Editor,

Why hasn’t the Fourth Estate (you) reported the writings of Barack Obama to explain his feeling at home while sitting in the Rev. Wright’s church and listening to his treasonous ravings against our country?

Let me help you out ... from his “Dreams from My Father:” “I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of 12 or13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.” Also from the same book, “I found solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race.” Great, that’s about 75 percent of the country, and how many of those folks voted for him? Or how about: “There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe, and white.” And another gem: “It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.”

Also from “Dreams from My Father,” I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I’d pack all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBoise and Mandella.” But the one that should sicken everyone was in his “The Audacity Of Hope:” “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.” That last quote alone would put any politician on a bus to back home.

Joseph Locasto

San Mateo

The big chess game

Editor,

Have you hear of the very important “Status Of Forces Agreement” now being negotiated between the United States and our puppet government in Iraq? The current SOFA expires at the end of this year. Behind the scenes, Nouri al-Maliki is under tremendous pressure to sign the agreement. Most of the average citizens of Iraq, as well as many members of al-Maliki’s Parliament are vehemently opposed to it. Powerful religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr has called for weekly protests against the agreement, which have filled the streets of Baghdad recently.

You will understand why when you know that the so-called agreement calls for a total of 58 U.S. Military bases in Iraq (There are now about 30), the right to conduct “autonomous military operations” there, the right to “control air space over Iraq up to 30,000 feet,” the right to immunity for U.S. forces from Iraqi laws and other severity destroying caveats.

Naturally, al-Maliki is having a dickens of a time ‘selling’ this agreement to his Parliament and his people. The Bush administration is shooting for mid-summer to have this whole thing wrapped up, so that the next administration will be obligated by its mandates. The approval of our Congress isn’t necessary, we are assured.

Of course, both presidential candidates know about our attempt to gain this dominant control in an important area of the Middle East, but they aren’t saying anything. Too sensitive, you see; might affect “negotiations.” Welcome to the big chess game — the capitalist military-industrial, congressional establishment. And you thought Obama might be our “Savior.” Ha!

Don Havis

San Mateo