Q: Did Rezko help Obama buy his Chicago home?
A: Yes and no. Obama says he sought Rezko's advice as a real estate developer and even toured the property with him but got no financial assistance from Rezko. Instead, Obama paid $1.65 million for the house in June 2005 by using money from a book contract and taking out a mortgage.-Mother Jones
But Rezko's wife did buy the vacant lot next door, which made it easier for Obama to buy the house. Both pieces of property were owned by the same couple and they insisted on selling them at the same time, but Obama couldn't afford both. Rezko's purchase of the empty lot allowed the home sale to go through, although Obama says Rezko wasn't the only person interested in the lot....
Does Hillary have a nuclear option?
James Lewis American Thinker
March 12, 2008
This is speculative. But I'll bet something like it is going on in those smoke-filled rooms the Democrats keep just for these occasions.
Here's the problem if you're Hillary and Bill. You're going to need those unelected superdelegates to get the nomination. You have a lot of clout with them, because they are the Democrat establishment. They owe you, and you might have some background files on them. But if the Democrat masses see you winning, you're in big trouble, because you'll be a white couple beating up on a black couple. You lose. So you have to have an outcome that shows the Obamas jumping on board your parade of their own free will. Whether it's true doesn't matter one little bit. It's that unity photo that matters.
Well, first, the Obamas and their campaign think they can win this on their own, if the elected delegates have their way. Billary might be able to arm-twist enough superdelegates to beat Obama, but can they hide the blood stains if they do? This has to be staged perfectly.
Solution: You have to have a lot of clout to beat the Obamanation. Like a real dirt bomb against Obama if he wins, so he's sure to crash in the general election. Suppose, for example, that you have a lot of inside dope about Rezko and the Chicago machine. Or suppose you can find a Syrian connection to the Obama campaign. (Monica Crowley just claimed that Rezko has traveled to Damascus 26 times in the last three years. Could be perfectly legit business travel. Or just maybe he is linked to some bad guys? The Clintons probably know.)
Then you can send somebody like Harold Ickes to David Axelrod, and tell him that Obama is doomed anyway if he defeats the Hillary machine. So he might as well go for the consolation prize, and run for Prez in 2016.
How would we know if something like this happens? Because after a wild convention the Democrats will come together in love and harmony, with Hillary on top and Obama as heir-apparent-in-eight years. And the Obamas will be smiling and waving to the mosh pit right along with Hill and Billary. It will be a unity ticket, and nobody will ever talk about the backstage deal.
Remember, the alternative is a crack in the liberal coalition that has governed this country since the 1970s. All those superdelegates are trying to figure out how to make a unity ticked happen.
Chances are that some nuclear option is being worked out right now.
It's just a speculation. We can only go by past performance.
James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com/
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNot enough, a building lot in Chi-town. Not compared to the Whitewater development in Arkansas.
ReplyDeleteThe $50 million USD in contributions to the Clinton library.
They are going to have to have more than a strip of dirt, deeded over for side yard, to sink the Obama dreadnaught.
The damage to the entire Democratic fleet would be to great. Though the vaunted "Clinton Years" did not provide the high water mark for the Democrats, as a Party. So Billary might take them all down in flames.
The only thing that would be left to save the Democrats, an expanded war in the Middle East.
Onward Christian soldiers!
If they had something you'd think they'd have used it by now. It's getting pretty late in the game to do much of anything but sop up as many of the remaining delegates as possible.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Hewitt, Obama has an ethics problem in the Senate over the issue.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnd McCain had an ethics problem over Mr Keating.
ReplyDeleteAnd his wifes' substance abuse and perjury combined with using his political power to bury it.
Ms Clinton cannot stand to much scrutiny, herself. Where did those Rose Law firm billing records appear from, those found in the White House residence?
The empty building lot will not be enough.
Not by a long shot.
By that Standard every politico is guilty of some sort of disqualifying act. Back to Nixon and LBJ, in modern times.
Have to tie Obama to cash payments or sold votes, influence peddling for cash.. Like Renzi. Anything else will be business as usual.
The Dems will lose the Black turnout in November, if they burn Obama for such a small deal, when Billary wallows in Chinese and Middle Eastern muck.
The "Super delegates" will not allow that scenario to gain traction, those Black bloc votes are keystone to their overall victory and the 60 seat Senate efforts.
Obama's dominance over the "Black bloc" is the biggest gun in the room. One that goes unmentioned.
ReplyDeleteBut it is his ace in the hole.
Sittin' like Wyatt Earp at the faro table, with the "greener" hung on a swivel, below it.
Unmentioned, but there.
He may not win the gun fight, but he can bring down the house of cards.
I agree with everything you say Rat. Rezko will not be a deal killer, but it will do some incremental wear and tear on Obama. A significant part of Obama's star power is that he is unique. Getting special favors from a wealthy Syrian real estate developer will not be helpful.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans never get the black vote. An obvious overwhelming black vote for Obama will have a negative effect with some white voters who resent the double standard. Logically any vote is binary. You are both for something and against it. If your criteria is that you will vote for a black candidate because he is black, you are voting against the white candidate because he or she is white or not black. If the same were true of white and non-black voters, Barack would lose in fifty states. It would be noticed and criticized in the press.
ReplyDelete"The only thing that would be left to save the Democrats, an expanded war in the Middle East."
ReplyDeleteNew and Improved!
Now With More Direct Fronts!
The petering out, or at least dreary stasis, of the war has left Republicans bored, grumpy, without focus, and a little fratricidal.
Where's OUR hope, goddammit?
Where have all the Belmonters gone?
Has this administration no concern for OUR needs what.so.ever?
And why hasn't Wretchard addressed this interminable Republican depression, this terrible sense of betrayal, and its conniving, cowardly culprits (you know who you are)?
MUST WE LOSE A CITY? (Please God, let us lose a city. THEN we can all gather back round the Pajamas Media campfire.)
We've lost that lovin' feelin'. Now it's gone, gone, gone. Wo-oh, oh-oh, oh.
We did not, when the time was ripe, drive "On to Damascus"
ReplyDeleteInstead we tried to reshape Iraqi society and culture.
Peace through superior bullshit.
Which has become a proven failure.
