Friday, October 10, 2008
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Krauthammer On All The Would-Be President's Men
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Posted by:
Hugh Hewitt at
8:26 AM
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Charles Krauthammer's opening paragraphs:
Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream media begin fulminating about dirty campaigning tinged with racism and McCarthyite guilt by association.
But associations are important. They provide a significant insight into character. They are particularly relevant in relation to a potential president as new, unknown, opaque and self-contained as Obama. With the economy overshadowing everything, it may be too late politically to be raising this issue. But that does not make it, as conventional wisdom holds, in any way illegitimate.
Read the whole thing. Th ecolumn hits McCain for failing to raise these issuess earlier, but then returns to the significance of these associations.
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Or legitimate perspective:
Palin belongs to a Dominionist church full of theocratic lunatics and has a husband in the Alaskan Independence Party, and McCain attends fundraisers for supporters of anti-abortion homicidal lunatics - but it's OBAMA's associations that are "unamerican" and "dangerous"?
And then there's TROOPERGATE!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/us/10trooper.html?_r=1&hp &oref=slogin
Vindictive abuse of power? Do we NEED more of that? |
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Guilt by association? Not necessarily.
Bad judgement by association? Definitely |
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That is a very valid point!!! I urge anyone to give me a reason why these point are not brought to light. I'll help you.... YOU CAN'T!!!!
The advisors said it best talking about the issue will cause McLame to lose!!! |
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that even Charles is sticking to and that is this tendency to distance ourselves from our chosen candidate, and this tendency to blame said candidate for not doing such and such. So McCain took the high road, perhaps back then he thought it was the high road; now, that we are all slowly (thanks to a compilant press) finding out just how dangerous these associations are, McCain chooses a different route. Why is that a bad thing and his timing off? Most "decent" folks would probably have taken this route. And while we're at it, NeroDavola most Christian churches (mine included) think that the country is in trouble BUT generally say it's because we aren't respectful enough to the God that gave us this country. Stop hurling rocks you obviously know nothing about. |
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if there was only one bad seed in his circle that we could be playing guilt by association.
But EVERYONE whom has helped promote his career and push forward his radical agenda has ISSUES. Most of which are criminal, racist, facist, and just down right dangerous.
This is more than bad judgement. This is a reflection of his belief system. |
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What do you think of Hussein's Harvard thesis? How about those grades of his? Oh wait, he won't release them. Did you get a good look at a copy of his ORIGINAL birth certificate? Oh wait, he won't release it. How is that wacko lefty Black Liberation Theology working out for you? You like the idea of a person who believes that whites are evil being in the White House do you? Think Ayers and Farrakhan are swell guys do you? Don't mind babies being thrown into trash cans to die? That's okay, neither does Hussein.
Why bless your heart! |
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getting into Harvard on his own merit is enough for me. Seems he graduated from there as well, and headed the Law Revue while taking on a full load of studies. Impressive.
McCain got into Annapolis on his daddy's and granddaddy's reputations as big time Admirals - certainly not his own lackluster high school record. He continued his below average reputation, through his own admission, as a hard-drinking womanizer whose petulance, insubordination and notorious temper garnered him the lowest regard by his peers and his superiors alike. He graduated 5th from the BOTTOM in a class of over 650. Sounds vaguely familiar, donut? A Shrub mini-me.
McCain's birth certificate has him as being born in the Panama Canal! Is that REALLY the US? Sounds pretty foreign to most "patriots". Could he have been birthed by aliens? Radical rightists? OMG!
Hey, and how's Palin's Witch Doctor workin' out for ya? Did you know that kind of 'voodoo' thing has a very, very dark side to it? Ya got ta wonder if she had the man construct a voodoo doll for Wooten. And then there's that Pastor Bricker who she listened to as he railed on about Jews being doomed if they didn't accept Jesus. How's that workin' for the Florida constituents?
And really, Screwtape - you cannot advocate "pro-life" if you are for the illegal war in Iraq. Babies are killed there EVERY day from the fighting that was NEVER justified. Your anti-choice position says NOTHING about those who would choose to bomb and kill the doctors and staff who helped women who made their choices LEGALLY. It's called Domestic Terrorism - and McCain knowingly attended a fundraiser with them. By your RW standards McCain IS a terrorist by virtue of association. There is more of a tie to that logic than there ever was to Obama and Ayres. |
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retire the word "unrepentant" along with the word "maverick" as previously suggested.
Anyone who uses "unrepentant" immediately sounds like a robot repeating faxed talking points. |
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WFB (RIP) disagrees with you on your opinion of Harvard attendees and in a competition with him, you lose. As I said, read his thesis? No? Why not? Sure we know all about McCain. We know next to nothing about Hussein. Why won't he let people read his Harvard thesis? Why can't we see his original birth certificate? (BTW, I'm not challening his citizenship with this question, I am challening his openness and honesty). Anyune who seriously tries to compare dumping a new born baby in a trash can (I guess you are okay with that) and the awful reality of innocence dying in a war proves themselves to be facuous.
ACKACKACKACKACKACKACKACKACKACKACKACKACKACKACK
Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape |
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John McCain is unrepentant in his support for Marilyn Shannon, who praised terrorist Shelley Shannon (no relation) at a dinner for extreme anti-gay group the Oregon Citizens Alliance.
Marilyn Shannon was a McCain delegate to the 2008 RNC. |
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What - you think Obama has some sort of anti-American screed written as his thesis? Really? I suppose that like that lunatic, Horowitz - or Buckley [RIP] for that matter - you'd suspect that anyone who DID read the thesis wouldn't step forward if there was a SHRED of evidence that he is a scary, scary man in it?
Why won't CindyPills let us see her income information? Why did Palin try to deep six the TrooperGate investigation? See, the difference is that both CindyPills income - like Theresa Heinz Kerry's - goes to the heart of the RW tirade against Kerry about using her money to bolster the McCain campaign. We know - not by johnny boy's own admission, mind you - that CindyPills used her private jet to hussle McCain around the country for his campaign. Illegal! And Palin's TrooperGate issue goes to the heart of her ability to govern without vendetta, abuse of power or voodoo dolls. |
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You need to take a look at the requirements for acceptance to the Naval Academy. There is NO legacy UNLESS a parent has been awarded the Medal of Honor. And, even then, the applicant must need all requirements. Having an admiral in the family does not help to gain admission.
John McCain might have gotten an appointment from a congressman or a senator -- probably did.
There are also a number of "Fleet Appointments," but last I knew a person has to be an enlisted man to apply for these.
Also, Sarah has said that she does not belong to any particular church. She was a member, I believe, when she was 12 or 13, but has since ceased attending that church.
The witch doctor things is bravo sierra. I sometimes attend a United Methodist Church -- and I have seen a "Sunday Speakers" who were certainly outside of what I could consider the main stream. Churchs around the world seem to exchange preachers and such for visits. |
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"Why won't he let people read his Harvard thesis?"
Harvard Law does not have anything like a thesis requirement. At least it doesn't now, and it didn't when my sister-in-law got her degree there, a couple of years before Obama.
Do you have some reason to believe that there was a period when they did, and that Obama actually did write a law school thesis? Or are you just blowing hot air? |
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"You need to take a look at the requirements for acceptance to the Naval Academy. ... Having an admiral in the family does not help to gain admission."
That's the funniest thing I've seen in awhile. Are you naive enough to think that legacy admissions are actually written down?
Do you really think that McCain got into the Naval Academy on his own merit? As the son and grandson of admirals? My gosh, how do you manage to dress yourself in the morning? |
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I assumed (possibly wrongly) that as Michelle had to write a thesis at Princeton that Barrack did also. If that is not the case then I withdraw the challenge and apologize. |
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campaign on the tactic of guilt by association. Typical leftist hypocrites are the only ones who dare to accuse McCain of using that tactic. |
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"I assumed (possibly wrongly) that as Michelle had to write a thesis at Princeton that Barrack did also."
Barrack Obama didn't go to Princeton. And Michelle only when there as an undergraduate; she went to law school at Harvard, like her husband. |
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Bob, the admission requirements are written down in dozens of places. I have read the requirements many times -- they are published often in Navy magazines and by annual notices sent to the entire Navy from the Bureau of Naval Personnel. I have advised young sailors on obtaining an Fleet Appointment and wrote the initial recommendations for two (2) of 'em -- one black. Lost contact with both after ship wrecked in Vietnam, so do not know if either made it through the academy -- or even if they were selected. Look at the academy's web site -- pretty certain the requirements are there. I believe that most who are admitted to the academy are appointed by congressmen or senators -- certain other government officials have appointment powers too. Think each can make two (2) appointments per year. Last I knew there were also one-hundred (100) annual Fleet Appointments from Navy enlisted men/women. |
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Remember the other day when I ask you where all the statesmen had gone?
That was discussed yesterday morning on Morning Joe by Chris Matthews. He mentioned the old fellow whose name I was trying to remember. It was Monahan (Spelling is incorrect) His first and middle was, best I recall, Daniel Patrick. I didn't have much access to TV during the years he served, but everytime I read something about him or managed to see him on TV he darned looked like a statesman to me.
No, Bob -- I don't believe Obama will ever be what I would think of as a "Statesman." |
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I knew that Barrack went to Harvard and that is where he met Michelle. I just made the wrong assumptions about thesiseseseseses.
However, how come we have not seen a copy of his original birth certificate? Again, I'm not challenging his nationality but this doesn't seem like it should be a big deal. Just request a certified copy of the original birth certificate and post it on a web site. Case closed. Instead he presents a new birth certificate (apparently genuine). What gives? Was the original destroyed? Fine, let a state offical make a statement. This is about honesty and openness, not nationality. |
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"Bob, the admission requirements are written down in dozens of places."
And they're routinely violated in legacy admissions. That's why they're called "legacy admissions" and not just "admissions."
Tell you what: you find out what the written admissions requirements for Annapolis were in 1953, and I'll do the research to figure out if McCain met them.
"I believe that most who are admitted to the academy are appointed by congressmen or senators"
Not "appointed," NOMINATED. That just makes them eligible for admission. They still have to meet the requirements and, when not the son of an admiral, compete in SAT scores, grades, etc. with the other candidates. (I know because our senator, Hugh Scott, offered to nominate me, at the urging of the Academy wrestling coach.)
Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a democratic senator from NYC. |
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"which makes his last statement of the article peculiar."
Nah, just shows that he is aware of the obsessions of the fanatic right wing. |
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Rasmussen thru yesterday Obama +5, Hotline +7, Zogby +5, GW/Battleground +8, I'll assume Gallup will be at least at 11 like yesterday, increasing the average.
Electoral, strong or leading, 277 for Obama/Biden.
Keep up the attacks. By the time Barack takes the airwaves in late October (probably with his WHITE Kansas born grandmother at his side, or maybe those two adorable 'in school' (as opposed to the Palin 'homeschooled' props) daughters), it will be headed towards a landslide. All because the GOP, having fumbled by letting an unbalanced old man get the nomination over much better opponents, forced him to nominate an underqualified, nasty airhead for a VP, just to calm the salivating fundys who want the end of days to come before 11/4.
If you don't think McCain got in as a legacy, you are truly deranged.
And Barrack did not meet Michelle at Harvard; he was a law clerk at a firm in Chicago where she was a young associate. |
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Ah, so Hussein's kids are adorable and should be shown and Palin's kids are props. Nice crack at home schooling. But don't worry about that, I'm sure Hussein will outlaw home schoooling. |
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And keep taking comfort in those polls. And by NO means should you research historic presidential polls to see how they compared with the actual election results, what you learned would just depress you. |
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You find me ONE person who gained admission to the academy through any sort of legacy and I'll kiss your stern on the quarterdeck and give you fifteen minutes to draw a crowd!
I know of no changes to the academy's requirements since 1955 and I seen them at least once per year in All Hands magazine, BUPERS Notices, booklets concerning officer programs and the like.
I gleaned through officer and enlisted matters published to the fleet because I was interested when I was young and later because my sailors might have questions concerning various programs.
Contrary to what you might believe, certain things are not screwed with in the Navy. At least one secretary of the Navy got in trouble for trying to influence a promotion board. I know of two (three?) admirals who questioned a promotion boards decision and was told, in effect, to pound sand. I am certain that anybody trying to game access to the academy would be badly hammered. Could an admiral obtain a "nomination" or "appointment" via a congressman or senator he/whe knew? Certainly. And the chances of an admiral knowing a congress person or senator would be fairly good as virtually every admiral has had Washington duty.
Fleet appointments differ only in that the selectee is sent to the academy via the Naval Academy Preparation School to ensure they have a good grounding in Math, science and such. Far as I know, appointments outside of the enlisted ranks do not attend NAPS.
Where did you see that McCain's academy GPA was low? I've read that the only reason he graduated near the bottom of his class was because of the multitude of demerits he received for poor conduct. Yeah, he was a hell raiser of the first water, no doubt of that. I won't swear to it, but I believe one has to have a pretty good GPA to get orders to flight school, which is heavy in engineering studies.
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"he was a law clerk at a firm in Chicago where she was a young associate."
B. Obama was a "summer associate," not a law clerk. That's kind of the lawyer equivalent of "intern." A law clerk is lower on the scale, closer to secretary.
I hadn't realized that Michelle was Barrack's boss at the time. (They called it "advisor" or "mentor.") She had graduated from Harvard Law three years earlier than he; they weren't there at the same time. Both are very impressive people. |
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are wrong. I've actually gone back and looked to October 2004. The polls said Bush would win. Bush won (though barely). He of course did not have these numbers, must smaller. And he still only won by about 120,000 votes in Ohio, or he would have lost. The popular vote is irrelevant in this country.
Of course Obama may lose the election. The only polls that count are those on 11/4. It is still something I am certain the McCain campaign is concerned about, or they would not be flailing about as they are. They have conceded they cannot win on the facts or on ideas, so they attack him personally.
The problem is that this is truly old news. When you see McCain treat his opponent with such disdain, largely because McCain thinks he is entitled to this position, and Obama is just an interloper, the American public turns off. Their retirement accounts are being hit, their neighbors are losing their homes, the stock market is crashing, and McCain talks about Ayers and Rezco.
Meanwhile, Sarah interfered in Troopergate, and her husband is a known member of a secessionist party, and you look the other way.
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Palin is the one who made continuing the pregnancy of her special needs child an issue. She's the one who made her daughter's pregnancy and 'marriage' an issue. Obama's kids are just there, they haven't been made marketing points. Homeschooling, in my opinion, should be outlawed. It is one of the reasons our nation is falling apart. Public schools were designed in part to allow our nation's common goals and past to be inculcated into young people. You meet people who are different than you are. That doesn't happen when fundy mommy who is afraid that knowing someone whose mother is gay might harm her kids.
The most insular, hateful people come from homeschooling. And is it homeschooling in the Palin case when they are taught by a hired tutor, not mommy? Mommy doesn't have time, does she? Daddy isn't doing it either, is he? Mommy didn't even have enough time to know where Bristol was, or to take care of Track since he moved to Michigan to finish school. Daddy had lots of time though to bug the trooper people about his former brother in law, eh?
as for McCain's legacy admission, if you think he got in on his merit, I have a bridge to nowhere to sell you.
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change we can REALLY believe in.
Well, at least we're making great strides with homeschooling. Those kids tend to run academic circles around the ones being educated in our dumbed down public institutions.
Secession, if course, is still generally viewed through Yankee glasses as thick as coke bottle bottoms, but there is renewed interest in it, both from the right and the left. When the Empire finally implodes, it's going to be an obvious option. |
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"You find me ONE person who gained admission to the academy through any sort of legacy"
It's easy for you to prove your thesis: just find and publish McCain's SAT scores and HS grades at Episcopal, and the median and lowest scores of those admitted to the Academy during that period.
"Where did you see that McCain's academy GPA was low?"
I haven't said anything about McCain's GPA. |
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Guilt by association doesn't work with adults. I guess when one has admitted (as many times as McCain has) that he doesn't understand economics as well as he should, refocusing is the only alternative. It's not too late for McCain and Palin to start fleshing out some serious economic initiatives, and show how they will restore the economy. Every day they refuse is another day lost. |
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It's guilt by PARTICIPATION. Ayers and BO worked TOGETHER. BO funneled money to Ayers radical schools. It was mutual self-interest.
Quite some, "guy in the neighborhood". |
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First, thanks for the correct spelling of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
I doubt that knowing the McCain's SAT and HS grade scores would be of much help, considering they would be lumped in with the fleet appointments whose scores were likely nothing to scream about, which is the main reason they attend NAPS before entering the Academy. No idea how many would have taken the SAT in those years either. I do know that the Navy had five ex-enlisted admirals who were high school dropouts on active duty in the 'Seventies, but no idea how many gained their commission via the Navy academy -- maybe none.
I would have no idea how to find them either, considering everything was recorded on paper in 1953.
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"McCain's admittance to Annapolis was PREORDAINED by his bloodline. But martial discipline did not seem to have much of an impact on his character. By his own account, McCain was a lazy, incurious student; he squeaked by only by prevailing upon his buddies to help him cram for exams. He continued to get sauced and treat girls badly. Before meeting a girlfriend's parents for the first time, McCain got so sh*tfaced that he literally crashed through the screen door when he showed up in his white midshipman's uniform.
His grandfather's name and his father's forbearance brought McCain a charmed existence at Annapolis. On his first trip at sea — to Rio de Janeiro aboard the USS Hunt — the captain was a former student of his father. While McCain's classmates learned the ins and outs of the boiler room, McCain got to pilot the ship to South America and back. In Rio, he hobnobbed with admirals and the president of Brazil.
Back on campus, McCain's short fuse was legend. "We'd hear this thunderous screaming and yelling between him and his roommate — doors slamming — and one of them would go running down the hall," recalls Phil Butler, who lived across the hall from McCain at the academy. "It was a regular occurrence."
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_ma verick_the_real_john_mccain/page/2
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When McCain was not shown the pampering to which he was accustomed, he grew petulant — even abusive. He repeatedly blew up in the face of his commanding officer. It was the kind of insubordination that would have gotten any other midshipman kicked out of Annapolis. But his classmates soon realized that McCain was untouchable. Midway though his final year, McCain faced expulsion, about to "bilge out" because of excessive demerits. After his mother intervened, however, the academy's commandant stepped in. Calling McCain "spoiled" to his face, he nonetheless issued a reprieve, scaling back the demerits. McCain dodged expulsion a second time by convincing another midshipman to take the fall after McCain was caught with contraband.
"He was a huge screw-off," recalls Butler. "He was always on probation. The only reason he graduated was because of his father and his grandfather — they couldn't exactly get rid of him."
McCain's self-described "four-year course of insubordination" ended with him graduating fifth from the bottom — 894th out of a class of 899. It was a record of mediocrity he would continue as a pilot."
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_ma verick_the_real_john_mccain/page/3
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In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.
In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot...
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_ma verick_the_real_john_mccain/page/1
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Just another guy knocking around Barack Obama’s neighborhood.
This is a great commentary by John Gibson.
http://www.reversespin.com
A must see. Especially for Jewish voters. |
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As the lead federal prosecutor of the Weathermen in the 1970s (I was then chief of the criminal division in the Eastern District of Michigan and took over the Weathermen prosecution in 1972), I am amazed and outraged that Senator Barack Obama is being linked to William Ayers’s terrorist activities 40 years ago when Mr. Obama was, as he has noted, just a child.
Although I dearly wanted to obtain convictions against all the Weathermen, including Bill Ayers, I am very pleased to learn that he has become a responsible citizen.
Because Senator Obama recently served on a board of a charitable organization with Mr. Ayers cannot possibly link the senator to acts perpetrated by Mr. Ayers so many years ago.
I do take issue with the statement in your news article that the Weathermen indictment was dismissed because of “prosecutorial misconduct.” It was dismissed because of illegal activities, including wiretaps, break-ins and mail interceptions, initiated by John N. Mitchell, attorney general at that time, and W. Mark Felt, an F.B.I. assistant director.
William C. Ibershof
Mill Valley, Calif., Oct. 8, 2008 |
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Your point in reprinting the piece from the swillpaper of record? Nobody that I've read has been inferring, much less stating, that Barry is linked to Ayers' Treasonous-Maoist Deeds. He indesputably has had a long association, business alliance and, until at least 2005, a friendship with Billy Boy. The 'Issue', Genius? Duhhhhh... It just isn't mathematically possible that you're missing IT. You simply don't care and don't wish others to give a rip. However, as I've challenged Lefties here over & over, would you be calm & sanguine if: Juan McCain had years of associations, friendship and alliances with an Unrepentant X-KKK Poobah? Uh-Huh. Neither you nor the MSM-Pressies, nor the Dems nor--for that matter--us Conservatives would ever have let John outta the gate. Yet, we're supposed to give the defiant & unrepentant Weather Underground Maoist a free hall pass. IF we don't we're 'Negative', 'Piling On' and 'Racist'.
By-the-by, always fascinating to see an x-prosecutor who is living in the World Capital of Lefty Land, Mill Valley Calif! |
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I think the McCain infatuation with the MSM is over. They're out to destroy him; there's little difference between your average media personality and a Kos kid. The press isn't going to cover Obama's associations or his foreign donors. In fact, they'll try to cover it up. The RNC and McCain need to do it.
A little late? Maybe. Having Ayres, Wright, etc on the minds and lips of the electorate in the last weeks of the election, and having Barak Obama on defensive (which he surely will be) may also be a very shrewd move.
Plus, if people want to talk about the economy, how about JUSTICE? Call out the Dems who have brought our economy to its knees.
If McCain's association with Bush is fair game, then so are Obama's. It's high time to screw this twerp to the wall. |
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