Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Cohen's "dangerous Afruhkan church" smear spreads

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion (1/22-2007 thru 12/14/2010) Donate to DU
 
bidenista Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-16-08 01:54 PM
Original message
Cohen's "dangerous Afruhkan church" smear spreads
Edited on Wed Jan-16-08 01:56 PM by bidenista
The Investor's Business Daily - wingnut garbage, but influential - has one of the trashiest retellings of Cohen's scare piece. Check out the obnoxious opener:

Obama's Church

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, January 15, 2008 4:20 PM PT



In 1991, when Obama joined the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, he pledged allegiance to something called the Black Value System, which is a code of non-Biblical ethics written by blacks, for blacks.

It encourages blacks to group together and separate from the larger American society by pooling their money, patronizing black-only businesses and backing black leaders. Such racial separatism is strangely at odds with the media's portrayal of Obama as a uniter who reaches across races.

The code also warns blacks to avoid the white "entrapment of black middle-classness," suggesting that settling for that kind of "competitive" success will rob blacks of their African identity and keep them "captive" to white culture.

In short, Obama's "unashamedly black" church preaches the politics of black nationalism. And its dashiki-wearing preacher — who married Obama and his wife and now acts as his personal spiritual adviser — is militantly Afrocentric. "We are an African people," the Rev. Jeremiah Wright reminds his flock, "and remain true to our native land, the mother continent."

Wright once traveled to Libya with black supremacist Louis Farrakhan to meet with terrorist leader Muammar Qaddafi. Last year at a Chicago gala, Wright honored his old pal Farrakhan, who's fond of calling whites "blue-eyed devils," for lifetime achievement.

It comes as little surprise then that Wright would think Israel a "racist" occupier of Palestinians, while describing the 9/11 attacks as a "wake-up call" to "white America" for ignoring the concerns of "people of color."

Wright makes the Rev. Jesse Jackson look almost moderate and patriotic. Yet this is whom Obama picked to baptize his daughters, plus to act as his "sounding board" during his presidential run.

The candidate already has heeded his church's "nonnegotiable commitment to Africa," spending an inordinate amount of his campaign time on the Kenyan crisis, for one. Obama has close family ties to Kenya, and even founded a school in his ancestral village — the Senator Obama School.

In the bloody conflict there, which already has claimed some 700 lives, Obama appears to have sided with opposition leader Raila Odinga, head of the same Luo tribe to which Obama's late Muslim father belonged.

Obama's older brother still lives there. Abongo "Roy" Obama is a Luo activist and a militant Muslim who argues that the black man must "liberate himself from the poisoning influences of European culture." He urges his younger brother to embrace his African heritage.

Beyond family politics, these ties have potential foreign policy, even national security, implications.

Odinga is a Marxist who reportedly has made a pact with a hard-line Islamic group in Kenya to establish Shariah courts throughout the country. He has also vowed to ban booze and pork and impose Muslim dress codes on women — moves favored by Obama's brother.

With al-Qaida strengthening its beachheads in Africa — from Algeria to Sudan to Somalia — the last thing the West needs is for pro-Western Kenya to fall into the hands of Islamic extremists.

Yet Obama interrupted his New Hampshire campaigning to speak by phone with Odinga, who claims to be his cousin. He did not speak with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.

Would Obama put African tribal or family interests ahead of U.S. interests?

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=285292746454291&src=ADA


If Obama gets the nom, we will need to be ready to counter stuff like this, because it looks like the Rethugs are sharpening their tools, and there's no way I'm going to watch a replay of 2004.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
NoPasaran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-16-08 01:56 PM
Response to Original message
1. Thanks for posting this obnoxious smear!
:sarcasm:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
bidenista Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-16-08 01:58 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. yeah, because ignoring the swiftboat retards for lies really worked out well in 2004, huh?
:eyes:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
NoPasaran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-16-08 02:00 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Enjoy your stay
:sarcasm:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
bidenista Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-16-08 02:01 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. thanks
It'll be easier to do so ignoring platinum-plated idiots who think sarcasm is a substitute for intelligent contributions.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
alfredo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-16-08 02:16 PM
Response to Reply #4
9. We need more Surrealist in our midst. Welcome
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
sicksicksick_N_tired Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-16-08 02:02 PM
Response to Original message
5. Who asserts this man is something other than a corporacrat? He's pushing the religion bullshit!
I've watched Cohen with great interest because there are so many characterizing him as the "liberal" one.

Yeah, right. Whatever!!!

He is a corporate media whore, another BIG cog in the monster.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
NorthernSpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-16-08 02:11 PM
Response to Original message
6. the right demands that blacks "take responsibility for their community"...
... then bashes them when they do.

They demand that blacks "take a lesson from model minorities" -- Jews and Asians. But when blacks adopt for themselves the same ethnic pride and cohesion that Jews and Asians are praised for, then the right screams bloody murder about "separatism".


So I say, No more double standards. If Jews can maintain "a non-negotiable commitment to Israel" without legitimizing hostility against themselves, the blacks can declare a non-negotiable commitment to Africa without legitimizing hostility against blacks. If taking Israel's interests to heart isn't a fair reason for excluding Jews from high office, then taking Africa's interests to heart isn't a fair reason for excluding blacks from high office.


And when anyone attempts to bait Obama with his church's promotion of ethnic pride (in America, "black" is a distinct ethnicity, whereas "white" is not), then he should put the matter in precisely these terms. Pull no punches, and accept no double standards.

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-16-08 02:12 PM
Response to Original message
7. Thanks for posting a cite for this stupid smear
Edited on Wed Jan-16-08 02:12 PM by Warpy
because I've been hearing it from shrieking wingnuts for days and none of them would admit where they got it.

And yes, he's going to have to figure out how to fight back. He'd also do well to take it as an object lesson in how fairly the GOP are willing to deal with us in a bipartisan manner.

They're not.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
BuyingThyme Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-16-08 02:15 PM
Response to Original message
8. Doe the first paragraph not imply that Blacks cannot be Christians?
You'd think they'd start off with something that doesn't give the rest of it away so fast.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
The Stranger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-16-08 02:19 PM
Response to Original message
10. Here is the smear from Richard Cohen:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402083.html

Cohen smears Obama by claiming that a minister where Obama attends Church once said something favorable of Louis Farrakhan.

And a smear like that smacks of racism of the worst kind.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Fri Apr 26th 2024, 03:32 PM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion (1/22-2007 thru 12/14/2010) Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC