Obama 2007 Hampton Speech Bullet Points: Jeremiah Wright And JournoList 'Deflect' Meme Still In Effect

 By Susan Duclos

First the full video of the speech Barack Obama gave in 2007 at a ministers conference at Hampton University, a historically black school in Virginia, then a couple notable issues about Jeremiah Wright and the racial divisiveness heard throughout the speech, from Obama's deliberate adaption of a fake accent to his constant references of us vs them type rhetoric. Liberals respond predictably with a meme they created and implemented in 2008.

[WATCH] - (Via The Daily Caller)



Starting with Jeremiah Wright because it is important to remember not just the controversy but the coordinated decision, caught in leaked emails, from liberal journalists at major news outlets and blogs, to ignore the Wright controversy and label anyone that brought it up a racist.

From the transcript of Obama's remarks, prepared for delivery, which he deviated from considerably at points during his speech, he starts out with a shout-out to Rev. Jeremiah Wright and  Trinity United Church of Christ.

It was also there – at Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side of Chicago – that I met Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., who took me on another journey and introduced me to a man named Jesus Christ. It was the best education I ever had.

Via The DC, more on Wright from Obama:

....To the audience at Hampton, Obama describes Wright as, “my pastor, the guy who puts up with me, counsels me, listens to my wife complain about me. He’s a friend and a great leader. Not just in Chicago, but all across the country.”

Soon after the Hampton speech Obama stopped referring to Wright, withdrew from the Trinity United Church of Christ, where he had been attending for almost two decades, and stopped using Wright as part of his campaign because audio and video was released of Wright saying "No, no, no, not God Bless America, God Damn America" and asserting that 9/11 was America's chickens "coming home to roost" and accusing the U.S. government of “inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color, among many other controversial statements made during his sermons.

Flashback

At the time these statements were released, liberal members of the now defunct "JournoList" list serv, liberal bloggers, media personalities and writers, via leaked emails from that list serv, plotted to spike the Wright story by creating racist memes.

Via DC, who obtained these leaked messages to and from the hundreds of  JournoList members, at the time:

Others went further. According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.

In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”

The email:

I do not endorse a Popular Front, nor do I think you need to. It’s not necessary to jump to Wright-qua-Wright’s defense. What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically.

And I think this threads the needle. If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.

Page two of that DC article:

The letter caused a brief splash and won the attention of the New York Times. But only a week later, Obama – and the journalists who were helping him – were on the defensive once again.

Jeremiah Wright was back in the news after making a series of media appearances. At the National Press Club, Wright claimed Obama had only repudiated his beliefs for “political reasons.” Wright also reiterated his charge that the U.S. federal government had created AIDS as a means of committing genocide against African Americans.

It was another crisis, and members of Journolist again rose to help Obama.

Chris Hayes of the Nation posted on April 29, 2008, urging his colleagues to ignore Wright. Hayes directed his message to “particularly those in the ostensible mainstream media” who were members of the list.

The Wright controversy, Hayes argued, was not about Wright at all. Instead, “It has everything to do with the attempts of the right to maintain control of the country.”

Hayes castigated his fellow liberals for criticizing Wright. “All this hand wringing about just
how awful and odious Rev. Wright remarks are just keeps the hustle going.”

“Our country disappears people. It tortures people. It has the blood of as many as one million Iraqi civilians — men, women, children, the infirmed — on its hands. You’ll forgive me if I just can’t quite dredge up the requisite amount of outrage over Barack Obama’s pastor,” Hayes wrote.

Hayes urged his colleagues – especially the straight news reporters who were charged with covering the campaign in a neutral way – to bury the Wright scandal. “I’m not saying we should all rush en masse to defend Wright. If you don’t think he’s worthy of defense, don’t defend him! What I’m saying is that there is no earthly reason to use our various platforms to discuss what about Wright we find objectionable,” Hayes said.

JournoList members at it again 

So, although portions of the Hampton speech were previously reported, it was during a time where, as shown above, members of JournoList, coordinated a response of no response, changing the subject to racism, and to ignore Wright, so what we see today, is some of those very JournoList members, still attempting to do the same.

Example: Jonathon Cohn, The New Republic, member of JournoList (#30 on the list here), today headlines under the discussion of the full video above from DC, "Thank You, Daily Caller, for Your Dud of a Story."

Example: Ed Kilgore, Washington Monthly, member of JournoList (#26 on this list), headlines today with "Barack Obama: Bigger and Blacker Than Ever!"

Just a couple examples of the actual journoList members, although out of about 400, less than 200 names became public at the time.

The meme though, is still alive.

Anyone listening to the 30+ minute speech above will notice a very obvious fake accent from Obama in 2007 at Hampton, that no one ever hears in his speeches now, but mentioning it brings on the coordinated racism meme that the liberal media used to "deflect" the conversation as they did back during the 2008 campaign season.

If Conservatives dare mention the obvious fake accent he used and the divisive rhetoric of us (meaning blacks) against them (meaning whites) to capitalize on his race, or his relationship to Wright, then liberals deflect from it and his relationship with Wright, by calling conservatives racist or downplaying the full video as "been there, done that" without acknowledging that yes, "been there" but they refused to "do that" by reporting it back in 2008.

Examples from Memeorandum discussions and headlines from deflecting liberals:

Racism Meme

Jack and Jill Politics: "The Niggerization of Barack Obama"

Howard Kurtz, The Daily Beast "RIGHT HYPES OBAMA ‘RACE’ VIDEO"

John Cole, Balloon Juice "Barack Obama, Racist Monster"

Wonkette "Tucker Carlson Wants You To Enlist In Race War Against Jive-Talking President"

No More Mister Nice Blog "JOE RICKETTS GETS THE CAMPAIGN ATTACK HE WANTED" (meaning the Wright controversy that liberals buried in 2008 by "deflecting with charges of racism)

Rumproast "Battle of the Doughboys: Hannity and Carlson Criticize Obama for Pretending to be Black"

The the "Pretend it was all fully covered before, so nothing to see, move along folks," crowd:

The Atlantic Wire "Tucker Carlson Already Reported on That Tucker Carlson Exclusive"

The Caucus "Obama's Wright Ties Highlighted Again"

New York Magazine "Conservatives Reveal October Surprise: Another Old Obama Video"

Guardian "Conservative media release old video of Obama in failed ‘explosive’ exclusive"

TPM "Drudge-Hyped Obama Video Turns Out To Be Publicly Covered 2007 Speech"(Publicly covered? How about very publicly ignored in a coordinated attempt by liberal media and bloggers, to "deflect" as evidenced by the emails from the JournoList list-serv)

Business Insider "The Obama Video That Drudge And Others Are Freaking Out About Has Already Been Extensively Covered" (See comment in parenthesis above- DITTO)

rubber hose "reruns again? — i think the latest drudge “bombshell video” … "

Gawker "Drudge, Hannity Hype Five-Year-Old Video of Obama That Was Extensively Covered in 2008"


The video above shows Obama mimicking Jeremiah Wright's racially divisive rhetoric that he spent almost two decades sitting in a church listening to, learning from and agreeing with and in 2008, when the story broke, liberal media members coordinated a deflection campaign, ignored the story and now they pretend it was covered extensively.

