The Exaggerations, Lies, Distortions, and Flip-Flops Of Barack Obama

Check out this excerpt from Obama’s North Carolina victory speech:

The attempts to play on our fears and exploit our differences, to turn us against each other for political gain, to slice and dice this country into red states and blue states, blue collar and white collar, white, black, brown, young, old, rich, poor … this is the race we expect, no matter whether it’s myself or Senator Clinton who is the nominee. The question then is not what kind of campaign they will run; it’s what kind of campaign we will run.

It’s what we will do to make this year different. You see, I didn’t get into this race thinking that I could avoid this kind of politics, but I am running for president because this is the time to end it.

We will end it — we will end it this time not because I’m perfect. I think we know at this phase of the campaign that I am not.

We will end it not by duplicating the same tactics and the same strategies as the other side, because that will lead us down the same path of polarization and of gridlock.

We will end it by telling the truth.

We will end it by telling the truth forcefully, repeatedly, confidently, and by trusting that the American people will embrace the need for change, even if it’s coming from an imperfect messenger, because that’s how we’ve — that’s — because that’s how we’ve always changed this country, not from the top down, but from the bottom up, when you, the American people, decide that the stakes are too high and the challenges are too great.

That’s right. Barack Obama fancies himself to be the truth-telling candidate. And anyone who says otherwise will (of course) be accused of racism, and “playing on our fears”.

Well, I don’t care. I’m pretty thick skinned. Let’s just examine how truthful this man is:

♦Obama claims the Kennedy family payed for his Kenyan father to travel to America on a student scholarship to meet his Kansan mother.

Status - NOT TRUE:

Contrary to Obama’s claims in speeches in January at American University and in Selma last year, the Kennedy family did not provide the funding for a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama’s father. According to historical records and interviews with participants, the Kennedys were first approached for support for the program nearly a year later, in July 1960. The family responded with a $100,000 donation, most of which went to pay for a second airlift in September 1960.

♦Obama claims that a detailed questionaire filled out in his name, in 1996, with responses reflecting ultra liberal views on everything from gun control to abortion, was filled out by an aide, and doesn’t reflect his views.

Status: LIE

… a Politico examination determined that Obama was actually interviewed about the issues on the questionnaire by the liberal Chicago nonprofit group that issued it. And it found that Obama — the day after sitting for the interview — filed an amended version of the questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama’s own handwritten notes added to one answer.

♦Obama sites photo of black man bleaching his skin in Dreams From My Father. Claims said photo gave him the feeling of an “Ambush Attack”

Status - NOT TRUE: No such photo appears to exist.

♦Obama states in January 2008 debate: “I never said that we should try to go ahead and get single-payer.

Status: Flip-flop or LIE: Barack at AFL-CIO conference in June 2003: “I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal healthcare coverage.

♦Obama in 2004: Doesn’t see himself running for President in 2008: “If I were to seriously consider running on a national ticket…I would essentially have to start now…before having served a day in the Senate. Now there might be some people who would have no problem doing that, but ah…I’m not one of them“.

He said two years ago that he would “absolutely” serve out his Senate term, which ends in 2011, and that the idea of him running for president this cycle was “silly” and hype “that’s been a little overblown”.

In an appearance on Meet the Press with Tim Russert, January 22nd, 2006:

Russert: “When we talked back in November of ‘04 after your election, I said, ‘There’s been enormous speculation about your political future. Will you serve your six-year term as United States senator from Illinois?’”

Obama: “I will serve out my full six-year term. You know, Tim, if you get asked enough, sooner or later you get weary and you start looking for new ways of saying things. But my thinking has not changed.”

Russert: “So you will not run for president or vice president in 2008?”

Obama: “I will not.”

Status: Gross flip-flop or LIE. Obviously.

♦In July ‘07 Barack Obama tells a group of reporters in Boston that the United States has an “absolute obligation” to remain in Iraq long enough to make it a success: “The failure of the Iraqi state would be a disaster,” he said at a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, according to an audiotape of the session. “It would dishonor the 900-plus men and women who have already died. . . . It would be a betrayal of the promise that we made to the Iraqi people, and it would be hugely destabilizing from a national security perspective.”

Status - Flip-flop or LIE: Obama Campaign pledge 9/07: Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq.

♦Obama tells this stirring tale to a Selma audience: He had been conceived by his parents, Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham, because they had been inspired by the fervor following the “Bloody Sunday” voting rights demonstration that was commemorated March 4.

Status - Bad Info or LIE: Obama was born in 1961, and the Selma march occurred four years later, in 1965.

♦On January 24, 2008, the Obama campaign released a statement, saying, “To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Status: NOT TRUE:

The Associated Press reports that “documents showed he enrolled as a Muslim” while at a Catholic school during first through third grades. …the Chicago Tribune confirms that Obama was “listed as a Muslim on the registration form for the Catholic school.” A blogger who goes by “An American Expat in Southeast Asia” found that “Barack Hussein Obama was registered under the name ‘Barry Soetoro’ serial number 203 and entered the Franciscan Asisi Primary School on 1 January 1968 and sat in class 1B. … Barry’s religion was listed as Islam.”

…the Toronto Star visited the Jakarta public school Obama attended and found that “Three of his teachers have said he was enrolled as a Muslim.”

♦Obama told the Sun-Times his “best estimate” was that Rezko raised “between $50,000 and $60,000″ during Obama’s political career.

