europe).

This breakup has been ongoing since the 1960s, but will receive an immense boost from Obama and his acolytes (at home and abroad). He is a figurehead not for colour-blindness and social cohesion but rather for racial flag-waving and social fragmentation. Political separation will surely follow cultural, racial and linguistic separation.

Jerry

Justification of any point of view is so darn easy. There are people who to this day still do an expert job for Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, etc.

Keeping your mouth shut is what's hard. The new America is not going to be a lower testosterone America. Apparently, only the objects of denigration are going to be different.

Hovever, maybe "openness" will suffice for "tolerance" under these modern conditions. Instead of talking to his own Amen-saying congregation, Lowery has now spoken to America and the world. I am certain that his next step will be "justification" rather than shutting his mouth as a sign of the new "tolerance" in America. Let's hear it from Joseph Lowery.

Lincoln's Ghost

The crowd thronged in the streets of Washington, DC. Their tone one of hushed reverence, for He was among them. Today America would mark the start of a new epoch by anointing for the first-time ever in its history a man who launched his career in the living room of an unrepentant terrorist. All hail, St Barack, the patron saint of unrepentant terrorists.

The man whose political career was launched with the blessing of Bill Ayers, nay, indeed, even under the roof of the “I-don’t-regret-setting-the-bombs” Alinksyite, was now the master of all he surveyed.

St Barack approached the lectern with the pomposity he had learnt from his black racist pastor Jeremiah Wright (embrace this Wright? No, thank you, Rev Lowery) and the dissembling he had learnt from Mr Alinksy. He was the Uriah Heep of American politics, “being ever so ‘umble, I won’t talk about my ‘arvard roots and lawyerly pay packet. I’ll just twitter on about my pa’s goats as if I was raised among a goatherd. And there’s enough of y’all who are dumb enough to buy it, too ($14.95 at bookstores, thank you).”

And lo, some of the people wept, especially Louis Farrakhan. For the Nation of Islam leader could hardly wipe away the tears of laughter, so many did they fall as he did marvel at how his old marching buddy had got away with it. Who would look at this St Barack’s appetite for secrecy and radicalism and conclude that he was a secret radical? Not the mainstream media, that’s for sure. You can have as many anti-white racist chums as you want, St Barack, the hacks don‘t care. Hell, maybe Louis could get career as a kids’ TV presenter now this sort of thing was possible. Start early and educate the kids about the Caliphate. Why not? It could be here within a generation, better start the dhimmihood lessons now.

Well might Mr Farrakhan laugh, for the electorate had been led royally up the garden path by the mainstream media, but it was a bit late now, dude. Shoulda gone easy on the Kool Aid last November. For a sweet-sounding sing-a-long ad slogan of “Yes, we can” does not quite make up for having a Constitution-hating President.

For how could the ancient ink on the US Constitution, the thing that St Barack had found so “imperfect”, compare with the sing-a-long chant of “Yes, we can”?

Genuine liberty? Aw, shucks. What’s that compared to a chorus of “Yes, we can”? You can cart their liberty off, St Barack. What’s it ever done for them? Look at how they’ve missed out against all them other dang countries with an over-mighty state. If it weren’t for the founding fathers we coulda had gulags here, too.

Meanwhile, many miles away a sailor coming into New York thought he could almost see a tear in the eye of the Statue of Liberty as she realized her days were done. And beneath her a “community organizer” scowled up at this effigy‘s lament for her citizens. He couldn’t wait to “organize” liberty rather than letting people be free of the state‘s clutches.

Yes, if wasn’t decreed by the Obamessiah, how it be held to be proper “freedom”? It needed the “organization” of the state and then it would be truly valid. How dare America live free without being organized by the state? The Holy One would sort that out.

There was a slight rumble and “community organizer” looked up at the statue again. What the heck, the old gal‘s lips were moving, and the little wretch below fumed as the statue broke its silence to pronounce: “We are all going to a Constitution-destroyed hell in a Saul Alinksy-designed handcart.”

Frank P

Alf Tupper

If you've been keeping up over the past few months with Melanie's expose of Obambi's roots and associations you know how much is in the locker - and the locker must be the size of Everest. Several decades of pent-up Ayers and Rev Wright for starters and, in general, enough chips on shoulders to fuel 100 power stations for 30 years and to reverse ‘climate change’. Yesterday was a racial gala of black supremacist politics, camouflaged in ‘coming together’ shtick; in rape there is rarely coming together and if a white candidate had used the colour of his/her skin as a reason for voting for him/her, in the same way, the liberal left loonies would have lynched him/her. Then there's Michelle, who looks more like Hanoi Jane every day (it's the mouth) and though she's purring like a pussy at the moment of victory, she won't be able to contain that reservoir of hatred for long, no matter how many minders they surround her with; agitprop will eventually erupt; it's been too deeply inculcated from the Chicago enclaves and will, like murder, out!

