If you didn't have a chance to catch the full program (and not just the press previews, endlessly played yesterday by the cable news pundits), head on over to Bill Moyers Journal, where you will see, clearly, how the Reverand Wright controversyis such an over-hyped, partisan, prejudiced bag of you-know-what.
Much of what Moyers and Rev. Wright discussed could have easily been a handful of break-out sessions, had it taken place the day of Obama's Race Speech.
Here's two passages, the full context, of what has been so hideously displayed in the video loops aimed at bashing Obama.
1. The God Damn America Brouhaha
REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT: Where governments lie, God does not lie. Where governments change, God does not change. And I'm through now. But let me leave you with one more thing. Governments fail. The government in this text comprised of Caesar, Cornelius, Pontius Pilate - the Roman government failed. The British government used to rule from East to West. The British government had a Union Jack. She colonized Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Hong Kong. Her navies ruled the seven seas all the way down to the tip of Argentina in the Falklands, but the British government failed. The Russian government failed. The Japanese government failed. The German government failed. And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains. The government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton fields, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education and locked them into position of hopelessness and helplessness. 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. Not God bless America; God damn America! That's in the Bible, for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating her citizen as less than human. God damn America as long as she keeps trying to act like she is God and she is supreme!
2. The Chickens Come Home To Roost Brouhaha
REVEREND WRIGHT: Yes, I did. I was trying to show how people- how the anger- and we felt anger. I felt anger. I felt hurt. I felt pain. In fact, September 11th, I was in Newark. September 11th, I was trapped in Newark 'cause when they shut down the air system I couldn't get back to Chicago. September 11th, I looked out the window and saw the second plane hit from my hotel window. Alright, I had members who lost loved ones both at the Pentagon and at the World Trade Center. So, I know the pain. And I had to preach to them Sunday. I had to preach. They came to church wanting to know where is God in this. And so, I had to show them using that Psalm 137, how the people who were carried away into slavery were very angry, very bitter, moved and in their anger from wanting revenge against the armies that had carried them away to slavery, to the babies. That Psalm ends up sayin' "Let's kill the baby-let's bash their heads against the stone." So, now you move from revolt and revulsion as to what has happened to you, to you want revenge. You move from anger with the military to taking it out on the innocents. You wanna kill babies. That's what's going on in Psalm 137. And that's exactly where we are. We want revenge. They wanted revenge. God doesn't wanna leave you there, however. God wants redemption. God wants wholeness. And that's the context, the biblical context I used to try to get people sitting again, in that sanctuary on that Sunday following 9/11, who wanted to know where is God in this? What is God saying? What is God saying? Because I want revenge.
REVEREND WRIGHT: The people of faith have moved from the hatred of armed enemies, these soldiers who captured the king, those soldiers who slaughtered his son and put his eyes out, the soldiers who sacked the city, burned the towns, burned the temples, burned the towers, and moved from the hatred for armed enemies to the hatred of unarmed innocents, the babies, the babies . "Blessed are they who dash your baby's brains against a rock." And that my beloved is a dangerous place to be. Yet, that is where the people of faith are in 551 BC and that is where far too many people of faith are in 2001 AD. We have moved from the hatred of armed enemies to the hatred of unarmed innocents. We want revenge. We want paybacks and we don't care who gets hurt in the process.
I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday. Did anybody else see him or hear him? He was on Fox news. This is a white man and he was upsetting the Fox news commentators to no end. He pointed out. You see him John? A white man he pointed out -an Ambassador! He pointed out that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Mohammad was in fact true. America's chickens are coming home to roost! We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Arawak, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism! We took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism! We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel. We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenagers and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard-working fathers. We bombed Gadafi's home and killed his child. "Blessed are they who bash your children's head against a rock!" We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to payback for the attack on our embassy. Killed hundreds of hard-working people; mothers and fathers who left home to go that day, not knowing that they would never get back home. 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! Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children after school, civilians - not soldiers - people just trying to make it day by day. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans, and now we are indignant? Because the stuff we have done overseas has now been brought back into our own front yards! America's chickens are coming home to roost! Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred and terrorism begets terrorism. A White Ambassador said that y'all not a Black Militant. Not a Reverend who preaches about racism. An Ambassador whose eyes are wide open, and who's trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised--
"Why it is that all of these people hate us. It's not because of freedom. It's not because Britney Spears has a belly button or because we export hamburgers. They hate us because of things they see us doing to their part of the world that they definitely do not like."
