I think she has a thing for you hkr...

Heaven forbid!

The greatest fear of a white racist is a minority racist in power. But I have already covered the fact that even if Obama was a reverse racist, which I have not seen yet, he is one black man in a wall of white. He cannot reverse the white power in this country one bit. He is one man. Putting him in office would do alot for race relations in this country. It would show that for the first time in America that white people are willing to balance the power structure at least a little bit.

The hype over the preacher and what he preaches is nothing but mud slinging, we have white preachers who preach about the degradation of our country due to welfare and this is racist because they assume that all minorities ride off the system, etc.....

Just mud slinging it is and sadly people buy into it.

Let's hope the insanity stops by June and more intelligent political debate can ensue among the Presidential nominees.

ACTUALLY,

I think y'all would be good together!

Mudslinging my eye. The point of the entire flap is character. Who the person is. I see no difference in Rev Wrights church and a KKK meeting. They are both vile and disturbing. Flip the races around, mix them up any way you want, it is still disgusting to hear anyone talk that way. To sit there knowing these things were being said for 20 years and to not walk away is to condone it. I for one am fed up with the race pimps from all sides.

Are minorities the minority in this country? Are minorities victims of discrimination in this country? Yes and yes. If you lived in a country that appeared to hate you daily how would you feel?

Now I am not saying right here, I am saying understandable. Whites have been the race in power in this country since the indians did not know what hit them. Whites perpetrate the hatred and wonder at the anger that results.

We have a long way to go in this country to racial equality. The preacher preaches what he feels is right for his flock. I do not agree but I cannot judge the anger and resentment of black folks to the prejudice and discrimination they suffer daily. I have seen the prejudice and discrimination with my own two eyes so I know it happens and I am disgusted that people still cannot see what they do. I would be fricken furious if I was treated this way. So I understand the anger.

So until it is an even fair playing field, I will not judge the anger, they have a right to be very angry.

I am sorry to inform you, but your thinking is wrongheaded.

There is NEVER EVER an excuse for any type of racism ever! From anyone of any color! It is not ok because one race once dominated another in every aspect of life to now become the racist themselves. That has the moral equivalency of "he shot my brother so it is ok for me to shoot him." Two wrongs do not make a right. Accepting this type of racist talk is why it is even still an issue at all in this country.

I will give you that there are pockets of ignorant people that were raised to hate the other races for whatever reason. It is a learned behavior. It is also what people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Rev Wright et al teach as well. They then exploit this for their own personal gain, most of it financial.

This column is by a black man and speaks to this very subject quite well. http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/07/betrayalcivilrights.htm

I guess you did not read what I wrote well then. I said I did not say right. I said I understood. I do understand. If I would be the victim of the prejudice and discrimination I have seen myself, I would be one pissed ***** and there would be no way to calm me down so you can continue on your tirade of how wrong it is both sides. I did not say right I said I understand the anger.

dragon poop!!

Listening to people like Lou Dobbs, John Edwards and Mike Huckabee lamenting the plight of America's middle class and poor, you'd have to conclude that things are going to hell in a handbasket. According to them, there's wage stagnation, while the rich are getting richer and the poor becoming poorer. There are a couple of updates that tell quite a different story.

The Nov. 13 Wall Street Journal editorial "Movin' On Up" reports on a recent U.S. Treasury study of income tax returns from 1996 and 2005. The study tracks what happened to tax filers 25 years of age and up during this 10-year period. Controlling for inflation, nearly 58 percent of the poorest income group in 1996 moved to a higher income group by 2005. Twenty-six percent of them achieved middle or upper-middle class income, and over 5 percent made it into the highest income group.

Over the decade, the inflation-adjusted median income of all tax filers rose by 24 percent. As such, it refutes Dobbs-Edwards-Huckabee claims about stagnant incomes. In fact, only one income group experienced a decline in real income. That was the richest one percent, who saw an income drop of nearly 26 percent over the 10-year period. The editors explain that these people might have been rich for a few years, had some capital gains, or could not stand up to the competition with new entrepreneurs and wealth creators.

The U.S. Treasury study confirms previous studies dating back to the 1960s, concluding, "The basic finding of this analysis is that relative income mobility is approximately the same in the last 10 years as it was in the previous decade." As such, it points to a uniquely American feature: Just because you know where a person ended up in life doesn't mean you can be sure about where he started. Most of today's higher income and wealthy did not start out that way.

