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For the AP.
By the way, the AP was also one of the first to offer a fair article on the Rezko controversy. So yes, the AP sometimes rises to the occasion.
I will even forgive them for keeping Nedra Pickler on the payroll.
Obamascrapbook Send it to all your friends and family! Obama/Biden '08!
by jenontheshore on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 11:21:39 AM PDT
on the Time website. I have no idea if stories on their website ever appear in their mag--that was my first thought when I read it, hoping that a wide audience would read this.
Hey, but what do I know?
by KFlake on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 11:23:57 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
Yeah, the AP appears in thousands of newspapers and magazines. They are incredibly influential, so it's really great that they chose to explore this angle.
by jenontheshore on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 11:25:08 AM PDT
I am starting to really believe this man will change minds in this country. If he can get guys like Mike Smerconish in PA and AP reporters out there defending him by being honest, then it is a sign that at least some in the media are looking for a return to higher ground and recognizing the country may just be ready to demand it too.
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. -- Thomas Jefferson
by DWKING on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 11:39:44 AM PDT
Smerconish defending Obama??? So bizarre.
Not just defending him, but reading part of "Dreams From my Father" aloud to his audience of dittoheads. His listeners have been very, very hostile to it, yet he persists in trying to educate them. It's pretty odd. He has nothing to gain from it.
Yet another, of many miracles, that I have witnessed in this election.
by jenontheshore on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 11:48:55 AM PDT
Wright met with them before the service and prayed with them in German, she said. Later, he delivered part of his sermon in German and the choir sang in German.
Oh, great. Wait until AIPAC gets ahold of THAT video...
by Penman on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:09:02 PM PDT
How did Reverend Wright come to know German? One supposes that his education is in theology. When and why would he have learned German?
The Bush Family: 0 for 4 in Wisconsin
by Korkenzieher on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:17:24 PM PDT
how many of the influential theologians of the last 400 years have been German? You want to read the original, you learn German.
by loggersbrat on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:40:43 PM PDT
who was inspired to a gospel of action against Hitler in part by his visits to the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, which affected him deeply and gave him a last crucial push into radical social action.
No laws but Liberty. No king but Conscience.
by oldjohnbrown on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:51:14 PM PDT
"War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength", George Orwell, "1984" -7.63 -5.95
by dangoch on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:55:47 PM PDT
for "AIPAC" (read as "Jews") either. Not to suggest a Christian theologian shouldn't read Luther, of course. You just don't want to mention Luther very much when trying to win over Jews. (He pretty much advocated genocide against Jews.)
WARNING: There is a high probability that the preceding comment is snark. Use your best judgment (hopefully better than Senator McCain's).
by Anarchofascist on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:42:03 PM PDT
I'm aware of the history; I studied German in college. But the average pastor would have been content to read Luther, Bonhoeffer, Niemoeller and others in translation. Clearly, Reverend Wright isn't the average pastor. I suppose he reads Greek and perhaps Hebrew as well...
by Korkenzieher on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:21:07 PM PDT
He is a very well educated theologin (spelling? dangit kos add a spell checker). He is a man that has done enormous good in his community and a credit to Ministers everywhere. Like his namesake most prophets could not remain silent while the government did wrong. They chasitized the government for wrongdoings.
I am proud of Barack for not throwing this incredible man to the wolves, because to me it means that Barack puts his beliefs before his politics, and that my friends is what i want in a STATESMAN. I will no longer call Barack a politician he is now officially to me a Statesman!
Dennis: Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed! King Arthur: Bloody peasant! Dennis: Oh, what a giveaway!
by wargolem on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:10:42 PM PDT
And you are right, Wright strikes me as being extremely clever and insightful. If anything it bothers me somehow Obama refered to his controversial comments as dumb. But that's politics I guess.
