Wonkette
After this spring’s “God Damn America” ugliness, Barack Obama managed somehow, amazingly, to keep his former pastor stuffed away in a spider hole for the next what, six months? So hurrah, Reverend Jeremiah Wright has surfaced once again to complain that the media quoted his sermons out of context. While this is true, it will be entertaining to see how the media now takes his complaints out of context.
In a panel discussion in Hartford, Connecticut last night, Wright said:
The world doesn’t know about my 41 years of ministry, or my writing of books, because it was all taken down to a 10-second sound bite that the media chose to show about a sermon that was delivered seven years ago. The media didn’t care about the whole sermon and what it was about. They just used those 10 seconds and used it as a weapon of mass destruction against [Obama's] campaign.
He also told people not to wet their knickers with joy over the end of racism, because “If you take a Tiger Woods, a Michael Jordan or a Barack Obama, their success should not lull us into thinking society has changed.” This guy is a total buzzkill.
Obama’s Former Pastor, Jeremiah Wright, Discusses Race, Religion [Hartford Courant]
So Bayview, Hunter’s Point and the Tenderloin haven’t MAGICALLY disappeared? I thought Barry’s unicorn would gather up all of teh darks that live in poverty and drop them in Greenwich, CT. That would be a site for sore eyes.
Oh and Barack Obama= Michael Jordon. Sure.
Obama’s bus is the least effective bus that anyone was ever thrown under.
However, he is quick to claim his 10% of increased dashiki sales.
I’d like it if Rev. Wright converted to Islam like a normal person would.
what about Will Smith? Teh whites love that guy. He has big ears too! HaHa.
I bet there were a lot of Republicans that were saying ‘Goddamn America!’ on Tuesday night.
“How a country sees God determines how they see humans,” Wright said.
That’s ridiculous. I don’t see humans as made up projections of my own insecurities. Oh, wait.
shortsshortsshorts: The unicorn may be gone, but the rainbow of marshmallowy-fruity flavors remain.
I look forward to him leading the nation in prayer on Inauguration Day right before William Ayers swears in Hopey.
Deepthroat: Wil Smith’s big ears are good handels to hold onto when he is servicing you.
America’s mistrust of grandstanding pastors is legendary, isn’t it?
shortsshortsshorts: Michael Jordan only wishes he had Barry’s outside jumpshot.
stolichnayaaa: These electric vehicles just don’t have enough horsepower!
Like Bill Mahr a few years back, Rev. Wright had the misfortune of being absolutely correct at an inopportune time. No prophet is ever appreciated in his own country.
Whitey will soon feel the bootheel of oppression. Burn baby burn.
Cape Clod: Amen.
WagTehGod: Ayers for head of Homeland Security, just to inflame the Repugs political hemorrhoids.
Reverend “It’s All About Me” Wright should form a support group with Sarah P. and Joe the Fake Plumber. They won’t be mistreated by the media for much longer.
Wright, Ayers and Khalidi were basically transformed into caricatures of absolute evil by the GOP and McCain’s campaign. Unfortunately the media is pretty craven when it comes to these things and accusations of disloyalty and not loving America enough, so I really don’t expect these thee to see much in terms of rehabilitation. It’s a real shame, given that the totally plastic, totally manufactured, total lie that is “Joe the ‘Plumber’” could very well engineer his 15 minutes of fame into a permanent presence on the right-wing turd circuit. It’s a crime that guys like Oliver North and G. Gordon Liddy milk their criminal pasts for fun and profit in right-wing radioland, while guys like Wright, Ayers, and Khalidi are permanently demonized because they made easy targets for the right-wing smear machine.
X-Clan never went double platinum, that’s all the proof I need that the Rev. is right.
S.Luggo: And maybe a requirement that we give terrorist fist jabs after the anthem instead of holding our hand over our hearts.
This guy is a total buzzkill.
Well, that is a Christian pastor’s job.
Serolf Divad: True that. And what happened to Khalidi is, 100% snark-free, a disaster. There is no more reasonable articulate Palestinian voice. Just the fact he is not the “Palestinian of choice” (i.e., on the take for his own personal gain) typifies the ongoing problem. Americans just don’t get why they “can’t be like us”, etc.
Of course we will see if he is rehabilitated to some degreee. Jaysus, if they think an academic like Khalidi is off the wall, they should come to Dearborn, MI. Hopefully Rahm has half a brain left from the kibbutz not to know Khalidi-haters are full of shite.
Serolf Divad: Wright, Ayers and Khalidi should form a band. They could call it WAK.
(I kid. I totally agree with your point.)
Why do I feel awkward in understanding what Rev. Wright said as the polemic argument that he intended it to be? Is it wrong for me to think that his statement from the pulpit actually rang true?
I have wondered that the whole time it’s been on camera… and I still think that his opinion, however misconstrued, may still be valid.
And to think that Sarah Palin is a Christian, but I’d rather go to church with Rev. Wright. That’s just fucking weird.
Cape Clod:
Heh.
Serolf Divad: hey, don’t forget Larry Craig, who stayed on as a Senator, and Stevens, who has apparently been reelected. Convictions for actual crimes don’t matter if you are a privileged white guy. In fact, they qualify you to be Senator!
Serolf Divad: Hey, at least McCain held off on Michelle, and tried not to use the Wright nonsense as part of his campaign… of course, now that he’s lost, the right will take that as proof that even minimal standards of decency are incompatible with electoral victory. National Review and their ilk will be attacking Michelle non-stop for the next four years, and I am sure they will set their sights on Malia and Sasha soon after if Obama is re-elected.
God, these people are loathsome.
Fly-over Correspondent: amen.
ironyisoverrated: “To the East Blackwards, sissy!!”
Even in context, the guy is a douchebag.
jagorev: NPR played a clip of Fat Ass Limbaugh ranting about McCain’s concession speech. Basically, McCain is a bleeping wimp, there is no way we will ever work with these liberal scum suckers, Obama is the anti-Christ, and you cannot work with the anti-Christ, etc. He was whipping his audience into a frenzy over how despicable McCain was to urge unity and conciliation. It was depressing.
SayItWithWookies: Well played!
Cape Clod: So true…and still believe they are patriots.
Serolf Divad:
Yes because the wild rants of a pastor is the equivalent of selling/giving the Iranians TOW missiles and F-4 Phantom Parts and accidentally ratting out the DEA’s mole in the Cali Cocaine cartel to the Cali Cartel (yes, Ollie did all that.)
Doglessliberal: And this is why we need to be merciless, and why Rahm Emanuel was such a great pick. Face it: Republicans aren’t going to “work with” the White House over the next four years. They will do everything they can to undermine the President and damage and divide the country even more. These scumbags have only been temporarily defeated, and still need to be destroyed. Tuesday was a good start, that’s all.
Doglessliberal: Gotta love those folks. When Obama says he’s going to be president of the Americans who didn’t vote for him as much as those who did, their response is “Oh, yeah? Watch us.”
I’m imagining a day about eight years from now, when America is running a budget surplus, we all have jobs, we’re not fighting in Iraq, and we’ve made great progress in fighting al-Qaida and reining in nations that were causes of nuclear proliferation. And Limbaugh and Co. will be going on and on about how Barack Obama has just ruined this country. Makes me smile every time.
WagTehGod: On the Koran?
Chicken Smack: Kirbyjon Caldwell, the minister who married Jenna Bush, concurs. Taken in context, it was a completely reasonable thing to say…which is why the sound bite culture can eat a wheelbarrow of dicks.
What? Just because they boiled the life of a guy who was a marine, cardiopulmonary tech and minister who spent 40 years caring for a poor neighborhood down to a three-second soundbite and played it endlessly for months? Some people are so sensitive.
He is well-named, hence ‘jeremiad’ - def: a prolonged lamentation or complaint
Speaking of annoying religious people (bad segue, but hey…), go here: http://liebermanmustgo.com/
Trust me, it will make you feel good.
gurukalehuru: Don’t forget JOe the plumber and Barack’s aunt. Then, you get WAK JOB.
jagorev: The “whitey” and African Press International tapes will be released any minute now! THEN the ‘Murican people will know what a radical Michelle really is…
Really though, I remember some of the really loathesome stuff the right’s talk heroes said about Chelsea while Bill Clinton was still in office. Limbaugh especially never hesitated to ridicule her. Meanwhile, any mention of Palin’s family was proof of the left’s sleazy orientation, even when the discussion was linked purely to Palin’s stances on related social policy. It’s really the hypocrisy that gets to me.
Tra: I know for real! They were so unfair to this sweet old crazy man. I like his ranting and he sounds like a great guy– It’s not fair that he’s been made in to this horrible symbol.
Tell ‘em Rev.!
jagorev:
Yup, I agree. Walnuts managed to preserve a shred of decency, despite the fact that he condoned a lot of slimy shit at the same time. I give him credit for the “Wright is off limits bit.” I guess I’ll give him credit for not going after Michelle, too, though in that case you’ve got to keep in mind that Cindy had some pretty damaging skeletons in her closet that Obama could have thrown back at McCain if the race started focusing on candidate wives.
And oh, yeah, I guarantee you that there are a lot, a lot of African Americans that finally for the first time felt proud of their country the night that Obama was elected president. That legions of white Daughters of the American Revolution could be shocked, shocked that an African American might not feel as proud of the country that shat on their ancestors and still treats them as balls of turd in many cases, as a middle class white suburban girl just helps illustrate how it is that segregation was possible in this country in the first place. Conservatives have never been capable of empathy for anyone outside their tea circle.
stew: Then you will feel better after seeing the media itself. Here is a drunk Brit journalist caught plagiarizing the BBC and in general being a drunken idiot:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5105475.ece
jagorev: “God, these people are loathsome.”
