A website dedicated to the man so uniquely unqualified to be President. This blog by by radio talk host Todd Feinburg has been replaced by RealClearThinker.com.
Showing posts with label Reverend Wright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reverend Wright. Show all posts
FALSANI: Do you have people in your life that you look to for guidance?
OBAMA: Well, my pastor [Jeremiah Wright] is certainly someone who I have an enormous amount of respect for.
I have a number of friends who are ministers. Reverend Meeks is a close friend and colleague of mine in the state Senate. Father Michael Pfleger is a dear friend, and somebody I interact with closely.
FALSANI: Those two will keep you on your toes.
OBAMA: And theyr'e good friends. Because both of them are in the public eye, there are ways we can all reflect on what's happening to each of us in ways that are useful.
I think they can help me, they can appreciate certain specific challenges that I go through as a public figure.
“One of the churches that I became involved in was Trinity United Church of Christ,” Obama said in the interview. “And the pastor there, Jeremiah Wright, became a good friend. So I joined that church and committed myself to Christ in that church.”
Obama began attending the church in 1988 and formally joined Trinity in 1992. Falsani asked, “Do you still attend Trinity?”
Obama answered, “Yep. Every week. 11 o’clock service. Ever been there? Good service.
Hmm. This sounds a bit different from Barack said during the campaign.
“As young marrieds, Barack and Michelle (who also didn't go to church regularly as a child) went to church fairly often—two or three times a month. But after their first child, Malia, was born, they found making the effort more difficult. ‘I don't know if you've had the experience of taking young, squirming children to church, but it's not easy,’ he says.
“‘Trinity was always packed, and so you had to get there early. And if you went to the morning service, you were looking at—it just was difficult. So that would cut back on our involvement.’
This should have happened in July. But it could provide the difference in the bitter neighborhoods.
John McCain has not wielded the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. club over Democratic rival Barack Obama, who repudiated his former pastor and eventually left his Chicago church.
But that hasn't stopped some of those supporting the Republican presidential candidate. The GOP in Pennsylvania, a must-win state for McCain, is airing a tough, last-minute TV ad on Wright and Obama.
"If you think you could ever vote for Barack Obama, consider this: Obama chose as his spiritual leader, this man," the announcer says in the ad, first reported yesterday by Time magazine's political website.
Wright is then shown, in the now-famous video, thunderously saying from the pulpit of a Chicago church while Obama was a member, "Not God bless America, God damn America!"
"He also picked Wright to baptize his children," the announcer says, before Wright is shown saying, "The US of KKKA!"
"Barack Obama, he chose as his pastor a man who blamed the US for the 9/11 attacks," the announcer continues. "Does that sound like someone who should be president?"
Sorry - am I really posting this commercial for the third time? I believe so, but with good reason. It's a great ad, it's one that should have been running for weeks, and it could tilt the election to where it should be.
He built his power base in Wright's church. Wright was his mentor, adviser and close friend. For 20 years Obama never complained until he ran for President.
This weekend, the National Republican Trust is spending $6 million in TV buys for this one ad. Is it too little too late?
The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.
What friends of Barack Obama do we believe to have been involved in, or to have supported such activities?
Bill Ayers, co-founder of the Weather Underground and active bomber of U.S. government buildings.
RashidKhalidi - university professor and reputed former PLO spokesman.
Is it unfair, inaccurate or code to say that Barack is guilty of "palling around with terrorists?" Rashidi is a close personal friend. The evidence is strong that Ayers is a critical partner in Barack's career, but he has not been forthcoming with details, so we are left to speculate.But some, like Anil Dash at Dashes.com, are upset with Sarah Palin's use of the palling phrase - without, it seems to me, bothering to test its accuracy.
But a closer look at her deliberate use of vernacular and language reveals that she has gone far beyond any other candidate in vice presidential history in the dangerous and irresponsible implications of her attacks. She has phrased her attacks on Obama in a way that avoids accountability to the press while specifically addressing the subset of her audience who are most likely to advocate extreme actions against Obama.
The crux of the issue is simple:
Sarah Palin has unequivocally associated Barack Obama with the idea of terrorism and specifically with "terrorists".
Republican President George Bush has defined in our National Security Strategy, and the Republican Party's platform affirms, that we may identify and strike at terrorists before they have committed any defined acts of aggression against American citizens.
