Monthly Archives: March 2008

Dean Snyder, pastor of Hillary Clinton’s former church, warns against using Jeremiah Wright to polarize the nation

Posted on by
8

images.jpgI’d like to provide everyone with a statement issued by Dean J. Snyder, Senior Minister of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington D.C.  Foundry is the church that the Clinton’s attend during their time in the White House. 

It should be noted that Syder was not the pastor of Foundry when the Clintons were there.  Also, I added the paragraph breaks as the statement appears all together on the Foundry website.

A STATEMENT CONCERNING THE REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT
The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader whom I have heard speak a number of times. He has served for decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society. He has been a vocal critic of the racism, sexism and homophobia which still tarnish the American dream.

To evaluate his dynamic ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the African-American church which has been the spiritual refuge of a people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and violence.

Dr. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear. Those of us who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr. Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize.

This is a critical time in America’s history as we seek to repent of our racism. No matter which candidates prevail, let us use this time to listen again to one another and not to distort one another’s truth.

Dean J. Snyder, Senior Minister
Foundry United Methodist Church
March 19, 2008

dallassouth02.jpg

Dr. Frederick D. Haynes NAACP bid finally makes DMN, Ragland column appears Wednesday

Posted on by
5

James Ragland writes a column today regarding Dr. Federick D. Haynes and his candidacy for President of the national NAACP. See Ragland’s column titled Pastor sets his sights on making NAACP relevant.

Here are a few points from Ragland’s column:

  • Why would the senior pastor of a megachurch want to run an organization that seems to have its head and feet stuck in its gloried past? “Because of the storied history of the NAACP,” Dr. Haynes explained. “And my own awareness of what it has accomplished. This country has come as far as it has come because of the Martin Luther Kings and the NAACP.”
  • “For this to have happened so rapidly, it’s a tremendous honor,” (Haynes) said. “As I told them in our last interview, I’m going to continue doing social justice ministry if they choose me, and if they don’t choose me.”
  • I talked to several prominent black leaders, including Casey Thomas, president of the local NAACP chapter, state Sen. Royce West, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk and National Urban League president and chief executive officer Marc H. Morial. They all said the NAACP needs someone who can stabilize the organization and help refine its message and methods for the 21st century.
  • Dr. Haynes shared a story that illustrates that point. When he told his 15-year-old daughter about the opportunity he had to lead the NAACP, she didn’t jump up and down with joy. She didn’t express any concern. She was ho-hum.”Fifty years ago,” Dr. Haynes said of the NAACP’s top job, “that would have been a big achievement, and a danger for whoever was considered for this post.”

After a ho hum effort by The News to piece together a story on Monday (page 8B), Ragland’s effort gives new insight on Dr. Haynes efforts with the NAACP (or vice versa). Check out the entire piece if you get a moment.

Day of Blogging For Voter Justice an overwhelming success

Posted on by
2

I have to give MAD PROPS to Yobachi Boswell and his leadership in the Hillary Clinton Must Concede campaign.  His vision, along with  that of the Afrosphere Action Coalition produced an even that has already gained traction in some mainstream media outlets.

Now it’s time for you to do your part.  The easiest way to make your voice heard is sign the petition asking the junior Senator from New York to leave the presidential race.   You can also send a letter to the Democratic National Committee.

Mailing Address:
Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003

Call the DNC’s main phone number at 202-863-8000  and ask to speak with Howard Dean.  Tell Dean(‘s voicemail) that it’s time for him to step up and end this madness.  Click here to send them an email.