What about claims of a disappearing middle class? Let's do some detective work. Controlling for inflation, in 1967, 8 percent of households had an annual income of $75,000 and up; in 2003, more than 26 percent did. In 1967, 17 percent of households had a $50,000 to $75,000 income; in 2003, it was 18 percent. In 1967, 22 percent of households were in the $35,000 to $50,000 income group; by 2003, it had fallen to 15 percent. During the same period, the $15,000 to $35,000 category fell from 31 percent to 25 percent, and the under $15,000 category fell from 21 percent to 16 percent. The only reasonable conclusion from this evidence is that if the middle class is disappearing, it's doing so by swelling the ranks of the upper classes.

What about the concentration of wealth? In 1918, John D. Rockefeller's fortune accounted for more than half of one percent of total private wealth. To compile the same half of one percent of the private wealth in the United States today, you'd have to combine the fortunes of Microsoft's Bill Gates ($53 billion) and Paul Allen ($16 billion), Oracle's Larry Ellison ($19 billion), and a third of Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett's $46 billion. In 1920, America's richest one percent held about 40 percent of private wealth; by 1980, the private wealth held by the richest one percent fell to about 20 percent and has remained stable at that level since.

Demagogues duping Americans about stagnant and declining income give politicians justification to raise taxes and place regulatory obstacles in the path of risk-taking, productivity and hard work that will impede the enviable income mobility that has become a part of American tradition. Raising taxes on capital formation reduces the rate of capital formation. Raising taxes on income reduces incentives to work. Unfortunately, because so many Americans buy into the politics of envy, politicians have a leg up in enacting measures that cripple economic growth.

Average life expectancy for U.S. citizen--78.2
Average life expectancy for Nigeria--46.9
for Rwanda---46.2
for Liberia--45.7
for Zimbabwe-43.5
for Zambia---42.1
for Mozambique-42.1
for Swaziland-39.6

In Africa in 2006 there were 2.8 million new HIV infections and 2.1 million related deaths. 32% of Worldwide HIV infected people live in Southern Africa.

Apology??? I think we should get a thank you card.

Perhaps it is mud-slinging but if the mud sticks it has to be addressed. I mentioned on a post here that it was really a reach to suggest that just because Mr. Obama's preacher said stupid things that Mr. Obama himself agreed with them. Nevertheless, there is a reason David Duke never made it far (thank god) in his political life. If John McCain openly associated himself with a preacher (for many years) who said similar things he would not get anything that looked like a free pass.

-Drew

how do you figure?

Interesting theory, but not necessarily true.

There are a lot of people, who, for one reason or another, have dropped off the income statistics.

This could be for various reasons. They have lost their jobs, been outsourced, their unemployment has run out, they went into bankruptcy or they otherwise lost their income.

You cannot assume that just because there are less middle class income earners that this means they all have joined the ranks of the upper classes.

Some of them have, but not all.

mud sticks whether true or not sometimes:

Hannity Overlooks His Own Direct Association With White Supremacist While Attacking Obama’s Indirect Association With Farrakhan
Reported by Ellen - February 29, 2008 - 151 comments
Sean Hannity and FOX News played the race card against Barack Obama again last night (2/28/08) on Hannity & Colmes as yet again they deliberately tried to smear him as a black racist because his pastor’s daughters gave an award to Louis Farrakhan and Obama did not denounce Farrakhan as thoroughly as Hannity thought was required. Meanwhile, Hannity ignored the endorsement of John McCain by anti-Catholic evangelist John Hagee which Alan Colmes showcased. But as Hannity worked himself into a self-righteous lather against Obama, he conveniently overlooked his own direct and repeated association with white supremacist Hal Turner. With video.

In Colmes’ scripted introduction, he read “(Obama’s) campaign continues to be a magnet for racial controversy.” FOX News is doing its best to make that happen, of course. They have hyped every racial angle they can – and then some – since Obama declared his candidacy last year.

During Colmes’ segment, the first half of the panel discussion, Colmes noted, “Nobody is talking about the endorsement yesterday of John McCain by Pastor John Hagee.” Colmes played a clip of Hagee smearing the Catholic church and added that Hagee has also said, “Jews are responsible for being persecuted.” You can read more about Hagee on Colmes’ blog, Liberalland, and on Glenn Greenwald’s blog, Unclaimed Territory.

“Senator McCain has said he’s honored to have the endorsement,” Colmes said, in marked contrast to Obama’s denunciation of Farrakhan and his endorsement. It’s worth noting that in his interview with Greenwald, Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said, “Hagee is far more powerful than Farrakhan is today. . . . Hagee is a major player. There's no end to his money. He has an empire down there.”

Yet Republican guest Michael Steele, an African American, brushed off the Hagee endorsement by saying that he was unfamiliar with it and that McCain should denounce it “If that’s in fact the case and the McCain campaign feels that is an issue or something that they do not want to be associated with.” He quickly segued to Obama who specifically distanced himself from Farrakhan’s endorsement, unlike McCain.

