July 2008 - Political Certainty

Almost two years ago, I posted two pieces on another site, suggesting that a “War on Terror” was the wrong approach, a misuse of the concept of War and a policy that would not succeed.

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Why does Senator McCain get a “free pass” from the Media?

July 31st 2008 00:00

It has been an accepted “fact” that Fox News has traditionally taken positions, including in its non-editorial news programs, which have been anything but “fair and balanced”. Any reasonable observer or listener of the radio talk shows of Michael Savage, Bill O’Reilly, Neal Boortz, Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, and others would be convinced that the media were determined to paint anything to the left of Genghis Kahn as evil.

Ask the average Republican politician if the media are biased, the response would be that the major non-Fox networks and major publications were totally in the pocket of liberals, that the product of these news outlets is thoroughly and unreservedly biased in favor of the Democrats

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Keep Race out of this Race.

July 26th 2008 00:27

Don’t dislike Obama because he is black, and don’t dislike him because you think he is a terrorist (he isn’t). You should dislike Obama because of his politics, or because of any words or actions you dislike. Hell if you can’t find anything wrong with him and dislike McCain, vote for Obama. I have heard lots of people saying that their vote will stay home this year. I honestly think all Americans should vote and think about their vote before casting it.

People voting against Obama because he is black are as stupid as people voting FOR him because he is black. This is 2008 and racism should be a thing of the past but sadly it is not. And racists know this, you are stupid and you sound stupid when you spout that crap

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Problems for Senator Obama and for us all

July 25th 2008 20:28

It is no secret to those familiar with these pages that I am a strong supporter of Barack Obama’s quest for the presidency, that, while both Senator McCain and he share attributes of patriotism, decency, morality and such, the former brings with him too many of the policies of the Bush administration for my comfort. Moreover, again from my point of view, another Republican presidency would shift the Supreme Court further to the Right and endanger freedoms and rights I hold precious.

I recognize that these views are not universal; members of my family have taken me to task on many occasions for being too far to the Left. On the other hand, there are problems facing Barack Obama that are not the result of rational thought; they are, instead, the product of prejudice and sheer ignorance

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An end to confusion?

July 25th 2008 16:26

Many blogs of the Right profess to be confused about the name of the presumptive Democrat candidate for president. Besides Obama and Osama being such similar names (these damn sneaky terrorists choosing names for their children that mirror the names of Illinois legislators) there is Senator Obama's middle name, Hussein (always good for a chuckle at least).

I came across a clip from Jon Stewart in which he attempts to provide clarification. I had the need to share it in the hope that the right-wing nut jobs can get on with more substantive arguments on why another 4 or 8 years of Bush-lite would be a good idea

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A "Must-Read" Post

July 25th 2008 11:10

RubySoho has published a post on her excellent site, Thought Zone, that should be read by everyone.

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T. Boone Pickens: Good ideas from a not-so good Man

July 24th 2008 17:48

T. Boone Pickens is, according to Forbes Magazine, in the richest 120 bunch of people in the United States and ranks about 370 in the world. He’s worth something like $3 Billion which will buy a really big bunch of Big Macs, with supersized fries. He made his fortune by buying up oil companies and has a not-too-favorable reputation as a corporate raider.

Politically, he is best known for his way to the right views and supporter of GOP causes. One campaign donor reporting site, Newsmeat documents millions of contributions over the years, the vast majority to extreme right wing causes

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I “know” why Conservatives dislike Senator Obama; why do they support Senator McCain.

July 22nd 2008 17:51

I have read the postings of my fellow politicalcertainty contributor, Randy Inman, as well as the far less lucid and entertaining musings of SL and her coterie of followers, and have yet to hear one word about why one should vote for John McCain other than Senator Obama is (take your choice): a traitor, a hater of America, a baby-killer, a communist, the husband of an evil hater of America, an “idiot” [this last from SL referring to the former Editor of the Harvard Law Review, the same SL who is incapable of uttering a simple declaratory sentence without including childish name calling]. What I have not heard is any positive about Senator McCain.

Until now

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In support of Michelle Obama's Anti American Comments

July 21st 2008 16:25

Some conservatives are all hot and bothered at Michelle Obama’s anti America comments. She is constantly being ripped on talk radio, and in what little there is of conservative press.

Not me though I welcome her honesty and find it refreshing, in an age of guarded talk among those in the political spotlight. Of course Michelle Obama and her Husband back pedal a bit from some of the comments to quiet the storm of outrage

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Fox, Michelle and the Low Road

July 19th 2008 16:12

I have come across an interesting site that urges Americans to petition protesting the smears by Fox against Michelle Obama. As of the last time I looked, there were in excess of 44,000 people who had signed the Petition.

