The biggest scandal of the election campaign is going unreported, for the most part, by the mainstream newspapers and TV shows. Imagine if John McCain or Sarah Palin had a half-brother who was living in a hut. Imagine if McCain, a multimillionaire, did nothing to help the guy. Imagine if McCain came to the convention and spoke incessantly about compassion and how he was inspired by the biblical mandate: we are our brothers' keepers! This would be the lead story on the evening news.
So why aren't the networks covering the fact that Barack Obama's half-brother George lives in a 6 by 10 foot hut in the slums of Kenya? It took a reporter for the Italian edition of Vanity Fair to locate George Obama. Obama noted that when he met his famous half-brother in 2006 it was only for a few minutes and like talking to a complete stranger. George Obama also told the magazine that when people ask him whether he is related to Barack Obama he denies it because he is ashamed. Obama has done absolutely nothing to help his unfortunate half-brother.
Apparently alarmed that this report could hurt Obama, CNN dispatched one of its reporters to do cover-up work for the Obama campaign. This is a hopeless enterprise; anyone who sees pictures of Geroge Obama's dwelling place knows that they reveal the worst images of African poverty. Moreover, for all its propagandistic intent, the CNN report is unintentionally damaging to Obama. The reporter cannot hide the fact that George Obama comes from a "ramshackled slum." A neighbor tells CNN that Barack Obama really should connect with his half-brother and "see how he's living" and do what he can to "improve our way of life."
CNN attempts to portray George Obama as a self-reliant fellow who doesn't want any help. The network quotes him saying, "I was brought up well. I live well even now." Notice that George speaks in a halting voice; he is trying to maintain his self-image. George also says, "I'm Kenyan...I would love to live in Kenya." Presumably George gave this answer to a question asking whether he'd like to move to the United States with Barack Obama's help. These answers, however, in no way suggest that George doesn't want Barack Obama's intervention to relieve his grinding poverty. A man's effort to maintain his dignity should not be exploited to pretend that he doesn't want a helping hand.
When I posted on George Obama last week, the Obama apologists could do no better than to say that Barack Obama doesn't owe his half-brother anything. But sibling assistance is not a matter of debt. Rather, it is a matter of family values and compassion. Obama has publicly cited as his favorite Bible verse Jesus's statement: whatever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me. It seems that the Republican allegation that this man is full of pretense and empty words--in other words, a modern-day Pharisee--is more than justified.
Obama may not want to help his 26 year old half-brother, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't. I'm starting the George Obama Compassion Fund which has the goal of raising some money to help George move out of his one-room hut. George also wants to become a mechanic and surely he could use some funds to get the training he needs to fulfill his humble aspirations. Currently George lives on a few dollars a month. Even a few thousand dollars would completely transform this man's life.
I'm putting up $1000 to get this fund started. I invite people to send me small contributions--$5, $10, $25, whatever you can spare. Send them to P.O. Box 3384, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067. Make your checks to "George Obama." I will then contact the Obama campaign and offer them the money on the condition that they forward it to George Obama in Kenya. The advantage of this approach is that not only does George Obama benefit from our generosity, but also Barack Obama can use the opportunity to improve his relationship with his half-brother. Let's foster Obama family values, and give a break to a guy who really needs it.
Reader Comments ( Page 21 of 22)
301. Ed, in response, these are your words:
This should be very simple for an engineer. It only requires simple arithmetic.
If you vote for a party that wants to privatize more and more of government, what happens to the actual things you can vote for?
Your entire government consists of federal duties and privatized duties. As privatized duties increase, federal duties decrease proportionately. You can only vote on federal functions.
So the relationship between the power of your vote and privatization is straightforward, simple and obvious. The more government becomes privatized, the more your vote dilutes.
Take a simple case in point.
If the food and drug administration is ceded to a corporation, then you won't be able to vote any more on food and drug matters that were once designated to Congress under Article I, sec.vii. If you're poisoned you have to wait for market forces to correct it for everyone else. You may or may not have right to civil recovery but probably they're limited liability and you can't touch them.
Are we agreed there?
Now take that as far as the party wants to take it. They want to privatize ALL government except military, and maybe even military, considering that at this very moment a foreign corporation headquartered in Dubai serves as the Quartermaster Corps for the entire U.S. military.
So, if everything is privatized, what does your vote count for?
That's not America, Ed, that's private usurpation of constitutional authority as it stood until deregulation of business under Reagan, and I don't want it going one step farther.
It has already plunged this nation into third world status, has divided us home by home, to the near boiling point, and it will get worse if we let neocons continue to run our nation.
Republicans have no problem with an unregulated communist company owning our interstate highways, for example. I do, and I can't vote for that.
I believe the economy exists under our constitution and that it has a duty to serve the citizens and best interests of our nation. Republicans argue that the nation and her citizens exist to serve a global economy, and that philosophy is why we're where we are.
We've had enough.
Clif Kuplen at 2:33PM on Sep 11th 2008
302. 94. Further, Clif:
I haven't seen direct confirmation of this, but some hints that you're a man of African heritage? Ok, no problem there.
xx
no, I think if you brought it up it was for a reason. I'm not a dittohead and I used to get paid to notice things like that in people's affect and presentation.
Go ahead and explain yourself, and I'll be happy to take it in. Why did you ask if it's not a 'problem'?
Also, what led you to that conclusion? Are you confident in your investigative power? Did your seven years of engineering aid you in forming an accurate opinion? Wanta bet on it?
Clif Kuplen at 2:57PM on Sep 11th 2008
303. No, I'm not catty like that. just thought you had hinted in that direction in another blog, and didn't want to say things you might find offensive or provocative. I'm trying to have an intelligent discussion here without all the cyber-slamming many of the others seem to enjoy so much.
GearHedEd at 6:51PM on Sep 11th 2008
304. I'm trying to have an intelligent discussion here without all the cyber-slamming many of the others seem to enjoy so much.
GearHedEd at 6:51PM on Sep 11th 2008
xx
If you call democrats socialists or marxists, any semblance of moderation goes out the window. That only leaves nazism for you to dwell in.
I repeat. My liberalism is steeped in nineteenth century mercantilism except for the concept of exchange of manufactured goods for precious metal as that is obviously going to lead to inflation.
Also, I know from having lived here that unregulated capitalism is like any other unregulated growth - cancerous. Look what happened to bear stearns, fannie mae and freddie mac and the banks that fail like popping corn and the wealth of the middle class from deregulation.
That is not american. Corporatizing our constitutionally ordained functions isn't either since it weakens the control of your vote. those are fascistic and royalist principles, not American values.
Clif Kuplen at 7:29PM on Sep 11th 2008
305. Tim said "OK.....Are you for freaking real? Show you one instance where Obama has shown compassion? As if.... God, if only idiots like you could be put on ignore. I think I'll go slam my head against the door until my head quits hurting."
Read the context you moron. The claim is that for twenty years Obama has been willing to look the other way when he hears hatred preached because he cares so much about the poor and suffering blacks of the world.
Should be easy to show that he has actually done something to help out these unfortunate people he cares about so much.
You seem to be living under the illusion that poor people are treated well by well-to-do people in society. Hah hahahahaha.
Nope, his attitude towards them is probably much the same as your attitude towards your half brother - indifferent. Get it now?
insaneatheist at 11:07PM on Sep 11th 2008
306. You seem to be living under the illusion that poor people are treated well by well-to-do people in society. Hah hahahahaha.
Nope, his attitude towards them is probably much the same as your attitude towards your half brother - indifferent. Get it now?
insaneatheist
xxxxx
No, dipstick. I don't get your point as you haven't one. You are no mind reader as I never mentioned how I percieve how well the rich treat the poor. BTW, Obama is by no means country club rich. He wasn't raised in affluence like Bush. Get it?
Furthermore, you're trying to score cheap points while looking cute and clever and it ain't working. The brother doesn't want or need Obama's support. He never has been or never will be Obama's charge or duty. So you fail and quite transparently do, when you try to make it seem as if Obama is a heartless bastard who while lacking the capacity to feel compassion for his family (and by quantam leaps of illogic the needy as well), has deserted his brother in a quest for power. Piss off and come back when you have a point to make. Oh, can you prove to me that McCain has quit beating his wife? Didn't think so.
Tim at 11:34PM on Sep 11th 2008
307. For once, I wish the Liberals would get it right. Hannity and Rush are in the business of educating. Many attack them on a personal level but can't lay a glove on them on the issues. However, education does divide those that are aware of the facts and possess knowledge from the empty heads. Which group do you aspire to?
ajalfaro at 12:37AM on Sep 12th 2008
308. Tim said: "I don't get your point as you haven't one."
You seem to understand it just fine.
You know, I half expected that someone was going to give me some sort of evidence that Obama has sacrificed to help out blacks less fortunate than he is.
I was wrong.
insaneatheist at 12:54AM on Sep 12th 2008
309. Insaneatheist,
I gave you the example you were looking for.
If it's not up to your standards, that your problem. If you choose not to see the sincerity in the action, that's your problem.
Don't ask a question if you can't accept an answer.
Botts at 1:40AM on Sep 12th 2008
310. Botts said "I gave you the example you were looking for.
If it's not up to your standards, that your problem. If you choosenot to see the sincerity in the action, that's your problem.
Don't ask a question if you can't accept an answer."
Botts, you miss the point. It is not that I "choose no to see thesincerity in the action". It is that I don't know what his motives were. You are in this exact same position if you would only admit itto yourself. The problem is that he may have done it for political gain. It is not like we have never had a politician who has been out for himself for Christ's sake.
That is why I made the caveat at the very beginning. Goodness gracious!
insaneatheist at 4:34AM on Sep 12th 2008
311. I'm signing out of this thread. Thanks for the discussion Botts.
insaneatheist at 4:36AM on Sep 12th 2008
312. "Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America," Biden said Wednesday in Nashua, New Hampshire. "Quite frankly it might have been a better pick than me." - Joe Biden
Earlier in the week, in Columbia, Missouri, Biden urged a paraplegic state official to stand up to be recognized.
"Chuck, stand up, let the people see you," Biden shouted to State Senator Chuck Graham, before realizing, to his horror, that Graham uses a wheelchair. "Oh, God love ya," Biden said. "What am I talking about?" - Joe Biden
Man, that is some great stuff!
Publius at 9:50AM on Sep 12th 2008
313. For once, I wish the Liberals would get it right. Hannity and Rush are in the business of educating. Many attack them on a personal level but can't lay a glove on them on the issues.
xx
oh? Rush's 'issues' include narcotic fantasies about hilary clinton murdering vince foster and clinton murder conspiracies that were debunked on snopes. Also, I don't see any resemblance between feminists and nazis. He attacks people like Michael J. Fox personally and hammers little children of unknown parents, and much worse, but jabba is off limits?
His 'issues' are pure stupidity, which is why you will never see him one on one with a normal person. His fans are like you - babymama fistjab hussein antichrist wind up toys.
His appeal is literally to the homer simpson simpleton.
No one with any self respect would allow himself to be called a 'dittohead', much less be proud of being too stupid to form an opinion.
Slanthead is even worse. His 'issues' are beneath transparent and never true. That slant is more than just his head - it's his brain too. He tells lies anyone with a modicum of curiosity could debunk for himself.
He doesn't give you information. He gives you permission.
Why will he never have Ed Schultz on his program? When someone who is genuinely informed and is hip to his forty year-old Joe Pyne wannabe clown show, the slanthead show goes in the toilet.
You will never see him confronting an informed person with gravitas and that would include Ed Schultz.
These boys are nothing more than clerks in the neocon store - water carriers. I respect people who collect garbage a lot more than some pantywaist do nothing elitist clerk like those two doughboys who's paid to spread garbage and medical waste where people live.
I'l bet they're not even in the sewage spewer's union....
Clif Kuplen at 1:58PM on Sep 12th 2008
314. all the money obhma used to campaign all this bull shit he could ave gotten families out not just his half brother he spent what 20-30-million on slander what a crock we all know were his loyalty lies himself dont worry when and god fordbid he becomes presdient he will send all our hard tax dollars over ther just wait and see.
lorraine at 7:28PM on Sep 12th 2008
315. you are all about tossing the first stone, aren't you, mr gleefully snide and sneering. what about the hands-off the fam policy during this campaign?! yeah, so you think palin is to be vaunted for her failures/lacks as a familial custodian? no sex ed money for alaska's schools, eh, governor? yeah, well, bristol, honey, i don't have time to talk about that stuff, now, i'm too busy trying to get those earmarks for the bridge to nowhere. just be abstinent honey, ok. now go on. why don't you an levi go out an kill a moose or someting constructive,OK. so, the kid takes her own bridge to nowhere instead. dad's too busy with snowmobiling and besides birds and bees talk belong to the female head of household. or, in the palin's case NO ONE AT ALL. we don't TALK about that kind of STUFF in our biblical household. it's all in god's hands, eh? now give me another beer before i hit the road.
you're the one all foaming at the mouth about family being off-limits in the campaign. as long as it pertains to palin, that is. obama has honored that.
instead why don't tell your readers about St.John and Blessed Cindy meeting up and hanging out while John was married to wife #1. Or how they tied the knot 5 days AFTER the divorce was finalized. Why not do a story on Cindy's HALF-SISTERS with whom she has NO CONTACT. Cindy wound up with ALL the dough. THEY got nada. Why? Dad didn't really like their Mom that much so he punished them through disinheritance.NICE.Go report that story, Mr Good to go by god. And, worst of all, DD, you are using the youngest Mccain child not as a human being with feelings but as a commodity to retail the fact that she's ADOPTED. FROM MAMA Theresa. How wonderful of these multimillionaires to do this,you continue to
proselytize. How you adore and worship at the altar of this sort of humility and kindness and charity.Way to go, DD. USE that childm DD, if it means you can slavishly promote your champion.
How you compromise your christian values when you write. Like all zealots you can't keep you loud mouth shut. But then it's open for reason. To put you foot in by quoting the bible as if it pertained to others rather than yourself.The golden rule of all world religions is to do unto others as you have done unto yourself. you are a maladept student. your lack of charity really must have begun at home.
boredwell at 5:36PM on Sep 12th 2008