DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: Religious Dick on July 29, 2008, 04:36:45 AM
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Barack Obama's Stealth Socialism
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, July 28, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Election '08: Before friendly audiences, Barack Obama speaks passionately about something called "economic justice." He uses the term obliquely, though, speaking in code ? socialist code.
Read More: Election 2008
During his NAACP speech earlier this month, Sen. Obama repeated the term at least four times. "I've been working my entire adult life to help build an America where economic justice is being served," he said at the group's 99th annual convention in Cincinnati.
Democrat Barack Obama arrives in Washington on Monday. On the campaign trail, Obama has styled himself a centrist. But a look at those who've served as his advisers and mentors over the years shows a far more left-leaning tilt to his background ? and to his politics.
Democrat Barack Obama arrives in Washington on Monday. On the campaign trail, Obama has styled himself a centrist. But a look at those who've served as his advisers and mentors over the years shows a far more left-leaning tilt to his background ? and to his politics.
And as president, "we'll ensure that economic justice is served," he asserted. "That's what this election is about." Obama never spelled out the meaning of the term, but he didn't have to. His audience knew what he meant, judging from its thumping approval.
It's the rest of the public that remains in the dark, which is why we're launching this special educational series.
"Economic justice" simply means punishing the successful and redistributing their wealth by government fiat. It's a euphemism for socialism.
In the past, such rhetoric was just that ? rhetoric. But Obama's positioning himself with alarming stealth to put that rhetoric into action on a scale not seen since the birth of the welfare state.
In his latest memoir he shares that he'd like to "recast" the welfare net that FDR and LBJ cast while rolling back what he derisively calls the "winner-take-all" market economy that Ronald Reagan reignited (with record gains in living standards for all).
Obama also talks about "restoring fairness to the economy," code for soaking the "rich" ? a segment of society he fails to understand that includes mom-and-pop businesses filing individual tax returns.
It's clear from a close reading of his two books that he's a firm believer in class envy. He assumes the economy is a fixed pie, whereby the successful only get rich at the expense of the poor.
Following this discredited Marxist model, he believes government must step in and redistribute pieces of the pie. That requires massive transfers of wealth through government taxing and spending, a return to the entitlement days of old.
Of course, Obama is too smart to try to smuggle such hoary collectivist garbage through the front door. He's disguising the wealth transfers as "investments" ? "to make America more competitive," he says, or "that give us a fighting chance," whatever that means.
Among his proposed "investments":
? "Universal," "guaranteed" health care.
? "Free" college tuition.
? "Universal national service" (a la Havana).
? "Universal 401(k)s" (in which the government would match contributions made by "low- and moderate-income families").
? "Free" job training (even for criminals).
? "Wage insurance" (to supplement dislocated union workers' old income levels).
? "Free" child care and "universal" preschool.
? More subsidized public housing.
? A fatter earned income tax credit for "working poor."
? And even a Global Poverty Act that amounts to a Marshall Plan for the Third World, first and foremost Africa.
His new New Deal also guarantees a "living wage," with a $10 minimum wage indexed to inflation; and "fair trade" and "fair labor practices," with breaks for "patriot employers" who cow-tow to unions, and sticks for "nonpatriot" companies that don't.
That's just for starters ? first-term stuff.
Obama doesn't stop with socialized health care. He wants to socialize your entire human resources department ? from payrolls to pensions. His social-microengineering even extends to mandating all employers provide seven paid sick days per year to salary and hourly workers alike.
You can see why Obama was ranked, hands-down, the most liberal member of the Senate by the National Journal. Some, including colleague and presidential challenger John McCain, think he's the most liberal member in Congress.
But could he really be "more left," as McCain recently remarked, than self-described socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (for whom Obama has openly campaigned, even making a special trip to Vermont to rally voters)?
Obama's voting record, going back to his days in the Illinois statehouse, says yes. His career path ? and those who guided it ? leads to the same unsettling conclusion.
The seeds of his far-left ideology were planted in his formative years as a teenager in Hawaii ? and they were far more radical than any biography or profile in the media has portrayed.
A careful reading of Obama's first memoir, "Dreams From My Father," reveals that his childhood mentor up to age 18 ? a man he cryptically refers to as "Frank" ? was none other than the late communist Frank Marshall Davis, who fled Chicago after the FBI and Congress opened investigations into his "subversive," "un-American activities."
As Obama was preparing to head off to college, he sat at Davis' feet in his Waikiki bungalow for nightly bull sessions. Davis plied his impressionable guest with liberal doses of whiskey and advice, including: Never trust the white establishment.
"They'll train you so good," he said, "you'll start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that sh**."
After college, where he palled around with Marxist professors and took in socialist conferences "for inspiration," Obama followed in Davis' footsteps, becoming a "community organizer" in Chicago.
His boss there was Gerald Kellman, whose identity Obama also tries to hide in his book. Turns out Kellman's a disciple of the late Saul "The Red" Alinsky, a hard-boiled Chicago socialist who wrote the "Rules for Radicals" and agitated for social revolution in America.
The Chicago-based Woods Fund provided Kellman with his original $25,000 to hire Obama. In turn, Obama would later serve on the Woods board with terrorist Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground. Ayers was one of Obama's early political supporters.
After three years agitating with marginal success for more welfare programs in South Side Chicago, Obama decided he would need to study law to "bring about real change" ? on a large scale.
While at Harvard Law School, he still found time to hone his organizing skills. For example, he spent eight days in Los Angeles taking a national training course taught by Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation. With his newly minted law degree, he returned to Chicago to reapply ? as well as teach ? Alinsky's "agitation" tactics.
(A video-streamed bio on Obama's Web site includes a photo of him teaching in a University of Chicago classroom. If you freeze the frame and look closely at the blackboard Obama is writing on, you can make out the words "Power Analysis" and "Relationships Built on Self Interest" ? terms right out of Alinsky's rule book.)
Amid all this, Obama reunited with his late father's communist tribe in Kenya, the Luo, during trips to Africa.
As a Nairobi bureaucrat, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Harvard-educated economist, grew to challenge the ruling pro-Western government for not being socialist enough. In an eight-page scholarly paper published in 1965, he argued for eliminating private farming and nationalizing businesses "owned by Asians and Europeans."
His ideas for communist-style expropriation didn't stop there. He also proposed massive taxes on the rich to "redistribute our economic gains to the benefit of all."
"Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed," Obama Sr. wrote. "I do not see why the government cannot tax those who have more and syphon some of these revenues into savings which can be utilized in investment for future development."
Taxes and "investment" . . . the fruit truly does not fall far from the vine.
(Voters might also be interested to know that Obama, the supposed straight shooter, does not once mention his father's communist leanings in an entire book dedicated to his memory.)
In Kenya's recent civil unrest, Obama privately phoned the leader of the opposition Luo tribe, Raila Odinga, to voice his support. Odinga is so committed to communism he named his oldest son after Fidel Castro.
With his African identity sewn up, Obama returned to Chicago and fell under the spell of an Afrocentric pastor. It was a natural attraction. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright preaches a Marxist version of Christianity called "black liberation theology" and has supported the communists in Cuba, Nicaragua and elsewhere.
Obama joined Wright's militant church, pledging allegiance to a system of "black values" that demonizes white "middle classness" and other mainstream pursuits.
(Obama in his first book, published in 1995, calls such values "sensible." There's no mention of them in his new book.)
With the large church behind him, Obama decided to run for political office, where he could organize for "change" more effectively. "As an elected official," he said, "I could bring church and community leaders together easier than I could as a community organizer or lawyer."
He could also exercise real, top-down power, the kind that grass-roots activists lack. Alinsky would be proud.
Throughout his career, Obama has worked closely with a network of stone-cold socialists and full-blown communists striving for "economic justice."
