October 24, 2007
Misinformation Campaign Backfires on Obama (Lanny Davis)
For some time I have heard repeated misstatements, even down to using the exact words, concerning Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) support for the Senate resolution, S. Amendment 3017, enacted Sept. 26, 2007 by a 76-22 vote (called the "Kyl-Lieberman Amendment”). The resolution designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization." Weeks ago I heard supporters of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) charging — again using almost identical words — that Sen. Clinton had supported a resolution that "would allow President Bush to go to war with Iran."
Then I discovered three facts that could not be disputed:
— The resolution did not in any way allow such military intervention as a result of such designation;
— Many anti-Iraq war Democrats, including Sen. Obama's senior colleague, Dick Durbin of Illinois (D), also supported the resolution; and
— Sen. Obama had co-sponsored a similar resolution — S. 970 — along with 67 other senators just six months ago, in March 2007. I also determined that many anti-Iraq war Democrats who opposed any possible authorization for President Bush to intervene militarily in Iran also supported the resolution.
Yet The New York Times, in what is usually its thoughtful and balanced Sunday "News and Review" section on Sunday, Oct. 14, published a front-page, left-hand lead article with the headline, "Clinton's Iran Vote: The Fallout." The author, Helene Cooper, quoted several on-record critical comments about "Senator Clinton and other legislators who voted for this bill" from a Mr. Karim Sadjapour, described as "an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace."
The article referred to a recent column by Obama in New Hampshire's Manchester Union Leader criticizing Mrs. Clinton's "support" of this "reckless amendment."
The following is my letter to the editor The New York Times published Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007:
Senator Clinton and Iran: The Story of a Vote
To the Editor:
"Clinton’s Iran Vote: The Fallout” (Week in Review, Oct. 14) reports that Senator Barack Obama “would have voted against” the Senate resolution supported by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton that asked for the United States government to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a foreign terrorist organization.
It also reports that Senator Obama called that resolution “reckless.”
But it doesn’t report that just last March, Mr. Obama and 67 other senators co-sponsored Senate Resolution 970, which included the same language as the Senate resolution that Mrs. Clinton recently supported: to “designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization.”
Many other anti-Iraq war Senate Democrats including Senator Obama’s senior colleague from Illinois, Richard J. Durbin - supported this resolution. Senator Durbin said, “I don’t think this resolution” gives the Bush administration “a green light to do anything.”
The article might also have noted that Senator Clinton is a co-sponsor of the Senate resolution recently introduced by Senator Jim Webb of Virginia that explicitly prohibits the use of funds for military operations against Iran without explicit Congressional authorization.
Lanny J. Davis
Washington, Oct. 16, 2007
(The writer, special counsel to President Clinton from 1996 to 1998, is a fund-raiser for Senator Clinton’s presidential campaign.)
————-
It is a complete mystery why Sen. Obama or his campaign managers thought he could get away with criticizing Sen. Clinton on the Kyl-Lieberman resolution and calling it reckless while knowing about his own co-sponsorship of S. 970, which had the same designation language. How could this be?
I decided to do additional research on both Kyl-Lieberman and S. 970, just to be certain I was right that Sen. Obama had been for this same designation language of the Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist organization just six months before, in March 2007.
So here are more facts for anyone who wants to be certain that (1) the characterization of the Kyl-Lieberman resolution as a basis for military intervention in Iran is utterly false and (2) the inconsistency of Sen. Obama in calling that resolution "reckless" while supporting identical designation language six months before is an indisputable fact.
1) Statement by Sen. Clinton on the recent resolution
Notes:
— Nothing about this resolution in any way grants the president the authority to wage war against Iran. Nothing at all.
— In fact, Sen. Clinton spoke on the Senate floor earlier this year and clearly stated that the president MUST seek an explicit authorization from Congress for any military action against Iran.
— What she voted for in September was to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, and to treat it accordingly, in order to apply greater diplomatic pressure on Iran, which this administration has failed to do. Nothing more.
2) Sen. Clinton co-sponsors Sen. Jim Webb's (D-Va.) legislation prohibiting Bush administration military intervention in Iran without explicit congressional authorization:
3) Other Senate Democrats who voted for the resolution:
Many leading anti-Bush and anti-Iraq war Democrats supported the Iran Revolutionary Guard resolution, including Sens. Ben Cardin (Md.), Tom Carper (Del.), Durbin, Jack Reed (R.I.), Carl Levin (Mich.), Reid, Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.) and Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), as well as Sen. Clinton.
Here is the full list of Democrats who supported the resolution:
Daniel Akaka (Hawaii)
Max Baucus (Mont.)
Evan Bayh (Ind.)
Cardin
Carper
Bob Casey Jr. (Pa.)
Clinton
Kent Conrad (N.D.)
Byron Dorgan (N.D.)
Durbin
Dianne Feinstein (Calif.)
Tim Johnson (S.D.)
Herb Kohl (Wis.)
Mary Landrieu (La.)
Lautenberg
Levin
Robert Menendez (N.J.)
Mikulski
Patty Murray (Wash.)
Bill Nelson (Fla.)
Ben Nelson (Neb.)
Mark Pryor (Ark.)
Reed
Reid
Rockefeller
Ken Salazar (Colo.)
Schumer
Stabenow
Whitehouse
S.R. 970 vs. the Kyl-Lieberman Resolution: Same Language on Designation of Revolutionary Guard as "Foreign Terrorist Organization"
Full details on S. 970 can be found through THOMAS here.
S. 970 has yet to come up for a vote. It is currently being held in the Committee on Finance. Presumably, if it did make it to the full Senate floor, it would pass easily, given that it already has 68 co-sponsors, including Sen. Obama.
In comparing the wording of S. 970 and the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, which passed on Sept. 26, 2007, by a 76-22 vote, one notes that the former mandates a range of economic and diplomatic measures intended to increase pressure on the Iranian regime for its nuclear activities. The latter is more modest: It is focused solely on Iran’s destabilizing activities inside Iraq. Both, however, urge the Bush administration to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. In this regard, they are substantively identical.
Specifically, Section 3, Subsection 8, of S. 970 reads that it is the sense of Congress that: “The Secretary of State should designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189) and the Secretary of the Treasury should place the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists under Executive Order 13224 (66 Fed. Reg. 186; relating to blocking property and prohibiting transactions with persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism).”
The Kyl-Lieberman amendment urges the same designation. Section b (5) of the amendment reads that it is the sense of the Senate that: “The United States should designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, as established under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and initiated under Presidential Executive Order 13224.”
There can be no doubt that both resolutions have the same language regarding designation of the "Revolutionary Guards Corp as a foreign terrorist organization."
Sen. Durbin's Support and Role in Precluding Use of Kyl-Lieberman Resolution Being Used As Basis for Military Intervention in Iran S. 970 had a specific provision that precluded interpreting the resolution as a basis for military intervention in Iraq, and the Kyl-Lieberman resolution did not.
S. 970 stated in Section 2(8):
"(8) Nothing in this Act should be construed as giving the President the authority to use military force against Iran."
But Sen. Durbin expressed concern about this very issue during the floor debate on the Kyl-Lieberman resolution. Thanks to Durbin, language was specifically stricken (deleting sections (b)(3) and (4) in the original draft) that referred to using "military instrumentalities" to prevent the Iranian government from "violent activities and destabilizing influence" inside Iraq.
Durbin was later asked in an interview with Bloomberg News about his support for Kyl-Lieberman, to which he replied:
“It's rare that Barack and I disagree on an issue of this magnitude. I have the same concerns that Barack Obama does about this administration and what they might do with the power that they have. But I don't think this resolution gives them a green light to do anything …”
Durbin also stated in this interview: “If I thought there was any way it could be used as a pretense to launch an invasion of Iran I would have voted no.”
See here:
Obama is a co-sponsor of S. 970. He claims that he would have voted against Kyl-Lieberman, although he missed the actual vote. But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was not present for Kyl-Lieberman, either. Could Sen. Obama have "paired" an announced opposed vote with Sen. McCain's presumably "pro" vote? If so, why didn't he?
Documented Facts That the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Should Be Designated As Terrorist Organization:
Also omitted from the Times's News and Review piece were any specific facts of documented incidents of terrorism financed or sponsored by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, although Ms. Cooper does make reference to the "elite Quds Force" and quotes Mrs. Clinton — though doesn't report it as an established fact in her own reporting — that the Revolutionary Guard has "substantial links to Hezbollah."
Here are just a few of some documented facts not reported by Ms. Cooper that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and its Elite Quds unit have been directly involved and financed in terrorist incidents that intentionally killed innocent civilians:
— According to The Washington Post, in a September 2003 article by Dana Priest and Douglas Farah: “The Jerusalem Force, also known as the Quds Force, is highly trained and well-funded. It has provided instruction to more than three dozen Shiite and Sunni ‘foreign Islamic militant groups in paramilitary, guerrilla and terrorism’ tactics, according to a recent U.S. intelligence analysis. Groups including Hezbollah, or Party of God; the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas); and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have received arms and training at one of several specialized sites in Iran, according to that document. The Jerusalem Force's former commander, Ahmad Vahidi, allegedly helped plan the 1994 bombing of the Amia Jewish Center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 civilians were killed and 230 injured, according to Argentine intelligence officials and others.”
— This analysis was subsequently echoed by Newsweek in a story on the IRGC and the Quds Force from February 2007: “Over the past 25 years, the Quds Force has proved ferociously effective at organizing, training and equipping guerrillas to confront the world's most vaunted armies. Quds played a vital role in creating Hezbollah to fight the Israelis in Lebanon.”
— Likewise, in an analysis published in McClatchy in February 2007: “The Quds Force, a secretive overseas arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has operatives in Iraq and Afghanistan; runs Shiite extremist networks in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Europe; trains and arms Hezbollah and other Shiite radicals in Iran and Lebanon; and funds the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group. Now it's arming Iraqi Shiite Muslims with armor-piercing bombs, according to U.S. officials … ‘They are the brains behind those who are pulling the trigger,’ said one official … Although many intelligence services, including those of the United States, Israel and European and Arab nations, have been trying to keep tabs on its operatives for more than 20 years, the unit has been publicly accused of complicity in a terrorist attack only once. That was in the July 18, 1994, suicide bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people and injured 151. Experts say the force is a highly compartmentalized and disciplined contingent of several thousand men who are trained in espionage, military operations and political analysis, and it reports directly to supreme leader Ali Khomeini. ‘It's like taking the CIA, special forces and the State Department and rolling them all into one,’ said the U.S. official. Its mission of exporting the Islamic Revolution has meant confronting Iran's main enemies, the United States and Israel, beginning in Lebanon 25 years ago. Current and former U.S. officials said Revolutionary Guard members helped plan and organize the Hezbollah suicide bombings of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and 1984, which killed more than 300 people, including 241 U.S. service personnel. Reconnaissance photographs of the Iranian headquarters near the town of Baalbek revealed a mockup of the unfinished defenses around the embassy annex and tire tracks where the bomber had rehearsed his mission. The force also is believed to have been involved in recruiting and training the Shiite radicals who carried out the 1996 truck-bombing of the Khobar Towers housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen and a Saudi.”
“The Quds force, meaning Jerusalem force, is, in effect, a group of secret agents and hit men who answer only to the religious authority of the Iranian government … ‘The cream of the fundamentalist crop are the people who really get recruited into the Quds Force,’ Royal Hawaiian of the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University explained.”
The ABC News report continued: “U.S. officials say there's no doubt that the Quds force has long had American blood on its hands, linking them to the 1983 attacks in Beirut on the U.S. embassy and marine barracks, as well as the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, and a series of assassinations of Iranian dissidents in Europe.”
— In August 2005, journalist Michael Ware — arguably one of the toughest critics of the war in Iraq, wrote in Time magazine about “a network of insurgents created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps with the express purpose of committing violence against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. Over the past eight months, [this] group has introduced a new breed of roadside bomb more lethal than any seen before; based on a design from the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah, the weapon employs 'shaped' explosive charges that can punch through a battle tank's armor like a fist through the wall … [T]he U.S. believes al-Sheibani's team consists of 280 members, divided into 17 bomb making teams and death squads. The U.S. believes they train in Lebanon, in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite Sadr City district and ‘in another country’ and have detonated at least 37 bombs against U.S. forces this year in Baghdad alone.”
The Ware article continues: “Iran’s security services had supported the armed wings of several Iraqi groups they had sheltered in Iran from Saddam. Iranian intelligence sources say that the various groups were organized under the command of Brigadier General Qassim Sullaimani, an adviser to Khomeini on both Afghanistan and Iraq and a top officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. ”
* * * * * *
There are thoughtful people who believe that the designation of the Iranian Guard as a terrorist organization — without disputing that it is — is not the best method of engaging in diplomatic pressure on Iran to cease its move towards nuclear weapons capability or its continued encouragement of instability in Iraq. And there are those who believe, as did Sen. Obama in March and 29 other Democratic senators in September, that there is value in identifying the Guards as the terrorist organization that they are — to take a stand against any organization that uses the cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians in the name of any political or religious cause.
That is the kind of honest debate that The New York Times's "News and Review" section has been known to present to viewers over the years. It wasn't done in this particular article.
It is also the kind of honest debate that Sen. Obama has been imploring his fellow presidential candidates and Democratic voters to prefer as a "new politics" to "turn the page" from the politics of misinformation and half-truths that he has rightfully condemned.
It is disappointing, mystifying, that Sen. Obama wrote that piece for the Union Leader criticizing Sen. Clinton and calling the Kyl–Lieberman resolution "reckless" while knowing that he had supported S. 970 with the same designation language.
Totally mystifying, even to those of us who support Sen. Clinton but have admired Sen. Obama for avoiding and deploring just this type of misleading negative campaigning.
5 Comments
»
The Hill welcomes comment from anyone and will almost always post it whether it is favorable or critical, as long as it is substantive and advances debate.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Ah, the 'rats are fighting among themselves about how to be both tough on terrorism and soft on terrorisms at the same time. Semantically speaking, this is a very important issue. Realistically, they are just revealing their true nature.
Comment by Igor R. — October 24, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
Now, when will Hillary's misinformation campaign backfire on her? When it does, get back to us. Thanks.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — October 24, 2007 @ 2:17 pm
But will the disinformation campaign backfire on the object of their interest?
Iranian President Ahmadinejad Reiterates Proposal for 'Zionist State' in Canada or Alaska, Suggests International Committee of 'Truth-Seekers' Examine Holocaust, 9/11
http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD174807
Comment by Igor R. — October 24, 2007 @ 4:59 pm
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
Obama’s efforts to connect to the Republican Party, specifically Bush, and Dick Cheney, of the Halliburton Company, dates back to the Presidents Grandfather, Prescott Bush, and indeed Cheney was once an executive officer of Halliburton.
The American military pounds Iraq with Artillary, bombs, and the like, destroying large sections of cities, and infra-structures, then Halliburton comes in to rebuild. Halliburton and Halliburton associated companies have raked in ten’s of billions.
Obama is just like the BIG HALIBURTAN. Haliburton has contracted to build detention centers in the U.S. similiar to the one in Quantanammo Bay, Cuba. Halliburton does nothing to earn the Two Dollars for each meal an American Serviceman in Iraq eats.
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
Halliburton was scheduled to take control of the Dubai Ports in The United Arab Emiirate. The deal was canceled when Bush was unable to affect the transfer of the American Ports.
Now we see what some might suspect as similiar financial escapading from the Democrats.
Two years ago, Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity gave a $50 million contract to a start-up security company - Companion- owned by now-indicted businessman (TONY REZKO) Tony Rezko and a onetime Chicago cop, Daniel T. Frawley, to train Iraqi power-plant guards in the United States. An Iraqi leadership change left the deal in limbo. Now the company, Companion Security, is working to revive its contract.
Involved along with Antoin “Tony” Rezco, long time friend and neighbor of Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, and former cop Daniel T. Frawley, is Aiham Alsammarae. Alsammarae was accused of financial corruption by Iraqi authorities and jailed in Iraq last year before escaping and returning here.
