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Obama And The Eclipse Of Reason
EXCERPT: ...it is nevertheless astonishing that American Jews are so blinded by hatred of the Republicans that they are prepared to ignore the fact that Obama speaks out of two sides of his mouth over Israel; ignore the fact that every single one of his foreign policy advisers is hostile to Israel; ignore the fact that he would appease the genocidal fanatics of Tehran; and not only ignore the fact that for twenty years his spiritual adviser was a man who supports the Islamist antisemite Louis Farrakhan but regard it as definitely ‘off-limits’ even to mention it.
Just imagine, as a thought experiment, if McCain was revealed to have been brought into the church by and spent 20 years sitting at the feet of a minister who turned out to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Would Bob Shrum be sneering then that the voters ‘don’t buy this personal stuff’? Au contraire – you wouldn’t see the rapidly departing Republican candidate for dust. One rule for the Democrats and another for the Republicans, it seems, when a charismatic orator promises a glorious new dawn for mankind -- and reason takes a dive. EXCERPT: ...it is nevertheless astonishing that American Jews are so blinded by hatred of the Republicans that they are prepared to ig... more -
FOX Reporter Squashed by Father's Words on Wright
Exactly the type of "journalism" that we need to abandon for the sake of decency. This FOX reporter thought he could make a point with a series of loaded questions but instead gets spanked by well spoken priest, Father Flager. Exactly the type of "journalism" that we need to abandon for the sake of decency. This FOX reporter thought he could make a... more
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FOX NEWS AND ITS CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE OBAMAS
Over the course of the past several months and since Barack Obama and his pastor have hit the mainstream media, race has been at the forefront of hot topics within the American political arena.
Following are various clips from conservative media outlets commenting on race, Barack and Michelle Obama, and offering often times skewed and ill perceived commentary on issues both within and outside of the black community.
Patriotism is not a characteristic of convenience, it must be present at greatest moments of triumph for a nation but must also be the root for unarmed critique and analysis of the actions of one's own country. America is a great nation but we have committed acts that are notable alongside some of the greatest atrocities in world history.
Truth cannnot be serial, constantly waiting for another perceived truth to come along and take its place. Truth can exist in multiple instances. The greatness of this nation along with the moral abomination of its acts in regard to human life. Over the course of the past several months and since Barack Obama and his pastor have hit the mainstream media, race has been at the f... more -
Obama quits Chicago church after long controversy
"Barack Obama has resigned his 20 year membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago in the aftermath of inflammatory remarks by his longtime pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and more recent fiery remarks at the church by another minister.
Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs said Obama had resigned from the church "over the last few days."
Campaign aides said they weren't immediately certain how the resignation took place, whether by letter or in some other fashion, and were trying to find out.
Messages left for a church spokeswoman in Chicago were not immediately returned Saturday afternoon.
The development came as Obama campaigned in South Dakota.
Obama said he disagreed with Wright but initially portrayed him as a family member he couldn't disown. The preacher had officiated at Obama's wedding and been his spiritual mentor for some 20 years.
But six weeks after Obama's well-received speech on race, Wright claimed at an appearance in Washington that the U.S. government was capable of planting AIDS in the black community, praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and suggested that Obama was acting like a politician by putting his pastor at arm's length while privately agreeing with him.
Obama denounced those Wright comments as "divisive and destructive."
Comments by Wright inflamed racial tensions and posed an unwanted problem for Obama, front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, as he seeks to wrap up the nomination.
More recently, racially charged remarks from the same pulpit by another pastor, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, kept the controversy alive and proved the latest thorn in the side of Obama. Pfleger mocked Obama rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as a guest speaker at Obama's church.
Although Obama condemned comments by both Wright and Pfleger, the controversy has persisted.
For months, Obama has been hamstrung by the rhetoric of Wright, whose sermons blaming U.S. policies for the Sept. 11 attacks and calls of "God damn America" for its racism became fixtures on the Internet and cable news networks.
Initially, Obama said he disagreed with Wright but portrayed him as a family member he couldn't disown. The preacher had officiated at Obama's wedding and been his spiritual mentor for some 20 years.
But six weeks after Obama's well-received speech on race, Wright claimed at an appearance in Washington that the U.S. government was capable of planting AIDS in the black community, praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and suggested that Obama was acting like a politician by putting his pastor at arm's length while privately agreeing with him.
On Thursday, Obama was again forced to reject another man of the cloth, this time Pfleger, who made racially charged comments mocking Clinton in a guest sermon at Obama's church.
