Who Would Be Afraid of This Man?

I realize I'm a little late to the party on this one (I blame Google's malfunctioning rather than my own laziness since I'll never have another chance to say that) but I wanted to say a word on the hilariously misguided anger of Fox News and other misinformed conservative types who were critical of Common's invitation to perform at the White House.

First off, Common is not a gangsta rapper. In fact, he is probably the most boring of a very boring sub-genre of rap often referred to as "Conscious rap", that basically stands in stark contrast to gangsta rap. Performers of this type of easy listening hip hop specialize in songs about the beauty of black women, loving each other, being a vegan and other positive topics that white liberal arts majors enjoy. Common makes music that someone's grandmother could listen to, or even a middle aged first lady. The main argument here, I suppose, is a song from Common's otherwise controversy-free album, "Like Water for Chocolate" (yes, that is what it's called) entitled "A Song for Assata". The song is basically an ode to Assata Shakur, Tupac's god-mother and favorite political cause of black thinkers and ass-hole celebrities. A former black panther who went to jail on a charge of murdering a police officer, much to the chagrin of political activist types, who charge racial bias and extreme mistreatment as well as a railroaded case to imprison a Panther. Needless to say, this isn't Ice-T doing a performance of "Cop Killer" at an Obama family cook out.

So why is Sarah Palin so mad about this? Because that's what she does, and that's what a good amount of political talking heads do. These are the same people who criticize a campaign to get children to eat healthy. Seriously. Obama could find Osama Bin Laden, and they would find something to criticize him about, which he did and they then did. And it happens on both sides. I was no fan of Bush, but after a while, criticisms take on a life of their own, and people can't separate political ideology from their hatred of a man. Common made a song that I'm sure no one protested when it was released more than a decade ago, but because an Obama likes him, he's a hateful, cop-killer loving, threat to our nation. I can't defend the social merit of a lot of hip hop, but people picked the wrong target this time.

Below, is an example of what kind of performer Common is and what Sean Hannity is so afraid of:

Why Obama sucks

I know I have written about Obama recently, but I wanted to add one more post about why I'm frustrated with our a-hole president.

Obama has claimed to have an anti-war stance for quite some time. First he wins the Nobel Peace Prize (*which, since it was founded by a Swede and is adminstered in Norway, is really just a way for super-liberal Scandivians to support a cause they want and provide some financial backing) for speaking out on nuclear disarmament. Meanwhile, the only reason he made those speeches was because of a political move against Iran, who Israel is justifably scared of.

Also, he has made many Middle East ass-kissing speeches over the last few years, mainly to distance his administration from the approach that Bush had taken in the past. Then, upon first opportunity, he sends troops into a area where we shouldn't be getting involved, simply to install a presence in an oil-rich (general) area. Sound familiar? Meanwhile, Bahrian is being invaded by Saudi Arabia but we choose to do nothing because we're about humanitarian issues, not oil. Yeah right.

It just bugs me that the first chance we get to bomb a country, in an instance when we don't truly need to get involved, Obama sends our Air Force out without a second thought. With so many issues at home that need to be taken care of, there is no justification for this stupid mission.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually believe that W would have done a better job as president over the last few weeks. Instead of wasting time in gathering some multi-lateral hippie coalition (and still ignoring Congress), Bush would have went in first thing and spoke openly about the need to oust Gaddafi. Obama still says Gaddafi doesn't need to go because the UN resolution doesn't support it. Then why did we bomb his compound the first day the No-Fly Zone was established? And how can you say Gaddafi has nothing to do with this? That he doesn't have to go? Obama has done the same thing Bush would have, expect that he wasted time and took some hippie, liberal methods that are supposed to create some ethical justification. Yeah right. This guy really sucks; and this is coming from a liberal.