And so it begins...

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I wrote the following in response to a right-wing email attack my dad sent me regarding Barack Obama. The attack piece was written by Helen K. Hosier. I have included it at the end of my response.


Hey Dad:

So this is what the new right-wing smear tactics look like. Kind of the same ol' stale crap that Karl Rove was vomiting all over everyone back in 2000. I was looking for some new material to use on my blog. I found this stuff to be absolutely inspirational. Feel free to send me all of the right wing trash that comes your way. I can use all of it.

Much of this stuff is nonsense. The only thing that seems to be missing is: "He's too not black enough."


*"On the extreme other hand, the charisma of Adolph Hitler inspired millions and the results were catastrophic."

Right off the bat we have a violation of what has come to be known as Godwin's Law, via the old 'Reductio ad Hitlerum' violation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum

Hillary's campaign is in debt. How can she run the nation's economy when she can't control the economics of her own campaign? The only others I've seen do a comparable job of campaign management with Obama in this respect have been Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee, both Republicans. Regardless of how the MSM spins it, Obama has a populist and activated base. This fact is the central premise of concern in this little smear piece you sent me. Hillary was supposed to be 'inevitable.' Remember? Now, she is just desperate and slinging garbage out of her 'kitchen sink'. The Clintons have ALWAYS gone after big corporate contributors ...something that the Republicans have been doing for a long, long time, btw. Now that McCain can't compete in terms of fundraising, the Republicans want to define Obama's ability as some kind of hypocrisy? ...Well they can try, but it aint gonna stick.

*"His religious convictions are very murky."

How? The only murkiness involved is in what other people are saying about his religious beliefs. Really, can they just get their story straight? Is he a "Muslim"? or a radical black separatist Christian?  Maybe next month they can paint him as a angry Buddhist monk supporting that radical terrorist, The Dali Lama!  The point is, he's none of the above regardless of what we see and hear on the MSM ...that will portray anything that its corporate masters tell it to. On the other hand, I think George Bush's 'religious convictions' are not simply murky ...but come right from the prince of darkness, himself! He calls himself a Christian and supports torture? How are these two ideas remotely compatible? ...Well, I guess if one thinks that the Inquisition was a respectable Christian institution, then anything is possible. He'd have been for whipping Jesus for denouncing Zionism. I'm being sarcastic, there is no doubt in my mind as to what "god" the Republicans and the Democrats have both promoted over all others: Mammon. The religious structure of Mammon worship is corporatism. It's inner sanctum is the board room.

If we're going to discuss religious convictions, just what are John McCain's, by the way? Why are his or Hillary's any less important than Obama's? In fact, Hillary was endorsed by the Rev. Calvin Butts of Harlem, who stood in his pulpit screaming, "Go to hell, white man!" Where is the coverage? Hmmmm?

Since we now seem to be breathing down the neck of 'Christian values' let's look at another one of these talking points:

*"He is willing to meet with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jung Il andMahmoud Ahmadinejad."

See Matthew 5:44-45: 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

William Blake correctly identified the one unique element of the ministry of Jesus as representing the first religious teaching in the West to express the concept of forgiveness and tolerance as core principals. Certainly this is the contrast that can be seen between the New with the Old Testaments. The passage above offers the one true HOPE that can truly change the world. I honestly believe this with all of my heart and soul. Bono who is the singer of the Irish rock band "U2," and a strong advocate for global human rights was criticized by liberals back in the '90s for simply meeting with Jesse Helms in his efforts toward bringing about debt relief to the poorest nations in Africa. Yet, he did it anyway and got results. We have to talk to those who we disagree with. If I didn't believe that, there'd be no point to even responding to this fear-mongering, paranoid hack attack.

But on the more mundane, practical level ...the isolationism, the posturing, the stand offishness have all done so much for this country, haven't they? No.


*"Wants to make the minimum wage a "living wage".

So? Denouncing this is out of touch with the reality of most Americans and is more of the same kind of thinking that encourages the sports jock and the ..uhmmm... 'talents' like Britney Spears to be valued at millions per year while the educator has to sometimes work two jobs just to get by. The wage gap in this country is not 'reasonable' by any standard of the word that I know of. The results give us teachers who cannot teach ..who are not even qualified, and they are thrown into a situation of handling 40 or 60 kids per class.

*"Opposed the Patriot Act."

...And he should wear this as a BADGE OF HONOR. Don't let its name fool you. Read the 340 page "Patriot Act" sometime ...if you can. (Here is the cliff note version w/ links to the whole thing.) Often legislators don't even have time to read this stuff before they vote on it. They claim, rather, that they are adequately briefed as Hillary said about her vote to authorize the war in Iraq. Those who did read it, voted against it. The title itself is Orwellian double-speak in that it pretty much guts the spirit and the letter of the United States Constitution; which is supposed to be the law of the land.

*"Has said that one of his first goals after being elected would be to have a conference with all Muslim nations."

So? Nearly 20% of the global population is Muslim. The Middle East happens to be predominantly Muslim ...so the answer is to ignore them and leave them out of the loop of their own destiny? How will this discourage acts of terror? Obama's suggestion represents a skill called, "communication." Even his critics are having to find that this is a great gift that he has mastered.