Status: Very sloppy fact-checking, or LIE: Obama has collected at least $168,308 from Rezko and his circle. Additionally, Obama also has taken in an unknown amount of money from people who attended fund-raising events hosted by Rezko since the mid-1990s.

♦During a nationally televised debate last fall, Obama hesitantly raised his hand and joined with most of his Democrat rivals to declare that he opposed decriminalizing marijuana. (first video).

Status: Stupid gaffe, or LIE:

But as a candidate for the U.S. Senate four years ago, Mr. Obama told Illinois college students that he supported eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana use or possession, according to a videotape of a little noticed debate that was obtained by The Washington Times.

“I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws,” Mr. Obama told an audience during a debate at Northwestern University in 2004. “But I’m not somebody who believes in legalization of marijuana.” (second video).

♦ Obama promised to use public funding in the general election if the Republican candidate would do so also.

Status: Welcher:

Well, McCain has agreed to it, but now Obama wants to back out of the deal. After all, when he made the promise, he didn’t have a chance of raising more than the public’s $85 million stipend. But now that he can raise $300 million, well, what’s a little untruth between the waited-for one and his people? Yes, he can.

♦Obama’s campaign claims he meant every word he said about overturning the free-trade treaty, and that no one had contacted the Canadian diplomatic corps to reassure them that it was mere demagoguery.

Status: LIE:

CTV responded today by naming names — and suddenly the Obama campaign has grown quiet.

CTV didn’t stop there. They also announced that their sources, at “the highest levels of the Canadian government”, reconfirmed the story to CTV. One of their primary sources provided a timeline of the discussion to CTV. Contrary to some reports, CTV has not retreated at all from this story.

Jim Geraghty notes:

I realize Obama’s campaign can still claim that one of his advisers went rogue in contacting the Canadians about his NAFTA rhetoric, but to me, this is game, set and match to CTV. … If Goolsbee had not talked to officials in the consulate, it seems likely that his answer would have been, “No, I didn’t talk to them.”

♦Obama: I didn’t hear (reverend Wright’s) inflammatory sermons.

Status: BULL

♦Barack Obama, May 2008: he never sought Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s counsel on political issues.

Status: LIE:

Obama January 2007: “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.”

Also:

Mr. Obama consulted Mr. Wright before deciding to run for president. He prayed privately with Mr. Wright before announcing his candidacy last year.

♦Obama continues to claim that McCain favors 100 more years of US troops fighting in Iraq:

Status: Gross distortion:

What McCain actually said:

QUESTIONER: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years –

McCAIN: Maybe a hundred.

QUESTIONER: Is that — is that –

McCAIN: We’ve been in South Korea — we’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That’d be fine with me as long as Americans –

QUESTIONER: So that’s your policy?

McCAIN: — As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, then it’s fine with me. I hope it would be fine with you if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Qaeda is training, recruiting, and equipping and motivating people every single day.

♦Hotair reports:

The Barack Obama campaign responded to the pictures of Obama political and community associate William Ayers stomping on the American flag, first published in 2001 in Chicago Magazine. In a statement reported on Fox & Friends this morning, Team Obama deplores Ayers’ actions but rejects any connection between Ayers and Obama:

Status: Doesn’t add up!

That distance might be hard to maintain. First, the profile in the magazine wasn’t exactly a low-profile article in an obscure publication. Ayers had just published a memoir of his days as a fugitive for domestic terrorism in the Weather Underground, and both the book and the publicity gained national attention, especially after 9/11. Obama continued to work with Ayers after this, appearing on public panels with Ayers into 2002.

If Team Obama wants to disassociate itself from Ayers in this manner, it should recheck its website. Obama still defends William Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn as part of Chicago’s “mainstream”. Does Obama think that stomping on a flag in an alley to celebrate a memoir of domestic terrorism represents the mainstream of political thought?

Important Source: The Obama File, Freedoms Enemies

To be continued….

MORE:

Obama said in his North Carolina victory speech:

The other side can label and name-call all they want, but I trust the American people to recognize that it is not surrender to end the war in Iraq so that we can rebuild our military and go after Al Qaida’s leaders.I trust the American people to understand that it is not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but to our enemies, like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did.

Status: NOT QUITE:

Ed Morrissey:

I’m particularly bemused by the references to FDR and Truman. Both men ended up having to conduct massive wars that outlasted their presidencies, and in FDR’s case in no small measure because Western nations insisted on talk rather than action. While we maintained diplomatic contact with Germany and Japan until Pearl Harbor, FDR did not meet with Hitler and Tojo. And that diplomatic contact didn’t stop war from coming; indeed, it make it much worse than it otherwise would have been, at least in Europe, had the US, UK, and France had taken the appropriate steps to disarm Hitler when he started his Versailles Treaty violations.

Truman met with Joseph Stalin during and after World War II, but that didn’t stop the Soviets from blockading West Berlin or ringing down an iron curtain across eastern Europe, enslaving those nations for almost 50 years. If Potsdam and Yalta are Obama’s idea of successful foreign policy, then he obviously hasn’t studied 20th century history. Talking with implacable tyrants leads to appeasement, which leads to either war or more implacability of the tyranny in question.

UPDATE (May 10):

Obama says he’s been to 57 states during a campaign stop.

Status: GAFFE.

Reds Who Support Obama

Well, it looks like the Obama campaign is steamrolling ahead, with the whole Reverend Wright affair just a minor bump in the road, as far as Democrats are concerned.