Obama made it clear he wasn't happy with the comments — in which Pfleger pretended he was Clinton crying over "a black man stealing my show" — and said he was "deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause."
Pfleger, too, issued an apology, saying he was sorry if his comments offended Clinton or anyone else.
The timing of Obama's decision was clearly planned with an eye toward Washington and the calendar. The news broke late on a Saturday and while most of the political attention was focused on the Democratic National Committee's struggle to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan".
By Tom Raum, Associated Press writer "Barack Obama has resigned his 20 year membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago in the aftermath of inflammat... more -
Reverand calls Oprah a 'whore', Obama and Jeremiah Wright 'homosexu...
A Reverend from Harlem, James David Manning has named Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, and Jeremiah Wright the "trinity of hell" and has questioned their sexuality. He calls Barack a pimp and Oprah a whore.
Get the rest of the story and the video at:
http://womanist-musings.blogspot.com/2008/05/oprah-is-w... A Reverend from Harlem, James David Manning has named Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, and Jeremiah Wright the "trinity of hell"... more -
Wright issue will haunt conservative media elite
Now that Sen. Barack Obama has denounced his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, many of his critics, especially those who call themselves conservative, are happy he has put the dashiki-wearing, American-criticizing former Marine in his place.
See, these same voices, many that are allegedly Christian, have reacted with glee by calling Wright a prophet of hate and a race baiter.
They hold themselves up to be so concerned about their fellow brother and sister, yet if you looked at their personal lives, I doubt you'd find many with African-American friends and associates (and I doubt their staffs are the most diverse in the world, but that's another story).
But be careful what you ask for.
Now that Wright has set the so-called standard for what isn't acceptable for religious leaders, let's see these same critics take their own kind to task for making absolutely outlandish comments. Now that Sen. Barack Obama has denounced his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, many of his critics, especially those who call t... more -
"Fox Noise" Messes With the Wrong Preacher!!!
Watch as a Porter Berry, the producer of The O'Reilly Factor from Fox News, gets an earful from a white pastor who is supportive of Reverend Wright. Although I wish this whole controversy would cease to exist, I cant help but laugh when I see this network continue to beat the drum of hate, based on sound bites. Somebody needs to put them in their place....good work
PS...for all who questioned the validitity of this post, I have included the link to the transcript off of the O'Reilly Factor Website......This is the real thing....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,346391,00.html Watch as a Porter Berry, the producer of The O'Reilly Factor from Fox News, gets an earful from a white pastor who is supportive ... more -
E. J. Dionne Jr. - fair play for false prophets
Do white right-wing preachers have it easier than black left-wing preachers? Is there a double standard?
The political explosion around the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was inevitable, given Wright's personal closeness to Barack Obama and the outrageous rubbish the pastor has offered about AIDS, Sept. 11 and Louis Farrakhan.
After Wright's bizarre and narcissistic performance at the National Press Club on Monday, Obama would have looked weak and irresolute had he not denounced him. But if there was a moment of courage in this drama, it was not Obama's condemnation of Wright but his earlier and now much-criticized effort to avoid a complete break with his unapologetic pastor.
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, May 2, 2008; Page A21 Do white right-wing preachers have it easier than black left-wing preachers? Is there a double standard? ... more -
Winning at any cost
The Nation magazine's Betsy Reed has written a brilliant analysis of the Clinton camp's strategic missteps, titled "Race to the Bottom." It will be the lead item in the next issue of the venerable progressive weekly.
"...What is most troubling - and what has the most serious implications for the feminist movement - is that the Clinton campaign has used her rival's race against him. In the name of demonstrating her superior 'electability,' she and her surrogates have invoked the racist and sexist playbook of the right - in which swaggering macho cowboys are entrusted to defend the country - seeking to define Obama as too black, too foreign, too different to be President at a moment of high anxiety about national security. This subtly but distinctly racialized political strategy did not create the media feeding frenzy around the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that is now weighing Obama down, but it has positioned Clinton to take advantage of the opportunities the controversy has presented. And the Clinton campaign's use of this strategy has many nonwhite and nonmainstream feminists crying foul. ...
"The Wright, Farrakhan and Ayers controversies have been fueled by a craven media, and ABC's performance in the debate has rightly been condemned. But given that Clinton is the one who is running for President and who purports to represent liberal ideals, her complicity in such attempts to establish guilt by association is far more troubling. While she has dealt gingerly with the matter of Wright in the wake of his recent appearance at the National Press Club - accusing Republicans of politicizing the issue - she also took pains to remind reporters that she 'would not have stayed in that church under those circumstances.'
