20:55 is pure poetry. Outta be a jam to go with it.

Obama is as racist as his beloved reverend or he would not have continued attending the services, for 20 years, by the racist, America hateing Reverend Wright. Anyone wanting this man as our President needs to reconsider.

um...good argument. sort of. well, actually no. not really a good argument at all. oh well!

The eyes of tejas are upon you. All the live long day.

Creepy.

you have to put it in CAPITAL LETTERS or it's not really quite as omniscient as it desires to be. señor ojos no es problema. gnattish at best.

Thanks for representin' EYES .... NOT!!! I think I know what EYES OF TEXAS and others like this person is trying to say; however, they tend to do a very very poor job at expressing it. All one sees and hears is "blah blah blah racist blah blah blah must be a racist."

But if people are so concerned about Rev Wright and his so-called incendiary comments, then why isn't there the same outrage being made about McCain's backer, Pastor John Hagee. Hagee has endorsed McCain, which McCain said, "I'm very proud to have Pastor Hagee’s support."

Here is a list of his statements:
- "All Muslims are programmed to kill and we can thus never negotiate with any of them"

- "All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that."

- "Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist."

- "Hagee, pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church, last week had announced a 'slave sale' to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, 'The Cluster.'

"The item was introduced with the sentence 'Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave.

If their point is to say that who one chooses to be around with lets others know who they are. Then what does it say about McCain's association with Hagee. As the dicho goes, "Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres," or better known in English as, "Birds of a feather flock together."

Well thanks Nezua. I think Obama did a splendid job addressing racism. It boggles my mind that many people think, a la Steven Colbert, that the race thing was fixed in the 60s.

I don't find Wright an America hater, I think he has some misperceptions* and some very passionate feelings, but I also feel there is a good bit of truth in what he says. Of course, I am a white middle class suburban man, and thus have little to no exposure to inner city life. I do know that choosing to be born white was the smartest move I ever made ;) . I also think the right wing wurlitzer will try to make Wright a big deal for Obama, which could really suck.

Also, thanks for pointing out the rank hypocrisy wrt Hagee (and so many others). It's OK If You Are Republican.

*like everyone has.

Ms Maria Alicia is totally diggin' on the Obama speech.

As Nez pointed out, firstly he is so bold to chance that Americans will respond to a speech that doesn't simplify a complex problem and pander to the lowest common denomiator. I totally admire that.

Secondly, I have posted here before about believing that America has some good lofty ideals, some even listed in the constitution, that we haven't lived up to. Racial equality is one of them. Just like people can keep growing and changing, and integrate what they learn along the way, why can't this country keep trying to get closer and closer to living up to what we say we are? We've come a long way, many people have sacrificed for us to get where we are now, do you think it is honoring them to stop dead in our tracks now? Obama mentioned that in his speech, too, and to hear something I hold in my heart said by a politician shocked me and made me a little teary.

I could say so much more. For example about how much I think Bush Jr. reminds me of a spoiled rich kid who's parents always tell him he's perfect and he never has to do a lick of work or get disciplined. Then he gets his first job and expects to get pats on the back, raises, and promotions even if he does a poor and lazy job. Bush Jr, IMO, was elected (well the second time at least...) to a very important and challenging job and he did not do what was required of him as president. Barack Obama comes accross to me like someone who wants to serve this country and give it what it needs to become better and succeed. I can't read someone's mind or know their heart just from a few speeches and appearances, but I can totally believe that he wants to address these problems because ignoring them won't make them go away and won't make this country succeed, and he doesn't want us to end up the George Bush Jr. of countries.

And lastly, more about the higher level thinking skills exhibited in the speech. Everyone needs help at the place they are at, not everyone has been exposed to the same experiences, and also every group of people has different needs, and he seems to understand that. He recognizes that some disgruntled people of every color turn racist because their most basic needs aren't met. When you're starving or so sick you can't work and therefore can't afford health care, it makes people of all colors go a little crazy. He addresses needs at all levels in this speech from people going hungry and losing jobs and needing health care, to the fact that even successful black people who seem on the outside to have no problems have dealt with and are dealing with subtle racism that still makes it hard to totally love this country. He ties in the more basic needs people want - food and health care - to the other problems he's trying to solve - like lack of good schools and corporations trying to save a buck by sending jobs overseas - showing how the lower level need is actually encompassed and helped in the higher one and how the lower ones need to be addressed for people to realize why he wants to do what he wants to do with the corporations, schools, etc.

