I had to turn this into an open letter response. I saw several of these messages being posted to blogs without any response. Most likely because it is so inflammatory and haphazard.
But, it was so tiring that I had to stop part way though. Maybe someone else can post other replies to finish this out...if you can make it that far.
-Jason
-----Inline Message Follows-----
I did not write
this.... But?????????????
Food
For Thought...
We're
not sure anyone really likes any of the choices for President, but
this guy makes some good
points. a few naughty words spoken, but
whoever
this guy is, he seems to be on target.
"We're not sure"? Who is "we". There are a ton
of people who are passionately in support of Barack Obama and I have
seen this first-hand at precinct Caucuses. And there is a similar
fervor among the Hillary supporters.
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.
So? This type of paragraph in chain emails is one that tries to trick
you into thinking the person is non-partisan when you can tell right
from the tone of the discussion and the lack of facts that this author
is
highly partisan. Don't fall for this trick.
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.
Again, so? Are you implying that somehow McCain is not subject to
these same influences when the dems are?
Here's the way I see it:
Barack Obama, you are a
fine public speaker. You are also an
extremely liberal Senator
As if being "liberal" is a bad thing. But, contrary to popular
propaganda, Obama is not the most liberal senator. By the most
objective measure around, he has several colleagues more "liberal" than
he is. Again, not that there is, or should be, anything wrong with
that. See voteview:
http://voteview.com/
from the
State of Illinois, which has a long and
rich history of political
corruption of the first magnitude. You
are indeed
a child of that system.
So, you are implying without saying or providing any EVIDENCE that
Obama is "corrupt"? Hogwash. In fact, Obama has a higher ranking than
Clinton on transparency and ethics:
http://thinkonthesethings.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/barack-obama-vs-hillary-clinton-records-on-transparency-lobbyists-and-ethics/
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.
Does anyone think this makes any sense at all? Does anyone actually
think this is a coherent, logical thought progression? I'm beginning
to think this whole thing is a long string of non-sequiturs (not
surprisingly)
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!
General Colin Powell is not running, and YOU are
NOT the man for this job !
Where did this come from? Not even a shred of rationale? "If we had a black president, it should be Colin Powell, not Barack"
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.
So what? There is no point here. Barack never said he "never heard the sermons".
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.
In the words of a good friend of mine, this is "horseshit". The author
is trying to say that Obama went _with Wright_ to visit Farrakhan?
There is no evidence of that. In fact, Wright went with Farrakhan to
visit Kadafy. This author doesn't even have facts, let alone have them
in the right order.
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".
I defy you to find a quote of this. The press has referred to him in this way, but Obama has denied this:
"He was never my "spiritual mentor." He was -- he was my pastor. And so
to some extent, how, you know, the -- the press characterized in the
past that relationship, I think, wasn't accurate."
BUT, your pastor is NOT
the reason I am NOT voting for you.
Okay, let me guess. You're not voting for Obama but you're not going
to tell us why. You're just going to continue with more non-sequiturs.
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.
Oh, it is the congregation! Seriously?! Guilt by association? Surely
Wright has said some strange things but lots of what he has said rings
true. I bet this guy hasn't heard more than a soundbite though.
But what about the kinds of hateful, judgemental, crazy things that white pastors are saying, such as Hagee,
"I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to
God, and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that."
"military confrontation with Iran is foretold in the Bible as a necessary precondition for the Second Coming."
"Hagee, pastor of
the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church, last week had announced a "slave
sale" to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin,
"The Cluster." The item was introduced with the
sentence "Slavery in America
is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and
go home with a slave.""
"Do you know the
difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The
answer is
lipstick. Do you know
the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with
a terrorist."
He is even alleged to have made some very anti-Catholic statements,
although I have yet to see an original in-context quote of Hagee making
these statements. I don't believe Bill Donohoe as a credible quoter,
since I think he's afraid of being out-crazied (Donohoe said,
""Hollywood is controlled by secular
Jews who hate
Christianity in general and
Catholicism in particular. It's not a secret, OK? And I'm not afraid to say it")
Oh, and yet this anonymous author is fine with McCain who said, ""all I can tell you is that I am very proud to have Pastor John Hagee's support." Hypocrite!
Even Oprah Winfrey got
disgusted and walked out. I am no Oprah fan,
but still she did the right
thing.
I could not find anything about Oprah getting "disgusted" and
"walk[ing] out". She did leave the church due to Wright eventually.
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 rallys and never once heard the
"N" word. Yep. And Bill Clinton
"did not inhale".
Just because he heard it, doesn't mean he believes it. And I don't see
any particular quotes you think we should be outraged about. Again, I
don't think you've heard/read more than soundbites.
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.
But, you'll believe all the stupid crap peddled by McCain? Really?
I am
deeply sorry, that in a county
teeming with enormously talented African
Americans who would make a good
President, that the political system has
chosen YOU.
You haven't shown any reason why. Just ranted...
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.
OMFG! This guy is pulling out all the stops! This is such a load of
propagandic BS that has been totally debunked. Obama is a model of the
American dream, building himself up from adversity. The author here is
an idiot.
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.
What? Does that make sense to anyone?
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.
Oh, so now she's a feminist (in quotes, whatever that means)? Any
empowered woman is a feminist? What evidence/rationale? Oh yeah,
there isn't any provided. Moving along...
MS. Clinton, (sugar), it
is just as depressing to realize that there
are dozens of women who would
also make great Presidents. But, fortunately,
the horrible state of the
selection process has selected YOU.
What is this guy talking about? I'm no big Hillary fan but this is just stupid.
Ms.
Clinton,
I'm sorry, but you could not
tell the truth if we waterboarded your
worthless ass !
You might have something there about her not being forthright, although
bringing in the "waterboarding" aka "water torture" is a nice
right-wing touch, don't you think?
Still you play the role
of the "embarrassed but dignified noble
wife".
Why all the quotes? What are you trying to say with this statement?
On what basis? Oh yeah, he doesn't need to give one.
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 still have not made a coherent argument describing what this position is and further, how McCain does not.
You
persistently insult my
intelligence.
Well, judging by this insane rant, it should be insulted.
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 !!!
What is the broken record? Bill Clinton? So, your point is that her
husband was a bastard and you are going to presume that you know what
she did/did not know (there is no evidence provided where she claims to
not have known nor that she has "ask[ed] [you] to believe" this).
Plus, I don't believe that Paula Jones was proven.
But let's set aside your
hubby's flagrant pecadillos.
Yes, let's not impugn her by criticizing someone who is not her, Bill Clinton. Moving along...
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.
There wasn't any there-there with those "scandals". Who do you think
was responsible for the flood of false accusations? And, again,
nothing about Hillary specifically mentioned. Don't you find that odd?
So our former President
can't keep his dick 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.
I guess the author couldn't "keep [it] in his pants" long enough to
avoid going back to impugning Hillary by criticizing Bill. Not even a
whole paragraph could he wait!
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.
Enough with the Bill talk. What about Hillary!?
The same
folks who could have taken out Osama Bin Laden
over 3,000 dead Americans ago !
OMFG! I'll refer you to the PDB that Bush and company IGNORED
entitled, "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US". BUSH did NOTHING
about Bin Laden or Al Quaeda. Clinton, and Richard Clarke, were doing
something about it. See anything about what Richard Clarke has said.
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.
There is some truth to the first part, but the last part is just ad-hominem. Where is the evidence?
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.
When did she do this? I find no evidence of this. I can't take anymore of this. Over & out.
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 sabres at us. I want John
McCain in the Oval Office and I want him to
be really pissed 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.