Obama Team to Deal With Slurs

There is a little network of right-wing propaganda peddlers out there who are both vicious and malicious. Here is one of them.

They're on the radio airwaves almost as much as on the internet, cranking out little innuendoes and deliberate lies. John McCain has disavowed some of them.

On the news wires this morning is the story that Obama is setting up a new internet group. 

A crack team of cybernauts will form a rapid response internet “war room” to track and respond aggressively to online rumours that Barack Obama is unpatriotic and a Muslim.

As he gears up for his general election fight against John McCain, Mr Obama and his chief advisers are aware of the danger of such rumours, amid polling data showing that a significant number of Americans believe he is a Muslim or are suspicious about his background. Such doubts were a factor in his poor showing with white, blue-collar voters during his primary battle with Hillary Clinton.

In recent days Mr Obama has — unprompted — brought up the subject of the chain e-mails and blog sites making the false claims. Some state that he is a radical Muslim who was sworn in as a US senator on the Koran; others that he sympathises with Palestinian radicals. Many focus on his middle name of Hussein, which was taken from his Kenyan father. CLICK

We have already received several of these chain e-mails. The most interesting to me was the one misquoting a statement in his book. I know this campaign is going to get dirty, although I suspect John McCain will not be doing anything to encourage it.

YOU SHOULDN'T STAND STILL FOR IT EITHER. When you receive this stuff, you should send the email back to the senders and let them know what you think of it. Free speech is a marvelous thing, and we all have to use it.

HOROSCOPE FOR TODAY'S BIRTHDAY

You will learn that the person you care for the most has hepatitis B.

update

My mistake - and apology
---

MARGARET - also earned a gold star for having the right answers for the last Tuesday Quiz.
The answers were:
1. thistle
2. clover
3. curly dock
4. dandelion
5. oxalis
6. purslane

They're Coming to Take Me Away ...

Deputies subdue naked man who was claiming to be Jesus and George Bush CLICK
Posted by Carol Robinson -- Birmingham News June 06, 2008 11:26 AM

A naked Pinson man claiming to be Jesus Christ and George Bush was shot four times with a stun gun by Jefferson County sheriff's deputies this morning after he repeatedly refused to heed their commands.

Richard Scott Odell, 30, was treated on the scene by paramedics and taken to the Jefferson County Jail.

====

COMMENT: He's actually not the first guy to make this mistake .... some we stun, some we elect

American soccer

The U.S. Mens National Team played its third 'friendly' game in a series, this time against the #1-ranked team in the World, Argentina. The Americans did very well, especially the goalie --- but all of them. The score was 0-0. And yes, both sides played their good players.

Next Sunday, the U.S. begins competing for a place at the next World's Cup. First qualifying game is against Barbados.

Monday Morning Friends Report, June 9, 2008

Michigan was under the dangerous weather gun this past weekend, lots of trees are down or broken, and there are power outages and ruined flower gardens; yet, we are relatively lucky. Lines of thunderstorms have passed through, but nothing as bad as so many other parts of the country have experienced. In our yard, there are many fledgling birds with their parents running to get food for them and fussing and worrying. We have had two families of cardinals, several of robins, grackles, and sparrows.
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Gold Star Awards
The Tuesday Quiz has been solved. I admit that I didn't think anyone would know all those weeds, burt I was wrong.

GOLD STARS to three people.
First was STEVE who sent the answers the first day.
Then was MARSHA who took a couple of tries to get them all right.
Third was FELIX, our landscaper who got them all and said, "I'm supposed to know them....they ruin my work!"

Some other people knew three or four, including IRENE who doesn't even live in in the U.S. I thought that was special.

Thanks to everyone who sent answers.
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What's up with some of our friends

SCOT - maybe you remember the picture of his new car we posted a week or two ago. This week, he ran into a deer with it. Michigan driving hazard. Luckily, no one was hurt but the deer, which is sad enough.

BILL FROM WNNCO - is recovering from an operation and is finding it really, really hard to just relax and let other people take care of him. One of his biggest beefs is that he can't race his go-Kart.

IRISH MIKE - had drawn Big Brown in the Belmont Stakes drawing and was looking forward to his winnings. Well that horse, the heavy favorite, crapped out. Says he: "That's been always an Irishman's luck."

THE MICHIGAN BUCKS SOOCER TEAM - "remains the only undefeated side in the 67-team United Soccer Leagues (USL) Premier Development League" after defeating the Cleveland Internationals on Saturday. CLICK

PAT C - is disappointed in Hillary Clinton's withdrawal from the presidential race. Pat says she has "always hoped to see both a woman President of the US and a woman priest."

BIG D DENNY - has done what a lot of folks would love to do, and said "take this job and shove it." Hey buddy, welcome to the leisure class.

FELIX - off on a 40 mile hike this past weekend. Behind him he's leaving the floods in Indiana but no one's blaming him.

DASHMANN - is up north, golfing. Says he, "Shooting golf the next 3 days – Hope wife knows how to cook them."

AMY and MIKE - are off to Colorado.

SANDY is leaving with her tour group for Germany and other points in Central Europe.

ME - I'm just sitting home.

MARSHA and PAT W. - spending lots of time on the phone chortling over the Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup.
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What Some Friends are Talking About

ANONYMOUS - Warns that "an e-mail making the rounds on the internet that claims to be from Jay Leno saying that Americans should be happy about the condition of the country, not unhappy, was NOT WRITTEN BY JAY LENO. Y'all should stop being so goddamn gullible."

JERRY - He forwarded this:
Subject: FDA Warns Consumers Nationwide Not to Eat Certain Types of Raw Red Tomatoes CLICK
Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:58:00 -0500

BILL - "I certainly am happy the legislature give the Institutional Hedge Funds the go ahead to continue speculating in the commodities (oil) market. Without that we would have had a nice continuation of the decrease in oil prices instead of the great $11.00 per barrel increase today. Did we ever go into the wrong fields of study."

ALICE - go to yahoo news and look at the article on doomsday vault near the North pole. Interesting! CLICK

JERRY - THE 2008 Mensa Invitational which came up with some marvelous new words, like " Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with. CLICK

DASHMANN - strongly recommends "Iraq For Sale" - a video: CLICK FOR TRAILER

Sunday silly Sites

A little QUIZ SPECIAL 

You will fail this quiz.

Know your dog breeds.   click

Take a short 8th grade science test. Here, we all passed it.  Let us know how you did. :) 

  click

[Thanks to Bill from Wnnco for sending this one along] Take this quiz and see if you are above or below average. If your ego is easily bruised, stay away from it. click

Goodbye Jim McKay

“Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport"

[and without yelling at us, either]

Study it
for a few
seconds.
You'll get it!

[Thanks to Jerry]

Wacko of the Week, 06/07/08

Quick, what can you tell about this woman just by looking at the picture?

Robin Forbes, Ocala

Did you get it? She's a man!

This is Robin Forbes, 57, of Ocala Florida, who is accused of dressing up as a woman and molesting old ladies in the church choir. Well, he' (she?) is in the women's choir also. But this doesn't entitle him to sneak up behind women 20 years older than he is and grab their boobs, according to legal officials who have filed charges. He says he couldn't have done it because of the song books he had in each hand.

This is why he's in jail.
It's all just part of the Human Condition, as we like to say, under the BIRCHES.

Congratulations, Robin. By your name alone, you belong with the Wackos under the BIRCHES.

CLICK or CLICK

Survey Results

Thanks to everyone who participated! This was fun for me, and I was surprised by the results. Who would have thought it would be such a one-sided result? Well, actually, Sparty did, but most people thought it would be a much closer poll.
-Bud

The Question was: DO YOU THINK Barack Obama should have Hillary Clinton for his Vice Presidential running mate?

The Count:
13-NO
2-YES
1-DON'T CARE

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SCOT: NO During the campaign, Hillary said that she and Sen. McCain had passed the "Commander in Chief test," and argued that Obama had not. Obama wants to make history, but he's not going to do that with a running mate who doesn't believe in the ticket. There is no way Obama should invite the Clintons, and all their bitterness and baggage, to join him on the ballot. It would be a sign of weakness, as well, and weak candidates don't make strong presidents. He won. What is left to negotiate?

JERRY - NO! I don’t want two vice presidents...Bill & Hillary.

MARSHA - No. I think whatever she might bring to his ‘electability’ can be found elsewhere.
Her candidacy has become too divisive in these last months. On the other hand, I could just as easily have said ‘don’t care,’ as I plan to vote for him regardless.

PAT W. - NO. I don't think HC would be subservient to BO. I believe the due would be in constant conflict and America doesn't ned that.

MIKE CARROLL - Not that anyone would care what I think, especially Barack or Hillary, but: I don't care. However, I think she would be smart to stay in the Senate and work to get him elected, then she would have more options in the Dem party for her future.

DASHMANN - No – I think he needs to choose someone who embraces the changes he does. Maybe Russ Feingold. How about that one –a black and a Jew ???

IRISH MIKE - No. She brings with her Bill, and they need to be the center of attention. The question is, can Obama win with her not on the ticket? I don't know.

GIGI - Absolutely NOT. The Clinton's have had their chance; Obama deserves his.

BILL - NO! I think that Hillary will be a political liability for BO. She, with her husband Bubba, have alienated many people that would have been an asset to a Democratic victory in the fall. The present vitriol that is felt by many of Hillary's supporters will mostly vanish when they are in the November voting booth and the absence of her on the ballot will be negligible. What BO needs to do is make a very WISE choise for his VP candidate. We must remember that in this new scenario the selection of the VP may also be the selection of the President during the four year reign.

SANDY - YES. I think she would be a good balance and her experience and connections would be to his benefit. I don't see it happening, though!

JOE - If I were a democrat, No! ...Bill would be a real problem. If I were a Republican I would say Yes! By all means!!

BOB H. - No! That brings Bill and in my opinion he wore out his welcome during this campaign. She could be a very effective U.S. senator, and he would be free to make money.

ALICE -YES. But he doesn't much care what I think. If not as VP definitely in his cabinet.

MARGARET - No.

AMY - No.

BUD - NO.

Goodbye Jack Lucas

Soldier at 14, hero at 17, and still a hero at 80.

CLICK FOR STORY 

[Pic. from Hardscrabble CLICK to see more very good pictures]

American soccer update

Recently, The American Men's Soccer Team has played friendly games against England and Spain, two of the best teams in the world. In the first, the US did not look good and were lucky to lose by 2-0 to England. In the second, the US looked much better, losing to Spain by 1-0.

Friendly matches do not count for anything but experience. In these cases, the two opponents were playing at home and the US team had to be assembled from around the world.

The US team is composed of American players who play on many different teams, both in the US and in Europe and they are now preparing for competition that matters later this summer. They seem to be looking fine but not really good, and so have potential if they stay healthy and gain more experience working together.

Thursday Morning Smile-Maker/ Add to your day.

Add a little wacky fun to your day -- what might be as unusual a piece of music as ever caught your fancy. The music's advice: don't wait until you're old ---- CLICK

Opinion: Fast Trains

BIRCHES has spoken quite often in favor of development of fast train transportation in the U.S. and we have run pictures and descriptions of fast train travel in other countries.

Now that the airlines industry is in collapse and the price of gas has gone loopy, it's time to give more thought to this. Other countries have already invested in bullet trains, including Germany, France, Spain, and Taiwan. The train pictured here is America's fastest train, ACELA, which runs the Northeast corridor from Boston to New York at 88 miles an hour, although it is capable of faster speeds on short stretches of straight track. We could do much better.

Barrack Obama has said a good word for the future of train travel:

RECENTLY in Indiana, Barack Obama had lunch with an Amtrak machinist who feared losing his job. Obama said, "The irony is, with the gas prices what they are, we should be expanding rail service."

We have to begin thinking of tracks devoted to passenger travel which, like the interstate highway system, has no crossings, and where computers control safety to avoid rear-end crashes. Speeds comparable to those of airliners are feasible.

This will require investment, construction and new industry, all of which would benefit this country.
-Bud

History Lesson #4

Recent Presidents who did and did not serve in the military.

Roosevelt - no
Truman - yes
Eisenhower - yes
Kennedy - yes
Johnson - no
Nixon - yes
Ford - yes
Carter - yes
Reagan - yes
Bush the elder - yes
Clinton - no
Bush the younger - sort of

Tuesday Evening Quiz

Here's some junk you might find in your lawn. Each number is followed by a letter which is a clue to the identity of the stuff in the picture.
No one will know all of these, I bet, so don't feel badly if you don't. But go ahead, give it a try.

1-T


2-C


3-D


4-D


5-O

6-P

Republican Humor (53)

The last Democratic Party primary elections are being held today, June 3. So, maybe after today, the Clintons will have disappeared for awhile. It's really doubtful that the Republican humor machine will forget them, however, because they're such a rich source of bitter comedy. As a salute to the Clintons, here's at least one more:
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A man was sent to Hell for his sins. As he was being taken to his place of eternal torment, he passed a room where Bill Clinton was having an intimate relationship with a beautiful young woman who was not Hillary.

"What a screw-up!" the man muttered. "I have to roast for all eternity, and that damned sleazy Democrat gets to spend it with a beautiful woman."

Jabbing the man in the ass with his pitchfork, the escorting demon snarled, "Move along! Who are you to question that woman's punishment?"

Maybe he's given up democracy for the war. Thank God for the election.

Cartoon by Ed Stein.
See more of his cartoons here: CLICK
Clicking on a picture will often enlarge it.