mostly-white (though he thinks he’s mostly black)

In what world is Barak Obama mostly white? In a world where race wasn’t so screwed up he could be considered ‘half white’ (not that I know the ancestry of his mother). But in a world where he tries to hail a taxi or any number of other events where people make a snap decision based on your skin color he is fully black.

In no world is he “wholly black”. He’s half-white because his mother was entirely white. He was also raised in a white household. He grew up on the beached of Hawaii, then went off to Columbia University, then to Harvard Law school. Afterwards he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

What part of that sounds like the typical plight of a disadvantaged black youth of America who has grown up knowing nothing but poverty and racism?

None of it. He’s had to worry about being passed up by a cabbie because Barak’s probably had his own car or drivers for most of his privliged life.

If Obama had been raised in some inner-city impoverished, mostly black neighborhood, gone to under-performing, predominantely-minority, inner-city schools…then I’d agree whole heartedly that he was “mostly black”. But he wasn’t. And he isn’t.

Obama tastes shoe leather- Soldiers death are lives wasted…

Allahpundit at Hot Air, for whom I thank for the clip, sums it up thusly:
Now we know for sure he’s not the messiah. The messiah doesn’t make mistakes.

Note this is a reference to the status of near divinity that so many in the media …

What part of that sounds like the typical plight of a disadvantaged black youth of America who has grown up knowing nothing but poverty and racism?
So that’s the standard? You have to be poor and disadvantaged to be black?

I know that you aren’t likely to believe this but job prospects, educational opportunities, and housing choices are influenced by the color of your skin regardless of what your parents look like.

Yes Barak Obama has been given opportunities and has been successful in those situations. We can say the same about Colin Powell- are we to revoke his ‘blackness’ since some of his ancestors were white?

thinks that their lives were “wasted“.

So is there no military mission you can conceive of that would justify saying that the men who died had their lives wasted? Does the mere fact that they died in battle mean that they died ‘for a cause’?

Considering that this war was sold on a false premise what cause are these men and women dying for? Certainly they are brave but sadly they are not making this country any safer. That is reason enough to bring them home.

To answer your questions (which are good, legitimate questions that I think help further the dialog):

So is there no military mission you can conceive of that would justify saying that the men who died had their lives wasted?

That’s correct. The mere selfless and brave act of enlisting in the military, who’s very mission is to defend the rest of us if need be, makes it impossible to have died in vain or to have lived a wasted life.

As President Reagan once said, “Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.”  And neither do Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, or Coasties.

Does the mere fact that they died in battle mean that they died ‘for a cause’?

Yes, it does. They died for their country, and they died by placing their bodies between the desolation of war and their loved ones at home. I don’t think there’s any greater nor more noble cause.

Considering that this war was sold on a false premise what cause are these men and women dying for?

There were and continue to be many reasons to go to war against Islamofascits terrorists in both Iraq and Afghanistan. None of them patently false and none of them lies. Saddam has possesed and used WMDs in the past, and he fully intended to use them again, and was working towards that end.

The war, and the cause they are fighting for (the safety of our nation) did not start when we took the fight to them in Iraq. It did not start when they flew our planes into our buildings on 9/11. It did not start when they bombed the USS Cole. It did not start when the blew up our Embassy in Kenya.

We are at war with islamic terrorists, and have been for a very long time. It’s a war worth fighting and a war worth winning.

Certainly they are brave but sadly they are not making this country any safer.

You couldn’t be more wrong. Do you really believe that the attacks on 9/11 were all that the Islamic terror groups has planned for our country? Do you believe they would agree to a “cease fire” now if we were to pull out of Iraq? Or do you believe that they would merely go back to doing what they were doing: training for and planning more attacks against our country?

I believe the latter. And since we’ve been “disrupting” their training and planning facilites, they haven’t struck at innocent civilian targets in our country.

So, yes, we are safer fighting and killing them over there rather than waiting for them to strike here again.

That is reason enough to bring them home.

And the above is reason enough to keep them there fighting the war that has not yet been won.