"It's disappointing, to say the least, to see the first viable female contender for the presidency participate in attacks on her black opponent's patriotism, which exploit an anxious climate around national security that gives white men an edge both over women and people of color -- who tend to be viewed, respectively, as weak and potentially traitorous. ..." The Nation magazine's Betsy Reed has written a brilliant analysis of the Clinton camp's strategic missteps, titled "Rac... more -
Corporate media is failing us
Bob Cesca nails it: "If the corporate media had been as diligent about watchdogging President Bush as they have been about watchdogging Reverend Wright, it's very likely we wouldn't have invaded Iraq.
So what is the very serious corporate media, the only industry that is explicitly protected by the Constitution, doing to remedy their failures of the recent past? Rather than watchdogging the Bush administration and Senator McCain on Iraq, Iran, the economy and all the rest of it -- areas in which Senator McCain is laughably wrong and dangerously inconsistent -- what are we seeing instead?
All three major cable news networks are wasting valuable air time on Senator Obama's former pastor. Why? Is the story newsworthy? Sure. Is wall-to-wall Wright coverage more important than Iraq or gas prices or the climate crisis? No way. But Reverend Wright is a scary, shouting black man and scary shouting black men equal ratings-sweet-ratings."
Read it all: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/have-you-left-n... Bob Cesca nails it: "If the corporate media had been as diligent about watchdogging President Bush as they have been about watchd... more -
Clinton Supporter "Organized" Wright National Press Club Appearance
Errol Louis in the NY Daily News claims Barbara Reynolds, a Clinton supporter, "organized" Wright's appearance before the National Press Club. The plot thickens.
Is Jeremiah Wright a colossal disaster for Barack Obama or a press trick?
Wednesday, April 30th 2008, 4:53 PM
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright couldn't have done more damage to Barack Obama's campaign if he had tried. And you have to wonder if that's just what one friend of Wright wanted.
Shortly before he rose to deliver his rambling, angry, sarcastic remarks at the National Press Club Monday, Wright sat next to, and chatted with, Barbara Reynolds.
A former editorial board member at USA Today, she runs something called Reynolds News Services and teaches ministry at the Howard University School of Divinity. (She is an ordained minister).
It also turns out that Reynolds - introduced Monday as a member of the National Press Club "who organized" the event - is an enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter.
On a blog linked to her Web site- www.reynoldsnews.com- Reynolds said in a February post: "My vote for Hillary in the Maryland primary was my way of saying thank you" to Clinton and her husband for the successes of Bill Clinton's presidency.
The same post criticized Obama's "Audacity of Hope" theme: "Hope by definition is not based on facts," wrote Reynolds. It is an emotional expectation. Things hoped for may or may not come. But help based on experience trumps hope every time."
In another blog entry, Reynolds gives an ever-sharper critique of Obama: "It is a sad testimony that to protect his credentials as a unifier above the fray, the senator is fueling the media characterization that Rev. Dr. Wright is some retiring old uncle in the church basement."
I don't know if Reynolds' eagerness to help Wright stage a disastrous news conference with the national media was a way of trying to help Clinton - my queries to Reynolds by phone and e-mail weren't returned yesterday - but it's safe to say she didn't see any conflict between promoting Wright and supporting Clinton.
It's hard to exaggerate how bad the actual news conference was. Wright, steeped in an honorable, fiery tradition of Bible-based social criticism, cheapened his arguments and his movement by mugging for the cameras, rolling his eyes, heaping scorn on his critics and acting as if nobody in the room was learned enough to ask him a question.
Wright has, unquestionably, been caricatured and vilified unfairly. The feeding programs, prison outreach and other social services he has built over more than 30 years are commendable, and his reading of the Judeo-Christian tradition as an epic story of people trying to escape slavery is far more right than wrong - and not something to be caricatured or compressed into a 10-second sound bite.
But Wright should have known - and his friend and ally Reynolds, a media professional, surely knew - that bickering with the press can only harm Wright and, by extension, Obama.
I hope that wasn't their goal.
elouis@nydailynews.com Errol Louis in the NY Daily News claims Barbara Reynolds, a Clinton supporter, "organized" Wright's appearance before t... more -
Clinton Supporter Suggested Wright's Appearance Before NPC
A New York Daily News reporter, Errol Louis, revealed that Rev. Barbara Reynolds, a Clinton supporter, was recently asked to organize Rev. Wright's appearance before the National Press Club this week.
