This is why Joe matters, because he’s John Doe, he’s the average man, he’s the little punk the world revolves around.

Barack Obama’s treatment of Joe the Plumber exemplifies Obama’s general attitude toward all of us average guys of this country. It’s that brand of elitism that has spoiled this country, turned it sour. It’s that elitism that has led to our detachment from our representatives. When we elect people who don’t understand us, who look down their noses at us, who openly mock us for the whole world to see, how can we possibly expect them to work for us in Washington?
Wake up, John Doe, you’re the hope of the world. Now more than ever.

*sigh* This is a new low. A really, really sad, shameful new low. Take a look at what Obama and Biden have been doing to my beloved Joe:

So Obama complains that McCain’s ads are putting a negative spin on this campaign, and yet they think it’s perfectly okay for them to attack, discredit, laugh at, and completely mock an average working man? Really? And that’s not wrong?

Aside from that, apparently we also need to get Jay Leno a tinfoil hat, since he’s apparently all afraid there’s some massive conspiracy behind an average guy asking Obama a perfectly reasonable question. That’s a little, um, bizarre.

But what kills me is that Obama and Biden don’t seem capable of just telling the truth about Joe! They can’t just outright answer the man’s question, they can’t just be upfront about the effect Obama’s tax plan will have on average guys. Not only that, but they also seemingly have no clue about just how much money plumbers make, how much average businesses make, and how Obama’s tax plan will hurt those people. That complete lack of knowledge is a bit concerning.
But what’s even more concerning is how they’ve decided to react to this situation. No, they can’t just treat Joe like a human being. No, because he disagrees with them, because he dared speak up and voice a dissenting opinion, the almighty Obama and his henchman Biden have decided to mock Joe. They’ve decided to try to discredit him. They’ve decided to look down their noses at plumbers everywhere.
Does this make anybody else mad? Ugh. We’ve heard all sorts of people claim that Obama’s an elitist snob, but for me, this kind of clinches it. Apparently he doesn’t think plumbers are worthy of him and his campaign, and that McCain is somehow inferior for daring to speak up for the plumbers of the world.
Bleugh. Those are exactly the kind of people our government SHOULD be representing!!! The average guys, or as Gary Cooper put it in one of my favorite movies of all time – Meet John Doe – all those ‘little punks’ out there that make the world go round. They’re the ones who make this country great, they’re the ones who our representatives should answer to. Yet Obama feels they’re not worthy of him?

Honestly, this did at least bring one pleasant thought to my mind. What was that old Gandhi quote? Oh yeah, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” That one’s for you, Joe.

Joe is my new hero!

Earlier this morning (or I guess yesterday morning, since it’s past midnight now), Joe the Plumber – aka Joe Wurzelbacher – appeared on Good Morning America, where he was interviewed by Diane Sawyer. And holy crap, can you believe it? Someone actually had the nerve to say something smart, intelligent, and reasonable on national television! On a channel that’s infamous part of the dreaded mainstream media, no less!
Oh Joe the Plumber, why can’t you run for president?
You have to see this video, it’s just too good! Not because Diane Sawyer did any kind of brilliant interview (in fact, I think she comes off as rather condescending, honestly), but simply because Joe the Plumber freaking rocks. Check it out!

Isn’t he just awesome? Don’t you wanna just rub that bright shiny head of his so that some of his calm, reasonable, logical mojo will rub off on you or something? I sure do!
Dear ole’ Joe said practically everything I’ve been thinking and trying to write about since starting this blog. He acknowledges that taxing those who are “wealthy” more exorbitantly than others is not only unfair, but completely contrary to the American Dream. People in this country should be encouraged to succeed! Taxing them unfairly once they reach that hard-earned success isn’t encouragement, it’s punishment. Who in their right mind would want to punish success?! Educate yourself, work hard, be frugal, be successful! I’ll be cheering for you all the way, because there’s room enough in this country for everybody to succeed if we’d all truly put our minds to it.
And Joe’s absolutely right, it is indeed a slippery slope each time some new politician takes it upon themselves to repeatedly lower that threshold of what qualifies as “rich enough” to pay unfair taxes. It’s class warfare at its absolute worst! Taxing people unfairly based on their level of success doesn’t make life any better for the middle class, because it will only keep people stuck in their own tax brackets, making it harder and harder for people to climb that ladder of success and secure their own futures based on their own ability and desire to succeed. We all know what it’s like to complain about how our taxes go up whenever we reach a new tax bracket, so why would we support somebody who would make that even worse? It just makes no sense to me.

