Time to retire the red button

I've just about had it with the red button. You know...the one at the end of every Barack Obama email that says "Donate Now?"

I have much love for Barack Obama. Back when he was the insurgent candidate, I gladly clicked the little red button and took "ownership" of the campaign. As he surged into the lead during the primaries, I was one of those millions pledging my love in small amounts.

He needed more money to stave off McCain, and I complied. Little by little, I registered my support and made my voice known.

But then something changed. McCain agreed to accept $80 million for his campaign, and Obama was still raising prodigious amounts of money each month. His fundraising crescendoed in September when he raised $150 million. He collected almost twice as much as McCain had for his entire campaign...in a month. Still the red buttons continued.

Just weeks were left in the campaign, and Obama was buying up blocks of TV time that competed with the World Series. Still he asked us to "Donate Now." I must admit that that little red button got less and less appealing to me. It seemed a bit much to ask me for more money when he was outspending the competition by record amounts.

Still they asked. Even though the campaign has ended, the red buttons persist. There is something unseemly about a president-elect begging for money. At that point, you are about to take control of the most efficient fundraising machine ever -- the IRS. I'm beginning to wonder if we can expect rebates from a campaign that expects a perpetual hand out.

It's about time for us to start emailing him our own little buttons. All this other bailing out is going on, and I'd like some of that action. Christmas is coming. Times are hard for everyone, and we need some help. Hey President-elect Obama:

Yes We Sang: Music fueled the campaign

Listen to this. One of the things I enjoyed about this past campaign was the way music played such a key role at influential points. Music, meet social networking. Now anyone can make music about the campaign...and they did. I thought it might be fun to go back and listen to some of the 2008 election tunes. Here they are by genre.

The most popular, I think, is the will.i.am song inspired by Barack's New Hampshire speech: Yes We Can.

How about the flighty Obama Girl's crush.



And the hip hop tribute?




Calypso? Try the Mighty Sparrow.



Speaking of Calypso, this is a cool biography song.




And the last Calypso song chides Sarah Palin. Priceless.



Of course there has to be a Rock and Roll version.




I found this one that I'd never heard before. Shhh... don't tell the King family.




Here's a find from one of our readers. You might remember the Robert Palmer tune from the late 80's. :-)

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

And recognizing that music plays such an important role, the Obama Campaign released their own soundtrack for the campaign. You can find it here: http://store.barackobama.com/Yes_We_Can_Voices_of_a_Grassroots_Movement_s/1037.htm

Know of another good one? Let me know.



Now I'm wondering. What kind of music can we expect to support Barack Obama as he governs?

Brother, can you spare a bailout? A conspiracist’s guide to the current crises

The line is beginning to form for those taxpayer bailout dollars. You mean you haven't heard? Say your business or industry isn't going very well. You're on the verge of losing everything if you don't do something drastic. What do you do? Let things go south and head to the government for a bailout.

It worked swimmingly for the banking and investment industries. They were on their way down the tubes. They weren't running out of money, mind you. They had plenty of cash, but we had a crisis looming they told us. Our homes were losing value, said the banks who helped determine the value most of them. Our stocks were going south, said the investment community who administered them. We don't have the confidence to loan to each other, said the banks who controlled loaning decisions.

What we need is cash, they gravely intoned. Lot's of it. Your cash. We won't lend you money, but we want you to lend us some. What a great idea! And so Congress, who funds their campaigns with donations from rich people like bankers and stock brokers went along. Things must be fixed. A crisis like this deserves all our attention, they cried in unison. More rapid than eagles, the statements they came. They forecast the doom and decried the shame.

The masses panicked on cue. Yes, give them our money, so they might loan it back to us. Write them a check with no collateral after they squandered theirs in a dramatic display of fiscal irresponsibility. Yeah. Let's give them $750 billion. Wait, they need $250 billion more. They couldn't have really asked for a trillion, could they? That would choke even the most concerned observers. How about we get that trillion it in two easy payments?

Whoa! The auto industry said. You mean you can run your industry into the ground and get some bailout cash? We want some of that action. Quick, let's don our long faces and swoop into Washington. How brilliant of us. Sure congress will initially castigate us and our management ability, but how bad can we be if we can score some of this cash. We'll then collude with the banks to charge high interest rates, and we can both make back this money and then some. Sweet.

