Another Round oF "Holiday with McCain"

The story about the "Holiday with McCain" letter that has been circulating on the Internet and has been the topic of my previous two blogs, took another turn when Mary-Kay Gamel, the UC Santa Cruz professor whose name is on the letter but who, as it turns out, is not its author, wrote me yet again stating that although she did not write it, the letter itself may not be inauthentic:

"Dear Ms. Gablik: I appreciate your sending around my disclaimer, but you don't need to take yourself so much to task. There is no proof yet that the story is false; Snopes.com has it under investigation.
But the main point is that there are many much more solid reasons to reject McCain, including, on the personal side, his shameful abandonment of his first wife, which is unquestionably true.
best
MK"

Thinking about this some more, I believe on further consideration that the experiences described in the letter ring true, and probably ARE an authentic account of SOMEBODY"S actual experiences with McCain. There is a telling article which describes McCain's personal history along similar lines in some detail, which you can find in Rolling Stone, at this site:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain/page/1

And now that McCain & his winking, lipsticked Barracuda have dedicated themselves to trying to establish Obama's credentials as a bonafide terrorist by association, you might want to check out this site as well:

http://www.conservapedia.com/Barack_Obama

The following is a very short excerpt of a huge documentation of outright lies about Obama, making the case for his being a Muslim. We've all heard about this kind of thing, but coming face to face with its despicableness is really quite shocking:

"Barack Hussein Obama, II (allegedly born in Honolulu,[1][2] August 4, 1961) is the 2008 nominee of the Democratic Party for president.[3] Obama has served as a freshman Democratic Senator from Illinois since 2004. On August 23 he chose Senator Joseph Biden as his running mate. In 2007, Obama was rated the most liberal Senator by the National Journal, who had rated Senator John Kerry the most liberal senator during his presidential run as well.[4] If elected, Obama may become the first Muslim President of the United States...

Obama and Islam

Obama is likely to be Muslim because:
Obama's background and education are Muslim
Obama's middle name remains Muslim, meaning "descendant of Muhammad," which most Christians would not retain[8]
Obama recently referred to his "Muslim faith"[9]
Obama uses the Muslim Pakistani pronunciation for "Pakistan" rather than the common American one[10]
Obama, in his autobiography "Dreams from My Father" (1995), descibes Muslim Malcolm X as his favorite black leader
Obama's claims of conversion to Christianity arose after he became politically ambitious, lacking a date of conversion or baptism.[11]
The odds of Obama being truthful in his claim that he converted to Christianity are less than 100 to 1 against it, as fewer than 1% of Muslims convert to Christianity.[12]
Obama claimed to have visited 57 states while campaigning for president of the United States, which of course has only 50 states.[13] He could never explain where the false number of 57 came from, but it has been observed that there are 57 Islamic states and Obama was educated at an Islamic grade school while he lived in an Islamic country.[14]
Obama downplays his Islamic background by claiming that his Kenyan Muslim father was a "confirmed atheist" before Obama was born, but in fact less than 1% of Kenyans are atheists, agnostics or non-religious.[15] There is apparently no evidence of any Christian activities or local church participation by Obama while he was in Massachusetts from 1988 to 1991. Finally, Obama abruptly left his church in Chicago in 2008 when it became politically controversial, without first finding another church to join."

But I wouldn't want you to leave this blog today with a rotten taste in your mouth, so now cheer yourself up with this nice story, from an anonymous blogger on Politico.com:

"The Norwegian newspaper VG has reported a truly amazing story about a newlywed trying to get to Norway to be with her husband, and the stranger who helped pay an unexpected luggage surcharge. It was 1988, and Mary Andersen was at the Miami airport checking in for a long flight to Norway to be with her husband when the airline representative informed her that she wouldn't be able to check her luggage without paying a 100 surcharge:

When it was finally Mary’s turn, she got the message that would crush her bubbling feeling of happiness.

-You’ll have to pay a 103 dollar surcharge if you want to bring both those suitcases to Norway, the man behind the counter said. Mary had no money. Her new husband had traveled ahead of her to Norway, and she had no one else to call. I was completely desperate and tried to think which of my things I could manage without. But I had already made such a careful selection of my most prized possessions, says Mary.

As tears streamed down her face, she heard a "gentle and friendly voice" behind her saying, "That's okay, I'll pay for her." Mary turned around to see a tall man whom she had never seen before. He had a gentle and kind voice that was firm and decisive. The first thing I thought was, Who is this man?

Although this happened 20 years ago, Mary still remembers the authority that radiated from the man. He was nicely dressed, fashionably dressed with brown leather shoes, a cotton shirt open at the throat and khaki pants, says Mary.

She was thrilled to be able to bring both her suitcases to Norway and assured the stranger that he would get his money back. The man wrote his name and address on a piece of paper that he gave to Mary. She thanked him repeatedly. When she finally walked off towards the security checkpoint, he waved goodbye to her.

Who was the man?

Barack Obama.

Twenty years later, she is thrilled that the friendly stranger at the airport may be the next President and has voted for him already and donated 100 dollars to his campaign:

He was my knight in shining armor, says Mary, smiling."