Michelle’s speech was profoundly moving and insightful. I was humbled to hear her speak with such insight and intelligence.

We are definitely blessed to have such a rare opportunity for a truly transcendent, honest, and brilliant couple in the White House.

Will President Obama bring our troops home from South Korea? Germany? Saudi Arabia?

““President Obama” will not only bring all US troops back to the US but might even allow the Iranians to have a base in Black Mountain. Perhaps he will allow Chavez a spot in Florida and they can converse on the evils of white America.” - Shalomnic Yahoo

... removing tongue from cheek

I went just to see Gladys Knight. I was disappointed there were no Pimps there though that they didn’t sing. I was a big fan of hers in the 70s. “Midnight Train To Georgia”...love that one.

Michelle Obama…why is she so angry? Imean she was going along OK,then her face changes and she says “this is the first time I was proud of my country until the press crucified my preacher Rev Wright.” What’s up with that? If she believes her own words then she is out of touch with America. Most of us like our preachers talking about love and Jesus, not that the government created AIDS to kill black people, or any of that other hateful crap he shouts on youtube.

I’m voting for Hillary Clinton. She has my best interests at heart.

I was trying to avoid it, but I recently had the misfortune of seeing the infamous television advertisement authorized by Linda Daves, the chairwoman of the state Republican party, that attempts to discredit Democratic gubernatorial candidates Bev Perdue and Richard Moore by somehow linking them with Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. I’m an unaffiliated voter in N.C. and I’ve seen some weird tactics used by both major parties in campaign commercials. But combining pretzel logic, fear and race baiting? Wow, I guess if they think that kind of thing still works they’re going to keep on doing it. And they may well be successful. But being a principled, thoughtful intellectual is obviously not in the job description of state GOP party head. Alas, nor is this quality even recommended or promoted for presidential and gubernatorial candidates.

Yes, I understand that Ms. Daves has a right to make her and her party’s positions on “judgement and leadership” known. But there’s got to be a more appropriate way of doing it than making North Carolinians feel angry, cheated, confused, ashamed, saddened and divided. Aside from politics, I feel Ms. Daves has demeaned the citizens of this state.

craig, how is it race baiting to point out Obama’s 20 year spiritual mentoring under the leadership of his racist whacked out pastor? Those 20 years show a great lack of judgment and character on Obama’s part and if the Democrat candidates for Governor are going to ally themselves with such a questionable character, it is only reasonable to point that out to the general public. As for being angry, cheated, confused, ashamed, saddened or divided, I now feel informed like anybody else who is paying attention to Mr. Obama’s very questionable past and associates.

I think Hillary is going to do far better than Obama thought likely just a week ago.

Sorry travelah, but you are far, far, far more racist and whacked out that Wright ever was.

entop, heck, you don’t even so much as know the hue of my skin but if you want to go around calling this ‘po boy a racist, knock yourself out. It’s the leftist method is it not?

All I have to go on is your words. Particularly your exploitative obsession with Wright, which is far more racist and “whacked out” than anything he ever did or said.

What churches have you been to?  You think they have any less skeletons in their closets than Wright?

The Southern Baptist church was founded as a pro-slavery rebellion against the Baptist church, which didn’;t approve of slavery. In the early days of the civil rights movement they were one of the main forces behind segregation.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you have been involved in one way or another with Southern Baptists, who have done far more harm than Wright could even imagine, for as long as Obama has known Wright.

If you are involved with any other evangelical church, it is easy enough to show their involvement in horrors that are far, far worse than Reverend Wright’s comments.

Leftist? Clearly you don’t even know what that means because you constantly misuse the term.

great video…and that is why hillary wears pantsuits.  i could’ve concentrated more on what she was saying if i wasn’t worrying about her skirt flying up, and i’m sure she felt the same way.  regardless, she’s intelligent and charismatic.

William Miller,

I’m sure you meant “pips”, not “pimps” when you referred to Gladys Knight.

Anyone who saw the rally knows that Mrs. Obama was poised, charismatic, honest, at ease, and hopeful.  Hillary supporters really don’t need to lie to make the case for their candidate.  They don’t need to go around sounding like Republicans either.

entop, I have been involved with many churches and my own tradition is Wesleyan. Now, the challenge for you is to find all those racist Wesleyans out there. They must be out there somewhere, right?

Actually travelah, the Wesleyan church is better than most, but no church has no blood on their hands. I am guessing that some of those other churches that you have been involved with may have their own issues.

As I said, if you have been involved with the Southern Baptist church in any way at any time, and I am guessing you have, you are every bit as guilty as Wright, and then some. At least his church didn’t systematically enslave and torture another race.

The main point is, as long as you take more of an issue with Wright than you do with the Southern Baptist spiritual mentors of Hillary and McCain, you are a bigot, plain and simple.

As long as you keep trying to exploit the Wright issue to fan the flames of bigotry, which you do on a regular basis, you are a bigot, plain and simple.

entop, I have been Wesleyan all my Christian life. As for Hillary, she is a Methodist. McCain is an Episcopalian who attends North Phoenix Baptist Church. Considering most rightwing evangelicals have fervently opposed McCain, you are standing not on shakey ground but in a mirey cesspool. It appears you have no idea what you talk about on a regular basis. This is a constant problem with the leftist bloggers supporting Obama. One accusation and ad hom attack after another.

As for bigotry, the only bigot in the discussion is Rev Wright who holds an animosity toward white people and a disgust for his country. The fact Obama held him as his spiritual mentor for 20 years speaks volumes regarding his judgment and character.

Seriously travelah, would it kill you to just learn the facts once in a while before you rant?  I don’t know how you don’t get exhausted from being so consistently wrong all of the time.

McCain doesn’t just go to a Southern Baptist church (which the North Phoenix Baptist Church is) he switched to being a baptist. According to him, he switched years ago, but he has been pretty inconsistent. Not exactly a sign of character. Whatever the case is, he says in no uncertain terms that he is a Southern Baptist.

Hillary has considered Billy Graham, a Southern Baptist, to be a close personal friend and spiritual mentor for decades. When she went through the Monica Lewinsky scandal, it was Graham praying by her side.

She frequently sought his council and they prayed together often. She was a huge fan of his even before they met.

Aside from being part of a church that was founded as a pro-slavery group and spawned the KKK, Billy Graham is on tape bashing Jews among other things. The Mountain Xpress’s own Cecil Bothwell wrote a book documenting many of Graham’s atrocities, which are far worse than anything Wright ever said.

If you bash Wright, it is nothing more than bigotry not to bash Graham with the same intensity. “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?”

Who do you support? Anybody enough of a right wing kook out there for you? Whoever it is, I guarantee they are just as vulnerable to your ridiculously unethical guilt-by-association nonsense as anyone else.

entop, your propaganda wind is turning to the lie now. McCain has not joined his local church as a member and remains an Episcopalian. Hillary has been a Methodist all her life. Billy Graham has been a reliable resource for several Presidencies regardless of their denominational affiliation. You should be careful with slinging the Baptist label in the mud. Baptist is the predominant black denomination in this country (with perhaps Pentecostal running a close second). As for Graham, I am not a strong advocate of Graham’s theology and I could care less for his personal faults. His comments regarding Jews exposed a fault he needed to take to prayer. Now if you think that excuses that ranting racist hate-monger, Rev Wright,(Obama’s spiritual mentor) you would have to explain why.

I will be voting for John McCain in November as he is the lessor of three poor choices. Now, if he adds Bobby Jindal, Gov. of Louisiana, to his ticket, I will be more enthused. Tomorrow, hmmmm who shall I vote for? :)

Do you ever get tired of lying?

From the Associate Press:

The Associated Press asked McCain on Saturday how his Episcopal faith plays a role in his campaign and life. McCain grew up Episcopalian and attended an Episcopal high school in Alexandria, Va.

“It plays a role in my life. By the way, I’m not Episcopalian. I’m Baptist,” McCain said.

To be clear: my point is not that Billy Graham is all bad. He isn’t. He has good and bad in him like everyone.

My point is that he is no better than Wright, who is far from all bad. Your efforts to paint Wright as some kind of boogeyman is nothing more than shameful, race-baiting bigotry.

Wright has an agenda of racism and hate-mongering. Billy Graham does not. That is the distinct discernible difference. Mr Wright painted himself for what he is with nobody else’s help needed… and you did mean to disparage Mr. Graham and Baptists in general.

My apologies for misstating McCain’s affiliation. I should have researched his affiliation before relying on his previous affiliation as an Episcopalian.

Hopefully, Democrats in this country have enough common sense once they get past the leftist rabble to realize Obama does not represent their best interests. To be honest, I am not holding my breath.

Have the leftist Democrats of WNC become so detached from reality that even Billy Graham is to be vilified for the leftist cause of Obama? I have always known the leftist mind to know no bounds in the pursuit of their agenda but to trash one of WNC’s senior statesmen in comparing him to that vile spiritual mentor of Obama, Rev. Wright, is really pushing the envelop of credibility. Nothing should be unexpected from these sorts of people.

