Congratulations President-Elect Barack Obama

While I am not your biggest fan, I do recognize the historic nature of your win.

Congratulations, sir. This is truly an important day in our country’s history and for all Americans.

Please keep your promises, please change things for the better, please fix this country.

We can’t take much more.

I am not going away, and I will be watching…

Please don’t let us down.

Through A Democrat’s Eyes: Why McCain and Not Obama Part 3 – Character

In the third and final part of my series explaining why this Democrat is voting for McCain and not Obama, the discussion will center around issues of character, encompasing not only personal character but social policy beliefs as well.

Personal Character

This is a very simple subject to discuss when it comes to John McCain, but a very long and involved one when it comes to Barack Obama, so let’s get John McCain out of the way.

John McCain is very obviously a good, generous, straightforward, honest and honorable man.  He is a man that has dedicated his entire life to the service of his country.  John McCain the image is exactly the same as John McCain the man.

Country First is not just a campaign slogan for John McCain, it has been the over arching theme of his entire life.  John McCain grew up in a Navy family, followed his father and grandfather’s footsteps and entered the Navy as well.  He has stood up for what he believes in at every turn…  even when it was to his disadvantage.

John McCain stood up to his party when it came to putting the marines in Beirut, when it came to recognizing that global warming is a real and pressing issue, when it came to the execution of the Iraq war, when it came to the creation of the prison at Guantanamo, he is against the use of rendition as a tool, he is against the use of waterboarding and views it as torture…  and those are just a few of the innumerable examples of situations in which John McCain has stood for what he believes in even in the face of intense pressure.

Does John McCain have his faults?  Of course.

There are basically 2 situations that the Obots tend to point out…

1.  He left his first wife for Cindy.  This is a fact, and his first marriage not working out is one of the great regrets of his life, but I think that some understanding should be given to John considering the situation he was in at the time.

John spend 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton, facing unbelievable amounts of torture, solitary confinement and dehumanization.  He returned from Vietnam to a wife he had not seen for 6+ years, most of which he spent being tortured, only to find her paralyzed.  Having a wife that is suddenly paralyzed is a difficult thing for any marriage and a significant number of these end in divorce.  Add this to the recent trauma of spending over 5 years as a POW and is anyone really surprised the marriage did not work out?

The most important thing about this situation is that John always took care of his children.  Always.  And he and his first wife are still on very friendly terms.  As a matter of fact, John’s first wife is one of his biggest supporters.

2.  Keating Five.  For those of you that are not familiar, the Keating 5 is a term that refers to a group of 5 Senators that were accused of corrupt dealings with a banker named Keating during the “Savings and Loan Crisis” of the 80’s.

The group of Senators was comprised of 4 Democrats and 1 Republican…  John McCain.

Only problem is that John McCain (as well as John Glenn) was completely exonerated of any wrong doing what-so-ever by the Special Prosecutor Robert Bennet and recommended removing John McCain from any further investigation.  So why was McCain kept in the group of those accused of wrong doing?  Well, removing John McCain would remove the only Republican from the corruption case and politically the Democrats in power could not afford to have 3 of their Senators sit up there alone, going down in flames for shady dealings.

Against the wishes of the Special Prosecutor, the Democratic Chair of the Ethics Committee kept McCain’s name on the list and gave him what essentially amounted to a scowl and a wagging finger because McCain had done nothing wrong.  The committee decided that McCain’s actions “were not improper nor attended with gross negligence,” about which McCain said…  “I see it as a full exoneration”

This is usually the part where the Obots chime in with “But Cindy and her dad were in business with Keating!”  Well, the first problem with this argument is that John has ZERO to do with his wife’s families business endeavors.  ZERO.  This is the reason that John didn’t know how many houses they owned…  because he has nothing to do with his wife’s investments.  The second problem with this is logic…  The McCain family is one of the biggest real estate investors in all of Arizona, and Keating’s bank was one of the largest banks in all of Arizona.  These two parties would almost have to work together on some level, and it’s not like they were wrapped up together in multiple projects.  They were co-investors in one shopping center.  One.

