Radio Lady: I called my first cousin in Philadelphia and what he said made my blood run cold:

[Radio_Lady]

"Barack Obama? They'll inaugurate him one day and assassinate him the next!!!!!"

I am in total shock. Is this just too provocative to put into any DU forum?

Comments, anyone?

Notes:

He is a former Pittsburgh school teacher, retired, in his 60s, and highly intelligent.

He will be driving to Boston with his woman friend to spend the night with us.

My birthday is on 5/31 and his is on 6/1.

I just want this primary season to be over.

Peace, love and happiness,

Radio Lady

[conservdem]

1. A very real and legitimate fear, but of course this does not alter

my support for him. I my opinion he is a brave to not let this possibility deter him.

[mac2]

20. It's a scare tactic like all Afro-Americans are under attack

if they vote for Obama. He is their "saviour". Was Condi Rice or Colin Powell theirs too?

I heard on the Thom Hartmann a Afro-American woman call and complain she was threatened by her family and friends to vote for Obama or they would be angry at her. Now that's tyranny folks! Talk about the end justifies the means. Isn't this what we accuse the RWers of doing?

It might surprise some people that there are Americans of every race who might help them achieve a better life. Africa is full of dictators and bully leaders who don't do what is right.

[cyndensco]

49. you are fucking clueless

Barack Obama is not my savior and, while I cannot speak for all "afro-americans," (though you seem to have an uncanny ability to do so) I doubt many of us view him this way. And, no, Rice, Powell, Thomas et.al. are not my saviors either.

It is so tiring hearing uninformed folk like you trying to explain the support Obama receives from many of us. Could it be, possibly, that many of us support him because we feel he is the best candidate? That perhaps some of us believe it is time to have someone other than a bush or clinton in the whitehouse?

Hearing on a radio show that one black woman has been harassed by her family makes you no expert. Speak of what you know...

[olkaz]

52. Are you black?

Then why criticize them?

I don't critcize women who are overzealous because they want to see a woman in office. It makes sense.

African Americans are overzealous as well. They're excited. One of their own has a shot.

But go ahead, explain more about the tyranny of black families and how they're JUST like right wingers.

[Peace Patriot]

56. I'm finding it hard to believe what I just read (--that is, what you just wrote).

Friend, many families argue about politics, and get angry about it. "Tyranny"? Nope. Just family life U.S.A. Your singling out this second-hand report (hearsay) as somehow typical of Afro-Americans is racist--that is, unreasonable, bigoted, ignorant, wrong.

And then your extrapolating this hearsay report about a family political fight to Africa--"Africa is full of dictators and bully leaders who don't do what is right"--is...almost crazy. What does that have to do with anything? You seem to be saying that African-Americans are like African dictators?! Well, there may be some dictators in Africa, and there may be some dictators in the Middle East, and there certainly is a dictator in Pakistan, and Uzbekistan, and, indeed, there seems to be a dictator in our own White House. So what? What does that have to do with anyone's race? Are you saying that certain races are more likely to be inflicted with dictators? You'd have to include a lot of people, of many different races, who have suffered tyranny. The Greeks. The Romans. The Egyptians. The Spanish. The Italians. The Germans, of course. And the Russians. The Chinese. The French. All of Europe (at various times). What race has not suffered dictatorship at one time or another? And how many races are suffering dictatorship now?

Please think things through a bit before you post them, and spare us this sort of gossipy, snipey remark that has no relevance and no rationality, and is offensive as well. We have a country and a democracy to save. We have grave crises ahead of us, and many important issues to discuss. Please be more thoughtful, and more helpful to the bigger project here, at DU, of exchanging useful political information, opinions and analysis.

[ej510]

57. There are alot of racist Hillary supporters. They love to act is if all black people have one brain!

I am sick of this shit!

[crankychatter]

64. I just caught your act

welcome to the nether realm, Jack

*poof*

[ecstatic]

65. Wow! Are you related to surfermaw?

[Lisa0825]

2. We can't let "them" use that fear to keep us from progress.

If we refuse to ever break the barrier out of fear of retaliation, they will always win.

[demokatgurrl]

42. LOVE those photos!!!!! nt

[2rth2pwr]

3. That statement usually comes from Obama supporters.

[Radio_Lady]

9. I'm not sure about that. We didn't question him on his choice... just

discussed the election in general.

He talked mostly to my husband about travel arrangements to meet us in Massachusetts.

