Not a 'Gotcha' moment

[sirs]

Obama: From valiant to victicrat
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Posted: March 20, 2008

Billed as an "important speech about race," presidential candidate Barack Obama condemned some of the remarks of his pastor, Jeremiah Wright. But Obama refused to denounce the man himself, considering him family. Commentators gushed over this "groundbreaking," "stirring" speech about the "state of race relations in America."

Funny, some people actually thought that Obama might explain why he chose and attends a church led by a hateful, anti-Semitic, racist America-condemning pastor, a man whom Obama refers to as his "spiritual adviser."

Long before the blowup over Barack Obama's pastor, I wrote about this angry, "Afrocentric" church in my new book, "Stupid Black Men: How to Play the Race Card ? and Lose."

"Barack Obama," I wrote, "attends Chicago's popular Trinity United Church of Christ. He described its minister, Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., as his 'spiritual mentor.' On its website, Trinity United Church of Christ describes itself: 'We are an African people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. ? It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.'

"Consider the grief President George W. Bush attracted when he gave a speech at Bob Jones University, an institution that formerly banned interracial dating. Imagine a Republican attending a church that professed 'Caucasian-centric' Bible readings. According to an article in Rolling Stone, Reverend Wright said, 'Racism is how this country was founded and this country is still run! ? We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional KILLERS. ? We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. ? We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. ? We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means! And. And. And! GAWD! Has GOT! To be SICK! OF THIS S--T!'

"Jeremiah Wright also helped to organize the Million Man March, spearheaded by the anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-Catholic Minister Louis Farrakhan. Wright also, accompanied by Farrakhan, visited Moammar Gadhafi of Libya. In an interview about whether this kind of activity might hurt Obama's prospects, Wright said, 'When his enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli (to visit Gadhafi) with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.'

"At the first Sunday service following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Wright preached that the attacks were a consequence of violent U.S. policies. And four years later, Wright wrote that the 9/11 attacks were proof that 'people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just disappeared as the Great White West went on its merry way of ignoring Black concerns.'"

Wright's musings ? part David Duke, part Louis Farrakhan and part Moe from the Three Stooges ? include the following:

"We started the AIDS virus. ? We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty. ?"

"God damn America ? for killing innocent people. God damn America for threatening citizens as less than humans. God damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God and supreme."

"We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki. And we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because of stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own backyard. America is chickens coming home to roost."

"The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied."

"Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary would never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a nonperson."

Obama gave a soaring speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, in which he said, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. There is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America. There is the United States of America. ? We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."

Once upon a time, Obama actually told "60 Minutes'" Steve Kroft, "I think if I don't win this race, it will be because of other factors. It's gonna be because I have not shown to the American people a vision for where the country needs to go that they can embrace."

Oh, well. It was nice while it lasted.


Article

[Brassmask]

What confuses me is why would this author or you care?

It seems to me it  would make more sense to talk up Obama's speech and let him get the nomination, then totally slander him like this in the general.

Why do Republicans/conservatives want Hillary to win so bad?

[sirs]

What confuses me is why would this author or you care?

You're trying to tell me that if McCain's mentor & spiritual leader were Pat Robertson, you'd be perfectly content with that??  You wouldn't see any relevence to McCain's character & Judgement, needing to be pointed out??  Please 

Because it goes to the blatant lack of judgement demonstrated by your guy Brass, for hanging with this fella for 20+years, embracing him as his mentor & spiritual leader, and trying to convince us that such outbursts were rare, and that he (Obama) pretty much missed all those rarified diatribes, over those 20+years. 

Why do Republicans/conservatives want Hillary to win so bad?

Miss fog of memory we were under sniper fire Hillary to win?  I guess we could consider that our joke of the day

[R.R.]

You're trying to tell me that if McCain's mentor & spiritual leader were Pat Robertson, you'd be perfectly content with that??

Great question!

I'm still laughing.

Notice the deafening silence.

[sirs]

Yep     

[Xavier_Onassis]

Asking people to renounce their acquaintanceships and to answer hypothetical questions is just damn silly.

If you think that a failure to take these foolish activities seriously is in any way a concession to your foolishj argument, you need to know that you are silly.

Continue laughing. It's what silly people do. Goofy has made a career of it.

[sirs]

Asking people to renounce their acquaintanceships and to answer hypothetical questions is just damn silly.

So, demanding that Bush & Co not have spoken at Bob Jones, and criticizing them when they did, was "just silly".  Condeming Trent Lott for his comment about Strom Thurmond was really "just silly".  Boy, glad we got that cleared up

[Xavier_Onassis]

None of these turned out to be of any importance to the way the country was run.

