Tag Archives: Joe Biden

Digging for Manure

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Just some random venting for the moment; maybe something else later today that is more spiritual or more entertaining.

There are a couple Christian blogs I frequent that are, let’s say, a bit more conservative than mine. I like them fine, because often on doctrinal matters we agree on most points. But in this political season, I’ve had to limit my visits to those sites because I’m tired of the repeated claims that Sarah Palin (and somehow John McCain, too) are getting savaged by a “liberal media” and “left-wing bloggers” and that Barack Obama is some golden boy who’s getting nothing but love and who “hasn’t been vetted as much as Palin.” I don’t want to let my anger color my attitude toward these bloggers.

Sometimes, people’s ability to go into deep denial and manufacture fantasy scenarios amazes me.

Obama has been campaigning for a couple years now. He’s had Rezko thrown in his face repeatedly (and that’s coming up again) even though he answered that issue quite thoroughly. He had to endure having out-of-context soundbites of sermons by his then-pastor played over and over and used to support idiotic arguments by people who either never bothered to watch the sermons in their entirety or ignored the real message because informing the public about the real message would have messed up their lies.

Obama has had people digging into records to try to prove he wasn’t really born in America (though his mother was a U.S. citizen so that wouldn’t matter anyway) and to try to prove he went to radical Islamic schools and to even question whether he’s really Christian.

He’s had to deal with people trying to make like he’s good buddies with former domestic terrorist (who long ago served his time and is an upstanding citizen these days) Bill Ayers, while completely ignoring that plenty of conservative Republicans have served with this very same man on the same board Obama did.

People have tried to claim Obama has no experience, even though he is a constitutional law scholar, former community organizer in the third-largest city in the country, a former state legislator and a current U.S. senator.

People have dug around trying to find a mythological video of Michelle Obama using the word “whitey.”

And the list goes on, I’m sure, but I’m exhausted to think about it anymore.

And yet, poke around about whether Sarah Palin had any real major duties as mayor of little Wasilla, point to her own pregnant teen girl as possibly evidence that her abstinence-only stance is flawed or that her family values maybe aren’t so tight, or mention that she’s only been a governor for two years and in a state with less than a million people, and she’s being treated unfairly. Catch her flip-flopping on issues like the “Bridge to Nowhere” and people are being mean. Discover that her husband once had a DUI, and that’s getting personal. Mention that she has associations with scary pastors and churches, and that’s out of bounds. Point out that her husband and she have recent direct ties to an Alaskan secessionist group, and that doesn’t matter.

I know of at least one Christian blogger who believes that all the negative stuff about Obama is something that has to be “dug up” with lots of research because the media won’t cover it, while Palin is being gleefully destroyed.

Forgetting that actually, all the crap and lies about Obama have been circulated quite widely, and often by mainstream media. A lot of the stuff being dug up on Palin isn’t lies but truth…and the stuff that might be questionable (like whether she should be held accountable for what her pastors say) is either equal to what Obama has had to deal with, or gets dropped from media coverage far more quickly than any of the Obama stories did.

Forget also that Obama actually knows the issues and Palin can only spit out soundbites. Ignore the fact that while people try to smear Obama’s wife, Cindy McCain has never really been hounded about how she avoided jail for stealing drugs though her position with a non-profit to feed her habit, or the fact she keeps passing off other people’s copyrighted recipes as her own family fare.

No, let’s continue with the myth that Obama has been getting an easy ride and ignore the fact that it is actually McCain, through most of his campaign up until recently, who has been handled with hero worship and kid gloves my a mainstream media that has loved him for years.

Because why deal with reality when we can wrap ourselves in comfortable lies?

I know that Obama isn’t a saint. I think he’s a pretty upstanding guy and I respect that he has a pretty together-looking family life. I like that he succeeded on hard work and talent and not handouts and legacies. I like most of what he stands for. But I know he’s a politician and someone with his own ego and agendas, like any politician. But it’s amazing to me that everyone has to dig so hard to find even rumors and innuendo about this man, and often come up with flat-out made-up stories instead, while it is so easy to find ugly truths with the members of the Republican ticket, and yet somehow Obama is the one who hasn’t been vetted enough.

