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On 12/3/2010 1:32 PM, Brussel Morton K. wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">the president is black.</blockquote>
That is Absurd. <br>
<br>
Actually:<br>
<h2 class="title">1 In 5 Americans Believe Obama Is A Cactus</h2>
WASHINGTON—According to a poll released Tuesday, nearly 20 percent of
U.S. citizens now believe Barack Obama is a cactus, the most Americans
to identify the president<span style="cursor: pointer;" class="image"
rel="http://o.onionstatic.com/images/articles/article/18127/Poll-1-R_jpg_600x1000_q85.jpg"><span
class="caption">. ...</span></span>The poll, conducted by the Pew
Research Center, found a sharp rise in the number of Americans who say
they firmly believe Obama was either born a cactus, became a cactus
during his youth, or has questionable links to the <i>Cactaceae</i>
family.
<div class="article_body">
<p>"We asked people of varying races, ages, and backgrounds the same
question: 'What is President Barack Obama?'" Pew spokeswoman Jodi
Miller told reporters. "And a fifth of them responded, 'A cactus.'"</p>
<p>According to the poll, Obama has lost favor among many voters who
supported his candidacy in 2008 but have since come to doubt he is a
mammal. While these Americans concede Obama may not specifically be a
cactus, most believe he is a plant of some kind, with 18 percent saying
the president is a ficus, 37 percent believing him to be a grain such
as wheat or millet, and 12 percent convinced he is an old-growth forest
in Northern California.</p>
<p>When asked why they agreed with the statement "President Obama is a
large succulent plant composed of specialized cells designed for water
retention in arid climates," many responded that they "just know,"
claiming the president only acts like a human being for political
purposes and is truly a cactus at heart.</p>
<p><span style="cursor: pointer;" class="image"
rel="http://o.onionstatic.com/images/articles/article/18127/Poll-1-Jump-R_jpg_600x1000_q85.jpg"><a
onclick="$(this).next().click(); return true;" class="actionlabel"
href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/poll-1-in-5-americans-believe-obama-is-a-cactus,18127/#enlarge"><span></span></a><img
src="cid:part1.00070901.09070707@pigs.ag" alt="" title=""><span
class="caption"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="cursor: pointer;" class="image"
rel="http://o.onionstatic.com/images/articles/article/18127/Poll-1-Jump-R_jpg_600x1000_q85.jpg"><span
class="caption">A number of polled Americans identified the above as a
photo of President Obama.</span></span></p>
<p>White House officials have asserted that the nation's 44th president
is a person.</p>
<p>"You can't go a day without hearing how Obama's a radical cactus
sympathizer who wants to sap America of all its drinking water, or how
he was actually born in the Kalahari Desert," said media critic Lynn
Pelmont, referring to cable news outlets that suggest the president has
prickly spines he uses to protect himself from thirsty animals. "For a
man who prides himself on delivering a coherent message, there's an
awful lot of confusion out there about whether he's a Harvard Law
graduate or a leafless flowering shrub."</p>
<p>"He must speak frankly to the American people about his mammalian
background," Pelmont added. "If not, it's only a matter of time before
people start believing those fringe bloggers who claim the president of
the United States is actually an old washing machine."</p>
<p>Some Beltway observers have accused Republicans of tacitly
encouraging the cactus rumor, pointing out that if millions of voters
believe Obama produces buds through spirally arranged areoles situated
along his stem, the GOP has a much better chance of retaking Congress
in November.</p>
<p>"If the president says he is a human being, I'll take him at his
word," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday on <i>Meet
the Press</i>. "Though I've never heard him complain about being
thirsty. Not once. That could be a coincidence, I suppose, but it's
really not my place to say."</p>
<p>During a Wednesday morning briefing, White House press secretary
Robert Gibbs once again denied that President Obama is a cactus, citing
numerous physiological attributes of the nation's chief executive,
including his ability to walk upright and to manipulate objects with
his opposable thumbs.</p>
<p>"Cacti don't talk," said Gibbs, shaking his head. "They just don't."</p>
<p>President Barack Hussein Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu, HI
to parents Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Sr. From the ages of 6 to 10 he
lived with his mother and stepfather in Indonesia, where he attended
Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School. In
1971, Obama returned to Hawaii, where he was raised primarily by his
grandmother until he left home to attend Occidental College in Los
Angeles.</p>
<p>"I don't care what he says or what his people say or what anybody
else says," 48-year-old Kansas resident Jake Nolan told reporters. "The
guy's a cactus, plain and simple. I mean, Christ, look at him."<br>
</p>
(the ONION)<br>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:30E81365-5742-42D5-9E57-BF995FD6B7DC@comcast.net"
type="cite">To Libertarians and their defenders:
<div>
<h2>Some questions to ask our quaint little Teaparty friends</h2>
<p>The Teaparty folks never tire of calling for "smaller government".
