Family fragmentation, specifically divorce and unmarried childbearing, costs U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion annually. That's the staggering outcome of research released ...(recently)..., to coincide with tax day.[s] The misery and headache family dysfunctions cause cannot be measured. Here I will talk about an option to a final family fragmentation.[trb]
The study was conducted by four policy and research groups, including Institute for American Values and Georgia Family Council.[s]
The report, "The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing: First-Ever Estimates for the Nation and All 50 States," breaks down the total by state.[s]
(These)...calculations were based on the assumption that households headed by a single female have relatively high poverty rates, leading to higher spending on welfare, health care, criminal justice and education for those raised in the disadvantaged homes. The $112 billion estimate includes the cost of federal, state and local government programs, and lost tax revenue at all levels of government. Reducing these costs, ... "is a legitimate concern of government, policymakers and legislators."[a]
MICHIGAN RANKED 8TH
Michigan ranked eighth in the nation, with a $1.6 billion share of that $112 billion price tag.[s]
Researchers' estimates of the federal, state and local costs to taxpayers arising from family fragmentation include funds spent for the justice system, food stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid, child welfare, WIC, Head Start, and school lunch and breakfast programs.[s]
REAL SUFFERING
"These numbers represent real people and real suffering," said Randy Hicks, president of Georgia Family Council, in the press release. "We fight problems like racism, poverty and domestic violence because we understand that the stakes are high."[s]
FAMILY FRAGMENTATION
Those "stakes" are the real people hurt by family fragmentation, especially the women and children who fall into poverty as a result of divorce or unmarried childbearing.[s]
DIVORCE BRINGS POVERTY TO CHILDREN
In Michigan, of the 469,000 children living in poverty, 316,000 of them live in a single-mother household.[s]
Potential risks to children raised in those families, in addition to poverty, include mental and physical illness, infant mortality, lower educational attainment, juvenile delinquency, conduct disorders, adult criminality, and early unwed parenthood.[s]
Sponsors say the study is the first of its kind and hope it will prompt lawmakers to invest more money in programs aimed at strengthening marriages. Two experts not connected to the study said such programs are of dubious merit and suggested that other investments — notably job creation — would be more effective in aiding all types of needy families.[A]
TRY A SEPARATE MAINTENANCE FIRST, GIVE THE MARRIAGE A CHANCE
Divorce, that's grim. But there is hope, both from the economic standpoint as well as the social.[s]
According to the report, "even very small increases in stable marriage rates would result in very large returns to taxpayers. For example, a mere 1 percent reduction in rates of family fragmentation would save taxpayers $1.1 billion annually."[s]
Once way to save a MARRIAGE is to request a separate maintenance agreement to allow a cooling off period. This action is also used when the parties have a religious objection to divorce, or want to stay married so that both have continued health care coverage. An action for separate maintenance is filed in the same manner and on the same grounds as a divorce.[m]
When the matter is concluded, the parties are still technically married, but the marital property may be divided, and the court may order spousal support, child support, parenting time and custody.[m]
My observation is that the grass is not greener unless there has been long term absence of the traditional bonds of matrimony, or any incidents of domestic violence , substance abuse or criminality.[trb]
MEDIATION IS ALSO AN OPTION
The mediation process can also be used to explore the options to a divorce or for the parties to decide that divorce is the only option. This process is private to the couple and conducted with dignity and respect.[trb]
LAWMAKERS SHOULD MAKE A SEPARATE MAINTENANCE MANDATORY BEFORE DIVORCE.
Sponsors say the study is the first of its kind and hope it will prompt lawmakers to invest more money in programs aimed at strengthening marriages. [A] Or just efforts to save existing marraiges.[trb]
Posted here by Terry Bankert ...
Family Mediation and Divorce Practice.
http://attorneybankert.com/
Join my political party of preference,
http://www.michigandems.com/join.html
The journey of the Olympic torch around the world has been marred by protests and anti-China demonstrations, but the situation seems to be calming down.[t]
FRENCH DISRUPTED THE OLYMPIC TORCH
Demonstrators staged rallies in several Chinese cities on Saturday to demand a French goods boycott following protests during the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay against China's crackdown on dissent in Tibet.[R]
HOLD THE FRENCH FRIES
After a series of demonstrations in Chinese cities in which young men burnt French flags and insulted French "heroes" from Jeanne d'Arc to Napoleon, President Sarkozy took a series of actions to demonstrate French goodwill towards the Chinese people. [i]
CHINESE REACTION.DO WE REALLY WNAT TO MAKE A BILLION CHINESE ANGRY?
Now it appears that the Chinese are unhappy about the way their nation has been targeted and have decided to take to the streets to register their protest against those countries they believe displayed sympathy for pro-Tibet agitators. [t]
GOVERNMENT PUBLIC RELATIONS
Chinese anger against France, though partly spontaneous, has been carefully whipped up by the official media. A handicapped Chinese athlete, Jin Jing, 27, who fought off a pro-Tibetan demonstrator in Paris while carrying the Olympic torch in her wheelchair, has become the subject of hero-worshipping articles and television programmes. [i]
BUT NOT TOO MUCH PROTEST
There are signs that the Beijing government is concerned the upsurge in Chinese nationalism in response to Olympic Games protests may harm internal investment and the essential task of maintaining economic growth.[v]
BOYCOTT,
Reports suggest that thousands of people are calling for a boycott of French goods, and blaming the western media of biased reporting about the unrest in Tibet. Some commentators have advised the Chinese to come to terms with dissent. But don't the Chinese equally have a right to protest like people in France or Britain? [t]
"It has to be understood that a large part of the Chinese population was very shocked by the incidents that occured during the passage of the Olympic flame in Paris."[R]
NO AFFECT YET
French supermarket group Carrefour (CARR.PA: has not felt a serious effect on sales from anti-French protests in China but is concerned by the anger felt there, the group's head Jose-Luis Duran said in an interview.[R]
NATIONALISM
Although the protests may be stage-managed, as some have suggested, there is every indication that the depth of nationalistic fervour in China has taken even the government by surprise. Restraint is being urged at every step, though the government has stopped short of outright condemnation.[t]
INDEPENDANT POLITICAL ACTION IS DISCOURAGED, USUALLY.
