Just so you know, I’m probably going to be posting a little less often this week, until I can get done reading Obama’s book about his childhood.
I think I’ve finished the parts that I really need to have read for the column I’m doing for this weekend, but I’m trying to go ahead and finish it. What column? It’s one about an idea, or set of ideas, I’ve mentioned before:
Talk about what the election of Barack Obama as a black man means
misses the point, since — as a lot of black folks asserted last year
leading up to the primaries — Obama simply is not a "black man" in the
sense that the phrase has meaning in American history, sociology and
politics. I’ve got a column I’m planning on writing about that, after I
read his autobiography on the subject. It will be headlined "Barack Like Me,"
and it will be rooted in the experiences he and I share spending part
of our formative years in Hawaii (where race simply did not mean what
it means here) and outside the United States — both in the Third
World, in fact. None of these experiences are common to the sort of guy
we describe when we say "black American." I hope to write that one
before the summer is over.
I’m a really, really, excruciatingly slow reader (but my retention is good, once I’m done). So I’m trying to grab those moments during the day that I would normally use for blogging.
And then tonight is shot because of the debate. I’ll try to post during or after that.
Related Posts
Brad, why read the whole book when you can get a detailed summary? Lee is about to submit 10 posts about Obama’s life as a Mulim communist terrorist who was a successful suicide bomber and now is some Manchurian candidate who wants to tax emails and who is a biggoted flag burner who secretly mastermined the current economic crisis.
Brad, I won’t see you at St. Peter’s any more. We now live in Connecticut.
My Obama shirt now elicits lots of positive feedback and Obama signs easily outnumber Palin-McSame signs. I went from one end of the spectrum to the other.
Another interesting contrast, we’re in a town 1/3 the size of Columbia but there are 3 times the number of Catholic churches.
Randy, I know SC will vote for Obama by a good 10 points but in Richland County Obama will carry the day. From what I’ve seen Obama signs, bumper stickers etc. actually outnumber McCain stuff. So the transition shouldn’t be that difficult. I suspect if you drive down US-1 toward Batesburg the McCain signs would become much more dominant. In the immediate Columbia area, not so much.
Here’s a good read; the very conservative National Review criticizing the latest tack in the rutterless McCain campaign. The writer also explicitly reinforces the fact that McCain is inept when it comes to the economy.
Actually I meant to say SC will vote for McCain by 10 points.
Randy,
I hope you’ll provide some feedback down the road on the comparison of schools between SC and CT. I would be interested in hearing about it from someone on the frontlines.
And you can admit it – you moved to CT just to get closer to Red Sox Nation. 🙂
I read the Obama book this spring. I don’t recall anything “sticking” with me. Certainly not as much as Ron Paul’s Revolution book did…
Randy E,
Why don’t YOU read Obama’s book, or at least something factual about him? Then try to explain why he is such a loner, with no normal friends. All his close associates are criminals, dopers, terrorists, murderers, Black Panthers, Black Muslims, Nation of Islam, racists like Jeremiah Wright, etc.
Right now, you don’t know enough about Obama to carry on a conversation with those who do.
Randy,
That article does not even come close to “reinforc[ing] the fact that McCain is inept when it comes to the economy.” You may need to read it again.
Fact: McCain and the Bush administration sounded warning bells for years that Fannie and Freddie needed immediate reform or their bloated balance sheet and asset reliance on questionable mortgages presented a dire situation for the housing market and greater economy. Quotes are very easy to find on Google, Youtube, etc.
Fact: Rankin and Reid and many other Democrats countered that the GSE’s were great and that they are the reason that American is the “best housed” country in the world.
Now we see a financial system on the brink of collapse almost solely because people can’t pay their mortgages.
I only ask one question: Who saw this coming and who tried to stop it? It doesn’t really matter if their efforts failed or not. All of the above quotes are Congressional record. The republican tried to fold the GSE’s under complete governmental control and the Democrats fiercely opposed it because of the GSE role in guaranteeing and buying mortgages. McCain the “deregulator” co-sponsored legislation and advocated for it on the Senate floor that would have brought the GSE’s under strict governmental control and regulatory authority. Remember, until the failed, the GSE’s were publicly traded. Many would call this proposal socialist. Not exactly taking a back seat while a financial crisis took shape is it.
