Bloodthirsty Liberal

I’m going to speculate here, if you’ll allow me.

I recently heard someone mention that the Obama’s still haven’t picked a church to attend in Washington. It makes no difference to me, I don’t attend church, either (and the president might find it easier to get a tee time during services). But it seemed to be a big deal to them.

As this reporter from Time (hardly anti-Obama) observed:

The Obama family attended services at St. John’s Episcopal this morning [Sunday, October 11, 2009], and the Secret Service even let them walk the two blocks across Lafayette Park on this gorgeous October day. It marked the first time the family has gone to church in Washington since Easter, when they also visited St. John’s, although the Obamas have been worshipping at Evergreen Chapel at Camp David whenever they spend the weekend at the Maryland retreat.

It has also been three and a half months since the White House insisted that the First Family continues to look for a church in Washington to join. Few people would blame them if they decided it would be too disruptive to upend a local congregation–Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush all chose to largely avoid Washington churches for similar reasons, and conservatives defended their decisions to do so. It’s all the more surprising then that the White House has chosen to dig in on this point and continue to maintain that the Obamas will choose a local church as their main place of worship. It only becomes a Church Watch if they make it one.

Well put.

Now, one could point out the obvious and say Obama, who dismissed the pious as “bitter clingers”, needs at least to pay lip service to a search for church.

But I wonder if there isn’t something else going on, something deeper, something more illustrative to who he is. And, again, I’m paraphrasing Rush here, who frequently declares that Bill Ayres and Van Jones and Valerie Jarrett and Jeremiah Wright aren’t anomalies. They are Obama. And he is they.

Check out this speech Wright gave recently to the publishers of Monthly Review, a “no-nonsense” Marxist magazine, and see if it doesn’t sound like someone who inspired the wealth-spreader-in-chief, the Great Apologizer:

“You dispel all the negative images we have been programmed to conjure up with just the mention of that word socialism or Marxism.”

He called America “land of the greed and home of the slave.”

“My work with liberation theology, with Latin American theologians, with the Black Theology Project and with the Cuban Council of Churches taught me 30 years ago the importance of Marx and the Marxist analysis of the social realities of the vulnerable and the oppressed who were trying desperately to break free of the political economics undergirded by this country that were choking them and cutting off any hope of a possible future where all of the people would benefit.”

President Obama can’t bear false witness, can’t turn against the one faith that speaks to his soul—and I wouldn’t want him to. Rev. Wright was his pastor for 20 years, performed his marriage, baptized his children. I bet Wright feels the pain and disappointment of Jesus when he told Peter that he would deny him. And I bet Obama feels the shame and guilt of Peter.

The only other reasonable interpretation is that Obama arrived on the scene in Chicago a young man on the make. Smart man that he is (and articulate! and clean!), he quickly saw that his path to bigger things went through Wright’s church. When Wright was no longer useful to him, when no religion was of any use to him, he dropped him, dropped it, like a heavy load. Who needs it.

But I don’t believe that. I believe Obama is a true believer. And I don’t see why he should deny himself his spiritual shepherd, or why we should be denied the truth of his beliefs.

Who let crazy Uncle Jeremiah out of the attic?

I think the racists in the right wing are upset because poor people are about to be helped.

There’s not much to parse here, not because there are so few words, but so little sense. But here goes.

Why would “racists” care if poor people are going to be helped—unless those poor people are black, or some other race racists don’t cotton to? Is that what this is about? Has Jerry inadvertently blurted out the truth? We’re all racist for opposing socialized medicine?

But then we’d be racist for opposing any big-gummint program, for even questioning whether government is ever a solution, for demanding greater respect for individual liberty, and less obeisance paid to the power of the state.

Now, you’re getting it BTL.

We reported on Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s comments yesterday, as they were quoted.

But the quotes left out something I find very interesting. The potty pastor, who’s known Obama for 20 years, who married Barack and Michelle, who baptized Sasha and Malia, thinks the president is not being true to his real self. I can’t find a complete transcript, but at the 40-second mark, he advises Obama not to let politics change who he is as a person, or what he believes at the core of his being—not to let the lobbyists like AIPAC corrupt him.

Now, this is more standard anti-Semitism of the type we have come to expect of him—but what does he know about Obama that the rest of us don’t? What is at the core of his being? Who is his true self?

And why are those disturbing quotes (to me, anyway) left out of all the reports?

Obama’s election has let slip the evil spirits.

Reverend Wright:

My youngest child came home from school, and said to me, “Are you and Barack cool?” I said, “Of course we are. Why do you ask that? I just heard some kids talking at school.” I said, “No, that’s a media thing.”

…

Their intention was to use me as a weapon of mass destruction to destroy that man’s candidacy. Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Barack Obama, their successes individually should not lull us to sleep to think that now it’s all over, everything is solved. This was some serious structural problems that keep people locked into poverty.

Louis Farrakhan:

“President-elect Obama has energized all segments of the depressed, downtrodden, rejected and despised,” he said in a 90-minute speech at Mosque Maryam on the city’s South Side. “Now it is up to us to take the new energy that he has given us … and channel that energy into making ourselves better.”

