Guest Blogger-Mark Anthony….Who is Obama???

Wow, that’s quite a rant. And really, it’s just a rant. I’m quite surprised that Urbane is posting this on their site which consists of mostly well-written blog entries.

It’s disappointing that “Mark Anthony” chooses to regurgitate rumors regarding Ayers and chooses to stoke fear regarding taxes rather than argue on the facts.

It’s really a simple decision we have, though. Are you happy with how Royal Oak and Detroit are doing right now? Better than 8 years ago? I don’t think so. I personally don’t remember all of these foreclosures and for lease signs. I’m also sick of being ashamed of our foreign policy and our behavior as a country.

It’s time for change. And, Mr. Anthony, I hope you will be open to watching that change occur over the next 4-8 years rather than simply ranting and blaming the Democrats for everything.

On a separate note, I really hope that the urbane blog will do a better job of vetting guest bloggers. This post is poorly argued, poorly written, and really no more than a regurgitation of right-wing emails that have been forwarded along in a viral attempt to stoke fear in the electorate. I am open to arguments across the spectrum, this post is just angry fearmongering. And did I mention I think it’s really poorly written?

Agreed:

“Your out of a job”

“Look how far the Democratic party has swung to the left.The last great depression, by most experts accounts was a bad recession, that was pushed over the edge by…” Huh?

“Obama, has a brother in Kenya living in a hut and his favorite Auntie lives in a Boston slum.” So?

“So let me understand this Obama is for the average Joe, Wants to raise taxes on people(businesses that hire people and create jobs) anyone making over $250,000, or is it $200,000, or is it $150,000, or is it $120,000 dollars.”

It’s $250K, back to Clinton-era (remember the boom times?) levels. Oh, and McCain used to support that level of taxes, til he didn’t.

Uh oh:

Guess I shouldn’t be picking on someone’s writing: “I am open to arguments across the spectrum, this post is just angry fearmongering. And did I mention I think it’s really poorly written?
”

I meant to say, “While I am open…”

This post is still crap. Very low quality. No editor on this blog?

What’s dissappointing to see is how many ill reactions there are to this blog! Let me remind everybody what a blog is…it’s short for Web-Log, an online diary. I really am surprised to see the above comments to this…they attack the blogger rather than the issues and questions. Why not educate yourself and try to tackle even half of what was said in this blog? If you believe he’s mis-guided or even wrong, then prove it! Rather you choose to complain that you don’t like what Mark Anthony has to say, etc etc. and rely on put downs to deviate from what is very near the truth. Sometimes the facts are hard to swallow when they’re shoved in your face.

Joe The Real Plumber notes that what Mark Anthony says is based on rumors…that’s a mighty vague comment don’t you think? I’m sorry, but I DO see a lot of factual and historical elements to this blog, and to be completely honest some things that I did not know myself.

What I see here is an educated individual who is truely concerned with what is happening in the world WE live in. I wish more people were willing to put what they were really thinking out there. I wish there were more people out there like Mark Anthony taking the time out to QUESTION the issues, rather than just accepting what the mainstream feeds to us. So on that note, thank you Mark Anthony for saying and asking those things that most of us can only think.

On a final note, I rather enjoyed this article…it’s nice to see somebody passionate about what they believe in to take it a step further and do some research. I choose to read the article for its content…not pick apart how many grammatical errors it may or may not have. I personally do not, and would not, hold Urbane accountable for the way a person feels. It’s nice to see this website take a risk and put something that might be a bit contraversial out there. It’s freedom of speach at its finest!

Michelle, It’s interesting that you want people to comment on WHAT is said rather than how it is said. That’s exactly what’s being done. Everything presented in that blog was based on McCain’s rumors…rumors that he’s come up with as a result of being behind in the polls. I thought this country was behind scare tactics, but clearly blogs like this just further propaganda, and your defending of it is even more upsetting. Let it lie and move on in your life.

Who is Mark Anthony anyway?… As a contributor to this blog,.. i’m a bit disappointed to see this post was even published.

yikes! I don’t think people mind the difference of opinion- it’s just that this seems like an angry screed that takes away from the smart posts that have been done by nev, monica, and brandon.

This post makes me sad. Both Senator McCain and Senator Obama are fine men, patriots. It looks like Obama is going to win. I am hopeful that we will see less of these types of hurtful, hateful personal attacks after this election no matter who wins. Republican or Democrat, this country needs to change.

Just because someone has a relative who is destitute does not mean a person is RESPONSIBLE for them. I have relatives who are less fortunate than myself, but they have all had the same opportunities in life as I. Does that mean I should be sending them monthly checks? I think not. Even if the relative in Kenya has not had the same opportunities as Senator Obama, it does not mean he should be supporting him. You are way off-base with that comment.

And I do not believe, as franklin templeton, that anything he said were FACTS.

Sounds very much like sour grapes because he knows his candidate, Senator McCain, is not going to win.

Hahahaha…I gotta say I got a kick out of reading this article, as well as the fire this ignited. It definitely evokes some emotion out of people…I really think people are flying waaay off base here. Yes, it’s going to be emotional, especially in times like this.

First of all, how can you even think of attacking Urbane or it’s bloggers??? Because something is posted that you may not like, or you may not agree with is reason to pull away all together? Take them off your “list” of websites you visit? People on here talk of change, but to me that’s pretty narrow minded and it draws away from the point of the blog itself. To me, that sounds quite a bit like the “ranting and raving” you so quickly accuse Mark Anthony of.

I agree with Michelle…a blog is just that, an online entry… a diary if you may.

While the election is just on the horizon, I’m very happy to see Urbane post such a HOT blog. It caused me to think twice about the person that I will be putting in charge of my life (in a sense) for the next 4 years…

To really understand Bill Ayers and his ilk, you have to have lived through the craziness all around during the Vietnam War era. Ayers and his ilk (and many others of that era on all sides of the political spectrum) are as far removed from Barack Obama in style and substance as you can get. And whatever happened to the (apparently former) American notion that if you served your time for a crime, it was behind you, and not every person who knows you (and was a child at the time of your criminal acts) is “tarnished” if he or she does not ostracize you now? These are basic American virtues of fairness and redemption that I expect even John McCain would subscribe to.

Now let me tell you would is really socialistic, radical, and something that should upset you whatever your political bent and for which you can thank George Bush and his their fellow protect-the-super-wealthy Republicans: There has been a vast socialistic redistribution of wealth from the U.S. Treasury to the financial sector already, and I don’t mean just in the bail-out/rescue. I refer instead to the numerous ways in which really high income individuals – far beyond what any of us can aspire to (assuming such income is really aspirational at all!) — have been able to make out like bandits in recent years. Case in point: hedge fund managers and principals have been allowed to treat all of their personal earnings (in some cases hundreds of millions of dollars a year) as long term capital gains, taxed at the much lower long-term capital gains tax rate rather than at ordinary income rates – which is what these earnings really are. Tax relief given to those of middle income, by contrast, has been little and far between.

Moreover, financial bailouts alone are not going to moderate this really steep recession. To do that, tax relief of significant magnitude will need to be part of the process to get real spending power out into consumers’ hands. Middle class tax breaks do just that; tax breaks to the already well-off ($250,000 plus in annual income) and the rich and super-rich don’t. Furthermore, Obama realizes that incentives to entrepreneurship and growth are critical to economic development, and his two principal economic advisors, former Treasury Secretaries Summers and Rubin, are firm believers in that point too as they demonstrated when they served in office. Obama has repeated said how the U.S. must be encouraging that kind of growth which will take us onto the next major long-term technological wave — most likely in the energy area. Those waves have been the main drivers of economic growth since the late 18th century (steam power, railroad development, electricity, the internal combustion engine, computers, the Internet, etc.). All will certainly agree that Obama is one smart guy and that he will not let ideology of any stripe rule his thinking because he knows that that is a prescription for failure and that he will have only four years to get things moving again or be yet another one-term Presidential failure.

To me, the real wealth redistribution issue here is McCain’s claim that he will not increase taxes. Where is he going to close a budget deficit projected from his announced plans in his first year to equal $1 trillion (versus a projected $750 billion for Obama)? Whatever those numbers are for each candidate, we know for sure that they will be huge without some tax increases somewhere. So someone’s going to have to pay more income taxes or we will continue with unsustainable deficits that have more than doubled our national debt from the annual budget deficits that have been run just during the Bush years. Should that tax increase be imposed on those who are having trouble paying bills as it is and whose economic failure will only burden all of us with welfare, food-stamp, and other relief payments, or alternatively, should it come out of those who, in too many cases, have made out so well in proportion to income under the current tax regime? This isn’t about some socialistic redistribution of wealth. It is simple fairness of tax burdens. What I see as true redistribution of wealth, on the other hand, is making the middle class pay even more than they are now. If McCain is not going to tax the rich so that (in cases like the hedge fund managers, for example) they begin to pay their fair share, then he will have no choice but to dump on the middle class more taxes or face untenable budget deficits. Where is the justice in that? And who is the socialist then?

I am not really sure where to start? Mr. Anthony’s rant (yes, that IS what is was) merely shows he is angry and full of rage. Not sure exactly why…..seemed rather personal to me. What a shame this energy could not be spent on something more productive. The Ayers, Wright, etc. subjects are SUCH old news….it was boring to reread it all, but I hung in there, hoping for something new to appear. Sadly, it did not. I, myself, like this site enough that I do not plan to desert it over one angry and uninformed person. If you have ever read any of the comments on your daily newspaper, you already know, there are a lot of “opininated” people out there. I write off the crazy ones.

First of all I wan’t to thank the urbane group for allowing guest bloggers as myself.Contrary to some of the responses to my blog I am not angry, nor do I work for McCain or the Republican party. I do however with my wife own a small business.I have reviewed Obamas info on his website.If he does make “the fundemenatal changes to America” as he has stated I will probably sell our business of over 20 years and go work for someone else.Just like joe the plumber in Ohio, I cant afford his tax plans to stay in business.No spin just econ 101. I can’t change history, the events and names I mentioned did occur. The energy crisis, and the banking crisis if you do the research you will see it did start back in the 70s and the guys that ran Fannie and Freddie did work under Carter and Clinton. As far as the energy crisis, 2 examples of Mr. Obama, #1, he wont drill in Anwar, why, he wants to leave some prestine land for his children and grandchildren.???So 2000 acres out of 2 million, avg temp is 70 degrees below zero and yes the technology is enviro friendly.We can decrease our mideast exports by 15-20% and have oil flowing in 3-5 years. #2, Mr. Obama is against coal energy, he is on the record stating any company can build a new coal plant, he will just see to it that that company will go bankrupt in the process. Again do the research, Duke energy takes coal waste scrubs it in a wash with limestone and converts it into gypsum which they sell which in turn is made into drywall. But why if Mr. Obama as per one of the bloggers “has repeated how the US must be encouraging growth regarding major long term technoligal wave in the energy areana. Is this what he means??? As far as watching Fox News thats pretty funny, I had a friend of ours accuse of the same thing, so I asked him have you ever whatched any Fox reporting, his response was “no”, yet he knew all about the right wing attack agenda on Fox. Truth be told there are as many left wing liberals on Fox from NPR, Boston Globe etc..You do see 2 views but unlike may of the bloggers that responded to my article you have to set asside the emotion and think about it in the areana of ideas. Dont kill the messenger for the message. I am sorry if I ruffled any feathers, but as of yesterday at least our National symbol was the Eagle, not a Turkey.
Mark Anthony.

Well, it was quite a roll with this post, and I want to thank everyone for participating in the conversation and for the most part, keeping it non personal. That is what makes blogging so much fun, participating in the unedited conversation. I believe that is what blogging is, open unedited and non controled conversation. (by uncontrolled, everyone still needs to be respectful)

My email and twitter account were pebbled with lots of comments from my apartment management friends across the nation who are following our unorthodox style of managing our boutique brand and what we are doing at Urbane. The typical corporate or correct business model would be to have removed the post at the first sign of controversy. While the intent of this blog is not to create controversially topics, removing it before it played out would not have been in alignment with being authentic.

So, enjoy the day, please exercise one of our wonderful rights in this great country by voting today, and “Love to Live It’!

Cheers!

RELAX PEOPLE!!!! wow there are some angry people out there…this is my first time on the site (a friend of mine wrote a comment above and told me to check it out) and I have to first send a congrats to the people or URBANE for having the guts to put something like this up…whether or not I myself agree… I think I am going to put it on my list, not take it off….how ignorant to say ! just because you disagree has no bearing on the entire product.it’s fun to blog about up and coming places in our state, like I see on some of the other blogs, but as far as I can see this blog got way more comments than previous one’s which means people are actively participating and isn’t that the point of blogging?!?!?…
although it does seem Mr Anthony’s blog was way of the deep end emotionally he did have some facts here and there, and further made his point as to having a small business and being worried about having to shut it down…emotion driven ranting case and point. We are ALL entitled to our opinions. It is sad that everyone has become so hateful and uptight whether you are the one who wrote this blog or the one commenting so negatively. I look forward to keeping an eye on future blogs that evoke such strong responses.

duncan states platform view points of negativity???sounds like an attorney spin, a lot of emotion, no historic basis, and far more negative then most of the other blogs including the one by mark anthony.

Marx Anthony’s supporters almost write as poorly as he does… Look at how much more intelligent Steve Hudspeth’s post is — well-argued, smart take. Change is coming!!

It’s Marx baby! Actually, seems like the guy who wrote this rant is willing to launch irresponsible personal attacks and repeat stale rumors, but isn’t woman or man enough to do it under his own name. Sad.

Thirty-six comments, yikes!

Can you all leave some comments here, or on our other posts, and let us know what you like, or don’t like about the rest of the blog. Monica, Nev, and myself have done dozens of post which have not yet had this level of attention (I know that the tone of this piece lends itself to comments, but most of the content on this site isn’t so overtly political). Thanks for reading and thanks, in advance, for your feedback!

OBAMA WONNNNNNN !!!!NOW TIME FOR CHANGE PEOPLE…SO RELAX WE ALL HEARD ONE ANOTHER>>>MOVE ON!

Anonymous- I will def check out some other blogs in further detail and look forward to more to come!

Sheesh!

What you lefties call “right wing regurgitated talking points” are serious questions about Obama’s character, questions which deserve answers.

Already today, the first day after the election, papers across the globe are saying that they hope he doesn’t actually DO what he said he will do.

Good point. Yeah, it does seem realistic that President-Elect Obama is friends with Islamic Dictators who live in his neighborhood. Gotta love a good consipiracy theory! And, despite the Bush clan being in full control for 6 of the last 8 years, let’s blame every Democrat we can think of for ALL of the nation’s problems. That’s just so much EASIER.