I don't got no crush on Obama.

I don't got no crush on Obama.

"Obama, whatever the idealistic yearnings of his admirers, has turned out to be a cold-eyed, shrewd politician." - George Packer, the New Yorker.

Its not like I ever did have a crush on Obama, fact is, I still don't.

In the past, I've mentioned how his pro-israel stance has bothered me.


months have passed, and obama still is, if not more, pro-israel than he was previously.

his ass-kissing at aipac was well documented last month. but it wasn't enough, as he will be visiting israel in the coming weeks.

but hold up.


lets push aside foreign policy. how does Obama rank?

• he voted for the patriot act.

• his healthcare plan is catered towards insurance companies, not the american public.

• he voted for the wall to be built on the US -Mexico Border.

• after saying he would use public financing, obama opted out. (the man hasnt even gotten into office yet and he's already gone back on his word)

and if i can just interject a little foreign policy here:

• he came into the race saying he wanted to talk to everybody. iran apparently, isn't everybody.

• his stance on iraq? vague at best. my bet is he will not stick to any sort of timetable.

And what about FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act)?

• well, Obama went back on his word on that too! check it out:
  

"To be clear," Sen. Barack Obama. D-Illinois, spox Bill Burton told Talking Points Memo last October about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, "Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies."

Reaffirmed Obama's Senate office in December: “Senator Obama unequivocally opposes giving retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies and has cosponsored Senator Dodd's efforts to remove that provision from the FISA bill. Granting such immunity undermines the constitutional protections Americans trust the Congress to protect. Senator Obama supports a filibuster of this bill, and strongly urges others to do the same...Senator Obama will not be among those voting to end the filibuster.”

In February Obama voted in favor of the an amendment from Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., to repeal retroactive immunity for telecoms, saying, "I am proud to stand with Senator Dodd, Senator Feingold and a grassroots movement of Americans who are refusing to let President Bush put protections for special interests ahead of our security and our liberty. There is no reason why telephone companies should be given blanket immunity to cover violations of the rights of the American people - we must reaffirm that no one in this country is above the law. We can give our intelligence and law enforcement community the powers they need to track down and take out terrorists without undermining our commitment to the rule of law, or our basic rights and liberties."

**

Free from the political pressures of the Democratic primaries, Obama now says he will vote for the FISA bill even if it doesn't include retroactive immunity for the telecoms.

And moreover, he will no longer support a filibuster of the bill if it doesn't include telecom immunity. source: abc news

the ACLU has called FISA a constitutional nightmare and has proceed to sue. they add:

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, passed by Congress on Wednesday and signed by President Bush today, not only legalizes the secret warrantless surveillance program the president approved in late 2001, it gives the government new spying powers, including the power to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans' international communications.

"Spying on Americans without warrants or judicial approval is an abuse of government power - and that's exactly what this law allows. The ACLU will not sit by and let this evisceration of the Fourth Amendment go unchallenged," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "Electronic surveillance must be conducted in a constitutional manner that affords the greatest possible protection for individual privacy and free speech rights. The new wiretapping law fails to provide fundamental safeguards that the Constitution unambiguously requires."

In today's legal challenge, the ACLU argues that the new spying law violates Americans' rights to free speech and privacy under the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution. The new law permits the government to conduct intrusive surveillance without ever telling a court who it intends to spy on, what phone lines and email addresses it intends to monitor, where its surveillance targets are located, why it's conducting the surveillance or whether it suspects any party to the communication of wrongdoing.

Plaintiffs in today's case are:

• The Nation and its contributing journalists Naomi Klein and Chris Hedges
• Amnesty International USA, Global Rights, Global Fund for Women, Human Rights Watch, PEN American Center, Service Employees International Union, Washington Office on Latin America, and the International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association
• Defense attorneys Dan Arshack, David Nevin, Scott McKay and Sylvia Royce

Now i know what you're thinking. "But Obama's black. he's gonna make history. "

Obama may be black, but will he stand up for black people- and the issues most affecting black people today. given his track record (see above) i don't think he will.

Its like Abbas. He's Palestinian, right. Am i happy that he's the so-called Palestinian president? No. Do I believe he serves our interests? No. Do I believe he's a puppet ? Yes.

My point is just because you get someone who looks like you into public office, doesn't mean that they're gonna fight for you.


Yet despite all of Obamas blunders, i am completely bewildered to see arabs and muslims going all out for obama. and it came as a shocker to them when this story broke out

my response?

DUH!

Obama's response: UH, the campaign has apologized.



One final thought. Fox News has been so desperate to smear Obama that they've once again- linked him to not only muslims, but *gasp* palestinians.




i burst out laughing several times when i saw this- no joke. excuse me- how does one become an employee of the PLO? Do they provide health benefits? And Hamas funding Obama? Oh please. Pipes is full of shit, and so is Fox, the terrorist-fist-jab-network.


So there you have it folks. If you wanna bring someone down - call them a Palestinian! (psst. i'm a Palestinian-american....i must hate myself, huh?)


As for Obama, i don't know why Fox is out to get him. His voting record is becoming increasingly similar to that of their darling McCain.