In the final three days of the campaign I found five “Jeremiah Wright” ads cross posted to You Tube with different ‘Paid for by … not supported by a candidate or canditates campaign.’ tags. Three of the five tags were Political Party Groups groups which are part of the McCain-Palin Victory 2008 which describes itself as “McCain-Palin Victory 2008 is a joint fundraising committee by the McCain-Palin Compliance Fund, Republican National Committee, and Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Pennsylvania Republican Parties.”
Thus, it is a considerable guise that the three orgainizations party organizations are not McCain Campaign groups. In other words, McCain kept his promise he would not use Jeremiah Wright, loop holes he created in the McCain/Fiengold Campaign Finance Act used Jeremiah Wright.
It’s simpler if everyone agrees to pretend not to understand what’s being said and just listens for “We’re the greatest,” the only acceptable rhetorical language. It streamlines the whole what-is-this-guy-saying? process.
Fly-over Correspondent: My 68 year old white aunt called me when this went down last spring, and said, “What are people so upset about? He’s right.”
(If you were being sarcastic, whoops.)
Larry Fine: Is that you, Tom Cruise?
Serolf Divad:
“Conservatives have never been capable of empathy for anyone outside their tea circle.”
Within the tea circle, empathy is extended only to people who are somehow useful.
Fly-over Correspondent: No question. Well said. And no one ever bothers to note that the sermon was the first Sunday after 9/11.
GOD BLESS AMERICA? NO NO NO! I say God damn ALASKA for (probably, through vote fraud) re-electing that flaming felonious turdbucket, Ted Stevens.
I encourage everyone to send five bucks to the Alaska Independence Party.
I have to admit that there have been times when i shared the sentiments of the rev, i think the only differences are that i dont personallyt know pres-elect obama and when i held my rants they werent videotaped and they were from my couch not the pulpit of a huge church. that being said im glad they didnt try to use my WORDS against obama i would feel bad if my WORDS had cost him the election.
Deep Throat:
Many agree, re: Will Smith
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/36484
ironyisoverrated: I plan to commit to either a $10 donation or 30 mins. of volunteer/organizing time for the Democratic party every time a mouthbreather attacks the Obama girls or Michelle (yeah, $10/30 mins. doesn’t seem like much of a retaliation, but I suspect there will be sufficient volume for this to add up to a huge commitment)
shortsshortsshorts: Well, he dunked over both the Clintons and the RNC in the same game.
With only 1 post an hour today, I’m actually getting some work done. This is great.
Serolf Divad: Little cups of tea for some, waterboarding for others!
I don’t know about you, but it was the torture thing that finally destroyed any sympathy or understanding I had for Republicans. They are subhuman little turds and need to kept far, far away from the centers of power. In a sane world, everyone complicit with the Bush administration’s torture policy would be tried for war crimes and hanged.
Serolf Divad: Conservatives don’t really do empathy. Remember the retrograde nimrod (Kit Bond) who introduced Palin at a Missouri rally attacking Obama for feeling judges should empathize with “the gay”.
Apparently, empathizing with “the gay” totally = Obama will pass legislation mandating that straight men will be required to fellate -teh queers- on command. Because it absolutely couldn’t have anything to do with being treated like a second class citizen, not being able to marry the person you love, not having parental rights, and being tormented anywhere you go in “real America”.
jagorev: Exactly. Let them howl all they want while they are crushed on the wheel of the new agenda. The Dems have to get tough and cut the nuts off of the right wing.
The Jeremiah Wrights, Charlie Rangels, Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of the world are sputtering into irrelevance as a generation decides it relates more to Miles Davis than Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
Tommy Says Soooo: An amusing drunk who resigns from his job via youtube. There will always be an England.
ManchuCandidate: Jolly Ollie did all that, and much more beside. Like, oh, financing the illegal wars in Central America with cocaine money…
Doglessliberal: Malkin’s webtube is dripping, so to speak, similar rants, i.e. we must return to “core” vales, no compromise, the Jews were responsible for Germany’s economic downfall after WWI, blah, blah, blah.
ironyisoverrated:
Actually, I suspect that in many parts of the country “Barack Obama does not believe that gays should be stripped naked, slathered in pitch, set on fire and repeatedly lanced with pitchforks as they writhe in pain while their partner watches, awaiting his turn” would make an effective attack ad (paid for by the Family Research Council).
SayItWithWookies: HAHAHAHA right the hell on, yo!
Chicken Smack: After the who manufactured hullabaloo about Wright I read a complete transcript of the sermon and thought to myself “but everthing he said is true!” which, no doubt, is why it was excoriated. Truth that is contrary to the myth of American perfection (move over Jesus) is unpatriotic.