But the knucklehead auto industry execs couldn't even get the begging right. We all had a good laugh that they flew into town on corporate jets whisking congressional testimony that told us how the bankrupt and begging companies had been so well managed. They make great cars. They have savvy managers. They employ efficient workers. It wasn't anybody's fault. Nobody in Detroit, anyhow.

Then they slipped congress the ransom note. Give us the money or the Detroit workers get it. Congress considered the demand but quickly realized they should feign some level of outrage and concern. Lawmakers sent the execs back to Michigan with some homework. Come back in December and bring us some political cover for goodness sakes. Do we really need to explain that to you?

The airline and travel industries looked on, green with envy. Our industries are going broke, too. We employ lots of Americans, too. Let's see what happens with the Detroit brethren. In the mean time, somebody write a ransom note.

Clinton drama drowns Obama

Just as I was starting to get over my Clinton fatigue, the duo stages a reprise.

For two years, the Obama campaign kept negotiations and decisions private until they were ready to make an announcement. They were disciplined and leak free. No more.

Word leaked last week that Hillary Clinton had been offered the Secretary of State position in the cabinet and, ever since, we have been subjected to a barrage of leaks and public hand wringing. No other appointment has generated this much debate and public negotiation. Bill needs to be vetted. He doesn't want to be vetted. He has lawyers negotiating. She has angst. She's not sure she wants the job.

Enough already. Make a decision and STFU. Geez... Do we really want her around the executive branch for the next four years?

Through all this drama, we barely hear the name of the president elect. He is absent from the debate. You have to think that is deliberate. He's letting her suck all the oxygen out of the room again. This is just like the way things went when he won the nomination and, for a week, all we heard about was how hard Hillary had it. How much time she needed to admit what we had all known for three months. Through that time, Obama was silent as well.

I'm not sure what his strategy is...but I hope he soon has Clinton fatigue like we have. End this drama.

Team of rivals?

Much is being made about Obama selecting his campaign adversaries to posts in his administration. He is apparently inspired by a book called Team of Rivals that discussed how Abraham Lincoln had done the same thing.

Interesting concept. Is it me or did he primarily choose rivals who might oppose him in 2012? The team of rivals clears the field for his re-election.

I'm guessing all this public wrangling Hillary Clinton is doing over Dept of State will let him off the hook with her supporters when she finally declines too.

We'll see how he keeps all those egos in check.

Sent from my iPhone.

Reign in the Kings - update

Last week, I blogged about Martin Luther King Jr's children squabbling over $1.4 million of their mother's belongings. Well this week they've found something to unite around -- other people's money.

AP News reported on Nov. 13 that the King Family Seeks to Cash in on MLK-Obama Items. The King kids realized that all kinds trinkets were selling with Dr. King and President elect Obama's likeness, and they were incensed.

As guardians of Dr. King's likeness, the children plan to zealously pursue anyone selling Dr. King's likeness to ensure they get their cut. Or... as one of them so articulately put it, "If you make a dollar, we should make a dime. That's not happening now."

Nice.

His name was Justin

This morning, I visited Arlington National Cemetery for a Veteran’s Day excursion. Section 60 of the cemetery has been designated as the final resting place for all those who died in Iraq, and we spent a good deal of our time just talking with family members who were there to remember their loved ones.

No matter how many times you confront these sacrifices in a personal way, it is always moving. I was touched by a 5-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother who were there to see their dad. Surprisingly, the young boy spoke of his father with more pride than sadness.

Most memorable was the mother of Army Spc. Justin Rollins. She covered the range of emotions in our conversation -- from beaming with pride for his sacrifice, to remembering his many antics with laughter, to crumbling into tears recalling that yesterday was his birthday. Justin was an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper and infantryman who was killed by an IED humvee explosion three weeks before he was scheduled to go home and planned to propose to his long-time girlfriend.

In the stories of these strangers, the meaning of Veteran’s Day came to life. I thanked his mom, Rhonda, and the many families in Section 60 for their sacrifice, I’d also like to thank all those who served our nation and paid the ultimate price.

More about Justin

Hope we can believe in

With due respect and apologies to Barack Obama, we always hoped; we just never believed. That was your challenge.

