Obama and Associates, P.U.

Note:  You might want to start at the Barack Obama Index Page, especially if you arrived here by using a search engine. Barack Obama seems to have associated himself with a number of people and organizations that are, to say the least, out of step with most Americans. On this page: Overviews. ACORN. Michelle Obama. Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.       What evidence lurks at the University of Illinois? Frank Marshall Davis. Chicago. The Center for American Progress. Other questionable associates and endorsements. Tony Rezko. ... and don't forget Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his Black Liberation Theology. Overviews The Manchurian President.  American journalist, author and radio host, Aaron Klein, along with historian and researcher, Brenda J. Elliott, blow the lid off the dome of silence surrounding the Obama administration as they boldly unmask the nation's 44th president in their latest chilling monograph, "The Manchurian President:  Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists."  Providing close to 900 footnotes and countless pages of documentation, they reveal surreptitious ties to radical leftists of all stripes. A Stranger in Our Midst.  [Scroll down slowly]  This disquiet was a slow realization.  Awareness began with Obama's odd pre-presidency associations, decades of being oblivious to Rev. Wright's anti-American ranting, his enduring friendship with the terrorist guy-in-the-neighborhood Bill Ayers, and the Saul Alinsky-flavored anti-capitalist community activism.  Further add a hazy personal background — an Indonesian childhood, shifting official names, and a paperless-trail climb through elite educational institutions.  None of this disqualified Obama from the presidency; rather, this background just doesn't fit with the conventional political résumé. Does Obama Employ the Marxist Doctrine of Creative Destruction?  [Scroll down slowly]  Barack Obama has experienced an almost total lifelong immersion in socialism.  He has had a nearly complete dependence upon leftist and even communist contacts and friends during his childhood, education and rise to power.  Therefore, wouldn't it be exceedingly odd if Barack weren't at least a little bit communist at heart? Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis.  Despite the mass media news blackout, a series of books, talk radio and the blogosphere have managed to expose Barack Obama's connections to his radical mentors — Weather Underground bombers William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis and others.  David Horowitz and his Discover the Networks.org have also contributed a wealth of information and have noted Obama's radical connections since the beginning.  Yet, no one to my knowledge has yet connected all the dots between Barack Obama and the Radical Left. Finally!  Somebody Remembers Obama at Occidental.  Colossal efforts have been made to conceal Obama's school records along with the enigmatic birth certificate.  The president has elucidated little about his days at Occidental or Columbia other than to affirm his affection for radical, anti-American Marxists. ... There is nothing in Obama's background to suggest he is anything but a socialist in the Marxist tradition.  His father was a socialist economist, his mother unabashedly sympathetic to socialist causes.  His parents met in a Russian class when Russia was still the Soviet Union.  His most important childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was an unapologetic communist and member of the Communist Party USA.  His friends Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are socialists who advocate the violent overthrow of the United States government.  The "best education of his life" came from Saul Alinsky, yet another socialist. From Red, White and Blue to Just Plain Red.  [Scroll down]  Even lunkheads who managed to sleep all the way through 2008 should be able to figure out that, as president, Obama hasn't changed his colors, but only his address.  His circle of acquaintances has certainly widened, but it hasn't improved.  All you have to do is look at the thugs in ACORN and the SEIU, at people like self-proclaimed Communist Van Jones, who serves as one of Obama's czars, and Jeff Jones, another close advisor, who joined with Bill Ayers in creating the terrorist group known as the Weathermen. It's Not Socialism, It's Communism.  We know that he [Barack Obama] was greatly influenced by Marxists or people who viewed Communism sympathetically, not the least of which were his grandparents who introduced him to a mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the Communist Party USA.  Obama wrote that he was drawn to Marxists among his teachers in college.  He began his political career in the home of former Weatherman Bill Ayers.  These days he is praised by Communists in Cuba and Venezuela.  He sided with a Leftist former president of Honduras who tried to illegally alter its constitution. Obama's never found guilty by association.  Suppose it was revealed that the pastor who had married George and Laura Bush, baptized their two daughters and ministered to their spiritual needs for 20 years was a raving white supremacist who, from the pulpit, preached the separation of the races, claimed that the promiscuity of African-Americans had quickened the spread of AIDS and mused about how America might be improved if black people were sent back to Africa. ... Now what if on top of all this, it was revealed that George Bush had once done work for an organization that then stuffed ballot boxes to get him elected and routinely counselled clients on how to cheat on their taxes? The Communists Behind Obama's Health Care Goals.  Barack Obama did not conceive of socialized medicine on his own.  His acceptance of such a system was cultivated and nurtured by the same types of Marxist revolutionaries with whom he has surrounded himself throughout his entire adult life — and who are now shaping the major policy agendas of his administration. A U.S. President, Raised on KGB Propaganda.  From his communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis to the unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, Barack Obama has always gravitated towards people holding radical leftist views akin to those of [Manuel] Zelaya.  He eagerly promoted leftist ideology as an ACORN activist and later when he taught and developed theories that opposed the American system of individual liberties in favor of unsustainable group entitlements at the expense of producers — theories that advocated placing the people under the controlling "care" of the state. Malkin Exposes Obama's Government by Cronyism.  Merriam-Webster defines a crony as a longtime friend or companion.  But the word when used in a political context is a pejorative.  Culture of Corruption reminds readers that people should be judged by the company they keep and that "no one, not even Barack Obama, can drain a swamp by flooding it."  A must read for conservatives and all those now suffering from Obama-buyers' remorse. Send Obama packing via the 14th Amendment.  I find myself ambivalent concerning Barack Hussein Obama's birth record and since so many columnists and bloggers have dedicated reams of text about that subject, I felt it better to look at another side of the issue of Presidential legitimacy.  With regard to what Obama has done as both a private citizen and as an elected official of this country, has he by his own actions made himself ineligible for high elected office? Obama:  The Hollow Man.  Another downside of Obama as chameleon is that he has made poor choices of political allies and friends.  That is a weakness that his critics on the Right have hit hard.  They repeat the names Saul Alinsky, Jeremiah Wright, and William Ayers like spells.  They portray the men behind the names as dangerous villains, but the men are not.  Alinsky and Ayers are (or were — Alinsky is dead) pathetic radical poseurs driven by middle-class self-loathing.  Wright is a media whore who will say outrageous things as if on command, whenever cameras roll.  Their significance comes merely from the fact that Obama didn't have the sense to distance himself from them.  He claims that he didn't know about Ayers' criminal fugitive past when he first met him.  Well, maybe the president is really that stupid.  More likely, the other people in the room accepted Ayers, so Obama did too.  No integrity. Saul Alinksy's American Dream.  I recently found a tattered old copy of Saul Alinsky's Reveille for Radicals in a used bookstore.  It's underlined and marked up, and it appears to have been passed among several different owners since it was printed in 1969.  (The book itself was first published in 1946).  It is, of course, the classic handbook for "community organizers," or those seeking to instruct grassroots democracy on how to get what it wants — or at least the right kinds of people.  There were tricks and secret levers and all kinds of hidden methods by which a group of protesters, united into one mind, can achieve their goals, whatever those goals might be.  "The system," "the establishment," "the oppressors" — these were, if nothing, stagnant and half-asleep; once roused, they would be more willing to respond with brute force.  But like all heavy punches, such force could be avoided and manipulated.  Such was the goal of Alinsky's book. Chicago, Obama, and Health Care Reform:  There has been no lack of writing about the influence of Marxist Saul Alinsky on Barack Obama's political ideology.  But what appears to have escaped notice is the influence of the political culture of Chicago on Barack Obama.  These influences, of course, are not the same.  Alinsky was a formidable opponent of the Chicago Democratic Machine.  Obama was, when necessary, a consummate machine insider. Radical Son?  Obama at Columbia.  I don't think anyone can seriously make the argument at this point that Barack Obama did not dabble in radical leftist politics in his youth.  It is also difficult to ignore the fact that throughout his adult life, the president has been attracted to left-wing radicals and, for whatever reason, kept them close as advisors and mentors. Obama's Revenge:  While his community-organizing job paid a paltry $12,000 or so per year, Obama somehow managed to pay his way through one of the priciest graduate schools in the world, Harvard Law School.  (I say somehow managed because we have no record of his tuition payments).  Even more amazing, he became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review without ever producing a written paper — or at least a paper that the public has ever read.  There is a good deal of evidence that Obama's acceptance at Harvard Law — and his tuition — were facilitated by friends who had a vested interest in the community organizer.  Among them was Percy Sutton, a former Manhattan borough president and ardent leftist, who was also Malcolm X's lawyer. Obama Friends Call Character Into Question.  Convicted felon Tony Rezko.  Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers.  And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Barack Obama's Lost Years:  The pages of the Hyde Park Herald and the Chicago Defender thus offer entrée into Obama's heretofore hidden world.  What they portray is a Barack Obama sharply at variance with the image of the post-racial, post-ideological, bipartisan, culture-war-shunning politician familiar from current media coverage and purveyed by the Obama campaign.  As details of Obama's early political career emerge into the light, his associations with such radical figures as Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, Reverend James Meeks, Bill Ayers, and Bernardine Dohrn look less like peculiar instances of personal misjudgment and more like intentional political partnerships.  At his core, in other words, the politician chronicled here is profoundly race-conscious, exceedingly liberal, free-spending even in the face of looming state budget deficits, and partisan. Ayers Isn't The HALF Of It!  More information about Obama's connections to Khalid al-Mansour, Rashid Khalidi, Ingrid Mattson, Frank Marshall Davis, William Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, Rev. Wright and Father Pfleger. What We Know About Obama:  Obama's troubling associations are more than isolated friendships or instances of bad judgment.  His ties to Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Rashid Khalidi, Michael Pfleger, James Meeks, ACORN, the New Party, and the Gamaliel Foundation all reflect Obama's sympathy with radical-left ideas and causes — wealth redistribution prominent among them.  At both the Woods Fund and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, for example, Obama and Ayers channeled money into ACORN's coffers. Are Obama's Friends Fair Game?  It's not every presidential election that American voters are introduced to characters like former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers or Middle East historian Rashid Khalidi — both of whom, we have learned, Barack Obama worked and socialized with in Chicago. Not Over Yet.  There are simply too many ACORNs, Ayers, Khalidis, Pflegers, Wrights, et al. not to suggest a pattern unbecoming of a future President of the United States.  Obama's past statements about his relationship with Ayers (and others) simply cannot be reconciled with the factual circumstances of their long association.  McCain must focus on Ayers between 2001-2005.  Then in the climate of national worry following 9/11, Ayers was on recent record as lamenting that he had not set off enough bombs, and yet until 2005 still in contact with Obama — about what and why, voters might wish to know. [Emphasis in original] Who Vetted Obama?  We are living witnesses to an incredible media double standard, whereby a Republican vice-presidential candidate's personal life is being torn apart, while the Democratic presidential candidate continues to get a free ride.  Obama has a 30-year history of associating with unsavory characters, beginning with communist Frank Marshall Davis and continuing with Jeremiah Wright and communist terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, which should disqualify him from getting a security clearance in the government that he wants to run. The Obama Fan-Dance Must End.  As someone who has written critically of John McCain on a host of issues, including the Keating Five, none of it compares to the life that Barack Obama has led and his belief system.  Obama is not merely associated with domestic terrorists, Palestinian radicals, Marxists, and black liberation ideologues — he was their favorite candidate.  They groomed him.  They befriended him.  He befriended them.  He socialized with them.  In other words, these people saw Obama as representing their views and aspirations and he saw them the same way. The Real Obama:  Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, William Ayers and Antoin Rezko are not just people who happened to be at the same place at the same time as Barack Obama.  They are people with whom he chose to ally himself for years, and with some of whom some serious money changed hands.  Some gave political support, and some gave financial support, to Obama's election campaigns, and Obama in turn contributed either his own money or the taxpayers' money to some of them.  That is a familiar political alliance — but an alliance is not just an "association" from being at the same place at the same time. Six Degrees of Barack Obama:  As a legislator, he accomplished nothing.  As an attorney, he has never tried a case to a verdict.  If we were able to identify the six persons in closest proximity to the candidate in order to better understand Obama, who would they be?  Possibly, William Ayers, Rod Blagojevich, Emil Jones, Tony Rezko, Todd Stroger and Jeremiah Wright.  If you are seeking genuine political change and desired reform, why on earth would you look to the Cook County Democratic Machine to deliver a knight in shining armor? Obama's Three Strikes.  With the news that he belonged to the far-left New Party during the 90s, public revelations of his involvement with fringe left-wing politics have hit three, the other two being William Ayers and ACORN.  (What about Jeremiah Wright and the shadowy figure of Rashid Khalidi, you ask?  The problem with these is that neither is fully political.  Both are deeply intertwined with religion and race.  Obama has shown a distinct talent for manipulating both.) The real Obama: Part IV.  Barack Obama's supporters often try to sidestep questions about his character and judgment by saying that we should stick to what they arbitrarily define as "the real issues."  But Mr. Obama's record on specific issues is as bad as his record of repeatedly allying himself over the years with people who make no attempt to hide their hatred of America. When guilt by association is fair game:  Guilt by association?  Not when the associations have such deep roots or raise such troubling questions about Obama's character and judgment.  It was only in the heat of a presidential campaign that Obama finally repudiated his alliances with Ayers, Wright, and Rezko.  It isn't irresponsible to ask what those associations tell us about a man poised to be the next president of the United States.  It would be irresponsible not to. Dark Red Roots:  Why Ayers Matters.  If the truth becomes better known — and it will if the Ayers issue is doggedly pursued — it will be clear that Obama was not only deeply immersed the fetid swamp of Chicago's far-left political scene, but was from the very beginning of his career carefully groomed by the city's socialist left to follow the path he's on now in his quest for the presidency of the United States. It's a question of judgment, not patriotism.  In the final analysis, it's a fact that the Illinois Senator has some sinister characters in his past and they have played a major role in his political ascendancy.  Investigating his relationship with them is not an attempt to smear him, or to call him unpatriotic; it's an effort to understand his capacity for sound decision-making.  We'd be irresponsible indeed to pretend that a candidate with questionable judgment should be spared serious scrutiny on his way to the White House. Who Did You Know, Sen. Obama, and When Did You Know Them?  There has been much talk, both pro and con, about whether Sen. Barack Obama's "associations" matter with regard to his qualifications to hold the office of President of the United States.  This argument, this avenue of political discourse, misses the point.  Whether or not Sen. Obama has associations with criminals, terrorists and other nefarious and infamous individuals pales in comparison as to whether he has been influenced by them. Terrorists, Terrorism and Obama:  [Scroll down]  While the Obama campaign has been very successful in defending against all of it by claiming "racism" or "right-wing" blogging rumors, the facts remain very clear.  There is a definite pattern to Obama's life.  A Pattern of long-term associations with numerous radical figures and organizations.  A pattern of being less than truthful in answering any questions concerning his past.  A pattern of changing his story repeatedly to stay one step ahead of investigators while trying to run the election clock out.  A pattern of connections to known terrorists here and abroad, as well as an apologist policy position towards terrorism itself. Obama would never qualify to be McCain's bodyguard. Why Doesn't McCain Fight Back?  [Scroll down]  As a candidate, Obama doesn't have to undergo a background security check.  As president, however, he will have instant access to our most closely guarded and classified state secrets.  If the truth comes out then, it will be too late.  Many current and former officials have expressed alarm about Obama avoiding a background investigation.  One said, "I used to have top secret clearance, and if I had the contacts that Obama had, I would not have gotten that clearance." Obama Couldn't Be Cleared.  Considering Barack Obama as a candidate for a top secret security clearance status with a full array of compartmented clearances, one has to be cognizant of the fact that there is considerable evidence of associations and even assistance from individuals with past criminal records or who have expressed anti-American beliefs. ... There is no possibility that a Top Secret clearance would be awarded to a member of the Armed Forces whose background included such associations.  An intelligence service clearance for the handling of highly classified material would be totally out of the question. Obama Would Fail Security Clearance.  Obama's multiple links to anti-Americans and subversives mean he would fail the standard security clearance process for Federal employees.  Islamic aggression represents America's strategic enemy; Obama's many insalubrious connections raise grave doubts about his fitness to serve as America's commander-in-chief. To The Undecided Voter:  By "Obama's Friends" we mean the likes of Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, Tony Rezko and other assorted miscreants.  I could spend a lot of time here detailing the crimes of Obama's friends --- and make no mistake, they were his friends.  At this point I don't think that any votes are going to be changed one way or another by detailing the corruption of Rezko, the America-hating of Wright or the unrepentant terrorism of Ayers. Suffice it to say that Obama was close to all of these people ... and these were associations born of mutual interests and philosophies. Closer look at Obama reveals he's wrong choice.  Obama has associated with the most radical people of our lifetime.  Can you imagine the outcry if it were discovered that Sarah Palin attended a church with a racist pastor?  There would be no end to the calls for her to stand down and return to Alaska in disgrace.  Obama's list of radical friends doesn't end with Jeremiah Wright.  He has chosen the most inflammatory people for his closest confidants so repeatedly that you have to call his judgment into question. Obama, Con.  Money talks — and what it says is more important than a politician's rhetoric in an election year.  Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger are not just people with left-wing opinions.  They are reckless demagogues preaching hatred of the lowest sort — and both are recipients of money from Obama.  Bill Ayers is not just "an education professor" who has some left-wing views.  He is a confessed and unrepentant terrorist, who more recently has put his message of resentment into the schools — an effort using money from a foundation that Obama headed. Who Will Protect America?  [Scroll down]  More disturbing is that Obama has not been honest about the radical figures he has associated with. ... Obama's association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger put him in company with angry anti-American fringe figures, who, were they on the far right, would have ended Obama's political career long ago. ... I actually know a good bit about people such as Ayers, Pfleger, Wright, and now Khalidi.  They are the kind of anti-Americans who thrive on the outer fringes of the left. Community Organizer In Chief.  Barack Obama claims he worked for a "small group of churches" as a community organizer.  In fact, he was hired by a radical Alinskyite group, and Saul Alinsky's own son has outed him. Finding Friends On Far, Far Left.  The saying that a man is known by the company he keeps is true of political relationships.  In Barack Obama's case, some of the groups that support him are an indictment of his political orientation. Obama, Ayers and the Knowledge 'Too Big' To Handle.  For mentors, Obama chose men like Ayers, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the fraudulent Palestinian wannabe Edward Said, and the radical PLO groupie Rashid Khalidi.  These are the men he turned to for wisdom.  In 2003, for instance, Obama publicly thanked Khalidi for providing "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases." Video: Obama's Radical Circle of Friends. The second tier of influence goes under the bus at midnight.  [Scroll down]  The really big question the mainstream media won't ask therefore is how Van Jones could have been appointed in the first place.  For his significance lies not just in the fact that he is a 'truther' or blabbermouth.  It is that he has a long history of extreme, anti-western radicalism and membership of a network of such radicals — a history not only known to the Obama administration but of which networks Obama himself was part.  The prize for Van Jones's scalp should go not to the US talk show hosts but to the sleuth who first dug out the facts about Van Jones and his radical circles. There is much more about Van Jones, if you're interested. Revolution Anyone?  How many Marxists, Communists, Domestic Terrorists and raving racialists does the President get to associate with before reasonable people can assume that the president on some level shares their particular vision of America?  While perusing the manifesto of this now defunct STORM, several things struck me as particularly interesting.  There was of course the passionate commitment to Marxist ideals, radical feminism, gay lesbian and transgender liberation and the ardent support of the unrepentant murderer Mumia Abu Jamal.  And there was this rather innocuous looking paragraph... Why Obama Could Not Stage a Coup:  Obama rose in politics through the thoroughly corrupt one-party government of Chicago.  His spiritual advisor sounds like a rabble-rousing storm trooper.  His intellectual mentor, Saul Alinksy, like the Bolsheviks and Nazis, believed in state terrorism.  If Obama wanted to follow their leads, could he?  I believe not. Media Corruption and the Two Party System.  What drives President Barack Obama to want to seize control of the health care and energy sectors of the U.S. economy?  Obama was trained as a Marxist from his days as a young boy in Hawaii when his grandfather picked Communist Party USA member Frank Marshall Davis as his mentor.  In college, as Obama tells the story, he picked his "friends" carefully, in order to avoid being perceived as a sell-out, and those friends included the "Marxist professors."  Later, in Chicago, he would become a political associate of another Marxist professor, Bill Ayers of the University of Illinois.  Does anybody see a pattern here? A little weekend reading: They still spell it 'Amerika'.  For those of us who grew up in the era when Weather Undergrounders Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn were familiar names in the news, it is always discomforting to be reminded of Barack Obama's many associations with people of the radical left — Ayers, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Van Jones, etc.  Such folks' political thought never progressed beyond the 1960s because the revolutionary New Left didn't disapear, it simply went on to graduate school and then careers, mostly in the mainstream media, academia, the non-profits, the bureaucracy of state and local social work, and Blue State politics. It Used to Be A Wonderful Life.  People used to say they wouldn't buy a used car from Richard Nixon.  Well, I wouldn't buy a used hubcap from the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Henry Waxman, Alan Grayson, Christopher Dodd, Barbara Boxer, Charles Rangel, Rahm Emanuel, Cass Sunstein or David Axelrod.  Furthermore, I've seen guys selling "genuine mink coats" out of the trunk of a '94 Buick I'd trust more than Robert Gibbs. Obama's Hackneyed Hypocrisy.  Barack Obama has spent his whole adult life doing the bidding of powerful interests.  At Harvard, that bastion of the powerful elite, he kissed up to enough factions to become president of the law review while actually writing next to nothing.  In Chicago, he settled in tony Hyde Park with the help of a highly suspect sweetheart deal on his property, got an adjunct gig at the powerful University of Chicago, cultivated leftist elitists like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn who sat on wealthy nonprofit boards, and chose the church of the wild and hateful Rev. Jeremiah Wright because it gave him a powerful entrée into the poor black community that he otherwise would lack if he spent all his time in Hyde Park.  He himself noted that he didn't really join a church until he appreciated "the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change."  This all was of a piece with his training as an acolyte of Saul Alinsky, who taught that power is its own justification. Liberalism Is Dead.  [Scroll down]  Barack Obama is not a liberal; he is a third-world Socialist of the really angry kind.  Obama has been surrounded by enraged Leftists from childhood on, including those crucial four years of living in Indonesia right after the whole Communist Party was wiped out by the Indonesian military under General Sukarno.  That's Obama's real experience of the world outside of Hawaii.  Ever since then, Obama has chosen to be surrounded by anti-Western, anti-liberal Leftists.  Jeremiah Wright is perfectly typical of Obama's crowd. Did someone mention Jeremiah Wright? Obama's radical associations matter, but go ignored by press.  From Obama's participation in the socialist New Party in the mid-1990s, to his connections to communist-terrorist Bill Ayers, it's all relevant today.  How?  For example, some of the same anti-American, anti-capitalist revolutionaries from those bad old days now help craft republic-changing legislation. ACORN Note:  More information about ACORN (and various allegations of fraud) can be found here. Obama didn't tell the truth about his relationship to ACORN.  At CPAC, Rep. Daryl Issa, R-Cal., released [a] video that shows the President didn't tell the truth about the extent of his relationship with ACORN. ACORN cookies at White House holiday party.  At the White House Holiday Party last night, an oddly shaped cookie grabbed my attention.  Who knew that acorns were part of the traditional holiday fare?  Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, noticed these earlier, as reported by Yeas and Nays, but it seems like they've made these in bulk. ACORN at the White House.  The newly released list of visitors to the Obama White House makes the president's claim he's clueless about his former employer ACORN — and its election fraud trials and tribulations — especially difficult to believe.  Of particular significance is the visit by ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson who met with White House political director Patrick Gaspard in March.  The purpose of the meeting with Gaspard, a former ACORN employee himself, was not disclosed. ACORN's Big Spender.  More proof has emerged of White House political director Patrick Gaspard's ties to the radical advocacy group ACORN.  Gaspard, a longtime operative for ACORN and one of its partisan arms, New York's Working Families Party, currently holds the title of White House political affairs director, the same title Karl Rove held in President Bush's White House.  Internal ACORN documents show that Gaspard gave ACORN $40,000 over the past two years. ACORN's Man in the White House.  Newly discovered evidence shows the radical advocacy group ACORN has a man in the Obama White House.  This power behind the throne is longtime ACORN operative Patrick Gaspard.  He holds the title of White House political affairs director, the same title Karl Rove held in President Bush's White House.  Evidence shows that years before he joined the Obama administration, Gaspard was ACORN boss Bertha Lewis's political director in New York. Ship of Fools:  Obama's Intimates and Advisors.  [Scroll down]  The President Obama is as much a product of ACORN as it is of him.  He worked closely with the "community organizing" group for many years, represented them in court, and was a member of the board of Chicago's Woods Fund at the time it funneled $200,000 to an ACORN affiliate.  Mr. Obama praised the organization extravagantly both during and after his election, and his campaign "donated" over $800,000 to an offshoot group controlled by ACORN (Citizens Services, Inc.) — to "get out the vote." Patrick Gaspard, ACORN, and Obama.  During the 2008 election, Obama's close links to the far-left New Party were revealed and explored (although not by the mainstream press).  Yet many seem to have forgotten that the New Party, particularly in Chicago, was dominated by ACORN (and by an ACORN-controlled SEIU union local). Obama and ACORN:  Barack Obama gave five interviews last Sunday [9/20/2009], and only one interviewer bothered to ask him about the ACORN scandal.  ACORN is the leftist activist organization that lost its federal funds last week in a Congressional vote that was not even close.  Obama's answer to his lone ACORN question was amazing.  He brazened it out:  "Frankly," said the President, "it's not something I've followed closely.  This is not the biggest issue facing the country.  It's not something I'm paying a lot of attention to." ... This is the same Barack Obama who said, in an address to ACORN in 2007, "I have been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career." Obama and Acorn:  In August 2008, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that the Obama campaign paid more than $800,000 to an Acorn "offshoot" for "get out the vote" projects.  Obama worked for Acorn and Acorn worked for Obama.  That doesn't mean the president is implicated in any wrongdoing, but it suggests at least that the worse things get for Acorn, the more embarrassing it is for him.  If the Justice Department fails to prosecute, it invariably would raise suspicions of political favoritism. And what of ACORN, President Obama?  [Scroll down]  Obama is proud to say his relationship with ACORN goes back decades as a "community organizer" and a legal adviser.  A month before the election he told members:  "You will have input into the agenda of the next president of the United States of America."  The input ACORN is having has shown up like a stain.  It starts with charges of voter-registration fraud in 14 states, and includes video of ACORN employees giving unethical tax advice and suggesting ways to hide 13-year-old girls smuggled into the country to become hookers. Obama's Direct and Lucrative Ties to ACORN.  Is it any wonder that the Obama presidency is shaping up to be the most corrupt and most oppressive anti-American administration in USA history?  Thus far, any and all attempts to investigate ACORN have been blocked by ObamaThugs and the Democrat-run Congress.  The reason?  They have benefited greatly from ACORN's voter fraud and many might not have been elected or reelected without it. Obama Campaign Gave ACORN Current Fundraising List.  