Sunday, July 27, 2008

The Daley Show: The Power Behind Barack Obama


Today's Chicago Tribune features a lengthy press release from the Chicago Democratic machine that heaps non-stop praise on "'The other side of Obama's brain." That phrase refers to Valerie Jarrett, one of the Obama campaign's key advisers.

Valerie Jarrett is known as the other side of Barack Obama's brain. Can this tough-minded adviser, who is guided by aphorisms and gut instinct, help him reach the White House?

...Technically her title is "senior adviser.'' But Jarrett, the soft-spoken, steely willed, longtime Chicago powerbroker, has also been called the other side of Obama's brain. At the very least, he says, she is his eyes and ears in meetings that he cannot attend.

...Yet even as her role in Obama's campaign has expanded over the past year, Jarrett has kept her day job as president and CEO of the Habitat Company, a major real-estate firm and court-appointed receiver of Chicago public housing, overseeing the beleaguered agency's long, painful struggle to desegregate by building new mixed-income developments. She travels with Obama or his wife, Michelle, as often as she can-usually on weekends or in times of crisis.

The American Thinker's Thomas Lifson deconstructs the puff piece by injecting a heavy dose of reality:

Jarrett is an old hand in the Daley Machine. It was a search for a city job that brought her first into contact with the Obamas. In fact, she offered Michelle a job in the same Machine her father had worked in, as a precinct worker/city employee...

...In 1991, Jarrett was the deputy chief of staff for Mayor Daley when a tall, striking-looking African-American lawyer named Michelle Robinson walked into her office for a job interview. The young woman had the whole package: Princeton University undergrad, Harvard Law School, two years at a prestigious corporate law firm... It was a match mad in heaven, and soon Michelle was a city employee. Coincidentally or not, Jarrett is also vice chair of the board of trustees of the University of Chicago, according to the article, which would have made her in a sense a supervisor of Michelle Obama before she went on leave from her jobs as a community outreach manager (what Mr. Terry discreetly calls "an executive") for the University Medical Center. Presumably Jarrett may have had a voice in the decision of the Medical Center to nearly triple Michelle's salary once her husband was elected to the United States Senate.

...Evidently Tony Rezko is not the sole Obama associate to earn a good living in the realm of publicly-subsidized housing in Chicago. But unlike Rezko, she has not been indicted or convicted of any crimes. That's a mark of distinction in those circles... Jarrett is a Daley Machine Chicago power player, and a vital link between Obama and the Machine.

In the Tribune's discussion area, commenter Percy Jones translates for the lay-person:

This... article is an almost endless paean to a poor, struggling, humble but valiant and intelligent black woman who is the man of light’s brain. We are so moved... Of course the real story reads like this:

Old Val, is a Daley operative, and political hack, who made her fortune churning run down, foreclosed public housing real estate while doing “public service”. Daley appoints old Val to be Obama’s handler and groom him for his place in the machine. She gives Obama a job working the public housing equivalent of three card monty. In a typical Chicago back door pay off she arranges a series of high paying sinecures for Michelle first in Daley’s office and then at the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago being in the habit of hiring various and sundry clout heavy cretans so as to buy said clout and easy access to state and federal funds. No one is quite clear about just what Michelle does for them or how she got those jobs. No one is asking. No one will. Val’s job now is to keep wonderman on track and to remind just who is really running things. Daley.

Which version of this article do you believe? Do you remember, like I do, when the Tribune was a real newspaper?

My eyes are getting all misty from the nostalgia.

One need only read the Tony Rezko & Barack Obama Comic Book to relive the glory years of the Democratic machine's stunning urban renewal program. The power couple -- Barack and Michelle -- were enmeshed in this utterly corrupt nonsense that has failed the Chicago populace for decades.

Two photos from Obama's visit to Germany


Don B. at Gather:

I wonder if the rock concert and free beer and pizza had anything to do with the large crowd. Of course the media portrayed it as being due to Obama's presence. He used the same gimmick in Oregon. Yet the media gave it a spin for the Kool-Aid king.

While Obama did not have time to visit the troops during his trip to Germany, he was able to take time and pose for photos at the local gym after his workout.