Not only Billy Graham is vilified but Baptist Christians in general are demeaned in an effort to tar anything that examines Obama’s spiritual beliefs and record of association with the disgraced Rev. Wright. Now I’m not a Baptist but I know a lot of dear friends who are and many of them have been Democrats all their voting lives. Now they are to be regarded by Democrat leftists as scornful and to be derided as right wing crackpots. I think the people of NC deserve better representation than that the offense of WNC leftist rabble.

travelah… Since you are looking for reading material, you should read the Mountain Xpress’s own Cecil Bothwell’s book The Prince of War: Billy Graham’s Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire.

Billy Graham is on tape railing about “the malevolent influence of Jews” for an hour and a half. It is ludicrous for you to claim that Wright is any worse than Graham.

You should listen to your fellow Methodist, the senior pastor of Hillary’s former church, Dean Snyder, who proclaimed it a “grave injustice” to make a judgment on Wright based off of “two or three sound bites,” and criticized those who would “use a few of [Wright’s] quotes to polarize.”

Snyder said of Wright: ““He has served for decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society. To evaluate his dynamic ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the African-American church which has been the spiritual refuge of a people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and violence.”

You could learn a lot from Snyder. Your condemnation of Wright is anything but Christian. As Snyder said, your exploitation of Wright’s comments in an effort to polarize is a grave injustice.

Your condemnation of Wright is anything but Christian.
So does that make Obama’s condemnation of Wright unchristian as well?

entop, how about a black pastor outraged overe Rev. Wright? You see, for every liberal apostate you throw up I can counter with several who are outraged at Wright. Here is one:

Bishop E.W. Jackson, Sr., a prominent black pastor and Christian activist, has launched a nationwide campaign to counter widely publicized remarks made by Dr. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of Barack Obama’s church.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=72553

How about your leftist candidate himself?

“I am outraged by the comments that were made, and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday,” Obama said.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/29/obama-i-am-outraged-and-angered-by-wrights-comments/

Face it, entop, your candidate has lived the leftist, racist dream for years. I not you have been pretty silent about Obama’s work for the radical leftist group ACORN as well .... don’t worry, there is plenty of time between now and November. :)

bobaloo, if Obama had shamefully exploited Wright like Hillary and her right wing extremist allies like Rush Limbaugh, that would have been shameful as well, but he didn’t.

Obama never condemned Wright. He condemned Wright’s more divisive statements and he expressed strong dissatisfaction and even anger with Wright’s unwillingness to learn from his mistakes.

As much as you like to constantly defend your favorite hatemonger, Hillary Clinton, I think your allegiance is terribly misguided.

travelah, it is amazing that your mind could be that warped without the use of hard drugs.

Barack Obama has “lived the leftist, racist dream for years”??? It is almost inconceivable to imagine someone more misguidedly idiotic.

There is one thing that every single racist hate group has in common…. They are RIGHT WINGERS! Only in your excruciatingly hypocrisy addled mind is there such a thing as the leftist, racist dream.

Seriously, stop drinking shoe polish or whatever it is that you do that messes up your brain so severely, because when it comes to ridiculously clueless reasoning, you are in a league of your own.

If a liberal is a racist, it is not because they are a liberal, it is because they are being hypocritically non-liberal, meaning that they are not true liberals at all.

Pat Buchanan recently said that black people should thank their lucky stars that their ancestors were enslaved because they are better off than Africans. Pat Buchanan, a right wing extremist like you, is a conservative and a racist.

travelah, clearly your compulsive obsession with Wright is nothing more than your own twisted way of dealing with your uncontrollable attraction for the man.

You are in a safe place here travelah. You can drop the the transparent angry white guy act and embrace your searing attraction for the man already. Let go of the hate and be honest with yourself.

You will feel much better when you start being honest with yourself about your crush on Wright. I bet you anything all the right wing extremist hate-mongering that you wrap yourself in will fall away like fall leaves in a strong wind.

I told you before, I’m not a Hillary partisan.

So one has to condemn Wright categorically to be unchristian, not just his beliefs?

You are in a safe place here travelah. You can drop the the transparent angry white guy act and embrace your searing attraction for the man already. Let go of the hate and be honest with yourself.

Ahhh, so travelah is a closeted homosexual, then? That’s where his anger comes from?

bobalooooooo, iiii willllllll sayyyy itttt moooore slllloooowwwllllyyy fooorrr yooouuu…

The unchristian thing to do, which travelah, Hillary, and to some extent you continue to do, is the exploitation of Wright in order to fan the flames of racism.

