If these figures are correct, it’s proof Obama is the biggest hypocrite alive.  He preaches huge re-distributionist policies he wants to hold US accountable for; but acts only in his own self interests when it comes to his OWN paycheck.  If this is true, it is truly unconscionable…

Looking at Obama’s charitable giving in since 2000 based on his tax returns, we find that Obama consistently refused to follow his own advice

As the chart below shows (HT: TaxProf Blog), from 2000-2004, Obama’s charitable giving was less than 1 percent:

In fact, Obama gave substantially less than the average family making more than $150,000, which averages giving of 2.2 percent of total income according to University of George Professor Russell James.

By comparison, John McCain gave more than one-quarter of his income in 2006 and 2007 (28.6 and 27.3 percent respectively). And according to the New York Observer, since 1998, he has donated royalties on his books totaling more than $1.8 million.

American Thinker Blog: Obama Forgot to Spread His Own Wealth.

Simple common sense and an ability to articulate… has just proven beyond doubt the unconscionable double standard Obama is being held to by the media.  Thank you, Charles Krauthammer.

Had any white presidential candidate had a close 20-year association with a white preacher overtly spreading race hatred from the pulpit, that candidate would have been not just universally denounced and deemed unfit for office but written out of polite society entirely…

Obama’s political career was launched with Ayers giving him a fundraiser in his living room. If a Republican candidate had launched his political career at the home of an abortion-clinic bomber — even a repentant one — he would not have been able to run for dogcatcher in Podunk. And Ayers shows no remorse. His only regret is that he “didn’t do enough.”

It would server you well to just simply PONDER what he just said for a moment.  What if a republican launched his campaign in the living-room of an abortion bomber… an un-repentant abortion bomber… what if?  Do you on the left really think you’d just let that slide… and yet you still don’t think the ENTIRE mainstream media ISN’T in the tank for Obama???

As you all know (and as I have mentioned before) I am on fairly good terms with my Law School professor, Mrs. Zietlow. We get along just fine (from what I can tell); but we couldn’t be further apart on political issues. Nevertheless, her recent political forays on her blog have severely tested my composure–and I feel compelled to take her arguments head-on.

What follows is a discussion about the latest post on her blog, www.essentiallycontestedamerica.org.  I have structured the discussion to be as ‘conversational’ in style as possible… and hope you read my comments as if I were speaking calmly… with an only occasional raised voice! I have quoted vast portions of her article here for both fairness and context:

John McCain began his campaign for the general election in Mississippi. There, McCain bragged about his family’s long tradition of military service, dating back to his great-great grandfather, William Alexander McCain. Anyone who does the math can figure out the symbolism pretty quickly – when William Alexander McCain served in the military, he wasn’t fighting on our side. He fought for the Mississippi cavalry, against the United States army, as a rebel in the Civil War. William Alexander McCain owned a plantation and 50 slaves. On the campaign trail, his great-great grandson, John, expressed “surprise” when he learned that his ancestor had owned slaves. It’s pretty unbelievable that McCain didn’t know about his family’s history of owning slaves. Moreover, the mainstream media gave Senator McCain a pass on the fact that he was celebrating an ancestor who was a traitor who fought against his country, while invoking “Country First” as the central theme of his presidential campaign, as if his great-great-grandfather had fought with the valiant sons of Roxbury, instead of against them.

Of course, it is not John McCain’s fault that his great-grandfather was on the wrong side of history. What concerns me is what John McCain is doing now.

O, well THAT’S a relief… it wasn’t John McCain’s fault his great-grandfather was fighting on the wrong side of history… but then WHY BOTHER TO MENTION IT? You yourself say he was just bragging about his family’s “long tradition of military service”… how many convoluted mental backflips does it take to get from THAT to some incendiary implication that he was SYMBOLIZING his pride for slave ownership?!  By the way, I don’t know if my great-great-great grandfather owned slaves either… because I, like most people, have moved beyond this insessnet fascination with the evils of people I have neither met nor am responsible for.  Slavery (and its various derivatives) was a universal institution in nearly every culture and country… I find great comfort and solace in the knowledge that we finally eradicated this evil in America… at the expense of many lives and fortunes… and do not find any value in demonizing dead slave-owners for sins our country has already atoned for.

You continue:

At their political rallies, McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, are drawing on the worst vestiges of our country’s racially-checkered past. Relying on guilt by association and feigned mispronunciations of his given name, they accuse Obama of being friends with terrorists.

Wooo, let met just stop you right there. Let me get you straight… McCain is “drawing on the worst vestiges” by “relying on guilt-by-association” with William Ayres.  But wait a minute… how is it racist to accuse accusing someone of “palling around” with a WHITE terrorist ? OOOO, that’s right… it’s because Obama is black and any criticism or guilt-by-association leveled against a BLACK man is by default, racist. Do us all a favor and stop hiding behind obscurity and prevarication and just tell us what you really meant with that comment — that McCain and Palin are STOKING RACISM.  Don’t be shy!

But, I interrupted! Please continue.

They have found that it is far too easy to incite hatred against Barack Obama, the man likely to become the first African American president, and they have largely stood mute, basking in the heat generated by this hatred. Such conduct is both shameful and dangerous. Reasonable people can disagree over whether McCain or Obama is the best candidate for president. But there are times when we all have to choose between what is clearly right, and what is clearly wrong. Unfortunately, like his ancestors before him who fought to perpetuate the obvious evil of slavery, the McCain family is again on the wrong side of history. The Union won the Civil War, and Americans in the Twenty-First Century seem ready to elect Obama, finally completing that victory. Indeed, since Palin and McCain have stepped up their ugly attacks, their numbers have gone down in the polls. Let’s hope that McCain gets this message and tries some other campaign tactic before the only legacy of his campaign is a long series of ugly videos littering the internet.

Let me be frank with you, Mrs. Zietlow. It has become quite clear after reading your post that this election, for you, has EVERYTHING TO DO WITH RACE. This entire post is about YOU looking at every attack McCain levels through a racial lens. No question of character, no criticism of judgment, no inquiry into Obama’s past can escape your race-centric view of this election. You find McCain’s valid criticisms of Obama’s associations disgraceful… WHY!? not because they are not relevant, but because in your mind, McCain, in leveling these attacks, is standing “on the wrong of history”… preventing people to choose what is “clearly right”… the election of the first BLACK president.  Can you not perceive your own racial obsession here? In one breath you attack McCain for bring up race and in the next you use race as a reason Obama should be elected! Do you not see your own double-standard?

And you think I am over-reacting?  Well explain to me why, then, you have the audacity to imply that the Civil War hasn’t really ended yet because Obama isn’t yet president! I am speechless.

Which is more unbelievable, Mrs. Zietlow: that McCain didn’t know some now irrelevant fact about his ancient, deceased ancestor OR… OR… that Obama DID’T HAVE A CLUE who William Ayres was or what his “checkered past” consisted of until years into their relationship?  If you want to be in disbelief, Mrs. Zietlow… you have to look no further than the unreal ignorance of your own candidate.

Obama says he was only 8 when Ayres committed his grievous sins–and this obviously satisfies your curiosity– but a man who died before McCain was even born raises red flags with you? Really? You impute McCain’s ancestors’ guilt on McCain but won’t even recognize the guilt and anti-Americanism of Obama’s friends…and Obama was friends with Bill Ayres, Mrs. Zietlow. You don’t appoint just a “guy in my neighborhood” to head up a 100 million dollar education campaign you direct… you choose your FRIENDS AND POLITICAL ALLIES! (and have you seen how eerily similar in almost every respect Obama’s first book is with the writing of Ayres?  The evidence keeps growing…).

McCain is pointing out the people who shaped and influenced Obama’s political philosophy and worldview. These people hate the American military, despise it’s capitalist institutions, and stoke hatred and racism from the pulipt.  Obama didn’t have to associate himself with these people but yet he did… willingly and knowingly… and it speaks volumes about this man’s character.  The American people deserve to know what shaped Obama’s political ideology… not have the wool pulled over their eyes with ubiquitous attacks of racism from anyone who criticizes “The One”.

On an aside, since when have your friends on the left been champions of racial advancement and healing, anyway?  When is the last time you or your leftist friends ever championed the cause of African Americans in high government office?  Your allies in the liberal ‘elitisphere’ have nothing but distain for Clarence Thomas (did you miss the confirmation hearings!?), Condi Rice, Colin Powell (except when he endorses Democrat candidates), Thomas Sowell, Ken Blackwell, J.C. Watts, Alan Keyes…. What has become obvious to me is the only thing liberals care about is LIBERAL advancement… and they won’t lift a finger in support of black individuals if that person doesn’t meet their ideological criteria.  I would hardly bet on this track-record when choosing the party to heal racial wounds… and don’t think your party is fooling anyone by taking the high road here.

best,  I look forward to more discussions to come.

Joel

Another fantastic discussion debate no-holds brawl staring Christopher Hitchens.

1015080856, originally uploaded by acornsquirrelblog.

This is pure genius… look at that reporter’s reaction! Priceless!

And check out the blog:  acornsdontfallfarfromthetree.wordpress.com

You saw THIS, right?

Last week, thousands of people cast ballots during Ohio’s “Golden Week.” If you haven’t been following the story, this seven day period allowed people to register and cast a ballot at the same time.

This “Golden Week” has caused outrage among Ohio citizens concerned about the leniency of the law.

One of the biggest issues? These voters didn’t need to show ID or proof of residency in order to cast their ballot.

We witnessed dozens of homeless people being driven to the polls, and none of them had to prove that they were Ohio residents. In fact, one man I spoke with was about to hop on a Greyhound bus to go back to Chicago.

Jack Cashill at the American Thinker finds some interesting facts about Obama’s inability to write.  Might Ayres have helped him a lot bit???

The public is asked to believe Obama wrote Dreams From My Father on his own, almost as though he were some sort of literary idiot savant. I do not buy this canard for a minute, not at all.  Writing is as much a craft as, say, golf.  To put this in perspective, imagine if a friend played a few rounds in the high 90s and then a few years later, without further practice, made the PGA Tour.  It doesn’t happen…

To add a little science to the analysis, I identified two similar “nature” passages in Obama’s and Ayers’ respective memoirs, the first from Fugitive Days:

“I picture the street coming alive, awakening from the fury of winter, stirred from the chilly spring night by cold glimmers of sunlight angling through the city.”

The second from Dreams:

“Night now fell in midafternoon, especially when the snowstorms rolled in, boundless prairie storms that set the sky close to the ground, the city lights reflected against the clouds.”

These two sentences are alike in more than their poetic sense, their length and their gracefully layered structure.  They tabulate nearly identically on the Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), something of a standard in the field.

The “Fugitive Days” excerpt scores a 54 on reading ease and a 12th grade reading level.  The “Dreams’” excerpt scores a 54.8 on reading ease and a 12th grade reading level.  Scores can range from 0 to 121, so hitting a nearly exact score matters…

“Memory sails out upon a murky sea,” Ayers writes at one point.  Indeed, both he and Obama are obsessed with memory and its instability.  The latter writes of its breaks, its blurs, its edges, its lapses.  Obama also has a fondness for the word “murky” and its aquatic usages.

“The unlucky ones drift into the murky tide of hustles and odd jobs,” he writes, one of four times “murky” appears in Dreams…

Both books use “storms” and “horizons” both as metaphor and as reality. Ayers writes poetically of an “unbounded horizon,” and Obama writes of “boundless prairie storms” and poetic horizons-”violet horizon,” “eastern horizon,” “western horizon.”

In Dreams, we read of the “whole panorama of life out there” and in Fugitive Days, “the whole weird panorama…”

This is quite revealing.  Both books score almost IDENTICAL scores on the FRES scale???

The Corner has a series of great questions reporters should (but won’t, because they’re too in the tank) ask Obama. Here were a few of my favorites:

• You characterized Ayers as ” respected.” What do you respect about him? Do you respect any other unrepentant terrorists?
• Do you agree with the National Journal’s assessment that you’re the nation’s most liberal senator? If not, whom do you maintain is more liberal?
• Could you please cite three things you’ve done as senator to win the war in Iraq?
• Excluding political campaigns, what’s the largest enterprise you’ve ever managed? How successful was it?
• You’ve stated that given the state of the economy, as president you might have to delay your tax plan. Why isn’t this an admission that your tax plan would hurt the economy?
• You’ve stated that determining when a baby gets human rights is “above [your] pay grade.” Let’s make it simple. Do you believe a baby is a human being? If not, why not? If you do, why wouldn’t a baby be entitled to human rights? Is your uncertainty regarding this issue the reason you voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act?
• Did you ever tell Ayers that his actions were “despicable”? If so, did you do so at the time you interviewed to chair the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, or later?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband’s real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year..

The payments have quadrupled since Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer of his wife’s committee in 2007, Federal Election Commission records show. FLS is on track to take in $48,000 in payments this year alone – eight times as much as it received annually from 2000 to 2005, when the committee was run by another treasurer..

Washington Times – EXCLUSIVE: Pelosi paid husband with PAC funds.

I wanted to point you all to an outstanding point made by Lee Cary @ the American Thinker.

Here’s what he [Obama] said,

“But understand this: We also have to look at where some of our tax revenues are going. So when Sen. McCain proposes a $300 billion tax cut, a continuation not only of the Bush tax cuts, but an additional $200 billion that he’s going to give to big corporations, including big oil companies, $4 billion worth, that’s money out of the system.”

“The system.” What is this system to which Senator Obama referred?

This system is the federal government’s budget — the hub of Obama’s American economy – the center of the nation’s financial universe — the core of the American enterprise. It’s the federal government’s taxing system.

The center of his economic universe is the budget of the federal government.

10:32 – WOOO.. the debate’s over???? that was the fastest 60 minutes ever…

10:30 – we aren’t going to see “that dream” if you force equality on everyone, Obama…

10:27 – Obama is sounding surprisingly rational in response to the Iran question (his “no preconditions” comment did not inspire much confidence, however)

10:25 – McCain lays the UN Security counsil bare… what help are they???

10:22 – McCain really realizes the consequences of his responses as evidenced in the Russia question.

10:18 – Georgia needs all the help they can get… http://michaeltotten.com/

10:15 – “responsible” withdrawal — the Obama “doctrine”

10:11 – ok… Obama is finally taming his tone on Pakistan. Musharrif was NOT a dictator though… (at least, not in the common sense of the term)

10:06 – McCain is really showing nuance on the use of Military force. He’s winning big points here. He has a lifetime of experience he is sharing with the American people… nice.

9:58 – All of a sudden Obama is concerned about MORAL issues… what about the ethnic cleansing in Iraq?

9:51 – Obama just said, “if there is a huge pool, we can drop the costs”. That might be true with widget production but it CERTAINLY isn’t true

9:50 – I love how both candidates make the questioner feel SOO SMART! MY, what an INTELLIGENT QUESTION YOU HAVE!!

9:47 – “That one!” My, I’ve never heard McCain this condecending. Not sure that bought him alot of goodwill.

9:45 – I just realized how much I LOVE the town-hall format. Who wants to get stared at unblinkingly?

9:44 – Nuclear power creates hundreds OF THOUSANDS of jobs???!!! WHAT? McCain, are you serious? He’s staying positive though… I’ve got to hand him that. Obama seems so tame in comparison.

9:42 – McCain pandering to the leftists that won’t vote for him anwyay… what a waste of time.

9:38 – Obama – “we’re going to have to TAKE ON entitlements”… thanks for the sound byte… I’m sure I’ll bring it up in a couple years when you renig on that one

9:37 – McCain on cutting taxes… wow, I can’t remember him EVER being this excited.

9:35 – cutting government spending “across the board” – is an “unfair burden sharing” according to Mr. Obama. huh?! I guess government isn’t going to be one of the entities who will “share” the burden

9:32 – Obama, in the same sentence says we need to encourage offshore drilling… but then implies the government will take away offshore leases. sigh..

9:31 – WTF… Obama is a) using 9/11 politically! and b) is crediting BUSH for doing SOMETHING right!

9:30 – “were’ not riffleshots here” — that’s right… we’re a fully loaded gatlin gun

9:27 – McCain brought up the overhead projector again–but admitted that there are “good” pork projects and bad ones…

9:25 – They’re still paying $3.80 for gas in nashville?

9:22 – McCain finally said “my friends” … great, now I can start drinking.

9:20 – “invest in college affordability”? What the hell does that mean? Cutting costs is not “investing” in anything.

9:18 – Good question, Mrs. Fintch! We CAN’T trust Washington… Obama is just rambling… searching in vain for a thought. Oh, and we DIDN’T have surpluses, Mr. Obama. And how much better have things gotten since DEMOCRATS took congress, Mr. Obama?

9:17 – Way to talk up American workers, McCain… that’s a winning message.

9:16 – You are “very confident” in the US economy, Mr. Obama? Something doesn’t jive…

9:14 – No, Mr. Obama… i AM interested in seeing politicians pointing fingers. Let’s SEE those fingers!

9:13 – McCain is taking it to FANNIE AND FREDDIE and Democrats in Congress. WORRRD.

9:10 – McCain seems short of breath. Totally threw me with that home prices mumbo-jumbo. How is the GOVERNMENT going to “fix” the problem of over-valued housing prices?

thoughts?