De Bild: "He curled 32 Kilo dumbbells next to me!"

Related: Pajamas Media (Jennifer Rubin): "Media Misses Big Story of Obama Trip"

UBL's driver: Clinton administration 'emboldened' Bin Laden


McClatchy's Carol Rosenberg notes testimony from an Al Qaeda operative that highlights the Clinton administration's lackadaisical approach to fighting terrorism as a direct contributor to 9/11.

...Osama bin Laden's driver told a pair of FBI agents that it was America's fault that the al Qaida leader was alive...

The United States could have killed bin Laden in Khartoum, Sudan, before he moved to Afghanistan in 1996, Hamdan told his interrogators. They could have killed him after al Qaida's 1998 twin bombings at the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Or after the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, at the port of Aden in Yemen, which left 17 U.S. sailors dead.

Instead, ''Bin Laden was emboldened.'' So he struck with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, leaving nearly 3,000 dead.

Richard Miniter already demonstrated -- beyond a shadow of a doubt -- that the Clinton administration's inaction led directly to 9/11.

This testimony is simply further damning evidence that Miniter was spot on in his conclusions.

We can thank Bill Clinton and Sandy Berger (he of the immense cover-up that the conspiracy nuts known as 9/11 "Truthers" curiously choose to ignore... go figure: they won't investigate the only confirmed conspiracy!) for 9/11.

Word to the wise when voting in 2008: we tried the Democratic approach to fighting terrorism prior to 9/11. The results were thousands of innocents dead on American soil.

In an age in which Iran will likely equip its terrorist proxies with nuclear devices, another Democratic administration could very well be catastrophic.

Update: Gateway Pundit:

Osama Bin Laden had previously exposed the weak leadership of Bill Clinton during an interview one month before 9-11:

We experienced the Americans through our brothers who went into combat against them in Somalia, for example. We found they had no power worthy of mention. There was a huge aura over America -- the United States -- that terrified people even before they entered combat. Our brothers who were here in Afghanistan tested them, and together with some of the mujahedeen in Somalia, God granted them victory. America exited dragging its tails in failure, defeat, and ruin, caring for nothing.

And, just think... Barack Obama is even weaker than Clinton's wife on national security!

That's a comforting thought, isn't it?

Sunday Times runs Edwards-Mistress-Love Child story, rips off blogosphere


A story has been percolating in the background of this campaign season since December, when the National Enquirer released details of a scandalous affair involving John Edwards, his alleged mistress and their love child.


While the mainstream media was curiously silent on the well-sourced story, the most recent episode in the affair appears to be wending its way into the mainstream, albeit slowly.

Fox News appears to have confirmed the Enquirer's recent report that Edwards visited mistress Rielle Hunter and their love child in a Los Angeles hotel.

Although the mainstream media blockade of the story has barely started to crack, reputable papers abroad have caught on.

Scratch John Edwards off the list of potential vice-presidential candidates. The former White House contender, who had been hoping to get the nod from Barack Obama, is in the midst of a full-blown sex scandal.

Every supermarket shopper knows that the preternaturally youthful former senator for North Carolina may have fathered a love child with a film-maker while Elizabeth, his saintly wife, is dying of cancer. There are sensational new details on the National Enquirer website, although most of the media have done their best to ignore them.

The tabloid magazine cornered Edwards, 55, leaving a Los Angeles hotel where Rielle Hunter, his alleged mistress, and her baby were staying, at 2.40am last Tuesday. He ran down a hallway and dived into the men’s bathroom. A hotel security guard confirmed the encounter. “His face just went totally white,” the guard said... The story has been bubbling away for months, but so far there has been not a word about it in the mainstream newspapers, even though Edwards was John Kerry’s running mate in 2004 and has been tipped for a prominent job in an Obama administration... Edwards volunteered recently: “I’m prepared to consider seriously anything, anything [Obama] asks me to do for our country.”

He can stop waiting by the telephone.

In this particular story, the Times of London actually "borrowed" material from the blogosphere without attribution.

DBKP, the blog that has been on the story from the start, posted an exclusive interview with National Enquirer Editor-in-Chief David Perel on July 23.