The head pastor of Hillary’s former Church, Dean Snyder, may have said it best:

“. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear. Those of us who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr. Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize.”

Obama may have been compelled to condemn Wright’s words, but he sure as heck wasn’t doing it to polarize, and that is the plain and simple truth.

As for travelah’s unfounded, overwhelming obsession with Wright, you will have to ask him if it’s actually masking a deep seated attraction for the man. It makes sense to me, especially since his church takes a ludicrously bigoted stance on homosexuality.

It’s just an armchair theory, but my observation is that the vast majority of right wing extremists have sexual identity issues of one form or another, and the only thing that seems to help is if they come to terms with it.

The one thing for sure is that travelah’s anger has nothing whatsoever to do with Obama, who he takes it out on, because even when pushed, he couldn’t even name one racist thing that Obama has ever said or done.

In the time that I’ve posted, I have never mentioned Wright, so how I could be race baiting is beyond me.
Our discussion was considered you condemning Hillary on a feminist level based on the unproven allegations toward her husband and, again, I never brought up Wright.

Perhaps you see racism in anyone who doesn’t fully agree with your code of conduct? 

As for this, my query was simply if one had to condemn Wright as a person or only his belief system to be deemed unchristian.

To ask you to clarify a specific point in your ideology is not being dense, so your snark is unnecessary. 

Yet how can we take into consideration the words of Clinton’s pastor to listen to Wright when even your candidate has ostracized him and condemned his words?

It’s just an armchair theory, but my observation is that the vast majority of right wing extremists have sexual identity issues of one form or another
No, that’s armchair bigotry.

tell me how that is bigotry oh bobaloo…. Most of the people in my my life are attracted to the same gender. I think when toxic right wing memes are forced onto people it seriously messes with their heads when it contradicts who they are as a person.

As a matter of fact, I have personally known more than one person that that has been the case for. Recently on NPR, there was a pastor saying that preachers always rant the loudest against whatever it is that they were guilty of themselves.

He was making the same point as I made, that right wing ranting preachers that are obsessed with ranting about homosexuals tend to be projecting the guilt that the arbitrary and twisted moral structure of their church has brought on them.

Like it or not, when you take the side of race-baiting, i.e., travelah’s attack on Reverend Wright, you are part of the problem.

As for the pastor’s words, you still don’t get it. As opposed to Hillary, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, and travelah, Obama is NOT exploiting Wright to polarize race relations for political gain.

Obama was put in a position, by Wright, where he had to be clear about condemning specific statements. Obama does not deny that Wright has been a great leader in his community and by and large a force for good that we can learn a lot from. Obama most certainly does NOT claim that Wright is all bad etc.

Your argument holds no water at all. Obama is able to ostracize Wright for his words without denying his contributions to society or using him to polarize the nation. In fact, as recently as Sunday Obama praised Wright’s good deeds while saying that he disagrees with his divisive statements.

My snarkiness, by the way, is only in response to your naively sanctimonius, holier-than-thou judgements. Again, I don’t beg you to respond to me. If you want to put your money where your mouth is and ignore someone that you don’t agree with, rather than following them around from blog to blog, I would be quite content.

entop, you remind me of that stalwart radical, Gloria Steinham, when confronted over her somewhat foolish ideas, asked if her opponent had a “bad experience” with a woman rather than address his legitimate questions. While your ad hominem approach might tickle the few who lack the good judgment to examine what you bring to the table, it is transparent to most who actually consider the issues of the day. Your candidate placed himself under the spiritual mentoring of a man who has long expressed an insane view of the world, is racist and fosters the rhetoric of a hate-monger. Pointing this out in your leftist view, is race baiting. This is par for the course among your ilk and demonstrates just how out of touch the Democrat nominating process has become. It is being determined by the foolish minded.

The real campaign has not even begun.

travelah… Any rational gay person would say, quite fairly, that your church “has long expressed an insane view of the world.”

Does that mean that anyone who ever attended your church for any extended period of time should be condemned?

My candidate, as you say, went to a church whose pastor did and said many great things, and occasionally said things that were divisive because his resentment and anger got the better of him.

He’s a person with good and bad in him, just like your pastor is. When you try to judge Obama on his own merits, rather than your pathetic Rovian guilt-by-association tactics, your whole agrument falls apart.

entop, please shed light on how the views of a radical racist and hate-monger of a black liberation church on the fringe of Christianity has anything to do with what a homosexual thinks of the church you think I go to?

Man, you sure do get all bent out of shape when someone questions you, huh?