Reagan started many small wars and beggared the economy, Juniorbush mongered an unwinnable war, and is doing the same. But Reagan speaking to a bunch of White folks and defending States Rights at Philadelphia Mississippi, and Juniorbush sucking up to fanatics at Bob Jones had no repercussions other than announcing to the nation that they were both unprincipaled dolts who would say whatever it took to be nominated and elected.

That they did not renounce these silly acts was unimportant.

[sirs]

None of these turned out to be of any importance to the way the country was run.

Wasn't the point was it.  Given your current parameters, apparently they were all just "just silly".  Glad you're honest enough to fess up for the Dem party, Xo.  Too bad, none of prominence will concur with your position

[fatman]

So, demanding that Bush & Co not have spoken at Bob Jones, and criticizing them when they did, was "just silly".  Condeming Trent Lott for his comment about Strom Thurmond was really "just silly".

Yes.  The truth is, it probably matters to some voters but not to others.  While Trent Lott didn't have to make his remark, Bush almost certainly had to go to Bob Jones to court the evangelical wing.  While I'm not crazy about either Bob Jones or the evangelical wing of the Republican Party, I'm also realist enough to know that someone campaigning as a Republican, especially in the primaries, are going to have to court those blocs of constituents.  It's like a Democrat courting the AFL-CIO, or NOW.  Trent Lott's comment was a tempest in a teapot and had no modern relevance.  Through all the hubbub, no one bother to notice or comment that Thurmond, after his defeat, became rather progressive in civil rights and segregation.  South Carolina has a large black population, do you think it would have been possible for him to remain in office 50 years if didn't convert (without the conspiracy theories)?

Personally, I'm tired of the games both parties play.  It's not about how good your candidate is any more, it's about how bad the other candidate is.  No candidate is ever going to be perfect, no matter how much we might wish or hope that they are.  No candidate, other than Hillary (KIDDING!) is absolutely evil.  Digressing a debate about the candidates into sloganeering and one liners serves nothing to learn about their policies or beliefs, these are distorted by both sides.  And something that bothers me personally is how often it becomes a case of "They did it to us first" or "Well they said this so we can say that" mentality.  If I saw a candidate, much less a party, take the high road and not devolve into this, that would go a very long way toward earning my vote.

But I don't see that happening any time soon.

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

(and I know that you weren't responding to me sirs, I just wanted to get this little rant off my chest).

[sirs]

So, demanding that Bush & Co not have spoken at Bob Jones, and criticizing them when they did, was "just silly".  Condeming Trent Lott for his comment about Strom Thurmond was really "just silly".

Yes.  The truth is, it probably matters to some voters but not to others.  

We agree here in principal.  Those criticisms and efforts at trying to paint Republicans as racist were largely the definition of ridiculous.  It's one thing to make boneheaded, ill-thought of remarks, such as what Lott pulled, while it's a damn different ballgame when one is literally preaching hate, as in what Rev Wright pulls.  Which is where this main difference lies

(and I know that you weren't responding to me sirs, I just wanted to get this little rant off my chest).

Hey, your rants are most often substantive   ;-)

[Amianthus]

If I saw a candidate, much less a party, take the high road and not devolve into this, that would go a very long way toward earning my vote.

I really like how the new governor of New York is handling the press stories about stuff in his past. That's what I like to see in a candidate.

[BT]

If I saw a candidate, much less a party, take the high road and not devolve into this, that would go a very long way toward earning my vote.

But I don't see that happening any time soon.

It might not happen this eelection but it is coming. People are tired of the same old blood sport style of politics.

At least that is what i am seeing in this little corner of the world.

Too many problems, too few recommendations for solutions

[fatman]

Too many problems, too few recommendations for solutions

Thanks BT.  That is the heart of my little rant, though I couldn't find the right phrasing.  I certainly hope that you're correct about the blood sport aspects of politics going out the door, that's one thing that I would definitely like to see.

[fatman]

I really like how the new governor of New York is handling the press stories about stuff in his past. That's what I like to see in a candidate.

That's a good example Ami.  The guy has had problems in the past, but he's human.  At least he admits them and doesn't set out to ruin his opponent (though there isn't one) to distract from his own failings.  I'd trust someone that admits that they're human and has problems just like everyone else, over someone that denies having any kind of problems but just loves to point out his opponent's flaws.  To me, that speaks more to the character of the candidate than charitable giving or who their pastor is or what college they campaign at.