i am amazed at the extent too which so many folks are calling this year's democratic national convention in denver, colorado so life changing, ground breaking, & such a win for the democrats.before you begin to walk away from this post or start thinking of all the things that you want to fire back at me with because you think i'm some die hard conservative i'll let you know up front that i'm not a fan of bush, i voted for barack in the primaries, & i'll most likely vote for him again in november. so this post, while being a week early, applies to not only the DNC, but the RNC too.
i was already sick of the DNC by lunch time on monday. when NPR started interviewing speakers, congress men & women, delegates, etc. i didn't even need to see any more on the big screen. the DNC wasn't like a pep rally, it was a pep rally just for adults (or should i call them sheep)!
during the DNC there wasn't any discussion on the topics, there wasn't a single person that backed up one of their statements with a qualifying or quantifying fact. it was 4-days of commercials & one party beating up on a single man - mccain in this case. of course, mccain & crew will do the same next week to obama.
i was reading eryn's most recent blog post on this topic & i was appalled at how fascinated she was with the speech that clinton gave. it was all a big marketing campaign. i wouldn't call anyone who got up & spoke at the DNC a politician... they were all great actors & sales people in a big commercial with a mission to destroy one man.
i too enjoy a great speech & i think obama can nail them like no other. but i didn't even have the heart or stomach to take any more mccain bashing or goofy marketing messages such as "no way, no how, no mccain." by the team obama finally made an appearance.
this one bugged me too --- yesterday morning NPR interviewed this governor (wish i could remember his name) & he was commenting on how the republicans have run nothing but a smear & fear campaign for the past 8 years & this year the democrats aren't going to let the republicans get away with it. in his very next breath he begins answering a question with a smear against mccain related to him not immediately being able to answer how many houses he owns. he used this goof on mccain's part to suggest that there was no way that mccain can be in touch with the "common" american person because he can't remember how many investment properties he owns. give the dude a break - he's got invest properties & good for him. he's not a dead beat folks! & by the way, neither is obama. if anyone took the time to look at the clinton's yearly earnings, mccain's yearly earnings, & obama's yearly earnings you'd know that they are all earning significantly more money than the "common" american.
count me out of the RNC next week & i'll circle back when mccain & obama are actually talking to each other & debating their points face to face. enough with the one-sided mud slinging 4 day commercial.
8 comments:
today is a great day for the McCain camp and RNC for choosing Gov. Sarah Palin for VP. she was not my first pick for vp nor was McCain for president but together, they will be the winning ticket for '08.
Good for McCain to have 7 houses. Isn't that an American dream to owning property whether it is one, four, forty? The TRUTH is all the houses are owned by Cindy McCain, her children and trusts. Cindy's a classy women and spend years doing great humanitarian (bangalore, rwanda, georgia). Does anyone hear about her work and how she risks her life during the Rwandan crisis. i hope they talk about it more, their two sons in iraq, or their adopted daughter.
i'm concerned more about personal ethics than how many houses a person owns and obama opened up a can of worms by smearing mccain on the his houses. i really hope the media will talk more about how obama bought his $1.65mil house with his shady deal with tony resko who was recently sentenced to 200 yrs for corruption. by smearing mccain on how many houses, a slither of obama's social radical accidentally came out. where did he get his influence from? will we know more about his political start with the help of william ayers. why not talk about his mentor from age 9-18 "frank" in his book and now identified as frank davis (CPUSA member - communist party usa). is it worth noting that obama's mom was very much influenced by socialism from her high school teachers val foubert & jim wichtermann. or how about that obama's father pushed for a socialistic govt in kenya? how much influence did saul alinsky (social radical) have on obama with his "rules of radicals" book? seems like he applies much of the rules of "relative truth" in his campaign. i liked obama early-on but i have read way too much about him to know he's not the candidate for me.
if what you are saying is true i think i'm voting for mccain now paul! holy crap, bring on the real information about character!
this article from the chicago tribune (liberal media) which got me to further explore into obama and his mom's past.(pg 3 of 4, http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0703270151mar27,0,1310554.story?page=3)
ii. (good reading http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=302137342405551
iii. (obama sr.'s critique of Marxist communism in his '65 paper and offer his own ideas for a newer socialism - old or new, it's still socialism: http://sweetness-light.com/archive/barack-obama-sr-a-committed-communist)
iv. (copy of obama sr. '65 paper - you decide: http://www.politico.com/static/PPM41_eastafrica.html)
v. (more commy connections: http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/vernon/080526
vi(a)(talks about obama's mentor as a child: http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-frank-marshall-davis-cover-up-is-over/)
vi (b)(more about davis: http://www.aim.org/aim-column/obamas-communist-mentor/)
Alinsky wrote in his Rules: "An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma. To begin with, he does not have a fixed truth — truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing. He is a political relativist."
i'm no conspiracy theorist nor believe obama's some manchurian candidate. i believe obama loves this country. i focus on the influences that shape his policies. i don't take these articles 100% to be accurate or unbiased but it is worth questioning why it hasn't been in the mainstream media all this time. given the debates are coming up and more political attack ads are to come, sooner or later obama will have to explain all his affiliations as he had to do with his 20 year church affiliation with reverend wright.
