The rebirth of a nation - let the healing of America begin
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/the-reb...ge#contentSwap1

Mark Carnegie
October 28, 2008

A week from now Australia will stop for a horse race and Americans will be voting for a new president. If the polls are right, they will elect Barack Obama.

Those polls show a growing number - now a clear majority - of Americans believe their country is on the wrong path. For many, electing Obama will be the first step in putting their nation back on the right one.

If you were writing a movie script about the political rebirth of America, Obama is the character you would come up with. He is new, he is fresh, he is black. He is barely part of the system and he is smart as paint. He is different, and on that difference a nation is building belief.

Over the past eight years America has torn itself apart by a wild swing to the right, and the population has recognised the swing went too far. This election has shown the inherent strength of America to repair itself.

The country has immense regenerative power because the founding fathers constructed the parts of their Government to function interdependently. The constitution separates the president and his administration, the Senate the House of Representatives and the judiciary; it maintains strong state powers and provides for a protected free press. It promotes the best in people, and protects against the worst. This gave the United States a scaffold to build the most powerful society on Earth, despite huge internal tensions.

Yes, it has done harm along the way, but far less than any nation of that size and strength would be expected to have done. The people and the structure of government support the belief America can regain its rightful place as the strong elder brother, who can be annoying but you are still glad to have.

America is at a low ebb, but cometh the hour, cometh the man. As Andrew Sullivan said in his important piece in The Atlantic, Obama is the man to heal the world's bruises caused by America's hand, at the same time as repairing its internal divisions.

Under the Bush Administration America proved its military strength can be ineffective against asymmetric force and, in international relations, counterproductive. It also lost much of its soft power; the desire to be like America and to want the things that it wants.

But that will change. Freedom and the desire for a better life burns brightly in all humanity, driving people to want what America has.

Liberty, freedom and the ability to live one's life to the fullest can only be achieved in a functioning democracy strong enough to protect itself against those who seek to destroy it.

In the wake of September 11 America was given enormous lines of credit by the world, but now all those credit lines are fully drawn.

A slew of new books - including Simon Schama's The American Future and Bronwen Maddox's In Defense Of America - serve to show that those who love America, but are not American, feel the advent of an Obama presidency will enable them to defend the American ideal among open-minded people.They did not feel that way even a year ago.

To rebuild, Obama has to convince the world the issues it faces will not be fixed by hiding where the fault lies. The issue is how, in an interconnected world, to fix the problems we all face, as we are now financially, culturally and aspirationally tied together. As one goes, so go all.

The world is moving from the unipolarity that has existed for less than two decades, since the break-up of the Soviet Union, to a multipolarity that we will see emerge at the end of the present crisis. Maddox has a message for those who seek to see America humbled: "be careful what you wish for".

The rise of China and India, and the resurrection of an assertive and deluded Russia, might be the natural order of the world, but if America chooses the isolationism that is woven into its soul, the South Pacific will be a bleak place to be when the winds of international relations blow strong and bleak across our proud but distant nation.

rofl at the part in bold.

anyways the best analogy is that of Byzantine, it lasted for about 1000 years longer than Rome because it played it smart. That is America's only hope.

The US can hardly be any more unpopular around the world than it is right now. And if elected, its hard to imagine Obama contributing further to the unpopularity of its foreign policy. If that's the case, then either the US slowly loses its superpower status, or the US retains its power and the world begins to view the US more favourably (in comparison to current perceptions).

2 wars, economic crises, price of oil, anon anon, Obama has a fun time ahead

And the image of the US can only improve methinks from this point...

after 20 years when they get themselves out of this mire... that's if no one else bothers them... not likely. they may look a little better but the world will still be an interesting place and there is only so much their domestic environment will let their presidents do on an international level.

will be interesting whether Obama become isolationist and protectionist to protect his workers. domestic economic and employment security is one of his main political themes (from when he was a community coordinator). and with the economy the way it is, it'll be hard not to be isolationist and protectionist.

must admit Barack is very eloquent (stark contrast to the current loser they have for a president). But i wasnt too impressed at his

comments regarding his ideas for the israeli- palestine crisis (pretty much giving jerusalem to the Jews) I guess he was trying to the gain

the jewish vote which he couldnt win the election without. I think ppl are just thinking now 'anyone is better George Bush'- what an

oppresive tyrant.

I have to say, people acted like the were terribly surprised by his Israel stance, but no mainstream US president is going to pull their backing for Israel. Right-wing commentators in the States might carry on like he's Karl Marx, but if you moved him into Australian politics he'd probably be Labor right at best.

