This video has recently been uploaded on YouTube. Is it fair or unfair to discuss this issue?
Click here to vote.
– Yes, of course. It’s an important issue.
– No, it’s unfair to Senator Obama.
– I would like to vote “Present”.
– I would like to use my lifeline. Can I phone a friend?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
It’s unfair. McCain only wants to embarrass Obama for political gain. So what if he wants to associate himself with Reverend Wright, Father Fhleger or Bill Ayers. What’s the big deal?
Obama does a good job of embarrassing himself. Wright is a bigoted racist, Fhleger is a pedophile, and Ayers is a convicted terrorist.
If you can overlook these glaring facts then you, Obama, and the rest of the Democrats are really disturbed people who need to renounce their US citizenship.
The Republicans are just as bad. McCain is a Trilateral and Bilderberger flunky.
We are really a screwed nation.
Palin was just thrown in to make the Christian conservatives feel good that at least they get a hockey mom whe they vote in the traitor McCain. Obama is no better.
Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
O’Bama is a flea-bitten varmint.
Anything that besmirches the reputation of Barrack Obama ought to be made a criminal act. Obama is the last chance to save this nation. Only Obama has the results and track record of a proven reformer. Hillary was a novice compared to him. I hope Obama has McCain/Palin and the rest of the people who made this video arrested along with George Bush and Cheney.
One Anon said:
Anything that besmirches the reputation of Barrack Obama ought to be made a criminal act. Obama is the last chance to save this nation.
To save the nation by make it a criminal act, if someone personally “besmirches” him? That sounds like the personal cult of Stalin. Congratulation, but I rather would like the nation to be saved in some other ways.
Unfair?! The relationships with Ayers, Wright, ACORN, Jim Johnson, Franklin Raines, Tony Rezko are interesting and important, but most damning is that Obama is apparently an honest-to-goodness leftist. He tries to portray himself as a moderate Democrat, but the evidence says otherwise:
Item #1: He has the #1 most liberal voting record in the U.S. Senate, to the left of the only acknowledged socialist (Bernie Sanders).
Item #2: He ran as a member of the socialist “New Party” in 1996 Illinois state senate race. This was more than an endorsement by the NP; he actively sought their endorsement and, according to their documents, he was a party member.
powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/10/021724.php
Item #3: For years, he actively worked with bona fide radical leftist Bill Ayers (who even went so far as to bomb several buildings) on “education reform” in Chicago. What kind of reform? Turning the education system into a vehicle for promoting Revolution… On his website, Ayers writes about it: “Luis has taught me a great deal about the Bolivarian Revolution and about the profound educational reforms underway here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution, and I’ve come to appreciate Luis as a major asset in both the Venezuelan and the international struggle—I look forward to seeing how he and all of you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane.”
billayers.wordpress.com/2006/11/07/world-education-forum/
Obama’s connection? He worked with Ayers for years on the Annenberg project, designed to bring about that kind of “reform.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212856075765367.html
This could be the first time the U.S. has ever elected a leftist as President. The amount of damage that he could do in these troubled times is painful to contemplate.
Luckily there are still four weeks until the election, and these issues are finally being raised by McCain/Palin and the alternative media. [Unfortunately, the MSM will do all they can to cover up Obama’s past.]
“It’s unfair. McCain only wants to embarrass Obama for political gain. So what if he wants to associate himself with Reverend Wright, Father Fhleger or Bill Ayers. What’s the big deal?” – Anon 10:38:00AM
Sure, its unfair. Why should we be asking ourselves what our candidates do on their spare time? Why should we be asking ourselves who does our candidates consider their closest friends or closest allies? Why should we ask ourselves where do our candidates stand in certain issues…like internal terrorism?
Nope, Obama should be getting a free pass at all these questions. He is the chosen one….and no one should dare to ask him about this. Of course….we all had the right to grill Hillary while giving Mr ‘Don’t touch me’ Obama a free pass.
Vote McCain, American people!
I’m tired to wait for leading the world…
a chinese
LOL
socialist? Your republicans about to buy shares in banks? Laissez-faire socialism that? 🙂
Solved the problem yet? Universal healthcare? no?
Pump monies into the Big Guy and it’s capitalism; pump it into education (“foolishness” as McCain describes the planetarium) and that might be socailism/too liberal, huh?
Ayers is a prof…what about McCain’s associates in Keating 5 fiasco – or that woman’s in AIP?
Almost hope JM wins so the GOP can sort out the mess they made – o no..it’s “end of times” and we’re watching for the rapture! A future Prez who can’t even comprehend scribbles on side of a coffee cup!
JM more worried about Obama than worrying about putting forward his own plan…seems like last bit of the Weimar Republic…
My Friends,
During Tuesday’s town hall debate in Nashville, I told a retired Navy chief in the audience that everything I ever learned about leadership I learned from a chief petty officer in the Navy. My career in the United States Navy has had a lasting impact on my life and the lessons I learned continue to guide me today.
The naval term “steady strain” has become a constant mantra throughout my life. It references the need to keep lines between ships steady to avoid a sudden jerk or movement that could easily snap the line. We’re facing great challenges as a nation and we must keep a “steady strain,” because it is not only essential at sea, but in life and in politics.
I strongly believe a “steady strain,” made possible by the grassroots organization we’ve built across the country, is the path to our victory on November 4th.
And with you on board as a member of our team, I know we will win.
Tomorrow marks 25 days until Election Day. The final weeks of this campaign will present new challenges and new opportunities for our team and we will take advantage of this. The next 25 days of the campaign are critical if we want to win.
That’s why I’m asking you to make an immediate contribution of $25 or more to fund our efforts to win important races across the country on Election Day.
While we may be weeks away from Election Day, voters have already begun casting early votes and are receiving their absentee ballots in the mail. This is our opportunity to get our message out to the undecided voters.
Our ticket has a plan to strengthen the economy, keep homeowners in their homes, lighten your tax burden and reduce our dependency on foreign oil. The Obama-Biden Democrats will raise your taxes, increase our dependency on foreign oil and take our country down a dangerous path.
Our grassroots team is already hard at work and will only grow. But we need funds for our get-out-the-vote effort. We must raise millions and that’s why I’m asking you to give whatever you can give – whether it’s $50 or $500 – every dollar is put to work to elect our ticket from top to bottom on Election Day.
Make no mistake; our ticket is the one who will bring reform to Washington. We are the ones with the record of reform and we are the ones with the leadership necessary to guide our country in these uncertain times.
Politics is certainly not a business of calm seas, but rather of rough storms. There are many of us who have weathered these storms before and we know how critical it is to keep a “steady strain” to win on November 4th.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
John McCain
P.S. Tomorrow marks 25 days until Election Day. Our grassroots team of supporters is out in every state in the country working on get-out-the-vote efforts. Your immediate support is needed to fund these efforts.
You Republicans make me sick with your smear tactics – totally cheap.
Clearly, you have nothing better to offer America.
You know, even though Obama is associated with Ayers this will not stop him from becoming President. However, there is no WAY he would ever obtain a White House security clearance with such an association with Ayers on his record. Nor would any military person working at the White House, nor would any Secret Service Agent, nor would any F.B.I. or C.I.A. agent. It would be far too risky.
So how can American citizens allow him to become President? Don’t drink the Kool-Aid. Think objectively and think for yourself. The left has embraced John McCain as a friend and colleague until he started running for President. Now all of a sudden he is a puppet of Bush?
Obama may not be an Islamic Radical. Okay.
BUT HIS FATHER WAS! This too is too risky for me. I will not vote for Obama. What IF he chose to follow in his Father’s footsteps after he gets in? What IF he is in cohoots with the Arab radicals? What IF. Keep asking yourself this question.
After almost all the people of the US figure out that President Obama isn’t capable of much besides projecting a veneer of competent leadership, and in times of great need for a genuine leader, then we can all celebrate his election and the wisdom of the left. The enemies of the US will rejoice along with Obama’s “associates” Ayers and Khalid al Mansour–just guys he would wave to once in a while when he saw them on the street mind you–and god knows who else. Congratulations for seeing through him in time.
“You know, even though Obama is associated with Ayers this will not stop him from becoming President. However, there is no WAY he would ever obtain a White House security clearance with such an association with Ayers on his record.”
Obama ‘Lying’ About Muslim Past, Expert Says
Thursday, October 9, 2008 12:19 PM
By: David A. Patten
Sen. Barack Obama “is lying” when he insists that he has never prayed in a mosque and was never a Muslim, a prominent Middle East expert and journalist says.
Daniel Pipes, founder of the Middle East Forum think tank, says he fully accepts that Obama is a Christian now. But there is strong evidence that Obama received a Muslim upbringing during his years in Indonesia, Pipes said.
“It’s fine with me that he was a Muslim and a convert to Christianity,” Pipes told Newsmax. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal “is a convert from Hinduism. I have no problem with his conversion. What I have a problem with is that he’s lying” when he says he was never a Muslim.
Newsmax asked whether Pipes is alleging outright that Obama has lied about having a Muslim upbringing.
Pipes’ response: “The evidence suggests to me that he is lying, yes.”
Pipes told Newsmax, “It would start with the fact that his father was a Muslim — granted, not a practicing Muslim, but in the Muslim world, if your father is a Muslim, you’re a Muslim. His father named him Hussein, which is a name only given to Muslim babies. He went with his stepfather to a mosque. They celebrated certain Muslim holidays at the mosque together. He had knowledge of the Koran. He had knowledge of Muslim prayers. You put all this together, he was a Muslim.”
Pipes contends that a Nov. 12 post on Obama’s Web site headlined, “Barack Obama Is Not and Has Never Been a Muslim,” stated: “Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian.”
Today, that post bears the same headline, but does not include an assertion that Obama “never prayed in a mosque” and “has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim.”
The page now bears a quote Obama made during the Jan. 15 debate on MSNBC: “In the Internet age, there are going to be lies that are spread all over the place. I have been victimized by these lies. Fortunately, the American people are, I think, smarter than folks give them credit for.”
The current post, which includes links intended to debunk any Muslim connection, is headlined “Obama Has Never Been A Muslim, And Is a Committed Christian”.
Several media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, have reported on Obama’s schooling in Indonesia, where he lived from 1967 to 1971, which included Muslim religious studies.
It is known, for example, that Obama’s designation as a Muslim while attending a Catholic school may have simply reflected the fact that his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was Muslim.
Still, Obama was grouped with Muslim students at the school and engaged in weekly religious studies, including studying the Koran and learning Muslim prayers.
In 1970, Obama’s family moved and he was enrolled in a public school where children such as Obama who were identified as Muslim spent two hours a week studying Islam. [Editor’s Note: Read the Los Angeles Times report on Obama’s Muslim upbringing — Click Here Now.]
A March 2007 Chicago Tribune article by Kim Barker, which stated several accounts had “distorted the reality” of Obama’s years in Indonesia, reported that he did irregularly attend Muslim prayer services at the local mosque.
Obama’s third-grade teacher at the Catholic school, Fermina Katarina Sinaga, told Barker that Obama accompanied his stepfather to pray at the mosque, doing so “rarely.”
Pipes said Barker’s story bolsters his position that Obama was raised as a Muslim while he lived in Indonesia. His accounts of Obama’s upbringing have received a “very severe reaction from the left” and threats from some Muslims, he said.
“The Islamists murmur and threaten,” Pipes said, declining to specify the threats he has received.
Pipes sees a whopping double standard in how the mainstream media has reported on Obama’s past.
“It’s been quite fascinating to watch the careful picking over of Sarah Palin’s record, down to her library policies as mayor of Wasilla, and her possible false pregnancies, and so forth, an analysis that involved excruciating details in her case.”
He contrasts that to the “the general pass” the media has given Obama, whether over his career in the Illinois Senate, the Annenberg library papers, or his upbringing in Jakarta. Pipes said his reports have “simply been dismissed as untrue without any facts to counter it.”
The McCain campaign “has been very cautious about looking into Barack Obama at all,” said Pipes, adding that the GOP has demonstrated a general reluctance to raise questions about Obama’s past.
Pipes has posted four articles on his Web site, “DanielPipes.org”, defending his view that Obama was a Muslim. The articles include the assertion that “for some years (Obama) had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the auspices of his Indonesian stepfather.”
As a measure of the interest in Obama’s background, Pipes’ articles have attracted close to half a million hits. One point of contention they raise: When someone is born of a Muslim father, do Muslims automatically consider him a Muslim?
A group of more than 50 scholars recently posted a statement on tabsir.net, a Web site dedicated to fostering an understanding of Islam, that seeks to refute that assertion. The statement maintains that distortions about Obama’s past are “part of an Islamophobic hate campaign that fuels prejudice against Americans who practice their Islamic faith and Muslims worldwide.”
Their statement says, “The vast majority of Muslims accept the Qur’anic message that there is no compulsion in Islam. Since Senator Obama was not raised as a Muslim, he cannot be held accountable for the religious status of his father.”
That assertion sounds logical to Western ears, but Pipes’ rejects it flatly.
“There is no doubt: It is a fact in Islam that the religion passes on through the father,” he told Newsmax. “And yet it’s denied as a falsehood by people who know better. They know better. It’s Islam 101.”
Supporting Pipes on that point is Shireen K. Burki, an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington. Burki, who spent her childhood studying Islam at a school in Islamabad, Pakistan, has first-hand experience as the daughter of a Muslim father and a Christian mother.
“According to Islamic jurisprudence,” she wrote in a May article in the Christian Science Monitor, “children of a Muslim father — even an apparently nonpracticing one, such as Obama’s father, and irrespective of the mother’s faith — are automatically Muslims. Most Muslims around the world agree: A child of a Muslim father is a Muslim. Period.”
Given that Obama’s profession of Christianity is essentially uncontested, one might wonder whether it really matters whether Obama once was Muslim.
To many of the world’s approximately 1.4 billion Muslims, it apparently would matter a great deal. Experts on Islam generally agree that someone who is born a Muslim (in effect, someone who had a Muslim father), who later renounces Islam, is considered an apostate.
Burki writes, “Should Obama become U.S. commander in chief, there is a strong likelihood that al-Qaida’s media arm, As-Sahab, will exploit his background to argue that an apostate is leading the global war on terror (read: attacks against fellow Muslims). This perception would be leveraged to galvanize sympathizers into action.”
She suggests the apostate tag would be a powerful propaganda weapon that al-Qaida could wield to marginalize America’s Middle East allies, causing “enormous difficulties” in the war against terror.
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/pipes_obama_muslim/2008/10/09/138898.html?s=al&promo_code=6CCA-1
Susan,
Those that fight fair in American politics do not go far, and are quickly forgotten.
I’m disappointed to find this sort of post in your chess blog. Keep your politics out of your blog. You are an exceptional chess player and role model. But, you do not do everything equally well. IMO, politics is something you do badly.
Dear Fellow American:
We have just weeks to go before Election Day . . . time is running short for us to avert a major disaster for our country. That disaster’s name is President Barack Obama.
But this disaster can be averted. I’m confident about this — even though the slanted media are overstating Obama’s inevitability.
But the numbers don’t lie.
The latest Zogby poll had John McCain trailing Obama by two points. Just two points!
Despite the full-court press to destroy McCain and Sarah Palin, Katie Couric’s antics against her, and a daily onslaught of media spin . . . McCain is still within striking distance.
The stakes have never been higher for the future of the country.
We either patriotically turn the country over to a man who has proudly served his nation in war time and peace — or we face electing a man who has a checkered past, a man who has counted domestic terrorists among his friends, and a man who spent 15 years in a church where his pastor regularly damned and condemned the United States.
Barack Obama is not simply a risky choice as our next president —
He is a dangerous one.
This is why I have taken the helm here at the National Republican Trust Political Action Committee.
Here at the National Republican Trust, we understand our mission. It’s simple. It will also drive the left-wing media nuts.
Here’s the plan: We will tell the American people the truth about Barack Obama!
Every time John McCain or Sarah Palin tries to tell the truth about Obama, they are painted as mean-spirited and negative.
We here at the National Republican Trust can do the job McCain and Palin can’t.
But we need your help. Time is urgent — it’s crunch time.
You Can Help Us — Donate Today by Going Here Now
The latest reports show Obama outspending McCain by 3-to-1 in key states.
Millions of dubious new voters with the help of groups like ACORN are being registered to put the most extreme liberal in the history of the presidency in the White House.
But I’ll shock you: that’s OK!
Let them spend millions in getting new “voters” and millions more in TV ads.
I believe truth is more powerful than lies. How powerful?
Well, so powerful, in fact, that I believe one airing of our TV ads will equal at least 10 airings of theirs.
This issue will nail him.
In the closing weeks of this election, Obama is trying to remake himself as a moderate to win over lower-income, white, Democratic and independent voters.
He wants to hide the facts about his record. He is the most extreme liberal ever to be nominated by a major party.
We all know his 100 percent liberal rating in Congress, his support for the TOTAL gun ban in Washington, D.C., his opposition to protecting babies born alive, and his support for tax increases.
But there is one issue almost all Americans agree on: Illegal aliens should not be given driver’s licenses.
Help Expose Obama’s License Plan — Go Here Now
Mohamed Atta’s Florida
driver’s license.
Not after 9/11.
Did you know that Mohamed Atta, the 9/11 ring leader, had a valid Florida driver’s license?
Did you know 13 of the 19 hijackers had obtained valid driver’s licenses? Armed with these licenses, eight of the hijackers even registered to vote!
Here is the shocking fact: Obama strongly supports giving illegal aliens in America driver’s licenses.
He said as much during two Democratic debates earlier this year.
The head of Homeland Security said such thinking was dangerous for national security.
Even Hillary Clinton backed away from Obama’s radical driver’s license plan.
Obama’s position is not a new one: We discovered that Obama has been a major proponent of driver’s licenses for illegals since his days as an Illinois state senator.
We have no doubt that, as president, Obama will also champion this radical plan.
With Osama bin Laden still at large, with al-Qaida promising “spectacular” attacks on the U.S homeland, with the threat of them using weapons of mass destruction against our cities — biological, chemical, and nuclear — can we risk putting such a man in the Oval Office?
Doesn’t he remember what happened on 9/11? More than 3,000 Americans were murdered.
Doesn’t he want to prevent that from ever happening again?
If he supports driver’s licenses for illegals, the answer is clear.
We need to inform millions of Americans about this man and his risky judgment.
We are days away from our new TV ad exposing Obama’s support for driver’s licenses for illegals.
“I’m disappointed to find this sort of post in your chess blog. Keep your politics out of your blog. You are an exceptional chess player and role model. But, you do not do everything equally well. IMO, politics is something you do badly.”
James Stripes,
On the contrary, I admire GM Polgar’s honesty and ability to host a political debate on her blog. Just because people don’t like your candidate doesn’t mean they are doing a disservice to any one. GM Polgar is very fair and even handed in politics. She lets all her fans discuss their politics. She is loved by Democrats, Republicans, and a few ex-communist Russian Presidents (Gorby).
Well, it amuses me that you are concerned about Gov. Palin being a heartbeat away when a totally corrupt and marketed toad like Obama could actually become president…no heartbeat away. And Biden…”slow Joe” as they call him around DC. Let me see, the three times he referenced the Constitution, he was wrong, although he does sound convincing when lies or is just stupid. I can only imagine the big deal that would be made if a Republican candidate said FDR was on TV in 1929…a heartbeat away, indeed. BTW, old-timer, remember when Democrats ditched him years ago as unworthy of the presidency because he shamelessly plagiarized UK’s Kinnock on his growing up story?
Even though your reasoning powers have been reduced by Bush Derangement Syndrome, that doesn’t mean that your guys are some suitable replacement. Don’t you get it? They’re all selling us down river! And now the short sellers and hedges are driving the market down so the Average Joe’s savings are wiped out and they can cover their shorts….and their asses. Greedy Wall Street, Corrupt and self-aggrandizing and lying, deceiving politicians and a cheerleading media. We all need to step outside our respective parties and get our country back. “Let them obey that know not how to rule.” No need to tell you the source.
If you want to solicit discussion of this topic, you might also note that the McCain ad has been identified as a Pants on
Fire Lie by Congressional Quarterly and the St. Petersburg Times.