Obama: Proud To Be Americans

By: Arthur Hu, Mar 11, 2008

Tags: Hu's on First, Opinion |

The chinks are finally showing up in Obama’s armor. Michelle Malkin has finally come to McCain’s side following Michelle Obama’s recent gaffe. Can you imagine “God Bless the USA” with “I’m proud to be an American … for the first time in my life”? You’d think a couple with his-and-hers Ivy League college and law degrees, a $275,000 job as hospital outreach coordinator, a family income of nearly $1 million and a great deal on a $1.5 million mansion would helped her appreciate this country before now. Then again, many Asian Americans with education levels and incomes that make whites look like a disadvantaged majority think they’re victims, too.

Nearly half of America is crazy about the man, but I haven’t seen a survey asking if America was ready to promote a son of Islam, Christian or not. Even McCain had to apologize for a host who emphasized Obama’s middle name. Conservative geek Alan Keyes lost the Senate race after quoting from the Bible that men lying together is “an abomination.” Obama’s inclusive interpretation of Scripture is that marriage is for a man and woman, but that gay couples are only asking for the same rights enjoyed by married people (ohhh).

McCain has been known for colorful comments, making light of songs about bombing Iraq and pledging to stay in Iraq for 100 years if that’s what it takes to keep the peace. But I wonder about “ending the war in Iraq” if he’s going to “send troops in case al- Qaida sets up a base.” Iraq is one big insurgent base now, regardless of whether Saddam kept Iraq under tighter control. Ho Chi Minh never vowed to destroy America, but guess who’ll be coming if Iraq falls? It was Bush’s idea to first destroy al-Qaida’s sanctuary in Afghanistan. People care about their president saluting the national anthem and wearing flag pins. I was kidding about McCain as the Republican Antichrist, but a dozen YouTube videos are linking the prophesied, smooth-talking, charismatic man-of-peace Obama to the end of the world bogeyman.

Hillary was outmaneuvered by Obama’s deftly run campaign. If Obama can convince Republican talk show callers to trust him more than they hate McCain, he must have some magic. But he’ll have to survive the rising tide of questions of whether he’s as good at being commander in chief as he is at playing the satisfying and delicious candy man to the voters in the summer and fall.

The Los Angeles Times polls now have the man whose campaign was nearly bankrupt ahead of both Clinton and Obama, and viewed favorably by 61 percent of all registered voters, including most Democrats. America may just wake up out of its Obama trip and go for the sensible, cranky old guy who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is and say “no you can’t” when it comes to Uncle Sam giving away the store.

Comments

This piece is worthless - the author is clearly an islamophobe and needs to check his biases before he airs them out as “journalism.”

Not to mention that he clearly has no appreciation for the weight of what an “American” heritage really means - the blood’s on all of our hands, Arthur, as tax-payers in this shovel-headed killing machine called America. If you’re comfortable with everything this nation has done to its own people and people and governments around the world, you can pledge your blind loyalty without the spine to stand up and question.

That doesn’t mean the rest of the thinking population has to do the same.

brownout.blogspot.com

–rage on Mar 11, 2008
McCain, Hillary and Obama are all US Senators.
Senators use their mouths to criticize, scrutinize government officials. They talk more than they act.

Top movie critics can hardly make good movies.
Top food critic can hardly be top chefs either.
So on and so forth.
Are Senators good material for President ?
Why this time only Senators run for President ?

