Fear Itself

I recently pounced on a peculiar pro-Obama board called, "The Obama Forum".

Let me tell you, it's a doozy of a place. Like discovering Youtube that first time, you can lose yourselves in there for hours.

Any forum which features a section called "OBAMA NATION WATCH ~ Keeping an eye on our enemies" is itching for an Instalanche, or a Hot Air Ballooning (coinage!). At the very least, they should expect horrified readers wondering what on earth they are banging on about.

The thing of it is, The Obama Forum is clearly a parody site. Clearly.

You know why I know that? Apart from the fact that I have a brain, can use it to think, and I didn't fall out of the turnip truck yesterday or even the day before that, it's evident that what they say is done for effect. Think of it like the Onion, only with less carbonated burps.

The question then becomes, who owns the site, and what is their motivation for maintaining it? I can think of a few reasons.

Let's pretend the moderators are Democrats. They could either (a) want to poke fun at other Democrats who take Obama worship too far.

- or -

(b) Hope those not savvy enough to realise it's a parody site, who they believe would invariably be Republicans or those against Obama, would write-up an outraged piece on it. This would lead the anti-Obama crowd to look doubly stupid, and humourless when someone leaked the truth. The Obama Forum folks could then point and snigger at them because they behaved in the expectedly gullible/paranoid way, and much fun would be had at HuffPo by all.

Now let's pretend the moderators are Republicans.

Most people can instantly come up with many more reasons for this version, all invariably narrowing down to "they want to make Obama supporters look bad".

Additionally, they could be apolitical creatures who just want to have a little fun at the expense of all concerned. In other words, jerks with time on their hands.

I think I like that scenario the best, don't you?

By now, if you haven't clicked on the link above to The Obama Forum itself, you are wondering just how egregious their posts could be. Well, even though it's a parody site (I allege), certain incovenient posts have a tendency to fall off the face of the earthscapade, especially when it relates to anything to do with Barack Obama.

So for your convenience, I've made screencaptures of that one particular thread which first caught my eye.

It's called:

"List enemy license plates here"

I want you to click on the images below so you can read them yourselves. On the off-off-off-chance these are real licence plates, I don't want to contribute to their dissemination on Sundries, capiche?

Plus, I've always liked a slow reveal. It's sexier.

THE FORUM SUB-FORA



THE LORD OBAMA AND HIS MINIONS ARE WATCHING YOU!




THREAD MISSION STATEMENT



OMG LULZ!!1! HE KEYED SOME1'S CAR ALREADY



A FREEBIE TWO-FER OF HATE



OH SWEET IRONICAL FORUM ID, AND YES I KNOW IRONICAL ISN'T A WORD, DON'T EMAIL ME



THE MASK BEGINS TO SLIP (Chauffered Mercedes, indeed)



THIS POOR N00B STILL DOESN'T GET IT



IN ANOTHER THREAD, A LITTLE DAYLIGHT OF TRUTH PEEPS OUT



Of course, you could ask why there are very few blogposts exposing this forum, by either gullible righties or appreciative lefties. Good question. I don't know. I did find an article about it on the NoBama blog.

The poor blogger didn't know what to make of the thing.

It could be a parody site…at least, I certainly hope so. If you can stomach it, here’s the link.

The board’s social groups include:

* Black Panther Party (”dedicated to protecting the black race, and the extermination of all whites”),

* Jewish Posters Union (”Any goyim gentiles are not allowed in our group. We are racist because G-d is racist.) ,

* People’s Independence Movement for Progress - P.I.M.P. (”We struggle for the good of all under the principles of Marx, Obama, Mao, Stalin, and Ashley Judd. We plan to lead the U.S.S.A. for the common good of all men, no matter how lazy.)

Dude, get a clue. P.I.M.P. Ashley Judd. 'Nuff said.

Of course, the fact that the owners of this site began it as a parody site, doesn't mean that every one of the 1800 registered users are in on the joke themselves. More than once in a while, you get the sense in a reply that they are down with worshipping Obama.

In a private sub-forum, which is visible briefly to you on registering, you are given the opportunity to learn how to worship the Lord Obama via the:

Temple of Latter Day Universalism ~ A Place Of Worship For OBAMATOLOGISTS

The regulars like to browbeat outraged newbies, most of them Christian, urging them to accept Barack Obama as their saviour.

The Christians in turn claim they have no need for Jesus-Barack; they believe in the real one who died for our sins, who had He lived, would certainly have been a registered Republican, thankyouverymuch.

