Obama General Discussion, vol. 3

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Status
Not open for further replies.
By Matt Viser, Boston Globe Staff May 17



Cornel West, a Princeton University professor and leading black intellectual, is harshly criticizing President Obama, a candidate he once supported but now calls “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.”

West, a former Harvard University professor, said during an interview with the website Truthdig posted yesterday that the president has not been true to his race.

“I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men,” West said. “It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white…When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening.”

The White House did not have an immediate comment. West did not respond to messages left at his office.

Republicans have questioned Obama’s origins — to the point where he felt compelled to release his long-form birth certificate to prove he was born in Hawaii — but West also uses Obama’s past to draw into question the president’s racial bearings.

“Obama, coming out of Kansas influence, white, loving grandparents, coming out of Hawaii and Indonesia, when he meets these independent black folk who have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, Jane Crow and so on, he is very apprehensive,” West said. “He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination. It is understandable.”

West is a professor at Princeton's Center for African American Studies and is the author of "Race Matters." He was a professor at Harvard, but left in 2002 amid quarrels with then-president Lawrence Summers.

West also recounts personal slights — that his phone calls didn’t get returned, and that he couldn’t get a ticket with his mother and brother to the inauguration.

It is not the first time West has raised questions about Obama. Last year, during an interview with NPR, he said he wished the president were more “Martin Luther King-like.”

:rolleyes:

Seriously, Cornel. . .STFU.
 
He's going to Ireland tomorrow

(AP)A highlight of Obama's opening stop in Ireland will be a feel-good pilgrimage to the hamlet of Moneygall, where America's first black president will explore his Irish - yes, Irish - roots, and most likely raise a pint.

It turns out that Falmouth Kearney, who immigrated to the United States in 1850 at the age of 19, is the great great great grandfather of Obama on his white, Kansas-born mother's side. Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, will connect in Moneygall with distant relatives from the Irish branch of his family tree.

Michael Collins, the Irish ambassador to the United States, says the president's visit will be "a golden moment" for a country that's been on the economic ropes after its boom time. The visit is sure to play well at home for Obama - make that O'bama - as he heads into re-election season after being pushed to great lengths simply to prove he was born on U.S. soil.
 
Between the Queen's visit and Obama's visit, and the volcano, I'm sure glad I moved my Ireland trip to September! (was originally planning on May)
 
image.JPG
 
Earlier this morning, Barack Obama announced plans to visit the state of Missouri this coming weekend, as soon as he finishes his current tour of Europe. Obama made this statement to the traveling press pool who found themselves with the president in the garden of the American ambassador’s house, a stark comparison to the disaster currently unfolding in Joplin after tornadoes decimated that Southwestern town of Missouri.

ABCNews.com reports:

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who are suffering at this moment,” Obama said, announcing his Sunday visit to the region. “And all we can do is let them know that all of America cares deeply about them and that we are going to do absolutely everything we can to make sure that they recover.”

Obama also acknowledged that more storms are headed for the region today, as a warning of new tornado outbreaks was issued for the central region of the United States early Tuesday by an Oklahoma storm prediction center.

The greatest threat for tornadoes stretches from Dallas to Kansas City, according to the report. The area includes the city of Joplin, Mo., where rescue workers are racing to salvage survivors from the wreckage left by a tornado that destroyed an estimated 30 percent of the city on Sunday.

The death toll from the monster tornado that ripped through Joplin soared to 116 by Monday night, making it the deadliest single tornado in nearly 60 years, according to federal records.

On Monday Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon told The Associated Press of the death toll, “Clearly, it’s on its way up.”

The massive Joplin tornado was rated as an EF-4, the second-strongest classification with winds ranging between 166 and 200 mph. The nearly mile-wide funnel touched down at 5:41 p.m. CT Sunday and blasted a six mile wide path through the city and left trapped survivors crying out for help this morning.

