There’s a reason Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she’s a lot more vulnerable than Obama.
You can find all about it in a widely under-read article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that “through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as “The “Fellowship,” also known as The Family. But it won’t be a secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet’s shocking exposé The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.
Sean Hannity has called Obama’s church a “cult,” but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton’s “Family,” which is organized into “cells”–their term–and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia. In 2002, Sharlet joined The Family’s home for young men, forswearing sex, drugs and alcohol, and participating in endless discussions of Jesus and power. He wasn’t undercover; he used his own name and admitted to being a writer. But he wasn’t completely out of danger either. When he went outdoors one night to make a cell phone call, he was followed. He still gets calls from Family associates asking him to meet them in diners–alone.
The Family’s most visible activity is its blandly innocuous National Prayer Breakfast, held every February in Washington. But almost all its real work goes on behind the scenes–knitting together international networks of right-wing leaders, most of them ostensibly Christian. In the 1940s, The Family reached out to former and not-so-former Nazis, and its fascination with that exemplary leader, Adolf Hitler, has continued, along with ties to a whole bestiary of murderous thugs. As Sharlet reported in Harper’s in 2003:
During the 1960s the Family forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most anti-Communist (and dictatorial) elements within Africa’s postcolonial leadership. The Brazilian dictator General Costa e Silva, with Family support, was overseeing regular fellowship groups for Latin American leaders, while, in Indonesia, General Suharto (whose tally of several hundred thousand “Communists” killed marks him as one of the century’s most murderous dictators) was presiding over a group of fifty Indonesian legislators. During the Reagan Administration the Family helped build friendships between the U.S. government and men such as Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova, convicted by a Florida jury of the torture of thousands, and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, himself an evangelical minister, who was linked to both the CIA and death squads before his own demise.
At the heart of The Family’s American branch is a collection of powerful right-wing politicos, who include, or have included, Sam Brownback, Ed Meese, John Ashcroft, James Inhofe and Rick Santorum. They get to use The Family’s spacious estate on the Potomac, The Cedars, which is maintained by young men in Family group homes and where meals are served by The Family’s young women’s group. And, at The Family’s frequent prayer gatherings, they get powerful jolts of spiritual refreshment, tailored to the already powerful.
Clinton fell in with The Family in 1993, when she joined a Bible study group composed of wives of conservative leaders like Jack Kemp and James Baker. When she ascended to the Senate, she was promoted to what Sharlet calls the Family’s “most elite cell,” the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast, which included, until his downfall, Virginia’s notoriously racist Senator George Allen. This has not been a casual connection for Clinton. She has written of Doug Coe, The Family’s publicity-averse leader, that he is “a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God.”
Furthermore, The Family takes credit for some of Clinton’s rightward legislative tendencies, including her support for a law guaranteeing “religious freedom” in the workplace, such as for pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions and police officers who refuse to guard abortion clinics.
What drew Clinton into the sinister heart of the international right? Maybe it was just a phase in her tormented search for identity, marked by ever-changing hairstyles and names: Hillary Rodham, Mrs. Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and now Hillary Clinton. She reached out to many potential spiritual mentors during her White House days, including New Age guru Marianne Williamson and the liberal rabbi Michael Lerner. But it was the Family association that stuck.
Sharlet generously attributes Clinton’s involvement to the under-appreciated depth of her religiosity, but he himself struggles to define The Family’s theological underpinnings. The Family avoids the word Christian but worships Jesus, though not the Jesus who promised the earth to the “meek.” They believe that, in mass societies, it’s only the elites who matter, the political leaders who can build God’s “dominion” on earth. Insofar as The Family has a consistent philosophy, it’s all about power–cultivating it, building it and networking it together into ever-stronger units, or “cells.” “We work with power where we can,” Doug Coe has said, and “build new power where we can’t.”
Obama has given a beautiful speech on race and his affiliation with the Trinity United Church of Christ. Now it’s up to Clinton to explain–or, better yet, renounce–her long-standing connection with the fascist-leaning Family.
Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed (Owl), is the winner of the 2004 Puffin/Nation Prize.
© 2008 The Nation
really?
Great piece, Barbara! Could be really important.
There are so many aspects to the Hillary Clinton we know, and more that we don’t know. This aspect, which is only now being revealed, adds to her votes for war and against the control of cluster bombs. She may speak the correct words, on some occasions, but her performance and tone of voice belies her true feelings. I have not heard all of Obama’s recent speech on his affiliation with Rev. Wright, but will very soon. What I have observed about Sen. Obama is that he is willing to grow and expand his awareness of himself and his growing constituency. He is not perfect, nor are the rest of us. What distinguishes him from many others is his willingness to acknowledge his mistakes and learn from them. Unfortunately, Hillary does not seem to share that value, to her detriment.
I trust all will allow truth to emerge and be willing to listen as it does.
I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
peace,
st john
OK, I am running for President! New party: Skeletons.
Everything out on day one!!!
Atrocities are so often committed in the name of religion because true believers will not consider the possibility that they may be mistaken. They are easy prey for Hitler/Ashcroft/Colson types who pretend to be in exclusive possession of absolutes.
These opportunists, Meese, Coe, Brownback, to name only a few are sociopathic Predators who have managed to gain control of all three branches of the US Government. They collect power like a compulsive shopper collects stuff, and once they have it, they figure “What good is it if we don’t use it?”
It may seem incredible that such a banal mechanism has been responsible for neglect at home and slaughter abroad, but think about it.
Bet you the corporate press isn’t going to talk about that!
What I don’t understand is why the Hillary lovers have been so blind to her right wing leanings when it has been so obvious to me, even before this story?
But I couldn’t understand why Americans were so blind to the looming catastrophe of invading Iraq either.
It must be so comfortable to be blind, at least until the chickens come home to roost.
We have a real opportunity in electing Obama. It will be a shame if we blow it. I know the corporate media will do all it can to help us do that. I didn’t know who Andrew Sullivan was, had heard the name, but only barely. I looked him up, he’s a conservative Libertarian commentator and he said Obama’s candidacy is what we need at this time. Yes we do.
kathyodat
McCain’s got to have his own version of this as well …and I’ll bet we could get together a montage that would make Mr. Obama’s old friend look absolutely timid.
How strange that such a small amount of bile can set conservatives off so much …so long as it’s not THEIR bile (which they drink in such copious amounts).
This explains much of her behavior, from warmongering to dirty-tricks campaigning, to the hundreds of thousand repugs who voted for her in Texas and Ohio. Thanks for the expose, Barbara.
Just when I was savoring Obama’s remarkable speech on race, the indispensable Barbara Ehrenreich exposes another hidden truth about Hillary! I’ve never heard of the Family, but they sound pretty rabid. This needs to get into the corporate media in a big way.
Also, WHY are the media ignoring the over-the-top bellowings of McCain’s “spiritual” buddy Rev. John Hagee, with his branding of Catholics as whores and other outrageous statements? Why is it not being demanded of McCain that he throw Hagee under the bus, if Obama is supposed to do that to Rev. Wright? What a ridiculous double standard.
Ever wonder why the McCain and the Clinton cliques are desperately working to undermine Obama (like urging registered Republicans to vote for Clinton in the Texas and Ohio primaries)? They have long since cut their deal on how to share power and privilege regardless which party provides the ‘figure-head’ - just like Gore and Kerry did during the two past presidential election bruhahas. Its their game, their ruling class perogatives, their tribe and their destiny and don’t you ever forget it! So is it really any news that Hillary has her own bipartisan Christian Clerico Fascist version of the Skull and Bones Fraternity?
Anyone who was paying attention during the Clinton years cannot be surprised about this news. Being tied to the DNC shows the fascist leanings of this supposed Democrat.
I can only hope that Mr. Obama makes it to next January.
Other questions occur to me. What about the current crop of “democrats” currently in the Senate? Are we to believe they will do anything substantially different than the bunch who is now there if they get an 11 vote majority? Will they take the “peoples” side or will they do the bidding of their leaders?
Hillary Clinton a religious fanatic? I don’t see it. I suspect it’s more evidence of her trying to be all things to all people. On the other hand, it would be great to have some video to put on YouTube.
I wonder if this piece will end up where it belongs … Fake News ie with John Stewart or with his “right-wing” good buddy.
The New Yorker also wrote about HRC/Prayer Breakfast participation, some time last year. I am suspicious at best of anything religious, so I sense a political opportunism in her belonging to this group. Maybe she really believes the god stuff of it. I am simply sick of the religiousity in our politics. I do not want to have to vote for Hilary because of other issues. I know that both D. candidates are also corporate candidates. I trust that Obama is not as entrenched in big money as are the Clintons. I believe that his base is wide. If this new base stays active (including me) I will be even happier with him as a nominee. As a woman, Hilary’s acceptance of her advisors’ (Bill?) campaign strategies, enrages me.
