THE CLUELESS DR. W. GABRIEL SELASSIE

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

THE CLUELESS DR. W. GABRIEL SELASSIE

DR. W. GABRIEL SELASSIE

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W Gabriel Selassie I:

December 14 at 9:12am ·
Them: Michelle Obama for President.
Me: What qualifies her other than sleeping with a President?
Them: You ignorant. Stop being fake Black Person. You think you so smart, but you dumb.
Me: Please tell me what she has done that qualifies her to be President.
Them: "silence"
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THE HEAVY PRICE OF ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM
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Dr. Selassie, you recently posted a comment to one of my posts where I suggested that Michelle Obama be drafted for president.  In your post, you said, “I don’t vote for people based on who they slept with. Tell MO to go get a day job.”  Then you went on to ask, what qualifies Michelle Obama to be president? You said, “Tell me what MO has done concretely that qualifies her to be President of the United States?”
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That was THE most uninformed, sexist, and bigoted comment that I’ve heard coming from any Black man since I’ve been posting to the internet, and I’ve been posting to the net since it was called a bulletin board. What makes you assume that Michelle’s only significance as a human being is the fact that she slept with Barack Obama, because she’s a woman?  So, once again, Selassie, you've managed to shock me beyond belief with one of your blindly bigoted, and recklessly unwarranted assumptions. The last time I heard anything even approaching your level of cluelessness was in 2008 when Hillary Clinton betrayed a similar kind of condescension against Barack Obama.
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In her 2008 run against Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton said, “He’s [John McCain] never been the president, but he will put forth his lifetime of experience. I will put forth my lifetime of experience. Senator Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002." In other words, what kind of life experience could an ignorant coon possibly have that would qualify him to be President of the United States?  That's exactly the kind of attitude you're bringing to the table with respect to Michelle Obama. The irony of the Hillary Clinton episode was, in the end, it turned out that it was Hillary herself, with all of her "lifetime of experience," that ended up being the only smudge on President Obama's record after eight years in office. But in spite of that glaring irony, I'll respond to your question anyway, because you're obviously in dire need of an education.
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Michelle LaVaughn Robinson-Obama attended Princeton University and graduated cum laude in 1985. She then went on to earn a degree from Harvard Law School in 1988. Thereafter, she went to work for the Chicago office of the Sidley Austin law firm, where she met Barack Obama and was assigned as his mentor. She also worked as an assistant to Mayor Richard Daley, and later as the Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development for the city of Chicago. So based on just those qualifications alone, even then - before she became First Lady - Michelle was twice as qualified to be President of the United States as Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was only self-taught as a lawyer, while Michelle Obama graduated from both Princeton and Harvard. In addition, she didn't just sleep with the president, she was his mentor - she was responsible for SCHOOLING him right after he graduated from law school.  And another thing, she’s certainly more qualified than either George W. Bush, or, Donald Trump. Charles Ogletree, a Harvard professor who taught both Michelle and Barack Obama, said recently of Barack, "you know his wife should have been president, absolutely." So tell me, Selassie, what in your eyes makes Michelle any less qualified than any one of these gentlemen, the fact that she’s a woman, or because she’s a Black woman?
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Your comment clearly demonstrates that your perception is based more on Michelle Obama's race and/or gender than the facts, and there's a phrase for people who go around recklessly spewing such flawed and unwarranted assumptions as you've done here - the phrase is "narrow-minded bigot," whether you're cognizant of your bigotry or not.  It's not as though you initially asked whether or not Michelle was qualified, you simply made the assumption that she wasn't, just like Hillary Clinton did in the case of Barack Obama - and by the way, you can't be trained to become President of the United States, you simply have to have the knowledge and intelligence to learn on the job as you go along, and Michelle has more than proven that she has everything it takes in that regard, and more.  Look at what we currently have in the White House - a man who is both unqualified, and untrainable, because he has an inability to grasp complex ideas, and has the attention span of a tick.  Yet, you question the fact that this highly educated Black woman could do his job.  That's unbelievable.
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BLACK WOMEN HAVE BECOME THE MOST EDUCATED GROUP IN THE UNITED STATES | The Independent
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Black women are now the most educated group in the US, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Between 2009 and 2010, black women earned 68 percent of associate's degrees, 66 percent of bachelor's degrees, 71 percent of master's degrees and 65 percent of all doctorates awarded to black students.

