Politico, The Clinton Myth and Black Folks

Jim Vandehei & Mike Allen in their Story behind The Story article in Politico about The Clinton myth are pretty much on point when they wrote, "The notion of the Democratic contest being a dramatic cliffhanger is a game of make-believe." They also write, One big fact has largely been lost in the recent coverage of the Democratic presidential race: Hillary Rodham Clinton has virtually no chance of winning. The Clinton's have been selling Myths, Fables and Fairy Tales

AAPP: Jim Vandehei & Mike Allen are so right. African American voters are key to a Democratic win in the general election. Hillary will never be able to get back black voters at 70-80%. If Hillary is chosen by Democratic superdelegates, they not only risk a backlash of historic proportions from the party’s most reliable constituency-African-Americans, but many white, Latino, and native American voters as well. I can say it is all but guaranteed that black voters would turn away from voting in the general election in large numbers.

I do disagree with one portion of the article when they wrote, "As it happens, many people inside Clinton’s campaign live right here on Earth." That is a point I'm not totally sure about. If the Clinton team actually lived here on earth her advisor's would have advised her to never insult the black voter base as she and Bill have. OK, but look at this, now all of a sudden they are concerned about black voters. They came out with a political memo asking staff to treat the Obama Pastor issue with extreme caution. The New York Times reports Clinton advisers have asked their allies not to talk openly about the issue, for fear it could create a voter backlash and alienate black Democrats. Whatever! Come on folks, we now know Bill and Hillary Clinton really never connected with black folks, it was all - you know, "color aroused politics." It is obvious to this blogger what needs to happen.

As NPR noted, A "drumbeat" has started to sound in the media the past week with the speech on race by Sen. Barack Obama and with the announcement of Bill Richardson's endorsement of Obama - "this could be the beginning of the end for Clinton." More HERE.

That is why I will be Blogging For Justice, as Clinton-needs-to-concede.

Wright, King, Obama, Vietnam, Iraq, War and Peace

AAPP: It's getting ugly, it's getting real ugly. America needs to wake up and stop drinking the media Kool Aid. Now folks feel they can again say anything about black folk. Check out the callers comments on CSpan and his thoughts about black preachers and their followers. This caller would have Martin Luther King sent back too. Check out the two black preachers. Are there words that much different?

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Big H/T to Prometheus 6 for the links. Watch the whole video Watch the whole video Watch the whole video

IRS Investigates Obama's Church

AAPP: This is getting deep, now the IRS is investigating The United Church of Christ over a speech Sen. Barack Obama gave at its national meeting last year after he became a candidate for president, the denomination said Tuesday.

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Obama, an Illinois Democrat, belongs to the 1.2 million-member Protestant group through his Chicago congregation. In a letter the denomination received Monday, the IRS said "reasonable belief exists" that the circumstances surrounding the speech violated restrictions on political activity for tax-exempt organizations. The denomination has denied any wrongdoing.
Obama, a member of Trinity United Church of Christ, spoke about faith and public life at the denomination's June 2007 General Synod in Hartford, Conn. The IRS said in the letter that it was concerned about articles posted on the church's Web site and on other sites stating that Obama had addressed nearly 10,000 people at the event. The agency also said Obama volunteers had staffed campaign tables "outside the center to promote his campaign."
The Rev. J. Bennett Guess, a spokesman for the Cleveland-based denomination, said a group of Obama volunteers was outside the Hartford Civic Center, where the event took place, but that they were told they could not enter the meeting. The UCC had invited Obama to speak a year before he announced he was running for president because of his involvement in the denomination, Guess said. More HERE

The Internal Revenue Service has notified the United Church of Christ's national offices in Cleveland, Ohio, that the IRS has opened an investigation into U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's address at the UCC's 2007 General Synod as the church engaging in "political activities." In the IRS letter dated Feb. 20, the IRS said it was initiating a church tax inquiry "because reasonable belief exists that the United Church of Christ has engaged in political activities that could jeopardize its tax-exempt status." The Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president, called the investigation "disturbing" but said the investigation would reveal that the church did nothing improper or illegal. Obama, an active member of the United Church of Christ for more than 20 years, addressed the UCC's 50th anniversary General Synod in Hartford, Conn., on June 23, 2007, as one of 60 diverse speakers representing the arts, media, academia, science, technology, business and government. Each was asked to reflect on the intersection of their faith and their respective vocations or fields of expertise. The invitation to Obama was extended a year before he became a Democratic presidential candidate. "The United Church of Christ took great care to ensure that Senator Obama's appearance before the 50th anniversary General Synod met appropriate legal and moral standards," Thomas told United Church News. "We are confident that the IRS investigation will confirm that no laws were violated." More HERE

Unted Church of Christ Speaks Out

Contact: The Rev. J. Bennett Guess
Director of CommunicationsUnited Church of ChristPhone: (216) 736-2173E-Mail: newsroom@ucc.org

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST LEADER SPEAKS TO WRIGHT CONTROVERSY:

John H. Thomas: 'What this nation needs is not so much polite piety as the rough and radical word of the prophet calling us to repentance'Cleveland, OH- The Rev. John H. Thomas, general minister and president of the 1.2-million-member United Church of Christ, released the following statement on March 17 on the rhetoric of preaching, in light of recent news coverage of Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., and Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.You may have already seen this, but I thought it worth sending out to a number of friends just in case it has not circulated in our circles.

