I've blogged in the past about what I perceive to be the horrible aberration that is Prosperity Christianity in America and was thinking recently about one of my favorite parts of the Bible.
I started thinking about it while in discussion with this kid I work with occasionally who is kind of half "real" Christian and half Messianic Jew. He wears some of the trappings of a conservative Jew but has the Catholic Chi Rho tattooed on his arm. He's a really nice kid, easy to talk to, and very open to opposing beliefs. He doesn't own a car, is usually barefoot, and dumpster dives for a lot of his meals, not because he has to, but because the New Testament tells that followers of God will be provided for, lilies of the field and all that. Pretty interesting.
So we were talking about modern, American Christianity and the new belief that you will be rewarded as a Christian with an abundance of stuff.
Anyway, my favorite verse from the Bible is when some kids are making fun of the prophet Elisha for being bald and God got mad and had them ripped to shred by some bears. Forty-two little kids. Ripped to shreds. WTF?!?!
Second favorite and perhaps less quoted is the part of the Acts of the Apostles where the followers of the apostles begin a sort of communal existence in forming the fledgling Church. The followers are selling off ALL of their belongings, throwing the money in a big communal pot, and living as equals. One husband and wife come to sign in and give their money but it turns out they've actually held back a little in case things don't work out or whatever. So, in the book of Acts they are rewarded for their greed by being struck down by God. Seriously. Killed for their greed.
Here's the passage from the New International Version:
4:32 The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. 4:33 With great power, the apostles gave their testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Great grace was on them all. 4:34 For neither was there among them any who lacked, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, 4:35 and laid them at the apostles’ feet, and distribution was made to each, according as anyone had need. 4:36 Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, Son of Encouragement), a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race, 4:37 having a field, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession, 5:2 and kept back part of the price, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 5:3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land? 5:4 While you kept it, didn’t it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn’t it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You haven’t lied to men, but to God.”
5:5 Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and died. Great fear came on all who heard these things. 5:6 The young men arose and wrapped him up, and they carried him out and buried him. 5:7 About three hours later, his wife, not knowing what had happened, came in. 5:8 Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.”
She said, “Yes, for so much.”
5:9 But Peter asked her, “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”
5:10 She fell down immediately at his feet, and died. The young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her by her husband.
Holy crap!!!! If you missed it, perhaps you should go back to the part that sounds suspiciously like from each according to his ability to each according to his need. But that was Karl Marx talking, not Jesus.
Just to be clear here, this is the formation of the first Christian Church based on what we would consider to be modern communist principles.
I don't want to go into a diatribe on what's wrong with Prosperity theology again. I just wanted to bring this little passage to the attention of anybody who might have missed it and cares to know what's actually in the Bible. I've read leaflets written by groups who are very anti-communist Christians talking about the evils of Liberation theology and how the followers of that movement have attempted to create a "false communist Jesus".
One of my favorite things is reading the leaflets put out by Chick Publications, a Canadian, right-wing nutjob bunch of folks who are big on Prosperity and hate the Catholic Church with a venom that is just freaking spooky. You can read a bunch of fun stuff and look at all their super cool comic books and tracts at chick.com if you like to be freaked out.
Here's a little blurb from one of their posts dealing with Liberation theology in Mexico:
Many Mexican priests are fervent supporters of "liberation theology," a noxious hybrid of Catholicism and Marxism. The Economist noted that Mexican bishops and other Catholic higher-ups also "disliked the free market (though they rarely specify what would be better)."
I won't even bother to go in to the wrongness involved in quoting The Economist rather than the Bible to make your arguments but that's the fun kind of stuff you'll find on that website.
My thoughts for the evening. In closing I'd like to share something from one of my favorite bands, Belle and Sebastian. From their Life Pursuit album, Act of the Apostle I and Act of the Apostle II, the reprise. Nothing to do with the topic of the blog but well ....
Populist rants from a little blue dot in deep red Alabama.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The Friendly Japanese - Why They Don't Suck and Black Americans Do
Following the recent disaster in Japan, I first worried about my friend Kazuya who lives in Tokyo and then following the potential nuclear disaster unfolding over there, I've been dismayed at one of the usual byproducts of the modern news cycle.
There always seems to be a side story that sneaks in with little to no relevance to the actual story but that gains traction and grows into a story in its own right.
