Monday, March 05, 2007

"Speaking Metaphorically"

Not only did Hillary fake a southern accent, but Barack Obama lied about his family's history in the U.S. at an event in Selma, Alabama. He claimed that his father came over to the U.S. from Africa because of President Kennedy (two years before he was inaugurated) and he claimed that he was born, the son of a white woman and black man, as a result of the Selma civil rights march across Edmund Pettus Bridge (although he was born four years prior).

I've heard a lot about revisionist history, but it's hard to do when you've already written an autobiography.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Kennedys played a major role in the airlift of Barack Obama Sr to the University of Hawaii. In 1959, the Kenya Labor Leader Tom Mboya was only able to sponsor the African student airlift ( which included Barack Obama Sr. http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/2488.cfm ) with financial support from the Kennedys.

From Time Aug 29, 1960:
“After months of turndowns, small hellos and evasions, the sponsors of the student airlift found themselves suddenly in the chips and in the news. All of the 250 students come from Kenya and other British areas in East Africa, and had been largely rounded up by Kenya Labor Leader Tom Mboya. A U.S. organization called the African American Students Foundation lined up scholarships for them at U.S. universities and colleges. The big need was transportation money. In December and again in January, the foundation asked the State Department for a $100,000 grant. The answer was a firm no from Career Diplomat Joseph C. Satterthwaite, chief of the State Department’s African Desk. His reason was impeccable: the State Department freely helps students from independent new nations, but in colonial or trust territories, the department deals directly with the governing power: in short, State tries not to butt in too much in the British territory. A New York Negro named Frank Montero, president of the student foundation, wrote to Nixon, recalling his interest in Africa and asking for his help. Nixon turned Montero’s request over to Satterthwaite, who promptly rejected it for the third time.

Visiting the U.S. in July, Mboya wanted to meet both candidates. Nixon was busy in Chicago at the G.O.P. convention; Mboya sought out Jack Kennedy at his Hyannisport retreat. Concerned about the wavering U.S. Negro vote, Kennedy offered to contribute part of the airlift expenses from his family’s Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation (named after the brother killed in World War II) and to look around for other private funds to help the grounded students. Sargent Shriver, Kennedy’s brother-in-law and managing director of the family foundation, found no uncommitted funds in other charitable foundations, in the end recommended that the Kennedy Foundation put up the entire $100,000, and provide unstipulated help for students during their stay in the U.S.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939162,00.html

Kurt said...

So does anything there correct the timeline? What about Obama's birth date and the Selma march? His fake southern accent?