His integrity is based on inviting someone who glorified a cop killer? Really? He threw his family preacher of 20 years under the bus when it suited him but he’s kept Common on the show ticket because of integrity. Clearly he is one of our nation’s epic poets and the officers who lost a comrade should defer to his accomplishments for the greater good.
He never glorified a cop killer. Read the rest of the thread.
No he didn’t. He defended him at first. It was only when Wright deliberately stepped up the divisiveness that he denounced him.
Thank you for defining the central dishonesty of this manufactured controversy.
He clearly did and the NJ officers objected to it. What you think doesn’t matter and is a pointless distraction to the reality of the situation. Common is not a renowned poet. He’s not even a poet.
No he didn’t… yes he did…
interesting argument you’re having with yourself. Feel free to cite that the good Reverend made the situation worse when his sermons made the news. In the meantime, I’ll just cite your acknowledgment that Obama threw him under the bus.
No, Obama defended him at first, but then cut ties after Wright amplified his remarks and gave Obama no real choice.
Having said that, Wright didn’t actually say anything all that bad in first place. Most of what he said was true.
You can explain it to the officers who lost a comrade as to why the President saw fit to invite a non-poet to a poetry reading despite their concerns over the insensitivity of it. Sounds like a good political battle to fight.
Threw him under the bus. Fact. Nothing changed to alter his defense of him. Deal with it.
You can’t write a song about how someone is not guilty of murder, and glorify them for murder at the same time.
Common has written and preformed poetry before. He’s a poet.
The officers should explain why none of them complained about Bono, Springsteen, or Bob Dylan going to the White House.
So disinviting Common would’ve been the right thing to do, but disavowing Wright is “throwing him under the bus”?
What bus? That phrase refers to an attempt to make somebody a scapegoat, or make them take the blame for something. It’s not a phrase that has any application to Obama cutting ties with Wright. He wasn’t scapegoating him for anything.
That’s a pretty specious argument to be made about a fugitive. I guess the President could take the time to explain why he invited someone promoting the innocence of a wanted criminal to the people the criminal is accused of murdering. Sounds like a plan.
Cite a book of poetry and then cite some kind of recognition that warrants his appearance at the White House as a poet.
This bus. In Revend Wright’s own words.
Since you don’t think Wright said anything wrong that would make Obama’s actions toward him a cowardly thing to do.
Did bono or Springsteen defend a cop killer? Trying to follow your logic.
The President isn’t going to defend every musician’s discography against everyone that disagrees with a particular song.
The Presidents who invited Dylan, Springsteen, and Bono to the White House did not explain anything to the alleged victims of the convicted murders they wrote songs about.
I don’t know why your standard for a White House appearance is a book and recognition. You can see him perform poetry here. His talent alone warrants his appearance at the White House.
I’d respond to Magiver but any exchange is going to end with his chest thumping and Kool Aid slurping.
This is the stupidest damned issue to come along in Og knows when. It’s a frigging Poetry Reading! How many people would have the remotest clue it had even happened had Fox not gone Angry Darkie- Danger! (ADD) over it. I don’t even think they’d have noticed if they weren’t desperate to find something to combat the “Obama killed Osama” bump.
If anybody should have a right to be offended by Common it’s Obama. Common has spoken against interracial relationships, like, you know, the one Obama was born from. If Obama can overlook that I think the gold folks at Fox can get the hell over something said by a P-O-E-T (a poet for Chrissake- when has one been in the headlines before this guy?) that they took out of context. I have no idea whether Assata Shakur is guilty or not and don’t intend to research it, but the White House has been host to people who believe the world is 6,000 years old and that the Garden of Eden was a real place and in Jackson County, Missouri and that global warming is fake but creationism is real and all other beliefs that are far loopier than anything Common can come up with, and as Stewart observed many of the same people rubbing shit in their hair over Common’s “cop killing” songs (which he never once sang or published a lyric in favor of) are the same people who support assault weapons being sold to the people far more likely to kill cops than a poet.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Having said that, Wright didn’t actually say anything all that bad in first place. Most of what he said was true.
[/QUOTE]
And much was also taken out of context by airing 10 seconds here and 5 seconds there of an hour long sermon. Billy Graham would be talking some wild and crazy shit if you did that.
No one is defending cop killers. Why can’t you see the difference between believing someone is innocent and defending their crimes?
Bono wrote the song “Native Son” about Leonard Peltier. Peltier was convicted of killing two FBI agents.
Springsteen wrote a song about a serial killer. See post 27.
It’s pretty obvious that A Song for Assata is not about a copkiller. So I suggest you either do some basic research or stop making incorrect statements.
Coming from someone whose location is listed as al-Obama, you would be the definition of a Kool-Aid drinker.
Assata Shakur was a Black Liberation Army member convicted in the death of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.
This is not the only reference to a convicted cop killer Common has made in the past. “At another poetry reading, Common said, “flyers say ‘free Mumia’ on my freezer,” a reference to Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.”
Anyone who has ever read the transcripts of that trial knows there were multiple eye witnesses who saw it happen and he was still at the scene of the crime when he was caught because Faulkner managed to wound him before he died.
But what it all comes down to is the WH admits the President doesn’t agree with some of the stuff Common says: “Jay Carney, the White House Secretary, spoke for President Obama on the matter by saying the president does not support, but actually opposes, some of the kind of words and lyrics that have been written by Common and others.”
Given his support for cop killers and the objections by the law enforcement community and the acknowledgment of the President that he disagrees with some of the stuff coming from Common it was a no-brainer to drop this unpublished unaccredited nobody of a poet.