I am the one I have been waiting for...
...but I am the one who YOU are going to get.
Posted on 05/13/2008 12:30:30 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I am writing to complain about an interruption of my privacy.
Recently I sat down to watch "Saturday Night Live." I figured that after a long day of studying I might be able to lay back on my couch and laugh a little bit.
There's just one problem: every 10 minutes, the show was interrupted by one of your grandstanding political ads.
My free time was disturbed by your babbling about change and your claims about fixing Washington, D.C. A majority of my peers might accept intrusions of this nature, as they are captivated by you like toddlers listening to a Tickle-Me-Elmo. I, however, cannot stand people trying to snow me over.
Your advertisements are thread-bare of any concrete examples of policy.
I can't help believing that you feel the American people are sheep who will go along with anything a charismatic person says. As an educated member of society, I decided to look past the swill you are forcing upon us, and do some research to find out where you truly stand.
My journey of discontent led me to your website, BarackObama.com. Initially I was impressed by its clean and organized appearance.
I was greeted by a video of you smiling and telling me that by arriving at your site I had taken the first step toward creating change in America.
A side-blurb called your campaign "the largest grassroots campaign in political history." It brought me back to my first day of kindergarten, where my teacher circled up our class on the carpet and told us how special we were.
I was almost expecting you to leap out of my computer and hand me a glass of milk and cookies. Fortunately, my critical personality brought me back to consciousness.
I found the portion of your website that discusses your stance on the various campaign issues.
One of the biggest claims you have recycled throughout your televised speeches is that you will end bi-partisan politics in Washington. You say you will be able to influence Republicans to work with you and create policy that benefits everyone. How will this be possible when your plans for improvement threaten the stability of the entire world?
To solve the current fuel crisis you claim that you will promote the creation of alternative fuel methods.
Specifically, you cite the use of celluloid ethanol, or fuel that is made from plant matter. You say you will institute a Production Tax Credit that benefits farmers who grow the materials to make bio-fuel. Why should land that grows food for hungry mouths be wasted on fuel production?
One of the reasons our country has been so successful is that a majority of our people don't go hungry.
We produce so much food that we have a surplus. This surplus of food is largely what is keeping the Third World from starving to death.
Of particular significance are our efforts with the North Korean government. The people of North Korea are starving because all of their economy is focused on military power. In exchange for a relaxed stance on their nuclear weapons program, we are sending their country millions of dollars in food assistance.
According to the U.S. State Department, the food we send is all that is keeping North Korea from mass starvation.
Last week a major cyclone tore through Myanmar. It killed thousands of people, and thousands more are homeless and going hungry. The military junta which rules Myanmar isn't equipped to help its people. According to CNN, there is already a fleet of U.S. ships off the coast of Myanmar that is carrying food relief and medical supplies. If people are starving, the U.S. is able to respond immediately.
In short, our food is all that is keeping much of the world from going into massive political unrest. Ethanol production will seriously limit our ability to remain as the world's safety valve.
In an article for the New York Times, Celia Dugger reports that food prices are sky-rocketing due to the demand for ethanol made from corn. As a result, this is dramatically affecting the amount of food the government is able to purchase for foreign aid.
In addition, the land that would normally be used to grow extra food is being transformed by farmers to grow the corn for ethanol. The combined result is that there is less and less of a food surplus to aid disadvantaged countries, and the government is slowly becoming unable to purchase what food we do have.
What is the rest of the world going to do when our government can't afford to feed them?
In addition, your policies on the Iraq War will create genocide in the Middle East that will make Darfur look like a tea party.
You advocate a withdrawal of all troops within 16 months of the start of your presidency. If the U.S. withdraws all our troops from Iraq, the resulting power vacuum will have the potential to kill millions and possibly compromise the security of the entire Middle East.
The dilemma we face in Iraq is a result of tribal tension. The Iraqi people are divided among the Sunni and the Shia tribes. Both tribes are considered Arab, yet they have been fighting with each other for thousands of years. According to the History News Network at George Mason, the reason for this is that the two tribes believe in different descendents of Mohammed as the rightful heirs to the religion of Islam.
The Sunni tribe is a minority in Iraq. The Council of Foreign Relations reports that Sunnis take up only 15 to 20 percent of Iraq's population. Saddam Hussein's Baath Party favored the Sunnis, and they gained great influence in the military and the government during his rule. While the Shiia are a majority of the population, the Sunni hold a majority of the power and the weapons.