This time it goes something like this: during the course of the tragedy in Japan there has been a notable lack of rioting, looting, civil unrest, etc.
The subtext of the story, as was also the subtext when the same story line came about following flooding in Nashville last year, is that American Black people suck and they will loot your stuff from you in a heartbeat because they are basically little more than animals.
I'm pretty sure the racial angle got traction in both instances from FOX News and specifically from Glenn Beck's show but I'm not going to bother looking that up. That's where I heard it first in both instances and then the broader news media picked up on it without looking into the validity of the statement too much.
I'm not like that. I like to actually understand a story rather than take it on face value. I know that there are cultural differences with the Japanese. I'm Buddhist after all. I've done quite a bit of study on Japanese and Zen culture. Ascribing the orderliness of the Japanese to religion doesn't explain anything. Reverence for parents? Manners? I've even seen one source say that the lack of looting might have something to do with how awesome the Yakuza is. Seriously.
So, here's what I actually think it is and why I think the racial subtext making it's way around America in typical fashion is such BS.
Japan is a monolithic culture for starters. Japan is Japanese. Outsiders are welcome to visit but it's really hard, and I mean REALLY hard, for outsiders to get residency there. Yeah, they love Western culture, but, if you're not Japanese you're going to be on the outside looking in. Not that I have a problem with that. But, aside from a massive, shared cultural identity, there is also a massive social welfare system in Japan, governmental and private, pensions, health care for everybody, etc.
All of this fosters an intense sense of national pride and neighborliness. The people in Japan know that they will be taken care of. There's very little poverty or crime as a result. This is the sort of system I want in America and why I'm a socialist. Funny to me that Glenn Beck skips over this aspect of Japanese culture.
Now, in America, you have a system where we are a nation of immigrants, melting pot, all that. For those of you who have forgotten, almost all of the Black people in our country are the descendants of people who were brought here as slaves to do forced labor. Many of the Hispanics in this country are here because they've been brought in by American business interests to work for sub-standard wages.
Unfortunately, in America, the best bet for a young Black man to make good money since he's not eligible for the good old boys' network, is to sell drugs. I don't think non-Blacks can ever truly appreciate what it must be like to be Black in America. I think many of them, even those who like to think of themselves as "enlightened" think all of the ills in the Black community in America are just the result of laziness. Not that they would say this out loud or even admit to it; they just do things like point out how awesome the Japanese are.
These people were FORCED to come into this country and, then, following the U.S. Civil War, were just cut loose to fend for themselves. They didn't come from the old country with any belongings, savings, inherited jewelry, or knowledge of a trade, or family, or friends.
I'd venture to say that most people who are critical of what happened in the aftermath of Katrina have either little or no knowledge of what life is like for the average Black person in New Orleans. Many live in abject poverty because their living in poverty keeps the wheels of commerce moving in New Orleans. It keeps the tourist industry well-staffed and keeps goods flowing in and out of the port. Your coffee, your bananas, your jeans, etc. remain cheap because of the cheap labor that brings them to you.
The social safety net that was once part of American life has been eroded to the point where it's no longer even part of the story.
Blacks in New Orleans, and indeed in many U.S. cities, are marginalized and kept on the sidelines when there are economic good times. People still want their cheap goods and services.
Additionally, millions of Latinos have been brought in by American businesses to directly compete with the American Blacks for these low-paying jobs.
I don't know how many of you have visited Nashville but I lived there. It's the whitest city I've ever lived in. I'm not even sure where the Black people in Nashville live but I know there are a few there because I saw it on COPS.
The parts of Nashville hit by the flooding last year were in some pretty well-to-do parts of town. I'm not sure that I've ever seen wealthy White people doing any looting. Well, except for when they gouge prices and make laws that help them rip off everybody else. And yet the sub-story unfolded last year. Hey, look, flooding in Nashville, just like in New Orleans, but look at how nice and orderly the White people are. Not like those bad Black people.
So, the bottom line is that, if you know you'll be taken care of, you're less likely to be a looter. The situation in New Orleans following Katrina was certainly nothing like that. Nashville is a city that sits atop what is known as the Cumberland Plateau, high ground. I'm not even sure how it flooded in the first place but the water drained off very quickly. Not so in New Orleans that lies below sea level. And, once again for those of you who don't understand how ports work, it has to be where it is so you can get your coffee, sugar, bananas and jeans. The high ground in New Orleans is occupied by wealthy White people and has been since the early 1700s.
