Amen, Rev. Wright!

The whole Obama/Wright mess calls for an expansion of the social context in which thoughtfulness and intelligence can be honored. Like the Moyers show, we need more places where minorities are empowered to report on the health issues that affect them. And more places where constructive insights regarding the golden rule and military rule can stay on the table.

Let's never forget: there's a great big world out there for responsible adult minded people, outside of the horserace/fistfight brought to you every four years by the Democratic and Republican "parties".

Reverend Wright the nigger!

Banjo man did you press and iron your brown shirt just to visit us here at CD? Awwww how sweet, now run along like a good dog and adsorb some more hate filled filth from Fox/Lush Dimbulb and the rest of the war mongering corporate media that rationalizes killing millions of brown people so you can drive your big SUV in safe secure comfort. Your friend the hoot owl.

"About the only wrong thing in this article is the impression, that "the US is at an intersection".

There is no intersection. Just war business as usual. And nothing is going to change that. NOTHING"

I reall agree with this. Nothing will change, because deep down American(s) really won't put up with any fundamental change at all, and that is what is needed. Sacrifice, hell no.

China murders more Tibetans in a month than Israel kills Palestinians in a year. Yet you do not protest.

Power_Slave

You hypocrite, even if it were true why don't you force your government to invade China and stop borrowing from them to finance the coalition genocide in Iraq.

As for Valimir: ask your government to pull out of the Space Station.

Talk is cheap.

I supported Dennis Kucinich, and when he dropped out of the race, I supported O'Bama. However,I have no illusions about any one of the three current candidates. None will bring us the "change" we so desperately "hope" for, I fear:

Hope for Corporate America
By Chris Hedges
April 28, 2008
The corporate state is our shadow government. Candidates who aspire to higher office get corporate money if they promote corporate interests. They are shut out of the national debate—look at Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader—if they do not. Defy the corporate state and you get handed a ticket to oblivion. You become invisible. Work for it and you are showered with tens of millions of dollars and the possibility of political power.
Barack Obama's campaign message, filled with lofty promises of change and hope, is also filled with repeated reassurances to the corporate elite. Pick up a copy of Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope." The subtext is clear. It is a steady reminder to corporate America, a reminder bolstered by Obama's voting record, that corporations would have nothing to fear from an Obama presidency.
"Of course," he writes, "there are those within the Democratic Party who tend toward similar zealotry. But those who do have never come close to possessing the power of a Rove or a DeLay, the power to take over the party, fill it with loyalists, and enshrine some of their more radical ideas into law. The prevalence of regional, ethnic, and economic differences within the party, the electoral map and the structure of the Senate, the need to raise money from economic elites to finance elections—all these things tend to prevent Democrats in office from straying too far from the center. In fact, I know very few elected Democrats who neatly fit the liberal caricature; the last I checked, John Kerry believes in maintaining the superiority of the U.S. military, Hillary Clinton believes in the virtues of capitalism, and just about every member of the Congressional Black Caucus believes Jesus Christ died for his or her sins."
He praises the "recognizably progressive" Bill Clinton, whose disastrous welfare reform he lauds, for showing that "government spending and regulation could, if properly designed, serve as vital ingredients and not inhibitors to economic growth, and how markets and fiscal discipline could help promote social justice. He recognized that not only societal responsibility but personal responsibility was needed to combat poverty." Obama excoriates "those who still champion the old-time religion, defending every New Deal and Great Society program from Republican encroachment, achieving ratings of 100 percent from the liberal interest groups. But these efforts seem exhausted, a constant game of defense, bereft of energy and new ideas needed to address the changing circumstances of globalization or a stubbornly isolated inner city."
"Our Constitution places the ownership of private property at the very heart of our system of liberty," he writes. "Our religious traditions celebrate the value of hard work and express the conviction that a virtuous life will result in material reward. Rather than vilify the rich, we hold them up as role models, and our mythology is steeped in stories of men on the make—the immigrant who comes to this country with nothing and strikes it big, the young man who heads West in search of his fortune. As Ted Turner famously said, in America money is how we keep score."
The corporations have gotten the message. The same Beltway lobbyists, corporate donors and public relations firms, the same weapons manufacturers, defense contractors, nuclear power companies and Wall Street interests that give Clinton and John McCain money, give Obama money. They happen, in fact, to give Obama more. And the corporate state, which is carrying out a coup d'état in slow motion, believes it will prosper in Obama's hands. If not, he would not be a viable candidate. We have come full circle, back to the age of the robber barons and railroad magnates of the late 19th century who selected members of corrupt state assemblies to be their pliable senators and congressmen and sent them off to Washington to do their bidding.
There have been some important investigations into Obama's links with major corporations, including Ken Silverstein's November 2006 article "Barack Obama Inc: The Birth of a Washington Machine" in Harper's magazine. Newsweek has also detailed many of Obama's major corporate contributors. Obama's Leadership PAC includes John Gorman of Texas-based Tejas Securities, a major supporter of Senate Democrats as well as the Bush presidential campaigns. It includes Winston & Strawn, the Chicago-based law and lobbying firm. It also includes the corporate law firms Kirkland & Ellis, and Skadden, Arps, where four attorneys are fundraisers for Obama as well as donors. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Henry Crown and Co., an investment firm that has stakes in industries ranging from telecommunications to defense, are all funding the Illinois senator.
Individual contributors to Obama come from major lobbyist groups such as those of Jeffrey Peck (whose clients include MasterCard, the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) and Rich Tarplin (Chevron, the American Petroleum Institute and the National Association of Manufacturers). Exelon, a leading nuclear plant operator, based in Illinois, is a long-time donor to the Obama campaign. Exelon executives and employees have contributed at least $227,000 to Obama's campaigns for the United States Senate and for president. Two top Exelon officials, Frank M. Clark, executive vice president, and John W. Rogers Jr., a director, are among his largest fundraisers. Obama has also accepted more than $213,000 from individuals (and their spouses) who work for companies in the oil and gas industry, and two of Obama's bundlers are senior oil company executives who have raised between $50,000 and $100,000. I could go on, but you get the point.
Obama, as you will see if you examine his voting record, has repeatedly rewarded those who reward him. As a senator he has promoted nuclear energy as "green." He has been lauded by the nuclear power industry, which is determined to resume building nuclear power plants across the country. He has voted to continue to fund the Iraq war. He opposed Rep. John Murtha's call for immediate withdrawal. He refused to join the 13 senators who voted against confirming Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state. He voted in July 2005 to reauthorize the Patriot Act. He did not support an amendment that was part of a bankruptcy bill that would have capped credit card interest rates at 30 percent. He opposed a bill that would have reformed the notorious Mining Law of 1872. He did not support the single-payer health care bill HR676, sponsored by Reps. Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers. He supports the death penalty. He worked tirelessly in the Senate in 2005 to pass a class-action "reform" bill that was part of a large lobbying effort by financial firms, which make up Obama's second-biggest single bloc of donors. The law, with the Orwellian title the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), would effectively shut down state courts as a venue to hear most class-action lawsuits. This has long been a cherished goal of large corporations as well as the Bush administration. It effectively denies redress in many of the courts where these cases have a chance of defying powerful corporate challenges. It moves these cases into corporate-friendly federal courts dominated by Republican judges. Even Hillary Clinton voted against this naked effort to allow corporations to carry out flagrant discrimination, consumer fraud and wage-and-hour violations.
Obama likes to paint himself as an opponent of the war. He reminds voters of his one—and only one—speech opposing it. But he swiftly changed his mind. Obama told the Chicago Tribune on July 27, 2004, that "there's not that much difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage. The difference, in my mind, is who's in a position to execute." Obama added that he "now believes U.S. forces must remain to stabilize the war-ravaged nation, ¬a policy not dissimilar to the current approach of the Bush administration." Obama wants to leave an estimated 50,000 troops in Iraq to protect our superbases and the Green Zone, our imperial city; to fight terrorism; and to train Iraqi forces. He traveled to Connecticut to campaign on behalf of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a leading proponent of the war and an advocate of airstrikes against Iran, when Lieberman was challenged by the anti-war candidate Ned Lamont. And when Obama talks about the Palestinians he reads dutifully from the script handed to him by Lieberman and the Israel lobbying group AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Obama's policy director is Karen Kornbluh, who as a senior aide to Robert Rubin, the head of the Treasury Department during the Clinton administration, pushed through NAFTA and other free-trade policies that unleashed the assault on organized labor and devastated the country's manufacturing sector. And Obama's senior economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, who teaches economics at the University of Chicago, privately assured Canada's consul general in Chicago in February that Obama's NAFTA-bashing "should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans," according to a leaked memo of the meeting. Most of Obama's senior advisers, including Penny Pritzker, a member of one of America's richest families and the current finance chair of the campaign, have a long history of oiling the government apparatus for corporate interests and personal enrichment. Pritzker was the chair of Superior Bank of Chicago. The bank collapsed in 2001 with over $1 billion in insured and uninsured deposits, and 1,406 people lost nearly all their savings. The bank owners, who fabricated profit reports, made much of their money promoting risky subprime home mortgages. Those around Obama are as wedded to corporate interests as those around Clinton and McCain.
Obama is an articulate, intelligent and attractive politician, but he is also a corporate figurehead. A vote for Obama is a vote for the corporate state. Under an Obama administration, the corporations would continue their ruthless drive to disempower the citizens, to protect an entrenched American oligarchy and to subvert what is left of our faltering democracy.

