Chicago Documentary: Where Is Obama?

This video from the John McCain campaign looks at what has Sen. Barack Obama done for the Latino community.

Cross-posted at The Sixth Ward!

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Why no flag pins?

I found this cartoon over at Uptown Avenger. I'm not sure what the Governor is doing in this cartoon with a caricature of Charles Gibson. All the same this is a hilarious cartoon even if the Governor wasn't in it. Of course we know who the debaters are Abe Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. I suppose mocking the debate on Wednesday between Hillary and Obama.

EDITED: Thanks to the commentors one of whom were absolutely insulting proving that they have nothing better than to insult someone they don't know on the internet I have deduced that the small man with the governor's hairstyle is George Stephanopoulos.

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Obama beer

I know, I know there isn't much need to warn me about taking away the Illinois focus or going into the world but this is how they celebrate Illinois' junior US Senator back in his father's homeland, Kenya! Apparently when they order beer they order an "Obama"!

From Beer Activist.

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Chicago is Barack Obama's kind of town

A pretty good article from this past January about the political environment that allows black politicians to move ahead in the system. This article from Salon.com says that if Sen. Obama had stayed in New York no one would have heard from him. He might have won an office but we may not have gone beyond for example, the New York State Assembly. I suppose a question to ask here is what would account for this? Why would Obama have never been heard from had he stayed in New York or also California or Hawaii?

Here's an excerpt. There is a lot about black history in Chicago. From Republican Oscar DePriest who was during the early 20th Century the only black man in Congress to William Dawson who operated a mostly black political machine until he was co-opted by the first Mayor Daley, or even some of the other black politicians of today including Harold Washington, Carol Moseley Braun or Sen. Obama himself...

For the hundreds of thousands of poor Southern blacks who made the trek north in the early 20th century, Chicago was literally known as the promised land. It promised prosperity, relative freedom -- and also, incredibly, political power. When the sharecroppers of Alabama and Mississippi passed around copies of the nation's biggest black newspaper, the Chicago Defender, in the 1920s and '30s, they read about a city with something unheard of in the rest of America: a black representative in the U.S. House. Oscar S. De Priest was a Republican, loyal to the party of Lincoln, and as the lone black man in Congress, he ended discrimination in the Civilian Conservation Corps, filed anti-lynching bills, and integrated the Senate Dining Room, over the physical objections of an Alabama senator.

De Priest was defeated in 1934, after the New Deal converted blacks to the Democratic faith, but his seat has remained in African-American hands ever since. It's currently held by Bobby Rush, a former minister of defense for the Black Panther Party.

When Barack Obama was 22 years old, just out of Columbia University, he took a $10,000-a-year job as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago. It was a shrewd move for a young black man with an interest in politics. Had he stayed in New York, "you would never have heard of him," says Lou Ransom, the Defender's current executive editor. "He may have been a very good lawyer and maybe got elected to some office, but if he hadn't come to Chicago, he would not have had the kind of support to push him where he is now."

His home state of Hawaii is more diverse, the California of his early college days is more tolerant, New York is more sophisticated. But only in Illinois could Obama have become a senator and a presidential candidate. Going all the way back to Oscar De Priest (and in some ways to Abraham Lincoln), Illinois has led the nation in black political empowerment. It has elected two of the three black senators since Reconstruction -- Obama and Carol Moseley Braun. It's had a black attorney general, and its black secretary of state is setting a new standard for that office by not taking bribes (or at least not getting caught). The only other black candidate to win a presidential primary was Jesse Jackson, who came to Chicago from the South as a seminary student and stuck around to build his own political machine.

Ironically, Chicago became the political capital of black America because it was so racist. For most of the 20th century, it was the most segregated city in America. Blacks used to have a saying: "In the South, the white man doesn't care how close you get, as long as you don't get too high; in the North, he doesn't care how high you get, as long as you don't get too close." During the Great Migration, the refugees who rode up from Mississippi on the Illinois Central Railroad were crowded into the Black Belt, the South Side ghetto portrayed in Richard Wright's "Native Son." Because the black population was so concentrated, white politicians couldn't gerrymander it out of a congressional seat. One of De Priest's successors, William Dawson, was the most powerful black politician in America. He helped boot out the predecessor to Mayor Richard J. Daley, the current mayor's father, who bossed Chicago from 1955 to 1976. In return, Daley's machine rewarded Dawson with control of the entire South Side.

Consider this Illinoize's only black history month entry for this year!

Oh BTW, the book An Autobiography of Black Politics written by Chicago real estate developer Dempsey J. Travis is a good book to look at the history black politics in Chicago. It starts with the founder of Chicago Jean Baptist Pointe du Sable some black politicians during the 19th century then the developments over the 20th Century and ultimately concludes with the election as mayor of Harold Washington in 1983. You should check it if it's of your interest especially if it's available at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com.

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Fran Eaton's Anti-Christianism Rises Again as Obama Heats Up, UPDATED

I have written several times before, as have others (here and here by ArchPundit plus here by Pastor Dan), about the anti-Christianism emanating from conservative Illinois Review editor Fran Eaton when it comes to her perverse discussions of the church where her apparent nemesis Sen. Barack Obama worships, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Trinity United is hardly different from any other Christian church around the world. It is community-focused and reflects its congregation, to be sure, but that is no different than any other house of worship. In fact, in recent weeks, there was a great outpouring of sympathy throughout Chicagoland for Trinity United as their energetic and joy-filled choir director was found murdered under mysterious circumstances.

Ms. Eaton herself is both a self-proclaimed "Christian" (which is odd given how staunchly she opposes this one church) and is also rabidly anti-Obama. She was an Alan Keyes campaigner in 2004 when he packed his Maryland bags and ran for Senate against Obama here in Illinois. She also opposed then-State Sen. Obama for many years before his US Senate run on issue after issue in Springfield.

Unfortunately for those who value honest debate Ms. Eaton's biases are leading her to infopimp twisted hokum that just isn't true and, despite the fact honest Americans have repeatedly pointed this out, she is continuing to do so. Perhaps the glare of the spotlights is too appealing as she plays the part of publicity hound busily burying bones of out-of-context hooey here, there and everywhere she can.

To put it bluntly, Ms. Eaton is diametrically opposed to Sen. Obama and would be happy to tear him down any way she can and in the wake of his big Iowa win and close New Hampshire second, several more conservative media outlets are all too happy to help her continue to shovel her bull.

She began last year by originally using the hyperbole that Trinity United espoused "black supremacy" and is "racist" among other choice words. The local Star Newspaper group even gave her a forum for publishing her strange ramblings to a wider audience than the narrowcasted conservative blog Illinois Review allows (there's that gosh-darned [not so] "liberal" media again). Many in that newspaper's audience were nonplussed.
In fact, it was one of her newspaper columns which touched off this peculiar series of anti-Christian infopimping that she is all too happy to continue. From the original Fran Eaton column in the local Chicago suburban Star Newspapers:

"It is troubling that his church’s doctrine may demand he promote affirmative action, racial quotas, reparations, bussing and more government programs dependent upon skin color."

Of course, nowhere in any Trinity United material is any of this actually "promoted", despite these claims from staunchly conservative Ms. Eaton. Besides, I'm sure all the white folks who worship at Trinity United (there are several white congregants) would be just as surprised to learn of these things as other honest folks are. Indeed, Trinity United's head pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is opposed to any notion of "supremacy" whatsoever and isn't afraid to say so.

Oddly, Ms. Eaton claims that the fact Rev. Wright has written a series of tenets called the "Black Values System" is some sort of evidence of her non-existent black supremacy movement at the church. Yet, in reading what those values actually are they appear to be little different in tone than the "conservative values" espoused by Ms. Eaton* herself as I explained in an earlier post on the topic:

Is there a place for such nattering nabobs of negativity in today’s partisan political marketplace? Apparently yes, as Fran Eaton’s Chicken Little cries of “racist church” continue to be echoed throughout conservativedom with constant drips and drabs of “some say Sen. Obama’s church is racist” sprinkled throughout conservative talk shows and publications.

Here, again, is another quarter for the Clue Bus: “middleclassness” (like the rest of the 12-points at TUCC) is a way for the church to encourage its congregants to rise above the base material-centered world and become engaged in a Christ-centered fellowship of responsibility and accountability.

And here I thought that was what the so-called social conservatives also wanted to encourage — anti-materialism, responsibility for one’s self and a Christ-filled life.

Unfortunately, in their blind partisan zealotry they’d rather spout off anti-Christian fiction about a church they don’t like just because one of its members happens to be running for president. (Can you imagine the fire and brimstone if the coin were flipped and partisan liberals repeatedly lied about Pres. Bush’s church like this?)

Ms. Eaton has since ratcheted down her heated rhetoric (barely) as she began to attract the publicity she sought. Such "liberal" (not) media icons as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity picked up the malarkey on their TV shows... malarkey ultimately traced back to Ms. Eaton herself. And even supposedly neutral outlets like CNN ("Is Sen. Barack Obama's church racist?") and dead tree media like the Chicago Tribune ("...South Side church's tenets spark criticism...") and USA Today ("Activist Obama church enters spotlight") have helped Ms. Eaton infopimp the non-controversy by distributing stories based on her twisted interpretation of Trinity United.

For one thing, all churches by their very nature are "activist". For another, all churches promote their "values". Finally, as explained above, all churches promote the notion that congregants ought to better both themselves and their communities. In these regards, Barack Obama's Trinity United is no different in its efforts than Fran Eaton's church.

So there must be some other reason for Ms. Eaton to be so adamant in her promotion of these racially-tinged fallacies about Trinity United Church of Christ.

ArchPundit believes it may have something to do with the fact Trinity's Rev. Wright opposes Pres. Bush and his failed policies (which have been none too kind to America's black communities). Ms. Eaton is a staunchly partisan Bush supporter willing to go toe to toe with anyone to defend "W".

Others allude to the notion Ms. Eaton, as white as wonder bread, is trying to tell black folks "how they should speak, act, and think". If this is the case it would, obviously, be a subtle form of racism stemming from some superiority complex. To be honest, though, I've only ever seen ignorance of racial matters from her (ie, she's simply blissfully unaware of what some black Americans have to endure even to this day) -- not blatant racism. That said, Ms. Eaton clearly thinks her outside-the-mainstream beliefs are superior to all others and will often brook almost no difference of opinion.

It may also be related to the fact many conservatives do not consider the United Church of Christ to be a "real" denomination or, at the least, to be too "liberal" a denomination. I wonder if these same partisans actually think Christ cared about politics and partisanship?!

Bottom line, Ms. Eaton is promoting this schlock not out of respect for Christianity (clearly, far from it) but because she is conservative and Obama is not. Her partisanship has blinded her to the fact that she is attacking her fellow Christians (that is, if she actually can even still be considered Christian given the false witness she is bearing in her quest for publicity and self-promotion).

For more debunking of conservatives' baloney about Obama,visit:

• Snopes.com (neutral fact checking resource)
  


• Media Matters for America (media fact checking resource, debunking conservative partisans' fallacies)
  


• Halfrican Revolution (an individual citizen's blog)

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* - By way of explanation, Ms. Eaton is on the staff of the linked United Republican Fund (linked above as reference to conservative "values"). URF annually publishes their "values scorecards" to track legislators. Apparently even conservative white people like Ms. Eaton have what they consider to be "values"....

Disclosure: I'm supporting Barack Obama and have done some minor volunteer work for his campaigns in Illinois (both for Senate in 2004 and President in 2007/8).

c/p at Illinois Reason, Daily Kos, and Prairie State Blue

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UPDATE: Ms. Eaton replies, more on that later over at Illinois Reason. Take her reply for what it's worth (not much considering she finds the fact others consider her "vapid" to somehow be insulting).

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