Thursday, July 03, 2008

Six degrees of Barack Obama


On May 14 Barack Obama held a private and unpublicized meeting with Imam Hassan Qazwini at Macomb Community College in Michigan.

Qazwini heads the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn. Debbie Schlussel describes Qazwini as the Hezbollah terror group's foremost representative in America.

Qazwini is very open about his support for Palestinian homicide bombings, HAMAS, and Hezbollah. And he's a good friend of Hezbollah spiritual leader, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah--the man who issued the fatwa to Hezbollah terrorists to murder over 300 U.S. Marines and U.S. Embassy civilians in cold blood. Qazwini's mosque has held rallies and celebrations in support of Hezbollah, and many of Hezbollah's biggest money-launderers and agents in America are his congregants.

When I went undercover to his mosque in 1998, he and others welcomed Nation of Islam chief racist Louis Farrakhan as "our dear brother" and "a freedom fighter." Qazwini applauded Farrakhan's anti-Semitic statements saying that Jews were the "forces of Satan" and that there needed to be a "jihad" on the American people.

Obama's meeting with Qazwini was discovered almost by accident. The Detroit Free Press had a short piece on the meeting, which appears to have been sourced by Qazwini's mosque.



The Obama campaign remained utterly silent about the meeting and the mainstream media has kept its lips sealed.

Powerline's Scott Johnson adds:

The Free Press account states that the two discussed the presidential election, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the Iraq war, according to Qazwini. Schlussel asks why "this open anti-Semite and supporter of Israel's annihilation" was afforded the privilege of discussing "the Arab-Israeli conflict" in a private one-on-one meeting with Obama. Perhaps they were discussing what Obama referred to as the "legitimate claims" of Hamas and Hezbollah in his chat with David Brooks.

In light of Obama's secret meeting with Imam Hassan Qazwini, I was forced to update my original "Six Degrees of Barack Obama" chart.

As I said before, it doesn't take six degrees to connect Obama to a bunch of virulent racists, hate-mongers and murderous terrorists.

One or two degrees is about all it takes.

Think about it. Obama's closest buddies are racist loons, terror apologists, corrupt slumlords, and radical, self-professed Communists.

Not a normal person in the bunch. Now that's abnormal.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Some call him Obama


But you can just call him Nostradumas. Consider this statement:

I don't think 15,000 or 20,000 more troops is going to make a difference in Iraq and in Baghdad." He also said he saw "no evidence that additional American troops would change the behavior of Iraqi sectarian politicians and make them start reining in violence by members of their religious groups.

-- Barack Obama, January 8, 2007

Let me see if I understand. A failed "community organizer" -- with no experience -- wants to be President of the United States? And he has a really, really bad track record of strategic predictions? Plus... he has avoided any and all controversial decisions?

Riiiiiiiiiiiight.

Via: Eye on the World

Deposition o' the Year Award Winner


We've got a winna! (Click to zoom)


This is Ms. Bossie:

In light of the deposition, my favorite phrases on Melanie Bossie's page (from the Wilkes & McHugh website) are:

Practicing Law With a Passion... ...read more about Wilkes & McHugh, P.A.'s nursing home abuse attorneys being named to the "Plaintiffs' Hot List.".

Junior Cub Reporter Biff Spackle was unable to secure photos of the deposition, though heaven knows he tried.

Hat tip: Ben

Little Mama's bodacious new ride (at taxpayer expense, of course)


A protoege of Maxine "Taking you over" Waters, Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA) is a deadbeat of the highest order. According to The Daily Breeze, not only has she defaulted on numerous home loans, but she's treated taxpayer money as her own little auto slush fund.

When she arrived in Congress last fall, Rep. Laura Richardson sought out a vehicle that would match her newfound status... a 2007 Lincoln Town Car - the choice of many representatives who lease their vehicles at taxpayers' expense. But hers was distinct: at $1,300 a month, it was the most expensive car in the House of Representatives.

...When she was a councilwoman in Long Beach, she crashed her BMW, abandoned it at a body shop, failed to pay a prior repair bill, and then racked up 30,000 miles on a city-owned hybrid in one year - apparently violating a policy against personal use of city cars.