And what I forgot to say is that we also need to forgive ourselves which doesn't mean we get to shrug our shoulders and forget it ever happened. But if we can't forgive ourselves, and others, for the "imperfect" ways in which we've treated each other in the past - then it's too scary to even look at the issue. When we can forgive we don't have to forget - counterintuitive but true.

The difference between "bad people" and "good people who did a bad thing" is the willingness to confront, attone, and begin to behave differently. Barack Obama drew us a picture of that path - it's up to us to choose to walk it.

For well over a century now the "white" residents of the United States have projected their "shadow side" onto a never-ending sequence of "darker others." We've chosen to see many of the qualities we fear and deplore in ourselves - the violence, the greed, the hatred, the imperfections, etc. that are all part of the human palette - onto these "other" people so that we didn't have to confront them in ourselves. We made them less than human
in our attempts to excuse the horrible things we did to them.

We called them "Injuns," "Savages," "Chinks," "Japs," "Niggers," and now "Ragheads." What we didn't call them was Brothers and Sisters. It's well past time for us to realize that we've come full circle. There are no more "dark people" onto whom we can project our failings. All we can do now is look in the mirror, confront our fallibility, and begin to heal. Oh, and one HUGE APOLOGY to those we have injured so grievously is definitely in order.

Reverend Wright is only telling us the things we're rather not hear, and the measure of our emotional rejection of his message is the measure of its truth.

As the author of this piece, it's sad to read all the angry and destructive things people write back and forth to one another, whether they are on the "right" or the "left."

Use your energy instead to go out and do something to improve the world.

Rev. Wright's speech tonight was amazing. I especially liked when he said "Arabic is a language, not a religion"

For those who've responded here and suggested I don't care about Darfur or Tibet, that's not correct.

At this point in history, though, as a US citizen, I have to speak out when my tax dollars are so criminally misspent in the Middle East.

Does this mean I think that Arabs or Muslims are always right and Americans or their allies (principally Israel and Turkey) are always wrong? No. There is nothing in what I wrote in my article yesterday that states that.

Instead of spending time and energy jumping to rash conclusions and sending out angry and hateful remarks to this comment section of Common Dreams, go read some books on US foreign policy, the Middle East, the history of the slave trade, or the decimation of Native Americans.

Peace and Justice (they are inseparable)

Zinjabeelah

I understand Rev Wright made comments to the effect that USA international policies had led to the 9/11 atrocity.

There is no doubt in my mind that is true, however as an outsider looking in at US diplomacy, I will go further and say that President Bush in his first foreign policy speech in 2000, when he promised unconditional support for Israel, lit the fuse which resulted in the 9/11 tragedy.

Palestinian sympathisers/terrorists who had stayed their hand as long as Clinton played an honest broker had in their minds no option but to take unilateral action.

Laurie King- Irani, You are right to the point and your written words are soothing as well as powerful. I am also at odds with family and associates where so much finite tunnel vision is operating.

hakoiri,
You are also spot on in your denunciation of that obscenity who calls itself banjoman. But calling him(?) a moron is just too kind. A name like "dry heaves" seems more descriptive.

