With less than three weeks until Election Day, a big question is looming over the campaign for the White House, and it has nothing to do with the economic crisis or the caustic exchanges between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain over character and credentials. It is race. 
Finally! The Trump card lies bare on the table. The long awaited last weapon is drawn. This absentee ballot was sent out to voters in Rensselaer County in New York state, wonder how many such ballots will be out on November 4. The RACE Card is on, and the race can go only down from here. America’s national shame, political cannibalism and the Right Wing backlash has reached proportions and unchained beasts that put Barack Obama’s life itself at risk.
Inside that 6% lead
Barack Obama leads John Mcain by 6 percentage points nationally, but political pundits and psephologists are shaving off nearly 2 percentage points off Obama’s lead because when the White Christian hits the polling booth on November 4th, an ancient fear is sure to sway atleast a few of them even if they deny it in surveys. USA is 75% white and 75% christian – if one out of ten have a secret agenda this fall, a black man with a muslim father may not just make it. Because in several battle ground states, the lead is a wafer thin 1-2%.
Inside the Bible Belt
John McCain has an adopted Bangladeshi child, but when he ran against W in the 2000 Republican primaries, frantic early morning calls went out across the Bible Belt that said he had an ‘illegitimate child’. By the time McCain’s campaign reacted, South Carolina was lost. Republicans steal elections, like all right wing parties, and this time they’ll do it for McCain because Jeb Bush is not running.
When Blue state voters on the Atlantic coast gather at voting stations on November 4, frantic calls will go across the Bible belt which will tell the voter that Barack Hussein Obama is a muslim, that Barack Hussein Osama is a terrorist, that Saddam Hussein Obama is an Arab, that Black Hussein Osama has a white mother and a black father while in the Bible God taught the children of Israel not to intermarry , and that Barack Hussein Oblackmana is gay and his wife has aborted nine times. If that doesn’t work they’ll ask the voter “The United States of America is all that the White people have, should we have a BLACK President?”.
Inside the Whisper Campaign
Being the son of a white mother and a black father has come to symbolize Mr. Obama’s larger mysteries for many voters. When asked about his background, a substantial number of people interviewed said they believed his racial heritage was unclear, giving them another reason to vote against him.
When an old woman told John McCain that she knew Barack was an Arab, he corrected her saying, Barack was not Arab. What if he is Arab?The Republican campaign asks the voters whether they know who the REAL Obama is? They make it a point to stress his middle name ‘Hussein’. News reports on the ‘internets’ suggest people shout back ‘Terrorist’ and some even go to the extent of “Kill Him”.
The below ad was issued by the Sacramento Republican Party
Inside the Market meltdown…
…lies the germs of political extremism.
It was the economic meltdown of Yugoslavia that gave us Slobodan Milosevic. It was the collapse of the Weimar Republic that vomited up Adolf Hitler. And it was the breakdown in czarist Russia that opened the door for Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Financial collapses lead to political extremism. The rage bubbling up from our impoverished and disenfranchised working class, glimpsed at John McCain rallies, presages a looming and dangerous right-wing backlash.
There are dangerous, armed, white supremacy groups who believe that if Obama is assasinated, USA changes forever – perhaps a small street level civil war in the end of which there will be a climate where not a Black, or a Latino or an Asian would even in their wildest dreams imagine running for President . It sure is possible. Otherwise mail me the next time a muslim becomes chief minister of Gujarat .
One of those lunatics could possibly pull it off, probably won’t. It is scarier still. Barack has the perhaps the highest security detail in the world when I’m writing this, the system protects him. But Kennedy was shot dead, his brother Kennedy was shot dead – and the only doubt is how much the system was involved.
The Frankenstein’s monsters released by religious racial bigots have a unique property of getting out their creators’ control. If that happens, it would make USA’s move into socialism, into United Socialist States of America a lot more bloodier and a hell lot painful.
Good one ….probably its also worth mentioning what Obama thinks about the race issue ..one of the best speech …..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/18/obama-race-speech-read-t_n_92077.html
ironically it was made when the issue was that “he was not black enough” ….
PS:
“USA’s move into socialism, into United Socialist States of America”
comon ..I think its a stretch…..
Good post.
