2008 Election Updates

7thangel

7th Angel of Armageddon
ill o.g.
again, why see sinister in everything? you have your opinion on his crying and yet if you watch it, it's not tears of sadness. i know for a fact, some die hard black conservatives were fighting that feeling unsuccessfully. like i said, i haven't been too cool with jj since my early revolutionary/reactionary/conscious days but i won't deny or diminish what he's been through, fought for and done.

that being said, why stay on this?

they've reconciled and a day or two of blissful celebration is needed before cold hard reality seeps in again.

savour it, it's not gonna last. change will take time, sacrifices will have to be made, the same old foolio hateful attacks will be overwhelming, shit's on the brink and bush isn't out of office yet (70+ days left). leave it to the msm to shit on the parade and warn against moving from a so-called center-right policy, y'know the same ol' bullshit.

oh, and if you can use images and such to scare the bejezus out of the far right wingnuts for shits and giggles, go all out.
 

Ominous

OminousRed.com
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
"that being said, why stay on this?"

I personally don't have anything against Jesse Jackson. I just think it is strange to cut your nose off in spite of your face. For everything Jackson has fought for.... why go so far to make such raw statements against a guy you hate and then turn around and cry tears of joy for him. It was like watching an accident to me.
 

skidflow

Boom Bap is precious art
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 220
"that being said, why stay on this?"

I personally don't have anything against Jesse Jackson. I just think it is strange to cut your nose off in spite of your face. For everything Jackson has fought for.... why go so far to make such raw statements against a guy you hate and then turn around and cry tears of joy for him. It was like watching an accident to me.
I dont know what was going through my mans head...but I 'm pretty sure he had to atleast think about the statements he made...hell the whole nation was thinking the same shit. All I'm saying is that at the end of the day, Jesse was sorta like another "back" Obama had to "stand on" to get the nation closer to where it needs to be. You gotta face the fact, cats like Jesse, Al, and Louis was all we had to compete with for a long time and I feel they did the best they could...WHEN THEY WASN'T TO BUSY TRYING TO STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT! Plus nobody wants a president that preaches.
 

Sucio

Old and dirty...
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 304
History was made yesterday.....

I don't have to explain how....


One thing I'm apprehensive about is the fact that a lot of people look at Obama as if he's going to change everything for the better in no time...

As well informed people, we know that it is improbable....

I was always impressed by his ability to inspire people.....Now as president, two years from now, can he inspire the people the same way he did previously?

I hope he's successful as president, not only for him, but for the country and the world.


I am also hoping he's successful so our country can feel a little more at ease when the next black, latino, asian, or whatever runs for office.


I just hope he sticks to his word, so the conservative right doesn't point and say "told you so"
 

7thangel

7th Angel of Armageddon
ill o.g.
"that being said, why stay on this?"

I personally don't have anything against Jesse Jackson. I just think it is strange to cut your nose off in spite of your face. For everything Jackson has fought for.... why go so far to make such raw statements against a guy you hate and then turn around and cry tears of joy for him. It was like watching an accident to me.
hate is a strong word. a lot of black folk, mainstream to hardcore conscious had reservations and questions, and were right to have them. i can't remember the full circumstance as to why jj was upset and there's nothing wrong with him being upset. it doesn't mean he hated obama, and it didn't stop him for stumpin' for him and the campaign. the real problem was jj still not overstanding that nothings really off the record and that the mic is always on.

also, as for the tears, that was for the circumstance, the dream, even if not fully realized, come true. racism and the fight hasn't disappeared but the blood, sweat and tears to get to that spot...he would have been without a soul or suffering amnesia if the impact didn't hit him with such force. he's from a generation that forever believed that shit would get better. don't assume everyone is happy specifically for just obama on just a personal level, but also for the party, the progressive stance, a generation, a people and all that sappy stuff. it's bigger than one man, which is why no one should expect that one man to accomplish all the hopes and dreams of those that got him there.

shit, not only am i sounding sappy and shit i'm also contradicting my early comments on not dwelling on this one thing.
 

Vice

9ine 2o 5ive Live
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 71
Uninformed Voters....