www.independent.co.uk › News › World › Americas Jun 3, 2016
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 And in another thoughtless comment, you said, “I am not sure if Black people were ever behind neoliberalism. Can you explain?”
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That’s yet another ridiculous statement.  It was Black people who got behind Hillary Clinton to get her the Democratic nomination during the 2016 primaries, and it was also Black people who were running around calling Bill Clinton “Our first Black president” - even as he was creating the Prison/Industrial complex which ended up negatively impacting the lives of more Black people than there were slaves in all of America in 1850 - and the Clintons virtually INVENTED neoliberalism.  So how can you say Black people weren’t behind neoliberalism?  Most Black people are into personality politics rather than movements, so they're into whatever their favorite politician is into, a flaw in our thinking that we're going to have to correct, because the Clintons were the very face of neoliberalism due to their closet conservatism.  The fact is, I’m still fighting many Black people over their mindlessly unwarranted love of the Clintons for that very reason:

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A MESSAGE TO HILLARY CLINTON CULTISTS

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Whenever Clinton cultists try to point their finger at those of us who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton it makes me want to throw up. They shouldn’t point their finger at those of us who refused to vote for this woman, but look to themselves for being so delusional that they thought they could force the most hated and distrusted Democratic nominee since the Civil War down the people’s throat.
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The Democrats didn’t lose to Trump on election night, Trump became the President-Elect during the Democratic primaries due to the unrealistic, short-sighted, and uninformed stupidity of Clinton cultists during the Democratic primaries. They didn’t have sense enough to realize that trying to force America to choose between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was like trying to force INFORMED Americans to choose between cyanide and strychnine. In addition, they failed to realize that conservatives who claimed not to like Trump, secretly loved everything he stood for, so when they went into the voting booth, they secretly voted for him.
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On the other hand, trying to get INFORMED progressives to vote for Hillary Clinton - who, again, was the most lying, distrusted, and hated Democratic nominee since the Civil War - they were asking progressives who were much more informed than themselves to vote for David Duke, since the Clintons have done a hundred times more damage to the American middle class, minorities, and the Black community than the Klan has ever done. So they need to put that dumb-ass bullshit to rest. We have Trump as a direct result of Clinton cultists’ closed-minded lying, deceit, corruption, and uninformed determination to shove Hillary Clinton down America’s throat in spite of the fact that we said we didn’t want her.
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The Clintons walk like liberals and talk like liberals but they always seem to leave conservative policies in their wake. They've been more successful in promoting the conservative agenda and destroying the American middle-class way of life than any administration in American history, including Ronald Reagan's. They're responsible for NAFTA, which allowed $20 an hour jobs to be sent out of the country to be performed by people who make less per week than many upper-middle-class Americans spent on lunch per day, and they gutted Glass-Steagall (which President Roosevelt put into place to prevent Wall Street greed from plunging the nation into a second Great Depression), which led directly to the 2008 Wall Street crash. Clinton also abolished the Fairness Doctrine (no, it wasn't Reagan as many people think. Reagan simply prevented it from being elevated from a regulation to a law, but Clinton abolished it outright). That led to the creation of the corporate media culture and propaganda machines like Fox News that were then allowed to spew conservative propaganda and disinformation with impunity.
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Clinton's "Welfare Reform" led to the undue suffering of millions of poor Americans. And then, after colluding with Ronald Reagan to flood the Black community with crack cocaine while governor of Arkansas, after becoming president - even as Black people were running around calling him our “first Black president” - Clinton signed the most draconian crime bill in United States history to incarcerate on a massive scale the very victims of the crime that HE committed, just to prove to Republicans that he wasn’t “soft on coons” - and he actually paid states EXTRA to give those victims longer sentences. And again, as a direct result, today there are more Black people under the control of the prison/industrial complex than were enslaved in all of America in 1850, a decade prior to the Civil War, and that very same prison industrial complex became one of Hillary Clinton's largest and most prolific political contributors.
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Thus, as a direct result of Clinton’s unconscionable actions, the lives of hundreds of thousands of Black people have been completely destroyed - and it’s still having a negative impact on Black people today. There's currently a huge part of an entire generation of young Black people who don't know anything about their culture, and don't really know what it means to be Black, because the people who were responsible for teaching them were either dead, in prison, or mentally disabled by the effects of crack cocaine. As a result, instead of developing their potential and preparing for the future, many of these young people, who were literally raised by the corporate media, has been conditioned to believe that their role in life is to be criminals, drug addicts, and at the very bottom of society. In addition, they're being mesmerized by the media by being fed a constant diet of music that celebrates drug use, killing one another, and referring to the very womb of their culture as "bitches and hoes." So their fate is all but sealed. And worse, they're unfit parents for the generation that's coming up.
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So if a new election were being held tomorrow and my vote alone would determine the outcome, I'd still vote against Hillary, Trump, or noTrump. It’s much easier to fight a bloviating idiot than it is the insidious treachery of a Hillary Clinton, because she's more subtle, and not in your face. We have the entire country up-in-arms against Trump, but with Hillary it would have been business as usual, because she would cut our throats with a scapel instead of a hacksaw.
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"New Democrats, also called Centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats or Moderate Democrats, are a relatively centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party that emerged after the victory of Republican George H. W. Bush in the 1988 presidential election. Describing themselves as "centrist", they are an economically moderate to conservative and "Third Way" faction which dominated the party for around 20 years, starting in the late 1980s after the US electorate turned to the political right. They are represented by organizations such as the New Democrat Network and the New Democrat Coalition."
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New Democrats - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democrats
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So Dr. Selassie, if you profess to be an educator, you really should bone up on what’s going on around you, or at the very least, put more thought into what you say before you say it.  Because, again, the comments you’ve made above are absolutely ridiculous, and as a so-called educator, you’re not only embarrassing yourself, but you’re embarrassing the Black community as a whole. Many in this White supremacist society already think we’re ignorant, so please don’t add to that perception, because as we should be able to see, such perceptions are deadly. We can't out-scream 'em, because they control the media, and we can't outfight 'em, because they control the military and police, so our only alternative is to out-think 'em.  That's where our educators should come in, but you're absolutely worthless until you train yourself to think efficiently, and I'm not seeing that here. What I see is a lot of very sloppy thinking.
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So I’m keeping a list of some of the more outrageous comments being made by politicians, ministers, and so-called Black intellectuals for a book on “THE PRICE OF ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM,” and I can see now that you're gonna be featured quite prominently, because it's very important for the Black community to understand that the primary reason that Black people can’t find justice is because we aren’t respected, and the reason we’re not respected is because far too few of us are using our creativity and powerful intellect for anything other than singin’, dancin’, and running with a ball.
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Due to a system filled with shallow-minded, uninspired, and tribalist educators, our educational institutions are conferring advanced degrees upon people who are actually moderately educated 9th graders who fail to understand that no one can educate you. You must educate yourself. For that reason Black people can't afford to just think as a hobby, we must make thinking a way of life.
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But unfortunately, many of us in the Black community would rather be seen as cool, than knowledgeable - we're not as interested in actually seeking knowledge as we are wearing the robe across the stage to get a receipt from the White man attesting to the fact that we've been through his brainwashing  academy- and we’re paying a heavy price for that.
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So do the Black community a favor - if you choose to be an educator, dedicate yourself to being a real educator. Don't just stand before a class and regurgitate the words of dead White men, teach students to think for themselves; and don't just collect a check for keeping our young people ignorant and uninspired, teach them to be careful, thoughtful, and creative thinkers.  If you're not doing those things, regardless of what you're being paid for, you're not an educator, you're a fraud - just another Cornel West, with his "prophetic tradition" and advanced degrees in talkin' snakes. 
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"The Prophetic tradition?" That's laughable. Prophecy and all other unfounded beliefs are the very antithesis of knowledge. It translates into Voodoo. Truly learned individuals believe in efficient thought, not prophecy or any other unfounded beliefs, and what seems to be your trove of unexamined assumptions fall right into that category.  Instead of examining the facts, you indulged your sexist and/or racist mindset to simply assume that Michelle Obama doesn't possess the wherewithal to be  President of the United States.  But if you were truly a man of knowledge and wisdom (putting your PhD, receipts, and all other accoutrements of alleged knowledge aside for the moment), immediately after making such a baseless assumption, your very next thought should have been, "What evidence do I have of that?" That, in turn, would have led to your doing at least a minimal amount of research, which would have helped to inform you, and it would have prevented you from making a public fool of yourself.
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You once told me that you didn't answer one of my questions because since I didn't have a PhD in psychology you thought it would be a waste of time.  But as I told you on that occasion, Socrates was a mere stonemason, yet, by many, he's considered the father of modern thought, and he educated some the greatest minds of his time, including Plato. So you should never confuse education with intelligence.  While I haven't been anointed by the White man with one of his PhDs, nevertheless, I'm something of an educator myself, so I sincerely hope you have the innate intelligence to embrace the following axiom: Arrogance betrays itself. If you possess the kind of brilliance that warrants arrogance, you should also possess enough wisdom to avoid it.
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And let me leave you with this bit of knowledge.  It involves two very simple concepts. First, never rely on a receipt from the White man to attest to your intellect. That's a form of worship, because you can't worship a document without worshipping the man who conferred it upon you. Your PhD has absolutely no value unless you assume that the man who conferred it upon you is superior to yourself.  Thus, you're relying on the fact that the man who conferred your receipt upon you is not an idiot himself. There are enough advanced degrees in congress to be used as toilet paper, yet congress is undoubtedly among the most dysfunctional institutions in America. Think about that. It speaks volumes regarding the relative value of credentials as opposed to intellect.
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And second, always make sure you know what the hell you're talking about before you start shootin' off your mouth.  That'll prevent you from embarrassing yourself in the future. Always avoid the tendency to jump on your high horse, because it's inevitable that you're going to come across people capable of dragging you off of it. Instead, you should always think of yourself as a student of knowledge, intent on sharing what you've learned with your peers, because in the final analysis, that's what we all are - students.