In mr Greg Plast's book "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" on page 62 "Bad TRIPS at the WTO" , Argentina has the ability to make the AIDS drugs dirt cheap . With 25.3 million people going to die in Southern Africa , Argentina proposed to ship the drugs to Southern Africa for $2.00 per day per patient . The gaint pharmaceutical companies
howled about the proposed shipments and complained to the U.S. President Mr W.J.C. ( whose wife is presently a presidential candidate ) . Mr W.J.C. then put his V.P. Mr A.G. in charge of the U.S. trade
cops . The shipments to the dying 2.5 million people were halted and poor Argentina who was already having economic problems was threatened with sanctions . When Mr Nelson Mandela suggested that South Africa could issue compulsory licences for the local manufacture of AIDS drugs to save some of the 2.5 million dying patients Mr A.G. threatened him with the WTO hammer . Later in 2000 the N.Y. Times reported that Mr W.J.C. had saved Africa . He proposed a billion dollar a year loan to the African nations . The pharmaceutical companies had just agreed to sell the drugs at reduced rates . $2.00 per day per patient
. This took Argentina , India , and Brazil who all have the ability to produce and ship the drugs completely out of the picture . Mr W.J.C. ( lobbyist ) had put millions of people's health in jeopardy while he worked a deal . It also meant that the U.S. and or the World Bank coughed up a large sum of money to some nations that may not be able to make payments on the loan . But the big pharmaceutical companies and the dealer ( lobbyist Mr W.J.C. ) are collecting .
While Mrs W.J.C. is campaigning and promising jobs and good wages Mr W.J.C. (lobbyist) is presently working on an addendum to his NAFTA deal to out source more jobs to Columbia . I now know what "smoke and mirrors" really means .

I'm disappointed in Obama for dumping Wright so completely today, goaded by a pundit-driven witch hunt. After hearing Wright's speech to the NAACP in Detroit, and most of his speech to the National Press Club, most of what Wright said Americans wouldn't find extreme. His only problem was that he didn't kiss the Corporate Big Media hindquarters sufficiently -- as they put it, he wasn't 'humble' enough, meaning he wasn't Uncle-Tom contrite for speaking the truth as he sees it, the one thing the Punditrocracy abhors above all else. They like their politicians and pastors to lie as much as they do.

Of course, the Punditrocracy reacted hysterically to Wright as if he wanted to boil white babies in the name of a black Jesus -- they're in the business of tearing down Obama now before he meets their aged War Hero McCain next fall. It's worth remembering that if the Big Media were right in their temporary obsessions, the Iraq War would have been a success and Giuliani would be the GOP nominee.

The thing that's troubling here is Obama's campaign devolving into the Gore 2000 and Kerry 2004 debacles wherein the BM Pundits called the tune and the Dem candidate danced to it. You notice on the rare occasions when Republicans are slapped for sticking with a campaign strategy, they don't change their ways, flustered that some David Brooks-clone might complain.

I was proud that Obama, in his famous Philadelphia speech, stuck by Wright while disagreeing with some of his words; he should have continued to do so, as well as defend Wright's freedom of speech and those things his pastor said that he agrees with -- he should have turned the tables on the BM and, in the process, showed them that he wasn't going to cooperate with their guff and received the approbation of those who think he might not be 'strong' enough to be president.

Instead, in what I think is a tactical, but not fatal, error, he caved. If Obama thinks this is going to end the Wright media-created 'controversy' he's wrong -- now we'll hear the right-wing talking points that's he's a craven politician consumed with ambition who dumped his friend of 20 years just to cater to the media.

At some point, if he doesn't want to end up like Kerry and Gore, Obama is going to have to run his own campaign and defy the BM -- now would have been a good time, before the fall campaign starts in earnest. It's a shame he missed this opportunity to stand up for his friend, our rights, and the truth.

I still love Fox(y) news, by the way.

Try it…maybe you'll be a bit happier. I am much happier than you..I feel a bit sorry for you. Take that frown turn it upside down. YOUR friend there hackori, banjoman.

--The condescending laugh of a republican has been a rather nervous one of late I've noticed. I remember when Clinton was in power, there were lots of frowns and vitriolic froth, especially during the Lewinsky scandal. The self-righteousness was so thick you could almost cut it with a knife.

However, once Bush got into office many jumped with joy, believing that now we'd be a more 'godly' nation. But the vitriol against what they called the 'left' did not abate. They did not even know how to be gracious in victory. And all Bush and his cronies did was advance their agenda of predatory capitalism, betraying many of those who put him in office. All one can do is sigh at the irony of it all.

Well, banjoman, good luck with you getting your direction from fox/foxy news. Perhaps, you'd be happier discussing these issues at a site more in line with your views--nah, it's more more fun to taunt us hen-pecked liberals, right? ;)

Ms. King-Irani,

You're right, of course, absolutely correct. The problem as I see it is that we are too late in the game; America is on its way down to Hades and there's nothing we can do to stop it.

True Jdragon, it was whites in Uk & US who stopped the slave trade. But it was also white males who dessimated (sp) the native peoples of the New World and the third world and it might have been the "norm of the time" but it is the US, Can, NZ and Aus who did not sign on to the "rights of indigenous peoples," just recently. If we cant deal with our "darkness" we can't continue to develop our "light" which is now so overshadowed by greed, violence, and war the Yin/Yang symbol shows but a sliver of white.

Wright is right. Rock on Namaste!

hey heMAN, take your bs and stick it up your arse with the rest of your crap. real men don't have to announce that they are men, bud! we live it by standing up to bullies like you.

banjoman, do you understand what misogyny means?

Hmmmm...missed that one there, hakori. Sorry 'bout calling you a female..

Guess you just sound a bit feminine the way you rant and rave.

Guys handle situations a bit differently, that's all. Sure hope some gal doesn't have you henpecked...lots of liberal men are, you know.

If so, just tell her to back off and that you "still have a pair." Oh, and try them on occasionally....they feel pretty good there, hak. I'm just lookin' out for you buddy!

your friend as usual.....banjoMAN

mr mcmackle, I've got a question for you: What exactly is a WACKADOODLE and what did Mr. Wright say in his interview with Bill Moyers to make you think he should be classified as such?