I know this is after the fact, but I thought this was real funny. I hope everyone that voted for Obama were more informed than these people..lol

 

7thangel

7th Angel of Armageddon
ill o.g.
Conservatives to figure out how they lost women, minorities, gays, Jews, anyone else? oh yeah, college grads

So where does the GOP go from here, now that it turns out the Bridge to Nowhere didn't lead to the White House? According to Jonathan Martin at Politico, that will be the main topic of discussion at a super secret Republican strategy session to be held this weekend -- sort of reverse Renaissance Weekend. The gathering, says one attendee, will include a "who's who of conservative leaders -- economic, national security and social." And, one presumes, plumbing. After all, how they can chart a comeback without their primary fiscal policy guru. Plus, with that many people in attendance, sometimes the toilet backs up.

Not surprisingly, Martin writes that the feeling in the party is that the party lost because it wasn't right-wing enough. "There's a sense that the Republican Party is broken, but the conservative movement is not." Paul Krugman, writing about the future of the party in the GOP notes that many of them are blaming on the loss on the media and, of course, the powerful ACORN.

Sounds like they're really got their finger on the pulse of the American public.

MORANS_s1-274.jpg

If only the media had allowed them to get their message out


While the names of the attendees aren't public, 23/6 happens to have gotten its hands on a super secret copy of the schedule of the super secret meeting....

original_opt.jpg


http://www.236.com/news/2008/11/05/gop_to_hold_secret_strategy_se_10005.php
 

LDB

Banned
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 73
check out newsweek tomorrow for the off the record stuff and things they promised they wouldn't publish until the end of the election involving both camps

here's a preview http://www.newsweek.com/id/167581


and here's the start of what might be the crippling of palin as golden girl for the gop, by faux news no less

YouTube - Fox News: Palin didn't know Africa was a continent

See how Republicans "eat there young", if you go back to previous threads "I told u this would happen"!
 

LDB

Banned
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 73
I know this is after the fact, but I thought this was real funny. I hope everyone that voted for Obama were more informed than these people..lol

YouTube - Harlem voters

IGNORANCE IS BLISS, had that same reporter went to his local trailer park, or up into the "Hill Billy" mountains of Wes Vergena" (misspelled on purpose) and asked these questions in reverse you would have heard umpteen "huhs, 4 million wha's (and I left off the T on purpose), and in most cases answers that had nothing to do with nothing. At least these "ignant" mofos were at the same ball game. These questions asked to the for mentioned people would have brought forth "not at the ball game, not on the planet and not of this universe" answers.

It's safe to say that those people voted for Barack just because he's black. But just as many soon to be minorities voted for McCain for the same reason. It is what it is! I'm personally one of the ones that didn't listen nor give Barack a "snowballs chance in hell" until the Clinton's played "the race card" and Iowa (which is whiter than my bed sheets) gave him the nod. And I still didn't get behind him until "I LISTENED" to what he had to say.

The fact is that there are "uneducated", "ignorant folk" in every walk of life and off every shade. If Republicans ever want to see the "white house" again they had better "wake up and smell the coffee". By the time they have a chance of being the head of the "powers that b" again they will fall under the category's "other" and "minority". So they better get some of todays "others and minorities" into the fold. It's time that they start looking like the "real America".

After Barack is there for 8 years I fully intend on voting for a "well educated" and "politically versed" white,black, Hispanic or other "WOMAN" . One thing we all know is that no woman would dare send there baby's into harms way on "no bullshit"!
 

Vice

9ine 2o 5ive Live
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 71
IGNORANCE IS BLISS, had that same reporter went to his local trailer park, or up into the "Hill Billy" mountains of Wes Vergena" (misspelled on purpose) and asked these questions in reverse you would have heard umpteen "huhs, 4 million wha's (and I left off the T on purpose), and in most cases answers that had nothing to do with nothing. At least these "ignant" mofos were at the same ball game. These questions asked to the for mentioned people would have brought forth "not at the ball game, not on the planet and not of this universe" answers.

It's safe to say that those people voted for Barack just because he's black. But just as many soon to be minorities voted for McCain for the same reason. It is what it is! I'm personally one of the ones that didn't listen nor give Barack a "snowballs chance in hell" until the Clinton's played "the race card" and Iowa (which is whiter than my bed sheets) gave him the nod. And I still didn't get behind him until "I LISTENED" to what he had to say.

