June 11, 2008

Barack Obama: Change Hate We Can Believe In
by Bill Levinson

Our local talk show host, Steve Corbett, has been derided as a racist because of “Operation Turndown,” his decision as a Democrat to refuse to vote for Barack Obama. A Google search on “Operation Turndown” also leads to a detractor who equates “Operation Turndown” to “Vote White.” These accusations of racism are what psychologists call projection: attributing to others one’s own behavior and values.

It is Barack Obama, not white voters, who has chosen to make this election an exercise not only in racial but also religious divisiveness, and even gender divisions. To paraphrase Martin Luther King, the problem is not the color of Barack Obama’s skin, but the content of his character or lack thereof. The problem is not that Barack Obama is of mixed race, but that he surrounds himself with racists, anti-Semites, Catholic-hating bigots, and even misogynists. Whites (and Jews, Catholics, and women) who refuse to vote for this phony smile on top of an empty suit are no more racist than African-Americans who won’t vote for a candidate who consorts openly with the Ku Klux Klan.

Let’s begin with Barack Obama’s Black Nationalism, not in the words of the Clinton or McCain camps, but his own. Obama says explicitly that his only objection to Black Nationalism was its effectiveness, not whether it is right or wrong. While he does not praise Louis Farrakhan’s hate speech, he does not condemn it either. He also talks about racial identity, which is the central characteristic of RACISM.

I would occasionally pick up the paper [Louis Farrakhan’s “The Final Call”] from these unfailingly polite men, in part out of sympathy to their heavy suits in the summer, their thin coats in winter; or sometimes because my attention was caught by the sensational, tabloid-style headlines (CAUCASIAN WOMAN ADMITS: WHITES ARE THE DEVIL). Inside the front cover, one found reprints of the minister’s [Farrakhan’s] speeches, as well as stories that could have been picked straight off the AP news wire were it not for certain editorial embelleshments (”Jewish Senator Metzenbaum announced today…”).

Barack Obama, “Dreams From My Father,” p. 201

It contradicted the morality my mother had taught me, a morality of subtle distinctions–between individuals of goodwill and those who wished me ill, between active malice and ignorance or indifference. I had a personal stake in that moral framework; I’d discovered that I couldn’t escape it if I tried. And yet perhaps it was a framework that blacks in this country could no longer afford; perhaps it weakened black resolve, encouraged confusion within the ranks. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and for many blacks, times were chronically desperate. If nationalism could create a strong and effective insularity, deliver on its promise of self-respect, then the hurt it might cause well-meaning whites, or the inner turmoil it caused people like me, would be of little consequence.

If nationalism could deliver. As it turned out, questions of effectiveness, and not sentiment, caused most of my quarrels with Rafiq.

“Dreams From My Father,” pp. 199-200

That was the problem with people like Joyce [a college classmate of Italian, African-American, Native American, and French ethnicity]. They talked about the richness of their multicultural heritage and it sounced real good, until you noticed that they avoided black people. …The truth was that I understood [Joyce], her and all the other black kids who felt the way she did. In their mannerisms, their speech, their mixed-up hearts, I kept recognizing pieces of myself. And that’s exactly what scared me. Their confusion made me question my own racial credentials all over again. …To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.

“Dreams From My Father,” pages 99-100

Michelle Obama’s senior thesis (page 2) meanwhile says, “Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would use all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost. My experiences at Princeton have made me more aware of my “Blackness” than ever before.” These are not the words of someone who is qualified to be First Lady of a multiracial and multiethnic nation like the United States.

Barack Obama is indeed “HATE we can believe in,” because he empowers and enables hate mongers of all persuasions except white supremacists–and, were his skin a bit lighter, he would probably welcome those as well. Racists, anti-Semites, Catholic-hating bigots, and even misogynists swarm around Obama the way flies swarm around a garbage dumpster, and it is telling that he drives them away only when their presence endangers his campaign. Instead of dealing in generalities, we will now provide a comprehensive list.

Al Sharpton and his National Action Network
The following picture was taken at an April 2007 meeting of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network: a racist and anti-Semitic hate organization as demonstrated by its conduct at Freddy’s Fashion Mart, a Jewish-owned store in Harlem. Obama endorsed Sharpton and the NAN as follows: “Reverend Sharpton is a voice for the voiceless, and a voice for the dispossessed. What National Action Network has done is so important to change America, and it must be changed from the bottom up.”

Let’s see what the National Action Network did to change America. Per Fred Siegel’s “Democrats Embrace ‘Impresario of Hatred’” at http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110004192

It would have taken no great effort for the reporters covering the Apollo debate to have walked across 125th Street from the theater to visit Freddy’s Fashion Mart, where in 1995 eight people died in a murderous rampage inspired by Mr. Sharpton. Mr. Sharpton is best-known for the Tawana Brawley hoax, in which he insisted that a 15-year-old black girl had been abducted and raped by a band of white men practicing Irish Republican Army rituals. In fact she had made up the story to protect herself from her violent stepfather. But at Freddy’s, Mr. Sharpton was even more malevolent. He turned a landlord-tenant dispute between the Jewish owner of Freddy’s and a black subtenant into a theater of hatred. Picketers from Mr. Sharpton’s National Action Network, sometimes joined by “the Rev.” himself, marched daily outside the store, screaming about “bloodsucking Jews” and “Jew bastards” and threatening to burn the building down. After weeks of increasingly violent rhetoric, one of the protesters, Roland Smith, took Mr. Sharpton’s words about ousting the “white interloper” to heart. He ran into the store shouting, “It’s on!” He shot and wounded three whites and a Pakistani, whom he apparently mistook for a Jew. Then he set the fire, which killed five Hispanics, one Guyanese and one African-American—a security guard whom protesters had taunted as a “cracker lover.” Smith then fatally shot himself.

The Trinity United Church of Christ: Jeremiah Wright, Michael Pfleger, Louis Farrakhan, and Otis Moss

(1) Barack and Michelle Obama joined the Trinity United Church of Christ about twenty years ago. This was after its pastor, Jeremiah Wright, had accompanied the prominent racist, anti-Semite, and Catholic-hating bigot Louis Farrakhan to Libya to meet with Moammar Khadafy. In other words, Wright’s support of Farrakhan did not come as any surprise to the Obamas, who probably agreed with it.

(2) The Obamas remained in the Trinity United Church of Christ when
* Its official bulletin published a blood libel that accused Israel of developing an “ethnic bomb” to kill Negroes and Arabs.
* Its pastor blood libeled the United States by accusing it of developing the AIDS virus
* Its official bulletin published a guest opinion piece from a Hamas terrorist named Marzook
* Its pastor published a “War in Iraq IQ Test” that equated the United States to Iraq under Saddam Hussein
* Its pastor wrote “state” of Israel in the church’s official bulletin, as in “so-called state of Israel.”
* Its pastor said that the United States got a wake up call after 9/11, with the context suggesting that the United States deserved 9/11
* Its pastor arranged a Trumpet Award to Louis Farrakhan
* The church invited Father Michael Pfleger to give a guest speech in which he openly praised and defended Louis Farrakhan

(3) The Obamas resigned from the church only when Michael Pfleger arguably misused the church’s tax exempt resources (just as Obama himself misused the United Church of Christ’s tax exempt resources by giving a campaign speech at its national synod in June 2007) by berating Obama’s Caucasian opponent from the pulpit.

* The Obamas’ NEW pastor, Otis Moss, introduced Pfleger as a “prophetic, powerful pulpiteer.”
* Pfleger then made a speech about “white entitlement” and said, with regard to Obama’s lead over Hillary Clinton, “There were a whole lot of white people crying.” This drew unanimous applause from the audience, and a standing ovation from many. These are the same people with whom Barack and Michelle Obama have gone to church for the past twenty years.
* Otis Moss, the Obamas’ new pastor, showed no embarrassment whatsoever about Pfleger’s hate speech or the likely misuse of the church’s tax exempt resources for electioneering. Moss said, “Thank God for the message, and thank God for the messenger.”

Here are screen shots of Pfleger’s “sermons” to the Trinity United Church of Christ. Pay attention to the reaction of the people with whom Obama has gone to church for twenty years. These pictures suggest that TUCC is in fact a racist hate organization, just as a predominantly Caucasian church that gave a standing ovation to “There were a whole lot of Negroes crying” would be racist. It may also be noted that Obama’s new pastor, Otis Moss, praised Pfleger’s “sermon.”

Obama is on record as welcoming Jeremiah Wright’s and Michael Pfleger’s testimonials.

MoveOn.org: Anti-Semitic and Anti-Catholic Hate Group
Barack Obama solicited and obtained the endorsement of MoveOn.org, whose track record includes welcoming hate speech at a site under its editorial control, publication of an anti-Catholic hate cartoon, and a defamatory insult to General David Petraeus. MoveOn’s leader Eli Pariser, whose excuses for his organization’s promotion of anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic hatred demonstrate his mendacity, effectively spat on this distinguished Army officer’s uniform and service ribbons. Obama added his own spittle by accepting the endorsement.

Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam
We have already mentioned the connection between Obama’s church and Louis Farrakhan, who is supported by Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger. It is also a matter of record that Obama refused to “reject” Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement until Tim Russert, who was joined in his effort by Hillary Clinton, backed Obama into a corner on national television.

Misogyny and Contempt for Women
Barack Obama has, on at least two occasions, referred to women as “Sweetie.” This word might be acceptable within a family, or within a personal relationship, but it is demeaning when used in a work relationship–e.g. to a female factory worker in Allentown or a female reporter, as done by Obama. (We wonder how he would have reacted had the female factory worker or reporter said, “Sure thing, Boy.”) My.BarackObama.com meanwhile uses the B word to refer to Hillary Clinton, with one individual adding, “Crying, playing victim, and being a villianous b**** all showed that women are not ready to take office yet.” While neither Obama nor his official staffers were responsible for these remarks, perhaps those who made them took their lead from Obama’s demeaning language for women.

Obama’s refusal to distance himself from hate mongers like Jeremiah Wright, Michael Pfleger, and Louis Farrakhan until they become outright liabilities to his campaign, and his solicitation and endorsement of other hate mongers like Al Sharpton and MoveOn.org, all serve to underscore our new slogan for his campaign:

Barack Obama: HATE We Can Believe In