Barack Obama''s Church is Not a Threat to Our National Security, But Cheney and McCain Are
The right''s peculiar notion of proportionality lies in one of those intellectual sand traps that one can whack away at for years and yet never come close to dislodging its smug, half-buried target. The notion just sits there, grinning back, confident that logical blows will do it no harm or budge it one bit. It''s one of the more stubborn obscenities known to man.
While, for instance, right-wing scribblers were succumbing to the vapors because of one over-the-top preacher''s exercising of all three guarantees of the First Amendment, we were "celebrating" the fifth anniversary of an illegal, anticonstitutional, wholly unAmerican foreign war. This, however, merited no similar reactionary dread.
The disproportionality was stunningly obscene, as were its objects of timid affection.
You want obscene? Our -- their -- president offered that yesterday in spades when he insisted once again that "removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision," without noting once again its dreadfully wrongful costs in human and fiscal treasure.
Obscene? How about the vice president''s considered response to ABC News'' observation that two-thirds of his citizenry believe the war was never worth waging: "So?"
Obscene? How about about John McCain''s latest Baghdad-Boblike pronouncement that we''re on the jolly good "precipice of winning a major victory against radical Islamic extremism." Why, to hear you folks whine, one would think this marvelous little war against an amorphous ideology and its centuries-old tactics is dragging on with no end in sight.
Obscene? Pshaw. That -- wretched unAmericanism, presidential recalcitrance, vice-presidential debauchery and would-be presidential imbecility -- is but the stuff of negligible nothings.
Now, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, the full saga unfolds in the two-part FRONTLINE special Bush''s War, airing Monday, March 24, 2008, from 9 to 11:30 P.M. and Tuesday, March 25, from 9 to 11 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings). Veteran FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk (The Lost Year in Iraq, The Dark Side) draws on one of the richest archives in broadcast journalism -- more than 40 FRONTLINE reports on the war on terror. Combined with fresh reporting and new interviews, Bush''s War will be the definitive documentary analysis of one of the most challenging periods in the nation''s history.
"Parts of this history have been told before," Kirk says. "But no one has laid out the entire narrative to reveal in one epic story the scope and detail of how this war began and how it has been fought, both on the ground and deep inside the government."
Since the war on terror began, FRONTLINE''s award-winning reporting has gone behind the headlines to connect the dots and reveal the true story of an administration at war with itself over how to respond to the devastating 9/11 attacks.
"A Scandal", How did MSM allow Obama to almost get Dem Nomination without any Vetting, until YouTube videos shown?
One excuse is that the Rev. Wright quotations were taken out of context. This is usually the last refuge of the correctly quoted who can''t think of a better out. There''s no way those statements can be justified or become acceptable even if washed and diluted by six oceans of context.
Another defense offered is that critics don''t understand the black church. As Larry Elder, a black talk show host who understands the black church, said, "Rev. Wright sounds like a combination of David Duke, Minister Farrakhan and Moe of the Three Stooges."
This would be a scandal and an association that would wipe out most candidates, but the mainstream media is acting as a campaign manager and cheerleader for Mr. Obama. In one of the great journalistic disgraces and failures in American history, the mainstream media has allowed Mr. Obama to reach the brink of nomination without any vetting to speak of until now.
"A Scandal", How did MSM allow Obama to almost get Dem Nomination without any Vetting, until YouTube videos shown?
One excuse is that the Rev. Wright quotations were taken out of context. This is usually the last refuge of the correctly quoted who can''t think of a better out. There''s no way those statements can be justified or become acceptable even if washed and diluted by six oceans of context.
Another defense offered is that critics don''t understand the black church. As Larry Elder, a black talk show host who understands the black church, said, "Rev. Wright sounds like a combination of David Duke, Minister Farrakhan and Moe of the Three Stooges."
This would be a scandal and an association that would wipe out most candidates, but the mainstream media is acting as a campaign manager and cheerleader for Mr. Obama. In one of the great journalistic disgraces and failures in American history, the mainstream media has allowed Mr. Obama to reach the brink of nomination without any vetting to speak of until now.
It amazes me that Obama is said to have had a bad week because of comments by his pastor. In response to the blatantly out-of-context replaying of Rev. Wright%u2019s comments, Obama gave one of the most insightful, courageous and balanced speeches on America''s legacy of racism that I have ever heard.
The reaction to Rev. Wright%u2019s comments indicates that "Collective America" needs a vetting process similar to South Africa''s "Truth and Reconciliation" program. The objective would not be to lay blame but to paint a clear picture of the current state of inequities reflecting the underbelly of life in America (health and health care, education, underemployment/unemployment, representation in positions of power & influence) and that are strongly correlated to race. Once this picture is painted, our collective responsibility would be to support politicians who are committed to a common-ground path to a common-wealth society that reflecting the principle that %u201Call men are created equal%u201D.
Without a rational %u201Cwar%u201D on America%u2019s pernicious inequities, we will collectively sleepwalk into society''s collapse, possibly awakening to the truth only at our last breaths.
With the media painting a picture of Hillary and Obama being portrayed as a Democratic "dog and poney" show (which one is the dog and which one the poney) and McCain as the "good fatherly type president as bush once was, what would you expect? Here is yet ANOTHER example of multi-colored yellow journalism, on both parties, so what is an American to do? Tisk tisk, guess we vote for the normal looking one? Problem is, which candidate IS the normal looking one? Look a bit closer and take a deep breath, exhale and regroup and rethink and USE your brain YOURSELF.
With the media painting a picture of Hillary and Obama being portrayed as a Democratic "dog and poney" show (which one is the dog and which one the poney) and McCain as the "good fatherly type president as bush once was, what would you expect? Here is yet ANOTHER example of multi-colored yellow journalism, on both parties, so what is an American to do? Tisk tisk, guess we vote for the normal looking one? Problem is, which candidate IS the normal looking one? Look a bit closer and take a deep breath, exhale and regroup and rethink and USE your brain YOURSELF.
With the media painting a picture of Hillary and Obama being portrayed as a Democratic "dog and poney" show (which one is the dog and which one the poney) and McCain as the "good fatherly type president as bush once was, what would you expect? Here is yet ANOTHER example of multi-colored yellow journalism, on both parties, so what is an American to do? Tisk tisk, guess we vote for the normal looking one? Problem is, which candidate IS the normal looking one? Look a bit closer and take a deep breath, exhale and regroup and rethink and USE your brain YOURSELF.
I found this speech devisive on so many leves. First, let us not compare Ferraro''''s statement with Wright''''s. Wright has made numerous anti-white and anti -country statements while Ferraro simply stated what everyone including Obama knows and that is his race has garnered him votes..it has..and it certainly isn''''t racist to say it. 90% of the blacks vote for him . If this is not racism , what is? Second, he says the past is not dead and buried...while we should never forget what happened to black in America it is time to move past it and create an atmosphere of acceptance for all. As outraged as blacks would be if this was said at a primarily white congregation is as outraged as everyone including black Americans should be over the rantings of Wright. I am sorry but he is not the unifier that everyone thought he was. Finally, now he admits..yeah I was there when he made some of those remarks..well then he lied two days ago when he said he was not. He knew that with 8000 members in the church someone was going to say he was there so he was forced into telling the truth...I am sorry but the speech leaves me to believe that he would have gone on with Wright as his mentor if the sermons had not hit the media.
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The right''s peculiar notion of proportionality lies in one of those intellectual sand traps that one can whack away at for years and yet never come close to dislodging its smug, half-buried target. The notion just sits there, grinning back, confident that logical blows will do it no harm or budge it one bit. It''s one of the more stubborn obscenities known to man.
While, for instance, right-wing scribblers were succumbing to the vapors because of one over-the-top preacher''s exercising of all three guarantees of the First Amendment, we were "celebrating" the fifth anniversary of an illegal, anticonstitutional, wholly unAmerican foreign war. This, however, merited no similar reactionary dread.