LIKE FATHER LIKE SON –
Recently, Obama's campaign staff have been vetted by the IRS to disclose his connection to the criminal money generating underworld. Besides, his connections to the REZCO MAFIA types, his up-coming tax fraud charges — Obama needs to disclose why he is a MUSLIM "PATWANG-FWEEE" and disclose Obama's MUSLIM Farrakhan mob connection to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama's spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said "truly epitomized greatness." That man is Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church are trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. Obama should stop suppoting our intervention in IRAQ. It’s time to introduce this false, fake Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke "GLORK" Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek. He is MAD!!! –
OBAM YOU'RE NO JFK —
"GLORK" Obama looks like Alfred E. Newman: "Tales Calculated To Drive You." He is a MUSLIM "Glork" He's MAD!!! Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot of Mad. The face had drifted through American pictography for decades before being claimed by Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman after he spotted it on the bulletin board in the office of Ballantine Books editor Bernard Shir-Cliff, later a contributor to various magazines created by Kurtzman.
Obama needs to disclose why he is a MUSLIM "PATWANG-FWEEE" and stop suppoting our intervention in IRAQ. It’s time to introduce this false, fake "GLORK" Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek.
Michelle Obama should be ashamed.
"GLORK" Michelle Obama should be ashamed of her separatist-racist connection to Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. If Michelle Obama new what her husband — the Hope-A-Dope, Fonster Monster — Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama did in Harlem, she would wash her wide-open, Hus-suey loving MUSILM mouth out, with twenty-four (24) mule-team double-cross X-boX-BorraX. He is a MUSLIM "Glork" It’s time to introduce this false, fake "GLORK" Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek. He's MAD!!!
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
THE SPEECH –
The Apologia has arrived and once again the self-indicting, separatist-racist Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama, promises to heal the wounds of the world. The speech is the rude awakening of mass messianism of his campaign. Apologetically, Obama the MUSLIM double-cross X-boX-BorraX has an astonishingly empty two-prawn echelon explanation of his misjudgment.
In the first prawn: with regard to his connection to separatist-racist Rev. Wright; Obama summons voodoo and juju to express slavery as beginning and ending with the Rev. Wright.
In the second prawn: Obama's speech takes credit for Ashley's dream. A dream of unity Martin Luther King, Jr. borrowed from Ashley for his historic "I Have A Dream" speech. In Obama's speech, the connective bond Ashley, the elderly black man and Obama's grandmother share; represents Obama's self-indicting rise to the Harvard Yard. For Obama, the grand flag of language is the semi-fore of words, bestowed upon our nation by the messiah-alumni from Harvard. Obama's Swoon-Song Apologia to the nation represents a failed hymn — a hymn that fails to heal the nation, repair the world, or make this time different than all the rest. Obama's speech is a brilliant failure.
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
MUSLIM LIES –
The ILLIGITIAMTE MUSLIM MESSIA has blundered yet again!!! The self-indicting, separatist-racist Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama, lied about the politics of his campaign. The danger involved with this self-aggrandizing, -a-hoop, Hope-A-Dope, Fonster Monster — Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama is that — "Like Father Like Son" Obama is constantly wanting to impress America with "…his incapacity for sound judgment." On top of the horrible crime Obama committed in Harlem, the fact is, we have to hear it from Karl Rove about Obama's latest campaign crisis: "GLORK" Top Ten Obama Lies:
1. Obam said his parents met at the Selma march — Reality: He was born 4 years before that.
2. Obam said he was a constitutional law professor — Reality: . . . Obama Made This False Claim In His 2004 Senate Race. “Several direct-mail pieces issued for Obama's primary [Senate] campaign said he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. He is not. He is a senior lecturer (now on leave) at the school..
3. Obam said he spoke fluent Indonesian as a child — Reality: . . . Obama has claimed on numerous occasions to have become fluent in Indonesian in six months. Yet another Phi Beta Krakatau lie from Obama. Those who knew him disputed that during recent interviews. Israel la Pareira Darmawan, Obama's 1st-grade teacher, said she attempted to help him learn the Indonesian language by going over pronunciation and vowel sounds. Truth-be-told: Obama's Indonesian teachers say Kaku-Pooh.
4. Obam said he was involved in community asbestos and housing project for the poor — Reality: Didn't happen. This was the basis for Barrack and Michelle's claim, that he was a community activist on the South and East Side of Chicago. Usher United Arab Emirates (UAE) A+ lie both he and his twenty-four (24) mule-team, Hus-suey loving wife Michelle Obama have been claiming in the campaign — Reality: The Chicago Newspaper's, Obelus — Kiss-A-Cuss:…NO-MAMA.
