THE REAL POLITIK ISSUE: VOLUME 126, ISSUE 161
BROTHA, CAN YOU SPARE SOME CHANGE?
by Malik Isasis





For two years the recalcitrant Republicans have said “no” to every single Democratic piece of legislation, and now that the Democrats are fighting President Obama’s capitulation to the Republican leadership over taxes, it is the Democrats, predictably who are receiving the ire of the corporate media. And unsurprisingly, Obama has joined the Republican, and corporate choir, as he had, for the past two years.

When the Democratic Party recently rejected Obama’s one-sided compromise on the Bush-Tax cuts, Obama referred to his progressive members as sanctimonious. Initially, I thought Obama was playing chess, but after being slapped and turning the other cheek one-too-many times, it became alarmingly clear, that he was only playing checkers. Issue after issue: Gays in the Military, prosecuting Bush officials for war crimes, selling out to healthcare companies to get rid of the Public Options, and now supporting a two year extension of the Bush Tax cut. Obama has compromised, or not fought for progressive issues, and the reality that liberals and progressive must come to accept is that Obama is not really a progressive, rather, he’s a corporate Democrat, just as former President Bill Clinton was.

One Too Many Slaps Is Abuse

Even when Republicans get what they want, they still abuse him, and he takes it—actually, absorbing the Republicans’ talking points to sell what is clearly a sellout of his progressive base.



When a Republican called Obama a liar, Obama said nothing. Former Republican House Leader Newt Gingrich called President Obama a socialist, Obama said nothing. Right wing fascists Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and all of Fox News daily, refer to Obama as a communist, socialist and racist, and Obama says nothing. Asked what he thought of Kanye West taking the microphone from Taylor Swift at the MTV Awards, he said, “He’s a jackass”

Obama's displacement, or kicking the dog, is a clear symptom that he doesn't have the fortitude to fight Republicans, but he will be quick to hit back at progressives. It's high time we get out of this abusive relationship.

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THE REAL POLITIK ISSUE: VOLUME 126, ISSUE 160
MAN GONE DOWN
by Malik Isasis




Senator John McCain lost his presidential bid in 2008, and he has not recovered. He is a bitter, petulant old fool who is clearly out to be the thorn in Obama’s ass for the rest of his time above ground. Anything involving progress, the man who calls himself a Maverick, will filibuster. The presidency was his, he’d earned it, until some exotic Negro from Hawaii with a Kenyan father, and a Muslim name, robbed him of his destiny.

Senator John McCain is blocking “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” because gays voted in large numbers for the exotic Negro, and it’s his way of getting back at the people who denied him a chance to rule, er, to be president.



McCain is a lot like former President George W. Bush in that, he failed upwards, slipping on every privileged banana peel. His father was an admiral in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. McCain too, was in the Navy during that time, where he crashed no less than three jet planes. He was reckless, and full of hubris. Things like success was owed, not earned.

The corporate media has built up an image of a hero, a maverick—and over time, a short time, he began reading his own headlines, like an actor believing he’s superman and jumping out of a window because he thinks he can fly. During his build up to the presidential race, McCain appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on April 24, 2007 to try and polish this turd of an occupation in Iraq by regurgitating Bush’s talking points. McCain who has usually received a warm and non confrontational welcome from Stewart seemed unprepared for what was about to happened—even though Stewart came out the gate with: “What do you want to start out with—the bomb Iran song or the walk through the market in Baghdad? What do you want to start with?”

McCain appeared genuinely hurt by Stewart’s criticism of him on some of his shows. When McCain criticized Democratic leader Senator Reid about losing the war, his hurt manifested as a little jab at Stewart:

McCain: “You showed a thing on the program where majority leader of the senate said we lost—then tell me who won? Who won? Al-Qaeda? Sunni militia? Shia militia? Who won this? (Cross talk)

Stewart:”In fairness to Senator Reid and God bless me I don’t believe in fairness but uh—

McCain: --“I found that out recently.”

Right out of the gate Stewart hit McCain with an intellectually right and he was stunned—he was in complete disbelief. McCain looked like a man who had fallen in love with his own propaganda, only to be confronted by reality. Sounding like Bush’s water boy, he continued to spit out the Republican talking points of Democratic defeatism, they'll follow us home if we don't beat them there, etc. only to have the talking points completely deconstructed one by one.

The only strategy left for McCain by the end of the interview was to filibuster (he does this a lot when he is losing an argument) the conversation—a popular strategy with right wingers, which is to keep talking over the other person while he is trying to make a point. McCain was like an out of shape boxer in the tenth round, out of breath and tired. The only thing he could do was to grab Stewart and hold on and let the clock run down, and kudos to Stewart for taking body shots, even as McCain held on.

McCain looked like a fool, deservedly so. This is the lesson of believing your own hype.

It appears the corporate media is helping McCain hold onto whatever dignity he has left, whether it is trying to punish gays by holding out on changing legal discrimination against gays in military, voting against women, or seeing to it that Obama fail.

The truth doesn’t matter anymore; it has about as much value as something floating in the toilet. In the parallel universe the corporate media has created, maybe he is an American hero.

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