Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? So I was about to shut down the blogging for the weekend I was watching a feisty Debate between Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick and two other sisters in Detroit. I love the big D they never fail to disappoint.
Kilpatrick, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said she has brought in $500 million for Michigan and asked Waters and Scott what they know about Congress's budget process.I Don't care what anybody says, you gotta love "Mama K" because "You can't even carry my bra!!!" has to be the best political sound byte EVER! Only in De-twoi. Somebody get me that t-shirt!"How many appropriations committees are there in Congress? How many departments are there in the federal government? What department has the largest bill before the appropriations committee?" she asked.
Waters said, "Anybody who goes to Congress can bring home the dollars."
Kilpatrick replied, "You can't even carry my bra." Detroit News
But anyway, So while I am being entertained by Carolyn, Martha Scott and Mary Waters, I see that Obama got heckled.
Now previous I have written that this election cycle Black folks have been forbidden to do anything other than vote. By whom? Well the Obama Accolytes.
There are Obama supporters. There are Obama "stans" ( stalker fans). Then, there are the Obama Acolytes as we fondly refer to them here. The Obama Acolytes are like a paramilitary mercenary force. They work independent of the campaign and take orders from no one in particular. They won't even listen to their candidate. They are friends, relatives, and coworkers. Ordinary, generally well loving people except for one occasional problem, they view anyone and anything that might in anyway get in the way of Barack Obama making it to 1600 Avenue as the ENEMY that must be destroyed at all costs. WAOD July 12, 2008Those over zealous family and friends that won't let you question so much as Obama's tie color.
So low and behold these Black hecklers from some group I ain't ever heard of and probably never will again, got up and cut up. The acolytes already have an APB out on those three brothers for violating the 11th Commandment. Um did ole boy said "in the face of nunumus attacks?" Y'all know Bernie Mac sent these guys.
Huffington Post provided a transcript of a question to Obama that followed the dust up:
QUESTION: "In the face of the numerous attacks that are made against the African community or the black community, by the same U.S. government that you aspire to lead. We are talking about attacks like the sub-prime mortgage... that was a phenomenon that started in the African American and Latino community, attacks like the killing of Sean Bell... and the Jena Six... and on and on... in the face of all these attacks, why is it that you have not had the ability to speak to the interest and the behalf of the oppressed and exploited African-American community in this country?"
OBAMA: "I think you are misinformed ... Every issue you talk of I did speak out about. I have been talking about predatory lending for the last two years in the U.S. Senate and worked to pass legislation to prevent it when I was in the state legislature. I have repeatedly said that many of the predatory loans that were made in the mortgage system did target the African American and Latino communities.
"Jena Six, I was the first candidate to get out there and say this is wrong, that an injustice what had been done... When Sean Bell got shot I put out a statement saying immediately this is a problem...
"Don't start shouting back, I'm just answering your question. On each of these issues I have spoken out. I may not have spoken out the way you have wanted me to speak out. Which is fine. I understand. On each of these issues you have mentioned I have spoken out and I have spoken out forcefully. Listen, I was a civil rights lawyer. I passed the first racial profiling legislation in Illinois. I passed some of the toughest death penalty reform legislation in Illinois. Huffington Post.
Snap, crackle, and pop. Who went and liberated Black folks and whatnot? You mean we get to heckle just like all the other disgruntled group of people in this country? Wow! Say it ain't so! Today feels like Juneteenth or sumthin'
Baratunde over at Jack and Jill has another perspective:
I don’t think Obama’s above reproach or criticism, and I think he should be called to answer any question any citizen of the country he aspires to lead has. So, by all means, lay into him if you think he’s off base or plain wrong. However, anybody who can say with a straight face that Obama is somehow ignoring the problems of black America, is a liar or incredibly, shamefully, willfully lazy and simple-minded. Check out his Urban Policy Plan, his Poverty Plan, his Civil Rights Plan or any of his plans, and there can be no doubt that they offer solutions to the problems of black Americas specifically as well as all Americans generally. Jack and Jill PoliticsSo did the Slant Truth:
I really don’t get why some people think that if Obama doesn’t talk all black all the time and only about black issues, then he’s a sellout. His vote on FISA, now that was a sellout, but come on, the man was a civil rights lawyer for chrissakes. There are a lot of valid reasons to criticize Sen. Obama. This is not one of them. Slant Truth
Shay over at Booker Rising thinks this was helpful to the campaign:
Sen. Barack Obama getting heckled by a bunch of hardcore Marxists only helps his campaign. Booker Rising
I LOVE this headline from Black Voices "What the Heckler Happened to Obama?"Oh S.T.O.P! It!
This post pretty much encapsulates what most people think about Black folks this election cycle. You can vote, but don't you dare dissent ( publicly or privately). Just sit down and shut up.:
He's calling some Marxists "Uncle Toms"?? UM wasn't the rap on Uncle Tom that he helped prop up the system- Tom wasn't radical? isn't that the complete opposite of what these rabble rousers are about. They ain't mainstream.
Even if those three dudes weren't Uncle Tom's and had an honest agenda to challenge Obama's positive yet at times vague rhetoric regarding our people, interrupting the man who has brought together the youth of this generation with optimism & hope was a bit out a line. Iced.com
Wow. Is this America? Dissent is "out of line"? Oh well, Dr. King, who knew you were out of line. Rosa Parks head to the back of that bus, You are out of line. Lunch counter demonstrators, out of line. Linda Brown, out of line. Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, out of line. Harriet Tubman, out of line. Frederick Douglas, out of line. Sojourner Truth; out of line! Thank goodness for all the Black folks who occasionally got "out of line" He's not running to be dog catcher! He is running to be the most powerful man on the face of the planet. He will survive criticism form some random fringe element we will never hear from again.
Don't get me wrong. I don't agree with a thing the hecklers said, but dissent in an era of intolerance for dissent by Black people tis a beautiful thang! I agree, no president can be a panacea for all that ails the Black community. In fact, I think that our biggest problem may be expecting anything at all from a government that has a long history of not necessarily having our best interests at heart. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me over the course of 500 or so years, call me a a complete and total fool.
So I don't agree with this groups politics, but I continue to be disturbed by an environment where black people are told to basically be quiet until November. Nod Nod Wink Wink. As if it is "understood" that a "brotha' "has our back . He is running for President of the United States of America, it isn't his job to have Black folk's backs. Its our job to hold all politicians accountable and that's hard to do in an environment where the slightest sign of dissent gets people branded as race-traitors and Uncle Toms.
I wonder if all of these people swiftly moving to minimize these heckler's concerns would have the same opinion if these folks had heckled McCain. Who am I kidding, they wouldn't have gotten into a McCain event with a sign. If an elderly librarian can get ticketed and dragged off of public property for holding a sign saying Bush=McCain, these three wouldn't have gotten within on mile of the arena
How long y'all think it is going to take the acolytes to catch up with these three? Run fast. Run like the wind. That sound you hear in the distance is the Obama Acolyte woodshed door swinging open. They're coming for you in 5..4..3..2..1. Don't look back
Now let me go finish watching this debate between Kilpatrick, Scott and Waters,> its excellent weekend fluff! I needed this.
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