On the Net everyone is your neighbor. We are each but a one-click search away from the other, each but a flying finger down the block, and boom, you are in someone else’s space or backyard. And the New York Times’ recent purchase of a website called Blogrunner has brought some of the best bloggers under the same tent.
So, with time on his hands, Barack Obama wrote a blog entry down the block on Huffington Post (with nearly 5,000 comments) trying to explain away Jeremiah Wright, his comments, his religion, his radicalism, his racialism, their relationship, himself, and his preaching the gospel of politics from the pulpit. For that Rev. Wright might be investigated for using his pulpit for political gain. If that is the case, then Rev. Wright was clearly in the wrong. While I believe that politics, race, and religion are inevitably intertwined, the law of the land dictates that they be kept separate.
What Barack couldn't say was that to be a black native of Chicago was almost to be radical by nature, by definition. We are the home of the pan-African movement, Afro-centric beliefs, black vegans/vegetarians, Kwanzaa, nouveau-clique clothes, radical ideas, intellectual light, music, and politics. This is the home of Minister Farrakhan whose Hyde Park mansion is literally down the block from the Obama mansion in Kenwood, to nearby Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition.
Hillary Clinton also blogged an article there recently and made children in poverty her subject. But she failed to mention one of the leading causes of childhood poverty: incarceration in the family. Why was that? Was it because she did not wish to draw undue attention to her husband’s track record on drug laws and their impact on the poor and minorities? What was really strange about that omission are new statistics released citing 1 in 100 Americans are incarcerated — a new record. That issue was strictly political. What has been borne out in the past months was that she too needs to repudiate Bill’s remarks and track record on racial equality! Like I said in another article, the Clintons are walking the racial tightrope with the wrong-colored tights.
I grew up going to political meetings and radical churches, enthralled with blaring Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow coalition speeches on the radio. His son was elected to congress, and when Barack ran for a congressional seat he lost to Bobby Rush because he used the “Barack is not black enough” argument, and it worked. I’ve never attended Obama’s particular Unity church nor is it the type of church my family would join. Not because it is radical but because it is not cut from the same Christian cloth as less political, born again assemblies.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Anon
What a piece of propagandist crap.
We get it - only your messiah, his Holiness, Barack Hussein Obama can save this country. He is the only one great enough to lead us and we are privilaged to have him.
We are the home of the pan-African movement, Afro-centric beliefs, black vegans/vegetarians, Kwanza, nouveau-clique clothes, radical ideas, intellectual light, music and politics
Didnt know Chicago was home to the lunatic fringe..you sure you arent mistaking it for San Frisco?
And apparently the above are something to be proud about?
Black vegans, nouveau-clique clothes - wow! - how amazing is that!
Guess what, Kentucky and Mississipi are home to white carnivores and overalls. woo hoo.
By the way, are you cultists planning a Waco,tx if Obama doesnt get nominated? just curious.
2 - Dr Dreadful
"What a piece of propagandist crap"
...Sounds more like a header to your own comment, Anon, than a response to the article.
3 - Dave Nalle
Oh it's not that propagandistic. It's more like a love letter to Obama. I only really take exception to her bizarre claim that commenters on the right are pushing the race issue. I haven't seen a single instance of anyone except for Clinton and her surrogates making race an issue over Obama.
Dave
4 - Dr Dreadful
I haven't seen a single instance of anyone except for Clinton and her surrogates making race an issue over Obama.
So what would you call the multiple instances right here on this site of commenters calling Jeremiah Wright a racist and trying to taint Obama by association?
Anon et al don't read like Clinton stooges to me.
5 - Anon
So true. I mean how dare I question our savior Obama. I just should be like the rest of the sheep that comment here and take everything he tells us as the truth. How dare I challenge or question his credentials or associations. Who am I to impede the progress of the first black President?
The sheep way of thinking:
On the Pastor - 'I reject those comments and I wasnt there when those were made nor anyone told me about it' -
Sheep's response: Aww..We trust you Barack. we can easily picture you being conveniently absent on all those days and also that no one talked to you about it when you were present in church.
On Rezko - 'It was a boneheaded mistake and a lack of judgement on my part' -
Sheep's response: Aww..its okay Barack - you showed wonderful 'judgement' about Iraq by giving a speech, so we're willing to give you a pass on everything else.
Sorry if I don't subscribe to the above blind faith in your messiah. Makes me a direct descendent of David Duke doesn't it?
6 - Dave Nalle
So what would you call the multiple instances right here on this site of commenters calling Jeremiah Wright a racist and trying to taint Obama by association?