He's been traveling in an orbit of collectivism that runs from Nairobi to Honolulu, and on through Chicago to Washington.
Yet a recent AP poll found that only 6% of Americans would describe Obama as "liberal," let alone socialist.
Public opinion polls usually reflect media opinion, and the media by and large have portrayed Obama as a moderate "outsider" (the No. 1 term survey respondents associate him with) who will bring a "breath of fresh air" to Washington.
The few who have drilled down on his radical roots have tended to downplay or pooh-pooh them. Even skeptics have failed to connect the dots for fear of being called the dreaded "r" word.
But too much is at stake in this election to continue mincing words.
Both a historic banking crisis and 1970s-style stagflation loom over the economy. Democrats, who already control Congress, now threaten to filibuster-proof the Senate in what could be a watershed election for them ? at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
A perfect storm of statism is forming, and our economic freedoms are at serious risk.
Those who care less about looking politically correct than preserving the free-market individualism that's made this country great have to start calling things by their proper name to avert long-term disaster.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=302137342405551# (http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=302137342405551#)
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Free" job training (even for criminals).
Why is this bad (note that I didn't say fair)? Offenders with job skills are less likely to reoffend, and offenders who enter work releases before their release have a much lower recidivism rate than those let straight out of the gate. Here in WA, work release programs also generate $3.82 per dollar of cost.
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There is no reason for job training NOT to be an important government benefit. This is especially true of ex-cons. They can't all find work in junkyards and carnivals.
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it`s a very popular and old belief that criminals should be punished period.
the concept of job training in prisons just simply don`t sit well with alot of people.
ex. california 1977- all forms of rehabilitation is eliminated in the state of california.
one cool thing is the fact nobody in california can say rehabilitation doesn`t work since it`s not used here.
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If this guy is able to list all these allegedly socialist positions, how does this qualify as "stealth"?
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<<With his African identity sewn up, Obama returned to Chicago and fell under the spell of an Afrocentric pastor. It was a natural attraction. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright preaches a Marxist version of Christianity called "black liberation theology" and has supported the communists in Cuba, Nicaragua and elsewhere.>>
Right on, Rev!!! HE'S the guy who oughtta be running instead of Obama.
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Obama is a liberal Democrat. But the Right has spent bazillions to make the word "liberal" a dirty word, so naturally he isn't going to proclaim himself a liberal. He is what he is, and he does have a record. If he's been reading Fared Zacharia, then at least he knows where to find the right track.
McCain likes war and occupation. He will follow a Juniorbush policy, and that has been clearly a disaster for the past seven years. Under Juniorbush, the Republicans "jumped the shark". Twice, at least.
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well
The republicans didn`t have to work very hard to make liberal a dirty word.
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If the people of America want Socialism , they should vote for socialism and get it.
If this is Barak Obama , is his escuing the term an admission that he knows that Socialism would be unpopular ?
Is socialism by another name still socialism, but more acceptable?
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Obama is no more liberal than Howard Dean was. And we all know he was a moderate, fiscal conservative, social liberal.
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Obama is no more liberal than Howard Dean was. And we all know he was a moderate, fiscal conservative, social liberal.
I was not planning to be that hard on him.
How does he compare with J.Edwards?
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well
The republicans didn`t have to work very hard to make liberal a dirty word.
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This is not true.
It took millions of dollars starting in the 1960's.
It costs them millions per year to pay Rush to keep up the bad word.
If an American is ill, and cannot afford medical care, he is going to want to be cured.
If an American has no decent place to live, he will not turn down assistance to move into decent housing.
If an American wants to educate his children, he will not turn down a scholarship from State University.
He may rant and rave long and loud against Socialism, even when he is the beneficiary. Most people just resent others getting "free" services. This is because they got too much already.
LIke the lyrics to Alabama's "Song of the South":
Poppa was a farmer, a Souther Democrat: Gotta be a rich man to vote like that.
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It costs them millions per year to pay Rush to keep up the bad word.
You are so clueless about this .
Where is there a shread of evidence of it?
