Just Part of the Freak Show
April 14th, 2008 at 09:29am Mark Noonan
That is what I am, according to Harris and Vandehei:
Both men (Kerry and Gore) lost control of their public images to the right-wing freak show — that network of operatives and commentators working mostly outside of the mainstream media — and ultimately lost their elections as many voters came to see them as elitist, out-of-touch, phony, and even unpatriotic.
Obama is a much less familiar figure than Kerry or Gore, with a life story that is far more exotic, who is coming out of a political milieu in Chicago politics that is far more liberal.
The freak show has already signaled its early lines of attack on Obama. Polls show a significant percentage of Americans believe — falsely — that he is a Muslim. Voter interviews reveal widespread unease with minor and seemingly irrelevant questions like why he does not favor American flag pins on his lapel. Nor have we heard the last about Wright and his fulminations.
Here will be the real kitchen sink: every damaging comment or association from Obama’s past, mixed together with innuendo and downright fiction, to portray him as an an exotic character of uncertain values and weak patriotism.
I didn’t realise that we freaks out here had convinced a lot of Americans to hold the view that Obama is Moslem…couldn’t possibly be the mere name - Barack Hussein Obama - having anything to do with this misconception, now could it? Lots of people have all sorts of misconceptions about things without some nefarious freak show convincing people to believe…but according to Harris and Vandehei, we freaks have done this.
And I also didn’t realise that we freaks had done all that to Gore and Kerry. If we were out there convincing people that Kerry and Gore were both phony, out of touch elites, then we were must being redundant. I tend to think that anyone listening to either man for more than five minutes figures this out without any help from the freak show.
What this is about - and what is the point of the linked article - is that Obama is vulnerable to GOP attacks, especially from we freaks who are likely to get so far down and dirty that we’ll point out that Obama’s pastor is an anti-American, anti-Semitic kook…well, guess that has already been done, but you get the picture; there’s nothing we won’t do to derail Obama. Its a freak thing, and you wouldn’t understand. But as to the general thrust of the article - less the nonsense about a freak show derailing Gore and Kerry - is correct: Obama is the weaker of the two candidates for the fall. Only by a little bit, as Hillary isn’t exactly an FDR out there, but he is the man who is less tested, has more kooky personal associations and is far more liberal than Hillary (which is not an easy thing to do). The Clinton people are playing this up as if Obama will turn near certain victory into near certain defeat, but I think we past the point of “near certain” anything a couple months ago - while the Democrats do have the wind at their backs in 2008, my contention is that the November outcome is up in the air, with a slight edge to the Democrats. But in a narrow sense, they are correct that Democrats should be asking themselves some serious questions about Obama.
That won’t happen - black Americans are justifiably proud to have a black American a step or two away from being President; upper class white liberals will not be able to bring themselves to oppose Obama; these two groups - who make up the bulk of Obama’s supporters - will not rethink their support of Obama. Certainly not enough of them prior to settling on the nomination. Hillary’s only hope of getting the nomination is to convince the superdelegates that she’s right about Obama (and she is)…but gaining the nomination that way might also ensure Democratic defeat in the fall.
It all makes for a very interesting and colorful political drama - heck, its like watching a freak show; such is not out here in the blogosphere, but within the Democratic party, where gender and race politics have been the name of the game for 30 years, and now Democrats are at a loss with what to do with the first woman and the first black man to have a real shot at the White House. Anything is possible - from HillBama in a loving embrace leading a united party to victory in November, to a walk out by part of the Democratic delegates to the convention and a split party going down to massive defeat in November. Time will tell - but this freak is just going to enjoy watching it all happen.
UPDATE: Listening to Obama today one would get the impression that people are mad at him for claiming that some are bitter - but, Senator, that is not it, and you’re being rather mendacious in making that claim. You know full well that the outrage is over your claim that people cling to religion, etc due to their bitterness. In other words, if we weren’t bitter, we wouldn’t hold to our faith. Sorry, Senator, that was a stupid, elitist statement to make - and I believe you will go on paying a quite justified political price for making it.
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Democrats
50 Comments
1. OhioOrrin | April 14th, 2008 at 11:03 am
the collary of voting for ear bama cause he’s black is voting for hill/mac cause they’re white.
if the prime is valid, then the collary must also be true or it’s an invalid argument.
logic is funny that way…
2. Pain | April 14th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Unfortunately this is the first time that white Americans are being held to account for their actions and closely examined during a political campaign. We can see how this would be upsetting because the last thing white Americans want are their beliefs and comfort zones scrutinized especially by a “liberal.”
We, Ourselves are also sorry to say you had better get used to this. It is Our opinion that the disadvantaged in small town America generally do cling to their religion because it is the most segregated day of the week. White Americans cling to their guns as a birth right that has no value other than its ability to harm and they cling to xenophobia because it allows white rural Americans to blame sports stars and their wealth, LGBT for their struggle for equality and illegal immigrants for problems that have more to do with the global economy than any American political hot button issues.
3. Bigfoot | April 14th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Our opinion that the disadvantaged in small town America generally do cling to their religion because it is the most segregated day of the week.
If that’s what Obama thinks, he’s a flagrant hypocrite, since his church is visciously racist toward whites, and just as segregated as any small town white church.
White Americans cling to their guns as a birth right that has no value other than its ability to harm
Wrong. White Americans bear arms because some of us like to hunt, and because we believe in the right to defend ourselves against the criminals who would harm us.
they cling to xenophobia because it allows white rural Americans to blame sports stars and their wealth
Most athletes who have become sports stars in America are American-born. If we resent their wealth, it would be class envy, not xenophobia. But then, I realize that liberalism has no problem with class envy, because liberalism practically IS class envy.
illegal immigrants for problems that have more to do with the global economy than any American political hot button issues.
Illegal immigrants are a problem unto themselves, because they’ve come here by BREAKING THE LAW, regardless of the economic consequences of their presence. Tolerating the LAW-BREAKING by illegal immigrants is a huge middle finger shoved into the faces of LAW-OBEYING legal immigrants, many of whom have waited literally for years to either enter the U.S. or (after their entry) get a chance to be naturalized.
4. Joe | April 14th, 2008 at 11:55 am
we freaks out here had convinced a lot of Americans to hold the view that Obama is Moslem…couldn’t possibly be the mere name - Barack Hussein Obama - having anything to do with this misconception, now could it?
Nah…. the conservative talkers never brought that up. Maybe they mentioned it once or twice, but certainly no more than that!
What color is the sky in conservative world?
Obama is vulnerable to GOP attacks, especially from we freaks who are likely to get so far down and dirty that we’ll point out that Obama’s pastor is an anti-American, anti-Semitic kook
Well gee… what else can you sling at Obama? You’ve already run thru the Muslim idea. That proved wrong. You’ve tried the corrupt piece. Nothing came out of that. You’ve tried racist. That lasted about a week. You’ve tried that he is a communist because he once knew a communist. Nope. That lasted about 15 minutes. Keep slinging. If you sling enough maybe you’ll convice someone other than yourselves.
5. Joe | April 14th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Deleted - off topic.
6. Pain | April 14th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
5. Joe | April 14th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Zoiks!!!
We could hear Noonan sighing with frustration all the way here. Does this mean “bitter” times ahead?
7. Timothy Horrigan | April 14th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Well, one thing us Dems learned in ‘00 and ‘04 is that even unpopuar candidates can win. In 2000, Bush didn’t get a majority of the popular vote and won the electoral vote by the narrowest possible margin. I think it is safe to state that AlGore, even though he was the loooossser, was more popular than the winner. In 2004, Bush II’s war was already lost, the economy was already sinking… and yet he still beat Kerry, by convincing a bare majority of the voters than Kerry was even worse than himself. So even Hillary and/or Obama can beat McCain if more voters vote against McCain (unless of coourse some unexpected circumstance fails to turn up between now and early September which would knock McCain out of the race.)
