On Reverend Wright

Meh.

At first, I thought the media used Wright to damage Obama. His quotes were taken out of context, and I didn’t think that the 30 second video clips they showed on TV were all that bad, if his remarks were taken in context.

I think I was wrong, as Joan Walsh points out:

I regret that I hedged my observation about Wright’s narcissism. He may be wounded, but this is a man of enormous self-regard, and he’s clearly trying to hurt Barack Obama. His national rehabilitation tour started fairly sympathetically with the Moyers conversation, but it’s devolved into self-pity and self-glorification ever since. His Sunday night talk to the NAACP was mostly silly, from the questionable science behind his insistence that black children are right-brained (creative) while white children are left-brained (logical and analytical) to his mocking the way white people talk, dance, clap, worship and sing. I understand and agree with Wright’s notion that “different is not deficient,” but mocking white people, including JFK and LBJ, doesn’t seem like the best way to get his point across (yes, he was talking to the NAACP, but he knew — and relished — that he had a national audience). At his Monday speech he insisted attacks on him were really an attack on the black church, a typically Wright-centric view of the world, while his security was reportedly provided by the Nation of Islam.

Eh, security provided by the Nation of Islam doesn’t bother me. They are damn good at security and not nearly as scary as most white Americans think they are.

What troubles me about Wright is his willingness to throw Obama under the bus to further his own agenda. He seems to go out of his way to denigrate Obama and make life more difficult for the probable Democratic nominee.

Wright thinks that attacks on him are not attacks on Obama, but rather, attacks on the Black Church. Ugh.

Mr, Wright, when a Sean Hannity attacks you, it’s not about destroying the Black Church. It’s about destroying Barack Obama’s candidacy, and you seem to be hell-bent on doing just that.

The Shit They Are Going to Use Against Obama

The debate this evening on ABC really was a disgrace, or at least the first 40 minutes of it or so. Stephanpolis and Gibson spent the first half of the debate throwing right-wing talking points at Obama, which is not surprising considering that Stephanopolis got his questions from Sean Hannity.

Given this environment, I wasn’t surprised to read this on Snopes:

Obama Explains Stance on National Anthem

Hot on the heels for why he no longer wears a flag pin, Barack Obama was forced to explain why he doesn’t follow protocol when the National Anthem is played.

According to the United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171, during the rendition of the national anthem, when the flag is displayed, all present, except those in uniform are expected to stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.

‘As I’ve said about the flag pin, I don’t want to be perceived as taking sides,’ Obama said. ‘There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression. The anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air and all. It should be swapped for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing.’ If that were the anthem, then I might salute it.

We all know this shit is out there and we know that it’s false.

I mean, there are people stupid enough to think a lot of things about Obama. Last I heard, he was a black militant Muslim with a radical Christian preacher who hates his white mother and grandparents and who leaves his shopping carts in parking places at the supermarket. Oh, and he smokes, too.

When Obama is the nominee, these attacks will become even worse when the 527s attack him for having had a lesbian affair with Bea Arthur.

That’s why we need to get in the habit of refuting that BS now, no matter where it comes from, be it Aunt Millie, John McCain, or George Stephanopolis. It’s OK to disagree with Obama on policy issues, and attack him about things that are true, but making up lies is just not acceptable.

We can and we must.

Holy Crap! Hannity’s Buddy Hal Turner Threatens Presidential Candidates

If you’re not up on Hal Turner, read this, and this. To make a long story short, Turner is a white supremacist with links to Sean Hannity that go back a few years. You can read about that relationship here, and here.

Turner writes about his relationship with Hannity here. To give you an exert:

I can tell you from my firsthand, personal experience that Sean Hannity does, in fact, agree with many of my political and social views. I can also tell you that Sean Hannity disagrees with some of my political and social views. I won’t go subject-by-subject to say which he agrees with and which he disagrees with. You can figure that out easy enough on your own! Suffice it to say that my recollection is that when Sean and I spoke by phone, while no one else was listening, he and I exchanged the kinds of views that most White, Irish-Catholic guys hold, but won’t speak in public,

When I started to write this diary, I came across Turner’s most recent post that is disturbing in too many ways as he basically threatens the lives of all three major presidential candidates:

We have a nation of 300 million people and you’re thinking of electing one of these assholes to run it? Are you out of your fucking minds?

None of these people is qualified to run this nation and all three of them are traitors to it!

McCain allegedly gave aid and comfort to our enemy when he was captured during the Vietnam war. His own men allegedly witnessed him agreeing to give the North Vietnamese information in return for special treatment.

Barak Obama is a half breed negro with overt Marxist leanings who engaged in homo sex while using drugs. I can just see him doing to America what his fellow Africans have done for their countries: Mugabe has Zimbabwe starving; Mandella collapsed South Africa. . . the whole continent suffers skyrocketing crime and rampant disease. Want that for America?

Hillary Clinton wouldn’t even stand up for herself when her husband was making a fool out of her by getting blow jobs in the White House; do you really think she’ll stand up for you?

Pretty bad, but it gets worse:

If you think real Patriots like me are going to sit idly-by while you turn our county over to such people, you are sadly mistaken.

If you are too ignorant to elect an honest, decent person to the highest office of this land, then you may leave us with no choice but to nullify your vote through vulgar actions. Think I’m kidding? My audience includes the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Skinheads and Nazis. Not the hollywood-make-believe-types, the real deal. The deadly serious kind.

To give you a real life example of what I mean, a couple years back, I “opined” on my radio show that a ruling made by U.S. District Court Judge Joan Humphrey-Lefkow made her “worthy of being killed.” (She ordered a church to destroy its religious materials over a “trademark”).

After I gave my “opinion” a gunman broke into the Judge’s home in Chicago and murdered her husband and mother. Later, when cops hunted down the gunman, he committed suicide before being taken, so there was no proof he did anything because of me.

I hope I don’t have to start talking the same way about Clinton, McCain and Obama. But I can. . .

I hope the Secret Service is taking Turner’s words seriously. I also hope that Hannity can find it in himself to reject and renounce his old friend.