And the polls keep reminding us over and over that this country would never vote for someone who doesn’t attend church regularly, doesn’t pray everyday etc.etc. What does any of this have to do with being honest, having integrity, and in command of sense and reason?
Understand, Hillary is a Republican at heart. She grew up in a rich, white, Methodist Republican family, and went to private schools and universities. She flirted with the left for awhile in her college days, but then got out of college and worked as a politically connected corporate lawyer. With Bill, she’s always had the facade of being liberal superimposed over very conservative, rightwing, pro-corporate policies. Always remember that the Clintons were a founding force in the Democratic Leadership Council which was basically a right-wing, pro-corporate takeover of the old Democratic Party.
So, why would anyone be surprised at this?
And … wasn’t this the same group that people were doing documentaries and stories about a few years ago? I was scanning the article hoping for a reference to tie these stories together.
Maybe like Jesus turned water into wine, Hillary was able to turn $1,000 in $100,000 in her cattle futures trading.
If this weren’t being reported by Barbara Ehrenreich, I’d be immediately dismissing it as tinfoil-hattery. But I have immense respect for her earlier work, and therefore can’t dismiss her offhand.
Most of the resistance to Hillary is not due to knowledge of her often horrible positions, but to gut feelings that she is lying to us. Her whole political strategy is based on the deceit of triangulation.
An example of triangulation is how she voted No on John Roberts, but had announced her support of him at a time when that support seriously undermined Democrat’s efforts to organize resistance to a man who will in all probability cast the vote that sinks Roe v. Wade.
She supported her money backers with her leadership, and threw us a meaningless No vote.
Too many feminist supporters of Hillary are blinded by their excitement about the prospect of a woman president, not realizing how she so profoundly betrayed them.
This article gives much needed clues to that particular betrayal, among a long list of Clinton betrayals.
bughunter, I agree. I have great respect for her work and will definately check this out further…It makes sense to me in some ways and as another poster pointed out, it makes her voting practices seem more logical now. For the poster that didn’t think she was particularly religious…Let me remind you, these people have their own bizarro version of Christianity that resembles Islamic fanaticism…Basically a fanatic is still a fanatic. They don’t see killing those that disagree with “their” God as a bad thing….
CoMarc, don’t forget that Clinton was President of the College Republicans when she was at Wellesley. By the time she graduated, she had shifted with the political winds and, in what I view as an attempt to establish her liberal bona fides, attacked (unjustifably, IMO) the respected Black Republican Senator, Edward W. Brooke, in her commencement speech.
Religious moderates enable dangerous fundamentalists. Can’t have God without the Devil.
Here’s a link to support what I just posted about Senator Brooke:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-katovsky/hillarys-first-encounter_b_44279.html
I’ve always believed that Hillary could just as easily have been married to a Republican president and as a result risen in the ranks of the Republican party. Is there anything about her voting record which would preclude her from being a moderate Republican?
Yes, we need video, something along the lines of Bohemian Grove.
Every time we turn around, we got cults, and cults within cults, and cultists accusing other cultists of being cultists - what the hell is going on in this FUBAR country?
Whatever happened to wake up, eat breakfast, kiss the wife and kids goodbye, work, come home, family dinner, enjoy some quality time, mind your own business?
Now everyone with their God’s warriors and secret “families” and insane desires to force the entire universe to adhere to their twisted “morals” and “values”…
Is it the Big Pharma waste in the water? Is that what’s causing the looney-tunes pandemic? Is it the mutant transgenic organisms - er, genetically modified “food” - ? Is it the particulates in the air? All of the above mixed together?
Seriously…
Hillary Clinton’s pastor sent to prison for sexuallly abusing a 7 yo old girl
Judge to ex-pastor: ‘You lied’
When the Rev. William Procanick put his hand on the Bible during his sex-abuse trial in Oneida County Court earlier this year, he swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
But as the former Clinton pastor was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for inappropriately touching a 7-year-old girl at his home last March, Judge Michael L. Dwyer said Procanick sacrificed his honesty the day he testified.
“As a minister of God, you got on the stand and you lied,” Dwyer told Procanick, the 54-year-old former pastor of Resurrection Assembly of God church on Kirkland Avenue.
A jury found Procanick guilty Jan. 22 of first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.
Dwyer said he believes Procanick was being honest when he told the girl’s mother in a recorded phone call that he was wrong to caress the girl’s body while she was trying to fall asleep.
However, Procanick instead testified in court that he did nothing wrong other than spend time alone with the girl, who was a friend of the family, Dwyer noted.
If Procanick had accepted responsibility from the beginning instead of straying from the truth, Dwyer said, Procanick would likely have faced a lesser punishment and possibly avoided jail time.
“The truth would have set you free,” Dwyer said. “You had a chance to be a man and say, ‘I made a mistake.’ But as always, the cover-up is much worse than the original crime.”
Procanick’s defense attorney, George Aney, noted that Procanick still received a sentence less than the maximum, which was up to seven years in prison.
“It’s considerably less than the maximum, but considerably more than he deserved,” Aney said.
Aney also took issue with how Dwyer and the victim’s mother used harsh language to attack Procanick’s Christian values.
“You are just an evil man,” the victim’s mother said Friday in court. “You lied, and you had your wife lie. And all these people who showed up in court to support you, did you lie to them, too?”
The Observer-Dispatch does not identify sex-abuse victims and their families.
The victim’s mother said her daughter is still waking up scared at night because of what happened, and she continues to see a therapist. The young girl also feels that everybody is mad at her, the mother said.
Assistant District Attorney Doug DeMarche Jr. then read a note written by the girl, who did not appear in court Friday.
“Bill made me sad and scared,” DeMarche read. “I thought I did something wrong, because I trusted him.”
Dwyer gave Procanick an opportunity to speak in court, but Procanick had nothing to say to the victim and her family.
Aney did not plan to speak in court, he told Dwyer, but he felt obligated to respond to what the victim’s mother said about Procanick and his wife.
“I believe she shows her own lack of Christianity by referring to people as liars,” Aney said.
After the sentencing, Aney further commented about what was said in court.
“I respect Judge Dwyer for what he said this morning, but I have to say I disagreed with him,” Aney said. “I have every right to express my feelings, and my feelings are that we are not permitted to call anybody a liar. That’s a judgment someone higher than I makes.”
DeMarche, however, said he can understand why the girl’s mother spoke of Procanick in such harsh terms.
“She had a lot of faith and trust in Mr. Procanick, and he violated that trust,” DeMarche said. “I think she’s justified in being angry.”
http://www.uticaod.com/homepage/x1637676857
Now that Obama’s lynching has gone off as planned, think the MSM will run this story about Hillary’s former pastor? Or would that upset the planned election of either Israeli-firster Hillary vs. Israeli-firster McCain?
Games and more games. Doesn’t anyone notice the lack of viable candidates to oppose McCain (or any other Republican for that matter)? All we have thus far are a couple of adults acting like preschoolers, snarling and spitting with little substance behind them. Does Hillary really think being the spouse of a president constitutes serious experience? What a laugh. Does Obama really think he can win on words alone? A joke, right? And worse, we don’t even have a viable opposition party. Imagine setting rules for the party which mean nothing once broken. I have yet to find good cause for voting this time around. In fact, it begins to look more and more like the Bush clones have it already wrapped up. Too bad. We could have used a few debates. But then. This is the United States. Serious debate is not allowed here.
I’d like to know more about what kind of ‘Jesus’ the Family are praying to.
And the world they’re trying to build, what does ‘Jesus’ think it should look like? Is it the one we observe today?
I dimly recall a story in the Bible that told of the return of a re-invigorated Satan in the disguise of a resurrected Jesus and how everyone was fooled - the story ended badly for most everyone.
Prophesies, eh? We sure know how to bring them about
Even if Obama survives the lynching, he will have to drag himself bloodied and battered to face a protected and sheltered McCain. Clinton, on the other hand, if she succeeds in the theft of the nomination, will have all her dirty laundry yanked out of the closet after the nomination. The Republicans are running this show and will have no problem stealing the election. The Democrats, as usual, are doing their best to lose what the public wanted them to win.
kathyodat
I was under the impression that a person’s religion was one’s own business. But instead, we have candidates arguing various tribal beliefs. Oh, everyone’s a Christian? So we believe in God? In Virgin Birth. In Resurrection? In Miracles? I would like to see each Christian candidate closely questioned on their Christian belief. The flood? The creation? Leviticus?
These are fairytales. These are outdated, ignorant, superstitious beliefs of mostly illiterate tribal members.