November 30, 2005
National Strategy for Victory in Iraq
The following document articulates the broad strategy the President set forth in 2003 and provides an update on our progress as well as the challenges remaining.
"The United States has no intention of determining the precise form of Iraq's new government. That choice belongs to the Iraqi people. Yet, we will ensure that one brutal dictator is not replaced by another. All Iraqis must have a voice in the new government, and all citizens must have their rights protected.
Rebuilding Iraq will require a sustained commitment from many nations, including our own: we will remain in Iraq as long as necessary, and not a day more."
-- President George W. Bush
February 26, 2003
Victory is now touted as a lessening of violence, which was instigated, in the first place, by the US occupation and the failure to follow Mr Bush's own rhetoric.
On 24 May of 2004, almost a full year after cancelling local Iraqi election Mr Bush said:
There are five steps in our plan to help Iraq achieve democracy and freedom. We will hand over authority to a sovereign Iraqi government, help establish security, continue rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, encourage more international support, and move toward a national election that will bring forward new leaders empowered by the Iraqi people.
The first of these steps will occur next month, when our coalition will transfer full sovereignty to a government of Iraqi citizens who will prepare the way for national elections. On June 30th, the Coalition Provisional Authority will cease to exist, and will not be replaced. The occupation will end, and Iraqis will govern their own affairs.
...
The second step in the plan for Iraqi democracy is to help establish the stability and security that democracy requires. Coalition forces and the Iraqi people have the same enemies -- the terrorists, illegal militia, and Saddam loyalists who stand between the Iraqi people and their future as a free nation. Working as allies, we will defend Iraq and defeat these enemies.
The "enemy" has morphed into "Conerned Local Citizens"
The Insurgents have become the "Local Leaders"
The US defeated in its' primary post-war goal.
Those enemies now US allies, but that defeat goes unmentioned.
SURGE ON!!
The 1920 Brigades and the Mahdi Army along with the Badr Brigades, now and again, integral parts of Iraq.
A house built on sand, out of cards will not long last.
After five years the construction on shifting sands continues, the plans revised and the enemy is still undefined. Not Muslims, not Iraqi Baathists, not the people of Iran.
Just some smoke and mirrors.
Too much?
ReplyDeleteHow could we have had it so wrong, that when the war fell more or less permanently below the fold, the Republican Party would reap the gains? Because when the war fell more or less permanently below the fold, all the steam, all the animation, all the excitement, dissipated on the right. We've watched it happen over the past two years, that inexorable decline in interest and enthusiasm. And not just at Belmont by any means. If it has been a shitty little war (as my dad is fond of saying), and in some ways it has, it has been to a fantastic degree OUR war. The Republican Party War. You knew this if you spent any amount of time at lefty news sites and blogs. Now the high drama and amusement has positively evaporated and there's nothing to take its place, nothing to attract and galvanize.
I'm only surprised it's not commented on often, or even at all. I can't be the only one who recognizes this.
Right?
Sure is the Republican party's war and McCain has given it the big ole 100 year bear hug.
ReplyDeleteThose of us who mentioned it early, called for a change of course were chastised.
ReplyDeleteName called and the like.
There is no energy for a war against shadows.
$12 Bilion a month to arrest a few hundred Iraqis each month.
Who are subsequently released.
Victory ill defined, but those on the "right" now know they were wronged, and there is no one else to call.
Surge on!, to what?
Mr Maliki and his cronies.
We could have left it to them, years ago.
That has become evident to all.
A poor plan, poorly executed, after April of 2003
I don't know what else as a practical (that is to say, political) matter he's supposed to do, ash, because Petraeus is in no mood to come home. And Petraeus was given the veto. And Petraeus is our man.
ReplyDelete...there nothing quite as frustrating as getting painted into a corner...
ReplyDeleteAt this point, if things stay as they are, it looks like gas prices will be a bigger issue than Iraq in the campaign.
ReplyDeleteAround here, you can go for days without reading about Iraq in the local rags, but gas prices are a big deal.
Ash,
ReplyDeleteI do recall someone pointing out last year: The good news is that if the surge doesn't work, Petraeus has said he won't keep troops committed to a folly. The bad news is the corollary.
I think part of what I'm trying to get at, Rat, is that even had the war been splendid and brief (and I'm thinking of Desert Storm) the point at which it is over - the 'good' parts anyway - is the point at which a great deal of identification and animation is lost, often partisan identification and animation. I don't think it's any secret that many of us love a war, so opposite the tedium of everyday life, even when or perhaps especially when we can love it as spectators. And there is a certain amount of dissatisfaction involved when it ends or ceases to deliver excitement.
If Mission Accomplished had been mission accomplished (I know the guy who hung that banner) Belmont and like sites would have dropped off even sooner. And a left hand turn after Iraq would have eventually delivered us right to where we are. Given over once again to the relatively mundane.
Fifty bucks to fill up here, bob.
ReplyDelete"Those of us who mentioned it early, called for a change of course were chastised.
ReplyDelete"Name called and the like."
I remember, Rat. At least you have the consolation of vindication.
For what good that's worth.
ReplyDeleteThe objective was to defang the radical enemy, which has not been done. The Syrians and Iranians, the Taliban and the like are still at full force.
Pakistan teeters on the brink of disaster, while the best the "right" can do is pray for another spectacular strike against the US, itself.
The flypaper worked, but not as was promoted by US, but by Osama.
The adrenaline rush always subsides. Either indivdually or for an entire culture or society.
Then an even greater fix is required, to get the same level of satisfaction.
If, in the summer of 03, we had destroyed the Syrian Army, the world would be a substantially different place. Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq and Iran, they'd all be in a less provocative posture.
Syria itself, would be much less provocative. No need to occupy the place, just defang 'em.
Could have had the 4thID land in Haifa and drive to Baghdad, after the Turks denied overland passage.
But no...
Instead we have a stretched military and a broken public resolve. All in the failed effort to redefine Iraq's cultural heritage.
While Osama roams the world.
McCain wants to double down and Obama wants to run away, where neither course will achieve the defeat of the radicals that attacked the US, back in 2001.
ReplyDeleteHow many Colombians are driving and what is the auto of choice, US, Asian or Brazilian?