I've never been a fan of digging up skeletons of politicians' family members....but since it seems to be a trend, I'm more than happy to jump on the band wagon...for now at least!
Cindy McCain is a "classy" lady...well now at least:
"Most voters only know that John McCain's second wife is a successful business woman who is known for her love of charity work as much as her love for racing cars. Cindy McCain is the chair for one of the largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributors in the nation and the McCain's own at least eight homes.
Fewer Americans know that following some back surgery in 1989, Cindy McCain became involved in a cycle of addiction to pain killer prescription drugs such as Percocet and Vicodin. According to Wikipedia's biography of McCain she was taking up to 20 pills a day. And according another websource, Snopes.com, McCain, "used other people's names for prescriptions and stole drugs from the Voluntary Medical Team, a mobile surgical unit she begun in 1988 to provide emergency medical services around the world".
By 1993, the DEA became involved in the Cindy McCain theft of prescription drugs from the charity she founded. McCain was able to work out a plea bargain deal in which she avoided prosecution by paying a fine, submitting to drug testing, doing community service work in a soup kitchen. McCain also joined a Narcotics Anonymous group. But the bad publicity forced McCain to shut down the charity she operated, but abused as a source of drugs for her prescription drug addiction habit.
John McCain's first wife, Carol had been a long-suffering wife who had to wait five long years for the return of her husband from the Hanoi Hilton as a prisoner of war. But John McCain's history of infidelity with Cindy Lou Hensley as well as a serious automobile accident by Carol all helped to end the marriage by 1980 in divorce.
Unfortunately the McCain family portrait is hardly any true Ozzy and Harriet image. It is spotted by incidents of adultery, drug addiction and theft. It's not exactly any wholesome family values image, although Cindy McCain has not had any new known drug problems since her 1993 legal troubles and continues to do charity work in the present. She even managed a decent recovery from a 2004 stroke she suffered. However compared to the Obama family with few problems, the McCain household has certainly been the more rocky of the two by far."
I can copy and paste too :-)
And you were "appalled" by my reaction to Hillary's speech at the DNC?
well...I'm appalled that you're now considering voting for McCain after a mere comment on your blog. Please oh please follow your own advice and at least wait 'til Obama and McCain duke it out face to face in the debates!
oh and one more thing.....about this Palin character. Her daughter's pregnancy SHOUT be left off limits. But I must poke at one small thing...
...McCain and Palin came out and stated that it was Bristol's "choice" to carry this baby to term.
The mere fact that they used the word "choice" in that sentence is sheer hypocrisy in that if it were up to them....there would be no choice.
anywho...no hard feelings BK, see you work and lunch tomorrow :-)
hmm did I spell out "SHOUT" in all caps...I meant "SHOULD"
*one must always proofread!
@erin the personal attacks on both candidates should stop. we, including me, should all focus on the issues & not on some bonehead mistake that one of these candidates made many years ago that had no effect on our government, country, etc. all of the things you mentioned are personal matters that while reflect on one’s character have no bearing on how any of the candidates will run our country. we’ve all made bonehead mistakes & if you were to look at any of our backgrounds you would think that paul, you, & i weren’t even qualified for the jobs we have, let alone candidates for the presidency of the united states.
I'm in total agreement with you BK...let's let bygones be bygones when digging up trash concerning the candidates family members!
Because in the end....Obama's late mother isn't running for president, neither is his father, or Cindy McCain for that matter...so WHO CARES?!?!?!
And since you've made this point that we need to put the mud slinging to rest and focus on the issues...does that mean you'll reconsider voting for McCain because of some Socialist views Obama's mother may have had decades ago? Again.....WHO CARES?
2Eryn: skeletons deal with secrets, shame and regrets about one's past. obama's mom was not shy about her radical views nor was obama sr. if that is how they viewed a better society back then, they are entitled to their beliefs (though most americans would oppose it). i was simply pointing that out; to call it as digging up skeletons is a far cry. it may be skeletons to obama and his supporters though. why? to even question about obama, his past, and/or people that influence him may turn out that he's not the kind of change and hope that many Americans are looking for. they are certainly doing everything possible to keep a polished image of obama. Voters will decide what is good change and what is bad change.
i don't believe that ALL family members should be off limits in the political arena. Young children should be off limits period. not to say that we can’t have a clean political discussion about their children (example: Sarah palin oldest daughter, Bristol, and her pregnancy) but the children shouldn’t become part of political & tabloid lies and smears (example: lie about Trig being Bristol’s child). However spouses (and even their adult children) can be subject to criticisms though. Whenever a politician’s spouse (or adult children) speaks in front of a microphone and makes an insensitive remark and/or criticizes or jokes about their opponents, then they have stepped beyond the role as a spouse to a political/campaign activist (examples: michelle obama saying “for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country” during the campaign [so I don’t have a right to make an argument that michelle could have been proud of America and the land of opportunity for her to go to Princeton or seeing the berlin wall fall during her lifetime?]).
