It's mean, vengeful and sets women back like 100 years, but holy hell I peed myself!!!
This semi-mysoginistic man I know sent it to me--maybe not mysoginistic, but he does have only a partially informed view of women. I have to overlook it, if I want to keep being his friend---well and every once in a while he shows nascent signs of improvement--probably inadvertant as far as he is concerned.
Men.
I have been sucha f-ing downer lately.
Listen to all of this.
It's hilarious.
Not everyone takes themselves as seriously...hallelujah.
It's all about your take on things I suppose.
So I have spent the last few days looking for a job.
I thought about taking one with KBR as an MWR Morale Welfare Recreation coordinator overseas, working as a land agent or as an insurance adjuster-- all very lucrative,e but not conducive to motherhood, though I suspect that I'm not doing a particularly good job in that department anyway so a break from Mom might not have been such a bad idea, but I digress.
Anyway...so what I have come up with is a job at a sports bar.
I can
work at night and on weekends,
I don't have to sit still
and I don't need a porkchop tied around me neck
so folks will play with me.
There you have it.
I'm taking
my $80,000 education,
stellar personality,
razor sharp mind,
and moving from wiping toddler ass at night to wiping tables...It just keeps getting better and better around here.
It's seemed kinda vague, lately. A long lately...kinda untethered if
We joined the Y.
My 16th anniversary came and went.
I was walking into the store a couple of days ago when I noticed a person sitting in a lawn chair.
I say a person because I am not sure if it was male or a female.
He or she was so badly burned and had so much flesh and hair literally cut away I couldn't tell. There is an air of frailty that comes when your body has been brutalized in some way--a kind of waifishness.
Clutched in this person's lap was a donations box. After taking these things in my eyes averted quickly--subconsciously-- much like when you wince after an unexpected cut.
I think what brought on the intensity of the wince was I was thinking as I walked towards the store entrance how fit I had been feeling lately.
I'm moving faster these days. I have more control over my body and what it does. There in the parking lot on my way in I had been making note of these things specifically when I came upon this person.
and I was ashamed of myself.
I went in with Jo and I did what little shopping I had to do and came out with this person still on my mind. I couldn't even look over when I left. I only had a jumbled impression of what this person had looked like when I first laid eyes, and I was pretty sure if I looked again the pieces would all fall together and burn in my mind leaving a scar there.
Something more to mourn.
When I got back in the car I pulled out to go home and found myself moving instead towards the store entrance. I didn't really think specifics, but I must have, right? because soon my car was in the emergency lane and I was getting out clutching a $5 bill. For some reason I was moved to acknowledge this person.
to look this person in the eye and say hello.
I wanted to because I didn't think I could.
and I was ashamed of trying to avoid the image of their suffering in my head.
So I walked up, put my bill in the donation box and did say hello. I stopped and asked how this person was doing, but no eyes looked up.
This person just mumbled thank you, said 'fine' to my inquiry and kept looking down.
It was hard for this person to look at me I suddenly realized.
It was probably harder.
I turned and walked back to the car.
First off go see Sgt. Grumpy . He needs some help!
_______________________________________
Joseph Patrick Dwyer.
I am sure you have heard about this young soldier's death five years after he left Iraq. He succumbed to his demons and killed himself. It was all over the news...much like this 'iconic' picture from 2003.
Most think they know the story...just another typical PTSD couldn't hack it so he offed himself. How sad. story.
But these articles may lend some insight into this young man and into the photojournalist who took this picture.
Read the articles.
Remember this young man and those like him.
Remember that no two stories about soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen who bring home wounds you can't see, will be the same.
Finally, remember them and their sacrifices.
Remember.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/%20wp...8071102390.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/%20wp...8071102328.html
__________________________________________
Again...Go see Sgt. Grumpy as well. He needs some help!
And before you get your panties or looms in a twist, you should know I got this from another blogger...a male kind...which accounts for more than usual crudeness from hope...who am I kidding? I'm crude, just not generally this blatant. heeeeeeeeeeeeee.
tell which one you liked best... 3rd from the top and 2nd to last were pretty damn funny. I'm just sayin'.