As I have always maintained, Obambi’s biggest difficulty will be returning the vig on the offers he couldn't refuse. He's beholden to people who don't like to be welshed or double-crossed. Vide JFK. The Outfit in Chicago does not brook changes of mind once the kisses are exchanged. The unholy alliance of bent politicians, crooked cops, the Mob, Labour Unions, and more recently, Black Power/Religionist loons is toxic. The assertion that a pure lily could emerge from the manure of the old Onion Patch is fanciful.

As a great President once said, "You can please some o' the people all o' the time .... [etc . etc]

Obama has to please some very powerful people all o' the time - or else!

Smooth talking is something his mesmerised flock will luxuriate in; but no amount of smooth talking - or fast-talking - will satisfy those who groomed him and invested in the outcome. Now it's payback time and they don't give ‘time to pay’, which is what he was plaintively pleading for yesterday between the lines of that interminable string of emetic corny clichés. Uh - urr!

ahem

Schama's a douchebag; I'm throwing away his books. How's that for politically incorrect?

Lizzy

To answer your question, Alf: it is from the same mindset by which (some) Americans hate America and think the 9/11 attacks were deserved. It is because to criticise these anti-white statements would be seen as passing judgement, as subscribing to the view that there is right and wrong, that discrimination by those who have been discriminated against also exists. It would be to see reality. And we can't have that in Obamaland.

pm317

Obama retoook the oath after screwing it up in front of the millions. He should have been made to take it again in front of the public. On the topic of this article, black racism has been there from day one of his campaign. Crying racist was a strategy to cower people into accepting him.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95RS3EO0&show_article=1
Obama was just re-sworn in. Roberts readministered the oath in the White House map room. Greg Craig there to oversee. Gibbs said: ‘One word out of sequence’…

Gary Vineberg

For heaven's sake, Mel, can't you ever lighten up?

I thought it was corny and amusing.

Furthermore, Obama has turned out to be more centrist and pragmatic than anybody expected -- to the disappointment of his backers on the left.

Can't you take some comfort in the number of high-level Jewish appointees in his administration?

Apparently, nobody is pro-Israel enough for Mel, who berates Israel's friends as much as its enemies.

Larry Nocella

Um, aren't you British? Who cares what you think of the American president and a POET who read one little POEM at the ceremony?

Can we move on to something real here? Has ANYTHING Obama said or done been anything other than a call to unity?

Hey, don't let me stop you, if this is your gig. If you want to go bonkers over a single line of a poem in a ceremony as unofficial and meaningless as the inauguration, that's your waste of time.

You can wallow in these non-controversies or move on to something real.

Melanie, this is the last free lesson I'm giving. You'll have to pay if you want me to school you further.

Edward in the USA

Lowery is as much of a racial hustler that Obamas former 20 year long "spiritual advisor" was.

Selecting this bozo to provide a racist benediction is another red flag that Obama is potentially a disaster for the US.

Ronnie

Melanie, this really is rumaging around in the garbage in search of offensive minutae.

The Obama Presidency will be judged on how his administration deals with an unprecedented list of current crises.

Is this the best your petty and febrile mind can come up with?

The point An American made yesterday about the problem of apparent mass hysteria and Obama worship was much more rational and substantial.

alan falk in Raleigh, NC, USA

The poem was truly atrocious. The elevation of Muslims in his boring speech above Jews was worse, amd the doddering old reverend with his racist speech was topped only by the sad spectacle of Aretha Franklin wailing like some friday night pub drunk.....

yep. stupid poem, lousy singing arrangement, and an embarrassment, i'm sure to Itzhak and Yo Yo and company with that atrocious "arrangement" of a very nice musical piece.

maybe better taste in poetry and music in four years, even if the same guy's being sworn in...

E Hanan

Obama this Obama that, you can't have such a perfect president to lead, sorry move on and just think better for the future!

Conservative Cabbie

Gary Vineberg

"Furthermore, Obama has turned out to be more centrist and pragmatic than anybody expected -- to the disappointment of his backers on the left"

Based on very little evidence. Some rhetoric, a dinner for John McCain and keeping a defence secratary. I suspect that when he actually comes to legislate, despite all the bipartisan rhetoric, he'll govern as a very strong liberal. If he governs as a centrist, fine, I'll be more than happy to acknowledge that, but there is very little actual evidence that that is the case.

The poem is a complete red herring.

Miranda Rose Smith

White people have been doing what is right for a long time. Try the abolition of slavery, child labor laws, prison reform, the defeat of Nazism.

Gary O

@pm317
Obama's second oath was not taken on the Bible, because it "wasn't handy"!
Deduce whatever you may from that.

gary ashton

personally i'd give him a chance before i start criticizing him, he's got an awfully hard road ahead of him and who cares what order he puts things in, it's his actions that will count. really i'm jewish and i don't mind being mentioned last on the list of faiths, we have to be secure about that people, what i am concerned about is the survival of israel because once israel goes, we will be next as the caliphate expands.

