This is getting nasty...

The thing that really saddens me is what's going on with the politicians (and their advisors, campaigns, etc.) themselves. Palin is being SO divisive in her speeches that it scares me! She uses the word terrorist like it's going out of style - of course not directly calling Obama a terrorist, but consistently putting him in the same sentence - what do they think's going to happen? And then yes, when people call Obama a terrorist let's just smile and wave in the other direction. Remember a LONG time ago when McCain promised that it was going to be a clean fight and that he would keep mudslinging out of his campaign? Promises, promises....

Wouldn't a lack of mudslinging be nice? In SD one of our Senators is up for reelection, Tim Johnson, the one that had a brain aneurysm. Anyway, the guy running against him hasn't told us a single thing that he will do for us, just that he is upset that Johnson won't debate him b/c of his speech and that he will fail us in Congress because I guess, suddenly, debating is the most important part of being a Senator. Stupid stupid stupid. I wasn't going to vote for Johnson, but I will now, b/c Dykstra is already acting like a horses butt, just what we need.

I am NOT equating Obama to terrorists here, I too think that is a stretch. I'm not even talking about Obama. It bothers me that these two men (Ayers and the new one they just discovered) are allowed to hold positions within our universities. I just don't think people who willfully tried to kill Americans should be allowed to educate others. Am I way off base on this? Everytime I see it I am more disgusted that they hold educational positions than I am about any past history with Obama.

Surely you jest? Promises, promises...it's not just a reto tune by Naked Eyes anymore folks. Like a 2007 campaign promise regarding public financing? Have any idea how much a 30 minute infomercial on 3 major networks costs? Want to know what scares me? Not being allowed to see, read and note all the facts for myself. Not being granted the freedom to do so. Critical information being filtered, with held, altered, and changed for public consumption. That I see already in one too many nations. That scares me.

Ahhh...so you have read Manufacturing Consent? Yes, the government really should step out of the media and let it do its job...but then imagine all the scary stuff we'd read? A war without filters - telling the true atrocities of what happens during an invasion - too much to handle, maybe?

If we knew the whole truth we wouldn't be able to be righteous anymore, as my dad will tell you, after experiencing the hell that was Vietnam.

Excellent point, "Belle". Besides, if we ever did hear the whole truth, would we know it?

No, actually it wouldn't be too much to handle. But thanks for the overal concern seeing as it does benefit the candidate you'd be voting for if in fact you could vote in this election. (lol) come on, really. I mean I'm not in a classroom right now studying world politics, but I didn't just roll outta a haystack yesterday either. :arrow: LOL And no disrespct meant at all, but this is 2008 when voice recordings, live feeds and videos of events are what we're talking about. It's getting harder and harder to be a politician becuase it's not just newspapers writing up this and that opinion. Cell phones, live feeds, videos, etc are all capturing the real deal and that's what I was commenting on. The problem is that is IS in fact getting harder for them to filter...harder for them to lie and for whatever reason they're protecting in this election like never before in history.

Couldn't possibly agree with you more. If we saw the truth of what is Iraq, of the babies/kids being killed, of what is happening in Afghanistan - we wouldn't be there. The public just wouldn't support it.

Mmmm...nope, it is critical of all governments - not just Republican ones. And I think that is exactly the problem - people aren't thinking, they are just watching. And the media creates what it wants to. It plays the live feeds it wants to, plays the "real life" images it wants to. Every station, magazine, etc supports its colours - doesn't matter if that is in the US or Canada. And that is both sides. The guy hanging a Palin doll from a noose is just as guilty of not thinking as the one doing it to an Obama doll - but of course when you hang a Black doll from a noose is carries a whole lot more history with it... And Binky - I get very confused by your posts - you say some very cutting things and then put cute emoticons after them...I have a very hard time knowing where you are coming from.

Karyn, I wasn't commeniting on this book/documentary you mentioned. I can't speak to what I don't have background or facts on. Problem is I do think and those I know do think...way outside of the glowing box. I'm speaking to the fact that for the first time in any election, that I can recall, we are not seeing the real deal, becuase it is most definitly being held back, manipulated, renamed, covered up, lied about, rewritten and or brushed aside as nothingness. This election isn't just about history in an AA male or women VP....it's historical in that critical info has been withheld, altered, manipulated, rescripted, lied about, brushed asided, and flat out denied to the voting people. We've been spoon fed fancy commercials instead. It's sad. as for my posts. I am what I am, I'm not calling people names, being racist, or ranting from emotions. I just try to convey it the way I see it. Sorry if it comes off any other way. We don't agree on politics, maybe sometimes we see what we want to. (??)

Just want to say - I really enjoy when people don't agree with me on politics - it makes for some great discussions. Well, if they are well-informed and if I am too that is. And I didn't mean to imply that you specifically weren't thinking - or for that matter that anyone who doesn't share my poltics isn't thinking. Just bringing it back to original topic in general.

I can see what you are saying, Karyn, and I'm a conservative that is very much against the Iraq war. I think we should have gone in, looked for the WMD, and then left. But what about the stuff that happened before we got there? Innocent civilians were being killed everyday by their own government. Young girls were raped and murdered in front of their parents. Sometimes I wonder if the public knew the gravity of what was happening under Saddam Hussein, they'd have been more supportive of us being there. I understand that the premise was not so much to free the Iraqis (although GWB certainly changed his story enough in the past 8 years), but I hear alot of people say we never should have gone into Iraq, but we belong in Darfur, etc... the foreign policy is tough for me. We can strong arm nations that have little respect for human rights into behaving or not. But how does our government pick and choose between Zimbabwe, Sudan, Iraq, etc.... Did that make any sense at all? I'm tired...

I guess that is exactly it. Shouldn't it be the UN to go in to all these countries and protect human rights? Or at leasta collective agreement between like-minded nations that agree action needs to be taken? Why not impose economic sanctions - that worked to end apartheid in South Africa? Do we really need to impose more violence on an already suiffering population? I don't want to get into a huge discussion about the ineffectiveness of the UN, but I am really leary of any single country going in to another for human rights issues - there is almost ALWAYS another agenda at stake. No country is altruistic and only looking out for the poor citizens of xxx, you know? I mean, why Iraq? The DRC has lost a few million people since Rwanda due to rebel forces still operating there - women are mass raped, HIV is spreading, the situation is much worse there than even in Darfur - but that's not what we hear in the media so it flies under the radar. And of course - the glaring obvious - we don't want anything in the DRC. Why not Uganda where LRA forces have kidnapped, raped and turned 100,00 kids into child soldiers or child brides? Nope, nothing in Uganda for us either. "WE" being North America - I'm not singling out the US by any means here. And we all know "why" Iraq. What about all the autocratic governments that tortured its own people the US and others have held up throughout the years because they are "pro-West"? I can list a whack of resources here - but we can start with Guatemala, The Congo, and others...or democratically elected leaders that have been killed with Western support? Now don't get me wrong - I am not saying it is only the US...but as the country with the most military might, you do lead the way. Lots of other nations are just as guilty of some of this stuff...beginning with China, for example. We don't have our hands clean either, or do we tend to act altruistically. But at least China admits it. "Hey, we've got money, you've got resources, let's both benefit" - now how that will play out in the end is anyone's guess...but at least it is up front and not hidden in an "altruistic agenda", you know? Just my thoughts...

Been busy on the farm...harvest season is here. I guess what we really have to do at this point, is try to decide what our own "MINDS" ,tell us along with our hearts. I along, with my groom ,went and voted absentee, yesterday. So in our situation the cards will fall where they may. I did follow my heart and decided that ALL the lies and half truths were something I had expected, as it is PLO-ITICS. What our deciding factor was , simply 1 thing. After all the retoric on BOTH sides, whom was more SINCERE in their agenda and the crisis we as a nation face. IT really was simple in OUR opinion,simple, Obama makes us feel as if He DOES care ,not about one specific type of people, but ALL. I cannot relate to McCain, and most definately cannot to Palin. For me I had to go with my heart. Sometimes when we are in a crisis as we are in, we have nothing else to go by. We are in the higher tax bracket, becuase we own a farm and also my husband works 60 hrs a week. This will cost us more, but when we look around and see some of the devastation in our small town, we believe we can more afford that tax than some of our down-trodden. I cannot condone the amounts of money that McCain and his wife spend , with no respect to the COMMON people. The tax bracket we fall in is because of income we DO have and McCain , Cindy and yes his supporters , cannot even relate to me and definately cannot to the people who are losing their homes and jobs. The past 8 yrs was enough...I am ready for change and Obama offers that with sincerity. If I am wrong, I will be the one who pays, but I can assure you that I will never have been as wrong, as those who voted in the "Baby Bush" administrarion. JMHO...Have a great day EVERYBODY, Republicans and Democrts alike, Just GO VOTE! One last thing...We have a UNITED NATIONS ,it was created, so all countrys, who belonged, would make decisions on war , for one thing. Bush Admin. thumbed their nose to our U.N. and we INVADED IRAQ, without NO thought to what the U.N. told us. We have indeed LOST , for 1 person to have died in Iraq,was 1 person too many, when it was a war that was not warranted and agreed upon!:cheer: