Free Republic

President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the Labor Department has close ties to U.S. communist and socialist organizations and has sent representatives to functions organized by national parties for both ideologies. The pick of Rep. Hilda L. Solis, D-Calif., a Congressional Hispanic Caucus leader considered to be one of the most reliably pro-union voices in the House, was hailed as a victory by communist and socialist leaders...... An article this past weekend in the Communist Party USA's People's Weekly World Newspaper welcomed Solis and quoted known socialist leaders calling her a "great choice" and an "outstanding" selection with "a life-long...

Barack Obama's chief campaign strategist David Axelrod, once worked for a man who was an identified member of the Communist Party USA, a registered agent of the Soviet Union and a paid disseminator of Soviet black propaganda. This man went on to become a key Chicago political fixer who helped elect communist linked politicians including the late Chicago mayor Harold Washington and former US Senator Carol Moseley Braun. This man knew Barack Obama and was a key member of an organisation which endorsed Barack Obama in his 2004 US Senate race. Barack and Michelle Obama were active members of this...

First it was Barack Obama's encounter with Joe the Plumber. Then there was his 2001 interview at Chicago radio station. Today, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air highlights yet another in what is turning out to be a long line of links and other items proving that Democratic candidate Barack Obama is a longtime dedicated, doctrinnaire soc-, soc-, (yes, we're still allowed to say it) socialist. It comes from the March-April 1996 edition of New Ground, a publication of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America (CDSA). I'll cite the relevant verbiage after the jump. But what's more important, I will show...

Some people, including some writers for The Black Commentator, are adamant that Senator Obama should not be supported and that he is a fraud.

New Party Update July-August, 1996 by Bruce Bentley The Chicago New Party is increasely becoming a viable political organization that can make a different in Chicago politics. It is crucial for a political organization to have a solid infrastructure and visible results in its political program. The New Party has continued to solidify this base. First, in relation to its infrastructure, the NP's membership has increased since January '95 from 225 to 440. National membership has increased from 5700 in December '95 to 7000. Currently the NP's fiscal balance is $7,000 and receives an average of $450/month is sustainer donations....

JERUSALEM – Evidence has emerged that Sen. Barack Obama belonged to a socialist political party that sought to elect members to public office with the aim of moving the Democratic Party far leftward to ultimately form a new political party with a socialist agenda. Several blogs, including Powerline, previously documented that while running for the Illinois state Senate in 1996 as a Democrat, Obama actively sought and received the endorsement of the socialist-oriented New Party, with some blogs claiming Obama was a member of the controversial party. The New Party, formed by members of the Democratic Socialists for America and...

Note that the following DiscoverTheNetworks.org/FrontPageMag.com profile doesn't (yet?) include the latest revelation that Sen Obama was actually a member of the New Party.-ETLPROFILE: NEW PARTY (NP) * Marxist political coalition * Was active from 1992-1998 * Endorsed Barack Obama for Illinois state senate seat in 1996 Co-founded in 1992 by Daniel Cantor (a former staffer for Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign) and Joel Rogers (a sociology and law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison), the New Party was a Marxist political coalition whose objective was to endorse and elect leftist public officials -- most often Democrats. The New Party's short-term...

During his first campaign for the Illinois state senate in 1995-96, Barack Obama was a member of, and was endorsed by, the far-left New Party. Obama’s New Party ties give the lie to his claim to be a post-partisan, post-ideological pragmatist. Particularly in Chicago, the New Party functioned as the electoral arm of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). So despite repeated attempts to distance himself from ACORN, Obama’s New Party ties raise disturbing questions about his links to those proudly militant leftists. The media’s near-total silence on this critical element of Obama’s past is deeply irresponsible....

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the likely new minority leader in the House of Representatives, serves on the executive committee of the socialist-leaning Progressive Caucus, a bloc of about 60 votes or nearly 30 percent of the minority vote in the lower chamber.

About 50 activists attended the Chicago New Party membership meeting in July. The purpose of the meeting was to update members on local activities and to hear appeals for NP support from four potential political candidates. The NP is being very active in organization building and politics. There are 300 members in Chicago. In order to build an organizational and financial base the NP is sponsoring house parties. Locally it has been successful both fiscally and in building a grassroots base. Nationwide it has resulted in 1000 people committed to monthly contributions. The NP's political strategy is to support progressive...

