Arkansas Blog

If frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their butts every time they jumped.

Hmmm, haven't I seen some previous articles from this same talking head, pontificating sonorously, that Hill had lost and should skedaddle back to the senate? Seems like he's caught mccain's disease, comes down on both sides of the fence. Ouch.

"The great divide in this country is not by race or even income, it's by those who think they are better than everyone else and think they should play by a different set of rules" - Bill Clinton May 2008

and with that quote, Bill demonstrates his ability, once again, to simultaneously break both irony and projection meters with a single sentence.

Brummett - "They (the SuperDelegates) will calculate that if there are any two white people in the country who could repair the certain breach with African-Americans, it's the Clintons."

JB apparently hasn't been paying attention to the slide in poll ratings for the Clintons among A-A's during the past half year. much damage has been done, and not all of it repairable. (and under the msm radar, is a couple dozen HoR and several Senate seats at risk of not being won by the DEMs)

but, i could see A-A turnout and vote percentage in several major big cities, restored enough to put a Clinton/Obama ticket over the top in a few states only if McCain does as i expect him to do, by adding Rudy Giuliani to the GOP ticket. such a ticket would do far more to restore the A-A vote than anything the Clintons could say or do now.

Associates of Oprah Winfrey tell Newsweek that she stopped attending the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ during the 1990s in part because of the tone of Wright's sermons.

According to two sources, Winfrey was never comfortable with the tone of Wright's more incendiary sermons, which she knew had the power to damage her standing as America's favorite daytime talk-show host. "Oprah is a businesswoman, first and foremost," said one longtime friend, who requested anonymity when discussing Winfrey's personal sentiments. "She's always been aware that her audience is very mainstream, and doing anything to offend them just wouldn't be smart. She's been around black churches all her life, so Reverend Wright's anger-filled message didn't surprise her. But it just wasn't what she was looking for in a church."

The magazine also quotes an unidentified Obama campaign adviser saying that Obama's attachment to Wright flowed in part from the role the pastor and church provided in the fatherless Obama's search for identity as a black man.

"Early on, he was in search of his identity as an African-American and, more importantly, as an African-American man. Reverend Wright and other male members of the church were instrumental in helping him understand the black experience in America. Winfrey wasn't going for that. She's secure in her blackness, so that didn't have a hold on her.''

If Obama wins there are many reasons that some of us will have to hold our noses and vote for him. One big reason is race/religious prejudices etc that seem to permeate (shouting loud and clear) throughout his candidacy.

The Obama people had better wake up and smell the roses and demonstrate why Hiliary Clinton and Hiliary Clinton only is the stronger candidate that can first heal our divides and lead this great country to posterity once again.

For instance:

Yesterday Hillary Clinton was quoted as saying, "People are net losers under the Bush economy. They were net winners under the Clinton economy. We're going to bring back a good, positive economy for the vast majority of Americans."

That made me wonder just how good the Bill Clinton years were economically. So I imagined investing $100 in an S&P 500 Index Fund at the start of each president's term since March 1957, when the present S&P 500 was introduced.

Here's what happened to the value of my $100 under each president (before inflation).

Clinton $ 308.28

Reagan $ 218.20

Bush-41 $ 153.23

Johnson $ 140.49

Eisenhower $ 136.09

Ford $ 129.12

Carter $ 127.42

Kennedy $ 115.46

Bush-43 $ 104.95

Nixon $ 79.56

The results change slightly when you adjust for inflation, but the order remains almost the same. And Hillary Clinton is right: after adjusting for inflation, my $100 increased in real terms to $285.86 under President Clinton. On the other hand, George W. Bush, with his feces touch, turned his $100 into $85.63.

click on my name for the Newsweek article on why Oprah left Wright's church. It will be in the next issue of Newsweek.

I find it amazing that the press hasn't covered the fact that Oprah left the church. From the listening to the press, I was under the impression she still attended Wright's church.

And Bold said yesterday, he/she didn't care.. nor did Bold seem to mind what the press does not report. Now that a racist smear article pops up.. Bold treats it like a teen might treat a new playboy magazine.

Oprah and Rev Wright are not running for President, nor are they promoting Armeggedon or other harmful political agendas, like McCains preachers, or hiding their beliefs like Hillary's preacher. .

What about her freak religious group in DC?

Why isn't her pastor worried about what Jesus or God thinks about America slaughtering millions of innocent people... and bombing children and hospitals yesterday?

Why isn't McCains pandering and begging for support of the pro Armageddon preachers of the world? McCain actually switched denominations for political, not spiritual reasons.

As for Hillary and winnable... it took twenty years for her to finally hit a poll that says she could win. Do we really want to bank on someone who only managed to obtain winning status in A poll or two after the worst racist smear campaign in modern times? I know the Bolds of the world who are fearful and not at all bothered about racist smearing when it benefits their candidates of choice will say yes... but it wont work in the D party as a whole. Nor should it, especially with the conservative elite nature of the Clinton politics thrown into the mix.

No, I said I PERSONALLY don't care since it won't change my vote in November. I'll still vote for Obama even if he's our nominee based on health care alone if nothing else.

My concern with this is that other voters do care, especially swing voters. I don't think Obama can win unless he can explain this, and I can't imagine how he can at this point.

students of History can describe with a single word, the methods leading to losses sustained in gaining a victory that renders the achievement as worse than worthless. the word is "Pyrrhic".

students of modern American politics can also describe the same concept with one word, "Clinton".

the longer definition is "campaigning in such a way as to achieve electoral victory without regard to the consequences it has upon limiting the potential latitude for governing".

but being the President of the United States, circa 2009, will have far less need of consensus-building and adherence to the rule of law than previous Presidents, courtesy of the Bush-Cheney administration's "Unitary Executive" assertions/actions, the U.S. Federal courts, Congresses both Republican and Democratic controlled, and ultimately the American people.

therefore, the current Clinton candidate is unconcerned with returning to the standards and practices of the past, in Congressional oversight, consensus-building, and public opinion, because only a signature will define "the art of the possible" for the 44th POTUS. previewed by a quote attributed to the first President Clinton's aide Paul Begala in 1998 "Stroke of the Pen, Law of the Land. Kinda Cool".

thus, with so many things 'Clinton', apparently "the consent of the governed" is also subject to redefinition. for if the American people continue to work, buy things, and pay taxes, without resorting to strikes, civil-disobedience, or armed revolt, to the Clintons (and far too many other "public servants") that constitutes "consent".

in 2008, the American people are being given the opportunity to begin to turn away from the destructive politics inherent in the consolidation of power. it will be their choice, but it will not come as easy as by voting, writing a check, attending a rally, or wearing a button/t-shirt, for the forces that have benefitted so very much from the evolution of government power residing in fewer and fewer hands, will not give up without a very ugly fight, regardless of the costs. and they will have many minions of supplicants ready and eager to do battle for them in the vain and misguided assumption that it takes a candidate toughened and corrupted by experience to defeat another one.

only Time will tell if indeed the "times have changed" or if Pete Townshend's axiom "Meet the new Boss, Same as the old Boss" is more relevant and prophetic than ever.

meanwhile Pyrrhus is making his way toward the stage, just in case.

stephenhsmith
4May2008

Sound like a personal problem to me muleboy303. What did Hillary and or Bill do to you that made you so "bitter?"

Excellent post muleboy, a keeper.

Suggested reading may be what the ACLU thought of Clinton's interpretation of civil liberties while he was President.

"What did Hillary and or Bill do to you that made you so "bitter?"

morphed from being part of the solution to being part of the problem.

p.s. tyvm gaylord

Muleboy, with your post I just affirmed that I likely won't cast a vote for POTUS. It only encourages them.
However I will be voting for Rebekah Kennedy for U.S. Senate. All of what you said could not have happened without BEDs.*

*BEDs = Bush Enabling Demos

TAP is probably the only one on this blog who can speak to this and I welcome it. Rev. Wright took over a dead church in a bad part of town during an era when black people, including Oprah were hovering below the zero mark. They were ignorant of their history, they were powerless except to burn down their own side of town. Like it or not they accepted 2nd class citizenship. Rev. Wright's whole mission was to raise all black boats. He told them to ignore the white man's version of the black experience. He dared tell them that their lives counted every bit as much as whites. He sought to empower the black congregation...always a very scary thing in the eyes of white folks.

The sermons we saw scattered around the Internet last month were for the private consumption of his congregation, not for the general population. Still, I find very little to disagree with Rev. Wright about. Oprah obviously earned her wings in Rev. Wright's church and flew away to greater things. Since Obama claims to have not heard these sermons, he obviously flew away too as soon as his wings would carry him. This is not a denunciation of Wright, this is confirmation of his ability to empower black people, giving them the courage to move on to better things.

Rich and Brummett as smart as they are apparently are unable to understand what they see and hear or they wouldn't keep making the mistake of saying Wright God damned America. My IQ is probably 69 and yet I am able to follow the sermon and see that Wright is saying that God is damning America because to this very minute our government continues to mettle in the affairs of other countries, selling weapons to kill their neighbors, supporting one dictator over another, helping to bring about death and misery for millions who wind up hating America. Our terrorists are called a coalition, theirs are just called terrorists, It's as true as the sun that rose over your house this morning. 9-11 was blow back from a century of our American government sticking their nose in other people's business.

Unless we change our ways we'll see dozens of 9-11s in our future. That is Wrights message and we better heed it. Obama will survive the misunderstanding of the words of his preacher. Let's hope he survives the bullets of his enemies in the future.

I would vote for Obama as opposed to McCain, but it's not because of his health care plan. He has only half a plan, that would leave a large group out that should be included. Clinton's plan is a whole plan, much better because it's universal.

