Regarding obama

[mach1]

JUST SHARING AN EMAIL REC' this morning, July 23, 2008.





Hello everyone,
As you know I am not a very political person.



I just wanted to pass along
that Senator Obama came to Bagram Afghanistan for about an hour on his
visit to 'The War Zone'. I wanted to share with you what happened.




He got off the plane and got into a bullet proof vehicle, got to the area to meet with the Major General (2 Star) who is the commander here at Bagram.





As the Soldiers where lined up to shake his hand he blew them off and didn't say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the General.



As he finished, the vehicles took him to the ClamShell (pretty much a big top tent
that military personnel can play basketball or work out in with weights) so he could take his publicity pictures20playing basketball.



He again shunned the
opportunity to talk to Soldiers to thank them for their service.





So really he was just here to make a showing for the American's back home that he is their candidate for President. I think that if you are going to make an effort to come all the way over here you would thank those that are providing the freedom that they are providing for you.





I swear we got more thanks from the NBA Basketball Players or the Dallas Cowboy Cheer leaders than from one of the Senators, who wants to be the President of the United States .



I just don't understand how anyone would want him to
be our Commander-and-Chief. It was almost that he was scared to be around those that provide the freedom for him and our great country.





If this is blunt and to the point I am sorry but I wanted you all to know what kind of caliber of person he really is.



What you see in the news is
all fake.





In service,
CPT Jeffrey S.



Porter
Battle Captain
TF Wasatch
American Soldier
Don Herpen
herpen@comast.net
American by birth
MARINE
by the grace of God
Semper Fi

[scottpA_GS]

 He was there an hour and you are cryin cause he didnt say Hi?

How many times did Bush come visit and say Hi to ya? And Oo yea. whens the last time Mccain droped by to show his support?

[spc]

McCain's last visit was in March I believe, it was his eighth.  Everytime, he has made time to speak with individual soldiers and shown great concern for both their welfare and their opinions.  W also takes the time to meet with the soldiers when he is over there, and those occasions have been quite numerous.  Obama is missing the point that any ground war is won by the privates and corporals in the field, not the generals in armored bunkers.
I'm not bashing Obama, the man has done great things and is an intelligent and compassionate legislator.  He is not what I would consider Presidential material.  McCain isn't either, bet he is much closer to my ideal.

[trumpetguy]

Urban Legend -- FALSE

Here's the relevant part:
Comments: The above comments are not only "factually incorrect," but also "inappropriate" for uniformed Army personnel, according to a statement by Bagram Airfield spokesman Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green.

Barack Obama paid a visit to the Bagram air base on July 20, 2008, but neither went to the "Clamshell" nor played basketball, Nielson-Green told NY Daily News reporter James Meek in a story published July 24. He said Obama took time out to greet home-state troops, shaking hands with them and posing for pictures

News photos of the candidate's visits to Iraq and Afghanistan show that he interacted with rank-and-file American troops while in both countries.

Update:

    Obama-Bashing G.I. Retracts Claim
    NY Daily News "Mouth of the Potomac" blog, 25 July 2008


SO, now that you now it's a right-wing falsification, will you continue to spread it?

[yamahonkawazuki]

He was there an hour and you are cryin cause he didnt say Hi?

How many times did Bush come visit and say Hi to ya? And Oo yea. whens the last time Mccain droped by to show his support?

i believe he said this was an email he recieved? so anyway, what terry said. and i believ e bush HAS visited teh troops., presidents ARE after all their boss
and why did Obama  NOT visit teh troops in hospital in germany?, i believe he said, it is inappropriate,, well maybe he had a point. i believe it IS inappropriate to visit wounded soldiers as part of a campaign. BUT he could have put the campaign aside and visited tehm. it is NEVER inappropriate to visit these people. NEVER., hell i will have a hard time in this vote, BUT i WILL vote. just dont know who ( yet)

[yamahonkawazuki]

Urban Legend -- FALSE

Here's the relevant part:
Comments: The above comments are not only "factually incorrect," but also "inappropriate" for uniformed Army personnel, according to a statement by Bagram Airfield spokesman Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green.

Barack Obama paid a visit to the Bagram air base on July 20, 2008, but neither went to the "Clamshell" nor played basketball, Nielson-Green told NY Daily News reporter James Meek in a story published July 24. He said Obama took time out to greet home-state troops, shaking hands with them and posing for pictures

News photos of the candidate's visits to Iraq and Afghanistan show that he interacted with rank-and-file American troops while in both countries.

Update:

    Obama-Bashing G.I. Retracts Claim
    NY Daily News "Mouth of the Potomac" blog, 25 July 2008


SO, now that you now it's a right-wing falsification, will you continue to spread it?

well did he visit teh troops at teh hospital in germany?, and do you have a link to what obama did on this trip, from a neutral source? ( neitehr left, nor right? )

[trumpetguy]

well did he visit teh troops at teh hospital in germany?, and do you have a link to what obama did on this trip, from a neutral source? ( neitehr left, nor right? )

Here's what I have found on the internet (article by Greg Sargent):
A Pentagon spokesperson confirms to me that because of longstanding Department of Defense regulations, Pentagon officials told Obama aides that he couldn't visit the base with campaign staff. This left Obama with little choice but to cancel the trip, since the plan to visit with campaign aides had been in the works for weeks.

The Obama campaign yesterday announced that it had decided to cancel the visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, saying that it would be "inappropriate" to make such a visit as part of a campaign trip.

The McCain camp has nonetheless been using Obama's canceled trip to insinuate that he's anti-troops. "Barack Obama is wrong," McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers said in a statement yesterday. "It is never 'inappropriate' to visit our men and women in the military."

But it turns out that the Pentagon did in fact tell Obama that in this case, it was not only "inappropriate," but against DOD rules, for him to conduct the visit with campaign staff.

"We have longstanding Department of Defense policy in regards to political campaigns and elections," Pentagon spokesperson Elizabeth Hibner told me. "We informed the Obama staff that he was more than welcome to visit as Senator Obama, with Senate staff. However, he could not conduct the visit with campaign staff."

After being told this, the Obama campaign announced yesterday that it had decided it was "inappropriate" to make the visit as part of a campaign trip.

It's unclear how Obama could have made the visit at all, given the Pentagon's directives. No Senate staff was on the trip, and the Obama camp says they received the Pentagon's directives on Wednesday, after they were already abroad.
-------------------------------------
Emphasis added by me in the last paragraph.

Now, someone please tell me how repeatedly voting to extend troop presence in Iraq, as McCain has done, is PRO-troop.  How is it PRO-troop to try to block an improved GI Bill benefits and then to brag that you helped pass the bill (as McCain did)? 

Obama (correctly) opposed the Iraq invasion from the start.  He supports getting our troops out as fast as reasonably possible, a position which McCain is now apparently flip-flopping over to hold as well.

And PLEASE tell me how someone who jokes about bombing Iran is qualified to be Commander-in-Chief?  Even if you agree with the need to attack another country, that is certainly not a joking matter, ever.

[yamahonkawazuki]

right , what im saying is that part i understand. BUT obama could have left his campaign staff elsewhere, per the pentagons directives, and went in onhis own dime. to do the visit. in other words, he could have suspended the capaign trip/funds, and done it himself. im jsut wondering why he didnt. he could have. jus tNOT part of a campaign trip. that would have pissed me off. using the wounded soldiers as a campaign prop. which i do respect obama for doing that. but like i said. he still could have visited them personally, that in itself is one thing, among a few oterhs i find fault with him on. another thing. that free concert thing tha t preceeded his speech. whas/is there any truth, that i heard that one of the bands played the soviet national anthem, during it?

[spc]

What this all boils down to is:
A well seasoned legislator with a very honorable military service record vs. an incredibly young junior senator with no real experience past chairing the sub-committee on 'European affairs' 
Or.......
A man who started with all the opportunities in the world, took a path of honor and had his whole world yanked out from underneath him for YEARS vs. A man that has had everything from the very beginning served to him on a silver platter

Obama doesn't know what it means to really fight for something you really want and need, he couldn't. 

[trumpetguy]

right , what im saying is that part i understand. BUT obama could have left his campaign staff elsewhere, per the pentagons directives, and went in onhis own dime. to do the visit. in other words, he could have suspended the capaign trip/funds, and done it himself. im jsut wondering why he didnt. he could have. jus tNOT part of a campaign trip. that would have pissed me off. using the wounded soldiers as a campaign prop. which i do respect obama for doing that. but like i said. he still could have visited them personally, that in itself is one thing, among a few oterhs i find fault with him on. another thing. that free concert thing tha t preceeded his speech. whas/is there any truth, that i heard that one of the bands played the soviet national anthem, during it?

The Decemberists is a local Oregon rock band that opened for an Obama rally in PORTLAND, Oregon, not Berlin.  They SOMETMES play a russian-language recording of the Soviet national anthem to open their shows.  It was not played at the Obama rally.  So no, there's no truth to what you heard.

You conservatives need to learn to use Al Gore's internets and the Google.

And no one has bothered to answer my questions.

McCain's "honorable service record" is of value to you, but Kerry's wasn't?  Just checking...

[spc]

Who said anything about Kerry?  I don't recall him being in the running this go around.

[trumpetguy]

To me, the race boils down to this:

Someone who "gets it" vs. someone who doesn't.  McCain seems to think that the way out of the colossal mistakes of the last seven years is a continuation of the same policies.  To me, he doesn't get it. 

Obama, even though he lacks the experience of a man in his seventies, gets it.  Look where "experience" in the form of duck Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld got us.  I'll pass on that, thanks.

[yamahonkawazuki]

To me, the race boils down to this:

Someone who "gets it" vs. someone who doesn't.  McCain seems to think that the way out of the colossal mistakes of the last seven years is a continuation of the same policies.  To me, he doesn't get it. 

Obama, even though he lacks the experience of a man in his seventies, gets it.  Look where "experience" in the form of duck Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld got us.  I'll pass on that, thanks.

or look at experience in the form of bill clinton as well. as long as obama didnt continue on clintons legacy. then id consider that. ( if he had some experience in power of some sort. hes applying for teh hardest job in the world what has he done that qualifies him for it?( obama), on the same token, and to be fair, so is mccain. what has he done that qualifies him for it? the portland rally info http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/robert-knight/2008/05/20/free-concert-popular-band-preceded-obama-s-big-rally

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.politics/browse_thread/thread/08f103f55116ea55/a3983cde5481e58c?lnk=raot this thread is interesting lol, lets hope that gstwin does not degenerate into teh name calling that went on there 

[Cal Price]

I don't get to vote in the US elections so I won't comment on them but it seems to me that when politicians, particularly those with aspirations, go abroad, meet foriegn leaders and there own countrymen and women serving in hostile places there will always be an element of "Damned if they do - damned if they don't" about who they see and what gets left out of what must be tight timetables.

I suppose, on balance, it is best that they go, having said that I thought the public love-in with Nicholas Sarkozy was a bit odd.......

[yamahonkawazuki]

well did he visit teh troops at teh hospital in germany?, and do you have a link to what obama did on this trip, from a neutral source? ( neitehr left, nor right? )

Now, someone please tell me how repeatedly voting to extend troop presence in Iraq, as McCain has done, is PRO-troop.  How is it PRO-troop to try to block an improved GI Bill benefits and then to brag that you helped pass the bill (as McCain did)? 

Obama (correctly) opposed the Iraq invasion from the start.  He supports getting our troops out as fast as reasonably possible, a position which McCain is now apparently flip-flopping over to hold as well.

And PLEASE tell me how someone who jokes about bombing Iran is qualified to be Commander-in-Chief?  Even if you agree with the need to attack another country, that is certainly not a joking matter, ever.

obama opposed it. "correctly as you said, and there is no correct nor incorrect in this its just opinion. anyhoo obama opposed it, while most in congress, including liberals, signed for it.
hell obama has no idea whats going on. not many do. hell i support gettign them out. but not willy nilly fast. nor with a "PUBLISHED " timetable. timetables only inform our enemies. and the iraqi's enemies.
alright and who joked about bombing iran? hell obama talked about invading pakistan? same principle?, anyhoo back on topic. who talked about bombing iran. and post links with everythign in context not jsut the parts that agree with your position. , and btw its Mccain, not Mcsame, just liek its Obama not Osama. mmmkay  flame on  . anyhoo id liek to read the article  ( IN FULL) ) preferrably from a neutral source if at all possible 

[frankieG]

frigin officers always crying about something 

[lewismug]

I have way too many thoughts on this subject to even begin to express any of them.  Besides, they would probably only piss you all off.  I will say this.  I have always believed, and will always continue to believe that in order to be a good commander in chief, one should have served in the military.  Would you put a car salesman in charge of a f%$king nuclear reactor that sits in your back yard just because he believes in change?  Just because someone believes in "change" doesn't make him  the best man.

[Caffeine]

When you are a politician, EVERYTHING is a photo-op.

I live in south Florida.  I forget which hurricane it was, but Dubya came to town in the aftermath, with Air Force One full of photographers, so he could get in a few clicks handing out bags of ice for the press.  Uh, yeah, thanks Sparky.  

As one of the local radio hosts pointed out, it would have been INFINITELY more helpful to us if they had filled Air Force One with ice instead of photographers.  

[dchrist]

I have way too many thoughts on this subject to even begin to express any of them.  Besides, they would probably only piss you all off.  I will say this.  I have always believed, and will always continue to believe that in order to be a good commander in chief, one should have served in the military.  Would you put a car salesman in charge of a f%$king nuclear reactor that sits in your back yard just because he believes in change?  Just because someone believes in "change" doesn't make him  the best man.

listen, I'm undecided but.... obama = car salesman? really? is that what you're saying here? I think he got a step or two beyond that when he got voted into the federal senate.... just saying.

I'll grant he has no experience and I love how he brags about being against the war from the start (too bad he wasn't even qualified to vote on it at the time **cough** state senate, really easy to take a stand when you can't go back and actually have to make a vote on it).

our other choice rants about finance reform etc. but has a longer lobbyist guest list than practically anyone. he's been in bed with the biggest pac reps for his whole career.

its a dork and a turd sandwich choice all over again folks. abstain in 08! that'll teach em a lesson. imagine if no one voted. not one person, because the choices sucked so much we couldn't stomach it. that would be awesome.... the end of the world.... but awesome.

[lewismug]

No, I'm not saying Obama is a car salesman, I'm making the point that I think Obama has about as much experience in running the United States, as a car salesman would have at running a nuclear facility.  It shouldn't even be a contest, but these idiots that want to vote for Obama just because he is black are going to f%$k this country up.  Clinton was the best thing this country has had in a long time; who cares that he screwed around on his wife.  The man was a great president.  Even the die-hard republicans admit it.  I'm not a republican, and I'm not a democrat.  I am for whatever makes the most sense.  There is some kind of romance with black elected officials.  It's like the entire country thinks that getting a black man into the white house is more important than if he can do the f%$king job well enough to be there.  Blacks think that if they have a "person of color" in charge, that they'll be taken care of by their brother/sister.  You see how far that got the poor black of Ray Nagin's "Chocolate City".  He really cared for them, didn't he.  It's a good thing he used all of those buses to help them out instead of letting them flood and then bitching all over the news pretending like it's the white man's fault! You give me a presidential nominee that actually makes sense and has better ideas than either of the two (presumptive) nominees, and I wouldn't give a piss what color his/her skin is.  I would vote for that person.

Got off on a little rant there, but hey, it'll be alright.

Here's a nice little read if you have the time.  This gentleman puts it a little more eloquently than I could ever possibly put it.  http://www.blackcommentator.com/159/159_cover_black_mayors.html