A protege of Rep. Maxine Waters - she calls Waters "Big Mama" and herself "Little Mama" - Richardson has worked to cultivate an image of success since arriving in Congress last fall. That effort evidently included a major upgrade of her publicly funded car... According to a former staff member, Richardson insisted that her Lincoln be specially customized, which may explain the high cost.

...Records also indicate that Richardson owes $83 for illegally parking the Town Car in Long Beach. The ticket was issued Jan. 23, in the amount of $40, but has since doubled because it was not paid on time... Richardson also owes $9,000 in property taxes on the Sacramento home, which she is trying to get back. The new owner of the home has sued her and her lender, Washington Mutual, after the bank moved to rescind the foreclosure sale.

Thanks, Nancy, for draining the swamp!

Hat tip: Larwyn

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Must-read of the day: Point of no return


The must-read of the day is Thomas Sowell's Point of no return.

...While all sorts of gushing is going on in the media, and posturing is going on in politics, the biggest national sponsor of terrorism in the world-- Iran -- is moving step by step toward building a nuclear bomb.

The point when they get that bomb will be the point of no return. Iran's nuclear bomb will be the terrorists' nuclear bomb -- and they can make 9/11 look like child's play.

All the options that are on the table right now will be swept off the table forever. Our choices will be to give in to whatever the terrorists demand-- however outrageous those demands might be-- or to risk seeing American cities start disappearing in radioactive mushroom clouds.

All the things we are preoccupied with today, from the price of gasoline to health care to global warming, will suddenly no longer matter.

Just as the Nazis did not find it enough to simply kill people in their concentration camps, but had to humiliate and dehumanize them first, so we can expect terrorists with nuclear weapons to both humiliate us and force us to humiliate ourselves, before they finally start killing us...

The terrorists have given us as clear a picture of what they are all about as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did during the 1930s-- and our "leaders" and intelligentsia have ignored the warning signs as resolutely as the "leaders" and intelligentsia of the 1930s downplayed the dangers of Hitler.

We are much like people drifting down the Niagara River, oblivious to the waterfalls up ahead. Once we go over those falls, we cannot come back up again...

Read it now. And forward it to everyone -- everyone -- you know.


Hat tip for the Thomas Sowell picture: the excellent Carpe Diem.

Barack Obama's Nicknames -- if he turned Pro Wrestler


Since his middle name is off-limits, I figured we could use pro wrestling nicknames instead.

Barack "Present" Obama -- as a state senator, Obama voted "present" nearly 130 times to avoid taking positions that could hamper his rise to national prominence.

Barack "The Real Estate Investor" Obama -- Obama fundraiser and convicted deal-maker Tony Rezko, whose partners included the son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, was directly involved in a shady land deal with the Democratic candidate.

Barack "Oil-for-Food" Obama -- No wonder Obama opposed the Iraq War: one of slumlord Rezko's backers -- Nadhmi Auchi -- was an intimate of Saddam Hussein and is reported to have made hundreds of millions off the U.N.'s egregiously corrupt "Oil-for-Food" scam.

Barack "Erector Set" Obama -- Just watch the video. You won't believe a so-called presidential candidate pulled (oops, pardon the terminology) something like this in public.

Barack "Inartful" Obama -- FISA, the DC gun ban, faith-based government initiatives, a "divided Jerusalem", NAFTA,... all could be considered outrageous fabrications... or, for the gullible sort, a series of "inartful" word gaffes.

I'm sure there are plenty of others. Feel free to use the comments to suggest 'em.

Original Capitol building background image: TannerShot.

The moment before the pain begins


I received this email from several well-wishers today, so here are the best photos that do not infringe upon the AP's precious copyrights.










Hat tips: Sean E. and Papa B.

Headline o' the day


We've got a winner: I’d Like To Report To Prison, But I Died:

[Hedge fund manager Sam Israel III failed] to appear at the prison where he is expected to serve time on Monday, ABC News reports that despite the message "Suicide is Painless" found scrawled in dust on the hood of Israel's car, it was believed that he is indeed still alive. (He abandoned the car near the Bear Mountain Bridge, in upstate New York, hoping that police would assume he had jumped to his death.) That same day, according to CNN, Israel's girlfriend Debra Ryan was arrested and admitted to helping him load up his possessions, as well as a motor scooter, into an RV.