Thank you very much.

well there you go again showing your ignorance, banjoman. i'm a guy, and not that it matters to you, but a very attractive one at that i've been told. i make no claims about my looks one way or the other. if you mean i'll be happier by being a brainwashed fox viewing cretin like you, i prefer to remain mad as hell. AGAIN YOU MORONS JUST DON'T LISTEN.....I'M MAD AS HELL NOT SAD OR MISERABLE. if you feel sorry for me feel sorry for the right reason: i, and other thinking individuals ,have to share the same nation with dittoheads like YOU! you're like bulls in china shops. you break everything you can and crap on the rest.

Boy oh boy there hackori.....Why so mean spirited..I am neither troglodite or moron.

let me try you, once. I know not your gender by your name, unlike mine, but if I had to 'bet', I'd bet you're a female.

And a not so pretty looking one by your own standards either...no wonder you're so mean spirited....men won't pay attention to 'your looks'....because YOU don't pay attention to 'your looks.'

I'd bet you'd be alot happier if the opposite sex took more of a notice to you.

I still love Fox(y) news, by the way.

Try it...maybe you'll be a bit happier. I am much happier than you..I feel a bit sorry for you. Take that frown turn it upside down. YOUR friend there hackori, banjoman

go back to whatever rabid right wing enclave you're from and tell them it really is true: the liberals are elitists! but you know, moron, we really aren't elitist or smug. we just seem that way to you because you are on such a lower intellectual level. of course we seem smug and elitist to you cretins. it would be like you moronic fools trying to explain quantum mechanics to a three year old, if you even knew what that was. we know the glazed deer-in-headlights look you igits get when we talk reason to you. you just don't understand because you are incapable of understanding.

i don't drink with the enemy. i'm not miserable or sad. i'm mad as hell along with the rest of thinking america. and i'll lightned up when cheney/bush are standing trial for war crimes. then i'll lighten up more when they're spending the rest of their pathetic existances behind bars . i've watched faux news, including bill o. why do you think i'm so anti-fox bs? it's all right wing propaganda for the underachieving non-thinking troglydites you seem to identify with. if you REALLY think fox is unbiased, then please let me interest you in a bridge i have for sale. if you're just yanking my chain, then the offer to go to hell still stands you ignorant moron!

banjoman, you are right, name calling is a lame last resort. but "thank god for fox(y) news" and "in a white neighborhood" and then asking others to be objective makes me realize the dinasour for which you are. are you one of those that believe that humans used them for transportation at some point during the last 4000 years that the world has been in existance? when i watch fox(y) snews i am very impressed how the glazed look of the eye candy does not prevent them from reading the teleprompter. o'reilly does do some groundbreaking stuff also. I'll spend the rest of the day working on my objectivity and i hope you continue to enjoy the kool-aid. peace

NAMASTE: Love the graphics!

RSJ: Right on!

ceti, atheist is a derogatory term used by irrationalists. by calling yourself an atheist you are only acknowledging the very thing that you do not believe in. imagine, one day, the world led by those that believe in the scientific method instead of mysticism. how about a prez. candidate confessing his/her belief in that which can be proven rather than appealing to people because he/she worships an idea (not even a hypothesis) that has very little chance of being validated. it is no wonder that people villify the truth or those that speak it.

Jeepers Creepers there hakori,

No need for all the names....the truth must have struck a nerve with you, though.

Try Fox(y) News. try not to be so miserable and sad. Lighten up a bit, and then a bit more.

I bet we'd have a good ole time if we poped a beer or two.

Seriously, watch Orielly at 8PM. Come on...just try it...I'll never tell...and neither should you...banjoman

I was just thinking, what do the Clintons themselves know about loyalty? They turned to Reverend Wright in their own hour of need when Bill was involved in the Lewinsky scandal. After watching him I can see why they trusted in his strength, compassion, and moral authority to counsel Bill during his darkest hour. But since the black community turned away from Hillary and cast their lot with Obama, all bets are off and he became fair game, a stand-in for punishing all blacks, eminently exploitable as the boogey man who strikes fear in the heart of whites. Hillary's using him this way, while personally knowing and respecting Wright in the past, was the last straw for me.

go to hell banjoman. you've proven your stupidity. that's what we need more of in this country: more mindless fox news junkies whose highest level of understanding can be found in a dick and jane reader. keep up the good work moron!

You bet I'm serious. I stopped watching the evening news because I got so disgusted with their biasses.

Only of late have I been able to pick up Fox News.

They report ...you decide.....the only thing better that Bill Orielly is the eye candy.....Have you ever seen so many 'foxy' women with brains to boot all in one place. I mean, even Amy Goodman would be alot easier to take if she would simply get a hair brush and some eye makeup.

Fox's females look great...case closed. Perhaps more women in your circles wouldn't be such "men haters" if they tried to improve their appearancesa bit more and men would notice them.

A little "oogling" never hurt anyone and deep down, I believe women enjoy it. (they'd never admit it in a million half lifes, though)

I'm sure this post will go over like a lead balloon, but who cares...the truth is the truth, and you know it.

your friend, banjoman

Rich Griffin (April 26th, 2008 1:54 pm) wrote: "Christianity obliterated african religions; christianity has always been used to oppress african-americans, to make them accept their lot in life. All religions are delusional and harmful. Churches can do some good, but on balance are toxic places for discrimination to breed and for the mental illness of religion to be fostered on the world."

That's right and all organized religion, except for, perhaps, the Ba'hais and the Unitarians, teach harmful discrimination the moment you walk in the door: "My God, or my path to God, is better than yours." It is only a short step from that to forcing others to accept your religious views. What's ironic here, of course, is that the three major religions in the world all worship the same Old Testament God of Abraham and Moses, yet they fight anyway over trivia. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be ignored by the pious, and Thou Shalt Not Kill, except for economic reasons and governmental stability.

Daniel David (April 26th, 2008 2:25 pm) that pastor should lose his tax exemption, but I bet he won't. Illegal church political advocacy seems to be fine with the IRS, as long as you're a conservative.

Power_Slave (April 26th, 2008 3:20 pm), the fact is, you don't know if Rev. Wright protests these things or not, unless you've listened to all of his sermons. From watching him on Moyers' show, I tend to think he might very well condemn those things.

Lauri King-Irani is right on Wright and, if I were running Obama's campaign, I'd book him on every TV and radio outlet that would have him, even Fox News. It's easy for the right to fight a scary unknown black preacher -- a vessel into which they can pour all of their contemptible racist bile -- but it would be much harder for them to berate a flesh-and-blood Christian quoting the message of Jesus.

Obama should also start defending Wright by pointing out that he's a distinguished Marine Corps and Navy veteran and, as such, has the right to say anything about his country he pleases. Unlike Bush and Cheney, Rev. Wright enlisted to preserve our freedom of speech, so when he feels like taking it out for some exercise, he has earned that right by his service, without whining from the right-wing peanut gallery and the Hill People, most of whom never served in the military.

I think this would play pretty well with the white blue-collar voters the Big Media claim are going to Hillary. I have heard Viet Vets, after a couple of beers, say approximately the same things as Wright is being condemned for -- time to rip the mask off of this silly guilt-by-association media dance: Wright should be honored as a hero of truth rather than a hater of America.

Namaste, good thoughts. I hope your world comes into reality and we slay all of the dragons -- bloodlessly, of course.

banjoman! are you serious about faux news?! it the damned propaganda machine for the cheney/bush regime! you retard!

(from the other rev wright article)
What do you think little children learn from this clown? They were sitting right there...mere babies...absorbing like sponges!

That white people are the ENEMY?

If we ever are to become a 'color blind" society, this kind of hatred must stop.

Did you see the 1.2 million dollar home Wright is about to move into…in a white neighborhood? Why don't you talk about that?

Thank God for FOX(y) NEWS. All the rest would have swept it under the rug…..and you know it.

I actually considered supporting Obama in Nov….that is until I heard this hate spewing Rev. Wrong telling black people that I am against them because I am white….It's just plain sad, that's all. Very sad…

And you folks buy into it…hook line…and sinker and that's very sad, too. Why can't you be objective…FOR ONCE!!!!!!TRY IT!!!!

your friend, banjoman

"...the United States is at a very dangerous intersection."

Indeed, in fact the crossroads has been there ever since the ideas of "City of Light upon the Hill", "Manifest Destiny" and "Exceptionalism" appeared.

The bottom line is: Does the Statue in New York harbor represent the "Lady of Light and Liberty", or is she a "Madam in a Fat Car"?

"If a nation cannot face the truth about the past, it's not likely to survive the challenges of the future."

Then I guess the majority are in for a rude awakening in the not-to-distant future. Problems cannot be solved "at the same level of thinking from which they were created".

When I heard what Reverend Wright had to say I couldn't see what was so terrible about it. Most of what I heard was the truth. But, there is an element in this country that doesn't like the truth. They were the people who were going to try and use it destroy Obama. The kind who are going to do everything humanly possible to ensure their continued power and our downward slide into obscurity with their failed policies. I don't know why people can't see these people's agenda either?????? It's as clear as the nose on my face. I don't know what has happened to us as a nation? But, it's frightening. We have become what we continually rail against.

thomas j hussey! do you know who has led to the demonization of farrakhan? no not hillary clinton you ignorant twit, it's farrakhan himself. he's a bigot! he's a goddamned fear/hate pushing bigot! now if you think he's anything else, then you must be of the same ilk. you DO NOT represent America anymore than fred phelps, pat robertson or farrakhan! they are all a bunch of bigotted hatchet men who represent the WORST in America! JUST LIKE YOU YOU IGNORANT TWIT!

Great Article.

Unfortunately, the Barbarians are at our Gate again.

The Cheney type hunters, racists and Warmongers of PA have spoken and they intend to have a profound voice in this election cycle.

Hillary is leading the charge for Israel and with her in the white house we will achieve McCains vision of the 100 year war.

Hillary and I may be "ONE" at an ethereally ineffable place, but … … …

My vote will not be limited by DIEBOLD, as it is cast from BEING'ness, nor by false choices AS IF any mere ballot can HOLD my prescription for ( unprecedented & universally everlasting ) _ C H A N G E _.

But then, I'm still intent on
___ I M A G I N E ___ and
_ D R E A M I N G _

¿ … perhaps you can join me, too … ?

Rev. Wright hasn't said God D##N America as many times as I have myself. Sound bites, phffff, no thinking human being would misconstrue and delve deeper to hear what more there was to his sermon that day! I do part ways re; Louis Farrakhan, NOI MURDERED Malcolm X, he espouses the wearing of niqab and abaya for women, he is a Fundamentalist in regards to al-Islam, for these reasons myself knowing al-Islam he is wrong, Farrakhan not Rev., we all have persons we find a kinship with that are not perfect, hmmm, humans, huh??? If only the Murderer in Chief would comprehend such things. Humanity, is to what I refer, laughable of course, bush and the EVIL-DOER will suffer great hardships until, in the EVIL-DOERS case doubtful, death. If only sooner, it would be greatly appreciated by many.

People can't get away from religion because they cannot get away from belief. Our parents, educational system, and churches all teach us to worship belief. Just believe, they say, no need to test it's validity. If you don't believe, you will go to hell. Do we really need to believe at all, or do we believe because beliefs give us a sense of security, false security? One of the silliest lines is one I remember from the movie, 'The Polar Express,' "Seeing is believing, am I wrong?" No, seeing is seeing, you do not have to believe in anything you see for yourself.

Folks, please ignore mcmackle. Only wants to stir up the pot and wreck a very thoughtful discussion. Sad that trolls have too much time on their hands these days.

Wright, in the transcript: You can't be whatcha ain't seen. And so many of our young boys haven't seen nothing but the gangs and the pimps and the brothers on the corner. They've never sat and talked to lawyers, they've never sat and talked to a man, a black man, with 2, 3 degrees!

Ok, that may be true, but it doesn't have to be, and it shouldn't be. It is a cultural defect in the US that the socioeconomic stratification is enforced with the zero-sum, king of the hill, every man for himself "American Way". It's rotten, it's a rotten foundation to try and build a society on.