Rose

Excellent insights as always,Melanie ! The World watched Obama swear an oath to God to protect,defend and preserve the U.S Constitution.
We can only hope that he is not a LIAR.
That he will not use his extraordinary abilities to lead and inspire to wreck the Constitution, and replace the traditional values and institutions with a Far Left Agenda and Government.
This will make America Impotent and Poor allowing her enemies in to destroy her,and slaughter people.

Richie Craze

The only reason Orwell would be revolving in his grave is that you invoke his name so much, Melanie.

How about an "Orwell"/"Orwellian" free article?

ed hall

One thing about the string arrangement. The BBC kept on banging on about it being an "original" composition but it sounded eerily similar to a christmas carol or children's song. Perhaps that will be a metaphor for his presidency, rehashing old as new.

Yet another American

Ronnie: you say "The Obama Presidency will be judged on how his administration deals with an unprecedented list of current crises." You got that right, buddy. Because the judgement ain't gonna be pretty! You saw it here on these blogs first.

fellow traveller

"The elevation of Muslims in his boring speech above Jews was worse"

As a nonbeliever, I'm expected to be excited that I even got a mention in his list of beliefs. The Pew forum has about 4 per cent of the US population describing themselves as atheist/agnostic (plus another 6 per cent as non-affiliated secular). If we're going to get offended about where in the list we're mentioned, I'm totally outraged to be tacked on at the end.

Or, on the other hand, there may be more important things for both of us to worry about.

Laura

No, Ronnie, it's not "rummaging around". It was delivered from the steps of the White House on one of the biggest days in any President's tenure.

Imagine a white president calling up a white pal to stand on the steps of the White House on inauguration day to say "when will blacks do what's right".

Jennifer Parfenovics

Obama's social engineering agendas already to the fore .

http://www.afa.net/obamaagenda.asp

John Thomas

Here, Joe Strummer - like millions of others - calls the One, "America's first black president"; he is not. He is America's first half-black president. Even on that one he is a fraud.

Bill M

pm317,

I am as sorry as anyone to see Obama sworn in, but it was Roberts who screwed up the pledge.

Daibhidh MacAdhaimh

What liberals such as the smug, self-fladgelating Guardian writer cannot stand is the historical fact that western civilisation is a white produced phenomena. It has produced the laws and ethics -now undermined by the liberal academics of this world- democracy, in which the same have now placed the interests of minorities however obscure over the majority. The Industrial revolution, advances in science, medicine,technology engineering, literature, music and the arts etc. Produced figures such as Socrates,Plato, Calvin, Knox, Adam Smith, Locke,Washington, Lincoln, Columbus, Scott, Edison, Baird,Newton,Churchill, Bell,Watt,Brunel, Henry Ford and so on. It has also produced Beethoven,Bach, Warlock, Dickens, Twain, Williams, Mozart,Shakespeare,Wandsworth,daVinci, Monet, Gogh, Chaucer, Shelley, Burns,Wesley,Lennon/McCartney, Dylan, Walt Disney, and so on, the list is endless. As a people group whites have made their mistakes like any other people group both at collective and individual level,its part of the human condition. Be this as it may,there's no getting away from the potent influence for good that western whites have been down through the ages. If the Lowerys and Schamas of this weary world want to reflect on wrongs, fine, keep it personal, don't generalise, don't project their hang-ups and guilt on to the rest of us. We each can deal with our personal guilt in private, thank you very much. None of the above however resonates with the trendy liberals whose fetish is not only to beat themselves up daily for being white but also try and beat the rest of us who have frankly better and more rational matters in life to be contending with. These hi falutin speakers and muddle-headed thinkers ought to be decent enough to admit to refering to their own pathetic, guilt ridden selves. Maybe the rest of us could help them overcome whatever thorn in the flesh they wrestle with. I think it was Thomas Sowell who said that the only thing worse than 'racism' was white condescension. How true. Along with the Schamas and Lowerys, Greg Dyke's self-loathing assessment that the BBC was hideously white epitimises this corrosive,divisive and disgusting condescending attitude. Where I come from, and in a different era, this mindset and its carrier would have been turfed out of the clan for the good of its survival. Pity the nation couldn't adopt this same policy.

EC

ahem: "Schama's a douchebag; I'm throwing away his books. How's that for politically incorrect?"

Not bad, but if you feel that strongly I'd heartily recommend burning them. In addition to upsetting intellectuals of various persuasions all that CO2 would make the eco-mentalist greens go even redder!

Adam B.

Larry Nocella, what a bizarre post. Melanie not entitled to an opinion because she's British? So you're not entitled to an opinion about anywhere outside the US?

Grow up.