Rush Limbaugh makes money, sponsors are dieing to be associated with him , this is very simple and totally explains his wealth .
If you are pretty ready with a million you can buy a minute of Rush Endorsement for your steak house , but whith what sort of coin can you buy an audience for Rush?
Liberals are very strictly out of touch with the common man , and your denial is just denial.
AL Franken is pretty clever and equally funny , but he couldn't buy an audience even in NYNY , this is because no one is interested in his message .
Do people prefer dependance or independance? That is a seldom answered question isn't it. Already the people that make the lowest ten precent of our incomes pay no income taxes and the top ten pay half of all income taxes.
Would Barak Obama be well advised to tell us all he would be a good father figure for us all , and that he would ensure that we were all tuicked in at night? He has the millions , let him make his message sweet.
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There is no reason for job training NOT to be an important government benefit. This is especially true of ex-cons. They can't all find work in junkyards and carnivals.
No need for the feds to pay the freight . Let the states and municipalities provide affordable technical schools, community colleges and universities.
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If you are pretty ready with a million you can buy a minute of Rush Endorsement for your steak house , but whith what sort of coin can you buy an audience for Rush?
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Yeah sure, Rush gets millions to advertise one dumb steakhouse. Not fifty steakhouses, not a bazillion flashy neckties. Get real. Rush is paid by Clear Channel, Clear Channel is paid by the Oligarchy. He is not hired to sell steak dinners. He is hired to win the squishy minds of yokels so they can say stupid crap like "it's not about the oil", "Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and will fail next Thursday", "Clarence Thomas is an articulate Black man, even if he rarely speaks", "The oil companies are not getting rich off $4.00 a gallon gasoline", and "drug companies need to make a twelve dollar profit on every pill, not to advertise the fool things, but to do research".
Now that Obama is running for President, expect to hear it revealed that "Mr Smedly" is (gasp!) BLACK!, thereby proving that Rush is not a racist because he opposes Obama.
Al Franken is funnier and has more to say than Rush, but he doesn't attract the audience because lefties are not churchgoers and do not need to be told what to think.
I don't bother to listen to Franken, because I prefer to reach my opinions from scratch, with the facts. I so not need anyone to pre-chew my food.
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If you are pretty ready with a million you can buy a minute of Rush Endorsement for your steak house , but whith what sort of coin can you buy an audience for Rush?
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I don't bother to listen to Franken, because I prefer to reach my opinions from scatch, with the facts. I so not need anyone to pre-chew my food.
Ok but as a church goer I am more of a sceptic than you are.
Please point out the evidence that there might be that the Ogliarchy pays a dime to Rush Limbaugh , or that Rush Limbaugh produces an audience with money spent.
Al Frankens failure is a demonstration that it cannot work backwards, tell the audience what they want to hear and you have an audience, tell them smething they are not interested in and you have a lot of sleepers. Nobody makes me tune in NPR I like NPR and listen to it often as a result, People who do not like Rush Limbaugh do not listen to him , they just act as if they really know what he is talking about .
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Please point out the evidence that there might be that the Ogliarchy pays a dime to Rush Limbaugh , or that Rush Limbaugh produces an audience with money spent.
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Of course they don't make their records public. However, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is not likely to be a Bird of Paradise. Clear Channel is the media outlet of the Oligarchy: all rightwing ads or all inane advertising, all the time...
I haven't listened to Rush lately, because it's always the same: he screens all the calls, mostly only permitting those that agree with him, then he rants and rustles papers and thumps his desk.
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(http://i37.tinypic.com/wwjlax.jpg)
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Abortion - retreat - taxes - no oil - Marxism - appeasement - regulate = bad change?
How 'bout: women's control over their own bodies - observance of international law - making the rich pay - preserving the natural environment - fair redistribution - peaceful non-violent resolution of disputes - ending corporate rip-offs = GOOD CHANGE?
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"ending corporate rip-offs = GOOD CHANGE?"
Michael like this?
