Special Report: Red Faces Over Obama’s Red Mentor
AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | July 27, 2008
The term “mentor,” as applied to his relationship with Obama, is accurate, even based on the limited information that Obama himself provides in his own book about “Frank.”
In a strange development, supporters of Barack Obama’s childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, are openly debating the nature and depth of Davis’s commitment to the Communist Party and his relationship with the Democratic candidate. The debate has gotten heated.
This unusual debate, which is taking place on Obama’s official website, raises the question once again as to why Obama has not been asked by the major media about this relationship. Davis was identified as a Communist Party member by various investigative committees and acknowledged his party membership in a private letter obtained by John Edgar Tidwell, who was sympathetic to Davis and edited his books.
On one side of this debate is somebody claiming to be the son of Davis. On the other side is Alan Maki, a political activist and union organizer with a long history of involvement in left-wing causes. Indeed, Maki confirms that he has been a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and was a communist decades ago when he was in the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
Although he doesn’t support Obama because of his ties to Big Business, Maki wrote a blog on the Obama website stating that he was grateful to Obama for bringing Davis to his attention, and that he, Maki, regarded Davis as his mentor, too. Maki announced establishment of a “Frank Marshall Davis Roundtable for Change” and invited Obama supporters to join it.
Maki did his homework, which is more than most of our own media have done, and he obtained Davis’s books. It is absolutely clear, Maki stated, that Davis was a communist.
In his 1995 book, Dreams From My Father, Obama cites “Frank” as someone who gave him advice on various matters, including race, American values, and college, and read poems to him during his high-school years in Hawaii. One of Davis’s poems was a tribute to the Soviet Red Army. Another mocked the work of Christian missionaries.
New Zealand blogger Trevor Loudon was the first to alert people to the fact that “Frank” was identified as Frank Marshall Davis, a controversial black writer and poet, by Gerald Horne, a writer for a CPUSA publication. Davis’s influence over Obama could help explain why the candidate associated with communists, socialists and anti-American figures through college and his political life in Chicago.
Maki says his intention is to use Davis’s writings “to advance the unity of working people to be a voice to be reckoned with by the Obama Administration, which to me, at this point, looks like will be an overwhelming landslide victory over the Republicans.”
Communist-style Change
Into the picture comes the person claiming to be the son of Frank Marshall Davis, who posted some comments on the Obama website in which he expresses the view that Maki and I are somehow in cahoots because Maki agreed to talk to me about his views on communism and Obama.
While Maki doesn’t personally like my conservative views, he was honest and forthright about his own political beliefs. Maki posts his telephone number, is easy to reach, and doesn’t hide his political affiliation. And since I reported the results of these conversations, the person calling himself Mark Davis says Maki and I have become “strange bedfellows” and involved in some kind of alliance against Obama.
This would be amusing were it not for the fact that this Mark Davis figure seems determined to obscure the truth and tries to publish this information on various Internet sites. Mark Davis has even posted comments on the misnamed “Intellectual Conservative” website, after somebody named Bob Stapler claimed it was a “delusion” on my part to think that a communist named Frank Marshall Davis had any impact on Obama. Stapler, who claims to be a conservative, refused to correct the record after several requests and appeals for him to examine the factual evidence in the Davis matter.
Sounding authoritative, this Mark Davis character has declared that Frank Marshall Davis “was not a communist,” was not Obama’s “mentor,” and that his influence over Obama has been “exaggerated.” However, he does contend that Obama did have “respect for Davis’s social insight” and showed “good will” toward him. Coming from someone claiming to be Davis’s son, these assertions might appear to hold some weight.
It is important to note that there is no denial that “Frank” was Frank Marshall Davis. The main question, it seems, is how much influence he exerted over Obama, and how much of a card-carrying communist he actually was.
Lately, this same “Mark” has gone further, appearing to embrace suggestions that it is somehow “defamation” to accuse Davis of being a communist, even though reports from various committees and investigations identified him as such and Davis admitted it in the private letter cited by Tidwell. This is apparently a tactic to try to prevent people from delving too deeply into the Obama-Davis relationship.
More investigations must and will be done, not only in regard to Davis but also those in Hawaii and elsewhere who continue to cover up for him. Indeed, the attacks on AIM for publicizing the Obama-Davis link appear designed to protect associates of Davis from scrutiny. If this is the intention, the tactic has backfired.
AIM is vowing to publish more information about Davis and his supporters.
Tell the Truth
Clearly, there is an effort underway to sanitize or play down the Obama-Davis relationship and try to intimidate the major media into not covering it. But it is unusual, to say the least, that some of this effort is occurring on the official Obama website. The reaction, which makes the controversy even more newsworthy and significant, suggests that the truth is seeping out through other means, mostly in the alternative media, and increasing the pressure at least on Obama’s supporters to deal with the matter.
In another strange twist, Mark Davis claims some of his comments have been taken off the Obama website, but some freely remain (see comment 37) on the AIM website, which is open to a variety of views in the form of comments on posted columns. Some Davis comments were apparently deleted from the Obama website on the ground that they were “part of a racist, anti-Semitic hate campaign” against Maki. Davis insists they were not of that nature.
Eventually, if this controversy about Frank Marshall Davis continues to build, Obama could be personally forced by the media to respond, in the same way that former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro had to hold a full-blown press conference to answer questions about her husband’s alleged Mob connections.
Maki thinks it admirable that Davis was a communist, but the odds are that few Americans would agree with him.
It is a problem not only for Obama and his campaign, but for those who associated with and covered up for Davis.
If Mark Davis is truly Davis’s son, one would think he would know the truth and have inside information about his father. His thin “profile” on the Obama website claims he is an Obama supporter but not registered to vote. It’s difficult, of course, to determine a true identity based on the limited information available about this person on the Internet. But it is Obama’s website and should be taken somewhat seriously. Maki has reported that he got a telephone call from the “real” Mark Davis, suggesting the one posting comments supposedly in defense of Davis is somebody else.
In any case, Maki is rightly perplexed by the claims that Davis was not a communist, noting that Davis’s own books frankly explore his communist views.
“Let me get this straight,” Maki told Davis, “you are disowning everything Frank Marshall Davis wrote. Who cares about the use of the term ‘mentor?’ Look in any dictionary, you are quibbling about terms that mean the same no matter who uses them…How come you haven’t taken issue with the editor of the books, John Edgar Tidwell and the Publishers, University of Wisconsin Press and University Press of Mississippi. I think you should contact the editor and publishers and have them either stand behind what has been written or disown it...as you are fully aware, IF YOU HAVE EVER READ either of the two books, the only thing I have done is quote the books and say the same thing the editor has stated.”
Maki was referring to Livin’ the Blues: Memoirs of a Black Journalist and Poet, as well as The Writings of Frank Marshall Davis: A Voice Of the Black Press. Tidwell, the editor referred to by Maki, has to be taken seriously.
In fact, in Livin’ the Blues, Davis charges black writer Richard Wright with “treason” for leaving and exposing the CPUSA. This is the mark of a hard-core communist.
“Out of curiosity,” says Maki to Mark Davis, “do you think Karl Marx was a Communist?”
Red and Proud
Maki declared that “If there is one thing Frank Marshall Davis makes clear is that he had the utmost respect for Communists because of the way Communists fight for the rights of working people and against racism. Frank Marshall Davis was entitled to his political views―there is no doubt he joined the ranks of members of the Communist Party USA along with his very good friends Benjamin Davis and Paul Robeson...for you to deny this is cowardly, shameful and disgusting.”
Maki also reported, “After calling the publishers [of Davis’s books], they said they never heard from anyone in the family upset with anything in the books; nor is the family contesting anything in the books.”
In the introduction to another Frank Marshall Davis book, Black Moods, Tidwell quotes an undated private letter written by Davis in which he confesses that “I have recently joined the Communist party.” The letter was an effort to recruit the prominent writer and poet Irma Wassall to the CPUSA. Tidwell says that Davis was a “closet” member of the CPUSA and issued “public denials of his activities.” The FBI engaged in surveillance of Davis and maintained a file on him, he says.
All Mark Davis had to do was read the books. Perhaps he didn’t like what he saw. Or perhaps he’s not really the son of Frank Marshall Davis. Perhaps he should post his birth certificate, like his candidate claims to have done. But that would not in any way dispute what we know about Frank Marshall Davis.
Davis’s CPUSA Membership
Beyond this controversy, there are some legitimate questions about Davis’s party membership. Tidwell notes that it is not clear how long Davis stayed with the party. It is also not clear when he joined the party. However, the same letter cited by Tidwell quotes Davis as saying that “I have had leanings in that direction [i.e. Marxism] since I was in college.” Ultimately, Frank Marshall Davis is to blame for any questions about the timing and duration of his party membership because he publicly refused to talk about it. This is a void that a real son of Frank Marshall Davis should be expected to fill with facts and figures, not denials of documented reality.
Tidwell confirms that Davis was “actively involved” in the League of American Writers as early as 1938, and that Davis came to realize that the organization was a CPUSA front. Even earlier, in 1936, Tidwell notes, Davis was associated with the National Negro Congress, whose executive committee officers “were either party members or fellow travelers.”
As I noted in a recent column, thanks to the work of researcher Herbert Romerstein, we have evidence of Davis signing a statement by the League of American Writers in June 1941 opposing war against Nazi Germany at a time of the Hitler-Stalin pact. This was a reflection of the CPUSA line.
Earlier, in November 1940, we find the name of Frank Marshall Davis on a list of endorsers of a National Negro Congress event that included a statement objecting to “war hysteria” and being “engaged in another war.” Romerstein, who also uncovered this information, points out, “This was of course consistent with the line of the Communist Party during the Soviet Nazi alliance against national defense.”
The Red Record
Official congressional hearings and investigations confirm Davis’s history of membership and involvement with the CPUSA and its fronts, and his activities as a Stalinist. As late as 1956, Davis was appearing before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and refusing to deny his CPUSA membership. He also refused to deny that he was a member of the faculty of the communist Abraham Lincoln School in Chicago.
This is significant because, as Romerstein describes it in the 44-page report, “Communism in Hawaii and the Obama Connection,” the Commission on Subversive Activities of the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii reported on February 28, 1955, that “About November 1950, the communist party in Hawaii was reorganized on an underground basis…In the new organization, party groups were to consist of not more than three members. Groups were identified by numbers (1-10) rather than by names, as formerly.” Among those identified as having been members of the underground groups were Frank Marshall Davis and his wife Helen C. Davis.
Lawyer for the Accused
What’s also interesting about the Davis appearance before the Senate is the fact that his lawyer was Harriet Bouslog, identified as a CPUSA member in the 1959 House Committee on Un-American Activities report, “Communist Legal Subversion. The Role of the Communist Lawyer.” Bouslog was identified as a CPUSA member by two witnesses, both former communists.
Bouslong, it turns out, was the star of a 2004 public television program in Hawaii that completely ignored her documented CPUSA membership and described her as a “true advocate and defender of American democratic values.” It noted that her long-time friend and “mentor” was Harry Bridges, president of the International Longshoreman’s and Warehouseman’s Union (ILWU), but didn’t mention that Bridges was a secret CPUSA member.
One whose name shows up in the credits as a contributor of some sort is Chris Conybeare, who also served as the producer/writer of a 1988 program about Davis that ignored his CPUSA membership and activities. The video was released by the Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawaii - West Oahu (CLEAR) and Hawaii Public Television.
So it is not surprising that Conybeare, who also functions as the “secretary general” of the World Association of Press Councils, has attached his name to a press release from the “Honolulu Media Council” denouncing Accuracy in Media and Bill Steigerwald of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for bringing to light the facts about Davis being a communist and Obama’s mentor.
“We find that there is no substance to these claims,” this group of would-be censors declares. Ignoring all of the evidence against Davis, including his service on behalf of the CPUSA and its manipulation of black Americans for the communist and Stalinist cause, it announced that Davis was a true “advocate for civil rights in the US.”
This media council questions Steigerwald’s statement that Davis was a “lifelong” Communist, when the length of time of his CPUSA membership is a question that only Davis probably could have resolved. There is no question, however, that he was involved with the CPUSA and/or its front organizations before, during and after World War II.
The term “mentor,” as applied to his relationship with Obama, is accurate, even based on the limited information that Obama himself provides in his own book about “Frank.”
But there was one truthful bit of information in the Honolulu Media Council release. Davis “had many friends, including Barack Obama’s grandfather,” it noted.
BINGO. And that grandfather, Stanley Dunham, is the person who picked Davis as Obama’s mentor. Gerald Horne originally identified “Frank” as Frank Marshall Davis and Dr. Kathyrn Takara of the University of Hawaii confirmed this. She also told me that Obama had been introduced to Davis by his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, who considered Davis a “strong black male figure” and thought he exerted a “positive” influence over the young man in his high-school years. “His grandfather was one of Frank’s closest friends,” she said. “They played chess or cards together.”
However, Takara disputes the overwhelming evidence that Davis was a communist. Not surprisingly, she was the associate producer of that 1988 Conybeare program which whitewashed Davis.
The evidence shows that Davis, who died in 1987, became Obama’s black mentor during the years 1975-1979, primarily because Obama’s black father had deserted the family. Dunham made a bad decision. It’s too bad Obama didn’t describe it as such in Dreams From My Father. He might have avoided a scandal if he had directly confronted the problem of his mentor’s communist beliefs. But that wouldn’t have gotten him off the hook for associating with communist terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn in Chicago and going to Jeremiah Wright’s church.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Which brings us back to square one: When will the media ask Obama about the Obama/Davis relationship? And why did he conceal the complete identity of “Frank” in his 1995 book, Dreams From My Father?
I think we are beginning to understand the reasons for this cover-up. Not only would the identification of “Frank” as Frank Marshall Davis expose communist influence on a young Obama, it might also expose those who collaborated with him and tried to whitewash his communist activities.
Davis, it should be noted, was just one member of a communist network which also included secret CPUSA members Paul Robeson and labor leader Harry Bridges, who was so deep in CPUSA activities that Moscow accepted and designated him as a member of the CPUSA Central Committee. Davis was friends with both of them.
If the son of Frank Marshall Davis is really out there, it would be advisable for him to come completely clean and set the record straight. Better yet, as Maki says in one of the exchanges, “I would suggest that you take up your concerns with Barack Obama, who first brought Frank Marshall Davis to our attention.”
Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
204 Comments
The Republican National Committee should be publicizing all these nefarious connections of Obama - all the way from Frank Marshall Davis through the Chicago mobsters, without whom Obama would still be working for his poi in Hawaii.
Rush and Hannity and the rest of them don’t want to look or sound like fanatics or as if they are crazy. If they don’t bring this out in the right way, the libs will be all over it and will have what they will think is ammunition against conservatives.
This all has to be proven with iron clad proof that they have in hand.
The Republican National Committee is spineless and won’t go near this.
Thankfully we do have the internet now and it will eventually get around.
The next problem to negotiate is the fact that most people have never read Karl Marx or any other communist/socialist writings and will not bother to. They will remain pretty much ignorant.
Too many people get their only information from the 3 mainstream networks and believe what they are told hook, line and sinker.
There has been plenty of Internet talk about the communist connection, but the blind liberals ignore it.
Part of the problem is that the young people who make up the bulk of the Democrat party today have no idea of the dangers and history of communism. They are educated by old hippies in the universities and history is rarely taught in the proper perspective any more. America’s greatness and exceptionalism are not emphasized, as one can see in Obama’s empty speeches, his disrespect for our flag, and his declaration that he is a “citizen of the world.”
I will pass the article along and at least attempt to educate those on my contact list.