[musiclawyer]

23. I was an Edwards guy, before he dropped out

Now I am an Obama supporter. But way back in the Edwards days, my colleagues would have these types of discussion at the water cooler. One still wants HRC to win because he thinks McCain is THAT weak. But that's not the point. .....If Obama gets elected will the powers that be try to take him out? This still comes up. One guy even suggested that Obama essentially limit his appearances for the foreseaable future after inauguration to reduce the risk. These are educated, reasonable people having the same discussion. You could say it's crazy talk because policy wise, HRC and Obama are not that far apart. But this kind of concern is not a myth. I have seen it, My brother's best friend in Lethbridge, Alberta told him the same thing unsolicited back in February.

[Radio_Lady]

31. Would Hillary Clinton be as much at risk? We were on vacation with our family

in Florida when Ms. Bhutto was assassinated last December. My depression, anger, and upset lasted for several days.

What is this world coming to?

I want to be an optimist and believe that the next person in the White House will be a positive influence on this country.

Peace, love and happiness,

RL

[mkultra]

35. good question

im not sure the violent opposition to women is as strong in America as it is to blacks.

[mkultra]

33. you make zero sense

try again.

[2rth2pwr]

54. Who else brings it up?

[babylonsister]

4. No offense, but he doesn't sound too bright. nt

[Radio_Lady]

58. I can't vouch for his IQ, but he is extremely verbal and tuned in to politics.

He taught school for a very long time, but I guess you don't have to be intelligent to teach, but it helps! :sarcasm:

He lives close to a university also.

[Madam Mossfern]

5. merely scare tactics

If he's not worried, neither should you be.

[NJmaverick]

6. It's a common sentiment I have heard from Right Wingers

They push the story for two reasons. One it helps them live with the idea that a black man (who is liberal) may be their president, and I suspect it's also a bit of wishful thinking.

I don't know the political leanings of your Cousin, but that's where he or she probably heard it.

[The Magistrate]

28. That Sentiment, Sir, Can Be Found On All Bands Of The Political Spectrum

It is most commonly found among persons who have some awareness of the depth to which racism permeates the social and political life of our country. In many ways, of course, it is not a serious expectation, since the protections around a President nowadays are extraordinary, to a point un-dreamt of even twenty-five years ago. Assassination of a sitting President nowadays is a practical impossibility, barring a defection of some size within the Secret Service itself, or a long term large-scale campaign donor willing to commit suicide and employing very unconventional means, or a full-blown military coup employing heavy weapons.

[donheld]

7. Wednesday nights "debate" was an assassination attempt

Character assassination. When will it get physical?

[Radio_Lady]

13. OT: As a former children's TV host, I loved your avatar!

This is just how I feel this morning:



Character assassination goes both ways, don't you think?

[donheld]

55. It certainly can

[Lucky 13]

8. I think this falls into the catagory, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

[Eurobabe]

10. Oh my, take your toxic people pills before they arrive!

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Even if that comment were prescient, I paraphrase the last line in "Bulworth":

It's better to be a spirit than a ghost.

Obama is starting a movement that will live beyond his years.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

...

If I was president,
I'd get elected on Friday
assasinated on Saturday,
and buried on Sunday.

If I was president...
If I was president

An old man told me
instead of spending billions on the war,
we can use some of that money
in the ghetto.
I know some so poor
they use the spring as the shower,
when screaming "fight the power".
That's when the vulture devoured


If I was president,
I'd get elected on Friday, assasinated on Saturday,
and buried on Sunday.

If I was president...
If I was president...
If I was president...
If I was president

But the radio won't play this.
They call this rebel music.
How can you refuse it, children of moses?


If I was president,
I'd get elected on Friday, assasinated on Saturday,
and buried on Sunday.

If I was president...
If i was president

Tell the children the truth, the truth.
Christopher Columbus didn't discover America.
Tell them the truth.
The truth
YEAH! Tell them about Marcus Garvey.
The truth YEAH! The truth.
Tell them about Martin Luther King.
Tell them the truth.
The Truth.
Tell them about JFK

If I was President


If I was president,
I'd get elected on Friday
assasinated on Saturday,
and buried on Sunday.

If I was president...
If I was president

[Radio_Lady]

18. I remember all the assassinations -- I will be 69 in May. Are these song lyrics or is this a poem?

Thanks for your post.

Cordially,

Radio Lady in Oregon

[stillcool]

12. I think some people have a really ...

hard time with the idea of a black President. And then there are others that have a really hard time with a 'populace' President. Perhaps they are comfortable with corporate control and being ruled by old white men.

[shraby]

14. If Obama is willing to take that risk, we

should be willing to support him. Every person who runs for the presidency is in danger...witness Bush's extraordinary measures taken to keep him safe.

