53 posts tagged “john”

The end is near!!!  The end of this horrible election and here comes the storm before the calm.  Has everyone lost their minds collectively? 

There is a letter with the state logo of Virginia (boy have Virginia Republicans been in the negative news recently) on it that is trying to tell Republicans to vote on day and Democrats to vote on another.  The day noted for Republicans is election day and the day for Democratic voters is a day late.  Apparently assuming that Senator Obama supporters may not be as educated and informed about the voting process (ideas often associated with minority voters who area registering in droves to vote this election).

In Philadelphia a letter (clearly targeting the same demographic) says that if you have unpaid tickets or outstanding warrants.  Many in the minority communities don’t trust our legal system and would be fearful of such threats even if not guilty of any crimes.

What about the videos warning of he evils of Muslims (hinting to the made up rumors of a mentally unstable gentleman who got rich writing an attacking book with nothing to support what he said) that were sent all over the country. 

The problem is that there is a Muslim population in our country that feels as American as anybody else and hates the terrorists just like anyone else.  At least they felt as American as anyone else until this election.  I suppose that racist or bigoted remarks such as the hinting that Senator Obama could not be qualified for president if he were a Muslim might pass us by as okay if you ignore this fact, but they offend a group of patriotic Americans who have every right not to bear the brunt of the attacks of this campaign as anyone else. 

The First Amendment allows for freedom of speech, but I also have the freedom to vote.  As these stories come out the candidate that seems to be suffering the most is the candidate that most of these things seems to be attempting to help.  It would seem that many are offended by such tactics especially when we are all struggling to make ends meet.

The Republican Party (much of it is the membership and not the leadership, but there have been egregious acts performed by the leadership of the party also) playbook seems to be to make one segment of the nation scared to vote for Senator Obama and the other segments (mostly minorities) afraid to vote or not to vote.   The Democrats just want to flood the media with campaign pitches (which would normally be annoying), but relative to what we have been seeing from the Republican party this suddenly doesn’t seem so bad.

The fact that Senator Obama can make a half an hour presentation with no attacks on his opponent and no offensive statements clearly shows shy a person so far to the Left (in voting record) can get so many middle and Right Wing votes (at least in the polls).   I have said it again and again it is about how terrible the McCain campaign is being run compounded by the fact that the party has done so much craziness in the name of it’s candidate that is a testament to how shaky Senator Obama’s support is that it is not a landslide in his favor.

Senator Obama is not winning Senator McCain is losing with the help of the crazies he and Governor Palin have rallied into a frenzy at the campaign rallies.

The good news is that if the Republican’s lose as much as the polls indicate they will this election we might see the end of the Republican party as it is today and will get to see the dawning of a new day for the party.  Hopefully a better and stronger Republican party that will not stand for such things at any cost. 

Apparently the Republicageddon will be televised in a half-hour infomercial paid for by contributions to the Obama campaign.

All of the Republican rhetoric of the past few months stomped out by the McCain campaign.  I will get to that in a minute, but I am not sure what will be worse for the Republican Party a loss in a week or an unlikely win.  I believe that most of the American public (excepting the most diehard Republican “fans) already had a pretty good idea about much of all of this, but I think it is simply a vindication of the media that has been taking the brunt of the blame for creating these perceptions.

In case you have not heard all of this, there are endless reports of dissention in the McCain ranks centering on Governor Palin.  The hero of the Republican party is now a “rogue” “diva” candidate undermining the McCain campaign.  The pride and joy of the campaign has become the poster child for the statement “Pride cometh before the fall.”

The latest episode has to do with the fact that Sarah Palin decided to write her own script and inadvertently distract attention from the campaign by not letting the clothing argument die.  The campaign over the past couple of days has drifted from “The Testing of Barack Obama” and “Joe the Plumber” to “Sarah the Rogue Diva.”

CNN has been reporting that members of the McCain camp are saying she has no relationships of trust with anyone in the campaign or even her own family.  That she sees herself as the beginning and end of all wisdom.  She is being described using words such as “diva” and “rogue” and on and on.

