Grim News

Barack Obama, man of the cloth?

My best friend has called me onto the carpet and charged me with that most heinous of journalistic crimes, lack of objectivity.

Guilty.

I’m biased as hell.

Now that we have that out of the way, my friend has challenged me to bash Obama on some point, ANY point, just as an exercise in intellectual honesty. I must admit, after doing some digging into the matter, that there are a fair number of points to choose from.

First, there is his association with the “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright.  Let’s pick a few quotes and have a look, shall we?

• “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.”

Factually accurate.  We did bomb Hiroshima.  We did bomb Nagasaki.  It is hypocritical to call your own civilian deaths “an act of evil” while simultaneously calling the deaths of someone else’s civilians “a necessary act of war”.  War is hell, and September 11th was an example of the other side taking the initiative and getting in a first strike.  We shouldn’t be fighting terrorists because “they’re evil and we’re the good guys”.  We should be fighting them because if we don’t they’ll kill more of us.  The question of “how we got here” is best left to historians.  Right now, we need to fight to win, which means killing more of them than they do of us.

• “We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” (Sep 2001)

Again, one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.  Is Wright saying that we “deserve” the attacks? or is he saying that he isn’t surprised that they are happening.  Would any serious student of history doubt that a foreign policy based on intervention will eventually make enemies around the world?  Pro-Israel/Anti-Palestinian… Same thing.  We chose our friends in the world, and in so doing, chose our enemies as well.  Do we really expect them to lie down for us while we exercise our influence unopposed?

• “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” (2003)

I disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.  Wright is clearly using the phrase “God damn America” as the polar opposite of “God bless America”.  It’s a rhetorical device designed to “shock and awe” the listener.

• “Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary would never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.”

Would any rational human being find inaccuracy in this statement?  The fact is, “rich white people”, have called the shots in this country from the very beginning.  Is that inherently evil? No.  But if you are NOT one of those “rich white people”, might you feel a bit of desire to get a seat at the table?  Might you resent folks who were fortunate enough to be part of the “power demographic”?  The black community has made a lot of positive strides in recent history, but can you, just for a moment, imagine what is at stake emotionally now that Obama is running for the White House and appears to be winning?  Should blacks vote for Obama solely on the basis of his skin color or ancestry?  No, in an ideal world, elections should be decided solely based on the character and policies of the candidates.

I would try to come up with an example of such an election, but um… I’m still looking.

As for Bill Ayers, former 1960′s radical and member of the “Domestic Terrorist” organization “The Weather Underground“, that one’s even easier to counter.  Let’s ignore the fact that Ayers and friends were engaged in their “terrorism” when Obama was all of 8 years old.  How exactly are these two men related?  They served together on the board of the Woods Fund in Chicago.

What is the Woods Fund?

Woods Fund of Chicago is a grantmaking foundation whose goal is to increase opportunities for less advantaged people and communities in the metropolitan area, including the opportunity to shape decisions affecting them. The foundation works primarily as a funding partner with nonprofit organizations. Woods supports nonprofits in their important roles of engaging people in civic life, addressing the causes of poverty and other challenges facing the region, promoting more effective public policies, reducing racism and other barriers to equal opportunity, and building a sense of community and common ground.

Well that is certainly contro-fucking-versial.  Ayers donated 200 bucks to Obama’s campaign for the Illinois State House.  That’s practically an inexorable bond! (sarcasm alert)  A 1960′s radical backing a Democrat?  Say it ain’t so, Joe!

Of course there are other “scandalous” charges against Senator Obama.  Let’s look at a few of these in depth, shall we?

Barack Obama’s middle name is Hussein.  In case one of my readers is both smart enough to read this far, and dumb enough to believe that this has anything to do with… anything, let me remind you that Obama was named after his father, and that Obama had just graduated from high school by the time Saddam came to power in Iraq in 1979.

Barack Obama is “secretly a Muslim“.  Um… no.

Barack Obama was sworn into office using the Quran.  You’re thinking of Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and so what?

Obama says “We are no longer a Christian Nation“  I can only hope… but alas, this is false too.

Obama was not born a US Citizen, and is a citizen of Kenya.  Well, technically, since Kenya was a British colony at the time Obama was born, that would make him British.  Of course, in 1963, Kenya gained it’s independence and granted citizenship to all former British subjects with ties to Kenya (like Obama’s father, which would, in turn, grant Senator Obama Kenyan citizenship)  Since Kenya does not allow citizens to hold dual citizenships after they turn 21, Obama lost his Kenyan citizenship in 1982.

Of course, all of this is rendered moot by the fact that he was born in HAWAII to a mother who was from KANSAS, thus making him as American as “Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet”.

Are you getting the idea yet?

In fact, the only real political haymaker thrown at Obama that I might be legitimately concerned about is his tax plan.  McCain, and others, try to paint Obama as a “tax and spend Liberal” who will raise all of our taxes.

Let’s look at the numbers, shall we? (numbers below taken from Cnn.com)

By the way, did I mention yet that the National Debt just passed 10 TRILLION dollars?  I *might* know a couple of people who’s tax bill will go up by 12 dollars per year under Obama’s plan.  Aside from that, the only folks paying more taxes under Obama’s plan are the folks who have been getting all of the tax cuts that put us under this debt in the first stinkin’ place.

I’m not saying that Obama is perfect.  I’m not “drinking the Kool-aid” from the Democratic party.  However, as I said before, the only question of interest to me is “Am I better off now than I was 8 years ago?“  Do I want more of the same? (McCain) or something different (Obama).  For me, personally, the question is a no-brainer.  Give the new guy a chance and let’s see what he can do.