Questioning the New Deal

taken in part a must read

Ellis Washington, J.D.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=79649

Department of Political Science

Faculty Adviser, Political Science Association

The day I took fire from 'Obama'

Posted: November 01, 2008

1:00 am Eastern

© 2008

Unlike the boring, scripted debates we see on TV, this debate will be a no-holds-barred, knock down, drag out political brawl where ALL relevant policy issues about each candidate will be on the table.

~ Ellis Washington, Mock Presidential Debate flyer, SSU, Oct. 29, 2008

Invitation to a real political debate

Last Wednesday at Savannah State University

, where I teach law and political science, I organized a political forum called, "Mock Presidential Debate – Obama v. McCain." Barack Obama was played by my colleague Kevin Hales (professor of history); I played Sen. John McCain.

The political debate was a smashing success. We had over 250 students and about 15 faculty and staff participate. Several faculty members even brought their entire class. We also had a TV crew from the local Savannah affiliate WSAV that filmed the entire political forum.

To encourage students, administration, faculty and staff to attend, I sent out the following announcement:

ATTN: ADMINSTRATION, FACULTY, STAFF & STUDENTS OF SSU

On behalf of the Political Science Association at Savannah State University, I would like to formally invite the entire SSU family to attend an interesting and unique political forum – a Mock Presidential Debate – between BARACK OBAMA (represented by professor Kevin Hales [History Department] & JOHN MCCAIN (represented by professor Ellis Washington [Political Science Department]).

Professor Leonard McCoy [Political Science Department] will be the moderator along with student moderators Chelsea White and Sheila Adu Poku.

Unlike the boring, scripted debates we see on TV, this debate will be a no-holds-barred, knock down, drag out political brawl where ALL relevant policy issues about each candidate will be on the table.

See the attached flyer for further details regarding the Mock Presidential Debate.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD AND SEE YOU ALL ON WED. AFTERNOON AT 1:00!

Peace,

Ellis Washington, J.D.

Department of Political Science

Faculty Adviser, Political Science Association

(Column continues below)

Of course, I knew going in that I was a marked man, that participation in this presidential debate would be a great challenge that would put my intellectual, political and spiritual capacities to the test – yet like a lamb to the slaughter, I embraced my destiny.

'Why do you want to be president of the United States?'

This was the opening salvo of this political beat down. In order to set the proper tone, I knew my answer must be strong and unequivocal. I said in part:

The blood that flows throughout my veins is not red; it is red white and blue! I am an American. I believe in American exceptionalism. My grandfather and father were both decorated admirals in the U.S. Navy, fought fascism and bled for this country. I served six years in Vietnam, five and a half years as a prisoner of war of the dreaded Vietcong where I was almost continually tortured. I want the best leadership

for America … and that's why I want to be president of the United States of America!

(Stunned silence)

Although most of the questions from the SSU student body were passionate, earnest and intelligent, the overall tone was hostile, even antagonistic against the character I played, Sen. John McCain, and against the Republican Party. Surprisingly, some of the students braved the jeers and asked difficult questions to Sen. Barack Obama, while others nodded approvingly when I spoke like they were saying, "Professor Washington, I'm with you; I just can't say so publicly."

At the beginning of the debate, many questions centered on domestic issues, particularly the welfare state and how Obama promised a tax cut for 95 percent of Americans, free health care, dental care, child care, prenatal care, college education, job training, mortgage assistance, free gas for your car and free oil to heat your home, etc.

When I could take no more socialist propaganda from Obama and his youthful minions (many of them my own students), I launched into an extemporaneous tirade, which I paraphrase below:

What is wrong with you people?! How long will you allow your minds to be shackled by Big Government liberalism and the Democratic Party? In the early 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised you a "New Deal" and got your forefathers hooked on the drug of welfare and government handouts. In the 1960s, LBJ gave you the "Great Society" and over $5 trillion dollars in new welfare spending to fight what LBJ called his "War on Poverty," yet poverty over the past 40 years has grown exponentially. Even worse, there is a poverty of the spirit that is particularly acute in the black community that remains undiagnosed and unacknowledged … even to this day.

Ladies and gentlemen, when will you say I don't need your welfare, your universal health care, dental care, Social Security, food stamps and government cheese? I'll buy my own cheese. [Slams fist on the table] "GET OFF THE DAMN PLANTATION!"

(Stunned silence, followed by a crescendo of jeers)

America should be aware

Iranian top dog: "America should be aware not to put its huge body on top of the suicide bombers' explosive devices"

"The Iranian people hate the US." But surely if we just sit down and chat we can hash things out and reach an understanding.

Meanwhile, the saber-rattling steps up in intensity: "Iran threatens US with suicide bombers," from the Media Line News Agency, October 30 (thanks to James):

Only a few days ahead of the American presidential election, Iranian parliamentary speaker 'Ali Larijani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah 'Ali Khamanai have launched harsh verbal attacks against the United States.

Referring to the US army's attacks in Pakistan and Syria, Larijani said they would not be answered with diplomatic protests.

"The US method and conduct, expressed by this aggression, will only be stopped by a clear-cut and unexpected response, whose grounds were set by the martyr Hussein Fahmida," Larijani said during a parliamentary session on Wednesday.

Fahmida was 13 when he detonated an explosive device he carried on him, destroying an Iraqi tank during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.

"America should be aware not to put its huge body on top of the suicide bombers' explosive devices," Larijani said.

On the same day, Khamanai said the differences between Iran and the US were far beyond differences of opinion.

"The Iranian people hate the US… [because of] the various plots the US government has hatched against Iran and the Iranian nation for the past five decades," Khamanai said.

The Supreme Leader added that any nation that would not honor Iran's identity and independence would have its "hands cut off."...

An al-Qaida leader

Thursday, October 30, 2008 2:22 PM

DUBAI — An al-Qaida leader has called for President George W. Bush and the Republicans to be "humiliated," without endorsing any party in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, according to a video posted on the Internet.

"O God, humiliate Bush and his party, O Lord of the Worlds, degrade and defy him," Abu Yahya al-Libi said at the end of sermon marking the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, in a video posted on the Internet.

Libi, one of the top al-Qaida commanders believed to be living in Afghanistan or Pakistan, called for God's wrath to be brought against Bush equating him with past tyrants in history.

The remarks were the first comments from a leading al-Qaida figure referring, albeit indirectly, to the U.S. elections. Muslim clerics often end sermons by calling on God to guide and support Muslims and help defeat their enemies.

In 2004, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden issued his first video in more than a year just days before the elections to deride President Bush and warn of possible new September 11-style attacks.

Bin Laden made little mention of Bush's Democratic challenger John Kerry, telling Americans: "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands and each state which does not harm our security will remain safe."