Monroe Anderson

Obama exposes poet Gil Scott-Heron's bad prediction

The revolution was the real must-see TV. Its opening salvo was aired on a sub-zero day on February 10, 2007 in Springfield, Illinois in the shadow of the old state capitol where Abraham Lincoln gave his house divided speech. That was when Sen. Barack Obama began the assault on the greatest whites only symbol in America: The White House.
    The strikes and counter-strikes were on television day in. day out, week in, week out for the next 21 months. We caught it all. We saw the talking heads on cable TV explain why Hillary Clinton was a cinch for the Democratic nomination. Then we saw the victory speech in Iowa, realizing that the junior senator from Illinois was a contender.
    One primary battles after the next played out on our TV screens, sometimes---like on Super Tuesday--a volley of them at once. And, as the battles waged on, we surveyed the maps on who had staked out which states and how many he needed if the revolution was going to be real.
    We witnessed, first Rev. Jeremiah Wright, then Father Michael Pfleger, as they were made into men for media destruction. Then we were on the lookout as Obama knocked down that subterfuge and cleared away those smoke screens.
    Armed with remote controls in the comfort of our homes, we were eye witnesses to the victory march. We beheld the victory celebrations in Denver's INVESCO Field and in Chicago's Grant Park.
    We saw history made. We saw it all. And yesterday, we saw the beginning of the real struggle on TV--the inauguration. Now that the revolution has been won, the real battle begins--righting so many wrongs.
    And, as I watched that play out from day-to-day, I'll keep recalling how wrong Gil Scott Heron was four decades ago when he wrote his poem: The Revolution Will Not be Televised.

Here's a YouTube video with Scott-Heron's poem.

Wright out or wimp out? Obama quits Trinity

    In the wake of the Father Michael Pfleger controversial sermon last Sunday at Trinity United Church of Christ, Barack Obama sent a letter yesterday resigning from his place of worship for the past 20 years.
    I sort of, kind of, understand why he did it. But I’m also sort of, kind of, concerned about what this might portend for an Obama presidency.
    Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Trinity are community building blocks that the right wing has turned into bricks to be thrown at presidential candidate Obama from now until the general election ends in November—and perhaps beyond.
    So in an attempt to turn manufactured right-wing ammo into blanks, Obama has completely separated himself from his minister and his church. What worries me is this: Can we expect a President Obama to cave in to the whims and will of the right on policies and issues he knows are important, if this nation is to move forward in a progressive and compassionate manner? Can we expect him to genuflect to negative reports by an uninformed, misinformed or ill-willed media?  Is the candidate of change willing to go-along in a willy-nilly get-along fashion?
    I hope not, but I’m not sure.
    Obama knows what Trinity is about. I’ve only set foot in the church twice in my life and I know what it’s about. It’s nothing like it’s being portrayed in the national media. Nor is Rev. Wright.
    Obama knows that Rev. Wright and his church and Father Pfleger have been forces for good on Chicago’s South Side for three decades. Both Trinity and Father Pfleger should have known the Catholic priest’s racially-tinged mocking Hillary Clinton performance would only be perceived as another weapon to use against Obama. They should know, as I know, that they ultimately left the Illinois senator with little political choice.
    I also know that perception can become reality in our media-defined world. But reality is not always perception.  And, the reality is that Obama cannot let the right-wing dictate his principles.
    Should this become his practice as president, then for those who have invested so much hope in him, his victory will only be a pyrrhic one.

There are no atheists in this Fox hole

   

    Fox News, a major engine in the right-wing smear and fear machine, is apparently on a Mission From God: To deliver John McCain to the White House.
    The propaganda practicing cable news operation featured Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s limited-edition sermon snippets all day and all night until even its small-minded, narrowly informed audience came to realize the Chicago minister was old news. I think that was around the point when Fox started doing breaking news every night on Rev. Wright’s travel schedule.
    The “Fair and Balanced” news network is now promoting Rev. Michael Pfleger as the latest albatross to be hung around Barack Obama’s neck. Fleer’s sin: having the audacity to mock Hillary Clinton’s sense of white entitlement.
    It doesn’t matter that Father Pfleger, the pastor of Chicago’s St. Sabina Catholic Church, is white. It doesn’t matter that Rev. Pfleger said, “I regret the words I chose on Sunday," he said. "These words are inconsistent with Senator Obama's life and message, and I am deeply sorry if they offended Senator Clinton or anyone else who saw them." 
    And it doesn’t matter that Obama was forced to issue this statement: "As I have traveled this country, I've been impressed not by what divides us, but by all that unites us. That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric."
    All that matters, for Fox, is that an activist Catholic priest in Rev. Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, said something they could label as Obama’s new “preacher problem” with a "hateful speech."
    As a matter of comparison, this is a glimpse into Father Pfleger’s performance as he referenced Clinton’s teary performance the right before the New Hampshire primary. "I really don't believe it was a put-on. I always thought she felt 'This is mine. I'm Bill's wife. I'm white. And this is mine. I just got to get up and step into the plate,'" he said. "And then out of nowhere came, 'Hey, I'm Barack Obama.' And she said, 'Oh damn, where did you come from? I'm white. I'm entitled. There's a black man stealing my show.'"
    At that point, Pfleger, whose Catholic parish is all black, pretended to cry, using a handkerchief to wipe his eyes. "She wasn't the only one crying. There was a whole lot of white people crying," he said.
    Hate filled stuff. Huh?
    Now let’s look at what Rev. John Hagee, one of the fundamentalist preachers John McCain sought out for a political endorsement had to say. According to Hagee, Adolph Hitler was a "hunter," sent by God, to create the holocaust to make it possible for the Jews re-establish a state of Israel.
    When Hagee’s latest nut-laced pronouncement broke a week ago, Fox couldn’t imagine that it was breaking news: The story ran about 10 minutes into the cable news network’s Special Report with anchor Brit Hume chucking through his summary of the story. Unlike its ad nauseam airing of the Wright and Pfleger videos, Humes didn’t bother to show Hagee’s snippet at all.
    As it turns out, Fox is pretty much done with Rev. Hagee. As for Wright and Pfleger, they’ve only just begun.
    Here are some of Father Pfleger’s recorded antics from last Sunday’s sermon.

    And here’s what Dan Abrams of MSNBC’s The Verdict thought about it.