–OBL on Mar 11, 2008
I agree that it is inappropriate to falsely claim that Obama is a Muslim, although I don’t believe that being a Muslim in and of itself should be anything about which someone should be ashamed. I do think, however, it is important for America to better understand the kind of “Christianity” which has so fascinated Obama for the last 20 years. Obama claims to belong to a Christian Church called Trinity United Church. He considers the just-retired pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, to be his “mentor and spiritual advisor.” According to the church’s website, their members are “unashamedly Black and unashamedly Christian,” and swear allegiance to the mother continent, Africa. Obama’s church gave the racist and Jew-hating Louis Farrakhan a “lifetime achievement award” last November. Rev. Wright teaches Black Theology, and thinks about everything pretty much in terms of black versus white. He called 9/11, for example, a “wake-up call to white people.” Commenting on the recent murder of Natalie Holloway, he decried the press coverage by stating that “one 18—year-old white girl from Alabama gets drunk on a graduation trip to Aruba, goes off and gives it up while in a foreign country, and that stays in the news for months.” Rev. Wright likes to throw around the name of James Cone a lot when it comes to his theology. James Cone is another proponent of Black Theology. Here are just a couple of James Cone’s quotes: (1) “To be Christian is to be one of those whom God has chosen. God has chosen black people.” [Black Theology and Black Power, pp. 139-140]. (2) “While it is true that blacks do hate whites, black hatred is not racism.” [Black Theology and Black Power, p. 15] (3) “All white men are responsible for white oppression.” [Black Theology and Black Power, p. 24] (4) “Theologically, Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man “the devil.” [Black Theology and Black Power, p. 40] (5) “If there is any contemporary meaning of the Antichrist, the white church seems to be a manifestation of it.” [Black Theology and Black Power, p. 73] **** Need I go on? These are the kinds of concepts that Obama has been soaking up for 20 years. The focal concern or center of black theology is the white oppression of blacks. Therefore, the usual theological discussions about God, Christ, and salvation are much less relevant. Although I respect anyone’s right to belong to any religion they wish, this does not sound like a positive form of “Christianity” for any of those who are not members of the “chosen people.” And, maybe Obama needs to be a little more candid about the brand of “Christianity” to which he adheres.

–Fred on Mar 11, 2008
re –rage on Mar 11, 2008

Oh, not worthless at all. The islamophobe issue is far from dead. The “internet” letter had some extrapolations and inaccuracies, but the obama.com statement “I am not and have never been a member of the islamic” religion is even more false. His grandfather and father were born into islam, his Indonesian stepfather was Muslim and took him to the Mosque, and signed him up to two schools, including the catholic one, as a muslim. He goes to a christian church, but he has many contacts and some people working for and with him from the Nation of Islam, and would probably find a place in his adminstration. He used to be sympathetic to the Palestinean cause until he realized the pro-Israel forces have a lot more money and clout, so the electric infitada has given up on him. Being an ex-muslim or born-again christian doesn’t disqualify him any more than being a Mormon, but he shouldn’t be running away from his Muslim past and heritage, he should be using it as something that will enable him to be the peace-maker he claims to be.

Yes, you are probably one of the many that thinks “American” heritage really means bloody oppressors, that’s in fact the but of a joke somebody wrote about Obama “not wanting to taking sides” between people who don’t like the flag. That’s precisely why the “first time in my life” comment offended so many people when he paints such a bleak picture of this nation, and it sounds you haven’t been proud of this nation even as late as Mrs. Obama who has at last found her patriotism, even though her college thesis was about her ambivalence about acquiring “conservative values” such as wanting to get good grades and get a job that pays well. The Obamas are enormously lucky to have gotten as far as they have, and like he has said, it could only have happened in America.

Yes many Asians want to abandon those quaint old Asian values of trying to be overachievers, but it won’t happen to my kids if I can help it.

–arthur hu on Mar 11, 2008
Hu:

I can’t even follow what you’re talking about in your ramble up above, but uncritical patriotism is beneath thinking people. I suggest you read more history before touting the wonders of this nation. Blind patriotism gives a blank check to the leadership to take us down the slippery slope of fascism.

And the islamophobia I’m referring to is from you, not Obama. You have a serious bias, and should check it. Asian Week should think before allowing bigots to post up opinions as part of their “journalism.” Anti-islamic sentiment offends a large segment of the Asian American community that Asian Week is supposed to be reaching out to.

–rage on Mar 11, 2008
-rage:

To the contrary, uncritical bashing of America is all too fashionable. What I object to is a statement on Obama’s website claiming that not only he isn’t Muslim, but all but rejecting any connection to his obvious heritage by claiming he never was and never prayed in a mosque. Clearly, he or his staff must be afraid of Islamaphobia. I would be far more impressed if he leveraged off the good will he has with the Islamic world because of his name and heritage than running away from it . Similarly, I’m no big fan forces that want to destroy Israel, but I am considerably less impressed that he’s switched sides once he was offered to join the pro-Israel side. He’s clearly a talented and fortunate guy beyond any fascination with his race, or else any smiley faced guy from his heritage could do what he’s doing, but I’m still sticking with the Skyhawk pilot who still looks good to me the deeper I look into his background, history and character, I can’t say the same for Obama.

Remember McCain intensely hates that he and his buddies were sent on a badly mismanaged mission where there were strict limits on what could be bombed when, and when missle sites and fighter bases could and could not be attacked, rules that were abandoned for the 2nd bombing campaign that succeeded in getting Hanoi to the negotiating table where Rolling Thunder didn’t accomplish much of anything in terms of its original objectives vs. the planes and people lost on both sides.

–arthur hu on Mar 12, 2008
Dear Arthur:
I had, upon reading your original “column” above, decided to pass, do I hear cheers? Jeers?
But, “drudge” that I remain, I must try to put in two more cents’ worth here, to wit:
Your published piece is, once again, the Art Hu I knew at the beginning: unfathomable, oxymoronic, lacking a sustained line of reasoning OR viewpoint.
Your responses to “rage” however, are, like another Arthur Hu, more “person”able and possibly, even more “logical.”
That said, I have to AGREE, totally, with “rage” herein, and begin to doubt mine own “support,” such as it is or can be, for AsianWeek for “publishing” a piece that must in its own way rival Kenneth Eng, admittedly unread to date, for titillation OR content, even if your titillations and (lack of?) content above, well, to me at least, rival your best shots from “Little Saigon” and academia, have no idea of your planes-and-military contribs.
This nation, and its people, including you and me and everyone else, today, stands guilty of the war in Iraq for starters, totally unwarranted and unjustifiable and ongoing in its multiple idiocies of bloodletting. The fact that “they” are similarly guilty does NOT absolve us.
We “started” it, as kids in the schoolyard say, and “we” are definitely the “bullies” herein.
Sadly, this record, apparently, at least in re a new book that charges and documents the complicity and conspiracy of FDR/Churchill in WWII, goes to the very roots of this nation.
Art, in my eyes, anyone who identifies with his captors, oppressors, manipulators, is a “victim” and NOT a member of the Establishment.
Just one more recruit to the Stockholm Syndrome?
Yes, John McCain is a dyed-in-the-wool “patriot” who survived five years in Viet Cong hands and who seems both honest AND honorable. To date that is.
But is he more or LESS than his vis-a-vis here, that “black” “Christian” Pied Piper of a yes-we-can pulpit?
His own party evinces the racist/religionist totem and taboo, thereby clueing everyon in on the more vicious swiftboating that has already begun should he capture the “nomination.”
And your yea-sayer above cites heavy hosts in the likes of Wright/Farakhan.
But, to me, the wonder isn’t that there remains a “Nation of Islam” domestically, along with “Christian” civil-rights and hymn-rocking groups, it is the sheer wonder that “blacks” have not risen up in armed revolt.
As a fellow “yellow,” I am your unapologetic opposite, born in that cradle of “Asian-American” e-literacy, San Jose, CA, raised and “educated”? there and in the Bay Area environs.
And, as such, as an “equal” of one, I deplore your latterday, well, to me you ARE latterday, embrace of contemporary America’s sick and sadistic global worldview which, willy-nilly, includes “us,” as “rage” duly notes.
In my Frenchyfried guise — J’ACCUSE.
And denounce.
Not that it matters, either way, yours or mine.
Frank
P.S,.:And Art, if I were your kid, I would give you the finger, and I DO mean the middle. OVERachiever? Achieve what? A “column” in AsianWeek?

–Frank Eng on Mar 12, 2008
Check on latest results:
http://rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/general_election_match_up_history

McCain matches either one right now. He’ll look better to voters the more they get to know him. Obama AND Hillary have “jumped the shark” (hit their peak)

My unexpected scenario is that Obama earns the nomination in delagates, but has to pull out once Obamania dies down and Hillary becomes their last hope. We’ll see this summer.

I’m reading “Faith of My Father” right now. His grandfather and father are the real heros. Compare his fathers to Obama’s two dads.

My parents didn’t come to this country to fight the white power structure. They came here to become Americans and give me that opportunity, and I’m not going to screw it up for my kids either.

