Angela Davis and her support for Obama.

There is lots of controversy that continues to swirl around Angela Davis' support for Barack Obama.

You know, I couldn't care less who Angela Davis supports for president; what really irks me is that some people think there are certain people's opinions that are taboo for discussion--- at least if there is anything critical being said. It just so happens that the same people who want to drown out a discussion on what Angela Davis has had to say about Obama are the very same people who tried to prevent a discussion about Obama and what he represents.

Why would anyone be anointed with some kind of status that no matter what they say there should be no discussion? This is perpetrating the worst kind of arrogance which can only stifle and block movement building.

I just posted this as a comment under a facebook post where this is being discussed, again:

Angela Davis' main concern is on the prison reform issue. What I don't understand is when she is out campaigning in support of Obama and defending Obama's "progressive proclivities" is why she never talks about Obama in relation to the prison reform issue. Does Obama have any "progressive proclivities" when it comes to prison reform or reforming the racist system of justice--- or more appropriately as we should label the entire system all across this country as one of "in-justice?"

The entire "judicial" system and "justice" system has been turned into nothing but a racket from the first phone call you are allowed to make once arrested that is likely to cost you $3.00 a minute to being charged "booking fees" and "room and board fees" from the time you are first arrested to enormous fees for using your credit card for bail--- and this is just the beginning of what has been transformed into one big profit-gouging racket.

What has Obama and his Department of Justice done to bring an end to any of these injustices? Nothing.

Leonard Peltier remains behind bars when one of his first acts being elected should have been to let him out of prison.

Barack Obama has refused to enforce Affirmative Action pursuant to Federal Executive Order # 11246.

In fact, Barack Obama has been carrying out Wall Street's agenda which is thoroughly racist and reactionary.

Angela Davis in her last speech in Detroit just before the election supported Obama and chastised progressives for not building the movements required to do what is right by the people.

Obama does okay on his own doing right by Wall Street; how come he, with these "progressive proclivities," needs a push from the people to do what is right by the people?

But, even more to the point, who ever heard of building up the very politician you are going to end up having to fight for what is right and just?

Angela Davis talks about "movement building" yet where is her leadership in helping to build these movements.

Obama has not delivered on one single issue on the progressive agenda--- not one.

After the election Angela Davis delivered a speech in New York City heralding Obama's victory.

The problem is, her speech before the Left Labor Project, was promoted as "Where do we go from here?" and she never broached that topic except in a in the most superficial way without any specifics.

There was one banner behind her calling for jobs to be created by taxing the rich--- nothing on the banner about full employment or how Obama's wars are killing jobs just like they kill people.

I don't know how anyone calling themselves progressive or left can tolerate Obama because he has some kind of "progressive proclivities" and then castigate the rest of us for not being engaged in "movement building."

The fact is; if Angela Davis was engaged in the kind of movement building which won her freedom; she wouldn't even be invited to speak in front of these audiences organized by the Democrats and their coalition partners calling themselves "progressives for Obama."

If you don't believe me, just try to get the floor at any Democratic Party function from precinct caucus, to county or state conventions--- never mind trying to get a issue like single payer to the floor of a national Democratic Party convention.

Would Angela Davis ever be allowed the courtesy of speaking about prison reform before a national Democratic Party convention? No.

She wouldn't even be extended the courtesy of speaking before the Michigan or New York Democratic Party State Conventions. Yet Democrats in both New York and Detroit turned out people to hear her speak about supporting Barack Obama but she never asked the most important question of all:

What about the government's responsibility for full employment?

Why not? There is an issue a huge movement can be built around.

Just try asking Barack Obama to re-submit the Full Employment Act of 1945 which Democrats defeated to Congress.

After all, isn't everyone having a job paying a real living wage the real key to "prison reform?"

Just think; if we built a grassroots movement making the government shoulder its responsibility for full employment like the movement which freed Angela Davis we would be building the kind of heat required to make Obama and all these other politicians accountable to the people.

i listened to both of Angela Davis' speeches pre-election (Detroit) and post-election (New York); she never so much as asked people to sign a petition to Obama reflecting the progressive agenda opposed to these dirty Wall Street imperialist wars which kill jobs just like they kill people thus subjecting people to the kind of racist and criminal poverty which is a breeding ground for crime.