I love the fact that he says it's not a zero sum game, how helping black kids helps the whole country and doesn't take away from white kids, how black people doing better economically helps the country as a whole, etc. - saying people need to stop looking at helping one group as taking away from another. I totally dig that. You can look at jobs overseas the same way - India doing better economically, where a lot of jobs have been sent, for example, can help the whole world. They deserve jobs, too. But I still stand by what he says about shopping jobs overseas when the American economy sucks - they are in it for a buck with no care about their employees. We do as a country need to make sure that the job market stays strong - when black and Latin-American computer programmers are underemployed you can't just say sending these jobs to India is only taking away from whitey. And for every job an Indian is able to get, making a salary that is a blessing to them, that salary is a mere pittance compared to the savings the corporation owner gets that goes right back into their own pockets. They should have some responsibility to use that $ to create more jobs and do something with it besides pad their pockets. The only way to create the new jobs we need and the people to take them is education, which is why I'm glad he mentioned education, albeit briefly because this was mostly a speech about the indideousness and complexity of racism and how the future of our country depends on dealing with it. Still, the only difference I really have seen consistently between the democratic party and the republican party is that the democrats seem to give education it's due respect and funding. My mom is a teacher and I have seen it first hand. Having Jeb Bush as governor in Florida, and experiencing how his education plan made Florida's schools go down the toilet, we got a taste here in this state of what would happen to the rest of the country once his brother became president. No Child Left Behind is LEAVING CHILDREN BEHIND. I understand why Obama couldn't elaborate more on education in this speech as it was a response to a very specific situation and tightly woven together. But I just wanted to point out that as far as that creating jobs and bright people to do them issue goes, education is our only hope and the fact that deemocrats in general seem to get that is the only reason I still support the democratic party.

He is a brilliant man using those higher level thinking skills to meet everyones needs where they are at in this speech, it's beautiful. I happen to think Hillary is a brilliant woman, but since this campaign all she seems to be using her intelligence for is manipulation and not to express herself truthfully like Barack did in this speech.

I was going to vote for him anyways, but after this speech I don't feel like I'd just be voting for the lesser of two evils, but someone who actually shares some of the same hopes for this country as I do. If he is even half of what he comes off as in this speech, it would still be amazing.

Why is it that people of color have to prove themselves to a higher standard. And why should Obama have to distance himself from his spiritual adviser in the first place. Rev. Wright, from what I have heard and read, has not said it was the devil U.S. of A's fault nor did he say america got what it deserved on 9-11. That is the angry white Republican mantra take on the Reverend's sermons, those are their words, and they have become all the sheeples words now.

If you read or listen to his comments, he is really only saying that the Golden Rule came to play negatively for the past misdeeds of this country's past adminstrations. Put another way, Karma! What goes around comes around. How much clearer of a manifestation of the bad that comes from breaking the rule can you have and what is inherently wrong with pointing it out?

They, the pinche cabrones, don't like to hear the truth. They become insanely angry. Pat Buchanan said it "We don't like to hear..." They can never understand the world as people of color have and still do experience it.

The power of racism can't be exercised without power. People of color have never really had any semblance of power. The reverends words cannot be racist because he does not have political and economic power. Only the pinches do have it and only they are racists of consequence. Divide and conquer, keep 'em fighing, dumb 'em down, and control 'em to our heart's desire!

"i haven't read the speech yet."

chicano2nd sez:,blockquote>Why is it that people of color have to prove themselves to a higher standard. And why should Obama have to distance himself from his spiritual adviser in the first placeThe media is already starting to laud Obama for not playing the victim card(!!!???!!!)and If Wright was White he wouldn't even be an issue and McCain would be pandering to him for an endorsement.