Posted on 02/24/2008 6:42:49 PM PST by jdm
I am usually quite proud of being a conservative. I know in my heart that the only way to enjoying liberty under the law AND equality of justice is through the application of conservative principles to government and society. And I am usually proud of the rational, reasonable basis on which most conservatives see the world and evaluate people and events.
Thats why it embarrasses me to no end to see fellow conservatives who actually believe that Barack Obama is some kind of Manchurian Candidate sent by Muslims to undermine American society. Or that Obama is a closet Muslim just waiting to take power before unmasking himself. Or perhaps most bizarrely, since Obama was born to a Muslim father, he is a Muslim whether he wants to be or not and that Muslims elsewhere will not let him forget his heritage.
There are other permutations to this theme involving Obamas middle name of Hussein which to some of my fellow conservatives is a dead giveaway that he is Muslim. And there are no end of theories, rumors, tall tales, and outright lies about Obamas Muslim childhood spent at this madras or that mosque which proves him to be a son of Islam.
Most of this idiocy takes place in comment sections of blogs and conservative boards where new Vince Foster murder theories still generate excitement. Occasionally, one of these stories goes mainstream and for a brief period, conservative are made to look like paranoid loons who believe Barack Obama is a cross between the anti-Christ and Osama bin Ladens long lost brother.
Well, today conservative stupidity regarding Obama and his supposed ties to Islam hit paydirt as in generating a ten on the laugh-o-meter. Evidently, the probable next president of the United States was caught in flagrante dilecto, dressed to the nines in what appears to be some kind of native garb (probably Kenyan) and with a (gasp!) turban on his head. To some of my unschooled, ignorant conservative friends, this is further proof that if we elect Obama president, there will be a department of Sharia Affairs.
The truth as Jim Hoft (via Sweetness and Light) shows, is a little less dramatic. The costume is that of a Kenyan tribal elder.
Now Obama already has some problematic connections to Kenya including his appearances for presidential candidate Raila Odinga, a distant cousin and someone whose recent actions in fomenting violence in Kenya following a crooked presidential election are extremely troublesome. (There have also been rumors of a deal between Odinga and the small Islamist party in Kenya that he would, if elected, establish Sharia law a dubious proposition and almost certainly a lie that has been picked up by some conservatives in this country and passed off as the truth.)
But the idea that Obama in traditional Kenyan garb proves hes some kind of closet Muslim or Islamic sympathizer is absurd. Kenya is 70% Christian and only 10% Muslim. To extrapolate that Obamas dress denotes anything other than acknowledging his birthright not to mention playing the gracious guest by donning the clothing of his hosts is irrational, stupid, ignorant, and totally without foundation.
But that doesnt stop some from allowing imagination to trump rational thought:
Over at Islamica magazine, they are acknowledging what the few of us fighting the great fight have been saying all along. Hussein Obama is Islams candidate. They call it a wink and a nod but shhhhhh dont let on to the fat, lazy infidels.
Expect the fantasy mongerers in the mainstream media to continue to scrub and whitewash (no pun) Hussein Obamas Islamic bonafides. The rabid fervor by the leftarded lemmings is Hitleresque.
A former Associate Publisher of The New York Observer should know better.
While writing this post, I received a comment on my articlefrom yesterday about Obamas radical friends. The wildly off base nature of most of the charges made almost make me believe Im living on a planet full of escapees from the loony bin:
Rick, check out these other Obama soulmates:
Cousin Raila Odinga, the losing Presidential Candidate in Kenya, whom Obama supposedly has almost daily conversations, has been linked to religious violence, burning of churches ( with parishioners in them), and other violence following his loss in the elections. Odinga was accused of making a secret pact with a Kenyan national muslim group to install sharia law in Kenya if he won the election. Oh by the way, check out the picture of Obama in Kenya tribal Muslim garb in 2006 at Sweetness and Light.
Tony Rezko, corrupt Syrian-Amerioan slumlord/ businessman and heavy political contributor to Chicago area democrats, who will be inducted this week I believe for corruption. This is the character, with a nineteen year relationship to Obama and his law firm, who put up the money for a portion of Obamas lot so Obama could purchase his $2.1 million home. Rezko it seems also has ties to politically connected types in Syria and the former Saddam regime.
It seems that it was true that Obama was reaching out in bi-partisan way- it just was to the parties of the Islamic radicals and not to the Republicans.
This is a guy who:
Wont say the pledge of allegiance
Wont wear an American flag pin.
Whose wife has never been proud of American before her husbands campaign.
Who belongs to a racist anti-white church in Chicago.
Who was enrolled as a muslim in Indonesia's schools and studied the Koran in afterschool clubs.
Whose middle name is named after Ali Hussein, grandson of Mohammad and the founder of Shia d Islam. Incidentally, Barrack is awfully close to the name Buraq, the winged steed that Mohammad rode to heaven on.This apostate muslim is the one who is to lead us on the War on Terror?
Pray tell, how is Barrack going to make peace between the Shia, Sunni and the Sufi, much less those other people of the Book, those infidel Jews and Christians? The muslim Takfiri have only been waging war on the insufficiently pious muslims and infidel for over thirteen hundred years, or didn't Barrack learn that studying the Koran as a teenager?
We as voters really need to hear from Barrack, how studying the Koran as a teenager affected and shaped his political outlook and worldview.
I receive these kinds of comments all the time and read them constantly on other blogs. What the commenter and other conservatives dont take into account about Obama is that he is much more of a calculating man than anyone generally gives him credit for. He attends a church in Chicago whose pastor is admiring of black racist Louis Farrakahn. But I doubt whether Obamas Christianity goes much deeper than his devotion to Islam which is to say his religiosity is a calculated element of his political personae. His attendance at Trinity United Church Of Christ in Chicago establishes his authenticity as an African American more than fulfilling any spiritual need the candidate may have.
And thats why I find charges that Obama is some kind of closet Muslim so absurd. The candidate may have been trained as a grass roots organizer using the playbook written by radical Saul Alinsky. And he may have been involved in radical leftist politics early in his career. But a man who has so carefully crafted a political resume by conveniently being absent for key votes or voting Present on controversial bills all the better to obscure how far left his politics go or what his true politics are it is not beyond imagining that whatever his religious beliefs, they are calculated to effortlessly merge with the rest of this image Obama is presenting to the world. There is no room for Islam in this image nor is there anything in the public record that would indicate Obama has even given his Muslim heritage if indeed his father was a member of the Islamic faith a second thought as an adult.
I would say to my conservative friends who continue to insist that this is a rich vein to mine that you are so off base as to be a laughingstock. Just because my middle name is David doesnt mean Im a Jew despite a long, illustrious connection of that name to the history and faith of the Hebrews. Hence, this nonsense about Obamas middle name being proof that he is a Muslim has got to stop. Theres no evidence that name was given to him for any other reason except the given one it was his fathers middle name as well.
Nor does Obama dressing up in local garb make him a Kenyan elder or a shadow Muslim. The fact that he is wearing a traditional headdress is irrelevant to what he believes. When Calvin Coolidge was photographed wearing a Lakotan headdress, no one came out and said Coolidge was a devotee of The Great Spirit. Politicians wear all sorts of funny hats and clothes. Its part of Americana. For Obama to be singled out for honoring his hosts by dressing in traditional garb is the height of stupidity and my conservative brethren should be ashamed of themselves.
I really wish this meme would stop. There is so much else to criticize Obama for that to start tilting at windmills by claiming hes a danger to our Judeo-Christian society is a waste of time, effort, and resources. I would imagine the candidate himself rather than being hurt by these accusations probably gets a good laugh out of them, so silly they are and so revealing of the stupidity that permeates a large subset of the right.
Get a grip, friends.
I'd rather see the Hildabeast pull something really nasty and gain the nomination. She would lose the election and take the whole Dem party down with her!
Sorry but compromising and capitulating by choosing evil is not doing battle...
AFAIC the Battman and I are in the fight of our lives...for God's will and Glory, not rolling over to mans folly, which I admit that Ive done in every election before. NOT this time.
Voting for 'the better of two evils' has only gotten us to a point of voting 'for the better of three evils'... I;ll vote my conscience and let His will be done...
LFOD...
How convenient for Barack Hussein Obama - his mentor at Trinity UCC, Dr. Wright, is retiring. The racist church has changed their website "Black Value System" description as well.
McCain has to win as I don’t expect the numbers for Republicans to get better in either house.
What a colossal misunderstanding in the ways of logic.
With the reminder that- God's sovereign will, will be done....
Why would he keep his name if his father abandoned him at age 2? He would be easier for many to vote for, if he changed his name to his mother’s maiden name of DUNHAM. It would be easier for some Americans to vote for a Barry Dunham than a Barack Hussein Obama. People usually are weary about voting for people with non European sounding names.
You had to go back 2 pages just for that?
I wasn’t very bright.
Before I forget, Moran claims Odinga ‘may or may not be a distant cousin’ of Obama.
Your link reminded me that, OTOH, the distance between Chicago and Nairobi has nothing to do with Obama & Odinga being first cousins.
Odinga’s mama was Obama’s dad’s sister, per Odinga, and Obama has never denied it...and got himself criticized by the Kenyan governement for campaigning heavily with Odinaga.
From Jon Stewart's Oscar monologue...
“To: jdm
Fact is he was born of a fundamental Islamic father who left them at age two. His Mom married another fundamental Islamic who raised him fora number of years in Indonesia. He then came to the states.
His actions as regards the national anthem and wearing a lapel pin do not help him in this regard.
The actions of his admitted mentor and pastor of his church when he acclaims Louis Farrakhan do not help either.
His actions in support of the Islamic candidate in 2006 in Kenya do not help either.
So, look, I do not believe he is an active Muslim...but the ties are troubling at the best and something that should give people pause when electing a President, particularly when we are at war with Islamic Jihadists.
That’s all. Nothing rascist or cooky about that in the least.
And all of this is in addition to his ideology and positions on the issues which nix him absolutely in any case. To me, it’s all a part of a bigger picture that indicates that Obama would be a terrible choice for our Republic.”
Very well said, thank you. A trivial point to make, however I think it must be made. Obama is half black and half white. The black part of his family/parentage abandoned him at age 2. From that point on the white side of his family was responsible for enabling him to get a good education, not the black side who had abandoned him.
So now he seems to acknowledge the black part of his being and gives no credit to the white part.
Can anyone explain this to those of us who are neither black nor white, but part Asian, part European, and part something else?
LFOD...
Barack Sr was also a polygamist. After leaving wife & child in Hawaii, he married (without benefit of divorce) an woman on the East Coast. When he returned to Africa, where he had left his main squeeze, he returned to & married her...again, without benefit of divorce.
He may have been married to her before he left Africa, but probably not.
He may also have married again in Africa, before he was killed in the car wreck.
Even assuming he wasn’t married to Obama’s mother, the second & third marriages, and no divorces, are not really in doubt.
Once a Muslim always a Muslim, when he was young he went to a Islam school and his dad was a Muslim. We are a war with the people who the more they believe like and do what the Koran says, the more they are our enemies.
And we are thinking a electing someone symphaphatic to our enemies.
Ignore this candidates alliances at your peril.I, for one ,will not.
IMO, Obama is more of an atheist than a closeted Muslim.
Ditto.
It's really just a flick of the mouse. I wasn't like I had to time travel or anything.
That really is the unfortunate part of FR (for you)...once you write something stupid, everyone gets to read it...even is it is "two pages back."
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