5. Obam said in his book that he received his racial awakening at age nine reading a Life/Ebony Magazine story about a black man who was scarred trying to dye his skin white — Reality: Didn't happen. Both Magazines (Life and Ebony), and the Rev. Wright and Farrakhan MUSLIM Trumpet Newsmagazine say, just didn't happen.
6. Obam’s Campaign Didn’t Have The “Technical Capacity” To Produce The “1984” Ad:
Obama: “But it's not something that we had anything to do with or were aware of and that frankly, given what it looks like, we don't have the technical capacity to create something like that.” (CNN’s “Larry King Live,” 3/24/07) — Reality:…The Creator Admitted All It Took Was A “Sunday Afternoon” On His Mac. Phillip de Vellis: “I made the ad on a Sunday afternoon in my apartment using my personal equipment (a Mac and some software), uploaded it to YouTube, and sent links around to blogs.”
7. Obam’s Campaign Claimed His High School Friend Tried To Extort Money From Them:
“According To The Obama Campaign, [Obama’s Punahou Classmate Keith] Kakugawa Explicitly Raised The Possibility That He Could Make Up False Stories About Obama, Implying He Would Do So If The Campaign Did Not Give Him Money.” (Maurice Possley, Kirsten Scharnberg and Ray Gibson, — Reality: “…An Old Friend's Troublesome Return,” Chicago Tribune, 3/25/07).
8. Obam voted to bring low-cost foreign labor into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina — Reality:…This was a slap in the face against the African-Americans who were displaced in that city. Obama also voted to place Michael Chertoff, the man responsible for the Katrina catastrophe, in charge of Homeland Security. Obama voted for Senate-Bills that gave Blackwater the funding they needed to shoot the folks of New Orleans who were only trying to save their own lives. The towel head voted to allow Michael Chertoff to waive all applicable laws, including murder, torture, kidnaping, and he suppoted water-boarding.
9. Obam voted more than five times for USA-PATRIOT ACT renewal — Reality:…This is a Senate-Bill patently offensive to most Americans. City after city has passed resolutions condemning USA-PATRIOT ACT. Obama chose to side with tyranny over freedom and Bush over the folks on this issue. The Real ID Act, which would allow Michael Chertoff to declare martial law and imprison Americans, was supported by Obama, as noted above.
10. Obam is not a MAD MAN. Senator Obama Is not involved along with Antoin “Tony” Rezco, long time friend and neighbor, now-indicted businessman (TONY REZKO), or Tony Rezko and a onetime Chicago cop, Daniel T. Frawley. Senator Obama is not involved in any nuclear security, bribery, money payoffs, or cronyism in the state of Illinois; or criminal activities related to the BIG HALIBURTAN and V.P. Cheney's Halliburton bribery case; or any political misjudgment in his escalating campaign crisis. "GLORK" Senator Obama is not a self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box. Obama executed no crime in Harlem. Obama is Not America's Poison — Reality:…He's Radio-Active.
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
Comment by Janet Reno — March 31, 2008 @ 7:37 pm
SOULJAH JIHAD — OBAMA CAMPAIGN CRISIS
The Republicans' disengagement (media bias), if not disillusionment, with the economic campaign issues is borne out by the fact that many more Republicans are able to explain, extinguish, and excoriate the name Barrack Obama with the term (JIHAD), than can name Bush/Dick Cheney and McCain — as the Big Oil — BIG HALLIBURTAN politicians expanding GOP IRAQ WAR ideology, and Republican White House Party Elders' GI Bill of Rights for the 21st century IRAQ WAR ECONOMY. Even among Tupac Shakur, Bob Marley, Muhammad Ali, Ben Holt, Cotton-Club to Lenox Club- a.k.a. "The Breakfast Club," Staples Singers In Ghana 1971: "When Will We Get Paid," Paul Robeson or Obama: "I Have some Jay-Z and Beyonce on My iPod". . . excerpts from the infamous Malcolm X speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” Obama and conservative Republicans: Clinton is much more visible than GOP presumptive candidate John McCain towards affecting positively the important economic issues facing America's middle class economy.
When asked who they would vote for in the general election for president of the United States, the natural pendulum swing in America is 79% of Republicans named Hillary Clinton as their choice. Reasons for Obama's Campaign Crisis "GLORK" Campaign Crisis include:
Sen. Obama accepted more money from oil company executives last month than any other candidate, while he ran an ad saying he didn't take money from oil companies. "Sen. Barack Obama continued accepting donations from oil company executives and employees last month even as he aired ads in which he stated he took no oil company money, his campaign finance reports show. Obama has taken at least $263,000 from oil company executives, family members and employees since entering the presidential race last year, including $46,000 last month. At least $140,000 has come in chunks of between $1,000 and $2,300, the maximum permitted under federal law." [LA Times, 4/24/08]
"Obama has more holes in him than Swiss-Cheese." [CNN’s “Politics.com,” 4/01/08]
Obama's presidential campaign has received $2,812,336 from firms that employ registered federal lobbyists. [fec.gov]
Obama has taken $405,747 from the Pharmaceutical industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has received $1,185,937 from the Commercial Banking industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has received over six million dollars from the Securities & Investment industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has taken $608,822 from the Insurance industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obam has taken $168,584 from the Mortgage Banking industry. [opensecrets.org]
"GLORK" SOULJAH JIHAD — CAMPAIGN CRISIS
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3369102968312745410&q=Fitna&total=1413&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=5
WASHINGTON — Obama’s support among Democrats nationally has softened.
"GLORK" Sen. Barack Obama’s support among Democrats nationally has softened over the last month, particularly among men and upper-income voters, as voters have taken a slightly less positive view of him than they did after his burst of victories in February, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
The survey suggests that Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, may have been at something of a peak in February, propelled by a string of primary and caucus victories over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, and that perceptions of him are dramatically trending downward.
Mr. Obama’s favorability rating among Democratic primary voters has dropped seventeen percentage points, to 42 percent, since the last Times/CBS News survey, in late February. While that figure is steadily declining, this dramatic decline came in a month during which he endured withering attacks from Mrs. Clinton, and responded to reports that his exiled former pastor had made politically inflammatory statements from his church’s pulpit in Chicago, and swirling questions about the criminal money generating underworld of 501-(C)-Shaddy-Sharpton-Semilunar-Crescent of Allah Islam Mosque No. 7; and what Barack Obama did in Harlem — from which he cannot extricate himself.
The events of the last month appear to have fundamentally altered the race for the party’s nomination and provided Mrs. Clinton’s campaign extensive evidence of a collapse in Mr. Obama’s standing or an overwhelming preference voiced for Mrs. Clinton by Democratic and Republican voters in polls: — perplexing developments in Obama's ongoing Campaign Crisis, that could be used to persuade uncommitted super-delegates to sign on with Hillary Clinton.
Twenty-six percent of the general electorate voters who heard of the Apologia speech that Mr. Obama the self-indicting, separatist-racist Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama gave to try to deal with the controversy over Obama's separatist-racist connection to Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah, said it made them dislike him. And 74 percent of Democrats and Republicans said Mr. Obama's Campaign Crisis "GLORK" Campaign Crisis "God damn America" - Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama. "God bless America" - Pope Benedict XVI and Hillary Clinton… stems from the fact that he shows continued misjudgment for even the most challenging problems. Next, the overall opinion of people in the news this year; Mr. Obama lacks the decisive capability to lead, willingness to listen, conviction and courage. Mr. Obama is no Alexander Manly when it comes to sexist-racist issues, and he uses false charges and exaggerated hate-the Saxon-race claims to play politics with national security.