Jefferson, if he were around, would have argued for some fundamental changes in the constitution. He may even have become a parliamentarian.
BVN, where do u find these pics dude.
Well thought out. Agreed that GOP will pull all stops to napalm Bambi, but I think the with economy in the toilet, even the Red necks from Appalachian will think twice before voting for McPalin just to keep the white house white.
Let’s not forget that for each racist out there, there are 10 brothers who’ve never previously believed in the white man’s democracy, but will show up on Nov 4 just because mama told them to vote for King Jr Jr or they just want to give a help brother get ahead.
But yes, there certainly is cause to fear for Obama’s life. After all, as you say, the system is not incorruptible.
But my biggest fear of a Obama administration is a ‘let-down’. For all the mocha-sipping, emailing, ‘hope’ dispersing finesse I’m not sure if Obama can make two terms. That requires decisiveness. And I’ve not seen Obama deliver that. Sophistication yes. But sophistication won’t bring the Hamas around. I sure hope to be wrong here, but my fear is that Obama will create history to become the first black president – and remain just that. I don’t see a Thatcher in him. Naah.
Sreeram, “I think its a stretch”…hehe…pakshe nee aa puthiya link nokku…ithokke socialism allenkil pinne?
Jay, its mostly from CNN Political Ticker
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
Rover, great take man! you had predicted Obama will be the candidate long back. yeah the bros voting will be a change. I dont think anyone can deliver now…its almost like a Roosevelt like situation. Yeah not sure if bambi can take drastic steps
I fail to understand why in post after post you dedicate so much of your time and attention on an election that is foreign to our soil!
To blame it all on you, of course wouldn’t be fair. The Hindu for one; it is atrocious.
Much more significant things are happening closer home; Singur, Kashmir, IM and even more closer – Chengara, Sabarinath et al.
While I acknowledge that it is indeed your prerogative to choose the topics that you would want to dwell on, all I want to point out is that may be you are missing the wood for the trees!
Or is there a Sainath obsession!!
Cheers.
Naga,
don’t tell me about Sainath man, the day after I post this, he copies it and puts it on Hindu middle page! i’ll sue him if he shows up in Kochi
americanized hindu? I just bought some stuff from Hindu shopping…they asked me to enter my DOB in MM/DD/YYYY format!!
then jokes apart, years back, in Trivandrum East constituency (you know the demographics there) in the morning of the election our Khakhi clad brothers would distribute a leaflet with the morning paper. predictably it says ‘ temples across the state are in ruins, but the state govt gives money to mullahs and mukris…and on and on’. I don’t see how much that strategy which works so well in Kerala is any different from the election morning phone calls I mentioned above.
point is, anywhere in the world, 2 hours before voting – its easier to convince people that they are a Hindu or a muslim or a white or a black or gay or straight than to convince him about the need for better taxation and regulation. Its plain simple, we have seen elections in CET when the frantic MH-Daysci rhetoric gathers pace on the last day.
about a threat to Obama’s life – its about those monsters that bigots unleash for politics which finally get out of their hand. If Mamata wanted, she couldn’t have stopped the violence in Singur. If Aryadan Shaukat gets a steel bomb thrown at him, the Allah Allah rhetoric of League would have played a part.
And we have elections in India, where no candidate or party goes through a proper soul searching exercise like the USA. The 18 month campaign in USA brings out the best and worst in men. Thats a spectacle! because the candidates has to answer ‘what matters to you most and why?”
its not just the two parties, but through this exercise every American is debating where he stands on free trade, Iraq, economy, gay rights, abortion, no child left behind and health care. We dont have that debate in India’s 2 month and 10 phase polls. Its 17 years since the reforms, has any party, save the left given a clear cut answer to where they stand. Our election is a sham!
may be you’ll like this one from Kufr
“if growth after reforms did not trickle down how would recession trickle down now? if shining india isn’t connected to other parts of india, why should the samosawallah outside jnu fear the wall street crash? why should anyone who’s never had a bank account feel safe now that our banks, because they’re still in the public sector, are safe?”
http://kufr.blogspot.com/2008/10/slowing-down-reforms-saved-us.html
and just to add, blogs can be commentaries or reminders. why do we keep reminding ppl abt Gujarat still or may be the Holocaust. I guess its important to remind wherever it happens. when someone reads this and thinks…oh cool i’ve seen the BJP guy do this in Delhi..so all this is linked
Yours truly has also been accused of this, if this is an accusation that is, and more than once and from a lot of quarters. A girl once wrote alleging that yours truly was a ‘wannabe white’. bleh. Another bunch gave him the nickname ‘wannabe american who eats beef.’ bleh bleh
So, hit a nerve and so have to rush to dear BVNs defense though he doesn’t need it at all
Naga’s criticism completely misses the point.
