Well, this is somewhat encouraging...

So Obama is a muslim commie terrorist now?

I'm getting this mental image of Obama running from a radical terrorist mosque to Jeremiah Wright's church, shouting "Out of my way I'm late! Late for my next anti-American sermon!"

I mean some people believe that Obama is a communist, a Muslim, and also a radical Black Christian, three completely incompatible kinds of anti-American. How would he find the time? It would mean a lot of different meetings. Plus he would have to change clothes between the mosque and the church, surely: Muslim tribal dress wouldn't go down too well with Rev. Wright. And then when the time came to meet his Communist buddies he would need to change again. He'd need three wardrobes! Plus casual wear.

What's worse, he could never let any of his three groups of anti-American buddies know that he hung out with the others. He'd have to wear a false beard or something going to the mosque, and maybe a long-haired wig for his meetings with domestic Communist terrorists. I can just see it, Obama arrives late for dinner with Bill Ayers. "Where have you been Barack?" "I was at the mosque...I mean...Moscow. Paying respects at the tomb of Lenin."

Clearly Obama's life is more interesting than we've been told.

Of course there are Christians, of course there are Muslims,
And Atheists, Pagans, and Jews
Supporting McCain or supporting Obama--
Supporting a spectrum of views--
Of course there are numbskulls, and ignorant pinheads
Whose views are incredibly dense,
And of course they reside on both sides, red and blue
Of the nation's political fence
It gets to the point where we almost expect it--
Perhaps it's what humans just do--
We forget these are merely the vocal extremists
Whose numbers, in truth, are quite few.
These salient images seen in the media
Show us ourselves at our worst
But just look around, and you'll see something different,
And not what it looked like at first:
The people who back both McCain and Obama
Are people like you and like me
And most are intelligent, thoughtful and kind,
And like us, they don't like what they see.
This silent majority, not in the news,
When confronted with ignorant hate
May decide to combat it, or maybe ignore it,
Or challenge them to a debate
And sometimes you'll find that these ignorant cowards
Back down when you call out their bluff
So... if you're like me, and you're sick of the lying,
Decide that enough is enough!
And remember, the ignorant liars can shout
Until all of their faces are blue;
When you get in that booth, and you pull shut the curtain...
The one with the power is you.

http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2008/10/reminder.html

Posting something positive about McCain, Orac? Isn't that a hanging offense 'round these parts?

woobegone wrote: I mean some people believe that Obama is a communist, a Muslim, and also a radical Black Christian, three completely incompatible kinds of anti-American.

Might be only two. If what I've heard is accurate (which it probably isn't, in some respects), there's not a whole lot of difference between old-fashioned Marxist Communism and "black liberation theology," save that the latter mixes in a healthy dose of anti-white racism.

Still, your basic point is sound: the claims about Obama are largely contradictory with each other and reality, which suggests they come more from emotion than reason. Kinda like the charges that a McCain presidency will be a Bush rerun, or that either of them is a hard-right, racist, religious-fundamentalist conservative.

There's more than enough to dislike about all the available presidential candidates, without making up things.

there's not a whole lot of difference between old-fashioned Marxist Communism and "black liberation theology,"

Apart from the bit where Marx claims that religious belief is a product of economic inequalities and is used by the ruling class to suppress the revolutionary tendency against injustice of the proletariat.

Try reading some Marx. You might find it more agreeable than you think.

And considering that Obama's actual policies are in no way similar to communism, you are down to one possibility (also weak, get to that soon).

If I were to describe to you an economic system where greed is harnessed to maintain the infrastructure and commonly used resources, is that Communism or Capitalism?

If I were to suggest that every step an individual is from productive labor, said individual should be taxed more, is that Communist or Capitalist. For example, a worker is taxed less than a manager, who is in turn taxed less than an owner. Since that becomes difficult to set up in any economy, a progressive tax system is required, with people who make more money being taxed more than those those who make less, which does this sound like?

If I said that those taxes should be used to maintain infrastructure and common property such as clean water supplies, and any things needed for the working class to be healthy and productive, is that capitalism or communism?

Those are all concepts straight from Adam Smith, the father of capitalism.

The only reason, beyond the deplorable state of American education (part of the above commons), that the two would be confused is that Marx read Smith's writings and modeled parts of communism on capitalism!

Woobegone: And that's before he's even tried attending the big Buffalo meet and Pebbles' birthday party on the same night which - let me tell you - never goes well.

So why is the radical black Xian thing a weak link?

Because a preacher isn't the only reason to go to a church. For a politician, going to one of the biggest churches in the region is a good move. You don't have to buy into anything said. Considering how well people follow the advice of their religious leaders on not lying, cheating or stealing, I'd not be too worried about it.

Besides, I have heard lots of crazy things come out of a preacher's mouth without walking out

Robster,

Those are all concepts straight from Adam Smith, the father of capitalism.

And all quite common-sensical ones. The problem is, as far as I can tell, Obama doesn't believe any of them.

Specifically on the subject of taxes: it's ridiculously easy to arrange a tax system in which "people who make more money [are] taxed more than those those who make less." Any percentage-based tax accomplishes this. With a %age income tax, the more you make the more you pay. With a % sales tax, the more you spend the more you pay. With a % property tax, the bigger living-space you buy, the more you pay. Allow a 'base amount' that isn't taxed, to cover the essential staples in life, and there you are. No deductions, no special conditions, no favoritism toward any class, upper or lower.

So why does Obama want to collect no taxes from a third of all wage-earners, while applying prohibitively high tax rates to the people who create jobs, products, services, and wealth in general?

Gimpy: again, if what I've heard about it is right, "black liberation theology" is as much a revolutionary movement against "white" religion (and capitalism) as it is against "white" society. Marx might have disagreed with it on some points, but I suspect he'd have agreed with it on many more.

Yay! It's Cuttlefish, OM! Great poem.

So Obama is a muslim commie terrorist now?

Just as McCain is a National Socialst??? (re: Family Guy's recent episode featuring Stewie dressed in Nazi regalia and sporting a McCain Palin pin.)

Orac: Care to admit there are loons and haters comparable to those people that you can't believe exist on the left too??? Or are all Obama lovers too enlightened to have such distateful and patently wrong convictions?

there's not a whole lot of difference between old-fashioned Marxist Communism and "black liberation theology," save that the latter mixes in a healthy dose of anti-white racism.

Actually there's quite a bit. 'Liberation theoology' is bascially 'you've got it, we want it'

Marx had complex economic analysis behind his ideas, it's just that he placed the overall perceived advantage of the group over the freedom of the individual.