Barack Obama, his campaign cronies, and the liberal media have been predicting racially-oriented attacks against Obama from the "Republican smear machine" for at least a year now. Actually, "predicting" is the wrong word. The Obamans didn't predict racist attacks, they STATED WITH CERTAINTY that the racist Republicans would try to scare Americans to death by playing the race card against Obama. In fact, they were so certain these attacks would occur that they have imagined them into being out of nothing. In the absence of any overt racism by Republicans, the Obamans go looking for the "subtext," the "veiled racism." Let me explain how this subtle form of racism happens.

If a Republican says "Obama is inexperienced," what the Republican really means is "Obama is black."
If a Republican says "Obama wants to lose the war in Iraq," what the Republican really means is "Obama is black."
If a Republican says "Obama's economic plan is a disaster," what the Republican really means is "Obama is black."
If a Republican says "Obama is all style and no substance," what the Republican really means is….well, you get the picture.

See how that works ? It's quite simple. Such lunacy used to be called paranoia, but no more. Now, such phony baloney is taken seriously by the news media, and some of the most imaginary of the media personalities (Keith Olbermann comes immediately to mind), believe completely in this imaginary Republican racism ("look Rachel ! McCain called Obama a CELEBRITY ! That's a code word !").

Even worse, Barack Obama apparently believes in this imaginary racism too. He as much as called John McCain's campaign racist by making the following statement:

“[McCain's] spending an awful lot of time talking about me. You notice that?” Obama asked a crowd of just over one thousand seated in a university gym. “I haven’t seen an ad yet where he talks about what he’s going to do. And the reason is because those folks know they don’t have any good answers, they know they’ve had their turn over the last eight years and made a mess of things. They know that you’re not real happy with them and so the only way they figure they’re going to win this election is if they make you scared of me,” Obama continued, repeating an attack from earlier in the day. “What they’re saying is ‘Well, we know we’re not very good but you can’t risk electing Obama. You know, he’s new, he doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency, he’s a got a funny name.’”

Let's be clear. John McCain has NEVER made a racial reference to Barack Obama. He has NEVER said anything remotely resembling the "he doesn't look like us" comment that Obama is attributing to him. Obama is offering up a complete fiction here.

Obama has played variations on the "I don't look like the other presidents" theme many times. He played the race card against the Clintons, though in fairness, there were a couple comments from Bill Clinton that could reasonably have been considered race-based, and a left wing blogger and Hillary supporter did start that Michelle Obama "whitey" rumor. Now Obama is playing the race card again against John McCain in the face of absolutely no evidence. When the McCain campaign correctly shot back at the Obama campaign for the phony racist charge, Obama's press secretary Bill Burton responded with the following coverup:

"Barack Obama in no way believes that the McCain campaign is using race as an issue, but he does believe they’re using the same old low-road politics to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign, and those are the issues he’ll continue to talk about."

Say what ??? If Obama doesn't believe McCain is using race as an issue, then why did Obama ACCUSE McCain of using race as an issue ? Of course Obama was talking about race. Burton's illogical gibberish has become an Obama campaign staple, where the opposite of the truth is presented as the truth by the Obamans. Another recent example of this phenomenon is Obama's statement about offshore oil drilling, where Obama claims that drilling will "merely prolong the failed energy policies we have seen from Washington for 30 years." Again, say what ??? The failed policies of the past 30 years are to a large part based upon the fact that DOMESTIC OIL DRILLING HAS BEEN BANNED the entire time. Enabling offshore oil drilling would be a reversal of the failed policies of the past, not a continuance of them. Obama's statement about drilling is as fictional as his statements about Republican racism.

Obama owes McCain an apology for his race-based comments, not that I expect McCain will receive one. It seems to me that when race does enter this political campaign, it originates from Obama's side, not from the opposition.

It was a wacky weekend for the party of D, that allegedly stands for Democratic. Many votes were cast that won't count, and many other votes were counted that were not cast. We all should have seen this coming the moment they made Howard Dean the head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). To everybody I've ever spoken with about Howie (who always seems angry for no apparent reason) - Told you so.

In sunday's primary in Puerto Rico, Hillary Clinton trounced Barack Obama, capturing 68% of the vote to Obama's 32%. The win earned Hillary 38 delegates to Obama's 17.