It's all very amusing to observe these exchanges, in an outer Socratic circle kind of way.

Having exposed this hilarity to you, let me now change gears a bit.

Let me ask any of you out there reading this blogpost if you disagree with me, and think this is a genuine site, and all these outlandish posts are, on the contrary, very real indeed?

Or even better, if you are a Democrat, and had you found a similar forum lavishing praise on Bush (or being patently against Obama), would you automatically think it were real, and it never ever could be a parody?

Because I have news for both sets of people.

You are the kind of person who tends to believe the worst about those who oppose your political beliefs. This makes you weak intellectually, and liable to fall for any hoax, conspiracy theory, or libel out there.

I tend not to think in these terms about those I disagree with, however strongly.

This is why people like me are able to ascertain within a degree of certainty just exactly what is what therefore being less likely to fall prey to these tricks, and look like raving looneys.



My admission is not some pat on the back, even if it may sound it. On the contrary, I am saddened by the need for this ability. For in this day and age, such an ability almost ranks as a gift from God.

The pitfalls, especially for the young or impressionable, are overwhelming at the moment. They are exacerbated on both sides by rank hatred for the opposing viewpoint.

But I have also noticed it doesn't help if you come from or were raised in a closed society, where truth was rarely obtainable, and doubt was your mother's milk. Heck, I too might've come out that way if the Arab street had been my playground. I understand whilst never condoning.

No, the Obama Forum doesn't pass the smell test.

The EightMaps site, on the other hand...well, that's another kettle of fish.



Their goal is to list every address of all the donors who contributed to the anti-Prop 8 campaign in California. Though no one has explicitly given any orders, already there are reports that people are being harassed at their domiciles.

What other outcome could there possibly be, but harassment, repression, or even God forbid, possibly the death of a person targeted by these lunatics?

What other conclusion can there be, other than this group wants to make sure you know your life will be laid bare in future, should you behave the same way again?

Unlike the Obama Forum, the Eightmaps site's intent is crystal clear. That's the one you should fear, and blog about 'til you're blue in the face.

Up and at 'em.

This is no time for giving the benefit of the doubt.

Mount Obama

Seriously? Don't you think it's a little too...soon?

Cities and school boards are naming streets and buildings after President Obama, breaking with the tradition of waiting until a president is out of office.

• Ludlum Elementary School in Hempstead, N.Y., on Long Island, was renamed after Obama in November. A school in Portland, Ore., is deliberating a similar change.

• Opa-Locka, Fla., renamed one of its main city streets in December. Hollywood, Fla., is considering doing the same.

• St. Louis made an honorary name change to a busy road that used to divide white and black neighborhoods. The postal address is still Delmar Boulevard, but the city will post signs that also designate the street Barack Obama Boulevard.

And the tributes are not only flowing from enraptured Americans, either.

Obama is being honored abroad, too. The Associated Press reports that Antigua is renaming 1,300-foot Boggy Peak, its highest spot, Mount Obama.

The world has got a screw loose. Either that or they have forgotten that one has got to actually accomplish something before being thus honoured.

I mean, they could've waited until he was President for a whole week, at least.



P.S.: I am reminded of comedian Chris Rock's funny stand-up routine on being around Martin Luther King streets around America.

"'If a friend calls you on the telephone and says they're lost on Martin Luther King Boulevard and they want to know what they should do, the best response is ‘Run!’”

Will that be the case with Barack Obama Blvds. too?

IN THE COMMENTS: The comment of the day, courtesy of Ophir.

I hear they're also going to change the name of Washington DC to Obamagrad.

Prediction:

Somewhere, in some favela or brokedown bairro in a Brazilian city, they will officially change their name to "Obamopolis". You watch.

Inauguration Photo -- Sneak Preview!

So, you can't wait a measely twenty-four hours to watch Barack Obama being sworn in as our nation's 44th President? I got your back.

Through the auspices of a person with a whole heck of a lot of time on his or her hands, comes the Lego blocks inauguration sneak preview!



Question: Why is Obama pointing an Uzi at Chief Justice Roberts?

Sundance Opens And Obama Is Front And Centre

The Sundance Film Festival kicked off January 15, fortuitously for the host town, suffering from the recession.

You know that the film makers invited would not let Barack Obama's election pass uncelebrated by them, and so it is. Like a benevolent, but anticipated Big Brother, he's everywhere in Park City, Utah.

Wartime Golfing

That's President-Elect Obama hitting the links in Kailua, Hawaii, where he and his family are spending twelve restful days this holiday season. I do not begrudge him his golf. In fact, I'm glad he plays it, since I don't play basketball and now feel I have at least one sport in common with him.

But you know, the much maligned President Bush admitted he gave up golf because it was unseemly for the US President to be golfing in war-time. Liberals derided him at length for this admission. Nevertheless, I appreciated the gesture.

Do you think President Obama will make that "sacrifice" when his turn really comes? How about any sacrifice, if not golf?

I don't see it happening.

P.S.: The veteran of many a golfing tutorial, I know his downswing looks great in this photo. I wonder what his handicap is. I think my personal best was 12 (from the ladies' tees, though).

Notice anything else? He swings Lefty, like me. I'm naturally right-handed, but whenever I need two hands on sporting equipment, like bats or clubs, I favour my left side -- like Bob Charles and Phil Mickelson.

In his case, he is naturally left-handed, so he doesn't have that mirror effect.

President Huggy Bear

Words fail. ...you know what? Actually, they don't. When I first saw this photo of a college-aged Barack Obama, I was struck by the cool hepcattiness of the thing. His gesture of smoking a 'rette, so evocative of Bogie and war-era machomen cupping theirs, seemed almost to eclipse the intent -- that of a still youngish lad pretending he's smoking him a blunt. The second instantaneous reaction I had was: whoa, but doesn't Obama resemble Bill Clinton! Right? It's not just the arrogant mofo squint either. Let's face it, most of us look alike when we narrow our eyes and stare sidelong in a semi-challenging gesture. No-no. The resemblence is in the peasanty potato nose and flat Kalmuk cheeks. But I had yet another flashback, this one slightly more amusing. For it was once upon a time that, with a dwindling amount of museums to choose from in Amsterdam, I ended up in the very famous Sex Museum. Now, for all I know, today this museum could have been spruced up beyond recognition, but back then, it was a dump. DUMP! I know, I know, what do you expect from an historical emporium called 'Sex Museum', but still. I was in my gap year, in fact, not much older than Obama above, and willing to explore anything even remotely whackadoodle. So then you entered the Sex Museum and were shown a few mouldy rooms of excavated Roman penii and faded vintage porn, including some purporting to be of a gay gangbang circa 1913 of Rudolph Valentino (please, it looked nothing like him). Another room showed off its sinister 'marital aid' collection, including one particularly fascinating device which looked like a combination numbchuck/chastity belt/Hagar the Horrible battleaxe. Tried as I might, I just couldn't see myself using that, even in 1887. It was as you left, in a room which would be the death of any asthmatic porn viewer (the dust was an inch thick, I swear), that Obama above comes to mind. The last room contained glass vignettes of faceless statues showing sex throughout the ages. Just like the old Miami Wax Museum, which breathed its last in the early 1980s and whose last updated wax tableaux was Richard Nixon greeting the three Apollo 11 astronauts in their capsule -- remember? -- , these kinds of museums are rarely du jour, and the last "scene" if you will, was that of a pimp and his pro in the Red Light District around 1971. The pimp was dressed in a "sky" (as I have been reliably informed was the slang word for hat, back then), a white cape, and flare-bottomed Fat Elvis red trousers, apparently collecting his dough from the hooker. I didn't notice what she was wearing, except that she was slim and looked like Heidi the milkmaid -- which, if you've ever been to the Red Light district in smelly old Amsterdam, you'll know is a total joke. Amsterdam hos are about 250 lbs., invariably from Suriname or some godforsaken ex-Dutch outpost, and are the ugliest creatures I've ever seen enlisted into the world's oldest profession. Incidentally, at the Centraal Station, the ladies' loo near the platform had an ink-written suggestion which said, "If you want a really good tongue job, ask for Dewi at Madame Suzi's". I passed. ANYWAY, whew, I have really digressed here. Where wuz I? Oh yes, Obama. The point is the waxy pimp had a mien incredibly like that of Obama above. You know, "Where my money at, ho!", and so on. Also, he looks like Huggy Bear, whose son I once owned in Yahoo's Fantasy NFL. Small world. In closing, I would just like to mention that we none of us are without our extremely embarrassing snaps taken in off-guard moments. So what if Obama is seen above mimicking being in an Amsterdam brownstone café, having just purchased some Afghan Red? Why, somewhere out there, there's a photo of your humble blogger seated on 15-foot plaster "penis", conveniently available just as you exit the Sex Museum. We all have pasts, my friends. P.S.: Oh My God! They have a website now! NSFW, or anywhere else.