8. Joe | April 14th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
(Ed. Note: Off topic part of comment delted)
”Sorry, Senator, that was a stupid, elitist statement to make - and I believe you will go on paying a quite justified political price for making it.”
Mark, it’s not like you were going to think anything else of Obama.
9. SteaM | April 14th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
heh… gosh, do you think this article maybe touched a nerve there Mark?
Maybe they have a point? Someone has to have spread the muslim rumor because his middle name being “hussein” would not be enough for people to even consider for a second that he is muslim. It had to have been shouted from the tv, radio, and internet long enough and loud enough for it to stick with that many people. And someone has to do the shouting. And you are just one of those miserable nasty partisans who are in on it.
Congrats.
10. Mark Noonan | April 14th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Joe,
True, as far as that goes - I took the measure of the man, Obama, quite some time ago and found him to be an ultra-liberal extremist in views, so there was no chance I was ever going to back him…nor say anything kind about his political ambitions. On the other hand, he’s now egregiously insulted the majority of Americans - and he’s going to pay a price for it.
11. Mark Noonan | April 14th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
SteaM,
Thing is, I’ve barely heard the accusation of Obama being Moslem - sure, its been out there, but I doubt one in a thousand Americans have been exposed to such an accusation…Barack Hussein Obama…that is really all you need for people to say, “oh, he’s Molsem”…just like “Jason Yamato” gets people to say, “oh, he’s Japanese” or “Michael Murphy” gets people to say, “oh, he’s Irish”…even though Mr. Ohara and Mr. Murphy might not be either thing. As it turns out, it was just a poor choice of name - not that Mr. Obama, Sr. could have known that…
And as for being called part of a freak show - it is a bit annoying, and that did come through in my commentary.
12. Tractatus | April 14th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Thing is, I’ve barely heard the accusation of Obama being Moslem
So you don’t even read your own blog, then?
13. SteaM | April 14th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Let go of it!
His name being “hussein” is not enough to make people assume he is muslim. Sure, some jim-bob-redneck somewhere might come to that conclusion based on his name but never a substantial amount of people.
The only way that would happen is if radio shows, blogs, news stations (like FoxNews) and pundits continually brought it up. Sometimes joking, sometimes being serious, or childishly calling him a name, or by running a serious news piece about it like Fox News did. You remember, eh? The one that CNN had to debunk by going to the madrassa he attended?
Gee, how could a guy who attends a Christian church and has never been Muslim or even said he was be considered Muslim by so many people?
It is not because of his middle name.
My middle name comes from a Saint. Yet no one ever, ever, ever, ever assumes I am Catholic. I have, however, been called a saint before ;)
So, Mark, seriously, it’s not his name. And since its not his name… THEN WHAT IS IT?
14. SteaM | April 14th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Its people like you. As this guy puts it “the freak show”. The constant banter from “entertainers” like Rush Limbaugh.
But his listeners are smart enough to think for themselves and not take a joke seriously, aren’t they?
Not always, sadly.
So many people take these “jokes” seriously that I believe it to be “wrong” to tell jokes without any regard to their consequences assuming that a large enough portion of a media figures 100s of thousands or even millions of listeners/viewers will take it seriously.
They’ll take it serously (and yes, their ignorance is their problem) but here’s when it goes from an entertaining joke or silly childish jab at a political opponent to something powerful enough to breed hatred towards the person who is the butt of the joke or comment. When the idiot listener goes to work the next day (still believeing that what he/she heard was actually truth) and tells it to everyone they work with. They have dinner with their family at tell everyone at the dinner table the new info they have recieved. Those people go to work, or school, or anywhere and they tell more people. The original joke is now out of context and has become a rumor. A vicous rumor with the capability to spread for a long time.
People just need to be careful what they say. Be responsible and keep in mind that stupid people are like sponges and they like to get riled up and are very capable of spreading rumors to the point of festering hatred.
All for a little “jab” at a political opponent. All for ratings with the end result being more advertising dollars.
It does upset me because it erodes our national intelligence in terms of really debating the issues. Not just someone’s hair or middle name. No one ever cares aobut that stuff until they hear about it all the time from their friends and/or the tv and radio.
