pastajoe

Questioning one's qualifications is not the same as questioning one's citizenship because of one's race. There is no moral equivalence, and it's unwise to attempt to advocate it.

I've been wondering, if Trump won would / should Obama go to the inauguration? I understand the visual of the peaceful transfer of power. But the Birther movement was an unprecedented attack of veiled racism that went beyond the usual political debate. He probably would go, but I wouldn't blame him if he didn't.

You mean the same federal firewalls that let the Chinese hack sensitive security clearance files of 21 million people from the Office of Personnel Management last year? In retrospect, since there's no proof that her personal server was hacked, she may have done a better job protecting her data than the government or the campaign servers have. It's pretty clear which candidate our enemies want to win.

Anybody going to the White Lives Matter rally? Sounds like a great idea. (Now that's sarcasm, Donald). http://www.wben.com/White-Lives-Matter-Organizer-We-re-NOT-Part-of-KKK/22827847 Buffalo, NY (WBEN) An organizer of White Lives Matter says the movement is not linked to the Ku Klux Klan. The group is holding a rally Saturday at Cazenovia Park in South Buffalo. Rebecca Barnett says the rally is to address issues and problems in the country. "The destruction of our nation caused by the federal government, Black Lives Matter, and several other organizations including the influx of refugees and illegal immigrants when we can't take care of our own people," explains Barnett. Barnett says the movement is not linked to the KKK. "We do have supporters who are Ku Klux Klan members. We are aligned with several organizations such as National Socialist Movement, so we represent people who support veterans' rights, the second amendment and the Confederate flag, and who love our country as a whole," says Barnett. "We are White Lives Matter. We are a movement. This particular movement is not solely based on one organization whether it's Ku Klux Klan or any other." The rally is set for 3pm.

For someone who's a self professed do'er more than a speaker, that was a great speech by Hillary. She'll never be at Bill or Obama's level of speaker, but she clearly displayed why she is the right person for the job and Trump is not.

Those people are idiots. Disrespecting the very people who ensure their freedoms.

You'd have to be pretty bitter to not be moved by their story and how it represents the best of America.

Ask the women who want the right to choose. Ask the LGBTQ community. Ask anyone who wants to overturn Citizens United. Ask anyone who finally got healthcare through the ACA.

That just defies logic to think a judge Scalia type is no different than a judge Ginsburg type.

So you don't think there's any difference in who picks the next couple of Supreme Court justices who will impact our lives for perhaps decades? Trump is urging his supporters to not watch Clinton's speech. He must be worried some might be swayed to change their support. Or he just hates losing the ratings war.

And allowing young adults to stay on their parents plan until age 26. It's less expensive for them to stay on the family plan than getting their own.

Mine went down too. For those who oppose the ACA, if there were better options for the millions who signed up that previously had no healthcare, then it wouldn't have been needed. And if its not perfect, then let's fix it. But getting rid of it without a better alternative that could pass in Congress would put millions without healthcare.

At least with a ###### sandwich you get some bread and maybe some condiments, so one is better than the other. So survival of the fittest. If you're sick and can't afford healthcare, you die off and strengthen the gene pool. That would make a great bumper sticker.

No outrage, just sayin'. It's her personal information, she can do what she wants with it, it's not illegal. Just funny that the Trump campaign has such a hard time just coming out and saying they're sorry, mistakes were made and we won't do it again. But they prefer to double down and deny anything happened.

Rut-roh, Shaggy! Melania's website has been scrubbed from the internet. "The professional website of Melania Trump, wife of the Republican presidential nominee, has apparently been deleted from the internet as of Wednesday afternoon. The disappearance of Trump’s elaborate website comes just days after news outlets, including The Huffington Post, raised serious questions about whether she actually earned an undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of Ljubljana, which is in Trump’s native Slovenia. Her online biography claimed she had, but a book about her life published earlier this year says she left the university after one year so she could pursue a modeling career. When pressed about the subject last week, a campaign spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny whether Trump had earned the degree. The refusal to answer questions about Trump’s education quickly sparked speculation about whether other parts of her biography were untrue." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/melania-trump-biography-deleted_us_57990c1ae4b02d5d5ed3fed9 Are the Russians cleaning up their trail? Could she be a Russian spy planted to influence Donald? Is Barron really her son, or Donald's Mini-Me? Or will it reappear and say she roomed with Michelle Obama at Harvard Law School? Believe me, I'm just sayin'.

Bill's speech was meant to highlight the good works Hillary has done over her lifetime. Talking about the cheating he did, and the hypocracy of the Republicans led by Gingrich who was cheating on his hospitalized wife while he attacked Bill, would have distracted from the purpose of the speech. We all know what he did, and the strength and faith it must have taken Hillary to face the public embarrassment he brought upon her.