It worked in 2008, but the jig was up as soon as those leaked emails came out showing how they colluded on messaging to protect Obama, yet here they are, trying to do it again.

[Update] I see I am not the only that notices the rerun of the liberals playbook here.

Via Matthew Boyle:

Now that The Daily Caller has uncovered and published video of President Barack Obama’s “other race speech,” liberal media figures are once again trying to quell coverage of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright story — just like in 2008.

Records obtained by TheDC in mid-2010 showed that “at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate,” after ABC News’ Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos asked then-Sen. Obama about his controversial reverend during an April 2008 debate.

Democratic Mayor, Corry Booker, Dares To Criticize Obama- Liberals 'Re-educate' Him

By Susan Duclos

Nothing can turn rabid liberals against you faster than daring to criticize Obama as Democratic Mayor Cory Booker found out recently.

On NBC’s “Meet The Press Booker Obama's negative attack ad against Mitt Romney for his former work at Bain with attacks against Obama for his close association to Jeremiah Wright. Booker said  "I’m not about to sit here and indict private equity. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, it — they’ve done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses. And this to me — I’m very uncomfortable."

He then added, "This kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides. Stop attacking private equity. Stop attacking Jeremiah Wright. This stuff has got to stop."

 
[WATCH]






Republicans immediately highlighted Booker's statements and liberals pounced on Booker, basically ignoring the good things Booker had to say about Obama and crucifying him for daring to criticize Obama's attack against Romney's former work with Bain, which forced Booker to take to social media to "clarify" his remarks.

TPM describes this as "The Re-Education of Cory Booker."

Via Wapo's The Fix:

Booker, one of the most tech- and social media-savvy politicians in the country — he has more than a million Twitter followers — posted a video on You Tube that attempted to re-frame his comments as broadly supportive of the president and said he “encouraged” Obama to make an issue out of Romney’s record at Bain.

Booker did, however, re-iterate his belief that the tone of the campaign was “nauseating” and “calls to our lowest common denominators.”

What Booker tweeted out Sunday afternoon was a nearly four-minute long video. But, as Politico’s Dylan Byers pointed out Sunday night, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt later tweeted out an edited, 35-second version that included only Booker’s comments on Romney.

Given all of that, it’s pretty clear what happened here. The Obama team saw Booker equating attacks on Bain Capital with attacks on Rev. Jeremiah Wright — he said almost exactly those words — and knew they had a political mess to clean up.

Lesson for Democrats: If you are an Obama supporting Democratic politician, it doesn't matter how supportive you are for Obama if you dare utter one criticism, you must be "re-educated."

Couple of points now:

• The GOP "attacks" using Jeremiah Wright, are actually referring to a proposal for campaign ads, which was rejected, but that the New York Times reported on, then liberals had a complete freakfest about the rejected proposal, thereby putting Wright's name in headlines across the Internet. Liberals then continued to spotlight that rejected proposal, creating even larger headlines from CNN and ABC News.

Side note- Even though the GOP, nor Romney has used Wright in any campaign ads, it is worth remembering that in 2008, Obama said, and I quote, " I think that people were legitimately offended by some of the comments that he had made in the past. The fact that he's my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue."--- Barack Obama, April 2008, via USA Today

(Video of Obama saying that, here)

Thank you liberals, then thank you again.

• Booker equating Obama's "nauseating" campaign ad against Romney's tenure at Bain with Jeremiah Wright, is comparing apples to oranges.

 Bain was a company Romney worked at.

Jeremiah Wright is Obama's former pastor, a man Obama described as "like family", Wright married Barack and Michelle Obama, baptized their children, and was the inspirational force behind Obama’s first autobiography and Obama sat in a pew at Wright's church for almost 20 years while Wright preached racism, American hatred with his  "God Damn America" sermons and publicly said that the 9/11 terrorist attack against America was "chickens coming home to roost."

If I were cynical I would think the GOP group, having been shot down on their proposal for a campaign using Wright, then decided to let liberals do the job for them since the GOP and conservatives superPACs wouldn't.

Leak the proposal, use NYT to report on it, let liberals create the headlines, then shrug and say, "they did it to themselves."

Lesson for Republicans:  Why waste good money that can be used elsewhere when you can use the leap-before-they-look mentality of the left to get the message out.

Democrats Doing Republicans A Huge Favor With Liberals' Obsession With Jeremiah Wright

By Susan Duclos

The other day the New York Times did Republicans a huge favor by highlighting a story breathlessly reporting that a proposal was made, (rejected for the record) to spotlight Barack Obama's 20 year relationship with the his former controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

(Wright is infamous for his "god damn America sermon, preaching racism and saying that the 9/11 terror attack against America was the "chickens coming home to roost", among other things)

Liberals had a freakfest over it, despite the fact that in 2008, Obama himself said Wright being his pastor was a "legitimate political issue", slapping out headline after headline pushing Wright back into the forefront of voters minds.

I said at that time:

On behalf of conservatives, Thank you NYT and thank you Balloon Juice and thank you Alan Colmes and every other liberal that wrote about it.

 
 Being the helpful oafs that they are, liberal Democrats have decided to continue to spotlight Jeremiah Wright's relationship with Barack Obama, starting with David Axelrod sending out a fundraising pitch to Obama supporters citing that rejected proposal, which made headlines again, (CNN)  followed up by Nancy Pelosi defending that fundraising appeal, again, a headline. (ABC News)

Other Jeremiah Wright related news is the publishing of of portions of a three hour interview of Wright by Edward Klein, the writer of the recently published unauthorized biography of Barack Obama titled "The Amateur." (Audio clips can be heard at The Blaze.)

Wright revealed that in 2010, he was asked by University of Chicago emeritus professor Martin Marty, not to publish his notes that he keeps in a box, of the firestorm that hit in 2008, until after the 2012 election. Marty confirmed Wrights recollection.

When Klein asked more about the box, Wright revealed that in 2008 Eric Whitaker, a close friend of President Obama's, offered him a substantial sum of money to stay quiet about his relationship with Obama until after the '08 election.

"What's in the box?" asked Klein.

"An email offering me money not to preach at all between the explosion of the media the first week in March [2008] and the November election," answered Wright.

"An email from whom?" Klein asked.

"One of his friends."

"Whitaker?" asked Klein.

"Yeah."

"Eric?"

"Yeah."

According to Klein, Whitaker's offer, which was made through an intermediary at Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ, was $150,000.  Wright declined. Wright also said that some time after he received Whitaker's email, he spoke one-on-one with Obama, who did not offer him any money.

"Was [Obama] aware that Eric Whitaker had offered you money?" asked Klein.

"I don't know," said Wright.  "I didn't mention that."

"But he asked you not to appear at the NAACP or the -- "

"National Press Club," added Wright.

"Those two things?"

"No -- and don't do any more public speaking."

"What did you say to him?"

"I said, how am I supposed to support my family?" Wright said.  "I have a daughter and a granddaughter in college whose tuitions I pay.  I've got to earn money.  He said, 'Well, I really wish you wouldn't.  The press is gonna eat you alive.'"

"And that's all he said?  Just that?"

"Yes, that's all he said about my not speaking," Wright answered.  "I really wish you wouldn't.  It's gonna hurt the campaign if you do that."

