A Clarion Call for Honest Reporters

Like a breath of fresh air is a man who is committed to proclaiming truth. The article below was written by one such man; by a Democrat, and God bless him for so proclaiming, even at the risk of being ostracized those of his own party.

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?
By Orson Scott Card

Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism.

An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

Click here to read the full article.

A Letter Report on Barack "Barry" Hussein Obama, Jr.

Editorial Note: Peggy Bower's original letter report did not include the hyperlinks provided below, had different paragraph break locations, and no section titles. Additionally, minor editorial revisions and one substantive correction to the text has been applied. I have linked names, places, organizations, book titles, etc. to their Wikipedia entries, which may or may not be accurate and/or up to date.

- Timothy E. Bradberry

October, 2008

My 2008 Election Letter

by Peggy M. Bower

I am not in the habit of buying or reading liberal books, but every once in a while I just have to “see for myself.” So I bought one of the most liberal books on the planet—Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. I had heard about the “dedication” page—couldn’t quite believe it, but here it is:

Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical; from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins—or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom—Lucifer.

—Saul Alinsky

Saul Alinsky's Book

Hillary Rodham wrote her senior thesis about Alinsky when she was a student at Wellesley College. As soon as her husband became President, the White House requested that the thesis be locked away from public availability. Wellesley complied. After Clinton left office the ban was lifted. Today, a person may enter the archives room to “view” the thesis, but no one can make photocopies.

Barack Obama, as a student at Columbia University, became an admirer of Alinsky, and his first job was to follow in his steps as a “community organizer” in Chicago (ACORN—Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now—hired Obama to train its staff). Saul Alinsky (1909-1972), was a Jew who had enough religious training to quote Scripture when it suited him, while at the same time he claimed to be agnostic. From his book dedication it is obvious that he forsook the faith of his forefathers, and came down on the “dark side” of his religious questions. According to Alinsky, the history of the world is a series of cycles in which groups of people called the Have-Nots find ways of overcoming groups of people called the Haves—so that the Have-Nots can become the Haves. Then the cycle starts over again. The Haves always become evil and they try to keep the Have-Nots down. Overcoming the Haves is therefore a noble cause.

Alinsky was often accused of being a Communist. In an interview with Playboy in 1972, he said, “I’ve never joined any organization—not even the ones I have organized myself....Anybody who tells you he was active in progressive causes in those days and never worked with the Reds is a *&^#%* liar. Their platform stood for all the right things, and unlike many liberals, they were willing to put their bodies on the line.” He wasn’t referring to "Red State" Republicans. In order to support “change” and the overthrow of the Haves, Alinsky wrote a couple of books, and started training community organizers who would serve as the change agents.

The job of an organizer is to go into a town, or section of town, where the Have-Nots dwell. The job is easier if the Have-Nots are already dissatisfied, and they invite the organizer in to help them overthrow their “suppressors” and obtain power. If the people have not yet realized what their complaints should be, the organizer talks with the people, identifies the problems, and verbalizes the problems in their own vernacular. He wins the confidence of the suppressed, suggests inventive ways of using whatever resources they have at hand, leads them to victory, and becomes their hero. Alinsky doesn’t state that last part, but it is certainly implied and is the obvious net result of the sequence of events.

Barack the Community Organizer

Barack Hussein Obama has made himself the ultimate community organizer hero by expanding his community to the entire United States of America. His vague message of change involves throwing off some of the foundational supports of our blessed nation. In September, as reported by Investor’s Business Daily, Obama said, "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

In 1992, Obama helped form an organization, Public Allies, that he plans to use as a model for this national service corps, which he calls “Universal Voluntary Public Service.” Public Allies (PA) strives to place young adults into paid one-year “community leadership positions” with non-profit or government agencies. They are required to attend weekly training workshops and three retreats. The training methods mimic Saul Alinsky’s training for community organizers, and its real mission is to radicalize American youth, and use them to bring about “social change.” PA boasts in one of their own documents, “Our alumni are more than twice as likely as other 18-34 year olds to engage in protest activities.” One recruit enthusiastically reported, “I get to practice being an activist and get paid for it.” Our government now funds about one half of PA expenses through Clinton’s AmeriCorps. Obama wants to expand it to a fully tax-payer funded “boot-camp” for radicals that would preempt military service.