What Kind of Prophet?

Reflections on the Rhetoric of Preaching in Light of Recent News Coverage of Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. and Trinity United Church of ChristThe Rev. John H. ThomasGeneral Minister and PresidentUnited Church of ChristOver the weekend members of our church and others have been subjected to the relentless airing of two or three brief video clips of sermons by the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ for thirty-six years and, for over half of those years, pastor of Senator Barack Obama and his family. These video clips, and news stories about them, have been served up with frenzied and heated commentary by media personalities expressing shock that such language and sentiments could be uttered from the pulpit.One is tempted to ask whether these commentators ever listen to the overcharged rhetoric of their own opinion shows.

Even more to the point is to wonder whether they have a working knowledge of the history of preaching in the United States from the unrelentingly grim language of New England election day sermons to the fiery rhetoric of the Black church prophetic tradition. Maybe they prefer the false prophets with their happy homilies in Jeremiah who say to the people: "You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you true peace in this place." To which God responds, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them.

They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. . . . By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed,"(Jeremiah 14.14-15). The Biblical Jeremiah was coarse and provocative. Faithfulness, not respectability was the order of the day then. And now?What's really going on here? First , it may state the obvious to point out that these television and radio shows have very little interest in Trinity Church or Jeremiah Wright. Those who sifted through hours of sermons searching for a few lurid phrases and those who have aired them repeatedly have only one intention. It is to wound a presidential candidate. In the process a congregation that does exceptional ministry and a pastor who has given his life to shape those ministries is caricatured and demonized. You don't have to be an Obama supporter to be alarmed at this. Will Clinton's United Methodist Church be next? Or McCain's Episcopal Church? Wouldn't we have been just as alarmed had it been Huckabee's Southern Baptist Church, or Romney's Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?Many of us would prefer to avoid the stark and startling language Pastor Wright used in these clips. But what was his real crime? He is condemned for using a mild "obscenity" in reference to the United States. This week we mark the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, a war conceived in deception and prosecuted in foolish arrogance. Nearly four thousand cherished Americans have been killed, countless more wounded, and tens of thousands of Iraqis slaughtered. Where is the real obscenity here? True patriotism requires a degree of self-criticism, even self-judgment that may not always be easy or genteel. Pastor Wright's judgment may be starker and more sweeping than many of us are prepared to accept. But is the soul of our nation served any better by the polite prayers and gentle admonitions that have gone without a real hearing for these five years while the dying and destruction continues?

We might like to think that racism is a thing of the past, that Martin Luther King's harmonious multi-racial vision, articulated in his speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and then struck down by an assassin's bullet in Memphis in 1968, has somehow been resurrected and now reigns throughout the land. Significant progress has been made. A black man is a le! gitimate candidate for President of the United States. A black woman serves as Secretary of State. The accomplishments are profound. But on the gritty streets of Chicago's south side where Trinity has planted itself, race continues to play favorites in failing urban school systems, unresponsive health care systems, crumbling infrastructure, and meager economic development. Are we to pretend all is well because much is, in fact, better than it used to be? Is it racist to name the racial divides that continue to afflict our nation, and to do so loudly?

How ironic that a pastor and congregation which, for forty-five years, has cast its lot with a predominantly white denomination, participating fully in its wider church life and contributing generously to it, would be accused of racial exclusion and a failure to reach for racial reconciliation.The gospel narrative of Palm Sunday's entrance into Jerusalem concludes with the overturning of the money changers' tables in the Temple courtyard. Here wealth and power and greed were challenged for the way the poor were oppressed to the point of exclusion from a share in the religious practices of the Temple.

Today we watch as the gap between the obscenely wealthy and the obscenely poor widens. More and more of our neighbors are relegated to minimal health care or to no health care at all. Foreclosures destroy families while unscrupulous lenders seek bailouts from regulators who turned a blind eye to the impending crisis. Should the preacher today respond to this with only a whisper and a sigh?Is Pastor Wright to be ridiculed and condemned for refusing to play the court prophet, blessing land and sovereign while pledging allegiance to our preoccupation with wealth and our fascination with weapons? In the United Church of Christ we honor diversity. For nearly four centuries we have respected dissent and have struggled to maintain the freedom of the pulpit. Not every pastor in the United Church of Christ will want to share Pastor Wright's rhetoric or his politi! cs. Not every member will rise to shout "Amen!"

