from Glenn's show:
part1
part2
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Monday, September 21, 2009
Please take another vacation, Obama
Obama's Week:source
Monday: President Obama gives speech on the economy in Troy, NY before traveling to New York City and appearing on the David Letterman Show.
Tuesday: The president speaks to U.N. secretary general's climate change summit and the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. He'll host African heads of state for lunch, a climate change dinner at night and in between hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese leader Hu Jintao.
Wednesday: The president gives a speech to UN General Assembly, holds bilateral meetings with Japanese and Russian prime ministers; hosts meeting to talk about strengthening the peacekeeping function of the UN; attends a heads-of-state lunch; and hosts American reception in the evening with First Lady.
Thursday: The president presides over a UN Security Council summit on arms control, before the security council votes on a UN resolution on nonproliferation. Then he departs for Pittsburgh and the G-20 meetings.
Friday: Morning session of the G-20; working lunch; afternoon session; followed by a press conference.
=============================
Obama To Propose Radical Cuts In America's Arsenal
Obama Looking Forward to Nationalizing Newspapers
Brezinski fantasizes about US shooting down Israeli planes
Throwing Poland under the bus on missile defense on 70th anniversary of Soviet invasion
The Honduran People Will Pay for Our Shameful Behavior
Obama plays dumb on ACORN
Obama Lied About Insurance Case
Obama fudging another health-care horror story?
Promoting American weakness
What They Really Think
The Next Van Jones...
. . . will be none other than Valerie Jarrett, the confidante to President Obama who is so close to him that Obama described her in July to the New York Times, as “family,” adding “I trust her completely.” (Family, eh? Isn’t that how Obama described Jeremiah Wright — as like a “crazy old uncle” — until it was time to toss him under the bus?)
Other points of charm include Jarrett’s having ties to the radical Students for a Democratic Society and, ultimately, Bill Ayers, the man to whom all radical roads seem to wind.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Obama and Rev. Wright
Rev. Wright's Greatest Hits:
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God d##n America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people... God d##n America for treating our citizens as less than human. God d##n America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost."
"The government lied about Pearl Harbor. They knew the Japanese were going to attack."
"And they will not only attack you if you try to point out what's going on in white America, the U.S. of KKK A."
"The government lied about the Tuskegee experiment and purposely infected African-American men with syphilis."
"Black men turning on black men- That is fighting the wrong enemy."
"We cannot see that what we are doing is the same thing that Al-Qaeda is doing under a different flag. If they can't find the weapons of mass destruction then they are going to do just like the LAPD and plant them some weapons of mass destruction."
"The government lied about the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color."
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye."
"Bill did us just like he did Monica Lewinsky.
He was riiiidin' dirrrty."
=============
============
*** Obama in 1995: Rev. Wright is 'The Best of What the Black Church Has to Offer'
youtube video
*** "Contrary to his claims, Barack Obama was obviously very close with the now thrown-under-the-bus Rev. Jeremiah Wright."
(Barack Obama, June 5, 2007, Praising Rev. Jeremiah Wright)
=============
=============
Obama lies about Wright apologizing:
Let's Just All Agree That Wright Apologized And Move On
==============
Pastor Wright Erased From Obama’s Website
==============
Despite Campaign Claim, Obama Told Paper He Attended Trinity Church ‘Every Week’
==============
==============
here's Kurtz's article:
No Liberation
Obama may have left Trinity, but he’s still on the Left.
==============
==============
*** The Obama's donated $22,500 to this filthy church in 2006:
*** Wright, James H. Cone, and Black Liberation Theology:
*** "Barack Obama sat in church for a 1000 Sundays listening to this guy."
*** Wright and Hamas:
*** Obama, Wright, and the Christ Hospital connection
*** Obama's Pastor Slurs Italians in Latest Magazine
*** Surprise, There is a Difference Between Black Brains and White Brains: Obama's Pastor Explains It All to You
*** Jeremiah Wright's 'Trumpet'
The content of the magazine produced by Barack Obama's pastor reveals the content of his character.
*** Obama Church Published ‘Ethnic Bomb’ Claim
*** Obama’s Crackpot Mentor’s Crackpot Mentor
*** Mr. James H. Cone, who is Jeremiah Wright’s spiritual mentor, explains his “black liberation theology”:
"This is very crazy, very ugly stuff."
*** "White Man's Greed" (1st Rev. Wright Sermon That Obama Heard At Trinity United)
(Obama titled one of his books after this sermon)
*** Obama’s Racist, America-Hating Church
*** Wright on Farrakhan's Greatness
*** History of Wright and Farrakhan
(including their visit to Libya to meet with Gaddafi)
*** Farrakhan on Obama: 'The Messiah is absolutely speaking'
'Barack has captured the youth,' will bring about 'universal change'
*** Michelle Obama and Louis Farrakhan’s Wife Together in Photo
(that photo is gone now, but you can see a small version here:)
*** Obama, Farrakhan, and the million man march:
*** Rev. Wright Magazine Featured Obama on Cover with Farrakhan
*** In December 2007, Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, receives Jeremiah Wright Jr. Lifetime Achievement Trumpeteer award
*** How Obama’s Church ‘Remembered’ 9/11
*** Obama church published Hamas terror manifesto
Compares charter calling for murder of Jews to Declaration of Independence
*** Obama Church Printed Pro-Hezbollah Articles
*** More On When Obama Met Jeremiah Wright
*** "This is the “Christianity” that Trinity Church sells in its book store."
*** "From A Black Theology Of Liberation, by (Mr. Obama’s spiritual mentor’s mentor) James H. Cone, pp v - 8 (in the 1995 paperback edition):"
*** Media: Obama's Church Promotes "White Church Is AntiChrist"
=============
Rev. Wright's 'War on Iraq IQ Test'
"LGF reader mcs emailed a link to yet another disturbing rant by Jeremiah Wright, this time in writing: The War on Iraq IQ Test.
After a series of viciously slanted pro-Saddam questions, the Reverend’s IQ test suddenly veers into Israel-hatred straight out of the Muammar Gaddafi playbook:"
=============
the guy who took over for Wright, Reverend Otis B. Moss III:
Jeremiah Wright's Apprentice
some other "spiritual mentors" of Obama:
1. Father Michael Pfleger:
Obama’s buddy Father Pfleger rants race at Trinity United
Obama's Reverend Pfleger threatens to snuff out shopowner:
2. Reverend James Meeks:
Obama: It Looks Like There’s More Where Wright Came From
3. Jim Wallis:
Barack Obama’s Newest Spiritual Advisor
More problematic pastors for Obama
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God d##n America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people... God d##n America for treating our citizens as less than human. God d##n America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost."
"The government lied about Pearl Harbor. They knew the Japanese were going to attack."
"And they will not only attack you if you try to point out what's going on in white America, the U.S. of KKK A."
"The government lied about the Tuskegee experiment and purposely infected African-American men with syphilis."
"Black men turning on black men- That is fighting the wrong enemy."
"We cannot see that what we are doing is the same thing that Al-Qaeda is doing under a different flag. If they can't find the weapons of mass destruction then they are going to do just like the LAPD and plant them some weapons of mass destruction."
"The government lied about the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color."
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye."
"Bill did us just like he did Monica Lewinsky.
He was riiiidin' dirrrty."
=============
"Barack Obama would go on to call Reverend Wright his spiritual advisor, mentor, and friend,. He married Barack and Michelle Obama in late 1992, then baptized their children. Obama sat in the pews of Reverend Wright’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ, for nearly 20 years."
============
*** Obama in 1995: Rev. Wright is 'The Best of What the Black Church Has to Offer'
"In a 1995 interview, Barack Obama lavished praise on Reverend Jeremiah “G-D America” Wright, calling him a “wonderful man” and “the best of what the black church has to offer.”
youtube video
*** "Contrary to his claims, Barack Obama was obviously very close with the now thrown-under-the-bus Rev. Jeremiah Wright."
(Barack Obama, June 5, 2007, Praising Rev. Jeremiah Wright)
=============
"Obama says that rather than advising him on strategy, Wright helps keep his priorities straight and his moral compass calibrated.source
“What I value most about Pastor Wright is not his day-to-day political advice,” Obama said. “He’s much more of a sounding board for me to make sure that I am speaking as truthfully about what I believe as possible and that I’m not losing myself in some of the hype and hoopla and stress that’s involved in national politics.” …
In his 1993 memoir “Dreams from My Father,” Obama recounts in vivid detail his first meeting with Wright in 1985. The pastor warned the community activist that getting involved with Trinity might turn off other black clergy because of the church’s radical reputation.
When Obama sought his own church community, he felt increasingly at home at Trinity...
Later he would base his 2004 keynote speech to the Democratic National Convention on a Wright sermon called “Audacity to Hope,” –also the inspiration for Obama’s second memoir, “The Audacity of Hope.”
