Rumors and Truth

[Griff]

Originally Posted by classicman

I just posted it - that's all.

Not exactly. We all bear responsibility for what we post.

[binky]

Just curious- does anyone here actually have a teen daughter who has gotten pregnant? I did (she was 17), and thank goodness for the school that catered to pregnant girls. It took her an extra year, but she stayed in school, got her diploma, and did the graduation ceremony, all as a single mother. So it can be done, and now she has a job, and makes enough money to support herself, and her 10 yr old son. Not the path I would have chosen for her, but she is surviving.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Griff

Not exactly. We all bear responsibility for what we post.

I take full responsibility for posting it, of course. But I wanted to get your (collective) take on it. You guys are infinitely better at getting to the bottom of some things and most times I return your refutations to the original sender.

[Pico and ME]

Classicman, your post immediately made me realize that I need to take all the stuff being said about Palin with a grain of salt.

Thats no fun though...!

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Griff

Not exactly. We all bear responsibility for what we post.

From taking responsibility for what I post to how to decide whether to post at all. When I'm uncertain about posting something, I find these questions helpful:

1 -- Is it true?

2 -- Is it kind?

3 -- Is it helpful or necessary?

If the answer is yes in all cases, then I feel confident that it is a worthwhile post. The more no answers I get, the less likely it is that I'm making a worthwhile post.

[classicman]

1 - unknown - main reason for posting
2 - typically irrelevant - whether it is mean or harmful more likely..
3 - yes/possibly - another reason I posted it

[classicman]

Here is another link I found over lunch - from the New York Post - Have at it

Repeating over and over that voting against Obama is racist only makes nonracist people embarrassed to admit that they plan to vote for McCain.

Another rich irony is that the only racists who matter in this election are the ones in the Democratic Party. (News flash: The reason Republicans aren't voting for the Democratic nominee is . . . they're Republicans.) A new AP-Yahoo News poll claims that racial prejudice is a significant factor among the independents and Democrats Obama needs to win, specifically among Hillary Clinton's primary voters. The pollsters' statistical modeling posits that support for Obama may be as much as 6 percentage points lower than it would be if no white racism existed.

~snip~ to the extent that race is a factor, here's the richest irony of all: Obama's problem is with precisely those voters the Democratic Party claims to fight for, working- and middle-class white folks. Of course, Democrats can't openly complain that their own vital constituency is racist.

If the media were more objective, we'd be hearing a lot more about the racism at the heart of the Democratic Party. But such objectivity would cause too much cognitive dissonance for a press corps that defines "racist" as shorthand for Republican and sees itself as the publicity arm of the Obama campaign.

[classicman]

The “Earmarks” Issue

Why oppose pork-barrel spending, also known as earmarks? Because it sets a bad example, for one thing; and because it is all funded by borrowing, and so adds interminably to the Federal budget deficit; and because it is tainted with fraud, abuse, and self-dealing.

As Sen. Everett Dirksen once said, “A billion here, a billion there, and next thing you know, you’re talking real money.”

The estimates of current “earmark” amounts range from $18,000,000,000.00 to more than $30,000,000,000.00 per year. This is not the total impact, however; because earmarks are 100 per cent deficit spending, they also add to the Federal interest we pay every year.

Deficit spending is a tax increase imposed on future taxpayers. By definition, those paying taxes in the future are not here to vote. Makes it much easier to burden them with taxes, doesn’t it?

On this issue, John McCain wins, hands-down, and his past performance indicates that he will make good on his promise to battle earmarks. But don’t take my word for it - - judge for yourself. Set forth below is a McCain versus Obama comparison on earmarks requested for Federal fiscal year 2008.

Earmarks requested by Sen. John McCain for fiscal year 2008: None.

Earmarks requested by Sen. Barack Obama for fiscal year 2008 (word-for-word, Sen. Obama’s own press release):

It totaled up at 900 million or so.
[bold mine]

[classicman]

McCain had criticized earmarks from Palin

WASILLA, ALASKA - For much of his long career in Washington, John McCain has been throwing darts at the special spending system known as earmarking, through which powerful members of Congress can deliver federal cash for pet projects back home with little or no public scrutiny. He's even gone so far as to publish "pork lists" detailing these financial favors.

Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin.

Now, McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, has chosen Palin as his running mate, touting her as a reformer just like him.

McCain has made opposition to pork-barrel spending a central theme of his 2008 campaign. "Earmarking deprives federal agencies of scarce resources, at the whim of individual members of Congress," McCain has said.

[TheMercenary]

Classic! stop repeating those facts. It confuses people!

[classicman]

HOMELESS 'DRIVEN' TO VOTE OBAMA

CLEVELAND - Volunteers supporting Barack Obama picked up hundreds of people at homeless shelters, soup kitchens and drug-rehab centers and drove them to a polling place yesterday on the last day that Ohioans could register and vote on the same day, almost no questions asked.

The huge effort by a pro-Obama group, Vote Today Ohio, takes advantage of a quirk in the state's elections laws that allows people to register and cast ballots at the same time without having to prove residency.

Republicans have argued that the window could lead to widespread voter fraud because officials wouldn't have an opportunity to verify registration information before ballots were cast.

Among the volunteers were Yori Stadlin and Vivian Lehrer of the Upper West Side, who got married last week and decided to spend their honeymoon shepherding voters to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

Early today, Stadlin's van picked up William Woods, 59, at the soup kitchen of the Bishop Cosgrove Center.

"I never voted before," Woods said, because of a felony conviction that previously barred him from the polls. "Without this service, I would have had no way to get here."

Well isn't that last bit special?

[BigV]

Oh my Gawd!

People voting. Obeying the law. Encouraging civic responsibility and involvement. WTF?

Don't the republicans know any bums or crooks? Or are they just unwilling to soil the upholstery?

Seriously, what a non-news story. The implication that there's some illegal activity here... where's your smoking gun?

Yes, the republicans have protested. They took their case to the Ohio Supreme Court and lost. This sounds like sour grapes to me.

Read for yourself.

[Shawnee123]

Moderates hate when homeless people vote?

[Trilby]

Even insane people are allowed to vote. Unless you are currently in prison, you are allowed to vote.
Now. This isn't about me or how many times I voted. It's about equality!

[Pico and ME]

Good one Shawnee.