So this is as good a time as any to present my companion piece to Radicals, Terrorists, and Tyrants of the World Root for Obama. This time, I thought we’d take a look at all of the known communists/Socialists/Marxists who have supported, endorsed, or influenced Obama. Some communists can be found on the Radicals, Terrorists, and Tyrants list, as well, because let’s face it, radicals and tyrants tend to be commies, (Fidel Castro for instance), but in the interest of keeping this post down to a manageable size, I’m going to try to avoid duplications.

What some might call, “guilt by association” I call Obama’s ‘calling card’.

So without further ado, Obama’s Litany of Shame part deux (not in any certain order):

Frank Marshall Davis:

The Frank, Obama mentions in Dreams From My Father; Obama’s Communist mentor.

Accuracy In Media:

The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) reprinted the 1953 and 1954 Reports of the Commission on Subversive Activities of the Territory of Hawaii, which refer to Davis as “an identified member of the Communist Party” who was affiliated with a number of Communist fronts and circulated “inflammatory racial propaganda.” Davis also wrote columns for the Honolulu Record, a Communist paper, featuring “unrelenting and unmitigated complaints of racial discrimination in the United States.” Davis was labeled “a bitter opponent of capitalism” and “staunch defender” of communists and communist sympathizers.

Here’s a charming example of his poetry:

“Remember this, you wise guys
Your tales about Jesus of Nazareth are no-go with me
I’ve got a dozen Christs in Dixie all bloody and black…”

His ode to the “Red Army” contains this line:

“Smash on, victory-eating Red Army,”

This is the guy who spent many hours advising and reading poetry to a young Barack Obama.

Sam Graham-Felsen

Obama’s official blogger, and contributor to The Socialist Viewpoint.

The American Thinker had this to say about Graham-Felsen:

Sam Graham-Felsen, hired to run Obama’s blog, writes about Noam Chomsky in a Marxist publication that openly calls for revolution against the American government. This is a Presidential candidate’s choice to run the on-line portion of his campaign. That speaks volumes of his character and worldview. Contradicting what he says in public, Obama is surrounding himself with poeple who never seem to learn that their absurd ideologies end in misery and ruin.

Tim Wheeler:

Wheeler is a member of the CPUSA National Board and has been a mainstay of the party’s Baltimore Club since the early ’70s.

From 1991 to 2003 Tim Wheeler served as editor of the party paper People’s Weekly World. Currently he is the PWW’s national political correspondent.

He’s also an active member of Obama’s campaign in Baltimore, MD. Here’s his Obama ‘08 website.

The blog, New Zeal reports:

He is on the campaign trail with Senator Obama, blogging as he goes.

Wheeler canvassed for his idol in the recent South Carolina primary.

Tim Wheeler was in Obama’s campaign HQ as the primary results came in;

The Obama people are over the moon. I was at a precinct some four or five miles outside of Columbia, mainly a rural area. And it was a steady stream of voters all day. Overwhelmingly African American voters. There was a feeling of victory in the air.

I’m at the Obama headquarters and you can hear the cheering all over. It’s really very exciting.

Here he is swooning over Obama’s ‘more perfect union’ speech in People’s Weekly World.

His Dad

Presto Pundit on Dreams From My Father:

…Barack Obama organized his life on the ideals given to him by his Kenyan father. Obama tells us, “All of my life, I carried a single image of my father, one that I .. tried to take as my own.” (p. 220) And what was that image? It was “the father of my dreams, the man in my mother’s stories, full of high-blown ideals ..” (p. 27 What is more, Obama tells us that, “It was into my father’s image .. that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself.” And also that, “I did feel that there was something to prove .. to my father” in his efforts at political organizing. (p. 230)

So what are those ideals, given to the young Obama by his Communist father?

PrestoPundit has found a 1965 paper written by Obama’s father, in which he advocates:

— 100% taxation

— communal farms / the elimination of private farming

— the nationalization of businesses owned by “Europeans” and “Asians”.

— “active” measures to bring about a classless society

Socialists For Obama

This blog is for those interested in learning how can we change this country from the current capitalist unfair system, into a real socialist, democratic system for all. This capitalist system of Bush and his cronies only benefit the upper classes. USA needs a 21st Century Socialist, Democratic and Participative system for the workers and people of this country, without fascism, without wars, but with peace, equality, socialism and love.

Marxists, Socialists, Communists For Obama

Their Obama ‘08 page is still up:

Democratic Socialists of America

Obama has been associated with this group since his days as a Chicago “community organizer”. In 1996 he received the endorsement of the Chicago branch of the DSA for his IL state senate seat.

Communist Party USA:

Barack Obama’s campaign has so far generated the most excitement, attracted the most votes, most volunteers and the most money. We think the basic reason for this is that his campaign has the clearest message of unity and progressive change, while having a real possibility for victory in November.

Bernie Sanders:

Here’s Obama campaigning for openly Socialist, Bernie Sanders in 2006:

Accuracy in Media:

Interestingly, Sanders, who won his seat in 2006, called Obama “one of the great leaders of the United States Senate,” even though Obama had only been in the body for about two years. In 2007, the National Journal said that Obama had established himself as “the most liberal Senator.” More liberal than Sanders? That is quite a feat. Does this make Obama a socialist, too?

Yes grasshopper, I believe it does.

Reverend Wright (before he was thrown under the bus):

A firm practitioner of the Marxist Black Liberation Theology:

REV. BOB SCHENCK, NATIONAL CLERGY COUNCIL: Reverend Wright is absolutely committed to what he calls “black liberation theology.” Well, “liberation theology” has its roots in Latin American liberation theology.

And if you ask the average Christian leader in this country, it is way, way outside the mainstream of Christian belief, and, in fact, it’s based in Marxism. At the core of his theology is really an anti-Christian understanding of God, and as part of a long history of individuals who actually advocate using violence in overthrowing those they perceive to be oppressing them, even acts of murder have been defended by followers of liberation theology. That’s very, very dangerous.

Michelle Obama:

She wants your pie.

Some more commies for Obama listed in my Radicals, Terrorists, and Tyrants post:

William Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn

Fidel Castro

Daniel Ortega

Progressives For Obama

FARC

UPDATE:

See Dubya says to add:

Hugo Chavez:

Bill Richardson who visited Venezuela last week, in essence delivered Hugo’s endorsement, according to Ed Morrissey.

I also had him on my list of radicals, tyrants, and terrorists supporting Obama, but….on pretty weak grounds, frankly. But I just knew he preferred Obama. I knew it!

No big surprise, there.

Hi Michelle Malkin Readers! I hope I get the Malkin award for this!

UPDATE II:

I forgot to mention Saul Alinsky, the radical Marxist whose teachings so influenced Obama:

(Community organizer) Galluzzo shared with me the manual he uses to train new organizers, which is little different from the version he used to train Obama in the ’80s. It is filled with workshops and chapter headings on understanding power: “power analysis,” “elements of a power organization,” “the path to power.” Galluzzo told me that many new trainees have an aversion to Alinsky’s gritty approach because they come to organizing as idealists rather than realists. But Galluzzo’s manual instructs them to get over these hang-ups. “We are not virtuous by not wanting power,” it says. “We are really cowards for not wanting power,” because “power is good” and “powerlessness is evil.”

The other fundamental lesson Obama was taught is Alinsky’s maxim that self-interest is the only principle around which to organize people. (Galluzzo’s manual goes so far as to advise trainees in block letters: “get rid of do-gooders in your church and your organization.”) Obama was a fan of Alinsky’s realistic streak. “The key to creating successful organizations was making sure people’s self-interest was met,” he told me, “and not just basing it on pie-in-the-sky idealism. So there were some basic principles that remained powerful then, and in fact I still believe in.”

Baldilocks and DianeJ say I need to add Raila Amolo Odinga:

He has a son named Fidel Castro, which is enough for me. Also:

Wikipedia:

According his website, Raila lists himself as a social democrat,^[19] thus distancing himself from his late father, who was openly socialist. His party, the LDP, is affiliated to the Liberal International.

The Conservative Voice:

“–Also, Raila Odinga was educated in communist E. Germany, and his father Oginga Odinga led the communist opposition during the Cold War.

“–Raila Odinga’s official presidential website is similar to Barack Obama’s, and Odinga’s main campaign message and slogan is: CHANGE. Vote for Change. Agent of Change. Look at his website: http://www.raila07.com/

Welcome Ace of Spades morons!, as well as (more respectable) DoublePlusUndead, Moonbattery, My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Baldilocks, DianeJ’s Weblog, and Chris Baker readers!

Turning The Page

Michelle Obama said in a recent interview that she wants to “turn the page” from the Reverend Wright controversy. Hoo-boy, I don’t blame her.

Instead, she prefers to talk about education:

“Let’s not elect somebody who has been there and hasn’t done it,” Michelle Obama said in a fairly clear reference to Clinton. She said education was the issue that most concerns parents and her husband is the only one who can make changes there.

“It’s going to take us being, as a nation, deeply passionate and angry about the failing education for all kids,” she said. “When was the last time we heard some really solid questions for these candidates on education in a debate? You know all about the issues in our personal lives, but … education is the thing we should be angry about.”

Tom Maguire, of Just One Minute, (who’s been looking into Obama’s past work on an education board, created by Bill Ayers) jumped on that:

Obama and Ayers (a professor of education) worked together on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge for several years in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to reform Chicago’s public schools. The extent of their relationship is not clear, since Obama has been opaque on this topic both in a televised debate and at his website. However, Ayers was instrumental in founding the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and Obama was the group’s first chairman, so there is something being concealed there.

Read the whole thing. This story should be getting more play in the media.

More background here.

Happy May Day!

Jim Hoft calls it  “the left’s favorite Godless holiday”. That’s about right. See Gateway Pundit for pictures of May Day Che enthusiasts the world over.

Michelle Malkin’s calls it “all purpose, left wing grievance day”. Visit her site for coverage of coast to coast grievance mongering.

LGF says 100,000 demonstrators expected in LA.

Woo hoo. It looks like these freaks are growing in number.

I guess we’ll find out in November.

Should Obama “Disown” Reverend Wright?

I have to do one more quick post before I go to bed.

Some pundits like Byron York, and Andrew Sullivan are offering Obama free advice, strongly suggesting that he “disown” Reverend Wright.

York:

“I think he’s going to have to walk farther away from Wright, if he wants to win the general election,” one Democratic strategist told me Monday night. “He could say, ‘This is different now. Just to eliminate any questions, I am going to leave this church, because I believe the country is more important.’ It would say that Wright’s rhetoric has no place in his campaign or the lives of his children.” (As the Wright controversy has festered, observers on both sides of the political divide have wondered, usually in whispers, about Obama’s decision to take his young children to Wright’s church.)