So those are McCain’s downsides…  not too shabby.  I mean everyone has skeletons in their closet and if this is all John has…  I’ll take it.

As for Barack Obama…  holy god.  I am not even sure where to start…

One of the problems in evaluating Barack Obama and his character is his lack of a record.  While John McCain has a multi-decade record we can point to and say, regardless of rhetoric, this is what this man believes and these are the decisions he would make, Obama’s record is razor thin.

We do have his voting record from the 143 days in the US Senate, and his voting record from his years in the Illinois legislature, but there are issues with those as well.  On many of the harder and more controversial votes, Obama was either absent, voted “present” or voted but claimed he “pressed the wrong button.”  All the records from his legislative office have mysteriously been lost as well, so we can’t even peruse through those to gain insight.

He has also sealed all his school records, so we can’t even take a look at his grades, what classes he took, his papers/disserations, anything.  (Michelle’s either btw.)  So that is not a help either.

And so what are we left with?  We are left with two things…  What Obama says he believes, and since every politician lies, that doesn’t do us any good.  Or we can look at the people he has surrounded himself with over the years, which is pretty much all we have left since everything else has been seal, lost, walled off or shut down.

The thing about Obama and his associations is that, individually, they are no big deal.  The problem starts coming in when you start taking a look at them as a group, what all of their philosphies are and how they all interconnect.  Then we are left with a decision…  is Obama the only person that doesn’t fit in the picture or is he the one that ties them all together?.

So let’s take a look…

1.  Ayers and Dohrn – This couple led a group known as the Weather Underground which bombed several Federal Buildings (Pentagon, Capital Buidling, etc) and is responsible for the deaths of a few police officers as well as several of their own members.  Ayers and Dohrn went on the run for a decade and were finally apprehended in 1980.  Both of their cases were dropped because of technicalities, and they admit they are both “guilty as hell, but free as a bird.”

As Wikipedia puts it:  “The Weatherman group had long held that militancy was becoming more important than nonviolent forms of anti-war action, and that university-campus-based demonstrations needed to be punctuated with more dramatic actions, which had the potential to interfere with the U.S. military and internal security apparatus. The belief was that these types of urban guerrilla actions would act as a catalyst for the coming revolution. Many international events indeed seemed to support the Weathermen’s overall assertion that worldwide revolution was imminent, such as the tumultuous Cultural Revolution in China; the 1968 student revolts in France, Mexico City and elsewhere; the Prague Spring; the emergence of the Tupamaros organization in Uruguay; the emergence of the Guinea-Bissauan Revolution and similar Marxist-led independence movements throughout Africa; and within the United States, the prominence of the Black Panther Party together with a series of “ghetto rebellions” throughout poor black neighborhoods across the country.^” There are a number of quotes from Ayers and Dohrn talking about how youths will have to kill their parents and the genocide of capitalists.

The political philosphy that these people ascribe to is communo-fascist and both of them are totally unrepentant and freely admit that they wish they had done more at the time of their insurrectionist activities.  Bill Ayers is the type of man that screams, yells and tramples on the US flag, calling the US an oppressor and murderer, and yet lives in his insular academic world with his cushy job and lives in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Chicago with a multimillion dollar house.  Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn are still the 60′s radicals they were 40 years ago.  They never grew up.  He sees white people as evil oppressors of all african americans, he sees America as evil oppressors of the third world and he sees Israel as the oppressors of the Palestinians.

Barack Obama has attempted to minimize his connections with Ayers and Dohrn, saying that Ayers was just a guy in the neighborhood…  and yet, Michelle’s first job at a law firm had her working with Dohrn.  Obama was promoted to president of the Woods Foundation…  By Ayers.  Obama sat on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an organization intented to improve education but instead focused on increasing the “political awareness” of inner city youths, with Ayers.  Obama lives a block away from Ayers.  Obama has done a multitude of speaking engagements with Ayers.  Ayers dedicated a book to Obama, and spoke about him in another book.  Ayers helped Obama write “Dreams of My Father.”  Ayers babysat the Obama’s children.  And the first time it was announced, unofficially, that Obama was running for political office, it was at a party in Ayers’ living room.