Though Wright and Obama do not often talk one-on-one often, the senator does check with his pastor before making any bold political moves.
Last fall, Obama approached Wright to broach the possibility of running for president. Wright cautioned Obama not to let politics change him, but he also encouraged Obama, win or lose..."
=============
Obama lies about Wright apologizing:
Let's Just All Agree That Wright Apologized And Move On
==============
Pastor Wright Erased From Obama’s Website
==============
Despite Campaign Claim, Obama Told Paper He Attended Trinity Church ‘Every Week’
(CNSNews.com) – President-elect Barack Obama said in 2004 – while he was a state legislator running for a U.S. Senate seat – that he attended services at Trinity United Church of Christ every week.
This is in contrast to what Obama, as a presidential candidate, said this year after controversial anti-American remarks by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright surfaced. Obama then told news outlets that he did not attend the church frequently and was not aware of Wright’s comments.
==============
"Obama clearly lied about his relationship with Jeremiah Wright at his last April press conference. When Obama declared that this Jeremiah Wright, revealed by widely circulated videos, was not the man he knew and declared that they had never been close, he was not telling the truth.source
David Mendell wrote a favorable-to-Obama book, From Promise to Power, for which he had wide access to Obama, his family members, Jeremiah Wright, and a number of other close associates of the candidate. Throughout this book, Jeremiah Wright plays a prominent role as mentor and counselor. At every decisive juncture of Obama’s rise from Trinity congregation member to the United States Senate, Jeremiah Wright provides counsel and mentorship to the rising Barack.
In a recent Newsweek article, “Finding His Faith,” Obama answers questions regarding his attendance at Trinity. He now says he and Michelle really didn’t attend Trinity very often at all. “At the beginning, we went fairly frequently . . . probably went two or three times a month. When we had Malia, our first child, we went less frequently, and that probably continued for a couple of years, just because — I don’t know if you’ve had the experience of taking young, squirming children to church, but it’s not easy . . . As they got older, we would go back a little more frequently, probably twice a month.”
Unfortunately, Senator Obama gave a vastly different answer to the same question when he was running for his U.S. Senate seat. Here’s what he told Cathleen Falsani, in a face-to-face interview for the Chicago Sun-Times. In March 2004, Obama said this about his church attendance:
FALSANI: Do you still attend Trinity?
OBAMA: Yep. Every week. 11 o’clock service. Ever been there? Good service. I actually wrote a book called Dreams from My Father; it’s kind of a meditation on race. There’s a whole chapter on the church in that, and my first visits to Trinity."
==============
No surprise there, since back in June Kurtz pointed to evidence that Obama shared the black racism of the Trinity United Church of Christ. In this article Obama was reported as rejecting ‘integrationist assimilation’ and wanting to channel black rage more effectively into political organisation. Kurtz dug out a chapter in a 1990 book called After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois in which Obama sketched out how radical black churches could be harnessed to help radicalise the black population. As Kurtz wrote:sourceso it would appear that Obama’s own writings solve the mystery of why he stayed at Trinity for 20 years. Obama’s long-held and decidedly audacious hope has been to spread Wright’s radical spirit by linking it to a viable, left-leaning political program, with Obama himself at the center. The revolutionizing power of a politically awakened black church is not some side issue, or merely a personal matter, but has been the signature theme of Obama’s grand political strategy.
here's Kurtz's article:
No Liberation
Obama may have left Trinity, but he’s still on the Left.
==============
"Some people find inspiration and motivation from the tapes they buy from late night infommercial hucksters.
Whose motivational tapes did Barack Obama take to Harvard Law?It [Trinity United Church of Christ] also helped give him spiritual bona fides and a new assurance. Services at Trinity were a weekly master class in how to move an audience. When Mr. Obama arrived at Harvard Law School later that year, where he fortified himself with recordings of Mr. Wright’s sermons, he was delivering stirring speeches as a student leader in the classic oratorical style of the black church. [my emph.]
Obama says he never heard the ugly, controversial Wright sermons in person. Which ones did he use to hone his oratory skills at Harvard Law?"
[...]
Be sure to read that whole New York Times piece from last year. Wright blessed Obama's house as well? The Rezko house? ohmydearlord."
==============
*** The Obama's donated $22,500 to this filthy church in 2006:
*** Wright, James H. Cone, and Black Liberation Theology:
*** "Barack Obama sat in church for a 1000 Sundays listening to this guy."
*** Wright and Hamas:
*** Obama, Wright, and the Christ Hospital connection
*** Obama's Pastor Slurs Italians in Latest Magazine
*** Surprise, There is a Difference Between Black Brains and White Brains: Obama's Pastor Explains It All to You
*** Jeremiah Wright's 'Trumpet'
The content of the magazine produced by Barack Obama's pastor reveals the content of his character.
*** Obama Church Published ‘Ethnic Bomb’ Claim
*** Obama’s Crackpot Mentor’s Crackpot Mentor
*** Mr. James H. Cone, who is Jeremiah Wright’s spiritual mentor, explains his “black liberation theology”:
"This is very crazy, very ugly stuff."
*** "White Man's Greed" (1st Rev. Wright Sermon That Obama Heard At Trinity United)
(Obama titled one of his books after this sermon)
*** Obama’s Racist, America-Hating Church
*** Wright on Farrakhan's Greatness
*** History of Wright and Farrakhan
(including their visit to Libya to meet with Gaddafi)
*** Farrakhan on Obama: 'The Messiah is absolutely speaking'
'Barack has captured the youth,' will bring about 'universal change'
*** Michelle Obama and Louis Farrakhan’s Wife Together in Photo
(that photo is gone now, but you can see a small version here:)
*** Obama, Farrakhan, and the million man march:
*** Rev. Wright Magazine Featured Obama on Cover with Farrakhan
*** In December 2007, Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, receives Jeremiah Wright Jr. Lifetime Achievement Trumpeteer award
*** How Obama’s Church ‘Remembered’ 9/11
*** Obama church published Hamas terror manifesto
Compares charter calling for murder of Jews to Declaration of Independence
*** Obama Church Printed Pro-Hezbollah Articles
*** More On When Obama Met Jeremiah Wright
*** "This is the “Christianity” that Trinity Church sells in its book store."
*** "From A Black Theology Of Liberation, by (Mr. Obama’s spiritual mentor’s mentor) James H. Cone, pp v - 8 (in the 1995 paperback edition):"
*** Media: Obama's Church Promotes "White Church Is AntiChrist"
=============
Rev. Wright's 'War on Iraq IQ Test'
"LGF reader mcs emailed a link to yet another disturbing rant by Jeremiah Wright, this time in writing: The War on Iraq IQ Test.
After a series of viciously slanted pro-Saddam questions, the Reverend’s IQ test suddenly veers into Israel-hatred straight out of the Muammar Gaddafi playbook:"
=============
the guy who took over for Wright, Reverend Otis B. Moss III:
Jeremiah Wright's Apprentice
some other "spiritual mentors" of Obama:
1. Father Michael Pfleger:
Obama’s buddy Father Pfleger rants race at Trinity United
Obama's Reverend Pfleger threatens to snuff out shopowner:
2. Reverend James Meeks:
Obama: It Looks Like There’s More Where Wright Came From
3. Jim Wallis:
Barack Obama’s Newest Spiritual Advisor
More problematic pastors for Obama
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Obama and Infanticide
for the best overview of the Infanticide/"Born Alive Infant Protection Act" issue, please read these:
Obama in His Own Words: There Is No Doubt He Supported Infanticide
Links to Barack Obama's votes on IL's Born Alive Infant Protection Act
=================================
Obama's 10 reasons for supporting infanticide
Barack Obama and the Comfort Room
Obama, Wright, and the Christ Hospital connection
=============
Never Forget: Obama was the lone obstacle to BAIPA:
"passed unanimously, but only in the absence of Senator Barack Obama."
=============
2 youtube videos featuring Jill Stanek... the woman who brought the infanticide story into the light...
number 1
number 2
==============
an interview with Alan Keyes...
==============
from February 2008:
Obama's biggest mistake:
"Senator Barack Obama debated his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night and said his biggest mistake was voting with a unanimous Senate to help save Terri Schiavo. Terri is the disabled Florida woman whose husband won the legal right to starve her to death."
===============================
*** Audio of Obama arguing against giving medical care to abortion survivors
*** Index of documents relating to Barack Obama
and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act
August 2008:
*** Breaking news: New documents show Obama cover-up on born-alive survivors bill
Obama Lied About Abortion Record
==============================
December 6, 2006:
Obama not fazed by Jill Stanek's testimony:
"Jill Stanek, a registered delivery-ward nurse who was the prime mover behind the legislation after she witnessed aborted babies’ being born alive and left to die, testified twice before Obama in support of the Induced Infant Liability Act bills. She also testified before the U.S. Congress in support of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.
