Mud slinging before breakfast

It's too early in the morning for political mud slinging, but it arrived in my email box from a very good friend so I looked. Jeez, will these people ever get down to basics and business and leave the mud slinging out of it? Probably not. It's politics we're talking about. All this hullabaloo over whether or not Barack Obama is or is not a Muslim and whether or not he holds his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. My whole family are fundamentalist Christians, but I'm not and yet I went to church and was once very active as a Xian during my teens and early twenties. That does not change the fact that I am a pagan and that is what I will remain. Get over it, people. I don't put my hand over my heart during the singing of the National Anthem, but you'll find tears in my eyes and my pulse racing. Does that mean I don't respect the flag or the national anthem? No, it means I put my hand over my heart during the Pledge and stand at attention during the Anthem. I guess that means, according to the current mud slinging, that I am an enemy of the U.S. and like to go terrorist at the first opportunity -- or when I get into office. I knew when I read the part that Obama refused to take his oath of office on the Bible that they had mixed things up with Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison. These people do what they do best, seek to inflame public opinion with half truths and misdirection. It's like putting whipped or shaving cream around a dog's muzzle and beating him then shoving him out into the street and yelling, "Mad dog!" Yeah, I'd be mad, too.

What really interested me was that the email said they got their news from Snopes.com and that's where I went to check it out. Despite the standards of some journalists, I actually check out sources to be sure. I wonder how many of the people who forward that email will do the same thing -- probably very few judging from the long list of people who actually forwarded it to me. I think with Obama's diverse and multicultural background he will make a good president and I'd vote for him over Hillary in a hot New York second. We have had enough Clinton for the next two or three millennia and don't need Slick Willy and his co-dependent wife back in the White House for another term. Get real people. She is an option just because she's a woman? If that was the case, why didn't she run before and not Slick Willy?

My views on Hillary are based on years of research and ferreting out tidbits of news from the gossip, but they were fixed forever when I checked out a story about her following 9/11. Hillary was invited personally to a memorial service for several of the 9/11 victims. The first thing out of her mouth was whether or not there would be press at the memorial. When she was told there was no opportunity for a photo op she said she wouldn't be there either because it wouldn't boost her career. She needed to be seen mourning for her fellow Americans not actually mourning for them. To her, the aftermath of 9/11 was a chance to win points for her bid for the White House and nothing more. She is a political animal and her tears after the Massachusetts primary were crocodile tears. I don't believe she cares anything about America or Americans except where it can further her own political aims.

Let's face it. Men and women like those who fought for our freedom from tyranny over 200 years ago are not going to be voted into office because they lack the money or the political savvy to do the job. The presidency is a contest based on who has the most money, the best policy spinners and is the best at mud slinging. It's not about duty or honor or leading the country any more. It is more about power and being able to further a career of graft and privilege at the expense of the American taxpayers and gathering the proceeds of $200 a plate dinners where you talk about crap and BS and pander to the money men and political machine. It's a sin and a shame that leading the country has become a rest stop on the road to power, fame and riches instead of a position of honor.

That is all. Disperse.