Sigh.....

Hat tip Stormin's Morning Java

Meet Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, who has confirmed that she OK’d the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher following the Oct. 15 presidential debate.

This makes my butt hurt on two fronts: 1. What made this woman think it was at all appropriate to delve into Joe the Plumbers' private information because he happened to get himself on tv with her preferred candidate (she is a max Obama donor)? It goes without saying that if Joe had been an Obama supporter, she would not have done this. 2. Her actions only give fuel to a paranoid "fear of a black planet" undertone in the campaign and supports the most irrational and ugly accusations of a black fascist state to come should Obama win the presidency. Her actions help poison the post election atmosphere as badly as any nutjobs on the right.

McCain's Uppity Negro Attack

We have over 90 days left to the general election and I'm already worn out with the racially coded criticism of Obama as "arrogant'. Every word and deed from the man is being used to tag him with this and associated labels like elitist, hubris, presumptuous and so on. Nearly any turn of phrase twisted into ironclad indications of his flawed character, to be contrasted to American hero McCain, who is supposedly unflawed. I should not be weary, especially since I called this tactic out months ago.

Well, if Obama's every word is going to be indicative of his "arrogance" and bad character and McCain's POW bio is the bonafide of his character, lets keep it real. Don't just talk about the POW years when you want to extol his character. While he was imprisoned, his then wife Carol Shepp was in an auto wreck (1969), thrown through her car's windshield and left seriously injured. Despite her injures, she refused to allow her POW husband to be notified about her condition, fearing that such news would not be good for him while he was being held prisoner.

When McCain returned to the United States in 1973 after more than five years as a prisoner of war, he found his wife was a different person. The accident "left her 4 inches shorter and on crutches, and she had gained a good deal of weight."

If you're gonna talk about character, don't just talk about the POW years, talk about what he did when he came back, when he cheated on and eventually left the wife who was badly injured in a car accident while he was imprisoned. Injured so badly, she was in the hospital for a long while, her body was disfigured and she was dependent on the kindness of friends like Ross Perot to pay her medical bills. The wife who, when she was in the hospital, severely injured and was asked if she wanted McCain to know, told the doctors No, don't tell him. He came home and took off running after now wife Cindy, a young, cute new trophy, with a lot of loot to boot. He married Cindy in May 1980 -- just a month after dumping Carol and securing a divorce.

Now, to be fair, lord knows, marriage is hard. I'm mindful of how Nelson Mandela and Winnie's relationship was unable to recover from the twin blows of his imprisonment and her persecution and clearly, the Mandelas were subject to much worse. But it does not sound like McCain came home unable to emotionally engage or emotionally damaged, since he didn't have a problem hooking up with other women or with Cyndi. So he was functional. He just didn't want his broken wife anymore. He put her aside to trade up for a new and improved model. He went to the mat for his country, but the wife who stood by him for five years, her he threw under the bus.

But Obama has a character problem. Go figure.

Bob Johnson Issues Apology to Obama

Bob Johnson issued an apology to Barack Obama for his comments attempting to smear Barack. Besides the fact that Johnson made his money as a smut peddler as owner of BET, it just says something about his character that as a billionaire he could not find any way to support his candidate other than to engage in the politics of personal destruction and was willing to do so against a respectable black american by associating him with drugs and drug dealing out of context. His entire demeanor in giving his comments is proof positive of his low intentions and the confidence with which he issued his attack says loud and clear that he felt fully sanctioned and supported by the Clintons in making the smear. Even afterwards Clinton defended the comments saying we should take him at his word about what he meant. That tells you her intent and his. The dirt will continue to fly, particularly in South Carolina, known for rough politics.