Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Obama Flap

I watched the Rev. Wright Press Club Q & A and, unless I'm Obama who might take offense at being called political (oh please!), I can't find what was so outrageous. It is factual that our intervention in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, and our military training of Osama bin Laden preceded 9-11; our Ambassador said our chickens were coming home to roost.

Is it really that crazy to believe that our government had something to do with HIV? I don't believe that, but then, I haven't researched it either--and it's not impossible in the context of the rest of our history: as in do "white" people know about the Tuskegee "Experiment", forced sterilizations in hospitals on black women, and more recently, the reporting of the actual importation of drugs into the black community by the CIA? And in any case, REV. WRIGHT IS NOT OBAMA! Obama strikes me as a quietly religious person who lives a very secular, politically active life. It seems obvious that he belonged to Wright's church because of it's ties to the black community, not Wright's bombastic preaching. Let's see, does Obama strike you as a leader or a follower? Exactly.

However, I think Wright may be on to something when he claims that the press is attacking the black church. Think about it. I think the press, Hillary, and the right wing are really trying to make us see Obama as BLACK and RELIGIOUS in the skewed way that Wright's being smeared. There are people in this country that will do ANYTHING to stop Obama from being elected...he's like a Kennedy.

I also find Wright's views of our government's policies very consistent with the preaching of my Methodist father. It's pretty simple: God is good, war is not. Criticizing our government should not be outrageous (I'll never get that conservatives don't trust government yet won't defend our right to criticize it; a paradox) and is consistent with most liberal moral philosophies whether religiously based or not. I think many atheists are just ticked off that Obama actually seems to believe in God; a view I find shockingly intolerant for Americans to hold.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Living in Karl Rove's Universe

We are now in the world of Obama as "other" and Obama as "right." These are two of his strengths, so Hillary and Rove are turning them into weaknesses.

Hillary has taken us into the Republican trap of using anti-intellectualism and otherness to alienate voters, and using that we will never again elect an inspired, intelligent, effective world leader.

In particular, we know people who are uncomfortable with Obama being "religious," and also baselessly think he's "anti-Jewish." We also hear that maybe he's really an "angry black man" (I think every black American is entitled to be angry and denying that is denying racism in this country; and why is it okay for Clarence Thomas to be angry?). We'll keep hearing that his middle name is Hussein, and well, that's just out there for some people even though we supported Sadam for decades. And Obama's foreign names make Americans question why people are saying he doesn't do patriotic things like wear a flag pin.

Now Rove is trying to characterize him as a marginal legislator, even though Obama accomplished this when Sam Nunn couldn't...Lugar Obama

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Who cares about Fox News, this implicates the FDA...

Note that Monsanto produces NUTRASWEET (purchased from G.D. Searle after a very controversial FDA approval...)