An Unheavenly Scene in Bethlehem

What's un-American about the middle name "Hussein"? Just asking....

It is laughable the way posters use the term "socialist" to paint a negative picture of Obama when the US government has a nice, well-established socialist program for the corporate sector.

The profits of the free market are privatized and go to the corporations, many of whom receive tax breaks as well.

What many seem to either not know or choose to ignore is that you and I, the taxpayers, shoulder the risk and the misconduct of corporate giants such as those involved in the savings and loan scandals of the 80's and the current financial, lending and insurance morass. Ladies and Gentlemen, we ALREADY have socialism in the U.S., but of course, like the rest of our government, it only works for those with money and power.

Ryan C:

1. Just read the 2002 Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq for the reasons for going to war.

2. Now as for the stockpiles of WMDs, it is true that no WMDs were found. However, in July of this year 550 METRIC TONS of yellowcake uranium that had been stored in Iraq was transferred out of Iraq (at Iraq's request) and sold to Canada. For a county that does not produce uranium and had no nuclear program, that is a lot of yellowcake uranium being stored.

3. The Bush Administration may have said Saddam Hussein was a threat, but so did the Clinton Administration and numerous Democrats between 1998 and 2002. In fact, several Democrats used the phrase "imminent" threat. Sen. David Rockefeller actually said in 1998 that Iraq would have a nuclear weapon "in five years." Had he been accurate that would have meant they would have had a nuclear bomb in 2003. And Congress passed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, and it was signed by President Clinton--because Saddam Hussein was a threat and "had WMDs."
In addition, Saddam Hussein did support terrorists. He paid over $10 million to the families (up to $25,000 per family) of Palestinian suicide bombers. He even had his own terror training camps in Iraq. AND al Qaeda DID HAVE a training camp at least 6 months prior to the invasion in northern Iraq.

4. The Bush Administration NEVER said that Saddam Hussein was tied to 9/11. They did, however, say that there were meetings between Iraqi officials and al Qaeda. And the 9/11 Commission acknowledged that there were meetings but also said that "they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship."

5. Now as for Valerie Wilson, her husband's, Joseph Wilson's, biography in Who's Who actually stated that he married the "former Valerie Plame" long before Robert Novak's column was written.

6. As for Joseph Wilson, a July 2004 Senate intelligence committee report concluded that it was Joseph Wilson who lied. First that, contrary to his own statements, it was in fact his wife that got him the assignment to go to Niger. Secondly, while he said that those infamous 16 words stated by President Bush was a lie, HE actually told the CIA that there was a meeting between an Iraqi minister and an official of Niger seeking to renew a trade agreement . This sent alarms in the CIA because there could only be one resource that Niger had that Iraq could possibly want. And that was yellowcake uranium.

Furthermore while there was a forged document, that document was not part of the evidence that British Intelligence used to determine that Iraq was seeking yellowcake uranium from Niger. And even French Intellegence reported an Iraqi attempt to purchase uranium from Niger.

7. Now as for the 2000-01 recession, it began in the 3rd quarter of 2000. Or don't you recall the dot.com bubble burst in 2000? So YES he did inherit a recession. And it was the 2001 Bush tax cuts that made what could have been a deep recession into a very mild and short recession. Unfortunately just as the economy was turning around we had the attacks of 9/11.

Wendy: Yes, a vote for McCain is a vote against Obama. If your republican why wouldn't you vote for McCain. It has nothing to do with race. It is the fact that people believe that McCain can run the country better than Obama. If your democrat vote for Obama. I was a democrat all my life but switched this year to vote republican. The majority of the people in this country think Obama is going to do all he says. Well, they can be fooled but I am not. Obama is in this race to make history first. He read so many books on MLK and wants to walk in his shoes. There is one problem, MLK was intelligent.

MM:Palin is not running for the presidency, Obama is. And if you didn't live in Chicago in 1968, I did. And I know about the Weathermen and The Chicago 7. Ayers was a dangerous terrorist along with his wife Bernadine. He didn't care that he bombed the Pentagon and other government buildings killing about 3 people. Went underground for several years and came out of hiding only to be caught. The judge let him go because of wiretapping. Ayers said he didn't do enough and should have done more. He should be been run out of this country. And Obama is a personal close friend of his and Ayers gave him donations for his senate campaign. They were also involved in Acorn together. I do not have respect for anyone who has ties to an anti-american terrorist who would bomb the country he lives in.

It's ugly on both sides. It wouldn't have been this way if-(1) Hillary were the nominee because it'd be a landslide by now for HRC; or (2) Obama was properly vetted from the beginning, instead of being protected by the press with an impenetrable shell-he's not quite the "hope" or "change" that was being pushed down our throats, or (3) Obama did the 10 townhall debates with McCain that he originally agreed to because all the stuff would have come out then.

"President Bush inherited a recession which lasted right up to the 9/11 attacks"

Inherited? Recession started on his watch. So concerned by this recession Bush took off the month of August. Then we got hit on 9/11.

Imagine if we had a President who knew what they were doing and was actually doing his job.

WHERE WILL THE MEDIA AND EVEN MCCAIN SUPPORTERS DRAW THE LINE?

Today, Frank Keating, McCain’s campaign co-chair, referred to Obama as a ‘guy of the street’ on Dennis Miller’s radio show.

And Politico.com reports that Sarah Palin stated that Obama would:

diminish “the PRESTIGE of the United States presidency. What does it say when Barack Obama says he would sit down unconditionally with Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il and others, unconditionally, and I guess sort of hand over some of the prestige of the United States presidency and validate, I think validate, some of the positions that these dictators have taken.”

It seems that McCain and Palin should stop referring to General McKiernan and Patraeus as heroes because they are receptive to the idea of negotiating with Taliban if it can diminish violence in Afghanistan. Is McCain prepared to accuse them of wanting to ‘pal around with terrorists’?

re: "Calling Barack by his middle name is no more obscene than William Jefferson Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, or "W". "

You're joking, right? In each of those cases, the person you're mentioning used his middle name. The person who started calling Bush 'W' was in fact W

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Oh, I got it now. Before we can call a person by his name, we have to ask them if we can call them by their name. Kind of like a Presidential litmus test: "Excuse me [presidential nominee Joe six-pack], your name is Joseph David Jones, which some may find offensive because it is too WASPY, not to mention the names are rooted in Biblical characters, can we call you your name or would that be out of bounds?

I am not cherry picking. President Bush inherited a recession which lasted right up to the 9/11 attacks. Then it took almost two years to recover from the 9/11 attacks and the corporate scandals of 2002. It was President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that got the economy back on track. Then it was the downturn in the housing market, the subprime mortgage crisis and the skyrocketing energy prices that slowed things down towards the end of 2007. But in spite of this triple whammy hit to our economy, we had GDP growth of 0.9% and 2.8% in the first two quarters of 2008. But then the millions of foreclosures caused the economy to nosedive since.

Incidentally in case you missed it HUD came out with a report today that as many as 5 million illegal immigrants took out fraudulent mortgages. When you figure there are supposed to be only 11 million illegal immigrants in the US, that is an astonishing percentage (45%) of illegal immigrants owning homes!

LOL, love how Danley cherry picks the months to "prove" that Bush had a booming economy when historically the jobs added were far below normal!

"Ryan, the Invasion of Iraq was not based on lies. After 12 years of diplomatically trying to persuade Saddam Hussein to comply with the conditions of the 1991 cease fire, President Bush rescinded the cease fire and resumed the 1991 Gulf War."

James,

Was the end of the cease fire what Americans were told was necessary?

I did not question the legality of the war. Any war can be made "legal". In fact that was an obsession of Hitler's that his wars be legal. That;s why he had German teams do a false flag operation and blamed on the Poles. Its why he declared war on the US immediately after Pearl Harbor.

The question is not the "legality" it is how the War was sold to the American public.

The many lies that Saddam had stockpiles of WMD(take your pick from the Niger yellowcake forgery to nukes in 45 mins to Powell and his vial at the UN).

The lie that Saddam was a threat.

The lie that Saddam was tied to 9/11.

And what happened when one of their lies was exposed before the war?

Why the criminals in the Bush admin decided they would retaliate by exposing an undercover CIA agent whose job was defending us against black market nukes.

ANYONE who excuses these personal attacks and hate-filled rhetoric cannot call themselves patriotic Americans.

All I hear from the right side of the peanut gallery are personal slights against Barack Obama, and nary a positive vote of confidence in John McCain or Sarah Palin.

So, obviously, a vote for McCain is really more of a vote against Obama. And there is nothing in his past, present or future to call for this kind of hate or fear, except the color of his skin.

Joe, it is NOT A LIE that Sen. Obama was mentored by Frank Marshall Davis--a communist--from 1975-1979.

It is NOT A LIE that Sen. Obama studied the principles of Saul Alinksy--a communist.

It is NOT A LIE that Sen. Obama was mentored by his 20-year pastor, The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr--a Black Liberation theologist.

It is NOT A LIE that Sen. Obama associated with Bill Ayers--a socialist, who preaches anti-America and anti-Capitalism dogma.

IT IS NOT A LIE that Sen. Obama is a socialist!

The best thing I ever did was rip up my Republican Party resgitration card 8 years ago when GWB's head first popped out of the rathole he was living in.

Now we have the same band of fools trying the same recipe of 'if all else fails, go for the knee caps' strategy. What really scares me is that the republican leadership is facilitating this behavior thru the likes of this creten Bill Platt..

Question. Isn't it a crime in some states to incite murder? Does what the McCain camp is doing fall under slander? Obama spent 2 years answering questions (Ayers was the first of those). Who is Palin to claim America doesn't know Barack? We've only known her for 5 weeks.

I am calling it at 4:19 PM. McCain has officially become Bush.

Ryan, the Invasion of Iraq was not based on lies. After 12 years of diplomatically trying to persuade Saddam Hussein to comply with the conditions of the 1991 cease fire, President Bush rescinded the cease fire and resumed the 1991 Gulf War.

I am absolutely sick of you radical conservatives spreading your lies and hate about Obama. This is all you have left, after destroying the world opinion of the U.S., devastating our economy and mortgaging the future of our children. If all you have are lies and hate, please leave the rest of us to rebuilding America.

Ryan C. we had a booming economy between September 2003 and December 2007. There was 52 consecutive months of job growth--5 million new jobs. Unemployment averaged 5.0% during that time.

GDP was up 7.2% in the 3rd Quarter of 2003 and up 4.0% in the 4th Quarter of 2003; Then up 3.1% for all of 2004; up 4.4% for all of 2005; up 3.2% for all of 2006 and up 3.2% for all of 2007. Even in the first two Quarters of 2008 we were up 0.9% and 2.8%.