Let’s move over to the claim about sarah & mccain’s “sheer hypocrisy” when they stated that it was bristol’s “choice” to carry this baby to term. It would be hypocrisy if sarah told the public that bristol should have an abortion. Bristol always has a choice and she doesn’t need roe v. wade for that. Her mom wouldn’t agree with Bristol if she chose to have an abortion but couldn’t stop her if Bristol wanted to. Would the palin family support bristol’s decision to have an abortion? I would say no. if a parent tells their kid(s) that they have a choice on college education: either the parent will pay all their expenses if their kids choose a $10k/yr in-state university or the kid will have to pay on their own if they choose a $25k/yr out-of-state college, is the parent’s use of “choice” considered “sheer hypocrisy”?
If Bristol chose to have an abortion, would it weaken sarah’s position on pro-life. Yes. Do the palin’s have any important and influential part to help bristol decide whether to keep her baby. I am sure they did; it is a family issue and the children were raised in a pro-life family value. does Bristol know her family well enough that they’ll be there to help raise her baby. I will say yes.
My questions then are i) Would liberals be content if Bristol publicly said that it was her choice to carry the baby to term? And ii) what other word than “choice” would the left have been satisfied for mccain/palin to have used?
If mccain/palin said “Bristol IS carrying this baby to term”, then the media would have a frenzy and claim that mccain/palin is forcing Bristol to keep the baby for political purposes.
Cindy mccain: to describe cindy mccain as “classy” (btw, michelle obama presents herself in a way that I would describe as classy too, however some of her remarks may not be) does not mean that she’s in any way perfect, carry flaws, or made mistakes. A person should not be summed up by a single bad thing in their life. If that was the case, then we should highlight martin luther king, jr.'s life with his mistresses and not as a great civil rights leader or define bill clinton for his affair with monica lewinsky in the white house instead of being a good president. With the thousands of lives that she helped and saved around the world over 20 years, it should be fair enough to call her as a classy lady. Ask the people touched by her charitable deeds whether they really care her past drug problem.
You also have it reversed. more Americans knew about cindy’s drug problem and very few knew about her charitable services. She publicly came out open about her drug problem and apologized for her actions in the mid 1990’s. where it got the most attention was in the ‘00 repub primary where g.w. bush ran smear ads about cindy, calling mccain’s wife a drug addict. The media also made nationwide headlines about her past drug addiction too. Her drug problem played a big factor for j.mccain’s primary loss in ‘00
In no way am I excusing her actions, i.e. taking money from the charity foundation for drugs. But where is the compassion that so many people claim to have? Like you stated, she got addicted on prescription drugs from her back surgery (ruptured disks to be specific). It’s not as though she went to some drug dealer on the street one day and chose to buy some drugs. She had back surgery and was prescribed drugs for years to cope with the pain. Then the doctor stops prescribing but after years, do you think your body can just cut off from its dependency. addiction brings uncontrolled weakness and often times addicts don’t have a full grip on reality. It’s weeks of hell to get clean. We can all show a bit more of human dignity and compassion when talking about addiction.
John mccain: we all know about his infidelity with his first marriage, carol. It was wrong. He knew it and admits it was a sin, it was selfish, and he regretted it. When recently asked during the saddleback church civil forum (1st major televised forum with obama/mccain, aug 16, 2008) what was his biggest moral regret, he said his “first marriage.” That takes a strong person to say that. Mind I mention that his infidelity happened over 28 years ago and john wasn’t even a politician or ever ran for house/senate then? Does any of this excuse his action? No. but it does say that we can forgive a person. His first wife and children did.
I understand that obama’s mother & father and cindy mccain are not running for president. However they do matter because they are important figures in a candidate’s life. It can help describe more about a candidate and can even influence a candidate’s foundation on their policies. Even a pastor can sometimes matter or a person that helped launch a candidate’s political career can matter. We all should focus on a candidate’s issues but we should also be given a chance to know about the candidate themselves.
My question to obama supporters is how much do you really know about obama?
“well, he’s going to help cut taxes for 95% of working families.” Re: the bottom 40% earners pay zero federal taxes. How does that work out? how do you cut taxes when the value is zero? It should be zero. The fact is the 40% of Americans will get what’s called a “refundable tax credit” meaning they will get a refund check every year instead of continuing to pay zero federal taxes.
“the rich don’t pay enough taxes so they should pay more and help society.” Re: rich people already pay a higher tax percentage. The top 5% wage earners pay 50% of all federal income taxes. The top 25% earners (85% of all federal income taxes) and the top 50% wage earners (95% of all federal income taxes). However we should increase rich earner's tax rate to redistribute more of their wealth. Is that a capitalistic or socialistic program? Where possibility could obama get such an idea?
“we can't have a bush III in the white house. Don’t you see how the middle class was shrinking and more were getting poor?” re: yes, the middle class was shrinking but they weren’t getting poorer. Instead the middle class was shrinking because they got richer and now you will tax them more under the obama plan.
“well, you are only looking at two years prior to bush in office. Look at his failed economic plans today with fannie mae/Freddie mac and the high price of oil. Middle class is now becoming poorer. It’s a failed bush economic policies, see?”
re: take a look at the executives (and others listed) and notice what they have in common?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92540620
they were all politicians with no banking/finance experience! Can you guess which two executives were obama’s economic advisers (james Johnson & franklin raines)?
Re: bush admin in 2003 sent a proposal to congress for significant regulatory overhaul on fannie mae/freddy mac (fm/fm).
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3D6123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
re: mccain in 2005 cosponsored a bill for tougher regulation & oversight on fm/fm
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=109-s20060525-16&bill=s109-190
the democrats opposed for regulation and the bill never passed in congress. Democrats wanted social justice to allow people to be able to afford homes even if they couldn’t afford the homes. we wouldn't be in this mess today had that bill passed. is this a failed bush economic policy then?
Re: obama’s energy plan says America will be independent on foreign oil in 10 years. What about now till the 10 years? America spends $800 bln/yr on foreign oil. Bush took first initiative to lift the executive ban on offshore drilling this summer. Democrats were strongly opposed to more offshore drilling. Republicans fought for months for offshore drilling as a short term solution and part of a comprehensive energy program. Otherwise, all of us would continue paying $4-6/gal of gas and our $800bln/yr to foreign countries would continue for the next 10 years.
“obama is like me. He was raised by a single mom and grandparents and his family grew up without much money”
re: he uses that a lot in his political speeches but his mom divorced when he was 4 and remarried when he was 6. His grandmother was a VP of a bank in hawaii. He went to the most prestigious & most expensive schools growing up in Hawaii, Indonesia and back at Hawaii.
“he’s all about helping fellow brothers and sisters of America”
re: ok. Then how come obama (multi-millionaire for years) has never given a dime to his half brother (George obama) in Kenya who lives in a 6’x10’ hut in the slums, want to train to be a mechanic but can’t because george only makes $1 PER MONTH. Barrack can start with his own brother.
I’m all for talking about the issues but I also care knowing about the candidate, the people he/she considers important in their life and their actions/views.
If a candidate claims his pastor has been a personal mentor for 20 years and denies ever hearing any of these radical, hateful sermons, that’s not worth caring? Look how many different wardrobes that the pastor’s wearing. I don’t think he wore it all in one day. He spews hate about America yet the pastor owns a million dollar house in Chicago and drive $100k Mercedes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc2FCJ7zWEQ
2brian: would you care if you found out that I was going to this church and I was running for office? After all, the pastor’s not running for office.
Or what if the person that helped launch my political career used to be a radical terrorist 40 years ago but has never repented for his actions. In fact, on 9/11/2001 he believes that they should have done more back then and believes “down with capitalism”. After all, he’s not running for office either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfEEhiUi008 (weather underground 6 of 9)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEajOYOE5Yw (Obama/Clinton - William Ayers Debate)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3liBM8VzUWo (Obama on O'Reilly - William Ayers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHD4jO6QJLQ&NR=1 (Ayers Regret?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjcS6QFtn_g&feature=related (Ayer's thought on capitalism: play first 30 sec)
Or what if I was a community organizer. Not all community organizers are the same or follow the same beliefs & teachings, you know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kr3gEFQRd8
let me close with this. At john mccain’s RNC, joe liebermann (long-time democrat turned independent) took the podium and said he’s known john for 20 years and the honor of becoming a dear friend. Talk about reaching across the party aisle. Then look at obama’s DNC, who could say the same and claim that they really, really know obama. It’s wasn’t hillary, nor biden, or bill Clinton. As popular as obama is, not one person stood on that podium and said, I know this man and I’ve known him for a long time. Why didn’t obama have his pastor wright. After all, wright spoke at obama’s address to run for president. Why didn’t obama invite William ayers? Why is it that for over one year, no one in the mainstream media talked about obama’s friends like pastor wright, tony resko, or William ayers?
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