Israel was convicted of stealing $450 million that belonged to the investors in a Bayou Management hedge fund...

Obamabots' dirty tricks squelching Hillary supporters?


The New York Times' Bits Blog notes that a handful of anti-Obama blogs have been locked by Blogger, Google's publishing platform.

...The bloggers in question, most of them supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and all of them opposed to Senator Obama, received a notice from Google last week saying that their sites had been identified as potential “spam” blogs. “You will not be able to publish posts to your blog until we review your site and confirm that it is not a spam blog,” the Google e-mail read....

Many of the bloggers were affiliated with JustSayNoDeal.com a Web site that opposes Senator Obama. They include http://bluelyon.blogspot.com, http://comealongway.blogspot.com, http://hillaryorbust.blogspot.com and http://mccaindemocrats.blogspot.com.

Do I believe it's Google? No, not directly.

When hordes of Obamorons (which is the term they prefer, I've heard) click the little "Flag Blog" button at the top of each blogspot blog, an algorithm tallies the votes. My guess is that, after the service tallies a dozen or more reports from different IP addresses, the service locks the blog.

The Hillary supporters -- rallying at http://blog.pumapac.org/ -- are up in arms. Some of their comments:

#39. June 30th, 2008 11:50 pm

This thuggery by Obama supporters is obscene… if they will vandalize a car, push a lady down trying to stop them and terrorize her 8 year old daughter like they did in a Florida mall because she had a NObama ‘08 bumpersticker on her car… they will do this… Google needs to stop them in their tracks and protect the rights of Free Speech… oh I forgot… only Obama can decide what is Free Speech these days… HOPE NOT… he’s not getting my vote.. I am one of 18 million who was disinfranchised by the DNC and I am not going back.

— Posted by Barb W

#40. June 30th, 2008 11:50 pm

Any true Hillary supporter will not be shocked that Obamas cronies have once again tried to silence anything anti-obama. We went through that throughout the primaries. Obama is deceitful and it seems many of his supporters are just following their leader. Pathetic. This Hillary supporter will be voting McCain in November. Country before party obama. www.blog.pumapac.org

— Posted by Always4Hil

#41. June 30th, 2008 11:54 pm

This is the same old [stuff] the Obama campaign has been up to all along. Do it but do it in a way to make it look like someone else did it, or in a way that you don’t have to take credit for it. The same old thing that was done in the caucuses where some people were not allowed to vote and were even physically threatened by Obama supporters.

Freedom of speech is more important than this candidate. If I had not already decided not to vote for him, I would make that decision now. I have joined PUMA and will continue to try to prevent this man, Obama, from getting anywhere near the White House.

— Posted by Heneri Fraysier5

Consider it the Obamabot equivalent of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine".

I'll bet you thought "progressives" believed in free speech? Ah, so naive, so fresh and young!

That whirring sound you hear: the Framers spinning in their graves.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Words o' the day: "Inartful" and "Overheated"


Well, Obama's campaign has been calling his various verbal gaffes "inartful" and "overheated."

Others just call them "lies." As I see it, this Democrat is just another pandering politician, cut from the same cloth as the Clintons.

Democrats mythboat McCain


Wesley Clark, auditioning for the role of Dick Cheney in an Obama administration, stated:

[McCain] hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall...

SCHIEFFER: Can I just interrupt you? I have to say, Barack Obama hasn't had any of these experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.

CLARK: I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.

As opposed to serving as a failed "community organizer"?

Clark's pathetic attack can't be called swiftboating since it has no basis in fact.

So I call it "mythboating".

Picking up the meme, hard left socialists like the ill-named AmericaBlog are asking the critical, salient questions on policy. Like:

Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?

It's not "nice" to ask the question, but it's actually a pretty good question. Yes, we all know that John McCain was captured and tortured in Vietnam (McCain won't let you forget). A lot of people don't know, however, that McCain made a propaganda tape for the enemy while he was in captivity. Putting that bit of disloyalty aside, what exactly is McCain's military experience that prepares him for being commander in chief? It's not like McCain rose to the level of general or something. He's a vet. We get it. But simply being a vet, as laudable as it is, doesn't really tell you much about someone's qualifications for being commander in chief...

Shhh... please ignore the fact that this very same rocket scientist fervently believed John Kerry's four months in 'Nam qualified him for CINC.