Human Events reported earlier today about testimony yesterday [10/29/2008] in the lawsuit brought by the Pennsylvania GOP against Project Vote, a sister organization of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. More Connections Between Obama and ACORN?  A former staffer for Project Vote, a sister organization of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, testified at a hearing in Pennsylvania on Wednesday [10/29/2008] that the Obama campaign provided the group with a campaign donor list in late 2007 for their fundraising efforts. Obama's Ties to Socialism:  ACORN, founded by a former member of the "SDS", Wade Rathke, is a leftist community organization with close ties to the Democratic Socialists of America.  In the 1990s, ACORN heavily involved itself in the housing market by using the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 as a tool to extort banks and pressure them into making risky loans.  In the 90s, ACORN's militant tactics caught national attention on several occasions when they broke into private offices, harassed bankers at their homes, and used the CRA to delay bank mergers. The Price of Political Correctness.  [Scroll down]  What deserves greater scrutiny is Barack Obama's history with ACORN.  He was the attorney representing ACORN when they pushed the Clinton Administration to expand the CRA.  He served on the board of the Woods Fund with William Ayers when it gave ACORN funding grants.  Obama's hands are dirty with ACORN, and his involvement needs to be accounted for.  Of course, his silence on his past associations while running for president plays us all for fools. Obama Finds An ACORN.  The man who includes being a community organizer on his short resume has a long association with a far-left group that would organize our communities into socialist gulags. ACORN:  A Clear and Present Danger.  What I have not been able to figure out is why the leaders of the group have not been indicted under RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) for taking part in an ongoing criminal organization.  The only logical reason that the feds have backed off is because of ACORN's close ties to organized labor.  Tragically, in 2008 America, it's not only individuals who are easily intimidated, but the government itself. Obama and "The Left":  Although Senator Barack Obama has been allied with a succession of far left individuals over the years, that is only half the story.  There are, after all, some honest and decent people on the left.  But these have not been the ones that Obama has been allied with — allied, not merely "associated" with.  ACORN is not just an organization on the left.  In addition to the voter frauds that ACORN has been involved in over the years, it is an organization with a history of thuggery, including going to bankers' homes to harass them and their families, in order to force banks to lend to people with low credit ratings. ACORN Corruption Runs Deep.  Unfortunately for America, the media has been filtering news for years and this practice has allowed some of the main figures in the Teamstergate scandal to assume top spots in the Democrat party.  Part 1 of this series reviewed the history of the scandal and its strong ties to ACORN and President Obama. Obama partnerships with voter fraud unit and terrorists run wide and deep.  •  In a number of crucial cases, Obama was the Attorney for the Chicago ACORN chapter and he used them to assist him in his run for the Illinois State Senate in 1996.  •  In 1992, prior to his working as ACORN's attorney, Obama was Executive Director of ACORN subsidiary Project Vote.  •  Obama trained ACORN workers.  •  While sitting on the board of the Woods Foundation, Obama and domestic terrorist William Ayers — who is also a major Obama fundraiser — arranged for grants for ACORN.  •  While both on the board of Chicago's Annenberg Challenge — Ayers and Obama with Obama as Chairman — funds were funneled to ACORN. Success Is Built On Work Ethic, Not Grievances.  Like everyone else, I have also been hearing a lot lately about Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of the church that Barack Obama has belonged to for 20 years.  Both men, in their different ways, have for decades been promoting the far left vision of victimization and grievances — Wright from his pulpit and Obama as a community organizer for the radical group ACORN, as a collaborator with former Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers, and as the member of the U.S. Senate with the farthest left voting record. ACORN's Senator.  Obama, who once represented ACORN in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois, was hired by the group to train its community organizers and staff in the methods and tactics of the late Saul Alinsky.  ACORN would stage in-your-face protests in bank lobbies, drive-through lanes and even at bank managers' homes to get them to issue risky loans in the inner city or face charges of racism.  In the early 1990s, reports Stanley Kurtz, senior fellow at the Ethics and Policy Center, Obama was personally recruited by Chicago's ACORN to run training sessions in "direct action." Barack Obama and Alinsky's Rules for Psychopaths.  A psychopath is a person without conscience; someone who constantly breaks the moral rules of the community.  Saul Alinsky was a "community organizer" who found a career that fit that personality disorder.  In the Orwellian upside-down world of the Left, community organizers disorganize communities.  That is the meaning of revolution, to overturn whatever exists today in the raw pursuit of one's own power. ... Alinsky's disciples — including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — have a warlike political style.  They learned politics as war from the Master.  Obama is so well-trained in Alinsky tactics that he used to teach workshops on it. Obama seeks distance from ACORN.  [ACORN] claims to have registered 1.3 million young people, minorities, and working-class voters.  But some of those registration cards have listed dead or nonexistent people and are being investigated in at least eight states. The Nuts at ACORN Could Cause Obama Fall.  ACORN, the radical community group, is becoming an embarrassment for Obama.  It is not as if its shenanigans are likely to tip the result, with the Democrats so far ahead.  But as it is raided by the FBI in state after state (11 so far), it is becoming identified as the electoral equivalent of Greenpeace, extremists who will stop at nothing to get their way. McCain's Prospects Depend on Telling Truth About Obama.  As the old saying goes, it's not over until the fat lady sings, and it's high time for the fat lady to sing about Obama's scary agenda and the many reasons why it is too risky to elect him president.  We need to hear more about ACORN, the special-interest group that would like to steal this election by registering people who are not eligible to vote, such as registering ghost voters in Nevada under the names of the Dallas Cowboys.  Obama's years of close association with ACORN need to be known to the public. Obama Distances Himself From ACORN, Calls Controversy a 'Distraction'.  He [Obama] said his relationship with the group [ACORN] is "pretty straightforward," referring to legal work he and two other lawyers did for the group in 1995.  "That was my relationship and is my relationship to ACORN," he said.  Obama's campaign also paid more than $800,000 to a group called Citizens Services Inc., an ACORN subsidiary, to "augment" Obama's grassroots organizing efforts in the Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania primaries. Obama Distorts ACORN Ties.  Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign has been forced to revise statements about their Obama's get-out-the vote work for the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, a non-profit roiled in allegations of voter registration fraud.  Obama's website "Fight the Smears," designed to counteract misinformation about the candidate's record, contained false information about Obama's connections to ACORN. Through a glass darkly.  Fortunately, some newspapers are making valiant efforts to excavate the truth about Obama and resist the intellectual intimidation being used to suppress it.  The Cleveland Leader, which as I reported here confirmed Obama's close association with ACORN in documents which it discovered had been removed from the web, has now discovered that the denials of that involvement on Obama's fightthesmears.com website have been altered in order to make it look like he has been telling the truth about his ACORN associations all along. Obamacorn.  Obama's Web site proclaims, "Barack was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity."  Then how is it that Chicago ACORN leader Toni Foulkes sang Obama's praises for his work for ACORN in his article, "Case Study: Chicago -- The Barack Obama Campaign," which appeared in Social Policy magazine in 2004? ... Foulkes wrote:  "When he returned from law school, we asked him to help us with a lawsuit to challenge the state of Illinois' refusal to abide by the National Voting Rights Act ... Obama took the case, known as ACORN vs. Edgar ... and we won." Community-Organizer-in-Chief.  Nearly all of the concern over voter fraud has focused on one group, the Association Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN), which is under investigation or facing serious allegations of fraud in 13 states over how it has conducted voter-registration drives.  ACORN insists, incredibly, that its voter-registration drives are nonpartisan activities.  However, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has endorsed the group's activities in the past and taught at their seminars. GOP Turning Up the Heat on Obama and ACORN.  [Danny] Diaz also encourages Obama to fully disclose his relationship with ACORN, which has been distorted by his own campaign officials and his "Fight the Smears" website.  Obama has not been upfront about his promises to give ACORN influence in his admnistration, his decision to seek a political endorsement from their PAC or his payments to one of their subsidiaries for get out the vote efforts.  Obama's campaign also previously stated that Obama never worked for ACORN when in fact Obama led training sessions for them in 1992 and represted the group in court in 1995. McCain Camp Drives Obama-ACORN Connection.  John McCain's campaign is using Barack Obama's ties to a controversial low-income advocacy group to escalate his criticism of the Democratic nominee's character and judgment. Obama camp downplays payments to ACORN.  Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama's campaign distanced itself Thursday [10/9/2008] from its $800,000 payment linked to the liberal ACORN organization, which is under investigation in several states where it is suspected of filing fraudulent voter registrations.  Federal Election Commission reports show ACORN-affiliated Citizens Services Inc. got $832,598 from the Obama campaign for get-out-the-vote work during the primaries.  But those payments stopped in May and the Obama campaign says they should not be an election issue. The Editor grumbles to himself... ... and the Obama campaign says Jeremiah Wright should not be an election issue. ... and the Obama campaign says Bill Ayers should not be an election issue. ... and the Obama campaign says Frank Marshall Davis should not be an election issue. ... and the Obama campaign says abortion should not be an election issue. Obama Hired ACORN For GOTV.  Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is the first national candidate ever to hire ACORN, a controversial non-profit accused of voter fraud across the country, for get out the vote activities.  Obama's campaign paid $800,000 to a subsidiary of the liberally-leaning non-profit Association of Community Organizers for Reform called Citizens Services Incorporated campaign to increase voter turnout.  This information, however, was not properly disclosed to the Federal Election Commission. Huffington Post and ACORN Tag-Team Cover Up of Obama's ACORN Days.  Guess who's behind Social Policy magazine?  Something called The Institute for Social Justice.  The website indicates the address of the magazine is 1024 Elysian Fields Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70117. … Guess who else lives in Elysian Fields?  ACORN.  Go to Sweetness & Light blog and scroll down to the Form 990s (tax returns for nonprofits) and you will see that both ACORN and Project Vote report the same address, 1024 Elysian Fields Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70117.  There is also more evidence of the close relationship between Project Vote and ACORN in 1992. Obama, Voter Fraud & Mortgage Meltdown.  Which community activist/political organization in the United States is the largest, most radical left, and most untrustworthy?  The answer is ACORN, which bills itself as the nation's largest community organization for the rights of low- and moderate-income families.  Its hidden agenda, however, is to change the form of the U.S. government from a republic to a socialist oligarchy, using class warfare and the aid of radical liberals within the Democrat Party.  This hidden agenda explains why the liberal newsmedia go mute on Obama's ACORN ties. Why Obama's "Community Organizer" Days Are a Joke.  As I've reported previously, Obama's community organizing days involved training grievance-mongers from the far-left ACORN.  The ACORN mob is infamous for its bully tactics (which they dub "direct actions"); Obama supporters have recounted his role in organizing an ambush on a government planning meeting about a landfill project opposed by Chicago's minority lobbies.  With benefactors like Obama in office, ACORN has milked nearly four decades of government subsidies to prop up chapters that promote the welfare state and undermine the free market, as well as some that have been implicated in perpetuating illegal immigration and voter fraud. Inside Obama's Acorn:  If Acorn is adept at creating a non-partisan, inside-game veneer for what is in fact an intensely radical, leftist, and politically partisan reality, so is Obama himself.  This is hardly a coincidence:  Obama helped train Acorn's leaders in how to play this game.  For the most part, Obama seems to have favored the political-insider strategy, yet it's clear that he knew how to play the in-your-face "direct action" game as well.  And surely during his many years of close association with Acorn, Obama had to know what the group was all about. Obama's Alliance with Marxists:  Erik Ericson of RedState.com has a very detailed article today on Barack Obama's connection to a neo-Marxist political party called the "New Party." ... Basically, Obama sought out the group as a result of his work with another far left organization ACORN -- a "non-partisan" acvitist group whose members have been convicted in several states of vote fraud.  And not only did Obama receive their endorsement, he used many of the party's members as campaign workers on his first state senate campaign. What Do Obama & I Have In Common?  Obama worked for ACORN as a community organizer for three-and-a-half years.  I lasted all of two weeks. … There was a considerable gap between rhetoric and reality.  There was a considerable disconnect between the black membership and the white organizers.  ACORN was all for a living wage as long as they didn't have to pay one to its employees.  ACORN was all for a better world but had no room for improvement.  Some lessons can only be learned the hard way. Spreading socialism on the taxpayer's dime... The ACORN Obama Knows:  If you don't know what ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is all about, you better bone up.  This left-wing group takes in 40 percent of its revenues from American taxpayers — you and me — and has leveraged nearly four decades of government subsidies to fund affiliates that promote the welfare state and undermine capitalism and self-reliance, some of which have been implicated in perpetuating illegal immigration and encouraging voter fraud.  A new whistleblower report from the Consumer Rights League documents how Chicago-based ACORN has commingled public tax dollars with political projects. ACORN's Hypocritical House of Cards:  The Consumers Rights League has published a collection of whistleblower documents that suggest "consumer advocacy" group ACORN has reaped substantial financial gains by misusing taxpayer dollars for political ends and attacking lending corporations for the same 'predatory' lending practices it regularly engages in.  These internal emails and policies suggest that ACORN has failed to maintain a proper distinction between its tax-exempt housing work and its aggressive political activities.  ACORN and its affiliates are then able to extract resources from financial lenders seeking abatement from its public relations assaults and force financial settlement agreements that benefit ACORN but are harmful for consumers. Edwards Touts Obama to ACORN Group.  Former Democratic senator and perpetual presidential candidate John Edwards was the keynote speaker at the annual gathering of the radical group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).  Touting Obama to the crowd was hardly necessary.  Barack Obama was closely allied with ACORN during his community organizing days in Chicago and even did some legal work for them in the early 1990's. Minimum Wage Hits $9.50 in Santa Fe.  This month, in the liberal bastion of Santa Fe, New Mexico, they are raising the minimum wage in the city to $9.50 per hour.  The measure applies to all businesses with 25 or more employees.  The driving force behind this decision was Acorn, the 'national community organization,' as Jon Gertner describes it in The New York Times Magazine for January 15, 2006.  Acorn has discovered that the way to win on the minimum wage issue is to cast it not as an economic issue but as a moral issue. Rotten ACORN:  In what is being called the "worst case of voter registration fraud in Washington state history," seven employees of the liberal advocacy group ACORN have been charged with filling out fake voter registration forms. … The defendants allegedly faked more than 1700 voter registration forms.  They, like all ACORN employees nationwide, are paid by for every name they sign up.  This has led to widespread charges of fraud in Missouri, Ohio, and 12 other states. Missing headlines:  leftwing voter fraud guilty plea.  Readers may recall that the state of Washington was in the news in 2004 for the closeness of the election for Governor (won by Christine Democrat Gregoire by all of 133 votes; her Republican opponent, Dino Rossi, has since announced plans to run again next year).  That race was subject to claims of voter fraud.  While the defendants who worked for ACORN did not plead guilty for acts that led to actual voting... where there is smoke there is usually fire. Obama's Ties To ACORN More Substantial than first believed.  You've heard of Moveon.org and Code Pink — two radical leftist groups seeking to elect out and out socialists to public office and who are fierce opponents of the capitalist sysetm.  But have you heard of ACORN? … Not surprisingly it turns out that Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger — two radical clergy closely associated with Obama — have extensive ties to ACORN.  Their views fit nicely within the ACORN anti-capitalist agenda that they have been pushing for years. Obama to amend report on $800,000 in spending.  U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an offshoot of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now for services the Democrat's campaign says it mistakenly misrepresented in federal reports.  An Obama spokesman said Federal Election Commission reports would be amended to show Citizens Services Inc. — a subsidiary of ACORN — worked in "get-out-the-vote" projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in FEC finance reports filed during the primary. Obama's Liberal Shock Troops:  Mr. Obama has extensive connections with the granddaddy of activist groups, Acorn (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), which has gotten millions in government grants for its low-income housing programs.  In 1992, Acorn hired Mr. Obama to run a voter registration effort.  He later became a trainer for the group, as well as its lawyer in election law cases.  Acorn's political arm has endorsed Mr. Obama while its "voter education" arm has pledged to spend $35 million to register people this fall — despite a history of vote fraud scandals that have led to guilty pleas by many Acorn employees. O's Dangerous Pals:  The seeds of today's financial meltdown lie in the Commu nity Reinvestment Act — a law passed in 1977 and made riskier by unwise amendments and regulatory rulings in later decades.  CRA was meant to encourage banks to make loans to high-risk borrowers, often minorities living in unstable neighborhoods.  That has provided an opening to radical groups like ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) to abuse the law by forcing banks to make hundreds of millions of dollars in "subprime" loans to often uncreditworthy poor and minority customers. Rotten Boroughs.  Ayers' Weather Underground grew out of "Students For A Democratic Society", as did ACORN.  Today, Ayers and his fellow "educators" are engaged with considerable success in radicalizing the next generation of Americans.  But, if that doesn't work, Acorn has a fallback strategy.  What does ACORN do?  It steals elections. Vote-Fraud-A-Go-Go.  Let every vote count, is the Democratic Party's mantra these days.  That slogan might better be:  Let every vote count as often as we need to win.  Such, at any rate, are the tactics of ACORN, Barack Obama's favorite "community organizers," and its Project Vote — of which, the Democratic presidential candidate has boasted, "I started working as the director … here in Chicago." The ACORN/Obama Voter Registration "Thug Thizzle".  Systemic corruption of our election process continues. … On Monday [10/6/2008], the two liberal groups announced the wrap-up of a 21-state voter registration drive targeting low-income people and minorities in battleground states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico and Wisconsin.  What's wrong with that?  For starters, these two groups are militant partisan outfits purporting to engage in nonpartisan civic activity.  And their campaign comes amid an avalanche of fresh voter-fraud allegations involving ACORN in many of those same key states. Blunt links 'sordid' ACORN to Obama.  Gov. Matt Blunt sought yesterday to link Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama with accusations of fraudulent voter registration in Missouri and other states by an organization that advocates for poor people.  Blunt, a Republican, called ACORN an organization with a "sordid history" of voter fraud in Missouri.  In a telephone conference call, Blunt recounted a series of problems ACORN had caused with voter registration in the state. Obama and ACORN: Relationship May Be More Extensive Than Candidate Says.  Barack Obama says he only had limited ties to ACORN, and they began in 1995.  But other encounters with the group, plus a voter-registration drive he conducted called Project Vote three years earlier, calls his account into question. ACORN: Not the Face of Change.  Barack Obama has numerous ties to ACORN, the group under investigation for voter registration fraud in states across the nation.  Obama paid one of their subsidiaries, Citizen Services, Inc., $800,000 and misrepresented that payment on his campaign finance disclosures. Liberal group's fraud shows voter ID need.  What do Barack Obama, Cynthia Tucker and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) have in common?  I'll tell you a few facts and you decide.  I'll try not to load my words, as Cynthia Tucker did in her Sunday column blasting voter ID laws as the product of "pseudo-facts" and "overhyped allegations of voter fraud."  Readers of my column will, I hope, be outraged by their own thinking, not feelings emanating from pejorative terms. The Rise And Fall Of The Obama Campaign:  Will Obama win, or will the whole truth about him become known in the nick of time? ... If you believe Obama's protestations of ignorance about Ayers' terrorist background, you've been brainwashed.  The Obamas are not oblivious. ... [ACORN is] the organization with which Obama has been associated throughout his adult life, as organizer, trainer, lawyer, funder and political beneficiary ... and Obama's Achilles heel. ACORN's big scam:  Obama has in the past represented ACORN in his home state of Illinois.  And during the primary season the Obama campaign gave ACORN some $830,000 to help with a get out the vote drive.  In Ohio, where the ACORN effort was particularly intense, about a third of some 660,000 new voter registrations don't match information on file in other government databases.  Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, didn't seem particularly concerned, so Republican Party officials took the issue into federal court. ACORN Magazine Article on Obama Magically Reappears.  It appears ACORN has decided there is no point in continuing to hide an article that links Senator Barack Obama to it in the early 1990s because it's out there in cyberspace already. Obama's Big Lie in the Last Debate:  One of Obama's first career jobs was with ACORN.  He was recognized early on as a talented organizer by ACORN leader Madeline Talbott, (think smooth talker) and she got him to coach ACORN leaders in community activism.  At the time, Talbott was focusing on ACORN's efforts to expand bank lending to low-income, high-risk customers — the activity that ultimately precipitated today's mortgage market failure — so it is likely Obama trained her leaders with a focus on that effort. Stealing the Presidency: An Obama/ACORN Primer.  For the past eight years, Americans have been bombarded nearly nonstop by cries of "Bush stole the White House," without a single proven shred of evidence, without a single indictment or conviction of Republicans on vote fraud, vote rigging or anything even close.  Meanwhile the only group indicated and convicted in actual vote fraud cases in the last two elections — ACORN — is fully mobilized still, claims to have registered 1.3 million new voters this year, and is tied historically and inextricably to our front-running candidate for President, Barack Obama. MSNBC Teams Up With ACORN, La Raza.  MSNBC has launched a news project with a variety of left-wing special interest groups to boost their Election Day coverage and help viewers experiencing problems at the polls.  One of the groups involved in MSNBC's "Election Protection" project is the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now.  ACORN has been involved in rampant voter registration fraud across the nation this election cycle and is actively supporting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for president. ACORN's White Horse:  ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, is essentially a Marxist shakedown outfit.  One of its main rackets is election fraud — but it can also be very helpful if you happen to be a Leftist activist who finds himself needing, say, to foment a riot, vandalize public property, shut down legislative hearings or opposition conferences, harass the families of elected officials, extort leave-us-alone pay-offs from banks, promote illegal immigration, or the like.  Like ACORN, Obama is a community organizer in the Saul Alinsky radical mode, and he goes way back — two decades back — with the organization. Barack Obama's Involvement with ACORN Unearthed, Missing Article Recovered.  While Barack Obama's connection with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has not gone entirely unreported, it has not been fully explained.  Most media background pieces simply note Obama's involvement in a 1995 lawsuit on behalf of ACORN.  Obama's own website, as well as most major media, fail to reveal the full depth and extent of his relationship with the organization. Obama Campaign Involved in More Cover-Ups in ACORN Scandal.  On Thursday we revealed the connection between Barack Obama and Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), and uncovered a 2004 article that discussed his involvement with the organization which had recently been removed from the web.  Today [10/10/2008], the cover-ups continue and language on Obama's fightthesmears.com website has been altered in order to make it look like he has been telling the truth about his ACORN associations all along. The Case Against Barack Obama, Part 2.  Obama and [William] Ayers also served on the board of the Woods Fund, an organization that distributed grant money to ACORN, which pushes its leftist agenda — "tax justice," livable wages, anti-school choice, voter registration and affordable housing.  The nearly 400,000-person-strong organization is currently under investigation by state and federal authorities in several states for voter registration fraud.  The Obama campaign dismisses any connection to ACORN as tangential. FBI investigating ACORN voter fraud; Obama indisputably linked to ACORN.  The FBI has opened an investigation into ACORN's alleged voter registration fraud.  The Obama camp is desperately trying to distance itself from ACORN, but there's no question that Obama is linked to the group.  Obama is also seeking to distract attention from the fraud allegations by trying to paint the ACORN investigation as "politically motivated." Creating the illusion of unstoppability on Election Day.  Indiana's Marion County is where the Obama campaign has been sending ACORN/SEIU thug activists for the past ten months to create the illusion on Election Day that he is "unstoppable".  It's only a three hour drive from the gutters of Chicago to Indianapolis (in Marion County) and there are hundreds of ACORN/SEIU activist who have made the trip many times over the course of this election season.  Why?  Because the polls in Indiana close at 6PM Central.  There will still be polls open on the east coast when Indiana polls close, and the salivating Obama-supporting media can make their first projections. A Brighter and Righter Future.  Watching the ACORN organization come under investigation in more than a dozen states for voter fraud and illegality, it is sobering to imagine what Obama, a former ACORN trainer and community organizer, would do to give even more of our tax money to this hard-left, corrupt organization.  It is also unlikely an Obama Justice Department would prosecute any of the donor-fraud and voter-fraud allegations that are rapidly building up. Will ACORN Steal the Election?  [Scroll down]  Obama also gave more than $800,000 to Citizen Services Inc., an ACORN subsidiary, for "get out the vote" activities during the Democratic primary, a fact the candidate initially tried to conceal.  Obama's "Fight the Smears" website claims that "ACORN was not part of Project Vote, the successful voter registration Barack ran in 1992."  "Now ACORN says 'we only had him for two conferences, for one hour each,' but that's not what contemporary newspaper accounts at the time say," commented John Fund, author of Stealing Elections, at Heritage last Monday [10/27/2008 (?)].  He said that Project Vote and ACORN were affiliated at the time, a relationship which grew into a full partnership. O's Dangerous Pals.  What exactly does a "community organizer" do?  Barack Obama's rise has left many Americans asking themselves that question.  Here's a big part of the answer:  Community organizers intimidate banks into making high-risk loans to customers with poor credit.  In the name of fairness to minorities, community organizers occupy private offices, chant inside bank lobbies, and confront executives at their homes — and thereby force financial institutions to direct hundreds of millions of dollars in mortgages to low-credit customers. New White House Counsel Was Defender of ACORN.  The incoming White House counsel will carry a reputation for hardball tactics into his new job.  As President Barack Obama's election attorney, Robert Bauer staunchly defended ACORN against political attacks, sought investigations of political opponents and pressed TV and radio stations to stop running ads critical of the Democratic nominee. White House's Acorn Cookies Surprises Republican Lawmaker.  The chocolate cookies shaped like an acorn were quite a hit with Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.  "I didn't expect to see such stark symbolism," King said in an e-mail. Note:  More information about ACORN (and vote fraud) can be found here. Mrs. Obama What is Obama Talking About?  [Recently a] little girl asked him why he decided to run for president and he gave this response.  "America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was.  And I say to myself, I don't want that future for my children." … This matches up with some of the things his wife has said.  His wife thinks that we are a "downright mean" country. … She says it's gotten worse over her lifetime and she's 44.  I'm still trying to figure out when in the past 44 years she thinks that it was better. Ayers Isn't The HALF Of It!  Mrs. Obama seems to hold radical separatist views consistent with a 20-year attendance and tutelage under Rev. Wright.  Her college thesis was on assimilation vs. "the black culture," and she was openly dismayed that so many blacks were choosing to assimilate into the American melting-pot culture. Michelle Obama:  Hillary 2.0?  The next Hillary in the White House won't be the second coming of the old one:  the next Hillary may be Michelle Obama.  She isn't sharing the ticket, but neither did Hillary (at least formally).  And so far, there hasn't been any of the Clinton's old "two for one" rhetoric.  But no one should underestimate the influence Michelle has on her husband. Obama's Leftism:  [Barack Obama] called himself "progressive," a term of art favored by veterans of the hard New Left, like Tom Hayden, as well as by old-time Communists.  Early this year his wife Michelle, lacking his tact, would kindle controversy by saying that his success in the presidential primaries made her feel proud of her country for the first time.  The comment, a faux pas that she was soon at pains to explain away, flowed logically from her view, expressed in her standard stump speech, that our country is a "downright mean" place, "guided by fear," where the "life ... that most people are living has gotten progressively worse." Hands off Michelle Obama you GOP Meanies!  I was wondering when this was going to happen.  It appears a major effort is underway to smear as "racist" or "sexist" (or perhaps both) anyone who criticizes Michaell Obama.  This is probably a prelude to innoculating the candidate himself eventually.  We are about to enter a new age in American politics, one where everything that even hints of criticism will be seen as an unfair attack. ABC Spikes Michelle Obama's Gaffe, Then Declares It Unimportant.  