The problem is that liberal and communist values are the same. Liberals are not bothered by this as long as they can say they are not communists. I am concerned that even if this is brought forward, most of the huge liberal population won’t care. However it may motivate conservatives to get serious about voting and acknowledging how far to the left this country has swung.
With the liberal MSM on the Democrats’ side of every issue, the dangers of socialism/Marxism / communism will never be made part of the national commentary on any news or historical informational offering. The millions of young people who listen to the overt plans of wealth distribution by Obama, the nationalization of our oil corporations, the socialized medicine, and more, eat it all up and follow him like lemmings.
I blame most of this on our government-run school system. It seems we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of Europe leading up to World War II. Where are we going to find another great leader to straighten the world out again?
I’m pleased that Kincaid has finally responded to some of my concerns concerning my father, Frank Marshall Davis. Thank you, sir!
I believe I was born at 5:31 PM on November 9, 1950, at Kapiolani Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Frank Marshall Davis is shown to be my father on my birth certificate, if you care to verify my identity. I graduated from Honolulu’s Farrington High School in 1968, if you care to verify my identity. I enlisted in the Air Force in December 1968, and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force on 15 February 1983, if you care to verify my identity. As an Air Force Intelligence Officer, I completed the CIA Deception Analysis Course on 25 August 1989, and have a certificate from the CIA Office of Training and Education, if you care to verify my identity. I have a Certificate of Retirement from the United States Air Force, dated 1 February 1993 and signed by Lieutenant General Edward P. Barry Jr., Commander, Space and Missile Systems Center, if you care to verify my identity. I also have a Certificate of Appreciation signed by George Bush, Commander In Chief, upon my retirement, if you care to verify my identity. Do you require more authentication?
I posted as #2 and #21 in the Obama Berlin comments that I am no longer contesting the allegation that Davis joined the Party sometime during WWII, as claimed by Edgar Tidwell. That is not defamation. On the other hand, misrepresenting your speculation as being the actual truth could very well be.
My problem is with the claim that my father was a lifelong MEMBER of the CPUSA, and that he was a Stalinist because he STAYED with the Party after 1939. These are just some of the myriad misrepresentations that exaggerate Davis’s radical background and influence over Obama, as outlined in my blog at http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/Kaleokualoha.
My problem is with AIM misquoting people regarding my father, including Gerald Horne “noting” he was Obama’s mentor, Dr. Takara saying he was a “socialist realist,” and most despicably of all, the AIM column by Paul Kengor falsely attributing harsh criticism of my father to Roy Wilkins, when it actually came from a rookie Honolulu NAACP board member, who just happened to be white.
My problem is with “communist” Alan Maki cooperating with you in attacking my father, then misrepresenting my criticism on his blog.
My problem is with AIM deliberate misrepresentations such as saying my father gave Obama advice that “black people had a right to hate white people.” FACT: Obama’s book says that Davis told him that black people have a REASON to hate white people, which is entirely different. (Japan had a REASON to bomb Pearl Harbor, not a right. Al Qaeda had a REASON for 9/11, not a right. Bank robbers have a REASON to rob banks, not a right. There is a world of difference between a reason and a right.) A later Kincaid blog changed “right to hate” to “reason to hate,” but immediately after Obama’s Berlin speech, Kincaid once again claimed Davis “read his “poems” to a teenage Obama and advised him that black people had a right to hate white people.”
We won the Cold War, but it seems that professional advocates like Cliff Kincaid cannot accept victory. The “raison d’être” of these Cold Warriors is fighting communism, just as the “raison d’être” of old school civil rights activists is fighting racism. Both Cliff Kincaid and Jesse Jackson seem to suffer from success. Both have been relegated to fighting shadows in anachronistic bids to retain relevance.
My problem is with AIM’s attempts to vilify a dead poet who was more likely to teach random acts of kindness than disloyalty to young Barack Obama. That is what makes my “face red.” They deliberately misrepresent the values Obama may have internalized through this relationship, in a transparent attempt to smear Obama’s character. Every candidate has flaws, but they should be examined with “Fairness, Balance, and Accuracy In News Reporting,” as your banner proclaims.
Slinkiecat,
You’re so right about the government-run school system.
Unfortunately, Bush helped to empower it with his “No Child Left Behind” and I don’t hear McCain talking about doing away with the Federal Dept. of Education, which incidentally, has only been in existence since 1979.
It’s been an abysmal failure on the part of every Republican president since that time to rid us of this atrocity that has been indoctrinating our children with anti-American, left-wing propaganda.
One example of this was a federal ruling that allows New York City public schools to ban the Christian nativity scene while permitting Jewish menorah’s and the Islamic star and crescent.
This would have been unheard of during the days I was attending public schools.
This whole subject of the public education system has become such a serious, critical issue that if a real conservative were running against Obama, he or she would have to pledge their allegiance to eliminate the Dept. of Education in order to get my vote.
Regarding Davis’s association with communist writers’ groups in the 1930’s, “Obama’s Communist Mentor” states:
In addition to Tidwell’s book, Black Moods: Collected Poems of Frank Marshall Davis, confirming Davis’s Communist Party membership, another book, The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946, names Davis as one of several black poets who continued to publish in CPUSA-supported publications after the 1939 Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact. The author, James Edward Smethurst, associate professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, says that Davis, however, would later claim that he was “deeply troubled” by the pact.
[END QUOTE]Researching “The New Red Negro” at http://books.google.com/books?id=kt5LMD-OnxoC&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq;=“the+new+red+negro”+communist+davis&source=web&ots=B-HaNJA9HW&sig=ZiOltjxuI1QwdjCAvvEC0f4NnGQ&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result, however, reveals some salient information that Kincaid neglected to mention:
ONLY the Communist left had any significant institutional impact on African-American writing during the 1930s and 1940s. This support was crucial as the institutions that had maintained the New Negro Renaissance faded. And for better or for worse, the leading CPUSA functionaries involved in “Negro work” took a direct interest in African-American cultural production in a manner that was unusual, if not unique.
Vilifying a writer for continuing to publish in CPUSA-supported publication, when they provided his only available institutional support, is completely unfair. Speculating that he was a “Stalinist” and “lifelong member of the Communist Party USA,” based on such associations, is intellectual dishonesty, especially when you recognize that my FATHER wrote poetry attacking Stalin by name, and that he was deeply troubled by the Stalin-Hitler pact.
But thanks again for responding!
“... We won the Cold War, but it seems that professional advocates like Cliff Kincaid cannot accept victory. The “raison d’être” of these Cold Warriors is fighting communism, ...”
If you rephrase that slightly I will agree wholeheartedly—specifically that we won the Cold War against the USSR and its Warsaw Pact slaves.
However the struggle against communism is still relevant these days, Mark. Communism is far from dead in this world and still presents a threat to the only political system that individuals can thrive in: Capitalism.
As the political conversation in this country continually “compromises” its way leftward, the final result can only be communism and statism. If those two terms aren’t clear to readers, they mean social authoritarianism… that a few thugs will rule over and dictate to the many “for their own good.”
Mark:
Ad hominem attacks, name-calling, holier-than-thou innuendo, character assassination, etc., are apparently the kinds of things often referred to as “being Hannitized”, “being Savaged”, “being Rushed”, “being Coulterized”, maybe even “being Kincaided”, etc.
My sympathies to you and your family for your deceased Father being singled out and abused by The Republican Attack Machine in their unceasing process of attempting to personally besmirch their political competition. (However, you’re not alone: they even did one of their ‘swiftboat’ numbers on their own current candidate back in 2000!)
Personally, in 2000, it bothered me much more that Bush 2 was an ostensibly acknowledged alcoholic and apparently a black sheep (with a brother(s) allegedly deeply involved in the 90’s savings and loan criminal scandals) than it could possibly bother me today that Obama might have had a youthful respect for some individual mentor or father-figure the wingnuts now have it in for.
Apparently, while constantly railing against leftists, the rightwingnuts forget that most of the world’s worst dictators were born on the far right side of the political spectrum.
I swear some of these rightist creepozoids would become grave robbers if they felt it would advance their ideological cause! And, there are certainly leftists out there that are just as bad - - but they’re just not as well organized! And, with all this wailing about communism and communists, you’d think the GOP extremist fatcats would be refusing to actively engage in all the Big Business going on with Communist China these days(???)
Guess they’ve decided that some communists are more worthy and more appropriate to deal with than other communists (???)
Pizcaj wrote: “Unfortunately, Bush helped to empower it with his “No Child Left Behind” and I don’t hear McCain talking about doing away with the Federal Dept. of Education, which incidentally, has only been in existence since 1979.
It’s been an abysmal failure on the part of every Republican president since that time to rid us of this atrocity that has been indoctrinating our children with anti-American, left-wing propaganda.”
This is one more thing you and I agree about. Bush allowed Ted Kennedy to write that abysmal bill in his misguided effort to make friends with the Left. As usual, it backfired, and Bush will have to accept the blame for this government overreaching legislation. Education is best left to local communities and overseen by the states, not Uncle Sam.
The more government interferes in our lives and increases in size, the less freedom we have.
TK,
You sound like an official—and angry—Obama apologist.
It’s entertaining too that you begin your commentary by criticizizng ad hominem attacks and quickly resort to the very same tactic. I guess I’m not surprised.
Weird.
“...Apparently, while constantly railing against leftists, the rightwingnuts forget that most of the world’s worst dictators were born on the far right side of the political spectrum….”
Flat wrong. You need to read some history books. If you look at the political compass, dictators are at the top of the chart, both left and right of center, but the worst (in the sense of being responsible for the most deaths and destruction of individual rights) are concentrated on the left (socialist/communist) side of the thing.
“...I swear some of these rightist creepozoids would become grave robbers if they felt it would advance their ideological cause!...”
Sorry the Democrats already staked that territory out—ever hear of the Estate Tax?
To Jim Delaney:
I’m a registered Independent - - noting that 16 years ago I voted for Perot - - and my favorite for this particular election, from the very beginning, was Ron Paul. If I could get by Bob Barr’s repulsive personal demeanor and history - - he’s saying things I agree with. I probably could have been happy voting for Huckabee.
Obama needs no apologists. He’s perfectly capable of stating his own case and running his campaign as he sees fit, win, lose or draw. I give him credit for bucking all the trends!
Angry? YES! Angry that rockheaded partisanship, brought to the fore by extremist Religious Right Republicans after ‘94 and, following the politically destruction events in 2000 and 2004, finally joined in spades by extremist lefty loons - - have reduced the two major political parties to a useless gaggle of middle-school spitballers - - ending up, in turn, with a completely gridlocked and inept government.
While all the party hacks and their acolytes and handmaidens in each major party are competing to see who can make the biggest piss hole in the snow - - somewhere between 40% and 60% of us working, middle-class, American citizens are being prevented from enjoying responsive, accountable, representative, efficient, and satisfactory governance.
Ideological partisanship begets what it sows.
The only thing that’s “weird” is when one side or the other feigns surprise when it gets smacked back with the same kind of crap it dishes out!
To John Galt:
So - - one kind of dictatorship is better than another kind of dictatorship depending on how many of its own citizens it killed? Ridiculous. Hitler was a rightwing, reactionary extremist - - and besides the 6,000,000 Jews he killed - - I believe another 40,000,000+ people died doing all they could to prevent his rightwing politics from overtaking the western world!
And - - if the “leftist” dictatorships are the worst - - why is it that we’re whoring for China? Shouldn’t all self-respecting American rightwingers be opposed to this?
And - - review your own history books! Just about EVERY dictator before the concepts of Marxism/Leninism brought communism to the forefront in the early 20th century was a reactionary rightwinger. Just because some of them used bows and arrows and cut out hearts with sharpened stones one-at-a-time doesn’t make them any less culpable than Stalin or Mao Tse Tung because they killed fewer of their subjects. Ridiculous.
To John Galt (2):
Your facetiousness regarding my comment on political “grave robbers” is childish. My point was obviously that committed political ideologues seem to be willing to engage in the lowest of human conduct to promote their own ideological propaganda (while also hopefully harming the competition).
The provisions of the Estate Tax affect such a small percentage of American citizens that any reference to it is completely irrelevant to most. If you’re having trouble hiding your millions before your date with destiny - - just ask some of your fellow fatcats to explain to you how the government allows them to offshore their assets. Ever hear of Grand Cayman? Switzerland?
Note: At $400,000,000 per day - - I would guess that saving just a few days’ worth of government expenditures in Iraq could easily pay all of yours and your associates Estate Taxes (???)
TK:
I’m not saying dictatorship (or authoritarianism of any flavor) is good, I was disputing your ignorant assertion that the worst dictators were “right-wing.” As an example:
“...Hitler was a rightwing, reactionary extremist…”
Again, TK, you need to read some history before further displaying your ignorance. The Nazi party was the National Socialist Workers Party. Fascists are socialists. The Baath Party is Fascist—they are the nationalist socialist party founded in Syria and modeled on Hitler’s regime. Saddam and the Assads are Baathists.
Authoritarianism of all sorts are simply thugs oppressing their citizens.
RE: the estate tax, I will simply point out that any estate is whatever is leftover of a taxpayer’s hard-earned property after it has been taxed two, three, or more times during the taxpayer’s creation of it. Taxing an estate is grave-robbing pure and simple.
I’m not a “fat cat” by any measure (except maybe my waistline, but that’s not too extreme yet). I’m just arguing that those who claim “fairness” in taxation are treating economics as a zero-sum game which is simply untrue.
Capitalism and individual property rights CREATE wealth: Socialism and “re-distribution” of wealth DESTROY wealth at worst and impede creation of wealth at best. You need look no further than any communist or socialist government to see the truth of that assertion.
I don’t know what your $400M/ day is referring to. I prefer to look at how much the federal government spending is in relation to GDP (~40%) and how much tax revenue is collected in relation to GDP (~29%) and note that the answer to that deficit problem is not raising taxes and further depressing GDP and thus increasing government spending’s percentage of GDP—the solution is cutting government spending and encouraging the expansion of GDP by letting the people decide how best to spend and invest their money.
As to the cost of the military, it is less than 4% of GDP (including the Iraq and Afghanistan war expenditures) and too little investment in our security in my opinion.
In perhaps the culmination of his “Stalinist” frenzy, Kincaid claimed that my father’s “values, passed on to Obama, were those of a communist agent who pledged allegiance to Stalin” ( http://www.aim.org/aim-column/media-excuse-obamas-false-advertising/).
Disinformation campaigns may resemble an inverted pyramid, wherein moderate “misrepresentation” is built on small “misrepresentation”, large “misrepresentation” is built on moderate “misrepresentation”, etc. This occurs through careful stacking of authentic and fabricated “evidence” when it fits someone’s political agenda. Thus, the Iraqi “threat” was based on the imagination of sources like “Curveball.”
Classic Disinformation Paradigm: This “Stalinist” issue is the perfect example of the disinformation process, whereby a grain of truth is transformed into mountain of deliberate misrepresentation. In four stages, disinformation transforms my father from a “closet” member of the Communist Party USA into a purported “communist agent who pledged allegiance to Stalin”:
1. Credible external report that Davis joined CPUSA during WWII (1941-1945) as a “closet” member.
2. Claim that Davis was “lifelong member” of the CPUSA.”
3. Claim that Davis “stayed with” CPUSA after 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact.
4. Claim that Davis was Stalinist BECAUSE he “stayed with” CPUSA after 1939 pact.
5. Claim that Davis was “communist agent who pledged allegiance to Stalin”.
Is this truly “Fairness, Balance and Accuracy In News Reporting”? I challenge anyone to substantiate claims 2 through 5!
The communist connection can be traced back to Stanley Dunham and his daughter Stanley Ann Dunham. When Stanley moved his family from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to an Mercer Island, near Seattle, he left his Baptist/Methodist upbringing, to attended the East Shore Unitarian Church which was dubbed as the Little Red Church on the Hill.
He named his daughter after himself, which is quite narcissistic, and in doing so may have been the catalyst of Stanley Ann’s rebellion.
Stanley Ann attended Mercer High School. The school board chairman, John Stenhouse, was a communist and testified to being a member of the Communist Party before the House Un-American Activities in the 50’s.
Stanley Ann’s philosophy teacher, Jim Wichterman, taught Sartre and Kierkegaard. He had his class read the Communist Manifesto and the hallway was referred to as anarchy alley. He made them question religion, politics, and parental authority.
It was with this influential background that Stanley Ann moved to Hawaii to meet the black graduate student from Kenya, Barack Obama. Though Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama let it be known that she was in disfavor of the union, Barack and Stanley Ann married to procreate the Barack Hussein Obama that we have come to “kind of” know in 1961.
That was just the beginning of the betrayal to what America has been duped.
Barack’s father left Hawaii to attend Harvard Abercrombie and didn’t look back. He went back to Kenya to make an attempt at politics there but was a failure.
At the absence of a father figure, Stanley, Barracks grandfather, solicited Frank Davis to be his grandson’s mentor. Stanley, through his communist background, chose a card carrying communist to guide his grandson.
When Barack left Hawaii under Frank Davis’s tutelage he went to Chicago. Frank Davis was from Chicago.
When he arived in Chicago he fell in with the likes of William Ayers, the American terrorist and the list goes on.
The Communist Party chose a man that had a weak family with no father figure and a communist background to groom into what he is today.
I hope that the rest of America wakes up to the danger of Barack Hussein Obama getting anywhere near the Oval Office.
Gee! I thought that when Barack left Hawaii he went to Occidental College in California. Where do you get your “facts” from?
I will stay out of this, this time, 
, as it is far to complicated for me - though somewhere in all this, I think, is the point, that Obama has been steeped in Communist beliefs, has obviously been influenced by communists, and seems to like to run around with Communist terrorists in Chicago. What is that - if it walks like a, talks like a, and shits like a, well maybe its a?
Oh, and thanks and a hat tip to all those above that put the extremist ideolog(ue) TK in his place. He is a PERFECT example of the true liberal - while shrilly yelling at the top of their lungs - tolerance - they are the most intolerant people that the world and America has ever produced - if only they could go to a shrink and see that the extremists that they rail against is actually themselves.
Oh, and this is really getting entertaining. I do suspect by November that the word will get out - and that is what the bottom line is - and even though I am repulsed by McCain - I believe without much of us Conservatives (nasty little things that we are help, he will beat the pants off Obama - the sad result though will be that arrogant McCain will really get a bigger noggin than he already arrogantly has and think he is the boy wonder - when the real message will be that Obama is so leftist and flawed even the most ignorant of Democrats will have a hard time voting for him.
I do wish it would be though - strike three and your out of here. Strike One, Gore; Strike Two, Kerry; and Strike Three, Osama Obama. But alas, in 2012 the leftists will be back, maybe they will run that sl*t Pelosi and we can have Strike Four?
Hi Mark
I’m the original source of the Obama/Frank Marshall Davis connection, which I found on the CPUSA website.
While it is perfectly legitimate to debate the nature of the Obama/FMD relationship and the influence it may have had on the Senator from Illinois, your late father’s communist credentials are beyond doubt.
How long he was a dues paying party member is unknown, but there is documentary evidence proving that FMD supported the CP line from well before World War 2 (League of American Writers) to well after you were born-1958 (same year as me incidentally).
I can understand that you’re protecting your father’s name and I commend you for doing so.
However, the American voter has a right to know everything possible about the political influences on Barack Obama-from day one.
Had Barack Obama not spent most of his political career working with members of the Committees of Correspondence and the Democratic Socialists of America, the FMD aspect would be a mere curiousity. If the CPUSA did not continue to back Obama to this very day, your father’s relationship with him would be unimportant.
Unfortunately however Obama has a a long history of socialist association, which makes FMD’s relationship with him potentially significant.
I’m sure you would acknowledge that if a Republican presidential candidate spent time with a known Klansman in his teens and associated with White Supremacists throughout his career, the public would have a right to know about it.
There’s nothing personal here Mark. I just want the truth. Maybe you can help further uncover it.
Kind regards
Trevor Loudon
New Zealand.
This man is a liar and a fake!!!
No man would refer to his father as DAVIS as in
<<DAVIS’S RADICAL BACKGROUND>>
<These are just some of the myriad misrepresentations that exaggerate Davis’s radical background and influence over Obama, as outlined in my blog at…..>
Trevor,
Thanks for your comment. I agree that the “American voter has a right to know everything possible about the political influences on Barack Obama-from day one.’
I have no problem with accurate reporting. I, too, would like to know more about his early years. My problem is with misrepresentation and complete speculation presented as fact, such as Kincaid’s statement that my father’s “values, passed on to Obama, were those of a communist agent who pledged allegiance to Stalin.”
Thanks again,
- Mark
all democrats are commie traitors that includes baraka hussien obama aka bongo.sorry mark but your father was a commie traitor.you say you were in the airforce with your back ground i wish you had not served.i was in the 101st airborne 1968 viet nam where i killed a lot of your fathers friends.have a nice day!
Regarding Bruce’s comment:
See what I mean about being against extremist partisanship (especially the sicko variety)?
Extreme partisanship too easily results in hatred and hatred has no bounds. Change a couple of words in this comment - - and it’s no different than the worst of the KKK at the height of its ignominy!
Unbelievable.
I am John Edgar Tidwell, University of Kansas ((JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)), and editor of the oft-mentioned books by Frank Marshall Davis. Although
prior commitments prevent me from actively participating in this debate, I would like to take this opportunity to confirm the identity of Mark Kaleokualoha Davis, who posts comments as “Kaleokualoha,” and who has a blog at http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/Kaleokualoha. He is indeed the son of Frank Marshall Davis.
I can also verify that Kaleokualoha’s Alan Maki post contains an accurate copy, through Jul 12th 2008 at 11:13 pm EDT, of the COMMENTS section from Alan Maki’s blog. Alan Maki subsequently deleted critical comments, falsely claiming they were “part of a racist, anti-Semitic hate campaign,” when in fact they were only critical of Maki’s actions. A comparison of both blogs will verify that Kaleokualoha’s comments were NOT part of a racist, anti-Semitic hate campaign.
Although my research indicates that Davis joined the CPUSA as a “closet member” during Word War II, there is no evidence that he was a Stalinist, or even a Party member before WWII. Further, to those attempting to make the specious stand for the concrete, there is no evidence that he instructed Barack Obama in communist ideology. Frank Marshall Davis did NOT believe in overthrowing the USA. He was committed to what the nation professed to be. For him, communism was primarily an intellectual vehicle to achieve a political end-a possible tool for gaining the constitutional freedoms of life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness for ALL Americans.
I have also posted Tidwell’s statement, along with my personal photograph (on http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/Kaleokualoha) for those who care to compare my features with those of Frank Marshall Davis. Hopefully, this will lay questions of my identity to rest.
Because Kincaid chose to cite Edgar Tidwell as a source throughout this debate, I would like to reiterate this part of Tidwell’s statement:
“Further, to those attempting to make the specious stand for the concrete, there is no evidence that he instructed Barack Obama in communist ideology. Frank Marshall Davis did NOT believe in overthrowing the USA. He was committed to what the nation professed to be. For him, communism was primarily an intellectual vehicle to achieve a political end-a possible tool for gaining the constitutional freedoms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL Americans.”
Any questions?
“...He was committed to what the nation professed to be. For him, communism was primarily an intellectual vehicle to achieve a political end-a possible tool for gaining the constitutional freedoms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL Americans….”
