Reality Bytes and Pieces

In the spirit of college basketball’s “March Madness,” The Penginator presents Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) “Sweet 16″ people and groups that he has turned to throughout his life for inspiration, guidance, wisdom and support. Draw your own conclusions, but don’t say I didn’t warn you about this playa’s mad fake-out skillz if he ends up winning the “Big Dance.” And, just remember this tried and tested motto of successful teams when pulling the lever at the polls, “Defense wins games!”

1. “The Marxist Professors” - The following quote is found on pages 100 and 101 from Barack Obama’s book, “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance”:

“To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist Professors and the structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets. We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets. At night, in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Franz Fanon, Eurocentrism, and patriarchy. When we ground out our cigarettes in the hallway carpet or set our stereos so loud that the walls began to shake, we were resisting bourgeois society’s stifling constraints. We weren’t indifferent or careless or insecure. We were alienated.”

2. Frantz Fanon, the “Marx of the Third World”- “Frantz Fanon stands as a great symbolic hero among militant blacks, and his ideas find responsive audiences in the Black Writers Congresses, in the ghettoes of the United States, and in most of the universities in the new world. But within academic cirles, especially among sociologists, Fanon is still a controversial figure,” wrote Dennis Forsythe in his 1973 article entitled, “Frantz Fanon — The Marx of the Third World.”

• “The Iranian cleric Ruhollah Khomeini’s teachings — a synthesis of militant Third World radicalism derived in part from the writings of Frantz Fanon — have held Iran in the thrall of a militant theocratic tyranny since 1979,” wrote National Review’s Adrian Karatnycky on May 19, 2003. 
• “Fanon has had an inspiring impact on anti-colonial and liberation movements. In particular, Les damnés de la terre was a major influence on the work of revolutionary leaders such as Ali Shariati in Iran, Steve Biko in South Africa, Malcom X in the United States and Ernesto Che Guevara in Cuba,” states Wikipedia on Fanon. ”Of these only Guevara was primarily concerned with Fanon’s theories on violence; for Shariati and Biko the main interest in Fanon was ‘the new man’ and ‘black consciousness’ respectively. Fanon’s influence extended to the liberation movements of the Palestinians, the Tamils, African Americans and others. More recently, the South African movement Abahlali baseMjondolo is influenced by Fanon’s work.”
• “To us, the man who adores the Negro is as ’sick’ as the man who abominates him. Conversely, the black man who wants to turn his race white is as miserable as he who preaches hatred for the whites,” wrote Fanon in his 1967 book, “Black Skin, White Masks.”

3. Socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders- “The Progressive Caucus is an organization of Members of Congress founded in 1991 by newly-elected House Representative Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont), the former mayor of Burlington and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which describes itself as ‘the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International.’”

• Click here to see Obama campaigning for Sen. Sanders in Vermont. “Thank you Vermont … You know we all want to see Bernie in the Senate,” Obama states in the video.

4. Communist mass murderer Che Guevara - “We don’t have to speculate about Che’s ideals. They’re on full display 90 miles south of Florida–a Stalinist police state where the regime mandates what its subjects, read, say, earn, eat (both substance and amount), where they live, travel or work. Che’s dream wasn’t to convert Latin America into Sweden–he wanted to convert it into Stalin’s Soviet Union. In fact he often signed his early correspondence, ‘Stalin II.’ This KGB-trained and worshiping hangman named Che now serves as the idol of ‘do your own thing’ radicals and the slogan that adorns Che posters under T-shirts is ‘Resist Oppression.’ The mind boggles. It really required a sense of humor to write this book–otherwise I’d have gone nuts,” states Cuban-born Humberto Fontova, author of, “Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him.”

• Click here for video showing a picture of Che Guevara prominently displayed in Obama’s Houston, Texas campaign office, as reported by the local FOX News affiliate.

5. Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. (Obama’s “spiritual advisor”)- “Obama, the guiding hand to American unanimity, has for the past 20 years been a parishioner at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, whose leader is, by any reasonable standard, a racist,” opined David Harsanyi in his March 4, 2008 Denver Post Op-ed. ”The pastor in question is Jeremiah Wright Jr. It was his use of the term ‘audacity of hope’ in a sermon that inspired Obama to title his best-selling book with the phrase. Wright is a longtime supporter of Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan. Last year, the ‘Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award’ was given to Farrakhan, who, it turns out, ‘truly epitomized greatness.’”

6. Abongo ‘Roy’ Obama - “The person who made me proudest of all … was Roy. Actually, now we call him Abongo, his Luo name, for two years ago he decided to reassert his African heritage. He converted to Islam, and has sworn off pork and tobacco and alcohol,” the Examiner (D.C.) reported on Jan. 29, 2007 about Obama’s affection for his brother, Roy.

Now, piece that display of brotherly love together with a Jan. 15, 2008 report from Investor’s Business Daily (that appears nearly a year after the Examiner.com article) which introduces us to the real Roy, and you’ll see why there’s reason to question Obama’s brotherly love for his militant Muslim brother.

“Obama has close family ties to Kenya, and even founded a school in his ancestral village — the Senator Obama School.

 

“In the bloody conflict there, which already has claimed some 700 lives, Obama appears to have sided with opposition leader Raila Odinga, head of the same Luo tribe to which Obama’s late Muslim father belonged.

 

“Obama’s older brother still lives there. Abongo ‘Roy’ Obama is a Luo activist and a militant Muslim who argues that the black man must ‘liberate himself from the poisoning influences of European culture.’ He urges his younger brother to embrace his African heritage.

 

“Beyond family politics, these ties have potential foreign policy, even national security, implications,” notes the Investor’s Business Daily article.

7. Bob Moses, draft dodger - “‘What really inspired me,’ Obama told me during one of several conversations about his work as an organizer, ‘was the civil rights movement. And if you asked me who my role model was at that time, it would probably be Bob Moses, the famous sncc [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee] organizer.’”

• According to U.S. News and World Report, “In 1966, [Moses] left for Canada when, at the age of 31, he received a draft notice. After a stint teaching math in Tanzania, he returned to the United States when President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty to draft resisters.”

8. Saul D. Alinksy, Satan admirer- “Obama … had this to say about legendary Chicago organizer Saul Alinsky in The New Republic:

“Sometimes the tendency in community organizing of the sort done by Alinsky was to downplay the power of words and of ideas when in fact ideas and words are pretty powerful. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal.’ Those are just words. ‘I have a dream.’ Just words.”

• “The 1972 Vintage Books paperback edition of Rules for Radicals by Saul D. Alinksy has a page of quotes just before the table of contents. In the last of the three quotes, Alinsky himself said the following:

“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”

9. Malcolm X - “Obama, who would start his career in politics as a community organizer in Chicago, wrote that he also found solace in the autobiography of Malcolm X, with his ‘unadorned insistence on respect.’”

• This video compilation of Obama speeches shows the candidate ”borrowing words” from historical figures. It starts out with him telling a crowd of black supporters in South Carolina that they’ve been “hood winked, bamboozled,” just like the “star” of Spike Lee’s movie, “Malcolm X.” It’s like one of those remix tapes, but with Obama starring as the mix-master.
  
• “Obama’s verbs [hood winked and bamboozled], according to this analysis, were chosen to echo a speech by the eponymous hero of Spike Lee’s 1992 ‘Malcolm X,’ and thus to send a secret message,” states Jan Freeman in The Boston Globe. “But why would Obama need a coded racial message? I can see that Spike Lee’s film use of bamboozled might resonate with African-American voters, especially since Lee titled a subsequent movie ‘Bamboozled.’ But isn’t Malcolm X, the controversial black separatist, the last person the ‘uniter’ candidate would purposely invoke?”

10. Allah- “Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.” Translated literally, that Muslim prayer says:

“Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Hasten to the Prayer, hasten to the Prayer. Hasten to real success, hasten to real success. Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. There is none worthy of worship but Allah.”

11. Al Sharpton - “Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., stopped for a little soul food with Al Sharpton in Harlem Thursday (Nov. 29, 2007) evening. Arriving together in the same car, the two were flanked by people on the street outside the popular soul food restaurant, ‘Silvia’s’ in the heart of Harlem. Obama yelled, ‘We gon’ shake up the world,’ as he entered the restaurant side by side with Sharpton.”

• According to Sen. Obama, “Reverend Sharpton is a voice for the voiceless, and a voice for the dispossessed. What National Action Network has done is so important to change America, and it must be changed from the bottom up.”
• “Sharpton’s National Action Network is currently being probed by the New York state attorney general’s office over possible wrongdoing involving his organization’s finances. But that hasn’t stopped him or his group from cashing in on this case. In one weekend alone Sharpton’s group raised $100,000 for its ‘Jena Fund’ (cha-ching!),” noted black conservative civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, in his Sept. 27, 2007 WorldNetDaily.com column. 

12. Jena 6 - “Today I stand with those who stand for justice in Jena,” said Sen. Obama in a Sept. 20 press statement. “The thousands of Americans from every race and region who have descended on this small Louisiana town carry forth the legacy of all those who sat at lunch counters and took freedom rides to strike a blow against injustice wherever it may exist. When a noose hangs from a schoolyard tree in the 21st century and young men are treated in a way that is not equal nor just, it is not just an offense to the people of Jena or to the African-American community, it is an offense to the ideals we hold as Americans. I renew my call for the District Attorney to drop the excessive charges filed in this case, and I will continue my decades-long fight against injustice and division as President.”

• “Since the ‘Jena 6′ case in which several black youths beat a white classmate unconscious after a noose-hanging incident several months earlier at Jena High School, black leaders have galvanized in an effort to recreate a new ‘civil rights’ movement. They’ve jumped on virtually every alleged racial incident around the country. Their goal is quite simple — to build power and wealth dousing racial fires with gasoline,” remarked Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, in his WorldNetDaily.com column. 

13. Kanye West - “I’ve met with Jay-Z; I’ve met with Kanye. And I’ve talked to other artists about how potentially to bridge that gap. I think the potential for them to deliver a message of extraordinary power that gets people thinking (is massive),” Obama said during Black Entertainment Television’s (BET) political special “What’s In It For Us?”.

• According to armchair political pundit Kanye West, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people!”

14. Jay Z - It’s easy to see why Obama wants Jay Z’s support when you read (and, hum along to) a sample of the rapper’s lyrics:

“I’m from the hood stupid, what type of facts are those
  If you grew up with holes in ya zapatos
  You’d be celebrating the minute you was havin’ dough
  I’m like f#ck critics you can kiss my whole asshole
  If you don’t like my lyrics you can press fast forward
  I got beef with radio if i don’t play they show
  They don’t play my hits i don’t give a shit SO
  Rap mags try and use my black ass
  So advertisers can give ‘em more cash for ads, f#ck3rs
  I don’t know what you take me as,
  Or understand the intelligence that Jay-Z has
  I’m from rags to ritches niggas I ain’t dumb
  I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one
  Hit me”

15. Ludacris, enemy of Oprah - “[Ludacris] was dropped as a Pepsi spokesman in 2004 after Pepsi’s choice drew criticism from talk show host Bill O’Reilly and the conservative right. And last year he ended up in a war of words with media mogul Oprah Winfrey after accusing her of being against rappers because she doesn’t feature them on her show. Winfrey responded by asserting she doesn’t condone the negative images of women propagated by Ludacris and others in lyrics and videos.” But Obama did let his good friend, Oprah’s, concerns stop him from from promoting ”AIDS awareness” with Ludacris at Northwestern University on November 29, 2006.

16. Speaking of Oprah Winfrey: “Oprah talked about her humble beginnings in Mississippi, and particularly about how her mother’s highest aspiration for her was that she might end up cleaning white people’s houses, because ‘they give away nice clothes.’ And then Oprah pointed out that now that she’s Oprah, she has ‘all these white people’ working for her, and that in fact there’s only one black person on the staff. Way to turn the tables, girl,” reported TMZ on Sept. 25, 2006.

I know I said this was a “Sweet 16″ round-up, but let’s give props to Obama’s soul-mate, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson-Obama: Mrs. Obama’s 1985 Princeton University thesis “offers several fascinating insights into the mind of Michelle Obama, who has been a passionate advocate of her husband’s presidential aspirations and who has made several controvesial statements, including this week’s remark, ‘For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.’ That comment has fueled debate on countless blogs, radio talk shows and cable news for days on end, causing her to explain the statement in greater detail,” the Politico.com reported on Feb. 22, 2008.

• “It’s pretty simple: she obviously hates white people and will never get along with them,” states the Wonkette on her no-b.s. blog with regards to the following sentiments expressed by Michelle La Vaughn Robinson (Obama) in her thesis:

“My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‘blackness’ than ever before… I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second.”

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