Sullivan:

Obama needs not just to distance himself from Wright’s views; he needs to disown him at this point. Wright himself, it seems to me, has become part of what Obama is fighting against: the boomer, Vietnam era’s obsession with its red-blue, white-black, pro and anti-America fixations. That is not what this election needs to be about; and Wright’s massive, racially divisive and, yes, bitter provocation requires a proportionate response.

We need a speech or statement from Obama in which he utterly repudiates this poison, however personally difficult that may be, however damaging the impact will be.

(Here’s Ace’s hilarious take on St. Andrew’s change of heart).

First of all, STOP trying to help the enemy, Byron.

(Here’s Karl Rove trying to give him some free advice, too). Stop that!

Second of all, what can he possibly say as a means to explain how he was able to sit in Reverend Wright’s pews for 20 years, and listen to that garbage? He can “disown” Wright all he wants, but he can’t disown his participation in that loathsome church for 20 years; a church that practices the profoundly racist Black Liberation Theology.

He, and Wright, and the media can spin spin spin all they want that Wright was taken out of context, but the American people, (the majority, anyway) are not such ignorant buffoons that they would believe such unmitigated bullcrap. The unedited versions of his sermons, taken completely in context, (which he sells in his own church giftshop!) are even worse.

So to say that Obama just needs to “disown” his Pastor of twenty years doesn’t cut it. But don’t tell the panicky nutroots that. They’re still holding on to hope, (and change).

What Obama really needs to do is drop out before he does any more damage to race relations in this country.

UPDATE:

GOP operatives, always slow on the uptake, are finally noticing Obama’s weaknesses, and are preparing a $500,000 hit on him. Something tells me it’s going to be lukewarm, and unsatisfying:

Whereas Obama once seemed an almost cultlike figure who transcended race and class, the narrative that has emerged from his campaign’s recent trials has given Republicans hope that the Illinois senator can be tagged as an elitist with the same effectiveness with which Michael Dukakis and John F. Kerry were so labeled.

The elitist story line has provided Republicans with press release fodder against freshman Democratic House members and statewide elected officials in roughly two dozen states.

Whoa, Nellie! Hardcore! Elitist, eh?

The guy’s got our nations enemies, tin-pot dictators, known commies, radical pinkos, (and Reverend Wright) supporting him; he’s buds with a former terrorist, for crying out loud, and the best they can do is try to paint him as an elitist?

They had better do better than that, by God.

Jeremiah Wright: Obama’s Worst Nightmare

(This isn’t NiceDeb. It’s her Cotillion sister, Carol, doing a little cross posting while nicedeb is away from the computer.)

The Jeremiah Wright story gets more and more wild. What a self-involved man. Don’t you know Obama wishes the man would just shut up! Jeremiah Wright is all about Jeremiah Wright. He sure isn’t a friend to Obama. John McCain and Hillary Clinton both likely consider him the gift that keeps on giving.

Quick detour: Roland Martin was on CNN tonight saying that Jeremiah Wright did not MEAN “God d*mn America.” He was going on and on about listening to the whole transcript. The man is living in the Obama la-la land of denying what is staring him in the face. I’ve rarely seen such a blatantly biased newsperson.

Sorry for the brief detour to Roland Martin. It’s just amazing to see people continue to defend Wright. There simply is no defense of such racist statements in ANY context. And why does Roland Martin feel such a strong need to defend such a low-life?

Here are a couple of exerpts from the news story about Wright’s statement:

Wright Calls Sermon Controvery “Unfair”

“. . . . I felt it was unfair. I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt for those who were doing that were doing it for some very devious reasons,” he said.

Oh. I get it. To accurately quote Jeremiah Wright and to show clips of his preaching is unfair and unjust and untrue and done for devious reasons. However, preaching that the U.S. government gave AIDS to blacks, caused 9/11 and deliberately got blacks addicted to drugs - now THAT is fair and just and true and done for altruistic reasons?

Asked his response to the senator’s speech, Wright said, “He’s a politician, I’m a pastor.”
“I do what I do. He does what politicians do,” Wright said. “What happened in Philadelphia, where he had to respond to the sound bites, he responded as a politician.”

Now he’s throwing his supposedly good friend and church member, Barack Obama, under the bus. Wright tells us that Barack was just doing what a politician has to do when Obama said he didn’t agree with Wright. See what I mean by thinking that Obama wishes Wright would just shut up? Wright just couldn’t stand to stay on the sidelines any longer. He’s basking in all this media attention.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air provides ABC’s context for Wright’s diatribes - just to show that Wright’s comments definitely were NOT taken out of context. Click the link and read it.

Cross posted at The Median Sib.

Yes I Can! (posted by Beth)

I’M IN UR MORANBLOG POASTIN VIDEO’S

Barry Obama, Kim Il-Jong…eh, close enough. Commie = commie.

I’ll be around here posting this weekend while Deb is away. Prepare for a weekend of moronic drivel! Yay! (I’m from here, in case you’re wondering, and I agree–Deb’s crazy for allowing me to crap up her blog.)

Official Obama Blogger: Hardcore Marxist

No that is not hyperbole. Meet Sam Graham-Felsen, official Obama blogger, and writer for The Nation, and The Socialist Viewpoint.

The Socialist Viewpoint? Sounds kind of left-wing, doesn’t it? Let’s visit the ‘About Us’ page and find out more:

The Socialist Workers Organization was formed to advance the revolutionary Marxist political program in the United States. Our members are long time active participants in the socialist and labor movements. We agree with Karl Marx that society is divided into social classes whose interests are irreconcilable.

The capitalist ruling class of the United States exercises a virtual dictatorship not only over American society, but also over the entire world. This capitalist class rule is the basic cause of the poverty, wars, and the degradation of the natural environment.

We advocate workers’ power to solve the pressing problems that plague our society—homelessness, hunger, AIDS, the lack of health care for those who can’t afford it, the poor quality and lack of resources for public education and other public institutions, and the destruction of the environment.

We believe that people have the human right to freedom, justice, and sharing of all the resources available for the makings of a good life. This means the right to jobs, decent housing, food and health care, and every aspect of education, clean water, air, and earth.

Workers power is the answer!

Working people are the overwhelming majority of the population and the ruling capitalist class is only a handful. They hold a monopoly over the media and the institutions of culture that create “public opinion”—the printed and electronic mass media, as well as all public and private educational institutions. In the final analysis, however, capitalists rule by military and police force and violence.

To break the stranglehold of the capitalist minority over all of society, workers need their own political institutions. Workers and their unions need to break definitively with Democrats, Republicans, and other capitalist parties, all of which are dedicated to preserving and advancing the capitalist system of social, economic and political injustice.

Socialism, the ownership and democratic control of the means of production by the working class, and the removal of profit from the system of production, is the aim of Socialist Viewpoint, which reflects the political views of the Socialist Workers Organization. Socialism is the prerequisite for the next stage in human development that will end class oppression and exploitation for all time.

The Common Ills has much more on Graham-Felsen (what’s with the 2-part name? He’s a dude!).

What more do people need to know about Obama? Have the super-delegates figured out that he’s unelectable yet? Should we just hush up about all this and save it for later… I mean…MY GOSH!

Hat tip: Moonbattery

Update:

Oh wow, why does this not surprise me:

Real or hoax? I can’t decide.

The Communist Party USA definitely seems to like him.

Obama Says He Won’t Be ‘Swiftboated’

Newsweek reports:

The Obama campaign is planning to expand its research and rapid-response team in order to repel attacks it anticipates over his ties to 1960s radical Bill Ayers, indicted developer Antoin Rezko and other figures from his past.

David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, tells NEWSWEEK that the Illinois senator won’t let himself be “Swift Boated” like John Kerry in 2004. “He’s not going to sit there and sing ‘Kumbaya’ as the missiles are raining in,” Axelrod said. “I don’t think people should mistake civility for a willingness to deal with the challenges to come.”

Civility?

Since when is comparing a fellow Senator to a terrorist, or publicly accusing your own grandmother of racism, considered civil?

If you ask me, the “rapid response team” flubbed those. So I’m thinking, maybe  it is a good idea to “expand” the team, in order to increase the possibility that their next response to substantive criticism (swift-boating), is not totally obnoxious, and an insult to our intelligence.

Also, Barry’s running out of friends and relative’s to throw under the bus.

As expected, the eeeevil VRWC is lying in wait, ever ready to ambush innocent liberals:

Operatives such as David Bossie, whose Citizens United group made the Willie Horton ad that helped sink Michael Dukakis’s 1988 presidential bid, are sharpening knives as expectations mount that Obama will be their target in the fall.

They say that like there’s something wrong with it.  

Bossie says he is assembling material for TV spots about Obama’s ties with Ayers, a Chicago professor and unrepentant former member of the Weather Underground, a group that bombed several government buildings to protest the Vietnam War. The Ayers issue bounced around right-wing media for months, but it received broad exposure at last week’s debate on ABC, when Obama was asked a question about their relationship. Obama, who lives near Ayers in Chicago’s Hyde Park, attended an event at Ayers’s house when Obama ran for the state Senate in 1995—and served on the board of a nonprofit with him for several years. “Obama is aware of the acts Ayers committed when he was 8 years old and has called them ‘detestable’,” says spokesman Ben LaBolt, adding that Obama occasionally bumps into Ayers in his neighborhood “but has not seen him for months.” At a recent dinner party, according to one guest who asked not to be identified discussing a private gathering, Ayers “ridiculed” the notion that Obama shared his left-wing views: “He thought the idea that there was a political connection between them was absurd.” (Ayers declined to comment.)

So they’ve got some rock-solid evidence that Obama doesn’t share any of Ayers’ leftist views. Phew, that’s a relief.

Good job, team!

 

 

Gop Meanies Gonna ‘Swiftboat’ Obama

Some Democrat emo-brainiac is all worried that Obama may possibly get ‘Swiftboated’ by the Republicans because of his connections with The Weather Underground, and other lefties:

Rick Sloan says he doesn’t want to see the Democrats get “Swift Boated” again this time. So the communications director for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers has sent a couple of dozen friends — union leaders and Democratic activists, mainly — an urgent plea to pay attention to Sen. Barack Obama’s connections with the 1960s anti-war group, the Weather Underground, and other leftist thinkers.

Democrats “can’t be an ostrich on this” with their heads buried in the sand, Sloan said in an interview.

Gee, fella….ya think???

