OBAMA AND THE "N WORD": Is it Ever Ok to Use It?

It's the end of the world as we know it! The world is collapsing around our ears! I turn up the radio (ok, ok, I'll stop with the REM references already...it's even starting to annoy me, although I do, in fact, "feel fine"), and all I seem to hear are reports about how life as we know it has come to an end.

A few brave souls in the corporate media have even managed to muster up the courage to whisper some version of "free market capitalism is dying", followed by the inevitable career-saving litany of excuses as to why it is not time to sign that DNR order just yet. Often, however, headlines making such dramatic pronouncements are merely underhanded efforts designed to pique the interest of the unwitting reader so that she will subject herself willingly to yet another instance of sermonizing capitalist apologetics from the liberal corporate media. Take, for example, this cute little morsel from those commies at the New York Times.

As I write this entry, there are some talking heads on CNN prattling on about the economy and emphasizing the need, using Obama's metaphor, to "stabilize the patient". The present model of free-market capitalism may not be dead just yet, but I think current events (and the use of such metaphors) suggest that we are indeed holding a vigil around its death bed.

At the very least, the ruling class believes "something wicked this way comes", otherwise billionaires like George Soros wouldn't be declaring an end to the free market capitalism while whining for even more bailouts for the banking industry (pardon me, I mean "injecting more capital directly into the banks"), courtesy of you, me, and that tool Joe the Plumber.

Quite frankly, I think the banking industry needs to stop playing the victim and pull itself up by its own bootstraps, don't you? Besides, the banking industry was asking for it in the first place, otherwise she wouldn't have gone out in public wearing that tight miniskirt.

Perhaps the most interesting (ok, amusing) part of this whole economic collapse has been watching the Obama administration engage in all sorts of oratorical tap-dancing and (admittedly impressive) agile verbal gymnastics to avoid using the "n word" at all costs. For example, the Obama administration intends to provide banks with "more equity capital from the government, supplied through the conversion of preferred stock.... [while] stepping up regulatory scrutiny." Whew....that was a close one. Moreover, Obama had the audacity to avoid discussing his administration's plans for n-wording the banking industry altogether in his recent quasi-"state of the union" address before Congress , thereby dodging the political bullet associated with the use of the "n word".

It's time to drop the euphemisms already, Mr. Obama. The "n word" is nothing to be afraid of. Here, let me say it for you:

"nationalization"

See? You don't have to put on a pair of army fatigues, grow a beard, and wander around the Sierra Maestras for years to earn the right to use that word. If it makes you feel any better, I hereby grant you permission to use it. Where do I get the authority to do so? From the Latino blood pumping through my faggoty veins.

You Republicrats in Washington have turned "nationalization" into a pejorative term by using it to accuse nations in Latin America (Venezuela comes to mind) of being ruled by dictators, even though these so-called "dictators" were democratically elected by mis hermanos y hermanas who live in America's "back yard" (and they keep electing them over and over again... so inconvenient for your propaganda purposes, no?). The red tide in Latin America is growing precisely because the people are rejecting your neo-liberal pillaging of their nations in favor of economic self-determination. Despite the term's negative connotations in the US, "nationalization" accurately describes exactly what you and your predecessor Bush have been promoting: socialism, but only for the rich.

For instance, I now apparently own part of AIG. Thank you for that. The American people did not order that particular item on the Hope and Change menu, but if you insist on force-feeding us a shitburger, would you mind throwing in a side order of nationalized health care with that?

Some fries would be nice too, since everyone seems to be jobless these days. It's getting so bad that family cats across America are being fattened up as potential social safety nets "just in case". Folks are getting that desperate. As I recall, it was your democratic predecessor who essentially repealed the skeletal afterthought of a welfare state that once provided the people of the US with the option of not eating their pets. "Party of the people" my ass. To paraphrase the Bible, "a person cannot live on Hope(TR) alone."

Mr. Obama, when you are done repaying the banks and insurance companies like AIG for bankrolling your campaign by giving them "more equity capital from the government while stepping up regulatory scrutiny" (but certainly not nationalizing them, mind you), would you mind "giving more equity capital from the government" to people who aren't already billionaires so we can have single-payer health care, better schools, and public housing for anyone who needs it?

I promise that you won't have to use the "n word" or the "s word" to describe such changes since those words obviously terrify you so. Call it whatever you like. Just do something to help people who actually need it for once. That would be ever so nice of you.

It would certainly be a "change".

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