On the bonus side, he's probably a wee bit less likely to bomb the hell out of random bits of the middle east, and he'll probably at least make sure he knows where they are on the map before he gives the a-ok to the bombers. Also - did you hear? - he's a Secret Muslim ™.

McCain = Bush.

So anyone can be better than these two clowns.

I hope Barack will get along with Ahmedijad!

Click to view attachment

Nawww Ahmedijad is as much of a loser as Bush... (or at least they are unpopular as one another)

Edit: Yay it's official OBAMA!!!

How long do you give it before he's assassinated by crazy right-wing KKK terrorists?

finally Bush is out!

lets hope not...

LOL Not sure but it possible

Hahaha. Zing!

You said it, everyone's thinking it.

I think the skinheads must be contemplating suicide at this point, this is their worst nightmare.

hehe... just found out on wiki that Barack shares the same birthday as me!

Funny you should mention it:

From Esquire (with editing by me for a few rude words) (bold is mine, isn't that an amazing quote?):

Why White Supremacists Support Barack Obama

How do racists, anti-Semites and all-purpose hate-mongers view the possibility of America’s first black president? Not necessarily the way you think they would.

By David Peisner



If recent polls are to be believed, white voters favor John McCain over Barack Obama by nearly ten percentage points, but the McCain and Obama camps probably haven’t factored in the following fact: In an informal Esquire survey, three out of four white supremacists prefer Obama, while McCain is the clear favorite among black nationalists. (Sure, our methodology suffered from an extraordinarily low sample size--limited to four white supremacists and one black nationalist--but just because it wouldn’t fly with Gallup doesn’t mean there ain't a kernel of truth in there.) This is just one of many surprising views that emerged after we talked to extremists about this historic electoral showdown between a 46-year-old black man and a 71-year-old white man.
Tom Metzger

Who: Director, White Aryan Resistance

Likes: White people, karaoke, environmentalists

Dislikes: Race-mixing, Jews, the federal government, capitalism

Career Highlights: Was Grand Dragon of Ku Klux Klan in the 70s; won the Democratic primary during his bid for Congress in 1980; appeared on the episode of Geraldo Rivera’s show in 1988 when Rivera’s nose was broken in a brawl.

"The corporations are running things now, so it’s not going to make much difference who's in there, but McCain would be much worse. He’s a warmonger. He’s a scary, scary person--more dangerous than Bush. Obama, according to his book, Dreams Of My Father, is a racist and I have no problem with black racists. I’ve got the quote right here: 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s white race.' The problem with Obama is he’s being dishonest about his racial views. I’d respect him if he’d just come out and say, 'Yeah, I’m a black racist.' I don’t hate black people. I just think it’s in the best interest of the races to be separated as much as possible. See, I’m a leftist. I’m not a rightist. I hate the transnational corporations far more than any black person."


Ron Edwards

Who: Imperial Wizard, Imperial Klans of America

Likes: Guns, bed sheets, burning crosses

Dislikes: Black people, homosexuals, immigrants

Career Highlights: Sued in 2007 by the Southern Poverty Law Center for inciting the brutal beating of a Latino teenager; building the IKA into one of the nation’s largest Klan groups by allowing non-Christians to join.

"Obama, I think he’s a piece of s---. I don’t care that his mother was white. I don’t think he has enough brains to do anything good. All he’s living off of is the color of his skin to get elected. I don’t think America wants a black president. Most of them are too afraid to say that they believe the way I believe. They sit around their dinner table and talk the way I do, but when they get out in public, they have two faces and show the other face. When people are voting in the booth privately, they’ll vote Republican even if they’re a Democrat. If he wins, I’ll laugh. I don’t like McCain, but he’s the only one I can vote for. He’s against a lot of the things that I’m for. I’m afraid that he’s going to mess with gun laws. But I’m going Republican and I talked to my guys and most of them are voting for McCain too."


Erich Gliebe

Who: Chairman, National Alliance

Likes: Third Reich, the movie Rocky

Dislikes: Integration, Jewish-controlled media

Career Highlights: Turning white-power record label, Resistance Records, into a million-dollar-a-year business juggernaut; an 8-0 record as a professional boxer under the nickname, "The Aryan Barbarian."