I think this is mythology, archetypal psychology. These are stories developed by people without written word several thousand years ago. (Miracles happened so much more often, because, in general, people didn’t have the ability to check them out.) Christianity took whatever was available and incorporated it. A tiny bit of education would make you wonder. You might recognize where Christianity came from. When was the last time you saw an angel? Really. Unfortunately, religion is doing a lot more damage than good. People are using fairytales to justifuy death and torture and deceit and war. Mark Twain noted: “At a certain point, ignorance becomes dangerous.”
If you really have to have some superstition to comfort you, some ritual to sustain your chimpanzee heart, maybe you should try Zen. It makes you sit quietly with who you really are rather than project the ancient fantasies of Santa Claus, Jesus, Mohommed etc.
Get a good book on cell or molecular biology. There’s far more there than in the Bible or the Koran. I mean, if you’re interested in the way it actually is. Existence is very complex, very elegant, very mysterious. Start with the truth. Cast aside ignorance. We don’t have that much time.
“Andrew Sullivan was, had heard the name, but only barely. I looked him up, he’s a conservative Libertarian commentator and he said Obama’s candidacy is what we need at this time.” from Kathodat above.
Do you have any idea what Libertarian’s stand for? If so, why would you consider his recommendation, or endorsement of Obama, a GOOD THING? Less Regulation of Corporations, Less Consumer Protection, More State Control (and corruption)of Elections and Education, NO Inspection of Food, Meat, or Imports! (do your own damn testing) That’s only the High-Lights!! NO, Social Security (Grandma, eat cat-food!)Please, do a little research! It’s a philosophy by-and-for the Rich, and Connected!
I have great respect for Ms. Ehrenriech as well, but this time I think she HAS gone into the land of tinfoil headgear. The tone of this article was similar to that of the conspiracy theorists on those “Are UFO’s Real” shows that come up every so often on the hisotry channel. Her description of of “The Family” is reminiscent of the more hysterical Freemason stories or SPECTRE from the James Bond film; a large, saecret society bent on domination, carrying out its activities as the world sleeps, hidden in plain sight. As experience shows us, it’s nearly impossible to get cohesion and discipline, and confidentiality in a local political party- how on earth has this nefarious “Family” managed it for more than half a century?
And as for the “sinister nature” of the family, she offers that they are right wing Christians, and dictators have been members. Do they advocate a theocracy? Want to kill or forcibly convert those whose aren’t Christians? No, they don’t think a pharmacist should have to fill a birth control prescription if he thinks birth control is immoral. I’m not exactly shaking in my boots. It’s easy enough to go next door.
And to condemn Hillary for being a member of a loose-knit organization whose members, halfway around the world, have been dictators, is as silly as condemning American members of the Rotary Club because their German counterparts kicked out Jews in an attempt to appease the nazis.
We have serious problems facing this country, and plenty of people, working right out in the open, who want to take us in the wrong direction. Some of those people in the open are not just wrong, but downright loathsome. We don’t need to go jumping at fictional conspiracies in the shadows when we have trouble enough out in the open in front of us. The conspiracy theory game is best left to television, movies, and books. It’s thrilling, but diverts us from real problems.
I can hardly wait until May! Wish I didn’t feel compelled to say that, but the audacity of slash and burn coming from the Clinton camp has hardened my usually soft heart.
Reply To: Greg Bacon, Oneida County NY, is UpState NY, why would Hillary go to Church There??
To the Others: Obama, is just if not more part of the DLC, as Hillary! Kerry is on the campaign trail with him right now! Despite Mass. voting for Hillary!
Obama did not grow up poor with a single mother. He grew up in Hawaii, with well off Grandparents, in a very diverse culture! Went to a very expensive private, Occidential College, before going to two Ivy League colleges! His father graduated from Harvard as well, and his mother was an anthropoligist! Hardly a ‘Blue-Collar’ upbringing!
He has attended Rev. Wrights church for 20 years! Obviously, and he admitted, he heard some of this “HATE”(whitey & America) speech! Obama choose to stay in that church, and take his daughters! Obama choose to hirer Rev. Wright, and put him on his campaign, on his ‘Faith-based Committee’!
Obama has Strong financial connections to Nuclear Power, Coal, and Wall Street (where he once worked)!
I will NOT, can NOT Vote for either Hillary or Obama!
Neither of them are Progressive! Not even close.
***Country Before Party**Go Green (Party)**votesmart.org**
valsmith - “The conspiracy theory game is best left to television, movies, and books. It’s thrilling, but diverts us from real problems.”
There’s no conspiracy in this, it’s just a fact: Democrats get elected to the Senate, start palling around with Republicans, and then move to the right.
valsmith:
It’s not so easy to go next door when you live in a small town with (at most) a single pharmacy.
And what about the police not having to protect abortion centers they disagree with? Is that OK, too?
AndieG:
There are also Oneida Counties in Idaho and Wisconsin, maybe more. And the story didn’t say where it was that Procanik had pastored to Clinton. Pastors move. (So do politicians, for that matter.)
Also, don’t get so wrapped up in Wright’s rhetoric. Black churches, even black UCC congregations, have traditionally used stronger forms of preaching than a white, middle-class congregation would be comfortable with. (For one perspective, see Eddie Izzard’s routine(s) about the CoE/Episcopalians.)
Sorry, I don’t buy this. I have to believe that Mrs. Clinton is an atheist. If she believed in anything other than her own ego, she would implode.
AndyG, where did you get it that Obama’s grandparents were “well off”? They were working folks. But they were able to support themselves and their grandchildren. Sorry, I guess they were well off by any definition!
Also, I think Obama went to school on scholarships.
Reply To: rjmart01, Since I’ve never heard of Hillary living in Idaho, or Wis., but the Clinton’s do own a house in NY, and she is a Sen. from NY, that he was probably referring to NY! I also followed the link!
If ALL Black Church’s use that kind of HATE speech, it explains the Black Panthers!! Sorry, but Slavery ended a Very long time ago!! I supported Civil Rights! But that was 40 years ago! We have a Black Miss America contest, a Black civil rights org. Naacp, BET Black Entertainment, a Black History Month, and Affirmative Action!! Do you really believe it would be okay for us to have ANY of those White Organizations??
Exactly, how long is it going to take them to become Americans, FIRST?? I’m not a Euro-American, even though my Grandparents immigrated to this country, long after slavery ended!
Sorry, I have nothing to feel guilty over!! And I won’t allow anyone like Rev. Wright, make me! As my father emphatically, told me as a small child, (refussing to teach me any German/Polish his parents spoke) YOUR AN AMERICAN, and you will speak English!! I had Black friends who lived on my street, as a child in the 50’s, so you can’t tell me much about Black people!
TO GLK: Poor, and even middle-class people DON’T retire to Hawaii!! The cost of living is Extremely high! His mother, and her parents were from Kansas, and retired to Hawaii! NOT POOR! Check out the tuition for Occidential College!! (In his history on his web site)
This is all garbage. Come on people. We have a chance to start fixing the mess that Bush has left with either Obama or Clinton.
I used to have a lot of respect for Common Dreams, but if they continue to publish this trash, I’ll be off looking at real issues.
Nietzsche states:
They collect power like a compulsive shopper collects stuff, and once they have it, they figure “What good is it if we don’t use it?”
I would argue that they actually figure “What good is it if we don’t ABUSE it?”
Abuse of power has always been and always will be power incarnated. In fact, I would argue that the words ABUSE and POWER are inextricably linked in more ways than one.
GREG BACON…and OTHERS
Mr. Bacon that is an outright LIE that you posted.
That “reverend” who was found guilty was not Hillary Clinton’s pastor, he was the pastor at the Assembly of God Church in CLINTON, NY, located at:
44 Kirkland Ave.
Clinton N.Y. 13323
(315) 853-1655
rezag@tds.net
Shame on you for posting hateful lies like that!
AndieG, you say that neither Clinton nor Obama are progressives. But they’re a heckuva lot more progressive than you’ll ever be.
It reminds me of The Handmaid’s Tale - the segregated houses, the girls serving at The Cedars…Wow, this country is truly getting scary. Why does god have to overpower everything? In my view of the creator, she is found in waterfalls and mountains, rivers and forests, not in a darkly panelled room with a bunch of suits who can only think about who they are going to screw next. It doesn’t surprise me at all that Hillary is part of this and I really hope it does hit the mainstream news.
glenn goodman March 20th, 2008 1:42 pm
Right on target, Glenn. Another example of clinton trianglulation would be her voting against Alito–but only after having voted against a filibuster of him.
To excuse her as being naive or wrong-headed–or even republican–is simply wrong. She’s much worse–a person whose ambition and needs are so extreme, they obscure her own ego. I dare say, SHE has a difficult time understanding what it is she belives in.
(Larry David wrote a piece recently which, although satire, I totally understood. He claimed that if hillary doesn’t win the presidency, she might commit suicide; I swear I’ve thought the same)
“Exactly, how long is it going to take them to become Americans, FIRST?? I’m not a Euro-American, even though my Grandparents immigrated to this country, long after slavery ended!”
