Got this in an email from Alaska of all places…hope this clears things up for you Jonny!
‘. . . I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…..
If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re ‘exotic, different.’
[If you] grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, [you have lived the] quintessential American story.
If your name is Barack your [name is an indication of] a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.
If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a
district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.
If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian.
If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.
If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of the Lessina birth control pill, you are eroding the fiber of society.
If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter
ends up pregnant, you’re very responsible.If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.
If you’re husband is nicknamed ‘First Dude’, with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is admirable.
OK, much clearer now. . .’
yeah, well you do appear to be a pedophile-inspired whackjob who has nothing better to do during the wee-hours of the night than surf child porn and piss nice people off. i’m convinced. happy felching to you and yours.
Here’s to all the mcshameful corporate republicons who have profitted at the expense of most americans. let the revolution begin. we’ll start with you sommerflyboy. enjoy:
http://break.com/index/mastercard-offical-card-of-the-2nd-depression.html
For the record…and I’ve said this before…I’m not a republican. You can knock McCain all you want…doesn’t really bother me. He and Bush didn’t exactly see eye to eye over the past several years and he has become seriously “homogenized” in order to “fit” into the Republican mold…SOLD OUT is a better way to put it. I contribute negative comments towards Obama simply because there’s already quite enough anti-Bush/anit-McCain drivel on here. My POV was represented by Steve waaaaaay back in Post #29…before the Hitler references, and before the personal attacks…either way, we’re fucked. How you gonna argue with that?
heheh, when a thread becomes unraveled.
Allow me to point out a book of rules I personally violate as regular as possible.
The Elements of Style.
Stunk & While. Perfect.
And on National Pronunciation Day, too.
http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com
I think ‘argue’ is the reason this zombie thread moves on.
Discursive Style. What kind of education teaches muddled thinking, loose reference and ad hominem?
Calling a replican a pedafile is likely to offend both groups, but I think gay republican pedophiles would have a very interesting platform statement…as if NAMBLA and the Club for Growth merged.
We are not..’fucked’, as for how I would argue the not fucked position..I would use solid rhetoric, mispellings, relevant facts, and just the pinch of reason.
And I would enjoy it.
now that’s confusing. all cleared up.
My Summerboy,
“but because HOOVER was the pres in ‘29. But you didn’t read that…oh great professor of history?”
Read Biden’s quote in your own copy/paste moron. He does not mention the Great Depression or the year. It is your lack of historical knowledge alongpalin with your inability to read that causes you to perpetuate this idiotic leap. Clearly Sen. Biden is referencing the March 1937-March 1938 stock market crash, the second largest in history, which happened on FDR’s watch. FDR kept in constant touch with the US public with frank “fireside chats” via radio. This tactic was unprecedented at the time and contrasts sharply with the Bushies/McCain/ famed secrecy, pushing things through,lying etc. Palin/McSame’s candidacy is more of the same.
oops don’t know where that “palin” after along came from.
Summerboy,
You may not know me, but I and the majority of American citizens know you, and we are tired of you, your lies and your bullshit. Take your free republican yard sign and get the fuck off my lawn before I kick your ass. Don’t you have some important republicommie task to do like decide which company executives should fleece taxpayers for 10’s of millions and which ones will have no limit? Or whether to run the US banking industry from Bernake’s home office, the Saudi Embassy, Crawford Ranch, or from the Ministry of the People’s Bank in Beijing?
Do ANY of you guys have actual jobs? Other than professional bitches, I mean. And RIIIIIIGHT repub…I’m SUUUUUUUURE he meant the SECOND biggest drop…don’t think I’ll be drinking that koolaid, but you can fill right up, ok?
Why do you keep pointing the finger at the Republicans for selling out to China, of all things? Things started heading that way long before Bush got into office…I know…my industry has been one of the hardest hit. Now both candidates are saying that the key to the future of this country is small business…guess what…most of them are already GONE.
This has grown tiresome to say the least…see you in some other thread.
Dentext…no matter how eloquently you put it…fucked is the word.
but sommersboy, please don’t go away to another post. you are so much fun to fuck with. and the thing is you’ll loose; you know this in some deep, dark repressed part of your pschye but can’t bring yourself around to espouse the changes necessary so this world doesn’t become more fucked. from what i can tell from your postings is that yes you are convinced that all is in the shitter and there’s no better way to make that a firm reality than to vote for mcsame/palin. you are a self-fullfilling prophecy. and you make a fine ragdoll. predictable so, take that and go assfuck you nearest butt dart buddy homophobe.
the one dude on here that’s so in love with McShameful and McPalinful is a first class asshat. any way to cut him off?
Come on guys. I don’t agree with Sommerfliesby’s positions (believe me, we’ve argued…), but really, read his posts. Leave the personal invectives out of it and attack on facts only. This thread should have been left to die as soon as Hitler was mentioned…
…very interesting…
…maybe it’s just me, but i’m beginning to get the sense that not everyone is fully appreciative of the views of everyone else…
…at least it’s starting to seem that way…just a bit…
when ill informed views and worse, arguments, pollute otherwise productive waters, it is indeed cause for retaliation. granted, respect for well reasoned and informed opintions / views is paramount. but when useless tripe enters the system it must be dealt with accordingly. fuck politeness; word up the uninformed, misguided, apathetic, xenaphobic – whatever you wish to call them – dip shits that helped elected the shrub that has largley put us in this current shithole. i feel a scream coming on… watch out!
Word Howard.
The Eight Shrub Years a grumpy electorate doth make. To jest is but a folly, and fisticuffs may be called for. And when I say say fisticuffs, I mean a virtual baseball bat to the cranium until the adjustments are perfected.
bgw,
Ya think? I don’t know where these guys came from, but they can’t even take their own advice.
The rest of y’all,
I’m not talking about being polite. Be blunt. Be harsh. Back your shit up with facts. Saying you want to cave someones head in with a bat is stupid. Calling someone a pedophile doesn’t make you right. It doesn’t make your point. Grow up. You aren’t helping. Sommer (or KG) and I argue. I don’t think we are polite, but we aren’t calling for bodily harm. I’d probably still go on a ride with them, have a couple of beers, and talk politics if I were to meet them in person. It is possible to fervently disagree with someone and still treat them like a human.
Good-bye to this thread…
…el jefe…i think some folks see the language oft times used here & they’ve maybe watched certain issues being played out & don’t realize there is always an edge to any situation…
…that edge, that fine line, gets ‘run up against’,regularly around here but therein lies the opportunity to stay edgy but yet exercise enough tact to not go over that line…been a lotta tromping on it lately…
…my only real concern is that in the time i’ve been here, big jonny’s site has featured some extremely erudite social & political commentary, some of it rivaling dedicated political sites where the content & delivery is considerably dryer but not particularly any better informed…
…so, i’d hate to see the actual thinkers like yourself & other real contributors move on because of the loose mouthed reactionaries…
…we’ve all got a place here but i fully agree that a modicum of civility is necessary…
…that being said, so that no one thinks i’m trying to be self righteous, let me be the first to admit to being guilty of my own on-line stupidity…but i do recognize a good thing when i see it…
…just sayin’…
Wait, I don’t know what I am talking about so lets do this debate later so I can cram to learn the opposite side of what it was I used to support so there is no confusion in my brain
What a bunch of Fags
Appreciate the empathy jefe and bgw, and I’d gladly chill over a cold one with you guys after a nice ride. It IS possible to talk about this stuff without getting your panties all in a bunch…I know…I’ve got more that a couple friends with liberal tendencies…and dig this…we’re still FRIENDS .
Since this has become the SommerSlam ’08, I feel it’s necessary to clarity my position, as Butthead so admirably did last week. I’m 34, live in a household that makes over $100k, went to college on both athletic and academic scholarships, and have been working full-time in a small (15 employees) manufacturing facility that my father and my grandfather started in 1976. I’ve been working there since I was 15, and started off washing the walls in the factory. Our AVERAGE employee has been here for over 15 years, we have a couple that have been with the company for over 25 years. We pay full health coverage, offer a 401k and a profit sharing plan, and give bonuses every year. In return, we have loyalty, and an incredible group of people working for us. My father will be retiring in two years, and I will assume the presidency of the company, with the fervent hopes that I can do as well as he has with respect to profit AND keeping the employees happy. My father is a Republican, and though I was raised under that auspices (in addition to that of Catholism), I am NOT a Republican (nor do I believe in a god). I disagree with the war in Iraq. My cousin did a tour over there, and her husband is on his second. I have the utmost respect for them. I believe that Bush and Cheney should be made to answer for the War…so yeah…put them on trial and convict if you can. I believe in a woman’s right to choose and in gay marriage…neither of these things really affect me in any way, so what would my opinion matter? Contrary to recent testaments, I am married to my high-school sweetheart( for 10 years) and we’ve been together for 17 years…no kids. I own 4 cars, a boat, and 7 bikes. My boating friends think I’m insane for biking, and vice-versa. I own a house that is over $100,000 less expensive than the bank approved me for. I have NEVER missed a credit card payment (in full) in my life. I live within my means.
Now…why would I vote for McCain?
I have lived in the Chicago suburbs my entire life. I have seen machine politics at work…and BOY does it work. My state has a democratic governor (under federal investigation for association with Tony Rezko…I’m certain that name will come up some more as the pres. debates heat up), and a democratic legislature. Cook County (which I moved out of, but my business still abides in), is a JOKE. If you want a truely absurd political vignette, look up the name Todd Stroger and his father, John Stroger…our consecutive CC Board Presidents. (TS was basically appointed to the position of running a county with a bigger budget than many 3rd world countries…with ZERO experience…it’s not exactly working out well). This is Illinois. Our former governor is in jail…and he was a Republican. Our current governor is definately headed that way. The Republican party is a joke in this state…and has been for a long time. It’s Democrats all the way…exactly as it will be should Obama win. Things are not much different here than they are in the rest of the country. People are still poor. Inner-city schools are underfunded and have huge failure rates. Chicago’s mayor knows this very well, I am sure, but he is too busy spending tax dollars to get the 2016 Olymipics. This is the culture Barack Obama has come from. If he has any experience, it’s been right here. You should see the “community” 1/2 mile from his poshy Hyde Park homestead. It ain’t pretty. So yes, I am jaded and cynical with regard to politics in general.
I don’t agree with John McCain entirely. I despise the Palin choice…the religious right is a funny funny joke and she was the proverbial bone tossed to that group of Bible-banging mental midgets. My decision is based upon the “hope” (who would think…the AUDACITY of having hope!) that McCain will follow up on his promises to work with the other side on making this country better. At least he has a track record of pissing off Republicans and working across the aisle. When people like Rush Limbaugh are screaming to the high heavens after McCain was nominated…that’s gotta give you pause, no? I also believe that we need a person (unfortunate though this may be) with a military bearing in the Oval Office. No, I don’t condone war or violence…I think we need to get the hell out and bring our soldiers home…but what’s done is done…and we’re in a shit-storm now. We aren’t going to placate anyone by backing down peaceably…we need to create a strong defensive position and look after the interests of this country. We should not be the world’s police.
No, I don’t believe McCain will be the force of change the people on this site believe necessary, but I don’t believe Obama is that person either. But, I’ve gotta vote for someone. Should Obama win, I won’t be disappointed or scared or filled with rage…I will carry the same hopeful attitude towards his administration…that he will make this country better. In many ways…I’d welcome his leadership, chief among them being the humongous step forward it would represent with regard to racism in this country, which I abhor.
Anyway…it’s ugly out there kids. I hope America lives through this…I feel like it’s a Civil War without the convenience of state borders. Sorry it got so ugly in here.
Now fire away, I’m not leaving.
We’re Screwed
and he’s a motor boater too i assume. i can’t imagine him being a paddler, no way. say no more. go drown yourself in lake foul, you asshole! and stay away from the west. you will be shot.
“and stay away from the left coast. you will be shot” ??
This thread is like a battle between an adult and a bunch of chronic masturbating 12 year olds.
Well stated, but I don’t need the life story. How about total distant/wk and avg speed mtn vs road. how many miles of recreational trail with in riding distance. We are in the same poluting motorize boat together. Those ideallist that think that can live outside the structure of our society are mostly got their heads in the clouds and their parents CC. Inner city are pretty nasty nation wide. But the republican approach is that there is no hope. Save business fuck the people. How can we have eduactional standards for our children when these schools are so grossly under funded. How about the injustice and racism in the justice departparts nation wide. Remember the Jenna Six. Why do we have weed dealers doing more time than catholic priests. I believe people need to work for what they get. But I also look at what is happening in this govt as anything but fair, just or capitalistic. What is more corrupt than starting the war is the amount of indepedant wealth gain by it.
I lived in Chicago, I saw bad things and felt the pain. Therefore Obama is bad
Is that anything like:
Well I saw a Honda Accord on the side of the road this morning. It was overheating…therefore all Accords suck
keep em coming SommerFlyGuy. Same format over and over regardless of your topic.
BTW mix in a few things you LIKE with that reasoning and see what happens
Dude you are killing yourself bro
And I forgot. beers/booze consumed. Stats to live by.
Total distance/wk – ss mtb, about 50-60, road 50 or so…also run 10-15 miles
Trails would be about a 45 minute ride from my house, so I’ve got to drive…probably have about 50 miles worth.
Beer – I like trying new ones, but I’m a big fan of Fat Tire, 3 Floyd’s stuff and Left Hand Sawtooth Ale.
Sorry I can’t live up to your expectations, Butthead. Geez…I never thought I’d type a line like that.
Oh yeah…can’t forget…I am a motorboatin’ son-of-a-bitch…and thanks for the invite…I’d love to hit Havasu someday.
Left hand on Saw Tooth
Right Hand on Dick
sommerfly – thanks for the self-serving bio you offered. way TMI, definitely TMI. is anyone supposed to give a fuck? really. personally i could care less about your manufacturing company, employee benefits, your catholic upbringing (bet a priest or two had their way with you as a choir boy), and the value of your suburbia house. all of it is totally uninteresting and frankly, sad. maybe i’d be as misguided and angry as you if i had to endure such a mundane existence.
and – hope you and your dumbfuck friends have fun alongside the MTV-springbreakers at havasu… spewing fuel and ‘recreating’ on the Desecrated, depressed, and polluted colorado river. you, the springbreakers, and red-neck californians. the place is hell on earth – a perfucked place for a dipshit like you.
Ch-ch-ch-changes…
Thought of you on this one Butthead: Here’s an example of the political climate in Chicago that I refer to…and have become jaded with:
Enjoy the CHANGE!
Obama grant being probed
$100,000 DEAL | State to charity: What happened to garden money, other cash?
Recommend (121) Comments
September 25, 2008
BY CHRIS FUSCO AND DAVE MCKINNEY
Obama’s $100K Grant for a Garden Never Built
More videos
» Click to enlarge image A group headed gy Kenny B. Smith (top right) was awarded a state grant by then-state Sen. Barack Obama to create a botanic garden in Englewood. Plans now call for the city to take back the garden site because the project never happened. Attorney General Lisa Madigan is investigating.
(Keith Hale/Sun-Times/AP)
RELATED STORIESVideo: Grant for a garden never built Exclusive: Obama’s $100K (unbuilt )garden Special section: Barack Obama More in Watchdogs
A $100,000 state grant for a botanic garden in Englewood that then-state Sen. Barack Obama awarded in 2001 to a group headed by a onetime campaign volunteer is now under investigation by the Illinois attorney general amid new questions, prompted by Chicago Sun-Times reports, about whether the money might have been misspent.
The garden was never built. And now state records obtained by the Sun-Times show $65,000 of the grant money went to the wife of Kenny B. Smith, the Obama 2000 congressional campaign volunteer who heads the Chicago Better Housing Association, which was in charge of the project for the blighted South Side neighborhood.
Smith wrote another $20,000 in grant-related checks to K.D. Contractors, a construction company that his wife, Karen D. Smith, created five months after work on the garden was supposed to have begun, records show. K.D. is no longer in business.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan — a Democrat who is supporting Obama’s presidential bid — is investigating “whether this charitable organization properly used its charitable assets, including the state funds it received,” Cara Smith, Madigan’s deputy chief of staff, said Wednesday.
In addition to the 2001 grant that Obama directed to the housing association as a “member initiative,” the not-for-profit group got a separate $20,000 state grant in 2006.
Madigan’s office has notified Obama’s presidential campaign of the probe, which was launched this week. But Obama’s actions in awarding the money are not a focus of the investigation, Smith said.
Questions about the grant, though, come as spending on local pet projects has become an issue in Obama’s campaign against John McCain.
Obama and Kenny Smith announced the “Englewood Botanic Garden Project” at a January 2000 news conference at Englewood High School. Obama was in the midst of a failed bid to oust South Side Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush for a seat in Congress. The garden — planned near and under L tracks between 59th Place and 62nd Place — fell outside of Obama’s Illinois Senate district but within the congressional district’s borders.
Obama vowed to “work tirelessly” to raise $1.1 million to help Smith’s organization turn the City of Chicago-owned lot into an oasis of trees and paths. But Obama lost the congressional race, no more money was raised, and today the garden site is a mess of weeds, chunks of concrete and garbage. The only noticeable improvement is a gazebo.
In a previous interview, Smith said the state grant money was legitimately spent, mostly on underground site preparation.
But no one ever took out construction permits required for such work, city records show. And a contractor who Smith said did most of the work told a reporter all he did was cut down trees and grade the site with a Bobcat.
Citing the garden’s failure to take root, NeighborSpace — an umbrella group for dozens of community gardens citywide — moved Sept. 9 to return the site to the city. Its action followed a July 11 Sun-Times report on the grant.
Obama spokesman Michael Ortiz said Wednesday the senator’s staff in Washington will monitor the Madigan probe and an additional review under way by Gov. Blagojevich’s administration to make sure “the taxpayer funds allocated for the construction of the garden are recuperated from CBHA if the agencies determine that the funds were not properly spent.” Obama’s goal is to ensure the site “be used in a way that benefits the community and that any taxpayer dollars allocated are spent wisely,” Ortiz said.
The relationship between Smith and Obama dates to at least 1997, when Obama wrote a letter that Smith used to help the housing association win city funding for an affordable-housing development near the garden site. Plans called for more than 50 homes; a dozen ultimately were built.
Smith also has donated $550 to Obama campaign funds.
The Sun-Times learned about Karen Smith’s involvement in the project through an Aug. 12 Freedom of Information Act response from a lawyer for Blagojevich¹s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The department, according to the lawyer, had ³discovered² 52 pages of ³additional documents² ommitted from an initial response in May to a Sun-Times¹ Freedom of Information Act request about the grant.
Neither Smith nor his wife has been accused of any wrongdoing. Smith and his lawyer did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
In an interview in July, Smith said he was never able to raise the money needed for the garden. But the state grant awarded by Obama was spent properly, he said, on the underground work, with most of the work done by a contractor whose name Smith got wrong.
The Sun-Times tracked down the contractor, Rodolfo Marin, in Austin, Texas, where he now lives.
“What I was hired for was: Clean up the area and cut the trees — that’s all,” Marin said. He said he rented a Bobcat — a sort of small bulldozer — for the project.
And how much did Smith pay him? “If he spent about $3,000 with me, that was too much.”
Chris Fusco and Dave McKinney
Yeah…you got it Mutant Ninja. I’M the angry one! Hahahahahahaha! I’m laughing all day long at the effluvience that issues from your mouths…errr…keyboards. The personal insults…really…those are some great arguements you got there.
why don’t you at least give the source of your cutting and pasting. Maybe it is that Canandian free press. Why don’t you look up some stuff on the other guy.
Sorry dude…Chicago Sun-Times.
And as for the other guy…c’mon…he’s from AZ…isn’t that on a lot of you guys? I’d be interested to see it, actually. Wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if it was even worse from a Republican.
Sommerdude – you have submitted what have to be the two longest posts in DC history. Things slow at the manufacturing plant? That’s where I stopped reading. Get a life, man. Take you desperate agenda somewhere else. Whatever you sellin, I ain’t buyin. Have a nice day you douchebag.
Your gonna LOVE it when I move to Flagstaff!
I’m going to LOVE it when this thread ends.
me too. sommerflyfag has worn out his welcome. and please, move to flagstafftown so i can personally welcome you…
Where’s that Repubodent when you need him to open up a can?