Posts by Buck

Buck is a blogger for the Pensito Review

10% of Americans Still Say Obama Is Muslim
Posted by Buck , Pensito Review on April 3, 2008 at 5:44 AM.

There was a movie that came out a couple years ago called “Idiocracy.” The premise was that because stoopid people procreate at an alarmingly faster rate than the smart people, the United States was turned into a nation of drooling idiots over several generations. The movie was a comedy, but sometimes I think it’s already really happened, which ain’t so funny.

According to a Pew Center poll released today, one in 10 Americans still persists in thinking that presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama is a Muslim. This, despite his frequent references to his Christian beliefs and the recent highly publicized flap over perceived anti-American comments made by the pastor of his CHRISTIAN church.

While a majority -- 53 percent -- identify Obama as a Christian, 16 percent of conservative Republicans, 16 percent of white evangelical Protestants and 19 percent of rural Americans believe the Illinois senator is Muslim.

About a third of Americans said they don’t know what Obama’s religious beliefs are, and 9 percent of that group said it’s because they’ve heard different information about his faith.

Perhaps it’s due to a kind of stunned disbelief on the part of the less progressive among us that we’ve actually reached a point where there’s a real possibility that a black man or a white woman could become the next president of the United States.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

In Desperation, Real Conservatives Seek to Open Up GOP Race
Posted by Buck , Pensito Review on February 5, 2008 at 5:09 AM.

Please join me in an all-out effort to keep Rush Limbaugh from voting in the 2008 election. But more on that later.

Our favorite right-wing nut job, Richard Viguerie, is up on his soapbox again. This time he's calling on his fellow conservative Goldwater worshipers to call on the Republican Party to open up its convention next September in hopes that some party savior will materialize. Here's Viguerie dreaming out loud:

The discombobulated state of the Republican presidential campaign means that it is still possible for someone to jump into the race. Such a candidate could serve as a kingmaker at the Republican convention in September, or even - yes, it's possible - could become the party's nominee.

Viguerie then goes on to critique the current batch of GOP candidates. Guess what? He finds that none of them is Ronald Reagan:

* McCain has Reagan's toughness, is a Vietnam War hero, supports a strong military, and opposes pork-barrel spending, but sides with liberals on immigration, freedom of speech, taxes, environmental extremism, and other important issues.

* Huckabee is a Reagan-style populist and a conservative on social issues, but is sympathetic to Goreism, and he fought conservatives on taxes, spending, immigration, and other issues when he was governor.

* Romney has adopted a mostly-Reaganite platform, but he is suspect because he converted to conservatism only after serving as governor, and, besides, many conservatives see him as a probable loser in November.

* Ron Paul is the real straight-talker in the race, the one who stays truest to the libertarian beliefs that are, as Reagan said, "the heart of conservatism." He is the one candidate who doesn't confuse a strong defense with the failed policy of nation-building. But most conservatives want a powerful U.S. presence in world affairs and will never support Paul's defense and foreign policy. In any event, Paul's chance of getting elected, or even nominated, is infinitesimal.

But do you want to know how really bad it is? Viguerie lays it out like the voice of doom:

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Muslimism: Questions of Obama’s Faith Are Really Motivated by Racism
Posted by Buck , Pensito Review on January 22, 2008 at 9:23 AM.

According to an Associated Press story published today, Barack Obama has come out preaching about his Christian faith in the wake of a pesky Internet chain letter that tries to characterize him as definitely a Muslim and probably a terrorist in disguise. As the race in South Carolina heats up, Obama is waving his Bible -- not the Koran, mind you -- in response to nasty and false rumors:

"I've been to the same church -- the same Christian church -- for almost 20 years," Obama said, stressing the word Christian and drawing cheers from the faithful in reply. "I was sworn in with my hand on the family Bible. Whenever I'm in the United States Senate, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. So if you get some silly e-mail ... send it back to whoever sent it and tell them this is all crazy. Educate."

Obama is referring to a debunked chain e-mail circulating widely on the Internet that suggests he is hiding his Islamic roots and may be a terrorist in disguise. It says he was sworn into the Senate on the Quran and turns his back on the flag during the pledge.

There are some truths in the e-mail's details. Obama's middle name is Hussein. His father and stepfather were Muslim. And he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, a largely Muslim country. But he attended secular and Catholic schools, not a radical madrassa.

Both co-editor Trish and I have received the e-mail, and both from people who, as Trish says, "should know better." The letter is so mean, nasty and false that the motivation behind sending it can only be racism.

Sure, some would argue that the motivation is fear of terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists, but I would argue that it's a much older fear -- the fear of the black man, of the Other -- but in today's post-9/11 world it can masquerade as something else. I call it Muslimism.

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