Now, just between us, it won't do any good. The Far Right's tactics of lies, smears, and worse, are the political discourse it knows well

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Government welfare available . . . but only to the “worthy” few.

July 19th 2008 15:48

One of the persistent assertions of conservative pundits and those who get their news and opinions from Fox News (radio and television) and the various talk show hosts on Clear Channel is that liberals are in favor of indiscriminate welfare programs. The analogy is of the ancient Romans’ “bread and circuses” whereby the masses re kept quiet, satisfied and lazy by governmental benefits. The work ethic is destroyed and the nation is weakened. The next thing that happens is socialism, communism, and endemic acne. (OK, the last is hyperbole but if The New Yorker can try, so may I.)

The only problem with that scenario is that it does not reflect reality

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Summation: 2008 Election

July 16th 2008 16:48

Even if I were to promise, even swear, that I would no longer write political opinion pieces on the ground that the latest offering from Jib-Jab covers everything, I probably would continue. On the other hand, we all would gain from checking out any of the videos from that source. Even, maybe especially, those writers without a sense of humor (WWW?) would benefit.

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GOP politicians give “Conservatives” a bad name.

July 14th 2008 16:18

Over the past year or so, I have written a number of articles in which I deplored the ways in which the conservative movement in the United States had lost its way, from a responsible brake against the too radical and activist inclinations of liberals. Having two counter-balancing philosophy of governing resulted in a general moderate centrist mode of governing, one to which the vast majority of Americans would find comfortable.

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Some GOP leaders live in their own, comfortable, world

July 13th 2008 17:36

One of my sons-in-law, Dan if it matters, and I were chatting yesterday and he asked a very rhetorical and profound question. How, he asked, could Senator McCain’s primary economic advisor, Phil Gramm suggest that the only thing wrong with this country’s economic condition was that “we had become a nation of whiners”, that there was no recession going on other than a “mental one” and that if the American public merely corrected its attitude, all would be well.

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An interesting read

July 13th 2008 15:35

Every now and then I find an article in both Left and Right leaning sources that deserve to be brought to everyone's attention. This is one of those articles, chock full of documentation that the media are giving Senator McCain a "pass", perhaps to keep the race close and interesting.

In any event, I suggest: Really Long Link

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Socialized Medicine

July 13th 2008 00:50

In talking with Jim Stillman about this article, he suggested I try to define socialized medicine. To me it means ran by the government and paid for by the government (our taxes of course) and to me it means shoddy work in the health care field.

According to this article on Wikipedia the term can mean different things in different countries. I recommend reading it and I usually don’t use that site as a source for articles or blog posts

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Two men named Jesse Helms died last week.

July 12th 2008 16:34

Ann Coulter, writing in Human Events, placed the late Senator Helms on quite a pedestal:

“Last Friday, on the Fourth of July, the great American patriot Jesse Helms passed away. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson also went to their great reward on Independence Day, so this is further proof of God.”

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Jessie's comments about Obama

July 12th 2008 01:31

Jessie Jackson’s comments about wanting to cut off Obama’s um unmentionables at first amused me. Ok well it still amuses me. But it is good news for McCain if there is that much dissension in the Democratic camp.

If you have been under a rock of late here is what happened, Jessie Jackson made the comments while off air in a Fox news interview. But the microphone was still recording and it of course got out

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Senator Obama’s promise to expand the “faith-based initiative” is disturbing.

July 11th 2008 15:08

Both Senators McCain and Obama have had problems with endorsements from religious leaders whose prior statements have been extreme, offensive and distracting to their respective campaigns.

John McCain’s problems were associated with the rants of the Rev. John Hagee of the giant Cornerstone Church, in San Antonio, Texas. Hagee was known first and foremost for his preaching about the evil of the Catholic Church which he says is "the great whore," a "false cult system," and "the apostate church." In Hagee's most recent book, Jerusalem Countdown, he refers to Hitler as a Catholic who murdered Jews while the Catholic Church did nothing, and claims that "the sell-out of Catholicism to Hitler began not with the people but with the Vatican itself

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Our Anniversary Cruise – Part II

July 8th 2008 02:43

Carnival’s slogan is the “Fun Ships”. From the moment one boards the Legend, on the second floor of ten or eleven, depending on how and what you count, there are constant and continuing reminders that “fun” is the Captain and crew’s aim in life. Fun is defined for adults as an inexhaustible supply of bars, each of which offers tall, fruity, concoctions that go down so darn easily. Drink too many of them, one will do the same. For every bar, there are restaurants, buffet lines, pizza stations and ice cream self-serve places. For the most part, the food is all included in the price, including 24-hour room service.