But that isn’t even the best thing that Joe had to say. No, as great as that was, Joe went on to say something even better. For once, somebody finally had the nerve to stand up to the mainstream media – on their own turf, no less! – and remind America that we have the priceless right & privilege of voting. Those votes are important, so important that we should cast them based on our own research, our own decisions, and not on the opinions that others may attempt to force upon us (yes, I’m looking at you, msm!) Of course, listen to the opinions of others, engage in an open exchange of ideas. But don’t just adopt opinions willy-nilly because you think they sound okay, or because they sound warm and fuzzy! Dig for the truth, look at the facts, listen to both sides; be an adult, make your own educated decision, and vote accordingly.

Joe, for that, I love you. You’re my new hero. America needed to hear that so, so badly. And I love – LOVE – that it took an average American guy from a small town to finally work up the guts to say it. Small towns simply don’t get the credit they deserve anymore, Joe, in this world that favors elitism over substance, panache over the honest truth. God bless you, Joe! God bless you for standing up for everything that so many of us silenced Americans believe in – being reasonable, honest, direct, classy, and educated.
Joe, I know that it took guts to stand up to Diane Sawyer the way you did. It took such nerve to stand up to the entire overbearing, condescending nature of the mainsteam media. And on top of all that, on top of delivering that all-important message, you managed to do it with true class and dignity. Thank you. You have millions of fans right now and you deserve it.

As for everybody else, I really, really, really hope that Joe’s message will ring true with more people. I sincerely hope that more people will honestly look into the policies and backgrounds of both candidates in a fair, open, and reasonable manner. I hope they’ll choose to base their votes on research rather than an ad, substance over a hunch; truth over manipulation. No matter which way you decide to vote, that’s fine by me, so long as you do your absolute best to learn everything you can about the candidates, both who they are and where they want to take this country. Because that matters so much more than anything else right now. We’re facing tough times ahead, we need to elect a President because we believe in him, not because he had clever advertising, cute campaign slogans, or warm and fuzzy rhetoric. Don’t sell yourself, your country, or the power of your vote short. Live up to the great privilege and honor that it is to have a say in the leadership of your country.
A vote is a truly, truly previous thing. Please, don’t waste it, don’t ever take it for granted. Use your power wisely, judiciously, and responsibly: cast an educated vote!

I’m going to say at the outset here that my reaction to this debate isn’t going to be like my usual posts – there’s still a bit of the typical fact-based stuff in there that I usually try to stick to, but since this is my own personal reaction to the debate, there’s a whole lot more of my own opinion & personality in it this time. Partly because I actually got into this debate, but mostly because it’s now five o’clock in the morning, I haven’t gotten any sleep, I feel like crap, and I’m kinda cranky. I’m just not in the mood for a tit-for-tat fact checking of every statement. So I just want you to know that this won’t be as fair and balanced as usual, cause hey, it’s late and I’m feeling goofy, so I’ll be taking a few potshots & cracking a few stupid jokes. So consider yourself warned and be prepared!
That said, click “More” to see my list of my favorite – and not so favorite – moments, in no particular order, other than the order in which I remember them.

I just flat out can’t believe it’s come to this… What in the hell has happened to our country? Listen to this clip from a radio program that one of my favorite YouTubers put up today. It’s an interview with a woman from Texas who received a phone call from a volunteer with the Obama campaign. When the volunteer asked the woman if she would support Barack Obama, this is what the woman had to say: “No, I don’t support him. Your guy is a socialist who voted four times in the state senate to let little babies die in hospital closets. I think you should find something better to do with your time.”
She hung up, expecting that to be the end of it. But the very next day, she was confronted by two Secret Service agents on her porch. Listen as she explains what happened.

