I don't agree with much in this post either. Sure, I'll be voting for Obama, but I don't think that means that anyone who doesn't (or, more specifically, hasn't said yet) is a moron. Nor do I think it's specifically helpful.

That 15% who don't know yet, well, instead of making fun of them behind their backs (I'm many people who follow a site like bilerico wouldn't already have an opinion on that), why don't we try to engage them? Going up to someone who hasn't decided and saying "Hey moron! Why haven't you picked teams? Are you stupid or something?" isn't going to help them out too much.

Maybe they just aren't political? Maybe they work a lot or can't follow the news or have families to take care of? What if they've given up in electoral politics (considering the system we have in America, I wouldn't blame them)? It's a tough group to engage, but I'm guessing they don't see themselves as morons.

Or maybe I'm just thinking too much. All I read is someone who thinks he's got everything figured out for everybody calling anyone who disagrees with him a moron. Maybe there isn't anything else.

I am pleased that my post has garnered attention and debate. I agree that my headline is strong and I chose it to make sure people read the post in much the same way I titled an Op-Ed that was published in the “Arizona Republic” on Easter Sunday in 1996. It read “As A Gay Parent I am Already Entitled to Special Rights.” My commentary went on to read that I had the special right to be fired from my job with no recourse, I had the special right to be denied an apartment, the special right to be denied custody of my son even if I was the better custodial parent… I didn’t want these special rights or any others.

People have the right to vote for whomever they wish. In fact, too few of us exercise that right with more people interested in voting for the winner on “American Idol” than for President of the United States. I agree that many Democrats have let us down. I remember David Mixner (who brought Bill Clinton to our community for support) telling me in 1992 that he had been a friend with Bill Clinton for several decades and that he felt that Bill Clinton would be good for our community. David added that he would never totally trust a straight politician and that it was our responsibility to hold Clinton’s feet to the fire once hw got into office. During Bill Clinton’s first year in office David, along with the Rev. Mel White and a bunch of other activists, chained himself to the White House Fence over Clinton’s “Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell.” By the way, David Mixner has been an Obama supporter since John Edward dropped out of the race.

Barack Obama is a strong proponent of gay rights. Am I pleased with his stand on all of our issues? No. But then I wasn’t pleased with Rep. Barney Frank’s support for a non-inclusive ENDA (though I would vote for Barney Frank over a homophobic opponent such as John McCain any day). Barack Obama was the first Democratic candidate during the primaries to accept the invitation to the HRC/LOGO debate. Obama has been a strong proponent to pass ENDA, the Mathew Shepherd Hate Crimes Act. He favors getting rid of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” Obama strongly opposes a marriage amendment. Although I fault him for not supporting same-sex marriage at the moment, he does support our getting all of the same right through civil unions. I know Obama realizes that is unworkable and the “separate but equal” is not acceptable. Obama is a politician and he believes that he cannot stick his neck out during the campaign. Once in office, as our country continues to move towards accepting same-sex marriage Obama will not block our progress and will eventually support us. If you look at the analysis of the questionnaires on LGBT issues from the Human Rights Campaign Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both were positive on ever issue except for same-sex marriage. Here is a link to the analysis of their questionnaires. http://a4.g.akamai.net/f/4/19675/0/newmill.download.akamai.com/19677/anon.newmediamill/pdfs/Questionnaire_ReportCard.pdf

Now, let’s contrast Barack Obama’s support to John McCain who believes that we should not be allowed to marry (he would support a constitutional amendment to stop us from doing so), McCain believes that gays shouldn’t be allowed to serve in the military, gays should not be allowed to adopt children, there is no need to give gays “special rights” by passing ENDA or the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes bill. McCain’s record shows support of a discriminatory AIDS policy a la Jessie Helms to cut off funding of prevention aimed at the gay community. Most importantly, John McCain has promised to appoint ultra-conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. McCain recently was asked about what kind of justices he would appoint and he replied that he wouldn’t appoint justices like (and he proceeded to name all of the justices whom have supported LGBT rights. Here is a link the HRC’s report on the record of john McCain on GLBT issues. http://www.hrc.org/equality08/264.htm

No there are many reasons why I believe that it is imperative that we elect Barack Obama as our next president that have nothing to do with the LGBT community that range from his handling of our economy, to energy policy, to environmentalism, to education, to health care, to ending this absurd war in Iraq, to restoring America’s reputation from the laughing stock that it is under Bush and will remain under McCain. John McCain’s voting record has been strongly supportive of George W. Bush, certainly one of the worst presidents in this nation’s history. If McCain can’t remember the number of homes he and his wife have, how can he possibly grasp the impact of his policies on the average American? I could do an entire post on why Obama is good and McCain will be a disaster that doesn’t even mention the word gay.

