Whites are currently running this country and have done a shitty job. Their black stooges and spokespeople have done a great job of providing cover for their white leaders. Many have sold themselves out completely for their own reasons. White 'religious' people, who ought to know better, are spreading the most racist and vile garbage from their mouths at every chance they get. Blaming 9/11 on gays and uppity women when both groups just want to be recognized for their part in society shouldn't even be uttered in this supposed 'enlightened' age.

A black man voices his opinion of how he sees things from his perspective, a perspective that no white human being can come close to experiencing, and he is excoriated, crucified and practically stoned to death in the all powerful white owned media meanwhile white people are saying the same and worse. 'Religious' leaders that support the Israel government because they are to die and make room for the 'chosen' to be raptured to heaven have visited the White House, not in straight jackets but as invited guests! Human beings that openly proclaim that the sun does revolve around them are treated the same.

A man that hates blacks, Muslims, gays, catholics and uppity women is pursued by a presidential candidate 'like a dog in heat'! Not to mention the amount of people that openly defy science and appear to support the dumbing down of our society fill the halls of the 'White' House.

Meanwhile unhinged white people are afraid of the potential rise of a black man to the height of political power! Are they afraid that Obama and his followers will enslave the whole of the white population? Seriously, yes. Have the whites that are so fearful of Obama decided that the way that whites have treated blacks was that bad that they have to fear a black man being in power? Surprisingly, yes. And yet 'journalists' who operate with near total impunity suggest that something might 'happen' (wink wink) to Obama as president.

I personally feel that Obama would and will make an excellent president. It is something that a black man can run for president in this country. It's a damn disgraceful shame that old time fears and hatred would once again bar a black man from the front of the bus.

At least Obama isn't a woman too. Can you imagine the caterwauling of the 'white' wing and their vicious minions if Obama had gotten this far and been black AND a woman?

God help America and it's continuing lack of faith...

It is not as though what has happened in Pakistan hasn't happened previously; anyone aware of history should be a little jaded by now. For those that aren't, browsing through some of the books on line here - (this links to a specific chapter in a book http://ghazali.net/book3/ch3/ch3.html ) - may be useful.

Allah, Army and America have been the arbiters of Pakistani destiny for the past sixty years; how does an election, that does not challenge the fundamental premises on which the Pakistani state is based, change that?

However, in Tibet, we have the first significant stirrings in the last fifty years, and so it is significant.

Speaking of race: I remember one of my Kenyan college team mates remarking over 25 years ago: "These American blacks- they say they are black. But they are not black- they are all colored!"

My Kenyan and Tanzanian teammates had absolutely no respect or trust for any of the blacks they encountered here in the US and socialized exclusively with other Africans, Hispanics and Anglos.

I wonder why?

Daily I see the teenagers at my school exhibit signs of being colorblind. Popularity and leadership in the classroom seem not to be restricted by skin tone. Nor are the hallway hugging and smooching between classes. I don't know if this is representative of the situation in other parts of the country, but it does give me cause for hope.

My daughter once had a heated argument with another student over a remark made by my daughter that the other girl misunderstood and took personally. Months later, when I drove my daughter to school, she said, "Oh, there's Raquel. She doesn't hate me anymore." It was the first time I was made aware that Raquel was black. The simple fact that my daughter didn't view the disagreement through a filter of race also gives me cause for hope.

Perhaps the kids will reject the prejudices of their parents, and form their own opinions based on their school experiences.

Look at all the ugly puss and such that spews forth. You have

a strong stomach, Glenn. I think of you as wearing the logical equivalent of a hazmat suit.

I know plenty of Nigerian, Tanzanian, and Kenyan people. They respect me just fine. There are the same tensions between black AMERICANS and immigrants as there are with white AMERICANS and immigrants.

Nice job with the "even other black people hate you, you niggers!!!"

But that is a pretty old and tired one, bucky.

Let's talk more and more about all the racism and radicalism among isolated black people

It's not isolated. Most black people I know don't see anything that wrong with Wright's comments, and polls show that over 40% of blacks believe that the government gave us AIDS.

and ignore the endless bile that has long spewed forth from the far more powerful appendages of the right-wing noise-machine, exemplified by Instapunk's Easter meditation on race.

Right, let's ignore what Obama's spiritual adviser believes, because that couldn't possibly have any bearing on his own beliefs, while focusing our attention on what some meaningless blogger bigot has to say. Because some other, slightly less irrelevant TV personality linked to his blog! He doesn't exemplify anything. You have it backwards.

While the dominant political faction in the United States built itself and continues to feed and nourish itself with this sort of endless exploitation of racial resentments and grievances

Grievances which Obama himself said in his speech are completely understandable...

let's spend the next eight months talking about the controversial comments of a single, comparatively powerless black preacher and have our presidential election decided by that.

He may be single but he's not singular; he exemplifies, to use your word, thousands of black preachers and the views of millions of blacks*. I actually have a fair amount of sympathy for these views, but they're not uncommon. As for powerless, he has the ear of our would-be future President, but it's not really about what power he has, but whether Obama exercised good judgment in going to this church. And I still don't think Obama explained that decision very well. His excuse is that disowning Wright would be tantamount to disowning the black community (and analogous to disowning his grandmother), but no one said he should have disowned Wright, just that he should've left the church. Then his other excuse is that Wright's a learned ex-Marine who did a lot of good stuff, helped people with HIV, held day care programs, and so on. That's great, but I'm sure there were less radical churches, with just as educated pastors, that also did a lot of social work in the neighborhood.

* For instance, if we're going to start quoting bloggers, here's what a very popular hip-hop blogger, Byron Crawford, had to say about all of this:

I’ve heard that he was one of these people who claim that the government invented AIDS, which is just impossible to prove....Otherwise though, I’m having a hard time finding a fault with anything this guy has said. And you know I tried. That shit he said about this country being founded on racism? I find that to be true. Same thing with that shit he said about how the US had 9/11 coming: I didn’t want to believe that was true, since I live here and all. But as an adult, and as an educated person, I’ve got the emotional maturity to accept that it is. Even that shit he said about the CIA flooding the ghetto with drugs has been fairly well-documented.

Is Obama saying this shit is definitely not true? And if so, how do you reconcile your support for him with the fact that you know how to read?