Obama's Social Associations

Obama never seems to have spent much time with “normal folks.” His mother, Anne Dunham was a rebellious child who gave her parents a difficult time, and never repented. She had two failed marriages—one to Barack’s father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., who had a Muslim background but did not practice any religion and claimed to be an agnostic (Sound familiar?); and, the other to Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian who was a practicing Muslim and who took Barack (Barry) to mosque with him. After several years in Indonesia, Barack was sent back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. He says in Dreams from My Father that he felt abandoned. He felt less abandoned when he drew close to his first real mentor—poet, former publisher, and writer for newspapers, Frank Marshall Davis—an admitted Communist and member of the Communist Party USA.

Davis was black, and his second wife was a white socialite. They moved from Chicago to Hawaii. Barack’s grandfather sought out Davis to befriend and mentor the boy because he thought that Davis’ mixed race family would be a comfort to him. Davis had many discussions with the boy —not only about race, but about politics. Davis and Barack’s unemployed grandfather enjoyed smoking marijuana together. That may have been why Barack felt free to be open about his own use of drugs in high school and college. And Davis’ talk of his work in Chicago may have played a part in Obama being drawn to Chicago to become a “community organizer” right after college. A former school mate at Punahou High School said that Barack hung out with a group of “druggies.” Obama says in Dreams from My Father, “I had learned not to care, I blew a few smoke rings. . . . Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack though.”

Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al-Mansour (born Donald Warden), who was a mentor to Black Panther founder Huey Newton, asked former Manhattan Borough President, Percy Sutton, who is also a former lawyer for Malcom X, to write for Obama a letter of recommendation to Harvard Law School. Dr. Al-Mansour told Sutton that he was raising money for Obama’s graduate school education. In the same conversation he told Sutton that he (Al-Mansour) represented top members of the Saudi Royal family seeking to do business and exert influence in the U.S. The 88-year old Sutton babbled on about these connections in an interview on a New York all-news cable station early in 2008 (as reported by Investor’s Business Daily, September 5, 2008).

Obama and Tony Rezko

Tony Rezko was born in Syria, but has operated restaurants and developed real estate in Chicago. He was actually a slum lord in Chicago. Obama was finishing law school at Harvard when Rezko sought him out to offer him a job. Though Obama did not accept the offered position, he went to work for the rather sleazy law firm where Rezko was a client, and whose senior partner soon left to become Rezko’s business partner. Why would Obama go to work for such a firm when he had been President of the Harvard Law Review, and could have had a plum job with a prestigious law firm, or probably could have clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court? Rezko helped the Obamas with the financial aspects of buying a large and expensive house right across the street from him. Rezko is now in prison for using his connections to state boards to demand kickbacks from companies that wanted to do business with the state.

Obama and Bill Ayres

Obama has long been friends with unrepentant terrorists Bill Ayres and Bernadine Dohrn (they are a “couple”), who bombed several government buildings, including the Pentagon, back in the sixties. They escaped going to prison on technicalities. In 2001, Ayers said that he had no regrets for his actions and wished he could have done more.

Ayers and Dohrn hosted a fundraiser in their home when Obama first ran for Illinois State Senator. Obama has served on several boards with Ayres, including the Woods Fund, which made $40,000 and $35,000 grants to the Arab American Action Network, headed by Rashid Khalidi. (Khalidi has made statements supportive of Palestinian terror, and is a harsh critic of Israel. Khalidi also held a political fund-raising event in his home for Obama in 2000.) Obama and Ayers also funneled money to ACORN through the Woods Fund. (ACORN is now under investigation for voter registration fraud in a dozen key states for this election.) Obama dismisses Ayer’s behavior because the actions took place “a long time ago,” and Ayers is now a “respected professor of education at the University of Chicago."

Actually Ayers is simply following one of Saul Alinsky’s teachings—that to be more effective in bringing about “change,” you might have to cut your hair and put on a suit. Ayers is still the same radical that he was back in the sixties, but instead of evoking ire from the public by bombing buildings, he is just teaching his radical ideas to college students and public school teachers! He and Obama have worked together on “projects” for Chicago’s schools, and are of the same ilk.

Obama and the Church

Obama had never attended a church until he became a community organizer in Chicago. He was advised by a liberal Catholic priest that most blacks were associated in some way with a church, and that joining a church would be of benefit to being accepted in the community. He said in a TV interview that I watched that he decided to join the United Church of Christ (perhaps a misnomer) because he didn’t have to change any of his beliefs to join. Jeremiah Wright, his “pastor” of 20 years, used his pulpit to preach Black Liberation Theology, and frequently made complimentary mentions of Louis Farrakhan. He claimed that whites in America created the virus that causes AIDS in order to kill off blacks. After 9/11 Wright said that America deserved such a strike. You probably saw on TV a clip of the sermon in which he raved, “. . . No, no, no, not God Bless America—God *&^#%* America!”

Obama and the Current US Financial Crisis

At least three financial advisors to Obama’s Presidential campaign (snopes.com says it ain't true, but some say snopes is covering for Obama) are tied directly to our financial crisis. Franklin Raines, Chairman and CEO at Fannie Mae, was forced to retire when auditing discovered severe irregularities in accounting. He left with a “golden parachute" valued at $240 million. The Court ordered that he return $50 million. Tim Howard, Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae, “cooked the books,” and “resigned under pressure” taking only $20 million with him. Jim Johnson was a former executive at Lehman Bros., and later forced from his position as Fannie Mae CEO when it was discovered that his compensation was not accurately reported—it was $21 million, not $6 million. He left with a bonus of $28 million. In addition to being a financial adviser to Obama, he ran his Vice-Presidential Search Committee.

His Liberalness Barack Hussein Obama

Obama has the distinction of being THE MOST LIBERAL MEMBER OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE. His percentage of liberal votes beats those of Ted Kennedy and Barney Frank. When he was in the Illinois State Senate he actually voted twice against a bill to give medical care to babies who were born alive after a botched abortion. (Such babies were being left alone in a room to die.) He testified that giving assistance to such babies would weaken Roe v. Wade.

Conclusion

It sickens me to think that Barack Hussein Obama might be elected President of our country. If we elect him, then we deserve the consequences that will follow. May Americans be alert, attentive, dedicated, and patriotic. May we not be mesmerized by a mellow voice enticing the masses and calling for change—just for the sake of change.

Honk to Save Our Homes

From Newsmax.com

Demand Congress Protect Taxpayers Not Speculators
FAX All Congressmen - Tell Them No Bailout – Prosecute Offenders!

How did we get here?

FOLLOW THE MONEY AND CORRUPTION! A Lending Policy created by democrats for democrats run by democrats monitored by democrats enforced by community organizer democrats and profited from by democrats.

The following information is condensed from an article by Stanley Kurtz. O's Dangerous Pals.

Fannie and Freddie acted in response to Clinton administration pressure to boost homeownership rates among minorities and the poor. However compassionate the motive, the result of this systematic disregard for normal credit standards has been financial disaster. ONE key pioneer of ACORN's subprime-loan shakedown racket was Madeline Talbott - an activist with extensive ties to Barack Obama. She was also in on the ground floor of the disastrous turn in Fannie Mae's mortgage policies.

Obama Trains ACORN Staff in Shakedown Tactics

It would be tough to find an "on the ground" community organizer more closely tied to the subprime-mortgage fiasco than Madeline Talbott. And no one has been more supportive of Madeline Talbott than Barack Obama.

When Obama was just a budding community organizer in Chicago , Talbott was so impressed that she asked him to train her personal staff.

He returned to Chicago in the early '90s, just as Talbott was starting her pressure campaign on local banks. In those years, he also conducted leadership-training seminars for ACORN's up-and-coming organizers. That is, Obama was training the army of ACORN organizers who participated in Madeline Talbott's drive against Chicago 's banks.

Obama Funds ACORN

More than that, Obama was funding them. As he rose to a leadership role at Chicago 's Woods Fund, he became the most powerful voice on the foundation's board for supporting ACORN and other community organizers. In 1995, the Woods Fund substantially expanded its funding of community organizers - and Obama chaired the committee that urged and managed the shift.

That committee's report on strategies for funding groups like ACORN features all the key names in Obama's organizer network. The report quotes Talbott more than any other figure; Sandra Maxwell, Talbott's ACORN ally in the bank battle, was also among the organizers consulted.

More, the Obama-supervised Woods Fund report acknowledges the problem of getting donors and foundations to contribute to radical groups like ACORN - whose confrontational tactics often scare off even liberal donors and foundations.

Indeed, the report brags about pulling the wool over the public's eye. The Woods Fund's claim to be "nonideological," it says, has "enabled the Trustees to make grants to organizations that use confrontational tactics against the business and government 'establishments' without undue risk of being criticized for partisanship."

Obama Aware of Intimidation Tactics

The Woods Fund report makes it clear Obama was fully aware of the intimidation tactics used by ACORN's Madeline Talbott in her pioneering efforts to force banks to suspend their usual credit standards. Yet he supported Talbott in every conceivable way. He trained her personal staff and other aspiring ACORN leaders, he consulted with her extensively, and he arranged a major boost in foundation funding for her efforts.

And, as the leader of another charity, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, Obama channeled more funding Talbott's way - ostensibly for education projects but surely supportive of ACORN's overall efforts.

In return, Talbott proudly announced her support of Obama's first campaign for state Senate, saying, "We accept and respect him as a kindred spirit, a fellow organizer."

In short, to understand the roots of the subprime mortgage crisis, look to ACORN's Madeline Talbott. And to see how Talbott was able to work her mischief, look to Barack Obama.

Tale of a Busted Commentator

Below are some heart felt comments I attempted to post to The Huffington Post (THP)on this anniversary of 9/11 regarding this story: Obama References Bush Failings On 9/11: "Let Us Remember That The Terrorists Responsible For 9/11 Are Still At Large"

The Illinois senator added: "Let us remember that the terrorists responsible for 9/11 are still at large, and must be brought to justice."

Excuse me, Senator Obama..sir, the terriorists most directly responsible for the attacks of 9/11 are burning in Hell along with their collaborators and compatriots all around the world; having been killed in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere where, due to the leadership and initiative of Georgia W. Bush and the United States military, elements of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are being systematically hunted down and killed, thus enhancing the security of freedom loving and peaceful people everywhere.

That is the kind of justice that is needed on this anniversary of 9/11. That is the kind of justice that the next administration needs to provide. That is the kind of policy that a McCain-Palin administration would have the courage to pursue. What about a Obama-Biden administration? What kind of justice would you pursue? A long jail sentence?

When I attempted to post my comments in the comment section to the article on the THF website I got the following response:

This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved.

Hey, that's cool. I can appreciate that there needs to be some community standards and controls so that obscene material is not published in their blog, even in the comment section of their articles.

Guess what? Those blowhards at The Huffington Post chose not to publish my comments.

Nice censorship job. And on top of that, while I was searching to see if my comment had been approved I was found out by Huffington Post “Security Forces” and in place of my name and a live “post” button, those stinking Stalinists put the following:

Post a comment

Sorry, but you have been banned from commenting

I guess I must have violated community standards, or something. Perhaps in the terms of service it says something like, “you will speak no ill of terrorists and Democratic candidates and you will only use the word H-E-L-L as an expletive, not as a place name.”

Oh well, looks like I’m busted.

How nice and opened minded of those Huff ‘n Puffers. I guess this experience is an example of how free speech will be curtailed and what kind of speech we can expect the Left to censor should, God forbid, Obama win in November.

Sarah Palin vs. Barack Obama

Some on the left and right are saying that Sarah Palin does not have the experience to be Vice-President, that McCain has left the reservation on this decision. Here is a comparison of the top of the Democratic ticket with the bottom of the Republican ticket. Leaving the two senior Senators out of the picture, because they could be considered to cancel each other out in terms of experience, ask yourself which ticket has the right experience for the job. Click above on the title to this post to view the comparison.

Gov. Sarah Palin for Veep

Now that Senator and "Borker-in-Chief" Joe Biden has been announced as Obama's Veep pick my advice to Senator McCain is to add a proven winner to his ticket, someone who can balance out the negatives that he has with the base of the Party, someone who will inject charisma into his otherwise dead pan political delivery.

That someone, I contend, is the most popular governor in the country, Alaska's Sarah Heath Palin. She will put an attractive, knowledgeable and strategic face on the "drill here, drill now, and pay less" imperative that the majority of Americans are demanding, and she is poised to duke it out with the AFI-CIO and Biden.

