#SWAG

The 44th President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, takes the Oath of Office on January 21, 2013.

My President is Black, y’all. #damnyouautocorrect

My President is Back, y’all.

Re-elected with a mandate; riding an electoral tsunami to his highest popularity ratings since 2009; delivering policy speeches writ like poetry and spoken like jazz, “from Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall,”; beating his political opponents into impotent saber-rattling even as they parrot his ideas to their masters; and moving to fulfilling promises from his first term in the opening month of his second; Barack 2 promises to be a sequel worthy of the Godfather II, or, dare I say it, The Empire Strikes Back.

But his re-election, and the sweeping vision he’s been liberated to express for the nation by our votes and support, is in danger. In the joyous, languorous afterglow of securing President Obama’s job for four more years, let us not ignore the assault which continues unabated by hyper-conservative Republican legislators and legislatures across the nation on the state level: the attempts to disenfranchise people of color and poor voters; the legislative circumlocution which is creating “safe” districts for congressional Republicans even as they garner fewer and fewer votes; the outlawing of women’s reproductive health centers; and the manufactured obstinance against responsible gun ownership which continues to hide behind an ignorant and purposeful misreading of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, even as our babies are dying in the streets, malls and schools of America.

Yes, just like I told you in 2009 when I got back from listening to President Obama’s First Inaugural on the National Mall, his Second Inaugural was fantastic. But we must continue to work (including #OperationBlueSweep2014) to make sure that his second term is, too.

Yes, We Can.

To Secure These Rights…

According to the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States,

“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom … or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

This means that all the people involved in occupying various and sundry locations around this wonderful nation of ours should and ought to be able to participate in their campouts without threat of arrest.

The history of protest, of civil disobedience, in the United States is older than the nation itself: from the Boston Tea Party to the Boston Massacre; from Shay’s Rebellion to the Whiskey Rebellion; from Nat Turner to John Brown; from the modern Civil Rights Movement to the protests against United States’ involvement in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. While some of these were obviously not peaceable assemblies, they were protests against government, petitions for redress of grievances.

In the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson wrote

“to secure … rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the just consent of the governed.”

Those citizens of the United States who are occupying, physically taking up space in New York City, Los Angeles, Denver, Portland, Seattle, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., etc. are exercising their Constitutionally protected rights, yet they are being incarcerated by the very government designed to secure those rights.

Mayors around the country are evicting citizens; police departments are pepper-spraying citizens; plastic handcuffs are tying up the protections individuals are guaranteed in the name of protecting those individuals.

Whether or not one agrees with the goals of the Occupy Movement, they have the right to protest, to take up space, to assemble peaceably, to petition their government for redress of grievances.

The Shadow of a President

The lone Southern Senator who stayed in Congress while his fellows beat a hasty retreat back to the Confederacy became President, and swore the same oath that Barack Obama did just fourteen months ago.  President Andrew Johnson then proceeded to pay lip-service to the equality of the newly freed black people (they weren’t yet citizens), while allowing his former cohort to resume their power.  Presidential Reconstruction was marked, then, by a disdain for the racial minority over which the war was fought, and a complete disregard for the economic wellbeing of the lower classes in the American nation.

Senator Kyl is a throwback to that bygone age.  Where President Johnson refused, only a year after the end of the Civil War, to extend the life of the Freedman’s Bureau because it was “too costly” and would encourage freedmen to lead a “life of indolence,” Senator Kyl is supporting his fellow Jim Bunning in his filibuster of extending unemployment benefits because it “is a disincentive for them to seek new work.” Senator Bunning said in his statement, “…if we can’t find $10 billion to pay for something that we all support…” – translated into President Johnson’s fateful words that it would be “too costly” to help those unemployed members of the American nation.

In both cases, it is easy for rich white men walking the hallowed halls of government to cut off the funds which help those struggling at the bottom of the capitalist pile.  In walking those halls, employed in positions which enjoy full benefits (including a choice of affordable health insurance options paid for by the public which won’t drop them for preexisting conditions), all three of these men failed to remember the oaths they swore and their responsibilities to the nation they serve.

