Tim F at Balloon Juice:
Over the last month I found out that Barack Obama is a Muslim, that he is captive to his pastor at the United Church of Christ and that he is a Marxist. Talk about transcending! Normally any one of those things would necessarily exclude the other two.
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,†she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.â€
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,†said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.â€
If you throw in fantasies like Iraq’s WMDs, Saddam’s ties to 9/11, the Laffer curve, the War on Christmas, creationism, climate denial and
the easter bunnysmall government Republican, modern conservatives make the red queen look like a piker.
The tone of the attacks against Obama are very worrisome.Read any article about Obama where readers are invited to submit personal commentaries and so many of the submissions are emotion-laden name-calling attacks.H. Clinton doesn’t help the situation with her self-serving characterizations of Obama.
If Obama doesn’t become president I truly hope it isn’t due to McCarthy-esque type of hysteria,but calling him everything bad in hope something sticks ironically recalls the Republican Congress and B. Clinton
I personally look at Obama’s comments about small town America as a sloppy rhetorical mistake,bad choice of words,and being too ‘intellectual’ ,which can be seen as condescending by certain constituencies,but the vituperative moral put-downs of Obama are out of place.
If Obama is just ‘too intellectual’ for people,then that could at least be accepted.
Look, talk is cheap. Because Obama essentially has no track record, the only way that we can evaluate him is to look at his associations and his history.
So… I think it is only fair that we look at his pastor, church, fundraisers (unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers, Tony Resko), things he has been associated with (Million Man March), etc. etc.
If Obama were the 2 term governor of Illinois, this scrutiny would not be necessary.
Obama is a slickly packaged product. But like the Big Mac or Marlboro cigarettes, what he’s really about is not what his marketing says it is. How do you get past the marketing and find the real Obama?
He was elected to 3 terms in the Illinois state senate and to a term in the United States Senate.
He was elected to 3 terms in the Illinois state senate and to a term in the United States Senate.
The Illinois Senate is a 2 year term, and his time there was noteworthy only for how many times he voted “present” so as to duck the tough issues.
And he is a freshman to the US Senate, elected in ’04.
That’s not much of a record. Thus the need to investigate his associations, past statements, etc.
Five million people in this country suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease. During the next administration, the number will skyrocket due to the aging baby boomer population.
We need to ask our candidates what they’re going to do about it before it bankrupts Medicare and Medicaid. Indiana voters must ask that question now.
http://www.alz.org/election08
Yes, let’s judge by associations. Dubya had way more time with his dad, who had way more time with Rumsfeld, who had way more time shaking hands with Saddam, than Obama had at Bill Ayers’ house.
Am I playing this game right?
Or–
Ollie North endorsed McCain. McCain claims to want to “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb heh heh heh(Iran)”, but does he really want to arm them instead, a la North? We just can’t really know, can we? Because, see, they’ve *associated*.
Still playing the game.
For that matter, John Hinckley’s brother was scheduled to have dinner with Dubya’s brother Neil the day after Reagan got shot, briefly making Dubya’s dad the President.
What’s up with that?
I think reasonable people would agree this is a compelling association that begs to be investigated.
This game is fun!
YOU GO T!!
T, where do you get this stuff?
Your knowledge of arcane liberal conspiracy tidbits is second to none. Do you have a radio tuned to Air America hardwired to your brain?
I especially like the Hinckley one.
T’s recall is phenomenal. I think mine is fairly decent, but his is remarkable. You should see us when we get together to play NTN bar trivia. We’re awesome.
You should see us when we get together to play NTN bar trivia.
Ditto here.
I would guess that anyone who got through medical school has to have a very good memory. In the last couple of days, it has been the CONTENT of what T recalls that has stupified me.
First it was that “102 detainees have died in US custody”. Now the Hinkley tidbit.
I’ll ask again. Where does he GET this stuff from?
The Hinckley one was from a mainstream newspaper like the Houston Chronicle, at the time of Reagan’s shooting. It stuck in my head at some late point because it was just so strange. So I googled it yesterday to make sure I wasn’t nuts (in that regard, anyway).
It turns out that Hinckley’s father knew Daddy Bush from the Texas oil industry, and was a financial backer of his campaign. So when his son then showed up in D.C. “casting votes” for daddy’s candidate with a handgun, it does make you go hmmm… Although as far as associations go, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the brother mentioned above with the Hinckley kin dinner date was Neil Bush. He’s also *associated* with the savings and loan bust in the 1980’s, and profiteering off the No Child Left Behind legislation, as well as *associations* with prostitutes during Asian travels, causing his penis to become associated with the herpes virus (details courtesy of his rather nasty divorce). Six Degrees of Neil Bush would be pretty scary.
