Butterfly Cauldron
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
False rumors about Obama? No, really?
So, how long did it take for the swiftboating to begin? Obama makes motions toward running for pres and look what happens -- oooh! He went to a Muslim school! A madrassa, even! Where they teach children to hate America! Little brown children, even!
(Leaving aside, of course, the fact that Obama has said publically that yes, he did attend a Muslim school when he lived overseas. He also attended several Christian schools. And he has publically claimed to be a Christian. But none of that matters, of course. Let the rumors begin! We can't have a black man in charge of the country! My, he might do something...like get us outta mess our Cowboy President has gotten us into. But I digress.)
From the CNN story:
Obama lived in Indonesia as a child, from 1967 to 1971, with his mother and stepfather and has acknowledged attending a Muslim school, but an aide said it was not a madrassa.
. . .
But reporting by CNN in Jakarta, Indonesia and Washington, D.C., shows the allegations that Obama attended a madrassa to be false. CNN dispatched Senior International Correspondent John Vause to Jakarta to investigate.
He visited the Basuki school, which Obama attended from 1969 to 1971.
"This is a public school. We don't focus on religion," Hardi Priyono, deputy headmaster of the Basuki school, told Vause. "In our daily lives, we try to respect religion, but we don't give preferential treatment."
Vause reported he saw boys and girls dressed in neat school uniforms playing outside the school, while teachers were dressed in Western-style clothes.
"I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta looking for what some are calling an Islamic madrassa ... like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Vause said on the "Situation Room" Monday. "I've been to those madrassas in Pakistan ... this school is nothing like that."
You can read the entire article here.
I'm having a moment here -- swirling thoughts about assumptions that a black man, raised in foreign countries as a child, with one parent a native of Africa cannot, in fact, be a real American. Despite the fact that he was born in this country. Despite the fact that he has served political office. Despite the fact. . .the sheer reek of prejudice is unbelievable. A dark-skinned man with a Muslim name. . .how much power he has, to strike such fear into the hearts of Good Ole Boys everywhere by doing, what? Existing? Asserting his right to run for office? Or is he so frightening because people like him? Even white people? Does that make us race traitors? Liking what we hear from the black man? And are we supposed to care that a buncha rednecks don't like us or him?
Dirty politics already. Goddess help us. We've got two more years of this.
(Leaving aside, of course, the fact that Obama has said publically that yes, he did attend a Muslim school when he lived overseas. He also attended several Christian schools. And he has publically claimed to be a Christian. But none of that matters, of course. Let the rumors begin! We can't have a black man in charge of the country! My, he might do something...like get us outta mess our Cowboy President has gotten us into. But I digress.)
From the CNN story:
Obama lived in Indonesia as a child, from 1967 to 1971, with his mother and stepfather and has acknowledged attending a Muslim school, but an aide said it was not a madrassa.
. . .
But reporting by CNN in Jakarta, Indonesia and Washington, D.C., shows the allegations that Obama attended a madrassa to be false. CNN dispatched Senior International Correspondent John Vause to Jakarta to investigate.
He visited the Basuki school, which Obama attended from 1969 to 1971.
"This is a public school. We don't focus on religion," Hardi Priyono, deputy headmaster of the Basuki school, told Vause. "In our daily lives, we try to respect religion, but we don't give preferential treatment."
Vause reported he saw boys and girls dressed in neat school uniforms playing outside the school, while teachers were dressed in Western-style clothes.
"I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta looking for what some are calling an Islamic madrassa ... like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Vause said on the "Situation Room" Monday. "I've been to those madrassas in Pakistan ... this school is nothing like that."
You can read the entire article here.
I'm having a moment here -- swirling thoughts about assumptions that a black man, raised in foreign countries as a child, with one parent a native of Africa cannot, in fact, be a real American. Despite the fact that he was born in this country. Despite the fact that he has served political office. Despite the fact. . .the sheer reek of prejudice is unbelievable. A dark-skinned man with a Muslim name. . .how much power he has, to strike such fear into the hearts of Good Ole Boys everywhere by doing, what? Existing? Asserting his right to run for office? Or is he so frightening because people like him? Even white people? Does that make us race traitors? Liking what we hear from the black man? And are we supposed to care that a buncha rednecks don't like us or him?
Dirty politics already. Goddess help us. We've got two more years of this.
5 Comments:
They asked Kennedy whether he'd have to consult the Pope. I can't think of an equivalent for a black man.
I guess they suspect black leaders wish to round up blacks for a war on whites. That's the only reason I can think of why you'd be considered to be acting against your own interest if you support a black person. It's different when it's another non-white.
I don't think I'd get the black vote if I ran for office.
But that attitude, of being afraid of what a black person would do in power, is totally about the people holding it. I mean, that fear has to come from the source of them thinking "what would /I/ do if I was in charge?" And they'd be all about keeping everyone else down, building up their wealth and fuck everyone else. (As evidenced by...oh, most every politician in history.)
So, the people who say to me 'but what would he do if he were in charge? It'd be blacks killing whites all the time!' tell me way more about themselves than anything else.
(Right. Either my comment went unfinished or simply disappeared. Attempt at recreation:)
You are so right.
It is also a strange admission that the status quo is horrible. After all, if things were okay, why would any group be so angry as to plan that kind of revenge?
Do people think Ahnold is more American than Obama? When I see his name, I read it as "Osama," and I am worried that others do as well. On the other hand, I see the word "lesbian" everywhere. There was an article about the guys who beat and robbed a journalist who diedafter being ignored in the ER, and I read the headline as "journalist's assistant" rather than "assailant."
You are awfully chatty lately, w/ the plethora of posts. Yay.
Oh, I know people read Obama as Osama. Hell, Fox had him listed as Osama in a "news" story they did. Caught hell for it, but they did it. Add to that the fact that his middle name is Hussein and well...
I know this is true, because on the bboard at the newspaper I used to work for, people are repeating this bullshit. Saying he's secretly a Muslim, trained at the most violent Muslim madrassas and wanting to be president so he can destroy us all. Which, ya know, wouldn't be possible if our current president hadn't made such a HUGE play to increase executive power. But hey, bet no one wants to point the finger where it belongs.
Although, ya know, that doesn't distract from the fact that these people are willing to believe absolutely anything negative about Obama. Why? Because he's a black man with a strange name who is a Democrat and has the ability to sway crowds. Whoohoo. Can't have that, can we?
Seriously, I'm waiting for Hillary and Obama to join up on the same ticket. Because THAT would scare the hell outta certain people.
So, my response is currently in a frozen Comments window, out of reach because it's scrolled down to word verification.
Clearly, Blogger is jealous that we haven't extended our flirting to him/her.
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