I don’t think that African Americans would even consider voting for a bigot or Jews would consider voting for an anti-Semite (Count the number of Black faces you see at the Republican Convention in Minneapolis). John McCain is anti-gay. The Republican Party’s platform is staunchly anti-gay. If McCain gets into office we can kiss any advances in our rights goodbye with an ultra-conservative U.S. Supreme Court for many years. At least 10% of gays are considering voting for him. Does that appear to be a sane decision?

If Barack Obama gets into office our rights won’t materialize overnight. We will have to fight hard for every one of them. We will need to be in Obama’s face and in the face of members of the both houses of Congress, which will hopefully have a stronger Democratic majority. We have a history of throwing our support behind Democrats. We need to make certain that Democrats don’t think our continued support is assured. We need to press them to deliver. Getting Obama into the White House is only the first step, not the end of our fight. But at least Obama will listen and so will Congress; it is our job to force them to act.

If McCain gets into office, he won’t listen, he won’t care and our movement towards equality will be set back a good 20 years. I am sorry if my column’s headline offended anybody. Personally I believe that anybody who purposely votes to set our fight for equality back twenty years isn’t firing on all cylinders.

Guess what? Republicans can stop it. Reversal of Lawrence with re-criminalisation would set us back decades. For those LGBT's not insulated by wealth and priviledge, and yes, I am one of those so insulated, being cashiered for simply being gay is a very real concern.

Being concerned about gay rights is not simply voting based upon who you sleep with, though the Republicans, in bed with industry do it routinely. It is about a future for all LGBTY's that we are now painfully aware that the LCR's could not care less about, the kind of people whose elitist attitudes gave eight years of the disasterous epoch of George Bush and the unhinging of the stability of American currency.

I am a banking attorney, for another week. I have larger responsibilities beyond my own comfort, my own place amongst the elite, my own portfolio.

The LCR's lost that perspective the very first time that they voted for Bush and engraved their self-seeking disdain for the rest of the LGBT community when they pulled the lever the second time.

The LCR's remind me ever so much of Gertrude Stein praising Hitler and assuming that her connections and wealth would keep her safe. For the love of all that is holy, you've crawled into bed with people who want to see you prosecuted for felonies, denied job protections, denied equal citizenship.

And you have the crass nerve to try and justify it.

"Historically speaking, it's absolutely remarkable. And inexorable."

Nothing's inexorable. You know about all of the Jews who didn't escape Nazi Germany because it was inconceivable to them that their friends and neighbors would turn against them? They considered themselves Berliners. They were decorated for their service to Germany in The Great War.

"Republicans cannot stop it (and many are embracing it). Democrats cannot speed it up."

Historically speaking, the Republicans have stopped it. And they will continue to try to stop it. And if they gain enough power, they can and will change the make up of the Supreme Court. And that will change US law for generations.

And if they fail to stop it, they can surely slow it down, make it more painful, and endanger the health, welfare, livelihood, and lives of countless Americans. If you doubt that, I will enumerate how. But it doesn't take a lot of imagination how.

Democrats *can* speed it up by passing progressive laws that the president will sign. And they can make it less painful by not enacting obstacles which make it more difficult to achieve equality.

If it's more important to you that you keep the Republican tax policies that favor the most affluent Americans, I might think that's selfish, but that's your perogative. Just don't try to pretend that it isn't at the cost of our civil rights.

And BTW, being gay is a lot more than who you sleep with. It's about keeping your job, your apartment, your life, and your partner's well being, among other things. Don't believe me? Look back at what happened to gay people (or people of color, or the disabled) - historically speaking, before the enactment of anti-discrimination laws.

John, I won't be voting at all in November. And I do not consider myself to be a moron. In fact, I'd say that I'm pretty educated. I was already hedging on whether or not I would vote for Obama before he announced his running mate. But now that I see he's chosen Biden, I'm definitely out. Let's not forget this is a man who made racist statements about Obama early on in the primary season. And now we're supposed to just forget all that?