Quotes from that interview were pulled directly from DBKP by the Times with nary a word of attribution.

When this story first broke in December I wrote that the blogosphere renders the mainstream media less relevant by the day.

Through its questionable behavior, the Times has done nothing to counter my assertion.

How big is the web?


Google software engineers Jesse Alpert and Nissan Hajaj:

Even after removing... exact duplicates, we saw a trillion unique URLs, and the number of individual web pages out there is growing by several billion pages per day.

...This graph of one trillion URLs is similar to a map made up of one trillion intersections. So multiple times every day, we do the computational equivalent of fully exploring every intersection of every road in the United States. Except it'd be a map about 50,000 times as big as the U.S., with 50,000 times as many roads and intersections...

Whoa. One trillion? To give that number a little perspective, one trillion dollars is more than The Anchoress makes off of her blog ads in a month!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Ten questions Barack Obama will never be asked


Parkway Rest Stop provides a conduit to these ten questions:

1. Why does Senator Obama advocate a surge of troops in Afghanistan though he considers a surge of troops in Iraq to have been a mistake?

2. Why is a stable Afghanistan crucial to US interests while a stable Iraq is not?

3. How long does Senator Obama expect to keep troops in Afghanistan?

4. Why is an open-ended commitment in Afghanistan manageable while the same in Iraq is not?

5. How much does Senator Obama expect to spend rebuilding Afghanistan?

6. Why is rebuilding Afghanistan affordable while rebuilding Iraq is not?

7. Why does Senator Obama consider the ethno-sectarian issues in Iraq to be nearly intractable while in Afghanistan they are something we can overcome?

8. If leaving Iraq will make the Iraqi government behave more responsibly, how will an increased presence in Afghanistan affect the Afghan government?

9. Why does Senator Obama advocate a “surge in diplomacy” and multilateralism in Iraq while simultaneously advocating unilateral action in the Pakistani tribal areas?

10. How large of a “residual force” will be left in Iraq and for how long?

Freaking hell, these are good questions!

As Jim says, don't hold your breath waiting for the likes of Chris Matthews or George Stephanopoulos to pose any of these.

The Declaration of War the mainstream media ignored


A couple of years ago, German newspapers described the imminent possibility of a U.S. first strike against Iran's nuclear infrastructure. It seemed plausible at the time, given the Mullahs' declaration of war against the U.S., Israel, and the U.K.

Wait a second. You say you didn't hear anything about a declaration of war by Iran against the West?

Lest it was missed in the 24/7 news cycle featuring Nancy Grace, Britney Spears and Madonna's troubled marriage, we call attention to Iran's top military strategist, a man named Hassan Abbasi, who publicly stated:

We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization... we must make use of everything we have at hand to strike at this front by means of our suicide operations or by means of our missiles. There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them.

Not inflammatory enough for you? Well, hit the play button on the tape of Iran's "President" Ahmadinejad in October, 2005:

We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance [the West] and the Islamic world, and this war has been going on for hundreds of years...

In this very grave war, many people are trying to scatter grains of desperation and hopelessness regarding the struggle between the Islamic world and the front of the infidels...

Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? ...you had best know that this... goal [is] attainable...

Yes, my friends, you just heard a de facto  declaration of war on our country by a totalitarian, fascist nutcase. And, as a free added bonus, he's a nutcase with messianic delusions.

In his speeches, Ahmadinejad frequently mentions the 12th Imam (or Mahdi), a messianic figure who vanished in 941 and whose return will herald "the end of days." Oh, goody. And Ahmadinejad even mentioned the Mahdi in his speech a couple of years ago at the UN. And he frequently describes the realignment of Iran's government to prepare for judgment day. Dee-lightful.

In August 2004, MEMRI's Steven Stalinsky, writing in The New York Sun, reported that some Iranians in the U.S. may have been performing recon missions:

It was reported that America expelled two Iranian security guards employed by Tehran’s U.N. offices on June 29, after the mission was repeatedly warned against allowing its guards to videotape bridges, the Statue of Liberty, and New York’s subway system.This was the third time the Iranians have been caught in such activities, which could be connected to the sites mentioned in potential plans to attack America.

Pity the mainstream media can't do simple arithmetic. Take a fascist dictator with delusions of messianic grandeur, add in a burgeoning nuclear weapons capability, fling in some reconnaissance missions, and then toss in a few scoops of hatred for the West. The result? A recipe Adolf Hitler would love.

I guess this story isn't big enough for the likes of the New York Times. Or the Washington Post. Or the San Francisco Chronicle. Or, for that matter, any member of the mainstream media.

We're on the brink of catastrophe. And the mainstream media couldn't care less.

* * *

Hassan Abbassi is the head of the Center for External Security Doctrinal Analysis, a strategic component of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Abbassi has arrived at a war plan for the West that would obliterate Anglo-Saxon civilization, starting with Britain.

According to Abbassi, "Britain is the mother of all evils" seeing as how the remnants of the British Empire -- the U.S., Australia, Israel, New Zealand, the Gulf States, Canada, etc. -- turned out.

In a May 2005 lecture at Tehran University, Abbassi remarked:

...[The US has] 6,000 nuclear warheads on [its] soil. Those 6,000 warheads are the target of our plans. The guerilla groups will go and destroy those warheads there. Not Iranian guerilla groups, but groups from all... countries... [we are] working on the Mexicans and the Argentinians. We will organize everyone who has problems with America. When our Internet site goes up, the American friends should get hold of the address. We've prepared plans concerning the American Achilles' heal and their weaknesses. We have identified all of their weaknesses on land, in the air, by sea, their technological weaknesses, etc., and we will pass on addresses to the guerilla organizations of the entire world concerning these, America's weaknesses.

We have established a department that will take care of England. England's demise is on our agenda.

If America attacks us, Don't worry at all... Through the Straits of Hormuz, 67% of the world's total energy passes. You must know this. Imagine I'm gone and, God willing, you want to face America. Take a tanker to the Straits Of Hormuz and sink it there. The tanker won't sink because the water is shallow there - about 50 meters. The tanker itself is 55 meters high, and when it will lie on the surface, half of it will protrude. It will take five months until it will be salvaged. A rise in oil prices, as you have seen, causes the West fever. These are the weaknesses...

Iran isn't Somalia. It is indeed a regional power, with a stated mission of destroying -- in its leaderships' own words -- all of "Anglo-Saxon civilization."

How should we interpret this declaration of war? Our choices appear to be simple. Should the West excise Iran's ability to wage nuclear war? Or should it, in the words of Mark Steyn, "wait 'til we we've got absolute definitive 100% proof that [Iran's] got WMD - the absolute definitive 100% proof being a smoking crater where Tel Aviv used to be, or maybe London."

Pity the mainstream media can't expend the necessary energy to report this story, even if it's only to let Iran's intended victims make up their own minds.

* * *

The Guardian, a leading British newspaper, was given a top secret, 55-page intelligence assessment dated 1 July 2005 that describes Iran's quest for nuclear weapons (hat tip: Hugh Hewitt). The report was gleaned from British, French, German, and Belgian intelligence agencies and was used to brief the heads of European governments on the dangers represented by the Mullahs.

The Iranian government has been successfully scouring Europe for the sophisticated equipment needed to develop a nuclear bomb, according to the latest western intelligence assessment of the country's weapons programmes.

Scientists in Tehran are also shopping for parts for a ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe...

..."import requests and acquisitions ... [are] registered almost daily", the report seen by the Guardian concludes.

All of the factors add up. Nuclear weapons. Long-range missiles. Radical leadership that has promised to create a world without the US, Britain and Israel. Leadership that further believes the end of the world is coming within the next two years.

The Mullahs desire a nuclear Armageddon. But no one in the west, save a few blog readers, even seem to know it.

The difference between two speeches: watch and be amazed


Eye on the World (via Pat Dollard):

While Obama was telling the German crowd (lured by the free rock concert, free beer and free bratwurst) how much America sucks and how much he is sorry for what [the] American Military has been doing, McCain delivered [a] story that will make you feel yourself a proud compatriot of... Medal of Honor winner US Army Sgt. Roy Benavidez.

