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The House that Rahm built Tribune-Review By Salena Zito Just before the 2006 midterm elections, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rep. Rahm Emmanuel was asked why he chose such moderate candidates for the House races -- breaking rank with liberal bloggers who were demanding liberal candidates. "Because we want to win," Emmanuel said, promptly ending the interview. Win he did, big time, taking out four Republicans in Pennsylvania alone, making the Keystone State's delegation the House that Rahm built. While the country was distracted by the Democratic presidential nomination battle between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrats...

Two excellent articles by Anne Bayefsky  [highlights are mine] http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTAxYmQyNTBkY2NjNjJiMDBlZTgwMjA3MTJhOWI5ZTc= A Talk-Is-Cheap Foreign PolicyObama doesn’t get it.  Democrats are right to feel upset about President Bush’s appeasement accusation. It is their Achilles’ heel in this election and they know it. The foreign-policy mantra of the Obama campaign amounts to this: Talk is cheap. Over the next five months we will see the many tentacles of such a strategy emerge and the comeback “that’s political” — as Obama has objected — will be treated with the disdain it deserves. Determining how to deal with the enemies of freedom and democracy is as...

Free Rock Concert Preceded Big Obama Rally in Portland Hugh Hewitt just told me that right before Obama addressed that huge crowd in Portland, the indie rock band the Decemberists played a free 45-minute concert. Now, I'm sure Obama would draw a big crowd either way, but wasn't that worth mentioning in the coverage? From Wikipedia: "Named both in reference to the Russian Decembrist Revolt (which may explain its use of the National Anthem of the Soviet Union as an introduction at many concerts)..." Lovely. I wonder if they played, "Sixteen Military Wives." The video depicts a bully named "Henry...

All it takes is one gaffe to taint a Republican for life. The political establishment never let Dan Quayle live down his fateful misspelling of “potatoe.” The New York Times distorted and misreported the first President Bush’s questions about new scanner technology at a grocers’ convention to brand him permanently as out of touch. But what about Barack Obama? The guy’s a perpetual gaffe machine. Let us count the ways, large and small, that his tongue has betrayed him throughout the campaign: Last May, he claimed that tornadoes in Kansas killed a whopping 10,000 people: “In case you missed it,...

Turns out that Obama's opening act at the megarally was The Decemberists, a hugely popular indie rock band, which typically opens their concerts with the Soviet National Anthem. How odd that the MSM didn't tell us that a few of the 75K in attendance may have come for the tunes. And did the Obama rally begin with the Soviet National Anthem? The concert went for 45 minutes and was widely pitched on Facebook etc. But did the band trim their act to make it Obama-appropriate? BTW: Here's an except of an interview with the band's guitarist: We’re a city magazine,...

Emphases mine --Dajjal All political art is propaganda (that is the point), but most political posters are bland, forgettable, wallpaper.... [Shepard Fairey] wanted to make posters that the cool cats would want. The 2008 Democratic primary season equivalent of the Che poster (with all that implies). More Mao, more right now.... The kind of poster that might sell on eBay, as a signed Fairey Obama recently did, for $5,900.... The Obama people, somewhat to his surprise, said go ahead. Who said, exactly? "You can assume this came from the highest levels," Fairey says. Indeed, the Obama campaign liked the posters...

Barack Obama attended a private fund-raiser with gay supporters here last week where, according to this account in The Advocate [link at URL], he spoke about his position on gay marriage: Obama said he did not think it was "politically feasible" to secure marriage rights for same-sex couples at this point. Sen. Obama acknowledged that the community wanted full marriage rights but said he favored civil unions for now while leaving open the possibility that his position might evovle in the future. Later, Obama reportedly promised to do more interviews with gay news outlets...

President Bush's speech to Israel's Knesset, where he equated "negotiat[ing] with the terrorists and radicals" to "the false comfort of appeasement," drew harsh criticism from Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders. They apparently thought the president was talking about them, and perhaps he was. Wittingly or not, the president may well have created a defining moment in the 2008 campaign. And Mr. Obama stepped right into the vortex by saying he was willing to debate John McCain on national security "any time, any place." The Obama view of negotiations as the alpha and the omega of U.S. foreign policy highlights...