If I was a dehydrated baby, I wouldn't want bottled hot water from John McCain!
by Fairy Tale on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:17:57 PM PDT
that's why we have so much trouble believing, because Statesmen are as rare as Unicorns these days....so he seems too good to be true.
by PLS on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 03:13:34 PM PDT
than to never take a chance. My generation (born 1973) has never had a leader like this. My parents had 2. JFK and MLK. I think i can feel what i have heard so many people talking about my whole life, and it is incredible to be alive at this moment in history.
by wargolem on Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 12:00:36 AM PDT
He's not as well known in secular circles, but any Protestant theology student comes up against Schleiermacher at some point.
But it's not unusual that a pastor with a significant number of German speakers in his congregation would know how to pray in German.
And the choir in my church sings in German several times a year.
Politics is like driving. To go backward, put it in R. To go forward, put it in D. 76 days until the '08 elections. Let's paint the country BLUE!
by TrueBlueMajority on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:29:11 PM PDT
The article indicated that the Germans were just visitors. And churches with a substantial amount of German members, people whose first or second language is German, are most likely either Lutheran or Catholic churches, and not the United Church of Christ. That's why initially I was surprised that Reverend Wright knows German, although upon further reflection it does make sense.
by Korkenzieher on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:47:27 PM PDT
Jeremiah Wright Speaks Six Languages and has Four Earned Degrees.
Save Our Daughters Let's tear John McCain's hopes and dreams to shreds.
by kiki236 on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:42:45 PM PDT
Perhaps he was stationed in Germany for an extended period of time.
Yes, in fact, I do drive a Volvo.
by KTinOhio on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:56:15 PM PDT
"You can't negotiate with reality" - James Kunstler
by Bob Love on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:44:43 PM PDT
Martin Luther comes to mind, and with him a great deal of Protestantism.
Dems in 2008: An embarassment of riches. Repubs in 2008: Embarassments.
by Yamaneko2 on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:18:57 PM PDT
Interestingly, his works have been translated into English, so they're accessible even to those who don't read German, as I do.
by Korkenzieher on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:49:09 PM PDT
by drmah on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 04:53:37 PM PDT
French.
by tjqhzonff on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:30:28 PM PDT
Damn Commies are everywhere..
For all that has been, thanks. To all that will be, YES. - Dag Hammarskjold
by ophymirage on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:09:44 PM PDT
got a great laugh on that one.
by wargolem on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:11:56 PM PDT
Although if it's true that he speaks half a dozen languages, French and/or Arabic are pretty likely to be among them.
by Caesura on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 05:28:01 PM PDT
Wright speaks German, Hitler spoke German. Yet additional support for Jonah Goldberg's "liberal fascism."
Don't get me started . . .
by Upper West on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:50:54 PM PDT
And are in pretty heavy concentrations (an easy plurality) in IN, PA, MT, and SD.
by Fro on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:53:33 PM PDT
Especially South Central Texas. New Braunfels was founded by a German prince, and the colonists he brought over left a hefty influence on the surrounding area. There are many German-Americans in that part of the state.
by Brooke In Seattle on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:15:46 PM PDT
North Alabama from the space program. and south TN.
by wargolem on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:12:37 PM PDT
"To kill one person is murder. To kill thousands is foreign policy." Chinese writer Moh-Tze
by ILean Left on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:27:01 PM PDT
and Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota!
Stop rewarding bad behavior.
by FLDemJax on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:38:43 PM PDT
by drmah on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 04:58:30 PM PDT
last night and spoke glowingly about Obama again. I was hoping someone got a clip of it (JedReport??), because he also stated a few times about how he was a "center, to the right of center, republican". I think these type of pieces of anecdotal evidence from traditionally right-leaning personalities are incredibly powerful in convincing the doubters. We need our techies to be on the lookout and document all of these on YouTube.
by mannemalon on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:17:49 PM PDT
His show is not the typical RW talking-point nonsense. He allows opposing viewpoints, doesn't cut people off, and even concedes when a good point has been made.
Why do they hate our freedom?
by Shesk on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:40:08 PM PDT
Simply stating the facts and trying to provide the relevant context for them - how unusual for the traditional media. Let's hope it's going to be a continuing trend.