Stanek told me her testimony “did not faze” Obama.
In the second hearing, Stanek said, “I brought pictures in and presented them to the committee of very premature babies from my neonatal resuscitation book from the American Pediatric Association, trying to show them unwanted babies were being cast aside. Babies the same age were being treated if they were wanted!”
“And those pictures didn’t faze him [Obama] at all,” she said.
At the end of the hearing, according to the official records of the Illinois State senate, Obama thanked Stanek for being “very clear and forthright,” but said his concern was that Stanek had suggested “doctors really don’t care about children who are being born with a reasonable prospect of life because they are so locked into their pro-abortion views that they would watch an infant that is viable die.” He told her, “That may be your assessment, and I don’t see any evidence of that. What we are doing here is to create one more burden on a woman and I can’t support that.”"
===========================
Were there "already" laws protecting premature infants, as Senator Obama has at various times stated in defending his vote against the born-alive bill?
===========================
August 21, 2008:
Audio from 2002 of Obama Defending Opposition to the Born-Alive Bill
==================================================
*** The Obama Debate Every American Should See
*** In 2002, Barack Obama Supported Infanticide and I've Got the Transcript of His Words
============================
"So, we are content to rely upon a law that would require an abortionist to save the life of a life that is living because he failed in his attempt to kill for pay.
We are supposed to rely upon the weight of the Hippocratic Oath upon a person who can be sued for malpractice in their failure to kill a baby, to risk further liability for negligence in saving the baby's life he, seconds ago, tried to snuff out?"
=============================
"The Post further presents as fact the Obama position that the Illinois bill he opposed was solely about “pre-viable” babies. The testimony of former nurse Jill Stanek, who witnessed babies surviving botched abortions at Christ Hospital just outside Chicago, discussed babies past 20 weeks, including into the third trimester — thus not “pre-viable.”"
=============================
Obama's biggest lie about supporting infanticide
Obama in His Own Words: There Is No Doubt He Supported Infanticide
Links to Barack Obama's votes on IL's Born Alive Infant Protection Act
=================================
Obama's 10 reasons for supporting infanticide
Barack Obama and the Comfort Room
Obama, Wright, and the Christ Hospital connection
=============
Never Forget: Obama was the lone obstacle to BAIPA:
"passed unanimously, but only in the absence of Senator Barack Obama."
=============
2 youtube videos featuring Jill Stanek... the woman who brought the infanticide story into the light...
number 1
number 2
==============
an interview with Alan Keyes...
==============
from February 2008:
Obama's biggest mistake:
"Senator Barack Obama debated his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night and said his biggest mistake was voting with a unanimous Senate to help save Terri Schiavo. Terri is the disabled Florida woman whose husband won the legal right to starve her to death."
===============================
*** Audio of Obama arguing against giving medical care to abortion survivors
*** Index of documents relating to Barack Obama
and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act
August 2008:
*** Breaking news: New documents show Obama cover-up on born-alive survivors bill
Obama Lied About Abortion Record
==============================
December 6, 2006:
Obama not fazed by Jill Stanek's testimony:
"Jill Stanek, a registered delivery-ward nurse who was the prime mover behind the legislation after she witnessed aborted babies’ being born alive and left to die, testified twice before Obama in support of the Induced Infant Liability Act bills. She also testified before the U.S. Congress in support of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.
Stanek told me her testimony “did not faze” Obama.
In the second hearing, Stanek said, “I brought pictures in and presented them to the committee of very premature babies from my neonatal resuscitation book from the American Pediatric Association, trying to show them unwanted babies were being cast aside. Babies the same age were being treated if they were wanted!”
“And those pictures didn’t faze him [Obama] at all,” she said.
At the end of the hearing, according to the official records of the Illinois State senate, Obama thanked Stanek for being “very clear and forthright,” but said his concern was that Stanek had suggested “doctors really don’t care about children who are being born with a reasonable prospect of life because they are so locked into their pro-abortion views that they would watch an infant that is viable die.” He told her, “That may be your assessment, and I don’t see any evidence of that. What we are doing here is to create one more burden on a woman and I can’t support that.”"
===========================
Were there "already" laws protecting premature infants, as Senator Obama has at various times stated in defending his vote against the born-alive bill?
"The answer is that no law was protecting them. We know this for certain because the Illinois attorney general at the time, Jim Ryan — the man charged with enforcing state laws — wrote a letter on July 17, 2000, expressing his finding that Christ Hospital was breaking no laws in leaving premature babies to die after they survived abortions.
Ryan wrote:While we are deeply respectful of your serious concerns about the practices and methods of abortions at this hospital, we have concluded that there is no basis for legal action by this office against the Hospital or its employees, agents or staff at this time.
So again: according to the state's chief enforcer of the law, Christ Hospital was doing nothing illegal when they left premature babies to die after they had survived abortions. Note that this is this is the very reason legislators were trying to pass the born-alive bill in the first place."
===========================
August 21, 2008:
Audio from 2002 of Obama Defending Opposition to the Born-Alive Bill
Erick Erickson links to some audio purportedly of Barack Obama on the floor of the Illinois State Senate in 2002:
youtube vid
Erickson says "I cannot vouch for the authenticity of it, but I trust the friend who sent it to me." According to the State Senate's online transcript database, the quote is real. While the database is password protected to prevent cut-and-paste, here's a screenshot of Obama's substantive statements during the debate:
[...]
It looks like abortion wasn't above Obama's pay grade back in 2002. He had full faith and trust that an abortionist would make an accurate decision as to whether the child he failed to kill was "viable". That's to say nothing of Obama's blithe disregard for the born-alive non-viable fetuses who gasped for air during the few hours they lived after birth."
==================================================
*** The Obama Debate Every American Should See
*** In 2002, Barack Obama Supported Infanticide and I've Got the Transcript of His Words
============================
"So, we are content to rely upon a law that would require an abortionist to save the life of a life that is living because he failed in his attempt to kill for pay.
We are supposed to rely upon the weight of the Hippocratic Oath upon a person who can be sued for malpractice in their failure to kill a baby, to risk further liability for negligence in saving the baby's life he, seconds ago, tried to snuff out?"
=============================
"The Post further presents as fact the Obama position that the Illinois bill he opposed was solely about “pre-viable” babies. The testimony of former nurse Jill Stanek, who witnessed babies surviving botched abortions at Christ Hospital just outside Chicago, discussed babies past 20 weeks, including into the third trimester — thus not “pre-viable.”"
=============================
Obama's biggest lie about supporting infanticide
be an informant for Obama!
from August 2009:
** Call For Informants: If You Oppose Obamacare, Even in ‘Casual Conversation,’ the White House Wants to Know About It
** Lanny Davis wants you photographed and investigated
** "...But wait ... there’s more. Imagine, if you would, cross referencing those forwarded emails to the White House with another database the Obama Administration has ordered set up."
** Obama's dissident database could be secret -- and permanent
** Who’s behind the Internet Snitch Brigade
** Obama Not Flinching On Snitch Central
** DNC admitting flag@whitehouse.gov operation collected data?
** DNC Admits Barack Obama WAS Collecting Information on People Via Flag@Whitehouse.gov
** Modified Limited Hang-Out: DNC Seems to Implicitly Admit Obama Vaccuumed up Emails from Snitch Line
** Call For Informants: If You Oppose Obamacare, Even in ‘Casual Conversation,’ the White House Wants to Know About It
** Lanny Davis wants you photographed and investigated
** "...But wait ... there’s more. Imagine, if you would, cross referencing those forwarded emails to the White House with another database the Obama Administration has ordered set up."
** Obama's dissident database could be secret -- and permanent
** Who’s behind the Internet Snitch Brigade
** Obama Not Flinching On Snitch Central
** DNC admitting flag@whitehouse.gov operation collected data?
** DNC Admits Barack Obama WAS Collecting Information on People Via Flag@Whitehouse.gov
** Modified Limited Hang-Out: DNC Seems to Implicitly Admit Obama Vaccuumed up Emails from Snitch Line
Obama's Rise to Power
"How many Americans have heard of Alice Palmer, Blair Hull, or Jack Ryan?"
all info copy/pasted from: here
all info copy/pasted from: here
"Obama, with the help of his cultlike followers whom I call "Obamites", has somehow positioned himself as "above the fray" of dirty politics, perhaps in conjunction with his "change, hope" feel-good platform.
His rise to power shows many interesting, even odd, turns of events that led him where he is today. In some cases, he himself acted to attain victory. In other cases, strange events occurred which do not seem to be directly linked to him, but the sheer coincidence is compelling: 2 campaigns were essentially won by late-breaking scandals from released court records.
In his one and only true test, in the 2000 US Representative primary, Obama lost by a huge margin.
This is a work in progress.
I. 1996 ILLINOIS STATE SENATE 13TH DIST. PRIMARY: Unopposed by challenging opponent’s petitions and having them forced off ballot.
