Recently leftist columnist Richard Cohen attacked Sarah Palin in his column for attacking Michelle Obama in her new book on Michelle's statement that for the first time in her life she was proud of her country when Obama was elected. He insinuated that Sarah was racist and said she has no experience to be president. As if Obama does have experience. I replied to him and sent him the letter below. Here is his article followed by my letter. I report, you decide.
Attack on Michelle Obama shows Palin's ignorance of history
By Richard CohenTuesday, November 23, 2010
When I was 11, my father thought it was time to show my sister and me the nation's capital. I have only vague memories of that trip - the heat, the expanse of the White House's grounds, the Jefferson Memorial. I do remember we took Route 1 through Baltimore (no I-95 yet) and it was there that I saw my first sign with the word "colored" on it - a rooming house, I think. This was 1952, and the United States was an apartheid nation.
It is Sarah Palin who brings back these memories. In her new book, she reportedly takes Michelle Obama to task for her supposedly infamous remark from the 2008 campaign: "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback." Instantly, Republicans pounced. Among the first to do so was Cindy McCain, who said, "I have and always will be proud of my country." It was a cheap shot, but her husband's selection of Palin for the ticket and plenty of cheap shots from Palin ("death panels," etc.) were yet to come.
Michelle Obama quickly explained herself. She was proud of the turnout in the primaries - so many young people, etc. Evan Thomas, writing perceptively in Newsweek, thought - as I did - that she was saying something else. He dug into her senior thesis at Princeton - "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community" - to find a young woman who felt, or was made to feel, "more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before." This was not a statement of racism. This was a statement of fact.
It's appalling that Palin and too many others fail to understand that fact - indeed so many facts of American history. They don't offer the slightest hint that they can appreciate the history of the Obama family and that in Michelle's case, her ancestors were slaves - Jim Robinson of South Carolina, her paternal great-great grandfather, being one. Even after they were freed they were consigned to peonage, second-class citizens, forbidden to vote in much of the South, dissuaded from doing so in some of the North, relegated to separate schools, restaurants, churches, hotels, waiting rooms of train stations, the back of the bus, the other side of the tracks, the mortuary, the cemetery and, if whites could manage it, heaven itself.
It was the government that oppressed blacks, enforcing the laws that imprisoned them and hanged them for crimes grave and trivial, whipped them if they bolted for freedom and, in the Civil War, massacred them if they were captured fighting for the North. And yet if African Americans hesitate in embracing the mythical wonderfulness of America, they are accused of racism - of having the gall to know more about their own experience and history than Palin and others think they should.
Why do politicians such as Palin and commentators such as Glenn Beck insist that African Americans go blank on their own history - as blank as apparently Palin and Beck are themselves? Why must they insist that blacks join them in embracing a repellent history that once caused America to go to war with itself? Besides Princeton, Michelle Obama is a graduate of Harvard Law School. It's hardly possible that she is not knowledgeable about the history of African Americans - no Ellis Island for them, immigrants in their colorful native dress waving at the camera. Should she forget it all simply because she went to Ivy League schools - be thankful for what she had gotten and the hell with the rest? Why should she be more grateful than Cindy McCain?
Sarah Palin teases that she might run for president. But she is unqualified - not just in the (let me count the) usual ways, but because she does not know the country. She could not be the president of black America nor of Hispanic America. She knows more about grizzlies than she does about African Americans - and she clearly has more interest in the former than the latter. Did she once just pick up the phone and ask Michelle Obama what she meant by her remark? Did she ask about her background? What it was like at Princeton? What it was like for her parents or her grandparents? I can offer a hint. If they were driving to Washington, they slowed down and stopped where the sign said "colored" - and the irritated Palins of the time angrily hit the horn and went on their way.
cohenr@washpost.com
Dear Mr.Cohen; You attack Sarah Palin for referring to Michelle Obama's remarks about for the first time being proud of her country then come up with an excuse for her to clarify her remarks for her by what she really meant. Well she should have chosen her words more carefully then because it looks like she never was proud of a country that fought back naziism, fascism and communism in our time. A country that defeated slavery and made things possible so she could be in a position she is now in. Incidentally she has stated that she doesn't like being first lady and living in the white house. Her clothes are atrocious too. You insinuate that Sarah Palin is racist because she disagrees with Obama.You sir are the racist for disagreeing with her and any conservative woman. They are a race too so that makes you a racist for disagreeing with them .I'm sure you disagree with other conservative women too like Michelle Bachman and Jan Brewer and Michelle Malkin and others like them.
