Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan : Conservative Bonafides

Confronting the President of Magical Thinking : A Vocation of Agony

Barack Obama and his family, the vice president and his family, other government officials, and their supporters celebrated the president's second inauguration today, which coïncided with the federal holiday commemorating the life and accomplishments of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

LGBT Americans were jubilant, because the president said some aspirational words in the second half of his inaugural address.

"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal, as well."

Immediately, the president's supporters acted in lock-step to express support for this expression of a longing for equality.

Corey Johnson is an up-and-coming LGBT politician, who is patterning himself after New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's doctrine of putting politically-expedient identity politics before having to deliver any government reforms. Note how the president failed to say the words lesbian, bisexual, and transgender in "LGBT," but already the president's supporters were having to say the words that the president found unspeakable.

It appears that Mr. Johnson's excitement could be being based not so much on the president's promise of legal reforms that would result in LGBT equality, but, rather, on political party discipline that calls for a self-motivated unity in messaging to sway Progressive voters into believing that the Democratic Party was on their side.

But for the incomplete messaging that the president's words offer, there is no plan attached to how the president plans to "complete" our "journey."

On Facebook, some LGBT activists picked up on the incomplete messaging in the president's rhetoric, because they had noticed a pattern in his prior speeches.

Some LGBT activists were already picking up how President Obama was unable to utter the words lesbian, bisexual, and transgender.

To the president's army of speech writers, did those words lack any dignity and respect, and, therefore, did not need to be mentioned ?

In his speech during his second inaugural ceremonies, President Obama seemed to be channeling the "great communicator," who, we may all remember, was notable for his failure to uttered the word "AIDS" until after thousands of people had died.

Many of the president's supporters have made a choice to be excited for the president's re-election. But ...

"By the time President Reagan had delivered his first speech on the epidemic, of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with the disease; 20,849 had died," Randy Shilts once wrote. Along a similar vein, when will President Obama say all the words in LGBT ?

So many people want to believe in the hope, change, and love that the president so skillfully articulates in his scripted speeches. We are supposed to want to believe in the magical thinking that the president really is on our side, because doesn't he, after all, say so many nice things that he knows that we want to hear ?

While President Obama's lack of clear communication during this inaugural address may not lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of our "gay brothers and sisters," he nonetheless sets the tone for that which the American people become familiar : either feelings of shame and embarrassment that prevent a president from mentioning lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender Americans, or feelings of equality and respect by dignifying and acknowledging the journeys still being made by lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender Americans.

Some activists on Facebook took a more diplomatic, but forward-looking approach to the editing of the president's words : by using the occasion of the president's rhetoric to build forward momentum on the social movement for LGBT equality in the United States.

The hopes and actions of LGBT Americans and their allies are to fulfill on our shared dream for equality.

But LGBT activists and allies already exchange amongst ourselves the vision and prayers for equality.

For all the president's rhetoric, we already seem to have, at first blush, the president's love and affinity for our community, at least that which could be expressed in his own way. What we need now is action.

The longer LGBT Americans have to wait for full federal recognition of their equal rights, the more that members of our community remain fully exposed to legally-permitted forms of discrimination in broad areas of their life, including in the workplace.

The skepticism within the LGBT community about President Obama's commitment to true LGBT equality stems from some major examples of actions that the president refuses to take, which contradicts his rhetoric.

For example, the president refuses to sign the Federal Contractor's Employment Protections Executive Order. National LGBT civil rights groups, such as GetEQUAL, have been mounting a multi-prong campaign to pressure the president to sign the executive order, but the president refuses.

President Obama embarrassed both his administration and the Democratic Party by once having said that while he was nominally committed to the idea that all Americans shared the same civil rights, he still had to "evolve" on marriage equality. It was as if President Obama was admitting that his thoughts on civil rights resembled that of someone a little bit ignorant and a little bit intolerant, like former commissioner Bull Connor, who once, among other depraved acts of discrimination, ordered the opening up of firehoses on African American civil rights activists.

Surely, President Obama was not seriously putting himself into the same league as Bull Connor, but why was the president torturing hisself by proclaiming in speech his support for LGBT equality that could not be matched by his actions ?

And lest we neglect to mention how so many people conveniently seem to forget to remember how it took a national campaign of civil disobedience, among other actions, for national Democratic Party legislators to repeal the military's discriminatory policy known as Don't Ask, Don't Tell. The president's political operatives love to mention how the president "repealed" DADT, but they overlook what it took to get a bill introduced in and voted by Congress.

And if the constant push and pull amongst LGBT activists and civil rights groups to define a winning national strategy to deliver a full federal equality bill through Congress wasn't enough, activists must contend with the political trappings of trying to challenge a president who says all the right things and knows how to manipulate support for his administration. And then there are the other unknown, but nonetheless predictable, obstacles for LGBT activists as they set out to challenge power holders, who fail to act to end de jure and de fact discrimination.

While community organising and activism has evolved since the 1960's with the advent of online tools and other empowering platforms of the Internet like Facebook, YouTube, and blogging, every now and then activists must overcome the occasional opening up of digital firehoses.

Read also : President Obama Must Evolve Again on Marriage Equality

RT @occupylondon Obama is no Martin Luther King! n0.gd/10S4rAe n0.gd/WWZLk2 #mlk #mlkday #occupy

— OccupyBot (@occupybot) January 23, 2013

MLK : I Have A Dream ; Obama : I Have A Drone

99 Pickets Demands Christine Quinn Allow A Vote On Paid Sick Days

99 Pickets Launches Working Group To Confront Christine Quinn Over Paid Sick Days

83% of New Yorkers support a Paid Sick Leave bill mandating that employers provide a small number of paid sick days to their workers. Though Mayor Michael Bloomberg would likely veto such a bill, support on the City Council is deep—there are enough votes to override his veto.

That’s great news for the workers of New York. Unfortunately, the Speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, doesn’t personally support the bill. And rather than simply voting against it, she’s using her power as speaker to stop the City Council from even voting on it.

Quinn is harming millions of workers, simply to please her allies in the 1%. It’s time to put a stop to this. It’s time to hold Christine Quinn accountable.

99 Pickets is planning a campaign of creative direct action, to highlight Quinn’s embrace of the 1% and rejection of the democratic process. If you’re interested in getting involved, please use the form below to sign up.

Sign up : Working Group: Quinn/Paid Sick Days Campaign

Christine Quinn and Trickle Down Feminism FAIL

"As long as feminists are lauding the ascension of women to boardrooms for equality’s sake and not questioning what happens in those boardrooms, true liberation is a long way off." Read more : Trickle Down Feminism (Dissent Magazine)

Nancy LaMott performs "I Love A Piano" Live at Don't Tell Mama, New York 1988

Power and Magic of Imagination : Pilobolus Dance Theatre "Shadowland"

Nydia Velázquez Calls For Vote on Paid Sick Days

Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez demanded a vote on the paid sick days bill, which was introduced almost three years ago and has a veto-proof majority of sponsors in the City Council (37 out of 51). But New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn blocks a vote, because Speaker Quinn receives support from pro-business lobbyists Emily Giske and Kathryn Wylde.

Central Park 5 Rally At Foley Square

Late this afternoon, a rally took place to honour and support the "Central Park Five," a group of young, innocent men, who were wrongly convicted of a crime that they did not commit.

"Media coverage at the time portrayed the teens as guilty, and used racially coded terms like wolf pack to refer to the group of boys accused in the attack. Donald Trump took out full-page ads in four city newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty so they could be executed. However, the convictions of the five were vacated in 2002 when the real rapist came forward and confessed to the crime, after the five defendants had already served sentences of almost seven to 13 years. New York City is refusing to settle a decade-long civil lawsuit brought by the men," reported Democracy Now!

Today's rally took place in Foley Square, near the federal courthouse. Amongst the supporters for this rally were members of Occu Evolve.

Five innocent Black and Latino teenagers were wrongly arrested, tried, and convicted in a sensational case known as the "Central Park Jogger."

Among the issues compounding the injustice that befell the Central Park 5 are that the Bloomberg administration refuses to settle the civil lawsuits brought by the innocent men whilst at the same time demands documentary footage that would violate the First Amendment rights of the documentary filmmakers behind the film, "The Central Park Five."

Susman and Quinn Violate Campaign Finance Disclosure (No Surprise)

. @defeatquinn @prideagenda @emilyslist Remember how @chriscquinn flouted #campaignfinance rules with #MauraKeaney in the past ? @colvinj

— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) January 17, 2013

Is Pfizer executive Sally Susman, who has reached her cap of in-kind campaign contributions to Christine Quinn's undeclared mayoral campaign, deliberately trying to exceed campaign finance restrictions ? What kind of shady campaign finance chair is running Speaker Quinn's mayoral campaign ?

