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raycarey

what's particularly disheartening (and getting back on topic) is how people like this are injecting race baiting into the actual campaigns.

i had thought (and hoped) that americans would be more high minded than to fall for this tired old tactic of dividing the people on race---often against their own economic self interest.

but it seems playing to the lizard brain and the lowest common denominator is still quite effective.

Jet Gorgon

Our Black Father, who art in godamn heaven, hallowed be thy name...

Boon Mee

Well, all you have to do is point the finger at Wright, eh?

stroller

Sounds like the "PC"-ness is there for a reason.

But it doesn't change people's attitudes, they only resent it that they get called on their racist sentiments.

Hootad Binky

Let's start with Nixon

Let's see: wiretapping, lying to Congress, lying to the public, associating with criminals, aiding and abetting acts of breaking and entering, etc. Was impeached, resigned in disgrace: good riddance.


Thanks, Dick!

Next, Ronald Reagan:



Illegally funded Contras (who later shipped cocaine to US) with funds from illegally selling weapons to Iran (Iran!). Meanwhile friends with and weapon supplier to that great humanitarian Saddam:



And around the same time, let's not forget the S&L debacle, which included John McCain and Neil Bush.

That must be nice; giving yourself huge, non-secured loans backed by the American taxpayer, in return for a small fine I call that fraud and theft.


Next up, old Bush family friend Kenneth L. Lay, CEO and Chairman of Enron! This guy brought bilking the innocent to a whole new level when he fraudulently squandered billion$$ in pension funds and life saving of his thousands of employees.


Most definitely a criminal...

In happier days with his close pals:




Crimes of Passion


Mark Foley: unfortunate sexual obsession with very underage Congressional pageboys (not legal!)


Larry, it's illegal to solicit sex in reststop toilets (ask George Michael!)


Mugshot of Bob Allen: State representative and McCain staffer also caught illegally soliciting for sex in public toilets, his excuse was the Blackness of the undercover police officer frightened him into offering him $20 to perform oral sex on him. "I didn't want to become a statistic" he said

And here's a Republican Congressman who's been indicted for:

Don't get me wrong! I have a lot of respect for Republicans. If they could just curb:

- lying and association with and instigation of criminal activities
- fleecing the taxpayer
- associating and cooperating with radical Islamist states
- aiding dictators
- robbing banks
- soliciting underage boys for sex
- soliciting for sex in public toilets!

Then maybe, just maybe, we could take them seriously, on their own terms whatever they are...)

Oh! And let's not forget:

Quote:

Evangelical Leader Admits to Buying Meth, Receiving Massage From Gay Escort Friday, November 03, 2006 Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, in Sept. 2005 in Colorado Springs, Colo. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Embattled national evangelical leader the Rev. Ted Haggard admitted Friday that he bought methamphetamines and received a massage from a gay prostitute, but denies he ever used the drug or had sex with the man. "I bought it for myself but never used it," Haggard told reporters gathered outside his home. "I was tempted but I never used it." Haggard, 50, a married father of five, who resigned his post as head of the thirty million member National Association of Evangelicals, said he never had sex with Mike Jones, a 49-year-old gay escort who claims to have had a drug-laced three year tryst with Haggard.

I think we should all thank the good Republican Evangelical Pastor for reminding us of the importance of a good massage and a snort of meth!

__________________
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. -Oscar Wilde

ChiangMai noon

wonderful post Hootad.

the effort is much appreciated.

sabang

^^ yes, a worthy green.

Seems churlish to add Halliburton, I mean whats $50,000,000,000 in No Bid contracts between ethical friends?

chinthee

Dick Morris, the former Bill Clinton adviser made an interesting comment on the potential for a smoking gun on the Obama-Wright preacher issue.

He's warning that there may be members of the large congregation of Wright, who siding with Wright, may come out with either truthful or false claims that they saw Obama in church during the days in question, when Wright made the controversial statements.

Hilary Clinton may be already have scouts in the church looking for willing whistle-blowers.

I'll bet the media would make a circus out of the first one to emerge, it it happened.

Obama’s Test: Will Offensive Against Wright Pay Off in the Primaries? - America’s Election HQ

Norton

Bet he is a hell of a lot more than former. Funny he should state this obvious bit of opinion. There will certainly be some individual within the church that can be found to refute what Obama has said. Wright may well be Obama's, Donna Rice.

chinthee

^Yes, it's amazing what spreading a little cash around and the promise of 15 minutes of fame will do. I suspect we may see numerous crackpots stepping forward.

chinthee

Hootad Binky

Whatever happened to freedom of speech? Separation of Church and State? The American public signaled quite strongly that it was uninterested in Lewinsky and/or Flowers, and those were cases of clear exposure.

If Obama remains cool, it's still his election to lose. If he starts complaining of a media lynching (like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas did during the Anita Hill affair) he's done.

sabang

I think outside the Square, and methinks the Dem nomination is Obamas biggest challenge.