Increasing homeownership for the poor and lower middle class is a bedrock of Democrat policy and will be under Obama.
And one other thing, what do all you geniuses think will happen when Corporate tax bills skyrocket under Obama? Do you think jobless claims will go up or down? I don’t know of a single company in existence that can add jobs when their taxes go up. That is middle school math.
Two issues that are key to economic recovery and growth and Obama is irrefutably on the wrong side. How can this guy get away with blaming the financial crisis on Republicans and how can so many intelligent people believe these lies. Amazing.
8 years of failed policy caused this financial crisis. Not quite chief.
Brad, does there not come a time when Lee’s diatribes slip over the line to libel?
“And one other thing, what do all you geniuses think will happen when Corporate tax bills skyrocket under Obama? Do you think jobless claims will go up or down? I don’t know of a single company in existence that can add jobs when their taxes go up. That is middle school math.”
Given the size of the debt, and the fact that anyone running against social security will be voted out of office by the AARP crowd, won’t anyone who actually wants to balance the budget have to raise taxes?
And no, raising taxes doesn’t inherently cause companies to lay people off _IF_ the economy is doing well, and _IF_ the taxes are pumped back into paying people to be productive. Government buildings are built by people, highways are built by people, etc… and those people can’t spend if they aren’t employed. (Hasn’t Obama said the bailout will cause him to scale back his plans?)
Karen forgot to say what “libel” I committed, and on whom.
All I have posted about Obama are the facts.
Truth is not libel, no matter how odious.
Obama supporters have a common trait of no being able to even state the facts which offend them, much less discuss them. That should be a sign to them that subconsiously, they know Obama is a dangerous, person due to his racist socialism.
Why Government Spending Hurts the Economy
just saying repeats a fallacy common among advocates of big government spending: that high taxes don’t matter because the government is going to put it back into the economy.
The problem is that government spending produces less economic activity that private spending because:
* Gvernment money money turns over fewer times, about 20% less.
* Government makes worse decisions than the taxpayers whose money was taken, because bureaucrats don’t have the motivation or proper information.
* Government buy things society doesn’t really want. It people wanted it, they would buy it without government taking taxes at gunpoint.
* Government overhead consumes too much. In some welfare programs, 90% of the money goes to administration. Medicare in 2007 had 31% of its entire budget lost or stolen.
The economic crisis will get NO BETTER with Obama as President and a Democratic Congress at his beck and call. Look out for it to get a LOT WORSE. The current economic mess is a direct result of legislated lending to folks who could not afford a home. Those being displaced now can thank the democrats for pushing this ridiculous socialist program into law, but you’ll never hear that in the MSM. And Just Saying, I believe buildings, roads (read INFRASTRUCTURE) are built by companies and CORPORATIONS, both evil entities that need to be taxed and structured, or so sez our democratic congress.
Karen,
I knew you were interested in monitoring the indoor temperature control of private businesses, but wasn’t aware that you also want to shut down free speech. Perhaps if you read the libel laws in this country, you would find out why they are rarely enforced successfully. What we really need is a stupidity law, but I don’t think you’d like it much.
I am afraid this country is about to elect a relatively unknown as President who is basing his stance on the defining issue in this election on lies. McCain was right when he called Obama a liar on this issue. The real question is will McCain be effective tonight in laying that out. If not and if Obama wins, the blame will likely lay at the McCain campaign’s feet for not effectively exposing the truth on the financial crisis as much as it does at the Obama camp’s feet for lying about it.
Was just reading the IRS tax statistics. Essentially breaks down like this:
Top 1% of earners pay 40% of taxes in this country. Top 50% pay 97%. That means that the bottom half of earners pay 3%.
Gonna be kind of hard to give a tax break to those that don’t even pay taxes won’t it. But I guess the flip side is that about 65% of Obama’s proposed tax cuts won’t cost the government a penny in lost revenue because it isn’t getting any to begin with. Maybe Obama is a smarter politician than I give him credit for.
Very popular policies that are completely illusory.
Obama was a guy without a ‘hood, the product of an unusual upbringing, raised by and around folks who didn’t look like him. That’s certainly confusing, but nothing terrible, especially considering what some kids right here in Columbia go through. He surely had to do some searching about to find his niche and himself.
I’m sure the book offers some insights, but surer that it’s carefully written. Virtually every writer conceals some instances and episodes, sometimes simply out of embarrassment or to prevent harm to others. But then again…
The “Frank” Obama refers to in his biography was Frank Marshall Davis, radical activist, journalist, and poet, who moved from Chicago to Honolulu in 1948. Obama uses strikingly powerful language to relate the lessons about race that Davis conveyed to him:
Those words likely introduced an inner tension and later served as the spark that prompted him to switch from Occidental to Columbia University after two years of college. He’d had a great preparatory curriculum at Punahou and probably did well at Occidental, but he felt the need to find himself in an uber-urban environment, something Columbia offered.
Obama doesn’t write much about his time at Columbia. No big deal, I don’t write much about my collegiate daze, a trek involving three states, four universities, two continents, and four tankers –refrigerated, I assure you — of premium draft. But Columbia was likely the start of Obama’s radicalization and may have been where he first ran across Bill Ayers.
That’s my three links. More in a bit.
How McCain could deal with Obama BS.
“So I’m a deregulator? Sure, when I think it makes sense. Healthcare is incredibly overregulated. The Stark laws are ludicrous and cost the healthcare systems hundreds of millions of dollars to deal with. HIPAA is a joke. But was I a “deregulator” when I proposed rolling a publicly traded company under government control? Was I a “deregulator” when I sounded warning bells about the impending crisis and cosponsored legilsation that could be termed socialist? No. Now I would like for Senator Obama to give an example of my record as a deregulator instead of just saying I am a “deregulator”. Senator?”
CRICKETS, CRICKETS
Barack like you, Brad?
Your naivete knows no bounds.
Here’s more.
Approach the powers that be in my old hometown of Chicago (maybe even in Columbia) with the offer “I want to help, I want to play a part” and you’ll get the response “Who sent you?”. They operate on premise of self-interest: greed if you like and memorialized in what the late, great Mike Royko called the Windy City’s motto “Ubi est mea?”, or where’s mine. They’re asking what can you do for them, why should they even give you the time of day, because in Chicago, “we don’t want nobody that nobody sent.”
Steve Diamond over at Global Labor and Politics gives you the Readers’ Digest version of Obama’s introduction to Chicago politics :
Note that Diamond is a liberal, union-supporting guy who happens to dislike authoritarianism and its adherents.
Whether for convenience or because of commitment Obama fully accepted the ideology of those far-left-wingers whom he joined is immaterial in that he seemed to adapt and eventually adopt their views thoroughly.
Most disturbing is his approach to education. We see a bit of this in the failure of the education project that he was the chairman of, $160M spent on left-wing causes that produced no measurable improvements in test scores. His support of Ayers’ political assault on education has continued to the present day through his Positive Behavior for Effective Schools Act of 2007. Not a hint of personal responsibility in his push to commit unlimited funds to stuff that will hurt minority students hardest,
While some will give him high marks for good intentions, most (I hope!) will see that demanding mastery of leaning objectives is the key.
Hey Jimmy, here is a clip of McCain championing deregulation as great for the economy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUJ_Qn0AHTU
It’s apparent you are not up to speed on your candidate. This is only one of multiple examples of him explicitly supporting deregulation. Even his VP has talked this up!!
Fact: McCain and the Bush administration sounded warning bells for years that Fannie and Freddie needed immediate reform – Jimmy
I guess Rick Davis, McCain’s CAMPAIGN MANAGER, a major LOBBYIST for Freddie and Fannie, wasn’t consulted about these remarks.
And Jimmy, cut and pasted from the very conservative National Review article:
McCain has suffered from his own manifest lack of interest in economic issues. He was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee for four years, but you’d never know it. He repeatedly misstates his only real tax proposal for the middle class…
“lack of interest”…”he’s the chairman…wouldn’t know it”…”misstates his own proposal”…OUCH!!
Karen, your question about about you-know-who and libel does raise a disturbing point. It’s not so much the rantings via comments of fringe right-wing extremists that is worrisome, nor even the sad spectacle of more sober commenters (Mike C) presenting the polite version of the same obsessions. (An aside: Mike, talking about Obama’s “radicalization” is hysterically funny. Are we talking about the same man who we’ve seen on the political stage for the last 2 years? Has America turned radical-left while I blinked? C’mon. Obama is a radical like I’m a NASCAR fan.)
But Karen, back to your point: what is most worrisome is when the McCain-Palin campaign fosters an atmosphere of hate, eliciting shouts of “terrorist” and “traitor” from their adoring throngs. To McCain’s credit, last night in the debate he did not start talking about “palling around with terrorists.” I give him credit for that. Maybe because he’s still too decent a person at heart or the format seemed too polite for that kind of hate-speech.
But the dangers of what McCain and especially the Hockey Imam from Wasilla are flirting with are expressed concisely from this Israeli reader of Andrew Sullivan’s blog:
“Your post on “The Danger of Obama” immediately brought to mind what happened here in Israel in the period leading up to Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. Even allowing for the differences in political culture between the two countries, some of the sounds we’re hearing in the public debate around the election have a haunting echo. Here no one would have thought it possible that an Israeli Jew would take the life of a high official. There’s little doubt that the crescendo of demonization toward Rabin – including accusations of treason, flyers picturing Rabin as an SS officer – and the difficulty, in a society guaranteeing free speech, of ‘civilizing’ the public debate before it creates a fertile bed for actual violence, all helped create the context in which Rabin’s murderer decided to take matters into his own hands. I’d like to see which Republicans will denounce this turn towards demonization. And if there are no takers – maybe Joe Lieberman?”
I have published the facts about Obama’s many close associations with racists, swindlers, FNMA, FMAC, AIG execs, terrorists, radical Muslims, and two murderers. Facts are not libel.
If any Obama apologists could refute or explain away Obama’s life of bad judgement in friends, they would do so. Instead, they lie by denying the facts, and stopping right there.
Well, it’s Wednesday, and it appears Brad is still reading.
I wonder if Obama reads so slowly, too, and it’s all caused by growing up in Hawaii, or is Obama’s prose just that hard to read?
The election will be over before Brad Warthen figures out that Obama is sympathetic to radical Islam because he was raised Muslim, that he is a socialist because he was raised by communists, and that he knows nothing about the world, but only his Afro-centric, anti-white, anti-Jew ideology.
REAL ISSUE: Obama is a racist.
His mother was tramp, who shacked up with a string of men, all non-white. You can see how she became a racist when you read Obama talk about her father.
Obama’s mother remarried an Indonesian Muslim, and sent Barack to fundamentalist Muslim schools, which taught that Jews and Christians were evil.
His grandfather was a white liberal racist, who saw his own racism as inherent, and saw it in every action of whites, however reasonable and colorblind, through is own racist prism. He inculcated into Obama the notion that white people were inherently racist.
Fatherless Barack looked to a friend of his grandfather as a mentor – Frank Marshal Davis, a card-carrying Communist, who hated whites, Jews and capitalism.
Obama fed himself the radical writings of Malcolm X and others.
At Columbia University, Obama roomed off campus with a Pakistani smuggler. His mentor at Columbia was professor Khalidi, a member of the PLO.
In Chicago, Obama hooked up with the Nation of Islam as a community organizer for ACORN. His mentor became Khalid Monsour, the middleman between Saudi money Black Muslims. That is also where Obama met Bill Ayers and his communist circle.
Khalid Monsour got Percy Sutton, the lawyer for Malcolm X. Sutton pulled strings to get Barack into Harvard Law School. Khalid got the money to pay for it from Prince Alween of Saudi Arabia.
After law school, Obama struggled to make a living until being hired by the Daley machine. Abner Mikva, a socialist Democrat, reconnected him with Farakan’s real estate projects and Tony Rezko.
Barack and his radical, racist wife, Michelle, joined the personality church of Jeremiah Wright, a former Black Muslim not teaching his own mix of Islam, New Testament Gospel, and his hatred of whites and Jews.
Obama’s advisors include Bill Ayers, Michael Klonsky (another Weatherman), bomber Bernadine Dorn, Harold Ickes (Stalinist upbringing), Leon Panetta (Castro Brigades), Laura Tyson (Romanian communism), etc ad nauseum.