Author: kingsjester

64 year old Christian Conservative husband, father, and grandfather who has been writing since April 2010.

Did Budget Cuts Lead to Throats Being Cut?

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

Evidently, the money designated for Ambassador to Lybia Chris Stevens’ protection had to be used for something more important: like Michelle’s vay-cays or improving Obama’s Golf Game.

Fore!

The Washington Times reports that

Investigators looking for lessons from the fatal terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi might want to start on Capitol Hill, where Congress slashed spending on diplomatic security and U.S. embassy construction over the past two years.

Since 2010, Congress cut $296 million from the State Department’s spending request for embassy security and construction, with additional cuts in other State Department security accounts, according to an analysis by a former appropriations committee staffer.

Rep. Michael Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, made clear Wednesday that congressional staff will be looking into the attack, in addition to a probe by the State Department’s inspector general and another State Department investigation required by federal law.

The cuts to the embassy construction, security and maintenance budget was almost 10 percent of the entire appropriation for that account over those two years, said Scott Lilly, now a scholar at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

“Anytime we cut that account back, we are putting people’s lives at risk, people who are serving the country” in dangerous places abroad, said Mr. Lilly.

The cuts mean that “a lot of places you’d intended to secure better, you don’t reach” this year, he added.

He said he did not know whether the cuts had impacted security at the Benghazi consulate that was stormed on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by heavily armed Islamic extremists, who burned down the building and killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

A State Department official told The Washington Times that there was no impact on security in Benghazi from the cuts.

Since 1999, the official said, the department has spent $13 billion on 94 new secure diplomatic facilities “and security upgrades to existing properties that have moved more than 27,000 people into safer, more secure facilities.”

The cuts were the latest in a series of squeezes on State Department spending. Congress has appropriated less money for the department than requested in every year since Fiscal 2007, according to budget figures.

“During both the latter years of the Bush presidency and throughout the Obama presidency, the administration has recommended boosting spending on foreign aid and [State Department] foreign operations, including security, and Congress has always cut it back,” said Philip J. Crowley, a former State Department spokesman.

“There is simply not a constituency on the Hill to increase spending on diplomacy and development. Resources do matter.” said Mr. Crowley, now a fellow at the George Washington University Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication.

In a completely unrelated story (I’m sure), published on July 25, 2012, at AmericanThinker.com:…

…Walid Shoebat published this 37-page booklet entitled “Proof: Huma has Ties to Muslim Brotherhood — Countless Documents Surface” and this was followed up with Tuesday’s update that “Huma Abedin Served on Board with Al-Qaeda Godfather”. Shoebat states that the latest discoveries “include but are not limited to “[p]roof that Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin served on the Board of IMMA from at least 12/02/02 – 9/24/08” and that “Al-Qaeda Godfather Abdullah Omar Naseef served on IMMA’s Advisory Board from at least 12/02/02 – 12/03/03.”

…Besides extensively citing all of Huma Abedin’s family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim Sisterhood, Shoebat maintains that “[n]either Huma Abedin, Hillary’s aid [sic] or any major western media even mention what is common knowledge in the Arab circles regarding Hassan Abedin, [and] his connections or activities.” Hassan is Huma’s brother.

Why the virtual silence?

Abedin’s brother had a strong working relationship with Abdullah Omar Naseef and Yusuf Qaradawi. Naseef “chaired other entities considered major security concerns for the United States and ran a charity front for terror.” There is no “six degrees of separation” among these men as has been maintained by the mainstream media. Central to Shoebat’s investigation are the overlapping ties of Abdullah Omar Naseef to a number of Muslim Brotherhood offshoots. One such group WAMY or World Assembly of Muslim Youth maintains that “[t]he Jews are humanity’s enemies: they foment immorality in this world.”

Saleha Abedin, Huma’s mother, through the Sisterhood branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, works to advance the Brotherhood agendas against Western interests and policies. In his report, Shoebat shows the interlocking tentacles among various Muslim Brotherhood members which leave “no doubt that the Muslim Brotherhood is the author and the one setting policies and standards for the International Islamic Committee for Woman and Child (IICWC), which Saleha Abedin chairs. IICWC’s ‘official policies include marital rape, child marriage, female genital circumcision and polygamy.'”

In a 16 page letter, written last summer to Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison, Rep. Michele Bachmann wrote:

The concerns about the foreign influence of immediate family members is such a concern to the U.S. Government that it includes these factors as potentially disqualifying conditions for obtaining a security clearance, which undoubtedly Ms. Abedin has had to obtain to function in her position. For us to raise issues about a highly-based U.S. Government official with known immediate family connections to foreign extremist organizations is not a question of singling out Ms. Abedin. In fact, these questions are raised by the U.S. Government of anyone seeking a security clearance.

Of course, nothing ever happened, except for President Obama defending Ms. Abedin, in front of his Muslim guests, at his annual Ramadan Dinner.

Given the fact that the Muslim Terrorists seem to know more about the timing of Administrative Initiatives and inner workings of our government than do most of our elected representatives up on Capitol Hill, as proven by the attack on the Benghazi Consulate, I would say that it may be time to actually investigate Ms. Abedin, and any other Muslims with questionable familial ties, in key Administrative positions in our Government, wouldn’t you?

Benghazi, Dhimmitude, and Liberal Intolerance

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

Well, it looks like Obama, Hillary, and their entire Smart Power! team are reluctantly beginning to admit that the attack on the Benghazi, Libya Consulate, which led to the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens, was not the fault of that stupid Youtube Video that nobody has watched.

The New York Times reports that

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday suggested there was a link between the Al Qaeda franchise in North Africa and the attack at the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the American ambassador and three others. She was the highest-ranking Obama administration official to publicly make the connection, and her comments intensified what is becoming a fiercely partisan fight over whether the attack could have been prevented.

Mrs. Clinton did not offer any new evidence of an Al Qaeda link, and officials later said the question would be officially settled only after the F.B.I. completed a criminal inquiry, which could take months. But they said they had not ruled out the involvement of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb — an affiliate of the international terrorist group with origins in Algeria — in an attack the administration initially described as a spontaneous protest turned violent.

Her remarks added to the administration’s evolving and at times muddled explanation of what happened on the evening of Sept. 11 and into the next morning. Republicans in Congress have accused President Obama of playing down possible terrorist involvement in the midst of a re-election campaign in which killing Osama bin Laden and crippling Al Qaeda are cited as major achievements.

Mrs. Clinton made her remarks at a special United Nations meeting on the political and security crisis in the parts of North Africa known as the Maghreb and the Sahel, particularly in northern Mali, which has been overrun by Islamic extremists since a military coup helped lead to the division of that country this year. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has long operated in the region, she said, and was now exploiting a haven in Mali to export extremism and terrorist violence to neighbors like Libya.

“Now with a larger safe haven and increased freedom to maneuver, terrorists are seeking to extend their reach and their networks in multiple directions,” Mrs. Clinton told leaders assembled at the meeting, including President François Hollande of France and the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. “And they are working with other violent extremists to undermine the democratic transitions under way in North Africa, as we tragically saw in Benghazi.”

And, even though the truth about the extreme adherents to the “religion of peace” has been revealed, that doesn’t mean that the Liberal Main Street Media are going to give up their dhimmitude easily.

 Newsbusters.org has the story:

The New York Post reported Egyptian-American columnist Mona Eltahawy has been arrested for defacing an anti-Muslim ad in the New York subway system. The video shows her spraying pink paint on the ad while a supporter of the ad tries to block her. She’s a journalist for censorship.

Eltahawy, a former Reuters correspondent, has been a recent favorite of CNN and MSNBC’s weekend morning shows to discuss Egypt, and she often smears together the Islamist “right wing” and the American right wing, as she did on Melissa Harris-Perry just 11 days ago :

ELTAHAWY: We [Egyptians] have a president who is trying to establish his position somewhere in the middle and we have a group that is trying to establish themselves on the right wing. And you`re having a similar situation in the U.S. We are coming up to elections now in less than two months. There is a right wing fringe there as well. So, you`ve got a right wing and a right wing. Both minorities, both trying to provoke people and a whole lot of people with very, very, sometimes legitimate grievances, but sometimes utterly senseless grievances, being caught in the middle.

Eltahawy was even featured on the September 15 NBC Nightly News decrying America’s long-term support for Egyptian dictators. Here’s how the New York Post characterized the subway fight:

“Mona, do you think you have the right to do this?” said Pamela Hall, holding a mounted camera as she tried to block the barrage of spray paint.