ReplyDeleteSUVs are enormously popular, esp. Land Rovers and Jeeps of every conceivable vintage. More of them than we had back in the Metro area. No public transport, so private buses and taxis are half, it seems, of what's on the roads. Driving is a little...chaotic...and there are NO LEFT HAND TURNS in Bogota, so more assertiveness and navigational finesse are required.
ReplyDelete"Pakistan teeters on the brink of disaster..."
ReplyDeleteSo long as it keeps teetering. And with the less grandstanding and fulminating on our part, the better.
While Osama roams the world.
ReplyDeleteWed Mar 12, 01:23:00 PM EDT
Very well out of Waziristan into less monitored areas. Doubtful out of Pakistan, no matter how much that would please the Pakistanis. We used to joke that when he was killed there, the Pakistanis would make sure he was killed somewhere else.
We have proven to be without capacity to affect the politics of any of these Islamic countries.
ReplyDeleteEven with a large land Army in an occupation mission. The proper skill sets seem to be unavailable to US.
Even a definition of success is beyond US capacity, in Pakistan. Other than not letting "them" take over.
Though those that permitted Dr Khan to operate the nuclear arms bizarre are back in the saddle.
Teetering the wrong way, now.
rat wrote:
ReplyDelete"If, in the summer of 03, we had destroyed the Syrian Army, the world would be a substantially different place"
hunh? Didn't many say that about Iraq? Maybe we'll test that theory out using Iran. Syria the linchpin?
Even a definition of success is beyond US capacity, in Pakistan. Other than not letting "them" take over.
ReplyDelete- Rat
If we define success precisely as not letting "them" take over, would that displease you?
...and if "they" do take over what the heck are we gonna do about it? Better to define some other criteria of "success", something under our control.
ReplyDeleteWhat's under our control, ash, is us. And only us.
ReplyDeleteNo, ash, we abandoned the idea of destroying the enemies capacity to create trouble and went about "reconstruction".
ReplyDeleteIf we had destroyed the Syrian Army, but never occupied Syria, it would not have been a repeat of Iraq.
Iraq was a failure of the Occupation, not the destruction of the Iraqi military capacity. That is what we should have done in Syria, destroyed their military capacity.
The Lebanon war of HB & Israel would not have taken place, Iran would have been set back, most likely taking the Lybian course.
Instead we attempted top down social engineering, in Iraq, and failed. Losing sight of the "war" we were waging. Moving to "reconstruction" before the enemy, radicalized anti-Western Governments and their proxies, were defeated.
The window of opportunity, in the Afghan/Pakistan theater opened and closed, in 2002. There is little that the US can do, now.
When the US public was high on its' post 9-11 adrenaline high, we could have stemmed the tide. Using applied violence that the US military is fully capable of, not by attempting social engineering and nation building.
Those two venues we have little to no capability of.
At home nor aboard.
Have to define who "they" be, trish.
ReplyDelete"They" have ruled Pakistan since the 1970s. Not much chance of displacing "them". Nor turning back the clock or eliminating their "toys".
The Pakistani are a big piece of the puzzle, one that will, someday, blow up.
Perhaps it could have been defused, in the 1980s, perhaps not.
But letting the Tora Bora campaign devolve into an utter failure, that was another Team43 clusterfuck, if ever there was one.
At least as far as the US response to 9-11-01 is concerned.
Catch and Release certainly wasn't top-down social engineering.
ReplyDeleteRat I think you're really ambivalent about the whole affair. Nothing wrong with that.
But there is something wrong - and to me it's more instructive than the adoration of war - with the habituation to crisis.
ReplyDeleteThe media feeds that and it's really unfortunate.
My God, last week you would have thought Colombia was under siege.
Catch and release was a symptom, not a cause.
ReplyDeleteToday, I am rather ambivalent about the whole affair. How it plays out does not make much difference, now.
We lost the "war" to reconstruct Iraq in some noble democratic image.
We did not defeat the enemy Governments, nor even identify all of them.
Neither of the US political parties have a program to turn the tide. None of the candidates speak to the core issues.
McCain calls the US surrender to the 1920 Brigades a sign of success and Obama/Clinton want to beat feet out of the AO.
Neither will help the US cause.
Admiral Fallon and the President have the same "objectives" just advocate different means to achieve them. Bush bangs on the war drum, but no longer has a band willing or capable of following the beat.
Blind to the realities of where he has led US.
But as we noted, about the Colobia/Venezuela crisis, Mr Bush was feeding the fire.
ReplyDeleteWhen he knew the truth, but then announced that Hugo was moving his troops and acting aggresively.
Playing his drummer role, to the hilt.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think the first gulf war was a major factor in the "habituation". It was like a real high stakes sporting event that we all watched on TV (well, there were a few participants). We won! WE WON BIG! We were righteous, we threw off the Vietnam loser shackles and we had the thrill of the kill.
ReplyDelete911 was also one heck of a media event. Close to 4k killed is pretty bad, but, historically, it's happened before, but not on TV, LIVE!!!, and then in repeats, over and over. Pretty spectacular.
What was the syndrome noted with Vietnam vets? They had the adrenaline rush of combat, the constant fear and then they come back and life is, just, flat.
The financial crisis doesn't make good tv though, but,hey, its a real crisis. War, though, makes damn fine tv.
"But as we noted, about the Colobia/Venezuela crisis, Mr Bush was feeding the fire."
ReplyDeleteOr just acknowledging it. At the very least, it was not one he created.
Don't think for a minute, ash, that the left does not have its own affinity for crises. It's not a political thing. It's a cultural thing. And about this the media is, commercially, unsurprisingly bipartisan.
ReplyDeleteoh yes, definitely! I in no way intended to suggest it is a right wing kind of thing at all. Just regular ole folk hooked on the adrenaline.
ReplyDeleteI'll grant you that, trish. Mr Bush did not create the crisis, but he did not try to diminish it, publicly, either.
ReplyDeleteWhere he could have dismissed Hugo's threats as bluster, he called them a threat to National Security.
Playing the part he knows best.
That's true of many folks, ash, just not 'Nam vets.
Folks that just need another "bump".
9-11-01 was a spectacular border raid, no doubt of that. It did make for some fine TV.