This is in addition to meals in the Truffles Restaurant where waiters and servers and other staff deliver food to each passenger that would feed a small third-world nation

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Is Obama a Communist?

July 7th 2008 16:30

As the Left of the Democratic Party heads directly towards communism without passing go, Barak Obama is leading the charge. My big problem with communism is that it does not work and would really tank in America.

Communism is all about big government and little you. The government would control everything and mess it up worse than it is now. You see what a non communist system did to Social Security. Imagine the government controlling everything and screwing it up as well

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No rational person is “pro-abortion”; the phrase is offensive and not helpful.

July 5th 2008 18:41

I read the posts of WWW, Lester Caudill, and many others who consider any discussion of abortion rights in this pluralistic society an abomination, in the words of the Old Testament. The basis for their basic belief is that a human’s life and very existence begins at the moment of conception. First, one cannot logically cite the Judaic laws espoused in the Bible as relevant; abortion is not mentioned in the Old Testament because an unborn child, a fetus, was a pre-human. Life, according to Jewish law, traditionally started when the child took his or her first breath.

Be that as it may, one may believe that life begins at conception; one may believe anything at all! But just because I feel that a woman has the right to control her body and that no one else, government or donor of sperm, can direct or mandate her decision, it does not follow that she should not take into account the wishes of her religious or spiritual consultants and the opinions of relatives. I am decidedly not pro-abortion; the use of abortion as a birth control measure offends me, the possibility of abortion as an excuse for purely casual sex also offends me

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Gun Safety Training Should Be Mandatory In Schools

July 4th 2008 18:50

A gun is just a tool, very safe if properly handled. Photo from Morguefile.com

When I was telling a little about myself in an earlier post, I said gun safety training should be mandatory. I want to expand on that a little bit. And I will tell a little about my own experiences with guns.

I grew up and still live in a rural area, the sound of shooting was nothing to hear around us. Interesting side note, the only time I ever heard anyone get shot, I somehow knew it wasn’t target practice. It was a road rage incident where both parties pulled off the road right above my house. The victim drove himself to the hospital and fully recovered

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Our Anniversary Cruise – The Beginning

July 4th 2008 17:06

For the seven or eight people who (a) read this and (b) give a darn, I’d like to report on the 50th anniversary cruise taken by The Lovely Joan and me last month. As those who follow such trivia, we were joined by our four daughters, three sons-in-law and nine grandchildren, ages three to 21.

We sailed on Carnival’s Legend on Sunday, June 22nd, leaving our home in a vehicle as unconventional as our home. For the latter, the story is

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About Me

July 4th 2008 01:40

First let me say I am humbled and excited to be asked to join this site with Mr. Stillman. As he said we write on another site, and our views vary just enough for us to have some interesting debates.

First a little about me, my name is Randy Inman and I am 38 going on 100 years old. I live in the great state of North Carolina. If you ever read the book or watched the movie Cold Mountain, that is based on the life of one of my great, great uncles. I am engaged and have one child of my own and three future step kids

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Welcome to a new voice and outlook

July 3rd 2008 13:44

For the past year or so, I have vented in this space on matters social and political from an admittedly liberal/progressive viewpoint. One of my children and several relatives have put this is in a slightly pejorative manner but that’s another story.

I have noticed that blogs in the political arena on Orble have been, to a great extent preaching to the choir. One very popular writer coming from slightly to the right of Genghis Kahn is a prime example; she attracts those who get their only news from Fox, Human Events and silly e-mail messages that assert Democrats are aliens from another galaxy and have no decent morals or ethical beliefs. She receives traffic and comments from cronies by the score. But she will not become engaged in debate

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Elian Gonzalez in back in the news -- after over eight years

July 2nd 2008 20:02

A five-year old boy became the focus of a firestorm that has political effects even now. Can it be true that right-wing zealots favor allowing a foreign government to strip a child from his loving father?

Many people have read, during the past weeks, stories about how Elian Gonzalez, eight years after his repatriation with his father, has joined, with about 18,000 other teens, a Communist youth organization. The news articles have spurred articles, e-mail and many blogs revisiting the events of the Elian Gonzalez saga. Unfortunately, the recounting of the events of eight years ago leaves much out. There is much drama in the Elian story – and a corresponding amount of misinformation

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