Disqus - Latest Comments for Macan

Re: Obama Pastor Jeremiah Wright

epiphyte — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:14:56 -0000

Not my Christ - I'm an atheist. I started off as a catholic but after living long enough in Northern Ireland and the Middle East that all just kind of wore off. Left and right aren't pigeonholes I really recognize as relevant either. For what it's worth, you can tell a true believer by who he's telling you to question; if it's yourself (or a group you identify with - e.g the USA), then he's the real deal. If he's extolling you to hate someone else, then he's a rabble rouser and a fraud. Hagee's the latter, Wright might possibly be the former. What I'm looking for in a president is someone who will govern in good faith. If I had to choose on the basis of who they look to for spiritual guidance, then I think I'd go for the one who's looking to make things better, thank you very much.

Re: Obama Pastor Jeremiah Wright

Macan — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:54:16 -0000

Epiphyte...your Christ is clearly a
"see no evil (except on the Right), hear no evil (except on the Right), speak no evil (except of the Right)" liberal.

One can't, in all conscience, condemn Hagee as hateful and divisive, and yet praise Wright.

Re: Relationships are funny things…

Macan — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:56:53 -0000

kritt11 said: "Yet, he has mismanaged and abused the powers of the presidency, and recklessly disregarded the checks and balances that keep our system healthy."

I would point out that FDR - of sainted memory - was the president who attempted the most reckless overturning of the "checks and balances" of the American system in history when he attempted to expand the Supreme Court with extra justices after 1936 when the Supreme Court struck down some of his initiatives.

FDR also loved reading wiretaps on his political opponents.

Had Bush attempted anything like the sainted FDR he would be damned by the Left as a power-crazed dictator unprecedented in history.

Of course, knowing their history well, no one on the Left would ever say such a thing. :)

Re: Relationships are funny things…

Macan — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:57:30 -0000

T-Steel said: "I know for a fact that I couldn't run for POTUS. "

This is sort of OT...but an important point also.

I know I could never run for high office, given my past associations. I suspect a lot of people on TMV -- no offense, folks -- could never pass vetting.

Are all candidates thus totally homogenized? What sort of human beings do we expect to represent us?

Re: Relationships are funny things…

Macan — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:53:59 -0000

This is an excellent post.

Whether you are against or for Senator Obama...it is difficult to see behind his persona to understand who he is and what is driving him.

T-Steel's analogy is indicative of how emotionally difficult the Wright issue is for Obama.

I wonder at how much of the Black Separatist rhetoric Obama has internalized, and whether this accounts for his distancing himself from overt signs of patriotism (altho, on Olberman, the Stars and Stripes were immediately beside him...unusual for Obama, and a sign that Sen Obama's advisors are taking this issue seriously).

It may not cost him the nomination, but it certainly may the presidency.

Re: Obama Suddenly Tied With Clinton In Poll: Wright Impact?

Macan — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:17:18 -0000

Elrod...I am just saying that Senator Obama must have known about Wright and his views.

He liked the man. Perhaps he shared the views. Perhaps he didn't and just turned a blind eye.

But Senator Obama ... what I have seen of him ... is a smart man. Inexperienced, but smart.

He could not not have known...over 20 years...about Wright and his views.

I am sure Senator Clinton's agents -- such as the worthy Mr. Blumenthal -- are scrouging for video and evidence as I type. (I have too much respect for Senator Clinton's ruthlessness to place much faith in her statements).

Re: Obama Suddenly Tied With Clinton In Poll: Wright Impact?

Macan — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:07:34 -0000

Elrod said: "You believe NewsMax?"

Hahahaha...

CBS News tried to take down a sitting President of the United States on the basis of badly forged faxes from a long-time Bush-hater.

But to "get" an individual of Obama's stature, nothing short of time-stamped video of Senator Obama front and centre during a Wright sermon about "Whites, Jews and AIDSs: The Real Story" ... certified by a rabbi, a cardinal, and a mullah...with DNA evidence of Senator Obama on the tape...along with his finger prints...and notarized by 5 Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...will suffice!!!

Re: Obama Suddenly Tied With Clinton In Poll: Wright Impact?

Macan — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:25:53 -0000

Domajot, Senator Obama can't distance himself from the church because it is his church.

As noted by Newsmax, on July 22 last year Senator Obama sat and nodded in the pew while Wright denounced "white arrogance" and the "United States of White America."

"Wright's strong sentiments were echoed in the Sunday morning service attended by NewsMax.
Wright laced into America's establishment, blaming the "white arrogance" of America's Caucasian majority for the woes of the world, especially the oppression suffered by blacks. To underscore the point he refers to the country as the "United States of White America." Many in the congregation, including Obama, nodded in apparent agreement as these statements were made."