Believe it.
However, no matter what party they belong to, if something honestly immoral or illegal has happened I want to know.
But having a middle name is not immoral or illegal and bears no importance on how that person can lead a country.
15. Canadian Observer | April 14th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
he’s now egregiously insulted the majority of Americans - and he’s going to pay a price for it.
10. Mark Noonan | April 14th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
He’s hit a nerve with his opponents that’s for sure, Mark, but there is no way he insulted the majority of Americans. I’m sorry he felt it was necessary to apologize; there was no need.
He’s being demonized for telling the truth and it’s a crying shame.
It is gratifying though to see someone of Obama’s calibre running for leader of the free world. Hope y’all don’t blow it.
16. Joe | April 14th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
No…… “righties” haven’t ever mentioned Obama’s middle name or ever hinted that he is a Muslim. That is all hogwash.
Oops. Here are just a few in a 2 second Google search.
Mark, really. At least admit that there are SEVERAL posters on this site that have pushed “Hussein” being a “Muslim” over and over again. Admit that right-leaning “pundits” have pushed that as well. Don’t kid yourself. It makes you look silly.
17. SteaM | April 14th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Not only is it “silly” but its outragous.
Mark, do you think that Al Gore said he invented the internet? You do know he never said that, right? But as many times as I’ve heard it I am willing to bet you’ve heard it more.
Truth is he never said that. Yet, how did it get the point of being a household phrase? Right-wing smear machine.
18. SteaM | April 14th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Hey, if people cannot use their brains and be personally responsible then any pundit can say anything he/she wants.
And that is the freedom we have in country. To be total idiots who will believe anything they hear or read.
19. Mark Noonan | April 14th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Joe,
Who is Debbie Schlussel?
20. Joe | April 14th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Yep… never heard of her. And I’m sure nobody else has either. Especially since she is on FOX News fairly often. I’m sure nobody has ever seen, heard or read her. She’s never had anything in any major newspaper or anything.
Ask Freedom1 if he has ever heard of her. They both are disgusted by anything related to Islam.
21. Mark Noonan | April 14th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Joe,
Interesting - never heard of her.
22. Mark Noonan | April 14th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
SteaM,
I spent a lot of time writing out a long response about Gore, but some dratted glitch prevented it from posting, and now I’ve lost it. I’ll nutshell it for you:
While anyone familiar with the record knows that Gore never said the exact words, “I invented the internet”, the fact remains that he stated “I took the initiative in creating the internet”, which is just as absurd as “I invented the internet”.
It wasn’t the Vast, Right Wing Conspiracy (aka, the Freak Show) which did Gore in on this, but Gore’s well established history of mendacity about this life and his achievements. If Gore hadn’t told so many whoppers in the past, then when “I took the initiative” came across, there wouldn’t have been the massive joke available for those two charter members of the conservative movement, Jay Leno and David Letterman to yuk it up at Gore’s expense.
If you on the left will simply stop lying all the time, you’d have this whole problem licked…
23. felix the cat | April 14th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
r.e Debbie Schlussel . Mark doesn’t get out much.
How about her girlfriends, Melanie Morgan and Michelle Malkin. Familiar with those reactionary paranoid hate factories? Lets not leave out Ann or Mary Matlin.
Or are you just happy to hear from me!
24. neocon | April 14th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
As a typical white person, I will be taking my gun to church to pray for government security. I hope I don’t run into any illegal immigrants along the way. As bitter as I am, who knows what will happen? Oh that’s right Obama does.
Will someone from the government please help me?
25. neocon | April 14th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Here’s what our “Internet Inventor” has recently been up to:
>>As such, like an investment advisor or stock broker giving a seminar
to prospects and clients, Al Gore was actively recommending people put
money in companies he already has a financial stake in.
And, as he tours the world demanding nations stop burning fossil
fuels, he will financially benefit if they follow his advice and move
to technologies that he has already invested in.<<
This has been the funnest lead-up to a general election that I can ever remember. Watching the left make mistake after mistake and then apologize and explain is PRICELESS!