But while McCain got a pass for endorsing Hagee, Steele went on to criticize Obama for not denouncing Farrakhan strongly enough. Steele claimed that Obama “did the dance” rather than denounce Farrakhan completely. According to Steele, that “creates more of an issue, more of a story.” Yet Steele, a FOX News contributor, was playing an active role in the story's perpetuation.

Hannity, with melodramatic Hanctimony, asked the liberal guest, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, “If my pastor gave a lifetime achievement award to David Duke, what would you think of me?” Memo to Hannity: That’s a lot less racist tarnish than you already wear. As Max Blumenthal wrote in The Nation,

During an August 1998 episode of the show, Turner reminded Hannity that were it not for the graciousness of the white man, "black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa," according to Daryle Jenkins, co-founder of the New Jersey-based antiracism group One People's Project. Instead of rebuking Turner or cutting him off, Hannity continued to welcome his calls.
And let’s not forget Hannity’s championing of Duane “Dog” Chapman shortly after he was caught in his own racist rant.

I’m so waiting for a guest to confront Hannity on his own racially-tinged hypocrisy.

Nevertheless, Hill did a fine job of keeping his cool while Hannity pulled out all the stops on his bullyboy histrionics. He must have thought that the louder he yelled, the harder he jabbed his finger in the air and the more he tilted his head, the less likely anybody would be to notice his own dubious record. But I think Hill made a mistake by allowing Hannity to rant on, rather than to change the subject by saying something to the effect of, “With all the problems our country is facing, it says more about you that you’d fixate on whether or not Obama has distanced himself enough from someone as insignificant as Louis Farrakhan rather than talk about the real issues people care about. I don't think the average American struggling with higher food and gas prices, a mortgage and maybe a kid in Iraq is likely to care too much about to whom Obama's pastor's daughters have given an award.”

Still, Hill got in some good comebacks, such as, “The point is that Barack Obama has denounced those things. And all you’re doing is muddying the water.”

“Where is your moral courage?” Hannity interrupted, both fingers jabbing now. “Where is your moral strength and your integrity and your core values and your principles? (Farrakhan) has a history of anti-Semitism and racism and you don’t have the moral courage to condemn it and I find that reprehensible.”

Lamont answered, “What I find reprehensible is the fact that you are diverting attention away from the fact that Barack Obama has clearly distanced himself from (his pastor’s endorsement).”

His face ugly with venom, Hannity turned to Steele. “I don’t understand, Michael Steele. Why is there this reluctance among so many to identify Louis Farrakhan for the hate-monger, the anti-Semite and the racist that he is?”

But Steele did not give the Jesse Lee Peterson-type answer that Hannity was obviously looking for. “You have to come at this from two different perspectives. One is the perspective that you have. And the other is the perspective of a lot of African Americans who have, who have been in the field with Farrakhan, if you will, who have worked and toiled with him. And understand the context in which some of the comments that others in this country would view as reprehensible and outrageous as consistent with a pattern of behavior by those who have oppressed and repressed the black community. So you’ve got to keep it in the context here, and I think at the end of the day, those words, those ugly words are harsh and they’re terrible and they should be denounced…”

Hannity interrupted. “Let me tell you something. I would never be a part of a church that honored somebody who has racist and anti-Semitic views.”

Maybe not, but Hannity has no compunction about giving someone those who have spouted anti-black sentiments plenty of airtime.

Hillary, you GO girl!

More mud for consideration:

McCain Spends MLK Holiday Pandering to the Far Right
January 17, 2007
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Nearly 24 years after voting against creating a holiday honoring Martin Luther King, John McCain is spending today at the inauguration of Alabama Governor Bob Riley who is a member of an organization that has been criticized for excluding African Americans. The "Grand Master" of the Grand Lodge of Alabama admits he knows of no African American members among the groups 30,000 plus membership. [AP, 9/30/2006]

McCain's push to cozy up to far right extremists is not surprising, given his contradictions in the past. In the 2000 presidential campaign, McCain reversed himself on the confederate flag first calling it "a symbol of racism and slavery" but then pandering the very next day by calling it a "symbol of heritage." In past efforts to pander to a far right base that doesn’t trust him, McCain campaigned in Alabama for George Wallace Jr., a popular speaker at a white supremacist hate group, continues to employ a strategist who denounced the creation of a Federal holiday honoring Dr. King as "vicious" and "profane," and even hired the man responsible for the racist ads against Harold Ford in the Senate race in Tennessee in 2006. [New York Times, 4/20/00, San Diego Union Tribune, 1/18/00; Associated Press, 11/17/05, Southern Poverty Law Center, Intelligence Report, Summer 2005; AP, 6/6/05; New York Times, 10/27/06; New York Times, 10/26/06; Union Leader, 12/8/06]

"John McCain's record speaks for itself," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda, "his oppostion to the Martin Luther King holiday, his willingness to look the other way for Bob Riley, and his eagerness to employ advisors who use tactics of the southern strategy are evidence that he will do anything to win. McCain's pandering to the far right doesn't bode well for his ability to represent or unite all Americans, and embodies the politics of division that the American people have already rejected."

