They can try to smear Obama

I grew up in Toronto, and went to school with many people whose parents were immigrants or 1st generation Canadians. Growing up, I assure you I heard every cultural joke going. Some names were hard to say. So often, TEACHERS, gave students names that were more Canadian-ized. I have some friends that legally changed their names because they were tired of people making fun them. For example, an old boss of mine has the Austrian surname Fauchs which she changed to its phonetic spelling "Fox" so she never has to be called Mrs. "F*cks" again. And there was the friend called "Pranaitis". You can imagine the jokes. Many people give themselves nicknames because nobody can say their name properly...lacking the right accent. Imagine your name said incorrectly all day wrong. Wouldn't you rather have a nickname? But then again some American guys named Robert used to change their name to Dick.

So, why would someone choose to emphasize that changing your name from Barrack to Barry as being bad?



Let's use a method taught to me by a PhD of analyzing an argument. We'll call it the "so what?" method.

I like the opening with a focus on his drug usage. So what? 20+ years ago he tried drugs. So what? Studies show that our brains are not actually completely mature until around 25. So what? He did something immature....when he was a kid. Of all the honest people I know, people I have worked with, at top Fortune 500 companies, many of experimented with drugs. So what? I think if he was CURRENTLY snorting coke that would be an issue.

Paying for travels
Let's take a survey of all the people in the USA who have had part time jobs and parents funding their travels around the world. Ding! Ding! Ding! Oh yeah, and remember back in the day when student cards got you deeply discounted seats??? My friend Dr. Mays for example, was given the opportunity to go to Sorbonne in Paris to study art even though he was ultimately a med student, he was also a fantastic artist. Oh my god!!!! We better have someone check his work - maybe he's getting jiggy with his scalpel. But actually what I love about Dr. Mays going to Paris is that he spent most of his money on the airfare and didn't even have a place to stay when he got off the plane. And yes, the video I sent you the other day is Dr. Mays speaking for the AMA.

Seriously though, what is the point of these attacks? I'll mention now, they are easily twisted and the writer has not provided any of their sources. Why? Yes, because it is BS.

Obama changed schools. So what? I moved to the United States, without absolutely NO knowledge of the educational system. I worked for a Fortune 500 company that offered to pay for a few courses at University of Phoenix. It's an accredited school, but after a couple courses I UN-enrolled myself. I decided to take classes by distance at University of Maryland. After a year, and getting completely shafted by an administrative f**k up that canceled all of my financial aid at the same time (bad luck) my credit union had reported someone else's delinquent loan on my credit report. So, I was not allowed to take final exams because my tuition was not paid. You can easily see how that would make one bitter. I chose to look into my options before continuing my studies...most of what I had done were GEs, so it was still a good time to make a change. When I found a program with the major "Philosophy, Political Science, Economics" I knew it was perfect for me and I transferred.

So what are they telling me? I picked myself up by the bootstraps, I have lived on my own since I was 17 years old and supported myself entirely ever since. I guess its not unusual to have some emotional scars about you, when grow up in a world that spits you out all alone at 17. I finished high school a year early after fighting with administrators who wanted to kick me out of school because my parents were not paying taxes in the area I was going to school. I asked them HOW exactly I was supposed to finish high school. A)My parents had already put my life in danger and police had tried to put me in a foster home and I flatly refused because I had heard horror stories of teens in foster homes. So i decided to go it alone with no provincial assistance/welfare. B) I was the victim - not the taxpayers - asking for one year, a smart student who had never done anything wrong...skipping a year of high school!!! and C) I was working at 17, under the table as a live-in nanny so that could finish high school, D) were they hoping to make me pay the price of bad parents for the rest of my life, E) did the world really want me to be a high school dropout? Thankfully, I won....but my grades were not high enough to get a scholarship. I could not get student loans because of complications of the system. I finally got some student loans and funding from my band council...but I crashed and burned. I worked full time and went to school full time. The blood disorder that I have was completely out of control. I was so anemic that my heart was constantly pounding and I could barely walk up a flight of stairs. My doctor said if my iron/ferrum levels kept falling, I would eventually have cardiac arrest. One day I woke up, and I couldn't get out of bed. I was 21 years old. And I think it was the realization that I had only myself to take care of me. Mom and Dad were never going to change, and they were never going to come and get their daughter. In that moment, I swear I felt like Atlas. I didn't want the stigma of being a dropout. I hated working in a café. I hated that all my friends were in college and having fun...and I could barely function or pay my rent.

So what are these people telling me? Because I was prematurely born to a 14 year Mk'Maq Indian who never had any medical care while pregnant and was adopted by a couple who NEVER had a background check performed (the Catholic Children's Aid Society had me in foster care for 6 months and I was considered difficult to adopt because I'm part Indian) and grew up in pretty abusive environment where i was constantly told that I was LUCKY to have been taken in. What are they saying? That because that was the situation given to me, and it took years to undo the damage in my head and believe in myself....if I ever run for public office, you are going to hold it all against me? You will throw aside the fact that I have proven that I understand the phrase citius altius fortius . Faster. Higher. Stronger. I started with nothing. I left my parents house with a backpack and a plastic shopping bag. And let me tell you straight, I had NO idea how to do anything. I had lived in my parents' bubble. How to find an apartment, get utilities, get student loans. But one day I did discover as a Canadian Born American Indian I had the right to live and work in the USA. I wanted to get as far away from my parents as possible. The threats just never ended. It was like creating my own witness protection program. I saved the money for the flight and left for the other side of the continent, as far away as I could get.

But then flash ahead to 33 and I have worked in marketing, I have been a business banker and an financial/investment consultant and I'm currently a marketing consultant with a Masters degree and I have lived in Toronto, LA and now Paris. Are you suspicious about how I got the money to do it? I didn't even have parents helping me along.

Let's see what other "self-incrminating" things I can tell you about. I'm an extroverted person as you can tell. I love to meet new people of all walks of life. It's the only way we can really live in a plural society.

Growing up several of my fellow classmates were children of politicians that had fled Honduras and Chile.

At 18 I met the first Lebanese person I had ever known, and was shocked at how little I knew about the middle east. My friend "Sam" who is actually named Ossama, told me much about his country over "turkish" coffee, salted raw almonds and baklava. He even convinced me to eat Hummos, Babaganoush and Falafel.

I know, they're going to write that I associated with Terrorists right? I wonder what they'll say when they find out it is a dream of mine to visit Beirut!!!

Oh then there are the guys from Saudi Arabia who were talked about in Fortune magazine. There was my Pakistani roommate in college who went home to pakistan for the summer and came back married. Oh and my Lebanse dentist, Wallid. Then there is my Iraqi-Lebanese friend Haydar. And of course my friend Ahmed who after 9/11 was arrested in Long Beach, CA on suspicion of being a terrorist. His neighbors thought is 2 Ferrari were over the top and he HAD to be a terrorist. If they knew him, they would understand from where his drive to succeed stems. I handled his banking accounts and had to make sure all was well. We frequently had coffee or lunch and I learned the life of someone who has experienced first hand the prejudice that causes detainment for no real reason other than the fact you were born in Syria and have have an Arab name.


So now we are culpable for all the actions of the people we come in contact with? Hmmm.

As a former business banker, let me tell you that there is NO value to the arguments below about student loans versus buying a house. Student loan payments can be reduced to pretty low monthly payments and they are treated as installment loans not credit. The value of them could have been paid off with the equity of an earlier home. Are you suggesting he bought the home outright???? I'm pretty darn sure he got a mortgage. Trust me, there are people all around you that have managed to get pretty large mortgages ....only they're not mortgaging the entire value of their homes...especially in the last few years.

By the way, it does not take a genius to see the difference between someone speaking publicly who did not make a Freudian slip but missed a word "Senator McCain does not talk about my purported Muslim Faith"

Let the propaganda continue. After all, that's why we have free speech right? So we can say whatever we want.

Written in response to the circulating email.....


This has been on my mind since the beginning of the nominations and from what I have located online, this checks out pretty thorough.