[Radio_Lady]

24. Agree completely, Shraby. Colin Powell's wife spoke openly of her fears that he might be

assassinated when there was talk of the possibility of him running for president.

Peace, love and happiness,

Radio Lady

[TragedyandHope]

15. I'm hopeful that the country has moved beyond that

But I do hear whispers about this on both side of the fence (in real life). That part our history lurks large in our not-so-distant past.

Michelle Obama: Be not afraid

[mac2]

26. There are still many forces fighting to gain power and

control in this country. The list is long....religious, financial, corporate, other foreign countries agenda, etc. They will say and do anything to get what they want. The government has to protect us from them. That is their duty. Seems this administration encourages all of them.

[psychopomp]

16. Not this time!

Don't worry about it. :toast:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

17. I've heard that before locally.

Usually from people who were of an age to remember first had the R.F., John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King murders.

Those events left a lasting impression of fear on some people that's hard to overcome.

[Radio_Lady]

61. Lone_Star_Dem, I can remember all of those assassinations and also...

Malcolm X.

I don't know if it's a lasting impression of fear, but it is back there, somewhere in my brain.

Of course, I think about what could happen to Senator McCain? (Even Senator Murtha said McCain's too old to be president!!) Melanoma (skin cancer) can spread to any organ. If caught early, as Senator McCain's was, the survival rate is pretty good.

He is a lightskinned man and I don't know how much sun he was exposed to while in prison.

[Reader Rabbit]

19. I have heard these fears from people who came of age in the 50s and 60s.

Given the assassinations that they witnessed during their lifetime, it's not a surprising point of view. But I truly do think both the world and the United States have changed.

[CherokeeDem]

21. Unfortunately, an older male friend of mine in Florida...

has professed the same thought. It makes my blood run cold as well. I can only hope that the Secret Service can protect him from such horror; this has to be a concern to him and them now during the primary as well.

I agree with one of the poster's above, we cannot allow ourselves to let this possibility become a deter ant to electing anyone regardless of the risk.

[FlaGranny]

50. Unfortunately, my very first feeling was of dread

when Obama declared. I well remember all those assassinations. The haters are still here, just a bit more underground, and maybe somewhat fewer than in the past (I hope). Obama has courage and I hope he gets all the protection he needs from the crazies.

[Radio_Lady]

60. Love this: "We cannot allow ourselves to let this possibility become a detterent."

Thanks for your comments.

Edited for typo...

Peace, love and happiness,

Radio Lady in Oregon

[smoogatz]

22. To believe that is to believe that the U.S. is beyond redemption.

And if I believed that, I'd pack up the fam and move to Canada. That said, I think as long as he doesn't make the mistake of picking a running mate who's politically to his right he'll be fine.

[Doctor_J]

25. The BFEE won't let this happen

If Obama is inaugurated then murdered, this country will burn to the ground, and all of the Bush's money won't be able to hide them from being casualties. They and the rest of the elite that run this country won't do anything that would jolt us out of our collective American Idol stupor.

[crankychatter]

27. The aim is to 'radicalize" dissent.... even though WE are the Majority now

They use character assassination in the media now... they don't have to shoot them AFTER inauguration because their hopes are destroyed in the nomination process.

Obama is a mild Centrist and is "threatening" to the Military Industrial Complex and Transnational Corporations ONLY in this way:

He wouldn't take ALL the money and is not in their pockets sufficiently to be FULLY trusted.

He THINKS he's running for President of the US. They have redefined that office to be "corporate puppet."

I believe that your cousin is possibly correct... but it will most likely happen in the form of a Clinton nomination.

so... the system is up, quasi-legal and ready to implement... internment camps are ALL over the US, the World and empty.

Sufficient civil unrest upon the nomination of Clinton CONCURRENT WITH WAR WITH IRAN... and your cousin's nightmare will come to pass...

without a shot being fired.

[mac2]

40. A "mild centrist" what the blazes is that?

Center is now the far right.

[SoonerPride]

29. Nobel laureate says: 'They will kill Obama if he becomes US president':

Doris Lessing made this rather stark prediction earlier this year

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2008/110208Obama.htm

[closeupready]

34. I never really understood who the "they" were in Lessing's prediction.

The KKK? Who?

[SoonerPride]

39. Either "elite power brokers" or "joe 6 pack racists"

Her comment was rather startling and ominous though.

[mac2]

37. They said that about Gore when he ran with Liebermann.

Gore will be killed to have the first Jewish President. Who needs a Jewish President? Bush gives them everything they want. We even go to war and go into debt for them (err..and oil).