Could those Secret Service agents have been any more flat-out intimidating!? They have a file on her, they make it apparent to her that they have this file, and then they go and say, “Look, you know, we’re trying to help you out, we came to you first, right, we didn’t go to all your neighbors and your family and ask embarrassing questions about you yet.” Did you catch that? “Yet”?! YET?! What other intention could there be behind such a statement than to intimidate the hell out of someone? If you translate that into its most basic intention, it’s, “Cooperate with us now or we’re going to drag your dirt around to every single person you know.”
Thank heaven they decided to pick on a real Texas woman who stood her ground, knew her rights, and wouldn’t bend to their ruthless intimidation.

Congratulations, America! We have our very own thought police in our own country, right here, right now, in the United States of America. But beyond even that, what makes this even worse, is that we have a point of comparison; we have a direct example of this frightening double standard.
In this instance, with nothing but the word of a single volunteer from the Obama campaign, the Secret Service shows up to intimidate this poor woman. Now compare that to something that I wrote about in only my second blog entry. In that entry, I posted a video of the “comedienne” Sandra Bernhardt. The clip is from a performance she gave in Washington, DC where she flat out threatened Sarah Palin, saying that if Palin dared set foot in New York, Ms. Bernhardt would call a bunch of her “big black guy friends” to have her gang raped. Now, did any Secret Service agents show up at Sandra Bernhardt’s door?
Somehow I doubt it, yet it’s perfectly alright for the Secret Service to intimidate some poor woman in her own home, without any evidence that she’d ever uttered a single threatening word? Is this setting a very good precedent? Does this scare anyone else? I honestly don’t like the idea of some random person having the power to accuse me of issuing a threat, that is then taken seriously by the Secret Service, who shows up on my doorstep to interrogate me about my thoughts, whilst making every attempt to intimidate me into compliance. Where’s the justice in that? Where’s the due process in that? Where’s the sanity in that?

That poor woman has every right in the world to face her accuser, not to mention the right to sue the living backside off the lying weasel. She also deserves a massive apology from Obama himself. Anything less than that would be a mockery of our American justice system.

The New York Times reported yesterday that Barack Obama’s campaign finance records are riddled with fictitious donors, leaving his campaign with thousands – possibly even millions – of dollars in donations that are completely untraceable. Does that smell fishy to anybody else?
If you’d like to read the article, click “more”!

In doing my research, I started out in textbooks, encyclopedias, archives, et cetera; all those big brainy places. But along with that, I was also looking for summaries from average people, others who have sought to sum up the information found from the brainy sources. That’s what I want to accomplish, make that brainy information accessible to you, the average American. Not because I think I’m smarter than you or that you’re somehow stupid – not at all! I think you’re brilliant, I think you’re capable of making your own decisions based on the facts presented to you.
But I also think you’re busy. See, I’m bedridden right now because of this stupid disease I have. I have a huge amount of time on my hands, time that I can spend doing research. Since I have that time and the majority of Americans don’t, I decided to try to package up what I found and present it to you, so you can cast an educated vote in November. If you still disagree with me, that’s fine, but I sincerely hope that whichever way you vote, it’s a vote based on fact, not rhetoric.

In that spirit, I’m happy to present to you “Hope is Not a Strategy”, a fantastic series of four videos from an average American just like you. This time it’s all about our economy, big oil, fuel prices, energy innovation, and how all of this relates to you. It provides its sources, it presents fact-based information in an accessible way, and it allows you to come up with your own conclusions based on facts rather than sound bytes. Oh, and it’s also pretty entertaining!
So sit back, relax, and enjoy!

I hope that helped to shed some light on these massive & important topics. As always, don’t take my word for it – look into anything that you have questions about! Dig a bit, do some searching, reach beyond rhetoric! Find out for yourself!

If you check out this site’s ‘About‘ section, you would see the big bold headline: “Not Pro-McCain – Anti-Obama!” I mean it. I’m not really all that fond of John McCain. I’m sure he’s a fine person and all that, but I just don’t tend to agree with him a whole lot. Of course, considering the choices we have in this election, I certainly agree with him a lot more than I do Obama. But that doesn’t mean I’m pro-McCain.
Even though I’m not pro-McCain, I do at least respect the man for some of the things he’s done. I think, like any other human being, he deserves fairness and respect. I’ve tried to be fair with Obama as well, to respect him as an individual. After all, that’s only human, right? I’ve done my research, that research has raised significant concerns, enough that I do not feel comfortable giving Obama my vote. But simply because I’ve made that decision would not then allow me to slander him as a person, maliciously misconstrue his past, or outright lie about him. Because I wouldn’t do that about Obama, I don’t think it’s fair for anyone else to do that about McCain, whether you agree with him politically or not.