I don't consider the BC comments section as in any way representative of the GOP, the right-wing punditry, the McCain campaign or anything else more significant than some anonymous guys blowing off steam.
And Wright did say some racist things. Black folks CAN be racists. Obama wrote some fairly racist things in his first book too. These are just facts and they have nothing to do with Obama's race or Wright's race. These kinds of statements would be just as bad coming from a white person. Accusing someone of racism is not the same thing as persecuting them because of their own race.
Dave
7 - Heloise
Yes, yes, I've been called an anti-semitic and racist, and a white man! I've heard it all. And I've learned that if anyone says even a word against Jews, I mean ONE WORD you are labeled anti-semitic. But did you know that the Jews gave Hitler the ammo (propaganda) he needed for the final solution? Read some damn history books first and you will know that racism, genocide are woven into the fabric of the world. No one escapes it.
Propaganda makes the world go round. You can't lie away the reason for the Iraq war and its 3-trillion-dollar price tag now can you?
Why didn't we drop the bomb on Germany in WWII, why did we drop it on Japan? That's propaganda for ya.
Heloise
8 - Dan
I think my favorite Reverend Wright "display" is the one where he says "Bill Clinton done us just like he did Monica Lewinsky, He was ridin' dirty," Wright then holds one clenched hand, palm down, out in front of him and momentarily humps the air.
Many white Americans never see this sort of "worship" going on in Black mega churches.
Obama's greatest success among white voters has been in places where whites don't have much contact with blacks.
For them, the media carefully sanitizes the image of blacks. They're most likely to see only friendly, helpful, rationale, and logical blacks. Often gently, and patiently correcting whites' bigoted stereotypes of them, and teaching whites how to live more tolerantly.
The appalling thing about the Wright revelation isn't Wright. A singular screwball can be easily overlooked. It's the massive congregation, half in and half out of their seats, in joyous delirium over Wrights racist, anti-American diatribes.
9 - Clavos
"Why didn't we drop the bomb on Germany in WWII, why did we drop it on Japan?"
Here's one good reason:
Nuclear bombs are extremely "dirty" (especially those first two); they produce radioactive fallout which spreads over a wide area adjacent to ground zero.
Germany is in the middle of relatively small Europe, surrounded by nations which were either our allies or nations we were trying to liberate from Germany's yoke. Depending on the wind and other atmospheric factors, at least some of them would have been exposed to toxic levels of nuclear fallout.
Japan is an island nation, remote from its neighbors.
10 - Heloise
Hmmm, I wasn't talking topography or geography but ethnicity.
Heloise
11 - Heloise
Update: I spoke to my sister who actually DID attend Rev. Wright's church for a year, 20 years ago, which is exactly when Obama and his family began going there. She found it not Biblically based and therefore ended up at Church of Christ.
When I told her the title of this article she said that's funny because people were actually lined up around the block in order to get in.
Wright started with a regular sized church on the south side of Chicago, which I've passed by many times, and then moved to a mega church where he is now, or was. People could not get into the church it was so well attended. He is well-respected by many other churches and is a brillant man. I never met the man, but he should have gone into entertainment probably.
Is this why Obama was attracted to it? Not sure. But I was a Quaker in a past life and prefer very quiet services really. Nixon was also a Quaker.
Many churches have been found to be cults. Rev. Wright's church may be no exception. This was the argument against Catholicism, it is considered a cult too.
So, should the sixth ray rule the world we would all be in deep shit---just kidding. But Barack as Messiah, that is getting more play than it should. He is highly evolved no doubt, but so are the Clintons.
The doves of today were the hawks of past history.
Heloise
12 - Clavos
"Hmmm, I wasn't talking topography or geography but ethnicity."
I'm well aware of that, Heloise.
Your implication was that we chose Japan for racist reasons, which is precisely why I wanted to point out the very real probability that the choice was made on a basis having nothing to do with racism.
13 - Clavos
"This was the argument against Catholicism, it is considered a cult too."
Only by the ignorant.
Roman Catholicism sprang from the first followers of Christ, specifically the apostle Peter. In that sense, it is actually the oldest Christian religion.
14 - REMF
"I think my favorite Reverend Wright "display" is the one where he says "Bill Clinton done us just like he did Monica Lewinsky, He was ridin' dirty," Wright then holds one clenched hand, palm down, out in front of him and momentarily humps the air."
LOL!! So there IS some factual merit to his sermons, then.
15 - REMF
"Sorry if I don't subscribe to the above blind faith in your messiah. Makes me a direct descendent of David Duke doesn't it?"