–Arthur Hu on Mar 13, 2008
Art:
I am genuinely apologetic, and sorry, for my offhanded and facetious remark about your offspring.
Way off limits. And totally un-Chinese even as it is hustings American.
You obviously love them and they no doubt you.
Which is as it should be.
And, bottom line, your love for them will force you to allow them THEIR druthers when the time comes for each of them to make their own choices and go for their own solutions.
THIS and then is where “life” truly resides, and I wish you and yours only the best, the most creative, and the most “meaningful” to each of you.
Frank
P.S.: On the other hand, I think you should read several of today’s pieces on Information Clearing House, especially Paul Craig Robertses’ and Mike Whitney’s. Me, I’m reading Phil Chung’s essay on that documentary on the life and career of Anna May. Met her once when she came to Salinas to help out some community effort and was awed at how tall she was, and, even more so, the fact she spoke the “fourth dialect,” see-yup or provincial, with low throaty gutturals. i was in my teens?, and impressed.

–Frank Eng on Mar 13, 2008
Eng - apology accepted. I just hope all the Obama supporters are at least as proud of America as Michelle now claims to be, by some of the comments, that doesn’t appear to be the case. This is fundamentally still the greatest nation founded on the greatest ideas, and too many people get caught up with the idea that America is fundamentally what’s wrong with the world today. America is not and has never been about white people, it’s about US, whoever the heck we are.

Well, the press had a field day with Obama’s minister Mr. Wright and this “liberation theology”. This stuff has been in the right wing press for months, but it’s finally hitting the fan, and there’s plenty more where that came from.

This is bad news for Obama:
http://datahub.compete.com/post/top-20-wikipedia-articles-february-2008/

Says that Obama’s wikipedia page is #1, about twice as many views as McCain, but McCain is #2, and his traffic is up by 53%, Obama is up by 15% in the last month. Like I said in my first column before Romney dropped out, McCain’s campaign hasn’t gotten out of 1st gear yet, (gawd what an awful campaign compared to Obamas) but he’ll pass Obama (or Hillary) easily by summer, he’s just caught up as of today.

It’s not who makes the most promises (Yes We Can) but the stern dad who makes the best decisions (No You Can’t) I see my job here is to keep even more Asians from being sucked into the black hole of “liberation theology” that Obama is peddling. We’ve already lost the “model minority” generation by sending our kids to elite colleges to be brainwashed into liberalism in the 1980s. Parents should look for more than just test scores, but values when they send their kids to get brainwashed / educated.

–arthur hu on Mar 14, 2008
So how about that Obama speech? Will he go down in history as the next JFK/Martin Luther King, or just another guy who hangs out with afrocentric nutcases who thought he could talk his way into the presidency of the USKKKA?

–Arthur HU on Mar 19, 2008
See this poll
http://www.gallup.com/poll/105205/Gallup-Daily-Clinton-Moves-Into-Lead-Over-Obama.aspx
So, the numbers: Clinton 49, Obama 42
McCain 48 Clinton 45
McCain 47 Obama 43

After all the mudslinging, the old white guy who doesn’t have a politically correct bone in his body has passed both of them.

–arthur hu on Mar 19, 2008
Art:
You gotta start reading Info Clearing House and Counterpunch as well as theoneocon sources.
Obama linked with KKK?
Oy vey’st mir. Mein Gott in himmel.
And Bush is the Second Coming.
McCain the Third?
Frank

–Frank Eng on Mar 20, 2008
See my comments on Nash’s Obama love fest. And McCain is the third man with his name, and third in the Navy. Read his book.

–Arthur Hu on Mar 20, 2008
Come on guys , Ive listen too the minister Wrights full sermon where these sound bites have been excerpted from, and most of those statements were taken out of content, I challenge you to listen to the whole sermon and to read his wifes full statement and you’ll see that it also was twisted out of content by the white winged media heads who really didnt think Obama had a chance at first so now the haters are coming out of the woodworks to damage his chances.

After the last eight years of lies and spin I ‘ll take any of the canidates but Mccain is too old, and with Hillary it’ll be more of the same, Ill put my money on Obama and his promise of change because our country is headed down the wrong path and change is what we need. The only problem is can Obama survive the hate campaign thats about to begin.

–vinz Herng on Mar 28, 2008
I’ve seen the full sermon on Youtube, and other excerpts posted by the same guy from the church, and the rich white man head of the UCC high-fiving Wright. It takes better with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and bun, but he still hates America and what it stands for, and I don’t.

–arthurhu on Mar 28, 2008
Hu, how dare you contest the “patriotism” of other Americans! Blacks and Native Americans are the only “non-immigrants” in America. Everyone else here “Migrated” by choice! Blacks built the greatest country ever to exist, and then fought and died for the civil rights of all people of color, to include Asians, and make up a disproportionate amount of Armed Forces service members. I find it amazing that Asians feel “envy” or “jealousy” to the degree that they would rather support Hillary rather than submit to the candiate whose race built the greatest country ever to exist. Benjamin O. Davis, McNair, MLK, Oprah, George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglas…the list of “true” Americans that have led this country through difficult times to too long to list. African slaves were castrated, hung, whipped, disemboweled, raped, amputated, chained, drug, burned and any other imaginable atrocity you can think of. They still built this country and died for civil rights…for Hispanics, Asians and all people of color. No wonder America prefers Colin Powell, Condi Rice and Obama over any Asian candidate. I guess that’s why so many white supporters are in Obama’s corner. McCain refers to Asians as “gooks!” As much as Asians want to be equal to Whites in America, it’ll never happen. The pecking order is Whites, Blacks, then Hispanics and others… I could care less if any Asian immigrants support Obama. Blacks have nothing to prove in the country they built. I’d rather Obama lose than be supported by a race of people that are the most materialistic ever to exist on this planet. Please go back to Asia…
P.S. As one poster already posted, don’t be so quick to believe the right’s propaganda…

–Armed Forces Patriot on Apr 12, 2008
Dear Armed Forces Patriot:
I understand, indeed, “agree,” with much if not all of what you proclaim above.
But, I draw the line at your making “Asians” YOUR “niggers.”
I use that last word only because I have lived with, worked with, shared with, and “loved” with “blacks,” “Negroes” back in my day.
I gave more than a dozen years of my life FOR and WITH my black/”Negro” compatriots, to whom I gave what shelter and comfort and goods I could, little as it was, and I stand here today, at 88 and counting, PROUD to be both “Chinese” and “American” and, as I earnestly claim, “Jew” and “blzck Irish” and “wetback,” bless that humble and honorable Cesar Chavez, AND “coolie.”
You may authentically and honorably lay claim to YOUR heritage, but no more, no less of course, than I to mine.
The only difference here being that I do NOT, underline that negative, “diss” ANYone else in the process.
Frank Eng
P.S.: As for the Art Hu herein, gosh, golly, and gee-whiz, he’s always zigging when you expect him to be zagging. Of late, he has just “confessed,” if not to his confessor, that he is apostate to his own church, of whatever denomiation, my guess is “Catholic,” now that the Pope has appeared in his Pradas on-scene and online, and in front of God and everyone else, us included, no less.
So, when he rants and rambles the ongoing GOP talking points, he is simply mumbling the words without hearing the tune, which, of course, is ME TOO, as in, please, please get me MY 15 minutes in the spotlight.
Frank Eng
P.S.: Talk about “Asians.”

–Frank Eng on Apr 21, 2008
The people who criticise and damn this country for what it was and is, do not translate to hating this country. They are merely trying to improve a land they called home. The people who brought down the twin towers, those are the people who hates America. They’re not trying to change you, they’re trying to kill you. There are “beauty” and “beast” in every race and culture.

–Huang Fong on Apr 22, 2008
huang fong, Rev Wright’s so-called sermons were outrageous because they were symphathetic to the islamofacist terrorists who took down the world trade center, and said the US deserved it. Though Obama himself has switched to a pro-Israel stance, Wright still is sympathetic to the palestineans who have largely invented terrorism as it is now practiced, and used as the poster children for arab hatred of America and Israel. Obama has continued to promise to pull out of Iraq in 16 months NO MATTER WHAT. Only McCain pledges to keep the US fighting terrorism where we are challened in Iraq or else wher NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES. Do you the difference and which makes more sense? Barack Obama makes no sense to say that we should shift to afghanistan and abandon iraq. The peaceniks in general want to end the war on terror, but Al Qeda in case you haven’t noticed has not called off it war on America, and if anything they have been more successful in spreading terror across Asia and Africa and Europe as they are now easier targets thanks to the efforts of our president George W. Bush who promised to and did pursue terrorists and states that supported them, while other Asian week columnnists who shall remain unnamed consider Bush to be more destructive than the avowed anti-American anti-white Black Liberation Theology reverend Wright.