The migration invasion does not play as well, there is little visable destruction. Counties going bankrupt, hospitials closing, police protection curtailed, just does not translate as well to the small screen.
Economic news, translates even worse. At least with the migration we have glimpses of 80 people living in a 3Bdrm, 2bth suburbian home, in Glendale, AZ. Right down the street from the Super Bowl site. An occasional small child, lost in the desert draws a moment of coverage, but not much more.
Sub-prime and other mortgage lending fiascos, gets coverage as greedy "speculators" ruining it, for the rest of us.
Senate "fat cats" getting plane rides from Charles Keating and better than average deals on property, whether the finacial scandals are in the 1980s or 2008.
Land and houses bought on margin, by folks with no visible means of support. The building of hotels and condo projects that just do not make sense, to "normal" folk.
I still remember unhappily reading, in the days and week after 9-11, the grimly satisfied op-eds in the NYT and elsewhere regarding the 'inadequacy' of a small-government (Bush) agenda in the new era of terror. Big Government Is Back!
ReplyDeleteIt is just ironic that the same outlets came to bitch about it?
Chickens with their heads cut off, swear to God.
"What freedoms ARE Americans willing to give up?" That was a popular one.
ReplyDeleteUgh. That didn't come from the right. And Jeezus, what short memories we have.
Could Barry and Michelle dance w/the Devil and still become POTUS and First Lady/Queen?
ReplyDeleteOf course!
We should be known as
The mau–maued Dhimmi Nation.
Deuce,
ReplyDeleteIt's the EXACT SAME ethics problem that Duke Cunningham is in jail for.
Welcome to Dhimmin Nation, brought to us by the GOP Castrati, and the marxist MSM and corrupted institutions.
The main reason the Illegal Invasion does not sell is that it is covered up or completely ignored more often than not.
ReplyDelete...and the many institutionalized actors that act as propagandists and gatekeepers.
Sanctuary Nation.
"Dhimmi"
ReplyDeleteAnother thing:
ReplyDeleteSpeeches that would be laughed off the stage if delivered by Whitey, are rated as all-time great oratory.
Lincolnesque, har de har!
...what a side by side comparision that would make!
"Duke", as I recall, was moving Federal money to specific contractors that were paying him, directly.
ReplyDeleteWhich, if the same is true of Obama, he'll go down. But that is not in the claims about him and Rezko that I have read.
Hsu has dropped off the radar, much to Billary's relief. But they all have shady deals in their pasts.
Just look at Eliot, a million dollar man, who, while prosecuting prostitution rings was also utilizing others.
Giving his "friends" a competitive advantage.
Congressman Renzi, here in AZ.
McCain, back in the day.
Billary, today and yesterday.
Selling pardons out of the Oval Office.
Oh, doug, we get the shots of the migrants lined up on he driveways, 50 to 80 per house.
ReplyDelete"Drop houses" they are refered to as. Where the coyotes keep the migrants imprisioned until their fees are paid.
A nightly occurance, lately.
But the border is still open, the "virtual fence" no fence at all. As predicted.
And Mr Bush will "rally" the conservatives for McCain. How and where is left unsaid, but there are few conservatives that support Mr Bush.
He has sundered the movement. Ahh... for the days of WFBuckley, when a spae was a spade. Not a compassionate asshole.
That is an interesting MSM facet, that Bush is still a "Conservative".
ReplyDeleteWhen most conservatives have disowned him.
Look to the Texas GOP primary, where Ron Paul garnered close to 20% of the votes.
Mitch Haase said...
ReplyDeleteEliot Spitzer offered me $500 for a blowjob in a Bronx porta potty. I accepted.
Haase's Icon
Now on display at Wretchards!
There are some favors Barry has done for Rezko, from what I've heard on the radio. No Links right now.
ReplyDelete---
'Rat,
You probably get more coverage than most, locally of the invasion.
National Coverage is more often propaganda.
FDR was a conservative, as was LBJ.
ReplyDeleteKristen Takes the Stage on the NY Times Front Page!
ReplyDeleteWoman at the Center of Governor’s Downfall
“I just don’t want to be thought of as a monster.”
Spitzer was only getting Regular Unleaded!
ReplyDeleteCheapskate.
"She apparently was booked at about $1,000-an-hour, placing her in the middle of the seven-diamond scale by which Emperors prostitutes commanded up to $4,300 an hour."
NY Times is more fun than National Enquirer, these days!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the thread today. Kinda melancholy but interesting.
ReplyDeleteGoing back to Fallon. I suspect that the problem is/was that he was running his own foreign office; his own diplomatic corps.
His job was to send a signal that the man in charge of the area was most suited to coordinate the land, sea and air forces that would "smash Iran like an bug." Instead, and this is why Thomas Nightime Barnett loves him, he not only "goes nativist" (an exaggeration, I know) but continuously announces that there will be "No war."
It was interesting to read both Fred Kaplan and Barnett. Kaplan being a simple observer and Barnett a Fallon acolyte.
As to the screwed-up occupation, the seminal turning point seems to be Bremers decision to disband the Iraqi army. Other than that, I think the insurgency was a foregone conclusion and the bloodbath almost a prerequisite to reconciliation. The BBC has had some unbelievably positive stories about Iraq lately. The problem I sense coming is that now the world is going to insist that we stay which will present them and the Muslim world with an interesting disconnect. If we're so bad, why is our continued presence so desperately desired. Our benign presence will/could further defuse the rabid anti-Americanism in the Muslim world. A bonus is that the Amerika haters will increasingly be seen as wingnuts.
Barnett, professional BS Merchant.
ReplyDeleteFallon's Record at PacCom Sucked!
Kaplan is concerned about a resurgence of violence following the drawdown.
ReplyDeleteWhit,
ReplyDeleteThat decision was equivalent to putting 5 million young American Males out on the street by firing them.
Plus their families, and the widows and orphans.
Ferraro's Gone.
ReplyDeletePC mau–maued Dhimmi Nation Rules!
(ourselves into oblivion)
Stratfor says that Fallon's departure has less to do with Iran and is more about Pakistan and Afghanistan which have deteriorated on his watch. They name Petraeous and Marine Corp General James Mattis.