This man is much more than just a guy in the neighborhood.  He is a close personal friend and colleague.

Then we have Reverend Jeremiah Wright…  wow.   This guy is hard-core.  A true black power movement figure that still sees the world in terms of black and white without recognizing how far the world has come.  He has called the United States the “US-KKK of A” and called for God to “Damn America!”  He made horrendously disparaging remarks about both Hillary and Bill Clinton, and has made even worse comments about white people in general.  He is the type of man that screams, yells and tramples on the US flag, calling the US an oppressor and murderer, and yet lives in his insular  world with his cushy job and lives in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Chicago with a multimillion dollar house.  Jeremiah Wright is still the 60′s radical he was 40 years ago, except now he is a “Christian” instead of a member of the Nation of Islam (yes, Wright was a member of the Nation of Islam.)  He sees white people as evil oppressors of all african americans, he sees America as evil oppressors of the third world and he sees Israel as the oppressors of the Palestinians…  even going as far as visiting Libya’s Khadafi with his friend Louis Farrakhan and calling Khadafi one of the great freedom fighters for African independence!

Obama claims that, in the 20 years of attending the church, he never heard any of the “controversial” comments played in a virtual loop on television, a claim which I find very hard to believe.  When asked about his attendence, he said not every Sunday, so I think to myself…  maybe.  Ok, maybe he is like a Christmas and Easter church attender, so maybe he has been 30 times or so over 20 years…  no, when he clarified, he said a couple times a month.  This means that he has attended services at this church hundreds of times, and the phrases that so offended much of America are part and parcel with the theological philosophy that the Rev Wright preaches, Black Liberation Theology.  This is also a church that has published manifesto’s from members of the terrorist group Hamas.  This is the Reverend that brought Obama to Christianity.  This is the man that mentored him, married him and baptised his children.  I HIGHLY doubt he knew nothing about this stuff.  In addition, as with most churches that are not the traditional Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian variety, you don’t just go to the church closest to you.  These are the types of churches that you actively seek out and choose because of the message of the preacher…  because of the theological philosophy of the church.

And then there is Rashid Khalidi.  Khalidi is currently a professor at Columbia.  He was a professor at U of Chicago.  He worked for WAFFA, a front organization for the PLO, as the press officer from the early 70′s to the early 80′s.  He has called the creation of Israel one of the biggest crimes in history and called for its destruction.  He has been more than sympathetic to the Palestinian terrorists, and was one of the reasons Ahmedinejad was invited to speak at Columbia University.

Khalidi and Obama were friends.  Khalidi was a political supporter, personal friend, and regular dinner companion.  The Los Angeles Times has a video tape of the goodbye party for Khalidi, which both Obama’s and Ayers/Dohrn attended.  It is also reported that a variety of very anti-Israeli comments were made during this party, and that a dance troop that regularly performs a re-enactment of “infidel beheadings” as a part of the repetoir was in attendence.  Because of the censorship perpetrated by the LA Times, we do not know what exactly happened at the party or exactly what Obama said during his speech.

And so now we turn to Tony Rezko.  Here are 8 things you need to know about Rezko

1. They met in 1990. Obama was a student at Harvard Law School and got an unsolicited job offer from Rezko, then a low-income housing developer in Chicago. Obama turned it down.

2. Obama took a job in 1993 with a small Chicago law firm, Davis Miner Barnhill, that represents developers — primarily not-for-profit groups — building low-income housing with government funds.

3. One of the firm’s not-for-profit clients — the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., co-founded by Obama’s then-boss Allison Davis — was partners with Rezko’s company in a 1995 deal to convert an abandoned nursing home at 61st and Drexel into low-income apartments. Altogether, Obama spent 32 hours on the project, according to the firm. Only five hours of that came after Rezko and WPIC became partners, the firm says. The rest of the future senator’s time was helping WPIC strike the deal with Rezko. Rezko’s company, Rezmar Corp., also partnered with the firm’s clients in four later deals — none of which involved Obama, according to the firm. In each deal, Rezmar “made the decisions for the joint venture,” says William Miceli, an attorney with the firm.

4. In 1995, Obama began campaigning for a seat in the Illinois Senate. Among his earliest supporters: Rezko. Two Rezko companies donated a total of $2,000. Obama was elected in 1996 — representing a district that included 11 of Rezko’s 30 low-income housing projects.

5. Rezko’s low-income housing empire began crumbling in 2001, when his company stopped making mortgage payments on the old nursing home that had been converted into apartments. The state foreclosed on the building — which was in Obama’s Illinois Senate district.

6. In 2003, Obama announced he was running for the U.S. Senate, and Rezko — a member of his campaign finance committee — held a lavish fund-raiser June 27, 2003, at his Wilmette mansion.

7. A few months after Obama became a U.S. senator, he and Rezko’s wife, Rita, bought adjacent pieces of property from a doctor in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood — a deal that has dogged Obama the last two years. The doctor sold the mansion to Obama for $1.65 million — $300,000 below the asking price. Rezko’s wife paid full price — $625,000 — for the adjacent vacant lot. The deals closed in June 2005. Six months later, Obama paid Rezko’s wife $104,500 for a strip of her land, so he could have a bigger yard. At the time, it had been widely reported that Tony Rezko was under federal investigation. Questioned later about the timing of the Rezko deal, Obama called it “boneheaded” because people might think the Rezkos had done him a favor.

8. Eight months later — in October 2006 — Rezko was indicted on charges he solicited kickbacks from companies seeking state pension business under his friend Gov. Blagojevich. Federal prosecutors maintain that $10,000 from the alleged kickback scheme was donated to Obama’s run for the U.S. Senate. Obama has given the money to charity.

I would add only two things…  since the article was written, Rezko has been convicted of fraud and that the money that Rezko used to “help” Obama buy his house very likely came from a man named Nadhmi Auchi.

Now, Auchi…  there is a character…  here is an incomplete blurb from Wikipedia:

Auchi was a member of the Baath Party in Iraq before Saddam Hussein came to power.^[3] While he denies any ties to Hussein’s government, British media reports indicate he sold naval ships to Hussein’s government in the 1980s.^[3]

He is one of the largest shareholders in BNP Paribas, a French bank involved in the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme for Iraq.

In 2003, Auchi was convicted of fraud, and given a 15 month suspended sentence and a £1.5m fine for taking illegal payments from French oil company Elf Aquitaine.^[4]

In recent years he has entered into several partnerships with Chicago-area businessman Tony Rezko, effectively coming to his rescue as his various investment schemes began collapsing. Auchi bought about 15 of Rezko’s pizzerias in Wisconsin, according to court records.^[6] In 2005 he took a stake in Rezko’s South Loop development at Roosevelt Road and Clark Street, a deal estimated by observers familiar with the details at $170 million.^[3]

In 2008 Stuart Levine, the U.S. government’s star witness in the corruption trial against Rezko, asserted that Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were among the guests at party in Auchi’s honor that took place at Rezko’s residence on 3 April 2004.^[6] While Obama has acknowledged his ties to Rezko, a spokesman said that the senator responded that “Sen. Obama does not recall meeting Nadhmi Auchi at any time or on any occasion, and this includes any event that may have been held for Mr. Auchi.”^[6]

In 2008 The Times of London reported the discovery of state documents in Illinois recording that a Panamanian company by the name of Fintrade Services lent money to a fund raiser for Obama in 2005. Fintrade’s directors included Ibtisam Auchi, the name of Mr Auchi’s wife. Spokespeople declined to answer when questioned about whether he was linked to this business.^[7]

The Times also reported that Auchi’s company loaned Tony Rezko $3.5 million three weeks before Rezko’s lot and Obama’s new home were purchased in 2005.^[8]

I would add that Belgian officials accused Auchi’s bank of laundering money for both Saddam’s Iraq and Khadafi’s Libya during the Oil For Food programs.  And the claims that Auchi had no ties to Saddam are paper thin at best.

And now we turn to Khalid Al-Mansour….  Al-Mansour is a black-muslim lawyer that is a rags-to-riches type who mentored the founders of the Black Panthers and is suspected of supporting and arranging for support from a member of the Saudi Royal family for Barack Obama’s collegiate career at Harvard.

And then there is Obama’s “other pastor,” Rev. Meeks, who is also a State Representative.  Meeks is a preacher in the same vein as Wright and has been cited as one of Obama’s mentors, though Obama denies it now.  Meeks has been known to say such lovely things as  “We don’t have slave masters.  We’ve got mayors but they are still the same white people who have presided over systems where black people are not able or to be educated….  They do the same thing.  They preside over systems where they have the control of the lives of African-American and Hispanic people.”

Nice, huh?

And, though I could keep going, I will close with Larry Walsh.  A close friend of Barack Obama and poker buddy, Walsh is currently under investigation by the FBI about a possible lobbyist kickback scandal.

As I said, taken individually there is a plausable deniability to each one of these characters…  an ability to minimize the connection between Obama and the other person, but taken all together, it begins to look like a pattern at the very least.

Social Issues

Roe v Wade is the biggest issue that has been beaten over the heads of America’s women…  and while John McCain is pro-life and thinks that Roe v Wade is a bad decision on tenuous legal grounds, he does not think that the Federal Government should make it illegal.  He believes, as a Federalist, that the decision should be up to the states.  End of story.  And while Obama claims to support Roe, he nearly voted to confirm John Roberts and may nominate a man named Cass Sunstein to the Supreme Court, a man that also thinks that Roe is a bad decision.  Also, the likelyhood of Roe getting overturned is slight.  Even Antonin Scalia, the courts most conservative judge, is loathe to take the subject on and considers it to be a founding principle of law at this point.

Either way, both McCain and Obama have promised that neither will use a litmus test when picking SCOTUS appts.  In addition, with a massive majority in the Senate, it is unlikely that any strict Pro-lifer would make it to confirmation.

GLBT rights…  McCain and Obama basically have the same stance on this issue.  Domestic Partnership, no marriage.  EOS.

Equal Pay.  While Obama supports equal pay legislation and McCain opposes it, it is interesting to note that in Obama’s office, women make $0.79 for every $1 the men make, and yet in McCain’s office the women make $1.07 for every $1 the men make.  McCain also has many more women in higher level staffer positions than Obama.  Add this to the fact that Obama risked splitting the Democratic party in order to avoid choosing a woman as a Vice President, while McCain…  well, he picked one hell of a woman, and one that challenges the very foundations of liberal feminism.

So…  after that whole long thing…  who do you think has the better character to be President?

French Prez – Obama’s Iran Policy ‘Weak and Immature… Devoid Of Content’

From ABC

The respected Israeli newspaper Ha’artez reports that according to a “senior Israeli government source, the reports reaching Israel indicate that Sarkozy views the Democratic candidate’s stance on Iran as ‘utterly immature’ and comprised of ‘formulations empty of all content.’”

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., met with Sarkozy in July and they are said to have discussed Iran at length.

French authorities are said to be concerned that the international community doesn’t take the Iranian threat seriously enough. French intelligence has concluded that Iran has already obtained up to 40% of the enriched uranium it needs for a bomb, the newspaper reports, and will have obtained the rest next summer.

“According to the reports reaching Israel, Sarkozy told Obama at that meeting that if the new American president elected in November changed his country’s policy toward Iran, that would be ‘very problematic,’” Ha’aretz reports. “Until now, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany have tried to maintain a united front on Iran. But according to the senior Israeli source, Sarkozy fears that Obama might ‘arrogantly’ ignore the other members of this front and open a direct dialogue with Iran without preconditions.”