Anyway, while all the veiled attacks are levied against American Blacks under the guise of praising the Japanese, I'd really hope that there would be some Americans out there who might be interested in doing some thinking about what the Black American experience is, how they got here, how they're treated, what it's like to grow up Black and poor, etc.
Let me just say that I'm something of a racist. I freely admit it. But I'm also capable of thinking for myself and I actually go out of my way to be empathetic. I don't want to criticize anybody without first trying to understand where they're coming from.
I guess America would be a better place, if you think the Japanese are so admirable, if our country was nothing but White people with a great healthcare system available to everybody and government funded pension plans which were consistently honored and maintained. Where retirees were treated with respect and taken care of. That's not what we've got. We've got a melting pot of different races and cultures and huge economic disparity.
You get what you pay for.
There always seems to be a side story that sneaks in with little to no relevance to the actual story but that gains traction and grows into a story in its own right.
This time it goes something like this: during the course of the tragedy in Japan there has been a notable lack of rioting, looting, civil unrest, etc.
The subtext of the story, as was also the subtext when the same story line came about following flooding in Nashville last year, is that American Black people suck and they will loot your stuff from you in a heartbeat because they are basically little more than animals.
I'm pretty sure the racial angle got traction in both instances from FOX News and specifically from Glenn Beck's show but I'm not going to bother looking that up. That's where I heard it first in both instances and then the broader news media picked up on it without looking into the validity of the statement too much.
I'm not like that. I like to actually understand a story rather than take it on face value. I know that there are cultural differences with the Japanese. I'm Buddhist after all. I've done quite a bit of study on Japanese and Zen culture. Ascribing the orderliness of the Japanese to religion doesn't explain anything. Reverence for parents? Manners? I've even seen one source say that the lack of looting might have something to do with how awesome the Yakuza is. Seriously.
So, here's what I actually think it is and why I think the racial subtext making it's way around America in typical fashion is such BS.
Japan is a monolithic culture for starters. Japan is Japanese. Outsiders are welcome to visit but it's really hard, and I mean REALLY hard, for outsiders to get residency there. Yeah, they love Western culture, but, if you're not Japanese you're going to be on the outside looking in. Not that I have a problem with that. But, aside from a massive, shared cultural identity, there is also a massive social welfare system in Japan, governmental and private, pensions, health care for everybody, etc.
All of this fosters an intense sense of national pride and neighborliness. The people in Japan know that they will be taken care of. There's very little poverty or crime as a result. This is the sort of system I want in America and why I'm a socialist. Funny to me that Glenn Beck skips over this aspect of Japanese culture.
Now, in America, you have a system where we are a nation of immigrants, melting pot, all that. For those of you who have forgotten, almost all of the Black people in our country are the descendants of people who were brought here as slaves to do forced labor. Many of the Hispanics in this country are here because they've been brought in by American business interests to work for sub-standard wages.
Unfortunately, in America, the best bet for a young Black man to make good money since he's not eligible for the good old boys' network, is to sell drugs. I don't think non-Blacks can ever truly appreciate what it must be like to be Black in America. I think many of them, even those who like to think of themselves as "enlightened" think all of the ills in the Black community in America are just the result of laziness. Not that they would say this out loud or even admit to it; they just do things like point out how awesome the Japanese are.
These people were FORCED to come into this country and, then, following the U.S. Civil War, were just cut loose to fend for themselves. They didn't come from the old country with any belongings, savings, inherited jewelry, or knowledge of a trade, or family, or friends.
I'd venture to say that most people who are critical of what happened in the aftermath of Katrina have either little or no knowledge of what life is like for the average Black person in New Orleans. Many live in abject poverty because their living in poverty keeps the wheels of commerce moving in New Orleans. It keeps the tourist industry well-staffed and keeps goods flowing in and out of the port. Your coffee, your bananas, your jeans, etc. remain cheap because of the cheap labor that brings them to you.
The social safety net that was once part of American life has been eroded to the point where it's no longer even part of the story.
Blacks in New Orleans, and indeed in many U.S. cities, are marginalized and kept on the sidelines when there are economic good times. People still want their cheap goods and services.
