Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Shoot. Me. Now.

Reportedly, these are the words of Barack Obama in a note to his aid during his first attendance of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, mocking an interminable monologue of Joe Biden, his future running mate... and successor?

Yet another disturbing insinuation of assassination coming from Obama himself. As Rush Limbaugh has boorishly noted:

Ladies and gentlemen, the New York Times today has a story by Jeff Zeleny: "In Memories of Painful Past, Hushed Worry About Obama." (Gasp!) "There is a hushed worry on the minds of many supporters of Senator Barack Obama, echoing in conversations from state to state, rally to rally: Will he be safe? In Colorado, two sisters say they pray daily for his safety. In New Mexico, a daughter says she persuaded her mother to still vote for Mr. Obama, even though the mother feared that winning would put him in danger. And at a rally here, a woman expressed worries that a message of hope and change, in addition to his race, made him more vulnerable to violence. 'I've got the best protection in the world,' Mr. Obama, of Illinois, said ... 'So stop worrying.' Yet worry they do, with the spring of 1968 seared into their memories, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated in a span of two months." Now, I have a question. Who do you think, folks, is behind this story? (interruption) No, Mr. Snerdley. Hillary is not behind this story. Is that what you said? Obama people are behind this story. (laughing) There is no question. You could almost say that this is brilliant, to get this out there.


November the 4th

Before midnight, McCain concedes the election, and Barack Obama delivers his victory speech to a throng of an estimated million in Grant Park and environs of downtown Chicago. Then, out comes his wife, Michelle, wearing a dress pregnant with dark suggestion, as Illumarazzi brings to light...









A Narciso Rodriquez design, its dreadful allusion was immediately recognized by many commenters on a LA Times fashion page:

Reminiscent of a black widow spider...

MMMMM can you say Black Widow? Real poor taste. But hey, GO OBAMA!!

A Black Widow spider immediately came to mind, unfortunately. I don't understand her choice here. It was a red hour-glass set against a black bodice, ...on her tummy side. just like the spider. What was she thinking!

Initially I thought it was artful and different then realized the optical illusion that minimized her hips made her look as though she were pregnant with twins. A daring choice on a night that changed the world. O happy day!

From a curator in African Art:

When the Obama family stepped onto the stage as the next presidential family, they were all dressed in RED and BLACK. Strident colors, but not just for the cameras. This combination is a strategic message for those who know how color signals work.
First, RED was the color of the opposing party- the Republicans. In all the talk about red and black states, there was an underlying premise of division of the country into a black and white polarization. Obama stood against this, and in fact, combines two continents, and thus, did not wear any blue whatsoever.

Second, red and black are linked in African mythology to the agent of change. Esu is the Yoruba diety who wears red and black to signal his presence as the harbinger of fate, the announcer for things to come, and the one who wakes up people to provoke them to do new things. One famous story about him is about how he wore a hat that was red on one side and black on the other. He saw two friends who were so close, they always walked side by side and never disagreed. Esu inserted himself between them and the two friends started to argue about the color of his hat. His lesson: no two people should be so close that they can’t disagree. We all benefit from looking at things from different points of view.

Michelle got the whole group coordinated to speak with color.

true, the dress was not at all flattering. but I was more surprised to see the family dressed in such severe colors, at least until my African mom pointed out that red & black are traditional for mourning. it's possible that the color scheme was a response to Obama's grandmother's passing.

hopefully she will not be a real black
widow. i need to see more agents.

Dreadful is what I thought, just dreadful. And it DOES look like a black widow, EXACTLY what came to mind when I saw her. If people believe in signs, they might be freaking out. It WAS very funky and maybe fashion forward but save it for the runway, not the acceptance speech! PLEEEEASE MICHELLE, promise you'll never dress like a spider again! We love you, but not your dress!

Unfortunately, my first take was that it looked like blood splatter, which gave me the creeps with all of the assassination rumoring.

Looks like she was standing next to "Carrie" at the prom when the bucket of blood came tumbling down. Maybe it's an omen: There will be bloodshed during the Obama reign.

Bizarre dress. Ill-fitting. It looked like flames shooting and down up her body! Whoever mentioned above that color is symbolic was correct. Black symbolizes death, mystery and secrets. Red signifies danger. Not a good message to send on election night! And why did she subject her daughters to the same? I thought Biden's pale green suit was lovely and appropriate. Unfortunately, this outfit seemed to show a division between her and Michelle.

Do you think that the red may signify where Jackie O was covered in blood? Symbols are everything to these people they're like serial killer schizo's.

black widow? This is like a black mass hmmm makes me wonder

Although most people give no significnce to the spiritual meaning and symbolism of the artifacts of our lives, nevertheless they carry a subliminal meaning. Michelle Obama can be a capable, intelligent and beautiful person and yet wear a dress loaded with negative symbolism. Her unawareness of it does not remove the symbolism. I had cold chills when I saw Michelle Obama's black widow dress, not only because of its color symbolism (red, communism and black, african) but because she looks like she just got off an abortion table. Maybe some of you remember another first lady who appeared in public with blood stains on the womb of her dress - Jackie Kennedy with the blood of her husband. Since I believe in the power of symbolism in our lives, I can only hope our sight of Michelle Obama's blood-stained dress is not a vision or prophecy of any event in her future. Strange how the most triumphant moment in recent US history could be dressed in such macabre symbolism.

The two presidents, Lincoln and Kennedy, to whom Obama has drawn the most frequent comparison - again, by his own initiative - are the two martyred presidents of American history (Garfield & McKinley lacked the gravitas). Obama commenced his presidential campaign and introduced his running mate at the same location, Springfield Illinois, that Lincoln commenced his campaign. And, considering that Obama's birthday of August 4th, 1961 would put the time of his conception at around November 7th, 1960, one wonders if his very existence on Earth had commenced on the night of Kennedy's election.

"They say" that these things come in threes... But we don't need another martyr. It is also sometimes said that the best armor against psychic warfare is to call out and "jinx" the symbolic volleys before they can subliminally insinuate the public unconsciousness. When this is all over, as Obama enjoys a normal presidential retirement, then perhaps we will thank the savvy "fashionista" readers of the LA Times...