Unfortunately for Mrs. Clinton, those 38 earned delegates in Puerto Rico were trumped by the DNC's awarding of 59 unearned Michigan delegates to Barack Obama on saturday. The party of D operatives were congratulating themselves for their Solomonic wisdom all over the news shows yesterday, but it must be noted for the record, NOBODY IN MICHIGAN VOTED FOR BARACK OBAMA. Sooo, how do you get 59 elected delegates without receiving any votes ? Why, you belong to the party of D, that allegedly stands for Democratic, that's how. John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and the other party of D nominees should be po'ed, because they deserved those 59 delegates every bit as much as Barack Obama did. Some deserved them more.

In the face of heated criticism, the DNC Outlaws Bylaws Committee made other compromises on saturday as well. They seated Florida's delegates in addition to the imaginary Michigan election they held in their minds, and then they decided the 2.3 million Florida and Michigan votes would count as half votes. This move at least brought those states in line with the DNC's own internal rules, though not in line with any Constitutional principle, except maybe that old revoked one about slaves counting as 3/5's of a person. Keep trying Florida and Michigan. Who knows, maybe one day you'll be real citizens. At least the 3/5ths compromise had the nobler goal of ending slavery behind it. The party of D was on the wrong side of the slavery debate when it counted too. Btw, did you know that Barack Obama is the first black man to EVER become a Senator in the party of D, the oldest political party in the country ? Yes, it is so. The Republican party, founded in 1854 by Abe Lincoln, elected it's first black man to the Senate, Hiram Rhodes Revels, in 1870. Just an interesting historical tidbit.

During the DNC's debate over whether to count millions of votes on saturday, one heckler repeatedly asked what I'll call THE QUESTION OF THE YEAR, before he was escorted out of the building by security. The question was :

HOW CAN YOU CALL YOURSELVES THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IF YOU DON'T COUNT THE VOTES ?

Indeed. How, exactly ?

Speaking of counting the vote and real citizens, let's return to Puerto Rico for a minute. Puerto Rico is a U.S. Territory. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. They fight in our military. Nearly 70 have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. Puerto Ricans can vote in U.S. elections if they live on the mainland, but they can't vote in U.S. elections if they live on the island. They can vote in the primaries, but not the general election. Puerto Ricans live in this bizarre American colonial netherworld. Without getting into whether Puerto Rico should become a state, remain a colony, or become independent, I recommend this: As long as Puerto Ricans are U.S. citiizens, they should receive the full right to vote. I've already had my fill of votes not counting in this election cycle. I remain astonished that all it takes to suppress millions of American votes is some shenanigans from a handful of misguided politicians. We have to be better than that. The party of D can take all their wailing and gnashing of teeth over the Bush/Gore election of 2000 and stick it where the sun don't shine. They have forfeited the right to complain about anything.

Seeing as how the Democratic party is no longer democratic, I propose America has a contest to rename the Democrats into something more appropriate. I suggest the "Oxymoron party", or maybe the "Revisionist party".
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In other news, Barack Obama quit his church after 20 years, in the wake of more wacked out remarks by that deranged Catholic priest, Pfleger, who said Hillary had a sense of entitlement to the Democratic nomination because she was white. The TUCC congregation ate Pfleger's remarks up. They loved it. Obama has no doubt grown tired of defending every loony racist statement that emanates from TUCC (Trinity Unbelievably Crazy Church), but the question about Obama will not go away. The question is, why did Obama sit there and listen to that nonsense for 20 years ? And Barack, please don't continue to insult our intelligence by saying you never heard that type of language when you were there. You KNOW you did. We KNOW you did. TUCC is based upon Black Liberation Theology, which assumes white oppression. At one time you embraced that church, when it was politically convenient, and now you have removed yourself from it, because it's politically invconvenient. That sounds less like a leader, and more like an opportunist to me, but let's move on. I also want a real discussion of the issues instead of all this stuff about preachers, because it's on the issues that Barack Obama really gets scary.

When Barack Obama gave his speech about race and racism the other day, he more or less fessed up to one thing…that he was not being honest when he said he had never heard Rev. Jeremiah Wright make racist, hate-filled, anti-american statements. Here's Obama Version 1 versus Obama Version 2:

VERSION 1 (the evasion):

"The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation."

VERSION 2 (the truth):

"Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely — just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed."

Good. I'm glad we cleared that up. The fact that Obama covered up initially is troubling, but at least we can move on now. Btw, Mr. Obama, none of my pastors or priests (I can't speak for the rabbis) have ever made any racist statements along the lines of Rev. Wright for me to disagree with. Any pastor or priest I've ever heard give a sermon tended to talk about God and scripture, not how America gave AIDS to Africa, how whitey keeps blacks in poverty, the United States of KKKA, or how we deserved 9/11. That stuff seems a little off-topic to me. Some have told me I don't understand the culture in black churches. I admit I've only attended a handful of black services, but I haven't heard anything like Rev. Wright in those either.

The other question Obama needed to address in his speech was why he attended Wright's church for 20 years and why Wright was his advisor and friend, given Wright's racist rhetoric. In this regard Obama failed miserably (but in very eloquent fashion. The man sure can give a speech). Obama said Wright's inflammatory statements were not the full content of Wright's character. While I am certain that is true, so what ? I mean, there was certainly more to Don Imus than a guy who made a tasteless racist joke, but Barack Obama was quick to call for Imus' resignation last year. Here's Obama on that issue:

“There’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude,” - Barack Obama in an ABC interview, April 11, 2007

Obama also told ABC that he would never appear on Imus' show after hearing Imus make the 'nappy-headed hos' remark. There was no call for wider understanding from Obama on the Imus incident, and remember, Imus was JOKING. Rev. Wright wasn't. It seems what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander.

Obama was basically saying that we all know people who make racist comments when he said he could no more disown Wright than he could the black community, and by talking about his white grandmother fearing black men on the street. That's why Obama's speech included a synopsis of the history of race in america, from slavery to the civil rights movement. Obama even used Wright's age as a justification of Wright's attitudes. I'd call that speech Obama's racial "kitchen sink" strategy.

Obama does have a rather unique viewpoint, since he grew up in both black and white cultures, and Obama is right that we've all heard racial statements made from time to time. That is inescapable.

But the thing is, Obama kept going back for more, and didn't disavow it until the you-know-what hit the fan. Along that line, Obama's website just recently removed a testimonial from Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

And the latest Gallup national poll has Hillary in the lead.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’… I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character… And if America is to be a great nation this must become true.”

I assume most people in america know the above words by Martin Luther King. I hope they do. They should, because they were some of the most important words spoken by an american in the last half century. We could never be a truly great nation with the stain of racism on our national soul, a stain that mocked our own notion that "all men are created equal." Since MLK can say it far better than I, here are links to two of his most famous writings:

I Have A Dream

Letters From A Birmingham Jail

By breaking the bonds of segregation, Jim Crow, and institutional racism, the King-led civil rights movement freed this entire country. Racism is a mental disorder, brought about by fear and ignorance, which leads to hatred. MLK helped cleanse us of that disorder at the ultimate cost of his own life. When you look back a short 40-50 years to King's time, it is obvious that great progress has been made. Racism has not been completely eliminated, and perhaps it never can be, but by any objective measure, the changes that MLK helped bring about have led us to a far better place.

Martin Luther King's goal was to unite us all in brotherhood, not to split us up into opposing camps in some imaginary racial or class war, as some would have us do today. In King's words, "Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood."

He was a Baptist minister at heart, a hero who maybe reluctantly stepped up to accept the great challenge that was thrown upon him, but step up he did, with tremendous courage. I wonder how many of us could have risen to such a challenge, could have shouldered such a burden. He did, and that is what made him a great man. MLK was a progressive leader with conservative christian moral values. His cause transcended politics. In the Letters From A Birmingham Jail, MLK closed with "Yours In Peace And Brotherhood". That is his legacy, peace and brotherhood.

Let's always look with a suspicious eye on anyone who proposes anything other than that.

(Note - I've had very limited computer time for the last week, so I apologize for not posting much. It won't last much longer. Thanks).

Surprise, surprise. I guess I should have seen this coming, but I didn't. I keep hoping we have grown past all this stuff, but we haven't. Here we are approaching the South Carolina primary, the first with a significant percentage of black voters (50% of 2004 S.C. primary voters were black), and suddenly, out of the blue, the Clintons are charged with being racists, based on racially insensitive remarks that Hill and Billary supposedly made.

What were the 'racially insensitive' remarks made by the KKKlintons ?

1. Hillary said Martin Luther King's dream of racial equality was only brought to fruition when LBJ signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, her meaning being that it takes action along with words to accomplish desired change. She was trying to contrast her experience and action with Obama's words.

2. Bill said Obama was telling a "fairy tale" about his opposition to the Iraq war.

If you are wondering how any of that is racist, I'm right there with you. I'm wondering too. I agree Hillary's comment about MLK was ill-conceived. After all, it could hardly be said that King wasn't a man of action. He was. He did a lot more than just make speeches, and without him, there probably is no Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. That doesn't make Hillary's comment racist. You really have to go fishing to extract that meaning from her words, and it appears Obama's campaign did go fishing. An Obama staffer compiled a list of statements from the Clintons that they thought could potentially be spun as racial, and used against Hillary.

Does this mean Bill isn't the first black president anymore ?

Is this an example of how Obama is going to bring people together ?

Hillary successfully defended herself against the silly racial charge on yesterday's episode of Meet The Press (and after the race subject was finished, she spent the rest of the program lying her butt off about her shifting positions on the Iraq war and everything that happened back in the late 90's. That was must-see-tv. Classic Clinton Crapola).

For his part, Bill Clinton has been making the rounds of black radio stations in South Carolina, apologizing for the racial statement he never made. White guilt is incredible, isn't it ?

Expect Obama to disavow this entire subject very soon (now that the point has been made, and the race card played, that is). Ain't politics grand ?

For anyone who isn't familiar with the story of the teen racial problems in the small southern town of Jena, Louisiana, there is a pretty good overview of the smarmy tale here

There is a lot to sort out amid all the conflicting stories being thrown out by the teenagers on both sides of the Jena dustup, but there is one thing I think we can all agree on, based on witness accounts from both sides: those six black kids (the "Jena Six") DID beat and stomp that white kid into unconsciousness, and that IS a violent crime. At least I hope we can all agree on that, being reasonable people.

I don't want to try the case of the Jena Six here, since I was not one of the witnesses, but my feeling is that the initial charges of attempted murder were excessive, and that the reduced charges of aggravated battery are proportional to the crime. Sounds like another initial case of an overzealous prosecutor to me, as in the media feeding frenzy commonly known as the Duke Rape Case. Prosecutors often charge the maximum and then reduce charges later, which I have never liked, but that's what they do. The son of a friend of mine was just charged with assault for an auto accident because a passenger in the car, the driver's buddy, broke his arm. No way is that assault, there wasn't even any intent, but that's what they charged him with. Makes no sense at all. That's a travesty, but at last word, neither Al Sharpton nor Jesse Jackson have staged a 'No Justice, No Peace' protest rally for him, as they have for the Jena Six.

And it's Al and Jesse I want to talk about. Is it just me, or do Reverend Al Sharpton and Reverend Jesse Jackson sound more and more like the very racists they used to protest against ? When Jesse says Barack Obama isn't acting black enough on the Jena Six issue, I mean, what in the heck is that but a call to racism ? Can you imagine what would happen if the race was reversed, and a white preacher told a white politician he wasn't acting white enough because he wasn't speaking out in favor of some whites who committed a crime against blacks ? My God, he'd be shunned and out of a job quicker than you could say KKK, and rightfully so.

Jesse also made the following statement. “Across this country, there are two justice systems—one for blacks and one for whites. Black young men are not more likely to commit crimes than whites, but they are more likely to be stopped by police, more likely to be arrested if stopped, more likely to be charged if arrested, more likely to be jailed if convicted, more likely to be charged with felonies and more likely to be tried and imprisoned as adults.” Jesse is a master of the sound byte for sure, but actually, blacks are FAR more likely to commit crimes than whites. Blacks are 12% of the population, but commit over half the murders, muggings, and other violent crimes. That's hardly a secret, even if it goes mostly unreported. If we can't start with the truth, then we can't have any kind of meaningful discussion, Mr Jackson. And btw, the police aren't sent out on assignment every day to meet their monthly quota of arresting black people across the country. The police are primarily responders. They go to where they are called. They go to where situations arise. If they are patrolling your neighborhood frequently, you should look at what is wrong with your neighborhood first, not what is wrong with the police. What the police are mostly trying to do is keep people safe.

Reverend Al chimed in regarding the Jena Six. “You cannot have justice meted out based on who you are rather than what you did…This is the most blatant example of disparity in the justice system that we’ve seen. You can’t have two standards of justice.” Now, if Al is talking about the original charges of attempted murder, he has a point, but from what I'm hearing from the protesters, they want the charges dismissed completely, which definitely WOULD be a disparity of justice, because the Jena Six DID THE CRIME. Does that matter anymore ? Apparently not to the Al and Jesse racial pot stirrers it doesn't. Mychal Bell, one of the Jena Six, who is referred to on the 'Free The Jena Six' website as 'a football star', has FOUR prior convictions for violent crimes, including two prior battery convictions, which I guess the website must have overlooked, wink, wink. The Jena Six isn't some big civil rights issue. Mychal Bell isn't Rosa Parks, and he never will be. Jena in 2007 isn't Selma in 1965, and Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are certainly not Martin Luther King.

When Al and Jesse's Traveling Racial Hype Show comes to town, truth is the first casualty. Ask the Duke lacrosse team. If we don't want everything in this society to be divided by race, let's start calling out the people who DO divide everything in this society by race, on both sides.