It appears that the racist pastor at St. Sabina in Chicago - Michael Pfleger - may be facing a demotion he's not prepared to take. While appearing on a radio show with Tavis Smiley and avowed Marxist Cornell West, Pfleger said he's being pushed aside to teach at a Catholic high school instead of being allowed to retain his pastor status at St. Sabina.
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, the embattled pastor of Chicago's St. Sabina Catholic Church, told radio show hosts Tavis Smiley and Cornel West this weekend that he would look outside the Catholic Church if offered no other choice but to work at a Catholic high school.
Pfleger also said on the "Smiley & West" public radio program that he had been banned from speaking at events in the archdiocese and blamed pressure from conservative Catholics and the National Rifle Association for his most recent clash with Chicago's Cardinal Francis George.
"I want to try to stay in the Catholic Church," Pfleger said. "If they say 'You either take this principalship of (Leo High School) or pastorship there or leave,' then I'll have to look outside the church. I believe my calling is to be a pastor. I believe my calling is to be a voice for justice. I believe my calling is to preach the Gospel. In or out of the church, I'm going to continue to do that."
Good riddance. Hats off to the Catholic church on this one but they should have acted much sooner. Nonetheless, if Pfleger is right about conservative Catholics leaning on the Cardinal, that may be the best part of this story.
Look, the Birth Certificate questions surrounding Barack Obama continue to be caused by those on the left who engage in the debate. The story had been reduced to embers before Hawaii's Democrat governor Neal Abercrombie whipped out the proverbial bellows and got the debate raging again. After Abercrombie came up empty and with egg on his face, Donald Trump threw another log on the fire and voila. What's interesting now is an argument posited by a Hawaiian official who says that the state of Hawaii NEVER releases long form Birth Certificates, not even to the people whose birth they represent.
Over at MSNBC, Michael Isikoff has a post in which Dr. Chiyome Fukino, Hawaii's former Director of that state's Department of Health not only insists that she's seen it but knows exactly where it is:
The first is that the original so-called "long form" birth certificate — described by Hawaiian officials as a "record of live birth" — absolutely exists, located in a bound volume in a file cabinet on the first floor of the state Department of Health. Fukimo said she has personally inspected it — twice. The first time was in late October 2008, during the closing days of the presidential campaign, when the communications director for the state's then Republican governor, Linda Lingle (who appointed Fukino) asked if she could make a public statement in response to claims then circulating on the Internet that Obama was actually born in Kenya.
So it's in a filing cabinet in a bound folder on the first floor of the Health Department building. Here is the corresponding video:
Notice that Isikoff says that for this 'conspiracy' to continue, Dr. Fukino would have to be lying. Well, is it possible that she was lying about who can and cannot see original, long form Birth Certificates? It appears so. If Fukimo is to be believed, no one has access to any original long form Birth Certificates except the Health Department. Toward the end of the MSNBC article, Issikoff identifies Joshua Wisch as a spokesman for the Hawaii attorney general's office. Here's what Isikoff writes about Wisch:
Wisch, the spokesman for the attorney general's office, said state law does not in fact permit the release of "vital records," including an original "record of live birth" — even to the individual whose birth it records.
World Net Daily (before you scoff) has an article posted today in which several long form Birth Certificates have been copied and are available for viewing. Seriously, regardless of where you come down on this issue, the latest attempt to diffuse this controversy seems highly suspect. Even if you dismiss these claims, the images of the multiple long form Birth Certificates don't lie. Fukino should have to explain this disparity.
It would appear that Dr. Fukino may have stepped in it worse than Governor Abercrombie. Ruh Roh.
This is quite the interesting tack Donald Trump is taking with respect to aggressively going after Barack Obama. Trump singlehandedly resurrected the Birther issue to the point that Obama adviser David Plouffe had to deal with it on the Sunday shows. Now, Trump is going after Obama's relationship with Tony Rezko. In addition to schooling the Republicans on how to actually fight, Trump is shining a spotlight on the Rezko relationship right as Blago's retrial is set to begin.
President Obama “never did a deal in his life except with Tony Rezko,” said Donald Trump on Fox News.
“People should look into that one,” he added.
In 2005, Rezko’s wife bought a lot adjacent to a house Obama purchased for $625,000 and subsequently sold a part of it to Obama. The deal generated much controversy back in Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Trump went on to say that the President of the United States needs to be able to “deal properly” – something he said Obama isn’t able to do because the latter “never did a deal in his life except with Tony Rezko” before assuming the presidential office in January 2009.
The retrial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is scheduled for April 20th. The timing and choice of Trump's attack on the Obama / Rezko relationship is interesting because Rezko's testimony had been eagerly anticipated by many who followed the first trial. Rezko never did testify but highlighting his name at this point should at least add to the discussion of that possibility in the retrial.