The Sunni are taking advantage of this position and acting out against the Shiia. A London newspaper, The Guardian, reports that the Sunni are using death squads, mortar attacks and bombings to take their hatred out on the Shiia.
If our troops leave Iraq, the Sunni will have free reign to massacre the Shiia. One also has to account for Iraq's neighbors.
Iran has been aggressive towards Iraq since the mid 1980s, when the two countries engaged in an on and off war. If Iraq succumbs to a civil war, Iran may invade to "stabilize the country."
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Iran has already been implicated in supplying weapons to the Iraqi insurgency.
There is no telling to what depths Iran is willing to sink for power in the Middle East. An insurgency in Iraq could turn into a full blown international war.
Senator Obama, I know that you are just a politician, and you got to where you are by telling the people what they want to hear. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that your Harvard education has taught you effective foreign policy.
Your solutions are a quick fix for problems that are deeper than you possibly realize, and they show that you lack the necessary foreign policy experience to be an acceptable candidate for president.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dwight Wozich is a junior in history. The opinions expressed in his columns do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Barometer staff. Wozich can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com.
Amen! I am so sick of Obama...and the people who swoon for him. Good grief. It says a lot about our culture if anyone is listening! American Idol, all these shows that glorify the raw edge of culture...it’s no wonder we are tubing!
The Daily Barometer is the student newspaper at Oregon State University.
This is true...and does not reflect the overwhelmingly leftist slant/domination of the campus and city of Corvallis. In the quad, there is currently hundreds of flags representing ‘at least 5’ iraqi’s dead since the beginning of the war (with red ones for u.s. troops). The implication that it is, regardless, our troops fault, could not be clearer OR more nauseating. There is even a weekly protest to the war at city hall. Uggg.
From ethanol subsidies to Production Tax Credits for biofuel.
Change we can believe in!
Uhmm... no Mr Wozich. That's not correct. I recognize he's a history junior, but even minor flaws can spoil a little an otherwise good article.
The part-time college kids that work for us have now gone on full time since school let out. They are all Obama freaks. It’s driving me crazy. I keep my office door shut all day because I cannot stand their banter. I’m about a minute away from going in there and going off. I have to tell you work has been miserable for me since they came.
My brother told me a guy he works with is an Obama supporter and will challenge anyone who does not support him, it’s about gone to fist to cuffs.
The guy creeps me out, makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
And in the opinion of most Americans and Europeans, for the Iraqi Sunni to massacre the Iraqi Shiia would be bad, mainly because oil prices would spike higher?
The kid has it wrong.
In an Iraqi power vacuum, the Iraqi Shiite majority in numbers and the military power of neighboring Shiite Iran would crush the Sunni minority, now stripped of its former military power, like a bug.
The result would be that the fanatical Islamist mullahs of Iran, who are actively seeking nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems, would be left with military hegemony of the Persian Gulf region which contains 70% of the World's known oil reserves.
The radical Iranian mullahs will not merely have the power to "spike oil prices higher". They would have the power to utterly devastate the Free World economies whenever they chose to do so.
With that degree of economic power, the Europeans would be tripping all over themselves to trade "peaceful nuclear technology" and "peaceful space exploration technology" for oil.
We would then have an extremely hostile power, that believes that America is the Great Satan and whose Islamist religious fanatic rulers believe that suicide martyrdom brings you and Eternity in Paradise, which nuclear armed ICBM's capable of obliterating the major metropolitan area near you whenever the mullahs decide that today would be a nice day to enter Paradise.
As you can see, the "massacre of the Shiites" would be in a retaliatory U.S. nuclear strike after millions of Americans themselves have been massacred in our major cities.
That is why the consequences of a Persian Gulf bug out would be "bad".
“The kid has it wrong.
In an Iraqi power vacuum, the Iraqi Shiite majority in numbers and the military power of neighboring Shiite Iran would crush the Sunni minority, now stripped of its former military power, like a bug.”
Thank You. For a minute there while reading this letter and commentary, I thought I’d lost it.
I was watching NBC News last week when Brian Williams was interviewing Obama. It got so bad I told my wife to look away, because I thought Williams was going to ask Obama to drop trou and bend over so he could plant a big wet kiss on his behind!
...but I am the one who YOU are going to get.
He is the one I have been waiting for to drop dead.(sarcasm)
Maybe He just mixed them up, kind of like McCain did?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.