Barack Obama's 2006 Tax Return

Commentaries on his returns from the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune.

Although his income decreased significantly, the amount of monies earned is still impressive for the Junior Senator of Illinois.

Barack's Blues: Will "Blessing" Boomerang into a Smear?

Seems every week in Obama's presidential campaign there's something new and potentially damaging and distracting: From "magical Negro" to Saviour.

David Cordero, an artist and student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (and apparent Obama supporter) unveiled his life-sized exhibit called "Blessing" depicting Barack Obama cloaked in white and red robes with a blue neon halo--Jesus Christ as black. Interestingly, Cordero's 'Barack-as-Christ' exhibit seems inspired by filmmaker, Kevin Smith's, "Buddy Christ" from his 1999 controversial movie, Dogma.


About Obama, Cordero said in an interview,

"He's sort of emerged as this really sort of charismatic and really popular person. I think that people really like him and I think it's because of his message of unity and sort of his political platform."

All well and good, but will another well-meaning effort of an Obama supporter boomerang into an unintended smear or become another means of keeping him on the defensive? The melding of politics and religion and the color of Christ is taking center stage right before Resurrection Sunday. People are asking: Is it art? Or is it blasphemy?

Bruce Jenkins, the dean of the Art Institute's undergraduate program, said the school has been flooded with calls regarding Cordero's sculpture, "some of them from angry people."

However, he said the sculpture has gotten mostly positive feedback.

AP quotes him as saying, "When you see it, when you spend time with it, you understand it's not a provocative work at all. It opens a set of questions."

The Obama camp has made it clear that the Illinois senator has nothing to do with the piece.

"While we respect First Amendment rights and don't think the artist was trying to be offensive, Senator Obama, as a rule, isn't a fan of art that offends religious sensibilities," Obama spokesman Jen Psaki said.

Will there be an outcry for the disexhibition of Cordero's "Blessing?" It happened before. Controversial art has a tradition at the School of the Art Institute.

About twenty years ago a graduating senior, David Nelson's painting, "Mirth & Girth" of the late African American Mayor of Chicago was so offensive that several alderman removed the painting exhibition and attempted to take it out of the building, but security stopped them. Amazingly, they then convinced police to "arrest" the painting and removed it from the building. A Judge ruled four years after the incident that three aldermen had violated Nelson's First Amendment rights, and as a result was entitled to receive damages.

While it is highly unlikely that anything that drastic will occurr to the "Blessing" exhibit, the religious right and neo-cons are singing praises. Why?

One blogger believes,

To a sophisticated viewer, it should be evident that the artist, David Cordero, was making a sarcastic comment about media attention and pseudo-religiosity in politics. The sculpture is clearly an indirect criticism of those journalists who assign, in Cordero's words, “all these inflated expectations.”

Obama for President or VP?

From everything I've been reading and hearing about Obama, it appears he is either going to be the Democratic Presidential nomination or at the very least, the VP to whomever is the Democratic pick. The Irregular Times, News Unfit for Print has been selling Presidential Dream Ticket items and appears in every single combination Barack Obama is the central player.

In December 2006, Irregular Times sold over 200 of these items; Barack Obama took the presidential position in most of the running-mate items. Obama is not only dominant: he is also central.

I wonder if the stats are still the same now. It is being speculated that if Gore wins the Nobel Prize for his environmental piece, he will be pressured into running for the President and Obama will be he running mate. Only time will tell.

Barack Obama asks...

How can we engage more people in the democratic process?

Barack Obama - Community get togethers

On March 31st, people across America with be gethering from Barack Obama around the theme of "Hope". You’ll have an opportunity to join Barack in a discussion, streamed live at BarackObama.com. The discussion will be centered around "how we can reinvigorate our democratic process and change America". Click here to find a community gathering near you.

