(This is the short version, the medium & full versions are under moderation, so is another post entirely. :-) )

If we want to continue this political discussion, then sail ahead on. I just wonder what will happen when we want to weigh in on abortion/reproductive choice, right wing fundamentalist Christians, Muslim ter***ists (not that all Muslims are t****rists or that all te****ists are Muslims), gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender rights, homeschooling, torture/rendition/stop-loss, supporting the troops, immediate withdrawal from Iraq/Afghanistan, withdrawing from the Geneva Convention, withdrawing from the UN, gun control, restoring our civil rights, universal health care, raising taxes, global warming, endangered species list, oil drilling in national parks, using public taxes for private & religious schools, etc., etc., etc.

If we want to continue this political discussion, then sail ahead on. I just wonder what will happen when we want to weigh in on abortion/reproductive choice, right wing fundamentalist Christians, Muslim ter***ists (not that all Muslims are t****rists or that all te****ists are Muslims), gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender rights, homeschooling, torture/rendition/stop-loss, supporting the troops, immediate withdrawal from Iraq/Afghanistan, withdrawing from the Geneva Convention, withdrawing from the UN, gun control, restoring our civil rights, universal health care, raising taxes, global warming, endangered species list, oil drilling in national parks, using public taxes for private & religious schools, etc., etc., etc.

I guess at least it would be a difference from talking about: Angelina’s adoption addiction, her freakish veins & plastic surgery, anorexia, feeding her kids junk, endangering her baby(ies) by flying while pregnant, her endless feverish search for publicity from her UN work & philanthropy (but we know it’s all because she’s a fame***re), getting ghostwriters to write her Washington Post & Economist op-eds, as well as her presentations at the World Economic Forum & the Council on Foreign Relations, her controlling persona and making poor Brad do all the chidraising work – especially their meals & changing their diapers, being a temperamental diva and throwing wine in his face, her freakish past of cutting, Goth, sex/blood/knives, studying to be a mortician, incest with her brother, cruelty to her father. All the world knows dark Angelina as the slut who stole Brad from his shining righteous princess soulmate, Jennifer. She stole Brad’s babies from Jennifer too, plus the award-winning role of A Mighty Heart’s Mariane.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080325/ap_on_el_pr/candidates_genealogy_6

Obama related to Pitt, Clinton to Jolie

By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press Writer
Tue 3/25/08, 6:53 PM ET

[source's legitimacy] The New England Historic Genealogical Society, founded in 1845, is the oldest and largest nonprofit genealogical organization in the country.

BOSTON – This could make for one odd family reunion: Barack Obama is a distant cousin of actor Brad Pitt, and Hillary Rodham Clinton is related to Pitt’s girlfriend, Angelina Jolie.

Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society found some remarkable family connections for the three presidential candidates — Democratic rivals Obama and Clinton, and Republican John McCain.

Clinton, who is of French-Canadian descent on her mother’s side, is also a distant cousin of singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, can call six U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush, his cousins. McCain is a sixth cousin of first lady Laura Bush.

Genealogist Christopher Child said that while the candidates often focus on pointing out differences between them, their ancestry shows they are more alike than they think.

“It shows that lots of different people can be related, people you wouldn’t necessarily expect,” Child said.

Obama has a prolific presidential lineage that features Democrats and Republicans. His distant cousins include President George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman and James Madison. Other Obama cousins include Vice President Dick Cheney, British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill and Civil War General Robert E. Lee.

Obama often jokes about his cousin Cheney at campaign appearances.

Child has spent the last three years tracing the candidates’ genealogy.

Clinton’s distant cousins include beatnik author Jack Kerouac and Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles of England.

McCain’s ancestry was more difficult to trace because records on his relatives were not as complete as records for the families of Obama and Clinton, Child said.

Obama and President Bush are 10th cousins, once removed, linked by Samuel Hinkley of Cape Cod, who died in 1662.

Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, linked by Edwin Hickman, who died in Virginia in 1769.

Clinton and Jolie are ninth cousins, twice removed, both related to Jean Cusson who died in St. Sulpice, Quebec, in 1718.

Not that I’m against politics – I’ve been an activist since the 1970s. Personally, my husband & I were voting for John Edwards until he dropped out. But I think the cult comment was irresponsible & out-of-line, especially stated as fact and not as opinion.

Further fights over politics (or religion for that matter) will destroy our happy little community since we come from different backgrounds, opinions and beliefs.

Please, let’s get back to what’s important here – the Jolie-Pitts. They’re the only thing we can safely say each & everyone of us agree on.