Yes, ralib but Obama's plan is much better than McCain's. At least it makes an attempt to cover more people even though it might fall short. McCain is oblivious to the fact that not covering pre-existing conditions is a must. My mother who is 58 and basically good health pays $800 a month for health insurance just to cover her (large deductible and 20% copay). She can't switch to another because then she wouldn't have pre-existing things covered. If you are self-employed in this country you are screwed when it comes to health care. Republicans don't give a damn about the very small businesses any more.

Bill Moyers on Friday night said (and if you are not watching you should be) at the beginning of his broadcast:

" Many black preachers I've known - scholarly, smart, and gentle in person - uncorked fire and brimstone in the pulpit. Of course I've known many white preachers like that, too.

But where I grew up in the south, before the civil rights movement, the pulpit was a safe place for black men to express anger for which they would have been punished anywhere else; a safe place for the fierce thunder of dignity denied, justice delayed. I think I would have been angry if my ancestors had been transported thousands of miles in the hellish hole of a slave ship, then sold at auction, humiliated, whipped, and lynched. Or if my great-great grandfather had been but three-fifths of a person in a constitution that proclaimed, "We the people." Or if my own parents had been subjected to the racial vitriol of Jim Crow, Strom Thurmond, Bull Connor, and Jesse Helms. Even so, the anger of black preachers I've known and heard about and reported on was, for them, very personal and cathartic.

That's not how Jeremiah Wright came across in those sound bites or in his defiant performances this week. What white America is hearing in his most inflammatory words is an attack on the America they cherish and that many of their sons have died for in battle ? forgetting that black Americans have fought and bled beside them, and that Wright himself has a record of honored service in the Navy. Hardly anyone took the "chickens come home to roost" remark to convey the message that intervention in the political battles of other nations is sure to bring retaliation in some form, which is not to justify the particular savagery of 9/11 but to understand that actions have consequences.

My friend Bernard Weisberger, the historian, says, yes, people are understandably seething with indignation over Wright's absurd charge that the United States deliberately brought an HIV epidemic into being. But it is a fact, he says, that within living memory the U.S. Public Health Service conducted a study that deliberately deceived black men with syphilis into believing that they were being treated, while actually letting them die for the sake of a scientific test. Does this excuse Wright's anger? His exaggerations or distortions? You'll have to decide or yourself. At least it helps me to understand the why of them.

But in this multimedia age the pulpit isn't only available on Sunday mornings. There's round the clock media - the beast whose hunger is never satisfied, especially for the fast food with emotional content. So the preacher starts with rational discussion and after much prodding throws more and more gasoline on the fire that will eventually consume everything it touches. He had help - people who for their own reasons set out to conflate the man in the pulpit who wasn't running for president with the man in the pew who was.

Behold the double standard: John McCain sought out the endorsement of John Hagee, the war-mongering Catholic-bashing Texas preacher who said the people of New Orleans got what they deserved for their sins. But no one suggests McCain shares Hagee's delusions, or thinks AIDS is God's punishment for homosexuality. Pat Robertson called for the assassination of a foreign head of state and asked God to remove Supreme Court justices, yet he remains a force in the Republican religious right. After 9/11 Jerry Falwell said the attack was God's judgment on America for having been driven out of our schools and the public square, but when McCain goes after the endorsement of the preacher he once condemned as an agent of intolerance, the press gives him a pass.

Jon Stewart recently played a tape from the Nixon White House in which Billy Graham talks in the oval office about how he has friends who are Jewish, but he knows in his heart that they are undermining America. This is crazy; this is wrong -- white preachers are given leeway in politics that others aren't.

Which means it is all about race, isn't it? Wright's offensive opinions and inflammatory appearances are judged differently. He doesn't fire a shot in anger, put a noose around anyone's neck, call for insurrection, or plant a bomb in a church with children in Sunday school. What he does is to speak his mind in a language and style that unsettle some people, and says some things so outlandish and ill-advised that he finally leaves Obama no choice but to end their friendship. We are often exposed us to the corroding acid of the politics of personal destruction, but I've never seen anything like this ? this wrenching break between pastor and parishioner before our very eyes. Both men no doubt will carry the grief to their graves.
All the rest of us should hang our heads in shame for letting it come to this in America, where the gluttony of the non-stop media grinder consumes us all and prevents an honest conversation on race. It is the price we are paying for failing to heed the great historian Jacob Burckhardt, who said "beware the terrible simplifiers". "

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html

There's no excusing racism regardless of the race of the preacher.

I'm sure most voters will read that and it will change everything....uh huh..

Some of ye can't see past the end of your nose. Can't you remember history of the trail of blood that caused freedom loving, white, people to be exterminated and slaughtered and pushed from country to country 'till they came across the ocean to be free from tyrants who were their enemies.

What the hell do you think the name America came from. It was a miracle. That's it.
From all the wars that is happening in africa today I believe that no black man or woman would want to go back there.

"What the hell do you think the name America came from. It was a miracle. That's it."

The term America, for the lands of the western hemisphere, was coined in the early sixteenth century after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer and cartographer.