“I do actually,” Eltahawy calmly responded. “I think this is freedom of expression, just as this is freedom of expression.”

Hall then thrusts herself between Eltahawy’s spray paint and the poster.

Eltahawy — an activist who has appeared on MSNBC and CNN — engaged her in an odd cat-and-mouse dance, spraying pink every time she had an opening.

“What right do you have to violate free speech,” Hall pleaded.

“I’m not violating it. I’m making an expression on free speech,” an increasingly agitated Eltahawy shot back.

“You do not have the right!” Hall said.

“I do actually and I’m doing it right now and you should get out of the way! Do you want paint on yourself,” Eltahawy shot back.

As the poster defender bobbed and weaved to get in the paint’s way, Eltahawy mocked: “That’s right, defend racism.”

Eltahawy appeared in the typically long segments on the Harris-Perry show on April 28, July 1, and September 15, and also appeared on Up With Chris Hayes on June 24. Just in September, Eltahawy was featured in seven interviews about Egypt just from September 11 to 13, including two appearances on Anderson Cooper 360 (the seven interviews would not count replays).

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote

Indeed it is evident that Christianity, however degraded and distorted by cruelty and intolerance, must always exert a modifying influence on men’s passions, and protect them from the more violent forms of fanatical fever, as we are protected from smallpox by vaccination. But the Mahommedan religion increases, instead of lessening, the fury of intolerance. It was originally propagated by the sword, and ever since, its votaries have been subject, above the people of all other creeds, to this form of madness.

…civilisation is confronted with militant Mahommedanism. The forces of progress clash with those of reaction. The religion of blood and war is face to face with that of peace. Luckily the [true] religion of peace [Christianity] is usually the better armed.

The 44th President of the United States said in his speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that

The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.

After observing the intentional dhimmitude of Ms. Eltahawy and President Obama, I’m reminded of two quotes, one famous , one not so famous:

Churchill, when speaking about the Nazis:

An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile hoping it will eat him last.

Me, about Liberals:

Isn’t it funny how those who claim to be the most tolerant among us…are actually the least tolerant of all?

Obama at the UN: It’s That Darned Video’s Fault!

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics8 Comments

Yesterday, the 44th President of these United States, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), gave a conciliatory speech at the United Nations General Assembly, not designed to show the courage and conviction of the country he is supposed to be protecting, but, instead, designed to kiss the Muslim anarchists’ …ummm…errr…well…you know.

Here are some excerpts of that speech from cnn.com:

…At times, the conflicts arise along the fault lines of race or tribe; and often they arise from the difficulties of reconciling tradition and faith with the diversity and interdependence of the modern world. In every country, there are those who find different religious beliefs threatening; in every culture, those who love freedom for themselves must ask themselves how much they are willing to tolerate freedom for others.

That is what we saw play out in the last two weeks, as a crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world. Now, I have made it clear that the United States government had nothing to do with this video, and I believe its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity. It is an insult not only to Muslims, but to America as well – for as the city outside these walls makes clear, we are a country that has welcomed people of every race and every faith. We are home to Muslims who worship across our country. We not only respect the freedom of religion – we have laws that protect individuals from being harmed because of how they look or what they believe. We understand why people take offense to this video because millions of our citizens are among them.

…The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see in the images of Jesus Christ that are desecrated, or churches that are destroyed, or the Holocaust that is denied. Let us condemn incitement against Sufi Muslims, and Shia pilgrims. It is time to heed the words of Gandhi: “Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.” Together, we must work towards a world where we are strengthened by our differences, and not defined by them. That is what America embodies. That’s the vision we will support.

Not exactly awe-inspiring.  More like Awww-inspiring.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan believe that Obama has not exactly been forthcoming on how the Libya situation, including the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens, transpired.

 Fox News Reports:

Mitt Romney, in a joint Fox News interview with running mate Paul Ryan, accused the Obama administration of failing “to level with the American people” about how the U.S. Consulate in Libya was attacked, leaving the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead.

“Look, we expect candor from the president and transparency, and he continues to refuse what is said by the other members of his administration: This was a terrorist attack. We were attacked apparently by Al Qaeda and it is a very troubling development,” Romney said during a campaign stop in Ohio.

Romney’s comments underscored complaints made by Republican lawmakers, who question the administration’s shifting explanation, starting with claims that the Sept. 11 strike was “spontaneous” violence tied to protests over an anti-Islam film produced in the U.S. Obama officials gradually walked back that description, and Obama acknowledged Monday that it clearly “wasn’t just a mob action” — though he did not go as far as to call it a terrorist attack.

One of Obama’s advisers, National Counterterrorism Center Director Matt Olsen, was more direct last week, testifying to Congress that the four Americans “were killed in the course of a terrorist attack.”

“When the director of the Counterterrorism Center comes to Congress and testifies and says that this is a terrorist attack … I think you would want to ask that question of the president, why he is not on the same page with his own administration officials?” Ryan said.

Obama devoted much of his address Tuesday to the United Nations General Assembly to the attack in Libya and unrest in the Mideast. He paid tribute to Ambassador Chris Stevens, who died in the attack, recalling Stevens’ time serving in the Peace Corps as an English instructor in Morocco.

“Chris Stevens embodied the best of America,” Obama said.

The president went on to restate his administration’s support for the Arab Spring, calling it a “season of progress.” But he said the recent violence and unrest is indicative of the difficulties along the way. “True democracy — real freedom — is hard work,” he said.

The president, however, did not mention terrorism in his U.N. speech, and he has yet to elaborate on how extremists were able to launch what now appears to have been a coordinated attack on the consulate. Obama and others in his administration have been criticized by Republicans for not taking a more definitive stance on the attack.

Obama, in an interview taped Monday on ABC’s “The View,” condemned extremist elements in the Muslim world and vowed the U.S. is “not going to shrink back from the world because of this.”

“We are going to hunt down those who did this,” he said. “We will bring them to justice.”

He also said in the interview, which aired Tuesday, that there was “no doubt” that the assault “wasn’t just a mob action” but a sign of extremism in nations lacking stability. “What’s been interesting, just this past week, there were these massive protests against these extremists militias that are suspected, maybe, of having been involved in this attack.”

In interviews and at campaign events Monday, Romney assailed Obama’s leadership abroad, leading a chorus of Republicans in criticizing the president for what they said was minimizing the death of the Ambassador Stevens. Obama, in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” said recent violence in the Mideast was due to “bumps in the road” on the way to democracy. Romney on Monday also suggested Obama was leaving American foreign policy at the mercy of events instead of working to shape global politics in America’s interest.

In other words, Obama and the Mild Bunch (his administration) are not going out there and stopping things before they happen…they are waiting until horrible things, such as Ambassador Stevens’ murder, happen…and then apologizing to the murderers…as if America made them happen.

Because, Lord knows, it’s not the fault of those beheading Barbarians, known as the Muslim Brotherhood and/or al Qaeda…is it?

An unwatched video made them do it.

 

The Dickensian President…Barack Hussein Obama

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

At dear old Wooddale High School, in Memphis, TN, in 1976, I had my first speaking part in a theatrical production, as one of the night watchmen in Charles Dicken’s epic tale of redemption, “A Christmas Carol” (1843).

Little did I know, at the time, that I would perform in 9 Dinner Theaters as I got older, singing and dancing, and acting the part of comic relief in the productions (who woulda thunk it?).

But, I digress…

In a classic scene, two men approach the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge in an attempt to solicit funds for the impoverished of London:

…“a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”

“Nothing!” Scrooge replied.

“You wish to be anonymous?”

“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.”

“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”

“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides — excuse me — I don’t know that.”

“But you might know it,” observed the gentleman.

“It’s not my business,” Scrooge returned. “It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!”

Little did Charles Dickens know that, almost 200 years later, the United States of America would have a President as callous toward the murder of an Ambassador he chose, as Scrooge was toward the suffering of the poor.

The Wall Street Journal has the story:

Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama on Monday of downplaying recent foreign crises as he seeks to gain an edge on foreign policy – a relative area of strength for the president.

President Barack Obama was assessing his support for the governments that have sprung up in the wake of the Arab Spring when he argued in a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday that “I was pretty certain and continue to be pretty certain that there are going to be bumps in the road.”

“Bumps in the road?” Mr. Romney said Monday as he sized up Mr. Obama’s interview performance and rattled off examples of tumult abroad. “We had an ambassador assassinated…twenty thousand people have been killed in Syria. We have tumult in Pakistan and of course Iran is that much closer to having the capacity to build a nuclear weapon. These are not bumps in the road, these are human lives.”