Andie G quote
You have benefited from the generations of slaves who helped build this nation and you are underestimating the seriousness of slavery.
The US had slavery for over 200 years. Several generations grew up under slavery and the children did not receive good food or health care or education. That affected their bodies and their ability to produce healthy children also. Even after slavery ended many blacks were caught in economic slavery where they were only hired for low level jobs and their children were still not educated or given adequate food and health care.
Blacks have suffered over several generations and the US owes them a great deal for making America what it is today. The US stil has not compensated the children of the slaves for what they endured.
It is a sign of how Americans are in denial over their responsibilities that so few Americans have been educated in the public schools about what happened during the years of slavery.
This is part of how far back slavery goes in the US:
# 1642: Massachusetts becomes the first colony to legalize slavery.
# 1650: Connecticut legalizes slavery.
# 1661: Virginia officially recognizes slavery by statute.
# 1662: A Virginia statute declares that children born would have the same status as their mother.
# 1663: Maryland legalizes slavery.
# 1664: Slavery is legalized in New York and New Jersey.
It was not until the mid 1900’s that blacks were finally given some essential rights in the courts such as the right to an education for their children. Even so with all this discrimination over hundreds of years the black culture has given to America forms of music most widely recognized as American, jazz and rock and roll…as well as numerous athletic stars and people in the arts.
“The Republicans are running this show and will have no problem stealing the election. The Democrats, as usual, are doing their best to lose what the public wanted them to win.”
kathodat,
Perhaps, but don’t forget that Nader is running again. That ol’ reliable scapegoat. I wonder if Ralph isn’t actually paid by the Dems to run just so they don’t have to face themselves the morning after.
Great article! Now the “what if?”
What if Clinton gets the nomination?
I can see all the so called progressive sheeple knocking over each other to pull the lever in the voting booth on her behalf.
Interesting how the agreement cascades but no mention of Clinton being elevated to the nomination thanks to the super delegates. The more things change the more they stay the same.
“What drew Clinton into the sinister heart of the international right? Maybe it was just a phase in her tormented search for identity, marked by ever-changing hairstyles and names: Hillary Rodham, Mrs. Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and now Hillary Clinton”…
These comments typify this decidedly mean-spirted attempt by Barbara Ehrenreich, who also went by a different name when still married. She is exemplary of a certain caste of upscale academic women who did not get the respect and entree they thought they deserved from Hillary when she was first lady. They have never forgiven her and seek to bring her down.
War and Religion.
Hillary Clinton is a corporate whore just like her husband. In fact they’re better at it than most.
THE ESSENCE OF FREE MARKET CAPITALISM
Mammon in a New Suit
No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24
Those who wish to subjugate others frequently use a simple tactic that, perhaps due to that very simplicity, is often quite successful. Create a false, highly esoteric model of a straightforward endeavor, then build an intimidating aura of complexity and difficulty around it that convinces most people it’s something they’re just not capable of understanding. “Don’t even think about this. It’s so complicated and so cryptic that you need a special education, a special language and a whole separate set of rules to even begin to understand.”
In some cases, science or medicine for example, the complexity and difficulty are often real. In others, such as religion or politics, it’s an artifice contrived to give the prevaricators free reign to make up the rules as they go along.
The acolytes of free market capitalism have applied this chicanery to economics. Economics is bookkeeping, nothing more. You put what you spend in one column. You put what you earn in another column. When you add everything up you hope the total you earned is greater than the total you spent. That’s it!
Over many decades devoted to greed and corruption the worshipers of Mammon have created a twisted labyrinth of cryptic devices and specious principles that have become a depraved religion of avarice with a prelacy that is evil incarnate. In each case their machinations have been efforts to achieve some short-term advantage, which in turn necessitate further priestcraft to avoid prosecution for the earlier deceit. All they’re really trying to do is make sure the earned total is always much more than the spent total. Sometimes they even manage to earn without spending at all!
Free Market Capitalists are just Libertarians disguised as humans. Mammon in a new suit. It’ a new label for an old evil. The degree of hypocrisy practiced by the New Libertarians is breathtaking. A great number of those advocating “Free Market” principles are also claiming to be devout Christians. The two philosophies are mutually exclusive.
The essence of “Free Market Capitalism” is really pretty simple: A few “superior” people should own and control all goods and services needed by the worlds’ population.
The entire credo could read something like this:
1) Those who possess wealth and power deserve nothing less because, being highly intelligent and ambitious, they are superior and should, in fact, own and control everything of value as only they are capable of deciding it’s best disposition.
2) Despite their worth as human beings, no matter how hard they may strive, regardless of their contribution to the welfare of all, heedless of the fact that the very existence of “civilization” depends upon their labor, workers should live in poverty and deserve nothing more because, lacking intelligence and ambition, they are inferior.
Sort of flies in the face of the Christ himself wouldn’t you say?
“As you do unto the least of these my family you do unto me.”
Matthew Chapter 25 41 17
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ 44 Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ 45 He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ 46 And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Now I know it seems I’m getting off into something of a religious tirade here. Not my intention. I would have to say, if asked, that I am an agnostic. I merely feel it’s worth comparing their claims of Christian enlightenment with the reality of their depraved, malicious actions.
Some are espousing the infamous, utterly fictional “trickle down” theory of the free market. It’s the proverbial rising tide that raises all ships. The only ships raised by this tide are the ostentatious yachts of the obscenely wealthy. All others are drowned in a flood of greed.
Take the old adage about self-reliance: “Give someone a fish and you feed them for one day. Teach them how to fish and you feed them for life.”
The Libertarian would add a third line something like: Acquire, by whatever means necessary, all the places where you can catch fish and then charge everyone exorbitant fees for the privilege of eating.
Put as simply as possible Libertarianism could be thought of as an existential utopian delusion. It really comes down to anarchy. It brings to mind Aleister Crowley with his doctrine; “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” The main problem with the Libertarian fantasy is that, in order for anyone to survive it, everyone must be completely benevolent. Otherwise it comes down to the last one standing.
The entire mélange of mind numbing statistics and theories, all the business jargon and economic mumbo jumbo of Wall Street and corporate “economists” is mostly smoke and mirrors conjured to convince the uninitiated that all is controlled by some mysterious, occult force; “The Invisible Hand of the Market.” There are divine powers at work here, which only the High Priests of Economics can comprehend. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
Capitalism is supposedly based on competition, which is a euphemism for fighting and the ultimate fight is, of course, war. The only war actually being waged is against the working people of the world. There is only one objective: loot and pillage, everything. All the tactics of the generals who wage this war, from the safety of their air-conditioned bunkers, arise from the most primitive reptilian part of the human brain. Like some aggressive, rudimentary neural appendix, it regulates the basest, most savage and primitive urges of our pre-human instincts. Because these abhorrent miscreants act on such a primitive level they are very unified in their efforts. They may be thought of as an intelligent, especially malevolent and particularly vicious parasite. Their inhuman single-mindedness makes them a formidable threat to the welfare and even survival of humanity. Their need for instant gratification and inability to think using long-term inductive reasoning makes them a danger to all life. The statement to the contrary not withstanding, one of the main goals of the free market is to totally eliminate competition. Competitor is another euphemism and should actually be read as “collaborator”. A process of assimilation in the form of acquisition, merger, hostile takeover or some other act of accommodation usually results in the elimination of competition. This illusory “competition” is only necessary to maintain a non-monopolistic facade when there is token government oversight of corporate criminality. Once there is corporate ownership of government, and monopoly is permitted, these “eliminations” are merely formalizations that no “successful” capitalist opposes.
The other prime Libertarian objective is to “privatize” everything. Free market believers really are certain that they have every right to the ownership of all the vital necessities of life. No goods or services, however essential to human survival, should ever be shared willingly between or within “societies”. Everything can be owned and sold for profit and, therefore, must be. Any attempt to prevent this process from becoming the global norm is considered subversive. Free marketers find most attractive those things which are absolutely vital to human survival; such as food, water, energy, clothing and shelter. Services such as medical care are also not to be available to just anyone.
In Bolivia, where the government was forced to sell the public water system to the multinational Bechtel due to World Bank pressure, the experience was even more disastrous. Not only were water prices doubled, local residents were even forced to buy permits to gather rain water on their own property. Water became more expensive than food.
Think of contemporary multinational corporations as a monolithic empire constantly maneuvering to create a global, economic hegemony with a starkly oppressive caste system and you will have a better idea of what “Free Market Capitalism” really is. Libertarians long for a world which they own and a population whose sole purpose is to serve them. There’s nothing free about the “free market” except for those who control it. All these rapacious parasites lust for the same apparently irresistible prize of endlessly increasing profit. They will seek to attain this mythical, unreachable goal by all means conceivable, however vile or inhuman. The free ride will inevitably end however, at the brick wall of reality. For the present, the oppressed pay all the cost of building this empire. Aside from frequently sacrificing large numbers of workers, who are after all only data in a cost analysis, most of the casualties actually come, not from within the corporate ranks, but from the “civilian” population.
