Dangling Conversations

On July 28th, the day after his speech at the Democratic convention catapulted him into the national spotlight, Barack Obama told a group of reporters in Boston that the United States had an ???absolute obligation??? to remain in Iraq long enough to make it a success.???The failure of the Iraqi state would be a disaster,??? he said at a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, according to an audiotape of the session. ???It would dishonor the 900-plus men and women who have already died. . . . It would be a betrayal of the promise that we made to the Iraqi people, and it would be hugely destabilizing from a national security perspective.???In late winter, 2008, on the campaign trail, Obama says he wants to bring the troops home yesterday ??? you decide ??? was he lying then or is he lying now?

In Obama???s famous DNC Convention speech, Obama says, ???My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father ??? my grandfather ??? was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.???

Kezia, Obama Sr.???s first wife tells a story that puts Obama???s account to lie.


Kezia said: In 1955 Obama Sr. was 18 and working in an office in Nairobi, when he took Kezia from her family at the age of 16. Her father was furious.

???He did not like Obama. My father and brothers came to Nairobi to bring me back. They said I had to go back to school.

???When I wouldn???t, they said they would never speak to me again.

???Barack was also worried about what his father would think because I was so young, but he gave us his approval. Obama???s father (often described as poor) sent my mother and father 14 cows for my dowry.



Just how can a cook, a domestic servant to the British, provide a dowry of 14 cattle for Senior???s first wife? Also, Obama???s father had been working in a Nairobi office since the age 16, not herding goats.

As an aside, can you imagine if a Republican was running for president and it came out that his father had bought his first wife for 14 cows???!!!Just wow!!

Barack Obama in 2003, talking to the AFL/CIO:???I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal healthcare coverage. That???s what I???d like to see.???In January, 2008, Obama claimed in a nationally televised debate:???I never said that we should try to go ahead and get single-payer.???

In his memoir, Obama writes of one of the watershed moments of his racial awareness ??? time and again in remarkable detail. It is a story about a Life magazine article that influenced him. The report was about a black man who tried to bleach his skin white. When Obama was told no such article could be found in Life, he says ???it might have been Ebony.He is 9 years old, living in Indonesia, where he and his mother moved with her new husband, Lolo Soetoro, a few years earlier. One day while visiting his mother, who was working at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Obama passed time by looking through several issues of Life magazine. He came across an article that he later would describe as feeling like an ???ambush attack.???The article included photos of a black man who had destroyed his skin with powerful chemical lighteners that promised to make him white. Instead, the chemicals had peeled off much of his skin, leaving him sad and scarred, Obama recalled.???I imagine other black children, then and now, undergoing similar moments of revelation,??? Obama wrote of the magazine photos in ???Dreams.???Yet no such photo exists, according to historians at the magazine. No such photos, no such article. When asked about the discrepancy, Obama said in a recent interview, ???It might have been an Ebony or it might have been ??? who knows what it was???? (At the request of the Tribune, archivists at Ebony searched their catalogue of past articles, none of which matched what Obama recalled.)In fact, it is surprising, based on interviews with more than two dozen people who knew Obama during his nearly four years in Indonesia, that it would take a photograph in a magazine to make him conscious of the fact that some people might treat him differently in part because of the color of his skin.

Time we started to talk about Biden's long standing ties to the credit card industry lobby.

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/10/how-credit-card.html

McCain spoke forcefully on May 25, 2006, on behalf of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005
In this speech, McCain managed to predict the entire collapse that has forced the government to eat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with Bear Stearns and AIG. He hammers the falsification of financial records to benefit executives, including Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of whom have worked as advisers to Barack Obama this year.
McCain also noted the power of their lobbying efforts to forestall oversight over their business practices. He finishes with the warning that proved all too prescient over the past few days and weeks.
It never made it out of committee. Chris Dodd, then the ranking member of the Banking Committee and now its chair, was in the middle of receiving preferential loan treatment from Countrywide Mortgage, one of the companies gaming the system in the credit crisis. Meanwhile, Barack Obama took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the lobbyists McCain mentions in this speech, making him the #2 recipient of Fannie/Freddie money:
The record shows that McCain saw the problem coming and tried to get Congress to act. In 2005, both McCain and Obama served together in the Senate. Did Obama attempt to pass this reform, sign on as a co-sponsor, or even speak out in its favor? The record is tellingly blank.

