As Obama Is Inaugurated Today, A Look Back at a Very Early Campaign Stop In Oakland

We get the first president with a african father and a european mother. People forget he is as much white as he is black. Didn't someone say awhile back not to judge upon the color of the skin, but the content of the character. Well, lets see. It is a corporate sponsored charade. A show to keep the masses inline. To make them think they actually did something. He would never have gotten there if the business interest of the American empire didn't allow him. He is another corporate puppet and there is no depth at all. You say people will be dancing in the streets. I guess people hate their own interests. I guess the sheep will come out today and celebrate nothing. If one really practiced what MLK jr. said, then one would not judge Obama any different. What matters is the character. When we look at that we see another war mongering,empire promoting,and corporate whore of a president. This is a joke and nothing but a show paid for by the rich business interests for their new poster boy. A person that gives the image of progress, but in reality is the tool of the American corporate empire.
There is nothing to celebrate. People didn't elect Obama. The corporations choose him and bank rolled his campaign. 750 million dollars. They are the real ones who he owes a debt too and not the American suckers who voted for him. Celebrate what? There is nothing to celebrate unless you are vain and superficial. Unless what is on the surface is more important the depth of a person . Nothing to celebrate unless you hold skin color more important than the content of the character.

unless you, sx, are saying the 69 million people who voted for him did so only because his father was Kenyan (never mind that he raised more campaign cash via millions of small donations than any other president in history and corporate interests probably would have picked another candidate if it was up to them)

and while you feel free to cite MLK and play the easy role of cynic/curmudgeon today because Obama does not live up to your ideal of the "prefect" president, if one even exists, do you not think MLK would feel proud today? can you really look at and talk with all of the people of color, who after 400 years of native american extermination, slavery, jim crow, and all of the other racial horrors of this country and tell them that they have absolutely nothing to feel proud of today? maybe that's how you will be spending your day after all, telling people of color what fools they are, how they have been hoodwinked

we do not yet live in a color-blind society. today is just one big step closer. there's still a lot of work to do. can you step over your own cynicism, admit that today is an amazing day for millions of people, and begin the long hard job of building interracial bridges and equality with them?

Shame on the poster of this article for this insulting garbage. Obama is just another millionaire, warmonger, death penalty promoting Democrat, just like all previous Democrat-Republican presidents, better known as the chief executive of big business. BEING BLACK IS NOT A CRITERIA FOR ANYTHING, but that is clearly the only reason he got votes, 52% to be exact. THIS WAS A CON JOB, AN ADVERTISING GIMMICK, to keep the Reds (socialists) and Greens out of office, the only reason the twin party of the Republicans, the Democrats, exist. Only Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party and Ralph Nader of Peace & Freedom Party on the California ballot were for the workingclass, peace and against the death penalty. IF YOU WANT CHANGE, YOU MUST VOTE GREEN OR RED (Socialist). Boys and girls who are still fooled, here is your homework:

The REACTIONARY OBAMA CABINET
Part 1, Jan 19, 2009, World Socialist Website, "Obama’s team: A right-wing cabinet for a government of big business"
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/obma-j19.shtml

Part 2, Jan 19, 2009, World Socialist Website, "Who’s who in the Obama cabinet"
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/cabi-j19.shtml

Part 3, Jan 20, 2009, World Socialist Website, "Who’s who in the Obama cabinet
Internal security "
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/secu-j20.shtml

FROM BUSH TO OBAMA, A SEAMLESS TRANSITION TO PERPETRATE WAR AND FASCISM, FROM INDIAN KILLING TO ARAB KILLING, A 200 PLUS YEAR AMERICAN TRADITION:

"From Bush to Obama: On the eve of a “seamless transition”"
World Socialist Website 1/17/09
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/obam-j17.shtml

AND HERE ARE THE WAR CRIMES SUPPORTED BY THE PRO-ISRAEL OBAMA, THE SAME AS THE PRO-ISRAEL BUSH, paid for by the American taxpayers to the tune of $15 million a day/$6 billion a year causing some 1300 dead and over 5,000 injured and tens of thousands homeless due to bombed homes (civilian targets) in the entire illegal invasion of Gaza by Israel:
"Reports reveal devastation wreaked by Israeli military in Gaza" World Socialist Website, January 20, 2009 at:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/gaza-j20.shtml

"250 Palestinians recently taken from Gaza held under interrogation" where they are harshly beaten and interrogated
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4583&Itemid=1

American White phosphorous used in Gaza:
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4581&Itemid=1

MANY OF US HAVE NO MORE TIME FOR TEACHING THE OBVIOUS. WAKE UP, GROW UP, VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE, BECAUSE THE WORKERS OF THE WORLD CANNOT WAIT FOR AMERICANS TO ACT LIKE ADULTS AND VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE.

I thought he just became president today

go figure

and I thought we had to wait until he had power and authorized attacking Gaza before we could blame him for such

>>can you step over your own cynicism, admit that today is an amazing day for millions of people, and begin the long hard job of building interracial bridges and equality with them?

It's not cynicism. He just stood by while a bloodbath and massacre took place in the Middle East and said nothing. That's significant. That was his first real decision. That's real. Imagine your whole family dead, or your children maimed beyond belief. That's real. There's nothing "cynical" about it.

These are today's slaves, but they don't count.

It's significant that it stopped just before the inauguration.

It's an historic day, sure, but let's not make it into something it's not. An African American man became president. But that doesn't mean he's going to actually do anything different than those of his own party. It only means that this is a huge historic day for the country in one aspect, not all.

a sex worker? Please don't vent your hostilities towards women here! The organizations that the posters represent are reprehensible. I certainly don't feel you that don't speak for me. Good luck bringing about changes you think we need. I think you just alienated a ton of people, including me.

Voted to bailout the banks, To renew the patriot act..

Said we needed to respect the verdict when Sean Bell's killers walked free.

What you say is true for you. How would you unite everyone in this country? Negativity turns people off. People, social movements, and political and social contexts determine history. Are you denying any role American people had in this recent election? Furthermore, you're putting all the power in The Obama Administration for the next for years. Can you say civic participation?

Did people actually listen to Obama's speech today ? if you didn't i strongly suggest you do so . It was so miltaristic that Chris Matthews of CNBC , hardly a ''progressive '' commented that if he (Obama ) had made that speech during in Iowa he wouldn't have won the Iowa caucas because he succeded due to his perceived antiwar stance .
One of Matthew's guest, A Chicago Tribune columnist , agreed saying that the address reminded her of Bush albeit more polished and subtle !

yeah - I really hope he can do something good in the next couple of months. Maybe I'm fired up on all the sousa from the bands.

A point to consider is that the country is seriously, seriously, seriously out of money. We've been deficit spending on military expenditures since Carter, when the debt was very low. I have a distant memory of some complaining about this in the late 80s as a way of attacking SSI recipients. Clinton did manage to turn the deficit trend around, although he didn't skimp on military, and he ended welfare and started NAFTA (and we saw how well that worked). But he was reducing the debt. At the same time, it was always something we didn't quite have to confront.
But now, the debt went from $5 to $10 trillion - and it's hard to even say how many trillions were just added in the last months of Bush II's presidency just due to unmeasurable promises for Fannie Mae and the banking system. You don't have to search long for articles in mainstream journals about how big countries in Europe could become insolvent, including Britain (not just Iceland), and the US could have deflation then inflation and all sorts of chaos. I wish I understood the extent to which this was driven by southern Californian real estate industry-bank collusion bringing down the first world finance system.
http://zfacts.com/p/55.html

In other words, how could Obama possibly consider further international interventions and military expenditures if he can't even debt spend to do it.

A.L. asks: "How would you unite everyone in this country?"

As an internationalist anti-capitalist, the last thing I would want to do is "unite everyone in this [imperialist] country". Rather, I consider our task to be to divide this country on class/caste-based left-right lines, so that part of this country can serve as the fifth column, so to speak, of the world anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist struggle inside the belly of the beast.

Only by working together will we save this planet. Katrina's, 9-11's, Occupations, kill us all. Instead of opposing, protesting, and anger, we need optimism that human beings will be able to change the course of things. Battles, no longer work. We must heal the beast. We must grow the planet we want. We must be tillers, artists, poets, and workers. I hope that this power-structure withers away. It serves no one. However, we must be the change we seek. I'm only as philosophical as you. I hope for peaceful change, not militaristic.

yesterday, Obama already issued orders to close Gitmo and secret CIA prisons overseas, as well as stop torture...

Earlier on Thursday, the president ordered major changes that he said would halt the torture of suspects, close down the Guantánamo detention center, ban secret CIA prisons overseas and fight terrorism "in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals." ... turning U.S. policy abruptly on his second full day in office.


and yet the war on Gaza that just ended was Obama's fault, huh?

Democrat Obama, just like the rest of the Democrat-Republicans, always voted for aid to Israel, to the tune of $15 million a day/$6 billion a year, and that aid included white phosphorous and all the other military hardware that makes Israel the 4th largest military power in the world. The illegal invasion of Gaza was a turkey shoot, a massacre, as they did not have the firepower to match the US/Israel. This crime against humanity has been perpetrated by the Democrat-Republicans for the past 62 years, which is why you should never vote for any Democrat or Republican at any level of office as they all support giving $6 billion a year to Israel to slaughter anyone the US wants to kill, not just in the Middle East, but anywhere in the world. YOUR IGNORANCE IS INSULTING TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD AS THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR 62 YEARS. YES, OBAMA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WHITE PHOSPHOROUS DROPPED ON GAZA, AND FOR ALL THE OTHER WAR CRIMES ISRAEL COMMITTED IN GAZA AND FOR THE ENTIRE TIME HE VOTED FOR MONEY FOR ISRAEL.

As to Guantanamo and all the other torture camps of the USA around the world, the closing has been going on before Obama took office, and is simply continuing. Obama will not close it right away, although he can and should and he should give Guantanamo back to Cuba, from which it was stolen by the USA. By the way, much of what goes on in these torture camps is not so very different from the American prison-concentration camp system, proudly supported by the Democrat-Republicans. The staged "closure" of Guantanamo was mostly a public relations ploy, with Obama signing the order amidst retired generals and admirals while Obama repeated his intent to carry out Bush's foreign policy, retaining Bush's war secretary Robert Gates, and now BOMBING PAKISTAN and MURDERING THE PEOPLE OF AFGHANISTAN. From the World Socialist website, "Obama's orders leave framework of torture, indefinite detention intact" by Tom Eley 1/23/09, "http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/guan-j23.shtml,"

"The orders signed by Obama do not undo the Bush administration’s attacks on constitutional and international law. They do not challenge the supposed right of the president to unilaterally imprison any individual, without trial and without charges, by declaring him to be an “enemy combatant.” Nor do they end the procedure known as “extraordinary rendition,” by which the United States during the Bush years kidnapped alleged terrorists and shipped them to foreign countries or secret CIA prisons outside the US, where they were subjected to torture."

"They do not affect the hundreds of prisoners—600 at the Bagram prison camp in Afghanistan alone—incarcerated beyond the barbed wire of Guantánamo. If and when Guantánamo is closed, the US government will simply ship alleged terrorists caught up its international dragnet to other American-run prison camps."

"On the question of so-called “harsh interrogation techniques,” i.e., torture, Obama’s orders leave room for their continuation. White House Counsel Gregory Craig told reporters the administration was prepared to take into account demands from the CIA that such methods be allowed. Obama announced the creation of a task force that will consider new interrogation methods beyond those sanctioned by the Army Field Manual, which now accepts 19 forms of interrogation, as well as the practice of extraordinary rendition."

"Retired Admiral Dennis Blair, Obama’s nominee for director of national intelligence, told a Senate confirmation hearing that the Army Field Manual would itself be changed, potentially allowing new forms of harsh interrogation, but that such changes would be kept secret."

"Obama also announced a second task force that is to consider the fate of the 245 detainees remaining at Guantánamo. Earlier this week he suspended the military commission procedures at the prison camp, but has not abolished the military commissions themselves."

"The new administration has ruled out the only constitutional remedy for those who have been held under barbaric conditions, without due process, for years—either releasing them or giving them a speedy trial in a civilian court, with all of the accompanying legal protections and guarantees. There has been a great deal of speculation that the administration may support the establishment of a special National Security Court within the civilian court system to try Guantánamo prisoners and other alleged terrorists. This would represent yet another attack on civil liberties, setting up a drumhead court system to railroad those charged with terrorism—something that could in future be used to repress political opposition."

"According to NBC Nightly News on Thursday, the administration is considering keeping some 20 Guantánamo detainees, including the five alleged 9/11 conspirators currently facing military commission trials, imprisoned indefinitely without charges in a military brig within the US."

As the article states, this publicity stunt was to stop civilian trials of these torture-kidnap victims at Giuantanamo so as to not expose the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the US government.

As to the "historic" occasion of a black president, it should come as no surprise at this time. The white European-American population has been declining rapidly since 1945, when most European immigration ended, and with the increasing level of education in this group causing a low birth rate, making many states, including California, majority minority states. The next largest long-time American population is the African-American population, which since the 1960s has developed a significant professional middle class, including lots of black elected officials. This profiessional middle class is mostly dedicated to preserving capitalism as that is how one "gets ahead" in this bankrupt, backward, rotten society. Obama's election is not a novelty or an historic achievement; it is an insult to workingclass struggle and was meant to be such because the Democrats exist to make sure the workingclass never votes Green or Red (socialist).

NO MILLIONAIRE CAN REPRESENT US WORKERS, and for that reason alone, no one selling their labor for less than $76,000 a year had any business voting for the Democrat-Republicans. Obama is just another capitalist politician, promoting war and fascism to maximize the profits of the capitalist class. If you want change, you have to vote Green or socialist (Red)-Peace & Freedom in California.