Deleted Pro-Clinton Blog Entry from National Press Club Rev. Wright Appearance Organizer
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 8:07pm. Alerts
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
April 29, 2008
A New York Daily News reporter, Errol Louis, revealed that Rev. Barbara Reynolds, who is also a journalist, is a Clinton supporter who suggested Rev. Wright as a speaker to the National Press Club awhile back and was recently asked to organize his appearance there this week.
Since Louis broke his story, the relevant February entry on Barbara Reynold's blog has disappeared -- just vanished. In addition, neither Rev. Reynolds nor the Clinton campaign, as of the posting of this news alert, have responded to queries about whether Reynolds suggested and organized Wright's appearance at the National Press Club with the knowledge of the Clinton campaign or go-betweens for the Clinton campaign.
Using cache recovery and other techniques, a BuzzFlash reader recovered the key blog entry that Errol Louis quoted from before it was deleted.
These are, allegedly, Rev. Reynolds' words of support for Clinton and explanation as to why she voted for Clinton in Maryland:
Using Google's cache and examining the source code of the deleted entry, I have been able to reconstruct the posting from Barbara Reynolds' blog http://reynoldsworldnews.blogspot.com/) dated February 14, 2008, titled "HOPE", in which Barbara Reynolds, the person who supposedly organized Rev. Wright's appearance at the National Press Club, praises and thanks the Clintons.
The URL of the Google Cache is here:
http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:SIgvOo... A New York Daily News reporter, Errol Louis, revealed that Rev. Barbara Reynolds, a Clinton supporter, was recently asked to organize ... more -
Giving Wright His Due
Reverend Wright's perspective cannot be simply reduced to one of an aberrant provocateur. His words deserve patient scrutiny. If a dialogue on race is to begin, it may not be easy.
* * *
"Wright, Jefferson and the Wrath of God"
by John Nichols
published in the Nation magazine, April 29, 2008
"Just maybe now as that dialogue begins the religious tradition that has kept hope alive for a people struggling to survive in countless hopeless situations will be understood."
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, April 28, 2008
The right response to the controversy that has been generated with regard to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. is not to run away from the United Church of Christ pastor, to condemn him, or to try to apologize for him.
Rather, it is to listen to him and to recognize that Wright's not the disease that afflicts our body politic.
Indeed, this former Marine who became an remarkably-successful and widely-respected religious leader is in possession of the balm that has frequently proven to be the cure for what ails America -- an eyes-wide-open faith in the prospect that this country can and will put aside the sins of the past and forge a future that is as just as it is righteous.
As Wright has illustrated over the past several days, in a remarkable appearance Friday on PBS' Bill Moyers Journal and in speeches to the Detroit NAACP and the National Press Club in Washington, he is the opposite of the caricature of an angry, America-hating false prophet that has been so crudely attached to him. Deeply grounded in biblical tradition, nuanced in his understanding of race relations and historically experienced in his assessments of America's strengths and weaknesses, he has much to say to this country at this time.
Not all of what Wright says is comforting.
His views are not universally appealing, nor are they or should they be seen as unassailable.
But, for the most part, they are well much within the mainstream of American religious and political discourse.
The problem is not Jeremiah Wright.
The problem is a contemporary political culture that has come to rely on character assassination as an easy tool for reversing electoral misfortune -- and a media that willingly invites manipulation.
Let's not forget how Wright became an issue in the 2008 presidential race. Republican operatives, fretful about their party's political fortunes, decided that the only way to weaken the candidacy of Wright's longtime parishioner, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, was by suggesting the Democratic presidential front-runner was in the sway of an anti-American radical. ... Reverend Wright's perspective cannot be simply reduced to one of an aberrant provocateur. His words deserve patient scrutiny. If ... more -
Was Jeremiah Wright's speech set up by a big Clinton supporter?
According to the LA Times blog, the Press Club event in which Rev. Wright made comments which outraged Obama seems to have been organized by a big Clinton supporter.
From the LA Times blog:
"... it turns out, we should have been paying a little less attention to Wright's speech and the histrionics of his ensuing news conference and taken a peek at....
who was sitting next to him at the head table for the National Press Club event.
It was the Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds, a former editorial board member of USA Today who teaches at the Howard University School of Divinity. An ordained minister, as New York Daily writer Errol Louis points out in today's column, she was introduced at the press club event as the person "who organized" it.