Obama won the 1996 primary unopposed after knocking four opposing Democrats off the primary ticket by challenging their petitions, including the incumbent, Sen. Alice Palmer who had stepped down to run for Congress, informally endorsed Obama, lost, and re-entered the race for the 13th District seat.
A. Ruthless Technicalities.
“The day after New Year's 1996, operatives for Barack Obama filed into a barren hearing room of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. There they began the tedious process of challenging hundreds of signatures on the nominating petitions of state Sen. Alice Palmer, the longtime progressive activist from the city's South Side. And they kept challenging petitions until every one of Obama's four Democratic primary rivals was forced off the ballot.
But in that initial bid for political office, Obama quickly mastered the bare-knuckle arts of Chicago electoral politics. His overwhelming legal onslaught signaled his impatience to gain office, even if that meant elbowing aside an elder stateswoman like Palmer.
A close examination of Obama's first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it.”
B. Alice Palmer, et al.
“Palmer served the district in the Illinois Senate for much of the 1990s. Decades earlier, she was working as a community organizer in the area when Obama was growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia. She risked her safe seat to run for Congress and touted Obama as a suitable successor, according to news accounts and interviews. But when Palmer got clobbered in that November 1995 special congressional race, her supporters asked Obama to fold his campaign so she could easily retain her state Senate seat.
Obama not only refused to step aside, he filed challenges that nullified Palmer's hastily gathered nominating petitions, forcing her to withdraw.
Another candidate he eliminated, long-shot contender Gha-is Askia, now says that Obama's petition challenges belied his image as a champion of the little guy and crusader for voter rights. "Why say you're for a new tomorrow, then do old-style Chicago politics to remove legitimate candidates?" Askia said. "He talks about honor and democracy, but what honor is there in getting rid of every other candidate so you can run scot-free? Why not let the people decide?"
In a recent interview, Obama granted that "there's a legitimate argument to be made that you shouldn't create barriers to people getting on the ballot."
But the unsparing legal tactics were justified, he said, by obvious flaws in his opponents' signature sheets. "To my mind, we were just abiding by the rules that had been set up," Obama recalled.
"I gave some thought to … should people be on the ballot even if they didn't meet the requirements," he said. "My conclusion was that if you couldn't run a successful petition drive, then that raised questions in terms of how effective a representative you were going to be."”
“Had Palmer survived the petition challenge, Obama would have faced the daunting task of taking on an incumbent senator. Palmer's elimination marked the first of several fortuitous political moments in Obama's electoral success: He won the 2004 primary and general elections for U.S. Senate after tough challengers imploded when their messy divorce files were unsealed.
And he defended his use of ballot maneuvers: "If you can win, you should win and get to work doing the people's business."” Source generally: Obama knows his way around a ballot, David Jackson and Ray Long, Chicago Tribune, April 3, 2007
II. 1996 ILLINOIS STATE SENATE 13TH DIST. GENERAL ELECTION: Unopposed
After forcing out his fellow Democrats in the primary, Obama was elected unopposed to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 representing the 13th District, comprising the university neighborhood of Hyde Park in south Chicago.
III. 2000 U.S. Representative Primary: Lost against Incumbent.
In Obama's first real test as a politician, he lost handily (by approximately 30% of the vote) to the incumbent and fellow African-American Bobby Rush.
Obama Adviser and former Congressman Abner J. Mikva was quoted as saying "“Bobby Rush had not been the most active member of Congress from Illinois, but there was no issue that made him particularly vulnerable,” Mr. Mikva said. “He hadn’t robbed a bank or beaten his grandmother or things like that. In that respect, I was concerned.” NY Times, September 9, 2007.
IV. 2004 U.S. SENATE PRIMARY: Unopposed due to “late-breaking” scandal resulting from divorce records being unsealed.
"In early polls leading up to the March 16, 2004, primary election, candidate Blair Hull enjoyed a substantial lead and widespread name recognition resulting from a well-financed advertisement effort." Then ironically scandal took out Blair Hull. Obama was once again unopposed in the primary.
A month before the primary elections a news story broke out regarding his divorce from his ex-wife. She had sought a restraining order against him during their divorce in 1998. Hull tried to keep the divorce records sealed, but pressure from journalists and his opposing candidates forced him to release them.
The papers claimed that his ex-wife alleged that during a physical fight between them he had threatened to kill her, this led to his arrest for battery, however no charges were ever filed. Source: The Rise and Fall of Blair Hull, William Voegeli, The Claremont Institute, March 19, 2004
Axelrod paved the way for Obama
There was a question that came up yesterday about Blair Hull’s difficulties here in Illinois, and what in the heck precipitated it? We all have our theories, right? What I’m looking for is some kind of documentation to attest to the facts in this; bearing in mind that Obama’s chief media advisor at the time was David Axelrod, who was an advisor to the Clinton campaign. Axelrod, in fact, railed against the politics of personal destruction in the 1990s, and was also once a columnist for the Tribune and an advisor to Mayor Daley. Lynn Sweet at the Sun Times shows us Obama’s 2008 Whitehouse team, and at the top of the list is:
David Axelrod, media strategist. Founder of Chicago-based AKP Media. Handled Obama’s 2004 Senate race. “A” client list: consults for Mayor Daley, Rep. Rahm Emanuel.
According to CBS Radio, he’s even more accomplished than that:
David Axelrod, Chicago-based Democratic Media Advisor/Strategist for U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and presidential campaign for Senator John Edwards.
It just seems to be too great of a coincidence that Obama, who wasn’t backed by the kind of money Ryan and Hull had, ended up benefiting from the misery of two men who appeared to have been set up; one a democrat, the other a republican. Still, if you look at it from one viewpoint, they both could have been considered his political rivals. I have often voiced deep concerns about George Soros’ candidates which include Hillary, Kerry and Obama. But it’s not like we haven’t been aware of setups for scandal before.
There was a campaign the gay activists were putting together in order to crucify republicans in sex scandals, and we saw evidence of that with list that David Corn obtained in Washington regarding the Foley incident.
The scale was tipped on purpose.
In this piece from 2004, when I was about a week-old as a blogger and was still on blogspot, I wasn’t familiar with citing work, and using the blockquotes, and hadn’t mastered blogging 101 yet. Here’s the passage that prompted the inquiry:
…..the Tribune finally admitted that it was Axelrod and the Obama campaign that brought pressure on the press to demand the unsealing of M. Blair Hull divorce records, which had had their contents leaked to media outlets by the Obama campaign even earlier. The Obama campaign also helped orchestrate a demonstration by women’s groups demanding Hull’s withdrawal from the race. Coincidentally, this was the same weekend Obama’s first commercials hit the airwaves. Interestingly (or maybe not), the same exact thing happened to another of his rivals–Jack Ryan. Certainly gives one pause.
Certainly does. It was WLS-Channel 7 TV and the Chicago Tribune that filed suit to open Hull’s sealed divorce records. To be fair, the Chicago Tribune exposed Jack Ryan’s past, too, so this was a case of bipartisan snooping. Brent Bozell at the Media Research Center is right, though; journalists don’t cover liberal political scandals in quite the same way as conservative ones.
There’s not a whole lot else to say about this except that we’re looking for validation and citing beyond this blog; from the Tribune itself or some other source, into the veracity of that claim. I don’t recall how I stumbled upon that, and I’m sure that a lot of bloggers can relate to surfing the web, and not saving something into favorites, and ending up somewhere, not being able to retrace your steps.
From the Chicago Tribune:
In the Democratic primary, Obama found himself the overwhelming beneficiary when the campaign of former securities trader Blair Hull crashed in the aftermath of Hull’s release of court files from a messy divorce. Though Obama has been a passive beneficiary of Ryan’s latest problems, the Democrat’s campaign worked aggressively behind the scenes to fuel controversy about Hull’s filings.
Zenpundit:
Memogate is an aberration you say ? Did not Clarence Page’s own Chicago Tribune and local Chicago newsman Chuck Goudie give unusually heavy coverage of the divorce records of Democrat Blair Hull and Republican Jack Ryan to the benefit of a previously invisible, underfunded, candidate with the slenderest of legistative records, named Barack Obama? Was it accidental or a coincidence that the two opponents with the financial resources to bury Mr. Obama in the primary or general elections were relentlessly hammered on ” scandals” by the Trib while the same paper ran multipage ” puff ” pieces on Saint Obama ? If we searched the email database and phone records of senior editors at the Tribune how many messages would we find from the staff of David Axelrod ? Who happened to slip Chuck Goudie an ( allegedly) anonymous letter detailing Mr. Ryan’s many year old attempt to bring the then Mrs. Jerri Ryan to a sex club ? Did these two men do anything to deserve having their careers destroyed by a local media that had placed themselves so obviously in Mr. Obama’s corner that no Illinois politician dared to step into Mr. Ryan’s shoes ?
If the rest of the mainstream media does not come out front and center with strong ethics policies mandating nonpartisanship ( outside of the op-ed. page) they will find the public regarding the CBS fiasco as merely the tip of a liberal iceberg.
V. 2004 U.S. SENATE GENERAL ELECTION: Scandal knocked out Republican candidate due to divorce records being unsealed.
The Republican nominee, Jack Ryan, withdrew due to a sex scandal on June 25, 2004, and other potential draftees (most notably former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka) declined to run. On August 8, 2004 – with 86 days to go before the general election – the Illinois Republican Party drafted Alan Keyes to run against Democrat Barack Obama for the U.S. Senate.
Ryan and actress Jeri Ryan divorced in 1999 in California, and the records of the divorce were sealed at their mutual request. Five years later, when Ryan's Senate campaign began, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and WLS-TV, the local ABC affiliate, sought to have the records released. Both Ryan and his wife agreed to make their divorce records public, but not make the custody records public, claiming that the custody records could be harmful to their son if released.
On June 22, 2004, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Schnider, a Democrat, agreed to release the custody files. The decision to release these files generated much controversy because it went against both parents' direct request and because it reversed the earlier decision to seal the papers in the best interest of the child. In those files, Jeri Ryan alleged that Jack Ryan had taken her to sex clubs in several cities, intending for them to have sex in public.
At the time of the release, Jeri Ryan, issued had a conciliatory statement, saying that she considered her ex-husband "a friend" and had "no doubt that he will make an excellent senator." She also said that "there was never any physical abuse in our marriage -- either to myself or to our son -- nor, to my knowledge, was he ever unfaithful to me."
The allegations were never proven, and in fact, Ryan was awarded additional custody rights at the end of the hearing, suggesting the allegations were not deemed reliable by the judge.
Obama flubs/gaffes/mistruths/lies
just a handful of Obama flubs/gaffes/mistruths/lies... from when he was running for President...
=====================
1. 57 states:
From The "If McCain Did This" Files
"Obama, below, is tired, nothing more."
youtube clip
"But if John McCain did this -- if he mistakenly said he'd visited 57 states -- the media would be all up in his grill, accusing him of a senior moment. Just saying...."
2. McCain Wants 100 Years of War
McCain Wants 100 Years of War?
Even in politics, it's seldom that you see such a dirty lie.
3. No Applause for Barry?
Obama’s Tuzla Dash? Er, maybe
4. Selma birth
Some Obama fabulism as well?
5. the Kennedy airlift
WaPo reports on Obama-Selma-Kennedy birth myth
6. meet personally and without precondition with Iran
Obama campaign lies
7. $250,000 lie
"When Obama’s connection to Rezko first came to light, he initially told reporters that Rezko didn’t raise any more than $50,000. Chicago reporters then dug up almost $150,000 in fundraising last summer, and Obama was forced to admit that he underestimated Rezko’s contributions. Now he’s telling us that it’s over $250,000. How many more revisions on this story can he make?"
Obama woes continue at Rezko trial
8. oil money
Oily Obama: Some of his best friends are oil executives
9. Kennedy/Krushchev
"When Kennedy Met With Khrushchev, We Were On The Brink Of Nuclear War."
10. Life magazine
Rookie Mistakes Plague Obama
11. Tornado deaths
Obama Overstates Kansas Tornado Deaths
"Barack Obama, caught up in the fervor of a campaign speech Tuesday, drastically overstated the Kansas tornadoes death toll, saying 10,000 had died.
The death toll was 12."
12. Obama's poverty
Multiple choice quiz
13. the "Pastor Wright apologized" lie
Barack Obama: Lying Again
14. Obama's Evolving Positions On His Pastor
Change: Obama's Evolving Positions On His G-Damning Pastor
15. McCain/Hamas
Obama Repeats Jamie Rubin's Lie On McCain (Video)
=====================
1. 57 states:
From The "If McCain Did This" Files
"Obama, below, is tired, nothing more."
youtube clip
"But if John McCain did this -- if he mistakenly said he'd visited 57 states -- the media would be all up in his grill, accusing him of a senior moment. Just saying...."
2. McCain Wants 100 Years of War
McCain Wants 100 Years of War?
Even in politics, it's seldom that you see such a dirty lie.
3. No Applause for Barry?
Obama’s Tuzla Dash? Er, maybe
4. Selma birth
Some Obama fabulism as well?
5. the Kennedy airlift
WaPo reports on Obama-Selma-Kennedy birth myth
6. meet personally and without precondition with Iran
Obama campaign lies
7. $250,000 lie
"When Obama’s connection to Rezko first came to light, he initially told reporters that Rezko didn’t raise any more than $50,000. Chicago reporters then dug up almost $150,000 in fundraising last summer, and Obama was forced to admit that he underestimated Rezko’s contributions. Now he’s telling us that it’s over $250,000. How many more revisions on this story can he make?"
Obama woes continue at Rezko trial
8. oil money
Oily Obama: Some of his best friends are oil executives
9. Kennedy/Krushchev
"When Kennedy Met With Khrushchev, We Were On The Brink Of Nuclear War."
10. Life magazine
Rookie Mistakes Plague Obama
11. Tornado deaths
Obama Overstates Kansas Tornado Deaths
"Barack Obama, caught up in the fervor of a campaign speech Tuesday, drastically overstated the Kansas tornadoes death toll, saying 10,000 had died.
The death toll was 12."
12. Obama's poverty
Multiple choice quiz
13. the "Pastor Wright apologized" lie
Barack Obama: Lying Again
14. Obama's Evolving Positions On His Pastor
Change: Obama's Evolving Positions On His G-Damning Pastor
15. McCain/Hamas
Obama Repeats Jamie Rubin's Lie On McCain (Video)
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
DEATH PANELS
Rush Limbaugh: Obama's Government Will Decide If You Deserve Medical Treatment?
===========================================
*** Did Obama Say We Should Kill the Old Folks to Save Money Last Night?
*** Making treatment decisions for the "temporarily alive"
*** Obamacare is rationing
*** 'Death panel' is not in the bill... it already exists
...in the Stimulus Bill...
==========================================
whatta guy...
no care for babies who survive botched abortions.
and now no care for the inconvenient elderly?
"...Next question. Member of the audience. Jane Sturm: "My mother is now over 105. But at 100, the doctors said to her, 'I can't do anything more unless you have a pacemaker.' I said, 'Go for it.' She said, 'Go for it.' But the specialist said, 'No, she's too old.' But when the other specialist saw her and saw her joy of life, he said, 'I'm going for it.' That was over five years ago. My question to you is: Outside the medical criteria for prolonging life for somebody who is elderly, is there any consideration that can be given for a certain spirit, a certain joy of living, a quality of life, or is it just a medical cutoff at a certain age?"
Obama: "I don't think that we can make judgments based on people's 'spirit.' Uh, that would be, uh, a pretty subjective decision to be making. I think we have to have rules that, uh, say that, uh, we are going to provide good quality care for all people. End-of-life care is one of the most difficult sets of decisions that we're going to have to make. But understand that those decisions are already being made in one way or another. If they're not being made under Medicare and Medicaid, they're being made by private insurers. At least we can let doctors know -- and your mom know -- that you know what, maybe this isn't going to help. Maybe you're better off, uhh, not having the surgery, but, uhh, taking the painkiller." Do you realize how cold and heartless that answer is? This woman is asking about her mother. And everywhere she went, except one doctor, refused to put in the pacemaker. "Nah, she's too old; she's going to die anyway."
So they found a specialist: "Maybe this woman really loves living. I'll put it in." She's lived five years with the pacemaker, and still Obama: "Maybe you're better off to tell your mother to take a pill, take a painkiller." See, we have to have rules. "We have to have rules. Your mother should have died five years ago, lady. She would have been better off taking that painkiller." Who says we have to have his rules? The President of the United States is not a king. He's not an autocrat. He's not a ruler. He doesn't get to set the rules. Obama has taken it upon himself to do so. This woman found a way to get her mother a pacemaker. With Obamacare, you just heard the answer: It wouldn't have happened. I know how this stuff works.
The hospitals are under pressure to free up beds. If they think somebody's terminal, get them out of there. I understand how all this works. But we're not talking about a terminal woman. We're talking about a woman who needed a pacemaker. "I don't think we can make judgments based on people's 'spirit.' That would be a pretty subjective decision to be making." Maybe not if the government's in charge. That's the whole point. What about if families... Do not families have the right to judge the spirit of their fathers and mothers and family members? Of course! Do we want to have a cold, cruel, unfeeling government saying, "Spirit doesn't matter to us"? That's exactly right. Obama wants you... The best way to put it, and it's working, is he's trying to kill spirit. All this hope and change? He's trying to kill it. [...] The point is there are a lot of people whose spirit is just broken. They're fed up with it and saying, "To hell with it. I don't want to fight it anymore. I just want to get away from it," and here's Obama admitting: "Well, we can't start making judgments based on people's spirit." Imagine if we had had presidents in the past who said we couldn't make judgments on any number of political issues using "people's 'spirit.'" It's the American exceptionalism the spirit-can-doism that built the country. Spirit's everything. Energy, desire, get-up-and-go. Ambition! The woman's mother had ambition to live. She just needed a pacemaker. It didn't matter. She should take a painkiller! I'm telling you, this is a coldhearted, ruthless guy. Not a cool, calm, and collected one.