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/20...

Re: Will Glib Be Good Enough?

Macan — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:30:33 -0000

Elrod...

I agree. Obama has never said anything racist and wacko like Wright. That's why this is not fatal.

But Wright is VERY close to the candidate. Plus, the videos are dramatic, and the media love drama.

To give Senator Obama his due...he is handling this as well as can be expected. But we both know we have not seen the last of those videos.

Re: Will Glib Be Good Enough?

Macan — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:32:43 -0000

elrod — "Casual, The question is: what sticks?"

The dramatic moment that defines a candidate.

The Gift, as Karl Rove called Kerry's: "I was for it before I was against it."

Or George Bush Sr's famous last words.: "Read my lips...No! New! Taxes!"

As Bush Sr. comment illustrates, it does not matter how far off is the election.

"Goddamn the United States of America...the U.S. of KKK!" does have that dramatic impact that media love.

As many have noted, Wright is no mere endorsement like Hagee. Wright has been central in Senator Obama's life for two decades.

The Democrats might request that the GE be fought on the issues, and politics of "Guilt by Association" be put into the past (the DNC canning their planned commercial clips of McCain with Hagee and Bush to the Memory Hole to maintain this new politics of virtue) but the surrogates and 527s are going to hammer Senator Obama on this.

Short of evidence of personal misconduct, this is as bad as it gets.

Re: Will Glib Be Good Enough?

Macan — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 09:26:40 -0000

Yes, glib is one interpretation. Equivocate is another, and that is what Senator Obama is doing.

So he did not "hear" Wright's "Goddam the U. S. of KKK" speeches...perhaps he and Michelle made sure to exit the church before the "rough" sermons started?

But did he actually "know" of these speeches? Senator Obama is careful to never say this. He is equivocating.

There were a lot of people in those congregations in those videos, and none of them looked surprised at what they were hearing. Obama knew nothing of this?

Democrats and leftists used to mock President Reagan viciously for years for not remembering associates etc.

Turned out: Reagan had Alzheimer's.

What is Senator Obama's excuse?

Re: Notes From a Black Pastor

Macan — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:53:22 -0000

Dennis, thank you for the link to Booker Rising. I thought the comment in response to Shay was interesting:

"My problem with the "God damn America" mentality is not just that it is anti-American; it is profoundly un-Christian. Even if Senator Obama chose to ignore the politics of Rev. Wright's sermons (or if, as the Senator seems be claiming, he did not see them as particularly political to begin with), the spiritual poison from Trinity United's leader should have been self-evident (as it was to your Grandma), and reason enough to find another church at which to worship."

Re: Notes From a Black Pastor

Macan — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:43:34 -0000

Obama has been attending this church, and has known this pastor, for over twenty years...and only NOW is he aware of Wright's history of anti-Semitic, anti-American rhetoric?

Much like Obama had been Tony Rezko's friend for years, and took his money, even bought real estate with him...without ever picking up a newspaper to read of Rezko's shady dealings (that the Chicago press have covered for years)...and only NOW is he aware of these troublesome stories.

Poor Senator Obama...how many more times in the campaign will he be profess to be "Shocked, Shocked" by what was going on all around him for years?

Re: Much ado about Jeremiah Wright

Macan — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:11:55 -0000

ChrisWWW said: "Damn. I'm always forgetting that two wrongs make a right. "

Not that two wrongs make a right. That Michael Stickings represented the A-Bomb attacks as unequivocally wrong ("The truth hurts"). As something everyone knows.

I noted that this is actually not the case, and this is a controversial event in history.

I willingly concede that the United States is an imperial power, that has done very bad things. But in comparison with everything else on offer, the United States has done remarkably well.

However, those who assume the US to always be unequivocally wrong...ChrisWWW...are those like yourself, whose first instinct is to blame the United States for every problem in the world, to mock those who try to defend it etc.

As you have been defending Obama to the hilt, I know you know of the ambivalence I reference: his disdain for open displays of patriotism, his wife's comments about pride in America.

Contra Michael Stickings...it is Obama who has gotten a "pass" from the media for months.

Will he actually answer hard questions about Wright...or run away after eight blistering, unfair, cruel questions like those asked of him re. Rezko by those evil female reporters for the Chicago press?

Re: Much ado about Jeremiah Wright

Macan — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:18:16 -0000

The bias in Michael Stickings post is evident from the outset. Namely, his agreement with Wright re: A-bombs and Japan:

"Like it or not — and the truth hurts — the U.S. did drop atomic bombs on Japan, killing tens of thousands..."