As for following you from blog to blog, which other blogs have I seen you on?

In any case, you’re far too contentious and contrarian to have a simple debate with.

bobaloo… I’m contentious and contrarian? Give me a break you raving hypocrite. You are the one that has repeatedly attacked me, calling me Rovian repeatedly, as I recall. Blogging is a sharp elbowed medium, but as I see it, you have been the aggressive one. I’m just not about to take it from you.

I was referring to individual blogs here on the Mountain Xpress. You seem to be quite fond of picking at my posts here.

From the start you were insulting me about my position on Bill Clintons sex scandals because I side with his victims even though he has been able to get away with it in court.

If you knew more about women’s issues, you would know that the vast majority of legitimate sexual harassment suits are not successfully prosecuted, because of things like Hillary’s blame the victim tactic.

To say that a feminist is a slanderous, Rovian, etc, as you did, just because we choose to believe the word of the victims over the perpetrator, who has already been convicted of lying under oath in a court of law, is despicably shameful.

When you dish out that sort of severely ignorant and misguided bs, I am not going to lie back and take it.

Do I get bent out of shape about Hillary Clinton’s attempt to start a race war in America by exploiting the Wright issue. Absolutely.

I’m sure you are a fine person off the blogosphere, but don’t expect me to roll over when you rail against me with accusations on topics that you clearly know very little about.

As they say, if you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention.

Wright’s church is no more on the fringe of Christianity than yours is. When was the last time you were invited to the White House?

My point was travelah, that it is just as easy to show that your church is every bit as guilty of bigotry as Wright’s. Like I said, “Any rational gay person would say, quite fairly, that your church “has long expressed an insane view of the world.”

“Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?”

okay, you two (or three), dont you think it’s time to call a truce and maybe meet for some coffee somewhere? This argument appears to be going nowhere, and you all obviously enjoy plenty of free time, so your schedules should be wide open.

entop,
You didn’t address my reply to you.

“entop, please shed light on how the views of a radical racist and hate-monger of a black liberation church on the fringe of Christianity has anything to do with what a homosexual thinks of the church you think I go to? ”

How else do you want me to address it? The comparison is to show that your church is every bit of guilty of bigotry, and then some, and yet you keep going, and yet you don’t condemn your church like you condemn Wright.

My point is that you are a ridiculous hypocrite for being so ludicrously judgemental, especially about something you know so little about, when it is just as easy to apply the same standard to you and your bigoted church.

dave,
Nah, I just work from home.
No boss looking over my shoulder + setting my own work hours = time to post. Besides, the only other place I comment is ScruHoo.

Entopticon and travelah…

Get a room.

Gordon Smith, perhaps you should get a room yourself, you kindly man you.

I’ll just leave myself out of it, I suppose.

I can easily see how my sense of humor when arguing with travelah etc could be lost on most people.

Arguing with a right wing extremist makes me feel like Andy Kaufman in the wrestling ring. It is just incredibly funny and absurd to play along and push buttons, but like Kaufman, I’m sure it is mostly just funny for me and a small group of people with a similarly peculiar sense of humor.

For example, travelah’s insanely delusional right wing rhetoric makes me crack up at the notion of him being sexually confused, which would explain his broken thinking. In reality, I have no idea what drives a person like that, so all the banter is remarkably entertaining and even a bit informative.

My suggestion, if you take it too seriously, or if it just isn’t funny to you, simply move onto to other pages. There is a great big world-wide-web out there; big enough for us all.

Agreed, entopticon.  I’ll do just that.

By the way - you going to use that blog?

Was that you who set up a blog on yahoo for me? That was thoughtful of you. Sorry I forgot about it by the time I got back from the Bay Area. The condition I have attacks my nervous system, and unfortunately, one of the byproducts is that it makes me very forgetful.

I do appreciate the thought, but I will probably just set one up myself if I get to it. I actually own entopticon.com, so I may just do something there. I usually do most of my political blogging under a different name.

Have a great day.

I have decided to start using my presidential vote to vote for the worst president possible in order to help motivate secession, then vote for local and state candidates who hate the recipient of my presidential vote, hoping they will come to blows.  Like in I claudius when he says, “let the snakes come out”. 
I’ll vote Obama as the worst candidate and the one most likely to spark secession from the Republican state and local candidates who I vote for simultaneously. 
  It seems to me that the right is more interested in and better prepared for secession, so a socialist president would be the best choice to motivate it.  NO ZONING!!

Hey Guys,
What has happened to Dr. Antineocon??
Has he (she) changed the blog name? Or maybe has moved to Belize?