ABC's World News, which on Tuesday [2/19/2008] skipped Michelle Obama's comment that "for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country," on Wednesday finally got to it, but only minimally as George Stephanopoulos praised her "good damage control" and declared:  "I don't think it's going to be a huge deal."  Hard for it to become "a huge deal" when a broadcast network's most-watched news program doesn't bother to report it. Michelle Obama thesis was on racial divide.  Michelle Obama's senior year thesis at Princeton University, obtained exclusively from the campaign by Politico, shows a document written by a young woman grappling with a society in which a black Princeton alumnus might only be allowed to remain "on the periphery."  "My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before," the future Mrs. Obama wrote in her thesis introduction. First Lady Of Gaffes.  After revealing she had never been "really proud of my country," Michelle Obama damns business as "the money-making industry."  By contrast, she says, the Obamas are in "the helping industry."  Bad omen.  Visiting a day-care center in Zanesville, Ohio, America's would-be first lady advised the assembled women not to "go into corporate America." She's No Jackie O.  Is Barack Obama's wife as charismatic as he?  Though the mainstream media would have us believe so, anyone who's read her remarks over the past few months couldn't help be convinced that Michelle Obama may be as much of a help to her husband as Bill Clinton has been to his wife. America's Unhappiest Millionaire:  Michelle Obama's gospel of misery.  By her husband's logic, Michelle Obama must be a heavily armed xenophobic religious zealot, because boy is she bitter.  [A] C-SPAN video of a speech delivered by Mrs. Obama in North Carolina last Friday [5/2/2008] is characteristic of her peculiar recent performances on the stump.  It is an hour-long talk to supporters who just want something to cheer about, and who get some opportunities at the outset, but then find themselves treated to a profoundly and relentlessly negative vision of American life. The GOP's Secret Weapon:  She is the biggest loose cannon in either campaign. She's got a chip on her shoulder the size of a redwood and an overweening sense of entitlement that makes her one of the more unattractive advocates for Barack Obama — despite the fact that she's his wife.  Michelle Obama is a disaster waiting to happen. Michelle Obama's tales of woe:  [Mrs. Obama is] irritated at those people who have suggested that she and Sen. Obama are elitists.  And she appears to be still outraged — at this late date — by the fact that she had to take out loans to attend Princeton and Harvard Law School.  It took her years to pay them back, something she has kvetched about in numerous public appearances.  Imagine that!  First she had to borrow money to go to some of the world's most selective and expensive schools — schools whose graduates usually do pretty well in the world — and then they made her pay it back.  There "they" go again. What Does Michelle Obama Think About America?  Michelle Obama isn't running for the presidency, but she is at center stage of her husband's campaign, and her vision of America will obviously inform Barack Obama's vision of America if he becomes president.  And her vision isn't one that most Americans share. Barack's Bitter Half:  In one of her few (unintentionally) funny moments during a recent sit-down with comedian Stephen Colbert, Mrs. Obama claimed, "Barack and I tend to look at the positives."  That's a side-splitter.  As National Review's Yuval Levin put it, Michelle Obama is "America's unhappiest millionaire."  And she has the audacity to extrapolate her misery and her husband's alleged victimization to the "vast majority of Americans."  In South Carolina, she called America "just downright mean" and bemoaned "a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day." CBS Found Obama Rule:  'Whatever Michelle Says Is The Message'.  In all the fuss over Barack Obama going on ABC and telling his opponents to "lay off my wife," some might have assumed that Obama was implying that Michelle Obama wasn't a major player in the Obama campaign.  Read the transcript again, and you'll notice he never says that. Michelle Obama is fair game.  [Scroll down]  If Republicans "think that they're going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign," he [Barack Obama] added ominously, "they should be careful."  Ooh, very fierce. … [But] as long as he keeps sending her around the country to campaign on his behalf, everything she says is — and should be — fair game. Barack's Little Lady:  In [the liberals'] lexicon, anybody who has had a single misfortune — or who endures what liberated women see as the terrible ordeal of motherhood or housewifery — is a victim, and since Mrs. Obama must suffer the inconveniences of being a wife and a mother, she's qualified for victimhood and must be immune from criticism.  Having gained that immunity she, is free to make outrageous statements without having them reflect on her spouse. Michelle Obama encourages political activism.  "The way this campaign has been run is the way we need to be forever," Obama said.  "Don't trust bloggers or someone else's opinion, because people lie." The Editor responds... Yes, Michelle, people lie.  Especially liberal politicians.  Liberal democrats lie about gun control.  Liberal democrats lie about abortion.  Liberal democrats lie about same-sex marriage.  Liberal democrats are lying about global warming.  And liberal democrats routinely lie about all kinds of other things, too. That's No First Lady, That's My Wife!  I must confess I got a chuckle out of Barack Obama's warning us all to lay off his wife.  Sorry, pal, but it's too late in the game for that.  If you didn't want her to be a legitimate target, you should have told her to stay home with the kids and to keep her yap shut. Who Is The Real Michelle Obama?  [Scroll down]  Pro-life columnist Jill Stanek has revealed a chilling fundraising letter that Michelle Obama wrote for her husband when he was running for the U.S. Senate in 2004.  The letter claimed that the federal ban on partial-birth abortion was "clearly unconstitutional" and "a flawed law." Modern Liberals, Whine Connoisseurs.  Michelle Obama whines about the burdens of paying for piano lessons and summer camp for the kids, and the paying off the student loans for her two Ivy League degrees.  "The salaries don't keep up with the cost of paying off the debt," she complained when the Obamas cleared half a million a year … Barack Obama understands the language of victimhood and uses it effectively.  And victimhood has become a central tenant of modern liberalism. Obama's Gospel of Envy:  Anger, or envy, about trust funds seems to be a big thing with the Trinity crowd.  Michelle Obama, for instance, bellyached regularly during her stump speech in the primaries:  "You're looking at a young couple that's just a few years out of debt.  See, because we went to those good schools and we didn't have trust funds.  I'm still waiting for Barack's trust fund.  Especially after I heard that Dick Cheney was s'posed to be a relative or something.  Give us something here!" Michelle Obama speaks to gay Democrats.  Michelle Obama won a standing ovation on Thursday [6/26/2008] when she paid a campaign visit to gay and lesbian Democratic activists to promote her husband Barack Obama's presidential quest.  Obama, appearing at a dinner meeting of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council of the Democratic National Committee, cited her husband's efforts to fight discrimination and promote equal rights for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people. Wedding Belle.  For reasons of raw politics, Democratic presidential nominees can't say they support gay marriage, though they obviously do.  So they send their wives out to say it for them. Remaking Michelle:  The problem with the Obama campaign's effort to remake Michelle Obama goes beyond her gaffes and attacks on America.  Another problem for the campaign is that Michelle Obama's life story runs counter to Barack Obama's effort to defuse race as an issue. … She does not see America as one nation or Americans as one people.  Race is the centerpiece of her self-identification. Michelle Obama, a target-rich environment.  If Mrs Michelle Obama, known to her detractors as the candidate's "bitter half", had only a routine image problem, the artful cosmeticians at Obama HQ would quickly be able to tidy it up.  The difficulty is that Michelle's gaffes appear not to be gaffes at all, but one long, sincere, consistent and rarely less than gale force blast of grievance. Michelle Obama's Inferiority Complex:  Now that Barack Obama has pretty much wrapped up the nomination, it's time to raise a question that lots of people have been talking about privately but not publicly.  Is it possible that Michelle Obama is the force behind Barack Obama's refusal to embrace traditional patriotic symbols?  Could Obama's wife be largely responsible for the candidate's damaging associations with crackpot race-baiters like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the Reverend Michael Pfleger?  In sum, could Obama's wife be a large part of his political problem? Michelle Obama says $600 is the price of a pair of earrings.  Michelle Obama said in Pontiac, Mich., on Wednesday [7/9/2008] that if her husband is elected he will offer more than a "quick fix" on the economy.  "You're getting $600 — what can you do with that?  Not to be ungrateful or anything, but maybe it pays down a bill, but it doesn't pay down every bill every month," she said.  "The short-term quick fix kinda stuff sounds good, and it may even feel good that first month when you get that check, and then you go out and you buy a pair of earrings." BO Stinks.  Now it turns out the campaign trail is a bit too much for him and his not-so-blushing bride.  Now he wants us to believe that by holding his wife accountable for her outrageous statements, we've crossed a line. ... Notice how Obama was thrilled to have his wife front and center as long as we liked what she was saying.  Now that she has shown her true colors and said some pretty offensive things, she's taken a back seat and we're supposed to "lay off". Michelle Obama:  Is First Ladies' club ready?  [Scroll down]  Some of Michelle's faux pas have been more serious.  Most notably, she told a rally that her husband's electoral success had "for the first time in my adult life" made her feel "really proud of my country".  This phrase struck a disquieting note:  what would she not have to be proud about? … She and her husband are living proof of the extraordinary opportunities that can be available to minorities in America:  it's almost impossible to imagine their careers working out quite so well anywhere else.  That's why that comment rankled. Call Me a Proud, Scared Conservative.  Michelle Obama did sit with her husband in Jeremiah Wright's church for many years, listening unperturbed to racist diatribes aimed at every white-skin person in America.  If I had sat listening to the rants of a David Duke for years on end and then gave my husband some form of the Nazi salute in public, I doubt seriously if it would be at all comforting to any decent American who witnessed it.  There may be only a tiny grain of truth to the black militant image of Michelle Obama on the New Yorker cover, but even a tiny grain may be too much for some. Obama called hypocrite for wife's Wal-Mart link.  [Michelle Obama] has just been re-elected to the board of an Illinois food-processing company, a position she took up two years ago to gain experience of the private sector.  And the biggest customer for the pickles and peppers produced by Treehouse Foods is the retail giant Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation and the bête noire of American liberals, including Sen Obama, for its employment practices, most notably its refusal to recognise trade unions. Update: Mrs Obama quits controversial job.  Michelle Obama, the wife of the American Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama, has resigned from the board of a food company whose biggest customer is Wal-Mart, the retail giant under fire from her husband.  The Sunday Telegraph reported two weeks ago that her position at Treehouse Foods could raise claims of hypocrisy as Senator Obama attacked Wal-Mart for its anti-union employment policies. Try a Little Tenderness.  So many Americans right now fear they are losing their country, that the old America is slipping away and being replaced by something worse, something formless and hollowed out. … And if you feel you're losing America, you really don't want a couple in the White House whose rope of affection to the country seems lightly held, casual, provisional. Obama's Wife Rips His Foes.  Michelle Obama has lashed out at her husband's 2008 rivals for peddling "baseless claims" against him — including charges that "he is not black enough, he is not white enough," according to a transcript of her surprising remarks to supporters.  Michelle, a Harvard-schooled lawyer, took on the role of campaign hatchet woman against Sen. Barack Obama's political opponents when she introduced her husband to 1,000 donors at a $1.5 million fund-raiser Sunday night [2/11/2007] in Chicago. The Brangelina-fication of the Obamas:  The spread in People, which earlier this year fawned over a photo of the bare-chested Obama in his swimsuit, was supposed to be an "exclusive" first and last look at life at home with the Obamas.  Knowing what we know about the Obama we know now, it probably won't be the last.  They've hawked the kids to TV gossip show "Access Hollywood," blabbed about their romance to Us Weekly magazine, and plopped Michelle O — the purported "civilian" whom the Obamessiah declares immune from public criticism — in front of the cameras to schmooze effortlessly for "The Colbert Report" and "The View" demographics. This is precisely why Michelle Obama is fair game for criticism: Hillary Clinton trumped by Michelle Obama.  The wives of Democratic nominees have traditionally addressed the convention but Ms Obama is the first to be given headline and prime-time status.  Her opening night address and Senator Obama's acceptance speech will bookend addresses by Senator Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton. Michelle, Anti-American Radicals, and U of C.  The Hyde Park Herald first reported that Michelle Obama would be hired for a newly created community relations position at the University of Chicago on June 5 of 1996.  Obama was to be Associate Dean of Student Services and Director of the University of Chicago Community Service Center, effective September 1, 1996.  So Michelle Obama was appointed to a job that had never existed before, shortly after Barack Obama had won the Democratic nomination in his first race for Illinois State Senate. Michelle Obama: Perpetual Victim.  Her husband has been lauded as the Messiah; benefited from the most fawning coverage bestowed on a presidential candidate, at least since JFK; is running in the most Democrat-favorable electoral environment, at least since Watergate; has raised more funds than any presidential candidate ever; has become a worldwide celebrity; and is spending an unprecedented amount of money running negative ads about his opponent. ... Yet in her world, they're still "underdogs." Throw the flag against: Michelle Obama.  [Scroll down]  She omitted the fact that she later went on to a high paying job at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she worked in community and external affairs.  In March 2005, she was promoted to vice president for community and external affairs, and her salary jumped from $121,910 to $316,962, which included a one-time bonus.  In 2006, her salary was $273,618, according to the Chicago Tribune.  Her promotion came two months after her husband became a senator, but campaign aides said that she'd been offered the promotion and turned it down before that. The Editor says... Yeah, right.  I'd turn down a $316,962 do-nothing job, too.  Make 'em beg! Michelle's Boot Camps For Radicals.  Barack Obama was a founding member of the board of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife became executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies in 1993.  Obama plans to use the nonprofit group, which he features on his campaign Web site, as the model for a national service corps. He calls his Orwellian program, "Universal Voluntary Public Service."  Big Brother had nothing on the Obamas.  They plan to herd American youth into government-funded reeducation camps where they'll be brainwashed into thinking America is a racist, oppressive place in need of "social change." Five reasons to vote against Obama:  [#4.]  Michelle Obama.  Another pampered semi-literate Ivy Leaguer who still considers herself a victim, even with her $360,000-a-year job as diversity coordinator at a Chicago hospital.  Can you stand four years of this harridan lecturing you on your greed? Welcome To ACORN General Hospital.  Try to imagine health care in the world of Obama.  All of us will be enlisted in the Community Service army, where patient care is merely ancillary to your job.  Now we will leave work to go staff the after school program at the new community center.  Next weekend it's over to the mall where we will work the voter registration table.  It's all part of "enhancing the hospital service to the community."  Because in Barack and Michelle's world, there's no individual patient.  Only a vast, nebulous "community."  Welcome to ACORN General. Michelle Obama's Patient-Dumping Scheme:  The First Lady helped create a notorious program that dumped poor patients on community hospitals, yet the national media ignore the story.  Imagine if her husband were a Republican.  The University of Chicago Medical Center has received a good deal of justly opprobrious press over its policy of "redirecting" low-income patients to community hospitals while reserving its own beds for well-heeled patients requiring highly profitable procedures. General in a sleeveless dress.  Since July of 2008, the chattering classes of America have been uneasy about Barack Obama's proposal for a civilian national security force "as well-funded as the U.S. military".  The civilian national security force was already in place long before last July's public proposal.  Its general doesn't wear army fatigues but sleeveless dresses. Responding to My Critics.  [Scroll down]  This woman sat in Rev. Wright's church for 20 years, soaking up his racist rants, and then had him marry her and Barack, as well as baptize their children.  Furthermore, she had gotten into an Ivy League school, thanks to Affirmative Action, and then showed her gratitude by writing a racist screed for her college thesis.  For good measure, she used that degree to get a $125,000-a-year job in Chicago, which coincidentally jumped to over $300,000 once her husband went to the Illinois state senate.  And, finally, after all that, she announced to the world that America is a mean country and that the first time she was proud of this nation was when her husband deigned to run for president. Michelle Thinks She Was Elected Empress.  The Washington Post had an interesting article on June 25 headlined, "A First Lady Who Demands Substance."  I think it was meant to highlight that fact that Michelle Obama is more than a mere first lady but is a strong, substantive person — which is, by the way, without question.  Unfortunately, though, it ended up revealing a Michelle Obama that is an angry, arrogant, martinet that isn't aware that "first lady" is an honorary title that has no proper, Constitutional role and is not an elected position with legal, legitimate powers of its own. Queen Michelle the First?  Michelle Obama wants a bigger role in her husband's administration, according to The Washington Post.  Unlike Laura Bush, who focused on a few peripheral issues, Obama wants a seat at the table when key policies are made.  Obama's new chief of staff, Susan Sher, is part of the crucial 8:15 a.m. White House staff meeting.  The first lady's team of more than 20 has been told to think "strategically" about how to make her a player on policies she cares about.  This could be a very bad idea. Michelle Obama named in illegal "patient dumping" scheme.  Just minutes after President Obama's disastrous prime-time press conference touting his "health care" plan, FOX News host Sean Hannity aired a special segment about a so-called "patient-dumping" scandal in Obama's hometown, Chicago.  And the scandal may very well involve First Lady Michelle Obama herself. A Health Care Offer We Can't Refuse.  When Michelle Obama was promoted to Vice President of the University of Chicago Medical Center she ran something called Community and External Relations.  So a Senator's wife, with no medical background or health administration experience becomes a vice-president of a major American hospital.  Why does a hospital do this?  Obviously, the hospital needed Senator Obama's help, maybe with legislation, maybe with reimbursements, maybe with the unions.  So Mrs. Obama becomes a Vice President, her salary is tripled to over $300,000, and suddenly the hospital is sponsoring ridiculous community enterprises like Principal for a Day and Real Men Cook celebrations. Even Wide Awake, I'm Having Nightmares.  [President Obama] is appointing so many czars, you'd think his last name was Romanov.  In the meantime, Michelle has gathered a larger staff of courtiers and ladies-in-waiting than Madame Pompadour and Madonna put together.  There were, at last count, 22 people answering directing to the First Lady, costing the taxpayer roughly $1.6 million a year. No sacrifice too great for Michelle Obama.  The First Lady has once again uttered words that reveal her self-absorbed interior life.  Speaking in Copenhagen, she referred to her trip as a "sacrifice." ... There is a victim mentality at work here.  Life is unfair.  This is a woman who sees herself put-upon by life, the victim of forces beyond her control.  And she lives in the White House! Michelle Obama:  It's a 'sacrifice' to travel to Europe to pitch for the Olympics.  In her speech in Copenhagen today [9/30/2009], First Lady Michelle Obama said her trip to Denmark, along with the travel of her "dear friend" and "chit-chat buddy" Oprah Winfrey, as well as tomorrow's visit by President Obama, is a "sacrifice" on behalf of the children of Chicago and the United States. The Noble "Sacrifice" of Michelle Obama.  It's hard out there for a first lady of the United States.  Take it from travel-weary Michelle Obama.  On Tuesday night [9/29/2009], she boarded a luxury 757 for Copenhagen.  Think of the stairs she had to climb.  Oh, the agony of the feet!  Upon arrival, Mrs. O, her "chit-chat buddy," Chicago-based talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey, and Chicago powerbroker/interest-conflicted real estate mogul/senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett immediately embarked on a grueling, grip-and-grin campaign to secure the Olympics for their hometown.  Our smile muscles ache in sympathy. Michelle Obama is not immune to criticism because she does stuff like this: Michelle Obama turns Breast Cancer Awareness Month into attack on insurance companies.  First Lady Michelle Obama took part in a White House event this afternoon [10/23/2009] to mark National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  While such events have been mostly noncontroversial in the past, Mrs. Obama used the occasion to launch an extended attack on the insurance industry, the Obama administration's current target in the ongoing battle over national health care legislation. Michelle Obama Politicizes the Food Network.  I have a confession to make.  I hate politics.  That's why I write about it, because I enjoy making fun of it.  And one of the reasons I write for Big Hollywood is I am sick of other people's politics being jammed down my throat through alleged "entertainment." What's wrong with this picture?  The First Lady, a woman widely acclaimed for her fashion sense in the courtier media, has no common sense at all when it comes to respecting a solemn occasion.  Apparently, nobody among her score of personal aides in the White House had the gumption to tell her she was about to make a fool of herself at the Veterans Day memorial. Another reason Michelle Obama is fair game for criticism: Did AmeriCorps official lie about possible First Lady link to IG firing?  Congressional investigators looking into the abrupt firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin have discovered that the head of AmeriCorps met with a top aide to First Lady Michelle Obama the day before Walpin was removed. Walpin-gate may snag Mrs. Obama.  In the past 10 days, two major developments have occurred. ... Most explosively of all, dirty deeds may have been employed to hide extensive involvement in the affair by the office of first lady Michelle Obama, whom the White House months earlier had announced would play "a central role in the national service agenda." SEIU Fat Cats Behind First Lady's Anti-Obesity Campaign.  Behind every seemingly good deed in the Obama White House, there's a deep-pocketed, left-wing special interest.  Take first lady Michelle Obama's crusade against childhood obesity.  Who really benefits from the ostensible push for improved nutrition in the schools?  Think purple — as in the purple-shirted army of the Service Employees International Union. Michelle Obama, Liberal Government and Obesity:  First Lady, Michelle Obama, has decided to take a whack at solving the American obesity epidemic.  Splendid.  She should start by looking at one of the biggest roots of the problem:  liberal government and its most favorite project of the past 40 years, the welfare state. Paranoia Strikes Deep in Obama's America.  In Obama's brain, his father's womanizing and boozing wasn't due to low moral standards; white supremacy was to blame.  His grandmother was "a typical white person," not someone who had personal failings.  Obama married Michelle, a woman who sees everything through the lens of race.  Rather than feeling honored to attend Princeton, she regarded the place as a hotbed of racism.  Some of her pre-First Lady speeches reek of loathing for America. First Lady:  Government action on obesity unproven, but we'll do it anyway.  At what point do Americans demand limits on unnecessary government activities?  Right now, government seems to be getting more obese than anyone. Michelle Obama Nourishes Hillary's 'Village'.  Two years after appearing on Larry King Live Michelle Obama returned as First Lady to discuss inspiring FLOTUS initiatives. ... Michelle's King interview, lacked consistent sincerity, but had one ray of candor amidst prevarications and partial truths.  The First Lady readily agreed with Larry King's evaluation of her superior intelligence perking up saying, "I'm very smart but I like to limit my intake to things I can control." Lawfare, Voluntary Surrender, and Right-wing "Extremists".  [Scroll down slowly]  Michelle Obama "voluntarily surrendered" her license to practice law, three years after passing the bar.  Which is akin to a doctor going through years of education, and racking up huge student loans, and then, just as it all finally starts to pay off, saying "I think I'll just give up my license for no particular reason."  There's a darn good reason, we just don't know it. Michelle Obama's True Agenda:  Make no mistake, America; Michelle Obama is every bit as interested in following in her husband's footsteps as Hillary Clinton was of hers — even more.  Michelle Obama is making her first solo trip abroad to Mexico where she plans to begin organizing world support for her future political ambitions. Michelle Obama:  Food Profiteer Turned Food Cop.  Let me summarize first lady Michelle Obama's anti-obesity agenda:  Shed as I say, not as I gain.  While she crusades for organic foods and puts government pressure on corporations to stop marketing fast food and junk food to children, Mrs. Obama herself profited from the very same processed food industry she now demonizes. Michelle Obama to women planning a pregnancy:  'No fatties'.  You might think you were doing a pretty good job of running your own life before you'd ever even heard of Michelle Obama, but she knows better than that.  Your kids are big fat pigs and so are you, says the First Lady of the United States. Ready for Feds in Your Kitchen?  On the one hand, I want genuinely to commend first lady Michelle Obama for her passion to launch her campaign against childhood obesity, "Let's Move." ... My concern, however, is that the first lady's nutritional quests, like Washington's health care crusade, ultimately will lead to more big-government and union-based solutions, as well as enact more faulty legislation like the 1966 Child Nutrition Act, which the Obama administration is seeking to update, or "overhaul."  (Of course, update and overhaul in government translates into upgrade and expand; you can bet your last tax dollar on it.) FLOTUS to Food Manufacturers:  Cut 1 Trillion Calories Annually by 2012.  With the goal to reduce 1 trillion calories in food sold annually by 2012, First Lady Michelle Obama announced a private-sector partnership for her Let's Move! Childhood obesity campaign. More about The Invasion of the Food Police. Michelle Obama's Global Graduates.  Rather than tossing a graduation cap into the air, Michelle Obama's commencement address at George Washington University was enough to make a graduate fall on the ground weeping in a heap of despair.  After accomplishing the goal of completing a college education, the last thing a collegian should be subjected to on graduation day is a keynote speaker who does anything but uplift, motivate, and encourage. Commencement Address Hell.  Michelle Obama recently gave a speech to graduates at George Washington University.  The underlying message?  Do as I say, not as I do.  Also ... There's war and famine and an overcooked planet.  Become global citizens and fix the mess!  Clean the feet of lepers in Calcutta, eradicate malaria in the Sudan, and live like a monk with no personal needs.  Of course, Michelle's own personal journey has been a tad different.  After she graduated from racist-infested Princeton University, Michelle made big bucks as a corporate lawyer.  Working as a vice president of the University of Chicago Medical Center, she saved the hospital a bundle through patient-dumping — sending those unable to pay to other hospitals. First Lady to Waste Millions 'Visiting' The Gulf Oil Spill.  When times were flush, I guess it didn't seem so outrageous for the First Lady of the White House to fly about the country "visiting" places as if she were an important part of our national government. ... And now?  Why, now Michelle-My-Bell is making plans to "visit the Gulf Coast oil spill region" as if she is some sort of potentate touring her outlying tracts of land.  Yes, the angriest First Lady of them all is going to pack her royal bags, wing off to the coast, and wave to the masses from the royal coach as she inspects her subjects woes due to her husband's continuing impotency there. Michelle Obama Set To Appear At NAACP Convention.  First lady Michelle Obama will speak at the NAACP convention at Bartle Hall Monday as the keynote speaker of the event. Michelle Obama Rouses NAACP Before Vote Condemning 'Racist' Elements of Tea Party.  First Lady Michelle Obama brought renewed energy to the NAACP today, delivering the keynote speech at the annual convention one day before the nation's largest civil rights group is expected to condemn what it calls racist elements in the Tea Party movement.  The nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization will vote on the resolution Tuesday [7/13/2010] during its annual convention in Kansas City, Mo. More about the NAACP. Liberal Ignorance, Hate, and Intolerance:  Michelle Obama Addresses the NAALCP.  Does Mrs. Obama ever have anything positive to contribute to the national discourse?  Like her husband, she's always agitating, always rabble-rousing, always bringing the worst out of people.  She may blame the other side of the aisle for stoking hate, fear, division, and racism.  But, perfectly illustrating the psychological defense mechanism of Projection, it is she and her ideological ilk who do it, and they do it as frequently and effortlessly as breathing. The Obama family will be in Maine, but you go ahead and enjoy the Gulf. Michelle Obama:  'There are still 1000s of miles of beaches not touched by the spill'.  First Lady Michelle Obama arrived at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport at 2:34 today [7/12/2010] to begin meeting with local officials and residents about the ongoing oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. While the Obamas Head to Maine... First Lady Encourages Americans to Vacation on Gulf.  On her first trip to the Gulf Coast since the BP oil spill, First Lady Michelle Obama encouraged Americans to consider vacationing on the region's beaches that have not been directly impacted by oil. ... The Obama family will be taking a mini-vacation of their own this weekend, but instead of going to the Gulf Coast they are traveling to Maine's Mount Desert Island, home of Acadia National Park. Rumors abound as to exactly how Mrs. Obama obtains her wardrobe.  Rumors abound as to exactly how the first family obtains all the pomp and frills associated with Mrs. Obama's wardrobe.  Do the Obamas pay for it all themselves or are the first lady's outfits given to her gratis?  As with most things, it appears the answer lies somewhere in the middle.  Ikram Goldman, owner of the Chicago boutique Ikram, manages the majority of the first lady's sartorial needs.  Any designer wishing to dress Mrs. Obama must first go through Goldman, who remains exceedingly tight-lipped as to her dealings with the first lady. Fat Black Kids Showcase America's Racism.  The most recent statement by Michelle Obama baffles me, as she compared black children's health to the age old Democrat policies of slavery and Jim Crow laws:  ... Imagine my surprise to learn that one can recognize racist policies caused fat black kids.  Here I thought racism was when black men intimidating white voters are not prosecuted for obvious voter intimidation, by a black Attorney General, simply because the perpetrators were black.  I erroneously believed that racism had occurred when a black president speaks out (without any facts) on behalf of a black professor behaving badly, and who is given preference over a white cop doing his job. White House looks to leverage Michelle Obama's popularity.  Playing it safe can sometimes pay off, as first lady Michelle Obama is finding with some of the highest favorable ratings in official Washington.  