Additionally, millions of Latinos have been brought in by American businesses to directly compete with the American Blacks for these low-paying jobs.
I don't know how many of you have visited Nashville but I lived there. It's the whitest city I've ever lived in. I'm not even sure where the Black people in Nashville live but I know there are a few there because I saw it on COPS.
The parts of Nashville hit by the flooding last year were in some pretty well-to-do parts of town. I'm not sure that I've ever seen wealthy White people doing any looting. Well, except for when they gouge prices and make laws that help them rip off everybody else. And yet the sub-story unfolded last year. Hey, look, flooding in Nashville, just like in New Orleans, but look at how nice and orderly the White people are. Not like those bad Black people.
So, the bottom line is that, if you know you'll be taken care of, you're less likely to be a looter. The situation in New Orleans following Katrina was certainly nothing like that. Nashville is a city that sits atop what is known as the Cumberland Plateau, high ground. I'm not even sure how it flooded in the first place but the water drained off very quickly. Not so in New Orleans that lies below sea level. And, once again for those of you who don't understand how ports work, it has to be where it is so you can get your coffee, sugar, bananas and jeans. The high ground in New Orleans is occupied by wealthy White people and has been since the early 1700s.
Anyway, while all the veiled attacks are levied against American Blacks under the guise of praising the Japanese, I'd really hope that there would be some Americans out there who might be interested in doing some thinking about what the Black American experience is, how they got here, how they're treated, what it's like to grow up Black and poor, etc.
Let me just say that I'm something of a racist. I freely admit it. But I'm also capable of thinking for myself and I actually go out of my way to be empathetic. I don't want to criticize anybody without first trying to understand where they're coming from.
I guess America would be a better place, if you think the Japanese are so admirable, if our country was nothing but White people with a great healthcare system available to everybody and government funded pension plans which were consistently honored and maintained. Where retirees were treated with respect and taken care of. That's not what we've got. We've got a melting pot of different races and cultures and huge economic disparity.
You get what you pay for.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
James O'Keefe, Jingoism, and the Piss Christ
National Public Radio president and CEO Vivian Schiller resigned today amid the newest right wing terror campaign of one of untalented right-wing sociopath, James O'Keefe.
Schiller's stepping down is the latest in a string of victories for the right. Well, at least in that they firm up their base, not that it makes any difference to the general public at all.
O'Keefe is one of the types of people I've grown all too familiar with over the years. For some reason, they just become full of joyless venom. They become so obsessed with their own viewpoint and agenda that the only thing they can do is seek the destruction of others.
Of course, O'Keefe is probably well-funded by people like the Koch brothers in their headlong quest to quash everything on the left.
O'Keefe came to the attention of the media during the 2008 presidential campaign when he almost single-handedly brought down ACORN. Dressed in garb I guess he considered to be de rigueur for the average white, twenty-something, preppy pimp, he caught some ACORN employees saying some compromising things on hidden camera.
The thing is that O'Keefe is obviously so out of touch with what real pimps and prostitutes are actually like, the statements from the ACORN employees could be nothing less than people just playing along with the joke. No matter though. Through editing and the aid of Drudge, FOX "News", etc. it caused ACORN's demise.
This time he and his buddies were trying to pass themselves off as some kind of pro-Muslim group in order to get PBS and NPR people to show their true colors as the anti-American voice of the left that all good conservatives know them to be.
The problem was that the PBS and NPR people weren't biting on the group's validity but were still caught on camera dissing the idiots in the Tea Party and everybody knows you can't call an idiot an idiot and still be considered fair and balanced.
Everything about the right wing these days is about killing the messenger and ignoring the message. We're in the middle of a war of dirty tricks and character assassination the likes of which this country has never seen. Seriously, even in the days of the Ken Starr investigations of the Clintons, the tactics were nothing like this.
On the right, since apparently they're in total disarray now having to battle the fringe in their own midst and being incapable of getting anything done in Washington, they're putting out talking points, circling the wagons, and trying to figure out what the hell they're going to do about 2012.
They're having to rely on shock troops like O'Keefe to work Machiavellian magic behind the scenes in order to bring Obama and the left down since they are finding it impossible to bring themselves up.
PBS and NPR are the latest paper tigers for the right. You might remember several years back that it was the National Endowment for the Arts and Andres Sorrano's "Piss Christ".