ELECTION 2008
Obama tied to Iraqi government fraud?
Hundreds of millions in deals with candidate's associates
July 30, 2008
By Aaron Klein
Sen. Barack Obama's office engaged in six months of negotiations with a company controlled by convicted criminal Tony Rezko to lobby the U.S. government to push through a nixed $50 million contact to train Iraqi security personnel at a site in Chicago.
The contract was awarded to Rezko's company while Aiham Alsammarae, a long-time, close Rezko friend and a contributor to Obama's campaign, served as Iraq's U.S.-appointed electricity minister, the senator's office confirms.
Rezko was a major Obama fundraiser and associate for two decades.
(http://www.wnd.com/images/rezko.jpg)
(Antoin "Tony" Rezko)
Alsammarae also awarded another Rezko-controlled operation as part of a $150 million contract to construct a 250-megawatt electricity plant in Iraq.
Alsammarae later was arrested by Iraqi authorities for bilking the coalition government out of some $650 million. He was sprung from prison under questionable circumstances in 2006 and escaped from Iraq, where he is still wanted for questioning with regard to major financial crimes.
The information raises questions into the nature of Obama's relationship with multiple deals made by Iraq's Electricity Ministry while Alsammarae was in charge. Obama has ties to Alsammarae and to the recipients of several of the massive contracts Alsammarae handed out.
While he was the electric czar of Iraq for the Coalition Provisional Authority from mid-2003 until mid-2005, Alsammarae granted the $50 million contract to train Iraqis to guard electrical plants to Companion Security, a start-up reportedly controlled by Rezko, his partner Daniel Mahru and a front man, Daniel Frawley, a former Chicago policeman. Frawley has multiple civil court judgments against him for his alleged failure to pay millions in outstanding bills.
(http://www.wnd.com/images/alsammare.jpg)
Aiham Alsammarae (PBS.org)
The plan was to fly about 150 Iraqis to a site in Illinois for security training, which reportedly would include the use of AK-47 machine guns.
Obama's office did not reply to repeated WND requests for comment. A working number could not be found for Frawley.
Alsammarae did not return WND calls left on his cell phone and at his voicemail at his KCI Consultants firm in Chicago.
The contract with Rezko's group was signed April 18, 2005, one month before Alsammarae left his governmental post.
But Iraq's new electricity minister aborted the deal, complaining the Companion contract was too expensive, according to a U.S. embassy official in Baghdad who spoke earlier this year to the Chicago Sun-Times.
In the spring of 2006, Frawley and his company reportedly reached out to Chicago politicians, including Obama and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to bring pressure to revive the deal, arguing the business would be good for the state.
Blagojevich's office and Illinois Homeland Security reportedly helped by offering an Army depot in Savanna in western Illinois as a site for Companion to conduct the Iraqi training.
Frawley then reportedly reached out to Obama, who in 2006 was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, engaging in six months of dialogue petitioning the Illinois senator to write a letter introducing the Rezko-connected Companion company to senior Iraqi officials. Frawley met with Seamus Ahern, who runs Obama's Moline, Ill., office.
But Obama, who has denied doing political favors for Rezko, later claimed he did not know Rezko was involved with Companion.
Obama's office declined to help about the same time Rezko was indicted on charges of fraud.
Obama's spokesman Ben LaBolt said, "The Senate staff had two meetings, one conference call and sporadically e-mailed with representatives of Companion Security about their request for Sen. Obama to write a letter introducing the company to senior officials in the Iraqi government."
LaBolt said Obama declined to help in the Companion deal, because "that is not the kind of action Sen. Obama usually takes for individual companies, and our staff concluded on that basis to decline the requested assistance."
LaBolt claimed Obama was not aware of Rezko's connections to the security firm.
LaBolt did not explain how Frawley could have survived the routine vetting of a petitioner by the U.S. Senate office staff when it was a matter of public record that his company was controlled by Rezko.
The nixed Iraqi government deal opens questions into the nature of Obama's relationship with agreements made by various associates with Iraq's Electricity Ministry while Alsammarae was in charge. Obama has ties to both Alsammarae and to the recipients of several of the massive contracts he handed out.
Alsammarae, a dual Iraqi-U.S. citizen, arrived in U.S. in 1976 and currently lives in Chicago and travels frequently to Amman, Jordan, where he maintains a residence despite still being wanted in Iraq.
Alsammarae has described himself as a close friend to Rezko, a former top confidante and fundraiser for Obama. Alsammarae and Rezko had been friends for nearly 30 years, since the two were classmates at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
WND reported Alsammarae posted more than one-third of Rezko's jail bond earlier this year, putting up as surety his $1.9 million Chicago home and two other properties.
Alsammarae contributed the maximum allowable donation of $2,300 to Obama's campaign, sending money six times in January, February and March. Obama donated the funds to charity in April, only after Alsammarae posted bond for Rezko.
As electricity minister, Alsammarae not only granted a Rezko firm the $50 million security training contract but also approved a contract with another Rezko company, Rezmar, to construct a 250-megawatt plant in the Kurdistani city of Chamchamal. That contract was granted to both Rezmar and the London-based General Mediterranean Holdings, which is headed by British billionaire Nadhmi Auchi, who was also involved in a large real estate deal in Chicago with Rezko and others around Obama.
Auchi, a former Baathist who left Iraq in 1979, was convicted in 2003 in a French court of corruption in an oil deal that stretched back to the Saddam Hussein regime. Auchi denies the charges.
Auchi could not be reached for comment
In another connection to Obama, when Alsammarae was jailed in Iraq in 2006, his Chicago-based family reportedly contacted Obama's U.S. Senate office for information. Obama's office passed a written request to the State Department about Alsammarae Oct. 16, 2006, and received a reply from the U.S. consul in Iraq about a week later. The reply was forwarded by Obama's staff to Alsammarae's daughter.
It wasn't immediately clear how Alsammarae landed his electricity ministry job. He was an outspoken critic of the U.S. military campaign in Iraq and publicly has supported Hussein.
In August 2000, Alsammarae, a board member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, appeared in Washington alongside celebrities such as Martin Sheen and British politician George Galloway at a demonstration against U.N. sanctions on Saddam's regime.
Even as late as last month, Alsammarae delivered a press conference stating he hoped the insurgency in Iraq "would continue [against U.S. occupation] and avenges the Iraqi people."
American political insiders suggest Alsammarae received major insider help in securing his U.S.-brokered Iraqi government position. Unconfirmed reports point to Alsammarae's previous Baathist background as being a factor in his elevated status in post-Saddam Iraq.
Alammarae was accused in a federal filing during the Rezko federal corruption trial of being the recipient of a $1 million bribe from Rezko to deliver the original Companion deal. No charges have yet been filed, though the accuser is Daniel Mahru, the former partner in the Companion deal.
Alsammarae was the only cabinet-level Iraqi official to be convicted and jailed for misusing money during his time in office. In April, Alsammarae made an appearance on CBS's "60 Minutes" to defend his troubled conduct in Iraq and in the U.S.
An Interpol warrant for his arrest, issued in 2007 at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's government, was taken down after Alsammarae was forgiven for some parts of his conduct by an Iraqi legislative initiative, according to Arabic-language Iraqi criminal court documents obtained by WND and translated into English. Alsammarae has been warned by the Maliki government not to return to Iraq. Other charges are still pending, and Alsammarae has been warned by the Maliki government not to return to Iraq.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70972 (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=70972)
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You've got him now CU4.
I think Obama had better quit.
Hey, we haven't been updated on the War with Iran in a while. Last I heard the birds were being fueled and preparing to fly. What's up?
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Rezko, even as a fraud artist, is really small potatoes compared with the Republican big boys, but if he's all ya got, sure, run with it. Personally, I think individuals always will try to rip off the government regardless of party affiliation, but THAT was never the issue - - your cartoon showed "Regulate," so the issue was really regulation of industry, rather than preventing individual scams.