It’s madness. Look, if you don’t want to vote for him because he’s black, or pro-choice or whatever, just admit it already, damn it. Stop trying to make a fictional case for some vast media conspiracy to tar and feather McCain-Palin and give Obama-Biden a ride.

This is the Internet age. This is the era of blogging. Shit is dug up and disseminated in an instant. There is no privacy.

And the fact is, most of what’s getting dug up on Obama for two years now is easily proven false or misleading. Yet what is coming out now, only in the past few months or weeks, on McCain and Palin that is scary is actually, in most cases, true. Obama may have skeletons in his closet, but if so, he hides them better than any other politician running for president ever has. And if he’s that good, maybe we really do need him in charge. But chances are that he just ain’t that dirty.

Sorry, conservative conspiracy theorists. In this case, at least, you’re the ones with the loony notions. Get back to reality please.

An Open Letter from the McCain Campaign

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Fellow Americans,

We the members of the John McCain/Sarah Palin campaign would like to apologize personally, and on behalf of the Republican candidates for president and vice president of this great land.

Much has been made of Barack Obama’s name, particularly that middle name “Hussein,” and we have made some unfortunate implications that he might be a terrorist sympathizer, or might even actually “pall around with” certain terrorists, domestic or foreign.

And at various campaign rallies, some members of the audience have shouted things about Obama that sounded a lot like “Terrorist,” “Traitor” and “Kill Him.” We continue to believe that those may have not been the actual words…perhaps “Rarest bits” and “Inflater” were what people were really saying in the first two cases, to reference his rareness (as in not being cooked enough by the fires of experience) and his propensity to make grandiose and airy statements.

And the “kill him” reference probably just meant “kill him in the polls” and not literal murder. Really.

Look, we admit we were wrong to paint Senator Obama as a possible terrorist element or secret Muslim or anything like that. We had what we thought was reliable intelligence on those matters and, frankly, we just got carried away. And if vile things perhaps really were said at McCain/Palin rallies, the candidates themselves certainly were not at fault. They probably just didn’t hear the comments or assumed that Secret Service agents would quietly locate and remove (or shoot) the offenders.

No, we are forced to admit that Senator Obama is indeed a God-fearing, Christian, experienced candidate. He is fully qualified to run for president and possibly hold the highest office in the land.

Still…

…Well, we hate to say this. But you see, because there has been some tension these past several weeks, and perhaps tempers have been inflamed, we have to urge each and every one of you, particularly Obama supporters, to vote for McCain/Palin.

You see, it really is the only choice. If Senator Obama becomes president, we will be living in constant fear, as a nation, that he might be assassinated by one of the few dozen white racists left in the country. And that might incite a race war, or at least some very nasty riots in our largest cities. None of us want that, do we?

Also, because of the concern that some deranged individual or two or three or however many are left in this nation might be overstimulated in their anger, we fear that death threats and risks to Obama will require the Secret Service to expend enormous resources, in terms of money and staff and time, to protect him. In this time of financial upheaval, the United States certainly cannot afford to front that kind of money to protect a black president. We estimate that it will cost upwards of $17 trillion to ensure the safety of a Barack Obama presidency.

Please, as patriotic Americans, make the proper choice in November. Vote the white…we mean, the “right”…choice: McCain/Palin.

Cordially,

The Campaign Staff for McCain/Palin in 2008

They Call Me Chickenshit McCain

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I’m not even going to put up a front on this post. I’m not pretending there’s any spiritual angle here. I’m not trying to get one iota of religion in this one. I simply need to spew.

If there are any readers of this blog out there who genuinely support John McCain for president, I implore you to tell me how, after today, you can have any respect for this man. Look, I don’t care if you tell me you just hate Barack Obama’s political stands and you’d rather have the reek of McCain because it’s more comfortable to you.

Just don’t freakin’ tell me you have any respect for McCain anymore. Lord knows, George Will sure doesn’t, and he’s as conservative as they come, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he might swallow his own tongue if a black democrat became president. Now he’s almost tacitly supporting Obama simply because he’s ripping John McCain a fresh new sphincter.

Not only has McCain flip-flopped on multiple issues with sometimes mere days (or even hours) between one stand and the opposite one that he now insists he always believed in, not only did he pick his running mate virtually sight unseen and fail to vet her, not only has he used dirty and deceitful tactics in his campaign commercials…but now he had to take a break from campaigning because things are too crazy right now?

……..Hmmmm…..

At a time when we desperately need to know how our presidential candidates stand and what they plan to do, McCain wants to put off the presidential debates (which, conveniently, would force the vice presidential debates back, too, likely meaning that Sarah Palin would never had to do one before the election). He expects people to believe that in the next couple weeks, if he works really hard and Obama stops campaigning too and joins him, they and the rest of the government can solve the anal reaming that we’re getting in our economy thanks to eight years of total ineptitude. Just like that.

Poor Johnny Boy can’t juggle too many things at once. Oh, and he also called off his appearance with David Letterman, too, phoning him to say he just had to run off to Washington, D.C., instead. Yet he didn’t leave town, but instead stayed in New York and did an interview with Katie Couric, someone desperate to hold onto her own job and probably eager just to have him on her set, and thus perhaps less likely than Letterman to skewer him on the air like a well-cooked hunk of kabob meat.

So, McCain can’t multitask, he lies to get out of an interview, and he wants to protect the woman who would be second in line for president if he wins from the media and from debating her democratic VP opponent…and we’re supposed to trust this man with our country?

Really, once again, any die-hard McCain supporters. Please tell me, if you still respect this guy and trust him…

…what kind of drugs are you taking and where can I get some?

Election 2008: The Stakes – Christian Values

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Yeah, yeah, I know. I just posted one of these Election 2008 items just yesterday. But since I’m still waiting on Miz Pink to post her Saturday post, and since I’ve gotten a bit worked up by the blind devotion to Sarah Palin that I’m seeing at some of the Christian blogs I frequent, I’m here again.

As I noted before, I try not to get too much into politics around here. But with this year’s presidential election and all that has been done wrong in the country for the past eight years, this is a pivotal time and we need to clear the air about some things.

See also:

Sept. 7 Post – Election 2008: The Stakes – Experience

Sept. 12 Post – Election 2008: The Stakes – Our Troops

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The headline for this post should probably have been “traditional conservative Christian values” and not simply “Christian values,” but I only have so much room up there. This is at least one area in which I will admit that a Barack Obama-Joe Biden win would be “bad.” It would move the conservative evangelicals backward politically speaking. Also, some baseline Christian value issues that crop up across various Chrisitian lines, like gay marriage, abortion and stem cell research—things many working class and conservative middle class and upper class Christians hate—will get support.

So what?

I don’t mean that to be dismissive of Christian values. I have Christian values. Many of them conservative, though I’m sure some of the Christians who visit here might not believe that from what I talk about and how I present things. But last I checked, we don’t have a theocracy here. Our government is not about religion. In fact, we say that we support religious freedom and freedom of expression, so having a government that is willing to cram Christian doctrine down our throats legislatively, as George W. Bush has done, as some politicians before him have done, and as I think a McCain-Palin presidency would do (along with the help of ultra-conservative justices that they would no doubt be in a position to put on the Supreme Court).

This is a representative democracy and as such, I am not ever going to vote for a candidate based on religious views or because he or she will uphold Christian values. This is a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans and so many, many more. To uphold Christian values as the standard is just plain wrong.

Christian values are something to be handled in our churches and our families, not on the national or even local political stage. Yet many people who support McCain now are doing so fervently because a very conservative Christian is now running with him, and she is a person whom many Americans relate to because she is an “Average Joe” (though why we would want an average Joe in charge of the entire nation potentially is beyond me). There are actually some Christians out there who are praying not only that McCain and Palin will be elected but that God will bring McCain home soon thereafter so that Palin can step up to the plate.

My dad is Catholic from all the way back, and devotedly so, and he hates abortion. But you know what, he is a working class man who realizes that by and large, the Democrats are the ones who have supported the needs of the working class more than the Republicans. We were talking politics and he noted that he hates the level of support the Dems put behind the pro-choice camp, to the extent they almost look like they support abortion (being pro-choice and pro-abortion really are two different things, by the way, and my dad realizes it and you should to if you don’t already). But he also told me that he is not going to vote against his own interests and the interests of the nation and vote an angry, confused man and an inexperienced, extremist woman into office. Making a decision about the presidency based on one or even a handful of religious issues is wrong, he told me.

And he’s right. It’s the financial, foreign relations, social, labor and infrasctructure issues that will define how economically viable and internationally relevant we will remain.

Countries that are run by religious leaders tend to be the ones that spawn terrorists, and the ones that we often most fear. Why would be want to emulate them by voting with our Bibles?

Election 2008: The Stakes – Our Troops

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Normally, I try not to get too much into politics around here. But with this year’s presidential election and all that has been done wrong in the country for the past eight years, this is a pivotal time. Time once again for me to share with my Christian brothers and sisters (both those who agree with me, those who don’t and those who are on the fence), why the Republican ticket is not only bad for our country but not doing much to serve God’s will either.

See also:

Sept. 7 Post – Election 2008: The Stakes – Experience

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God doesn’t sanction wars these days. Frankly, the ones he did sanction back in Old Testament days were part of a necessary process of showing that the Hebrews were his chosen people, and getting the path laid for Jesus to arrive and begin the real process of healing the breach between humanity and God.

Unfortunately, we’ve been reminded now, thanks to Sarah Palin’s comments and stories about the views some of her pastors hold (yes, they held a pastor against Obama; they deserve the same treatment), that there are actually people who think we’re fighting God’s war over there in Iraq and Afghanistan. Funny, I wasn’t aware that God needed protecting. Are the militantly radical Muslims going to blow up something in Heaven?

God’s assistance and directives to the Hebrews were about setting a place for them on the map, spiritually, physically, politically and otherwise. Even those wars didn’t do anything to help God; they were about advancing His plans and helping the Hebrews get started. The conservative Christian contingent in this country is right that we’re in a war related to God, but that’s a spiritual war against Satan. It has nothing to do with warring against other countries. Sure, we should defend ourselves, but our continued presence in Iraq in particular has nothing to do with defence and everything to do with powermongering and greed.

God wants us to wage a war against sin in our own lives and against ignorance and misinformation about Jesus as we reach out to people day-to-day and show the light and love of Christ. But that’s not what the GOP is ramming down our throats. And McCain has said if we’re in Iraq another 100 years, so be it! Yes, I know he was using hyperbole and that even he isn’t that crazy with unresolved anger issues. But the fact that he isn’t willing to see that we’ve already stayed too long and done too much damage is frightening. I’m not saying we have to pull out all at once and right away, but it’s time to stop acting like our huge presence there is a good thing.

I recall that one of the speakers on the night of the GOP convention when McCain accepted the nomination (I forget who it was) was ridiculing Barack Obama for wanting to get out of Iraq in the near future. He actually said that Obama was disrespecting the work of the troops by wanting to leave. He said that honoring the troops meant we had to stay until the job was done.

First, what job are we trying to finish? Making Iraq stable? That’s up to Iraqis. Eliminating terrorism? Anyone who thinks we as a country has the power to do that is insane. So, there is no goal anymore now that we’ve deposed Sadam Hussein. Instead, we’re making excuses to stick around and continue to plunge our nation farther into debt to finance the conflict.

Second, how is keeping troops there honoring them? Our armed forces are already stretched too thin and have been forced to serve too many tours of duty. Without a real plan and a real goal, we hurt them by continuing to be in Iraq and by people in the GOP saber-rattling to say that we need to target Iran next and maybe Russia, too. Our troops don’t want to be used up like old whores. They want to see their families.

Before you actively co-sign on to more war and military excess by shouting “hurrah!” at our current and possibly future forays, or before you passively do so by electing an angry man who still calls Asians gooks and his sidekick who is already showing no diplomatic ability in her words about Russia and Georgia, remember who they send overseas to fight these battles. Your sons and daughters. Your friends. People you care about or who matter to people you care about.

The folks in the military signed up to defend our nation, not to be used as pawns for political gamesmanship, international grandstanding and corporate interests.

And don’t talk to me about bringing back the draft. That will give more warm bodies to abuse, and more incentive to stay places we don’t belong and to go into new places and conflicts we shouldn’t be tackling. Moreover, remember that the politicians won’t be sending their kids off to war for the most part. Way, way more often than not, their kids and other close family will either be safely practicing law, business, medicine or politics—or if they are getting some military credentials they won’t be in harm’s way.

There is nothing respectful or loving in the way our country has used its troops over the past two presidential terms and nothing Christian about it. We are killing and psychologically damaging our own people for nonsense, and we need someone in office who at least wants to try to put an end to it, not someone who blithely wants to soldier on with the same-ole, same-old.

Time to Fight, My Brother

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Now, I’ve been one of those people who feared that if Barack Obama spoke what he really felt sometimes during the primaries and up to now, people would be turned off by the unfair image that he is “an angry Negro” instead of someone rightly sticking up for himself. That has now ended. And here is my “open letter” to Obama (and to those of you who are undecided in the upcoming election) on that matter.

It’s gotten really dirty in this presidential campaign now, and Sen. Obama, it is time for you to fight. My brother in Christ, you need to take off the hat you wear in polite company and put on a riot helmet. You need to take of the kidskin gloves and put on some brass knuckles. Take off those loafers and put on some ass-kicking Doc Marten boots.

It’s time to do battle.

And if a commercial that has imagery suggesting you’re at worst, a pedophile, and at best, someone who wants little kids to know the ins and outs of sexual intercourse—neither of which is true, of course, but images that might stick with people on the fence about you—if a commercial like that can’t get you to start speaking out about this shit, from your own mouth (and not just from your campaign people), I don’t know what can. You backed a bill to help little kids recognize when they are being approached by sexual predators, and your opponents are turning it on its head to say you want to literally teach little kids about sex. Much of America is too lazy to sort out lies from truth. If you don’t respond, and forcibly, the lies will gain power and be perceived as truth. There are still people who believe the lie that you are Muslim, my brother. Don’t ever forget that.

(For more background about the video above, read this at Huffington Post.)

Senator, you have the nomination now, and the Republicans have never fought fair. You won’t win over too many people at this point who are nervous about the idea of a Black man in the White House. Anyone who already thinks you’re an angry Negro will continue to think that; it’s time to sort out who among the undecided is ignorant enough to believe that. It’s time to show those who are on the fence that you not only know how to speak and think but also how to fight. And let the chips fall where they may.

It was only a couple days ago that I posted one of my drive-by scripture items, on Romans chapter 12, verses 18-21, which goes like this:

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

We are past the point at which you can live at peace with your opponents, because they have now decided to fight dirty. You don’t need to stoop to their level and sling mud, but there are plenty of lies they’ve told about things they’ve done that you can rightly call them out on. You also need to respond to their lies about you so that people won’t take your silence the way people take a “no comment” remark on the news (most people assume guilt when they hear that, you know). You don’t need to return evil for evil, Senator. You just need to start hitting back when someone swings at you. You can fight back with dignity, but for God’s sake, fight back.

I know you aren’t a pansy-ass wimp, Senator. I know you know how to fight. But you need to show that now. You can be mature, you can be above the fray, but every hit you take with silence makes you look bad. In the boxing ring, if you can take hits and not fall down, it can show your toughness, but in an election, people can’t see inside you to know you’re still standing emotionally and spiritually.

Senator, you might want to read this, which says a lot of the same things that I just have. Those of us who support you know that you’re the better choice, you and Joe Biden, than are John McCain and Sarah Palin, who will continue to run this country into the ground because they lack scruples, new ideas or a willingness to do the right thing. But there are many who are undecided, and the more you hold back your desire to fight back, the more of them start leaning toward McCain-Palin.

If you won’t fight for yourself, fight for the rest of us. I’d rather you go down swinging. You can fight a clean fight, but damn it, fight already.

Election 2008: The Stakes – Experience

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Normally, I try not to get too much into politics around here. But with this year’s presidential election and all that has been done wrong in the country for the past eight years, this is a pivotal time. Many of my Christian brothers and sisters, perhaps some of those who visit this blog, are angling for the Republicans because, after all, aren’t they the party that loves God best?

Don’t be fooled. I’m not saying Barack Obama is the be-all and end-all. He’s no savior and no messiah, figuratively or literally. But anyone who chooses to vote solely on religious values and picks the GOP because they spout off about God more often is quite possibly going to help plunge our country into more chaos. Remember, church and state are separate. Render unto Caesar’s what is his and unto God what is God’s. Keep them separate and try to remember that most of us in this nation are middle class or working class, and there has not been any time in my 40 years of life that I’ve ever seen a Republican president truly serve the interests of either class, and it seems like they hate the truly poor folks.

I am going to make my case, as much as possible from a spiritual perspective, but mostly practical ones, as to why you should not vote for the McCain-Palin ticket unless you are a wealthy sonovabitch who couldn’t care less what happens as long as you get all your tax breaks.

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There’s a funny little saying going around a lot these days since John McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate:

Jesus was a community organizer; Pontius Pilate was a governor.

Palin herself, who is currently a first-term governor in Alaska (and formerly mayor of a town of 9,000 people…or was it 5,000 at the time? Not entirely sure), a state which—with less than 700,000 people in it, probably has more moose than people—helped birth this little ditty by making a snide comment in her speech at the Republican National Convention last week that went something like: Barack Obama was a community organizer and I was a mayor. Those two jobs are very similar, except that as a mayor, you actually get things done.

Very biting. Very snappy. Very clever. Very bold.

Also, very freaking wrong and deceitful.

First off, if you want to know about some community organizers who’ve gotten things done, check out this post at the blog Ephphatha. Barack Obama was a community organizer in one of the biggest cities in the nation. A city that has numerous neighborhoods with far more people in them than Palin had to deal with in her entire town as mayor.

Moreover, Obama has been a state senator and U.S. senator for more years than Palin has been a governor, and again, he has done so for a state that has lots of multinational ties and lots of trade and lots of issues and a big economy. He has had far more experience dealing with national policy and national issues and more experience in foreign relations. Sure, foreign relations isn’t his strong-suit, but would you say that McCain has got the makings of great foreign relations expertise with his massive hair-trigger temper and simmering bigotry and sexism? And Palin has zero foreign policy experience.

Look, fact is that that the Barack Obama-Joe Biden ticket buys you more experience in legislative, executive and social issues than the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket does.

People want to talk about how plucky and cute and smart and go-getter Palin is. So the hell what?

If you are a person with money to invest in lots of stock, or you are a person with your 401K or other retirement funds invested partly or wholly in stocks, think about this:

Do you want the corporations your money is invested in to be run by people who are good looking and plucky and have wonderful families and seem so darn down to earth? (We’ll assume for the moment that all those things are true with Palin, though really, they aren’t all true.) Or do you want a good business person with a strong track record?

Fact is that given McCain’s age and past health problems, there is a pretty significant chance that Palin would end up having to step in as president.

Do you want a self-proclaimed PTA/hockey mom with some family turmoil in charge? A person who ran a small town and now runs a sparsely populated state and has a track record of trying to ban books, get the ex-spouse of her sister fired and other controversies?

Or do you want someone whom other nations will take seriously and who has played in the big leagues?

Your choice.

I’ll take experience please. That would be Obama and Biden.