For the right, there's always some sort of smoke and mirrors campaign going on. In the battle to destroy the unions in Wisconsin the new Republican talking points are all about "freedom". Every Republican I've seen discussing the matter in the past week has used that term to describe their efforts to destroy collective bargaining and castrate public sector unions. Seriously, freedom.
Of course the dolts on the right suck that up. They're like (speaking in robot/zombie voice of someone under hypnosis) "Yes, I like freedom. Union bad. Union don't like freedom." As if freedom were being held hostage by people seeking honest wages and retirement benefits.
There was an amazing poem by e.e. cummings, one of my favorite poets, in which he coined the term jingoism. Jingoism is a term you rarely hear these days, I would suspect because most journalists aren't educated enough to have heard of it. It has applied to the right for several years now, going back to the days of Reagan. The term means political speech devoid of substance that is all about wrapping yourself in the flag and hitting a few hot button terms here and there.
Nowhere has the jingoism of the right been more prominently displayed than at recent public events in the lead up to somebody actually throwing their hat in the ring for the 2012 Republican presidential bid.
It's all been about the rights of the unborn, the dastardly unions and their anti-American Muslim friends, the communists who control public media, etc.
And, in the meantime, they're relying on a hack like James O'Keefe to do their dirty work.
The problem is that they're losing in the court of public opinion. Still. After all the money from the Koch brothers and all the dirty tricks, they just can't bring their numbers up.
People are becoming more sympathetic to the unions and Republicans like Wisconsin governor Scott Walker are getting caught up in the same type of O'Keefian smear campaigns they love so much and are coming out looking like villains.
I think that, ultimately, the majority of Americans will realize that their best interests aren't served by people like the Koch brothers and all of this money being spent to destroy the left will have the opposite effect. Now, if Obama would only grow a pair and take advantage of that, I might rest a little easier.
I'd like to include here the poem, "next to of course god america i", by e.e. cummings in which the word jingo first appeared and also "Piss Christ" which is still a beautiful piece of work.
“next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims’ and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn’s early my
country ’tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?”
He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water
Schiller's stepping down is the latest in a string of victories for the right. Well, at least in that they firm up their base, not that it makes any difference to the general public at all.
O'Keefe is one of the types of people I've grown all too familiar with over the years. For some reason, they just become full of joyless venom. They become so obsessed with their own viewpoint and agenda that the only thing they can do is seek the destruction of others.
Of course, O'Keefe is probably well-funded by people like the Koch brothers in their headlong quest to quash everything on the left.
O'Keefe came to the attention of the media during the 2008 presidential campaign when he almost single-handedly brought down ACORN. Dressed in garb I guess he considered to be de rigueur for the average white, twenty-something, preppy pimp, he caught some ACORN employees saying some compromising things on hidden camera.
The thing is that O'Keefe is obviously so out of touch with what real pimps and prostitutes are actually like, the statements from the ACORN employees could be nothing less than people just playing along with the joke. No matter though. Through editing and the aid of Drudge, FOX "News", etc. it caused ACORN's demise.
This time he and his buddies were trying to pass themselves off as some kind of pro-Muslim group in order to get PBS and NPR people to show their true colors as the anti-American voice of the left that all good conservatives know them to be.
The problem was that the PBS and NPR people weren't biting on the group's validity but were still caught on camera dissing the idiots in the Tea Party and everybody knows you can't call an idiot an idiot and still be considered fair and balanced.
Everything about the right wing these days is about killing the messenger and ignoring the message. We're in the middle of a war of dirty tricks and character assassination the likes of which this country has never seen. Seriously, even in the days of the Ken Starr investigations of the Clintons, the tactics were nothing like this.
On the right, since apparently they're in total disarray now having to battle the fringe in their own midst and being incapable of getting anything done in Washington, they're putting out talking points, circling the wagons, and trying to figure out what the hell they're going to do about 2012.
They're having to rely on shock troops like O'Keefe to work Machiavellian magic behind the scenes in order to bring Obama and the left down since they are finding it impossible to bring themselves up.
PBS and NPR are the latest paper tigers for the right. You might remember several years back that it was the National Endowment for the Arts and Andres Sorrano's "Piss Christ".