26. William Teach | April 14th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Could you provide some facts on why you think any of those ladies you mentioned are hate mongers, Felix
PS: I know who Debbie is, and, while I think her writing is good, and I agree with many of her sentiments, she has gone off the reservation regarding a few things in the past regarding other bloggers, which I shan’t bring up here, and, I do not care for her much.
27. Cavalor Epthith, Esquire, D.S.V.J. | April 14th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
neocon,
Get some lottery numbers from On High while you are there and armed and in an all white gathering bitterly resenting the successes of illegal immigrants.
28. Mark Noonan | April 14th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Felix,
Malkin I’ve heard of - and briefly met, once upon a time. Morgan I haven’t heard of. Its a big, big world out there, ya know? And, also, just perhaps we’re not a bunch of mind-numbed robots doing the bidding of Morgan and Malkin?
29. Mark Noonan | April 14th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Neocon,
Yep, the bitterness really comes out in our church, as we think of all those non-white people and the immigrants and how they’ve wrecked everything…’course, it does get hard to break out the KKK hoods when more than half the congregation is non-white, and a goodly portion are hispanic, and likely include a number of illegals, too…drat it all, if only I could let go of my bitterness!
30. neocon | April 14th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Cav,
I don’t need the lottery, I cling to my Bible, remember?
I find comfort there, with my gun, and my xenophobia, because I am just too stupid to understand the complexities of our society. Nor am I able to muster the strength to get a job, or re-train, or re-locate. If only someone in the government cared.
And this is the guy you want to lead the free world. Sheesh.
31. Cavalor Epthith, Esquire, D.S.V.J. | April 14th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Come come now neocon you have to admit there are many people out there that do “cliong” these things and are too attached to the land or yes stupid to leave areas that are generationally depressed economically.
I would point you to the town of Ivanhoe, Virginia where there are several churches no jobs and a population of nearly 2 000 all white and all dirt poor. Now why would these people not pool together and leave for the next closest city?
32. neocon | April 14th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Maybe it is what they prefer Cav. Had you ever thought of that? I grew up in small, mostly white, Christian town and knew several people that lived in the “boondocks” with very little, and they wouldn’t have it any other way. And some of them were probably some of the happiest, calm, and most generous people I had ever known.
Granted that lifestyle is not for most of us, but it is demeaning and condescending to consider them stupid or unfulfilled. It exposes Obamas lack of seasoning.
33. felix the cat | April 14th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Uh Mark, NO!
If you have the where-with-all to portray yourself as some sort of enlightened right wing extremist who participates in the operation a website then I find it beyond credulity that you have never heard of the folks that I mentioned. Extremist xenophobes all. Do you have a TV? Do you read newspapers? Do you look at news sources on the internet? Google their names and see what comes up. You now remind me of the song “Less Than Zero” by Elvis Costello.
34. neocon | April 14th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
felix,
What benefit at all would Mark derive by misleading you into thinking he did not know of Schlussel?
Just curious.
35. Cavalor Epthith, Esquire, D.S.V.J. | April 14th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I fear I misspoke. I don’t think Obama was referring to people who have always had nothing or little meaning the rural poor. I think he meant rural people who have dropped in class because of layoffs failed crops what have you and their standard of living has gone from middle class to lower class and these people are more vocal in their churches because they are mostly white. I agree with Pain on the gun issue the threat of doing violence as a means of “standing up for yourself against the oppressor,” runs deep and cold in the veins of such people.
And the xenophobia all you have to do is read a local paper’s letters to the editor in one of these towns and no doubt several times a week there will be a letter about illegal immigrants. If they all went home today would these people pick their own crops?
36. neocon | April 14th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Cav,
Careful you’re starting to sound a lot like Obama. Are you saying there are no xenophobes in urban areas? Or that there are no pro-immigration people in rural areas? And, according to you, only white people use their churches as venues to vent their xenophobic frustrations, or most white people anyway, right? Would that include the “typical white people”?
I find it amusing how liberals are deftly able to discern the slightest subtleties that defne the various Muslim sects, but yet love to lump all Christians into one Bible-thumping, gun toting, xenophobic monster.
Like I said, this is a lot of fun.
37. neocon | April 14th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Cav,
I am interested on your take on the following:
>>According to a recent Gallup Poll, most Americans are “very satisfied” with their personal lives. More than 8 in 10 Americans are pleased with the way things are going with things on the home front. Just six percent say they aren’t happy. - 1/21/2008 at 9:47 AM <<
38. Mark Noonan | April 14th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Felix,
Off the top of my head I’ve met/read/heard of the following pundits/writers/etc:
Malkin, Novak, Krauthammer; Cole; Huffington; Hanson; Yon; Goldberg; Corn; Cockburn; Lowry; Bay; Limbaugh; Hannity; Coulter; Rhodes; Reich; Krugman; Kristol; Schlafly; Gaffney; D’Souza; Parker; Garthwaite; Will; Chapman; Morris; Sowell; Williams; Reagan, Levin; Matthews; Scheer; Hightower; Brock; Rove; Olberman…
So, I know of a lot of people who like to put their opinion out - but I’ll bet there are scores I’ve never heard of…
39. William Teach | April 14th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Felix, Michelle Malkin is an easy one to have heard of. But, not everyone will have heard of Melanie Morgan. I happen to know about her because I have been anti-UN well before I started blogging, and that is what really got her some national notoriety.
For as long as I have been coming to Blogs For Bush, and now Blogs For Victory, the guys interests haven’t been about the UN.
Do you know everyone out there, Felix?
How the hell did we get on this topic, anyhow?
40. Freedom1 | April 15th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Obama’s Muslim Connections - Black Republican
41. Freedom1 | April 15th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Neocon: “I find it amusing how liberals are deftly able to discern the slightest subtleties that defne the various Muslim sects, but yet love to lump all Christians into one Bible-thumping, gun toting, xenophobic monster.”
Yeah, and that would include Obama.
42. Freedom1 | April 15th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Obama and Marx: The Mask Slips - New York Times
43. Freedom1 | April 15th, 2008 at 12:35 am
According to shari’a, there is no apostasy allowed: once a Muslim, always a Muslim. Obama was born a Muslim and officially registered as a Muslim in Indonesia. So, to all the Islamic fundamentalists of the world, he is still a Muslim.
The penalty for apostasy in Islam is death. Obama is either still a Muslim (and lying about it) or he’s living under a death sentence.
________________________________
Black liberation theology:
Obama’s church is NOT Christian. Obama is NOT a Christian.
44. SteaM | April 15th, 2008 at 12:43 am
45. Mark Noonan | April 15th, 2008 at 3:25 am
SteaM,
Nice - but that wasn’t taking the initiative in creating the internet. All the dunce would have had to say is, “I’ve worked hard to help the internet expand”…and he would have been accurate, and not looked like a fool. Gore has a penchant for exaggeration about himself.
46. Cavalor Epthith, Esquire, D.S.V.J. | April 15th, 2008 at 5:51 am
41. Freedom1 | April 15th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Neocon: “I find it amusing how liberals are deftly able to discern the slightest subtleties that define the various Muslim sects, but yet love to lump all Christians into one Bible-thumping, gun toting, xenophobic monster.”
I have a few figures before me here relating to race, religion and gun ownership and while there are many things the majority of 203 million people in America that are considered members of the race called “white” can be called I realize they are not a monolith. Despite 78% of them self identifying as Christian all of them are not conservatives; that number would be 70% of that figure. Taking into account that 179,000,000 of that racial demographic will be eligible to vote in the 2008 election that gives you a total of 121 million potential Christian Conservative [max based on race] votes more than enough to win any election. Yet they do not all vote. the US Census Bureau shows that of those 121 million on average only 64.0% of those are registered and of that 45.8% or 55,660,000 of those participate in the physical act of voting.
The problem is not having a clear majority in religion or race in America then the problem is white apathy a condition that exists because in modern times since the Women’s Suffrage was passed in 1920 white Americans have had no bar to their ability to exercise the franchise while other minorities have been barred by segregationist laws by color and in may places barred in de facto ways by language up until the last few decades.