"Hillary 1984" Attack Ad Creator Revealed

An email from TechPresident to the "Hillary1984" Vote Different ad creator under the username ParkRidge47 (Hillary Clinton was born in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1947), led to this disclosure:

"The idea was simple and so was the execution. Make a bold statement about the Democratic primary race by culture jacking a famous commercial and replacing as few images as possible. For some people it doesn't register, but for people familiar with the ad and the race it has obviously struck a chord."

Arianna Huffington followed-up and sent out a challenge to the HuffPost team asking them to put their ears to the ground, and learned the video was the work of Philip de Vellis, an employee of Blue State Digital, a company created by members of Howard Dean's Internet Team--that now advises the Obama campaign.

What was he thinking? Did he consider his stealthy creativity might damage Sen. Obama's presidential campaign philosophy once it got out that he was an Obama campaign consultant? Apparently not: Proudly he declares,

"I made the "Vote Different" ad because I wanted to express my feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show that an individual citizen can affect the process. There are thousands of other people who could have made this ad, and I guarantee that more ads like it--by people of all political persuasions--will follow.

This shows that the future of American politics rests in the hands of ordinary citizens.

The campaigns had no idea who made it--not the Obama campaign, not the Clinton campaign, nor any other campaign. I made the ad on a Sunday afternoon in my apartment using my personal equipment (a Mac and some software), uploaded it to YouTube (on March 5th), and sent links around to blogs.

The specific point of the ad was that Obama represents a new kind of politics, and that Senator Clinton's "conversation" is disingenuous. And the underlying point was that the old political machine no longer holds all the power."

Well, the ad has now cost him his job: Here is Blue State Digital's statement on this situation.

Statement from Thomas Gensemer, Managing Director, Blue State Digital:

This afternoon, an employee at our firm, Phillip de Vellis, received a call from Arianna Huffington of "The Huffington Post" regarding the "1984" video currently circulating online. Initially, de Vellis refused to respond to her requests. He has since acknowledged to Blue State Digital that he was the creator of the video.

Pursuant to company policy regarding outside political work or commentary on behalf of our clients or otherwise, Mr. de Vellis has been terminated from Blue State Digital effective immediately.

Blue State Digital is under contract with the Obama Campaign for technology pursuits including software development and hosting. Additionally, one of our founding partners is on leave from the company to work directly for the campaign at headquarters.

However, Blue State Digital is not currently engaged in any relationship with the Obama Campaign for creative or non-technical services.

Mr. de Vellis created this video on his own time. It was done without the knowledge of management, and was in no way tied to his work at the firm or our formal engagement [on technology pursuits] with the Obama campaign.

I have spoken with David Plouffe, Sen. Obama's campaign manager, to inform him of this action and am appreciative of his understanding and ongoing support of our work.

In any event, like Geffen's gaff last month, Mr. de Vellis may have created new storm clouds to block out the clear blue sky of Obama's pragmatic political idealism that he so admires. Many will wonder: Could anyone on Obama's staff not have known about the ad before it was uploaded? Zack Exley of TechPresident believes,

"This was a funded project, involving lawyers and an ad agency or at the very least a professional video person who's time is worth hundreds of dollars an hour.

This brings up an interesting possibility. In primary campaigns--where viral ads like this can influence game-changing numbers of voters--will privately-funded creative like "Vote Different" become a major factor? It might not be such a pretty picture. Think ahead to what ad agencies, with checks from Republican political donors, would produce against Hillary, Obama or Edwards in the General Election.

This could really change the way politics are done, at least in this cycle, and probably will bring regulation of this kind of thing soon."

What if de Vellis was a mole? Was the hidden agenda to create another situation to smear Obama? Who would have hired him? There still is a mystery: Who made the cheap imitation "Barack 1984 ad?"

Obama the 'Magic Negro'

The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man.

The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia.

He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest. As might be expected, this figure is chiefly cinematic — embodied by such noted performers as Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Smith and, most recently, Don Cheadle. And that's not to mention a certain basketball player whose very nickname is "Magic."