Boy, was he mistaken. Socialism and communism (collectivism) are the antithesis of individual rights.
Is the grandfather, Stanley Duham still alive? And does anyone know if he was a member of the Communist Party?
If he is alive and active, is he the type to burn the flag and chain himself to a church to protest capitalism? This should not be hard to research.
Am I off base or was he the dominant influence while his daughter battled windmills in Indonesia.
To Mark, Prof. Tidwell, and others.
What we need in this discussion of the history of the late Frank Marshall Davis is a verified timeline of his life, including where he lived, worked, etc. I’ve seen bits and pieces but nothing that can be laid out in a historical chronological line.
The reason that I ask interested in creating this timeline is that we have several families and individuals involved, who often intersect over time and place, i.e. Dunham and Davis, Davis & B. Obama/his mother, etc.
We need a scorecard to follow the players.
To Prof. Tidwell. If Frank Davis was recruited in Chicago by Paul Robeson (now publicly identified as a secret member of the CPUSA, by the CPUSA in its newspapers/theoretical journals), and Harry Bridges (longtime id. secret member of the CPUSA and identified as a Soviet asset as early as 1934 - Haynes & Khlers, “Labor Today”, 1994, based on Soviet Comintern documents), how did they decide on Davis as their man to go to Hawaii to organize the left/ILWU, etc. down there (in the late 1940’s/early 50’s)?
This is one of the questions that has not been addressed in depth, if at all. Robeson and Bridges didn’t just pick out some poet in Chicago. The CPUSA and the Soviets didn’t operate that way. They picked someone they could trust to do their bidding.
My personal view, so far, is that Frank Davis was on the Left of the Black Rennaissance movement during the 30’s when DuBois warned fellow Negroes not to become the “cannon fodder” for the CPUSA (FBI DuBois files, FOIA, online, sometime in 1933 or early 1934, “The Liberator”).
This warning lasted for a number of years until some blacks went to Spain to fight fascism and got caught up in the CPUSA’s Abraham Lincoln Brigade or the Soviet’s International Brigade. After that, it was easy to seduce or recruit them into the CPUSA orbit, if not the CPUSA, proper.
Only the show trials in Moscow and the Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1938/39 (there were several Protocols to it), troubled mainstream liberals to the point that they left the Party, while others on the Left were critical but joined the Party’s crowd when Germany attacked Russia in 1941.
Where Frank Davis fits into this scenario is what needs to be researched and revealed.
However, his post WW2 associations with the CPUSA in Hawaii, either thru its fronts, the Honolulu Record of the Civil Rights Congress, or the CPUSA-dominated ILWU, also needs more research. The HCUA and Hawaiian Commission reports have a lot of information but Davis’ brief HCUA testimony leaves a lot to be desired re his failure to make more than a cursory verbal appearance under oath before Congress. What else is out there? I will be doing some research at the National Archives in the hope to add more documentation to this question.
Mark: I admire your position in defending your father’s name, but there are some things that may be unpleasant to admit, and it centers around his being in the Stalinist/CP orbit for a long time. Perhaps he left the Party later on, but in some people, the Party never leaves them.
That is the key question re his relationship to Barack Obama, and Obama isn’t talking.
Perhaps only your father knew what his personal devotions were to communism, but the CPUSA files must have more on their relationship to him.
There is the possibility that your father did leave the Party orbit after 1970, and public documents might show this. Perhaps he grew up and moved on to other non-ideological causes (something you have briefly commented on).
One thing all of us must do is to be very careful with the words we use, and the context in which we use them. Sometimes we accidentally use hyperbole’ instead of more conciseness, and it is incumbent upon us to be more careful.
However, facts are facts but they must be used responsibly. But facts must also be faced as “facts” when proven beyond any doubt.
Let the research and debates continue in a professional manner.
Max Friedman
Thanks for your input, Max. I agree that we should “let the research and debates continue in a professional manner.” It was unpleasant to admit that there is credible evidence that my father joined the Party during WWII. But “facts are facts.” I pledge to be as objective as possible in examining all evidence.
Thanks again.
Max,
How very refreshing! A shining light in this verbal maelstrom. To the edification of us all, perhaps—at long last—we will get to the bottom of this issue. Hopefully, before the election in November!
I wish you, the committed researchers among the commenters, all the best and all deliberate speed in your objective and sober quest for the unfettered truth.
Thanks for your honest efforts on this very, very important issue.
tk you are a commie ass hole who would never defend our country because characters like you are cowards. i bet you shill for your commie pals like bongo and his commie family.all of you are traitors and deserve a traitors reward.
JOHN GALT WROTE: “Socialism and communism (collectivism) are the antithesis of individual rights.”
RESPONSE: I absolutely agree. That’s one reason I find Alan Maki’s exploitation so disgusting. But in the context of the 1930’s & 1940’s, I believe that communist doctrine appeared to be MORE supportive of civil rights than American Jim Crow policies in effect at that time. But we have the luxury of hindsight. My father did not. The institutionalized brutality of communist regimes was not as well recognized.
Further, as Professor Tidwell points out, “Frank Marshall Davis did NOT believe in overthrowing the USA. He was committed to what the nation professed to be. For him, communism was primarily an intellectual vehicle to achieve a political end.” Besides, as stated in #10, above, only the Communist left had any significant institutional impact on African-American writing during the 1930s and 1940s. This support was crucial as the institutions that had maintained the New Negro Renaissance faded.
If your only food came from a communist tree, would you partake?
Kincaid wrote:
“In another strange twist, Mark Davis claims some of his comments have been taken off the Obama website, but some freely remain (see comment 37) on the AIM website, which is open to a variety of views in the form of comments on posted columns. Some Davis comments were apparently deleted from the Obama website on the ground that they were “part of a racist, anti-Semitic hate campaign” against Maki. Davis insists they were not of that nature.”
Kincaid neglected to mention that my comments were deleted by Alan Maki, not website administrators, and that Maki misrepresented them as “Deleted by Admin… this comment was deleted because it was part of a racist, anti-Semitic hate campaign.” Neglecting to mention that Maki took this action, rather than website administrators, suggests administrator responsibility for Maki’s action.
Such misrepresentation may benefit both Kincaid and Maki at the expense of the truth, because it shifts responsibility for the deletions to their common adversary: the Obama campaign.
Accuracy in media, please.
“...The institutionalized brutality of communist regimes was not as well recognized. ... only the Communist left had any significant institutional impact on African-American writing during the 1930s and 1940s ... If your only food came from a communist tree, would you partake?”
So Frank was like the little girl lured by candy into the pedophile’s car, Mark?
It should be clear to any rational, logical thinker that collectivism with its promise of “free lunch” is inconsistent and irrational. Who pays for the “free lunch?” When the state owns everything, where are individual rights, especially property rights? When the state dictates every aspect of your life, how can one pursue their happiness?
Why didn’t Frank ask himself these questions? Jim Crow, peonage, and indentured servitude laws were unjust obviously, but does it make sense for anyone to plead to one evil slavemaster to throw off the other evil slavemaster? Does it make sense to fight one injustice with another?
Emotionalism and irrationality are what these brutes depend on to keep them in power. The unquestioning “feeling,” “anti-intellectualism,” and “sensitivity” of artists makes them easy prey and dupes.
Max, I too would like to add my thanks for your reasonable post. Perhaps you would do us all the kindness of passing on your advice to your colleague, Mr. Kincaid. There is nothing “accidental” in Kincaid’s “hyperbole” and misrepresentations. He has one agenda, and one agenda only—to paint Senator Obama with a Communist brush, accuracy be damned.
I have no dog in this fight. I simply want to be informed about the salient issues before I vote. It doesn’t concern me at all that Obama is “not talking” about his childhood/adolescent relationship with an elderly black gentleman, regardless of that gentleman’s past politics. I am far more interested in hearing him explain his adult relationship with the Rev. Wright who, by all definitions, was a true mentor to Obama. Wright is on record as preaching “God damn America!” from his pulpit. I don’t see any evidence that Frank Marshall Davis said anything nearly so “damning” toward his own country, and even if he did express anger in his writings at the Jim Crow society in which he grew up, or was a member of the CPUSA for some part of his life, it will have no bearing on whether or not I choose to vote for Barack Obama. Mr. Kincaid is maligning Mr. Davis, and in the process hurting his family, for no good reason.
Max, with all due respect, I wish you would utilize your considerable research talents to bring us some relevant information on Obama’s more recent associations. Please come out of the National Archives, dust yourself off, and help inform the electorate on truly important issues.
Good points, John:
One rational explanation is that he never supported collectivist doctrine, but joined in order to secure sponsorship for his writing. I imagine there are countless members of the Communist Party who are actually capitalists. Look at China. Membership has its privileges.
Only with an objective analysis of his writing may a researcher accurately assess his stance. I have found no such preference for collectivism. But then again, I am not an objective researcher. I depend on experts like Professor Tidwell.
Max,
I second the motion for you to pass your advice to Mr. Kincaid.
While certainly possible, it is highly unlikely that AIM’s specific misrepresentation concerning the Davis-Obama relationship is accidental, just as it is highly unlikely that the Bush administration misrepresentation regarding the Iraqi threat was accidental.
Two types of misrepresentation are involved in Kincaid’s campaign: false attribution, and portraying speculation as fact (or “making the specious stand for the concrete,” as so eloquently phrased by Professor Tidwell). Kincaid has proven to be equally adept at both. His liberties with language may become legendary. He is the quintessential disinformation professional. The Intelligence Community could sorely use his expertise in Deception Analysis training.
John wrote “So Frank was like the little girl lured by candy into the pedophile’s car, Mark?”
I believe a more accurate analogy would be to the Uruguayan rugby team stranded in the Andes, as depicted in “Alive.” Like the Donner Party also found to their distaste, sometimes you need to depend on unsavory sources when they are the only nutrition available.
Perhaps a seafaring analogy might also be modified from “any port in a storm” to “the only port in a storm.”
Why didn’t the little girl jump out of the car? Perhaps she took pleasure in both the candy and the fondling?
When the little girl grew up, did she come to realize the perversity of her childhood situation and try to prevent other little girls from sharing her fate, or did she switch roles and lure other little girls (Obama) into her car?
I’m sure the little girl jumped out of the car, as the true nature of the situation became clear. Your dwelling on the little girl analogy, however, is starting to concern me.
To take your analogy to the end, however, I’m sure the only “fondling” that took place was in the minds of onlookers. Because a middle-aged Frank Marshall Davis did not teach ME to believe in communism, I doubt that he taught it to Barack Obama in his old age.
After reviewing the Rice & Roses video cited by Kincaid at http://www.hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/HonoluluRecord1/Frankvideo.html, can you seriously envision him corrupting Barack Obama?
There is only one real reason Bhy barack Obama’s relationship to Frank Marshall Davis is significant-because it is part of a long term pattern.
There is strong evidence that both of Obama’s parents were leftists. The young Obama mixed with Marxists at Occidental, Columbia and for his entire time in Chicago.
The Frank Marshall Davis connection indicates that Barack Obama jnr has been influenced by Marxists almost his entire life.
Cliff Kincaid and Herb Romerstein are to be congratulated for the work they have done in both confirming this link and researching its wider significance.
What our team has proven is that Obama has been linked not to one, but two communist networks-one in Hawaii and an one in Chicago.
Frank Marshall Davis’s Chicago background indicates that these networks could be connected. There is evidence that Davis had at least some connection to the Chicago communists well past the 1950s. Certainly his commitment to the communist cause lasted well beyond his literary peak, indicating the his attachment to the party was more ideological than artistic.
Cliff Kincaid has written an entire report on Obama’s Chicago links, so it is a little unfair to say he is overly focused on the Hawaii scene. Cliff, Herb, Max Friedman and I have researched Obama’s life both in Hawaii and Chicago. The pattern of socialist/communist connections is long term and well documented.
Had we been researching a Republican’s ties to the KKK and come up with similar evidence, our work would now bw front page news.
We realise you have to work a bit harder to expose the left, because much of the media is naturally sympathetic to socialism.
We’re up for that however. Truth will out.
Please elaborate on your statement:
“There is evidence that Davis had at least some connection to the Chicago communists well past the 1950s. Certainly his commitment to the communist cause lasted well beyond his literary peak, indicating the his attachment to the party was more ideological than artistic.”
Thanks!
mark you father was a commie traitor no matter how you try to evade it.i am beginning to wonder about you when you say crap like busch lied about iraq.the only thing he did wrong was not starting with syria and ending with iran.next you will say the world trade center was an inside job like some of the fools on this page.your father was not alone there were thousands of traitors like him in unions and in government. they were all democrats like alger hiss, harry white,currie the list goes on.yes there are traitors today leaking classified information.joe McCarty was right why do you think liberals hate him?
Not to worry, Mark. I’m not a pedophile.
You seem to be making some claim that Frank was a victim of some sort. I was just following through on my analogy and wondering if Frank ever wised up, whether he tried to prevent others from being victimized like he supposedly was, or whether he became a victimizer himself.
John,
I don’t believe he was either victimized or a victimizer. I don’t believe he internalized any Marxist values, much less passed them on to anyone else. Only the Party seems to have supported black writers during that period, so he took advantage of that support.
Perhaps a more accurate analogy would be that of someone joining the YMCA, Salvation Army, or a church in a small town due to available facilities, even though he may not be much of a Christian. The church may know that some members are not necessarily committed to Christian values, but hopes to convert them into practicing Christians. Members may have no intention of conversion, but hope to take advantage of the support.
People join organizations based on benefits all the time, especially when the organization is the only game in town for advancement. Germans joined the Nazi Party to advance their careers in the 1930’s. Chinese and Russians may have joined the Communist Party for the same reasons. Ambitious African-Americans in Chicago may have joined Reverend Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ.
People tend to join culturally dominant organizations for bandwagon benefits without accepting organizational goals. Membership has its privileges.
Re: Post #50
Somebody off their meds? PTSD? Dementia? A cry for help? Or, just a case of homostupidus?
Run amok extremism is a dangerous thing.
Bruce was in the Air Force?? I bet Mark outranked him!
For Trevor Loudon from New Zealand: You claim you are the original source for the FMD/Obama connection. Are you an ex-patriot American citizen? If not, what is your interest in our election?
Trevor Loudon? Are you guys kidding? Loudon is a New Zealand nutter. He belongs to a cult called ZAP (Zenith Applied Philosophy). The founder is some bloke who calls himself John Ultimate who claims his house in Christchurch is the center of the universe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenith_Applied_Philosophy
Enough said?
neil i was in the army with the 101st airborne viet nam where i was decorated for bravery for rescuing two downed air force pilots.on the ground no air force people out ranked me either do as i say or die they were not grunts they were clueless oh the ground.we had to fight our way to the downed pilots one of whom i had to carry on my back at that time they had no interest in rank.after the democrats surrounded and our pows were released there were no paratroopers among them.you know why because the few the did capture were killed.tk you don’t have the stones to fight for your country as you would rather help our enemies you do know what we call a person like you-traitor.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
What more to prove? Obama’s policies before winning the Democratic Primaries are purely communist in principle. That is sufficient enough to know who Obama really is. His moving into the center is just part of his act, like what he did in Illinois.
Obama cannot be trusted, even by his own self!
Another funny thing: CPUSA and Democratic Socialist of America are third parties lurking in the Democratic Party since 1990s. Are all Americans foolish and cannot even comprehend facts?
Michael Harrington of CPUSA has long said written that the communist strategy is to co-exist in Democratic Party as its host dominant party. He termed it as “Fusion Strategy”.
Now, why are Democrats ashamed of Communists? Their socialist principles and platforms are communists in nature.