No doubt man I agree 100%

If you just listen to the callers after Obama was elected you can see that... there are some crazy ass white folk out there. Just to clarify, I didn't mean that to be directed at anyone(race) in particular, I just thought it was funny, so I hope you didn't take it that way.
 

LDB

Banned
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 73
No doubt man I agree 100%

If you just listen to the callers after Obama was elected you can see that... there are some crazy ass white folk out there. Just to clarify, I didn't mean that to be directed at anyone(race) in particular, I just thought it was funny, so I hope you didn't take it that way.

No....I didn't take it that way. Shit was funny to me as well. I just don't like how the Racist side of the Republican party are going out of there way to shine a bad light on people of color. You would think they learned a valuable lesson Tuesday night. I guess this quote is true "YOU CAN'T TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS", it's for the good that the old guard will be no more. The world was watching Tuesday night and they still are.

It's not the fact that we elected a black man as President that makes us look weak around the world. Racist got that all wrong. It's the fact that we try to push on the world that our way is the one and only way when we can't even get shit right here at home. It only makes us look like hypocrites!

Once again, the world is still watching to see if we unite behind our "elected" leader that secondarily happens to be black. If we don't, we need not attempt to tell another country "how to do or what to do" ever again and they will be sure to let us know that when we try.
 

Vice

9ine 2o 5ive Live
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 71
I really believe in Obama, I truly can say that after hearing him speak, especially on the night he was elected, I feel like he is not only going to help America bring change, but he is our symbol of hope in a way. Like many have said before, now I can tell my kids "you can be anything you want," and not have to feel like it's the half truth. I say fuck all these racist, they can't do anything but complain now.... so let em.lol.
 

7thangel

7th Angel of Armageddon
ill o.g.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110603948_pf.html

A Butler Well Served by This Election
For 34 Years, Eugene Allen Carried White House Trays With Pride. Now There's Even More Reason to Carry Himself That Way.

By Wil Haygood
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 7, 2008; A01

For more than three decades Eugene Allen worked in the White House, a black man unknown to the headlines. During some of those years, harsh segregation laws lay upon the land.

He trekked home every night, his wife, Helene, keeping him out of her kitchen.

At the White House, he worked closer to the dirty dishes than to the large desk in the Oval Office. Helene didn't care; she just beamed with pride.

President Truman called him Gene.

President Ford liked to talk golf with him.

He saw eight presidential administrations come and go, often working six days a week. "I never missed a day of work," Allen says.

His is a story from the back pages of history. A figure in the tiniest of print. The man in the kitchen.

He was there while America's racial history was being remade: Brown v. Board of Education, the Little Rock school crisis, the 1963 March on Washington, the cities burning, the civil rights bills, the assassinations.

When he started at the White House in 1952, he couldn't even use the public restrooms when he ventured back to his native Virginia. "We had never had anything," Allen, 89, recalls of black America at the time. "I was always hoping things would get better."

In its long history, the White House -- just note the name -- has had a complex and vexing relationship with black Americans.

"The history is not so uneven at the lower level, in the kitchen," says Ted Sorensen, who served as counselor to President Kennedy. "In the kitchen, the folks have always been black. Even the folks at the door -- black."

Sorensen tried to address the matter of blacks in the White House. But in the end, there was only one black man who stayed on the executive staff at the Kennedy White House past the first year. "There just weren't as many blacks as there should have been," says Sorensen. "Sensitivities weren't what they should have been, or could have been."

In 1866 the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, sensing an opening to advocate for black voting rights, made a White House visit to lobby President Andrew Johnson. Johnson refused to engage in a struggle for black voting rights. Douglass was back at the White House in 1877. But no one wished to discuss his political sentiments: President Rutherford Hayes had engaged the great man -- it was a time of high minstrelsy across the nation -- to serve as a master of ceremonies for an evening of entertainment.