Palin has used deliberate choice of language to avoid these connections being highlighted by the media, while increasing the likelihood that the target audience for her message will be incited by her statements.
...she appears to be attempting to convince a substantial portion of her supporters that Obama supports terrorism against the United States and thus should be, at the very least, incarcerated as an enemy combatant (which we are doing to American citizens already) or at worst, assassinated for supporting terror.
This is, of course, is an appearance that only presents itself to some. That Barack has built his career while partnering with bizarre and bad people is not in doubt, nor is the fact that some engaged in terror or supported terrorist activities. Palin's statements are factual and fair.
She has done this knowing full well that she can retain plausible deniability thanks to the ambiguity of her statements as they'll be interpreted by the media, by her detractors, and by her more reasonable supporters.
It would seem that Mr. Dash is jumping to conclusions. It's a hazard of doing too much thinking and not enough assuming of the obvious. For starters, Dash's assertions fail the reality test. Did Palin succeed in throwing the press off course, or did she suffer attacks for her "palling around with terrorists" language? She was attacked.
Did anyone, besides Dash, that is, posit that she was really demanding that Barack be arrested and sent immediately to Gitmo? He's the first one I've heard suggest this. Has anyone, in response to Palin, made demands that Barack be arrested? Not that I've heard.
Dash goes on to explain the idea of Code Switching - think Oprah slipping into black vernacular to ingratiate herself with her target audience - to make her language more impactful to the chosen audience than proper English would be to the larger population.
Put simply, if Palin says "Barack Obama consorts with terrorists," she is making the assertion that he supports acts of violence against American citizens and the media will refute this obviously false assertion. If, instead, Palin says he "pals around with terrorists", she's used code-switching to mask the seriousness of the charge, obfuscating her meaning enough to get away with making an assertion that inevitably calls for the imprisonment or even assassination of a political opponent.
This clever use of language only hides Palin's meaning from members of the press. Because writers for traditional media are usually highly educated and pride themselves on their mastery of Standard American English, they can often look down on dialects like AAVEand North Central English. Instead these forms of language being seen as legitimate and interpreted in the social context where they've formed, they're dismissed as being the words of "people who don't even speak proper English!" In the cases where the ideas aren't outright dismissed, there is still rampant misinterpretation of meaning: Reporters wrongly see a term like "palling" as imprecise, when compared to a word like "consorting."
In my mind, consorting is simply not a word that people use and readily understand the subtleties of. It might carry more baggage than Dash assesses is delivered by palling. Palling is, after all, friendly and warm - consorting sounds legalistic and dangerous.
On top of this, by deliberately omitting the word "domestic" as a descriptor of "terrorist" after its initial mention in her speeches, Palin has amplified the recurring theme of "otherness" that the McCain campaign and its surrogates have pinned on Obama. There is an unequivocal attempt to assign a commonality of purpose and intent between Obama, his supporters and campaigners, and terrorists who would attack Americans.
Yes, if Barack only had hung out and planned his career with domestic terrorists, then we'd have nothing to fear! It's like how domestic flights are safer than international ones.
Sarah Palin's conduct has gone far past the bounds of decency, and far past even the most dangerous efforts of any previous candidate for such high office. This is an inexcusable, unforgivable, and unacceptable transgression and my belief is that she should be removed from consideration for the office of Vice President for her dangerous, unethical and unamerican display of irresponsibility.
This sort of obsessive analysis distracts the educated class, and allows the elite to miss the obvious flaws in Barack's candidacy - inexperience, youth, radicalism and the natural questions of judgment and character that arise from his long partnership with dangerous people such as Wright, Khalidi, Pfleger, Ayers, Rezko, Farrakan, etc. And, of course, there's his stated displeasure with the work of the Founding Fathers.
PS - is there a hidden message in Dash's obviously deliberate failure to properly capitalize un-American?
Sorry - it's contagious.
Here's a refresher course on how Barack used to brag about his Chicago Annenberg Challenge experience, which is omitted from his resume today.
Today's tallys - from the polls we pay the most attention to. Rasmussen stays at 8% for the second day, Gallup stays at 5%, and Zogby drops to 5%, with a 3 point lead for Barack in yesterday's polling alone (the 5% number comes from tabulating the last 3 days.)