Stickings is representing the US -- unequivocally -- (i.e., "the truth") as the bad guy here. This is actually one of the most controversial events in recent history, and the balance of historiography has tended to support Truman's decision. The US was not an evil aggressor in bombing Japan.

This was after notable atrocities such as the Rape of Nanking...the Bataan Death March etc. which left-wingers such as Wright (or Stickings) tend to gloss over in criticizing the A-bomb decision.

After reading the initial paragraph, it comes as no surprise that the rest of the post is a defense of Obama...and a smear of McCain.

Hagee said some anti-Catholic and anti-gay comments. Heck, Obama didn't even want his picture taken with the Mayor Newsom of San Francisco for fear of being associated with gay marriage.

As JJH notes, Wright is far, far closer to Obama than his Hagee to McCain.

Plus, McCain does not have a history of anti-Catholic comments this connection feeds into.

Obama does have a history of ambivalence towards America - cf. Michelle Obama's comments - with incidents innocuous in themselves, but feeding into a larger image.

Re: Obama presidency would be cause for jubilation among which Muslims?

Macan — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:46:16 -0000

HappySurge...

True enough, Bin Laden is alive...and Pakistan is teetering on the brink of collapse as it always seems to do.

My point was to critique the view that Islamic radicals love Bush.

Mind you, I don't think they prefer Obama either (King's comment was, alas, the kind of surrogate crap we can look forward to in this election...like Gloria Steinem's mocking McCain's POW years the other day).

Their war is with America, and what it symbolizes. Folks seem to have forgotten that Bin Laden originally plotted 9-11 under Clinton.

I am sure they would prefer a more restful life...with less threat from Predators and Special Forces etc. Maybe Obama would offer them this...maybe not.

But the Civil War in Islam will not end with the departure of Bush. I remember well the happy chanting mobs across the Muslim world in the days after 9-11
(I especially recall "Evil Bert" in those posters with bin Laden...anyone else remember that?).

But, thanks to Bush I would argue, we have not seen those happy raging radical mobs in a long time.

Re: Obama presidency would be cause for jubilation among which Muslims?

Macan — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:01:26 -0000

Ah, those halcyon days before the coming of the Evil Bush...Cursed be his Name Forever... when the Muslim ummah was moderation itself.

In those days, few were the Islamic radicals, who lived in fear as they ruled entire nations such as Afghanistan.

And the radicals rejoiced as the Evil Bush drove them into caves and the pleasure palaces of Tribal Pakistan, for here is where they wanted to be all along.

And the radicals rejoiced as Bush killed them in great numbers, with his robot planes bombing them from on high.

And so is it that today they long for another, greater and more Evil One than Bush, who will drive them deeper into the caves, for it is only there that they are happy.

And truly, they curse the apostate Obama, and any who offer them peace and return to the power they once wielded...for they curse power and long for the splendour of the caves to which the Evil One (whom they truly love) has consigned them.

Re: The Two-Party Mass O’ Junk: My Hope!

Macan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:39:53 -0000

T-Steel...I would beg you to reconsider.

I was reading a couple of biographies of Winston Churchill recently (Manchester's "The Last Lion"). Churchill was one of the great inspirational politicians of modern history...but he had to fight in the trenches against much pettiness and viciousness.

He could give as good as he got too. That is the nature of politics.

There is nothing to be gotten in this life without struggle. It is the struggle that defines us...and the titans endured incredible struggles.

I would argue that we have it easy today, in contrast to the past. Recently I was watching a program on the Civil Rights movement...and marchers in linked arms walking forward into a cannon of water...and then police whacking them with clubs.

Yet, one can see those images, and then read King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and be startled by the careful reason of his words...and its contrast to the appalling events in the society around him.

Could I have done the same...or retained moderation in the face of brutal racism and oppression? I wonder....

It is a messy, hard business...no doubt...but one should not resign the field when one can actively contribute to make the world better with one's voice...as you can.

Re: Obama Aide Resigns After Calling Hillary Clinton “A Monster”

Macan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:12:52 -0000

Pacatrue...your point about "academia is one of the few places of prestige that a person can rail tirelessly against something without getting fired" is a central point here, I think.

I was not making a point about academic liberalism so much as academia in general (having spent years in it myself). It is a sheltered environment. Clinton's folks are streetwise, in a way Power clearly wasn't.

For example, Power has made bizarro comments before...as at Berkeley where she suggested US military action in Palestine to create a Palestinian state against Israel.