Handling outbursts of nationalism in China is always a delicate matter for the Communist Party, as it was for the imperial dynasties before it.[v]
A deep pool of unquestioning nationalism is an important reservoir for Beijing to be able to call on in difficult times. But once roused, inflamed passions can quickly turn on the pinnacle of power, as they have on many occasions in China's history, sometimes bringing down the dynasty.[v]
LEGITIMATE CHINESE PROTEST
In any case, these protests are as legitimate as those in Paris or London. Portraying the outcry as merely a sham is to ignore the danger that an alienated China poses to the world. If the Chinese are feeling offended, perhaps it is time for the rest of the world to try to understand their grievance. [t]
CHINA HAS A RIGHT TO BE ANGRY
Pushing China into a corner is unlikely to help the world. It will merely achieve a growth in militant Nationalism that will, in a sense, allow the government to continue its human rights violations. In other words, an image of China as a nation beset by unfair attacks might lead to it becoming even more hostile to the views of the western world. [t]
What it does not want is a lasting breach, especially with the industrialized countries whose investment in China is maintaining growth in job creation and the ability to buy control of overseas resources.[V]
So late last week, the official Xinhua news agency applauded the "sincere demonstration of public opinion" that spurred the Carrefour boycott campaign. But the commentary urged the Chinese to channel their "patriotic zeal to concentrate on development."[v]
HOW DO WE PERCEIVE THE CHINESE
The divide between how the Chinese view themselves and how they are perceived in the world should be narrowed instead of making it wider. It will be wise, therefore, to engage China on different terms and avoid tensions from spiralling out of hand over the Olympics, which the Chinese are justifiably proud of being called upon to host.[t]
TO THE CHINSES THE FRENCH ARE A SPECIAL CASE
China has conspicuously singled out France for more blame than other countries which gave the Olympic torch a bad time, such as Britain. That seems partly to have been motivated by anger at the mixed messages generated by Paris in recent weeks. France's Human Rights minister, Rama Yade, was quoted as laying down a series of "conditions" for M. Sarkozy's attendance at the Olympic ceremony, including "autonomy" for Tibet. Mme Yade and other ministers later repudiated these remarks. [I]
THE DALAI IS AN INSURGENT
China is equally convinced the Dalai Lama instigated March 14 riots by ordinary Tibetans that led to the deaths of 18 people, most of them shopkeepers and their families.[v]
SUPER RICH ARE AT IT AGAIN
People known in China as "cybernationalists" say the Carrefour chain is owned by luxury goods group LVMH and ultimately controlled by French billionaire Bernard Arnault -- who, it is claimed, financially supports Tibetan separatists.[v]
Calls in Chinese internet chatrooms for a boycott of French goods and contracts have had little impact so far, according to French businessmen in China. They are concerned, however, that the anti-French feeling could spin out of control.[i]
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH THE OLYMPICS WILL DRAW THIS WORLD CLOSER TOGETHER, CONTINUED PROTEST CAN DRIVE IT APART!
THE WORLD ON THE DOOR STEP OF QUIET CHAOS!
We get the impression that very few people in Jamaica are aware of, or care about the fact that the world is in the throes of a food crisis that has the potential to plunge millions of people into extreme poverty.[j]
SOME SPEND HALF THEIR INCOME ON FOOD"Food price rises pose a significant threat to poor people in developing countries, many of whom spend more than half their income on food already and will face hunger and even starvation unless we act now," said Phil Bloomer, British charity Oxfam's director of policy.[A]Families have been warned that the prices of basic foods will rise steeply again because of acute shortages in commodity markets. [t]
COST BENEFITS ANALYSIS WILL BALANCE NEW FUEL SOURCES AGAINST FOOD!
Those battling global warming by promoting biofuels may unintentionally be adding to skyrocketing world food prices, creating what one expert calls "a silent tsunami" in developing nations.[C]
In a strange sense, that is understandable, as humans tend to focus on their individual circumstances in times of adversity, ignoring the broader picture and its ripple effect.[j]
RICE,WHEAT & VEGETABLE OIL PRICES UP AND RIOTS
BUTTER UP 62%
RICE TRIPLED IN A YEAR WILL STARVATION TRIPLE?
IS SCALING BACK BIOFUEL THE
FUEL FROM FOOD.
Producing fuel from plant crops is supposed to be greener than drilling for oil, and biofuels generally burn cleaner, too. But the global biofuels industry now stands accused of a list of side effects that are said to be damaging lives, especially of the world's poorest people.[C]
WHEAT PRICES DOUBLED IN A YEAR, CORN OIL
WORLD WIDE ECONOMIC CRISIS
However, the cold, hard fact is that rising fuel costs, coupled with the impact of biofuels on agriculture have created a crisis of the kind not seen since World War II.[j]
A PRIME MINISTER HAS ALREADY FALLEN. WHICH POLITICIAN IS NEXT
Famine traditionally means mass starvation. The measures of today's crisis are misery and malnutrition. The middle classes are giving up health care and cutting out meat so they can eat three meals a day.[s]
BRITAIN SAYS IT MUST BE MORE SELECTIVE ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL FOLLOW THE
DOES THE U.S. HAVE A TARGET?
OIL COSTS AND POPULATION SOARING-
FAMILIES ARE BEING HIT HARD...WILL YOURS BE NEXT?
The cost of food, we are told, has increased by around 40 per cent worldwide,...[J]
The middling poor, those on $2 a day, are pulling children from school and cutting back on vegetables so they can afford rice. Those on $1 a day are cutting back on meat, vegetables and one or two meals, so they can afford one bowl. Those on 50 cents a day face disaster.[s]
Roughly a billion people live on $1 a day. If, on a conservative estimate, the cost of their food rises 20 percent (and in some places, it has risen a lot more), 100 million people could be forced back to this level, the common measure of absolute poverty. In some countries, that would undo all the gains in poverty reduction made in the past decade of growth.[s]
HOMES LOST, CAN’T AFFORD TO DRIVE TO WORK, FOOD COSTS NEARLY OUT OF REACH....
WHAT WILL NEXT YEAR LOOK LIKE. Gas $6.00 a gallon, food pantries bare, home lost to foreclosure, world wide riots?[trb]
It is certainly a storm that has hit with little warning and has plunged an extra 100 million people into poverty. [b]The crisis has triggered riots in Haiti, Cameroon, Indonesia and Egypt and is deemed a dangerous threat to stability. [b]It is not so much famine that is the worry, it is widespread misery and malnutrition. [b]The WFP's biggest concern is for the people living on 50 cents a day who have nothing to fall back on. [b]
POLITICAL WILL, COURAGE, GUTS ,BALLS CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT... WE NEED IT"The Government must show more urgency in ensuring the current world talks on agricultural trade no longer drift hopelessly because of a lack of political will." [t]
100 MILLION TO LIVE IN
THE NEW FACE OF HUNGER....WILL IT BE YOURS?Josette Sheeran, head of the UN’s World Food Programme, said before yesterday’s meeting: "This is the new face of hunger — the millions of people who were not in the urgent hunger category six months ago but now are." [t]
BIOFUEL CONSUMING FOOD ASSETS. START YOU HUMMER AND..."With one child dying every five seconds from hunger-related causes, the time to act is now," Brown stressed[C]
FIVE ISSUES MUST BE RESOLVED NOWThere are at least five issues that need to be analyzed at the April 28-29 UN meeting for the start of a world food policy to be put into place.
1. There is a need to intensify action on climate change. This year, there has been bad weather in key growing areas; in particular Australia, normally the world’s second-largest wheat exporter, has been suffering from an epic drought. This may be a result of particular weather conditions this year or may be a sign of climate change. It is necessary to analyze the impact of climate change on long-term food production and see alternative strategies.[tf]
2. Higher prices for food are a reflection of the higher price of oil and energy costs. Much modern farming is energy-intensive for producing fertilizers, running tractors, and transporting farm products to consumers, often at long distances. Oil prices are influenced by the violence and social breakdown in Iraq and heavy speculation on the oil markets. There is a need both for short term measures to bring oil prices down to a reasonable level based on production costs and transportation as well as longer-range energy policies to free countries from oil dependence.[tf]
3. Higher prices for oil have encouraged a greater use of ethanol and other biofuels, often without consideration of the impact of the production of biofuels on land use and food production. While biofuels are likely to be useful, their use should be limited at present so that the consequences of their use can be studied.[tf]
4. Governmental food and agriculture policies need to be analyzed and reviewed carefully. The agricultural policies of the European Union and the larger food exporting countries —USA, Canada, Brazil, Australia — need to be reviewed and the impact of agricultural subsidies and export encouragement looked at beyond trying to build political support from farmers.[tf]
5. There needs to be a detailed analysis of the role of speculation in the rise of commodity prices. There has been a merger of the former Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade to become the CME Group Market which deals in some 25 agricultural commodities. Banks and hedger funds, having lost money in the real estate mortgage packages are now looking for ways to get money back. For the moment, there is little governmental regulation of this speculation. There needs to be an analysis of these financial flows and their impact on the price of grains.[tf]
INCENTIVES FOR FARMERS?
A FOOD DEPRIVATION TSUNAMI COMING AT YOU
The current crisis has been described by Ms Josette Sheeran, the World Food Programme's executive director, as a "silent tsunami" of hunger sweeping the world's most desperate nations. Ms Sheeran's comments were made yesterday at a meeting with lawmakers and experts in London at which the British Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown, voiced the realistic view that this crisis poses "a threat to the political and economic stability of nations".[J]
WAKE UP MY FAT AMERICANS...THE HUNGRY OUT NUMBER US...
The UN's World Food Programme is warning of more violence caused by hunger: "We are beginning to see more and more civil unrest, and I think it's pretty clear that a hungry man is an angry man, and as food gets more and more difficult to access, I think we can expect to see more incidents of civil unrest," said a spokeswoman.[e]
—where did this stuff come from?
[t]Timesonlinehttp://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/consumer_goods/article3799327.ece
[C]CNNhttp://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/22/food.biofuels/?iref=mpstoryview
Robert Zurbin in his book ‘ Energy Victory argues the Saudis are the root of all evil besetting America. He argues an indistinguishable wedding of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda and Saudia Arabia.[trb]
SAUDIES HAVE LOOTED AMERICA TO DEFEAT IT
" The Saudies are looting our economy to the tune of a trilllion dollars. They are using a portion of these proceeds to finance a worldwide Jihad against civilization, while deploying another part to corrupt our political system so that we don’t strike back. If this situation is not corrected it will be much worse. With the industrialization of China and India, demand for oil is growing rapidly- a development that will set the stage for sky rocketing prices and consequential exponential growth of Saudi power. [Z at pg 57]
PRICES SOAR WORLD WIDE
Soaring prices on everything from food to gasoline walloped consumers Thursday as the Bank of Canada warned of weaker economic growth to come - new evidence the U.S. recession has deepened and is dragging down other sectors of the economy as it continues to slide.[c]
BASIC FOOD SCARCE
Basic food items are becoming more scarce and the price of those commodities is soaring, matched only by the rapid increase in the cost of gasoline. Food shortages, hoarding by producing countries and a pernicious cycle of energy prices driving up production costs is only making the situation worse.[c]
WHO IS TO BLAME, AND WHO LET IT HAPPEN AND WHY?
Zubrin’s book lists a rouges gallery of Washington power republicans and the Clintons who are on the Saudi take serving on Saudi boards becoming rich in the process.[trb reading (Z) pg 50-57]
The theory of Zubrin is that our congress has been bought directly by the oil money or indirectly by control of think tanks, lobbyists and institutions congress depends on for information. I agree. This Saudi money comes from a governemtn promoting terroism while being our friend through their own religious RIGHT called Wahhabi.[trb]
AMERICANS HAVE BEEN BETRAYED OR JUST FOOLS...
The Saudi royal family has its own reckoning to do with Wahhabism. By giving Wahhabis a free hand over Saudi Arabia's religious and educational sectors, the royal family guaranteed the showdown. Instead of fostering a liberal and intellectual class that despises the Wahhabis and could have been an important ally against them, the Saudi government instead imprisons those calling for liberal reform. [w]
WE NEED POLITICANS REMOVED FROM SAUDI INFLUENCE
Barrack Obama is the only presidential candidate to not have taken Saudia Arabian money. That is my guess.[trb]
STOP OUR ENERGY DEPENDENCE ONE WAY OR THE OTHER
The issue of our energy dependence is not a mere matter of being forced to pay $3 per gallon [now almost $4-trb] for gasoline. Both the American republic and the future course of human civilization are at stake. We need to break the oil cartel before its too late." [z at pg 58]
Our armies should be occupying the oil field in Iraq, Saudia Arabia to save our economy and break the oil monopoly before it bankrupts our nation..[trb]
Prepare for gasoline prices to hit $2.25 a litre by 2012 and for crude oil to soar to $225 US a barrel as scant supply growth delivers us into the "age of scarcity," says CIBC World Markets chief economist Jeff Rubin. [c]
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.
The AAAN, headquartered in the heart of Chicago's Palestinian immigrant community, describes itself as working to "empower Chicago-area Arab immigrants and Arab Americans through the combined strategies of community organizing, advocacy, education and social services, leadership development, and forging productive relationships with other communities."
It reportedly has worked on projects with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which supports open boarders and education for illegal aliens.
The AAAN in 2005 sent a letter to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in which it called a billboard opposing a North Carolina-New Mexico joint initiative to deny driver's licenses to illegal aliens a "bigoted attack on Arabs and Muslims."
Speakers at AAAN dinners and events routinely have taken an anti-Israel line.
The group co-sponsored a Palestinian art exhibit, titled, "The Subject of Palestine," that featured works related to what some Palestinians call the "Nakba" or "catastrophe" of Israel's founding in 1948.
According to the widely discredited Nakba narrative, Jews in 1948 forcibly expelled hundreds of thousands - some Palestinians claim over one million - Arabs from their homes and then took over the territory.
(Story continues below)
Historically, about 600,000 Arabs fled Israel after surrounding Arab countries warned they would destroy the Jewish state in 1948. Some Arabs also were driven out by Jewish forces while they were trying to push back invading Arab armies. At the same time, over 800,000 Jews were expelled or left Arab countries under threat after Israel was founded.
The theme of AAAN's Nakba art exhibit, held at DePaul University in 2005, was "the compelling and continuing tragedy of Palestinian life ... under [Israeli] occupation ... home demolition ... statelessness ... bereavement ... martyrdom, and ... the heroic struggle for life, for safety, and for freedom."
Another AAAN initiative, titled, "Al Nakba 1948 as experienced by Chicago Palestinians," seeks documents related to the "catastrophe" of Israel's founding.
A post on the AAAN site asked users: "Do you have photos, letters or other memories you could share about Al-Nakba-1948?"
That posting was recently removed. The AAAN website currently states the entire site is under construction.
Pro-PLO advocate held Obama fundraiser, describes Obama as 'sympathetic'
AAAN co-founder Rashid Khalidi was reportedly a director of the official PLO press agency WAFA in Beirut from 1976 to 1982, while the PLO committed scores of anti-Western attacks and was labeled by the U.S. as a terror group. Khalidi's wife, AAAN President Mona Khalidi, was reportedly WAFA's English translator during that period.
Rashid Khalidi at times has denied working directly for the PLO but Palestinian diplomatic sources in Ramallah told WND he indeed worked on behalf of WAFA. Khalidi also advised the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference in 1991.
During documented speeches and public events, Khalidi has called Israel an "apartheid system in creation" and a destructive "racist" state.
He has multiple times expressed support for Palestinian terror, calling suicide bombings response to "Israeli aggression." He dedicated his 1986 book, "Under Siege," to "those who gave their lives ... in defense of the cause of Palestine and independence of Lebanon." Critics assailed the book as excusing Palestinian terrorism.
While the Woods Fund's contribution to Khalidi's AAAN might be perceived as a one-time run in with Obama, the presidential hopeful and Khalidi evidence a deeper relationship.
According to a professor at the University of Chicago who said he has known Obama for 12 years, the Democratic presidential hopeful first befriended Khalidi when the two worked together at the university. The professor spoke on condition of anonymity. Khalidi lectured at the University of Chicago until 2003 while Obama taught law there from 1993 until his election to the Senate in 2004.
Khalidi in 2000 held what was described as a successful fundraiser for Obama's failed bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, a fact not denied by Khalidi.
Speaking in a joint interview with WND and the John Batchelor Show of New York's WABC Radio and Los Angeles' KFI Radio, Khalidi was asked about his 2000 fundraiser for Obama.
"I was just doing my duties as a Chicago resident to help my local politician," Khalidi stated.
Khalidi said he supports Obama for president "because he is the only candidate who has expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause."
Khalidi also lauded Obama for "saying he supports talks with Iran. If the U.S. can talk with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, there is no reason it can't talk with the Iranians."
Asked about Obama's role funding the AAAN, Khalidi claimed he had "never heard of the Woods Fund until it popped up on a bunch of blogs a few months ago."
He terminated the call when petitioned further about his links with Obama.
Contacted by phone, Mona Khalidi refused to answer WND's questions about the AAAN's involvement with Obama.
Obama's campaign headquarters did not reply to a list of WND questions sent by e-mail to the senator's press office.
Obama, American terrorist in same circles
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?"
The charges against Ayers were dropped in 1974 because of prosecutorial misconduct, including illegal surveillance.
Ayers is married to another notorious Weathermen terrorist, Bernadine Dohrn, who has also served on panels with Obama. Dohrn was once on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted List and was described by J. Edgar Hoover as the "most dangerous woman in America." Ayers and Dohrn raised the son of Weathermen terrorist Kathy Boudin, who was serving a sentence for participating in a 1981 murder and robbery that left 4 people dead.
Obama advisor wants talks with terrorists
The revelations about Obama's relationship with Khalidi follows a recent WND article quoting Israeli security officials who expressed "concern" about Robert Malley, an adviser to Obama who has advocated negotiations with Hamas and providing international assistance to the terrorist group.
Malley, a principal Obama foreign policy adviser, has penned numerous opinion articles, many of them co-written with a former adviser to the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, petitioning for dialogue with Hamas and blasting Israel for numerous policies he says harm the Palestinian cause.
Malley also previously penned a well-circulated New York Review of Books piece largely blaming Israel for the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at Camp David in 2000 when Arafat turned down a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and eastern sections of Jerusalem and instead returned to the Middle East to launch an intifada, or terrorist campaign, against the Jewish state.
Malley's contentions have been strongly refuted by key participants at Camp David, including President Bill Clinton, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and primary U.S. envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross, all of whom squarely blamed Arafat's refusal to make peace for the talks' failure
On Saturday 4/26/08 from 9:am until 9:30 am We will talk about Spousal support reviewing a case on spousal support on my radio program “ Know the Law” WFLT 1420 am radio. This is a call in program and you may ask question on the air by calling 810-239-5733.
__________________________
Issues:
Divorce;
Spousal support; Olson v. Olson; Maldonado v. Ford Motor Co.; Moore v. Moore; Fletcher v. Fletcher; Hanaway v. Hanaway; Sands v. Sands; Whether plaintiff-wife was entitled to share in the appreciation of the rental property defendant purchased before the parties' marriage; Reeves v. Reeves;
Denial of plaintiff's request for attorney fees; Kosch v. Kosch; Maake v. Maake; Chisnell v. Chisnell; Quade v. Quade;
Whether the trial court abused its discretion by prohibiting plaintiff from presenting evidence of alleged fraud during trial;
Court: Michigan Court of Appeals (Unpublished)4-15-2008
Kent Circuit Court
Case Name: Kettlewell v. Kettlewell
e-Journal Number: 39070
Judge(s): Per Curiam - Fitzgerald, Smolenski, and Beckering
The court held the trial court's determination of spousal support was inequitable because the award did not balance the needs and equities of the parties in a manner preventing the plaintiff-wife from becoming impoverished.
On remand, the trial court should reconsider the award of spousal support, keeping the ultimate objective in mind.
While the trial court appeared to take the appropriate factors into account, the court found the trial court abused its discretion by awarding plaintiff insufficient spousal support to prevent her from invading her marital assets to support herself.
The trial court did not balance the needs and incomes of the parties without impoverishing plaintiff. The trial court specifically recognized the parties previously enjoyed a "middle class" standard of living, plaintiff needed spousal support and would not be able to avoid a "wide disparity in incomes" without it, and the defendant was able to pay spousal support.
However, the trial court only awarded spousal support in the amount of $1,000 per month ($12,000 per year) for 60 months (5 years). In contrast, defendant's base salary was approximately $125,000 per year.
Thus, not only did the trial court's award of spousal support result in a disparity between the incomes and lifestyles of the parties, but it was unlikely plaintiff, without a post-secondary degree or significant work experience, would be able to maintain a "middle class" standard of living on $12,000 per year without immediately invading her marital assets, contrary to the court's mandate in Hanaway.
Further, it was unlikely plaintiff, who will be over the age of 50, would be able to maintain even a modest lifestyle after 5 years, when defendant no longer provides spousal support. While the trial court found plaintiff responsible for the breakdown of the marriage, fault is only one of the relevant factors in determining spousal support, and "a judge's role is to achieve equity, not to ‘punish' one of the parties."
There are 14 factors the court should review when setting spousal support.
1.The relation and conduct of the parties during the marraige.
2.The length of the marraige.
3.The parties ability to work.
4.The distribution of the assests awared to the parties.
5.Age of the parties.
6.The ability of the parties to pay support.
7.present situation of the parties.
8.The parties needs.
9.Health of the parties.
10.Prior standard of living and whether one party had been responsible for the support of the other.
11.Parties contribution to the marital estate.
12.Fault
13. Effects of co habitation
equity (fairness)
Olson V Olson 256 MA 619, 631 671 NW2d 64 (2003)
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
[The e-journal was modifed for blog and radio presentation, look to the origonal]
IMAGINE IF WE LEARNED OUR TROOPS WERE BEING WATERBOARDED!
Legal experts critical of the administration, noted the paper, indicated that the Justice Department seemed to be arguing that the task of preventing a terror attack could justify interrogation methods that would otherwise be illegal.[A]
"What they are saying is that if my intent is to defend the United States rather than to humiliate you, than I have not committed an offense," Scott Silliman, a professor of national security from Duke University, was quoted by The Times as saying. [A]
The humiliating and degrading treatment of prisoners is prohibited by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. [N]...the Bush administration lawyers are citing the sometimes vague language of the Geneva Conventions to support the idea that interrogators should not be bound by ironclad rules. [N]
The United States has faced heavy criticism from rights groups and some allies for its use of a simulated form of drowning known as "waterboarding" during interrogations and for holding hundreds of suspected militants in a prison camp at a U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.[R]
WHAT IS WATERBORDING
Waterboarding is a form of torture that consists of immobilizing a person on their back with the head inclined downward (the Trendelenburg position), and pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages.[1] Through forced suffocation and inhalation of water, the subject experiences the process of drowning and is made to believe that death is imminent.[2] In contrast to merely submerging the head face-forward, waterboarding almost immediately elicits the gag reflex.[3] Although waterboarding does not always cause lasting physical damage, it carries the risks of extreme pain, damage to the lungs, brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation, injuries (including broken bones) due to struggling against restraints, and even death.[4] The psychological effects on victims of waterboarding can last for years after the procedure.[5]
Waterboarding was used for interrogation at least as early as the Spanish Inquisition to obtain information,[6] coerce confessions, punish, and intimidate. It is considered to be torture by a wide range of authorities, including legal experts,[4][7] politicians, war veterans,[8][9] intelligence officials,[10] military judges,[11] and human rights organizations.[12][13] Despite its long use as a technique, the first use of the actual term "waterboarding" occurred in the May 13, 2004, New York Times. In 2007 waterboarding led to a political scandal in the United States when the press reported that the CIA had waterboarded extrajudicial prisoners and that the Justice Department had authorized this procedure.[14][15] The CIA has admitted waterboarding Al-Qaida suspects Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.[16] [W]
U.S. ALLOWED TO COMMIT “OUTRAGES”? AFTER ALL THE SPANISH DID!
The Geneva Conventions' ban on "outrages against personal dignity" does not automatically apply to terrorism suspects in the custody of U.S. intelligence agencies, the Justice Department has suggested to Congress in recent letters that lay out the Bush administration's interpretation of the international treaty. [w]
A March 5 letter from the Justice Dept. to Congress makes clear the Bush administration has not defined which interrogation methods might violate the Geneva Convention's bans on "outrages upon personal dignity," the Times said.[RI]
The letters were provided by the staff of Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The panel received classified briefings on the matter and Wyden requested further information, which yielded the letters, the Times said.[RI]
TOURTURE BY ANY OTHER NAME
Lawyers for the department, offering insight into the legal basis for the CIA's controversial interrogation program, reasserted in the letters the Bush administration's long-held view that it has considerable leeway in deciding how the conventions' rules apply to the harsh questioning of combatants in the war on terrorism. [w]
The Justice Department has told Congress that American intelligence operatives attempting to thwart terrorist attacks can legally use interrogation methods that might otherwise be prohibited under international law. [n]
WHAT IS ....IS!
While the United States is legally bound by the conventions' Common Article 3 and its requirement to treat detainees humanely, the definition of humane treatment can vary, depending on the detainee's identity and the importance of the information he possesses, a Justice Department official wrote last September and this March to a Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee. [w]
In one letter written Sept. 27, 2007, Mr. Benczkowski argued that “to rise to the level of an outrage” and thus be prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, conduct “must be so deplorable that the reasonable observer would recognize it as something that should be universally condemned.” [N]
CIA IGNORING BUSH
The legal interpretation, outlined in recent letters, sheds new light on the still-secret rules for interrogations by the Central Intelligence Agency. It shows that the administration is arguing that the boundaries for interrogations should be subject to some latitude, even under an executive order issued last summer that President Bush said meant that the C.I.A. would comply with international strictures against harsh treatment of detainees. [N]
AMERICANS WANT TO LEAD IN HUMAN RIGHTS, NOT EXPLAIN THEM AWAY
"Some prohibitions . . . such as the prohibition on 'outrages against personal dignity,' do invite the consideration of the circumstances surrounding the action," Brian A. Benczkowski, the principal deputy assistant attorney general, asserted in one of the letters. [w]
Benczkowski's letters were provided to The Washington Post by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who asked the Justice Department to explain the legal foundation for President Bush's executive order last year authorizing the CIA's continued interrogation of terrorism suspects. The existence of the letters was first reported last night by the New York Times. [w]
A spokeswoman for Wyden said the administration's suggestion that the Geneva Conventions could be selectively applied was "stunning." [w]
PRESIDENT BUSH’S LOGIC WOULD JUSTIFY KILLING THE FIRST BORN OF.....
“The fact that an act is undertaken to prevent a threatened terrorist attack, rather than for the purpose of humiliation or abuse, would be relevant to a reasonable observer in measuring the outrageousness of the act,” said Brian A. Benczkowski, a deputy assistant attorney general, in the letter, which had not previously been made public.[N]
WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND
"The Geneva Convention in most cases is the only shield that Americans have when they are captured overseas," the spokeswoman, Jennifer Hoelzer, said in a phone interview. "And for the president to say that it is acceptable to interpret Geneva on a sliding scale means that he thinks that it is acceptable for other countries to do the same. Senator Wyden -- and I believe any other reasonable individual -- finds that argument appalling." [w]
DO THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS
What they are saying is that if my intent is to defend the United States rather than to humiliate you, than I have not committed an offense,” said Scott L. Silliman, who teaches national security law at Duke University.[N]
The Justice letters allow that certain acts by interrogators -- sexual mutilation, for example -- would be unlawful under any circumstance. But when judging whether a specific interrogation practice would violate the conventions' ban on degrading treatment, the government can weigh "the identity and information possessed by a detainee," Benczkowski wrote. [w]
Some legal experts critical of the Justice Department interpretation said the department seemed to be arguing that the prospect of thwarting a terror attack could be used to justify interrogation methods that would otherwise be illegal. [N]
A senior Justice Department official, speaking to the Times on condition of anonymity, said of the classified information: "I certainly don't want to suggest that if there's a good purpose you can head off and humiliate someone."[R]
But he said "the fact that you are doing something for a legitimate security purpose would be relevant."[R]
WHEN IS PULLING OUT FINGERNAILS...ALLOWED?
He suggested that a suspect with information about a future attack could be subjected to harsher treatment, noting that a violation would occur only if the interrogator's conduct "shocks the conscience" because it is out of proportion to "the government interest involved." [w]
JUST SAY YOU DID NOT MEAN TO...AND ITS OKAY!
Moreover, to fit the definition of an "outrage upon personal dignity," an action must be deliberate, involving an "intent to humiliate and degrade," Benczkowski wrote. [w]
THIS PRONOUNCEMENT SHOULD BE TESTED IN FEDERAL COURT!
The CIA declined to comment on the memo. However, agency spokesman Mark Mansfield said the CIA's detainee program "has been and continues to be in full compliance with the laws of our country." [w]
AND SO DOES THE PRICE OF GAS
"The program has disrupted terrorist plots and has saved lives," Mansfield said. [w]
BUSH SAYS ANYTHING GOES TO PROTECT THIS COUNTRY
The administration of President George W. Bush has told Congress that US intelligence agents trying to prevent terrorist attacks can use interrogation methods that in other circumstances might be prohibited under international law, The New York Times reported on its website Saturday.[A]
Mr. Wyden said he was concerned that, under the new rules, the Bush administration had put Geneva Convention restrictions on a “sliding scale.”[N]
If the United States used subjective standards in applying its interrogation rules, he said, then potential enemies might adopt different standards of treatment for American detainees based on an officer’s rank or other factors. [N]
“The cumulative effect in my interpretation is to put American troops at risk,” Mr. Wyden said. [N]
WHY WOULD A BLACK OLD PREACHER KEEP DOWN THE NEW GENERATION OF BLACK LEADER?
Black and white voters in next week's primary states agreed on one thing Wednesday: Barack Obama's preacher had hurt the Democratic presidential candidate at a crucial time. The question was how much.[A]
Huckabee: Rev. Jeremiah Wright needs Obama to lose to justify his views [H]
I grew up after the civil rights victories but within the evolution of our country that is allowing the cream of the black community to rise and lead. Why would a participant of the battle like Reverend Wright not allow his prodigy, Obama , to taste the sweet nectar of greatness? As Obamas sun rises the old guards sun will set. An old guard of the likes of Jackson, Sharpton, and a social stratum of the old school pastors such as Wright just need to get out of the way, be quite ,and offer gentle support and leadership to their prodigy. These street fighters cannot do it, they are inclined to eat their young for another second of fame , or to just sell their books. How sad.[trb]
IT IS ABOUT A BOOK DEAL.
In the past few days, Mr Wright has made a series of public appearances - he has a book coming out later this year - that have infuriated the Obama campaign, which hoped it had put the Wright controversy behind it. [T]
I think the flap over the Rev. Wright has gotten overblown, but there was one thing he said that really rankled me. On Monday at the National Press Club, he insisted that the attacks on him were tantamount to attacks on the black church. What a cop-out. As if the black church were the source for Wright’s most inflammatory statements, or would stand behind them. As if some of Wright’s views, which are fringe and have no basis in fact or scholarship, don’t deserve debate or harsh criticism. [f]
WRIGHT IS A BLATHERING OLD MAN IN DECLINE
Larry Sharpe said he saw it coming, even if his friend did not. Watching Obama's former minister speak on national TV this week, the friend thought the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was making sense and putting an end to recent controversies that had rocked Obama's presidential campaign.[A]
THE OLD GUARD MUST DERAIL THE NEW BLOOD, OR THEY ARE DONE.
"But I said, 'No, it's going to kill him,'" said Sharpe, a black Democrat who is intensely following Obama's battle with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.[A]
The pugnacious pastor didn't back down before the national media this week in a combative and playful performance in which he damaged Senator Obama directly by suggesting the senator's previous rejection of some of the things the pastor had been saying was simply a politician talking. [T]
"If Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected," Mr Wright said. [T]
A grave looking Senator Obama, who is vying to be the first black president, said yesterday: "At a certain point, if what somebody says contradicts what you believe so fundamentally and then he questions whether or not you believe it - in front of the National Press Club - then that's enough. That's a show of disrespect to me. It is also, I think, an insult to what we've been trying to do (in the campaign). Whatever relationship I had with Mr Wright has changed as a consequence of this." [T]
CLINTON HAS THE BLACK PREACHERS, WRIGHT IS A BLACK PREACHER,
CLINTON TOLD WRIGHT WHAT TO DO! HE DID IT!
North Carolina and Indiana hold primaries Tuesday, and voters' reactions there to the Wright affair will help determine whether Clinton continues her recent string of victories over Obama, who still leads in the delegate count.[A]
DO YOU REALIZE HOW HARD IT IS FOR A BLACK MAN TO REPUDIATED HIS PREACHER.
HOW STRONG A MAN OBAMA IS.
HOW WEAK A PREACHER WRIGHT IS.
Sharpe, 59, in some ways beat Obama to the mark. After a full day of rather tepid efforts to distance himself from Wright's fiery remarks to the National Press Club, the Illinois senator called a news conference Tuesday to denounce the retired pastor in severe tones, a tacit admission that his ties to Wright were damaging his campaign.[A]
SenatorBarack Obama’s aura of inevitability in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination has diminished in the wake of his loss in the Pennsylvania primary and the furor over his former pastor, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. [n]
So, he has a killer instinct after all--or at least some limit to his forbearance. Obama's response yesterday to Jeremiah Wright's flurry of appearances, and especially to the pastor's speech at the National Press Club on Monday, was pretty steely. He called what Wright had to say "a bunch of rants". He said he was disgusted, and looked it. In contrast to his earlier and widely noted speech on race, in which he said he could never repudiate Wright the man, this time he just went ahead and did so.[z]
We shall see whether this works. Wright isn't going away. His NPC appearance showed that he is a narcissist as well as a racist demagogue, so there will be more. (So much, by the way, for taking his sermon snippets out of context. Wright has embarrassed not just Obama but also many moderate sympathisers who felt the reverend should be cut some slack. When asked about the government conspiracy to spread AIDS among the black population, he did not apologize for getting carried away; he affirmed that this was his view, saying that the government was capable of anything.) Perhaps Obama has now separated himself, but perhaps not.[z]
OBAMA IS BRINGING US TOGETHER. THE WRIGHTS, JACKSONS AND SHARPTONS MAKE A LIVING DRIVING US APART.
THEY ARE HIS REAL ENEMY. And ours.[trb]
The issue threatens the multiracial coalition that is crucial to Obama's hopes of becoming the first black president, and it has highlighted a gulf between white and black Americans on matters of church and religion. But interviews with more than two dozen Indiana and North Carolina voters Wednesday suggested Obama may have made the best of a bad situation, even if belatedly.[A]
The rift between the pastor and his former follower runs deeper than words. It is a generational conflict. If what the pastor is saying is antithetical to everything Mr Obama has stood for as an adult, it is equally true to say that Mr Obama would not now be challenging the nomination without the broadsides from the fiery preacher. One generation of black leader is dependent on the other. [g]
WHITES ARE JUST TIRED OF THIS CRAP. THIS COUNTRY HAS TO MOVE ON AND REPLACE THE LEADERSHIP THAT WILL NOT.
While many white voters were shocked to hear a minister curse America and promote conspiracy theories from the pulpit, some accepted Obama's argument that he should not be blamed for his former pastor's words. Many black voters, meanwhile, were far more familiar with Wright's style of preaching — whether or not they agree with it — and believe the issue will not cripple Obama's campaign.[A]
SILENCE SPEAKERS ARE LOUDER THAN THE RANTING. THE BLACKS ARE TIRED OF THIS CRAP. OUR COUNTRY HAS TO MOVE ON AND REPLACE THE LEADERSHIP THAT WILL NOT.
In fact, in a day of interviews with North Carolina and Indiana voters of all races and ages, Sharpe was the only one to raise the Wright issue without prodding. Virtually all the prospective voters knew details of the matter. But unlike TV and radio talk show hosts, they found it far less interesting than the candidates' positions on health care, gasoline prices and other kitchen table issues.[A]
ON THE OTHER HAND
THE SAD THING IS THAT PASTOR WRIGHT IS NOT THE ROOT OF OBAMA’S WOES. IF YOU TRACE BACK HIS POLITICAL CAREER, YOU WILL FIND SOMEONE WHOSE JUDGMENT SEEMED OBSCURED BY HIS POLITICAL AMBITION. THINK ABOUT TONY REZKO, AND THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, AND, OF COURSE, PASTOR WRIGHT. [u]
IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY, THIS MAN HAS MORE THAN A FEW TIMES SHOWED A LACK OF JUDGMENT WITH HIS AFFILIATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS TO FURTHER HIS POLITICAL CAREER. [u]
AT THE START, HE ENJOYED THE BENEFITS FROM THESE ASSOCIATIONS AND SAID NOTHING. BUT WHEN THESE ASSOCIATIONS PROVED TO BE A LIABILITY TO HIS ASPIRATIONS, HE STEERED AWAY FROM THEM. AND MORE THAN A FEW TIMES HE HAS TRIED TO GET AWAY WITH “I-DID-NOT-KNOW-HIM” EXCUSE. I MEAN, YOU CAN ONLY SAY “I’M A BUTTHEAT” SO MUCH[u]
IT IS A NEW DAY.
"Absolutely it hurts" Obama's campaign, said Sharpe, a retired truck driver. But Obama has done his best to distance himself, he said, and people who won't accept his explanation probably would not have voted for Obama anyway.[A]
"What more can he do?" said Sharpe, who is leaning toward Obama even though he attended a speech by former President Bill Clinton in Sanford.[A]
I HOPE THE SUPER DELEGATES SEE THE SUPER COURAGE OF OBAMA
Despite the Wright issue, Obama has continued to gain the backing of superdelegates, the prominent Democrats who are free to choose either candidate. Obama trails Hillary Rodham Clinton by just 21 superdelegates, 243-264, cutting her lead in half in less than two months. This week, he picked up seven delegates to her four.[A]
EVIL LURKS IN THE HALLWAYS OF THE HOUSE OF FARRAKHAN, WRIGHT IS HIS GUEST.
June Biven, 85, of Evansville, Ind., was typical of many white voters interviewed.
"Everybody I've talked to has said it was terrible of him to start this with the May primary coming up," she said of Wright, who this week restated his praise of Louis Farrakhan and repeated his own claim that the U.S. government may have invented the AIDS virus to attack blacks.[A]
LIKE A LEVEL 5 IT WILL BLOW OVER
"I think it will blow over," said Biven, an Obama supporter. "It might hurt a little bit, but I do think he is the only one who can really change Washington."[A]
Troy Morin of Apex, N.C., said he is leaning toward Clinton, but not because of the Wright matter.[A]
"I just don't think it's all that important," said Morin, 41, who is white. "I think it's overblown."[A]
HILLARY IS JUST A PISSED OFF SOCCER MOM. OBAMA BRINGS US BACK OUR DIGNITY
A quality engineer who brought his wife and two sons to hear Bill Clinton speak in Apex on Wednesday, Morin said he tilts toward the New York senator because of her experience in Washington, a point made by nearly every pro-Clinton person interviewed.[A]
LET YEE WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE
To be sure, some white voters take a sterner view of the controversy.
Betsy Lipsky of Raleigh, N.C., said she was deeply troubled by Wright's remarks and could not understand why Obama stayed in the Chicago church from which the minister recently retired. Lipsky strongly supports Clinton but said she would reluctantly vote for Obama in November if he is the nominee. GOP candidate John McCain "frightens me," she said, because he would continue Bush administration policies she abhors.[A]
WRIGHT IS A SMALL MAN WITH A SMALL MESSAGE
As for the candidates themselves, Clinton said Wednesday she found Wright's remarks "offensive and outrageous." She said of her rival, "I think that he made his views clear, finally, that he disagreed. And I think that's what he had to do." She commented in an interview with Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly.[A]
Obama, campaigning in Indiana, said, "The situation with Reverend Wright is difficult, I won't lie to you. We want to make sure this doesn't become a permanent distraction."[A]
WRIGHT ONLY SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF, TOO HIMSELF AS HIS STAR FADES AWAY
Several black voters said Wednesday that they, too, sharply disagreed with some of Wright's comments. But none felt the matter should disqualify Obama.[A]
LETS NOT GET CARRIED AWAY. WRIGHT IS JUST A FALSE PROFITEER...
"If a pastor said something I didn't like, I wouldn't go back to that church," said Deltrice Watkins, 34, a black housekeeper at Eastland Mall in Evansville. "I can't say what Obama should do."
Some other black voters said Wright's remarks should have almost no impact on the election.
"What he said shouldn't reflect on Obama at all because that's his own opinion," said Stacey Norman, 43, a home caregiver also from Evansville. She said her own pastor's political views "are not my political views, and Obama's pastor's views are not his."
In Tramway, N.C., southwest of Raleigh, Naika Benjamin had harsh words for Wright and praise for Obama.[A]
A FOOL BY ANY OTHER NAME OR TITLE IS STILL A FOOL
Wright, she said, "acted like a pure fool this week. I go to a black church, and my minister doesn't talk like that."[a]
Benjamin, 24, who works at a hair salon, said she relates to Obama because he was raised by a single mother, like herself. As for Wright's remarks, she said, "I don't think they should make a big issue out of it. I don't think that's fair at all."[a]
AS WE TRAVEL ON THIS ROAD TO A BETTER AMERICAN WRIGHT IS JUST A HOWLING DOG BAYING AT THE MOON AS WE TRAVEL FORWARD TO OUR FUTURE LEAVING HIM AND HIS TYPE IN THE PAST SOON TO BE FORGOTTEN
Sharpe, the North Carolina Democrat who scours the newspapers, TV, and Internet for political news, said the Wright incident goes to the heart of misunderstandings and suspicions between black and white Americans.[a]
LETS WALK THIS WALK TOGETHER
He agrees with Obama that there is no basis to Wright's claim of a possible government conspiracy to spread AIDS among blacks. "But whites shouldn't be so shocked" that some blacks believe it is possible, he said, given the infamous Tuskegee Institute experiments on unsuspecting black men in Alabama who had syphilis decades ago, he said.[a]
YOU CANNOT NOT COMPREHEND NOR UNDERSTAND THE RAGE OF AMERICANS BLACK OR WHITE IF OBAMA IS UPSET BY THE BELTWAY PROS AND THEIR LACKIES
Similarly, Sharpe said, if Democratic superdelegates steer the nomination to Clinton despite Obama holding a lead in pledged delegates, "then white America will not understand why black people are so upset." [a]
Monday in Washington, he lost me, seeming more to revel in the spotlight. Maybe he didn’t say anything he hadn’t said before in his church, but I wondered about his judgment saying it at the National Press Club in the heat of a presidential campaign. But should Wright be a factor? Do we fairly make decisions about Barack Obama based on the beliefs and remarks of the retired pastor of his former church? These are the kinds of "swift boat” non-issues that distort campaigns. Wright was wrong, sure, but so is the national media for obsessing over him.[f]
Republicans are already trying to portray Mr. Obama as a liberal who is outside the mainstream of American values, but the poll suggests that — at least so far — he is not viewed that way by most Americans. Nearly two-thirds of registered voters said they believe he shares their values, about the same number who felt that way about Mr. McCain (58 percent said Mrs. Clinton shared their values).[n]
Wright speaks for Wright and basks in the limelight.
This is his chance to garner world wide media.
So he enhances his rhetoric, for his own gain.
There are more important issues for candidates to bring forward for constituents to base there votes on.
Peace,
RAP
_________________ The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
John F. Kennedy, speech at Vanderbilt University, May 18, 1963
Thu May 01, 2008 1:01 am
Adam Ford F L I N T O I D
I'm not convinced Wright is only doing this for himself. Martin Luther King also made controversial anti-war comments was King just another selfish reverand basking in the limelight?
I defended the white Ron Paul for making comments like this so I should probably defend a black reverend for making similar comments.
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