There were at least 30 blogs that participated in the Day of Blogging for Voter Justice.  Those include:

1. Francis L. Holland francislholland.blogspot.com/

2. D. Yobachi Boswell www.blackperspective.net

3. Villager electronicvillage.blogspot.com/

4. PurpleZoe purplezoe.blogspot.com/

5. Sojourner’s Place sojournersplace.blogspot.com

6. Vanessa Byers www.blackhandside.net

7. JD www.blackinbusiness.org/

8. MrsGrapevine mrsgrapevine.com/

9. Sincere www.sincere-thoughts.blogspot.com

10. Credo dowdellresearch.blogspot.com

11. Black Women in Europe blackwomenineurope.blogspot.com

12. Belizebound www.inpursuitofperfection.typepad.com/

13. Shawn Williams www.dallassouthblog.com

14. MarvalusOne opinionatedblackwoman.com/

15. Rock AfricanAmericanPoliticalpundit.com & AfricanAmericanOpinion.com

16. Anne-Marie McReynolds www.backyardbeacon.org

17. therealready.blogspot.com/2008/03/its-on-now.html

18. Phil philpierrepaul.blogspot.com/

19. imby.wordpress.com/

20. Gunfighter gunfighter1.typepad.com/warrior/

21. Tom automaticpreference.wordpress.com/

22. InvisibleWoman invisible-cinema.blogspot.com/

23. Baratunde www.jackandjillpolitics.com/ and www.jackandjillpolitics.com/

24. Marcus E. Carter www.inpursuitofperfection.typepad.com

25. Terry Howcott www.terryhowcott.com

26. profacero profacero.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/day-of-blogging-for-voter-justice/#comment-21878

27. Michael Fisher assaultonblacksanity.blogspot.com

28. that girl boo therealready.blogspot.com

29. Janet Shan blackpoliticalthought.blogspot.com

30. Promethus6 www.prometheus6.org/node/20320

This is just the beginning. It ain’t over.

AOL News covers Day of Blogging for Voter Justice

Posted on by
Reply

AOL News covered the Day of Blogging for Voter Justice.  I’ll include the AOL article in its entirety.

The writing is on the wall for Hillary Clinton. It’s over and she should just go away. So says New York Times columnist David Brooks:

For three more months (maybe more!) the campaign will proceed along in its Verdun-like pattern. There will be a steady rifle fire of character assassination from the underlings, interrupted by the occasional firestorm of artillery when the contest touches upon race, gender or patriotism. The policy debates between the two have been long exhausted, so the only way to get the public really engaged is by poking some raw national wound.

Brooks is not alone. The Afrosphere Action Coalition, a network of black bloggers, has organized a “Day of Blogging for Voter Justice.” Their goal “is to urge and warn Hillary Clinton that we simply will not condone – now or in November – the game she is playing with the Democratic Party.”

The coalition is circulating a petition calling on Clinton to “concede now.” Francis Holland, who’s spearheading the effort, writes:

Today, in the face of Hillary Clinton’s steadfast insistence that she can win the Democratic presidential nomination regardless of the earned delegate count and the popular vote that are irretrievably against her, we are telling Hillary STOP! “Concede Now, Hillary!” Barack Obama has 1,413 earned delegates to Hillary’s 1,242. Everyone who’s objective says that there’s virtually no way that Hillary can catch up, including (privately) Hillary’s own advisers.

But Clinton has no plan to concede. She’s in it to win.

Senator Hillary Clinton should end her bid to become President

Posted on by
9

Senator Hillary Clinton has the opportunity to make a historic decision that could benefit both her party and the country. It is up to Mrs. Clinton, because God knows her husband doesn’t have it in him to make the choice that is needed.

hillary.jpgSenator Hillary Clinton should concede the Democratic nomination for president to Senator Barack Obama. The time is now for their party to again focus on the business of this nation and the American people.

The fight for the Democratic nomination has been a knockdown drag out affair. At times, I’ve had to remind myself that both candidates come from the same party.

The race took a nasty turn when former President Bill Clinton injected race and negative campaigning into the mix during the South Carolina Primary. As Senator Obama’s campaign gained momentum, Senator Clinton’s tone became more divisive and here campaign resorted to Republican style tactics. Instead of enthusiasm over the record numbers of voters in her party’s contests, she passed it off as some mystical allegiance to hope speak.

But the numbers don’t lie. A recent story at The Politico detailed the unlikelihood of a Hillary Clinton comeback in the delegate count. (See The Politico’s The Clinton Myth). Here’s some of what they had to say:

  • One big fact has largely been lost in the recent coverage of the Democratic presidential race: Hillary Rodham Clinton has virtually no chance of winning.
  • In other words: The notion of the Democratic contest being a dramatic cliffhanger is a game of make-believe. The real question is why so many people are playing. The answer has more to do with media psychology than with practical politics.
  • Journalists have become partners with the Clinton campaign in pretending that the contest is closer than it really is.
  • In the latest Associated Press delegate count, Obama leads with 1,406 pledged delegates to Clinton’s 1,249. Obama’s lead is likely to grow, as it did with county conventions last weekend in Iowa, as later rounds of delegates are apportioned from caucuses he has already won.

Senator Clinton, the former President, and her campaign staff are smart people. They know full well that she can only win with the overwhelming support of Super Delegates. And they also know that the Democratic Party is losing ground to John McCain with each passing day of infighting between Clinton and Obama.

james_carville1.jpgLook at the recent comments by longtime Clinton ally James Carville. In the New York Times, Carville compared Gov. Bill Richardson to Judas (the betrayer of Jesus) after his endorsement of Barack Obama. These types of jabs can be avoided by Clinton conceding the nomination and allow the conversation to take place between McCain and Obama.

A column in today’s Dallas Morning News by Nancy Kruh opines on McCain advantage. Here are some of those quoted in Kruh’s editorial.

  • Posting on The Caucus, The New York Times’ political blog, John Harwood decides Democrats have given Mr. McCain “the gift of time. How well he uses it may determine his chance to beat them in November.”
  • In his favor, Mr. McCain now has the singular luxury of raising money specifically for the general election, the Newsweek columnist (Holly Bailey) notes, and “he’s also got the backing and resources of the Republican National Committee
  • Unless Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton find a way to come together for the good of their country as well as their party, no speech by either of them may prevent Mr. McCain from making his second unlikely resurrection in a single political year. (Kruh)

Hillary Clinton has a chance to begin to repair the Democratic Party and a damaged Clinton legacy. She can end this false process and concede the nomination to Barack Obama. There is still time to repair the damage left by an unwarranted attack recently on Obama and his pastor. An attack that she and her husband both know is unfounded and

Senator Clinton, please call off your campaign, so that we can have a chance to save the country from four more years of same as usual Republican politics in the White House. You have a chance to stop being part of the problem and become part of the solution. Now is the time.

dallassouth01.jpg

Sean Hannity’s relationship with Hal Turner – Neo Nazi/White Supremacist

Posted on by
Reply

 

hannity.jpg

I originally received this story from News Hounds who’s tag line is “We watch FOX so you don’t have to.” I’ve also found the story at Daily Kos as well. I’ll attempt to summarize what these sites say about Sean Hannity, Hal Turner, and their relationship, but make sure to read some of the corresponding links to judge for yourself.

Now there are some comments in this post that may offend some readers. Also know that when we begin to tread in these waters, the language and references become quite graphic but we have to go here. Let’s go.

From News Hounds (click here for post White Supremacist Confirms relationship with Hannity).

Earlier in the week, Sean Hannity denied, albeit in contradictory terms, ever having a relationship with neo Nazi/white supremacist Hal Turner. As I posted the night Hannity was confronted about Turner, the evidence conflicts with Hanniy’s claims. Now Turner has confirmed their friendship and their sympatico views in a blog post called, “About Sean Hannity and Me. . . . . Yes, we were friends and yes, Sean agreed with some of my views.” H/T Davefromqueens.

They then refer to a post from the Hal Turner Show website titled – “About Sean Hannity and me.” I’ll start with a comment at telling comment from the end of the post and then hit some other highlights.