Watch and be amazed.

As an aside, this sort of coverage is why the U.S. Armed Forces choose to watch Fox News around the world, Barack.

As for deducing what Sen. Obama really thinks about our military?

Why did Barack Obama cancel his visit to see wounded U.S. soldiers yesterday at Landstuhl Medical Center in Ramstein, Germany?

According to the Politico and the Chicago Sun-Times, the Obama campaign is blaming the military, claiming that the Obama campaign was told the visit "would look too political."

But according to MSNBC, Obama and his Senate staff could have visited wounded troops; he simply couldn't bring along his campaign staff and the media.

The campaign's response? They withdrew the request to visit the troops. The official said "We didn't know why" the request to visit the wounded troops was withdrawn. "He (Obama) was more than welcome. We were all ready for him."

If he can't use them as props, it seems Barack Obama has little use
for the military. Come to think if it, that is roughly how they factor
into his feckless foreign policy plans as well.

Obama, to his credit, did have time to thank some of the people protecting him.

They just happened to be Germans, not wounded Americans.

Linked by: The Anchoress. Thanks! Hat tip: Larwyn

Quote o' the day: No we can't (give credit where credit is due)


Charles Johnson:

How in the world do you give a speech about the fall of the Berlin Wall ... and not even mention Ronald Reagan?

Hat tip: Rants & Refinements

If Barack Obama starred in Goldfinger


Huh? Dammit! I knew I shouldn't have agreed to a "one-on-one" interview with Paul Begala...

KNERKNERKNERKNERKNERKNERKNERKNERKNER

KNERKNERKNERKNERKNERKNERKNERKNERKNER

KNERKNERKNERKNERKNERKNERKNERKNERKNER

SHHHHWWWONK!!!

Ehhh...

zhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhz...

zhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhz...

zhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhz...

This is power, Mr. Obama. All my life, I've been in love with its aura... its brilliance... its divine gravitas.

I welcome any enterprise that will increase my stock... which is considerable!

zhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhz...

I think you've made your point, Hillary, thank you for the demonstration.

Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr. Obama, it may be your last.

zhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhz...

The purpose of our previous meetings is now very clear to me. I do not intend to be distracted by another...

...Goodnight, Mr. Obama.

zhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhz...

You expect me to offer the Vice Presidency?

Oh, no, Mr. Obama, I'm tired of your endless "talk", your windy preaching of hope and change, your ceaseless flip-flopping between positions -- many times on the same day, your tired rhetoric stolen from other politicians, and your pathetic record as a failed state senator. No, Mr. Obama, I expect you to die!

There is nothing you could tell me that I haven't already heard ad nauseum! Hope, change, hope, change, hope, change! How many f*****g times must I hear your stump speech? The time for talk, Mr. Obama is over. Goodbye.

* * *

We end this clip at a fortunate juncture, dear reader, to prevent you from having to imagine the bloodcurdling cries of yet another foe of the Clintons.

Friday, July 25, 2008

John Edwards, Rielle Hunter, a love child, and a Security Guard


A Fox News report would appear to confirm John Edwards' presence at an L.A. hotel... reportedly to visit his mistress -- Rielle Hunter -- and their love child.

A security guard at the Beverly Hills Hilton identified Sen. John Edwards, stating that he shielded Edwards from National Enquirer reporters... [he] said that he encountered Edwards in the hotel's men's bathroom as he became enthralled in a battle with reporters on the other end of the door. The reporters were bombarding Edwards with questions about an affair with Rielle Hunter.

The guard identified the man as Edwards when he was shown a picture of him, according to Fox News. "What are they saying about me?" the guard said Edwards asked.

When the guard told him that the reporters were asking him about Hunter and their rumored affair and love child, "his face just went totally white," the guard said.

Earlier this week The Enquirer reported that they "busted" John Edwards visiting his alleged lover Rielle Hunter and their young child in Los Angeles.

Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.

The married ex-senator from North Carolina - whose wife Elizabeth continues to battle cancer -- met with his mistress, blonde divorcée Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night, July 21 - and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER was there! He didn't leave until early the next morning.

