Daily Archives: January 29, 2011

Media, Race Relations

Geraldo Rivera, Barack Obama ‘Is Black’

Last night on the O’Reilly Factor, Fox News host and sanctuary city apologist Geraldo Rivera still believes that, despite being elected by people of all races (that includes white people) and backgrounds two years ago, the dissatisfaction with him now is due to his being black. President Jimmy Carter, CNN, Bill Moyers, Hank Johnson, much of the Washington and New York press corps, Newsweek Magazine said the same thing two years ago.

Does opposition to President Obama’s policies and agenda exist because of his skin color? Don’t know. Let’s examine this proposition a little closer.

If Geraldo is right, he would have you believe of Americans right now:

  • We would be more than willing to welcome cap-and-trade with open arms, even if we paid a thousand dollars or more extra every year for our energy use, if Barack Obama were only white.
  • We would be dancing in the streets celebrating the dawning of government control of our health care if only Barack Obama were white.
  • It would be just dandy if government bureaucrats rationed health care for our parents, as long as the president is white.
  • We would jump at the chance of the government owning ALL of the auto manufacturing companies .. not just General Motors … if the president just didn’t have dark skin.
  • We would applaud those ACORN workers giving tax avoidance advice to a pimp and his prostitute if the workers hadn’t been black.
  • Most Americans – even ones that don’t pay income taxes now – would be more than willing to give 70% of everything they earn to the federal government when asked … so long as they are asked by a white president.
  • We would have been thrilled, I tell you … THRILLED to have all of those Islamic goons being held at Guantanamo be not only released, but sent to be school resource officers at our local government schools, if only a white president put that plan in motion.
  • It would be OK if a white president stood back and allowed Iran to build its coveted nukes … we’re only unhappy about that because a black president is doing it.
  • Deficits? We don’t care about deficits! Make our children and grand children and great grand children pay through the nose for our president’s spending habits … just so long as the president isn’t black.
  • Government pork? Like we actually care? Look … you folks in Washington can spend all the money you want – how about more studies of the mating habits of Polish Zlotnika pigs? – just make sure it’s not a black president who signs the spending bill into law.
  • We wouldn’t care if all illegal aliens were counted twice in the next Census … just so long as the president isn’t black.
  • Those Black Panther thugs who threatened voters in Philly? The ONLY reason we’re upset that they were given a pass is because Barack Obama is black.
  • Every single member of the president’s cabinet could be a tax cheat as far as we’re concerned … just so long as the president is white.
  • Forced unionization? Bring it on! We love card check! We love the idea of union goons threatening and intimidating workers to sign a card saying they want to belong to a union! What we don’t like is that a black president is pushing this idea.
  • Single-party talks with that Gargoyle that runs North Korea? It’s about time we legitimized that little pipsqueak. We’re only mildly upset here because the person who is doing that happens to be black.
  • More regulation of the finance sector? We could care less! For all we care you can nationalize the banks and decree that only the government can make home loans .. .and you can even apportion those home loans on the basis of race if you want to … just so long as the president is white!
  • Minimum wage? Like we care about that? Raise it to $15 an hour if you want! Just give us our white president back.

Upon further examination, I may be going out on a limb, being conservative and all, but I’d say that Geraldo is wrong.  Because if there were a white president trying to do all the above, most of America would still be against him, or her. I feel better about myself now. No white guilt or anything.

But I do weep for where this President and his party has taken this country. His party using the race card against any and all opposition to advance their agenda is a disgrace. Which may explain to some extent why the media has been more a cheerleader than an inquisitor when it comes to the President and his policies. Otherwise they would have to characterize themselves as being racist.

There is nothing post-racial about Obama’s administration, Democrats in Congress, and Geraldo Rivera. And every second that passes where Obama himself does not talk it down and put an end to it, is just digging their racial hole deeper.

Politics

Senate Filibuster Is Alive And Well

It seems that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has acquiesced in his strategy to end the filibuster, aka the nuclear option, by changing the rules where a simple majority would be needed to end debate. It also seems that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Reid are beginning to show signs of getting along to work together. Well, for now anyways. I mean, when your back is against the wall, you begin to become a little more cooperative. And by all accounts, the mid-term elections put Reid’s back against the wall.

Some things that were accomplished in the Senate yesterday . . .

1) Reid’s effort to kill the filibuster, which is the minority’s right to effect legislation, went down in flames in the final rules changes on Thursday. Both agreed to never try again to use the nuclear option, which is to change the rules of the Senate with only 51 votes, instead of the established 67 vote margin. Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall and realizing what goes around comes around, Marty Gold, a former senate leadership aide, said ‘The rules compromise reached today will look like a half-measure to the liberal blogosphere. But if Democrats go into the minority in two years, liberals will be happy for this day.’

2) The senate also ended the practice of secret ‘holds.’  The resolution to end secret holds, which passed 92-4, states that a Senator must publicly disclose a notice of intent to object to any measure or matter.

3) The two leaders agreed to not use two important procedural methods as often in order to preserve the great rights of the Senate: to amend and to debate. McConnell agreed that the Republicans would use the filibuster less often in this Congress. In return, Reid agreed to be less active in filling up the amendment tree to block out all Republican amendments.

The Majority Leader has the power to add the maximum amount of amendments to the tree, which locks out any amendments by the minority party. Reid agreed to not use up all the amendments, so that the Republicans can offer their alternatives to legislation. Over the past two years, Reid has used his power to fill up the amendment tree drastically more often than had been done in the past. “The Majority Leader used that power to cut off all amendments and debate 44 times. That’s more than the last 6 majority leaders combined,” said Sen. Alexander on the floor.

Senator Alexander summed up yesterday’s resolution this way . . .

“What they have done…is create a window in which we have had a good, open discussion about the kind of place we want to work, the kind of Senate we hope would serve the American people the best,” said Alexander.

“And we have come to a consensus about a change in behavior, which I believe, in the end, will be more important than the change in the rules,” he said.

Link: Reid’s Rules Scheme Defeated in the Senate