Dogon Village News Alerts

by Barbara Ehrenreich, The Nation - There's a reason Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama.

You can find all about it in a widely under-read article in the September 2007 issue of Mother Jones, in which Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet reported that "through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as "The "Fellowship," also known as The Family. But it won't be a secret much longer. Jeff Sharlet's shocking exposé The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.

Sean Hannity has called Obama's church a "cult," but that term applies far more aptly to Clinton's "Family," which is organized into "cells"--their term--and operates sex-segregated group homes for young people in northern Virginia. In 2002, Sharlet joined The Family's home for young men, forswearing sex, drugs and alcohol, and participating in endless discussions of Jesus and power. He wasn't undercover; he used his own name and admitted to being a writer. But he wasn't completely out of danger either. When he went outdoors one night to make a cell phone call, he was followed. He still gets calls from Family associates asking him to meet them in diners--alone. Read the full story here

Duh....In a year when even Republicans weren't supporting Republicans, the Democrats had a clear ride to the White House. However, after the negative antics of the Clinton campaign and the focus on race, the Democrats don't stand a chance in 2008. McCain is looking and acting like a leader while Hillary and Barack duke it out on the street corner. What a waste of a historic moment.

For all of the young people and new voters, don't let this stop you from going to the polls. Even if you don't select a presidential candidate, make sure to put the people into office that have your interests in mind. A lot of those superdelegates that could have stepped up and put an end to this mess before there was no coming back are elected officials. Some of them need to find another profession. They blew this election. Keep that in mind when you go to the polls this year, and during the mid-term election.

Young people have the power to change this foolishness in DC. BE THE CHANGE!

A poll released Thursday suggests Arizona Sen. John McCain has moved ahead of both Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House.

It also reports that McCain is ahead of Clinton, by a 51 to 41 percent margin.

A poll released Thursday suggests Arizona Sen. John McCain has moved ahead of both Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House.

The Rasmussen Reports, an independent polling organization, reports McCain leads Obama 49 to 42 percent. It also reports that McCain is ahead of Clinton, by a 51 to 41 percent margin. Read the full article here

Mrs. Clinton's schedule is quite revealing. Seems Bill didn't even give Hillary the respect to wait until she left home to have his sexcapades. Lord only knows what Billy boy will be up to if the Clinton's get back in the White House. This is actually disgusting behavior for a president.

As for Mrs. 3 AM, Ready on Day One, looks like the most she'll be ready for is running a high-level day care center. Her statements about her experience go beyond spin. Heck, based on these reports, it was a gross exaggeration or a three letter word no one wants to utter.

Hillary Clinton 'in White House' as Bill Clinton committed adultery with Monica Lewinsky

Hillary Clinton spent the night in the White House on the day of her husband’s fateful assignation with Monica Lewinsky, and may have actually been inside the building when it occurred, according to records of her daily schedule as First Lady released yesterday.

....The former First Lady’s schedule for February 28, 1997, the day that Ms Lewinsky’s blue dress became stained in an encounter with Mr Clinton, shows that his wife held several meetings in the White House that morning, and spent the night there.

Mr Clinton’s encounter with Ms Lewinsky took place in an Oval Office bathroom in the early evening. Read the full story here

Hillary Clinton papers sink experience claims By Toby Harnden Telegraph

Hillary Clinton's boasts that she gained major foreign policy experience as First Lady have been undermined after 11,046 pages of her White House schedules provided scant evidence to back up her claims.

…her visits to Northern Ireland indicate that she went little beyond the traditional role of a president's wife attending social events, meeting women's groups and greeting children.

Despite Mrs Clinton's claim last week that she was "instrumental" in bringing peace to Northern Ireland, the schedules do not record her attending a single policy meeting in the province.

In Belfast, she gave an address to the Vital Voices women's conference, spent 30 minutes at a reception at the City Hall and visited the PlayBoard children's project.

Her schedule records that she and Cherie Blair, the then Prime Minister's wife, were to "proceed to the children's play area, where children are creating playground models".

They were then to "proceed down the path where they are joined by 25 children with balloons" and go "to the top of the hill and release the balloons".

...In Bosnia, she was introduced by an eight-year-old Bosnian girl and a class of 13 year olds before a roundtable session that included the Bosnian president Ejup Ganic and American diplomats.Read the full story here

Hillary Was in White House on 'Stained Blue Dress' Day

Schedules Reviewed by ABC Show Hillary May Have Been in the White House When the Fateful Act Was Committed

In December 2000, when both of Hillary Clinton's brothers were involved in trying to broker pardon arrangements for associates, several days of documents show only a long list of "private meetings" at the White House.

Between Dec. 1 and 22, Clinton had a total of 25 "private meetings" before the day on which a first round of pardons was announced by her husband. Read more here

11,000 Long-Awaited Pages of Clinton’s Schedules as First Lady Are Released John M. Broder

The documents offer no support for her assertions on the campaign trail that she helped negotiate the Irish peace accords or facilitated the flow of refugees in the Balkans, but neither do they disprove them. There is no evidence to back up her assertion that she helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act, the first legislation Mr. Clinton signed as president in February 1993.

They provide no insight into her role in appointments to key administration posts or in courting donors for her political campaigns or her husband’s, nor in how she coped with revelations in 1998 of her husband’s sexual betrayal with a young White House intern. Read the story here

Hillary Clinton missed key presidential moments Daniel Nasaw, The Guardian

· Papers cast doubt on claim of first-hand experience
· First lady was often far from scene of negotiations

But documents from her first lady office threaten to undermine her claim to have played a major role in Clinton's foreign policy decisions.

For instance, Clinton has said she helped negotiate the April 1998 Good Friday agreement between warring factions in Northern Ireland. But while Catholic and Protestant figures hashed out details of a power-sharing agreement in Belfast Clinton was at the National Press Club in Washington at a "Hats on Bella" party honouring Bella Abzug, a congresswoman from New York who had recently died. While President Clinton phoned major participants in the peace talks she met with Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and joined a farewell party for Democratic worker Karen Finney. The day the agreement was inked she met with Philippine first lady Amelita Ramos.

When Nato launched air strikes against Serbia in an attempt to punish Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic for the country's onslaught against ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo Clinton toured Egyptian ruins, including King Tut's tomb and the temple of Hatshepsut. She dined at the Temple of Luxor, and stayed overnight at the Sofitel Winter Palace Hotel there. Read the story here

Lewinsky and the First Lady By The Associated Press

Hillary Rodham Clinton was in the White House on at least seven days when her husband had sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky, according to the first lady's calendars released Wednesday. A look at her schedule on days when Lewinsky said she had sexual encounters with Bill Clinton:
Dates of Bill Clinton's encounters with Monica Lewinsky: Nov. 15, 1995, Nov. 17, 1995, Jan. 7, 1996, Feb. 4, 1996, March 31, 1996, and March 29, 1997 Other dates:

Dec. 31, 1995: Lewinsky said she and the president had a sexual encounter early that afternoon in a study down the hall from the Oval Office. Sometime afterward, the president, first lady and their daughter, Chelsea, flew to Hilton Head, S.C., to spend New Year's Eve with hundreds of friends during their annual getaway at an intellectual family retreat known as Renaissance Weekend.

Jan. 21, 1996: Lewinsky and the president had an afternoon sexual encounter in the hallway by the private study next to the Oval Office, Lewinsky said later.

April 7, 1996, Easter Sunday. Mrs. Clinton had no public schedule. Lewinsky said that, at the president's suggestion, she performed oral sex while he was on the telephone in his office.

Feb. 28, 1997: The schedule shows Mrs. Clinton was in the White House at least part of the day, when President Clinton and Lewinsky had oral sex near the Oval Office, leaving stains on her dress. Read all the dates here

March 18, 2008. The historic speech begins:
"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”

On Rev. Wright:

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother — a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

"The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through — a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

On Race

I chose to run for president at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together -- unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction -- towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

On Trinity United Church of Christ

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.

The Bottom Line

I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

Next Page">Full address here

Interesting piece by Frank Schaeffer, Huffington Post --

Obama's Minister Committed "Treason" But When My Father Said the Same Thing He Was a Republican Hero

When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.

Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God." They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were mild. All he said was that God should damn America for our racism and violence and that no one had ever used the N-word about Hillary Clinton.

Dad and I were amongst the founders of the Religious right. In the 1970s and 1980s, while Dad and I crisscrossed America denouncing our nation's sins instead of getting in trouble we became darlings of the Republican Party. (This was while I was my father's sidekick before I dropped out of the evangelical movement altogether.) We were rewarded for our "stand" by people such as Congressman Jack Kemp, the Fords, Reagan and the Bush family. The top Republican leadership depended on preachers and agitators like us to energize their rank and file. No one called us un-American.

....The hypocrisy of the right denouncing Obama, because of his minister's words, is staggering. They are the same people who argue for the right to "bear arms" as "insurance" to limit government power. They are the same people that (in the early 1980s roared and cheered when I called down damnation on America as "fallen away from God" at their national meetings where I was keynote speaker, including the annual meeting of the ultraconservative Southern Baptist convention, and the religious broadcasters that I addressed.

....Both the far right Republicans and the stop-at-nothing Clintons are using the "scandal" of Obama's preacher to undermine the first black American candidate with a serious shot at the presidency. Funny thing is, the racist Clinton/Far Right smear machine proves that Obama's minister had a valid point. There is plenty to yell about these days.

Read the full blog at Huffington Post:

Born on September 22, 1941, in Philadelphia, PA; son of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Sr. and Dr. Mary Henderson Wright; married Ramah Reed; children: Janet Marie, Jeri Lynne, Nikol, Nathan, Jamila
Education: Virginia Union University, 1959-61; Howard University, BA, 1968, MA, 1969; University of Chicago School of Divinity, MA, 1975; United Theological Seminary, DMin, Black Sacred music, 1990.
Religion: United Church of Christ.
Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Marine Corps, private first class, 1961-63; U.S. Navy, hospital corpsman third class, 1964-67.
Memberships:
Selected: Ministers for Racial and Social Justice, United Church of Christ, 1972-; Black Theology Project, Board of Directors, 1975-95; Evangelical Health Systems, Board of Directors, 1986-89; Chicago Theological Seminary, Board of Trustees, 1999-2000; Virginia Union University, Board of Trustees, 2001-.

Career

Zion Church, interim pastor, 1968-69; Beth Eden Church, assistant pastor, 1969-1971; American Association of Theological Schools, researcher, 1970-72; Trinity United Church of Christ, pastor 1972-. Chicago Center for Black Religious Studies, executive director, 1974-75; Chicago Cluster of Theological Schools, lecturer, 1975-77; United Theological Seminary, professor, 1991-97; Chicago Theological Seminary, professor, 1998; Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, professor, 1999.

Awards

Selected: Howard University, Dean's List, 1968; The Fund for Theological Education, Rockefeller Fellowship, 1970-75; three Presidential Commendations from L.B. Johnson, 1965-66.


Life's Work

Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. is one of the most widely acclaimed black preachers in the United States. Combining social concern, spiritual growth, and political activism, Wright, who preaches in a black traditional style, brings a message of hope, redemption, and renewal. In 1972 he became pastor of a small United Church of Christ congregation in the inner city of Chicago. After over 30 years in the pulpit, his congregation has grown to 10,000 and is the largest United Church of Christ congregation in the United States.

by ZZ Packer , Huffington Post - So, forty-three white male presidents to date, and Geraldine Ferraro says Obama's gotten where he is because he's black?

If you've been following the latest statement by Geraldine Ferraro in which she said "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," you might also be operating under the assumption that our last 43 presidents have been black, or that blacks overwhelmingly make up the bulk of Fortune 500 CEOs, or for that matter, the majority of Andover kids whining about the lack of locales for spring break or the cast of The OC.