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CORNEL (THE PROPHET) WEST ON THE VERY MORNING THAT BARACK OBAMA ANNOUNCED HIS CANDIDACY

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THE VERY SAME CORNEL WEST SUCKIN' UP - AND LEAVING MESSAGES AND PRAYERS
OVER THE PHONE - AFTER OBAMA WON 

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NOBEL PRIZE WINNER

AND FORMER OBAMA CRITIC

Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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MICHELLE OBAMA IS JUST WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS RIGHT NOW

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

MICHELLE OBAMA IS JUST WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS RIGHT NOW

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Michelle Obama is an intelligent, down-to-Earth, and highly competent woman - what we in the Black community call a “Sister-girl” - so being President of the United States would be a piece of cake for her. While she would be every bit as competent as Barack - don’t forget, she used to be Barack’s mentor - but she wouldn’t be as easygoing.  The Republican Party would have their hands all the way full, because every time they’d say something stupid, they’d get some blowback. She’d give them the kind of tongue lashing that they wouldn’t want to see on the evening news. So they would think very carefully before they shot off their mouths. 
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I know these things for a fact, because I was married to a “sister-girl” for 34 years. Even though I had more education, when she died she was making $37,000 a year more than I was. One tax man joked with me and said, “I know you shame.”  But I wasn’t ashamed at all, I was proud. That woman was responsible for everything I do today.  And America would be proud of Michelle, because I’m sure that she played the very same role in Barack’ life.  She would bring us love, admiration, and pride, not only here at home, but abroad.  Because very few people like to mess around with sister-girls.  They’re not the kind of women who will whimper as they’re being abused. While they can be very sweet, very beautiful, and extremely feminine, they will look a man dead in the eye, and tell him, “Bring it on, homeboy!”  And they’d mean it, from the very depths of their soul.
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This one’s for you, baby.  Rest in peace.  I got this.  

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DRAFT MICHELLE OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT
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Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Happy 50th Birthday, Mr. President

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Happy 50th Birthday, Mr. President

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Happy Birthday, Mr. President,
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But I’ve got to be honest, you have me about as hot as fish grease right now. I simply cannot figure out what's going on in your head. You go out and give these rousing, voice-quivering speeches that renew my confidence in the fact that you're finally going to go back and confront the GOP, then you get back to the Oval Office and seem to curl up in the fetal position, letting the Republican Party not only roll all over you, but us. What's up with that?
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I think your heart is in the right place, but I've come to the conclusion that you're suffering from the effects of a coping mechanism that you've developed over the years. I believe that as a result of living all over the world and having to deal with being an outsider all your life, you've developed a go-along-to-get-along style of dealing with adversity. That's obviously worked for you in the past, after all, you're President of the United States, but that's not what the people voted for, so it's time to reassess your strategy.
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While the American people liked Mr. Rogers - just as they do you - they didn't want him as president. The American people want John Wayne. That's the only reason Reagan was elected - and still glorified - in spite of his gross incompetence and corruption in office. The Republicans recognize that fact - that's why Bush and Cheney walked around in cowboy boots. Republicans know that the American people expect their president to be strong and resolute, even if he's ignorant. So I don't know who's guiding your strategy, but if they're telling you that the people are going to put up with a president running around Washington asking, "Can we all get along?" They're dead wrong.
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So you need to step up to the plate, my man, and let some of the hood come out in you. Because if I'm not seriously mistaken - and I don't think I am - that's exactly what the American people voted for. They figured that at this point in our history that's exactly what we need - an intelligent man with the backbone of a hood rat. And you know what? They were right. The GOP leadership represents nothing less than America's domestic enemy, and they should be dealt with as such.
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So at this point, we don't need a diplomat; we need a warrior with the survival instincts of a hood rat. Some people tend to see that as a pejoritive phrase, but I don't.  I see a lot to be admired about a person who can survive being dragged through the pits of Hell. John Wayne built a career on portraying exactly that kind of person - a White hood rat.
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For that reason, I think you're going to find that your rousing oratory just may backfire on you in the coming campaign. This time, if the rest of the electorate are anything like me, instead of your quivering voice evoking moist eyes of inspiration like it did during the last campaign, it's only going to serve to provoke anger this time, because it's going to remind the people of how badly they were bamboozled in the last election. But they're going to stand by you, because they know their only choice is either standing by you, or having to endure a fascist America.
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So while I'm mad as a wet hen, I plan on sticking by you and pushing for your growth as well. That's the nature of the progressive mindset. We believe in independent thought, so unlike the GOP, we don't insist on everyone marching in lock step. We understand that since no one corners the market on either knowledge, wisdom, or intelligence, we must rely on our combined intellectual resources to move forward. We're also firm believers in the kind of vigorous, and sometimes angry, debate that's currently taking place among progressives today.
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We understand the importance of keeping in mind the difference between efficient thinkers and ideologues: Efficient thinkers always give truth priority over ideology, while ideologues always give ideology priority over truth. So I'm with you until the end, come hell or highwater, but I intend use my column to give you pure hell every step of the way, and I intend to squeeze everything I can out of you during the coming campaign. You see, you still have the potential to become a great president, but sometimes you have to drag great men up Mt. Rushmore kickin' and screamin'.
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Another reason I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt is because you managed to get Michelle, so you must have something going for you.
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A good friend of mine would call that last remark a “slapliment.” But we can fight later - and fight we will. Until then, however, again, I'd like to wish you a very Happy Birthday.

Remember the dream



Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
.
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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