Looks like conservatives owe thanks to more people. Davix Axelrod, Nancy Pelosi and Jeremiah Wright.

By jumping the gun on the proposal, liberals, in what some consider desperation, ended up doing what the GOP establishment was leery of doing and that is bringing Wright back into the front page news.

At this point conservatives are going to have to start sending liberals, Pelosi, NYT, Wright, and Axelrod, gift baskets in bulk!!

Libs Upset About Connecting Obama To Jeremiah Wright But Obama Calls It A 'Legitimate Political Issue'

By Susan Duclos

"I think that people were legitimately offended by some of the comments that he had made in the past. The fact that he's my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue."--- Barack Obama, April 2008, via USA Today

[WATCH]





[Update] The liberals' freakfest was for nothing, the ad campaign was rejected by Ricketts, but conservatives should thank the NYT and the liberals that had a cow because they highlighted the Obama-Wright connection for everyone without Ricketts having to spend a penny.

Nice

On behalf of conservatives, Thank you NYT and thank you Balloon Juice and thank you Alan Colmes and every other liberal that wrote about it.

 Original post below-

The New York Times obtained an advertising plan by a conservative SuperPAC that has submitted a plan to spend at least $10 million on campaigns against Barack Obama in 2012.

Note- ABC News reports that the proposal is just one of several submitted and may not even be implemented.

The proposal includes showing Obama's ties to his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who in 2008 was exposed as a racist when video clips of Wright's sermons blasted across the Internet. The clips showed Wright's preaching black hatred towards whites as well as showing Wright saying things like  "God Damn America. " and  his opinion that the terrorist attack of 9/11 that killed thousands in New York was the chickens "coming home to roost."

Eventually when Wright became too damaging to Obam's campaign, after Obama said he was "like family" to him, Obama withdrew from  Wright's church after two decades of sitting in Wright's pews and denounced his former pastors words, claiming he wasn't present during the most egregious of the racist rants before admitting that he was present for some.

That was the long story short on Wright for those who are not political junkies and didn't know who Jeremiah Wright is.

(The 54 page document the NYT obtained will be embedded below this post)

Now that everyone is caught up on who Wright is and why this potential attack against Obama is upsetting Liberals, back to the NYT piece:

Timed to upend the Democratic National Convention in September, the plan would “do exactly what John McCain would not let us do,” the strategists wrote. 

The plan, which is awaiting approval, calls for running commercials linking Mr. Obama to incendiary comments by his former spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., whose race-related sermons made him a highly charged figure in the 2008 campaign. 

“The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,” says the proposal, which was overseen by Fred Davis and commissioned by Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. Mr. Ricketts is increasingly putting his fortune to work in conservative politics.

Whether this is a legitimate line of attack or not and whether McCain should or should not have used it in 2008 or not is not the point of this post. Barack Obama saying it is legitimate and liberals screaming bigotry, racism and viciousness is the point.

Liberal hypocrisy is the point here.

Using Balloon Juice, a far left liberal blog as an example, look at the first paragraph of their post on this story:

At least one billionaire conservative’s pet super-PAC is vowing to go into the depths of hatred, bigotry and racism that even the McCain campaign wouldn’t touch, and will do so in October as the presidential election season nears the home stretch.

Interesting how this proposal is considered the "depths of hatred, bigotry and racism" when birds chirped and silence reigned from liberals when news hit the news print and the airwaves that House Democrats took a course on how to play the racism card against the GOP and how to race-bait.

Liberal Alan Colmes describes this proposal as a "Vicious Attack On Obama" and says that Joe Ricketts wants to re-litigate the relationship between President Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright."

Colmes didn't describe liberals' attacks against Romney for something he allegedly did back in 1965 as "viscous. "

In fact, liberals seem to think anything Romney has ever done in his life is fair game. Liberals attack Romney on his associations, his past, his religion. They attack his wife.

Barack Obama himself has attacked Mitt Romney donors for doing nothing but loosely associating themselves with his campaign by donating to pro-Romney groups.

Yet just a proposal to delve into Barack Obama's actual associations, men he did business with, men he sat and listened to for almost 20 years promoting racism and attacking America, is "viscous", "hatred", "bigotry" and "racist" according to liberals?

Colmes ends with a question: "Will Mitt Romney denounce such tactics?"

I refer Mr. Colmes and all other liberals freaking out about this superPAC proposal, to the Barack Obama 2008 statement, which they somehow must have missed when they were screaming racism in 2008.

 "I think that people were legitimately offended by some of the comments that he had made in the past. The fact that he's my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue."--- Barack Obama, April 2008, via USA Today
SuperPAC Proposal




 (Proposal added after publishing, my apologies- Changes have been made to this post and headline)

The Pattern Of Company Obama Kept

By Susan Duclos

Read a piece earlier where Alexandra Petri over at Wapo is insulting those that advertise on Rush Limbaugh and a comment, at the end, caught my eye.

"But they say you know a man by the companies he keeps."

[Update] Either Ms. Petri is a liar or severely misinformed and didn't bother checking her sources according to Limbaugh.[End update]

[Update#2] Alexandra Petri apologized to Limbaugh on a post this afternoon and said the previous post contained incorrect information about AshleyMadison.com and SeekingArrangement.com. [End update]

Happily it is a member of the left that said that because Breitbart.com has also begun the Barack Obama vetting process and has pointed to another Obama association, a radical named Derrick Bell Jr., which has members of the mainstream media jumping to Obama's defense vehemently.

A portion of Breitbart's vetting process is pointing to the company that Barack Obama kept, some of which was discovered but played down by some major media in 2008, while other media outlets did report on it.

In and of itself, the discovery of video showing Barack Obama embracing and defending Mr. Bell is not a bombshell, the explosive nature of the spotlight on Bell at this time is the addition of his name and the pattern of Obama associations with radicals and convicted criminals.

THE COMPANY OBAMA KEPT

Jeremiah Wright, the pastor infamous for his "God Damn America" mutterings on the pulpit, who was Obama's pastor and "spiritual mentor" for almost two decades. Wright was also part of Obama's 2008 campaign until he became a political hot potato.

Flashback- More about Obama's pattern of associations from 2008, via Washington Times:

Antoin Rezko: “Tony” Rezko is a businessman who has helped raise campaign money for Mr. Obama and many other Illinois politicians. He was convicted Wednesday on 16 of 24 counts involving mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and aiding and abetting bribery.

The charges have no connection to Mr. Obama, but Rezko is tied to the Illinois senator in other ways.

Rezko and his family donated at least $21,457 to Mr. Obama and helped raise over $200,000 more, though not for his presidential bid. He also advised Mr. Obama on the purchase of a new Chicago home and, in his wife’s name, purchased a vacant lot next door to the new Obama home when the seller wanted to dispose of both properties at the same time. Rezko then sold a slice of the property to Mr. Obama.

Mr. Obama has donated Rezko’s contributions to charity and says it was a mistake to work with Rezko on buying the house.

William Ayers: Today, Mr. Ayers is a university professor and a member of Chicago’s intellectual establishment. Forty years ago he was a member of the Weather Underground, a radical group that claimed responsibility for a series of bombings, including at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.

Mr. Ayers was a fugitive for years with his wife, fellow radical Bernadine Dohrn. But after surrendering in 1980, the charges against Mr. Ayers were dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct.

Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers served together on the board of a Chicago charity and were co-panelists on at least two academic panel discussions and an academic testimonial — two of them at the University of Chicago. In the mid-1990s, when Mr. Obama first ran for office, Mr. Ayers hosted a meet-the-candidate session for Mr. Obama at his home.

Emil Jones Jr.: Mr. Jones, 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.

Rashid Khalidi: Mr. Khalidi is a Palestinian scholar and author on Middle Eastern affairs who has called Israel a racist state bent on creating “an apartheid system.” He’s also a friend of Mr. Obama.

They met while both were teaching at the University of Chicago and living in the same neighborhood. Mr. Obama and his wife sometimes had dinner with Mr. Khalidi and his wife, Mona. The Khalidis hosted a political fundraiser for Mr. Obama in 2000, and the Woods Fund charity gave money to the Arab-American Action Network, run by Mrs. Khalidi, while Mr. Obama served on the charity’s board.

Mr. Obama has said they hold very different opinions on Israeli issues, though Mr. Khalidi praised Mr. Obama as “the only candidate who has expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause” and for his willingness to hold talks with Iran, which has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”

The Rev. Michael Pfleger: Father Pfleger, the white, longtime pastor of a mostly black Catholic parish in Chicago, has been protesting everything from gun shops to Jerry Springer. Mr. Obama has referred to him as a spiritual adviser and used him as a political supporter.

Last month, he visited Trinity United Church of Christ, Mr. Obama’s church at the time, and preached a sermon in which he mocked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as expecting to win the presidential nomination because she was white. Mr. Obama, who condemned the remarks and resigned from the church, was not nearly as close to Father Pfleger as he was to Mr. Wright.

Back to Washington Post's Petri comment about judging people by who they keep company with, where she speaks about advertisers that Limbaugh probably never even met, certainly didn't sit down and have dinner with or associate with on a personal level.

"But they say you know a man by the companies he keeps."

Agreed.

.

Racism Meme Created And Perpetuated By 'Journolist' Journalists

Disagree with Barack Obama, progressive liberals scream racism. Disagree with Obama's socialist agenda, progressive liberal obamabots screech racism. Report on direct lies publicly spoken by Obama and liberals declare you are a racist. I have often noted, in my own comment section, that the only people actually talking about the color of Barack Obama's skin are those who are trying to avoid any legitimate discussion or topic by screaming racism at the top of their lungs.

The Daily Caller has provided more communications by journalists involved in a list-serv called Journolist, where hundreds of liberal thinking journalists communicated regularly and used the list-serv as a platform to form attacks and memes intended to distract the public from actual issues.

To the members of Journolist that participated in these discussions, it did not matter one iota that Barack Obama himself stated, in reference to Wright, "The fact that he's my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue."

In one specific case, that collaborated distraction was the racism meme.

It was the moment of greatest peril for then-Sen. Barack Obama’s political career. In the heat of the presidential campaign, videos surfaced of Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, angrily denouncing whites, the U.S. government and America itself. Obama had once bragged of his closeness to Wright. Now the black nationalist preacher’s rhetoric was threatening to torpedo Obama’s campaign.

The crisis reached a howling pitch in mid-April, 2008, at an ABC News debate moderated by Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. Gibson asked Obama why it had taken him so long – nearly a year since Wright’s remarks became public – to dissociate himself from them. Stephanopoulos asked, “Do you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do?”

Watching this all at home were members of Journolist, a listserv comprised of several hundred liberal journalists, as well as like-minded professors and activists. The tough questioning from the ABC anchors left many of them outraged. “George [Stephanopoulos],” fumed Richard Kim of the Nation, is “being a disgusting little rat snake.”

Others went further. According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.

In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”

In other communications, it became clear that to some on the list-serv, the idea could be used to intimidate mainstream media journalists:

Michael Tomasky, a writer for the Guardian, also tried to rally his fellow members of Journolist: “Listen folks–in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC and this idiocy in whatever venues we have. This isn’t about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people.”

“Richard Kim got this right above: ‘a horrible glimpse of general election press strategy.’ He’s dead on,” Tomasky continued. “We need to throw chairs now, try as hard as we can to get the call next time. Otherwise the questions in October will be exactly like this. This is just a disease.”

(In an interview Monday, Tomasky defended his position, calling the ABC debate an example of shoddy journalism.)

Thomas Schaller, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun as well as a political science professor, upped the ante from there. In a post with the subject header, “why don’t we use the power of this list to do something about the debate?” Schaller proposed coordinating a “smart statement expressing disgust” at the questions Gibson and Stephanopoulos had posed to Obama.

“It would create quite a stir, I bet, and be a warning against future behavior of the sort,” Schaller wrote.

Tomasky approved. “YES. A thousand times yes,” he exclaimed.

Spencer Ackerman:

And I think this threads the needle. If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.

Created and perpetrated by Leftist so-called journalists, discussed, plotted and put into motion using their individual forums to encourage their readers to start screaming racism whenever they wished to avoid a topic and distract from the issue at hand.

Is it any wonder they are now trying to paint the Tea Party as "racists"? Paint them as racist, scream it out as loudly as you can, get others to start screaming it and perhaps, just perhaps, people will get distracted and not focus on the message or story itself.

It worked before, why not keep doing it.

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The National Republican Trust PAC Hits Obama On Jeremiah Wright

An issue that Barack Obama himself admitted was a "legitimate political issue" is also an issue the John McCain campaign has not taken advantage of.

"I think that people were legitimately offended by some of the comments that he had made in the past," he said. "The fact that he's my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue."

That issue is Jeremiah Wright, Former pastor to Barack Obama, whom Obama called "like family" and a man that has spewed some of the most vile, anti-American, racist hatred, from his pulpit, while Barack Obama sat there for over 16 years, listening.

After the videos of Wright spewing his "God Damn America" remarks, went viral online and was seen from coast to coast on television, Barack Obama denounced the words, but refused to denounce the man and it wasn't until Wright made the rounds with interviews and publicly said Barack Obama was only denouncing Wright's rhetoric because of "political expediency", that Obama finally distanced himself from Jeremiah Wright himself and shortly after Obama resigned his membership from the Trinity Church.

Originally Obama denied having heard Wright's controversial remarks, then he later made a speech where he finally admitted he did.

Now that we are caught up, we see that finally, someone is bringing Wright into the campaign.

The National Republican Trust PAC is spending $2.5 million on an ad campaign, (video below) to be aired in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida which hits on Barack Obama's close admitted relationship with Jeremiah Wright..

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Text of AD:

For 20 years Barack Obama followed a preacher of hate and said nothing is Wright raged against our country.

[Clip of Rev. Wright:] "Not God Bless America, God Damn America . . . US of KKKA!"

[Quote of Obama appears on screen:] "I don’t think my church is particularly controversial."

He built his power base in Wright's church.

Wright was his mentor, adviser and close friend.

For 20 years Obama never complained until he ran for President.

Barack Obama. Too radical. Too risky.