EC

Frank P: "The Outfit in Chicago does not brook changes of mind once the kisses are exchanged."

So much simpler than swearing oafs .. er oaths. Although not originally from Chicago Al-Taqiyya might well have an important say in "what goes down" under this administration.

I am informed that according to both the Aztec and Mayan calendars the world is going to end in 2012 so relax and enjoy the ride! So let's raise our glasses and say Cheerio etc. (In more innocent times I would have said Bottoms Up but would not now want to be misunderstood knowing your stance on such matters :-)

Mr Eugenides

This is a little silly.

If we do you the courtesy of taking this seriously for a moment, though, "when white will embrace what is right" does *not* imply that white currently embraces wrong: it implies that white does not currently embrace what is right.

That's a small but not unimportant distinction.

Raised Eyebrows

I think also he was more interested in making a rhyme. Furthermore, the insinuation is not that white is wrong but that white has been wrong in the past

Get over yourself Melanie and stop trying to find something objectionable about every facet of Obama.

And, Mr Hoskin, are you embarrassed by Ms Phillips? I hope so.

Dashed expectations

Pity it's raised eyebrows and not raised IQ ! (What a silly comment he/she made)

Yet another American

Ronnie: you say "The Obama Presidency will be judged on how his administration deals with an unprecedented list of current crises." You got that right, buddy. Because the judgement ain't gonna be pretty! You saw it here on these blogs first.

Dixon

Conservative Cabbie...grand to see you back. Your absence has been noticed.

Personally, I didn't hear the poem, but I was impressed by the TV vox-pops in which all the jolly folk were reeling off their lists of what they wanted Saint Obama to change. They didn't broadcast the bit where a man near the end of the line said he wanted the front left tyre changed on his truck, just before a girl piped up "...and I want a red bicycle for Christmas".

It really was like little kiddies telling Santa what they wanted. On the one hand, in some ways touching, in a pathetic way. On the other hand, incredibly immature for a bunch of adults, some of whom were of senior years.

The scene was repeated with different wishful-folk on every channel.

Gary Vineberg

To Conservative Cabbie et al:

The anti-Obama hysteria, as expressed in some of the comments here, is just as extreme as the Obama-worship we have witnessed (and will fade once reality sets in).

But the Obamania is not so much from the Left as from people who enjoy the social symbolism of what he represents. And why not?

I, for one, believe he's a "lagging indicator" of American society, which has been ready to vote for an exceptional black, hispanic or Jewish presidential candidate for some time. Colin Powell comes to mind.

I didn't support the Obama campaign, despite believing that he could be a powerful actor on the world stage, because he wasn't the right person to address our gravest threat: the global financial crisis.

Contrary to my fears that he would be an anti-Israel Lefty, he is so far proving to be a pragmatic centrist politician and a pretty square guy.

By not weighing in on the Gaza situation, he gave Israel breathing room -- while Condi Rice was abstaining on rather than vetoing a one-sided (i.e. anti-Israel) resolution in the U.N. Security Council.

By throwing in tax cuts to his financial recovery plan and appointing "establishment" figures such as Paul Volcker and Larry Summers, along with other moderate Democrats and Republicans, he has been pleasingly bi-partisan.

After the fiasco of the Bush administration, Obama so far deserves not adulation nor excoriation but the benefit of the doubt.

Philip Longobardi

Words by themselves seldom have true meaning without context and subtlety.

It amazes me that people can't see that these words ring forward, spoken by a man of that moment, a struggle for equality and an end of oppression. They weren't spoken as a condemnation. Rather a celebration that we are reaching this goal. That however slowly the wheel turns, it's turning the right way.

The author of this posting should be ashamed of their closed mind and cynical view of the world.

I would love to know their feelings and what they might say if they had grown up with and suffered through the black experience in America.

Truly, shame on you.

spatso

Do you not realize that by reacting so strongly to Lowrey's child like poem you empower his message? Perhaps the situation would be best served if everyone chose to ignore his rhyme. The man is merely an ancient whisper. A relic from a distant past. One needs to be careful to distinguish between what is truly defective and the banal.

pm317

Melanie, please write about the re-oath.

For those here blaming Roberts, the exact sequence of what happened from Yahoo!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090122/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_oath_do_over

What a boob, Obama that is!

here is more back story from politico:
"The re-inauguration came just a few hours after Vice President Joe Biden mocked Roberts for his misstep.

“My memory is not as good as Justice Roberts,” Biden said at the swearing in of White House staffers Wednesday afternoon.

The staffers in the room laughed, but Obama stood stone faced and visibly annoyed."

Go, Joe, Go!

Oh, BTW, there was no bible on the do-over. His new evangelical faction will not like that. Also, there were no TV cameras, press photographers allowed in. What is Obama trying to hide? LOL..