===========================================
*** Did Obama Say We Should Kill the Old Folks to Save Money Last Night?
*** Making treatment decisions for the "temporarily alive"
*** Obamacare is rationing
*** 'Death panel' is not in the bill... it already exists
...in the Stimulus Bill...
==========================================
whatta guy...
no care for babies who survive botched abortions.
and now no care for the inconvenient elderly?
a couple of old Obama articles
Don't Be Frontin': The Radical New Party Obama Was Once a Member of and Project Vote, Whom Obama Admits Working For, Share Same Office with... ACORN
Another Communist in Obama’s Orb
Meet Michael Klonsky, Obama's "social justice" education expert.
Another Communist in Obama’s Orb
Meet Michael Klonsky, Obama's "social justice" education expert.
Obama and The Third Way
here's the majority of a good article from Stanley Kurtz:
No Liberation
Obama may have left Trinity, but he’s still on the Left.
No Liberation
Obama may have left Trinity, but he’s still on the Left.
"...By providing us with an in-depth picture of Obama’s political worldview on the eve of his elective career, Hank De Zutter’s, “What Makes Obama Run?” lives up to its title. The first thing to note here is that Obama presents his political hopes for the black community as a third way between two inadequate alternatives. First, Obama rejects, “the unrealistic politics of integrationist assimilation — which helps a few upwardly mobile blacks to ‘move up, get rich, and move out. . . . ’ ” This statement might surprise many Obama supporters, who seem to think of him as the epitome of integrationism. Yet Obama’s repudiation of integrationist upward mobility is fully consistent with his career as a community organizer, his general sympathy for leftist critics of the American “system,” and of course his membership at Trinity. Obama, we are told, “quickly learned that integration was a one-way street, with blacks expected to assimilate into a white world that never gave ground.” Compare these statements by Obama with some of the remarks in Jeremiah Wright’s Trumpet, and the resemblance is clear.
Having disposed of assimilation, Obama goes on to criticize “the politics of black rage and black nationalism” — although less on substance than on tactics. Obama upbraids the politics of black power for lacking a practical strategy. Instead of diffusing black rage by diverting it to the traditional American path of assimilation and middle-class achievement, Obama wants to capture the intensity of black anger and use it to power an effective political organization. Obama says, “he’s tired of seeing the moral fervor of black folks whipped up — at the speaker’s rostrum and from the pulpit — and then allowed to dissipate because there’s no agenda, no concrete program for change.” The problem is not fiery rhetoric from the pulpit, but merely the wasted anger it so usefully stirs.
Obama’s Network
De Zutter gives us a clear glimpse of Obama’s radicalism. Obama is called “progressive,” of course, and is said to yearn for “massive economic change.” That could simply mean an end to widespread poverty, rather than social restructuring. Yet Obama is also described as holding “a worldview well beyond” his mother’s “New Deal, Peace Corps, position-paper liberalism.” De Zutter lays out Obama’s ties to radical groups like Chicago Acorn, as Acorn’s lead organizer, Madeleine Talbott, is quoted affirming that: “Barack has proven himself among our members . . . we accept and respect him as a kindred spirit, a fellow organizer.” In “Inside Obama’s Acorn,” I explore Obama’s links to this radical group, and to Talbott, who practices the sort of intimidating and often illegal “direct action” Acorn is famous for. (For more on Talbott’s affinity for “direct action,” see “Where Do We Begin?”)
De Zutter also touches on some other key elements of Obama’s network. Obama’s early organizing work for the Developing Communities Project was “funded by south-side Catholic churches.” Clearly, this early work cemented Obama’s close ties to Father Pfleger, whose support formed a critical component of Obama’s grassroots network. Precisely because of this early link, Pfleger threw his considerable support behind Obama’s failed 2000 bid for Congress. By the way, Pfleger’s political influence in Chicago is such that Mayor Richard Daley actually declared his 2002 candidacy for a fourth full term as mayor at Pfleger’s St. Sabina church. In “Inside Obama’s Acorn,” I explore the possibility that Obama’s seat on the boards of a couple liberal Chicago foundations may have allowed him to direct funds to groups that served as his de facto political base. De Zutter quotes Woods Fund executive director, Jean Rudd, praising Obama for “being among the most hard-nosed board members in wanting to see results. He wants to see our grants make change happen — not just pay salaries.” No doubt, Obama was sincerely supportive of the sort of leftist organizations favored by the Woods Fund. However, if Obama was in fact looking to some of the groups supported by the Woods Fund as a personal political base, his unusually active board service would make all the more sense.
Black Churches
The threads of this political network are pulled tighter as Obama turns to a “favorite topic,” “the lack of collective action among black churches.” Obama is sharply critical of churches that try to help their communities merely through “food pantries and community service programs.” Today, Obama rationalizes his ties to Wright’s Trinity Church by citing its community service programs. Yet in 1995, Obama was highly critical of churches that focused exclusively on such services, while neglecting the sort of politically visionary sermons, local king-making, and political alliance-building favored by Pfleger and Wright. Obama rejects the strictly community-service approach of apolitical churches as part of America’s unfortunate “bias” toward “individual action.” Obama believes that what he derogates as “John Wayne” thinking and the old, “right wing...individualistic bootstrap myth” needs to be replaced: “We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations.”
Obama sees the black church as the key to his plan for collective social and political action: “Obama . . . spoke of the need to mobilize and organize the economic power and moral fervor of black churches. He also argued that as a state senator he might help bring this about faster than as a community organizer or civil rights lawyer.” Says Obama, “We have some wonderful preachers in town — preachers who continue to inspire me — preachers who are magnificent at articulating a vision of the world as it should be.” Obama continues, “But as soon as church lets out, the energy dissipates. We must find ways to channel all this energy into community building.” Obama seems to be holding up people like Wright, Pfleger, and James Meeks (who he has listed as his key religious allies) as positive models for the wider black church — in both their rhetoric, and in their willingness to play a direct political role. If anything, Obama would like to see the political visions of Wright and Pfleger given greater weight and substance by connecting them to secular leftist political networks like Acorn.
End Run
By the end of De Zutter’s piece, Obama’s distinctive vision comes clear. While in his years as a Chicago organizer and attorney, Obama took care to maintain friendly ties to the Daley administration, in Obama’s campaign for state senate, he specifically avoided asking the mayor or the mayor’s closest allies for support. Obama’s plan was to make an end-run around Chicago’s governing Democratic political network, by building a coalition of left-leaning black churches and radical secular organizations like Acorn (perhaps with de facto help from liberal foundation money as well). This coalition would provide Obama with the flexibility to play out a political career some distance to the left of conventional Illinois democratic politics. And sure enough, Obama’s extremely liberal record in Illinois vindicated his strategy.
The De Zutter story sheds considerable light on the debate over the significance of Obama’s ties to Pfleger and Wright. For the most part, that debate plays out with a relatively apolitical notion of church membership in mind. Obama’s defenders say that he should not be held responsible for the occasional political excesses of his preacher. Critics point out that the extremism of Wright and Pfleger is long-standing and well known. At some point, this line of thinking goes, the radicalism of such preachers ought to become intolerable. And what does it say about Obama’s judgement that he actually built his own national reputation by pointing to his appreciation of Wright’s sermons? Obama’s critics also see his decision to join Wright’s church as an opportunistic move by a politically ambitious secular humanist in search of a respectable religious home.
I agree with all of these criticisms of Obama. Yet De Zutter’s article shows us that the full story of Obama’s ties to Pfleger and Wright is both more disturbing and more politically relevant than we’ve realized up to now. On Obama’s own account, the rhetoric and vision of Chicago’s most politically radical black churches are exactly what he wants to see more of. True, when discussing Louis Farrakhan with De Zutter, Obama makes a point of repudiating anti-white, anti-Semitic, and anti-Asian sermons. Yet having laid down that proviso, Obama seems to relish the radicalism of preachers like Pfleger and Wright. In 1995, Obama didn’t want Trinity’s political show to stop. His plan was to spread it to other black churches, and harness its power to an alliance of leftist groups and sympathetic elected officials.