The reason I’m even discussing this is because of a news report – if you can call it that – which was aired by NBC Nightly News on September 30. I really didn’t want to talk about McCain directly on this site. I really didn’t want this to be about him. As the title of the blog says, this is about Obama. But in this instance, it’s Obama who’s profiting from this disgusting behavior, therefore I’m going to mention it, because you need to know exactly what’s going on. You need to watch this video, called “Return to Hanoi: McCain’s captors remember.”

Click “more” to learn about what the video doesn’t tell you and why you should be mad about yellow journalism!

Like most interested voters, I watched the presidential debate Friday night with great interest. One moment surprised me, however, as the debate seemed to turn into a game of ‘me too, me too!’ over – of all things – bracelets.
When John McCain was asked about the war in Iraq, he mentioned a bracelet that was given to him by the mother of a soldier who was lost in Iraq. He spoke about how much this meant to him, how he wore this soldier’s bracelet every day, and it reminded him how important it was that he ensure this soldier’s death would not be in vain.
In response to McCain, Obama said, “I’ve got a bracelet too.” After a bit of fumbling and a moment to look down at the name inscribed on the bracelet, Obama said that it was given to him by the mother of Sergeant Ryan David Jopek, another soldier who tragically lost his life in Iraq. Obama claimed that Mrs. Jopek had given him the bracelet saying, “Can you please make sure that no other mother is goin’ through what I’m goin’ through?”
Here’s the exchange:

(Sorry it’s from Fox News, I know some of you won’t like that. I didn’t record the debate so I couldn’t upload my own copy, I was stuck with whatever was available on YouTube. Regardless, there aren’t any talking heads to skew it, so it shouldn’t matter.)

While both candidates of course have the right to wear whatever bracelets they wish, unfortunately Mr. Obama has completely mischaracterized Mrs. Jopek’s intentions. Not only that, but he has utterly disregarded repeated requests by the family that he not wear the bracelet or use it for political purposes.

According to Mr. Brian Jopek, ex-husband of Ryan Jopek’s mother, Tracy, “she just wanted Mr. Obama to know Ryan’s name.” He went on to say, “she wasn’t looking to turn it into a big media event” and “just wanted it to be something between Barack Obama and herself.”
As far back as March of this year, Mr. Jopek was asked about Obama’s use of their son’s name, and how he and his wife felt about it. In talking with a local Wisconsin radio show, Mr. Jopek mentioned that he had been surprised to see Obama wearing the bracelet and mentioning Ryan’s name repeatedly while on the campaign trail, despite his wife personally requesting that Obama not use the bracelet politically, both when she first gave him the bracelet and again afterward when he continued to mention her son.
(You can listen to that radio show here, it’s at about ten minutes into the program.)
During that interview, Mr. Jopek stated that his ex-wife has shied away from responding to any questioning about Obama’s use of their sons name, “Because she is a Barack Obama supporter and she didn’t want to do anything to sabotage his campaign.”

Since Obama has again gone against the wishes of the Jopek family, this time mentioning their son on the largest national stage possible, Mrs. Jopek is again being hounded by reporters despite her wish to stay out of the limelight. She confirmed to the AP that she asked Obama not to mention their son, but again, her wish not to upset Obama’s campaign came forward. She said that she was “satisfied” with the way in which her son was mentioned, and refused to say anything negative about her chosen candidate.

Personally, I find this absolutely appalling. It’s disgusting to me that Obama has taken advantage of the good will of his own supporter – a grieving mother who has lost her son in a time of war – by mischaracterizing her intentions in giving the gift of a bracelet representing the memory of her lost son, and repeatedly denying her request that he not turn her son into campaign rhetoric for political gain. This is beyond low, and yet again, is being mostly ignored by the main stream media.

NewsBusters.org has a good article about this situation, available here. As far as I can tell, NewsBusters seems to be fairly even – they attack inaccuracies in both campaigns evenly, as well as bias in either direction amongst the main stream media.