Senator Obama needs to work on that Illinois health care plan some more

You know that Illinois heath care plan Senator Obama talked about being so proud of in the debate the other night?

Well, I live in Illinois. I don’t have health insurance and I don’t have children either. But even though I can’t get health care myself, my state taxes go to pay for doctors for other people’s children. That is WRONG.

Camel accuses Obama campaign of Fearmongering and Shameful, Offensive Drudgery

While the rest of the blogosphere was busy bickering about the picture of Barack Obama in Kenyan attire that went viral after appearing on the Drudge Report this week, and their claim that it came from someone in the Clinton campaign, and the Obama campaign’s response that it was “shameful offensive fear-mongering”, the Camel’s Nose has obtained an exclusive email from a camel that claims it was subjected to “shameful offensive Drudgery” by none other than Senator Obama himself.

While the other blogs frequently don’t do their homework and print things without knowing whether or not they are true, that will never happen here at the Camel’s Nose. Everything here is double-checked five ways from Sunday.

At first I was skeptical about this camel thing. After all, the email from the camel in question was received by a little-known Republican blog, whose name escapes me at the moment. And the Senator is a Democrat. If someone wanted to discredit him, isn’t that just what they would do? Give a fake email to some Republicans and say it came from who-knows-where. By the time it all got sorted out, the damage would have been done. Well, I’m not going to fall for that crap. I sort things out first. And besides, I’ve never heard of a camel that was able to send emails.

But then, a few things started to fall into place. First, miraculously, an exhaustive examination of the Obama campaign’s cache memory turned up the information that the senator had actually been in the camel’s hometown of Wajid, Kenya on 8/27/06, the exact day when the official campaign photographers were so very attentive and the rest of the press said the senator was busy getting his African sartorial lesson.

Now, surprise, surprise, surprise, a photo of the incident with the actual camel has come to light. No doubt about it. The camel is NOT happy.

But why? Inquiring minds want to know, so we checked further.

Here’s the information we uncovered, from another stop the senator made in Nairobi, Kenya.

What is he saying to the crowd? According to the purloined email, Obama is shouting, “Can you eat camels?” And the crowd is shouting back, “Yes we can.”

Talk about divisive fear-mongering…

Extra credit if you can spot the photographer from the Clinton campaign who took that Drudge Report photo in this 2006 Nairobi crowd scene.

Update: Finally someone who says something about this whole thing that makes sense–the local BBC guy, Yusuf Garaad Omar, head of the BBC’s Somali Service explains the meaning of the costume. “They have a council for Peace and Development, and when they get delegates they dress them as a nomadic person.” Cool.  The American senator shows up and gets the standard Council Delegate Treatment.   I should hope so.

Some Campaign Gear for Election 2008

Finally I’ve added some links for t-shirts, bumper stickers, magnets and campaign buttons for candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to the sidebar.

Can you get thong underwear?  Yes, you can.

Barack Obama:

Buttons, Magnets, and Bumper Stickers

T-Shirts

Hillary Clinton:

Buttons, Magnets, and Bumper Stickers

T-Shirts

Separating the Sheep from the Goats–the sheep get eaten, but not today

A friend of mine who likes to describe himself as a “born-again pagan” is fond of saying, “When they separate the sheep from the goats, the sheep get eaten.”

If you don’t recognize the biblical reference, I think it’s from Matthew. That was certainly a true culinary observation when I lived in the Middle East. I ate plenty of sheep, camel on rare occasions, and beef never, although I did see a few cows. I probably had a lot of cheese from goats, though, and once drank a warm lumpy milk from a goat–someone told me later the goat had probably just given birth and the first lumpy milk was considered a treat.

Today Pete’s Market, in six locations citywide, is offering “fresh assorted goat” for $1.89/a pound.

I wonder if this will precipitate some sort of crisis somewhere in New Testament Thought.