[closeupready]

30. He meant, in terms of racists? I don't think that fear has much basis these days.

Racism (and racists) has been thoroughly discredited. Nevertheless, the SS has to take all threats seriously, so if there is any danger, I'm pretty sure they'll be on it.

[crankychatter]

32. a racist will be the Patsy... but I think it won't come to that

Obama will pull back in Iraq and we'll be heating it up in Afghanistan and Pakistan...

The MIC is conflicted about him... but they're not completely dismayed

see my post above....

[mac2]

44. "heating it up in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

Is this a good thing when the lies about 911 are internal? They didn't attack us.

I've heard Obama's terrorism speech and it is scary. Go to war yourself Obama.

[crankychatter]

51. point taken but are we electing jesse' ventura?

just sayin'

I have NO illusions about my man, Obama

I'm in daily communication with the most severe cynics in America

My African American Family

:-)

the point is... if you know what you know... a martyr would be the surest path to the "radicalization" of opposition, the criminalization of dissent, see?

illegal immigration was the START button... DHS is the apparatus...

and the next is easy to see... phase three

War with Iran prior to November... Clinton poised to appear "tough" by repeating BushCo's memes

[crispini]

36. Even in conversations with my local friends, I have heard this expressed.

The thing is that we can't conduct our lives according to our fear. As a matter of fact if I recall correctly Sen. Obama himself has expressed something similar.

[haymakeragain]

38. It's not the racists you gotta worry about, it's the

MIC.

[msallied]

41. I will admit that I have a similar fear about BOTH Democratic candidates

But that sort of fear should not sway anyone. It's a fear of change, of going "against the establishment" of old white men.

Has anyone ever given thought to the fact that a woman President traveling to the Middle East would be in grave danger right now than if that President were a man? Even so, I would not let that steer me from my convictions. You just have to believe that security detail will be tighter than ever.

[merh]

43. exactly - both of our candidates face these concerns daily

n/t

[mac2]

46. It's a fear of change, of going "against the establishment" of old white men.

That is a racist statement since there were Afro-Americans involved in the lies of 911. Condi Rice and Colin Powell...are not old white men. Nor would things be different if they were of any race.

[msallied]

63. Oh give it the fuck up.

That was not a racist statement. Condi and Powell are like specks of pepper in a salt shaker that has been DOMINATED by old white men since 1776.

[crankychatter]

68. he's in the nether realm now... you'll have to visit my dumpster to talk with him

just sayin'

I can arrange an appointment for you

but you're warned... the smell is atrocious

[Radio_Lady]

70. Msallied, your blog is wonderful! Thanks for inviting me in.

CU@theDU

Cordially,

Radio Lady in Oregon!

[GoesTo11]

45. We can't go through life full of fear - and anticipating threats can stop them

[knixphan]

47. dealt with already -

1. Barack and Michelle: 'Let US worry about our safety. YOU worry about voting.'

2. Killing him would martyr him. Remember Obi-wan's last words to Darth Vader.

3. Distract, Deter, Divide. We won't fall for it.

4. Democracy has always been dangerous. Remember the men who penned the declaration?

[zbdent]

48. report him ...

[Blue_Roses]

53. he's in that age brackett...

the one that thinks like this.

[Radio_Lady]

62. You mean my cousin? I'd rather you not speak for EVERYONE in ANY "age bracket".

Especially for my cousin, whom you don't know. I don't know him very well, either, because he grew up in Pennsylvania, and I grew up in Florida.

Cordially,

Radio Lady in Oregon

[Coexist]

59. he has really good SS protection.

[windbreeze]

66. unfortunately....I think he pretty much nailed it...

However, considering Obama IS brave enough to run....are YOU brave enough to vote for him??....(I've heard the word "uppity", quite a bit lately...to me that's an indication as to how some still think)...wb

[crankychatter]

67. "Are you who, philosophize disgrace, and criticize our fears?

... take the rag, away from your face, for now ain't the time for your tears."

Bob Dylan

For those of you minimizing the extraordinary danger faced by Senator Obama... acknowledged by the most elite law enforcement agency in the world (Secret Service)... and talked about daily in the homes of not only African American families, but ALL mature Democrats that remember the debacle that was the 60's...

I want you to know... if ANYTHING HAPPENS... ANYTHING...

we will remember YOUR FUCKING NAMES.

[Radio_Lady]

69. Are you talking to me? I am not advocating anything happening, just reporting it.

I have no idea what your posts mean, crankychatter. But they are very gloomy and sad.

Too bad we can't just have a conversation anymore.

For the record, I do NOT comprehend either your posts #67 or #68.

Have a good day tomorrow.

Cordially,

Radio Lady in Oregon