He mocked my clapping.
I do not forgive that easily.
monty: …when i held my rants they weren’t videotaped and they were from my couch not the pulpit of a huge church
Don’t worry; you sound like a smart guy. In America, that means you’re a PhD in fundamentalist Christianity and Methodist Theology away from being a big enough douche to reign over your own ostentatious house of worship/politicking.
shortsshortsshorts: The Western Addition will set a new standard for racial harmony.
Hmm, I’m still trying to figure out just what Rev. Jeremiah Wright said that was so WRONG? Is someone trying to tell me that Africans cheerfully came over to America in the dark and filthy cargo holds of ships with those “decorative” chains around their necks–oh wait, they were setting the trend for the rappers. I guess the Native Americans got bored having all that land and all those buffalos to themselves and decided “hey, let the white guys take over”. And the HIV/AIDS thing–I heard that same sentiment expressed by some in the gay community during the height of the AIDS crisis. Not to mention, there was that pesky little incident–the Tuskeegee Experiment back in the day. So again, someone tell me just why Rev. Wright, a Vietnam vet and a member of the team that saved LBJ’s life who couldn’t get a cab on the day that MLK was shot, shouldn’t be angry. I’m WAITING…
I am pro-Wright. There, I said it.
Didn’t he do that press conference at the National Press Club all by himself? I don’t think he can blame the media for that.
And, I’m pretty sure he knew Obama was running for President at the time…
Sorry, no sympathy here.
I could never figure what the fuss was about. I am a 43 yr. old white woman, who lives in a small town in NY and I basically agreed with him. When I would get into heated arguments with republicans, I asked them what exactly was so horrible about that sermon, and they would just stare back at me.
Speaking of controversial pastors, did anyone catch Rev. Pat Robertson at the end of Larry King two nights ago? He actually said that Barack Obama could be one of the best presidents EVER. Seriously. I nearly shit myself.
Chris Rock Bigger & Blacker:
Nothing more racist than a old black man, you know why? ‘Cause the old black man went through some real racism. He ain’t go through that “I can’t get a cab” shit. He was the cab! White man just jump on his back: “Main Street!”
Deepthroat: Hey, he’s even converted to Scientology too. How white is that?
wheelie: That was comedy (and his JFK impersonation.) Deliciously bad theater. You know Rev. Wright, you are not supposed to JUST preach to the choir? Miss that day in theology school?
funkyj: “After the who manufactured hullabaloo about Wright I read a complete transcript of the sermon and thought to myself “but everthing he said is true!” which, no doubt, is why it was excoriated. Truth that is contrary to the myth of American perfection (move over Jesus) is unpatriotic.”
To question predestination is unAmerican.
Deepthroat: Hey, he’s even converted to Scientology too. How white is that?
I’ve been in touch with a number of foreign friends/colleagues, mostly Latin Americans, and their collective response has essentially been an alternatively punctuated Wright-ism:
God Damn! America?
Following by much gleeful head shaking.
jagorev: I’m afraid that I agree about the Rs. I hope that Rush, Sarah, and Joe the Fake Plumber become the face of the Republican party. Marginalize them as far out of the mainstream as possible.
Since I live in a place where Ds never win, I’m going to tell all the people I meet that, now the Dems control the WH and the congress, maternity wards will become abortion clinics; they have to give up their guns; male/female couples will only be allowed to register at Walmart and gay couples will get all the nice stores (oops–I forgot. Couples around here already register at Walmart); churches will be converted into mosques; ROTC will be converted into muslim terrorist training.
Basically, they won’t care because Hopey is the anti-Christ and the end times are about to begin.
He’s an asshole, sure, but he’s got a point. Unfortunately, like most points he’ll make in his lifetime, no one will give two shits about it because he’s such a prick.
persiflage: Black people who do not happen to be Barack Obama did not just disappear and become obsolete on November 4th. That’s like saying all white people are like Bill Clinton. Black people don’t have to choose one leader at a time. We are entitled to as many leaders as we like, just like white people. The fact that you don’t know that the black men you listed each represents a unique perspective indicates that you’re an “all black people are alike unless I like them. Then they’re real different and special-like.” Please tell me you’re not one of those people who thinks voting for Barack Obama means you get to tell other black people to shut up?
shortsshortsshorts: The Darks? Is this the 1800s? The fucking darks?
Deepthroat: Thanks for saying “The Whites” so that white people can start to hear how stupid they sound when they say “the darks” and “the blacks.”
Damn! Reading internet comments is totally ruining my election buzz.
invisible: I didn’t say obsolete, I said irrelevant…not because of their messages, but because their styles suddenly seem tired. For the moment, at least, it would seem the nation has lost its appetite for firebrands.
The remainder of your gross generalizations are your problem, not mine.