So Obama’s political interest in Trinity went far beyond merely gaining a respectable public Christian identity. On his own account, Obama hoped to use the untapped power of the black church to supercharge hard-left politics in Chicago, creating a personal and institutional political base that would be free to part with conventional Democratic politics. By his own testimony, Obama would seem to have allied himself with Wright and Pfleger, not in spite of, but precisely because of their radical left-wing politics. It follows that Obama’s ties to Trinity reflect on far more than his judgment and character (although they certainly implicate that). Contrary to common wisdom, then, Obama’s religious history has everything to do with his political values and policy positions, since it confirms his affinity for leftist radicalism.
Sense of Mission
It could be argued that the new and supposedly moderate, “bipartisan” Obama of 2008 is the real Obama. Unfortunately, that argument is unconvincing. Again and again, De Zutter reports that Obama’s true passion, deepest calling, and most authentic sense of mission is to be found in his early community organizing work. Obama’s own vision for himself as a legislator is as a kind of super-organizer/activist, extending the “progressive” quest for “social justice” to society as a whole.
I see no reason to doubt Obama’s self-account, and many reasons to accept it. As De Zutter notes, Obama gave up a near-certain Supreme Court clerkship to come to Chicago and do community organizing. It’s also easy to imagine Obama joining one of the many other less radical black churches on the south side of Chicago, if that was all he needed to launch a political career. Clearly, given his good relations with the Daley administration, Obama could have asked for its support in his bid for the Illinois State Senate. Yet at every turn, Obama took a riskier path. That suggests he was operating from conviction. Trouble is, the conviction in question was apparently Obama’s belief in the sort of radical social and economic views held by groups like Acorn and preachers like Wright and Pfleger.
Obama was certainly more rhetorically smooth, and no doubt less personally embittered than some of his mentors. Yet what stands out after a consideration of Obama’s larger personal and political history is the general convergence of political orientation between Wright, Pfleger, Acorn, Chicago’s “progressive” foundations, and Obama himself. Obama in Chicago was a man of the Left, doing his level-best to assemble a coalition free from the constraints of conventional, middle-ground Democratic politics.
Obama Speaks
If there is any doubt about the accuracy of De Zutter’s detailed account, we get the same message from this too-little discussed but revealing and important piece by Obama himself. This chapter from a 1990 book called After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois was originally published in 1988, just after Obama joined Trinity. The piece is called, “Why Organize? Problems and Promise in the Inner City,” and it shows exactly what Obama hoped to make of his association with Pfleger and Wright.
Obama begins by rejecting the false dichotomy between radicalism and moderation:The debate as to how black and other dispossessed people can forward their lot in America is not new. From W.E.B. DuBois to Booker T. Washington to Marcus Garvey to Malcolm X to Martin Luther King, this internal debate has raged between integration and nationalism, between accommodation and militancy, between sit-down strikes and boardroom negotiations. The lines between these strategies have never been simply drawn, and the most successful black leadership has recognized the need to bridge these seemingly divergent approaches.
Of course, even James Cone, the radical founder of black-liberation theology, sees himself as synthesizing the moderation of Martin Luther King Jr. with the radicalism of Malcolm X. Obama here seems to be calling for an inside/outside strategy like the one he would have learned working with Chicago Acorn. Note Obama’s reference to the controversial tradition of “direct action” favored by Acorn (and earlier by Saul Alinsky, whose tradition of radicalism the book is meant to carry on). Obama offers radicalism with a moderate face.
Obama sketches out a vision in which a politically awakened black church would ally with “community organizers” (like Obama and his friends from Acorn), thereby radicalizing the politics of America’s cities:Nowhere is the promise of organizing more apparent than in the traditional black churches. Possessing tremendous financial resources, membership and — most importantly — values and biblical traditions that call for empowerment and liberation, the black church is clearly a slumbering giant in the political and economic landscape of cities like Chicago.
After expressing disappointment with apolitical black churches focused only on traditional community services, Obama goes on to point in a more activist direction:Over the past few years, however, more and more young and forward-thinking pastors have begun to look at community organizations such as the Developing Communities Project in the far south side [where Obama himself worked, and first encountered Pfleger, SK]...as a powerful tool for living the social gospel, one which can educate and empower entire congregations and not just serve as a platform for a few prophetic leaders. Should a mere 50 prominent black churches, out of thousands that exist in cities like Chicago, decide to collaborate with a trained and organized staff, enormous positive changes could be wrought....
Give me 50 Pflegers or 50 Wrights, Obama is saying, tie them to a network of grassroots activists like my companions from Acorn, and we can revolutionize urban politics.
Mystery Solved
So it would appear that Obama’s own writings solve the mystery of why he stayed at Trinity for 20 years. Obama’s long-held and decidedly audacious hope has been to spread Wright’s radical spirit by linking it to a viable, left-leaning political program, with Obama himself at the center. The revolutionizing power of a politically awakened black church is not some side issue, or merely a personal matter, but has been the signature theme of Obama’s grand political strategy.
Lucky for Obama, this political background is unfamiliar to most Americans. There are others who share Obama’s approach, however. Take a look at this piece by Manhattan Institute scholar Steven Malanga on “The Rise of the Religious Left,” and you will see exactly where Obama is coming from. Malanga ends his account by noting that religious-left activists often partner with groups like MoveOn.org and attend gatherings featuring speakers like Michael Moore. After the 2004 election, there was some talk of the Democratic party “purging” MoveOn and Moore. Far from purging its radical Left, however, the Democratic party is now just inches away from placing it in the driver’s seat. That is the real meaning of the fiasco at Trinity Church.
Obama's ACORN ties
1. "Even though Obama never took part in a trial, he was part of a team of attorneys who represented the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois in 1995 to make it easier for the poor and others to register as voters."
2. "Obama trained ACORN activists. A 1995 Chicago Reader article on Obama stated "Obama continues his work largely through classes for future leaders identified by ACORN and the Centers for New Horizons."
3. ACORN endorsed his presidential campaign.
4. In 1992 Obama took time off to direct Project Vote.
5. Obama’s campaign paid more than $800,000 to ACORN for get-out-the-vote efforts, but “mistakenly misrepresented” what ACORN was doing to The Federal Election Commission. Some found this "mistake highly suspicious:
"Barack Obama's failure to accurately report his campaign's financial records is an incredibly suspicious situation that appears to be an attempt to hide his campaign's interaction with a left-wing organization previously convicted of voter fraud."
6. According to Donors Forum website [ifs.donorsforum.org, accessed 6/10/08], during the time Obama served on the board of directors of the Woods Fund (1993 to 2002), ACORN received thousands of dollars --$45,000 (2000), $30,000 (2001), $45,000 (2001), $30,000 (2002), And $40,000 (2002) -- in grants from the fund.
7. "that Obama's long service with Acorn led many members to serve as the volunteer shock troops of Obama's early political campaigns - his initial 1996 State Senate campaign, and his failed bid for Congress in 2000... With Obama having personally helped train a new cadre of Chicago Acorn leaders, by the time of Obama's 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, Obama and Acorn were "old friends," says Foulkes."
8. Obama told ACORN and other community organizing groups (like the Gamaliel Foundation) that they will help shape his presidential agenda:
youtube video
2. "Obama trained ACORN activists. A 1995 Chicago Reader article on Obama stated "Obama continues his work largely through classes for future leaders identified by ACORN and the Centers for New Horizons."
3. ACORN endorsed his presidential campaign.
4. In 1992 Obama took time off to direct Project Vote.
5. Obama’s campaign paid more than $800,000 to ACORN for get-out-the-vote efforts, but “mistakenly misrepresented” what ACORN was doing to The Federal Election Commission. Some found this "mistake highly suspicious:
"Barack Obama's failure to accurately report his campaign's financial records is an incredibly suspicious situation that appears to be an attempt to hide his campaign's interaction with a left-wing organization previously convicted of voter fraud."
6. According to Donors Forum website [ifs.donorsforum.org, accessed 6/10/08], during the time Obama served on the board of directors of the Woods Fund (1993 to 2002), ACORN received thousands of dollars --$45,000 (2000), $30,000 (2001), $45,000 (2001), $30,000 (2002), And $40,000 (2002) -- in grants from the fund.
7. "that Obama's long service with Acorn led many members to serve as the volunteer shock troops of Obama's early political campaigns - his initial 1996 State Senate campaign, and his failed bid for Congress in 2000... With Obama having personally helped train a new cadre of Chicago Acorn leaders, by the time of Obama's 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, Obama and Acorn were "old friends," says Foulkes."
8. Obama told ACORN and other community organizing groups (like the Gamaliel Foundation) that they will help shape his presidential agenda:
youtube video
IG-GATE: The Inspector General Scandals
IG-Gate is made up of 4 different scandals:
1. AmeriCorps/Walpin IG scandal
Probe finds new clues in AmeriCorps IG scandal
by Byron York
2. Neil Barofsky/Geithner:
Did the White House interefere with more Inspectors General?