And she could be taking those numbers out for a test drive, as the White House looks for ways to leverage her popularity without diminishing her value as an asset. Material girl Michelle Obama is a modern-day Marie Antoinette on a glitzy Spanish vacation.  While most of the country is pinching pennies and downsizing summer sojourns — or forgoing them altogether — the Obamas don't seem to be heeding their own advice.  While many of us are struggling, the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her "closest friends."  According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort.  Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times. Let them eat tapas.  The Obama family has been working hard to show their indifference to the plight of middle America.  Whether it's the president's golfing fetish, private air transportation for family dog Bo to a Maine vacation, or Michelle Obama's taxpayer subsidized trip to the Spanish Riviera, the gulf between the White House leisure class and the American middle class has grown to unprecedented proportions.  Everyone is entitled to some R & R, though Mrs. Obama's jaunt is her eighth holiday this summer. Spanish police close public beach for Michelle Obama's £250,000 Spanish holiday.  Michelle Obama today faced a fresh wave of attacks over her lavish break in Spain with 40 friends, which could easily cost U.S. taxpayers a staggering £50,000 a day.  The First Lady has been lambasted for her extravagance at a time when the economy is still struggling. One blogger went so far as to brand her a modern-day Marie Antoinette. Michelle Obama's Lavish Spain Vacation Sparking Criticism.  While First Lady Michelle Obama continues sightseeing and shopping in southern Spain with daughter Sasha and friends as "private" tourists, questions are being raised about the cost to taxpayers and whether a lavish vacation sends the right message during tough economic times in the U.S. The Pain in Spain Falls Mainly on US Taxpayers.  While millions of Americans cut back on what they can spend on their vacation, Michelle Obama is concluding her last vacation with a new vacation trip along with 40 guests to Spain billed at a cost of 300,000 dollars a day.  If Michelle Obama wants to go for a swim, an entire beach in Spain must be closed.  Considering her busy working schedule of appearing on talk shows and then appearing on magazine covers, I think we can all agree that nine vacations is very modest.  And the real tab gets much higher when you consider how many of the other unstated expenses are being picked up by "friends", which is usually a fancy way of saying people who expect favors in return, again, at taxpayer expense. What Was Michelle Obama Thinking?  When we're in the middle of the worst recession in living memory, it's not a good idea to take a luxury vacation that most of your countrymen could never possibly afford in the best of times, at considerable taxpayer expense for the security, in a foreign country. First Lady claims working class roots, but her lifestyle is luxury.  When images of Jean Paul Gaultier-clad First Lady Michelle Obama on a $75,000-a-day Spanish holiday hit the wires, controversy was bound to erupt back home.  Her carefully crafted image as "everywoman" was blown.  In addition to the high cost, the evolving justifications for the trip offered by the White House's flack were just as dizzying. Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Michelle.  Michelle Obama is a woman of her word.  In July, she made a drive-by through the Gulf coast region and urged people to "do a few things [to] help this community."  Emphasis on the word "few."  She even recorded an ad inviting Americans to "come on down" to the Gulf as she herself then headed back to Washington to collect her family to head to a holiday in a national park in Maine.  At least Maine is in America.  With her recent holiday junket to Spain, she has now officially spit in the eye of Gulf coast residents. Public Service:  Nice Work If You Can Get It.  In 1991, Michelle Obama left the world of corporate law to serve the public in Chicago Mayor Daley's office.  She then served the public at the Chicago Department of Planning and Development and by founding the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, a non-profit organization.  In 1996, Mrs. Obama continued her public service at the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Hospitals.  By 2005, Mrs. Obama's salary had "responded" to her public service work to the tune of $317,000.  Nice work if you can get it. Where's the Michelle Obama Who Said This?  Earlier this year, Michelle Obama ... rolled out this nationwide initiative, Let's Move, earlier in 2010.  She said she learned when she and Barack were working that her children's nutrition was suffering from not being able to cook meals for them.  She said she started making changes and wanted to bring those lessons to the White House.  Apparently, they were all lessons she forgot when trying to win over Iowa voters on the campaign trail with her husband. Funding Michelle Obama's Priorities.  In a special session that epitomized everything people hate about Congress, a bill to help states was passed with $26 billion in money that was offset with strange accounting measures.  That is something we've come to expect from this Congress — worry about paying for it later, by our children and grandchildren.  Many Democrats were uncomfortable with the vote on August 10, but they may come back to Congress for another vote that will be billed as an $8 billion child nutrition bill.  This bill is at the center of Michelle "Marie Antoinette" Obama's "Let's Move" initiative to fight childhood obesity. The Editor says... Michelle Obama's childhood obesity crusade was harmless enough until it developed a price tag of eight billion dollars.  Now it's not so cute.  It's just another way for the Obamas to spend other people's money on their pet projects. Michelle Obama biography. Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn When questioned about his association with Bill Ayers, Obama's defense is that he was only eight years old when Ayers was actively engaged in domestic terrorism.  That is a ruse -- nobody is saying that Obama went along for the ride and lit the fuses on Bill Ayers' bombs -- but Obama had years of close association with Ayers when the two men were both adults, and Mr. Obama -- unless he is hopelessly gullible and utterly clueless -- must have known about Mr. Ayers' criminal history. This one issue alone would have been enough to derail any other candidate's campaign.  The radical left is hoping that the voters will forgive and forget the actions of the Weather Underground back in the 1960s. First of all... What was the Weather Underground?  If you believe the mainstream media or the spin coming from the former leaders of the Weather Underground, you would think that the Weather Underground were just a group of young anti Viet Nam war activists who pulled some pranks where no one was hurt or killed.  You would be wrong.  The Weather Underground were a group of Communists who wanted the Vietnamese Communists to defeat the United States.  They also engaged in terrorist acts including severe injury and sometimes death. Obama and Dohrn and Ayers.  In all likelihood Barack Obama first learned of Ayers and Dohrn in his college years.  His claim to not know their terrorist background is ludicrous. ... After high school in Hawaii, Obama went to Occidental College (1979-1981), a liberal arts college in Los Angeles.  Obama's first public speech was at an Occidental event sponsored by the Students for Economic Democracy, a group affiliated with far left radical Tom Hayden and Hayden's militant group SDS (Students for a Democratic Society.)  David Peck, an organizer of the Occidental rally, is now coordinating Americans in Spain for Obama. Did Ayers Help Obama Get Into Harvard?  The National Review's Steve Diamond has documented that both Ayers and Obama worked on a significant 1988 educational reform project in Chicago.  Although CEO of a major power company, Commonwealth Edison, Bill Ayers's father, Tom, also worked on this same project.  Tom Ayers was a prominent client of Sidley Austin, and it stands to reason that he got Dohrn her job.  Given her contempt conviction for refusing to cooperate in a terrorist investigation, a conviction that prevented her from actually practicing law, Dohrn would have needed major league pull to get hired by a high end law firm like Sidley.  A few years later, of all the law firms in Chicago, it was Sidley Austin that hired Obama on as a summer intern. Obama Associate Implicated In Murder Plot.  The sub-headline over the article says it all:  "The investigation into a cop killing in the '70s leads to a law professor who helped launch Barack Obama's political career."  The law professor is former Communist terrorist Bernardine Dohrn, a leader of the Weather Underground known for praising mass murderer Charles Manson.  Writer Peter Jamison, who is based in San Francisco, where the cop killing occurred, spent months working on the story and developed many different sources of information. Radical Loon When Obama Was Only 47.  In the past week, TV anchors have taken to claiming that Obama "refuted" John McCain's statement that Obama launched his political career at the home of former Weather Underground leader Ayers.  No, Obama "denied" it; he didn't "refute" it.  If "denying" something is the same as "refuting" it, then maybe the establishment media can quit harping on Palin's supposed lack of qualifications to be president, since she too "refuted" that by denying it. The Apologists for William Ayers.  William Ayers is a Marxist by his own admissions.  Barack Obama "assumes he has been rehabilitated" after he says he doesn't know the guy and then saying that he was "just a guy in the same neighborhood" even though they shared duties on two boards and shared office space for three years.  Barack Obama then says to "buy his book", the book written by William Ayers, the guy Barack doesn't know. Obama's Ties to Socialism:  Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn were the national leaders of a radical leftist movement called the "Weatherman Underground Organization."  An offshoot of the radical Left "Students for a Democratic Society" (SDS), the Weathermen sought to enlighten the American consciousness to the evils of the Vietnam War.  Unlike their parent organization SDS, the Weathermen pursued or more radical modus operandi. When Barry met Billy.  When you have as many areas of your life deliberately obscured as Obama does, there is always the chance of being caught in a major lie. Obama all but accuses critics of stoking anti-government violence.  [Scroll down]  And by tut-tutting about violence on the heels of earlier comments trying to delegitimize critics of big government, the suggestion that people who criticize his government are stoking violence is pretty clearly telegraphed.  Which is one heck of a charge coming from a guy who spent years working side-by-side with an actual, unrepentant anti-government terrorist, and has lied his head off about it ever since. Obama's Desperate Equivalency Gambit.  One of the oldest tricks in politics — at least on the left — is to accuse your enemy of that which you are most guilty.  Barack Obama has been taking a beating based on his personal and political associations, particularly with the terrorist William Ayers, formerly of the Weather Underground, and his campaign has decided not to take it anymore. Bill Ayers worked with Cuba says FBI report.  Unrepentant terrorist former leading Weather Underground Organization (WUO) member William Ayers was aided by Fidel Castro's Cuba in the 1970s, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report. Candidate of the Left.  For his entire adult life, Obama's closest political allies have been pro-Soviet progressives like state senator Alice Palmer who chose Obama as the politically appropriate figure whom she chose to inherit her state senate seat; or anti-American radicals like Bill Ayers, who organized a terrorist army in the 1970s with the intention of launching a race war in America, and bringing down the "empire."  Others may be under the illusion that the Weather Underground was organized to protest the Vietnam War.  But you know better. Getting the 'Ayers Issue' Straight.  [Scroll down]  This is the "Ayers issue."  [1] First, it is an issue that goes to Obama's honesty and forthrightness with the American people.  Why is he secretive about what he initially called a "flimsy" relationship?  Why has he been gradually changing his story as the facts emerge?  [2] Second, this goes to Obama's judgment.  Obama did not work against a radical domestic terrorist who continues to have radical views, he worked along side him.  [3] Third, it follows, this goes squarely to Obama's ideology itself.  What in Obama drew the radical Ayers into alliance with him?  And why was Obama so comfortable moving within his sphere and advancing his agenda?  The "Ayers issue" is not 1960s terrorism. Why should McCain be angry? Top 10 reasons.  [#3] Obama continues to lie about his relationship to Bill Ayers.  Obama did launch his political career at Ayer's home but continues to deny it.  This relationship to a terrorist goes much deeper than Obama wants anyone to know and McCain gets no help from the media who give Obama a pass. Barack Obama's Cop-Killer Supporters:  While Barack Obama's friends and supporters in the news media downplay his friendship and business relationship with former terrorist and Marxist university professor Willam Ayers, one aspect of the Ayers terrorism saga that's totally ignored is his reputation as a cop-killer.  For instance, in Nyack, New York, Ayers' terrorist group the Weather Underground launched an armored-car robbery that left two Nyack, NY police officers — Officer Waverly Brown and Sergeant Ed O'Grady — mortally wounded.  In addition, the Brinks armored-car driver, Peter Paige was also shot to death by the Weathermen. Was a Communist Obama's Sex Teacher?  Ayers and Dohrn, you see, are husband and wife and can't be compelled to testify against one another.  The evidence of their involvement came from an FBI informant in the Weather Underground.  His testimony, given before Congress, would be dismissed by clever Marxist lawyers as "hearsay."  Murder charges would have to be based on other, possibly forensic, evidence.  It is never too late to bring murder charges in this case. It is what it is: Obama allied with scoundrels.  In the best tradition of Bill Clinton's declaration that the answer to the question of whether he was having an affair depended on "what the definition of is is," Sen. Barack Obama was clearly concealing the truth when he said that William Ayers was "just a guy who lives in my neighborhood."  The Ayers-Obama connection was, in fact, an intimate collaboration that it led to the only executive or administrative experience in Obama's life. Weathermen:  Home-grown US radicals.  Embroiled in an unpopular war in Vietnam, with many of the grievances of the civil-rights movement still unanswered, the US government was facing widespread protests in the late 1960s.  Often those who rebelled were rich in idealism but unable or unwilling to take concrete action.  On 8 October 1969, all that changed.  A newly-formed group of left-wing extremists, dubbed the Weathermen, went on the rampage in a well-planned protest in Chicago — the so-called Days of Rage riots. Eliminating 25 million Americans:  That was the plan of the Weather Underground after taking power. ... I asked, "well what is going to happen to those people we can't reeducate, that are diehard capitalists?" and the reply was that they'd have to be eliminated.  And when I pursued this further, they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers. ... And they were dead serious. Obama's words and deeds:  Obama dismissed inquiries about his relationship with Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground, by saying that he was just "a guy who lives in my neighborhood."  In fact, Obama served from 1995 to 1999 as chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), the brainchild of Ayers, an organization that funneled some $100 million into the hands of community organizers and activists, including ACORN, in order to radicalize Chicago's public schools.  Between 1969 and 1974, the Weather Underground claimed responsibility for some 20 bombings in the United States — at police stations, banks, jails, courthouses, the Capitol and the Pentagon. Sowing ACORNs to reap the biggest oak tree in Washington, DC.  The bombs set in the Sixties by the Weatherman Underground were just a means to an end:  Ayers and Dohrn wanted to become famous and earn their Leftist street cred.  They didn't care if people died to make it happen.  You gotta break some eggs to make that omelet. The Stealth Candidate:  I disagree with those who've said the most important issue concerning the Obama-Ayers connection is Obama's "judgment."  The very word implies that Obama doesn't share and never shared Ayers' views.  The crucial question is whether Obama is of like mind with such radicals. … Does anyone doubt that if any Republican presidential candidate had a small fraction of the questionable alliances Obama has, he already would have been hounded into withdrawing from the race? Blood On the Hands of Obama's Terror Associate.  Barack Obama was asked, during one of the Democratic presidential debates, about his relationship with communist terrorist Bill Ayers.  But the more controversial relationship was with his wife, communist terrorist Bernardine Dohrn.  Both were present and hosted Obama when he launched a run for the Illinois State Senate.  In effect, Ayers and Dohrn sponsored Obama's political career.  But it has now come to light that Dohrn repeatedly refused to deny credible reports that she planted a bomb at a police station that killed a law enforcement officer. The Ayers Question:  "Who is Barack Obama?" is not an irrelevant question given the job Obama is seeking, and it's a question he has sought mightily to avoid answering.  The veil of secrecy he has thrown over his past (journalists have been denied access to his state legislative office records, documents about state earmarks he distributed in Illinois, a list of his legal clients, his state bar application, billing records related to Tony Rezko, medical records, academic records — all of which are the sort of documents candidates routinely make public) forces the question all the more. Obama's Hot Ayers.  Ayers' distant past isn't the only reason to distrust him.  He has a present, as well — and Obama is a part of it.  The two of them have worked hard to radicalize Chicago's public schools.  Ayers' work funding radical "education" groups in Chicago came just in the last 12 years.  And he teamed up directly with Obama on that. William Ayers, "Former" Radical.  Stories at Politico and ABC refer to William Ayers as a "former radical," but wouldn't Ayers need to disavow his Sixties extremism to be a "former" radical?  He infamously told the New York Times in a story published on September 11, 2001, that he regretted not setting more bombs. The Bomber as School Reformer.  Back in the early eighties, in an interview with David Horowitz and Peter Collier, Bill Ayers remembered his reaction upon learning that he would not be prosecuted by the government for his bombing spree as a member of the Weather Underground.  "Guilty as hell, free as a bird — America is a great country," he exulted.  Ayers is now a university professor, but he must have been exulting all over again after reading Saturday's front-page story in the New York Times. NYT Reporter Implies Obama-Ayers 'Not Close' Contrary to Own Reporting.  On the same day that the Associated Press noted that "few people watch TV or read newspapers Friday evening and Saturday," the New York Times ran an article questioning Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama's questionable relationship with admitted, unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers.  If the AP is correct and Friday is one of the least read days of the week, then it's interesting that the NYT chose to publish one of the most controversial campaign issues when the fewest readers would see it. CNN Ignores Bernardine Dohrn's Terrorist Past While Defending Obama.  Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Bernardine Dohrn also worked at the same law firm according to sources. … There is much more about the Dohrn story that goes relatively unnoticed.  According to the Canada Free Press she has made frequent guest appearances at events sponsored by George Soros.  She stated in 1982 that "Those of us who participated in the [Vietnam] anti-war movement were not drastic enough" even though Americans died as a result of their bombings. Terrorists For Obama.  "If you're in public life, you ought to say, 'I don't want to be associated with this guy,'" observes columnist Steve Chapman.  "If John McCain had a long association with a guy who'd bombed abortion clinics, I don't think people would say, 'That's ancient history.'"  That Ayers' totalitarian revolutionary agenda isn't history is shown by Ayers today sitting on the directorate of the Miranda International Center, a think tank funded by the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez….  Ayers is both a hero and adviser to Hugo Chavez and a colleague of Obama's. Ignorance of Ayers?  Top Obama advisors tell CNN that, when they first met in the mid-1990s, Obama didn't know of Bill Ayers' radical past.  It's the first time they've said that, as far as I know. … On the other hand, Obama's not that young. … And Ayers' past was hardly a secret in Chicago, where he was regularly quoted as an ex-radical and ex-fugitive. Does Obama Read His Hometown Paper?  As discussed quite a bit around here, David Axelrod says Obama didn't know about Ayers' past when Obama first started allying himself with the former terrorist.  Ayers was "just a guy in the neighborhood" — which, if true, says something just plain awful about that neighborhood if you ask me.  But anyway, just out of curiosity, I decided to see if the Chicago Tribune had written anything about Ayers and his terrorist past during the period of Obama's plasible deniability. Guilt by Agreement.  An unapologetic aging domestic terrorist writes a book about "justice" and Barack Obama praises it.  This isn't guilt by association but guilt by agreement.  Had Ayers written a book about ping-pong and Obama praised it, perhaps that wouldn't be revealing.  But Ayers, the ultimate juvenile delinquent, wrote a book about the juvenile justice system and won a "rave review" from Obama, according to the New York Times. Obama's Weathermen pals should worry voters.  Obama might not have heard of Ayers and Dohrn's brutality from the '60s through the '80s had they merely tossed a rock or two in anger.  But these two went much, much farther.  In 1970, Ayers encapsulated the Weathermen's worldview:  "Kill all the rich people.  Break up their cars and apartments.  Bring the revolution home.  Kill your parents."  In his 2001 memoir, "Fugitive Days," Ayers brags that he helped blast NYPD headquarters in 1970, the U.S. Capitol in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972.  Dohrn was an equally stalwart subversive. Why Ayers Still Matters:  Nearly forty years after the crimes for which he and his associates became notorious, "Ayers sees his education work as carrying on his radicalism in a new guise," writes Stanley Kurtz.  That Obama knew none of this as a rising politician fails even the smell test at Democrat-friendly CNN.  Long past his eighth birthday, Obama publicly endorsed Ayers' book on juvenile justice. Time to Level with the American People about Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers.  Pam Meister interviews John Murtagh, whose family had a terrifying brush with the Weather Underground during the terror group's heyday in the early 1970s. Ayers Has Not Left Radicalism Behind.  Bill Ayers isn't out bombing anymore, but he has never stopped being a radical.  His ties to hostile Marxist regimes remain, raising more questions about Barack Obama's refusal to fully repudiate him. Obama's Weatherman shows which way the wind blows.  The seemingly inevitable ascent of Barack Obama to become US president has hit a hurdle, as he is forced to confront accusations, supported by a hard-hitting television ad campaign, that he had a long-time association with two of America's leading terrorists from the 1960s, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, one-time leaders of the Weathermen (also known as the Weather Underground). Why Obama Can't Be President:  William Ayers and others from the Weather Underground are responsible for being a part of a terrorist wave in this country that murdered police officers.  To downplay this or dismiss it as "guilt by association" is to be shortsighted and make a mistake.  I don't believe most Democrats or independents find this kind of thing acceptable behavior.  What kind of man sits in the pews of a church where his preacher spews hate about his own country — hate for Jews, hate for whites, hate for blacks who don't agree with him — and then says he had no idea his preacher was saying any of these things?  Again, I ask you to look deep inside yourselves, ask yourselves if you see such a man representing your country as president of the United States. You Need a Weatherman To Tell Which Way Obama Will Go.  Barry Obama had many such academic mentors and one namely is Bill Ayers, a white guy from a wealthy family who in his leisure time (of which he had much, not having to mow lawns or deliver newspapers) liked to throw bombs in order to bring about "social justice" as a member of the Weather Underground.  Well, rich kids don't know much about munitions, so occasionally "bad choices" are made in the design, building, and detonation of bombs, like your girlfriend and buddies getting killed, which happened in Ayers's case. Obama's radical relationship:  Sen. Barack Obama is hiding his relationship with a 1960s radical. ... For months, conservatives have been trying to direct attention to the relationship between Mr. Obama and William Ayers.  Mr. Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground, which planted bombs in the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon during the Vietnam War.  He went on the lam after a nail bomb his group was building to kill soldiers and their wives at a dance at Fort Dix went off prematurely, killing three of the conspirators. Obama:  The Company He Kept.  [William Ayers] and his wife, fellow Weatherperson Bernardine Dohrn, were indicted in 1970 for inciting to riot and conspiracy to bomb government buildings, but charges were dropped in 1974 because of technicalities involving illegal surveillance.  Dohrn had been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List and both remained in hiding. When they surfaced in 1980 Dohrn received three years probation and a fine of $1,500. Obama's Foul Weather Friends:  Weatherman was a revolutionary communist sect that split from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1969.  Weatherman's founding document called for a "white fighting force" that would be "akin to the Red Guard in China" to work with the Black Liberation Movement and other "anti-colonial" movements to bring about a communist revolution and destroy "US imperialism."  Weatherman committed at least 40 bombings between 1969 and 1975.  Targets included the Pentagon, the State Department and the US Capitol, other government buildings, military bases, police offices and corporations.  Two of the group's primary leaders were Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Resume of a Terrorist:  Obama's Buddy Ayers.  [Scroll down]  I find it difficult to understand how a man who is running for president of the United States would even know someone as anti-American and destructive as William Ayers.  Plus, Ayers, his wife and their comrades at the Weather Underground are cop-killers.  And Obama doesn't just know him personally — he's a close friend with Ayers. Obama's Leftism:  For the next four to five years, the two [Obama and Ayers] worked together to raise the matching funds and disburse small grants to local organizations pushing the reform program.  It could only have been an intimate partnership.  When Obama decided to run for the state senate, his first fund-raising event was held in the home of Ayers and Dohrn.  In 1997, Ayers published a book about juvenile justice, A Kind and Just Parent, which Obama blurbed as "a searing and timely account."  The two also served together on the board of the leftist Woods Fund from 1998 until 2001.  This is what is now public about the relations between Obama and the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers.  There may be much more, so far successfully hidden by all concerned; but even these facts suggest that Ayers was among Obama's closest collaborators. Obama Begins the Ayers Walk Back and Heads Into the Reparations Trap.  Steve Diamond notes that Barack Obama is beginning a walk back on his preposterously untrue former claims that Ayers was just a guy in his neighborhood.  Using Linda Lenz, a close ally of both men to do so, the Chicago Sun Times quotes her as admitting that Ayers and Obama closely collaborated on the failed Chicago Annenberg Challenge fiasco. Profile of the Massive Waste of Money Known as the Annenberg Challenge:  We were covering the massive waste of money known as the Annenberg Challenge long before anyone had heard of its Chicago chairman, Barack Obama, or its Chicago co-founder, real life terrorist-turned-educational terrorist William Ayers.  The article appeared in the March 1998 issue of Foundation Watch. William Ayers, Model Citizen?  The Obama campaign's response to Jerome Corsi's book about Senator Barack Obama makes clear that they are determined to delegitimize even legitimate criticisms of the senator by mixing them up with smears.  Even mainstream journalists have noted that their rebuttal document at times employs risible arguments and overreaches in attempting to defend certain aspects of Senator Obama's career.  One example is the defense of Obama's relationship to William Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn — two unrepentant former members of the domestic left-wing terror movement known as the Weathermen. Blood On the Hands of Obama's Terror Associate.  Barack Obama was asked, during one of the Democratic presidential debates, about his relationship with communist terrorist Bill Ayers.  But the more controversial relationship was with his wife, communist terrorist Bernardine Dohrn.  Both were present and hosted Obama when he launched a run for the Illinois State Senate.  In effect, Ayers and Dohrn sponsored Obama's political career.  But it has now come to light that Dohrn repeatedly refused to deny credible reports that she planted a bomb at a police station that killed a law enforcement officer.  Shouldn't Obama be asked about the reported involvement of his political associate in cold-blooded murder? Obama's Other Radical Friends:  Apparently, back when he was running for state senate, Barack Obama had fund-raising events at the home of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, and there's been some press about the senator's friendship with this controversial Weathercouple.  Many reporters are well aware, even though Mr. Obama has described his connection to Ayers and Dohrn as "flimsy," that the senator's relationship with his radical Hyde Park neighbors is actually quite warm, even close. … But mostly, the press doesn't want to touch this story — and no one else does either, as if it actually were TNT. Obama's Ties to Left Come Under Scrutiny.  Senator Obama's ties to a former leader of the violent left-wing activist group the Weather Underground are drawing new scrutiny as he battles Senator Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Change that Sees No Evil:  The Candidate of Hope seamlessly mixed pathetic understatement with bald lying and, naturally, righteous indignation.  Ayers, whom Obama carefully cultivated as a young "community organizer" in sharp-elbowed Chicago politics, was not someone he had "received some official endorsement from."  No, of course not.  Ayers and his wife (and fellow terrorist) Bernadine Dohrn merely launched his political career by hosting his coming out fundraiser in 1995 — an imprimatur that credentialed the up-and-coming Obama in the hard Left circle where he remains most comfortable. Communists, "Progressives," Obama and the Media:  Tom Hayden, who cheered for a communist military victory in Vietnam, is calling attention to Senator Hillary Clinton's old ties to communists.  But Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein, formerly of the Washington Post, wonders if Hillary's comments on Senator Barack Obama's ties to communist terrorist Bill Ayers constitute McCarthyism. Obama's Real Bill Ayers Problem:  Barack Obama complains that he's been unfairly attacked for a casual political and social relationship with his neighbor, former Weatherman Bill Ayers.  Obama has a point.  In the ultraliberal Hyde Park community where the presidential candidate first earned his political spurs, Ayers is widely regarded as a member in good standing of the city's civic establishment, not an unrepentant domestic terrorist. Bill Ayers and the Subversion of Education:  Barack Obama's longstanding ties to Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn have elicited a great deal of controversy and have weakened his campaign.  Senator Obama attempted to distance himself from this dynamite duo … by stating that their actions as leaders in the Weather Underground bombings happened when he was 8 years old.  Of course, he elided [sic] the fact that they have no remorse for their actions and Ayers publicly wished there had been more of them.  Ayers escaped prosecution on procedural grounds.  In the words of Ayers, "Guilty as hell, free as a bird — America is a great country". Debunking Obama's Ayers "Fact Sheet".  Let's examine Obama's claim that his connection to [William] Ayers and [Bernadine] Dohrn is "tenuous" and "phony."  Is it phony that Obama's political coming-out party in the mid-1990s was hosted by Ayers and Dohrn?  What about the panel discussions in which Ayers and Obama both took part — that were organized by Michelle Obama?  Tenuous?  I suppose the goodbye party for prominent Israel basher and Arafat apologist Rashid Khalidi, attended by Obama, Ayers and Dohrn, is also unworthy of discussion. Taking His Sweet Time.  For at least six months, we've known that Robert Malley's associates and his record of anti-Israel revisionism have no place in an American presidential campaign.  But Obama, being Obama, could no sooner denounce his Arafat-embracing Middle East advisor than, say, not sell out his grandmother.  