There are two elements to the solution: First, we get rid of the institutionalization of the socioeconomic stratification, then what remains of it is dealth with by bringing members of the different occupational sectors to the town hall and have them talk to the kids, the young adults, to their parents, members of their communities. This is the kind of thing that successful societies do. Get used to it. And tell the news to that "guy you'd like to have a beer with" in the oval orifice.

mcmackle, it must feel great to be sooo smart. You see things so clearly, unlike the other folks here, or is that what Rush
said on his show?

As George Orwell so eloquently and presciently stated in the book, "1984" -- "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

People, The problem is the right wing lie machine.

Their truth is different from our truth. We know that the USA has had a long bloody history of imperialism and violence. We know that capitalism is based on the ideology of Social Darwinism and might makes right. We think in an entirely different way from right wingers.

Right Wingers say clearly that our truth is false. They claim violence and competition is the only good and cooperation based societies are evil or irrelevant. These are irreconcilable differences. Only violence will solve these differences. Right wingers need to be killed. Jefferson understood this. That is why he called for frequent revolutions.

And MY Jewish friend who only worries about Jews and who presents one lie after the other. Shame on you and may your head be fitted to an appropriate size guillotine.

The interview was great. It should be an eye-opener to the American Bible-thumpers, flag-wavers, death-chanters, and those who believe "ignorance is bliss". In a short time Rev. Jeremiah Wright has demythologized some of the American myths. He is right that mis-education in America (both at home and in educational institutions) is one of the major causes for the ignorance that has resulted in arrogance and self-righteousness. The foreign policies of successive American governments manifest this arrogance and self-righteousness. I wonder how many Americans have read Howard Zinn's "People history of America"? Only such books and writings will redeem Americans from their ignorance about themselves, their country, and peoples around the world.

His words "Different does not mean deficient" strike at the very root of racism, classism, casteism, and sexism.

If one actually reads or listens to Obama's Philadaphia speech, one would not likely say that he 'dumped' Rev,Wright. It's true his 'clarification' of his relationship with his pastor was rather political, but he was also very specific about not disowning him. I am sorry that Obama was unable to publicly agree with his pastor's views,(as I do) but given the way it all will be managed by the corporate media and the Republican slimers, there is no way he could do so. His speech was already more complex, nuanced and truthful than most Americans can tolerate-given their problem with Attention Deficit Disorder. If Obama had tried to explain the Reverend's views as the pastor was able to do with Bill Moyers, he would have been politically lynched. The 'Good America' mythology seems to be all that too many folks have to sustain themelves...sort of like religion and guns...and revealing the blood in the gullies of America the Beautiful is too much to take.
That Philadelphia speech gave me a hopeful feeling that his desire for unification may in fact be about real truth and conciliation rather than the usual wimpy 'bi-partisanship' which is just another word for giving in to the Republican bullybrats.

Yes, Laurie. Let us thank Bill Moyers for presenting an opportunity to listen to Rev. Wright to actually understand where his passion comes from. I really fear that my USA is moving away from the ideals of pluralism, freedom of speech and thought and religion. Bill Moyers is almost alone in holding back the flood waters of facism in my opinion.
Without a citizenry who are educated in humanities, who are capable of understanding nuance and paradox and dissonance, I really worry that we cannot sustain our democracy.

I believe that Obama is at once truly patriotic and aware of at least some of our past and present errors. Whatever his shortcomings, he strikes me as cerebral, sincere, progressive and conciliatory. Hillary Clinton is intelligent, but she is a lying, triangulating, Machiavellian narcissist who would bring nothing but bickering and hardball politics to a presidency which will face unprecedented military, foreign relations, economic, constitutional, environmental and healthcare crises. The aptly named Jeremiah Wright may be a bit strident, but sometimes one has to be to make an unpopular but necessary point. Socrates, Jesus, Gandhi and King could be strident, too, and got killed for their efforts.

Voxclamantis, iammyself and ceti, thank you for your excellent posts.

"Yet, he owes his fellow Americans an apology, for choosing, 5 days after the 9-11 tragedy, to focus on blame. "

Why? Wright was warning against exactly what happened, that America would avenge this injury ten-fold and even a hundred-fold. Why shouldn't America reflect on the hidden history of the US role in the world, especially to a CONGREGATION, to explain the revenge is a very dangerous place to be? His sermon was perfectly timed.

It's just telling that some Americans would rather lapse into solipsism. Reverend Wright was brave to warn against meeting terror with terror. Too bad, the country can't listen to this.

I am an atheist, but fully appreciate Reverends like Jeremiah Wright who speak truth to power, and have to face down the consequences from the ugly side of America. His compassion and love of humanity shines through in this interview beautifully. Bill Moyers is also one of the last remaining people on TV who have any shred of decency and integrity.

Unfortunately, there seems to be too many white Americans who INSIST on being fooled by the corporate media, just so that their resentment and bitterness can have a convenient outlet. It has always been easy to work on the prejudices of this segment of the population. Sadly, they have the power to keep empowering the military and corporate elites that have been pillaging and plundering the Earth for five centuries now.

Also an answer to the sodomy issue, Wright's church is at the forefront of embracing gay and lesbians in the community. He has made an extra effort to include them, especially difficult in a congregation that may not understand why. The sodomy reference is actually about police brutality if you read it carefully enough (like what happened to Abner Louima).

Wright is right on so many things. It is sad, but indicative of the overpowering of the corporate media to define and frame the public sphere, that Obama had to reject him.

http://wrightisright.wordpress.com

Alot of us on the left saw 9-11 as blowback from a world in which decades of malevolent U.S. meddling has created WAY too much sorrow and hatred and WAY too little true democracy, freedom, and peace.

But MOST of us knew better than to express such sentiments while the blood of the world trade center was still drying. A more immediate, more empathetic emotion drew us to recognize the suffering and heroism of our fellow citizens on that day. Tragedy on that scale deserved no less.

Rev Wright preached 5 days after the massacre that he agreed with the sentiment, expressed elsewhere, that Americas 'chickens were coming home to roost'. He then recounted a litany of shame of American transgressions over the years, all unjust and all true. And ALL completely irrelevant to the pain and sorrow being experienced by his fellow Americans in those days.