I found this striking, what it said about Hillary Clinton once that context is provided:
His Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, said she would have left the church if it had been her pastor saying such things. Obama denounced the most inflammatory of Wright's comments, which he said he didn't know about until recently. But he acknowledges, without providing any detail, hearing Wright make other controversial remarks.
This is the reaction any typical politician would have - dodge the bullet by severing his/her connection to the controversial person or group. How clearly different from the approach Obama took. He had the courage to stick with Wright the person, over the long haul and once the media storm hit. And he did it in a principled way, while condemning the inflammatory remarks, actually managing to use the incident to kick off positive change by opening a long-overdue national conversation on race.
How tired, passe, phony, and self-serving Hillary Clinton's reaction looks in comparison - the expectation that he should have abandoned his community instead - that one must always bow to political expediency and political appearances over everything else. She reveals only herself by that reaction, though also possibly her expectation that the media would never do its job and give a more contextualized picture as this article does.
The V Effect
by Alien Abductee on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:11:24 PM PDT
"God didn't call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war. We are criminals in that war. We've committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I'm going to continue to say it. . . . God will punish this country for our pride and our arrogance. . . . And if you don't stop your reckless course, I [God] will rise up and break the backbone of your power."
Can you believe that Rev. Wright would say such a thing?
Um, well actually, those words were spoken by Martin Luther King!
"Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media." -- Noam Chomsky
by ratmach on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 05:53:15 PM PDT
was trying to bring this up on Bill Maher last Friday.
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." -Plato
by Snickers77 on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 05:59:49 PM PDT
as the inflammatory comments. I doubt it will, but there is nothing wrong with hope.
"The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, (insert act) is outrageous!" - McSpokesperson
by Muzikal203 on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 11:45:55 AM PDT
Unfortunately.
But it makes a difference. Every time there is a panel on CNN that gives Wright his fair shake. Or one of us writes a letter to the editor of our local paper. Or a piece like this one appears on Time Magazine, we get a little closer to breaking through the fog of misinformation.
And obviously, Obama is doing his part. I thought his response to the Wright question (as featured in the Matthews interview) was incredibly perfect. I have faith that people will understand where he's coming from. The one's that DON'T understand were just never going to vote for him.
by jenontheshore on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 11:51:45 AM PDT
So that things like this can get out before November and we can continue to redeem the good man's image. i feel it would be the greatest travesty of this election cycle if a good man's reputation was assassinated without reason. I have listened to all of the sermons that we see the clips from, and i know that it does not matter, but i am white. Upon listening to them i saw the context he made those remarks in, and i personally have no problem understanding why and what reasons he had for making those comments.
I hope that most people will do the same and come to an understanding of the context, because if they do they will not hate Pastor Wright, they may actually do like i did and listen to more of his sermons because he is such a great speaker.
by wargolem on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:17:19 PM PDT
I have listened to all of the sermons that we see the clips from
GOOD FOR YOU!
very few people can actually say that, including members of the MSM.
(although Anderson Cooper did listen to the entire sermons and tried to raised a similar point as yours on his blog. did you see that? i usually find him squinty-stupid beyong bearing, but i was impressed and pleased.
"We've always taken care of you; why do you want to leave home?" And America's the girl taking Barack Obama's arm: "But Mom I love him!"-Mort Sahl
by carpediva on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 04:02:52 PM PDT
aisle, and they had on Glenn Beck (on 20 teevees-aaaaaaaaahhhhh!) slamming Rev. Wright. An elderly white couple was watching it (I'm white too, and this is a conservative area).
I cast a glance at the teevee and said to them, "I watched some of that guy's sermons, and he's nothing like that." The couple took interest. I continued that I wondered why the United Church of Christ, which is a mainline denomination, would tolerate having a minister like that. So I watched the whole sermons, I said, and the teevee pundits had taken just little snips out of them and completely changed the meaning.
