That's it......I've changed my AVATAR! [View All]

After thoughtful consideration I can no longer bear to use this avatar. The one I've been using since the historic US election of 2008.



In November of 2008 an extraordinary, amazing thing happened that reverberated all over the world...Barrack Obama, a black/mixed race Democratic party candidate who came from humble beginnings was elevated to the office of POTUS. After 8 excruciatingly long and destructive years of the Bush administration those on the liberal side, even here in Canada, let out a collective sigh. As the Wikileaks is revealing, even in Saudi Arabia they praised this development: "Thank God for bringing Obama to the presidency," the King answered, which has created "great hope" in the Muslim world. "May God grant him strength and patience, Abdullah continued, "May God protect him. I'm concerned about his personal safety. America and the world need such a president."

Obama was swiftly granted the Nobel Peace Prize and heralded as the next coming of Kennedy. I don't think I was alone in assuming that any pro right rhetoric he used in his campaign, like he was against gay marriage, or he was considering escalating the Afghan war, his praise of Reagan, and even his promises that he would listen to opponents etc.. were sly and brilliant political moves to get him into office. Once sworn in, I and many others thought, he would swiftly dismantle the Bush regime's anti-Constitutional assault, stop torture, close Guantanamo, look into any "wrongdoing" by the previous administration, and immediately set a nice progressive agenda everyone who worked to get him elected would be happy with. Change was coming to Washington. Things haven't quite gone that way to say the least.

One of the great moments was Obama and Michelle doing the fist bump on stage at a June 3rd speech on the campaign trail.



FAUX News branded it a terrorist bump, ignoring its use by many in the sporting and political world before that. In fact Dubya and his Dad were big fans of it.



Not that its an easy thing for some to master



And so the gesture was added to the lexicon of American political history. It cumulated in the use of the image in the controversial New Yorker cover drawing by Barry Blitt satirizing every tea bagging fear.



After Obama won, I grabbed that image to use as my avatar. It was a kind of in-your-face to all the Republican idiots that either pretended to be, or actually were, afraid of his latent terrorist plans.

Well time has gone by, and not only has Obama proven NOT to be an anti-establishment terrorist, he is proving to be much more corporate conservative than anyone on either side would have predicted. He's no more a terrorist than he is a liberal.

So I regretfully am changing my avatar to another one's fist in the air picture. That of Howard Dean in his infamous celebratory yell, that was blown out of proportion in much the same way as the Obama's fist bump. But that time it worked. FAUX News and their wannabes managed to create something out of nothing and Democrats shied away from him as unelectable. I wish to God now that Dean had managed to win the primary. He would have been a much stronger candidate than Kerry. What a waste of talent and passion and principles. He then helped get Obama elected through his brilliant 50 state strategy and got sidelined for his efforts. No doubt deemed too "liberal" for the DLC.



Since this is Democratic Underground, I'm changing my avatar to a REAL Democrat with truly progressive principles.