Geraldine Ferraro may not vote for Barack Obama because of his “terribly sexist” ways. The most damning charge against Obama is “Sweetie-gate,” ... It is my understanding that feminists don’t like being called “Sweetie.” (“Kitten” and “Pussycat” should also be avoided.) In fact, the vast majority of women don’t care for such terms of endearment.

On Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama blasted the Tennessee Republican Party for the swipe it took at his wife. A new ad contrasts Obama's wife, Michelle Obama's admission earler this year that "for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country" with statements from people declaring their pride for the United States...

They are countries so rich in oil and gas that they would never want for fuel to drive their booming economies and the lavish lifestyles of their rulers. Now, however, in a role reversal that makes selling sand to Saudi Arabia look like a sensible business transaction, the oil-rich Gulf states are planning to import coal. An acute shortage of natural gas has led to the city states of the United Arab Emirates seeking alternative fuels to keep the air cool, the lights on and the water running. Abu Dhabi is working with Suez, the French utility company, on a...

The president of the United States, supposedly the most powerful man on Earth, goes, hat in hand, to our “friends” in Saudi Arabia asking them to increase oil production in order to bring a measure of relief to rising energy prices. Our “friends” tell him no. The president is in no position to bargain, or even threaten. What’s he going to do? Cut off financial aid? The Saudis have more money than Allah. End any military or intelligence support that keeps Islamic radicals from making the House of Saud their next target? As hard as it might be to deal...

This election is notable in many ways. For the first time since 1952, neither the president nor the vice president will be his party's presidential nominee. For the first time since 1960, a sitting U.S. senator will be elected president. And for the first time ever, if the Democrats win, the next president will be female or black. We are also at a fork in the policy road, for any of the three major candidates would lead us in very different directions on major public policy issues, from spending and taxation on the one hand, to international relations and the...

"All Cretans Are Liars" The Dems in the process of reprocessing American history and culture have hatched so many errant buzz phrases it is hard to keep up with them. "Black people cannot be racist," has been the theme since I was at university back in the 1970's. After being subjected to such nonsense as well as other contrived liberal philosophies, I left the college forever. "Only white people can be racist," because "they have the power." However, minorities through affirmative action and their own industriousness have acquired power in universities, government, entertainment, sports, business and other realms - and...

I know Obama is getting record crowds, estimated as high as 75,000 in Portland, OR.  But is curiosity the same thing as support?  Are these massive crowds going to vote en masse? Obama is a draw, but is he selling liberalism like never before or are liberals simply coming out like never before? Given some of his more ludicrous statements one has to wonder how many Americans are ready for his hard core liberal stances: Pitching his message to Oregon’s environmentally-conscious voters, Obama called on the United States to “lead by example” on global warming, and develop new technologies at home which...

Americans are well acquainted with presidential candidate Barack Obama’s legendary pledges to bring “change” to America’s political and social landscape. (For example, see here and here and here.) Indeed, “Change We Can Believe In” is the slogan that adorns the homepage of his campaign website and so many of the placards displayed by the supporters who attend his speaking engagements. His Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, is also well practiced at issuing calls for change. Her “Change and Experience” ad campaign was but an outgrowth of her 1993 declaration, as First Lady, that “remolding society is one of the great challenges...

With Obama we started out, we couldn't talk about his big ears 'cause that made him nervous. We've gone from that to this: Not only can we not mention his ears... We can't talk about his mother. We can't talk about his father. We can't talk about his grandmother unless he does, and brings her up as a "typical white person." We can't talk about his wife, can't talk about his preacher, can't talk about his terrorist friends, c an't talk about his voting record, can't talk about his religion. We can't talk about appeasement. We can't talk about color;...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Barack Obama set his sights on November's general election Saturday as he campaigned in Oregon, where he hopes to declare victory in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama has said Tuesday's primaries in Oregon and Kentucky could mark the end of his drawn-out battle with rival Hillary Clinton, and his campaign pressed home that message by announcing a symbolic return to Iowa that day. Iowa was the scene of the Illinois senator's first victory in the 2008 presidential nominating race, and his campaign noted Saturday it is "a critical general election state that Democrats must...

