Obama's Rezko-Ayers-Wright Problem »

Posted By Nixie 8 months, 3 weeks ago in News

Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters.

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Nixie

"It was thus the fountains were dancing to the moon in Arabia; it was thus the Nixies shook their white limbs on the haunted banks ...

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Comments So Far: 123 (view all)
  • 48%
    Nixie8 months, 3 weeks ago

    "It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream media begin fulminating about dirty campaigning tinged with racism and McCarthyite guilt by association.

    But associations are important. They provide a significant insight into character. They are particularly relevant in relation to a potential president as new, unknown, opaque and self-contained as Mr. Obama."

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  • 43%
    Nixie8 months, 3 weeks ago

    "Why are these associations important? Do I think Mr. Obama is as corrupt as Mr. Rezko? Or shares Mr. Wright's angry racism or Mr. Ayers' unreconstructed 1960s radicalism?

    No. But that does not make these associations irrelevant. They tell us two important things about Mr. Obama.

    First, his cynicism and ruthlessness. He found these men useful and use them he did. Would you attend a church whose pastor was spreading racial animosity from the pulpit? Would you even shake hands with – let alone serve on two boards with – an unrepentant terrorist?

    Mr. Obama did, if not out of conviction then out of expediency. He was a young man on the make, an unknown outsider working his way into Chicago politics. He played the game with everyone, without qualms and with obvious success."

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  • 40%
    Nixie8 months, 3 weeks ago

    "Second, and even more disturbing than the cynicism, is the window these associations give on Obama's core beliefs. He doesn't share Rev. Wright's poisonous views of race nor Ayers' views, past and present, about the evil that is American society. But Obama clearly did not consider these views beyond the pale. For many years he swam easily and without protest in that fetid pond."

    Excellent points.

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  • 59%
    icono18 months, 3 weeks ago

    Interesting that a politician can now be 'openly suspect' in his associations with various questionable characters and be considered 'Presidential Material'.
    Now that is 'Change and Hope' we all can believe in.

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  • 41%
    Klarissa8 months, 3 weeks ago

    Nixie, the media is holding their breath to see whom they should support. Good news.

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    • 42%
      pjnap8 months, 3 weeks ago

      We all know who the media is backing. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a rebellion & McCain won & the media would have to eat crow

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    • 59%
      hamy8 months, 3 weeks ago

      It brought misuse of power and misconduct on the part of Ms. Palin. Ha Haa!

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      • 43%
        Wolfie20078 months, 3 weeks ago

        Well, it ain't over till the fat lady sings. Who knows what tomorrow may bring.

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        • 35%
          ningyo8 months, 3 weeks ago

          add to this list the flood of indictments and investigations coming out today about his old pals at acorn..it seems like only yesterday that the obama zombies here were calling me all sorts of things for suggesting there were actual events and crimes with obama , acorn and vote fraud...today its all over the news..fbi raiding acorn office in las vegas..thousands of fake registrations in conn...the dallas cowboys being registered over and over...dead people..a classic from chicago politics..and all of it from acorn...and obama's been in up his eyeballs with this gamg as well as the rev wrong and ayers..this guy is simply a marxist socialist thug dressed up for his cameo on the campaign trail...its not hate speech..and its not from fox..its the reality of this fraud and his long time associates

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        • 41%
          Wolfie20078 months, 3 weeks ago

          The liberal democrats claim that ACORN is just helping minority's vote. Of course, the only qualification ACORN has for signing them up is if they will vote democrat. I understand they throw away any registrations that are republican or independent. lol

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        • 60%
          elef28 months, 3 weeks ago

          Are Americans MORONS? Why would they buy the bad remarks about people. Use your brains and hear what the candidates say and do not buy everyones crab. Those who spread bad remarks for any of those who seek office including the candidates themselves ought to be ashame of themselves even when they think they are right,. They will stand before a HOLY GOd someday.
          Shame on you ,any one of you who repeat unsubstansiated stuff. That is what it is. STUFF which belongs to a Dumb .Wake up Americans and decide based on real ISSUES .

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        • 58%
          Ratskii8 months, 3 weeks ago

          Your contention that Bill Ayres is unrepentant is incorrect. He has stated on more than one occasion that he regrets any harm he caused to individuals. He apologized to the one person that was injured in an attack he took part in. He has not been involved with illegal activity in several decades.

          It is nice that republicans are so much more forgiving of people on their side that committed crimes decades ago.

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        • 50%
          wakewup8 months, 3 weeks ago

          If Nobama is elected, the left will have committed the worst political move since Jimmy Carter- can you say Mariel Felons?

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        • 67%
          BillieMaxer8 months, 3 weeks ago

          McCain Proud of Connections to War Criminal Kissinger

          McCain's "terrorist" connections are far worse than Obama's links to Ayers. In the 1980s, McCain personally funded a guerrilla group (the Contras) that engaged in terrorist acts. Just last year, McCain expressed how "proud" he was of an ex-felon who urged shooting law enforcement agents in the head (G. Gordon Liddy). And earlier this year, the McCain campaign trumpeted the endorsement of a man who illegally provided weapons and money to terrorists; when a reporter questioned this, the McCain campaign refused to even criticize this criminal (Oliver North).

          In February 1988, the Washington" target="_blank">click here Post reported that McCain personally (and "recently") gave the Contras $400.

          No one can doubt that acts of terror were committed by the Contras. Human" target="_blank">click here Rights Watch concluded in 1989, "the contras were major and systematic violators of the most basic standards of the laws of armed conflict, including by launching indiscriminate attacks on civilians, selectively murdering non-combatants, and mistreating prisoners." Human Rights Watch also criticized acts of terror by the Sandinista government, but called the Contras "a force that has shown itself incapable of operating without consistently committing gross abuses in violation of the laws of war."

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          • 67%
            BillieMaxer8 months, 3 weeks ago

            WASHINGTON — John McCain's campaign is criticizing Barack Obama for his ties to a former radical who engaged in violent acts four decades ago, but McCain himself was closely connected to a private group that supplied aid to rebels trying to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua during the Iran-Contra affair.

            The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. The group was dedicated to stamping out communism around the globe.

            The council's founder, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, said McCain became associated with the organization in the early 1980s as McCain was launching his political career in Arizona. Singlaub said McCain was a supporter but not an active member in the group.

            "McCain was a new guy on the block learning the ropes," Singlaub told The Associated Press in an interview. "I think I met him in the Washington area when he was just a new congressman. We had McCain on the board to make him feel like he wasn't left out. It looks good to have names on a letterhead who are well-known and appreciated.

            "I don't recall talking to McCain at all on the work of the group," Singlaub said.

            The renewed attention over McCain's association with Singlaub's group comes as McCain's Republican presidential campaign steps up criticism over Obama's dealings with William Ayers, a college professor who co-founded the Weather Underground and years later worked on education reform in Chicago alongside Obama. Ayers held a meet-the-candidate event at his home when Obama first ran for public office in the mid-1990s.

            Obama was roughly 8 years old when Ayers, now at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was working with the Weather Underground, which took responsibility for bombings that included nonfatal blasts at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol. McCain's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, has said that Obama "pals around with terrorists."

            In McCain's case, Singlaub knew McCain's father, a Navy admiral who had sought Singlaub's counsel when McCain became a prisoner of war and spent 5 1/2 years in North Vietnamese hands.

            "John's father asked me for advice about what he ought to do now that his son had been shot down and captured," Singlaub recalled in one of two recent interviews. "I said, 'As long as you don't give any impression that you care more about him than you care about any of the other prisoners, he won't be treated any differently.'"

            In the Iran-Contra affair, the Reagan White House arranged covert arms shipments to the Contra rebels financed in part by secret arms sales to Iran.

            Iran-Contra proved to be the undoing of Singlaub's council.

            In 1987, the Internal Revenue Service withdrew the tax-exempt status of Singlaub's group because of its activities on behalf of the Contras.

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            • 67%
              BillieMaxer8 months, 3 weeks ago

              Elected to the House in 1982 and at a time when he was on the board of Singlaub's council, McCain was among Republicans on Capitol Hill expressing support for the Contras, a CIA-organized guerrilla force in Central America. In 1984, Congress cut off CIA funds for the Contras.

              Months before the cutoff, top Reagan administration officials ramped up the secret White House-directed supply network and put National Security Council aide Oliver North in charge of running it. The goal was to keep the Contras operational until Congress could be persuaded to resume CIA funding.

              Singlaub's private group became the public cover for the White House operation.

              Secretly, Singlaub worked with North in an effort to raise millions of dollars from foreign governments.

              McCain has said previously he resigned from the council in 1984 and asked in 1986 to have his name removed from the group's letterhead.

              "I didn't know whether (the group's activity) was legal or illegal, but I didn't think I wanted to be associated with them," McCain said in a newspaper interview in 1986.

              Singlaub does not recall any McCain resignation in 1984 or May 1986, nor does Joyce Downey, who oversaw the group's day-to-day activities.

              "That's a surprise to me," Singlaub said. "This is the first time I've ever heard that. There may have been someone in his office communicating with our office."