That however, is not the serious statements, those are just the entertainment to warm us up for the real bombs.  We all remember the Katie Couric interview and some other early appearances where she looked lost.  Then, after all of the talk about Senator Obama as some kind of rock star, the main defense for her presence on the campaign trail is her popularity.   Then came all of the “media bias” talk about the sexism and the evil “leftwing” media trying to paint her as someone who has no idea what is going on and has no business running for vice president.

Now suddenly, sources of many of these arguments in her defense, are turning one-eighties from within the McCain Campaign.  There are reports that members of the McCain camp are saying that she had a lack of understanding on some fundamental key issues on a level one person called “dramatic.”  Another described her as the hardest candidate to get up to speed in history.

The rhetoric is still there about how she is being picked on or that people are being mean and sexist, and on and on.  Let me spell this out.  THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW HER BEST POLITICALLY ARE NOW SAYING THESE THINGS!

Again the Republican Party is doing the worst job of damage control imaginable.  The polls show that people believe she is not qualified and is hurting Senator McCain, the media has been leaning that way, Republican Party members have one by one been leaning that direction, she is found guilty of previous ethics violations while on the campaign, she holds a rally for herself a week before the election when the actual candidate is behind in all polls, and now the leadership within the campaign is verifying what the public has been suspecting all along. 

The weird part is the Republican folks are all over the media still rallying support around her far more than anything they are doing for Senator John McCain.   

It is like a ship with a hole in it.  The crew keeps trying to patch the hole but on the other side of the ship there is one crew member who keeps cutting holes on the other side of the ship.  The crew keeps having to patch the new holes and is constantly being distracted from patching the original hole.  The ship is sinking and now the “rogue” crewmember keeps punching more holes in the ship.   If you were on the ship, what would you do with that crewmember?  Apparently in the Republican camp has decided that the solution to the holes is to blame the mean people on the other boats.

The problem here is not policy and that is why nobody is focusing on policy, the problem is “WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY DOING IN THE REPUBLICAN CAMP?”  This is the question that those of us who are not Republican are wondering and that is what the media is covering.  Most of us are satisfied that Senator Joe Biden is not the best candidate in the world, but he is savvy enough to be a vice-president.  He is no longer interesting. 

But boy, when you spend all of your time getting your clips on television attacking somebody and complaining you turn even the person who is actually in the lead into the underdog and should not wonder why so many are so interested in seeing these Republican candidates beaten. 

The Presidential race is rolling on, the economy is in the tank, we are still at war in two places and there are several places that we could be at war with at any minute and what happens next seems to rest on the shoulders of some folks known as independent voters.  Who are these people?

Here is how I have been shown the basic makeup of our political system…

Social &..................... Economic..........................Economic..................Social &

Economic...................Conservatives......................Liberals.....................Economic

Liberals.......................Social...............................Social........................Conservatives

...................................Liberals.............................Conservatives...............................

LEFT <------------------------------------{*}--------------------------------------> RIGHT

Democrats ..............(Libertarians)........................................................... Republicans

The key to understanding the middle is the two groups located near the middle of this chart.  The assumption in many people’s estimation is that we all neatly fit into either extreme or we are somehow not as educated or understanding of politics for some reason.  In reality what you have is a difference of opinion on what is truly important from either extreme. 

Because we tend to view American politics as a two party system the groups near the middle tend to not associate themselves to a party fully bet most often vote to the side that they appear on above.  The social aspects of our society and thee social viewpoints of the voter, tend to drive the side they choose when voting on an issue or for a candidate.  Thus, Social Liberals tend to the left and Social Conservatives tend to the right.

The truth is however that the groups near the middle always feel that they have sacrificed some ideal for another one in the interest of the greater good no matter how they decide to vote.

The problem comes when a subject such as the economy plays a big role in the picture.  Now these people near the middle have to look to the other side of the chart to satisfy their feelings on the economy while attempting to close their eyes to what is normally their main concern, the social agenda. 

Why is all of this important to this election?  I think this might demonstrate a very simple reason behind why the pools are so slanted in Senator Obama’s favor.  The Republican Presidential and Vice-presidential candidates have been speaking the language of Social and Economic Conservatives (also known as Republicans) with a fervor seldom seen in campaigns. 