Just at the beginning of his campaign it seemed like an absolute long shot because of his race. Now, having overcome all this and other these obstacles--including the ones that contribute to high percentages of black men who are jobless, in prison, or dead by the age of 25--he is where he is because of race?

The horrible double standard is obvious. According to those of Ferraro's ilk: if you're a poor black man, or incarcerated, or jobless or homeless, you are where you are because of your own ineptitude and should take responsibility for your actions. However, if you've excelled at one of the top schools in the nation, then later on became a star attorney and later become a senator who inspires millions, then you're only there in spite of your ineptitude and you really shouldn't take responsibility for it. Talk about movin' on up. Read the full article

By Sherry F. Colb - On March 11, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's fall from grace topped the news. Federal investigators had caught Spitzer -known to them as "Client 9" -- arranging for a prostitute named "Kristen" to meet him for an assignation at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

Ten years ago, in 1998, as readers will doubtless recall, a different sex scandal made headlines across the globe. Then, it was President Bill Clinton who stood in the glare of the cameras. As he finally admitted, months after the allegations first surfaced, he had engaged in an inappropriate (i.e., sexual) relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern in her early 20's...

Spitzer's Fall

As Attorney General, Spitzer had pursued the prosecution of sex rings. As governor, he played a pivotal role in passing a human trafficking law that would punish prostitutes' clients. In so doing, he had evidenced an understanding for the claims of human rights organizations that sex traffic begins with demand, and that criminal penalties must therefore target consumers rather than sex workers.

As it has emerged, however, following the shocking announcement on March 11, Spitzer had himself contributed to the demand that fuels the sex trade - an industry that Spitzer had called "modern-day slavery" - and had spent tens of thousands of dollars purchasing the services of the Emperor's Club V.I.P., an online prostitution ring. ...

Clinton's Fall

Like Spitzer's, Clinton's admission of sexual misconduct included an acknowledgment of the pain that his behavior had caused his family. Clinton also indicated that his actions were wrong. He did not, however, resign from office and allow his vice president - Al Gore - to continue the important work of running the country.

A Republican-controlled House of Representatives subsequently impeached Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice ...

...The Senate, however, acquitted Clinton of the charges, and he continued in office until the end of his term, though he had his license to practice law in Arkansas suspended and his membership in the U.S. Supreme Court bar revoked in the aftermath of the trial.

Similarities and Differences Between the Spitzer and Clinton Scenarios

...First, though both Clinton and Spitzer appeared to have been repeat players in the marital infidelity game, Clinton's conduct generally did not violate the criminal law, while Spitzer's did. I say "generally," because one woman did accuse Clinton of raping her in a hotel room in 1978, an allegation corroborated by a friend who had met with the woman immediately after the alleged attack. Clinton denied the accusations, which never faced the test of a trial. Other alleged Clinton relationships, however, appeared to qualify as consensual, at least for purposes of the criminal law (sexual harassment does, of course, raise some issues of coercion).

... For the most powerful man in the world to have sexual relations with an intern (who was apparently in love with the President) might be consensual, but it does exploit a power imbalance that could hardly be more stark. Similarly, we have no evidence that Spitzer compelled Kristen or other sex workers to engage in conduct against their will. Nonetheless, the role of a prostitute - being offered to a client for his sexual gratification in exchange for money (in this case, at least $1000 an hour) - does not exactly place the man and the woman in the relationship on reciprocal footing. Read the full story here



Sherry F. Colb, a FindLaw columnist, is currently a Visiting Professor at Columbia Law School and will be joining the Cornell Law School faculty in the fall. Her book, When Sex Counts: Making Babies and Making Law, is currently available on Amazon.

I have to admit, if the issue for the 2008 election becomes national security and not the RECESSION, John McCain can't be beat. If the democratic candidates don't stop squabbling and get back to the challenges American's are facing daily McCain will be well positioned to become the next president. He's talking about the issues, he has experience, and he's a likeable guy.