Rielle had driven to Los Angeles from Santa Barbara with a male friend for the rendezvous with Edwards. The former senator attended a press event Monday afternoon with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the topic of how to combat homelessness.

But a months-long NATIONAL ENQUIRER investigation had yielded information that Rielle and Edwards, 54, had arranged to secretly meet afterward and for the ex-senator to spend some time with both his mistress and the love child who he refuses to publicly acknowledge as his own.

...Rielle had reserved rooms 246 and 252 under the name of the friend who had accompanied her from Santa Barbara, Bob McGovern. Rielle was in one room and McGovern was in another with her baby. This allowed her and Edwards to spend time alone, a source revealed... ...he stayed until attempting to sneak out of the hotel unseen at 2:40 a.m. (PST).

...Shocked to see a reporter, and without saying anything, Edwards ran up the stairs leading from the hotel basement to the lobby. But, spotting a photographer, he doubled back into the basement. As he emerged from the stairwell, reporter Butterfield questioned him about his hookup with Rielle.

Edwards did not answer and then ran into a nearby restroom. He stayed inside for about 15 minutes, refusing to answer questions from the NATIONAL ENQUIRER about what he was doing in the hotel. A group of hotel security men eventually escorted him from the men's room...

One of the original blogs on the story -- DBKP -- is on the case again.

For background information, see Tuesday's post or visit DBKP, the ultimate authority on this story.

Update: Donklephant thinks the ice is breaking in the mainstream media blockade.

Newsbusters' takedown o' the day


Heather Wilson (R-NM) pulverizes Chris Matthews and Sen. Robert Wexler (he of sleeping on his Mother-in-Law's couch) simultaneously using everything but brass knuckles and a two-by-four.

ROBERT WEXLER: The allegation that Senator Obama has not been effective, yet it is his view in Iraq that is now the prevailing view that the Prime Minister of Iraq has endorsed. It is Senator Obama's view that has been endorsed by the Bush administration in concept in Iran by engaging in diplomacy. It is his view in terms of adding troops in Afghanistan that's winning the day. So it's Senator Obama, before he's even president, that's affecting policy in such a great way.

WILSON: It's amazing that you can skew things that far. Senator Obama has been dead wrong when it comes to the policy in Iraq. He opposed the surge and he is now in a situation where he's trying to deny that the surge was successful. I don't think that's particularly presidential.

...

WILSON: To say that somehow there is a wall in NATO that's running somewhere down the Atlantic shows Senator Obama's inexperience when it comes to understanding where we are. You see that on a number of other things. I mean, look at his platform. He has these kind of message-tested, poll-tested things like, we should, Barack Obama will make sure we take -- he'll negotiate with the Russians to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert. It's a great idea: it was done 20 years ago. He seems to be unaware of American history. And that's inexperience which causes people some real concern about whether he's ready for the Oval Office.

Rumor has it that Matthews needed a hanky and Wexler an ice pack after this segment was over.

The video is priceless and is well worth the time to download (WMV, ugh... but that's PMSNBC for you).

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The Ultimate List of Barack Obama Flip-Flops


Follow the bouncing beliefs.

The Surge: "It's fascinating to watch Barack Obama change his opinions on the U.S. troop surge in Iraq... Here's a combo -- a Los Angeles Times report on deletions of Obama's previous anti-surge position on his Web site plus a YouTube video showing his flip-flops on the issue."

Gay Marriage: "Obama before the election: States should decide gay marriage. Obama during the election: California’s attempt to decide gay marriage for itself is 'divisive and discriminatory.' "

FISA: "Like everything Barack Obama says, that pledge was operative only as long as it was in Obama's political interest."

NAFTA: "OK, this is pathetic: Obama now says that his anti-NAFTA rhetoric during the campaign was a bit 'overheated.'"

Publicly financed campaigns: "If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."

DC Handgun Ban: "After a day spent paying lip service to both sides of the debate while studiously avoiding the issue of whether the actual statute at stake in Heller was unconstitutional, he finally bites the bullet (no pun intended) and addresses it.."

School Vouchers: "Barack Obama told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in February that he was open to voucher programs, but just last week announced his intentions to squash the DC pilot program."

Guantanamo Bay: "I’m curious as to what’s motivating this [new] compromise. Is there any logic behind it or is it a simple something-for-both-sides political solution?"

Illegal Immigration - [In March 2004], Obama was asked if the government should "crack down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants." He replied "Oppose." In a Jan. 31, 2008, televised debate, he said that "we do have to crack down on those employers that are taking advantage of the situation."

Marijuana - "[In] January 2004, Obama [said] he supported eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana use. In the Oct. 30, 2007, presidential debate, he joined other Democratic candidates in opposing the decriminalization of marijuana."

Abortion - "Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says “mental distress” should not qualify as a health exception for late term-abortions, a key distinction not embraced by many supporters of abortion rights."

Iraq: "At a time when [the Surge appears to be working], is that the right time to try and set time tables for withdrawing all American troops? [Kroft asked. Obama replied,] “Yeah, absolutely. I think now is precisely the time..." [Kroft:] “And you pull out according to that time table, regardless of the situation? Even if there’s serious sectarian violence?” Kroft asked.“No, I always reserve as commander in chief, the right to assess the situation,” Obama replied."

Death Penalty: "Ten years ago, when Obama was running for statewide office in an [exclusive] Chicago district, he opposed the death penalty. He now supports the ultimate penalty."

Faith-based initiatives - "During the recent Obama pander tour... the presumptive Democratic nominee unnecessarily endorsed President Bush's faith-based initiative, a sort of patronage program that rewards religious activists for their political support with public grants."

Wearing a U.S. Flag Pin - "You'll notice Barack Obama is now wearing a flag pin. Again. During the primary campaign, he refused to, explaining that he'd worn one after 9/11 but then stopped because it "became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism." So why is he back to sporting pseudo-patriotism on his chest? Need you ask? The primaries are over."

Reverend Jeremiah Wright - "'I can no more disown (Jeremiah Wright) than I can disown my white grandmother' - then wiped away a tear and hailed him as the second coming of Abraham Lincoln. Three months later, with Wright disowned, grandma embraced and the great "race speech" now inoperative, not a word of reconsideration is heard from his media acolytes."

Welfare Reform: "Barack Obama aligned himself with welfare reform on Monday, launching a television ad which touts the way the overhaul "slashed the rolls by 80 percent." Obama leaves out, however, that he was against the 1996 federal legislation which precipitated the caseload reduction."

The Cuba Embargo: "In January 2004, Obama said it was time "to end the embargo with Cuba" because it had "utterly failed..." ...in August 2007, he said he would not "take off the embargo" as president because it is "an important inducement for change.""

Single-payer Healthcare - "Contradicting what Obama said at the debate, the old footage shows the senator saying, “I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal healthcare coverage. That’s what I’d like to see.”At the debate, Obama stated: “I never said that we should try to go ahead and get single-payer... Single-payer healthcare is an euphemism for socialized medicine."

Special Interest Contributions: "In January, the Obama campaign described union contributions ...as "special interest" money. Obama changed his tune as he began gathering his own union endorsements... [referring] respectfully to unions as the representatives of "working people" and ...he is "thrilled" by their support."

Divided Jerusalem: "Many on the right of the political spectrum... welcomed Obama’s remarks at AIPAC, but the clarification of his position left several cold."

Meeting with Iran's leaders without preconditions - "Barack Obama has returned to the no-preconditions policy for meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to Obama foreign-policy adviser Anthony Lake. Financial Times also discovered in its interview with Lake that Obama has reversed himself on Iraq, now saying that the withdrawal is off."

Palestinian elections - "[In 2006,] Obama [said]: “There is no room at the negotiating table for terrorist organizations. That is why I opposed holding elections in 2006 with Hamas on the ballot.... But During His 2006 Trip To The Middle East, Obama Met With Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas And Said The Election Represented An “Opportunity…To Consolidate Behind A Single Government.”

