And thus the same excuses in 2009 when Dems had both houses? No hope, no change.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was "well timed," according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "wait" has almost always meant "never." We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

Of course the same man recognized the social perversion that endless war brings - recognize the Tea Party vibe in this?

Now what are some of the domestic consequences of the war in Vietnam? It has made the Great Society a myth and replaced it with a troubled and confused society. The war has strengthened domestic reaction. It has given the extreme right, the anti-labor, anti-Negro, and anti-humanistic forces a weapon of spurious patriotism to galvanize its supporters into reaching for power, right up to the White House. It hopes to use national frustration to take control and restore the America of social insecurity and power for the privileged. When a Hollywood performer, lacking distinction even as an actor can become a leading war hawk candidate for the Presidency, only the irrationalities induced by a war psychosis can explain such a melancholy turn of events.

Once upon a time Republicans had a few sane leaders, like Dwight Eisenhower -

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. [...] Is there no other way the world may live?

So how's that war spending doing as Blacks are told to makde do with less, settle for only twice the unemployment as whites, be content with entrenched 2nd class citizenship and 2nd class prosperity?

President Obama and Secretary Hagel propose creation of a new $26 billion "Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative" (read: slush fund) while keeping the 2015 Pentagon budget at the same level as 2014. That's an increase of $26 billion. - Geoffrey Neale

Short answer - no peace dividend. As Obama plays with the others, resisting reasons to finally depart from the Mideast, our defense spending is entrenched as well - too much to ever allow social programs or even education to be funded adequately. It's easy to blame this on the Republicans, but Obama ceded this battlefield from the beginning - he's a "let's get along" type who actually thinks all this expense is needed, and that social programs are for whiners. Here's the net result - Raytheon must be pleased.

" Poverty Pimps" is just another hippie-punching line like Reagan used to use - "looks like Jane, smells like Cheetah" - guess we can take glee in being contemptuous even as we get our asses kicked. If only Obama had such a sound financial plan for workers' wages or education or God forbid actually lowering health costs.

More MLK:

In the past two months unemployment has increased approximately 15%. At this moment tens of thousands of people and anti-poverty programs are being abruptly thrown out of jobs and training programs to search in a diminishing job market for work and survival. It is disgraceful that a Congress that can vote upwards of $35 billion a year for a senseless immoral war in Vietnam cannot vote a weak $2 billion dollars to carry on our all too feeble efforts to bind up the wound of our nations 35 million poor. This is nothing short of a Congress engaging in political guerilla warfare against the defenseless poor of our nation. [Applause]

Thank God we have John Conyers is Congress, I only wish that we had more like him. [Applause]

The inflation of war cuts the pay of the employed, the pension check of the retired and the savings of almost everyone. Inflation has stopped creeping and has begun running. Working people feel the double impact of inflation and unemployment immediately. But Negroes feel its impact with crushing severity because they live on the margin in all respects and have no reserve to cushion shock. There is a great deal of debate about the nation's ability to maintain war and commit the billions required to attack poverty. Theoretically the United States has resources for both. But an iron logic dictates that we shall never voluntarily do both for two reasons. First, the majority of the present Congress and the Administration, as distinguished from the majority of the people, is single mindedly devoted to the pursuit of the war. It has been estimated by Senator (Harkey) that we spend approximately $500,000 to kill a single enemy soldier in Vietnam. And yet we spend about $53 for each impoverished American in anti-poverty programs. Congress appropriates military funds with alacrity and generosity. It appropriates poverty funds with miserliness and grudging reluctance. The government is emotionally committed to the war. It is emotionally hostile to the needs of the poor.

Second, the government will resist committing adequate resources for domestic reform because these are reserves indispensable for a military adventure. The logical war requires of a nation deploy its well fought and immediate combat and simultaneously that it maintain substantial reserves. It will resist any diminishing of its military power through the draining off of resources for the social good. This is the inescapable contradiction between war and social progress at home. Military adventures must stultify domestic progress to ensure the certainty of military success. This is the reason the poor, and particularly Negroes, have a double stake in peace and international harmony. This is not to say it is useless to fight for domestic reform, on the contrary, as people discover in the struggle what is impeding their progress they comprehend the full and real cost of the war to them in their daily lives.

When I first decided to take a firm stand against the war in Vietnam, I was subjected to the most bitter criticism, by the press, by individuals, and even by some fellow civil rights leaders. There were those who said that I should stay in my place, that these two issues did not mix and I should stick with civil rights. Well I had only one answer for that and it was simply the fact that I have struggled too long and too hard now to get rid of segregation in public accommodations to end up at this point in my life segregating my moral concerns. [Applause]

And I made it very clear that I recognized that justice was indivisible. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And then there are those who said 'You're hurting the civil right movement.' One spoke to me one day and said, 'Now Dr. King, don't you think you're going to have to agree more with the Administration's policy. I understand that your position on Vietnam has hurt the budget of your organization. And many people who respected you in civil rights have lost that respect and don't you think that you're going to have to agree more with the Administration's policy to regain this.' And I had to answer by looking that person into the eye, and say 'I'm sorry sir but you don't know me. I'm not a consensus leader.' [Laughter - Applause] I do not determine what is right and wrong by looking at the budget of my organization or by taking a Gallup poll of the majority opinion. Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. [Applause]

MLK was Poverty Pimp supreme, indeed - I guess Cornel West is supposed to show more obeisance to the Commander-in-Chief to get a few scraps from the defense table focused on wages and jobs? You can't separate Ferguson & other abuse of blacks in the street from the steady eroding of black opportunity and status. Obama might say "I'm president of all the people", but when the super-religious said they objected to abortion, he gave them an out in the Affordable Care Act. When conservatives said, "we're worried about the debt", he initiated an austerity program. When bankers said, "we can't survive if our top people lead" he let them continue with bonuses for bankrupt bankers at tax-payer subsidized banks. When oil companies wanted to drill, he opened up the Gulf of Mexico. The only groups that seem to resist Obama's benevolence & penchant for "exceptions" & "exceptionalism" to reach across that aisle are 1) liberals and 2) Black Americans. As the saying notes, "the shoemaker's children go unshod".