The 2008 US Election thread

[J70]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/07/obama.seance/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Tut Tut.....Somebody could do with a sensitivity class me thinks.

Stupid comment. He should lay off the attempted jokes if they're going to be that bad. But at least he apologized to Mrs Reagan and acknowledged that it was a dumb thing to say.

[pintsofguinness]

I thought it was funny. 

[ziggysego]

The Irish keep at it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlzY-hLhndo&NR=1

[J70]

I thought it was funny. 

Even if it was funny, it was inappropriate. Joke about it in private, not in your first press conference as president-elect (which otherwise was impressive I thought).

[DrinkingHarp]

SC priest: No communion for Obama supporters
     

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."

The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.

"Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein.

"Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."

During the 2008 presidential campaign, many bishops spoke out on abortion more boldly than four years earlier, telling Catholic politicians and voters that the issue should be the most important consideration in setting policy and deciding which candidate to back. A few church leaders said parishioners risked their immortal soul by voting for candidates who support abortion rights.

But bishops differ on whether Catholic lawmakers — and voters — should refrain from receiving Communion if they diverge from church teaching on abortion. Each bishop sets policy in his own diocese. In their annual fall meeting, the nation's Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights.

According to national exit polls, 54 percent of Catholics chose Obama, who is Protestant. In South Carolina, which McCain carried, voters in Greenville County — traditionally seen as among the state's most conservative areas — went 61 percent for the Republican, and 37 percent for Obama.

"It was not an attempt to make a partisan point," Newman said in a telephone interview Thursday. "In fact, in this election, for the sake of argument, if the Republican candidate had been pro-abortion, and the Democratic candidate had been pro-life, everything that I wrote would have been exactly the same."

Conservative Catholics criticized Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 for supporting abortion rights, with a few Catholic bishops saying Kerry should refrain from receiving Holy Communion because his views were contrary to church teachings.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said she had not heard of other churches taking this position in reaction to Obama's win. A Boston-based group that supports Catholic Democrats questioned the move, saying it was too extreme.

"Father Newman is off base," said Steve Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats. "He is acting beyond the authority of a parish priest to say what he did. ... Unfortunately, he is doing so in a manner that will be of great cost to those parishioners who did vote for Sens. Obama and Biden. There will be a spiritual cost to them for his words."

A man who has attended St. Mary's for 18 years said he welcomed Newman's message and anticipated it would inspire further discussion at the church.

"I don't understand anyone who would call themselves a Christian, let alone a Catholic, and could vote for someone who's a pro-abortion candidate," said Ted Kelly, 64, who volunteers his time as lector for the church. "You're talking about the murder of innocent beings."

[J70]

Yet half of these morons probably support the death penalty and the Iraq war. Eternal damnation indeed.

[Shortso79]

It's going to be released as a single

Number 1   U never know

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7794385.stm

[Tyrones own]

How embarrassing is that..... leave it to Paddy

[ziggysego]

Obama tickets 'sell in a minute'

Reserved seats for the US presidential inauguration parade have sold out within one minute of being put on sale, the ticket company has said.

More than 90% of the 5,000 seats available along the parade route in Washington were sold online.

The tickets cost $25 (£16) each - but some went on to reappear on internet sites at much higher prices.

Two million people are expected to crowd the National Mall as Barack Obama takes the oath of office on 20 January.

Most of the seats for the swearing-in ceremony are set aside for lawmakers, VIPs and diplomats.

The tickets that went on sale on Friday were for stands that line the route Mr Obama and his vice-president, Joe Biden, will take between the US Capitol and the White House.

Sales began at 1300 (1800 GMT) and went "blazingly fast", Albert Lopez, a spokesman for sales company Ticketmaster, said.

Linda Douglass, the chief spokeswoman for the inaugural committee, said the selling time was startling.
Workers build the inauguration stand on 7 November 2008

"You just have to assume there must have been people sitting there at their computers ready to go when the clock struck one," she said.

Inauguration officials strongly disapproved of anyone seeking to profit from the sale of the ticket, she said - as tickets appeared at 10 times their original price on auction site eBay.

The committee says it wants to make Barack Obama's inauguration one of the most accessible in US history.

Sourced BBCi: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7821631.stm

A far cry from Bush when he was re-inaugurated in 2005!

[J70]

10 more days...

[Tyrones own]

 Sure he's well over his head already with a number of top Dems scratching their heads
at some of his antics... 10 more days is hardly gonna bring him up to speed
And to think you boy's bought the Change Rhetoric  ...
FFS it's nothing more than a third term for the Clintons, good luck with that!

[J70]

Christ, even the Republicans have been speaking approvingly of the vast majority of the appointees - very pragmatic and not quite the embracement of marxism that they spent the past six months trying to scare everyone into voting for McCain with. I've been impressed so far, but let's see how he fares with the colossal mess he's inheriting on all fronts.

10 days and counting...

[carribbear]

Sure he's well over his head already with a number of top Dems scratching their heads
at some of his antics... 10 more days is hardly gonna bring him up to speed
And to think you boy's bought the Change Rhetoric  ...
FFS it's nothing more than a third term for the Clintons, good luck with that!

Speaking with real american's (and immigrant americans) over the new year in the states it is amazing how many people are peddling the "change" word.
My favourite retort is that the only change you will see is whats left in your wallet after paying the essentials from your wages.

Some like my Nigerian cab driver equated this election like the second coming of jesus. It is just that hysterical. It's like President Idol, thats not a joke. But when the euphoria of a new man dies off and they get back to basics is there any difference apart from the colour of skin of the leading cast member? It's a lot of the same supporting cast in the lower ranks, a few new headline starts. Think Glenroe getting rid of Miley, Dinny and Biddy and replacing them with Denzel Washington, Robert De Niro and Heather Graham. Is it going to make it all better? Youy still have the same cowshite to deal with.

Watching George W Bush at the launching of the new Navy ship named after his father and he's up there cracking jokes and generally not giving a sht about the situation in the states, people from all walks of life losing their jobs yet some news shows are trying to equate job losses with which ethnic group has lost the most. The PC stuff is just so damn annoying, trying to "even" things out all the time.

Funny to see Obama "change" t-shirts in shops. Christ on a bike. That said I wish the guy luck and hope he can deliver on the US and international stage.

[ziggysego]

I'd say alot of this change stuff has to do with get rid of Bush and the Republican administration which destroyed the world's view of the US and made the world a much dangerous place to live in. Yes, and some to do with the 1st black President. To me, it's mainly goodbye Bush.

[Hardy]

Since J70 has reminded us that there are just ten days of the Bush "administration" (I use the term in the sense that Bush administered to America and the world in the way a psychotic nurse would administer a sulphuric acid enema) ... and since Ziggy reminds us of what the Bush years have done for the USA's reputation in the world, I thought it might be appropriate to post an assessment of his presidency. It was written by Hunter S. Thompson, in his usual restrained, understated style! I'm reading his (kinda) autobiography at the moment - Kingdom Of Fear.  It's interesting that just two years into his presidency, when this was written, Bush had already made such a powerful impact.

(I know, I know - I've been spouting about credibility and ideologically-skewed journalism and here I am quoting a man who was a self confessed "dangerous dope addict, a man given over in extremes to multiple hallucinations and other forms of aggressive personal dementia", but I think he's got it pretty much bang on about Bush). Over to Hunter:


Let's face it—the yo-yo president of the U.S.A. knows nothing. He is a dunce. He does what he is told to do—says what he is told to say— poses the way he is told to pose. He is a Fool.

This is never an easy thing for the voters of this country to accept.

No. Nonsense. The president cannot be a Fool. Not at this moment in time—when the last living vestiges of the American Dream are on the line. This is not the time to have a bogus rich kid in charge of the White House.

Which is, after all, our house. That is our headquarters—it is where the heart of America lives. So if the president lies and acts giddy about other people's lives—if he wantonly and stupidly endorses mass murder as a logical plan to make sure we are still Number One—he is a Jackass by definition—a loud and meaningless animal with no functional intelligence and no balls.

To say that this goofy child president is looking more and more like Richard Nixon in the summer of 1974 would be a flagrant insult to Nixon.

Whoops! Did I say that? Is it even vaguely possible that some New Age Republican whore-beast of a false president could actually make Richard Nixon look like a Liberal?

The capacity of these vicious assholes we elected to be in charge of our lives for four years to commit terminal damage to our lives and our souls and our loved ones is far beyond Nixon's. Shit! Nixon was the creator of many of the once-proud historical landmarks that these dumb b**tards are savagely destroying now: the Clean Air Act of 1970; Campaign Finance Reform; the endangered species act; opening a Real-Politik dialogue with China; and on and on.

The prevailing quality of life in America—by any accepted methods of measuring—was inarguably freer and more politically open under Nixon than it is today in this evil year of Our Lord 2002.

The Boss was a certified monster who deserved to be impeached and banished. He was a truthless creature of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover—a foul human monument to corruption and depravity on a scale that dwarfs any other public official in American history. But Nixon was at least smart enough to understand why so many honorable patriotic U.S. citizens despised him. He was a Liar. The truth was not in him.

Nixon believed—as he said many times—that if the president of the United States does it, it can't be illegal. But Nixon never understood the much higher and meaner truth of Bob Dylan's warning that "To live outside the law you must be honest."

The difference between an outlaw and a war criminal is the difference between a pedophile and a Pederast: The pedophile is a person who thinks about sexual behavior with children, and the Pederast does these things. He lays hands on innocent children—he penetrates them and changes their lives forever.

Being the object of a pedophile's warped affections is a Routine feature of growing up in America—and being a victim of a Pederast's crazed "love" is part of dying. Innocence is no longer an option. Once penetrated, the child becomes a Queer in his own mind, and that is not much different than murder.

Richard Nixon crossed that line when he began murdering foreigners in the name of "family values"—and George Bush crossed it when he sneaked into office and began killing brown-skinned children in the name of Jesus and the American people.

When Muhammad Ali declined to be drafted and forced to kill "gooks" in Vietnam he said, "I ain't got nothin' against them Viet Cong. No Cong ever called me Nigger"

I agreed with him, according to my own personal ethics and values. He was Right.

If we all had a dash of Muhammad All's eloquent courage, this country and the world would be a better place today because of it.

Okay. That's it for now. Read it and weep. . . . See you tomorrow, folks. You haven't heard the last of me. I am the one who speaks for the spirit of freedom and decency in you. Shit. Somebody has to do it.

We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world—a nation of bullies and b**tards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. . . . No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you.

Well, shit on that dumbness. George W. Bush does not speak for me or my son or my mother or my friends or the people I respect in this world. We didn't vote for these cheap, greedy little killers who speak for America today—and we will not vote for them again in 2002. Or 2004. Or ever.

Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush?

They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us—they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis.

And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. f**k them.                     

                                                                                                             HST.2002