I might be able to help you with your troubles. You write

"Why is that? His mother -- Stanley Ann Dunham -- attended Mercer Island High School, in suburban Seattle, from 1956-1960, when she graduated.

It's odd that a large chunk of his family history is left out of the historical narrative. Mercer Island, at the time his mom, Stanley Ann Dunham, attended school there, was a mixed bag politically and socially. Fairly conservative, but also having an element of the underlying turmoil of the times. The chairman of the Mercer Island school board -- John Stenhouse -- was hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee for his relationship with the Communist Party (see Time magazine archives for April, 1955). Atypical for the times of the Eisenhower-era, a few teachers at MIHS were very vocal against "the establishment."

Those facts probably have nothing to do with Obama ignoring that portion of his mother's life, but under the circumsances [sic], if he gets the nomination, you can bet the Republicans will have a field day delving into what gives with that.

Too bad the media fell in love with Obama and didn't dig earlier, so that he could have gotten all this bullshit behind him if he gets the nomination before the Repubs have a chance to chew him to bits on it. Because, they will. It's a story that they can't wait to expose."

First, Obama has been in the public eye for more than twelve years. So just because you haven't heard of him, doesn't necessarily mean that no one else has "vetted" him. Just lettin' you know the vettin' thing seems a bit overly convenient to the Hillary supporters.

But here goes what I know: I grew up in Seattle, Washington, and the school you describe with such scary language--a short ferry ride from my home. A friend of mine (an older friend) knew Obama's mother in high school. And this is what she told me about Stanley: Stanley was an individual. She was ahead of her times. Mercer Island High school was filled with rich kids who were pretty shallow. Stanley was political and had hippie values. She dressed in thrift store clothing. She didn't "fit in" with the rich kids, but she did have some friends who she visited years later when she came back through Seattle with her beautiful son, little "Barry."

My friend was mystified when she heard that "Barack Obama" was giving the 2004 Democratic Convention speech. She said, "I used to know someone named Barack Obama." She thought maybe it was a common name in Kenya--kind of like John Brown or Bill Smith. She picked up Obama's memoir and when she read that his mother's name was Stanley she was thrilled--until she found out that Stanley had died of cancer a few years before.

In the memoir itself Obama pays tribute to his mother and to his grandparents--he says that if he had known that he would lose his mother so soon, that he would have written a different book about his heritage. The story that he tells about his mother getting him up at 5:00 am before school in Indonesia to make him study so that he could have a future university education back in the United States when they returned is pretty amazing. Also Stanley is partly the reason he had this view of his father--clearly although they didn't stay together, she raised her son to respect and to honor his father from an early age. His father was also eloquent, apparently, and knew how to bring people together.

Anyway, that's as much as I can add to the story. You can read Obama's book to find out more of the way he tells it. I'm just passing on the story I've been told about Stanley. I don't think that you have to have such outrage and fear anonymous....Obama has never distanced himself from any part of his heritage. His heritage is more a Rorschach test for other people and the way they see him that we see reflected back in the media.

Okay, just happy I could get an opportunity to share that. And ps this: "The chairman of the Mercer Island school board -- John Stenhouse -- was hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee for his relationship with the Communist Party (see Time magazine archives for April, 1955). Atypical for the times of the Eisenhower-era, a few teachers at MIHS were very vocal against "the establishment" is a lot of official patootie. Mercer Island High School is a prep school for the wealthy...as for anti-establishment--I think that was more the girl called Stanley than the others she met there. Or you could say the whole of Seattle was anti-establishment in those days, and proudly so. Maybe you think the whole region should be ruled out from any political office? No you don't need to answer that-Karl, Dick.

sweet Jebus!

I've only been there once and it was when I was a child--I had a great aunt who lived there and I thought I remembered a ferry, but you're right of course that it couldn't have been that way unless there was a ferry there in the seventies.

Obviously I don't go there much--haven't been there since and I don't even live in Seattle right now. But was I right about Mercer Island being a pretty well-to-do place? This is the reputation anyway. And I do have a friend named Susan Scott who remembers being friends with Stanley Durham in Mercer Island High School and meeting baby Barrie once when they came through Seattle.

Interesting stuff.

Since when do hunters require access to handguns? Am I missing something?