While Mr. Romney has been a regular critic of Mr. Obama’s foreign policies, that’s rarely been truer than in the last few weeks. Amid uprisings in the Middle East that led to the death of an American ambassador, Mr. Romney’s team blasted out a statement that caused a blowback even from conservatives who saw it as inappropriately timed.

Mr. Romney’s team has embraced his sharp tone as a winning strategy to help them contrast with Mr. Obama. Some 45% of registered voters said Mr. Obama would be a better commander in chief, compared with 38% who said Mr. Romney would, in a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

But there are signs that Middle East turmoil has eaten into Mr. Obama’s credibility on the issue. In the recent poll, 49% of voters said they approved of the president’s handling of foreign policy, a five point drop from August.

“This is time for a president who will shape events in the Middle East, not just be…at the mercy of the events of the Middle East,” Mr. Romney said Monday at his rally on a tarmac here in Pueblo.

The Obama campaign said Mr. Romney was taking the president’s words out of context. Lis Smith, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign, said: “He’s purposely misinterpreting the president’s words and making reckless statements about the death of four Americans in Libya, apparently for the sole purpose of his own political gain. Using this incident to launch political attacks should be beneath someone seeking to be our nation’s Commander-in-Chief.”

The Democrats also noted that Mr. Obama was referring to the climate in the Middle East more broadly and not specifically addressing recent events in Libya or Benghazi.

“There will probably be some times where we bump up against some of these countries and have strong disagreements, but I do think that over the long term we are more likely to get a Middle East and North Africa that is more peaceful, more prosperous and more aligned with our interests,” Mr. Obama said in the interview.

At the end of “A Christmas Carol”, Dickens wrote the following,

…He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

Unfortunately I don’t see the same sort of 180 degree turn-around in Obama’s future.

So, I guess I’ll settle for his firing on November 6th, instead.

As Clint Eastwood said, 

If someone’s not doing their job…we’ve got to let them go.

The Odd Couple: President Obama and President Ahmadinejad

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

In an interview to that aired last night on CBS’s 60 Minutes, President Barack Obama said that Israel’s concern over Iran’s march toward a nuclear program was  “noise.”

When it comes to our national security decisions — any pressure that I feel is simply to do what’s right for the American people. And I am going to block out — any noise that’s out there.

Here’s a partial transcript:

STEVE KROFT: “How much pressure have you been getting from Prime Minister Netanyahu to make up your mind to use military force in Iran?”

PRESIDENT OBAMA: “Well—look, I have conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu all the time. And I understand and share Prime Minister Netanyahu’s insistence that Iran should not obtain a nuclear weapon, because it would threaten us, it would threaten Israel, and it would threaten the world and kick off a nuclear arms race.”

STEVE KROFT: “You’re saying, you don’t feel any pressure from Prime Minister Netanyahu in the middle of a campaign to try and get you to change your policy and draw a line in the sand? You don’t feel any pressure?”

PRESIDENT OBAMA: “When it comes to our national security decisions—any pressure that I feel is simply to do what’s right for the American people. And I am going to block out—any noise that’s out there. Now I feel an obligation, not pressure but obligation, to make sure that we’re in close consultation with the Israelis—on these issues. Because it affects them deeply. They’re one of our closest allies in the region. And we’ve got an Iranian regime that has said horrible things that directly threaten Israel’s existence.

Romney press secretary Andrea Saul responded:

Tonight on 60 Minutes, President Obama called Israel’s legitimate concern about the impact of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons ‘noise’ and referred to Israel as merely ‘one of our closest allies in the region.’ This is just the latest evidence of his chronic disregard for the security of our closest ally in the Middle East. Governor Romney’s views stand in sharp contrast to the President’s. Governor Romney strongly believes that Israel is our most important ally in the Middle East and that support for Israel is essential to extending freedom, peace and democracy throughout the region. As president, Governor Romney will restore and protect the close alliance between our nation and the state of Israel.

Obama also said that he

understands and agrees with Netanyahu’s insistence that Iran not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons as this would threaten both countries, the world in general, and kick off an arms ace.

Romney, who was also interviewed on 60 Minutes last night, said that Obama not meeting with Netanyahu

is a mistake and sends a message throughout the Middle East that somehow we distance ourselves from our friends and I think the exact opposite approach is what’s necessary.

Well, I’m hope you’re sitting down. Guess who is in full agreement with the 44th President of these United States? Would you believe ol’ “Imadinnerjacket” himself?

In an interview with The Washington Post, Ahmedinejad was asked about the possibility of a war with Israel. He answered:

“We, generally speaking, do not take very seriously the issue of the Zionists and the possible dangers emanating from them,” he said early in the interview. “Of course, they would love to find a way for their own salvation by making a lot of noise and to raise stakes in order to save themselves. But I do not believe they will succeed.”

Asked if he thought Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was bluffing in his threats to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, the Iranian president said he agreed with that view and asserted that this analysis was a “common consensus.”

Ahmadinejad’s bland self-assurance is partly a matter of style, for no politician ever wants to display weakness before his adversaries. But in this third interview I’ve had with the Iranian president, I had the sense that he genuinely believes the world is going Iran’s way. He sees an America that is facing reversals across the Muslim world — in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and most recently, in dealing with the Arab uprisings. Close U.S. allies such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak are gone, and Ahmadinejad is still standing.

In discussing Iran’s negotiations with the international group known as the P5+1, Ahmadinejad said Iran was willing to make a deal to limit its stockpile of enriched uranium. But he implied that the Obama administration wants to slow the negotiations down until after the November election, to avoid bargaining concessions that might embarrass the president.

“We have always been ready and we are ready” to make a deal that will address the P5+1’s concerns, he said. “But experience has shown that important and key decisions are not made in the U.S. leading up to national elections.”

Ahmadinejad observed at another point in the conversation: “I do believe that some conversations and key issues must be talked about again once we come out of the other end of the political election atmosphere in the United States.”

In talking about America, Ahmadinejad several times referred to a country that, in his words, is tired of “back-breaking expenses” of foreign wars overseas and where public opinion is trending against Israel. He didn’t cite evidence for these views.

“Will the people of the U.S. accept meddling and intervention in the affairs of others?” he mused at one point, before answering his own question. “I don’t believe so. I believe the people of the U.S. are peace-loving people.”

Translation of Ahmadinejad: Their president does not like Israel either. I expect no trouble from that wuss.

Lord… I wish we had an American President. 

C’mon, November 6th.

Of Blasphemies and Apologies

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

I have one great political idea. . . . That idea is an old one. It is widely and generally assented to; nevertheless, it is very generally trampled upon and disregarded. The best expression of it, I have found in the Bible. It is in substance, “Righteousness exalteth a nation; sin is a reproach to any people” [Proverbs 14:34]. This constitutes my politics – the negative and positive of my politics, and the whole of my politics. . . . I feel it my duty to do all in my power to infuse this idea into the public mind, that it may speedily be recognized and practiced upon by our people.

-Frederick Douglass

I wish we had leaders like Frederick Douglass around today in America. Then, perhaps, we wouldn’t have a vulgar public blasphemy, like the following.

Todd Starnes of FoxNews.com reports the story:

“Piss Christ,” once branded as a “deplorable, despicable display of vulgarity,” will be displayed at the Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery in Manhattan on Thursday. The artwork features a “photograph of the crucifix submerged in the artist’s urine.”

The artwork debuted in 1989 and was funded through prize money provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. The art gallery hosting the retrospective salute to Andres Serrano is privately owned.

Religious groups and some lawmakers have already started sounding off – and making comparisons to the controversy over a recent anti-Muslim film. The low budget movie “Innocence of Muslims” sparked violent and deadly clashes across the globe.

It also brought strong rebukes, condemnations and apologies from President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a host of administration officials.

The administration tried to have the film removed from YouTube – but Google rebuffed their request. The State Dept. spent $70,000 on a Pakistani television advertisement rebuking the film. And the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff personally telephoned a Christian minister in Florida to ask him to withdraw his support of the film.

Rep. Michael Grimm (R, C-NY) wants to know why President Obama hasn’t denounced the exhibit and said he’s fed up with what he called the administration’s “religious hypocrisy.”

“The Obama administration’s hypocrisy and utter lack of respect for the religious beliefs of Americans has reached an all-time high,” Grimm told Fox News. “I call on President Obama to stand up for America’s values and beliefs and denounce the ‘Piss Christ’ that has offended Christians at home and abroad.”