…

Farrakhan, who said Obama draws a “oneness of spirit” from all people, admitted he stayed quiet about his support for Obama during the past few months out of fear his words would harm the Illinois senator’s bid for the White House.

Michael Pfleger:

“November 4 has passed, and like Oprah, I’m unleashed. Free at last!” he said.

Actually, he went further and mocked Martin Luther King, Jr., saying “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty…!”

Nothing of the hatred and bile we’ve come to associate with these spiritual advisors of the president-elect—but that will come.

They’re back!

So we’re goin’ down the church-affiliation path, are we?

Das cool:

For more than two decades, current Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a practicing Pentecostal.

She belonged to the Wasilla Assembly of God church in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska. But though she attended the church from her teenage years through to 2002, she hasn’t talked much about her religion since joining the Republican ticket.

Palin’s former pastor, Tim McGraw, says that like many Pentecostal churches, some members speak in tongues, although he says he’s never seen Palin do so.

…

The McCain campaign says the Governor doesn’t consider herself Pentecostal.

To summarize, an ex-Pentacostal, who never spoke in tongues, left the church six years ago. Now she wants to be Vice President. I’ll try to be interested, if you really insist.

But I’d really like to know more about this pastor. Word has it that another candidate spent 20 years with this loco, and left his church only when people started to notice.

I know, hard to believe, isn’t it? I guess that’s what they mean by faith.

Further to our point (see below)

Governor Palin is a member of a radical religious sect:

At least this smear didn’t have anything to do with Sarah Palin’s gender, but it also didn’t have anything to do with the truth, either. Critics have pointed to Palin’s Pentacostal religion as evidence of religious extremism, criticizing the practices of their church.

…

One of the musical directors at the church, Adele Morgan, who has known Ms. Palin since the third grade, said the Palins moved to the nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church in 2002, in part because its ministry is less “extreme” than Pentecostal churches like the Assemblies of God, which practice speaking in tongues and miraculous healings.

And check out this comment to the above post:

Isn’t it stunning how quickly the media began investigating Palin’s religious background, but, to date, has not given hardly any effort to put Obama under the same scrutiny. Their thirst for blood cannot be slaked.

Ain’t it the truth. Something tells me, however, that Team Obama doesn’t want to go anywhere near religious affiliation. No! No! No!

PUMAs are looking at her carefully

She sounds good to me. I would have voted for McCain anyway, but I could never get comfortable with Romney. I am so glad he didn’t choose him. I would also note that the Republicans have the mentor/mentee relationship in the right order. Instead of sending a chaperon to Washington to supervise young Barry’s excellent adventure, they put the experienced guy at the top of the ticket.

Aside: I saw this article in today’s Washington Post Charles Krauthammer discusses Obama’s friends, or lack of friends, and compares to John Kerry’s speech in 2004, when he was flanked by Viet Nam war vets who were ready to tell us what a great guy he is. Obama had no one. I thought about that real hard. Is this a guy without friends? Or couldn’t he bring his friends to the party? Why couldn’t William Ayers and Reverend Wright stand up and tell us that we can trust Obama?

- Aggie

If you have 9 minutes to spare,this video is made up of clips of Obama on youtube, Obama reading from his book, Dreams of My Father, and some clips of Reverend Wright.

I have a natural suspicion of this type of production because it obviously chops out information that would alter the message that they are presenting. But, there is a disturbing trend throughout everything we know of Obama, especially the Black Nationalism stuff. So, take it with a grain of salt, but it is still worth a look.

- Aggie

The Daily Kos crowd is in mourning today because Israel broke up a Palestinian terror cell that apparently wanted to murder President Bush. We referenced this story in an earlier post, but it occurred to me that we are somewhat heartless to overlook the suffering of our Friends, The Palestinians, and our friends here and in Europe, who must deal every day with Bush Derangement Syndrome. Don’t laugh; it is a real disease, there is no known cure, and its victims have suffered for nearly eight years now without relief. So, if in your daily wanderings, you run across a Move On or Daily Kos type, or any of the legions of Barack Obama fans (William Ayers, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Father Pfleger, Jesse Jackson, anyone listening to Air America), for pete’s sakes, buy them a cup of coffee. Take that little bit of extra time to prove your sensitivity.

- Aggie

JERUSALEM (CNN) — Israeli authorities have arrested six Arabs suspected of trying to build an al Qaeda-linked cell — including one person who allegedly asked about targeting President Bush’s helicopter.
A helicopter that was part of a convoy carrying President Bush lands in Israel in January.

A helicopter that was part of a convoy carrying President Bush lands in Israel in January.

Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, said in a news release that a 24-year-old student of Hebrew University in Jerusalem decided in January to try to attack a helicopter of a senior official landing on a helipad, and took video of the helipad with a cell phone. Bush used that helipad — near the dormitories at the university’s Givat Ram campus — during a visit in January, it said.

The student, identified as Muhammad Najam, allegedly turned to an Internet forum identified with al Qaeda and asked about the possibility of targeting an aircraft carrying Bush, Shin Bet said.

There was no immediate public statement on Najam’s behalf.

Shin Bet said the six people arrested have been indicted on various charges, including membership in a terrorist organization.