  • In my opinion, based on my first hand experience, I believe Sean Hannity is, in fact, a Hal Turner sort of guy. It seems to me that a big difference between Sean and me is that I am willing to say publicly what I think about savage Black criminals, diseased, uneducated illegal aliens and the grotesque cultural destruction wrought by satanic jews while Sean and many others keep quiet to protect their paychecks.
  • On Wednesday, March 19, Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party appeared as a guest on “Hannity & Colmes” to discuss the Obama / Reverend Wright controversy. During that appearance, Sean Hannity asked Shabazz if Barak Obama shouldn’t be judged by his past affiliations with Reverend Wright, to which Shabazz replied by asking Sean Hannity “Should you be judged by your past association with Hal Turner, a neo-Nazi?”I was quite disappointed when Sean Hannity at first tried to say he didn’t know me and then went on to say that I ran some senate campaign in New Jersey. In fact, Sean Hannity does know me and we were quite friendly a number of years ago.
  • Another big difference is that I am perfectly willing to use force and violence against my enemies while Sean Hannity and others are not. Those using me as a prop to attack Sean Hannity would do well to remember this fact. Rest assured I will remember them when the opportunity presents itself; especially as it pertains to that douche bag sodomite Max Blumenthal for the falsehoods and total trash he wrote about me in “The Nation” magazine.
  • I can tell you from my firsthand, personal experience that Sean Hannity does, in fact, agree with many of my political and social views. I can also tell you that Sean Hannity disagrees with some of my political and social views. I won’t go subject-by-subject to say which he agrees with and which he disagrees with. You can figure that out easy enough on your own!

Fox News has tried to clean up what’s coming from Turner by disputing dates that he uses in his post. Turner has posted an update which reads “

Some questions have been raised as to the years mentioned in my recollection above. With this situation at least ten years old, the accuracy of my memory concerning the calendar years may be off, but the facts about communications between me and Sean Hannity reflected in the recollection above are completely truthful.

Another interesting quote from Turner was “Suffice it to say that my recollection is that when Sean and I spoke by phone, while no one else was listening, he and I exchanged the kinds of views that most White, Irish-Catholic guys hold, but won’t speak in public.”

Is Hannity really a Hal Turner kind of guy?  I don’t know.  Would I be surprised to find out that he is?  Not at all.

Over my years of consuming “conservative” talk radio, I’ve always been able to stomach Limbaugh and O’Reilly,  but Hannity has always played even dirtier than those cats.  This intentional smear of Dr. Wright, picked up in every area of the media, has let us know what Hal Turner only confirms.  I’m not a guy urging my readers to shut down Fox News, but it is time to start thinking about going after advertisers of Sean Hannity’s television show. 

I believe closed minded nationalists have the right to air the own race baiting, fear mongering goofy talk (that’s shamefully passed off as news).  The Fox Noose crowd would believe any and everything given to them if it were wrapped in an American flag. But it’s up to us -and efforts like News Hounds- to make sure Americans with a brain or even an ounce of dignity don’t fall prey to their propaganda

Jeremiah Wright letter to the New York Times

Posted on by
19

I’m a little late with this and it was before the latest Fox lead blow up, but I thought you all deserved to see that this has been a calculated attack on Dr.Wright from the beginning.

March 11, 2007
Jodi Kantor
The New York Times
9 West 43rd Street
New York ,
New York 10036-3959

Dear Jodi:

Thank you for engaging in one of the biggest misrepresentations of the truth I have ever seen in sixty-five years. You sat and shared with me for two hours. You told me you were doing a “Spiritual Biography” of Senator Barack Obama. For two hours, I shared with you how I thought he was the most principled individual in public service that I have ever met.

For two hours, I talked with you about how idealistic he was. For two hours I shared with you what a genuine human being he was. I told you how incredible he was as a man who was an African American in public service, and as a man who refused to announce his candidacy for President until Carol Moseley Braun indicated one way or the other whether or not she was going to run.

