The Advantages of being far away

One thing that happens when you are an expat is that you get to view things with a bit of perspective that is missing when you are at home surrounded by like minded friends and family. Your friends tend to be from all over the world and bring into any discussion an outside view. That is good because too many people like to stay in a group of like mindedness which narrows down the perspective on any subject.

 

My goal is to look at current events and world events from the broader perspective.

 

Enjoy the ride!

The FOG IS CLEARED – Election DAY

Some of you may have read my previous posts as I tried to sort through the fog around the two candidates. Especially two candidates that were not my first choice for President. For me this is not about democrat or republican. I am independent and like it that way. I try to vote for the best in every election. Having spent a lot of time researching the claims, counter-claims and Internet fairy stories of the two I have reached my conclusions, and here are the reasons why:

1.Obama WILL raise taxes on the middle class. He said he would let the Bush tax cuts expire. That alone will raise taxes on all middle class incomes. He proposal to increase taxes on everyone over $250,000 has since been lowered to 200,000 then by his running mate to 150,000. Do I believe it will stop there? NO. The bottom line is all of his proposals cost  money and someone has to pay for them. Right now 40% of Americans don’t pay taxes so that means the remaining 60% will pay more. It might be wonderful to think let the rich pay, but they have the same right to the money they earn as I do. Why should I steal more from them. Let everyone pay their share.  Taxing corporations more only drags down the economy and more people lose their jobs, end result – fewer tax payers. So playing the shell game doesn’t work. WE WILL PAY MORE TAXES.

2. People say they trust Obama more on the economy… Based on what? A smile, a debonair attitude. I can find nothing in his back ground that shows me anything that says he knows anything about the complexities of the economy. What I have seen is either naive ideas about how the taxes will be lower and the programs more. But in the end nothing in his legislative back ground shows me that he is prepared to take on the economic reform that is needed.  Mc Cain has a long track record of trying to reform government waste, pork barrel politics and he was an early whistle blower on the Freddie Mac, Freddie Mae problem while Obama (a freshman senator) was taking political money from them to keep things going as they were.

3. We live in a world that is dangerous and is getting worse day by day.  Our President must understand the true nature of the world we live in and do what is best for the United States. Obama’s approach to diplomacy is naive to say the least. This is a real world with real problems and with real enemies that have SWORN to see the United States destroyed. That is not a joke or propaganda that is a fact – something that the next President has to be prepared to confront from day one of his Presidency.  Obama is not ready and he has absolutely no real life experience to base his Presidential decisions on.  Being a good speaker does not make you a good president. One can point to the abundance of counselors that he might have around him, but in the end the President must make the decision. Experience counts in this job like no other.

4.  When it comes to Vice Presidential picks I fault them both. There are a lot better and qualified people out there that could have been a better pick. However I look at the two of them, Sarah Palin or Joe Biden. Sarah is a novice and like all novices out of her league. But Biden, a man who shows up drunk at a Rally and has a long history of being a buffoon is worse. Why, because you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. Palin can learn and adapt as she has already shown these last few weeks. Biden remains the same. So given the worse case scenario, which one would I put in the oval office. One who reaches for the bible or one who reaches for the bottle. No matter where you stand on faith, the one who reaches for the bible is looking for council, the one reaching for the bottle is looking to escape. I don’t need the escapist with bad judgement with his hand on the trigger.

5. I used to be a Union Shop steward and later I was in management. I have seen abuses on both sides of that fence. But one thing I do know, that the secret ballot for union elections is the only way to prevent fraud and insure that the workers are free to choose how they will work without intimidation from either side. I don’t know any worker who would want to be exposed to either the company or the union during elections. That system was put in place to protect the workers. Now I see that Obama supports taking that away. THAT will DESTROY WORKER’S RIGHTS.

6. I don’t know what the deal is with Obama’s records, like his birth certificate and his medical records. But to me it is simple, if you are going to be MY PRESIDENT then you had better start with open and honest especially on the small little things, if you can’t do that then how in the world can I be expected to trust you on the big things? Perhaps it is the lawyer in him that says, “Sue Me” and tries to litigate every request. I don’t know. But I do know that this behavior puts you waaaay up on my “I can’t trust you list”.

7. I take great exception too with the Obama campaign fund raising. First I think it was deceitful of them to say they would take public funds and limit their fund raising, like John Mc Cain did, then turn around and go the other way. End result they had several times the funds of their competitor. That might be a smart strategy in a win at any cost election, but shows a lack of honor and integrity. Honor and Integrity are two things that are paramount in a President.  The second issue I have with their fund raising is that they have deceitfully allowed anyone to contribute. Meaning first on the Internet credit card donations it has been shown by several independent investigators that you can use phony names and addresses and contribute to the campaign. YET all they had to do was turn on a standard verification feature that is AVAILABLE TO ANYONE ACCEPTING CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS and it would have prevented accepting phony names and wrong addresses for credit cards. The only reason then that this happens is because they want it to happen. The second thing was that they promised transparency on campaign funding. It hasn’t happened, anything that is not REQUIRED BY LAW they don’t do it. John Mc Cain on the other hand put all the donors on line where I can see for myself who donated how much. How hard is that. It is not, they have the database anyway. So it all just points to more deception. Not a way to reassure me that he is a man of integrity with nothing to hide.

8. RACE – I don’t care if he is black, red or spotted. I live overseas in a multicultural environment. I married a person from another race. Race is not a factor for me. Seems to be for Senator Obama, after all he keeps talking about it.  Moreover he thinks that somehow we Americans must somehow compensate for it too. But to me that is wrong, equal is equal not more than equal. One of the bills that he sponsored (one of the few that I could find in the congressional database where he was a primary sponsor) was to give more grants to colleges that are more than 50% black. Why not more than 50% Hispanic or Asian?  Why just black?  To mean that is racist pure and simple.

9. Friends are important. I choose my friends carefully. I don’t know if Obama does or doesn’t. But he has some friends that I wouldn’t have. His are, by their own admission, communists. For some today that is just a word, the external threat of communism is not as real as it was in previous decades but it still exists. I have worked in communist countries doing relief work. I know what it is to be followed by the secret police, have supplies confiscated and being shaken down while you are there trying to help their own people.  The people living under communism are poor, controlled and afraid. Yet the bosses live like kings and act like it too.  Obama has associated with communists (his father was one) since his youth. No false accusations here, just facts that I can find easily and you can too. Is he a socialist or communist ? I don’t know, but I do know that birds of a feather tend to stick together. So I don’t get a very good vibe from this despite the denials from his campaign staff.

So the end of the story, Obama doesn’t get MY vote.

Clearing the Fog III: TAX Cuts and the health plan

I don’t know about you but finding details of the candidate’s tax and health plans is a bit a of problem. So I did some research around the web and it took several places to find enough detail to put it all together. So I will try to distill what I have found as well as a couple of links for you to look through the details.

Before that let me say one important thing. Right now 40% of Americans do not pay taxes, that means that the price for any new programs (and exisiting debt) will fall on the shoulders of 60% of Americans. Subtract from that the top 1% whose wealth is shielded anyway that leaves 59%.

Another misconception is that corporations pay taxes – yes they do 38% among the hightest in the western world. But in the end, you the consumer pay the taxes in higher cost of goods and services that you buy because any taxes paid by the corporation will be passed directly to you in the cost of goods sold (plus a mark up percentage). So all that taxing the “bad corporation” nonsense is down the drain. In fact what really happens is the price of American goods are higher and so guess what you buy more Chinese stuff at Walmart and then there are less taxes in the hoppers and it comes right back to the 59% who pay for everything.

The guys that get slammed all the way around are small business owners. First their prices are fixed by the producers (the suggested retail price), they can’t make the mass purchases like Fred’s, Home Pro, Wal-Mart etc so they don’t get the deep discounts on products, meaning they can’t sell with deep discounts either. So volumes are low, profit margins are fixed. And their capital comes from loans from banks or friends and profits not the sale of stocks or bonds.  If they are single owners, partnerships or a small business corporation they pay taxes at the individual rate. If they are corporations they pay taxes at the corporate rate. For most of them the tax rate will be 30-38%.  Not a lot of breaks for them either, no shielding of profits through off shore subsidaries.  Just the price you pay to work for yourself.

One other thing not thought about much, why is that owner entitled to a profit? Well he took a risk sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. Most of the time it doesn’t in fact and he loses everything.  Ask me I have been there and done that and have the t shirt to prove it. Which is now why I work in a risk free environment – I work for a salary like most of you.

So lets look at the tax plans first.

The first thing to look at no matter what they promise you, if you spend more money that money has to come from somewhere…. guess where that somewhere is ? YOU and ME the 59% group.

1. First and easiest to look at was the Bush Tax cuts. Gave everyone a bit of money. So Mc Cain say he will continue them and Obama says he will allow them to expire.  So what is the effect of Obama’s proposal?

First of all don’t take my word for any of this just go to this location http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/ pull up the tax forms and rates for 2000 and today make a comparison for the same income levels and see what you get.

Basically though here it is. Lets ASSUME $50,000 of taxable income.  Here is what the expiration of the Bush tax cut will COST you. (Not a tax increase – just more taxes)

Tax – Single $1,350

Tax – Married Filing Joint $1,512

Tax – Married Filing seperate $1,912

Tax – Head of Household $1,330

Of course if you make more than $50,000 a year it will cost you more.

So that one was simple to find and see some actual numbers without all the hype. Lets look at the next easy one, Capital Gains.

Sounds like a loop hole for the big guys. Well I have used it. First of all it applies to any property held more than 1 year. So if you bought a piece of property and sold it for a profit then you had to pay capital gains taxes.  This also applies to stocks (50% of Americans own stock – I am not one of them).  Obama will raise the tax rate another 5% from 15 to 20% and Mc Cain will keep it the same. Have no idea what that will cost you, for me at the moment nothing because I have nothing to sell. Your mileage may vary.

So now about the ones we all really don’t care about – the really rich guys. Why don’t we care about them? Well most of us aren’t one of them, so why should we care. One little fact that kind of suprised me though -

The most recent IRS data shows that the top 1 percent of filers paid nearly 40 percent of all income taxes.  The bottom 50 percent paid just 3 percent and the latest Congressional Budget Office data shows the bottom 40% of income earners already pays no income taxes. Indeed, they receive a net payment from the federal income tax system — meaning from the taxpayers — equal to 3.8% of all federal income taxes, because of the refundable tax credits under current law.

Another way to say this is that the Top 1% pay 40% of taxes, those between the bottom 50% and 99% pay 57% of the taxes. Where do you fit in?

And one thing for sure more taxes are coming. Unless the economy can make a sharp upswing and start attacting more business and hence more taxes on profit, the burden will fall to those wage earners (like you and I) who have very few deductions and already pay the 57% of this nations bill.

So one thing that disturbs me when I hear that 40% pay no taxes and in fact receive 3.8% of our tax money is that under the new Obama plan they will actually get cash from us who already have to pay for the government’s bill.  That worries me.

One more thing I know about government, today they will go after all those earning over $250,000 and when that isn’t enough they will look to the lower levels of income to finance the programs. That is the way THEY have always done it, gradualism. Of course it always comes with a nice song and dance to accompany the newest reasons why it had to be done. The end result, more money comes out of the middle.

Later I will look at the health plans.

Who Made this Mess?

In examining the current economic mess, one looks for culprits. Certainly there are enough around, some are easy to see high profile CEO’s with massive bonus and unbelievable salaries while others, less visible, are *gosh* homeowners or should I say former homeowners.

In times of crisis everyone heads to a cave to peer out and look for “the one” who did it. But this crisis has been building for years and the signs of the collapse has been public since at least 2005.  So a little research on the subject turned up a few tidbits.

Well first of all what really started this ball rolling downhill? Every journey has a start and this one started back in the early ’90s with Congress. Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac were set up by the Federal Government to guarantee home loans. The idea was to expand the housing market by making more funds available. the housing market is a key growth area for the economy and more important and important sense of well being factor for most Americans.

The problem with them both was that they were political animals that congress could dictate terms to and they did. Make it easier for everyone to own a home was the mantra. And along with that manta came the politicizing of the loan process. It now became a political tool to push a political agenda, and for those who ran Freddie Mae and Mac a route to higher bonuses. It was a classic tale of high short term profits that killed the long term business of the company.

In this case the congress pushed for lowering standards for granting loans under the guise of lowering the bar to entry to new home owners. Even to the point of allowing a previously banner program of home owners receiving down payment of a third party with donations made by the lending banks themselves!

You might asked how that worked. Well the receiving bank made a “donation” to a non-profit in the amount of the required downpayment that in turn was used by the receipient to make the downpayment! And guess what, the loans made were typically 3% higher because of it! Suprise – didn’t think the bank was going to lose money over that one did you? And now the fun part – who guaranteed the loan made by the bank? Well Freddie Mae and Mac. So what happened – more loans! Bigger bonuses for a job well done.

Well you can see where this leads can’t you. Right down the drain which is where the 5 trillion dollars worth of loans guaranteed by Freddie Mae and Mac are.

So didn’t someone see this coming ?

Yes a lot of people did, several congressmen, senators and a few responsible people in the government did too.

Didn’t hear a lot about that did you. Well here is one report issued by the GAO last year. The same consultant sounded the alarm in 2005.

http://www.gao.gov/htext/d071033t.html

So another interesting thing about this group at Freddie Mae and Mac is even though they were a government established companies, and were acting on behalf of the US Government. They lobbied congress! Amazing guess what, the more liberal the loan policy became, the more loans they underwrote, the bigger the bonuses got!

Well it doesn’t just end there either.

It starts with the real estate companies who started making higher property assessments to cover the higher costs of the new loans, pushed by the banks and morgage brokers who wanted to write more loans (which they had no liability for after all they were “guaranteed” by Freddie), and sought after by people who couldn’t afford the loan they were getting.

So how did these new homeowners (many of you might be reading this blog) “afford” these new loans? Variable rate morgages with no down payment. So like all the credit cards – “NO INTEREST FOR THE FIRST YEAR” come ons, the variable rate morgage did the same thing. Get in easy low payments for the first year then boom – reality comes to bear. Of course the new home owners look at escalating property values and think, well by the time reality comes I will have sold my home for a profit and can afford my new house.

Well that works when the market is moving your way, but let it slow down or stop and then you have disaster.

Which brings us to today.

Disaster.

What makes this disaster doubly bad is not only did Freddie Mae and Mac do this but a lot of private investors did the same thing, then Wall Street came up with a new idea. Lets take the morgages and think of them as real money and use them to back up loans and other finacial instruments and raise even more money.

So we have money that might not be paid back because we KNOW that the people getting this loan can’t really afford it, but maybe it will work out in the future….

Then we pretend that there is 100% chance all will be ok and then use that to guarantee other loans.

Does that sounds like Financial Russian Roulette to you? Yep problem is that 5 of the 6 chambers has bullets in it and your survival is more an act of God than reason.

Reminds me of that famous line “What were they thinking!!”

Bonuses friend bonuses, they hyped the market into buying these things and the money flowed and the bonuses flowed to these financial geniuses.

Does anyone remember Michael Milken, the junk bond king? Even he is astounded by the subprime morgage crises. At a recent appearance in HK he said at my company we were leveraged at a maximum of 4 to 1 and these banks were leveraged at 20 -30 to 1!

So then we ask who do we blame for this mess?

All of you. The congress that mandated that loan requirements had to be “easier” so that people who couldn’t afford homes could buy them anyway. The Freddie Mae and Mac guess that guaranteed these loans so that they could get higher bonuses. The banks and morgage brokers and appraisers that allowed and in many cases “helped” these questionable loans be made and then passed the liability up the line to Freddie Mae and Mac. And last but not least those of you who bought these homes not by saving and getting a home but by “betting on the come” buying a house you couldn’t afford (and knew you couldn’t afford) but hoping to sell it off at a profit before the bill came due.

Well the bill is coming due now, only problem is the bill could be as high as 5 trillion dollars and everyone (and their children) will be paying this one for a long time to come.

Clearing the Fog Part II

Today is a short post. I was just struck by the announcement that Sen. Obama has raised 150 million dollars in the month of September! What is so striking about this in the first place is under Federal Campaign Law that McCain is limited to about 84 Million dollars total to be spend on the campain which is half of what Obama raised in September alone.

The Second thing that is even more striking is that we may never know who sent this money.

I can understand grass roots financing and  I applaud the concept, it is truly great, small America funds the campaign.

I also remember that McCain has for years harped on the campaign financing from the US Senate. I had to agree with him campaign financing in America needed to overhauled and take out the corporate, the PACs and the special interest financing from the presidential campaigns. In short it needed to insure that the President was elected free of obligations to any group.  The last campaign reform act of Congress bears his name. I wished it had gone further but that is the nature of congress, you always get less that what is needed.

One thing that accepting federal election funds does is limit the amount of money available to the candidates and insures a more level playing field. It looked like it was going to happen this time as Obama said he would participate, until he went over that magic figure in private fund raising and then decided not to particiapte. So today he has raised about 6 times what he would have been able to spend under the limitation imposed on receipients of Federal Election funds. Or in other words 6 times what John McCain has as a limit by US Law.

That decision bothered me at the time. I thought why would he change what would have brought about a more fair race by having the two campaigns on a even field financially. Then it wouldn’t be a matter of buying the election but of presenting the best candidate.

So clearing the fog on this one I follow the advice of law enforcement people who say “follow the money!”.

So ok where is this money coming from for both candidates?

John McCains campaign has a full database online of all donors here: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/gelac/default.aspx. Fair enough easy to see the who, from where and how much of his money.

Senator Obama has over 220 million dollars in donors under 200 dollars each that they by federal law don’t have to disclose.  Fair enough they don’t NEED to disclose them. But I sure want them to…

A few reasons why they should.

1. There have been attempts already to frauduently contribute to the campaign by unknown persons. For instance from news reports the following, ” C More..onsider the cases of Obama donors “Doodad Pro” of Nunda, N.Y., who gave $17,130, and “Good Will” of Austin, Texas, who gave more than $11,000—both in excess of the $2,300-per-person federal limit. In two recent letters to the Obama campaign, Federal Election Commission auditors flagged those (and other) donors and informed the campaign that the sums had to be returned.” (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=676_1223241320). NOTE: Self Auditing seldom works!

2.  Web logger Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs) reported three Palestinians living in a refugee camp in Gaza tried to donate $33,500 to the Obama campaign last year. They were caught only because the amount was far above the legal limit. (I didn’t know they had that many rich Palestinians in the refugee camps who wanted to help influence US Politics).

3. Mr. Tiermann from News Max (definately anti Obama slant but never the less has some facts worth looking at) reported the following. “In July and August, the head of Nigeria’s stock market held a series of pro-Obama fund-raisers in Lagos,” Mr. Timmerman said. “At one event, a table for eight went for $16,800. Nigerian press reports claimed sponsors raked in an estimated $900,000.”

Now that worries me, you might remember that there was a big scandal with the Clintons about money being raised by the head of a big Chinese group out of Indonesia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy)

American laws is specific on this in that  contributions by non-American citizens, or American citizens below 18 years old, or American citizens who make contributions through other
American citizens; or American corporations who make contributions that are illegal.

So again where did that estimated 900,000 dollars raised in Nigeria go? Doesn’t seem to be listed on the donor list. Perhaps the head of the Nigerian Stock market scammed all those good donors?

A futher statement by Tiermann was interesting to me.

“Mr. Timmerman was particularly curious about 11,500 contributions from overseas totalling $33.8 million.

Mr. McCain and Hillary Clinton required foreign donors to provide proof of citizenship. Until very recently, Mr. Timmerman said, the Obama campaign did not.

“More than 1,400 of the overseas entries clearly were U.S. diplomats or military personnel, who gave an APO address,” Mr. Timmerman wrote. But they accounted for only 12 percent of Mr. Obama’s overseas donors, and the aggregate total of their contributions was just $201,680.” (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08279/917245-373.stm)

So who were the other 88 percent, which accounted for the remaining 33.6 million dollars in overseas donations received?

I think I would really like to see an online database of all of Senator Obama’s donors so I can see for myself withouth relying on someone else trying go through the results for me after the election is over.

This is a major thing for me. I live in a part of the world where elections are rife with vote buying and rigging (normal in about 2/3 of the earth’s governments). I hate to see that influence coming to America.  The only way for any responsible Presidential Candidate to reassure the American people that he is running a cleanly financed campaign is to make all donors public when they donate, not after the election is over.

Clearing the Fog before election day Part 1

I have been watching with interest the Presidental Election process, or should I say the media process in electing the president.

This is an amazing election year in a lot of ways.  One none of the candidates I supported made it to the finals. Something I thought strange given that they were some of the brightest and best in America’s politics. That being said I am being asked to vote for one of two that I really didn’t want.  So begans the process of clearing the fog of media away from the candidates and selecting the best one to lead America for the next 4 years.

I am left with 1. Barrack Obama or 2. John Mc Cain..

Let’s start with McCain he is a known quantity. A long time member of the Senate, a maverick that on one days votes as a conservative republican and sometimes sides with the democrats and usually ends up giving the president a bit of grief in the senate.  Not my favorite guy to be sure but I know where he stands because he is pretty up front and vocal about it.  McCain’s problem in this election is George Bush more than it is John McCain. Everything wrong that Bush did, McCain gets the blame for. Well Bush has made his mistakes (just like his father before him) but he has also done some good too (that usually gets forgotten in the heat of the moment).  I certainly don’t agree with everything that Bush has done, but that is Bush. So in my mind they are two different men that although they may share many of the same philisophic ideals they don’t necessarily make decisions in the same way. So I give points to McCain for being his own man and not the shadow of Bush Jr. fair enough.