In the fall of 1901, another famous black American came to the door. President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee Institute, to meet with him at the White House. Roosevelt was careful not to announce the invitation, fearing a backlash, especially from Southerners. But news of the visit leaked quickly enough and the uproar was swift and noisy. In an editorial, the Memphis Scimitar would write in the ugly language of the times: "It is only recently that President Roosevelt boasted that his mother was a Southern woman, and that he is half Southern by reason of that fact. By inviting a nigger to his table he pays his mother small duty."

Fifty years later, invitations to the White House were still fraught with racial subtext. When the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow pianist Hazel Scott to perform at Constitution Hall because of her race, many letters poured into the White House decrying the DAR's position. First lady Bess Truman was a member of the organization, but she made no effort to get the DAR to alter its policy. Scott's husband, Harlem congressman Adam Clayton Powell, subsequently referred to Bess Truman as "the last lady of the land." The words outraged President Truman, who vowed to aides he would find some way to punish Powell and barred the fellow Democrat from setting foot inside the Truman White House.

The first black to hold a policy or political position in the White House was E. Frederick Morrow, a former public relations executive with CBS. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower's presidential campaign operatives were so impressed with Morrow's diligent work during the 1952 campaign that they promised him a White House executive job if Ike were elected. Ike won, but Morrow ended up being placed at the Department of Commerce. He felt slighted and appealed to Republican friends in New York to force the White House to make good on its promise.

The phone finally rang in 1955 and Morrow was named administrative officer for special projects. He had hoped the title would give him wide responsibilities inside the White House, but found himself dealing, for the most part, with issues related to the Brown desegregation ruling, the Rosa Parks-led bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., and the 1957 Little Rock school crisis.

"He was a man of great dignity," says Stephen Hess, senior fellow emeritus at the Brookings Institution, who worked as a speechwriter for Eisenhower. Morrow was in a lonely position, but "he did not complain," says Hess. "That wasn't Fred Morrow."

When Morrow left his White House position, he imagined there'd be corporate job offers. There were not. "Only thing he was offered were jobs related to the black community," says Hess. Nonetheless, "after Morrow, it was appropriate to have a black person on the staff of the White House."
'Pantry Man'

Before he landed his job at the White House, Gene Allen worked as a waiter at the Homestead resort in Hot Springs, Va., and then at a country club in Washington.

He and wife Helene, 86, are sitting in the living room of their home off Georgia Avenue NW. A cane rests across her lap. Her voice is musical, in a Lena Horne kind of way. She calls him "honey." They met in Washington at a birthday party in 1942. He was too shy to ask for her number, so she tracked his down. They married a year later.

In 1952, a lady told him of a job opening in the White House. "I wasn't even looking for a job," he says. "I was happy where I was working, but she told me to go on over there and meet with a guy by the name of Alonzo Fields."

Fields was a maitre d', and he immediately liked Allen.

Allen was offered a job as a "pantry man." He washed dishes, stocked cabinets and shined silverware. He started at $2,400 a year.

There was, in time, a promotion to butler. "Shook the hand of all the presidents I ever worked for," he says.

"I was there, honey," Helene reminds. "In the back, maybe. But I shook their hands, too." She's referring to White House holiday parties, Easter egg hunts. They have one son, Charles. He works as an investigator with the State Department.

"President Ford's birthday and my birthday were on the same day," he says. "He'd have a birthday party at the White House. Everybody would be there. And Mrs. Ford would say, 'It's Gene's birthday, too!' "

And so they'd sing a little ditty to the butler. And the butler, who wore a tuxedo to work every day, would blush.

"Jack Kennedy was very nice," he goes on. "And so was Mrs. Kennedy."

"Hmm-mmm," she says, rocking.

He was in the White House kitchen the day JFK was slain. He got a personal invitation to the funeral. But he volunteered for other duty: "Somebody had to be at the White House to serve everyone after they came from the funeral."

The whole family of President Jimmy Carter made her chuckle: "They were country. And I'm talking Lillian and Rosalynn both." It comes out sounding like the highest compliment.

First lady Nancy Reagan came looking for him in the kitchen one day. She wanted to remind him about the upcoming dinner for West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. He told her he was well ahead in the planning and had already picked out the china. But she told him he would not be working that night.

"She said, 'You and Helene are coming to the state dinner as guests of President Reagan and myself.' I'm telling you! I believe I'm the only butler to get invited to a state dinner."