I saw the Moyers interview. I left convinced that Rev Wright is a deeply committed, deeply intelligent source of good in America, and HAS been for decades. He's walked the talk in his community in ways too many Pastors refuse to do in any but the most perfunctory manner. He certainly doesn't deserve to be judged on a sound-bite. Yet, he owes his fellow Americans an apology, for choosing, 5 days after the 9-11 tragedy, to focus on blame. The focus, five days after 9-11, should have been on sorrow. Monumental, unaccountable sorrow, of the sort that can never be fully explained or encompassed; not in a sound-bite, not in years of therapy.

Time enough for the blame sermon later.

I definitely think he's secure enough in himself to give that apology and move on. People who care enough to make a difference occasionally make mistakes. Indeed, they are the only ones who do.

"I agree with Barack Obama that the United States is at a very dangerous intersection"

Actually. Obama, who dumped the truth speaking Wright at the first sign of controversy, will take us straight down the highway to hell.

http://www.deepjournal.com/p/2/a/en/1427.html

"The United States is in the grip of a soft coup, the Brzezinski faction has won over the power elite, and the neo-cons are already lame ducks -- since last fall, says veteran political analyst Webster Tarpley. He finds that "Zbig" also controls two of the three front runners for the presidency -- Barack Obama and John McCain, but that Obama is the elitist favorite for a facelift to the tottering empire.

Author Tarpley paints Obama as a Brzezinski protegé who has been scripted in the role of messianic figure, a key ingredient in the planned hysteria of the "people power" coups perfected by the CIA and its NGO's in Eastern Europe, and now brought home to short-circuit America's political process.

Thus the title of the just-released exposé, "Obama The Postmodern Coup: Making of a Manchurian Candidate." It depicts Barack Obama as a deeply troubled personality, a megalomaniac front man for a synthetic revolution by intelligence agencies using fake polls, mobs of swarming adolescents, super-rich contributors, and an orchestrated media honeymoon, to seize power.

Tarpley names Obama's close links to the Ford Foundation. He avers that Obama has never won public office in a contested election; that his guru and controller is Zbigniew Brzezinski, the "deranged revanchist and Russia-hater who dominated the catastrophic Carter presidency;" and that all indications are that Brzezinski recruited Obama at Columbia University a quarter century ago.

"Obama - The Postmodern Coup" advances the thesis that Trilateral Commission co-founder Brzezinski is seeking a global showdown with Russia and China, which is far more dangerous for the United States than the Bush-Cheney Iraq adventure. Obama's economics are seen as pure Skull & Bones/Chicago school austerity and sacrifice for American working families, designed to bail out the bankrupt Wall Street elitist financiers who own Obama. "

Hillary would simply give us a mix of the neo-cons and Zbig factions, so we still end up at the same place, on the bottom. No change with these 3 choices.

The Reverend Wright knows what Barack Obama knows: One is a religiious minister, the other a politician. They live and work in different circles, but intersect each other's circles where it comes to their faith and core beliefs.

I noted no rancor in Wright's voice when he talked about Obama's choice to play the politician's role. He even came out and said that they each had a role to play, and that was what they were doing.

I wish Obama had stood his ground just a bit more, but I am not Obama. He had his own reasons and since my crystal ball is still on the fritz, I can't clearly see what they were. I will say that if he attended so many services that Wright gave, and considered Wright his pastor and mentor, then in his core, he agrees with Wright. If he agrees with Wright, then he has something that is worth supporting and letting play out during his tenure as president.

Bill Clinton had charisma, smarts, and some real-world experience. Yet, for all that was invested in him, he turned out to be a rather slimy character, all too willing to use anyone he could to advance himself. Obama, for aligning himself with Wright, seems to have something that Clinton didn't have - character. Knowing what I now know, I think I'll take character over all other personality traits in my next president.

You have to be impressed by the choices presented in this election cycle. The voters, as usual, have a choice between being informed and swallowing prepared lies. They have a choice between the status quo and change, between piracy and morality, between the reptilian and the cerebral, maybe even between the phony and the not-so-phony. The candidates themselves are making choices, Machiavellian choices to be sure, but tempered by the uneasy knowledge that not all the voters are as easily fooled or as uninformed as their campaign ad makers would like to think. How far should Obama distance himself from Pastor Wright? He's trying to calculate how many Indiana and North Carolina voters have seen the Moyers interview, how many will buy the BP Media version? Watching this fairly transparent dilemma play out on reality TV is very interesting. How much truth can you tell? How many votes will it cost you? If the consensual dream of America is a fabric of lies (we are not racists, we are not terrorists, we are not in a recession, our health care system is just fine), then either of the two possible outcomes will be ok. Either a painful awakening will begin to occur, or we will continue deeper into the self delusion and misery we collectively deserve.

Here is the transcript of these two superb progressives, Moyers and Wright:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04252008/transcript1.html

America was founded by the norm of the times. There were Ugly acts, and you have forgot some history. It was the whites of the US and the UK that stopped the slave trade.

Rev Wright's words are not harsh truths of today. They are word trying to force people to live in the past, and instill hate in the minds of black America.

I was especially proud of the Rev. Wright's spirited defense of Louis Farrakhan in the face of Moyers's attempt to put a ritual denunciation of Farrakhan in Wright's mouth.
It was Hillary Clinton who has led in the demonization of Farrakhan. And 10,000 Hillary Clinton's are not worth a Louis Farrakhan or Jeremiah Wright fingernail.

Later that same night, Tavis Smiley interviewed Phil Donahue on his new DVD, BODY OF WAR. Two very powerful exposures of the ignorance of Corp Media and the people that buy it.

I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
peace,
st john

Massud lends credence to the possiblity that a few cretins might have tuned into to Moyers' interview of Rev. Wright.

obama dismissed rev.wright's words as not his own......just because he went to his church for 20 years does not mean he agrees with everything that rev.wright siad...obama CANNOTt CONTROL REV WRIGHT.....just like hilliary CANNOT CONTROL BILL'S MOUTH ALL THE TIME.....when was the last time hilliary denounced something bill said > (anyone ?)

America is bad! America is bad! Piss on America! There, I have given one of the greatest speeches of our time.

Thanks for this great article about a great interview. Rev. Wright calls it like it is and that's why he has been getting death threats, just like Malcolm X and Ward Churchill have.
Anyone who missed this interview, missed one of the greatest speeches of our time.

