I'll drink to that, my friend!

Wiccan and Athena,

Let's face it. Janephil is sorely afflicted with a terminal case of right-wing cranio-rectal syndrome.

Arminius

I got an e-mail from a dear friend claiming that Obama is the Anti-christ. Now, I love this woman, but when people get that stupid, it doesn't pay to argue with them (see Janephil, above). What little brain cells they have left are better used by trying to walk upright and breathe at the same time.

Unlike you, I don't believe unsubstantiated rumors that are circulated on the Internet, nor do I believe what's spewed on Fox News and other right-wing shills. I fact-check pretty much everything. You can do this, too. It's not hard.
Read http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp .
Snopes is non-political, and does not have any axe to grind other than finding out the truth about various rumors and urban legends.

As for calling Sen. Obama by his middle name, "Hussein" - are you implying that he's connected to Saddam Hussein? Because King Hussein of Jordan was a long-time friend and ally of the U.S. until his death a few years ago. Maybe that's who you mean.

Athena - you can swallow all that crap yourself but you are never gonna make anyone else believe it.
Practicing or cultural muslims, the child of every muslim man is a muslim. No two ways about it. I doubt you know any muslims. You are probably accepting what Hussein is telling you lock, stock and barrel. You have a brain, use it.

Barack Obama is not, nor ever was, a Moslem. His father was a non-practicing, "Cultural Moslem". His stepfather was also non-practicing. Sen. Obama did not attend a "madrasa" in Indonesia, he attended a private school with children of all faiths.

Snopes.com is your friend.

" Christine:

"That discrimination is understandable is what makes it dangerous. Equally dangerous is naivete. The whole incident was calculated. If Obama had allowed the two women to be in the shot, he might have had to answer for it."

What, like the media obsession with the incident trying to make more of it than some intern trying to prevent that kind of smear and suspicion in the wrong way?

"This way, he comes off as wise, brotherly, and principled."

Or, there could have been no conspiracy about it, and he stood up for principles that exist, rather than trying to cover up what some local campaign workers did?

You're talking as if the Bush administration didn't vet the people he appeared before in 'town meetings' all throughout his presidency, and exclude anyone that might criticize.

That discrimination is understandable is what makes it dangerous. Equally dangerous is naivete. The whole incident was calculated. If Obama had allowed the two women to be in the shot, he might have had to answer for it.

This way, he comes off as wise, brotherly, and principled.

Yuck.

Although born a muslim it is regrettable that Obama has not only denied his faith but also treated muslims as lepers. After leaving Islam he joined Trinity United Church where Rev Wright preached black liberation theology. Obama is not going to bring people together.

Well, there we are: given the ongoing smear campaigns, it's understandable. But as Obama demonstrated, it's neither right nor his policy.

As religious diversity goes, though while he holds to a Christian faith, he's consistently been the only candidate in the running who doesn't carefully-couch his 'interfaith' words in terms of any kind of 'Abrahamics-only-club' sort of speech.

He says *all.* Smears and paranoia or not.

As a Pagan, I'm not going to ask him to throw himself on no swords for me and all the bad PR bigots built up around us. Just to govern well.

And according to the ideals he has stood for.

After the election, we'll have to keep supporting that, something we tend to forget when the media sells us notions we're electing kings and wondering why they're so 'ineffectual.'

Or so the media tells us. Seems to me they spend a lot of airtime telling me I'm not sure how interested I am in this, and how fickle I might be about yet another 'gaffe' to dissect.

I come from a faith group that couldn't get a decent burial for our *war dead* for ten years, being so politically-untouchable, in this climate.

It's not right, but getting the regimes *out* that *made* it so hard is of a higher priority than indulging this nonsense about: "Is Obama a secret Muslim, or is he a hypocrite about his tolerance, cause some college age intern was trying to avoid just the kind of circus we're perpetrating anyway?"

Seriously.

A trillion dollar war and a gutting of the Constitution on false pretenses, vs... this?

Like the cardboard crowd of shill 'feminists' (Yes, I meant 'shill,' though they still think 'shrill' is a convincing 'feminist' impersonation) who say, 'I'm so pissed about Obama beating Hillary despite operation Chaos and all the nonsense, that I'll vote for... The anti-feminist Republican!'

No, it shouldn't be like this. We have to deal with it *being* like this, but also, to not forget that it doesn't *have* to be like this, unless we *let* it.