politricks getting sooo loud...we will calm down now..... sorry...
times are a changing...
times are a changing...
Trump's disrespect for President Obama
May 5, 2011 -- Updated 1828 GMT (0228 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Mistaken for a remedial student, Etan Thomas accused of cheating for a good grade
- Donald Trump's challenges to Obama's academic credentials bring back those memories
- Thomas: Trump exemplifies a "What is a black man doing here?" type of racism
- Nobel-winning, Harvard magna cum laude president doesn't have to prove anything, he says
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Editor's note: Etan Thomas is a poet and author who plays basketball for the NBA's Atlanta Hawks. He is a peace activist and actively supported Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. His website ishttp://etanthomas.com/
(CNN) -- Donald Trump's most recent challenge to President Barack Obama took me back to my collegiate years at Syracuse University. I had studied for two weeks straight for a calculus class, harder than I had ever studied in my life. After I completed my exam, I was confident that all my hard work had paid off.
But the next day, my professor greeted me with accusations of cheating, saying three-fourths of the class had flunked. How could I possibly have managed to get a B minus without cheating? Thankfully, not all of my professors were cut from this same cloth, but I had my share of run-ins. One professor asked me on the first day what I was doing in his classroom, and shouldn't I be in remedial English or Rocks for Jocks?
Why did I have to prove myself worthy of being in their classrooms? The vast majority of professors at Syracuse University were not like this, but the sting of disrespect from those encounters has resonated with me till this day.
Donald Trump questioning the president's educational backgroundtook me back to those unfortunate memories.
President Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983 with a degree in political science. He went on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. But apparently Trump is not impressed. He suggested -- without offering any proof of this baseless claim -- in an interview with The Associated Press that not only was he a poor student, he didn't deserve to be admitted to the Ivy League universities he attended.
Michael Eric Dyson described this situation perfectly when he said on "Face the Nation": "Skepticism about black intelligence and suspicion about black humanity have gone hand-in-hand throughout the history of this country in feeding the perception that black people don't quite measure up."
I don't think any other president in the history of the United States ever had his citizenship cross-examined, his religious faith challenged or his educational achievements put to question.
Is Trump fanning the flames of ignorance simply for personal gain, or does he truly believe President Obama has to continually prove himself worthy?
Unfortunately, Trump isn't alone. In a CNN.com article headlined"Potential GOP presidential candidates react to bin Laden's death,"Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum all gave statements about bin Laden's death. Only Tim Pawlenty mentioned President Obama by name, and he had to include that it was, in fact, "President Bush who promised that America would bring Osama bin Laden to justice."
Now, did some of the terrorists captured while Bush was in office reveal pertinent information that helped identify Osama's courier? Did this information lead the Obama administration to the compound where bin Laden was hiding? Maybe.
But isn't it also true that it was the wisdom and insight of the president that led to the abandoning of the Bush approach of bombing the entire area, leaving no man, woman or child standing? Didn't the decision by President Obama to use special forces and a surgical helicopter attack help prevent the loss of many civilian lives?
By removing Osama bin Laden, President Obama has accomplished what Bush couldn't do in two terms, no matter what he promised. So why is it still so difficult for the right to give him respect and credit?
The president should not have to prove anything to anyone. Yet, he has handled every unmerited insult with nothing but grace and class. He has risen above every act of insolence, and proved them all wrong. There is, as CBS' "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer described, "an ugly strain of racism that's running through this whole thing."
Going back to "The Donald": I don't think he is some cross-burning, Confederate-flag-waving racist. But I do believe he is a "Hey, what is that black guy doing here?" racist. He is the type of racist who wants black people "to stay in their place."
It is a sad situation that a man who has earned a degree from Columbia University, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, has been elected as president of the United States and received a Nobel Peace Prize has to continuously prove himself as a man worthy of respect. He simply shouldn't have to.
The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Etan Thomas.
Top US Government Insider: Bin Laden Died In 2001, 9/11 A False Flag (confirmed!)
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under three different administrations Steve R. Pieczenik
says he is prepared to tell a federal grand jury the name of a top general who told him directly 9/11 was a false flag attack
“Bin Laden had already been “dead for months,” and that the government was waiting for the most politically expedient time to roll out his corpse. Pieczenik would be in a position to know, having personally met Bin Laden and worked with him during the proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan back in the early 80′s”
Top US government insider Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik, a man who held numerous different influential positions under three different Presidents and still works with the Defense Department, shockingly told The Alex Jones Show yesterday that Osama Bin Laden died in 2001 and that he was prepared to testify in front of a grand jury how a top general told him directly that 9/11 was a false flag inside job.
Pieczenik cannot be dismissed as a “conspiracy theorist”. He served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under three different administrations, Nixon, Ford and Carter, while also working under Reagan and Bush senior, and still works as a consultant for the Department of Defense. A former US Navy Captain, Pieczenik achieved two prestigious Harry C. Solomon Awards at the Harvard Medical School as he simultaneously completed a PhD at MIT.
Recruited by Lawrence Eagleburger as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Management, Pieczenik went on to develop, “the basic tenets for psychological warfare, counter terrorism, strategy and tactics for transcultural negotiations for the US State Department, military and intelligence communities and other agencies of the US Government,” while also developing foundational strategies for hostage rescue that were later employed around the world.
Pieczenik also served as a senior policy planner under Secretaries Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance, George Schultz and James Baker and worked on George W. Bush’s election campaign against Al Gore. His record underscores the fact that he is one of the most deeply connected men in intelligence circles over the past three decades plus.
The character of Jack Ryan, who appears in many Tom Clancy novels and was also played by Harrison Ford in the popular 1992 movie Patriot Games, is also based on Steve Pieczenik.
Back in April 2002, over nine years ago, Pieczenik told the Alex Jones Show that Bin Laden had already been “dead for months,” and that the government was waiting for the most politically expedient time to roll out his corpse. Pieczenik would be in a position to know, having personally met Bin Laden and worked with him during the proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan back in the early 80′s.
Pieczenik said that Osama Bin Laden died in 2001, “Not because special forces had killed him, but because as a physician I had known that the CIA physicians had treated him and it was on the intelligence roster that he had marfan syndrome,” adding that the US government knew Bin Laden was dead before they invaded Afghanistan.
Marfan syndrome is a degenerative genetic disease for which there is no permanent cure. The illness severely shortens the life span of the sufferer.
“He died of marfan syndrome, Bush junior knew about it, the intelligence community knew about it,” said Pieczenik, noting how CIA physicians had visited Bin Laden in July 2001 at the American Hospital in Dubai.
“He was already very sick from marfan syndrome and he was already dying, so nobody had to kill him,” added Pieczenik, stating that Bin Laden died shortly after 9/11 in his Tora Bora cave complex.
“Did the intelligence community or the CIA doctor up this situation, the answer is yes, categorically yes,” said Pieczenik, referring to Sunday’s claim that Bin Laden was killed at his compound in Pakistan, adding, “This whole scenario where you see a bunch of people sitting there looking at a screen and they look as if they’re intense, that’s nonsense,” referring to the images released by the White House which claim to show Biden, Obama and Hillary Clinton watching the operation to kill Bin Laden live on a television screen.
“It’s a total make-up, make believe, we’re in an American theater of the absurd….why are we doing this again….nine years ago this man was already dead….why does the government repeatedly have to lie to the American people,” asked Pieczenik.
“Osama Bin Laden was totally dead, so there’s no way they could have attacked or confronted or killed Osama Bin laden,” said Pieczenik, joking that the only way it could have happened was if special forces had attacked a mortuary.
Pieczenik said that the decision to launch the hoax now was made because Obama had reached a low with plummeting approval ratings and the fact that the birther issue was blowing up in his face.
“He had to prove that he was more than American….he had to be aggressive,” said Pieczenik, adding that the farce was also a way of isolating Pakistan as a retaliation for intense opposition to the Predator drone program, which has killed hundreds of Pakistanis.
“This is orchestrated, I mean when you have people sitting around and watching a sitcom, basically the operations center of the White House, and you have a president coming out almost zombie-like telling you they just killed Osama Bin Laden who was already dead nine years ago,” said Pieczenik, calling the episode, “the greatest falsehood I’ve ever heard, I mean it was absurd.”
Dismissing the government’s account of the assassination of Bin Laden as a “sick joke” on the American people, Pieczenik said, “They are so desperate to make Obama viable, to negate the fact that he may not have been born here, any questions about his background, any irregularities about his background, to make him look assertive….to re-elect this president so the American public can be duped once again.”
Pieczenik’s assertion that Bin Laden died almost ten years ago is echoed by numerous intelligence professionalsas well as heads of state across the world.
Bin Laden, “Was used in the same way that 9/11 was used to mobilize the emotions and feelings of the American people in order to go to a war that had to be justified through a narrative that Bush junior created and Cheney created about the world of terrorism,” stated Pieczenik.
During his interview with the Alex Jones Show yesterday, Pieczenik also asserted he was directly told by a prominent general that 9/11 was a stand down and a false flag operation, and that he is prepared to go to a grand jury to reveal the general’s name.
“They ran the attacks,” said Pieczenik, naming Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Hadley, Elliott Abrams, and Condoleezza Rice amongst others as having been directly involved.
“It was called a stand down, a false flag operation in order to mobilize the American public under false pretenses….it was told to me even by the general on the staff of Wolfowitz – I will go in front of a federal committee and swear on perjury who the name was of the individual so that we can break it open,” said Pieczenik, adding that he was “furious” and “knew it had happened”.
“I taught stand down and false flag operations at the national war college, I’ve taught it with all my operatives so I knew exactly what was done to the American public,” he added.
Pieczenik re-iterated that he was perfectly willing to reveal the name of the general who told him 9/11 was an inside job in a federal court, “so that we can unravel this thing legally, not with the stupid 9/11 Commission that was absurd.”
Pieczenik explained that he was not a liberal, a conservative or a tea party member, merely an American who is deeply concerned about the direction in which his country is heading.
Osama Bin Laden dead: White House backtracks on how bin Laden died
The White House admitted last night that its initial account of the way Osama bin Laden died at the hands of US forces had been riddled with errors.
Claims that the al-Qaeda leader had died while firing an automatic weapon at commandos were withdrawn, with President Barack Obama’s spokesman admitting “he was unarmed”. A dramatic description of bin Laden using his wife as a “human shield” and forcing her to sacrifice her life also proved to be false. The woman was still alive and was taken into custody with several of the terrorist’s children.
In an embarrassing climb-down, Barack Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, admitted that the previous version of events — which came mostly from the chief US counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan — had been put out “with great haste”.
The about-turn left the US open to accusations of a cover-up and led to calls for video footage of the raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and images of bin Laden’s body to be released to end conspiracy theories.
However, the White House suggested that pictures of bin Laden’s body were too “gruesome” to be made public because they could prove “inflammatory”.
Relations between the US and Pakistan, already strained by the fact that Pakistan was not told in advance about the raid, were put under renewed pressure by contradictory statements from Islamabad. It came as:
* David Cameron said bin Laden “must have had an extensive support network in Pakistan”, leaving the country with “searching questions” to answer.
* Five men of Asian origin were arrested after being seen filming at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria.
* The CIA director, Leon Panetta, said they had been only “60 to 80 per cent sure” that bin Laden was living at the compound.
* Mr Panetta also disclosed that the US was concerned that the Pakistani authorities would alert bin Laden if they told them about the operation.
* Material from the hard drive of bin Laden’s computer, described as “the mother lode of intelligence”, was being analysed.
On a day of claim and counter-claim, Mr Carney gave a briefing in which he knocked down a series of statements made on Monday by Mr Brennan and other government sources. Asked whether officials had been caught in a “fog of war”, he said: “We provided a great deal of information with great haste in order to inform you about the operation. Some of the information is being reviewed and updated.”
He then read out a new account of the assault, in which he said bin Laden was found on the top floor of a three-storey building, and as a US Navy Seal team entered: “His wife rushed the US assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed. Bin Laden was then shot and killed. He was not armed.”
Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on the White House to make public the “precise facts surrounding his killing” to ensure it adhered to international law.
The Taliban issued a statement in which it said the US “lacks strong evidence to prove its claim” that bin Laden was dead.
Ron Paul, a congressman and Republican presidential candidate, said “confusion” in the White House accounts of events in Abbottabad was fuelling doubts. “The question I have is why does our government invite conspiracy theories all the time? Why don’t they show a picture?” he said.
Mr Carney said the White House was still “reviewing” whether it was “appropriate” to release any of the images. He also appeared to cast doubt on suggestions that the US filmed bin Laden’s burial at sea by refusing to confirm that the video existed.
Mr Cameron said the Americans had already done enough to show “reasonable people that bin Laden was dead” before saying that the Pakistani authorities had serious questions to answer over whether bin Laden was being protected while living at his compound within walking distance of Pakistan’s main military academy.
“The fact that bin Laden was living in a large house in a populated area suggests that he must have had an extensive support network in Pakistan,” he said. “We don’t currently know the extent of that network, so it is right that we ask searching questions about it. And we will.”
Mr Panetta confirmed that the Pakistani authorities were not told in advance of the audacious helicopter assault because of fears that the information would be leaked.
He also said the US had been unable to spot bin Laden in his compound from satellite images, meaning the CIA was only “60 to 80 per cent sure” they would find him there.
In Islamabad, the authorities said they had co-operated with the US and had kept the building under surveillance since 2009, contradicting Mr Obama’s account of a four-year CIA operation to identify bin Laden’s hiding place. They also suggested that their soldiers had raided the building in 2003 — two years before the building was even built, according to the US — looking for another senior al-Qaeda operative.
As the men arrested outside the Sellafield plant were being questioned, Mr Cameron said Britain must be “more vigilant than ever” against the threat of terrorism.