I'm sticking my neck out here (so note it) but I think your next Pres is a black Democrat.

Whodathoughtit?

Hootad Binky

The question is whether or not McCain will authorize "Willie Horton "-type, racially-motivated attack ads on Obama. It's not McCain's style to do that, but he might have to. If the American public becomes disgusted with it, it could go badly for the GOP but it's all new territory in this election...

If the GOP start running ads like this ^ again, it could backfire on them.

Hootad Binky

A Willie Horton Hit on Obama?

Tuesday, Apr. 22, 2008

An old right-wing attack dog has returned with a new target: Barack Obama.

Starting Tuesday, a group of conservative activists led by Floyd Brown, author of the famous Willie Horton ad used so effectively against Michael Dukakis in 1988, will begin a campaign to tar Obama as weak on crime and terrorism, a strategy that aims to upend Obama's relatively strong reputation among Republican voters.

"The campaign by Hillary Clinton has not been able to raise Obama's negatives," said Brown on Monday. "It is absolutely critical that Obama's negatives go up with Republicans."

Brown says the initial effort, will be aired later this month in North Carolina and e-mailed to between 3 and 7 million conservatives this week, with a plea for more funding to further spread the message. "All of the efforts I have ever done in my life have been significantly funded," Brown claimed, though he declined to describe the size of the purchase. "This is going to be the most Internet-intensive effort for an ad debut ever."

The new ad recounts the deaths of three Chicago residents in 2001 at the hands of criminal gangs. "That same year, a Chicago state senator named Barack Obama voted against expanding the death penalty for gang-related murders," an ominous female narrator intones. "So the question is, can a man so weak in the war on gangs be trusted in the war on terror?"

Brown is funding the initial ad campaign through a political action committee called the National Campaign Fund, which had $14,027 in the bank at the end of March. Brown said he had established several other front groups to fund a long-range effort to erode Obama's support, including a second PAC, called The Legacy Committee, a 527 organization called Citizens for a Safe and Prosperous America and a so-called "social welfare" 501(c)4 nonprofit called the Policy Issues Institute.

Later this week, Brown said he plans to debut a second ad, focusing on Democratic support for giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, which he says will also be aired in North Carolina. The second ad will be paid for by Citizens for a Safe and Prosperous America, the 527 group, which can accept donations of any amount. "This is a long march to November," Brown said. "Right now it's beginning a process that gives us the information to succeed in August and September."

By airing the ads in North Carolina, the site of an upcoming Democratic primary, Brown appears to be playing for national media attention. The initial spot also consciously mimics the themes from one of the most famous, and controversial, attack ads in modern political history, the Willie Horton ad. That spot, which was also funded outside a campaign, blamed Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic nominee, for the weekend furlough that allowed a convicted felon to commit another rape. At the time, domestic crime was a major national issue, though it has not registered as a significant concern in public opinion polls during this election cycle.

Brown's new ad focuses on a 2001 vote by Obama in the Illinois Senate to oppose a bill that would have expanded the use of the death penalty if the perpetrator of a crime belonged to a gang. The links between Obama's vote on that issue and the deaths of three Chicago resident's are indirect and tenuous, as is the further connection the ad draws between the issue of Obama's position on the death penalty and the issue of international terrorism.

A Willie Horton Hit on Obama? - TIME

Hootad Binky

Looks like they've pulled the ad, or haven't started running it; here's another, but it looks like the media is refusing to run it and McCain doesn't like it either (to his credit).

North Carolina TV blocks anti-Obama attack ad

April 25, 2008 12:27pm


US television stations have refused to run a controversial Republican ad attacking Democratic candidate Barack Obama and those who support him.

The ad has been running in North Carolina, which votes along with Indiana on May 7 (Australian time) in the next contests in the marathon Democratic presidential nomination contest.

It features excerpts of the sermon by Senator Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, which exploded onto the campaign agenda last month after it appeared on the internet. Rev. Wright is shown saying "God damn America".

The ad criticises local Democrats for endorsing Senator Obama, who it says is "just too extreme for North Carolina". Republican nominee John McCain has distanced himself from the ad, but the state branch of the party has vowed not to pull it.

However some TV bosses have decided the ad is "offensive" - and possibly even racist, according to a report in the Charlotte Observer.

"I just don't think it's appropriate to be on our air," said the general manager of a station in Charlotte, the state's most populous city. "I think it's offensive, and I'm not real comfortable with the implications around race."

Another station in the capital, Raleigh, has also refused to run the ad.

A Republican spokesman said the party was being censored. "You're going down a very dark path that could end up saying, 'These are the kinds of things you can say in a political debate, and these are the kinds of things you can't,'" he said.

He said the party would keep looking for other stations to run the ad. Senator Obama is ahead of rival Hillary Clinton in polls in North Carolina, while the candidates are neck-and-neck in Indiana.

North Carolina TV blocks anti-Obama attack ad | NEWS.com.au