Stafford, Va. - Osama bin Laden must be chuckling in his safe house. After all, the 2008 campaign could very well give Al Qaeda the ultimate propaganda tool: President Barack Hussein Obama, Muslim apostate. The fact that Senator Obama – the son of a Muslim father – insists he was never a Muslim before becoming Christian is irrelevant to bin Laden. In bin Laden's eyes, Obama is a murtad fitri, the worst type of apostate, because he was blessed by Allah to be born into the true faith of Islam. There are two types of apostates according to sharia (Islamic...

I often find myself in discussions with Obama supporters in which I need to know Obama's policy positions. So, I've listed some of them here along with websites where you can get more information, in case you find yourself in the same situation.. I've tried to list positions I know many Freepers would disagree with. I know some of us agree with some of these, that's inevitable. (There are many goals I agree with, I just don't think government is responsible for getting us there.) I also know I've missed a lot - Obama is often quite vague on policy,...

Let me get this straight. It's perfectly fair for Barack Obama and his cohorts to repeatedly disparage Bush's foreign policy as "cowboy diplomacy" but horrific for Bush to analogize the Democrats' approach to foreign policy to appeasing Hitler? When Obama compared Hillary's threats against Iran to Bush's threatening "bluster," no one batted an eye. But when Bush, in addressing Israel's Knesset, compared those who want to negotiate with today's tyrants and terrorists to an American senator in 1939 who lamented that Hitler's march into Poland might have been avoided "if only I could have talked to Hitler," Obama and Democrats...

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said. From this story: WASHINGTON (AFP) — Barack Obama set his sights on November's general election Saturday as he campaigned in Oregon, where he hopes to declare victory in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.Obama has said Tuesday's primaries in Oregon and Kentucky could mark the end of his drawn-out battle with rival Hillary Clinton, and his campaign pressed home that message by...

"Hearing a loud noise and interrupting his speech, Huckabee said: "That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he—he dove for the floor."

A significant number of West Virginians (and some others in America) evidently take the view that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim. In a surpassingly depressing report from the coal-miner state on the eve of Tuesday's West Virginia primary, The Los Angeles Times noted voter views that go like this: "We do not need a Muslim to lead the good ole USA." It would not necessarily be so horrible if this well-spoken senator from Illinois were in fact Muslim. It turns out that most Muslims, like those in the country with the world's most Muslims (Indonesia),...

      Indonesians report Obama was more active as a Muslim than he admits. The Indonesian Newspaper Banjarmasin Post sheds light on Obama's early years. This report suggests that Obama has not accurately reported his early religious education. It also raises several legal questions relating to the fact that he was an Indonesian citizen, and whether he now needs to renounce his dual nationality. Clarification from Team Obama would be helpful In summary the article states1) Obama was active in the prayer room2) Barry was at one time quite a religious Muslim3) All his father's relatives were religious Muslims4)...

Pictures and annotations from the Upcoming 2010 Peace Conference: Whew...this guy is tough! Breakthrough! PEACE IN OUR TIME! IT WILL LEAD TO THE SAME PLACE

Jerusalem - Jerusalem must be included in any negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authrity, stressed Sen. Barack Obama's Middle East adviser Daniel Kurtzer. "It will be impossible to make progress on serious peace talks without putting the future of Jerusalem on the table," Kurtzer said yesterday at a conference organized by the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute or JPPPI. Kutzer... was appointed as a primary Obama adviser on the Middle East earlier this year.

Virtually everything you wanted to know about Obama: Subjects include: Family Education Religion Politics Employment State Senate US Senate The Wife Campaign Supporters Advisors Islam Africa Race Lies Quotes Osama U-Tube Videos A great source.

The glib handling of criticism of his relationship with the anti-American ("God Damn America!") and anti-Israel ("a dirty word for Negroes") Reverend James Wright may have bought him a little time. But the legacy of dissimulation about his long-concealed identity is about to come crashing down around the ears of Barack Hussein Obama, courtesy of the assembled testimony of his family, friends, classmates and teachers. Obama's official campaign site has a page titled "Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian." The page states, "Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was...