They have basically ignored the group (really groups) that all along have been described as the ones that will make or break this election year and may have alienated the “Economic Liberals Social Conservatives” group in manner that may have them leaning to left for a while to come.

The Obama Campaign has done a good job of finding ways to appeal to these middle groups and to unify the more left leaning voters.  The key being that a candidate does not have to satisfy everything a person in one of the groups in the middle wants just whatever those groups find to be the most important at the time.

The only surprise in all of this is that the “Economic Conservatives Social Liberals” group is not gravitating to the right with Senator McCain.  I would have to say that the tying of Senator McCain to the largely unpopular Bush administration coupled with the dislike a person who is a social liberal would have for many of the campaign tactics and attacks of the McCain camp have driven these people to stay with the group that they tend to run with anyhow.

I am an Economic Liberal Social Conservative type of guy and would normally be a McCain supporter, but have been driven away by the terrible nature of the campaign and the insanity that is Republican politics in 2008.  I am not sure there is time left for the Republican ticket, but I am absolutely convinced that the damage to the republican party (particularly with voters in these middle groups) is massive and will be lasting.  I hope Republicans can look at this and regroup or we will be stuck with a one-sided, left-leaning government for years until things get so out of hand that the pendulum swings the other direction.

Rush Limbaugh.  You know there is trouble when something starts with that name.  Today he rallied the “Republican Extremists” by saying that Colin Powell (normally a Republican) is voting for Senator Barack Obama because he is African American and that is the only reason. 

• There is no possibility that he could be disgruntled at what he has seen over the past few years. 
• There is no possibility that he really thinks that the campaign tactics that Senator McCain has undertaken were over the top. 
• There is no chance that he actually watched and studied the candidates and picked who he thought was a better candidate. 
• There is no chance that he actually thinks Barack Obama is going to better handle the campaign. 
• There is no chance he has not bought the rhetoric and nonsense of the Republican Party. 

All of those are absolutely impossible.  How is it that all of these things are absolutely impossible and the only possibility is that this man is voting for Senator Obama, simply because he is African American?   It would be different if he were saying it was just a factor or it may have pushed him over the edge but to say that was the only reason is to say in effect that the only way an African American person could vote for Senator Obama is because such a person could not be as Mr. Limbaugh.  Because intelligent African American people could never disagree with the Republican Party.   

Seriously folks?  Who pulled the race card again? 

When the race issue comes up because of this person voicing such stupid ideas I suppose that the (fundamentalist) Republican Party will suddenly cry foul and say the Democrats are pulling the race card.  Let me say this clearly – RUSH LIMBAUGH JUST PULLED THE RACE CARD!

“Would Colin Powell endorse Senator Obama if he were a white Democratic?”  That is the question Pat Buchanan asked on television.   

Let me say this clearly – PAT BUCHANON JUST PULLED THE RACE CARD!

How come nobody ever says that maybe Pat Buchanan and Rush Limbaugh wouldn’t vote for McCain if he were an African American candidate.  It seems like similar speculation to me. 

These things are okay with the “Evil, Right Wing media” that allows such offensive things and thinks that anyone that is not comfortable with such things is somehow oversensitive and influenced by the crazy right wing media.

In the past few weeks there has been racist newspaper adds from the Republican Party, racist publications, outburst of anger, hate and racism at rallies, church and spiritual abuse and manipulation and these incredibly aggravating robo-calls.  I can’t possibly see why anyone wouldn’t see how there is this big plot of the Left Wing to make the Right Wing look bad.  Why do we need a plot when both sides do such a good job of making themselves look bad?

Us real Americans (that miraculously may not only live in the small towns Sarah Palin visits) who serve our country and die, fight in wars, pay our taxes (unlike this Joe the plumber person who we are tired of hearing about – but it’s okay the local plumbers union seems to support Obama), try our best to raise our children here, can read and write.  Some of us are intelligent enough to know when we are being manipulated and don’t stand for it.  Some of us have a little money, a little influence and do vote.  The key is some of us, who Republicans keep calling the unreal Americans (which is very offensive to those of us who do not live in small towns or play hockey consider ourselves to be like pit-bulls) do not feel like people like this can bully us around.  The Republicans may or may not win this presidential race, but they will inevitably lose far more political power than already lost over this campaign.  There are some Republican politicians that I would have normally voted for who have already lost my vote and John McCain is dangerously close. 