Seems like there are strong similarities to our many glorious wars fought with munitions. Those wars, which also mainly kill civilians, are of great benefit to Free Market Capitalism; but that’s another story.
Free market ideology, being extremely shortsighted, assumes that capacity for growth is actually limitless, which allows for instant gratification and no concern for future consequences. This is simply delusional. There is no magic cornucopia of endless resources and no perpetual fountainhead of consumers. To profit from the sale of goods and services requires someone to consume and use them. In pursuing the blasphemous Ark of Total Ownership and the Unholy Grail of Infinite Growth, Libertarianism destroys that which gives it life. A little more religious levity there.
Every corporation in the free market is a pyramid scam. Once such an entity is created, the first order of business for those in the highest ranks is to start looking for ways to cut operating costs. That’s what keeps them atop their particular pyramid. They will cheapen goods and/or services by reducing quality while increasing the selling price. They will find the cheapest environment in which to operate by relocating facilities and outsourcing jobs. They will replace people with machines at every opportunity. They will minimize or eliminate customer service in all but name.
There are many ways to reduce costs but there can never be enough when pursuing the imaginary ne plus ultra of infinite growth. When all other means of cost cutting have been exhausted the focus will be turned completely on labor. Abusive and dangerous work environments will be created by forcing fewer people to do more work in less time with little or no concern for health or safety. Payroll and benefits will be cut until the bulk of the labor force is indentured. This is ultimately a no-win scenario. The people who labor to create the goods or perform the services are the same people who buy and use them. These same workers are victims of usurious practices and inhuman labor demands by the corporate hegemon. Catch-22 anyone? This is a built in self-destruct mechanism and, in a society with a monetary system based on debt, the destruction is inevitable.
A natural consequence of the actions of corporations like Target, WalMart, Halliburton, Exxon Mobile, Coca Cola, Dow Chemical, Monsanto and a host of others, along with the politicians that serve them, is creation of a fascist, neo-feudal system or plutocracy that has basically four classes:
1) The “Royalty”
This would be the titular head or heads of state who will have vast wealth but not necessarily any real power. They are needed to create the illusion of “government” where none exists or, in the case of an actual dictator, maintain control through military force.
2) The “Aristocracy”
These are the Lords, Dukes, Barons and so on; Nobility. They are the most compliant politicians, the CEOs and top executives of the corporate/fascist state. This group will have free rein since they have, by whatever immoral and illicit means available consolidated virtually all wealth and power in their control.
3) The “Merchant Class”
They run business operations for the ruling class, using slave labor or indentured servants, to provide their lords with the goods and services desired. They will be given just enough material wealth to keep them in fear and eager to please their masters, who have the power to strip them of all their possessions and reduce them to poverty at a whim.
4) The “Peasantry”
This is the rest of the population, the masses, the serfs, and all the unwashed sub-humans who are unworthy of a decent life by virtue of the fact that they produce rather than exploit. They are fit only for labor and should be discarded the moment their productivity falls below the required level. These are the blue-collar workers, the once proud and vital American middle class that built this country to, and maintained it at, what was once a very high, if not the highest, standard of living. They, their children, grandchildren and who knows how many generations are being condemned to poverty in the thousands every day.
The first two groups can basically be described as the Master Race. That’s often how Libertarians think of themselves. The fourth class will simply be considered slaves. The third class, are not really masters or slaves but, if push came to shove, the Elite would certainly consider them slaves. Cleaner, somewhat more tolerable slaves but slaves nonetheless.
Free Market Capitalism seeks a return to the conditions that brought about the American Revolution and nearly every violent and non-violent revolution that can be named before or since. If things continue on present course this goal will almost certainly be achieved with one significant difference. For the first time in human history these conditions will be imposed on a global scale. The people of America have been forcibly indoctrinated into a corporate/fascist state. The cancer that has killed America is now spreading to every corner of the Earth.
With the Bush coup d’état in 2000, all pretenses at democracy in the U.S.A. have been abandoned. The non-election of 2004 was a complete sham. When all the wealth and power of a nation is controlled by a very small fraction of the population the resulting class system is nothing more than a slave state, which MUST INEVITABLY collapse under its own putrid, immoral weight, crushing the entire society in the process. This time the implosion may destroy the rest of humanity as well.
Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it.
In a civil society, which America today certainly is not, provisions for the absolute necessities of life are the responsibility of everyone. It is for this reason the people submit to governance in the first place. They pay taxes to a duly elected body that is sworn to act in the best interests of the people and to ensure that those fundamental necessities for survival will be provided to everyone. This includes even those who, because of advanced age, illness, injury or other circumstances beyond their control, may be unable to provide for themselves. This is called compassion and is an absolutely essential element of any functional society. These are concepts that are of no use to the Libertarian and are therefore nonexistent in their belief system. To a true Libertarian there is only one motivation: voracious selfishness. Money is God. Ownership is tantamount. Power is life. Civilization is irrelevant. Society does not exist. Compassion is a meaningless word, a joke. These are creatures that oppress, deride, torment and even kill great numbers of human beings with great relish. They do it because they can and that is the only self-justification they require. The Libertarian is an existential, conscienceless, completely amoral abomination lacking the basic human ability to distinguish between wrong and right.
Among civilized people, cooperation, not competition, ensures survival. Sharing, not starving is what promotes life. People do not submit to governance for the privilege of being oppressed, driven into poverty, enslaved and deprived of their humanity so a few depraved sociopaths can live in opulence.
coldwarbaby@hotmail.com
Obama/Gravel 2008. If fascists assassinate Obama, we get direct democracy via the referendum, corporation’s nightmare.
A republican acquaintance, a cardiologist no less, sent me an email they’re circulating claiming that Revelations says the Anti-Christ will have a Muslim name and will be in his forties. The corporate oligarchy is cranking up it’s smear machine.
I would just like to point out that Hillary Clinton came in third in Iowa and has trailed in delegates ever since.
She has never led in this race, and Obama has had the lead continuously since the first contest in Iowa.
I suspect that if the white lady had been in the lead the entire time and the black guy had been behind since day one the entire situation would be framed differently.
Why do you think the corporate media commentators never point out that Obama has led the entire time? I must admit, I don’t listen to a great deal of their crap, but I know the mainstream press never seems to print that fact.
This story should finish off Hillary’s political career, but it probably will not. That’s because the mainstream media may not even pick up on it. There are too many other “Family” members in the political establishment who would be brought down along with Hillary, and that is something the MSM do not want to happen.
ezflyer
Gee, that could be many many many people. For instance, on Crooks and Liars, a huge number of posters have added “Hussein” to their screen names to take a stand against those who want to “make something of” Osama’s name. I’ve no doubt that many of THEM are in their forties.
Hillary is just a shameless liar, who should follow her old surrogate, Geraldine Ferraro, into obscurity.
After Bush, can America survive aother inept LIAR?
Oh! how the rest of the world would have a running joke at Americas expense.
Away with all gods. And to hell with all those who hide behind them.
sansf March 20th, 2008 1:18 pm
“I am suspicious at best of anything religious, so I sense a political opportunism in her belonging to this group.”
Porcupine March 20th, 2008 3:14 pm
“religion is doing a lot more damage than good. People are using fairytales to justify death and torture and deceit and war.”
exactly, both comments sums up my feelings….
———————————————–
i realize many ‘leftist’ christian organizations were instrumental in changing policy (abolitionist, support for civil rights movement, supported liberation theology and resistance to fascists in latin america).
despite the documented benefits of using community as a tool of resistance, religion is more often a powerful instrument used by elites to manipulate opinion (state oppression); to justify war as moral truth, to force indigenous people to learn colonial languages, to frighten the public of their own ‘human nature’ using hell as a disincentive to regulate unpopular behavior, as a way to debunk science using nebulous texts, as a way to separate people based on socio-economic and ethnic factors (no common dreams here), as a way to censor dissident opinions (listen to bin-laden today threatening the EU) remember the moral majority and their mean spirited policy objectives recommended straight from god via jerry falwell….
i believe that we will have several african-americans, asians and women as president before an atheist will be elected in this country….
also, rev wright’s observations about slavery and cia drug running were accurate….
we need a world government that isn’t influenced by the fairytales of the past 5000 years…
. the last christian died on the cross - Nietzsche
…peace..
Colleen: There have been NO slaves in this country for over 200 years!! None of their children are alive! Maybe their great-great-great-grandchildren, at best!
Americans fought a Civil War to free them, remember?
I was born in 1950, walked to school, with two friends (called Negros back then the polite term)and their Uncle, across town was a teacher (at an also mixed racial school)!!