Husbands and wives don't sit together at these events, and Helene was nervous about trying to make small talk with world leaders. "And my son says, 'Mama, just talk about your high school. They won't know the difference.'

"The senators were all talking about the colleges and universities that they went to," she says." I was doing as much talking as they were.

"Had champagne that night," she says, looking over at her husband.

He just grins: He was the man who stacked the champagne at the White House.
Moving Up, but Slowly

President Kennedy, who succeeded Eisenhower, started with two blacks, Frank Reeves and Andrew Hatcher, in executive positions on his White House staff. Only Hatcher, a deputy press secretary, remained after six months. Reeves, who focused on civil rights matters, left in a political reshuffling.

The issue of race bedeviled this White House, even amid good intentions. In February 1963, Kennedy invited 800 blacks to the White House to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Louis Martin, a Democratic operative who helped plan the function, had placed the names of entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. and his wife, May Britt, on the guest list. The White House scratched it off and Martin would put it back on. According to Martin, Kennedy was aghast when he saw the black and white couple stroll into the White House. His face reddened and he instructed photographers that no pictures of the interracial couple would be taken.

But Sammy Davis Jr. was not finished with 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He got himself invited to the Nixon White House to meet with the president and talk about Vietnam and business opportunities for blacks. He even slept in the Lincoln Bedroom once. When Davis sang at the 1972 Republican convention in Miami, he famously wrapped his arms around Nixon at a youth rally there, becoming forever identified with a White House that many blacks found hostile.

Lyndon Johnson devoted considerable energy and determination to civil rights legislation, even appointing the first black to the Supreme Court. But it did not translate to any appreciable number of blacks working on his staff. Clifford Alexander says he was the sole black in Johnson's White House, serving first as a National Security Council officer, then as associate White House counsel.

"We were fighting for something quite new," says Alexander. "You knew how much your job meant. And you knew President Johnson was fighting on your behalf." As a young man growing up in Harlem, Alexander had heard about Morrow. Mothers and fathers pointed to him as a grand success story. "Fred was a lovely man," says Alexander. "But they did not pay any attention to him in the Eisenhower White House."

Colin Powell would become the highest-ranking black of any White House to that point when he was named President Reagan's national security adviser in 1987. Condoleezza Rice would have that same position under President George W. Bush.

The butler remembers seeing both Powell and Rice in the Oval Office. He was serving refreshments. He couldn't help notice that blacks were moving closer to the center of power, closer than he could ever have dreamed. He'd tell Helene how proud it made him feel.
Time for Change

Gene Allen was promoted to maitre d' in 1980. He left the White House in 1986, after 34 years. President Reagan wrote him a sweet note. Nancy Reagan hugged him, tight.

Interviewed at their home last week, Gene and Helene speculated about what it would mean if a black man were actually elected president.

"Just imagine," she said.

"It'd be really something," he said.

"We're pretty much past the going-out stage," she said. "But you never know. If he gets in there, it'd sure be nice to go over there again."

They've got pictures of President and Mrs. Reagan in the living room. On a wall in the basement, they've got pictures of every president Gene ever served. There's a painting President Eisenhower gave him and a picture of President Ford opening birthday gifts, Gene hovering nearby.

They talked about praying to help Barack Obama get to the White House. They'd go vote together. She'd lean on her cane with one hand, and on him with the other, while walking down to the precinct. And she'd get supper going afterward. They'd gone over their Election Day plans more than once.

"Imagine," she said.

"That's right," he said.

On Monday Helene had a doctor's appointment. Gene woke and nudged her once, then again. He shuffled around to her side of the bed. He nudged Helene again. He was all alone.

"I woke up and my wife didn't," he said later.

Some friends and family members rushed over. He wanted to make coffee. They had to shoo the butler out of the kitchen.

The lady whom he married 65 years ago will be buried today.

The butler cast his vote for Obama on Tuesday. He so missed telling his Helene about the black man bound for the Oval Office.
 

Ominous

OminousRed.com
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
^^^ This was a crazy story. So sad man...

I literally read tis story about 20 seconds before I saw it here. Funny how small the internet can be sometimes.
 
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