Great questions! It's a shame that the debate moderators and media types do not ask such pointed questions. For the most part, we know where candidates stand on policy issues. These are questions about leadership; the candidates should be pressed more on questions like these. It is important for voters to have a clear picture of who they are voting for. Candidates should be open to answering questions that represent thoughts from divergent viewpoints as they will, if elected, be leading all of us and not just their base. Elitist and Joe Sixpack alike may have different concerns, but they'll have the same president. Candidates should not make partisan attacks based on the percieved Washington establishment. Instead of attacking and addressing their opponent, they should address the people directly. Presidential ploitics shouldn't be like high school ASB elections, the best person for the job, should get the job. Lets WAKE UP AMERICA! We can get this right for a change. Go vote!

PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT:
Palin s model for debate: BUSH! From Countdown MSNBC Oct, 3-08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_SmsXgzvg

Rolling Stone Magazine: Make believe Maverick, A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty.
By TIM DICKINSON
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain?commentPage=8#rate

If Palin wants to play guilt by association , let s compare:
* Video: Sarah Palin addresses the Alaska Independence Party convention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvPNXYrIyI

* Article
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/palins_attack_on_obamas_patrio.php#more
Also google for Palin & mentor Pastor Thomas Muthee, witchcraft ritual and who is Mr. Muthee. Here is one: http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2008/09/15/sarah-palin-and-the-thomas-muthee-witch-hunt/
For McCain:
- Keating Five, just google it , there are tons to read and see....
- McCain linked to group in Iran-Contra case. Organization had ties to former Nazi collaborators, right wing death squads: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27062761/
- McCain & Pastor John Hagee, just google it , there are tons to read and see....
- McCain ties with Gordon Liddy : <http://mediamatters.org/items/200810040004>
- The Silver State bank and the role of McCain???s son, google it.....

HOLD YOUR HATS and more....... We the people will get the true truth about McCain and Palin.
Obama will stay on message and issues, at a crisis time when 90 years old lady is shooting herself rather than leaving her home due to foreclosure and a desperate father all family and self WHILE McCain and Palin spew their venom!...they are so-called religious but the sin of lies, blasphemy is not in their Bible.....

At least Obama could walk up to the WH his lead held high not trailing mud......

Feel free to re-post.

The verdict is in. At a time when the terrible, terrible state of the economy is causing US citizens such as the guy in California to kill this morning his wife, three children, mother-in-law and self, why do we continue to participate in mudslinging. The state of our economy is a very serious and grave issue at this time. We can not waste time engaging in mudslinging that the only purpose it serves is to divert the very, very serious issues of the economy that our country is faced with. I think we as Americans are very capable of determining one???s character, thats our job and we don???t need any help in accomplishing it. Please this is our time (the American People), we have a decision to make on Nov 4, which is only weeks away. We would ask that the candidates not waste any more of our time trying to influence the us whether or not someones character is upstanding, we can do that. What we wish would be done is for the candidates to take time and share a strategy dealing with the economy with us that we don???t loose anymore people as we already have in the case in California to collateral damage.

The verdict is in. At a time when the terrible, terrible state of the economy is causing US citizens such as the guy in California to kill this morning his wife, three children, mother-in-law and self, why do we continue to participate in mudslinging. The state of our economy is a very serious and grave issue at this time. We can not waste time engaging in mudslinging that the only purpose it serves is to divert the very, very serious issues of the economy that our country is faced with. I think we as Americans are very capable of determining one???s character, thats our job and we don???t need any help in accomplishing it. Please this is our time (the American People), we have a decision to make on Nov 4, which is only weeks away. We would ask that the candidates not waste any more of our time trying to influence the us whether or not someones character is upstanding, we can do that. What we wish would be done is for the candidates to take time and share a strategy dealing with the economy with us that we don???t loose anymore people as we already have in the case in California to collateral damage.

In re: #5. Here's a question: what role does distorted religious conviction play in creating the dangers--the exclusion, the violence, the oppression, the discrimination--we face from American Christians? How can the next president help to address those dangers, and keep hypocritical, uninformed, arrogant American Christians from influencing civil rights policies and our murderous foreign policies?

"I wish the candidate would discuss global poverty more. According to The Borgen Project:
$30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.
$540 billion: Annual U.S. Defense Budget."

The link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed third, after Dodd and Kerry, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next by Clinton. Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are on the list as well.

http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918

Then there is the Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd who allegedly got special mortgage deals from Countrywide, who gave preferential rates to 'friends' of company's chairman.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25140560/

For an interesting article purporting to detail the House Financial Services Committee Chairs long history with Fannie Mae, See http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080924145932.aspx

"House Financial Services Committee Chair promoted GSEs while former 'spouse' was Fannie Mae executive."

The link below describes how some in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN. See:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

And then there is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who allegedly has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm.

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm.

"Are you at all concerned that the trajectory of Supreme Court jurisprudence over the past six decades risks driving religiously informed moral argument out of our public life?"

Religiously informed moral argument? Which moral argument from which religion are we talking about here?

It is arrogant in the extreme to assume there is ONE religiously informed moral argument, because there are many. And NONE of them belong in our public life - we have separation of church and state in America for a reason.

Any discussion of "morals" should not start by assuming that conservative Christian values are the only values that count.

Prosecutors move to delay Rezko sentencing
Prosecutors move to delay Rezko sentencing, a hint he may be ready to spill political secrets
By MIKE ROBINSON Associated Press Writer | AP
Oct 7, 2008

"Speculation has simmered for weeks that the key fundraiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Sen. Barack Obama was whispering what he knows about corruption in Illinois government to federal prosecutors in hopes of getting a lighter sentence."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/162696

The GOP is grasping at straws. They have nothing substantive against Obama, but boy are they good at making up lies. This has been a leading Karl Rove tactic for years, and if America falls for this again we should be ashamed of ourselves. Not to mention the obvious fact that this is all a smokescreen to keep the focus off of the fact that Palin and her Alaska associates are in contempt of court for refusing to testify in the Troopergate hearings. After Nixon and Clinton, Americans are to some extent jaded, but really, would you want a VP who refuses to attend hearings in her own defense, and instructs her employees not to testify? That smells like guilt. It surely doesn't give the impression that she has done no wrong and has nothing to hide.

This year, the GOP offers you an angry old man and a woman who, while personable, is desperately uniformed about national and international issues. Both of them are far right politically. McCain used to be a maverick, but since 2004 he's voted 90% with Bush. McCain's policies are not original or reformist, despite how he's tried to co-opt Obama's popular message of change. Please go to the websites of both of the candidates and read their platforms. Obama's Blueprint for Change has more good ideas than McCain's plan. Compare them yourself. Obama's basic premise is that tax dollars should be spent to make America stronger and to improve the lives and well being of our people. For example, he uses education programs to train a new technology workforce, contributing to energy independence, creating jobs and improving the economy. When you read McCain's plan you will find no over-arching design to get America back on track. Instead you'll find more tax cuts for the wealthy, de-regulation of the health care industry, and a stated intent to overturn Roe v. Wade.

I'm a Republican. Although I embrace some forward-thinking social values, in the past I've rarely voted Democrat. My thinking was that since Republicans grow robust economies, by voting Republican I'd be endorsing a plan that would grow wealth for our nation, and then we'd be able to afford social programs. It was a good strategy for a couple decades, but I have to say that the tenure of W. Bush has changed my mind. Not only is there nothing fiscally responsible about today's GOP, the insidious alignment of the party with religious intolerance has really turned me off.

On the other hand, the intelligent luminous thought of Barack Obama has ignited my passion for politics and my patriotism. I want a President who puts America first and can get the economy back on track. In my mind, values voting takes a back burner when we are faced with a meltdown of the economy. It is time for a change, a real change. The Republicans have controlled the Presidency for 28 of the past 40 years, but they have fallen down on the job. The Democrats have a stellar candidate this year, and I am voting for Obama.

For eight years, Bush and the republicans have conditioned America to be afraid and live in fear. They are now playing Americans for all they can get out of that fear card.

Fear and smear is how the republicans gain POWER and CONTROL OVER THE PEOPLE. LIES, DISTORTIONS AND EXAGGERATIONS are the tools they use to accomplish their purpose. This is what we are seeing right now.

If they make it, once again when the election is over, all the peon voters will be cast to the wayside and power, money and indifference to the middle and lower class will reign once again. We will be stuck for four or eight more years of the past.

I reject these false qualifications for President. I reject the abundance of lies, distortions and complete anti Obama fabrications which are condoned be the McCain campaign and appears on this and other web sites.

No talk on the economy, health care or any of the other issues with respect to what it takes for ordinary people to live and prosper in the reality of day to day.

Only attacks with concocted false relationships on Obamas character, even though the major news organizations have concluded that no real relationships existed or does exist.

HOW MANY OF YOU WILL AGAIN ALLOW YOURSELVES TO BE USED AND MANIPULATED IN THIS WAY?

I for one will NOT bow to their fear. I will NOT vote for the dishonorable one who attempts to GAIN THE PRESIDENCY BY PLAYING US FOR FOOLS THROUGH LIES AND DECEIT.

I will vote for the one who seeks the Presidency VIA THE HIGH ROAD WITH VISION, A COMMAND OF THE ISSUES AND A GENUINE CONCERN FOR ALL PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY.