Obama's 1984

Graphic source: Patriot Brigade Talk Radio Network

Original wording

Graphic source: Change.gov

Revised

The newly launched official website of President-Elect Obama, Change.gov, originally announced that Obama would “require” all middle school through college students to participate in community service programs; however, after numerous objections the wording was revised, and softened, in an excellent example of a 1984-like change.

The language sparked a revival of the much-publicized video of marching Obama youth and Obama’s “civilian national security force,” which the candidate said in July would be just as powerful and well-funded as the U.S. military.

Elect Gitmo Guy Expounds Legalistically

"I am not going to give a time certain because I think what we have to do is evaluate all those who are still being held in Gitmo. . . . We have to put in place appropriate plans to make sure they are tried, convicted and punished to the full extent of the law, and that's going to require, I think, a review of the existing cases, which I have not had the opportunity to do."

Obama, 10 November 2008

Huh? What does "time certain" mean? We have to evaluate. No kidding. We need to have "appropriate plans." Hmmm, deep. What plan did you have in mind? Oh yes, and slap them on the wrist with the law. Think that will work, eh? What arrogance, you need to personally review these cases and make a reasoned, legal argument. That, my friends, is hubris to the extreme. American law means nothing to our enemies, nor should it, since they are serving God. Man's law is chimera. Yet, the Americans persist in viewing terrorism as a law enforcement issue.

As noted in a perceptive essay:

"Liberal legalism has delegitimized tactics and brutalities that once were accepted, but this delegitimization has occurred only in context of fundamental security and dominance of Western powers."

Professor R. K. Betts, Political Science Quarterly

The U.S. tried the liberal legalistic approach during the Clinton regime and we were attacked consistently. Now that we have a new player on the field the same old tactic will not work again. But, so far, what are left with? The latest indication is that we will work with the same flawed tools to ensure more legal rights for people who seek to kill Americans based on their understanding of God's higher dictates. It will not work. It did not work before, it will not work again.

Country At An All Time Pessimistic Low

All of 16% of those questioned in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey stated that things are going well; That is about as low as things have gotten. 83% of those polled say things are going badly which is an all-time high. That high pessimist rate is higher than 1992, when George, "It's the economy, stupid,: more than 1980, when Carter was sacked for disappointing the country, and more than 1975, after Watergate and the Nixon pardon.

I am not expecting a miracle or an FDR. We do not produce that kind of leadership in America anymore. We are producing politicians who are receiving despicably high rates of campaign contributions.

Obama Gaffes in First Foreign Policy Conversation

In his first foreign policy discussion, good thing it was not a critical conversation, Obama misled the Polish President, President Lech Kaczynski. Obama told Kaczynski that he intends to continue plans for a missile shield in eastern Europe. If this is true, and this was the public announcement, this would be interpreted as a hard line against Russia. Russia has been infuriated by U.S. plans for the missile-defense installation, which includes basing missile interceptors in Poland. The interceptor rockets would be linked to an air-defense radar system in the Czech Republic. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned this week that Russian missiles will be deployed against the planned system. "The Iskander missile system will be deployed in Kaliningrad region to neutralize, when necessary, the missile shield," Medvedev said. "We are also planning to use the resources of the Russian naval fleet for these purposes." Good thing there were no actual missiles involved. Denis McDonough, Obama's senior foreign policy adviser, had to reverse the understanding that Kaczynski had. Obama has made "no commitment" to plans for a missile defense program in eastern Europe.

This is the first substantive conversation with a foreign entity and Obama has already been vague and unclear, thus, annoying the already aggressive Russians. Obama better learn on the job quickly before serious issues arise because of his lack of experience.

U.S. Treasury Promotes Islamic Finance

The U.S. Treasury is using American tax dollars to teach 'Islamic Finance 101.' The program is "designed to help inform the policy community about Islamic financial services, which are an increasingly important part of the global financial industry."

The Treasury Department has collaborated with Harvard University's Islamic Finance Project to coordinate the event.

Some speakers include Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Neel Kashkari, senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Jr.; Harvard Business School professor Samuel Hayes; Mahmoud El-Gamal, chair of Islamic economics, finance and management at Rice University and Islamic finance adviser to the Treasury Department; Sarah Bell of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, Shariah adviser and Islamic scholar; Michael McMillan, chair of the Islamic Legal Forum at the American Bar Association and professor of Islamic finance; and Rushdi Siddiqui, global director for the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes and vigorous advocate for Islamic finance.

Islamic finance is a system of banking consistent with the principles of Shariah, or Islamic law.

Islamic finance has reached $800 billion by mid-2007 and growing at more than 15 percent each year. Wall Street now features an Islamic mutual fund and an Islamic index. Oddly of course, though, the U.S. may be the first country that funds anti-American terrorists who are often financially supported through U.S. investments; the U.S. funds its own enemy.

In financial Jihad, America is losing the financial war on terror because Wall Street embraces a subversive enemy ideology on one hand and providing government and corporate life support to state sponsors of terrorism as well. Islamic finance, or "Shariah-Compliant Finance," is a "modern-day Trojan horse" infiltrating the U.S. Shariah is a repressive doctrine that regulates every aspect of life for Muslims, and has already been proposed in Britain, ultimately, it could change American life and laws. The three nations that rule 100% by Shariah law, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, are among the most horrific human rights abusers in the world.

Obamination Jugend

I don't know if this is exactly how it starts but I would be wary of militant Obamination youth who march and shout out Obama slogans to a biblical 'Alpha, Omega' chant. The scenes from Black Muslim Farrakhan calling Obama the Messiah is alarming enough but

views of teen boys who are in uniform and drill, shout, and profess, 'Yes we can' are ominous. It would make the

Nazis proud.

Obama Backs Bush on Iran

EFPs, EFP cones and other materials seized in a 28 October raid. The cache was found in Iraq after Iran exported the materials to attack Coalition troops. Graphic source: Multinational Division Baghdad.

Ali Larijani, Iran's parliament speaker, has criticized President-elect Obama for saying that Iran's development of a nuclear weapon is unacceptable.

The comments came after Obama was briefed by American intelligence and contradicts what he said during his campaign for the presidency.

During the campaign, Obama stated: "I mean, think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us," (Obama’s remarks in Pendelton, Oregon, on 18 May 2008).

Now, I guess the Iranian nuclear threat is of genuine importance, and he may mean "us," as in the U.S. and Israel. The U.S. should back Israel to the hilt as Bush has in the stalled Middle East Peace process

Larijani views Obama's present view along the same lines as Bush's, because he object to "the repetition of objections to Iran's nuclear program, which will be taking a step in the wrong direction."

Obama also said he would help mount an international effort to prevent it from happening.

Larijani was speaking two days after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulated Obama, the first time an Iranian leader has offered such wishes to a U.S. president-elect since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"Change" Is Not

As noted consistently, Obama says little about his plans, he notes that it is top priority to implement a "fiscal stimulus" package but he does not relate who or what it is for. Is this code for I will be bailing out more friends on Wall Street or my contributors?

Who knows?

But, as puzzling as that comment might be, another statement is even more troubling.

Hussein said: "state and municipal governments [are] facing devastating budget cuts and tax increases." Governments do not face tax increases; government levies taxes. Does the President-elect understand how taxes work? The people are taxed, not the government. I can only suppose, since there are no details, that Obama intends to funnel money to increase government. This is not a fiscally wise move in budget-challenged times.

Obama is clear that change is not forthcoming; he stated that he intends to "strengthen our economy in the long term."

Not much will change for the American people apparently.

Then, of course, there is the pure fluff: "We have taken some major action to date." Really? Such as? One has to wonder: is an acceptance speech "action," is a first news conference, "action." We don't know but maybe the Obama's kids getting a puppy was the major action. We really don't know what that action reference means.

He stated: "we will need further action." Yes, we will.

The message is clear: "And I have said before and I will repeat again: It is not going to be quick, and it is not going to be easy for us to dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in."

Change is not coming, so much for the "change" campaign.

Obama to Respond by 1 December

The U. S. Supreme Court has set dates in which Barack Obama, the DNC and all co-Defendants are to respond to the Writ of Philadelphia area attorney Philip Berg, which is on or before December 1, 2008. Berg remarked today, “I look forward to receiving Defendant Obama's response to the Writ and am hopeful the U. S. Supreme Court will review Berg v. Obama. I believe Mr. Obama is not a constitutionally-qualified natural-born citizen and is ineligible to assume the office of President of the United States.”

More to follow.

China Hacks House

China, mercenaries for hire, or some foreign entities hacked the White House. This revelation comes after earlier pronouncements that most likely the Chinese had already hacked into Obama's and McCain's campaign computer networks. Previously, there is evidence that Congress was hacked as well.

Out of the Box: Obama Insults

The first chance he got at his initial news conference Hussein put his foot in his mouth by stating: "I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances." Nancy, wife of President Ronald Reagan, was mocked in 1988 when the former chief of staff Donald Regan revealed in a book that the First Lady had consulted an astrologer to determine the president's schedule. President Reagan died in 2004 at 93.

But other first ladies, such as former First Lady, Hillary, have reportedly used spiritual advisers. Hussein did not mention Hillary in his insult.

Obama Owes Favors

Candidate Obama declined public financing for the first time since the system's creation and went on to amass a nearly two-to-one monetary advantage over McCain; likewise, congressional races went to the candidate spending the most money by a 93% rate in the House of Representatives and 94% of Senate races. To obviate contribution limits, organizations bundle together many individual contributions.

The biggest contributors include:

University of California $909,283

Goldman Sachs $874,207

Goldman Sachs is one of Wall Street’s most prestigious investment banks. Like others in the securities industry, it advises and invests in nearly every industry affected by federal legislation. The firm closely monitors issues including economic policy, trade and nearly all legislation that governs the financial sector. It has been a major proponent of privatizing Social Security as well as legislation that would essentially deregulate the investment banking/securities industry. In August 2002, following months of corporate scandals, congressional investigators launched a probe into whether stock analysts at Goldman Sachs issued biased investment advice in order to protect corporate clients. The firm tends to give most of its money to Democrats. For example, in 2008 Democrats received funding 73% of the time, Republicans, 27%. Goldman Sachs' former chief executive, Jon Corzine, served in the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from New Jersey. He's now the state's governor.

Harvard University $717,230

Microsoft Corp. $714,108

Microsoft Corp is the world’s top computer software company. It is also one of the biggest campaign contributors in Washington—an astounding fact when you consider that Microsoft is a relatively new player on the political scene. Prior to 1998, the company and its employees gave virtually nothing in terms of political contributions. But when the Justice Department launched an antitrust investigation into the company’s marketing of its popular Windows software, things changed. The company opened a Washington lobbying office, founded a political action committee and soon became one of the most generous political givers in the country. The move eventually galvanized an entire industry, as computer and Internet companies quickly moved to emulate Microsoft’s political savvy.

Google Inc. $701,099

JPMorgan Chase & Co. $581,460

JP Morgan Chase & Co is one of the nation’s leading financial services firms, offering commercial and consumer banking and credit services, securities brokering and financial consulting. Through its subsidiary Chase Bank, the company is one of the top consumer credit card issuers in the country. As expected, the firm has lobbied heavily on legislation that would affect the nation’s financial industry, including bankruptcy reform and banking deregulation. In 2002, federal investigators launched a probe into the firm’s relationship with former energy giant Enron. Prior to the energy firm’s collapse, JP Morgan Chase had been one of the company’s biggest financial backers.

Citigroup Inc. $581,216

Citigroup is the world’s second largest financial services firm, with $1 trillion in assets. One of the company’s subsidiaries is brokerage firm Salomon Smith Barney, which has been plagued with lawsuits and government investigations into its financing of bankrupt Enron and ailing WorldCom. In 1998, Citigroup’s lobbying helped repeal a federal law that prevented banks from getting into other businesses, allowing the company to acquire an insurance firm. Citigroup continues to lobby on a number of issues, including financial privacy, bankruptcy reform and terrorism reinsurance.

National Amusements Inc. $543,859

Time Warner $508,148

America Online and Time Warner merged in 2001 to create one of the largest media companies in the world. The new colossus owns dozens of subsidiaries, including online services, print and broadcast news organizations, cable television companies, movie studios, music companies and publishing houses. Time Warner also owns the Atlanta Braves baseball team, as well as basketball and hockey teams. With so many business interests, the company lobbies on a number of different issues, but right now its biggest concern is over the rules governing television ownership. The company wants the government to relax the rules prohibiting cable television stations from also owning broadcast stations in the same market.

Sidley Austin LLP $492,445

Stanford University $481,199

Skadden, Arps et al $473,424

Wilmerhale Llp $466,679

UBS AG $454,795

Latham & Watkins $426,924

Columbia University $426,516

Morgan Stanley $425,102

Morgan Stanley is one of the world’s top investment banks, offering its clients everything from stock portfolio management to credit services. Like others in the securities industry, it invests in and advises virtually every industry affected by federal legislation. The company, which splits its contributions evenly between Democrats and Republicans, has been a major proponent of privatizing Social Security. Morgan Stanley also has lobbied in favor of proposals to deregulate the securities industry, so that investment firms can further extend their reach into financial services.

IBM Corp $415,196

University of Chicago $414,555

US Government $400,819

Data was accumulated by Opensecrets.org.

OpenSecrets.org is your nonpartisan guide to money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy. Whether you’re a voter, journalist, activist, student or interested citizen, use our free site to shine light on your government. Count cash and make change.

Cf. http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php

Al-Baghdadi Will Live in the White House: Christians Should Embrace Islam

Islamist forum, Al-Hesbah, posted an audio message by the Emir of Al-Qaeda's "Islamic State of Iraq" (ISI) Abu 'Omar Al-Baghdadi to "the New Rulers of the White House and Their Allies in Other Christian Countries," "...The Warriors of Jihad Hope that, in the Distant Future, They Will Dwell Under the Roofs of the White House." Al-Baghdadi called on the "new rulers of the White House and their allies in other Christian countries" to "embrace Islam," and explained that "[Christians] are the closest religion [to Islam] from among [all world] nations."

President Elect Barry Soetoro's School Record: Indonesian Citizen, Religion, Islam

A copy of Barry Soetoro's--President-elect Obama--school record as an Indonesian citizen also lists his religion as Islam.

President-Elect as Third Term Bush

Rahm Emanuel usually receives attention for his aggressive, pit bull style of politics but I am interested in his biographical details. As we envision if the President-elect will provide something other than the third term of Bush I have to wonder about Emanuel.

I would not expect many differences between the President-elect and Bush since they are closely associated with Israel. Emanuel's father for example, is a Jerusalem-born former member of the Irgun (Irgun Zeva'i Le'ummi), a military Nationalist group treated as a terrorist organization during British rule. His father emigrated to the United States from Israel and Emanuel volunteered as a civilian volunteer in the Israel Defense Forces during the 1991 Gulf War, serving in one of Israel's northern bases, rust-proofing brakes.

I could not imagine the President-elect differing much from Bush on the unqualified support for Israel which places Americans at greater risk.

Lieberman Advised Not to Speak His Mind

Senator Lieberman is in hot water with the Democrats for having expressed himself. Of the President-elect, he said, "Sen. Barack Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who I think can do great things for our country in the years ahead, but, my friends, eloquence is no substitute for a record, not in these tough times for America."

Obama adviser Robert Gibbs responded sharply by stating that "Joe Lieberman ought to be ashamed of himself for some of the things he said tonight, not as a Democrat but as an American."

This is an odd condemnation from a party source that should prize free speech. Why shouldn't a Senator be able to state his position? It is not anti-American to evaluate a politician. Lieberman rankles nerves, and does not always toe the party line, his independence makes him an effective spokesperson for many Americans.

Note on Holland, Rubicon

This delightful romp through one of history's most fascinating periods is well-written and engrossing. Holland expresses himself clearly and surveys the important personages and momentous occasion of the Republic's downfall.

France Whines, Then Profits from Warfare

Now that the updated Iraqi plans in regard to their purchase of 516 military aircraft, from the United States and France, has been released, its interesting to note how quickly France got involved in the bargain. Once one of most vociferous voices denouncing the U.S. quickly is there to benefit from war munitions.

I think we should always bear in mind that France is out for France and France alone. They have no moral credibility objecting to U.S. plans.

The aircraft would be delivered to Iraq from 2011 to 2015; the first order is for 108 combat aircraft from the US and France, and is to be delivered in 2011.

Surge Objective

"The overall objective is to establish a unified, democratic federal Iraq that can govern itself, defend itself, and sustain itself, and is an ally in the War on Terror. The surge would provide the time and conditions conducive to reconciliation among political and ethnic factions."

The objective of the surge is clearly stated and has been achieved. The prospect of having an ally against Islamofascists in the Middle East would be a godsend. As much as a certain contingent of Americans were either duped by the mainstream media, or wished for an American defeat, it did not happen. The Iraqis are well on their way, making guarded progress as always, to standing up for themselves.

War Time Transition

The current presidential transition is the first during wartime since 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson handed over administration to President Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War.

The top military officers appointed by Bush will remain. Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has at least one more year on his term in office.

The top U.S. military officer with direct responsibility for Iraq and Afghanistan, will also remain. The chief of U.S. Central Command, General David Petraeus, who is acknowledged with turning around the war in Iraq during the last year and a half.

It is unclear if U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will remain but he has publicly stated he is not interested.