Dave M

"The very fact that so much is being made of the fact (half true, as it happens) that Obama is black is a sure sign that we have not moved beyond racial discrimination."

This is quite correct and personally I find it all a little condescending. There has been too much emphasis by far on the fact Obama is black. It really doesn't matter what colour he is and the only thing that does matter is whether he can pull his country out of its current economic slump. I must say I think Obama at least deserves a chance. I couldn't help but feel Hilary was just too fake to be taken seriously and John McCain maybe fell a little short on intellectual ability. I hope my hunch turns out to be correct Obama may turn out to be quite even handed and centrist. He's certainly not a liberal the way Europeans understand it and let's not forget the guy believes in the death penalty, same as Arnold S (another centrist). What interests me is whether Obama will stand up for democracy and take an uncompromising line on terrorism. However, if, God forbid, the man is assassinated by some right-wing nutcase I agree with the above America's hidden racial tensions will be flung wide open. The whole country would be destabilised.

Frank P

Philip Longobardi

"The author of this posting should be ashamed of their closed mind and cynical view of the world."

The author of that comment should be ashamed of 'their' naive and gullible acceptance of bullshit and meretricious showbiz as evidence good intentions and inspirational leadership. The crocodile tears have already reached East Anglia it's peeing it down herabouts!

Truly, shame on you.

Original Tony

I can't believe this so called Reverand could make a comment like that when Obama got into power with a very large white vote behind him...does this mean the whites that voted for him had got it wrong? (because whites can't do anything right!!!). What a clown!

Anne

You just don't get it, Philip Longobardi.

An American

Oh yes...I forgot Diane Feinstein's introduction of the swearing in of the Oafs...very fitting.

Thanks for reminding me EC

An American

Gary Vineberg,
You just don't get it.

Obama is a far-left socialist. He has been breastfed socialism since birth.

He is also smart. He will move slowly... but in the end will do great harm to America.

W. Smith

"The author of this posting should be ashamed of their closed mind and cynical view of the world."

"I would love to know their feelings and what they might say if they had grown up with and suffered through the black experience in America."

...Then ask Thomas Sowell. He'd endorse the article. ...And he grew up far poorer (and blacker) than Mr. Obama. Professor Sowell has long warned that the accepted "wisdom" of race hustlers like Lowery, Wright, Sharpton and Jackson is a massive millstone around the neck of blacks in America today.

"Truly, shame on you."

...Ah, now we get to it! A little swig of moral superiority. Bet that hit the spot, eh?

And as for all the "nothing to see here" posts --- what self-delusion! Lowery singled out whites alone as not embracing "what is right", and stated that blacks are "asked to give back". Giving the man a pass for such a racially divisive canard is immensely patronising --- but then refusing to hold a black guy to the same moral standards as a white guy is common practice amongst the self-regarding.

Dressing a poisonous message up as "humour" was simply sugaring the pill --- should anyone dare call him on it, they'd be asked "Aw, can't you take a joke?"

But no, we are the cynics. How dare we!

Ronnie

Yet another American (sigh), you are so right. I've seen everything here.

War, famine, pestilence, death, desperation, fear, loathing, moral collapse, moral indignation, depravity, despair, outrage, fury, trolls, moles, orcs, rats, dhimmis, islamo/fasci/marxists, lost prophets, bananamen...

You name it, we are all here. But we all care.

What I haven't seen much of is perspective.

Lynne T

Alf Tupper
January 21st, 2009 10:52pm
Precisely the import I got from this silly and frankly embarrassing part of the proceedings. It's official: white's are evil. Is that all of them or just some? Which ones?
The poem was bad enough, but this? Why would the gathered white people, those who voted for Obama, be wanting to cheer to this ill-mannered statement - this rubbishing of a race?

Alf: this is pretty much what Sasha Baron-Cohan's movie "Borat" was about: the likes of Borat and Rev Lowrey are cut slack, either by virtue of being foreign or from an otherwise socially disadvantaged group until they really go way over the top.

I can hardly wait to see S B-C's upcoming flick that puts the boots to some sickeningly widespread "liberal" views.

A. Carroll

Ms. Phillips - Please continue to voice your opinion over the ever-growing throng of those who would ridicule and dismiss what should be evident to their very own eyes. Your service is very much needed. Thank you.

An American

Ronnie,
Here's some perspective for you. Obama's worshippers left 130 tons of trash in the Washington mall after the inauguration.

Obama's 'Takers' couldn't bother to take their trash with them.

Ian Miller

Simon Schama did write in the Guardian about the inauguration, but the article does not include the words Melanie Phillips quotes. The article is at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/barack-obama-inauguration-simon-schama

The words that she quotes seem to come from a blog posting at http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-01-20/no-more-mr-eloquent

I cannot find any evidence of it being published elsewhere.

phil

Philip Longobardi AND Gary Vineberg-this is not a thread where one can even hope that President Obama will succeed ,so many here with whom I agree so much and respect their views are intransigent as far as he is concerned .Here we are going to have to wait and find out which views are correct and hope they will apologise if and when they are proved wrong .So I join you with a wish for a better world and that this president will be the one to bring it to us .We are lonely voices here but I am sure not in the wider world .