Instead, the campaign shrugged the issue off by claiming Malley was not a "day-to-day" advisor.  Just as in the case of Jeremiah Wright, Obama tried to wish the whole thing away until the very source of the problem addressed him directly. Obama's 'mainstream' friends:  Obama's ties to Ayers and Dohrn aren't nearly as trifling as he suggests, and their views — today, not 40 years ago — are about as "respectable" and "mainstream" as those of, say, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama's incendiary minister.  The key facts, reported by Ben Smith in Politico.com, are these:  Barack Obama's political career was launched in Ayers's and Dohrn's home, when a group of "influential liberals" gathered in 1995 to meet the young organizer who was Illinois lawmaker Alice Palmer's chosen successor. Barack's Bomber Bud:  The Rev. Jeremiah Wright's racist and anti-American diatribes will haunt Obama.  But Obama's relationship to William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, members of the '60s domestic terrorist group the Weather Underground, may prove more vexing.  The Weather Underground bombed the Capitol, the Pentagon and New York City police headquarters in the '70s; Ayers claimed to have personally participated in the bombings. Obama's Marxist Axis Of Friends:  Barack Obama wishes questions about his associations with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers and other radicals would end.  But maybe the reason they won't is that there's a pattern:  Marxism. … When one looks at Obama, it's shocking how radical and anti-American his closest associates are. Barack Obama pal is an enemy, too.  Obama was indeed only 8 in early 1970.  I was only 9 then, the year Ayers' Weathermen tried to murder me. Photo:  Bill Ayers Stomping the American Flag. Take a look  at the door and wall outside "Distinguished Professor" Bill Ayers' University of Illinois Office. Smells from the shadows:  Nobody has accused little 8-year-old Barack of anything, not even of tiny misdemeanors in the nursery, of wetting his bed or not eating all his carrots and broccoli. … [But] The senator has never explained why, at the age of 33, or 38, or however old he was when he did, in fact, "pal around" with Bill Ayers, he inevitably preferred to walk in the shadows on the shady side of the street.  He even served with Bill Ayers on the board of a charity that dispensed millions of dollars to left-wing Chicago enterprises.  The unanswered questions are not about crimes, but about his judgment. Weather Underground Victim Says Obama Should Have Known of Ayers' Past.  "Barack Obama constantly says, 'I was only 8 years old when this happened.'  That's kind of his throwaway line," John Murtagh told FOX News Thursday morning.  "I'm not questioning what Barack Obama was doing when he was 8 years old.  I'm questioning his behavior as an adult to choose his friends, mentor and longtime personal and longtime personal and professional colleague." Obama, the Closer.  Obama's followers make high-tech videos, mindlessly chanting, "Yes, we can" instead of making bombs to blow up government buildings, or holding up armored trucks and killing police officers. … Evidenced by his list of supporters, from Ayers Dohrn, Hayden and Fonda, to the New Black Panthers, the New SDS, the New Winter Soldiers, et al., the radical Left has anointed Obama as the One.  Every aging, anti-war, anti-capitalist group and their new offshoots are flocking around Obama like moths to a flame. Obama and his friends:  [Cliff] Kincaid's group wants a major news organization to follow up on the investigative work it has done that documents that an elderly black man who mentored Sen. Obama in Hawaii was a lifelong member of the Communist Party USA.  Kincaid also would like to see a serious journalistic vetting of Sen. Obama's relationship with the left-wing radicals in Chicago — Bill Ayers and others — who helped Obama launch his political career. Mr. Obama's Neighborhood:  "I never had roots growing up," Obama has often said. … From Hawaii to Indonesia and back to Hawaii, then to Los Angeles and Manhattan and Cambridge, Mass., and finally to Hyde Park:  He's never lived in a part of the country that's like 90 percent of the rest of the country. … Hyde Park's the neighborhood he returned to, the place he'd chosen to live, and its roots were torn out 50 years ago. It's the Communism, Stupid.  Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried to deflect a question about his relationship with terrorist Bill Ayers by saying that he "engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old" and that he was now a professor and a neighbor.  The real issue is whether Obama shares Ayers' communist views.  Obama admitted to exchanging ideas with Ayers on an irregular basis but did not say what those ideas were.  But we know that Ayers, rather than just being a 1960s "radical," was a member of a Marxist-Leninist communist group. Beginnings of a Radical:  Where do you suppose Barack Obama's first public speech was given?  1. Chamber of Commerce?  2. Woman's Club?  3. Jaycees?  4. Toastmasters?  Sorry.  None of the above.  According to Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit, Barack Obama gave his first speech before an offshoot of the Students for Democratic Society (SDS) which had morphed into the Weather Underground. The Obama-Ayers Connection:  In the best tradition of Bill Clinton's famous declaration that the answer to the question of whether or not he was having an affair with Monica depended on "what the definition of 'is' is," Barack Obama was clearly splitting hairs and concealing the truth when he said that William Ayers was "just a guy who lives in my neighborhood." An absence of candour to believe in.  Obama is twisting and turning over his relationship with unreprentant Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers, trying to pretend it didn't amount to anything other than a chance acquaintance.  But his story becomes ever more preposterous. … The idea that Obama didn't know about Ayers's past is absurd.  He would have to have been living on Mars not to know.  The Weather Undergound was notorious and received huge publicity in the media. Bernardine Dohrn:  Professor Dohrn has said of her Weatherman past, "We rejected terrorism.  We were careful not to hurt anybody."  Both assertions are false, however.  Weatherman's twofold agenda was terrorism (which is why Charles Manson was Dohrn's hero) and war (the organization's very existence was launched with a formal "declaration of war"), and Dohrn periodically issued "war communiqués" to the public at large. Michelle Obama, Bernardine Dohrn, and Sidley & Austin.  According to Wikipedia, Bernardine Dohrn worked for Sidley & Austin from 1984 to 1988, while she unsuccessfully sought admission to the New York and Illinois bars.  (According to Sidley's managing partner, Dohrn didn't get admitted to the bar because "She wouldn't say she's sorry" for her acts of domestic terrorism.) Ayers / Dohrn -- The Biggest Albatross Around Barack Obama's Neck.  Barack Obama has some 'splainin' to do.  When he was questioned at the last debate about his association with Bill Ayers, he tried to spin it away.  "I was eight," replied Obama.  As far as he was concerned, that was all that was necessary in terms of an explanation.  Unfortunately, that won't fly with voters. Obama Needs to Explain His Ties to William Ayers.  You might wonder what Obama was doing working with a character like this.  And you might wonder how an unrepentant terrorist got a huge grant and cooperation from the Chicago public school system.  You might wonder — if you don't know Chicago. Ayers Unrepentant for Radical Group's Violence in 1960s, 1970s.  William Ayers, who was a founder of the 1960s and 1970s radical group the Weather Underground, told FOX News correspondent James Rosen in a candid 2004 interview that he still believed he was "on the side of justice" years after the group's wave of attacks.  In the interview, conducted three years after the September 11 attacks, Ayers argued the U.S. government had carried out "many other acts of terror … even recently, that are comparable," and claimed he and his bomb-planting comrades were "restrained" in their actions. Talk Turns To Jive About Ayers.  "Ultimately, I ended up learning about the fact that (Ayers) had engaged in this reprehensible act 40 years ago, but I was 8 years old at the time and I assumed that he had been rehabilitated," Obama said.  You'd think a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School would have known that the actions of America's premier terrorist bomber did not, due to tainted evidence, result in a single day of prison time.  So just when and where did he think Bill Ayers was rehabilitated? Ayers Is No Education 'Reformer'.  One of the most misleading statements during the presidential debates was when Barack Obama claimed that William Ayers was just "a guy in the neighborhood."  But that piece of spin is nothing compared to the false story now being peddled by Mr. Obama's media supporters that Mr. Ayers — who worked with the Democratic nominee for years to disperse education grants through a group called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge — has redeemed his terrorist past. Taking A Peek Behind Bill Ayers' Office Door.  An op-ed writer thinks Bill Ayers is now a model citizen.  If that's the case, why would an unrepentant terrorist have an unrepentant cop killer's picture on his office door? University cancels speech by Ayers.  The University of Nebraska-Lincoln rescinded its speaking invitation tonight for 1960s radical-turned-educator William Ayers.  University officials cited "safety reasons" for canceling Ayers' Nov. 15 appearance.  Spokeswoman Kelly Bartling declined to elaborate on what safety concerns would keep Ayers from addressing a College of Education and Human Sciences event.  Earlier today, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman strongly condemned the invitation and called on the NU Board of Regents and President J.B. Milliken to block it. Ayers Brothers Led Annenberg Grantees and Contributed to Obama.  William Ayers is a one-time leader of the Weather Underground domestic terrorist group that in the 1970s took credit for bombing the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.  "I don't regret setting bombs," Ayers told the New York Times in 2001 about his experience with the Weathermen.  "I feel we didn't do enough."  In 1995, Obama, then a Chicago lawyer, received an early boost in his initial bid for the Illinois State Senate, when he went to a political meeting at Ayers' home. Just a guy in the neighborhood?  I think not. Obama Praised 'Searing and Timely' Book by Ayers.  Barack Obama, who has consistently downplayed his relationship with William Ayers during his presidential campaign, once gave a glowing endorsement of a book by the former domestic terrorist and was mentioned by name in the book itself.  A blogger unearthed the Dec. 21, 1997, endorsement in the Chicago Tribune and posted photographs of the praise for Ayers' book on Zombietime.com Saturday. The Editor says... It's always a shame when amateurs do a job better than professionals.  Why don't "mainstream" journalists do some digging and discover information like this?  The answer is obvious:  Newspaper and television journalists don't want to find out anything negative about Obama.  But that's a topic for another page. Obama's Pal William Ayers:  The 'Peaceful' Terrorist.  In the re-release of William Ayers' book, Fugitive Days, the unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist revealed that he and President-elect Barack Obama are "family friends."  Last Friday [11/14/2008] Ayers appeared on ABC's Good Morning America reinventing himself as a peaceful anti-war activist.  "We tried to end [the Vietnam] war," Ayers said, "but we never committed terror.  It's not terrorism because it doesn't target people," referring to his 1970's bombing sprees. Ayers Targets Media.  Domestic terrorist William Ayers spoke about his ?brush with celebrity" and bashed the media's discussion of his relationship with President-elect Barack Obama in speech to Georgetown Law School Students Monday afternoon. ... He said most of his opposition was comprised "mostly of middle-aged men who are ventilating on their computer in their mother's basements who are sweating profusely" and told students, "if you ingest way too much Fox News you are going to be confused by a lot of things." The Editor says... In my opinion, if Mr. Ayers dislikes Fox News so much, that's reason enough to stay tuned to Fox News! Now he tells us. Bill Ayers:  Barack Obama a 'family friend'.  In a new afterword to his memoir, 1960s radical William Ayers describes himself as a "family friend" of President-elect Barack Obama and writes that the campaign controversy over their relationship was an effort by Obama's political enemies to "deepen a dishonest narrative" about the candidate. Ivory Tower Hero.  William Ayers hasn't given up railing against authority figures in the four decades following his time with the Weather Underground.  The current target of the perennial anti-conformist:  standardized testing and "authoritarian" school structures.  And yes, Fox News, which he compared to George Orwell's "two minutes of hate." Bill Ayers Whitewashes History, Again.  Like his memoir, Fugitive Days, "The Real Bill Ayers" is a sentimentalized, self-justifying whitewash of his role in the weirdo violent fringe of the 1960s-70s antiwar left. The Unreal Bill Ayers.  In his Times column, Ayers's chronology focuses on 1970, the year he co-founded the Weather Underground "after an accidental explosion that claimed the lives of three of our comrades in Greenwich Village."  But this wasn't some especially radicalizing furnace mishap.  On March 6, 1970, three members of a Weatherman cell died when a bomb they were making blew up in their faces.  Packed with nails for maximum lethality, it had been intended for a noncommissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix, N.J. Judge sets sentencing date for Tony Rezko.  A federal judge has set a Jan. 6 sentencing date for political fund-raiser Tony Rezko.  The rushed sentencing date is an about-face from what lawyers in the case requested in October — to put off sentencing as Rezko and prosecutors engaged in ongoing discussions. Obama Was Mute on Illinois Corruption.  [Last spring], Mr. Obama was being grilled over news that he bought his house through a land deal involving Tony Rezko, a political fixer who was later convicted on 16 corruption counts.  Rezko is mentioned dozens of times in the 76-page criminal complaint against Mr. Blagojevich.  Mr. Obama has an ambiguous reputation among those trying to clean up Illinois politics.  "We have a sick political culture, and that's the environment Barack Obama came from," Jay Stewart, executive director of the Chicago Better Government Association, told ABC News months ago. Is Obama Following The Leninist Line?  Blogger Trevor Loudon, a respected anti-communist researcher and analyst in New Zealand ... points out that former Weather Underground members Rudd, Jones, Ayers and Dohrn are all now working through an organization called Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), which is operating as "a parent body for Progressives for Obama." The response to Bill Ayers the New York Times wouldn't run.  Freedom of the press, open to diverse opinion?  Not at the rapidly sinking NY Times. The Op-Ed the New York Times Wouldn't Run:  Bill Ayers would like to use the fog of time to plead his case that he was just another protester against the Vietnam war, a point that the Times is perhaps willing to let him make considering his longtime association with the president-elect they so nakedly support.  No amount of inspired fantasy, however, can omit the simple truth that there is only one significant difference between Bill Ayers and Timothy McVeigh.  Competence. The legacy of William Ayers:  So we should forgive William Ayers his past because he is now a prolific writer, community activist and received a misguided "Citizen of the Year" award?  And if we don't we are "promoting a trajectory of hate?"  Ayers, a son of great privilege, may be highly educated and eloquent.  That, however, does not give him a free pass in life. The Fort Dix Five.  What is the difference between the five Muslim immigrants convicted in a Federal court in Camden, New Jersey on Monday, and Bill Ayers and his comrades in the Weather Underground?  The answer:  not much, except for the outcome. Ayers and Free Speech:  Who said crime doesn't pay?  Certainly not Bill Ayers, the 1960s terrorist who emerged from the "underground" proudly admitting he was "guilty as hell and free as a bird" metamorphosing as a "father of three, esteemed professor at UIC — and unabashed patron of the great bourgeois coffee chain, Starbucks," according to an adoring portrait of him in the August, 2001 of Chicago Magazine. William Ayers turned back at Canadian border.  An American education professor, one of the founders of a radical 1960s group known as the Weather Underground, which was responsible for a number of bombings in the United States in the early 1970s, was turned back at the Canadian border last night [1/18/2009]. Teachers:  They're All Bill Ayers Now.  Students at Georgia Southern University did not get to hear Bill Ayers speak last week for the now oft-given reason of expensive security.  Like students at other campuses, some students there objected to the use of their student fees to bring in the co-founder of the Weather Underground.  Ayers' past also led Illinois State Senator Larry Bomke to call for his firing through his proposal to forbid a public university from employing someone who has "committed a violent act against the United States." Campaign for Justice for Victims of Weather Underground Terrorism. Remarks of Cliff Kincaid.  [Scroll down]  Other Weather Underground members have also been walking around free.  In fact, two of them, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, associate with prominent politicians and posture as educational experts.  In truth, Ayers and Dohrn are vicious criminal terrorists who waged a campaign of violence and murder and are now trying to spread their filth and poison to young people. Washington Post Censors Truth About Bill Ayers.  I am Larry Grathwohl and have been acknowledged as the only person to infiltrate the Weather Underground as an informant for the FBI.  I offer the following comments and observations regarding the article "The Unreal Bill Ayers" recently written by Charles Lane for the Washington Post. S.F. police union accuses Ayers in 1970 bombing.  Leaders of San Francisco's police officers union have accused Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, of taking part in the 1970 bombing of a city police station that killed a sergeant.  The union leveled the charge in a letter to a conservative organization lobbying for arrests in the case, but said it had not been in contact with investigators and had no new evidence related to the bombing, which killed Sgt. Brian McDonnell. Ayers Under Fire.  Ayers claimed last November that he was thrust "unwittingly" and "unwillingly" into the national spotlight during the campaign and the victim of a "thoroughly dishonest narrative... and the big lie that gets perpetrated... that somehow I killed people, somehow I've been a violent person, all of it false and I couldn't find a way to interrupt the demonization."  However, two knowledgeable WU-affiliated persons contradict this story. (Ellipses in original.) Justice for Victims of the Weather Underground.  Ayers and Dohrn, now university professors, were members of a communist terrorist gang called the Weather Underground during the 1960s and 1970s whose aim was to support communist regimes and anti-American movements around the world and destroy the United States.  The group received terrorist training in Communist Cuba and was advised by Soviet and Cuban intelligence agents. A Murder Revisited.  Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are currently hailed by the Left as "respected" university professors  — Ayers in the University of Illinois' education department, and Dohrn at Northwestern University's School of Law.  In the mid-1990s, both were instrumental in helping to launch 34-year-old Barack Obama's political career in Chicago. ... On Thursday, March 12, the National Press Club hosted an event where several key speakers urged federal authorities to reopen an investigation into the role that Ayers and Dohrn — both of whom are former leaders of the notorious terror group Weather Underground — may have played in the February 16, 1970 murder of Sergeant Brian McDonnell at Park Station police headquarters in San Francisco. Justice Department to San Francisco Police:  Shut Up!  Allegations that presidential pal Bill Ayers was involved in the murder of a San Francisco policeman appear to be running into something of a gag order from at the Department of Justice.  According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Justice Department and the San Francisco Police Department have contacted the San Francisco Police Officers Association and told them not to talk about the Ayers case. Guilty as Hell, Free as a Bird (for now).  Bill Ayers' famous quip may come back to haunt him.  There is no statute of limitations on murder charges. BC nixes invite to former radical.  Boston College yesterday abruptly withdrew two student groups' invitation to former radical William Ayers to speak on campus Monday.  A BC spokesman said he was unaware of the plan for the controversial figure to speak on campus until contacted by the Herald yesterday afternoon.  But students last night were scrambling to hold the speech off-campus. Freeman Affair Reveals Problems For Obama and the Media.  The recent appointment and ultimate withdrawal of Chas Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council has exposed much that is wrong with President Barack Obama's first months in office, both in terms of policy and vetting, as well as the media coverage surrounding both.  Many of Obama's supporters said it was unfair to criticize Obama's associations with people like the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers and the anti-Semitic preacher of hate, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and called it guilt by association.  It is now becoming clearer why those sorts of associations matter. Ayers Has Not Left Radicalism Behind.  Bill Ayers isn't out bombing anymore, but he's never stopped being a radical.  His ties to hostile Marxist regimes remain, raising more questions about Barack Obama's refusal to fully repudiate him. Seminar in Shamelessness.  Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn gave a seminar in shamelessness last week.  On the road to promote their new book Race Course Against White Supremacy, the radical couple sat in armchairs on a small stage at Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library, conducting a "dialogue" instead of the usual book-tour speech. Bill Ayers is back.  Bill Ayers has kept a low profile since President Obama took office, so we thought he might have gone underground again.  That was until we ran into him in Baltimore on Wednesday [5/13/2009] and he lobbed a bomb at one of our editorial writers. Ayers, Dohrn say racism not dead.  So how do a couple of ex-radical anti-war activists spend Memorial Day? Former "Weather Underground" activists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn held a discussion about whether President Obama's election moved America past racism — far from it they say — at the Hyde Park Arts Center. Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn Appear on C-SPAN.  Ayers, 65, and Dohrn, 67, are the radical 1960s antiwar activists and, for eleven years until they turned themselves into authorities in 1981, former underground fugitives from justice who were among the founders of the violent domestic terrorist group, the Weather Underground.  In recent years, Ayers has gained some notoriety for comments he made that appear to defend his bomb making past (gaining for him in some circles the moniker "unrepentant domestic terrorist") and for his murky but apparently influential association during the 1990s with the then new-on-the-scene, up-and-coming Chicago politician, Barack H. Obama. Obama Associate Implicated in Murder.  The sub-headline over the September 16 article says it all:  "The investigation into a cop killing in the '70s leads to a law professor who helped launch Barack Obama's political career."  The law professor is former Communist terrorist Bernardine Dohrn, a leader of the Weather Underground known for praising mass murderer Charles Manson.  Writer Peter Jamison, who is based in San Francisco, where the cop killing occurred, spent months working on the story and developed many different sources of information. The Obama-Ayers meeting:  What you haven't been told.  A new book released today uncovers for the first time where and how President Obama first met Weather Underground terrorist-group founder William Ayers — and it is much earlier than previously believed.  The book reveals the two were brought together by a student of radical community organizer Saul Alinsky, whose name, it has emerged, was obscured in Obama's autobiography "Dreams from My Father." Ayers, Dohrn helped organize flotilla group.  Former Weather Underground leaders William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, as well as Code Pink founder Jodie Evans, helped organize the Free Gaza Movement, which launched the six-ship flotilla from Turkey to Israel that ended in a violent clash with Israeli Defense Forces, BigGovernment.com reported. Ayers, Dorhn helped organize 'peace' flotilla.  We should have known.  The techniques used by violent radicals in the 1960's are perfectly suited to this kind of war that Hamas is fighting against Israel.  No doubt Ayers and Dorhn were able to school their less experienced colleagues in the art of violent propaganda. The Left-Fascist Axis Again.  We are seeing another Left-fascist axis in our time, recapitulating Stalin's (and worldwide communism's) embrace of Hitler's Germany.  The Gaza flotilla crisis was set up by the radical Left (Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Jodie Evans and other Obama buds), in collusion with Hamas, which is about as fascist as they get. What evidence lurks at the University of Illinois? University won't open Obama-related records now.  The University of Illinois on Tuesday refused to release records relating to Barack Obama's service to a nonprofit group linked to former 1960s radical activist William Ayers.  The university's Chicago campus said the donor of the records that document the work of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge has not yet turned over ownership rights to the material. School seals records on Obama's service with radical Ayers.  These annoying journalists are at it again, trying to poke around into papers in the background of candidates' lives.  This time it involves freshman Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, his friend and former radical activist William Ayers and the University of Illinois. Bill & Barack's Excellent Adventure.  We soon will know much more about the period of collaboration between Obama and Ayers following the start of the CAC [Chicago Annenberg Challenge].  Even if the archives continue to be withheld from public scrutiny, the cat is out of the bag with the documents available to all. The formidable analytical engine of bloggers trading insights and new data is warming up.  But the period prior to 1995, the time when Bill and Barack, the terrorist and the presidential aspirant, got to know one another and build the relationship of trust, is one excellent adventure likely to remain obscure. Founding Brothers:  New evidence strongly suggests that Barack Obama has been less than forthcoming about the role that unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers may have played in choosing him to lead the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC).  Through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, I have obtained an e-mail message from former CAC executive director, Ken Rolling, to Warren Chapman and Anne Hallett, two of CAC's three co-founders. Bill Ayers was the third founder. ... [I]n the immediate wake of my attempt to gain access to the CAC records, Rolling appears to have been maneuvering, both to block my access, and to make sure that the full story of who chose Obama as CAC head would not come out. Barack Obama records sealed at Illinois.  The University of Illinois has refused to release records related to Sen. Barack Obama's service for a nonprofit educational project that put him in contact with activist William Ayers, a 1960s-era radical and now education professor.  The university's Chicago campus maintains that the donor of the records that document the work of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge has not handed over ownership rights. Conservative Scholar Takes On U. of Illinois in Fight Over Papers Linked to Obama.  Stanley Kurtz suspects that the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is playing down his ties to the radical left.  The conservative scholar just can't prove it.  That's because the University of Illinois at Chicago, which houses the papers of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge — a defunct education foundation with ties to both Mr. Obama and the former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers — won't let him see the papers. When Daley says shhh, library is quiet on Obama.  [Stanley] Kurtz believes the documents may show Obama and Ayers were close -- far closer than Obama has acknowledged -- over oodles of foundation gifts on education projects the two worked on together.  First the librarians told Kurtz yes, come look.  But by the time Kurtz landed in Chicago, the librarians changed their minds.  The donor of the documents hadn't cleared his research.  Perhaps they'll let him look at the documents on Nov. 5. Obama's Lost Annenberg Years Coming to Light.  [Scroll down]  Add in the fact that former Weatherman and admitted terrorist William Ayers (whom Obama described in the Philadelphia debate as merely a "neighbor") was head of the operating arm of the CAC, working with Obama on distributing scores of millions of dollars to grantees in the wards of the city, and you have a topic that the Obama campaign wishes to avoid at all costs.  A compliant media has averted its eyes so far. University to release Obama records.  In the 1990s, Ayers was instrumental in starting the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which was awarded nearly $50 million by a foundation to help reform Chicago schools.  Ayers is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Obama and Ayers have other ties.  Ayers held a meet-the-candidate event at his home for Obama when Obama first ran for office in the mid-1990s.  Ayers and Obama live in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. Can Obama Survive the Annenberg Cover-up?  The last thing Obama should want made public are his dubious associates.  The public has had some exposure to his long time spiritual adviser, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, many have heard of the convicted Chicago fixer Tony Rezko, and some have just a bit of knowledge about William Ayers. U of I at Chicago opens Ayers records.  The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was set up to support school reform, promote literacy, teacher training and community involvement in Chicago Public Schools.  The $49 million grant from Annenberg was — at the time — the largest private gift ever to the Chicago school district.  Barack Obama was the board chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge board for its first three years. Files linking Obama to '60s radical a hot commodity.  The UIC records showed that Ayers was instrumental in securing the $50 million education grant to reform Chicago Public Schools, part of a national initiative funded by the late Ambassador Walter Annenberg.  After Chicago was awarded the money, Obama served as president of the Challenge's board of directors, the fiscal arm that disbursed the grants to schools and raised private matching funds. Annenberg Papers:  Putting On Ayers?  The Obama camp tries to suppress a campaign ad and university archives linking the candidate to a '60s terrorist who hosted his first campaign fundraiser.  Is he being "swiftboated," or is this a cover-up? Obama tipped off about search of Annenberg Records.  If there is an innocent explanation, the University should give it.  But it is very hard to see how this is anything except partisans at both the U of I and the Obama campaign working together to scrub records that may have had extremely damaging information about the relationship between Obama and William Ayers. Obama's Plumbers:  Since the spring, [Professor Steve] Diamond has led the investigation into the intimate working relationship between Obama and Ayers that dates back at least to the beginning of 1995 and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge Grants.  Diamond believes this group is not harmless.  "It's a 'Plumbers' unit.  You know, we are old enough to recall the Plumbers in Richard Nixon's White House.  This is like that.  The job is to stop anyone trying to use the (Chicago) Annenberg (Challenge) papers to figure out how Ayers and Obama worked together on education." Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools.  Despite having authored two autobiographies, Barack Obama has never written about his most important executive experience.  From 1995 to 1999, he led an education foundation called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), and remained on the board until 2001.  The group poured more than $100 million into the hands of community organizers and radical education activists.  The CAC was the brainchild of Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground in the 1960s. Cowardly Bill Ayers Seeks Police Protection.  It's been quite a turnaround for Bill Ayers.  The Communist terrorist who planned bombings of police stations, in order to inflict maximum injury and death on police officers, is now depending on the police at the University of Illinois, where he is a "distinguished" professor, to protect him from the tough questions of students' parents. McCain campaign ad shines a light on the Ayers connection ... and Obama's reaction shows that McCain hit a sore spot. Obama dogged by links to 1960s radical.  Conservatives are stepping up efforts to turn 1960s radical Bill Ayers into a political liability for Barack Obama.  This spring, Obama's links to Ayers briefly became a campaign controversy.  