              "I don't ever remember hearing about his resigning, but I really wasn't worried about that part of our activities, a housekeeping thing," Singlaub said. "If he didn't want to be on the board that's OK. It wasn't as if he had been active participant and we were going to miss his help. He had no active interest. He certainly supported us."

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              • 60%
                BillieMaxer8 months, 3 weeks ago

                In light of St. John McCain's claim to moral superiority over Barack Obama on the issue of campaign finance, it's worth taking another look at the case of the Vets for Freedom PAC, the organization behind a swiftboat style attack on Barack Obama.

                The notable thing about Vets for Freedom is that the messages in their ad are the exact same messages being used by John McCain himself -- and his campaign is closely tied with the organization. It's illegal for a campaign to coordinate message activity with a PAC, yet there's been virtually no coverage of the story.

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                • 60%
                  BillieMaxer8 months, 3 weeks ago

                  McCain's Mob Connections

                  First thing, three points about McCain's mob connections:

                  1. His father-in-law (Jim Hensley) was not only "mobbed-up" but an organized crime felon.

                  2. McCain's first Congressional run was bankrolled by Jim Hensley's mob proceeds.

                  3. Jim Henley's boss and long-time associate Phoenix millionaire, Kemper Marley, ran Arizona's illegal bookie(illegal betting) service, Transamerica Wire Service, for the Chicago Cosa Nostra which was the same wire service started by the Al Capone mop earlier.

                  The fact is during his rise to his Senate seat in Arizona, McCain became friends with and was sponsored by some of Arizona's most powerful and corrupt men.

                  McCain was a personal friend of Arizona Governor Fife Symington, convicted in 1996 of multiple counts of fraud and extortion and forced to resign as cover. Charles Keating, convicted of bank fraud, and Kemper Marley bookmaker for organized crime.
                  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hensley

                  Also, as early as 1940s both Hensley and Marley made millions employing illegal immigrants in their various industries as did many other wealthy Arizonans, which of course explains McCain's dogged determination to pass his Amnesty bill.

                  Finally, Kemper Marley was implicated in the death of Arizona Republic investigative reporter Don Bolles death. Bolles' news stories had prevented Marley from being appointed a commission on the state racing board, and so, according to the hitman who turned state's evidence, Marley ordered his death.

                  All this and we know for a fact McCain sent a telegram wishing Arizona Mafia Don Joe Bonanno a happy birthday sometime before Bonanno's death.

                  The point in all of this is not necessarily that McCain is a front man for organized crime, but that he has received money from organized crime and been beholden to felons like Jim Hensley, Kemper Marley, Charles Keating all of his political career.

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                  • 60%
                    BillieMaxer8 months, 3 weeks ago

                    Interview with John McCain by the Notorious G Gordon Liddy, convicted of his role in the Watergate Scandal that cost President Nixon his Administration. A Personal Friend and finacial supporter of John McCain!

                    http://www.devilducky.com/media/128894/

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                    • 67%
                      BillieMaxer8 months, 3 weeks ago

                      McCain’s Scandalous Friends

                      McCain is also closely connected to a 1970’s criminal of his own, except in McCain’s case the criminal served prison time for his involvement in the Watergate scandal and the burglary on Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers revealing to the American people the truth about the Vietnam War. McCain’s criminal associate is G.Gordon Liddy, but McCain doesn’t just know of the man, he has accepted campaign contributions from him and even appeared on his radio show, where he described Liddy as an “old friend” and praised Liddy for his “adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.”

                      In addition to breaking into the offices at Watergate and of Ellsberg, Media Matters notes that Liddy acknowledged he was prepared to kill people during the burglary “if necessary.” He also admits “plotting to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotting with a ‘gangland figure’ to murder Howard Hunt to stop him from cooperating with investigators; plotting to firebomb the Brookings Institution; and plotting to kidnap ‘leftist guerillas’ at the 1972 Republican National Convention — a plan he outlined to the Nixon administration using terminology borrowed from the Nazis.”

                      More recently, “In 1994, after the disastrous federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, he [Liddy] gave some advice to his listeners: ‘Now if the [US] Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they’re going to be wearing bulletproof vests. … Kill the sons of bitches.’”

                      McCain’s campaign told the Charlotte Observer in 2000 that “Liddy’s character will appeal to many voters because he was following orders from President Nixon and kept silent afterward,” in connection with a planned speaking engagement at a McCain fundraiser. While Ayers can describe his disastrous attempts at activism through violence as a mistake made in his youth as a reaction to the violence in Vietnam, Liddy can’t. Liddy betrayed the nation as an experienced adult, and continued his terrorist threats–commonly expressed by many right leaning talk show hosts–into the present. McCain’s unabashed support for Liddy is also a stark contrast to Obama’s repudiation of Ayers’ behavior thirty years ago.

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