Reflections From a Murky Pond

Four Democratic presidential candidates removed their names from the ballot for the Michigan Primary on January 15, 2008. They have all turned in the paperwork to withdraw from Michigan Primary.

• Barack Obama
• Bill Richardson
• John Edwards
• Joe Bidden

This was done because the Democrats had all agreed to skip the Michigan Primary since Michigan broke the rules by setting their primary before February 5, 2008.

Hillary Clinton, in an aggressive political move, has chosen not withdrawn from the primary, breaking with the rest of the Democrats. This may leave her as the only significant Democrat in Michigan’s Primary Elections. The other Democrats have until the end of the day (Tuesday, October 9th, 2007) to turn in the paperwork to withdraw from the Michigan Primary.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), spoke before a meeting of the Hampton University Ministers’ Conference at the school in Hampton, Va., on June 5, 2007. Sen. Obama, who is bidding to become the first black US president, took the stage after a succession of ministers repeatedly brought the crowd to its feet, singing, praying and swaying to music.

He declared that the Bush administration has done nothing to defuse a “quiet riot” among blacks that threatens to erupt just as riots in Los Angeles did 15 years ago. The Illinois senator said that with black people from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast still displaced 20 months after Hurricane Katrina, frustration and resentments are building explosively as they did before the 1992 riots.

Those quiet riots that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths. They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things
are never going to get any better.

– Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill)

Sen. Obama’s criticism of Bush prompted ovation after ovation from the nearly 8,000 people gathered in Hampton University’s Convocation Center. He repeatedly referred to the riots that erupted in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four police officers of assault charges in the 1991 beating of Rodney King, a black motorist, after a high speed chase. Fifty-five people died and 2,000 were injured as a result of the six days of riots in the city’s black neighborhoods.

The author thought nothing about this at first; it is normal for politicians and even more so for political candidates to speak boldly and in grand or grim terms when denouncing the behavior of their opposition. Repeatedly reinforcing the idea that the US is on the verge of Race Riots seemed a bit extreme and using the fact that during the 1992 riots a bullet pierced the abdomen of a pregnant woman, lodging in the elbow of her fetus and that later the baby was delivered by Cesarean section at which point the bullet was removed successfully as a metaphor for society’s problems was in extremely poor taste, but again such behavior is normal if not completely palatable on the part of any politician.

…in too many places across the country, we have not even bothered to take the bullet out.

– Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill)

The author’s opinion changed after Sen. Obama introduced his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ as “Unashamedly Black and Apologetically Christian.” Research into Sen. Obama’s chosen place and community of worship uncovered some facts that are disturbing to the author.

Trinity United appears to be rather racially divisive in nature. They herald themselves as a Black Church and appear to be veryAfrocentric – not just Black, but actually self identifying as African as opposed to American or even African-American. Trinity United also indoctrinates its congregation in Dr. Manford Byrd’s The Black Value System (PDF).

This Black Value System is the crux of the Author’s concern. It seems blatantly separatist and uses a theological format to espouse specific insular and elitist attitudes. Certain passages especially made the author uncomfortable. Those sections are detailed below – but the reader should use the link above to read the full original text and make their own opinion:

• Commitment to the Black Community:
  The highest level of achievement for any Black person must be a contribution of substance to the strength and continuity of the Black of the Black Community.
  
• Commitment to the Black Family:
  The Black family circle must generate strength, stability, and love despite the uncertainty of externals, because these characteristics are required if the developing person is to withstand warping by our racist competitive society.
  
• Disavowal of the Pursuit of ‘Middleclassness’:
  Classic methodology on control of captives teaches that captors must keep the captive ignorant educationally, but trained sufficiently well to serve the system. Also, the captors must be able to identify the ‘talented tenth’ of those subjugated, especially those who show promise of providing the kind of leadership that might threaten the captor’s control.
  
• Pledge to Make the Fruits of All Developing and Acquired Skills
  Available to the Black community:
  • Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting Black Institutions.
  • Pledge Allegiance to all Black Leadership Who Espouse and Embrace The Black Value System.
  • Personal Commitment to Embracement of the Black Value System – to Measure the Worth and Validity of All Activity in Terms of Positive Contributions to the General Welfare of the Black Community and the advancement of Black People towards Freedom.

Personally the Author finds the ethnocentrism of the tenants of this church with its “non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA” rather repugnant. If an expressly – or even implicitly White congregation – published a similar manifesto, they would would be branded as the worst sort of racists and with good reason. Racism, whether it advocates active abuse or isolationism or separatism, taught through the vehicle of religion is shameful at the very least.

Sen. Obama has been part of this African congregation for many years. Now he wishes to be President of the United States. The Author is unsure – just that, nothing more – if it’s appropriate for there to be a “Black President” or an “African President of the US. Obama’s fervor in detailing the incidents in the LA Riots and his racial fearmongering take on a whole new and disturbing tenor when added to his religion and his candidacy.

Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who made his name in US politics by attacking special interests, has more lobbyists working on his campaign staff or as advisers than any of his competitors in the 2008 presidential race.

Despite his vocal stance denouncing special interest groups’ impact on US politics, Sen. McCain seems to have compunctions about filling his campaign staff with exactly the sort of people he makes a show of fighting against.

Too often the special interest lobbyists with the fattest wallets and best access carry the day when issues of public policy are being decided

– Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

McCain claims that he has “has fought the ‘revolving door’ by which lawmakers and other influential officials leave their posts and become lobbyists for the special interests they have aided.” Yet McCain has at least two top advisers who exactly fit this description:

• Campaign Co-Chair ex-Texas Representative Tom Loeffler
• Honorary Chairman ex-Washington Sen. Slade Gorton

Both Loffler and Gordon are now very influential lobbyists, representing: PhRMA, Southwest Airlines, Toyota, Martin Marietta, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., Weyerhaeuser, and Fidelity National Financial among others. There are a total of 11 current or former lobbyists working for or advising McCain. This is at least double the number the number of lobbyists on the campaign payroll of any other candidate; even Hillary Clinton, who among Democrats has made the most use of special interest groups, doesn’t come close to McCain’s total.

Presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has secured more earmarks in the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill than any other Democrat except for Chairman of the Armed Services Committee Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.). The fiscal year (FY) Defense Authorization Bill has $5.4 billion in earmarks, 26 of which were requested by Clinton, and which add up to a total of $148.4 million in federal spending. Clinton had previously secured 360 earmarks worth a combined $2.2 billion from 2002 to 2006 in all spending and authorization bills.

Some of Senator Clinton’s beneficiaries / contributers:

• Northrop Grumman – $6 million for the AN/SPQ-9B radar;
• Telephonics, – $5 million for a standardized aircraft wireless intercom system for the National Guard Black Hawk helicopter fleet;
• Plug Power Inc. – $3 million for fuel cell power technology;
• Alliant Tech Systems (ATK), – $3.5 million for the X-51 B robust scramjet research.

All of the above are New York based corporations with the exception of ATK which is based in Utah, though the division of ATK that would be doing the work is based in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.

To be fair, these may all be worthwhile projects. They were not, however requested by the Pentagon or the Administration. They were added to be Defense Authorization Bill by Clinton without the provision for debate or review. The above listed earmarks total $17.5 million. The author has no idea what the remaining $130.9 million worth of earmarks Clinton added are slated for. Given that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)’s lone contribution the earmarks on the bill was for a Department of Education program for children with severe disabilities, the author is afraid to speculate.

Addendum: For a follow-up go here.