totally random musing...

... So I have listened to a lot of right wingers talking of how Obama's White House holds an awful lot of communist/socialist sympathizers and they have been attacked relentlessly for publicizing that view. Mike Church of Sirius Patriot Radio has been calling Obama "Chairman Mao-Bama" for as long as I have been listening to his program (over a year) and a lot of people get angry about it. But then in the past couple of weeks there has been a lot of press over how the White House's Anita Dunn (Communications Director) has singled out Fox News as an organization that the white house is not impressed with... I don't need to go over that, you've probably seen it. But that has caused many others to look into Dunn's past and I've heard a clip from May this year where Dunn was doing a high school commencement address where she talks of how she looks to Mao and Mother Theresa as her two favorite political philsophers. I get Mother Theresa - but MAO? She spoke at length about him and was nearly gushing about his views - he was the leader of the Communist Party of China, held widely responsible for the deaths of up to 50 million people under his regime (famine, etc).

So here is a White House senior official who quotes Mao as being one of her 2 favorites, and she said something like she reads his works nearly every day. There are other instances like this for other senior officials that I have heard over the past year but I'm afraid my brain cannot come up with their names and affiliations right now. But Anita Dunn is fresh in our minds and I thought it was worth a little post... just for your own thoughts and ponderings.

**I read Dunn's response to this recent criticism this morning but I still don't get it - she said her statement was intended as irony, but seems to think that excuses her. Yes, it is ironic that she coupled Mao with Mother Theresa, yes it is ironic that an American in politics thinks of Mao often and lists him as one of her two favorite philosophers... but so? It's ironic, but that doesn't mean she doesn't believe it. She says she took her words from a former Republican, and the CNN article goes on to list other republicans who have used Mao quotes, but did they list him as their fave? Did they say they think of him and read his works almost every day? What is the point of her 'response'? I did not hear the clip on Glenn Beck but I have seen a lot of reports to say he purposefully edited the clip but I have yet to hear 'the rest' that was supposedly cut or edited to show anything different, to show us that she didn't really mean what she said, to show that anything was taken out of context.... I just keep hearing and reading the same clip over and over no matter the news source. So what was purposefully done here? Anything? And as for the CNN report references to past people quoting Mao - is there a difference between quoting something he said, and directly saying you hold him as a fave? I've even read a couple of Left-leaning blogs today that expressed concern over Dunn's comments - citing that if she was talking about his determinism and strength, there are plenty of other less-controversial people to use as an example and they seemed flumoxed as well by her remarks, citing that she said he is one "she turns to most".