The devastation in southwest Missouri that has come as a result of weekend tornadoes is rather stunning, with reports now suggesting that the tornado was nearly three-quarters of a mile wide which traveled straight through town.
 
Just unexpectedly saw Obama in London. Drove past, yelled something from the back of the car, everyone around me was sure it included a big f-bomb, which I'd very much like to think was true.
 
He was in his limo, so lip reading. He was doing the standard smile-and-wave thing, but something about someone where I was standing got his attention, because his expression suddenly changed to a kind of surprised look, and he pointed, and seemed to say something very enthusiastically. It definitely included an 'f'-something word. I don't think it was an f-bomb, I think that was less skillful lip reading and more wishful thinking on the part of those who swear he swore. But I'll happily take the consensus opinion, because if it's true, it means I can say that technically, the US President swore at me, no?
 
I don't think he meant to shoot Obama, given the rest of the context..so apparently Obama started the war between the haves and have nots. Still, not a responsible statement. He has said some other things, so I guess he doesn't care for Obama. I didn't know the world had stopped-oh yeah, it did last Saturday.

Maybe he hangs with Jon Voight.

The Telegraph

Lars von Trier, who was banned from Cannes for praising Hitler, was not the only one making unsavoury comments at the film festival.

Peter Fonda, the star of Easy Rider, suggested to Mandrake that he was encouraging his grandchildren to shoot President Barack Obama.

“I’m training my grandchildren to use long-range rifles,” said the actor, 71. “For what purpose? Well, I’m not going to say the words 'Barack Obama’, but …”

He added, enigmatically: “It’s more of a thought process than an actuality, but we are heading for a major conflict between the haves and the have nots. I came here many years ago with a biker movie and we stopped a war. Now, it’s about starting the world.

“I prefer to not to use the words, 'let’s stop something’. I prefer to say, 'let’s start something, let’s start the world’.
 
He was in his limo, so lip reading. He was doing the standard smile-and-wave thing, but something about someone where I was standing got his attention, because his expression suddenly changed to a kind of surprised look, and he pointed, and seemed to say something very enthusiastically. It definitely included an 'f'-something word. I don't think it was an f-bomb, I think that was less skillful lip reading and more wishful thinking on the part of those who swear he swore. But I'll happily take the consensus opinion, because if it's true, it means I can say that technically, the US President swore at me, no?

I thought you were only kidding. Someone needs to get the royal wedding lip readers on the case.

Freaking? As in "isn't that freaking Earnie Shavers from Interference"?
 
Found it-I bet it just went in his spam


Peter Fonda, star of “Easy Rider,” called President Barack Obama a “traitor” for the way he handled the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill.

Fonda announced his opinion at the Cannes Film Festival, where he attended the premiere of “The Big Fix,” a feature documentary by Rebecca and Josh Tickell. He is an environmentalist and the co-producer of the film, which tells the story of the explosion of the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon and the consequences of the spill.

"I sent an email to President Obama saying, 'You are a f------ traitor,' using those words... 'You're a traitor, you allowed foreign boots on our soil telling our military - in this case the coastguard - what they can and could not do, and telling us, the citizens of the United States, what we could or could not do'," Fonda said, as reported by The Telegraph. At a press event at the American Pavilion to promote the film, he also accused BP of being "a bunch of Brits” and said he “thought we kicked them out a long time ago.”

Fonda says he sent the e-mail to Obama last week.

In “The Big Fix,” he appears trying to get on to beaches in Louisiana to monitor the impact of the largest oil spill in American history, and is turned away by BP clean-up personnel.
 
Easy Rider stopped a war, really?

First thing I think of when I hear the name is that Morgan Freeman character on The Electric Company... :huh:
 
Hey, W would probably have started singing along. "My country 'tis of thee ..... " :wink:

You'd think that's the sort of tradition detail that someone would tell the president about.

"Hey, when that song starts playing, just stand there and look serious, okay? Thanks."
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom