Obama's judgment

Of course it speaks directly to Obama's judgment. After 20 years, all of a sudden this preacher who officiated his wedding and baptized his daughters is someone he doesn't know? Obama needed Wright for street cred to build his political machine in Chicago; now he's a liability, so he has to disown him as "divisive"  -- just weeks after he said "I can no more disown him than my white grandmother.  He's burning bridges in his own back yard, yet he says he'll go on a worldwide Dictator Tour during his first year in office and build bridges all over the universe. "Unity" is his shtick -- it's the space he occupies in exploiting Hillary's partisan image -- yet he's throwing people under the bus left and right. What's next?

by Russell Totten (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 9:44:56 PM
 

The left and their poster boy

Yes, the moreleft movement is slowly but surely leaving tell-tale breadcrumbs to their true vocation.  They don't really care who carries the banner as long as they can control the march and frame the debate.

Enter Barack Obama.  He is a blank page on which the idealogues will write us their postscript, as America sinks into the sunset.  They say Rev. Wright is right and his message within the parameters of acceptible dissent.  They don't seem to mind Louis Farrakhan's maniacal preachments and racist slurs. We have it coming...they don't mind Obama's attachment to domestic terrorists; we had it coming...they don't mind Barack's sketchy resume largely invented for political reasons, padded credentials--when those who knew him in the Illinois Senate were aware that he took credit for bills more experienced members ushered through the process. 

They don't even mind that his claims of political purity are as solid as the global-warmed Arctic Ocean in mid-July.  They don't care because they know the media and other power brokers have tapped him forwhatever the reason but they think they are pulling one over on them...Finally.

How perfectly naive can you get and still consider yourself rational?  No one has bothered to read the Karl Rove gift to Obama on how to beat Hillary.  There is no doubt in my mind that it isn't the left Obama will be entertaining and servicing.  It will be all those greedy wolves the noble leftist despise.  But the rest of us will be sweeping up the circus tent when the show is over.

The Rev. Wright shtick is just another bait and switch routine.  The hand is quicker than the eye.

by Marilyn Frith (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 191 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 4:34:02 PM
 

Does Jeremiah Wright Support Hillary or Barack?

Jeremiah Wright met with Bill and Hillary when Bill was President. Is Jeremiah Wright working to help get Hillary elected?

by Anton Grambihler (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 262 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 12:36:54 AM
 

YES and NO

I am sorry, but the ' honorary German' Gorby never possessed any wisdom claimed in this article. There was once a study of him  and it was pointed out that he was a compulsive loser- he  managed to screw up any job he had from the start. He at last screwed up his own country. It was pointed in that study that the only thing Gorby really loved was  FUN and he was also thrilled by flattery of all those Western cronies of his from Reagan toThatcher, Gorby's name is one of the most hated now in Russia, right after Yeltzin.

As for Solzhenitzyn, a lot had surfaced recently inlcuding the unfortunate fact that he was an informer  for the Secret Police himself for some time( not that I blame him considering the circumstances).  The book of his  surely has value but  primarily as a reference, not as a literature. Furthermore, one of the most unfortunate issues with him and the West was and is that he developed and cultivated an image of Russia as some kind of a horror show. Meanwhile, Russia did  ovethrow the Stalinist regime in 1953-1956 on its own while to destroy the German fascism the WWII was needed. It was proven by many  scientists that Russian society, unlike the German one  had an internal resistance to fascism while the German and other Western societies were and are actually prone to it.  Morover,  the West did use the Solzhenitzyn's writing to smear not the Soviet regime but the Russsian  people and  still does that. As such, and further on Solzhenitzyn had done a disservice to his country. That, of course does not denigrate  his book as a very powerful documentary.

I am not sure the analogues to Rev. Wright work here but I would advise all those who do analogues   to make proper balances. Russia never had a racial problem. The US has it. Let's not forget it.

by Mark Sashine (46 articles, 19 quicklinks, 234 diaries, 3348 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 7:43:14 AM
 

fairness and unfair critique

Jeremiah Wright had the right and need to state as Malcolm X did in 1963-1964, "The pidgeons are coming home to roost." i.e. in reference to U.S. overthrows and foreign affairs manipulation by CIA and buddies possibly leading to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

However, Wright was speaking in a more obviously warrented situation.  1000s of good Americans, including soldiers and other concerned citizens, were not surprised that American policy since WWII could lead others on the planet to see us as Colonialists or imperialists.  

The surprise attack has always been the obvious weapon of choice in such instances when violent forces take over the minds and brains of an anti-colonial movement.

That does not mean that 1000s of other Americans (than Mr. Wright) condone the events of 9-11, it simply means that in the context of studying the outsiders and marginalized on this planet, a 9-11 was quite likely to occur.

Sure, maybe 200 million Americans didn't see 9-11 as  a possibility but others did.

As Mr. Wright said, it is up to prophetic voices to put our observations to words.  Sometimes those words are harsh and make clear, "I've been telling you this could happen if we keep marching blindly into the quicksand."

As for Solzhenitsen (sick), it was quite inevitable that he had to be labled as an informer under the threats to his life he was under during the Stalin era. Otherwise, he would have been dead.

However, the later years, he had a chance to work back away from that role. 

by ALONE (117 articles, 1 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 266 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 7:57:07 AM
 

I did not

blame Solzhenitzyn for becoming an informer ( as I state in my comment above). But I   needed to explain that his  ABSOLUTE HATE of the   way of life under socialism WAS the only thing  the politicos on the West appreciated.   In reality as I have said also  the only way to compare systems  fairly is to  investigate SIMILAR things  happening and see the driving forces of good and evil. Russia did overthrow the Stalinist regime after he died  ON ITS OWN(!) while Germany needed foreign powers to do that. That tells a  lot and that has to be considered. We must take good thiings from other people, learn from them. Gulag was bad. But there was a lot of good  in Russia; what did we  here absorb?  Same there.

That's what I meant.

by Mark Sashine (46 articles, 19 quicklinks, 234 diaries, 3348 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 8:18:04 AM
 

Try reading the Gulag first, then comment

"The book of his surely has value but  primarily as a reference, not as a literature. "

Oh really? I guess that's why he won the Nobel Prize for LITERATURE for the Gulag Archipelago.

by Grasshopper (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 11:10:04 AM
 

Hey, Grasshopper

This is  your first comment? You should have a look  who comments and why. I am a Russian, it is my native language, I read the book in  original, in fact several times as well as I  compared it with other similar books on the subject. It is not a literature, sorry. The Nobel Prize...  well, many very strange people get this prize nowadays.  It is not a criteria, sorry.

As a matter of fact, the former Russian govt denounced by cittizenship too, not that I can compare myself to Solzhenitzyn. But   folks, who of us does not like to read about OTHER people  screwed and not about  OUR people. Of course, we here did not have Gulag and Auchwitz. But... just read  the ' Confessions of Nat Turner'  by W. Styron and you might not  want to read about Gulag at all. And it is literature of the highest order.

by Mark Sashine (46 articles, 19 quicklinks, 234 diaries, 3348 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 11:34:18 AM
 

He wrote other novels, too

"Cancer Ward" comes to mind.  You get the Nobel Prize in Literature for a body of work.  He deserved it as the prize is generally awarded to writers who bring into focus social unrest and oppression.

Recently, I ran across the Turkish author, Orhan Pamuk, and his novel "Snow."  Turkey is one of the Islamic countries struggling with a clash of cultures within its own borders--the modern and the traditional.  Tradition does not die easily.  Margaret Atwood, a prize winning author in her own right, said of "Snow," "...essential reading for our time. He is narrating his country into being."  Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in 2006.

That is what great literature is about...nudging our sleeping consciousness into a state of awareness.

by Marilyn Frith (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 191 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 11:59:00 AM
 

Good job, Mark

A lesson of depth from a person with true knowledge of  Russian history and Russian sensibilities.  I have a place in my heart for the courage of the Russian people.  They had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the twentieth century due to millennia of forced slavery and servitude.  But they did try to work through all those deficits and aquitted themselves in noble fashion during WW 11.  And I loved "Dr. Zivago"--both book and movie!  One of the best films ever, IMO.

by Marilyn Frith (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 191 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 11:43:57 AM
 

thanks, Marylin

I, of course, am not a judge  on who deserves the Prize and as a matter fo fact Pamuk is a very good writer.  But as I said,  love is paramount.   The national writer  has to love his country no matter how horrible its history is sometimes and  promote that love. Hate makes any effort useless.  Even in the " Gulag' there are symptoms of the writer's struggle  with overhwhelming Hate to which he succumbs. And in contrast- if you have read and seen the movie ' Dr. Zhivago'- you surely see the LOVE  of the author to his people, his country, his  characters even. That's the criteria.Yes, Hate can be powerful and it enables you to see very far. But it narrows the horizon and then only Love can save you.  That's the balance of all great spirits and Solzhenitizyn did not pass the test. In Russia there were many others who did pass the test. Anna Akhmatova, the famous poet, the author of the ' Requiem' passed the test with flying colors. But she is not that praised  here because she  never hated( although she had every reason to). I do not hate Russia although they took my citizenship, property and booted me out. I learned to love the best in it.  That's very difficult.

by Mark Sashine (46 articles, 19 quicklinks, 234 diaries, 3348 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 12:10:34 PM
 

I was reading GuLag Archipelago in 1999

I told my father, "You know what's wrong with this country?  Our elected have not read this book.  If they read this book, they would see, we are doing exactly what Stalin was doing."  And then, in his second campaign speach, Bush said, "Solzhenitsyn", and it struck me at that moment, not only had the neocons read that book, they were using that book as a "road map" to not make the mistakes Stalin had made.  I told the GOP friends supporting Bush, "He's going to betray you", because the book points out that Stalin, turned on those who got him in..they were his first victims..so Bush would have to be a traitor to his supporters.  I was right.

So when you say "To understand Rev. Wright, recall Solzhenitsyn"...I was curious what you had to say.  I recall Solzhenitsyn when I see articles about FEMA concentration camps, or read the Patriot Act, or the rantings of Fascism ( Which I agree with Ayn Rand is Communism with God, and Communism is corporatism, as Musilini claimed Fascism). 

Wright is a Fascist.  He is the mirror of Jerry Falwell.  Obama, with Wright, is a Fascist, and he's worried about that perception, which is growing, as comparisons to he and Bush are now mounting.  Bush did not condemn Falwell..Obama condems Wright, but that does not mean Obama is not a Fascist, only he'd rather you see him as a Communist. 

I will tell Obama supporters now, "Like Stalin and Bush who turn on thir own supporters, Obama will turn on you as he did his personal spiritual and religious leader." 

by Jeanette Doney (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 304 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 9:32:43 AM
 

Tuskegee, cocaine, etc.

Points white people forget - if they ever knew - or cared to know: 

I invite thinking white people to ponder their own level of rage if U.S. governmental elements involved in international drug trade were to funnel cocaine into their neighborhoods and schools. Yes, it's now well established this is the case. 

Black culture has a strong oral tradition, and slavery is only a few generations past, lynchings and the Tuskegee experiments maybe three, and governmental funneling of drugs into Black neighborhoods only yesterday. 

Obama, in his goal to become an urban civil rights activist HAD to immerse himself in contemporary urban Black society, a society that has long used its churches as sources of strength and as outlets for a rage that one would have to be very, very dense not to appreciate. Failure to understand it is, at the core, a failure to empathize. 

by Bill Willers (9 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 44 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 10:20:53 AM
 

Bill, you are right but you stop too soon...

You see all the negatives visited upon the black community and they are legion and unforgivable.  You have to extrapolate your thesis out beyond one set of givens and realize the impact these sins have had on all Americans.

Slavery begot the Civil War where hundreds of thousands died and the South was destroyed; holding down a whole race of people has held back the nation's ability to move beyond hate and bias, which infects this very attempt at democratic processes we call election 2008.  The drug culture has moved out of the ghetto and into mainstream America, into our schools and into our homes--black and white.

We are all in this together.  Barack Obama is simply not wise enough or strong enough to carry the burden demanded in today's world.   Better see through the media hype and rethink your loyalties.  Did you know, for example, that Karl Rove--author of 2000 and the Bush regime--is giving Barack instructions on how to beat Hillary?  Think the article is published in Newsweek Magazine.  Read it and reconsider; this is serious business, not wise to jump in head-first at low tide.

by Marilyn Frith (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 191 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 12:23:16 PM
 

Marilyn - What About Marc Rich, Mena & Clinton Library?

Nice to see you back again but you never answered the questions:

1 - What about Marc Rich

2 - What about Mena (the nexus of the Clinton-Bush connection)

3 -Who coughed up all that dough for the Clinton library.

Parrot the talking points but at least Reverend Wright is an American who honorably served this country and is outraged enough to openly condemn the same globalist intrests that fuel the Clinton campaign.

Come on, cough it up!

EE

by Ed Encho (6 articles, 10 quicklinks, 54 diaries, 369 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 5:31:39 PM
 

Ed, your argument is stale

We have been over this ground ad nauseam.  You know what I said about Mark Rich...and other Bill policies.  They were Bill decisions, not Hillary's.