AN American you should have seen the trash on our capitals streets after the anti -Israel marches and probably not many Obama supporters amongst them :)

Dave

EC: Thank goodness someone on this blog finally advocates book burning! Because that really is the answer.

Brian Moshe

Where is my comment, sent last night US time?

Herbert Thornton

I'm fed up with people calling Obama an "African American". He isn't. He's first and foremost an American and if we want to refer to him in the context of his nationality, we should be thinking of him as, and call him, an "American".

On the other hand if we're discussing something that has to do with his ancestry, it's even more misleading to call him "Black" than it is to call him an "African American".

It's far more accurate to call him "Afro-Caucasian" so why don't we describe him as that?

david TFZ

why do you block the anti zionist comments if you realy beleive in freedom of expressin. I have posted many comments in recent Gazza carnage but theynever got published.

jwarren

Melanie, I love your writing but you've got this all wrong. Reverend Lowery's last ditty was a quote, mostly an inside saying, amongst African-Americans. It's not "black will not give back" it's "black will not get (yes GET) back." This is one of the oldest black sayings in American history. It doesn't mean at all what you and your group are in a bunch over. You may want to fact-check before you go overboard. Blacks not getting back refers to African-Americans not being second class citizens. It's as simple as that. It was interesting that Rev. Lowery's prayer was the one point in the whole ceremony where President Obama felt incredibly at ease.

An American

Well...its begun and it only took one day in office.

Obama is calling for Israel to open it borders with Gaza.

This is why Israel attacked Hamas before the Messiah took office.

Obama will appear to support Israel while everything he pushes on them will be to their detriment and the good for Hamas.

Obama will close Gitmo...he doesn't know where he'll put the terrorists imprisioned there. Their home countries won't take them...but hey, he's a nice guy and the
message to all Islamic terrorists is that the US now has a weak, Muslim brother as president.

Obama and his far-left, height-deprived cronie, Robert Reich are planning to 'quickly' spend trillions of our tax dollars with the understanding that the money will go to the disadvantaged, long-time unemployed..not to quote: "white men construction workers or highly skilled workers". They want the jobs to go to unskilled, unemployable minorities.

I don't think I want to use bridges, highways, buildings, dams, etc. built by Obama's umemployable and unskilled paid for with my tax dollars.

If 'The Messiah' goes forward with this crazy social engineering...there will be a revolution within a year or two.

Tamara

There’s nothing “silly” about this Mr Eugenides. If it’s not acceptable for a white person to say: “when will black people do right”, why is the reverse OK? Why is black racism somehow acceptable if white racism is not?

Larry Nocella, it was not “one little POEM”. It is but the latest example of Barack Obama’s habit of smiling on anti-white racists, foremost among which was his pastor and mentor, Rev Jeremiah Wright. If a white politician had a relationship like that with a white preacher who held views like Wright’s only they related to black people, they wouldn’t have got near the White House, but that’s been the whole story of St Barack’s journey to the White House. The mainstream media have airbrushed out any unpalatable truths like that, which they would never do for a white politician.

Ian Miller says: “Simon Schama did write in the Guardian about the inauguration, but the article does not include the words Melanie Phillips quotes.” Der, yes, Ian. We know that. Melanie told us herself. That was why she wrote this: “This is what Lowery actually said in his prayer”. Schama sneakily left out what was said, because the nastiness of what Lowery said would have ruined Schama’s grovelling hagiography.

Here, Ian, you can watch the ghastly Lowery deliver his racism in person here:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xutPh51NI-A&feature=related

Dave M

"but hey, he's a nice guy and the message to all Islamic terrorists is that the US now has a weak, Muslim brother as president."

Is this really the case? I'm no expert at all on Obama and haven't really researched him but he comes across as a fairly level headed American guy who lived some time in Hawai. Even Johm McCain described Obama as a "decent American" whom he happened to disagree with over various issues. In The Mail, Richard LittleJohn figured he's not what European liberals imagine him to be. Let me be straight here. If Obama pushes Israel into unrealistic compromises and appears to take the Palestinian side, I'll give him up as a bad call. He stated he believes in a majority Jewish Jerusalem so that's what I'm going on. Let's hope he does choose to defend a democratic State as opposed to a group of terrorists.

Frank P

EC: I did reply to your post(12.27pm), but it was censored, obviously.

An American

The comments (which I spent a lot of time on) sent in last night and this morning never saw the light of day...I wonder if this will make it..

Ronnie

An American, for eight years your President Bush did absolutely nothing to encourage peace between Israel and its neighbours.