For me, the take home message is that politicians tend to know a lot of people, and shake the hands of many more people than that. Sometimes those people end up having backstories that are unsavory. Can you vet everyone before you shake their hand? If you are invited to a local activist’s house (as in the Ayers case), do you think to ask if he’s ever tried to bomb the Pentagon?
So you get these funny little things in life. Things like a stoned Elvis becoming an honorary drug agent, with the badge conferred on him by Nixon himself.
Or Rumsfeld shaking Saddam’s hand. Who could have known their love would eventually grow cold? He was the enemy of our enemy, after all.
So shaking hands–not necessarily all that bad. Now giving unrepentent criminals jobs, on the other hand, is a different matter. Poindexter, Negroponte, Elliott Abrams, and Otto Reich come to mind. You see, our current president hired Otto Reich, even though in a previous administration Reich had helped get Orlando Bosch sprung from prison. Bosch was an actual, real live terrorist, having blown up a Havana-bound airliner with 73 people on board.
So yes, let’s keep our eyes on Obama and make sure he doesn’t appoint unrepentent terrorist Bill Ayers to a cabinet position.
The detainee number was from a post on Eschaton about a month ago. Once I got called on it, it took some hunting to find that one. If you just google “detainee deaths” you get such a hodgepodge of worthless crap because on the occasions when someone has tried to answer the question, the info wasn’t available. So the only info as far as I can tell is from various news articles from 3 years ago. So I had to get the number 102 from the original post. Then googling “102 detainee deaths” gets more mainstream stuff rather than just Eschaton which would be considered “lefty” and therefore suspect.
The Bush villains above are very easy to remember because their names are so damn cool. I mean, “Poindexter”? Are you kidding me? “Otto Reich”? I could see it on Jeopardy now: “Answer: Otto Reich.” “Ummm… What is the most Nazi-sounding name imaginable?”
If you are invited to a local activist’s house (as in the Ayers case), do you think to ask if he’s ever tried to bomb the Pentagon?
That’s BS. Ayers BOASTS of his history. Everybody at U of C knows him and his history.
Ayers is a typical baby boomer academic liberal jagoff, and that alone would keep me away from the guy. The WU association is just gravy.
So yes, let’s keep our eyes on Obama and make sure he doesn’t appoint unrepentent terrorist Bill Ayers to a cabinet position.
Don’t laugh. He’s as qualified to be the Secretary of Education as anyone, being a tenured education school prof. at a premier school of education.
And Ayers is just letting that school of education go unbombed?
Maybe we can tie this in to rap music somehow (“Obama’s Other Jeremiah Wrights” http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26002 ).
Maybe Obama’s so used to over-the-top boasts in that medium that when he hears, “I bombed the Pentagon”, he thinks, “Heh–that’s pretty good, white boy. Now make it rhyme.”
Wow, I’m not used to reading anything about diaster-as-New-York-mayor David Dinkins in a positive light.
Obama’s relationship with Ayers and Wright go far beyond a handshake.
“Far” beyond? He served on a board with the guy, and got a big ‘ol $200 contribution from him during a campaign.
Does that equal “far” more?
Or is there more I should know?
I went to some pretty mucky places on the internets just to learn he was on a board with the guy.
The Obama campaign reports that they are “friendly”.
And, of course, the Wright relationship is very close.
Hmm. What boards does Ayers serve on? That could be a bit of a scandal in and of itself.
Sitting on boards sounds pretty scandalous.
“Friendly” sounds pretty ominous, too. He doesn’t hold hands with the guy like Bush does with various Saudis, does he?
Sitting on boards sounds pretty scandalous.
Having a guy who bombed the Pentagon and wishes that he could have done more bombings is someone YOU would want on your hospital board?
Come on, get serious.
You know, it’s pretty ironic how the only country in the world that would let you live after bombing it’s military headquarters is the very country Mr. Ayers rails against so vehemently.
I don’t honestly think Obama has the same contempt for America that Ayers does, I think Obama is a decent guy. What’s disturbing is that Obama either forgives his (Ayers) actions or doesn’t think it was a big deal. Most of us are not so forgiving…he planted frickin’ bombs and blew up buildings….Mainstream politicians (and Universities for that matter) ought not to embrace domestic terrorists. Ayers wasn’t practicing dissent, he was practicing terrorism plain and simple.
Usually the way a board works is someone appoints you to one, and someone also appoints other people to one. You and those other people serve together. Each individual, having been appointed independently, then also has an independent vote.
Did Obama appoint Ayers to the board? Or did he merely serve beside him? If he merely served on the same board, then I have to again wonder where the “scandal” is here.
I think most hospital board members would be shocked if their character came into question due to past actions of another independently-appointed member of that board.
If every politician who talked to someone who advocated bombing Federal buildings were marginalized, then every Republican who talked to or shook the hand of Pat Robertson would be out of politics. All the remaining prominent Republicans could then carpool in one mid-size sedan.
T, seriously, you are off your rocker defending this guy.
He didn’t “advocate bombing a federal building”.
He did it! And he’s not sorry about it! He’s proud of it, in fact.
Quite frankly, the only difference between Ayers and Mohammad Atta is that Atta was competant as a terrorist, and Ayers, snotty rich punk from Wilmette, Illinois, was not. Ayers buddies blew themselves up in Greenwich Village.
You’re defending the undefensable. Give it up. Ayers does not equal Robertson. He equals Atta.
I’m not particularly interested in digging into the biography of a guy not running for office who was part of a radical group four decades ago. So, I’m ignorant. But, there almost has to be something missing from this story, deliberately or through innocent oversight. How does a person convicted of bombing a federal building become a professor at the University of Chicago?
I’m not defending Ayers. I’m defending Obama for sitting on a board with seven other people, one of whom was Ayers.
I’m also giving context. Robertson on more than one occasion advocated placing a nuclear device in the State Department. He advocated that on television while talking to millions of people, at least some of whom think he has a direct link to God. You’re right he’s not Atta. In this case, he’s Bin Laden.
How does a person convicted of bombing a federal building become a professor at the University of Chicago?
He wasn’t convicted. He turned himself in and confessed, but was not prosecuted because of a technicality (illegal FBI wiretaps).
Sorry, I said previously that Ayers was a prof at U of C.
He’s actually a prof at University of Illinois at Chicago. UIC is not U of C, not even close.
UIC is a step up from community college, equivelent to Purdue Cal.
Although, these days you need a 31 on the ACT to get into U of I. UIC has a lot more qualified student body that it used to.
You’re right he’s not Atta. In this case, he’s Bin Laden.
Your line of argument is like one between my 4 year old and my wife.
Wife: why did you do that?
4 year old son: [6 year old brother] does it!
That works as well for my 4 year old as it does for you.
Give it up, dude. Obama knew this guy very well. You can argue that he didn’t know who Ayers was and what he did, but like Wright, I think Obama knew, and he was okay with it.
As are most of the Chicago “progressive” community. Ayers is not shunned by anyone in Chicago.
Robertson is completely irrelevant. You may recall that he actually ran for President and didn’t make it very far. How’s that “Moral Majority” working? Getting a lot of Republicans elected?
And if you asked McCain about that statement by Robertson, I bet you could get McCain to turn red and call Robertson some four letter words. I hear that he has a temper.
He advocated that on television while talking to millions of people, at least some of whom think he has a direct link to God.
Millions of people do not watch the 700 Club. It’s on some low power Christian station out of Gary, to the best of my knowledge. It’s not even carried by Comcast here.
Robertson would probably be more “relevant” to national politics than this Ayers guy, with his professorship and his charitable board membership, who almost no one ever heard of until the last few months, no?
If you asked McCain a couple of years ago, he might have turned red and acted like himself. It’ll be interesting to see if Robertson endorses, and what McCain’s reaction is then.
You still don’t really say what you wanted Obama to do. Not sit on the board? If you go sifting through everyone who ever sat on a board with scoundrels, you’ll be busy a long time. Not have the meet-and-greet at the guy’s house? I agree with you on that one wholeheartedly. But so what? He did that once, in his first campaign, and never again. That hardly constitutes an endorsement, three decades after the fact, of his bombing.
You still don’t really say what you wanted Obama to do. Not sit on the board?
Whatever. I wouldn’t go near Ayers with a 10 foot pole. I wouldn’t go to his house, I wouldn’t take his class, I wouldn’t read his book, I wouldn’t be on the board with him.
But that’s me, and I knew who Ayers was (funny you don’t, Dr. Photo Memory). Obama knew who this guy was (Ayers has been in the Tribune and Chicago magazine on many occasions). Like all Chicago Democrats, he just did not care.
Good God, Ayers has a blog.
I knew who the Weather Underground were. I didn’t have their roster memorized. That brainspace is indelibly occupied by the rosters of rock bands roughly 1965-1990.
That’s quite the blog. Is that Freedom Rock, man? Turn it up!
That blog could end up being the gift that keeps on giving. He kind of sort of acts like he’s going to express regret, but then he doesn’t. People like that are annoying.
Other than bombing buildings and sitting on charitable boards, we now also know he likes to type. A lot.
Hehe, hadn’t heard Freedom Rock quoted in awhile. What’s next? K-Tel?