I was almost surprised when the couple nodded, yes, they knew all too well what the teevee folk did with that kind of thing. They agreed with me!
That taught me that people aren't as stupid as the teevee pundits think they are. Folks are on to them.
May your entire existence be one sensuous, frolic-filled experience lived in defiance of care.
by Fonsia on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 02:27:07 PM PDT
by carpediva on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 04:04:33 PM PDT
I think that's why it was such a shock for us Trinitarians to realize that "sound bite" America was developing hardened and false opinions about Rev. Wright based on carefully culled media clips.
We all knew that the man served his country in the Marines/Navy (hello current administration!), holds multiple EARNED degrees, speaks MULTIPLE languages fluently, etc. His correct title is Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. Those degrees were earned through hard labor and diligence. Shame it has taken almost FOUR weeks for some in the MSM to pull their heads out of their arses and do some real work. These data points should have been part of the original stories for context.
This issue will not go away when Obama finally nails the nomination. At least we now know we have to fight even harder to disseminate the truth. The episode is beyond ridiculous. For goodness sakes, we're a church!
Thanks to all who are open-minded and helping! Keep up the fight. Miles to go. . .
Not this time. . . Barack Obama '08
by HCKAD on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 04:07:51 PM PDT
defense of Rev Wright a little more strongly. I'm a huge supporter of Obama and shed tears when he gave his speech in Phillie, but I'd like to hear him be a little more forceful in speaking about what a wonderful church Trinity is and what a good pastor Rev Wright is. He's gotten his point across that he disagrees with some of the comments but I don't think he's answered the question to most people of why he stayed with the church. It's time for him to concentrate on the goodness, not the disagreeable comments. And to take it even further, to explain the context of the statements that were so distorted. I know he'd like to talk about the whole situation as little as possible, but it's going to continue to be brought up, so I wish he'd give more of an explanation of why he holds Rev Wright in such esteem.
He's not an African American candidate, he's and American candidate. - Jean Weiss on CNN
by vernonbc on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 10:23:54 PM PDT
is also running a good pieceon this right now.
by vadasz on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:14:53 PM PDT
One other thing that occurs to me about all these people so flippantly declaring, "Oh, if it had been me, I would've walked."
Implicit in that is a damning criticism of every last member of the Church. It says, you all hate America, you all hate Whitey, you're too weak-willed or cowardly to stand up for your beliefs.
Is that really the message Sen. Clinton - who made similar remarks - wants to send to this storied congregation?
"I wouldn't trade one stupid decision / for another five years of life." -- LCD Soundsystem
by tomjones on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:21:55 PM PDT
sends to that congregation. She's looking no further than her own political survival from day to day. She figures she'll deal with the fallout and blowback later. I think luckily she will not have to, unless the people of New York decide they could do better for themselves.
by Mother of Zeus on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:32:41 PM PDT
is "What exactly was any of this supposed to prove?"
It's of a piece with Hillary's "He can't win." At no point was anyone headed for the fainting couch over Wright ever asked what exactly their "questions" and "concerns" about Obama were. They were never made to literally say "I think Obama's a fifth-columnist whitey-killer," which is too bad because that stuff is much more convincing when it's implied then when it's actually said.
The above comment is probably disrespectful of John McCain's military service somehow.
by RickMassimo on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:30:39 PM PDT
Diaried earlier today by me here:
dailykos
I'm going to have to learn when to post here to get max exposure in the future.. ;)
by EntrWriter on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:18:13 PM PDT
I did, indeed, not see it. But I am really glad that the AP wrote the article and that it's getting a bit of attention on the rec list.
by jenontheshore on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:22:48 PM PDT
It's what I get for posting so early... ;)
by EntrWriter on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:27:23 PM PDT
Its a team effort. Thanks for doing your part!
I'm a YellaDawg Democrat ...no matter how hard Hill & Bill try, I will not vote for McSame.
by DaNorr on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:53:03 PM PDT
wide narrow
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