Conspiracy! Conspiracy! Conspiracy! (Yawn)

But By WHO?

And For WHOM?
We Already Know WHY

When it rains, it POURS! At least in the world of racial disrimination. Yesterday was the 156th anniversary of the publiation of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The day before, we listened to Barak Obama's "To Form a More Perfect Union" speech tackling racism and his connecton with a firebrand minister. And before that, was the anniversary of the march from Selma to Montgomery. Today (last night actually), we've learned about government contract employees peeking illegally at Barack Obama's passport.

....And today (ta da!) is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Disrimination (United Nations).

About the passport-peeking:

"This is a serious matter that merits a complete investigation, and we demand to know who looked at Senator Obama's passport file, for what purpose, and why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach." (Obama campaign spokesman)

Admit it: the timing is too bizarre. Either these last four days have been someone's idea of a joke or there really is something going on with race being the prime mover.

And the professional conspiracy theorists will be out in full force. Pat Robertson will publishing a book about it very soon (in print-on-demand paperback).

Is George Bush hiding something from us AGAIN? Is this George's OBAMAGATE?

Is this a VAST RIGHT-BUT-YET-A-LITTLE-MORE-TO-THE-LEFT WING CONSPIRACY?

Is Obama really an ALIEN?

Politics, like the church, never ceases to entertain the proletariat. And whoever is caught up in this melee will no doubt prove to be an idiot.

The REAL Obama!!

Obama, Wright and ...Uncle Tom

THE SPEECH! and Uncle Tom

"The rhetoric is convincing, but it's just coming too late"

"We can tackle race only as spectacle," he said, or "we can come together and say, 'Not this time.'

Yes, I know that I'm jumping into the blogosphere along with hundreds of thousands of other blogs covering the same subject, but the beauty and wonder of blogging is that maybe someone out there will read it and think "well that's a bit different!"

I find it ironic that Obama's speech fell on the eve of the 156th anniversary of the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. I looked up the synopsis (hey, it's been about 45 years!) and I realized that my copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Literature made a valid yet thought-provoking point: one of the book's main messages is that "The slavery crisis can only be resolved by Christian love."

The same could be said about discrimination and other social ills: the racial-ethnic-gender-sexual orientation-healthcare-economic-immigration crisis can only be resolved by love - Christian or otherwise. But what has America embraced instead of love? The answer may be a form of Righteous Hatred.

It spewed forth from the pulpit of Rev. Wright. It was sanctioned by his pulpit. Just as righteous hatred against Jews (e.g. radio superstar Father Coughlin in the 30s and 40s), hatred against homosexuals (McCain's televangelist mentor Rod Parsley) and hatred against Muslims (Pastor John Hagee) have all been presented as the inspired words of God by "men of God." In effect, hatred has been given a kind of Star Trek force-field shield in both churches and media across the country.

Getting back to Harriet Beecher Stowe's classic, I came across an interesting reaction from a contemporary British critic as to the reason why it sold oer 200,000 copies in England: "The evil passions which 'Uncle Tom' gratified in England were not hatred or vengeance [of slavery], but national jealousy and national vanity. We have long been smarting under the conceit of America—we are tired of hearing her boast that she is the freest and the most enlightened country that the world has ever seen." (emphasis my own).

Doesn't this sound a bit ....contemporary? No wonder Bush Buzz-Bombs ("Freedom!" "Democracy!") don't work in foreign diplomacy.

OK, I'll get off that soapbox (for now).

Let's look at some of the speech and some of the reactions (mine in red):

It’s a story [his heritage and upbringing] that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one. That may be true, but try telling that to some big-time discriminaters: the Southern Baptist Convention, Bob Jones University, the up-and-coming Jesse Helms and Jerry Falwells of our country.

[on Rev. Wright] But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS. In other words, he's a walking contradiction: a "progressive" Christian who makes use of the bully pulpit when he's angry about something. Isn't he being just a bit hypocritical about "our obligations to love one another" when he says "God damn America"?

... anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. (True) That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races." Possibly, but to give vent to it means you're not following the Golden Rule. And if you give vent to it at all, it should be outside the pulpit.

Reactions:

"The speech drew praise across the political spectrum, though some on the right questioned Obama's assertion that his liberal agenda could unite different races. But many who heard the speech wondered whether it would be enough to calm the anger generated by the Wright videos. Gerald Shuster, a political scientist at the University of Pittsburgh, found the speech "stylistically persuasve" but thought Obama should have moved aggressively to distance himself from Wright months ago, when reports of his harsher sermons first surfaced. "The rhetoric is convincing, but it's just coming too late," he said.

"He didn't shirk any of the issues -- he attacked them head-on," he said. The speech "will shore up what we can do to help him and say to people, 'This guy is for real.'

J. Alfred Smith, the senior pastor at Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, Calif., and a friend of Wright's, clapped in his living room as Obama lauded Wright for "housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day-care services and scholarships and prison ministries.""There's a lot of anger, but Reverend Wright is a human being, and Obama finally showed that," he said. "All of us from that generation had to go around through the back door, had to ride in the segregated portion of the train. That anger can keep us marred down in the mud, or it can be creatively used. Brother Obama has called for our higher selves to rule over our animalistic selves."

-"As a long-standing and firm conservative, and admittedly an old white guy, I have to say that I’m for divisiveness, because that’s what wins elections for us. America is about winners and losers. WSJ readers should ignore Obama’s speech precisely because he’s a black Democrat. I’m making a lot of money in this economy, and I’m not going to let the Dems take away my advantages."

"My forefathers were peasants, persecuted by Franco, emigrated to the U.S., worked their butts off at menial jobs, every generation after has done better. That’s America. Barack’s part of that picture, not a descendant of slaves. He’s right about black fear and prejudice, just like white fear and prejudice. The elders in my family had their prejudices too…as do I but he’s right. We have to stand together…or fall apart."

Hopefully, that's what Obama is really means beyond his uplifting rhetoric. And, hopefully, he can be up to the monumental task of uniting us.

"God's will would be followed if each person sincerely examined his principles

and acted on them."*

*Bellin, Joshua D. "Up to Heaven's Gate, down in Earth's Dust: the Politics of Judgment in Uncle Tom's Cabin" American Literature 1993 65(2): 275–295. Issn: 0002-9831 Fulltext online at Jstor and Ebsco.

The Last 100 Days - Oh For a Napoleon!!

The Emperor NEVER Had Any Clothes!

Oct 12th - Columbus Day - will kick off the last 100 days of the Bush Presidency until another person takes office in Jan 20th 2009. We all know that George is rushing about frantically to secure a "legacy" - a better presence in history. So what will this lamest of lame ducks do? What will happen until he can bask in his "100 days" of glory?

Let's look at what Napoleon did in order to GET those last hundred days before Waterloo: (From wikipedia)

In France, the royalists had taken over and restored Louis XVIII to power. Meanwhile Napoleon, separated from his wife and son (who had come under Austrian control), cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and aware of rumours that he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic, escaped from Elba on 26 February 1815 and returned to the French mainland on 1 March 1815. Louis XVIII sent the 5th Regiment of the Line, led by Marshal Ney who had formerly served under Napoleon in Russia, to meet him at Grenoble on 7 March 1815. Napoleon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse and, when he was within earshot of Ney's forces, shouted, "Soldiers of the Fifth, you recognize me. If any man would shoot his emperor, he may do so now." Following a brief silence, the soldiers shouted, "Vive L'Empereur!" With that, they marched with Napoleon to Paris. He arrived on 20 March, quickly raising a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, and governed for a period now called the Hundred Days.

From now until Oct. 12th Bush has to muster enough faith in the Iraq War, the War on Terror, The Economy and ...whatever, to be able to march out onto the White House Rose Garden, approach a battery of media and say: "Are you with me?" In other words, prove he can bounce back to an approval rating of at least 60%.

I hope not. Because if he does, this country has no self-respect and it will have deserved the last bloodsoaked, hypocritical and diplomatically disasterous 71/2 years.

Goya's "Execution in Spain"

TO: Julia, Mary, Murphy, Angels, Sheena and Xena - LADIES, YOU STILL HAVE A WAY TO GO! (and a tiny memorial to Arthur C.Clarke)

WHY IS THIS WOMAN SO JOYFUL?

It's hard to Hate Mary Tyler Moore, but the intro of that "you're gonna make it on your own" girl probably kicked up the ire of evangelicals every time she threw her hat up into the air.

Here are some snippets from our favorite moralizers, The Southern Baptist Convention's STATEMENT OF FAITH:

Article VI. The Church. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

Article XVIII. The Family. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to his people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.

And that was their latest "liberal" statement! As the song in Little Shop of Horrors goes: "I'd cook like Betty Crocker and I'd look like Donna Reed!"

And you don't think the MEN of the SBC think the same way? Here are some of them speaking out about the role of women:

[From Southern Baptists and the Role of Women by Austin Cline - Ask.com]

This hostility towards women is not something which is being imposed upon the members by an unthinking leadership. Instead, it is something shared by large numbers of Southern Baptists and its effects are already being seen. In Waco, Texas there were reports of tussles and protests over the appointment of a woman as senior pastor at a Baptist church. A large crowed of mostly male protestors (big surprise) gathered outside the church and one man told reporters “We’ve already believed that women’s place is in the home, and certainly, in the house of the Lord, she has no place pastoring.”

Signs reflecting similar sentiments were visible among the protesters. Among the messages were “Women have no authority” and “Working women equal moral corruption; working mothers equal child abuse.” Julie Pennington-Russell, who was to become that first female senior pastor in any Baptist church in Texas, had moved from San Francisco where people were a bit more tolerant. Some greeting, wasn’t it?

And a NOTE TO HILLARY: you KNOW that there are 16 million voters out there who think that women should not hold public office at all. Geraldine Ferraro should have told you that. Think of the Janet Reno jokes and even the Condi jokes. You (and Bill) would become stand-up comedian fodder for a good long time. You actually started the enity with the "cookies and cupakes" remark. And think about the SBC, Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America. Not to mention the KKK, skinheads and Neo-Nazis

This election time, you may have to wear a partiular shade of fingernail polish: JUNGLE RED!

In memory of a great thinker:

Clarke made us think of mankind's evolution in a whole new way. The concept of a computer evolving on its own HAS ACTUAL EVIDENCE in the studies of AVIDA - a project of Michigan State Uniersity where digital entities are being observed in their random evolution.

He also had a sense of humor

Politics: Still the Greatest Show on Earth - But Bush Made a Better Clown Than a Ringmaster

And the new crop of campaigners promises one helluva show!

Or at least their politial baggage does!

Politics if nothing else, is entertaining: it supplies stand-up comedians with almost all their material, it's an endless supply of plots for TV shows, The Seven Deadly Sins never had it so good: politics is the lust-greed-envy-sloth-gluttony-wrath-pride monster showing off his tricks in the center ring of the world's circus.

Bush made a good clown but a bad ringmaster- to the detriment of the country's image. Cheney was a poor sharpshooter, but was entertaining nonetheless whenever he told someone to "go f*ck" themselves. Old Ashroft wowed us with his magic tricks - making obscene art disappear. Gonzales did a spectacular highwire balancing act by telling people that he didn't recall anything. Condi Rice danced on horses asses - a lot..

So what are Clinton, Obama and McCain? They really haven't proved themselves as yet but give the time. What they have featured so far is their supporters: like that little car that spews out all the clowns: Hagee, Parsley, Wright, Farrakhan ... and they're still coming out!

But will Nany Pelosi be up to the job of Lion tamer?

Isn't show business wonderful?

Nah! Washington could NEVER be that artistic!

From My Lai to Anbar Province - Why We NEED Winter Soldiers

But Hey! These Young Kids NEED Some Senseless Carnage To Let Off Some Steam! They're Just Having a Little Fun!

WARNING!: This is a VERY long post. I tried to pare it down, but I kept coming up with things that really needed to be said. Sorry!

Look at the left bar, This Day in History. Sorry, I couldn't help but base this post on that information especially when Iraq's "Winter Soldiers" are now beginning to testify. West Point, The Scarlet Letter and My Lai Massacre seem to fit together somehow. Maybe it's just my imagination.

West Point:

Even though they get a comission upon graduation, less and less West Point graduates are signing up to go gto Iraq. Part of Iraq's "Winter Soldiers" is a website titled: West Point Graduates Against the War Their purpose (I think) is eloquently stated:

Instilled by the Cadet Honor System with a fundamental, longstanding respect for truth, we graduates of the United States Military Academy believe that honor is a basic attribute of character. That we are no longer cadets is irrelevant. We stand appalled by the deceitful behavior of the government of the United States and, in particular, its widely known malefactors. Lying, cheating, stealing, delivering evasive statements and quibbling not only has demeaned these deceivers and the United States of America, but has placed vast numbers of innocent people in deadly peril. We will not serve the lies.

The war in Iraq was launched illegally. It has since killed tens of thousands of innocents, causing incalculable damage to Iraq and the Iraqi people, as well as the reputation of the United States of America. We will not serve the lies.

Comments on the site:

THANK YOU I would like to thank you for your courageous and righteous stand.As a citizen of South Vietnam, I served with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) in the last year of the war (1974-75).

If there is for sure a God, he could not possibly bless what the current Administration is trying to sell as "America." .... and who calls out pleas of "support the troops"... when, in fact, they hope the ignorant will convert their call to .... "support the Administration."There is a "real" America out here that is not yet dead.... and that your organization is showing the signs to defend. Keep up the good work.

From the initial testimonies of Iraq War's Winter Soldiers
Washington Independent (Spencer Akerman - 3/14/08):

Jon Michael Turner’s tattoos cover his arms almost entirely. They peeked out under the rolled up sleeves of his crisp blue shirt, on which were the medals and ribbons he earned as an automatic machine gunner with the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines in Anbar Province in 2006. One of them is more like a scar. On his right wrist is the black Arabic lettering for FUCK YOU. It’s on what he called his choking hand, and it was what he looked at to let the anger wash over him when he choked Iraqis.On April 18, 2006 he had his first confirmed kill. "I don’t know his name. I call him the Fat Man," he said. He’s innocent. The Fat Man walked to his house and Turner shot him in front of his friend and his father. "Afterward he started screaming and he looked into my eyes," Turner testified at Winter Soldier. Turner, a handsome young man with a blond beard, turned to his friend and said, "I can’t let that happen." So he shot and killed him. At the conference center in Silver Spring nearly two years later, six giant screens displayed a photograph of the Fat Man with much of his skull missing and his brain exposed. "My company commander personally congratulated me," Turner continued. "That same individual said, ‘Whoever gets his first kill by stabbing them to death will get a four day pass when we get back from Iraq."Turner reminded the audience of the Marine credo: Once A Marine, Always A Marine. But he invoked another expression. "Eat the apple at its core." With that, Turner stripped his medals and ribbons off his chest and threw them into the audience. "I don’t work for you no more."He showed videos of a Marine bragging "I think I just killed half the population of northern Ramadi."... Fighting back tears, he showed images of memorials to five of Kilo Company’s fallen Marines. "With that being said, that is my testimony," Turner said. "I wanted to say I am sorry for the hate and destruction I have inflicted on innocent people and others have inflicted on innocent people. At one point it was ok, but the reality is, it is not. ... I am sorry for the things I did. I am no longer the monster that I once was."

The Scarlet Letter:

Should George Bush wear a Scarlet Letter? What would it be? L -Liar? F- Failure as a President? T - Torturer? Or maybe Dick Cheney should wear: LHB - Lying Halliburton Beneficiary!

My Lai Massacre

This next quote says a good deal:

[From Donald Dzagulones, Viet Nam/My Lai veteran]

"We gathered not to sensationalize our service but to decry the travesty that was Lt. William Calley's trial for the My Lai Massacre. The U.S. had established the principle of culpability with the Nuremberg trials of the Nazis. Following those principles, we held that if Calley were responsible, so were his superiors up the chain of command — even to the president. The causes of My Lai and the brutality of the Vietnam War were rooted in the policies of our government as executed by our military commanders."

So there you have the thread: Students of War - Cause(r)s of War - Aftermath of War.

McCain and his RASPUTIN UPDATE:

I was wrong in stating that Pastor John Hagee was a leading spiritual minister to John McCain. That title goes to one Rod Parsley, a classic among televangelist hate mongers. He too wants the total annihilation of Islam.

Mr. Parsley has called upon Christians to wage a "war" against the "false religion" of Islam with the aim of destroying it. He urges his readers to realize that a confrontation between Christianity and Islam is unavoidable: "We find now we have no choice. The time has come." And he has bad news: "We may already be losing the battle. As I scan the world, I find that Islam is responsible for more pain, more bloodshed, and more devastation than nearly any other force on earth at this moment." He also claims that Christopher Columbus shared the same goal: "It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492…Columbus dreamed of defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began America." Parsley claims that Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" predicated on "deception." The Muslim prophet Muhammad, he writes, "received revelations from demons and not from the true God."

If this guy can drag Columbus into his thinking, he'll focus on anything. Next sermon: Kermit the Frog as Anti-Christ and how "The Power Rangers will destroy all of false Muppetry."

The idiocy of the man is presented well in Keith Olberman's Countdown (BTW, notice how Parsley is never granted the status of "Reverend"):

The New Rasputins Lurking Behind McCain and Obama

Czar Nicholas Had His Rasputin, Andrea Yates her Woroniecki

and now Obama his Rev. Wright.

Pastor John Hagee had better watch out!

Ah, how religion can make a fool out of any man! How mesmerizing are those titles of "Reverend" "Preacher" "Father" "Rabbi". They place the title holder above and beyond mere mortals. To follow them and their words will surely help them on the right path. To go against them means loss of soul.

Rasputin, that greasy, nasty-smelling "monk" had a hold on the Romanovs that was fatal. Andrea Yates - the woman who drowned all five of her children - believed what preacher Michael Peter Woroniecki told her: to defy her serious post-partum depressions and have as any babies as possible. George Bush may have had Karl Rove to look to in dire times, but he also turned to the likes of Pat Robertson for guidance. Ronald Reagan paid heed to his wife's astrological warnings.

Now, after distancing himself from Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan, Barack Obama's spiritual support comes to light in the form of one Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.

(Wall Street Journal):

During the course of the 2008 presidential campaign, Wright has also attracted controversy for his association with Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. Wright travelled to Libya with Farrakhan in the 1980s. In 2007, Wright addressed this by saying "When [Obama’s] enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli to visit Colonel Gadaffi with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell." In 2007, Trumpet Magazine (published and edited by Wright's daughter) presented the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to Farrakhan, whom it said "truly epitomized greatness." Wright is quoted in the magazine offering praise of Farrakhan "as one of the 20th and 21st century giants of the African American religious experience" and also praised Farrakhan's "integrity and honesty. Obama, on the other hand, has strongly criticized Farrakhan.

The upcoming Presidential ecletion might become an outright holy war between Pastor John Hagee and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr.

Pastor Wright:

"We've got more black men in prison than there are in college," he began. "Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run. No black man will ever be considered for president, no matter how hard you run Jesse [Jackson] and no black woman can ever be considered for anything outside what she can give with her body."
...His voice rising, Mr. Wright said, "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic. . . . We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means. . . ."

Great, now we have two MENTORS who want to kill each other! Now, if we could just get Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Rush and David Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Al Franken, Michael Moore, Benedict XVI into the fray, we'd have a most entertaining war. Forget the Presidential candidates, we'll give these guys all the prime time they want!