I cast my very first vote in a presidential election for Jesse Jackson. I was a freshman at a historically black college, and Rev. Jackson was the first serious Black candidate for president that I had seen. When Jackson visited our campus for a campaign rally, he held court for almost an hour -- preaching to us in a way that only a Black candidate could. When he closed with his signature, "Keep Hope Alive!" we went nuts. We were proud. We were hopeful. But we never really believed he could be president.

Just an election cycle ago, there were whispers of a young African American senator from Illinois who might be well positioned to be president. We indulged the fantasy, but he is so young. And that name? He's talented but it wasn't likely. Not in America.

From our perch of disbelief, he seduced us with his electrifying 2004 convention speech, and our hearts yearned to believe. We swooned...cautiously. We'd been here before.

We're pretty used to seeing African Americans in the highest rungs of power. Ron Brown, Alexis Herman, Colin Powell, and Condoleeza Rice will no doubt make their way into Black History books. Logically, it should have been a short step from a cabinet member to the president, but we have learned not to believe.

Carter G. Woodson warned us a century ago that if you controlled a man's thinking, you don't have to worry about his actions. If a race or class of people believed they couldn't make a difference, or that people who looked like them could have a place in this democracy, that is the ultimate form of voter supression.

We saw the effects in this election cycle. Early in the primary, Obama polled poorly with Black voters, who never really thought he had a legitimate chance at being elected. We were hopeful but wary. Many opted for Hillary Clinton, the better known candidate. She had the more realistic chance of being elected, went the thinking.

In the midst of our skepticism, something stirred in Iowa, and we got our first permission to believe. Obama's candidacy became our generation's March on Washington. He empowered us to work for change. We emailed small contributions, volunteered in our communities, called voters across the country. As we took ownership of our campaign, the dream became more real every day.

This morning when the polls opened, I joined a line of African American voters that snaked around a soccer field, zigzagged through a parking lot, weaved into and out of a church sanctuary and ended at voting terminals in a church gymnasium. It was the last four hours of this incredible journey. Across the country, we were all coming together, White and Black, young and old, rich and poor, to send a message and claim our future.

There's only one reason we could do that. You asked us to hope. You taught us to believe. That is your legacy, Mr. President.

By the time we get to Arizona

For Barack Obama irony, if not victory, might await in Arizona. Depending on whose polls you believe, the Democrat could be on the verge of an electoral landslide. He has made significant gains in a whole range of battleground states and now turns his money and attention to Arizona, the home of his opponent, Sen. John McCain. 

I can't say that I blame Obama. The only thing better than a wipe out would be one that includes Arizona. That would be the ultimate poke in the eye, and McCain knows it. Now he has to divert funds allocated to other battles to defend his home turf. 

Here's the irony. If Obama is successful, the state that gave the most resistance to recognizing a Black man, Martin Luther King Jr., could be the state that plays a pivital role in electing the nation's first Black president.

I would find an Arizona victory satisfying since John McCain was one of the politicians who fought the passage of the King Holiday. In fairness, he has since apologized for his actions, but who cares?  Some of the things we see in this campaign expose a mindset that looks like the same old McCain. The McCain who only came around to support the holiday after increasing public pressure, the NFL cancelling a super bowl in Arizona, and an overwhelming 338 - 90 vote in the House of Representatives. When it became apparent that he was on the wrong side of history, McCain got on the bus.

Glad he found enlightenment, but it shouldn't have been that hard. Recognizing an American who stirred the moral consciousness of a nation, earned worldwide recognition for his nonviolent movement for equality and peace, and then gave his life as his last great act of sacrifice should have been a no brainer. Not for Arizona, however. They remained the symbol of an unnecessary battle.

Many from my generation will always remember that time period through the sentiment of Public Enemy's hip hop classic, "By the Time I Get to Arizona." It was one of the defiant and revolutionary expressions of the moment. Thanks to Chuck D, even though we bobbed our heads, we never really forgot Arizona. 

That was then, however. This is 2008. The holiday is official. Chuck D is main stream. Obama is playing offense. A man of color is returning to Arizona, not as part of a movement seeking acceptance, but leading a campaign exacting respect. 

Public Enemy's classic has made the journey with me from my walkman cassette to my iPod touch. Now I'm planning to take it into the voting booth. I'm hoping the verdict on an unfortunate time in American history can be reached by the time we get to Arizona.