He can break out the shovels for his campaign. His 'irrepressible' (ABC's words, not mine) spiritual mentor is at it again, only this time Italians are the victims of Wright's seething rage. I'm sure you all caught the garlic noses refrences, among many other standard colorful rips that are all over the web and now the news (funny how that seems to be the trend cycle now).

So count the Tony Soprano voters among the Coalition of the Highly Offended, along with Jews, typical white people, veterans, families of 9/11 victims, etc, etc, etc. Can't wait to see who he slanders next, LOL!

"I wasn't in church. I would not repudiate the man." Remember these Famous Last Words.

Fascinating how the fact that Obama claimed to not be in the room during the very worst sermons (but, presumably, around for the merely bad ones) is enough to absolve him in the eyes of liberals.

One wonders whether they would be similarly willing to absolve persons involved in other scandals--say, Iran-Contra--who claimed not to have taken part in some meetings.

Since Obama still belongs to the church and, presumably, still attends, it would be salient to ask him whether he approves of the message of the new pastor. Specifically: whether he believes that Rev Wright was in effect lynched by the media; if he does, how he thinks the media mis-reported those comments and why it isn't extreme to compare it to a lynching; but if he doesn't, why he would stay in a church that makes such inflammatory commentary after he said he would resign from a church that did.

It is said that you can determine the character of a man by his actions when no one is watching. The fact the Obama is NOW saying he would have probably left his church had not Pastor Wright retired speaks volumes - that he will say or act differently when he knows people are watching.

A reader of NRO's Campaign Spot offered this comment:

So he is allowed plausible deniability by saying he didn’t hear this or wasn’t there when that was said. But this ignores the fact that parishioners in a house of worship do talk with one another outside of worship. Our local parish priest was caught up in a financial/sex scandal and the phones among the congregation were busy for weeks as they all discussed the latest news, views, etc. In less sensational times, we often discuss the latest sermon if it was not worthy in its content, positive or negative.

Would your “church,” if you fellowship with one, put on it’s bulletin board hateful articles from the anti-semitic, terrorist group Hamas? Barack Obama’s CURRENT church, Trinity United Church of Christ, did just that.

We just found out in the last 48 hours that Wright, while giving a eulogy in 2007, said that “(Jesus’) enemies had their opinion about Him… The Italians for the most part looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans.”

Now comes a report by NBC News that while Wright was in charge at Obama’s CURRENT church, reprinted anti-Israel writings, including one column by none other than Hamas leader, Mousa Abu Marzook, appeared on the bulletin board there.

The column by the Hamas leader, Mousa Abu Marzook, asked: “Why should any Palestinian recognise the monstrous crimes carried out by Israel’s founders and continued by its deformed modern apartheid state?”

The question becomes one of judgment, character, integrity, honesty and intelligence.

If I were to believe Obama’s defense that he didn’t, and still doesn’t, know what was, and still is, going on at his church for 20 years, then, in my opinion, he must not be very observant nor intelligent, and does not possess sensible judgement. Therefore he cannot be qualified to be the POTUS, in my opinion. If I do NOT believe Obama, then his integrity, character and honesty is woefully insufficient to be the POTUS, in my opinion.

Obama went to Harvard Law School (they don’t let just anybody in), where he became the first African-American president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude in 1991. Now do you think he is NOT aware of what his church and ex-pastor are all about? Be AFRAID! Be VERY AFRAID!

Barack Obama’s political FRAUD against the American People continues…

Read the rest of this article here...
http://777denny.wordpress.com/2008/03/28/barack-obama-reverend-wright-trinity-united-church-of-christ-and-hamas/

Several of you above have expressed essentially the same point I've tried to make elsewhere.

with regard to his knowledge of the incendiary sermons, his apologists are requiring either that (1) we accept the stereotype that blacks have an inferior level of intelligence (and I won't), or (2) he's the singularly most uninformed "active" member of a Christian church in 2,000 years.

I just heard that on "The View" he said he didn't read all the bulletins and see all the videos.

As for that speech, he's a great speaker, but all he did was perform a classic rhetorical technique--he just changed the issue from anti-Americanism and lies (HIV, crack, and bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki) to race. And his apologist are treating him link Lincoln giving the Gettysburg Address.

Somebody has to slap this guy down.

I don't see McCain disavowing his endorsement of the preacher who called Catholic religion, "The Great Whore."

Double standard?

You bet. Republicans on the verge of losing the White House scrambling for anything.

How's that Ann Coulter type message working for you now?

Why aren't you fighting in Iraq?

Ooooh, the chickenhawk ploy. Damn, who could have seen that coming?

Devastating. Simply devastating. I think I'll go do 20 years in the Church of Hate Whitey as penance.

Nikx, I attempted to join the Navy, but was turned away because of a hidden disability (i.e. one that is not obvious to the naked eye).

I'd imagine my calling the Navy recruiter is more than you've ever done for your country.

Would you like to try the chickenhawk ploy on me again, thus proving yourself to be anti-disabled people, or would you like to try to find a real, logical argument?

I served. And I even deployed while on IRR. And I was in the infantry. And I was in the Triangle of Death.

Looks like the chicken-hawk ploy fell flat again. How embarrassing for you.

Brando, on behalf of those who wanted to serve but couldn't, thank you.

Don't ya just love it when the one calling others chickenhawks turns out to be just plain chicken?

Jeremiah Wright did not retire. He was PROMOTED to Rev Emeritus, which means he owns that pulpit till he dies and can take it at will. I see a lot of black churches doing some hasty paddling as senators like Chuck Grassley (and the IRS) take interest in their political activities and finances. Oprah herself may be looking for a shovel to bury her association with this bigotted, America-hating, demagogue. It is imperative that America retire "traditional black" institutions which are divisive in nature. America's many "black" cultures achieve a creative nature that are by nature inclusive, like music and art of various forms. This tolerance America has for such intolerant groups has never been resolved without significant suffering by the innocent. One day the infection of hate will be recognized when it boils up in the seat of Love, but not at TCoC in Chicago. Obama is infected, and his wife has a double-dose, it seems. The Obama children have known nothing else their whole lives, now are claimed by this hateful group in baptism. Sweet Jesus! So much borrowed rage and stolen insult in one small building, its almost like a mosque.

Odd, you're not equally obsessed with Bush/Cheney's gaps in credibility?
Wmd, last throes of the insurgency, greeted with flowers and praise, oil revenue will pay for the war, we are not interested in nation building, if anyone in my administration leaked Plame's identity they will be fired, global warming is junk science..etc

I smell red herring.

Oh, it's Chris.

Carry on, everyone. Just the neighborhood troll, trying to change the topic.

Don’t miss this selection via Christopher Hitchens‘ piece ..

“If Barack gets past the primary,” said the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to the New York Times in April of last year, “he might have to publicly distance himself from me. I said it to Barack personally, and he said yeah, that might have to happen.”

Pause just for a moment, if only to admire the sheer calculating self-confidence of this. Sen. Obama has long known perfectly well, in other words, that he’d one day have to put some daylight between himself and a bigmouth Farrakhan fan. But he felt he needed his South Side Chicago “base” in the meantime. So he coldly decided to double-cross that bridge when he came to it. And now we are all supposed to marvel at the silky success of the maneuver.

Perhaps Obama didn’t hear those contraversal statements, but he certainly knew of them. What’s better is that we get to see how a “might” from a year ago slowly became he “would” a year later. That’s real decisiveness, a true mark of a leader.

I want to be clear about this.

Just for the record, I wasn't bragging about my service. I was just stifling the chickenhawk meme. He brought it up, and I put it down. I'm surprised that he tried for it, given the number of servicemen that read this blog. If you're going to pull the "chickenhawk card" then you'd better have a pretty darn good battle resume, because someone's always better.

My experiences do give me some insight on some topics, but not this one. Having served, (or not served), has no real bearing on the current topic of BHO's church.

For example, I have neither the physical or mental aptitude to be an astronaut. Therefore I don't dictate how NASA does it's job. I simply don't know anything meaningful about it.

That's why I'm surprised that Liberals declare how combat operations should best be performed, as they have so little knowledge about it. Knowledge doesn't transfer to all fields. Being a expert chef isn't a qualification to be an NFL defensive coordinator.