In the regulation of industry, clearly you prefer an unregulated or self-regulated industry, be it food processing, automobile manufacturing, drugs and chemicals to be as free as possible, where history teaches that huge damage has been done to human health and welfare in the result. Obama proposes tough government regulators to keep those crooks in line, you want 'em to have a free hand (which toothless self-regulation would accomplish) - - well, fine, let the public decide. Do they need government protection from corporate America to prevent future Enrons, future coal mine collapses, future airline crashes, etc., or do they want the corporations left alone?
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(http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i99/plwise/obamaheineke13.jpg)
(http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i99/plwise/obama3-1.jpg)
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"Hey, we haven't been updated on the War with Iran in a while.
Last I heard the birds were being fueled and preparing to fly. What's up?"
The "latest"?
Well JS I guess the "latest" is like I posted in another thread today
that Obama is warning Congressional Democrats that Israel will
attack Iran if the sanctions dont work.
(as if sanctions were ever were going to work...lol....sanctions dont work on IslamoNazis)
And this:
US X-Band radar for early Iranian missile detection,
but no US involvement in any Israeli attack
DEBKAfile Special Report
July 30, 2008, 6:37 PM (GMT+02:00)
(http://debka.com/photos/s_5477.jpg)
(US FBX radar)
The United States agreed to link Israel up to two advanced missile detection systems against potential attack by a nuclear-armed Iran, Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday night, July 30, at the end of his Washington talks. But US officials made it clear that, while prepared to help Israel defend itself against Iranian missile retaliation, they are determined not to be involved in any Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that Washington would deliver within six months "before the new US administration arrives in January", a powerful forward-based X-band FBX-T radar. Increased access to its Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites, which spot missile launches, would take longer.
By putting a time frame around delivery, the Bush administration holds off a possible Israeli attack on Iran for as long as possible.
Barak's talks with Vice President Dick Cheney, defense secretary Robert Gates and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice ended in agreement for Washington to deliver:
1.The transportable FBX-T radar system built by Raytheon Co. which, by providing early and accurate target-tracing and signature data, enlarges the effective battle space of missile interceptors. US officials say it can track an object the size of a baseball from about 4,700 km, and can be launched from air, sea or land.
It would allow the Israeli Arrow anti-missile system to engage an incoming Iranian Shehab-3 ballistic missile about halfway through its estimated 11-minute flight. This would give a potentially targeted Israeli population five minutes to prepare for an Iranian missile hit. This would make up for the deficiency of Arrow?s Green Pine radar, which can detect a missile launch in Iran only after it enters the atmosphere on its way to its Israeli target.
2. Increased access to the US Defense Support System (DSP) satellites, which spot missile launches, would help Israel cover the first 5.5 minutes of a Shehab is firing.
This access has hitherto been provided as per request - such as last September for the Israeli strike against Syria's nuclear facility.- rather than on a constant basis.
DEBKAfile's sources note that this access continues to be hedged around by the need in every case for lengthy discussion on whether it is applicable to a given military contingency. It is therefore unlikely to be available before the next president enters the White House and will then be subject to his confirmation. Here too, the Bush administration is stretching out the time table for an Israeli attack well into the future.
3. A US consent in principle to the upgrading of the Israeli, largely American-funded Arrow. The projected Arrow III would be capable of shooting down attacking missiles at greater atmospheric heights than the present version as a safeguard against nuclear fallout. It was not clear whether the administration means to grant Israel the required technology or replace the Arrow with American systems.
The upshot of the Israeli defense minister's mission to Washington for a boost to Israel's military capability for a possible preemptive attack on a pre-nuclear-armed Iran was therefore the promise of hardware to give Israel more time to defend itself against Iranian missile reprisals.
