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• Sunday, August 17, 2008 06:25 PM

  To timbuktom Sometimes not choosing is the most sane choice

  My apologies if this is a duplicate but the first letter did not post.

  With all due respect, when it comes to (1) the most important civil rights issue AND (2) the most important church and state issue of the new millennium absolutely no one has proven to be more of a shameless and hypocritical wimp than Barack Obama.

  Legally, his position on both of these fundamental civil rights issues represents the insidious holding and rationale of Plessy v. Fergusson (‘separate but equal’) which is perhaps the most invidious and infamous case in civil rights jurisprudence. And in denying same-sex couples the ‘fundamental’ right to marry on ‘state’s rights’ grounds Barack Obama utterly trashes the substantive holding of Loving v. Virginia for if he were legally correct then Loving would have upheld the discriminatory marriage laws on ‘states rights grounds’ and Obama’s own parents would have remained felons in over half the states. What unmitigated hypocrisy! Audacity indeed! What a betrayal if his first legal principals.

  In case you have not noticed religion is the only reason Obama has ever given for denial of this ‘fundamental’ civil right (read my other letters on this subject). Is it REALLY to much to ask a so called ‘civil rights’ lawyer to provide legal reasons for denial of civil rights?

  This is a law school no-brainer: since Obama uses religion as a device to deny civil rights he violates the First Amendment for the nefarious purpose of denying fundamental rights guaranteed under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. Hello! Just how many children have been left behind? Has education really failed this badly? That is not one but THREE. Constitutional violations. This from a so-called civil rights lawyer? Gimmie a break! This might be a good place to vomit.

  Barack Obama’s position on this important civil rights issue is, in fact, classic ‘separate but equal’ Dixiecrat segregationist Jim Crow rubbish and it reflects the WHITEST mentality imaginable. This from a man who proudly boasts of his African-American heritage and his legal credentials? This we call “authenticity”?

  And where was Barack Obama when we were out on the streets fighting for his rights and his parents rights? While Mr. "Humble beginnings" (gimmie a break!) was enjoying the privileges of attending the finest prep-schools and private universities affirmative action could offer, gay men and lesbian women were spilling their own warm blood on the cold streets of Alabama and Chicago so that Barack Obama and his parents could enjoy their 'fundamental' civil rights unmolested. But now that he has his ‘fundamental’ rights he tells them his love is better than theirs - words don't matter. Front of the bus or back of the bus who cares as long as you get a seat on the bus. Marriage? Civil unions? Why all the fuss? "One side of the street is as good as the other" -- so the tyrannous majority in Plessy held. This water fountain or that. What's the big deal when all water fountains are equal. Right? Marriage? Civil Unions? Why can't some Americans just respect the right of people to have their very own lunch counter? - as long as all lunch counters are equal of course! Be happy with a token ‘civil union’ seat in the back of the bus and don’t get uppity or watch out for the backlash. "How sharper than a serpent's tooth is it to have a thankless child!!" Affirmative action? Oh well, win some loose some I guess. But just what part of Loving doesn’t this so-called civil rights lawyer get?

  Unless one is an utter fool trust is earned and, on this issue, Barack Obama has thrice betrayed trust first by misrepresenting the law ('states' rights); second, by betrayal of his first legal principals; and third, by a betrayal of the official position of his OWN Christian denomination! Three strikes and he's out as far as my vote goes. NO DEAL!

  It seems utterly despicable, cynical and disingenuous for Barack Obama to blame his invidious prejudice on his “church history” when his own former minister of 20 years, as well as his famous mentor Carol Moseley Braun (as well as every towering old guard civil rights leader) stand solidly for marriage equality and no 'civil union' back-of-the-bus gay Jim Crow rubbish. It seems both weak and cowardly to not fess-up to this prejudice but blame it on his religion. Authenticity? Authentic hypocrite! Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy! And to pious lies and hypocrisy add betrayal times three.

  I am sure all these lapel-pin patriots can recite “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance but can they recite the First and Fourteenth Amendments? Instead of all this red-herring rubbish about reciting the Pledge in public schools perhaps we should require all American students to recite the Bill of Rights every day.

  Leadership? Witness Barack Obama and the ghost of Jim Crow marching America backwards on two left feet!

  —Arouete Read Arouete's other letters
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