But guess what? She's also an ardent longtime booster of Obama's sole remaining competitor for the Democratic nomination, none other than Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. It won't take very much at all for Obama supporters to see in Wright's carefully arranged Washington event that was so damaging to Obama the strategic, nefarious manipulation of the Clintons." According to the LA Times blog, the Press Club event in which Rev. Wright made comments which outraged Obama seems to have been organi... more -
Barack Obama Unequivocably Cuts Ties to Ex-Pastor
An angry Barack Obama insisted upon holding a press conference about Rev. Jeremiah Wright today in Winston-Salem (NC), in order to unequivocally denounce Rev. Wright's recent national speeches, as well as to to completely sever himself from the ex-pastor and his tirades.
Includes photographs, as well as a summary and the complete video of Obama's press conference. An angry Barack Obama insisted upon holding a press conference about Rev. Jeremiah Wright today in Winston-Salem (NC), in order to une... more -
Obama expresses outrage at former pastor's remarks
Obama essentially dumps any future association with Rev. Wright, both politically and personally.
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Has Rev. 'God Damn America' damned Obama's campaign?
For Senator Obama, the re-emergence of Rev. Wright has been devastating. The senator has been trying desperately to bolster his standing with skeptical and even hostile white working-class voters. When the story line of the campaign shifts almost entirely to the race-in-your-face antics of someone like Mr. Wright, Mr. Obama’s chances can only suffer.
In an appearance before the Detroit N.A.A.C.P., Mr. Wright mocked the regional dialects of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
Smiling, cracking corny jokes, mugging it up for the cameras — this reverend is never going away. He’s found himself a national platform, and he’s loving it.
The question that cries out for an answer from Mr. Wright is why — if he is so passionately committed to liberating and empowering blacks — does he seem so insistent on wrecking the campaign of the only African-American ever to have had a legitimate shot at the presidency. For Senator Obama, the re-emergence of Rev. Wright has been devastating. The senator has been trying desperately to bolster his standi... more -
Jeremiah Wright - "a political disaster"? You decide.
People, we must tell the corporate media that we're not interested in peering at what Wright says. We care about what Obama says he will do for this country. We need to forcibly grab the wrist of CNN, AP and TIME magazine that's holding the magnifying glass and bring it back to the page about war, poverty, economics and global warming.
Time reporter Amy Sullivan called it "a political disaster." But here's the media telling us what we should think again -- and no, Rev. Wright's words were not a political disaster for THIS citizen, yours truly. No, it is not a political disaster. It's you hyping it as a political disaster, Amy Sullivan.
"Maybe Barack Obama skimped on his contribution when the offering plate came past at Trinity United Church of Christ. Or perhaps he nodded off during one of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermons. It's hard to think of another reason why the Illinois Senator's former pastor would put on the kind of performance this morning at the National Press Club that can only be described as a political disaster."
In other news McCain also urged people not to judge him by what his supporters say.
"McCain continues to say that he should not be held responsible for the views of everyone who endorses him. And he shouldn't. No politician should..... in my perfect political world, we would judge our politicians by what they do and think, not by what people say about them, or what their friends do."
Amen to blogger Swampland.
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/04/mccain_watch... People, we must tell the corporate media that we're not interested in peering at what Wright says. We care about what Obama says ... more -
Wright explains his perspective on Moyers' PBS show
Reverend Jeremiah Wright gets plenty of room to explain his notion of history on Bill Moyer's PBS show "Journal." Particularly a history from the perspective of the oppressed -- both in the past and in the present. Moyers, to his credit, runs a clip of Wright from the pulpit explaining the broader context of American acts of cruelty abroad contributing to "the chickens coming home to roost" with the attacks on the Trade Towers in 2001. Then Moyers gently prods Wright to explain. And Wright obliges.
Look at the clip and judge for yourself. Reverend Jeremiah Wright gets plenty of room to explain his notion of history on Bill Moyer's PBS show "Journal." Parti... more -
Obama's pastor says criticism is attack on black church
Reverend Jeremiah Wright spoke at the National Press Club and said that the traditions in black churches are "misunderstood" and "invisible" to many Americans.
I'm not sure I know what that means. Maybe that proves his point that they're misunderstood? Or maybe it only made sense if you were there and got to hear everything he said, rather than the short summary from the AP. Thoughts? Reverend Jeremiah Wright spoke at the National Press Club and said that the traditions in black churches are "misunderstood"... more
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Jeremiah Wright
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Jeremiah Wright
