The good Reverend.

"Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home. Barack was," Wright says in a video of the sermon posted on YouTube. "Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary! Hillary ain't never been called a 'nigger!' Hillary has never had her people defined as a non-person."

It is true that Hillary Clinton was never raised by her single white mother and two white grandparents after her black father left them. Do these early ears of Obama's life make him distinctively more qualified to be President? According to Reverand Wright's many sermons, women have never faced adversity, discrimination, and have never been treated as less than human or as property. Apparently being raised by a single white mother should make Obama more aware of black suffering, but still completely ignorant and callous to the struggles and difficulties that face women, and particularly mothers, in this country; if his spiritual mentor for the past 20 years is correct.

We've seen Barack Obama align himself with homophobic, hatemongering evangelicals during this primary campaign. We've seen unprecedented numbers of our nation’s top Black religious leaders come out in support of his candidacy because they feel that Obama has dedicated his public life to living the values of his faith outside of his house of worship. Obama toured South Carolina with Donnie McClurkin, a self-proclaimed "former homosexual" who believes it is his mission to turn gays straight. Later, Obama denounced McClurkin's anti-gay sentiments only after concerned liberals began to take notice, sound familiar?

In Obama's video address to America regarding his minister's controversial sermons, he claims that if something is found to be "offensive" to the listener, he denounces it. Is this a new kind of politics? Has the projection of the kind of hope and change we'd like to see in this country really gone so far that we will forgive him of all guilty associations as he allows us to fill in the blank of what he would denounce based on our personal views?

Obama has a close and personal relationship with this pastor and has said so himself countless times over the course of this campaign and his political career. He has been an active member of this church for 20 years and refers to Reverend Wright as an uncle. The Reverend married Barack and Michelle and has served as a spiritual advisory to Barack during this campaign. Videos and transcripts of these controversial sermons are proudly offered for sale by the church and are displayed on the UCC's website for easy viewing. As such it is insulting that Obama expects American voters to swallow the idea that he had NO knowledge of the kind of sexist, racist, Anti-American and antisemitic things that were preached and practiced repeatedly by this pastor and celebrated by the congregation.

Sorry Senator Obama, unlike your doubletalk with NAFTA, throwing women and gays under a bus to get the evangelical support, abandonment of core party principles and constituents, THIS is not going to go away just because you try to gloss it over with a distracting "full assault" on Hillary Clinton and her tax returns.

Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson also responded sharply, saying much of the Clinton tax returns over the last several years have been made public already.

"I would point out there are 20 years of the Clinton tax returns in the public record, and as far as I am aware, there is one year of Senator Obama's tax returns in the public record — 2006," he said. "I would ask the Obama campaign if he or they are prepared to release all of his taxes when he was in elected office, so far the answer to that has been no."

Sex, shame and solidarity.

Is there really so little going on in the World that Eliot Spitzer's sexual affairs should be dominating the news broadcasts? Maybe something like a war, or an economic recession? Who am I kidding, nothing makes for better news than a respected democrat leader caught with his pants down.

Prostitution is illegal in New York and I believe the negative attention he receives for knowingly breaking a law (which he dedicated much of his career to enforcing) is justified. That being said, I find the "sex scandal" that is erupting on news broadcasts, websites and blogs disheartening. While I would not expect the Main Stream Media to direct its focus on either the rights and wellbeing of sex workers or the exploitation of women, I am disappointed that the "story" is being made of his wife's reaction or lack thereof.

I am appalled that it should come to be an issue whether or not a wife (or husband) would publicly stand beside their partner when apologizing for adultery. This has even become a point of contention amongst Democrats as some feel that Hillary Clinton's continued relationship with her husband was a "let down" for women across the country. Personally, I feel that women are "let down" when they let their lives and their relationships become a commodity. I feel that women are "let down" when they are publicly scrutinized for their private relationships of which we know next to nothing about. I feel that women AND men are let down when we encourage and support the concept of sexual ownership. I feel that America is let down when people can't define their own relationships, goals, expectations and sexuality.

Mostly, I just feel like shouting "WHO THE HELL CARES?!" off of my rooftop. Maybe someday this sort of public scandal will be used a spring board to discuss human trafficking, male privilege or sex workers rights... maybe in Europe.