Mama Voted For Obama

We've seen "Singing for Obama". We've read of youth corps pledging themselves personally to their leader, Obama. We've been treated to faux-seals, minted coins, and the self-important podium slogans declaring "The Office Of the President-Elect".

I bet you anything you could live with half of this ego-ride into Hell, so long as the kids are left out of it, right? Me too.

That's why I am creeped out about this site: Little Democrats.net. Its purpose is very clear:

This colorful book of rhythm
and rhyme is a fun and easy
way to make sure your kids
know you made the right
choice in 2008!

The book featured includes these illustrations:

A reading circle of kids surrounding a friendly, smiling Barack Obama with apparently a little mouse wearing the O-bama logo on his little t-shirt. Or is that a rat? Either way, I think Mickey has competition. About time the mascot of an evil corporation like Disney did.



"Mama didn't vote for a llama! Mama voted for Obama!", says the little O-Mouse to a rather startled llama. I do believe he's crocheting a teency sweater for the mouse.


Okay we get it, Mama voted for Obama and people were horse-tranquiliser happy ever afterwards, singing Kumbaya my Lord Barack near purple mountains majesty.



This book is the brainchild of one Jeremy Zilber, whose About Me section explains the reasons why behind this book.

I've been interested in politics ever since I was about 6 years old, when my parents agreed to host a fundraiser for presidential candidate George McGovern. They never told me I should be a Democrat or adopt a specific political ideology, but they explained why they were supporting the Democratic candidate in that election, and I'm grateful they did. My early exposure to partisan politics sparked a lasting interest in political issues and American government, and by the time I entered college, I was already a political activist with very strong political opinions.

After receiving a degree in government from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in political science from Ohio State University, I spent the next ten years teaching American government and politics. Although I was teaching at some of the country's best colleges, it was apparent that most of my students knew very little about their government or the people who ran it. Sure, they'd all learned a few basic facts in high school, but most didn't really understand how the political system works, or why anyone should really care about it. Even more troubling was the fact that many of them seemed perfectly content (and often determined) to remain as politically uninformed and uninvolved as possible.

While I never conducted any formal surveys of my students, it was clear that most of the politically active ones had been raised by parents who weren't afraid to talk about politics around their kids. My experiences merely confirmed what researchers have known for decades: children raised in households in which politics is a frequent topic of discussion are most likely to become politically active adults.

Given my strong desire to see more Americans involved in politics and my support for progressive causes and the Democratic party, I wrote and self-published Why Mommy is a Democrat in November of 2005. The response has been simply fantastic. With over 25,000 copies sold in the first two years, Why Mommy is a Democrat is already one of the most successful self-published children's books of all time. Encouraged by the book's success, I self-published Why Daddy is a Democrat in 2007 and Mama Voted for Obama in 2008.

Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, I currently live in Madison, Wisconsin, with my partner Julia, stepdaughter Isabella (age nine), our cat Zach, and three very cute guinea pigs.

So we have a liberal academic currently living in Madison, Wisconsin, who wishes to basically indoctrinate kids at the earliest age, with innocuous-looking, pro-Leftist kiddie books.

Pish-posh you say? Perhaps. It's certainly not required reading like those dear Soviet tomes dedicated to the avuncular stories of "Uncle Lenin", which so many Soviet-bloc schoolkids remember reading about.

Many other Russians associate Lenin with their earliest school years -- he was the grandfatherly figure with the little beard and friendly smile at the front of their first-grade schoolbooks.

In these tomes aimed to first-graders, Uncle Lenin would always be pictured in his peasant flat-cap, gently holding court over a slew of kids, often hand-in-hand with them in a pastoral setting.



The point was to reinforce the innocuous gentleness of a leader, inferring that his political philosophy had made him so, and thus he was worthy of emulation. Once that connexion was made, it triggered feelings of safety, and in time, unquestioned loyalty to the man who could do no wrong. How could he? He loved kids!

If you sense my deep unease about these insidious books, and their motivation, perhaps you have the same feelings too.

That it comes from the kinds of people who usually revile McDonald's for their avid targetting of kids through Ronald McDonald and other mascots, is some cause for irony (or should I say, derision of their hypocrisy).

When its McDonald's their antennae go up, and stay up, with all due caution given this indoctrination by a world-wide conglomerate.

In testimony at yesterday's one-day food marketing hearing at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, a McDonald's Corp. executive said the company takes Ronald McDonald to elementary schools and is talking to children as young as 4 in its advertising.

But when it's Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders being the sweet mascots of a political ideology?

Oh well, that's perfectly acceptable, even laudable!

After all, you wouldn't want kids not involved in the political process...except, of course, the brainwashing of children by Republicans who would prefer to share homespun anecdotes about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree, and fearlessly admitting it to his dad, or the rail-splitting adventures of Abraham Lincoln.

You know, stories about dead guys who actually built this nation by sacrifice, not propaganda.

I'm sure someone will place an order for this book, so that their little one is properly counseled about politics from earliest age.

But it would do well to remember that no matter how intense are efforts are to transfer our political leanings to our kids, sometimes the nippers grow up to believe exactly the opposite of what we do -- because, well, they're sick and tired of being lectured to.

Today, I spoke to an old friend. His name is John Gillespie. His father is the counselor to President George W. Bush, Ed Gillespie. Also a key person to putting him to the top, Ed feels no guilt when he extorts money from the American people and felt no guilt when he played a role in putting a man who has ended up causing a chain of events, ending with the lives of many people lost.

John, who is 19 years-young, however, has a low opinion toward his father, his support for his father's employer is minimal, and also, he is a vegetarian.

I can not doubt that every day of his life he was fed vocal bigot garbage, but denied it, and was born with a sense of righteousness, and a soul as well.

He is silently fighting his father. He is part of a movement in the making; the next generation of American.

Poor John. How much he reminds me of myself at his age. After being told by my father that Clement Atlee was the greatest prime minister of the 20th century, and that Margaret Thatcher was a working-class bloodsucker (a paraphrase, I think the term he really used was 'heartless cow'), I grew up to be the staunch conservative Republican you see before you, who furthermore hero-worships Maggie T.

Because sometimes kids just won't be told.

I'll definitely remember this book and the cautionary tales of John and myself, when it comes to raising my own child. No "Mama Voted for Palin" books for my nipper, no sir/ma'am.

But should any teacher or adult read to my child from this book, "Mama Voted For Obama", I will make sure I hire Ronald McDonald for every one of their birthday parties until they're 18.

I'll fight fire with french fries.

Let Them Eat Obama Cake

"There is, believe it or not, a movement to establish a national holiday honoring Barack Obama. The Topeka Capital-Journal is calling for Inauguration Day to honor a man who has done nothing yet except win an election!

The goals are to secure a national holiday in Obama’s honor, to organize celebrations around his inauguration and to celebrate the 200th birthday of President Abraham Lincoln, who was born on Feb. 12 1809. (IA-GRL adds from the article: “Yes We Can” planning rallies will be at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. every Tuesday at the downtown McDonald’s restaurant, 1100 Kansas Ave., until Jan. 13.)

At 7:30 a.m. on Inauguration Day, Obama Cake will be served at the downtown McDonald’s, and a celebration is scheduled for 8 p.m. to midnight Jan. 20 at the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center, 420 S.E. 6th."

(Via Scanner Politics)

Obama Day? Obama Cake? McDonald's are suddenly the good-guys? Is it too early to echo the Boss, Bruce Springsteen, and say "I want my country back"?



Seriously though, they can plaster him on any memorial, school, even mountain they want, with my happy blessings, after his death.

Doing so whilst alive is creepy, monarchical, un-American, and I do believe, illegal. Did I mention creepy yet?

UPDATE: Meet Barack Jeilah Williams of Phoenix, Arizona. He was born twelve hours after Barack Obama's election as President. God bless the little tyke.

I don't in the least find this creepy or inappropriate. People can name their kid after anyone (Jermajesty) or anything (Paris, Lexus, Chardonnay) they want.

The difference is that when someone is honoured with Obama Day, a living leader is being honoured in all of our names. That's a step too far.

This Is The Sort Of Stuff That Scares The Baby Jesus Out Of Me

Just stop it, Barack Obama. Stop it. If you don't want to be called a Socialist or a Marxist, then stop promoting ideas which are ENTIRELY redolent of that.

We already have a National Guard. You don't need to militarise civilians like Chavez does in Venezuela.



ADDED: Not just Senator Obama's plans horrify people, but also what his followers do in his name. Take this Daily Kos diarist. After he called 204 people in a GOTV effort, he decided to get a permanent reminder of his dedication to Obama.

He got a tattoo.



Tattoos of numbers on wrists...

A Jewish Democrat for McCain spoke for all of us upon seeing this latest bit of cultish insanity.

No wisdom, no memory, no historical perspective.
God save us from these people.

Santo Obama!

This made me laugh. I found this saint card via the surprisingly titled "Italian Blogs for John McCain" (written in Italian). The blogpost was called, "Santo Subito" or in English, canonise him now. Heh.

As a curiosity, let me ask the Catholics on Sundries, who does he resemble here?

For me, Saint Martin de Porres of Lima (his mother was a Panamanian black slave, his father a white Spaniard). It's uncanny.

Obama National Anthem

Don't start practising just yet, though. I heard there's a little "surprise" a-cookin'.

Barack Obama: Complete Enigma

I read this at the HillaryClintonForums, and it touched on a topic that has been dancing around my head, since I read about John McCain's Brazilian sex romp.

Why is it that we hear so little of Barack Obama's past associations?

At the very least, shouldn't he trot out some to countervail the toxic ones swirling around him this year -- from Rezko, to Ayers, to Wright.

It makes utter sense to ask a friend of his from high school, college, or just an old girl-friend for an interview. But nothing. It's like he's a Pallas Athena that sprang forth fully formed from the forehead of a god.

Not all this person's conclusions or questions reflect mine, however. But I'm glad someone out there is wondering too.

This has been bothering me for a while....

In every case of sudden fame (athletes, politicians, actors, musicians) there are always a gazillion people who crawl out of the woodwork to claim "I knew him when."

Usually with details - "I helped him pass advanced calculus, without me he would not have graduated." Or " the cheap SOB borrowed fifty bucks from me and never paid it back." Or "I was the one who talked him into (politics, acting, baseball, switching to the drums)."

Or funny stories, or glowing accounts of how talented or generous the Famed One was back then.

And a bunch of females ( I will not say "women") who claim to have spent a romantic evening with, or who claim to have borne an illegitimate child by the Famous One.

The few people who have come forward to talk about Obama are his four current supporters (all them are Pakistani ).

No women have come out to declare their undying love for the Famed One.

Not at Occidental nor at Columbia nor at Harvard Law.

Fox News say that they interviewed 400 people who were at Columbia, graduated in 1983 from the Political Science department. (In 1983, Columbia granted 7300 degrees from 20 different schools, but no mention of how many were undergraduate, nor any stats on grads by department; the Poli Sci department is one of 29 departments in the Division of Arts & Sciences).

And none of those 400 remembered Obama.

His favorite professor, Michael Baron (who was also in charge of Columbia's Chinese Exchange Student program) says that Obama was brilliant in his year-long senior honors seminar. Others who were there do not remember Obama.

I remember all the people in my senior seminar (from many more years past than 1983!). Granted, there were only 8 others, but how many people were in that class with Obama?

And no one remembered this brilliant fellow student?

No females ever dated him? No males?

No one worked with him? No one shared a library carrel with him?

No funny pizza stories? No memorable toga parties?

No pictures?

Why does this guy have no friends? No enemies?

Except, of course, those who his campaign insists were just "guys in the neighborhood."

Nature abhors a vacuum, but in Obama's case, it's a maelstrom. Everything about him seems as gossamer-thin as paper, either fairly or unfairly allowing people to call him an empty suit.

This is the most unsettling part of his candidacy for me. He's a complete unknown.

Perhaps the reason lies in the fact that for every answer about him, the more questions it raises.

Obama Jacques?

God, now the French get into the Sing for Obama act! People, stop indoctrinating your kids into your political ideologies! Give them some room to be kids, not ideological storm troopers. Sheesh.

What the other American video had in production values, this one makes up in neuroticism. Fancy lining up kids against a bridge, and putting Obama masks on their innocent little faces as if to disembody them.

You know, I speak French, but don't rightly think I know the word for "creepy". It's not crêpes, is it? That would finally make sense.



(I think that's at the Pont Alexandre III, which would be sweet irony, as he was a vicious bigot)

Barackapella...

More singing for Obama, this time, thankfully, mercifully, they look like they're teens and not 5 year-olds...

Finally, my dear Sundries readers, after all these groups which like to sing in robotic unison to Barack Obama, I can only conclude that we are seeing the first nativist Cult of Personality in American history for a living politician.

It is very unnerving to watch this unfold before us, in real-time.

"With Obama, Yes Yes We Can"

Oh ye of little faith. You didn't think the Sing for Obama crowd could get any creepier, did you?

Bilingual, yet!

All we need is Michael Jackson to add his particular brand of creep-sazón.