You say that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be president, but she is a lot more qualified than Obama. He was a community activist who was in the Senate 143 days and only voted present each time and now he's Commander in Chief? At least Sarah Palin is a natural born citizen unlike Obama who was never registered as a citizen when his mother brought him over here from Kenya. At least Sarah wouldn't go around the world bashing America like he does. Sarah is a true Christian unlike Obama who is a half black muslim hiding behind saying he is a Christian. So Mr. Cohen,take a good look in the mirror and see the hater that is looking back at you.To paraphrase Pogo, "you have met the enemy and he is you" or as Archie Bunker used to say ,"there is a little bit of me in all of you." That goes for you too Mr. Cohen.
Jaycee7109@aol.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Obama was not born in Kenya. He was born in Hawaii, as his official birth certificate from Hawaii shows, and as confirmed repeatedly by the Republican officials and Republican governor of Hawaii.
If a person were born in Kenya, she or he would need a US travel document to get to the USA. That would be either a US visa on a foreign passport or the change to his mother's US passport to include him. One or the other would have had to have been applied for at a US Consulate in Kenya and granted before the child would be allowed to enter the USA.
If such a document existed, it would be easy to find because the records of the application for the visa or for the change to the mother's passport would still be in the files of the US State Department, filed under applications for visas and applications for changes to passports in Kenya in 1961. The Republicans were in charge of the US State Department until January 2009. No such document has been found. No such document exists.
Obama was not born in Kenya. He was born in Hawaii, as his official birth certificate from Hawaii shows, and the facts on it were repeatedly confirmed by the officials in Hawaii. Obama has already posted a copy of the official birth certificate, the Certification of Live Birth, which is the only birth document that Hawaii has been sending out since 2001. Hawaii no longer sends out copies of the original birth certificate, only of the official birth certificate: The Certification of Live Birth.
Re: "and his vault birth certificate that lists the doctor who delivered him…”
Answer: That is because Hawaii did not send the vault birth certificate to him. Obama does not have it.
Hawaii does not send out copies of the original birth certificate any more. It stopped sending them out in 2001, even to people born before 2001. It only sends out the new, short-form official birth certificate to EVERYONE.
Re: “both Hawaii hospitals refuse to confirm Obama was born in either one.’
Answer: We do not know that either hospital still has the birth records from 1961. Many hospitals scrap their old patient records.
In any case, it is illegal under federal privacy laws to disclose such things, and no hospital has disclosed the fact that George Bush was born at it, or Clinton or Bush41 or Reagan. There is no need for confirmation by the hospital when the official birth certificate in Obama’s files says that he was born in Hawaii, and the officials in Hawaii have confirmed repeatedly that it says this, and there is not a shred of credible evidence that Obama was born anywhere else than Hawaii. (The “birth certificates” from Kenya were proven to be forgeries in about 33 minutes.)
Re; “why would Obama spend over $2 million to keep his birth certificate and records sealed?’
Answer: He has every right to fight stupid lawsuits asking for his kindergarten and school records (which probably do not even exist anymore) and his college and graduate school records (which no president has ever shown) and some ask for his parents’ marriage license and his “adoption records’ (there are none, since he was not adopted). He HAS shown his official birth certificate, and there has been no lawsuit against him simply asking for his birth certificate. If there had been, he would have simply shown the COLB, which is the official birth certificate and would be accepted by any court.
Re: "Congress admitted that Obama's birth place has not been vetted…’
Answer: NO president’s birth place has been vetted.
Re: “Congress even received memos how to answer questions about his birth place.’
Answer: And the facts in the memos are accurate.
Re: “ d) Hawaii officials including the governor has never said they have read Obama's birth certificate, only that they have "seen it." I'm sure they have seen it, but read it? No!”
Answer: You are getting desperate. There were TWO written statements of confirmation by the officials.
Here is the first of the two confirmations by the officials in Hawaii. Here is the first of the two:
http://www.kitv.com/r/17860890/detail.html
Notice where it says that there is an original birth certificate filed. Well, in 1961, foreign birth certificates, even those from other states, could not be filed in Hawaii. So the birth certificate in Obama’s files must be a Hawaii birth certificate.
Here is the second of the two confirmations by the officials in Hawaii:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-07-27-obama-hawaii_N.htm
Notice where it says that the document in the files VERIFIES that Obama was born in Hawaii. So, not only is there an official Hawaiian birth certificate in the files, but it says right on it that Obama was born in Hawaii. Hawaii has never allowed the Department of Health to issue a birth document of any kind that says on it that anyone was born in Hawaii unless there was proof that the child was born in Hawaii, and that is what the officials in Hawaii have confirmed twice. In order for the officials to have said that the document VERIFIES, they must have read it.
In addition, here is the confirmation by the governor of Hawaii, Linda Lingle, a Republican, that says that Obama was born in Hawaii, in Kapiolani Hospital;
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/05/hawaii_gov_lingle_answers_the.html
And here again is the statement of a witness who recalls being told of Obama’s birth in Hawaii, in Kapiolani Hospital, in 1961:
http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article137495.ece
Re: “Until Obama proves..
Answer: There is overwhelming proof of birth in Hawaii, and no proof of birth anywhere else. The Kenya myth is absurd, and the ‘birth certificates’ from the known felon have been proven to be forgeries. Obama’s Kenyan grandmother NEVER said that he was born in Kenya. She said repeatedly in the taped interview that he was born in Hawaii, where his father was studying, and she said in another interview that the first that her family in Kenya had heard of Obama’s birth was in a letter from Hawaii.
The Wall Street Journal said:
“Obama has already provided a legal birth certificate demonstrating that he was born in Hawaii. No one has produced any serious evidence to the contrary. Absent such evidence, it is unreasonable to deny that Obama has met the burden of proof. We know that he was born in Honolulu as surely as we know that Bill Clinton was born in Hope, Ark., or George W. Bush in New Haven, Conn."
Replying to this statement: “The certificate of live birth is exactly what it is, documentation that Obama was born alive, nothing more…”
Answer; the Certification (That’s the name, certification) of live birth is the OFFICIAL birth certificate of Hawaii. It is used by thousands of people to get their US passports every year. It is the only birth certificate that Hawaii has issued since 2001.
Re: “the same COLB every parent can get for their child who was born out of the states, even his Kenyan half sister has one.’
Answer: His sister does not have a COLB, and she does not even have a file in the Hawaii birth certificate registry, as was found out by the prominent birther lawyer Leo Donfrio, who did the equivalent of an FOIA request with Hawaii and published the information long ago.
However, you are right that the current law (NOT THE LAW IN 1961) allows residents of Hawaii to get COLBs for their children if the children were born outside of Hawaii. But, those COLBs are not allowed to lie about the place of birth. If the child were born in New Jersey, the document must state: “Hawaii COLB, Place of Birth; New Jersey” or Kenya, or wherever. IN other words, they require proof of the location of birth if you claim to have been born in Hawaii and it did not occur in a hospital where there were witnesses. Obama’s COLB says that he was born in Honolulu, and both the governor of Hawaii and this witness http://www.buffalonews.com/incoming/article137495.ece say that he was born in Kapiolani Hospital.
Re: “The COLB Obama produced is a fake, no doctor listed; no hospital listed..’
Answer: The McCain campaign looked into the allegations of forgery, as they looked into the allegations of birth in Kenya, and found them both false. The fact that there is no doctor or hospital listed is because neither is supposed to be listed. It is a short-form birth certificate, like those of most states these days, and such birth certificates do not list doctors or hospitals. Moreover, it is not the original document. Hawaii has not sent copies of the originals out since 2001. It is the new, official, short-form birth certificate. However, the clerk who filled in the form, the two officials who verified the facts in public statements, the governor and the witness cited above all say that he was born IN HAWAII.
Re: ‘plus the fact that Obama's race is listed as "African" is a hoax, "African" is not a race.’
Answer: The Republican officials of the Department of Health of Hawaii have repeatedly stated that Hawaii has always allowed people to list their race any way that they want. Obama’s father, who was from Africa, said that he was African.
Re: “Obama refuses to release his passport records; his school and college records…”
Answer: Why should he? No other president has, and there is certainly no law that says that he should.
Certificate of Live Birth is not a birth certificate, as I said earlier, Obama's kenyan born half sister has an Hawaiian certificate of live birth. Even AP reported "Kenyan-born" Obama wins senate seat when he was running for U.S. Senator. Look it up.
As for vetting, Obama and his ilk had McCain's birth vetted; however, Congress refused to vet Obama's birth place.
There is even this:
U.S. Supreme Court confers on Obama eligibility
Is this the case that will break the presidential eligibility question wide open? The Supreme Court has conferred on whether arguments should be heard on the merits of a case challenging whether Barack Obama is qualified to serve as president because he may not be a "natural-born citizen" as required by the U.S. Constitution.
Read the latest now on WND.com.
Until Obama releases his vault birth certificate, he will always be known as an usurper and imposter.
Re: “Certificate of Live Birth is not a birth certificate, as I said earlier, “
Answer: The Certification of Live Birth, which is what Obama has shown, is the OFFICIAL and only birth certificate of Hawaii. Thousands of people use it to get US passports every year.
Re: “Obama's kenyan born half sister has an Hawaiian certificate of live birth.
Answer: No, she doesn’t. She does not even have a file in the Hawaii birth certificate registry. This was proven by Leo Donfrio, the prominent birther lawyer who used the Hawaii version of the Freedom of Information Act. Even if she had received a Hawaii birth certificate, it would have listed her real place of birth, Indonesia, and not make up a place of birth in Hawaii. Hawaii birth certificates can be issued to persons born outside of Hawaii when their parents were residents of Hawaii, but they are not allowed to lie about the place of birth. Thus if a child were born in Boise, Idaho, Hawaii would issue a document that read like this: “Hawaii certification of live birth, place of birth: Boise, Idaho
Re: ‘Even AP reported "Kenyan-born" Obama wins senate seat when he was running for U.S. Senator. “
Answer: That was done by a KENYAN newspaper inserting “Kenyan-born” into the AP story. The AP did not write it. And the Kenyan newspaper was not referring to birth IN Kenya but to the fact that his father was a Kenyan.
If a person were born in Kenya, she or he would need a US travel document to get to the USA. That would be either a US visa on a foreign passport or the change to his mother's US passport to include him. One or the other would have had to have been applied for at a US Consulate in Kenya and granted before the child would be allowed to enter the USA.
If such a document existed, it would be easy to find because the records of the application for the visa or for the change to the mother's passport would still be in the files of the US State Department, filed under applications for visas and applications for changes to passports in Kenya in 1961. The Republicans were in charge of the US State Department until January 2009. No such document has been found. No such document exists.
Obama was not born in Kenya. He was born in Hawaii, as his official birth certificate from Hawaii shows, and the facts on it were repeatedly confirmed by the officials in Hawaii. Obama has already posted a copy of the official birth certificate, the Certification of Live Birth, which is the only birth document that Hawaii has been sending out since 2001. Hawaii no longer sends out copies of the original birth certificate, only of the official birth certificate: The Certification of Live Birth.
Re: “Congress refused to vet Obama's birth place.”
Answer: For the obvious reason that it did not need to be vetted. McCain needed a hearing because there was doubt about his status. Obama did not need a hearing because there was NO doubt. (And that is why the US Congress confirmed Obama’s election UNANIMOUSLY.)
Re: “U.S. Supreme Court confers on Obama eligibility…”
Answer: Dream on. The US Supreme Court is only conferring on whether the lower court threw out the case properly. The lower court threw out the case because it ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing. In the HIGHLY unlikely event that the Supreme Court were to take the case, it would only decide on whether the plaintiffs had standing to sue.
The odds are about 1000 to one that the Supreme Court will throw out this case as it has thrown out all the birther cases before and as appeals courts have thrown out all the appeals so far. Why not get someone who had standing to sue to sue, McCain? Because McCain doesn’t believe the birthers and so will not sue.
Re: “Until Obama releases his vault birth certificate, he will always be known as an usurper and imposter.’
Answer: DREAM ON. Obama has released the official birth certificate of Hawaii, and that is the only one that Hawaii sends out. Hawaii does not send out copies of the vault birth certificate anymore, and it hasn’t since 2001.
Post a Comment