If this country owes anything to anyone, it’s the Native Americans, who the original seattlers stole it from!! For that I do feel bad. (I have no native American blood, either to the best of my knowledge)
They intentionally tried (and succeed) in killing them off with diseases, gave them alcohol (which they lack the enzyem to digest)and force marched them to arid western ‘holding grounds’, now called reservations!
We, owe them BIG Time!
I just believe that after 200 years of freedom, and 40 years of Civil Rights, it’s about time they decide to become Americans! Not Black-Americans, or African-Americans, it’s about time that they start accepting some responsiblity for their own lives! Stop playing the ‘all you white folk, are guilty, of discrimination, because of slavery’. Sorry I’m NOT! I don’t care about color(s), but people! Who, my great-great-grandfather was is irrelevent! It’s importent who I am, and what I’ve done! Yea, it’s easier if your born rich, or talented, but are you kind??
I will not except the kind of ‘Hate-Speech’ I heard out of Rev. Wrights mouth, and yes, I believe anyone who went to that church again after hearing it, we’re enablers! Obama hiring him to work on his campaign, it saying he approved of it! If that’s okay with you, that’s your right!
By the way, Black men were given the Right to Vote before women! Should I hate all men, or claim it’s all their fault for anything I don’t accomplish?
Guess we’d better IMPEACH Hillary. Is there nothing good about her?
Just wrote that so I could write “impeach”, haven’t seen the word here at CD for a long time. Obviiously we have given up on that, one time major issue.
AndieG
This is for your edification.
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
The United States government did something that was wrong—deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens. . . . clearly racist.
—President Clinton’s apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to the eight remaining survivors, May 16, 1997
For forty years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis. These men, for the most part illiterate sharecroppers from one of the poorest counties in Alabama, were never told what disease they were suffering from or of its seriousness. Informed that they were being treated for “bad blood,”1 their doctors had no intention of curing them of syphilis at all. The data for the experiment was to be collected from autopsies of the men, and they were thus deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages of tertiary syphilis—which can include tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity, and death. “As I see it,” one of the doctors involved explained, “we have no further interest in these patients until they die.”
Using Human Beings as Laboratory Animals
The true nature of the experiment had to be kept from the subjects to ensure their cooperation. The sharecroppers’ grossly disadvantaged lot in life made them easy to manipulate. Pleased at the prospect of free medical care—almost none of them had ever seen a doctor before—these unsophisticated and trusting men became the pawns in what James Jones, author of the excellent history on the subject, Bad Blood, identified as “the longest nontherapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history.”
The study was meant to discover how syphilis affected blacks as opposed to whites—the theory being that whites experienced more neurological complications from syphilis whereas blacks were more susceptible to cardiovascular damage. How this knowledge would have changed clinical treatment of syphilis is uncertain. Although the PHS touted the study as one of great scientific merit, from the outset its actual benefits were hazy. It took almost forty years before someone involved in the study took a hard and honest look at the end results, reporting that “nothing learned will prevent, find, or cure a single case of infectious syphilis or bring us closer to our basic mission of controlling venereal disease in the United States.” When the experiment was brought to the attention of the media in 1972, news anchor Harry Reasoner described it as an experiment that “used human beings as laboratory animals in a long and inefficient study of how long it takes syphilis to kill someone.”
A Heavy Price in the Name of Bad Science
By the end of the experiment, 28 of the men had died directly of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children had been born with congenital syphilis. How had these men been induced to endure a fatal disease in the name of science? To persuade the community to support the experiment, one of the original doctors admitted it “was necessary to carry on this study under the guise of a demonstration and provide treatment.” At first, the men were prescribed the syphilis remedies of the day—bismuth, neoarsphenamine, and mercury—but in such small amounts that only 3 percent showed any improvement. These token doses of medicine were good public relations and did not interfere with the true aims of the study. Eventually, all syphilis treatment was replaced with “pink medicine”—aspirin. To ensure that the men would show up for a painful and potentially dangerous spinal tap, the PHS doctors misled them with a letter full of promotional hype: “Last Chance for Special Free Treatment.” The fact that autopsies would eventually be required was also concealed. As a doctor explained, “If the colored population becomes aware that accepting free hospital care means a post-mortem, every darky will leave Macon County…” Even the Surgeon General of the United States participated in enticing the men to remain in the experiment, sending them certificates of appreciation after 25 years in the study.
Following Doctors’ Orders
It takes little imagination to ascribe racist attitudes to the white government officials who ran the experiment, but what can one make of the numerous African Americans who collaborated with them? The experiment’s name comes from the Tuskegee Institute, the black university founded by Booker T. Washington. Its affiliated hospital lent the PHS its medical facilities for the study, and other predominantly black institutions as well as local black doctors also participated. A black nurse, Eunice Rivers, was a central figure in the experiment for most of its forty years. The promise of recognition by a prestigious government agency may have obscured the troubling aspects of the study for some. A Tuskegee doctor, for example, praised “the educational advantages offered our interns and nurses as well as the added standing it will give the hospital.” Nurse Rivers explained her role as one of passive obedience: “we were taught that we never diagnosed, we never prescribed; we followed the doctor’s instructions!” It is clear that the men in the experiment trusted her and that she sincerely cared about their well-being, but her unquestioning submission to authority eclipsed her moral judgment. Even after the experiment was exposed to public scrutiny, she genuinely felt nothing ethical had been amiss.
One of the most chilling aspects of the experiment was how zealously the PHS kept these men from receiving treatment. When several nationwide campaigns to eradicate venereal disease came to Macon County, the men were prevented from participating. Even when penicillin was discovered in the 1940s—the first real cure for syphilis—the Tuskegee men were deliberately denied the medication. During World War II, 250 of the men registered for the draft and were consequently ordered to get treatment for syphilis, only to have the PHS exempt them. Pleased at their success, the PHS representative announced: “So far, we are keeping the known positive patients from getting treatment.” The experiment continued in spite of the Henderson Act (1943), a public health law requiring testing and treatment for venereal disease, and in spite of the World Health Organization’s Declaration of Helsinki (1964), which specified that “informed consent” was needed for experiment involving human beings.
Blowing the Whistle
The story finally broke in the Washington Star on July 25, 1972, in an article by Jean Heller of the Associated Press. Her source was Peter Buxtun, a former PHS venereal disease interviewer and one of the few whistle blowers over the years. The PHS, however, remained unrepentant, claiming the men had been “volunteers” and “were always happy to see the doctors,” and an Alabama state health officer who had been involved claimed “somebody is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.”
Under the glare of publicity, the government ended their experiment, and for the first time provided the men with effective medical treatment for syphilis. Fred Gray, a lawyer who had previously defended Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, filed a class action suit that provided a $10 million out-of-court settlement for the men and their families. Gray, however, named only whites and white organizations in the suit, portraying Tuskegee as a black and white case when it was in fact more complex than that—black doctors and institutions had been involved from beginning to end.
The PHS did not accept the media’s comparison of Tuskegee with the appalling experiments performed by Nazi doctors on their Jewish victims during World War II. Yet in addition to the medical and racist parallels, the PHS offered the same morally bankrupt defense offered at the Nuremberg trials: they claimed they were just carrying out orders, mere cogs in the wheel of the PHS bureaucracy, exempt from personal responsibility.
The study’s other justification—for the greater good of science—is equally spurious. Scientific protocol had been shoddy from the start. Since the men had in fact received some medication for syphilis in the beginning of the study, however inadequate, it thereby corrupted the outcome of a study of “untreated syphilis.”
In 1990, a survey found that 10 percent of African Americans believed that the U.S. government created AIDS as a plot to exterminate blacks, and another 20 percent could not rule out the possibility that this might be true. As preposterous and paranoid as this may sound, at one time the Tuskegee experiment must have seemed equally farfetched. Who could imagine the government, all the way up to the Surgeon General of the United States, deliberately allowing a group of its citizens to die from a terrible disease for the sake of an ill-conceived experiment? In light of this and many other shameful episodes in our history, African Americans’ widespread mistrust of the government and white society in general should not be a surprise to anyone.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762136.html
65 Years Later, America Apologized
As for your
“I will not except [sic] the kind of ‘Hate-Speech’ I heard out of Rev. Wrights mouth….”,
it doesn’t matter if you accept it or not. You don’t know the difference between justified anger and hatred. No doubt you’d disapprove of any anti-Hitler rants, too.
jesus! god help us.
Unfortunately, while recuperating from military service, I actually helped to build/rebuild “The Cedars” in the late eighties. That is to say, I know this place by the blisters of my very own palms. Don’t let the words “tin foil hat” distract you from Barbara’s scratches on the tip of this fascist iceberg. After all, you are all floating on the good ship lollipop, the titanic Xian empire of PNAC.
Yes, it was horrible, and wrong! But are you aware that consciensous(sp?)Objectors during World War II, such as the Amish,(Friends) I heard it on NPR radio, volunteered to be exposed to radiation, to determine the effects! Similar things happened to orphans, in Mass. in the 30′ and 40’s!
You really didn’t need to post the whole Muskeegee thing, I’ve heard about it, it was horrible too. But “Our” government didn’t JUST do bad medical stuff to ‘Black’ people!
I was in the military, and so was my husband (70’s), he was exposed to Agent Orange and died at 56, from Lymphoma! (his family all live into their 90’s and 100’s) Does that give me the right to Hate America??
Maybe just the Military, or the chemical companies??
I don’t believe in Hate, revenge, or jealousy! Their like poison, they’ll destroy you! You let it go, learn from it, and move on!!
ColdWarBaby,
Entertaining and interesting comment. I agree with the great majority of it. I would add that many members of the oligarchy seem to think that they just may get away with it now because of the power of modern technology, especially computer and communications technology, which can potentially enable the few to exert much greater control over the many.
The gun has been called the “equalizer” in human history, as it gave every individual the ability to kill every other individual and made absolute despotism much more difficult to manage. Modern computing technology may end up being the “unequalizer.”
AndieG - you should visit the bookstore/library and ask the clerk for books on the civil rights movement. then after you’ve spent a few hours looking through the titles - reading; do a little research online and compare basic standards in america b/w whites and blacks stats like life expectancy rates, rates of incarceration, disparities in incomes and then come back to this thread and say discrimination doesn’t exist in this country.
also.. rev wright spoke the truth learn how to do a little research andie,
the cia uses cocaine as a tool. why it’s the white protestant thing to do. columbia which has received more military aid than any country save israel, also consider the price of cocaine in the US has dropped proportionately to the amount of military aid we send to columbia to prop up a right wing government (bush used cocaine, his brother is married to a columbian and his niece, jeb’s little one, was strong out on crack).
we send more money in military aid they make more cocaine, all the money supports black ops for the cia (through people like noriega for specific situations like iran-contra). meanwhile the government is imprisoning poor black people for cocaine possession. i digress…. the original article about cia running drugs in the hood..
http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/webb.html
Cocaine pipeline financed rebels
Evidence points to CIA knowing of high-volume drug network
by Gary Webb / San Jose Mercury News /Aug 22, 1996
rev wright speaks the truth, the shame is MSM ignores the facts and refuses to put information into historical context and a significant amount of the american public has refused to do their homework. they’re lazy, brainwashed and ignorant and they (us, american public/empire) are not WINNING any wars in fucking jesus’ name. in fact if our current president extends his rampage into iran the entire world could experience nuclear war. like condensing history and imagining the crusades followed by the bubonic plague. all in one real fast.
“religion is the opiate of the masses” - karl marx
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hey kem,
good call, thanks for the reminder..
“We did it!
We reached a million!
1001256
the number of people
who have already voted
in the referendum
to Impeach Bush!”
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer
….peace…..
This is very good and useful information. I used to respect Hilary quite a bit, but since her massively negative campaign against Obama - she has become nearly as repulsive to me as G.W. Bush.
Barack Obama has the audacity to suggest that the USA has a deeply rooted racial problem. It’s important for us to stand with him on that issue. Far too many Americans are choosing to sweep it under the rug - saying that it’s not their problem. It’s every American’s problem, and it must be confronted and dealt with, not ignored.
After the way that Hilary has handled herself, it is very very disappointing to see so many still supporting her.
I can’t beleive Barbara Ehrenreich would stoop this low. So many of you are so hateful towards Hillary that you will believe anything and lap it up with gusto! I now question the validity of all B.E.’s books. If she is so quick to take this garbage as truth, what does this say about the “facts” she presents in her published works. I am disappointed. While I have your attention, why is it that Saint Obama never talks about his life between 1989 and 2004. He is a man in his late 40s, but his public resume only mentions his years as “social activist” in Chicago and the 2 years as Senator that he used as a springboard to run for president which means he has spent more time campaigning than working. Another point, he will turn his back on anyone who hinders his lofty political aspirations–starting with his grandmother who is left stranded in a shack in Kenya without electricity or running water–No I am not talking about his white grandparents who helped to raise him while he went to private school in Hawaii. How could anyone leave their own kin in those conditions? Maybe he doesn’t want to spend too much time on his African heritage? Race is a touchy subject for this man–unlike for MLK with whom he is often compared or his pastor from whom he is currently running.
There were also the men in the military, who without their knowledge were given LSD! They were white, and had no recoarse!
White people, women, and Hispanics, go to jail for drugs too. It wasn’t just in the ‘Hood’!
At a certain point, people have to accept some responsiblity for their own actions! We sit here and wonder, why after two hundred years, different religious sects, still hold grudges, and kill each other! Somebody did something to a specific group, two hundred years ago, and their still killing one another!
At what point do you say enough? Did anyone from ‘that’ group do anything to harm YOU? Do you really think Barack Obama, has suffered because he’s Black? In Hawaii? If you answer yes, you’ve never been there!
Bring up, hundreds of years old ‘wrongs’, doesn’t make anything better! Hating, and teaching hatred, doesn’t help anything!
Yes, there are disparencey, between ‘black’s’ and white, in number in jail, and health, I’ve also seen studies, that when you take only poor white people and compare the same number of poor black people the numbers even out! In other words, it’s not ALL race, it’s also about Income!!It’s about Class! If your born Rich, you eat better, get better food, and go to better schools! Yes, more black people are born poorer then white people! Men make more money then women!
Life’s NOT Fair! Do something about it!! Go to school! At night, (I did). Go without a few pizza’s, or whatever! Save so you can buy a house, even if it’s NOT your dream house! (I did, and it’s a moble home, after being homeless, I was glad to have it)! Now, we own three!
Hating, holding grudges, isn’t going to make it better!
PL
You don’t think Hillary belongs to this group?
Good heavens, all you have to do is research it. But all you’ve done is say you don’t believe it. You certainly haven’t rebutted it with any facts. You’ve got to do better than that, unless of course you don’t want to know the truth.
She does belong to it and has for decades. She rubs shoulders with conservative power at these so-called prayer meetings and thinks Christianity is all about human political power, not meekness and humility.
America certainly needs a change. This is all we’ve had for at least three decades, power-mongering, fear-mongering, and war-mongering, and it is precisely this evil-mongering that has brought us to the edge of disaster.
“TERRE HAUTE, Indiana (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton unveiled a second economic stimulus package on Thursday ”
Think that will help? George is trying to bribe American voters with a ’stimulus’ which amounts to less than what he has spent monthly for each and every Iraqi man, woman and child. Has that ’stimulus’ helped the Iraqi economy? It has only ’stimulated’ the pockets of his Merchants of Death - and graveyards.
hey andie,
i do do something about it, but that’s not the pont here. i agree with you that class disparities are at the root of most if not all of our problems. we’re on the same page. however, the consequences of genocide and enslavement (exactly what the slave trade was) just don’t magically dissipate. the US was late in the game for abloition of slavery. but the consequences of those errors are abundant. have you talked with many african americans at church lately andie?
also you ignored 2 points. anney’s point that as recently as 40 years ago african americans were subjects for human testing … did you miss the point white people weren’t denied treatment for syphilis ?
and did you ignore the fact that the US government funnels cocaine into impoverished black neighborhoods (read the link i posted, andy, cover your ears for you’ll hear words like crips and bloods). did you notice that the crack wasn’t flooding neighborhoods like black oak, rippling creek or maplewood out there in the white suburbs (i mean gated communities)?
hey you said you looked at incarceration figures, do you see any connections in the concept it’s more likely an african american male will go to prison than college? there is oppression in this country, you don’t recognize it because you haven’t looked for it - you’re waring blinders.
also the cia tested LSD on civilian populations randomly on the subways, it has nothing to do w/ racism in america. did you watch mississippi burning andie? (it didn’t happen ‘200′ yrs ago, it’s always been happening, it’s happening right now)
….peace……
AndieG, here’s a suggestion. This has been done before, so you wouldn’t be the first. Get some deep-bronze makeup and a dark, Afro-type wig, and pretend to be black for a day — a whole day. See how it feels to be a black person in the U.S. of A, circa 2008. Try hailing a cab in mid-town Manhattan to get a ride up to 125th Street. Try walking into Hermes or Tiffany’s and see how far you get through the door. Try applying for a loan for your business or for an A-rated mortgage or buying a car at the local car dealer and see what kind of a deal you’re offered. Try renting an apartment in that upscale part of town and see what the realtor says (try: “sorry, no vacancies”). Those are just a few ideas.
Until you’ve walked in the shoes of an AFRICAN AMERICAN, you are in no position to judge.