"Obama might be a better candidate for our cause because he’s racially conscious. One of our big things in the National Alliance is to raise the racial consciousness of our people. Young whites in universities, they’ve been stripped of any kind of racial identity. Obama may be a racist in a positive sense for his people--that will awaken a lot of the whites, knock some sense into them. They’ll see that non-white Americans are allowed to be proud of who they are, to be racially conscious, to talk about their people or their community without being attacked as being racist. Let’s face it, white people aren’t going to fight for their causes, for their kind with a white president. I don’t think McCain even acknowledges that a white race exists. He’s all about granting amnesty to illegal aliens. The fact he wants to keep us in wars in the Middle East for 100 years, that’s not a good thing. I give Obama credit, he seems to have stuck to his guns as far as pulling the troops out of Iraq. He’s a very intelligent man, an excellent speaker and has charisma. John McCain offers none of that. Perhaps the best thing for the white race is to have a black president. My only problem with Obama is perhaps he’s not black enough."


Rocky Suhayda

Who: Chairman, American Nazi Party

Likes: Hitler, white people

Dislikes: Jews, immigrants, multinational corporations

Career highlights: Being widely quoted bemoaning in the fact that so few Aryan-Americans had the cojones of the 9/11 hijackers: "If we were one-tenth as serious, we might start getting somewhere."

"White people are faced with either a negro or a total nutter who happens to have a pale face. Personally I’d prefer the negro. National Socialists are not mindless haters. Here, I see a white man, who is almost dead, who declares he wants to fight endless wars around the globe to make the world safe for Judeo-capitalist exploitation, who supports the invasion of America by illegals--basically a continuation of the last eight years of Emperor Bush. Then, we have a black man, who loves his own kind, belongs to a Black-Nationalist religion, is married to a black women--when usually negroes who have 'made it' immediately land a white spouse as a kind of prize--that’s the kind of negro that I can respect. Any time that a prominent person embraces their racial heritage in a positive manner, it’s good for all racially minded folks. Besides, America cares nothing for the interests of the white American worker, while having a love affair with just about every non-white on planet Earth. It’d be poetic justice to have a non-white as titular chief over this decaying modern Sodom and Gomorrah."


Yahanna

Who: General, Israelite School Of Universal Practical Knowledge

Likes: Segregation

Dislikes: White oppressors, black women, American culture, Muslims, Christians, Martin Luther King Jr.

Career Highlights: Featured in 1999 BBC program about black supremacists; his street corner rants in Washington D.C. spurred changes in the local noise ordinance.

"Finding out Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for president was one of the saddest days in black history. Another legacy of black death is about to begin, just like it began back in the '60s with probably the greatest traitor to black people in modern-day history, Martin Luther King. Every black leader that has some form of power has given black people false hope, when in fact, the closer they get to the white establishment, the more they become an actual enemy to black people. Black people need to move away from the establishment and towards a moral change. As for Obama, first of all, he’s not even a black man in the terms of what real black people consider a black man. He’s of African and white descent. How easily he dismissed his affiliation with Reverend Wright, was a clear indication that this is a politician, not a man of any real conviction. The same way he threw away that Reverend, once he becomes president, he must throw away black people. He’s going to have to harm black people to make white people satisfied that he’s not Reverend Wright’s boy. The disappointment we’re going to suffer from him is going to set us back another fifty years. McCain is definitely the better shot for black people."

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/ra...rt-obama-061308

^ wow... even skinheads can evolve... kind of.

Pllleeeeasssse. Obama is just a figurehead, just like bush or any other president for that matter. The stance against iran will never change, if dere even is a conflict between the US and Iran.

I don't know that I would call "I like him because he's not a race-traitor" evolution, but I suppose every vote counts. There's another more-indepth story on this topic I read somewhere, I'm trying to find it.

Well - congratulations to Obama - McCain just conceded. A new world order or lots of disappointment ahead? Who knows. But Bush is out, so we were always on to a great result either way!

What a speech. He is so incredibly eloquent...

And McCain's concession was also wonderfully eloquent.



Much different to Bush's err's and ummm's and "they misunderestimated me"

Agree - it was a super speech... anyone know if he was using an autocue? He seemed to stumble a couple of times. If it was unscripted, then the whole 'yes we can' story about the 106 yr-old voter and tying it into the change we have seen over a century was pretty incredible. EDIT: Scripted or unscripted, the speech was damn good.

So Obama McCained the opposition

The speech made me feel slightly ill. Though I am happy to see anyone but a rich white dude in the whitehouse..

will just sit back & wait for the americans to have their 'omg i bot a kruddy' moment in around 6 months

Aww no more Dubya moments to entertain us.Oh well, here come the 'Obama so fat..." jokes...

