Who is Obama?

[Minrott]

http://www.eyeblast.tv/Public/Video.aspx?rsrcID=2036

[Arlos]

Talk about a utterly slanted and off the wall pack of distilled hate for anything non-ultra-right-wing.

Those slamming Obama for having a Pastor that said controversial things: Why have you not slammed McCain for accepting the endorsement of Chuck Hagee? You do know he said that Katrina is God's wrath against the people who lived in New Orleans, yes?

How about him cozying up to Robertson, and while he was still alive, Falwell? Both of whom blamed 9/11 on "Pagans, abortionists, gays and lesbians" also implying that it was God's wrath, and those people's fault?

Why is there no outcry against their words? Hmmmm? Why is there no outcry about McCain cozying up to those types, who's words are certainly just as vile, if not worse, than anything Wright has ever said.

Why is it bad for someone to not have been proud of their country lately? I sure as fuck haven't, certainly not since Bush has been in office. Why is that some kind of mortal sin?

Why is having a parent who happens to be muslim also a mortal sin? There any evidence whatsoever that his father has any connection whatsoever to terrorists? There's over 1 BILLION muslims in the world. Terrorists are a tiny fraction of that total.

The amount of lies by omission and slanted half-truths, along with appeals to ignorance, fear and xenophobia in that video were sickening.

-Arlos

[Tikker]

I loved how they kept saying "oh noez, he has muslim names"

[Minrott]

Talk about a utterly slanted and off the wall pack of distilled hate for anything non-ultra-right-wing.

Those slamming Obama for having a Pastor that said controversial things: Why have you not slammed McCain for accepting the endorsement of Chuck Hagee? You do know he said that Katrina is God's wrath against the people who lived in New Orleans, yes?How is a couple of douche bags voicing support for McCain in anyway comparable to Obama's 20 year relationship with his mentor Wright?

How about him cozying up to Robertson, and while he was still alive, Falwell? Both of whom blamed 9/11 on "Pagans, abortionists, gays and lesbians" also implying that it was God's wrath, and those people's fault?Please show me how McCain has done anything to "cozy" up to any of these dirtbags. Certainly not cozy like, being married by either of them.

Why is there no outcry against their words? Hmmmm? Why is there no outcry about McCain cozying up to those types, who's words are certainly just as vile, if not worse, than anything Wright has ever said.

Why is it bad for someone to not have been proud of their country lately? I sure as fuck haven't, certainly not since Bush has been in office. Why is that some kind of mortal sin?It's not. That doesn't bother me, but I enjoy how it riles you folks up

Why is having a parent who happens to be muslim also a mortal sin? There any evidence whatsoever that his father has any connection whatsoever to terrorists? There's over 1 BILLION muslims in the world. Terrorists are a tiny fraction of that total.Ask your Gramps if he would have elected someone named Hirimoto in '44.

The amount of lies by omission and slanted half-truths, along with appeals to ignorance, fear and xenophobia in that video were sickening.And hilarious!

-Arlos

It's also funny that you try to paint McCain as "ultra right wing." That's laughable. How about instead of throwing our country to a Che loving communist, your party throws up someone as moderate as McCain?

Never in my life did I think I'd be wishing for another Clinton administration.

ETA: Perhaps you could explain your saviors ambiguous voting record, since he obviously cannot?

[Zanchief]

I think the fact that you even frequent a site like that says something about you, Min.

[araby]

McCain is pretty liberal. I'm gonna be honest though. This election sucks and I hate it. It's going to give me a coronary if I pay any attention to it.

[Arlos]

Show me where in there once I pointed at McCain and said "Ultra-right-wing". Of course, he IS a right-wing hawk on the war, most certainly. He's been one of its most fervent supporters since it began.

As for how he's "cozying up", look back to 2000 when, after they butt-fucked him in South Carolina with helping with the media campaign that implied he had an illegitimate black daughter, which went a long way to costing him the nomination, he referred to them as "Agents of intolerance". 8 years later, the right wing fundamentalists hadn't changed any, but suddenly he's giving a keynote speech at Falwell's university, and actively seeking their endorsements.

As for Wright: I still have yet to see anyone explain exactly how being friends with someone with a certain set of beliefs means YOU have them too. I have a friend who is basically a fundamentalist Catholic. That make me Catholic? My PARENTS are ardent Catholics, does that mean I somehow espouse Catholic dogma as my personal credo? I think not. You also missed much of the point about what Obama said about Wright: The man is far more than those statements. He served his country as a Marine for a number of years. Why would he do that if he actually hated the place? Wright has worked to feed, house, and care for the poor for 30+ years. Boy, what an assholeish thing to do, eh? Yeah, he apparently has some extreme political beliefs, and yelled really loud about them. So the fuck what, it still doesn't in any way mean OBAMA has those beliefs.

As for my grandfather, the only that was a US citizen before the war began has been dead since 1984, thanks. The other one fled Europe to get away from Mussolini, then spent 4 years IN A JAPANESE PRISON CAMP in the Philippines from 1941-1945, was nearly executed because he was a high-ranking member of the underground resistance, and yet he went and lived in Japan for 2 years at the start of the 50s, and did frequent business there until HE died in 1980. So, something tells me he would've been fine with it. Furthermore, why the fuck should we let the fact that many US citizens in WW2 were xenophobic and racist guide anything about what we do today? They were so right to hate all people of Japanese descent, too, I mean, look at that Daniel Inouye guy, what'd he do in the war, just lost his arm and won the Medal of Honor, no big thing, eh?

As for voting "Present", that has never happened once in his time in the Senate. All of those votes were from his time in the Illinois State Senate, and amounted to less than 5% of his total votes. Of those, nearly half were done as part of a broad group voting exactly the same way as part of a party strategy, or as a strategy by people supporting a certain cause. Furthermore, people voting "present" is apparently quite common in Illinois, and is nothing whatsoever unusual. See: http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_co ... ent-o.html Yet another made-up controversy spun from half-truths and limited data.

Lastly, it's not ME that's riled up about what his wife said, it's obviously the mouth-frothing right-wingers that are, as they're the ones who keep raising it as an issue.

-Arlos

[Gaazy]

Thats the best thing youve ever said Araby~ You shou ldnt give a fuck about it, because no matter who gets in, they are gonna do whatever they want to, no matter how much any of us care about it, or how much it hurts anyone, as long as it makes their pockets fatter.

[Drem]

It's going to give me a coronary if I pay any attention to it.

This is a great way to think about it.

Really if you guys aren't going to change anything yourself, why would you waste time arguing or caring about it? Posting your stupid rants on the internet doesn't solve anything. In fact it just makes you angry and begin to argue pointlessly

I'm so glad I don't even spend 10 seconds of my day thinking or caring about politics. It's affected my life in many great ways. I get to avoid all kinds of stupid political discourse with people that think it's important (like this thread) and i'm 100% happy about that. Especially when all they wanna do is post links and write a one-liner after it about how they hate it. I can't think of anything more boring/wasteful than to sit around talking about people that are completely out of touch with reality and how they want to run our country. There're so many more important things to worry about

[dammuzis]

wasnt mcain one of the keating 5?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

not conjecture or insinuation or guilty by association but fact

[Gaazy]

heyyyy get er done drem! thats what im talkin about

[Tossica]

wasnt mcain one of the keating 5?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

not conjecture or insinuation or guilty by association but fact

I'm sure that will come up again in the election.

[Drem]

heyyyy get er done drem! thats what im talkin about

/roar

[Gypsiyee]

fair enough Drem and Gaazy, I can certainly respect that - I used to feel the exact same way until I realized my lack of knowledge led to me casting a vote for the worst president in history, one who's caused the deaths of peers and played havoc with my wallet. The worse it got, the more I wanted to research, and the sadder I was that I contributed to this mess. Sure I could've just gone the route of not voting at all after that.. but why? I live somewhere that even if my vote is seemingly insignificant in the grand scheme of things, at least I know I did what I could to keep people like this stupid ass monkey out of my life in the future, so I might as well take advantage of it and educate myself.

we can all sit around laughing and saying it doesn't affect us, but it definitely affects someone, and it's just a domino effect - eventually it comes down to our level. growing up in norfolk, va, 60% of my friends are in the military - if I care about nothing else, I definitely care that their lives might be wasted for nothing but an oil pissing contest. that certainly affects me, the economy going down the shitter affects me, the fact it takes 50 bucks to fill up my truck when it used to take 30 affects me.

I guess the point is that I have the opportunity to say something with my vote, regardless of how small it seems on the surface, so why wouldn't I want to? and why wouldn't I want to educate myself enough to make sure I'm saying what I want? I certainly don't want to inadvertantly contribute to the embarrassment of a country we've become in the last 8 years again.

so that's why I care.

[Minrott]

I think the fact that you even frequent a site like that says something about you, Min.

It was linked on another forum I visit. I thought it would stir shit here, even though this board seems about half dead.

[Gaazy]

If youre the one to vote based on your lack of knowledge, thats your own stupidity if you voted for him. I didnt vote at all because I thought they all sucked, rather than made an uneducated vote.

And honestly, I really do NOT think it matters to get all panty twisted over this, because I really do think politics is all bullshit, and theyre just telling you what you want to hear, then once they get elected, theyll not give a shit, just like Bush did to everyone. Its not because I just dont want to trouble myself with caring, its the fact that I really think it doesnt, fucking, matter. If youd rather put your trust and time into them, thats fine, I dont really care. But, personally, I would rather put my thoughts and time into MY life myself, rather than hoping someone else will do it for me, like these presidential tools who wouldnt know what real life is about if it sat on their heads.

[Gypsiyee]

I'm not insulting you for your stance, I'm just saying why I vote and why I pay such close attention to things now as opposed to in past years, so please don't give a defensive response and sling insults, call me stupid, etc - it's unnecessary, and that wasn't the intention of my post.

I wasn't completely uneducated, I just didn't know as much as I thought I did, and I didn't get passionate enough about my own views. I voted for what I thought was the lesser of two evils and didn't delve deep enough - 2004 was a really crappy election year all around. I didn't go into the voting booth blindly, I just didn't care about a lot of the talking points.

A lot of politics is bullshit, I agree - but some of the stuff matters, and it's up to individuals to discern between what's important to them and what's not. If you don't care about the war, don't pick your candidate based on that stance. If you care about gun control that's what you'd focus on.

I'm just saying - people involve themselves in this stuff because there's a whole array of issues that are important to them and affect them personally. It doesn't make them stupid or uptight, it means their priorities are different than yours - that's human nature. The war is important to me. Healthcare is important to me. History matching words is important to me. Global warming is important to me. Repairing our own problems at home is important to me. The dwindiling economy in relation to money funding something I don't even support is important to me.

These things may not be important to you, and that's fine, they don't have to be - that's the beauty of democracy. You don't have to care, but I do, and that's okay. There is no "better" stance to have when it comes to caring about what happens in your country. Some people will, some people won't, and there's simply no way to tell someone else they should or shouldn't - but the ones saying shouldn't care really can't complain when shit goes awry, or when it hits a little too close to home. All I'm saying is there's a reason people worry about this stuff - it affects them.

[Arlos]

*sigh* I tried to warn people here in '04 about what a bad idea it would be to re-elect Bush.... Sure, Kerry was no Lincoln or FDR, but by gods, he couldn't have been worse than what we got...

Anyway, Gaazy, you're still pretty young, and your attitude is not at all uncommon for people your age. You may well come to a different opinion in 10 or 15 years, I know I did.

-Arlos