Now American Issues Project is spending $2.8 million to air a TV ad highlighting links between Obama and Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground Organization, which opposed the Vietnam War and was responsible for several bombings. The Biggest Goof Yet.  In the next 24 hours thousands if not millions of voters who never heard of or didn't understand the extent of the Obama-Ayers relationship are going to get a full education.  That Justice Department complaint is a stunt reeking of abject panic.  Really, isn't this just unlimited free publicity for the McCain accusations? Does Obama support free speech or not?  The latest example of this growing anti-First Amendment mentality is Obama's heavy-handed response to a television ad by an independent nonprofit that raises some very basic questions about the Illinois senator's relationship with William Ayers, the unrepentant 1960s terrorist bomber.  Obama's campaign has encouraged supporters to flood television stations with protests whenever they see the ad.  Nothing wrong with that, but the other thrust of the Obama response was to ask the Justice Department to intervene to stop further airing of the ad. Obama's Worst Fear:  A private group is running an ad questioning [Obama's] ties to unrepentant '60s Chicago terrorist, William Ayers, and the Obama camp is doing everything in its power to suppress it.  The extreme reaction shows how nervous Obama and [David] Axelrod are about negative ads ripping off the mask of moderation they've worked so hard to craft for him. Ayers Head:  Barack Obama's supporters insist that an ad from a conservative group attacking his ties to unrepentant 1970s radical William Ayers is irrelevant to the campaign. … You wouldn't know that from the reaction of the Obama campaign. Obama's Friend, America's Enemy.  Have you ever been a friend or business associate of a terrorist?  Not someone who, to your shock and horror, turned out secretly to have bombed government buildings.  No, the question is whether you've ever befriended an unreconstructed radical whose past was well known to you when you entered his orbit and walked through doors he opened for you.  Have you been chummy with an unapologetic terrorist who, years after you'd known and worked closely with him, was still telling the New York Times he regretted only failing to carry out more attacks — and that America still "makes me want to puke"? Frank Marshall Davis Who was Frank Marshall Davis?  The FBI file on Davis, consisting of 601 pages and covering the years 1944-1963 means that Davis was under investigation or surveillance for at least 19 years. Barack Obama's Surrogate Father.  New Zealand blogger Trevor Loudon broke the story of "Frank" being Frank Marshall Davis and we followed up, not only confirming the identity but disclosing the FBI's 600-page file on Davis.  All of this occurred during the 2008 presidential campaign but very few people wanted to talk about it.  David Maraniss of the Washington Post wrote a 10,000-word article about Obama's growing-up years in Hawaii without even mentioning Davis.  Former Post reporter David Remnick's 2010 biography of Obama, The Bridge, takes a different tack.  "When Obama was running for president, Remnick writes, "the right-wing blogosphere attacked Frank Marshall Davis.  He was, by turns, a card-carrying Communist, a pornographer, a pernicious influence.  The attacks were loud and unrelenting."  The "attacks" were actually statements of fact and they came from those who took the time to document Obama's relationship with Davis.  This is a function that should have been performed by U.S. media. Barack Obama and the Communist Party:  Barack Obama's first known connection with a Communist Party USA supporter was his boyhood relationship with communist poet Frank Marshall Davis in Hawaii.  Barack Obama's relationship to Frank Marshall Davis, first came to light through a March 2007 speech at New York University's Tamiment Library by Communist Party USA supporter and historian Gerald Horne. Decrypting Obama's 'Pop':  [Scroll down slowly]  In Dreams, [Frank Marshall] Davis is strategically referred to by his real name, "Frank."  Other than public figures like Jeremiah Wright and members of the Obama family, no one else is.  Ayers and Obama wanted black Chicago to know Obama's pedigree, but they were savvy enough to omit Davis's last name, as well as any reference to his communism.  Had they written this book with the presidency in mind, they would likely have eliminated all references to Davis — and Wright too, for that matter.  Obama has had to depend on the media and the literary establishment to keep "Frank" out of the public debate, and they have largely obliged him. Obama's Father Figure:  Frank Marshall Davis.  [Scroll down]  Another one of Barry's splendid adult role models was communist, poet, alcoholic, sexual deviant and fomenter of racial hatred, Frank Marshall Davis.  Cleverly disguised as "Frank" in Dreams [from my Father], we learn that young Barry was treated to Davis' counsel on numerous occasions.  Dear Grandpa Stanley, blessed with an inordinate amount of free time thanks to his wife's hard work, enjoyed whiling away the hours with Davis, drinking and smoking pot.  Davis was an open supporter of the Soviet Union and his influence on Obama is hard to overlook.  The poet also admitted to writing a pornographic novel under the pseudonym of Bob Greene in which the protagonist seduces a 13 year old girl. Obama's Communist Mentor:  In his biography of Barack Obama, David Mendell writes about Obama's life as a "secret smoker" and how he "went to great lengths to conceal the habit."  But what about Obama's secret political life?  It turns out that Obama's childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a communist. Media's O-Colored Glasses Blank Out Leftist Truth.  [Scroll down]  At the beginning of Obama's life, for example, there was "Frank," Obama's boyhood mentor who appears in his 1995 memoir "Dreams from My Father."  Accuracy In Media's Cliff Kincaid has identified "Frank" as Frank Marshall Davis, a known Stalinist in a Soviet-sponsored communist network in Hawaii.  But Obama obscures Frank's identity in his book, even, as Sean Hannity has reported, going so far as to drop passages about "Frank" from the more recent, recorded version of the book.  Why?  The media never asked. Barack Obama: Red Diaper Baby.  Barack Obama is a "red diaper baby" who has spent his formative years — literally from the moment of his birth — interacting with members and sympathizers of the Communist Party, USA.  His mother Stanley Ann Dunham has been described by former classmates as a "fellow traveler."  His grandfather Stanley Armour Dunham arranged Obama's mentorship by Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis. Same title, different author: Obama:  A Red Diaper Baby.  From everything I have read about Barack Hussein Obama I have concluded he is a classic example of what used to be called "a red diaper baby"; a person brought up from birth to be dedicated to at best socialism and at worse communism.  His mother and grandparents were extremely liberal and, in Hawaii, young Obama's mentor was Frank Marshall Davis, widely known to be a communist.  I believe Obama has been personally driven from an early age to acquire power and, if possible, to seize power. Dreams from Frank Marshall Davis.  While much attention has been paid to Obama's relationship with communist-terrorist Bill Ayers — and rightly so — much less attention has been devoted to Davis.  That's a mistake, since Obama was influenced more by Davis than Ayers. The Frank Marshall Davis Cover-Up Is Over.  [Scroll down]  [Frank Marshall] Davis was identified as a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), controlled and subsidized by the Soviet Communist Party and the KGB.  As late as 1956, when he was called before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, Davis was still refusing to deny that he was a communist.  Wouldn't it be helpful if [Jon] Meacham, the editor of Newsweek, would make an elementary effort to get the facts right?  But that is too much to ask when the presidency is at stake and the media-backed candidate is trying to cover up his controversial background. Why Obama's Red Mentor is News.  Barack Obama is still an enigma because a lot of his life has been carefully hidden, as National Review's David Freddoso points out in The Case Against Barack Obama.  His campaign is hypersensitive because his life is filled with awkward facts and dubious associations.  Obama has declared his personal history out of bounds and scrubbed it clean.  The media are obediently censoring things we need to know.  The most obvious example is Obama's adolescent mentor and father figure, Frank Marshall Davis. Obama's Radical Revolution: Its Alinsky Root and Global Vision.  Obama was raised on the mother's milk of socialism.  Both his parents were fellow travelers, who met at the height of the Cold War in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii.  Obama's grandfather was a close friend of Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis, sending young Barry (as he was then known) to him for mentoring, despite (or in ignorance of) Davis being a pedophile.  From the time he returned from 4 years in Indonesia and rejoined his grandparents in Hawaii at the age of 10, he was taken often to be with Frank Marshall Davis. Was a Communist Obama's Sex Teacher?  [Frank Marshall] Davis led "a secret double life," the online version of the Enquirer story notes.  True.  But the story also notes that "Obama has been extremely secretive about the true nature of his experience with the self-admitted deviant."  This is also true.  And this is why this terribly troubling story just won't go away.  There are too many questions that deserve answers. Why Doesn't McCain Fight Back?  [Scroll down]  One of the most glaring taboo topics, even for the McCain campaign, has been Frank Marshall Davis, the black communist "poet" and "journalist" who mentored Obama in Hawaii for about eight years.  Davis was under investigation by the FBI for 19 years.  His 600-page FBI file notes that he was even considered by his fellow communist comrades as anti-white.  The Davis relationship helps explain why Obama would later attend and belong to Wright's church, where he would get married and have his children baptized. Red Faces Over Obama's Red Mentor.  [Scroll down slowly]  When will the media ask Obama about the Obama/Davis relationship?  And why did he conceal the complete identity of "Frank" in his 1995 book, Dreams From My Father?  I think we are beginning to understand the reasons for this cover-up.  Not only would the identification of "Frank" as Frank Marshall Davis expose communist influence on a young Obama, it might also expose those who collaborated with him and tried to whitewash his communist activities. The Frank Marshall Davis Network in Hawaii:  [Scroll down]  A 1949 letter sent to NAACP acting National Secretary Roy Wilkins by a Honolulu attorney and NAACP leader named Edward Berman:  "I was at one of the election meetings at which one Frank Marshall Davis, formerly of Chicago (and formerly editor of the Chicago Communist paper, the Star) suddenly appeared on the scene to propagandize the membership about our 'racial problems' in Hawaii.  He had jut sneaked in here on a boat, and presto, was an 'expert' on racial problems in Hawaii.  Comrade Davis was supported by others who had recently 'sneaked' into the organization with the avowed intent and purpose of converting it into a front for the Stalinist line…. Obama Plays Reagan in Berlin.  The depth of the deception that is now underway can be understood by analyzing the significance of Obama's "I love America" foreign policy speech in Berlin, Germany, in view of the fact that the candidate and his media acolytes continue to conceal the central role that a Stalinist Communist by the name of Frank Marshall Davis played in his upbringing. AP Lies About Obama's Red Mentor.  Under the innocuous headline, "Writer offered a young Barack Obama advice on life," the story calls Davis, a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) when it faithfully echoed the Stalinist line, merely a "leftleaning black journalist and poet" known for "leftist politics" and someone who might be accused by some of having "allegedly anti-American views."  Davis was not a "journalist" in any real sense of the term.  He was a propagandist and racial agitator for the CPUSA.  He was also a recruiter for the communist cause. Obama Confirms Relationship with CPUSA Member.  the Obama campaign's [40-page] attack on [Jerome] Corsi's book and Corsi personally acknowledges on pages 9 and 10 of its report that the mysterious "Frank" in Obama's 1995 book, Dreams From My Father, is in fact the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) member Frank Marshall Davis.  This identification by AIM and others hasn't been disputed by the media, which has desperately tried to ignore the Obama-Davis relationship, but the Obama campaign has not responded to it until now. Return of the Dupes and the Anti-Anti-Communists.  A couple of weeks ago in Washington, Herb Romerstein and Cliff Kincaid, two veteran investigators of American communism, held a press conference on Capitol Hill to announce the release of two new reports on Barack Obama's radical past, or, more specifically, his association with extremist elements from the American left — yet more evidence of a frightening pattern of associations by Obama throughout his distant and recent life, from Bill Ayers to Reverend Jeremiah Wright, all of which at the least shows bad judgment.  At the press conference, they discussed Romerstein's report on Frank Marshall Davis, an influential figure in Obama's early life, whom Obama refers to only as "Frank" (albeit affectionately) in his autobiography Dreams From My Father. Obama's Red Mentor Praised Red Army.  Barack Obama's childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the Moscow-controlled Communist Party USA, wrote a poem dedicated to the Soviet Red Army.  "Smash on, victory-eating Red Army," he declared.  He also wrote poems attacking traditional Christianity and the work of Christian missionaries. Young Obama's Red Mentor:  The mainstream media have finally gotten around to revealing Barack Obama's early mentor.  But they've downplayed the mystery man's communist background. Communists, the Media, and the Democratic Party.  Why the outrage over Senator Clinton drawing attention to a well-documented personal connection between Obama and a communist terrorist?  Is there something else more damaging that has to be hidden from public view?  Does new information have to be discredited in advance as "McCarthyism?"  The information may have to do with Obama's upbringing.  Obama says that he was raised by his mother and grandparents.  But those aren't the only people who had influence over him during his formative years. Is Barack Obama A Marxist Mole?  In his biography of Barack Obama, David Mendell writes about Obama's life as a "secret smoker" and how he "went to great lengths to conceal the habit."  But what about Obama's secret political life?  It turns out that Obama's childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a communist.  In his books, Obama admits attending "socialist conferences" and coming into contact with Marxist literature.  But he ridicules the charge of being a "hard-core academic Marxist," which was made by his colorful and outspoken 2004 U.S. Senate opponent, Republican Alan Keyes. Obama's Red Roots:  The word is that Barack Obama is a mainstream politician who sometimes attracts fringe leftists.  The record tells a different story — that he has sought out radicals.  What does that say of his agenda? Obama:  Guilty By Association.  The Obamans insist that mentioning any of the man's disreputable friends and religious mentors is a no-no that smacks of McCarthyism.  This is an odd complaint because, one, McCarthy was right when he pointed out that the folks who associated with other people at Communist cell meetings were in fact Communists, and, two, every child is told that he's going to be judged by the company he keeps.  So, let's face facts — John Dillinger ran with a nicer crowd than this guy. Frank Marshall Davis:  (1905-1987) was a black poet and writer (he wrote for the Honolulu Record, a Communist newspaper), and a known member of the Soviet-controlled Communist Party USA (CPUSA).  In 1950 Edward Berman, a member of the NAACP's Honolulu branch, testified to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that Davis had "sneaked" into local NAACP meetings to "propagandize" the organization's members about America's "racial problems," with "the avowed intent and purpose of converting it into a front for the Stalinist line." Communism in Hawaii and the Obama Connection:  Of Barack Obama's contacts and associations with anti-American political figures, none is more controversial than Frank Marshall Davis, a writer an poet identified as a member of the Communist Party USA by several sources, including some sources sympatheitic to him.  Obama and Davis met in Hawaii, at a time when a young Obama was in need of a black role model and mentor.  Obama's relationship with Davis, including subsequent associations with radical, communist and socialist figures in Chicago, should be investigated for the benefit of promoting the public interest and the public's right to know. Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection:  Obama is relatively new on the national scene and the media, in our view, have failed to serve the public interest by adequately investigating his background and associations. Could Barack Obama Get a Security Clearance?  Two veterans of investigations into Communist influence on the U.S. political process [have released] two new explosive reports that allege that Barack Obama had ties with extreme anti-American elements, including agents of the Moscow-controlled Communist Party USA.  The reports will shed important new light on Barack Obama's mysterious past and rise to power. ... The major points in the reports allege [that] Obama has been in the middle of two international communist networks -- one in Hawaii and one in Chicago. Report:  Obama mentored by Communist Party figure.  Investigative journalist Cliff Kincaid and Herbert Romerstein, a former investigator with the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities, presented evidence Obama was mentored, while attending high school in Hawaii, by Frank Marshall Davis, an African-American poet and journalist who was also a CPUSA member. Socialist Scholars Conference:  In his 1995 autobiography Dreams From My Father, Obama reveals that during his student years at New York's Columbia University he "went to socialist conferences at Cooper Union and African cultural fairs in Brooklyn."  The socialist conferences he cites were those of the SSC. Conservatives for Obama?  Here is a man who has consistently aided and abetted people who have openly expressed their contempt for this country, both in words and in such deeds as planting bombs to advance their left-wing agenda.  Despite the spin that judging Obama by what was said or done by such people would be "guilt by association," he has not just associated with such people.  He has in some cases donated some serious money of his own and even more of the taxpayers' money, as both a state senator in Illinois and a member of the Senate of the United States. What Barack Obama learned from the Communist Party:  As he grew and changed, Barack Obama seems to have learned to discard and look down upon the actions and attitudes of the family members he has grown up with, searching for something superior in which to believe.  Only his long-absent father seems to have inspired the dreams of his adulthood.  That his father has left behind a published record of an embrace of communist policies may or may not have played a role in Obama's embrace of his father's African identity and his literary embrace of his father's dreams. Obama's teenage mentor liked sex with kids.  Closer scrutiny of the important people (that is, the poeple Obama himself identified as important) in Barack Obama's life is proving to yield what can only be called a "ick factor."  Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, Tony Rezko and Frank Marshall Davis head the list. Obama's Scandal is Bigger than Edwards'.  Obama's communist connection, which he failed to disclose in his 1995 book, Dreams From My Father, by referring to Davis only as "Frank" and ignoring his communist affiliation, is a far more serious scandal than an Edwards "love child."  As I commented to Michael Savage on the Savage Nation radio program last week, this is the key to understanding Obama because Davis's influence over him during his high-school years in Hawaii helps explain why he would later associate with terrorists, communists and socialists. Frank Marshall Davis, alleged Communist, was early influence on Barack Obama.  Although identified only as Frank in Mr Obama's memoir Dreams from My Father, it has now been established that he was Frank Marshall Davis, a radical activist and journalist who had been suspected of being a member of the Communist Party in the 1950s. Barry Soetoro:  Profiles in Chaos.  [Scroll down]  Another one of Barry's splendid adult role models was communist, poet, alcoholic, sexual deviant and fomenter of racial hatred, Frank Marshall Davis.  Cleverly disguised as "Frank" in Dreams, we learn that young Barry was treated to Davis' counsel on numerous occasions. ... Davis was an important mentor to Obama and shared his special version of how to improve race relations:  "never trust white people".  Davis died in 1987 but was eventually replaced by Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Young Obama's Red Mentor.  The mainstream media have finally gotten around to revealing Barack Obama's early mentor.  But they've downplayed the mystery man's communist background. Obama the Racist?  Obama's racism against whites is upfront, in-your-face racism, which he discussed in his book Dreams from My Father. ... Obama learned this racist ideology during his formative years from his mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, a self-admitted communist and sexual deviant, and most certainly a racist — the kind that blacks say cannot exist. What I Learned from Obama's Pop:  In the final analysis, [Frank Marshall] Davis, a pornographer with a stated fondness for young white women, makes as likely a suspect to be Obama's blood father as Barack Sr.  Team Obama's evasiveness about the birth certificate and other questions of origins may have something to do with paternity issues. Proof That Obama's Hawaii and Chicago Communist Networks Were Linked?  It is now well established that Barack Obama was linked to the Hawaiian Communist Party network through his boyhood/teenage mentor Frank Marshall Davis.  It is also well known that after moving to Chicago, Obama linked up with the local communist networks. Stanley Dunham's FBI file reportedly destroyed.  Stanley Dunham, the man President Obama called "Gramps", was monitored by the FBI, but like President Obama, his paper trail has been obscured. News comes from Cliff Kincaid, via the Christian News Service and Canadian Fee Press. ... The reasons the FBI thought he was worth watching will probably never be known, along with so much about Obama's background that might conflict with the carefully manufactured image that the MSM cooperated in selling to the American public, while ridiculing those who sought more information on the odd lacunae in Obama's paper trail. FBI Destroyed File on Obama's Grandfather, Journalist Discloses.  The FBI destroyed a file on Barack Obama's grandfather, the man who selected Communist Frank Marshall Davis to be the future president's mentor during his growing-up years in Hawaii. ... While the exact nature of the Dunham file will be a topic for speculation, Kincaid said that is likely that some of the information was related to Dunham's relationship with [Frank Marshall] Davis. A Shrink Asks:  What's Wrong with Obama?  While I can't prove it, the degree of Obama's disconnect reminds me of my sexually abused clients.  With serious sexual abuse, the brain chemistry may change.  The child dissociates — that is, disconnects from his being — in order to cope.  Many adult survivors still dissociate, from occasional trances to the most extreme cases of multiple personality disorder.  Apparently, young Barry was left in the care of Communist Frank Marshall Davis, who admitted to molesting a 13-year-old girl.  As a teenager, Obama wrote a disturbing poem, "Pop," that evoked images of sexual abuse — for instance, describing dual amber stains on both his and "Pop's" shorts. The Unhealthy Motivations of Liberals.  Obama's childhood included an early abandonment by his father; abandonment by his stepfather; abandonment by his mother; frequent moves so he could not develop long-term childhood friendships; being teased by peers for being neither black nor white, for having big ears, and for being skinny; and he had an elderly childhood mentor (Frank Marshall Davis) who was a communist and pedophile.  (A poem written by 19-year-old Barack Obama suggests he may have been violated by Davis.)  Obama predictably turned to illegal drugs (marijuana and cocaine) in his youth and remains addicted to nicotine.  With this background, he could not escape being seriously psychologically damaged. Are the Sins of the Fatherless the Root of Obama's Tyranny?  Does Obama's anti-democratic ideology result from his dysfunctional childhood?  An intriguing book, Faith of the Fatherless:  The Psychology of Atheism, by Paul Vitz, argues this type background is a common precursor to the classic tyrant's personality.  This suggests Barack's beef with America might result from his own deficient past. Chicago "Community Organizer" is another way to say "troublemaker."  Back in the '60s they were called "outside agitators." Deep Cover at Organizing for America.  [Scroll down slowly]  Notice, too, the use of the phrase "take ownership of the community."  Evanston borders Chicago on the north, and they speak the same political language.  In Democrat-ese, "owning the community" means that if you got a problem with trash pickup, talk to the Democratic precinct captain.  If you have a kid who needs a job, talk to the Democratic precinct captain.  If you have trouble with delivery trucks getting ticketed for double-parking in front of your shop, talk to the Democratic precinct captain.  If you need a block party permit, a one-day liquor license, or a building code violation overlooked, talk to the Democratic precinct captain.  Democrats own the community. Welcome To Camp Obama.  [Mike] Kruglik happens to be the Alinsky disciple who first taught Obama hardball organizing tactics on the South Side.  He was Obama's boss in the '80s.  Kruglik now works for the Chicago-based Gamaliel Foundation, which trains and deploys radicals across the country.  Kruglik once declared Obama "the undisputed master of agitation," according to David Freddoso, author of the best-seller "The Case Against Barack Obama." Obama's International Socialist Connections:  Obama's socialist backing goes back at least to 1996, when he received the endorsement of the Chicago branch of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for an Illinois state senate seat.  Later, the Chicago DSA newsletter reported that Obama, as a state senator, showed up to eulogize Saul Mendelson, one of the "champions" of "Chicago's democratic left" and a long-time socialist activist.  Obama's stint as a "community organizer" in Chicago has gotten some attention, but his relationship with the DSA socialists, who groomed and backed him, has been generally ignored. Obama's Days with Daley.  It was one more story of dirty Chicago politics that went unnoticed in the national media.  This story of Patrick Daley feeding from the trough — or more properly, from the sewer — exemplifies the sweetheart deals that are typical of the political environment in which Senator Barack Obama rose.  It rounds out the story of how each member of the family of Obama's Illinois Senate mentor, Emil Jones, somehow manages to make big money from government salaries and contracts. Obama's International Socialist Connections:  Obama's socialist backing goes back at least to 1996, when he received the endorsement of the Chicago branch of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for an Illinois state senate seat.  Later, the Chicago DSA newsletter reported that Obama, as a state senator, showed up to eulogize Saul Mendelson, one of the "champions" of "Chicago's democratic left" and a long-time socialist activist.  Obama's stint as a "community organizer" in Chicago has gotten some attention, but his relationship with the DSA socialists, who groomed and backed him, has been generally ignored. Carl Davidson:  In the mid-1990s Davidson was a major player in the Chicago branch of the New Party, a Marxist political coalition whose objective was to endorse and elect leftist public officials. ... Davidson first met Barack Obama through the New Party, which endorsed the latter in his run for the Illinois state senate in 1996.  Obama had actively sought this endorsement, and he used a number of New Party volunteers as campaign workers.  Davidson quickly became one of Obama's most ardent supporters.  He helped organize a large 2002 rally where Obama first established himself as an eloquent anti-war spokesman. When is Obama Not Lying?  Obama is just another shifty-eyed, moondancin' pol from the Chicago Machine, playing the race card like Jesse Jackson, even according to The New Yorker.  He makes outright deals with corruptocrat Tony Rezko to get his home cheap, and with the Teamsters to buy their election troops in exchange for Federal oversight leniency.  He's been lolling in bed with the wild-eyed zealots of ACORN for ten years or more. Obama's Aim:  In 2007, Senator Barack Obama stood up for a gun owner.  He endorsed Chicago Alderman Dorothy Tillman in her Democratic primary.  Not only was she a gun owner, but she had even pulled a gun on her colleagues during a contentious 1991 ward redistricting hearing, according to eyewitnesses.  Tillman, best known for demanding to be served by black (not white) waiters, and for advocating reparations for slavery, narrowly lost her race despite Obama's support. Obama and South Chicago Slum Developers:  Barack Obama's political career rose from the south side of Chicago with a lot of help from his friends involved in the housing industry.  They have profited and thrived, unlike the Senator's south side constituents.  The Tony Rezko scandal focused the nation's attention on just one piece of a much larger story:  Obama's close association with several South Chicago slum landlords, plus one property manager who is now his senior advisor. NBC's Chuck Todd Ascribes to Chicago Mayor Daley Tremendous Power Over White House Olympic Push.  This is a BIZARRE assessment.  But Todd's explanation — in defense of his bizarreness — had him venturing further into the realm of the absurd.  He insisted that Mayor Daley basically ordered the White House — and the President specifically — to get involved on behalf of his Olympic effort.  If this is true, Todd is breaking some serious news here — that the titular head of the vaunted, notorious Chicago Political Machine can bend the White House to his will whenever he wishes.  Which would be more than a little disturbing. Chicagoland.  Instead of lobbying Olympics officials to bring the games to his hometown of Chicago, President Obama should be huddling with local officials to figure out how to control violence there.  Some say Chicago is too broke to host the Olympics.  Others say it's too corrupt.  Above all, it's too dangerous.  Crime is out of control, and the president shares some blame for the trend. America, You've Been Punk'd.  It's okay to admit it: you thought you were voting for a more benevolent and wiser version of Tiger Woods when all you got was a smoother version of Chicago-style, brass knuckle politics.  It isn't so much that you voted for the wrong guy; you were lied to by the media.  But you should have known better.  Chicago has a long and storied run of thoroughly corrupt political bosses giving envy to any third-world dictator. Obama hits opponents with Chicago brass knuckles.  [Scroll down]  Daley's father of course was Richard M. Daley, mayor of Chicago from 1955 until his death in 1976.  Ayers' father was head of Commonwealth Edison, the Chicago-based utility, from 1964 to 1980.  You bet they were great friends.  That's governance, Chicago style.  The head of government is friends with the heads of every big business, lobby and union, and together they make decisions on how everyone else will live.  Those on the inside get what they want.  Those on the outside — well, they get what the big guys want them to have.  That's life in the big city. Barack Obama's Rules for Revolution:  The Alinsky Model.  The guru of Sixties radicals, [Saul] Alinsky urged his followers to be flexible and opportunistic and say anything to get power, which they can then use to destroy the existing society and its economic system.  Alinsky died in 1972, but left behind an organization in Chicago dedicated to his malicious ideas.  This team hired Barack Obama in 1986 when he was 23 and taught him how to organize for radical transformation. Armed pols:  An unfortunate Chicago tradition.  You want to be able to pack a weapon in public for your safety?  Fine.  All you have to do is 1) run for the [Chicago] City Council and 2) win.  Why the state assumes that aldermen are fit for this prerogative is a mystery.  "Law-abiding" is not the very first word that comes to mind when you think of the City Council.  Since 1972, 27 of its members have been convicted on charges involving malfeasance, misfeasance, nonfeasance, disfeasance and anti-feasance with mopery aforethought.  It would be hard to come up with a group of people that has proven itself less deserving of blanket trust. It's the Totalitarianism, Stupid.  It is no comfort to know that Barack Obama rose to power in the hustler world of Chicago politics and that Mayor Daley, Michelle Obama, and Valerie Jarrett, all faithful creatures of the machine, decided on all the appointments in this administration. You're known by the friends you keep.  Since the advent of his socialist circle of czar advisers, we now have a better measure of Obama.  He seems to be a progressive in a European socialist way, but his czars appear to be authoritarian — not democratic — socialists.  As manufacturing czar Ron Bloom put it, "We believe in the persuasion of power."  Let's look further back to the "friends he keeps."  Obama's consigliore is his senior adviser, progressive liberal Valerie Jarrett, a virtual cerebral body part to both him and the first lady.  