The Why's of Men
1. WHY DO MEN BECOME SMARTER DURING SEX?
(because they are plugged into a genius)
2. WHY DON'T WOMEN BLINK DURING SEX?
(they don't have enough time)
3. WHY DOES IT TAKE 1 MILLION SPERM TO FERTILIZE ONE EGG?
(they don't stop to ask directions)
4. WHY DO MEN SNORE WHEN THEY LIE ON THEIR BACKS?(because their balls fall over their butt-hole and they vapor lock)
(You're laughing, aren't you. ?!?! don't worry I won't tell...)
5. WHY WERE MEN GIVEN LARGER BRAINS THAN DOGS?
(so they won't hump women's legs at cocktails parties)
6. WHY DID GOD MAKE MEN BEFORE WOMEN?(you need a rough draft before you make a final copy)
7. HOW MANY MEN DOES IT TAKE TO PUT A TOILET SEAT DOWN?(don't know.....it never happened)
8. WHY DID GOD PUT MEN ON EARTH?(because a vibrator can't mow the lawn)
One day my housework-challenged husband decided to wash his sweat-shirt seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to me,
'What setting do I use on the washing machine?'
'It depends,' I replied.
'What does it say on your shirt?'
He yelled back, ' University of Oklahoma.'
A couple is lying in bed.
The man says, 'I am going to make you the happiest woman in the world.'
The woman replies, 'I'll miss you...'
It's just too hot to wear clothes today,' Jack says as he stepped out of the shower,
'honey, what do you think the neighbors would think if I mowed the lawn like this?'
'Probably that I married you for your money,' she replied.
Q: What do you call an intelligent, good looking, sensitive man?
A: A rumor
Dear Lord, I pray for
Wisdom to understand my man;
Love to forgive him;
And Patience for his moods.
Because, Lord,
if I pray for Strength, I'll beat him to death. AMEN
Q: Why do little boys whine?
A: They are practicing to be men.
Q: What does it mean when a man is in your bed gasping for breath and calling your name?
A: You did not hold the pillow down long enough.
Q: How do you keep your husband from reading your e-mail?
A: Rename the mail folder 'Instruction Manual.'
The article below was written by syndicated columnist, Thomas Sowell, a black man. He wrote it in a humorous way this past week in a column titled "Random Thoughts" and published it in newspapers nationally, so maybe you've already seen it. If not, be my guest:
Now remember...this is a rant. Which is why of course I HAVE to post it.
Senator John McCain could never convince me to vote for him. Only Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama can cause me to vote for McCain.
After long and serious thought, I have decided to endorse Senator John McCain for President.
I have always voted for the person and have not voted for anyone because some political party was telling me who I should vote for.We all know the choices by now and, that said, I do believe that the process of selecting a chief executive is deeply flawed. The words "money" and "special interests" come to mind, among many others.
Here's the way I see it:Barack Obama, you are a fine public speaker. You are also an extremely liberal Senator from the State of Illinois, which has a long and rich history of politica l corruption of the first magnitude. You are indeed a child of that system.
You have finally insulted my intelligence far beyond my capacity to tolerate your insults. It has nothing at all to do with your skin color. As a matter of fact, it would be so COOL to finally have an African-American for President. What a great statement that would be to the entire world that we are indeed the greatest country on earth!
But, unfortunately, General Colin Powell is not running, and YOU are NOT the man for this job !
Barack baby, you want me to believe that you have never heard the sermons of your own pastor, the Right Reverend "God Damn America" Jeremiah Wright. It is a matter of record that this has been your church for over 20 years. It is a matter of record that you were married there by this very pastor, and that your children were baptized there.
The good Reverend saw fit to visit Khadafy in Libya with you and to give a lifetime achievement award to Louis Farrakhan, of all people.We have all now seen excerpts of his sermons all over the airwaves by now. And you have publicly stated that this man IS your "spiritual mentor."
BUT, your pastor is NOT the reason I am NOT voting for you. His words were disturbing enough, but it is your own HUGE church congregation, seen jumping, hooting and howling to his words in the background that disturb me the most. And please don't tell me you attended church there and never once heard a "discouraging word" in the 20 years you attended there. Don't tell me, that in addition to the good reverend, that you are now not having anything to do with all those other people seen hooting and howling out in the audience in the background of his fiery tirades. Even Oprah Winfrey got disgusted and walked out on your campaign. I am no Oprah fan, but still she did the right thing.
