Letters to the Editor
-
Wright vs Falwell, Robertson and the religious right
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/obamas-minister-committe_b_91774.html
This is an article worth reading on the mixing of politics and religion.
In the early 80s while in Switzerland, I happened upon L'Abri which was founded and run by Francis Schaeffer, who along with J. Everett Koop wrote the infamous book "How Should We Then Live." This is an article by his son Frank Schaeffer, who, along with his mother Ruth Schaeffer tried to instill hell, fire and brimstone into me for a whole weekend.
Needless to say, I cannot believe that Frank is now a saved man in the true sense of the word, from the acidic grip of christian fundamentalism.
-
I know some of those crazy uncles
...I grew up in Hyde Park.
We fought and suffered and stayed in the hood. We didn't run. We lived together when it really took guts. Our community RESISTED the calls to segregation, isolation, abandonment. Our community sheltered radical critiques and that was a good thing.
Obama represents the strengths of this community and tradition.
-
Re: The Crazy Skeletons in Obama's Closet
Yes, the angry black people who have gotten screwed over and have been unable to get over it. Let's not elect Obama and we can go back to forgetting about them.
-
Pass which test walker?
Your redkneck standard? That could present problems.
-
So, Mr. McClelland, how much are you being paid by the Republican Party for writing this article?
How unsurprising. The man who attempted to spin Barack Obama's real estate purchase into a kickback now writes an article in which he describes Obama's association with the people who happened to have been poliically important in his home district as proof that he endorses the worst of their views.
This article might have some glimmer of fairness if it had contained comparisons between Obama's association with two college professors who- thirty years earlier- used to be left-wing anarchists with, say, John McCain's association with the President who authorized the torture of POWs THIS PAST MONTH.
This article might have been even-handed if it explained how Obama's association with his parish reverend Jeremiah Wright- an association which began as he was becoming established in Chicago and which he has recently ended- compared with John McCain's acceptance of an endorsement from a man (Rev. John Hagee) who is on record as saying that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for homosexuality.
But no. Instead, we are led to believe that, fifteen years ago, Barack Obama deliberately decided to use a patchwork network to achieve his single-minded goal of becoming president in 2008- a network composed of(gasp!) black power churchs, (the horror!) Arab immigrant "not-quite-terrorists", and (God help us!) former radical anarchists whom he chose to be around not despite but BECAUSE of their bomb-making background thirty years earlier.
Tell you what Mr. McClelland. I have a spare bedsheet and a set of scissors I can loan you. Why not drop the pretense and make yourself a white cloak and hood now and be done with it, OK?
No? Ok, then. Fair enough. But in the future you may want to wait at least a couple of days after your counterparts at the Washington Post release virtually the same smear against Obama. After all, if you're going to smear the man, you don't want to make it TOO obvious, do you?
-
... furthermore!
Calling them crazy uncles is not only disrespectful, it's profoundly ignorant of this nation and its history.
It is a sort of whitewash.
I grew up with folks who fought HUAC, who fought the Vietnam War, who fought racism and injustice and nuclear weapons and on and on. Who've been fighting for a national health care system for 50 years!
Crazy uncles indeed!!
Compare America today to China, where they had 70000 protests a year recently. What a nation of wimps we are. What a nation of butt kissers. Give me crazy uncles any day.
-
Who writes this drivel?
Does Salon even have editors review these articles anymore, or do they just have a quota for pro and con articles on Obama and Hillary they auto-post everyday?
Here, we get an article from a Great Lakes travel writer, who is CLEARLY qualified to be a fearless truthsayer on the evils Obama brings. (Politics, travelogues - like, totally the same thing!)
He would never be stirring the pot and trying to fling dirt to build a name for himself as a real journalist. Obviously! Just look at his other pieces about Obama on Salon.
Oh, but wait...they are all similar faint smear jobs filled with suggestion and fearful innuendo built upon the latest tidbit being discussed in the MSM. Hmmm, quite the journalist. After all, look at gems like this:
"To apologize for knowing them would be to apologize for who he is: an African-American, a Christian, a city dweller, an academic, a liberal. Most of those would be exotic qualities in a president. And maybe that's the real problem."
Let's go to journalism school for a moment and breakdown this conclusion. After all, this must be insight into who Obama is, and it ends with some scary reference to "a real problem"!
Orange alert! Orange alert! Duct tape!
"who he is: an African-American, a Christian, a city dweller, an academic, a liberal. Most of those would be exotic qualities in a president."
"Most" - normally describes a majority. Since the author lists 5 traits ("African-American, a Christian, a city dweller, an academic, a liberal"), let assume he meant '3 or more'.
"Exotic qualities in a President" - Let's forget about the fact that the 5 things are not all 'qualities' in a person (city dweller?). The point being made is that aspects of who Obama is would be 'foreign' to the Presidency, and therefore scary to middle-American. And with the "most" qualifier, we can assume 3 or more of the 5 traits listed would be 'foreign' to the Presidency.
Let's run with that:
1) African-American: That counts as 1. Foreign to the White House indeed.
2) A Christian: Ummm - no. Not foreign at all to residents of the semi-round room, Jefferson's deism notwithstanding.
3) City Dweller: Would have to check, but I think a great many Big-Dog-In-Chief's have been city dwellers prior to taking the job. Certainly enough to make it a decidedly 'non-exotic' trait.
4) An Academic: While the population is smaller on this one (*cough* Dubya *cough*), there have still been plenty of academically-inclined Presidents in a similar vein as Obama.
5) A Liberal: Yes, Virginia, there have been liberals in the Oval Office. Maybe an 'exotic' aspect for the last 30 years (depending on where Bill lands in the world of liberal), but not in the history of the office.
So, what's the tally? 1 out of 5 'qualities' listed would qualify as 'exotic'. And some of the five are not even qualities.
Verdict? A mediocre article, in fine 'semi-tabloid-news' fasion, designed to stir the 'pot o the day' on Obama and pull in reader eyeballs.
Oh, Salon. How the mighty have fallen. Where's a good Republican Congressional scandal to whip you back into shape?