GERALD F. MASOUDI serves as the Chief Counsel for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He previously served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in charge of International, Policy and Appellate Matters in the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. From 2004-2005, he served as Principal Deputy Chief Counsel and for a time he served as Acting Chief Counsel both for the FDA. Before joining FDA, he was a Partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He also clerked for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Mr. Masoudi earned his bachelor's degree...

Absent the ability to read minds and hearts, I can't really tell you if Barack Obama is uniquely dishonest.  What is for certain, though, is that his campaign is uniquely deceitful.  These two things are not synonymous. Politicians are famous for suppressing facts and manufacturing fantasies to hide their faults, and, while Obama certainly practices this sleight-of-hand, I can't say he is more inured to it that your average prevaricating pol.  But what is doubtless is that he has more faults to hide. It's ironic that Obama has used the "lipstick on a pig" line, because Avon's whole inventory couldn't, sans...

Campaign workers for Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama are under fire for displaying a flag featuring communist hero Che Guevara. But Obama has his own controversial socialist connections. He is, in fact, an associate of a Chicago-based Marxist group with access to millions of labor union dollars and connections to expert political consultants, including a convicted swindler. 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...

The Democratic Socialists of America Present The First Chicago Town Meeting on Economic Insecurity EMPLOYMENT AND SURVIVAL IN URBAN AMERICA a discussion of policy, problems, and possibilities with WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON, Director, Center for the Study of Urban Inequality at the University of Chicago MICHAEL DAWSON, Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago BARACK OBAMA, Candidate, State Senate, 13th Legislative District TONI PRECKWINKLE, 4th Ward Alderman JOSEPH SCHWARTZ, Professor of Political Science, Temple University SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25TH 7:00pm Ida Noyes Hall, Cloyster Club 1313 E. 59th Street, Chicago Sponsored by: *University of Chicago Democrats *Chicago Democratic Socialists of America *University...

After allegations surfaced in early summer over the 'New Party's' endorsement of Obama, the Obama campaign along with the remnants of the New Party and Democratic Socialists of America claimed that Obama was never a member of either organization. The DSA and 'New Party' then systematically attempted to cover up any ties between Obama and the Socialist Organizations. However, it now appears that Barack Obama was indeed a certified and acknowledged member of the DSA's New Party.

Brit Hume mentioned it during the Political Grapevine segment on Fox News this evening and now found the following from National Review: Who is Barack Obama? Part II [Peter Kirsanow] Following the links on John Hinderaker's post on Obama's apparent affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America/New Party leads you to DSA newsletters that make several references to Obama between 1995—2004. According to the newsletters: — Obama participated in the 1996 Young Democratic Socialists conference. The newsletter praised Obama's speech at the gathering, stating that what Obama had to say was "well within the mainstream" of European socialist theory. —...

Brit Hume just talked about Obama's links to the DSA New Party.

I would have thought the answer self-evident, but Roger Simon adds some nuance. Among other instances, he refers to Obama's apparent membership in the socialist New Party: And now we learn of yet another strange obfuscation or omission. In 1996, Obama was apparently a member of the Chicago “New Party,” a now defunct socialist political party of some stripe or other. There’s nothing wrong with being a socialist. I called myself one for the better part of twenty years. Millions of people have and many still do. But there is something very wrong with hiding who you are or who...

In recent posts I have examined former Weather Underground Organistion (WUO) involvement in two interlinked organisations, Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS) and Progressives for Obama (PFO). In the mid 1970s the Weather Underground published an 158-page statement entitled "Prairie Fire" callng for the "uniting of all revolutionary forces in this country with the ultimate aim to overthrow the Government."= Founded in August 2006, MDS seems to be just the type of revolutionary unity the WUO was striving for way back then. The MDS board includes representatives from three of US's most influential (and pro-Obama) Marxist organisations, Democratic Socialists of...

Evidence is continuing to surface that indicates Barack Obama was a member of the Socialist New Party, an organization headquartered in Chicago during the mid-1990s. The New Party was formed to serve as a in Chicago by the Democrat Socialists of America in 1992 to serve as a central coordinating body for various Socialist Party activities in the region. It survived until 2000, when it disintegrated into its various factions. The Organization experienced a bump in membership in the late 1990s but was all but defunct by 2000 in part because of a Supreme Court decision that ruled the organizations...