But I trust we will all struggle in our own way to resist the lure of respectable religion that seeks to displace evangelical faith. For what this nation needs is not so much polite piety as the rough and radical word of the prophet calling us to repentance. And, as we struggle with that ancient calling, I pray we will be shrewd enough to name the hypocrisy of those who decry the mixing of religion and politics in order to serve their own political ends.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright. and Martin Luther King

AAPP: There is a very good article in The Washington Post by E.J Dionne, Jr. asking a hard question about who else: The Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The question raised in the article: Is he, Jeremiah Wright, as far outside the African American mainstream as many(um) whites would like to think?

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WAPO's E J Dionne writes, "Because Barack Obama's speech on race in America was so candid about both the legitimacy of black and white grievances -- and the flaws in those grievances -- it carried the risk of offending almost everyone.

A man who, by parentage, is half black and half white took it upon himself to explain each side's story to the other. Obama resembled no one so much as the conciliatory sibling in a large and boisterous family, shouting: "Please, please, will you listen to each other for a sec?"

One of the least remarked upon passages in Obama's speech is also one of the most important -- and the part most relevant to the Wright controversy. There is, Obama said, a powerful anger in the black community rooted in "memories of humiliation and doubt" that "may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends" but "does find voice in the barbershop or the beauty shop or around the kitchen table. . . . And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews."

Yes, black people say things about our country and its injustices to each other that they don't say to those of us who are white. Whites also say things about blacks privately that they don't say in front of their black friends and associates.

One black leader who was capable of getting very angry indeed is the one now being invoked against Wright. His name was Martin Luther King Jr.

An important book on King's rhetoric by Barnard College professor Jonathan Rieder, due out next month, offers a more complex view of King than the sanitized version that is so popular, especially among conservative commentators. In "The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me," Rieder -- an admirer of King -- notes that the civil rights icon was "not just a crossover artist but a code switcher who switched in and out of idioms as he moved between black and white audiences."

Listen to what King said about the Vietnam War at his own Ebenezer Baptist Church in AtlantaMore HERE on Feb. 4, 1968: "God didn't call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war. . . . And we are criminals in that war. We've committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I'm going to continue to say it. And we won't stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation. But God has a way of even putting nations in their place." King then predicted this response from the Almighty: "And if you don't stop your reckless course, I'll rise up and break the backbone of your power."

AAPP: Check out Martin Luther King in his own words in this YouTube Video. I think E.J Dionne, Jr. is on to something here. But then again, Wright's Church, Vivian Page, Dallas South and many others have pointed out similar concern as well. I'm also hearing the points raised by Skeptical Brotha. OK, I digress, let's check out the words of MLK.




PS: Yet, let us not forget - there are still haters.

Obama Speech is Viral Video of the Week

Source: PoliticsOnline.com

Obama's Speech Reaches Millions Online

"A More Perfect Union"

March 18, 2008, Barack Obama speaks in Philadelphia, PA at Constitution Center, on Race and Politics.

Transcript of Speech

Barack Obama's 37 minute-long speech has skyrocketed to the 51st most viewed video of all time on YouTube.

Only three days after addressing the Nation in what is now a historical speech on race in America, Obama's "A More Perfect Union" speech has already been viewed 2,761,832 times, with 5,640 comments and favorited 9,889 times. These statistics do not take into account the number of times the video has been duplicated and watched on other sites, including Obama's website.

Viral Video Chart reports that Sen. Obama's speech has been the number 1 most viewed viral video on the Net for the past three days. Keep in mind that YouTube only counts a video as 'viewed' if it is watched in its entirety. The fact that Sen. Obama was able to keep the interest of online viewers for 37 minutes is historical in its own right.

Not only are people watching the video, they are blogging about it. Sen. Obama has 54% of the Internet's 'political buzz', and has been mentioned in 976 blogposts in the past 24 hours.

Color Arousal = Suspension

Meanwhile, an aide to John McCain Aide Suspended for Relaying a color arousal Viral Video

(Washington Post) Republican John McCain's campaign suspended a staffer who sent out a provocative video linking Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama to the comments of his spiritual mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The staffer, a low-level aide named Soren Dayton, sent out a link Thursday to the YouTube video, titled "Is Obama Wright?" on the social messaging Web site Twitter. The campaign suspended him a few hours later, although it wouldn't say for how long. Full Story

Global Warming and Black People

AAPP: I Love Democracy Now, Amy Goodman is awesome. I was listening to her program this morning about global warming and began to wonder, are others more to blame for 'global warming'? Then I remembered an article I read by Joe Kovac at WorldNetDaily.com. In the article he noted that a New study claimed blacks at greater risk, but less responsible for climate change.