Presidential politics is like making a movie. The candidate is the actor, his job is to deliver the lines written for him by the script writers. Politicians who don't get this, or have a conscience, don't do as well.
Barack is the first candidate, perhaps, to fully embrace this requirement of the TV era. Everything is a prop, every speech a hustle. His grandmother, his preacher, his mentors, they are all props when push comes to shove.
John McCain has a problem with this. He's an old fashioned man, built on dated ideas such as values and honor. So he's uncomfortable at debates when he is forced to recite lies.
Barack spews them with relish - with utter comfort. Unburdened by a sense of responsibility, he thinks only about performance while delivering his well memorized lines. He performs without flaw.
Barack lies about Bill Ayers, his mentor. He lies about Jeremiah Wright, his mentor. He covers up his connection to Tony Rezko, his most important money man during his Chicago years. He doesn't mention his job as chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, his only managment credential.
Harry Smith: The rancorous tone of this campaign - I was with John McCain on Monday, and I said, 'Our poll data shows that it's actually hurting you.' He says, 'I wouldn't be doing it if he weren't doing it.'
He lied about his policy on the war. He lied about his commitment to public financing. He lied about FISA. The list goes on an on.
Barack Obama (laughing): Well, look. I - I mean - politics is tough. ... But I will say this: I don't think there's any equivalence between what we've been doing and what John McCain's been doing. ... Witness some of the comments that have been made just over the last several months, his last several weeks, 'Socialistic.' You know, 'Pals around with terrorists.' I mean, just - the kinds of stuff that - that I can't imagine saying about an opponent of mine.
Isn't that funny? Barack's political and spiritual mentors are Marxists, socialists, criminals and anarchists, but he just can't imagine talking about anyone the way the GOP talks about him. Poor Barack.
Barack may be the best political candidate ever. Because he doesn't let the truth get in the way.
It's clear to anyone paying attention that Barack has been outright lying about his connection to Bill Ayers - but most people aren't paying attention. They prefer to focus on the issues. From my point of view, Barack lies about his positions on the issues even more readily than he does on his radical past, so I'm not sure what the benefit is in listening to him talk about the issues. The radical past can be investigated. The best way to know what he believes on the issues is to follow his roots.
Were Ayers and Barack close? In a book that Ayers published on parenting in 1998, this was his description of the neighborhood where he and Barack lived.
Were Barack and Ayers connected beyond seeing each other raking leaves? The blog Verum Serum offers:
(The) Chicago Annenberg Challenge website from 2002 shows the total amount of funds given to Bill Ayers’ Small Schools Workshop from 1995 to 2001. ..... According to this page, the total given under Barack Obama’s direct supervision was $1,056,162. Adding that amount to the money given by the Joyce Foundation and Woods Fund during Obama’s tenure brings the grand total to $1,968,718. Just shy of two million dollars! That’s a lot of scratch, to put it bluntly. And don’t forget, this doesn’t count the 3/4 million that went to John Ayers during the same time period.
..... (Also) Bill Ayers and Barack Obama shared an office. Ayers’ Small Schools Workshop, the one Obama directed all that money too (sic) is located at 115 S. Sangamon Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607.
..... In 1998, the address for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, where Obama presumably worked, was 115 S. Sangamon Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607.
They were clearly business partners for a number of years, but more importantly, it seems obvious that Ayers was mentoring Barack - giving him power and influence that he was unqualified for, but could use to build a political career.
For those who say they don't care about Ayers - they want to talk about the issues, not about Barack's shady past - I say fine. No need for you to care. However, Barack cares deeply that you don't know the truth. Doesn't the cover-up make you curious?
Watch the clip in this video where, when he was running for congress as an unqualified candidate in 2002, he doesn't hide his one executive position as he has done in the presidential race, but instead offers it as an important qualification.
One more thing - back to the book excerpt at the top of this post. Remember how Ayers labeled Barack a writer? Why would have called the politician a writer? Could this be evidence of the strong connection between them?
In his analysis of Barack's book, in which he promotes the idea that Bill Ayers provided the editing touch that brought Dreams of My Father from ordinary to great, Jack Cashill wonders about the "writer" label.
In 1997, Obama was an obscure state senator, a lawyer, and a law school instructor with one book under his belt that had debuted two years earlier to little acclaim and lesser sales. In terms of identity, he had more in common with mayor Sawyer than poet Brooks. The “writer” identification seems forced and purposefully so, a signal perhaps to those in the know of a persona in the making that Ayers had himself helped forge.
One of the issues motivating Colin Powell to appear on Meet the Press this week, and perhaps to endorse Barack, is the ugliness poor Obama has faced on the campaign trail.
A friend and ex-aide said that Gen Powell was extremely "upset" by the "vitriol, bile and prejudice" aimed at Mr Obama on the campaign trail.
I know what might calm Colin - by providing him some perspective.
"We've talked about this and I know it really bothers him and I'd expect him to talk about it," Col Lawrence Wilkerson, his former chief of staff, told The Telegraph.
I'd suggest a visit to the Churches of Jeremiah and Michael.
Is the Obama campaign misrepresenting his strong ties to Bill Ayers? Of course. CNN, of all places, has actually done some reporting on this that adds some value.
This piece makes a couple of very important points. First, that Barack's political career was created by Bill Ayers, who, despite his utter lack of qualifications, made Obama Chairman of the Ayers controlled Annenberg Challenge. Second, that Barack was introduced to mentor Alice Waters at the home of Bill Ayers. A guy who happens to live in Obama's neighborhood.
The Obama campaign is reacting quickly and harshly to Sarah Palin's attempts to get the truth out about Bill Ayers.
Here's a TV news report from a few weeks ago on the examination of documents regarding the close association between Ayers and Obama on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.
Knowing these attacks would be coming, the Obama campaign has the response ad ready to go.
David Brooks was on Face the Nation this morning saying that neither campaign, but particularly the McCain campaign, understands just how dramatically the race has been changed by the debacle on Wall Street. The standard accusations of too liberal, he says, no longer apply - and Republicans are not adapting to a new, post-conservative era.
Yesterday I posted an ad from the Judicial Network that attempts to make the country aware of the Obamafia. It was ok. Here's an RNC version that's stronger, I think. But for this to be done with the viciousness it warrents, aren't we looking for a 527campaign of expensive truth telling?
Here's another attempt at making people aware of Barack's shaky associations. Not a particularly powerful one - but all attempts at getting the truth out are important. This is from the Judicial Network.
Where are the ads? The 527 created campaign that should be re-creating the Swift Boat attacks of four years ago - something Barack's shady past makes him far more vulnerable to than Kerry ever was. Is it possible that the big money GOP donors aren't that interested this time?
This ad demonstrates how easy it is to produce very effective ads on Barack - and Vets for Freedom is paying to run it in California, a Democratic stronghold!
The group, Vets for Freedom, has been active in several battleground states. But this is its first ad buy in California, which is considered to be firmly in Obama's column. His Republican rival, John McCain, is making only token campaign efforts in the state.
With the economic crisis controlling the news cycle, keeping the country reminded of how much people want "change," no matter how random or ill advised, McCain needs to educate about the Obamafia - the Reverends, the terrorist, the Briber, et al.
I fear they're planning a last minute attack campaign, which may be too late.
I'm asked quite often how I can be so confident that Barack will lose this election. It is, after all, a year designed for the Democrats to win. Bush fatigue, War Fatigue and a bad economy provide all the structural impediments needed to block the return of the GOP to power.
In nominating Barack, however, Democrats have chosen a candidate who renders those advantages far weaker than they should be.
If his inexperience and liberalism aren't enough to beat him - which they wouldn't be in a year like this, his associations certainly work in combination with his other electoral challenges to render him unelectable.
Some folks find this ugly preacher amusing, just because he's a pro McCain bomb-thrower, instead of one of Obama's bigots. I think it's ugly drivel, to be shunned by one and all.
Pastor James David Manning, PHD has asked his flock to pray for Senator John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin. Manning unleashed his venom on the media for favoring Barack Obama over McCain and has accused the press of playing "favorites".
Isn't the point of the controversy over Reverends Wright and Pfleger that there's something wrong with people who would associate with people like this?
Specifically, he goes on to blast them for reporting extensively on Palin's 17-year old daughter for getting pregnant out of wedlock.
In his sermon, Manning had some very unkind comments directed at Barack Obama's mother and the media in general.
Democrats make a big mistake by refusing to object to Barack's close association, and worse, helping to cover up the truth of that association, with people who make money and gain power by stomping on the nerve of race. All of them should be scorned.