*"Is a big believer in the separation of church and state."

So? Which "church" should we say is qualified to write the laws for a nation as diverse as the United States of America? ...The Catholics? After all, the word Catholic means "universal." With over a billion adherents it is by far the largest "Christian" denomination in the world. If its size that matters.... Do you want the Catholics to write the laws that you must follow? I don't. Really, there are over 38,000 Christian denominations, alone. That's 38,000 different "official" interpretations of the same book. Many of these viewpoints are entirely opposed to one another. Some focus on the ministry of Jesus, others focus on the ministry of Paul, some focus on the ministry of John and others find their 'identity' in the Book of Revelations and all of the 'end-times' garbage that has had over TWO THOUSAND years to do its business or get off the pot. This being the case "secular law" should remain ...well, secular.

Besides, the Treaty of Tripoli, which was ratified by the United States Senate and signed into law by John Adams in 1797 states: "Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
So where's the beef?

*"Voted yes on providing habeas corpus for Guantanamo detainees."

So? To deny Habeas Corpus is to undermine the very concept of the rule of law. It is the base that supports Justice. To dismiss it is to invoke anarchy, even when the Supreme Court of the land turns a blind eye. This current administration has gotten people so worked up over a deliberately defocused and nebulous concept of terrorism that 'we the people' may be on the verge of throwing away the rule of law which is the underpinning of any possibility of a stable society. ...I'm not willing to have anything to do with a global tyranny in the name of 'national interest.' Since Godwin's Law has already been violated, I will point out that history shows this is exactly what happened with the crazy little mustached maniac ...and no, I'm not talking about Charlie Chaplin. It became ok to round up Jews because they were ...Jews. This is the same kind of demonization that some so-called "Christian" commentators are doing with equating Islam with the elements militant extremism that are within it ...while they fail to point out that such extremist behavior is inherent in every observable aspect of all three of the Abrahamic religions. Have you ever seen the documentary, "Jesus Camp"? Really scarry stuff!

*"Has repeatedly said the surge in Iraq has not succeeded."

I guess it depends on how one wishes to define success. The only reason the military side has 'worked' as well as it has, thus far, has less to do with adding more troops and more to do with the fact that Al-Sadr has been convinced to stay his hand for the time. Of course, just the other day the supposedly 'safe' "Green Zone" got shelled ...so things aren't what I'd call hunky dory. There is this perception touted by elements of the right wing of the American political spectrum that claims that those of us who were against the war, against being deceived ...those of us who knew it was a TERRIBLE idea (...in the truest sense of the word "terrible,") want America to be humiliated by failure and this is so far from the truth that it is outrageous. These are accusations that are being hurled by the same people who screwed the pooch in the first place! Frankly, I (along with millions of other Americans) am damned sick and tired of being told that we are "unpatriotic" and all of the other insults and rhetoric we've had to endure from people like Bill O'Really?!, Sean Insanity and Rush Slimebag. These are the true faces of terror and terrorism in America. They are the American equivalents to Tokyo Rose and Hanoi Hannah. Terrorism itself is a tactic which cannot work without a media. Acts of terror are meaningless if there are no outlets to propagate the knowledge of the deed. (Example: During WWII, the Japanese launched a balloon assault that actually hit North America. The media was coerced to be silent about it, and so the Japanese concluded the idea failed and discontinued it.) Meanwhile these pundits minimize the suffering of people who suffer greatly ...and for WHAT!!!??? I don't have words strong enough to express my condemnation of that whole line of thinking and those who support that kind of trash as having some virtue or merit worthy of consideration.

I value the human experience as being paramount over superficialities such as nationalism, ethnicity or creed and so on. The ideals which were laid out in this country's founding documents call us to that conclusion. That's the one quality that gives our nation potential greatness that is capable of being a light unto the world. Corporations like FOX and MSNBC, CNN etc merely serve to illustrate that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" Samuel Johnson April 7, 1775. Besides, Christ didn't come to venerate "national interests." As I recall it was his refusal to do so that prompted his fellow Jews to have the Romans execute him. Empires come and go but the suffering remains. Where is the mighty Roman empire, now? Where is the British Empire, which was once so large that it was said that upon it the sun never set? What about the French empire? The Dutch? Where are these things? This neoconservative notion of a corporate synarchy meets American global empire as a solution that the rest of the world will simply have to accept will go that same way, and well it should ...the sooner the better. ...Those aren't even conservative values. The right-wingers complain about taxes used to help America's poor and huddled masses out of their tragedy, but are all for making those same people pay taxes whether they can afford it or not, so that we can bomb kids in other lands.

Like I said, its all in how one defines "success." On second thought, don't send me any more of this stuff. It is an insult to even a rudimentary intelligence such as myself. This is TV dinner material for morons and we're both better than that.