[Update]A reminder of Jeremiah Wright's type of rhetoric that Obama sat and listened to all those years in the video below:



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Sarah Palin On The Rush Limbaugh Show

From Rush Limbaugh transcript I am highlighting some of the issues I found the most interesting:

RUSH: Well, now, as I listen to your campaign appearances and Senator McCain's, it seems that you are the more forceful in speaking out against Obama and his campaign ideas. Are they giving you pretty much free rein to attack this campaign as you wish?

GOVERNOR PALIN: Well, you know, there just aren't enough hours in the day I think to get out there and (cell garbled). Rush, I've got nothing to lose in this, and I think America has everything to gain by understanding the differences, the contrasts here between Obama and McCain. So, you know, I'm going out there and I'm just simply speaking. So be it that I'm a simple talker, but I'm just going out there and letting people know the differences and how absolutely paramount it is that voters are paying attention and that voters are understanding candidates' records, their associations, their plans for the future; instead of being kind of wrapped up into all this rhetoric of Obama's and buying into it and not holding him accountable for the things that he's done, the things that he's said, his associates, and where he wants to take America.

RUSH: That's exactly it. The media is not holding him accountable; the media is covering up for him. That's why there is so much enthusiasm for you, because you are the one in this campaign who is holding him to account and trying to explain who he is and who his alliances are with and have been. There are two stories today -- one in the Los Angeles Times, one in the New York Times -- both saying how wonderful you are as a speaker. The New York Times posited that you are the most forceful and dynamic speaker of all four candidates on the presidential circuit. Then they said that your forcefulness and your opinionatedness and your charisma and your overwhelming ability to say what you mean, is driving away moderates. Now, this is an attempt to get you to shut up.

GOVERNOR PALIN: (laughing)

RUSH: This is an attempt by the media to make you stop being who you are. What it means is, they're really worried about the effectiveness that you have.

GOVERNOR PALIN: Well, yeah, I guess that message is they do want me to sit down and shut up. But that's not going to happen. I care too much about this great country. Now, yes, speaking of some of those associations -- and you're right; mainstream media is not holding Barack Obama accountable -- let's talk quickly about ACORN and the unconscionable situation that we're facing right now with voter fraud. And given the ties between Obama and ACORN and the money that his campaign has sent them and the job that he had with them in the past, Obama has a responsibility to rein in ACORN and prove that he's willing to fight voter fraud. We called him on it.

RUSH: He's not going to do that. He's been paying for them.

GOVERNOR PALIN: (laughing) Yeah. Right.

They deal with a couple other issues, go read the entire transcript for yourself.

Obama supporters and the media do not want to deal with Obama's associations, they have been ignoring it for months on end when they should have been doing their jobs and researching it... now the media is peeved, to say the least, because in order to report on McCain and Palin now they have to report their words, which has forced them to finally mention Obama's terrorist ties with Ayers, his close, longtime friendship and association with Jeremiah Wright, the money he has spent on ACORN, who is now under investigation in 14 states, his business dealings with Rezko and much much more.

The media didn't want to have to deal with it and thankfully Palin has brought the issues right up front and put it out there.

Now people are asking why they weren't informed of all of this prior to Palin mentioning it, and they are realizing it is because the media deliberately tried to hide it all from them

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Obama funded extremist Afrocentrists who shared Jeremiah Wright’s anti-Americanism

The entire NRO article needs to be read in full to understand how Jeremiah Wright should be and better be an issue for John McCain to force a national discussion on in the remaining weeks.

It is called Wright 101.

Teaser:

It looks like Jeremiah Wright was just the tip of the iceberg. Not only did Barack Obama savor Wright’s sermons, Obama gave legitimacy — and a whole lot of money — to education programs built around the same extremist anti-American ideology preached by Reverend Wright. And guess what? Bill Ayers is still palling around with the same bitterly anti-American Afrocentric ideologues that he and Obama were promoting a decade ago. All this is revealed by a bit of digging, combined with a careful study of documents from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the education foundation Obama and Ayers jointly led in the late 1990s.

The piece is well put together, traces the fact that Obama funded extremist Afrocentrists who shared Wright’s anti-Americanism.

This is not only a legitimate issue but one that is not being explored by the McCain campaign and damn well should be.

Read it in it's entirety.

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Obama Exported Rev. Wright’s Hate the US Ideology To Africa

Senator Obama might not have sat through Reverend Jeremiah Wright's Sermons but he did a great job of trying to spread his Ideology throughout the world. Through the charity that he managed with William Ayers, the Annenberg Challenge (the same Annenberg that owns Factcheck.org) the Junior Senator from Illinois funded the “South Shore African Village Collaborative." The group taught teachers in Africa:

the United States is shaped by “capitalism, competitiveness, racism, sexism and oppression.” According to Warfield-Coppock, these American values “have confused African American people and oriented them toward American definitions of achievement and success and away from traditional African values.” American socialization has “proven to be dysfuntional and genocidal to the African American community,” Warfield-Coppock tells us. The answer is the adolescent rites of passage movement, designed “to provide African American youth with the cultural information and values they would need to counter the potentially detrimental effects of a Eurocentrically oriented society."

If that doesn't sound like the wrong-Reverend Wright, nothing does. But there is much more click in the link below

Obama Exported Rev. Wright’s Hate the US Ideology To Africa

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Sarah Palin To John McCain: 'Take The Gloves Off'

YouTube URL to the video above, found here.

Over the weekend Sarah Palin made a reference to Barack Obama's ties to questionable characters, but there is another area where Palin believes John McCain should "take the gloves off", Obama's association with his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

In the video above Sarah Palin speaks to a crowd of supporters and references, not by name, but by actions, Barack Obama's association with William Ayers, a man who was a domestic terrorist and part of a group, Weatherman Underground, that quote launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and US Capitol.

Sarah Palin On Obama's Ties and Associations.

Palin made the point saying one of Obama's earliest supporters was a domestic terrorist, then going on to say about Obama "This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America. We see America as the greatest force for good in this world. If we can be that beacon of light and hope for others who seek freedom and democracy and can live in a country that would allow intolerance in the equal rights that again our military men and women fight for and die for for all of us. Our opponent though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country?”

When criticized by the Associated Press for bringing up the association between Obama and Ayers, with their analysis saying Palin brining up Obama's past associations was, in their view, racist, Palin shot back with "The Associated Press is wrong. The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn't been talked about, and I think it’s fair to talk about where Barack Obama kicked off his political career, in the guy's living room.”

As was reported earlier by Barbara Sowell, information is still coming to light about further Ayers/Obama connections.

Those comments received a lot of play in the press over the weekend, but today there is a report from the New York Times' columnist William Kristol about a conversation he had with Palin, showing that Ayers is not the only topic where Palin believes John McCain and the campaign's "gloves" should be taken off.

Palin told Kristol the campaign should be more aggressive is telling the American public "who the real Barack Obama is," stating Obama had played down his relationship with Ayers and then went on to state she believed another important aspect to speak about is Jeremiah Wright.

Jeremiah Wright.

Jeremiah Wright was the pastor for Barack Obama's church, Trinity United Church of Christ. Obama met Wright and joined his church in the late 1980s, while he was working as a community organizer in Chicago. Wright officiated at the wedding ceremony of Barack and Michelle Obama, as well as their children's baptism. In 2007 Wright was appointed to Barack Obama's African American Religious Leadership Committee. In March of 2008, when videos of Wrights controversial sermonds became public, it was announced that Wright would no longer serve as a member of that committee.