The way both candidates are running we now have our own running of the bulls that we must all run from or be killed but it is the running of the “bull.”  Or better put the “Unleashing of the Idiots.”   We are the greatest nation in the world, how do we get such idiots as politicians and then support them as if they are not idiots.

I may only be one voice, but the key is I am not the only one and this has moved from a discomfort to a cause.  It is a shame that as a person who is diametrically opposed to many things that the Left stands for I may become a person who is more diametrically opposed to what the Right stands for than the Left.  I guess that is where the middle is going to be and soon the people in the middle who tend to the Right (like me) and those who tend to the left are going to have to come together and seek our political voice and bring change from the stupidity that both of these candidates and those who support them have unleashed on our nation. 

By the way, could somebody please slap the next person who uses the words “Joe the Plumber” no matter which party that person comes from.  Joe the Campaign Plant or Joe the Liar (who doesn’t pay his taxes, is not buying any business, and the business he works for makes nowhere near $250k a year) is more like it.  All Americans are not plumbers or in McCain-Palin world. 

I’m a rugby-dad and you wanna know the difference between a rugby-dad and a pit-bull?  If you tick me off I’ll never let go and I have a worse temper!

Semper Fidelis

1. Challenged The idea that any person who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and saviour is saved (even if that person doesn't properly understand God's desires (as of yet)
2. You have implied that somehow Islamic Law has more authority than what is outlined in the Bible ("according to Islamic Law he is a Muslim." your exact words in opposition to his statement to the contrary)
3. You have demonstrated that somehow a person who has a disagreement with another professing Christian's interpretation of scripture (correct or incorrect) has the right and authority to publicly question that person's salvation.
4. You have called upon the fear of those in Islam to convince us that somehow Senator John McCain is the Godly choice for our nation effectively putting all of God's eggs in the McCain basket - what happens if he becomes president and is nowhere as Godly as we make him out to be (history shows that this could most likely be the case) the church again looks collectively crazy and sets the stage for loosing more political influence than ever before (winning the battle at the expense of losing the war)
5. You have used a page and a half of scary statements to take the worst most evil doctrines of Islam, tie them to a person who proclaims himself to be Christian, and manipulate those easily influenced by such tactics to believe that God wants them to vote for John McCain as God's messenger for the next four years.

I have just viewed the last debate and watched the polls.  I was very impressed by Senator McCain’s performance and was overtaken with interest by the fact that some issues actually were addressed. 

Senator John McCain came on strong but started to seem a little cheap and gimmicky to me with this “Joe Plumber” nonsense.  The first half of the debate almost unanimously all agree was a win for McCain and probably the high point of his campaign.  I was kind of surprised at how good his performance was but on the other hand thought it was about time considering all of his experience.  Senator Obama seemed to be sticking to the plan of any candidate with that big of a lead at this point:  Just don’t mess up.

Then we hit the Acorn and Ayers conversation which seemed to energize Senator Obama and to scramble Senator McCain’s footing.  From there he seemed angry and actually kind of grumpy from that point until his (very strong) close.

I do not agree with the polls I have seen in that I think it was either a tie or a very close win for Senator Obama.  The pools all gave a landslide victory to Senator Obama.

I was pondering why and was confronting the reality.  Senator McCain needed a huge game changer and did not even come close to getting it and I am not sure that he (or those in his campaign) has any idea how to do that at this point.  The polls probably already reflect the reality of how the voters are leaning.  The most important statistic I saw was the over fifty percent of the independent voters that gave the debate to Senator Obama.  That may be the backbreaker.

I do have one insight to offer.  I noticed in the previous debates that Senator McCain seemed to be focused on the message of I am good and Obama is bad while Senator Obama was able to make similar statements seemed to have a message that said I am thinking about you out there watching on television.  That alone will adjust the statistics and give people the feeling that there is a better connection with Senator Obama.  That might explain the polls where people seem to be trusting Senator Obama on things that nobody thought anyone would trust him on.  I think there was less of that this time, but far more of Senator McCain’s temper which seemed to be barely held at bay for much of the second half of the debate.  One channel was keeping the camera on both men when one was speaking and his reactions were almost disturbing at times.