"The average voter is a moron. He believes what he reads in newspapers, feeds his imagination and lulls his repressions on the cinema, and hopes to break away from his slavery by football pools, cross-word prizes, or spotting the winner of the 3.30. He is ignorant as no illiterate peasant is ignorant: he has no power of independent thought. He is the prey of panic. But he has the vote.

The men in power can only govern by stampeding him into wars, playing on his fears and prejudices until he acquiesces in repressive legislation against his obvious interests, playing on his vanity until he is totally blind to his own misery and serfdom. The alternative method is undisguised dragooning. In brief, we govern by a mixture of lying and bullying.

This desperate resort to archaic weapons is the heritage of hypocrisy. The theories of Divine Right, aristocratic superiority, the moral order of Nature, are all today exploded bluffs. Even those of us who believe in supernatural sanctions for our privileges to browbeat and rob the people no longer delude ourselves with the thought that our victims share our superstitions.
Even dictators understand this. Mussolini has tried to induce the ghost of Ancient Rome to strut the stage in the image of Julius Caesar; Hitler has invented a farrago of nonsense about Nordics and Aryans; nobody even pretends to believe either, except through the "will-to-believe." And the pretence is visibly breaking down everywhere. They cannot even be galvanized with spasms of pseudo-activity, as still occasionally happens with the dead toads of superstition.

There is only one hope of uniting the people under intelligent leadership; because there is only one thing in which everyone really believes. That is, believes in such a way that he automatically bases every action of his daily life on its principles. (This is true of practically all men, whatever their race, caste, or creed.) This universally accepted basis of conduct is Science.

Science has attained this position because it makes no assertion that it is not prepared to demonstrate to all comers. (This part is so well understood that all the "false prophets"—Spiritualism, Christian Science, ethnological cranks, Great Pyramid puzzle-mongers, and the rest of the humbugs—all pretend to appeal to evidence, not to authority, as did the Kings and the Churches.) The problem of Government is therefore to find a scientific formula with an ethical implication. This formula must be rigidly applicable to all sane men soever without reference to the individual qualities of any one of them. " Aleister Crowley 1937

So what about Democracy has changed since 1937? Information access, but it's only useful for those who use it.

Here is the attack piece:

Some of you will recognize the name of Bill Brown. He is a highly respected retired member of the Billy Graham team. And I am blessed to count him as a friend whom I've known a long time. (His wife is the British actress who was in one of the Billy Graham films. She is also an author.)

So I take his assessment of Obama very seriously and for that reason accept his challenge to pass this on. I share his concern about the "rock star" image Obama has and watch with growing concern at the celebrity status the media has foisted upon him. I hope this email informs you in a wise way.

Helen K. Hosier 3117 Almond Dr., Flower Mound, TX 75028 972-539-4250 cell 972-333-3870 fax 603-250-685

We are witnessing a political phenomenon with Barack Obama of rare magnitude. His speeches have inspired millions and yet most of his followers have no idea of what he stands for except platitudes of "Change" or that he says he will be a "Uniter". The power of speech from a charismatic person truly can be a powerful thing. Certainly Billy Graham had charisma and both his manner of speech and particularly the content changed millions. On the extreme other hand, the charisma of Adolph Hitler inspired millions and the results were catastrophic. Barack Obama certainly is no Hitler or a Billy Graham, but for many Americans out there feeling just like a surfer who might be ecstatic and euphoric while riding a tidal wave, the real story is what happens when it hits shore.

Just Some of What Defines Barack Obama:

He voted against banning partial birth abortion

He voted no on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions.

Supports affirmative action in Colleges and Government.

In 2001 he questioned harsh penalties for drug dealing.

Says he will deal with street level drug dealing as minimum wage affair.

Admitted marijuana and cocaine use in high school and in college.

His religious convictions are very murky.

He is willing to meet with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jung Il andMahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Has said that one of his first goals after being elected would be to have a conference with all Muslim nations.

First bill he signed that was passed was campaign finance reform.

Opposed the Patriot Act

Voted No on prohibiting law suits against gun manufacturers.

Supports universal health-care.

Voted yes on providing habeas corpus for Guantanamo detainees.

Supports granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

Supports extending welfare to illegalimmigrants.

Voted yes on comprehensive immigration reform.

Voted yes on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security.

Wants to make the minimum wage a "living wage".

Voted with Democratic Party 96 percent of 51 votes.

Is a big believer in the separation of church and state.

Opposed to any efforts to Privatize Social Security and instead supports increasing the amount of tax paid.

He voted No on repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax

He wants to raise the Capital Gains Tax.·

He voted No on repealing the "Death" Tax. Has repeatedly said the surge in Iraq has not succeeded.

He is ranked as the most liberal Senator in the Senate today and that takes some doing.

If your political choices are consistent with Barack Obama's and you think that his positions will bring America together or make it a better place, then you will probably enjoy the ride and not forward this Email. If you are like most Americans that after examining what he stands for, are truly not in line with his record, it would be prudent to get off the wave or better yet, never get on, before it comes on shore and undermines the very foundations of this great Country. We have limited time to save America or the Supreme Court as we know it. Inaction is action.If you agree this is important, pass it on. The mainstream media will not do it for you!