How sweet. Most other Republicans repeat the same mantra <em>ad nauseam</em>
as well, as do many liberals (not to be confused with progressives). So
for all these individuals I have some questions:</p>
<ul class="spaced">
<li>When there's a plane crash the government sends investigators
to the crash site to try to determine the cause of the accident; this
is information that can be used to make air travel safer. But it's
really BIG GOVERNMENT, forcing the airlines to fully cooperate, provide
all relevant information, secrecy is not permitted, and make changes or
face severe penalties. Do you think the government should stop doing
this?</li>
<li>Following this year's BP oil spill do you think the government
was right to bully and threaten the company for an explanation and
solution for the catastrophe, or should it have been "hands off" for
the sake of small government?</li>
<li>Following a major earthquake there's usually a cry from many
quarters: Stores should not be raising prices for basic necessities
like water, generators, batteries, tree-removal services, diapers, etc.
More grievances soon arise because landlords raise rents on vacant
apartments after many dwellings in the city have been rendered
uninhabitable. How dare they do that? people wail. Following the 1994
earthquake in Los Angeles the California Assembly proceeded to make it
a crime for merchants to increase prices for vital goods and services
by more than ten percent after a natural disaster.<sup><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html#note-11" id="link-11">11</a></sup>
Following the destruction caused by Hurricane Isabel in September 2003,
the governor and attorney general of Virginia called on the legislature
to pass the state's first anti-price-gouging law after receiving about
100 complaints from residents. North Carolina had enacted an
anti-gouging law just shortly before.<sup><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html#note-12" id="link-12">12</a></sup>
Does such blatant big-government interference in our God-given
Supply-and-Demand system bother you? Do you think that our legislators
should simply allow "the magic of the marketplace" to do its magic?</li>
<li>Do you think that the government should continue waging war
against what they call "terrorists" abroad, since there's no bigger or
more expensive big-government action than this?</li>
<li>Do you think the government should continue with its electronic
strip searches and body feel-ups at airports or should we allow the
risk of bombs being brought on board airplanes? (Or — as an alternative
to either — do you think the government should cease its bombing,
invading, occupying, overthrowing, killing and torturing around the
world so as to put an end to its creating anti-American terrorists?)</li>
<li>If your bank fails — and hundreds have done so in recent years
— are you willing to accept the loss of your life's savings? Or are you
thankful that big, big government steps in, takes over the bank, and
protects every penny of your savings?</li>
<li>Do you think that big government — federal, state or local —
should stop haranguing the citizenry about the environment: recycling,
air pollution, water pollution, soil runoff, etc., etc., or that people
should simply be allowed to do what is most convenient for them, their
families, and their businesses?</li>
<li>Do you think that manufacturers should have the right to run
their factories à la a sweatshop in a Bangkok alley 50 years ago or
that big government should throw its weight around to assure modern
working conditions, with worker health and safety standards?</li>
<li>When a prescription drug starts to kill or harm more and more
people, who should decide when to pull it off the market: Big
Government or the drug's manufacturer?</li>
<li>Are you glad that food packages list the details of ingredients
and nutrition? Who do you think is responsible for that?</li>
<li>A huge number of Americans would be facing serious hunger if
not for their food stamps; more than 40 million receive them. Where do
you think food stamps come from? No, not from Sarah Palin.</li>
<li>And where, pray tell, do you think unemployment insurance,
housing subsidies, and Medicare come from? (There were of course, lord
help us, the Teaparty signs: "Keep your government hands off my
Medicare,"<sup><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html#note-13" id="link-13">13</a></sup>
while simultaneously ridiculing Obama's push for "socialized
medicine".) Some of you would probably rather see widespread hunger,
poverty, homelessness, and illness in America than have people
dependent upon the BigGovernmentMonster.</li>
<li>Do you think that big government is no match for the private
sector in efficiently getting large and important projects done? Big
government in the United States has created great dams, marvelous
national parks, an interstate highway system, the peace corps, social
security, the National Institutes of Health, and the Smithsonian
Institution; it's also landed men on the moon, wiped out polio, and
built up an incredible military machine (ignoring for the moment what
it's used for), and much more.</li>
<li>Do you know that twice in recent years the federal government
undertook major studies of many thousands of federal jobs to determine
whether they could be done more efficiently by private contractors? On
one occasion the federal employees won more than 80% of the time; on
the other occasion 91%. Both studies took place under the Bush
administration, which was hoping for different results. <sup><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html#note-14" id="link-14">14</a></sup></li>
</ul>
<p>We have to remind the American people of what they once knew but
seem to have forgotten: that they don't want BIG government, or SMALL
government; they don't want MORE government, or LESS government; they
want government ON THEIR SIDE.</p>
<p>I think the Teapartyers are motivated primarily by two factors: 1)
they don't have the intellectual competence or ideological independence
to place the blame for the sick economy where it belongs: the
recklessness and greed of Wall Street, the banks, and other financial
corporations; and so they blame the president and his "socialist"
policies; 2) the president is black.</p>
<p><b>Mark Brzezinski, son of Zbigniew, was a post-Cold War Fulbright
Scholar in Poland: "I asked my students to define democracy. Expecting
a discussion on individual liberties and authentically elected
institutions, I was surprised to hear my students respond that to them,
democracy means a government obligation to maintain a certain standard
of living and to provide health care, education and housing for all. In
other words, socialism." </b><sup><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html#note-15" id="link-15"><b>15</b></a></sup></p>
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<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html">http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer88.html</a></div>
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