April 26, 2008



I was brain damaged in the sixties. Not by drugs but Bob Dylan lyrics. They play in my head like a youtube loop. There’s one for every occasion and I pull them out like a preacher does Bible verses. Today, after watching Reverend Wright and Bill Clinton the phrase “drag you down in the hole that he’s in” was playing. I had to go to BobDylan.com: Bob Dylan: Search The Lyrics to find the rest of the song.

It turned out to be one of my all time favorites “It’s alright ma, I’m only bleeding”

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him.

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society’s pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather drag  you down in the hole
That he’s in.

It’s that last part. Not come up any higher, but drag you down.

You’d think that when a feller pulls himself up out of them lowdown places, that the daddy figures would be there holding out a hand or giving him a leg up. But it don’t happen that way. Most time, they give him a shove back down. Enter Reverend Wright and Bill Clinton. They have overstayed their welcome but they will not get off the stage. Out of tune and out of date, they grasp at the fragments of former importance. The student outshines the teacher and they can’t stand it.

Black or white, man or woman – it don’t matter. Some people will push you out of the nest, knowing what they are giving up. Others won’t let you go. Bill Clinton and Reverend Wright are poisoning the well for Obama. Dragging him back down in the hole that they’re in.

Bill Clinton is Hillary’s front man. He goes into the state before the primary and finds out what’s on the minds of the locals. That way Hillary fine tunes her message for each locality. (Notice the beer drinking factory girl from Scranton now has a decidedly softer southern accent) Bill’s comments about having the “race card played on him” was no mistake. He does not make mistakes. He went to those towns in the rust belt where folks have been losing jobs for two decades (mainly because of his trade deals.) He heard them blame affirmative action and immigrants for their problems and made use of it. He feels their pain.  An affirmative action colored boy was trying to steal the Presidency away from Hillary. He only goes to the white neighborhoods. They look at this sad figure, a great man betrayed by those colored boys that he treated so well. Bill Clinton gives them a reason to hate that uppity colored boy. After all we did for him down here on the plantation. He up and leaves without so much as a “how’d dee doo!”

Yes, I speak southern. It’s my native tongue. So is the racism. That’s why I hear it over and over in both Hillary and Bill Clinton. They are Plantation Liberals. The worst kind of bigot because they see people of color, people on the edges of society as their “pet projects.”

Hillary’s comments about President Johnson and the civil rights bill were the worst. She assumed that Senator Obama could never be President, in spite of the fact that he was winning the nomination. She acted as though Obama was no more than the entertainment, just the warm up act. The real business of governing would be done by the white folks. “Over there, boy” she was saying.  “Leave the real work to the white folks.” 

There’s another Bob Dylan song about Emmett Till. He’s the boy from Chicago went south for the summer to visit his family and never came home. He made the mistake of not knowing his place. He made the mistake of going into the store owned by a white couple, Roy and Carolyn Bryant. They sold supplies and candy to a primarily black clientele. A nod yes or no determined life or death for their colored customers. Some of the kids outside the store will later say they heard Emmett whistle at Carolyn Bryant. It was the last childish mistake the 13 year old ever made.

Later he is kidnapped a brutally killed for being such an uppity n…..

Bill Clinton grew up on the steps of his grandparents’ store. It was a store like that of the Bryant’s. He grew up surrounded by little colored children who dare not cross him. They were grateful to him. They had to be grateful to him.

According to the official biography “

Bill Clinton’s grandparents, Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, taught him strong values and beliefs. They owned a small grocery store just outside of Hope, and despite the segregation laws of the time, they allowed people of all races to purchase goods on credit. They taught their young grandson that everyone is created equal and that people should not be treated differently because of the color of their skin. This was a lesson Bill Clinton never forget. (from the White House official Biography of the President)

Well, that’s the way the Bryant’s would have described their relationship with their clientele too. It is no surprise that after leaving the White House, Bill Clinton moved to Harlem. He moved to a place where once again he could hold court with his little colored friends. Even if they are both from Chicago, Barack Obama is no Emmett Till.

Reverend Wright is cut from the same cloth. His power comes from his rule of the powerless. He scorns “polo- ticks!” His power is real. His power comes from God almighty. He will not hold his tongue to allow one of his students to surpass him. He will shove his student from the stage and pretend he’s doing God’s work. Maybe at one time he was a great man. But he is a shadow of that person now. His cynicism eats away at Obama’s message of hope.

Bob Dylan: The Death Of Emmett Till

This song is just to remind your fellow man
That this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan.
But if all of us folks that thinks alike, if we gave all we could give,
We could make this great land of ours a greater place to live.

Hillary keeps using the line that she and McCain have a lifetime of experience and Obama has a speech.  In truth, her only real foreign policy experience is a speech she gave in Beijing on women’s rights.  It was a great speech.  It was a courageous speech.  But it was just a speech.  Unlike the students in Tiananmen Square, she risked nothing by making that speech.  She has never been unemployed, or homeless or even hungry.  Where were the Clintons during Katrina?  Where was she when Bush wanted permission to invade Iraq?  Where was she when Obama interrupted his campaign to vote against giving immunity to the telecom industry?  She has been silent.  On all the major issues, she has acquiesced to Bush.  She follows the strong man. 

 No doubt that Hillary is a strong a forceful voice for the women’s movement.  I don’t’ want to elect a woman President.  I want to elect the best possible person and not care if about race or sex or religion.  Obama speaks for everyone.  He’s not the black candidate, the male candidate, the young candidate, the Midwestern candidate, the child of immigrant candidate, the preppy elite candidate or the Chicago steelworker candidate.  He’s the Democratic candidate.  He’s fighting both Clintons with one hand tied behind his back because he refuses to “win dirty” and yet he keeps winning delegates and still you ask “Is he tough enough?’    What part of this don’t you understand?

Bill Clinton is in Oregon this week. I expect to see Hillary in a flannel shirt talking salmon fishing soon.