So will the Obama Administration condemn the anti-Christian art display? Will they air a television ad denouncing the exhibit? Will the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ask the gallery to cancel the exhibit?

The White House did not return calls seeking comment. Neither did the Pentagon.

The State Dept. referred to a previous statement Clinton made in reference to the anti-Islamic film.

“America’s commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation,” Clinton said. “And as you know, we are home to people of all religions, many of whom came to this country seeking the right to exercise their own religion, including, of course, millions of Muslims. And we have the greatest respect for people of faith.”

Grimm said the lack of response from the White House is unacceptable.

“Perhaps they’ve forgotten the controversy that surrounds this deplorable piece depicting a crucifix submerged in the artist’s urine,” Grimm said. “It outraged Christians in American and throughout the world.”

Grimm, who is Catholic, said he found the artwork to be vulgar and offensive, “just as many in the Islamic world found ‘Innocence of Muslims’ to be highly offensive.”

“Like most Americans, I condemn both yet remain tolerant as the First Amendment demands,” he said. “Unfortunately, this administration has yet to echo these views in regards to the religiously offensive ‘art’ here at home.”

Mr. Douglass would be embarrassed by the actions of the so-called “Leader of the Free World”:

John Nolte of Breitbart.com reports:

…Not only are we seeing the White House and State Department call more attention to the Mohammed-mocking “Innocence of Muslims” than any terrorist network ever could’ve hoped for, but the President’s indefensible scapegoating of the film and filmmaker to draw attention and blame away from U.S. security failures apparently knows no bounds.

Next week, Obama will denounce the film in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly:

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor previews the president’s speech to the UN General Assembly next week:

“UNGA always provides an opportunity for the President to put the international situation in context, and to put forward a vision of US leadership. I would certainly expect the President to address the recent unrest in the Muslim world, and the broader context of the democratic transitions in the Arab World.”

“As he has in recent days, the President will make it clear that we reject the views in this video, while also underscoring that violence is never acceptable[.]

My God, between the media and the Obama White House, we are finally witnessing Orwell’s “1984” blossom to life.

As our economy slows, incomes shrink, unemployment creeps up, and poverty explodes — the media assures us we’re in “recovery” and that our frustrations should be taken out on “Emmanuel Goldstein,” also known as “America’s Successful.”

As Obama’s appalling policy of disengaging in the Middle East comes to fruition in the form of the region exploding and al-Qaeda’s targeted assassination of an American ambassador — the media spends two weeks savaging Mitt Romney and directing our sorrow, rage, and helplessness on “Emmanuel Goldstein,” also known as “A Stupid Filmmaker.”

For weeks this administration, aided and abetted by The State Media, has shamelessly lied to us about what happened in Libya. Moreover, in order to cover up and distract for unforgivable security lapses, this hapless filmmaker has been targeted for all of the blame — certainly more blame than the Administration’s failure to secure a consulate on 9/11 (of all days), but even more blame than the actual murderers.

And now, even though we know the truth about what really happened in Libya, it won’t stop. It will never stop. Because Obama knows his media will never make him pay a political price for lying and scapegoating.

At all costs, the media quietly whispers amongst themselves, Obama must be reelected.

The most troubling and Orwellian element in of all this is that the Administration’s lies are now becoming truths. As we saw in Pakistan and elsewhere yesterday, Obama’s scapegoating and calling unnecessary attention to this film appears to be turning into a self-fulfilling prophecy. How many millions of Muslims are hearing about the film that might not have if Obama didn’t need his Emmanuel Goldstein? Now that our government has ensured every Islamist radical on the planet knows about this film, how much easier is it for extremists to use it to foment chaos?

Donchaknow, it’s the “in-thing,” what all radicals are doing this season! Don’t you watch the American media?

And so, next week, as Obama condemns this film, and therefore the American ideal of freedom of speech, before the entire world — all in an effort to quadruple-down on a brazen lie that’s already been exposed as such — it will truly be the ultimate Big Brother moment of this presidency.

So…Freedom of Speech only applies to the blasphemers and those who agree with your political philosophy, Mr. President?

And, on top of that, you’re kissing the…err…feet of those who want to kill each and every one of us, and apologizing on our behalf for a movie, which no one has seen, and which did not cause the Muslim Violence to begin with?

You are quite aware that al Qaeda is behind the violence, Mr. President. And, yet, you still plan on hosting the Muslim Brotherhood member Egyptian President this week in the White House. Heck, Huma Abedin (Mrs. Anthony Weiner), your Secretary of State’s assistant and close friend, has close family members in the Terrorist Organization.

Are you purposefully selling out our ally, Israel, and our very nation, Mr. President?

Or, are you really that big of a Lightweight?

Both possibilities scare me tremendously.

The Great Disconnect: The Whole, Ugly Truth About Barack Hussein Obama

On By kingsjesterIn Politics10 Comments

PROLOGUE:

Beginning the morning of June 30th, 2010, I posted a 4 part series, titled “The Great Disconnect” about the 44th President of these United States, Barack Hussein Obama. As we enter the home stretch of the campaign leading to the most important Presidential Election of our lifetimes, I thought that it was important that Americans be reminded of just who, and what, Barack Hussein Obama is.

Please share this “mini-novel” with your family and friends.

I hope it helps. – KJ

Part 1 – The Beginning 

When Barack, Jr. was 3-years-old, his parents divorced.  Obama only saw his father one time after that.  Dad moved to Kenya and his mother married an Indonesian man, Lolo Soetoro.  From ages six to 10, Barack Obama, Jr., attended a private school for well-off families in Jakarta.

The rags to riches fable (supported by a cast of thousands) of Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) begins like any other, with his parents, Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Sr. They met in a Russian language class in 1960, right in the middle of that time of history known as the Cold War, when America and Russia were poised to start lobbing missiles at each other. In 1961 they were married and later that year Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. (peace be unto him) was born.

At age 10, he moved back to Hawaii and lived with his grandparents. As kids his age often do, young Barack eventually took up with a family friend named Frank, also known as Frank Marshall Davis.

Frank Marshall Davis (1905 – 1987) was an author, liberal activist, Stalinist agent, and self-admitted pedophile (Would you let your children hang around him?) . Davis was involved in Chicago’s South Side Community Art Center, “a meeting place for young African-American writers and artists during the 1940s”. Coming out of the New Deal Federal Art Project, the Art Center was a hangout for the “Culture Group,” a circle of Communist Party members and sympathizers including Richard Wright, Margaret Burroughs, Marion Perkins and Arna Bontemps. Another guy who hung out at the center was a young journalist named Vernon Jarrett. Davis and Jarrett worked together on the black run newspaper, the Chicago Defender. Vernon Jarrett is the father of Obama’s closest advisor and administration member, Valerie Jarrett.

Davis was in the FBI’s security index. This meant he could be arrested and detained in the event of a national emergency. Davis stated singer Paul Robeson, (He sang Ol’ Man River in the movie, Showboat.) a secret communist, was instrumental in helping him move to Hawaii.

Robeson suggested Davis contact Harry Bridges, head of the International Longshoremen and Workers’ Union, the most powerful labor union in Hawaii. Bridges then suggested that Davis get to know Koji Ariyoshi, Editor of the Honolulu Record, a newspaper that supported the policies of the Communist Party of the U.S.A.Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dorn

Robeson, Bridges and Ariyoshi were all Communist party operatives. Ariyoshi gave Davis a regular weekly column in the Honolulu Record entitled “Frankly Speaking.” When Davis’ column first appeared in May 1949, theRecord bragged that he was a member of the national executive board of the Civil Rights Congress, which had been named as a Communist subversive organization by Truman Attorney General Tom Clark.  While sponsored by the Civil Rights Congress, Davis signed a statement in defense of Gerhart Eisler, a notorious Comintern agent who escaped jail for passport fraud by fleeing to East Germany.O

I’m sure that Barry and Frank just talked “hoops” all the time, aren’t you?

At 19, Scooter enrolled at Occidental College.  Guess how he spent his time there?

From Obama’s Book, Dreams of My Father:

Political discussions, the kind at Occidental had once seemed so intense and purposeful, came to take on the flavor of the socialist conference I sometimes attended at Cooper Union.

And when he wasn’t going to socialist conferences, Obama hung out around campus and decided to make friends:

To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.

In 1981, Obama left Occidental to attend Columbia University. During that year, Obama spent “about three weeks” visiting his former Occidental College roommate, Mohammed Hassan Chandoo and his family in Karachi, Pakistan, according to the account of Obama spokesman Bill Burton during the campaign.

Chandoo is now a financial consultant who was formerly a broker at Oppenheimer & Co. He  contributed to Obama’s campaign and helped raise more than $100,000 for him as a bundler.

Reviewing the early years of Obama’s life is very important.  Americans have noticed that there is a great disconnect between the citizens of the United States and their president.  It’s not just his stand-offish behavior.  There’s something else going on.  He was not raised like the majority of Americans.
He didn’t have rubber dart gun wars in the neighborhood backyards.  He didn’t play Nerf football in the front yards.  He didn’t go to Vacation Bible School.  I don’t know if he was ever told to stand with his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance.
It is this disconnect that is at the heart of the trouble with Obama’s presidency.   Hope and Change have turned into despair and disbelief.  Obama has never understood the shared values of average Americans, because the people who raised him did not share those values, either.  It is the concern that we feel for one another, that shared American value system, that is causing a great awakening. One of the main reasons Obama wants control of the internet is so we can’t communicate with each other and he can control the message.
It was announced on Monday that Obama will have his childhood portrayed in a movie by an Indonesian filmmaker. Director Damien Dematra stated that the movie will show how the diversity of culture in Jakarta influenced the president.
No need, Mr. Dematra.  We already know.
 
Sources:  examiner.com, conservapedia.com, foxnews.com, wor710.com
Part 2: Columbia, Community Organizing, and “Hahvahd”

Like several parts of Barack Hussein Obama’s (mm mmm mmmm) life story, little is known about his college experience.  He attended Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years before transferring to Columbia in 1981.  The move receives a small mention in Mr. Obama’s 1995 memoir, “Dreams from My Father”.   Instead, he devoted that chapter to his impressions of race and class struggles in New York.  I’m shocked.

An article in Columbia College Today, a publication of the university, reported that Scooter portrayed Columbia as a period of buckling down following a troubled adolescence.   Obama said that he did not socialize much, instead spending a lot of time in the library, “like a monk.”  Yeah, right.  He has also said that he was involved to some extent with the Black Students Organization.

Federal law limits the information that Columbia can release about Scooter’s time there. A spokesman for the university, Brian Connolly, confirmed that  Obama spent two years at Columbia College and graduated in 1983 with a major in political science.   He did not receive honors and specific information on his grades is sealed.   A program from the 1983 graduation ceremony lists him as a graduate.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that Obama studied, while at Columbia, under the late Edward Said, an Arafat devotee. That alone really does not mean a whole lot.  Said was a popular professor and hundreds of students took his comparative literature courses.   However, Scooter evidently maintained some sort of tie with Said.   A photo that made the Internet rounds before the election shows Obama talking to the professor at a 1998 Arab American community dinner in Chicago, where the Obamas and Saids were seated together.

Said knew a lot of radical operatives.   Among those radicals were Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.  When they emerged from wherever they were hiding in the early 1980s (while Obama was attending Columbia), Ayers enrolled in education courses at Bank Street College, adjacent to Columbia in Morningside Heights.  He then earned his doctorate at Columbia’s Teachers College in 1987.  Said liked Ayers so much, he wrote a paragraph for the dust jacket of the bomber’s 2001 book, Fugitive Days, in which Ayers brags about being a part of the Weather Underground.

From 1985 – 1988, Obama was a Community Organizer in Chicago.  What does a Community Organizer do?  I’m glad you asked.

Per Byron York in an article found at nationalreview.com:

Community organizing is most identified with the left-wing Chicago activist Saul Alinsky (1909-72), who pretty much defined the profession. In his classic book, Rules for Radicals, Alinsky wrote that a successful organizer should be “an abrasive agent to rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; to fan latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expressions.” Once such hostilities were “whipped up to a fighting pitch,” Alinsky continued, the organizer steered his group toward confrontation, in the form of picketing, demonstrating, and general hell-raising.

Obama was hired by Jerry Kellman, a New Yorker who had gotten into organizing in the 1960s.  Kellman was trying to help laid-off factory workers on the far South Side of Chicago, in a nearly 100% black community.   He led a group, the Calumet Community Religious Conference, that had been created by several local Catholic churches in the industrial community.   Kellman was advised to hire a black organizer for a new spinoff from CCRC.  They called it the Developing Communities Project, designed to focus solely on the Chicago part of the area.

One of Obama’s projects while he was there, was to try to build an alliance of white and black churches and enlist them in the cause of social justice.  Obama had a problem, though.   He didn’t go to church himself.   And that, brothers and sisters, is how Obama, drawn to the preaching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright (and a political opportunity), joined Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street.

If you ask Obama’s fellow Community Organizers what his most significant accomplishments were, they’ll say two things: the expansion of a city summer-job program for South Side teenagers and the removal of asbestos from one of the area’s oldest housing projects.   Those  were his biggest victories.

So, after 3 years of Community Organizing, Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School at the age of 27.  The question is:  How did he get the money for this?  In my article Why Haven’t I Heard of Khalid Al-Monsour? ,  I attempt to answer that question:

President Obama attended Harvard Law School from 1988 – 1991.  The average tuition during that time was $25,000 per year.  It would have cost $75,000 to attend there for 3 years.  As president of the Harvard Law Review, he received no stipend from the school, according to Harvard spokesman Mike Armini in a interview with Newsmax.

If numbers cited by the Obama Presidential Campaign for Scooter”s student loans are accurate, that means that Obama came up with more than $32,000 over three years from sources other than loans to pay for tuition, room and board.  Hmmmmm.

Along with the funding issue, very little is known about Obama’s time at Harvard Law School,and his sycophants in the Liberal hierarchy, Main Stream Media,  and even Harvard Law School Administrators have done a remarkable job in running interference against anyone trying to find out about it.

From Jodi Kantor’s article at nytimes.com:

He arrived there as an unknown, Afro-wearing community organizer who had spent years searching for his identity; by the time he left, he had his first national news media exposure, a book contract and a shot of confidence from running the most powerful legal journal in the country.

During his time at Harvard, Obama met and started dating Michelle Robinson, the future First Lady.  I don’t know if he was attracted to her arms or not.

He also managed to get himself elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.

Bruce Spiva, a former review editor who now practices civil rights law in Washington, said that the law review is:

fairly disconnected from the breadth and the rough and tumble of real politics.  It’s an election among a closed group. It’s more like electing a pope.

As the president of the review, Scooter had to walk a delicate line. He served on the board of the Black Law Students Association, often speaking passionately about the hot topic of the week, but in a way that would not make white classmates defensive.   He kept away from fiery rhetoric.  He even did a spot-on impersonation of the Rev. Jesse Jackson when he came to speak on campus, according to Franklin Amanat, now a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn.  Obama’s  brashest public speaking moment came at a rally for faculty diversity, where he compared Professor Derrick Bell, who had resigned after agitating for greater faculty diversity,  to Rosa Parks.

Most of the time, young Scooter stayed away from the fiery rhetoric of campus debate, choosing safer topics for his speeches. At the black law students’ annual conference, he fervently told students to remember the obligations that came with their privileged education.

Barack Hussein Obama graduated Summa Cum Laude from Harvard Law School.  We don’t know anything about his actual courses or grades.   The records have been sealed.

Now, law degree in hand, Obama was ready to return to the Windy City.

During this period of Barack Hussein Obama’s (peace be upon him) life, we see the seeds planted during his childhood and teen-age years start to take root and grow into a full-fledged, Alinsky-inspired Socialist ideology.

In the next section, we’ll explore his adventures among the Chicago Liberal and Academic Elite and the path that led him to his first political campaign.

Sources:  nysun.com, nationalreview.com, nytimes.com

Part 3: The Chicago Ascent

In the summer of 1988, while still at Harvard, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) landed a job as an intern in the Chicago office of the influential law firm of Sidley Austin. ( How does a first-year law student get an internship at such a prestigious law firm?)  He was dating Michelle Robinson, a young lawyer from a working-class family in the South Shore area of the South Side.  She also just happened to be his mentor at the firm. The lovebirds got married in 1990, and settled in the Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side along the lakefront.  Built around the University of Chicago, both black and white  affluent families lived among the middle class and the poor.  Hyde Park boasts a strong base of independent voters who are committed to political reform, which influenced Obama’s political message.

He worked for seven months in 1992 on a voter registration and education project that helped elect Bill Clinton as president and Carol Moseley Braun as the state’s first African-American femalesenator.

You may have heard of it:  Project Vote.   In 2008,  Project Vote and ACORN were responsible for a voter registration drive targeting battleground states Obama needed to win the White House.

Though officially non-partisan, the ACORN/Project Vote voter drive focused on groups that they thought would vote Democratic in the presidential contest: African-American, young, Latino and low-income earners.  They referred to these groups as “historically underrepresented in elections” in a press release they issued, in an attempt to justify what they were doing.

ACORN/Project Vote operated voter registration drives in 21 states in 2008; including the battlegrounds Colorado, Florida, Michigan (since move to Obama) Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.  They were very instrumental in Obama’s victory.

Also in 1992, Scooter went to work for Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a firm specializing in civil rights law and other forms of public advocacy.   Working there provided him with the opportunity to make many contacts in the Chicago Political Machine.   The longtime fire he had in his gut concerning a political career found inspiration through the changes being made in Chicago by Harold Washington, its black mayor.   African-Americans were finally getting the power and control that they hadn’t had before, and Obama decided that politics was the career for him.

Obama started another part-time gig in 1992.  Per the University of Chicago:

From 1992 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served as a professor in the Law School. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996. He was a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004, during which time he taught three courses per year. Senior Lecturers are considered to be members of the Law School faculty and are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure-track.

Why didn’t they just call him a Part-time Lecturer?

In 1995  “Bomber” Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadette Dohrn hosted a fund-raiser for Obama prior to Obama’s run for Alice Palmer’s seat in the state Senate  and Ayers donated $200 to Obama’s upcoming state Senate campaign.

In 1996 at age 34, he ran for the state Senate in dubious campaign that is barely known of, outside of Chicago.   Alice Palmer, the incumbent, had decided to run for Congress and supported Obama as her successor.   But after Palmer’s congressional campaign ran into trouble, she changed her mind and decided to run for re-election to the Illinois Senate after all. Obama refused to step aside and the melee ensued.  One of Scooter’s volunteers challenged whether Palmer’s nominating petitions were even legal.  Obama’s campaign pulled the same chicanery concerning the petitions of other candidates.  Palmer dropped out, and the other candidates were disqualified.   So,  Obama won unopposed in the Democratic primary—guaranteeing his victory in the general election.  This was truly an example of Chicago-style politics at it’s finest…or dirtiest.

Around this same time, at a Bill Clinton White House event, philanthropist Walter Annenberg announced that he was making a $500 million grant to cities across the nation to put towards the reform of public schools.   Bill Ayers was the head of the Chicago group that, with$49.2 million in hand,   formed the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.  The launch party in 1995 was attended by the governor of Illinois and the mayor of Chicago, as well as anybody was influential among the Chicago Political Elite.   Guess who the  first chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was?  You guessed.   Obama held the post until 1999.  At that time, he stepped down and remained on the board.   Bill Ayers worked closely with the Challenge as a leader of the newly formed Chicago School Reform Collaborative.

They also both served on the board of the charitable Woods Fund of Chicago from 1999 to 2002.   Just a “guy from the neighborhood”.  Huh, Scooter?

Additionally, Scooter served on the board of the Joyce Foundation from 1994 to 2002.  This foundation started as the financial back-up plan of a widow whose family had made millions in the lumber industry.

After her death, it was run by philanthropic people who increasingly dedicated their giving to Liberal causes, including gun control, environmentalism and school changes.  It has grown over the years until it is now bigger than the TIDES Foundation and actually funds it.

The Joyce Foundation in 2000 and 2001 provided the capital outlay to start the Chicago Climate Exchange. It started trading in 2003, and what it trades is, believe it or not, air.

What a coincidence, that, as president, pushing cap-and-trade is one of his highest priorities, huh?

While he served in the State Senate in Springfield, Illinois, Obama wrote more than 40 columns for his neighborhood Newspaper, The Hyde Park Herald.  He also received extensive coverage in the Chicago Defender, an over-one hundred year old newspaper of record serving Chicago’s black community.

Per Howard Kurtz, writing for weeklystandard.com, from an article published August 11-18, 2008:

What they [the newspaper articles] portray is a Barack Obama sharply at variance with the image of the post-racial, post-ideological, bipartisan, culture-war-shunning politician familiar from current media coverage and purveyed by the Obama campaign. As details of Obama’s early political career emerge into the light, his associations with such radical figures as Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, Reverend James Meeks, Bill Ayers, and Bernardine Dohrn look less like peculiar instances of personal misjudgment and more like intentional political partnerships. At his core, in other words, the politician chronicled here is profoundly race-conscious, exceedingly liberal, free-spending even in the face of looming state budget deficits, and partisan. Elected president, this man would presumably shift the country sharply to the left on all the key issues of the day-culture-war issues included. It’s no wonder Obama has passed over his Springfield years in relative silence.

You’re a prophet, Mr. Kurtz.

Obama remained in the Illinois State Senate until 2004, when he became the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate seat from Illinois.   We’ll examine this period of his life in the next section.

Sources:  usnews.com, suntimes.com, uchicago.edu, michellemalkin.com, pajamasmedia.com, weeklystandard.com

Part 4: Hittin’ The Big-Time

In 2004, Illinois State Senator Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) decided to run for The United States Senate.

In order to have a successful Senatorial campaign, Scooter  had to secure tremendous financial backing and be the recipient of astute political mentoring.  No problem.

It is now very well-known that George Soros, evil genius, major Democratic Party donor and anti-Israel crusader, has been a generous contributor to Barack Obama. However, not too many people know that a loophole in McCain-Feingold allowed Soros and his family members to be extremely generous in their support of Obama’s 2004 Senatorial campaign.

Obama had to run against Blair Hull in the primary and then Jack Ryan in the general (both multi-millionaires). Obama received huge donations from individuals, to so-called “millionaires exception.”  Usually,  individuals are limited to giving $2300 to candidates in federal elections, but if the candidates are running against millionaires, these limits do not apply and candidates are allowed to receive up to $12,000 from a single individual. Soros and his family gave Barack Obama $60,000. This does not count the money that Soros was funneled to so-called 527 groups (Moveon.org, for example) that have also been politically active; nor does it include money that Soros raised fromtapping a network of friends, business associates, and employees.

Besides garnering unlimited campaign funds, as the campaigns entered their closing rounds, the news ”happened to be” leaked to media outlets that both Hull and Ryan had “personal scandals” in their past. The timely release of this news wiped out both of their campaigns, leading to an easy victory for Obama in the primary and then in the general election.

The New York Times Magazine revealed that David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political and media adviser, may well have been behind the leak of the story that doomed the Hull candidacy as the primary reached its home stretch.  I’m shocked.

As he has shown over the years, Axelrod was right at home operating in this gray area, part idealist, part hired muscle. One can not bring up Axelrod’s name  in certain circles in Chicago without the matter of the Blair Hull divorce papers coming up. Approaching the 2004 Senate primary, it was clear that it was a two-man race: the millionaire liberal, Hull, leading in the polls, and Obama, who was the figurehead of an impressive grass-roots campaign. One month before the vote, The Chicago Tribune “just happened” to reveal, at the end of a long profile of Hull, that during a divorce proceeding, Hull’s second wife filed for an order of protection. This revelation proceeded to erupt into a full-fledged scandal.  This scandal destroyed Hull’s campaign and handed Obama an easy primary victory.

The Tribune reporter who wrote the story later admitted in print that the Obama camp had “worked aggressively behind the scenes” to push the story. However, a lot of folks in Chicago believe that Axelrod leaked the initial story. They will tell you that before signing on with Obama, Axelrod interviewed with Hull. They also point out that Obama’s TV ad campaign just happened to start at almost the same time. Axelrod swears up and down that “we had nothing to do with it” and that the campaign’s television ad schedule was in the works for a long time.

Axlerod’s explanation?

An aura grows up around you, and people assume everything emanates from you.

After Obama won the Primary, he was invited to deliver a speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention on July 27th in Boston, Massachusetts.

As the result of the now-legendary speech, Out of Many, One, Obama rose to national prominence, and his speech is regarded by Liberal pundits as one of the great political statements of the 21st century.  This speech thrust Obama into the national spotlight, and sycophants crowned him the new political prince of the Liberal Elite.

In an interview published on oprah.com on Nov. 1, 2004, the talk show queen asked Obama why he was chosen to speak at the 2004 Democratic Convention:

We won our primary in a way that shocked people.   (I’ll say.)  In a seven-person field, we got 53 percent of the vote. People’s assumption had been that if I won, I’d get 90 percent of the black vote, then maybe a little of the liberal white vote. We did win the black vote by 90 percent, but we also won the white vote—both on Chicago’s South Side and up north. That created a sense of hopefulness among Democrats. I debunked this notion that whites won’t vote for blacks. Or suburbanites won’t vote for city people. Or downstate Illinois won’t vote for upstate Illinois. That was the bedrock of my campaign: People may look different, talk different, and live in different places, but they’ve got some core values that they all care about and they all believe in. If you can speak to those values, people will respond—even if you have a funny name. (Brings a tear to the eye, doesn’t it?)

Barack Hussein Obama (Peace be upon him.) won the Senatorial election and went on to “serve” as a United States Senator from Illinois from 2005 – 2008.

Obama sponsored 121 bills as a senator, of which 115 never made it out of committee and 3 were successfully enacted.   He co-sponsored 506 bills during the same time period.

Barack Obama missed 314 (24%) of 1,300 roll call votes.  He did not have the option of voting “Present” as he did 130 times in the Illinois State Senate.

One and one half years after taking his seat in the U.S. Senate, Obama declared himself a candidate for the Democratic nomination as their representative in the 2008 Presidential Election.

And the rest, as they say, gentle readers, is history. 

Sources:  americanthinker.org, govtrack.us, oprah.com

EPILOGUE

Here we are…2 and 1/2 years later. Our Economy has been flushed down the drain. Our enemies are laughing at the inept wuss Americans elected as their President. Galloping eeyorism is at an all-time high.

We have a First Lady who is determined to control what we, our children, and our grandchildren eat, even though it takes her two trips to haul a@@. Meanwhile, when she isn’t counting our calories, she’s spending our money on lavish vacations, of the type you used to see on Robin Leach’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”…only, it’s not her money she’s spending…it’s ours!

Meanwhile, her husband spends more time golfing and hanging out with celebrities than he does doing his job.

And, while all this is happening, sycophants in government, Hollywood, business, and, last but not least, the Main Stream Media, are throwing out all the cover for The Lightbringer that they possibly can.

In fact, OUR government, along with the aforementioned Lackeys,  have just blatantly lied to Americans concerning the  cause of a Muslim uprising in the Middle East that seems almost Biblical in nature.

That’s what led me to posting this today. This is a wake-up call, my friends. Tell your family. Tell your friends. Let’s get this Manchurian President out of OUR house.

Let’s roll.

Pock-ee-stahn Problems: They Didn’t Accept Obama’s Apology

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

Pock-ee-stahn (Official Obama Pronunciation) has seen a unique mixture of television apologies from the American President and Secretary of State (You heard me.) and Muslim Barbarian Violence in the last 24 hours.

Let’s get the story from the horse’s mouth, as it were. Aljazeera.com has the story:

Reports say more than 17 people have died as demonstrations against an anti-Islam video erupted across Pakistan, a day after protesters tried to storm the US embassy in the capital, Islamabad.

Tens of thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets across the country after the government called an impromptu public holiday to let people protest under the banner of “Love the Prophet Day”.

In Karachi, armed protesters among a group of 15,000 fired on police, killing two officers, as at least 10 protesters died in the violence. The crowd also burned six cinemas, two banks, a KFC and five police vehicles.

Crowds armed with clubs and bamboo poles converged on the Firdaus picture house, “smashing it up and setting furniture ablaze”, according to Gohar Ali, a police officer.

Witnesses said a separate rampaging crowd stormed the Shama cinema, notorious locally for showing films considered to be pornographic.

In the Pakistani city of Peshawar, police fired on rioters who were torching a cinema. Mohammad Amir, a driver for a Pakistani television station, was killed when police bullets hit his vehicle at the scene, said Kashif Mahmood, a reporter for ARY TV.

At least four protesters and one police officer were killed in the northwestern city, along with 40 injured and two cinemas and two shops torched.

In the capital Islamabad, some 19 protesters and eight police were injured. And in Lahore, at least five protesters were wounded.

“They do not want this anti-Islam video to be supported by the United States,” said Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad.

“Despite the fact that the American president has said that they have got nothing to do with it, the people here are very angry.”

“The people want the government to be able to launch a protest, and they are saying they will not go home unless they get to the US embassy.”

…US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met on Friday with Pakistan’s foreign minister, who avoided an invitation to explicitly condemn the violence.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Clinton called on “leaders and responsible people everywhere to stand up and speak out against violence”.

Standing beside her, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar focused her comments entirely on the film, which Muslims believe is blasphemous.

She thanked Clinton for speaking out against the video, saying it sent a “strong message” that should help end the violence.

“The last 18 months were very, very difficult,” Khar said at the start of the talks Clinton, adding the nations were doing “better than we could have expected to do in rebuilding the trust”.

Against this tense backdrop, the US bought time on Pakistani television stations to run a series of ads on Thursday in an effort to assuage Muslim feelings of hurt.

The US hopes the ad would show that the country had no involvement with the controversial internet video.

The US embassy in Islamabad spent about $70,000 to run the announcement, which features clips of US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and underscores US respect for religion, declaring the US government had nothing to do with the video.

Obama is shown saying: “Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.”

Clinton then says: “Let me state very clearly, the United States has absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its contents. America’s commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation.”

Addressing a media briefing on the ad campaign, Victoria Nuland, state department spokeswoman, said the aim was “to make sure that the Pakistani people hear the president’s messages and the secretary’s messages”.

What’s so mystifying and embarrassing about this whole thing, is one simple fact: That stupid movie clip , which no one watched on youtube.com. did not cause the Mid-east violence.

This whole bloody thing is the work of al Qaeda. They are testing the manhood and resolve of the President of the United States.

Even The Daily Beast, a Liberal website, is now having to admit it.

Now there is mounting evidence that the White House’s initial portrayal of the attacks as a mere outgrowth of protest was incorrect—or, at the very least, incomplete. The administration’s story itself has recently begun to shift, with Matthew Olsen, the director of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, telling Congress on Wednesday that the attackers may have had links to al Qaeda and Carney characterizing the incident as a “terrorist attack.” (Hillary Clinton announced on Thursday that she was putting together a panel to look into the incident.)

But other indications that the White House’s early narrative was faulty are also beginning to emerge. One current U.S. intelligence officer working on the investigation into the incident told The Daily Beast that the attackers had staked out and monitored the U.S. consulate in Benghazi before the attack, a move that suggests pre-planning.

What’s more, two U.S. intelligence officials told The Daily Beast that the intelligence community is currently analyzing an intercept between a Libyan politician whose sympathies are with al Qaeda and the Libyan militia known as the February 17 Brigade—which had been charged with providing local security to the consulate. In the intercept, the Libyan politician apparently asks an officer in the brigade to have his men stand down for a pending attack—another piece of evidence implying the violence was planned in advance. (Plenty of Libyans, of course, did try to protect the consulate. “Many of those Libyans died in the gunfight fighting off the attackers,” one of the officials said. “But there were some bad apples there as well.”)

President Obama addresses the attacks in Libya.

“I think this is a case of an administration saying what they wished to be true before waiting for all the facts to come in,” says one senior retired CIA official.

So now, it turns out that all of that sucking up and apologizing  to the Muslims in Pakistan, and the entire Muslim Brotherhood, for that matter,  that Obama and Hillary have been doing, has provided no safety for our nation, and hours of enjoyment for the Muslims, who are probably laughing themselves silly over our wussy and inept Administration.

I sure do miss that “crazy old American Cowboy”, who sent that missile into Khadafi’s house.

**Sigh.**

Pledge Allegiance to Obama? Fuhgeddaboudit.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

Just when you thought that the idolatrous nature of the Obama Campaign can’t get any worse… they come out with this little display of gross disrespect for the nation he’s supposed to be the leader of:

TheBlaze.com has the story:

If you go to barackobama.com right now, you can buy your very own limited edition American flag print. But this isn’t any ordinary American flag; this is an American flag that replaces the 50 stars representing the 50 states with President Obama’s campaign logo.

The Obama campaign is selling the limited edition “Our Stripes: Flag poster” for $35 on its official website. The screen print was designed by Ross Bruggink and Dan Olson, according to the site.

As Fox News’ Todd Starnes points out, there is also another print for sale called “Our Stripes: Country Print” that also looks like an American flag but in the shape of the United States. Again, in the top left corner sits the Obama campaign logo instead of the 50 stars.

“The United States of Obama?” Starnes asks in his headline.

Find out how people are reacting to the Obama campaign’s version of the American flag on Twitter at Twitchy.com.

Just for the record, an American flag should never bear “any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature,” according to U.S. flag code.

Additionally, U.S. Flag Code-Title 4, Ch. 1, Sec. 3 prohibits the “Use of flag for advertising purposes.”