This election has me very worried. So many things to consider. About a year ago I would have voted for Obama. I have changed my mind three times since than. I watch all the news channels, jumping from one to another. I must say this drives my husband crazy. But, I feel if you view MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News, you might get some middle ground to work with. About six months ago, I started thinking 'where did the money come from for Obama'. I have four daughters who went to College, and we were middle class, and money was tight. We (including my girls) worked hard and there were lots of student loans.

I started looking into Obama's life.

Around 1979 Obama started college at Occidental in California. He is ver y open about his two years at Occidental, he tried all kinds of drugs and was wasting his time but, even though he had a brilliant mind, did not apply himself to his studies. 'Barry' (that was the name he used all his life) during this time had two roommates, Muhammad Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid, both from Pakistan. During the summer of 1981, after his second year in college, he made a 'round the world' trip. Stopping to see his mother in Indonesia, next Hyderabad in India, three weeks in Karachi, Pakistan where he stayed with his roommate's family, then off to Africa to visit his father's family. My question - Where did he get the money for this tr ip? Nether I, nor any one of my children would have had money for a trip like this when they where in college. When he came back he started school at Columbia University in New York. It is at this time he wants everyone to call
him Barack - not Barry. Do you know what the tuition is a t Columbia? It's not cheap! to say the least. Where did he get money for tuition? Student Loans? Maybe. After Columbia, he went to Chicago to work as a Community Organizer for $12,000. a year. Why Chicago? Why not New York? He was already living in New York.

By 'chance' he met Antoin 'Tony' Rezko, born in Aleppo Syria, and a real estate developer in Chicago. Rezko has been convicted of fraud and bribery this year. Rezko, was named 'Entrepreneur of the Decade' by the Arab-American Business and Professional Association'. About two years later, Obama entered Harvard Law School. Do you have any idea what tuition is for Harvard Law School? Where did he get the money for Law School? More student loans? After Law school, he went back to Chicago. Rezko offered him a job, which he turned down. But, he did take a job with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland. Guess what? They represented 'Rezar' which Rezko's firm. Rezko was one of Obama's first major financial contributors when he ran for office in Chicago. In 2003, Rezko threw an early fundraiser for Obama which Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendelland claims was instrumental in providing Obama with 'seed money' for his U.S. Senate race. In 2005, Obama
purchased a new home in Kenwoood District of Chicago for $1.65 million (less than asking price). With ALL those Student Loans - Where did he get the money for the property? On the same day Rezko's wife, Rita, purchased the adjoining empty lot for full price. The London Times reported that Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-born Billionaire loaned Rezko $3.5 million three weeks before Obama's new home was purchased. Obama met Nadhmi Auchi many times with Rezko.

Now, we have Obama running for President. Valerie Jarrett, was Michele Obama's boss. She is now Obama's chief advisor and he does not make any major decisions without ta lking to her first. Where was Jarrett born? Ready for this? Shiraz, Iran! Do we see a pattern here? Or am I going crazy?

On May 10, 2008 The Times reported, Robert Malley advisor to Obama was 'sacked' after the press found out he was having regular contacts with 'Hamas', which controls Gaza and is connected with Iran. This past week, buried in the back part of the papers, Iraqi newspapers reported that during Obama's visit to Iraq, he asked their leaders to do nothing about the war until after he is elected, and he will 'Take care of things'.

Oh, and by the way, remember the college roommates that where born in Pakistan? They are in charge of all those 'small' Internet campaign contribution for Obama. Where is that money coming from? The poor and middle class in this country? Or could it be from the Middle East?

And the final bit of news. On September 7, 2008 (less than a MONTH ago), The Washington Times p osted a verbal slip that was made on 'This Week' with George Stephanapoulos. Obama on talking about his religion said, 'My Muslim faith'. When questioned, 'he make a mistake'. Some mistake!

All of the above information I got on line. If you would like to check it - Wikipedia, encyclopedia, Barack Obama; Tony Rezko; Valerie Jarrett: Daily Times - Obama visited Pakistan in 1981; The Washington Times - September 7, 2008; The Times May 10, 2008.

Now the BIG question - If I found out all this information on my own, Why haven't all of our 'intelligent' members of the press been reporting this?

A phrase that keeps ringing in my ear - 'Beware of the enemy from within'!!!