GOP unearths aunt of Obama's living in U.S. on expired visa.
At this point, never even mind the intent as a last-minute "smear," which as far as Obama's campaign is concerned is probably a dud. Who cares, right? What does this have to do with the price of beans in Peru (presumably going down the toilet along with the rest of the global economy)? Well, for everyone except the rabid base, pretty much nothing at all, as with all the other shit they've been trying to throw at him (terrorist! socialist! elitist snob! twelve foot grey alien!) Which, of itself, move along, nothing to see here, right?
Except for: -this- time, there's also a real other person there, a middle-aged woman who's been quietly living in public housing on an expired visa because her request for asylum was turned down. Who was dragged--illegally, as it turns out--into the limelight by a bunch of opportunistic vultures operating under the delusion that a) significant numbers of U.S. citizens are going to be so outraged at her existence that it'll upset the race somehow b) because clearly, everyone shares their belief that ZOMG TEH ILLEGALS are stealing our precious collective bodily fluids, particularly the quiet law-abiding ones who don't actually have any power or money and are just basically trying to survive as best they can in the face of constant low-grade fear and exploitation and all kinds of other shit, i.e. pretty much most all of 'em. So, what happens to -her- now, hm?
Obama's already doing the "I never knew ye" thing, which, well, not a surprise, but for -fuck's- sake. How long is this kind of bullshit going to go on? Even assuming he -does- win?
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How long is this kind of bullshit going to go on? Even assuming he -does- win?
Judging by Nancy Pelosi's recent statements re: undoc immigrants, a long time. :(
And the combined effect of this particular attack and all of the other racebaiting of recent days may indeed be having an effect - electoral-vote.com is showing Obama as having lost 22 electoral votes in the last couple of days (along with the Dems dropping a seat in the Senate). He's still way ahead of McCain, true, but it's scary to think that the Bradley effect is starting to show up a few days early...
I guess it's meant to show that Obama is a hypocrite for telling the American people not to be selfish with their money if they have excess and he has an Aunt living in a slum on welfare in Boston. It's like, hm...shouldn't he clean up his own house before trying to run the country and asking US to take care of his family (since he made 4 million last year)? I guess it's meant to show how his Aunt, an absconder, donated money to his campaign which is illegal and this makes some of us wonder if this is just the tip of the iceberg with this man who seems to lie or evade telling the truth about himself.
What I don't get is why none of you care what a low life this man is, why none of you see anything wrong with his behavior when his behavior is reprehensible!
The Bradley effect has nothing to do with Obama losing (which he will do on Tuesday). We're voting for a man we can trust, a man with experience, not some self-proclaimed messiah who lies about everything.
this makes some of us wonder if this is just the tip of the iceberg with this man who seems to lie or evade telling the truth about himself.
Thing is, call me a cynic here, but I assume that anyone capable of getting elected to any kind of office has to have lied or evaded telling the truth about hirself.
Frankly, if this is all the McCain campaign has been able to dig up on the guy, I'd say in political terms he's about as clean as a whistle!
Compared to the stuff that McCain and Palin seem to be proud to be associated with, if I were a USA citizen I'd consider myself honoured to have a "low-life" like Obama running my country.
You, anonymous, might think you can trust McCain, but I sure as hell wouldn't trust him.
Nony,
First of all, pick a pseud if you're not, by some miracle of something, a driveby, much less an autobot, and actually plan to continue a conversation here.
Second, what SDE said. And, really, please. Like, what, if we found out he was slipping his "illegal" aunt money that -that'd- be okay with the right wingers; the only reason the people who dug this shit up are concerned is because of the income disparity between her and Obama.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigght.
Listen, if anyone gave a shit about this woman's welfare, they wouldn't be dragging her status into the public eye in the damn first place. Because, first of all, in order to live well, considering that the government which is -not- currently -Obama's- to run -denied- her political asylum, her -first- goal wrt survival, or one of them, is -not getting deported.- Which, at minimum, apparently, -Obama- was not making more difficult for her.
Congratulations. Really. Y'all must be proud.
If it's because he really didn't know her status--and believe me, most people don't exactly go around announcing it to all their relatives, especially high profile ones, when they're out of status--well, hey, not much else to talk about, is there?
If he -did- know her status--which, again, is NOT at ALL what the people trying to dig this shit up were after...
So, like, what, Obama was supposed to...help her stay here regardless of her status, according to the anti-Obama "fences DO make good neighbors" supply-side Christians out there, right? Is that what you're trying to say, nony, is it, hm?