The public spectacle of any elections offers space and information for reflection. Ours, theirs… err, dunno about the centralized democrazy of our bigger neighbour but then I digress.
Regarding the presence of more important topics, of course it is true. Personally, I would like to learn, think and write about Chengara, the NorthEast (err…erom sharmila anyone?) but I can’t. First of all, I don’t know enough other than to know that it seems it sucks. Big time.
But it doesn’t lend itself well to arm chair criticism and reflection aka blogging. Enough information is not available in the public sphere and the issues are much much more complex and important than a frigging election.
Reg. main stream media. Buggers wanna sell more paper. The middle class don’t wanna read about Sharmila. They wanno buy that flat now that price is down and meanwhile wanna be entertained.
fk them all.
So, to quote that great philosopher Gregory House “Everything sucks. Might as well find something to smile about.”
Okay just to complete the story, reg the gal and the anti-beef brahmins.
I googled the girl who sent me that mail and replied, quite truthfully in my opinion, that she was dark, fat and ugly and that her blog about her sad love life and her cat was crap and that she should be sued for releasing that on the public sphere. Though I did subsequently try to friend her in orkut to increase my friend count. Don’t know why she declined
The ‘american who eats beef’ told them some snarky jokes ’bout naughty hindu godz and then balanced it by some more about virgin births and the prophet mohammad bodily flying to space. Not unlike malayala manorama’s religious balance on the front page. But those insensitive guys won’t even talk to him now.
wonder why. Maybe hez lost his jaati. 
(
BVN…sorry dude i am in a bloviating mood today w/o much 2 do
. last comment, i promise.
First of all a confession, eventhough I told you otherwise, I think I voted for the distilled gogilba guy over you as mag ed. In my defence, I dint like the shirt you wore that day and even less the chandanakkuri that you always seemed to wear.
And that guy was really funny. As someone who is pathetic in the jokes department, I always vote for someone who can make me laugh
. (but of course, I also knew u wud win.)
Elections brings out the best and worst in people. Mostly the worst. ‘Soul searching’ ????, gimme a frigging break. It’s more like whose all asses I kiss to get money to fly around and ask for votes, who all to pander (ever wondered why farm subsidies will NEVER go down around the world? the first primaries are in Iowa, an accident of history), how to read from a teleprompter….. can make any thinking human cringe to watch this up close. But if you want to cringe more, just walk into an AICC session where sycophants scream the names of an unlettered and inarticulate woman and her even more unlettered and inarticulate children without any interruption.
Though you could also go into meeting where ‘progressive’ folk were erecting a statue for psychopathic Saddam Hussein in our own little kerala.
Does that mean we shouldn’t discuss ours – far from it. It gives perspective. Both regarding successes, failures, biases – theirs, ours whatever… Last year, Hilary Clinton’s cleavage was being discussed by pundits. As in she wore a revealing blouse. Most of the time, I am very much pro-cleavage, though when ‘pundits’ are discussing that of a sixty year old woman political leader who was giving a speech on how she was going to cut the balls off Ahmenijedad, it not that diff from the gay looking guys in headlines today there talking of big boss. Using titillation for TRP.
That same day we had a single dalit woman as the chief minister in our most populous state. Does she get talked about enough? No. But thatz not ’cause of yankee election coverage. Theyd rather cover big boss.
Jay,
I never ran for Mag Ed. plus there was no Gogilba guy against me. plus its OK because we were sure you would vote for ABVP, so less damage then.
team lunch now, detail reply on the topic later
When Jay says we should discuss both our issues as well as theirs while suggesting in an earlier paragraph that there is not much information about our issues, I see a contradiction.
#
His earlier critics might be biased bastards, but the question still remains that we do not discuss issues in our neighbourhood that much.
It is an extremely ironic situation when we are forced to criticise about mainstream media on the Internet and that too in a blog- on the Internet where the alternate media is supposed to reduce the information asymmetry wall that mainstream media has built up. Or is the whole issue simply that we are not willing to dig deep inside to find out about our issues and so rather take the simple lazy step of reading cnn, nytimes and so on. Why not maybe manipuronline.com or christian science monitor. Though we may not get the ‘truth’ atleast we will have a perspective to talk about and maybe make more people aware.
My contention is not with the topic chosen or the questions raised but with the justifications given.
Just a thought ….
As House says,”“You can think I’m wrong, but that’s no reason to quit thinking.””
And I like your blog … its cool
and by mainstream, i meant the “main” mainstream
hence the usage of CSM in the list of alternate media
BVN, well then it should be in the next elections when you were not running. Memory fails, we are getting old buddy.
.
I did vote for ABVP once. I guess, I was an uninformed idiot then…
Worse, I even voted for BJP once as mr. zero rajagopal was known to some duffer in my family. For that I blame my extended family half of whom are unlettered fascists. I also blame them for my lack of genius, my lack of alpha male character, and for global warming.
But then I found dog. Oh, I mean, god. I blame Bertrand Russell for making ma life hell since then
Truth be told except for my close friend Jk, I never cared for you guys in CET SFI. For one, u guys did not have Bency Mohan/Renjith UR’s gumption or sense of humour
, let along gogilbaz. I remember one campaign incident when a guy who I knew could not distinguish A.K.Gopalan from Gopalannan in the tea stall told me “You should not vote for your friend as politics is above friendship. ” My friend meanwhile just told me “I am gonna get 10 votes and one of them is yours. Don’t make me cry and then slap you.”
Of course, not anyone’s fault – just a consequence of the monopoly. Recently when JK told me that that is no longer the case, it did bring a smile to ma heart.
Apologies for the long digression. You caught me in a mood when I know I don’t wanna write my bloviating on any place where my name is attached but I feel free to go around
)
KrameremarK,
I did not mean we have info about their and none about ours. I meant info is available for ‘elections’. That is in the nature of the beast. Elections sell paper and TV time. Irom Sharmila doesnt.
Let our national elections come next year and we’ll see. Elections are ‘easy’, no pun.
The biggest trajedy of democracy is that now elections are considered the most important and sometimes even sufficient condition for it.
But an issue like Kashmir is not. North East is not. I am not defending not covering it. I am contesting the fact that covering theirs is to blame for that.
I have written about our elections.
Personally, I would like to write about Kashmir but if I were to, read a lot of history and literature and invest a lot of effort as what I do know is that I don’t know much. Maybe even go there. All of which my pathetic middle class existance doeznt allow me to do.
My trying to follow the so called ‘alternate media’ hasnt enlightened me much either. And I think it is intellectually dishonest to write/opinionate about stuff you yourself know you don’t know much about.
BVN?
Btw, Even for their, you won’t really know what actually happens on the ground by reading nytimes and time. You have to go to a ron paul meeting followed by a mike huckabee speech
.
Okay, Me done. Apologiez for the rant.
Jay,
You know what I’m pretty sure you voted for SFI both times, because you were plain afraid and played safe, and you knew we didn’t have a sense of humour
And now you act like one of those people who claim that CET got those extra KSRTC buses because the ABVP Unit sec wrote to then Education Minister Murli Manohar, or the CGPU strike got over because Bency Mohan went on hunger strike. No there are these kinda people, I drink with them. You can do that because ‘Memory Fails’ you.
see about you not caring about CET SFI guys –
a dear friend of mine said he sat next to Mohanlal in a chennai flight; he added that he simply didn’t care and kept reading his book. Now I’m not saying SFI in CET is Mohanlal, but did we act like people who gave a fuck whether you cared. Do I write like one who gives a F what you ‘care’ about.