Ok, so let me get this straight…  the FRENCH think Obama is an appeaser, weak, and arrogant?!?!?!?  The FRENCH?!?!?!?

Holy crap… 

You know you have a problem when the French are telling you that someone is not hardline enough!

Gallup: Likely Voters – Obama 49, McCain 47!!!

Gallup

The “traditional” likely voter model, which Gallup has employed for past elections, factors in prior voting behavior as well as current voting intention. This has generally shown a closer contest, reflecting the fact that Republicans have typically been more likely to vote than Democrats in previous elections. Today’s results show Obama with a two-point advantage over McCain using this likely voter model, 49% to 47%, this is within the poll’s margin of error.

Zardari Elected Pakistani President

CNN

The widower of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has won the election to be the country’s next president, Pakistani media reported Saturday.

Asif Ali Zardari, 53, had been the front-runner in the race to replace former President Pervez Musharraf, who was forced to resign last month.

“I feel democracy has been vindicated,” Zardari told CNN. ” I feel we are coming closer to her (Benazir Bhutto’s) mission of total democracy in Pakistan and we shall take the oath of office of President in the name of Shahid Benazir Bhutto and that will be a momentous occasion for all the democratic forces in the world.”

The election was not by public vote, but rather by lawmakers in the two houses of the National Assembly and in the four provincial assemblies around the country. Under Pakistan’s constitution, the president is elected by a majority vote.

Just one question…  how has democracy been vindicated when it was “lawmakers” that put this guy in office and not a public vote?

In addition, this guy spent 10 years in prison for fraud and was nicknamed “Mr. 10%” because of all the kickbacks he used to take.

I know that Musharraf was not the most democratic guy ever, but one thing he was not was greedy…  IIRC, He owns an old army jeep, 1 house, 1 apartment and 3 vacant lots around Islamabad.  That’s all.

Contrast that with some of the other prominent Pakistani families in politics….

I do hope this works out tho.  Kinda scary place to have it go all crazy on us.

Announcement

Dear Friends,

I must first start this letter by recognizing the historic event that is going to take place tonight here in Denver.  I am proud of America in that we have finally seen the day when an African American can take a major step in realizing the “Dream” of Dr. Martin Luther King.

With that said, as I look back at the last 2 years of campaigning and with what I have witnessed here in Denver, I have found that I cannot endorse, nor vote for, Senator Obama.  I believe it is time to take a stand and I will be supporting John McCain for President.

I will continue to show, as I always have, how and why Senator Barack Obama is not a suitable candidate for the Presidency, but will now begin to actively advocate for John McCain.

I will not criticize anyone that supports a third party candidate, but would encourage you to re-consider your choice and to change your support John McCain.  This will be a tight race and every vote counts, especially if you are one of my friends in a battleground state.  Barack Obama must not win if we are ever to return the Democratic party back to the one we know and love.

Please visit my blog regularly as more information develops.  I hope to provide a Democrats view of John McCain, in addition to continuing to express the view I have always had about Barack Obama.

I will be removing all Democrat and PUMA related links to my blog and will only re-add them upon request.  If you would be on my blog roll, please reply with the name of your blog and the url.

I wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide.

As always, much love

Texas Hill Country
http://texashillblog.wordpress.com

UPDATE 8/30/08

With the addition of Sarah Palin to the ticket I am even more resolved in my decision to support John McCain.  He is a brilliant man that is running an even more brilliant campaign.  He has shown with his decision that he does care about all Americans, their concerns and feelings.

John McCain is a Republican that has stood up to the pressure of his colleagues and fought for what is right.  He has reached across the aisle on innumberable issues.  He has reached out to all Americans with open arms and an honest heart, visiting and campaigning in areas that no Republican has bothered to go for decades.

And with the naming of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential nominee he has reconfirmed his commitment to be the President of all Americans.