Know her and you know the Obamas. Obama and the White House Chicago Boys.  Barack Obama has a problem.  His polls numbers are dropping and his policies are fueling an angry backlash across America.  The Democratic party is held in disrepute, and congressional Democrats are dropping like flies.  This imperils Obama's radical agenda and his own 2012 prospects.  What to do?  Game the system and rig the future elections.  That is how things are done in the streets of Chicago. Obama and the Government Employees:  Barack Obama may not have learned much at Harvard regarding the Constitution, but he did learn in Chicago how politics works:  the Chicago way.  Reward supporters, and keep the bribery as opaque as possible.  Chicago mores have been brought to Washington. MSM Ignores 'The Chicago Way,' Corrupt Machine That Spawned Obama, Three Suicides.  While [John] Kass calls Obama "a Chicago political guy," he knows the Machine is multi-layered.  While the hub is Chicago, spokes extend throughout Cook County, and reach deep inside the state capital at Springfield.  Because the MSM ignored the Machine from which Obama emerged, the electorate didn't realize that voting for Obama meant endorsing politics the Chicago way. Study examines decades of Cook County corruption.  Nearly 150 elected leaders, high-ranking officials and people doing business with the county have been convicted in corruption cases ranging from bribery to ghost-payrolling dating back to 1957, a study released Thursday [2/19/2010] by the University of Illinois at Chicago and Better Government Association found. Obama, the Chicago Boys, and their 30 Billion Dollar Slush Fund:  [Scroll down slowly]  Recall, Barack Obama's statement, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."  That is the modus operandi of a criminal.  Evidently that is also the governing philosophy of our President. The "Chicago Way" Of Barack Hussein Obama.  The Better Government Association, a busy Chicago-based watchdog group that has its work cut out for it, recently released its "Hall of Shame" report that details the nearly 150 county officials who have gone to jail for corruption in Barack Obama's Cook County.  And that doesn't even include the more than one hundred Chicago officials who have also gone to jail over the last few decades. The bullies in the White House.  Recall, Obama is at his most truthful when he speaks extemporaneously, when the Teleprompter and his handlers cannot control him.  He said back during the campaign that when adversaries "bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."  Those are mob rules.  It is also the modus operandi of Presidential "governance" in the Age of Obama.  These are the Chicago Boys, after all.  Chicago:  home of Al Capone, one party-and one-family rule for decades.  Alderman politics, city of corruption, and whose political mores have now been writ large. Arne Duncan's list and the Chicago Way.  When U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan ran the Chicago Public Schools for the boss of Chicago, he kept a secret list of those who hoped to clout children into the city's top-tier public schools.  "We didn't want to advertise what we were doing because we didn't want a bunch of people calling," CPS official David Pickens admitted to Tribune reporters Azam Ahmed and Stephanie Banchero, who broke the story.  So the schools kept a clout list.  But they didn't want nobody nobody sent hassling them with calls. The Pfleger-ization of the Catholic Church.  So much that you need to know about the Catholic Church's social policy problems can be summed up in one word:  Chicago.  On race, abortion, guns, immigration and "community organizing," Catholic Church officials in the Windy City have forged unholy alliances with radical left-wingers and enablers who undermine the faith — and the faithful. First, He Was a Community Organizer.  When Barack Obama entered the 2008 Presidential Election scene, ...we were told that his most endearing credential was that he had navigated the "mean streets of Chicago" as a community organizer disseminating "hope"; that he had been successful in making the poverty-stricken neighborhoods of Chicago a better place to live, a safer place to live.  As of April 25, 2010, the residents of Chicago have stood witness to 113 homicides. ... Gang crime is so bad in some parts of the city that parents, when there are two existing in the household, routinely remind their children not to play in front of the windows in their houses for fear of being struck by a stray bullet fired from the gun of a gangbanger. Shoring Up Chicago's Community Bank.  Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee want to find out if anyone in the Obama White House attempted to influence the financial bailout of a well-known Chicago-based "community bank," which faced FDIC closure last week, and which, going back to the Clinton Administration, has had close ties to ACORN and the leftist community-organizing world of Chicago. Tony Rezko, Barack Obama, the FBI Mole, and the Somnolent Chicago MSM.  The Chicago media covers Illinois political corruption like crime reporters.  They show up at the scene, gather for the perp walk, snap a photo, and cover the trial.  In short, they wait for the story to happen and then accept official explanations with minimum scrutiny.  Consequently, when the Machine gets caught, it's generally not the media that breaks the story.  And it's been that way in Chicago for a very long time. The Candidates That Nobody Sent.  The ethos of the clubhouse era was captured in the story of Illinois Democrat Abner Mikva, who — decades before becoming a House member and then a federal judge — walked into his Chicago Democratic ward office in 1948 as an earnest law student hoping to volunteer.  As Mikva later recounted, a glaring ward committee member brusquely asked him, "'Who sent you?'  I said, 'Nobody sent me.'  He put [his] cigar back in his mouth and he said, 'We don't want nobody that nobody sent.'"  This week's elections were the triumph of the candidates that nobody sent. Obama's Chicago homecoming is not so sweet.  It's been 15 months since President Obama went home sweet home to Chicago. ... [But] it should be obvious why Obama hasn't been home much.  Obama moved to Chicago to establish his political base, but now the city is a political liability. Tony Demasi and the Chicago Way.  [Scroll down]  Owning a club introduces the proprietor to the seedy world of Chicago politics unlike any other business.  In order to own a club one would need as many as six different licenses:  a liquor license, a tobacco license (smoking was still legal in bars at the time), a valet license, sidewalk license, and the Public Place of Amusement license, which allows a venue the ability to charge a cover for live music or a DJ.  In order to get these licenses successfully, building inspectors, plumbing inspectors and electrical inspectors from various city zoning and buildings departments, along with the local Alderman and Police commander would all have to approve parts of any and all of these licenses.  With his connection to [Marty] Gutilla's circle of friends, [Anthony A.] Demasi had just the right influence to navigate this process. How Illinois is that?  What could be tastier than two Democrats — President Barack Obama and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich — hanging out with the treasurer of the Republican National Committee at a Wilmette fundraiser hosted by a political fixer who would soon be in federal prison?  According to testimony by businessman Joseph Aramanda (who later wrote a $10,000 campaign check to Obama), it happened in 2003 as Obama was mounting a campaign for the U.S. Senate. Controversy Surrounding Bank with Obama Ties Grows.  Controversy continues to swirl around the Obama administration's bailout of the politically connected community lender ShoreBank, with new calls for an investigation into how the bank was able to secure tens of millions of dollars in Wall Street cash to stay alive, FOX Business has learned. Obama's Other Chicago Problem.  [Scroll down]  Mr. Obama continued to swing for Mr. Giannoulias right through the news that the Giannoulias's Broadway Bank had loaned millions to Michael "Jaws" Giorango, a convicted bookmaker, as well as other crime figures.  He stuck with him through the news that some of this money had been disbursed when Mr. Giannoulias was the bank's senior loan officer.  And Mr. Obama stuck with him when even the Democratic speaker of the Illinois House, Mike Madigan, refused to endorse Mr. Giannoulias.  "My history in politics, if you were alleged to be connected to the mob, you were done," said Mr. Madigan in the run-up to the 2006 treasurer's election. Obama "All In" for Sen. Candidate/Mob Banker Who Loaned $20M to a Guy Named "Jaws".  President Obama has thrown his political weight behind Chicago mob banker and basketball buddy, Alexi Giannoulias, in a brazen attempt to help elect one of the sleaziest Democrat politicians around to his old Illinois Senate seat. Obama Cozies Up to Giannoulias.  President Obama was believed to be avoiding Alexi Giannoulias.  Why?  Well, Giannoulias, who is vying for Obama's old Illinois Senate seat and is a former basketball buddy of the president, has become something of a political toxin.  It became public that the former banker serviced loans to mobsters and crooks, and Giannoulias's own family bank collapsed, creating yet another political embarrassment for the candidate who is currently Illinois's state treasurer.  But Obama seems to have had a change of heart, and later this week he will host a political fundraiser for Giannoulias in Chicago. Obama raises nearly $1 million for Giannoulias.  The nearly $1 million fundraising event at the Palmer House Hilton highlighted a quick visit by Obama back home to Chicago that also included a tour of a Southeast Side Ford plant and a 49th birthday dinner Wednesday night [8/4/2010] with friends including Oprah Winfrey. No Shady Banking Buddy Left Behind.  First Lady Michelle Obama's latest overseas jaunt is getting all the headlines.  But President Obama's money-grubbing junket to Chicago may cost taxpayers far more in the long run.  With his Gaultier-clad wife sashaying around the Spanish seaside, the lonely fundraiser-in-chief returned to Illinois to take care of some birthday-week business.  Job One:  Filling the Senate campaign coffers of his corruption-tainted political protege Alexi Giannoulias. The Center for American Progress We Need Green Money, Not Green Jobs.  Van Jones is back, reconstructed and rehabilitated. ... The Center for American Progress announcement says he'll be a senior fellow and leader with its Green Opportunity Initiative.  CAP was founded by rich liberals who thought the left needed a think tank like conservatives have (as they concluded they needed talk radio, and hence founded the now defunct Air America).  One of the major sources of funding of CAP was Marion and Herbert Sandler who got rich building Golden West Financial selling Adjustable Rate Mortgages with teaser rates to unsophisticated buyers.  Yes, the very greedy kind of businesspeople that the Obama administration would have us believe caused our current economic crisis. Did someone mention Van Jones? Obama Admin. Caught Red-Handed Working with Big Wind Energy Lobbyists.  Despite calls for increased transparency and openness, recent U.S. Energy Department documents obtained through FOIA requests and reported by The Chicago Tribune show significant collusion among Energy Department officials and the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), as well as other third party special-interest groups, including the left-of-center Center for American Progress. Released Emails Show Wind Lobby, Soros Group Helped with White House PR.  Emails recently obtained under the Freedom of Information Act — seen here for the first time — show how political influence and lobbyists are shaping Obama administration policy and public relations.  The emails show that the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) coordinated their response to a damning Spanish report on "green jobs" with wind industry lobbyists and the Center for American Progress (the progressive think tank founded by John Podesta and funded by George Soros). Did someone mention wind energy? CBS Slams Exxon for Not Drilling More.  After all the media hand-wringing the past few months over imploding financial institutions, they might praise ExxonMobil for taking care of it shareholders first and keeping ample reserve funds, rather than running on risky investments and toxic assets.  "Consumer advocate" Dan Weiss closed the story saying, "Big oil is swimming in profits with money drained from the pockets of American families."  CBS mentioned he was a senior fellow at the "Center For American Progress" yet neglected to mention that it is an avowedly liberal think tank.  The founder of CFAP is former Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta. ACORN Allies Scheme to Distract from Corruption Allegations.  John Podesta's left-wing Center for American Progress Action Fund has invited many liberal and radical groups to a meeting Thursday morning [5/28/2009] to discuss how to use rhetorical misdirection to take the focus off ACORN's increasingly well publicized corruption. News media barred from ACORN meeting at Center for American Progress.  Freedom of the press stopped at the door of the Center for American Progress earlier today [5/28/2009] when this reporter and a camera crew from Fox News were barred from covering a "briefing and discussion" meeting of left-wing advocacy groups worried about recent coverage of the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN).  Brian Kettenring, an ACORN spokesman, refused to allow journalists to cover the meeting, which was slated to include representatives from 10 organizations. The Truth About ObamACORN.  At a closed-door powwow hosted Thursday [5/28/2009] at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, activists discussed how to combat a relentless stream of corruption charges from ACORN/Project Vote whistleblowers.  But it's too late for a reputation bailout.  Former Project Vote official and whistleblower Anita MonCrief has harnessed the Internet to crowd-source a massive cache of documents showing ties between Obama staff members and the supposedly "nonpartisan" ACORN operations. Democrats Kill Provision in AmeriCorps Bill that Would Keep Funds from ACORN.  Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) tried to stand up for civil society and taxpayers last week but his effort was shot down by liberal Democratic senators.  Vitter tried to prevent the radical direct-action group, ACORN, and its affiliates from benefitting under the odious national service legislation known as the (proposed) GIVE Act.  The bill itself, which received a glowing review from John Podesta's pro-Obama propaganda factory, the Center for American Progress, would give government money to volunteer programs and would dramatically expand the feel-good liberal program, AmeriCorps, which ACORN and other groups have used to promote their own political objectives. Did someone mention ACORN? 'Diversity czar' takes heat over remarks.  President Obama's diversity czar at the Federal Communications Commission has spoken publicly of getting white media executives to "step down" in favor of minorities, prescribed policies to make liberal talk radio more successful, and described Hugo Chavez's rise to power in Venezuela "an incredible revolution."  Mark Lloyd's provocative comments — most made during a tenure at the liberal Center for American Progress think tank — are giving fodder to critics who say Mr. Obama has appointed too many "czars" to government positions that don't require congressional approval. Ex-Clinton Official Ties Minneapolis Bridge Collapse to Global Warming.  A former member of the Clinton administration, and current Senior Fellow at the virtual Clinton think tank the Center for American Progress, claimed Monday that global warming might have played a factor in the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. The article above was also posted under Global warming is blamed for everything. Obama Stimulates Unions, Inflation and Debt.  The George Soros-funded Center for American Progress, which was run by Obama's Transition Project co-chair, John Podesta, said Obama would launch a "Green, Unionized Economic Recovery."  The key word was "unionized," a tip-off that public money would subsidize expansion of the labor unions that backed Obama.  One of those powerful unions, the AFL-CIO, is headed by John Sweeney, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Aide Responsible For AF1 Flight Over NYC Lands Safely.  Louis Caldera, the head of the White House military office forced out over the controversial Air Force One photo-op over the Statue of Liberty, has become a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, The Mouth learned Wednesday [6/10/2009].  CAP, a center-left think thank founded by the well-connected John Podesta, is a repository of well-known Democratic operatives and policy wonks. Did someone mention the Air Force One flyover? Other questionable associates and endorsements It is us.  This president's overtly destructive, clear-and-present-danger agenda is surpassed in transparency only by his ultra-leftist public voting record and overall lifetime conduct of consorting with the enemy as a child and student of Marxism, socialist and racist community organizer, congregant of the blatant America-hating black-theology- and social-justice-spewing Rev. Jeremiah Wright and close personal friend of convicted communist terrorists like Bill Ayers, and by his unflinching appointment of an array of communist czars, including Van Jones, Cass Sunstein, Anita Dunne, et al. Obama's Desperate Push for Socialized Health Care.  I have written this post to explain why President Obama is so desperate to pass health care legislation, seemingly regardless of the cost to the Democratic Party.  The reality is that President Obama owes his success and his hold on power more to three Marxist groups than he does to the Democrats.  The three organizations, Communist Party USA, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and Democratic Socialists of America, all worked with Barack Obama for years and helped get him elected.  Now they want payback. Barack Obama and the Committees of Correspondence:  The process of forming Committees of Correspondence (CoC) began in late 1991 when approximately one third of the Communist Party USA membership split from the party to form a new organization.  The former communists joined with former Maoists, Trotsyites, socialists and anarchists to launch CoC at Berkeley, California in 1992 and to convene the official founding conference in Chicago in 1994.  In 2000, Committees of Correspondence became Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. Barack Obama and Democratic Socialists of America:  Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest socialist organization in the US.  It is one of two official U.S. affiliates of the Socialist International.  It was formed in 1982 from a merger of the Michael Harrington led Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and the smaller New American Movement.  DSA works inside the Democratic Party and has cross membership with the Communist Party USA, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, Socialist Party USA and the Green Party USA. Rep. Paul Broun not sure if Obama is a citizen.  [Scroll down]  The Georgia congressman spent much of the rest of the interview attacking Obama as a "socialist."  "I know he is," a socialist, Broun said.  "You look at his own writings.  He said when he was in college he leaned to Marxist tendencies and is linked to Marxist professors.  He joined Marxists clubs.  And look at who he's put in his administration, they're devout socialists."  "America has to stand up and decide if we want to be a socialist nation or if we're going to be a free nation," he said. The Perils of Professors.  A large chunk of [Obama's] adult life has been spent attending, teaching in, and living in close proximity to elite universities.  The intellectual bent (e.g., disdainful of American exceptionalism, ignorant of the workings of free-market capitalism, infatuated with the public sector) and the posture (e.g., remote, condescending) of liberal academics are evident in Obama's persona and governing style.  And his saturation in Left-leaning elite schools certainly explain much of what ails him. Obama's Comrades Push Socialized Medicine.  The push to socialize U.S. health care came not from the "people," but from a small clique of Marxists, led by a man with close personal ties to President Barack Obama.  This group's goal is fully socialized, government run "single payer" health care — as long promoted through Congressman John Conyers' National Health Insurance Act, or HR 676.  The leader of this Marxist clique is Quentin Young — a retired Chicago physician, a life-long Marxist activist and long time friend and political ally of Barack Obama. Obama's Comrades Push Socialized Medicine.  The leader of this Marxist clique is Quentin Young — a retired Chicago physician, a life-long Marxist activist and long time friend and political ally of Barack Obama.  Young has known and worked with Obama for years in Chicago and has reportedly directly influenced Obama's views on socialized medicine.  According to radical journalist John Nichols writing in The Progressive, "Obama...learned about single-payer health care from his old friend and neighbor Dr. Quentin Young, the longtime coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program." Obama's Afghan Pickle.  An out-of-the-closet communist, [Carl] Davidson first met Barack Obama in 1996, when the aspiring state senator actively sought the endorsement of Davidson's New Party.  Davidson and like-minded Marxists had created the party specifically to elect fellow travelers and useful idiots to political office.  Obama apparently fit the bill.  He secured the endorsement, and party volunteers proceeded to assist him in his successful campaign. Obama's Other Controversial Church.  While John McCain was being tortured as a prisoner of war in Hanoi, First Unitarian Church of Honolulu — at which the elementary-age Obama would later attend Sunday school after returning from Indonesia in 1970 or 71 — was sheltering deserters and AWOLs recruited by 'flirty fishing' coeds from a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) group known as "The Resistance". ... The story of his ties to the church began to emerge only after he attended [his grandmother's] memorial service. ... The connection to Vietnam deserters has not been included in any of the Obama-related coverage. Obama's other church:  'We've always been activist'.  The Hawaii church where President Obama attended Sunday school as a boy has "always" been involved in political activism, the church's pastor told WND in an interview.  "The Sunday school has always been and to this day still is involved in political activism," said Rev. Mike Young, pastor of First Unitarian Church of Honolulu.  "We are involved in community organizing, helping churches in foreign countries, social justice issues, like making sure inmates get dinner," said Young, speaking from Hawaii. Gay-Porn Kingpin Linked to O.  One of the "bundlers" who has raised $50,000 to $100,000 for the Barack Obama presidential campaign is Terrence Bean, who once controlled the biggest producer of gay porn in America.  Bean, the first gay on Sen. Obama's National Finance Committee, is the sole trustee of the Charles M. Holmes Foundation…. Obama's associations may haunt bid.  [Emil Jones Jr.], the president of the Illinois Senate, amounts to Mr. Obama's political godfather and was an important part of his longshot victory for U.S. Senate in 2004.  He helped the little-known politician meet the right people, and he picked Mr. Obama to handle high-profile legislation during the two years leading up to the election.  Mr. Jones is known for steering state money to a few favored institutions, including some that employ his relatives.  Several of his relatives have gotten state jobs, and his wife's government salary jumped 60 percent after he became Senate president.  He has played an important role in blocking ethics legislation in Illinois. Greg Craig:  Obama's Next Thorn.  He defended John Hinkley, Jr. after the latter's attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan.  He defended former Bolivian Defense Minister Carlos Sanchez-Berzain, a human rights violator accused of 67 deaths.  He was a "personal attorney" for Kofi Annan in the UN Oil for Food scandal and he provided "special counsel" to Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial. … And he's a senior foreign policy advisor to presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama. Obama Flunks Another Test.  Why is it that Obama surrounds himself with people who carry so much baggage? … One of the most important jobs of any president is to make appointments — and Obama's record so far doesn't inspire confidence. Obama VP Committee Member Helped Enable 2000 Elian Gonzalez Seizure.  Now that Jim Johnson has quit Barack Obama's vice-presidential candidate selection team, maybe somebody, anybody, in the media, instead of making "He's havng a bad day" excuses, might focus on the questionable judgment of Barack Obama in having Eric Holder serve on that team.  Besides his already-known role in facilitating the Clinton pardons, including that of fugitive billionaire financier March Rich, there's the matter of former Clinton Administration Deputy Attorney General Holder's involvement in the Elian Gonzalez case in 2000. Alice In Obamaland.  In June 1986, while editor of the Black Press Review, [Alice Palmer] wrote an article for the Communist Party USA's newspaper, the People's Daily World, now the People's Weekly World.  It detailed her experience attending the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and how impressed she was by the Soviet system. … Obama and Palmer both oppose school choice and vouchers and successful programs like the D.C. Opportunity Scholarships.  They prefer the central planning of education as dictated by the teachers unions and the commissars at the National Education Association. Can the U.S. afford a president who can't recognize anti-Americanism?  Finally, Barack Obama saw the light and broke with Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.  It took him 20 years to realize that its leaders, its in-house publications, and even its guest preachers were anti-American.  If elected president, he will not have so long a grace period to make his decisions. Princess Obama Derangement Syndrome.  First, it is quite clear that any questioning at all of Obama's background is entirely off-limits.  Next, the posters fail totally to grasp that the real point isn't what faith he professed or was brought up in as a child — it is the fact that he has not told the truth about his early background. … The sole reason for the questions about Obama is the many discrepancies in the accounts of his early life — including his own accounts — plus his many questionable associations. Obama's Bundler, Osama's Enabler.  Should a major party candidate for president, who has pledged his support for our troops, reject the money and support of an anti-American extremist who thinks Osama bin Laden had a "valid" argument on 9/11 and says she is currently acting "to undermine the war effort"?  Barack Obama should be forced to make that decision about the ample funds he has received from Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans. With friends like these, Obama doesn't need enemies.  Do we want someone in the White House that the bad guys of the world fear or do we want someone there that the Hamas', Castro's, and Chavez's of the world openly support?  A rhetorical question for those that haven't yet bothered to peer beyond the handsome, the smooth, and wholly inadequate would-be president Barack Obama. Another Obama Supporter Slips Under the Bus.  Yesterday [6/25/2008], we asked the question "Who is Martin Klonsky?"  It turns out Mr. Klonsky was another one of those radical acquaintences of Barack Obama who are only a "distraction" from the real issues of the campaign; like trying to find someone who wasn't a Weather Underground/radical racist/bigot/crook from Obama's past. Communist Party Backs Obama.  Barack Obama's patriotic tour has run into a snag.  More evidence of communist backing for the candidate has surfaced.  The latest to emerge publicly in Obama's camp is Joelle Fishman, the chairman of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) Political Action Commission.  In a column titled, "Big political shifts are underway," Fishman says that Obama could lead "a landslide defeat of the Republican ultra-right" this November and that he is "ready to listen" to the "left and progressive voters" backing him.  Fishman makes it clear that the CPUSA is part of this coalition. Obama Should Come Clean On Ayers, Rezko And the Iraqi Billionaire.  [Scroll down]  But in April 2004 he [Nadhmi Auchi] did attend a dinner party in his honor at Rezko's Chicago home.  Mr. Obama also attended, and according to one guest, toasted Mr. Auchi.  Later that year, Mr. Auchi came under criminal investigation as part of a U.S. probe of the corrupt issuance of cell-phone licenses in Iraq.  In May 2004, the Pentagon's inspector general's office cited "significant and credible evidence" of involvement by Mr. Auchi's companies in the Oil for Food scandal, and in illicit smuggling of weapons to Saddam Hussein's regime. Obama Unbinds.  The exposure of various relationships (Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko to name a few) has raised the question "Who is this guy, really?" to one of the most important in the campaign. … Yet, an audience of adoring followers has easily swallowed and digested campaign responses that not only do not answer the question but seem to deliberately obfuscate or distort the reality presented. Obama the Harvard Lawyer.  Obama's HLS [Harvard Law School] professors included Charles Ogletree, a leading voice advocating taxpayer-funded slavery reparations.  Although Obama never publicly supported that position, Ogletree was among Obama's mentors at HLS and now sits on Obama's black advisory council, along with former Harvard professor of Afro-American Studies, Cornel West, according to the National Journal.  West also serves as honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. Listen Up, John McCain!.  Something else I don't comprehend is why presidential candidates, who always insist they're ready to govern on day one, don't make a point of telling us who will be in their cabinet on that fateful day. … I'd love to know what positions Jesse Jackson, Charles Schumer, Richard Durbin, Barney Frank, Barbara Boxer, George Soros and Charles Rangel, would hold in an Obama administration. Sojourning Socialists.  Barack Obama has joined forces with a white socialist he calls a "good friend" — the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of "Sojourners."  He too believes in "liberation theology," sans the black nationalism.  In fact, Wallis is the white version of Jeremiah Wright, sans the black rage. FBI raids Obama friend's home.  The FBI on Wednesday raided the county offices of a former Illinois state senator who is a poker-playing buddy of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.  According to Chicago authorities, the FBI visited the offices in Joliet, Ill., of Will County executive Larry Walsh, a longtime friend of Mr. Obama's, and his chief of staff Matt Ryan.  Mr. Walsh, who served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2005, was endorsed by Mr. Obama in his county executive election bid. Obama's Advisors — A Source For Concern.  Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, is not a key member of the Senate committees on foreign relations, armed services or intelligence, has not initiated-led any significant legislation and has not devoted himself to national security issues.  He surged into the Senate and the presidential race from the Illinois local-political-social arena.  Obama relies on a battery of experienced advisors, who influence/shape his world view ... . Don't tell me — ANOTHER radical in Obama's background?  As Chicago (and Illinois, for that matter) reels from a fiscal crisis resulting in a cutback of services and layoffs of thousands, Mayor Daley spends many millions on public relations and image building.  One of the beneficiaries is Marilyn Katz.  Where have I heard that name before?  She is a bundler for Barack Obama, a person with a radical past (head of security for the Students for a Democratic Society — SDS — from which Bill Ayers' militant Weathermen group splintered). Another Communist in Obama's Orb.  Meet Michael Klonsky, Obama's "social justice" education expert. ... Klonsky is an unabashed communist whose current mission is to spread Marxist ideology in the American classroom.  Obama funded him to the tune of nearly $2 million.  Obama, moreover, gave Klonsky a broad platform to broadcast his ideas:  a "social justice" blog on the official Obama campaign website. Raila Odinga Obama's Kenya ghosts.  Mr. Odinga and Mr. Obama's father were both from the Luo community, the second-largest tribe in Kenya, but their ties run much deeper.  Mr. Odinga told a stunned BBC Radio interviewer the reason why he and Mr. Obama were staying in near daily telephone contact was because they were cousins.  In a Jan. 8, 2008, interview, Mr. Odinga said Mr. Obama had called him twice the day before while campaigning in the New Hampshire primary before adding, "Barack Obama's father is my maternal uncle." The Kenya Connection:  If Mr. Obama did not know about Mr. Odinga's electoral deal with the Kenyan Islamists when he offered his support, then he should have known.  If he did know, then he is guilty of lending the prestige of his office to America's enemies in the global war on terror.  We need to know exactly what Mr. Obama knew about Mr. Odinga, and precisely when he knew it. 'No plans' for Odinga-Obama meeting.  Senator Barack Obama is absent from the list of dignitaries with whom Prime Minister Raila Odinga is scheduled to confer during his current visit to Washington. … Mr Odinga has said he is a cousin of Mr Obama's, although the senator's representatives deny that the two men are related. Obama raised $1 million for foreign thug's election.  Sen. Barack Obama, with a donation of nearly $1 million, and a son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi were among the biggest contributors to the presidential campaign of controversial Kenyan leader Raila Odinga, according to an internal document obtained by WND.  