And this;
Edward Peck, former US Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan's terrorism task force. PECK: You have to understand now. Just like the colonel here, I'm a veteran of the armed forces. I have had two tours of active duty in the Army. And I don't take a back seat to anybody in terms of patriotism. This is the greatest nation that ever was and may be the greatest nation that ever will be. But that's my view, and it is not universally shared. So we have come out with 21 pages of proof that Osama bin Laden was involved. I have read that material. That's allegations. That's not proof. It's an entirely different thing. Proof of what it means to us. So, yes, he's not a nice guy, Saddam Hussein. But I think that the costs to our nation and its interests of taking him out are probably vastly exceeding anything we would gain by doing it.
Hmmm ... I didn't see, in that Obama-bashing, Rev. Wright video loop, any footage of Ambassador Peck and his criticism ...Then again, as we know from the revelations last week, the Bush Grindhouse didn't put anyone on television that they didn't approve of, so, it's very likely Peck didn't make Rumsfeld's, and Torie Clarke's list, as to going out and selling the war.
And I chuckle when I think of the Right Wing Freakshow, and their flying monkeys (they're already up-in-arms over it, here and here), salivating at the prospects of a McCain-Obama final, so they can claw and bash Obama with Rev. Wright ... This from the people with Hagee, Robertson, Falwell, etc in their closets ...
Why let facts and context get in the way, when it's just as easy to make things up and smear people ... Play the Fear Card and you hook'em everytime ...
It's getting so that the saga of this is becoming more-and-more comical, perhaps surpassing the Cary Grant-Myrna Loy classic we culled the title from ...
Baghdad - The new U.S. Embassy complex does not have enough fortified living quarters for hundreds of diplomats and other workers, who must remain temporarily in trailers without special rooftop protection against mortars and rockets, government officials have told The Associated Press.
Sorting out the housing crunch and funding could further delay moving all personnel into the compound until next year and exposes shortcomings in the planning for America's more than $700 million diplomatic hub in Iraq.
Hmmm ... Something tells me this could become a campaign issue ... In the 2012, or 2016 elections ... Bonus "She's A Brick House" Riffs
We hope you're enjoying a fine day, wherever you may be ...
Lo Siento, once again, for the low (and lack of) posting the past few days.
While there have been homefront commitments that have cut into writing time, it has more to do with being absolutely hammered by allergies the past week.
We're talking sledgehammer, wrecking ball levels of discomfort, with, on one day, the medication taken didn't even put a dent in it.
Disconcerting it is, as it has been quite some time since I felt it this heavy, this early in the season.
Trees here have just started blooming, and I know the rest is following over the next two months (Oh boy, I can hardly wait for early June and all that grass popping up).
As the week progressed, both creativity and energy was draining out of me, such to the point, it came to not even wanting to sit at the computer and attempt anything beyond the most perfunctory reading of email.
The allergies are low today, and a good nights' sleep has the energy levels back up ...
So, taking it while it's here, we'll start the process of completing some half-written posts, as well as creating new ones and get back on track, today and tomorrow.
Many Thanks, as always, for visiting and reading The Garlic.
Yes, that's right, let's build an amusement park in the middle of a war zone ... A hot war zone ...
Llewellyn Werner admits he is facing obstacles most amusement park developers never have to deal with – insurgent attacks and looting.
When you are building an amusement park in downtown Baghdad, those risks come with the territory
I think it may impact the fun, just a little, to have to walk around a hot, humid amusement park in helmet and bulletproof vest, but then again, as Mr, Werner says in the interview "“I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t making money,” ... But mostly everything here is for profit.”
I suppose, to help build that gravy train, you won't be able to use your own helmet and bullet proof vest, you'll have to rent one at the park.
And, even if you get the terrorists and insurgents to back off, leaving the park alone, you have to figure in your average, typical, "he was a quiet man" Iraqi-postal-worker type, who shows up with a backpack and wants to play Suicide Bumper Cars.
Christ, wasn't the plan to get the oil first and then destroy them with Americanization? Priorities, people ...
And this is some serious, L. Paul Bremer, "Disband-the-Army", "Greet-Us-As-Liberators" optimism;
Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for the Government, is equally optimistic: “There is a shortage of entertainment in the city. Cinemas can’t open. Playgrounds can’t open. The fun park is badly needed for Baghdad. Children don’t have any opportunities to enjoy their childhood.” Mr al-Dabbagh added that entry to the park would be strictly controlled.