The disproportionality was stunningly obscene, as were its objects of timid affection.
(cont)
You want obscene? Our -- their -- president offered that yesterday in spades when he insisted once again that "removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision," without noting once again its dreadfully wrongful costs in human and fiscal treasure.
Obscene? How about the vice president''s considered response to ABC News'' observation that two-thirds of his citizenry believe the war was never worth waging: "So?"
Obscene? How about about John McCain''s latest Baghdad-Boblike pronouncement that we''re on the jolly good "precipice of winning a major victory against radical Islamic extremism." Why, to hear you folks whine, one would think this marvelous little war against an amorphous ideology and its centuries-old tactics is dragging on with no end in sight.
Obscene? Pshaw. That -- wretched unAmericanism, presidential recalcitrance, vice-presidential debauchery and would-be presidential imbecility -- is but the stuff of negligible nothings.
THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter
Now, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, the full saga unfolds in the two-part FRONTLINE special Bush''s War, airing Monday, March 24, 2008, from 9 to 11:30 P.M. and Tuesday, March 25, from 9 to 11 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings). Veteran FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk (The Lost Year in Iraq, The Dark Side) draws on one of the richest archives in broadcast journalism -- more than 40 FRONTLINE reports on the war on terror. Combined with fresh reporting and new interviews, Bush''s War will be the definitive documentary analysis of one of the most challenging periods in the nation''s history.
"Parts of this history have been told before," Kirk says. "But no one has laid out the entire narrative to reveal in one epic story the scope and detail of how this war began and how it has been fought, both on the ground and deep inside the government."
Since the war on terror began, FRONTLINE''s award-winning reporting has gone behind the headlines to connect the dots and reveal the true story of an administration at war with itself over how to respond to the devastating 9/11 attacks.
One excuse is that the Rev. Wright quotations were taken out of context. This is usually the last refuge of the correctly quoted who can''t think of a better out. There''s no way those statements can be justified or become acceptable even if washed and diluted by six oceans of context.
Another defense offered is that critics don''t understand the black church. As Larry Elder, a black talk show host who understands the black church, said, "Rev. Wright sounds like a combination of David Duke, Minister Farrakhan and Moe of the Three Stooges."
This would be a scandal and an association that would wipe out most candidates, but the mainstream media is acting as a campaign manager and cheerleader for Mr. Obama. In one of the great journalistic disgraces and failures in American history, the mainstream media has allowed Mr. Obama to reach the brink of nomination without any vetting to speak of until now.
One excuse is that the Rev. Wright quotations were taken out of context. This is usually the last refuge of the correctly quoted who can''t think of a better out. There''s no way those statements can be justified or become acceptable even if washed and diluted by six oceans of context.
Another defense offered is that critics don''t understand the black church. As Larry Elder, a black talk show host who understands the black church, said, "Rev. Wright sounds like a combination of David Duke, Minister Farrakhan and Moe of the Three Stooges."
This would be a scandal and an association that would wipe out most candidates, but the mainstream media is acting as a campaign manager and cheerleader for Mr. Obama. In one of the great journalistic disgraces and failures in American history, the mainstream media has allowed Mr. Obama to reach the brink of nomination without any vetting to speak of until now.
The reaction to Rev. Wright%u2019s comments indicates that "Collective America" needs a vetting process similar to South Africa''s "Truth and Reconciliation" program. The objective would not be to lay blame but to paint a clear picture of the current state of inequities reflecting the underbelly of life in America (health and health care, education, underemployment/unemployment, representation in positions of power & influence) and that are strongly correlated to race. Once this picture is painted, our collective responsibility would be to support politicians who are committed to a common-ground path to a common-wealth society that reflecting the principle that %u201Call men are created equal%u201D.
Without a rational %u201Cwar%u201D on America%u2019s pernicious inequities, we will collectively sleepwalk into society''s collapse, possibly awakening to the truth only at our last breaths.