Next is Senator Obama. I didn’t know anything about Senator Obama before he stepped into the limelight in these last couple of years. And today I will say I know very little about him too, but I have done a lot of research. After all he is the man that wants to be my president for the next four years.

After all the claims and counter claims there are a few things that stand out to me about Senator Obama and his life that I still have questions about.

1. Who is he really?  Well I know that he, although a poor man, went to Columbia where he got a degree in international relations and then to Harvard where he got a law degree. He is a smart guy no doubt so I assume between scholarships and student loans he was able to pay for both those degrees.  So give him points for striving to get ahead. I know how hard that can really be.  He then went to Chicago where he was a community organizer and soon was practicing law and on the boards of several foundations.

Now it gets to the part where the fog was the thickest.

Much has been said about him and his friend Ayers. Some see a conspiracy others like Obama’s campaign staff see casual acquantinces. I am not sure exactly how to classify the relationship but clearly there is a relationship between them. Ayers is an unrepentant revolutionary that hates America, that is clear in his statements after 9/11. His wife even more so. So while they might not be the best of friends, it was in fact Ayers that launched Obama’s polical career in Illinois.  The other fact is that the relationship lasted for a while because he and Obama served together on a “charitible” organization board. Don’t know who brought who to the board. But they were both there together.  So I give Obama a minus on this one because there are a lot of fog covering this relastionship.

Next we have his Pastor Jeremiah Wright. A fiery orator and long time pastor and friend of Obama’s one has to look at this relationship. After all the relationship that Obama says this man is his spiritual mentor and advisor. Ok I believe that more than I would believe any disavowment. Why? Simple the man is running for President. He will cut and run on anyone that destroys that goal for him. AND I balance out the fact that he spent 17 years in his church as one of his closest friends. 17 years wins over a couple of months before the election in my mind…. So the Rev Wrights interview in 2007 with Hannity of Fox news which I watched on youtube was interesting. He said one thing in his verbal sparring that interested me. Unless you have read Cone don’t talk to me about Theology (paraphrased). So not knowing anything about Rev. James Cone and theology I decided I have better look it up. SUPRISE well it was to me. The good Reverend is a pretty strong and hateful person in my book.  Why would I say that? Well here is a quote from his book. “If God is not for us and against white people,” writes Cone, “then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill gods who do not belong to the black community.” So don’t know what his relationship to God is but for myself I don’t talk about killing him if he isn’t against some other race or country. So I found out that he is the main “theologian” of “Black Liberation Theology”.  And Rev. Wright said if I wanted to discuss theology with him then I better read Cone.  Of course I have seen excerpts from the Rev. Wright’s sermons fiery and condeming America. While that can be taken out of context, putting them back into context in a Black Liberation Theology framework makes them scary and not just for whites but basically the whole world that doesn’t believe like they believe.  It is a theology based on hate.  Then we have him giving Louis Farrakhan an award from his church.

So what do the Rev. Wright and Lous Farrakhan have in common beside being black. I mean millions of people in the world share the same skin so it has to be something deeper than that.

Well for one thing even though they are based in different religions they share the same theology, and the same world view. In that world view whites and Jews are the root of all the problem of any person born with black skin. I did a little research on “sermons” by both of them, if they were white and preached like that they would both be in jail as white supremist nazis.

And was that a long time ago association and does Obama support them. Well in public statements he has said he “never heard Wright preach those messages” or he would have left a long time ago. Ok maybe he wasn’t in church for a lot of those 17 years I don’t know. But this is not a new phenomena with Wright, it is his cornerstone message.

And  Obama’s appointed some key staffers such as Cynthia K. Miller as the Treasurer of his U.S. Senate campaign and Jennifer Mason who is Obama’s Director of Constituent Services in his U.S. Senate office and is also in charge of selecting Obama’s Senate interns. Both of these are members of Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam.

So while he doesn’t approve of Farrakhan, he puts his followers in key positions of trust close to him.

So while the fog is still there on all of these relationships, I see an iceberg peaking out through the mist. I for one believe a man is known by the company he keeps and these relationships and more importantly the racist theology that binds Obama’s closest friends and their associates together worries me and campaign statements refutiating them just before an election has to be balanced by the fact that they existed for so many years before anyone questioned them.

This is a major minus in my book.

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