Jeremiah Wright hit the headlines, in a massive manner, when videos of some of his sermons went viral on the Internet, showing him saying things like "God Damn America", speaking of 9/11 and saying it was the chickens coming home to roost and many other comments to which some have said were racially divisive.

On March 14, 2008, Barack Obama wrote an entry at Huffington Post where he denounced the words from Wright, which had become public, and stated in that post "The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation..."

Four days later, Barack Obama gave a speech and in that speech, he again denounced the words of his former pastor, but refused to denounce the man himself, as well as admitting that he did, indeed, hear controversial comments made by Wright while sitting in his church.

For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

In April, Wright made a series of media appearances, as reported by ABC's Political Punch, where he dismissed Obama's criticisms of Wright's controversial comments, saying Obama was doing so because it was "politically expedient."

After those appearances from Wright, Obama spoke more forcefully against Jeremiah Wright, saying he was outraged and saddened by his behavior, and in May Obama resigned his membership in the church.

Sarah Palin on Jeremiah Wright.

While speaking with Bill Kristol, he asked Palin if Ayers was a legitimate issue, what about Obama's long standing association with Jeremiah Wright?

Palin responded by saying "To tell you the truth, Bill, I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that — with, I don’t know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn’t get up and leave — to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up.”

Many have been speaking out about McCain's hesitance in regards to Obama's connection with Jeremiah Wright, especially after Obama himself admitted in an interview with Chris Wallace, it was a "legitimate political issue."

WALLACE: Question: Do you think that Reverend Wright is just the victim here?

OBAMA: No. I think that people were legitimately offended by some of the comments that he had made in the past. The fact he's my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue. So I understand that.

I think that it is also true that to run a snippet of 30-second sound bites, selecting out of a 30-year career, simplified and caricatured him and caricatured the church.

And I think that was done in a fairly deliberate way, and that is unfortunate, because as I've said before, I have strongly denounced those comments that were the subject of so much attention. I wasn't in church when he made them.

But I also know that, you know, I go to church not to worship the pastor, to worship God. And that ministry, the church family that's been built there, does outstanding work, has been, I think, applauded for its outreach to the poor.

He built that ministry, and I think that, you know, people need to take a look at the whole church and the whole man in making these assessments.

At the end of the Kristol/Palin interview, Kristol asked if Palin had any advice for John McCain, she said she would tell him the same thing he told her before she walked out onto the debate stage for the vice presidential debate, which was to have fun and be yourself, then she added one more piece of advice, which was "Take the gloves off. ”

PS.... Looks like McCain has just taken his gloves off as well as he nails Obama for the monies he gained from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

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One Month Until Elections, McCain To Sharpen Aggressive Strategy

With one month to go until the November 4th election for presidency, the John McCain campaign will be sharpening their strategy to focus more on his Democratic rival's honesty, judgment and associations. This could prove to be a double edged sword.

November 4 2008, the day of the U.S. presidential election is exactly one month away and it is being reported by the Washington Post, the McCain campaign will start bringing out the big guns or as Jake Tapper from ABC's Political Punch phrases it, opening "up a can of whoop-ass on Obama,", pointing to Barack Obama's judgment with the use of his associations and ties with people like Tony Rezko, William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and the latest headline news of a former Obama poker pal, Executive Larry Walsh from Will County , and questions leveled by a political opponent about Walsh's connections to a county contractor, which has resulted in questions by the FBI.

This line of attack by the McCain campaign is not without danger, because although many believe a person's associations, ties and business dealings shows quite a bit about a man's character and judgment, and some would say very important to determining whether or not to vote for a specific politician, on the other hand some consider asking such questions as "negative campaigning".

Tapper explains what this latest line of attack will mean:

Meaning you should expect to hear much more about these Obama associates -- some questions fair, others not; many associates legitimately slimy, others mere road kill on this political Autobahn -- in this last full month of the campaign.

Along with the ads which will question Obama's ties to what some call questionable people, such as Rezko, who has recently been convicted of attempted extortion, mail and wire fraud, and aiding and abetting bribery, the McCain campaign has also rolled out "positive" ads such as "Week", and mixed ads combining positive with negative such as "Rein," looking to combine the questions about Obama with ads highlighting McCain's ideas and reasons he believes he would make a better president.

Many predicted the McCain campaign was not hitting these specific issues in the previous months because they were saving it for the last month before the elections, to not allow it to be done and over and forgotten by the public by starting this line of attack too early in the campaign.

Others think the McCain campaign waited too long to start highlighting this type of information.

The Republican candidate himself gave indication of when this new line of attack will be unveiled when at a recent Colorado town hall a member of the audience asked John McCain "When are you going to take the gloves off?" and McCain grinned and answered with "How about Tuesday night?", the implication there is McCain will start with the strategy at the town hall style presidential debate with Barack Obama on Tuesday, with the ads staring immediately after.

[Update] CNN reports Sarah Palin has already started hitting Obama on his association with Ayers by saying "This is someone who sees American as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country."

Let the howling begin, 4...3...2...1...

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Group Ad to Connect Obama With Wright, Rezko And Ayers

According to The Politico, a conservative group called Judicial Confirmation Network, is spending a million dollars on an ad buy, with a video connecting Barack Obama with William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and Tony Rezko.

It will air on networks in the smaller and more inexpensive markets across Ohio and Michigan. In Ohio, Zanesville, Lima, Toledo, Youngstown, and Wheeling-Steubenville. In Michigan, Marquette, Traverse City-Cadillac, Lansing, Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, Alpena. They're also buying time in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The video below can be found at YouTube.



The ad is narrated by Wendy Long from Judicial Confirmation Network.

Text:

Wendy: With the help of hundreds of thousands of Americans, the Judicial Confirmation Network fought for the nominations of Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Sam Alito. The next President may nominate 4 new Justices. So we'd like you to see this....

VO: Choosing the right Justices is critical for America. We don't know who Barack Obama would choose, but we know this: He chose as one of his first financial backers a slumlord now convicted on 16 counts of corruption. Obama chose as an associate a man who helped to bomb the Pentagon and said he "didn't do enough." And Obama chose as his pastor a man who has blamed America for the 9/11 attacks. Obama chose to associate with these men, while voting against these men.

Wendy: Please join the Judicial Confirmation Network. We need a Supreme Court that respects the Constitution and Justices who won't legislate from the bench. Judicial Confirmation Network paid for this message and is responsible for it.

Ayers is a former member of the Weatherman Underground Organization, which organized the Chicago Riot in 1969 and bombed buildings in the 1970's.

(William "Bill" Ayers, 2001, Chicago Magazine, trampling on the American Flag)

In 2001 Ayers spoke about his setting off bombs on US soil, saying "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." That was reported by NYT.

More background on William Ayers here.

Jeremiah Wright was Barack Obama's pastor for the better part of 20 years, who recently became news fodder when his sermons became available online showing him saying things like "God Damn America" and referring to 9/11 as the chickens coming home to roost.

An example of Wright's rhetoric that Obama sat and listened to for almost 20 years can be found at YouTube here.

Some history on the political controversy surrounding Obama/Wright can be found here.

Tony Rezko, recently convicted of convicted on several counts of fraud and bribery in 2008. He was found guilty of 16 of the 24 charges filed against him.

More on Rezko's extensive ties to Barack Obama found here.


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Obama-Ayers Funnel Funds to Jeremiah Wright and The Arab American Network?

Cross-posted by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

Media, including Fox News and the AP, reviewed the Annenberg Challenge files released yesterday after reporter Stanley Kurtz suggested a more-than-neighborly connection between Barack Obama and terrorist William Ayers.

An editorial piece at the National Review Online (NRO) brings us up-to-date on the early stages of digging through alleged Obama-Ayers related documents released yesterday to NRO's Stanley Kurtz.

Some highlights from NRO:

1) Obama and Ayers "doled out tens of thousands of dollars to charities, among them, Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ - Obama's church, and the Arab American Action Network:

(co-founded by Rashid Khalidi, a Yasser Arafat apologist who has supported attacks against Israel and now directs Columbia University’s notorious Middle East Institute, founded by Edward Said).

2) Ayers secured a $49.2 million grant for the Annenberg Foundation

...matched two-to-one by public and private contributions — to promote “reform” in the Chicago school system. He quickly brought in Obama, then all of 33 and bereft of any executive experience, to chair the board. With Ayers directing the project’s operational arm and Obama overseeing its financial affairs until 1999, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge distributed more than $100 million to ideological allies with no discernible improvement in public education...

3) Michelle Obama:

...then a dean at the University of Illinois, invited Ayers to participate in a panel with her husband, then a state senator

From the Chicago Chronicle 1997:

Ayers will be joined by Sen. Barack Obama, Senior Lecturer in the Law School, who is working to combat legislation that would put more juvenile offenders into the adult system;...

Michelle Obama, Associate Dean of Student Services and Director of the University Community Service Center, hopes bringing issues like this to campus...

Reporting is mixed on the contents of the documents.

Background:
Why the Obama-Ayers Connection Matters
Obama '08 Urges DOJ to Quash McCain Ad - McCain Comes Back Strong

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Are You Kidding Me???Trinity United Church of Christ Members Feel Hurt and Marginalized

Sometimes you read something and you can only reread it, a couple of times, to make sure you actually read what it said correctly.

A Washington Post piece did that to me today.

Members from the Trinity United Church of Christ feel hurt, marginalized, abandoned, betrayed and misunderstood after they were put in the spotlight with videos of Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger, were spread across the internet showing racism, hatred, disdain for America, just to name a few things.

As the controversy over Trinity crescendoed earlier this month, the church's new pastor, Otis Moss III, released a statement to his congregation: "We, the community of Trinity, are concerned, hurt, shocked, dismayed, frustrated, fearful and heartbroken. . . . We are a wounded people and our wounds, the bruises from our encounter with history, have scarred our very souls."

Barack Obama finally resigned from the church. Not after Jeremiah Wright's words went viral across the web, but only after Jeremiah Wright attacked Obama publicly saying that Obama only distanced himself from the controversial words of his pastor for 16+ yrs became public, for political expediency.

Then Obama denounced Wright....too little, too late.

But he still stayed at the church until, yet another one of Obama's "moral compasses" (Obama's words in an interview), Michael Pfleger, guest spoke at that same Church and once again embarrassed the Democratic Barack Obama.

So the members of the Trinity Church are hurt? Marginalized? Feeling abandoned?

Give me a freaking break!!!!

These are the same people that sat there and listened and cheered to Jeremiah Wright saying things in the video below. (For email subscribers, the YouTube URL is here)



Are they kidding???????????????????

They sat there cheering this.

Or how about their reaction to Michael Pfleger's words when he was guest speaking..let us look at how many of them complained or spoke up from the audience. (YouTube for this video here)



Nope, no one spoke out.

So these same people want to claim that the world only saw the bad? These same people that came to listen to Jeremiah Wright, week after week? Month after month? Year after year, as Obama did?


Sorry, it is a little hard to feel sympathy for people that cheer Anti-American sentiments.

It is a little difficult to feel bad for people that applaud racist comments as the audience did in both those videos.

It is a little hard to do anything but laugh at their sense of "victimization", when THEY made the choice to continue going to a church that showed rampant hatred for America, Jews, Whites and white politicians.

How dare them expect sympathy.

You reap what you sow.

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Cardinal removes Michael Pfleger from St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church

Michael Pfleger guest spoke at the Trinity United Church of Christ, the same church that Jeremiah Wright brought into the spotlight with what many considered to be anti-American, anti-Semitic and racially offensive sermons after they too became viral on the Internet.

Barack Obama had previously said that both Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger were "spiritual" guides and/or advisers and had helped him maintain his "moral compass".

After the Wright fiasco, Barack Obama denounced Wright's words but not the man, saying Wright was "like family" to him. Then Wright went public claiming that Obama was only distancing himself from him because it was politically expedient and then Obama went public and denounced the man himself.

The Pfleger made his appearance at Trinity United Church with a sermon you can see below, saying Hilary Clinton only cried because she felt she was "entitled" to win the Democratic nomination for presidency because she was "white".

Text:

"I really don't believe it was put on. I always thought she felt 'This is mine. I'm Bill's wife. I'm white. And this is mine. I just got to get up and step into the plate,'" he said. "And then out of nowhere came, 'Hey, I'm Barack Obama.' And she said, 'Oh damn, where did you come from? I'm white. I'm entitled. There's a black man stealing my show.'"

Video:



Obama rapidly resigned from Trinity, with some saying he did so to avoid further embarrassment about the the words of those that run or guest speak at the church he has belonged to for almost 20 years.

Michael Pfleger has also told his congregation at St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church that his life had been threatened after his sermon was highly publicized.

The Archdiocese of Chicago released a statement that says:

To put recent events in some perspective, I have asked Father Michael Pfleger, Pastor of St. Sabina’s Parish, to step back from his obligations there and take leave for a couple of weeks from his pastoral duties, effective today. Fr. Pfleger does not believe this to be the right step at this time. While respecting his disagreement, I have nevertheless asked him to use this opportunity to reflect on his recent statements and actions in the light of the Church’s regulations for all Catholic priests. I hope that this period will also be a time away from the public spotlight and for rest and attention to family concerns.

I hope also that the life of St. Sabina’s parish may continue in uninterrupted fashion. Fr. William Vanecko, Pastor of St. Kilian’s parish, will be temporary administrator of St. Sabina’s and will assure the full complement of ministerial services during this period. I ask the members of St. Sabina’s parish to cooperate with him and to keep him and Fr. Pfleger in their prayers. They are in mine.

Before this latest statement, the Archdiocese of Chicago, had issued another statement, on May 30, 2008, which addressed Pfleger's politically motivated speech, saying that "The Catholic Church does not endorse political candidates. Consequently, while a priest must speak to political issues that are also moral, he may not endorse candidates nor engage in partisan campaigning.

Racial issues are both political and moral and are also highly charged. Words can be differently interpreted, but Fr. Pfleger’s remarks about Senator Clinton are both partisan and amount to a personal attack. I regret that deeply.

To avoid months of turmoil in the church, Fr. Pfleger has promised me that he will not enter into campaigning, will not publicly mention any candidate by name and will abide by the discipline common to all Catholic priests."