The most uimportant mission for an American is to get other Americans to understand the true history of the United States and its junkyard dog, Israel. These two countries are a danger to the whole world. The US has a history of murder and pillage that is unique. Only its ally, Britain, even comes close. We must make everyone aware of what the US has done if we want to change the American attitude.

Power slave: Your facts are wrong and devious. You are an apologist or defender of Israel, one of the worst human rights violators in the world. What Israel does is far worse than what China or even Zimbabwe does. More importantly, Palestininas are not part of Israel. Tibet is part of China and Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe. There are protests against China but not Israel so you are wrong again! What is being done to Gaza is far worse than what is being done in Tibet. Tibet is not a large prison being denied food and fuel. Two wrongs don't make a right. You must be a jew, or a born again nut. Your post is a bunch of lies. China didn't steal Tibet, it is part of China. Israel stole everything it has. These parallels are ridiculous as is your post. I know you won't change. You are in very deep denial trying to preserve your twisted values. All you care about is you and yours, whoever they are. Your position is inhuman.

Thank you Lauri King-Irani.

Thanks for posting the video here. Wright is a well-spoken, thoughtful man. And Bill Moyers represents what journalism is supposed to be.

In the Moyers interview, Jeremiah Wright came across as a domestic version Desmund Tutu. Wright should be giving lessions in true christianity to the religious right nutjobs.

I'm sorry, but Americans take religion far too seriously. This is just another example of this. Why can't people get it through their indoctrinated heads that it's all dogma? If everyone would just take one simple truth from the Bible, and I'm sure all religions have a similar tenats, then all the rest is rendered redundant: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That's all you need to know.

Rich Griffin - I had the same initial reaction when Wright used the word "sodomy" in the interview, but again, we need to be careful not to jump to emotional reactions, which is how this whole controversy started in the first place. In context, Wright was talking about the imprisonment, rape, and sodomy that has been inflicted on people as a form of terror - he is referring, I am sure, to cases such as when NYPD sodomized a Haitian immigrant with a nightstick, and not to consentual sex between adults. At least I hope that Wright, who came off as fair-minded, intelligent, kind and compassionate, with justifiable anger, and a clear understanding of the limitations of a literal reading of the Bible, would not fall prey to the homophobia that infects so many "Christian" ministers today. Thank you Bill Moyers for the interview.

I watched this interview with a kindred reaction, and was reminded of the co-opted upsuckery to Hou$e Bushelzebub that characterizes the head-&-heart-hardened borne-again Christian right.

They're like tanked fish, their mouths moving at demonstrably-thoughtless "faith" in the "literacy" of "scripture"...we remember the Old Testament prophets by their gut-fired moral outrage against the excesses of power against the people. The effete, smug butlery to same--the Pat Robertsons & Jerry Falwells--make for a pitifully forgettable and effectively souless "Neo"-contrast. Bully Pulpiteers, Multi-Millionaire War-Pharisees, Chickenhawk Toadies.

It's difficult to imagine anything they've ever said having a spiritually-dignified claim on "posterity".

Wright, on the other hand, came across as in and of the proven moral 'old school' --a deeply-soulful, mindfully-heartfelt career, not flinging delicate sprinkles of 'holier-than-thou' water on the flames, but full buckets, properly heaved.

Why in "God's Name" should a Faith worthy of itself expect less? "Patriotism" indeed remains the "scoundrel's last refuge". The infected embrace of church & state has put that in our collective face. It's a political obsenity that we'll be seeing more of come November.

"And what Hellbent Vision Thing,
its Truthless Power come round at last,
$louches towards Liberty to be Borne?"

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/3354/81/

Well, I agree that MSM has deliberately sound-byted Rev. Wright to death, essentially corrupting the truths he and others speak. But let's not be so quick to place all blame on Hillary Clinton or MSM, though I'm an apologist of neither. Obama distanced his own self from his sound-byted minister and that was one of his fatal mistakes. He caved to the "white-guy evangelical" game instead of grabbing a perfect opportunity to check-mate MSM, and perhaps Clinton too. He may still get the job, but then this will turn up against him in the future.

He failed to remember that we are judging him on shrewdness and an ability to take the high road. We don't believe that white-guy evangelicals have the clout so readily heaped upon them. They're meaningless, right? Just say it, Obama. Support your local minister.

Kenneth E. Nuti
Medford, MA

I have a feeling that the "problem" is that not enough of the non-college-educated white men and women watch PBS to begin with, and that even it they watched Rev. Wright, they wouldn't "get" him. The ones voting against Barack are somewhere else, bowling, shooting something, or perhaps attending the church recently shown on MSNBC (Olberman) where a pastor had put this message on the outside sign:

"Osama and Obama. Hmmm. Are they brothers?"

Racism MAY win. Indiana primary is gonna give us another clue. Liberals and progressives MUST NOT stand by while election goes to McCain---BECAUSE OF THE POLICIES, NOT JUST HOW WE "FEEL" ABOUT IT. Read the tea leaves. If the left is going down, DEMAND the Obama and Clinton team-up.

The other side may be planning the McCain - Huckabee ticket that could beat either Barack or Hillary alone.

This was an excellent program and one that should be viewed by all. Bill Moyer's Journal and other PBS programs are enlightening and should be given full support. We must continue to be ever vigilant that the Government is not allowed to cut the funding, or cut the journalists who provide us with news and views via PBS. Main Street Media complain about the internet cutting into their profits. I'm sure that's true to a degree but if we could really trust Main Street Media to provide us with full information perhaps we would be more willing to depend upon them.

Bill Moyers was the perfect person to interview Reverend Jeremiah Wright. With a background in both politics, and religion, he asked the relevant questions. And, then he went the extra mile, -- he courteously allowed his guest time to thoughtfully formulate, and present complete answers. No soundbites here. It will be interesting to see if he (The Reverend Wright) is extended the same courtesy on Monday, when he addresses the National Press Club, and takes questions. Bill Moyers Journal is what journalism should be, and sadly is no longer.

Christianity obliterated african religions; christianity has always been used to oppress african-americans, to make them accept their lot in life. All religions are delusional and harmful. Churches can do some good, but on balance are toxic places for discrimination to breed and for the mental illness of religion to be fostered on the