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The study released by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation suggested rising temperatures will kill more black citizens than whites in the U.S., while claiming African-Americans are less responsible than others for causing so-called "global warming."

The research, conducted by the Oakland, Calif.-based group Redefining Progress, is being billed as the first-ever comprehensive examination of the health and economic impact of climate change on the black population.

The report for the CBCF had three main findings:

1. America's black population will be disproportionately burdened by the health effects of global warming;
2. Blacks are less responsible for contributing to global warming than other Americans; and
3. Policies designed to mitigate global warming can generate large health and economic benefits for blacks, depending on their implementation.

Check this out, as noted by Joe Kovac, More than 70 percent of blacks live in urban areas which are in violation of federal air pollution standards, according to the report. Thus, more blacks than whites would likely be affected by higher concentrations of toxins in the air.

"African-Americans are nearly three times as likely to be hospitalized or killed by asthma as whites, with climate change expected to increase the incidence of asthma in the general population," the study says.

The research also says at the present time, blacks are more likely to die during extreme heat events.

"The most direct health effect of climate change will be intensifying heat waves that selectively impact poor and urban populations," according to the study, noting cities like New York, Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia have large concentrations of blacks.

AAPP: Maybe we should continue to allow the gentrification of New York, Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia and other major cities which have large concentrations of blacks folks. Let's move to the suburbs and let others deal with the health risks of global warming. Oops, was I suppose to say that? What do you think?

Vice President Dick Cheney, So!

Five years after the start of the war in Iraq

Vice President Dick Cheney offered a positive assessment of the current situation and called last year's troop surge a "major success."

"On the security front, I think there's a general consensus that we've made major progress, that the surge has worked. That's been a major success," Cheney told ABC News' Martha Raddatz during an exclusive interview in Oman. When asked how that assessment comports with recent polls that show about two-thirds of Americans say the fight in Iraq is not worth it, Cheney replied, "So?"

Election 2008 - Picture of Jeremiah Wright with Bill Clinton in the White House

Hat Tip: Casey Lartigue Show

The Barack Obama campaign has clearly been damaged by his long-term relationship with Pastor Jeremiah Wright.

The Hillary Clinton campaign has been remarkably quiet about Barack Obama's troubles.

As the old political strategy goes: remain quiet while your enemy is committing suicide. more HERE

NPR's Bloggers' Roundtable:

AAPP: I had the opportunity to be on News and Notes with Farai Chideya and a panel of bloggers this week. The conversation included, Valencia Roner of Diary of a Content Black Woman, Richard Graves of DJ Black Adam, and me, African American Political Pundit. We tackled issues like the five years of fighting in Iraq and New York Governor David Paterson and his wife admitting their past extramarital affairs.


Farai Chideya

You can Listen to the broadcast HERE [14 min 39 sec]

News & Notes

Analysis

Race, Color Arousal, Racism, Race Politics, Blacks, Whites and Barack Obama

AAPP: Political Junkie, Ken Rudin has a great post about Barack Obama, America and
A New Emphasis in the 'Race' for President.

Once again, inflammatory rhetoric from an impassioned minister reaches center stage in a presidential campaign.

Ken is on point when he writes; "It is naive, and in retrospect a bit delusional, to have thought that with the first African-American making a serious bid for president, race would not be an issue. And for all the declarations that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) "transcended" race — thus, taking race off the table — we really should have known better." He goes on to note, "First of all, we should have known about Geraldine Ferraro — or, perhaps better put — the Geraldine Ferraros of the world, who think that Obama's color is what got him where he is today. And we should have paid more attention to the rhetoric of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose long personal relationship with Obama has alarmed whites at a time when the Illinois senator needs to shore up his standing with the white community — while at the same time not alienating his base in the black community."

AAPP: This article is a must read. Here is a link to the full article.

New Poll Shows African American Community Abandoning Democratic Party

Hat Tip: jerid@buckeyestateblog.com

Source: BuckeyeStateBlog.com

Anyone that's ever worked in politics can tell you at least one truism: the Democratic Party needs the African American community to win elections. Statistically, our party thrives off the black vote; in any given year it breaks for Democrats 85-90% of the time. Generally, African Americans are located in higher percentages close to America's urban centers. One look at the 2004 presidential county breakdown map shows you how important those urban centers, and by association, the black vote, is to our party.

Over the weekend I had a conversation with black bloggers from Jack and Jill Politics, Pam's House Blend, African American Political Pundit, and others about the longterm risks this election could spell for the Democratic Party's working coalition - our big tent. There's a fear out there among some that the racial games that we've seen over this cycle could permanently or temporarily cripple the Democratic majority. Well, today we have hard evidence that crippling blows do indeed lay at our feet.

