Barack Obama and the Audacity of Deception: The Manufacture of Progressive Illusion

From Black Agenda:

Obama implies that Hillary Clinton is a tool of corporate money, when he is a cog in the very same machine. He tells a Black audience that his own conception was made possible by civil rights struggles at Selma, Alabama, 1965, and Birmingham, 1963 - but Obama was born in 1961. And he claims a vote for him is the equivalent of joining the anti-war movement. Of course, real anti-war activity isn't that easy - what comes easy for Barack Obama, is lying.

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=463&Itemid=34

Thank you for the breaking news.

Obama's not even Anti war. This piece is BS

Is this then a deceptive advertisement?

The civil rights movement did not begin in 1963. It certainly reached its apex in the 60s, but it did not begin in the 60s. It had been building throughout the 50s, and even the 40s.

Suggesting that a white woman and a black man marrying and having a child -- whether in Hawaii or in Alabama -- has no relevance whatsoever to the civil rights movement is laughable.

Also, I think this author is using an overly narrow interpretation of Obama's words. Obama was using "some folks are willing to march across a bridge" as a metaphor for the entire civil rights movement. And saying "I'm here because you all sacrificed for me" is not a narrow reference to his conception and birth. It is a reference to his entire unlikely life. He is a black man and the current front-runner for the presidency of the United States. There can be no doubt that in that sense he is "here" running for president as a direct result of the civil rights movement.

from the article:

Ever wonder why the "progressive" (as he repeatedly describes himself) Obama dances for Wall Street on the (fake) Social Security "crisis" (Krugman 2007a) and sounds like Mitt Romney and Rudy Guliani in decrying the specter of "government mandated" universal health care (Krugman 2007b)? Curious about why the avowed environmentalist thinks that nuclear power should be considered part of the solution to America's energy crisis and has recently joined Hillary in voting for the extension of the corporate-neoliberal North American Free Trade Agreement to Peru?

"Obama's campaign was bending with fierce plutocratic winds fanned by giant global investment firms and corporations."

Follow the money. Obama's presidential campaign has received nearly $5 million dollars from securities and investment firms and $866,000 from commercial banks through October of 2007. Obama's top contributor so far is Goldman Sachs (provider of $369,078 to Obama), identified by Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) investigators as "a major proponent of privatizing Social Security as well as legislation that would essentially deregulate the investment banking/securities industry." Eight of Obama's top twenty election investors are securities and investment firms: Goldman Sachs, Lehman Bros. (number 2 at $229,090), J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. (# 4 at $216,759), Citadel Investment Group (#7 at 4166,608), UBS AG ($146,150), UBS-America ($106,680), Morgan Stanley ($104,421), and Credit Suisse Group ($92,300). The last two firms are also known to be leading privatization advocates (Center for Responsive Politics 2007a).

Meanwhile, Obama's presidential run has been "assisted" by more than $2 million from the health care sector and nearly $400,000 from the insurance industry through October of 2007 (Center for Responsive Politics 2007b). Obama received $708,000 from medical and insurance interests between 2001 and 2006 (Center for Responsive Politics 2007c). His wife Michelle, a fellow Harvard Law graduate, was until a recently a Vice President for Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals, a position that paid her $273, 618 in 2006 (Sweet 2007).

And Obama's sixth largest contributor is Exelon, the proud Chicago-based owner and operator of more nuclear power plants than any entity on earth (Center for Responsive Politics 2007a).

Where have you been all my life?

28 year old men for Hillary!!!

What it tells me is the BO a slick politician just like Bill or Hill, or others. He's just younger, cooler and has a newer, more powerful rhetoric that is hitting home with this generation of voters.
I found it very interesting that he 'bumped' his pastor from his announcement - I see that as a very calculated, political move that is very telling.

Everything he does is calculated.

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over the "black agenda". And Russ Feingold and Jesse Jackson and all the other progressives and liberals who have endorsed him. I trust them far more than some fucking asshole blogger.

Sounds to me like just your run of the mill politician, just better packaged.

:eyes:

first, they're both financed by the same corporatocracy that employs George Bush and Dick Cheney . . .

and second, they both accuse the other of being a corporate tool -- and they do it with a straight face! . . . irate, even . . .

this is why I don't support either of them . . . I'll likely vote for the Democratic candidate, but only because s/he will select marginally better Supreme Court appointees . . .

and I reserve the right to change my mind . . . depending on what develops . . .

if you're looking for real change, you're not going to find it with either of these two . . .

the bosses won't let them . . .