There are many presidents whose shadows are long for the manner in which they served the United States and its citizens.  Senator Kyl and Bunning, though, have chose a pale one to imitate.

another stupid person

This is why I hate stupid people.  It must be hard to be smarter than your brother, better looking than your father, and overlooked by everyone with morals, intelligence, and taste.  So Jeb Bush is trying to get in the limelight by admitting he’s an idiot.  If he doesn’t know whether the President of the United States is a socialist, then . . . he’s stupid.

I wanna be prez, too.

With the Republican Party in disarray – Senator Ensign’s parents paid his mistress and her husband $96,000 after he’d screwed and paid them; Governor Sanford’s hike on the Appalachian Trail makes him pariah on two continents; ex-Governor Palin hates quitters and is quitting her job at the same time (talk about self-loathing); Representative Boehner is . . . Representative Boehner; Governor Jindal hasn’t been seen or heard form publicly since he died like a quail after President Obama’s State of the Union speech in February; Michael Steele?; Senator McConnell is impotent politically because Senator Franken IS the 60th Democratic vote; and all the able elephants are keeping their heads down and their mouths closed – the son of 41 and the brother of 43 is trying to step into the void, and only managing to stick his foot in his mouth.

He’d be amusing, if he wasn’t so sad.  I hate stupid people.

Teabags, Taxes and the “new” Republican Right

“Watch yourself. Be on guard. This place is full of vultures, vultures everywhere. Everywhere.” – Casablanca

There is a “movement” of idiots afoot protesting President George Bush’s tax structure, though they claim they’re against President Obama’s bailouts (like TARP, which started under . . . President Bush). They’ve mistaken the stimulus package passed by President Barack Obama and the 111th Congress for something that affects them as they file their taxes for 2008. What’s more, Faux News is promoting this farce and trying to make it sound like a news story instead of a (permanent opposition to a Democratic president) publicity stunt. Fashioned after the famed Boston Tea Party, where American colonists disguised themselves as Native Americans and destroyed private property in protest of taxation without representation, today’s ‘tea baggers’ are protesting against the wrong people for the wrong reasons. However, they haven’t realized that much like the Virginia Republican Party, which was displaying softcore lesbian pornography on its website a few days ago “by mistake”, that their preferred method of protest, teabagging, is a rather vulgar masculine display of power and authority it modern parlance.

This confusion about what is good for the United States, and what is Right in the United States, and what is simply peeing into the wind is exemplified by the people who speak for the Republican Party in public. Take House Minority Whip Cantor’s comments about tax increases today.

“At a time when American families and small businesses are facing difficult challenges and financial uncertainty, Washington must not make their situations worse by imposing the largest tax increase in American history.”

His comments have absolutely nothing to do with the taxes we’re filing. He (and the teabaggers . . . giggle) are trying to link together President Obama, the economic crisis, and the fact that our government must have taxes as revenue in order to function. How did he vote on Congressional salary increases? How do the teabaggers expect that the services they depend on like police departments, fire departments and public schools to name a few, are to be paid for?

The tax structure today is lower than it was under that paragon of conservative economic virtue, President Reagan. President Obama’s tax cut for the majority of American families (including those who run small businesses) took effect in March of 2009 – which means that they affect next year’s tax returns, not today. The New Right is so wrapped up in fighting President Obama (even though they lost the election, remember) that they can’t see straight.

I’ve grown tired of the whining, the preening, the Rushing. Protest is the right of every citizen of the United States, and really the world. But you should know what you’re protesting for (or against) before you open your mouth, paint a sign, or threaten to tea bag someone.

Anti-Tax ‘Tea Party’ Protests Expected Across U.S.

The Fine Art of Teabagging

April 15th is Patriots Day

Right-wing extremism may be on rise, report says

Nationwide ‘tea party’ protests blast bailout

Just the tip. Just for a minute. Just to see how it feels.

President Obama has a huge package.  He’s trying to use it to stimulate the country, but Republicans like Mitch McConnell, John McCain, John Boehner and Michael Steele are being coy.  They’re flirting with the President, inviting him to the House and having drinks with him, but they don’t really want to play ball.  Coquettish is, I believe, the term.  Meanwhile, the President’s stimulus package is being rammed through the House, and massaged through the Senate, all so that we, the American people, can feel relief.