New polling released today from Ramussen shows a Clinton-McCain matchup with Hillary only retaining 55% of the African American vote. 55%!!!! Of course in this scenario Hillary loses (big in fact, 51%-41%), because we can't win without this demographic. It's impossible. Game over.

More HERE

Is McCain’s eligible to be president?

according to Think Progress If elected, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) would be the first president born outside the 50 states, a fact that is “reviving a musty debate” regarding the founders’ wishes that a “natural-born citizen” hold the nation’s highest office. The AP reports that lawsuits have now been filed in California and New Hampshire questioning his eligibility to be president:

[A] Nashua man has asked the federal court to rule that Sen. John McCain can’t be president because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. […]

A lawyer in Riverside, Calif., filed a similar suit on March 6. That case asks only for a “declaratory judgment” on whether McCain would be eligible to serve as president if elected.

If elected, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) would be the first president born outside the 50 states, a fact that is “reviving a musty debate” regarding the founders’ wishes that a “natural-born citizen” hold the nation’s highest office. The AP reports that lawsuits have now been filed in California and New Hampshire questioning his eligibility to be president:

[A] Nashua man has asked the federal court to rule that Sen. John McCain can’t be president because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. […]

A lawyer in Riverside, Calif., filed a similar suit on March 6. That case asks only for a “declaratory judgment” on whether McCain would be eligible to serve as president if elected.

Huckabee defends Obama on race in America

ABC News reports, After joking that he's leasing a hot dog stand in Manhattan, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on MSNBC's Morning Joe early this morning defended Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on the Rev. Wright front.

And, in fact, he defended Rev. Wright, too.

You can watch it HERE.

AAPP: If the Democrats want to see a sea of change. They should not even consider having Hillary as the Presidential Nominee. My thought is about 20% of blacks may vote Republican if there is a McCain Huckabee Ticket, and the Democrats take the nomination away from Hillary and give it to Barack.

Thoughts?

Check out the transcripts and thoughts of mike Huckabee:

MIKE HUCKABEE: There are two different stories -- one is Obama’s reaction, the other one is the Rev. Wright’s speech itself. And I think that, you know, Obama has handled this about as well as anybody could. And I agree, it’s a very historic speech. I think that it was an important one and one that he had to deliver, and he couldn’t wait. The sooner he made it, maybe the quicker that this becomes less of the issue. Otherwise, it was the only thing that was the issue in his entire campaign. And I thought he handled it very, very well.

And he made the point, and I think it's a valid one, that you can't hold the candidate responsible for everything that people around him may say or do. You just can't -- whether it's me, whether it's Obama, anybody else. But he did distance himself from the very vitriolic statements.

Now, the second story. It's interesting to me that there are some people on the left that are having to be very uncomfortable with what Louis Wright said, when they all were all over a Jerry Falwell or anyone on the right who said things that they found very awkward and uncomfortable years ago. Many times those were statements lifted out of the context of a larger sermon.

Sermons, after all, are rarely written word-for-word by pastors like Rev. Wright, who are delivering them extemporaneously, and caught up in the emotion of the moment. There are things that sometimes get said, that if you put them on paper and looked at them in print, you'd say, "Well, I didn't mean to say it quite like that."

MSNBC HOST JOE SCARBOROUGH: But, but you never came close to saying five days after September 11 that America deserved what it got -- or that the American government invented AIDS...

HUCKABEE: Not defending his statements.

SCARBOROUGH: Oh, I know you're not. I know you're not. I'm just wondering though: For a lot of people ... would you not guess that there are a lot of independent voters in Arkansas that vote for Democrats sometimes, and vote for Republicans sometimes, that are sitting here wondering how Barack Obama's spiritual mentor would call the United States the US-KKK?

HUCKABEE: I mean, those were outrageous statements, and nobody can defend the content of them.

SCARBOROUGH: But what's the impact on voters in Arkansas? Swing voters.

HUCKABEE: I don't think we know. If this were October, I think it would have a dramatic impact. But it's not October. It's March. And I don't believe that by the time we get to October this is going to be the defining issue of the campaign and the reason that people vote.

And one other thing I think we've got to remember: As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say, "That's a terrible statement," I grew up in a very segregated South, and I think that you have to cut some slack. And I'm going to be probably the only conservative in America who's going to say something like this, but I'm just telling you: We've got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told, "You have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus." And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had a more, more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: It's the Atticus Finch line about walking a mile in somebody else's shoes. I remember when Ronald Reagan got shot in 1981. There were some black students in my school that started applauding and said they hoped that he died. And you just sat there and of course you were angry at first, and then you walked out and started scratching your head, going, "Boy, there is some deep resentment there."

Hillary Clinton a Member of Secret "Fellowship"

AAPP: As reported in the NY Times, Hillary Clinton Is Facing Narrower Path to Nomination.
It's time for the Democratic leadership and Congressional Black Caucus to urge that she concede now.

