The actions of the supporters also bother me. Saying things like kill him and racist slurs. Falling for out right lies. The extreme extent some of them are willing to go (both parties), such as McCain volunteer Ashley Todd's hoax about a large black man attacking her and carving the letter “B” into her cheek, the slashing of tires, the stealing yard signs (mine was stolen), keying of cars, etc. There is a lot of hate.
I've already mentioned the large number of attack ads in an earlier post, but there is more to say about them. They are very, very annoying. Had they been confined to the television I would be able to ignore most of them, but they aren't. I have received phone calls (I'm on the national do not call list but guess they don't care), emails (many, most full of lies), and junk mail (these are really offensive). They have anti-abortion ones with pictures of aborted fetus's, pictures of soldiers dying with comments like vote for Republicans don't let the terrorists win, and more (I'd mention some of the Democrat ones but they are not even close to being as offensive, at least the ones I received weren't). There is also the local/state election and issues on the ballet with a lot of junk mail, ads, and phone calls as well. This applies to both parties and all the issues on ballet, especially the issues.
Hypocrisy, there is quite a bit of it. I'm not going to list very much of it but some is how the Republicans have attacked Obama for being a supporter of ACORN. It's hypocrisy because McCain and the GOP have also been supporters of ACORN in the past and the actions done by people working for ACORN could have happened to any number of organizations. Same practices are used by Republican backed voter registration drives as well as for issues (I, a few months ago, signed a petition to get an issue on ballet that I did not really care about one way or another simply because the person said he was getting paid a dollar per signature and asked nicely - it is not an issue that actually made it onto the ballet though). It is a common practice done by voter registration drives to hire people to get signatures and the people they hire occasionally fabricate signatures, this could happen to any group who registers people.
I do not like how some people are portraying Obama's ties to Bill Ayers and calling him a terrorist because of them. Bill Ayers may have done some bombings in protest of a war but has also has gone on to do good and teach children. That Obama was on the same committee as him should not be held against him. If it is that McCain's ties to terrorists should be held against him as well. Most politicians can, it appears to me, be tied to terrorist in some way. Including the founding fathers of the USA. They were terrorists from the British point of view - one sides terrorist is another sides freedom fighter. I do not condone terrorists but some terrorists are not bad people and some do have worthy causes, though I'd much prefer they used non-violent means. Since Obama is being called a terrorist because of his ties to Ayers, I will now point out this article from the Huffington Post showing some of McCain's ties to terrorists:
A newsletter from 1984 provides more embarrassing evidence of John McCain's relationship with the U.S. Council on World Freedom, a group that was involved in funding militant anti-communists and espoused some anti-Semitic views.I find it interesting that several prominent republicans like Colin Powell are endorsing Obama. What I find even more interesting is that the actual terrorist, the ones the government has been trying to get for years, are according to the New Zealand Herald supporting McCain: Al Qaeda-linked website backs McCain as president or if you prefer an US paper; New York Times: The Endorsement From Hell. On the one hand Obama is being called a terrorist often enough, though to be fair McCain did do the honorable thing and tell his supporters that Obama is not a terrorist or a Muslim and it is not, as far as I know, McCain who is saying these things, the actual terrorist would prefer McCain to Obama.
McCain's face graces the front page of the group's "World Freedom Report," published on Dec. 15, 1984, a copy of which was obtained from the research library at the University of Kansas. The front page also features a reprint of an article McCain penned that same month for Reader's Digest.
In the early 1980s, McCain served on the advisory board of the Council on World Freedom, which funded and provided arms to what the Associated Press described as "ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America." The group also "aided rebels trying to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua," which landed it "in the middle of the Iran-Contra affair and in legal trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, which revoked the charitable organization's tax exemption."
When McCain's connection to the council received its first blast of press attention earlier this month, his campaign told Politico that McCain "disassociated himself" from the group in 1984 "when questions were raised about its activities."
But the group's tax filing in 1985, covering the previous year, lists McCain as a member of the advisory board. And in October 1985, a States News Service report placed McCain "at a Washington awards ceremony staged by the council."
Moreover, in 1986, McCain himself told the Phoenix New Times that his reason for leaving the group merely had to do with a lack of time.
Asked by the AP this year about McCain's alleged efforts to distance himself from the council in both 1984 and 1986 (when McCain had to ask to have his name removed from the group's stationary), founder John Singlaub said: "That's a surprise to me. ... I don't ever remember hearing about his resigning."
Though the group's founder also said it was possible that McCain had asked to resign and he hadn't heard about the "housekeeping" details, the Council's unearthed newsletter from late 1984 would seem to support Singlaub's -- and not McCain's -- memory of the events.
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