How you doin'?

It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.

I don’t blame Congress for being skittish.  The last president and his treasury secretary pretty much hit it and quit it, begging and pleading for just a little belief, getting half of what they asked for, and then leaving the rest of us gasping for breath, no closer to satisfaction, feeling used and still wondering what happened.

But this President wants more interaction, is buying Congress dinner and wanting to watch Sunday afternoon sports, before getting down to business.  He’s actually looking us in the eyes, and holding our hands as we walk down the hallway to the Lincoln Bedroom.  It’s natural to be nervous.  You know the rumor about black men, and we’ve already seen the size of this package that we’re getting.

But even though it may hurt a little at the beginning, it’s gonna feel so good once we get going.  And when the stimulus goes flooding into the country, putting people back to work, putting money into the economy, making frigid credit markets a little looser, a little warmer, a little friendlier to the average citizen, we can all lay back and sigh.

Then we can do it all over again.

A stimulus plan with duel goals: reform and recovery

Obama promises plan to cut mortgage costs

The Big Deal

McCain says Dems need to seriously negotiate

Tough choices for America’s hungry

McConnell says GOP trying to reform bill, not block it

The New Business of Politics

President Obama’s Inaugural Address codified his desire to set the tone in and for the United States of respect, discussion and action.  Both domestically and internationally, his actions have followed his words to the letter.  Despite the continued recalcitrance of individuals like John Boehner and Hamid Karazi who actually have some participatory relevance, and Rush Limbaugh who doesn’t, President Obama has reached not only across the aisle to listen to and engage Republicans with different ideas about how to stimulate the economy, but he’s gone all the way across the street.

It’s sad and funny at the same time, watching the GOP “leaders” deal with this new way of doing business.  I’m sure that across the nation and across the globe, part of the HOPE that was held tight like baited breath was that CHANGE would actually come to the White House.  It has.

Whether beginning his administration by ordering the closing of Guantanamo Bay, the forbiddance of torture, calling bumbling CEOs to account, stimulating the economy despite Republican obstacles, going to listen to the Republican obstacles, speaking for the American people directly to the Muslim and Arab and Middle Eastern populations around the world, speaking to the American people about our national attitudes toward Muslims and others around the world, President Obama is proving that he can do what Senator McCain couldn’t – walk and chew gum concurrently, I mean, do more than one thing at the same time.

And while I am loathe to frame President Obama with negatives, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that he is not what President Bush was: arrogant, ignorant, insulated, perjorative, aggressive or engaging in perfidy.

“There’s a new sheriff in town, and his name is Barack Obama.”

Obama: ‘We don’t have a moment to spare’

How Al-Arabiya got the Obama interview

Obama envoy arrives for talks with Israelis

The GOP grapples with Obama’s charm offensive

Obama tells GOP no compromise on tax rebates

He kept US safe

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, President Bush and his administration decided to keep the United States safe.

A little late, but a good move nonetheless.

Of course, having failed to do so on September 10 was irrelevant.  The briefing titled, “Bin Laden determined to strike in US” was forgotten or ignored.  So the United States invaded Afghanistan, failed to capture or kill the ringleader of the attacks, partially destroyed a repressive, Islamo-fascist group called the Taliban, and then moved on to invade Iraq under the auspices of being the military backup for the United Nations, an organization so respected by our government that we were the largest debtor nation, owing dues of close to half a billion dollars.  But they’ve kept us safe . . .

What we did find in Afghanistan were informants who turned in other people they knew, some terrorists, most not, to our armed forces in exchange for money.  And those unfortunates were thrown in dark holes called detention centers, which President Bush on his magical history tour claimed “kept us safe.”

He and his people authorized torture in order to “keep us safe.”

They deviated from the moral high ground that our country has always espoused (not necessarily lived up to, but espoused nonetheless) to keep US safe.