ReplyDeleteThey see Fallon's decision to go as a "welcome one."
GATES: Tight immigration forces outsourcing...
ReplyDeleteNOT the Liberal Marxist Mafi Schools, further decimated by "immigrants," nooooo.
Americans just aren't able to learn math and science no more.
We be the Dhimmis.
wretchardthecat@hotmail.com said...
ReplyDelete"Ferraro's Gone.
PC mau–maued Dhimmi Nation Rules!"
This is good in a way because it sets an ever more restrictive precedent about what is allowable speech. I saw Ferraro uselessly invoking her liberal record as a defense. She actually thought it would buy her a pass because of what she was. But like those Old Bolsheviks who thought the terror would pass them by, she discovered that the terror only bypasses those who fight back or hide.
Political correctness is like an anaconda's embrace. The anaconda waits for the slighest exhalation and tightens round it. Soon there is no more room for the victim to breath. And if the victim can fight back there are only two outcomes. Either the victim dies or he lops off the anaconda's head. Political correctness is slowly assuming the mantle of tyranny. All tyrants fall.
Wish I shared his eternal optimism.
ReplyDeleteI think the Anaconda's got a big lead in the averages, once the humanoid is encoiled.
ReplyDeleteWe had better take this seriously, because we are not very many mistakes away from a second Holocaust. Three nuclear weapons is a second Holocaust.
ReplyDeleteOur enemies would like to get those weapons as soon as they can, and they promise to use them as soon as they can
I suggest we defeat our enemies, and create a different situation long before they have that power. Thank you.
Sleepwalking Into a Nightmare
desert rat writes -
ReplyDeleteObama's dominance over the "Black bloc" is the biggest gun in the room. One that goes unmentioned.
But it is his ace in the hole.
................
Is this group-
1)the captors
or
2)the captives and subjugated
from Obama's race-based religious value system?
What group/race composes the oppressors then?
What is an analogous example of Obama's race-based religious value sytem?
It seems, elijah, from what the Rev. Sharpton said on Hannity/Holmes an episode or two past...
ReplyDeleteBlack values, just a way to describe "family values".
Like Irish values or Korean values.
A spiritually ethnic attempt to form a basis of good moral values, for the "community".
As to their being captor or captives, it seems that now, after all these years, Billary is learning the real meaning of the tail wagging the dog.
That community, as a political force, is in transition. Seems to me. I do not know all that many Blacks, a handful. About the same, maybe a tad more, than I know Jews.
Even the Jews, all of the same family tree, do not vote with such solidarity as the Black bloc.
So now, with regards the Blacks, the Democratic plantation owners are in a quandary.
Free at last. free at last!
Thank God ...
they're gonna be free at last!
To duece's point, early on, it seems that when the Black bloc voted 90% for white Democrats, like Bill or JFKerry, that was not considered a racist moment or movement. But if they vote 90% for a Black, then it is? An idea which I do not really understand the basis of.
I also do not understand how the Democrats continually garnered that type of support, from the Black community. They certainly did not improve the lifes, across the board, for that 90%. Not if the storyline from Mrs Obama's college thesis is any indication of that community's reality.
Seem to have been captives, now turning the tables on the oppressor, to some degree.
ReplyDeletewords have meaning i thought and generalities are fun, but still no answers to some simple questions.
ReplyDeletelet's use desert rat's perspective then -
...A spiritually ethnic attempt to form a basis of good moral values, for the "community".
Is this community then
1)the captors
or
2)the captives and subjugated
from Obama's race-based religious value system?
What group/race composes the oppressors this community then?
"Like Irish values or Korean values."
Ok
What is an analogous example of an Irish or Korean religious value system that is specifically ethnic-centered, similar Obama's race-based religious value sytem (black value system)?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe analogy would be an arab jew Israeli PM.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me.
According to Rev. Sharpton, nothing is different. "Black values" is just a marketing tool, used to reach that community with the family values, Biblically based message. One that, according to Rev. Sharpton, they are in dire need of.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that is an accurate description, but I am not a member of the church, nor of the community. Only passing along the message being conveyed by the Rev. Sharpton. Whom is a questionable source, regardless.
An entire page (Results 1 - 10 of about 564,000 for korean church) of results @ Google
ReplyDeleteRead More!
Seems the Koreans use their ethnic/nationalistic base, quite effectively.
Korean Churches for Community development | KCCD Home PageAims to maximize the capacity of the Korean and other Asian-American churches and nonprofit communities primarily in the areas of affordable housing, ...
ReplyDeletei am not clear why a candidate who is a uniter has a race-based religious value sytem that classifies individuals as "captives", "subjugated", and "captors".
ReplyDeleteFor that matter, a judicial perspective that classifies individuals as "powerless and powerful", "weak and strong"
Who specifically are these groups/races?
Mr. Sharpton and "black values"
Therefore, from Mr. sharpton's perspective there must also be latino values, white values, asian values, etc.
is this not race-based values?
would this be a form of racism?
So much for human values i imagine
Community values, elijah.
ReplyDeleteHow do we base our communities.
Some do it by race and ethnicity.
Others by locale
Some by religion
Some folk combine all of the above.
Jews by family tree, according to mat.
My community is quite small, if based upon those that share my "values", quite large if based upon the common pledge to protect and defend the US Constitution.
Most of us get to pick and choose, others seem to be pigeon holed, by factors they believe to be beyond their control
finally dr, now where getting somewhere
ReplyDeletelet's use the Korean example dr suggests -
Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness.” Classic methodology on control of captives teaches that captors must be able to identify the “talented tenth” of those subjugated, especially those who show promise of providing the kind of leadership that might threaten the captor’s control.
Those so identified are separated from the rest of the people by:
1) Killing Koreans off directly, and/or fostering a social system that encourages them to kill off one another.
2) Placing Koreans in concentration camps, and/or structuring an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.
3) Seducing Koreans into a socioeconomic class system which, while training them to earn more dollars, hypnotizes them into believing they are better than others and teaches them to think in terms of “we” and “they” instead of “us.”
4) So, while it is permissible to chase “middleclassness” with all our might, Koreans must avoid the third separation method – the psychological entrapment of Korean “middleclassness.” If Koreans avoid this snare, we will also diminish our “voluntary” contributions to methods A and B. And more importantly, Koreans no longer will be deprived of their birthright: the leadership, resourcefulness and example of their own talented persons.
Now, it seems that an individual with a Korean-based religious value system could explain to voters who is perpetrating these injustices against Koreans.
No?
One would think so, unless of course, going to the Church was just a social event and not part of ones "core beliefs".
ReplyDeleteIt must be admitted that Korean on Korean crime is rampent, and that they make up the vast majority of those in prisons, today.
ReplyDeleteSo something in the present System is working to their disadvantage.
It could be the Federally designed financial incentive program, the one designed to break up families and promote out of wedlock births.
Why it was so successful in disrupting the Korean community, while leaving others intact, perhaps just a successful marketing ploy or a part of the implementation of systematic design charecteristic.
I really do not know, but those Koreans have been screwed, blued and tattooed. Partly self-induced, but also part of the social system they are a part of.
One would think so, unless of course, going to the Church was just a social event and not part of ones "core beliefs".
ReplyDelete......
Impossible, Mr. Obama stated he was a devout Christian just recently.
and we still haven't explored who the weak and strong are, the powerful and the powerless, from Mr. Obama's judicial perspective.
odd that the media has not asked such simple questions
I know that one can have core Christian beliefs, and still not be a member of a Church, or, as in Mr Romney's case, not believe in the social justice of all of the policies and doctrine of the Church.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, he recounted how he pulled off the road when he heard the Latter Day Saints decided blacks could be full members of the Church, and go to Heaven, as well. Prior to that, he disagreed with the dogma, but remained an active Church member.
"So something in the present System is working to their disadvantage."
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly why the captors, the powerful, the strong,...the oppressors need to be identified specifically.
Only then can we start to punish this group for their transgressions.
Who precisley is this group?
WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney on Sunday said he pulled off to the side of the road and wept when he heard in 1978 that the elders at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had decided to let blacks participate in Church rites.
ReplyDelete"I can remember when I heard about the change being made. I was driving home from — I think it was law school, but I was driving home — going through the Fresh Pond rotary in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I heard it on the radio and I pulled over and literally wept," the Republican presidential candidate said.
Romney said the matter still makes him emotional today.
The former Massachusetts governor said that the Mormon church's decision to change its doctrine had no impact on his own views of race relations.
...
Romney also defended his religions against accusations that it is a cult, but said he was willing to accept the endorsement from notable evangelical Christians like Bob Jones III who make such claims.
Reminds me of Obama and that Calypso singer's endorsement.
Seems to me, from my perspective, the Democratic plantaion owners.
ReplyDeleteThose that have profitted the most from the current system, those that designed it. LBJ, to start.
But I'm just a cowboy from Arizona, far from the scene of the crime.
Indeed, elijah, from my limited understanding of Christianity, one has a personal relationship with God and Christ. One that is not dependent upon a church.
ReplyDeleteThough I'm sure that if I'm wrong, there are Christians enough amongst the Bar patrons to correct me.
the captors, the powerful, the strong,...the oppressors need to be identified specifically
ReplyDeleteonly then can we exert...
Change we can believe in
thanks for the discussion
Which reminds me of a Chi-town story.
ReplyDeleteSeems MLKing was giving a presentation, in which he described families in Chi-town doing without basic services, water, power and the like.
Mayor Daley, the first and original, was on the platform as well.
After the presentation was over the Mayor approached Rev. King, notebook in hand, inquiring as to the names and addresses of these unfortunate Chi-town residents. He would not allow such a situation to exist, not in his domain. The situation would be rectified, post haste.
The Rev. had to tell the Mayor that there were, in actuality, to his knowledge, no such families in Chi-town. That he had included the reference, just to make a rhetorical point. Needless to say the Mayor was taken aback, he took the Rev. King's lies to be personally offensive.
Video: CNBC host Jim Cramer in tears over Spitzer's downfall...
ReplyDelete---
Such a lovely man! Gained fame by trashing reputations and lives w/o even taking them to court!
Jeeze!
(With his wife by his side from begining to present)
Listen to this, Doug---
ReplyDeleteI don't know how they managed it, but the people responsible for the 1950's made a world in which pretty much everything was good for you. Drinks before dinner? The more the better! Smoke? You bet! Cigarettes actually made you healthier, by soothing jangly nerves and sharpening jaded minds, according to advertisements. "Just what the doctor ordered!", read ads for L&M cigarettes, some of them in The Journal of the
American Medical Association where cigarette ads were gladly accepted right up to the 1960's. (Opposite page has photo of ad--"More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Brand!") X-rays were so benign that shoe stores installed special machines that used them to measure foot sizes, sending penetrating rays up through the soles of your feet and right out the top of your head. There wasn't a particle of tissue within you that wasn't bathed in their magical glow. No wonder you felt energized and ready for a new pair of Keds when you stepped down.
from "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" by Bill Bryson
Drain the swamp, I say--
ReplyDeleteHOOKER BOOKER HAD LIST FULL OF BIGWIGS
By KATE SHEEHY and ZACHARY KOUWE
WHO'S NEXT? Alleged madam Tanya Hollander's (above) "black book" of clients may include an NYC judge.
March 12, 2008 -- It's the biggest guessing game in town - the identities of at least nine other presumably high-powered, big-bucks johns serviced by Gov. Spitzer's favorite hooker ring.
An explosive possible "black book" - a who's who of well-heeled Emperors Club VIP clients - may be in the possession of federal probers, sources said yesterday
The feds' sensational criminal complaint listing 10 "clients" allegedly includes a top New York judge and even a former law-enforcement official and longtime pal of the disgraced governor, two sources said.
Who's next to be publicly outed has everyone from Wall Street to the highest echelons of the legal world abuzz.
"The government seized physical evidence . . . computers and records," said Manhattan lawyer Daniel Parker, who is representing the alleged female money genius behind the ring's finances. "What those records are is anybody's guess.
"But anybody who's alleged to have been involved in a high-priced call-girl prostitution ring . . . is probably not only wealthy but may be powerful. Those people probably read The Post. Are they quaking in their boots? Oh, definitely. There also might be a lot of unhappy marital conversations going on tonight."
