Barack Obama for President

The Republicans are pulling all the dirty tricks out of their hats. A recent robo-call has one of McCain’s fellow POW sending a message about how Obama would be “weak” as President. Ironically, the last name of the POW is “Swindle”, something that the Republicans seem like they want to pull. The misinformation campaign by McCain and Republicans helps to harm the integrity of elections because they present lies as fact and people base their votes on them. Of course, when Republicans complain about the integrity of elections, they forget about the lies they inject into the electoral process.

But worse than the misinformation is the voter disenfranchisement. A voter in GA was informed that she was not a citizen and had 7 days to prove her citizenship if she wanted to vote. The letter was dated October 2nd. However, it was postmarked on the 9th (7 days later).

This voter “is one of more than 50,000 registered Georgia voters who have been “flagged” because of a computer mismatch in their personal identification information. At least 4,500 of those people are having their citizenship questioned and the burden is on them to prove eligibility to vote.”

However, the system to detect problems in the system is far from perfect.

In Florida, election officials found that 75 percent of about 20,000 voter registration applications from a three-week period in September were mismatched due to typographical and administrative errors.

So what about Georgia? If that high of a percentage are mismatched because of administrative errors and not because of an error on the part of the voter, then voters would be denied their right to vote because of a mistake on the part of the state. That is just plain wrong. The fact that these events are happening in states that could potentially go for either Obama or a Democratic Senator in a Republican state makes the activity very questionable.

For a party ranting and raving about maintaining the integrity of elections, the Republicans are sure doing whatever they can to ruin the integrity of this election. You do not have the moral authority to complain about any voter registration fraud on the part of left leaning groups if you are supporting voter suppression tactics.

At the Republican Convention he said that Iraq has become a place where Al Queda is rejected.

Al Queda had no presence in Iraq until after we invaded.

Although Osama bin Laden briefly explored the idea of forging ties with Iraq in the mid-1990s, the terrorist leader was hostile to Hussein’s secular government, and Iraq never responded to requests for help in providing training camps or weapons, the panel found in the first of two reports issued today.

But again, Republicans try and connect Iraq to 9-11, even though it has been conclusively shown that there was no link.

The first thing I need to say is this. To all those that interrupted Senator McCain while he spoke… you are not helping. McCain’s own words will be enough to prove why he should not be our next president. You don’t need to interrupt him, to do that is just rude, and it makes the rest of us who oppose his candidacy look bad. The political process needs more maturity, not idiots acting like children.   

McCain quoted our founding fathers by saying that all men are created equal. However, he did not say that all people deserve equal rights. Under a John McCain presidency we will see activist conservative judges who will move our country and civil rights back to the 1950s or maybe before.

McCain said that he fought for the strategy of more troops. However, Obama fought against going into Iraq in the first place. It seems that Barack Obama was correct when it counted the most. And because we followed Bush’s failed policies, we took our eye off the ball with Al Queda and it is now reached pre-9/11 strengths. And McCain wants to continue the President’s failed policy? That doesn’t make any sense.

Honoring the troops and keeping us safe from enemies requires that we train and equip Iraq to defend itself, it requires that we have a responsible withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, and it requires that we go after the enemies who actually attacked us and make them our priority. The only candidate in the election that I see proposing this is Barack Obama and not John McCain.

McCain believes in open markets, but free trade with countries that don’t share our labor laws provides unfair competition to the American worker.

McCain believes in people keeping the fruits of their labor? I bet you he won’t be pushing for the American worker to get increased pay that is a fair compensation for that labor.

McCain brought up the old line that judges should not legislate from the bench. Every single one of those people applauding tonight would love the court to legislate from the bench on the issues of gay marriage and abortion.

Mccain says government doesn’t work for you but makes sure that you have more choices to make for yourself. B.S. McCain is leading the morality police that wants to legislate against choice, be it on abortion, or gay marriage, or activities that hurt nobody yet for some reason Republicans insist on legislating against them.

McCain says that Obama would raise taxes. Yet a recent study showed that the income of the average American will increase more because of Obama’s plan than it would with McCain’s plan.

McCain rejects Obama’s plan for a government run healthcare system. That is a lie, Obama doesn’t want government run healthcare. He wants people to keep their own healthcare plans and make health plans easier to purchase for those 40+ million who cannot afford it for themselves.

McCain says that Education is THE civil rights issue of the century. Education is A civil rights issue, but there are many more. However, on education, McCain wants to add competition to fix failed schools. Why not just fix the schools! We should yearn to make all public schools top notch! We should not “cut and run” on our youth.

McCain wants to stop sending money to oil producing countries who don’t like us. Well guess what, Obama wants to do that as well. Obama just sells his plan with his long term goals, while McCain sells his plan with his short term goals. I like the long term approach personally.

John McCain is a patriot. John McCain is a hero. John McCain deserves all the respect that we can give him for his service to our country. This is something that is said a lot, but it is something that cannot be said enough.

But let me get back to where John McCain started. John McCain and the Republican Party rejects the idea of equal rights for all (be it equal pay for equal work, gay marriage rights, or any other civil rights issue the Democrats support but Republicans oppose). How can a person expect to lead a nation if he doesn’t support equal rights for every person in that nation? As long as John McCain refuses to fight for every single American as president, John McCain proves that he is not qualified to BE our next president. Period.

Mitt Romney shows exactly why he couldn’t win the Presidential nomination in his speech today. He doesn’t even know the Constitution (or the realities of his own Government)! He claimed that the ruling that allowed Guantanamo prisoners to question their imprisonment as both “liberal” and “granting them rights”.

A) A Conservative court made that ruling.

B) The Constitution states:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

It doesn’t say citizen, it says person. All people get the right to due process under the law. This is not something belonging to only citizens. The ignorance of Romney (and all those who cheered in the croud at his statement to that effect) shines through with their lack of knowledge of our Constitution. These people are supposed to be their party leaders and they don’t even know the Constitution? How pathetic!

Meg Whitman, the former CEO of Ebay, spoke at the Republican convention tonight. Before reading this, I suggest you read about all the fraud at Ebay during her watch. I would also urge you to remember the words of Rob Chestnut who tells us that fraud on ebay is “under-counted” and “over-counted”.

Meg Whitman said she is a Republican because of “character”? Well, it does take a character to seriously believe the b.s. she gave out on fighting fraud as CEO of ebay. Read the story in the Mike Brunker Ebay section that discusses the shill bidder who got away with fraud and was only given a verbal warning.

Meg Whitman says that Republicans are proud to be the party of Lincoln. Well sorry Meg, but if Lincoln was alive today I doubt he would be a Republican (considering Democrats are the party that now fights for civil rights).

I am glad Meg spoke tonight. She did contradict Fred Thompson when he said the economy was great. She said the economy was bad. For a convention so scripted, I would think they would get their message straight. What is it Republicans? Do we have a good economy or a bad one?

Meg says that Republicans  will lower taxes. Yes, I am sure that under a Republican administration that Meg Whitman would see many tax breaks. But the other 95% of us will be getting tax breaks under Barack Obama.

Meg speaks of individual freedoms. Yeah, as long as you are rich, white, and heterosexual you have all the freedom you want in America.

Meg says that McCain supports more self government. But the morality police that is the Republican Party is the one who needs to “protect marriage” from homosexuals. I would suggest they seek to protect marriage from David Vitter and Larry Craig before worrying about what homosexuals will do to their marriages. Guess what Republicans, my marriage to my wife is special to me no matter how many prostitutes David Vitter “sins” with. Your marriage will be just as special as it is today if gay people are allowed to marry the people they love.

But let’s go back to the statement of Rob Chestnut (the one about fraud and how it is over-counted and under-counted). Rob was brought in by Meg to Ebay. Rob and Meg embraced that kind of double speak while defending their inaction when it came to fraud in ebay. How can you take people who believe that double speak seriously?

McCain does though. At the Saddleback forums McCain said he would seek the council of Meg Whitman because of her wisdom. So much for the “straight talk express”.

Fred Thompson

He seems to think our economy is great. He criticized Democrats for thinking the Economy is not good. Well, is it? I guess it is for people who don’t know how many houses they own. Get back to us when you have a candidate who understands what life is like for the rest of us.

He says Sarah Palin is a breath of fresh air? No, she is just your regular run of the mill extremist conservative who would ban abortions for rape victims and hates gay people. But hey, that should work to get the other extremists out for McCain.  

Thompson refers to Palin’s executive experience, limited as it is, as a plus. What executive experience does McCain have exactly?

Thompson criticized Obama indirectly for giving teleprompter speeches to appeal to our critics abroad. He is flat out wrong. Obama gives speeches that appeal to those in America that the Republicans in charge have ignored for far too long.  

Thompson falsely criticizes the Democrats for having the least popular Congress. Did it ever occur to him that the reason Democrats were elected in 2006 was because voters wanted us to change our course and that the reason that Congress is not popular is not because of the Democratic majority, but because of the Republican obstructionists.

Thompson claims that Obama would support protectionism. Well I want someone to protect American labor against unfair trade agreements.

Thompson claims that Obama is going to raise taxes on businesses, when in fact Obama is going to give tax cuts to businesses that keep jobs here and raise taxes on businesses that ship American jobs overseas.

Joe Lieberman

I thought I would have more to say about Joe Lieberman. However, what I saw was just simple and vague rhetoric with no substance. At least Thompson listed the problems he saw. Thompson lied, but at least he was specific.

Lieberman tried to say that McCain has been the same man he always has been. Well, the John McCain of 2000 is far from the John McCain of 2008.

Lieberman did speak of the dangerous enemies abroad. Obama wants to go after those who attacked us. McCain wants to continue the failed Iraq policies.

Lieberman also has drunk the Kool Aid by calling bills like H.R. 1591 “retreat”. He claimed that Obama supporting cutting off funds for the troops. Obama, and other Democrats, supported bills like HR 1591 that fully funded and equipped our troops. It would have fully funded and equipped the training of the Iraqi military. But no, Republicans reject such notions as retreat. Well, I’m sorry but setting up Iraq to defend itself is reaching for victory. And McCain, Lieberman, and others are just flat out wrong on this issue.

And Senator, I have voted for Republicans in the past. I will not be voting for this Republican. Nor will I follow your misguided support.

The person I believe that is the best for our country is Barack Obama.

* Ok, so I found some more things to say about Lieberman and his vague rhetoric.

The Republican Convention is coming up and Rudy is the keynote speaker. Let’s all put a wager on how many times he uses the words “global terrorism” in his speech. I put dibs on 14. (If he says “global terror” I will count that as well).

If I am wrong, and you are the first to guess the correct number exactly (put it as an answer in the thread)  I will send you a “No Way! No How! No McCain!” T-shirt. If we have to evacuate from the storm, we will work out a way for you to get it.

In showing how the Republican party does not quite understand the real world, not only did the Republicans affirm their quest to obtain a constitutional ban on abortion, they also removed the reductions of abortions from their party platform.

So let me get this straight. The party who claims to be pro-life and wants to protect embryos is only caring about criminalizing abortion and not worrying about reducing their numbers? How is that for not being genuine?

Republicans also affirmed their hatred of homosexuals by continuing their support to ban gay marriages. I am sure that marriage defenders David “who would Vitter do” Vitter and Larry “toe tapping” Craig will be leading the battle charge on this one. I’m shocked they are not calling for both a return to Jim Crow laws and a constitutional amendment to keep women in the kitchen and out of the voting booth. Could the Republican Party be any more archaic?

Cross posted at Liberty and Justice for All.

This is another attempt on the part of John McCain to scare us into voting Republican. Why? Because someone else feels like Obama would be a better choice? I am voting for Obama in November, does this mean that I support Castro? In the eyes of McCain I guess it does. However, McCain is dead wrong.

The ad is intellectually dishonest. Just because he may support Obama doesn’t mean that Obama would return the favor and support the way Cuba has been run for years.

What is worse is that John McCain thinks so little of the American public, and so little of the intelligence of American voters, that he actually believes that they will be fooled by such an ad. If McCain has to stoop this low to try and win, that makes me feel really good about our having a Democratic President in January of 2009.

My opinion is that most of the people who believe this ad are likely already voting for McCain in the first place. These are probably the <30% of the country who still supports President Bush. So this is just more wasted Republican money. Again, a good thing.

Tonight, Rudy Giuliani was on Hannity and Colmes discussing Obama and his energy policy. Rudy praised McCain for wanting to drill and explore clean coal while chastising Obama because he felt Obama would block drilling.

The first problem with McCain’s argument is that we currently have 10,000 open leases that are not being drilled in the first place. So the idea that our policy needs to include new leases soon is just plain silly.

But the major stupidity that came from Rudy when Colmes was discussing the idea that we depend far too much on foreign oil. Colmes asked him about all the domestic oil that currently gets shipped to Asia. He asked why we couldn’t just use that oil domestically. Well, Rudy’s response was that we have private businesses here and that private businesses are free to sell their product where they will make the most money.

Anyone see where I am going with this yet?

My question to Rudy is this. How will it help our reliance on foreign oil if oil companies drill for more oil and just sell that oil overseas as well?

And this is the problems with the Republican pundits. They are so caught up in trying to prevent Obama from becoming President that when making their arguments they fall flat on their faces. Unfortunately Colmes did not see the problem with Rudy’s logic, but I did. And now you do too!