RealClearPolitics.com contributer Jack Kelly sums up Palin's upside thus:

At 44, Sarah Louise Heath Palin is both the youngest and the first female governor in Alaska's relatively brief history as a state. She's also the most popular governor in America, with an approval rating that has bounced around 90 percent.
...
...
Sarah Barracuda. Miss Congeniality. Fire and nice. A happily married mother of five who is still drop dead gorgeous. And smart to boot.

But it's mostly because she's been a crackerjack governor, a strong fiscal conservative and a ferocious fighter of corruption, especially in her own party.

Ms. Palin touches other conservative bases, some of which Sen. McCain has been accused of rounding. Track, her eldest son, enlisted in the Army last Sept. 11. She's a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association who hunts, fishes and runs marathons. A regular churchgoer, she's staunchly pro-life.

Kimberley Strassel of the Wall Street Journal said Sen. McCain should run against a corrupt, do-nothing Congress, a la Harry Truman. If he should choose to do so, Gov. Palin would make an excellent partner "The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who have crossed Sarah," pollster Dave Dittman told the Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes.

Sen. Barack Obama's support has plunged recently among white women. Many Hillary Clinton supporters accuse him -- I think unfairly -- of being sexist. Having Sarah Palin on the ticket could help Sen. McCain appeal to these disgruntled Democrats.

Click here to read the full Jack Kelly article.

There is a bit of downside to Palin that seems to me to have been conjured up recently by Democrats in Alaska and by national Union bosses who may just be attempting a little sabotage.

Having a reputation for extreme zealousness in cleaning up corruption, Palin has recently been accused of unethical behavior herself. This charge stems from her having a deadbeat ex-brother-in-law (her sister Molly's ex-husband, Mike Wooten) who, though apparently having significant ethical challenges of his own as a State Trooper and in his personal life, has retained his job way longer than seems reasonable.

After an Alaska State Department of Public Safety internal investigation, which was carried out before Palin became Governor, Wooten suffered only a 10 day suspension for his documented unethical behavior, which included DUI, violating state hunting laws, assault, using his badge in an oppressive manner, etc. The union provided him with an "advocate," union representative John Cyr, during an internal investigation of his misconduct.

[Wooten was suspended] for 10 days. He also was punished for illegally shooting a moose and using a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson. The trooper admitted to using the Taser on his stepson in a "training capacity" and said he shot a moose on his wife's tag, but didn't think the act was illegal.

Cyr said the Public Safety Employees Association filed a grievance regarding the 10-day suspension and the punishment was later reduced to five days.

See Agency leader changed ruling in trooper case.

This union representative has been advocating for Wooten for over 3 years, currently as the executive director of the Public Safety Employees Association (interesting promotion - from State Trooper and PSEA Rep in 2005 to executive director of the PSEA in 2008 - wow!).

Recently Palin was accused by the PSEA of having a vendetta against her sister's ex-husband such that she used her influence as Governor (they say) to pressure Wooton's commanders to fire him, and when the commanders refused to do so she retaliated (they say) by firing Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan on July 11, 2008.

Legislators are seriously considering hiring an independent investigator to examine whether Gov. Sarah Palin, her aides or her husband pressured commanders to fire Trooper Mike Wooten, and whether she then fired the state's top cop when Wooten stayed on the job. Palin denies anything like that happened.

See Is Wooten a good trooper? (7/27/08).

Last month John Cyr, as "the spokesman" for the union, released a bunch of Wooten's information to the press, ostensibly to show his "client" was being railroaded, but more likely to attempt to trash Gov. Palin.

...a spokesman for the troopers' labor union, the Public Safety Employees Association, held a press conference saying Wooten has been unfairly targeted by the governor's family.

The spokesman, John Cyr, also released a several-inch-thick file of the troopers' own investigation into charges from Palin, her husband, Todd, and other members of her family that Wooten committed unethical and illegal acts, which they said included drunken driving and illegal hunting.

See Palin denies accusation over firing of Monegan (7/18/08).

My guess is that the Alaska union feels a bit threatened by a governor who wants to clean house and take them to the mat and perhaps the AFL-CIO has commanded the Alaska Public Safety Employees Association to do "whatever it takes" to poison Palin's chances of being picked by McCain as his VP and taking her "anti-union tactics" national.

That alone is proof positive that she is the right woman for the job of McCain's running mate and our Vice-President of the United States.