For the right, there's always some sort of smoke and mirrors campaign going on. In the battle to destroy the unions in Wisconsin the new Republican talking points are all about "freedom". Every Republican I've seen discussing the matter in the past week has used that term to describe their efforts to destroy collective bargaining and castrate public sector unions. Seriously, freedom.
Of course the dolts on the right suck that up. They're like (speaking in robot/zombie voice of someone under hypnosis) "Yes, I like freedom. Union bad. Union don't like freedom." As if freedom were being held hostage by people seeking honest wages and retirement benefits.
There was an amazing poem by e.e. cummings, one of my favorite poets, in which he coined the term jingoism. Jingoism is a term you rarely hear these days, I would suspect because most journalists aren't educated enough to have heard of it. It has applied to the right for several years now, going back to the days of Reagan. The term means political speech devoid of substance that is all about wrapping yourself in the flag and hitting a few hot button terms here and there.
Nowhere has the jingoism of the right been more prominently displayed than at recent public events in the lead up to somebody actually throwing their hat in the ring for the 2012 Republican presidential bid.
It's all been about the rights of the unborn, the dastardly unions and their anti-American Muslim friends, the communists who control public media, etc.
And, in the meantime, they're relying on a hack like James O'Keefe to do their dirty work.
The problem is that they're losing in the court of public opinion. Still. After all the money from the Koch brothers and all the dirty tricks, they just can't bring their numbers up.
People are becoming more sympathetic to the unions and Republicans like Wisconsin governor Scott Walker are getting caught up in the same type of O'Keefian smear campaigns they love so much and are coming out looking like villains.
I think that, ultimately, the majority of Americans will realize that their best interests aren't served by people like the Koch brothers and all of this money being spent to destroy the left will have the opposite effect. Now, if Obama would only grow a pair and take advantage of that, I might rest a little easier.
I'd like to include here the poem, "next to of course god america i", by e.e. cummings in which the word jingo first appeared and also "Piss Christ" which is still a beautiful piece of work.
“next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims’ and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn’s early my
country ’tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?”
He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Still ♥ Huckabee? - Playing the Right Like a Fiddle
Quick blog today due to work schedule but I just wanted to address the story of Mike Huckabee that's been buzzing in the media since some comments he made Tuesday on a right wing talk radio show.
On the Steve Malzberg show, Mike Huckabee was addressing something about Obama removing a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. Apparently the bust was removed because Obama's people were making it so that all the busts in the office were of Americans. I'm not sure if that's actually the reason but that's not important.
Huckabee made a statement that the removal of the bust was due to Obama being raised in Kenya which was a British colony for quite some time. Here's Huckabee's statement:
“If you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.”
In fact, Obama's grandfather was arrested by the British and detained for a period. This isn't the fun stuff though.
In response to the media pointing out that Obama was in fact not raised in Kenya, Huckabee came out with this statement:
"I simply misspoke when I alluded to President Obama growing up in 'Kenya' and meant to say Indonesia."
Well, except for the fact that there was not a Mau Mau Revolution in Indonesia and Obama's grandfather didn't live there and Indonesia was not a British colony.
What happened here is that Huckabee got caught pandering to the far right. I've seen Huckabee on MSNBC where he comes off as a real gentleman and almost, dare I say it, kinda middle of the road politically. On networks like MSNBC, Huckabee is confident of Obama's American birth.
What's happening these days though is that politicians like Huckabee, lest we forget, he's an ordained Southern Baptist minister, play to whatever audience they're addressing.
When conservative politicians go on shows like Malzberg's they frequently get put into positions where correcting lies and propaganda can be political suicide. Yet, they have to put themselves out there to pander. They can't win without that lunatic fringe that makes up the conservative base.
There are only two ways Huckabee's statements could have gone down. Either he actually thought Obama grew up in Kenya or he simply lied. The fact is that Obama never visited Kenya until he was an adult.
But then Huckabee followed up with a statement claiming he simply used the word Kenya rather than Indonesia as he intended. Obviously a lie since he elaborated on it being Kenya.
So, you're busted playing to the right and lying to them so what's next? You blame the whole thing on the left wing media! Here's the statement on his website about that:
"I'm not surprised the NY Times chose to sensationalize this story. In fact, the New York Times, the AP, and other news organizations ran with the "sensationalized story" despite being specifically told by Steve Malzberg himself that they were incorrect in their assessment of the sound bite. You just can't help but laugh when my simple slip of the tongue, becomes a huge story - and a certain Presidential candidate claiming to visit all 57 states, gets widely ignored."
Well, except that Obama saying 57 states is an obvious speaking mistake. He didn't go on to elaborate how the additional seven states were incorporated into the union. The whole point of Huckabee's Malzberg interview debacle was that Kenya was the point of the story.
You can find many examples of right wing media and bloggers out there right now defending Huckabee and making him the victim of a left wing media smear campaign and I'm sure the majority of right wingers are taking that bait.
Fact is that they're getting played and, since they don't typically get actual news thrown in to their daily mix, they'll keep getting played like this.
Baptist minister, obviously a liar, no biggie.
To me though, the funniest thing about this whole story is that Huckabee says something about Obama being raised to believe the Brits "were a bunch of imperialists". As in, how could somebody believe anything like that about those nice British folk? All they were trying to do is help!
I'll save the blog on the British and their colonial period for later. A history lesson on the Mau Mau Revolt is good background though. Here's the link to the Wiki on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Revolt
On the Steve Malzberg show, Mike Huckabee was addressing something about Obama removing a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. Apparently the bust was removed because Obama's people were making it so that all the busts in the office were of Americans. I'm not sure if that's actually the reason but that's not important.
Huckabee made a statement that the removal of the bust was due to Obama being raised in Kenya which was a British colony for quite some time. Here's Huckabee's statement:
“If you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.”
In fact, Obama's grandfather was arrested by the British and detained for a period. This isn't the fun stuff though.
In response to the media pointing out that Obama was in fact not raised in Kenya, Huckabee came out with this statement:
"I simply misspoke when I alluded to President Obama growing up in 'Kenya' and meant to say Indonesia."
Well, except for the fact that there was not a Mau Mau Revolution in Indonesia and Obama's grandfather didn't live there and Indonesia was not a British colony.
What happened here is that Huckabee got caught pandering to the far right. I've seen Huckabee on MSNBC where he comes off as a real gentleman and almost, dare I say it, kinda middle of the road politically. On networks like MSNBC, Huckabee is confident of Obama's American birth.
What's happening these days though is that politicians like Huckabee, lest we forget, he's an ordained Southern Baptist minister, play to whatever audience they're addressing.
When conservative politicians go on shows like Malzberg's they frequently get put into positions where correcting lies and propaganda can be political suicide. Yet, they have to put themselves out there to pander. They can't win without that lunatic fringe that makes up the conservative base.
There are only two ways Huckabee's statements could have gone down. Either he actually thought Obama grew up in Kenya or he simply lied. The fact is that Obama never visited Kenya until he was an adult.
But then Huckabee followed up with a statement claiming he simply used the word Kenya rather than Indonesia as he intended. Obviously a lie since he elaborated on it being Kenya.
So, you're busted playing to the right and lying to them so what's next? You blame the whole thing on the left wing media! Here's the statement on his website about that:
"I'm not surprised the NY Times chose to sensationalize this story. In fact, the New York Times, the AP, and other news organizations ran with the "sensationalized story" despite being specifically told by Steve Malzberg himself that they were incorrect in their assessment of the sound bite. You just can't help but laugh when my simple slip of the tongue, becomes a huge story - and a certain Presidential candidate claiming to visit all 57 states, gets widely ignored."
Well, except that Obama saying 57 states is an obvious speaking mistake. He didn't go on to elaborate how the additional seven states were incorporated into the union. The whole point of Huckabee's Malzberg interview debacle was that Kenya was the point of the story.
You can find many examples of right wing media and bloggers out there right now defending Huckabee and making him the victim of a left wing media smear campaign and I'm sure the majority of right wingers are taking that bait.
Fact is that they're getting played and, since they don't typically get actual news thrown in to their daily mix, they'll keep getting played like this.
Baptist minister, obviously a liar, no biggie.
To me though, the funniest thing about this whole story is that Huckabee says something about Obama being raised to believe the Brits "were a bunch of imperialists". As in, how could somebody believe anything like that about those nice British folk? All they were trying to do is help!
I'll save the blog on the British and their colonial period for later. A history lesson on the Mau Mau Revolt is good background though. Here's the link to the Wiki on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Revolt
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