The memo was prepared by the head of Odinga's campaign finance accounting section, Shakeel Shabbir, as an official report delivered to the national treasurer for Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement party, or ODM. Obama's violent pal in Africa.  Raila Odinga — a Marxist thug politician in Kenya — has been backed to the hilt by Obama.  [Jerome] Corsi and [Mark] Hyman have been publicizing — or trying to publicize — the connection far and wide.  Odinga ran for and lost the presidency of Kenya in late 2007.  His backers — egged on by the sore loser himself — took the approach of vote for our candidate or risk being hacked to death. Kenyan PM backs Obama.  Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga, in a show of support for US presidential candidate Barack Obama, paid a surprise visit to Obama's relatives in the east African country, reports said on Monday [10/27/2008].  Odinga met with the 86-year-old Sarah Obama, the Democratic candidate's step-grandmother, and other members of his family in the tiny village of Kogelo in western Kenya, according to Kenya's The Standard newspaper. Obama And Machete Politics:  Sen. Barack Obama campaigned on Marxist Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga's behalf in Kenya in 2006 and, with the help of the son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi, raised nearly $1 million for Odinga's campaign.  When Odinga lost his presidential election, he refused to accept the results and incited riots resulting in thousands being macheted to death or burned alive in their churches. John L. McKnight Obama's McKnight In Shining Armor.  Obama needed help getting into Harvard Law School.  He got it from a disciple of Saul Alinsky who shared the socialist agitator's belief in the radical change the young community organizer could embrace. Guess who recommended Obama to enter Harvard.  In a revelation tying Barack Obama even closer to radical community organizing, WND has learned that a renowned disciple of the late socialist agitator Saul "The Red" Alinksy wrote a letter of recommendation for Obama when he applied to Harvard Law School.  Obama approached Northwestern University professor John L. McKnight — a loyal student of Alinsky's radical tactics — to pen the Harvard letter in the late 1980s. Khalid al Mansour Obama Had Close Ties to Top Saudi Adviser at Early Age.  New evidence has emerged that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was closely associated as early as age 25 to a key adviser to a Saudi billionaire who had mentored the founding members of the Black Panthers. Are Khalid al Mansour and Obama Friends?  Civil rights activist Percy Sutton said he was solicited by a man named Dr. Khalid al Mansour to send a letter of reccomendation on behalf of Barack Obama to help him gain acceptance to Harvard many years ago.  But who is Khalid al Mansour and how did he know Barack Obama? Another Radical Obama Association?  Old videos appear to show a radical Muslim named Khalid Al-Mansour helped Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama gain acceptance into Harvard Law.  Civil rights activist Percy Sutton recalled being solicited by a man named Dr. Khalid A-Mansour to write a letter of recommendation to help Obama gain acceptance into Harvard Law in this undated television interview. Barack Obama -- Magna Cum Saudi?  We know he's a Harvard graduate and was editor of the Harvard Law Review.  Less known is the story of how he got into the prestigious Ivy League university.  As Newsmax's Kenneth Timmerman reports, he was helped by a letter written by Percy Sutton, former Manhattan borough president and a credible candidate for mayor of New York in 1977.  In an interview earlier this year on New York's all-news cable channel NY1, the 88-year-old Sutton made some interesting revelations about his relationship with the young Obama. Black Racists Recruited to Guide the Jihad.  Black Muslim lawyer Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour recently made news when it was revealed that he was a patron of Barack Obama and recommended him for admission to Harvard Law School in 1988.  Back in the 1960s, al-Mansour, whose "slave name" was then Don Warden, was deeply involved in Bay Area racial politics as founder of a group called the African American Association.  A close personal adviser to Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, al-Mansour helped the pair establish the Black Panther Party…. Terrorists, Terrorism and Obama:  [Scroll down]  There is reason to believe that Obama's college years may have been funded by Royal Saudi money funneled through Saudi international fixer and Black Panther adviser Dr. Khalid Al Mansour, aka Donald Warden.  Former New York Borough President Percy Sutton states that he wrote a letter on behalf of Obama, recommending him for admission into Harvard Law School.  Sutton states that he did not know the young Obama at the time, but that he was asked to write that letter by dear friend Dr. Khalid Al Mansour, who stated he was engaged in raising funds for Obama's education. Obama's Benefactor: Dr. Khalid al Mansour, I presume ....  Percy Sutton, NYC political icon in the African American community, tells a news reporter that Dr. Khalid al Mansour solicited favor and recommendation on behalf of Barack Hussein Obama in order to secure Barack's entry into Harvard.  Think about that. Alexi Giannoulias Is Alexi Giannoulias Obama's next "not the man I knew"?  Giannoulias also hosted a fund-raiser for Obama in Chicago in September, 2007, omitting it from his public schedule and keeping it closed to the press.  Could it be that Obama didn?t want the press asking questions about a New York Post article published that same morning entitled "Obama's Mob-Tie $idekick?" Obama's banking buddy:  One of the speakers at the DNC on Monday night was Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, whose speaking slot raised a few eyebrows.  Not only is he very young and in a low level state office, his family's business, Chicago-based Broadway Bank, has ties to organized crime.  The ties between Giannoulis and Obama may be even more troubling that those between Obama and the likes of Jeremiah Wright because there seems to be so little upside for Obama in this relationship. Sam Graham-Felsen Another Obama Marxist:  Barack Obama has a thing for Marxists.  He befriends them, listens to their counsel, and he even hires them to work in his campaign.  And they seem to feel the warmth. … Sam Graham-Felsen, hired to run Obama's blog, writes about Noam Chomsky in a Marxist publications that openly calls for revolution against the American government.  This is a Presidential candidate's choice to run the on-line portion of his campaign.  That speaks volumes of his character and worldview. Another Unsavory Obama Associate, Official Blogger a Communist?  The list of Barack Obama associates that hold views that clash with mainstream America is getting longer every day and now we can add another notch in the "anti-American" column of Obama campaign workers and supporters.  This time we find that the Obama campaign's official blogger, Sam Graham-Felsen, has spent time in France participating in labor riots, has written for a socialist magazine, hung a communist flag in his home, and was a fan of Marx while at Harvard. Rashid Khalidi The Obama-Khalidi Connection:  [Rashid] Khalidi is a former professor at the University of Illinois and was a close friend of Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.  At a farewell dinner for Khalidi before he took the Columbia job, Obama's speech was filled with glowing praise for his friend, including references to the many meals they had shared.  He thanked Khalidi for opening his eyes about the problems of the Palestinians.  Khalidi himself has given vocal support to suicide bombers. The Audacity of Tenure.  It turns out that the "change agent" running for president has yet another colorful associate the media seldom ask him about.  "You mentioned Rashid Khalidi, who's a professor at Columbia," Barack Obama said in Boca Raton this year.  "I do know him because I taught at the University of Chicago."  "And he is Palestinian."  Actually, "Between 2001 and 2002, when Obama was director of the board, the Woods Fund gave a total of $75,000 to the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), an anti-Israel outfit run by Mona Khalidi," Brad O'Leary reports in his new book, The Audacity of Deceit. Debunking Obama's Ayers "Fact Sheet".  Let's examine Obama's claim that his connection to [William] Ayers and [Bernadine] Dohrn is "tenuous" and "phony." ... I suppose the goodbye party for prominent Israel basher and Arafat apologist Rashid Khalidi, attended by Obama, Ayers and Dohrn, is also unworthy of discussion. Obama-Khalidi-Ayers and the MSM.  [Rashid] Khalidi is a Columbia professor and strong advocate for the Palestinians.  He is a man of the left, and he is close to Obama and Ayers.  Obama's friendship with Khalidi would be unsettling to many supporters of Israel — if it was well known, which it isn't. Obama's Friendship with Khalidi:  Many politicians have distanced themselves from positions and associations of their youths.  But in Obama's case, he is distancing himself from positions staked out as recently as 2003. ... [Rashid] Khalidi is not distancing himself from his past.  Consistent with what you'd expect from someone who justified PLO attacks on civilians in Israel and Lebanon from 1976 to 1982, Khalidi routinely refers to Israel as a "racist" and "apartheid" state, and professes to believe in a "one-state" solution to the conflict.  Guess which country would have to disappear for that "one" state to come into existence? The PLO's Professor:  Before delving into the details, it's worth entertaining the legitimate question of why Khalidi's background and writings should raise concerns about Obama himself. The L.A. Times story from April about their relationship answers this question quite clearly.  Not only did Obama know Khalidi, but the professor was his "friend and frequent dinner companion" who Obama was close enough to that he attended the 2003 going away party thrown when Khalidi was moving to New York. Why Is the L.A. Times Burying the Obama/Khalidi Tape?  Given the extraordinary sudden turnabout in US policy toward Israel under the Obama Administration, I have become obsessed by the repressed 2003 videotape of Rashid Khalidi and Barack Obama.  That tape — or so we are told — is ensconced in a safe at the Los Angeles Times building.  In the current situation, its release by the paper is more important and newsworthy than ever.  The Khalidi tape could be of tremendous significance in revealing the provenance of Obama's views on the Middle East and the degree to which the public was misled on those views during the presidential campaign. Louis Farrakhan Reject and Denounce:  The list of objectionable figures — Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and Father Michael Pfleger — surrounding Barack Obama is growing.  But the one who is the most infamous garners the least attention:  Louis Farrakhan. Why Islamists Cheer For Obama:  The Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan gushed, "this young man [Obama] is the hope of the entire world that America will change and be made better."  He went on to say that Obama "could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall."  In another appearance, Farrakhan stated that he "represents hope that the United States will change for the better." Obama's Farrakhan Problem:  Barack Obama has a Louis Farrakhan problem and not because of his endorsement from Farrakhan.  Instead, it is because of Obama's more-than-passing association with Farrakhan and those who are close to the Nation of Islam leader.  In spite of Farrakhan's long history as a racist, bigot and anti-Semite, Obama thought favorably enough of him to join Farrakhan's 1995 march on Washington, D.C.  Reportedly, Obama joined Reverends Jeremiah Wright and Al Sharpton in organizing the march. Extreme Endorsements Could Sway Moderate Vote.  Obama has even garnered the praises of Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. "You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth.  And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn't care anything about.  That's a sign.  When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking," Farrakhan said. Endorsements Finding Friends On Far, Far Left.  If Obama is smarting because he didn't get an official Communist Party USA endorsement, maybe he will be mollified by the approval of an old communist to the south.  Fidel Castro in the spring wrote in the state newspaper Granma that Obama is "the most progressive candidate for the U.S. presidency."  That's an endorsement that anyone who doesn't have a socialist agenda should be ashamed of, especially given Castro's murder and intimidation of his foes and his repeated, egregious human rights violations of average Cuban citizens.  But from what we can tell, Obama has not rejected Castro's support. Socialist chief endorses Obama.  The head of France's opposition Socialist Party strongly endorsed U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and said Sunday [8/31/2008] that an Obama victory would be "good news" for the United States and the world.  Francois Hollande said an Obama presidency would usher in a positive, new chapter in international relations. Obama Will 'End 30 Years of Ultra-Right Rule,' Communist Paper Says.  The Communist Party USA's newspaper is defending Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama against potential defectors on the left, saying his candidacy represents a "broad multi-class, multicultural movement."  In a July editorial, "Eye on the Prize," the People's Weekly World, the official newspaper of the Communist Party USA, admonished anyone on the left who might consider abandoning Obama. Marxism's Rebirth?  America's Communist Party is giddy over current political events, saying its movement has reached a "turning point."  There's no mystery why.  Their candidate is the White House front-runner. Saul Alinsky's son:  "Obama learned his lesson well".  In Artful Dodger style, Barack Obama, plays down his mentorship with Communist author Saul Alinsky.  But Alinsky's son, L. David Alinsky, credits Obama for "learning his lesson well" from the Communist guru.  Indeed, Alinsky Jr. who credits his late father for the success of last week's Democratic National Convention, may have done something that Obama's detractors couldn't:  blown the cover on the presidential hopeful's communist leanings. Barack Obama and Alinsky's Rules for Psychopaths:  [Saul] Alinsky boasted about his close alliance with Frank Nitti, Al Capone's second in command in the Chicago Mob during the 1930s. ... Alinsky's close alliance with Frank Nitti tells us something crucially important today.  Alinsky was also a lifelong ally of the Stalin-controlled Communist Party, at a time when Stalin was known to have murdered tens of millions of people.  He was proud of building a bridge between organized crime and the power hungry Left.  That tacit alliance may continue today. 4 Weathermen terrorists declare support for Obama.  The names of four former top leaders of the Weathermen terrorist organization are listed as signatories on an online petition calling for an "independent grassroots effort" to help strengthen Sen. Barack Obama's campaign.  The petition was initiated by Progressives for Obama, an independent organization acting to ensure the Illinois senator's election. More Celebrity Endorsements for Barack Obama: Kim Jong-Il and Fidel Castro.  It's nearly unanimous; terrorist groups and cruel dictators have made a clear choice in the US presidential election. Obama offers change Kim Jong-Il can believe in.  North Korea prefers Democratic candidate Barack Obama over Republican John McCain, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan said. Hamas Endorses Obama.  Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has received an endorsement he might well wish he hadn't — from the militant Palestinian group Hamas.  Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, delivered his endorsement in an interview with WorldNetDaily and WABC Radio in New York. Hamas Adviser Ahmed Yousef Praises Barack Obama. Hamas Hearts Obama.  Hamas praised Barack Obama.  Then Barack Obama's campaign said how flattered it was.  Then Obama had to toss an advisor once it became public that the guy was working with Hamas. Fidel Castro Endorses Obama — Again.  On Nov. 5, 1982 a Dade County, Fla., grand jury indicted Rene Rodriguez Cruz for smuggling drugs into the U.S.  This murderer headed a Cuban agency that Jeremiah Wright "worked with for decades" by his own admission, and whose staff he regards as "friends."  These "friends," arranged the visit for the Rev. Jesse Jackson's and his 300 person entourage to Havana in 1984, which included Rev. Wright.  "Viva Fidel!" bellowed Reverend Jackson while concluding his speech at the University of Havana during that visit.  "Viva Che Guevara! ... Long Live our cry of Freedom!" Al-Jazeera for Obama.  Colin Powell's predicted and expected endorsement of Barack Obama was transformed into big news by the pro-Obama media.  But Arab propaganda channel Al-Jazeera's intervention in the U.S. presidential contest is also extremely significant.  Al-Jazeera, a mouthpiece for enemies of the United States, aired a Moammar Gadhafi speech praising Obama and followed with a story depicting supporters of Sarah Palin as white racist Christians.  The channel is subsidized by the oil-rich Sunni Muslim plutocracy/dictatorship in Qatar. Obama Getting Support From Gaza Strip.  Obama already has distanced himself from an earlier endorsement by a Hamas official.  Joanne Yaron, chairwoman for Democrats Abroad in Israel, said she though it was "lovely" that Palestinians in Gaza were campaigning for Obama. At the U.N., Many Hope for an Obama Win.  There are no "Obama 2008" buttons, banners or T-shirts visible here at U.N. headquarters, but it might be difficult to find a sliver of territory in the United States more enthusiastic over the prospect of the Illinois senator winning the White House. The U.N.'s Candidate.  The definition of socialism includes government ownership and control of the means of production, and the Obama administration is prepared to sign agreements and carry out policies that in effect will do just that.  The U.N. couldn't be happier.  An informal survey of U.N. officials by the Washington Post found overwhelming support for the former Illinois state senator. The Old Mistaken Identity Play.  The White House last November released a guest list of 110 names and 481 visits as part of the President's Volunteer Disclosure Policy.  Names on the White House guest list included Malik Zulu Shabazz, William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Michael Moore, Robert Kelly (a.k.a. R Kelly) and ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis.  Even more intriguing is the fact that this is just a small portion of the multitude of guests who have trod into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since Obama's inauguration; imagine the names they are NOT revealing. Barack Obama and Tony Rezko The Audacity of Silence About Tony Rezko:  Jury selection began today in Chicago in the trial of Syrian-born businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a major supporter of Barack Obama.  Two days before the 2006 elections in which Democrats won by running against a "culture of corruption," Chicago newspapers revealed that Obama purchased a home that summer for $1.6 million, but only because Rezko's wife bought an adjoining parcel for $625,000 to complete the deal.  Rezko was already under federal investigation for kickback schemes. Barack's Favors for Corrupt Crony.  Barack Obama has admitted it was "boneheaded" to get involved in a land deal with Tony Rezko, his friend and fund-raiser.  But the media's focus on that deal has distracted from the bigger question:  Why would Obama become involved in any deal with a man like Rezko, who made his living sponging off taxpayers and corrupting public officials?  Because, by the time of the deal, the two already had a long relationship of mutual benefit. An Obama-Rezko Primer:  Antoin "Tony" Rezko is a millionaire Chicago businessman who has long helped young politicians raise money and make connections.  Raised in Syria, he moved to Chicago to study engineering but wound up making money in real estate and fast food.  He is now on trial in federal court on mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and attempted extortion charges. First Wright, Now Rezko.  Now that the governor of Illinois has been implicated in the schemes of Obama's friend Tony Rezko, it might be time for Obama to explain his relationship with Rezko in a major speech on the endemic political corruption that afflicts his home state of Illinois. Obama and Rezko, the early years.  The trial of Antoin "Tony" Rezko, one-time patron to Sen. Barack Obama and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has turned lurid.  Under cross-examination by Rezko attorney Joseph Duffy, star prosecution witness Stuart Levine, a Chicago-area lawyer, is admitting to conspiracy, extortion, bribery, fraud and other bad acts while he "served" at the Illinois public school teachers pension fund board. A Culture of Corruption:  The News Media.  What's Obama's relationship with former Weather Underground bomber William Ayers?  Over the years, Ayers has raised enormous sums of money for the Illinois senator.  What was Obama's relationship with indicted moneyman Tony Rezko?  Over the years, it's been reported that Rezko raised over $14 million for Obama's campaigns.  When Rezko was indicted, Obama returned $85,000.00 to him.  What happened to the other $13,015,000?  What's Obama's relationship with terrorist sympathizer Professor Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University?  Did Obama funnel money to his pal Rashid — money that eventually ended up in the hands of Hamas or Hezbollah terrorists?  There are other questions that these intellectual giants in the news media could at least ask, but don't hold your breath for them to actually do their jobs. Note: Articles below were published after Rezko's conviction on June 4, 2008. Rezko found guilty on 16 charges, not guilty on 8.  Tony Rezko — the high-flying developer and fast-food magnate who was once a major campaign fund-raiser for Gov. Blagojevich and Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama and one of the governor's closest advisers — is now a convicted felon. A large crowd under the bus.  Barack Obama learns a lot of things from the newspapers. … He famously learned that his pastor — the man who he says led him to the Lord, presided at his wedding and baptized his two daughters — was a hateful old bigot who had been preaching racist nonsense only when he read about it in the newspapers. … He learned that Tony Rezko, his one-time fundraiser and accommodating pal who was convicted by a Chicago jury this week of 16 counts of fraud and money laundering, was a crook and a slumlord only by reading about it in the newspapers. Man Of Conviction.  Tony Rezko was the classic influence-peddler and the patron saint of the old politics that Barack Obama claims he wants to change.  The 16 of 24 counts of which Rezko was convicted Wednesday [6/4/2008] accused him of corrupting two state boards and using his influence in the administration of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to squeeze cash from firms seeking state business.  Yet Obama chose to do business with him.  Sen. Obama has described Rezko as just a "guy in the neighborhood." But like so many of Obama's associations, they run long and deep and indicate a disturbing lack of judgment. Obama and his Rezko ties:  For more than five weeks during the brutal winter of 1997, tenants shivered without heat in a government-subsidized apartment building on Chicago's South Side.  It was just four years after the landlords — Antoin "Tony" Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru — had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers.  Rezko and Mahru couldn't find money to get the heat back on. Obama certainly has a lot of questionable associates.  It should be stated at the outset that Obama was not involved in any of the illegal acts a Chicago jury has found Rezko guilty of committing.  But Obama is guilty of maintaining a close relationship with Rezko long after it had become clear that Rezko's primary business was buying and selling political influence for personal gain. Why Did Obama Pay Rezko an Extra $64,000 For That Strip of Land?  Gabe Malor, over at Ace of Spades, notices Obama is using the same "he's not the man I once knew" line that he used with Jeremiah Wright.  Obama has returned $157,835 in campaign funds that Tony Rezko and his associates donated in his career.  But will he return the land that he bought from Rezko? Sweet Home Obama:  After Rezko's 2006 conviction on 16 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and soliciting bribes, Obama said, "This isn't the Tony Rezko I knew."  Uh-huh.  Just as he said the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, after his anti-American rants became public, was "not the person I met 20 years ago."  Obama also said of Rezko:  "I've never done any favors for him."  Oh, yes he has, as David Freddoso points out in "The Case Against Barack Obama."  And Rezko has returned the favors. So Tell Us, Sen. Obama, 'Who Else Sent You?'.  It was, of course, inevitable.  How could any politician rise so quickly on the legendarily corrupt Chicago political scene and be as pure as Obama's devoted followers were purporting him to be?  The question in the minds of skeptics was, "Who sent you?"  Well now we're beginning to find out and it ain't pretty. The Obamas and their Mortgage:  Beyond the question of the mortgage payments, odd coincidences and connections surround the house purchase, beyond questions already raised by the handling of the mansion's side yard, which was legally divided by the previous owner into a separate lot, and sold to Tony Rezko's wife Rita Rezko at the same time the Obamas purchased the house adjoining the yard.  If nothing else, these connections illustrate how deeply the Obamas' personal and financial lives are enmeshed in the world of Tony Rezko and the Chicago political machine. Sen. Obama got sweet deal, too.  Another Democrat gets caught taking a sweetheart mortgage, and the Democrat, his bank and the left again insist:  Nothing to see here.  Only this time, the Democrat is presidential nominee Barack Obama, who scant months after his election to the Senate secured with his wife a $1.32 million mortgage, discounted by three-eighths of a point, from Northern Trust Bank of Illinois.  The cut-rate mortgage on their $1.65 million mansion in Chicago will save them at least $108,000, which is more than just chump change they can believe in. Obama the Slumlord Senator.  Tony Rezko's housing company, Rezmar, raked in more than $100 million in loans from the city, state and federal government to fix up 30 Chicago buildings for low-income housing.  All of the buildings have failed financially:  As of 2007, 17 have gone into foreclosure, and 6 have been boarded up.  Meanwhile, the city of Chicago has sued Rezmar at least a dozen times for failing to heat its buildings. The Obama/Wright/Kilpatrick Collision.  Two percent.  That's the percent of voters outside the "Motor City" that have a favorable impression of embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.  You don't have to be a pollster to understand how strongly disliked Kilpatrick is throughout Michigan. … What does this have to do with Barack Obama?  Although Kilpatrick has distanced himself from Obama and Obama has distanced himself from Kilpatrick, they are both inextricably linked to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama's letters for Rezko:  As a state senator, Barack Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting his political patron Tony Rezko's successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens. … The letters appear to contradict a statement last December from Obama, who told the Chicago Tribune that, in all the years he's known Rezko, "I've never done any favors for him." Property deal takes the shine off Obama.  The hottest potential contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama, has come under scrutiny for his links to a shady businessman over the purchase of his $1.65 million family home in Chicago.  After winning extraordinary adulation, the honeymoon period of the senator for Illinois is coming to an end. Internship also links Obama, Rezko.  In addition to a land deal, Sen. Barack Obama's ties to indicted dealmaker Antoin "Tony" Rezko include an internship the senator provided the son of a contributor at the request of Rezko, an Obama spokesman confirmed Saturday [12/23/2006].  John Aramanda served as an intern for Obama for about a month in 2005, said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs.  His father is Joseph Aramanda, a Rezko business associate who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal corruption case against Rezko.  Aramanda has contributed $11,500 to Obama since 2000, Gibbs said. Ethics Questions Put Obama on the Spot.  In between the "fluff and style" news items, there have been reports of Obama's connections to Antoine "Tony" Rezko.  Rezko, who was indicted in October 2006 for a multimillion dollar kick-back scheme, has been a longtime supporter of Obama.  Rezko's companies have donated large sums to Obama's campaigns.  Rezko also hosted a fundraiser for Obama.  Completing the shady political trifecta — there's even a questionable real estate deal between the two men. Rezko cash triple what Obama says.  During his 12 years in politics, Sen. Barack Obama has received nearly three times more campaign cash from indicted businessman Tony Rezko and his associates than he has publicly acknowledged, the Chicago Sun-Times has found.  Obama has collected at least $168,308 from Rezko and his circle.  Obama also has taken in an unknown amount of money from people who attended fund-raising events hosted by Rezko since the mid-1990s. Update: Obama bagman is sent to jail over $3.5m payment by British tycoon.  An undeclared $3.5 million payment from a corrupt Iraqi-British businessman has landed Barack Obama's former fundraiser behind bars.  The payment, disclosed in court papers, is the first time that Mr Obama's long-serving bagman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a Syrian immigrant to the United States, has been linked to Nadhmi Auchi, the Iraqi-born billionaire who is one of Britain's richest men. Iraqi Billionaire Threatens Reporters Investigating Rezko Affair.  Why aren't the American media investigating the role of British billionaire businessman Nadhmi Auchi in supplying loans to Barack Obama fundraiser Tony Rezko?  Some point to media bias, but there is another factor.  Working for Auchi, who was born in Iraq, attorneys from London law firm Carter-Ruck have for several months been flooding American and British newspapers and websites with letters demanding removal of material they deem "defamatory" to their client. The Obama Platform Dive:  Senator Empty Suit DQs.  There's the lingering triple play of scandals:  Obama's vote and speech against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act that stuns and repulses even moderate pro-choicers; his ties to Bill Ayers and the ongoing cover-up of the documents surrounding that relationship by the University of Illinois; and of course now that houses are at the top of the news cycle, the Obamas' sweetheart house deal with crooked financier and Obama mentor Tony Rezko.  That's ten weeks worth of scandal floated in one day. … Then yesterday, Obama praises the "vastly superior" infrastructure of China. Rezko Singing: Obama Sweating?  The news out of Chicago is not good for Governor Rod Blagojevich.  Convicted Chicago political operator Antoin "Tony" Rezko is talking to prosecutors about what he knows as far as corruption in Illinois and Chicago politics.  Believe me, it's plenty. Obama fundraiser, convicted of fraud, spills beans.  Jailed political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko, the Chicago real estate developer who helped launch Barack Obama on his political career, is whispering secrets to federal prosecutors about corruption in Illinois and the political fallout could be explosive. This article goes into great detail, if you're interested. Clever Real Estate Strategies for Politicians:  The story about Senator Obama's house purchase is well known.  On June 15, 2005, Barack and Michelle Obama closed on a new house in the historic Kenwood district of Chicago for $1,650,000, or $300,000 below the listed asking price.  On the same day, Rita Rezko, the wife of Tony Rezko, closed on the adjacent vacant lot for $625,000, which was the full listed asking price.  The Obamas subsequently purchased a 1,500-sqft strip of land from the Rezkos on January 11, 2006 for $104,166, increasing the side lot buffer between their properties.  The media confronted Senator Obama about these transactions because Tony Rezko was under federal investigation at the time for political pay-to-play schemes.  In 2008, Rezko was convicted of fraud, money laundering, and aiding and abetting bribery for government business. While Barack Obama talks, Tony Rezko sings.  A footnote at the bottom of one page in the 76-page Blagojevich complaint confirms Rezko is cooperating with the FBI, news that could cause an increase in the pre-holiday consumption of Mylanta by other Chicago pols.  Rezko was known as the money man or cashier to see about state jobs through the governor's office.  He's known Obama since the early '90s, tried to hire him, did hire the law firm Obama worked for, became partners with the owner of that firm, advised Obama on buying his Hyde Park home and sold him a slice of the adjacent lot. Is This the End of Rezko... or Only the Beginning?  Will the Chicago Machine corruption story break wide open in 2010?  If you think Chicago crook and long-time Obama buddy Antoin Rezko is serving out his jail sentence, think again. Where in the world is Tony Rezko?  Why is Antoin "Tony" Rezko under lock and key at an undisclosed location, like some sort of CIA-renditioned al Qaeda operative?  And why hasn't he been sentenced yet?  As the June 3 corruption trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for allegedly trying to sell Obama's former Illinois Senate seat approaches, the whereabouts of the former Blago and Obama fundraiser is literally a state secret. Back to the Barack Obama index page More about Liberals in general Back to the Home page

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