Speaker Quinn has had a history of campaign finance ethics. Remember how Maura Keaney has had several questions raise about her campaign work on behalf of Speaker Quinn, including getting busted one time, which resulted in fines imposed on Ms. Keaney ?

Will Christine Quinn Fight for ATU 1181 ?

Can the bus drivers and matrons, who are strike, count on New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to stand up for ATU 1181 union members ? Or will Speaker Quinn, as usual, kiss up to Mayor Bloomberg, as he tries to bust yet another union ? Let's see what The New York Daily News is reporting : "Fellow mayoral wanna-be City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is straddling the fence."

Protest Against Christine Quinn At The New School

Last Tuesday, over one dozen protesters gathered outside the New School on West 11th Street in a demonstration against New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Josh Isay, one of Speaker Quinn's campaign consultants, tried to walk into the New School without drawing attention to himself, but many of the protesters knew who he was. Above, Mr. Isay was photographed hustling inside to the education form whilst clutching his cup of coffee ; in the background is the community organiser, Donny Moss.

Speaker Quinn is running an unannounced campaign for mayor this year, and activists across New York City are protesting her horrible record on term limits, the use of slush funds, her blockage of the paid sick leave bill, the closing of so many hospitals in New York City including St. Vincent's, and her support to fully-fund the NYPD's practice of using stop-and-frisk.

Christine Quinn Was Booed at MLK Forum Up In Harlem

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, an undeclared candidate for mayor, was booed at the Rev. Al Sharpton's Martin Luther King Jr. forum, after she had suggested that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly should stay on as mayor, reported the news Web site DNAinfo.

For a long time now, activists are pressuring Speaker Quinn to de-fund the resources from NYPD that allow the police department to carry out its unconstitutional program called stop-and-frisk.

More and more, people are standing up and speaking out against Christine Quinn. We each have our own reasons. But the more that we find the courage to stand up, the more that other people will join us, until our individual voices become a rising chorus. We demand reforms, and we won't accept anything less.

Read more : Christine Quinn Booed at Martin Luther King Jr. Day Forum in Harlem

New Petition Asking For Clawback of Nobel Peace Prize From Obama

New petition on Change.org : Norwegian Nobel Committee: Rescind the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Barack Obama in 2009

In consideration of the many reasons listed on the petition, and other uses of the American military, we petition that the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Nobel Prize organization rescind the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Obama in 2009.

Please feel free to also contact the Norwegian Nobel Committee directly :

E-mail : postmaster@nobel.no or by Telephone : (+47) 22 12 93 00

War on Hunger

A tragic photograph illustration is going viral on Facebook. It depicts a huddled child, who appears diminished from hunger, and above the child appears bombs that are being dropped. On the illustration appears the message that global hunger could be eradicated with $30 billion, or about as much money that is spent on global war and military operations in just 8 days.

Anonymous - Message to America

Hello all of America. Hello Mister president. We are Anonymous. Dear Mister president, We would like to ask you, are you happy with what you have allowed the United States to become? The entire country a war machine, people rising in protest against you, and the city governments allowing the brutal beatings and arresting of citizens across America. By allowing this to happen you are a disgrace to the office of presidency. You mister president, you need ought rightfully to set your political career aside and focus on the city streets of your own country. So far you have done nothing about the thousands of people arrested in the streets for exorcising their first amendment rights. Stop and listen to the people you took an oath to uphold, stop treating the people of America like terrorists with the building of FEMA camps to imprison all who stand up against political control. You Mister President are a failure to America.

Citizens of the United States. The corporations that profit from permanent war need us to be afraid. Fear stops us from objecting to government spending on a bloated military. Fear means we will not ask unpleasant questions of those in power. Fear permits the government to operate in secret. Fear means we are willing to give up our rights and liberties for promises of security. The imposition of fear ensures that the corporations that wrecked the country cannot be challenged. Fear keeps us penned in like livestock.

And yet, Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves. We alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power, and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. We alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government.

It is for this reason that our constitution was written. America, and the world at large is becoming informed and in turn preparing. Soon, We the people will no longer stand by in silent consent. This is a call to every citizen, this is a message to all of government.

Knowledge is free. We are anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.