member for 32 weeks 1 day
After you read this post you might find yourself asking, “Boy Beautymark, you really went to a lot of effort to make a point.” To which I would say, yes, indeed I did. But I just couldn’t bear to think that people out there might believe the baseless claims that were made against Barack Obama last week by a fellow AlphaWoman.
I also didn’t feel comfortable with the insinuation that his alleged Muslim faith or Arabic ethnicity tied him to terrorism. Despite the fact that Obama is not my candidate of choice, the whole thing really bothered me, and I felt compelled to do something about it.
So here it is…
In a recent Alpha post titled “Profile in Cowardice: Barak Hussain Obama”, Seshat65 made claims regarding the ethnic background of senator Obama. Even though Seshat insisted that she was not the author of the post, she specified that she agreed “100%” with the entirety of its content.
I was particularly skeptical of the replies to my criticism of the original post that suggested Obama's father was born in Saudi Arabia not Kenya, and that Obama himself was not African American because he wasn't a descendant of an African or of Africans who used to be slaves-a claim that I also thought was nonsensical.
Seshat pointed out that these alleged “facts” discredited much of Obama’s platform which focuses on his ability to advocate on behalf of African Americans. I thought that if Seshat’s claims were true, she might have somewhat of a point, so I asked her to cite her sources.
In a long drawn out back and forth waste of time, I got nothing but a journalist's name "Gene Healy" and the title of Seshat's blog which was "A Profile in Cowardice: Barak Hussain Obama" which led to a post that was in fact written by Gene Healy entitled just "A Profile in Cowardice" -a piece written about Joe Biden that was quoted in its entirety at the end of Seshats blog.
I concluded that since Seshat wasn’t much help in citing her own source of information regarding the claims made about Obama's heritage, I’d just go straight to the source. I googled “contact Gene Healy.” I was brought to the CATO Institute, which is “a non-profit public policy research foundation headquartered in Washington, D.C.” Gene Healy is the Vice President of the CATO Institute. I saw a “Contact Us” tab, clicked it, filled out the nature of my inquiry, and wrote:
"I recently read a blog post by Nannette LeRee Hernandez who credits Gene Healy with writing an article that “proves” Barack Obama's father was from Saudi Arabia. I can't seem to find it, and Ms. Hernandez has not been able to provide it. Can you direct me to find the article or can you provide me with a statement to show that it is not true? You can read the post for yourself."
http://alphawomen.com/career/profile-cowardice-bar...
About an hour later I received an e-mail from none other than Gene Healy himself and this is what he said:
"Ms. Graham: I don't know anything about this. Whoever posted it has taken an article I did write for National Review online about Joe Biden (It starts "In Friday's presidential debate on foreign policy (assuming the show still goes on),"), and tacked it on to the end of a loony rant about Obama's heritage, which I DID NOT write and am not remotely interested in. Here's the original piece http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmJjNzk5YTRmN...
The person suggesting that I wrote anything about Obama's ethnic background is lying."
If anyone is interested in fact checking this information, in case you don’t want to take my word for it, feel free to go to http://www.cato.org/people/healy.html then go to “Contact Us” and ask for yourself.
This is a fine example showing that you can’t believe everything you read. Happy fact checking to us all!!
Comments
Login or register to post a commentLet this be a lesson to us
Let this be a lesson to us all that when you in fact make a claim or "quote" someone, you had better be able to back your arguments with facts. If you can't do that, just admit it is an emotional belief that can't be supported.
Use credible sources and support your arguments and claims with links, sources, authors, videos, books, articles and page numbers. There should be nothing to fear when you are supporting your arguments!
Great Post!
XOXO,
Freda
Founder
www.AlphaWomen.com
"Those Who Say It Can't Be Done Need To Get Out Of The Way Of Those Who Are Doing It!"
Thank you!
Well done, BeautyMark!
I had read the blog and found it so alarming that I didnt reply, I simply 'logged off'.
Your research certainly paid dividends and has also given us all some useful information.
Take care
Speaking of useful
Speaking of useful information, Gene Healy is actually a pretty interesting guy. He is a Libertarian who not only dislikes Obama & Biden, he equally dislikes McCain & Palin! If I were a Palin supporter, I certainly wouldn't cite an anti Palin journalist to prove the opposing candidate was a bad pick.
Healy is a little too "Free Market" happy for me, but he seems pretty sharp to say the least.
"Speak not in the ears of a fool: for she will despise the wisdom of thy
words."
Proverbs 23:9
Excellent post
Thank you, beautymark, for taking the time to write this and for checking the facts directly from the source. Well done.
Namaste,
Suzann
Gene Healy
wrote this article. Al I did was get it off a blog from EXPOSEOBAMA.com, which got it off of CNN.com. I suggest you GET A CLUE. I have repeadly told you that I DID NOT WRITE A WORD OF THIS ARTICLE and that all I did was get it off another blog.
Lastly, this IS NOT the only article ever written about Barak Hussian Obama being MUSLIM. AND I AM THE ONE WHO TOLD YOU TO GO RESEARCH IN THE FIRST PLACE SO much for your 'research'.
I have also contacted the man, GENE HEALY, MYSELF. He has some serious explaining to do. For instance, if he didn't write this, then WHY IS HIS NAME ON IT??? Furthemore, HE IS A WRITER---shouldn't he KNOW if something is floating around that he didn't write, with his name on it? So, I suggest we all wait to hear what he has to say to me, before we jump to any conculsions. If HE didn't write this than it is HIS RESPONSIBILITY to find out who blogged that he did on EXPOSEOBAMA.com. At any rate, I DID NOT write any of the article. I AM 100% PROUD of where I stand on this issue, and 100% SOLID in my own research, and I would NEVER put someone else's name on MY WORK. That is the silliest thing I have ever heard. WRITERS, like Joe Biden, PLAGERIZE from other WRITERS. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A WRITER IN HISTORY, WHO PUT ANOTHER AUTHOR'S NAME ON THEIR WORK. I DESPISE BARAK HUSSIAN OBAMA. MY OPINIONS ARE KNOWN. SO, IF YOU ARE SO OBTUSE AS TO BELIEVE, AFTER EVERYTHING I HAVE POSTED, THAT I WOULD PUT SOME FOOL'S NAME ON MY WORK, THEN YOU HAVE BEEN USING TOO MUCH BEAUTY-GLUE.
"We generate and create in our life, the results that we believe we deserve."
I am posting word for word
I am posting word for word what I wanted you to give citations for. These are not opinions. They are claims that any responsible person would provide reliable sources for. You said that Gene Healy did extensive research on the matter that "Proved" Obama was a descendant of Arabs and that is a lie. There is no way you read such a thing. This is the portion of what you posted that Gene Healy did not write:
"He has no real identity. He is half-white, which he rejects. The rest of him is mostly Arab, which he hides but is disclosed by his non-African Arabic surname and his Arabic first and middle names as a way to triply proclaim his Arabic parentage to people in Kenya.
Only a small part of him is African Black from his Luo grandmother, which he pretends he is exclusively.
What he isn't, not a genetic drop of, is 'African-American,' the descendant of enslaved Africans brought to America chained in slave ships. He hasn't a single ancestor who was a slave.
Instead, his Arab ancestors were slave owners. Slave-trading was the main Arab business in East Africa for centuries until the British ended it.
Let that sink in: Obama is not the descendant of slaves, he is the descendant of slave owners."
You still cannot provide reliable, reputable proof of this information, yet you still believe it.
I have an email from Gene Healy
YOU LIED IN THIS POST. And you have a choice: remove it or GET SUED.
In this post, you copied an email that YOU said Gene Healy sent TO YOU--in this copy, YOU WROTE that he called me a LIAR. HE NEVER DID. In fact, HE TOTALLY DENIES MOST of what YOU POSTED HERE THAT YOU SAY HE EMAILED YOU. I am forwarding HIS EMAIL TO ME, TO FREDA.
Lastly, it is NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY to fact-check who a writer is on something I read on CNN or MSNBC or EXPOSEOBAMA---if some puts a writers name on something HE DIDN'T WRITE, IT IS THE WRITER'S RESPONSIBILITY TO GO AFTER THE ENTITY WHO PUBLISHED THAT HE IS THE AUTHOR.
I count 7 times in my post, where I OVER AND OVER again told you that I DID NOT WRITE THE ARTICLE, that I found it somewhere else. You calling ME A BOLD FACED LIAR, when, if fact, ALL I did was take information that SOMEONE ELSE HAD written, and in which I CONTINUALLT TOLD YOU WAS THE CASE, is more-than-enough for me to haul YOUR LYING BUTT before a jury. Gene Healy DID NOT SAY THAT I WAS A LIAR---YOU ADDED THAT, and THAT MAKES you 100% worse than the fact that I got RELIABLE information in an article about Barak Hussian Obama, ON THE WWW, with Gene's name on it. Whit I did by innocently coping another post and putting it here, with Gene's name on it as I'd found it, is non-culpable, what YOU DID BY DIRECTLY QUOTING FROM AN EMAIL THAT GENE SENT YOU< WHERE YOU SAY HE SAID I WAS A LIAR AND HER DID NOT, IS WHOLLY
CULBABLE.
And GET THIS THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL: someone wrote that article about Barak Hussian Obama. Obviously, when it was posted from EXPOSEOBAMA.com, the RIGHT author didn't get the credit. I HAVE Emailed the site to make them aware of the mistake, so they can give the author credit for their work. So sit tight, Missy. Because you are about to get your BS splashed all over your face.
And next time you post something, I legally suggest that you 1) NOT accuse someone of writing something that thye did not 2) calling them a liar in public, which is LIBEL and which they can prove IS NOT THE CASE.
"We generate and create in our life, the results that we believe we deserve."
Bring it. "Speak not in the
Bring it.
I am not removing one single thing.
Seshat, just be a woman and own up to the fact that you posted something thinking it came from one source which it didn't. It's that simple. Nobody would fault you for that, I am sure it happens often.
I think you may be creating much ado about nothing, but if you want to sue me, (I am laughing right now) go right ahead. Good luck with that one.
And again, Gene Healy's quote does not call you a liar per se, it says, "The person suggesting that I wrote anything about Obama's ethnic background is lying." And I assure you, that is his quote.
I called you a liar because you said you got the original post from TWO of Gene Healy's articles. If that was the case you should be able to find a link to the fake, but I doubt you can, because I doubt it exists. I combed all the sites you mentioned and I did not find any matches.
"Speak not in the ears of a fool: for she will despise the wisdom of thy
words."
Proverbs 23:9
Defensive but no merit
I think we have all figured out that she throws out venum and yet, the truth is lost in her passion. I think feeling badly for her is the best we can do at this point.
Great investigation and I appreciate your blogs. You are educated and calm minded.
I also tried to look up the article she spoke of and you are right, he never wrote such an article. Some people are not savy when it comes to research, others are...Who's to say.
Take care!
Sara
"Dear Ms. Hernandez:
The piece was posted on Alpha Female and at the time, it appeared the entire post was attributed to Gene Healy.
I noticed you posted a disclaimer between the two articles, and it is much appreciated.
I emailed Freda Mooncotch last week simply asking that the proper words be attributed to the correct author, as it appeared he had written the entire piece. You may read his original article here.
Mr. Healy has never made contact, in email or otherwise, with anyone at alphawomen.com, nor did he call you a liar, Ms. Hernandez. I am the only one who has had any contact with anyone from alphawomen.com. Whomever made this public statement regarding you, has lied in their post, and I agree that you should take appropriate legal action.
Christopher Moody
Manager of New Media
The Cato Institute
cmoody@cato.org
(202) 789-5215
"We generate and create in our life, the results that we believe we deserve."
Further Clarification
Thank you for acknowledging that Gene Healy did not write the entire post that was credited to him. That's all I was looking for (and a reputable source for whoever wrote the rest, but that is no longer important to me.)
Christopher is completely correct in that Gene Healy did NOT contact anyone at alphawoman.com. Mr. Healy contacted me directly at my own personal email address, and in the correspondence there was no mention of alphawoman.com. just a link to the post entitled "Profile in Cowardice: Barak Hussian Obama."