–awarthurhu on Apr 22, 2008
Patriot, I would agree that America is not just the racist system built by whites, but everything else that was contributed by people of all colors. However, if you’ve tracked my research, Asians are generally ahead of whites when whites are ahead of blacks. By this measure, Asians have been more than equal to whites since the 1960s.

The flip side is that Asians are also generally behind whites when black are ahead. The Asian community has produced no one of the stature of an Obama or Oprah or Cosby. McCain has already renounced the “gook” references since 2000, and Asians of all should be grateful that American like him were willing to risk death or torture to defend the then-free people of South Vietnam from 20th century human disaster we called communism

As for the “Please go back to Asia…”, not even Obama’s Rev Wright has made such a statement, and if you claim to be an enemy of the right, one should not be in agreement with the Americans who since the 1800s have and sometimes succeeded in driving Asians out of their towns and did in fact drive most of the Chinese back to China.

—————————————————————–
McCain refers to Asians as “gooks!” As much as Asians want to be equal to Whites in America, it’ll never happen. The pecking order is Whites, Blacks, then Hispanics and others… I could care less if any Asian immigrants support Obama. Blacks have nothing to prove in the country they built. I’d rather Obama lose than be supported by a race of people that are the most materialistic ever to exist on this planet. Please go back to Asia…
P.S. As one poster already posted, don’t be so quick to believe the right’s propaganda…

–Armed Forces Patriot on Apr 12, 2008

–awarthurhu on Apr 22, 2008
Art,

If you had a son who was a bully at school and one day he came home with a bloody nose. Just because we may say that he deserved that bloody nose, does not mean that we stop loving him, nor does it mean that we should pay the other kid to give him another. It simply means, he better change his way and stop being a bully. I may not agree with Wright’s statements, but I feel that he has the right to state them without being demonized by the media. The media should be more like a referee and not bias.

As far as Isreal and Palestine, I am Pro-Isreal, Pro-Palestine, and Pro-peace. They are both victims of British and Western interests. Bringing in the Jews to fight the Arabs, so as to keep both weak and the West supreme (very cruel). The Jews and the Palestinians suffered long enough. We should have just given the Jews a home in this country after WWII, like we do with so many other refugees(myself included) who had suffered oppression.

–Huang Fong on Apr 22, 2008
Damn, this Huang Fong is not only a true “patriot,” he is, in fact, both a “philosopher” AND a “humanist.”
How ’bout that?, “Armed Forces Patriot” (how about us “unarmed” ones?) AND Art huever you are?
Now, as one other “pro-Israel, pro-Palestine, pro-Peace” nudnik, I rather like the idea of an American, continental “homeland” for “Jews.”
How about the midlands, sliding into poverty and inanition, for starters?
Maybe they could turn technological and intellectual “ploughshares” into a new and shining citadel of light and compassion, and leave the UNholy lands for the “Islamofascists” and the crypto-:Christians to fight over, Jsrusalem included.
And small-town “America” could then no longer need to resort to “bitter”ness OR denunciations of “aliens,” “legal” or green-carded.
But, unlike the tolerant and wise Fong, I won’t bother to wish “peace” on ANYone, since that sad hope is, obviously and practically, IMpossible. Not with our current great leaders in the Beltway.
As Chuang-tze so elegantly observed, if plucking a single hair from the body politic could “save” humankind, he would desist from so doing.
Why? Because the very notion is absurd, as in Camus.
Let the murderers reign. Let Chaos preside. Let Justice be an oxymoron, accent on the moron .
And, let us, logically and unreasonably, begin the nuking we initiated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Frank Eng

–Frank Eng on Apr 22, 2008

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