Hold on a minute, that’s not the grossest part, per thegatewaypundit.com:

If the image looks familiar it could be because the red stripes resemble the bloody Benghazi hand prints. The bloodstained walls at the US consulate revealed that the US officials were dragged to their death by peaceful protesters terrorists.

Grim scene: Bloodstains at the main gate believed to be from one of the American staff members of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. (Daily Mail)

It’s hard to know what’s more offensive… That they desecrated the flag, or that they’re pushing a product that reminds Americans of the slaughter in Benghazi?

And to top it off, a Hollywood starlet wants us all to pledge allegiance to the “messiah” behind that flag, per WashingtonExaminer.com:

The Obama campaign has launched its “For All” campaign, encouraging supporters to take pictures of themselves with their hands on their hearts and a note explaining why they support President Obama.

Actress Jessica Alba uses the Pledge of Allegiance as an example of the campaign in an email to supporters.

“Growing up, my classmates and I started every day with a ritual: We’d stand up, put our right hand over our hearts, and say the Pledge of Allegiance,” explains Alba. “To me, that gesture was a promise. A promise to be involved and engaged in this country’s future. A promise to work for liberty and justice — and for affordable education, health care, and equality — for all.”

Alba joins Hollywood actresses Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson by photographing herself with her hand on her heart pledging to vote for Obama.

“That’s why all across the country, people like you and I are proudly writing down our reasons for getting involved, and then taking the pledge — to vote.”

Obama campaign staffers have also begun posting photos of themselves with the pledge.

“Make sure you’re ready to vote this fall,” Alba writes. “Putting your hand over your heart is making a promise. Casting your ballot is keeping it.”

Dear Lord.

Let’s have a history lesson concerning this symbol of our country that the Obama Campaign is disrespecting, and, at the same time, try to give Obama’s worshipers, like Ms. Alba, some sort of clue as to what they are really supposed to be pledging their allegiance to:

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy (1855-1931). It was originally published in The Youth’s Companion on September 8, 1892. Bellamy had hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country.

In its original form it read:

“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

In 1923, the words, “the Flag of the United States of America” were added. At this time it read:

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words “under God,” creating the 31-word pledge we say today. Bellamy’s daughter objected to this alteration. Today it reads:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Section 4 of the Flag Code states:

The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”, should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. When not in uniform men should remove any non-religious headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute.”

And now, gentle readers, in conclusion, may I present America’s Clown Prince of Comedy, Mr. Richard “Red” Skelton, to further explain the reason Americans pledge allegiance to OUR flag:

Obama and the Muslim Violence: Focused Like a Laser Beam…err…Mag-light Beam

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

A police officer pulls over a car with a bunch of drunks in it. He gets them out of the car, and says, “Alright. Which one of you guys were driving?” One of the happy drunks pipes up: “Honest Officer. None of us wuz driving. We wuz all in the back singing.”

Reminds me of the Obama Administration’s response to the Muslim attacks all over the world.

Per Breitbart.com:

New information reveals President Barack Obama conducted interviews with entertainment magazines and posed for a photo spread last Friday as American embassies burned and 21 countries erupted into anti-American protests.

Instead of spending precious time dealing with the developing crisis in the Mid East and with his foreign policy scheme in a total freefall, on Friday morning, September 14, Obama was giving an interview to the entertainment magazine People en Español and participating in a photo session with photographer Omar Cruz.

This interview was not on his public schedule and was hidden from the public.

Friday, September 14th was the same day that four flag-draped coffins of those killed at the U.S. Libyan embassy arrived at Andrews Air Force base.

The interview came to public attention when individuals who work for the magazine tweeted about their visit after the event was over.

Okay. So, these same Muslims, that Obama has been bowing in dhimmitude to, have decided to test our wimp of a president. But, hey no worries. I’m sure Obama has been giving this his full attention. After the aforementioned  important magazine interview, that is.

Oh, wait…are those champagne corks I hear?

The Washington Post covered Scooter’s high-level fundraiser…err…meting with Beyonce and Jay-Z:

Hey, where’s the bubbly? The landmark feature at Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club in Manhattan is a dazzling, 18-foot champagne tower — 350 gold bottles in all, from what’s said to be his favorite brand, Armand de Brignac — a highlight of the nightspot’s $10 million renovation earlier this year. But at the hip-hop mogul’s fundraiser for President Obama Tuesday night, the wall of glitz was discreetly covered up under a dark dropcloth, reports our colleague Amy Gardner. Hmmm — an optics thing, you think?

Only a few gleaming bottles near the top were visible. Guests, who paid $40K each for the privilege of attending, did however enjoy champers served in flutes. Obligatory VIP banter aimed at co-hostess Beyonce: “Jay-Z now knows, you know, what my life is like,” joked POTUS. “We both have daughters. And our wives are more popular than we are.”

Okay, so Scooter’s a party hound. But, certainly he’s been telling the American Public the truth about the horrible spontaneous riot at the Libyan Embassy that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and 3 others. Right?

Err…not so much.

The Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was in fact “a terrorist attack” and the U.S. government has indications that members of al Qaeda were directly involved, a top Obama administration official said Wednesday morning.

“I would say yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy,” Matt Olsen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, in response to questioning from Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT) about the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

As for who was responsible, Olsen said it appears there were attackers from a number of different militant groups that operate in and around Benghazi, and said there are already signs of al Qaeda involvement.

“We are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda’s affiliates; in particular, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb,” he said.

The U.S. government just isn’t sure yet whether the terrorist attack was pre-planned or whether it was an example of terrorists taking advantage of protests against an anti-Islam film, Olsen said.

“It appears that individuals who were certainly well-armed seized on the opportunity presented as the events unfolded that evening and into the morning hours of September 12th. We do know that a number of militants in the area, as I mentioned, are well-armed and maintain those arms. What we don’t have at this point is specific intelligence that there was a significant advanced planning or coordination for this attack,” he said.

Well, at least Obama and Hil hired those two brave ex-Navy Seals to protect the Ambassador, right?

Ummm…nope.

The two former Navy SEALs killed in last week’s attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi were not part of Ambassador Chris Stevens’ official security detail but took up arms in an effort to protect the facility when it was overrun by insurgents, U.S. officials tell the Washington Guardian.

The two former SEALS, Tyrone Woods, 41, and Glen Doherty, 42, were not employed by the State Department diplomatic security office and instead were what is known as personal service contractors who had other duties related to security, the officials said.

They stepped into action, however, when Stevens became separated from the small security detail normally assigned to protect him when he traveled from the more fortified embassy in Tripoli to Benghazi, the officials said.

The two ex-Seals and others engaged in a lengthy firefight with the extremists who attacked the compound, a fight that stretched from the inner area of the consulate to an outside annex and a nearby safe house — a location that the insurgents appeared to know about, the officials said.

Well, certainly Obama has been at every Intel Meeting concerning “Arab Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter ad infinitum” right? I mean, I’m sure he has sacrificed dearly to stay on top of this world crisis, right?

Does Rosanne Barr have a beautiful singing voice?

When Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen and the Government Accountability Institute reported that President Obama has attended less than half of his Presidential Daily Briefs (PDBs) on intelligence, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called the findings “hilarious.” The next day, U.S. Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens and three American staff members were murdered.

According to Mr. Carney, Mr. Obama doesn’t need in-person briefings because the president gets the written version on his iPad:

He gets it every day, okay? The President of the United States gets the presidential daily briefing every day. There is a document that he reads every day when he is not — well, he always reads it every day because he’s a voracious consumer of all of his briefing materials.

But now, in an apparent 180-degree reversal, the White House official calendar shows that for the last four days Mr. Obama has ditched his iPad and has instead opted for the live briefings.

When Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen and the Government Accountability Institute reported that President Obama has attended less than half of his Presidential Daily Briefs (PDBs) on intelligence, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called the findings “hilarious.” The next day, U.S. Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens and three American staff members were murdered.

According to Mr. Carney, Mr. Obama doesn’t need in-person briefings because the president gets the written version on his iPad:

He gets it every day, okay? The President of the United States gets the presidential daily briefing every day. There is a document that he reads every day when he is not — well, he always reads it every day because he’s a voracious consumer of all of his briefing materials.

But now, in an apparent 180-degree reversal, the White House official calendar shows that for the last four days Mr. Obama has ditched his iPad and has instead opted for the live briefings.

The Internal Polls must be horrible.

I’m so depressed.

America needs Marshall Matt Dillon. We have Deputy Barney Fife.