Obama's Race Speech

Did anyone see or read Obama's speech today on the racial conditions of the U.S. and his association with Wright?

The transcript is viewable here http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/18/AR2008031801081.html

I personally thought it was an incredible speech. He reportedly spent two days working furiously on it and showed it only to his closest advisers. He discusses both the frustration of minorities who feel disadvantaged from discrimination, both past and present, as well as those whites who see things like affirmative action and are upset because they don't see how being white helps them in life.

I personally feel that he eloquently addresses the issue with sincerity and many of the right ideas.

What do people think?

Although I'm not from the U.S., and don't have the right to vote for him, I still want him to be the president. The World will change if He's president.

His speech about racial issues, made me more want to support him.

I don't know why people make such an issue out of this.

As important as it is to have a good policy when it comes to race relations, there are a lot of issues more pressing than that. I'll give Obama all the credit he deserves, it was a good speech, but wasn't nearly as incredible as the media has made it out to be.

Of course, if he is elected, he will have an great impact on the US and its international relations, but going so far as to say that he's the most qualified candidate is something that I'm still contemplating. I suppose its natural, you'll never have a perfect candidate, but as far as I can see, none of the people running are overly special. I think the prospects of anyone running is magnified by the overall failure of the Bush administration to make any worthwhile accomplishments. Here we are at the end of his second term and the $US, American school systems, and a number of other important elements are in the shit hole, we are still fighting a pointless war, and the majority of the public is two stone-throws away from lynching Bush before his term ends.

Honestly, a Golden Marmoset would look appear to be an excellent candidate after what we've been through in the past 8 years.

So long as McCain loses I'll be happy with whoever we get. I want exactly three things out of our next president, whoever he/she is:

1: Out of Iraq. Right this fucking second.
2: New power/fuel sources. Our oil wells are drying up, and we're long overdue for a shift in the power grid. I'd really like to avoid a "Frontlines: Fuel of War" scenario, if that's alright with the rest of you.
3: Get the economy back on its' feet. I'm seriously contemplating moving to Canada as it is, and I'll probably wind up following through on that if things get much worse.


Screw the Marmoset! Vote Cthulhu!

I love you. IA! IA! Cthulhu Fhtagn!

Anyone else notice how he resembles the Republican elephant? Methinks that was intentional... :twisted:

I really do not think that oil wells are drying up. The media wants you to believe that. There is so much oil in this country it is ridiculous. America wouldn't have to buy oil from the middle east if we started drilling in Alaska.

Yes, lets drill in ANWAR and destroy one of this country's last pristine wildlife refuges...thats a GREAT idea.

Even if we do, it's like putting a band-aid on a stab wound, there's maybe less then 5 years worth if we decide to completely depend on that source.

And where is this media hype about oil being finite and us running out? If anything I see the media as downplaying this theory every chance it gets.

It's less the short-term consequences and more the long-term ones I'm worried about. We need to break this oil addiction now, and not when we're sucking fumes out of the last deposits; society itself would crumble if we ran out of oil tomorrow, so I'm all for getting to work on developing new energy sources before our lives depend on them.

It's the same reasoning that makes me think we should put more money into the space program; better to start taking baby steps towards colonizing the galaxy now, and not 5 billion years down the line when the sun's about to burn out.

Breakthroughs in the development of new energy sources have been made and its possible for us to have already implemented them, but its not nearly as cost-effective as drilling for oil. Its a severely long process to get something like new energy sources implemented. Concerns about the safety of the people and the environment have to be addressed and resolved. On top of that, the construction of the facilities required for the transition from oil to the new source have to be built and technology that relies on oil to function has to be replaced or reworked so that its compatible with the new energy supply. The US couldn't handle that transition with the financial hole its in right now.

Colonizing new planets isn't exactly a favorable idea in my opinion. Even if we do come up with more environmentally friendly technology, its extremely arrogant to think that after fucking this planet up so bad, we have the right to just move on to another one. I may sound cold and heartless, but if the Earth dies, the human race should die with it. We've already spread destruction throughout the majority of the world, why allow ourselves the opportunity to spread destruction throughout the universe as well?

Guys, first thing we need to get straight, the majority the United States' source of oil is imported from CANADA, the "war for oil" is actually for our allies England and a number of european countries that receive the majority of their oil from the middle east.

Second, if it's a non-renewable source we need to worry about, it's water, which brings me to another thing, water has been used and tested as an alternative fuel for cars. The car runs on hydrogen using an advanced engine that separates the H molecule from the 02 molecules, the one I currently am aware about is the hydrogen car being developed by Honda. It's actually fully functional, and reaches 40 or so miles per gallon[of water]. However cost and safety along with the economic crisis that such a thing would cause it delaying mass production of this product (among other circumstances).

Third, the human race is selfish, even though we are killing our planet, and are undeserving of another habitable planet, our survival instincts will not allow us to simply die with this planet(which isn't guaranteed to die anyways). Think Trigun people.

Well if you'll all pardon me for being a typical selfish human, I'd rather see the human race spread to every corner of the universe and beyond.

Second, abandon this notion that we're doing anything to the planet. We're killing the environment, sure, but we haven't done anything that isn't reversible through natural processes.

Think about everything the planet's been through since its' birth; cosmic radiation, tectonic events, cataclysmic volcanic eruptions, recurring ice ages, meteor strikes, that cosmic collision that liquified most of the planet and led to the moon spinning off from the Earth, need I continue?

What have we done in comparison? We've killed a ton of species, we've made big piles of trash, we've fouled up the air and the waters and killed off most of the ozone. That's it. You want to talk about killing the planet, show me a superweapon that can break the Earth into pieces.

The next extinction-level event that takes place--and don't forget, scientists say we're long overdue for one of those--will in all likelihood erase all traces of our presence here. I say we'd better get to work making sure we don't go down with the ship. Maybe once this beautiful little planet is gone, we'll all learn to take better care of our next home.

Probably not, but you can't blame a guy for hoping.

Humans are parasitic. We consume, then we move to a new place and consume even more. Human civilization has adapted the instinct of survival into a method that threatens to completely wipe out all life on this planet. Other than its feverish attempts to extend the life expectancy, it has been quite successful at producing an overabundance of expendable life. I'm not speaking of anyone in particular, all humans are expendable. The way I see it is that we've amassed so much unnecessary technology to protect life that we have allowed our numbers to go unchecked for way too long. I don't like the idea of war, but it would prove beneficial to our species at this point in time if a significant number of people died. Although I don't necessarily condone the murder of humans by other humans, nature will inevitably find its way to catch up with our attempts to escape it. That's why I kind of like natural disasters. Don't get me wrong, there is an element of tragedy to them, but the truth of the matter is that its just nature getting back at mankind for trying to prolong life beyond when it is supposed to end.

From destruction comes new beginnings.

Well I'm not American but I support Obama. Simply because
1 Its a milestone globally
2 I think that Hilary Clinton just doesn't hold up next to him. Her husband was disgraced, she might end up being far too greatly influenced by him, and when I was in the states for a while it seemed to me her message was the same as Obama's, only it was "Change- With experience"