What do you do now if you are John McCain and there is nineteen days left, you have just lost three debates in a row, the polls are beginning to pummel you, and the CNN map thing says Senator Obama already has enough electoral votes to win the election?

First, you stop the attack campaign; there have rarely been worse results for any campaign tactic as we have seen for this over that past few weeks.

Next, I would have my economic advisors working night and day for some earth shattering plans and solutions for the economy that I could introduce by this weekend that would make economists say “Wow, what a plan!”

I would educate Governor Sarah Palin on the new plan and have her talk about it and how it is better than Senator Obama’s plan.

The biggest thing to do is to study the tapes of this debate and do more of whatever he did in the first half of the debate and less of (if not stop altogether) whatever he did in the second half of the debate.

There is still time, but if the campaign stays on the same course I fear watching the McCain campaign might be a bit like watching the Titanic sink in slow motion.  Then of course there is still the outside chance that Senator Obama could make some terrible mistake and blow the whole deal.

All said, this was a bit better of a debate, but I fear that again Senator McCain did not come close to doing enough and may have missed any chance of winning (plus I have to admit he looked like a case study in beginning anger management).

Maybe he should make friends with Chris Buckley and possibly get him his job back at his father’s paper.

I received this in an email and felt the need to respond...

Revelations Chapter 13 tells us it is 42 months and you know what that is.
Almost a four-year term to a Presidency. All I can say is Lord Have Mercy on
us! According to The Book of Revelations the anti-Christ is: The anti-Christ
will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations
with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the
prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will
promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy
everything..

Is it OBAMA??

There are absolutely no statements in revelation that say the “anti-Christ” will be from any country, any age these ideas come from Daniel and have been interpreted to say all kinds of things. I remember when Ronald Reagan was president there was this trip going around that he was the anti-Christ because of the amount of letters in his name. I actually remember his middle name because of the amount of times it came up. Ronald Wilson Reagan the number of man three times 666 (six letters each name). And we wonder why people who are not Christian think we are all crazy. It is not even if this man is or isn’t the antichrist that is in question at this point, it is that we will twist the Bible to support our arguments.

The Pharisees and Scribes knew the Bible and what it said, but would stretch everything to adjust what it said to fit how they felt about issues. In my lifetime (I noticed this more before I was saved) I have heard so many ideas about someone (usually someone unpopular with American churches) that tried to tell me this person was the anti-Christ that if the real anti-Christ came and sat down to dinner with me I probably would no longer have any way of even considering that he was the anti-Christ. The church has cried wolf (anti-Christ far too many times to suit their own needs of the time.

I am saying this to help us consider this fact. The truth is that Barack Obama is simple a terrible candidate for president on many levels. John McCain is not only a terrible candidate, but he is terrible at picking people for his political regime (he has several people that other presidential candidates including Ronald Reagan fired because of the level of attacking and dirty campaigning they were doing). Here we are looking at such things.

I make it a point to try to look at both sides of any political argument, but this campaign has had people at McCain rallies screaming racial epithets out loud, screaming things like “kill him” etc. without a word from the McCain campaign to stop it. There is a pastor who stands In front of the entire nation this weekend and says that if Barack Obama wins it would somehow show other that God is not powerful and their gods are more powerful. A man last week, from the McCain campaign in Virginia wrote an article (click here to see the actual article) which I was personally offended by. I am perplexed by the idea that several people have tried to put before me that the McCain campaign is somehow a move of God (seriously, does God really move like that) against the evil of Barack Hussein Obama.

It is also amazing to me that suddenly the guy who lost his mind berating Christians in the media in 2000 is suddenly the great hope for God and Christianity all of a sudden.

I have a unique view of this election for several reasons – I am very into politics, I am an independent, I am of mixed race and comfortable with both African American folks and Caucasian folks, I feel I have a pretty good working knowledge of the Bible, I am in the middle class (not the rich that McCain seems to tend towards and not the poor that Obama seems to tend toward), I have a home bought during the questionable period, and I am very worried about healthcare and my retirement.

I think both parties have become outright silly. For me race will not choose a president, neither person even remotely has God’s best interests in mind (unless you are of the opinion that the only thing that will matter to you and your family over the next four years is the possibility of having an abortion), neither candidate is going to help me out financially according to the plans they have outlined so far, and neither has a plan that will help my family out at all.

They are both absolutely terrible candidates but only one has the audacity to assault and insult my ability to reason with repeated attacks on the other that are designed to raise fear in me and make me think that my only hope is to vote for him (the technical term is manipulation). If we are relying on anything that has anything to do with either of these candidates to determine our relationship to God and how close we are to the end of the world there is good news. We can stop worrying about health care and retirement plans because we won’t be needing them.

My favorite president of all time, Theodore Roosevelt once said; “Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.” (another way to say this is that every tree has it’s fruits and nuts) I deeply wish to be a part of the reform of our nation but not on the lunatic fringe. The one thing I will do however is let somebody use things I hold dear to me to manipulate me, particularly letting a candidate manipulate my belief in God to force me to vote for them. That goes double for rumors based on statements made in a book written by someone who is literally insane whose statements have no basis (Read about it by clicking here).

The worst part is that the statistics are showing that I am not the only person that is offended by all of this attack campaigning, but we are still seeing it. Obama is not winning the campaign; these ungodly tactics are losing it for Senator McCain. And these tactics are the type of underhanded tactics I want to see from our president.

Over the past couple of weeks my blogs have often been pretty much anger at the McCain campaign for running such a poor campaign and doing such a disservice to Senator McCain and Governor Palin while also not allowing us to have real choices for president (keeping in mind that the person ultimately responsible for the campaign is the candidate).

Why are people and the media portraying the Republicans as the crazies or giving more positive press time to the Democrats?  Is it possible that the Republican party has had such a string of ridiculous, over the top antics that those of us who are not diehard Republicans actually are beginning to view the party that way and the media is actually simply reflecting what people are starting to believe.

Here is an example.  On the Sacramento (capitol of California) GOP website there has been this page tiring to tie Senator Obama to Osama Bin Laden and going so far as to talk about waterboarding Senator Obama.  There are people like this guy in Virginia I wrote about the other day making repeated comments about race and that person who prayed the other day and tried to convince us the a victory for Barack Obama would somehow show the world that God is weak.

Of course, there is this Sarah Palin person who keeps crying about Liberal media not wanting her to speak and only taking interviews with the most right wing media possible.  Then we have the people at the political rallies yelling out racial epithets and “kill him” etc. 

I am an independent voter although I cannot remember the last time I voted for a Democrat for President and I was and remain a big fan of Ronald Reagan.  Yet, the more I see of this campaign, the more I am beginning to sound like a far left wing liberal. 

Think back to high school and homecoming.  I was lucky enough to play football for a school that was relatively dominant in football so our homecoming rallies and games were pretty crazy.  But, I always remember paying attention to the other mood of the people in the schools we were playing against.

When we had games at other schools and it was their homecoming (often schools we knew we could easily beat) they had the same kind of pep rallies, and just as much energy.  People always had these (so called) “facts” that demonstrated that clearly they had the better team.  They would argue and scream how their team was better.  They would boo when we arrived and throw things at us.  We even had people attack our team coming on to the field.

Then when we would score a symphony of boos and excuses would fly.  Their cheerleaders would break into a cheer of “it’s alright, it’s okay, we’re gonna beat you anyway!”  A few  scores later the crowd would still be riled up and a little more angry.  When we would leave (in victory) we left to boos and people talking about how we cheated and did this and that.

This is not my personality.  If I know my team is terrible I will say “My team is terrible!”   My response to having a terrible team is not to ratchet up the attacks on the other team and throw things at them call them names and so on. (I know that sounds absolutely crazy coming from a Raiders fan – and by the way MY TEAM IS TERRIBLE)

This is how the Republican party seems to me.  Their team is doing terrible and it is looking like they may lose (Emphasis on the word may.  There is still lots of time).  Rather than focus on how to win, the McCain campaign is having pep rallies and bad mouthing the opposition and getting the supporters in an uproar.  Now the supporters scream angry things even when the opposition is mentioned.  They may throw things and threaten the other team and so on. 

I if anyone understand the mentality.  The problem for those of us who are not diehard Republicans is that we have a pretty good idea that people like this are not the kind we want running our government.  We are in a time that demands leadership that is deeply grounded in reality and we are getting this partisan nonsense.  In part the McCain campaign is doing this, but it would seem relatively normal if the rest of the party wasn’t going so far over the top. 

That is the difference as to why the general population is developing a far better view of the Democrats as opposed to the Republicans.  When people who support Senator Obama go crazy, the campaign goes out of it’s way to denounce the action and then steer completely clear of what was stated.

The McCain camp has been silent on many of these egregious acts including the ones the occur publically at their rallies.  Even having manipulative prayers opening a rally right when it seemed that Senator McCain might be trying to calm things down.  Then the bloodthirsty fans of this whole thing (in spite of the evidence that this will cause them to loose) is steadily calling for more attacks and such.

The truth is the attempts to scare the American population about Senator Obama do have that effect.  The problem is that the way the Republican party acts in trying to get us scared of Senator Obama is actually more scary. 

It’s like having a guy with a chainsaw wearing a “Leatherface” mask (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) screaming at me telling me to be scared of the “boogie man” that might be in my closet. 

I desperately want to have two choices for president but this sort of behavior only can leave us with one choice unless you are a diehard Republican.  I sincerely wish the McCain camp would do something to stop all of this madness.

Okay, when is this all going to stop.  This really ticks me off.  I just had my hopes up, Senator McCain had calmed down and was trying to stop all of this attack campaigning which not only was dividing the country in a terribly unhealthy way, but was not working.   I was just awaiting the big speech where he would make it clear to all of us that this sort of behavior was unacceptable and he would have anyone doing such things at his rallies shown out (and of course an explanation of the new magical plan to save the finances of the whole planet that we all have heard so much about).

Then I was taken aback by another assault on our reasoning and what is clearly a manipulation of the fears of the people of the Republican base.  I was flipping the channels and there is some man (who claims to be praying) praying at a rally and he says that there are Hindu and Muslims all over the world who are praying for Barack Obama to win and he goes on to say that an Obama win would be somehow perceived as the gods of the Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims (to add effect he didn’t use the word Muslims he used the word Allah) as superior and thus he is beseeching God to make sure that Senator McCain wins the presidency.  The exact request was for God to guard his “own reputation”.

Really??????  This is the campaign????  Where are the people in McCain’s camp whose job it is to stop things like this.

Here we go again…  This man, Reverend Arnold Conrad, just did several things in a minute or two of prayer (if that’s what you would call it).

• Offend Hindus (keep in mind our trouble with allies in the middle east currently and if this is a good public message to send as a country who tries to portray ourselves as above all of this)
• Offend Buddhists
• Offend Muslims (contrary to what is implied at all of the Republican rallies, there are many Muslims in this country and overseas that want nothing to do with terrorism or terrorists.  Some we want to be our allies and many of the Muslims here vote)
• Make dismissing the faiths of others a part of a presidential campaign.
• Offend the sensibilities of many Christians who find such a statement (the implication that he somehow knows that Senator Obama is not a Christian but a Muslim – a rumor started by a mentally unstable man who seems has been prohibited from filing lawsuits because of the amount of frivolous lawsuits he has filed) to be an attack on their beliefs.
• Offend anyone who is a Christian who is an Obama supporter.
• Offend and anger at least one person who is not a McCain supporter (nor an Obama supporter but getting closer) and who is Christian.
• Again been that one foolish person who put a stumbling block in the way of anyone that may have been close to believing in Christianity or may already have been a borderline Christian.

Where are the handlers or whoever?  Where the heck is Senator John McCain? 

Then, I see Senator McCain on television telling how mad he is about comments made by Rep. John Lewis (which I have discussed in two previous posts) and doing his best to show how over the top all of these attacks on his character were.

As you saw in my previous posts, I would totally agree with Senator McCain, if he would do something about what is going on in his own camp (take the beam out of his own eye before he complains about the splinter in the eye of his opposition.

When I hear this man pray I have to wonder if the members of the McCain camp are a trip to Guyana away from feeding us all poisoned Kool-Aid.

If this hits the media in force, we will have found another crazy Christian episode to embarrass all of us who are not on some crazy trip related to elections. 

The crazy part is the guy who a few years age was ranting (publically) about what a problem Christians are in politics, now has people praying for him against a man that is a professing Christian because of rumors and of course the unforgivable sin of supporting abortion.  Lord knows there will be nobody in heaven that ever voted for that assuming God is a Republican of the extreme Right. 

I have heard complaints about the media, about Senator Obama’s voting record, about uneducated voters, and I have my serious doubts (and some fears) about Senator Obama as president, but all of that cannot even come to mind with offensive stupidity like this.

The problem is, no matter who Senator McCain has in his campaign (even if other Republican candidates fired them for similar issues) he is responsible to hire, fire, and direct those that are a part of his campaign.  If something is crazy or wrong, it is his campaign (we will call it an administration for fun) and he is responsible to fix it or at least stop or even apologize for it.

How can the media not ignore Senator Obama’s flaws with insanity like this?  If someone is stealing candy at the grocery store and the security sees him or her.  Right when the security is closing in, an absolutely unrelated person nearby starts shooting people.  Who will the security pay attention to.

I have heard a couple of both Republican and Democratic pundits saying that Senator McCain should fire his current campaign staff in a hurry and try to reign this thing in.  I agree and he should finish what he started this weekend and not allow anyone tied to him to dishonor his party, our country, and our beliefs.

I received a strange message from someone trying to describe Senator Barack Obama's position on abortion and i was not even sure why I received this message. 

I am sure the person who sent it had good intentions and wanted to help me understand something I did not know.  This person has set up their profile in a way that it cannot accept return messages so I decided to post my response here and I hope it clears up whatever misunderstanding seems to have been formed.
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I think whatever our stand on this topic is, it is absolutely still not the hill I want to die on.  There are so much bigger fish to fry right now that arguing over the possibility of one having an abortion should be put aside for a moment and the real issues at hand need to be addressed. 
People are so angry and polarized over this one issue that all common sense has been thrown out of the window and our government has become absolutely paralyzed.
It would be so nice if our whole nation could put this whole thing on hold and deal with the families that are alive right now loosing their homes, starving themselves to be able to afford gasoline, hit by disasters all over the country with no help in site (even from the insurance companies they paid to help in these circumstances), living adults (that are somebodies children) that are being killed all over the planet because they volunteered to serve, fight, and die for us to even be able to have this discussion.  I think whether or not a person has the right to do something that some believe to be evil and some do not is an important discussion to have, just not right now.
I am not convinced that I want to sacrifice the lives of any of the above named people or groups of people to win on this one issue.  It is a prevalent focus on both sides of the party lines  that seems to be setting principles above the lives of the people we have here with us and seems to serve no master except whatever one is seeking to divide and conquer our nation (on several different levels).
I cannot help but feel I received this message in response to one post or another that you may not have read fully from beginning to end.
Plus if you are under the assumption I support either one of these candidates, you have definitely missed the point that "I thoroughly think that both of the 'serious' candidates for president we have are absolutely terrible choices and I am simply trying to figure out which apocalypse I will be more comfortable living through" (which is the lesser evil in the broader sense).
The idea of voting for on or the other candidate on this one issue can only leave me feeling that a person has a deep hurt of some kind that has not been healed or that someone has led that person to believe that is the biggest issue in politics and our current world and a simple stepping out of the emotional content of all of this would make that clear.

I have huge questions (particularly related to voting records) on both candidate's stands on abortion, particularly relative to how I feel about it, but again there are far more pressing issues.  I am not willing to sacrifice the lives of my children by picking a terrible candidate just because we agree on this one issue.  I am not willing to sacrifice the lives of the men and women who I served in the military with just to win a war of principles.   I am not willing to sacrifice the entire nation on this one issue.
If a person shows him or herself to be a good candidate for the job and agrees with me on this issue that is another point in their favor.  But, if this person is terrible and all we have to agree on is this one issue, only those suicidally committed to ideology would still vote for this person.  I just find it selfish to want to martyr the rest of us in that pursuit.