The Audacity of Dope

We’ve seen a bunch of dope Obama shirts over the last year, and here’s another one to add to the list thanks to Mick Boogie and Dope Couture.  Nothing is assured yet, but I’m so excited about the state of the presidential race right now.  I can’t even imagine the fall out if Obama loses.  Not only would people be upset all over the world, but this would throw a huge wedge in race relations and turn off an entire generation to politics.  If he’s up in the polls by a few points and loses, right or wrong, many will see it as an example of racism where people claim to be prObama, only to go behind the curtain and vote McCain.  Things would be really ugly for a long time, since he is clearly the much better candidate.  McCain’s throwing the kitchen sink at him and it’s not going to work.  There’s a reason why voters under 35 are overwhelmingly supporting Obama.  He’s the future.  McCain is the past.

Cop Mick’s shirt right here and check out the quick mixtape he put together with Terry Urban to launch the shirt:

1. Mick Boogie/Terry Urban: Intro
2. Daytona: Can I Kick It? (produced by Garbs Infinite)
3. Mekka Don: Dear Obama (produced by Skinny Vee)
4. Malik Yusef f/ Kanye West: Promised Land
5. Ra The Mc: Ready Or Not (produced by Judah)
6. Jus Mic: Politics As Usual
7. Jin: Open Letter To Obama
8. 6th Sense: Ignite The People (produced by 6th Sense)
9. Doxx: Smile Sarah (produced by Remot)

Download here.  (ZShare has been acting up in the last few days, so we’ll see if this link stays ‘under maintenance’ for long)

In the immortal words of Cam’Ron on Bill O’Reilly, “I got dirty on you doggy!!!!!”

But in all seriousness, this is rather important stuff.  For many of us, the Keating Five scandal happened when we were just children.  I certainly didn’t know anything about it at the time, and only heard vague references about it before becoming heavily interested in politics a few years ago.

In essence, the behavior and decisions McCain made during this scandal, and even today, make it painfully clear that he is not someone who should have any impact over our economy, especially during a crisis like this.  I’m not an economist, but I do firmly believe that there’s a certain level of regulation that you need.  The basic Republican tenet of deregulation has been shown time and time again that it’s not beneficial for the country.  Simply put, they are awful in all economic matters unless you’re “rich.”  May I remind you:

Even if we make every single right decision from here on out, it will take years for us to recover, let alone excel.  Obama’s plan and team of economic advisors is head and shoulders above McCain’s, which is why the Republicans have decided to throw the kitchen sink of smears at Barack.  It’ll continue to get worse, until McCain completely ruins any sort of positive legacy he has cultivated over the years.  But actually, when you look at things like the Keating Five, perhaps his reputation isn’t so sterling after all.

You can be cynical all you want, but I think it’s really dope to see people get inspired like Nas has been from Obama.  He’s obviously decided that he wants to educate himself on things that he wasn’t interested in prior to Barack running for office.  Whether you have this awakening at 18, 30, or have a reawakening at 65, this movement is real.  Is Barack the answer to all life’s ills?  Of course not.  Has he already changed the world for the better?  Definitely.

And are we just getting started?  Absolutely.

Shout to the homegirl KayCee for filming this.

It’d be funnier if the Republicans weren’t really going to steal and deny votes again this election, like they always do.  They’ve already started by attempting some incredibly underhanded manuevers with people whose houses have been foreclosed in battleground states, and that’s only the beginning.  When you go vote on Nov. 4th (if for some reason you’re not a normal absentee ballot voter), go early, bring all your proper identification, and observe all the rules.  We can’t let them pull another Florida on us.

One of the dopest DJ’s on the planet, Z-Trip, linked up with Shepard Fairey (you know, the guy who made this) to put together a bunch of fundraisers for the next President of the United States.  He just put his mix from these parties online, so we can all download and enjoy some great music mashed up with Barack’s incredible words.  There’s even a clean edit available on his site for all you fellow radio people.  We may have to play this on Sound Session on Nov. 2nd…gOBAMA.

Download here.

Wow.  At this point, every moronic, bumbling, “college kid who didn’t do the reading” answer Palin gives is actually getting scarier and scarier.  This person just isn’t informed enough about issues to be a 72 year old, 4 time cancer survivor (who won’t release his full medical records) heartbeat away from being the president.  I mean, are you serious?  Really?  Her as the leader of the free world?  This is a joke…right?

The debate tomorrow will be interesting, but the talking points and headlines from the right wing have already been written.  Her expectations are so low that as long as she doesn’t pass out on stage, people will claim she did a great job.  Also, regardless of how Biden performs, he’ll be called a sexist or condescending.  We already know it’s coming, so watch for that spin right after the debate.  So predictable.

In truth, if they stick to the issues, it will be clear than Palin (and McCain) is nothing more than empty rhetoric, without any real policies or plans to improve the country.  She’ll throw around buzzwords like “reform” and “maverick” and pepper her answers with references to America’s greatness and how to keep us safe from terrorism.  Ironically, one of her main attack points will be that Biden has been in Washington too long and she’s the ‘new blood.’  Sadly, he running mate is John McCain.  Every attack with that line of thinking could easily be applied to her own presidential candidate, which I hope the pundits will point out after the debate.  After all, we are talking about the American public here.  We need things to be laid out explicitly for them to understand what they are watching, preferably with a shiny diagram or two.

The bottom line is that this is a ‘change’ election.  When the country goes through a hard time, the party in power gets voted out and the other one gets its shot.  McCain was running as the ‘experience’ candidate while Barack was the ‘change’ candidate.  Once they realized that they would lose this battle all day, every day, McCain’s camp went with Palin and tried to morph into a ‘change’ campaign.  They aren’t, but it’s a cute effort, and you’ll see this moronic hypocrisy on display tomorrow night.  Don’t you just love our political process?

Blaow, how ya like me now?

Alright, after a few less serious (but fairly accurate) clips from Chris Rock, here’s Joe Biden’s post debate comments on MSNBC with Keith Olbermann.  I love how they started with McCain’s most egregious error of the debate, where he tried to paint Obama as pridefully ignorant like Bush.  Unbelievable.

McCain’s actually lucky that he has to debate Barack instead of Biden.  Biden counteracts McCain’s only perceived “strength,” and wouldn’t hold back and be civil like Obama.  For instance, Barack probably felt like if he pointed out that independent veterans groups have given McCain awful scores for his veterans voting, he’d get lambasted because he’s not a war hero like McCain.  Biden’s got the rep to bring that up though.  He’d tear John apart.

My fear, that I’ve seen others echo, is that Biden’s almost in a lose/lose situation with Palin in their debate.  If he smashes her, which is increasingly possible the more we hear from her, some people will complain that he’s beating up on her unfairly.  You already know that the Republican surrogates are getting the “Biden was sexist” arguments written out now before anything’s even said.  That’s going to be the first talking point of that evening, count on it.

If he takes it easy, people will be impressed that she didn’t get crushed and they’ll over exaggerate her performance.  Also, if Biden makes one of his trademark gaffes and does anything remotely construed as disrespectful, it’s all you’ll hear in the media for weeks.  He’s got to be on his game and destroy her on nothing but the issues, without running up the score or rubbing it in.  You got this, but tread lightly Joe.

Except, of course, when you’re talking about McCain.  In which case, ether accordingly.

This happened a few days ago, but I missed it live and just spotted it on the net.  Absolutely brilliant.  There are a ton of classic quotes in here but I really like that line about the Presidency being run like a radio station contest.  I agree completely.

The only part my animal activist self would have changed was the Palin hunting joke about “why is Michael Vick in jail?”  I think hunting for sport should be illegal (it’s…pointless), so I’d welcome anyone who kills some animal for fun going to jail.  I thought the Bible said “thou shall not kill.”  Did they change it when I wasn’t looking and add “…humans?”  Anyway, part two below:

In case you haven’t heard, in light of the recent economic crisis, John McCain has decided to suspend his campaign to try to help solve the problem.  Sane people will look at this maneuver and realize it’s a fairly desperate attempt to avoid pwnage in Friday’s debate, but McCain clearly hopes that his campaign can spin it positively.  Expect to hear a million surrogates talking up the idea that “McCain is showing he’ll put his country ahead of his campaign.”  That sounds nice, but unfortunately, it’s patently false.

McCain’s inability to get any sort of grasp on economic issues (remember: this man has admitted multiple times that he doesn’t understand how the economy works) has lead to an awful performance on the campaign trail the past 2 weeks.  With the Palin bounce fading quickly, and even beginning to negatively affect the ticket, they were increasingly desperate.  The idea that if McCain returns to Washington to sit in on some meetings and provide his voice, this $700 billion bailout will be hammered through is absolutely laughable.  Whether it happens or not, it will not be because of John McCain.

So why did he insist upon suspending the campaign and ducking the first debate on Friday?  Simple: he’s getting hammered on the economy.  As I’ve blogged about before, anytime an actual important issue or policy is talked about, the Republicans lose.  That’s why they want you to worry about flag pin lapels or pigs with lipstick.  Once the economy became the main focus, McCain’s campaign went down quicker than his plane dur– no…wait…I’m better than that.  Anyway, he’s losing ground all over the place and in order to stop the hemmorraging, he pulled this stunt.  It’s akin to calling a timeout when the other team is racking up points, only in this case, you were already out of timeouts.  Shouldn’t this be a technical foul?  Where’s Chris Webber?

This is not a legitimate reason to suspend your campaign and try to postpone the beatdown you’re going to receive at the first debate.  Now, Barack handled this as professionally and stately as possible.  He knows exactly what McCain is doing and his remarks above could not have been better.  Thankfully, I’m not running for office, so I’ll say it:

For a “war hero,” where is your vaunted courage Senator McCain?  Take your beating like a man and go to the first debate on Friday.  You’re running scared, but it’s understandable.  Barack has Ali-like swag right now, and you’re about to be on the receiving end.