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AP For McCain Strikes Again

OMG!!! Obama’s half-aunt may be in America illegally! This irrelevant bit of material brought to you via a leak from the Bush administration and blared across the world by the Ron Fournier led AP. Or something.

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49 Responses to “AP For McCain Strikes Again”

  1. william says:

    An illegal alien and donating to the Obama campaign. I’m shocked.

  2. SaveFarris says:

    “Laws. Pbffft. Who needs ‘em?”

    That’s a lovely sentiment from the Obama crowd which is SURE to win over voters in these final days. Is this the October Surprise?

  3. Half-aunt?! The GOP ticket is made up of a man married to a dope thief and a woman married to a secessionist.

  4. Apsaras says:

    Remember when Obama mentioned his uncle had helped liberate a concentration camp? And how it turned out to be his Great-Uncle and this discrepancy was seized upon by the 101st fighting keyboarders as some terrible gaffe?

    There’s no chance of them showing some sense of perspective on this, is there? No.

  5. Nedra Pickler?? Shocking!! Shocking, I tell you!! The only thing more shocking is if that story would have been written by Liz “Sprinkles” Sidoti(or Fournier himself).

  6. Randy Brown says:

    Another Hail Mary pass…thrown in an empty stadium on the Tuesday after the last game of the season.

    Start spreadin’ the news!

  7. Parthenon says:

    If our immigration laws weren’t worth something between cat urine and cigarette ash, this might bother me a little more. As it is, I expect a collective shrug.

  8. SpiderJ says:

    So…unable to dig up the evidence of Obama’s ineligibility to be President, the McCain camp attempts to dig up reasons that members of his family can’t be President. Or something.

    Oh, but families are off-limits. How DARE you say something about Bristol Palin?

  9. Jay Tea says:

    If Joe the plumber’s plumbing license status and tax liens are germane, if a car accident that may or may not have happened 44 year years ago are germane, If John McCain’s brother caling 911 over traffic is germane, than yet more proof that the Obama campaign is cheerfully taking illegal donations is absolutely relevant.

    Toss in how Obama talked about her in one of his books, exhorts us all to take care of those less fortunate, and uses phrases like “our brother’s keepers,” then the story of his aunt (and his half-brother in Kenya) are just as fair game as the rest.

    J.

  10. Jay Tea says:

    Oh, and my objection to the Bristol Palin mentions was that she was a minor. Obama’s aunt is a legal adult, and chose to get involved by making illegal campaign donations to her nephew’s campaign — $260.00 at last count, but that doesn’t include any she might have donated under different names, like “Doodad Pro,” “Loving You,” or “Adkjlasdf;l fkljasdeionv.”

    J.

  11. Jay Tea wrote:

    “…Oh, and my objection to the Bristol Palin mentions was that she was a minor…”

    If she is a minor why is she sexually active? Fornification is a sin- and Christians are not supposed to engage in sexual intercourse until married?

    Another example of poor parenting Jay Tea. Those “free love” righties (Haggard, Foley, Palin, Vitter, Craig).

  12. Mylegacy says:

    Two things: One lets get the “Underground Railroad” back up and working and lets get this lady in our protection. She can stay at my place it she wants – I’ve got an extra room and enough food for an extra mouth.

    Second: She is what America is to SO many of the world’s poor. A beacon of hope, a refuge, a place to live with some dignity. Until Lou Dobbs and his vigilante’s hunt them down. Shit, quiet, I can hear the hound dogs.

  13. Jay Tea says:

    OK, the moral failings of a minor DO matter, the criminal conduct of an adult DO NOT matter. Got it.

    Obama’s been in touch with her at least once in the last couple of years.

    J.

  14. PG says:

    Jay Tea,

    The linked article says, “Onyango’s refusal to leave the country would represent an administrative, noncriminal violation of immigration law, meaning such cases are handled outside the criminal court system.”

    Have to say it again: the literacy levels of the conservatives who comment here are really disappointing.

  15. Tyro says:

    Jay Tea, what moral failing of Obama are you taking issue with? Would that be leaving his injured wife to marry a rich woman 18 years his junior? Would it be taking gifts of golf trips to the Caribbean from a corrupt S&L guy trying to buy influence? Or maybe his moral failure of being a cheerleader for the Iraq war?

    Oh, yeah, I forgot, those moral failings — serious ones — are McCain’s.

    Meanwhile, we have a distant relative of Obama who had an asylum application rejected by a judge. Woo.