The Obama campaign claimed to be "flattered" by the Hamas endorsement, and Obama himself told the Atlantic magazine that he understands why Hamas would support him. So what have Barack's Hamas newfound supporters been up to lately? Well, on the very day President Bush arrived in Israel to mark the nation's 60th anniversary and to renew his push for a Palestinian state as part of elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace process, a rocket was fired into an Israeli shopping mall. The mall was devastated, and 14 innocent civilians were seriously injured. The Popular Resistance Committees, which has Hamas members, was one of...

-- snip --As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant. Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him. His conversion, however, was a...

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused President Bush on Thursday of launching a "false political attack" with a comment about appeasing terrorists and radicals. The Illinois senator interpreted the remark as a slam against him but the White House denied that Bush's words were in any way directed at Obama, who has said as president he would be willing to personally meet with Iran's leaders and those of other regimes the United States has deemed rogue. In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as...

Decision '08: After criticizing McCain for mentioning that Hamas endorses him, Obama says it's understandable that Hamas would do so. Just how anti-Hamas and pro-Israel is the Democratic front-runner? And just why did he fire an adviser who talked with the group?Barack Obama would like us to believe that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright who ranted anti-American profanities at the National Press Club was not the man he saw from the pews of his church for two decades. He'd also have us believe that Weatherman terrorist bomber William Ayers, who played host to his first fundraiser and with whom he would...

What about Al? There is a rumor among those close to the Obama camp that this weekend will bring a big endorsement for the Illinois Senator. We can scratch John Edwards off that list, he is yesterday's news. Probably the only thing 'bigger' than Edwards would be former Vice-President Al Gore -- who will be in Pittsburgh this Sunday (May 18) to give the commencement speech at Carnegie Mellon University. Gore, after his unsuccessful run for president in 2000, took an environmental path, rather than political, and has become a cult-like figure among the left and environmentally correct.

Sen. Barack Obama won the North Carolina primary by 14 percentage points. Sen. Hillary Clinton won the Indiana primary by a narrower margin of 2 percent. Neither candidate scored a knockout punch, but Obama came out ahead. Clearly Obama who had the most to lose — it would have been considered a huge loss if Indiana went big for Hillary — also had the most to gain. The race goes on and will go on until a decision is made at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The fat lady here is Hillary, and she won’t sing. I’m part of...

May 15, 2008 Broaching That Other Off-Limits Obama Topic By Marc Sheppard When it comes to Barack Obama, only one subject infuriates the swooning mainstream media more than his father's race -- and that's his father and stepfather's religion. Why, the very mention of Barack's early Islamic training -- or even his Muslim middle name -- has become more sacrosanct a PC no-no than disclosing the race of a non-white crime suspect...

“I am a part of all that I have met.” Ulysses by Tennyson The Obama-lovin’ media wants you to believe that the Reverend Wright earthquake has passed. Some would have you believe that Obama turned a negative into a positive with his embarrassing public contortionism defending Wright and giving us a history lesson on American racism from Plymouth Rock to the Freedom Riders, as if Reverend Wright’s inexcusable hate needs a context. Nothing is further from the truth. There is much to be told about Reverend Wright, Obama’s mentorship with this hate-monger, and the larger implication this relationship has for...

Obama declared that McCain would carry out a "third Bush term"... "No matter what the costs, no matter what the consequences, John McCain seems determined to carry out a third Bush term," Obama said.

Here’s a quick run-down of some of Barack Obama’s questionable and disturbing associations: * Rabidly anti-Israel Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi. The Obamas were regular dinner guests at Khalidi’s Hyde Park home for years. * Terrorist sympathizer Ali Abunimah, who runs the viciously anti-Israel web site Electronic Intifada. * Unrepentant Weather Underground terrorists William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. * Reverend Jeremiah Wright. What more needs to be said? * Anti-Israel foreign policy adviser Samantha Power — fired after calling Hillary Clinton a “monster.” * Anti-Israel foreign policy adviser Robert Malley — fired when it was revealed he has been holding...

CHARGE 41 - “I inspire people with my words.” EVIDENCE - Obama inspires people with other people’s words. It’s called plagiarizing. SOURCE 1, SOURCE 2, SOURCE 3 COUNTER CLAIM - Lots of people borrow a few words from speeches. That’s not plagiarizing. REBUTTAL – Plagiarism refers to another person’s intellectual creations being passed off as one’s own. Plagiarism is not nullified because the material was used with permission, which until caught by the media, Senator Obama did not have (permission) in regards to Deval Patrick’s speeches. Senator Obama uses his speeches, and their reactions, as evidence that he is connecting...