On day two of his administration your new President has made clear that this rotten sore of a conflict must be dealt with as a matter of priority. I don't think many people would disagree with that and they will realise that, for anything to happen, confidence in the process must be re-established on both sides.

Israel can continually kick Hamas and Hizbollah's asses but they can't defeat them militarily without re-occupying Gaza and southern Lebanon and that would bleed Israel dry, as it did before.

So there must be an attempt at a political solution and it must start now.

Gitmo is an affront to western values and a constant reminder to the world that Bush had very little idea of what he was doing and that he was happy to subvert the US constitution and international treaties whenever he felt like it.

Leading the western world is not just about bombing people, its about reminding everyone of our values and why we hold them.

If you think that's too liberal then just remember that when you are fighting a war you really need to know why and that everyone supports you. Without the why and universal support, morale dissappears and you lose the war.

The rule of law is one of our core values, it's what we fight for. If we allow the terrorists to make us lose our faith in the rule of law then they are half-way to victory.

Bush was too dumb to see that Gitmo was a defeat for him, in the war on terror.

America really does need its infrastructure upgraded, I've seen it, its a fact. The financial crisis is severe, I know that, I'm living it. Unemployment will be extremely serious, I know that too, I read the papers.

If you have the brains to reduce unemployment by upgrading the nation's infrastructure then you achieve two very important objectives in a short space of time.

I'm afraid there is nothing sinister in this, its called economics, but not Reaganomics. That has failed, as far as I can see.

Now, An American, you can sit at home wishing that Obama wasn't President, that Israel could win a final military victory, hoping that private finance could miraculously be found to drive America out of recession and talking about piles of garbage in Washington.

That is your choice. But the world you want is not the real world.

Laura

No, Ronnie. George Bush did not do nothing. He simply knew that the previous incumbent had put together a workable deal that the Palestinians walked away from because they preferred war to peace. The destruction of Israel was non-negotiable.

So what's Bush to do? Oh, I remember now, defend his own citizens from the same jihad as it landed on American soil on 9/11.

Your Fairy Godobama is indeed making noises as a sop to his Leftist cheerleaders who want to blame Israel for everything, so what's he going to do? Rewrite the Hamas charter?

You say "confidence in the process must be re-established on both sides" - no, Ronnie, no. There is only one side that doesn't want peace. Hamas. Their contribution to peace debates is Israel has no right to exist. So what's to talk about, Ronnie? Is that George Bush's fault, too?

Guantanamo Bay is a necessary tool in fighting an enemy as wicked and evil as the jihadists and should remain open.

We know what our values are, Ronnie, it's you who doesn't want to acknowledge the jihadists' values of subjugating the rest of us to Islam. Why is their view of the world somehow more enlightened than mine? Because they're prepared to kill anything in the way to achieve it? Is that what freedom-loving Westerners have to do to get any acknowledgement from the useful idiots like you?

Why don't you try living in the real world, Ronnie. You could start by reading the Hamas charter.

phil

Laura ,an American and Ronnie the last thing we need to do is fight amongst ourselves -we all want the same thing and it is just a matter of opinion who will be proved right -I respect all of you and always read your thoughts .Ronnie and I are softer options that's obvious on Obama -Guantanamo is a sore and like it or not we all know that deep down -we must never demean ourselves by using the evil ways of militant Islam .I am certainly not soft on thee prosecution of this war as you well know ,but there has to be a better way for us to deal with criminals ,whether by the death penalty or perpetual incarceration but not by treating them like animals -that is what they do. not us .My dear late mum used to say "now play nice ":) and I hope you will we have enough enemies without friends falling out

An American

Laura,
Thank you for saying it better than I could have.

Phil, These islamic terrorists are not simple criminals, they are militants that want to destroy all western civilization...that's you and me.

Gitmo was a clean well run prison that treated these terrorist better than the inmates in our US prisons and most likely UK prisons receive.

And may I remind you that all prisons are like cages and all prisoners are treated like animals. Visit one someday and see for yourself.

What our military should have done is killed these terrorists...on the spot. Then we wouldn't have had to spend all the millions of dollars on their upkeep, let their liberal lawyers take valuable court time away from American citizens...and continue to let these islamic thugs use and abuse our decent society.

The reason we kept these terrorist alive was to find out information to stop a future attack on the US.

Obama has taken that opportunity away from us.

So, I doubt we'll be seeing many more terrorists handed into the authorities in the future and most likely will be attacked within a year or two.

