Do Not Sleep On Palin (Commentary)
Category: News and Politics

Do Not Sleep On Palin

Why McCain VP Choice May Be Best Tactical Move Ever

People think I'm nuts…but Sarah Palin may be the reason Obama loses this race.

I understand that realistically she shouldn't be the deciding factor in this election. She has little to no experience, her background is ripe with controversy and scandal, and she's an obvious pawn in a pandering move by McCain to woo disenchanted Hillary supporters.

Still, because the American voter is heavily influenced by image and archetype, she is very much a dangerous threat; one Obama's campaign should not overlook or hesitate to confront. There are three key groups she has a possibility of influencing in this election, any one of which could flip this election on its ear.

'Bible Belt' Voters

Palin is an archetypical right-wing, Christian conservative. With her addition to the Republican ticket, an entire demographic that once leaned toward Obama now have a real reason to swing back to the right. See, Christians tolerated Obama, but they hated McCain. He was a "Republican" that didn't stand for any of their views. He's been married several times, the most recent being to a lithe model nearly half his age that he was dating while his previous wife was sick.

Obama was the family man; the man who wrote a book based on his Christian beliefs. And even during the Wright fiasco, he had prominent Chicago church figures coming to his defense; that meant something. But now that the Christian Right has another, and in their minds "better", option that is closer aligned to their ideology, it's a wrap. Because of Palin, Obama now has a serious chance of losing the majority of the 'Bible Belt' states.

Bitter and Clinging

Then there's the white middle class, which has been licking its wounded ego ever since "Bitter-gate." But where Obama was consequently painted as an elitist, Palin appears to be cut directly from the white middle class' flannel, gun powder scented cloth. She's a lifetime member of the NRA, she hunts, she fishes, and her son's in the military. Sure she's a Republican and will most likely look to maintain Bush's corporate and upper class tax cuts, but the white middle class can overlook that as long as Palin "looks like them."

Damn near each of its values the white middle class feels Obama looks down on, Palin champions. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine where many of these ultra-important votes are going.

Whatever head way Obama made by pointing out McCain's seven homes and affluence has now been effectively silenced, because Palin actually IS Annie Oakley. The scary part is that many of these voters aren't even Republicans.

Quite a few are Democrats who were more than ready to vote for Hilary, but were turned off by the perceived elitism of Obama. I won't even begin to unearth the non-debatable issues of race. With Palin added to the ticket, I see a huge cadre of long-time white Democrats shifting to the right, if only for THIS election. I don't know how many, but as tight as this race is turning out to be, any is too many.

'The Hillary Effect'

Lastly, and I believe most importantly, there is the woman vote. At first, I viewed McCain's Vice President pick as one of the biggest self-inflicted blows to a campaign witnessed since Howard Dean bellowed/spasmed from the podium. Palin was an obvious ploy to pander to woman voters upset over Hillary's loss. It was so in your face blatant, I figured no self-respecting woman would allow themselves to be openly and consciously manipulated by politics. But the more and more I thought about it, the more it bothered me that there are some woman who know...and don't care.

It was a genius move by the McCain camp to not hide that the choice of Palin for VP was a pandering tactic. In interviews, McCain spokespeople have all but admitted it. It is this honesty that has taken some of the sting off of what should be perceived as an obvious insult. The P.U.M.A. party – a sizeable faction of female Hillary supporters that have joined together against Obama – have, of course, rallied behind Palin. And once McCain's spin doctors saw how the media was aggressively scrutinizing the Palin pick, they quickly painted her as a victim. As a result, more and more women – independent, undecided and even Democrat – began to go..."hmmmmm."

One can almost imagine the campaign slogans on the horizon: "Remember Hillary" or "Cracking the Glass Ceiling Is Not Enough." Thus, whichever angle opponents choose to confront Palin about her issues, more than ever they may embolden a demographic already turned off by male dominated politics.

Under The 'Big Top'

The deeper I get into politics the more I realize the absurdity of it all; the circus-like atmosphere. Here, carnival acts and moral oddities snake before our eyes, gifts and trinkets in extended palms. It is through slight of hand that we are routinely baited-and-switched, ending up with a fist full of elephant manure where a cone of cotton candy should be.

None of this is real. None of this is genuine. The candidates don't really "feel" what they say; they don't really "care." Do we really believe the RNC would've stopped for a storm heading towards New Orleans pre-Katrina? For that matter, do we actually believe Obama never once heard his former Rev. Wright speak indignantly about America? It's all a façade. But that's the kick, we know it's not real and we play along any way. And therein lay the danger of Palin: America's obsession with symbols and archetypes.

