Every day I visit tons of website, forums, and social networks for all types of topics, most of which are technology based in some sort of form. This election cycle has really brought out the best of the liberal “group think” mentality regarding Obama. On just about every social network Obama is praised as “the one” and any hint of disagreement with his policies or ideals is immediately responded with accusations of racism, or just plain insults. Anybody who wants to claim that liberals are tolerant to others, please give me a shout because I can quickly debunk that. Even here on our network of sites, there have been insults tossed at the slightest hint of either supporting McCain, or being against Obama. I’m certainly not saying conservatives don’t dish out their fair share, but the mentality of liberals has once again bordered on the insane and hateful.
It’s tough being a proud conservative, as I will say what I think regardless of what the group and mob mentality is. The real shame is so many people, especially bloggers in the tech area, are afraid to do the same. I have received so many private notes and comments in support of standing up for conservatism, it’s almost crazy. The best comparison I can make is how conservative actors in Hollywood are often ridiculed or turned down for roles because of their conservative beliefs, and the same mentality is going on right now in the blogosphere. Conservative bloggers, some of which can be considered A-list are having to remain silent about their thoughts on Obama and McCain, simply because they are afraid of retribution from their employers or just not being able to pickup work from other sites. It’s a shame, and it’s more telling about liberals than it is anything.
I am a conservative, I don’t like Obama, and I will never let anyone intimidate me because of that.
Campaign contributions can be made by credit card (most are) and the "overseas" factor disappears completely.
You're actually closer than you know. For many of the McCain voters who are 50 years and older, the world is passing them by and the new younger generation of Americans scares them on many levels. In some cases, there is closet bigotry since many of them are old enough to remember the civil rights movement and the hateful ignorant things their parents often were saying at the time.
For example, my paternal grandmother was a racist old bitch. My father, while not openly racist, has no friends "of color", lives in the redneck asscrack of Pennsylvania, and despite the fact that my last girlfriend was wealthy, a genius, and one of the most beautiful women in the world, it was clear he did not approve of her...I can only assume because she was black.
Now that didn't matter to me. It just didn't work out with her and we're really good friends. But if it had gone the distance, his approval was neither solicited nor required.
So if you see a lot of white haired old coots (male and female) at those McCain/Palin rallys, try to remember that bigotry comes from fear of the unknown and old habits can be hard to break - but often quite easy to stir up.
PS PLEASE be clear I specifically did NOT say that ALL McCain/Palin voters are white haired bigoted old coots. With this group, I have to include such disclaimers.
Dudette , what do you think "cruel and unusual punishment" covers?! It's supposed to be about incarceration, interrogation, awaiting trial, punishment, etc. The very DEFINITION of torture is "cruel and unusual". Don't go all semantic on me here. You KNOW what the spirit and the letter of that refers to, the same way your soul tells you what's right from wrong.
But some people don't have credit cards, and some people pay with their COMPANY credit card, which has to be flagged as right out, and then some people live overseas 1/2 the time and here in the US 1/2 the time, and...well you get the drift. Either way, each campaign works hard to screen these out because the embarrassment is never worth the chump change of the donation.
Pretty much a non-answer, BDBF. The Governor of Hawaii has ordered his birth certificate sealed, meaning that it will take more than a simple FOIA request to get it disclosed - it will take a legal challenge. I know the Governor is a Republican, but the question remains, 'Why?' What purpose does that serve?
I emphasized LIFE as in the right to survive.
The rest of the world is ahead of us on this issue and we're the richest nation on Earth. And yet we still let our people fall through the HMO cracks and die every day because of bureaucratic loopholes and their gaming the health care system.
It's unconscionable and everyone in American knows it...even the scumbag HMO company workers.
My apologies, I was being too colloquial. Corrected.
Make that Dudette.
I JUST POSTED THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE LINK ABOVE....TWICE.
Here it is again. OBAMA'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE.
Since the information contained within can be used for identity theft purposes, it SHOULD be private and sealed just like any of our are and should be. So the Governor is right. It's the LAW that you can't get to see it just because you "want to".
But the cat's out of the bag, so....
I did! See, I knew we could all find common ground.
I was simply referring to his application for running for office and all such documents as he's required by law to file with the government which are available through the FOIA. I've been trying to get the idea across to you. Just as MCCain, Obama only has to comply with the law and not every whim and demand some member of the public may have.
Besides what prevents you or anyone else for that matter from requesting from the county clerk's office of my birth county a copy of my Birth Certificate? The law does. You have to attest in the application that you are either me or an immediate family member with a valid legal reason for the request.
Ah but you'll now argue but Obama's running for President and blah blah. Which is exactly why I said what I said. You'll just have to be satisfied with complying with the law yourselves and accepting what the law allows you to obtain in a FOIA.
I agree with you completely. The document on the snopes site appears to be a Hawaiian Certificate of Live Birth, but not a Hawaiian Birth Certificate which is a very different document. The Birth Cert. used in Hawaii [which the hospitals in Hawaii (both, since his sister says he was born in a hospital other than the one O says is his birth origin) refused to disclose to prove Obama's claim] has a seal, which the COLB does not require and the sample provided on snopes.com does not appear to have either. The Birth Cert in Hawaii also provides all pertinent info on the parents (age, race, nationality, etc) as well as the child. The COLB does not and the sample provided on snopes.com does not have such information either. Birth Certs are provided by the hospital from their own files and contains the signatures of the doctors and witnesses. The Cert of Live Bith is produced from a computer record, which is why they make the distinction between the two.
So though the COLB looks like something on snopes, I know that in my state of Washington, it could not be used to get a driver's license, let alone qualify me to run for the office of President of The US. I know that 15 years ago, when I tried to use a copy of my birth cert without the raised seal, it was rejected as invalid by the Dept. of Licensing in WA. It might be that way in Hawaii too, though I don't know. I only know from my experience in New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Washington.
BTW, when you look at the hex code for the image provided on snopes, you might find that it shows a notification that it was altered using Adobe Photoshop. At least that's what I read and saw for myself. But then maybe that evidence was Photoshop handiwork as well. Hard to tell anymore, that stuff is so good.
If I'm wrong on this, of course I'd like to know and be corrected. ;
Either way, you must admit, this is a fantastic plot for a movie, no?
As for being thrown out of court, as I said, we're all still waiting since August and four calls from O's attorneys to dismiss, yet no judgement and no Birth Certificate, just the Cert of Live Birth. Maybe we should tell the judge about the snopes thing. Help him out a bit.
Though I'm sure you'd agree that $600million is a bit more than chump change, and screening millions of small donations of under $200, made by credit card, from overseas would likely not be readily accomplished in the short period of time between its being recieved and being spent, it's hard to say with certainty. Several rich and powerful foreigners have endorsed and praised Obama and have stated that they want him to be in the White House. And $600 million just might be worth the embarrasment. I'm just saying... if you trust a politician completely, you'll likely be had; the bigger the stakes, the more flexible the ethics. Usually, anyway. Surely I don't invent the phrase when I say that eveyone has his price. Maybe Obama's really as holy as they say and is above all that.
maybe one day, we'll know. if we care to.
Not to forget... bigotry is passing judgemet on peole you don't really know. "White haired old coots" might sound a bit biggoted to someone who didn't know you so well.
Some of my highest paying jobs were given to me by employers who were white haired and old. not sure what a coot is, though ... other than a term of biggotry. but either way, none of my most stable and high paying employers were very young or very liberal. I think that old and white haired has a lot to do with experienced and able to see a mistake before it's made. Which is probably why they succeeded in business and were still around to create so many jobs for so many younger un-cootish types. Whoever they are. And however liberal they may be.
And though "fear of the unknown" might be what is seen in others by one who lacks the experience to simply recognize a mistake before it happens... again... might, to others, be considered wisdom. "Folly of youth" and "leap before you look" are "old" phrases that come to mind. Though they meant far less to me in my youth and ignorance than they did as I grew a bit older and experience had taught me a few lessons. Not the least of which was to learn to earn enough to be a bit concerned when I hear that my income level, the result of years of experience and learning is now the target of heightened taxation; that my six figure earning will benefit the children of others before it benefits my own. Yes, this doesn't sound like capitalism at all. And it was the promise of the reward of capitalism that had enticed so many "old coots" to create companies that employ millions of those who would benefit from the dividing of the owner's earnings, the earnings from which was the very reason he provided those jobs in the first place.
but i ramble. Sorry.
BDBF & Ex -
You're both sort of missing my point. I'm not one of those who doubt he is a citizen.
We're not required to disclose our tax returns either, but it is customary & expected of candidates. I was actually asking the question from the point of view of Obama - I don't see how he'd have anything to lose by releasing it himself. Would be the perfect throat stuffer. I can't imagine identity theft being a legitimate concern. For you & me, sure, but that's a bit of a dubious worry with B. H. Obama II.
And thanks for the BC link, Ex - sorry I missed the 1st 2, this thread gets bunches of replies while you're typing one. Case closed.
Right, except these provisions of the Constitution don't apply to prisoners of war. The government has tried to have it both ways here, they want to claim those they have taken into miltary custody are either legal or illegal combatants and are not civilian arrests (the constitution has been held to apply here). Since many of them were civilians, the government had a problem they weren't captured during combat field operations (legal combatants) but rather through home searchs and snatch and grabs. Hence they decided these people must be illegal combatants even though many were snatched from their homes while they slept.
To prove these people were combatants at all whether legal or illegal requires evidence. Which is why the government has fought to keep this matter out of civilian courts where rules of evidence are well established and keep things within the military system were all that is needed to establish the evidence is a military field report.
In any case what law the government has complied with in most matters of prisoners of war has been the Geneva Conventions which are legally binding on our governement. And the Geneva Conventions do legally prohibit our government from indulging itself in the torture of prisoners of war. Except old GWB is all about de-regulation which means to him he can comply with laws as sees fit and if they want do a little water boarding by golly they'll just go ahead and do that. To hell with Geneva Conventions seemed to be the attitude of GWB's administration.
I don't think so (missing your point), I don't quite agree with you. I already addressed this "point" of yours in my earlier reply #488 and others. It would be a waste of Obama's time and his staff's time to try and tamp down every issue, inuendo, exception, allegation and charge that various members of the public can manufacture.
Why do you think MCCain kept bringing up Ayers? He was obviously hoping people would perceive it as an issue. It doesn't matter whether or not it is a real issue, just will it influence the voters or not. The same is true of this supposed BC issue. Completely made up, manufactured tripe to try and influence voters.
Furthermore, releasing his birth certificate serves no valid purpose. He only has to comply with the election laws. If his complaince with the election laws don't satisfy people then nothing will.
Why do you think McCain kept bringing up Ayers? He was obviously hoping people would perceive it as an issue. It doesn't matter whether or not it is a real issue, just will it influence the voters or not. The same is true of this supposed BC issue. Completely made up, manufactured tripe to try and influence voters. Furthermore, releasing his birth certificate serves no valid purpose. He only has to comply with the election laws. If his compliance with the election laws don't satisfy people then nothing will. remembering, of course, that the same challenge was made of McCain and he then did immediately provide proof of his citizenship by birth according to the laws of this land, complete with Birth Cert, without fear of identity theft, since he provided it to the officials, not as an image for the public on a website which could hardly be considered proof of anything and certainly not in any legal context. There is no "law" governing compliance with the rules of running for and becoming president of the US. There are only Constitutional requirements. One of which is to be natural born, something you prove with a Birth Certificate; something which Obama so far has not yet done in any form that anyone has sworn to have seen or witnessed or which any court or government agency has attested to. But as I said before, there is no law governing any of this so therefore there is no agency compelled to investigate. That’s why the former Assistant Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania, a life-long Democrat and Democrat Committee Chairperson filed suit asking that Obama provide the proof of citizenship as required by the Constitution, something you would think that the Democrat National Committee would have done. Yet none of them has come forward and said that Obama has met this requirement. On the subject they all remain silent; curious, to be sure. It was in August that the formal request was made in court and so far the federal judge presiding over the case has yet to render judgment. Apparently the federal judge thinks it might be a bit more than “made up” and not exactly “frivolous”. Especially since Obama's lawyers have four times tied up the court trying to have it thrown out and four times have failed to produce any documents or witnesses to demonstrate that they had a valid case for dismissal. Now that really is a waste of the court's time and taxpayer dollars. Essentially, according to the evidence provided by Obama to which there are any willing witnesses (which is none so far), any foreign national could come here and become president and yet the Governor of California was denied that privilege since he was not born here, though he is now a citizen through naturalization. And though Obama was a citizen of Indonesia, there is no record of him ever regaining his US citizenship which he renounced to become a citizen of Indonesia, according to Indonesian law. To go to school in Indonesia as he did, you must first renounce all other citizenships. So even if he were born in the U.S., he still would have to have repatriated in order to now be a US citizen. None of those documents can be found either. I’m telln’ ya.. this is gonna be one heck of a movie one day. Something along the lines of National Treasure, the movie about the theft of the Constitution, that document which I heard Obama declare is "flawed" since it fails to provide the means to remove wealth from the people that earned it and through "redistribution", put it in the pockets of those that didn't. A revolutionary thinker, for sure, he is. But not original, since Karl Marx made the same proposition a long time ago in an experiment that also failed. BTW, the copy of the Cert Of Live Birth which was first provided on the Obama official web site as "proof" has since been taken down once the Adobe Photoshop signature was disclosed in the hex code of the image. Great plot material for any writer to drool over.
Why do you think McCain kept bringing up Ayers? He was obviously hoping people would perceive it as an issue. It doesn't matter whether or not it is a real issue, just will it influence the voters or not. The same is true of this supposed BC issue. Completely made up, manufactured tripe to try and influence voters. Furthermore, releasing his birth certificate serves no valid purpose. He only has to comply with the election laws. If his compliance with the election laws don't satisfy people then nothing will.
remembering, of course, that the same challenge was made of McCain and he then did immediately provide proof of his citizenship by birth according to the laws of this land, complete with Birth Cert, without fear of identity theft, since he provided it to the officials, not as an image for the public on a website which could hardly be considered proof of anything and certainly not in any legal context.
There is no "law" governing compliance with the rules of running for and becoming president of the US. There are only Constitutional requirements. One of which is to be natural born, something you prove with a Birth Certificate; something which Obama so far has not yet done in any form that anyone has sworn to have seen or witnessed or which any court or government agency has attested to. But as I said before, there is no law governing any of this so therefore there is no agency compelled to investigate. That’s why the former Assistant Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania, a life-long Democrat and Democrat Committee Chairperson filed suit asking that Obama provide the proof of citizenship as required by the Constitution, something you would think that the Democrat National Committee would have done. Yet none of them has come forward and said that Obama has met this requirement. On the subject they all remain silent; curious, to be sure. It was in August that the formal request was made in court and so far the federal judge presiding over the case has yet to render judgment. Apparently the federal judge thinks it might be a bit more than “made up” and not exactly “frivolous”. Especially since Obama's lawyers have four times tied up the court trying to have it thrown out and four times have failed to produce any documents or witnesses to demonstrate that they had a valid case for dismissal. Now that really is a waste of the court's time and taxpayer dollars.
Essentially, according to the evidence provided by Obama to which there are any willing witnesses (which is none so far), any foreign national could come here and become president and yet the Governor of California was denied that privilege since he was not born here, though he is now a citizen through naturalization. And though Obama was a citizen of Indonesia, there is no record of him ever regaining his US citizenship which he renounced to become a citizen of Indonesia, according to Indonesian law. To go to school in Indonesia as he did, you must first renounce all other citizenships. So even if he were born in the U.S., he still would have to have repatriated in order to now be a US citizen. None of those documents can be found either.
I’m telln’ ya.. this is gonna be one heck of a movie one day. Something along the lines of National Treasure, the movie about the theft of the Constitution, that document which I heard Obama declare is "flawed" since it fails to provide the means to remove wealth from the people that earned it and through "redistribution", put it in the pockets of those that didn't. A revolutionary thinker, for sure, he is. But not original, since Karl Marx made the same proposition a long time ago in an experiment that also failed.
BTW, the copy of the Cert Of Live Birth which was first provided on the Obama official web site as "proof" has since been taken down once the Adobe Photoshop signature was disclosed in the hex code of the image. Great plot material for any writer to drool over.
He broke his promise because he saw that he was getting more from donationa and would not be limited by the fixed amount spending provision required when taking funds provided by the Presidential Election Fund. You know that the whole point of this bipartisan structure was to put candidates on as much an equal financial footing as possible. As for your point about saving the country money for other uses, that is nonsense as the money is in a separate account and cannot be used for other uses. The American tax payer already contributed the money so that all candudates would have equal financial resources."The U.S. Treasury then makes the actual payments from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. This fund consists of dollars voluntarily checked off by taxpayers on their federal income tax returns. (In 1993, the taxpayer checkoff was increased from $1 to $3. Public Law 103-66). You do a disservice when you repeat Obama's excuse about saving the country money as his motivation. In fact, a reasonable case can be made that it cost many STATES a great deal of tax revenues as although it is now illegal to deduct donation from your Federat tax, many states still allow the deduction of political donations from the state taxes due.
Any reasonable person would realize that to believe that he "changed his mind" for the sake of the country's finances rather for his campaign's finacial gain is a stretch to say the least to put it as delicately as possible. He agreed in writing to use the public fund and its rules. When it became clear that he could raise more on his own, he did the politically expediate thing and tossed his commitment aside. This simply makes him just like any other politician whose word means nothing unless it is to his own benefit, hardly a "new way for Washington and change we need".
One of the unfortunate things about a thread like this is that both sides will defend any and everything their chosen candidate does with one rationalization after another. Had this situation been the other way around, I am sure that many would have blasted McCain for trying to buy the election with all his rich cronies and being unfair to the poor black candidate who did not have the finances to match their wealth and had to take public financing. Rationalization is indeed a funny thing. The bipartisan Presidential Election Fund was set up so that any candidate, rich or poor, would have a chance to be elected and limit as much as possible that he/she with the most money wins. This by the way had overwheming liberal support. Now you would have us believe that it is the patriotic thing to do to not participate in the program. Just a matter of moral convenience I imagine.
And it's based on greed: The greed of the CEO's who buy the "care" for the workers, the lack of choice and monopoly of the Insurance co.'s, the greed of the stockholders in the Ins. Co. for their dividends to be higher on the backs of their brothers and their stupidity in not realizing "what goes around comes around". The faulty ethics of a situation where an MD makes a 'deal' to get more patients who he gets payed an 'incentive bonus' not to see...and their stupidity (fear based) in not realizing this drives reimbursement downward causing them to see more and more people to try and 'break even' causing people to feel they're cattle on a production line.
All this has to stop: things have to be reevaluated! I have been protesting this for years yet my voice is "crying out in the wilderness" of 'let's make a deal' and 'greed is good'.
PLEASE! Someone...just one person...hear what I'm saying!
I hear you Doc and I KNOW this to be true as I have a top notch vascular surgeon who is a friend. Everyone thinks the doctors are getting on the money in this nonsense and that is simply not the case. He recently did a anuerism fix(vein replacement) that took 2 hours as the anuerism had embolized. He got paid $1500 for the surgery as that is what the contract calls for whether it takes a 1/2 hour or 4 hours. (Actually, if it takes too long he is supposed to remove the leg rather than spend the time trying to fix it as sad as that may sound). He forgets the money and does what he can to save the leg.
Anyway, he got paid $2500 for the same procedure ten years ago! Of course the hospital bill for the procedure was $76,000.00 in this case so it sure as hell isn't the surgeon ( and the most important guy) making the bucks here.
500!
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