I do want people to be inspired and hopeful if it is true...sm

• Love this one. - onlyinamerica
  • oh no!!! do you think people really believe that? How sad! (sm) - MeMT
    • Yes, they do believe it. As far as.... - sam
      • I took that as Peggy feels the economy is going to - get better and that she will have enough income
        • I took it as Peggy wants a handout and Obama is her savior..nm - mtvoter
      • It's a dark day in America when voters dare to feel inspired and hopeful? - Don't think so.
        • I do want people to be inspired and hopeful if it is true...sm - MeMT

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I'm sure someone will blast me for this, but over the past few days I haven't felt completely hopeless where politics are concerned.  It started with a town hall meeting with my area's representatives.  They really listened to the fact that people in my town are losing their jobs and their homes very, very quickly.  They seemed to understand the urgency to start fixing the problems.  Now, that could be because they were in a fairly small room with lots of angry people! - but I was glad to see them show some emotion and not be so detached from the people they're supposed to represent.

Then, last night on the debate, I felt like the Democratic candidates actually GET it.  It could be because President Bush so obviously does NOT get it, but it was refreshing to see them address the issues that are important to middle class families. 

Did anyone else watch the debate?  I must say, I watch them and I seem to go from Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton every time.  Clinton is a fighter and my gut tells me that's what we need to pull us up by our bootstraps.  Having said that, I'm a little concerned that there will be a McCain vs. Clinton match up.  I would hope that she would win on the basis of the war and economy, but a lot can change between now and the election.

I was reading on ABC.com and found this article in the comments section. I don't know much about the Huffington Post, so this may be taken with a grain of salt. I thought it was interesting though.

Meet The (White) Man Who Inspired Wright's Controversial Sermon
Sam Stein
The Huffington Post
March 21, 2008

Meet the man who inspired Reverend Jeremiah Wright's now famous tirade about America's foreign policy inciting the terrorist attacks of September 11.

His name is Ambassador Edward Peck. And he is a retired, white, career U.S. diplomat who served 32-years in the U.S. Foreign Service and was chief of the U.S. mission to Iraq under Jimmy Carter -- hardly the black-rage image with which Wright has been stigmatized.

In fact, when Wright took the pulpit to give his post-9/11 address -- which has since become boiled down to a five second sound bite about "America's chickens coming home to roost" -- he prefaced his remarks as a "faith footnote," an indication that he was deviating from his sermon.

"I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday," Wright declared. "He was on Fox News. This is a white man and he was upsetting the Fox News commentators to no end. He pointed out, a white man, an ambassador, that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Muhammad was in fact true: America's chickens are coming home to roost."

Wright then went on to list more than a few U.S. foreign policy endeavors that, by the tone of his voice and manner of his expression, he viewed as more or less deplorable. This included, as has been demonstrated in the endless loop of clips from his sermon, bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki and nuking "far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye."

"Violence begets violence," Wright said, "hatred begets hatred, and terrorism begets terrorism."

And then he concluded by putting the comments on Peck's shoulders: "A white ambassador said that yall, not a black militant, not a reverend who preaches about racism, an ambassador whose eyes are wide open and is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice... the ambassador said that the people we have wounded don't have the military capability we have, but they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them... let me stop my faith footnote right there."

Watch the video (the relevant material starts around the 3:00 mark):

So it seems that while Wright did believe American held some responsibility for 9/11, his views, which have been described as radically outside the political mainstream, were actually influenced by a career foreign policy official.

Who is Peck? The ambassador, who has offered controversial criticism of Israeli policy in the West Bank but also warned against the Iraq War, was lecturing on a cruise ship and was unavailable for comment. But officials at Peck's former organization, the Council for the National Interest, a non-profit group that advocates reducing Israel's influence on U.S. Middle East policy, offered descriptions of the man.

"Peck is very outspoken," said Eugene Bird, who now heads CNI. "He is also very good at making phrases that have a resonance with the American people. When he came off of that Fox News, a few days later he said they would never invite me back again."

And what, exactly, did Peck say in that Fox News interview that inspired Wright's words?

Here are some quotes from an appearance the Ambassador made on the network on October 11, 2001, which may or may not have been the segment Wright was referring to. On the show, Peck said he thought it was illogical to tie Saddam Hussein to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, and that while the then-Iraqi leader had "some very sound and logical reasons not to like [the United States]," he and Osama bin Laden had no other ties.

From there, Peck went on to ascribe motives for what prompted the 9/11 attacks. "Stopping the economic embargo and bombings of Iraq," he said, "things to which Osama bin Laden has alluded as the kinds of things he doesn't like. He doesn't think it's appropriate for the United States to be doing, from his perspective, all the terrible things that he sees us as having been doing, the same way Saddam Hussein feels. So from that perspective, they have a commonality of interests. But they also have a deeply divergent view of the role of Islam in government, which would be a problem."

easily seen by just reading the board.

At least it can be seen by most of us.

The one thing the radical right wing HATES is the fact that we have freedom of religion in this country.  We are all free (so far, anyway) to believe in whatever religion we choose.  It might be Christianity, or it might be something else.  Why does it even concern YOU how many Democrats are Christian?  It's simply none of your business, yet you want to jump to conclusions that may or may not be true and judge an entire group of people based upon religious beliefs, some of which might be different from yours.

This is my main problem with the radical Christian right.  They don't seem to believe that other religions are just as good as theirs.  They believe theirs is the best, and anyone who doesn't share their specific religious beliefs are judged to be inferior people.  You want to force your narrow views on everyone, and surely you must know that just isn't going to happen in America.

However, if Americans don't wake up soon and if you manage to wreck America and turn it into a theocracy, I can and WILL move to Canada in a heartbeat to escape your religious bigotry.  By the way, wasn't that the reason this country was formed to begin with -- to end religious persecution?

I can only wonder why YOU haven't been nominated for Supreme Court justice, since you seem to have the only qualification required by Bush.

Oh, that's right.  You're obviously not one of his close personal *friends* who worships him like a god and licks his boots.

MT was responding to a CHALLENGE to people to put their *money where their mouth is* and if they think this war is so *noble,* then why don't they either enlist or sign up for civilian services over there.

MT said she WILL.  NO PROBLEM. SHE WILL.

No spin.  They are her words.  She didn't say *might* or *would* or *maybe.*  She said she WILL.

You're the one who's doing the spinning.

Completely false and irresponsible.

And this board is intolerant and extremely violently angry. 

LOL!  If I didn't know in advance that this paragraph was about Ann Coultergeist, I would have sworn you were describing the Conservative Board.

I hope you have a great 4th, LVMT. 

It's rare that the baby is full term, but not all ectopic pregnancies fail.

Just thought I'd clear that up.  :)

K

Then by golly the Republicans surely have gone downhill a long, long, long ways recently.  Especially if you judged them by the surly cruel posts made by the Republicans on this board!

Morally bankrupt Republicans with Annie Coulter at the helm!!!!  He-he-he-he.. That ship is gonna sink!!