But this can't possibly be an organized mythboating by Obama's campaign: only seven prominent Democrats have attacked McCain's war record.

And Clark is a member of Obama's senior advisory staff. But that must be a coincidence.

A secular era dawns in Egypt


The Daily News of Egypt:

Tens of people spanning the social, ideological and religious spectrum gathered Sunday to discuss a new anti-discrimination and equal opportunity initiative proposed by lawyer and member of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) Mona Zulfakar... The meeting was held at the premises of the Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination (EARD) movement.

[Despite the optimistic discussion], the Sunday seminar participants questioned the possibility of passing or applying such a law. “The main problem in Egypt is that discrimination is the responsibility of the State,” argued Cairo Institute for Human Rights Director Bahie Eddin Hassan.

“It is not just about companies refusing to hire Christians, Muslims or women. The State will likely be one of the entities paying large fines if this law is applied,” said the Head of EARD movement Mounir Megahed. “For example, Christians are not allowed to join Al-Azhar University though it encompasses secular colleges having nothing to do with Islamic studies.”

Coptic secular intellectual Kamal Zakher pointed out another obstacle to applying such an initiative... “To top these challenges is Article 2 of the Egyptian constitution which dictates that the State’s source of legislation is Islam,” he said. “We have plenty of laws but the problem is how they can be put into force.”

Well, at least there actually is a movement inside Egypt pushing for secular government and an ongoing discussion. That's a tangible improvement.

I blame Bush's hegemonic policies.

Image: HOJ

Newspaper Correction o' the Day


The Guardian (UK):

[The story] "The Toxic Texan's foreign policy doctrine Will Endure", page 26, June 20, was referring to, not endorsing, the position taken by others when it used the term "apostate Muslim" in relation to Barack Obama. Obama has never been a Muslim.

Well, Obama's brother may have been mistaken about his sibling's religious background, but please: no one question the Guardian's label for George W. Bush.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

If shifting positions is 'change', Obama's your man!


Chart helpfully provided by the AP.


Hat tips: Jammie Wearing Fool and Larwyn

Update: Krauthammer: "Obama may make Clintons look scrupulous"

Democratic divisions still linger, even after "Unity"


Don't ask why I've been trolling The New Republic, but suffice it to say there's some trouble brewing for Barack Obama among certain factions in organized labor.

At the AFL-CIO meeting this week that endorsed Barack Obama, one union president, Thomas Buffenbarger of the Machinists, voted “present.” In a letter to his members, Buffenbarger explained:

"...hope and change are not antidotes to the economic pressures blue-collar families face... In the Machinists Union, a predominately blue-collar union, the impression continues to grow that Senator Barack Obama could care less about folks like us. At the plant closings in Galesburg [where a Maytag plant moved its operations to Mexico] and Herrin, in llinois and during our fight to save pensions at United Airlines, he never lifted a finger to help our members... In phone calls to IAM members, Senator Obama never broke 18 percent in any state. He came in third, often a distant third, behind Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain. And our union made over a quarter million calls to its members."

...Buffenbarger was also miffed when the Obama campaign failed to respond to phone calls this Spring asking him to denounce the Pentagon decision to buy a new tanker fleet from Northrop Grumman, working in cooperation with AIRBUS, rather than from the Chicago-based Boeing company. The Northrop-Grumman planes would have been built partly in Toulouse, France. During the Washington primary in March, Obama had initially offered a tepid criticism of the decision, but at a town meeting in Wilkes Barre during the Pennsylvania primary, Obama had appeared to defend the Pentagon award to Northrop-Grumman and Airbus, infuriating the Machinists whose workers would have built the planes.

The Economist spells out a key point curiously ignored by our beloved mainstream media.

Many union members are culturally conservative whites who might be expected to vote Republican, especially now that Mr Obama, rather than Hillary Clinton, is the Democratic nominee.

Further, reports the Guardian:

...while Clinton and Obama were willing to put the past aside yesterday, resolving the divisions between their followers could prove far more challenging - even for professional politicians.