I understand that soldiers must believe that their sacrifices are not carelessly taken for granted by political leaders but is this really true?
I look at, say, the 19 million men who died in World War I and see a tragic waste that isn’t redeemed by patriotism or idealism. (This is a number of people nearly equivilent to everyone living within an hour of New York City- for what? Just national pride and to provide an excuse for the next war. ) Granted, our current war has at least a plausible cause for our soldiers to risk their lives for but I cannot accept that dying for one’s country is a good in itself.

I understand that soldiers don’t get to pick the wars they fight but as a non-soldier I can’t help but put more value on a life sacrificed for good than a life sacrificed for evil. Though it was courageous I don’t believe that dying for the Confederacy was a noble act though dying to end slavery and to preserve the Union was. Sorry if that ruffles any feathers here.

Regarding our safety- once we cleared out the terrorist training camps of Afghanistan I put much more faith in our homeland security than invading unrelated countries. (You might want to keep an eye on Somalia where our involvement there threatens to turn that into the next jihadi cause to die for)

“I understand that soldiers don’t get to pick the wars they fight but as a non-soldier I can’t help but put more value on a life sacrificed for good than a life sacrificed for evil.”

The 3000+ soldiers and marines who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan have died for good. By any measure, Iraqis were worse under Saddam economically and physically. Same goes for Afghanis under the Taliban.

Just the fact that we’re helping these people, never mind the other reasons for this war, makes it a noble cause, and any American who dies in it has indeed died for good, not evil.

Preston, you compared this war to World War 1, which was a waste, but I feel this war is more closely comparable to World War 2. In World War 1, it was a war of empires, and more importantly, the moral lines between the Allies and the Central Powers were blurry at best. That was certainly not the case in World War 2, and it’s not the case in the war on terror. The people we are fighting, the terrorists, are evil, just as evil as the Nazis and power-hungry as the Imperial Japanese.

By any measure? How about raw body count? How about numbers of refugees? Electricity output? Petroleum output? I don’t believe it’s clear at all that Iraqis are better off than they were 4 years ago.

I was only using WWI as an illustration that dying for one’s country can often be ultimately pointless if heroic. I didn’t mean to draw a larger comparison yet I’m not sure that the moral lines are as clear as you suggest. Yes I think American democracy is vastly preferable to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. But there are other wars raging in Iraq. Who is morally superior: this Shia group or that one? Sunnis or Shias? Nationalists protecting their country from invasion or the invaders? Aside from the question of the righteousness of the battle, considering the complexity of those conflicts, is the American cause actually furthered by the presence of American soldiers in Iraq?

Note that I don’t question that the lives lost in Afghanistan have been for a greater good. But I do fear that the war in Iraq has distracted the Adminstration from fighting this battle.

The mere selfless and brave act of enlisting in the military, who’s very mission is to defend the rest of us if need be, makes it impossible to have died in vain or to have lived a wasted life.
…
They died for their country, and they died by placing their bodies between the desolation of war and their loved ones at home. I don’t think there’s any greater nor more noble cause.

Robbie, by divorcing the cause for which a soldier fightings from it’s morality you have effectively surrendered the moral high ground to our enemies. Our enemies are also fighting for honor, sacrifice, and tradition- by your standards they are equivilent to our soldiers and Marines.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. How long are we going to polarize our society with ignorance? Granted, Sen. Obama could have phrased his sentiment about our fallen Americans more tactfully. However, the truth is the truth. Sons and daughters are dying for resources, resources that most Americans, even those actively fighting, will never enjoy or benefit from. As for Obama being a drug user, do some research on the history of intoxicants and stimulants within the course of the human event. And speaking of drugs, you must be on drugs if you refuse to accept that the majority of responsible Americans do not support killing other human beings, we call it murder. And as for “race,” grow up, or at least get informed, because out of the THOUSANDS of genes that make up the human animal, LESS THAN TEN are responsible for the physical characteristics that seem to prevent us from being truly civilized.

Few people honestly believe we should be in Iraq right now. I would guess that only a handful of short-sighted, unintelligent people like you actually think that our presence in Iraq at the moment actually has any bearing on the safety and security of the United States. Their lives were wasted.

First of all If you havent served, you’ll never know. The men and women who protect this country are the finest on the face of the earth. They seem to think that they can finish this fight if we only let them. Secondly Obama Barak is a non-entity. He will not win any presidency during this century and niether will Hillary. America is simply not Ready for a black or female President. That by the way is not my opinion it is a simple fact that the electionresults will support. I believe the best minority candidate for president would have been Colin Powell. Very simply he had the resumee for it.

Few people honestly believe we should be in Iraq right now.
left by Peter

You would be very suprise by how may people believe we should be there. Personally I DO NOT think we should be in Iraq. I just this weekend heard a person in the Air Force saying how we should be there she is my aunt so I left the room as not to argue.

I have on a number of occassions argued my point of the Iraq’s do not want us there and our guys are being killed daily due to the ignorance of people who believe in the party and do not venture from it no matter what happens. Their party meaning republican or democrats. I myself do not stand by either of these parties. People are people and this republican does as he pleases and will not admit he was wrong. As soon as we leave Iraq they will be right back the way they started , within a few years.

They have been this way for thousands of years and what makes us think we can change that.

As someone from outside the U.S I hope for everyones sakes Obama doesn’t end up as president, the reality of fundamentalist Islam is here and here to stay, weakness will see western society fall and Obama is weakness personified.

The war in Afghanistan was vital, but so was war in Iraq. The real problem brewing in the middle east is Saudi, a country which promotes hatred of the west and which could at any time flip into a full on Islamic state, cutting off it’s oil supply to the U.S. How hard would the fight to subdue that region be with a tooled up Saddam still sitting on the doorstep, far better to fight enemies one at a time as the need arises than leave things until there’s a good chance you can fail.

What is worrying is that for now the west is appeasing lunatic Islamic states too much, allowing any of them to develop nuclear weapons will for sure lead to nukes going off in western cities, and Islamic allies with nuclear weapons are no allies at all.

September the 11th was declaration of war on the U.S by the Muslim world, sure there were plenty of them saying that they condemed the attack, yet in private even they were holding parties and jumping for joy.

The west needs to wise up about the extent of the threat posed by Islamic fundamentalism, the fight isn’t over, its only just begun. Without tough action Europe will descend into civil war and be Islamified and the U.S and other free countries will suffer increasing attacks and nuclear attack. The U.S needs to use its real allies and undermine its hidden enemies, wherever fundamentalists are killing muslim or non muslim U.S money should be funding resistance and U.S troops providing support and training.

The alternative is to follow the Obama way and do nothing, let them get nukes, let them develop gene weapons and pay the price in oceans of blood.

Oh had to stop laughing before I could type a response to Robbie.
Obama is a coward for not having served in the military? You must really hate Bush and Cheney…one was AWOL (busy working on political campaigns rather then actually learning how to fight for his country), and the other received what…5 or 6 deferments? And these are the guys pretending to run this country and accuse others of not being patriotic? You might want to ask some soldiers how they feel about this war. I have. And not the ones chosen to speak to reporters. Spent a lot of time lately on post here. Ask them not about fighting for their country and with their brothers and sisters, but about the phony reasons they are dying over there. Even Oliver North disapproves of this new but not the first surge. Robbie. Stop watching the fairy tale news on FOX and read, or perhaps watch CSPAN.

The plain truth is that today’s military is essentially comprised of folks who have had few other career options. Once enlisted, they lose any voice they never had as to what happens to them or how their lives are used or wasted. If the sons and daughters of CEOs and politicians and the eighteen families whose money runs this nation had to go to war, this war would never have begun. That’s why we should have a draft system–if it’s YOUR kid’s life that might be wasted, everybody gets honest a lot faster. My kids would be conscientious objectors, but they would happily give up two years to work in health care or disaster relief, issues just as important to national security as our greed for oil.

This administration has followed other administrations of the recent past in destroying our tripartite (legislative, executive, judicial) system of checks and balances by grabbing far too much power into the presidency. But this president and his neocon mafia have done it cynically, greedily, and illegally. Why did the media kowtow without question in this crew’s first term?? Because of 9/11. I knew even as I watched the first TV run of that event that those planes did not cause so much destruction. I saw the flames from the plane DYING DOWN on the floor it hit, then suddenly, puffs of smoke chain-reacted down the side of the first tower and it crumbled exactly as when planned by demolition teams. We are a nation of people easily led, unquestioning of authority, unwilling to inform ourselves, wasting the privileges of democracy, most of us not even bothering to vote and if voting, doing so according to the loudest TV commercials.

We belong to Big Business now. They created TV to dumb us down, and they can be rightly proud of the unprecedented good job they did.

As for Barack Obama? As for any candidate: read. Read everything. Read what they’ve written, what they’ve said, what thinking people have written about them. Educate yourselves.

Bottom Line?? It is much, much later than any of us can imagine.

Sorry, you’re leaping in the wrong direction. Your references help prove my point! For the first time, it’s the middle class that’s being squeezed out of career options. Many of our recruits come from the South and the Midwest, from the middle class. The poor were done in long ago, with brutal efficiency. Now the target is squarely the middle class, as your references clearly indicate. I did not mention the poor or minorities.

The Midwest is governed by agribusiness and livestock corporations; the family farm has vanished. The South, traditionally a great manufacturing area, has lost to overseas manufacturing. We have become a service-oriented nation, and now service sector careers are also heading overseas, to places like India, whose universities, especially in the sciences, now overshadow our own.

Now it’s middle-class kids who can’t compete in a global economy, for some reasons I mentioned and some you did–the sad state of affairs in our schools, for example.

What of the rest of my statement? Or was your assumption about what I wrote your only complaint??

So? Wanna trash Obama? He’s a nice guy, and if you’d pull your heads out of your rear ends long enough to look at his positions on the issues, you’d see that He’d excell the slum, Mcdonalds eating, Fat jokers of a nation the U.S. has turned into under republican president George Bush. Wanna complain about the war? Look who started it. Don’t load this crap on democratic canidates. You might also want to note Obama’s decency, he’s a good christian man, And on one of his frequent visits to Africa, he was tested for AIDS in the middle of a village as an example. Finally, I wouldn’t talk about illegal drugs and presidents *cough* *cough*

If i Assume correctly, this won’t be posted for long before you delete it as it’s questioning your opinion, but if one person reads it, I’vw done my job.

-Congrats on being the first link to pop up on one of dogpile’s most searched items. I sure hope no one took this slander more than jokingly.

here here~! i agree with progressive new age libreal.

its sad that in this country that whether someone is black or white or any race should determine if they are fit to lead. It’s disgusting that you critisize Obama about not joining the military and say that he doesnt respect the troops. He is fighting for them; he wants them to live and be safe not die for an unjust war in Iraq.

Bush defined himself as a war president. His ratings are in the 20’s now because having defined himself that way, he should have won! But Obama is correct–this was not a war, it was an unjustified invasion.

Obama is an academic intellectual–a great good thing. He is thus far unsullied by ‘politics as usual’–also a great good thing. He represents the next generation’s huge potential voting bloc, people of mixed race–and that is liberating. And he is young–the same age JFK was–and that may give us hope, that we are not an empire in entropy, that 1% of the population will not always control 96% of the wealth, that the planet may not die yet.

This, however, is also reality: In 2006, Exxon made 1,428 million dollars in profit, PER MINUTE. Last year, one CEO received 72 million dollars–as a Christmas bonus! The president i s paid just 400 thousand dollars a year. So can (s)he wield all that power without being in somebody’s pocket? Business owns us. The CEO makes all that money to cut down the little guy, the worker, in favor of corporate profits–now at their highest levels ever. And the CEO is at his best when he tears the company asunder and sells it piecemeal to the highest bidders. We must eradicate the corporate mentality. We must reinstate that we are all our brothers’ keeper–and our brother is everyone.

In Bangladesh, potable water is becoming saline as the oceans rise–in our lifetimes, 30 million people will be displaced because of our reckless use of fossil fuels. (What a diaspora that will be!) So far, our solutions may be worse than the damage so far–replacing incandescent lights with compact fluorescents, for example, saves 75% of our bill for electrical lighting, but will proliferate our exposure to mercury, which is in all CFs.

Armageddon may happen in Israel because all three major religions lay claim to it–and nothing kills like religion!

Just how much can one person do for us? Social justice must be learned by every heart. Race is becoming less of an issue only because people will fall in love, and they will make babies, in every size, shape, and hue, and hooray for that. But we’re failing the intellectual process of it. And we need to extend the love beyond race, to respect for all species of life, and for this poor, damaged ship that is our only home–Earth.

Frankly, I’m not that optimistic, although I desperately want to be, because my (mixed race) kids are just teens. It seems that humanity as a herd always seems to choose for the moment, for the money, for destruction.

If i Assume correctly, this won’t be posted for long before you delete it as it’s questioning your opinion, but if one person reads it, I’vw done my job.

You’ve been reading entirely too many Liberal blogs, which will boot you for having the audacity (like what I did there?) to have a non-liberal view point.

Hell, if I dind’t allow dissenting view points on my blog, I wouldn’t have any commenters at all (except Dianne and Anon).

Congratulations, Dee — I believe you got every single Left-wing talking point into that one rant. Well done!

Now, don’t you have a 9-11 Truther meeting to get to?

You got me, Robbie, I can go on and on. What the hey, I’m disabled, and between books! But can you honestly dump my every thought–expressing real concerns–as a rant? Where’s the dialogue, pal? You’re no William F. Buckley, that’s for sure. I miss Barry Goldwater, too. You just seem–young. I don’t intend that as a criticism, I remember being urbane and glib. It just doesn’t go anywhere, though. Arrogance and sarcasm don’t even rise to the level of game play, where solutions are critically needed.

You’re right, Dee, I am young.

But at 38-years old, I’m old enough to have served in two combat zones (Iraq and Bosnia) as a Combat Medic in the US Army — both tours have done more to influence and guide my political perspective than anything else in my life.

And honestly, Dee, the moment you wrote:

Because of 9/11. I knew even as I watched the first TV run of that event that those planes did not cause so much destruction. I saw the flames from the plane DYING DOWN on the floor it hit, then suddenly, puffs of smoke chain-reacted down the side of the first tower and it crumbled exactly as when planned by demolition teams.

…I dismissed everything else you said or might say in regards to fighting terrorists and defending our nation.

Honestly, there’s no way to change the mind of people who believe in this kind of insanity — I have just as much chance of convincing you that our War Against Terror is a valid and necessary fight that we must win as you do of convincing me that our own govn’t played a role in blowing up the World Trade Centers.

Thank you, Robbie! for your first genuine expression. I DO believe we are in a war against terrorism. We’re not doing it right, and we’re making it worse.

Nor do I believe that our government played a role in blowing up the World Trade Centers. But those two planes did not bring down three buildings–or any buildings, and our government’s story about the 3rd building that went down is a crock. I believe 9/11 was not merely a stunning act of terrorism, but also a deliberate theft of what was, essentially, the real Fort Knox. Somebody walked away with millions. And somebody with clearance must have helped; those individuals, I believe, were paid American traitors.

What do I bring to it? Thirty-five years in criminal justice: 8 in police work, and a career as a deputy district attorney in the7th largest economy in the world. A life time as an academic, reading history in two dead languages, for what it’s worth.

You do tend to leap to conclusions!

Afghanistan and Pakistan do not have very strong governments, but they have done more right in this war than we have, and what are we doing to help? We’re allowing Al Quaeda to harbor there, and the Taliban are rising again to crush the Afghani people while we fritter billions to pay American corporations for a nonexistent reconstruction in a country engaged in civil war.

By putting the Shiites in power in Iraq, we have stupidly shifted the balance of power in the Middle East in favor of Iran, while refusing to include Iran diplomatically. Iran is an enemy, but if we hold our friends close, we should hold our enemies closer. Now we’re saber-rattling with Iran, which gives them great face, while they know we are at the end of our tether militarily, engaging in empty threats.

We put the Shah of Iran in power, and the backlash was the Ayatollah and a throwback to medieval times. We put Saddam Hussein in power, and if he ever had MWDs, we gave them to him. The Arab world suffered under the Soviet Union, and endured our stupid overreaching as well. To a large extent, they still see themselves as fighting colonialism, and we’re feeding right into it! What right did foreign nations have, to usurp Arab land to give it to European Jews? And er, that was us, too. Conveniently for Europe, we helped them get rid of their “Jewish” problem by exporting it, instead of accepting Jews everywhere.

We’ve been wrong for such a long, long time.

9/11 is the world’s greatest uninvestigated crime. Were you aware that the Head of Security at the World Trade Center was named Bush, and that he resigned the night before 9/11?

Did you know that a third building near Ground Zero went down exactly the same way, with no external interference?

Do you know that we no longer get any real news, without filters?

Doesn’t the Patriot Act sound like a good thing? Do you know how many points in the Bill of Rights no longer exist, because of it?

The president’s ’surge’ is just a bid for time until the whole mess gets dumped in somebody else’s lap.

Do you know how much plastic is included in the chemistry of your body?

The average person in the world today is a 17-year old Chinese boy. Do you know who owns our national debt? China.

Last week, hundreds of miles of lakes were discovered between the ice in Antartica. The polar ice caps reflect 55% of the sun’s rays back into space. Do you know what will happen when the polar ice caps are gone? What’s happening now?

Our problems are so enormous, so immediate, that the polarized political climate of the past six years and beyond must be deliberately broken, now. Real serious dialogue, like this, give and take, point-counterpoint, is so long overdue.

In the face of all this, doesn’t it seem silly to be talking about Obama smoking whatever? You know, our last pope, a great man, chewed cocaine leaves in Peru to combat high elevation fatigue. So what?

But really, thank you so much for this last, honest contribution. Thank you for your service as a combat medic. I deeply appreciate your service and respect the experiences that have shaped you so far. Thank you for the lives of decent people you have saved. Thank you for the website I fell into. Thank you for dropping the snide and irrelevant remarks. We are all in it together. We are, whether we want to be or not. We have no place else to go.

One thing. The human race has crossed a line. Terrorism will now always be with us, just like nuclear weapons. I wonder, will we blow our children to smithereens, or will nature erase us for past transgressions first?

Actually Robbie, this is the first blog I’ve ever read. I’m sorry, thank you for leaving my comments up. I guess I’ve judged too much from seeing folks like Bill O Reilly and Sean Hannity. I guess I’m a victim of being spun by the no spin zone.

One thing i do have to say for these men, however, is as far as I know, they haven’t talked about Britney Spears shaving her head. I guess the other Fox cronies sucked that up too fast.

Dee…my apologies for dismissing you so quickly. You’ve obviously thought out and understand what your writing about. I may disagree with you on some (perhaps most) of it, but your points and opinions are definitely worthy of a thoughtful dialog.

Robbie, your apology is a high honor I accept with humility . So, what can we do about the injured and maimed of this war who have been pushed aside? I think maybe enough press has been brought to bear on the issue of our war-wounded living in the rats’ nest wing of Walter Reed, although we shouldn’t just assume it will be fixed properly, especially since it just came to press this week.

Because I suffer a tiny fraction of what these folks endure by my own disabilities, and because you’ve risked your life, times over, to save others and survived blessedly intact, maybe together we could bring focus to our forgotten heroes, the ones who aren’t Jessica Lynch, whose lives have changed forever.

Can anybody out there help us find the soldiers who aren’t receiving proper funding, or the home care they need? Maybe we could start a group of volunteers to provide emotional support for damaged soldiers without families. We can use this blog to blow a lot more than hot air!

We might even offer Mr. Obama, and other candidates, an opportunity to assist, and test their mettle a bit. Anybody? Ideas?

Now I’m sorry, Robbie, it’s your blog.

Your kind words got me way too pumped. That happens easily when you’re disabled.

So goes fifteen minutes of fame.

dis is da president fella me wants some coke and weed make it crack brother, please reply osama i mean obama sorry about ya uncle saddam