Barack Hussein Obama and the United States of America

...and with the title above, I'm sure I'm on some government watch list somewhere.

C'est la vie.

First of all, let's get the really important bit out of the way. I am not a racist. The only group of people I hate and/or despise are stupid people, who come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and religions.

There's a misunderstanding that a lot of the United States and possibly the world at large seem to be operating under. Pay close attention here, this is for the historical record.

Barack Hussein Obama is not the first African-American President.

No, I have not lost my mind. No, I am not blind. You see, Barack Hussein Obama is like Tiger Woods, in that they both look African-American, but they're both mutts in terms of their heritage. Now being a mutt isn't a bad thing. In people and also in animals, having a bloodline of mixed heritage tends to allow a being to possess the strongest, most beneficial genetic traits that all of their ancestors have to offer, to be stronger and more successful.

Additionally, Barack Hussein Obama, was raised by the Caucasian portion of his family, and thus was socially trained to have the thought patterns, attitudes, speech patterns, and biases typically associated with being Caucasian by Social Scientists.

So there you go, by his genetics AND his upbringing, Barack Hussein Obama is not the first African-American President of the United States of America.

Now, onto less scientific topics, specifically my thoughts and opinions on Barack Hussein Obama in specific, as well as voting in general.

If a man walked into the corporate headquarters for a company with over 2,730,050 (this number comes from the 2007 Census of Civilian Federal Employees and does not include however many people are members of the US Armed Forces) employees, applied for the position of CEO, and said the below statement to the interviewer(s), I'm pretty sure he would *NOT* get the job.

"I'm here to try and become your new CEO. I've had seven years of middle (state-level) management experience, and less than three years of upper (federal level) management experience. I should warn you that the references there on my application, when you call them, none of them will be able to tell you anything I've done above and beyond my regular job duties. Now I know that isn't much experience and that this company has fallen on hard times, but for reasons I can not articulate, I believe I can take the reigns and lead this company out of collectively, the worst time period in its existence."

And effectively, that's what he did, and he is now the President of the United States of America.

In addition to his marked lack of experience, I also was greatly affronted by the audacity of statements made by Obama and his campaign regarding Reverend Jeremiah Wright of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. There is no legitimate way to go to a church for years (since 1988 to be specific), to claim to view Jeremiah Wright as a mentor and like "an old uncle" and say you haven't heard negativity or controversial statements while in his presence. Because that's what Obama did, before he issued a second statement saying he had indeed heard controversial statements. And more than that, he retracted an invitation for Jeremiah Wright to speak at a campaign-related function.

Which leads into some related items.
1) I don't like that he knowingly lied about what was coming out of Jeremiah Wright's mouth. You don't forget statements like, "God Damn America!" and if you miss that sunday service, you can bet your church friends would call to tell you about it, nevermind that the church taped it's services.
2) Religion in general, and Pastors in specific, are like radio stations. You only belong to religions you feel speak to you, and that you can embrace. You only go to churches whose doctrine, and the interpretation and philosophy of the ministers that you agree with. If it were a country music station on the radio and you hated country music; you wouldn't tune in, you'd find a station whose content was more to your liking. To use a sentence from wikipedia, Stanley Kurtz, writing an opinion piece in a National Review cover story on Wright, said, "Nearly every sermon Wright preaches, as well as his now-infamous bulletins and church magazines, is filled with his radicalism, and it's therefore impossible not to conclude that Obama was broadly attracted to Wright's politics."
3) I don't like how sneaky it seems that Obama didn't start distancing himself from Wright and from Wright's Church until it became politically expedient. He equated disowning Wright to disowning the "black community" or even his own grandmother. But when it was his best bet gain a political edge, disowning Wright is exactly what he did.

On to voting!!
Many people, including at least one of Obama's fellow legislators, when asked "What has Barack Obama done?" could not come up with an answer. In fact, the legislator tried to deflect the question, but got pressed on it and still drew a blank. Also, I had a dear friend who believed, or claimed to believe Obama was the best choice of the 2008 election, but when I asked her, "Why? What has he done, what political decisions has he made? What is it about his campaign platform that makes him the best choice?" Well...her response was, "I dunno."

In my opinion, the bottom line is this: regardless of the office in question, if you do not know why, or can not articulate a valid reason for how you are going to cast your vote, then you should abstain. Voting, like jury duty is a civic duty, a thing to be performed responsibly and carefully because you are not exercising that power just for yourself but for all of your fellow Americans. It's on the level of "the fates of millions" so don't half-ass it, okay?

Just as an aside, I hope I'm wrong about Barack Hussein Obama. I've already seen him backtrack on things, economists have already poked holes in his supposedly miraculous economic plan, and he's making a lot of excuses in his weekly podcasts. I hope I'm wrong, which I don't say often, because my being wrong would be a much better thing for America than my being right.