Now YOU look me in the eye and ask me to believe that you never heard such language in all the years you attended there! This is like me telling you that I attended dozens of Klan rallies and never once heard the "N" word. Yep. And Bill Clinton "did not inhale".
Yes, Mr. Obama, we all have friends who have said stupid things that embarrassed us, but NOW you have asked me to believe something that is so incredibly stupid that you are telling me that I am just stupid enough to believe you. THAT is the main reason that I will never vote for you.
I am deeply sorry, that in a country teeming with enormously talented African Americans who would make a good President, that the political system has chosen YOU. You are a pathetic and plastic excuse for an American, who will not even salute the Flag during the Pledge of Allegiance. God forbid you ever get near the Oval Office.
Now, did I mention Bill Clinton?
AH YES! This brings us to MRS. WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, who this candidate really is, in spite of all the other names she may care to call herself. This "feminist" piece of work of course would like to be referred to as MS. And we all know who wears the pant suit in that family.
MS. Clinton, it is just as depressing to realize that there are dozens of women who would also make great Presidents. But, unfortunately, the horrible state of the selection process has selected YOU. Ms. Clinton, I'm sorry, but you could not tell the truth if we water boarded your worthless "rear end"!
Still you play the role of the "embarrassed, but dignified noble wife". What utter malarkey! I am not voting for you for a world of reasons, but the main one is the same as my not voting for Senator Obama.
You persistently insult my intelligence. It COULD be conceivably possible that you did not know about Monica Lewinsky, extremely remote, but possible if we stretch our imaginations a bit. But you turn around and then ask me to believe that you also did not know about Paula Jones and the legion of other women who were chewed up and spit out by your lecherous excuse for a husband. Puleese turn off this broken record !!!
But let's set aside your hubby's flagrant peccadilloes. The real reason I will never vote for you is that I don't think the country can survive EIGHT MORE YEARS of Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, Sandy Berger stuffing his socks with classified intelligence, Janet Reno's goon squad, and the myriad other corruptions that seem to stick to you like your ugly face. So our former President can't keep his thingy in his pants. The REAL issue is that he committed perjury under oath when he lied about it and the pathetically-attempted cover-up that followed.
Like you, he is totally incapable of telling the truth. He could not do it if you tortured him, and in voting for you, we would get the BOTH of you, all over again.
The same folks who could have taken out Osama Bin Laden over 4,000 dead Americans ago!
And please stop telling me that you have "8 years of experience" to lead us. You were the freakin' first lady already, not the Commander in Chief. Jeez! The sum of your "experience" is that of the most worrisome and incompetent meddling in the history of the White House. You even cursed your pitiful staff and the Secret Service agents who were and still are unfortunately charged with risking their lives to protect your worthless, thieving hide, and all at the expense of other people who have to work for a living.
Your single pathetic platform is to finance the illegal drugs, alcoholism and bad habits of the very lowest and most irresponsible freeloaders in America and to then "garnish the wages" (your own words) of every law-abiding and hard-working American to pay for it. This disaster you refer to as "Universal Health Care." Where have you been the last 30 years? Did you not see that socialism is a failure wherever it has been tried? Did you not notice that the Soviet Union has collapsed since it gave no reward to those who worked the hardest for the fruits of their own labors to pay for those who will not?
It is interesting to see all the dead bodies that you and your hubby have left in your wake. Suicides, mysterious deaths, cover-ups that make Richard Nixon look like a rank amateur. The utter contempt and unbelievable arrogance of some of your strongest supporters, most notably the recently resigned and disgraced Governor Eliot Spitzer, the epitome of hypocritical and malevolent arrogance gone wild, one of your most ardent, wealthy and powerful political supporters. A man the news media refuses to admit IS a "super delegate" in your own political machine, a fine example of your own "adopted" state of New York. No wonder you moved there to run for Senator! The environment there is perfect for the likes of you!
Yes, I would vote for a woman, but I will NOT vote for YOU!
Which leaves us with Senator John McCain.
John, you are a flawed man. You are a bit old, a bit looney, and you have a notoriously bad temper. This perfectly qualifies you, in my humble opinion, to lead us for the next eight years. I WANT your trembling hand on the nuclear button.
Think about it.
We have Kim Jong IL, Chavez and Ahmadenijad all running around like lunatics, threatening America and threatening to plunge the world into nuclear Armageddon. We have Putin and the Chinese blustering and rattling their sabers at us. I want John McCain in the Oval Office and I want him to be really ticked off at all these other nut jobs around the planet.
John, once you are elected, I want you to go into the Oval Office and throw one of your perfect FITS. Jump up and down and throw something through a plate glass window. Rip the drapes down and foam at the mouth a bit. And I want the whole thing on camera so that Ahmadinejad can see it. I want ALL of these "world leaders" to lay awake at night and to break out in a cold sweat every time they think of messing with the United States of America.
I want the nuclear button sitting right next to the alarm clock on your night stand. I want pictures of this to be sent to Iran, Russia, China, Venezuela, Cuba, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, and those other dopes in the sheets, the Saudis.
On the domestic front, poor John did try and reach across the aisle to the opposition in a desperate effort to compromise and to get the Congress to do something. You may not agree with his efforts, but at least he TRIED. For all his efforts, all he got handed to him was his head in a basket. The liberals are ticked at him and the conservatives are ticked at him. Just my kinda guy.
I predict that John will select Senator Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Good choice. I want a Jew whose memory of the Holocaust is still fresh in his mind and who is royally ticked off at all of these towel-headed morons in the Middle East to be the next in line if something should happen to John. Shalom, Vice President Joe. One heartbeat from the Oval Office.Finally. John McCain knows on a most personal level what it is to suffer horrible torture for years and to see others die, right in front of you, for their love of America. When you ask him about it, he will tell you that what he did was "nothing special. " Even more incredibly, he states that ANY American who truly loves his country would do exactly the same as he did in that situation. You and I will have a hard time believing that, but the real point is that John McCain believes that about the "average American," and that, dear friends and neighbors, is why I will cast my one poor ballot on election day for John McCain -- warts and all."
I should have posted earlier, but I just wasn't up to it.
As some of you may know by now, I run a military project which sends items overseas to our service members in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and out on float.
Most of the last few days I have been pulling my hair out waiting to see if any of the 9 dead in the remote Kunar Province of Afghanistan are of the 10 forward air observers attached to outposts in that remote area I deal with directly. These men, mine are in 2/503rd Battle and Chosen companies, have put in a long and deadly tour
which is due to end in the next two weeks. Sadly, nine men from Chosen company died and fourteen were wounded. Please offer a prayer or light a candle to all those who are awaiting the return of their loved ones both alive and dead. I cannot begin to fathom what their families are going through right now. For an idea of where these sky soldiers are and what they see, hit it here.
More info you can find over at Tankerbabe's blog. She has links to the news stories just under these first two posts...
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"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."
Samples from my body of work:
I had "It's a boy" signs put into a friend's yard while she was away on vacation for a week. She already had five kids and was big into Little League in her small town so she fielded congratulatory calls for weeks and offered me corollary hand gestures of goodwill during that same period of time. What a gal.
Once I wrote a fake letter from the even more fake Texas Consortium for Pedagological Behavior Modification, soliciting my obnoxious, overbearing, inept vice principal in charge of discipline with his input on an equally fake text book on the topic. I wrote 100 questions and made the directions include him answering the questions (essay and multiple choice) in the order they were given without initial perusal. He was so jazzed about "being tapped" he carried that %^&$# packet all over school and mentioned to anyone who would listen for two days all the work he had to do on his "book". The second two days he spent hunting down the "a-hole who sent the %^&$# packet" since the last question asked if he thought waterboarding a student was more effective than a rubber hose...Dumbass...who would buy that sh*t in the first place? The head of the "Consortium" was a one Dr. Benjamin Doverman... what an igmo.
I decorated someone's house for Christmas in the middle of August replete with lights and fake snow...
I stuffed a friend's car with helium balloons and wrapped the whole thing in saran wrap.
I had an accomplice tell a coworker I had kicked a mutual friend's ass at a club the night before and that's why she was in her room with her door closed trying to use cover up on the black eye I gave her. My classroom door was closed, he was told, because I was psyching myself up to finish up the job in the hallway...He totally fell for it, threw himself in front of my door when I came out and explained plaintively and with a great deal of feeling how I couldn't throw my life away like that. We almost peed ourselves. It was payback for he always standing us up at happy hour. We explained sweetly that had he been there, we wouldn't have been able to screw with him like that...it only occured to me later that the joke was on me...I mean he had to believe I would actually do that to begin with for the joke to go over and he totally did.
Honey,
You have to let this go.
You have taken it apart in your mind,
gone over it any number of ways.
It's beginning to affect our
marriage,
routine
and mental health.
You've been clenching your jaw at night again did you know that?
You can keep working at it, if you want to
but you and I both know it's no use.
It's over.
It
just
is.
Honey.
There's no use denying it anymore.
You know it.
I know it.
We have to face the truth:
We
have
to
call
the
plumber!!!
The
&$#%
plumber!!!!!
Okay?
You get me?
For the love of God
and everything holy
and
Before I kill you and have to make it look like an accident.
We. have. to. call. the. plumber.
Understand?
Are you hearing the words coming out of my mouth?
cause hell
I'll sign it
sing it
act it out
pound it out in braille even.
Whatever it takes.
P_L_U_M_B_E_R
Say it with me now.
P_L_U_M_B_E_R
Besides.
Look at it like this:
It'll be cheaper than a felony conviction and you might even get sex out of it.
Well--I don't know though.
At this point, I'm pretty pissed.
I mean.
I knew that we would have put a call in last week.
Before you
checked all the seals
snaked the line
and plunged like you were rotorooting a sperm whale's blow hole
for a solid week.
I knew we would have to call the plumber before you fell into this pissy assed mood only a house full of perimenopausal women could fully appreciate.
I knew.
Now I'm pissed.
Just think of all the
aggravation
frustration
irritation
agitation
which could have been avoided
and then there's whatever crap you were going through.
I'm cooked boy.
Tomorrow I'm making a call.
Tomorrow I'm calling the f-ing plumber
and
now I'm mad
because
it's gonna cost us the same amount of money it would have cost us last week when I wasn't.
GRRRRRRRRRR.
Your Wife,
your very pissed off significant other who is nowhere near in the mood for anymore of your or anyone else's crap at this point.
Son of a...
Did you hear about this yet?
f_r_e_a_k_i_n_g A...
her
along the timeline???Well I have found it.
I have found the method for teaching my 11 year old to shut the %#@ door behind him...
sweet _
mother_
of_
God,_
I have found it.
No manner of plaintive, exasperated or crazed bellowing to SHUT THE DOOR!!! has worked.
not
making him shut it 30 times
pushups
squat thrusts
death threats
orphanage applications left casually on the counter next to the cookies
or
sentence writing
has worked.
so
I was walking through the living room the other day and there it was again.
WIDE OPEN!!!!
arrrgggggggggggghhhhhh.....!!!!!!
M_O_T_H_E_R_F_U_>>>
I walked up slammed it shut saw him coming back up to the porch from throwing the garbage and instinctively locked the door.
Mom!
What?
Open the door!
No.
MOOOM.
What?!
Open the door! Come on!
NO!
You make it your job to leave the freaking door open-- so guess what buddy??? I'm making it my new job to shut it and lock it if I see it open. I'd start keeping a chair out there, if I were you. I think you are going to need it.
Blank stare.
So...
You aren't opening it?
Ding! Ding!Ding!
Whaddawehaveforhimjohnny???
uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
NO!!!!
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
You can"t do that.
I just did, boy.
What the hell do you mean I can't do it?
Geez boy, catch up.
I briefly felt a new balance to the universe.
but still
Being a mom sucks sometimes.
Post script...I have been assured that this problem is temporary in my son and is due soley to an over-abundance of neurons with no corollary snyaptic links. Whew and I was worried...
America Rules England Sucks - Watch more free videos
Like this friend of mine said...this is funny.
I don't care who you are.
if you take it too seriously--
well.
I guess we can't be friends...
Norah Jones did a beautiful job singing for this video.
If you haven't seen this one or heard the song take the 5 minutes.
And if you see a vet or an active duty service member at the store or pumping gas or renting a video with their kids--whatever... take the 5 seconds to say thank you for your service. It won't hurt a bit.
I promise.
Got this from a friend. It's worth a read and yeah I'm voting McCain--I mean in case there was question at all.
10 Concerns about Barack Obama
It's policy.
By William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn
1. Barack Obama’s foreign policy is dangerous, naïve, and betrays a profound misreading of history. For at least the past five years, Democrats and liberals have said our standing in the international community has suffered from a “cowboy” or “go-it-alone” foreign policy. While politicians with favorable views of our president have been elected in Germany, Italy, France, and elsewhere, Barack Obama is giving cause to make our allies even more nervous. This past Sunday’s Washington Post reported, “European officials are increasingly concerned that Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign pledge to begin direct talks with Iran on its nuclear program without preconditions could potentially rupture U.S. relations with key European allies early in a potential Obama administration.”
Barack Obama’s stance toward Iran is as troubling as it is dangerous. By stating and maintaining that he would negotiate with Iran, “without preconditions,” and within his first year of office, he will give credibility to, and reward for his intransigence, the head of state of the world’s chief sponsor of terrorism. Such a meeting will also undermine and send the exact wrong signal to Iranian dissidents. And, he will lower the prestige of the office of the president: In his own words he stated, “If we think that meeting with the president is a privilege that has to be earned, I think that reinforces the sense that we stand above the rest of the world at this point in time.” Not only has his stance toward Iran caused concern among our allies in Europe, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton called it, “Irresponsible and frankly naïve.”
Barack Obama’s position on negotiating with U.S. enemies betrays a profound misreading of history. In justifying his position that he would meet with Iran without precondition and in his first year of office, Barack Obama has said, “That is what Kennedy did with Khrushchev; that’s what Nixon did with Mao; what Reagan did with Gorbachev.”
In reverse order, Ronald Reagan met with no Soviet leader during the entirety of his first term in office, not (ever) with Brezhnev, not (ever) with Andropov, not (ever) with Chernenko. He met only with Gorbachev, and after he was assured Gorbachev was a different kind of Soviet leader — and after Perestroika, not before.
If Barack Obama wants to affiliate with Richard Nixon, that’s certainly his call. But one question: Was Taiwan’s expulsion from the U.N. worth “Nixon to China”? That was the price of that meeting.
As for the Kennedy-Khrushchev summit of 1961, Kennedy himself said “He beat the hell out of me.” As two experts recently wrote in the New York Times: “Paul Nitze, the assistant secretary of defense, said the meeting was ‘just a disaster.’ Khrushchev’s aide, after the first day, said the American president seemed ‘very inexperienced, even immature.’ Khrushchev agreed, noting that the youthful Kennedy was ‘too intelligent and too weak.’ The Soviet leader left Vienna elated — and with a very low opinion of the leader of the free world.”
So successful was the summit that the Berlin Wall was erected later that year and the Cuban Missile Crisis, with Soviets deploying nuclear missiles in Cuba, commenced the following year.
2. Barack Obama’s Iraq policy will hand al-Qaeda a victory and undercut our entire position in the Middle East, while at the same time put a huge source of oil in the hands of terrorists. Barack Obama brags on his website that “In January 2007, he introduced legislation in the Senate to remove all of our combat troops from Iraq by March 2008.” His website further states that “Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.” This, at the very time our greatest successes in Iraq have taken place. And yet, as Gen. David Petraeus has stated (along with other military experts from Michael O’Hanlon at the Brookings Institution to members of the U.S. military), our progress in Iraq is “fragile and reversible.”
Obama’s post-invasion analysis of Iraq is anything but credible or consistent, leading one to even greater doubt about his strategy as commander-in-chief. When President Bush announced the surge strategy in January 2007, Barack Obama opposed it, saying it “would not prove to be one that changes the dynamics significantly,” and that “the President’s strategy will not work.” Of course, the surge is one of the greatest achievements in Iraq since the initial months of the invasion, and is has reversed much of the loss suffered since the invasion.
Beyond these miscalculations and poor judgment on Iraq strategy, Obama has been anything but consistent on Iraq. For example, the same year (2007) he stated it would be a good idea to bring home the U.S. troops from Iraq within March of 2008, three months later he stated, we should bring them home “immediately…. Not in six months or one year — now.”
3. Barack Obama has sent mixed, confusing, and inconsistent messages on his policy toward Israel. Earlier this month, Barack Obama told an audience at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” The next day, Obama backtracked, stating: “Obviously, it’s [Jerusalem] going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues…And Jerusalem will be part of the negotiations.” Later, Obama’s Middle East adviser tried to explain the flipping of positions on Jerusalem by stating Obama did not understand what he was saying to AIPAC: “[h]e used a word to represent what he did not want to see again, and then realized afterwards that that word is a code word in the Middle East.”
Such quick switches of policy may stem from mere inexperience or they may stem from a general tone-deafness on the meaning of words and policy when it comes to the Middle East. After all, earlier this year, a leading Hamas official endorsed Barack Obama stating, “I do believe [Obama] is like John Kennedy, a great man with a great principle. And he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community, but not with humiliation and arrogance.” Rather than immediately renouncing such an endorsement, Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, embraced the endorsement, saying “We all agree that John Kennedy was a great president, and it’s flattering when anybody says that Barack Obama would follow in his footsteps.” Given Barack Obama’s long-standing ties to Palestinian activists in the U.S., one has good cause to wonder.
4. While his Mideast policy may have been the quickest turnaround or flip-flop on a major issue, it is not the only one. In the primary campaign, Barack Obama consistently campaigned against NAFTA, but has now changed his tune, as he has with other issues. During the primary, Obama sent out a campaign flier that said “Only Barack Obama consistently opposed NAFTA,” and called it a “bad trade deal.” He also said NAFTA was “devastating,” “a big mistake,” and in what the Washington Post labeled as a unilateral threat to withdraw from NAFTA, Obama said “I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage.”
No longer. Recently, Barack Obama backtracked on NAFTA and said, “I’m not a big believer in doing things unilaterally.” “I’m a big believer in opening up a dialogue and figuring out how we can make this work for all people.” He explained his primary campaign opposition this way: “Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified.”
This is of a piece with his further change of position on public campaign financing. As a primary candidate, he touted his support for the public financing of presidential campaigns, but then witnessing his own fundraising prowess, as a general election candidate he has gone the unique route of forswearing the system. As David Brooks put it in the New York Times:
Barack Obama has worked on political reform more than any other issue. He aspires to be to political reform what Bono is to fighting disease in Africa. He’s spent much of his career talking about how much he believes in public financing. In January 2007, he told Larry King that the public-financing system works. In February 2007, he challenged Republicans to limit their spending and vowed to do so along with them if he were the nominee. In February 2008, he said he would aggressively pursue spending limits. He answered a Midwest Democracy Network questionnaire by reminding everyone that he has been a longtime advocate of the public-financing system. But Thursday, at the first breath of political inconvenience, Fast Eddie Obama threw public financing under the truck.
5. Barack Obama’s judgment about personal and professional affiliations is more than troubling. On March 18, after several clips of sermons by his longtime friend and pastor Jeremiah Wright surfaced (showing Wright condemning the United States with vitriolic comparisons and denunciations), Obama defended his friend stating: “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother.” After Rev. Wright delivered two more talks along the same lines as the clips that led to the March 18 speech, Sen. Obama finally denounced Wright the following month, stating: “His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church.” “They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs,” he said.
It strained credulity to believe Obama was unaware of Wright’s previous rants — especially after a 20-year membership in Wright’s church, especially when in February of last year Obama asked Wright not to attend his campaign announcement because he “could get kind of rough in sermons,” and especially when his church’s magazine honored on its front cover such a man as Louis Farrakhan. Nonetheless, once he ceased being a political asset and turned into a political liability, Obama dumped him.
Jeremiah Wright is, of course, not the only person close to Barack Obama who holds vitriolic anti-American views. Bill Ayers was a founding member of the Weather Underground. According to his own memoir, Ayers participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, of the Capitol building in 1971, the Pentagon in 1972. As recently as 2001, Ayers said “I don’t regret setting bombs….I feel we didn’t do enough.’’ When asked if he would engage in such terrorism again, Ayers responded: “I don’t want to discount the possibility.” When confronted with his friendship with Bill Ayers, Barack Obama dismissed the negative connections saying he is also friendly with abortion opponent U.S. Senator Tom Coburn. While Obama has never, himself, discussed his relationship with Ayers, what we do know is that Ayers hosted a fundraiser for Obama in his home and, according to the Los Angeles Times:
Obama and Ayers moved in some of the same political and social circles in the leafy liberal enclave of Hyde Park, where they lived several blocks apart. In the mid-1990s, when Obama was running for the Illinois Senate, Ayers introduced Obama during a political event at his home, according to Obama’s aides….
Obama and Ayers met a dozen times as members of the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a local grant-making foundation, according to the group’s president. They appeared together to discuss juvenile justice on a 1997 panel sponsored by the University of Chicago, records show. They appeared again in 2002 at an academic panel co-sponsored by the Chicago Public Library.
6. Obama is simply out of step with how terrorists should be handled; he would turn back the clock on how we fight terrorism, using the failed strategy of the 1990s as opposed to the post-9/11 strategy that has kept us safe. The most recent example is his support for the Supreme Court decision granting habeas-corpus rights to terrorists, including — theoretically — Osama bin Laden. When the 5-4 Supreme Court decision was delivered, Obama said, “I think the Supreme Court was right.” His campaign advisers held a conference call where they claimed the Supreme Court decision was “no big deal” according to ABC News, even if applied to Osama bin Laden, because a judge would find that the U.S. has “ample grounds to hold him.”
In a recent interview, Obama stated: “What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks — for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center, we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated. And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, ‘Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims.’”
Ask the legal officials during the 1990s just how cowed terrorists were by our continued indictments against them. Or, witness the bombings at the African embassies, the attack on the USS Cole, or the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Now, ask yourself why we have not been attacked since 9/11, and, even more specifically, why there have been no successful attacks against American civilian interests abroad since 2004.
7. Barack Obama’s economic policies would hurt the economy. As Kimberly Strassel recently put it in the Wall Street Journal: “Mr. Obama is hawking a tax policy that would take the nation back to the effective marginal tax rates of the Carter days. He wants to further tax income, payroll, capital gains, dividends and death. His philosophy is pure redistribution.”
When Barack Obama speaks of taxing only the wealthy, keep in mind this could have a devastating effect on new small businesses. As Irwin Stelzer has written: “Taxes change behavior. By raising rates on upper income payers, Obama is reducing their incentive to work and take risks. The income tax increase is not all that he has in mind for them. He plans to increase their payroll taxes, the taxes they pay on dividends received and capital gains earned, and on any transfers they might have in mind to their kith and kin when they shuffle off this mortal coil. If the aggregate of these additional taxes substantially diminishes incentives to set up a small business of the sort that has created most of the new jobs in recent decades, the $1,000 tax rebate will be more than offset by the consequences of reduced growth and new business formation.”
8. Barack Obama opposes drilling on and offshore to reduce gas and oil prices. While Barack Obama has opposed off-shore drilling and a gas-tax holiday (as supported by John McCain or Hillary Clinton), his solution to our energy crisis does include additional tax burdens on oil company profits, taxes we can only imagine will be passed on to the consumer, thus causing an even more expensive trip to the gas station. As the New York Times recently detailed, ethanol subsidies are a major plank in Barack Obama’s view of energy independence and national security; the “Obama Camp is Closely Linked with Ethanol,” and “Mr. Obama…favors [ethanol] subsidies, some of which end up in the hands of the same oil companies he says should be subjected to a windfall profits tax.”
9. Barack Obama is to the left of Hillary Clinton and NARAL on the issue of life. As a state senator in Illinois, Barack Obama voted against the Induced Infant Liability Act, a law that would have protected babies if they survived an attempted abortion and were delivered alive. When a similar bill was proposed in the United States Senate, it passed unanimously and even the National Abortion Rights Action League issued a statement saying they did not oppose the law.
10. Barack Obama is actually to the left of every member of the U.S. Senate. According to the National Journal, “Sen. Barack Obama…was the most liberal senator in 2007.” As the magazine reported: “The ratings system — devised in 1981 under the direction of William Schneider, a political analyst and commentator, and a contributing editor to National Journal — also assigns ‘composite’ scores, an average of the members’ issue-based scores. In 2007, Obama’s composite liberal score of 95.5 was the highest in the Senate. Rounding out the top five most liberal senators last year were Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.), with a composite liberal score of 94.3; Joseph Biden (D., Del.), with a 94.2; Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), with a 93.7; and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), with a 92.8.”
Whom will a man this far left appoint to the Supreme Court?
