goedel

Pres candidate Obama recently disassociated himself from his pastor, Rev Wright, because of statements made by Wright before the National Press Club of which I shall offer one example (paraphrased): America on 9/11 got back from the Middle East what it had nurtured, terrorism.

Wright made other statements: about the US use of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; about the use of HIV as a weapon against blacks.

As Ted Rall points out in a column in Yahoo opinions, today, these are not off the wall charges. A respected journalist, Chalmers Johnson, has in three books developed the failures of US foreign policy since the Reagan presidency to show how we have created the enemies we now face, "blowback" as it is called in intelligence jargon. Blowback produced 9/11, blowback from the policy of arming religious fanatics in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union - one of whom was Osama bin Laden.

The US also conducted medical experiments on blacks suffering from syphilis at Tuskegee Institute during the 1930s up to WWII.

We did kill hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians with the nuclear bombs in spite of international agreements outlawing the targeting of civilians. This one has always been argued against the cost of a protracted invasion of Japan if the Japanese had not surrendered. Still, it is not an unreasonable point of view to question the use of the bombs.

For Obama to have broken his ties with Wright in the pretense that Wright had no basis for his "wild" remarks is disingenuous and raises questions, as Rall points out, about how much of a change we shall be getting from the cover-up politics of Washington, DC.

I'd rather have Obama than Clinton, certainly not McCain, but I shall still vote Nader - the best choice.

__________________
Remembering Bertrand Russell

GlobalSmiles

Indeed, but its an ignorant point made by an clearly ignorant man.

Yes,well the US Army is also guilty of a bunch of other things that don't get much play. Why the race baiting?

Yep and we should be questioned, my first response is better the world was horrified by it in a small way then in the way it could have been had stockpiles built up first.

People say it was politically expedient of Obama to dump him, I think it was expedient to have picked him up in th first place, which yes sort of makes it a worse double cross. You have to understand though, his constituency is genuinely subject to such silly beliefs and petty race baiting. So it really served him well, he even got the convention speech at his young tenure which really is what launched this.

Nader. . .or Buchanan! lol

GiveMeADemN08

Yea...um, will someone please go back to an April 2007 or 2006 New York times article that proves that Obama and Wright talked about politics and what they would do if Wrights sermon's got out? I remember so many times during this scandal that Obama said he didn't talk about politics with his pastor and he didn't know about the sermons, and this is a different man, yadda yadda yadda...

I wish people would have paid close attention to that 'groundbreaking' speech on racism he gave in Philadelphia. He pretty much admitted that he did know about the sermons, he just couldn't 'disown' his pastor. It would be like disowning his mother or a family member.

Unfortuantely, that's not the reason he didn't disown him. Barack Obama wanted to see how far he could get with Wright still in his life as his pastor, and he didn't get very far because Wright just didn't want to shut his mouth. I had it with that man when he mocked JFK at the National Press Club. How dare he?

Anyways, the point is that, back in April of either 07 or 06, when Obama was strategizing, one of the strategies involved Wright and what to do if the sermons ever got out. Its in the New York Times, and my media (MSNBC and CNN, I am calling you out here!) would cover each and every candidate the way they 'covered' Clinton, we'd know a lot more about Obama and McCain. This is what happens when the media endorses a candidate.

NoCountry

White Right-Wing preachers the likes of Falwell, (yeah I know he's dead, good riddance) and Robertson say stuff that's a lot worse than what Wright did, but they get a pass. That's what I call racist.

TheHat

Can you even put the proper contexts of the discussion in place?

What does Falwell and Robertson have to do with the Presidency of the USA? Are they directly tied to John McCain's adult life, like Wright is to Obama?

ThresholdOutlet

Falwell and Robertson are a diversion tactic, and completely irrelevant to discussion. Thus when Obama is endorsed by Hamas, suddenly endorsements don't matter. Wright on the other hand, did not simply indorse Obama, the two were in a very close relationship.

__________________
"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."

"It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment."

"Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts."

Taliesin

__________________
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
~Plato

jpn of Seattle

John McCain spent a year seeking Rev. Hagee's endorsement. Hagee is about as insane as they come. Here's a link which contains a Hagee highlight, as well as one from Rod Parsley, a crazed televangelist touted as a “spiritual guide” for McCain.

There is certainly a double-standard. McCain doesn't have to explain his relationship with crazed white preachers, but Obama has to explain his relationship with a black preacher whose only pronouncement (that I have heard) that I disagree with is the AIDs thing. Everything else Wright said is basically accurate, although couched in language that is too inflamatory for my taste.

But to compare the Catholic Church with the Nazis? Blaming 9/11 on gays and feminists? No controversy there. So uncontroversial, in fact, that you have to dig them up on youtube. Wright's comments, however, are broadcast day and night on all major networks.

In a way I don't blame the media for not touching the religious crazies like Hagee/Parsley/Robertson et. al. It's scary to provoke insane people.

jpn of Seattle

And speaking of crazy religious people:


In Tampa, a substitute teacher was fired for doing a magic trick for his students.
This is John McCain's America. These are John McCain's people.

NoCountry

The spotlighting of Wright is the diversionary tactic.