As to the attractions in DisneyBaghdad, the Disney Co. is making a number of concessions for its’ first theme park in the Middle East. Many of the favorite Disney attractions known to Western audiences will be modified for DisneyBaghdad, such as;
Pirates of the Caliphate
Hall of Ayatollahs
It’s A Small Mosque
Country Camel Jamboree
Snow White and the Seven Imams
Minnie Mouse, Cinderella, Snow White and all other female characters will be required to observe Muslim customs, in public, wearing veils or hijabs and burkas.
If this new Baghdad amusement park is still hiring, say in January 2009, there's a whole bevy of clowns that will be looking for work.
If you are a Hillary Clinton supporter, this morning is confetti and streamers ... Not quite Lake Placid 1980, but your spirits will be buoyed by the determination to march forward and claim the gold she believes has been hers all along ...
It's worth recalling what this primary came to be about, because of a self-conscious decision by the Clintons to adopt the tactics and politics of the people who persecuted and hounded them in the 1990s. It was indeed in the end about smearing and labeling Obama as a far-left, atheist, elite, pansy Godless snob fraud. That was almost all it came to be about. It was the Clintons' core message and core belief ...
...Tthe Rove-Atwater gambits have been paid the highest compliment by the Clintons these past few weeks. But a single digit win against a young black man in a polarized race suggests that this compliment was past its sell-by date.
There's another core belief the Clintons have.
That this nomination is supposed to be Hillary's and why doesn't everyone else see that? Why is anyone (and most of all, Barack Obama) challenging this?
They are beside themselves in shock and anger and a self-delusional "Why is this happening to me?" kind of thing, and this is what feeds and norishes her campaign theses days.
With the PA win, and her Kitchen Sink Strategy, it's quite possible that today, those dwindling Clinton Campaign funds are being dropped in every hardware and big-box store, from Indiana to North Carolina, buying more sinks, and maybe, placing some calls to Moen and Kohler, about a product-placement opportunity.
She had a good deal in PA to double-down and go DefCon 5 on the nasty, smearing, Rovian tactics.
It was her "Home" state (Isn't this getting to be like a Bush-thing, as to where she actually is from, or lives?) and she had the blessing of the State Machine, in a state where such old-school political machines still exist.
Even the NYT, which endorsed Hillary, came out with an editorial today (put on-line last evening), "The Low Road to Victory", criticizing Hillary, saying;
On the eve of this crucial primary, Mrs. Clinton became the first Democratic candidate to wave the bloody shirt of 9/11. A Clinton television ad — torn right from Karl Rove’s playbook — evoked the 1929 stock market crash, Pearl Harbor, the Cuban missile crisis, the cold war and the 9/11 attacks, complete with video of Osama bin Laden. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” the narrator intoned.
(Will Bunch, of Attytood: Read the whole thing -- it's not an unendorsement, but it's close.)
As was dwelt on last evening, over-and-over, over-and-over (On CNN,, they had a stadium-sized Jumbotron to crunch theirs) the numbers from here-on-out, don't add up for Hillary, barring an unprecedented meltdown by Obama, or, perhaps The Second Coming, which, could also, for some, have Elvis strolling back into the building and endorsing Hillary.
With the early odds (there's those numbers again, over-and-over, over-and-over) saying North Carolina is shaping up for a big Obama win, and Indiana up-for-grabs, though, with a possible slant to Hillary, it will be KitchenSink-O-Rama for another two-weeks.
Or, to stay with one of the opening references, and since the Stanley Cup Playoffs are on, it's the third period of a hockey game, with Team Obama winning, and Team Clinton knowing they can't.
So now comes the hard, sometimes illegal, cross-and-body checks, the cheap shots, the facewashes, the pitchfork hits, the stick-in-the-skates ... Anything to rough up and beat down the opponent ... The "If-we-can't-win-the-game, we'll-win-the-fight" mentality ...
The score is stagnant, so that it's going to be up to the referees - the Superdelegates, in this case - to make the call and declare "Winner, Game Over".
Blow the whistle, will ya!
In the meantime, for Barack Obama, simple advise today ...
Seems the former Senator, and presidential candidate, gave a speech last Saturday evening in Sioux Falls, SD, at the Annual McGovern Day Dinner and he decided to throw a few jabs at Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain.
It's a good riff, with McGovern telling of being dismissed by SB McCain, only to have McGovern point out a few facts.
You should read it, but here's a little final sauce McGovern added;
If I'd be allowed just one little dig at Senator McCain, since he gave me. I would say, 'John, you were shot down early in the war and spent most of the time in prison. I flew 35 combat missions with a 10-man crew and brought them home safely every time.'
