About Their Hate Group Connections

by Bill Levinson

We spoke to the Obama campaign about David Ploufe’s most recent request for support, despite our previous statements that we cannot possibly support an individual who consorts openly with prominent anti-Semites and racists like Al Sharpton, and donors like Allan Houston of “Christ Killers” fame. We received excuses to the effect that Sharpton does many things other than provoke violence against Jews and white people (sort of like saying that the Grand Wizard of the Klan coaches Little League when he’s not lynching Black people), and that the Religious Right is just as bad. As far as we know, the Religious Right has never provoked violence of the kind that took place in Crown Heights and at Freddy’s Fashion Mart, but we digress. Our key observation is that many of the volunteers at Obama and Clinton headquarters are probably too young to remember exactly what Al Sharpton is. We encourage our readers to call them and educate them.

Obama: (866) 675-2008
Clinton: 703-469-2008 (main), 515-282-5307 (Iowa), 603-634-4455 (New Hampshire), 212-213-3717 (New York)

Our perception is that both campaigns are using young and idealistic college students, noting that summer is an especially good time for them to look for things to keep them busy. Suppose a college senior just turned 22 this year (2007). That would make him or her the following ages when Al Sharpton was perpetrating racism and anti-Semitism in the following incidents:

Fatal arson of Freddy’s Fashion Mart, 1995: the volunteer would be 10 years old, in grade school.
Reenactment of Kristallnacht in Crown Heights, 1991: the volunteer would be 6 years old, just entering grade school
Tawana Brawley scam, Wappingers Falls, 1988: the volunteer would not even have been in kindergarten.

This is almost certainly why both campaigns can get idealistic, energetic, and enthusiastic college students to man their phone lines and go out and canvass for them. Nothing dampens someone’s enthusiasm like learning that they have been lied to, or have had material facts concealed from them.

It is therefore reasonable to call both campaigns and ask, politely and in a dignified manner, how the candidate can possibly expect you to support an individual who posed arm in arm with a prominent racist and anti-Semite like Al Sharpton. There are pictures at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network Web site of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton posing with this individual.
This is far more than McCarthyite “guilt by association,” in which people were called Communists for being seen with Communists. Clinton, Obama, and also Edwards did far more than just appear with Sharpton. They knowingly and willfully accepted an invitation to his National Action Network (equivalent to accepting an invitation to speak to the Ku Klux Klan), and they endorsed Sharpton as follows.

Senator Hillary Clinton (NY): “I have enjoyed a long and positive relationship with Reverend Al Sharpton and National Action Network, and I don’t ever remember saying “no” to them and I intend to remain their partner in civil rights as I clean the dirt from under the carpet in the oval office when I am elected President”
Senator Barack Obama (Ill): “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.”
Senator John Edwards: “I will work with National Action Network to fight poverty and seek justice for those marginalized in our society.”

Again, the key point is to ask both the Obama and Clinton campaigns how they can possibly expect anyone to vote for them, let alone give them any kind of monetary support, after they did the above in light of Sharpton’s past. If you are talking with someone who is unaware of Sharpton’s history, encourage them to Google on Sharpton and “Crown Heights,” “Yankel Rosenbaum,” “Freddy’s Fashion Mart,” or “Tawana Brawley.” Tell them that you guess Obama and Clinton don’t want any “bloodsucking Jews,” “white interlopers,” “crackers,” or “diamond merchants” (to use Sharpton’s words and those of the National Action Network) to vote for them and, because Sharpton’s associate Morris Powell yelled, “Don’t give the Jew a dime” (Freddy’s Fashion Mart), you can’t spare a dime for the candidate’s campaign.

You can also ask how they can expect your support after they appeared at the anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic MoveOn.org hate group. MoveOn’s Action Forum spoke repeatedly of “Jews with divided loyalties,” “Jew Lieberman,” “whining, arrogant Jew” (Tom Lantos), “Catholic Pedophiles of America,” “the Catholics are raping your children,” and so on. MoveOn itself published a derogatory picture of Pope Benedict and two official bulletins that attack Israel’s right to exist while suggesting that “neocons” have divided loyalties.

Barack Obama has at least two other problems. He accepted money from a fundraiser hosted by Allan Houston, who effectively called Jews “Christ Killers.”

Back in 2001, Houston and fellow Knick guard and so-called “God squad” mate Charlie Ward were jeered by fans after making statements Jewish groups deemed anti-Semitic. Though Ward was the most criticized (he said Jews had Jesus’s “blood on their hands” and were “stubborn” during a pre-game Bible study), Houston supported Ward’s notion that Jews were responsible for Christ’s death by whipping out his Palm Pilot to find the relevant scripture (Matthew 26:67) and said: “Then they spit in Jesus’ face and hit him with their fists.”

We would tell Obama headquarters (again, politely and in a dignified manner) that we doubt Obama wants votes or money from any “Christ Killers” (which is what his friend Allan Houston was really saying) and we are sure that Houston and George Soros have his financial needs well covered. Then there is Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright:

Per the New York Times (bracketed comments are ours)

But Mr. Wright’s political statements may be more controversial than his theological ones. He has said that Zionism has an element of “white racism.” (For its part, the Anti-Defamation League says it has no evidence of any anti-Semitism by Mr. Wright.) [No surprise, the ADL also whitewashed MoveOn.org’s anti-Semitic and other forms of hate speech.]

On the Sunday after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Mr. Wright said the attacks were a consequence of violent American policies. [i.e. the 3000 people in the airplanes and World Trade Center were “little Eichmanns,” to use Ward Churchill’s terms, who somehow deserved it.] Four years later he wrote that the attacks had proved that “people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West went on its merry way of ignoring Black concerns.”

While Mr. Obama stated his opposition to the Iraq war in conventional terms, Mr. Wright issued a “War on Iraq I.Q. Test,” with questions like, “Which country do you think poses the greatest threat to global peace: Iraq or the U.S.?”

Jeremiah Wright also accompanied Louis Farrakhan (as in “Judaism is a gutter religion and the Pope is the Antichrist) to Libya to consort with Moammar Khadafy. Our position is that Barack Obama has far too many hateful connections to allow us to even consider his positions on the issues next year, because a fraud with a phony smile simply cannot be trusted.

Our Democratic readers should contact Joe Lieberman and tell him they want him to run for President. Lieberman, and possibly Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, are probably the only prominent Democrats in their party who are qualified to be President next year.

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Related: Anti-Semitism, Elections, Pure Politics, Racism

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