Maybe someone will bring out a 10-volume box-set.

While noone makes Senator let alone President without being wholeheartedly approved by the Israel lobby, at least Obama is committed to ending the atrocity in Iraq.

McCain is an absolute fraud. War hero my eye! For starters there were no hero's in that illegal war against the Vietnamese people except for those brave G.I.'s and conscripts who stood up to their government and said "Hell No, we wont go", facing hatred from their own people, exile from their county or imprisonment.

A quick read of McCain's war record shows him to be the fraud that he is. Not to mention the fact that before he scooted off to bomb innocents in Vietnam he was under investigation for his involvement in a fire on the USS Forrestal that claimed the lives of 134 sailors, the worst US military disaster since WWII at that point. Fortunately for him, his Daddy was heading the investigation and he was found to have been free of any personal responsibility.

His exit stage left to bomb Vietnam took the heat off considerably. After spending a mere 10 hours flying time bombing civilian targets with impunity McCain was shot down and rescued from drowning by North Vietnamese (or dragged from a lake by his captors if you follow the McCain version)...some pilot! I thought the measure of a good pilot was not getting shot down?

For this and his five years spent in a North Vietnamese POW camp (fancy them imprisoning him after all he did for them) he was was decorated with the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart.

Some kinda hero you might be thinking.

Unfortunately the government of the time needed to cast the war in Vietnam as a noble cause so 'war heros' were in demand. This was coupled with a McCain political PR team doing a great job of propagating the myth of 'McCain as war hero'. The US media's unwillingness to examine his actual war record and question his integrity for fear of being labelled unpatriotic or anti-veteran, has seen this decrepit little fraudster work his way to one stop short of the presidency of the most powerful country in the world.

And I haven't even examined his political career against his claims of being a 'maverick' and a 'reformist'.

Alhamdulillah he didn't win today.

May Allah (SWT) guide Barack Obama who is an infinitely more worldly and compassionate character than we have seen in this position before.

Cat

So is it 'BARAK' or 'BARACK'?

ABC spelt it 'Barak', whilst Ch Ten spelt it 'Barack'.

Barack.

http://www.barackobama.com/

Cat

mcain would have been frightening, and palin even frighteninger, but both lots are pretty crap

Re-birth? Healing of America? Oh well...better (2 centuries!) later than never.

All this talk of 'change' and 'hope' in America and the world is fuzzy n all. But that's an implicit admission of failure thus far.

I'm currently optimistic about Obama and the type of shift in policy he could bring to the world. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

very disappointing it's not karak, the name of the official mascot of the melbourne commonwealth games, the
south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoo (calyptorhynchus banksii graptogyne), a fine upstanding bird

Othman all fuzzy? not you .. surely not...

^

Yes I agree it is a fine upstanding bird.

If Obama continues to ignore security then he will become America’s Bhutto very soon:

ABC News/Washington Post poll from March 2 said that fifty-nine percent of Americans and 83 percent of African-Americans were concerned "that someone might attempt to physically harm Barack Obama if he's the Democratic nominee for president,". Twenty-four percent of those polled said they were "very concerned" about that possibility.

Georgia's Roswell Beacon newspaper printed a depiction of Obama in the cross hairs of a rifle. Thomas Stevenson, a carpenter who lives near Atlanta, told the newspaper, "Some idiot out there's going to put a bullet in that silver-tongued devil and then there'll be a race war. There are some in our movement who are preparing for war, [even] praying for it."

Senator Barack Obama is reportedly the subject of a $100 million FBI security operation after the Democratic presidential nominee was named as a target in a series of death threats from at least three White supremacists organizations; the National Socialist Vanguard, the American Nazi Party, and the Ku Klux Klan. The move, ordered by Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff, is the biggest ever security operation surrounding a candidate for president. Obama, his wife Michelle, and the couple’s two daughters are under round-the-clock protection from the Secret Service.

“All three groups are seen as posing a threat. But the Klan, in particular, has a nucleus of supporters who are prepared to pursue violence to get their message across,” says an operation insider. “Certain characters would be making a very big mistake if they tried to follow through any of these nasty threats.”

lol @ the pic

sorry for my ignorance but, why does everyone hate Sarah Palin?

it would be nice if we could just enjoy this moment in history without worrying about lunatics until tomorrow

she's a bogan that thinks shooting animals is great fun

or...
Click to view attachment

There you go.

Cat

lolol thanks fatma, by the way love your cat it's gorgeous

heaven forbid

Did you see the bullet proof panels when he gave his speech? So depressing.