As you note...people can do and say all kinds of things in academe -- unless it is not politically incorrect, of course, which consigns one to damnation -- and as long as you have tenure you are protected.

As Jillmz notes, as someone with journalistic experience, a figure in the political sphere/public eye should know better. Obama does not need "own goals".

Re: Continuing Our Hypocrisy Friday Theme . . .

Macan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:15:24 -0000

Shaun, once again your partisanship has blinded yourself to the beauty of Clinton's smear of Obama:

Comparing Clinton to a "monster" is something every voter hears.

Comparing Obama to Ken Starr is like a "Democratic Dog Whistle" ... it is something only activist Democrats would bark at.

Obama's advisor clumsily lashed out...Clinton's advisor artfully slipped the shiv in under the rib cage.

Clinton is not selling herself as a Saint...but as a Survivor. Googling Clinton+Hypocrite would probably crash my browser. No one cares.

It is Obama who is desperately trying to maintain the increasingly tarnished illusion that he is anything more than a jumped up Chicago pol with a smooth line covering a thin resume.

Re: Hypocrisy...to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca":

I don't mind a hypocrite. I object to a cut-rate one.

Re: Obama Aide Resigns After Calling Hillary Clinton “A Monster”

Macan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:30:33 -0000

I gather Power was no ordinary advisor, but very close to Obama...Condi Rice to Obama's Bush. This was a major hit...and, significantly, a self-inflicted one.

An important point here is that this will contribute to the view...among the party establishment...that the Obama movement is "not ready for prime time".

It was a freshman mistake.

Can you imagine the body blow to the Democrats in October...say Obama were the nominee...and one of his key advisors from academia (where smug sneers at the GOP and "war heroes" are, after all, de rigueur)... made a mocking crack about McCain being a "hero" and tortured in the Hanoi Hilton.

The GOP is holding sessions for its officials on Message Discipline, on issues of race and gender.

Will the Obama team get the message?

Re: Ohmygawd! Where’s His Flag Lapel Pin?

Macan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:13:32 -0000

Shaun...The trend of the comments seemed to be towards "Gloria Steinem land"...and the snarking that is rife regarding McCain's record on the left side of the blogosphere.

I thought CasualObserver's response was a pretty effective firewall.

On your other point...
It is undeniable that Obama has a weakness on this point that he needs to address...and probably more against Clinton than McCain.

Think about it: If she is willing to have surrogates mock McCain for his record...while carefully keeping her fingers clean...what is she going to do to Obama before this is over?

She is incredible.

Re: Iraq: An Artist’s Idea Of Remembering Forgotten Soldiers

Macan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:58:09 -0000

SWARAAJ.... This is an interesting post. Particularly for how, if one reads the sub-text of the article, one catches glimpses of the appalling attitudes/treatment British soldiers are facing upon returning home.

The British media lately noted increasing attacks on soldiers in uniform by drunken yobs (NOTE: not by angy Muslim activists...just drunken British hooligans).

In parts of the country, British soldiers are barred from wearing their uniforms in public...for the first time since the IRA ceasefire.

A sad state of affairs. New Labour's anti-military prejudices have trickled down.

An interesting post. But in many ways, very sad...and probably too late.

Re: Ohmygawd! Where’s His Flag Lapel Pin?

Macan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:37:28 -0000

Heh-heh...Shaun, Dave, George and Elrod...you were just pwned!

And SERIOUS PWNAGE!!!

CasualObserver said:

elrod —19 minutes ago
It's tattooed on him.

Yes, I guess it is..........

After he regained consciousness, a mob gathered around him, spat on him, kicked him and stripped him of his clothing. Others crushed his shoulder with the butt of a rifle and bayoneted him in his left foot and abdominal area....His injuries to this day have left him incapable of raising his arms above his head."

I don't think I have read a more devastating reply EVER at TMV!

Re: Terrorists Murder Students; Gazans Celebrate

Macan — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:01:59 -0000

DLS said: "Macan -- he probably discovered the problem when the Saudis said it was a problem."

Heh. Yah, I didn't want to be one of the -- "Not a sparrow falls from the tree but that it is the fault of Bushitlerchimpy" -- but it is a sad waster that he never paid much attention to that file until now.

Interesting points folks have raised here, though...proceeding from Holly's rather draconian solution.

It is also worth noting that Palestinian society is also becoming more radically Islamic. Last year I made the acquaintance of a Palestinian Christian family who had been dispossessed...not by the "evil, vicious, monstrous" Jews...but by the terror of Islamic gangs. I gather towns like Bethlehem -- that once had a large Christian population -- are now almost entirely Muslim.