OG pointed me to this post doing what I love, summing up some frustrating bullshit with a great graphic that sums it all up quite nicely. Of course most of us have been frustrated not just by the domination of the media's discussion of Obama being JUST about Wright, but also how McCain simply gets a pass for the cuckoo christians he associates with, so I thought I'd go through some of what his birds say, along with Wright's comments, and a little bit of a trip down memory lane to see how cuckoo christians of the pass have said some crazy shit. Of course we have to remember that for all but one man, you can associate with cuckoos and still fly over them to soar to illustrious political heights. In fact, they often are the wind under their sails, but for Obama, his cuckoo is a lead weight. Why? You've got me. See how his cuckoo compares...
Wright
"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 citizens as less than human."
"The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. And they will not only attack you if you try to point out what's going on in white America, U.S. of KKK-A"
Also called US support of South African apartheid and Israeli actions against Palestinians as "state terrorism"
Parsley
"The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion (Islam) destroyed."
"[G]ay sexuality inevitably involves brutal physical abusiveness and the unnatural imposition of alien substances into internal organs, orally and anally, that inevitably suppress the immune system and heighten susceptibility to disease"
"Islam is responsible for more pain, more bloodshed and more devastation than nearly any other force on earth at this moment."
"This so-called hate crimes bill will give preferred status to people based entirely on who they choose as a sexual partner. What if they change their mind the next night?"
“Adultery is a violation of biblical instruction... Although Michigan has adultery on the books as a felony, until recently, no one had been prosecuted under that law since 1971. The rest of the nation should take a look at the Michigan statute."
Hagee
"As a nation, America is under the curse of God, even now."
"[Gay marriage] will open the door to incest, to polygamy, and every conceivable marriage arrangement demented minds can possibly conceive. If God does not then punish America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah."
"I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are -- were recipients of the judgment of God for that... And I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans."
"Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews"
"Only a Spirit-filled woman can submit to her husband's lead. It is the natural desire of a woman to lead through feminine manipulation of the man...Fallen women will try to dominate the marriage. The man has the God-given role to be the loving leader of the home."
"Catholicism is the Great Whore"
"Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone... Make plans to come and go home with a slave." (Ad in church newsletter for students seeking odd jobs)
"Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist"
"[T]he feminist movement today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the family."
“Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews.”
“The coming nuclear showdown with Iran is a certainty,”
“poverty is caused by sin and disobeying the Word of God... poverty is a curse.”
Robertson and Falwell
After 9/11...
Falwell - The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this,"
Robertson - "Well, yes,"
Falwell - "I really believe "that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say 'You helped this happen.'"
Billy Graham
Billy Graham? Oh yeah. He was caught on tape complaining to President Richard Nixon in 1972 that the Jewish "stranglehold" in America "has got to be broken or this country is going down the drain." He went on to say, "they swarm around me and are friendly to me," said Graham, as Nixon enthusiastically agreed, "But they don't know what I really feel about what they're doing to this country."
Well you've got me. They all seem pretty cuckoo, but only Obama can't play the "I've got a cuckoo christian" game. Of course Hilary Ratchet Clinton has been nursing this Wright thing to completely break and lobotomize Obama's campaign. 
If this really is the thing that sinks him, this Chief will be saddened by that.
2008-05-05
One Can't Fly Over The Cuckoo's Nest
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15 comments:
Oh, man, I think you've stumbled on a deep truth: Hillary is Nurse Ratched.
As far as I'm concerned: All the cuckoos compare with all the other cuckoos. There's no gradation of cuckoo.
But you're so right; the media should be going after McCain for the cuckoo feathers in his nest. Maybe the Democratic nominee will finally take him to task. But that'll be tough for either Democrat to do without having to answer their own embarrassing questions.
The difference between Obama and the others, though, is that up until recently he has been touting his pastor and his church by name. I don't think McCain ever compared John Hagee to an uncle; I don't think Hillary Clinton has been saying that Doug Coe brought her to Christianity.
By the way, this post seems to imply -- through lack of details -- that Clinton has no terrible theocratic advisers to explain. I know you didn't mean that; so how about a follow-up on her.
Like Nurse Ratchet, she's part of the cuckoo establishment:
For 15 years, Hillary Clinton has been part of a secretive religious group that seeks to bring Jesus back to Capitol Hill.
She of course doesn't have to explain her cuckoo Coe because he's like a ghost. Google him. Go on, try. Nothing that's raving mad. We'll see after the book "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power," comes out but for now, she has no crazed cuckoo in her nest that we can point to.
Wow. I just had a discussion about the Kesey book last evening with my son, who just started reading it (albeit for his English course which he's failing. Hope it brings his grade up, I sure would like to seem him graduate this June.).
Coincidence? I think not. I think you got a divine nudge there, Philly.
I think another good title would be "Who's that bundling in the Cuckoo's Nest?"
But, again, notice that all those other cuckoo clocks are white, and Obama's is black? Am I just being cynical here?
Yeah, Philly, Doug Coe is an elusive little bugger, isn't he?
I tried to get you some info on Burns Strider, who is (was?) Hillary's evangelical consultant, and there's not much of substance on him, either.
Gotta give her credit. She covers her trail.
I think I read it in high school English, too. Look on the bright side, at least his future hangs on reading that and not Jane Eyre or Ulysses. :)
And yes, of course, I forgot cuckoos have to be white. That would have saved me a lot of time with the google and the Photoshop earlier, damn it!
I read it simply because I enjoyed the movie so much back in '76. I suppose "enjoy" is a bad choice of words... but I think that's accurate.
The Cuckoos Nest is the whole country. Probably the world, but I won't be so arrogant as to speak for them. This fucking U.S.A. is nuts.
Hey, I support Obama. Does he have to distance himself from me for that comment?
I doubt that McCain will ever have to explain his nuts the way Obama does. They're old white guys spouting crap that Americans have gotten used to ignoring. Wright, OTOH, is a black guy who has said some stuff that white Americans find offensive. Whole different ballgame. Also, as Ex pointed out, the McCain-Hagee relationship has clearly been political from the get-go. The Obama-Wright relationship was much different.
Obama tried to use his religion to gain a political advantage and it backfired bigtime. He'd have been better off if he hadn't played the "I'm more religious than you are" game and kept his religion private. He wanted to use his religion to gain political points. That's a dangerous game, and it may cost him dearly.
Chappy, I've never disagreed with you more strongly. Better off if he didn't play the religious angle? How so?
A. He was forced into it by the constant fear mongering tactic of casting him as a "secret Islamic".
B. It's entirely disingenuous to suggest that he wasn't going to get linked to Wright's more outrageous statements if he had kept quiet. Why would that stop Hillary or McCain from bringing out those 10 second clips?
As far as the McCain thing - it's up to everyone, media included, to point out how fucking hypocritical it is to be worried about Obama's crazy black pastor while overlooking crazy-ass white dudes just because they spew a hatred Americans are comfortable with. And while it's true that Hagee "only" endorsed McCain (as opposed to Obama's own pastor) - McCain has Rob Parsley as his personal spiritual advisor! Obama doesn't have Wright in his campaign, nor does he call him his personal spiritual advisor.
Wake up white people! America is not above criticism and you can still love the country and admit to it's MANY mistakes. If a black guy is informing you about it - thank him for enlightening you. Much of what Wright said was dead-on, even if Obama is forced to distance himself. But I want to see McCain forced to do the same. The more we have politicians distancing themselves from crazy religious talk - the BETTER.
I think Obama has been sincere all along. He really IS a committed christian. No hype. He's also a thoughtful guy, the kind who would listen to Wright and think yeah, American policy has been pretty spotty instead of just being a a calculating politician and thinking of how "god damn America" will play to the media.
I don't feel he's a politician. He doesn't have what it takes to play that way. You can rise locally being thoughtful and sincere and dealing with issues, but on the national stage? Well there you have to wear flag pins, throw long time friends and such under buses if they may hinder your rise, be careful and calculating with your speech, smile and tell jokes, drink crappy beer with truck drivers, and don't throw gutter balls when bowling. Obama can't manage any of that and it's clear he has no fucking interest to.
And I think that's what I like best about him, even though he doesn't take his intellect to it's most logical conclusion. Or at least doesn't make it public.
I think you might be over-selling his innocence though. I think he's a bit calculating. Just way less than your typical Hillary or McCain type politician.
For instance, I wonder if the "Committed Christian" isn't a calculation. Ex will say I'm being overly optimistic, but what I say isn't about optimism. It almost pessimistic. If I'm right, it's a calculation that is many years in the making and would show designs on high office long ago.
As bad as this Wright thing is, it would be even worse had he simply declared himself an agnostic those 20 years ago. Actually, we wouldn't even be discussing Barack Obama right now if that were the case.
Just to review, Barack was raised in a basically atheist, fully secular, very liberal environment. He was that way all the way through his higher education, which typically would only reinforce that position. Suddenly as a married man in his late 20s or early 30's he feels a need to drop to his knees and worship a dead Jew. Strange, to say the least.
Wikipedia entry on Ann Dunham -
Dunham's best friend in high school has said that she "touted herself as an atheist, and it was something she'd read about and could argue."[5] In his 1995 memoir Dreams from My Father Barack Obama wrote, "My mother's confidence in needlepoint virtues depended on a faith I didn't possess... In a land [Indonesia] where fatalism remained a necessary tool for enduring hard-ship... she was a lonely witness for secular humanism, a soldier for New Deal, Peace Corps, position-paper liberalism."[16] In his 2006 book The Audacity of Hope Obama wrote, "I was not raised in a religious household... My mother's own experiences... only reinforced this inherited skepticism. Her memories of the Christians who populated her youth were not fond ones... And yet for all her professed secularism, my mother was in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I've ever known."[17] However, in 2007 Obama described his mother as "a Christian from Kansas." "I was raised by my mother", he continued. "So, I’ve always been a Christian."[18][19] Also in 2007, he said in a speech, "My mother, whose parents were nonpracticing Baptists and Methodists, was one of the most spiritual souls I ever knew. But she had a healthy skepticism of religion as an institution."[1] Maya Soetoro-Ng, when asked if her mother was an atheist, said, "I wouldn't have called her an atheist. She was an agnostic. She basically gave us all the good books—the Bible, the Hindu Upanishads and the Buddhist scripture, the Tao Te Ching—and wanted us to recognize that everyone has something beautiful to contribute."[20]
I agree with chappy. He who lives by the woo dies by the woo.
Unless your woo is electable woo, then you triumph by the woo.
It poses an interesting question though. Would a charming, beer drinking, flag pin wearing atheist trump a wooer whose woo was unsavory woo, like racist woo or magic underwear woo? Hmmmm
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