COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, June 20, 2008

Did The Messiah Fly Too Close to the Sun?



McCain can beat Obama if he goes at him and continuingly keeps him on the defensive exposing him for what he really is, another ordinary very ambitious politician who will do anything, say anything and stage anything to get elected.

That will not budge the hard core Left who does not care. They share the same lust for power in their quest to complete their elitist world view.

It could help with a crucial three or four percent who actually believe in the Obama.

Here's hoping my guy has the steel teeth.

______________________


Obama’s Decision Threatens Public Financing System

By LESLIE WAYNE
Published: June 20, 2008

From the moment that the public financing system was created in the wake of the Watergate crisis, it was viewed as an imperfect way to rid politics of the excesses of special-interest money.

But now, with the decision by Senator Barack Obama to become the first presidential candidate to forgo public money, the system is facing the most critical threat to its survival.

At various times in its three-decade life, the public financing system has been declared close to its demise. Yet, every four years, it has continued to survive, with all presidential candidates since the system began in 1976 accepting public money to run their general election campaigns — and the spending limitations that come with it.

Yet, while candidates have accepted these limitations, large sums of special-interest money have continued to enter politics through inventive loopholes used by major contributors to get around the law’s restrictions.

Over the years, these loopholes have come in different names and different forms. Back in the 1990s, there was “soft money,” a flood of unlimited and unrestricted donations given to party committees, leading to influence-peddling excesses that were laid bare in a Clinton-era Senate investigation.

That type of giving was outlawed, and a few years later came the rise of “527 money,” named for a section of the tax code that regulates independent spending.

In recent years have come the “bundlers,” or wealthy individuals who gather donations from other rich donors. They are the Rangers and Pioneers and other titled donors that are the descendants of the Republican Team 100 fund-raising juggernaut of the first President Bush.

But Mr. Obama’s decision to opt out of public financing — along with the ability of the Internet to let candidates raise large sums of money from small donors — may do more to shatter the system than all of the loopholes it has spawned.

As structured, each presidential candidate stands to receive $84 million in public money. This money is gained from the $3 check-off on federal taxpayer returns, which the major party candidates can use to run a general presidential campaign from the end of each party’s convention to the November election.

Each political party can also raise and spend money to support its candidate. Donors can give up to $28,500 to party committees, as well as often-unlimited amounts to 527s, nonprofits and a bevy of other committees that exist outside the formal party structure, to influence the election.

Yet even candidates with as many wealthy connections as George W. Bush or who are as adept at fund-raising as Bill Clinton took public money for their general presidential campaigns. Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, has said he would remain committed to the public finance system, but he may well be the last major candidate to do so.

“Obama’s decision may not be the death knell of public financing, but it certainly is close to it,” said Anthony J. Corrado Jr., a campaign finance expert and professor of government at Colby College. “Public financing has become a system of last resort, rather than the jewel of the campaign finance system. Rather than being a source of funds, candidates accept public money kicking and screaming.”

Even the Supreme Court, in a 2003 decision upholding the McCain-Feingold measure that banned soft money from politics, recognized how difficult it is to shut off the spigot of special interest money in politics. “Money, like water, will always find an outlet,” the court wrote.

These days the outlet is the Internet, the tool that enabled Mr. Obama to break his promise that he would accept public funds.

But the use of the Internet to raise campaign money at least plays into the spirit of campaign finance reform, some analysts said, and possibly does more to rein in the influence of big donors and special interests than 30 years of restrictions imposed by federal law.

While collecting contributions through the click of a button has contributed to the record-breaking sums of money raised this election — for the Democratic primaries alone, Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton raised around $500 million — it has also made it easier for average Americans to participate in the financial end of politics.

Reformers have long said the current system forces candidates to spend a disproportionate amount of time raising money and courting the wealthy and others with special interests who can easily raise it.

But by showing that he could raise large sums from small donors — 47 percent of the $263 million Mr. Obama received has come in amounts of $200 or less — Mr. Obama has made the argument that he has achieved online what the public finance system has been unable to do. And he has been freed from the necessity of spending countless hours fund-raising.

“The reality is that the amount of money that comes from the government is not enough to run a modern presidential campaign,” said Larry Makinson, a consultant to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington group that tracks campaign donations. “The amount Obama has raised from small contributors has been unprecedented. There has never been an infusion of small dollar donors like this.

“And,” Mr. Makinson said, “he got there by snubbing the campaign finance system.”


58 comments:

  1. The more that the Messiah's true evil intent are exposed, the more people will walk about feeling f*cked over and bitter....

    this is WHAT they deserve... I predict that aside from the core obamamaniacs, every issue that gets exposed (rezko, financing, how he won the democratic senate seat in chicago by petition redux, wright, ayers, bowtie louie, the PLO etc) will peal away the centralist americans

    every terror attack that comes from those he "supports" will cause his base to shrink...

    as china increases oil prices to it's people and oil declines as an issue, his support will shrink...

    as iraq improves? obama shrinks...

    as hamas, iran and hezbollah increase in power? obama will shrink...

    obama is NOTHING but a good rap star.. oh i mean speech giver...

    I cant wait for the real crap about him to hit the fan....

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  2. Draggin up from 4 threads back:

    j willie said...
    "Ash's behavior in his last two posts squares with consistent liberal tactic when confronted with indisputable facts , he changes the subject.

    Ash, since you brought it up, seems that not all the terrorist associated with the Toronto group are knuckleheads; being an Atlanta resident, I take the idea of a million dead from smallpox pretty seriously.

    Bobal, got a good laugh out of your "pokin the fire" line!s"





    No attempt to change the topic j willie and no, I don't think all terrorists are knuckleheads. Quite the contrary. In the one case that has reached trial so far it is amusing how banal some of the stuff is but if you read up on more of that trial you find that this particular kid is really quite niave, is a recent convert to Islam (one pressing question for him is "Is Nivea cream halal?"), but he is a prime candidate to strap on a suicide bomb vest.

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  3. There certainly is a problem in American Politics (Canadian as well) with the influence of money. The problem is how to deal with it. Limiting money is decried as limiting freedom of speech and Obama's choice to not accept the government's subsidy is seen as a bad thing? Maybe the government should get out of campaign finance altogether, or only allow the gov. to finance... Are there any other real choices?

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  4. Deuce,

    Don't miss the weegee video on the front page of the NY Times:

    8 minutes of great history of the creator of The Naked City.

    (hint for watching videos:
    be sure to refresh page first, so that auto-refresh [meta] does not intrude in middle of video)

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  5. What needs to happen is an investigation of where all that money is coming from:

    Early on, Hillary's impoverished Chinese donors were brought to light.

    Someone needs to see how Soros and Co. are distributing funds to the huddled masses for the purpose of supporting the Marxist in Waiting.

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  6. Firefoxy girl:

    http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1120.html

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  7. Kaddafy on Obama Wll the hooker previously and Kaddafy here sure look the archtypical villains.

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  8. But we already knew this.--

    "He's one John McCain in front of white Republicans. And he's a different John McCain in front of Hispanics," complained Rosanna Pulido, a Hispanic and conservative Republican who attended the meeting.

    Pulido, who heads the Illinois Minuteman Project, which advocates for restrictive immigration laws, said she thought McCain was "pandering to the crowd" by emphasizing immigration reform in his 15-minute speech.

    "He's having his private meetings to rally Hispanics and to tell them what they want to hear," she said. "I'm outraged that he would reach out to me as a Hispanic but not as a conservative."

    After the event, McCain met privately with Martin Sandoval, an Illinois state senator and Democratic convention delegate for former candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. Sandoval said he left open the possibility of backing McCain, citing his immigration stance and pledge to keep business taxes low.

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  9. There is no "too close" for this dude. He can do no wrong. Everything he says and does gets spun in a golden light...or ignored. I'm past it, Ive given it over.

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  10. CNBC and CNN are talking about oil and energy crisis. Good. But why is the Pentagon advertising IAF exercises?

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  11. Why ask why?

    The answer is obvious
    we're letting the Iranians know they're coming, if they are.

    The IAF won't fly before the SOFA with Iraq is signed, or it will not be signed. And that would be a strategic loss that GWB cannot allow.

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  12. The one hundred planes that the IAF reportedly used, in the excercise, not enough to do the job on Iranian capacity, successfully.

    Enough to start a real war, though

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  13. Let's see, doug, let's check the bank records of the 750,000 residents that have donated under $200 to Obama.

    Where'd they get that kind of money?
    Inquiring minds want to know

    He doesn't accept the "bundled" donations, nor lobbiest cash.

    Is he so clean that he HAS to be dirty?

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  14. "..Enough to start a real war, though.."


    I doubt it. The Mullahs know it's over. The Islamic revolution is a bust.

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  15. "Is he so clean that he HAS to be dirty?"

    What's clean about him? Everything on his resume indicates he's dirty.

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  16. The one hundred planes that the IAF reportedly used, in the excercise, not enough to do the job on Iranian capacity, successfully.

    Enough to start a real war, though


    Yep the same doomsday prediction on how hard Iraq would be..

    If the IDF takes out Iran's nuke centers, PLUS it's oil refineries (not it's oil exporting ability, but that would be fine by me too), hit it's command and control and it's long range missiles (just like it did in the 2006 war in the 1st day) Iran will be left with using terrorism...

    oh that's what they DO already....

    dr war is coming to iran... like it or not, america's stated policy or not....

    iran is about to be flushed.


    will it be clean? who knows...

    but if i were you I'd not bet on Iran as coming out of it in one piece...

    Kurds of Iran?

    Azlar Arabs?

    Most of iran AINT even persian.....

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  17. obama is as dirty as they come, he just had the mr clean suit on and the "black" Dan Akroyd look...

    just looking at WHO his friends were for the last 22 years is enough for me to vomit....

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  18. The IAF won't fly before the SOFA with Iraq is signed, or it will not be signed. And that would be a strategic loss that GWB cannot allow.

    That seems to me to have the ring of truth to it.

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  19. Let me see if I get this "straight". The conservatives in the Elephant Bar want Obama to accept millions of dollars of tax money rather than free-will donations, and when he says he's going to stick with a grass-roots funding model, he is accused of doing anything to get elected. Check!

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  20. "Straight". Thats funny, either way.

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  21. I can't stand the guy, but it seems he's getting bucks from millions of blacks, and others, which is understandable. When he was nobody he said he'd take the govt. money, right? So he can be accused of backtracking. They all can. A system where you got millions of small givers seems a lot better to me than a system perpetually bought by the big boys. McCain's option is to fire up his base, guys like me, who might well have given to Tancredo or Romney. Obama's got a huge pool of folks who are fired up.

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  22. "..McCain's option is to fire up his base, guys like me, who might well have given to Tancredo or Romney.."

    If McCain picks Romney as VP and energy Tzar and starts taking energy independence like it should be done, thru Solar Wind and plugin-cars, he could very easily have millions funneled to him thru the millions of EB church subscribers.

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  23. Just as Trish says:
    Lull-us believes in NOTHING.
    Spent the last two years posting haranges on the need for public financing.
    Now this.

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  24. I'd tell you who needs to be fired up, al-Bob.
    But I can't.

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  25. If he picked Arpaio for Veep, he wouldn't need money, but he'd get it anyway.

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  26. Gaza Gallows Humor


    Gaza's Storm Before the Calm -


    He watched the five rockets soar into the sky and streak towards southern Israel. Then, Yusef did a stupid thing: he crept back to retrieve the rocket-launcher. By now, he was in the cross hairs of an Israeli drone, which had spotted him creeping along a wall, under a bough of orange bougainvillea. The remote controllers of the pilotless aircraft fired a missile. "I remember getting hit," says Yusef "It was like my leg jumped up and hit me in the face."

    He woke up in a bed at a Gaza hospital. The wall above his head in the intensive care unit is plastered with the faces of dead Palestinian fighters that supporters believe have gone on to paradise. Yusef was nearly one of them, but he survived - minus a leg that was amputated below his knee. Barely conscious, he cracked a joke with his comrades from the Salaheddin Brigades jostling around his bed. "It looks like my leg has reached paradise before I did," Yusef said with a weak laugh.

    Four of Yousef's rockets thudded into open fields, but a fifth crashed into a house in the Israeli town of Sderot, leaving its 10 occupants dazed but miraculously alive.

    In a crescendo of violence in the hours before the truce took effect, militants fired more than 29 rockets and Israel responded with three air and artillery strikes. Says one Islamic Jihad rocket-man named Mohamed, limping from a piece of Israeli shrapnel in his foot: "We had a busy day. Our commanders told us to fire off as many rockets as we could." Mohammed was injured shortly before midnight by an Israeli artillery shell two minutes after he fired his ninth rocket under a glaring full moon.

    It was to stop such rockets from raining down on Israeli towns that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert entered into what his critics decry as a pact with the devil.

    Well, duh.

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  27. Joe's been cracking down. Good for Joe. Hope he gets re-elected this November.

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  28. ..talking energy independence..

    Doug, keep on topic.

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  29. When the State parties of the GOP ran those negative ads, and McCain said they were beyond his control, that killed closing the "loopholes" in Public Financing of the election, this cycle.

    Good riddence yo bad rubbish.

    If McCain takes the Government monies, instead of raising his own, it's only in an attempt to skim from the proceeds.

    As they already have with Eagle Air.

    No doubt legal, to own the company that leases the plane to the campaign, but the head of that fish is already rotten.

    Wanna bet that Western Leasing Co, another McCain family business, owns the "Straight Talk Express"?

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  30. Arpaio cannot stand to be in the same room with John McCain, doug.

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  31. Mitt Romney and Joe Arpaio

    Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio traveled to New Hampshire to stump for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the weekend.

    Arpaio, who has made national headlines for arresting illegal immigrants, appeared with U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado, at a press conference in Manchester to discuss illegal immigration.

    Here’s some of Arpaio’s quotage, as provided by Romney’s campaign:

    “I like (Romney’) stance on illegal immigration. If you recall, he’s probably the first governor that did make arrangements with (the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement service) for that type of training that ICE and we do. I give him a lot of credit for that.”

    “It is an important problem in the state of Arizona and the whole country. That’s one reason I support the governor, versus many other reasons, too.
    Unfortunately, we have a U.S. senator from that important state that doesn’t give much emphasis to this most important issue.”


    Though Arpaio says he'll endorse McCain, "if asked", so far McCain is "examining" the terms of an Arpaio endorsement.

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  32. He was on Kevin James show, said Cain has endorsed his oppo before.

    Guy running for LA Mayor wants him as Chief.
    Says no way, worked a bureaucrap for others for 32 years.
    32 years more than he wanted to.

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  33. "Doug, keep on topic."

    This ain't the BC Ivy League, conselor!

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  34. 80% approval, Bob, defeet not in play.

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  35. Defeat, for Arpaio?

    Gotta be kidding.

    He could have been Governor or Senator, but enjoys running the kingdom that is the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department.

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  36. Disregard anything I say about US politics, my emotions always in the way. Obama Way Ahead In New Poll

    Didn't know Joe was so popular but thinking about it I should have quessed that.

    Maybe he's got a Joe Jr. who could run for Senator.

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  37. Ash will soon be by to tell us that Joe is violating all sorts of stuff by stopping and checking ID's on Mexicans that happen to look like Mexicans and are hanging around Home Depot.

    I know what he'll call it too. Profiling. When what it is is the most logical thing in the world.

    Then we'll have a big discussion about what reasonable suspicion is that someone might be breaking the law, etc.

    Then he'll declare the argument over, and that he's won.

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  38. The video explaining the way McCain is currently breaking the Campaign Finance laws. According to the GOP head of the FEC.
    Campaign Finance Deformed

    McCain himself is at this moment breaking the law in continuing to spend over the spending limits he promised to abide by through the primary season in exchange for public financing. (By the FEC's rules, we're still in the primary phase of the election and will be until the conventions.)

    I want to return to this subject though because this is not hyperbole or some throw away line. He's really doing it. McCain opting into public financing, accepted the spending limits and then profited from that opt-in by securing a campaign saving loan. And then he used some clever, but not clever enough lawyering, to opt back out. And the person charged with saying what flies and what doesn't -- the Republican head of the FEC -- said he's not allowed to do that. He can't opt out unilaterally unless the FEC says he can.

    The most generous interpretation of what happened is that McCain's lawyer came up with an ingenious legal two step that allowed him to double dip in the campaign finance system, eat his cake and spend it too. But even if you buy that line, successful gaming of the system doesn't really count as strict adherence. And the point is irrelevant since the head of the FEC -- a Republican -- says McCain cannot do this on his own.

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  39. McCain's a rich fellow, why doesn't he use some of his own money. He may have to pay that loan back with his own money.

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  40. McCain's family, his wife and children, they are rich, bob.

    John has to by on his salary and pension, about $300,000 per year.

    While he gets to use all his wife's stuff, none of it is his.
    It is what saved him in the Keating Five scandal. Seems he did not "profit" from the relationship, just his wife and father-in-law did. So he was able to slide.

    They've been using that scam for thirty years, not going to quit, now.

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  41. Having looked over the wives of the two candidates, I got to say, if I had to live with one or the other, I'd pick Michelle.

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  42. Better legs.:)

    gams

    and I like older women

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  43. I do not know if Obama would have "made it" without Michelle, but let there be no doubt, without Cindy, John McCain would be on the beach, retired in Cabo, long ago.

    He'd have never had a political career, not without his wife and her family ties.

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  44. Married into the mob

    Gotta love it.

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  45. From bob's link

    Obama's personal ratings have improved, as well: 62 percent of voters overall say they have a favorable opinion of him compared to only 26 percent who have an unfavorable opinion. By comparison, McCain's ratings are 49 percent favorable to 37 percent unfavorable, representing a drop from his previous 54 percent favorable rating. In the previous poll, coming at a time when Clinton's attacks on him were still fresh in Democrats' minds, Obama's favorability ratings were just 55 percent favorable versus 40 percent unfavorable. In the new survey, Clinton supporters' view of Obama have turned solidly positive (70 percent favorable versus 18 percent unfavorable).

    Obama is trusted more to handle what may prove the biggest issue of the 2008 election--the economy and jobs—by a wide margin (54 percent to 29 percent). He also has a sizable advantage on energy policy, 48 percent to 34 percent, despite McCain's attempts this week to turn voters his way by supporting some new oil drilling and renewing his call for a gas-tax holiday


    Factor in a two or three to one spending advantage for Obama, across the 17 States that count.

    John better fire up that bus!

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  46. What Iranian nukes?

    Obviously Rep McCotter did not read the NIE concerning Iran.

    Or know of the lack of Iranian capacity to reach US with a nuke, if Iran had one.

    Gotta be afraid of his shadow, that Mr McCotter

    Start some meaningful diplomacy with Iran, cut off World Bank funding for projects there. That'd be a real start to effective diplomacy.

    To much for US to contemplate, though.

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  47. The World Bank, either with US or against US. As Mr Bush said regarding those that support terrorists.

    Obviously the World Bank should be declared an enemy, as they are financing projects a terrorist sponsoring Nation.

    But that is a bridge to far, for US to even discus in Congress.

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  48. Better we just insult each others intelligence, there.

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  49. Well, Rat, on the economy anyway, we know we might as well not look to McCain, as he said he didn't know anything about it.

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  50. And if Obama had identified himself as a white man, we'd have never heard of him.

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  51. And Obama's not the messiah, he's that hidden fellow, returned, the guy from the well, that 12th imam guy.

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  52. Doug:Spent the last two years posting haranges on the need for public financing.
    Now this.


    The point is to get the influence of big players out of politics, the same big shots who benefit from the very laws they lobby to pass. Since Righties won't go for public financing of campaigns by statute (violates "free speech") Obama has embraced the spirit of the principle with small $100 donations. There's no issue here except a technical flip-flop, but at this point Righties will grasp anything to complain about.

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  53. Bobal, all this talk about gams, I'm starting to think you're a stick man.

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  54. Well, bob ...


    He will have great charisma & speaking ability, "a mouth speaking great things".

    He will rise to power on a wave of world euphoria, as he temporarily saves the world from its desperate economic, military & political problems with a brilliant 7-year plan for world peace, economic stability & religious freedom.

    His power base will include the leading nations of Europe, whose leaders, the Bible says, will "give their power & strength unto the beast."

    Daniel also tells us that he will have a "fierce countenance" or stern look, and will be "more stout than his fellows"--more proud and boastful.

    The 7-year peace-pact (or covenant) that is engineered by him is spoken of a number of times in the Bible, & may even have already been signed in secret.

    Under the final terms of the Covenant, Jerusalem will likely be declared an international city to which Judaism, Islam & Christianity will have equal rights. Scripture indicates that the Jews will be permitted to rebuild their Temple on Mt. Moriah, where they revive their ancient rituals of animal sacrifice.

    According to prophecy he will not only be a master of political intrigue, but also a military genius. Daniel describes several major wars that he fights during his 7-year reign.



    Meanwhile Barack Obama already let it slip:

    declaring that "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided,"

    Which it would be, under UN control, along with it being the capital of Palistine.

    Instead of rebuilding the UN on the Hudson, build it anew, in Jerusalem, as the embodiment of brotherhood, unity and world peace.

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  55. As Prseident, Obama wins the War in Iraq and the one the Israeli start with Iran.

    Saves Darfur & Chad with a limited deployment of troops.

    He has already ended the War in Kenya, before it got rolling.
    With, as doug told US, just two phone calls.

    That'd be four wars won, in just his first three or four years.

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