Jeanne Shaheen, a Democratic candidate for Senate who spent the day campaigning with Michelle Obama on Thursday, could not entirely bury her sense of grievance at Clinton's loss. Shaheen had been one of Clinton's most powerful supporters in New Hampshire. "I know what it's like to make an important policy statement only to have the media report what you are wearing or what your hairstyle is," Shaheen told the crowd in Unity.

Some diehard Clinton camp followers say they will never get over their disappointment and have founded online groups like Puma, or Party Unity My Ass. Puma's followers are calling on women to support McCain, or stay home.

Puma's website can be found here, should you wish to lend your support.

Obama's birth certificate issue: resolved


Updated 18:30: I think I've found the signature block on the Obama document. See updates below.

One of the 'smears' Barack Obama has been fighting relates to his "missing" birth certificate. The Obama campaign apparently provided the Daily Kos site with a high-resolution scan of his Hawaiian "certification of live birth".

After numerous interviews with Hawaiian officials, a variety of media sources determined that the scan looked genuine with the exception of a couple of seemingly missing elements: a signature and embossed seal, both of which should appear on the reverse side and "bleed through".

A woman named Patricia DeCosta offered media sources with a copy of her birth certificate, which demonstrated that the signature and seal should indeed be visible.

When I overlaid the two certificates, the candidate's certificate matched up almost precisely with DeCosta's.

Furthermore, one of Pamela Geller's readers did some heavy-lifting with Photoshop and discovered what appears to be an embossed seal on the back of Obama's certificate.

I was startled because I had carefully reviewed the image weeks ago and not seen any clue of a signature or embossed seal. I spent some time this morning playing with various graphics settings until I was able to tease a similar image out of the scan.

It certainly appears to be legitimate.

Obama's birth certificate is most likely genuine and therefore a non-issue. Given that, conservatives and independents need to target the uber-liberal candidate for his outrageous policy statements, serial fabrications, and rapid-fire flip-flops that make John Kerry look like John Adams.

Update: Let's examine the signature block on the DeCosta document.

Note that stamp with three lines of text and a formulaic "signature".

Now let's examine the bottom of the Obama document.


Granted, it's murky, but I'm pretty certain the same elements appear at the bottom edge.

Linked by: American Thinker. Thanks! Hat tip: Larwyn

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Cool site o' the day


Check out John Daly's Still Waiting for Greenhouse.

And you'll especially want to read his article "Climate Change through Color Change."

Behind the scenes: the secret negotiations between Barack and Hillary


In order to quell the discord in the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama arrived at a deal this week that would enable them to more effectively collaborate. The efforts to unify the Democratic factions stem from a groundswell of support within the party for John McCain (see: "Prominent Democrats Will Lead McCain's New Hampshire Organization" and "Over 100 Anti-Obama Websites Set Up By Hillary Supporters").

It is not entirely clear what sort of negotiations occurred behind the scenes to enable the two foes to arrive at a peace settlement. But Junior Cub Reporter Biff Spackle discovered the only known transcript of the first meeting between the winning and losing Democratic candidates.


Hillary, thanks so much for coming to meet me in private.

As you know, many of your supporters have pledged their allegiance to John McCain and the GOP.

Hillary, what will it take to get you to unify the party?

Barack, thanks for entertaining me here at your beautiful Jeremiahisport compound.

I've only got two demands, I mean, requests.

First, I want 21 million dollars to bring my campaign fund out of the red.

Second, if I'm chosen as your nominee for Veep, I want my own cool, fake vice presidential seal.

You know how you have vero possumus on yours?

Yes, it means "in truth, we are able."

Yeah, I read it on the Puffington Roast. I want the latin Secundum verum, nos reperio cameltoe on mine.

You've got it.

Err, Barack, why is a hotdog standing in the corner?

Who me?

Isn't that a member of your posse?

Hell no! I thought it was one of your bodyguards in disguise!

Security! Get that hot dog!

It's running away!

Take it down, take it down!

**KA-BLAM!!** **KA-BLAM!!**

Got it!

Bill Clinton?

Why, Bill, why?

I wanted to know if you were having an affair... I wanna be president again, where everyone'll lissen to me... I been out of the loop for so long....

But why in a hotdog suit?

I thought no one'd reco-nize me...

Sleepy... gettin' sleepy... I'm slippin' away... Jennifer, I'm comin' home...

Oh, the humanity!

Does this mean I can be VP now?