As the NY Times article notes, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton needs three breaks to wrest the Democratic presidential nomination from Senator Barack Obama in the view of her advisers.Clinton Facing Narrower Path to Nomination

She has to defeat Mr. Obama soundly in Pennsylvania next month to buttress her argument that she holds an advantage in big general election states.

She needs to lead in the total popular vote after the primaries end in June.

And Mrs. Clinton is looking for some development to shake confidence in Mr. Obama so that superdelegates, Democratic Party leaders and elected officials who are free to decide which candidate to support overturn his lead among the pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses.

For Mrs. Clinton, all this has seemed something of a long shot since her defeats in February. But that shot seems to have grown a little longer.

Keep reading

There is more: Hillary Clinton a Member of Secret "Fellowship."

Check out the article by Barbara Ehrenreich in the Huffington Post on Hillary's Nasty Pastorate.
She writes, "There's a reason why Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama."

You can find all about it in a widely under-read article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that "through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the "Fellowship," aka The Family. But it won't be a secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet's shocking exposé, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.

Sean Hannity has called Obama's church a "cult," but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton's "Family," which is organized into "cells" -- their term -- and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia. In 2002, writer Jeff Sharlet joined the Family's home for young men, foreswearing sex, drugs, and alcohol, and participating in endless discussions of Jesus and power. He wasn't undercover; he used his own name and admitted to being a writer. But he wasn't completely out of danger either. When he went outdoors one night to make a cell phone call, he was followed. He still gets calls from Family associates asking him to meet them in diners -- alone.

The Family's most visible activity is its blandly innocuous National Prayer Breakfast, held every February in Washington. But almost all its real work goes on behind the scenes -- knitting together international networks of rightwing leaders, most of them ostensibly Christian. In the 1940s, The Family reached out to former and not-so-former Nazis, and its fascination with that exemplary leader, Adolph Hitler, has continued, along with ties to a whole bestiary of murderous thugs. As Sharlet reported in Harper's in 2003:

During the 1960s the Family forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most anti-Communist (and dictatorial) elements within Africa's postcolonial leadership. The Brazilian dictator General Costa e Silva, with Family support, was overseeing regular fellowship groups for Latin American leaders, while, in Indonesia, General Suharto (whose tally of several hundred thousand "Communists" killed marks him as one of the century's most murderous dictators) was presiding over a group of fifty Indonesian legislators. During the Reagan Administration the Family helped build friendships between the U.S. government and men such as Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, convicted by a Florida jury of the torture of thousands, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, himself an evangelical minister, who was linked to both the CIA and death squads before his own demise. More HERE

A Swift Boat campaign has arrived with Barack Obama 's name on it

AAPP: The Color Aroused and bigoted Swift Boating of Barack Obama started ironically by Bill and Hillary Clinton has now taken off! Get ready for the ride Obama, Obama supporters, and average Americans, this swift boat action may take us down a social and political road America has not experienced in 200 years.

HT/Joe in Oklahoma ;-)

As reported by Andrew Sullivan "A mash-up video conflating Obama with the most radical and inflammatory of black radicals and separatists is now being linked by Powerline and Hewitt." No big surprise who is behind it:

Rather the incendiary video -- which also includes footage of Malcolm X, the U.S. Olympians who raised their hand in the black power salute and the song "Fight the Power" -- is in part the amateur work of Lee Habeeb.

A co-founder and former producer of the Laura Ingraham Show, Habeeb is the director of strategic content at Salem Radio Network, the conservative talk radio powerhouse that airs programs hosted by figures such as Bill Bennett and Hugh Hewitt. More HERE

Carson Coming to Captiol Hill, Andre Carson,

Hat Tip: BET/Pamela On Politics

Another Carson Coming to Captiol Hill

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Producer

Black lawmakers will be welcoming a familiar face to Washington when the grandson of the late Indiana congresswoman Julia Carson (D) joins their ranks. The victory will keep the seat on the Democratic side of the aisle and adds another super delegate to the presidential mix.

Andre Carson, 33, won the seat Tuesday in a special election beating out his Republican opponent, state Rep. John Elrod. Carson won the contest with about 55 percent of the vote to Elrod’s 44 percent.

Carson, the second Muslim ever elected to Congress, will represent the Indianapolis district for the remaining 10 months of his grandmother’s term. ‘Miss Julia” as she was affectingly called by her constituents died December 15 of cancer. More HERE

AAPP: I'm hopeful that this new house member will do a great job the the people of his district and Americans as a whole. I wish him well.

Barack Obama, Michael Savage and Media Matters

Neanderthal Michael Savage?

AAPP: Well it's obvious that one Neanderthal savage just does not get it. As reported by Media Matters, highly regarded radio bigot Michael Savage stated of Sen. Barack Obama: "I think he was hand-picked by some very powerful forces both within and outside the United State of America to drag this country into a hell that it has not seen since the Civil War of the middle of the 19th century." it's time to take action against bigots like Michael Savage.

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Media Matters reports, "On the March 13 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage stated of Sen. Barack Obama: "I think he was hand-picked by some very powerful forces both within and outside the United State of America to drag this country into a hell that it has not seen since the Civil War of the middle of the 19th century." Savage was discussing controversial statements by Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, the recently retired pastor of Obama's church, when he made the comments.

In the past, Savage has said of Obama, "We have a right to know if he's a so-called friendly Muslim or one who aspires to more radical teachings." He has also referred to Obama as "Barack Madrassas Obama," and falsely claimed that he was "indoctrinated" in a "Muslim madrassa in Indonesia."

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, says that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches more than 8 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

From the March 13 edition of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: And I'm warning you that Barack Obama's pastor is the soul of Barack Obama's movement. And if you want a man who says not "God bless America," but "God damn America," if you want a man who takes the side of the imperial Japanese army, an army that killed not only hundreds of thousands in the Bataan Death March, but hundreds of thousand of Koreans, an army that operated on people while they were alive in Manchuria, a man who takes the side, in essence, of the Japanese Nazis of World War II, if you want a man who takes the side, in essence, of the Hitlers of the world, then you've got it in Barack Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, of the Trinity United Church of Christ.

And I'm warning you here -- I am sitting here and warning you that Barack Obama himself -- I don't know whether he's good, bad or indifferent -- I think he's just an ordinary apparatchik of the Democrat machine in Chicago, personally. I don't think he's particularly smart; I don't think he's particularly stupid. I think he was hand-picked by some very powerful forces both within and outside the United States of America to drag this country into a hell that it has not seen since the Civil War of the middle of the 19th century.

And I warn you, ladies and gentlemen, what I'm playing for you is not edited speech, it is not corrected speech, it is not invented speech, it is unadulterated speech of the lowest order, and it's not coming from a conservative -- it's coming from a liberal, like yourself. And so, in case you missed it, I'm gonna play it all day. I suggest you call a few of your friends. If you're in a synagogue, give a call to your rabbi who has a Barack Obama on his lawn. Let us say you're a church-goer and a white person, and you think, "Hey, the Messiah has arrived! Obama's gonna lead us and save us!" I want you to call a few members of your church to listen to where he's gonna lead you and what he's gonna say, because this man, by the way, has not been disconnected from Obama. Why, he makes Louis Farrakhan sound like a nice man.

More HERE

According to an account in the New York Times, Savage broadcasts his show out of three "virtual safe houses" -- whose location he will not reveal -- and "is licensed to carry a pistol and does so," out of fears for his life. His program reaches an estimated eight million listeners a week on nearly 400 stations.

Want to Take action?

Take Action!

Contact information:

Michael Savage
michaelsavage@paulreveresociety.com

Talk Radio Network
Talk Radio Network
Talk Radio Network
P.O. Box 3755
Central Point, Oregon 97502
Phone: 541-664-8827
Fax: 541-664-6250

The Savage Nation
The Savage Nation
The Paul Revere Society
150 Shoreline Hwy, Bldge E
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Fax: 415-339-9383

When contacting the media, please be polite and professional. Express your specific concerns regarding that particular news report or commentary, and be sure to indicate exactly what you would like the media outlet to do differently in the future.

Hillary, Race Matters and Obama

Rumor Is, Hillary is Pissed! She knows Barack Obama turned controversy into opportunity.





Obama's A More Perfect Union Speech on race may have nailed him the Presidency!

As Michael Crowley of The New Republic wrote: Barack Obama gave a brilliant, inspiring, intellectually supple speech--but one that may have done little to solve his festering problem with working class white Americans.

What Obama said from the lectern in Pennsylvania sounded like what you'd expect him to say, in less polished form, in a frank scotch-on-the-rocks conversation. I especially admired his keen analysis of how the media treats "race only as spectacle--as we did in the OJ trial--or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina--or as fodder for the nightly news." That's one reason it's sure to be a hit with elite commentators, not to mention racially super-enlightened liberal Democratic primary voters. More HERE

AAPP: I must admit Michael Crowley was right when he said:

"But those weren't the people Obama needed to reach today. His target audience was working class white voters--Reagan Democrats with a historic tendency to let racial prejudice and fear override their other social and economic interests, and whose view of Obama the Jeremiah Wright controversy threaten to permanently warp. That's one reason Obama sounded a striking note of sympathy for racial resentment within white America:

"Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism."

"Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze--a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns--this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding."

