Boy, wouldn't it suck to have a president who was partially Kenyan who could speak powerfully to these issues and who would be seen, in part, as one of them, who would be seen by people of color around the world as hope? That would be dreadful for American foreign policy, wouldn't it? I suspect the Hillary-borg thinks so...
Posted by Patrick at January 12, 2008 10:07 AMsorry, patrick, your simplicity is showing.
it came out, last week, that obama is a cousin of odinga, so he wouldn't be at all useful in helping to mediate. but thanks for showing your deep understanding of the universality of a man of color being able to speak for all people of color.
Posted by Turkana at January 12, 2008 10:31 AMPatrick, you're a scum bag. The article is talking about a civil war that has at least a quarter-million people in the balance, and probably more if the conflict goes full-scale. And all you can think about is whether or not our own domestic political players would see it for their own ambitions.
Posted by idiosynchronic at January 12, 2008 10:33 AMOh, really, his dad was from the opposition tribe, so he's related to numerous other folks in that tribe? Gee golly, I didn't know that. Boy, Obama has been hiding that fact, hasn't he? Ridiculous, Turkey!
His relationship to the opposition surely complicates his role, but doesn't mean he has none. There are many possible roles to play, not simply as mediator. Uh, and Obama isn't president yet, so he is constrained in that way, too...
Yeah, you're right, it would be irrelevant in the eyes of the vast majority of the world's people of color to have our first black president. Yeah, he'd have no cache in his former country or across the continent and the world. Yeah, your right. Thanks for clearing that up... brilliant!
And, of course, like Billary you set up a straw man, misconstrue my statements and then knock down your parody. I never said any such thing as you claim about people of color being all the same or Obama leading them all...
Classic.
Posted by Patrick at January 12, 2008 10:49 AMooooooo... the true colors of Left Coasters are coming out. "Scumbag," huh? Ouch, that hurts my feelings. I'm tearing up right now. Won't you all rally around me? I've only worked in Africa and know the situation intimately, jack-off.
You are the scumbag, suggesting Obama, who is partially Kenyan, is simply exploiting the conflict for his own political gain, that he doesn;tdeeply care what happens in his fathers country. My point is that it is a shame that the U.S. has historically neglected Africa, including the current fool in office. An Obama presidency offers new hope on that front and I do think the calculus would be very different in Kenya right now if he were in office. That seems undeniable to me...
Posted by Patrick at January 12, 2008 10:56 AMYou are the scumbag, suggesting Obama, who is partially Kenyan, is simply exploiting the conflict for his own political gain,
idio didn't suggest Obama was exploiting it, he clearly called you the scumbag for doing so. And he was right.
Posted by iamcoyote at January 12, 2008 11:06 AMooooo... iamcoyote piles on. The borg is assimilating a new entity. Where is snark when you need him/her?
Hey, good news for you Hillary-lovers, Newt Gingrich has been gushing about her the last day or so. I;m sure that's the kind of endorsement the DLC-crowd loves!
Posted by Patrick at January 12, 2008 11:37 AMpatrick,
the depth of your understanding overwhelms. or something. obama, as a luo, would not be considered helpful to the kikuyu. in fact, i doubt the kikuyu would be favorably inclined towards a luo america president. but keep presuming that all people of color think alike. it's impressive. or something.
and if you don't understand the point made by idio and coyote, is just further underscores the sadness of your obsession. this is an enormous crisis that could spiral into genocide, yet all you can do is offer simpleminded single-minded irrelevancies about your own self-absorption. i know some people think the universe revolves around our political scene, but it doesn't.
Posted by Turkana at January 12, 2008 12:03 PMHey, patrick, get a frickin' clue: this crisis is occurring RIGHT NOW, Jan 08, not sometime in 2009. Obama's Kenyan "credentials" as a US president (whatever they might be) are kind of meaningless right now, no?
This is real lame ass stuff, and astonishing from someone who is supposedly an actual professional intellectual. You're really giving Obama supporters a bad name. So can it, please.
Posted by euzoius at January 12, 2008 12:49 PMI love you.
Posted by Patrick at January 12, 2008 02:05 PMFunny Turkey. Funny. You make me laugh, Turkey. All your righteous indignation at the poor people of Africa, yet you minimize the racist campaign of Clinton, et. al. Typical white liberal!
Posted by Patrick at January 12, 2008 02:07 PMthere you go, patrick. get all your shrill juvenile lies out on the table where everyone can see them. you want to talk racism, maybe you should look in the mirror at the clown who just implied that all people of color think alike, even, apparently, if they're from opposite sides of a tinderbox conflict in kenya.
Posted by Turkana at January 12, 2008 03:11 PMAgain, I did no such thing Turkey. Very Clintonian of you. Misrepresent and then whine.
For more dirty tricks by the Clintons, see this Kos entry:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/12/175135/819/474/435829
Turkey,
You are a hypocrite. I noticed over at Kos in the well-documented diary about the Clintons' dirty tricks in NH (smearing Obama's record on reproductive rights and then trying to block the Obama people from setting the record straight... and worse, employing Republican tactics to try to suppress Obama votes) that you are the only one at this point to recommend the comment that said the post was a "low class hit job" despite any actual evidence to that effect. Again, you fail to deal with any of the evidence presented, but choose instead to personally attack the poster. Oh, but you aren't a Hillary partisan, or anything.
What a joke.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/12/175135/819/474/435829
poor patrick,
i'm not the only one to have rec'd the comment, and i did so because of the question about fair use, to which the diarist responded by deleting some of his pasted text. for someone who spends so much time reading daily kos, you certainly don't seem to understand how it works. poor, poor patrick. even bagley and peter make more sense.
Posted by Turkana at January 12, 2008 05:08 PMThat is exactly what is wrong with political discourse. Instead of saying, "Hey man, seems like you need to evidence some of that or you should take it down," you accuse them of a "low class hit job"! That is some elevated level of discourse.
that's lame...
Posted by Patrick at January 12, 2008 07:48 PMYou were the only one when I saw it, that is why I wrote, "you are the only one at this point," fool. Way to misrepresent my words, AGAIN! There seems to be a pattern emerging in how you handle criticism. Misrepresent, or make a personal attack. But, rarely deal with the actual evidence. That is exactly what is wrong with political discourse. Instead of saying, "Hey man, seems like you need to evidence some of that or you should take it down," you accuse them of a "low class hit job"! That is some elevated level of discourse, Turkana. That's lame...
Do you actually dispute the claims of that post? Go consult the borg and then come back and let me know...
patrick,
you need help. really. i rec'd the comment because of fair use. i didn't accuse anyone of a hit job. stevej did. he also talked about fair use, which was valid. please. get help
Posted by Turkana at January 12, 2008 08:43 PMNo. You made no such distinctions in your recommendation. You didn't leave a comment to make clear that you didn't endorse the personal attack, but just the fair use part. You simply recommended. Readers can't read your mind, silly.
I'll accept your apology.
Posted by Patrick at January 12, 2008 09:34 PMTurkana is right. The situation in Kenya doesn't call for someone who shares tribe kinship, but a WHITE PERSON. A white female, in particular, and one named Hillary Clinton to be specific.
Hillary was right. Martin Luther King, Jr. did nothing to help the condition of blacks in the South. It was all the work of a white man in the Oval Office. God bless, LBJ.
So what Kenya needs a white woman in the Oval Office, which would be such a triumph of the human spirit, etc, so that the warring Kenyan tribes can see that anywhere is possible if when a privileged white woman can become the President of the United States.
Posted by LaoBigger at January 13, 2008 02:53 PM