I go to this length because it is as plain as the horns on my head that in such a life and death struggle with your so call Musselman enemy that you know all about him and his ways and customs as possible. If Conservative Christians choose to pose themselves as enemies of Liberty then a Free Man would be wise to come to a state of clear cognition with their ways and means as well.
It is the unwillingness to compromise that there are many ways to personal salvation and the hubris driven delusion that they are somehow as mortal men chosen above all that will be the very downfall of the United States of America if this abominable marriage between conservative ideological Christianism is allowed to flourish in the public sphere. This rigid philosophy and marriage of the Roman and Protestant prisons for the mind will corrupt Jefferson’s very vision of a republic of freedom and justice for all and turn America into a shabby laughing stock run by men more concerned about how pious they appear than the slings and arrows their constituents are suffering under.
Under such a Theocracy more billions will be wasted in petty fights between factions about trivia of the order of whether women should be allowed to wear pants and cover up and black mail payments from the public coffers to keep quiet those who have been burdened with the lusts of their so-called anointed flesh. The mere 12 billion a month being ground out for the Iraq would appear a pittance to these men who will stand in the well of the greatest deliberative body in the history of Terra and proclaim that “The Almighty has spoken to me and he says that all who choose a life of abomination should be put to the sword or driven out of our land!”
And that is the day that many of you here preview in your disdain for Barack Obama and for Liberal and progressive ideology. All men have the right to dissent in a free republic. I repeat that ALL MEN have that right which cannot be taken even by death because their words and acts live long after them as those acts do of King and Malcolm X and the great legal genius Medgar Evers do today. Commingled with the words of Jefferson, John Adams, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Lincoln and Theo. Roosevelt, FDR, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Reagan and hopefully, yes hopefully Barack Hussein Obama and out into the future possibly Wasserman-Schultz or Tim Kaine the men and women willing to hold their faith close to their bosom and wrap the cloak of public service across their chests is limitless in the bounteous land that is America. Where you men have gone wrong is that you seek to establish some measure of perfection in yourselves yet seek only the imperfection in others. What a damning flaw this is! The hope of Liberty is not to condemn gentle; the message of Love of the Messiah was never meant to exclude anyone from Grace and the clear promise of life anew after Death was never meant to be a penance that was placed like a millstone around the necks of those you enslave with your closed minded and fearful pronouncements of patriotism that can exclude a man who seeks to make peace with his enemy as your Messiah said you must.
47. Joe | April 15th, 2008 at 9:00 am
No Mark…… the “righties” never try to promote that Obama is some big bad Muslim.
Freedom1 isn’t insinuating anything at all in those posts above.
Do you still hold to your statement above of…
Thing is, I’ve barely heard the accusation of Obama being Moslem
48. Freedom1 | April 15th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
“The penalty for apostasy in Islam is death. Obama is either still a Muslim (and lying about it) or he’s living under a death sentence.”
Case in point…
Man Killed By Islamist Fighters In Somalia Was Shot Because He Had Converted From Islam to Christianity - BBC News
A man killed by Islamist fighters in Somalia was shot because he had converted from Islam to Christianity, his widow has claimed.
Daud Hassan Ali, 64, of Kings Heath, Birmingham, was found dead at the school his charity had built in Beledweyne on Monday. Margaret Ali said she was “certain he was killed because he was born a Muslim but converted to Christianity”.
Rehana Ahmed, 32, from Birmingham, and two Kenyan teachers were also killed.
Mr Ali had left Somalia in 1967 and became a Christian after meeting missionaries. Mrs Ali, 64, said that some Islamists “believe it is ok to kill any man who was born into Islam and left the faith”.
49. Tractatus | April 15th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
…and the freak show continues unabated. Keep up the *ahem* “good” work, Freedom1
50. Freedom1 | April 15th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Thanks, Tractatus. I will. So here goes…
Obama’s Posters: Message in the Image - American Thinker