It will be an epic triumph when American politics puts an end to those distractions. The question is whether a black man can accomplish this. One of Bill Clinton's greatest political assets (before this campaign) was his ability to be a Nixon-in-China when it came to race; his successful mid-90s defense of affirmative action is a perfect example.

For Obama, the task is far more complicated. Perhaps I'm too cynical, but I suspect the speech may fail to meet its goal of assuaging white America in two ways.

AAPP: Yes Michael Crowley your too cynical. Hillary Clinton is cynical too.

As I said, Rumor Is, Hillary is Pissed!

Obama's speech on race may have nailed him the Presidency!

I'm thankful that many people understand how this was a Big, Big, Really Big Obama Speech.

New Gov. Old Extramarital Affairs

At a news conference in Albany, Gov. David A. Paterson discussed marital infidelities with his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson, by his side. (Photo: Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times)



AAPP says: Well, well, the reporters are looking for dirt on the first black Governor of N.Y. I guess he received no honeymoon period. So he came out with Old Extramarital Affairs- stuff before others could.

Hundreds of reporters, including NY Times reporter Sewell Chan are writing articles regarding the new NY Governor and his Extramarital Affairs.

As if the folks from New York don't have enough crap to deal with. Here comes some more garbage. after dealing with Eliot Spitzer's high-priced prostitution ring, now the press had to dig into Paterson’s love life. The NY Times reports, "Mr. Paterson, 53, expressed regret for past mistakes but said he was coming forward to clear the air and avoid any “innuendo” or speculation that might arise. “I didn’t break the law,” he said, toward the end of his news conference, at the State Capitol in Albany. “I didn’t violate an oath. I didn’t use knowingly campaign funds. I didn’t use state funds at all. I know that. I don’t think institutionally there were any violations here. However, the public wants to know who its elected officials are, and sometimes, even though you are human and you are someone that just has feelings and has faults, there comes a time, perhaps, when you have to tell the public.”

There is more! John Riley says:

Early reports out of Albany indicate that Gov. Paterson, at his news conference, says he was actually involved with more than one woman, including someone who was on the state payroll.

"I was involved with someone on the state payroll...An employee I may have inherited. This was known to my wife."

Helpfully, however, Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno have preemptively cleared him, without waiting for actual facts,

Bruno: “I think his personal life is his personal life.”

Silver: "It’s not an uncommon occurence in people’s lives when marriages are failing. This is how they worked it out....I think it’s a media story, depending on how you play it, and that’s it, and the story should be over.”

In Albany, of course, it's pretty predictable that mere adultery would be waved off. Too many of those buns have been toasted by too many players for anyone to make a fuss, state payroll or not. The other point is to contrast it with Spitzer.

Update: Apparently, Paterson says there was more than one woman on the state payroll, never anyone he supervised but one person whom he has now inherited in the governor's office.

Get this, Clinton Praised Paterson at Governor’s Swearing-In Ceremony. Let's see how long it is before Hillary makes some type of color aroused comment about him.

Thoughts anyone?

Concede Now Hillary

A majority of Democratic voters say it would be unfair for Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the presidential nomination through the support of "super delegates" if she lags among the convention delegates elected in primaries and caucuses, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll.

I agree with Villager, Francis Holland, Yobachi Boswell, PurpleZoe, and other members of the Afrosphere Action Coalition who are now seeking to enlist bloggers from around the nation to participate in the Day of Blogging For Voter Justice that is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 25.

There appears to be a growing consensus and drumbeats across America and the blogosphere that we need a nominee.

I agree with MissLaura when she wrote, "It's by now well established that, with a lead in delegates, popular vote, and number of states won, Barack Obama's path to nomination is a lot easier than Clinton's. But, with Clinton having decided to stay in the race despite Obama's difficult-to-surmount lead, it looks like the fight could continue over months. Until we have a nominee, it's difficult for independent expenditure campaigns to gear up in support of the nominee. And since Clinton's clearest path to the nomination would be to destroy Obama, and given the recent race-baiting coming from people associated with the Clinton campaign, a continuing nomination battle could become poisonous very quickly.

Not only could the race-baiting and the dissing of states that voted for Obama create a civil war in the party, a superdelegate-driven Clinton nomination could kill her chances in the general. "

According to a USA Today/Gallup poll:

A majority of Democratic voters say it would be unfair for Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the presidential nomination through the support of "super delegates" if she lags among the convention delegates elected in primaries and caucuses, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll.

If that happens, one in five say they wouldn't vote for the New York senator in the general election.

The findings in the survey, taken Friday through Sunday, underscore some of the perils ahead for Democrats as the closely fought nomination battle between Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama continues.

By 55%-37%, Democrats and independents who "lean" Democratic say an outcome in which Clinton lost among pledged delegates but prevailed with the help of super delegates would be "flawed" and unfair" — including 77% of Obama supporters and 28% of Clinton supporters.