What about Rezko, Auchi, Ayres, Dohrn? Obama's many and varied documented "boneheaded" miscues.  Is he this century's version of the Teflon man, Ron Reagan?  Is Obama a Republican way down deep? Because he is getting some good advice and lots of money from Wall Street money changers.  Rev. Wright is exposed as a self-serving nut case...

So what? It is just the beginning of Obama's headaches.  His past is so fraught with skeletons, he can't get the closet door closed. 

Why is Karl Rove instructing him in his Newsweek Mag column?

http://www.newsweek/id/134322  (Rove name has surfaced in the Rezko trial; the plot thickens.  Film at eleven.)

http://www.newswithviews.com/Ryter/jon212.htm  ("Obama's Muslim Connection")

by Marilyn Frith (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 191 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 6:45:36 PM
 

Just Answer Marilyn and I Will Stop Asking

Come on Marilyn, answer the question.

 I can't determine whether you are a Clinton operative, a hired hack or just one of those goosestepping reich wing dittoheads recruited by the pied piper of white populist propaganda for Operation Chaos to produce a landslide in November by having the hated Hillary as the nominee.

Come on Marilyn, just answer the questions....

Stop being evasive

EE 

by Ed Encho (6 articles, 10 quicklinks, 54 diaries, 369 comments) on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 6:17:01 AM
 

Wright's Right

Of course Wright's rhetoric is justified; what shocks me most about this entire event is that Obama distanced himself - after listening to Wright for 20 years !!!

Like a typical spineless Dem who won't stand WITH the people when things get real, Obama is a fake.  He belongs in the Democratic Party - paying lip service to the base (unless it's the "activist base" Hillary derided), while accepting funds from the same Wall Street banks that snookered the gullible or uneducated into subprime mortgages.  Can you guess the race of most of those losing their homes?

What a phony... what a disappointment...  Obama Tomming his way thru the political arena. 

by Rady Ananda (88 articles, 226 quicklinks, 18 diaries, 628 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 5:19:31 PM
 

Wright's right, so who's your go-to guy now--

Or gal?  You want to dump the whole American political structure and replace it asap?  With what?  I take it you won't be voting come November.

I harbor some dark sentiments about our history and certainly the politics of the leisure class but I don't go around damning the whole country and everything in it just for fun and profit.  Wright has some solid basis for his diatribes, however, I think his true calling is not necessarily God but manna.

(Something of value that comes one's way.)  I think Rev. Wright's psychological problems stem from his own color, his own feelings of deep resentment fostered by generations of schooling in the victim pose.

Dr. Alvin Pouisant and Bill Cosby have a new book out advising black people to shed the weight of that downer philosophy,  be proud and free of those constraints.  Shelby Steele has good references and an insight in his book, "The Bound Man" about how his own biracial childhood formed his attitudes but he nurtures no great resentment.  He has taken advantage of the opportunites afforded him in our society, especially in the past few decades.

Why fester in the byproduct of old wounds?  Right now the economic crunch is color blind.  Barack and Michelle Obama not only embraced their pastor's Afrocentric theology, they will never convince voters that their new conversion is sincere.  Michelle is what some have called, "a diversity opportunist"--having used that path to elite Ivy League colleges and then on to employment openings in firms or organizations that specialize in hiring minorities. Yet, she still simmers with thinly-veiled rage, openly suggesting she was wronged by the white community.  They didn't accept her; they were not deferential enough to suit her emotional needs.

I can understand why Obama's latter-day Wright dismissal was necessary; it is part and parcel of political calculus.  What I am confused about is why you find it so disconcerting...he is first and foremost a politician, as Wright implied.  And for an out-of-touch ego such as Obama's that is an insult.  Jerimiah Wright is using the pulpit for his own nefarious agenda.  He has negated all his good works in one fell swoop.

Obama has become so enamored with his invented image, he is beginning to believe the media hype and press releases.  This is not a healthy, emotionally grounded man.  It is frightening that Americans are being so faked out by slick commercials promoting his candidacy.  The whole election scene is taking on the coloration of fictive development.  And if I were writing the script, I would be more nuanced, not so glaringly obvious.  But that comes with the dumbing down of our society--decades of hours of bad film and jiggle TV.  You can sell anything.

Can we just agree that Hillary has baggage but at least she is not an emotional basket case and she does have enough savvy to steer clear of these inexperienced "boneheaded" mistakes?  She shouldn't have to lift and carry  Bill's suitcase along on every campaign stop either.  Time for a woman. 

by Marilyn Frith (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 191 comments) on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 6:33:21 PM