Since “Swiftboat” means roughly, “Telling the truth about a Democrat”, it’s greatly feared and reviled by the left. And they’re not going to take it sitting down, either.

They’ve already got some hardcore, war room ninjas on the job of counter-swiftboating operations, and so far have come up with this devastating revelation about the McCain campaign…*GASP* (Make sure you’re sitting down for this!): RECIPEGATE!!11!

When will these McCarthyist tactics cease?

UPDATE:

More swiftboating:

Apparently McCain’s also got a temper…..ooooh-wee! That one’s gonna leave a mark.

Happy Anniversary Harry Reid!

Today is the one year anniversary of Harry Reid’s infamous pronouncement that the Iraq war was lost. He uttered his disgraceful words before the troop surge was even completely in place, making it look more like wishful thinking than an honest assessment. The U.S. military reported that the 28,000 troops required for the surge were not in Iraq and ready to start surge operations until June 15, 2007.

From Politico Playbook:

One year ago today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters: “[T]his war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything.” The traditional one-year anniversary gift is paper (books, etc.), but the modern gift is clocks. Senators always find both useful.

Tomorrow will be the one year anniverary of Al Jazeera’s coverage of Reid’s defeatist words to the Arab world:

The US war in Iraq is lost and a further build-up of US troops in the country will not recover the situation, the senior Democrat in the US senate has said.

“This war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week,” Harry Reid, the senate Democratic majority leader, told reporters.

Reid, who held talks with George Bush on Wednesday, said he told the president that he thought the war could not be won through military force.

Only political, economic and diplomatic means could bring success, he said.

By early ‘08, evidence that the surge was successful was made clear by the media’s complete loss of interest in covering the war.

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Well wishers who would like to acknowledge Reid’s moment of shame, may do so in the comments.

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And by “well wishes” I mean this.

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Here is the video, (if your stomach can take it):

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UPDATE:

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Irony of ironies. Today is also Patriot’s Day. Jules Crittenden reminds us what true Patriots look like.*

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*Yes, I’m questioning Harry Reid’s patriotism. I most certainly am.

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It is also the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Dave in Texas commemorates at AOSHQ.

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Obama’s Moral Equivocation FAILURE

I’m talking about Obama’s latest demented moral equivocation which took place at the Tuesday night Democrat debate. This time it was his Senate pal, Tom Coburn, not his grandmother, who was tossed under the bus.

I touched on this briefly in my Radicals, Terrorists and Tyrants post:

Obama characterized his relationship with Ayers as the same thing as being friendly with fellow Senator, Tom Coburn who favors *GASP* the death penalty for abortionists who perform abortions (except in rare cases to save the life of the mother). An extreme position to be sure, but does it make him a terrorist? Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn were terrorists, no if, ands, or buts. Does Tom Coburn support Obama? Donate to his campaigns?

Can you imagine how awkward it’s going to be the next time Obama bumps into his friend, Coburn on the Senate floor? *Cringe!*

Byron York is lowing the boom on Bambi:

Would you rather be associated with a ’60s radical who plotted to bomb the Pentagon and to this day believes, as he said a few years ago, “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough,” or would you rather be associated with — slight pause, please — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)?

That was the rather bizarre scenario raised by Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) at Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia.

Yesss. That’s what I meant to say. He goes on:

But wouldn’t Coburn be more comparable to Ayers if he, Coburn, had bombed abortion clinics in the past — and then said that he not only did not regret bombing the clinics but wished that he had done more? And then, after bombing abortion clinics and refusing to express regret, he held a political event in his home for Barack Obama, which Obama attended?

And if all that had happened, would Obama say it wasn’t a problem because Coburn had bombed those clinics a long time ago, when Obama was just 8 years old?

Do you believe that would endear Obama to voters in the Democratic primaries?

Hmmmm…huh!…hmmmmm…let me think about that one.

But-but-but Obama said the American people were smarter than to think otherwise:

So this kind of game, in which anybody who I know, regardless of how flimsy the relationship is, is somehow — somehow their ideas could be attributed to me — I think the American people are smarter than that. They’re not going to suggest somehow that that is reflective of my views, because it obviously isn’t.

Obviously my ass. Obama’s many known associations with pinkos, commies, radicals and terrorists actually reflect something quite disturbing about him…that their ideas do in fact reflect his views.

But note how he tries to intimidate ‘the American people’ into brushing past all that. We’re supposed to be smarter than that. If we question any of his troublesome associations, or endorsements, we’re knuckle dragging troglodytes who don’t appreciate arugula.

“Isn’t that guilt by association?” Alan Colmes will simper.

Let’s play a little mind game:

How many awful associations does a lib have to have before a fellow lib sees a problem? And how many awful associations does a conservative have to have before the same lib sees a problem?

Compare and contrast answers.

More:

Tom Maguire says Obama needs to recalibrate his sense of Moral Equivalence.

Drew at AOSHQ believes Obama owes Coburn an apology.

Michelle Malkin - Barack Obama’s Pro-Lifer-As-Terrorist Analogy

UPDATE:

Conservative Belle shows you what the high road looks like: Tom Coburn responds.

Radicals, Terrorists And Tyrants Of The World Root For Obama

The latest terror group to weigh in was of course:

Hamas:

Cameron’s Corner, Fox News reports:

During an interview on WABC radio Sunday, top Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef said the terrorist group supports Obama’s foreign policy vision.

“We don’t mind–actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance,” Yousef said in response to a question about the group’s willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates.

