UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM
Please note that a recent commenter (on WHY OUR NATION IS SLOWLY GROWING MORE AND MORE ALARMED), Kaleokualoha, appears to be Mark Kaleokualoha Davis. Apparently Mark Kaleokualoha Davis is the son of Frank Marshall Davis. I have no easy way of verifying if such is true. Nonetheless, the fellow has been busy defending the reputation of his alleged father. In this day and age, when an interesting rumor can circle the globe in days, that would be an undeniably difficult task.
I guess that is just one more reason to carefully verify the content of anything you care to email, post, or say.
My first reaction to Kaleokualoha was to assert there is nothing I could do about his problem. That, I decided upon reflection, is not entirely true. So I posted the relevant portion of his comment.
In my continuing campaign to fight AIM’s disinformation campaign against Frank Marshall Davis, I am still amazed at the willingness of bloggers to repeat and even amplify falsehoods from others, in a virtual game of gossip. AIM’s initial falsehoods about Davis are like “Curveball’s” initial falsehoods about Iraqi mobile weapons labs. The Intelligence Community rejected Curveball’s fabricated claims just as mainstream media rejected AIM’s fabricated claims about Davis. Empirical evidence proved the Iraqi threat was misrepresented, just as empirical evidence proves AIM’s claims were fabricated.
As a fair-minded thinker, you may be interested in this cordial exchange between myself and Max Friedman, Cliff Kincaid’s researcher: http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/2009/05/31/judge-sonia-sotomayor-and-singing-sensation-susan-boyle/#comment-13017. Only the last few comments pertain to this situation. Please note that Max agreed to follow through with Cliff Kincaid regarding the specific misrepresentation I had identified in June. Not a peep was heard from him since then.
Let us evaluate the empirical evidence with dispassionate objectivity, rather than accepting unsubstantiated accusations and deliberate misrepresentation from pundits of questionable integrity. If intellectual engagement and sincere substantive discussions in the pursuit of truth are the goals of your blog as a rational conservative, I welcome the opportunity for cordial debate with you and your readers. Thanks!
For proof of AIM deception regarding just one incident, please read http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/Kaleokualoha/gG5kN7
For my broad analysis of such disinformation, please read
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/Kaleokualoha/gGxdvX“The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth.” – William O. Douglas (from here)
Here is an example of the information spread by Accuracy in the Media, Obama’s Communist Mentor. Which is the truth? I don’t know, and I do not have enough incentive to investigate. All I can say is that if you have occasion to say anything about Frank Marshall Davis, his son, or anybody else, please verify your sources. Presume innocence before guilt.
UPDATE
In this post, WHY OUR NATION IS SLOWLY GROWING MORE AND MORE ALARMED, I did say I would investigate accusations against Obama. So I decided to see what was out there with respect to Frank Marshall Davis’ tutlelage of President Obama.
- FoxNews did some research, Radical Political Communist. What is interesting here is that Obama apparently had references to Davis removed from later versions of his book.
- The Telegraph (UK) did an article, Barack Obama: The making of America’s first black president.
- So did the Washington Times, Poet advised young Obama.
Nonetheless, Accuracy in the Media’s, Obama’s Communist Mentor, seems to be just about the earliest reference to this matter. There is an earlier piece in Political Affairs Magazine, which is also not exactly a mainstream publication, that contains this excerpt.
When these sources are explored, I think scholars of the future will be struck by, for example, the response in Honolulu when tens of thousands of workers went on strike when labor and CP leaders were convicted of Smith Act violations in 1953 – a response totally unlike the response on the mainland. Of course 98% of these workers were of Asian-Pacific ancestry, which suggests that scholars have also been derelict in analyzing why these workers were less anti-communist than their Euro-American counterparts. In any case, deploring these convictions in Hawaii was an African-American poet and journalist by the name of Frank Marshall Davis, who was certainly in the orbit of the CP – if not a member – and who was born in Kansas and spent a good deal of his adult life in Chicago, before decamping to Honolulu in 1948 at the suggestion of his good friend Paul Robeson. Eventually, he befriended another family – a Euro-American family – that had migrated to Honolulu from Kansas and a young woman from this family eventually had a child with a young student from Kenya East Africa who goes by the name of Barack Obama, who retracing the steps of Davis eventually decamped to Chicago. In his best selling memoir ‘Dreams of my Father’, the author speaks warmly of an older black poet, he identifies simply as “Frank” as being a decisive influence in helping him to find his present identity as an African-American, a people who have been the least anticommunist and the most left-leaning of any constituency in this nation – though you would never know it from reading so-called left journals of opinion. At some point in the future, a teacher will add to her syllabus Barack’s memoir and instruct her students to read it alongside Frank Marshall Davis’ equally affecting memoir, “Living the Blues” and when that day comes, I’m sure a future student will not only examine critically the Frankenstein monsters that US imperialism created in order to subdue Communist parties but will also be moved to come to this historic and wonderful archive in order to gain insight on what has befallen this complex and intriguing planet on which we reside. (from Rethinking the History and Future of the Communist Party)
The Liberal Media had little to say about the matter. That is the point made in this American Thinker article, Dreams from Frank Marshall Davis. I suppose that indifference is the main thing we should be concerned about. We have elected a man with little executive experience to be president. Since his election that man has proceeded on an agenda that surprised and frightened many of the people who voted for him. Why did they vote for him? Much of the corporate news media never thoroughly examined this man’s background.
The preceding posts sound like one of those series posts that are used to infect blogs with bots. What will be next, some sort of Nigerian plea for banking services? Who the heck cares if Obama’s pals were Commies or not? He is President for at least the next three years, and the smart people will be finding ways to work with his Administration to move our nation forward than always fomenting hatred for him or his initiatives. Don’t like the Democrats’ ideas? Let’s hear some affirmative alternatives from the Republicans…if there are any.
We have a special election in the 37th and 8th Districts that will be held on January 12, 2010.
OK everyone, get back to reality.
http://www.flemingforstatesenate.org
http://www.marsdenforsenate.com
J. Tyler Ballance – Kaleokualoha posted on Obama’s campaign website. You appear to be boosting two Democrats, but you don’t care. Democrats are suppose to care, but you want to be smart. You want to “work” to with an administration intent upon robbing Peter to pay Paul. Everyone else is fomenting hatred, has no ideas, and needs to get back to reality.
Interesting strategy. Theivery is merely an idea, and joining with the theives is smart. Yeah. Sure.
If you get in bed with such people, what you will mostly get is trouble. Sooner or latter, they will rob you too.
Thanks for your thoughtful consideration, which is more than I expect from many other websites. Some bloggers have open minds, whereas others only read material that reinforces their biases.
I am considering opening a blog on a non-partisan website, perhaps even hypocrisy.com, to further document the disinformation campaign against the Obama-Davis relationship. It would contain my original posts from 2008, along with updates outlining 2009 developments pertaining to this issue. This blogsite seems especially appropriate considering AIM’s purported commitment to “Fairness, Balance and Accuracy In News Reporting.” AIM’s hypocrisy is immediately apparent in its false reports on the 1949 Honolulu NAACP incident documented at http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/Kaleokualoha/gG5kN7.
You are correct that the AIM launched the American offensive against my father. Trevor Loudon’s New Zealand blog actually wrote the first “mentor” piece, but Cliff Kincaid exploded it throughout the Internet.
I still invite any person of integrity to examine, and refute if possible, my evidence of Cliff Kincaid’s “specific misrepresentation” against my father. In the year and half since I entered the fray, nobody has refuted any of the evidence I presented at http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/Kaleokualoha/gGxdvX . I’m sure there must be some errors somewhere, because nobody is perfect.
I am puzzled, however, by your statement “What is interesting here is that Obama apparently had references to Davis removed from later versions of his book.” I bought the update version of “Dreams” in 2008, and references to my father were clear. I knew nothing of his relationship with Obama until 2008.
Thanks again, and Happy New Year!
“Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.” – Immanuel Kant
Kaleokualoha – If Cliff Kincaid is slandering and libeling your father, why don’t you take him to court and sue him?
The FoxNews link I mentioned, Radical Political Communist, says that Obama apparently had references to Davis removed from later versions of his book. In this clip, Sean Hanity interviews a book author. I guess you can sue that guy too.
Unfortunately, estates of the deceased cannot sue for slander in the United States. It should be easy to confirm or refute those deletions at almost any bookstore.
Kaleokualoh – The legal statutes vary by state (see here and here). Some actually do allow the estates of the deceased to sue. Most, however, do not. So I will take your word for it.
Unless you want to buy Obama’s book (I would much rather read something else.), thoroughly checking FoxNews’ claim is more work than I have time for. In any event the version of the book Fox refers to is abridged (New York: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (May 3, 2005); Audio CD; ISBN 0-7393-2100-5; Includes the senator’s speech from the 2004 Democratic National Convention). By definition, something had to be left out. Making a stink about stuff being left out of an abridged book is idiotic, particularly when they did not bother to mention that the book was abridged.
Over the years, I have become skeptical of anything the news media says and writes. These people cannot be trusted any more than the politicians they cover. So it is that the problem I have with Obama has relatively little to do with Fox News. My problem with Obama is what the people Obama associates with have said. My problem is with Obama himself. The policies he advocates reek of busybody socialism. The man is power hungry, and he lies.
Was Frank Marshall Davis a bad influence on Obama? I don’t know. Since Davis is dead, my preference is to let the dead rest in peace. All I will say is that the first man to level the accusation against Davis thought it praise. That man was Gerald Horne (also here), and I find odd you don’t seem to have a beef with him.
My father was no angel, and I have no quarrel with good faith historical reporting, especially when supported by primary source evidence. The canons of responsible journalism require evidence for every claim, such as quotations from Obama’s book. By this standard, I do not believe that Horne misrepresented the Davis-Obama relationship. In accordance with “Dreams,” Horne stated that Davis had a “decisive influence in helping him to find his present identity as an African-American.”
The AIM disinformation campaign, however, consisted of a series of small lies fabricated to support the big lie that my father’s “values, passed on to Obama, were those of a communist agent who pledged allegiance to Stalin” (see http://www.aim.org/aim-column/media-excuse-obamas-false-advertising). Such speculation is misrepresented as fact by AIM, in total violation of ethical journalism standards.
There is no evidence that my father’s values were those of a communist agent, nor that he “passed” such values to Obama. There is no evidence that he was Stalinist (as claimed by AIM), or that he even advocated communism; on the contrary, he even criticized Stalin in writing in his poetry. According to Professor Tidwell, THESE were the “radical” goals of Frank Marshall Davis:
(1) integration of armed forces
(2) integration of AFL and CIO
(3) fair wages and other benefits for workers
(4) general dismantling of all laws supporting racial segregation
(5) end to laws supporting anti-Semitism
(6) end to atomic warfare
(7) rights for soldiers in combat zones to vote in national elections
(8) support for Fair Employment Practices Act
(9) support for a broad United Nations (not just US and Great Britain
forming a world power union)
(10) end to restrictive covenants in real estate
Because most of these are now mainstream attitudes, it should be apparent that Frank Marshall Davis wasn’t out of line. He was just ahead of his time.
BTW: Professor Tidwell confirms my identity as Davis’s son at http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/Kaleokualoha/gGx9n3
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” – Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)
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