The threat posed by Iran: "Yesterday [in Oregon, Obama said], "I mean think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us....You know, Iran, they spend one-one hundredth of what we spend on the military. If Iran ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they wouldn't stand a chance." Today in Montana, Obama changed his tune: " Iran is a grave threat. It has an illicit nuclear program. It supports terrorism across the region and militias in Iraq. It threatens Israel's existence. It denies the Holocaust..."

The Patriot Act: " In 2003, he said he was against the Patriot Act, but voted for it in 2006."

Gays in the Military: ""In 2003, he said he was against the repeal of DOMA, but now he's for it in 2007. In 2003, he said he'd have to "examine specific legislation" dealing with LGBT discrimination in the military, now he's completely for ending "don't ask/don't tell".""

Coal: "Although summer hasn’t officially begun, flip-flop season is well underway and it appears Senator Obama has joined the club... On Tuesday Obama, whose support for coal-to-liquid has been widely criticized by environmentalists, sent out a press release clarifying his position on liquid coal."

Wiretapping: "Netroots activists who helped Barack Obama to become the Democratic party's presumptive presidential nominee are unmoved by the senator's explanation of his change of heart on a pending bill regarding warrantless wiretapping."

This is not the Barack Obama I knew.

Update: Marathon Pundit adds an exclamation point to the list.

Update II: Rants & Refinements adds the perfect cartoon.

Linked by: Newsbusters, Ed Driscoll and Fausta. Thanks!

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: "I'm all ears!"


• Don Surber: 'People of the World, Look at Berlin!'

• Atlas: Obama's foreign contributions: who is Ronald Hickel?: "John and I, in continuing to pour over these documents in the old fashion way, tedious line by tedious line, have found dozens, literally dozens of instances in which people have clearly made contributions over the applicable $2300 per individual limit, without consequence or direction to the Obama campaign to disgorge such illegally gotten fund..."

• A Blog for All: Why Obama will never be President: "Does he have a single position today that was the same on January 1 2008? Okay, I'm being sarcastic, but not by much. He has flip-flopped on Iraq, FISA, federal campaign money, just to name a couple. Plus, I think his and the Dem's 'no drilling for oil, at anytime, anywhere' is going to kill them both in November."

• Gateway Pundit: Obama visits Iraq and asks 'Why is FOX always on?" and then goes on to ask, "Is that the commander in chief's choice?" Atlas has the video. Hint: Armed Forces Radio and Televsion offer all major stations. The Armed Forces are choosing Fox. Cheezus.

• Primetime Politics: Lt. Col. Russell is about to put a stake in Hack Murtha's career?

• All Headline News: Lieberman Speaks To Hagee's Group

• Daily Gut: Giving Obama the Bush -- Q: "What did Obama say when Al Gore offered him advice?" A: "I'm all ears!""

The case of the missing thesis


NBC's Jim Popkin:

The hunt for Obama’s senior “thesis” began with a throwaway line in a newspaper article last October. The New York Times story, on Obama’s early New York years, mentioned in passing that the presidential contender had majored in political science at Columbia and had spent his time “writing his thesis on Soviet nuclear disarmament.”

Journalists began hounding Columbia University for copies of the musty document. Conservative bloggers began wondering if the young Obama had written a no-nukes screed that he might come to regret. And David Bossie, the former congressional investigator and “right-wing hit man,” as one newspaper described him, took out classified newspaper ads in Columbia University’s newspaper and the Chicago Tribune in March searching for the term paper...

The Politico's Ben Smith adds this tidbit:

During the last year, Obama's old friends and Harvard classmates were requested not to talk to the press without permission.

Courage!

On the other hand, Michelle Obama's thesis is readily available is readily available.

Hat tip: Larwyn

New York Times: Meltdown Nearly Complete


The wonderfully managed New York Times Company just reported an 82% drop in profit for the second quarter.

Meanwhile, print advertising revenue continued to shrink... Revenue dropped 6 percent to $741.9 million, missing the average Wall Street estimate for $754 million. Ad revenue slipped down 11 percent, hurt mostly by fewer classified ads.

Look at the bright side: revenue only missed by $12 million dollars.

John McCain was unavailable for comment; presumably because he was too busy giggling.