by Radio Raheem

G21 Staff Writer

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OAKLAND, CA, USA - It's that time again. You can't hide from the media coverage of the Presidential election we're havin' here in America this year or the political commercials from the candidates and the various and variegated special interest groups who are free to run attack ads at-will. But there is an encouraging development in the wind this time out, Homes. Despite what the media are sayin' (the "Mouthpiece Media" or "MM", as our Esteemed Editor repeatedly has called those folks in New York and L.A.), maybe we, as a people, have FINALLY learned to trust them as much as we trust used car salesmen, lawyers and -- well, yeah! -- politicians, and decided we need to make our minds up on our lonesome. At least that's what this Homeboy from the flats of Oakland feels like after lookin' at the election season thus far. I'll tell you why.

Seems like it was right after Christmas that everybody and his brother in the so-called MM was tellin' us that George W. Bush had better get ready to face the "passion" and the "Internet-savvy" fundraising ability of Democratic Presidential candidate, former-Governor of Vermont, Dr. Howard Dean. You go to the supermarket, who's on the cover of Time magazine? Dr. Howard Dean with a big ole grin.

This same MM was sayin' that Senator John Kerry was running one of the most inept campaigns in history and he was toast.

Meanwhile, I gottah hand to our own in-house political commentator, our Esteemed Editor, he had come out for Senator Kerry, making it a point to say it was only a personal endorsement -- not our magazine's -- back last fall and he stuck to his guns.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems kind of odd that the Editor of a little Web magazine that focuses on international issues and doesn't have the money for polls and sending high-paid people all over the country could get the pulse of the voters better than the MM. Does it strike y'all that way, too?

As I write this column, Dr. Dean is running way behind Senator John Kerry everywhere you can look. He took off to Michigan this week, after having a major reshuffle of his campaign hierarchy -- he replaced his Internet genius and Campaign Manager, a dude named Joe Trippi, with a former lobbyist for Verizon and Bell South who used to work for Al Gore -- who bitch-slapped his former running mate, Senator Liebermann, with an endorsement of Dr. Dean. I guess Dr. Dean is gonnah have a hard time talkin' about not dealin' with "Washington Insiders" now that he's got the Al Gore team runnin' his campaign.

But let me get back to Dean in Michigan. Michigan is a delegate-rich state that's gonnah vote in the primary on February seventh. Goin' there right now says to me, sitting out here in Cali, that the man is already accepting that he won't get much momentum from the seven -- count 'em -- primaries and caucuses comin' up on Tuesday the third of February. He's still runnin' scared about the "growl" that's been all over the Internet and in the news, I figures.

Let's ask ourselves a question, Homies: Where is the MM-touted "genius" of the Howard Dean campaign today? The voters have spoken and they said, "Talk to the hand." Howard Dean announced on Thursday that he wanted his campaign staff to work for free for two weeks.

What happened to that $40 Million [USD] in Internet money?

This is still America and it's still full of average working people like you and me. What do we care about? It's a short list:

1. Good jobs to support our families.
2. Good educations for our kids.
3. Affordable health care for all our family members, parents, ourselves and our spouses and kids.

You don't have to be no damned Internet genius or a rocket scientist to figure this out. BUT you do have to deal with average folks, people down here on the street who get up every mornin' and drag their butts to work, to know that.

You gottah respect that John Kerry says his campaign is all about going around the country listenin' to wh at the average folks who cast a vote have to say, not what the MM has to say. It seems to be workin' for him for now.

I understand, of course, that most of the members of the Privileged Classes, like most people in the American Congress - and especially the multinational corporate CEOs who are spending time around George W. Bush - would rather be caught dead than be seen in the local WalMart instead of the Ritz-Carlton bar cuttin' deals. And the media whores who revel in "access" to these people and have "sources" don't give a good goddamn about us average folk, either. As Tupac said, "It's a cold world; niggaz gottah make they own heat." Whether you white, black, yellow or green, if you work for a paycheck, you a niggah in this equation, Baby. Get used to it.

What that means is that your real concerns (listed above) is what the Privileged and most people running for President (or occupying 1600 PA Ave right now) don't have to think about for one damned minute a year.

Back down here on the street, where me and my wife and you and your family live, it's a very different story. This is the story that the Mouthpiece Media miss while covering the Presidential horserace and this is why they probably won't be able to pick an election result with any greater accuracy than a palm-reader this election season.

'Cause I have the sense we have FINALLY wised-up. We listen to what they tell us we are thinking the same way we listen to that used car salesman sayin' we need to buy today because this the best offer we're ever gonnah get.

We're tired of hearing that average working people are stupid and can get led by the nose.

"Surprise, Assholes! We can think for ourselves. Take your exit poll and shove it where the sun don't shine!"

I wannah end my column this week, Homeboys and -girls, with a story I read about recently. Back in the Real Day, and I'm talking like the Before Christ (B.C.) Day, there was other civilizations, right? We had your ancient Sumerians and Babylonians and Egyptians and Chinese and all that.

Well, in this article I was reading, there was the custom among the first Emperors of Persia, before Alexander and all that, where the leader of Persia would wear a mask in public -- well, leader for a year. At the end of the year they would kill his ass.

Anyway, during that year when he was Top Man, when he went out in public, he was totally concealed from his people.

Why?

It seems he was some kindah god or something. So, before they sacraficed him to satiate the real gods and make the crops keep on growin', he couldn't be observed by the human eye. That's when these here kings came up with the saying, "No man sees my face and lives."

No lie. If you happened to see this guy after taking a -- well, relieving his bowels -- and managed to catch him putting his mask back on -- SWOOSH! There was some janissary there to lop off your head. Bye-bye!

NOW WHY WOULD I BRING UP THIS PARTICULAR STORY?

Well, I was back-surfing the G21 the other day and I ran up on Rod's story about his attending the U.S. Inaugural ceremony of George W. Bush. Our Editor's story then was devastating. He said that he felt that we had become a Banana Republic. There was a chainlink fence around the parade route the President-elect would take and you couldn't even enter the area without being thoroughly checked by security agents. This was the first time, Rod wrote, that this type of thing had ever happened in this country. He compared this situation to when former-President James Earl Carter had walked from his swearing in office to the the White House, being totally open to the American people, the people of a free country.

As Rod reported it then, three years ago, George W. went through the heavily-searched crowd of citizens of this "free" country in an armored limo with black windows. The President of the United States, Rod suggested, was afraid of his own legitimacy and afraid of the American people, who had braved a pouring rain to be there. You couldn't see his face and live. The limo was surrounded by Secret Service agents ordered to shoot you dead if you tried to see your leader.

We need to remember this as the new election approaches.

This is the same George W. Bush who told the Israelis that he was acting as God's agent here on Earth. Need I say more?

Peace out.

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