ahammett's Blog

Ahh yes, 

Thank you for bring us this "excellent non-partisan" article by Larrey Anderson, who writes for "The American Thinker," an extreme right-wing Israel lobbying organization. 

Go to their website and then do a little googling on the other editors.  Ed Lasky has strong ties to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that attacked John Kerry in 2004.  Another contributor, Richard Baehr was a former AIPAC leader.

This whole group is designed to spread propoganda in an attempt to get Jews to quit supporting the Democratic Party and form an alliance with right-wing Christians.

I love the internet.  It makes it possible for clowns like skydash to spread all of these ridiculous lies, but it also makes it possible for me to easily debunk the lies to my friends and family when they get them in their inbox.

It has always been my understanding that a Catholic can confess his sins and receive absolution and then receive communion. So what's the big deal???? Also why is AHammet so outraged??? I thought he was an athiest anyway.

Speaking of athiests, can anyone tell my why athiests are so determined to wipe religion from the face of the earth and convert believers(especially Christians) into non-believers? I find it difficult to fathom why someone who does not believe in God (or a god) would find it necessary to go out into the world and convince others of there being no God. I believe as a Christian I have a duty to spread the gospel(the Great Commission). Do athiests believe someone have given them a Great Commission to spread unbelief?? Just asking.

-merrymacsc

I can't speak for all athiests, but I'd say a lot of athiestic anger towards religion has to do with it devaluing intellect, science, reason, and all of the other things that make humans more than just animals.

The reason I posted this was to illustrate the ridiculous attempts of the Catholic Church to act as a moral authority when they are bankrupt of any moral thought.  Everything they did during that child sex scandal was designed to protect their power and influence, and no thought was given to all the children that were raped and used like toys by the Catholic Church.

Did you guys see the story in the Greenville News this morning about a Catholic Church in Greenville telling Obama voters to repent before taking communion because supporting Obama "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil"?

A spokesman for the Church based out of Charleston basically backed up the local priest's position that Obama is evil.

This is from the same church that KNEW about child rapists in their ranks and moved them around to other parishes, allowing them to prey on more children.

They couldn't even get their moral house in order despite that being the primary goal of all their money-grubbing and preaching.

I hope all of the Obama supporting Catholics will turn away from this false church.

razmear,

I haven't posted here in a while and just dropped by to see how bonkers you guys are going one week out.  After seeing all the confusion in your post, here is a brief explanation of Question #1.

A "Yes" vote on this Amendment would delete the language from the constitution and simply leave the age of consent in the hands of the legislature.  State law currently sets the age of consent at 16 (14 if with an under 18 year old).  The current legal age of consent in SC is 16, the constiution simply stipulates that it can't be lower than 14.  Under the constitution, the legislature has always had the power to raise the age of consent, and that's exactly what they've done already.

A "No" vote would simply leave the clause in the constituion, and the only effect of leaving it in the constitution would be to prevent the legislature from lowering the age of consent below 14, which doesn't seem very likely.

Please make sure that all of your friends are decided on the amendments and the local option sales tax before entering the ballot booth!  We are going to be in for one heckuva long day if people are in there for 3 minutes a piece.

Go here to read the questions ahead of time:
http://andersoncountysc.org/web/Admin/Documents/Voter/CANDIDATESCERTIFIED2008GENERAL.pdf

Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town of 6,500, less than 2 years ago.

That's the size of Belton.

You'd think given McCain's advanced age, they'd at least take the VP position seriously.

And can anybody really say with a straight face that a man with the same credentials ever would have been considered for the VP slot?

JD,

What exactly does this refute?

Younger people currently serving in the military support Obama, and the old farts who served in Vietnam are supporting McCain... Those are just the natural demographics of each candidate.

From OpenSecrets.org:

According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul.

Despite McCain's status as a decorated veteran and a historically Republican bent among the military, members of the armed services overall -- whether stationed overseas or at home -- are also favoring Obama with their campaign contributions in 2008, by a $55,000 margin. Although 59 percent of federal contributions by military personnel has gone to Republicans this cycle, of money from the military to the presumed presidential nominees, 57 percent has gone to Obama.

Seems like our troops know something about McCain that many of us haven't figured out yet: His military experience is nothing.  He has never had a leadership position bigger than his congressional staff and he's a cranky old man who will use force first, and ask questions later.

Ahh, but these "wage earning Democrats" who are apparently at work 80 hours a week can get a day off to goto his acceptance speech at the convention?

Completely ridiculous argument.  It's only fair that those who are civically involved should get a better chance for a ticket than those who just show up hoping for a handout.

Sounds like The Queen is coming out in big support of the welfare state, where everybody is entitled to everything they want...  What's wrong with the Obama campaign rewarding hard work over lazy indifference?

P.S.  Queen, you should be worried about there will be anybody in attendance for John McCain's acceptance speech.  Ron Paul's convention across town from the RNC has 9,000 tickets sold.  Will there be that many to see McCain's dull speech?

Our own government says that "drilling here, now" won't have any effect on the price of gasoline until the year 2030 and it will only impact it by 1% or so.

If you want a suggestion from me on what you can do now, get your tires properly inflated. That is good for 3% energy savings.  In other words, 3 times the benefit of drilling here, now, and we get the benefit right now!

 If you just got your nails done, gimme a call and I'll be happy to check your tires for you.  You have my number.

Even though this forum is thankfully dead, I just wanted to start a thread on the Republican sleepover in the halls of Congress.

During the entire Bush Administration, there have only been 2 occasions that Republicans felt were important enough to call for Congress to return from vacation:

• Attempting to legislate the medical process of Terry Schiavo
• Demanding that we give away more of our coast to their oil company buddies

During this same period, the United States was subjected to multiple heinous acts of terrorism both here and abroad, entered into war in Iraq and Afghanistan, had our homeland devastated by the most destructive hurricane in modern times, poisoned pet food from China, lead-contaminated toys from China, the 3rd largest bank collapse in US History, record foreclosures, and multi-billion dollar losses for the nation's biggest mortgage firms.

Not bad, but I think you're a bit off about Eddie Moore.  He was once an independent man from what I hear.  He wanted to do the right thing back when he first ran for this office.

Even when he ran as a petition candidate, I felt there was a whiff of indepence still left. 

Now, he seems to be CAVE through and through... but he was pushed into that camp by overzealous Preston supporters fighting to keep Larry Greer 2 years ago.  Eddie got treated like an enemy and thus became one.

I was actually rooting for Eddie Moore while campaigning for Ed Jean against Cindy Wilson two years ago.  Larry has been the member of council most likely to support Cindy on "NO" votes if you look at his history.  An independent Eddie Moore would have been better for the County.

Now, we have the same man, with seemingly different views, some hostility towards county employees, and talking points that show no independence from Cindy Wilson and Bob Waldrep.  In fact, Eddie was at downtown sounds with a Waldrep just this past Thursday.

How is different than McCain leaving his wife after she was in a horrible car accident?

She suffered injuries when her car skidded into a telephone pole that were worse than he did as a POW in Vietnam and he suddenly found her unattractive and proposed to a billionaire heiress 20 years younger than him while he was still married to her?

Zn, you Republicans are in glass houses on this one, or should I say glass bathrooms?  I do hope Bob Waldrep will visit the Larry Craig Memorial restroom at the Mineapolis airport when he attends the convention later this year.

My advice on that is to give up now.

It won't work.  The CAVE people are far too good at this game by now.

In the latest copy of Time magazine:

How out of touch is Barack Obama? He's so out of touch that he suggested that if all Americans inflated their tires properly and took their cars for regular tune-ups, they could save as much oil as new offshore drilling would produce. Gleeful Republicans have made this their daily talking point; Rush Limbaugh is having a field day; and the Republican National Committee is sending tire gauges labeled "Barack Obama's Energy Plan" to Washington reporters.

But who's really out of touch? The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone did, we could immediately reduce demand several percentage points. In other words: Obama is right.

Read the rest of it here.

So if all the good 'ole boys in Anderson would go visit their mamas every 3 months and make sure her tires are properly inflated and change her oil, we'd be having a bigger impact than offshore drilling.

Fox Carolina gets in on the action with a news story:

http://www.foxcarolina.com/video/16975606/

Prevail, I knew you weren't big on reading comprehension but that intrepretion of the quote is pretty weak.  Let me break it down for you:

"they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."

See the parallel structure?  Let me extend it on out for you:

they need specific assurances that their citizenship means something
they need specific assurances that America has learned the right lessons
they need specific assurances that I will stand with them should the political winds shift


He isn't declaring that he will stand with anybody.  He's writing about the assurances that he thinks Pakistani and Arab Americans are looking for from him.

JD, just because it's funny to you doesn't mean you're going to force us to laugh too.

This "joke" is like bathroom humour.  It may be funny to a bunch of middle school boys but it ain't funny to everybody.

The only difference is that this isn't even funny at all, you Republicans are just too stubborn to admit you just like it cause it's anti-Obama.

Last night at Kevin Bryant's town hall, Dan Harvell went on a totally off topic tirade against Obama.  It didn't have anything to do with Kevin so I'm not sure why he brought it up but you know how Dan Harvell loves to hear his voice.  He actually has a great public speaking voice and he's good at it so I can understand why.

Getting to the point,

Dan repeated the false smear that the following quote is from Barack Obama's book, Audacity of Hope:

"I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."

Art or some other blogger in attendance can confirm that he used that quote.  Here is the real quote in context, from pages 260-261 of Audacity of Hope:

"Whenever I appear before immigrant audiences, I can count on some good-natured ribbing from my staff after my speech; according to them, my remarks always follow a three-part structure: "I am your friend," "[Fill in the home country] has been a cradle of civilization," and "You embody the American dream." They're right, my message is simple, for what I've come to understand is that my mere presence before these newly minted Americans serves notice that they matter, that they are voters critical to my success and full-fledged citizens deserving of respect.

"Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."

Just an FYI for anybody who cares to know that I wasn't just being rude and interrupting Dan just for the heck of it.  It amazes me that people recieve falsehoods in their email inbox and don't pause to think that it might just be wrong before repeating it.

zn,

Is is so hard to believe that I don't care about the New Yorker enough to post about it and I instead am very interested in the conduct of my state senator?

Get off the hypocrite line already.  I've never read the New Yorker, don't subscribe to it, and I don't care what they do.

Hey guys, just thought I'd pop back in and post the latest videos from WYFF Channel 4 last night!

The news story about his post:

http://www.wyff4.com/video/16960847/index.html

And the reactions of people that Channel 4 found on Main Street:

http://www.wyff4.com/video/16958642/index.html

Petunia,

And I thought by your posting style that you had to be in your 30s