As you said ‘Memory fails’
and Now that you have taken up names -
You don’t remember any CET SFI guy with gumption, knowledge or humour, very nice! But you do remember that Bency Mohan had gumption, and that another Akhil Bhartiya guy had a large one. I don’t know about that, but from what I’ve seen of this Mohan you are talking about – it was like give all the 13 votes to SFI and one to Bency, if thats the brand of politics you call determined – you are right, that one heckua determination. But I have seen what SFI in CET does, the good and the bad – to know that we did things that mattered. And do we explain that to someone who has a failing memory
“could not distinguish A.K.Gopalan from Gopalannan” – in this I sense a complaint, that you knew about AKG and Krishnapillai, and it should have been you and not that guy from say the mens hostel, who should have talked about SFI or leftist politics in the campus. Jay is it because SFI did not recognize the ‘factinista’ that you are, that you stopped caring about SFI in CET?
I have a stupid feeling that you cared about elections and SFI in CET, more than the SFI guys did
, you have so clearly noticed Bency’s christ like persona, my chandanakuri and that sfi guy’s lack of information on AKG. And the emotional part is so well handled by the “I am gonna get 10 votes and one of them is yours. Don’t make me cry and then slap you.” line. Nicely done! and as Shanmukhan said, SFI guys were child goondas born to male goonda and female goonda!
I do understand the humour sense part, we were under strict instruction from the party polit in China
And the AISF guys were so full of humour that CET had a laugh riot, Asianet even tried to syndicate them.Gimme a break dude!
About changes in CET making you happy, not so fast, that news is 3 years old! Now its a single party – which is very very bad!
To sum it up, my point is, if you never cared for SFI guys in CET and never knew them, I dont think you should make sweeping generalizations because “it is intellectually dishonest to write/opinionate about stuff you yourself know you don’t know much about.”
BVN, first, you should get better drinking company
.
I was thinking about Nisha Kothari and you have made me think about Bency Mohan which is as close to a moral wrong as I know of.
And I have to say you overdid me in blabbering on about irrelevant stuff and that took some doing.
And second, oooh, u almost made me cry, and it does take a lot to make me. Sniff, no one recognized the ‘factinista’ in me. Sniff. The ‘plain’ and ‘afraid’ guy wanted approval from the ‘courageous’ and ‘straight’ thinking guyz. Sniff. sniff.
Bleh!
“because SFI did not recognize” now THAT actually makes me snicker. It is like saying SFI is a single, i dont know, nisha kothari, which gives out free kisses. A monolithic one. Err, some of my friends WERE this so called SFI, rather an organic part of it.
“I do understand the humour sense part.” and you state ” You don’t remember any CET SFI guy with gumption, knowledge or humour, very nice!? “. And the summing up was lamer may i say. Sweeping generalizations (about the stuff you do know about ) which sometimes exaggerate is exactly the point.
Okay, here goez.
I instinctively don’t have a high opinion about the political sensibilities or the knowledge about the world of a nineteen year old who just repeats handed down bromides. You know, most of ‘em don’t have the life experience to have formed them by then or even to have thought about that. Yeah, I was like that, which I am man enough to admit. I am sorry but most of the dolts who repeated the bromides where much worse than even me.
I studied in Arts college and I actually could tell you a thing or two about a one-party goondaism. You know, the specifics. But then, I have a low enough opinion about kids, indeed mankind, to consider it the natural state for them in that circumstance.
Paul Zacharia had once memorably said about the death of the chirikkunna communistukaran in kerala. And yeah, P. Krishnapilla had a great smile. And yeah, most of your campaigners couldn’t distinguish P. Krishnapilla from Krishnankutty nair while repeating stuff handed down to them and which they obviously don’t understand. And yeah, it made me snicker and still makes me. Oooh, sorry for feelings hurt. but errr, may i say, I don’t give a shit ?
.
I know you don’t that I don’t and I don’t that you don’t that I don’t and that is perfect in itself. If we were queer ….
I KNOW that you guys (hint- no org name here) did stuff which mattered and I actually am among a few who do appreciate it as I did know of them but sorry, I will still snicker when I hear pretentious stuff, ill informed stuff , plain wrong stuff. Just wondering whether the newly constituted majority has put saddam hussein pics in the union room as told by the area committe. Am sorry, that would still make me snicker.
hey, look where we ended up
). I should admit I enjoyed it. 
But mez done here and I apologize for pollutting your comment space. Thatz the reason why i don’t have any 
Maybe we could take this foreward over some beer. But after beer, I should warn that my talking point nowadays is Nisha Kothari and uzhunnuvada.