To this day, Barack Obama continues to insist he was shocked and surprised to discover that Reverend Jeremiah Wright had bizarre racist views.Now Tom Blumer has discovered images of Wright’s radical newsmagazine Trumpet—and look who was featured on the cover of that magazine at least three times: BizzyBlog - Attention Stanley Kurtz, Re Obama, Wright, Trumpet: I’ve Got You Covered.Here’s one of the images, featuring pictures of Barack Obama, Rev. Wright — and Louis Farrakhan. Isn’t that cozy? For more about the deranged, hateful content of Trumpet, see: Jeremiah Wright’s ‘Trumpet’.

Apparently it mentions Donald Young, the murdered gay choir director of Obama’s Trinity Church of Christ. This is all getting incredibly interesting, considering the fact that Reverend Wright recently retired and the church is building him a mansion within a stone’s throw of Louis Farrakhan’s in Tinley Park. I haven’t read the globe article yet, but I know that people are circulating the flyers that I posted earlier. This is a grassroots movement - someone called Hannity and Colms and Colms said he was aware of the story, and the caller was so surprised he got through, he was rendered...

Choir director at White House Hopeful's controversial Chicago church shot to death. Presidential hopeful Barack [Hussein] Obama has become tangled in a gay-murder probe rocking his controversial Chicago church as insiders ask: How much does he really know about the choir director's savage slaying? So far, Chicago cops' investigation into the murder of the Trinity United Christian Church's gay choir director has come up empty. But a top Chicago private detective tells GLOBE he believes the shooting death of 47-year-old Donald Young may be connected to Obama, who belongs to the church once headed by scandal-scarred preacher the ["]Rev.["] Jeremiah...

While I cannot for obvious reasons, disclose the exact content of the communications between Donald Young and myself, I believe it to be important to provide a general outtake to maybe help you and I understand why I asked “how did Mr. Young obtain my contact information before I ever went public?” At first I was under the impression that I was being contacted by a member of the Obama staff to address my request that Obama himself correct his drug use record. I believed that to be, based on the questions Mr. Young had asked. What had in fact,...

I have posted a video statement on YouTube in the event anything should happen to me, it is clear that Police are to investigate as a homicide. I do believe from all my heart that the increased threats being made against me must be taken seriously. "Hello, I am Larry Sinclair… On Jan 18, 2008 I posted a video on You tube, in which I stated that on 2 separate occasions, in November 1999, I performed oral sex on Barack Obama, and that while I snorted cocaine, Barack Obama smoked crack cocaine; since the release of that video I have...

Otis Moss, the man slated to become the new chief pastor at Barack Obama's Chicago church, subscribes to the ideology of retiring pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and is expected to continue Wright's legacy, according to Malik Zulu Shabazz, national chairman of the New Black panther Party... Obama, however said this past weekened he will continue his membership in Trinity. He referred to Moss as "wonderful." "Well, you know, the new pastor - the young pastor, Rev. Otis Moss, is a wonderful young pastor. And as I said, I still very much value the Trinity community," Obama told the New York...

RUSH: Hey, folks, you want to tweak the Drive-By Media with me right now? Want to participate in tweaking the Drive-By Media? You are aware, probably, that Barack Obama lost his bearings recently and said that he was going to campaign in all 57 states. You heard this? And everybody chalked it up to, "Well, he's tired."... (text missing here) We're participating here in a tweak of the media. Obama said he's going to campaign in 57 states, and it turns out that there are 57 Islamic states. There are 57 Islamic states. "Every year from 1999 to 2005, the...

Ever since California voters became the first in the nation to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, the state has faced unyielding opposition from the federal government, which insists it has the power to prohibit a drug it considers useless and dangerous. That could all change with the next presidential election. As the candidates prepare for a May 20 primary in Oregon, one of 12 states with a California-style law, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has become an increasingly firm advocate of ending federal intervention and letting states make their own rules when it comes to medical marijuana. His Democratic rival,...