A letter to Dave, You mentioned you disliked Obama..


I dislike the Republican party...especially the new brand of radical right wingers.

McCain voted with Bush more than 90% of the time. He's no maverick. He's a company suit. His new running mate, is the type I've seen in PTA too often. A pit bull with lipstick is right. Vendictive, authoritarian, who supported the bridge to nowhere, then hid the fact. Tried to fire people because of personality conflicts, and hired cronies because she went to grade school with them (she hired a friend who was a real estate agent to be the head of the environmental department in Alaska)....supports creationism in the school along with science..giving them equal credibility (guess she watched too many Flintstone cartoons as a kid..believes the dinosaurs lived alongside humans...)..

When I see those jail shows (now that we've got 2 million people in jail) I see droves of Mexicans gangs in US jails. I don't know why they're not being deported. As long as the National Guard is being deployed in Iraq, there is no way that masses of people can be sent out of the States. I'm for a guest worker program, day passes, or short term work visa..no problemo, if we need the workers...but not wholesale invasion. That's how Rome fell. Not from violent invasion, but from people from Gaul and other barbaric places looking to live the "Roman Life" without embracing the "Roman Ethic". Rome devolved into a barbaric state. On Staten Island, whole schools and little towns are just full of illegal immigrants. They are quiet for the most part, because they're new to these parts (15 years) and still aren't sure of the terrain. I subbed in schools which were 100 Mexican immigrant, and I'm sure these kids parent's didn't have a visa. All that is needed to get into a school is a shot record and an electric bill. When I had a brain aneurysm, and went on disability, I went to the foodstamp office. It was me, a bunch of alcoholics, a bunch of unemployed Blacks, and a whole lot of Mexican, Peruvian and Equadorian women with new born babies. Formerly, foreigners wouldn't use the social services, so that they could bring their families in, now the folks from Equador and Mexico just have a baby, and line up for food stamps, housing, medical help, furniture vouchers, etc. How long can that work???

Why are all the people coming here? Cause of the free trade agreements. CAFTA, NAFTA. They buy our goods, their factories go out of business. The last trickle of American export. The only things we export now are American movies and music. After WWII we were 5% of the worlds population, producing 50% of the earth's manufactured goods. Today we import $6 for every $1 we export. Something's gotta give. Now we, (or rather the unbridled wealthy) have done what Mao Tse Tung suggested in his little red book. "The capitalist will sell you the rope with which to hang him." We certainly have sold China the rope. Why don't we "Marshall Plan" our Mexican neighbors? Building their infrastructure so that they could manufacture would certainly help to kick start their economy. It worked in Europe. It worked in Japan. It's Christian theology translated into foreign policy. It works.

You will know a man by his works.
You mentioned that we need to be wary of false prophets. You speak of the end times. I know one person who was convinced the Anti-Christ was Ronald Reagan. He now thinks that Bush is his handyman. I think the handyman is more dangerous. A lot of evil has been perpetrated in the name of "Christianity". Bush professes Christianity, but invaded a sovereign nation under false pretenses. He gives to the rich, in tax breaks, and free trade, and takes jobs from the poor, and has robbed the Social Security treasury. Instead of giving tax incentives to start up companies, to get windmills, diesel converters, solar panels and wave nets going, he's giving Exxon Mobil breaks. They have record profits (in a time of war!) and we get $4.00 plus at the gas pump. We don't economize, as we did in WWII. Instead, he borrows money from islamo-fascist promoting Saudi Arabia (promoters of all the madrasas in Pakistan that have been virolently anti-American) and good old communist China! How American is that? The morgage on our economy has been sold to Saudi Arabia and Communist China.
I'm in Berlin trying to kick start some work here. There are lots of friends (musicians) who used to come to the US regularly, who now won't visit because of Bush. They can't believe that Americans are so stupid, to elect a president who was only interested in "anschloss", or dominating the Middle East. Believe me, Germans know about "anschloss". Here they see the films from Abu Graib, the American treatment of prisoners. They know of the US taking over prisons in Poland for prisoners from the Middle East. This is common knowledge in Europe, in the US we don't get this news. American students I spoke to said they had to take down the sign for the American Student Dorm, in Rome, because people were throwing things at the building. Americans are no longer loved.
I thought about not sending this, because of course, our email is now under watch. The triangulation of "hot messages" can shut down your email for days. That's why I don't usually sign petitions online, because my email account has frozen a few times, after signing a petition.
As for Michelle Obama, she's the "real" African American. I think if I was a Black American, with a history of Tuskeegee experiments, Jim Crow laws, lynching and slavery, after building the White House, Wall Street, and growing all the cotton and tobacco in the South,for 10 generations or more, had laws on the books prohibiting my learning to read, vote, or marry, I'd be pissed, too. African Americans have fought in every war since the Revolution, and have still been given second class citizenship.
The hand on the Koran was a right wing slur. The criticism of the lack of a 9/11 American Flag lapel pin (worn by Republicans eager to wear their heart on their sleeve/lapel) was a slur to question Obama's patriotism. The right wing media tried first to make Obama a Muslim, then they found his preacher, who is outspoken about racism and lousy American foreign policy. They found out the truth, that Obama admired an activist preacher. I'm glad Wright spoke out about injustice. I don't want to hear a preacher who supports invading countries for their resources, murdering their president. (Saddam was a bad guy, but we've killed more Iraqis than he ever did. ) Tommy Franks didn't do body counts but Iraqibodycount.com does. 1 millio Go to BBC TV They interview the American soldiers. They say the mission is pointless. For all that bombing, Iraq has now signed a deal for their oil to CHINA! Iran is talking to Venezuela, who is supporting Bolivia, who is mad because Bechtel (Bush's father and other investors) tried to buy their WATER and then sell it back to them. Bolivians protested, and still have water, thank God. How rich do the rich have to be???
Because of our invading, we've got Venezuela as an enemy, most of Europe is disgusted at us, and Russia and Nigeria don't like us either.
John McCain chose to participate in the Vietnam war because his father was an Admiral as was his grandfather. I don't admire his choice to join the Vietnam War. War is all he knows. Jim Morrison's father was a Navy Admiral, and Morrison refused to serve, as did my friend Steven Donaldson, who went to jail rather than fight the communist domino..And look what happened! Now Vietnam has capitalism and manufactures stuff for American capitalists....

As for Obama, he's a working class kid from Honolulu. His mother was on foodstamps while going to school. The guy is a Christian. His preacher is a hot head, but there again, he's African American. He's mad at the lousy housing, the lousy jobs given to the Blacks. You know my ex was Black. His father was one of the first Black men in NYC allowed in the UAW. Black electricians, mechanics, plumbers, could not get into the unions. Or the police, or the fire department, or sanitation or the Board of Ed, or social services.... Dennis had a club on 125th St. He couldn't get insurance, because of redlining. When the club had a fire, he had nothing.
I'm not especially fond of Black folks, any more than any other folks. I like intelligent people, whatever their race. I don't like stupid people, or alcoholic people or people on drugs. I don't like power mad people. I don't like theives, or people who try to rip you off. I've worked with racist Blacks in the board of Education who are looking for nothing but the jobs that the Whites have held, historically. It ain't beautiful.
In my mind, Obama is more of a White guy in a Black suit. His father disappeared when he was 1 year old. His mother palmed him off on his White, Midwestern, Christian grandparents, after he lived with her and her new husband for a few years in Indonesia. Those grandparents are the people who raised him.