3. Judith Gwynne:
4. Fred E. Weiderhold/Amtrak:
Questions raised as top Amtrak inspector resigns
1. AmeriCorps/Walpin IG scandal
Probe finds new clues in AmeriCorps IG scandal
by Byron York
After seven weeks of trying, investigators looking into President Barack Obama’s abrupt firing of AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin are still unable to answer the most basic question of the whole affair: Why did the president do it?
They know the reasons the White House has given: That the 77-year-old Walpin was addled and not up to the job, that he had too many conflicts with the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, that his office had once distributed a parody newsletter that contained an allegedly sexist remark.
They know all that. But they also know that AmeriCorps is one of Obama’s favorite federal programs. They know that AmeriCorps gave an $800,000-plus grant to Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, Calif., who just happens to be an influential friend and supporter of the president. They know that Walpin investigated Johnson’s misuse of that federal money. They know that as a result of Walpin’s probe, Johnson was suspended from receiving any new federal grants, a fact that caused controversy in Sacramento when leaders realized it could prevent the city from receiving millions in federal stimulus money. They know that, amid the local uproar over the Johnson affair, the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento, Lawrence Brown, made a deal to let Johnson off the hook, and then took the unusual step of denouncing Walpin. They know that Walpin vigorously objected to Johnson’s getting off easy. And they know that after Walpin protested, the president fired him.
Common sense suggests that’s a suspicious series of events. During the time his case was under review, did Johnson, or anyone acting on his behalf, ever get in touch with the White House? Did the White House get in touch with him? And did Johnson’s relationship with Obama, plus the Sacramento political establishment’s desire to get the stimulus cash, play any role in Brown’s actions?
Those are the key underlying questions in the AmeriCorps affair, but investigators have been stymied by the White House’s refusal to answer any inquiries about any communications or other dealings it might have had on the subject. Brown has also refused to answer questions.
Now, investigators are trying a new route, examining the role of the Justice Department. Sen. Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has asked the committee chairman, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, for a hearing on the AmeriCorps/Walpin affair, focusing specifically on the role of Brown and his bosses at Justice.
According to a senior Republican aide, Sessions’ interest was piqued by a statement made in a late March television interview by Rep. Doris Matsui, the Democratic congresswoman who represents Sacramento. Asked whether Johnson’s problems could prevent the city from receiving stimulus funds, Matsui said that, at Johnson’s request, she had “been in conversation with officials at the White House and OMB [Office of Management and Budget] and others to ensure that we don’t lose any money at all.”
Within days of Matsui’s statement, a settlement was reached. Johnson was unsuspended, and in a particularly unusual move, acting U.S. Attorney Brown issued a press release hailing the arrival of stimulus funds. “The lifting of the suspension against all parties, including Mayor Johnson, removes any cloud whether the City of Sacramento will be prevented form receiving much-needed federal stimulus funds,” Brown wrote.
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee want to know why a U.S. attorney was touting his own actions in bringing stimulus money to the city. That’s not the normal role of prosecutors. “We need to hear whether the settlement in this case was tainted in any way by political influence or political factors,” says the senior Republican aide.
So far, Brown has refused to answer any questions. In June, Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a list of 20 questions to Brown and received no response. A follow-up in July was similarly ignored. “Your unwillingness to be cooperative with our investigation raises further questions about your role in this matter,” Issa wrote Brown.
Adding to the suspicions is the fact that the only person who objected to the Johnson deal, who said it shouldn’t be done, was Gerald Walpin. And for his efforts, he was fired.
A growing number of lawmakers want to know why.
2. Neil Barofsky/Geithner:
Did the White House interefere with more Inspectors General?
"...The second example ... was Neil Barofsky, TARP IG, and while it’s the less immediately worrisome of the two newly-publicized incidents it’s also the more sensitive. There aren’t many details on this available yet, but the dispute seems to be over how much oversight Treasury should have over the IGs assigned to monitor specific functions of the department - and how quickly and easily IGs should be given the documents that they need for their investigations. The answer should be ‘almost none’ and ‘as quickly and easily as can be arranged’… at least, that’s my opinion. More importantly, it’s also Senator Grassley’s. Barofsky apparently hasn’t lost his job over this, though. Yet."
3. Judith Gwynne:
"The third incident came last week at the International Trade Commission, where Judith Gwynne worked independent of the White House, and which will be a critical position as Obama reshapes trade arrangements around the world. An ITC employee earlier this year “forcibly removed” paperwork from Gwynne. Rather than back the IG after Grassley wrote a letter demanding answers, the political appointees at the ITC dumped her.source
We are seeing a pattern, no longer just a single data point. IGs work independently to protect taxpayers from corruption and abuse from its own government agencies. A coordinated attack on IGs certainly suggests hostility to that mission, which isn’t the Hope and Change Obama promised on the campaign trail."
4. Fred E. Weiderhold/Amtrak:
Questions raised as top Amtrak inspector resigns
The inspector general of Amtrak unexpectedly resigned Thursday night, becoming the third such federal official to leave prematurely since the Obama administration took office and the latest in a string of potentially controversial moves involving government watchdogs.
Fred E. Weiderhold, a 35-year veteran of the agency who was responsible for rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, is the most high-profile change among the group of senior government officials who have responsibility to conduct independent investigations of federal agencies and institutions.
[...]
Cliff Black, an Amtrak spokesman, confirmed that Weiderhold has been replaced by acting Inspector General Lorraine A. Green, saying only that Weiderhold “retired.’’
But several officials who asked not to be identified raised questions about the development, which set off alarm bells among some close Amtrak watchers.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Obama and Friends (youtube vids)
=======================================================
Sean Hannity - Obama & Friends - History of Radicalism
=======================================================
part 1: College Years
part 2: Community Organizer
part 3: Bill Ayers
part 4: Jeremiah Wright
part 5: Israel
part 6: ACORN
=======================================
Bill O'Reilly - The Obama Chronicles
=======================================
part 1: Obama mentors: Frank Marshall Davis, Emil Jones Jr., Rev. Jeremiah Wright
part 2: Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn
part 3: Obama the community organizer
Sean Hannity - Obama & Friends - History of Radicalism
=======================================================
part 1: College Years
part 2: Community Organizer
part 3: Bill Ayers
part 4: Jeremiah Wright
part 5: Israel
part 6: ACORN
=======================================
Bill O'Reilly - The Obama Chronicles
=======================================
part 1: Obama mentors: Frank Marshall Davis, Emil Jones Jr., Rev. Jeremiah Wright
part 2: Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn
part 3: Obama the community organizer
Sunday, September 13, 2009
some Obama youtube videos
"where along the radical leftist continuum" does Obama reside?
Is Barack Obama a Communist?
"It is reprehensible that we are this deep into a U.S. presidential election run and this question is on the table, but that is what can happen when political parties and the media anoint a candidate based upon rhetoric and marketability instead of vetting him for substance.
A blog called The Obama Report has passed along an Accuracy in Media account that cites Communist Party USA member Frank Marshall Davis as Barack Obama's mentor:In his books, Obama admits attending "socialist conferences" and coming into contact with Marxist literature. But he ridicules the charge of being a "hard-core academic Marxist," which was made by his colorful and outspoken 2004 U.S. Senate opponent, Republican Alan Keyes.
However, through Frank Marshall Davis, Obama had an admitted relationship with someone who was publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). The record shows that Obama was in Hawaii from 1971-1979, where, at some point in time, he developed a close relationship, almost like a son, with Davis, listening to his "poetry" and getting advice on his career path. But Obama, in his book, Dreams From My Father, refers to him repeatedly as just "Frank."
The reason is apparent: Davis was a known communist who belonged to a party subservient to the Soviet Union. In fact, the 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii identified him as a CPUSA member. What's more, anti-communist congressional committees, including the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), accused Davis of involvement in several communist-front organizations.
Ace notes:Barack Obama has been swimming in a sea of left radicalism all his life, from his communist dad to his firebrand America-hating preacher to his terrorist buddy Bill Ayers.
Barack Obama is very vague about his actual politics and few have bothered asking.
So I'm asking: What are Barack Obama's politics?
Is Obama "merely" another radical leftist like another one of his mentors, Saul Alinsky?
Is he a Marxist, as would befit his continued 20-year association with a church founded on the Marxism underlying Black Liberation Theology?
Is he a socialist revolutionary with Maoist tendencies that wants to wage war against the United States like his close friend, fellow Woods Fund board member, and domestic terrorist William Ayers?
Is he a communist, like his mentor Davis, his father, his ethic-cleansing, Islamist-coddling cousin, and even his own wife Michelle Obama, who insisted just yesterday the thought that, "someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more."
At this point we simply do not know where along the radical leftist continum Barack Obama's thoughts reside, because no one has ever pressed him on his beliefs or his meager record.
For the media, it might be nice to know these things before Obama sews up the Democratic nomination."
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