The club's johns shelled out at least $1,000 to $5,500 an hour for services from their cream-of-the-crop call girls, who were allegedly handled by two female pimps, Temeka Rachelle Lewis and Tanya Hollander.
Spitzer allegedly paid for the call girl to take a train from New York to Washington—a move that opened the transaction up to federal prosecution because she crossed state lines.
ReplyDeleteMann Act
News you already knew:
ReplyDeleteA US military study officially acknowledged for the first time yesterday that Saddam Hussein had no direct ties to al-Qaida, undercutting the Bush administration's central case for war with Iraq.
The Pentagon study based on more than 600,000 documents recovered after US and UK troops toppled Hussein in 2003, discovered "no 'smoking gun' (ie, direct connection) between Saddam's Iraq and al-Qaida", its authors wrote.
George Bush and his senior aides have made numerous attempts to link Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda terror in their justification for waging war against Iraq.
Wary of embarrassing press coverage noting that the new study debunks those claims, the US defence department attempted to bury the release of the report yesterday.
The Pentagon cancelled a planned briefing on the study and scrapped plans to post its findings on the internet, ABC news reported. Unclassified copies of the study would be sent to interested individuals in the mail, military officials told the network.
Another Pentagon official told ABC that initial press reports on the study made it "too politically sensitive".
Interesting thing about that particular Pentagon report, Deuce, they didn't make it available online, reporters had to apply for it, and the report was mailed to them on a CD.
ReplyDeleteDesert Rat: Indeed, elijah, from my limited understanding of Christianity, one has a personal relationship with God and Christ. One that is not dependent upon a church.
ReplyDeleteRoman Catholics emphasize the importance of the Church because they have an unbroken Tradition and claim to have been founded directly by Christ. Protestants emphasize the importance of a personal relationship with Christ because, in reaction to perceived errors in the Catholic stream, they have deliberately cut themselves off from Sacred Tradition. Perhaps a middle way is the truth, one that tempers the close relationship with the stability of tradition.
As said many times the War in Iraq was morphed into part of the War on Terror, by US, for US.
ReplyDeleteThe two were not connected, except by US involvement, in both.
We created the flypaper that has stuck US in a mission for which we have no expertise.
I have known a few Generals and other Army officers, each wanting their own little empire to rule. Why leave Iraq, where one is an Emperor, to return to KS, where you're just another fellow in uniform. If given a choice.
Why give up the power that $12 billion a month delivers? Unless ordered to do so.
So, it seems, A, that a Christian is free to develop their relationship with Christ either through an organized Church or personally, and still be considered a Christian, regardless.
ReplyDeleteMr Obama is no more bound by the doctrine of his Church than Mr Romney was by the doctrines of his.
Both can be Christians, members of a Church, and reject any particular Doctrine of that Church, and remain both Christian and Church members.
Perhaps for the social aspects of Church membership or some other, perhaps political or family reasons.
here i am again-
ReplyDeletewords have meaning, and i appreciate your eagerness to defend of a race-based religious value system
"and...REJECT...any particular Doctrine of that Church, and remain both Christian and Church members."
from Obama's 1995 memoir:
Dreams From My Father
Obama & Trinity Church's "Black Value System" -
"A - sensible, heartfelt- list There was one particular passage in Trinity's brochure that stood out, though, a commandment more self-conscious in its tone, requiring greater elaboration. 'A Disavowal of the Pursuit of Middleclassness,' the heading read. 'While it is permissible to chase 'middleincomeness' will all our might,' the text stated, those blessed with the talent or good fortunes to achieve success in the American mainstream must avoid the 'psychological entrapment of Black "middleclassness" that hypnotizes the successful brother or sister into believing they are better than the rest and teaches them to think in terms of "we" and "they" instead of "US."'"
not following how reject equates to sensible and heartfelt
Who are those captors agin?
It would seem that Roman Catholics, that support "abortion rights", are still considered to be Roman Catholics and Christians, both.
ReplyDeleteIn conflict with the Doctrine of their Church. But no one denying their Christianity.
Where are the questions pertaining to that flaunting of religious dogma?
If Obama is to be asked these questions should not all politicos be called to answer why they do or do not support their particular religions' doctrines?
Gambling, prostitution, the list is long, the morality important, the questions unasked.
(VIDEO) Obama's Pastor: "Jesus was a poor black man who lived in a country controlled by rich white people."
ReplyDeleteNot many other candidates that I can recall attended an openly racist moonbat church for 20 years!
ReplyDeletePerhaps, elijah you can get that question in, during the next You-Tube debate.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Mr Obama is "growing"
Maybe he uses US, in the same manner I do.
We, they, US not us.
Or perhaps that is just a reflection of my values, showing through.
Projection.
Mr Romney, from his birth until 1978, doug.
ReplyDeleteWell over 20 years
Romney got a lot more shit for his Churches PAST deeds than Barry does for his churches present deeds and stances.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what you are refering to, but his dad was REALLY out on the streets w/MLK, WAY BACK THEN!
ReplyDeleteWhen he was Governor, too!
ReplyDeleteBarry ain't rejecting Jack, except in words, his moonbat preacher.
ReplyDeleteLet's see ANY of them march against Farakahn!
ReplyDeleteCould come up w/a whole list of GOP blacks that don't carry Barry's racist/moonbat Creds.
ReplyDeleteThat's one reason why Religion and Politics make poor bedfellows, doug.
ReplyDeleteMr Romney's made that point, time and again. A goose and gander proposition.
But then, by the time we are done, no subjects of personal background are viable political points to ponder.
Eliots' misdeeds were "personal" as have been Billarys'.
Sex and religion, race and ethnicity are all "out of bounds". As are college fraternities and past business deals.
The Saints were dogmatic racists, doug. Blacks need not apply to Heaven.
ReplyDeleteThey couldn't get in.
Perhaps individual Saints felt differently, but that goes to the point of Obama's church membership. Mr Romney Senior did not quit his Church, nor held to their doctrines by the public, in Michigan.
Why should Mr Obama be treated differntly?
The Saints have this unwritten(I think)understanding that they must get along in the host society. Thus, with polygamy scorned and outlawed, the President has a revelation, and presto, a new understanding is reached. Same with the race question.