I'm an anarchist. I've voted in local elections, because I think that I do have the potential to make a difference at a local level. The people on my school board and city water commission are making important decisions that do affect my daily life. In Arizona, we will be voting on an initiative in November to raise taxes for expanded public transit. As a bus rider myself, I will make it to the polls to support that. Public transit in Arizona is woefully behind the times! And I will vote against the anti-marriage bill, even though same-sex marriage is already illegal in Arizona, and even though I don't believe in marriage.

But voting on a national level? Well, the only reason I voted in the primary is because I wanted to support a woman running for office. I'm a big fan of the suffragists, even though I agree with Emma Goldman that these women ultimately were putting their efforts into the wrong arena. When I do vote, it's to honor their struggle. Nothing more, nothing less. Goldman said, "If voting made a difference, it would be illegal." And in the era of the Patriot Act and decreasing civil liberties, it ought to tell you something that they still let us vote.

So thanks for your patronizing rant about how 32% of us are morons. But I'm even less likely to vote at all now that I've read your old guy rant than I was before. Many thanks for sealing that deal.

Unfortunately, we live in an imperfect world. Rarely does any politician's views sync with mine. The few who do are likely to stand about as much of a chance of getting elected that winning the Powerball Lottery. So often we are stuck in the position of having to vote for the lessor of two evils.

I can list things about Obama and the Democrats that I have problems with but my list n McCain and the Republicans is far longer (and theirs is more dangerous to most Americans, the the LGBT community and to me and my husband on a personal level.

Every time that Obama brings up God and his religion I cringe. I believe that ones religion (or lack there of) is a personal matter. A politician's policies that should be discussed will be shaped by their own world view which is influenced by their religion. but to talk religion to me is as out of place as to talk about their favorite sex practices (notice I said sex practices not orientation or identity). If a politician cares to share their religion there is some use to that and the same about sexual orientation. But I don't need to know what their favorite position is just as I don't need to have them cite scripture to me during a stump speech.

I have a friend who is a fellow atheist who won't vote for Obama because of Onama being one of the first Democrats who is trying to go after some more left leaning Evangelical Christians by talking religion. I wish Obama wouldn't do so. But if John McCain gets into office we will see a U.S. Supreme Court dominated by Religious Christians and we are likely to see some or all of the following abortion outlawed, birth control limited, mandatory school prayer (and the Prayers won't be from Jewish, Moslem, Wiccan or liberal Christain Bibles). So my friend's decision is likely to come hurt him in the end if his vote could have kept McCain out of office.

DB states: "Republicans cannot stop it (and many are embracing it). Democrats cannot speed it up. It's a cultural/generational thing and it's beyond politics. We've won. And inexorably gay marriage will spread across America." My response, if only what you aid were so. I reply by citing the famous 1905 quote from philosopher George Santayana, "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Rory made some excellent points about Jews in Germany. Did you know that Germany had the highest intermarriage rate between Jews and Christians amongst all of European countries when Hitler came to power? Jews and Moslems were treated well in Spain for hundreds of years when Ferdinand and Isabel came to power and cast them as a threat to Christianity and cast them out of spain and started the famous Inquisition. Many in Europe, who have seen a great more history than us, are incredulous in their observations of America's shift t the right under Bush and that Americans are letting it happen and doing nothing about it. The erosion of our civil rights under Bush has been shocking from the Patriot Act to immunity to the Telcos. Those who were arrested in protests years ago who received misdemeanors are now being given now get felonies.

The Republicans have stopped LGBT folks from gaining civil rights, every step of the way. They have been behind the marriage acts nationally in in the states along with the constitutional amendments (shame on Democrats for not standing up more firmly against their efforts). They have blocked hate crime laws, employment non-discrimination laws etc. Again the Democrats have been nowhere as bad. Again, the lesser of two evils.

Personally, I wish that our country had more than two parties. Unfortunately a large portion of our electorate doesn't even know the difference between the two parties. Only 2/5 of Americans can name the three branches of our federal government and only 1/5 can tell you how many U.S. Senators there are. I suggest reading Rick Shenkman's new book, "Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter." I featured a lengthy interview with him on my last podcast. We are in sorry shape folks.

Serena, it is certainly your right not to vote. However, I make it a practice not to pay attention to comments or complaints from people who didn't vote because they were unwilling to stand up and be counted even if it was voting for the lessor of two evils, voting for a third party candidate or writing in another name. My grandfather once forgot to vote in a school bond election in my home town and it failed by one vote. He would have voted in favor. My mother made his life and ever living hel and I believe my mom was right in doing so. Had 500 or less more people voted for Al Gore in 2000, Bush would have not been president. I'll debate with somebody who votes against my candidate; I don't bother talking politics or policy with those who don't.

I can't believe that many gays honestly believe that our future in terms of civil rights will be better with John McCain in the White House than Barack Obama. Just the impact from ultra-conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court alone is reason enough to vote against McCain. Again, I could pose the same question on many different issues but I will stick to LGBT ones for the sake of this column.

I do appreciate the amount of discussion my column provoked. Discussion is good. Would I have written this type of column for an LGBT newspaper? Of course not. It is far to provocative and far too strongly worded. But I assume that regular readers of The Bilerico Project are LGBT activists and opinion leaders. I wanted to get you fired up. Too many of use have assumed (and in my opinion wrongly) that Barack Obama has the election in the bag and that he will win easily. He will not. The election will be close. It may be the most important election in our lives and those of us who want a Democrat in the White House must do all that we can to make it happen.

After what Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and the GOP-controlled Congress that we've had since 1980 have done to this country over the past 28 years, they should never again be elected at any level.

In particular, where GW Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of the GOP corporatist satraps are concerned, they should be tried on charges of treason. John McCain is the same as Bush, just angrier and less intelligent - and that's saying something.

Our country has survived many things, but i am not sanguine about its likelihood of surviving another 8 years of crooked corporatist GOP dictatorship, and that's before we get to GLBT rights, where there is, again, not a bit of comparison. Why does the LCR even exist?

I don't like John McCain -- really don't like him….. But I won’t be voting for Obama and here’s why:

"My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it." - Barack Obama

OBAMA'S COMMUNIST MENTOR

Excerpts from this link: http://boortz.com/nuze/200802/02202008.html#commie

Yesterday on the show, I asked the listeners to tell me what Barack Obama has actually accomplished. Not much, it seems. So now let's move on to a different idea ... Barack Obama's childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a communist. You've heard me mention many times that Barack Obama had an affinity to communist professors in his day. Well now it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty details of what exactly that means.

If you read the linked story you'll find that Frank Marshall Davis was a publicly identified member of the Communist Party USA. Davis, a black writer, was accused of being involved in several communist-front organizations by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Obama, in his book, Dreams From My Father, refers to Davis repeatedly as just "Frank" ... assumingly because Obama is not a stupid man and did not want to show the world that his mentor is a card-carrying Communist. So what does Obama tell us about Frank? Well Frank was a poet who visited his family in Hawaii. Frank was, according to Obama, "a contemporary of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes during his years in Chicago..." Frank was "his old Black Power dashiki self" who gave Obama advice on his career and his college education.

The link to article mentioned in the first paragraph: http://www.aim.org/aim-column/obamas-communist-mentor/

ELECTION 2008
Obama worked with terrorist
Senator helped fund organization that rejects 'racist' Israel's existence

Posted: February 24, 2008
5:44 pm Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Some excerpts from the article:

JERUSALEM ? The board of a nonprofit organization on which Sen. Barack Obama served as a paid director alongside a confessed domestic terrorist granted funding to a controversial Arab group that mourns the establishment of Israel as a "catastrophe" and supports intense immigration reform, including providing drivers licenses and education to illegal aliens.

The co-founder of the Arab group in question, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, also has held a fundraiser for Obama. Khalidi is a harsh critic of Israel, has made statements supportive of Palestinian terror and reportedly has worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization while it was involved in anti-Western terrorism and was labeled by the State Department as a terror group.

In 2001, the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit that describes itself as a group helping the disadvantaged, provided a $40,000 grant to the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN, for which Khalidi's wife, Mona, serves as president. The Fund provided a second grant to the AAAN for $35,000 in 2002.

Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund's website. According to tax filings, Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2000.

Obama served on the Wood's Fund board alongside William C. Ayers, a member of the Weathermen terrorist group which sought to overthrow of the U.S. government and took responsibility for bombing the U.S. Capitol in 1971.
_______
Ayers, who still serves on the Woods Fund board, contributed $200 to Obama's senatorial campaign fund and has served on panels with Obama at numerous public speaking engagements. Ayers admitted to involvement in the bombings of U.S. governmental buildings in the 1970s. He is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The $40,000 grant from Obama's Woods Fund to the AAAN constituted about a fifth of the Arab group's reported grants for 2001, according to tax filings obtained by WND. The $35,000 Woods Fund grant in 2002 also constituted about one-fifth of AAAN's reported grants for that year.
_______
Obama served on the board with Ayers, who was a Weathermen leader and has written about his involvement with the group's bombings of the New York City Police headquarters in 1970, the Capitol in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972.

"I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough," Ayers told the New York Times in an interview released on Sept. 11, 2001

"Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon," Ayers wrote in his memoirs, titled "Fugitive Days." He continued with a disclaimer that he didn't personally set the bombs, but his group set the explosives and planned the attack.

A $200 campaign contribution is listed on April 2, 2001 by the "Friends of Barack Obama" campaign fund. The two taught appeared speaking together at several public events, including a 1997 University of Chicago panel entitled, "Should a child ever be called a 'super predator?'" and another panel for the University of Illinois in April 2002, entitled, "Intellectuals: Who Needs Them?"

Obama’s Global Tax Proposal Up for Senate Vote

AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | February 12, 2008

Some excerpts from the article:

A nice-sounding bill called the "Global Poverty Act," sponsored by Democratic presidential candidate and Senator Barack Obama, is up for a Senate vote on Thursday and could result in the imposition of a global tax on the United States. The bill, which has the support of many liberal religious groups, makes levels of U.S. foreign aid spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations.

Senator Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has not endorsed either Senator Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. But on Thursday, February 14, he is trying to rush Obama's "Global Poverty Act" (S.2433) through his committee. The legislation would commit the U.S. to spending 0.7 percent of gross national product on foreign aid, which amounts to a phenomenal 13-year total of $845 billion over and above what the U.S. already spends.
______
Jeffrey Sachs, who runs the U.N.'s "Millennium Project," says that the U.N. plan to force the U.S. to pay 0.7 percent of GNP in increased foreign aid spending would add $65 billion a year to what the U.S. already spends. Over a 13-year period, from 2002, when the U.N.'s Financing for Development conference was held, to the target year of 2015, when the U.S. is expected to meet the "Millennium Development Goals," this amounts to $845 billion. And the only way to raise that kind of money, Sachs has written, is through a global tax, preferably on carbon-emitting fossil fuels.

(More taxes, just what we all need……….)

Obama On Immigration:

Immigration raids are ineffective. (Feb 2008)

Health plan: not enough resources for illegal immigrants. (Jan 2008)

Illegals shouldn't work; but should have path to citizenship. (Dec 2007)

Don't deputize Americans to turn in illegal immigrants. (Dec 2007)

OK to provide government services in Spanish. (Dec 2007)

Support granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. (Nov 2007)

Extend welfare and Medicaid to immigrants. (Jul 1998)

Voted NO on declaring English as the official language of the US government. (Jun 2007)

Voted YES on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security. (May 2006)

OBAMA
By: Ronald Kessler

Some excerpts from the article:

Michelle Obama: “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country,”

Michelle Obama’s comment that, for the first time in her adult life, she feels proud of America helps crystallize who Barack Obama is.

To be sure, the wife of a candidate is perfectly free to have views that are distinct from her husband’s. But on a matter that is so fundamental to one’s being as love of country, it is difficult to imagine that Michelle Obama would publicly twice make such a statement suggesting disdain for America unless she felt it comported with her husband’s views.

Equally important, her statement aligns perfectly with the hate-America views of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s minister, friend, and sounding board for more than two decades. On the Sunday following 9/11, Wright characterized the terrorist attacks as a consequence of violent American policies. Four years later, Wright suggested that the attacks were retribution for America’s racism.
______
Those who think two of the closest people to Obama could publicly make anti-America statements unless Obama himself felt that way, are fooling themselves. To date, Obama has proven himself to be nothing more than a great orator, rendering the statements of those around him even more important in illuminating his true character and agenda. During his Senate career, he skipped 17 percent of the votes and sponsored only one bill that became law. That bill was to promote “relief, security, and democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
______
And what has been wrong with America up to now?

That it gave Michelle the opportunity to attend Princeton and Harvard Law School? That it gave Barack Obama the chance to attend Harvard and Harvard Law School and become a U.S. senator making more than $1 million a year from book royalties?

Was it that America stopped Nazi Germany from continuing to murder millions of Jews? That America has provided Africa and other countries with $15 billion to combat the spread of AIDS/HIV and that another $30 billion is on the way? That 46 percent of all Americans classified by the Census Bureau as poor own their own homes, 76 percent of them have air conditioning, and 75 percent of them have at least one car? Or that America allows us to express our views freely without fear of being put in jail, as is the case in Russia?

A lawyer, Michelle Obama is perfectly capable of expressing herself precisely. In fact, she spoke from a written speech

And let’s remember his ties to Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. & Father Michael Pfleger, Obama’s Spiritual advisors:

Wright:

From: Obama's Ties To Church Examined (AP)

Some excerpts from the article:

(AP) A then 26-year-old Barack Obama walked down the aisle of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, knelt beneath a cross suspended from its rafters and, as he later explained it, committed himself to God after years as a religious skeptic.

In those early days at the self-described "unashamedly black" church, the future Democratic presidential candidate was moved to tears by a sermon from its activist pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., whom he has portrayed as his spiritual mentor.
_____
But in an interview with PBS's "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly" recorded just before Obama's February announcement, Wright said he warned the senator that their association could pose political problems, partly because of his history of supporting Palestinian causes.

Wright also told The New York Times in an interview published March 6: "When his (Obama's) enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli" with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to visit Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, "a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell."
_____

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., in his taped sermons, also questioned America’s role in the spread of the AIDS virus and suggested that the United States bore some responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In a fiery sermon in April 2003, Wright said: “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes three-strike laws and wants them to sing God Bless America.

“No! No No!

“God damn America … for killing innocent people.

“God damn America for threatening citizens as less than humans.

“God damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God and supreme.”

In DVD copies of his sermons available for purchase, Wright can also be seen questioning America’s role in the spreading of the HIV virus that leads to AIDS. In another speech, made in the days after 9/11, he suggested that American foreign policy invited the terror attacks.

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because of stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own backyard. America is chickens coming home to roost.”

The pastor also said: “The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied.”
_____
But Obama’s longtime relationship with Wright is continuing to spark controversy.

“This is not just someone that Barack Obama has a casual relationship with,” said Tom Bevan, executive editor of RealClearPolitics.com. He noted that Wright married Barack and Michelle Obama, and Wright’s words were the inspiration for the title of Obama’s book, “The Audacity of Hope.”
_____
During a Christmas sermon, Wright tried to compare Obama’s upbringing to Jesus at the hands of the Romans.

Father Michael Pfleger:

Pfleger, who until recently was featured on the Obama campaign website as a spiritual endorser, was back at Obama’s Trinity United Church this weekend mocking Hillary Clinton’s “white entitlement.” It’s one thing to ridicule Hillary’s sense of political and ideological entitlement as part of the Clinton dynasty. But the demagogic emphasis on her race from this hate preacher on the pulpit is quite another thing. You really have to see his performance to believe it.
_____

On May 29th a Catholic Priest from Chicago’s St. Sabina Church joined a rally in front of a gun shop and called for the owner of the shop and all pro-gun legislators to be “snuffed out”, yet, the media is strangely silent on the “Father’s” extreme comments — words one would think would be explosive enough to get media coverage. Father Michael Pfleger, known the city over for his overt political activism, made the obscene comments while demonstrating with Jesse Jackson and his Organization Operation Push in front of Chuck’s Gun Shop in Riverdale, a Chicago suburb.

Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina’s Church, went way over the top this week. During a protest against Chuck’s Gun Shop, Father Pfleger twice threatened to “snuff out” the shop’s owner and threatened the same fate for legislators who oppose his position on gun control.

“We’re gonna find you and snuff you out,” Fleger said about the gun shop owner, likening the man to a “rat.” He later repeated his threat to “snuff out” the owner.

“We’re gonna snuff out legislators who are voting [garbled] against our gun laws and we’re coming for you because we are not going to sit idly.”

And that he, “vowed that the rally was just the beginning and that civil disobedience was possible.”

And, sadly, that's just the highlights.

There's more to life than being gay......

If you believe that any president any time soon is going to give us every single right that everyone else has, you are truly deluded. If a president did that, they would piss off too many people to get re-elected. And then the homophobic heteros and all the religious zealots that believe we’re all evil to begin with, along with everyone else that hates us, are just going to do their damnedest to get those rights taken away.

Shadow, yours is a testimony to speed typing and partial truths stretched to the outer limits. Promise me you won't vote for anyone please.

Thought this would be good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXXr9oLd9S4

Oh, the truth hurts sooooo much……….

And let’s stomp on the First Amendment (we don’t need it any more, do we?):

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080826/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_obama_ayers_ad_3

Obama seeks to silence ad tying him to 60s radical

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer 29 minutes ago

DENVER - Barack Obama is striking back fiercely and swiftly to stamp out an ad that links him to a 1960s radical, eager to demonstrate a far more aggressive response to attacks than John Kerry did when faced with the 2004 "Swift Boat" campaign.

Obama not only aired a response ad to the spot linking him to William Ayers, but he sought to block stations the commercial by warning station managers and asking the Justice Department to intervene. The campaign also planned to compel advertisers to pressure stations that continue to air the anti-Obama commercial.

It's the type of going-for-the-jugular approach to politics many Democrats complain that Kerry lacked and that Republicans exploit.

Obama's target is an ad by the conservative American Issues Project, a nonprofit group that questions Obama's ties to Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground organization that took credit for a series of bombings, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol four decades ago.

The lone financier of the anti-Obama ad, Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, was also one of the main funders of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who targeted Kerry. Simmons, a McCain fundraiser, contributed nearly $2.9 million to the American Issues Project, according to documents filed by the group with the Federal Election Commission.

Fox News and CNN have declined to air the anti-Obama ad. But by Monday afternoon, the ad had run about 150 times in local markets in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Michigan, according to Evan Tracey, head of TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, an ad tracking firm.

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said Obama supporters have inundated stations that are airing the ad, many of them owned by Sinclair Communications, with 93,000 e-mails. He called the ad false, despicable and outrageous.

"Other stations that follow Sinclair's lead should expect a similar response from people who don't want the political discourse cheapened with these false, negative attacks," Vietor said.

Sinclair offices were closed late Monday and officials there could not be immediately contacted.

"It seems they protest a bit too much," American Issues Project spokesman Christian Pinkston said. "They're going all of these routes — through threats, intimation — to try to thwart the First Amendment here because they don't have an argument on merit."

Ayers is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He and Obama live in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood and served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community groups to help the poor. Obama left the board in December 2002.

Obama also was the first chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school reform group of which Ayers was a founder. Ayers also held a meet-the-candidate event at his home for Obama when Obama first ran for office in the mid-1990s.

Obama has denounced Ayers' past activities.

"Barack Obama is friends with Ayers, defending him as, quote, 'Respectable' and 'Mainstream,'" the group's ad states. "Obama's political career was launched in Ayers' home. And the two served together on a left-wing board. Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it? Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?"

In a letter to station managers, Obama campaign lawyer Robert Bauer wrote: "Your station is committed to operating in the public interest, an objective that cannot be satisfied by accepting for compensation material of such malicious falsity."

Bauer also wrote to Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Keeney, noting that the ad is a "knowing and willful attempt to evade the strictures of federal election law."

The campaign's aggressive tactics could draw more attention to a subject the campaign wants to go away. On Tuesday, the University of Illinois at Chicago will make available records of Obama's service on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. The group was set up to improve the city's schools. The documents could shed further light on whether Obama and Ayers had a relationship.

The American Issues Project is a 501(c)4 nonprofit corporation. It is permitted by law to air a political ad provided that the majority of its spending is nonpolitical. It cannot accept money from corporations and it must identify the donors that finance its ads in reports to the Federal Election Commission. Pinkston said the group has set aside money to carry out non-election related work to meet the legal requirements. It filed a report identifying Simmons as its sole donor for the ad last week.

In the Obama campaign's own response ad, an announcer states: "With all our problems, why is John McCain talking about the 60s, trying to link Barack Obama to radical Bill Ayers. McCain knows Obama denounced Ayers' crimes, committed when Obama was just 8 years old."

The McCain campaign cannot coordinate efforts with outside groups. But the campaign took advantage of being the target of the response ad.

"The fact that Barack Obama chose to launch his political career at the home of an unrepentant terrorist raises more questions about Senator Obama's judgment than any TV ad ever could," said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.