But, according to the CIA, some of the people treated to Bush/Cheney hospitality and then released actually didn’t like the United States when they left, so they took up arms against our country.  Imaging that.  People were kidnapped, held, “interrogated”, released, and they had some aggression toward their captors.  That doesn’t sound too safe . . .

Turned in by someone I know to a foreign army for $5000.  Taken away from home, and held without charges or opportunity to confront my accusers for a couple of years.  Released and exported like cattle, dropped off in a country where people hate my captors, and given the opportunity for payback.

I’d be fighting, too.  And those people wouldn’t be safe at all.

Now the same people who supported the camps like Gitmo are claiming that President Obama is doing the wrong thing by shutting it down.  Actually behaving as if we have a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution that reflect the values we hold dear and espouse as a nation is considered unsafe?

The noises they’re making about, “if we’re attacked, it’s his fault,” totally fail to take into account two obvious facts:

1.     There are already people who were held and released back on the front lines attacking us; and

2.     The innocent people who have been held without trial and interrogated now have a pretty good reason to hate us.

From Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay, the lack of moral leadership and the authorization of torture by the Bush Administration recruited terrorists for the “far flung networks of hatred and violence,” that President Obama and his administration are left to deal with, and put some of our troops and intelligence operatives on pretty shaky ground.

But president bush kept us safe . . .

What’s next for Gitmo detainees?

Transcript: Bin Laden determined to strike in US

U.S. uses dues to push reform

Obama orders Gitmo closed.  Now the hard part.

Security experts skeptical on Gitmo detainee report

What’s next for Guantanamo Bay detainees?

Bush: I would have done some things differently

Detainee went from Gitmo to al Qaeda

Obama’s First Inaugural

Like many things President Obama has done in his brief national career, his inaugural address must be digested in pieces.  Those who claim, like the House Minority Whip, to have engaged with his words, his subtext, his implicit and explicit messages after having heard or seen them only once suffer from academic or intellectual hubris of the highest caliber.  Having listened to it twice, it is only now beginning to sink in the depth of analysis, the choice of elocution, and the scope of the President’s vision and national ambitions.

Today, standing both inside and outside of the Newseum (a sprawling monolith standing at the corner of 6th and Pennsylvania in Washington, D.C. only a stone’s throw from the Capitol Building) I was amazed at how many of the phrases used by President Obama to give voice to our national character and potential were displayed nationally and internationally on the front pages.  There was not one catchphrase, like Kennedy or Roosevelt.  There were at least ten different phrases quoted.  The first I included in the previous post, because it spoke to who we have been as a nation, and who we can be again. Here are some of the others:

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real.  They are serious and they are many.  They will not be met easily or in a short span of time.  But know this America:  They will be met.”

“ On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear . . .”

“Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

” . . . know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not on what you can destroy.”

” . . . we will extend a hand, if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

” . . . to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born, know that America is a friend of each nation, and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity.  And we are ready to lead once more.”

On November 4th, 2008, the citizens of the United States began cleaning house.  We hired a new caretaker for our national honor, a new worker to handle our business, a new breath of freedom and integrity for our flagging national spirit.

On January 20th, the man we hired to do a mighty work spoke to us of the truth as he sees it, the reality as it has been shaped, and “what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.”  He spoke of old and simple ideas that have been ignored and forgotten for too long.

There were many ideas, many plans, many places to put our collective shoulder to the wheel that turns through history.

All we need to do is listen.

A Moment

There aren’t many words.  I am an optimist, which means I’m disappointed a lot.  But hearing the words, “I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear that I will execute the office of President of the United States faithfully, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me, God,” sent a shiver through my being that made my ancestors rejoice.  It was “a new breath of freedom” to borrow a phrase.

There has been so much done wrong in my lifetime, there have been so many times that I left the work of changing the world, or making the world a better place, of putting myself on the line for something (or someone) that I believe in, that listening to the echoes of President Obama’s oath of office simply affirmed what I have said before and known in my head, but not in my heart – the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Or, as President Obama has put it, “the road may be long, but we will get there.”

We haven’t reached the end of the road, but this moment, this way station, is a beautiful place to be.

Cross posted at reynaldomacias on January 20, 2009.