ReplyDeleteWhat they would do, should society accept polygamy again, which is possible, considering the drive towards gay marriage, is an interesting quandry.
What the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, and then giveth again?
Like I said, George Romney Marched with MLK.
ReplyDeleteBarry and the moonbats will never march against Farakahn.
The rest, all bs, to me.
Blatant Racists are not the same as Non-Racists, regardless of HISTORY.
Mr Romney's made that point, time and again. A goose and gander proposition.
ReplyDeleteI always felt Romney was totally wrong on that, but was in a unique position.
A man's religion ought to count for a lot, and should definitely be taken into consideration.
A moslem, for example. I wouldn't vote for that, ever. Even if he or she said they were, swore up and down they were, a 'peaceful' type, you wouldn't know whether to believe them, haveing the tactics they do. I could easily vote for an atheist, but not a moslem.
Under the Romney doctrine, a moslem or a Mormon, makes no difference.
Nobody's shown me Romney's preachers racist sermons.
ReplyDeleteThere's no way ANY modern white pol could attend a blatantly racist church.
ReplyDelete...Bobbie Birdbrain a dying species.
dr - doug needs some more learnin
ReplyDeleteand now we will be educated that rain is not wet
i know... Mr. Obama is just married to her, and like his church membership, the association in no way reflects or is associated with Mr. Obama's own personal beliefs
The mail-in probably would not be handled by local supervisors of election, but the concept isn't new to Manatee Supervisor of Elections Bob Sweat. He said that only a few years ago he asked state elections officials for permission to run an all mail-in ballot as an effort to save costs.
ReplyDeleteSweat said he'd like to see the state try mail-in ballots on a small scale to realize what the savings might be.
"I think it would be a good thing for us to try. I think it'll work fine and legislators might see that there are options other than spending the amount we do on a regular election," Sweat said.
Result Would be Same
The NR Editors: Most conservatives are willing to support McCain this fall, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, and are willing to work with him before and afterward. But conservatives are not, and should not be, willing to go along with McCain no matter what.
ReplyDelete***********************************
Gird your lions, conservatives, because, believe us, after a looooong nap we are drawing a few lines in the sand.
Peter Ward, University of Washington, "Under A Green Sky", the global warming guy, is on C to C right now, but talking about extinctions. If I can stay awake, I'll see if he has changed his mind on warming at all, given that things are so bad the civilized Canadians are beginning to have 'snow rage' fights, kinda like road rage here.
ReplyDelete"Don't you blow that snow on my sidewalk, you son of a bitch."
One guy even pulled out a toy gun, another pointed a shotgun at the ground. Things are tough, in Quebec, according to the news.
Snow Fights
ReplyDeletePeter Ward is saying what we really have to fear is weaponizing of biological agents, or mistakes getting out of all these labs.
200 ppm of hydrogen sulfide will kill you, drop dead. Well drillers are running into it these days, from buried stuff. Human death, by H2S.
ReplyDeleteIf the oceans slow down and stop from warming, we may all drop dead from H2S buildup. Dead ocean will not be oxygenated anymore. H2S producing bacteria will take over, and we're goners. Caused Permian extinction, he thinks. May have happened on Mars.
Namibia, off the ooast, coming from the sea, is killing the coast. 'Skeleton Coast' it's called. Fishing cleaned out the fish, so the plankton took over and things spiralled down. Now got H2S coming from the bottom.
Gotta have those ice caps, or things is finished.
ReplyDeleteMy mother started chemotherapy yesterday.
ReplyDeleteGod, there is no replacing some people. Or any.
My mom died of lung cancer in her early seventies. There wasn't much to be done so she didn't try to fight it. She was the first one to go of the people I cared about. Then dad, and then a lot later, and after a lot of caring for her by me, my aunt. At that point, there wasn't anyone 'out ahead' so to speak. My mom told me before she died, 'be sad, but not to sad'. She wasn't a churchgoer, but she thought of this life as a prelude, a prelude by DeBussey, she said.
ReplyDeletetoo sad
ReplyDeleteSame Old Crap In Russia
ReplyDeleteNewest crackdown in Mother Russia. Can't let the people talk freely.
I just met a kid yesterday that was looking for an apartment, he was from Russia. No accent. He got out at age seven, from St. Petersburg. Liked it here, he said. One of the lucky ones. Had a nice girl friend, too.
Many of the treats served at the EB come from bobal, this is one of them.
ReplyDeletebobal said...
My mom died of lung cancer in her early seventies. There wasn't much to be done so she didn't try to fight it. She was the first one to go of the people I cared about. Then dad, and then a lot later, and after a lot of caring for her by me, my aunt. At that point, there wasn't anyone 'out ahead' so to speak. My mom told me before she died, 'be sad, but not to sad'. She wasn't a churchgoer, but she thought of this life as a prelude, a prelude by DeBussey, she said."
After a lifetime of thinking I would never do such a thing, I managed to put my mom through 2 weeks of torturous, painful, nightmarish, humiliating Hell, in hospitals, whereas if I had not opened my big mouth, she would have passed, relatively peacefully, w/hospice pain control, at her home.
ReplyDeleteMy entire life was spent talking and doing the opposite w/others, including our beloved neighbors.
Beware the guilt trips of the medical/govt/insurance establishment and "social conservatives"!
"First Lady Michelle Obama would certainly encounter foreign reporters who have attentively covered the campaign and who have questions to ask.
ReplyDeleteOne of them may well be,
"Madame First Lady, would you care to tell us more about your oft-stated view of America as a nation whose soul is broken?
And a word, if you would about the desperate lives lived by most Americans?"
---
Her pathetic BS sounds like someone who never gave a second thought to all the BS poured into her head at Princeton and Harvard, and God knows where else.
---
(Elijah's link)
But, Elijahs right, none of the folks Barry communes with, from his racist bastard minister, to his shallow minded, America hating wife, reflect any disparaging aspect of the shining, annointed one.
PBUH!
(VIDEO) Obama's Pastor: "Jesus was a poor black man who lived in a country controlled by rich white people."
ReplyDeletenice posting keep blogging,....
ReplyDeletei am very new in blogging, please and kindly visit my site,..
thanks a lot...♥♥♥♥