Just the facts, ma'am.....

I am so angry right now. The anger has been with me for about 7 hours now. A long time, I know, but it's rooted in misconception and the spreading of lies.

Right now I'm reading Barack Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope". I read it on breaks at work, and usually get about 5 pages read or so because it is such a conversation starter. I don't mind at all, especially because most of the time it usually revolves around questions about Obama or it's just outright support for the man who I hope will be our next president.

What I don't like is people trying to be slick and spreading what has proven to be false accusations and criticisms.

That is what happened today. I am sitting quietly reading, when an associate walks in and says, "Barack Obama, huh? So, you fancy yourself a Democrat then?" To which I reply, "Yes, I do fancy myself a Democrat." He then replies, "I like him, if I were to vote Democrat, I would definitely vote for him. I think he's a good guy." Then all hell breaks loose. This other associate pulls him aside (mind you still within earshot of me) and he goes on and on about how Obama's a Muslim, he belongs to a racist church that doesn't allow anyone in that isn't black, how Obama's supporters can't name one thing that he's done while he's been in office.

So I go off. Big time. I tell him everything he just stated is a big fat lie. He says how he got the email from a family member and they are reliable. I tell him it's an email forward, it's been circulating for a while, and that it has been proven false. I tell him to go to snopes.com. He then says he wasn't talking to me. I tell him how he was in a public area, he said it KNOWING that I could hear him, and that I was not going to take the false criticism and accusations against someone that I want to be the next president of the United States. And I also go into the political background of Obama - telling him exactly how many bills that Obama has signed, authored, or supported. I tell him don't categorize all Obama supporters of not knowing what he has done (he of course said that he didn't say that). The other guy apologized for even saying anything. I tell him it's not his fault, I'm just not going to sit idly by.

I know I shouldn't let it bother me, but it's this exact kind of closed-mindedness that has sent this country down the path it has been for the past 8 years. I got an email forward saying that if I didn't send it on, I was going to suffer from god-knows-what. I never forwarded it, and the only thing I've suffered from in the past year was a fever last month. Yeah, I'm going out on a crazy limb here and say that the two are NOT related.

So, I printed off the two articles from snopes that show exactly how wrong this guy's "trusted source" is. There are two different emails floating around, I don't know which one this prick got, but either way, he's wrong.

And I'm going to put a little note that says, "Next time, check the facts - everything you claim to know is a rumor"

Should be sufficient.

MI and FL delegates should NOT be seated

In this election year's primary/caucus season, there were two primaries that were punished by the Democratic National Committee. Those two states are Florida and Michigan. These two states broke the rules and moved their primaries ahead of what is allowed by DNC rules. Their punishment for this was that their delegates would not be seated (that is, counted) at the national convention where the presidential nominee is named.

In Michigan, candidates had until October 9th to pull their names off of the ballots. Five of the candidates did this. Sen. Clinton did not. It is no surprise then, that she won in Michigan considering she was uncontested. In Florida, the same thing. She ran uncontested.

Anyone who is not living under a rock I am sure has seen/heard the election coverage. And can see that Sen. Obama is gaining momentum. By leaps and bounds. As I write this, he has taken over the lead in TOTAL delegates. That includes superdelegates!

Well, guess what Sen. Clinton now wants. That's right, she wants the delegates from MI and FL to be seated. I cannot even begin to get into how unfair and unjust this would be - not only to Sen. Obama, but it would be a slap in the face to the voters in these two states who were not able to vote for the candidate they felt was best suited for the job.

As a voter in the state of Michigan, I am urging everyone to sign the below linked petition to stop the DNC from seating these delegates. Make it a fair election. I have read that the DNC would allow summer caucuses for each state that would fall under election guidelines and therefore allow candidates to campaign equally. That would be the best solution to what could easily be something that would destroy people's faith in a fair and democratic process. It would be, at the basest of all levels, cheating by Sen. Clinton.

Please sign this petition if you are a believer in a fair nomination process.

Obama '08 - Yes We Can!