(Via Race42008)

Obama Y Los Niños

(UPDATE: Video has been pulled. Too late, Obama. We all saw it. ANOTHER UPDATE: Found a copy! I'll leave the old one on the bottom)

Kids sing for Obama:





(Via Apathetic Citizen)


Kids love Lenin (they are his little potatoes):




Kids love Fidel:




Kids love Kim Jong-Il:



ADDED: I had written this comment at another blog, when a poster mentioned that these kids singing to Obama struck a Hitlerjugend note. I disagreed:

[T]he problem with many people is that their only totalitarian reference seems to be Hitler and Nazism.

Nazism didn't encourage tenderness towards its Führer. In fact, that would've been un-Aryan.

But that is Communism's approach with their Dear Leaders.

A later comment:

You know, liberals make a big stink about "Jesus Camp" type places, which are practically nonexistent, but when they are faced with children who have been encouraged or allowed to sing in chorus for Obama, looking like zoned out kidbots, they think they're "energised" by the process. Hurrah! A victory for inclusiveness and democracy!

Posit this orchestrated effort to the very spontaneous and cute Kenyan kids singing for Obama, via MP3.

That's the difference between pride and devotion, which coincidentally, is the difference between freedom and tyranny.

It's all there, people. Don't say later, you didn't know.

MORE: Wait, I thought this was just an amateur kiddie group, which busts out in orchestrated political spirituals for their adoring parents to enjoy.

It's actually an ORGANISATION of choristers called Sing for Obama. They make the rounds singing their Obamalieder at events.



"Sing for Obama! Sing for America!"? I am speechless.

Related

Obama's Voluntary Children's Chorus
Even Gawker Is Appalled
Instapundit Says Creepsville
Pastor_Jeff, Alcibiades And LGF All Call It "Obama Youth"
Horrible On Every Level
McCain Version: A Bunch Of Angry Old White Men From Ohio (Heh)
Roger L. Simon Has Rarely Been This Disturbed By a Visual
MP3 Of Kenyan Kids Singing About Obama (Via E.P. Green)

Obama Mural

The Cult of Obama continues.

A Pittsburgh district has put up what they call an "inspirational mural" to the One. An actress from ER unveiled it, saying that it's part of the beautification process for the neighbourhood.

HILL DISTRICT (KDKA) ― An inspirational mural was unveiled today in the Hill District.

The Hope Mural, located at the corner of Wylie Avenue and Kirkpatrick Street, is of Sen. Barack Obama and reads: "We are the change we seek."

Gloria Rueben, an actress on "ER," was on hand for the event.

The project is aimed at beautifying the neighborhood and promoting team building.

Artist Ray Gerard designed it and members of the community donated the supplies.

Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, a Pittsburgh native, helped kick off the project last week.

I understand honouring people in death. We all need heroes. But for a person like me, with my historical background, this mural of a living person for whatever reason is scarily close to those cult of personality "Dear Leader" murals. They feel me with dread.

It's but one step from this:



To this:



Even Castro waited to "honour" this man, a person he almost certainly had killed, after his death.

Compare Che's "Hasta la Victoria Siempre" to Obama's nearly imperial "We are the Change We Seek".

I shudder to think what comes next.

Die Goldelse Bleibt In Berlin

Ihr Präsident heißt Barack Obama!



H/T:Palladian

Obama, ich liebe dich!!!



The media certainly do! (Via Jdeeripper)



MORE: Tough crowd. (Via Chip Ahoy)



Der Messias-Faktor. Keep saying it. He's bound to believe in it someday.

O-Force One

That's the way the press corps have taken to calling Senator Obama's plane, according to that irrepressibly bad writer, Maureen Dowd.

The king of Jordan personally drove the prince of Chicago from the palace to the airport on Tuesday night to catch his flight to Israel, leading a motorcade in his slate Mercedes 600 across the tarmac and right up to O-Force One, as The Chicago Sun Times mockingly calls the candidate’s freshly branded 757, with the captain’s chair embroidered with “Obama-’08/President.” As the senator got out of the passenger seat, King Abdullah jumped out to chat some more, as though the two, who had only met in passing on the Hill, were old pals.

Obama finally found a Muslim with whom he’s willing to be photographed.

Quite. Wonder if any veiled women were removed from sitting behind him in Jordan, like say, Queen Rania.

Dowd also reveals the McCain campaign internally refers to Obama as "The One", an allusion to The Matrix character, Neo.

Perhaps when you replace the US flag that originally came with the plane:



...with your campaign logo, a circle which resembles Senator Obama's surname's initial:



Maybe you have been serving notice you've been flying high on yourself for a while.

UPDATE: As this post is getting a lot of hits, some more info. Turns out there's a comic book "team" called O-Force already. Aww, shucks! See if this sounds familiar, though.

"An army of the undead, raised by Arnie, attacks the team. Ocean's legs are blown off. She begs Overkill for help but he abandons her. The Orphan parachutes in and saves Ocean. The rest of X-Statix quickly arrive as backup, thus saving the lives of O-Force. Arnie Lundberg is convinced to use his powers for good and heals Ocean's legs and the team is carted off by the ambulances.

Other members not listed include Ocelot, Orbit, Ooze, Oracle, Orifice, and Oink."

Fittingly, Obama oozes like an oracle whenever you get into his orbit. He might think he ocelot to his wife, but other women just think he's an orifice. "Call me sweetie again." Oink.

Related

Obama's "Mile High Club"

Friendly Fire

The New Yorker, a magazine whose editor David Remnick has been in Obama's camp since day one, is coming out with this satirical cover this week.

It shows a triumphantly afro'ed Michelle and turbaned Barack Obama in the Oval Office, giving each other "terrorist" fist dabs. The US flag is seen burning in the grate, and Osama bin Laden is smiling beatifically in the corner.

In one of the major understatements of this early century, it's not going down very well with his supporters.

The wink-wink nudge-nudge of satire often targets the powerful, to their detriment. When some take offence anyway, they get chided for lacking "a sense of humour".

The Left are in utter disarray over the piece, turning themselves inside-and-out in their attempts to understand the friendly fire.

From Daily Kos, we get everything from telephone numbers and emails to cancel subscriptions in protest, to behests to get out there and tear up the magazines in bookstores, rendering them unsaleable (that's a misdemeanour, by the way).

One voice of "reason" responds:

It would be a terrible, awful thing

if outraged citizens were to go to every bookstore and newstand in America and deface every copy of the New Yorker, rendering them unsalable.

I don't know how I would be able to sleep at night knowing that Obama bumper stickers were plastered on their covers, or their front covers were torn off and discarded, or the store's copies of the magazine were removed from the racks and hidden where other customers would not see them or find them.

I sure hope that no one acts this way. It would be a terrible, awful thing to happen.

For 8 years, the American public have been treated to unbelievable amounts of "satire" regarding the person of a sitting US President. There is not one Ted Rall or Daryl Cagle cartoon of President Bush that doesn't fall under the mantle of 'insulting'. Every CD burnt by outraged former fans of the Dixie Chicks was an assault against free speech, said the Left, and Michael Moore won awards by the dozens for his treacherous celluloid stabs at Bush and America.

When wayward satire hits Senator Obama, what do these defenders of free speech do?

Cancel subscriptions, urge defacement, and vent spleen on instant enemies to the cause. In short, they act like the very people they mocked only a few months ago. They were not for defending free speech at all, in their attacks -- they just wanted it to target the right guy. The hypocrisy is as glaring as it is predictable.

I don't know if you're enjoying this hubbub as much as I am, but I sure as heck am. This is the earliest Christmas present I've ever received and it's only July.

UPDATE: More reactions -- from a Time magazine forum member:

The problem with the cover is that the typical under educated or first glance viewer is going to say if the New Yorker, a major liberal magazine says it's true it must be true. This will go over big in West Virginia and every backwater section of the country that gets a wonderful Republican Party email that says, "Even the New Yorker Magazine recognizes who Obama is!"

This will have a lasting impact on the campaign.
When abortion rights are lost, American worker's rights are lost and the Constitution is shreaded because one more conservative has been placed on the Supreme Court you can blame the editors of the New Yorker Magazine.

How can I put this?

Not only is this overreach to what will happen if McCain (a social moderate) is elected -- if it were a Republican saying something similar, such logic would be called 'fear mongering' -- but there is an incessant belief expressed in these rebuttals about certain people not getting the satire.

The people most often named are white hicks, as exist in W. Virginia. Oh, they rarely say "hicks" but the implication is there, and worst of all, is that they are as dumb as a signpost: an obvious consequence of being poor, rural and conservative.

I humbly put it to you that if Obama loses, it'll be due to this Democratic attitude of constantly looking down their noses at their own countrymen, like they do almost every election since 1952.

The sad part is that they do this towards a demographic which would be Democratic not just by conviction, but by tradition -- and THEY STILL DON'T GET WHY THEY ALIENATE THEM WITH THEIR INSULTING REMARKS.

It's mindboggling. I hope they do it forever.

Related

Althouse Wonders "Why be Surly About It?"
Taylor Marsh Awaits The McCain in Wheelchair New Yorker Cover
Kevin Drum Calls Cartoonist "Gutless"
HuffPo: "Yikes!"