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This article appears in the July 30, 2010 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
OBAMA IN THE BUNKER

The White House Is On a Jim Crow Binge

by Jeffrey Steinberg

[PDF version of this article]

July 26—On July 23, Lyndon LaRouche strongly denounced President Barack Obama and his top "Chicago gang" White House aides for practicing Jim Crow racism. LaRouche cited the firing of U.S. Department of Agriculture official and civil rights activist Shirley Sherrod, and Obama's support for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's targeting of leading African-American Congressman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), as the latest evidence that the President "has revived Jim Crow racism at the White House."

"Not since Woodrow Wilson embraced the Ku Klux Klan and reinstituted segregation throughout the Federal government, has a U.S. President been so blatant in his racism," LaRouche declared. "Between the White House-ordered firing of Shirley Sherrod, and the move to oust Rangel from the House of Representatives, it is getting more and more obvious that President Obama intends to exert dictatorial control over the African-American vote, and that the only African-Americans he wishes to see in the U.S. Congress, and in other important elected positions, are Uncle Toms who will bow to his every command. Those who refuse to go along with President Obama are targeted for attack. This is as wild a Jim Crow binge as I have ever seen."

LaRouche was not alone in his stern denunciation of President Obama's flight into racism. Clayborne Carson, the director of the MLK Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, was quoted July 23 in Salon magazine, on the firing of Sherrod:

"This is a symbol of something much larger: On civil liberties issues, he's just lost it. Nobody should ever be dismissed from a position for something they're saying on Fox [TV]. As a matter of principle, you don't fire someone without some kind of internal due process and investigation. But this is an administration that can order the assassination of an American citizen. It's disappointing to say the least."

The "assassination" reference was precise. Obama has expanded the government's authority to target international terrorists, to include American citizens. This is in line with his thorough embrace of the previous Bush-Cheney Administration's assertion of unconstitutional "unitary executive" powers, to conduct surveillance on American citizens, without court approval, and to trample on the Constitutional checks and balances system.

In his harsh critique of Obama, Carson noted that Charles Sherrod, the husband of the defamed USDA official, was a founder of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s, serving as the first field secretary of that civil rights organization. In that capacity, Charles Sherrod fought to integrate the organization, when some radical factions promoted a Black Nationalist dogma. He remains a leading civil rights activist to this day.

While the White House ordered Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to lie for the President, and to claim it was his decision, alone, to fire Sherrod for remarks she made at an NAACP conference that were distorted beyond recognition by a notorious right-wing pundit, and by Fox-TV, Sherrod, herself, has repeatedly told reporters that the call she received, ordering her to resign, came from a White House official, not from anyone at the Agriculture Department.

In fact, Jim Messina, one of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's two top lieutenants, boasted in front of reporters, on the morning of the Sherrod firing, that the Administration had done a top-notch job of damage control on the story. Messina is the same operative who offered former Colorado Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff an administration job, if he would drop his campaign for the U.S. Senate nomination against incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.

Senior Democratic Party officials have charged that Emanuel is running a White House "plumbers unit," engaged in a campaign to force Congressional Democrats and party officials to toe the line set down by Team Obama. According to one source, Emanuel might have already left the White House, were it not for the fact that he fears criminal prosecution for some of the Administration's antics.

White House Targets Rangel

LaRouche cited the Pelosi-led and Obama-ordered assault on Rep. Charles Rangel, as yet another example of the Obama White House targeting of African-American elected officials who don't toe the Obama line:

"Congressman Rangel is one of the last of the FDR Democrats in the House, and that is something that the President cannot tolerate. I have been informed, by reliable sources in Washington, that Speaker Pelosi is working, behind Rangel's back, to divide the Congressional Black Caucus, and force them to betray their colleague, to stay in the good graces of the White House. This, I find disgusting."

LaRouche also noted that, during the 2008 Presidential primaries, and in the November general elections, the Obama campaign was accused of voter intimidation, particularly targeting African-Americans thought to be voting for rival candidates.

"This is yet another example of Jim Crow at its worst. Deploying hooligans to threaten and intimidate African-Americans, particularly the elderly, is a throwback to the worst from the Deep South. Weren't these practices outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965? Perhaps someone should send Mr. Obama back to law school for a refresher course."

Obama Has To Go

LaRouche has warned, repeatedly, since his now-famous April 11, 2009 international webcast, that President Obama is a dangerous narcissist—like Emperor Nero—who must be removed from office, for the good of the country, and for his own mental health.

In recent weeks, Obama has gone over the edge, and is in a "Hitler in the bunker" state of mind. This is not just LaRouche's evaluation. The Obama actions against both Sherrod and Rangel have put the President's paranoia on public display, according to one senior U.S. intelligence official: "Obama is so paranoid, he is only watching Fox News. Every Obama decision is being impacted by his critics. The bungling of the Sherrod affair is the first public display of absolutely irrational behavior on the part of the President and his inner circle."

According to another source close to the Obama White House, the repercussions of the Sherrod debacle are spreading.

"The White House has lost its vise-grip control over the Democratic Party. They have lost the support of a core group of their liberal constituents, who are furious over the Sherrod affair and the clear White House hand behind the betrayal of Charlie Rangel."

According to this source, top White House officials, and the President himself, are convinced that there is a concerted attack on their entire political apparatus.

"First, ACORN was gone after, and, effectively dismantled. Then, the Department of Justice revelations about the New Black Panther Party, and its voter intimidation acts, on behalf of the Obama campaign in 2008. Now, there are Democrats coming out with new accusations."

All of this is feeding the "Hitler in the bunker" mentality. As LaRouche reiterated this week,

"The President has to be removed from office, before the end of September, if the United States is going to survive. He is a failed personality, and he just cannot face the reality of the job. For the good of the country, and for Mr. Obama's own mental health, he must be safely and Constitutionally replaced."

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