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Rezko, even as a fraud artist, is really small potatoes compared with the Republican big boys, but if he's all ya got, sure, run with it. Personally, I think individuals always will try to rip off the government regardless of party affiliation, but THAT was never the issue - - your cartoon showed "Regulate," so the issue was really regulation of industry, rather than preventing individual scams.
In the regulation of industry, clearly you prefer an unregulated or self-regulated industry, be it food processing, automobile manufacturing, drugs and chemicals to be as free as possible, where history teaches that huge damage has been done to human health and welfare in the result. Obama proposes tough government regulators to keep those crooks in line, you want 'em to have a free hand (which toothless self-regulation would accomplish) - - well, fine, let the public decide. Do they need government protection from corporate America to prevent future Enrons, future coal mine collapses, future airline crashes, etc., or do they want the corporations left alone?
If I understand you right , Obama would be for greater regulation , which he would of course ignore?
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The modern Republican approach is to pass harsh laws, but then to claim that the government cannot afford to staff the agency with enough enforcers. So you declare a twenty-year sentence to be appropriate for clear-cutting a national forest, or price fixing or denying workers the right to organize under the NLRB, and you hire one person to investigate all of this in the entire agency.
The other Republican approach is to appoint a rabid fundamentalist who believes that Jesus is returning next Thursday, thus negating any reason to prosecute the clear-cutter, or someone who believes that it is the duty of every business executive to seek the highest profits and pay the lowest wages to deal with the price fixers and labor law violators.
That way you can say you have the laws on the book BUT this particular case was a rare exception. After a dozen years or so, it will result that all cases were similarly rare exceptions.
This is what happens when fools, bumpkins, yokels, hicks and rubes elect people to government who believe that government is the problem.
When you correctly identify the bumpkins, yokels, hicks and rubes as bumpkins, yokels, hicks and rubes, then you can accuse those who have identifying said individuals as "elitist", because the average guy on the street does not have the savvy to recognize either the crooks or the fools, bumpkins, yokels, hicks and rubes who elected them.
In the words of the Late Senator Roman Hruska (REpublican (what else?) or Nebraska), we need mediocre people in office to represent the majority of voters, who are also mediocre.
It's sort of like the Holy Mother Church saying that GOD will take care of the priestly sodomizers of altarboys, even if the Bishop did not punish them.
Eventually this ceases to work, when the national industries also stress the mediocre, and foreigners cease to follow the trend. People will drive Chevettes, Cutlasses, Regals and Torinos for a while, but then they notice that their neighbor who bought a Corolla or a Sentra got it for less and it still hasn't spent any time in the shop.
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<<It would allow the Israeli Arrow anti-missile system to engage an incoming Iranian Shehab-3 ballistic missile about halfway through its estimated 11-minute flight. This would give a potentially targeted Israeli population five minutes to prepare for an Iranian missile hit. This would make up for the deficiency of Arrow?s Green Pine radar, which can detect a missile launch in Iran only after it enters the atmosphere on its way to its Israeli target.>>
That's great. Now what do they do if it's launched from closer to home, like let's say Lebanon or Gaza?
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<<If I understand you right , Obama would be for greater regulation , which he would of course ignore?>>
Hopefully for greater regulation, but why would he "of course" ignore it? He'd have to be as corrupt as the Republicans to do that.
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<<If I understand you right , Obama would be for greater regulation , which he would of course ignore?>>
Hopefully for greater regulation, but why would he "of course" ignore it? He'd have to be as corrupt as the Republicans to do that.
Personally, I think individuals always will try to rip off the government regardless of party affiliation, ...
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The two quotes aren't incompatible. Businessmen of both parties will always try to max out their bottom line, often by ripping off the government. Of the two parties, IMHO, the Republicans when in power have been much more willing than the Democrats to look the other way for their friends.
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The two quotes aren't incompatible. Businessmen of both parties will always try to max out their bottom line, often by ripping off the government. Of the two parties, IMHO, the Republicans when in power have been much more willing than the Democrats to look the other way for their friends.
Yet we were talking about Obama himself who did this.
Obama is no Republican.