1983: McCain Voted Against Creating Martin Luther King Holiday. McCain voted against the Hall (D-IN) motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill to designate the third Monday of every January as a federal holiday in honor of the late civil rights leader the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. [Vote 289, HR 3706, Motion agreed to 89-77, D 249-13, 8/2/83; CQ 1983]

McCain Flip Flopped On The Confederate Flag, First Calling It Offensive And Then Calling It A Symbol Of Heritage. In 2000, during the debate over the Confederate flag in South Carolina, McCain in January called the flag "a symbol of racism and slavery", and the next day said that the flag was a "symbol of heritage." McCain “initially called the flag 'offensive,' but then quickly added that he understood the sentiments of 'both sides' in the debate. 'Some view it as a symbol of slavery...others view it as a symbol of heritage. Personally, I see the battle flag as a symbol of heritage,'" McCain said. [New York Times, 4/20/00, San Diego Union Tribune, 1/18/00]

McCain Endorsed George Wallace Jr., Called Him A "Committed Conservative Reformer," Despite Speeches to Hate Group. In November 2005, McCain visited three Alabama cities to endorse George Wallace Jr. for lieutenant governor. McCain said, "I'm proud to offer my support to this committed conservative reformer. George will bring great leadership and integrity to the lieutenant governor's office." [Associated Press, 11/17/05] Wallace had spoken on numerous occasions to the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist hate group. The Council of Conservative Citizens says it opposes interracial marriage, massive immigration of non-European and non-Western peoples, hate crime legislation, and multicultural and “Afrocentric” curricula in schools. Wallace spoke to the Council once in 1998, twice during 1999, and gave the opening remarks to their national meeting in June of 2005. The audience for his speech included Don Black, proprietor of Stormfront.org, the most influential hate site on the Internet, and former Alabama grand dragon of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan; Jamie Kelso, right-hand man and Louisiana roommate of former Klan leader David Duke; Jared Taylor, editor of the neo-eugenicist American Renaissance magazine; and Alabama CCC leader Leonard "Flagpole" Wilson, who got his nickname shouting "Keep Bama white!" from atop a flagpole during the University of Alabama race riots in 1956. [Southern Poverty Law Center, Intelligence Report, Summer 2005; AP, 6/6/05]

Racist Ad Against Harold Ford Approved By Terry Nelson, Senior McCain Strategist. Terry Nelson, a senior strategist for McCain (now campaign manager), was the head of the independent expenditures operation for the RNC responsible for the content of the advertisements run against African American Senate candidate Harold Ford that experts said played on fears of interracial dating and made "the Willie Horton ad look like child's play." Despite Nelson's role in approving the ad, McCain strategist John Weaver said that Straight Talk America had no intention of firing him. [New York Times, 10/27/06; New York Times, 10/26/06; Union Leader, 12/8/06]

Richard Quinn, McCain's South Carolina Spokesman, Criticized the MLK Holiday as "Vitriolic and Profane.". Richard Quinn, identified as "McCain's South Carolina spokesman" as recently as December of 2005, was also a South Carolina "strategist" for McCain in the 2000 campaign. [Spartanburg Herald-Journal, 12/23/05; Vanity Fair, 11/04] McCain has defended Quinn as being "highly respected" and a "fine man." . [Associated Press, 2/18/00; New York Times, 2/8/00] In a 1983 column Quinn wrote, "King Day should have been rejected because its purpose is vitriolic and profane. By celebrating King as the incarnation of all they admire, they [black leaders] have chosen to glorify the histrionic rather than the heroic and by inference they spurned the brightest and the best among their own race.Ignoring the real heroes in our nation's life, the blacks have chosen a man who represents not their emancipation, not their sacrifices and bravery in service to their country; rather, they have chosen a man whose role in history was to lead his people into a perpetual dependence on the welfare state, a terrible bondage of body and soul. [Partisan View, Southern Partisan, Fall, 1983] Quinn has also advocated electing David Duke, and sold T-Shirts through his magazine celebrating Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. [Partisan View, Southern Partisan, Winter, 1989, PFAW Release, 2/17/00]

Hannity waxing Hanctimonious!