By the way, if my husband served in Vietnam and the government poisoned him with exposure to Agent Orange and then lied about it and denied responsibility when they knew damn well that Agent Orange was poison to our soldiers, yes, I sure as hell would hate my country for that. For someone who says there’s no point in hating, you seem pretty angry at black folks.
It’s very gross that Ehrenreich has become such a flack for Obama. Another mind lost to the apocalyptic delusion that Obama Christ will save us all. That she has become so very mentall infeebled that she kneels so fervently at the American Idol, makes me sad. I guess I can ignore anything Ehrenreich says from now on. Another voice of reason gone the way of America’s Next Top Model. I assume Ehrenreich will take over hosting show?
andie G and others:
I think everyone who hasn’t taken the time or feel they know the content of Obama’s Philadelphia speech should give it a go. I might just become historic. It doesn’t have quite the passion of some of his others but then he didn’t what to get “Deanonized” or become a caricature of the black Wright type preacher. He blends and weaves ideas, ideals, problems, emotions and ultimately solutions so calmly and masterfully that by the end you feel like you where back in college and just completed the most stimulating course by extraordinarily gifted professor that your thinking of switching your major.
I’m not sure why there hasn’t been more articles, discussion, or comments about this memorable speech delivered in the heat of battle but you can fine some top flight articles on Huff Post if interested.
Even though I have lived in Hawaii for 35 years and live just up the street from Punahou school where Obama went to school, he only was my fourth choice behind Kucinich, Gore, and Edwards. But I really think there’s something happening with Obama …… Mr. Jones…..
When Barb gets wild, who knows what else could come out of her pen!
Simply stated, Hillary’s pastor never uttered “God damn America”; but, Obama’s (or Osama’s) pastor did.
In America, we say “In God we trust”, not “May the almighty Lord besmirch America”.
Baraq Hussein Obama, Jr. is not fit to serve this nation. Let’s put it this way.
there is more to the “family” than the information contained in this short article. maybe the upcoming book will cover the whole thing. seems this group goes WAY back, and is not Christian, not American, and certainly not something clinton or any thinking person should consider joining.
please, folks, read up on this “family”, back to its beginning, and then make a decision. i think Barbara did a good thing, bringing this out; i’m only sorry her article did not begin at the earliest record of this group, so there would be full understanding of the unsavory characters involved in this.
Hillary’s former minister convicted:
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/6117
Clinton’s former pastor sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting a 7 year-old girl
Obviously it’s Hillary’s fault, toss her in jail too.
~Riverdude~ has posted a couple of comments, (reed em and “weap”).
Andie G
It has been about 140 years since slavery was outlawed in 1865. And some illegal immigrants are considered to be held in involuntary servitude today in US court cases… involuntary servitude is considered a form of slavery.
The last person who was legally a slave died in 1979
Why should native Americans get better treatment than Blacks?. The US has a long history that has not been good on human rights. The history of the native Americans contains an attempt by the US governmnet at genocide which has been largely successful. There are very few native Americans now.
Well I am the last person to think someone should become an American first…etc etc. I’ve given up on America… and moved to Canada. The US is corrupt and immoral and filled with badly educated and arrogant people. So I can not say anyone should be American first. The nationalism of so many Americans quite literally disgusts me considering what America has been doing…
I have not heard the speeches by Rev Wright..but I have heard some hatred based upon race from other blacks and I criticize them …
I think there should be some sort of education in the public schools telling the truth about America ..and some museums that give graphic details about slavery.
I would like to see praise for blacks that they have given so much to America and survived a prejudice based upon racism, that is only recently beginning to be questioned.
“Bring up, hundreds of years old ‘wrongs’, doesn’t make anything better! Hating, and teaching hatred, doesn’t help anything!” AndieG quote
If ignorance is bliss t’is folly to be wise. Americans are ignorant of all the wrongs done by the government and that ignorance is leading to arrogance and continued immorality.
I remember way back when Barbara Ehrenreich was a serious journalist. Now she’s just another shill for Obama.
More than half of official Washington attends the National Prayer Breakfast, along with Hillary Clinton.
So what?
There aren’t any facts in Barbara Ehrenreich’s ludicrous smear of Hillary Clinton.
Does it matter?
It would have mattered, way back when Barbara Ehrenreich was a serious journalist.
Can Ehrenreich, or someone, please explain why she finds Jeremiah Wright “unsavory”? This seems to be the universal reaction of pundits, but I just don’t get it. I have heard several statements attributed to him that don’t seem terribly radical. Apparently he said America was founded on racism. I’m all right with that. Surely its a historically reasonable claim that the economy was built on slave labor and that politically, if the founding fathers had extended equal rights to blacks, they would have been run out of town. Is this controversial? Barbara Jordan pointed out the political disenfranchisement 30 years ago on the floor of the US House of Representatives in a famous speech on the Nixon impeachment. The role of slavery in the colonial economy is even a part of popular culture– has anyone seen the popular musical “1776″ (”Molasses,
Rum and Slaves” that linked the northeast and the deep south in the slave trade)? I’d like to hear some discussion of what Wright said, instead of knee-jerk reacions.
Wright also said in regard to 9/11, that we were getting back some of what we had been giving. Those are crude words, but there is an element truth that the pundits and the politicians (apparently, including Obama) still aren’t mature enough to discuss.
This is a mudslinging political hit-piece anyway, based on guilt-by-association. I’ll agree that Doug Coe and his organization are a bit scary, but bible study and prayer are what connect Clinton to him, not the foreign policy history of his organization. We do not need to dig up a private connection with her spiritual guide in order to have a discussion about Clinton’s likely policies on human rights and foreign policy. She has a public record on these issues, for goodness sake.
Rush Limbaugh and Hilary Clinton want people to vote for Hilary. They want them to get swept up in the emotional fog, and ignore the facts. Hilary has supported the invasion & occupation of Iraq while Barack Obama supported them. Over 800,000 dead Iraqis, over a million crippled - and Hilary, like McCain & Bush - think the invasion and occupation are good things.
Hilary supports the military industrial complex, while Obama wants to talk to our enemies to make peace.
The American establishment (Hilary, McCain, Bush) does not want the status quo to change. They do not want to admit that the USA is a huge problem for the world, due to it’s military industrial complex and greed based culture. They do not want to talk to our enemies to try to make peace. They do not want to admit that the USA has a deeply rooted, severe racial divide. They prefer that we remain stupid, conceited, arrogant, and militaristic.
Those who want to move forward, those who want to see changes for the good of everyone - should get behind Barack Obama.
It is a huge miracle that he is running and a golden opportunity for all us who would like to see a better nation, and a better world to get firmly behind him.
http://www.BarackObama.org
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“We live in a nation hated abroad and frightened at home. A place in which we can reasonably refer to the American Republic in the past tense. A country that has moved into a post-constitutional era, no longer a nation of laws but an autotocracy run by law breakers, law evaders and law ignorers. A nation governed by a culture of impunity … a culture in which corruption is no longer a form of deviance but the norm. We all live in a Mafia neighborhood now.” Sam Smith
“24.9 percent of American children live in poverty, while the proportions in Germany, France and Italy are 8.6, 7.4 and 10.5 percent. And once born on the wrong side of the tracks, Americans are more likely to stay there than their counterparts in Europe. Those born to better-off families are more likely to stay better off. America is developing an aristocracy of the rich and a serfdom of the poor - the inevitable result of a twenty-year erosion of its social contract.” Will Hutton
*****
“To oppose the policies of a government does not mean you are against the country or the people that the government supposedly represents. Such opposition should be called what it really is: democracy, or democratic dissent, or having a critical perspective about what your leaders are doing. Either we have the right to democratic dissent and criticism of these policies or we all lie down and let the leader, the Fuhrer, do what is best, while we follow uncritically, and obey whatever he commands. That’s just what the Germans did with Hitler, and look where it got them.”
Michael Parenti
*****
“We’re not in the business of providing news and information, We’re simply in the business
of selling our customers’ products. ”
Clear Channel CEO Lowry Mays
*****
“For most of the history of the American empire, government has been a tool for preserving and furthering the power and might of white male corporate elites …”
Cornel West
Correction - third sentence above should have read:
Hilary has supported the invasion & occupation of Iraq while Barack Obama has opposed it.
Thanks for your post, Max. I like the Parenti quote.
evil bastards use whatever they can or need to secure their power and their various fixes - if it was more expedient to call themselves satanists and have black masses they would - they are not christians - they are not anything - empty and meaningless and craving naught but power - there is no point in participating in their folly - better to mock them and begin the work of building our own lives in a world that needs a lot more nurses than politicians - there is no “political solution” to our crisis, any more than math can solve a pang of grief - build your own lives and do what you can along the way to knock the struts out from under the dull witted machine that eats what it cannot enslave - mccain, clinton, obama -