But...hey, we can all feel good about ourselves for being better than our enemy.

phil

An American if they have got to you so badly and you really think WE should behave like beasts then we are losing -those terrorists can tell nothing now ,and I DO NOT CARE WHAT THE SYSTEM DOES WITH THEM SO LONG AS IT IS WITHIN OUR LAWS -habeas corpus is for us not them -I remember saying to my good friend (who took the opposite view)that I was relieved that the law let OJ go free rather than he was convicted by a dishonest policeman,s evidence -it took some time but the law caught up with him in the end. You must not give up your ideals that have guided your life .I am not and I am getting exhausted writing about them :)

arnoldo

On March 18th last year, Obama delivered a speech addressing the controversy caused by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's anti-American remarks in a sermon.
That speech was one of the most honest and brave I have ever heard, and included a message to Black Americans to look forward,not back, and embrace a new, meritocratic society.
To Melanie, and other Obama critics on this blog, please go to You Tube and watch all 37 minutes of the speech (A More Perfect Union)with an open mind.
You will be impressed.

An American

arnoldo,
I heard it and I wasn't impressed.

Everything that Obama does is for his personal benefit...like gaining the presidency.

His speech didn't seem to work. I'm seeing a lot more predjudice with the election of Obama...mostly black against white...for example, the inauguration prayer. So much for Obama's words of benevolent brotherhood when he invites an old racist preacher to insult all white Americans.

Obama has used race to his benefit. He's opened a healed wound. Race relations will not get better in the US...they will get worse when Americans realize that the bulk of the trillions of dollars of their hard-earned money will be going to exclusively minority projects including hundred of thousands of worthless goverment jobs.

Obama and his cronies are strangeling the golden goose. Where will all the this money come from....Obama says it will come from the bottom...I've never seen anything flow up except crap out of a politician's mouth.

pm317

arnoldo, I could say a lot more to your comment but I will just say this: he negated his own speech (I don't think it was honest or brave like you do -- lecturing others and bashing both sides when you get a pass from the press is neither brave nor honest) when he stayed silent as his campaign and supporters called the Clintons racists, called anybody who questioned his experience and knowledge racists. He continued that strategy until McCain's camp firmly called him out on that in GE. You're naive to think one speech written by his groping speechwriter gives him credibility on this issue. It does not. If speechmaking is all you need in a president, go find a preacher in a church -- they can deliver a speech written by someone else to perfection too.

arnoldo

I asked you to watch it with an open mind.

pm317

oh, yeah, right! "Open mind" to one speech but close your eyes (and mind) to everything else.

In fact, some of us who evaluated him purely based on his qualifications through available evidence (there wasn't much of it) were perhaps the most post-racial citizens -- we did not give him points for being black, and lower our standard for a president. He did not bring anything post-racial to his campaign and I doubt he will in his 4-year term. He is not scholarly, not philanthropic, not visionary, not even idealistic. He is a common Chicago politician. Open you eyes and mind to get that through your head.

This is funny...In his press conference yesterday he tried to steal Hillary's analogy of a three-legged stool she used aptly and clearly in her welcome reception at the State Dept. 0bama in his presser said "The recovery package is one leg in a — at least a — three-legged stool..." and did not specify what the other two legs were! LOL.. How like him. Sometimes I doubt that he is even smart. "Watch it with open mind" my foot!

An American

arnoldo
It was hard to watch it with an open mind when the reason for Obama's speech revolved around questions about Obama spending the last 20 years in Rev. Wrights black-power church that preaches hate for all whites and the US goverment.

Words are cheap...you have to live your convictions.

Robert

Obama not scholarly? He graduated from Harvard Law School didn't he?

W. Smith

"This is one of the oldest black sayings in American history. It doesn't mean at all what you and your group are in a bunch over. You may want to fact-check before you go overboard. Blacks not getting back refers to African-Americans not being second class citizens. It's as simple as that."

Doh! That's even worse --- perpetuating the lie that nothing's really changed and that blacks are second-class citizens. That's not about "healing". It fuels resentment. Can't you see what incendiary bile this is?

"It was interesting that Rev. Lowery's prayer was the one point in the whole ceremony where President Obama felt incredibly at ease."

You said it.

"On March 18th last year, Obama delivered a speech addressing the controversy caused by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's anti-American remarks in a sermon. That speech was one of the most honest and brave I have ever heard, and included a message to Black Americans to look forward,not back, and embrace a new, meritocratic society.

To Melanie, and other Obama critics on this blog, please go to You Tube and watch all 37 minutes of the speech (A More Perfect Union)with an open mind. You will be impressed."

But that's the whole point! His rhetoric is legendary --- yet judge him not by his words but his actions. He should have pointed out that if America was the plantation portrayed by race-hustling friends, then no black man would have even a whiff of a chance at the Presidency. If he was serious about ending racial division then he'd've shot down black racism as diligently as white racism. His reaction to that prayer said it all.

"Obama not scholarly? He graduated from Harvard Law School didn't he?""

So did his wife. They're clearly not stupid (and neither was Bush, despite the stereotype). Whether they're truly scholars or not is I suppose moot (certification does not imply scholarship). Still, they'd've been right at home in a PC lefty hotbed like Harvard.