What is this? Democratic Party wants only the votes of the Communists but totally deny their presence in its own Party? THAT IS A BLATANT LIE AND HYPOCRISY.
Common! Even Howard Dean made a banquet for the Pohl Rasmussen and the rest of the members of Party of European Socialists (an affilitate of Communiste Internationale).
DEMOCRATIC PARTY = COMMUNISTS/SOCIALISTS/PROGRESSIVES
Go to Canadian Socialist Party website and see why Democratic Party here in America is SO SUPPORTIVE OF FARC. Why has Democratic Party become anti-war? Because pacifism and anti-war policy is the main platform of the Communists who are wishing to tie up with Eastern Europeans. Obama’s visit to Berlin makes him look like Gorbachev, not Reagan.
As for Obama as the Manchurian Candidate of the Communists, visit the following website:
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org
ALL THE ABOVE EXCHANGES OF COMMENTS ARE FOOLISH. DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAS FAILED TRUMAN AND JFK A LONG TIME AGO.
Mark K. Davis-
As I’m sure is crystal clear to you by now, the title “Accuracy in Media” as per Cliff Kincaid’s “work” is apparently meant to be ironic.
An yet No One sees the Trotsky Communist history/background of the Neo Con ‘Conservative Republicans’. You’re all so worried about a Nigger hiding in the woodpile outback while your home is being ransacked by Whitey as your neighbors watch.
These comments seem to have dropped off the cliff of insanity, like some other AIM threads. That’s the cost of unmoderated discussion . . .
don’t you mean censored mark?i can understand your father getting involved with the commies but he was a smart man and should have seen through their Lie’s.i can under stand that jim crow would encourage black people to look at communism however a closer look should have enformed any one that a communist governmemt would be far worse than jim crow.he should have known that commies and nazis were the same.he should have been with rosa parks not joe stalin he could have helped her end institutional racism.he chose communism instead and for that i can never forgive him or any of the many traitors like him.
This was before Rosa Parks or any of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s.
Edgar Tidwell, may have put it best, though, when he wrote:
“Frank Marshall Davis did NOT believe in overthrowing the USA. He was committed to what the nation professed to be. For him, communism was primarily an intellectual vehicle to achieve a political end-a possible tool for gaining the constitutional freedoms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL Americans.”
This “tool” seems to have provided the only available institutional support during the period, according to “The New Red Negro.” According to the same source, “the CPUSA itself, despite the claims of both the party leadership and its most ardent detractors, contained various, often conflicting tendencies.” Evidently, membership does NOT equate to Stalinism!!
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.
A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.
Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.
A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
jnidsjny-
no man of sense can dispute your post. and thanks for the link!
mark rosa parks was neither the first nor the last civil rights protester.this started right after the civil war when blacks and whites who wanted the vote for black people were murdered by the clan.it was yankee governors and white militias that destroyed the clan until they raised there ugly heads at the turn of the century.it was the democrats who supported jim crow while republicans opposed it.it was republicans who passed the civil rights acts in the 60’s not democrats ike tried to get these laws passed while he was president but was blocked by democrats.my uncle was in the 82 airborne during ww2 while he was in Georgia he got on a segregated buss and sat down on the next stop an elderly black lady got on the buss.there were no seats left so my uncle stood up and offered her his seat she was afraid but bob made her sit in the seat.the buss driver pulled over to confront uncle bob this was a foolish move on the drivers part as uncle bob dropped him with an over hand right to the jaw.he kicked this man in the ass all the way back to his seat and told him to drive the buss or bob would beat him like a rented mule and drive the buss him self.none of the passengers or driver would look at bob for the rest of the ride.any of you think you would have the nerve to do this in 1942?
We owe something to extravagance, for thrift and adventure seldom go hand in hand.
When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.
Human beings have an inalienable right to invent themselves.
you don’t have to brush all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep.
Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I’m doing.
My mother loved children—she would have given anything if I had been one.
This is the challenge of writing. You have to be very emotionally engaged in what you?re doing, or it comes out flat. You can?t fake your way through this.
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
A tactical retreat is not a bad response to a surprise assault, you know. First you survive. Then you choose your own ground. Then you counterattack.
Above all things, never be afraid. The enemy who forces you to retreat is himself afraid of you at that very moment.
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.
The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life.
The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath.
Good habits, which bring our lower passions and appetites under automatic control, leave our natures free to explore the larger experiences of life.
Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it’s important.
It?s like your batteries get low, and you need to charge them on someone else?s story.
Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.
Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
If there is one thing worse than being an ugly duckling in a house of swans, it’s having the swans pretend there’s no difference.
I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me they are wonderful things for other people to go on.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.
Where we have strong emotions, we’re liable to fool ourselves.
Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Sometimes you can’t see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others.
To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die.
The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.
If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.
There’s always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.
Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon… the two most beautiful words in the English language.
You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.
When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure.
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.
Having a holiday weekend without a family member felt like putting on a sweater that had an extra arm.
I don’t think about risks much. I just do what I want to do. If you gotta go, you gotta go.
...happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health.
You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at once.
I have often wished I had time to cultivate modesty… But I am too busy thinking about myself.
Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up.
It’s the soul’s duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.
There?s so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets?
In an industrial society which confuses work and productivity, the necessity of producing has always been an enemy of the desire to create.
What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis is alive?
There’s so much pollution in the air now that if it weren’t for our lungs there’d be no place to put it all.
Liberals are very broadminded: they are always willing to give careful consideration to both sides of the same side.
[M]aybe the most any of us can expect of ourselves isn’t perfection but progress.
If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches.
The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.
Health consists of having the same diseases as one’s neighbors.
Looks are part of business. A businessman should never stand out more than his customers. His mannerisms, his clothes, everything about him… Moderation is the key.
The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States.
You never find yourself until you face the truth.
A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.
You can learn as much - or more - from one glance at a private space as you can from hours of exposure to a public face.
Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.
When we got into office, the thing that surprised me the most was that things were as bad as we’d been saying they were.
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Talking with you is sort of the conversational equivalent of an out of body experience.
I was not a child prodigy, because a child prodigy is a child who knows as much when it is a child as it does when it grows up.
If our early lessons of acceptance were as successful as our early lessons of anger, how much happier we would all be.
Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money.
I feel very strongly that change is good because it stirs up the system.
Anyone who has gumption knows what it is, and anyone who hasn’t can never know what it is. So there is no need of defining it.
It really doesn’t matter if the person who hurt you deserves to be forgiven. Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. You have things to do and you want to move on.
Whatever you fear most has no power - it is your fear that has the power.
Humor is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law?
It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.
Nothing is as certain as that the vices of leisure are gotten rid of by being busy.
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.
We are made to persist. That’s how we find out who we are.
I hope that when I die, people say about me, ‘Boy, that guy sure owed me a lot of money.’
If we fall, we don’t need self-recrimination or blame or anger - we need a reawakening of our intention and a willingness to recommit, to be whole-hearted once again.
Intimacy is being seen and known as the person you truly are.
I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another.
As I get older, I’ve learned to listen to people rather than accuse them of things.
The most beautiful adventures are not those we go to seek.
The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.
Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.
No matter what I do, no matter how predictable I try to make my life, it will not be any more predictable than the rest of the world. Which is chaotic.
July 28 at 8:33 am | #1 | Link
Dear Cliff,
I have read with great interest your comments on Davis. I have also sent e-mails to Rush and Hannity. Amazing how silent they have been. Even the bold and aggressive Savage and Levin, to the best of my knowledge, have totally ignored this story. Only Worldnetdaily and Townhall seem to have picked up on your story. Have you directly notified Levin, Coulter, Savage, O’Reilly and company? I wonder if they paid any attention to your press conference. I can understand Fox News blanking it out with Murdock being a democrat sympathizer (I guess he sees consevative talking heads as just another profit center and throws in the clown Alan Combs as a joker). But Levin and Savage—what on earth is going on there???