I told you what a dreamer he was. I told you how idealistic he was. We talked about how refreshing it would be for someone who knew about Islam to be in the Oval Office. Your own question to me was, Didn’t I think it would be incredible to have somebody in the Oval Office who not only knew about Muslims, but had living and breathing Muslims in his own family? I told you how important it would be to have a man who not only knew the difference between Shiites and Sunnis prior to 9/11/01 in the Oval Office, but also how important it would be to have a man who knew what Sufism was; a man who understood that there were different branches of Judaism; a man who knew the difference between Hasidic Jews, Orthodox Jews, Conservative Jews and Reformed Jews; and a man who was a devout Christian, but who did not prejudge others because they believed something other than what he believed.

I talked about how rare it was to meet a man whose Christianity was not just “in word only.”  I talked about Barack being a person who lived his faith and did not argue his faith. I talked about Barack as a person who did not draw doctrinal lines in the sand nor consign other people to hell if they did not believe what he believed.

Out of a two-hour conversation with you about Barack’s spiritual journey and my protesting to you that I had not shaped him nor formed him, that I had not mentored him or made him the man he was, even though I would love to take that credit, you did not print any of that. When I told you, using one of your own Jewish stories from the Hebrew Bible as to how God asked Moses, “What is that in your hand?,” that Barack was like that when I met him. Barack had it “in his hand.” Barack had in his grasp a uniqueness in terms of his spiritual development that one is hard put to find in the 21st century, and you did not print that.

As I was just starting to say a moment ago, Jodi, out of two hours of conversation I spent approximately five to seven minutes on Barack’s taking advice from one of his trusted campaign people and deeming it unwise to make me the media spotlight on the day of his announcing his candidacy for the Presidency and what do you print? You and your editor proceeded to present to the general public a snippet, a printed “sound byte” and a titillating and tantalizing article about his disinviting me to the Invocation on the day of his announcing his candidacy.

I have never been exposed to that kind of duplicitous behavior before, and I want to write you publicly to let you know that I do not approve of it and will not be party to any further smearing of the name, the reputation, the integrity or the character of perhaps this nation’s first (and maybe even only) honest candidate offering himself for public service as the person to occupy the Oval Office.

Your editor is a sensationalist. For you to even mention that makes me doubt your credibility, and I am looking forward to see how you are going to butcher what else I had to say concerning Senator Obama’s “Spiritual Biography.” Our Conference Minister, the Reverend Jane Fisler Hoffman, a white woman who belongs to a Black church that Hannity of “Hannity and Colmes” is trying to trash, set the record straight for you in terms of who I am and in terms of who we are as the church to which Barack has belonged for over twenty years.

The president of our denomination, the Reverend John Thomas, has offered to try to help you clarify in your confused head what Trinity Church is even though you spent the entire weekend with us setting me up to interview me for what turned out to be a smear of the Senator; and yet The New York Times continues to roll on making the truth what it wants to be the truth. I do not remember reading in your article that Barack had apologized for listening to that bad information and bad advice. Did I miss it? Or did your editor cut it out? Either way, you do not have to worry about hearing anything else from me for you to edit or “spin” because you are more interested in journalism than in truth.

Forgive me for having a momentary lapse. I forgot that The New York Times was leading the bandwagon in trumpeting why it is we should have gone into an illegal war. The New York Times became George Bush and the Republican Party’s national “blog.”  The New York Times played a role in the outing of Valerie Plame. I do not know why I thought The New York Times had actually repented and was going to exhibit a different kind of behavior.

Maybe it was my faith in the Jewish Holy Day of Roshashana.  Maybe it was my being caught up in the euphoria of the Season of Lent; but whatever it is or was, I was sadly mistaken. There is no repentance on the part of The New York Times. There is no integrity when it comes to The Times. You should do well with that paper, Jodi. You looked me straight in my face and told me a lie!

Sincerely and respectfully yours,
Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. ,
Senior Pastor
Trinity United Church of Christ