Or is it: he should have reported her so that they could deport her -sooner.- Just not tax non-existent Joe the Plumber any more (all $257 more, assuming he was actually making anything like that amount of money to begin with), because -that- fucks with the American Dream, which has of course fuckall to do with -recent- immigrants, and people who live in public housing because they have to, and people who don't look like you or sound like you or God forbid suggest that in general, sharing is kind of a nice idea, really.
No, really. Tell me exactly what -Obama- was supposed to do to fix this situation that would make him more acceptable, in your opinion. I can't wait for it.
Oh oh, and, and, this particular clod of dirt has -nothing to do with- the repeated (and pointless, but they try, o they try!) attempts to demonstrate that Obama isn't a real American, Obama wasn't born here, they faked his birth certificate, really truly for serious I have proof I read it on the Internets my fillings whispered it to me he JUST CAN'T BE FROM HERE HE'S TOO FOREIGN AND SCARY AND AND AND FOREIGN NOT LEGITIMATE THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW WE DON'T LIKE HIM MAKE HIM GO AWAY NOW."
Of -course- it doesn't.
GG: electoral-vote was just Missouri flipping from barely-blue to barely-red, and something else along those lines. not that statistically significant. I think ND and/or Montana went back from tie to red outline or something. You really can't leap to cause-and-effect conclusions based on something like that.
but yeah, fuck Pelosi. :/
oh, as per asking the U.S. to take care of one's family: does it bother you at all that McCain's been on government sponsored health care since, like, forever? to the point where he doesn't actually know what it's like to go without it, or have it sponsored by work that isn't funded by other peoples' taxes?
or his plan for the government buying up bad mortages, what would you call that, exactly?
and that McCain's calls for campaign finance reform (and sulkings that Obama didn't take the public monies -after he promised boo hoo-) are basically a call for gulp, erk, -mandatory campaign finance by taxpayers?- Hey, Obama -didn't- take it; he went out and -earned- all his donations himself, by cracky. What kind of P.C. Harrison Bergeron (koff) socialist bullshit is it to say that the man should limit his own talent for free enterprise in the name of a false equality, funded by your and my hard earned tax dollars, hmmm?
Oh, that government assistance that you're concerned got spent on an out of status woman like Obama's aunt? the public housing? Yeah, I reckon about five years' worth of it all could've -maybe- bought Sarah Palin's campaign wardrobe. Without hair and makeup.
You gotta admit, though, she did look damn good. Did you send money to the RNC, nony? Think your money was well spent, do you?
Or, the 700 billion payout that went to banks and corporations. Remind me why we're supposed to be more worried about some woman living at subsistence level than, say, that?
By the way, on the hypocrisy tip: you a Christian, nony?
for good ness sakes, the last amount she gave was $15... I'm waiting to hear about how he has so many relatives from his dad's side, because, wink wink, you know how baby daddy's are.
Hey, Bella?
Maybe I'm taking this too far, but it kinda bugs me when you call Joe the Plumber something other than Joe, cause it kinda triggers that whole, "isn't *really* NerfButch, because it says on her birth certificate something else". And the guy's middle name really is Joe, I think. And yes, he's reprehensible on a whole number of levels so I wish him good luck on his country music career so I never have to hear about him again.
Maybe he really does go by the name Joe to his friends and loved-ones. And maybe we should respect that. Even though we really disagree with him on a whole lot and think that he's done all sorts of unkind things in the recent weeks. Cause self-identification doesn't really end with people who we agree with, right? Cause it's a bigger thing. Something more important than just slamming the guy about his name cause there is plenty to invalidate his politics because they've been shown to be invalid. (Weird that the word "invalid" has two meanings, though, just as a though I had while typing that and how when we are invalid we are also invalidated.)
Anyway, maybe I'm going too far with that and it's my own trigger and I don't expect you or anyone else to respect my hair-trigger triggers cause I have way too many and pretty much need to not be in any kind of contact with any people at all if I want to be safe. Which is what I'm trying to do. Except when I make the mistake of thinking I have something to say and have to comment on a blog and really I shouldn't, and most of the time I just end up closing the window before I click the "publish comment" most of the time. Which I should prolly do here, except I just wanted to ask pretty please to think on it. Just think on it pretty please.
I'm trying to embrace the spirit of unity, even with my enemies (or more, those who have declared themselves my enemies), and reaching out cause that seems to be in the spirit of what (hopefully) President Obama is trying to start up. You don't gotta boo, you just gotta vote.
And then somehow we all have to figure out how to live together. And I know that's not going to be easy and the hard part hasn't even started yet. But if we're ever going to have a chance, it's gotta start somewhere. So maybe here with Joe. Until he says he wants to be called Sam, he's Joe to me. (Though, that's a difficult one, cause was it him that decided to be Joe or was that all part of the conversation beforehand when he set up the "impromptu" question with Barack.)
Anyway, sorry for being off topic, but this has been eating at me and I needed to say something.
Always much love and respect to you.
Uh, hey, nerfbutch. Okay. I admit I hadn't been following the Joe the Plumber thing closely enough to realize that that was his middle name and not just something McCain/the media had decided to call him for whatever reason, a la Joe Sixpack. I think the whole thing is just stupid, and --I really don't have a whole lot of sympathy for the guy and his persona based on what I -do- know of the whole deal overall, and I doubt that bit's gonna change, honestly. More power to you if you are, but I'm not feeling all that spiritual, I guess. but wrt the name specifically, okay, I'll think about it.
McCain, trustworthy? In a campaign that even seasoned, cynical journalists have been staggered at the amount of sheer bullshit coming from the McCain camp?
hahahaha
Clever, you're not.
Galla:
Yeah, McSame's gained some ground, I'll say. Enough to make it a 330-350 EV landslide instead of a 375 EV total rout.
So, he's made Pennsylvania a bit closer, like mid- to upper-single digits instead of double digits (and remember, Kerry only won by 2 percentage points in 2004 in a state which hasn't voted Repub since Reagan).
And whatever small "Bradley effect" might take place amongst White voters will simply be swamped by early voting, massive African-American turnout, and some defections amongst dissatified conservatives who really never liked McCain in the first place and who probably see Palin as the future.
Only massive voter fraud and suppression of the highest degree will prevent Obama from winning this going away...and even that is mostly a stretch.
Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, does suck. A great deal. She and Harry Reid whould be hoisted out of their leadership positions if the Democratic Party was truly a progressive opposition.
Anthony
Oh, Belle...don't you know??
Of course, Obama, according to wingnut trolls like our Anony here, must confess to all his sins about being a real anti-American terrorist Manchurian Candidate; admit that his aunt's all part of the radicalMuslimsocialistliberalfeminist conspiracy that he and Bill Ayers and Ahmedinejad and Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden and Ted Kennedy and Teh Gays and Louis Farrakhan cooked up at that radical madrassa school he attended in his youth, and simply do the right thing and withdraw and give the Presidency to McCain.
Funny...but I didn't see any one of these fools saying anything about Clarence Thomas' younger brother living in poverty while he was raking in the bucks as a lawyer before he ascended the Supreme Court...and he probably made as much if not more than Obama did.
Oh..and McCain trustworthy?!?!?! Are we talking about the same John McCain who has made such brilliant "game changing" moves such far?? The campaign "suspension" to milk the bailout?? Nominating Caribou Eva Braun as his running mate?? Talking up Obama's "socialism" while his running mate basically lives off public revenues of essentially nationalized oil?? Joe the Plumber??
I guess that's why they have to focus so much on smearing Obama with their own shit...it's all they got now.
Take that nonsense to the Freepers, Anony..it's just not playing here.
Anthony
Belle and AK: Ok, I admit, I'm extremely tetchy about everything wrt the election, seeing as I just reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyomigodreally want Obama to win, and think that it will be a disaster for a lot of people if McCain wins. And I do see that Missouri flipped back today.
NerfButch:
I'm trying to embrace the spirit of unity, even with my enemies (or more, those who have declared themselves my enemies), and reaching out cause that seems to be in the spirit of what (hopefully) President Obama is trying to start up. You don't gotta boo, you just gotta vote.
Thing is, those who have declared themselves my enemies, are trying to ram their "values" down my throat, and down the throats of say, 250 million or so other people who aren't like them.
I'm not so fond of the way they live their lives, but I'm not trying to ram my values down their throats. I'm not the one who's encouraging the continued killings of queer people, they are. I'm not going around saying that we should legislate heterosexuality / cissexuality out of existence. I'm not advocating violence against heterosexual / cissexual Christians, and I never have. We are not a threat to their picket-fence lives. I just want them to leave me and my fellow queer people the fuck alone; that is all I'm asking. And until they start admitting to the harm that they are doing to people like me, and bother to ask me what my life is like before comndemning me and condoning violence against me, I won't give them any quarter.
This is not a disagreement between two groups of people with equally valid views. It's not like physicists arguing the validity of superstring theory. This is a group of marginized people asking -- demanding -- the people who are marginalizing us stop doing so.
GG: You're not alone. There's this one article somewhere where the author is vainly trying to be, I know it's hard, but cheer up, Democrats! really! you can afford yourself a cautious smile at this point, one, it won't kill you. and the comments are like page after page after "Nonononono, if I relax even for a SECOND and Obama loses it'll all be my fault" (I swear, someone -literally- wrote that), and of course "yeah well even if he wins we're all still going to hell you realize because of x y and z don't forget for even a minute because it's our duty to be fearful and miserable and pessimistic"...
I won't say none of it resonated, because a lot of it did; but at the same time for various personal reasons I find it increasingly irritating. Dude. Really, There is no, repeat, NO validity to the superstitious idea that allowing a moment of optimism causes the lightning to strike. Really. Being optimistic about Kerry's chances wasn't what caused him to lose: the fact that the circumstances were against us and that he was a crap candidate is what caused him to lose. And yes, people including me were blindsided because they didn't want to see the writing on the wall.
It is however possible to be a realist without going into total Chicken Little Mode. Truth was, a realistic look at the polls for the previous past month back then would've told the truth, (extensive) voter fraud completely unnecessary.
The numbers and circumstances are completely different now.
These are the facts. I can't -promise- anything, including that a meteor won't strike the Earth in the next hour and turn us all into mutant zombies, but you know, some things are just -likelier- than others.
And...maybe we all give ourselves less credit for resilience than we ought to, many of us.
I mean, I don't think Obama's perfect, far from it, and I'm under no illusion that he's going to be some Messiah or that problems are over or even won't get worse once he's in office, don't get me wrong.
But one of the things I -do- like about him is precisely that spirit of calm, idealistic but pragmatic, optimism. I think, you know, sometimes, it's a -good- attitude, that. I think it's a lot to do with why -he's winning-. Which he is.
All that said, yeah, to your other point, "You want me to change my mind about something! Unfair! Whereas I just need you to not -exist!-" is not what one calls a fair and balanced argument, no.
Mind you I don't know that Joe the Plumber is particularly--I just don't give a shit about Joe the Plumber, okay.
btw, GG, to be clear, I didn't mean you were irritating me, I meant my own tendencies in that direction are irritating me.
It is not fair that Democrats who tend to dominate in urban areas are allowed to have almost 2 weeks of early voting. The suburbs and rural areas who tend to vote Republicans only have one day to vote, thus imagine if there was bad weather or the like on that one day.
The economic system is very important. I believe more so than the political system. A capitalist economic system embraces more laissez-faire and equal opportunity, whilst a socialist economic system embraces more economic interventionism and equal outcome.
If you think about it, even in a democratic political system the elected official becomes a dictator if the economy is socialistic and centrally controlled. A good example of this would be Adolf Hitler and NAZI Germany.
Vas?
(this is better 'n' BlogWarBot!)
seriously, who comes up with this shit? Who goes to the effort of spamming with crap like this? At least the Viagra ads, I can understand the rationale, even if I still really don't know who actually -buys- any.
btw, GG, to be clear, I didn't mean you were irritating me
I didn't read that comment as being that you were irritated with me.
There is no, repeat, NO validity to the superstitious idea that allowing a moment of optimism causes the lightning to strike
Nope, not superstitious (in that way, anyway -- 's true I don't walk under ladders if I can help it) - just scared, like I don't want to get my hopes up too high for them to be dashed. Or better yet, my hopes ARE high, but so's my anxiety.
Helen: Trying to use the indirect method to crack some ACORN nuts, are we? Sorry, it won't work. I live in a large, politically influential city - Philadelphia, I'm a Democrat :-P, and I'm voting on Tuesday like everybody else.
Nony@4:26 - ZOMG, the mind boggles. Since you won't pick a pseud for yourself, can I pick one for you? How about "Iamwhygodwinslawexists"? Thank you SO MUCH for equating giving a shit about those among us who are marginalized or just plain hurting, with being a bunch of Nazis.
Did you use one of those random "erudite-sounding quote" generator thingies on the nets? Huh? 'Fess up now.
with apologies to Tom Nolan, I think these really are 'bots, including the first one. I'd love to be proved wrong with one of them actually coming back, but sadly, I think it's just gonna be like this for at least the next couple of days or so. I might turn on the horrible filter through Tuesday if this keeps up.
It's weird, I don't feel all that hopeful -or- that anxious, at least consciously. There's this sort of suspended animation mode I go into at times like this, sometimes. Hard to explain. And really unlikely for someone like me, since I worry constantly, it's in my blood; but sometimes, there's this other thing.
Relevant comedy!
"MCCAIN: Oh, and that's just the tip of the iceberg, my friends. Do you realize that federal earmarks last year directed literally thousands of your tax dollars to children's hospitals? Think about that now! Hospitals! For children!
FB: Now look John McCain, everybody wants to shut down children's hospitals, but how're you really gonna do it what with all the Washington gridlock and the Beltway infighting and the fatcat lobbyists from Big Children? I mean Ronald Reagan promised us he'd destroy the government and twenty years later we're still stuck with a functioning public sewage system.
MCCAIN: Look, my friends, I can do this. I know how to balance budgets. I know how to win wars. I've been pretending to do it for thirty-five years. And I know how to work across party lines to get things done. Has Barack Obama ever had a sweaty late-night three-way with Joe Lieberman and Trent Lott on the floor of the Senate cloakroom? Or was he too busy raising taxes for his friends in the radical African terrorist community to reach across the aisle?
FB: That's just the kind of mavericky bipartisan maverickness you used to pass sweeping reforms like the Candyland Preservation Act and McCain-Snuffleupagus! So how much will I personally save once you've gotten rid of all these earmarks?
MCCAIN: Literally thousands of thousandths of some fraction of a penny. But look, my friends: it's not about the money. It's about the principle. And the principle is that it's wrong, just wrong, to take money from the American taxpayer and spend it on something, unless that something is a series of massive, ever-expanding foreign wars.
FB: That's so true. It just burns me up inside when I think about how every dollar we're just throwing away on medicine for poor people could be spent on something truly valuable, like a hundred year war in Iraq."
http://fafblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/fafblog-interviews-john-mccain.html
I know people will probably visit the link, but if it doesn't work, then you can view another darkly humorous take on the Iraq War. The sad part is that the Iraqi government and people aren't unified in a desire for a constitutional Republic. The security forces are shot through with sectarianism, so it really is paying some Iraqis to kill other tribes of Iraqis -- not the more simplistic storyline of heroic freedom loving Iraqis versus freedom hating terrorist Iraqis.
"MCCAIN: And right now in Iraq we have a, a wonderful general there, General Petraeus. He's very courageous. He is very broad-shouldered. He was beaten by his captors for five and a half years. And when you get close to him, very close, there is the distinct aroma of fresh-baked pie. And, and the first thing we have to do is let General Petraeus finish the job of securing Iraq for the Iraqi people, a proud and united people, so that it doesn't fall into the hands of their enemies, the Iraqi people.
FB: Well that sounds good, John McCain, but how do we really get the Iraqis to stand up for themselves against the Iraqis?
MCCAIN: Oh, we already have, by arming the Iraqis to fight back against the Iraqis and make sure they can live in peace without fear of Iraqis. But if we don't stay and finish the job Iraq will fall to Iraqi influence, and we cannot allow that, my friends.
FB: See I used to be all confused about all this, but it just makes so much sense when I hear it from you! Now between half a million and a million Iraqis have been killed since the start of the war, in a country of twenty-nine million Iraqis. Do you feel kinda glass-half-full about it, like "hey look at all the Iraqis we got left!" Or is it kinda glass-half-empty, like "oh man, look at all the Iraqis we got left!"
MCCAIN: Oh, no, no. With time I believe we can eliminate the threat of Iraq within Iraq. The first thing we have to do in order to win is to win, which I believe we can accomplish through means of winning. And the second thing we have to do is cut taxes and pork-barrel spending. Let's not tax these dead Iraqis, my friends. Let's kill them again so they don't have to pay three million dollars for a planetarium in Chicago."
Two thoughts:
1) I have relatives who have committed actual crimes, and I'd hate to have that held against me. FFS, I'm not them.
2) What his aunt "did" wasn't horrible--she's living here on an expired visa. OH NOES. Stone Obama for that!
I lied, I've actually got a third thought, free of charge:
3) Crap. These people who tried to mess with him through her are really just messing with her. To call them vultures for this is an insult to vultures.
yep, yep, and: yep.
I just hope she's going to be all right :(
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