    Seriously, Jay Tea, if this is the worst about Obama, the guy’s the best person we’ve had run for presient in recent memory, and I can’t possibly come up with an argument to vote against him in favor of McCain. Why are you wasting your time trying to pick on Obama when you’re coming to defense of a much worse, much more dangerous, much more destructive candidate and political party? If you’re too much of a coward to stand up against the Republicans, how can your criticisms of Obama be considered the least bit trustworthy?

  16. Jay Tea says:

    PG, I’ll freely admit that I think that anyone who willfully violates the immigration laws of this nation is a criminal. I don’t give a rat’s ass what others say; if you choose to break a law, then you are a lawbreaker.

    And her contribution to his campaign is also a violation of the law.

    Will Obama give her the money back?

    More importantly, is she registered to vote, too?

    Back to the uncle story: Obama, by the standard established in numerous other cases, DID “lie” about him. He said his uncle helped liberate Auschwitz. He had no uncles on his mother’s side, and Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army. Considering his prior record of falsifying his own history, calling “bullshit” was entirely appropriate. If Obama had just gotten his facts right the first time, there would have been no problem.

    And nice try, folks, trying to change the subject from Obama’s aunt to Bristol Palin or anything else. That’s usually a really good sign that the story has you folks deeply worried.

    J.

  17. Tyro says:

    Jay Tea, neither Obama the candidate nor anyone associated with his campaign did anything wrong. By contrast, McCain, his campaign, and his running mate have a long track record of ethical violations, possible criminal actions, and rank dishonesty.

    The best you can come up with is that someone, somewhere, had an application for asylum denied and lied when claiming to be eligible to make a campaign donation? Really, if you can’t stand up and oppose the moral evils of your own party and candidates, what makes you think we will take you seriously when you mouth off about Obama, who doesn’t have any such marks on his record?

  18. Sean D. Martin says:

    Jay Tea: Will Obama give her the money back?

    The article: The campaign said it was returning $260 that Onyango had contributed in small increments to Obama’s presidential bid over several months.

    PG: Have to say it again: the literacy levels of the conservatives who comment here are really disappointing.

    Y’know, sometimes comments here almost write themselves.

  19. mambochicken23 says:

    Jay Tea: “If Obama had just gotten his facts right the first time, there would have been no problem.”

    Yeah, right. The conservatives in this country really give a flying fuck about facts. That’s why they’re howling about Obama being a racist socialist communist chickenshit Muslim terrorist-sympathizer born in Kenya.

    Gimme a fucking break, JT. Have you no intellectual honesty whatsoever? The only thing that matters to you is the destruction of your political opponents for your party’s gain. You are a tool.

  20. DawnPoetic says:

    Here we have Obama’s HALF-AUNT who may be here illegally and somehow this reflects on his character? Seriously? Obama has stated he didn’t know of her status and why would he? Jeefus, some people are so stupid I wonder how they manage to breathe.

  21. Parthenon says:

    For goodness sakes, JT, he said Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald. Somebody convene a grand jury.

  22. Zython says:

    Another example of poor parenting Jay Tea. Those “free love” righties (Haggard, Foley, Palin, Vitter, Craig).

    Of course it’s bad parenting, Sarah Palin thinks of her children as pets. Why else would she name her Down’s Syndrome child “Triginometry”? The poor kid’s gonna have enough problems getting through life as it is.

  23. PG says:

    Jay Tea,

    PG, I’ll freely admit that I think that anyone who willfully violates the immigration laws of this nation is a criminal. I don’t give a rat’s ass what others say; if you choose to break a law, then you are a lawbreaker.

    And this is why the Minutemen movement has long disturbed me. I believe individual citizens should care about enforcing the law and should do what they can to help official law enforcement. But it frightens me how many conservatives don’t care what the law actually says about whether a violation of law is criminal or noncriminal, and what the proportionate response is — their own decision about whether it’s a crime is the only one that matters to them.

  24. PG says:

    Incidentally, with regard to Miss Palin, I’m surprised that conservatives aren’t more troubled by her and her fiance’s decision not to marry until next summer. This is a horribly, ugly word to use, but isn’t she making her baby a “bastard” at birth by waiting until she gets her figure back to get married? I know people who got pregnant while unmarried, and none of them waited to get married AFTER the birth; if they were going to get married, the whole point was to do it before the baby was born. Is there a reason to wait that I’m missing here?

  25. Jay Tea says:

    In his infomercial last week, Barack Obama said we need to take care of our brothers.

    Now I fully understand what he meant.

    We all need to give more money to the government to pay others to take care of our brothers (but not the ones living in hovels in Kenya), our aunts (illegal aliens in public housing in Boston), and all the rest. We simply can’t be trusted to take care of each other, so we need to put union-belonging government workers in charge of doing what we simply can’t be bothered to do ourselves. Because we can’t be trusted to do the right thing, we need to be taxed even further in the hopes that whatever the government doesn’t skim off the top for its cut will be enough to cover the costs of our responsibilities.

    It’s so much clearer now.

    I’m sorry for being greedy and selfish and wanting to keep my own hard-earned money for myself.

    J.

  26. mambochicken23 says:

    Shorter Jay Tea: Look! Over there!!!

  27. mambochicken23 says:

    But seriously, Jay Tea… you ARE a terrible human being. I just wish that I could see you weeping pathetically on the floor of your living room as the election results come in. I will have to settle for watching the assholes at Fox News do it instead.

    I really do wish you nothing but ill, though.

  28. Jay Tea says:

    PG, I say this as a proud born-again agnostic: go and actually MEET some devout fundamentalist Christians. The ones I know are so far removed from your stereotyping that it’s almost funny. Instead, it’s very, very sad.

    Zython: Palin’s young son, Trig, was named for a great-uncle. The Palins say that the name is of Norse origin, and means “true” or “great victory,” but it seems that is simply an old family myth — no one has managed to confirm any Nordic meaning behind “Trig.” But I’m sure your buddies are awful proud of you for using a disabled infant as a political football for your cheap shots.

    Tyro, Obama’s failings — not just moral ones — are legion. He was an absolute flop as a “community organizer” — he freely says that his inability to get anything done led him to go to law school. His tenure at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was so pitiful that he never talks about the seven years he spent on the board (four as chairman), when he oversaw the spending of over $150 million with NO measurable results for Chicago’s schools, but considerable improvement in the bank balances of Bill Ayers and Ayers’ cronies.

    He pledged to accept public funding for his campaign, then reneged on that when he realized he could rake in a lot more money if he refused. He (through his campaign) deliberately disabled the routine security measures to prevent credit card fraud. He spent twenty years as a proud member of a church, got married there, had his daughters baptized there, but never paid enough attention to realize that the pastor was a raving nutjob. He cut some real estate deals with a man who is now a convicted felon for political corruption. He spent his entire political career as part of the Chicago democratic machine, and not ONCE said or did anything about the rampant corruption there.

    On numerous countroversial issues, when it came to a vote, he firmly refused to give his constituents the representation to which they were entitled to and voted “present.” One time he did take a firm stand was on a bill that would have required hospitals to provide care for infants who were born alive and survived an abortion procedure — instead, he fought to let stand the horrific practice of locking newborns in closets until they died.

    And back to the topic at hand, last Wednesday he announced to the nation that “I am my brother’s keeper.” Meanwhile, his actual brother lives in squalor in Nairobi and his aunt is an illegal alien living in public housing in Boston and sending him illegal campaign contributions.

    Those, Tyro, are the failings — moral and otherwise — of Barack Obama. The major difference between him and McCain: McCain never denies his failings. Instead, he is usually the best source for the details of what he did, and he tries to fix the situation. He dodged a bullet with the Keating Five, and became a zealot on campaign finance reform and earmarks. He fucked up his first marriage, so he’s worked hard as hell to make the second one last — and mended the fences with his first wife, who has endorsed him.

    Finally, Obama has achieved exactly NOTHING in his life of meaning. He has had great successes, but they’ve all boiled down to getting people to like him enough to get him up another rung on the ladder to the White House. He has left no footprints on his walk of life, no lasting legacy of achievement. He has always gone in lockstep with his party leadership, never once crossing them on a matter of principle or taken a stand that they opposed.

    Please, prove me wrong. Show me one time he took a chance on a matter of principle, where he achieved some measurable goal that actually had some affect on the world. And don’t bother with that nuclear thing — that was so controversial, it was passed by a unanimous voice vote. it was little more challenging than getting a bunch of kindergarteners to vote for puppies and kittens.

    J.

  29. “…PG, I say this as a proud born-again agnostic: go and actually MEET some devout fundamentalist Christians…”

    Meet? Jay Tea- I not only have met, dated, played in a softball league w/, and worked w/ many born agains- I married one. She was 36 when we honyemooned, and had never slept with a man. Not that I cared- were I fundamentalist, forgiveness would be my stance toward young Bristol. Since I’m not, I realize that 15 and 16 year olds, who are physically of reproductive age, have had desires and babies before there were industrial or academic societies- that’s whatt puberty is for.

    The double standard kicks in when righties judge progressives for their sex lives. It’s also hypocritical to compare an undocumented aunt w/ a secessionist husband or a dope thief wife- the latter relationships are much closer Jay Tea. Media doesn’t touch Cindy’s past.

  30. mambochicken23 says:

    Um… how about when he spoke frequently and openly against war with Iraq at a time when it was not politically popular to do so?

    “Finally, Obama has achieved exactly NOTHING in his life of meaning.”

    This kind of idiotic, hyperbolic statement makes me want to forcibly remove your brain and replace it with a baked potato.

  31. Quaker in a Basement says:

    This kind of idiotic, hyperbolic statement makes me want to forcibly remove your brain and replace it with a baked potato.

    By all appearances, you’re too late.

  32. daniel rotter says:

    “Show me one time he took a chance on a matter of principle, where he achieved some measurable goal that actually had an effect on the world. And don’t bother with that nuclear thing-that was so controversial, it was passed by an unanimous voice vote”.

    So something can only have an “effect on the world” if it’s “controversial”? What a ridiculous and bizarre worldview you have, Jay.

  33. Duros Hussein62 says:

    Conversely, Mr. Tea, please share with us the same metric with regard to Senator McCain. What has he done to achieve some lofty global effect?

  34. Jay Tea says:

    No, Rotter, it means I’m trying to differentiate leadership from “seeing which way the crowd is going and running ahead of them.” Oddly enough, this is pretty much the same situation the Democrats were in in 2004 — I challenged Kerry supporters to cite three notable achievements of John Kerry’s in the 30-odd years since the end of the Viet Nam war, and they couldn’t come up with anything.

    I’ll make it simpler: apart from the nuclear nonproliferation law, what has Barack Obama done?

    For example, you can cite his letter warning about the pending collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I’ll see that and raise you actual attempts by Republicans to pass laws (you know, what real Senators do when they’re worried about something) to do something. Three of those Republicans would be John McCain, Elizabeth Dole, and John Sunumu (my guy).

    mambo, Obama came out against the war at an anti-war rally. The war in Iraq was NEVER “hugely popular;” it was pretty UNpopular among most of Obama’s core constituencies from day one. And he picked as his running mate a guy who voted FOR the war, and now explains his vote as “I thought Bush was bluffing! I voted to THREATEN war, not actually WAGE IT!!!!” (This is known as “The Hillary Defense.”)

    Obama himself described himself as a “blank screen,” a sort of Rorshach blot that others could see whatever they wanted to see in him. And a lot of people, it seems, are ready to do just that with their ballot.

    Include me out.

    J.

  35. daniel rotter says:

    “No, Rotter,…”

    Actually, yes, Jay. You clearly implied that if a bill is not controversial, and passes unanimously by voice vote, then that automatically means that it won’t/can’t have an “affect on the world”. There is no logic or reason to that kind of idiotic thinking.

  36. PG says:

    PG, I say this as a proud born-again agnostic: go and actually MEET some devout fundamentalist Christians. The ones I know are so far removed from your stereotyping that it’s almost funny. Instead, it’s very, very sad.

    Too funny. I went to an Episcopalian school nursery-5th grade, and grew up in East Texas surrounded by Baptists. My younger sister’s best friend was a Catholic and forced to break up with her little middle school boyfriend because the boy’s father didn’t want his son with a Papist. I accidentally sat through the beginning of a “Christians in Action” meeting once because there were so many of the same students who were in National Honor Society with me. Speaking of National Honor Society, we had our induction in a church and it didn’t occur to anyone — including me — to see this as a problem. I was an abortion prohibitionist (no exceptions for rape or incest) in high school, despite an early pro-choice phase induced by reading Ayn Rand, because one of my classmates had me convinced that an embryo was the same as a newborn. I was in an evangelical Bible study group my third year of college because I wanted to learn more, but dropped out when I realized that my incessant questioning, while patiently accepted by the group leader, was interfering with what the Christians in the group wanted to get out of it.

    Who do you think are the people I was talking about who took pains to get married BEFORE they had a kid? And sorry, what was the “stereotyping” in which I was engaging by wondering why Bristol Palin is not getting married before she gives birth?

    Jay Tea, I don’t wonder at Palin’s failure to marry before childbirth because I don’t know anything about Christian fundamentalists. I wonder at it because it diverges from the fundamentalists I knew. If they’re different in Alaska than they are in TX, that’s fine, I just didn’t know about a geographic variation in mores about the importance of a baby’s having married parents.

  37. Zython says:

    But I’m sure your buddies are awful proud of you for using a disabled infant as a political football for your cheap shots.

    Who’s “using” the kid himself? He didn’t do anything, Sarah Palin’s the one who gave him the name. If he wants to name her kids as if they were cats, that’s fine, but she shouldn’t expect not to be called out on it.

  38. PG says:

    Nobody was giving the poor little girl who was named “Sarah Palin McCain” a hard time. They were criticizing her father, who put that name on the birth certificate after telling his wife, who had just given birth to the baby, that he agreed with her on the name “Ava Grace.” There’s nothing but sympathy for the unfortunate children (and sometimes wives) of Republicans who treat their offspring like a bumper on which to put a sticker.

  39. daniel rotter says:

    “John Sunumu (my guy)”.

    Not for long! Come January of next year, Jeanne Shaheen is going to be “your lady”.

  40. Jay Tea says:

    Rotter, I remember all too clearly the six years when Shaheen was my governor. Hell, I voted for her once or twice, when the Republicans sent the champion of the day from the Arrogant Stupid faction of the NH GOP up against her. (1996, 2000) But she was a BAD governor. Taxes shot up, state spending skyrocketed, and the state’s overall health suffered. And her husband was forced out of the Obama campaign after he shot his mouth off about Obama’s drug history.

    But back to the point of the original article: Obama proclaimed himself “my brother’s keeper,” yet we see how he treats his brother and other relatives when they need help. When you combine that with his non-record of achievements, how the hell is this guy doing so well? Is he the ultimate expression of the Peter Principle?

    J.

  41. Bruce Henry says:

    Where is the article entitled “Obama Kin Ask For Help, Obama Denies Aid” ?

    Oh, isn’t there one? Then WTF are you talking about?

  42. Tyro says:

    Please, prove me wrong.

    Jay Tea, you are wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. Your rant is nothing but an screed of talking points of outrage of mindless Republican talking points written by a man who has so pathetically allowed his sense of Republicans entitlement blind him to the fact that Obama is one of our finest presidential candidates. Your screed is nothing but the last bleatings of a Republican entitlement machine desperate to bring down a politician who is better than they are. And they are rooted in your gullibility and willingness to lie in favor of your party’s cause, and that is your biggest moral mistake of all which makes you much worse than what you could ever criticize Obama for. You’ve decided to morally compromise yourself.

    Let’s focus on who Obama is. Obama’s a guy who did head to Chicago as a community organizer to help out people who were facing a tough time in the 80s. And, yeah, you know, life is tough: improvement comes in bare increments, leading Obama to decide that getting a law degree would put him in a better position to do good. It’s what you’d expect a good person to do who wanted to contribute to society. The bevy of other Republican jokers? You don’t see them doing this sort of thing in their lives, because they’re moral losers. That’s why people like Barack Obama get picked for things like the Annenberg challenge, which, though it could only give us small improvements in achievement, are important: because these are the people who focus on improving things and giving people better opportunities.

    Next you criticize Obama for what– voting present on stupid “gotcha” bills? Aren’t you Republican ogod-government types telling us how bills are loaded down with useless amendments and passed to serve the politicial machinations of their sponsors? Well, screw that. Obama didn’t play the game you wanted him to play. In all, he passed some good legislation in Chicago– stuff he came up with and conceived of himself: McCain, of course, isn’t interested in legislation. As a moral failure of a human being, McCain basically likes to step in and take credit for things he doesn’t understand. Obama even wrote legislation together with the loathsome Sen. Coburn. And he dealt with substantial state opposition in Illinois to improve law enforcement problems with interrogations. These are things McCain likes to talk about (being tough on crime or caring about earmarks), but never does anything about, because he’s a phony.

    Now, of course, you can flip off on a rant about Obama’s relatives to sort of portray him as a bad guy or criticize him out of jealously for the sin of being popular and having lots of people willing to give him money, while Republicans are apathetic and dispirited about their own candidates, but it doesn’t matter: at the end, you’re lashing out in rage at a candidate who doesn’t deserve it and is in fact that sort of candidate you’d be praising if he were a Republicans. If you’re going to punish a candidate for doing good and being good, then it’s obvious that the problem is yours and the moral failure is yours.

    Obama is, by all accounts, productive, well-informed, knowledgeable, and smart who navigated some dangerous waters to get some good work done. Yes, the “I love fundies’ votes but hate church” secular wing of the Republican party will try to drum up outrage about Obama who went to a church that actually worked on the ground to help their communities, unlike the lazy losers who make up the Republican critics, try to play “oh, but someone he once met, somewhere, did something decades ago kevin bacon game, but it doesn’t actually work, because these are pathetic bleatings that no one but a group of resentful ignoramuses takes seriously.

    The moral failure of the Republican ideology is complete. They hate the voters: Obama went to the voters directly and got them to vote for him. Obama lived a good life wanting to do good things: recent prominent Republicans have led narcissistic, indulgent lives dedicated to self-glorification while watching the world around them crumble. Bush, McCain, and the mainstream of the Republican party of moral, intellectual, and ideological failures. That you support them, that you pathetically bleat about how the Annenberg challenge wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be while you remain pathetically silent (and even supportive) of outrageous evils of torture supported and perpetrated by Republicans only demonstrates the the biggest failure is your own. You are absolutely blind and incapable of acknowledging that, in this election, Obama is the superior candidate. Your anger rises from your resentment that he has the ability and the audacity to beat the republicans. Your empty bleatings would sound the same against Clinton, or anyone else. They are simply untrustworthy, and your character judgments are not to be trusted.

    But she was a BAD governor.

    Yes, weirdly, New Hampshire became a more attractive, more economically vibrant place to live during that time. Not such good judgment you have there.

    Once again, you have bleatings about relatively good politicians, but you are silent on the matter of absolute dangerous, immoral joker like McCain, Bush, and Cheney who are, by any decent metric, absolutely horrible, horrible people with a bad track record. Yet these are the ones you support. Says more about you than about Obama. And that’s why Obama is winning– that what voters are looking for when Obama talks about “change” and the need to get beyond “partisan rancor”: voters are tired of hearing this crap from people like you.

  43. Parthenon says:

    Tyro, how do you feel about me printing that out?

  44. PG says:

    Bruce Henry,

    You quite miss Jay Tea’s point. He said, ‘Obama proclaimed himself “my brother’s keeper,” yet we see how he treats his brother and other relatives when they need help.’

    You see, it’s the conservative authoritarian’s role to decide who needs help; it’s not for those silly little people to determine for themselves what they need. Cf. invasion of Iraq, in which we would be greeted as liberators because OF COURSE the little Iraqis would be absolutely delighted to see us.

  45. Jay Tea says:

    Tyro, once you pare out all the generic blather aimed at me, and look at just what you said about Obama, the substance of your screed is about as substantial as Obama’s own record. The “present” votes he made were not a rejection of the game, but a declaration that he was playing a different game — the “preserve my political viability at any cost” game.

    Obama was a State Senator at that time — a representative, in other words. His job was to represent the wishes and interests of his constituents. When he voted “present,” he deprived them of their voice on that piece of legislation.

    There are valid times when “present” is a valid response. The most common reason is when the representative has a personal interest in the matter before them. For example, when Dianne Feinstein is called upon to vote on earmarks that will funnel billions into companies her husband controls. (Oh, my bad. She voted for those earmarks. She should have abstained from those votes.)

    Another reason I’d consider voting “present” would be on the endless stream of stupid, pointless measures legislatures seem to generate. “National Sea Monkey Awareness Day” proclamations. Vague declarations of sympathy and support that mean nothing. I’d vote “present” on those just to show my contempt for those wasts of time and effort and paper.

    Obama, by refusing to cast a vote, essentially defrauded his constituents. He took the office, took the paycheck, and didn’t do the job he was hired for.

    You take Obama’s leaving the “community organizer” role as a sign of wisdom, of seeking to increase his ability to make change. That’s one interpretation. Another is that he realized that he didn’t need to actually affect change to progress. Rather, he just needed to burnish his credentials a bit to hop on the “social engineers/community organizers” bandwagon to put him on the path to power.

    I find that a more compelling interpretation because it’s more consistent with his conduct ever since. Not once has he ever used his rising power and influence to actually affect real change.

    As noted, he voted “present” on over a hundred controversial measures.

    He never — NOT ONCE — stood up to the astonishing corruption of the Chicago Democratic machine that was boosting him to power.

    He railed against immunity for the telecomms, then voted voted in favor of it.

    He strongly supported the DC gun ban, but once it was declared unconstitional, backed the Supreme Court decision — at the same time.

    He denounced the “surge” strategy that has given Iraq the best chance it has ever had to become a free, democratic state, voted against it, and while acknowledging its success, STILL says he’d vote against it.

    He chose JOE BIDEN as his running mate. Biden, who has been wrong on more foreign policy issues than almost anyone else I can think of. Biden, who generates more gaffes than Dan Quayle. Biden, who whenever he is challenged on anything responds with complete and utter bullshit — but is a good enough pol that it sounds good at the time. Biden, who has steered millions in earmarks to the clients of his lobbyist son. Biden, who has spent over half his life in the Senate, is supposed to help Obama bring about “change.”

    Not once in his career has Obama taken a single risk, made a major stand on principle. Rather, he has embodied the “go along to get along” principle and followed the direction of his party superiors, who have rewarded him for his loyalty.

    I fear that a vote for Obama is a vote for letting Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi run the country, and that should terrify anyone.

    And I fear that because it it entirely consistent with Obama’s entire political career. You can feel free to Hope that once he’s elected, he’ll Change; I would rather not bet on that.

    J.

  46. Bruce Henry says:

    The phrase you use to open your last two paragraphs sums you up, Jay Tea. You and all the other so-called “conservatives.”
    “I fear…”
    “And I fear…”
    You don’t fear a president who has suspended habeus corpus, the 4th Amendment, or our effective participation in the Geneva Convention, but you fear Obama.
    You don’t fear a candidate who has embraced both sides of almost every issue of the last 8 years, but you fear Obama.
    You don’t fear the very possible, even likely, ascenscion to the Presidency of a woman who believes in witches and the Rapture, but not evolution or global warming, but you fear Obama.
    Could you be any more deluded?

  47. Jay Tea says:

    Bruce, nice reiteration of the Democratic Underground talking points.

    1) Our “effective participation in the Geneva Convention” has been meaningless for about 60 years. It’s been that long since we faced an enemy that respected it. Further, it was intended to be a “tit for tat” intention — if you want the protection of it, you should abide by it yourself. We aren’t facing an enemy that recognizes or respects it.

    2) The “suspensions” you describe — habeas corpus, the 4th Amendment, and whatnot — have all been very measured, very limited, and grossly exaggerated. The phone tapping you described was on international calls with people with known terrorist ties on one end. The habeas corpus was being argued for non-Americans not on American soil.

    Hell, if it was half as bad as you say it is, why is Media Matters still in business? Why isn’t Keith Olbermann sharing a pen with Joseph Wilson in Guantanamo? Why is Bush getting ready to leave office without a fuss?

    But if you wanna talk about amendments, how about Obama and the 2nd? He’s long been a champion of an absolute ban on handguns, AND he supported the Supreme Court saying that was unconstitutional! This is a Constitutional scholar who cheerfully champions a position he agrees is against the Constitution. That, up there with the selection of Joe Biden, screams that the guy has NO judgment whatsoever.

    J.

  48. PG says:

    Jay,

    The phone tapping you described was on international calls with people with known terrorist ties on one end.

    You believe our men and women in uniform have known terrorist ties? You are a very sad and hate-filled person.

  49. Bruce Henry says:

    Jay Tea, you don’t usually flat-out lie, but you keep repeating that one about Obama and the 2nd Amendment.
    Obama doesn’t support an “absolute” ban on handguns. He has supported allowing local governments to apply reasonable restrictions. When the DC handgun ban was thrown out by the Supreme Court, Obama said that what yhe SCOTUS said was the law of the land, and he supports the law. He also saw in the decision a glimmer of hope that his view on this wasn’t completely refuted.
    This has been pointed out to you many times on this blog, but you bring it up again every other week or so.

    But my point, despite being filled with what you call “talking points”, was that all you guys seem to have is fear and loathing. Have you ever noticed when you talk to McCain voters, they keep saying, “What scares me the most about Obama is…”? They never say, “I’m voting FOR McCain because…”
    I’d much rather take a chance on Obama than McCain. Palin scares the pure shit out of me. A Rapture Nut of even less intellect than the current crowd as President? No thanks.