Maybe he's the Manchurian Candidate. The KGB seduced him at the Miss Universe pageant in Russia and reprogrammed him.

Bill O'Reilly must be relieved that Trump's statements will get all the media attention, instead of his attempt to throw shade on Michelle Obama's speech with his statement that the slaves that built the White House were well fed and had decent lodging. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/business/media/bill-oreilly-says-slaves-who-helped-build-white-house-were-well-fed.html?referer=https://www.google.com/

This latest Trump tweet is amusing: You have no idea what my strategy on ISIS is, and neither does ISIS (a good thing). Please get your facts straight - thanks. @megynkelly The question is, does he know? Or is this another case where we should just trust him to figure it out.

I flipped on FoxNews to check their coverage. Instead of showing the speakers at the convention, their focus is on criticizing the Mothers of the Movement, and showing protesters outside the convention. Fair and balanced.

Powerful emotional moment when the Mothers of the Movement spoke.

The divide among Bernie delegates doesn't represent the majority of his supporters. Polls show 85-90% of supporters said they would vote for Hillary. Delegates are the most active and fervent supporters, so it's expected they would be the most reluctant to unify. I don't know at this point what different outcome they expect their booing to accomplish. Booing even during the opening prayer was pretty immature.

I've worked in application support my whole career, and I lost my IT job in 2008 because the manufacturing company I worked for lost 40% of their business during the recession. There is a direct link between the economy and many IT jobs in the country, especially for those of us who support business operations. It took almost 2 years before the economy stabilized to the point where I found the full time job that I now have. And for that I'm grateful for the steps that Obama took. If a Republican was in charge, the auto industry would have been left to go bankrupt, and the banking industry would have had more major collapses, both businesses which employ many IT professionals. I'm sorry but I still don't see any evidence that the DNC sausage-making emails trickled down and had any impact on voting. People like myself supported Hillary because we preferred her positions and experience, we didn't hear of or need the emails to convince us.

I am sincerely glad to hear of your job opportunity. To hear such testimony about the growing economy under Obama after we were losing so many jobs in 2007-8 is a refreshing repudiation of the doom and gloom we heard last week. The job market continues to grow, but there's always more that can be done to sustain it. Conflating Hillary and the DNC emails issue is not based on facts and is simplistic innuendo. I've asked this many times without getting an answer from anyone; what specific actions did the DNC take that convinced people to vote for Hillary and not Bernie? The emails were brainstorming ideas that were not used. As I've said before, it was wrong and there were consequences, but they did not make a difference in the vote.

I have a crew? Damn, I cut the lawn myself yesterday. I wouldn't vote for McCain, especially because he embraced the right wing agenda to get nominated, and showed terrible judgement by wanting to put Palin a heartbeat from the presidency. But he used to be a moderate who would work across the aisle and I respected him for that. Plenty of Republicans praised Hillary when she was Secretary of State: Jeb Bush presented Hillary Clinton with an award for having “dedicated her life to serving and engaging people across the world in democracy.” Lindsey Graham: “She’s dedicated to her job. She loves her country. And she understands the issues, and there are a lot of them in her job to understand. But more importantly, I think she is a good role model. […] [she is] one of the most effective secretary of states, greatest ambassadors for the American people that I have known in my lifetime.” Marco Rubio to Secretary Clinton: “I want to share sentiments of my other colleagues of tremendous respect for the hard work and service that you’ve put in on behalf of our country, both as a member of this chamber and then, obviously, now in—in the role you have.” Rick Perry on Hillary Clinton: “Very, very capable public servant. Great Secretary of State, first lady, and she’s very capable.” Condoleezza Rice: “Hillary Clinton is someone I’ve known for a long, long time. She’s a patriot. I think she’s doing a lot of the right things. […] I think she’s doing a fine job. I really do.” Henry Kissinger: “[Hillary Clinton] ran the State Department in the most effective way that I’ve ever seen.” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): “Secretary Clinton is admired and respected around the world. She and I have been friends for many years. We used to travel together… So, I have – I admire the fact that she is admired throughout the world and a very effective Secretary of State.” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT): “I happen to like Hillary Clinton; I think she’s done a good job for the… secretary of state’s position, and I have high respect for her and think a great deal of her.” Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA): “Thank you, Secretary Clinton, for your words of inspiration and for the magnificent job you do as the Secretary of State for our nation.” Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO): “[Hillary Clinton] is successful in her own right, no doubt about that, as a senator, successful as Secretary of State.” Fmr. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) to Hillary Clinton: “You’ve, I think, taken an international leadership role in, I think, raising the pressure levels in Iran.” Fmr. Gov. Jon Huntsman (R-UT): “I have to say she’s a very impressive public servant. […] And I have to say, I haven’t been around too many people as professional; as well-briefed. […] I have to say, she’s a very, very capable person.”