Despite the fact that she's being investigated on charges of abuse of power, or that she may have taken $27 million in earmarks, or that she may have ran up a $20 million debt when she was mayor of a small Alaskan town, there are people who will overlook it all simply because she fits an image with which they are comfortable. Politics isn't about facts, it's about looks.

The jarred Elephant Man fetus in a sideshow carnival doesn't have to be real; it just has to look real. Certainly no one's going to touch it to find out. And despite the fact that it's probably no more than a 10-year-old, melted plastic doll in pickle juice, people will still pay their money for the excitement of blind belief.

As ridiculous as the pick is on paper, it may also serve as a rallying cry to those who want to buy something the Obama camp just isn't selling. Obama and his campaign need to find where the holes in his armor lie, because McCain and Palin are performing in the center ring…with the audience's full attention. 

9:50 PM - 7 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

Neighborhood of Make-Believe - by Richard Corey
Category: Writing and Poetry

"The path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people" – Barack Obama

It's all in our heads, right?

Figments of our fascination
with fictionalized fantasy, fear-filled exaggerations
of the evils of people that you see as your heroes.
We simply constructed it all; we naïve little negroes.
Oh, how we take your generosity, perceive it as harm
when there never is, or could be, any need for alarm.
Am I right? Cause it's exceedingly hard to trust feely
But, I guess we're just reading too far into Tuskegee.
These nuts we trust preaching focus eyes on today
when they should be shut, praying to King Friday VIII.
It's all in our minds, right? It's all in our heads, no?
It's unhealthy to dwell so on the stealth of COINTELPRO.

It's selfish to yell, "No! Get the hell out my cell phone!!"  
when your military's flown into enemy shell zones.

And instead of adorning you with thanks and gratitude

you're greeted with our egregious, thankless attitudes.

Our fault! See, we're lost in the idea of what's 'fair' now.

we should be paying respects to Lady Elaine Fairchilde,
bowing our heads to acknowledge life, safely and shelved

over the stark paranoia of Seans Taylor and Bell.

I'm right, right? I knew I was, it's this fallow façade,

This mangled, morbid mentality; this hollow mirage.

Cause our government could hardly err in wisdom.

So no, it didn't fund the Klu Klux or harbor terrorism.

It doesn't racially profile, it doesn't under fund schools

The cops didn't kill Biggie, we all live under one rule.
We're equal, one America as God had designed

to say anything else is…make believe, and all in our mind.

So let's bow to our puppet king and be happy to serve…

Never riding Trolley

9:34 AM - 5 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

April 4, 1968: The Day Black America Gave In
Category: Blogging

8:25 AM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Lindy Hopping with Satan -- by Richard Corey (feat. Shaojin)
Category: Writing and Poetry

11:34 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Bare Feet and Faith - by Richard Corey
Category: Writing and Poetry

The 8 Things That Are Happening Or Must Happen To Save Hip Hop
Category: Blogging

Hip hop isn't doing too well as far as the mainstream market is concerned. The days where a popular artist could simultaneously entertain and provoke thought seem so far away they border on the imagined. But they did exist, and those days could exist again.

Here's a list of 8 things that are currently happening or should be happening to bring about Hip hop's second golden era. (And no it doesn't include the bombing of any southern states.)

http://www.hip-hop.net/blog/129-the-8-things-that-are-happening-or-must-happen-to-save-hip-hop

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Obama and The Black Civil War
Category: Blogging

It's as necessary as the forest fire that devours acres of dried timber to provide the space and nutrients for the next generation of saplings.

The lightning rod standing in this storm of change is democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. His campaign calls to young voters in astounding numbers, some of whom previously had felt disillusioned, disappointed and often excluded from the political process. Although their parents had fought for inclusion, many of today's educated youth see too many flaws in the political system and find themselves looking through, and subsequently down on the false promises offered their parents as forms of placation.

To the youth, or the so-called Hip hop generation, Obama represents a shift in the paradigm. He is an anomaly, something that wasn't supposed to happen. He's young, black, the son of a single mother, an admitted former drug user – hard drugs at that – and his full name is Barack Hussein Obama. He has stoked the ire of democrats and republicans alike. He has been called a novice, he has been told he wasn't ready, and he has been told to wait. For all intents and purposes, he should not exist, but does. Obama represents change. Unfortunately, no such change occurs without conflict.

