McCain Spiritual Guide Accused Gov't Of Enabling 'Black Genocide'
Friday, March 21, 2008
Sign the Move-On Petiton to Stop the Fox Virus!
Moon Over Hypocrisy
On the subject of crazy ministers, we see now that the rantings of Jeremiah Wright will be the never ending story that the rabid right and their water-carriers will employ to bring down Barack Obama.
This non-story will continue until Hillary Clinton wins the nomination. When that happens, you can be sure that those wing-nuts will quickly shift gears to harp endlessly on a subject they love more than life itself -- old and new Clintonian "scandals."
None of it will end until the American people are so perplexed and confused that they will vote for war-monger and George W. Bush wannabe, John McCain.
This method of battering a candidate with lies, half-truths and sound bites is proven to work. The American people have come to depend on pundits for giving them their opinion. It is so much easier than finding out the truth and doing your own critical thinking on matter as vital and complex as war, global warming, the Middle East conflict, the economy, race relations and religion.
And although Obama is counting on American's to do what is right, they will more than likely do what they have been doing since the start of the dumbing down of political discourse -- whatever Rush Limbaugh and the wing-nut bobble-heads at Fox tell 'em to do.
Still, we will try to do what we can in our own way to reveal the right-wing hypocrisy on the Reverend Wright matter.
And we start today by asking that readers of this blog respond to any and all articles and news stories on the Reverend Wright with comments about Reverend Moon -- a right-wing Republican billionaire supporter who claims that "the country that represents Satan's harvest is America" and who has made many other anti-American statements.
We offer several sources for you to cite that show that there is enough religious wackiness to go around. For example, in this article, Robert Parry of Consortium News writes:
And another article describes Moon's efforts to obtain access to power:"Besides the estimated $3 billion-plus invested in the Washington Times, Moon has spread money around to influential right-wingers, often coming to their rescue when they are facing financial ruin as happened with Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell in the mid-1990s. [See below.]
Moon also has paid lucrative speaking fees to political figures, such as former President George H.W. Bush who has appeared at Moon-organized functions in the United States, Asia and South America. At the launch of Moon’s South American newspaper in 1996, Bush hailed Moon as “the man with the vision.”
Moon has key defenders, too, in the U.S. Congress, such as Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 2004, Moon was given space in the Senate’s Dirksen building for a coronation of himself as “savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent.” [See The Hill, June 22, 2004]
Though primarily allied with the Republican Right, Moon has tossed money to some African-American ministers to gain favor with a key Democratic constituency.
Moon’s multi-billion-dollar political investments, in turn, have shielded him from sustained scrutiny since 1978 when he was identified by the congressional “Koreagate” investigation as part of a covert Korean influence-buying scheme. As a result of those findings about his finances, he was convicted in 1982 of tax fraud.
Ironically, however, as Moon implemented the influence-buying blueprint exposed by the “Koreagate” probe – investing in U.S. media, politicians and academia – he became an untouchable. He founded the Washington Times in 1982 and quickly put it into the service of Republican power."
"To buy the access he craves, Moon has paid out millions in speaking fees to an array of powerful people, including the elder Bush, former President Gerald Ford and members of Congress. Through innocuous-sounding groups with names such as Interreligious and International Forum for World Peace, the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles and The Women's Federation for World Peace, Moon passes out awards to various civic leaders, then invites their members of Congress to attend ceremonies where their constituents are honored. Last week President George W. Bush visited Philadelphia where he was hosted by a local supporter, the Rev. Herb Lusk. Three years ago, Lusk was among those on the dais with Moon, receiving the "National Service Award" from the Washington Times Foundation."Among the dignitaries in Washington that have successfully been wood by Moon is Senator Hillary Clinton who praised him and his work as late as September 2007.
So, the bottom line is this -- if we are going to vilify Obama for his religious associations, lets at least be fair and do the same for his opponents on the left and the right.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Knee-Jerks
The swiftboating of Obama is in high gear. His latest sin? Being a member of a church where his preacher, reverend Jeremiah Wright had the audacity to speak angrily about how the American government has been treating people of color at home and around the world.
Well, we can relate to the dilemma facing Barack Obama and his "preacher problems."
As lesbian civil rights activists, we spend much of our time trying to convince regular folks that LGBTQ people deserve equal treatment under the law.
And by LGBTQ, we mean everyone... even those who do not live or look like us.
And because we choose to dress and behave in a manner that is deemed to be "more acceptable," we are able to pass and even when we are outed, we are considered "less offensive" because we are not trying to be the "in your face" sort of of dykes.
Nonetheless, we have and will continue to freely and proudly associate with and relate to those whose very looks offend our oppressors.
Have you been to a Pride Parade or an Equal Rights march and seen all of the varieties of L's G's B's T's and Q's who march under the rainbow flag? We have.
Although we are white, middle class 50 something grandmothers, when we march or protest or attend a rally, we do so along side the Dykes on Bikes and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (see photo of us at right with a Sister in San Francisco).
Whatever LGBTQ people say and do -- no matter how radical our words, looks or actions seem to the general public -- because we share a common oppression, we are all in the same proverbial boat.
Despite the differences between us, we all deserve to be treated equally under the law.
That includes the right to freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of religion.
As citizens, whatever we say and do -- as long as we are not violating the law -- our rights should not be abridged or denied because we do not look or speak or act like "mainstream" America.
It saddens but does not surprise us to Obama being taken down for daring to belong to an Afro-centered church whose pastor used fiery rhetoric to validate the experience of his mostly Black congregation.
It is obscene that the mainstream media is allowing the rabid right to feed the anti-Obama frenzy as they also fail to point to the wing-nuts on the right who daily spew similar hateful words.
And while we are on the subject of crazy ministers, we hope the media will use this opportunity to highlight the close connection between the Reverend Moon and the Republican Party -- especially the Bush family.
More than anything, Obama's preacher is only telling the truth about America and how we have behaved badly toward people of color in our own country and abroad.
Many Americans have a knee-jerk defensive reaction to an expression of frustration and anger at American foreign and domestic policy that has resulted in a collapsing economy, widening gap between the haves and have-nots, erosion of our civil liberties, degrading environment, high prices, loss of jobs, hatred of all that is America throughout the world, and more.
And when that frustration is uttered by a Black man, the knee-jerks simply blame the victim for his lack of blind patriotism.
But when a White, right-wing preacher expresses similar sentiments, he is embraced by those in power.
We hope that Keith Olbermann and/or Rachel Maddow will use the power of their soap-box to reveal the hypocrisy while the issue is still foremost in the minds of the ignorant sheeple.
We hope you will take a minute to send an email asking them to do so.
Send an email to Keith Olbermann
Send an email to Rachel Maddow
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