The Archdiocese of Chicago did what they thought was best and the questions I am seeing asked in many articles is how Barack Obama could allow himself to be led "spiritually" for so many years by religious figures as divisive and filled with what many consider to be offensive racially charged sermons.

That is a question that only Barack Obama can answer.


More from Chicago Sun Times and CBS2Chicago.


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Barack Obama's Jewish Problem

Being I was born in bred in Florida and stayed there for the first 34 years of my life and I am Jewish, gives me a unique perspective about the Jewish population in Florida, especially the older Jewish men and women, so a New York Times article detailing Barack Obama's Jewish problem, truly came as no surprise to me.

At the Aberdeen Golf and Country Club on Sunday, the fountains were burbling, the man-made lakes were shining, and Shirley Weitz and Ruth Grossman were debating why Jews in this gated neighborhood of airy retirement homes feel so much trepidation about Senator Barack Obama.

“The people here, liberal people, will not vote for Obama because of his attitude towards Israel,” Ms. Weitz, 83, said, lingering over brunch.

“They’re going to vote for McCain,” she said.

There are multiple reasons that the NYT piece lists but this is where they start and it highlights what I said yesterday when I showed the videos of Obama answering questions about terror state leaders and his naive response saying he would meet with them with no "preconditions".

Obama is no friend to Israel, no matter how much he claims to be because you do not say you will talk to a group that has vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and still expect the Jewish people in America to vote for you.

Younger Jewish members might fall for the Obama charm, but older members of that particular demographic will not trust Obama, not because of what people say about him, but because of his own words that will undoubtedly be shown in Florida, via the two videos I posted yesterday and others, over and over again before the general election in November.

Other reasons listed in the NYT article are unattractive, but there is a portion of older people, Jewish or not, that will not vote for Barack Obama because of his color.

It may wrong in this day and age, but according to one of the women interviewed for that article, Ms. Grossman, it is reality, as she says, "They’ll pick on the minister thing, they’ll pick on the wife, but the major issue is color."

American Jews hold two competing views of Mr. Obama, said Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington. First, there is Obama the scholar, the social justice advocate, the defender of Israel with a close feel for Jewish concerns garnered through decades of intimate friendships. In this version, Mr. Obama’s race is an asset, Rabbi Saperstein said.

The second version is defined by the controversy over his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., worries about Mr. Obama’s past associations and questions about his support for Israel.

“It’s too early to know how they will play out,” Rabbi Saperstein said.

Questioning Obama on his policy issues especially his constantly changing platform about Iran and terror states, is one thing, but some of the reasons given in the NYT article shows some serious bias against Obama, not because of his color but because of his lack of time spent in Florida because of the snafu over the primaries when Florida moved them forward and the Democratic leadership decided that the Florida primaries basically wouldn't even count, Obama did not campaign there, so that left Floridians to gather information, even completely wrong information, for themselves about Obama.

Because of a dispute over moving the date of the state’s primary, Mr. Obama and the other Democratic candidates did not campaign in Florida. In his absence, novel and exotic rumors about Mr. Obama have flourished. Among many older Jews, and some younger ones, as well, he has become a conduit for Jewish anxiety about Israel, Iran, anti-Semitism and race.

Mr. Obama is Arab, Jack Stern’s friends told him in Aventura. (He’s not.)

He is a part of Chicago’s large Palestinian community, suspects Mindy Chotiner of Delray. (Wrong again.)

Mr. Wright is the godfather of Mr. Obama’s children, asserted Violet Darling in Boca Raton. (No, he’s not.)

Al Qaeda is backing him, said Helena Lefkowicz of Fort Lauderdale (Incorrect.)

Michelle Obama has proven so hostile and argumentative that the campaign is keeping her silent, said Joyce Rozen of Pompano Beach. (Mrs. Obama campaigns frequently, drawing crowds in her own right.)

Mr. Obama might fill his administration with followers of Louis Farrakhan, worried Sherry Ziegler.

According to Representative Robert Wexler, Democrat of Florida, "South Florida is “the most concentrated area in the country in terms of misinformation” about Mr. Obama.

Perhaps so, but the blame for that lies directly on Obama for not taking the time to let Floridians get to know him.

Obama will try to go overcome these issues after the primaries are over but by then it will be too late for many many people in Florida and not just the Jewish vote.

The reason for that is because of first impressions, any people make snap judgments, right or wrong, about a person and first impressions are hard to change and many, especially older people, simply will not change their mind, nor bother to correct any misinformation they may have, especially when Obama's own words will be heard time and time again, which will simply reinforce their doubts about Obama in regards to Israel.

For Obama to be heard saying he would meet with the leaders from Iran with no "preconditions", to the older Jews, he might as well be saying he would have met with Hitler himself.

The fact is older Jews understand that you do not negotiate with a madman and when suicidal lunatic swears to kill you, you take him seriously and you do not reward those words by sitting down and having a cup of tea with him.

That is idiotic and for those that will not vote for Obama because of his naive, inexperienced foreign policy gaffes, they are well within reason and until Obama learns this basic fact, he will not be trusted by Jews.

But the resistance toward Mr. Obama appears to be rooted in something more than factual misperception; even those with an accurate understanding of Mr. Obama share the hesitations. In dozens of interviews, South Florida Jews questioned his commitment to Israel — even some who knew he earns high marks from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which lobbies the United States government on behalf of Israel.

“You watch George Bush for a day, and you know where he stands,” said Rabbi Jonathan Berkun of the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center.

[...]

Several interviewees said they had reservations about Mr. Obama’s stated willingness to negotiate with Iran — whose nuclear ambitions and Holocaust-denying president trigger even starker fears among Jews than intifada uprisings and suicide bombings.

Alan Dershowitz, a professor at Harvard Law School, made the point quite clearly and named the reality that Obama seems unwilling or unable to acknowledge or understand.

Israelis fear Iran “could be the first suicide nation, a nation that would destroy itself to destroy the Jewish nation,” Mr. Dershowitz said.

Then we have Obama's long time pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who even after his words were blasted across the world showing racism, anti-Semitism and hatred for America, Obama still refused to denounce him until the Wright finally started speaking negatively of Obama and saying that Obama only distanced himself from him because it was politically expedient.

The voters have every reason in the world to doubt Obama when he says he does not share Wright's views, after all, he sat in a pew listening to Wright for 20 years.

Some voters even see parallels between Mr. Obama’s foreign policy positions and his choice of pastor — in both cases, a tendency to venture too close to questionable characters.

“The fundamentals of meeting with Iran are the same as the fundamentals of meeting with Rev. Wright,” said Joe Limansky, 69, of Boca Raton.

The fact is there is not just one specific concern or reason given, but a variety of them. Some are misconceptions and others are right on target and some are downright racial, but for whatever the reason, these are people that come November, will not vote for Obama, whatever their personal reasons.

Florida was a critical state in 2000 and 2004 and Jews in Florida, on average, are older than Jews in other states as the article points out, in Broward Country, over half the Jews are over 59 and in Palm Beach County, half are over 70.

Those are voters that would have voted for Hillary Clinton, she is a known entity, but Barack Obama isn't and what they do know is what they have heard from his own mouth and that isn't going over very well.

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