Democrats need to realize that the spiraling cost of gas, food, and education, livable wages, and healthcare are more important than where Obama goes to Church or the fact that Ms. Ferraro thinks the only reason she was a candidate for vice president is because she was a women. Obama's minister is retired, and if Ferraro is not, with her low self-esteem, she might as well be retired.

Here's a thought-provoking comment from ABC News made by former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He makes an excellent argument about Clinton's "3 am" ad

"that was the best ad that the McCain campaign could have ever hoped for, because listening to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama talking about experience in a national security crisis is like listening to two Chihuahuas arguing about which is the biggest dog. When it comes to national security, John McCain is the big dog, and they are each the Chihuahua." Visit ABC News

Rush Limbaugh talks at length about the chaos in the democratic party-which he takes a little credit for. It's scary when Rush is making this much sense.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Dick Polman, columnist: "'Archie Bunker at the Kitchen Sink.' Now consider Ferraro's remark. By attributing Obama's strong position to the color of his skin, she is denigrating his rare political gifts -- all of which have actually enabled him to transcend the de facto color barrier that, until now, has prevented black candidates from ascending to the top tier. Or look at it this way: If Obama is indeed well positioned in this campaign primarily because he is black, why is it that no black has ever achieved this position before? It's tragic," writes Dick Polman. I love this. These people are imploding all around. "It's tragic for the Democratic party that one of its pioneer feminists would sound like Archie Bunker in his easy chair on All in the Family, grousing about affirmative action, about how blacks are getting a leg up solely because of their race. Because this is the message of reverse racism, widely embraced by whites who believe that they're getting a raw deal in an unfair modern world. (Witness Ferraro's anger at being criticized for her Obama remark; her latest retort is, 'I really think they're attacking me because I'm white.')" Gosh, folks. Do you understand how wonderful this all is?

This bunch of liberals, George Neumayr said it perfectly yesterday in the American Spectator, they are being devoured by their own policies. They gave us the concept of affirmative action, and now, the Clintons, the rest of the party hierarchy, bigwigs sitting around in their private rooms, and they can't believe, "What the hell, we got a rookie black guy, and we can't say anything," and they're cursing up a storm and they're devising stratagems and strategeries to get rid of this guy. If they were true to their word, if these liberals really meant all of this, Hillary would have got out of the way, Edwards would have never got in, and they would all be unified behind Obama, and they'd be carrying him around on a throne to see to it that he was elected president, because that was their promise to so many in their party and so many of their voters, particularly black voters, "We're going to emancipate you. We're going to save you. We're going to get you from out under the thumb of those racist Republican white bigots. We're going to make sure you get a fair shake. We're going to make sure you don't get pulled over at three in the afternoon because you're driving a car that looks like you can't afford."

All the promises, nothing changes, nothing changes. Bill Clinton has morphed into Bull Clinton. We named him after Bull Connor. Now they want a Jim Crow election. Only the blacks should go for Obama, only the women should go for Hillary. This party is demonstrating exactly who they are and what they're all about. They are just being devoured by their own policies. I can't tell you, to see Geraldine Ferraro be so offended. It's tragic. It's tragic. Here, we have some Ferraro sound bites. Why, what timing. These things just don't happen by accident, folks. This is the result of broadcast excellence, highly trained broadcast specialties that I have learned. Last night, Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel, Alan Colmes says in reaction to Hillary Clinton's comment, "I don't agree with it, it's regrettable that one of our supporters said this."

MoveOn.org announced the launch of a positive ad contest to help Barack Obama win the nomination and to profile the creativity he inspires. If you have writing, acting, or video editing talent, and this is your chance to use help Obama win and maybe even get your ad aired.

The winning spot will air nationally and the winner will get a $20,000 gift certificate for a camera and editing package.

MoveOn.org boasts over 3.2 million members across America working together to find their political voice in a system dominated by big money and big media. The organization organizes quick action on other timely issues that that their members care about including an anti-war campaign.