Cameron wonders if this endorsement will be a problem for Obama. It probably wouldn’t be if it were just one example, all by itself. But let’s pause, and take a look at all the endorsements he’s gotten so far from the world’s radicals, terrorists, tyrants, and their supporters. They’re starting to stack up:

Hatem El-Hady:

Central Ohioans Against Terrorism is all over this one:

Two years ago, Hatem El-Hady was the chairman of the Toledo, Ohio-based Islamic charity, Kindhearts, which was closed by the US government in February 2006 for terrorist fundraising and all its assets frozen. Today, El-Hady has redirected his fundraising efforts for his newest cause - Barack Obama for President.

El-Hady has his own dedicated page on Barack Obama’s official website, chronicling his fundraising on behalf of the Democratic Party presidential candidate (his Obama profile established on February 19, 2008 - two years to the day after Kindhearts was raided by the feds). Not only that, but he has none other than Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama, listed as one of his friends, one of her 224 listed friends.

Screenshot!:

But his leadership of Kindhearts is not the only thing that has brought him scrutiny by federal law enforcement officials. Last summer, El-Hady was questioned by the FBI concerning his knowledge of possible conspirators in a UK-based terror plot.

Much more at Central Ohioans Against Terrorism.

The New Black Panthers:

The racist NBPP is led by notorious extremist, Malik Zulu Shabazz, and (was) a registered team member and blogger on Obama’s campaign website. His page has been scrubbed twice at last count.

Screenshot!:

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Shabazz defended Osama bin Laden and blamed President Bush for the horrors of that day.

He has this to say about Obama:

“I have nothing but respect for Obama and for his pastor,” said Shabazz, referring to Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor of nearly 20 years.

Shabazz referred to Obama as a man with a “Muslim background, a man of color.”

William Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn:

This association got some attention, tonight because George Stephanopoulos had the temerity to ask Obama about him at the Democrat debate. Bill Ayers and fellow Weatherman, Bernadine Dohrn have been supporters of Obama’s Senatorial campaigns in Chicago. In 2001, Ayers gave $200 to Obama’s state Senate reelection campaign.

In 1995, State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to a few of the district’s influential liberals at the home of two well known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

Dr. Young and another guest, Maria Warren, described it similarly: as an introduction to Hyde Park liberals of the handpicked successor to Palmer, a well-regarded figure on the left.

“When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the living room of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn,” Warren wrote on her blog in 2005. “They were launching him — introducing him to the Hyde Park community as the best thing since sliced bread.”

Obama characterized his relationship with Ayers as the same thing as being friendly with fellow Senator, Tom Coburn who favors *GASP* the death penalty for abortionists who perform abortions (except in rare cases to save the life of the mother). An extreme position to be sure, but does it make him a terrorist? Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn were terrorists, no if, ands, or buts. Does Tom Coburn support Obama? Donate to his campaigns?

(Added April 23): There are some new revelations concerning more recent activities of Ayers and Dohrn at Powerline.

Still more at Michelle Malkin’s.

FARC:

From the two lap top computers obtained during an ambush back in early March:

According to information obtained, FARC Terrorists were hoping and expecting that Barack Obama would win the US elections in November because he was most aligned with the Colombian Marxist group.

The gringos will ask for an appointment with the minister to solicit him to communicate to us his interest in discussing these topics. They say that the new president of their country will be Obama and that they are interested in your compatriots. Obama will not support “Plan Colombia” nor will he sign the TLC (Colombian Free Trade agreement).

‘Nuff said.

Fidel Castro:

He likes Hillary too. Last summer he was urging Clinton and Obama to team up:

“The word today is that an apparently unbeatable ticket could be Hillary for president and Obama as her running mate,” he wrote in an editorial column on U.S. presidents published on Tuesday by Cuba’s Communist Party newspaper, Granma.

Daniel Ortega:

From A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective:

“Estamos frente a un fenómeno revolucionario”, aseguró el mandatario después de recibir el Doctorado Honoris Causa de la Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería (UNI). Muestra de ese “fenómeno revolucionario” del que habla el gobernante, es la “fuerza que ha tomado en la juventud anglosajona la batalla a favor de Obama”. ["We are facing a revolutionary phenomenon," assured the president after receiving an honorary Doctorate from the National Engineering University. The showing of this "revolutionary phenomenon" of which Ortega speaks is the "strength that has been taken up among the English-speaking youth in favor of Obama."]

Según Ortega, con la ayuda de Dios algún día habrá una revolución en Estados Unidos y sus gobernantes lograrán “actuar diferente, con sentido de respeto, paz, justicia y equidad”. El cambio, a juicio del Presidente, también dependerá de la juventud, esa “juventud que ha trascendido la discriminación racial”.
[According to Ortega, with the help of God, there will one day be a revolution in the United States, and its leaders will "act differently, with a sense of respect, peace, justice, and equality." The change, according to Ortega, will also depend on the youth, "who have transcended racial discrimination."]

Hugo Chavez:

Chavez has been coy. He stopped short of endorsing a particular (Democrat) candidate, but did say recently that McCain seemed “warlike”:

“Sometimes one says, ‘worse than Bush is impossible,’ but we don’t know,” Chavez told foreign correspondents. “McCain also seems to be a man of war.”

One assumes Chavez would be happy with either Hillary of Obama, although Obama has said he would meet with Chavez, something no other candidate has said.

Jodie Evans: