where do i begin

coming from the south like i do -- and having left it lo these many years ago -- i sometimes get snapped back to how backwards it truly can be. this week has been one of those times.

to make a long story short, i've had several communications with a to-be-unnamed family member this week about the 'threat' of barack obama's potential presidency. this person's fears were founded upon an email chain that is making its way around the country (i've learned this isn't isolated to the south) with a bunch of xenophobic and (to my mind) racist claims against obama.

in my opinion, here's the bottom line: some people are afraid of having a black man as president and they will go to extreme lengths to not only rabble-rouse, but to mask the ugly fact that they are racist dildos. 'cause he's not a radical muslim (he's not even muslim!) and he's not a trojan horse that al qaeda is using to come in and take our malls away. he isn't 'against the flag' and he doesn't 'refuse to put his hand over his heart during the national anthem' and his mother wasn't an athiest, and blah blah blah. in my opinion, this is all because he is african-american as well as -- as i've seen claimed several times in this discussion -- "basically a foreigner" because he grew up in jakarta and other exotic locales. like hawaii.

here's the whole enchilada, laid out

i haven't decided which democrat i'm voting for, but you can bet your sweet ass i'm now leaning towards obama.