Christopher was not part of the correspondence so I am not sure how he would know what Mr. Healy said so I have decided to post the entire email in full, including all personal e-mail addresses, except my own. My initial request was forwarded to Mr. Healy by someone named Leigh Harrington who was also copied to the email.
Gene Healy's email to me:
From: Gene Healy (ghealy@cato.org)
Medium risk You may not know this sender. Mark as safe | Mark as unsafe
Sent:
Thu 10/02/08 6:26 PM
To:
Cc: Leigh Harrington (lharrington@cato.org)
Ms. Graham: I don't know anything about this. Whoever posted it has taken an article I did write for National Review online about Joe Biden (It starts "In Friday's presidential debate on foreign policy (assuming the show still goes on),"), and tacked it on to the end of a loony rant about Obama's heritage, which I DID NOT write and am not remotely interested in. Here's the original piece
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmJjNzk5YTRmN...
0ZTliOTk=
The person suggesting that I wrote anything about Obama's ethnic background is lying.
-----Original Message-----
From: Leigh Harrington
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2008 6:17 PM
To: Gene Healy
Subject: Fw: CONTACT US: Clarification
----- Original Message -----
From: webserver@cato.org
Sent: Thu Oct 02 17:42:48 2008
Subject: CONTACT US: Clarification
I recently read a blog post by Nannett LeRee Hernandez who credits Gene Healy with writing an article that proves Barack Obama's father was from Saudi Arabia. I can't seem to find it, and Ms. Hernandez has not been able to provide it. Can you direct me to find the article or can you
provide me with a statement to show that it is not true? You can read the post for yourself.
http://alphawomen.com/career/profile-cowardice-bar...
Sent by Danielle Graham,
[end of message]
I have nothing to gain by misquoting Gene Healy. I don't even care about Gene Healy. My whole point in engaging in this discussion was purely based on the fact that information posted about Barack's heritage is unfounded.
That is the final word I will write regarding this topic.
Law suit crazy
Hey Beautiful Beauty~~~
Apparently, she is suing me too! How funny! Just thought I would say , "Hey, I am joining the club!" She gets so out of wack and needs to say that she will sue for Libel.
Maybe we should forward on her disgusting comments about political figures and see if they, too, want to sue her!
Sara
Could you imagine if
Could you imagine if everyone who felt that others attacked them in print, especially on blogs sued? Jimmeny Crickets, that would be a litigious world, and I'd be a rich woman! Interestingly, She has a very profound quote as her signature regarding how we create the results we think we deserve-If she believes that is true, she'd have to believe that she has some responsibility in orchestrating what has come her way.
I am not saying I am perfect, or that all of us don't step out of line when emotions get high, but for the most part, many of us see how we invite the stuff that comes our way. The person in question rarely takes the opportunity to self reflect. It's always everyone else who is to blame.
I for one am glad for her presence because she reflects things about me that I dislike the most about myself. Since having her around I have realized how ineffective angry, reactionary blogs are. After my interactions with her I started to realize how my use of ALL CAPS in my responses to her were equally as useless and divisive. I have also found that when I don't engage with her, she doesn't react. I make it a point now to not respond to her posts anymore unless I have something positive to say.
Some people are better at accepting constructive criticism, or even harsh criticism (when it is called for.) In my experience, that is not her strong suit.
I do sense that your hurt feelings have caused you to provoke her more than what is necessary which is why she keeps harassing you. If you ignore her toxic stuff, it goes away. She may have the ability to produce some honey, but if you poke the hive, she'll sting ya...relentlessly, and repeatedly!
That's just my take on it.
And the suing part? Well I don't think I'll be losing much sleep over that one. As I'm sure you won't either. It is a non-issue actually.
"Speak not in the ears of a fool: for she will despise the wisdom of thy
words."
Proverbs 23:9
BeautyMark - You are
BeautyMark - You are incredibly wise! I really appreciate your posts, thoughts and opinions.
Great Post!
XOXO,
Freda
Founder
www.AlphaWomen.com
"Those Who Say It Can't Be Done Need To Get Out Of The Way Of Those Who Are Doing It!"