- Anon
No. But a Sean Hannity wannabe, yes.
16 - Dr Dreadful
"Why didn't we drop the bomb on Germany in WWII, why did we drop it on Japan?"
Here's one good reason:
Here's another, even better reason.
Trinity - the first atomic bomb test - took place on July 16th, 1945. Germany had surrendered more than two months previously. Japan, meanwhile, fought on.
17 - Clavos
Damn!! Forgot that!
Props, Doc!
18 - Dan
Chronological history lesson:
Germany surrendered May 8, 1945.
First full scale atomic bomb tested July 16, 1945.
Hiroshima nuked on August 6, 1945.
Japan surrendered September 2, 1945.
19 - Dr Dreadful
Thanks, Clav.
Sometimes it's easy to focus too narrowly on one's debates here.
Had the Allies developed the Bomb in time, I have a feeling they would have used it in Europe if the necessity had arisen - especially since Hitler would not have hesitated to strap one onto a V2 and launch it at London if he'd gotten there first.
Also, the blast and fallout effects were (of course) little understood at that time and I doubt they would have given Truman and Churchill much pause.
20 - Dan
"Sometimes it's easy to focus too narrowly on one's debates here."
Or sometimes it's easy to just make up shit, or parrott someone else's fantasy.
21 - Heloise
Rush: the white radio messiah just said that "Obama is fini!" He has predicted that Obama is over, finished.
We didn't elect Al Gore, but got the shrub instead. Wall Street has imploded on the weak dollar and the IRAQ or QARI war.
Yes, let's put another Bush in office.
Heloise
22 - Heloise
London Blitz 1940:
"On the evening of August 24th, A German Bomber formation accidentally bombed some non-military targets in London. Winston Churchill immediately ordered reprisal attacks on non military German targets in Berlin. This prompted a furious response from Hitler, who ordered that a blitz campaign of bombing start immediately on London. This began on September 7th, when a massive 330 tons of bombs were dropped on London.
The bombing of London continued for 57 consecutive nights. While it caused devastation in that city, it meant that the grinding pressure was taken off the RAF. The British were soon recovered from the Losses received over the previous months and had quickly gained the upper hand over the Luftwaffe, destroying some 380 aircraft for a loss of just 178 of their own. The bravery and tenacity of the RAF pilots prompted Churchill to utter perhaps his most famous words ; 'Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owned by so many to so few.'"
Huge bombs were dropped on London by the Germans long before the H bomb or A bomb was created through the Manhattan projects thanks to some brilliant Jewish physicists, there were huge bombs available.
The US flew over the trains carrying Jews to the death camps and just waived from the plane, like Bush did over NOLA, and kept flying.
Heloise
23 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Heloise,
Strikes me that you are trying to sell Americans on a product - Obama Toothpaste. It sounds kinda like Ipana (for those who still remember Ipana and Pepsodent).
If you want to sell the product, you should take a more positive attitude, like the one you struck in your article about the Texas primary and caucus.
This article is definitely punchy, and definitely combative, but you should remember that your readers are not Hillary Clinton - and that you are not standing in for Obama, as much as you might like to.
I'll admit that I'm a lot punchier and nastier than you are in many of my own articles, but I'm not trying to sell a point of view or a product. I'm just callin' it as I see it - which often ain't pretty - and is often quite at odds with the bullshit you all get to read in the mainstream media in America.
AS for the issue at hand, I have to admit I don't really care. So Wright is a racist and a Jew-hater. Lots of blacks are both - big deal. After 1973, the world has turned against us Jews and frankly those that hate us can go fuck themselves and burn in the hell they recommend so heartily for us.
As for whether you need Clinton on the ticket, if she is, better that she be on the top - so that she has to worry about Obama killing her, than on the bottom, where the temptation for her to kill Obama would just be too much for her to resist.
24 - Heloise
Thanks Ruvy,
I was trying to be objective. And Joseph P. Kennedy said that "we will sell Jack like soapflakes" and it worked. Religion has no place in politics. But they do have one thing in common: cult-like followers.
I saw Obama in person when he was here in FW. I am not enamored of him, I am objective about him. I also know how black people think and trying to defuse it will get some people in trouble.
Anyway, when I am 100% positive I get in trouble and when I have some misgivings, not really, I am negative!!
Helloise
25 - MAOZ
#23 reminded me of the old commercial ditty:
You'll wonder where the yellow went
When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.
And our own irreverent addendum:
And when your teeth start turning black
You'll want to have the yellow back!