For a United States Senator, Barack Obama has been doing a lot of explaining about the company he has kept for the last 17 years or so. A politician can not chose the family he has. However; he can chose the pastor he keeps. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has influenced Mr. Obama's liberal-elitist-separatist-racist views on a variety of subjects. This may be what happened to Obama over the years, as his MUSLIM radicalism and demonize the White-Saxon-race, may expel the same Rev. Wright belief; that America and its US allies brought on 9/11. In a sincere re-examination of his world-view, Obama's Mea Culpa-Apologia says this guy is like an uncle to him. But shouldn’t his long term relationship with this despicable character call into question at the very least Obama’s judgment? From Waxahache, TX.– to Axis-of-Evil, Mr. Obama lied about the politics of his campaign, and knew about Rev. Wright's MUSLIM Militant Farrakhan Malcolm X Mosque No. 7 - JIHADI — FATIMA EXTREMIST mob connection to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
Colfax: Sen. Obama on Lobbyists –
"When it comes to lobbyists, Senator Obama’s words might sound nice but voters need to make sure they read the fine print. Despite trying to give the impression that he has no relationship with lobbyists or special interests, the reality is that Senator Obama takes money from people who hire lobbyists, partners of lobbyists, spouses of lobbyists, former lobbyists and state lobbyists.” –Statement from Clinton Deputy Communications Director, Phil Singer
Sen. Obama Has Ties to Lobbyists in His Presidential Bid.
Public Citizen: 10 of Sen. Obama's bundlers have been federal lobbyists. The Public Citizen report listed the following ten bundlers for Sen. Obama who have registered as federal lobbyists: Frank Clark, Commonwealth Edison; Scott Harris, Harris Wiltshire and Grannis; Allan J. Katz, Akerman Senterfitt; Robert S. Litt, Arnold & Porter; Thomas J. Perrelli, Jenner and Block; Thomas A. Reed, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP; Paul N. Roth, Schulte Roth & Zabel; Miriam Sapiro, Summit Strategies; Alan Solomont, Solomont Bailis Ventures; and Tom E. Wheeler, Core Capital Partners. [Public Citizen, 1/29/08]
Sen. Obama takes money from employees of firms that lobby and has lobbyists as advisers. "But those who lobby for a living say it's not that simple, and even Obama's stance shows some flexibility. He won't take money from federal lobbyists but accepts money from employees of firms and corporations that lobby, and he uses lobbyists and other government relations professionals as advisers… Obama has also used major fundraisers who are registered lobbyists on the state level. And he uses registered federal lobbyists such as Broderick Johnson, who lobbies for AT&T and Shell Oil, among others, as a campaign adviser. Because Johnson isn't giving money to Obama, his name won't show up in Federal Election Commission records." [Chicago Tribune, 2/10/08]
Bloomberg: Five of [Obama’s] ten biggest sources of funds are groups of employees at law firms that lobby in Washington. "While Obama doesn't accept money from registered federal lobbyists, five of his 10 biggest sources of funds are groups of employees at law firms that lobby in Washington…Among Obama's top donors were employees of the Chicago-based law firm of Sidley Austin LLP, who gave $105,750 in the first quarter. The firm was paid $4.5 million last year" for lobbying the federal government. [Bloomberg, 6/7/07]
Obama's presidential campaign has received $2,812,336 from firms that employ registered federal lobbyists. [fec.gov]
Obama has taken $405,747 from the Pharmaceutical industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has received $1,185,937 from the Commercial Banking industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has received over six million dollars from the Securities & Investment industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has taken $608,822 from the Insurance industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has taken $168,584 from the Mortgage Banking industry. [opensecrets.org]
Prior to His Presidential Campaign, Sen. Obama took Money from Lobbyists and PACs
1996-2004: $296,000 of the $461,000 Sen. Obama raised as a state senator came from PACs, corporate contributions or unions. "But behind Obama's campaign rhetoric about taking on special interests lies a more complicated truth. A Globe review of Obama's campaign finance records shows that he collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from lobbyists and PACs as a state legislator in Illinois, a US senator, and a presidential aspirant. In Obama's eight years in the Illinois Senate, from 1996 to 2004, almost two-thirds of the money he raised for his campaigns — $296,000 of $461,000 — came from PACs, corporate contributions, or unions, according to Illinois Board of Elections records. He tapped financial services firms, real estate developers, healthcare providers, oil companies, and many other corporate interests, the records show." [Boston Globe, 8/9/07]
In his 2004 U.S. Senate race, Sen. Obama raised $128,000 from lobbyists and $1.3 million from PACs. "Obama's US Senate campaign committee, starting with his successful run in 2004, has collected $128,000 from lobbyists and $1.3 million from PACs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics. His $1.3 million from PACs represents 8 percent of what he has raised overall." [Boston Globe, 8/9/07]
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
Comment by Janet Reno — April 28, 2008 @ 8:16 pm