These digs come early in the video, hang with it as McGovern further articulates why it's important "to keep John McCain out of the White House".
More then likely, since it's McGovern, the Right Wing Freak Show will rush (well, they've already started, here ... And, Mary Kathrine Ham, from TownHall, who, Garlic Fans, will remember, we hipped you to her computer skills awhile back, goes into a convoluted defenses of McCain, by way of dredging up the John Kerry Swiftboating, running that through the mill again, and then accusing the Democrats of Swiftboating McCain, even though McGovern, in his direct hits, cites only publicly-available facts) to SB John's defense, stomp and smear him, while heaping the undeserved praise on the SB man.
The back story is that Army Captain Joe Kobes was/is appearing on the television game show "Deal or No Deal" and "The show's producers contacted the White House after learning from Captain Kobes that the president is one of his heroes," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said."
We respect, and commend, Captain Kobes for his service, but have to jump off the bus as to his hero worship.
Boy, it sure would have been nice to see that woman come jogging on the 'Deal or No Deal" set, winding up a sledgehammer and letting it fly into The Commander Guys' big screen face.
I'll let that dance about my head today, hopefully, drowning out the tsunami of "What If's" coming out of the television talking mannequins on the Pennsylvania Primary
President Bush makes an appearance on NBC's "Deal or No Deal," wishing an Iraq war veteran good luck as he tries to guess which suitcase contains $1 million. (April 21)
Is this a sign, that the cronies of the Bush Grindhouse, after their lying, ineptness, criminal behavior and stomping of the Constitution, are going to find a comfy home to land in?
Anne Schroder, of the Politico's Shenanigans Column, has this interesting tidbit; Tony Snow to CNN?
And she notes, "Snow’s ties to Fox News Channel – he hosted "Fox News Sunday" from 1996-2003 when Chris Wallace took over and he still co-hosts a radio show on Fox News with Bill O’Reilly, "The Radio Factor."
In her post, Schroder carries a news release from CNN;
For Release: April 21, 2008 - Tony Snow Joins CNN as Political Contributor
Former White House press secretary Tony Snow will join CNN as a conservative commentator beginning today, it was announced by Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. A well-known and respected observer of politics with a longstanding news background, Snow will contribute to CNN as the network continues to broadcast winning political coverage.
“In the White House, Tony brought a remarkably human touch to the discussion of public policy, which he will continue to do as part of the Best Political Team on Television,” Klein said.
This oughta be good to watch ... It could get violent, between Snow, Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper, trying to muscle each other out of the camera shots ...
But, CNN and Klein have a sure-fire ratings-catcher.
Here's my final argument for John McCain. He's not Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
Both Democrats have made their case in chief on why they should be president, and we have every reason to be concerned.
Both want to cut and run from Iraq, give the radical jihadists a victory from the jaws of defeat, and leave the Iraqi people vulnerable to chaos. Both would put in place dangerous economic policies that would make Uncle Sam look like an Orwellian Big Brother. Both would nominate liberal activist judges who would pass undemocratic laws from the bench. Both support one-size-fits-all health-care policies that have been a disaster for patients and medical industries in Canada. Good-bye, American capitalism; hello, European-style socialism.
"Would make Uncle Sam look like an Orwellian Big Brother?"
I know Rick, you get really excited about “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week", it's probably a 24/7/365 event for you, but you really should come up for air once in awhile ...
Since you are the odds-on favorite at this point, to win the nomination, all I have to say is Watch Out, Barack Obama!
You start hitting Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain too hard, or with facts, or just strong opinion and he's going to go to his ace-in-the-hole ... His POW status.
He'll whip that POW Flag out and start waving it in your face!
And it seemed, at times, early on in the interview, that Little Georgie had to hold back, pull his punches, when they were discussing SB John's lunatic Tax Plans... It's seemed like Little Georgie just wanted to shout back at him "You're absolutely a mad man, these plans are impossible!", or worse, smack him around.
STEPHANOPOULOS: What’s wrong with government — what’s wrong with government-run health care?
McCAIN: And we continue to have these debates — what’s wrong with it? Go to Canada. Go to England and you can find out what’s wrong with it. Governments don’t make the right decisions. Families make the right decisions.
STEPHANOPOULOS: One of the points Mrs. Edwards made in the Wall Street Journal, she said that your whole life, you had government health care. You were the son of a Naval officer, a Naval officer, now a member of Congress. And her point is, why shouldn’t every American be able to get the kind of health care that members of Congress get or members of the military get?
McCAIN: It’s a cheap shot, but I did have a period of time where I didn’t have very good government health care. I had it from another government. (LAUGHTER) So, look, I know what it’s like in America not to have health care. We know that Americans are hurting there as well. We’ve got to make health care affordable and available. The difference, again, between myself and the Democrats, and with all due respect, Mrs. Edwards, I want the families to make the choices. They want the government to make the choices. That’s a fundamental difference, and we will continue to debate that issue.
Did you catch that? "It’s a cheap shot, but I did have a period of time where I didn’t have very good government health care. I had it from another government. (LAUGHTER)"
It was an awkward laugh SB John let out with ... Like he expected everyone in the studio to fall over in hysterics, and when they didn't, he awkwardly continued with his answer.
So, that's how you're going to play there, hey, SB John?
When it gets too tough, when the questions get to hard, or (and you better get used to this), when people throw your plans back at you as idiotic, you're gonna wave the POW flag?
Are you trying to establish, that since you were a POW, you don't have to explain yourself, your policies, should the entire country go into brain freeze and actually elect you?
When Barack Obama, either on the stump, or in a debate, starts calling you out, running down your statements, punching holes in your policies, are you just going to respond in some glib, chippy manner, as you did today, and wave your POW flag?
Yeah, you got a bad deal in Vietnam - as did hundreds-of-thousands of other kids that got forced into going there ... Not to mention the 50,000-plus that didn't come home.
No doubt, you, and the RNC are going to exploit it six-ways-from-Sunday in the general election campaign, deafeningly echoed by the Right Wing Freak Show, in a blizzard of Flag Lapel Pins, but don't you dare start hiding behind it during this campaign, when it comes time to explain your policies and positions.
Back in the early 1980's, during my brief period of performing stand-up comedy, we are at a Open Mike Night, at The Comedy Store, up on Sunset Boulevard, in Hollywood, CA.
A young ventriloquist got his time on stage and up he went, with his dummy, taking a moment to move the stool and get himself situated - and placing the dummy in front of the microphone.
A small wave of titters and laughs went about the room, believing, as one could easily at the moment, that this was part of the routine ... The ventriloquist began his set, barely audible for the packed room and soon, the small titters and laughs stopped ...After a few more moments, it became clear, that the ventriloquist was keeping the dummy in front of the microphone.
Some in the crowd began shouting at him, telling him, quite directly, to move the microphone, to use the microphone ...He continued, through the seemingly never-ending five-minutes without moving the dummy away from the microphone
While we, and others touched on it, it really is colossal, that the overarching goal of the Bush Grindhouse, and the likes to Torie Clarke and Rumsfeld, wasn't that welfare of the soldiers being sent into this blunder (or the lives of the innocent Iraqi citizens), but whether or not they could control the message, control the media.
That was what was most paramount.
Hell, they planned (and executed) on which military man would speak on which network, and give this message or that message, better than anything they planned on the ground in Iraq.
They were more upset of a General speaking out-of-turn, speaking truth, than whether-or-not our soldiers were safe, that they had the proper training, equipment and armor.
Much like a bevy of other Bush Cronies, they simply were looking to cash-in on it. Larisa Alexandrovna, on her blog At-Largely, has a good post, in which she offers clear vision;
"An excellent article in the NYT today illustrates our continued march toward the marriage of corporate and state interests, otherwise known as fascism ..."
"But to get you started, a few points to keep in mind:
-- The article has at least three tracks: One, the Pentagon deploying the analysts (some 75 in number) and the TV outlets happy to run with them; two, the analysts' further conflict-of-interest in being tied to defense contractors with billions of dollars invested in the war effort; three, the complete lack of interest by the TV outlets in either of the first two connections, or ignoring what they did know. In fact, the networks raised no objections to the Pentagon paying for trips by the analysts.
-- The effort began in "selling the war" -- going where even Judy Miller feared to tread -- and there are some startling admissions by some team members that they knew they were being sold a fairy tale on WMD, but went along with it anyway. The moral bankruptcy is truly disgusting."
No surprises here. Simply more proof that we have more to fear from our own government than we do from terrorists.
Haven't seen or heard the three major candidates weigh in on this yet.
And, likely, for at least two of them - Hillary and Obama - we won't hear anything, being it's two-days out from PA voting (and if they have the balls to call this repugnant, or such, Christ, make sure they're wearing a Flag Lapel Pin when the do it ... We don't want to further stress out Nash McCabe).