To read the rest of the article, go to:

http://www.hip-hop.net/blog/127-obama-and-the-black-civil-war

7:38 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Sean Taylor Killed...Nothin’ To It, Hip Hop Made ’Em Do It

"Apparently listening to Hip hop and having a less than angelic history isn't what killed Sean Taylor.

It was probably the same violence that affects Americans across all gender and racial boundaries everyday. It was the same violence that takes the lives of men and women, boys and girls in their homes, at their jobs, or in their schools. It was the same violence that shook our spiritual foundations with earthquake-like tremors the morning the towers fell; the same violence we then tearfully gathered, repackaged and sold to the world under the titles "Shock and Awe" and "War on Terror." It was just good old-fashioned American mindless violence."

For the rest of the article, visit:

http://www.hip-hop.net/blog/69-sean-taylor-killednothin-to-it-hip-hop-made-em-do-it

9:06 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Animal Nature and Pregnant Moments -- By Richard Corey
Category: Writing and Poetry

Take from this what you will...

So much can happen in the moments of thrashing and rolling.

In rapturous passions, while frantically grasping and holding

onto sweaty, sweltering faculties. Happily lapping the sap

seeping from the long limbs of a wanton weeping willow,

drenching and creasing pillows, sheets and mattress covers;

the salty taste of Shakespeare's Death. You are a savage lover,

famished and hungrily ravishing as her body gives

and bends to the whims of the winds that wrap above your

head and headboard. In lust with the sex and bed lore;

more concerned with whether her legs can spread more…

while totally oblivious to the optional obstacles

possibly birthed in the fervor of this carnivorous carnival.

So much can happen in that moment when sense collapses

and retracts into the back of the mind where instinct relapses;

and a feral beast buries its face in the screaming mess

of a salty, open, heaving wound of writhing, steaming flesh.

A moment impregnated, as it thrusts its muzzle in deeper

inside its prey's body, blind to the stalking hunter and reaper.

His daughter sat across the table in her own shadow.

Her sullen face shaded in the shame of the cold, fallow

and biting truth she let slip from her now quivering lips;

a truth that hung heavy in the air like a wintry mist.

"…you're what?" He began. His wife quietly moaned,

holding a trembling hand over her mouth in silent repose.

"it just happened…we were too scared to buy a condom…"

"so you're fuckin' pregnant?"

"Carl," his wife tried to calm him.

"I said, I'm sorry!"

"Why the fuck should sorry count?!"

"Carl, stop it!"

"She's only 17! How's she supposed to go to college now?

"Or is that out the window?!"

Her tears welled into generous sobs,

and his wife relented, pulling the girl into her arms.

"Okay, so I'm just overreacting," he slammed his fist,

breaking a plate in half, and slicing his hand and wrist.

"It's going to be alright, honey,"

his wife's look was of hope,

but he noticed how she still shook when she spoke.

"there are…options." But his daughter quickly erupted,

"I'm not getting an abortion!"

"You're getting a something!"

"Carl…"

Restraining tears, he clenched his eyes shut,

"I've worked too hard, too long for her to fuck her life up."

"CARL!"

"The nights I listened to her breathe in her sleep,

to the screams when she dreamed

when the tears streamed down her cheeks.

I gave up so much to be responsible;

so many obstacles obverted.

The impossible, I reversed it

to be the type of father she's deserving;

to be a part of something worthy."

The veins in his neck writhed

like mating snakes. He felt dizzy

and numb on his left side.

He couldn't help but remember when he made the decision,

and prayed for this life, to lay with his wife in naked positions.

When he dove face-first into her with a massive hunger

to ingest, digest like a predator…they were savage lovers.

Lovers of life and of future, oblivious to the hunter's call….

and a fate they'd never imagined

to die in each others' arms.

"This baby," he began,

all tears ceased in this breathless mood.

"You want it…

You'll love it…

And it will be the death of you."

And with that a gunshot went off inside of his head

and what felt like a bullet rifled though one side of his chest.

In silence, he grabbed his arm, now totally numb,

and fell to his knees, his blood flowing cold in his lungs.

Death had finally come, with a killer's precision to take

its prize, based on his life and the decisions he's made.

So much can happen in the moments of thrashing and rolling

in rapturous passions, while frantically grasping and holding

moving and moving, in and out, through forests and bush;

a predator getting famished the farther and harder the push.

There's death beyond the trees.

the consequence of appetite

following the orgasmic shotgun burst

is the mystery of your chosen afterlife.

1:27 PM - 3 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment