Presidential candidate Barack Obama issued a statement supporting the hate crime bill’s passage yesterday. He also “urges” President Bush to sign the bill, which he vowed to veto:
This vote was about who we are as Americans and whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality. Those who commit hate crimes should be punished no matter whether those crimes are committed on account of race, gender, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. Today’s vote is a victory for all of us in upholding basic rights and protections in this country. I urge the President to reconsider his veto threat and support this legislation. Passing this bill will help us live up to the principle that in this country, we treat all of our citizens with dignity and respect.
President Bush, of course, will have stopped reading at “dignity”.
hisurfer
We’ve never had a president who could speak so passionately and clearly in my lifetime; that alone could make me swing Obama’s way.
Of course, my feelings are all over the place on this next election – one day I’m for Hillary, one day Obama, then the next I’m back to Edwards.
Paul Raposo
Obama should have saved his breath and just said, “Hey Bush, do as I say, not as I do.”
ProfessorVP
Hisurfer, you are a gullible rube. Obama is, like the old expression, married to the mob. Which you have to be in Chicago politics. If he gets the nomination- fat chance of that- more details will come out. Just by beginning his speeches with religious pandering is enough for me to write him off as worthless. In case you didn’t know, he already spoke of bombing Iran. He is like Hillary Clinton, but without a penis.
This hypocritical piece of crap (though hot!) has interracial parents who, until 1967, could not marry in every state. How would Barry like it if his parents could only have a domestic partnership? Y’know, that practically worthless piece of toilet paper he would give gays and lesbians who would really like real marriage? Yes, like Opie-voiced fellow loser John Edwards, Barry is “just not there yet” on letting perverts marry. The Bible, y’know. Our Founding Document.
BillieXX
So let me get this right Prof? You are giving Obama grief for being like every other mainstream Dem when it comes to same-sex marriage? And by the way: he answered your hypothetical question. He said at the LOGO debate that if he were around during the Civil Rights movement, interracial marriage would not have been on his agenda.
And why does his religion get under your skin so? Yeah he’s religious, so what?
hisurfer
Professor, could you try and just once disagree with someone here without name calling?
ProfessorVP
Sorry, Hisurfer, but it’s frustrating. That this common political hack could have you hoodwinked.
No, Billie, Barry didn’t answer my question. Re-read my question. There are only two possible answers: 1) “I would be pissed off at the indignity of being a bastard if my parents weren’t allowed to get married,” or 2) “Nah, no big deal.” Read exactly what I wrote.
Religion is the oldest political scam in the world, and nobody used it better than Reagan- a rapist/adulterer who rarely saw the inside of a church, and Karl Rove, who actually designed Bush’s campaign on one rock-solid theory: all you need is the Christian Evangelicals, and screw everybody else, and you can win. The moment anybody starts talking God, I could see through them if they were wearing a beaver coat. It is a ploy used by cynics to win over rubes. Always has been, always will be.
hisurfer
It’s not that any of us are hoodwinked. It’s an acceptance of the way the system works. Who would you have? Even history’s greatest leaders had flaws.
BillieXX
Prof,
He did answer the question. Maybe not in the “honest” way you require, but he essentially said marriage, be it for couples of different races or the same sex, is not as important as other rights. Now you can disagree with him but he is no different from any other mainstream Democratic.
As for your religion rant, I guess people like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King talked about God to win over “the rubes.”
ProfessorVP
Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King never ran for elected office, Madame Curie.
Surfer, if you believe Barry has any new ideas or anything substantial to run on, yeah, he conned you. He is attractive, pleasing on the eye and ear, and compared to the others, young. That you could confuse him with a great leader speaks well of his campaign and poorly of you.
Elf-like, bad hair midget Dennis Kucinich is a giant of a statesman compared to Barry. But nooo…. he’s too funny-looking for your vote.
Dawster
still voting for Obama…..
(though i hear that Kucinich did wonderful things with the Lollipop Guild)
hisurfer
OK, I got one response with out an insult from you, professor. It didn’t last. Let me give your style a go, ya fucking prick. You poison every discussion you enter. You act smart, but are completely unable to carry on a civilized or normal debate without name calling – basic skills that the rest of us managed to pick up early on in life. Did your mother not raise you properly? And how do you expect anyone to respect your opinion when you appear congenitally unable to carry on a simple conversation without acting like a mentally-disabled child? A lot of us would like to hash things out with you in the room screaming and calling people names. Because when you do it becomes all about you, and rarely about the issue at hand.
Try this on. Apply the education that your screen name implies. Look at my screen name. The HI is for Hawai`i. I know the people Obama grew up with and went to school with. I know them well. I’d wager I know more about the man than you’ve learned from online gossip and newspaper articles.
Grow up. Learn to behave around adults.
ProfessorVP
Hisurfer, I’ll never address you directly again because you’re a bad widdle boy using foul language. As Larry Craig would say, “a dirty, naughty, nasty boy.” I will not speak with you for it would be sailing over your head. Not exactly climbing Mt. Everest.
Dawster, clearly you believe that when an election time approaches, we need to look carefully at the candidates, listen to their words, evaluate their records and experience, closely examine their positions on important topics, thoughtfully weigh the pros and cons, and then vote for the cutest one.
Dawster
yep… and still voting for Obama…
ProfessorVP
Ryan Philippe for President! And Vice President Wentworth Miller! I love their… qualifications.
BillieXX
Okay Prof, why don’t you share who we should vote for? Jeesh, you act like there can’t be valid reasons why someone might for a candidate you don’t approve of.
ProfessorVP
Of all the Democratic and Republican candidates together, only two have actual voting records against the invasion of Iraq, and that’s good enough for me. Democrat Dennis Kucinich and Republican Ron Paul. Each defends the Consitution of the United States and each would end the illegal occupation immediately. Neither is tainted by unethical contributions and neither can be called corrupt. Either would make an excellent president.
But on the other hand, that Barack… of all the candidates, he is the only sexually attractive one. The only one anybody would want to wake up next to and make pancakes for. And that includes me. So gosh, it’s a tough decision!
BillieXX
Prof,
So let me make sure I get you. When you vote for someone its on the issues. Everyone else is just looking for the cute one? Do I have it right?
ProfessorVP
No, Apple Cheeks. Anyone who is for Obama is for the cutest one running, and the only one nicely below the age of 50. He has precious little experience, wimps out in every debate with Hillary, will not promise to get our troops out of Iraq immediately, has been caught taking money from people he shouldn’t take from, and is
against marriage equality. Therefore, anyone who is for Obama – not everyone- but those who are for Obama, particular LBGTs or progressive straights, must be for him for another reason. Only one I can see: he is the most physically and personally attractive. And the closer he stands next to Hillary Clinton or Bill Richardson, the more obvious that is.
BillieXX
Prof,
Well thanks for showing me how open-minded you are. Be well.
ProfessorVP
I showed you nothing of the kind. The topic was Obama, not me. Speaky Engy?